Heaven's Announcement

You are having a baby!!!  This was heavens announcement to Samson’s mom. Sometimes when God is ready to reveal something, it will not always come the way we think it will or has in times past.  We must stay open to the leading of God.  God chose to tell the woman first instead of her husband.  Too every man that fights for his place and says if it was God he would tell you first---examine the scriptures.  God talks to women and it is important that you listen. 

I love the way the Lord has a way of humbling us.  If we don’t humble ourselves then he allows life lessons to teach us. I laughed when I first read the announcement of Samson’s birth to his mother.  I had to reread it.  The angel comes to tell his mom, who was barren and proclaims the assignment and requirements for his life.  Sometimes God will tell her first.

She goes and tells her husband and he prays that God would send the angel back and tell him too.  God is so merciful and he does it.  Wouldn’t it be great ladies, if we could just get God to do this today? It would save us some meals, some heartaches, possibly the marriage and even their lives.

You may be saying, I’m not having a baby so what does this have to do with me?  Maybe not a natural one but maybe you are about to give birth to an assignment.  God wants to do something brand new in your life through your situation and no one else around you has ever done it before.  Samson represented a time of judgment.  His people had been obsessed for 40 years and God was ready to deliver them. 

When God gets ready to raise up a deliverers anointing like Samson, he gives you the ability to do what others around you cannot do.  Samson was stronger than most.  Spiritually, you are able to do exploits that ordinarily would be impossible naturally but with faith all things are possible.  Your faith is going to make the difference and set you apart.  Don’t allow the barrenness of your situation to make you believe that it is impossible to give birth to what God has placed on the inside of you. God is requiring that you walk by faith and not by sight.  It’s coming without the permission of man!

Judges 13:3, 6-9

A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was childless, unable to give birth. 3The angel of the Lord appeared to her and said, “You are barren and childless, but you are going to become pregnant and give birth to a son.

6Then the woman went to her husband and told him, “A man of God came to me. He looked like an angel of God, very awesome. I didn’t ask him where he came from, and he didn’t tell me his name. 7But he said to me, ‘You will become pregnant and have a son. Now then, drink no wine or other fermented drink and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite of God from the womb until the day of his death.’ ”

8Then Manoah prayed to the Lord: “Pardon your servant, Lord. I beg you to let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born.”

9God heard Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman while she was out in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her. 10The woman hurried to tell her husband, “He’s here! The man who appeared to me the other day!”

Inside Edition

The Inside Edition was one of television's longest running, top-rated, and most-honored syndicated news magazine. However, long before Inside Edition, God always has had a way of causing the atrocities’ of his people to work out for their good, by providing them with advantages.

 Let’s go peak over into the camp of David. 

1 Sam 30 David and his men were all out to battle and left their wives and children unprotected. The enemy came in and took them captive and took all the spoils from them and burned their land.  David and all the men wept and were sore grieved that they spoke off stoning David, their King.  The bible says David encouraged himself and he sought God, whether he should pursue their enemies.  Not only did God tell him to pursue them, he let him know he would overtake them and recovery all.

What situation are you facing that God is requiring you to encourage yourself? What has caused you to be so disheartened that   you feel as though can never be recovered or restored? It looked bad, it felt bad and it was bad but he had a word from God.  David took the men with him that were strong enough to fight, without even a clear battle strategy; he headed out on his way.  God will provide a strategy as we step out in faith to obey him.

Let’s check out David’s inside edition.

13 And David said unto him, to whom do you belong? And where are you from?  And he said, I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite; and my master left me, because three days ago I fell sick.

14 We made an invasion upon the south of the Cherethites and upon the coast which belongs to Judah, and upon the south of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with fire.

15 And David said to him, Canst thou bring me down to this company? And he said, Swear unto me by God, that thou wilt neither kill me, nor deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will bring thee down to this company.

God’s Inside edition.

The answer to your victory maybe in the mouth of those you count as your enemy. God provided an insider to give them the strategy they needed to defeat their enemy and get back not only what was taken but more.  All things are working together for our good.  People that were once counted with your enemies are going to join you on the Lord’s side.  They will be the very ones that will help you defeat those that have stood to oppose you and that have stolen from you. God is going to give you an inside edition to give you the victory. Get ready, your victory is on the inside.

Mission Impossible

Time magazine's Richard Schickel wrote, "What is not present in Mission: Impossible (which, aside from the title, sound-track quotations from the theme song and self-destructing assignment tapes, has little to do with the old TV show) is a plot that logically links all these events or characters with any discernible motives beyond surviving the crisis of the moment." Much like Richard Schickel’s critique of the Mission Impossible movie that opened May 22, 1996, was the plot and mission of my great grandfather that exemplifies a lack of eternal weight beyond its ability to survive the crisis of the time in which it was fabricated.

In an interview granted to The National Educational Television Network in Phoenix, Arizona by the staff of San Francisco station KQED, my great grandfather, Elijah Muhammad was asked the following:

Question: How would you describe your mission?

Answer: “My mission is to give life to the dead. What I teach brings them out of death and into life. My mission, as the Messenger, is to bring the truth to the world before the world is destroyed. There will be no other Messenger. I am the last and after me will come God Himself. I do not say I will live so long as that, but when God comes, if it pleases Him, I may be with Him. However, if I am not with Him, this is the final. The truth I bring will give you the knowledge of yourself and of God.”

-Message to The Blackman in America, Chapter 133

Here we see the admittance of the hypocrisy of the lies and deception of my great grandfather from the mouth of Minister Louis Farrakhan in 1994, watch this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=eSfiMoTnXps#t=165

The bible warns against those that would come to preach another Jesus, 1 Cor. 3:10.

In the book of Matthew Jesus makes it very clear of several reasons for his mission and what would come after him in John 16:7, 13

· Matthew 10:34 - “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.”

· Matthew 18:11 - “For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.”

· John 16:7-Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

· John 16:13- Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.

Unlike Elijah Muhammad whose mission was impossible because Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, Elijah was never able to fulfill his mission here neither eternally able to raise anyone from the dead because Jesus is the Resurrection and the life.

Choose this day who you will serve God or man.

Schickel, Richard (May 27, 1996). "Movie: Improbable". Time. Retrieved 2014-06-09.

Its time to bow

It’s time to bow. Jacob was about to get a second chance and his “Esau” is coming down the road. Is there something that God is about to do in your life that you missed out on before? Is your ability to humble yourself and submit by bowing to your desires, bowing your gift, bowing your finances, bowing your attitude, a question of whether or not you will get it? Let’s see what Jacob does as he realizes his opportunity that he missed years ago is coming down the road.

Jacob Meets Esau

33 And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two female servants. 2 And he put the servants with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all. 3 He himself went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.

I believe one of our key strategies in this season to get where we need to be is to humble ourselves in this season of prophetic fulfillment that God will accelerate things for us, as we humble ourselves and submit under the mighty hand of God.

Lord give us grace to trust you and not operate in fear. Give us wisdom and strategies in order to move forward so we will know exactly how to bow.

None would be lost

My mind immediately reverted to a prophecy I had received in September 2011 from my leader, Apostle Matthew Stevenson. I had rushed into the church, being a little behind my normal time, and ended up in the back, sitting in a folding chair. I began to weep while pleading my case to the righteous judge, Jesus.

“This is between you and Me, Lord,” I cried. All I want to be is a good mother and raise my children. I’m tired of him fighting with me, God. I’m tired,” I confessed. The more I said it, the more the presence of God fell on me. No sooner had I said it again than I heard Apostle Matthew Stevenson ask loudly on the microphone, “Has anyone seen Marie?”

“The Lord woke me up at midnight regarding you,” he said. “Turn around and face the congregation.” When I turned around, he gave me a prophetic word that came true almost one year later. “You will never stand in another courtroom with him again, and if you do, the Lord is going to settle it in the courtroom of heaven.”

The God that Sees me and you

Through Apostle Eckhardt’s prophetic word, God allowed me to know that he saw me by acknowledging the pain of my past and my struggles. God wants us to know that he sees us, and when we understand that, we will be able to see him. How does he reveal this to us? We can see an example in Hagar. God promised a child to Abram and Sarai; when the promised wasn’t fulfilled, she took matters into her own hands and offered Hagar, her maidservant, to her husband. Fast-forward, Hagar gets pregnant and has something Sarai doesn’t. (See Genesis 16:1–4.)

Has God given you something He hasn’t given to anybody else? You didn’t ask for it but you got it. Maybe God placed you in a position in ministry or you got a promotion at work.

Perhaps the very person who gave it to you now has turned on you. Abram kicks her to the curb. Have you ever been pushed aside? “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best. Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her” (v. 6 niv). Now, Hagar is on the run, but God pursues her. And He will do the same for you. How many times have we said, “God didn’t call me to be mistreated. I’m not taking that from him or her. I’m not going to go through that. Will God require us to submit to situations even when we are being mistreated?”

Yes, for a season.

“Then the angel of the Lord told her, ‘Go back to your mistress and submit to her’” (v. 9, niv). It may have been painful, but she submitted to God’s word: The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.” The angel of the Lord also said to her: “You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery. He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”

—Genesis 16:10–12, niv

God gave her a prophetic promise, and with it she was able to endure the hardship and have hope. In the midst of that prophetic promise given to Hagar, God revealed Himself to her, and she declared Him to be “the God who sees me.” But she also was able to see the God who saw her. God has a prophetic promise for you and your children. “She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: ‘You are the God who sees me,’ for she said, ‘I have now seen the One who sees me’” (v. 13, niv). Allow God to reveal Himself through your brokenness as the God who sees you so you can also see the God who sees you. I was able to bear the next season of my life, knowing that God saw me, and I was able to see Him even in the midst of my own struggles.

Overcoming

In March 1991, Apostle John Eckhardt called me to the altar to give me a prophetic word from the Lord. Sometimes in the midst of your storm all you may have is a prophetic word. It was Paul’s prophetic word that brought them to safety when no one else even believed they were going to make it. God was teaching me to trust Him. He was building my faith for my own deliverance and for the deliverance of those I would need to believe Him for. How would I ever really know He could set them free? He was doing it first in me.

These words were life to me. They would serve as an anchor—when I would lose my way in the next chapter of my life. When the enemy would tell me to walk away from God, I could hear

Apostle Eckhardt:

My daughter, the Spirit of God says your whole life has been one of struggle, struggling against the odds and overcoming things that seem to be in the way to stop you and hinder you. And the Lord is saying, He has made you an overcomer, to persevere and press past the obstacles in your home, and your personal life, and the things that would attack you and try to weigh you down. These are incredible odds, but it’s the grace of God, my dear sister, it’s the grace of God that has given you the ability to overcome these incredible odds. Your life will be one of miracles, and the people you meet will be miracle appointments. Don’t trust in what you see in the flesh. My miracle-working power is in your life to break you through incredible odds by the Spirit of the living God.

Tempted to take revenge

“Do you love me?” I asked him. He flipped the question,

“Do you love yourself?”

That was one of the hardest realities I had to face. He walked out the door, and as the door closed behind him, I fell to my knees. “Lord! I do not love myself,” I admitted. But I told Jesus I would allow Him to love me. God’s unfailing love overshadowed me in the coming days and months, and for years to come. His love became a shield against the spirit of death that would try to squeeze into my thoughts.

What a challenge! ………………….The boys were two-and-a-half years apart, and I didn’t know how we made it that far. It was so difficult sleeping next to my husband that I couldn’t even stand to hear him breathe.

Petrified of the inevitable

But nothing and no one was going to make me take my eyes off my inheritance or my unsaved family members. God had promised them to me, even though the enemy had intensified his attacks. I remember going to my husband to encourage him to stay in agreement with me, and I told him that God had given me faith to recover all that had been lost. He looked at me and said, "But you won't have me."

My husband was detaching himself more and more. He wouldn't talk to me. He stopped sleeping with me. The moment I stepped foot in the house from work, he would run out of the apartment, careful not to acknowledge my presence. During those rare times he did say something, he was brutal. We were at the breaking point, and that's when I got a call that Charisma magazine wanted to write a feature article about me growing up in a famous family and my testimony of coming to Christ.

Talking about an oxymoron!

There I was about to face the Red Sea of my life, and God had just taken the hinges off the door to a huge opportunity for ministry. I knew it was God's way of letting me know He was well-pleased with me. Spiritually it felt like the Holy Spirit descended upon me like a dove as He had done for Jesus, when God opened the heavens and testified that Jesus was His beloved Son in whom he was well-pleased. I had never preached, contacted the magazine, or had any ministry cards.

Negatives

There we were framed in a moment of time. We were mounted by a prophetic promise and vow that was holding it all in place. The nails that it hung on, were the same ones that held Jesus to the Cross-love. It began to lean to the side and the picture was now suspended in air. I didn't know if the love was strong enough to keep us in place. The image was no longer clear. I couldn't see him anymore in the picture with the kids and me. I thought mine would be different from all the other marriages that ended up destroyed and torn by adultery. The picture was ripped.

I was suddenly thrown in a dark room.

But in my spirit I had negatives that needed to be developed. I could see us together; we were called to the multitudes. My tears became the solution that allowed me to see the images that were still hid to the naked eye. I was interceding in the dark and even when it didn’t looked like anything; I still kept praying.

1 Corinthians 7:1616 For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?

When I wanted to stop praying, I couldn't. I was compelled. I was driven to this dark place where only God could help me see what no one else could. He was sharing his eternal secrets and causing the passions of Christ to be developed from the negatives in me.

Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

It was in this place, that I would discover the beauty of who he had created me to be. Why did I have to go through this? Why me? I was torn, split and I desperately wanted to quit. I didn't even know why I still wanted to be married anymore. But other things began to appear in the negatives as I kept weeping. The solution for the images was producing a clearer picture. It was no longer about what he was or wasn't doing, if he loved me or not, how angry and bitter I had become. I had finally gotten passed me, passed us. I began to see my great-grandmother, Clara Muhammad. I was close enough now to the negatives, that I could hear her cries and her cries became mine.

Pregnant at 17

With nowhere else to go, I moved back in with my mother, who was living with her sister and brother-in-law and their five teenage children in a two bedroom, one bathroom apartment. Mom waited for several weeks before she came in one day from work and dropped a bombshell on me: “I changed my mind,” she announced. “I made an appointment for you to have an abortion.” I was nine-and-a-half weeks pregnant! My heart sank. How many blows can a boxer sustain to the chest before his heart gives out?

I don’t know the answer to that question, but I do know we are not created to live a life of constant hurt and emotional pain. And I wasn’t sure how much more disappointment my heart could withstand before it stopped beating. I did not intend to abort my baby. I had been taking care of myself and going to my doctor for prenatal care. “What?” I exclaimed when I heard what she said. I was unable to say much more. I was in shock. I couldn’t believe what Mom had said. All I could do was weep. She was my last hope for survival because I had to have a place to live. But she suddenly reneged on our agreement, and I felt totally powerless to change her mind about the baby.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad

In his book The Fall of America, Elijah wrote that the only way to “God”—whom he claimed was Master Wallace Fard Muhammad was through him:

I am the Door. By no means can you get by except you come by me. Your prayers will not be heard unless my name is mentioned in them. I am saying that you cannot get a prayer through to Allah (God) unless you mention me in your prayers. I have the key to your salvation, and I have the key to your hell. I can, if you will let me, pull you out of hell and set you into heaven. Then I can keep you in heaven; or I can keep pushing you and push you into the punishment of hell until you acknowledge that there is no God but Allah Who came in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad, to Whom praises are due forever, and that Elijah Muhammad is His Servant. There is no escape for you today. The only way is through me to Allah (God). Me first, for you cannot get to Allah (God) without getting to me first.4

My great-grandfather’s teachings are chilling, especially when you consider the scores of people who are in eternity separated from Jesus because they chose to follow him. Whenever I read one of his books, a compassion comes over me that provokes me to answer the call of God on my life so that I can share the truth with people who still follow his teachings.

[4] Elijah Muhammad The Fall of America (Phoenix: Secretarius MEMPS Publications, 1973), 205.

Muhammad Ali and me

Granddaddy would often surprise us and pick us up for the weekend. I can remember us being at Muhammad-Ali’s mansion, which was right around my grandparents’ home.  Granddaddy would send a personal driver to chauffeur us to Ali’s house for private Arabic lessons: I refused to participate. I would sneak out of class and wander around the very same house that had brought me so much joy earlier in my life.

Nevertheless, granddaddy Jabir was the highlight of my childhood. He had a family of his own and a busy career overseeing Muhammad Ali’s business affairs. But when he wasn’t negotiating multimillion-dollar deals for the heavyweight champion of the world, he would carve out time in his schedule to spend with us. And while most kids would have been happy to see their grandfather and get just one dollar, I was used to getting crisp, one hundred dollar bills from my grandfather. Granddaddy even surprised us one day and brought Muhammad-Ali to our home.

But he didn’t stop there.

Grandaddy and Muhammad-Ali

Elijah ingrained his teachings in the minds of his children, especially my grandfather Jabir, the chief business manager for the Nation of Islam and Elijah's adviser. Jabir, who was my father's father, disapproved of my parents marriage because my mother was a Christian and several years older than him. As a result, he disinherited my father. This was significant for the welfare of our family because Jabir was a very wealthy man. Beyond the high positions he held within the Nation of Islam, he enjoyed financial success from being the longtime personal manager of boxer Muhammad Ali, eventually earning him a position in the hall of fame.

Ali became the world-heavyweight champion in 1964 when he defeated Sonny Liston. Jabir managed his boxing career from 1966 until 1981 and continued to manage him for ten more years after Ali retired from fighting. Ali had been drawn into the Nation of Islam by activist Malcolm X, a member of the Nation and my great-grandfather chief disciple. Jabir told Thomas Hauser in his 1991 oral history, Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times, that he had undertaken the managerial role for the fighter at great-grandfather's request, to ensure that no one took advantage of Ali. For twenty-six years, I've been teaching Ali about the religion, my grandfather told Hauser. My father put that job on me and asked me to show him the way.

Ali was very good to my family. He even allowed my parents to live in his home in Chicago during a time when they were trying to scrape up enough money to rent a house. He was always so nice to me and my siblings. It was only for a short period of time before my great-grandfather decided to give my parents money so they could buy a home. Mom found a home not far from where Muhammad Ali was living, and they bought it. This was the beginning of the storms that would come and break my foundation into pieces.

Meet Ruth

Who is Ruth?

Please indulge me, as I take a few minutes to share about someone very near and dear to me. My sister, Ruth Muhammad.

If you have wanted a baby girl, Ruth was born that beautiful brown eyed, curly head, healthy baby girl. She was a dream of every mother at birth. Ruth was a big sister, a loving daughter, a kindhearted friend and a mother that loved her children in spite of her flaws, insecurities and troubles.

One of the things I admired most about my sister was her artistic abilities. She was so talented. We all ran to her as children to draw all of our art projects. Ruth was my first teacher in some places in my childhood.

I did not learn how to tie my shoe from her or my ABC's, but I learned how to choose my friends. I learned that doing drugs was not the answer to my problems. I learned the importance of finishing school. I learned that the streets would never be my friend. I learned to never trust in my natural beauty. I learned to value people every day because you never know when a loved one will be gone.

Some of our last moments were the most special to me. Ruth came to visit me and on this particular day, I was doing my homework and she bent down and kissed my hands, and told me how proud she was of me for finishing school. She was killed the semester before I graduated from college.

Another moment, I had before her passing, I saw her on the street on a cold night. I was going to the store. There I was 24 years old, she was 28, and the only thing she asked of me, was to hold my hand as we walked through the store. I did it without hesitation.

The last day, she came to visit before she was violently taken was 3 days before she was murdered. I had gotten a sore throat. She was sitting in the hallway on the stairs outside my apartment door. I asked her what made her come and I kept saying, I am not normally home at this time. I left school early that day.

She told me Jeremy, my three, soon to be four year old, had asked her for a Barney tape for his birthday. She insisted that she had to get him the money. She handed me a wad of change, running in and out the door several times to gather more, until it totaled $10 dollars. She was crying so hard. I asked her what was wrong. I'll never forget her last words to me, I'm tired now. I am tired of the streets and she knelt in the floor and just wept. She had a heaviness on her, I will never forget.

She let me know before she left that she was concerned about her children. Jeremy often asked for them, which would cause her to cry harder. See, Ruth had gotten on drugs as a very young teenager. This door was the slow demise of her life that was a constant struggle that lead to many other paths of destruction.

Ruth died a death that was every mother's nightmare. Ruth struggled with a lack of support. I believe proper support would have helped her end to be different. It is through these support systems that I am hoping to help other young single moms to overcome. I pray that through Ruth's Vineyard, my sister will find a place of honor on this side of heaven, through every woman that receives what she needed the most. Support.