Emergency Post: Positive vs. Negative (Reinforcement)

Positive vs. Negative...which one are you?

Good morning beloved. Yesterday was my 32nd birthday as I mentioned in yesterday's post (click HERE TO READ POST.) Well, I'm thankful to share with you all that the Lord gave me an amazing birthday. Filled with so much love, laughter and ROLLED TACOS..YUM!

Early in the afternoon prior to my birthday dinner kick off I was talking with my cousin (Elizabeth Lopez) about the differences of being encouraged and being forced to do something. In life I have noticed when it comes to relationships as all things are relational, you have positive and negative reinforcement. One encourages and the other forces you. Somewhere along the line there's a break down between the one who is applying the reinforcement and the one who is being reinforced. 

There's a way to get a message of encouragement across to someone without forcing them to do it. There's a difference between telling someone to "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near" through the example you set that positively reinforces that message and the lack of example you set that causes that message to fade away- in one ear and out the other. You can only reinforce what you yourself do. 

Now in saying this, there comes a time where "tough love" needs to be enforced and this also is by the example you yourself lead out in. You must be a leader in what you think, say and do. Otherwise you fall in everything. As author and leadership speaker John C. Maxwell says, "Everything rises and falls on leadership." He is right! You cannot affect change in anyone's life until you yourself have changed. And that is leading by example. What you put out there is what you live out daily. Don't get me wrong. All leaders have their moments of failure, but it's not something that is consistent and not learned from. That's the key to effective leadership...Positive Reinforcement. You model it, you commit to it, you're consistent with it and although failure may come you don't step back in defeat but press on towards the goal. Any leader will tell you that it's not in the amount of failures that your leadership incurs but the amount of successes despite those failures that makes all the difference.

I myself am learning these principles, and as my Pastor Troy Gramling shared to a room filled with over 1700 men during the 2012 Men's Conference (V.I.P.) at Potential Church (see HERE), "Even if it wasn't modeled for you, doesn't mean YOU can't model it." Amen. We have all experienced the pain of not having others in our lives to lead us and encourage us through positive reinforcement, but that doesn't mean we can't decide to model it for others. I myself never had a dad to teach me to be a man, a father, a husband and a leader, but I look to the example Jesus models to perfection in the Word of God to help me and build me to be the man I'm called and created to be then I can model it for others who experienced not having a dad either. 

This blog post is absolutely a blessing from God, and this I have had the great pleasure, privilege and honor to witness and model myself. God will use anyone to speak His message through, and if we are humble enough to receive the message despite age, background or gender we will be all the more blessed by it. With that being said I thank God for the brief conversation I had yesterday with my cousin Elizabeth. God inspired me through it and because of it, the treasury of my heart has grown. Thank you Jesus.

In closing there are two verses in scripture that I want to share with you that will increase the treasury of your heart. They speak to leadership and the humble manner in which you should lead your people. The first one is by the Lord Jesus Himself. 

So Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:42-45 NLT emphasis added)

Whenever you speak to someone in order to influence them, let the reinforcement given be positive and not negative, then the individual(s) set before you will not only grow and become stronger. They will become leaders through your example that you yourself consistently model. Why is this important to seek to do always? Then the individual(s) will carry in their heart an image of them self that will cast a leadership shadow everywhere they go. No one desires to feel bad about themselves but rather feeling great and walking tall. “As a man thinks in his heart that he is.” (Proverbs 23:7)

Beloved, I pray these words will sharpen and grow you as they sharpen and grow me. It's my prayer that through effective communication we will experience record breaking growth in our lives and in all our leadership endeavors.

As always...YOU ARE LOVED.

Emergency Post: A Crying Voice (Lord Hear Us)

“A voice crying in the wilderness asking to please save me, hears...do not fear, the Savior is coming.”

Do you cry like I cry over broken marriages that end up in divorce?


Do you cry like I cry over hurtful words and actions between parents and their children?


Do you cry like I cry over teens experimenting with everything like it’s nothing? 


Do you cry like I cry over sex-filled, non-committed relationships that start off wrong and end up in disaster?

Do you cry like I cry over the wars and the genocide between misunderstandings of men?


Do you cry like I cry over over the multitude who will do anything for the love of money?


Do you cry like I cry over the drug induced, alcohol consumed men, women and children of this hurting world?

Do you cry like I cry over countries at war over land or oil and masquerading it as religion?

Do you cry like I cry when you see a fatherless child without direction end up in prison?

Do you cry like I cry over rape, sexual atrocities that end up in either abortions, deaths or fatherless children?

Do you cry like I cry over our women who walk in shame and defeat over the thoughtless men who’ve hurt them?

Do you cry like I cry over the child abuse that plagues this land?

Do you cry like I cry over the thoughtless words that come out like missiles from men and women all over this world?

Do you cry like I cry over the hurting that even goes on in the church?

Do you cry like I cry over the souls who do not know the Savior?



If you cry like I cry then you pray like I pray. You desire to say as I desire to say, and you want to do as I want to do. Believing as I believe knowing as I know, that God is the only way to help us stand for good to make a blow in this world in the name of Jesus that will leave an eternal impact. Amen. If you say amen to this, then let us come into agreement as we pray together in one accord as one body of Christ.



Let us pray:

Oh Father, the pain is so severe. The hurt is so deep. The lost is so profound. I thank you that in you and by your love this evil, can be overcome with good. Father God help us to pray as we must. To say as we should. To do as you will. Guide us into victory to reach the lost and impact this world for Christ. We ask You to do this in and through us mightily, in the name of Jesus. Amen.

We are His weapons

We are His weapons

With all the crime in this world, and all the lost lives due to senseless acts, to those who believe, and trust in God; let us look to doom and gloom with a positive light: The world says a hand, a gun, and bullets kill. My Father says, "If the bullet has a purpose, it must have a command first, to fulfill that purpose. 'I God, am the gun, you, child are the bullet, and Christ is the hand pulling the trigger.' It's aimed at all evil, now blast out of your chamber, and cut right through all that is of the enemy, for my purpose is greater than his."
Amen!

Signature from Flavio's iPhone:
He will prepare his deadly weapons and shoot his flaming arrows. (Psalm 7:13)