There have been a series of false starts in your life. You have wanted to see your life move forward and you thought it was your job to deliver yourself into a place of blessing. This has always been God’s task - not yours, but you seemed to have picked up the illusion of this responsibility somewhere along the way. In doing so you have linked your understanding of God’s favor to what you can produce by your efforts. A false start is the result of trying to do in your power what can only be done in God’s power.
Trying to move forward under human power is an indicator of a misunderstanding of God’s favor. This is your time to live in a place of restful productivity that only comes to those who know they already possess the favor of God. God’s favor is a gift. It can never be earned through human activity.
The new start you are seeking exists within the understanding that you already possess the favor of God apart from what you do. Once you know you are a favored one you will not have to prove your worth by attempting another false start motivated and empowered by an orphan spirit.
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
This is a Season of Realignment
We have entered a season where some of you will have your lives and ministries realigned for greater impact. You are about to enter a new and unexplored future. A realigning must first take place before that future is experienced. This realignment will require a change of direction because the previous course would not bring you to the destination God has planned for your life. To experience the blessing and benefit of this realignment you will need to focus your efforts on a new and previously unseen horizon. This new horizon is where you will see the approaching manifestation of a fresh work of God's Spirit.
Some of the elements of this realignment will take place without your permission. You will simply be forced through circumstances beyond your control to align with a season of life you had never considered. This is where you will have the opportunity to live out Paul's words to the Romans that tell us God can work out everything for our good - even in the middle of the whirlwind of a life-transition.
Because so much is happening that is unfamiliar you will want to control what is taking place. In His great love, God will not allow you to control this outcome. He is inviting you to a place of trust. This need to control is one reason why you are being realigned. God wants you to let go of your need to control every aspect of your life and return to the raw faith you once displayed when you relied on Him in a pure and childlike faith. You don't need to have any of this figured out. Once this realignment is over it will make sense. Right now you simply need to know that God's hand is on your life and He is leading you forward. You have nothing to fear.
Some of the elements of this realignment will take place without your permission. You will simply be forced through circumstances beyond your control to align with a season of life you had never considered. This is where you will have the opportunity to live out Paul's words to the Romans that tell us God can work out everything for our good - even in the middle of the whirlwind of a life-transition.
Because so much is happening that is unfamiliar you will want to control what is taking place. In His great love, God will not allow you to control this outcome. He is inviting you to a place of trust. This need to control is one reason why you are being realigned. God wants you to let go of your need to control every aspect of your life and return to the raw faith you once displayed when you relied on Him in a pure and childlike faith. You don't need to have any of this figured out. Once this realignment is over it will make sense. Right now you simply need to know that God's hand is on your life and He is leading you forward. You have nothing to fear.
Sunday, May 24, 2015
Why This Sunday Is So Important
This is Pentecost Sunday - a day the Church celebrates the events of Acts 2 and the ministry of the Spirit. Today we are reminded that the Church began it's journey with a display of the Spirit's power. We are also reminded that if we are to do all that God has destined the only way we can accomplish that task will be to continue in that same model of a Spirit-empowered life and ministry. We will not discover a more successful model or method to transform lives, plant churches or impact cities.
So much of what is done in the Western Church today is good, but can be accomplished by a local civic club. We should continue to do the good things, but there is more. In scripture the most significant events took place when God showed up and did something miraculous beyond the natural ability of human beings. I am no longer surprised when people decide to spend their limited time off outside the activities that take place within the walls of many local churches. We owe our world an encounter with a miraculous God and we also owe those who have professed His name that same encounter.
My hope and prayer for this Pentecost Sunday is that as we gather today we would make room for God to show up in such a profound and powerful way that we will no longer need to set aside a single day of the year to remind us of His supernatural ways that only took place somewhere in the pages of our history.
So much of what is done in the Western Church today is good, but can be accomplished by a local civic club. We should continue to do the good things, but there is more. In scripture the most significant events took place when God showed up and did something miraculous beyond the natural ability of human beings. I am no longer surprised when people decide to spend their limited time off outside the activities that take place within the walls of many local churches. We owe our world an encounter with a miraculous God and we also owe those who have professed His name that same encounter.
My hope and prayer for this Pentecost Sunday is that as we gather today we would make room for God to show up in such a profound and powerful way that we will no longer need to set aside a single day of the year to remind us of His supernatural ways that only took place somewhere in the pages of our history.
Saturday, May 23, 2015
When Life Closes In Around You
In the last season you felt the pressures of life close in around you. You felt crushed under the weight of what you experienced. You ran away and thought you had finally distanced yourself from the pain, but those uncomfortable feelings are coming to visit once again and you are concerned. You want to run away again in an attempt to free yourself from the coming pressure, but God in His great love has asked you to remain.
The reason why this time will be different is because God has put a new strength within you that He wants you to discover. This inner strength is like the walls of a fortress being tested in battle for the first time. Your walls will hold.
As these unwelcome pressures come stand still and trust what God has put in place. He has you right where He wants you. Don’t run. You will not be be crushed.
The reason why this time will be different is because God has put a new strength within you that He wants you to discover. This inner strength is like the walls of a fortress being tested in battle for the first time. Your walls will hold.
As these unwelcome pressures come stand still and trust what God has put in place. He has you right where He wants you. Don’t run. You will not be be crushed.
Friday, May 22, 2015
The Hinge of Hope
The door into the new season of your life hangs on the hinges of your attitude. What you choose to believe will become the hinge upon which the door to your future hangs. Your belief and attitude toward God and your future will determine if your door is able to swing open or remain closed.
The breakthrough you are seeking will take place when God is able to free you from the hindering attitude of negativity. This attitude has allowed the spiritual rust of doubt and fear to encase and immobilize the hinge on the door to your future.
No matter how long your door has remained shut behind a rust producing attitude it is never too late to make a change. Stand before the door to your future and begin to speak of God’s goodness. Prophesy hope about your future. Declare that your path is a known way to God. You have not been forgotten. Speak words that reveal a future filled with promise.
Your words of faith will invite the oil of God’s Spirit to come and begin to supernaturally lubricate the frozen hinges allowing the door to your future to swing open and reveal what the doubt, fear and hopelessness of your past did not want you to see.
The breakthrough you are seeking will take place when God is able to free you from the hindering attitude of negativity. This attitude has allowed the spiritual rust of doubt and fear to encase and immobilize the hinge on the door to your future.
No matter how long your door has remained shut behind a rust producing attitude it is never too late to make a change. Stand before the door to your future and begin to speak of God’s goodness. Prophesy hope about your future. Declare that your path is a known way to God. You have not been forgotten. Speak words that reveal a future filled with promise.
Your words of faith will invite the oil of God’s Spirit to come and begin to supernaturally lubricate the frozen hinges allowing the door to your future to swing open and reveal what the doubt, fear and hopelessness of your past did not want you to see.
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
When God Moves
The greatest moves of God have taken place beyond the limiting familiarity of personal history, tradition and preference. This is why when a revival arrives it can appear out of control and uncomfortable to some. The challenge produced by living within the walls of our personal history, tradition and preference is the familiarity they produce. We want a repeat of what we understand. God wants to do something radically new. He does not promise that we will understand everything taking place in every new season of life. This need to understand is why we can become suspect of things taking place beyond the boundaries of our familiarity.
The prophet Isaiah said, “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:19) The new thing God wants to do requires a new level of perception - the ability to see beyond what is known and familiar. When God births something new it will appear as unexpectedly as a freshly cut path through an impenetrable forest or as unusual as a stream supernaturally birthed and flowing in a place historically known only as a desert.
The prophet Isaiah said, “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:19) The new thing God wants to do requires a new level of perception - the ability to see beyond what is known and familiar. When God births something new it will appear as unexpectedly as a freshly cut path through an impenetrable forest or as unusual as a stream supernaturally birthed and flowing in a place historically known only as a desert.
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Peeling Off Labels
As I prayed about the day, I saw an image of God's hand. His hand reached out and began to peel off a sticky label that had been attached to someone in an attempt to define their life. These unrighteous labels carry demands that require you to live under the banner of their limited definition of your life. This particular label needed to come off because believing it's lie had closed doors that God intended to remain open and it had shut down relationships before they had a chance to develop.
Today, you are being relabeled. You will know these new labels are from God because they will have words written on them like, "Friend", "Beloved" and "Cherished". His labels will define His passionate love for you.
As God relabels your life He will ask you to monitor more closely who you allow to bring definition to your life. Only Jesus, not you, your failures, any person or group of people, has the right to place a label on your life. Only Jesus has permission to do that because He paid the price for the right to relabel the lives of those whom He redeems.
Today, you are being relabeled. You will know these new labels are from God because they will have words written on them like, "Friend", "Beloved" and "Cherished". His labels will define His passionate love for you.
As God relabels your life He will ask you to monitor more closely who you allow to bring definition to your life. Only Jesus, not you, your failures, any person or group of people, has the right to place a label on your life. Only Jesus has permission to do that because He paid the price for the right to relabel the lives of those whom He redeems.
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