July 20th, 2012 - by Adam Nicholas Brown

ON LOVE, FAITH AND SWINGING FOR THE FENCES

I tell people that faith is jumping out of an airplane without a parachute and with no need for clarity on how you will safely land, simply because the one standing next to you, who you may or may not see, is telling you softly “jump and I will catch you”. True faith doesn’t need backup plans; in fact, backup plans only limit faith because in creating them, one entertains the possibility of failure. There were (and still are) specific times in my life when I simply KNEW something and I didn’t want anyone around me to poison my mind into wondering “what if it doesn’t work”. I couldn’t entertain the possibility of failure and therefore, I did not fail… and will not fail. There are times in a man’s life when his back is against the wall and he must make a bold step in faith. Even when he doesn’t know how he will do what he has set out to do, he knows that somehow, some way, he will eventually get there. He must throw all caution to the wind, swing like there’s no tomorrow and fight like he has absolutely nothing to lose for it is in our darkest hour that God reveals Himself to us and catches us just before we hit the pavement and without such faith, it is impossible to please Him. As we walk on water towards Him, we cannot for one second take our eyes off Him and allow doubt or fear to creep in or begin formulating backup plans should we fail or fall, for in doing so, we express our lack of faith and trust in Him and as such, we will surely sink.

They call Christians ‘believers’ and a man reprimanded me once for thinking as strongly as I do. However, Christians are not believers… well, true Christians at least. We are not a body of believers, but a body of ‘knowers’. A belief may or may not be true, but one can only know something if that thing is indeed true. TRUTH is the great separator. When I pray to God, when I feel The Holy Spirit guiding me and after I sat across from God The Father in a room crafted out of light several years ago in the spiritual realm and was in His Holy presence – experiencing things human words cannot even begin to explain – I cannot now say I ‘think’ He exists, for I KNOW He is real and I KNOW what I experienced. Truth is what separates knowledge from mere belief and Jesus put it clearly when He said “I am the way, THE TRUTH, and the life: no man comes to the father, but by me” John 14:6 AKJV. As such, herein lies a fundamental point of contention among many who believe otherwise. However, we Christians didn’t write the rules nor did we create the universe of which we are all a part. We, Christians and non-Christians, are all creations in this whole thing – tiny pieces in this cosmic game of chess – and God, whether we like to acknowledge Him or not, IS our Father and IS creator of the universe and the only thing more impressive than that, is the fact that as great as He is, His love for us is greater than the span of the universe; despite the fact that many of us constantly reject both Him and His love.

So swing for the fences, fight like you’ve got nothing to lose and love like you just don’t give a d*mn, cos perfect love casts out all fear and when you’re filled with love, nothing can get in your way cos you just don’t bloody care anyway! Keep fighting, be persistent, be patient and never back down! Peace!

– Adam.

August 31st, 2012 - by Adam Nicholas Brown

ON SETTLING FOR STALE BREAD - PART 2

Sometimes when paddling along the narrow, winding and tumultuous river of life, we get very close to a breakthrough located directly ahead of us on a shore just beyond our field of vision. However, it is at that point just before the shore becomes visible to our natural eyes that one final test or temptation is presented to us and passing it requires the greatest leap of faith, trust and commitment to our decision to follow His leadership and to obey His orders. It is then at the height of darkness that the heaviest fog imaginable comes before our eyes and we are most tempted to turn back around, doubt that we are on the right course and seriously question whether The One who gave us the directions is indeed trustworthy and knew what He was doing when He told us where to go. It seems human nature to doubt in the things we already intuitively know in our spirits to be true when tough times come; to cave in to fear and go into complete panic mode when we cannot immediately see or touch the things we have long craved. Many of us grow impatient and settle just before that breakthrough comes and sadly enough, many live completely unaware of just how close to the shore they truly came. However, if we demonstrate our faith and trust in God, persevere and stay committed to the course, we will eventually get to that special place which is beyond our own expectations and wildest of imaginations.

TRUST: It always comes down to trust. We reap what we sow and what we reap is always a magnification of the seeds we have sown; it’s another one of the immutable laws of the universe which God has revealed to us in His Word. Whether we are mindful of it or not, every single day with every choice we make, we are sowing seeds and making investments which, in time, will reap a harvest. Whether that harvest is a beautiful one or an ugly and destructive one depends on the TYPES of seeds we have sown, WHERE we chose to sow them and HOW we chose to continuously cultivate them. There must always be a balance in the universe and God shows us how to navigate through life with His words of guidance given to us in The Bible. I may only be 34 years of age, but this is one of the many things I have come to know: For you to qualify for something BIG from God… something TRULY GREAT, you’ve got to pass BIG TESTS; NO EXCEPTIONS! You’ve got to be able to demonstrate EXTREME OBEDIENCE and that you have BIG FAITH, BIG TRUST and GREAT PERSISTENCE & DEDICATION to the mission or course He set you on, NO MATTER WHAT. God often wants to bless us with something great but since He is a fair God, we’ve got to put something forward from our side to qualify. It might seem big on our part but it is infinitesimally small when compared to what we get back in return. God wants to bless us and give us great returns on our investments but we’ve got to first invest with the things every man and woman, whether rich or poor, possesses. So, the gazillion dollar question is, what, how and where are you sowing/investing? Be smart, my friends. BE SMART!

Much love,

Adam.

April 17th, 2015 - by Adam Nicholas Brown

THE PRECIPICE

Twisting and turning, my heart bleeds amidst the contemplative ruminations of my soul. In the twilight hours of the morn, sleep escapes me as my spirit is rendered restless; haunted by the Ghost of success imminent. There is a time in the life of man when after skinny dipping in the ever-living waters of wisdom and knowledge, one becomes entirely engulfed in the realization that all prior thoughts captured and moments lived before it, are but mere strides and kicks taken by a horse still trapped inside its mother’s womb before birth. At first, I thought I was alone and the heart I heard beating so violently and intense was my own, but now as the contractions grow closer and my senses have matured, I now know that I am not alone… and never was; that what I thought was a single beat was never singular at all, but was always two hearts beating as one…

But wait a minute!

Who is it really who is writing this piece in the wee hours of the morning, I ask myself. Is it truly me or is it from some sweet and voluntary possession from The Father Almighty above or from His Holy Spirit, the Ghost who woke me up so early this morning to write this? From whence do these thoughts emerge and how are they so aptly polished, for surely I alone am but a man incapable of writing anything even so remotely sensible? Of course it is from Him – and ONLY FROM HIM – whose creative and ever-powerful thoughts scamper freely along the outskirts of my mind as my soul hastens quickly to catch up, take notes and chronicle expressions; capturing both still and moving photographs of the visions He reveals to me… So I continue.

The pressure intensifies all around me like walls closing in as the contractions grow stronger and more frequent. People seldom understand when God gives a vision to a man. Failure is not an option and I’ve come much too far to quit! I’ve burned all my parachutes and remain completely resolute to the cause; to the VISION The Father has endowed upon me and to the passions He hid deep inside the caverns of my heart since before my conception. There is no appeasement to these gyrations of my soul and the centres can no longer hold from such violent and tumultuous quaking within. I kick, I fight and I gallop swiftly towards that small, flickering light growing bigger and bigger by the moment. Like a butterfly pushing against a cocoon, my arms have grown stronger; the kind of strength I will need to support my future flight. Inside this womb, like a horse I’ve been kicking and running and kicking again for what seemed like eons to me, but mere moments to Him. Now, this horse has broken free and with this newfound strength, the time has come to get up on these legs and truly start moving. The time is now for this bamboo which had disappeared while growing deeper roots underneath the soil for so many years, to slowly emerge to the surface.

So here I am; a man; ADAM, standing at the precipice. All hills and mountains tread before now have been as mere practice, for before me stands an Everest; my first Everest among other Everests to be conquered. The lions and bears I wrestled and killed in the womb have led me to this one called Goliath; one giant standing before me among other giants to be slain under the power and authority of The Almighty God, The Lord of Hosts, the source of my strength, the author of all my good works and supplier of my every need.

For me, as it has always been, average and mediocrity is death. There is no, nor has there ever been any middle ground for me or for people like me. When I was in ‘the womb’, I allowed one and only one solitary thought to permeate my mind and that is simply this: Either I break free from this or I die slowly from it, crushed by the walls inside this womb and never getting to fully see the light of day or feel the rays of the sun I dreamed about beating upon my face. But I’ve broken free from the cocoon and after kicking and galloping inside for so long, I’ve dropped to the cold floor from the womb and cut the placenta tying me to it. But I also know that while it may seem I am now on my own, I am never truly alone, for my Father is with me, as He always has been, no matter what. It is the kind of loyalty and love no human is capable of giving much less comprehending. Though I can never love Him as much as He loves me, my life is His to do with as He wills and that is the way it should and forever will be.

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; … For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (Taken from 2 Corinthians Chapter 4, KJV Bible).

– Adam Nicholas Brown.