Equipping You to Live Spiritual Well and On Purpose
Essence of Love Ministries believes in the development of the whole person. It is our desire to assist people in seeking the Lord with the whole heart, mind, body, soul and spirit through education and spiritual exploration. We believe that as we seek the Lord, we will encounter experiences that will cause us to dig deeper within ourselves to find the root of what love really means and bring about transformation. When we understand that God is love and discover the nature of this love, we will better love ourselves and love all people actively - demonstrating the nature of love.
When we are able to continuously face, be honest about and diligently work out our personal life concerns, strengths, weaknesses, development, and salvation to consistently make ourselves available to the Lord; then we can be better servants for the Lord and the people God directs to us.
Join Essence of Love on our journey of personal spiritual discovery, healing, and educational pursuit to become better equipped for the ministry and purpose that God has entrusted to us. You may register for any upcoming Workshops, Bible Study and/or Events on our Registration page.
"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." - Philippians 4:8 (NIV)
When we are able to continuously face, be honest about and diligently work out our personal life concerns, strengths, weaknesses, development, and salvation to consistently make ourselves available to the Lord; then we can be better servants for the Lord and the people God directs to us.
Join Essence of Love on our journey of personal spiritual discovery, healing, and educational pursuit to become better equipped for the ministry and purpose that God has entrusted to us. You may register for any upcoming Workshops, Bible Study and/or Events on our Registration page.
"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." - Philippians 4:8 (NIV)
Spiritual Formation Sessions
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Spiritual Formation Resources
List of Spiritual Disciplines:Inward Disciplines are the practices you incorporate into your personal spiritual growth in your intimacy with God:
Prayer Meditation Fasting Study Outward Disciplines are the practices you incorporate into your personal spiritual growth in the way you live: Simplicity Submission Solitude Service Corporate Disciplines are the practices you incorporate into your personal spiritual growth with the Body of Christ: Confession Guidance Celebration Worship Journal Your Way To Intimacy: Designate a journal for your God dates and spiritual formation details. This will be the special place that you can keep your definitions, record your favorite scriptures, jot down your thought process concerning your relationship with God, detail the moments you are experiencing with God on your dates, and anything else the Holy Spirit may lead you to document. How about writing your own love letter back to The Father and Jesus? Whether it is 5 minutes a day or once a week, there is no wrong way - just do it! Remember, writing in your journal is part of the process of growing and sustaining intimacy. Work your results out with God in your prayer journal. Consistently review what you have documented to see how you continue to spiritually transform and further develop your relationship with Jesus Christ. Essence of Love Journals: Give the gift of helping yourself and others on the Spiritual Formation journey. Essence of Love ministries has released the following spiritual formation resources available on Amazon.com: 1. "I'm Grateful: 30 Days of Gratitude" - Journal Available in both a colorful and neutral version for $10. 2. "I Choose to Forgive: 30 Days of Learning to Let Go" - Journal - $10 3. "365 Days of Love" - Daily Workbook/Journal - $20 Start 2024 with love on your mind. The 365 Days of Love takes you through 12 months designed to inject love into your life each day and be intentional to overcome that negativity that is constantly seeking to invade our lives. For $15, the workbook/journal will lead you to a place of love beginning with God, giving to yourself, and leading out to others. 4. "Hope for the Holidays: Journaling through Grief and the Holidays" - $15 Get or gift your copies today and start 2024 thinking on such things! Available Now on Amazon.com. |
List of Spiritual Disciplines:Books:
Assessments: Discovering how God created you to function and what your spiritual gifts are can help strengthen your spiritual formation process. The more you know God, the more you come to understand that you are uniquely designed. You are indeed fearfully and wonderfully made. How well do you really know this about yourself? Set aside some time and take the following spiritual and personality assessments for free, unless otherwise noted*. Spiritual Gifts Test Spiritual Gifts Assessment Tools Spiritual Gifts Survey Gifts Test Gifted Quiz SpiritualGiftsTest.com Ministry Tools Resource Center Cru DISC (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Compliance) Spiritual Transformation Inventory (*fee) Scholarly Spiritual Formation Reading Resources: Toya D. Booth Dallas Willard Richard E. Averbeck Father Dn Thomas Johnson-Medland Kevin J. Vanhoozer James Drexler and Amy H. Bagby My belief is that each challenging experience, every adversary we encounter and all obstacles we face bring us closer to the promise that validates our God given purpose. The validation is the authenticity that blazes after going through the fire." - Toya D. Booth
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A God Date
Dear Beloved,
It is my prayer that you will take this time to discover or rediscover a way to grow and sustain your relationship with God. Like any relationship we engage, there are times of extraordinary joy, heartbreaking moments, belly-busting laughter, sorrowful tears, traumatic blows, amazing adventures, misunderstood seasons, and love that is life changing. Depending on just how much we love a person, determines what we do to keep the relationship healthy and thriving no matter what it faces – it is no different when it comes to our relationship with God.
In October 2015, I received a command from God to share with the world the details of how my personal relationship with the Lord has grown and been sustained. It has been a blessing and honor to be entrusted with "A God Date" ministry, to help others become more intimate with the Lord. I will begin to unfold just how seeking God with your whole heart will lead to one of the greatest love stories you will personally experience in your life. Continue to visit A God Date website to learn how you can grow and sustain your spiritual intimacy with our Lord. I honestly believe you will be extremely glad you did. Until then, continue to open your heart to the love that God desires to share with you.
In Christ's Everlasting Love,
Rev. Dr. Toya D. Booth
Author
It is my prayer that you will take this time to discover or rediscover a way to grow and sustain your relationship with God. Like any relationship we engage, there are times of extraordinary joy, heartbreaking moments, belly-busting laughter, sorrowful tears, traumatic blows, amazing adventures, misunderstood seasons, and love that is life changing. Depending on just how much we love a person, determines what we do to keep the relationship healthy and thriving no matter what it faces – it is no different when it comes to our relationship with God.
In October 2015, I received a command from God to share with the world the details of how my personal relationship with the Lord has grown and been sustained. It has been a blessing and honor to be entrusted with "A God Date" ministry, to help others become more intimate with the Lord. I will begin to unfold just how seeking God with your whole heart will lead to one of the greatest love stories you will personally experience in your life. Continue to visit A God Date website to learn how you can grow and sustain your spiritual intimacy with our Lord. I honestly believe you will be extremely glad you did. Until then, continue to open your heart to the love that God desires to share with you.
In Christ's Everlasting Love,
Rev. Dr. Toya D. Booth
Author
"Every detail of my date with God was an expression of God’s love. The Lord let me know that He sees me and knows everything that matters to me... God knew the desire of my heart... I was surprised that God prepared to bless me with what I did not even realize I would want. And I enjoyed every minute of it." - Toya D. Booth, A God Date
How Deep Is Your Intimacy With God?
Relationships are vulnerable to the weights of everyday life. Such weights are the daily tasks, responsibilities, distractions, challenges, and stresses that potentially take a toll on the relationships in which you desire more quality time and deeper intimacy. Everything can appear wonderful in your relationship, until a season of adversity reveals neglected bonds that have risk of being burned out by love fatigue. Life has a way of testing the depth of love and commitment you aspire to share with those you hold dearest to your heart. With each weight of life, not only does the time decrease, so does the communication, passion, dates, and attention you seek to give. Your relationship with God is not immune from being at risk and suffering similar complications that manifest in human relationships. Often when this occurs, your intimacy with God is challenged and so is your ability to love yourself and others. The lack of attention, nurturing, and replenishing of love causes a spiritual drought, which can in turn lead to trouble in paradise - complicating every relationship you are connected to. Your depth of intimacy with God is relational to your ability to persevere in all your interpersonal bonds. Creating time to intentionally pursue intimacy with God will equip you to withstand all who threaten your spiritual fruitfulness in love.
How intentional have you been in participating in your spiritual growth? Have you experienced a spiritual drought? Are you willing to do something new to take your relationship with God to another level of intimacy? Have you considered dating God?
A God Date will guide you to a fresh way of engaging your relationship with God. This book is an enduring opportunity to support you in growing and sustaining intimacy with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. With an open and humble heart, you are invited to experience an intimacy phenomenon that will root you in Christ and ignite your spiritual formation. A God Date is a lifeline to resuscitate the essence of love God intended to share with humanity since the beginning of creation.
How intentional have you been in participating in your spiritual growth? Have you experienced a spiritual drought? Are you willing to do something new to take your relationship with God to another level of intimacy? Have you considered dating God?
A God Date will guide you to a fresh way of engaging your relationship with God. This book is an enduring opportunity to support you in growing and sustaining intimacy with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. With an open and humble heart, you are invited to experience an intimacy phenomenon that will root you in Christ and ignite your spiritual formation. A God Date is a lifeline to resuscitate the essence of love God intended to share with humanity since the beginning of creation.
Growing and Sustaining Your Intimacy with the Lord
Do you know just how much God loves you? The scriptures speak of God's unconditional and unending love for all of humanity. For many, the understanding of God's love all began in understanding John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."
The love relationship becomes very personal when Romans 10:9 is understood and accepted by faith; "If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." Somewhere in the midst of believing and accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the intimacy journey with God began.
One thing is true about your relationship with God, which is true about any relationship you engage - you must do the work to keep the bond between the two of you strong. As a believer and follower of Jesus Christ, this is in your spiritual formation process. The time you spend with God is significant to becoming familiar with God's presence. Studying the scriptures builds your knowledge of who God is, how God thinks, and what God's purpose is for your life. There are several spiritual formation assets and spiritual disciplines that will aide in your spiritual growth and connection with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit - The Trinity.
The ministry of A God Date is to help you fall in love, stay in love, and/or rekindle your love for the Lord. After reading the book, the hope is that this will be a website that will continue to inspire and encourage you to date God and consistently build your intimacy with the Lord. The resources are here to help you build a lasting, loving, and healthy relationship with God; it will be up to you on just how much work and creativity you will put into your growth. Always remember that God will meet you where you are, with your heart full of faith. Enjoy the journey...
The love relationship becomes very personal when Romans 10:9 is understood and accepted by faith; "If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." Somewhere in the midst of believing and accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the intimacy journey with God began.
One thing is true about your relationship with God, which is true about any relationship you engage - you must do the work to keep the bond between the two of you strong. As a believer and follower of Jesus Christ, this is in your spiritual formation process. The time you spend with God is significant to becoming familiar with God's presence. Studying the scriptures builds your knowledge of who God is, how God thinks, and what God's purpose is for your life. There are several spiritual formation assets and spiritual disciplines that will aide in your spiritual growth and connection with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit - The Trinity.
The ministry of A God Date is to help you fall in love, stay in love, and/or rekindle your love for the Lord. After reading the book, the hope is that this will be a website that will continue to inspire and encourage you to date God and consistently build your intimacy with the Lord. The resources are here to help you build a lasting, loving, and healthy relationship with God; it will be up to you on just how much work and creativity you will put into your growth. Always remember that God will meet you where you are, with your heart full of faith. Enjoy the journey...
Love Begins The Journey
How has your understanding of God's love for you impacted your view of God? To have a successful dating relationship with the Lord, you first must be accepting of the love that has desired you from the beginning of creation. Knowing that God loves you and understanding the depth of God's love for you will inspire your God Date experiences.
Spiritual Formation Nurtures Growth On The Journey
Examine how you understand and approach the process of spiritual formation. A great start is pulling out your faithful dictionary. We sometimes hear words and incorporate them into our daily lives but what is the depth of the word? Start with the following spiritual disciplines. What does each word mean? Meditate on the words. Now, how do you make them a functioning entity to your spiritual growth and sustaining intimacy with the Lord?
Desire Sustains The Journey
There is no authentic relationship without communication. How do you grow and sustain intimacy with God if you do not pray, praise, and worship Him? It would be impossible if it were not for God continuously drawing us nearer. One thing about praise and worship that makes it so beautiful, is the fact that they are prayers with music filling the background. Listen. Prayers mixed with melodies and harmony filling the ears and heart of Jesus Christ, who is interceding for us before the Father. Sustaining your intimacy with the Lord must always be held together with prayer and worship. These two spiritual disciplines will thrust you to a place that will keep the fire of love blazing for your Creator, Savior, and Friend.
Allow diverse songs of praise and worship, from the Gospel to Christian Music, start you off along a path that will follow in the footsteps of King David and Dear Mary. Open your life and be a son or daughter after God's own heart and sit at the feet of Jesus - hanging on His every word. God truly does inhabit the praises of His people. It begins and continues with your open heart of prayers, praise, and worship. God is worthy of them all...
Intimacy Prompts: Help Keep My Mind Stayed On Christ Jesus
1. Make a playlist of your favorite Gospel/Christian Music to keep on hand for scheduled or impromptu God Dates.
2. Set the ringtone or alarm on your cell phone to one of your favorite worship songs.
3. Communicate with God all day long with God check-ins. Example? "Thank you, Lord!" or "Guide me, Jehovah."
4. Post scriptures in your room, around your house, in your car, or at your desk.
5. Find a movie of faith and meditate on the message of the film as it relates to your spiritual journey.
6. Designate an accountability partner who will encourage you to stay on track. You will do the same for them.
7. Share your story! There is nothing like telling others about the love of your life. You surely have a testimony.
Spiritual Formation Nurtures Growth On The Journey
Examine how you understand and approach the process of spiritual formation. A great start is pulling out your faithful dictionary. We sometimes hear words and incorporate them into our daily lives but what is the depth of the word? Start with the following spiritual disciplines. What does each word mean? Meditate on the words. Now, how do you make them a functioning entity to your spiritual growth and sustaining intimacy with the Lord?
Desire Sustains The Journey
There is no authentic relationship without communication. How do you grow and sustain intimacy with God if you do not pray, praise, and worship Him? It would be impossible if it were not for God continuously drawing us nearer. One thing about praise and worship that makes it so beautiful, is the fact that they are prayers with music filling the background. Listen. Prayers mixed with melodies and harmony filling the ears and heart of Jesus Christ, who is interceding for us before the Father. Sustaining your intimacy with the Lord must always be held together with prayer and worship. These two spiritual disciplines will thrust you to a place that will keep the fire of love blazing for your Creator, Savior, and Friend.
Allow diverse songs of praise and worship, from the Gospel to Christian Music, start you off along a path that will follow in the footsteps of King David and Dear Mary. Open your life and be a son or daughter after God's own heart and sit at the feet of Jesus - hanging on His every word. God truly does inhabit the praises of His people. It begins and continues with your open heart of prayers, praise, and worship. God is worthy of them all...
Intimacy Prompts: Help Keep My Mind Stayed On Christ Jesus
1. Make a playlist of your favorite Gospel/Christian Music to keep on hand for scheduled or impromptu God Dates.
2. Set the ringtone or alarm on your cell phone to one of your favorite worship songs.
3. Communicate with God all day long with God check-ins. Example? "Thank you, Lord!" or "Guide me, Jehovah."
4. Post scriptures in your room, around your house, in your car, or at your desk.
5. Find a movie of faith and meditate on the message of the film as it relates to your spiritual journey.
6. Designate an accountability partner who will encourage you to stay on track. You will do the same for them.
7. Share your story! There is nothing like telling others about the love of your life. You surely have a testimony.
Are You Ready to Date God?
The God Date Mandate is a declaration that you will make the decision to step out on faith, open your heart, throw your spiritual cautions to the wind, and date God. The God Date Mandate is taking in all that is shared in the book with you, praying, seeking after God in a fresh way, and choose to position yourself to grow in deeper intimacy with the Lord. It is simply humbling yourself, deciding that you will date God, and following through with it – consistently. Make up in your mind, heart, soul, and spirit that you want God more completely. Desire God more than anyone, anything, or any place. Be determined to commit, with child-like faith. You first must accept God’s invitation to have a dating relationship that moves you into deeper spiritual intimacy.
The God Date Mandate will open another way to spiritual formation, which will encourage you to intentionally grow and sustain spiritual intimacy with the Lord. Just as a couple decides to intentionally incorporate “Date Night” into their busy lives to sustain their love, interest, and pleasure for one another blazing, this is an opportunity for you to do the same with God. All with the hopes to keep your heart blazing on fire for God.
The God Date Mandate has everything to do with the goal of spending eternity with Our Father and Our Savior. It is the premium fuel that keeps you running with a fervor to witness and live a life that illuminates with the love for God and all that God loves. Sure, you can run on regular fuel – it will get you where you want to go. But, more of God means more of joy, love and peace that supersedes our understanding and changes the way you see the world around you. Who would not want more of all of that when seeking after God? With that said, will you date God? If you have not already heard, felt, and discerned the invitation made by God personally, I am a liaison sent by God to ask the question…on His behalf. So, what do you say? Ready for a God Date Mandate?
The God Date Mandate will open another way to spiritual formation, which will encourage you to intentionally grow and sustain spiritual intimacy with the Lord. Just as a couple decides to intentionally incorporate “Date Night” into their busy lives to sustain their love, interest, and pleasure for one another blazing, this is an opportunity for you to do the same with God. All with the hopes to keep your heart blazing on fire for God.
The God Date Mandate has everything to do with the goal of spending eternity with Our Father and Our Savior. It is the premium fuel that keeps you running with a fervor to witness and live a life that illuminates with the love for God and all that God loves. Sure, you can run on regular fuel – it will get you where you want to go. But, more of God means more of joy, love and peace that supersedes our understanding and changes the way you see the world around you. Who would not want more of all of that when seeking after God? With that said, will you date God? If you have not already heard, felt, and discerned the invitation made by God personally, I am a liaison sent by God to ask the question…on His behalf. So, what do you say? Ready for a God Date Mandate?
If you have been blessed by this book, found it helpful in growing and sustaining your relationship with the Lord, and/or challenged yourself with the God Date Mandate then share with your sphere of influence. Be an active partner with us and spread A God Date relationship phenomenon by sharing with others, posting online reviews, and on social media by using the hashtag #AGodDate and #MyTimeWithGod.
Also, plan to regularly visit our website to engage resources to continue supporting your relationship with our Lord. Your spiritual growth and witness could make a difference in someone else’s spiritual journey.
Also, plan to regularly visit our website to engage resources to continue supporting your relationship with our Lord. Your spiritual growth and witness could make a difference in someone else’s spiritual journey.