NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART!

Praise the Lord everybody! because He alone is worthy! I pray everyone is enjoying God's blessing. I am still in my Job phase it seems, still awaiting that period of refreshing that I know is coming. It has now been three weeks since I was last able to attend church service or go anywhere for that matter due to snow storms and sciatica pain. Add to that the fact that my wife and I have had trials in our finances and trials concerning our health that seem to have no end in sight.

God has been the constant in our lives as we strive to serve and obey Him as He pushes us to another level in Him. I also thank God for our Pastor, Johnnie Green and our church, First Church of Christ Holiness in Harlem N.Y.C.

David said in Psalm 73: 1-3   Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.

2 But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.

3 For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

Like David my feet had almost slipped, slipped off the "Rock" on which my feet were planted as I took my eyes off myself and what God was doing in me to look around at the "prosperity of the wicked." The enemy whispered in my ear "why strive to live Holy and suffer while the unholy prosper while serving no one but themselves? go ahead he said lie on those forms, you need that money, you know the system is not set up to help disabled married couples" I struggled for a moment, my heart wanted to faint and my flesh wanted to give up but then I remembered verses 26-28  26 My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.

27 For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee.

28 But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works. 

I felt like Job must have felt when God smacked him back to reality and said to him in Job 38,  3 "Gird up now thy loins like a man...," "This is not a walk for the faint of heart!" I could hear it reverberating through my spirit. So I began to "Gird up" with His word. Isaiah talks about a time such as this in chapter 40 verses 30-33 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Jonah said in chapter 2 verse 77 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.
I have remembered the Lord and His promises and His Deeds of old on my behalf and I grabbed hold of them and Pulled myself up to my feet with them. I then looked past the obstacles in my way and saw the finish line. I like the way Paul said it in
2nd Corinthians 4:15-17  15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;  

With my life girded about with the truth of God's word I will not be shaken!
Whenever this walk has you feeling "faint" Gird yourself and trust God.

            God bless you all, Brother Darrell, Speaking Off The Wall

THE BATHROOM DOESN'T LIE!!

Praise the Lord everybody! because He alone is worthy to be praised! I pray everyone is enjoying God's blessing. So far the year 2014 has had an up and down start. snow storms and very painful Sciatica have caused me to miss the last two weeks of Church and my back is progressing slowly. God is moving at First Church in a powerful way and I can feel it even here at home and I long to be apart of it. Because of our infirmities my wife and I try and spend a lot of time in prayer and meditation.

Jesus said in Matthew 6: 5-7   5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

In my home the "Prayer Closet" is the bathroom. We didn't choose it, God chose it. I always knew there was something special about the bathroom, things seemed so much clearer, problem solving so much easier and there was that still small voice that spoke to me there. Still I did not fully put it all together until my Wife moved in with me. One day she said to me "Wow! did you know your bathroom is anointed?" Confirmation! then it all made sense to me, the bathroom was the prayer closet! God was meeting us there.

Once I realized that still small voice of wisdom I'd been hearing in there was God and not me I began to listen more intently and was more obedient to what I was instructed to do. I began to trust that voice, to trust God. His voice always speaks truth and The results were immediate. I began to speak "what thus saith the Lord" without fear of consequences or rejection. Gods word says "My sheep know my voice and a stranger they will not follow" now when I hear that voice I listen and obey. I am His, a sheep in His pasture, I'm not saying I'm perfect but I am striving.

Find your prayer closet, commune with God and have an obedient spirit. Do these things and you can't go wrong. In my home we know the "Bathroom" never lies.
                 God bless you all, Brother Darrell, Speaking Off The Wall