I wanted to update everyone on what is coming up next this month.  I am excited to be taking my first trip to the LA Dream Center March 23-24 for a very short missions trip.  For those of you who do not know about the Dream Center, you need to know about it. People come in one way, and leave another way at the Dream Center.  It is an awesome place!  I remember Pastor Matthew Barnett telling a story about a man who went to the Dream Center and was a drug addict.  They give Bibles when you go there, and the man tried to smoke the Bible (go ahead and laugh)!  The amazing thing is that he made the "mistake" of reading it first, and it totally transformed his life.  Check out the LA Dream Center at www.dreamcenter.org.
After my short trip to LA, I am headed back to IHOPKC to preach to the evangelists there at the Kansas City Evangelism Fellowship.  I have so much fun when I go there.  Those folks love God and are so open to a move of the Spirit.  It is refreshing and I am praying for God to refresh me in His presence while there.  I preach on Wednesday night the 25th and Thursday morning the 26th.  The services will be video taped and/or audio taped so check out www.ihopkc.org, and also check out the evangelism department's YouTube page to see what's new.
Last that week, I will be in Kissimmee, FL to speak at the first annual Pen Florida Women Stronger Conference.  This should be an awesome event.  I am doing two workshops each of those days (Friday and Saturday).  We should have an awesome time!  Bless you and see you soon!  Pray for me!

I haven't been motivated to blog lately, so here goes the effort for today.  I am proud to announce that I am one of many charter members of the Faith and Education Coalition of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.  The NHCLC represents some 500,000 churches and is the leading voice for Hispanic Evangelicalism.  The NHCLC is committed to Billy Graham's message of salvation and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s message of social justice.  One of its 7 directives is education.  The Faith and Education Coalition will launch in March, so look out for the announcement.  We are in favor of Common Core Standards.  This may not sound popular, and maybe the standards need to be tweaked at this point, but the example I like to use is that inner city children in Miami should have the same standards as suburban children in Chicago.  The school hours should be the same, and they should be able to master the basics as well as excel in even greater ways.  We live in a technologically global society.  For America to compete, we must raise spiritually and academically gifted children.  There is no other way!

PRAY FOR DEE STOKES MINISTRIES, INC.

What are you thankful for?  Thankfulness is not just about being grateful for stuff.  It is about being confessing and acknowledging God's grace.  We should acknowledge and confess Him, His grace, His blessings, and His sovereign work in our lives (Bible.org). This perspective makes me even more thankful for Him and His work in my life.  What are you thankful for?

HAPPY NEW YEAR: Thursday September 25, 2014 was the new year of 5775 on the Hebrew calendar.  It is a jubilee year...a year of release...a sabbatical year.  I believe this is a significant year in our lives, families, jobs, and ministries.  As we began this new year, I experienced some significant warfare last week.  This is not unusual when God is about to do something significant.  As T.D. Jakes said in a recent sermon, "it is not about you...it is about your territory."  The more God expands our territory, the more the devil wants to attack us and take it from us.  Be encouraged as God reveals to you during this year what He is releasing you from and into.  Blessings...

Last night when I read of the apparent suicide of Robin Williams my heart sank.  He had been dealing with depression and I almost felt that it would have been easy for me to go there while grieving for such a phenomenal talent.  My mind quickly went to his role as a teacher in Dead Poets Society where he was absolutely awesome!  What an irony that in that film his student committed suicide and apparently in another film he did (name unknown to me) his wife committed suicide.  

I am sorry that Robin Williams was hurting that badly.  Not just because he was a mega star, but for anyone who deals with the demon of depression, sadness, hopelessness, or anything that would make you want to end it all...I am sorry that we/I can't get to you and tell you that there is a hope that is greater than life itself.  That hope is Jesus!  "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness..."  Jesus loves us unconditionally despite all of our baggage...why won't we all put our hope in Him?  The money, fame, cars, homes, multiple marriages...all of those things will never satisfy.  Haven't we figured that out yet?  I am not sure why this event has stirred me so much, but it just hit me close to my  heart.  Robin Williams was funny, talented, lived a rich life his entire life, but he lost HOPE!  I am now going to make an effort to look around in my sphere of influence and take note of those who don't have hope.  I need to find you and tell you to "trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not to your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path (Proverbs 3.5-6)."  I went through a depression once over money and I swore I would never do that again and never go there again.  God took that pain from me and He can do it for you as well.  In spite of what we see on the outside, we need to question what is going on on the inside.  Bless you and HOPE in the only true HOPE there is: JESUS!  

I just finished watching the movie Heaven is for Real for the second time.  I felt strongly in my spirit to pen the following words.  I pray they minister to you.
I agreed with almost everything in the movie except one scene where Rev. Todd is talking to the mean lady who attacked him in the meeting, while they are at the gravesite of her son.  She asks Rev. Todd if he thought her son was in Heaven.  He replies by asking questions about her love, his love, and God's love for both their sons.  These questions lead to an implication that God did not love his son (Colton-the star of the movie and one who went to Heaven) more than God loved her son, and therefore this reference implied that her son was indeed in Heaven, or it made her feel better to think that her son was in Heaven.  God is the very essence of love, and yes, He loves us all.  He would not have come down and taken on human flesh in the form of Jesus and died for us if He did not love us.  However, this does not mean that we ALL go to Heaven.  That would be universalism, right?  I am not saying that the lady's son did not go to Heaven, because I don't know him nor do I send people to Heaven or Hell.  We go where we want to go...if we trust God and surrender to Him and have a relationship with Him then Heaven will be our eternal home.  I don't serve Him just to go to Heaven, but I serve Him because I love Him and want to further His Kingdom right here on earth.  I have eternal life now because I know Him!  
After watching the movie the first time, it seemed to me that people want to accept the mystery of Heaven and Hell without accepting the reality of both places.  We would just rather allegorize (please let that be a real word!) Heaven and Hell and let them make us feel better or feel hope rather than believing that they are real places.  This is a very scary thought.  Heaven and Hell are real places! We as preachers don't preach about Heaven and Hell anymore do we?  Is that because we are afraid run people off?  Choose ye this day whom ye will serve!  The choice is up to us, and where we go to spend eternity is up to us as well.  God loves us enough to give us that choice.  I choose Heaven!  Will you choose Heaven today with me?  

Jews most often in history would not call God, God, or write His name as God in this way.  They would refer to Him as G-d because of their reverence for Him.  His name should be respected and not just be casually written any kind of way.  There are many names for G-d.  I will not repeat them in this blog, but I was just recently spending some time in consecration and I just wrote a little something and wanted to share it with you.  Bless you!

G-d is OMNISCIENT or ALL-KNOWING:
He is not smart...He is omniscient...He knows everything!  He is not wise, a good student, knowledgeable...He knows it ALL!

G-d is OMNIPOTENT or ALL-POWERFUL:
He is not strong...He is omnipotent...He has ALL the power.  He doesn't have to lift weights, run, or workout because He has ALL the power!

G-d is OMNIPRESENT, UBIQUITOUS, or EVERYWHERE PRESENT:
He is here in the US, in Asia, in Africa, in Europe, in South America, in Antarctica, and in Australia all at the same time.  He is in the past, present, and future at the same time.  He is eternal!  He is not bound by time!  

Like a dear friend said in a recent sermon, if we were in a field and looked as far as the eye could see, what is on the other side of what we could see would be our doubt.  G-d is bigger than our doubt on the other side of that field.  He is bigger than we preach or sing.  He is bigger than we can imagine, and He is bigger than we believe!  Get to know Him today! 

He is GOOD cause He is G-d!

First let me say that something has been stirring in my spirit for several weeks now.  I read a commentary one morning back during the middle of May and the stats used in the commentary really displeased and disturbed me.  I decided to challenge those with the author, so I sent an email asking where they found their information.  I was directed to another article that they quoted from, but that article did not cite the source either.  I am a researcher, so I know you must cite sources in order to be credible in your writing.  I was really upset at this point, so I decided to search the CDC website to see if these stats actually existed.  I found a chart that was a bit different and I was about to really challenge this author, but felt I needed to do a bit more research before making such claims.  What I found next, shook me to the core. The stats were exactly as reported and the CDC was the producer of these stats...

What was I upset about?  I thought the authors were exploiting the stats for births out of wedlock-to unmarried women in the United States.  As a Black female I was quite upset when they noted that 72.3% of Black babies are born to unwed mothers.  This stat is true and it is taken from selected years from 1960-2011, and the stat for Black women is reported from 1980 to 2011.  If you want to see it for yourself you can go to http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr62/nvsr62_01.pdf.  This document is the National Vital Statistics Report Volume 62, Number 1 from June 28, 2013 and Table 15 on page 43 shows these stats.  

What upset me?  Again, I thought they were taking the stats out of context, but once I realized they were true, I was equally upset.  I am one of those babies, born to an unwed teenage mother.  I thought the stats had gotten better.  What are we doing, I asked myself.  This is a generational curse and one that MUST be stopped!  My grandmother had a daughter at age 15, my mom had me at 17, my aunt had my cousin at 15, my two cousins had kids before they were married.  In society today, we say give them a shot, a pill, or give them condoms because they are going to do it anyway, so teach them to protect themselves.  Well, how has that worked for us in the Black community?  72.3% are still having babies.  It was 57.3% in 1980 to 72.3% in 2011.  This mentality has not worked so far. Don't we need to rethink this?  It is almost like we don't care.  Do we care?  Does anyone care?  We are limiting our options in life when we do things outside of God's will for us.  I know this myself as I used to live a promiscuous, dangerous life.  I know some of my options have been limited because of it and I did it to myself.  We can't blame the government.  We can't blame white people or other people groups for our plight.  Maybe we would have more generational wealth and stability today if this stat were not so high.  I don't know...I am just upset that the percentage for Black babies born out of wedlock is so much higher than others as compared to 29% for Whites, 53.3% for Hispanics and the total of 40.7%.  I have a right to be angry, but what will or can I do about it?  Having a foundation, first is the key.  Then empowerment is next.  Then fathers are the real answer!  The Lord is our foundation, then getting little Black girls involved in things that give them a sense of strength and empowers them to do great things is the next answer.  We just celebrated Father's Day and fathers are the real key to this whole thing.  Maybe if my father had been there when I was a child and had told me I was beautiful and worth more than gold, then just maybe, I would not have listened to every guy that whispered in my ear and told me those things...just maybe!  I care about our community, that's why I had to write this blog to say that I am paying attention more so now than ever before.  Self-esteem plays a major part.  If little Black girls know who they are, then they won't be so quick to jump into bed with just anyone.  Mothers and fathers need to be good examples for their children.  You do matter and let's stop being so coy and casual about this in the Black community. Let's take a stand!  Bless you and I hope this blog makes you think and act!

Dee Stokes Ministries, Inc.