The Lord Is Good!

The Lord is good
and greatly to be praised.
He brought me up out of the miry clay.
And now, even if in
Muddy waters
It seems I stay,
I know for sure
I’m on a Rock each day.

Thanks be to the Lord who is good.
He loves me, cares for me,
and lifts me up each day.

‘Don’t look down’ is good advice,
The muddy waters are
choppy enough to splice.

If there seems to be nowhere else
to look
Rejoice in the Lord and it will suffice.

Copyright ©2008 Carroll Ayo Durodola

Believe

Keresimesi Odun de O (Yoruba for Merry Christmas!)

At this time the Lord wants us Christians to trust Him. I was reading my poem, "The Lord is Good", (published now on www.ezraweb.com) and it had me crying with joy all over again. Many of us are in muddy waters or it seems so. We have disastrous things happening to us and really there is nowhere else to look but at our situations. But the Lord wants us, especially at these times to look full in His wonderful face and trust Him. Even if the eviction notice is on the door, even if the tow truck man is ready to repossess your car. Trust the Lord.

He has allowed this situation to see if you know where to look. To see if you know where to put your faith.Trust Him. Trust Him. Trust Him. Where else can you look? Some of you are between a rock and a hard place, especially financially and you've been tricked or feel tricked economically. Most black folks laugh, that these economic down turns don't bother us, because we don't have anything anyway. But this time it is touching everyone. Those it hasn't touched yet, it will.

The Father God wants to see us crawl up in His 'lap' and relax. Trust Him. He will tell you what to do.If you trust Him, you won't have to run around hoping that this or that will work. He will direct you. But if you're flailing your arms around desperate, He won't be able to help you because you won't listen to Him. If you've ever tried to save someone who is drowning, as I have, you know they are very cumbersome, because they are trying to save themselves. Sometimes you have to knock them out and make them unconscious so you can tow them in.

Some of you are in a 'tow in' situation. That is, you've made a mess and the Lord is 'towing' you in. Others are in the will of the Lord. You knew it once, but now you're doubting. He's not 'towing' you in, He's carrying you higher. Relax and let Him. The odd feeling you're having, is you, changing to a new spiritual altitude. Obedience is very important here. Do exactly what the Master says do. More importantly - relax!The Lord loves you and is moving you along.

What does it mean to rest?

12/19/08

What does it mean to rest?

1. Not thinking about anything

2. Quietly listening to God and talking to Him
But, in a long space of days when you are not doing anything.
(We have a fear that as we go on being quiet we will sink and float away.
Loose our mind.
Never get ourselves back together again.
It will be harder to come back to slaving away.)

3. Sitting around doing nothing and not feeling guilty or manic about it.

Look, God ardently wants you to be still. He needs you to rest. Rest alot. It's a word I've been hearing for the body of Christ for some years now. Rest. Rest. Rest. We are doing far too much running around. Rippin' and runnin', my mother calls it. Slow down, first. Then get into rest. Lie down. Why is this such a problem? Why not rest. Rest is a blessing of the Lord. Guilt, children, husbands, parents, friends, ourselves all stop us from resting, but we won't be as effective if we don't rest. I mean a nap! Yeah, I said it. Lie down and sleep. This gives God more time to speak to you in dreams and visions.

Believe. This is going to make things soooo much better for you. Rest on!

THUS SAYS THE Lord

12/16/08

THUS SAYS THE Lord:

You are greatly loved and are going to be blessed with wonderful and amazing gifts. So much so, that they may be frightening at first. It might even seem that you’re not worthy. There will be lots of spirits trying to deceive, that’s why you seem to see them around. They will try to come in for the kill. It’s not strange. It happens to all My children that let the floodgates of blessing happen, whether they realize it or not. These demons will not win. Just stay close to Me. Do all things in the Spirit. Practice this more and I will coral you into this practicing for your own future good.

This is an exciting time. And you will be excited and yet have to keep working and writing or anything I’ve told you to do or you will get swamped and cramped and not be able to use the flow of creativity that is coming, effectively.

I love you so much. I’ve been excited (it felt like God was more than excited. He was anticipating) for this day to come, almost panting within Me because I know how happy you will be and how we’ll twirl and dance with joy together. It will be spontaneous, involuntary because the blessings and riches are going to be so much and quick.

The time of autumn-leaves-deep money piles are here. Oh, you’re going to be so excited. Even though you won’t be able to see all that I’m going to do, the way this huge provision will come, you will know I am going to use you and it, for great works of My choosing.

When you learn things, it’s not just for you, but for others too.

THUS SAYS THE Lord.

Saying “No” to God.

12/12/08

You know how the Lord tells you to do something and you act out “No”. You don’t say “No” like a wilful child. You would never say that to your God, but you don’t do what He told you to do.

Newsflash: You have said “No”.

To delay is disobedience.

You are the Light of the World

12/11/08

We’re walking around with the Light in us you know. A merchant I deal with was ringing me up at the cash register some years ago. I wasn’t talking about Christ or thinking particularly spiritual thoughts at the time, but she looked up at me and said, “There’s a light in you.” I said “Praise God” and went on. But it makes sense you know, based on what Jesus said. “You are the Light of the world” (Matt 5:14). We are walking around with the Light in us and this is a light the world needs.

Trust - Even Though You Are Between a Rock and a Hard Place

12/10/08

You’re going to have to trust this God who led you out of your “Egypt” and took you from your enemies. Right now you may feel like you have jumped from the frying pan into the fire, but imagine how the Israelites felt by the rolling Red Sea, with the Egyptians gaining on them. In private conversation, brave Moses might have asked God why He led him to bring these people out if they were going to die now in the desert. Well there wouldn’t have been any dying, ‘cos the Egyptians wanted them back alive! But it would seem like death.

You’re right there now. But know that you belong to a God who makes ways out of no way. Just when I could despair, the Lord had my dad call yesterday, to give me good news. Fun news really, about how God had provided for him in a new and almost impossible way. This encouraged me so much. It may look impossible. It may seem too late. How many of you are there, where it’s all over now, there’s no way of help. Don’t give up. Trust God – Jesus said to Jairus when he was told his daughter had died.

So what if you went this way with the Lord before and it was strenuous, you were homeless, lost everything…do it again. Often the devil wants you to think you’re alone. “No one will understand what I’ve done”, “No one will believe that God told me to do this!” But it’s not true. You have at least one friend who will and does encourage you without judgement. And as you think of that one, others come to mind. Then know also, that God has people praying for you that you don’t even know. He has done it with me. Given me a vision of someone in trouble and told me to pray. Sometimes he gets me up at odd hours of the night and sitting on my couch I ask “O.K. Lord, why am I up?” He shows me and I begin to pray for them. Many times I don’t know them at all or even their names. I know at this time of my desperation, God has many praying for me. And I just had proof of this while writing. I stopped to call an acquaintance I had only met once, and she yelled, “I lost your number, but I have been praying for you!” There are some struggles you have to go through alone, even though you know there are those you can call. Trust God that the set up is perfect and that everything is working out perfectly. How can it be otherwise? He is a perfect God and you have given your life over to Him. You are not doing what seems logical to you; you are not leaning to your own understanding. If He can justify the wicked, He can take care of you.

A word that came to me this morning from the Lord was; remember the past and all that you have endured and had victory over! This will be a springboard of faith to move through the challenges that you now face. Remember the One who gave you victory over the evil one and his schemes against you and know that this is the same One who will give you wisdom, strength, guidance and triumph in this also. The devil wants you to think, it won’t work this time, but God says, he is a liar. Don’t believe him. You know those HGTV shows you watch and these people get chosen to have their homes redone and then when it’s time for the great reveal, they wonder if the designer will fail them, even though he does everyone else beautifully. If God has taken you through all other challenges ‘til now, why would He fail on this one? Haven’t you come home to Father, haven’t you stored up treasures in heaven, haven’t you forgiven others, haven’t you been merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful? Yes. Well then, He will open the storehouse of heaven and pour down a blessing, so that there is not room enough to keep it. (Luke 6:38; Mal. 3:10) It will be so much your accountant will tell you to give some of it away!!!

Believe. Trust. Obey.

Matt 6:25 Therefore I say to you, Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

Do It Again

12/09/2008
One thing God is telling us, His children to do, is to “do it again”. If we did things in the past and they didn’t work, or all our work has been stolen, lost or burnt, Jesus our Bridegroom says “do it again”. Have you ever lost an e-mail you were writing to someone and it was so good, so clear, with the right tone? Then it was gone. It hadn’t been sent, it wasn’t saved, you couldn’t find it and the technology department couldn’t find it either. So you realized you just would have to do it again and when you did, you were convinced that this new e-mail was better, by far than the former. That you included things left out of the first, presented in a way not done before. The same with your life. We miss so much when we bemoan having to do something all over again. But everywhere on Earth today, God is saying “do it again!”

Some years ago, in 1988, a great writer, Rita Dove, lost a lot of her manuscripts in a fire, when her house was hit by lightning. It was devastating I’m sure. When this happened to her I’m sure she had to go on and decide to forget it or start writing again and even write the manuscripts again that she had been working on.
Trust the Lord. Now when you hear that and remember a past experience, you whine, “I did that before and it didn’t turn out well. I was evicted from my home.” Well, you will have to do it again. Now, that is really hard, but it must happen. You cannot go on in the Christian walk if you don’t do it again. Imagine if you refused to bless others and help them because the last time you did, it turned out badly. You could miss so much and so would these new people. Listen to God. Let Him tell you what to do. Trust Him and trust Him again.

Trust in the Lord, with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding. Prov. 3:5