Tag Archives: traditions

06.25.17
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Are You Ready to Make the Dead Alive?

Nicole Headshot in blue shirt

Nicole D. Hayes, Founder, Voices Against the Grain

From this article’s title, please do not think I’ve gone rogue. I am not suggesting a séance or any other means in which some people on this side of heaven attempt to communicate or connect with those who have passed on. But I am referring to Someone Who can make even those physically dead alive and make alive those who are walking around spiritually dead: Jesus Christ.

Jesus came that we might enjoy life right now, and life to the full even before we spend our forever days with Him and our Christian brothers and sisters in heaven. Jesus is the Bread of Life; a staple, essential for life. Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:35)

From the opioid and drug addicted, to the depressed and suicidal, to the vile and violent, to the oppressed and the oppressor, to those in sexual sin, to the lost or those who call themselves Christian but have no intimate knowledge of Him, the love and mighty power of Jesus is able to make those dead, alive in Him. He is spiritual bread that brings eternal life.

This is great news! Praise God for Believers who are courageously walking in this and ministering to others in truth! So why aren’t more Christians sharing the truth about Jesus being the Bread of Life? In reading this, you may realize that you are falling short in this area. Yes, there are risks involved in boldly proclaiming Jesus to a rebellious and skeptical world.

Sure, you want to be accepted by friends, family and colleagues. Yes, it’s hard to go against the popular wisdom of the day when everyone else is buying what the world is selling. Yes, sharing the biblical truth will make you appear foolish to a world that doesn’t run to God but runs from God. But would you jeopardize your faith and friendship with the Lord to be friends with the world? Will you fail the test in the end?

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To not offer the Truth is dangerous to your faith and offers no real healing to those you are serving. How sorrowful to hold the truth in your hands and yet extend a placebo to avoid any fall out you might experience. Then we wonder why people are not walking in victory. We wonder why people are further descending into spiritual death and not being resurrected to spiritual life. It’s because we’ve shown them a crutch instead of the Cross. It’s because our placebos have ushered them toward life’s coffins (dead ends) rather than a relationship with their Creator, and Jesus the Bread of Life. God placed eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Do not give people a placebo for that. Invite them to partake of Jesus.

Careful dear brothers and sisters that after all Christ did on the Cross to not exchange the truth for a lie to follow the father of lies (Satan). Satan’s and the world’s lies are an enslavement theology. Either you are contributing to that person’s freedom by loosing what binds them by offering them Christ Jesus—or you are adding another chain to their bondage by offering them the wisdom of this world.

Are you ready to make the dead alive? Give them the Gospel.

The Holy Spirit and His Word will guide you into all understanding and obedience. Trust the power of who God is, the Holy Spirit and His Truth to prepare hearts and minds to repent, submit and turn toward Him without your needing to offer a placebo. Trust that God is able to work through you to preserve His Promises, you and others. The Holy Spirit flows through us as the living water, bringing life to us and others to be the light of the world.

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Amen.

Love and God bless you,

Nicole

Nicole D. Hayes is the founder of Voices Against the Grain, a bold teaching ministry launched in May 2013. Nicole’s purpose in creating Voices Against the Grain is to be light in darkness, to boldly instruct truth amid confusion so as to bring clarity and restoration.

Learn more about Nicole D. Hayes here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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02.24.15
by

Are You Prepared to Pivot?

Nicole D. Hayes, Creator of Voices Against the Grain

Nicole D. Hayes, Creator of Voices Against the Grain

Five seconds left on the shot clock. Who do you pass to? Who’s open? Or do you take the shot? Tick-tock goes the game clock while you stand frozen and ponder whether to stick with your coach’s prescribed plays or do you pivot—and make the unscripted play necessary to win the game? Somehow in all your years of training it has left you unprepared to perform in this critical, game day situation.

It’s game day folks!

A youth contemplating suicide right where you stand. Spiritual warfare in your home or work environment. A frantic call from someone desperately asking you, “Please pray for me now.” None of these game day scenarios allow you time to go to or call your church to ask how you should approach. In addition to using prayer as our weapon, in 2 Timothy 4:2, we’re instructed to “preach the word” and “be prepared in season or out of season.” Satan hasn’t given us the luxury of pondering. Satan doles out counterfeit schemes and lies like a deck of cards, one after the other, faster and more cunning than the one before, in hopes of trapping someone. As depicted to us in 1 Peter 5:8, we are warned: 8-Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Some have solely relied upon the Church to educate and equip them in their relationship with Christ. Many have become slothfully accustomed to Sunday services as a touch base with their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Then they don’t seek the Lord beyond this. They don’t know the Lord’s voice for themselves. Where’s their prayer time? Where’s their study of God’s Word?

In basketball terms, “pivot” means “to turn, spin or shift with one foot firmly planted/one foot keeping contact with the floor; an offensive position to relay passes or shoot.” Basketball players on a team (whether high school, college, professional or not) are gifted with natural abilities that also come under a coach’s direction. Game plays and strategies direct their steps to victory, anticipating their opponents’ next moves, outwitting and driving past them to sink the ball into the basket. But sometimes certain plays require us to pivot—to go against game day traditional plays—to break away from patterns so we can make unanticipated moves, pivoting and rising to the game day situation presented to us in that very moment.

INDIANAPOLIS - NOVEMBER 6: Tyler Hansbrough #50 of the Indiana Pacers grabs a rebound against the Washington Wizards at Conseco Fieldhouse on November 6, 2009 in Indianapolis, Indiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and condition of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: 2009 NBAE (Photo by Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images)

INDIANAPOLIS – NOVEMBER 6: Tyler Hansbrough #50 of the Indiana Pacers grabs a rebound against the Washington Wizards at Conseco Fieldhouse on November 6, 2009 in Indianapolis, Indiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and condition of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: 2009 NBAE (Photo by Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images)

While many in the church embrace traditions and formalities, I wonder how many within the Body of Christ are ready for “game day,” however that game day scenario may present itself.

Churches are great for fellowship, hearing a Word, using our gifts and connecting with others in the Body of Christ. Though I urge you that even in attending church, to seek God’s Presence daily, hourly, regularly for yourself—to learn and apply His Word.

Pray/commune with Him regularly to hear His instructions for how He wants to equip you to serve the needs of today and tomorrow. His instructions may require you to break out of traditions, form and fashion, but this is the type of “peculiar” people He is seeking: bold, equipped, fearless, obedient, prayerful/know His voice, can pivot and at the ready.

Have the pews made you too comfortable for “game day?” Have formalities and traditions made you unable to pivot to the Holy Spirit’s leading? When the LORD says “GO,” do you hear him and are you prepared to respond to the urgency of this generation’s 11th-hour challenges? To serve unencumbered?

Nicole D. Hayes is the founder of Voices Against the Grain, a bold teaching ministry launched in May 2013. Nicole’s purpose in creating “Voices Against the Grain” is to be light in darkness, to boldly instruct truth amid confusion so as to bring clarity and restoration.