Jam Session: Friday, June 24, 2022

God is Love.

Anytime I think of this phrase, I immediately see the ending scene of the 2000’s show Run’s House on MTV. Rev. Run is in the tub, and he’s saying some message about an aspect of self-improvement we can apply. What if the only self-improve we needed was to change our belief system?

The world will have us conditioned to believe that we dwell amongst lovelessness, and I would argue this is the indoctrination of our society, and the belief that erotic, passionate love (Eros) is the only kind out there – and we’ll begin to base the value of ourselves and others in accordance to their physical traits.

Let me be the first to say that is an unloving act.

Are you not more than the outer beauty? Are there no other depths to you? What good is it to be attractive if you repel everyone around you by being a cocky asshole (pun intended), and have the same ability to make others feel that way too?

I’m not even saying that God didn’t have qualifiers for physical beauty either, for had it not been for Esther’s good looks in the Bible (coupled with training and preparation), she was able to free her people. God sees that some people are so blinded by these features that he often used someone’s physical beauty as a means of distraction to his ultimate goal.

I digress.

A banging body and a pretty smile isn’t love, but how someone makes others feel around them can definitely be love. So, when I use the phrase God is love, I am taking into account what is said about love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (note: I changed love to God:

  • God is patient
  • God is kind
  • God does not envy
  • God does not boast
  • God is not proud
  • ‭God does not dishonor others
  • God is not self-seeking
  • God is not easily angered
  • God keeps no record of wrongs
  • God does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth
  • God always protects
  • God always trusts
  • God always hopes
  • God always perseveres

If God is Love, then God is the embodiment of these truths about love – not only that, but if God dwells in all of us. Then imagine what begins to happen when we move in love. After all, Jesus told us the two most important things was to love God above everything, and love your neighbor as yourself. Apply the above principles to help you guide your prayer life and expectancies of God, and how you move with other people. Trust, even the hardest of hearts can tell the goodness of God’s love at work through others from someone whose merely trying to check a box of deeds.

God is love.

I love you.

A Prayer

Father God,

Thank you for your goodness and mercy. Father God, I thank you for not only teaching me how to be content in every circumstance, but that you allow me to approach you confidently and boldly with my requests in a way that only you can make things happen in life. I thank you for your surrounding me with love and support and the gift that you give to all of us to move in the same energy with one another here on Earth, as it is in Heaven. May your light shine so bright within me that it encapsulates all in my presence.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Mood Music

There’s something about the song Jireh that motivates me to be bolder and more confident. Sometimes, it feels like we doubt what God can do in our life because we have an over-reliance on our own power, and we doubt what more we can do when we move with God, and rest in His goodness and not in our own power.

Sounds tricky when I read it back. I am more confident and bold because I know that God can do anything in my life? But aren’t those also my own character traits as well? Yes – so in God, with God, for God, because of God, I have the confidence in knowing I will always be okay, and that is enough for me.

Just like my Jehovah Jireh.

Until Monday.

Jam Session: Thursday, June 23, 2022

But God.

God has been revealing to me that He’s strengthening my spiritual gift of knowledge and discernment, and has had me reveal these truths in some interesting ways over the past week.

Perhaps the most interesting revelation of my gift of knowledge happened on Tuesday – a particularly long calendar day, where I was moving from one appointment to another without so much as a break. My therapist expressed she’d be late for my appointment, and asked if we should reschedule. Given the fact that I had an upcoming retreat that wasn’t sitting easy on my Spirit, I asked her to please grant me a 1/2 hour appointment. She obliged, and I took an extra 10 minutes from my former church’s leadership meeting.

“Hey Jamila, our brother has some great news to share!”

I let a half second go by before I said, “His wife is pregnant.”

The doubt presented itself immediately. “How’d you know that?” “She must have texted you.” “Someone told her before the meeting.”

“No one told me a thing – I just figured it out – okay, well God has been working on helping me develop my spiritual gifts lately – I can’t explain it – I just know.”

Perhaps God is also revealing something in you about your gifts, purpose, or calling. Are you listening to the messages he’s sending? Better yet, are you listening to the messengers? Sometimes I find that it’s not our unwillingness to listen to God, but the inability to hear the message from a particular source that does not match our expectations.

God shows up in seven billion different ways, and even more that we’re unaware of – don’t get caught up in your limitations and miss the blessings.

I love you.

A Prayer

Father God,

Thank you for revealing your spiritual gifts at work within me. Lord, as I continue to come confidently and boldly before your throne in prayer, I ask that you keep refining me to be a clear vessel from which your message flows. As I continue to cast my cares and anxieties upon you Lord, I am grateful for the freedom under which you allow me to operate, as I am not a victim to my own thoughts. Bless those around me Lord who may not be able to see my divinity at work, and Lord, may you continue working on my gift of discernment which will guide me to the right spaces and places of acceptance.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Mood Music

Sometimes, God has to take everything away from your life in order for you to appreciate him better. My non-believers may see this as an unloving act, but me? I see it as the highest form of love. Have we made idols out of our material world ownership? What would happen if everything in life was stripped away from you? Could you still love? Could you still live? Would breathing stop? Or your heart?

As long as life pulsates in our body, we can always rebuild. Remember, no matter what, God has the final say.

And since you already know that truth, rejoice! And Dance your pain away. We already knew you had problems.

Until Tomorrow.