Posts Tagged ‘God’

I will be the first to admit that the word “submission” is hard for some people to grasp, especially when it is pertaining to women and their role in a marriage. Submission does not mean being disrespected, being a doormat, a push-over or any other degrading characteristic. Being a submissive wife means that the women is willing to give herself completely, freely, and lovingly to her husband without feeling forced to. She is willing to have this man lead her, teach her and cover her the way a husband should. She trusts that he has given his life to Christ and by Christ being the head of his life, this man, her husband can be the head of her family under God in their household. When a man loves a woman as he should…as he loves himself and cares for her in that same fashion, he will find it easy to have a supportive and submissive wife. The wife is to respect her husband as the head, the leader and again when men encounter a woman who is strong and / or independent I will admit that this can be a challenge but even she will be submissive. It is all in how you love her and show her that you deserve the respect you seek from her. Marriage is a mutual respecting relationship. You must be equally yoked and have a relationship centered on God and what He desires from your marriage. Why? The design of marriage isn’t just to procreate, actually the design of marriage is to bring glory to God. The union of marriage signifies love personified, grace, mercy, faith is all needed in a successful Godly marriage. Dying to your flesh to become one! The man is to lead his wife through her spiritual walk and the woman is to encourage her husband and to complete him spiritually by assisting him with his work and his walk with Christ. Each marriage has a mission, a ministry to produce and if you are married to a man who has no God given mission then that marriage for a Godly woman will fail and if a Godly man with a vision marry’s a woman with no belief in his vision or in God, that marriage will fail. Below I have posted a few bible verses pertaining to a submissive wife but I will close my paragraph with a verse from Proverbs that I use for restoring my faith and affirming my thoughts when presented with difficult situations. I found it to also work for the idea of what a marriage should be. “By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; and by knowledge the rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.” Proverbs 24:3-4 In other words, both people should be in prayer, worship together, study together to gain the wisdom needed for marriage, the strength of God to be in them both and by doing those things He will impart knowledge to them about how to deal with things in a Godly manner. When two people truly have their eyes set on having a God centered marriage, the blessings He will give to them will be beautiful because that marriage is bringing glory to His name and all that see that marriage will have hope and see God in it.

Ephesians 5:22-33
22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing[a] her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”[b] 32This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Colossians 3:18-19
18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.

© Brandi Anderson

Spiritual Warfare is a subject that I believe takes years to understand so I encourage you to study it yourselves so that you too can equip yourselves appropriately. Spiritual Warfare is taking a stand against the evil in this world. It begun in Heaven when God defeated the devil and sent him away. Jesus was giving to us humans as our protector and savior from evil forces. When He ascended to Heaven, He left with us the Holy Spirit, the comforter. The Holy Spirit dwells in each and every one of us. We don’t have to go looking for the Spirit, all we have to do is accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we will obtain the Holy Spirit. Now feeling the Holy Spirit move in you is where the work comes in. That work is studying the Word of God and walking in the way of the Lord which is something we have to do daily. The devil uses many tricks to tempt us away from God. He tempts us with luxuries, material gains, jealousy, lies, a host of things that will cause us to not act righteously in the eyes of the Lord. The biggest tool the devil can use against us is ourselves. We are our own worst enemy. If you truly knew how much God loved you, if you really knew and believed His love for you, you would do what Jesus did on that mountain and deny the devil entry into your soul. You have to resist the devil but you can’t resist the devil if you brush him off as any old thing. The devil is real, evil is real and you need to understand that. Once you understand that you have to understand that the devil will use anything in your life to get to you. Money, relationships, friendships, jobs, strangers, and your thoughts. All of this is fair game to the devil. Even though all of those examples I used are separate, they all tie into your thoughts. Your mind must be stayed on Jesus, your mind must be equipped and protected with the whole Armor of God.

How to protect yourself:

Ephesians 6:10- 18

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

Verse 18 is a verse that is most important, a verse that I am reminded of during this writing. It is something that we must do every day if we don’t pray anything at all. We have to learn how to pray and give thanks daily. God wants our prayers and praises. He doesn’t just want our concerns and worries. God wants us to come to Him in the happy times just as much if not more than we do in our troubles. Imagine how you would feel after helping someone with something and they don’t say thank you. Doesn’t that just boil your blood at times? You will call them ungrateful and for some people, you actually cut them off. We should be happy that God doesn’t cut us off and He gives us many chances to get it right. So be grateful and give God the praises that He so deserves. We must also learn to pray for others more than ourselves as well. Praying for others is a form of love and love is what Jesus commissioned us to do. We must love one another and truly want the best for one another. Job 16:20-21

My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; on behalf of a man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend.

I chose Job because if you know anything about Job, Job was tested by God to display to the devil that we can defeat Spiritual Warfare. Job had everything taking away from him but with his last ounce of faith he resisted the devil. We can defeat the evils of this world because the evil in the Heavens was defeated. If we understand that the battle for our souls was already won and that we have the Victory! John 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” God never promised us an easy life but He did promise us a blessed life. You just have to understand what it means to be blessed and allow yourself to be blessed.

One more thing, learn to forgive. The devil loves for use to not forgive others. Unforgiveness is like a disease and it will kill us quicker than the one we supposedly hate or dislike.

The greatest thing you can do for an enemy of yours is to love them and release them.

© Brandi Anderson 2014

The Soul

Posted: May 1, 2014 in Poetry, Spiritual
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

I am calm in a day full of drama.

My body aches with an emptiness I can only describe as pain.

But yet I am calm.

It must be because I know it is only temporary and pain has no permanent dwelling in my soul.

My soul only accepts happiness and love in the form of positive light.

So when negative darkness tries to eclipse this light, my soul fights and that is what causes the pain,

what causes my body to ache.

Allowing my soul to clean itself is a must.

I heard once that the eyes are the windows to ones’ soul, and I believe that.

So when people look into my eyes I want them to see the light: God.

You can’t clean these windows with Windex! No! No! No!

They can only be cleaned when one self-evaluates and gets a reality check.

Who gives the reality check, God. He speaks to us every day. Do we listen?

Sometimes, most never hear Him.

To simply put it, I am a soul presented in God’s image so it is a daily struggle of cleansing I must go through.

I am not as perfect as He would want me to be but I am not giving up.

I know that makes Him smile. You asked, “How do I know that”.

He continues to bless me abundantly. Never worrying about anything and always praying for everything. This is what I must remember to do.

I will be perfect in His image. My soul will be perfect in His image. Amen.

 

© Brandi N. Anderson

Your perception of me is a misconception concocted by the images your eyes see.

You need to evaluate and then validate to find the truth behind the eyes…the mind’s eye.

Enhance it, process it, review it and then submit it.

Analyze them thoroughly make sure you are hearing me when I say…you don’t know me.

‘cause to know me your perception of me will change to truth and the conception of me

will manifest itself in front of you.

It’s not that hard but it’s not easy, I am simple with a little complexity.

Makes life fun don’t you think?

I am but an empty canvas for God to paint His perfect Will for my life on.

His strokes of the brush move chaotically over the canvas as colors combine

forming shapes and lines until He say’s “It is finish.”

I am a work in progress, a woman being reborn to become that woman I am called to be.

So don’t let your misconception silence your questions.

The answers to those questions can clear up some of those misconceptions,

that is if you ask them.

A closed mouth doesn’t get fed and so a closed book doesn’t get read.

So here I am, a book, open me up and take a look.

© Brandi N. Anderson

My Essence

Posted: May 1, 2014 in Poetry
Tags: , , , , ,

I am distinctly beautiful.

Each layer of me unfolds the mystery that is me.

Not that I have many layers but I am woman and as a woman

I change metaphysically.

You can’t place me in a box or in a set of circumstances that I can’t

Get out of.

My Essence won’t allow that.

See my power derives from the divine and I will shine for as long

As He allows me to and in that…I don’t mind.

My Essence in essence is a substance with new ingredients being added

With every stripe I receive.

My growing confidence is a direct result of the woman I am to be.

My blueprint is encoded in several different languages.

No I am not trying to be difficult but I am a woman who will reach nations

So my design had to be more complex if I am to do this without hesitation.

My Essence spills over into your cup as you take a sip of my genetic make-up.

Can you taste my characteristics, can you smell my attributes, do you know

What My true Essence is?

If not get to know me and you will see My Essence revealed.

-© Brandi N. Anderson