"Johnny's iPod" Artwork!

Just got this in!! This project will release November 23rd, a day before Thanksgiving! Excited!

Soo...Flavor Fest!

As I mentioned in my blog post Monday, my next concert isn't until Flavor Fest in October! I'm really excited about this one! One day I was looking over some "CHH" (Christian Hip Hop) news and I saw the advertisement for Flavor Fest. Normally I just skip these advertisements and move on to more important stories :) But when I saw this one I felt a tug from the Lord and I knew I was supposed to be there. Registration for the conference had just begun. They also advertised that if you registered for the conference then you could register to be one of the performers at this year's conference. If I submitted my music and they liked it then I could perform. To put this into perspective, this is one of the biggest urban leadership conferences that I know of. Lots of artists are trying to get in because, honestly, there will be a lot of nationally known artists there. If you're chosen to perform, you get to personally meet these guys...etc.

Well, I was actually super excited about learning how to minister more effectively to my increasingly urban community. If you've been following this blog, you know that God has turned my heart towards trying to reach the kids in my church as well as my immediate surroundings. Getting the chance to rap at the same place I would be learning all of this cool stuff was really icing on the cake. So I applied...and they contacted me and told me that I was selected to perform! Crazy! What's more crazy is that they only chose 11 other artist that were not nationally known (out of the many that applied). More good news...the Lord actually provided money for us to make the trip!! Below is a picture of the "national" artist list. I put national in parenthesis because "national" sounds like popular but I'm quite sure that some of you may have never heard of these guys lol! Don't get me wrong, they are national. These artists travel all over the nation and 3 of them are from the UK. They're pretty well known in the Christian rap circle. That circle just happens to be a small circle right now. It's growing though. If you're interested in going with me, check out www.flavorfest.org to find out more info about Flavor Fest!

Here's the official commercial...


 


 After this, Jeneil and I will be headed to ATL. While there, we will be checking out a church called Blueprint Church. It is a relatively new church plant located right in the heart of Atlanta. I first heard about this church because a few influential Christian rappers helped plant the church. Since then, I've heard about the church's ability to foster genuine community and their efforts in reaching out to their neighborhood. Jeneil and I will be attending a small group session and church service! Hopefully we'll learn something that can be applicable here.

Please keep us in prayer. Pray that God allow us to learn, grow and bring something back that will impact our church and neighborhood. And please pray that God will allow us to build relationships. We want to build relationships over there in Tampa but even more so here in town. I'm not concerned with national attention right now. I just want to make a kingdom dent where I am...no, not a kingdom "dent". I want to take all of my resources, aim them at our neighborhood, and fire away until the target is no longer recognizable! (Pretty graphic!)I want this neighborhood to be blown away by the power of God. I can't do it alone. We need help with the label and other stuff so pray that God sends the right people along. And when they come, pray that we recognize them.

Thanks,

 Jarrell

Behind The Scenes of the White Rags Video Shoot!

Here goes some behind the scene footage of the White Rags music video! This was filmed in and around the Wheatley Courts. I didn't know how much was really going on out there haha! It was definitely an awesome experience. We took advantage of the opportunity to minister to some of the residents of the community a day or two before the shoot. We were also able to lead a few to Christ on the day of the shoot as well. Praise God! Hope you enjoy...

"Theology Thursday" feat Jeneil Flowers is UP NOW! (part 2)

I am not exactly a “kid” person. I love teenagers, but toddlers and kids…that’s a little tougher for me. Add to that I didn’t exactly have the best relationship with my mother due to her Paranoia Schizophrenia, and I was sure that my baby was going to be a baby girl . I wondered, "How am I going to communicate the truth of God and His ways with an infant as I go along my day?" The Lord knows they don’t come home from the hospital speaking or even understanding the English language! How will she comprehend my theological discussion? I believe that the answer the Lord gave me was to be an imitator of Christ.

What did Christ do in this situation when he spoke with “spiritual infants”? He spoke in parables. He communicated His teaching from God in a relevant and easy way. So I sought the Lord for the specific details on how to do that with this child I was carrying at the time. Well, the first instruction that the Lord gave me to help me in this process was choosing her name. We named her two renditions of Hebrew names that meant, "pleasant and beautiful lamb". “That’s it!” I thought. “I will teach her that she is like a lamb and she can choose to follow the One Good Shepherd. Then, as she gets older, I can teach her what the Good Shepherd says about how 'pleasant and beautiful' lambs should live. And of course every time we go to the zoo we’ll pay the extra 10 bucks to feed the sheep by hand!” (LOL, I have never even been to a petting zoo, so this may or may not ever happen!)

So there I was registering everything imaginable with a lamb on it for my baby showers. My little lamb will wake up every morning to lamb sheets, lamb blankets, lamb changing pad covers, stuffed toy lambs, and even a lamb mural painted on the wall that says, “The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need. Ps. 23:1 (NLT)” in the sky! Over the top, you say? Maybe. Or maybe I am just pricking her heart with a very vivid impression of my faith. Don’t worry, I am not deceived into thinking that Nyomi, my daughter, will never stray away from the way of the Lord just because we read Psalms 23 every night while she wears her lamb pj’s! But I do believe the Lord will bless the wisdom of her parents to apply the instruction of the Lord not only in their individual lives but in the life of the child He gave them. So maybe one day down the road you will hear me referring to the one true God as the God of Emmitt (my dad), Jeneil, and Nyomi.

Fame and Entertainment

So for those of you who may not know, I am a youth pastor at my church. This month our youth ministry will be focusing on being missions minded in the areas of music, sports, fashion and movies/media. I've personally been on a study about the Christian's role in the arts...pretty interesting. I've run across a subject that everyone probably has to deal with when talking about representing Christ in the arts. The subjects are fame and entertainment.

My concepts of fame and entertainment are really starting to change. God knows that my heart is pure and that He continues to purify it. But I'm starting to see fame and entertainment more as a tool and a mission field (respectively). I used to be very much against fame and "Christian" entertainment and entertainers. Let me explain my views about them now.

First let's talk about fame. What is fame? Fame is simply being well known. Being famous is being a person who's well known. Now I know that pop culture has portrayed fame as a certain lifestyle with certain benefits. And the truth is that when people become famous they tend to lead lifestyles of excess, glamour and so on. But as a Christian, we must separate being famous from excessive living. If we don't, we will always see fame as an enemy. Is fame an enemy. I thought so at first until I read that God planned to make Abraham famous. Now if you're a Christian and you're reading this, you probably understand that the reason for fame is simply to exalt the name of Christ. So that brings me to this: if fame has a purpose then fame is simply a tool. If fame is a tool, then it should be stewarded properly. But the mismanagement of a tool doesn't make the tool bad. It is the person who stewards the tool that will determine whether the tool will be used for good or for bad, for God's glory or for self glory. Now I don't believe that we as Christians should seek fame. In fact we should do as Jesus did and make ourself of NO reputation. (Um...that's pretty hard to do by the way.) I think that if God desires to loan us the tool of fame, then praise His name. If not, we are still content. But as we are being content, I also think that we should do our VERY BEST to cultivate our talents as a form of worship to God. When we do this, I believe that God will take us to wherever He wants us to go. If it stays local...cool. If it goes national and international...cool. It's up to Him because it's all about Him. Sometimes that's hard to accept, especially when my flesh gets mad and wants to go on a promoting frenzy. (I'll talk about promoting on another post.) I've really got to leave it all in God's hands, even though I know that this is partially my livelihood. It's hard man.

Moving on to entertainment...
"Seriously, do Christians need more entertainment?" I've asked myself that question many times and the answer has always been NO! But recently I've seen this in a different light. I still don't think Christians need more entertainment. I believe the body of Christ needs to focus on being who we're called to be so that we can change the world. But does that mean that Christians should not produce things that entertain others? I've been looking at entertainment from the perspective of art. I think this is something important to note about art. Art is meant to be enjoyed. Some people make art. Others are entertained by it. But if it's good art the maker and the admirer will both be entertained by it. They'll gaze at it, think about it, examine it, be amused by it, enjoy it...they will be entertained. Actually the definition of entertainment is an amusement or diversion provided especially by performers. Good art is amusing and will divert you from whatever you're currently focused on. The question is: what is my art communicating? Where is my art leading people? In any event, I've come to the conclusion that good art will entertain to some degree. As a minister, my goal should not be to entertain people. My goal should be to lead them to a deeper relationship with Christ. But again I think that using the talents and resources that God has given me in order to engage people is definitely a good idea.

So that's what I'm thinking about fame and entertainment...for now. Feel free to comment.

Blessings,
Jarrell

Prophetic Dreams and Visions (pt 3)

So before I continue with the story, I think that you shoud know that when I started part 1 of this little series I had no idea that this whole wallet situation was going to happen. I was actually going to share another recent dream that had (and continues to have) a huge impact on my life. I chose to talk about this dream and the wallet situation because this was so fresh and so relevant to our little discussion here. I should also let you know that the Lord has been dealing with me about the importance of a solid prayer life. And, of course, when the Lord wants to begin to teach you something, the enemy is always there to fight against that. I have been having an extremely difficult time praying and studying. I know we all struggle because our flesh doesn't wanna pray or read...and we have that struggle everyday. But this is not that. I feel that there is some extra hindrance there. So when I tell you the rest of this story, please understand that God in His sovereignty is trying to teach me the importance of prayer. I'm no prayer warrior...although I'd like to be. With that being said, let's get back to the situation.

I was in the car having a breakdown. The Lord told me that someone had my wallet (and for those of you who thought that the someone was me, it wasn't lol!) When the Lord told me that someone had my wallet, I asked the Lord to "crush" whoever had it. Mind you, I was pretty frustrated when I prayed the prayer. To my knowledge, this wasn't a "righteous" indignation. It was a "someone-has-my-wallet-so-I-hope-they-get-what-they-deserve" indignation. After I said that I figured, "No use complaining. What's done is done. Let me start cancelling cards and hope that there are no crazy charges to my account." I drove back to the church, and posted on Facebook that I lost my wallet and that I was now cancelling cards. You all saw it. You all showed sympathy. I thank you for that! When I got back to the church, I called a pastor friend of mine to tell him that I had to cancel my appointment with him because I didnt have a driver's license. We got to talking about a little bit of what we would've talked about had we kept the meeting. While I was on the phone with him, Faith (our receptionist/children's ministry extraodinaire) comes and tells me that there is a police officer on the phone for me. Now I received a call from a police officer last week. He wanted to rent the gym and I am the one that handles those requests. And because I didn't even make a police report about my wallet possibly being stolen, I just assumed it was the officer calling about gym rental. I asked Faith (yes, that's her real name) to forward the call to my voicemail. Thank the Lord she didn't. She instead asked my wife to take the call. I was still on the phone with the pastor when my wife came down. She told me to talk to her after I got off of the phone and said to me, "it's about your wallet." I thought she was just gonna encourage me to get the ball rolling on card cancellations and such. I'm a procrastinator.

After I finished my call, I went to go talk to my wife. Little did I know that the call was from a police officer who found 3 of my cards: my personal debit card, my business debit card, and a capital one mastercard. Now out of everything in my wallet, these were the things I was most concerned about. The police officer told my wife that he would come by the church and give me my cards. Crazy! But what's even crazier is how it all happened...

When the police officer came and dropped off my cards, he told me the story. He said that he was dispatched after the police station received a call from a cafe right up the street from the our church. He said that the cafe reported that there was a person sitting outside of the cafe that looked pretty sick. The officer who was dispatched happened to be a Christian. When the officer arrived at the scene, he asked the young man for some ID. When the young man gave the police officer the information, the officer pulled up some information on the man. Turns out the young man had warrants for his arrest. The officer then searched the man and, in searching his wallet, he found my cards! You're probably thinking, "How did he know to contact your church?" I told you earlier that this man was a Christian man, right. Well this same man went to a men's conference that my dad and I attended 2 years ago. When he saw the last name he told me that his thoughts were, "I wonder if this is the same Flowers that pastors Faith Outreach..." He pulls up the church information in his computer, calls the church, and ends up talking to Faith...who tried to tell me the officer was calling...etc. The young man who had my cards tried telling the officer that he just found the cards. The officer said that the young man was stoned on methodone and had weed in his pocket...so with that and the warrants, he ended up going to jail. When the officer pulls up, he's listening to KDRY 1100. Funny thing, I just did an interview taping on KDRY the day before. He told me that he remembered the church because he visited once and loved it lol! God is awesome.

Think about this! Had I not had that dream (and the confirmation of the God's voice), I wouldn't have randomly (and in my opinion quite fleshly) asked God for justice. And God in His sovereignty heard my request and brought justice to me. I still have take care of things like getting a new driver's license, etc. But you know what? After a miracle like that I have to believe that if God really wanted me to have my whole wallet back he would've given it to me. So as this relates to dreams, God doesn't do things haphazardly. God also cares about the little stuff...and will give you a dream to change the course of your life (like He did in my other dream) or to give you a simple word of knowledge about something seemingly insignificant. I might share the other dream with you sometime...much crazier than this story. I know this was pretty long. Thank you for reading.

Jarrell

Prophetic Dreams and Visions (pt 2)

So on Facebook I let everyone know that I lost my wallet, right? Well I didn't let you know how I lost it so here it goes...

I was actually doing a print job at FedEx Kinkos last Sunday afternoon. I had another shipment of CDs that had to go out so there I was...printing more CD covers & CD labels. (By the way, thanks to all those who have bought the CD so far. Also thank you for the great responses to it! I'm gonna get better at posting my events too...pray for me lol! And if you haven't bought the CD yet, go ahead and get off that $5 haha! www.freedommusicgroup.com :) The next day, I went to another Kinkos near my house to do more CD stuff. I think I left my wallet/planner at one of those Kinkos stores. Sad, I know. I was looking for it Monday evening and I couldn't find it. I thought, "This could be bad but I probably just misplaced it or something. I'll tear the house down tomorrow and find it." Great plan, right? I thought so too until the next morning.

Monday night I went to sleep thinking about what I could've done with my wallet/planner. It was pretty important because I pretty much carry my life in there. Sad, I know. My passport, my debit cards, my ID/Driver's license, my checkbook, my blockbuster card (very important), my Sam's card...everything. I went to sleep with this on my mind. Then I had a dream. I dreamed that I was at the first Kinkos I visited. I was asking the cashier who helped me Sunday if she knew where my wallet/planner was. (Her name is Kat, a very helpful lady by the way.) In my dream, Kat was telling me that she didn't know where my wallet was. That was it, the end of the dream. When I woke up I got the feeling that maybe my planner was taken. After the dream, I was pretty sure that I left it at Kinkos and if Kat didn't know where it was...then I had a problem. Even though I was pretty sure I wasn't 100% so I woke up and began to search (sort of frantically) for my planner. I went to the Kinkos near my house to find out if I had left my wallet there. Then I asked them to call the first Kinkos I went to so that they could check if someone may have turned it in. They called and could find it. I was unhappy with their answer so I went myself. I was like, "Maybe Kat is there and she'll remember me. If it's there, she'll know for sure." I think I left it on the check out counter so if anybody would know where it would be Kat would know right?? I went to the first Kinkos I visited and guess what...no Kat! I asked the people who were working there if the found my wallet. They looked in their lost and found and told me the same thing that they told me when I was at the other Kinkos...no wallet found. I asked them when Kat was coming in. They said she wasn't coming in until 2pm. (I don't know why I asked. She told me in the dream that she didn't know where it was.) So I went back to my truck and proceeded to melt down in the parking lot. I was asking God why He wouldn't tell me where my wallet was. I was so frustrated with Him. Then I remembered the dream. Then I got frustrated because I wasn't tryna decode a dream at the moment. I was trying not to believe that someone would take something that doesn't belong to them. Then that still small voice came and said, "Jarrell, someone has your wallet." Because I was sooo frustrated, I quickly said, "Lord if someone has my wallet, please crush them!" Be careful what you ask for.

(to be continued...)

Prophetic Dreams and Visions (pt 1)

Dreams and visions, dreams and visions, dreams and visions! Does God still use dreams and visions today?? Yes.

There are many instances of God using dreams and visions to speak to people both in the old and the new testament. I've always thought that this was pretty cool. Joseph (old testament) dreamed, Jacob (old testament) dreamed, Joseph (new testament) dreamed, Peter and many others had visions, Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar both dreamed. And this is just scratching the surface! It's just awesome that God can use whatever way He chooses to speak to us. I personally love to dream (although sometimes I get lazy and don't want to search for the interpretation). God has began to use dreams powerfully in my life. In fact, when I'm searching for confirmation on a relatively big decision, I ask God to give me a dream and most of the time He does.

I will make this statement parenthetically but I've got to say it because it's pretty important. We as believers have to believe in the supernatural. We must also identify those who have the gift of interpreting dreams in the body. Just as God gave the grace to Daniel and Joseph to interpret dreams in the old testament, He gives that same grace to others in the body today. First believe that the grace for interpreting dreams exists, then search for it in the body. There are many treasures that God has laid in these earthen vessels. Ultimately the treasure is Christ, but there's so much more to Christ than we know.

Ok so please let me briefly validate dreams and visions with one of my favorite verses. We all know the passage in Joel 2:28-29 and the retweet in Acts 2:17-18. But there's another scripture about dreams that I want to show you. The following verse has helped me tremendously when it comes to this subject...

Job 33:14-18
14 For God does speak — now one way, now another —
though man may not perceive it.
15 In a dream, in a vision of the night,
when deep sleep falls on men
as they slumber in their beds,
16 he may speak in their ears
and terrify them with warnings,
17 to turn man from wrongdoing
and keep him from pride,
18 to preserve his soul from the pit,
his life from perishing by the sword.
NIV

Incredible. God speaks in many ways but man does not always see it. One way God speaks to us is through dreams and visions of the night. Now this may be hard for us to believe because sometimes our dream life is nothing short of carnal. It's because our dreams have sometimes left us with meditations of lustful thoughts, murderous thoughts, and all kinds of craziness, we tend to dismiss dreams as a valid tool for God. Think of your dream life as a tool. The tool is used by the user for a specific purpose. What if you had a tool and a person with muddy and slimy hands came and borrowed your tool? The tool would be dirty. That's what happens to our dream life when we allow the hands of the enemy to shape and mold our thought life. Our dreams become dirty. Fill yourself with the Word and you will experience authority in your dream life. God will be able to use that tool to "show you things to come".

I'll have to finish this at another time! I've got some crazy stuff to share with you about how God has recently used my personal dream life to lead me in the path of His righteousness for His name's sake. Stay tuned for part 2!

How God Wired Me

I know it's been a little while since I've blogged. I've definitely had a lot on my plate recently. Let's see... I've got the fairly new arrival of my daughter Nyomi, conceptualizing and planning a new format of youth ministry in accordance with the Word and the new direction of our church (tough), establishing the new record label, releasing our first CD and everything that comes with that, and let's not forget the hardest part... striving to be a better husband for my wife and a better father for my daughter. I think the hardest part about this is not neglecting my spiritual life in order to do "things" for God. It's tough. All of the things I mentioned that I'm involved in require time, serious thought, counting the cost, and to be quite honest it's very draining. It's hard juggling all of these things. They all require my attention (some obviously more than others). However, when it comes to any of these daunting tasks, failure is not an option. I sometimes wonder why the Lord gave me these assignments when He KNEW EXACTLY HOW HE WIRED ME!!

Ok...a little transparency here. Here's a little bit about Jarrell. I would definitely be classified as a free spirit with leadership qualities. For those of you who know anything about leadership, that's not a compliment to myself haha! I should know because I very much dislike serving under "free spirits". I really don't even like talking about anything worth talking about with free spirits. It's just too complicated sometimes so I walk away feeling like Cole from Sixth Sense when he said, "...You're a nice guy, but you can't help me!" I'm attracted to structure, probably because I know that I lack it in a lot of areas. I like to dream big, but I'm horrible at calculating a plan on how to get where I need to go. I'm very direct, but very sensitive. If someone is very direct with me, I will probably resent it unless our relationship is good. In that case, I will only resent it for a little while, but afterwards we'll be closer friends! Haha that's so real!

So after all of this assessment of myself, I came to a conclusion. GOD WIRED ME TO NEED OTHER PEOPLE. I don't have the luxury of choosing whether or not I should have good friends. If I'm ever gonna get to where I feel the Lord is taking me, I'm gonna need great friends who are patient with me. Also it would be cool if they were not needy, always in need of something. Don't get me wrong, I can minister to needy people. But when it comes to someone pouring into me...a mutual iron sharpening iron friendship?? Nah, the needy need not apply lol! God wired me like that for a purpose!! I feel He's called me to assist the body of Christ in the growth of a few areas. Two of them are 1)biblical discipleship and 2)authentic community. Sometimes when God wants you to address something in the body, He will put you in situations where you realize that you NEED this issue to be addressed for the sake of your own spiritual growth. This is often how ministry is birthed from the overflow of your spiritual life. It goes so much deeper than theory because you're living it RIGHT NOW! Biblical discipleship requires authentic community. Authentic community needs great relationships built on godly love in order to survive. That's what I need right now.

I said all of that to say this: Give attention to the way that God wired you. He wired you the way He did for a specific purpose. The way He wired me has everything to do with why He put me here on this earth. God gives us huge hints sometimes. even if we are not necessarily searching for Him, He will create a divine dissatisfaction in us concerning our purpose and identity. If we follow the breadcrumbs and listen carefully, the hints will lead us to Him and His purpose for our lives.

Hope this is a blessing to you,
Jarrell

A Little Bit About Me

Hello!

Let me start by introducing myself. My name is Jarrell Flowers. I am married to an awesome woman named Jeneil! The bible says that a man who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. I have definitely found a "good thing" in Jeneil. She really is amazing. I have also recently been blessed with another gift in the person of Nyomi Raquel Flowers! Nyomi was born just a few days ago and...WOW! I have never loved a little baby so much! I feel a great responsibility to teach her how to bring glory to the Lord because "children are a heritage of the Lord". That's so hard to hear sometimes but it's so true. In the light of eternity, children are not our heritage. We are merely stewards of the Lord's heritage. He has graciously entrusted us with His heritage...the furtherance of HIS family Name! WOW.

What I Do:

My first ministry is to my family. If I weary myself trying to minister to others only to find out that in the end my wife and child have fallen short of God's calling for their lives, then I have miserably failed as a man of God. God is teaching me more and more how to be a better husband and father. But anyway...that's my first ministry.
I am also a youth minister at our church. I attend Faith Outreach Center Intl. My father pastors this church along with a great group of elders. (Yeah I'm a PK.) I work at our church part-time. However, we all know that youth ministry is never "part-time".
I am also a Christian music artist. I do Christian rap. I also produce music for other artists, write songs, etc. I do this "part-time" as well. At first glance you probably would think that I do music...especially rap. Your second glance would only confirm your first one hahaha! I don't look anything like a rapper. I don't dress like a rapper. I don't even call myself a rapper. Lol! I just have a gift to put words and music together that bring glory to God. That pretty much sums up my musical talents. I've started a record label called Freedom Music Group. I am the first and only artist on the label so far. It's been a long process but my CD is almost complete! I can't wait to see what God will do with this label.

Why I decided to start a blog spot:

I am going through serious progressions in my walk with the Lord. Since I've graduated from Texas Bible Institute, God has taken me on this spiritual journey that has been nothing short of revelatory. He's taught me concerning the Kingdom of God, the Torah, grace, sanctification, discipleship, the family unit, the structure and operation of the church, apologetics, and so much more. I've been enjoying this time with the Lord. Lately, however, He has been showing me how all of these things tie into each other! He has also challenged me to allow all of these things to become reality in my life by living a lifestyle of radical faith. He dropped a phrase in my heart a while back that has been going off in my spirit like a thousand bells since He spoke it to me. "Deeper than theory" were the words He spoke to me. In other words, He challenged me to allow Him to take me deeper than a head knowledge about spiritual things. He's calling me to walk in them....to walk in the supernatural without fear. He's slowly taking me through baby steps. So far, I've prayed for a few sick people and they have come back with reports of healing. God's also used my dream life in incredible ways...mostly to warn people. He's used me to prophesy (accurately). And of course, He has used me to lead others to Himself! I've been so excited about this process that I only thought it proper to share with others what God is showing me. My intent is to post whatever the Lord allows for however long He allows me to do so. Hopefully this blog will ignite passion and hunger for God, His truth, and His reality in the hearts and lives of all who read. (Oh...and I'd love to hear your feedback. I think we all grow that way!)

I could probably tell you more but that'll be all for now. I hope you join on my journey to bringing the pages of the bible into reality. Either God is real or He isn't. Either He is who He said He is or He is a fake and a liar. Either He can do all that He said He can do or my hope is in vain. If God is God then may He answer by fire.

Jarrell