Unleash Your Inner Warrior
Your name is Life, Your name is Hope inside me, Hope inside me. My dear warrior,
Just like the lyrics above say, His name is Hope, His name is Life inside of us! He is our hope. Beloved, if there is any place in your life for which you have no hope, it is under the influence of a lie. I will say that again. Any circumstance or situation for which you have no hope is under the influence of a lie. So if you have found yourself having thoughts that are hopeless, thoughts that leave you without hope, or thinking about things for which you have no hope, have another thought! Have a better thought.
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My dear warriors,
I’ve heard it said many times that the Christian army is the only army in existence that kills its own wounded. While I did not originally intend on releasing this blog today, my heart was too burdened with this subject to wait any longer to release it. Warriors who have a great calling on their lives often seem to get beaten down more than anyone else. My dear wounded warriors: you who press on despite the mocking, derision and beating you take on an almost daily basis, let me take this moment to honor you. The God-given call on your life is not simply a cloak that you wrap yourself in and see yourself magically step into. When you have a call on your life, you have direct orders from the King Himself about what it is you’re supposed to do, and you see who you are meant to become through His lens. The moment you receive your call, it is both thrilling and terrifying. You can scarcely contain your excitement as you realize “Wow. That is what I’m going to become! I know what I want to do for the rest of my life!!” At the same time, you suddenly feel yourself shrinking under the weight of this new call, and feel yourself becoming infinitely smaller as the mountain you must overcome to get there rises straight out of the earth and into the heavens before you. You suddenly realize you have no idea how you’re going to get there from here. But that’s ok. You’re not meant to do it on your own “My responsibility is to obey, to surrender my heart and to yield myself to the will of God. It is in the process of obedience that we gain understanding." My dear warrior,
As Christians—as warriors for Christ—we must live with utmost intentionality. The rest of the world may be lazy in their dealings, drift through life, simply get lucky or live any number of ways, but we are not meant to live as the world lives. We are not meant to think as they do. Warriors are intentional about each and every action they carry out: from the way they hold their weapons down to the way they dress, making sure they are armed to the teeth without you ever knowing that they have even one weapon on their person. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. - 1 John 5:3 Dear Warriors,
What if when God said, “be holy, even as I AM holy,” it wasn’t just a command. What if it was an invitation? What if God is inviting us to be like Him? When I read that verse and I hear His voice, I don’t hear an angry, wrathful taskmaster saying “Be holy, or else!” I hear a gentle, loving God whisper to me like He's sharing the greatest secret in the world with me. He nudges me in the ribs and says, “Hey, be holy. Even as I AM holy. Wouldn’t that be awesome?” What if when He said, “You shall be holy unto me, because I the Lord am holy and I have separated you from other people, that you should be mine,” it was a beautiful promise? A promise that says because He loved us so much that He sent His only Son to save us, that we are being transformed in His image. A promise that says He has purposefully set us apart to be made like Him. In those moments, I find my heart is absolutely exhilarated. My heart is set alight as I am filled with a desire to be more and more like my Creator. I want nothing less than to be like Him! “Don’t become like the people of this world. Instead, change the way you think. Then you will always be able to determine what God really wants—what is good, pleasing and perfect.” Dear Warriors,
You have a life inside of you that is completely unstoppable. Nothing can stand in your way - unless you choose to be stopped. It is a matter of choosing to be unstoppable (realizing that Christ is the source of your strength), or choosing to give into despair and giving up all hope. For this purpose, God instructs us to renew our minds each day. What does it mean to renew your mind? It means you must go to Him daily and let Him transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Spend time in the Word. Let Him influence your thoughts for the better, push out negativity, and remove thoughts that would counter what He wants to do in your life. When you renew your mind, you are getting rid of any festering bitterness that is eating you up from the inside out. You say no to anger, no to grudges and unforgiveness. You choose to forgive. You choose love. You choose to make God your focus, and to see from His point of view, to think like Christ. Dear Warriors,
Have you ever noticed that some people (or characters) just seem to change the atmosphere when they enter a room? It seems that everyone drops what they are doing as their attention is instantly drawn to this one person. I'm thinking of the Clint Eastwood’s, Han Solo’s and James Bonds. I'm sure a few people come to mind. They just seem to command a presence. Perhaps you don’t know any warriors in real life, but think of the samurai, or military commanders; think of William Wallace, Spartacus or Aragorn, who in their rousing battle speeches changed the mood of an entire army! "Colossians 3:2 says to set your mind on things above, not on things on the Earth. Whatever we focus on, we give power to." - Graham Cooke My dear warriors,
Take a moment to read through the apostolic prayers in the New Testament. What do they all share in common? All of the apostles prayers were positive prayers. You will not find a negative prayer—and you most certainly won’t find any venting prayers! What do I mean by a positive or negative prayer? I mean that you will never see them ask God to remove a negative. Instead, they ask God for an impartation of a positive. |
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Mere Humanity: Becoming a Mature Christian in an Immature World
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