The Strength of the Enemy

Have you ever walked into a pitch black room, turned on the light, and then saw the darkness fighting against the light in order to remain present in the room?


No!  Darkness is merely the absence of light and cannot exist when light is present.  When you walk into that dark room and turn on the light the darkness is gone, poof, just like that.  There is no resistance, no fighting back.  Wherever the light touches then darkness is just gone, immediately!


So it is with Spirit of God, His amazing presence, the ultimate Light!


2 Corinthians 3:17 says,"For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom," (NLT) or as the Amplified Bible says, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom)."

The Lord inhabits the praises of His people and He lives within every Spirit filled believer.  Just as the dark cannot and does not resist against the light, so it is with the kingdom of darkness, the enemy.  When God's light shines then darkness has to flee.  It is not a matter of if or even when, it is a "must." 


Those who live in constant battle with the enemy have failed to grasp their greatest weapon, praise!  Worship!  And being filled with the Holy Spirit!  


How strong is the enemy?  He is actually very weak when God's light is present, in fact, the enemy is not present at all when God's light is present. 

So, I guess the ultimate question is do you know how to cultivate God's light in your life? 
Some of the best resources!   This is the author of the books above.  This goes through seven parts I think, but this is the first.  Must see!

My Recommended Products

I've had a lot of people ask me about books and other items that I would recommend as good reading, whether for Christian fiction fun or books that will help immensely in your walk with God.  So, I compiled a list on my website in an Amazon store so you can buy things directly from my website through amazon.com.  Please tell your friends and pass it on.  I have read most, if not all, of the books on my list.  The ones I haven't read are by trusted authors.  God Bless and with all love.

Click Here

A True Friend

Put Prayer Pups Christian Cartoons on your website!

"A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." Proverbs 17:17

Or, as the NLT version puts it

"A friend is always loyal, and a brother is born to help in time of need."

Sometimes it becomes hard for even the closest of friends to sit down a merely listen without giving advice or trying to fix the problem at hand, but the truth is that most people figure out the answers to their own problems long before they vent or even while they are venting.

Men often lose sight of the fact that women can talk their problems out and solve them in the process.  Very rarely do we actually need to hear a solution to our problems because they come right to us as we speak!

And sometimes, it is difficult for even the closest of friends to turn their ear to gossip or rumors even when their friends are the center of conversation. 

The Word of God says that a true friend loves at all times and is loyal.  I decided a long time ago, that I would always be a true friend even if others were not to me. 

I would always:

Listen without an opinion (oh so hard)

Love without restriction (God's love through me)

Turn my ear from gossip (no matter how much my flesh pulls)

Trust their word (besides gossip, it is not me who hurts if others lie)

Stand by them (even if others turn away)

Honor and Respect them always

Friendship does not mean that you must agree on everything, but when I think of true friendship I see someone who loves me, trusts me, believes me, honors me, and stands by me.

True friendship does not listen to the doubting words of others but stands by their friend in faith that they know what they are doing.

A true friend will guide you away from harm, but also let you learn from your mistakes, and then offer a soft pillow for you to land on when you hit your bottom.

A true friend will say, "Yes, those pants make your butt look big," and then help you go through ten more pairs until you find the one that doesn't make your butt look big even though it actually is big.

What makes a true friend?

Put Prayer Pups Christian Cartoons on your website!

Head in The Clouds

Have you ever heard the saying that a person has their head so far in Heaven that they are no earthly good?

I remember this being preached quite a few times and have come to the conclusion that that cannot be true, especially if their head is in God's kingdom.

In this incredible book by Bill Johnson, When Heaven Invades Earth, he makes an amazing point, supported heavily by scripture of course, that the spiritual realm (God's realm) supersedes this visual realm. The more I thought of this the more I realized that is 100% true.  It is what most Christians believe but the faith life that is required to truly put that into practice is often overlooked or missed entirely.  He says it better than I can so I definitely recommend this book. 

In conclusion, if your head is way up in Heaven, seated in Heavenly places with Christ Jesus, you are more than earthly good, you are earth changing!

Yuwie-Make money doing what you do

In moment of boredom or perhaps an epiphany I found this site called Yuwie which is very much like all the other social networking sites out there, the only difference is this one pays you!  I love that.  Of course, you may not make much, or you may make more, but all in all, how fun!  I thought I'd give it a try and hope and pray others join so we can all make a few extra bucks here and there for doing what we normally do ;).  Click Here to join.  Please Click Here, not anywhere else, cause then I will be your referrer ;).

Boxes

What's in a box?  or more accurately, what is in that box?


I was just thinking that today as I stared at some unopened boxes in my garage wondering what I could possibly have left to unpack.  


The question hits me:  What could possibly be so important that I'd want to open that box if I can't remember what I put in there in the first place?


What if I just leave them there until curiosity finally gets the better of me?  What if I open it now and find I have no place to put what's in there?  What if I just handed it over to someone and said, "Good Luck?"  I wouldn't say God bless you because I could possibly have handed them a box of trash and what kind of testimony is that!


I must admit, I have had a lot of unopened boxes in my life.  Sometimes it is fear that has kept me from opening them, sometimes it is just plain laziness.  Should all boxes be opened?  What if it's Pandora's box?


Reminds me a little of the story of a man who was poor and down and out living in a broken down trailer.  This man hated God, loved to drink, and was wasting his life away.  When his grandmother passed away she left him an old Bible, which he placed high on a shelf to forget about.  
Years past and this man got more and more poor, but as he hit rock bottom he found himself calling out to God and giving his life to the Lord.  No longer a drunk but still very poor and soon to be kicked out of the hole that was his home, he gets his grandmother's Bible.  When he opens it he finds that his grandmother had placed $100 bill in between each and every page of the Bible.  I don't know about you, but that is a lot of money.


I am not sure if that is entirely how the story goes, but the ending is the same.  That Bible was an unopened box to that man, and I have found that whether there are blessings in a box, or curses, each box needs to be opened and the contents dealt with.

So, in the next two weeks I will go through all the boxes in my garage that are unopened, and I will deal with their contents, one at a time.


How many unopened boxes do you have?

Feeling a Little More Home

They say that home is where the heart is, and I am definitely feeling more at home now that we have moved.  I do not recommend moving as quickly as I did, but it was well worth it in the end.  When I can find my camera (who knows where I tossed it) I'll add a few pics to show off our new place.  God really blessed us with a place that fit so much of what we wanted.

Every step we have taken has been God guiding us in the direction He has wanted us to go.  A few times we hit bumps in the road (bumps we put there due to our own "thinking we know what to do" moments), but my big Daddy in heaven has been very patient with us, bringing us to this place.  I've decided to share more about the little things God has shown me, and also paint bigger pictures as well.  I don't mind letting myself hang out there for the world to see because God has made himself abundantly clear in my life to the umpth degree (I know that is not a word).

Perhaps now that I have a moment to sit here and think for a while, my dishes are put away, my clothes are hanging up, and I am pretty sure that most of the things I need to survive (besides my camera) are all accounted for, I can work on my biz a little more, which, more than anything else, is letting the world know how Awesome my Daddy is. :)

Hopefully you like me, if you do, tell your friends.  I have so much to write and so many more of my friends to talk about.  I am in a new team on Etsy called CAST (Christian Artists Street Team).  I will be posting some of my fav items from the sellers on CAST Team and also links to their shops.  School is out, I am safely home, and now I just might have time to talk about it.
God Bless
Anna

Small Break: Not Really

This weekend we had to crash move (thanks to the place that we wanted being almost given to someone else) so we had to rush so we could get the exact place we wanted. 

The next day my fingers were sore! Yikes!  I'll be back to my ol' blogging routine later, but I'll try to get a few things posted here and there. 

On a note today, I was searching everywhere (I mean EVERYWHERE) for the chords to Chris Tomlin's new song, "Our God" off of the new album and I finally found it off of this blog, livingforjesus.com.  I haven't gone through everything on the site yet so can't say with 100% certainty that this guy has all his ducks in a row, but so far, his ducks are lining up and I'm liking it ;).  So, be sure to check it out if you want the chords, you can find them HERE.