Happy New Year!
To celebrate the new year, I am releasing a FREE 30-day Prayer Challenge to help you exit 2016 and enter into 2017 with a strategy to serve! I am so pleased with how this came together. I hope you love it too. Click shop and get yours now. Share your Exit Strategy on Twitter!
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As the year comes to a close, and our challenge to an end, we are going to fast for three days. From Dec. 28- Dec. 30, we are going to deny ourselves. We encountered a great reminder of the importance of fasting with the people of Ninevah in Jonah. The land was saved by their obedience to God. In an effort to get back into the good graces of God, the King ordered the land to turn their plates away. While fasting from food is not the only way that you can participate, I do implore you to deny yourself in some way. Fasting is important, not only when you are trying to get back in the good graces of God, but as a practice of the believer. The next three days are meant to bring us to closer to the bosom of Christ by giving us a chance to deny even our deepest fleshly needs. Because I am expecting, I can't fast from food over the next three days. I will be eating until 6 pm and denying myself from social media and games on my phone. Join us in three days of denying for Christ!
Getting up at 6 AM is not an easy task, especially if mornings aren't your favorite time of the day. Even for those who are accustomed to waking up early, remembering to call into the prayer adds another layer of difficulty to this challenge.
I won't say that it will be easy, but I do want to help. If you are struggling to wake up, you can sign up for a wake up alert to be sent right to your phone. I'll also try to add accountability by checking in on those who need reminders and alerts. I want us to come out victorious! And a large part of success in this challenge is consistency from both you and I. As I work to hold you guys accountable, please do the same for me! If you don't receive devotions or if prayer isn't starting promptly, email me. We can get to the end, if we hold each other up. As we begin on this journey of seeking out the presence of God early and earnestly, God reminded me of two things: purging and hyssop.
This year in my private preparation for the challenge, I prayed that God would purge me of the things that I had gathered that were not from him. And I asked God to purify my deceitfully wicked heart with a supernatural hyssop. I was brought back to a memory from three years of when I first knew God for myself. I was filled with gratitude and worry, because within a few short months of salvation I knew God had called me to intercession. I tried to imagine why God commissioned me to come boldly to his throne through prayer, when I was so flawed in sin. My worry has since turned into an understanding that I will never how little of God's goodness I can imagine. An ever pure God, we filthy rags could never know the full righteousness of our king here on earth. I can never know why God chose me to lead you in this journey of prayer. But I can trust in the providence of God. When Jesus died his blood served as our pathway to the inheritance of righteousness. The blood purges us. It turns is from sinners into fishers of men. Every person embarking upon a serious relationship with the Father will be giving a commission or a task. It's our job to answer it. As you and I answer the call of daily prayer, we can't be loaded down with the baggage of yesterday's sin or mistakes. David cried into God to be cleansed and washed from the sin he committed with Bathsheba. His plea was so sincere. He asked to be cleansed both inside and out. Hyssop was the salve that he called for God to use. And while the herb has many uses, hyssop has nothing on the blood of Jesus. I'm so grateful that the Son of God died. Because we don't have to seek the proper usage or the proper dosage of his death on Calvary for it to be effective. We just have to repent and believe. I believe today that if you allow the blood to be hyssop in your life your wounds will be healed and your afflictions will be delivered. I believe that the prayer of David was just a sneak peek into the power of God. If God created a plant that could heal respiratory disease and fight infection how much more powerful do you think the blood of Jesus is? When the Lord was bruised and battered, every blow carried out a different cleansing purpose for your life. Let this week be the week you offer up your broken things to God to purge with the hyssop that is the blood of Jesus. Prayer: First Dear Lord, I want to thank you for dying for my sins on Calvary. Without your sacrifice my sins would be unpaid for. And for that I offer up praises of gratitude. Your holiness is beyond my imagination. Thank you God for being the purging hyssop in my life today. Father I've gathered things that have weighed me down. But on today I give them unto you in submission. Anything that has not been ordained by you to bring me to my expected end remove it. I give you my friendships, my relationships, my desires, my finances, my heart, my mind, purge me lord, for your glory. As you have your way in my life, give me the wisdom to navigate the snares of the enemy so that my life will never be the same. As we prepare for this year's challenge, I want to point out some big differences between last year and this year. There are some things that we will not be continuing and I wanted to make sure that we started with clarity.
For starters, this year, instead of setting our mind on 5 goals we are focusing on three goals. I will be honest, last year felt like a rat race of sorts. My prayer is that in focusing in on fewer goals, we can slow down and really accomplish the things we set out to do. Our goals are also shifting from what we want to what we believe God is calling us to do. Last year, we spent three months declaring the promises of God over our families, our finances, our businesses and our minds. And while I believe in the principles that led us to make our requests known to God, this year as I prayed for direction. God implored me to try something different. Last year, during the challenge I learned that God's plans trump all. You would think that as a Christian blogger and prayer warrior I would have known that by now. But, I set forth plan after plan with the expectation that because I trusted God that those plans would be followed.
When you are broken or hurt, you are given two options. The first is to give up; the second is to fight. As for me, the first isn't so easy to choose. If I give up, the people counting on me will be let down. If I give up, the destiny ahead that God has given glimpses of will be lost. So often, for me at least, the will to fight is not a choice. It is the only option there is.
Though it may take some time, give yourself the benefit of doubt. Choose to win; Will to win; You will win. I am mourning the lost of many of my family members, but on today...I am determined to win. Check out the devotion and see how Paul thought like a winner. And watch the video below of my late grandfather, Apostle, Richard Daniel Henton for inspiration. We are nearly a month into the challenge!
Can you believe it?! We have been seeking excellence for almost 30 days. I cannot begin to tell you how my life has already changed in the course of this journey. God has opened doors and blessed me. He has chastened me too. My family has battled the enemy in sickness and death. But God, has kept us swimming through it all.
I'm sure many of you are familiar with the kids' film, Finding Nemo. The words "just keep swimming" have surrounded me today. Life can overwhelm you. It can make you feel like you are drowning, but you must continue on. As you decide to just keep on keeping on, strength finds you. As you persevere, hope carries you on. And somehow, miraculously you survive. I know this to be true because I'm still here! As I looked at the journey, I must admit, I was a little disappointed in myself. There are some things I wanted to give you #excellentchallengers that I haven't. There are some commitments I wanted to keep but haven't. And just as I was about to throw in the towel in defeat, I reminded myself of the purpose of the challenge. I never started #100DaysofExcellence to be perfect. I wanted to meet my potential with action. So, why stop? Whatever you are facing, don't let it stop you; even if it causes you to stumble or fall. Get back up and continue to fight. As I minister to you, I'm often talking to myself. As I push you to try your best, give your all, I'm telling myself the same thing! If you expected me to have this thing perfected before I embarked on the journey, I apologize. My goal was to grow with you all, learn with you and watch God work miracles for US. I've decided to just keep on swimming. I hope you all are with me! Daily prayers have been strong and are still on! Daily devotions are reinstated. Daily blog posts are starting. I'm picking up my stride.
Late last year, I borrowed my aunt's copy of a Myles Monroe conference on maximizing your potential. He said something so profound. Monroe said that the graveyard is where you can go and find the most potential in the world. It struck me and made me question, "What greatness is in me that I have failed to reach?" We each have our gifts; you know, the thing that can change the world. But, sooooo many of us leave this world without accomplishing our goal of using our gifts. I don't want to be one of those people. I refuse to let my grave be a resting place for my talents. I declare today that everything I have to give to this world, I will. And by accepting the challenge, you too have made that declaration.
This challenge is not about trying to be perfect. I am not seeking perfection. I am seeking to meet my potential with action. The point of the 100 Days of Excellence Challenge is to make you desires of being great become a reality. It is about finally giving yourself the opportunity to work hard at being your best self. For me, that means having my beauty, health, business, relationships and walk with Christ excel. Your best self may look completely different. Don't get hung up on trying to be perfect, strive to the high calling in your life and greatness will follow. I suggest that each of you answer these following questions in a journal.
Answer these questions and then tweet me saying, "I'm acting on my potential!"
Access this year's resources by clicking on the download button in the image above. I am so excited about this year's information. The download includes five resources to help you understand how to better use this challenge to better your life.
The download includes a:
Get your calendar today and start marking important dates.
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About the ChallengeThe 100 Days of Excellence challenge is a 100 day journey to completely rearrange the course of your life. It is about seeking the thrown of God to hear what his plan is for our lives. It is a commitment to carry out every action in your future in the spirit of excellence. Archives
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