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YOU ARE HERE TONIGHT AT 9PM EST!

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Hello out there! I hope you are having an awesome day, really, I do. Did you know that more than 75% of the people on the planet ages 65 and above were asked recently what was the one thing in the world that they wish that they could change. Do you know that the number one answer was:

To not Worry! 

Wow, that sounds so cliche, but worry is an major stronghold that takes root in the lives of people when they have undergone a traumatic or chaotic event in their life which removes their sense of security. I am sure that this may have happened to you before. There are also many who have dealt with other addictive strongholds deeper than worry like prescription addictions, gambling, sex addictions, fame, etc to name a few. How many of you out there know that there is power in the name of Jesus to break every stronghold that may try to keep you in bondage?

Yes, it’s true. I hope that you can join me (Danita Ogandaga) and my friends, Mary Held and Larry Barnhill who are seasoned in working with people with addictions. Culminating the  ranges of cognitive, behavioral, spiritual, and physical senses, we’ll talk about Addictive Strongholds in detail tonight, right here on danitaogandaga.com. I hope that you will join us at 9pm EST! 

On Twitter? Submit your questions and keep the conversation going with the hashtag #orphannomore

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Conferences & Webinairs

Meet Mary L’Esperance and Larry Barnhill & Join us 5/16/13 for Orphan Spirit LIVE Webcast Part III

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Mary Held

Mary L’Esperance Held is a passionate, ordained minister, and founder of InYourWake.net which is a teaching and impartation ministry to equip believers in sharing the word of God effectively with others. Mary loves life and people and travels extensively serving people and igniting a fire in them to be bold in God and serve the Kingdom of God with joy! Take the time to get to know Mary’s TOP BEST moments! She is truely making a mark.

What is the best advice you have ever received in life?

Aside from someone telling me why I needed Jesus, I would say the best advice I ever received was to learn to study the Word for myself and to learn to hear God’s voice for myself. There are many we can learn from, and God definitely uses others in our lives in a major way. But we can easily be led astray if we don’t know Truth for ourselves.

What is your hidden talent?
I’m not sure this talent is ‘hidden’ but it may not be know by those who are not in my day to day life. I am an extremely effective and joyful multi-tasker. I get very frustrated if I only have one thing to do at a time…LOL.

What is your best way to start the day?
Jesus, My Bible, worship music, My coffee. Nuff said.

What was the best day of your life?
Of course the best day of my life was January 31, 1999 when I surrendered my life to Jesus and made Him Lord of my life. Obviously nothing else even comes close. But beyond that, I have so many pivotal times in my walk with God that come to mind it seems impossible to pin one down as the “best”. So I’ll just stay that the “best” days are those days where God manifests His plans in my midst and I see many random things come together in to one strategic event. It’s then I see that even during the times when it seemed like He had forgotten about my prayers, He was actually working it all out behind the scenes the whole time.

Why is the world filled with orphaned hearted people who resent authority, trusting others, & developing intimacy w/God, themselves, and others?
The world is filled with orphaned hearted people because they have many wounds on the inside that need healing. Their view of God, themselves and others is skewed by their life events and experiences, conscious and subconscious. Those experiences create a false sense of truth, and they exchange the truth of God for a lie (Rom 1:25). But God is a mighty Healer and can get to the root, bringing substantial change in the fruit of our lives! I’m living proof!

How can a person begin to receive God’s love? What was your experience like?
We can begin to receive God’s love when we allow God to come in and heal us from the inside out. Often we don’t even love ourselves. If we believe the lie that we are unlovable, it can be next to impossible to receive love. BUT GOD! When we let him in to those deep recesses within us to teach us truth in our innermost parts, we will see Him for who He truly is, and see ourselves through His eyes. Then it’s easy to receive his love. This is how it happened for me.

Larry Barnhill

Deacon Larry is an ordained member of the clergy with the Anglican Church of North America serving God’s people in central Florida. Larry is married with 4 kids. Larry has traveled the world both as a son of military father, and then having spent time in the military himself.

Deacon Larry has long been involved with Christian Healing work having taught classes and seminars on the subject.  Larry is also a routine contributing author to the Order of St. Luke Christian healing organization’s magazine “Sharing”. Larry has also written a few books on Christian healing and living. Larry also ministers daily via his Facebook page: In His Footsteps.

Larry also does a weekly online radio broadcast dealing with different aspects of the Christian faith, Scripture, and Christian living. Many of these broadcasts are recorded and uploaded to both youtube and Godtube. To view his recordings just search deaconbarnhill on either site.

He is a man of God making a mark on a hungry world! Get to know Larry’s Best right here:

What is the best advice you have ever received in life? It comes from my offensive line coach when I was playing football in High School. He stated “Do your job first, and then help your friends and neighbors.” If we aren’t doing what we need to in our own lives, how can we expect to properly guide, lead, support and minister to others when we can’t or won’t take care of things in our own lives first?

What is your hidden talent? I have a knack for acting and as such I am constantly drafted to help out with Vacation Bible School

What is your best way to start the day? Coffee, my Bible, and God

What was the best day of your life? The day my wife said yes to marrying me, followed closely by the birth of our two kids, and then Pentecost Sunday 2012, the day I was ordained.

Why is the world filled with orphaned hearted people who resent authority, trusting others, & developing intimacy w/God, themselves, and others?

I think this all stems from the fact that God has given mankind free will and he has let satan run free on the earth. As such people have come to think that God is not needed and that He represents all authority and if they give themselves to Him, that they will lose all control of their lives. Blaine Pascal put it best when he said that we are all born with a God shaped hole in our spiritual beings.

Until we fill that hole with Christ, nothing will bring us peace and comfort.  The world has been convinced that the closer we get to God the less we become of our true selves. The truth is the closer we get to God the more we become ourselves. Sadly way too many churches today do not preach or teach upon this truth. As such the intimacy with God is not emphasized. We invite God to our weddings but toss Him out of the marriage. Our relationship with Christ is a marriage and as such we should be working to build Him up in us as He works to build us up.

How can a person begin to receive God’s love? What was your experience like?  We have to become Jesus to the world. People need to see His light shining in and through us in such a manner that they become drawn to it. This doesn’t mean we brow beat them with the Gospel. This actually turns people off to the message. We start with ourselves and then we work out.

The best saying I have heard in this regard is we be a friend, make a friend, then bring a friend. All of this has to be Christ centered. By being a friend to them first we can walk beside them helping them to walk besides us, with Christ, and then slowly begin to turn them over to Christ.

This is how things happened in my life. I was very much anti-church and anti-Christian healing in my teens and early twenties. I had seen healing but chalked it up to parlor tricks. In fact I was much like St. Paul when he was still known as Saul. Friends in the military brought me to their church and the young adults, and this friend, helped walk beside me and lead me towards Christ.

I still resisted, until one day God called to me through an episode of Touched by an Angel. I felt His love calling to me and that night I gave myself to Christ. Since my love and my relationship with Him has grown by leaps and bounds.

 We hope that you can tune into danitaogandaga.com at 9:00pm EST! Please leave your questions under this link and we will answer them on Thursday, May 16, 2013! See you then!

Emotional Healing, Relationships

We Wear the Mask- Remixed

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Hey Boo! Are you tired yet? Trust me, I’ve worn it too. Release the pain to God and be your authentic you. Pain is pint size and can fit into most of our purses and be carried around like a compact. We find ourselves taking it out at every stop, looking into the mirror and smearing the pain on our faces. Pain loves to be held and snuggled and it grows with each passing moment because the more you hold onto it, the more it attaches itself to your hopes, dreams, desires, and being.

If you are thinking about the number of masks that you have worn in your life, I’ve got your attention and that is a great thing because frankly, I am exhausted with wearing mine. When I realized that God wanted my heart not the pretense mock up of myself, it began to make perfect sense as to why we try to float through life as though everything is okay. Let me tell you something that I have just discovered in my thirty-four years on this earth…………..

*ish stinks!

It can be very subtle and alarming at first but gradually overtime, that thing that we try to disclose will be exposed for all the world to see and our vices that used to protect us and insulate us so strongly like an armored truck will no more and we are left at a crossroads to deal……..

the abortion that you never healed from………..

the graduation that you never reached…………

not making peace with the scale and falling into a box of twinkies night after night……….

kissing her while you are imagining yourself wanting to be kissed by him but he’s married……….

and a whole host of things that we as a population of people are dealing with. People magazine does not do the world justice at all in capturing the spirit of issues that are affecting the human race.  Amid the glamour and the cars, and the celebrities toting lattes down the street, are a population of people strung out on dope without hope and sitting on the kitchen floor wondering how to cut themselves in silence. When you don’t talk, you get talked to and for anyone that has dealt with the silence of yourself, you can relate to what I am saying.

The devil is not a red tailed imp that we see on television or in movies. He is real and has a purpose that is laid out in John 10:10 where it says, “Satan comes to kill, steal, and destroy, but God came to ensure that we have access to an abundant life.” So there……..we know that his purpose for us is not good because if left up to him we would suffocate in our mask and never take it off!

Something smells a little funky……….I know because I used to  smell funky too. Spraying perfume on my face and wearing Noxema to  hid the marks of my mask and ready to defend myself against anyone who would dare to recognize that I was wearing one. The good news is no one can make you come to the realization that you are not being yourself like you. You are with you consistently and are familiar with all of your ways just like God is, so sniff, sniff, and tell me what you smell?

One of my fav poets, Paul Laurence Dunbar drafted a poem that touched me in the day when the paper and pen were my coveted friend. His poem goes like this…..

WE wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—  This debt we pay to human guile; With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, and mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be over-wise, In counting all our tears and sighs?  Nay, let them only see us, while   We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries     To thee from tortured souls arise. We sing, but oh the clay is vile beneath our feet, and long the mile; but let the world dream otherwise, We wear the mask!

Take a minute and think about the enormity of this poem and the message that Paul was attempting to convey with it. If you have a journal with you now as you read my post, take a minute and write any ideas that are coming to mind as a result of wearing your mask. So now that you have done so, let’s explore how do we go about getting rid of the mask?

  1. Get Tired– When you come to the end of yourself and realize that God is and has always been your comforter, you will reach the point where you say enough is really enough and you go to that closet of masks and rip them out one by one. Realizing that you are not and were not called to be all things to all people and that you possess an authentic self is so liberating. All of the crowds that you frequent with dread, the relationships that you attempt to upkeep when you know the content is not quality and the environment is so toxic, there is nothing like freedom. In the words of my faithful Facebook friend, Ayene Joel, “Mask Alwayz falls Down One Day… Alwayz…”
  2. Realize that it’s ok to be you- When you were growing up, did you ever feel as though you had to contain who you really were in order to be accepted in a group, even if that group was your own home? I can remember wanting to watch country music and my siblings wanting to watch Rap City. I remember the times that I would go to school and my classmates would be talking about the latest fashion and trends yet I would be thinking about if my father remembered to take his medication and what he and my mother were going to want to do when I got home. All of us are at different junctions in our life and we are traveling the same road in life; yet many of us are taking various detours and routes that are not all in sync. It is easy to see someone along the road of life that may be more advanced than you or more prettier than you or whatever it may be. Seize the opportunity to be consistent in knowing that you are valuable and you have a purpose in this life. God made you and had greatness in mind when you were born. It does not matter if you felt as though you were an accident to your parents; God has a way of turning your thoughts to become agreeable to His will for your life. Realize and accept the purpose in your path.
  3. Surrender the pain–  Erykah Badu asked a very simple, yet poignant statement, “Bag lady, you gonna hurt your back, carrying all them bags like that. I guess no one never told you that all you must hold on to is you!” It is so easy to try to save someone that may or may not be saved. This is a common thread in the life of a caregiver. Caregivers hold a special place in my life because I was one to my parents and can identify with the feeling that you get when you want something for someone, at times, more than they want it for themselves. You wonder, well why can’t they just see what you see, but remember, that same train of thought that you hold for them, God holds for you! God wants you to trust him with the pain that you are feeling and find a place of peace to release the pain to him. God hearts you and wants you to be free.

In short, we all get tired, tired of working, tired of shopping, tired of writing, and tired of working. We all have reached the point of being tired of wearing the mask. This is your permission to take it off. What God has for you is far greater than you’ve ever imagined but you’ve gotta take the mask off and clean your face so that you can be annointed with His joy as you accept your call to His authentic grace.

He loves us, God that is…..,

Danita