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“Must Have” Affirmations of Faith
God’s divine order should and can be maintained in our lives to such a degree that we are continually and blissfully fulfilled. When His order becomes our true focus, we will see the most magnificent blessings come into fruition; be assured of this! It should serve as motivation to continue stepping in alignment with the…
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Reclaim What Has Been Stolen!
The Fall Issue of the SMS Magazine is entitled, “Taking It All Back.” In it we explore the spiritual requirements to enter the battlefield and take back what has been stolen from us. We know that the enemy is a dastardly evil thief, and we are often surprised by the degree to which he steals…
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You’re Almost to the Finish Line!
Life is a journey, and we’re on it! Each of us is in a race that God has placed before us, and no two are alike. Right this very moment, you’re in one of three lanes: 1# You’re waiting for a specific prayer request to come to fruition in your life; 2# You’re transitioning to…
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Don’t Get Weary: Holding On When It Gets Hard
Sisters, we hear you! Your responses to “Keep Pressing, Don’t Get Weary, Let the Haters Hate” came in loud and clear. Understandably, the aspect of the teaching regarding getting weary struck a chord, particularly with those of you that are single and facing the challenges of life without a partner in your right-now circumstances. You…
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Dealing With Depression
In Psalm 143, David was praying and crying out to God, as he had done many times before. I don’t know about you, but David reminds me of a brother who has a very desirable and exquisite combination of being both sensitive and strong. He was no doubt a great and brave warrior, and boy…
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Keep Pressing, Don’t Get Weary, Let the Haters Hate
As Christians, we all try and put on a happy face every day. There are many who count on us to be that shoulder to cry or lean on, and there are others in our corners who are rooting for us and just want us to succeed in life. They are watching and trusting that…
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Is Your Family Living Under A Curse?
I’m originally from a small rural community in the south. I grew up in a Christian home, and I thought everyone else did as well. It wasn’t until I was an adolescent that I began to notice some things that caused me to question this. There were a few families in this small community that…
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That Which Flows from God
We’ve heard it said, particularly in this age of the outpouring of God’s Spirit, that Christians should now be at a stage of spiritual maturity where we operate out of the overflow. We’ll talk about operating out of the overflow a bit more, but even if we do not understand all the facets of it,…
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A Deeper Knowledge of Yourself
A sister-friend of mine is notorious for retreats. I can get with that. I need to take them far more than my schedule allows. The thing with her is that her preference is to take retreats alone. When I first learned of her sabbatical-hunger for alone time, I thought it was strange, a tad bit…
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Moldable Like Clay
Let no one tell you differently, emotions matter. How you feel emotionally from one day to the next is very important to your overall existence. God designed us in such a way that we live from the inside out, and not the outside in. With every choice and decision you make, you are building the…
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When the Pressure Is Too Much
It doesn’t matter who you are or how long you’ve been on this Christian journey, there’s bound to be a time in your life when the pressure seems way beyond what you think you can handle. You know that God has your back, and that you can do all things through Christ, but there are…
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Too Busy to Slow Down
One of the things that many of us struggle with today in life is differentiating between what is relevant and what isn’t. All too often, we get consumed with what’s happening on a reality TV show, or the next thing poppin’ on social media, and we kinda get lost in that world. We begin to…
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Know Your Worth
We all know the precious verse in Proverbs 31:10 (NLT) that says, “Who can find a virtuous and capable wife? She is more precious than rubies.” God is so incredibly gracious to have placed this prized gem of wisdom in His Word. He knew that at every rotation of change, and at every level of…
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Preparing for A Rainy Day
No one could have anticipated some of the things we see going on around us. They are pretty incredible to say the least, but there’s one thing that we know for sure as Christians; we know who holds tomorrow. No matter how outrageous the world and its major players seem to get, God is in…
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The Blessing Zone
Hebrews 11:6(NKJV) tells us, “6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” I’d like to focus on the last part of this verse for just a bit. The bible is…
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Help Us Help Quiyana!
Quiyana wrote to me because her best friend passed away almost two years ago, and it has caused the kinds of problems in her life that she never in a million years suspected she’d encounter. Quiyana is conflicted because she has feelings for her best friend’s husband, who is now a widow. He is raising…
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The Synchronized Timing of Your Blessing
There is no way we can get to the place God desires us to be without taking a brutally honest look at ourselves every once and a while. The goal of doing this is to widen a space in our consciousness that will allow the Holy Spirit to point out a few adjustments. These adjustments…
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Don’t Give Up, Reach Out and Climb Higher!
The answer to the question, “Where is God taking me?” will be the same for every born-again believer. He is always taking us to higher spiritual heights. This brings the blockers in our lives front and center, because Jesus Christ made it crystal clear that we have an enemy that seeks to knock us back…
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The Pain of Death, The Joy of Life
Dorothea lost her mother the middle of last year. I don’t know her personally, but all of us can imagine how truly devastating it is to lose a parent. Recently, within the span of three months, both her older sister and her son also died unexpectedly. An acquaintance of Dorothea’s phoned me last week with…
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Being Super Woman
We’ve all faced our share of hard times and disappointments, and some of us have experienced some doozies. Whether it’s a letdown at the job or possibly a major heartbreak in our relationships, at some point in our lives many of us were crushed beyond what we believed to be our threshold. As uncomfortable as…
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Building Faith Muscle
Romans 5:3-5(NLT) “3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us,…
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Your Cup Overflows
God desires to do a brand new thing in our lives, and because this world is corrupting moment by moment, we sometimes lose sight of this. Things within our everyday existence can become very stale. If our diet isn’t packed with the nutritious substance of God’s goodness and Word, we will find ourselves feeling…
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Moving in Progressive Faith
The more we grow in our relationship with God, the more we will understand the power that He has given us through the person of Jesus Christ. It is our greatest privilege to be able to increase in the Spirit with each passing day as we put on the love of Christ. Our earth experience…
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Living Out of Your Spirit Man
The one commonality among every single Christian living today is that all of us have underestimated the depth and breadth of God’s love. Many of us have studied His Word, and some of us have done so exhaustively. We may comprehend God’s love intellectually; in other words, everything that we have read in the bible…
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Multiple Ways to Make dem’ Coins
Glenda Green was a hustling machine. It’s been well over 20 years since I’ve seen her last, so I can’t speak to whether or not she’s still doing the doggone thang’, but my guess is that this sister is still making it work. We met each other in my junior year of college, at a…
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Robbing Peter to Pay Paul
Our foremothers knew how to make something out of nothing. Creating a delicacy out of parts of meat that no one else ever thought to eat was their specialty, and they could turn a throw-away into a showpiece that birthed what we now refer to as designer knock-offs. They were forced to be innovative and…
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Still Standing, Still Loving God
Isaiah 61:7(NLT) “Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance. And so you will inherit a double portion in your land, and everlasting joy will be yours.” Once you make a commitment to God to fulfill your calling, things happen. You become a…
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Whose Voice Are You Listening to?
If you audibly heard the voice of God telling you to drop everything this very second, put on your coat, grab your wallet or purse, go to the nearest Christian bookstore and purchase a bible, and then stand on the street to give it to the first person who would take it; I guarantee you…
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Releasing the Blocker
You might not be in an environment where you see despondent and sad Christians by the dozens. If you aren’t, be thankful. This is not to say that Christians should never be sad or depressed, because all of us encounter life challenges that will seek to pull us down mentally and emotionally. We have to…
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Reclaiming Your Destiny!
As a born-again Christian, everything in your life will always bring you back to your level of growth in faith, in God in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is God’s number one goal for your existence. You can walk to the ends of the earth and back. You can read a…