After Winter Always Comes Spring

by desing | Faith & Purpose

Today is officially the first day of Spring! Yay!

It’s a new season on the calendar and we can finally start getting rid of our coats, boots and scarves in exchange for jackets, pastel colors and those new shoes that you’ve been waiting to debut.

Winter can be exhausting and most of us are ready for the weather shift. In New York City, we just got hit with a major snowstorm last week which left us shoveling for a few days. Not to mention, the temperature dropped to frigid so going outside is something that you only did only if you needed to.

That’s what winter is mostly about. We’re indoors a lot. We spend most of our days working or  going to school and back home. On a Friday night, you’d rather be home sipping on some hot chocolate or a good glass of Malbec than to endure the freezing wind slapping your face. When you do go outside, the trees look barren, the grass is dried up, everything seems to lack life and there is no sign at all that in a few weeks, those trees will be blooming and colorful flowers will be sprouting.

Although nothing appears to be happening in winter, there’s so much happening that the blind eye cannot see. I like to consider the “winters” in our lives as the seasons where we are sowing, working viciously towards our goals but we don’t see anything really happening. That’s because winter is about preservation, you don’t harvest or bear fruit in winter as there isn’t much production going on. You experience opposition, difficulty and delay. Things in your life look dead and you might be faced with some “impossible” situations. It’s in our own “winters” where God preserves you and your destiny. As you work towards your destiny, He sheds you of the things in your life that will not be fruitful in the next season in your life.

Life is all about seasons as there is a time for everything. Life has it’s ebb and flow. There are seasons where you sow, seasons where you harvest, seasons where you endure storms, seasons where you don’t see much changing, seasons of transition, seasons of victory, seasons of abundance, seasons of scarcity, seasons of happiness, and seasons of loss.

But here’s the beautiful thing about seasons. They always change! No one remains in a “winter” forever!

You know what your winter can do if you allow it to? It can steal you faith to believe that anything in your life can change. You can allow what you see or what you’ve been through to steal your joy or your hope for any change. Winter can steal your expectancy of any good thing happening to you.

It’s the first day of Spring but if you look outside your window, I’m sure that those trees still look barren. You might even still have snow on the ground like I do in New York City but that doesn’t change the fact that the season has shifted even if it doesn’t look like it.

Well what if there’s a shift happening for you? What if everything that you’ve been working towards, praying for and believing for (even if it looks dead, barren or impossible), God is about to deliver into your hands? I know it may be darn near impossible to believe it but what if He’s sending you a message through me that you’ve just entered into a new season.

Stop being afraid and start to believe that you will see the expression of God’s excellence to work on your behalf.

If winter is about preservation, then what is Spring about?

Glad you asked! Spring allows you to transition from barrenness, lack of production to a season of fruitfulness, flourishing and development. During your spring, you will see the fruits of the seeds that you’ve sowed blossom; the fruits of your patience, perseverance, faith and tenacity. You go from a famine to a land of abundance, expansion, prosperity and peace.

Do you want this? Then you’ve got to start believing and start preparing. The last thing that you want is to have spring show up in your life, God ready to make breakthroughs happen for you and you’re not ready. That’s the key about your winter is that you have to use it to prepare for your spring. If you want to become a conqueror then you are going to have to conquer something. You won’t know what you’re made of if you didn’t have to fight for something.

There are things that I’ve learned on my journey and my own loooonnnng winter that have only prepared me for the new season of victory in my life which is the very reason why I created the Embrace Her Legacy University.

How are you getting ready for your new season? If your ideal job emailed you tomorrow, would you be ready to negotiate for your desired salary? If the husband you’ve been believing for walked into your life on Friday, would you be a confident, secure, whole woman ready to embark  upon a new journey with him or would you still be holding onto unforgiveness or low self-worth because of your past? If someone wanted to invest into your business idea, would you at least know what your business would be or how much money you need to start? Do you currently have the mindset of a winner or are you still thinking like a victim? What if someone wanted to pay off your debt for you, would you know exactly how much debt you owe?

This is why my current courses of Embrace Her Legacy University include: 

• How to Negotiate Like a Boss
• The 7 Major Keys of Accomplishing Your Goals
• How to Have Unwavering Faith to Defeat Your Giants
• Mastering Your Thought Life – How to Master Positive, Faith-Filled Thinking
• Learn to Discover Who You Are – A Class on Confidence, Self-Worth & The Power of Your Story

Embrace Her Legacy University is an inspirational, educational, chic and empowering online learning center designed to motivate and educate fabulous and faith-filled millennial women to grow in personal development, the application of faith, birth dreams and achieve your God-given destiny!

Our courses are specifically designed to transform millennial women to become who you’ve been called to be and we’ll use that as the foundation to teach you how to accomplish your professional and personal goals and realize your life’s assignment.

I’m here to help you stay ready so you don’t have to worry about getting ready.

Did you know know that along with access to the courses, you’ll also get complete access to my private Facebook group where you are also going to get to tons of support, motivation and accountability? We’ll have challenges and shoutouts giving you a chance to track your growth and share your accomplishments and promote your endeavors.

We’re also offering discounted goals coaching and wife coaching, financial coaching and leadership coaching will be special additions that I’m adding within the upcoming weeks with HIGHLY esteemed women from these industries so you’re not only gaining access to me but access to my personal tribe of leading, professional women who are going to be offering coaching sessions to stimulate your growth too.

Will you be joining us? It’s SUPER affordable because I wanted everyone to gain access to the course and the Facebook community. I know that sometimes we want to invest into our growth but it can be expensive. So you can join Embrace Her Legacy University for only $12 a month!

Say what???? That’s probably less money than you spent on food today.

JOIN EMBRACE HER LEGACY UNIVERSITY NOW!

Your New Beginning Starts Today

by desing | Faith & Purpose

What if I told you that this week you were going to receive the miracle that you’ve been hoping to see, would you believe me?

Picture it. You get a call that your student loan debt has been suddenly forgiven. Your book your dream client for your business. You receive a check in the mail for $8,000 out of the blue. You get offered your dream job. Someone decides to give you their luxury condominium. You get offered a 6-figure book deal. Your sales for your business skyrocket over night because a celebrity randomly gave you a shout out on social media. Your marriage gets restored and your husband is a new man. The promise that God gave you about getting married this year suddenly seems plausible when the man of your dreams walks in your life. You finally get promoted to be the head of your department at work with double your current salary.

I know what you’re probably thinking. “That’s not happening to me Maria.”

But what if you’re wrong and it’s that type of thinking that is blocking your blessings.

I’ve actually had TWO of the the things listed happen to me and if someone would have told me that it was coming, I would have never ever believed them because my circumstances told me differently which is why you can’t trust what you see. Your life can change overnight and God can do more for you in the next 24 hours than you could see done in a lifetime.

Back in 2008, I was on the cusp of college graduation with no job in sight. I was interning at Warner Music Group/Atlantic Records without any pay and I was fired from my part-time at a bartending school a few months earlier so my savings were running thin.

One afternoon, while coincidently working on my resume at the office, an employee walked up to me wanting to know what I was doing. I told him that I was working on my resume because graduation was about a month away and I needed a job as there were no job offers in sight at the label. He asked me if I wanted to see what he did in the Radio Promotion department as I interned in the Marketing department. I agreed.

It was an entirely different world for me as this department included lifestyle marketing, club promotions, and promoting our songs with radio personnel like the countries hottest DJ’s and program directors. I was in the “prim and proper” world of marketing, these guys were the guys who were on the grounds getting the music directly to the consumer.

I felt like I didn’t fit in but the employee, Mike, insisted I stick around and learn about the department. I agreed. That afternoon, he asked me if I would be interested in interning in that department a few days out of the week. Knowing that I needed the experience, I agreed.

The next day, I nervously went to the 26th floor of 1290 Ave of the Americas which was our office building. While Mike showed me the ropes of all things radio promotion, I felt overwhelmed but I kept pushing.

And then he goes on to say.

“I hope you know I’m training you to take my place. Do you want my job?”

I answered with my “what-you-talking-about-Willis” tone. “What do you mean take your job?”

“I’m going back to school and my bosses want you to take my place. Do you want it?” You darn straight I’ll take the job!!!!!!

A day later, I walked into his bosses offices and they told me my salary, benefits and even agreed to wait until I graduated the next month for me to officially be on payroll! There was no interview, no hassle…the job was handed to me.

That was in April. I graduated from Hofstra University on May 18th, 2008 and I reported to my first official day of work on May 19th.

I have another one for you. It was December 2011 and we had just come back from a Thanksgiving holiday break at work. It was a Monday. I had a nasty attitude because by this point I hated my dream job and wanted to move on. Although I had saved aggressively throughout the years, I still felt like I needed more of a cushion to make a move.

While sitting at my office desk, I get a call on my office phone from a number that I don’t know. Normally I would answer, but this time I refused thinking it was another unsolicited call from an aspiring rapper wanting a record deal. The person leaves a voicemail. I listen a few minutes later. It’s a representative from the financial aid department of Hofstra University who lets me know that my alma matter owed me money. They were calling to confirm my address to send the check.

I’m thinking it’s maybe like $60 or $70 at most. So I wasn’t expecting much. I speak the representative and she lets me know something about receiving $8,000 worth of refunds from financial aid!

Dumbfounded I asked, “Are you sure? So I’m getting a check of $8,000 this week?” She replies, “Yes, ma’am.” Within a week, the check was in my mailbox. That was just the cushion I would use the next few months when I decided to resign and focus full time on Embrace Her Legacy.

These are just two stories of miracles that I’ve experienced in the last few years. I’ve actually had several more surprise checks along the way too. I think I’m a magnet for those!

Why did I tell you this?

Because in both situations, there was NO indication of any change happening. I was worried and frustrated with my circumstances when God already had my answers on the way.

This might be you. You may have no sign or wonder telling you that something in your life is about to change. You might be going day in and day out wondering if God even hears your cry, but this is a sign that He does.

Do you know what sets the atmosphere for a miracle? Expectation.

Nevertheless, when you’ve been rejected, hurt or you’ve failed time and time again, getting your expectation up can seem like a set up for disappointment. But that’s exactly what your adversary wants. He wants to keep you looking at your past, your pain, your frustration so that he can steal the opportunities of your future. I say this with all compassion, but get over it.

Your best is yet to come and you must believe that. In order to receive what’s yours, you have to let go of what was and embrace a new beginning.

Maybe you started the year off strong working towards your goals and because you experienced failure, you fell off. Maybe you thought that this is the year you were going to get married but you kissed a few frogs and now you’re thinking it’s never going to happen. Maybe you thought you were going to get that promotion and you didn’t. You took the bar exam and you failed. Maybe you’ve been trying to get a new job but to no avail. Maybe you’re about to graduate school and you don’t see a job in sight. Maybe you have an “impossible” financial need.

This is your chance to begin again. This is your chance to believe again. This is your chance to believe that something miraculous is going to happen to you. This is your chance to believe that you’re entering a new season of victory. This is your chance to get your hopes up and believe that God loves you enough to not only show up, but to show up and show out on your behalf.

Miracles happen every day. A lot of us don’t talk about it because we fear being ridiculed. Most people don’t know about the miracles in my life because I know that most won’t believe me or understand but I chose to share these two accounts with you on how God supernaturally moved on my behalf. I didn’t tell you that my job was trying to be blocked by other female colleagues at the label who wanted me to remain an intern for their department. But God!!!!!

So even if you’re experiencing opposition, I believe God wants you to know that something greater is coming. This is your time to see a season of victory, just change what you’re expecting.

Can you believe for a 7-day or a 24-hour miracle? What if this is the month where everything changes?

P.S. Our official online classroom to help you grow in personal development, build your faith and birth your dreams, the Embrace Her Legacy University has launched! I’ll be sharing more details later this week.

To Trust or To Control?

by desing | Faith & Purpose

Sometimes it can be such a cliche to tell someone to “trust God” or to “trust the process” – especially when you’re going through some tumultuous times.

When you have more month than you have money, when your mother is enduring her second battle with breast cancer, when your marriage is going down the drain, when you’re trying to get pregnant and the doctor’s tell you there’s only a 10% chance of that happening, when you just got fired, when you’ve been looking for a job for over 6 months, when you stepped out on faith to build the business of your dreams but no sales are coming in, when you write the book that’s been rejected by 27 publishers, when your car breaks down AGAIN and you have no way to get to work, when your child has been diagnosed with Autism, when you don’t know where your next dollar is coming from, when everyone in your family is at each other’s throats, when the man you thought you were going to marry cheats on you, when the father of your child leaves you, when you find out your 15 year old niece is pregnant, when your son decides to join a gang, when all hell breaks loose in your life…

The LAST thing that you want to do is to have someone tell you to trust God. Or the even more common cliche phrase that we tell each other when we’re bombarded with sour lemons, “Everything happens for a reason.”

Contrary to popular belief people are hurting beyond what you can imagine behind closed doors. The deception of social media is that everyone is getting along fine. What we fail to realize is that people post their highlight reels, not their behind-the-scenes. So while you’re dealing with your own launchpad of problems, the only thing that you can think of is, “Am I the only one?”

Nope, you’re not. Everybody is dealing with something.

I don’t want to underestimate anything that you’re currently facing or what you’ve been through. So it’s fine to feel overwhelmed, hurt, angry, discouraged or frustrated.

Out of those feelings of hurt, anger, confusion, frustration, loneliness, it’s normal to want to find some way to fix the problem. Human beings are wired to want to take the path of least resistance. So all you know is that you have a problem and you want to fix it – by any means necessary.

Have you ever tried to fix a problem that you’re having and it only gets worse? Or nothing seems to change?

You try to fix your man and he only pushes you away further. You try to be the mediator in your family drama and to no avail. You try to do everything in your power to get that promotion at work and you get passed over again. You start making attempts to get pregnant every night and the pregnancy test still comes back negative. You want to change your child but every time you have that talk with him, it goes in one ear and out of the other. Your business isn’t making sales so you try every marketing strategy you know and still nothing.

Well have you actually taken a chance on this whole “trusting God” thing? Is this challenge an opportunity for you to learn to trust God and see Him do what only He can and maybe the more you keep trying to fix it on your own, the more you’re delaying the breakthrough?

While during my quiet time the other night, I felt this rise up in my spirit “Trust me.” I know when God is trying to get a message to me because it’s often repeated. He’ll use people, circumstances, movies, songs, messages at church and anything else to confirm that message in my heart.

As my pastor shared a powerful message on seeing our challenges as opportunities to trust God and see Him work, the tears careened down my cheeks. Why? Because again, God was sending me a clear message to trust Him, that He was on my side and that I could count on Him.

So can you.

One of my biggest problems has been my pride and arrogance until last year. I thought that I knew better than God so I would always try and fix my own problems. I would try to manipulate circumstances in order to get what I want. I wanted to fix my problems and the people around me the way that I saw fit.

It wasn’t until I was faced with a series of events that were too gigantic for me to fight on my own – not that I didn’t try. But I kept fighting in my own ability, limited knowledge and false humility. I realized that I was in a bigger battle that I couldn’t win on my own, and that’s when I started humbly asking God for His help.

There’s a song that I suggest you listen to called “Sometimes It Takes a Mountain” by Gaither Vocal Band. The lyrics of the chorus go “Sometimes it takes a mountain, sometimes a troubled sea. Sometimes it takes a desert, to get a hold of me. Your love is so much stronger, than whatever troubles me. Sometimes it takes a mountain to trust you and believe.” 

If there is anything that I know about God is that He loves to get the glory and He loves to be trusted and believed in. He will allow circumstances to arise so that He can come in and do what only He can so that He can get the glory in order for your trust in Him can be strengthened.

The reason why it’s hard to trust God in our challenges or believe that God will really help us is because we don’t really know how much God loves us. We want to control the problem, the people, the circumstances out of fear – the fear of disappointment, pain, rejection or failure.

I see it all that time in how we talk about God. We say that we pray and believe but in the depths of your heart is unbelief or this notion that God can do it but He won’t do it for you or that the God of miracles and breakthroughs is just a story that was made up. As a result, we want to control the problem.

And I get it, I was like that too and still struggle to trust God to work things out on my behalf. But I believe that this very message is God trying to get a hold of you as He uses me to tell you that He sees you, He hears your cry, He’s on your side and you can trust Him for the breakthrough.

His love is far greater than whatever is troubling you. I told you that I wanted to do everything in my own strength and understanding until I was faced with mountains that were far too great for me and it was those things that got my attention that made me realize that I was not in control – only He was.

So if you want to see true victory, it’s time to wave your white flag and surrender. Stop trying to fix it, stop trying to figure it out. Give it to God once and for all and trust Him for your family, job, marriage, relationship, money, home, business, health or any other problem that’s presented itself.

This challenge you’re facing is your opportunity to trust God, let Him do what only He can and just maybe this is the test that you need to pass in order to get to see your victory.

He wants to take the problem and show you His matchless power. Will you let it go into His hands and trust Him? Or will you keep trying to control it?

To trust or to control? That’s the question.

What If You’re The One Holding Back Your Breakthrough?

by desing | Faith & Purpose

I know that there’s probably something that you’ve been believing for, working towards, praying about or hoping will change. Not only have you been hoping that you’ll see your breakthrough, but you’ve been waiting for what seems to be like an eternity for it.

You’ve paid your dues. You’ve done the work. You’ve prayed and cried. You’ve witnessed others around you receive their breakthrough and you’re still waiting.

As a matter of fact, you’re starting to think that maybe it will never happen. At the top of the year, you were proclaiming that this is the year that you’ll see it happen and God will deliver on His promises. But after recent events, you’re thoughts are telling you, “Well, maybe this just isn’t for me. Maybe this just isn’t my time. Maybe this will never happen.”

You’re looking at everything that’s happening around you and as a result, you are totally discouraged.

And I get it! Things aren’t getting any better in the natural, as a matter of fact they may have gotten worse. You have every right to feel disappointed after what you’ve been through.

But what if what’s holding back the breakthrough is you and not the circumstances. What if the recent events in your life have been allowed to test you, to see if you’re really ready to walk into your land of fulfilled promises, miracles and breakthroughs?

While at dinner with one of my dearest friends the other night, I realized this. Or better yet, she made me realize that I was the one holding back the very thing I had been believing God for. I recognized that I had allowed recent events to rattle my faith. As a result, I would keep going around the same mountain until I learned to pass the test so that I could get to the other side. On the other side is every dream in my heart manifested. Nevertheless, I had to learn how to fight this battle a little differently.

Every breakthrough and every miracle in your life is going to be surrounded by warfare. What I mean is that it won’t be handed to you, you are going to have to fight for it. How?

By having bulldog faith!

Last week I shared that you have an enemy who seeks to steal, kill and destroy everything that matters to you and what the adversary is after most is your confidence, your peace and your joy.

Sometimes certain events are allowed in our lives to see if we’re ready to receive the breakthrough. God doesn’t want you to be so easily rattled by any little thing that seems to oppose whatever it is that you’re believing for. You can’t be so easily shaken and if you are, you are the one that’s holding back your breakthrough.

For example, let’s say that you’re believing for a promotion at work but your superiors tell you that it’s highly unlikely that you’ll get the coveted position. You decide to believe the superiors instead of pressing in on your faith and believe God. What sense does it make to ask God for something if you don’t believe that He’ll do it? Because you decided to believe them instead of having bulldog faith about your new role, you’ve failed your test and back around the mountain you go.

We go from faith to faith. Therefore, the reason why we have to pass these tests of faith is because the tests of faith will only get more challenging as we grow.

Let’s say that you’ve made a decision to quit your job to pursue your entrepreneurial dreams full-time. Now a few days before you put in your letter of resignation, you get offered a new job at another company making more money than you ever made in your life. Even though your heart’s true desire is to start your own business, you decide to take the new job because you want the financial security.

Saddle up baby girl because you’re getting ready to go around the same mountain!

That job offer was not a coincidence, it was a test to see if you were really ready to manifest that dream of becoming the owner of what could be that multi-million dollar brand.  Will you choose comfort or courage? You can’t always have both.

There are two types of test that will come that we must pass in order to see our greatest dreams and prayers fulfilled. The first test is the test of your faith. These are the nuances that happen that seemingly oppose what you’re believing for. The key is to not allow these nuances to distract, discourage or rattle you. You put the fear, doubt, anxiety under your feet. You look at the circumstance in the face and you are not even bothered by it, because you are totally confident that you will see your breakthrough.

The second type test is the test to see if you’re ready and if you really want whatever it is that you’re asking for. These tests usually come disguised as opportunities that want to serve you but are only traps to hold you back. My example with the job offer above is one of them. If you choose the job over your destiny then you’re not ready to become that entrepreneur because if you can’t trust God to provide for your financial needs now then you won’t be able to trust God later when you have to pay a staff of 25 employees. You’re not ready yet.

Let me give you another example of this type of test. Let’s say that you want to get married as you’re tired of kissing frogs. You are ready for Prince Charming. Well, you start meeting guys that have potential but in your heart, you know they are not the one. However, out of your loneliness, you decide to entertain these guys anyway. Saddle up, because you just failed the test. Instead of making room for your husband and focusing on become a wife, you decided to go after temporary pleasures. You are not ready.

Here’s a major key alert: Start to see yourself as whatever it is that you’re believing for. If you want to become a wife, then starting seeing yourself as one. If you want to be wealthy, then start seeing yourself wealthy. If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, then start seeing yourself making those sales. If you want to be secure, then start seeing yourself as confident and whole. If you want live in that new home, start seeing yourself decorating.

It’s up to you if you will saddle up one more time and keep going around the same mountain or will you finally pass the tests and see 2017 be the year where you finally get to say, “This was the BEST year of my life!.”

XOXO,

Maria I. Melendez
@embraceherlegacy
embraceherlegacy.com

Creating Your Plan to Fight Back

by desing | Faith & Purpose

So the other day I was in your inbox with perhaps that most radical message I’ve ever shared and this one is no different. I told you that you have an enemy who is alive and well, cultivating strategic attacks against you and everything that is attached to you in order to steal your joy, kill your faith and destroy your destiny.

I threw a lot at you and I know it can seem like “made up, spooky stuff” but that’s exactly one of the lies that your adversary uses to keep you from knowing the truth. Most importantly, he wants to keep you from fighting back, the right way.

Here’s the thing, he has invisible agents that are the culprit behind most of your most hurtful circumstances, storms, betrayals, delays, frustrations and pain. However, if you don’t know that, you’ll be looking at the circumstance or the person that’s hurting you instead of looking at that the invisible forces that are behind the attack.

Let me give you a perfect example.

Let’s say that you are in a committed relationship for years. You are in love and this guy is the man of your dreams who you know that you are going to marry. After a few years, you discover that this man has cheated on you several times. You are in complete and utter shock, pain, anger and resentment. You’re ready to get your bat, your girls and do some serious damage.

You are so hurt by this guy and as a result of this wound, you become bitter, angry and fearful and you don’t know how you’ll go on. You decide to stay mad at this guy, not discerning the invisible agents that set up this attack on you years before the two of you even met.

Let me explain further.

When that little boy, who is now a 32 year old man, was about 5 years old, he was removed from his home and put into a foster home because of alleged abuse in the home. What he thought was a perfect marriage modeled in front of him, has now transformed into an ejection out of the home leaving him confused, rejected and hurt.

He comes back home at age 9 after a few years in the foster care system, thinking that he’ll come home to a restored and happy family, only to be rejected by his father as he walks in the room to greet his father with a big hug and his father completely disregards him. Things start going from bad to worse. His mom harbors resentment, bitterness and anger towards his father. His father shares the similar sentiments towards his wife which lead to a nasty divorce in that boy’s teenage years. Not to mention his father is carrying a colossal size pain from his very own upbringing and holds onto his extreme bitterness towards his ex-wife and all women for the next 25 years. The children (including your man), grow up seeing this.

The happy, hopeful little 5-year old boy never came back home, nor was he ever healed, he just grew into a wounded man. As a result of what he witnessed in his home and resentment towards his mother (because he believes that his mother was the culprit behind the demise of his perfect childhood), he now harbors a hidden resentment towards women. All he really wants to get is to get back the childhood that was stolen from him. Who is it that comes to steal, kill and destroy again?

You and your man meet when he’s about 21. The two of you have a bright destiny together. But those unresolved issues from his past causes him to fear total commitment to you. Not to mention, the rejection from his father only fuels those feelings of low self-worth and inadequacy (which his father also possesses). He hasn’t accomplished any real goals in life and as a result, the only thing that he is led to believe he’s good at is offering good sex which leads to several “cheatations” on you. To add insult to injury, he is surrounded with friends who know absolutely nothing about being men of honor and who are broken little boys themselves who operate with the same mentality.

You are so mad at him, but little do you know that all of this was a strategic attack that was set up before the two of you even met to knock you out. Your enemy knew that the 2 of you would meet and that you are a problem for him. He knows that if you achieve your destiny that not only will lives be forever changed, but his plans would be revealed.

While you’re busy being mad at the guy, there is an invisible enemy who set this all up. The abuse in his home, his parent’s low self-worth, the broken marriage, his friends, his low self-worth…was brought on by an organized attack against you and him by an invisible team.

You’re mad at him while your enemy is laughing at you saying, “I got her.”

I know this may seem crazy but it happens every day all of the time. We are mad at the wrong enemy. We are mad at each other when there is someone else who’s to blame. We fight everyone else but him, only partnering in his plan to destroy us.

But here’s the good part. Although he is crafty and good at what he does, there’s Someone even greater, actually the Greatest who is on your side. He created you in His image and His name is power. He loves you so much even though you may not always feel it. He is the triune God, who’s Kingdom is FAR GREATER than your enemy’s.

You cannot defeat the enemy on your own but you can defeat Him with God on your side. As a matter of fact, He’s already been defeated. God lives on the inside of you and he wants to fight for you but it’s up to you to start asking for help. God is a gentleman and he will not impose himself on you but all you have to start doing is start calling on His name to help you.

God can take all the pain you’ve been through and start making things new in your life, including you. He can take that hurt of being cheated on, taking advantage of, betrayed, abused, mistreated, robbed, broke and turn things around in your favor. He heals the broken hearted, He binds the wounds of your soul, He loves you unconditionally and He will fight for you.

God will give you double for your pain, beauty for ashes and deliver you from your enemies. What loving Father wouldn’t?

As as result of several personal attacks on my life, I had to learn to start surrendering my life to God. I learned how to run to Him for help, not people. I learned how to start fighting the right way once I realized that I was in a warfare. I had to stop trying to take care of myself and trust Him to take care of me.

First, I started praying fervently for God’s help. I had to humble myself and pray and admit that I was trying to fix my life in my own strength. I wanted to vindicate, avenge and restore myself but God wanted me to trust Him for that.

Next, I started praying strategically. Gone were the “Now I lay my head down to sleep” prayers. I started to engulf myself in Scriptures that spoke directly into my circumstances. I would write out my prayers and then attach a promise of God to the prayer. I started praying the Word of God.

Once I recognized that strategic attacks were coming against me, I went to the Scripture to find a promise of God to counterattack. I become an full-fledged warrior. When the thoughts of defeat come, I have the most powerful weapon in my mouth…the word of God.

Another way I started fighting back was with forgiveness. I knew that part of the enemy’s plan would be to keep me in bitterness and resentment. So one day, I wrote down every offense that I was carrying and while pouring out tears over them, I literally “gave them to God.” I refused to carry it any longer. I forgave others and asked for forgiveness to those I knew I had hurt. There is nothing more than the enemy hates than to see you walk in love, he is the antithesis of love.

Also, I started to “die to myself.” I surrendered my will to God’s will. I realized that I had been extremely arrogant thinking that I could do things my way and not suffer any consequences from the the decisions I was making. So I embraced discipline, obedience and living to please God instead of my feelings (which I can’t really trust anyway.) I began to live by this principle, “Before I am anything else, I am a child of God.” Because my identity was rooted in that, my actions and reactions changed.

Finally, I learned to praise and worship God not for what He could do for me, but for Who He is and now I’m in the BEST place I’ve ever been. I wake up with joy, I’m hitting major goals, I feel unstoppable, I’m in love with who I am and most importantly, I know how to fight and win.

It’s on my heart heavy this week to start sharing what I’ve learned and to start coaching women through some of your own personal battles that have risen against you, your goals, your dreams, your finances, your relationships and your homes.

As a result, I’m offering some super affordable Goals Coaching + Soul Enriching sessions for anyone who enrolls in a session within the next 24 hours only. I am going to show you how to create a strategic plan to fight back against anything what’s setting itself up to steal your destiny. I’m even making these sessions longer than my normal sessions because I want to give God the room to work in our calls.

This offer expires tomorrow at 4pm ET so if this is something that can even somewhat can help you, please do yourself a favor and schedule a session. Your destiny is worth it.

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