STAND TALL

   

STAND TALL

The Lord is involved in everything we do, including our choices politically, socially, and emotionally. When we voice our choices publicly, we better be ready to be criticized. Nobody craves criticism. It can be hurtful, but we need to learn to deal with it. It’s better to take a stand for something and be criticized than to remain apathetic and fearful. Even in olden times, kings respected strong enemies who were brave enough to stand tall for what they believed. God’s Word has a strong Word for those who He deems lukewarm:

“I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:15-16).

Wow, that’s powerful!  I used to be more afraid of offending friends and family, than of offending God. I wanted people to like me, and I didn’t want to argue or get into any debates where I had to defend what I thought. But after a while, I learned that no matter what I did, I wasn’t going to please everyone.  There are many adult children who are still trying to please their parents, and it just isn’t happening.  I was one of them.

Finally, in my mid-forties, I realized I didn’t have to try to please my parents anymore. The very middle verse of the Bible says: “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man” (Ps. 118:8). When I changed my focus to pleasing God, it was shortly afterward that my parents began to totally respect me as an adult person and not as a needy child anymore.

I was taught to be polite (which I think is a good thing), but polite became timid, and timid became fearful. I’m not fearful now, and you don’t have to be either. We can speak our minds openly and disagree. Paul and Peter disagreed about certain things, but they didn’t hate each other. They were loud and proud. I’d rather say what I think and be criticized than be lukewarm and have God’s opinion be that I’m too “milk toast” to even swallow!

Peter was a bold guy. He boldly told Jesus that He shouldn’t have to die. Well, Jesus rebuked him. But Jesus didn’t forsake Peter. He just corrected him, and they went on being friends. If we think that not voicing what we think is going to make us a better person, it’s not. We all have opinions, and God knows what they are. When we don’t speak them out, we might not even be fully aware of what we really think.

Putting a pen to our thoughts, or a voice to our thoughts helps us to articulate what we think. When we know what we think, we can either keep thinking it or we can change it. Changing what we think is part of growth. People change what they think all the time. There’s no fault in that.

But when our thoughts are fuzzy and unspoken, they aren’t clear, and they aren’t cold or hot. They become lukewarm like the Bible says.

Taking a stand, hot or cold, on what we think requires boldness. Boldness is a quality God admires. Just look at your concordance to see how many times the word “bold” is used in the Bible!

Let’s be brave. Let’s step out without fear and voice our opinions, not just mimicking or agreeing with what others think, but what we truly think. Our true friends will remain friends, just like Peter and Jesus. Right or wrong, we’ll find out later, which means that sometimes we are definitely going to be wrong. But so what? We’ll be right sometimes too. And don’t even think for one minute that you have to wait until you’re totally right before you speak up. The last totally right all the time person got up and out of here over 2000 years ago!

Stand and be grand!

Love, Carolyn

BOBBING FOR APPLES

This Wednesday is HALLOWEEN

YOU’LL NEVER SEE BOBBING FOR APPLES IN THE SAME WAY AGAIN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLcx4JDnQAI&feature=share

STONEHENGE, DRUIDS, BOBBING FOR APPLES? These are all parts of the true origins of Halloween. Watch this short video and learn the truth.

Love, Carolyn

FREE DOWNLOAD: My booklet on MIRACLES:

Get it on Amazon or I can send you a FREE PDF or WORD file: cjmolica@hotmail.com

BACK WITH A SMILE ON SUNDAY 😊

Love, Carolyn

GOD'S WORD ON WITCHES

GOD’S WORD ON WITCHES

Witches and Satanists get together in our communities around the world to put hexes and spells on people like you and me. People in other nations around the world are way more aware of the devastation of witch doctors, Shamans, Satanists, and witches than we are in the US. Even though the Word of God has much to say about witches, we choose to ignore it or think that the idea of witches being real, is foolish. I guarantee you, it is not. This weekend witches got together in Brooklyn NY to cast spells and curses on President Trump and Judge Kavanaugh. You may not like these men, or you may despise them, but casting curses, spells, and hexes on them is a spiritual matter that is not to be tolerated.

The law of the Old Testament says: “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” (Exo. 22:18). In Old Testament times, they physically stoned witches to death. But that practice was denied by the coming of Christ Jesus. That’s not God’s will today. We have much greater power and authority now.

If you kill a person that embodies a demon, that physical person dies, but the demon goes free, looking for another person to inhabit. Instead, we have the power and authority in Christ, to stop the demon, and let the person go free.

God tells us: “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds” (1 Cor. 10:3-4). “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12).

So, if we look at the Old Testament verse in light of what God gave us in Christ, we see a new picture for how we can deal with, cast out and stop activated witchcraft in our areas of influence. “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” Let’s break that down. What does it mean “to live”? What do you think of when you think of something or someone living? It has movement and influence, and that’s exactly the meaning of the Hebrew word used here. “Chayah” means: “to give life, to cause to grow, to sustain life, and to live prosperously.”

As a believer in Christ, we have the spiritual power to come against the spirit of witchcraft. God is bigger than any demon! He said we should not allow a witchcraft spirit to live. In the name of Jesus Christ, we say to the multiple spirits of witches, “Stop! You have been relieved of any life in your curses. Your hexes die before they even get out of your mouths. Your spells are withered and drying up now in the power of the living Lord Jesus Christ! They’re going nowhere. Your gathering, your intentions, your words will not prosper. God will see to it that all the evil you intended dies now. In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to leave those people right now.”

When Jane and I prayed a similar prayer to what I put above, we knew that the Lord and warring angels went to arrest and stop the evil that was spoken at the witches gathering in Brooklyn. Many of the witches spirits were cast out to the feet of Jesus to be tormented before their time.

For those of you who speak in tongues, remember that God says it’s perfect prayer (Romans 8), so do it often.

This is serious stuff but know that we have a seriously MIGHTY GOD! And we have MIGHTY VICTORY.

Love, Carolyn

Here’s a link if you want to hear a little more about the gathering in Brooklyn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qbhX5VUrgY

INSTINCT OR CHOICE?

  

INSTINCT OR CHOICE?

The ranger told us about the tarantula migration. At this time of year, every year, the males come out of their burrows and walk across the desert seeking the females. Some travel over 50 miles to find her. It’s instinct. As humans, we have the instinct to seek God, our creator. The difference between animals and us is that we can go against our God-created nature. Unlike animals, we have the free will to deny instinct—we have the choice to say no, and crawl right back into our holes.

It’s in our nature to seek the truth, a truth that is deeper and farther reaching than even our conscious minds are aware of sometimes. It’s just a part of who we really are. Some people distract themselves and busy themselves, so they never have to confront this essential self-awareness. Others know they’re seeking, but they don’t know who or what.

That was the case with the Apostle Paul when he went to Athens. He went to where the people gathered to discuss philosophies beliefs and “addressed them as follows: ‘Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way, for as I was walking along, I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about’” (Acts 17:22-23).

The Greeks were such seekers, they didn’t want to miss out on any deity, so they even put up a shrine to the one they might have missed! Hilarious, but it goes right along with our human nature to seek the truth. When Paul came along he had the opportunity to tell them about the God they didn’t know, and the significance of His son Jesus Christ.

In Jeremiah 29: 12-14, our God gives just a few of the great benefits of searching Him out:

“I will hear and heed you. Then you will seek Me, inquire for, and require Me [as a vital necessity] and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will release you from captivity.”

But like the tarantula, our journey across the desert has its obstacles, and that’s why we need to seek the Lord every day and in every situation. It’s so easy to fall into some kind of mental, emotional or even physical captivity if we dare to think we can do fine on our own. It’s pretty simple really. God created us, Jesus knows everything about us, and we are just not that smart!

For the tarantula, there are the huge rocks to go over, the snakes and predatory birds to avoid, and the cholla cactus that throws out barbed spines if you even get close to it. You don’t even have to touch it for it to become an enemy. And then there’s the infamous tarantula hawk, a large orange-winged wasp about two inches long.

The tarantula hawk is mostly passive at every other time of the year, eating only vegetation, but when the tarantulas migrate, the female wasp becomes a vicious one.

She flashes those beautiful orange wings and injects her paralyzing venom into the spider, then pulls the paralyzed victim (about eight times her weight) into a hole below the sandy desert floor. The spider may or may not awake out of the paralysis as it becomes the first meal of the baby wasps whose eggs were injected into its hairy flesh.

The point: seeking has its dangers. The journey has unseen obstacles and hardships. But the tarantulas don’t just stop. They carry on—it’s instinct. A few get stung by the wasp and won’t make it, but most of the seekers find what they’re seeking. It’s the same with us.

God’s Word says, and Jesus confirms: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened” (Matt. 7:7-8).

Sometimes we read a scripture and/or say a scripture to ourselves and think it should work, and then we get disappointed and discouraged when we don’t get results. That’s because we keep it in our own realm. We say it to ourselves, and it doesn’t go where it needs to go. We read and say, “Ask.” But we don’t DO the asking.

Instead of just reading and saying the scripture to ourselves, we need to speak directly to our God, and/or say it to our Lord Jesus: “Lord, your Word says ‘ask,’ so I AM ASKING You now. I am SEEKING You now.” Bend your ear to me now and answer me. I am listening and expecting. Thanks for being here with me now. Amen.”

There are many examples in the gospels of those who sought after Jesus. I love the story of Zacchaeus, who was a short man and climbed up into a tree to be able to see Jesus, unobstructed by the crowd. And what did Jesus do? Luke 19:5 tells us:

“When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” The Carolyn translation would go something like this: “Hey, buddy, come on down. I want to spend some personal time with you, so let’s go to your house.”

The male tarantula’s instinct is to seek a mate once a year. Our instinct by nature is to seek our Lord and God daily. Let’s follow that instinct and go with the plan our creator has set before us, one day at a time.

Love, Carolyn

Check out my books on Amazon. If you’d like a FREE pdf or word doc. of one of my booklets, let me know at cjmolica@hotmail.com .

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MEEKNESS AND VICTORY

MEEKNESS AND VICTORY - THE DESIRE TO BE MORE LIKE JESUS CHANGES OUR SOUL

God knows what’s best for us, but, depending on our personalities, some of His requirements seem so much harder to accept than others. For me, it’s submitting to secular bosses. I wish God didn’t say that in His Word, but we have the very first example in the very first book of the Bible, so it must be important. Genesis 16 tells us Sarai was jealous of her maid, Hagar, and treated her so badly that Hagar fled. An angel comes to her and says: “’Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where did you come from, and where are you intending to go?’ And she said, ‘I am running away from my mistress Sarai.’ The Angel of the Lord said to her, ‘Go back to your mistress and [humbly] submit to her control’” (Gen. 16:8-9 AMP). WOW, what a huge bummer!

But doing things God’s way is always going to be profitable for us, even if we don’t understand it, and even if it seems so hard. Notice, Hagar didn’t have anywhere to go. That’s our mistake sometimes: we want to run away; we think we are ready to go, but God doesn’t have our next place prepared yet.

There are many verses in the New Testament where the Lord talks about submitting. 1 Peter 2:18 is one of those scriptures, and, honestly, I wish I could take it out of the Bible. “Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear (respect); not only to the good and gentle but also to the forward.” The word ‘froward’ means “crooked, perverse, wicked and unfair.” Are you kidding?! Do I have to “obey, yield, subordinate” to one of these types? It doesn’t seem right, and yet the Word of God requires this kind of action and attitude, as long as our yielding doesn’t cross the line of what the rest of God’s Word says.

If you are like me and you don’t like the idea of submitting to crooked bosses, then you probably aren’t going to like the other verses, 1 Peter 2:13-17, either, but there they are. If you can accept what I present in this article, be brave and take a look at those verses mentioned above too. They are definitely challenging for most of us I think.

Somehow our actions are going to have to line up with what God asks of us, even if we don’t like it. But I’ve come to believe that if we release our ego and pride, and just jump in and do what God asks, we will get the understanding and the promise at the end of Philippians 4:7: “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

Today I needed to remind myself that meekness is a good thing and it is already in me. But lately, I’ve been letting pride override. So, the Lord led me to go back and re-read an article I wrote a couple of years ago. He wanted to remind me of how He worked in a similar situation, and how I was able to receive His peace and victory.

September 2014. It was another rush job. The designers were sending over three samples of red brick, and they wanted me to do variations of whitewash and aging on them. The samples arrived late. The mortar wasn’t even dry yet, but they still wanted me to finish them so they could pick them up the next day. This was a tough challenge.

I was under pressure to work quickly. I got three fans out to dry the mortar first. Then I started to mix my colors. When somebody pushes me in a situation like this, I want to push back. But I told myself, Jesus is with me. It’s okay. I can do this.

Then the project manager told me they were coming for the pieces two hours earlier than planned. For a few minutes there I mentally lost it. ‘What?’ I thought. ‘They bring me the pieces late. They aren’t even dry enough to paint, and now they want them completed two hours earlier?’ I started to get angry, and then a strange thing happened.

I felt a meekness come over me. I didn’t even have to try to overcome anger or any of that. My old nature of rebellion just disappeared instantaneously as an overwhelming meekness enveloped me. It wasn’t me trying to be meek. It was genuine. It clothed me inside and out, and it felt true and good. It was like an atmosphere of meekness, through and through, beautiful, elegant and powerful. ‘This isn’t me,’ I thought. But I didn’t have the time to ponder it, so even though it felt alien, I went with it.

I finished up the samples before the deadline, and I’m sure it was the Lord helping me on that one too. I told my project manager he could call the guy to pick them up and I followed him over to the job site with my touch-up kit.

I was so calm and peaceful in this new air of meekness. I walked onto the job site in my typical outfit: a tee-shirt and painter pants that used to be white but now were about 75% covered in paint from various past jobs. My boots were also paint-spattered. I had on my hard hat and my safety vest which didn’t fit because they only come in one size, large. I found a place to sit on a dusty stack of bricks, but I felt like an elegant, powerful queen in a gorgeous dress and beautiful crown. The meekness wasn’t a weakness. It made me feel great and free.

The designer arrived and picked the sample he said he just loved. That made me happy, but not nearly as happy as this new meekness I was experiencing.

It was great to feel genuinely calm inside, in contrast to the uproar I usually felt in these hurried, stressful, last minute situations. Some part of my soul had changed. The old me: sharp-tongued, rebellious and angry. This new meekness had to be the fruit of the spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23, part of the new me, the Christ in me. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”

Romans 7 talks about the two natures we have in us, the old one and the new one. Only God, through Jesus Christ, can deliver us from our old nature (Rom. 7:24-25). I had tried my best in the past to be meek under stress, but even with my strongest efforts it wouldn’t last very long, and it definitely wouldn’t be true meekness.

But with the miraculous working of the Lord Jesus Christ, the rebellious, angry nature of the old Carolyn was replaced by the true and wonderful meekness of Jesus Christ. That’s the new nature God intended for me to have. It had nothing to do with me changing myself. It had everything to do with the Lord working in me to change me into my real self in Christ. All I did was have to desire to be more like Him, and the spirit of Christ in me changed my soul.

“I can hardly wait to see what the Lord is going to do today.” It’s an exciting life.

Love, Carolyn

Christmas is coming. One of my books could make the perfect gift for a friend or relative. Find them here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&index=aps&keywords=WINGS%20Carolyn%20molica&linkCode=ur2&tag=jmbcsds-20&linkId=XQMVLVZYNBLYAGEM

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THE LORD LOOKS ON THE HEART

One month after her surgery Anne entered into the familiar storefront meeting room. All her old friends were there, but they treated her differently.

She looked pale and weak, not the funny, fearless person they knew pre-surgery. They smiled politely and got involved in other conversations, leaving Anne out. What was going on?

The Holy Spirit told me they were afraid. They had been used to a person who had answers, wisdom, and strength. Here was the same person, but her outward appearance was so different. They didn’t know how to handle it, so they didn’t talk to her. They avoided her for several months after her surgery.

At first, I was mad at them for being so callous and disrespectful, but then I realized THEY were the ones to be pitied.  They were missing out on a great experience. What they could have gained in wisdom, understanding, and guidance, they had given up because of their fears.

They couldn’t seem to see past Anne’s exterior appearance and perceived weakness.

People get sick and have things happen to them that change them. That’s just a fact of life. But as Christians, we need to be able to still give people the respect and love they need.

The other day I was driving home from work, and Jane was in the passenger seat. We were approaching a corner where we’ve seen a skinny raggedy-looking homeless man many times waving and smiling at everyone. The Lord told Jane to give the guy $2.00. He was so excited and talked super-fast as he told us he had been off of drugs and alcohol 15 days now and he could drive, and he could work. Jane and I both told him, “good job!” He “God blessed” us several times as we said the same back to him. When we drove off, we both realized the guy was not nearly as excited about the money as he was about having someone to tell his story to and them telling him he was doing a good job. People want to be respected and appreciated.

Our God looks at the heart of a man or woman. When God sent Samuel to find a king to replace Saul, even the great prophet was only looking at the exterior: “And it came to pass, when they were come, that he [Samuel] looked on Eliab, and said, Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him. But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart” (1 Sam. 16:6-7).

God doesn’t look at race or nationality, male or female, background, culture, sickness, weakness or health. God looks straight through to the heart, and we need to practice this too. We all go through down times, weak times. We don’t want to abandon people when they’re going through something. We need to have a little patience, respect, and more love. Isn’t that what we’d want?

Love, Carolyn

More great true story vignettes – opportunities to see the Word of God at work in a person’s everyday life. 😊

https://www.amazon.com/WINGS-JOURNEY-JESUS-Carolyn-Molica-ebook/dp/B01HLPCQPS/ref=as_sl_pc_as_ss_li_til?tag=jmbcsds-20&linkCode=w00&linkId=17df1629f3a0495e0e4e159e6c208129&creativeASIN=B01HLPCQPS

SOMETHING ABOUT DEMONS

SOMETHING ABOUT DEMONS

“You drink one or two glasses of scotch, then it’s more and it’s more. Eventually, you get to the place this substance is completely controlling your life. It’s found in great levels in the bloodstream to where someone might think that some of your blood is that substance. It’s the same with demons. They start from the outside. . . .” At least listen to the first 11 minutes. This guy has a way of making it plain. You may not agree with everything he says, but listen for the gems of truth and you will understand real life a whole lot better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vl_9PqFick

Love, Carolyn

GOD'S WAY OF STOPPING THE PERFECT STORM

GOD’S WAY OF STOPPING THE PERFECT STORM
I congratulated Shelley, “Wow, you’ve lost 90 pounds, and you look awesome!” She didn’t even smile, “I don’t feel like it. I just can’t see any difference.” Ninety pounds and she couldn’t see any difference? Everyone could see it, but she couldn’t. She told me that she was having problems in her family and wasn’t allowed to see her grandson. And there were issues with work that were exasperating. She was spiraling downhill and attacked from all sides. This chain of events is what I call the perfect storm.

“The perfect storm” is a term meteorologists use to describe a storm of astronomical power and devastation. It’s caused by a number of separate events mobilizing to drastically aggravate the circumstances and produce a storm of extreme magnitude.

Sometimes we feel like our lives are thrown into that kind of storm—no way out, nowhere to turn for safety, no rest, no escape. Swirling in the perfect storm makes us feel like we’re drowning and we can hardly breathe.

In Psalm 18:5 David says, “The sorrows of hell compassed me about.” The original Hebrew for “sorrows” translates “a noose tied together twisting around so that there is no escape.” And the Hebrew for “compasses” means “whirl around on every side, surround, besiege, and enclose.” When we’ve felt attacked, hurt from every side and spiraling uncontrollably down, this is what David is describing here in Psalm 18.

David didn’t mind telling God that the enemy was too strong for him. Like in the movie titled “The Perfect Storm,” even the strongest and smartest guy found that there was no escape. Like that guy, sometimes we have to admit that we truly can’t handle it, and that’s okay with God.

What happens when this overwhelming storm of attacks surrounds a person? They can get swallowed up like Jonah, or nearly drowned in a hurricane like Paul (Acts 27) or pulled down in agony and terror like David. I’ve seen people end up in the hospital, or in my case one time thrown into a long and miserable suicidal depression.

This kind of intense spiraling spiritual attack is no small matter. The oppressiveness mounts up like floods, and the pot gets stirred around and around by Satan himself. We have to remember that it’s not the people who are attacking us, but the demons that are behind the very thoughts and actions of the evil that comes against us.

But our God is much more powerful than anything Satan can manipulate. I’ve seen from studying different records in the Bible that God has a specific remedy for the perfect storm.

When David called on God to help him, God got up off His throne, and He roared:

The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire.

Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them. (Ps. 18:13-14)

God said He “discomfited” them, which in Hebrew means He made an uproar; He agitated them and destroyed them.  In verse 15 we’re told that God discomfited them with a loud “rebuke at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.” We’re also told in that verse that the roots of the attacks on David were “discovered.” The Hebrew for that word tells us the demons were “exposed, shamelessly revealed, stripped and exiled.” I just love that.

At the blast of God’s breath, David was sprung out from Saul’s attempts to destroy him. A blast from God and Jonah was thrown safely onto the beach. By the loud, strong words of Paul, the broken up ship was hurled to shore, but all lives were saved, including his.

When I saw the perfect storm of spiritual attack on my friend Shelley, God gave me strong, loud words of deliverance to shout out, in the name of Jesus Christ. I didn’t have to be there in her presence for Satan and his devils to hear God’s rebuke. The demons were exposed and defeated!

In just a couple hours I got confirmation of her deliverance: She posted a new picture of herself in her skinny jeans and a great big smile, and another photo showing a current snapshot of her with her grandson. I found out later that the work issues also turned out to her benefit.

When confronted with this kind of perfect storm situation, we need to shout or speak with a strong word, not a polite asking. Think about yelling at a sports event. Even the quietest and meekest can get up a good yell.

Clear your lungs and your life with a good shout! It has to be from the standpoint of believing in what you’re doing and believing in the power of our God to rescue. The Lord will give the words. We just have to start. No devil, not Satan himself can stand up against the powerful roar of our God! Believe and receive.

Our God is greater than any storm.

Love, Carolyn

NEW INSIGHT AND KEYS TO LIVING WITH GOD IN MIND

https://www.amazon.com/WINGS-JOURNEY-JESUS-Carolyn-Molica-ebook/dp/B01HLPCQPS/ref=as_sl_pc_as_ss_li_til?tag=jmbcsds-20&linkCode=w00&linkId=17df1629f3a0495e0e4e159e6c208129&creativeASIN=B01HLPCQPS