SOME TIMES WITH GOD: MORE IS LESS!

praise the Lord everybody! because He alone is worthy to be praised! I pray every one of you is enjoying God's blessing. He blesses me every time I open my eyes in the morning and gives me one more day in the land of the living, and for that alone, He is worthy to be praised. Even though the weather and other circumstances such as my wife's surgery have kept me from attending church these last few months I thank God my wife's surgery went well and there was no cancer or nerve damage found. God is preparing us for something and I can't wait to see what it is He's going to do in our lives and our ministries.

Sometimes when you are pressing hard to be the man or woman of God you believe God wants you to be, as I do, sometimes and you find yourself missing and falling short of the mark, do you find yourself trying to make it up to God by promising to do even more things for Him like going out and handing out tracts or volunteering more of your time at the church's soup kitchen, or adding on two more fast days to your week, for extra credit on top of what God has already given you to do. Like when you were in College  So on top of the work God has ordained for you to do now you're adding your own stuff, your own burden when all God wants is for us to be obedient and do the job He has called us to do.

I find myself doing this all the time, trying to make amends for my own shortcomings, figuring if I add the burden of more good works God will overlook my shortcomings concerning the works He ordained for me to do. Now not only do I find myself carrying the load I was called to carry but now I have added a load I'm not even supposed to have. secondly, I have lied to myself saying I'm doing this to appease God when I'm really doing it to make myself feel better and more deserving of God's forgiveness, and all the time God is saying "I ain't mad at ya!" He knows your heart and He knows who is worshiping in spirit and in truth.

While all this is going on God is standing there shaking His head. In Matthew 11: 28-30 He says   28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

He has called all who are burdened down by sin not to add to their burdens but to get to know him and take up His yoke because it is easy to follow and His burden is light, the "light" of the world which we are all ordained to carry everywhere we go, even unto the ends of the earth. When we fall short we must not punish ourselves by adding burdens out of guilt but we must get up confess our sin and continue in the race. God will chastise whom He will chastise and He chastises those that He loves. Even His chastisement is perfect leading to His will for us being fulfilled. We make shipwreck of our faith when we try to choose what we think our discipline should be when God can see our beginning and our end and only He knows what is best for us.

So I've decided to focus on what God wants me to be focused on and stop trying to get extra credit. You can't brown nose God.

                God Bless You All, Brother Darrell, Speaking Off The Wall

LET THIS MIND BE IN YOU!!

Praise be to God! The Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end and the author and finisher of our faith! I pray every one of you are enjoying God's blessing. I thank Him for His grace and His tender mercies which are new every morning. I thank God for my wife's recent surgery going without a hitch last week. I thank God for the help He sent us with those errands and chores that have become to difficult for my wife and I to do. I'm just sorry we could not make it to the revival last week due to the weather and my wife's recovery. we may not have been there in body but we were there in spirit and a revival has begun in our hearts and minds.

In the war for our souls our minds are the "Hamburger Hill" of the battlefield. Whoever controls that hill is well on their way to winning the war. The enemy is constantly trying to take the Hill and sometimes he succeeds only to lose  it back as our faith regroups. Then the enemy takes it back again as soon as our feelings change and our faith is tested again and back and fourth we go. The word of God gives us instructions on how not to keep letting the enemy regain control of our minds.
Philippians 2: 3-8 states
             3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

4 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

First of all the word says "let this mind..." meaning God is not looking for robots. We as believers have to make a conscious effort to allow our thoughts to become His thoughts. the Bible talks about us taking our every thought captive and making them obedient to Christ(2nd Corinthians 10:5)
and once we have attained this we will be able to humble our selves and become obedient just as Christ became obedient for us. Jesus was able to shrug off what most of us find almost impossible to do. He shrugged off His power, His authority and His place in line to the throne to become a man and die a horrible death and be buried in borrowed grave forsaken by the one He loved the most, His father. to put it in perspective how many of us would step down from being the billionaire CEO of Microsoft, leave EVERYTHING behind and move to the inner city to teach "bad" kids at a public school knowing that you will then be murdered by unhappy parents.                                                     
Apostle Paul talked about the renewing of the mind in Romans 12: 1-3      I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

The word of God states that "If any man be in Christ he is a new creature, old things have passed away, behold all things have become new."(2nd Corinthians 5:17) This is true but our minds must be renewed and filled with His word to the point that the enemy has no place to gain a foothold.

So brothers and sisters let us allow God's word to scrub our minds clean and fill every nook and cranny so that we wont have to let this mind be in us that was also in Christ Jesus because it will be already there.
                          God Bless you All, Brother Darrell, Speaking Off The Wall

HALT AND CATCH FIRE!!

Praise the Lord everybody! Because He alone is worthy to be praised! I pray you are all enjoying God's blessing. The weather here in New York has kept me pretty much home bound this month so far. But my wife and I are looking forward to the coming Revival at our church, First Church Of Christ Holiness USA, from Feb. 25th through the 27th. I know God has something special planned for us. Feel free to come and worship with us at 1935 Madison Ave. between 124th and 125th streets in Harlem.

There was a T.V. show last year on cable called "Halt and Catch Fire" about the emergence of the personal computer, kind of nerdy but I enjoyed it. As I sat down to write this the title of that show kept flashing in my mind until I realized that is what God wanted ME to do. "Halt and Catch Fire", It is time for me to stop doing what I have always done and like Skittles says "catch the Rainbow" God is saying "it's time to catch that Holy Ghost Fire!" I need to burn like the "burning bush" of Moses so that others will see and want to know how they can "get some of that". Matthew 5:14-16 states  

 14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

There are two ways that I know of to create light. One is by electricity, by flipping a switch and the other is by starting a fire. Starting a fire requires some flammable material and a spark. I want the fire of the Holy Ghost to be the spark that sets ablaze all the dark, dry places in me that have accumulated over the years. I want it to burn out all the impurities that have dimmed my light. The word of God says in John 1:1-9    1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 The same was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

Verse nine lets us know that God puts a little bit of His light in all of us when we come into this world, and it is our job to make it brighter and brighter or let it get snuffed out by the cares of this world. I am tired of my Bonn fire looking like a girl scout camp fire! I want there to be no doubt Who's I am and Whom I serve. There is a fire shut up in my bones that wants to come out and make me a Holy Ghost flame thrower. Not to hurt people but for them to see the light of Jesus shine through me brightly while burning away the fog and smoke of sin and the world.

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

"LIVING JUST ENOUGH..."

Praise the Lord everybody!! because He alone is worthy to be praised. All glory and honor and praise belongs to him! I pray everyone is enjoying God's blessing. This is my struggle every day, to live my life in a way in which I can accept God's blessings and not feel ashamed. At the same time I hope I never reach the point where I feel worthy of these blessings He has bestowed upon me. time and time again God has delivered me from snares I put myself in, even before I knew Him, He knew me.

I have often heard myself as well as other Christians when asked "how you doing?" reply "I'm holding on." or "I"m living everything I know how." The other day God began to deal with me about those answers. Was I really living everything I knew how? or was I just holding on? Like the song writer once wrote "living just enough, just enough for the city" Just enough to be noticed by people but not enough to be noticed by God. For those of us who claim to have studied and shown ourselves approved, rightly dividing the word of God, living all we know how is a very strong statement. Apostle Paul a man of God who I am pretty sure was trying to live everything he knew how said in Philippians 3:12-15 12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

Paul never said "I'm living everything I know how to live." He knew there is always a "higher calling" to attain in Christ, an open invitation to "come up a little higher" in Him as he leads us from victory to victory. Paul knew that prize he was pressing toward was waiting for him at the finish of the race. No Paul never said "I'm living everything I know how to live." but he never said "I'm holding on" either. Paul knew that just "holding on" was not enough.

I have said it myself many times, "I'm holding on" when I was asked how I was doing. It sounded good to me, mature, something the old time saints would say. Then I realized God did not call us to just hold on. He called us to press on. Then God brought that Stevie Wonder song back to me where the chorus says "living just enough, just enough for the city" and that is just what a lot of Church folks are doing, living just enough Jesus to appear holy and be noticed by men but God is going to say "depart from me I never knew you." We cannot allow ourselves to be satisfied with just appearing holy. We have to run this race like we want to finish it, as Paul states in 1st Corinthians 9:24+25  24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.

25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.  

So from now on when somebody asks me "how're you doing" I'm going to think about where I am and where I need to be in Christ before I give a thoughtless answer. Just to remind myself I have not reached perfection yet and I'll never get there by "living just enough..."

Hebrews 12:4 states   4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT.

                           God Bless You All, Brother Darrell, Speaking Off The Wall

CONSECRATING OR JUST KILLING TIME?

Praise the Lord, everybody, because He alone is worthy to be praised! As always I pray everyone is enjoying God's blessing! What can I say but God has been good to me, and His mercies and His Grace are new every morning. The year 2015, the year of higher heights and deeper depths in Christ and already I have received a "D" on my first report card from the Lord.

Every week I set aside a personal day of consecration to the Lord, a day of fasting, prayer and quality time before the Lord. The other night after one of those consecrations I was lying in bed reviewing the day when I heard the spirit of the Lord ask "were you consecrating or just killing time?" Immediately I was convicted because I knew the answer was "killing time" especially the last two weeks. I have said this before and I'll say it again it is so easy to slide from true worship into an empty religious ceremony.

It all starts with what time I get up on those mornings. Recently I found myself getting up later and later, finding every excuse I could because the later I got up the less time I had to spend denying myself that day. It was subconscious but it was there. It is the beginning of a spiritual disconnect with God. God says in His word,  Matthew 15:7+8    7 Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,

8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

It's a wonderful thing being in God's presence, spending quality time communing with Him in fasting, worship and prayer just because you love Him but at times I find myself reluctantly calling myself into a consecration only because I need God to do something for me and I know this is a way to get His attention. What good is it though to get God's attention and then end up getting rebuked by Him?

Just as God is a jealous God our flesh is jealous also, but not in a loving way. Our flesh demands all our attention and needs to be fed all the time and it doesn't seem to want anything good, anything that would be edifying to the body. This is why we must deny our flesh(ourselves) so that the spirit of God within us can thrive. But talking about it does not equal getting it done. Just because I scheduled a consecration does not mean I achieved it. Clock watching and rushing through prayer and scripture does not equal quality time with the Lord. God is saying it's time to wake up and smell the coffee or at least drink some coffee, "WAKE UP!! Brother Darrell, this is the time of the great awakening ."

Jesus spoke it in John 4: 23-24  23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

There is no flesh in true worship, you can't bring your flesh when you want to spend quality time before the Lord. God chastens those He loves according to His word so even though it stings I'm going to take this "love tap" and learn from it, and I pray if any of you out there are experiencing the same thing will do the same.

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

DEFEND YOURSELF AT ALL TIMES: THE WAR AIN'T OVER TILL IT'S OVER!!

Praise the Lord everybody! Because He alone is worthy to be praised!! I pray everyone is enjoying God's blessing. I must say that this year is starting off with high hopes and aspirations concerning my service for the Lord. I'm pushing sixty and my time is in the latter house and in order for the latter house to be greater than the former house I must get to that place in Him, that "Cleft In The Rock" where God wants me to be.

there is one thing I do know and that is that there is a war going on and I'm on the front line fighting "the good fight of faith" that Paul talks about in First Timothy 6: 11-12  11 But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.

12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. 

I said this to a Christian friend of mine the other day and his reply shook me up a bit. His reply was kind of sarcastic "you do know we win in the end don't you?" he might have been joking but to me there was nothing funny about it. Too many believers in the body of Christ have this laid back, the battle is over why should I keep fighting, It's all good attitude that is weakening the Church. Instead of remaining alert/vigilant and sober minded as Paul suggested in First Peter 5:8     8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour
A great baseball player once said after an improbable come from behind victory that "It ain't over till it's over", and that is just what the devil is saying right now, he is not going down without a fight and he doesn't want to go down alone. I'm not saying we have to walk in fear or defeat. God wants us to walk in victory, see 2 Corinthians 2: 14+15  14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15 For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing

Even in a prize fight the referee tells each fighter to "defend yourself at all times!" because when a fighter is losing he tends to get desperate and turns to dirty tactics and we all know the devil is the father of lies and "dirty tactics". So even though we know the ultimate outcome of the fight as far as the body of Christ is concerned we still have our own personal battles to be prepared for. That is why Paul said we must put on the full armour of God daily, (see Ephesians 6: 11-18) Not to look good but to be able to stand and fight off the attacks of our enemy the devil so that we can enter into God's rest along with all the others who have fought the good fight of faith to their end.

Don't get sucker punched by the enemy, defend yourself at all times. In the end we may have the victory but let us live as if we want to make it to the end.

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

IN THE CLEFT OF THE ROCK

Praise the Lord everybody! Let everything that Have breath praise ye the Lord!! I pray everyone is enjoying God's blessing. I am truly looking forward to this new year and if God spare my life I'm expecting great things from Him. In my last blog post I laid out my hopes and desires for the coming year and that plan basically is to do whatever He tells me to do. God has tasked me with some assignments for the coming year and by His grace I intend to carry them out. I've been very close to some mighty big blessings over the years, then I would self destruct and miss out on a long awaited blessing that came so close I could taste it. Not this year, this year I want to feel Him all over me like I used to. This year I'm not asking for a little more Jesus, I'm giving Jesus more of me. In other words all of me.

A little over a week ago as I was meditating during my weekly consecration I told God these things and He brought to mind the following scripture and at first I did not get the connection, Exodus 33: 18-23  .18 And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.

19 And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.

20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.

21 And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock:

22 And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:

23 And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.
After awhile I realized God was letting me know that if I desired to get to where I wanted to be in Him,  that there was a place near to Him from which I could see His glory at work in my Life. A safe place where I would stand upon a rock, a rock Named Jesus and God would put me in a place in that rock, a cleft, a hiding place where I could stand and watch God work in my life.

Many times we who name Christ Jesus as our Lord and savior want to see God's full glory pass through our lives but we do not want to get in the place that God wants to put us so that we can watch him work for us and in us in His fullness. we have to get in a cleft of the rock. A cleft is a crack, a crevice, a split in the rock, a small place with just enough room for you to stand with no room for a lot of movement. To many of us want to move around trying to handle our own business along with our friends business instead of doing what God wants us to do "stand still and watch me work". Getting to these clefts is no easy task, it requires much dedication to prayer and fasting, denying oneself in order to experience God's fullness in our lives. When I was younger it was easier to reach those clefts but as I got older it became harder.

I'm tired of saying and singing "God is my all and all" I want Him to BE my All and All. I want to again abide in the cleft of the Rock, how about you?

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


           Psalm 91 King James Version (KJV)

91 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

2 I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.

3 Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.

4 He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

5 Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;

6 Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.

7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.

8 Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.

9 Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;

10 There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.

11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

12 They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

13 Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.

14 Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.

15 He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.

16 With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

King James Version (KJV)