What's inside of you?

According to Sioux legend back in the time of creation The Creator wanted to hide His greatest secret from humans until they were ready for it, so He called all the creatures big and small to ask for their advise.

The grizzly Bear said, "Give me Your great secret! I will travel deep into a cave and they will never find it there."
The Creator said, "No, humans will someday journey into the earth and they will find the secret."

The killer whale said, "Give me Your secret! I will swim into the depths of the sea! NO MAN will ever find it there!"
The Creator said, "No, humans will soon travel deep into the seas, they will surely find it there!"

The eagle said, "Give it to me Lord, I will soar to the highest mountaintop NO ONE will ever find it there!"
The Lord said, "No, humans will make it to the mountaintops, they will definitely find it there!"

Then a mole walked up and although she was blind she had great wisdom; she said, "Hide it within them."
The Lord said, "It is done!"

You are of God, little children......because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

--1 John 4:4

We search and search for things to make us great...

We look high and we look low trying to find happiness...

We go into dark places looking for light...

We look in others trying to find something to make us better!

All the while the Greatness is on the inside...

Happiness is within...

The Light lives in the depths of our hearts...

And God placed treasures hidden in our very souls...

Exploration is the best part of discovery...find yourself and enjoy the journey--
God created you to be YOU--there's no one else on the face of the earth that is or will ever be you...HE made you JUST the way you are ON PURPOSE--

Everything you need He placed inside of you... After all He does live there

Just Bb

Will you stay or will you go?

But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” --Num 13:31-33


God told Moses to send LEADERS from each tribe to spy out the land that He was giving them, so Moses chose the heads of each tribe. The men left the wilderness and went into the land of Canaan and each came back with reports of milk and honey! They even brought back proof positive that the land was abundant with FRUIT.....BUT the land has fortified cities and GIANTS!!!

Despite the milk, honey, and fruit...not to mention the promise of the Father they refused to go into this land...Going as far as to rise up against Moses threatening to stone the positive Caleb and Joshua who trusted the word of God and were trying to lead them to a more fruitful place!

These people remained in the wilderness--they never entered into the promised land! They were so afraid of change and challenge that they chose to remain where they were! Never walking in God's promise for their lives--Never being FRUITFUL

Change is inevitable unless you're stuck in the wilderness.

I hear people say things like, "Things are not like they used to be." and the only response I have for that is...OF COURSE THEY'RE NOT-- If they were it would be a sure sign that progression and growth has not happened! PRAISE GOD that things are not the same as they were when we started!!! Our Church is growing and changing! (Don't get so STUCK in how things were that you miss the miracles and FRUIT of how things ARE!!!)

I look back at my life and my ministry and I see the seasons...There were some seasons that were completely satisfying, I would have loved for things to just remain that way...BUT God has more. He has milk, honey, and FRUIT!!!

Will you follow Him into the promised land? Or will you remain in a confortable wilderness, where they're are no giants or challenges and NO FRUIT!!!

If you choose to remain where you are...PLEASE put away your stones! Don't try to kill those who accept the challenge and receive the promise! If you are being left behind in the wilderness it's only because you chose to be a grasshopper and not a conqueror!

I KNOW that God has called me to a land flowing with milk and honey! He will go before be and take care of the giants! I REFUSE to remain in the wilderness---I'M CROSSING OVER!!!


Pastor Brandiilyne

WE rose....

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),  and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus--Eph 2:4-6 

 This morning as my Pastor was preaching about Christ's resurrection and what REALLY happened that miraculous day I got a revelation that I want to share....

But God...I love to hear those words...Who is rich in mercy, raised me from the grave WITH Christ! WE rose...it might have taken a couple of thousand years for my resurrection to manifest itself but...I rose with Christ that day--The stone rolled away from my grave and I live because He lives!!

AND...yes there's more!!!

I am RAISED up TOGETHER and seated in heavenly places WITH Christ---I'm not there yet--BUT IT's COMING!!!

AND... yes there's more!!!!

Because of what Jesus did I can visit Him in that heavenly place anytime and as often as I want!!! THAT MY FRIEND IS GOOD STUFF!!!

PRAISE GOD HE (we) ROSE!!!!!!!!

Pastor Brandiilyne 

I AM clean....

I wrote this blog on Easter morning 2012....I finally "GOT IT"  This has been the greatest discovery of my life....God's unfathomable and inexplicable grace....I finally understood the truth about God's radical grace and just in time! I had become suicidal because of the wrestling match inside of me and a couple months after writing this I decided to be true to myself and I accepted my sexuality and came out. That is when I discovered that God's grace was different from "man's grace" God's grace is unmerited, infinite, and free but the grace that people extend is limited, costly, and it usually involves work. Give me God's grace, because I can't afford man's--Bb


But the voice spoke again: “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.”--Acts 10:15

Peter was in a trance, God had given him a vision...Showing him all the things that under "religious" law were unclean. Then He told Peter to eat them, and Peter, once again, argued with God, as he piously said NEVER have I eaten anything that would make me unclean!!! Peter was, once again, corrected by the Lord...He said DO NOT call something unclean if I have made it clean--

God was giving Peter a revelation about the Gentiles the people whom Jews considered an abomination, or unclean. Jesus was showing Peter just how inclusive, impartial and powerful His grace really was and He was calling him out of religion and into that grace. He  then sent Peter to the house of Cornelius and there at his home the Gentiles experienced their very own Pentecost! Jesus taught Peter to extend grace as He does...without bias, cost, or reservations, after all it wasn't Peter who died so that the Gentiles or otherwise could have grace!

Peter was so caught up in "religion" and the law that grace had no place. God had to shake him and stretch him so that we, the Gentiles, could receive Christ as our own. I sometimes get caught up in the same spirit of religion...Not toward a specific people or group, but in myself! I forget, in my passion for God, about His perfect grace! I get so driven toward being "Christlike" that I become a religious NUT! Wrestling with my own "cleanliness". I often get twisted up in religious ritual, because the guilt that is entangled in my flesh rises up and says, do this or do that, in order to be righteous! 

I was reminded of this very flaw just the other day when a very good friend of mine called me a "zealot" and I took it as a compliment. Zeal is a good thing, I said... Zeal IS a good thing--- that is very true, but I have this personality where I have to do things 200% or not at all... Zeal, by definition, means to pursue something with fervor and intensity, which truly sums up my personality in a single word-- 

BUT.... what am I pursuing. Why am I going through the motions of religious ritual? I was forced to examine my heart, am I a zealot, for religion or for relationship...LOVE? The enemy had planted a seed of guilt in me and somehow convinced me that I was "unclean" and I must follow a precise religious regimen in order to regain favor--I have been in the SAME wrestling match since the DAY I got saved! 

I had been hearing about all this RADICAL GRACE...and I, a former drug addict, refused to fully accept grace for fear that it would become an out...an excuse...an ENEMY!! I needed religion to hold me accountable, and KEEP ME CLEAN!!! I believed that grace was for EVERYONE else, but it was something that I couldn't embrace for myself--

WOW! All this time I thought I was free, but the truth is I just stepped out of one prison (addiction) and into another (religion)! I have been trying to "impress" God with my holiness...trying to prove just how much I love Him!! HE ALREADY KNOWS!!! I was trying to be the BEST CHRISTIAN!! Any one who knows me, knows that I HAVE to be the best (I'm a tad competitive)...I was so busy trying to be the best "zealot" or fanatic, if you will,  that I forgot how to LOVE Him by way of loving people... ALL people...wow how humbling.

I can just hear Him saying to me, "Sweetie, stop trying to gain my favor...it's already yours. Just come to My table and sit a while with Me. I made you clean, and what I have made clean you must not call unclean! You are Holy only because of Me.You are the reason that I died, and I did that so that you could have an abundant life; a relationship with Me, not RELIGION! NOW you go and extend that love and grace in the same measure as it has been given to you"

I feel like He is saying to us (The Church) "If you want to be like Me, LOVE like me...and don't try to be Me by decided what is "clean" or "unclean... When I said, "It is finished" I meant it!" 

Grace... unmerited favor-- It only took me 8 years to really get it!

Just Bb

Boxing with God?

But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.” -- Acts 5:39 

We have been called out of this slumber to do a great work--NO MORE CHURCH AS USUAL--and I truly believe that we are on the verge of an amazing end time revival! I have been blessed to be able to watch the parable of the "great banquet" (Luke 14 at bottom) become a reality-- I believe that God is pulling His Church out of the ditches and the low places. The "highways & hedges" 

I am surrounded by miracles; men and women who have came from the ditches and have stepped into  pulpits in the jails, the dark places and in the very ditches from which they themselves were saved! Many people reject the very idea that a former junkie, or a felon could possibly be called to do the work of God, and so often we feel the punch of rejection and disapproval. 

We have also experienced straight up sabotage; or shall I say attempts to sabotage  our ministry or even our integrity...but they are only boxing with God! I have watched God rise up and fight every battle that comes our way. It took me a little while to stand back and let someone else fight my battles, I was raised to defend myself at all cost, then I met God and He said that the battle was not mine but His...

Unfortunately, some people (NOT ALL) don't like success unless it's their own so they attempt to tear it down...but take heart; if God built it there is NO MAN that can destroy it! So if you see me standing on the sidelines with my hands lifted in surrender, don't celebrate too quickly, I am simply allowing God to step into the ring...and if you're foolish enough to box with Him have at it!!!

Be encouraged--It may feel like you are surrounded by enemies, but if it's from God no one will be able to stop you!!! Step back and let God fight for you--I promise HE WON'T LOSE!!! 

Pastor Brandiilyne

Then He said to him, “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’  But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’  And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’  Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’  So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’  And the servant said, ‘Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.’  Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compelthem to come in, that my house may be filled.  For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.’” Luke 14:16-24

Peter...the rock

Peter is my favorite of all the 12 disciples....Jesus described Peter as, "the rock" on which He would build His church upon. (Matt 16:18) I have often wondered why Jesus referred to him as "the rock" and I have looked at it from many angles

1. Could it be because of his stability?

 Stability? well...Peter was probably the most unstable of all the disciples! He was quite emotional and ALWAYS said what he was thinking! He never thought before he spoke, his zeal often outweighed his wisdom, or lack there of. For example: Right after Jesus referred to Peter as "the rock" He almost immediately called him a stumbling block, because Peter had the audacity to rebuke Him--(Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” Matt 16:22-23)


2. Could it be his solid commitment?

Committed? well...Do you remember Peter was asleep when Jesus was agonizing over His purpose in prayer in the garden of Gethsemane--(“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.”  Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Simon,” he said to Peter, “are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Mark 14:34-37)
And who can forget the day that Judas betrayed Jesus, only moments after Peter was sleeping in the garden, Peter betrayed Jesus by denying Him. Peter went so far as to curse.--(While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant girls of the high priest came by.--- When she saw Peter warming himself, she looked closely at him. “You also were with that Nazarene, Jesus,” she said. But he denied it...He began to call down curses on himself Mark 14:66-68 & 71)


3. Could it be his unmovable faith?


Faith? well... There was the time that Peter sank LIKE a rock... (But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” Matt 14:30-31)


4. Could it be his awesome education?

Education? well...Peter was an uneducated fisherman...When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. Acts 4:13


So why did Jesus call Peter a rock?

1. Peter was probably the MOST emotional of all the disciples but...He was also the MOST PASSIONATE!!!!

2. Peter was also somewhat wishy washy, but he was the only one who tried to defend Jesus when the Pharisees came to arrest Him in the garden (John 18:10)

3. Peter may have sank like a rock, but he was the ONLY disciple to get out of the boat as a matter of fact Peter was always the first to get out of the boat! If you will recall he jumped from the boat when Jesus appeared after His resurrection, and on both occasions the other disciples remained in the boat! (John 21:7)

4. Peter may have been uneducated but he had more boldness and he KNEW what and Who he was  was talking about! He stood and spoke infront of multitudes, and because of his boldness he revolutionized  the world! He preached the VERY first revival, and over 3,000 people were saved!!!  (Acts 2:14-41)

Peter is my favorite disciple because I believe he's the most like me...he was EXTREMELY passionate which often came bubbling out as irrational emotional outburst!!! He protected those that he loved with reckless abandon...and he was always the first to jump in head first!

So why did Jesus call Peter "the rock" I have come to the conclusion that it was because of his hardheadedness!! Peter was hard headed, tenacious, and resolute beyond that of the others...He had a resolve like flint, UNBREAKABLE! He was uneducated yet bold--overcoming his shortcomings by the power of the Holy Spirit!

Yes Peter had some flaws, but just like a diamond, the strength and beauty outshine the flaws! 

Pastor Brandiilyne