life full of LIFE: MARCH 1st

There's a line between self-care and selfishness. And it has been crossed!... multiple times :/ (Hey =) this post is a bit whinny so you can just watch the videos or something... this was just to get stuff off my chest before I share my more substance posts in my drafts. Peace :)

As you may know (if we are facebook friends or friends in real life), the ONE Body group had another event on Saturday March 1st called, "The Dream of a King." And... it's one thing to dream and it's another to take the action necessary to make that dream a reality. There's some people who say: Don't dream, just do. There's some quotes people keep sharing about how you're meant to let your success speak for you and don't boast before that. But that implies one not to dream, or at least not to share your dreams. But I say, just be you, then go the extra mile to lay your life down. But what does that mean? ...You see I'm a dreamer - for me having a vision for the future is everything. But after a long time of dreaming and not seeing change, I gave up, I gave in the pressure not to dream and just do... and that resulted in this articulate description that Paulo Freire gives in his book, "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" : An unauthentic word, one which is unable to transform reality, results when dichotomy is imposed upon its constitutive elements. When a word is deprived of its dimension of action, reflection automatically suffers as well; and the word is changed into idle chatter, into verbalism, into an alienated and alienating "blah." It becomes an empty word, one which cannot denounce the world, for denunciation is impossible without a commitment to transform, and there is no transformation without action. On the other hand, if action is emphasized exclusively, to the detriment of reflection, the word is converted into activism. The latter—action for action's sake—negates the true praxis and makes dialogue impossible. Either dichotomy, by creating unauthentic forms of existence, creates also unauthentic forms of thought, which reinforce the original dichotomy."

And now to go back to my original statement: "There's a fine line between self-care and selfishness" especially when the goal is sacrifice. I can give you multiple examples when I've crossed this line when it came to "The Dream of a King" "event"... but just in general, there are times when I get fresh visions of the future but I hesitate from sharing these when I get them coz of what other's might think... but I realized that sharing these visions are not just for others to have a glimpse of our future but for me, releasing these visions gives me the drive to run after them and do whatever it takes to see them happen. And so when I don't share them I am drained of the strength to pursue them which leads to selfishness, or if I do pursue them without that fire of love burning through me, I may make a move but once I get there, I'm like a zombie and there's like nothing to give. Or the times that I need to sacrifice whether or not I feel like it, I decide to use that time for "self-care"to reflect and rejuvenate (which is what I was convicted of doing last week). A friend of mine shared this video with me and with this confirmation about the prophetic and how the devil wants to keep you from prophesying because the spoken word itself has power to produce change. Click this link to watch the clip: Post by Cyrus James.

That may have made no sense but yeah, thank God for His mercies which are new every morning. Because of His grace I live to see another day, and I can dream again :-)

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PRIORITIES

I used the words, "action" and "dreaming/self-reflection" but I noticed what this really meant: If I wasn't taking time to reflect... I wasn't making the time to be alone with God, to be in His Word, to rest in Him. I saw this picture on facebook and got convicted. To do the work God has called me to / to follow my heart / to walk in my destiny, I really need His guidance and strength, otherwise I'm just running around trying to do make things happen on my own without His revelation and power... and also without His Armor... when doing any good work you usually encounter lots of opposition, especially mental attacks (doubts, fears, depression) coz the devil doesn't like it when you shine God's light coz the devil is all about the oppression business. So yeah God was reminding me that I need to lean to Him more than ever... and yeah I really need to check my TIME MANAGEMENT and especially that SLEEP SCHEDULE!! (yes I'm screaming at myself lol) So yeah, God please forgive me, help me repent: surrender my ALL to You this time. Cool thanks! <3 =)

"I Am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing." ~Jesus. John 15:5

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SACRIFICE

I know I haven't given you much details about the personal experiences I've kinda referenced, but that's coz there's more important posts I need to get to... but before that I wanna share one last thing. So the day of the event, March 1st, is when I realized that I wasn't in the Word most of that week so I flipped open the Bible and this is the verse I read: "And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me."(Mark 8:34) and then later that night after the event, I flipped open the Bible again and this is what I read: "And He said to all, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself For whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in His glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9: 23-27)

The first one convicted me of being too concerned with self-care (at the wrong time- when sacrifice was called for) instead of laying down my life -going out of my way and comfort zone to show people my heart... God's heart for us and what He's upto... and what's coming. The second one convicted me of not sharing all the prophetic words God gives me coz of me being too concerned what some people may think. So yeah, instead of all this whinning, let me share some of that right now:

So last week on facebook I shared the picture of the clouds over Storke Plaza. When I later looked at it I realized that those are cirrus clouds "Arrive in advance of the frontal system or tropical cyclone (hurricane) ... it indicates the arrival of precipitation (rain)." (wikipedia) I know just from the weather forecast you knew that a storm was coming but this once again reminded me of the Rise of an Empire and New Era posts and particularly this picture on the left that I had posted on facebook last summer with this verse: "From the West, people will fear the name of the LORD, and from the rising of the sun, they will revere His GLORY. For He will come like a pent-up flood that the breath of the Lord drives along. And a REDEEMER will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the LORD." (Isaiah 59:19-20) #Promises

And then on Sunday, March 2nd, the day after the unity event, I saw people posting these videos of waves crashing through a restaurant in SB: Waves crashing through restaurant window, Santa Barbara and there's more videos on this link: Strong Storm Surge where by 2 people were hurt :-(

I'm kinda tired of being a news reporter of stuff after they go down. It's time for us to Rise Up and TOGETHER, Lay down our lives and lift our voices!! It's time to SACRIFICE. LOVE, MOVES. Today (March 4th) reminded me of MARCH FORTH! And in the words of the national anthem, let us MARCH FORTH! till VICTORY is won! =)