The spirit of God encourages us to move up higher in our lives. His spirit is one of progression, we can be more than we are now, we can be nicer, we can be sweeter, we can be kinder.There is also the natural progression in our academic lives that the spirit encourages and usually this comes through equipping ourselves with the tools that make for this kind of progress. so if we need to study to achieve this, then let us make the sacrifice. nothing comes easy and discouragement comes from all angles when we want to improve our lives. The challenge is for us to ' bite the bullet' and trust that we will get the outcome we desire. Biting the bullet comes out of older days when a person had to deal with a physical ailment. say a cowboy had a bullet in him, the doctor would use alcohol, usually whiskey to sterilise the knife and would have the patient put a hard object in his mouth to cushion the pain when the knife is inserted. Biting the bullet prevented the patient from yelling out and provided a buffer for him to sink his teeth into. We bite the bullet in our everday circumstances because what needs to be done needs to be done. love lauren

Ever wonder folks, how you may be praying up a storm on monday, calling out the spirits of darkness, annihilating them and their demonic intentions through the blood of Jesus Christ and on Tuesday you dont even feel like praying? That is the enemy for you. His plan is to disarm you, and so it often is that after a ' mountain top' experience you fall into sin by some slight of tongue or some action more evil than that. But be encouraged to press on. Repent and move on! Dont allow the enemy to immobilise you, for then the people who you need to pray for are not presented before God and the situations remain as they are. If Satan can get you not to pray then he has you where he wants you. Continue to press toward your goals and continue to petition God for the needs in your life and for the people around you. Remember, the skies of heaven are open for you.Continue to ask, nothing wavering, and you shall receive that which you ask for.

Praise God for his mighty presence! His kindness and His goodness towards us cannot be numbered. All our circumstances seem small when we are in the presence of such a great and mighty God. We have life and health and joy and peace and we can rest assured that God is for us! He will never shut us up in the hand of the enemy, rather He declares that He will make the crooked circumstances in our lives straight, He says He will make streams and rivers flow in the dry and parched areas of our lives and whatever we do in His name and in His will shall flourish. We are sheltered in the palm of God's hands. And what Omnipotent hands they are. Let us all remember that life is a process and it may not feel that we are safe, we may feel threatened by layoffs and financial obligations, but God remains faithful. Commit your ways to Him and every good thing that He desires for you will come to pass. Only seek his wisdom and guidance as to how to walk, ensure that you are in His will, and trust Him. God is immobile if we don't trust and obey Him and the words that He speaks. He is mobilised when our faith is exercised. I pray for your health and your happiness. lauren

With the impending layoffs slated for Air Jamaica, it is a wonder that many of us can give the kind of service our job demands. But i have the confidence that God is able to keep me in perfect peace despite everything that is happening around me. He is able to open doors of opportunity in our lives that we never knew existed. He is able to make that place where we are, an Eden for us. He is our Source, and our confidence is that wherever we are, God is, and all is well. When we pray 'Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven', we are asking that His mind and intentions for us in heaven be manifest in our natural lives. He asks us to pray that His kingdom would come, and so we pray for the peace and joy and the wholesomeness that is our right as kingdom dwellers, and we trust that when we pray, He hears us, and He answers.

In Jewish culture women who were having a monthly period were isolated from society for that time. They did not have sexual relations with their husbands nor did they participate in social activities.Imagine then how isolated this woman felt because of her illness. Imagine the loneliness and despair she must have felt oftentimes. If she was married, perhaps her husband had forsaken her, being impatient or disappointed because he may have felt shortchanegd in his marriage. Remember, she suffered this illness for 12 years!

And it is for want of relief and deliverance that she extended her faith to touch Jesus with her concern. She felt so strongly that He could heal her that it wasn't important that she speak with Him or that He lay His hand on her.All she needed was a point of contact. God desires for us to extend ourselves in this same way, and to think Him so big, that our faith reaches out to Him. In another text, Jesus said that 'virtue left me'. The power of the Holy Spirit was extended toward this woman and she was healed. Her touch was different from all the other touches that Jesus felt as the crowd pushed upon Him. Her touch had need, it had an appeal, it was mixed with deep faith. Extend yourself to Jesus today and believe Him for what He can do for you. God has not changed, what He did for her, He will do for you.