The Unlikely Missionary

Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty.           - 2 Corinthians 3:17 Last year's word was birth and God delivered on that word but not in the way I expected. I thoguht there was to be a new business or revenue stream, a new home, or some other tangible things birthed in this season. However God was saying, Damaris I'm going to birth a new you. In the last quarter of this year I have seen God do an amazing work in my life. It wasn't physical, material things. I haven't moved, still living in my parents house. I don't have a new business, in fact I haven't been able to dedicate the time I wanted to the business I have. I don't have a new revenue stream either but God has kept me and my family which has been a blessing. Instead, He birthed a new mindset, a new outlook, peace and trust in Him. He birthed a new and deeper relationship with Him. He birthed forgiveness and healing in my soul that I have never had.  So ...

  So now wrap your heart tightly around the hope that lives within us, knowing that God always keeps his promises!     -Hebrews 10:23, Passion Translation   I was taught that expecting God to give me things or do things for me was bad. We’re told to ask God for things but, in the same breath, not expect Him to give them to us. It was in the name of piety but how backward is that? Especially because it contradicts God’s Word. Then on the flip side, now we tell people to "Name it and claim it" but that leads to disillusioned Christians disappointed that God hasn't granted their wishes. God isn't a genie. That contradicts God's Word too. How many of us know the scripture, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you? ( Matthew 7:7-8) If this is true, which it is, doesn’t that create expectancy? Doesn’t that mean I should expect to receive something? Of cour...

You are blessed. That is a fact. Whether you believe that or not. While doing the 100 days of Believing Bigger pillars of Stillness and Blessing + Obedience, my whole outlook on blessing was changed. We are taught that we need to ask God to bless us. As if our life is not blessed unless we ask and even then God still has to do the blessing. In this context, even as a believer, you question whether you even deserve to be blessed. And if you feel like you aren’t blessed you can develop a woe is me or even hardened heart. However, when you take God view that you are already blessed, that blessing is internal and not external; that it is not something God gives to you but it is already in you; it creates a whole new paradigm. Instead of thinking you are not worthy of being blessed because you know you are you begin to look for the blessings in your life. You walk with a different posture because blessing is happening, your not waiting for it. And because you are blessed, you can pou...

 No elected leader in the US or otherwise was handpicked by God. Especially not Donald Trump. Truth be told God never wanted us to have a King or President or Prime Minister or Emperor or any other Ruler to begin with. So the very idea that God is picking presidents for a nation (the US) that is not the children or Israel, a nation that didn't exist when the convenent God made with the children of Israel was enacted is a level of mental gymnastics that quite honestly is equal parts impressive and sad.  The fact of the matter is: The children of Israel looked around and saw that their other counterparts had Kings and so they asked God for one. He didn't want them to have one but He loved them and He obliged them. That doesn't mean that God is still picking kings. The last King God chose was Jesus. Jesus is the King of ALL Kings. The Lord of ALL Lords. There is no need for another because...  NEWSFLASH : Our King is still ALIVE! Thi...

I'll say it one more time for those in the back, God is Not a Man. God is God.  I saw someone on Twitter say, I wish they would refer to God in she/her pronouns.  This instantly didn't sit right with me. I get that we want to see ourselves in God but we are made in the image of God. Both man and woman. Who are we as the created to place this finite construct of male and female on the God that created the world by speaking? When we talk of God the Father we say he and him but He is not a man in the sense that we comprehend. God had a very clear role for men that this world has taken and perverted. Men were to be our protection, trustworthy, loving, a mirror of Christ's love for His church. The problem is that the church has made Ephesian 5 about women submitting to their husbands although God only spends 2 verses on that and spend 9 verses on telling men how they are supposed to love their wives . Because this World and man's creation of patriachy has so perverted the o...

Avalon is one of my favorite Comtempory Christian groups. I have basically every CD they put out. I know all the songs by heart and have even sang them in church. Needless to say, I'm a fan. lol.  This song, Take You at Your Word just seemed fitting for today. The more you read and know of God as you walk in relationship with Him you realize you can take Him at His Word and your heart can rest assured that He's God you. We just need to be reminded sometimes that, Your word is life, Your word is love, Your word is true I can take You at Your word And my heart can rest assured Oh, I love you, Lord I trust You As I live I've learned That I can take You at Your word The Unlikely Missonary Damaris  

I realized the times in my life when I was the most blessed was when I wasn't actively trying to make it happen. Now that seems counter to the world and it should. The world says, create a plan, work the plan by any means necessary and meet your goal. And if you didn't meet the goal you didn't try hard enough. God's Word says, I am sure that the good work God began in you will continue until he completes it on the day when Jesus Christ comes again. Philippians 1:6 ERV It says nothing about a plan, it doesn't list out steps, it doesn't say if you work hard enough. It says if God has placed something in your heart to do He will complete it.   Since I was young God placed in my heart the following things. Get married Have kids Have a home My priorities in life have changed over the years but these three never did. And I worked hard to make it happen in my own strength and that didn't go too well.  Remember : IF God places it in you, HE will com...

When the scripture said there is nothing new under the sun its true. When I look out at the current moment the American Evangelical Church sits in, 1 Timothy 6 speaks so deeply to this moment. Where truth is lacking, the focus is protecting offering collections, Pastors viewing themselves as gods and refusing godly instruction. In this moment we are trading God's purpose for Money and Likes. I have a fondness for the Message translation of the Bible since my time as a Youth Leader at my father's church because of how it interprets the Word. So that is the verison you will see here. 1 Timothy 6:2-10 goes as follows: 2-5  These are the things I want you to teach and preach. If you have leaders there who teach otherwise, who refuse the solid words of our Master Jesus and this godly instruction, tag them for what they are: ignorant windbags who infect the air with germs of envy, controversy, bad-mouthing, suspicious rumors. Eventually th...

Many people say that they are Christians. But are you mirroring the Man we are named for? The Spirit of the Lord is on me, [Jesus], because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Luke 4:18, 19  (CSB) If we are condeming the poor and homeless saying they don't deserve assistance, if we support the idustrial prison complex (the same prison that enslaved Paul) instead of healing and redemption, if you believe that slavery does not need to be called out, atoned for and captives set free, if you believe that people deserve to be thrown away and cast aside then you are not love and are not a reflection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Throughout the New Testament Jesus revealed who He is so cle...

As I mentioned I'm doing the devotional 100 days of Believing Bigger devotional by Marshawn Evans Daniels. I'm on Day 21 and its talking about identity. I'm part of The Destiny Collective and we just  finished our live devotional reading and as I've just been sitting in it. Think about myself and how I see myself. I talk a lot about my worldview and God but I rarely talk here about what God shows me in my own quiet time. Part of the reason is not wanting to expose something so personal to judgement. Always wanting to have a perfect image when in truth I struggle just like everyone else. I'm not perfect but my entire life I have lived under this pressure to be perfect. Following protocol and being who people want me to be, Wearing Masks in order to be the me I know I can be good at. Can you relate? Today's live devotional gave me the realization that the shadow Damaris's I have created are not my savior and are actually a wei...

 I have been in a time of Worship and Praise since early this morning and for the last 3 hours I've been listening to Israel Houghton's Feels Like Home. It has been blessing me. But the very last song was the Hymn of Breakthough. There has been such a shift in my mindset, in my expectancy of God in the last almost 20 days. I'm expecting a breakthough or even breakthrough. The lyrics say, I hear the sound of breakthough, my breakthrough is here. Everything that I need You supply. Every promise of Heaven is mine. But the words that spoke to my spirit, I am healed, I am free God has spoken I agree My breakthrough is here God has spoken, I agree. God has spoken, I agree. God has spoken, I agree. God has spoken, I agree. Let the words follow over you, let in seep to you Soul so that you know, God has a breakthrough for. No matter what you are going through, no matter the sitution. God said, God said your breakthrough is here. Stand i...

I remember in December when I wrote that 2021 would be the year of Birth . 2020 had been incredibly hard and we all collectively experienced that pain. We were all looking for an epidural, a respite, relief from the agony. But with all that had happened in 2020 I just knew God had something that would come out of those pains. At the top of the year, I got promoted which was a birthing of all the hard, taxing but rewarding work I had done in 2020 at my organization. Then I was named to the Forbes Finance Council a few months later. I assumed, incorrectly, that this was what God had planned to birth in me in 2021. However even after this promotion and that recognition I still had expectation for more. That birthing, my promotion, was expected. I had done a lot, I had planned for it. I had labored and pushed to achieve that birthing. The recognition was not but throughout this year I have still felt pregnant. Like God was saying there is more, there is more that I have yet to show...