Sunday, March 30, 2008

Serve somebody

Almost everyday over the past week, I have been involved in some form of service to the Lord and to the body. I also have had conversations about what service means. When I was still in corporate America, I developed a customer service module which broke down what true service is. It talked about the definition of what true service was, putting the needs of the customer first, being attentive to what the customer was saying and being patient as we served and of course making our customers the total focus of the moment.

Well, so it is in the spirit, to serve or to have a church service or a ministry means to patiently wait on God first and then your brother or sister as yourself. Ministry means to "meet the needs" of whoever or whatever! It is not that complicated. We all have at least one of the gifts as described in the bible! Some of us are blessed with more than one gift. Those gifts are to be used to serve the kingdom of God. The good news says that the kingdom of God is not easily observed! God's kingdom is made of subjects, and we are the subjects in the kingdom, we are in fact the kings of the king. But back to the subject of serving, there are many different ways to "serve" while we are "waiting" on God! Many times I find myself "waiting on God" but really he is waiting on me to be a king (queen) in the earth and to take that dominion that he gave me from the time of the "garden". We don't always know where or what or who or why, we just know as we go.

In the holy ghost there is joy (which is eternal) and as we are waiting on God, we move and breath and have our being, and we do! Do what you say, whatever your hand finds to do, do that as unto the Lord. For those of us who are filled with the spirit, we have in us something similiar to a metal detector, where we just are simply led by the spirit of God. We really don't always know, but we continue to go and eventually we will know, if that is making sense.

Today I heard this very stirring service about service and using your gifts and spiritual men and women can't really be judged by man. Only God can truly judge us, but it is important to examine our selves or lives and be careful to confess our sins and not regard any inquity in our heart, to keep our heart pure so we can go boldly to God's throne, to the mercy seat and stretch our arms to the Lord and say "so be it unto me Lord, according to your word". I understand the necessity of working in the church under some of the established ministries but sometimes you have water/walkers way out in the water, so far away from the shore, that they are walking in different gifts in their local church, in their community, in their home...wherever....lighting and salting...serving...and working...and waiting...and loving...and ministering...in Jesus name.

I thank God for the local church and I actually believe I came from Va, via Maryland, via New York to come to a place named Conyers, Ga. to be part of this great lighthouse set on a hill for the world to see. However, Iknow that I am peculiar. That brings me to something funny, one of my sister's said to me recently when speaking of another sister, that she thought she was strange. I laughed and laughed and she said "Well, what are you laughing at" and I said, I am strange too, for that matter, so are you, why do you think we are friends! She said, honey, you are right, I guess we are strange. Sometimes I think we just take ourselves way too serious and we don't understand how God is using our "strangeness" of peculiar ways to be that royal priesthood the word speaks about.

In Romans 12 the word speaks of us as being, living Sacrifices to God. Verse 1 /I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Jesus already was an atonement and offering for our sins, he did what we couldn't do. Isaiah is clear when it states that Jesus was a guilt offering for us. We just need to do the presenting of our bodies...which is our reasonable service.

Have you sat by a sister in church who is depressed and you said I will pray for you! No, pray now, be instant in season. Do you know someone who has a need you can meet, and look the other way. You are blessed to be a blessing. Be a blessing...everything in your hand or possession comes from God anyway, the ability to get wealth is the part of the covenant, not the wealth, so it is the Lord that gives so you can give.

As you see, I am pretty fired up this Sunday afternoon, we had a birthday celebration at Church in the Now for Bishop Jim Earl Swilley 50th BD. Did you know 1958 was the advent of the Hula hoop! So, all the babies born in 1958 (that me, October 22) received a Hula hoop! We have to play and enjoy our life, our church, our family,our friends and of course God.

You have to serve somebody, who are you serving today!

Selah!

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Body Ministry Now!

Beloved,

In this new blog, my desire is for the Holy spirit to breath on "US" = Unified Synergy (coined by my Bishop, Jim Earl Swilley) with a fresh and new anointing for each new day. It is my prayer to be able to impart prophetic words, revelation, interesting trivia, facts on nutrition pertaining to herbs, supplements, vitamins that can be of benefit to the Church body and any other godly media that gives God glory. Quite often I find myself consulting and helping the body with information on nutrition which has been a great help to their natural man (the body). I believe this to be a great forum where we can glean and share information from each other in an responsible manner to empower the kingdom of God! Ministry simply means "to meet the needs" and often times if we are to truly function as a "healthy body" we all have to do our share as in being our brother's keeper!

I could have titled this blog "Body Ministry" as it is ministry to different areas of the body. Recently in a corporate intercessory prayer setting, it came to our attention, that there were people in the room who needed one on one "body ministry" and as the Holy Spirit allowed us to be sensitive to the needs, he used us to do what we do which is to "P A C"/pray, act and care. Faith without works are dead being alone and faith works by love. So, as you may understand by NOW, this is from one member of the "body" to the rest of the body giving a shout out for participation and for a demonstration of love. If we give our bodies to be burned and don't have love...

Why the name Garden of Yve? Well, for several of reasons, the Lord gave me that name for a ministry some time back. Also, the word garden reminded of the word variety or diversity which I embrace with many different experiences, friendships, relationships as well as many different skills, gifts, talents God has afforded me! Microsoft Encarta Library defines garden: planted area of ground: a plot of ground where plants such as fruits, vegetables, and flowers are grown. Well, another name for ground is earth...thou kingdom come in (on) earth (that is "US"/unfied synergy) as it is in heaven. So as each joint supplies to the rest of the body...our garden should produce fruits, vegetables and flowers where a plethora of ideas, visions, hopes, prayers, godly desires can be expressed and planted! I thought this to be perfect since we were to have full discussions about herbs and supplemtns

Yve was just a play on words, since my birth name means mother and many of you may know that "Eve" means first mother or a woman with maternal qualities hence the name Garden of Yve. Please don't be mistaken, this is for men also, so be advised God is no respector of persons, you are welcome here! And pass it on, let people know we are here!

I don't know why it ended up as yveinthenow.blogspot.com/it must be prophetic (smile)

Peace and blessings,
vaughnevan