 “Rejoicing goes against any negative that comes against faith. Joy lifts us out of a negative perspective because it is rooted in the nature of God; therefore when we rejoice we become partakers of His divine nature.” My dear warrior,
Today my inward reality matched the outward storms that were raging around me. I felt myself tossed by the wind and the waves, and I found my spirit and soul in unmatched turmoil. I am not one for turmoil, since I insist on taking up rest as a weapon. But yesterday, just before God told me what I was going to write, God told me He was going to train me up in a new weapon. So of course, we know that when God tells you is going to take you to a new level, you are immediately plunged into a season of distress.
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Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. My dear warrior,
I admit I am weary and heavy laden. I have been so tired that I felt I was beginning to lose hope in my circumstances, despite the fact that God constantly proves Himself to be faithful. My life is not my own, and I know I cannot hold God hostage to the promises He has made me, or hostage to my wants and needs. He is my Creator, and I live my life in service to Him …not the other way around. He is not a genie or vending machine.  My dear warrior,
Tonight I was ministering to someone who was particularly short on time, busy and impatient when I was challenged to make my ministry as concise as possible. Albert Einstein’s quote “if you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough” came to mind. And I realized, I was able to narrow down what one needs to learn in order to overcome turmoil in their lives and minds. How To End The Battle In Your Mind: On Trusting God With Your Reputation and Circumstances12/31/2016  “The human spirit will not even begin to try to surrender self-will as long as all seems to be well with it. Now error and sin both have this property, that the deeper they are the less their victim suspects their existence; they are masked evil. Pain is unmasked, unmistakably evil; every man knows that something is wrong when he is being hurt.” My dear warrior,
Sometimes life hits us with such unexpected circumstances that we find our minds completely hijacked by all that is happening to us. You get the wind knocked out of you, your feet taken out from under you, and you find your life spiraling out of control, and you have no idea what just happened. The fear, regret, shame, guilt, burden and anxiety can so overwhelm the toughest of mind and spirit that you feel worthless and barely know how to function anymore. You’re hit with massive self-doubt, self-loathing, and feel like you are constantly being verbally assaulted by others or mentally assaulted by your own thoughts. You’re left on your knees, begging God to put an end to the suffering.  My dear warrior,
Sometimes we get a little off-track in our walk with God. Or quite a lot. Distractions come our way, the noise of the world fills our heads, and we don't take the time to listen to God speaking to us. We lack self-discipline and become generally unintentional in our walk with God. Black Friday and Christmas sales demand our attention as we prep for the holidays, and we get caught up in the frenzy of life. Then (in our increasingly miserable stupor) one day we wake up and realize we haven't had a meaningful conversation with God all week. My dear warrior,
Recently, I was talking to God about how risky love and relationships are, and how some people put up walls out of fear of getting hurt, and to try to keep from getting burned again. God’s reply to me was “Love is risky. But Christ thought you were worth the risk when He gave His life for you. He risked you never saying ‘yes’ to Him.” That statement sent me reeling. I was so overwhelmed by Him in that moment. I was overwhelmed by Love. What a magnificent God we live for! I’ve known many people (myself included) who decided to ‘guard their heart’ by putting up walls so they wouldn't risk getting hurt anymore. This is what is called an “inner vow." Beloved, that is not what it means to guard your heart, and it isn’t biblical. In fact, it is a tactic of the enemy.  My dear warrior,
You are wonderful. I am not saying that to flatter you or compliment you. I am simply stating the fact of who you are in Christ. You are wonderful because God says you are. Whatever Jesus says about Himself is also true of you. Graham Cooke says, “If Jesus Christ is in you, and one of His names is Wonderful, what does that make you? It makes you better than you imagine!” It makes you wonderful. God wants you to come before the throne in confidence, knowing that He says you are wonderful, that He has adopted you into His holy, royal family. You are a son or daughter of God with a brilliant inheritance. He wants to lavish love on you, to give you the desires of your heart, and to lavish gifts on you because His love for you is extravagant. My dear warrior,
There is a common misconception about what it means to pray for God’s will to be done. There are two different directions that people take the notion of praying for His will. This week I was ministering to someone and teaching her about prayer, and realized how few people really seem to know how to pray. I’ve been finding out more and more that people don’t know how to pray, or that they feel unsure about what they’re doing or lack discipline in their prayer life. Beloved, it is so important that you learn how to pray, how to be intentional about what you pray and to enjoy communing with God in conversation.  My dear warrior,
It is on my heart to write is about your worth according to Him. There’s a difference between being worthy and being deserving, and it is one of the most important things we must understand as Christians—and yet, it is never talked about in church. We need to be fed spiritual truths to help us grow and mature, and build us up. That’s what you are called to do. You are called to feed others, but you cannot feed others where you yourself are starved. You cannot give what you do not have. My dear warrior, You know that God has placed a high calling on your life; you know that God sees your true identity; you know that He knows who you are. The problem we face in our daily lives is not how God sees us (He sees us through Christ), but rather how we see ourselves. If you look at your past and feel like your mistakes and failures define you, like you cannot escape them, then let me encourage you today. Just because you feel defeated, or like you are defined by past mistakes that you can’t get away from, or like you are damaged does not mean that it is true. You are not worth any less because of the hand that life has dealt you. You are not unworthy of God’s love and He has no desire to see you walking around with your head down and tail tucked between your legs because you cannot see beyond your failures. "Humility comes before honor." My dear warriors,
Recently I met someone who has shown himself to be the embodiment of a warrior. I have been astonished by his humility, meekness and strength of character as I have gotten to know him. If you read the collect of the day yesterday, the reading was out of Luke 14. There we find the Parable of the Wedding Feast. In order to effectively rise up a warrior, you must have a revelation of humility, which is illustrated beautifully in this parable and demonstrated wonderfully by the way this man lives that parable out each day. "Christians can trust God to redeem even the greatest of tragedies and most desperate of situations." My dearest warrior,
I love finding out more about God’s nature. I love finding out more of who He is and what He is like. I love discovering who He is for me. One of the most incredible discoveries is that my whole life is His. Every aspect, every part of my life belongs to Him. That seems like a really obvious statement, however, I have found that though this is something we may think we understand, usually we don’t have the faintest understanding of what this really means. The reality is far more beautiful than you probably have begun to realize. No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow. My dear warrior,
There are a few specific topics that are on my mind for this particular series, calling you to rise up a warrior. There is almost nothing I love more in this world than to sit down and to write all that God puts on my heart. But just thinking about these topics left me feeling almost paralyzed. This series I began in the arena is so important, but it is that same arena that had me feeling scared of writing these blogs. It was not only the arena itself, but the critics shouting and jeering from the stands. After writing yesterday’s blog, I feel a sense of relief knowing that my silent spectators rooting for me are among the crowd, and to simply have gotten this series started. Today it is time to address the critics. “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming...” My dear warrior,
There are times in our lives when it feels like no one is rooting for us to win, and everyone is looking for us to fail. It seems like no one is for you and everyone is against you. Sometimes you wonder if anyone out there has thought about cheering you on, or if anyone is on your side. You feel alone, completely abandoned, like there is not one sympathetic soul out there rooting for you. I have learned that oftentimes, while those who are against us are the loudest, there are silent spectators watching us, waiting for us to step into our identity. These are the ones who are for us, who are quietly rooting for us, praying for us, and cheering for us. They are sitting by, waiting to see what we will do, staying out of our way because they want to see us succeed. They are watching from the sidelines because they know the decisions we have to make must be our own. They know the victory has to be ours. Here's the problem: you will find God beginning to move in a certain way and someone will resist it saying "I'm a whatever, I'm a [fill-in-the-blank], I’m a Methodist, and we don’t do that". No no, I’m a BELIEVER, contending for the original gospel and we do whatever He is doing! I'm not trying to uphold a standard set by a previous generation. I'm trying to uphold the message that was originally given to a group of people that cost them their lives!" |
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Mere Humanity: Becoming a Mature Christian in an Immature World 
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