Pay Attention to What Makes You Feel Defensive...

Did you know that a key way of seeing into yourself and what is still binding you from living the way God wants you to live is to look at what makes you feel defensive?
It's true. Try for a day or two to really be aware if you feel offended or find yourself being defensive in any situation.
Note these things. Then take a few minutes with God and begin to analyze them with God helping you discern.
If I have time, I take a minute immediately after I notice that I have been defensive about something and go through the following steps with God.

1. I acknowledge that I felt defensive. Then I ask God to help me see what was I defensive about. What was the true message underneath my defensiveness?
2. Once I discover the incident, memory, or issue that is underneath the defensiveness I think about the topic (trying to put myself in the situation or memory associated with it). I ask myself, "What am I feeling in this setting?"
3. I acknowledge any emotions I feel (such as: fear, anxiety, sadness, humiliation, etc). Then I take these emotions stating them aloud and say, "In the name of Jesus, fear you leave now. I break all ties you have to this situation."
4. In addition, I pay attention to subconscious statements I might be saying to myself (those core beliefs that are definitely unbiblical such as "I am bad" "I am disgusting" or whatever).
5. I take theses statements and say, "In the name of Jesus you no longer have any power here. I will not think these things again in the name of Jesus. Any strongholds or thought patterns associated with this belief is broken in the name of Jesus."
6. To make sure I am done with this issue, I go back to the original situation in my head that just happened to make me defensive. How am I feeling now? What thoughts am I having? If any negatives still remain I repeat until head is empty and feeling no feelings.

This is truly an amazing and life changing exercise. It is like having years and years of counseling, but in the span of 5 minutes. I can now see why God is called the ultimate counselor. Only He can get rid of the junk that has been in our brains for our whole lives in just a few short minutes. Wow! Praise God!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------In this blog I have used material I learned at Wind and Fire Mission Base.

 Wind and Fire Mission Base, 3243 Wind and Fire Dr. Marion, IA 5230230

God Does NOT Want You to be Sick!

God does not want you to be sick. 
Throughout my adult life, I had migraines. I felt God had allowed me to have this health issue or even given it to me because I deserved it! 
It was a huge revelation to realize that sickness does not come from God. He actually wants us to be healed.

Mark 16:18 states, "They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won't hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed"(emphasis added).

What does this really mean? Our great commission as Christians is to go out and lay hands on others, in the name of Jesus, and God will heal them. 

Perhaps the best at explaining this concept clearly is Curry Blake. Please see my page with all of Curry Blake's DHT (Divine Healing Technique) trainings. Watch all of these trainings and then go out and start laying hands on people. It is really amazing to see. Or lay hands on yourself. That is where I began. I put my hands on myself and told my headaches to leave in the name of Jesus. 

So, the next time you hear someone say it is God's will for them to be sick, remind yourself it is NEVER God's will for us to be sick. He wants us to walk in His glory and power into freedom and becoming who He wants us to be in Christ. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------In this blog I have used material I learned at:

 Wind and Fire Mission Base Wind and Fire Mission Base, 3243 Wind and Fire Dr. Marion, IA 5230230

John G. Lake Ministries - Curry Blake DHT Training2

Immediate vs. Ultimate

Impulse control can be hard. Whether you struggle with food, shopping, gambling, drinking, etc.
One of the Fruits of the Spirit is self-discipline. Did you realize that simply by becoming a Christian you have access to any and all of the Fruits of the Spirit? They are not some unattainable thing that one needs to read the Bible so many times or do some sort religious gymnastics to accomplish.
Rather, they are there at your fingertips now. Simply start living in self-discipline. Walk with the confidence knowing that God has already bestowed this gift to you.
Also, when facing those impulse situations, why not say to yourself, "immediate or ultimate." In other words, think about if you are going to indulge the immediate or resist for ultimate. If you live life according to the immediate, you will miss out on the ultimate!
One thing I am doing right now is having a sign in my car with "immediate or ultimate" on my dashboard. Sometimes I am tempted to buy something or eat when I do not need to. By having a simple reminder in front of me, I am able to remember that I am self-disciplined. God has already given me this gift.
Just another way to walk in freedom and power!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------In this blog I have used material I learned at Wind and Fire Mission Base.

 Wind and Fire Mission Base, 3243 Wind and Fire Dr. Marion, IA 5230230

Grading Your Decisions

Boy, doesn't it just feel awful when you have made a poor decision? It is hard to stop condemnation or negative thinking from taking over.

What if you were able to avoid negative decisions by looking at all the choices you made in a new way? Stop viewing everything in a pass/fail mentality. 

Think of something you are trying to make a decision about right now. Now, think of a solution that you have considered doing to solve the problem. 

Grade this solution you are considering on a 1-10 scale (1-poor - 10- best). What is your number? Now take your problem before God. Be still before Him asking Him how to improve your solution. Is there someone he recommends you speak to for guidance? Is there are verse He gives you to add clarity?

Now think of the solution God has given you and grade this one in your head. Did your number go up?

Remember, stop thinking about everything as right or wrong -- pass or fail. If you make a decision that you don't like as well say, "Well, that outcome was about a 3. I wonder what I could try to make it go up a couple of numbers in the future?

We are talking about shifting your brain about the way you think about decisions. Start shifting and see a difference!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------In this blog I have used material I learned at Wind and Fire Mission Base.

 Wind and Fire Mission Base, 3243 Wind and Fire Dr. Marion, IA 5230230

What if it Doesn't Work? What if it Does?

Do you live in the land of "what ifs"? Do you find yourself constantly wondering what might happen or could come next? Is worry your go-to emotion?

I know it was (and sometimes still is) for me. I used to worry about absolutely everything. Even when I would tell myself not to worry, I would worry. I knew Matthew 6:34 by heart, where Jesus says, "Do not worry about tomorrow for today has enough troubles of its own." I would chant that to myself - yet I would worry.

God really does not want us to worry. When a worry pops into your head, tell it to leave in the name of Jesus. Also, try shifting your thoughts.

You might be worrying about something and think, "What if it doesn't work?"
INSTEAD, try thinking, "What if it does!"

Also remember God really is your best friend. He wants to help you in EVERY decision. So even if it something small like trying to figure out what you should wear to work or when to go do your exercising for the day - just ask Him. I have found great peace when I just ask God about whatever is going on in my brain.  Just try it. Allow Him to close the door on worrying and release you from that prison!

I am Not How I Feel. I am How I Decide.

Do your emotions run haywire? Are you driven by feelings to do things you later regret?
God gave us emotions as a helper, but not to be our guide.
The Holy Spirit is our guide.
Just today, I found myself feeling fear and guilt over something that was really not worth feeling anything over. The emotions were so strong and did not make any sense to me. I stopped and prayed with power and told these feelings to go away in the name of Jesus.
Before I learned so much from God, emotions truly controlled my life. I was led to eating too much or feeling the need to escape through TV to get away from my uncomfortable emotions.
Now that I really understand who God says I am and how he wants me to be free from emotions that dictate my actions.
God wants you to understand when you have a strong feeling - it is just that. It is not wrong to feel mad or sad, but God does not want the emotions to dictate what you do. Rather, acknowledge the feeling. Pray to be rid of it if it is an uncomfortable feeling and then go on with your life.
You be the decision maker about what you do. Not your feelings.
Be intentional.  Seek the Holy Spirit if you are unsure about your next step, but don't rely on those unruly emotions.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------In this blog I have used material I learned at Wind and Fire Mission Base.

 Wind and Fire Mission Base, 3243 Wind and Fire Dr. Marion, IA 5230230

How to Be Grateful in 15 Minutes

Do you find yourself complaining? Thinking of what needs to be done and how you are possibly going to get it all done? Feeling overwhelmed by life?
I find it is difficult to remember gratitude at these times.
God wants us to enter each day with thanksgiving and praise in our hearts.
How does one get into this mindset? Why not begin with taking 15 minutes over your lunch break or before bed and writing down 25 things that are going well in your life. Then take that list and put it in your Bible to look at each day or perhaps post it on your frig.
Try thanking God for a couple of these things each day. Say, "I am content with where I am at and thankful for ______________." It's true, isn't it? I know it can be hard, but watch how your life changes with just this one simple change!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------In this blog I have used material I learned at Wind and Fire Mission Base.

 Wind and Fire Mission Base, 3243 Wind and Fire Dr. Marion, IA 5230230

Positive Thinking Only Diet

This is no ordinary diet. There are no food restrictions or specific rules to follow when it comes to eating. Rather this diet is a brain diet.
How positive is your thinking these days? How often do you have a negative thought about anything?
If you find you are having a constant steam of condemnation going around in your head, please read my post entitled "Getting Rid of Self-Condemnation Forever"
Now that condemnation is gone from your brain, how many other negative thoughts do you find yourself meditating on? For instance, what role does worry/fear play in your life? How often do you find yourself complaining? Doubting? Just feeling down-in-the-dumps?
God really wants to free you from this too! So why not go on a diet for your brain.

Steps to Positive Thinking Only Diet:

Your main goal is to make it one entire day without a negative thought. If you have a negative thought, you must begin again to make it 24 hours without one.

1. Pray and ask God to give you wisdom and discernment about when a thought is negative and not beneficial. Also ask for him to help you hold it captive and release it.

2. Begin your day. When a negative thought comes up in your head, notice it is there, then throw it out in the name of Jesus. Just having this thought come into your brain does not count. It is MEDITATING on the thought or PERSEVERATING on it that gives it power. This is where Satan can get a foothold into your life.

3. Replace the thought with a verse. It can be any verse. Or simply say the name of Jesus over and over until you are focused on something new.

4. Build stamina in holding every thought captive just as you do when you build endurance in exercise. It will be hard at first, but do not give up. God will give you freedom from negative thoughts.

5. Do not get discouraged. Whatever you do, do not allow condemnation or anything negative to come into your head when you are unable to hold a thought captive. This is hard. It takes practice. One woman took 6 months of doing this daily before she could make it through one whole day without negativity sneaking into her thoughts. Ask God to strengthen you! You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------In this blog I have used material I learned at Wind and Fire Mission Base.

 Wind and Fire Mission Base, 3243 Wind and Fire Dr. Marion, IA 5230230

3-7-21

Is there some habit you have that you would like to be rid of? Perhaps there is one you would like to establish?
First, I encourage you to pray and ask God about what you are wanting to change. See if it is in His plan for you to modify this.
I have learned that using the 3-7-21 method will help you as your work with God on changing.
Let's say you decide you will get up at the same time each day. First, try to do this for 3 days in a row, then 7, finally, for 21 days. 21 days makes a habit. Once you have done the new behavior (or stopped the old one) for 21 days you will have broken the pattern in your head.
Yea! Another piece of freedom for you!

Getting Rid of Self-Condemnation Forever!

Satan wants us to think we are unlovable.

I find that focusing on media such as TV, fashion magazines, and music videos puts a lot of images into my head that shows what one needs to look like to be loved -- according to the world. All the times you failed, all the things you did which you are ashamed of, how your body does not look how you think it should.

All of these negatives create a huge culture of self-condmenation. Do you condemn yourself continuously? Do you believe all the negatives you give yourself?

I did. Despite being a school counselor and telling kids daily to give themselves put ups not put downs, I was constantly barraging myself with negatives. About anything and everything.
I knew God wanted me to "hold every thought captive" and that He loved me, but I just totally believed all the gobbledegook going around in my head and was hopelessly unable to stop the nasty, negativeness that pervaded my brain.

How I got rid of that constant stream of self-condemnation:

These were the steps I took to get those negative comments to leave forever:
1. I understood and agreed with the idea that any words of condemnation ARE NOT FROM GOD. Remember "HE HAS NEVER HAD A BAD THOUGHT ABOUT YOU."
1. I prayed, asking God for discernment and wisdom to hear and identify any condemnation.
2. I prayed with power and might (don't be afraid to get loud when you pray like this. I find praying when I am alone in the car works really well). I told condemnation to leave me forever! I know that the Bible says there is "no condemnation in Christ." I told that condemnation to leave in the name of Jesus. I told condemnation I would no longer be listening to anything it had to say to me.
3. God gave me discernment to hear specific negative words or comments I was saying to myself. Whenever it happened I would take 1-2 minutes and pray aloud telling it to leave. I would no longer think about this, in the name of Jesus. God has forgiven me (if it was a sin) and I was certainly not going to allow any thought patterns or strong holds associated with this condemnation to continue, in the name of Jesus.
4. I would put myself back into that thought for a minute - purposely thinking about the situation that triggered the condemnation. I would ask myself, "How do you feel?" If I felt nothing, great! I was done. If I felt fear, sadness, anxiety, etc. I would identify the feelings and say a prayer like this, "Fear, sadness, worry associated with this negative thought you will leave NOW in the name of Jesus. You have no place here!" Now, think of the situation that triggered again, any negative emotions remaining? If there are, repeat this process until there are none and you feel absolutely nothing.
5. I worked on this process for about a week. Within a week there was no self-condemnation present in my head anymore. I mean, you know how people say they are thinking about nothing and they really have nothing going on in their head? That is the way it suddenly felt. Nothing. No negative comments, no self hatred, nothing. Wow! True freedom!

Just a few more thoughts on this process:
- You have to be willing to put effort into this. God wants you to have this freedom. But, you need to take the time (generally, 2-5 minutes will actually be enough time) to attack this problem head on each time a negative thought enters your head.
- When you are praying - pray aloud. Your words have power! You don't have to be loud when you pray. If a condemning thought popped into my brain and I was around others I would take a minute to use the restroom or walk to a quiet spot in room and whisper (still aloud) my prayer.
-Praise God as you are emotionally healed and freed from these words that have plagued you for years!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------In this blog I have used material I learned at Wind and Fire Mission Base.

 Wind and Fire Mission Base, 3243 Wind and Fire Dr. Marion, IA 5230230

Who Am I?

If you grew up attending public schools, you probably made one of those "Who Am I" or "I am Special" poster boards for a class project. Remember the parts of the poster that were supposed to demonstrate your worth? (Your likes, dislikes, talents, how many brothers or sisters you had, what you wanted to be when you grew up, etc).

With this philosophy, we are brought up to believe our worth is defined by what we do or what we like. It is no wonder that our self perception is so distorted by the time we get older.
I found that my primary identity came from what I did for a living. When people would ask me how I was doing, I would think about how my job or personal accomplishments in my life. It is interesting to look at that. Isn't the question, how are YOU? Not, what have you accomplished recently; how successful are you in your work or relationships; etc. If we are really engaging in meaningful relationships we should really want to know HOW the person is doing, not WHAT they are doing.

I learned recently that God is not focused on WHAT I DO, but WHO I AM.

God does not determine a person's value by looking at what they have done in life or by his/her good works.

Did you know that you are actually God's treasure? We are His treasured possession! (Exodus 19:5, Deuteronomy 7:6, Deuteronomy 14:2, Deuteronomy 26:18)

Walk in freedom - stop identifying yourself by what you do. Start embracing who God says you are. Start now. Watch this video from Casting Crowns.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------In this blog I have used material I learned at Wind and Fire Mission Base.

 Wind and Fire Mission Base, 3243 Wind and Fire Dr. Marion, IA 5230230

Is God Disappointed in You? Is God Punishing You?

I became a Christian as a teenager and grew up knowing Jesus loved me because "the Bible told me so." But, I didn't really think He could love me?  I mean, look at the sins I had committed. I knew that I was forgiven, but really didn't I deserve to be punished? 

Certainly I deserved to have daily migraines because I had really let God down. He was really disappointed in me, right??

It was not until last year, when I was told a life changing message --

GOD HAS NEVER HAD A BAD THOUGHT ABOUT YOU!

I mean, meditate on that statement. All the times you have put yourself down for not meeting man's standards about reading the Bible for such and such amount of time daily or whether or not you prayed hard enough for the people on your prayer list, etc. All of those times I thought God was disappointed in my lack of christianity. 

Just because you have bad thoughts about you or the devil puts negative ideas into your head about who you are, this is NOT what God is thinking about you. 

What does God think about you? Have you asked Him? Why not spend some time alone with God (I like being outside if I can be) and just ask him "What do you want to tell me about me, God?" Then, sit and wait - be still and silent before God. He will give you a word, phrase, vision, or dream. 

Also, look at the word of God. Did you know that He loves you with an everlasting love? ()Jeremiah 31:3). Think about that His love for your is unending. Now, begin to agree with that idea simply by saying it aloud and saying something like, "I agree with how God loves me with an everlasting love."

When a negative thought about yourself suddenly pops up into your head, stop and say, "Thought you leave in the name of Jesus. You are not true. You are not real. God has never had a bad thought about me. I agree with how He loves me forever."

Begin to walk in freedom and remember what God really thinks about you - agree with Him and find true joy!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------In this blog I have used material I learned at Wind and Fire Mission Base.

 Wind and Fire Mission Base, 3243 Wind and Fire Dr. Marion, IA 5230230