Category: Bible

Worship Is Warship

Sheri YatesLeave a comment

Many battles in the Bible were won with worship only. Too many times, we open our mouths too quickly to defend ourselves or others. We don’t even allow God time to battle for us. What are we thinking? There would be much less drama in our friendships and families and in the world if we would learn to be still and worship the Father so He has the room to do WARSHIP! 

Today read Exodus 14:14 and 2 Chronicles 20:1–30.
Now find how many other battles were won by praise and worship!


Don’t Be Discouraged. Walk in Healing.

Sheri YatesLeave a comment
I have had a neck injury from breakdancing with my children. I feel like God has restored my youth. I love it. I love being strong and really having my youth restored in this time of my life. But I did have a neck injury, which I think was actually building up for a long time. As I’ve worked out for the last few years, I’ve had a hurt knee, a hurt hip, a hurt shoulder—all these things that kind of nagged at me. I would speak to them in the name of Jesus, and the pain would go away.

You know, sometimes you will get discouraged or hurt or you’ll be mad at someone, and you will need help. You know what your flaw is. You wrestle with your flesh and your spirit. Sometimes we need help.

I reached out to a friend because I was discouraged and I needed someone to speak truth over me. I didn’t want anybody to pity me or get down in with me. I needed somebody to pull me out. When you are discouraged, you don’t really need someone to say, “Oh, I agree with you.” You need a rope to get you out of the valley. 

James 4:7 says, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (NIV). When you get discouraged, there is no resisting the devil. You are submitting to the devil. Every day, your words align with his. You start to give him more power in your life. 

So I reached out to a friend and said, “Help me. I know the truth, but fear is keeping me from speaking the truth, and it is really making me discouraged.” 

I also reached out to a chiropractor who has a special field. He does something unique that only one person does in Oklahoma. I have really come to appreciate him so much because he and his family love the Lord. When I go in there, he says, “This is no big deal for Jesus.” Do you know why he says that? It’s because he knows the Lord and puts Him first. He knows it’s really no big deal. 

It’s no big deal because God’s power is already present. He is willing. It’s not like He is trying to decide, “Whom do I want to heal? She was bad, so that’s a no. He was bad. She was pretty good. I think I will heal her.” No, it’s not like that. We have all been bad. Every single one of us. No one is better than the other. We have all been bad. None of us deserves it, but God is willing. He wants to heal all of us. 

I believe that with all of my heart. His heart is to prosper us, to love us, to consume us with Him. That is His heart. That is all He wants to do. He wants you to know Him. He wants me to know Him. He wants me to look to Him first and not my problem. 

This chiropractor knows the Lord like that. He knows Him so well that he looks at me and says, “This is no big deal. It’s going to be okay. I know you have some symptoms, but don’t be afraid. Do not be afraid of this. You are going to be okay.”

I think he also knows the power of life and death. When we speak words of death over ourselves, we start to believe them and become discouraged. On the other hand, when we hear life-giving words, we start to have hope and belief. Faith is impossible without hope. It just is. You can’t stay down. I love him because he speaks life. 

You need people in your life whom you can trust to know who God is and stand firmly on that. It doesn’t matter what your symptoms are and what you see. They are going to say, “This is no big deal for God. You will be healed. I am telling you right now that you are going to walk in healing. You are going to be healed. You are.” They can’t necessarily tell you a time frame for the healing, and that is okay. They have hope and life-giving words. They don’t ever speak death over you because they know the power of God and they know the power of their words. 

I just want to encourage you to surround yourself with a close inner circle of people you can trust to do that and that only. You don’t need the people who are saying, “Maybe you should get another report. Maybe you should be careful.” 

Philippians 4:6 says, “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (KJV). Be careful for nothing. I tried being careful. What I really was doing was saying, “I am sick. I am not well.”

But the truth is that by Jesus’ stripes, I am healed. I need to proclaim the truth that I am an overcomer, that I have the victory already, that I walk in health and healing. All things are possible through Christ. By His stripes, I am healed. He provided the power 2000 years ago. My body just needs to receive it in the name of Jesus.

I speak life into my body and say, “Wow, body, you are loved. I speak life into you. With the healing power of Jesus Christ, you are going to move like you’ve never moved before. You’re going to breakdance like you have never breakdanced before. Your youth is being restored every day.” I just keep speaking life into it. I’m not going to stop. I may have symptoms and moments of discouragement, but I am going to say to my little inner circle, “Pull me out quick.” 

If you think that this is from God or allowed by God, then you are not going to be able to stand firmly; you are going to be wishy-washy. You are going to think, “Well, maybe I should just allow it. Maybe I should just receive it.” You are going to be passive. That’s baloney.

Sickness is referred to in the Bible as a curse or captivity. You know what? It is. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17 NIV). I am not going to be a captive. I am going to be free in Christ because that is my calling. My God is good. This is no big deal for Him. 

I hope you are encouraged by this to seek Him. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33 KJV). Do not go lax in the peace times. It’s easy to war when it’s peaceful, but it’s tough to sharpen your blades in wartime. You need to be ready. You need to practice your faith in small things so that it works in the big things. 

Wrestle with Assurance

Sheri YatesLeave a comment
I gave my life to Christ when I was ten years old. I was in a Baptist church, and they talked about hell and scared me to death. I did not want to burn in flames, so I thought I would buy my insurance policy and get out. I raised my hand and went down, and nothing changed.
My life was still the same. Nothing changed at all about who I was. No one taught me how to know the Lord and have intimacy with Him. I continued on the same path I was on. I kept going to church. That is what I thought knowing God was all about. I thought it was all about going to church every week, paying your tithe and serving, going to Sunday school classes, and reading your Bible—if you could understand it. 

For me, I couldn’t understand it. I wanted to read the Bible. I read it, and I was like, “What are these words? I can’t even pronounce them.” I wasn’t that great of a reader. I probably should have been in a reading class for slow readers. I didn’t want to be labeled with a disability, although I felt like I had one. I couldn’t read the Bible. I couldn’t pronounce half the names that were in it. So I continued in my life and called myself a “Christian,” but I was like I was before. Nothing had changed.
Now, the Bible says when you become a Christian, you become a new creation. I wasn’t a new creation. Was I saved or not saved? I didn’t know. I had a lot of confidence that I wasn’t going to hell. It wasn’t until later in life when I read John 17:3 that my eyes were opened. It says eternity—in my opinion, heaven—is truly knowing God. It doesn’t say eternity is a place called heaven where you will go some day after you die. Eternal life is knowing God. 

What an eye-opening moment it was. Oh my gosh! This whole time, I thought being a Christian was about going to a destination upon death. But actually, being a Christian is about a destination in your heart that begins the moment you receive Jesus as your Savior. It’s a door opening to knowing God, and knowing God brings you life. Unbelievable. I had no idea. I kind of felt betrayed, honestly, by my church and all my teachers. Like, “How did I not know this? How did I live all these years completely clueless?”

So then I started to clue in that my life was a wreck. I had broken relationships. I’d basically broken every commandment in the Bible. I was like, “I’m supposed to be a Christian, but yet, you know, I don’t even get this. I’ve done everything wrong. What in the world?” So I made a decision. “Okay, God. I don’t know what I am supposed to do to be Your child, but I do know I have to stop breaking Your commandments. I have to stop going in the opposite direction of You. I actually have to pursue You and try to find You.” I tried. Jeremiah 29:13 says, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (NIV). I started seeking God. I changed everything. I stopped going out. I stopped drinking. I stopped partying. I stopped sleeping around. I stopped everything. I started seeking God.
Unbelievably, I found Him. I started to realize He had been there all along. He was a God who would basically partner with me and be with me. He would help me shut my mouth when I needed to. He would help me do the right thing. He would be my helper and my friend.
Yet, even still, I went to church. I sought God. I started tearing through my Bible, reading the Word and asking tons of questions because I didn’t understand. See, I didn’t feel qualified to know the answers. I thought, “These people who are pastors, they went to school. They are qualified. They know the answers. They are the ones. If I could just get them to help me make sure I know God, then I will feel better about it. If I can just have that assurance.”
I found myself. I knew I was pursuing God at this point. I thought I was a Christian, but I still had this little percentage of doubt. Do you have a little percentage of doubt? That little percentage of doubt agonized me. Is this truly the right way? Is this the way?
I would take my teacher—she was a pastor and had all these young people in there— and I would ask her question after question after question. I came to realize that I can never get my assurance about being in Christ from another human being. It is impossible. They don’t know me. They don’t know my heart.

But I wanted it. I wrestled with having assurance that I was truly a Christ follower. I sought so hard. I sought man. I looked for man’s opinion. I asked pastors, “How do you know? How are you sure?” I asked the questions over and over. I drove my class insane. They were so mad at me that it ended up creating a feud. I kept asking, and I kept pursuing. It was like, “I have to know!” I have to know God has forgiven me for my past, for breaking all of His commandments.
But you know, no one ever taught me the law was for sinners, for before you received grace. Once you have received grace, you are not under the law. You are under grace. Christ became the cursed for you. God is not mad at you. I had never heard that message. I couldn’t forgive myself. I wasn’t walking in grace. I was still walking under the law. I never felt the fullness of forgiveness, so I wrestled with assurance.

Have you wrestled with being sure? Are you sure? How do you know? How can you be sure? We are going to continue this tomorrow on this blog.

Heartbroken

Sheri YatesLeave a comment
To be totally honest, my heart is broken this morning. I don’t generally share thoughts like this, but I’m sure some of you are experiencing the same thing.

I don’t understand why people quit on relationships because of one disagreement, one hurdle, or a slew of them. The Bible says seven times seventy will you forgive. But what we say in our flesh is: “I’ll forgive you, but I will never forget. I will never trust you again.” That is not actual forgiveness. Jesus forgave, and His forgiveness is forgiving and forgetting. That means treating someone as if there were never a wrong.
I don’t understand why people quit on people. Jesus’ last words were a prayer for unity. Yet people do it all the time. They are like, “I had a disagreement with you. You offended me. You encroached on my territory. So I don’t want anything to do with you—or I will, but only at arm’s length. This is the distance at which I am going to keep you.” This attitude is not godly. You can think you have godly character and godly wisdom all day long, but unforgiveness is not godly.
I completely disagree with the boundaries taught in today’s self-help and relationship books. Whenever you are building your own boundaries, you are leaning on your own defenses and you are leaning on your own walls to protect yourself; you are not trusting in the Lord. Instead, you’re trusting in what you can do and what you can protect. The truth is that we need to be opened up, unwound, and fully and truly have our hearts opened so God can work with us constantly and keep unity and bring restoration. He can bring ultimate, deep healing.
The friendships in which we have worked through hard things are the deepest, longest-term friendships I have. They are awesome. They are forever friendships. They are the ones where you can get back together after a while and feel like no time has passed.
My concern is what are we teaching our children? We are teaching our children that people are expendable based on a feud or an offense. These people aren’t your spouse, we say, and you can break up with anybody except your spouse. How can your children truly understand this mindset? How can they find the line?

Someday we are going to be disappointed, but we need to teach our kids that people are God’s children. We shouldn’t be breaking up and practicing divorce every day with friends, family, and people who make us mad. Learn to suck it up and get over it. Learn to be forgivers and forgetters in Jesus’ name. This is the only way. We should do it by example to enable our children to love with reckless abandon.
You know what? The world is harsh. The world will hate us. People are going to put up their barriers, and new Christians are going to try to protect themselves. Eventually, in time, they are going to learn to trust the Protector. They are going to let their hearts be exposed and let their hearts be hurt. They are going to grow from it because they worked through some difficulties. If our kids can learn to remain, then they are going to be trustworthy.
I was asking myself this morning: Is there anyone trustworthy? Is there anyone you can count on to remain in your life? Do you constantly have to pretend to be someone you are not and tiptoe around people because they are so easily offended that with the first offense, they will simply walk out of your life? What a waste of time. Why am I going to pour into you if, at the first offense, you are going to walk away? Wow. I’ve invested all this time, and you just quit. You’re a quitter. You’re not a finisher. Be a finisher. Be a strong finisher.
God is long-suffering. You’d think one year, five years, or thirty years would be long-suffering. It’s not. It’s short. Be trustworthy in the short things and the small things so God can expand your territory and give you more.

Resolute in Who God Is

Sheri YatesLeave a comment
I am recording this message while I am sick. I am not feeling well. I injured myself. It has been a daily climb to feel better. I am writing this message during this time because a lot of people, when they feel sick and down, are unable to proclaim and stand in the promises of God because they don’t see those promises occurring in their lives at that given time. It’s easy to preach, speak, and write about the power of God when you are walking in it or after a miracle has happened—like after you have prayed for someone who couldn’t walk and then they walk or if they were blind and now they see. It is easy to preach out of a victory. It’s easy to see God’s power because you have walked in it and have experienced it. I have walked in it and experienced it. At this given time, I am not operating in it fully in the physical. That is the reason why I chose this timing to share this message.

My circumstances should never have any impact on who I believe God is. What I am personally battling and the outcome of it don’t dictate the goodness of God. When the Bible says that Jesus was marred beyond human likeness for our sins, our sicknesses, or our infirmities, as it says in Isaiah 52, it means the work that needed to be done for us to know Him fully and walk in divine health and freedom from sin was all completed at the time He died on the cross and rose again. It was finished work.
So much of religion today is, “Hey, body of Christ, you go out and finish the work because it is not finished yet.” If you know the work is finished and you understand your position in that finished work, the difference when you enter the battle is amazing. See, religion says, “Finish it,” but Jesus says, “It is finished.” Religion says, “Do it,” and Jesus says, “I have done it.”
For me, at this time when I am not fully recovered, many people look on and say, “Well, why isn’t God healing Sheri? Is it God’s will to heal Sheri right now? Maybe He is putting her through the test. Maybe He has allowed this suffering for some greater good.” Many people are questioning because they know where I stand and they know what I preach every day. So they are questioning, “Why isn’t she healed immediately? She’s a girl who believes in miracles. She’s the girl who preaches it in our town. She’s the one who prays for it constantly and raises up youth.” My question to you is: Why would I not be a target? Why would I not be a target of the enemy who would come in and try to kill me, destroy me, and destroy my testimony and my witness?
God is who He says He is. He is good all the time. He is not the author of evil. He is not out trying to destroy me. He is not forming weapons against me to take me out; rather He is actually putting angels around me to guard me. His heart’s desire is to see me and everyone else prosper because He is no respecter of persons. He is directing me, whispering to me, and telling me what to do. It’s my choice whether or not I listen and allow Him to be in control of my life. That is my choice. That is my decision. 

At some point, when you finally decide you truly believe God is good and wants to heal every single time—which is His heart’s desire—you have to come to the conclusion that no matter your circumstance, regardless of how you feel, regardless of what is going on inside your physical body, you believe God. I believe He is a healer. I believe His power is mighty—mightier than any doctor, any tool, or any weapon on this earth. I believe that. You have to come to a place where you are resolute and there is no circumstance that can come against you that can change your mind. That is half the victory right there. Half the victory we can walk in is believing in God regardless.
I can celebrate my healing before it actually manifests in my body because I know God is a healer. I know God is for me. I’m not double-minded, doubting. “Well, maybe God wanted to use this for His good. Maybe God wants me to keep this. Maybe God doesn’t ever want me to be one hundred percent again. Maybe God intended my body to be hurt and wounded for the rest of my life” or “Maybe God wants me well.”
“A double minded man is unstable,” James says. He is literally tossed to and fro. You can hear when people who preach or speak are double-minded because they are not sure if God called them to suffer or God called them to thrive. They are truly never sure. You can hear it. When they are sick, maybe God called them to suffer. When they are healed, God called them to walk in miracles.
God does not change His mind. I am one hundred percent on that. He does not change His mind. He is not a God who is going to put sickness on you and then take it away because He has changed His mind. He does not change His mind. I am one hundred percent resolute on the fact that God is a healer. He wants to heal every single time. He is not the gatekeeper, asking the devil to come in and torment me. The devil has his reign on this earth until Jesus comes again. I have the right and the command by God to submit myself to God first and then resist the devil. God never takes the devil out of your life. You are given the power and authority to trample on him and to resist him. When you resist him, he will flee.
When you are double-minded, sometimes you stop resisting. You put down your barrier and think, “Well, maybe this is something I am supposed to receive. Maybe it’s something I am supposed to keep. Maybe God wanted me to have this.” All of a sudden, you are weak-minded. You are weak-willed. You don’t know what God wants for you. If you are not one hundred percent sure, you cannot stand on it. It is unstable ground. I know because I have been there. I have lived on unstable ground. In 2003, I was unstable. I wasn’t sure. “Is this from God or not? Does God want to fix this or not?” I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if you seek Him, everything will be added unto you. I have sought Him night and day, day and night, and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt His will for me is good.
In this time when I am not one hundred percent, I can tell you with complete resolve that Jesus finished the work. The power needed to heal your body, your finances, your marriage, or your porn addiction was provided a long time ago. God does not try to muster up the power to try to heal you or fix you, and He is not in heaven trying to decide whether you are worthy of being healed. You are the righteousness of Christ. You are worthy. You were worthy when He sent Christ to die for you. You were deemed worthy. You were marked. You have been trademarked by God with His Holy Spirit, which He has deposited into you. The same power that raised Christ from the dead marks you. You have been trademarked with the name and life of Jesus Christ. His name is above every name. It is either above every name or not above any name. The Bible says it is above every name on earth and in heaven. Every name. There is no name that can be named that is above Jesus. Injury, pain, rejection, or loneliness—Jesus’ name is above every one of those names.

While my body may not be one hundred percent, I can tell you my spirit is strong. It is stronger than ever because it is the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead. It cannot be tainted; it cannot be undone. That spirit gives me life. It gives me health. I am commanding my body to receive from that spirit and power that is already in me. I am commanding my body to stop ignoring the power of God already floating around in me. I am commanding it into every cell of my being, from the top of my head to the tips of my toes.

I am praising God. I praise the Father who gave me life and put life in me, who gave me authority to trample on serpents, scorpions, and the thief who tries to steal, kill, and destroy me. I am praising God for His life and His abundance. I can praise Him.

In 2 Chronicles 20, Jehoshaphat was about to go into battle, and God said, “This isn’t your battle. You don’t even have to do anything.” All they did was go out and praise. They praised the Lord, and the enemy was confused. There is power in praise. We need to know and understand that. When we know the work is finished, we can praise. We can praise God in all things, at all times, because we know for sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that He is for us. We are not double-minded.

No matter what is going on in your life, you need to be able to identify it as a fact but not as a truth. The truth in God’s word trumps facts every single time, one hundred percent of the time. But if you don’t know that, you won’t stand on it, and you will actually submit and surrender to pain, poverty, and a life of loneliness and maybe even suicide. It is because you don’t know.

The Bible says we have everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of God. Paul didn’t pray that we would have more of God. I hear people say this all the time: “I want more of You, God. I want more power. I want more of You in my life, God.” It’s impossible to have more when you have the fullness already. But see, people didn’t know that. Paul didn’t pray that we would get more in Ephesians 1. In Ephesians 1:17, he prayed we would have a spirit of wisdom and revelation to know what we have already. That is what he prayed for the body of Christ—not that they would have more but that they would know the more they already have. We have more, but you don’t know it.

“It’s for lack of knowledge that people perish.” This is why we perish. It is because we don’t know. We are clueless to what we have because we aren’t seeking God for ourselves. We are seeking God through other people who supposedly know more than we do. But you cannot stand firmly on anyone’s revelation but your own. I can tell you, I can stand firm right now because it’s my revelation from God.

The Bible says that when the Holy Spirit comes, we no longer need a teacher because the teacher lives in us. If you are relying on a teacher to give you truth, then you are not listening to the source Himself, the Holy Spirit, who wants to teach you, who has the truth for you, and who has a special word just for you. You can’t get that from anyone else.

Jesus gave you a better gift, which is the Holy Spirit. He gave you that gift. Maybe you are not using it to the fullest to know who God truly is. You cannot go into a battle unsure of God, His character, and who He is and remain stable and come out victorious. You have to be resolute, sure in your mind, and unashamedly believing in the power of Jesus regardless of how you feel. People will look at you and think you are an idiot. They will judge you. They will label you. They will talk behind your back about how terrible you are doing though you are believing. “She won’t do this. She won’t do that. She needs to do this.” They are going to have opinions. Isaiah 54:17 says those are all weapons. Words are weapons. They are either life or death. They are weapons being formed against you. But they cannot prosper.

You are to condemn every single weapon formed against you. If somebody speaks ugly of you, break it. Say, “I break it in the name of Jesus.” I will be healed in Jesus’ name because Jesus provided the healing power already. He is for me. He has already healed whole crowds. If I am not being healed, maybe I am not a good receiver. Maybe I am wishy-washy.

Maybe I need to seek the heart of God more and ask Him, “Holy Spirit, tell me why I am not receiving healing. I know You are good, and I know You are for me.” Or tell Him, “God, I don’t really know You, and honestly I am that person being tossed to and fro. I am not truly sure what Your will is here. Can You teach me? Will You show me Your ways, God? I want to know You for myself. I don’t want to know You through Sheri Yates or anyone else for that matter. I want to know You for me. I want to know because I want my ground to be so solid that no matter what I come against, I can stand firm in it. I do not want to be moved by mountains that come against me. I want to move mountains. I am a mountain slayer in the name of Jesus. 

“God, I know You have equipped me and called me to do these things. I know You are for me, beyond a shadow of a doubt. I know You work out things for good. I am asking You, Lord, to teach me. Show me Your good and pleasing will. Show me so I can know and I can minister to others, so my life would bring You glory, so You would be glorified in everything I do and every word I speak, so I would be firmly planted and people would know You are my God and they would want to know You. May many come to know You better because of the power You put on display through my life—in Jesus’ name.”

Don’t Be Discouraged. Walk in Healing.

Sheri YatesLeave a comment
I have had a neck injury from breakdancing with my children. I feel like God has restored my youth. I love it. I love being strong and really having my youth restored in this time of my life. But I did have a neck injury, which I think was actually building up for a long time. As I’ve worked out for the last few years, I’ve had a hurt knee, a hurt hip, a hurt shoulder—all these things that kind of nagged at me. I would speak to them in the name of Jesus, and the pain would go away.

You know, sometimes you will get discouraged or hurt or you’ll be mad at someone, and you will need help. You know what your flaw is. You wrestle with your flesh and your spirit. Sometimes we need help.

I reached out to a friend because I was discouraged and I needed someone to speak truth over me. I didn’t want anybody to pity me or get down in with me. I needed somebody to pull me out. When you are discouraged, you don’t really need someone to say, “Oh, I agree with you.” You need a rope to get you out of the valley.

James 4:7 says, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (NIV). When you get discouraged, there is no resisting the devil. You are submitting to the devil. Every day, your words align with his. You start to give him more power in your life.

So I reached out to a friend and said, “Help me. I know the truth, but fear is keeping me from speaking the truth, and it is really making me discouraged.”

I also reached out to a chiropractor who has a special field. He does something unique that only one person does in Oklahoma. I have really come to appreciate him so much because he and his family love the Lord. When I go in there, he says, “This is no big deal for Jesus.” Do you know why he says that? It’s because he knows the Lord and puts Him first. He knows it’s really no big deal.

It’s no big deal because God’s power is already present. He is willing. It’s not like He is trying to decide, “Whom do I want to heal? She was bad, so that’s a no. He was bad. She was pretty good. I think I will heal her.” No, it’s not like that. We have all been bad, every single one of us. No one is better than the other. We have all been bad. None of us deserves it, but God is willing. He wants to heal all of us. 

 I believe that with all of my heart. His heart is to prosper us, to love us, to consume us with Him. That is His heart. That is all He wants to do. He wants you to know Him. He wants me to know Him. He wants me to look to Him first and not my problem.

This chiropractor knows the Lord like that. He knows Him so well that he looks at me and says, “This is no big deal. It’s going to be okay. I know you have some symptoms, but don’t be afraid. Do not be afraid of this. You are going to be okay.”

I think he also knows the power of life and death. When we speak words of death over ourselves, we start to believe them and become discouraged. On the other hand, when we hear life-giving words, we start to have hope and belief. Faith is impossible without hope. It just is. You can’t stay down. I love him because he speaks life.

You need people in your life whom you can trust to know who God is and stand firmly on that. It doesn’t matter what your symptoms are and what you see. They are going to say, “This is no big deal for God. You will be healed. I am telling you right now that you are going to walk in healing. You are going to be healed. You are.” They can’t necessarily tell you a time frame for the healing, and that is okay. They have hope and life-giving words. They don’t ever speak death over you because they know the power of God and they know the power of their words.

I just want to encourage you to surround yourself with a close inner circle of people you can trust to do that and that only. You don’t need the people who are saying, “Maybe you should get another report. Maybe you should be careful.”

Philippians 4:6 says, “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (KJV). Be careful for nothing. I tried being careful. What I really was doing was saying, “I am sick. I am not well.”

But the truth is that by Jesus’ stripes, I am healed. I need to proclaim the truth that I am an overcomer, that I have the victory already, that I walk in health and healing. All things are possible through Christ. By His stripes, I am healed. He provided the power 2,000 years ago. My body just needs to receive it in the name of Jesus.

I speak life into my body and say, “Wow, body, you are loved. I speak life into you. With the healing power of Jesus Christ, you are going to move like you’ve never moved before. You’re going to breakdance like you have never breakdanced before. Your youth is being restored every day.” I just keep speaking life into it. I’m not going to stop. I may have symptoms and moments of discouragement, but I am going to say to my little inner circle, “Pull me out quick.”

If you think that this is from God or allowed by God, then you are not going to be able to stand firmly; you are going to be wishy-washy. You are going to think, “Well, maybe I should just allow it. Maybe I should just receive it.” You are going to be passive. That’s baloney.

Sickness is referred to in the Bible as a curse or captivity. You know what? It is. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17 NIV). I am not going to be a captive. I am going to be free in Christ because that is my calling. My God is good. This is no big deal for Him.

I hope you are encouraged by this to seek Him. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33 KJV). Do not go lax in the peace times. It’s easy to war when it’s peaceful, but it’s tough to sharpen your blades in wartime. You need to be ready. You need to practice your faith in small things so that it works in the big things. 

Reading the Bible

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When I first started my Christian walk, reading the Bible was not important to me. I owned a Bible, but I rarely touched it, let alone opened it. I thought Bibles were owned but not necessarily used.

As I continued on my walk, I realized being a Christian was about having a relationship with Jesus, not about escaping Hell. With this revelation, I actually started reading my Bible. Because I was pursuing a relationship with Jesus, I wanted to know more about Him.

I began to read my Bible; however, I still did not value it. I read it when I had time. I fit it in when convenient. What I should have been doing all along was making it my first priority, not my last. Once I realized this, I began to set a time when I would be completely focused and just read the Bible.

But is just reading it enough? It wasn’t for me. Just reading the Bible did nothing for me. I couldn’t understand any of what I was reading. Nothing stuck with me, and I started wondering if it was worth it.

Then one day I realized I was reading the Bible like I would a novel. I was reading through it quickly, trying to read as much as possible in as little time as possible. I was reading it to be done with it. This caused me to think the Bible was very boring. It wasn’t interesting because I wasn’t taking the time to slow down and figure out what anything actually meant.

Once I was able to figure this out, I realized the Bible wasn’t something I was going to read through and never pick up again. It is the one thing I want to live my life by. I want to know it inside and out.

With this in mind, I began to question and reflect on what I was reading. I began to ask the Holy Spirit about what I was reading. I brought scriptures into my prayers and prayed about them. I began to study scriptures and gain revelation.

Now I can’t imagine not reading my Bible daily! I love it more than any other book I have ever read. Sometimes I can’t put it down!

I pray that each of you would gain revelation every time you read the Word. I pray that the Bible will surpass all other books in your heart and mind. I pray that each of you will start reading your Bible and seek to understand what you are reading. If you do, you will truly be blessed.

Love, Kathleen 🙂

Let God be true, and every man a liar. (Romans 3:4 NIV)


The Bible that is falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t. — Vance Havner

Are Negative Thoughts Running Your Life?

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Resist the devil.
There are many times when negative thoughts will pop into your head and cause you to feel as if you’re not loved by anyone and you’re all alone. Recently Robin Williams committed suicide. He had depression. You know, this whole problem had to start with a negative thought. One negative thought is not a big deal until it builds into a mountain of negative thoughts.
It is essential we learn to differentiate between good and evil thoughts. As Jesus put it, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10 NIV). If a destructive thought enters your mind and tries to steal the hope, faith, love, and peace you have in Jesus Christ, why would you even consider letting it be okay? Well, the truth is you probably wouldn’t think much of it because one negative thought isn’t a big deal unless you allow it to take root. Then other negative thoughts creep in and build on it, and destruction takes hold.
We must learn to recognize that those stealing thoughts are from the enemy. They are from the devil. James wrote, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7 NIV). It sounds simple, right? It is simple, but it also requires hard work. We need to be active in our resistance. This mental effort is part of submitting ourselves to God. When we’re not resisting those negative thoughts, we’re actually submitting to the devil.
There is no gray area, no middle ground, no in-between. You can’t accept a destructive thought and claim you’re submitting to God. When we submit to God, “we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV). If we are fully surrendered to God, we actually want to rid our minds of every harmful thought. We don’t want to keep those thoughts because we know they are not His.
I have noticed many Christians struggle with determining whether the thoughts and influences peppering our minds are from God or from the enemy. We have trouble sorting through everything. Many of us are living in a constant state of confusion. The uncertainty provides a foothold for negativity. We start to recall all of our sins. We know we’re guilty. We know the punishment our sin deserves. We start to believe the destructive thoughts are God’s way of punishing us.
I can assure you with 100 percent certainty that God is not looking for opportunities to bring you down. He is full of compassion towards you. He is not trying to find reasons to be mad at you (Isaiah 54:9–10 NIV). The devil, on the other hand, stands ready to leap into every gap in our faith. The enemy wants to deceive you. He wants you to believe the damaging thoughts are from God because then you will receive them. 

Once you allow negative thoughts to take hold, they will poison your mind. They will shackle you and prevent you from moving forward in the work God has for you to do. Pessimism will hold you in captivity. You will be a slave, and you will remain in bondage so long as you allow the negative thoughts to consume you. You won’t be living in the fullness of the freedom Jesus paid dearly for you to experience.
The good news is God provides us with everything we need to resist destructive thoughts. If we “take up the shield of faith,” we “can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:16 NIV). We possess the equipment; what we need is a battle plan.
Step one: Pay attention to what you are thinking. We need to be aware of all our thoughts, and we need to learn how to distinguish between thoughts in step with God’s truth and God’s ways and thoughts from the enemy or our own flesh. The best way to learn the difference is to study the Bible. God will speak to you and teach you as you read His Word. You will learn to recognize His voice.
Step two: Resist the devil. Isolate destructive thoughts and refuse to accept them. When you feel tempted to view pornography, when you notice an attractive man and start wanting him more than your husband, when you are shopping and covet clothes you can’t afford, when you envy someone who seems to be more successful than you are, when you view your reflection in the mirror and start criticizing the way God formed you—those are the times when you need to surrender your thoughts to the cross of Jesus Christ.
Turn to God’s Word. Keep it nearby, in your heart and on a notepad or on your phone. Seek God’s truth and rely on His promises. Put your full faith in Him. Be sure to replace the sinful thoughts immediately with the truth because, as Jesus warned, if you kick evil out and don’t replace it with anything, it will return seven times as strong (Luke 11:24–26 NIV).

Free Bible Study

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Want to know God more? 
Want more peace? 
Do you want to SOAR in your life?


When we know God intimately, we SOAR!

To ‘soar’ is to climb swiftly or powerfully.

The power of God is available to enable you to overcome and live in freedom! 

SOAR, a FREE study consisting of four parts with eight lessons each, is designed to create in you a longing to know our loving God. To know Him is to know the love and the power of the living God that can SOAR far above any mountain in your life. Spiritual growth begins and is maintained through intimate fellowship with the living God through Jesus Christ.

When you know whose you are, who you are, and what you have,
 you will know what to do!

You will learn to seek God and obtain your own revelation from reading and studying the Bible. You will strengthen your ability to walk in the Spirit more than your flesh and then turn all your efforts to pursuing the calling God has for your life through reaching out. 

You will never be the same!


If you are like me and need some direction to learn to read and understand the Bible and apply the revelations you receive, check out our free Bible study!

Halal: Overwhelming God

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And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6 ESV)


I had the most overwhelming experience when my daughter led worship for Truth Group, our bimonthly Bible study. I love these ladies.

My daughter shared her heart, and I got to witness an inner love for Jesus pour out for all to see. Then she shared about a word that means so much to her: Halal! It means praise God out of the innermost passion you have for Him. She taught us how to do this, and we ended up in a full-blown party, celebrating our awesome Father God.

I am honored God allowed me to be a part of this amazing night, and I am confident God will complete the GOOD work He has begun in my girl!

Thank you to Mabel Chang for teaching Spencer guitar, to IHOP Awakening Teen Music Camp for growing her up in worship and allowing her to play and sing on the teen team, and to Amy Niles for growing her confidence in singing and every other area. I am so blessed to have you mentoring my daughter. One day we will see the full fruition of God’s work through these people and experiences. 

How have you seen God reveal His work in your children?

Love,
Sheri