NO PIGS ALLOWED

                                                           

"Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces."Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Matthew 7:6-8 (NIV)

Men are always saying that women don’t know what they want, but the truth is we may sometimes not know exactly what we want, but we do know what we don’t want. That is an absolute fact. If we say we want someone who loves God, we don’t mean that we want someone who believes in God, but someone who has a relationship with God. There is a difference. In this day and age there is a lot of I don't believe in organized religion, I don't go to church, but I believe in God and some parts of the bible. Exclude the parts where I have to live right.  It’s a big red-flag when the first thing a man says when you get on the topic of church background, beliefs, etc. is that he believes in God and that is pretty much the circumference of his position on the matter….umm, most Godly women are going to shut down at that point, smile for the remainder of the conversation and will not be taking any more calls from you. That’s just real right there. But I didn't stop by to talk about that today, I just wanted to put that out there.

Most of us, however, do have this list whether in our heads, in our hearts, or written down on paper that we would like God to hook us up with.  The reality is though that most women of God just really want someone who gets them, will love them, treat them with respect, and take care of them. I don’t doubt that some physical attraction needs to be thrown in there as well; after all, nobody wants to wake up every day to someone who just does not give you goose bumps every time you look at them and makes your heart smile.

Women of God we have been told so often that since our options are fewer that we should take what we can get, but fortunately for us, God never said that. It’s our girlfriends, sisters, kinfolk, etc who are telling us these things. But the Lord said, ask and it SHALL be given unto you and he said SEEK and ye SHALL find, and knock and the door SHALL be opened unto you. Now, what is God talking about here? Let’s go back to verse 6, so we can interpret it correctly. In verse 6, it says, “Do not give dogs what is sacred, do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.  So, to interpret verse 7 we must understand that the Lord is telling us that there is something special about who we are and because of that we have to be careful about our value being compromised.  Don't give what is valuable away to someone who is not worthy of receiving such a gift. The Lord is instructing us not to settle for foolishness or something that is under our value. 

When we settle for things under our value it does not know or understand the value of what it has. So, instead of treating it like a treasure it treats it like something that is valueless. Pigs do not value anything thrown into the pen; they just devour it, lay in it, and trample it. That’s what people do who don’t understand the woman of God you are. They do not have the grace to love and honor you for the treasure that you are. This is why the Lord said, “Do not throw your wonderfulness to something that isn't worthy of who you are”.  So, instead of giving yourself to foolishness, he says to ask, seek, and knock in verse 7.

God wants to give us our hearts desire. If we "would learn to" delight ourselves in him, he will give us the desires of our heart (Ps 37:4). If it was not his desire to give us our heart’s desire, then he would not have told us to ask and he would not have said to delight ourselves in him and he would.  Why would God tell us to ask only to deny us our hearts desire? Matthew 7:8 says “for everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened”.  So, he (God) is not in the business of only blessing a select few. He does not only bless those who sit in the high places. He is not only blessing those who have mega churches and ministries, but he said to everyone who asks receives. I think we can safely say we are included in the everyone. God wants to bless you and give you your wants and desires.

Mark 11:22-24 “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

 He does not want you to settle for what even the dogs reject. He said, “Whatever” you ask. Not, just cars, houses, clothes, stuff, but whatever you want. He said to ask. You do not have to settle for something or someone less than who God has for you and who your heart desires. He said you can command the mountain to come down and it will. He’s given you authority to speak and declare things in your life. What are you waiting for? If you can believe that all things are possible and you will ask him and believe that you receive it, then you CAN have it. Now, just because it doesn't come the week after next doesn't mean that God didn't hear you or that he’s withholding it from you. It just means that the “whatever” is being processed for his daughter.

Now, the Lord is not in the business of snatching somebody else’ man just to give him to you, but there are some marriages that God didn't put together, so your wait just may be because God is busting up some foolishness that he allowed. To fulfill somebody's purpose and destiny he is closing the door on some relationships that should never have been. He is shutting down some stuff right now and people are just walking away because God didn't ordain some of this stuff. You don’t even understand why you waiting so long, but God is doing something and up to something. God wants to give you the one that your heart is craving for. Someone who is going to love and treat you like the woman of God that you are and do you good all the days of your life.

So many times we cast our pearls before the swine because we feel our choices are limited. But the fact of the matter is there is only one option for you, so the choices’ being limited does not matter. We are not looking for a large playing field we are only looking for the one that is designated just for us. With so many single women available in the church, I feel, it creates more confusion for a man, prolongs his ability to focus his heart and mind on one woman and keeps him single longer. Too many options limit you more than fewer options.   It really shows us early on when a man can’t focus specifically on you and make you a priority then he is not the one for you. That’s what too many choices do. I can safely say that as a single woman having been asked out to dinner on a continuous basis that too many options are far worse than fewer options. The devil will have you dazed and confused and everybody wants to tell a good woman she’s their wife. Saying no thank you has become my mantra, amen. 

What I want you to gain from this post is that God wants to fulfill your heart’s desire. He wants you to have what you want. He does not want you to accept something or someone who does not have the capacity or grace to treat you in the manner that you as a daughter of Zion are entitled to be treated. Nor, do you have to accept someone who clearly does not line up with who you are, where you’re going, and what you represent. It is not the will of God for us to be matched up with someone who does not have the belief system, values, and standard we do. I have been through so much myself that I’m just in a place where I’m happy and satisfied in God just where I am. My worship is fulfilling. May prayer life is fulfilling and because my soul is satisfied I don’t live in lack emotionally. In other words, God is taking care of me emotionally so that I’m not needy and desperate for attention from people. When you can come to that place then you stop making bad choices about who you allow in your space. You then also are able to be less receptive of those who do not add value to you and you become unwilling to compromise who you are.

Adopting a motto of “no pigs allowed” will benefit you greatly in your walk. When you let pigs in your space they have no respect for you or your stuff, they just tear things up.  If you've ever been to a farm and look into a pig pen, I promise you that it is not a pretty sight. It’s not clean, tidy, or a good place. Pigs are omnivores, meaning they will eat anything. If you fall into a pen, a pig doesn't care that you’re pretty, precious, or wonderful. It will tear you to shreds and eat you up. That’s what pigs do. They look harmless and some would say cute. But there’s nothing cute about an omnivore when it’s hungry. It’s going to destroy and eat whatever is in its path. Don’t allow pigs in your space, they don’t respect anyone or anything and don’t have the capacity to give you what you need. A pig is only looking for where it's next meal is coming from and is not bringing anything to the table. A pig is a taker not a giver. It always has its mouth open wanting more. Its glutenous and carrying around a bunch of baggage. A pig is not who you are or what you want.

I'm going to close for now, I could go on talking about a pig, but I believe we have gained some sort of understanding today. God bless you beloveds, I pray you received something that will help you today. Have a blessed rest of the week!

COUNTERFEIT OR NOT?

The closer we get to God the easier becomes to detect a counterfeit. The problem with most of us today is our prayer life is off so our demon detector is not fully engaged. In other words, we hit and miss. We pick up some things but we miss many. We end up being connected to folks that have business being in our space because we have moved away from being in God’s face and settled for being in somebody else face.

We get so caught up in the wrong things. You know, I never did too much dating before I got married way back in the day. In the Pentecostal church they encouraged us to get married. So, at a young age before I fully knew who I was naturally or spiritually I got married. I never dated much in high school either.  Now that I’m a mature woman and find myself single again I’ve learned quite a bit about myself, about dating, and about life. One of the most important things that I’ve learned as a single woman of God is that I have a decision about what I choose to do and with whom I choose to allow into my life.  It is a privilege for them for me to allow them into my space. There is nobody that is wonderful, so fine, and so magnificent that I would be willing to overlook who I am, what God has invested in me, and my purpose so that I can have a fleeting moment of foolishness.

You see, once I got over the initial I can’t believe I’m by myself and then the insecurity of being a middle-aged woman who is single, I began to realize how fearfully and wonderfully the Lord has made me and how valuable I am. When you realize how valuable you are you walk with a different kind of swag and people are drawn not only to your outer beauty but your inner confidence. It’s more than just a state of mind but it’s security in knowing that you got it and you are not looking for someone else to validate that point. You do not need to argue that point because it is evident in who you are and how you carry yourself.

I’ve seen myself be many people in this journey because when we are propelled into a new place you have to eventually find a good spot to land in or we will forever view ourselves as the victim who was hurt by the last guy. Don’t get me wrong we have every right to feel the sting of the last hurt, but we do not need to live in it. It does, however, take time for us to fully recover from the wounds that ripped our hearts into pieces. Do not fool yourself into thinking that you can come out over night. That does not happen, no matter how much you pray. Sometimes, while you’re going through the recovery process you find it difficult to even pray because you cannot seem to understand how God could allow you to go through such hurt and not fore-warn you. So, while we’re going through the recovery we may cry, blame, we may even be numb, resistant, and sometimes pretend like it’s not affecting you at all. But it does affect us. It affects our ability to minister, our anointing, our relationships, and our personalities.

It is because we not take the time to really review what’s in us and allow time to let God heal us until we find ourselves back in that deep place in prayer that was our safety net that we end up looking into the face of a counterfeit. A counterfeit is a cheap imitation of the real thing. It is not authentic, but it looks very much like the real thing. Often, we are staring into the face of a counterfeit because we did not allow ourselves to be fully processed resulting in trying to pray on top of hurt instead of being delivered from it. When we do not triumph over our infirmities our infirmities speak back to us through our circumstances and life. We are looking at our hurt through the people we connect with. In a million years we would not connect with some of the people we find ourselves connected to in our wounded state. But when we try to put a bandage on top of an open wound instead of getting it stitched up that’s exactly what will happen to us. We end up looking into the face of our hurt, abandonment, torment, and affliction in the connections we make.

A counterfeit will make you believe that God sent them and tell you that you are their good thing. But, of course, you are a good thing, but you’re not theirs. But because you are walking in a state of confusion and are not fully covered with your armor you are susceptible to the ole’ okey dokey. Bam, there you go right in the middle of the devil’s cesspool of foolishness. We’ve all been there and done that. Fell right into the trap and then wondered why or how we, us, the anointed prophet, pastor, evangelist, preacher, teacher, deaconess could have gotten so far off track and miss that devil that was staring us right in the face. But when we listen to our hurt instead of God we find ourselves in precarious positions. We find ourselves out of place. We find ourselves struggling to figure out how we allowed the enemy to pull us out of place.

The word tells us to draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to us (James 4:8). Get out of yourself and your feelings and get on your face. While you waiting on God, he’s waiting on you to really get your heart back into prayer and get out of your feelings. Then it says to wash your hands and purify your hearts. So, you fell down, you missed it. Get up, get yourself together and lie before God and slap the devil back by worshipping God till your spirit is renewed, till your mind is clear, till your wounds are healed, and till your pain is gone. Like the old folks use to say I looked at my hands and they looked new, I looked at my feet and they did too! Stay there until your change comes. Till one day you get up and you realize you really are healed.  Wait for the time and season you can see with clarity and hear God tell you no and keep it moving. When you know your hurt is talking to, don’t try to date.  When you know your hurt is dictating your movements and thought patterns, don’t bring people into your space. Your hurt will draw what you don’t need and attach to you and keep you tied up in stuff you don’t need to be in.

If you’re in a place that you have to question God every time you meet somebody if he’s the one, then you’re not ready. God will show you just as plain as the nose on your face that he is or is NOT the one even if we are not trying to hear it. He still shows us. If you are not in a place where you can hear or even willing to listen then you’re not healed yet and it would behoove you to wait until you are.

Beloved believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God (I Jn 4:1a). Vulnerability is like an open wound and it puts us at a point of disadvantage. When your wound is open don't allow poison to come into your space and infect your spirit, cloud your judgement, and speak death to your purpose. Stay blessed!!