What do you need?

                            What do you need?

There is no real reason for asking this question, but do you ever really think about your needs? Not what the kids need, not what your parents told you you need, or definitely not what your spouse say you need! That could get a little crazy in the heat of an argument, you might be told you need a shrink, a doctor or your momma depending on whose yelling. Anyway, back to the subject.
What does a basic human being need, air, water, food, money, love, a warm place to sleep? We need all those things to survive, but what do you need to live?
I really can't answer that for you, but for most of us, we need human contact, face-to-face interactions. Some may say that I enjoy being alone, but then to much of that will kill you, literally. As I ponder on the things I need, it's pretty basic. As an extrovert, we thrive and survive on friends, relationships, and the energy of others. So having all your basic needs met, what do you need to not just survive in your environment, but to really thrive?

Who Am I ...Now

Who Am I …..Now?

As women, we go through different seasons. Not only childhood, young adult, Adult, mother, wife, friend and the list goes on and on. But when we finally get to Adulthood, there are so many facets of being a woman. So, now I am going to talk about a season that maybe we aren't prepared for. With all the books and TV shows, no one really tells you how to maneuver when you enter a season of…. Who Am I ….Now? I am going to tell you what this season is for me. Newly married to my first/only husband for the second time, moved to a city I had never really heard of. No friends, no job and back in a relationship that I had left years before. So, who am I…now? Many of us ask that same question when, you finish school with a degree and can't find work. You are newly saved and you are not sure how to, who to or what to do, who am I…now? You got married to that man and now he is gone! He left you after you stood in front of people in a ceremony with five or five hundred and said together forever, you meant it. You are now a single mother, no where to go, no one there when you cry yourself to sleep, who am I…now. You are now finally clean & sober. It has taken you so long to finally be free of that life. You have accepted Christ in your life. Where do you go, what do you do? Who am I ...now.  You have just left the doctor's office, and yours hands are still shaking, you feel numb and disbelief have filled your heart. I really never thought it would happen to me. Maybe you have not experienced any of these scenarios, maybe you are one of the lucky ones that have gone through this life without walking through a difficult season, God Bless you. Most of us are not that lucky. 

Well, Who Am I…Now? You are the same person you have always been. You are the same person that God put you on this earth to be. And now for the bible scripture, and you really don't want to hear this, but here it is just the same. James 1:2  Count it ALL Joy! There I said it!! Count it all Joy when you are faced with trials of many kinds, when the season you have fallen into is lonely, hard, dark and you can't see how you are going to make it. 

Okay lets start with Count..this word is not always about numbers. It also means to consider,

 to be in consideration of.

 Then the next word, IT. IT means the hardship, the dark place, the thing that stays on your mind.

 And what does All mean? All means All and that's All that All means! ( I heard that somewhere) 

All encompasses the sum of everything, it includes the whole of ones energy, the quantity of a particular thing.

But the word JOY is what you need to get here.
So my sisters, my friends and those yet to be my friends!
Forget looking for Happiness, happiness is temporary!
Our Joy is a permanent condition, Stay strong

The Next 60 Days

I am going to be diverting from Joseph for awhile. I want to chronicle something that I believe is going to be happening in the next 60 days. I can track some of my seasons, and in doing this, I can feel when something is going to change. I have been talking about Joseph for a couple of months now. But now I want to share a little bit of my heart.
May 30, 2008 I clocked out of Mercedes Benz and man that was such a turning point in my life. I had prayed, and prayed for so long for God to release me from that job. I would drive to work at 5:00am five days, sometimes six or seven days (overtime), and sit in the parking lot and cry and pray that one day God would get me out of that job. He finally did, I clocked out and never went back. That was seven(7) years ago. During that time, God has done major surgery on me. But the biggest tumor he removed was pride. He had to break me in order to build me back up. I have been homeless, I have not had a car since 2009, we have been broke and at times hopeless. But God! He made me depend solely on him, he literally became my Jehovah Jirah. He has provided a roof over our head, we've almost always had food, not always what we wanted, but what we needed. He has taken care of our every need and a few of our wants. But now, that season is coming to an end. In Job, he talks about waiting until your change comes. Our change is coming. On May 30, 2015 will be seven years from the time this journey started, and I believe in the seven year jubilation. I believe that 7 years things become new. So this is my countdown to my year of completion, my seven years of coming into what God has for us. I have the hope that God has some AMAZING things for us. I am excited to see all God has in store for us.

Is your Dream/Vision too BIG for you?

If you have been a Christian or in church a while, you know that God has big plans for his people. He tells us that in Jeremiah, I know the plans I have for you. But there is also a scripture in Proverbs that tells us that God will give you the desires of your heart. Hmmm! So are these two scriptures aligned? What are the desires of your heart? And what plans has God have for you?
When Joseph had his dreams, I am positive that he didn't conjure up his dreams. He didn't lay in bed at night and say, Lord, put these dreams in my head. Joseph didn't have a clue about Gods will for his life. Have you ever thought about this. Dreams started Joseph's Journey, Joseph's Dreams got him to his Destination. Joseph interpreted the Bakers/Butlers dreams. Then when it really mattered, he interpreted Pharoah's dreams, which led to his being the most powerful man, next to Pharoah. So dreams were apart of his journey all along. So what is God giving you in your dreams? What vision has God placed in your heart. I believe that God does give us the desires of our heart, but he also aligns those dreams/visions with his plan. For example, you have no desire to be a missionary in another country. You don't like to travel, you really have no desire to sleep in a third world country, and you have a fear of catching a sickness/disease. Well, along your journey, God will put things in your path, he will give you a passion to serve. He will place pictures and people in your path that will soften your heart until one day you wake up and you have a passion, a purpose and a plan on how you, you can affect people in a third world nation. I call this the "Great Exchange". It happens to me all the time. I also believe God is patient enough for us to mature in areas, so when you have that desire, it's like it was there all along. When I was married, there where times when things were not going great in the marriage. So we would stay locked up in a room so we could renegotiate the contract. We needed to get back on the same page. I believe God waits for us to be ready for re-negotiations. The vision I have for my life is sooooo big, that I wonder sometimes if it's to big for me? I know it's not to big for God, he has placed things in my path, on my journey that when it finally manifests, will it be too much for me? Then at that time, will I wish to be back here when my life was simple, unassuming and easy. Am I ready to command nations, am I ready to minister to very large groups of people? Can I handle having a Billion dollar organization? I know, right! That was spoken to me directly from God as I walked out of church about ten years ago. Am I ready? Are you ready for your assignment, your calling, your vision to come to pass? Only God knows that answer, but was Joseph ready?

Whose Power are you using?

Whose Power are you using?

My Journey is about the Journey. Learning, trying to understand and compare the journeys of the people in the bible to our journey today. My past blogs have been about being ready for what God is calling you to. Where is your journey taking you? Are you starting a ministry, growing a family, becoming a missionary to the outer parts of the world or maybe your journey is healing from a illness. So how do you know when your journey will come to the destination? What is your destination and how does that look to you? A few weeks ago I wrote about being ready for the destination. Being ready for the surplus of money coming your way, being ready for the ministry God has for you to have, or maybe the fame and success of writing a best selling book. So my question was, "Are You Ready"? 

This week I was given several challenges that made me think I wasn't quite ready for what God needs to do in me. On Monday, I was faced with something that made me lose my temper. After that incident, I was angry the rest of the day. On Tuesday, I was informed of two of my relatives being shot by someone trying to take something that legally belongs to our family. Then on the same phone call I was told that another relative was having open heart surgery. On Wednesday, I over exerted my body and I was in a great deal of pain the whole day. On Thursday, a very large payment was coming out of my account and found out the bank had closed the account.  

When we reach the place God is calling for us to conquer,  the enemy will throw all kinds of darts at you like baseballs in a batting cage. You won't be able to  handle all the things you will go through, but you are going to have to use Gods power, Gods strength, not your own. What the events of this week taught me was, I need to use the strength God gave me to fight the fight the enemy will have for me. This was a "Sample" week. Letting me know what areas I am weak (week) in. So when that first ball was launched, check your armor! Grab the sword, and stand firm in the word. You may get knocked down, but several things will happen. You will have the word to help you get back up, you will know what areas you need covered with added protection, either patience, forgiveness, gratitude or my favorite, Love! You may still be on the journey, but you now know what you need to strengthen in your arsenal. Learn to  

"Love the Journey"!!

I'm ready Lord, really, I'm ready!

How many times do we say these words to God? How often do we make up in our minds that we have the right to tell God, the maker of the universe, the one who formed us from dust that we are ready to do, be and have all, all that he has for us? I often look at T.D. Jakes and Joel Osteen on TV. It really doesn't matter when I look at them, they always say something that I had been thinking about. They seem to always be on the same page I'm on. Why is that, why is there always some form of confirmation for me? Today, Jakes said something that only God could have known that was in my heart. Something I have been praying for for years. It also happened with Osteen, he said some things that had me yelling at the ceiling, saying Lord, when, when are you going to do that. I'm ready. I really am ready. But I'm really not ready. Right now know one knows who I am, know one is calling me asking me to do this or that. I truly believe that once your number is called, once God puts you in the front of the line, once people know you are highly favored, you have this anointing, you are chosen by God to do this certain task, your life in obscurity is over. Your privacy rights have been forfeited and your name is out there. So are you ready for that?
So what do you do when you know what your purpose is? How do you keep silent when you know who God is putting on your team and you know they aren't ready. How do remain silent when your passion is being fulfilled in the heavens, but it hasn't been ordered on earth yet? How do you keep quiet? My days are lonely, my nights are spent just bidding my time until the Lord gives the okay signal and everything in my life is going to shift. The money will be in the account, the team will be assembled, the ministry will be formed and the Nations will be alerted! But until that time, until everyone is in their place, healed and whole, delivered and set free. I know their names, I know what they are going through. God has shown me what he wants them to do. Until all the pieces of this huge puzzle is connected, I will just watch and wait. I will continue to pray and say, not my will Lord, but yours. And just like Job, I will wait until my change comes. Because as much as I think I am ready, I know that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, what God has prepared for those that love him and are called for HIS purpose, not mine. I'm only ready when God says I AM (alfanette mays) is ready!

Developing Patience in Prison

How often do we get a glimpse of what God is doing in our lives and we think I can help him and we take off. God shows you a small piece of the puzzle and you think you know the whole picture so you take it upon yourself to put the pieces together. God only shows you a glimpse so it will sustain you while you are waiting. It's like going into the Dr. office and while you are waiting in the waiting room the TV is on. You start watching the show because it distracts you from waiting in silence. I believe that's what God does for us. But we get that piece and man we take off trying to make that small piece to work. We call our friends, we post on Facebook and here we go running ahead of God. Then when things don't work, we look crazy at God and say WTH God, what happen? God trusts you with a glimpse, you have to trust him with the rest. He really does know what he is doing. He's had a lot of practice not just in your life but he knows how to get you where he has for you to go. As I write this I pretty much know the whole puzzle, and it's crazy just sitting still waiting for all the players to fall in place. I can say this, God has people working with you, working for you and praying over you for the finished project. So as I sit back and allow God to work his plan perfectly, I just have to be patient. That's why patience is so crucial in your journey.
When Joseph was in prison, God was working on his patience. Joseph had the dreams, but at seventeen, he was not ready for what was to come. I think we think we are ready. But in one of my earlier posts, I stated, we are not ready for the destination. We are ready to be out of our situation, but not ready for the destination. If God gave you that ministry, would you hurt people with your expectations? Would you be ready to command an army? If God blessed you with millions of dollars, would you be able to apply Matthew 25? Would you know how to invest it, make it grow for the kingdom? Or would you buy everything you wanted, and not be ready for the seven years of famine that might hit. Our God is very strategic, he knows what you would do when he gives you what you want.
When God develops patience, self control, endurance in us, it's because these things are needed for the journey, and when these things are fully developed in us, the destination will be exactly the way God intended it to be.
If God would haven given me the things I asked for, cried for, begged for, I would have missed out on so much. As he unfolds the destination, it makes the journey that much more enjoyable.