Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017

13 Must Have Drug Store Hair Products

June/July, 2017

Mind Wars: Defending Against Demonic Voices in Your Head What it Means to be Aligned with God Treating God Like God: Simple Steps to Improving the Way that We Pray Returning to the God You Divorced: Guidance for Christians Understanding Which of God's Promises Are For You

M A G A Z I N E

How to Recognize When You’ve Found the Perfect Spouse

Tribute to the

'Queen of Gospel' Pastor Shirley Caesar The Joy of Being Powerless in Your Relationship with God

64

For Daily Inspirations Visit us on Facebook

HELP SAVE MY CHILD! PLEASE SHARE EVERYWHERE

If anyone has seen or know the whereabouts of this little boy, please contact

Bryan Keathley pukydo@gmail.com 573 660 2346 cell 573 785 3713 home

Any Attorneys who would kindly help this family in need of assistance to get their little boy back is encouraged to contact Mr. Keathley

Will Never Leave You! If you haven’t discovered Jesus as your personal savior and would like to get to know Him today; please click the button below for a free e-book from our friends at Guideposts titled

‘How to Make Jesus Your Best Friend’

Contents June/July, 2017

Inside This Issue

67

23

 Mind Wars: Defending Against Demonic Voices in Your Head – 23  What it Means to be Aligned with God – 33  Treating God Like God: Simple Steps to Improving the Way that We Pray – 39  Returning to the God You Divorced: Guidance for Christians – 43  Understanding Which of God‟s Promises are for You - 50

Relationships:  How to Recognize When You‟ve Found the Perfect Spouse – 53  The Joy of Being Powerless in Your Relationship with God – 58  Raising Cain: How to Lead Our Children to Christ - 71

53

Photo Courtesy of Entertainment One Music

Spiritual Wellness:

Tribute to the

'Queen of Gospel' Pastor Shirley Caesar

Personal Wellness: 75

 Conquering Temptation: The Keys to Victory - 75

Feature Story: 67

 Tribute to the „Queen of Gospel‟ Pastor Shirley Caesar - 67

10 Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017

Cover Photo Blavity.com

Also in this issue‌ 13 19 78 80

Letter from the Editor 13 Must Have Drug Store Hair Products Round the Clock Entertainment Just For Fun

Question: Do You Know

Jesus?

Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017 11

Editor’s Corner

First, I always give all glory and honor to my Lord Jesus Christ for without Him in my life, nothing I could ever do would amount to anything!

Summer is a wonderful time to get out of the house or office and witness for the Lord. There are many ways we can all spread the ‗Good News‘ during these summer months. At picnics, taking a walk or visiting the library; tell someone how much Jesus loves them and you‘ll be surprised to know that there are so many people wanting to hear the ‗Good News‘ that you bring…Amen!

I want to personally thank all of our fans and readers for their continued support of this ministry which has continued to strive and for that I am grateful to our Lord, Jesus Christ Our goal is to continue being a resource for Christians and others for years to come and with your support we can keep this publication available free of charge always on our digital platform

Pray for us as we continue to pray for you and thank you for reading this issue of Blessed Magazine God bless you!

Your Humble Servant in Christ,

Laraine Turner Editor-in-Chief

Letter From the Editor

Praise the Lord My Brothers and Sisters in Christ!

Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017 13

CHECK US OUT ONLINE We Are Completely Mobile Friendly For Individuals On The Go

What You‘ll Find Inside‌.

Packed with inspirational articles to educate, encourage, inspire and uplift, recipes, diet advice, health, beauty, nutrition and fitness, Blessed Magazine is the ultimate companion for individuals who want to look great, feel fabulous and enjoy the benefits of a healthy, spiritual life.

Subscribe for yourself or give as a gift to be blessed all year-long!

www.blessedmagazine.org

Beautiful, Affordable and Functional Church Websites One Low Price

$99.00*

Domain Name and Hosting Not Included

Call or Click Today www.ltenterprises.net 917.310.7570 LT Enterprises – Big Solutions for Small Businesses

Be

Bold with

Color and Prints

this

Summer

Embracing Singleness and Loneliness This booklet is compiled with inspirations to encourage you while embracing the Lord through those periods of single and loneliness

Click Here To Download Your eBook If I could give this eBook 10 stars I would because it has been an eye opener for me. I didn’t know how to fully cope with being a single male and the ache of loneliness, but this book has inspired me to pray more and seek the face of God. Thank you Blessed Magazine‌..Thomas Y.

Exclusively at Blessed Magazine Get Yours Today! No Purchase Necessary!

Beauty Corner

By Marlene Montanez

―There‘s no reason to spend a fortune when it comes to great hair products. In fact, some of our all-time favorite hair products are drugstore beauty buys under $10! That‘s quite the steal, and your hair will thank you.

Check out these 13 pro-approved drugstore hair products and see for yourself.‖ Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017 19

Beauty Corner TRESEMME FRESHSTART REFRESHING MIST VO5 HOT OIL TREATMENT There‘s a reason this product is totally classic! VO5 Hot Oil Treatments are a great way to infuse your locks with vitamins, condition your locks and help restore silky strands

If you are looking for a great postworkout hair product or second-day hair refresher, look no further than TRESemme FreshStart Refreshing Mist.

It neutralizes odors and feels nice and cool…

SUAVE PROFESSIONALS KERATIN INFUSION DRY SHAMPOO Every girl needs some dry shampoo in her beauty bag, and Suave Professionals Keratin Infusion Dry Shampoo is a great one to try.

Especially since it‘s priced under $5! The formula is great for soaking up excess oil and doesn‘t leave behind white residue

NEUTROGENA ANTI-RESIDUE SHAMPOO A good clarifying shampoo is a total must, and Neutrogena Anti-Residue Shampoo is our favorite pick. Use it weekly for a deep cleansing to help remove product buildup 20 Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017

Beauty Corner ORGANIX MOROCCAN OIL Argan moroccan oil has long been known to do some pretty amazing things to hair. But, you don‘t need to drop a fortune on expensive moroccan oil products! Try Organiz Moroccan Oil Shampoo and Conditioner instead

TRESEMME THERMAL CREATIONS HEAT TAMER PROTECTIVE SPRAY Don‘t even think about reaching for a hot tool before using a protective product on your locks like TRESemme Thermal Creations Heat Tamer Spray.

It‘s enriched with vitamins and helps minimize damage caused by heat styling

PANTENE PRO-V ICE SHINE SHAMPOO Want shiny hair now? Look no further than Pantene Pro-V Ice Shine Shampoo. We also love that it‘s silicone - and paraben free!

CONAIR HIGH & DRY SHOWER CAP Whether you‘re looking for something to sleep in for that overnight conditioning treatment or just don‘t want your hair wet in the shower, you‘ll need a good shower cap.

Conair High & Dry Shower Cap is thick and gets the job done!

Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017 21

Beauty Corner JOHN FRIEDA FRIZZ EASE ORIGINAL SERUM John Frieda is the king of frizz defense. Try the John Frieda Frizz Ease Original Serum for high shine and taming dry, dull hair

INFUSIUM 23 REPAIR & RENEW LEAVE-IN TREATMENT HEAD AND SHOULDERS Got dandruff?

Don‘t overcomplicate your shampoo search. Good ol‘ Head and Shoulders Shampoo will do the trick and do it well

BIOTIN When it comes to growing out your hair and nails, a vitamin supplement like Biotin can definitely help.

And, it‘s something you can always pick up at your local drug store!

22 Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017

Revitalize damaged hair with a great leave-in treatment like Infusium 23 Repair & Renew Leave-in Treatment. For under $10, this product will help repair damaged strands and protect against further damage

INFINITI PRO BY CONAIR XTREME INSTANT HEAT CERAMIC ROLLERS Set it and forget it! Infiniti Pro by Conair Xtreme Instant Heat Ceramic Rollers heat in just 85 seconds and come in a variety of sizes to create that sexy, big curls look. Put them in, apply your makeup, pop them out and you‘re done!

Spiritual Wellness

By Anna Diehl

Once we start learning how sneaky demons can be with their impersonations of our thought voice and their use of first person pronouns to entice us into owning their lies, how do we go about defending ourselves from such clever adversaries? In this post, we’ll discuss strategies that you can use against demons, and we’ll also learn how to see through the strategies they will try to use on you. There might be an intense war raging in your mind, but you certainly don’t have to surrender.

Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017 23

Spiritual Wellness 1.

Understand the Goal

We cannot make demons stop talking to us, but we can change how we respond to them. Demons want you to believe that as long as you can‘t make them shut up, they are winning. This is a complete lie.

Demons can yammer on and on, but unless you‘re paying attention to them and agreeing with the things that they say, their influence over you is going to be quite limited. The goal is not to try and silence demons, but to learn how to ignore them.

The more confident you become in your relationship with God, the easier this will be. Don‘t be discouraged if demons are currently making a deafening racket in your mind. Instead, think about the last time you were talking with a friend in some noisy public place. You spend hours there, but you‘re so focused on the conversation you‘re having, that you barely notice the people around you. Have you ever been walking down a public street so lost in your own thoughts that you didn‘t hear someone shouting out your name? Focus is very powerful, and the more intently we focus on God, the more all that noise the demons are making in your mind will begin to fade into the background. Don‘t underestimate how good you can get at ignoring demons. With the Holy Spirit as your Coach, anything is possible.

2. Refuse to Cooperate Suppose a man wants to kill you by driving you over a cliff. He‘s got a car all ready to 24 Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017

go, and he has pulled up alongside you on a public street. Now he just needs you to agree to get into the car. He can‘t force you into it by himself, he needs your cooperation. If you knew what the man‘s shady intentions were, of course you‘d never agree. To try and intimidate you into it doing what he wants, the man starts making all kinds of threats, waving a gun at you, and telling you that you‘d better do what he says or else. But the whole time he knows that his gun isn‘t really loaded and that he really doesn‘t have any way of hurting you unless you get into his car with him. This is the same predicament demons are in with you, only they don‘t want you to know it.

Demons can‘t make you believe the lies they tell you. You have to choose to swallow their poison pills of condemnation. If you don‘t, the condemnation will lose its power. A poison pill can‘t harm you when it‘s just sitting on the table in front of you. Until you pick it up and agree to swallow it, it has no power over you whatsoever. In the same way, demons can flood your mind with a bunch of rot about what a failure you are and how your future will be nothing but misery, yet they can‘t make you believe any of these things. You have the option to reject their lies. Once you realize this, the whole game changes.

Now having the option to do something and having the resources to follow through on that option are two different things. You can always choose to bend down and try to

Spiritual Wellness pick up a barbell. But how much weight your muscles can successfully lift will depend on how strong they are. When you first start practicing spiritual discernment, your rejection muscles are all weak and flabby. When you first start trying to reject lies that demons are shoving on you, you‘ll feel like you are powerless to resist them.

Instead of flicking their poison pills away from you, you‘ll feel like you keep swallowing them whole. Naturally this is discouraging, and demons will try to make a huge deal out of your early string of failures. They‘ll say that you‘ll never get any better at resisting them, so you might as well stop trying. But you mustn‘t stop trying. Instead, you need to realize that you just have weak muscles. Both physical and spiritual muscles grow stronger through strain. Any attempt you make to try and reject the condemnation demons are heaping on you will begin to increase your confidence and faith.

to settle for less frequent attacks that are better planned out. Instead of wasting manpower haranguing you everywhere you go, they‘ll back off and start waiting for opportunities when your defenses are down. When those moments come, they‘ll really pounce and try to make the most of it, but the rest of the time you will notice much less static in your head from them. It all starts with you deciding to be obnoxiously stubborn. So dig those heels in and remember that no matter how easily they can overpower you today, you WILL get stronger. There is nothing demons can do to stop you from developing stronger faith in God if you start trying to resist them. This is why their best defense is to talk you out of even trying by convincing you that you‘ll never get anywhere. Don‘t fall for their scheme.

Demons have been harassing humans for thousands of years. They understand spiritual growth well enough to know that if you start resisting them on a regular basis, you will just keep getting better at it.

Those flabby muscles are going to start firming up and it‘s going to become harder and harder for demons to get you to swallow their lies. They‘ll have to keep increasing how much time and resources they spend on you only to end up with less and less gain. Demons have limited resources and billions of souls that they are trying to harass. If you‘re going to become a very difficult customer, then they‘ll have

Remember that the goal is to learn how to ignore demons. The less you engage with them, the better. It‘s pretty hard to carry on an argument with someone who won‘t respond to you. So also, demons have a very hard time dragging you down into despair if you aren‘t paying attention to the convincing argument they‘ve come up with to prove why you‘ll never amount to anything life.

Distraction is the key here. Demons need your focused attention if they‘re going to get anywhere with you. Think of their voice like a station on the radio. You can‘t turn off the volume, but you can

3. Distract Your Mind

Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017 25

Spiritual Wellness start talking over it, or else you can turn on some other louder source of music to drown their station out. By rehearsing positive truths about God in your mind, you make it much more difficult for demons to hold your attention. If they are really trying to target you, they will intensify their attacks when they know you are most vulnerable–such as when you‘re lying in bed waiting to go to sleep. In these cases, turning on some music, white noise, or even the television can be a very useful counter defense.

Your mind needs something else to focus on in order to practice tuning demons out.

If they are trying to attack you with mental images as well as words, then you need a substitute image to focus on. Any image that turns your mind to God is your friend in these moments. Now sometimes you will try to pull up some positive image of God smiling at you, and demons will contort the image into something else. God will go from smiling at you to glaring at you, and demons will try to tell you that God Himself is altering your mental image to better reflect reality. But of course they are lying, and you can tell they are the originators of the corrupted image because of the negative effect it has on your soul.

ANY image or thought which makes you feel rejected by God, distant from Him, or discouraged in your relationship with Him is a lie from demons. These are the things we want to practice rejecting. If they are really flooding your mind with images, it‘s a good time to try reading or doing some other activity that has a visual component 26 Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017

By Catholic Education

to it. New information coming through your eyes will help pull your attention off of the images demons are pressing into your mind. You might still be partly focused on them, but remember that any amount of resistance is going to help you grow stronger.

4. Know Yourself Demons are very strategic in their attacks.

You need to know where your weakest points are–and that means where you are most insecure in your walk with God. Everyone has weak areas. Some of us brutally struggle with grasping that God loves us. Others struggle with receiving His forgiveness about the past. Whatever your deep core fears are, demons know all about them and they will try to leverage them against you. If there are any subjects that you‘re currently avoiding with God, you are really providing demons with some hefty ammo to use against you. Don‘t let there be any topics you avoid in your

Spiritual Wellness prayers. Everything needs to be out on the table. Fears need to be acknowledged so that countering truths can be identified and focused on. Remember that no matter how black your situation seems, with God there is ALWAYS hope.

Once you‘ve identified positive core truths about your relationship with God that are very difficult for you to get a hold of, make a list of them or make a recording of yourself saying them and keep that resource handy. The weaker your grip is on a certain truth, the easier it will be for demons to talk you into accepting the opposite of that truth. Having your list handy will help you identify when demons are trying to attack you. Any thought that enters your mind which counters one of the truths on your list is coming from demons.

Now because your confidence is so weak in these areas, it will be very difficult to try and counter lies at first. For example, if you have a very hard time accepting that God actually likes you, then it will feel very correct when demons sidle up to you and say, ―God finds you so annoying.‖ But when you can see that the truths on your list totally contradict this negative message, then you need to try and reject it.

You won‘t be able to at first. You‘ll say, ―God really loves me,‖ in your mind, but it will sound completely ludicrous to you.

That‘s alright, you‘re just working muscles that have no strength yet. That will change.

Keep going over your list until you have it memorized. Recite it when you get up in the morning, when you go to bed at night, and whenever it surfaces in your mind. If

you try to do an activity like this, the Holy Spirit will start helping you by bringing the items on your list to your mind throughout the day. Take note of when one of your positive truths suddenly pops into your mind. Realize that this is not a random coincidence. This is God talking to you, helping you to turn your mind onto positive truths. Any thought or image which inspires your soul and makes you feel hopeful in your walk with God is coming from Him.

By Self Discovery Radio

5. Monitor Your Internal Responses Agreeing with demons is like swallowing tea that‘s been laced with poison. The more sips you swallow, the worse you feel. Early detection is an important part of defending yourself from their assaults. The sooner you can identify them as the source of the thought in your mind, the sooner you can practice rejecting what they‘re saying.

Because demons are so good at imitating Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017 27

Spiritual Wellness our thought voice, we often think we are listening to ourselves musing in our own heads instead of realizing that a third party has gotten involved. By the time we start suspecting demons, we‘ve already internalized many of their lies. It‘s much easier to reject a lie right off than it is to try and unlearn something after you‘ve accepted it as truth. Remember that ANYTHING which makes you feel beat down, or hopeless in your walk with God is coming from demons. Always ask yourself, ―Is this thought making me feel closer to God or further away from Him?‖ Anything that makes you feel unwanted or unloved by God is coming from demons.

There are times when God will express strong negative feelings about our attitudes and actions, but if you are a Christian in His eyes, He will NEVER reject you personally. Remember this general rule: demons discourage, God encourages.

Remember that most of the thoughts in

By Janine Hockley

28 Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017

your head are not originating from you— this is especially true when we are in the early stages of learning how to develop good discernment skills because demons tend to be much more vocal with us when they find we are easy to manipulate.

6. Start Listening for God God is always talking to you. You need to start aggressively looking for evidence of this. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you recognize when He is talking to you. The more you start identifying specific incidents of Him speaking to you, the more confident you will become about His intimate involvement in your life.

Confidence leads to greater faith and trust, and these things strengthen your resistance muscles. A good exercise is to get a journal and start noting down any thoughts or images that God puts in your head. Any thought that makes you feel closer to God, wanted by Him, and encouraged in your walk is coming from Him. You do not think encouraging thoughts on your own– those are translations of things that the Holy Spirit is saying to your soul.

Remember that a thought does not have to be clearly stated in your mind to be from God. The Holy Spirit is speaking to your soul in a non-verbal language and He will sometimes say things to you that your mind finds difficult to put into words.

When this happens, your thought voice will sound like it is tripping over its tongue as it searches for the best translation of what your soul has heard. For example, the

Spiritual Wellness Holy Spirit might communicate some strong, nonverbal message of His pleasure with you to your soul. Your soul reacts by feeling suddenly joyful and inspired. Your mind then tries to put this communication into words, but it can‘t find a single phrase that captures all the nuances of what God has said to you, so you end up with a string of halting thoughts:

“God loves me—He’s pleased— pleased because I really care about Him—pleased when He sees into my heart.”

Remember that when our confidence in God speaking to us is still weak, our mind phrases everything He says as if we are thinking the thoughts ourselves instead of acknowledging that He is speaking to us directly. But as our faith grows, our minds will change the pronouns they are using to reflect the fact that God is talking to us. It will also stop trying to interject doubt into the things God is saying.

7. Listen for Countering Thoughts.

When demons are being very vocal with you, it‘s easy to feel like God is never talking. What you hear in your mind is a long string of negativity that is occasionally interrupted by some weak rebuttal. When you‘re new to discernment, you will probably take credit for this entire conversation and assume the whole thing is just your low self-esteem talking. But it is not you talking, it is demons using your 30 Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017

own insecurities to pound you. Listen closer for those weak rebuttals—those times when you seem to waffle. For example: I’m such a loser. I’ll always be a loser. I’m sure God could never love someone like me. But maybe He could. No, He couldn’t.

I’m a total zero. Everything I do sucks.

I’ve never done anything right. Well, maybe I’ve done a few things right. No, I haven’t Notice how those first person pronouns make it sound like you‘re talking to yourself, and yet in reality, demons are talking to you. Notice how the phrases in red counter the main point that is being emphasized over and over again. This is God, interjecting hope into the conversation. His statements sound very weak and unconfident because your faith in Him is so weak, therefore your soul is rejecting much of His encouragement and your brain is using the wrong pronouns because it doesn‘t accept the concept of an outside party talking to you. If we were to reword this same thought stream and change the pronouns to reflect the fact that two outside parties are talking to you, then it would sound like this: Demons: You’re such a loser. You’ll always be a loser. God could never love someone like you God: Of course I could. I love you very much.

Spiritual Wellness Demons: No, that’s not true. You’re a total zero. Everything you do sucks.

You’ve never done anything right.

God: Of course you have. You’ve done several things right. Submitting your life to Me, for example—that was huge.

Demons: Don’t listen to Him, you haven’t done anything right.

Now if this is what you really heard in your mind, the battle would be a bit easier.

The demons‘ accusations would still be tough to resist because your insecurities with God make them feel so valid. But at least you wouldn‘t be taking responsibility for the whole thing and you wouldn‘t be completely missing the fact that God is encouraging you.

continue to look to the Holy Spirit and rely on Him to guide you in all things. God doesn‘t want you to spend the rest of your life staring up at the soles of demons‘ feet, but He also doesn‘t want to turn you into Super Christian tomorrow. Spiritual growth is meant to be a journey. There is no button we can press to skip the hard chapters, and this is a good thing, for it is the experience of going through these things with God that will deeply enrich your personal relationship with Him. Article Shared with Permission from 924jeremiah.wordpress.com and written by Anna Diehl

CONCLUSION Remember that learning good spiritual discernment skills, developing strong faith and confidence in God, and learning how to tune out the agitation of your earthsuit takes time. A two-year-old girl doesn‘t evolve into a full grown woman in just one week. Be patient. Have confidence in your Instructor: the magnificent Holy Spirit. He has been maturing human souls for thousands of years and He knows how to mature you. Nothing is impossible when you are living in alignment with God and seeking His best for your life. No matter how defeated, weak, and frustrated you might feel today, you can make progress, and you will make progress as you

Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017 31

Blessed Magazine Promote your business, ministry and upcoming events

WITH US TODAY

Contact us Today and discover how you can reach more potential customers with our affordable ad space prices‌starting at $10/quarterly

FREE Ad Space for 1 month on our Blessed Magazine Website with purchase of ad space in our magazine

1(323)902-6192 blessedmagazine.org contact@blessedmagazine.org

Spiritual Wellness

What it Means to be Aligned with God

By Anna Diehl

Staying aligned with God, being in step with His will, being in unity with the Spirit—what do these terms mean exactly? How do we get aligned with God and if we fall out of alignment with Him, how can we fix it? These are the questions we‘ll answer in this post.

Alignment is a very simple concept that has to do with your soul‘s attitude towards God. At any moment in time, you either sincerely care about pleasing Him or you do not. If you do, then you are in alignment with Him. Alignment is not about behavior, nor is it undone by sin. You can be aligned with God in your soul and still be sinning with your body. In these cases, you will not enjoy sin—your flesh might enjoy it, but inside your soul will be groaning in repulsion.

Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017 33

Spiritual Wellness THE TEST FOR ALIGNMENT How can you tell whether you‘re aligned with God or not? It‘s actually quite simple.

Imagine yourself doing an activity you really enjoy. Now imagine the Holy Spirit suddenly asking you to stop doing it. How would you respond? Would you blow Him off, or would you be very distressed to learn He is unhappy with the way things are going? If you‘d be very distressed, then you are aligned with God in your soul.

Strong interest in God‘s feelings is a symptom of alignment, as is a willingness to put His preferences above your own.

Suppose God were to tell you right now that there is some sin in your life that He is unhappy about. What is your first reaction?

If you‘re aligned with God in your soul, this example will upset you. If you‘re not aligned, you‘d scoff.

When you really care about God in your soul, the thought of pleasing Him is very important to you. The thought of Him being dissatisfied with you is very upsetting. You take His convictions seriously.

When you‘re not aligned with God, you don‘t care what He thinks. His convictions are like an annoying background noise that you work hard to tune out. His feelings and preferences mean nothing to you. Instead, you only care about yourself and what you want.

HOW DO WE BECOME UNALIGNED? 34 Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017

God always makes instant realignment an option. Because repentance is simply a matter of changing your soul‘s attitude towards God, the very moment you choose to embrace God‘s will for your life again, you are back in alignment with Him. Don‘t miss this point: no external behavior is required to complete the process of realignment. Like salvation, this is an instantaneous event which happens the moment your soul turns back to God. Now suppose you purposely did something wrong at work and God convicts you about it when you get home. He says you need to confess what you did to your boss the next day. Maybe you try to pretend you don‘t hear Him at first. This is rebellion. Then you decide you‘re being foolish and you repent. You are now back in alignment with God, even though you still haven‘t done what He wants you to do to make things right. By now it‘s too late to call your boss, so you have to wait until the next day. Satan will harass you all night about this—trying to make you feel terrible for rebelling against God and insisting that God is still mad at you. This is condemnation. The moment you repented, God was satisfied. He is not holding a grudge until you talk to your boss. God doesn‘t play such games. Behavior does not affect repentance or alignment—both of these are soul issues.

Because God wants you to be in constant alignment with Him, He makes it very simple to get instantly realigned with Him anytime you stray into rebellion. Even if

Spiritual Wellness you‘ve made a major mess in life and God has a long list of steps He wants you to take to make things right again, He will never block you from getting back in His good graces. As soon as you sincerely desire to please God again, you are back in step with the Spirit. You might be miles away from the circumstances He wants you to be in, but the point is that you are now walking in step with Him and He will guide you back onto the best path for your life.

By The 310 Course

OBEDIENCE & ALIGNMENT Suppose God asks you to do something difficult. The moment you decide to obey Him in your soul, He is pleased, even though you haven‘t done the thing yet. In some cases, He might even change His mind and tell you that you don‘t have to do the thing after all. In these cases, you still get full credit from Him for obeying Him because He judges you by your soul.

When we are aligned with God, we will want to obey Him, even when He asks us

to do something difficult. If His request sounds overwhelming, our flesh might panic and we might find ourselves paralyzed and unable to move forward. But if our souls sincerely desire to please God even though we are hiding like cowards in a corner, then God will be pleased.

Alignment is what He cares most about.

The ability to follow through with obedient behavior is something we can‘t come up with unless He empowers us. There are many reasons why God will intentionally withhold the resources we need to obey Him in our flesh, but we always have the option of choosing obedience in our souls.

In the end, we are only judged by our souls, because that is all we can really control. God takes all the glory for our behavioral follow through, because we can do nothing apart from His empowerment.

It is very easy to stay in alignment with God because He makes it easy. Alignment has nothing to do with perfect behavior, it is about our soul‘s attitude towards God. Whenever we step out of alignment with God by embracing rebellion on a core level, we can instantly become realigned with Him by correcting our soul attitude.

Article Shared with Permission from 924jeremiah.wordpress.com and written by Anna Diehl

Question: Do You Know

Jesus?

Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017 35

Powerful Prayers for Believers of the Faith When you feel like you have nothing to say in prayer, lean on the timeless Word of God. These life-giving prayers can kick-start your conversations with God

―I can’t tell you how much I appreciate having this available to me. It has inspired me to develop a better relationship with God. You guys are the best and I pray others will be blessed by this book - Susan

Exclusively at Blessed Magazine Get Yours Today! No Purchase Necessary!

One of the strongest foundations on this earth is FAMILY Steps for a Strong Foundation in Jesus Read the Bible Together Pray Together Go to Church Together Communicate with Each Other Blessed Magazine

Spiritual Wellness

Treating God Like God: Simple Steps to Improving the Way that We Pray

By Anna Diehl

Intercessory prayer has never been a respectful way to speak to God and it has never been effective in changing the way God that works with other people or demons. We only think it has because humans are obsessed with the notion that they can find a way to lead their Creator instead of following Him. Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017 39

Spiritual Wellness Here‘s a critical point to realize: you will not find good instruction on prayer in the Bible. What you‘ll find instead is a bunch of examples of how to pray wrong. This is because the folks who do most of the praying in the Bible were not mature enough to model treating God with the proper respect. The ancient Jews were obsessed with ―the power of the spoken word,‖ verbal cursing and blessing, name claiming, and other such nonsense.

They had no use for reverential submission and they spent most of their history embracing defiant soul attitudes. Today in the Church, you‘re being taught to imitate folks who were acting like sorcerer wannabes and treating God with gross disrespect. If you want to improve your treatment of God, you need to abandon the idea of imitating the ancient Jews.

Now when God is working with spiritual infants and rebels, He does not bring up concepts which He knows they‘re not ready for. This is why you‘ll find Yahweh and Jesus being very gracious in Their responses to a lot of bad prayers in the Bible. Moses was being obnoxious to side with snarky Israelites against Yahweh when he pleaded for Yahweh not to kill everyone off in the desert. Abraham was totally out of line to suggest that Yahweh was an unfair Judge when he and Yahweh were discussing the fate of Sodom. The book of Psalms contains many bossy prayers and a bunch of irreverent criticisms of

40 Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017

God. Jeremiah says a lot of things in Lamentations which are very insulting to Yahweh. Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Moses all get reprimanded by Yahweh for making inappropriate requests of Him. The apostle Paul is a disastrous model of prayer. But the good news is that we can learn from both good and bad examples once we understand a few basic facts. So what are those facts?

1.

God says He is all-knowing–this rules out the need for us to inform God of what’s going on in the world.

2.

God says He is all-powerful–this rules out the need for us to try and boost God’s abilities by flinging holy water and chanting verses.

3.

God says that He wants people to have the option of defying Him–this makes it inappropriate for us to ask God to force people to choose salvation or obedience.

4.

God says that He is infinitely wiser than we are and that He does not welcome advice from created beings–this makes it inappropriate for us to try and instruct

5.

God, especially when it comes to managing the world and other humans.

6.

As the Supreme Authority over all created beings, God says that He

Spiritual Wellness will never submit to anyone while He demands total submission from us. This makes it utterly inappropriate for us to try and lead God in any area or to try to coerce Him into aligning with our agenda through nagging, bribes of money and service, verse quoting, or ganging up against Him with other Christians.

Praying correctly comes down to the very basic principle of respecting who God says He is. While God certainly wants us to share our thoughts and concerns with Him, we need to be speaking to Him as the subordinates that we are–not as His equals, assistants or supervisors. Because intercessory prayer is all about trying to intervene in Divine affairs and instruct God on what He ought to be doing, it is absolute garbage. When we don‘t know better, God does not take offense. But once He opens our eyes to understand how disrespectfully we are speaking to Him, then He wants us to be eager to change.

A valuable tip in learning to pray better is to slow down. Instead of just firing off the usual requests, stop to contemplate the facts about God that we stated above. Then think about the way you are phrasing your prayer and ask, ―Am I speaking to God as the wise, allpowerful, all-knowing Being that He is? Am I respecting His desire for humans to have the option of rejecting Him? Is my language dominating or

submissive–am I trying to take the lead or am I embracing my role as a follower?‖

Often we do a much better job of respecting rank with other humans than we do with God. A low ranking soldier knows better than to try and instruct a general on battle strategies. But when it comes time to address the Maker of all things, we often act as if God‘s Supreme Rank over us is meaningless and we frequently talk condescendingly to Him. We let the criticism freely flow, we blast Him with orders, and then we keep repeating Jesus‘ Name as if that will somehow add leverage to our requests. The popular style of praying among Christians comes down to trying to guilt trip God into doing what we want.

We are very coercive and manipulative in our approach. When we quote Bible verses at God, it‘s because we are trying to make Him feel obligated to fulfill promises that we‘ve decided apply to us, and that we‘ve decided cannot be broken. And while it‘s highly

Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017 41

Spiritual Wellness unlikely that any Christian would try to suggest that God doesn‘t already know the contents of the Bible backwards and forwards, we still find ourselves constantly throwing verses in His face. It‘s a guilt trip, and a pretty twerpy one at that.

It is an awesome privilege and a humbling honor that Yahweh, Jesus and the Holy Spirit make Themselves available to us. It is not a right. The Creators and Sustainers of all things owe us nothing. They do not have to ever look in our direction, yet They choose to be near, not far. If you were to give someone a priceless gift, would you want them to set it on a distant shelf and say, ―It‘s too good for me to touch?‖ No, and in the same way, our Creators do not want us to back away from Them just because we are so undeserving of Their Company. But we are undeserving of Their Company, and this should certainly impact the way that we treat Them. We should be clinging to Them as our most cherished Treasures. When we pray to Them, there should be great respect, bundles of gratitude, and total honesty.

It is not a difficult thing to learn how to treat our Creators better. We just need to be willing to stop and think about what we‘re doing, then we need to be receptive to Them giving us pointers on how we can improve our treatment of Them. Yahweh, Jesus and the Holy

42 Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017

Spirit love to teach souls who sincerely care about pleasing Them, and for us humans there is no greater reward than succeeding at pleasing our Makers.

Article Shared with Permission from 924jeremiah.wordpress.com and written

by Anna Diehl

Question: Do You Know

Jesus?

Spiritual Wellness

Returning to the God You Divorced: Guidance for Christians

By Anna Diehl

When we first begin our relationship with God, we bring a list of ultimatums with us. That list contains a bunch of behaviors which we won‘t tolerate God engaging in. That list defines the limits our of willingness to be dominated by Him. Sure, we‘ll stay as long as God doesn‘t engage in some unpardonable sin. But if He does cross certain lines with us, we‘re divorcing Him, and it will be all His fault.

Now every human has their own list of ultimatums, but if you talk to folks who have walked away from Christianity, you‘ll find some definite patterns. God refusing to save us from some form of devastation is a very popular ultimatum. Maybe God killed your kid. Maybe He let your marriage tank. Maybe He crushed some dream that you were defining yourself by. When God hurts us too much, we feel quite justified in walking, and equally justified in blaming Him for being an abusive Monster.

Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017 43

Spiritual Wellness Another very common ultimatum is God‘s prolonged silence. When He suddenly shuts down all positive feedback and does His ―I‘m on Mars and I‘m not listening to you‖ routine, we feel both hurt and angry. If He keeps it up for too long, we ditch Him, and once again we feel justified in blaming Him for being the One who ended the relationship.

A third very common ultimatum is God deceiving us. He makes a specific promise to you, then fails to deliver, or He gives you the exact opposite of what He said He would. Well, we‘re not going to put up with this kind of treachery. So we walk, and we absolve ourselves of all blame for ending the relationship, because after all, God committed an unpardonable sin.

Now once we cut God off, is there any hope of reconciliation? It depends. If we‘re obsessed with grudge holding, we might go down the road of angry vengeance and start telling ourselves that it‘s actually possible for us to stick it to God somehow.

Of course we‘re delusional, but this is where many atheists end up: seething with anger and clinging to all kinds of ridiculous fantasies that they can actually turn the tables on the One who is holding their molecules together Perpetual seething isn‘t our only option.

Some of us grow very sad and find

44 Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017

ourselves wishing we could somehow reconcile with God. And indeed, we can, but first we need to understand what the real issue is. The problem is not that God did something unforgivable—that‘s often how we frame it in our minds, but there is a deeper issue at hand.

Whenever we find our will clashing with God‘s, focusing on submission is going to be the thing that brings us peace.

A DIFFERENT DYNAMIC We all want God to talk to us when and how we choose. Sure, we‘re willing to be flexible to a point. But if He never shows up, how are we supposed to carry the relationship on our own? We can‘t. Relating to God is not a case of us straining to believe that some fantasy is real. All relationships require participation from both sides in order to survive, but with God, the dynamic we‘ll need to get comfortable with is one that is totally foreign to us.

God is not a human, and the more we progress with Him, the more we‘ll discover how unique our dynamic with Him is. When we initially walk away from God, we‘re using the same ultimatums with Him as we would with another human.

We‘re drawing boundaries, and we think that‘s a good thing, because having boundaries with humans is a critical way of protecting ourselves from abuse. When we walk away from God, we‘re saying, ―You‘ve crossed a line with me. Your treatment

Spiritual Wellness of me is unacceptable. I‘m not going to stay here and let You keep hurting me.‖ Then we go off in a huff and join the atheists or convert to some other religion just to prove to God how serious we are about cutting ties with Him. This kind of distancing behavior can be very effective with getting humans to either stop bothering us or start apologizing and trying to get back on our good side. But we quickly discover that God is not so easy to control. When we try to make Him improve His response to us by icing Him, we often discover that He either continues to act indifferent to us, or He continues plaguing our lives with problems which we find overwhelming. What is His point in being so difficult? His point is to show us that in our relationship with Him, we‘re not going to be in the driver‘s seat.

CHANGING FOUNDATIONS

By Through the Darkness

God will not be controlled by you. Yet if you talk with Christians who claim to be having a jolly time in their relationships with God, you‘ll hear them talking quite a bit about controlling Him. They won‘t use the actual word ―control,‖ because that‘s one of those taboo words, and yet as they talk about the power of faith, and the effectiveness of their prayers, and the fact that God‘s promises never fail, what they‘re really telling you is that their ―joy in the Lord‖ is largely built on the illusion that they can control Him. It is because Christians are building their faith on an illusion of control that they are so quick to panic when they are confronted with the concept of God lying or of God controlling evil, or of their Bibles being riddled with errors. If we‘re going to maintain the fantasy that we are able to control God, then we need Him to act in predictable ways. He needs to always keep the promises that we think He made to us. He mustn‘t do anything that contradicts our personal interpretation of Scriptures. He must demonstrate submission to us if we pour extra money into the offering plate or fast or get a bunch of other Christians to all bombard Him with the same request enough days in a row. He must make His Presence especially evident to us when we‘re super upset. He can‘t ever lie to us. He can‘t intentionally hurt us. He can‘t not be distressed by the things which distress us. Should God start breaking these rules, our sense of control over Him will begin to crumble,

Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017 45

Spiritual Wellness and that will result in a fearful panic. If God doesn‘t clean up His act, we‘ll end up in a full-blown faith crisis. But why? Because our faith was built on the illusion that we could control and predict God. It wasn‘t built on total submission.

Here‘s a critical question which you could use to really ponder: What kind of relationship do you want to have with God? Do you want something real, or do you just want a pretense? Do you want to really know Him or do you just want to flirt with the idea of Him? The true Gods are not fictional tales that humans invented for themselves. Yahweh, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are real, independent, totally alien kinds of Beings. Getting to really know Them is going to be an uncomfortable experience, especially when They‘re not going to change who They are to suit you.

When you begin a relationship with another human, you both spend a lot of time adjusting your behaviors and compromising for the sake of pleasing each other. You take turns with getting your own ways. Well, God doesn‘t take turns and He doesn‘t compromise. He‘s like an Instructor who is glad to keep going over certain lessons until you grasp them, but He‘s not going to let you have any say in the curriculum. You don‘t get to decide what God will teach you or what methods He will use to teach you. He controls the agenda. He controls the pace of learning, discovery,

46 Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017

growth, and healing. You want Him to help you get over your addiction today, but He‘s planning to keep you stuck with it for the next 20 years because He finds it to be a valuable teaching tool. You want Him to open doors for you to serve today, but He‘s keeping all doors locked until He decides that you‘re finally prepared. You want to learn about His love, but He‘s only willing to talk about His wrath. You want to understand some disturbing comment Jesus made in the Gospels, but He‘s only willing to discuss other passages with you.

By The Presbytery of Los Ranchos

God will not be led by you. He won‘t negotiate with you. He‘ll give you some choices in life, but He‘ll force many other experiences on you without you getting any choice at all. You don‘t have the options with God that you have with other humans. You can‘t just cut ties with Him, because He‘s always in your business. You can‘t make Him leave you alone. You can‘t upset Him or surprise

Spiritual Wellness Him, or throw Him off His game. On the one hand, God is the kindest, gentlest, sweetest Being you‘ll ever know.

But He‘s also dominating, controlling, and maddeningly autonomous. He just doesn‘t need you, yet you desperately need Him. He can get along just fine without you, and yet He is your only hope of having any joy in your life. In your relationships with humans, it is critical that you share the power. But in your relationship with God, you are totally powerless. He has all of the power, and He won‘t share any of it with you. Of course there are a bunch of Christians in the world today who are pretending that God is sharing His power with them by claiming that they can greatly influence how God uses His power. Such Christians are clinging to the illusion that they can control God and building their faith on a foundation that is destined to crumble. But then there‘s you: blasted with the very distressing realization that nothing you do can make God do what you want Him to do because He just isn‘t going to take the submissive role in this relationship. As upset and vulnerable as this makes you feel, you‘re actually in a much better position than the folks who are still clinging to happy delusions. God has essentially shoved your house of faith off of that bad foundation that we all try to build on, and now your house is a crumbled mess. So is the end of everything? It doesn‘t have to be. If you make some

wise choices, this can be the start of a whole new and far better chapter for you and God. Now that you have gotten a big dose of how little control you have over Him, it‘s time to choose a better foundation: one which will actually be able to withstand the storms of God acting in ways that you hate. That foundation is submission. Not partial submission, but full on, ―Have Your total way in my life.‖ God is never going to be less than God over you. There‘s only one productive way for you to approach a Being who reigns supreme over all created things: you need to treat Him as supreme as He is.

You need to acknowledge the immense difference in power, options, and control between you and God and embrace your place as the powerless one in this relationship. It is by accepting God‘s great supremacy over us—not railing against it—that moves us onto the right foundation. God is not always going to do what you want Him to do. There will be times when you totally loathe the decisions He‘s making, but your disapproval of Him is not going to change His behavior. If you want to get somewhere with God, you have to throw out your list of ultimatums and realize what a crock it is for dots like us to try and hold boundaries with our own Creator.

When we pretend that God doesn‘t have certain options with us, we‘re just

Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017 47

Spiritual Wellness deluding ourselves. God has infinite options. He doesn‘t have to keep His promises. He doesn‘t have to stay within our pinched up expectations. He isn‘t limited by anything that‘s written in the Bible, and He doesn‘t have to explain Himself to us. When we first start with God, we draw comfort from thinking that we have a certain amount of negotiating power in the relationship. We tell ourselves that if we were ever desperate enough, we could make God meet with us. But no, we can‘t make God do anything. We‘re His creations—we depend on Him to sustain our very existence. There‘s just no way for us to balance the power in this relationship and the sooner we stop trying, the better off we‘ll be.

YOUR CHALLENGE God handles every soul differently. Some go decades without ever feeling severely disillusioned in their relationships with Him. Some barely go five minutes before God blasts them out of the water by violating one of those sacred ―God would never…‖ rules. But the advantage of having God confront you with His wild side is that it gives you the opportunity to switch foundations. You need your first house to crumble, because that first house is always built on a faulty foundation. We all go into it trusting in illusions and false assumptions and overly simplistic theories about who God is and how He

48 Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017

operates. If we‘re ever going to get close to Him, we need Him to shove us into the dirt and force us to realize how much of our confidence in Him has been rooted in the wrong things. Then we need Him to help us reconstruct our faith onto the right foundation: total submission and a refusal to try and put any limits on Him. So then, what kind of relationship do you want with God? The unfortunate truth is that most of the souls who are calling themselves Christians don‘t want to pursue the real deal—they just want the happy delusion. If delusions are all you want, the world has plenty to offer you: Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, New Age. There‘s really no point in you sticking with Christianity if you‘re not going to treat God like the Supreme Authority in your life. Merely calling yourself a Christian and praying to Jesus isn‘t going to land you on the right side of eternity. Yahweh, Jesus and the Holy Spirit demand submission from you— and submission is about us yielding to God‘s will even when we seriously dislike what He‘s doing. By frustrating you to the point that you decided to walk away from the faith, God has done you a big favor.

He‘s giving you the opportunity to come back in a whole new way, without the list of ultimatums.

If you ask Him to help you embrace Him as the Supreme Authority of your life, He will, and then you‘ll discover what true Christianity is really all about.

Being Single ‘A Great Opportunity’ Get the compelling book that sheds light on the lies, feelings and truths about being single as a Christian Click Here To Download Your eBook ―This book. Oh my God! This book answers all of my questions and concerns. It has given me a better outlook on being single and helps me to focus on what I can do while waiting on a mate if that is God’s will for my life…Get this book! You won’t regret it …..Julie R.

Exclusively at Blessed Magazine Get Yours Today! No Purchase Necessary!

Spiritual Wellness

Understanding Which of God’s Promises are for You

By Michael S. Houdmann

There are literally hundreds of God‘s promises in the Bible. How can we know which promises apply to us, which promises we can claim? To frame this question another way, how can one tell the difference between general promises and specific promises? A general promise is one that is given by the Holy Spirit to every believer in every age. When the author penned the promise, he set no limitations on time period or recipient.

An example of a general promise is 1 John 1:9, ―If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.‖ This promise is based on the forgiving nature of God and is available to all believers everywhere.

50 Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017

Spiritual Wellness Another example of a general promise is Philippians 4:7, ―And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.‖ This promise is made to all believers who, refusing to worry, bring their requests to God (v. 8). Other examples of general promises include Psalm 1:3; 27:10; 31:24; John 4:13-14 and Revelation 3:20.

Gentiles, the apostle Paul claimed the promise of Isaiah: ―I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth‖ (Acts 13:47). Isaiah‘s promise was originally meant for the Messiah, but in it Paul found guidance from the Lord for his own life. When claiming one of God‘s promises from Scripture, we should keep the following principles in mind:

A specific promise is one that is made to specific individuals on specific occasions. The context of the promise will usually make clear who the recipient is. For example, the promise of 1 Kings 9:5 is very specific: ―I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever.‖ The preceding and following verses make it clear that God is speaking only to King Solomon.

1) God‘s promises are often conditional.

Look for the word ―if‖ in the context.

Luke 2:35 contains another specific promise: ―And a sword will pierce your own soul too.‖ This prophecy/promise was directed to Mary and was fulfilled in her lifetime. While a specific promise is not made to all believers generally, the Holy Spirit can still use a specific promise to guide or encourage any of His children. For example, the promise of Isaiah 54:10 was written with Israel in mind, but the Holy Spirit has used these words to comfort many Christians today: ―my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed.‖

2) God gives us promises to help us better submit to His will and trust Him. A promise does not make God bend to our will.

3) Do not assume to know precisely when, where, or how God‘s promises will be fulfilled in your life.

Article Shared with Permission by Got Questions at www.gotquestions.org

Question: Do You Know

Jesus?

As he was led to take the gospel to the Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017 51

Classes Now Available Anger Management Domestic Violence Intervention Crisis Intervention and Prevention Parenting Skills Call or Click Today to Register

Precious Life Services

830.372.5980

Relationships

How to Recognize When You’ve Found the Perfect Spouse The Bible does not address how to find the "perfect spouse," nor does it get as specific as we might like on the matter of finding the right marriage partner. The one thing God's Word does explicitly tell us is to make sure that we do not marry an unbeliever (2 Corinthians 6:14-15). First Corinthians 7:39 reminds us that, while we are free to marry, we should only marry those who are acceptable to God in other words, Christians. Beyond this, the Bible is silent about how to know we are marrying the "right" person.

Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017 53

Relationships So why doesn't God spell out for us what we should look for in a mate? Why do we not have more specifics about such an important issue? The truth is that the Bible is so clear on what a Christian is and how we are to act that specifics are not necessary. Christians are supposed to be likeminded about important issues, and if two Christians are committed to their marriage and to obeying Christ, they already possess the necessary ingredients for success. However, because our society is inundated with many professing Christians, it would be wise to use discernment before devoting oneself to the lifelong commitment of marriage. Once a prospective mate's priorities are identified if he or she is truly committed to Christ-likeness then the specifics are easier to identify and deal with.

First, we should make sure that we are ready to marry. We must have enough maturity to look beyond the here and now and be able to commit ourselves to joining with this one person for the rest of our lives. We must also recognize that marriage requires sacrifice and selflessness. Before marrying, a couple should study the roles and duties of a husband and wife (Ephesians 5:22-31; 1 Corinthians 7:1-16; Colossians 3:18-19; Titus 2:1-5; 1 Peter 3:1-7).

A couple should make sure they know each other for a sufficient amount of time before discussing marriage. They

54 Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017

should watch how the other person reacts to different situations, how he behaves around his family and friends, and what kind of people she spends time with. A person's behavior is greatly influenced by those he keeps company with (1 Corinthians 15:33). They should agree on issues such as morality, finances, values, children, church attendance and involvement, relationships with in-laws, and employment. These are areas of potential conflict in marriage and should be carefully considered beforehand.

Finally, any couple considering marriage should first go to premarital counseling with their pastor or another trained Christian counselor. Here they will learn valuable tools for building their marriage on a foundation of faith in Christ, and they will also learn how to deal with inevitable conflicts. After all these criteria have been met, the couple is ready to prayerfully decide if they desire to be joined together in marriage. If we are earnestly seeking the will of God, He will direct our paths (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Article Shared with Permission by Got Questions at www.gotquestions.org

Question: Do You Know

Jesus?

Blessed Magazine Volunteer Post Responders Wanted

Want to be part of a ministry to encourage, uplift and inspire individuals?

Blessed Magazine is now recruiting individuals who desire to make a difference in the lives of others through responding to posts If you are interested, please send us a short paragraph outlining why you would be a candidate to become a part of the Blessed Magazine team Send inquiries to contact@blessedmagazine.org

Listen, If God is not glorified in everything we do, then we are simply wasting our time.

God must be glorified in our walk and in our talk. If this isn’t happening, well‌what’s the point in existing?

Blessed Magazine

Tom Hanks is not affiliated with Blessed Magazine

Relationships

In our material, we say that choosing to fully submit to God is the road that will lead you to epic soul joy and satisfaction. In other words, it‘s a glorious thing to fully embrace your identity as a powerless speck of a creature in your relationship with God. In fact, the more you face just how powerless, limited, and dependent you are, the happier your soul will be.

Now this line of logic sounds quite backwards to many people. And after listening to us talk about the joy of being powerless, some people decide that we are dysfunctional messes whose view of God has been warped by traumas that we‘ve been through with humans. In the Church today, the joy of total submission to God isn‘t talked about because this is a more advanced concept which has to do with spiritual maturity, and mainstream Christianity encourages souls to settle for a very immature stage of spiritual development. But for those of you who want to dig into the deeper mysteries of God, we‘re now going to explain why submitting to God and totally 58 Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017

Relationships abandoning your efforts to hang onto power in your relationship with Him results in such soul joy and peace.

HUMANS & POWER When it comes to your relationships with humans, power must be balanced for relationships to work. If you give a human too much power over you, the relationship will become abusive. So with humans, you must not only learn to demand an appropriate amount of power, but you must also learn to refuse excessive power. Let‘s take the man whose wife is trying to give him total control over her by refusing to voice any of her personal preferences. Even when she‘s upset by what the man does with her, she won‘t draw boundaries. By refusing to speak up for herself when she should, the woman is giving the man too much power. In such a situation, the man needs to refuse the extra power and insist that the woman start vocalizing her preferences so that he can respect them. This is how a balance of power will be restored, thus protecting both partners from an abusive dynamic.

With humans, power must be constantly juggled back and forth to keep relationships healthy. But with God, it‘s a totally different game.

In your relationship with God, you must learn to keep relinquishing power to Him and stop trying to hold back power for yourself. This is where submission

comes in. Submission says, ―I don‘t like what You‘re doing, but I‘ll go along with it anyway. Because I recognize that You outrank me, I will accept You dominating me.‖ Now in the case of God, He doesn‘t just outrank you by a little– He infinitely outranks you. This is why total submission is a must with God, but it is never okay to give total submission to a mere human.

If you give another human total submission, it is guaranteed that they will start abusing you–it‘s just a matter of time. This is because humans are not designed to handle having absolute power–it always brings out the worst in us. Even a helpless infant must be given some degree of power by his parents, and the parents do this by responding to the infant‘s cry for essential needs like food and dry clothing. If instead a parent says, ―I will only do something for my baby when I personally find it convenient to do so,‖ then that is a case of total domination, and the infant will end up suffering terribly. The old saying ―absolute power corrupts absolutely‖ is quite true when it comes to humans.

GOD & POWER

Now after spending your whole life dealing with other humans in this world, you‘ve figured out that having no power is a great way to get yourself

Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017 59

Relationships abused, so it sounds like a terrible idea to intentionally give away all of your power in your relationship with God. Humans automatically assume that if they take a position of total submission with God (which is the same as inviting Him to totally dominate them) He will become an abusive monster. In other words, they expect that God will act like a human. And yet the truth is that He will not.

God is the only Being you‘ll ever meet who can handle absolute power without turning into a monster. When we say that God is good, we mean that He is good in the context of being an AllPowerful Creator. That‘s a pretty foreign idea–you won‘t find goodness combined with absolute power in the human realm, and you won‘t find it with angelic beings, either.

It‘s only God who remains kind, gracious and compassionate towards creatures who

62 Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017

He totally dominates.

It takes a lot of time to grasp how radically different your relationship with God is from your relationship with other humans. But the more you listen to God and follow His promptings to keep deepening your submission to Him, the more you‘re going to start experiencing a very strange thing happening: you will discover that you actually like being dominated by God. Much to your surprise, you will begin to notice that things are working in your relationship with God which you know wouldn‘t work at all in your relationships with other humans.

Sex is a very useful example here. Would you want to have sex with a random stranger who you weren‘t even attracted to? No, you‘d find it repulsive and violating. Would you want to have sex with one of your parents? No, that sounds very wrong and gross. But if you fell deeply in love with a peer and ended up marrying that person, then suddenly sex sounds like a great idea. In all of these scenarios we‘re talking about the same behavior–a behavior which is meant to occur between two humans– and yet in some relationships it would feel very wrong, while in other relationships it would seem very right. While the action of having sex remains the same, it‘s who you‘re having sex with that makes it seem fabulous or horrible.

Relationships Sex is just one of many elements we could name which range from seeming very bad to very good depending on who you‘re engaging with. In the same way, there are many elements in your relationship with God which are only positive because you are dealing with God. If you were to take those same elements and put them into human relationships, they would suddenly become very bad, harmful, and repulsive.

Powerlessness is something which only becomes positive when you‘re dealing with God. Why is this? Because you are powerless in your relationship with God, and you are supposed to relate to Him as a powerless being. But you are not powerless in your relationships with other humans, and you‘re not supposed to relate to them as a powerless being. Other humans are your equals, and you are supposed to relate to them on a basis of equality, which is why God says: ―Treat others the way you‘d want to be treated.‖ But God does not say: ―Treat Me the way you‘d want to be treated.‖ Instead, He says: ―Love Me with all that you are. Give Me everything. Invite Me to completely dominate you and to have My way in your life.‖ The difference is huge.

When you totally submit to God, it‘s like settling down into a soft chair. The chair was designed to only be comfortable if you sit in it: not if you stand or

kneel. When you sit in the chair, you are adjusting your posture to match what the chair is designed to receive. When you engage with the chair in the way that it‘s designer intended, you end up very comfortable. When you try to engage with the chair in a way that it was not intended to accommodate, you end up feeling very uncomfortable.

The closer you move to a position of total submission to God, the closer you are to relating to Him in the way that He designed you to want to relate to Him. At first, you fight it. Your pride hates the idea of submitting to God and you try to get Him to accept some kind of compromise. But when God sees that you are serious about wanting to please Him, He keeps prodding you to submit more fully to Him. His constant prodding makes you feel uncomfortable and discontent in your current dynamic with Him. You know that you haven‘t settled in yet—you haven‘t found the right position. When God tells you that greater submission is what‘s needed, you don‘t trust Him

Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017 63

Relationships and you don‘t believe Him. You think He‘s luring you into some kind of trap and trying to lock you into a position that you‘ll feel terribly uncomfortable in. But what God is actually doing is teaching you how you were designed to function in your relationship with Him. He is not tricking you, but instead He‘s leading you towards a dynamic that He knows will bring you the most satisfaction.

Life with God is full of ironic twists. So often something that seems logically right ends up being all wrong, and the thing that seems all wrong ends up being fabulous. Total surrender is one of those strange ironies. It seems like such a dangerous idea to say to an all-powerful God, ―Have Your total way with me.‖ It sounds like a trap and a set up for misery. In this world, humans resent being dominated, enslaved, and bossed about, so why on earth would we want to sign up for such things in our relationship with God? Because He‘s God, and what will make us happy with Him is quite different than what will make us happy with other humans.

When you decide to embrace a soul attitude of submission to God, it‘s like you begin a long, slow slide into that very comfortable chair. Each time He prompts you to surrender some new area of your life and you do, you get closer to being in the right position to get maximum comfort out of that soft

64 Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017

chair. This is why we say that there is immense soul joy and satisfaction which comes through total surrender to God. It‘s not logical, and yet this is how it works, because we humans were designed by God to feel the most content when we are welcoming His absolute domination of us. We were designed to find joy and relief in being totally dependent on Him. We were designed to find peace through trusting Him, and to find security and a strange kind of comfort through deep reverence for Him. In short, God intentionally created us to really, really like who He made us to be. He certainly didn‘t have to set things up this way. After all, what‘s it to Him if we enjoy being limited, powerless specks? Yet God purposefully designed us to experience greater joy as we grow in our obedience to Him. The more we say ―yes‖ to Him on a soul level, the more we find ourselves wanting to say yes. Obedience goes from being a chore to being a thrilling adventure. We find ourselves eagerly waiting for God to ask us to do something because we find it so satisfying to serve Him. We rush to respond to His convictions because we love the fact that He is engaging with us We lose all interest in gaining power, and instead we‘re so relieved to know that He has all of the power, because we trust that He knows how to manage it far better than we do. We aren‘t threatened by what we don‘t know because He

Relationships knows everything and we feel safe in His care. We want Him to reign over us—totally and eternally—because we feel so content in our role as His servants.

This is how it always works with God: if you listen to Him, He leads you to fabulous places. If you rebel against Him, He causes you to languish. This is why we will always urge you to choose the path of submission and ask God to help you learn everything He wants to teach you. It is only by pursuing the right dynamic with God—the dynamic that He wants you to have with Him— that you will thrive.

Article Shared with Permission from 924jeremiah.wordpress.com and written

by Anna Diehl

Click Here To Download Your eBook

Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017 65

The Best Friend You’ll Ever Need!

If you haven’t discovered Jesus as your personal savior and would like to get to know Him today; please click the button below for a free e-book from our friends at Guideposts titled

‘How to Make Jesus Your Best Friend’

Feature Story Shirley Caesar is an iconic Gospel artist who has traveled the world spreading the Gospel and breaking down barriers for Gospel artists. She is a multiple Grammy Award nominee and 11 time winner who has truly exemplified Gospel music to the core. She has sung for Presidents and world leaders, yet is also at home Pastoring to a thriving church in Raleigh-Durham. Shirley Caesar started out in the early 60's singing with the group the Caravans, and went on as a solo artist in 1966. She has released OVER 30 solo albums during her career.

Tribute to the

'Queen of Gospel' Pastor Shirley Caesar

And she's still going while she splits her time pastoring a church and traveling the country ministering and singing.

A woman who has always exhibited unparalleled charisma, who could have, long ago, retired and rested on her many successes, does it again.

Shirley Caesar is the essence of inspiration and vitality - a global sensation.

Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017 67

Feature Story Since the death in 1972 of the original Queen of Gospel, Mahalia Jackson, many music critics have crowned Shirley Caesar the heir apparent to Jackson‘s throne. Caesar is by far the most successful and prolific woman in gospel since Jackson. She began her career with Albertina Walker‘s Caravans, one of the Top Five gospel acts of the 1950s. Caesar then branched out on her own as a solo artist in 1966 with her own unique style of delivering songs and sermonettes that made her an immediate crowd pleaser and a consistent record seller. Over the years, she has made songs such as ―Don‘t Drive Your Mama Away‖, ―No Change‖, ―Faded Rose‖, ―Jesus‖, and ―Hold My Mule‖ into absolute gospel classics.

Excerpt from Bil Carpenter‘s Uncloudy Days: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia She is known as a musical trailblazer who has influenced a wide range of artists across genres. Her career has made an indelible mark on American music and the sounds of gospel,‖ stated Leron Gubler, Hollywood Chamber of Commerce President and CEO. In celebrating her 50th anniversary as a solo recording artist and a career that spans over 60 years as one of the most recognized names and voices, the Reigning Queen of Gospel Shirley Caesar stands tall and committed to her 68 Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017

journey as a humanitarian, entrepreneur and internationally-renowned gospel singer, songwriter, author and pastor. With more than 40 recorded albums to date, 11 GRAMMY® Awards, 14 Stellar Awards, 18 Dove Awards, and induction into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, Shirley Caesar is enjoying the results of the labor. Her famed hits include: ―No Charge,‖ ―Hold My Mule,‖ ―Jesus I Love Calling Your Name,‖ ―I Remember Mama,‖ ―He‘s Working It Out For You.‖ Her new album ―Fill This House‖ includes songs such as ―It‘s Alright, It‘s Ok‖ (featuring Anthony Hamilton), and ―Mother Emanuel,‖ and was released by the label Light Records/Entertainment One on June 3, 2016.

The Durham, North Carolina native began her career recording at the age of 13 as ―Baby Shirley.‖ When gospel legend and leader of the Caravans Albertina Walker became aware of the electrifying singer and performer as a college student, and asked her to join, Caesar halted her studies to perform with the Chicago-based group for eight

Feature Story years.

Caesar officially went solo in 1966 and became a legendary mainstay when her gospel version of the number one country hit ―No Charge‖ crossed over to the R&B and pop charts in 1975.

She has performed for numerous world leaders including every U.S. President since Jimmy Carter and Nelson Mandela, and performed on Broadway, film and TV. Beyond her musical ministry, Caesar has remained deeply committed in serving the Durham and Raleigh, North Carolina communities, as pastor of Mt. Calvary Word of Faith Church in Raleigh, North Carolina for over 20 years. She has been offering community assistance to those in need through her Shirley Caesar Outreach Ministries for over 40 years, and served on the Durham City Council for four years between1987-1991.

Question: Do You Know

Jesus?

Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017 69

64

Relationships

Raising Cain: How to Lead Our Children to Christ Photo credit: FIU News

There are three basic elements involved in leading a child to a saving relationship with Christ: prayer, example, and age-appropriate instruction. We lead a child to Christ through the diligent application of all three elements from the time before the child is born.

Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017 71

Relationships The importance of prayer in the process of evangelizing children cannot be overstated. From the time of conception, parents should be seeking God‘s wisdom for themselves and grace for their unborn child. God has promised to give wisdom liberally to all who ask Him (James 1:5), and His wisdom in all aspects of parenting is essential, but nowhere is it more important than in spiritual matters. Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us that salvation is by grace through the gift of faith, so our prayers for our children‘s salvation should be centered upon seeking that gift of faith for them. We should pray for the Holy Spirit to draw our children to God from their earliest days and to sustain them through a life of faith and service to God until they are safely secure in heaven for all eternity (Ephesians 1:13-14). We should pray that God will draw us to Himself and become a reality in our lives so that we can be good role models for our children.

Our example as children of God provides the best visual model of the relationship with Christ we wish our children to have. When our children see us on our knees daily, they perceive that prayer is a regular part of life. When they see us continually in the Scriptures, studying, feeding and meditating on God‘s Word, they realize the importance of the Bible without our having to say a word. When they perceive that we not only know God‘s Word, but endeavor to

72 Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017

live it out in practical ways every day, they come to understand the power of the Word in a life lived in its light.

Conversely, if a child sees that mom or dad has a Sunday ―persona‖ which differs drastically from the person they see every day, they will be quick to spot the hypocrisy. Many children have been ‗turned off‘ to church and to Christ by two-faced role models. This is not to say that God can‘t overrule our faults and failures, but we must be ready to confess them to God, admit our failures to our children, and make every effort to ―walk the talk.‖

Photo credit: Online Parenting Coach

Furthermore, providing ageappropriate instruction in spiritual matters is crucial to leading a child to Christ. There are myriads of children‘s books and resources such as children‘s Bibles, children‘s Bible story books and music for all age levels to read, sing and memorize. Relating every aspect of a child‘s life to spiritual truth is also an important part of spiritual training. Every time a child sees a flower or a sunset or a bird, there is ample opportunity for parents to relate the beauty and wonder of God‘s

Relationships creative power (Psalm 19:1-6).

Whenever our children feel safe and secure in our love, we have the opportunity to relate to them how much greater the love of their heavenly Father is. When they are hurt by others, we can explain the reality of sin and the only cure for it—the Lord Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross for us.

Finally, sometimes an inordinate amount of importance is placed on getting a child to ―say the prayer‖ or ―walk the aisle‖ as evidence of his/her decision to trust Christ as Savior. While these moments can be valuable in cementing in a child‘s mind when and how he/she came to Christ, salvation is the Spirit‘s work in a heart. True salvation results in a life of progressive sanctification and discipleship, and this must be communicated as well.

Article Shared with Permission by Got Questions at www.gotquestions.org

Question: Do You Know

Jesus?

Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017 73

Join The Conversation Online

BLESSEDMAGAZINE.ORG

Personal Wellness

Conquering Temptation: The Keys to Victory

Photo credit: Mens Health

Nelson‘s Bible Dictionary defines temptation as ―an enticement or invitation to sin, with the implied promise of greater good to be derived from following the way of disobedience.‖ Resisting temptation begins with knowing that Satan is the supreme ―tempter‖ (Matthew 4:3; 1 Thessalonians 3:5) who has been tempting mankind since our Creator placed His first two children in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3; 1 John 3:8). Ultimately, however, we know that Satan‘s power over Christians has been effectively destroyed as the war has already been won through our Savior‘s death and resurrection which conquered the power of sin and death forever. Nonetheless, Satan still prowls the earth looking to drive a wedge between God and His children, and his temptations are unfortunately a daily part of our lives (1 Peter 5:8). Yet with the power of the Holy Spirit and the truth of God‘s Word to help us, we will find ourselves effectively resisting temptations.

Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017 75

Personal Wellness The apostle Paul encourages us with these words: ―No temptation has seized you except what is common to man‖ (1 Corinthians 10:13). Indeed, every one of us faces temptations of some kind; even Jesus was not immune as He was ―tempted in every way, just as we are‖ (Hebrews 4:15). Although Satan may be the dark force ultimately behind the tempting, it is our fallen and corrupted human nature that allows these temptations to take root and causes us to act on them, thereby ―giving birth to sin‖ (James 1:15). But it is the power of the Holy Spirit that enables us to free ourselves from the sin and temptations we struggle with in our daily lives. Thus, if we have the Spirit of Christ residing in our hearts, we already have what it takes to resist the flaming arrows the devil sends our way. As Paul told the Galatians, ―live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature‖ (Galatians 5:16).

how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands make me wiser than my enemies‖ (Psalm 119:97–98).

The Word of God has always been our best defense against Satan‘s temptations, and the better we know His Word, the easier it will be to claim victory over our daily struggles. The psalmist tells us, ―I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you‖ (Psalm 119:11). When Christ was tempted by Satan in the desert, the first thing He did was to quote Scripture (Matthew 4:4– 10), which eventually caused the devil to leave Him. Indeed, Christians need to be diligent in studying God‘s Word. ―Oh,

Another way to help us resist temptation is to remember what Jesus Christ did for us. Even though He never committed a sin, He willingly endured the torture of the cross for us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). Every sin we‘ve ever committed, or will commit, played a part in nailing our Savior to the cross. How we respond to Satan‘s worldly allurements is a great indicator as to just how much the love of Jesus Christ occupies our hearts.

76 Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017

In addition to God‘s Word, prayer can help us to resist temptation. The night He was betrayed, Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, and He told Peter to pray ―so that you will not fall into temptation‖ (Mark 14:38). Also, in the ―Lord‘s Prayer,‖ Jesus taught us to pray that we would not be led into temptation (Matthew 6:13; Luke 11:4).

Yet, when we do fall into temptation, we know that ―God is faithful; He will not let us be tempted beyond what [we] can bear,‖ and that He will provide us with a way out (1 Corinthians 10:13).

This is a promise from God, and like Abraham, Christians should be ―fully persuaded‖ that God has the power to do what He has promised (Romans 4:21).

Personal Wellness Now, even though Christians already have the tools necessary for victory, we need to use our common sense and not place ourselves in situations that prey upon, or stimulate, our weaknesses. We are already bombarded every day with images and messages that tantalize our sinful lusts. We don‘t need to make it more difficult than it already is. Even though Christ‘s Spirit resides in our hearts, our flesh can be very weak at times (Matthew 26:41). When we know something is or can be sinful, Paul warns us to ―flee from it.‖ Remember, the ―tempter‖ is also the master of rationalization, and there is no limit to the arguments the devil can offer us to justify our sinful behavior.

Article Shared with Permission by Got Questions at www.gotquestions.org

Click Here To Download Your eBook

Photo credit: RevAndy

Armed with God‘s Spirit and the truth of His Word, we are well equipped to overcome Satan‘s assaults (Ephesians 6).

No matter what trials and temptations come our way, God‘s Word and Spirit are infinitely more powerful than any of Satan‘s schemes. When we walk with the Spirit we can look at temptations as opportunities for us to show God that He is indeed the Master of our lives.

Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017 77

Blessed Magazine “Start spreadin‟ the news!” Not only is that the opening line to the classic Frank Sinatra song, “New York, New York,” it is the foundation of the promotions business. A business in which Carlton McConnell has thrived for more than three decades.

While still a student at Eastern Michigan University, McConnell began promoting on-campus concerts for such musical acts as “Prince.”

The CEO of Dallas based “Round the Clock Entertainment” has amassed an impressive portfolio of work, promoting major concerts, plays, and fundraisers; designing media marketing campaigns for icons like Muhammad Ali and Magic Johnson; to promoting several award-winning recording artists, along with many unknown -- yet talented -- singers, actors, comedians, and musicians.

His marketing and promotions prowess has been recognized with dozens of awards and proclamations…including a 2014 Stellar Award for work on the “Inside Gospel with Frankie Wilson” program.

“As with most professions, the promotions business is undergoing rapid changes during the current digital age,” says the 53year old McConnell. “Where once the main „tools of the trade‟ were a landline phone, a printing press, and plenty of „shoe leather,‟ we now operate across multiple media platforms with a smartphone, laptop and dozens of specialized software programs as essential „work tools.‟ We have extensive capabilities to produce video and audio content for television and radio, along with content for print media. In mid to late June, the IMPACT television network will be airing a Gospel Concert executive produced by Round the Clock, the „2017 INDUSTRY CELEBRATION AND SHOWCASE.‟ So, we encourage you to check your local listings for the times and channel in your area.” “The current research shows 47% of American consumers say Facebook has a great impact on their purchasing behavior – that‟s double the figure from back in 2011.

YouTube mobile reaches more folks in the 18-49 age group than any American cable network. And worldwide, there are nearly 375-million regular Twitter users,” marvels McConnell.

For the past 15-years, Round the Clock Entertainment has had a primary focus on the Gospel Music industry. And McConnell says he and his team have been working hard to get artists „up to speed‟ on effective social media networking strategies. The result has been record high sales of music and concert tickets. In recognition of his work, the Lansing, Michigan native has been nominated in the categories of „Promoter of the Year‟ and „Event Planner of the Year‟ by “The Prayze Factor People‟s Choice Awards.” Of which McConnell says, “I‟m humbled and honored to be considered among the very best in the field of Gospel music promotions and marketing.” Last year, more than 70-million internet votes were cast for Prayze Factor People‟s Choice nominees.

For a list of the current nominees, and to cast your vote, go online to www.prayzefactorawards.com.

If you‟d like more information on the promotional, marketing or media services provided by Round the Clock Entertainment, you can reach the company by phone at: (972) 834-5936 or via email at: roundtheclock.cm@gmail.com.

78 Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017

Classes Now Available Anger Management Domestic Violence Intervention Crisis Intervention and Prevention Parenting Skills Call or Click Today to Register

Precious Life Services

830.372.5980

Just For Fun

Answers on Page 84 80 Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017

Just For Fun

Answer on Page 84

Get the compelling book that sheds light on the lies, feelings and truths about being single as a Christian

Click Here To Download Your eBook

―This book. Oh my God! This book answers all of my questions and concerns. It has given me a better outlook on being single and helps me to focus on what I can do while waiting on a mate if that is God’s will for my life…Get this book! You won’t regret it …..Julie R. Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017 81

Just For Fun Answers

84 Blessed Magazine June/July, 2017

Being Single ‘A Great Opportunity’ Get the compelling book that sheds light on the lies, feelings and truths about being single as a Christian Click Here To Download Your eBook ―This book. Oh my God! This book answers all of my questions and concerns. It has given me a better outlook on being single and helps me to focus on what I can do while waiting on a mate if that is God’s will for my life…Get this book! You won’t regret it …..Julie R.

Exclusively at Blessed Magazine Get Yours Today! No Purchase Necessary!

Blessed Magazine Promote your business, ministry and upcoming events

With Us Today Contact us Today and discover how you can reach more potential customers with our affordable ad space prices‌starting at $10/quarterly

FREE Ad Space for 1 month on our Blessed Magazine Website with purchase of ad space in our magazine

1(323)902-6192 blessedmagazine.org contact@blessedmagazine.org