Pearls of Delight

   "...even in the dark of night God is at work, breaking through the husks around our hearts and bringing life, from under dead leaves" CS LEWIS Yesterday, we gathered to celebrate to offer thanks and prayers. As we reminisced about this year now winding down, we realised that even in what looked like utter darkness and uncertainty externally in our world, God was working on the inside, in the secret unseen places, healing, restoring, renewing, mending...getting us ready for our NEXT! C.S. Lewis once asked, “Why are so many holy places dark places? The cross, the tomb, the stable – they are holy because even in the dark of night God is at work, breaking through the husk around our hearts and bringing life from under dead leaves.”  The stable is where the love of God for His creation was born; the cross is where the love of God for His creation was displayed; and the tomb was where the love of God for His creation exploded in hope. God is able to turn all suffering to goo...

Grace Whispers ...fix your heart on my goodness. "Take your gaze away from all the troubles around you, let your heart dwell upon my goodness.  For I am good and my thoughts towards you are good all the time. The enemy may want you to believe otherwise by heaping up troubles to frustrate you, but let your heart dwell upon my goodness.  This consciousness will help you  overcome. It transcends the troubles of this world and lifts you above it.   Fix your heart on my goodness." Scripture For the Lord is always good and ready to receive you. He’s so loving that it will amaze you— so kind that it will astound you! And he is famous for his faithfulness toward all. Everyone knows our God can be trusted, for he keeps his promises to every generation! Psalms 100:5 TPT   Grace Whispers Rita Oladiran  

If you can prevent your five senses from dictating your actions, then faith will lift you out of disappointment and doubt - Marilyn Hickey  And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.  Hebrews 11:6 NLT I read this bible verse and I began to pray like Jesus' disciples, "lord increase our faith", and then I tried, and tried by my will, to stir up faith, even one as small as a mustard seed. If you've ever seen a mustard seed, you'd agree with me it can't be that difficult to work up that tiny bit of faith.  I told myself if I can muster up faith as small as that, surely it would get me over this challenge - at least thats what the bible says.... But no, I have seen from the scripture and by revelation, that it doesn't work quite that way.  With God, nothing comes by sheer force of will, following that way is a recipe for disappointment and frus...

  " Being joyful isn't what makes you grateful. B eing grateful, is what makes you joyful"    - Ann Voskamp If we followed our feelings, with the way the year has been, there would be nothing in there to be thankful for.  But No! We are not thankful because we feel like it, but because of who God is. We know that, in the midst of all the troubles of life and inspite of them, God is still Good. I am not trying to convince myself or you of  his goodness but I am saying ...God is good and worthy of our thanksgiving from a grateful heart. I have joined a group of ladies on the 'A thousand gifts bible study', and we feel its a good idea to create a thanks giving jar, like the one pictured below ⤵, or start a thanksgiving journal.  Do this for the rest of this month, you'd be surprised just how much of Gods graces we all have to be thankful for inspite of all thats gone down in the year. According to Ann Voskamp the creator of the study and writer of the book - A...

 So give yourselves to God. Stand against the devil, and the devil will run away from you.  James 4:7  Believers have a common enemy, the Devil! When Jesus had finished his 40 day fast in the wilderness and was at his weakest, physically, the devil came to tempt him but Jesus who is our lord and strong in Spirit overcame with the word - "man must not live by bread alone...you must worship God alone and serve him!...thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God..." Luk 4 vs 4, 8 and 12. The devil is cunning, luring - remember Eve? and lurking around to deceive and ensnare sincere believers, to pounce at our weakest places, where the guards are down.  But, the bible says to be 'sober, alert and watchful'. We can do this by God's grace through faith and prayer to the one who is able to keep us standing. So when you sense a lull in your faith walk, you find yourself asleep more often on your knees when yoy ought to pray, getting short tempered or irritable, succumbing to  f...

  "Pray as if Your Life Depends on it, Because it Does." -Marylin Hickey If you want to be supernatural, you must pray. When you pray, it sets your heart on things above,  Colossians 3:1 says.. "You were raised from death with Christ. So aim at what is in heaven, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Colossians 3:1 ICB  I have seen indisputable evidence that prayer works, and that praying people succeed. Our level of effectiveness and power in life and ministry is directly proportional to the amount of time we spend in prayer. Praying and having intimacy with God is the foundation of a fruitful life. Do not initiate anything that you are not willing to saturate in prayer. Think about this. The Bible says that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word is established. When you pray to the Father according to His Word, the Holy Spirit prays in agreement with you because He prays God’s Word too, in Romans 8 it says:   "Likewise the Spirit als...

  "What we see is not all that is." People often say the words "seeing is believing", but not so with God, He says:  "...blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”  John 20:29 NIV I remember when I was going to have my second baby (who is a big boy now) and I was told I couldn't have a normal delivery due to some complications the doctors explained. I heard them quite well, understood their medical reasoning, but something in me would not settle for less than I had been confessing and believing God for, from the moment I knew I was pregnant.   So I went home and continued with my word confession, speaking out what I wanted and what Gods word - the bible, says about it. Every time a fearful thought came into my mind, I simply held fast onto his word, I just could not let go.  I had always had this 'father - daughter' relationship with God and always conversed with him, we talked on every subject, he introduced me to his word,...