Day 19: Jesus J.U.I.C.E (Justice, Unity, Imago Dei, Community, Education) and Morning Glory
Scripture
Ephesian 4:11-16 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Song: Make Us One
Happy Nineteenth Day of Thanks Everyone!
Today, I give thanks for my faith-forming prayer community, Jesus J.U.I.C.E. and its prayer branch Morning Glory. I think God that he is equipping a body of believers to be in His face at 6 am on Morning Glory, dedicating their mornings (and Wednesday evenings) to Him in prayer and worship. This community has been faithfully praying together for the last 62 weeks at 6 a.m. on Mondays through Fridays. Morning Glory started as a direct result of some of its core leadership having an experience with evils spirits (aka demons) manifesting from a group of teenage girls they took on a retreat to introduce them to the good news of Jesus.
Jesus Juice is a faith-formation community whose mission is to bring the Justice, Unity, Image, Community Impact and Education of Jesus to a disenfranchised, lost and broken world. It started on Instagram when one of its leaders, Amanda, invited her friend Shanay to pray with her during the COVID pandemic, after hearing the story about a mother who lost her son to drowning, as he jumped in to the water to rescue his best friend from drowning. Since during the pandemic, most offices of employment were put on halt, the two began to do live Instagram feeds of their banter/prayer sessions five days a week. Their prayer sessions evolved into Shanay, who went to theological school and trained to be a reverend, preaching sermonettes on Instagram. They began to grow a following of people from all walks of life who were thirsty to hear the word of God during the pandemic. As they grew, they brought in Shanay’s friend, Michelle, who is an organizational/administrative/ technical extraordinaire to continue to help drive the ministry forward. Shanay’s mother who is a prayer warrior would intercede heavily for the ministry as well. Shanay worked with my “best friend,” Octavia, who was asked to join the leadership team of Jesus Juice as well.
For several weeks, Octavia had asked me to mentor her friend Shanay. I was a little reluctant at first because one, it would require a huge commitment of time and dedication and two, after meeting Shanay, it was clear that it would be lots of work to “convince” her of the ministry God had assigned to her. Additionally, she still had lots of life clean-up to do. Don’t get me wrong, we all have lots of life clean-up to do but I knew this would be a task that would encounter lots of resistance. It is always a much bigger headache to convince people about what they are also called by God to do and simultaneously deal with their pride. (Ain’t nobody got time for that!) I put the request of mentoring Shanay before the Lord and asked him to let me know if she was one of the women he spoke to me about mentoring earlier in the year. If so, to let me know clearly that He was bringing me to her.
A few days later, Octavia invited me to join Jesus Juice’s Instagram live. I observed the Instagram live off and on for several weeks and begin to pray for each of them and their ministry. God began to reveal many things to me as I prayed. One Sunday morning, the Lord woke me and told me to tell Shanay to call me that day because I had to give her an urgent word from the Lord. She called me later that day. Neither of us knew it then but, when she called me it would be the start of our very first mentor/mentee discipleship and deliverance sessions. Two weeks later, I tuned in to the IG live and they announced that they would be starting a 6 am prayer call and urged the followers on IG live to join them there as well. Since prayer was my vein of interest and I was usually already up praying by that time, I committed to join their 6 am prayer call once in a while too. On the first Friday of their prayer call, the Holy Spirit had his own plan. The anointing of the Holy Spirit began to bubble up so fiercely on the inside of me and I began to fiercely speak in tongues and felt the fire of God fall in my bed room. I began to pace the floor and intercede for, Ms. Okeya, who was praying, and all the other women on the line. When Ms. Okeya finished praying, I picked up the prayer mantle and began to pray forth the anointing that was in me. I’ve been praying Morning Glory’s “Freedom Fridays” and filling in as needed since that day. Man makes plan but only the will of the Lord prevails.
I had no idea that when the Lord said he would send me women to mentor and disciple that he would call me to this entire community. But, I am so glad He did. I have at least seven women that I consistently disciple and walk out life with on a weekly basis specifically in the Jesus Juice community. This includes the four core team members of Jesus Juice. These beautiful ladies are my pride and joy and I love them as if they were children I birthed, even when they are rebellious and need correction. God has been moving incredibly in the lives of all of us. Within our community, through the power of prayer, we have seen deliverances, shame and guilt lifted, miraculous moves of God, a further commitment to holiness and to see a revival move of God, as well as what a prayer sisterhood can look like. All of us have learned that walking with the Lord demands many things but also allows us to live in the intimacy of our daughter-ship. Now, we are praying for the men to openly come. Jesus Juice has done community projects where we have been the hands and feet of Jesus too. These projects have ranged from facilitating a huge bookbag drive in the South Bronx that served over 800 families to buying a winter and school wardrobe and knickknacks for three orphaned children. We look forward to seeing many more miracles and doing many more projects.
Today, as I give thanks for Jesus Juice and Morning Glory, I invite you to not only join us for prayer at 6 a.m. Monday through Friday on https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88047300262?pwd=dGRTT2srRjFwNHdITHcvWDJkOGRMdz09 but to donate your time and financial resources at cashapp $JesusJuice123 to help us be the hands and feet of Jesus when there is a need in the communities which we serve.
Love Ya,
Have a Great Day of Thanks!