Commit Your Future To The Lord

Commit your future to the Lord!
Trust in him, and he will act on your behalf. Psalm 37:5

One thing I’ve learned in the past year, since leaving Berklee and venturing on the “unknown”, is that trusting the Lord really means stepping up in faith. You don’t just trust Him by sitting on your chair waiting for an angel to come, anoint your head and teletransport you to another chair in your promise land. No! You need to commit your future to Him! Trusting God is YOUR call, and it involves your heart as well as your actions.

Psalm 37:3 says: “Trust in the Lord and do what is right! Settle in the land and maintain your integrity!”

I was working on cruise ships for the last 8 months. I did 4 months on one ship, had a month off and than 3 more months on another one. Living on a ship can be exciting because of all the travel you do, but I did have hard times being the only Christian in my department. Cruise ships are definitely NOT a great environment for a Christian that does not understand Psalm 37:3, it is very easy to get sucked in the culture of the ship. I felt a lot of oppression there and it was hard for me, especially on my last ship, to deal with exposing my love for God and fearing the rejection of my co-workers. God had so much mercy towards my life and I could see Him working around me and keeping me accountable when I didn’t have any community to do that. Maintaining your integrity is sooooo important!!!! It is important to you, so you are close to God; it is important to the people around you because they are looking and having relationship with you, and it is important to God because He specifically asks you to do that!! 
One conversation that happened often among the people I played with was: “Why do you do music? What does that mean to you?” And that’s when my committed future to the Lord would come in and my answer would be “Because that’s my response to God. I do it for God.” And than people would stop to think about how is it possible that music is not the most important thing to me. People don’t understand that! They don’t understand that, as a musician, music can be just something you do and not all you live for. That whole “music is my life” deal doesn’t work if your future is committed to the Lord. If music is what you live for, sooner than you think, it won’t be enough. Music WILL let you down! But I do believe that God will bless your music, and act on your behalf once your whole future is committed to Him; and, trust me, I had to commit my future to the Lord more than one time. I'm sure there will be other times when I'll have to make this decision again.

My testimony right now about trusting the Lord is that I came to LA before I was accepted to get my masters at USC, but I trusted God coming here was what He wanted. Than my visa was expiring and I had to make a decision if I had to go back to Brazil, that’s when He opened the door to work on the ships and I got a new visa for that. Than when I got my acceptance letter for USC I also got an offer for the Teacher Assistant position for next year. I have no doubt that God is acting on my behalf and I praise Him for that!!!! But I’ve been moving around with Him too and it’s been scary sometimes… there are moments when I feel things are hard, and I need to hold on to God and have faith. Sometimes I feel very successful and sometimes I don’t! But God loves me and He pulls me up every time and makes sure I’m ok from the fall.

I'm not saying that you will have everything you always wanted if you commit your future to the Lord, but God promises to act on your behalf and that's more than you could possibly need.

Commit your future to the Lord!!!!!!

No matter where you end up at, you will be ok!

This verse is too legit to quit!!  :)

Much love,

Ana

The "Real" You

"Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors." Proverbs 8:34

What has He been working in your life and how have you been responding to Him?

Yes, God! I will do what you tell me to do!

Or

Uh........God, can I pause here for a little bit?

Or

What?! Nah God, I don't really like your plan. Let's not do that.

I think I was in between "Uh...." And "What?! Nah.." for awhile. (FOOLISHNESS!)

These past 6 months or so (after being officially graduated from Berklee), given a word "PREPARATION"  from God, He has been working in many areas of my life in such an extreme way that I can't help but know that it is His ultimate will to break and mold me into a woman of God who eagerly pursues and longs for what He has in store for my vision and my life. 

I started off this year with a full of hope and determination to PLEASE God, to find favor in the eyes of the LORD (still do!!!!) Then,this whole process of Preparation began to form its shape, like this...

He uses --> Time + Pressure + Fire = to reveal who you REALLY are; The "REAL" YOU.

Time, His timing never equals with my timing. I thought I knew that but, I found myself making my own plan and asking God to answer me with yes or no. In fact, He has answered to that specific prayer with "silence".

Pressure, not only He promises us to inherit a land flowing with milk and honey but also, a land of hills and valleys. Whether those hills and valleys are high or low, big or small, long or short, we as children of God must go through them to reach that land and possess it with the fullness of joy and confidence! C'mon now. This part is really tough to face it and also to avoid it. Sometimes the pressure brings forth our pain, hurt, anger, suffering, loneliness, pride, selfishness, unworthiness, temptation and burden. But when we are at the lowest with nothing covering up our vulnerability, we can truly see who we are; the core of our true heart and character.

Fire, (this one was truly a BIG revelation for me) basically, it's the Holy Spirit. 
Can I get an AMEN? Ah! Unlike normal fire that burns into ashes, the Fire of the Holy Spirit burns yet never be consumed. John the Baptist testifies that the Spirit came upon Jesus from the heaven and stayed on him(John 1:32-33).The Fire appeared to the apostles and rested on each one of them and they were filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:3-4). It is that same Spirit of fire that lives inside of us.

Do we acknowledge his presence in us?

Do we actually ask the Helper for help? 

with 100% yieled heart? Or 99% "I-can-do-it" + 1% yielded heart?

To be honest, I confess that I was like that 2nd kind of heart. 

I waited for unexpected amount of times for God to show up,

I endured the intensity of the pressure on the hills and the valleys,

But without the fire of the Holy Spirit, nothing was worth it.

Time + Pressure + Fire = Well-made & purified Jewel

which is the REAL you in God's eyes.

I don't know how long this process of Preparation would last but, what I DO know is that the One who knows all things and rules all things, He is always with me in the pursuit of working in and through me. DASSIT! Choose to find joy in God's every fruit-bearing work in your life. Deeper you go, more calm and joyful you become. YAS! 

I love y'all!

Blessings,

Mindy

"For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord." Proverbs 8:35

Same-sex marriage is not the problem

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

Church, COME ON. GET IT TOGETHER. GET BACK ON YOUR FEET.

 For too long we have just been sitting back, enjoying the comfort of being in our own “bubble” of church activities, routine meetings, worship music, safe “Christian jobs” that “honors God”…

Stop lying to yourself. You are not being effective. You are just being lazy. You are ignoring the world out there and everything that is ever going on. You are afraid to get out there. Your own people judge you and say: “Oh, you did this and that, you are crossing the line, you are not being “careful”, you are not serving God”. 

Guys, that’s lame. Stop playing and cultivating this religious game. It is boring, lifeless, uncreative, hurtful, limiting, and oppressing… Everything that God is NOT.

Where are our politicians, attorney generals, CEOs of conglomerates, artists, sports athletes, pop-stars? We the Church, should be OUT THERE, influencing people, making key decisions for our country and culture, making laws, writing songs, producing movies and live shows that move the hearts of the world, being CEOs of conglomerates that manages billions of dollars, building skyscrapers and creating jobs for the nation.

Instead, we teach ourselves and our children to be “safe” and “careful”, don’t explore too much, don’t ask questions, don’t have crazy ideas, don’t be too radical or different… let’s just obey and honor these religious rules, routine and culture. (whaaa?)

If we don’t influence the world, the world influences us. If we don’t go INTO the world to influence it, don’t start complaining when laws and culture change against your favor and against the commandments of God. We are the ones responsible. This affects us and our children and their children.

We are called to have dominion over the world, over the systems and culture, not just go around the same circle and routines doing religious stuff and being ineffective.

Church, I believe in you and I love you. Don’t be afraid. Encourage one another, not condemn and guilt trip each other. Kingdom of God is here and now. Invite this world of fearlessness, creativity, love and beauty into your hearts, and then just GO FOR IT. Pursue boldly what God has purposed in your life to do. Be sold out about it. Don’t be lukewarm and don’t let anything stop you.

Don’t wait for them to tackle you, go in hard and tackle them with the Love and Power of God!

COME ON GUYS, GO GET IT.

With Love,

Amos

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