World Changers

I have never liked to run.  Actually I have always really HATED to run.  I have been a personal trainer, an aerobic instructor and have loved fitness for many years, but NOT running.  Recently, I decided that I wanted a challenge and that I would make myself run for 6 weeks.  If, after that 6 week time period I still hated to run, I would go back to my other forms of exercise, but I would commit to the 6 weeks.  It was rough the first couple of weeks and I wondered if this challenge was a good idea, but I kept going, I was not going to let running kick my butt.  I am almost done with the challenge and although I can't say that I love to run, God has used this time in some pretty amazing ways to teach me about myself and pushing past the pain in life for the goal ahead.  To be able to hear His voice through the pain when all I wanted to do was give in to it.  So many times when I felt like I HAD to stop, I could feel His Presence, hear His voice telling me that I could do it, that I was well able.  I started with alternating walking and running, from one mailbox to the next in my neighborhood... small goals and then would ask God what was next, how should I expand those goals and I would hear Him speak on what was next, it has been a beautiful time.

This morning I really was not at all wanting to run but I did.  I didn't push myself very hard, but I had a great time of prayer - ("prayer" meaning, no fancy talk, just time out running with my Best friend talking).  I was close to the end of my run when I normally walk a little then run up the slight hill and down to my house, but instead of stopping I felt compelled to just continue all the way home - further than I usually run, on a day I wasn't feeling it.  But I felt as if He were cheering me on to do it.

As I had been running I had been thinking about something that a woman I had just met prayed over me about a year ago.  As she prayed she said, "WOW, you are a world changer!"  She knew very little about me and her prayer caught me by surprise because I don't think of myself in that way at all, I am just me.  But since that prayer, I have thought about it a lot, and this morning as I thought about it, it rose up in my spirit that I really AM a world changer, it doesn't matter if I FEEL like one, I am, and I started to ask the Lord what a world changer really is.

When I would think of World Changers, I would think of people like Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., etc. but is that what a world changer always is?  Is it always someone who will make the history books?  What about those that quietly make a difference that no one ever knows about?  What about the man who works as a security guard and brings PB&J's to a couple of friends of mine that live under a bridge?  I don't even know his name, but he is a hero, he is a world changer in my eyes because he changes the world for the people he touches with his love and care for them.  What if being a world changer is just stepping out and changing someone's day for the better?  Giving of ourselves even in small ways, a kind word, an encouragement, etc.  I have never known anything as powerful nor as addictive as the feeling of being in the center of God's heart to love people - there is nothing that compares to feeling His Presence, hearing His voice, experiencing His love and pouring that love on others, nothing...people spend their entire lives bound to drugs that suck the life OUT of them, lifestyles of striving for more - more money, more stuff, more fame, more whatever and there is no substance to it, just an empty pursuit... but the more of Him I give of myself, the more FULL I feel.  There is nothing in the natural that follows His supernatural ways... the more we give to Him our hearts, the more He fills them with Himself, puts life in us, pours life through us... makes us world changers, not because we set out to change the world, but because we are so full of His love we can' help it, we are compelled to...

So as I was running further than I wanted to go this morning, I felt the Lord show me that I have a race to run, my entire life has been "training" for this time RIGHT NOW, my race is uniquely my own, I am not being timed, nor am I competing against another, I am just running MY race...  It IS one of a world changer and as I began to crest the hill it was as if I could see many friends gathered on both sides of the road cheering me on.  I was thinking that it was like God was cheering me on from the side lines as well, but then I felt Him say, " no, I am running WITH you."

You were made to be a world changer - you have YOUR race to run, come on, let's go!

Hebrews 12:12 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Leaving Rehab...

Phil 3:7 But whatever former things I had that might have been gains to me, I have come to consider as [[a]one combined] loss for Christ’s sake.

8 Yes, furthermore, I count everything as loss compared to the possession of the priceless privilege (the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth, and supreme advantage) of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord and of progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him [of perceiving and recognizing and understanding Him more fully and clearly]. For His sake I have lost everything and consider it all to be mere rubbish (refuse, dregs), in order that I may win (gain) Christ (the Anointed One),

9 And that I may [actually] be found and known as in Him, not having any [self-achieved] righteousness that can be called my own, based on my obedience to the Law’s demands (ritualistic uprightness and supposed right standing with God thus acquired), but possessing that [genuine righteousness] which comes through faith in Christ (the Anointed One), the [truly] right standing with God, which comes from God by [saving] faith.

10 [For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [[b]which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope]

11 That if possible I may attain to the [[c]spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body].

12 Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own.

13 I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,14 I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward.

Last week was a good week.  Actually, it was a GREAT week...  it started off by having one homeless friend get a job, another get an apartment, another go into a shelter and another go into a drug and alcohol rehab program.  I was really happy to know these people that I care about so deeply were moving forward, seeing hope return into their lives.  Then Saturday came and two young men I love very much chose to leave the rehab house they were in and I was devastated... I guess I went through a grieving process because it went through those typical stages of anger, sadness and the question of why?  (honestly I camped a bit in the anger stage, and added a tad bit of judgement to the pot as well - which of course I am in no way proud of, but just speaking the truth here and YES God corrected that in my heart) 

And then Sunday came...  I had to drive to Raleigh to pick my son up from the airport so I had time to worship and pray as I drove.  My heart was overwhelmed and instead of being angry at them, I saw some things I hadn't seen before, things in me.  How many times have I left "rehab"?  How many times have I let the temporal things in front of my eyes keep me from walking through things that may be hard to do at the time for a greater good that they would accomplish in me?  How many times has my own selfishness and demanding to do things in my own way in my own timing robbed me of the good He had for me?  How many times have I set off in a direction that I knew He was leading me only to let it last days, hours or even seconds?  How many times have I acted as if the days and years of my life were mine to choose, as if they were my own?

Saturday night a friend and I had been talking about the power that Paul walked in, how it wasn't an occasional thing, but from what I see of the Word, a daily thing.  But, I see in Paul something today that I am determining in my heart and praying that I will not stray from... something I will not "leave rehab" on...  Paul had a determined purpose - to KNOW HIM, to increasingly become MORE acquainted with Him, to walk in ALL that He offers us.  His determination to let everything else become as worthless as rubbish to him is what kept Him in His Presence, what pushed him to become more and more like him, to so intimately walk with him that signs and wonders were not what he was seeking, they were just an outpouring of who he had become in Him - he reflected Jesus, because that was all he cared about being... more like HIM!

So, Sunday morning, my anger and sadness for what I saw as a blown opportunity by two men who NEEDED that opportunity... I now saw was a reflection of all the opportunities I have blown, for the rebellion in my own heart that likes to plan out and decide my own future, that hates for someone else to tell me what to do and how to do, that wants to do my own thing...

"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."  Galatians 2:20

This was the cry of Paul's heart - he LIVED this!  In LIVING this, in TRULY knowing, truly allowing his flesh to be crucified - dying to his own desires, truly allowing Jesus' life to flow through him, truly exchanging his own life for the FAR greater life that Jesus offers to be a reality in Him, he saw what became his heart's desire... He became LIKE Him.  

Through all of this, through the anger the sadness for what I judged as another's mistake, I saw my own desperateness...  how many times I have "left rehab" have not allowed God to do all that He could do within me..  It made me look within myself.  I see Paul's determined purpose and I make it my own...  the cry of my heart - to KNOW HIM, to TRULY crucify my own flesh and let Him live through me - to NOT leave rehab, but to TRULY allow HIM to be the one that leads to let His love wash over me and through me, to help me to "forget what's behind and press onward", to surrender ALL.

Those that minister to the addicted say that rehab will not work until the one addicted realizes how much they need it.  Today, I realize how much I need His touch, how much I need Him and I am desperate, desperate to be rid of this addiction to self, desperate to Know Him more, at the end of me...desperate for Him!

Buried Treasure in Unlikely Places

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field."  Matthew 13:44

A few weeks ago during prayer, I felt Holy Spirit speaking to me about the parables of the Kingdom of Heaven, the treasure hidden in the field.  It is taught that the gospel is the field in which the treasure, Jesus, is to be found… in His word.  When we find Jesus, our true treasure of priceless, unspeakable value, because of the joy of knowing Him, we give up all else, that nothing else matters but to have Him.  Yes, this is certainly the case - He is our great Treasure and nothing this world could offer us could compare.  When we see the hidden Treasure and it's value, we count everything else as loss to know Him - knowing Him becomes our obsession, our inexpressible joy, nothing else in this life can compare.

 "Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ"  Phillippians 3:8

As we worshipped and prayed, I felt Him speak that I was HIS treasure…  that HE gave up all - gave up heaven, gave His life, gave everything to have me!  That He saw the hidden treasure within me and I was WORTH IT!  That I was worth all He gave…  

AMAZING!!!! He saw me as a priceless treasure when no one else (not even I) could see there was anything worthwhile…  When all anyone else could see was an empty field, HE saw treasure worth dying for…

YOU are HIS treasure!  YOU were worth dying for!  Whether anyone else can see the gold within you are not - HE DOES!!!! 

Not only does He see us as treasure, as worth the cost, when we become His, He puts all of who He is within us - the Kingdom of Heaven - within us!  

As we continued to pray I felt Him ask me "What are going to do with this Treasure?"  I was reminded of the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30)  How the wise servants took the talents the master gave them and invested them wisely, with return on those investments and the unwise servant buried what he was given.  

24 “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours."  Matthew 25:24

"Lord, I KNEW YOU to be a hard man"…  this speaks to me of a heart with a wrong understanding of the character of God… he hid the the talent because of fear.  He took the treasure that was given him and did nothing with it because he didn't understand the heart of God.  When we have revelation that we are FULLY loved, that we serve a Daddy that loves us - He is not a "hard man" but a Daddy that loves us and wants to love THROUGH us.  The love of God within us, the treasure of who He is, is NOT to be buried, but invested in others!  We are to do something with that treasure within us!!!!  He invested ALL for us, and we are to invest in others - to love without reserve as He did and because He placed that treasure (ALL of who He is) within us, we have the ability through Him!

" Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons. Freely (without pay) you have received, freely (without charge) give."  Matthew 10:8

What are you gonna do with that Treasure?

Being a BIG Grasshopper...

A few days ago the Lord put it on my heart to believe for something that to me is really BIG, something I know He has done for others, but a real stretch for me.  The kind of things you think of that he does for the real BIG spiritual powerhouses that I have looked up to...  But as I was praying He was asking me if I could "see" myself in the situation He was telling me to believe for.

This morning, as we worshipped in church we sang a song, "and I sing because You are good, and I dance because You are good, and I shout because You are good, You are good to me..."  I felt Him speak to my heart, "can you dance NOW, BEFORE you SEE the evidence?  BEFORE the keys I am giving you are in your hand?"  I thought about how when the answer to this prayer comes, how I will be singing, dancing and shouting how good He is in the middle of the street without giving a RIP about what anyone may think because it WILL be a miracle - there is NO way in the natural that I can make this think happen on my own.  But what about now?  Can I do it now? I am not a dancer nor shouter by nature, and I lost my nerve.

Yes, when the answer comes it will be HUGE, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that He has already given me MORE than enough reason to sing, to dance and to shout how good He is.  It made me think about situations I have been in my life, the situations were hard, the trials tough to get through and yet through them all - the situation may have been bad, but HE was still good!

I know there are many people going through very difficult circumstances, asking God for BIG things and this morning while singing that song I was reminded of the story of King Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20.  Three armies had come against Judah, HUGE armies, well able to wipe Judah out completely.  Jehoshaphat feared, BUT, he doesn't pitch a tent there!  He calls all of Judah to a fast to seek the Lord.  It is a natural thing to fear when we are faced with a BIG enemy against us, but it's what we do next that matters - do we stay in fear, do we see ourselves as grasshoppers compared to the "giants" or do we do as our Pastor Dan Colvin says - can we then stay BIG and see ourselves as HUGE grasshoppers, no matter the disappointments we have in our past!

All of Judah fasts and Jehoshaphat stands before them in the house of the Lord and begins to speak about all the things that God had done in the past.  Please note, these are NOT things that he HIMSELF had experienced, they were things he had been taught.  Many times we find it hard to have hope for BIG things because we personally have not seen God do them, but neither had Jehoshaphat - he called to remembrance for himself and all of Judah all the things God had done in the past - for their ancestors, not them directly.  The word says that God is the same yesterday, today and forever...  we can do as Jehoshaphat did and encourage ourselves by the great things that God has done for others, we can read His word and believe that if He did it for others He CAN do it for us too!  By doing this his faith and the faith of Judah rose up and yours will too when you fill your mind and heart with His word!

The prophet Jahaziel, speaks, "You shall not need to fight in this battle; take your positions, stand still, and see the deliverance of the Lord Who is with you O Judah and Jerusalem.  Fear not nor be dismayed.  Tomorrow go out against them for the Lord is with you."  2 Chron. 20:17

As a believer, your "position" is IN Him, when we engage heaven, stand still in who we are in Him, the battle is fought for us...  No matter how noisy and fearful the battle is around us, we can "take our position" on the lap of our Abba, our Daddy, let Him hold us still and see the deliverance that HE will bring.

"And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord worshipping Him.  And some Levites of the Korathites and Korahites stood up to praise the Lord, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice."  2 Chron. 20:19

They SANG because He is good and the Shouted because He is good!!!!  They worshipped and sang and shouted...  the next day the worshippers and singers went in FRONT of the army saying "Give thanks to the Lord for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever! (vs. 21)  They were STILL facing a terrible enemy that meant to wipe them out, but worshipped, praised and thanked him for His goodness!  The rest of this story tells of how the three armies became confused and took each other out - Judah never even had to fight them!  For many days the people of Judah picked up all the "booty" left among the armies, so much it took them 3 days to carry it all away... not only did God give them the victory through the power of them seeking His way... singing, dancing, shouting His goodness even when the circumstances shouted back to them differently, but because of the miraculous victory the Lord gave them wealth and their enemies became afraid of them, and left them in peace.

So I have decided that I am going to SING because HE IS GOOD, DANCE because HE IS GOOD and SHOUT because HE IS GOOD!!!!  Before the victory, and I will SEE the victory - will you join me?  You will see that He is REALLY is more than you ever thought possible... and you are positioned for a miracle!

Please see 2 Chronicles 20 if you want to read the whole story.  Please contact me if you have any questions, want to know more about Jesus or would like prayer.