FULL Armor of God

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 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. 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. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6: 10-17)

"The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light." (Romans 13:12)

"But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires." (Romans 13:14)

"For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control." (2 Timothy 1:7)

"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." (Romans 8:37)

Watch this really powerful clip about the armor of God. That's the full Gospel right there! =)

So that's the Gospel (Good News) Jesus loves us and He came to bring restoration to our lives. All we have to do is let Him into our hearts -> That's how we put on the helmet of salvation, by confessing our sins and receiving His forgiveness and grace and asking Him to be the Lord of our life :) He also wants to baptize us with His Holy Spirit to give us power, love and self-control. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is really important and without it one does not have the full armor on. Here's a really cool article that explains what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is and how to receive it. It's really detailed so it should address any questions you may have : How to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You can also check out my post: Pimp my ride -God gave me that illustration to explain to me what He was up to in my life; His work of renewal through His Holy Spirit.

We can apply the message of this post individually and also together. I'd love to apply the message of this post with you. Jesus gave the application in Acts 1: 4-5 "On one occasion, while He was eating with them, He gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Then what did they disciples do? "They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers." (vs.14) There was unity in constant prayer. And then what happened? "When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them." (Acts 2: 1-3) So Jesus give them a promise then they prepared to receive it then they received what was promised. Dear church, let's apply this. We received the promise of a great revival (great move of the Holy Spirit leading to an awakening) coming from Santa Barbara. So what should we do in the meantime? Lets prepare ourselves. Let's wait on God. Let there be unity in constant prayer. We can do this church! :-)

The battle is raging and it's gonna intensify so we can't afford not to be fully prepared. We have the victory so let's claim it Now! as we wait :-)

Let's come together and pray to God to send the rain of His Spirit :-)

I'll be going to the prayer shed on Thursdays at 7pm to pray and wait on God feel free to join me! And whenever you're free let's get together, we can use the prayer shed or our apartments, and invite others to pray and worship and wait on God :-)
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Update: 7/13/2013

God led me to this clip... it really explains Ephesians 6:10-13. Check it out! So cool!! =D

You are The Potter, I am the clay

I get discouraged a lot by all my failures. Especially due to the fact that I keep repeating the same mistakes over and over and over again (My sis and I sung a song about that in the post: Grace). And to me it seems like I'm not making any progress but God's been reminding me of the depths of His love and grace for me. And He reminded me who's in charge, He is The Boss. He is the potter, and I am the clay. He is the one responsible for molding me into who He wants me to be. That gives me relief, knowing that I may fail but He will never fail me. He will remain faithful to me and in His hands nothing is wasted. So all I have to do is surrender-> find rest in His arms. He will take all the broken pieces of my life and make it into something beautiful. Thank You God!!! :) I don't know what I'd do without You. Check out this clip. It was encouraging for me and gave me lots of confirmation. God's in the business of making us into His Masterpiece! :D

"May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The One who calls you is faithful and He will do it." :-) (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24)

"being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion at the day of Christ Jesus." :-) (Philippians 1:6)
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This song... Good word! =)

LOVE. That's all :)

I complicated things for myself when is all I am called to do, always, is LOVE. 

Oh God fill this heart up with Your Love so that I can,... well, LOVE :)

And yeah, help me to keep my eyes on You and not fall for distractions. I can't love others with my eyes on them or on myself, I can only love them with my eyes on You. So help me focus on You Jesus and to imitate Your humility. Thanks :)

Beloved, let's love God and each other :) Related Post: Love Me.

AWAKEN us!

Awaken our hearts, Jesus! We are thirsty for You! So so thirsty!

He is coming to restore and to renew! He will come like the rain! :D Related post: Revival Rains.

Here we stand. Our hearts are Yours. Not our will but Yours be done! =)

Dear InterVarsity Family,

(I was going to post this on the InterVarsity wall mid-Spring, I tried to but I wasn't able to for some weird reason...idk. So it's been in my drafts ever since then but now I felt like sharing it coz it's the same message that God has given me to share again)

Hey family :) As you may have noticed, we are a multi-ethnic fellowship. And for racial reconciliation (unity) to happen God wants us to share our lives with each other, that includes how we worship Him. And that means we have to lead each other in worship and prayer. That means we have to displace ourselves (let some one else lead you in how they worship). That takes humility (trusting in God's design: we are a body,the Holy Spirit is in all of us, we are all leaders and we all need each other). So let's humble ourselves before the Lord to be better friends with Him and each other, to fellowship.

With that said there's an urgency to this season and we need to pray. I feel like Jesus is saying to us, "Rise and shine sleeping beauty! This is not the time to be asleep. Watch and pray." I would love to see more of us leading prayer meetings. So this week (today at 2, Tuesday at 4 and Wednesday at 1) I'm gonna be at Storke plaza to pray together with anyone who is free at that time. I really feel an urgency to pray. If you've never been to a prayer meeting before or you just think I'm weird lol, that's okay, come anyway, we'll start off with a time of debrief and sharing. I know I may bark pretty loudly in my writings but I don't bite (I'm gentle in person) 
so yeah lets be friends. God bless :)

Here's another one that I sent on 3/9/11 but I deleted it after I posted the other one the next day: Hey everyone :) *Unity in Prayer & Shayne.* So this quarter most people have been having a hard time spiritually (emotional rollercoasters, confusion, discouragement etc) and I realized that we didn't have any prayer meetings going on (no unity in prayer) until later on when Shayne and Lissah restarted their racial rec prayer meeting. Here's the thing there is power in praying together.
***So God put Shayne on my heart and I feel like we need to come together to wait on God and pray for her- against depression and also for Josh, for more healing. So tomorrow we are going to meet at the prayer shed at 7pm to pray and worship, to wait on God and expect Him to move.
*Also let's fast tomorrow (at least a meal). You can also fast a form of entertainment or any other distractions. I know we're all busy but let's fast time tomorrow. I'm just fed up of seeing people suffer and being afraid of doing what God tells me (1 Samuel 7:2-17, Isaiah 61:1-3, 2 Chronicles 7:14).
" For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power." (1 Corinthians 4:20) ->power of the Holy Spirit inside us. 
So yeah let's get together, praise, pray and wait on God. Please. For the sake of us all =)

So yeah, God's kept giving me the same message to share throughout last year: We all need to come together and wait on Him. I shared this in The Desert post and in pretty much all the posts I've shared for the the fellowship on the iv wall or in my blog. We are going to stay in this desert season until we learn to trust in the Holy Spirit. We need to trust God to fight our battles for us instead of relying on our own understanding. He is mighty! :) We need to take God at His Word, to obey Him. He already gave us the short-cut through this desert season (and all it's drama) through Kevin at Pre-fall (Matthew 20:16a) and Casey in the Fall (1 Corinthians 12: 21-25) and He kept giving me Isaiah 43:19 from freshman year. Like I said, rather like He said in Acts 1, we need to wait on Him. And that's what God's been telling me to share with you guys from my cultural background. But each time I was about to lead you guys in that there has been spiritual warfare that has prevented that from happening. So yeah, I'm just letting you know what the solutions are (application). What God has been telling us through different people and through His Word. All I was asking for was one common ground or any other time that we can all come together. All this blogging stuff could have been avoided if I was given the chance to share what God gave me to share from  prefall. But no worries, God is our restorer! :) If you still don't understand what I'm saying that is expected coz it's better to hear it from me and not just to hear it but to experience it for yourself (letting me lead you to see what I'm saying which is the gentle approach to teaching). God wants to solve our drama (-bring freedom- Isaiah 61:1-3) so that we can be outward focussed, for the rest of Isaiah 61 to happen. He wants us to love Him with our all and to also love each other deeply and sincerely then He'll send us out to spread that love and He'll add to our numbers. It's all about Him. It's all about Love. Ok, I'll stop here coz all this is really redundant. So yeah, let me know when you're ready for this (it's just real friendship + sincere love + waiting on God => racial rec/unity) and when you're ready to give up a common ground or any other time when we can all come together (I'd say sooner rather than later but yeah it's up to you guys). And don't say it won't work until you've actually tried it. And it's ok, you don't have to believe it will happen, we all have different gifts and I guess one of mine is Faith and I believe God will come through and do what He said He will do! He is able! Let's just surrender! :D

In the meantime (and always), I wanna be your friend! and I'm also looking for friends to do life with including stuff that I like to do. So yeah, invite me into your life and you are welcome into mine :-) Like I said, I feel an urgency to pray so let me know if you wanna join me. Wisdom, Kristin and I pray together on Tuesdays at 3pm - you are welcome to join us in front of the Ucen. And yeah, let's just form a habit of praying whenever we are together. We like discussing stuff which is great, but praying about it is even greater! =) Let's PRAY for the East coast. I had seen this ->video<- that's a prophecy about destruction coming to the East Coast- a mega tsunami and I don't know if what she saw was Hurricane Sandy and there's this one ->video2<- also, a prophecy about a massive storm coming to America as a warning from God and I think it's pretty descriptive of Sandy... or something bigger? idk. And I have more stuff to share with you guys (so you can not watch those videos until I give you the context or whatever). Don't worry though, we just need to pray! (Also, I'm making mandazis and watching a really cool documentary -Father of Lights- this Saturday so come join in! Especially if your wondering what the coming revival is gonna look like. K, all the best in your midterms! Love you guys! Peace :-)

P.S: I'm sorry for not being myself and sharing my life from the beginning. I've just been listening to the voices of fear in my head for a long time. They've been telling me that people don't like me and I had to change so I changed so much until I didn't know who I was or how to act. So that was actually the devil's tactics to keep me from loving people. So I'm sorry for letting fear hold me back from loving you guys. That's a form of pride and selfishness (like I mentioned in the American Idols post) so please forgive me. So yeah, I wanna change that. I wanna love people more. I wanna share my life and be a better friend. I know some of the stuff God gives me to share is pretty heavy and mostly about spiritual warfare (the devil's schemes in systemic stuff. Nothing personal!) but it will make more sense if we are interacting as friends. And I know I'm hard to understand since I'm in transition so I forgive you for not understanding me. It's time to fight for each other together. So let's all be friends. We are family and we all need each other. And please, if you have any questions about anything please talk to me. It's been hard for me to initiate coz I thought everyone hated me, but like I said I can't listen to those voices anymore. It's time to love. Time for unity. I'll be initiating more and feel free to do the same. Love Charlene =) (Related posts: A Call for unity in the Body of Christ and Unity is brewing up)

"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 saints." (Ephesians 6: 18)

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:6-7) =)

Count the Cost

“Anyone who loves their father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for My sake will find it." (Matthew 10: 37-39) - Jesus.

I know that video and that Scripture is pretty intense. Jesus calls us to a life of full and constant surrender. But once again we can't do it with on our own strength (that's why it's called surrender lol). So let's count the cost- be aware that He wants our all. He wants us to love Him with our all, more than anything else. Let's also be aware that He has the power to make us the overcomers that we are called to be :) Related post: Love Me.

♫ I have counted the cost for the sake of knowing You.♫

Lord, I don't want to cheat on You with the world anymore. I can't go back to the way it used to be before Your Presence came and changed me. I can't compromise anymore for the sake of fitting in, to follow tradition. All I want is You Lord. You are the giver of true peace and joy. So yeah, help me to stand firm and not to compromise. I want to please You and not the world. To trust in You alone and with my all. I want more of You Jesus! I want to be holy, set apart for You alone. So yeah help me to be in the world but not of it. Take me all the way Jesus! Related post: Intimacy.

"Teach me Your way, O LORD, that I may walk in Your truth; 

unite my heart to fear Your name." ♥ Psalm 86:11 ♥

Let there be Light! ☼

View of IV from FT North tower

Heavy, dull clouds drape the sky.

Color my life     with music! ♫

The parched land helplessly yearning.

Water the fields 

  with joy! ☺

Let there be light! ☼

Let there be life! ♥

This poem was originally for myself -it was my very first post- and I'll explain what it meant to me later in detail. But when I read it again it reminded me of UCSB. So yeah UCSB I'm dedicating it to you (us) :) At prefall leaders retreat last year, Alicia shared with us visions that she got about spiritual warfare intensifying in Santa Barbara. She saw massive dark clouds heading toward SB--but they weren't actually clouds but black winged creatures (demonic creatures. Some other people got visions about those). Many people got visions about revival happening at UCSB and the staff shared with us Kathryn Khulman's prophecy in the 70's that one day a great awakening would come out of Santa Barbara and would spread to the whole world. So yeah, the Kingdom of God is coming down to this town! and it's gonna advance in power!!! Freedom!!! :D But the devil is pro-slavery so he obviously doesn't like that which is why he upped his game and sent his evil reinforcements in a bid to oppose God's plan. And the increase of darkness has been evident at UCSB. And who hasn't noticed??? We now get a bunch of alerts via text and email notifying us of all stuff that goes down: robbery, assaults, attempted rape, people with weapons in IV even guns (I remember Marissa shared a vision that there was a shooter on campus) etc... and it has become like a weekly thing now. And that's on top of what already happens during the weekends: seeing and hearing fire trucks and ambulances has become so ordinary. Yup, IV got darker and you can tell without the gift of prophecy lol. People have been talking about it on facebook ("It's endtimes in IV"-Andrea's status) so yeah, it's official lol. Also, the increase of this darkness has been evident even within the body of Christ-> division; disunity :( The prophecies of conflict in InterVarsity came to pass and resulted in disunity. So yeah, so far it seems like the devil's schemes have been working: Oppression-> further oppressing the broken and the blind and weakening the body of Christ. It all comes down to a lack of true love. And I don't know about you but I'm sick and tired of seeing this hot mess and I'm so ready for revival!! So yeah, it's time to fight against the devil's kingdom of darkness (spreads through fear) with God's Kingdom of Light (spreads through Love) post: The Kingdoms. So SB and world, let there be light! ♫ Let there be love! Let there be peace! Let there be joy! Let freedom reign! Let children sing! Crown Jesus King! ♫ :-)

 

Body of Christ at SB, let's not deceive ourselves that all we have to do is sit back, cross our arms and speak that stuff into existence. Yes, let us PRAY!!! (Everyone everywhere please pray for SB especially for this weekend since it's Halloween) and also be aware of what we are praying for. Revival starts with us. When we pray "let there be light! let there be love!" Guess what we are telling God... "God please convict my heart of anything that is not of you so that I can surrender it to You. I want less of me and more of You. Fill me up with more of your Holy Spirit (The Spirit of power, love and self-control) so that I can love You more and love others more." So yeah, it's time for change so let's be reconciled to God and to each other (Unity. acting like the body we are). Let's ask God to fill us up and send us out. I don't know the situation in other fellowships but InterVarsity's a special case since it's multi-ethnic and super-divided right now so yeah, it's time we apply this (If the application isn't clear talk to me :) And I'll share ideas of how the whole body of Christ at UCSB can be more united but first let's deal with the drama within the individual fellowships. We are children of the light. Let there be love! (To be Rooted in Love) Let there be music! (sing praise with one voice. with the spirit of unity. true worship) Let us: Prepare The Way! Watch this video I made for us. 

Let there be

Light!☼

Love!♥

Life!☺