Hello Everyone,
I thought it would be beneficial to share some of the
thoughts that surrounded this past week’s prayer and fasting. For those of you that fasted with us if you haven’t found time yet to reflect on
what God spoke to you over our time together it would be extremely healthy to
do so. If you’re at all like me, just
letting a few days go by without jotting down a note or two, those thoughts could be
lost forever.
Some encouraging thoughts from this past week:
1.
Listen;
take time to just stop talking. Our
relationship with Christ is not a monologue, but rather a dialogue. Have you ever been with someone that it
appeared they weren’t at all interested in what you were saying only with what
they had to say? The Lord has too many
of these types of relationships. I had
to ask myself, “is that the type of relationship I have with Christ,” me asking
all the questions waiting for His divine response (only divine if it’s what I
wanted to hear). Doing better with this
is not going to be easy, but the results are going to be a man that has an ear
bent in the right direction.
2. We are different; sometime we don’t
like to be different, actually in our culture it’s frowned upon. Being different is looked at as strange and
weird, it’s more important to be popular.
What’s amazing about being a Christian is that our difference doesn’t
come from what we do, but rather from what He does. Exodus 33, Moses is having a real time
conversation with the Lord and Moses wasn’t about to take another step without
some kind of assurance. The Lord says
this to Moses, “My presence will go with
you, and I will give you rest.” And he
said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from
here. For how shall it be known that I
have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it
not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from
every other people on the face of the earth?” What is different about us from everyone else
is that God goes with us. It’s what He
does that makes us distinct. I’m
encouraged to be who I am in Christ, I don’t need to be weird or try to be Joe
religious, it’s His presence that distinguishes us from everyone else.
3. I’m a disciple of Jesus making disciples
for Jesus; Jesus at the end of the first gospel says to us, “All authority
in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” Jesus is telling his disciples to reproduce,
make more of who they are; disciples. If
this is our commission from Jesus why do you think it’s one of the most
difficult truth claims to live? We
prayed into five areas during our five weeks together, these five things are progressive;
each one precedes the other as we are transformed into “Disciples making
Disciples”.
·
Truth…what we believe regarding the truth claims
in scripture
·
Accept…when we finally stop wrestling with truth
and reckon it to be so.
·
Live...this is when what we believe influences
and changes how we live.
·
Team…there becomes a desire to walk with someone,
·
Reproduce…the process of a disciple making a
disciple starts all over again.
This is a commission from Jesus that we
wrestle with until we find our way forward.
I call wrestling the discovery process, a time of growing, learning and developing.
One thing I've learned this past week, we don't spend enough time praying and fasting. Let me just end this post by saying, "Try it, you just might like it."
Warren
