Category Archives: Rise

October 13, 2019

LOOK UP

By Christina

“I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot slip— He who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord watches over you— the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all harm— He will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.”
Psalms 121:1-8 NIV

Amen, what an amazing promise that God will watch over us. All we need to do is look up. Look up to Him.

Many times in life, we tend to look back at our past. We look to our side circumstances or situation. Or some of us even look down upon our situation in fear, doubt, guilt or shame!

But the one place that God always wants us to look is UP! That is where He is. That is where purpose is. That is where the promise is, when we keep our eyes fixated on Him. When we have our ears attentive to His Word and not on the waves of life.

It is so easy to look behind us. It can be a crutch for us to look BACK!!! We think of the memories and often result to the things that are familiar. When God is pushing us to move forward, we hold ourselves back as hostages when we don’t allow ourselves to move ahead to what is next!

Another struggle that we have is to look at our situation! We magnify our problems when the One we need to magnify is GOD! The promise keeper! The Way Maker!!!! The light in any darkness we may face… He will carry is through (Isaiah 43)! That is a promise bigger than any problem that tries to present itself!

Some of us have an issue with looking down upon ourselves. We easily get distracted, discouraged, distressed, disengaged, disheartened and disappointed! Why? Because we allow the enemy to plant these seeds (negative thoughts) into our head when we don’t see things working out in our favor as quickly as we want it to!!

But here is what I want to encourage you with today!

Don’t keep looking back! It is over! Done! Finished! Move on from the past and learn to embrace a bright future of endless possibilities!

Discard every negative lying thought!!!!

Understand WHO and how powerful you are in Christ!!!

You don’t need to compare your life with others, God has written yours amazingly! He is not working on it… He is working on YOU! All that He has for you is done and selected… in time you will see and understand all that. God is not writing your story—He has WRITTEN your story, Psalm 139 tells us so!

And lastly DON’T LOOK DOWN! LOOK UP!

You were made for more! You are a king or a queen! You are a chosen generation! A royal priesthood!!! You are more than a conqueror! You are the head and not the tail! You stand victorious!

STAY POSITIVE! Stay prayerful! Keep your eyes on the One that will cover you all of your days!!! There’s so much more for you to do— now let’s just get to it!

Look on UP!!!

1 Comment | posted in Encouragement, Faith, Identity, Inspiration, Love, Rise, Trust

July 4, 2019

July 4th ~ The Game Plan

By Christina

“God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, Even though the earth be removed, And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though its waters roar and be troubled, Though the mountains shake with its swelling. Selah There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall help her, just at the break of dawn.”

Psalms 46:1-5 NKJV

You know that overwhelming moment is really bad. It sucks. You can’t process what to do next.

The careless lady behind the counter shared words still stinging my ears as we missed our vacation flight outta NYC!

“You need a game plan!”

I stood thinking in my head, “seriously!”

I walked away and that awful defeated feeling set in really heavy.

Then I cried. Then I cried some more.

Then I wept.

There goes my hope, my fun, my plan, my only vacation just thrown out the window as everyone was now passing me by.

This was such a sad, sad, sad defeat and disappointment. Even though I know God wants to turn it into a win, I felt like I failed… REALLY failed my family 😞

They were gonna have sooo much fun man! The plans were LIT!!! And that’s what I want.

To make my family and friends happy! To see them laugh until their stomachs hurt! That’s everything to me. This wasn’t about me! My birthday! My plan! No it was about them! The ones I love.

And I failed! I messed up cuz I didn’t have a game plan.

But God does!

He always does.

Even if it hurts or when life happens like you didn’t plan it to.

So when I don’t have a game plan, an ounce of hope, a smile or a way through—HE DOES! He will sing over me on my day to tell me happy birthday Christina. You are still in good company. Positive vibes, positive energy and positive perspective. People that are willing to take a disappointed and defeated situation and turn it into the game plan!!!

We will make it work!

God just has it all, I was never or will ever be in control like that. It’s so much letting go.

So here I am. Thankful to be surrounded by people that are willing to laugh through anything… even the disappointments of life. Im grateful. I am blessed. They are doing all that they can –above & beyond folks. ♥️

West Palm will have it’s time. Trusting God for what’s next. The best is yet to come. So keep your head up Birthday girl. Turn that frown upside down and be thankful. All that you need is right in front of you. Enjoy your life.

All that you are is all within you!

Happy Birthday 🎉🎊🎂🎈🎁

1 Comment   |  tags: | posted in Celebration, Encouragement, Hope, Relationships, Rise, Trust

November 7, 2018

ROOTS

By Christina

You will keep the peace, a perfect peace, for all who trust in You, for those who dedicate their hearts and minds to You.
Isaiah 26:3 (VOICE)

I hate the things that keep me up at night.

Mind things. Mind battles. Unsettling situations.

Words. Life. Changes. Processes. Thoughts.

I have been meditating and reading since 3 am this morning and have this blog to share—roots.

They are my thoughts. Personal thoughts. Private thoughts. They are unseen. Hidden and underground. Just as I was reading in a book by Joel Olsteen called “Next Level Thinking”.

I went to chapter 9 titled, “Get The Contaminants Out” which are thoughts. Unhealthy thoughts, bitterness, resentment, anger, frustration…. all the things that didn’t go right. It’s the little things that get you the most sometimes!

“Catch all the foxes, those little foxes, before they ruin the vineyard of love, for the grapevines are blossoming!”
Song of Songs 2:15 NLT

He kept speaking about the unseen by describing the roots that feed a tree. It’s not so much what happened, it is the thoughts that follow what happened! We think and think and rethink and replay words in our mind! That is a difficult process to sift through especially when words are contrary to your belief system.

But that belief system must be transformative.

It cannot conform. It cannot remain the same.

Emill Bridges this weekend at “Total Victory” conference in Charlottesville VA said, “You cant have grace and stay the same!”

There’s no way!

“If we keep going in and out of where we must REMAIN IN GOD, then we will always go up and down!”

That fluctuating emotional realm can be so draining. That’s why we can’t allow it to govern us. We can’t stay here. We can’t stay the same. We have to go there… where God prepared our wellness and wholeness. We have to THINK THE RIGHT THINGS and cast aside the remuneration that human form has been so conditioned to practice.

We must get RID of the roots that can poison the tree.

The roots are thoughts.

Just as you can’t see roots, you can’t see thoughts.

The roots feed the tree.

The thoughts feed the mind.

They must be healthy. And whatever is negative, frustrating, aggravating, unforgivable or unforgettable—WE MUST LET GO!

We have to move on because God gives us grace for each season. To me things may not always work in my favor, but I have to trust that God is bringing me to live in His favor.

My roots have to be so DEEP IN GOD! That it feeds my mind, my life, my soul, my actions, my steps, my ways, my everything! That my convictions are not based on feeling good, great or grief—but that it is based on the Word! That my convictions are based on His ways.

Those are the roots I need.

To be rooted IN Christ.

To have my thoughts IN Christ, so that I am kept in perfect peace.

Does that make sense?

Christina…… “You have risen above adversity but now you have to RISE HIGHER!”

Right roots (thoughts) will help you achieve that.

Verses:

“Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”
Colossians 2:7 NLT

“Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.”
Proverbs 4:23 NLT

3 Comments | posted in Celebration, Encouragement, Inspiration, Love, Recovery, Restoration, Rise, Trust

October 12, 2018

Keep To The Script

By Christina

“Keep your gentle nature so that all people will know what it looks like to walk in His footsteps.  The Lord is ever present with us.  Don’t be anxious about things; instead, PRAY. Pray about everything.  He longs to hear your requests, so talk to God about your needs and be thankful for what has come. And know that the peace of God (a peace that is beyond any and all of our human understanding) will stand watch over your hearts and minds in Jesus, the Anointed One.  Finally, brothers and sisters, fill your minds with beauty and truth. Meditate on whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is virtuous and praiseworthy. Keep to the script: whatever you learned and received and heard and saw in me—do it—and the God of peace will walk with you.”
Philippians 4:4-9 (VOICE)

Isn’t if funny how much we struggle to be still when everything inside of us is going in a million directions.  It makes us flustered, anxious, frustrated, overwhelmed and revved up! But His Word reminds us don’t be anxious about things… instead PRAY! We have to stick to the script—God’s script! God’s Word! God’s plan! God’s ways and His doings.  Because every time we try to go left, rest assured He will find some way to make us go RIGHT!

I had left early yesterday to arrive as a guest on the show TBN Salsa that is going across 140 countries! Wow… OK–Be anxious for NOTHING! Try that in the midst of dead stop traffic…red lights all around!!!! I cannot even express to you how much everyone in my car was on overdrive! LOL

I had to get there early!

Obviously I was late –extremely late.  So much so that they had to change the order of speakers.  I was supposed to go first and be ready to deliver.  What circumstances that were set before me.  It always seems to happen that in someway or another I end up last.  Only God.

So here is the kicker—As we were extremely backed up in this traffic line (had to be there at 6:15 and it was already 6:47) I told my husband –I am going to walk the rest! There is no way we are going to pass thru this and it is less than a mile.  He say to me, “fine, go with Sam and I will meet you there.”

I jump out with Sam and I am going full speed ahead in flip flops on the slippery ground because of the constant rain.  I am on 44th and I have to get to 15th in the city.  By the time I get to 40th my husband calls me and says, “I am already on 39th! Get back in the car, I pulled over and I am waiting for you. This is still moving faster than you it is going to clear up.”

I get back in the car only to hear the Holy Spirit tell me, “You always want to do something else. Always want to move when all you have to do is be still. The first way is the BEST WAY!”  You see, it is not that there are no other ways to get there but we have to go with the way that He takes us.  That is the way that will always get us there faster and at the pace He called us to go with.  Because we get so anxious we want to DO something in the interim.  We want to turn around. We want to quit. We want to try another route. We want to do something else.  We want to try another this or that based on our schedule of life. We always stay fighting against the strong currents that come our way not realizing that those are the things that teach us HOW to be still. It is IN that midst. It is IN that mess. It is IN that route.  It is IN that path. It is IN that waiting where He is working! All the obstacles are the ways that God typically uses to show us the better opportunities.

So no matter what you want to do while you wait, we are just better off getting back in the car and following His lead and His drive.  It will get us there safer. It will get us there timely. It will get us there exactly when we need to be there because I was not supposed to go first on God’s agenda. For Him, He continues to show me time and time again that He will always save the best for last.

God did that.

I have to know that I must keep to the script. His script is better than any one that I could ever try to write up for myself. And I am just extremely thankful.

My message to you this morning is JUST WAIT! Hold on. Keep to the script. Keep to HIS timing for your life. The things that God has for you, the promises, and overwhelming victory is just around the bend. You are going to get there too.

With Love,

Christina

 

1 Comment   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Book Release, Celebration, Emerging, Encouragement, Faith, Inspiration, Rise, Trust