Anna M. Aquino

            As people of God we all need to seek the Lord regarding the times and seasons that we live in (1 Chronicles 12:32).  Often people have ‘Words of the Lord’ for the next year as it approaches.  For years I’ve posted what I have felt God was telling me for the New Year.  I’ve seen how God always has a way of bringing these words to pass though often not exactly how I thought He would.  Many times people have fun rhyming slogans for the year.  In an attempt to not conjure anything that God hasn’t given me, I don’t have some cute rhyming phrase that sounds good with 2015.  Not that there is anything wrong with people who do, but I don’t this year.  However, I have been receiving what I believe is a download from heaven regarding next year. I’m doing my best to prophesy the way I see it, so it may not have a pretty package, but I am excited to share it with you in this blog.  ...

            Today while driving back to get groceries I had an “aha” moment.  It was one of those moments were suddenly God seemed to connect the dots in my head.  It was a revelation by which I was tremendously blessed and instructed.  I believe that there are many who will read this, who have found themselves in similar places, learn from this Rhema moment.  While often my blogs are not outwardly prophetic in nature, this one is, so hold onto your hats people.  I hope God uses me here to speak to you in your season.             This has been a time of great transitions in the body of Christ. I believe this has been going on for the last several years. I know of several people who are pursuing the things of God,  who have made major moves whether it be through business, church, location, etc. etc.  I personally believe that to those who...

            Years ago in my gymnastics days, I went to a gym for classes that would physically shove us further down into our stretches.  It wasn’t enough to physically hurt us too much; however it did cause some pain.  However it did make us get more flexible than we thought possible.  The moments of uncomfortable forcing were worth it in the end.  Our class got more limber as a result.             There are many moments in our life that are like that.  Circumstances can push us further than we want to go.  We are uncomfortable and complain in the moment, but later we realize how much the situation helped us.  Those moments can make us ready, able, and prepare us for times we may need the flexibility.              Many of you have heard my rubber band analogy before, but I th...

My girls and I have been taking turns at dinner reading passages from scripture and then discussing the passages as we eat. Yesterday at dinner my oldest picked a passage where Jesus casted a demon out of a person.  This opened the conversation about angels and demons.  We also found ourselves in a conversation about spiritual doorways, and how one opens up doors in their lives for demons to come in and mess with them.  The conversation then went into using your spiritual authority that Jesus gave us, and that Jesus was stronger than any of this.  As I was explaining all of this to my youngest I felt the Holy Spirit prompt me to explain to her that if she ever opens a doorway by committing a sin, then all she needs to do is repent and ask Jesus to shut it. She thought very silently for a moment and then piqued up, “Then Jesus puts caution tape over the door and nothing can come into it?”  I had to laugh at her for a moment, but she was right. “Yes, in a...

A few weeks ago I thought that going grocery shopping on a Friday night was a good idea.  I’m not sure what possessed me to think this.  In the future I may avoid Friday night shopping like a plague.  After my kids were done with their piano lessons we went to three stores.  In a frazzled moment in the checkout line I realized I had forgotten to get bread crumbs and parmesan cheese that I needed for a recipe I was making.  But all is well, I thought, I’ll get them at my next stop.  OK, so I’ve been in this wacky season of still transitioning and nothing is the normal to me.  I found myself at my last stop overwhelmed by the amount of people in the store, and lost because nothing in this particular store was where I thought it should be located.  My youngest daughter and I started making a chant up about “All I want is Parmesan Cheese and Bread Crumbs.”  I stopped three different employees of this store and none of them seemed to care I w...

            On Saturday night I had a dream.  While parts of this dream I have yet to understand I thought I’d share part of it for the sake of this blog.  I was at a church conference of some kind.  It wasn’t a church I recognize though there were various people that I know there.  The conference had seemingly been a very great experience.  However suddenly in the last group session I began to notice something didn’t seem quite right.  In the final main session I walked into a sanctuary type main room.  I was looking for Dan but he wasn’t there.  There were no normal seats available so I pulled out a couple handicapped seats.  As the mass of people sat down, I looked up on a balcony.  I saw a machine gun open fire to the crowd.  People all around me were dying but they weren’t really calling out.  I looked around and it was only me and a few people still in the chairs...

               WARNING:  To all who read this, this is a total random blog today. Welcome to the inside musings of my mind.                    Today is always a day of reflection and contemplation for me. It was 14 years ago that God moved my husband and me across the country to Florida.  We lived there for 13.5 years.  It’s been 5 months that we’ve been back in Ohio, and I know without a doubt both moves in those individual seasons were the in the right place at the right time for our lives.  I guess I set this day up as a memorial in my walk.  I had been a part of leaps of faith in my walk with Christ before this one, but somehow that one 14 years ago was one of the defining moments of my life.  I have no regrets to either.                    ...

            A few weeks ago my youngest and I were in a grocery store parking lot and there was a guy in a car with the windows rolled down smoking a cigarette. His car happened to be parked right next to mine. The whole scene looked like something out of a 1970’s street movie because there was smoke billowing coming out of the car.  My youngest shares something with most outspoken children; she has no filter for these things.                           Loudly as she walked over to our car she exclaimed, “Mommy!  That man is smoking!”  As if she was the damsel in distress in a cheesy 1950’s horror movie.  Maybe I’m exaggerating a tad but it certainly felt like it.  Sure I’m glad she knows that smoking is bad for the health of people, however I wanted to crawl into my trunk and close the door at that moment....

            Yes, it is true.  I went apple picking.  I suppose too many this is a triumph that doesn’t seem to blog worthy.  I suppose too many it’s not.             Probably about five or six years ago I had the biggest desire to go apple picking.  We were living in Florida the land of the hot and hotter and it wasn’t until this desire hit, did I realize you can’t go apple picking in Florida.  Shocking I know, but I never realized that apples need the freeze to grow and there are no apple orchards that I could find in any kind of drive from the Orlando/Kissimmee area.  I know this seems so minor, but it totally bummed me out.  I even joked on Twitter about four years ago that I was going to move back to Ohio, get a house with apple trees and sell jars of apple sauce with every book I ever sold.  Then I found some Ohio business orga...

            This weekend my family and I went to help some very dear friends of ours at their alpaca/chicken farm.  I think it was a great learning experience for all, and of course we learned there wasn’t anything some good soap and water can’t clean off.  For my primarily raised in city kids, there was some great lessons here.              Toward the end of our visit my friends decided to get one of their alpacas away from the herd so my children could feel their fur.  It was a great idea.  My kids wanted to do this.  However no one realized how much of a challenge this would be for all of us.  I hadn’t realized before this how much alpaca’s are herd animals.  They don’t like to get separated from the others.   The others do not like one to get separated from them. I’m not sure if I will ever run with the bulls in Spain,...

            Dan and I both grew up in lands of changing seasons.  However we lived in FL for 13.5 years where the only seasons they have is “hot and hotter”.  When my oldest daughter was about three we decided we wanted to give her the experience of fall.  I tore up a bunch of magazines and newspapers in the living room and we let her attempt to pile them up and play with them.  I know the experience didn’t come close it was my futile attempt.              Now that we have moved back to the land of four seasons, my children and dog have been experiencing fall with gusto.  We recently had to do some raking of the leaves to have a leaf fight for the first time ever.  As much as Dan and I tried to replicate the experience for our children when we tore up the newspapers and magazines it really was no comparison.  We all had fun.  A...

            I took this picture while we were in Indy.  It’s the top section of the Scottish Cathedral and just found the picture kind of comical. I get that the church is trying to keep bird poo off their doors, and I get that they don’t want birds to hang out there.  Too many people in the world this is exactly what churches look like to them.  They won’t set foot in a church because they see people as abrasive people, or ones that would judge them if they knew the truth behind their smiles.              I recently started to be on a Greeters ‘Dream Team’ at our church. I firmly believe in needing to contribute to the church you’re in, and it was something I could do as we are still living so far from the church. As I thought about it, I thought about this picture.  How would I want to be treated if I just started to come to church and don’t kno...

            I have never been a lover of cold weather.  I can remember that when I lived in the north going out to scrape my car windows muttering “Dear God Please send me somewhere warm!”  Well.  He did.  I lived in Florida for over 13 years.  For over 13 years I experienced the seasons of “hot and hotter”.   While Florida weather isn’t ideal, flip flops are a clothing “must have” year round.  I hardly ever wore socks.  For 13.5 years I visited colder weather fondly at Christmas time, and then returned to climates where their idea of winter weather meant you might have to throw on a sweatshirt.  While I always missed the seasons I NEVER missed the cold.              My family and I moved to Ohio this year in June.  We all knew this was God’s doing. While I knew the winter months would be arriving, I tried very...

I wanted to take a moment in today’s blog to again reiterate how much I love the Holy Spirit.  When we were in Indy, I was to have one more day while Dan was working.  I honestly had no idea where I should go.  I’d done what I wanted to do, and was just being indecisive about what else to do.  I couldn’t, nor did I want to, stay in the hotel the rest of that last day.  Early that last morning as I was waking up I felt as if the Holy Spirit hit me upside the head and dropped into my spirit that I needed to go to this Scottish Cathedral downtown.               I was sure there had to be some divine reason for me to go to this Cathedral.  Maybe I’d get to talk with some old school Scottish priest, or maybe have a divine moment of speaking into someone’s life, but for whatever the reason I just knew I had to go there.            ...