Everywhere I turn lately I hear the word process. I mean, I hear it like a loud bell ringing to get my attention! It’s all a process….enjoy the process….embrace the process…you are in the process…It’s all part of the process! OK! OK! You have my attention!

The dictionary describes it this way:
Process – a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end.

Ahhhhh, P R O C E S S. It has dawned on me that I have spent most of my life trying to circumvent the process in just about every area of my life and even tried helping others do the same!

Several years ago, when I truly surrendered my will to the Lord and said, “Do what You need to,” I realized then that impatience had cost me much in my life. My impatience with people, with finances, with relationships, and even with God, caused me to try and “fix” things myself. In doing this, I began to lean on my own understanding or strength to get out of situations, which we all know is not only wrong, but can be catastrophic.

There are many examples I can think of, but I will be transparent and give you a one big one for me.

In 2003 I needed about $700 worth of work done on my van which I owed probably $4000. I didn’t have $700 so instead, I traded that van for a brand new van and ended up being $9000 upside down on the loan. Instead of saving up the $700, I opted for a van that didn’t need work, but cost me so much more! (reasoning that it would be newer, wouldn’t need the work, be “safer” and so on) The payment increased and 4 years later, this vehicle had 93k miles on it and I still owed $18k. UGH! Now, keep in mind, that by this time I had realized my error and repented and asked for mercy and a solution. I also had had two dreams that my van got hit, no one was hurt, and my insurance paid it off. BUT! I didn’t submit to the process, or trust the Lord and decided to take out a second mortgage on my home and pay off the van. (it pains me to even type this) Oh, it got me out of my high payment and a vehicle that was not worth what I owed, but it also circumvented the process.

Three years later, when we sold our home, we got 18k less and that mistake has followed us for years. Not only that, but do you know six years after I did this one of our vehicles was hit, no one was hurt and the insurance company paid it off????? God’s promises are true and He is faithful! The dreams He gave me (and established them by giving it twice), were fulfilled by Him. However, because I didn’t stay in place, it caused me to go on a detour and this payoff did not benefit me financially. My impatience cost me my process and the benefits of it.

What I have come to find out is, life is a process. Everything we go through, every decision we make will have a cause and effect. How we deal with things that happen to us, how we tackle problems, etc., is all a process. And every process is designed to make us a better person. We may not see it at the time, but no one is a failure when they are submitted to God!

Proverbs 3:5 – Trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding and He will direct your paths.

Trusting the Lord IS submitting to the process. As believers, we are not to live our lives at every whim and desire we have, but we are to present our bodies as living sacrifices, which is our REASONABLE act of worship! (Romans 12) Most people don’t want to submit to the process because they don’t want to submit. Submit has become a foul word in today’s society. Everyone wants to do what THEY please. But, how is this working out for us? For me, it didn’t work out at all.

Let’s look at the definition again – Process – a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end. A SERIES of ACTIONS or STEPS taken in order to ACHIEVE a PARTICULAR end! Wow. God sure does know what He is doing! This brings Romans 8:28 to mind. We know that ALL things work together for good, to them that love God and are called according to His purpose. That word purpose in the Strong’s concordance means “the setting forth of a thing” or being established. In other words, as we are submitted to God, He will cause all things to work for our benefit according to how He wants to set us forth or establish us. That, my friend is a process.

In these series of actions or steps, which by the way, the steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord. (Ps. 37:23) He is ordering our steps to achieve a particular end (how He wants to establish us and set us forth.) If we believe the Bible, and love God we will be submitted to Him or obey His commands. (John 14:15) The process is for us not against us! When we circumvent the process, we are rebelling against the very thing that is designed to work things out for our good! We are all guilty and my hands are up first!

How do we change this? Submit to the process. I realize this is easier said than done, but it is the answer. Submit to God, resist the devil (and his temptation for us to fix things ourselves and do things our own way) and he will flee from you. James tells us this. The enemy’s temptations won’t always be something mean and evil, it may be as simple as taking matters into our own hands, or finding a solution that may even make sense, but it is not what God wants for us. Just like my van situation – it alleviated the tough financial situation of the moment, but made the end result the exact opposite of what I desired. Or what about how he led Eve to take matters into her own hands and come out from under submission to the word of the Lord? That cost Eve, her husband, all her descendants and US! Not submitting to the process has consequences and they have ripple effects on our children and those in our lives. (YIKES! Think about this!!!!)

So, what does submission look like? Daily discipline. DAILY we must submit our will to our Father. We must read His word and stay in fellowship with the Holy Spirit. There really is no way around this. I have tried doing things my way or other ways even, and I have come to know that all success I have is through submission to the will of God.

You might say, I don’t always hear God to even know what He is saying. I get that, I used to be the same way. But, I tell you, once I started spending time with Him in prayer and fellowship daily, I began to hear so much that I wondered why?! Another key factor to hearing is time in the word. If you do not know His word, you will not hear Him clearly. The enemy knows how to plant thoughts and even speak in ways that can deceive us. Knowing the word of God will give us a way to measure or test what we hear. God will never say something to you that goes against His word and will always speak in the nature of a good father.

Is submission easy? Not at first, and not always. However, it does get easier. As you discipline yourself to submit you will begin to see the fruit, and once you taste the fruit borne of discipline, it makes the submission all the more sweeter. It doesn’t come easy and it doesn’t come quickly, it comes as part of the PROCESS. In submitting your actions to Holy Spirit and becoming disciplined in your steps according to the word, YOU WILL achieve a particular end and God Himself will set you forth. (For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. Plans for good and not for evil, plans to give you hope and an expected end! Jer. 29:11)

Even though this is not easy, it now excites me because I know that I can reach my goals and I will fulfill what God has for me. This is huge for a “fixer” like me. I no longer feel responsible to fix everything for me and everyone else! I am learning to fix my eyes on Jesus! When things get tough I run to Him. I dig in deeper in the word, I go and soak in His presence or pray in the Spirit until I find the calm I am looking for -until I hear His heart on the matter. (side note: increasing your prayer time is vital when you are in a process!!!!!! I cannot say that enough!)
Process. I choose to embrace any and all processes that the Lord has for me, because in doing so, He is ordering my steps and working all things out for my good. When I step out of the way and lean into His understanding and trust the Lord, He will direct my paths. Selah!

Let’s pray:
Father, we repent for taking things into our own hands and circumventing the processes in our lives designed by You to establish us in Your righteousness and favor. Forgive us now. Holy Spirit, empower us to submit to Your ways. Jesus lived a disciplined life. We choose to do the same. We purpose that our fleshly desires will die, as we continue to make the choice to submit to Your ways so that we will achieve the particular end You have for us. We are excited for this journey! May we extend grace to others on their journey as well as we walk this out together. In Jesus’ Name. AMEN!

• Date - January 18, 2018
• Author - Kelita Deems

Recently, Pastor Karen spoke at the WE ARE ladies brunch at the Rock-Parkersburg. The word she delivered was a great wake up/reminder that we serve a GREAT BIG GOD!  She spoke on jumping to conclusions and this article was written from her notes and message.

She started off by telling us that our brains reward us for “coming to a conclusion” – even if that conclusion is wrong!  Because we are human, and want things fixed or solved, when we come to  a conclusion, right or wrong, our brain rewards us with dopamine. Interesting to say the least.  But then I began to think, oh my, how many wrong conclusions have I came to and been satisfied with in my life?  Then she said when Jesus said in Luke to “pray to the Lord of the Harvest” and ask Him to send laborers into the fields, He wouldn’t have said that had He not already come to the conclusion that there was a Harvest…for He is the Lord of that harvest!  So, when we pray, we need to go to His conclusion and pray it backwards!  AHHHH – now she had me!  Hook, line and sinker!

But first, let me share the definition of the word conclusion.  There are two –

1. the end or finish of an event or process.
2. a judgment or decision reached by reasoning

When I read the definition again after she shared it, I was like – “Of course!” Obvious! Why?  God is not in time.  Therefore, when He looks at situations in our lives, He sees the end of the process or He sees us finishing as His conclusion! The Bible says He declares the end from the beginning!  He already sees our end!  Jeremiah 29:11 says His plans are for our good – to give us hope and an EXPECTED END.  He’s expecting the end!   However, when we look at our situations, we often make our decisions by our own reasoning!  This, my friends, has been going on since Adam and Eve took the bite from the fruit of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil!  When they came to the conclusion that God was keeping something good from them and tasted and ate of human reasoning.

See, our conclusion, above all else, must be – Our God is a GREAT BIG GOD and He is FOR US not against us!  That is the first conclusion we must make and it must override all others.  And if we make this our ruling conclusion then let’s see what will follow…

Perhaps you have an ailment in your body.  Statistics tell us and society agrees, that once a person hits middle age their bodies start to be less than what they used to.  They say, your bones will ache, eyesight dims, energy level drops, etc.  And most people accept this conclusion as an unchangeable fact and don’t even think of trying to take care of their bodies with diet and exercise.  They reason and jump to the conclusion that age is the culprit, and therefore it  becomes a fact for them.  Or maybe you know someone who has received a diagnosis that is not positive.  With all the data and information and opinions out there, it would be easy to get overwhelmed and accept the doom and gloom report.  But, what would a great big God say?  Remember, Pastor Karen said to go to the end of HIS conclusion regarding the situation you face and pray it backwards – or bring His conclusion into your life.  HIS conclusion is His word.  So what does the word say?

1 Peter 2:24 – By His stripes you were healed.

Isaiah 53:5 – He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him and by His stripes we are healed.

Psalm 103 – Bless the Lord oh my soul and forget not all His benefits, – who heals all our diseases, even renewing our youth!

What if the next time sickness comes or an ache or pain that says you are not as young as you once were, what if we went to His conclusion? What if we stopped and said – NO – I will choose to go to His expected end for me and draw that conclusion instead?

What about a financial need.  Maybe the bank has come to the conclusion that they want more money from you.  Or the hot water tank goes out and the baby needs diapers and you don’t have the money for both.  What will conclusion will you come to?  How about one of the following:

2 Cor. 9:8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

Phil 4:19 – And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.

Mal 3:10 – Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.

How about we go to God’s conclusion and begin to pray and declare – Father, You promised that You would meet my needs. So I thank You that You have already provided what I need and I am standing on Your word.

What are you doing?  You are praying the conclusion – God’s expected end for you  and this releases FAITH!  Dopamine is good, yes, God created it.  But if my brain is going to reward me either way – I choose to come to God’s conclusion  AND  receive faith!

God takes His conclusions very seriously.  Remember the twelve spies?  Ten of them came to a conclusion other than what God had already said and they all died!  But the two that took God’s conclusion as their own…  Even though they had to walk through the wilderness, they received their conclusion even 40 years later when Caleb at 85, said give me this mountain!  God’s conclusions have no expiration date!

The word also tells us in Isaiah 14 that one day we will see the enemy and say “is this the one who caused all this trouble?” We will be astonished at the trouble we let this puny  little devil cause us when we serve a Great Big God!  There have been too many conclusions drawn that the enemy has more power than he really has.  Folks, if we would truly believe that our God is bigger, greater and for us, there would be nothing that could stand in our way.  We will go through stuff – but we will go THROUGH!  And we will win!  THIS – must be our conclusion.

So, I challenge you.  Begin to do an inventory and ask Holy Spirit to show you where you have accepted or came to  wrong conclusions in your life.  And when He does, confess, repent, and then meditate on the conclusion of the Lord until it becomes yours.

Final conclusion? Our God is a great big God!  

• Date - January 17, 2018
• Author - Kelita Deems

The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.

This is probably one of the most recognized scriptures in the Bible. We hear it often at funerals because it is comforting. But have you ever taken the time to break down exactly what David is saying? We memorize it as children, we recite it at public gatherings and it sounds great – it is! But what is it actually saying? I mean, how is Jesus being a shepherd going to help you? Do you ever want? Sure – we all do. And why does He set a table for us in front of our enemies – couldn’t we just go somewhere in peace? LOL

I am a huge fan of the saying “You gotta read the Bible to READ the Bible!” I mean, as you grow in the things of the Lord, you realize that although the Word of God is full of over 7000 promises, unless you employ them and exercise your faith they won’t do you much good.

Here is an example I heard years ago: A man dies and leaves millions of dollars in his estate. However, his heirs never bothered to read the Will so they lived in poverty and in lack when they could have lived like a king…. are you seeing the parallel?

Jesus didn’t just die for our eternal salvation – although that would have been more than enough! He died for our complete and total restoration in this life AND salvation in the next. What an awesome God!

So let’s get back to Psalm 23. It is a lovely, poetic Psalm, and we have now established, that in order to partake of the goodness of this Psalm, we need to employ it. How do we do this? We read it, meditate on it and release our faith – especially when we see things that are contrary to it! This is what we must do with all of the promises in the Bible. We must put them to use and get them down in our heart. Joshua 1:8 tells us to meditate on the word day and night and in this way we will have good success!

So, let’s break this scripture down and see exactly what King David is saying in this particular scripture. (Note: the meanings that I will give all come from the Strong’s Concordance of Greek and Hebrew)

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. Shepherd there means an actual shepherd – yes because we are often referred to as sheep. It also means companion, special friend and one who tends.

I shall not want. The word want means, lack, decrease, or diminish. I don’t know about you, but I want no part of lack, decrease and diminishing and that is the exact opposite of what God wants for all of us. So, I say we break ties with lack, decrease and diminishing now. How? The words of your mouth is a good place to start. Declare out loud: I break all agreements with lack, decrease and diminishing in Jesus’ Name! Then guard your words from here on out. Whenever you see a situation that looks like decrease remind yourself (and the enemy) you have broken those ties. Release your faith and exercise your rights as a believer!

He makes me to lie down in green pastures; – he leads with care, guides to place of rest, refreshing

He leads me beside the still waters. This meant just that – and still waters are peaceful!

He restores my soul; He restores my soul, myself, my life, my appetite, mind, living being, desire, emotion, passion and activity of mind

He leads me in the paths of righteousness He leads me into what is right or just or normal, into righteousness (as vindicated), He leads me into justification (where controversy is concerned), He leads me into deliverance, victory, prosperity, and a covenant enjoying salvation!

For His name’s sake. – His glory

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
the valley of death, darkness, distress and danger

I will fear no evil; I will fear nothing disagreeable, malignant, unpleasant, no unhappiness, pain or misery, any bad land, water, bad value, a worse than worst comparison, I will fear no sadness, no viciousness in disposition, no evil in ethics, wicked, or evil thoughts or persons, deeds or actions, no injury, or calamity

For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. Rod also means “mark of authority” and staff also means “support of every kind” (Note also that the rod is a symbol of covenant and power. When two people made covenant, they would often exchange personal items and the rod of a shepherd was often unique to them. If you had HIS rod, it meant to every enemy that came at you – YOU WERE MARKED WITH HIS AUTHORITY – in other words – you could speak for Him and if you went into battle, the owner of that rod, that mark would go with you and you were not alone!)

You prepare a table before me You set in order, furnishes, and arranges – a king’s table for private use and sacred use – for me

in the presence of my enemies; – In places where I am bound, in a narrow place, when I am in distress, besieged, when hostility is towards me, when I am being treated with enmity, being vexed or harassed.

You anoint my head with oil; – to make me prosperous, acceptable

My cup runs over. – I am saturated

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; – GOODNESS – pleasant to the senses, pleasant to the higher nature, good, excellent, valuable, glad, happy, prosperous of man’s nature and good understanding of our intellect, good, right and ethical and MERCY – goodness, kindness, faithfulness shall follow me – to be behind me, follow after me, run after and pursue me – How is this for a REAR GUARD? (Isaiah 52:12)

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.

Folks, notice when we are distressed, in a narrow place (anything have you up against a wall?) When we are besieged (perhaps with reports of illness, or financial issues – relationship problems, when there is hostility towards us or we are being harassed – THIS is when He sets a King’s table before us – right in the middle of all the chaos. Why? Well, I have a couple of thoughts on that. I believe He is always demonstrating His authority and power. He doesn’t have to wait til the storm passes, He will bless in the midst of the storm! And another – God can’t just give us everything at the beginning. If He did we would be spoiled, we would not have faith and we would actually be pretty weak. A blessing in the midst of our enemies says brings refreshing, encouragement, and hope! It also says to the devil – ha ha! My God is greater than anything you can throw my way! You can’t stop this blessing and you won’t stop my breakthrough. It says He never leaves us and that He sees right where we are.

Are you in the middle of a battle today? Go sit at the King’s table – eat of His goodness. The table is ALWAYS set! He’s serving extravagant portions of hope, increase, faith, love and peace. How do we partake? EATING the Word of God! Whatever “weapon” the enemy is throwing at you currently, find scriptures to combat what he is throwing at you and then for dessert, worship and honor Him. Honoring God will always bring blessing. ALWAYS.

Let’s read Psalm 23 – with the in-depth meanings –

This encourages me greatly. No matter what we face, no matter what the enemy throws our way, we have His mark of authority. We are in covenant with Him. He’s got our back! He will even bless and refresh us in the middle of the battle. And if He will do that, you know He will get us through to victory! What a mighty God we serve!

• Date - January 10, 2018
• Author - Kelita Deems