GOSPEL STAGE PLAY COURSE COMING SOON!

Hello everyone. So very excited to announce the upcoming online course for writing and directing your own gospel stage play! Do you have inspiration to direct a gospel stage play? Do you have a vision or see the images, yet cannot seem to get it all on paper? I can help you with this! The course will show you how to use the inspiration inside of you to write your own play and how to know the dynamics for directing it at your local church or in your community! Stay tuned for more details.

Minister Denise Cook Godfrey

IS THIS WHAT I SIGNED UP FOR?

Well hello everyone! It has been a “minute” since I have written in this blog but that surely does not mean that I have not had anything going on or anything in particular to write about! God has given me this creative gift and any inspirational writer will tell you….you can only go so long before picking up that pen and letting go of what is inside of you by spilling your guts on paper!

Today, on this rainy afternoon, I contemplate on feelings of chasing the wind! Ever feel like the more you attempt to live at peace with everyone and the more you try to walk in the Spirit and live a Godly life, the more it seems as if you have to lay down and take all types of assaults, meanness, and just down right disrespect! Hey, what about those times when it appears that all your sacrificing, praying, ministering, laboring, is just as if you are chasing the wind and throwing pebbles in a large ocean and never hearing the sound! Well, it is ok if you are feeling that way or have felt that way. This is just the way it is. I am there right now and that is the reason for the title…..”IS THIS WHAT I SIGNED UP FOR?” Well, I am mature enough to know that my life is in His Hands! Sometimes our God will allow these times to come upon us so that we can take a moment to realize that we did not sign up for anything, we are responding to the purpose that God has for us. Even though we have our moments, God is still molding and shaping us into what He truly wants us to become. So we will not deny the way we feel; however, we will not allow the feelings to dictate how we respond to life’s disappointments. We will continue to seek the face of God and continue to say “Yes Lord” to Your will and Your way!

My prayer today is that we all take a moment to reflect on our purpose and never forget that He who has begun a good work in us, is able to complete it unto the coming of Christ! (See Philippians 1:6) So, when you feel like you are going through a season of something you really did not sign up for, or you are persecuted and attacked just for doing good and what is right, cheer up! Know that God has your back and that no good deed goes unrewarded.

The State of my Heart Determines the State of my Life!

Wow! Our God is an awesome God who truly wants us to surrender our hearts to Him. It does not matter how long we have been saved, we are still to surrender our entire beings to Him daily. (See Romans 12:1-2) We are to be like the whole burnt offerings of the Old Testament days. Jesus has made this possible for us. Without His death, burial and resurrection, it would not be possible.

How do I ensure that my heart is surrendered to My God? First, the heart must be purified. Only the pure in heart shall see God. (Matthew 5:8). This verse not only refers to seeing God when we get to heaven but it also means that we are able to see and perceive God’s heart, what He wants to do and say, when we allow our hearts to be purified. His Spirit rests within our spirits and if there is “junk” there, then we have a serious problem.

At about 4:45 a.m. this morning, I was communing with the Lord in His presence. I was suddenly awakened from a dream a little after 4 a.m., got up to use the restroom, and then proceeded to pray and seek God. I had lots of heaviness and things to request of Him and talk with Him about. After this, I began to just thank, praise and enter into worship. Before long, God was leading me on a journey backward in order to show me the spiritual blockages that were in my heart. Things from our past still controls us when we allow bitterness, self centeredness, shame, painful hurts, unforgiveness, rejection, etc to not be dealt with by the Spirit of God. Just because we believed and became born again does not mean we do not stand in need of deliverance from past issues. Unresolved issues in the heart makes us to become hindered from experiencing all that God has for us in His presence. It hinders our worship. What do we do? We surrender by asking God for His grace to enable us to go free. To give up control of it and allow Him to purge all these past heart problems in the fire of the Holy Ghost. This is a progressive process but it is possible.

Try this today. This is important because the state of your heart determines the state of your life! More on this topic at a later time. Take the first step by being honest in the presence of God. He will show you your spiritual blockages.

I love you with the love of Jesus. If you need prayer, leave a comment or contact me via email at sherrylcook@att.net. You may also inbox me on face book at Denise Cook Godfrey. To sow a love gift to this ministry, you may go to the “donate now” button on right side of the webpage..

When What is Meant to Bring Patience, Only Brings Aggravation!

Hello! At times in life we experience an overwhelming season of frustration and aggravation that causes us to lose out on the positive fruit bearing process that the Lord means for us to experience. What am I talking about? I am talking about going through! James 1:2-3 says it like this:

²My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; (different kinds of temptations and trials) ³Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

The Lord means for the troubles and trials to work patience but most of the time in my own life, I can testify that these trials only works AGGRAVATION! The truth is, God oftentimes allow some of our troubles so that these can work something into our character. You remember the verses of scripture in Galatians chapter 5 where it talks about the fruit of the spirit. When we go through, our character should always be affected. We can either respond by bearing good fruit or we can bear spoiled fruit and be bitter, complain, and be doubtful. This is, in reality, a process and we must always be mindful of how we respond to trouble, battles, assaults, and attacks from our enemy. If you have failed in this area, don’t sweat it. Just dust yourself off and continue to look to the Lord and His word. Repent and keep it moving. You are not the only one. I have failed time and time again in this area and am well qualified to speak on the subject. Sometimes we are going through a pruning process where the gardener (Father God) is pruning the dead leaves from us so that we can bear greater and more beautiful fruit. What season are you in? If you are in the dead of winter, hold on spring is coming. No season stays the same.

Father, I pray that the painful trials in my life will cause me to be refined in my character so that I can look more and more like Jesus. I want to bear the nature of Christ, which is the fruit of the Holy Spirit….love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance! Never let the trials of life keep you from His feet!

NOT About us but is about JESUS!

Good morning! I am reading from the devotional, “The First fruits of My Morning” and wanted to share the contents with you. Especially if you lead worship in your church in any capacity (choir director, choir member, musician, soloist, song writer, poet, praise dancer, etc), or anyone who publicly worships, this morning’s devotion is a must read! *Please consider signing up for our free worship newsletter as well. All subscribers are updated with other news such as online bible studies, book signings, praise dance events, gospel stage plays and much more! Oh, and if you sign up, you also get the 30 day devotional free! Thank you and God bless!

MORNING #3- “ITS NOT ABOUT US, IT’S ABOUT JESUS!”

LEVITICUS 10:1-3-¹AND NADAB and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, and put incense on it, and offered strange and unholy fire before the Lord, as He had not commanded them.

²And there came forth fire from before the Lord and killed them, and they died before the Lord.

³Then Moses said to Aaron, This is what the Lord meant when He said, I [and My will, not their own] will be acknowledged as hallowed by those who come near Me, and before all the people I will be honored. And Aaron said nothing. (amplified version)

Wow! Look at the passage of scripture above. Read it and weep! This is actually the scripture that God specifically pointed out to me when I began my public praise and worship dance ministry. I was preparing a public program entitled, “Dancing into the Holy of Holies”. I was meditating and God pointed out to me the danger of “offering unholy fire before the Lord!” You see, we as praise and worship dancers, choir members, musicians, play actors, etc., we are always at the forefront and we are seen and heard sometimes even more than the preacher! I am a preacher and sometimes I find myself preparing and concentrating more on the dance ministry than preparing myself to always be ready to preach the Word! God had to remind me that yes, we are seen, but He must continually be seen in and through us! What I am saying worshippers, is that it is very easy to get caught up in the glamour of things when people are always “pumping” us up! Anytime we are moving in the flesh, caught up in competition and entertainment, then we are offering strange fire that is not authorized by God and it means nothing. It is also very dangerous! In our scripture reference, the two priests who made this terrible mistake died immediately. God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever! If He did not like it back then, He still does not. Let us guard our hearts against the spirit of competitiveness and entertainment. Let us stay pure in our worship by focusing on God. It is truly not about us, but always about Jesus! Now if you keep reading in this verse of scripture you will see that Aaron was not even allowed to mourn for these men. Brothers and Sisters, let us always be reminded that we are to do what we do by the Spirit of God and to get ourselves out of the way and do it the way God authorizes us, and that is through the revelation of the Blood of Jesus who allows us to offer a sacrifice of praise through that new and living way.

Exercising will Profit a little, but what about Godliness?

I love to take a brisk walk first thing in the morning while I listen to worship music, meditate and hear from the Lord. Exercising is very important. We should maintain our bodies, which is the temple of the Lord. This morning after my walk, I noticed the Spirit of the Lord nudging at me with this verse: “But Godliness with contentment is great gain” (I Timothy 6:6). You know bodily exercise does profit us but the bible compares physical bodily exercise and Godliness together and measurement equals: bodily exercise profits little while Godliness with contentment equals GREAT GAIN! Nothing compares to the peace and blessings that we gain by maintaining our character and growing in our relationship with God and with others.

So go ahead, burn that treadmill up, tone those muscles, dance, do whatever it takes to maintain your physical body but do not forget to maintain your Godly character and be content.

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LOVE AND BLESSINGS!

A God Encounter: Building your hope on things ETERNAL!

Today during lunch I visited a local restaurant. As I stood waiting on my “to go” order, I noticed one of the employees. Oh I have seen this particular young lady on many occasions in the past in this restaurant, but today, God’s Spirit began to drop a prophetic word down on the inside of my spirit for this young lady. Now, there was no way that I could stop her in the middle of a busy lunch crowd and minister the word to her, so I just began to pray under my breath a prayer for her and if God sees fit, I know He will open a door for me to give her this Word at a later time. Now as I proceeded to my car and to drive off, I thought on the Word. It was “Build your hopes on things eternal. Keep building and I will deliver you and give you your heart’s desires”. I pondered and I wondered if I would ever speak this word to her or perhaps I would post it online for someone else to be encouraged by it. Just then, I was prompted to grab the Word for myself! As the tears started rolling down my face, the Holy Spirit began to minister even more to me. You see, in order for us to build our hopes on things eternal, we must first know what is eternal and what is temporary. The Spirit spoke to me even further and said that it goes deeper and far beyond a definition. We must learn by experience what is eternal, which is God’s word, verses what is temporary, such as our afflictions, troubles, trials, heartaches, etc.

Today, I invite you to grab hold of that same prophetic word, and build your hope on what God has already said to you specifically and also on His written Word each day of your life! Keep your focus on Him and He will place desires in your heart and make sure that they come to pass! I thank God for the “God Encounter” that He gave me today.

Morning #15 of the devotional, “The Firstfruits of My Morning” by Denise Cook Godfrey

II CHRONICLES 20:21-22: ²¹And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth forever.

²²And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten.

WOW! What an important task that the singers were given in our text this morning. The singers actually were “positioned” in front of the army when King Jehoshaphat and the people faced national disaster against three other groups of people. Can you imagine this? What this means is that praise is powerful and can be used as a weapon of warfare! This is God’s idea. We must use every weapon that is given to us to fight our battles. We must be ready and “positioned” as choir members, soloists, and worship leaders. One more very important point that is sometimes overlooked is that the word says that the singers began to sing and to praise! Singing is a form of praise, so why does this verse say that the people began to sing and to praise? The word “praise” in its Hebrew meaning in this particular verse means “tehillah” which means a “laudation.” In other words, they were not just singing in a dry, solemn manner. They were very cheerful and loud! They added clapping!

Singers, never forget that you have a very important part to play in worship service but you also have an excellent tool for warfare! Are you using your tool?

The Thin Line Between Pride and Confidence!

Hello my fellow worshippers. This morning the Holy Spirit is reminding me that when God looks at me, He actually looks at me through the blood of His Son Jesus Christ! That means that we are counted worthy of His Kingdom and our calling when we have a healthy mindset of who we are IN CHRIST JESUS! (II Thes 1:11 Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power:)

So the thin line is this:::::: the Holy Spirit reveals to us our identity in Christ and we are to have bold confidence in the cross alone. We are only worthy through the cross of Christ. We are not to be “coward soldiers”, but at the same time we are not to walk in pride. God hates pride and gives grace to the humble and resists the proud. (James 4:6)

WORSHIPFUL MINISTRIES

Setting the Gospel in motion through writing, drama, song, dance, & film!