Anna M. Aquino

This afternoon as I sat to read my Bible I felt this bubble up inside of me and as much as I tried to put it off to write it down tomorrow I really felt I had to do it today. Therefore, I pray it blesses someone. Hearing the voice of God is completely normal! God created humanity to be able to talk to and spend time with Him. Sadly, the concept of God speaking to us as people has been really twisted in these days, but the Bible is clear on the matter. John 10:27 (NIV) My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I always say that all the prophetic is: is being able to hear the voice of God whether it is for your life or someone else’s. Dyslexia is defined by the World English Dictionary as, “impaired ability to understand written language: a learning disorder marked by a severe difficulty in recognizing and understanding written language, leading to spelling and writing problems. It is not caused by low intelligence or brain damage.” It seems to me that there ...

Last week while in prayer I felt the Lord say to me “It’s time to move from sustaining to obtaining.” That day some things happened in my life, and as things are made final I’ll share more. But I began to think about this term and have decided today would be a good day to share my thoughts. Many of you have heard me say time and time again that I’ve heard prophetic voice after prophetic voice say that these are days of change and new beginnings. I believe that this is the time and season we’re in as a church whole. While the Israelites were in captivity they spent generations believing that one day they would be freed. When Moses showed up and the plagues began they had to have known that change was soon coming. God was doing miracles, signs and wonders in their midst and they knew this time things were going to be different. Simeon and Anna (I’ve always been a little partial to faithful Anna Luke 2:21-39) waited at the temple every day they were growing older and older. They believed ...

I recently saw Carol Burnett interviewed and she relayed a story that I’d heard her say before but it reminded me of something this time. If you don’t know who Carol Burnett is, she is a famous American comedian and actress. Before she was famous she was working as an usher in a movie cinema right off Hollywood Blvd. This usher uniform she had to wear, I guess she relays was hideous and had epilates on the shoulders. Then anyone could come in at anytime during the movie and no matter where it was in the movie set down and soon the movie would start again. She says that one particular day this movie was in it’s last minutes and these people came up demanding they’d be seated right away. She was working at the aisle two door. She asked for them to wait five minutes because the movie was almost done, and I guess they went to get the manager. That manager stormed over to her and ripped off her epilates. He demanded she leave the building at once. “You’re fired!” he roared. I’m s...

A few days ago while in prayer I had a vision that was for both me and several others in the body of Christ. I felt to share that with all of you for today’s blog. I believe it’s for many. What I saw before me was a great light, and behind me was an open door that I’d already stepped through. But the door was still open. Instinctively I knew what the Holy Spirit was trying to show me. It was as if I’d stepped through the new door, but I hadn’t closed the door behind me yet. Why is that important? Well think of it this way, if the door behind me was darker, I’m not going to be able to see much the entrance to the new place because what is behind is mixing with what is ahead leaving it a mushy mess. Even though I’d already passed to the new place the door is still open and the old place is blocking my vision of the new. I have heard prophetic word after prophetic word that this is a season of change and new doors. I believe what God was showing me is that in order to see tha...

When I was a little girl and we used to go over to my grandparents house there was this bowl of wax fruit that baffled me. Even as a kid I wondered what use is that? Yes it looked pretty but it had no real use. This last week as I worked on a section in a book I just finished I found myself talking about wax fruit. It was a revelation I’d like to share with you today. The Bible talks about fruit quite a bit. Here are just a few examples (NIV): John 15:5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. Romans 7:4 So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. Galatians 5:22-23 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Think of it this way...

Yesterday I was sitting in a leadership meeting yesterday and Pastor Greg said something that I’ve heard before but somehow this time it hit me. He said, “Even if you’re the most introverted person it’s said that in your life time you’ll influence at least 10,000 people.” That’s a lot of people! That’s just if you’re the most introverted. Think about the amount of people that ones like Billy Graham has been used to influence in his lifetime. The 10,000 people seems minor compared to the amount I’m sure he has influenced. You are not merely in peoples life just for the sake of being in their life. I believe that God has a reason and a purpose for each life you contact. Will you influence them for the good, or for the not so good? 1 Corinthians 15:33 (NIV) Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character." I began to think about this statistic. What kind of influence am I leaving with people? What kind of influence are you leaving with people? Most of us have p...

In the fourth grade me along with many of my friends would go and hang out at the local roller skating rink on the weekend. There was one particular afternoon that I decided to wear a primarily white sweater with light blue stripes. There was a particular boy that “liked me” and I was trying to look cool. I had just gone to the food court with my friends and had purchased some nachos. Throw a bunch of kids on roller skates who are already awkward and you get even more shaky movements. Some girl, I have no idea who it was now backed into me with my nacho’s in hand, and I lost by balance. Eventually I wore that nacho cheese. I wore it not just a little bit, but wore it as a giant round circle in front of my stomach. No amount of water helped it get out. The circle just grew like a giant blob. When you 9 years-old and your trying to look cool slow dancing with a boy at the couples skate it’s pretty hard when you have a giant cheesy stain on your sweater. It would and could hav...

The year I graduated from high school my grandparents decided to take my sister and I on a vacation to Myrtle Beach. We have a lot of memories from that trip and a lot of laughs. I do not like long car trips, and inevitably if I can fly I will. The confinement starts to get to me. There was one particular instance in this car trip that I had to go to the bathroom and my grandmother insisted that we had to stop at a McDonald’s bathroom. According to her McDonald’s always had the “cleanest” restrooms. So we began traveling around trying to find the Golden Arches. While there may be a McDonald’s on every corner of civilized America there wasn’t where we were. We’d pass all sorts of other places and it wasn’t good enough. Minutes and miles rolled by and finally after begging her she allowed my grandfather to pull over at a Burger King. By this point I didn’t care, I was going to explode if we didn’t pull over soon. Sometimes we feel like the process that we’re on in the Kingdom of God is l...

As a kid there was a particular oatmeal cookie recipe that we would make often. Depending on what was in the house we might change the recipe a bit but it would primarily be the same recipe. One particular instance I got this hankering (May not be a real word but it is in my vocabulary) for oatmeal cookies and I fled to the pantry to pull out the ingredients. My mom hadn’t realized we were almost out of flour, and only the remnants of about ½ a cup lay in the bottom of the container. Reason told me that I should abandon my craving. But we had plenty of sugar. I mean I could just substitute sugar for the flour. They were both white. . .it should work right? For those of you chefs you’re probably laughing at me by now. Just because I thought they looked the same, didn’t mean they were. What I did instead of making oatmeal cookies that day was managed to make a huge melting oozing mess on the pan. It ended up being more like oatmeal flavored lollypop melted across the metal. ...

My parents’ house is in a very wooded area in Ohio, and subsequently I always joke that I grew up in the woods of Ohio. As a little girl I would spend hours exploring the woods around the house. I can remember going out into the woods to pick flowers or wild raspberries. I used to love to get deep in the woods and be able to look up and see the sky through the trees. There was something I always found almost majestic about being able to look up and see light. It was if the leaves etched there way as a tattoo to the beauty of a crystal blue sky and I stood there in awe of God in nature. Often we can feel like that in our spiritual walk. We can find ourselves in the deepest part where it can feel as if there is darkness all around. We can be so entrapped by circumstances that we can feel that we don’t see any light. But I speak to you today to look up. See the beauty in the sky. See through your circumstances. See past where you are right now. 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 “We are har...