I talk about crap a lot around here. You know why, because we’re all going through something. We’re all dealing with tough stuff, facing situations that straight up stink, wishing it were different and yet waking up to more of the same each morning. But, we’ve learned to shift our perspective on the crap in our lives and see it as fertilizer.

When I was a teenager, the farm across the road from ours raised rabbits. My mom and I would go over and exchange some of our farm’s harvest for their farm’s harvest. No, we weren’t going to get some of their cute bunnies, we were going to get some of their cute bunnies poop. We hauled buckets full of their stinky little droppings back to put on our plants. These little bunny balls of crap were like magic bullets for our plants’ growth.

Now we know that same principle applies in our lives. We recognize God uses the stuff we sometimes most want to avoid to help us grow. We can now call it fertilizer. I have a heavy layer of fertilizer in my family right now, how about you? I have a new dump truck load of fertilizer just delivered all over my finances this week even, how glorious is that?!!!

Well, I’ll be honest, it’s not glorious at all. We can try to reframe it and rename it, but it still stinks when you’re being dumped on. It still hurts when it all falls apart. It’s still troubling while it’s trouble. You can stop beating yourself up for feeling the way you do about this crap in your life.

Here’s the total ah-ha moment God gave me this morning about a topic I’ve been teaching on for 10 years. Now listen closely so you don’t miss this. Crap is fertilizer while it’s still crap. The little bunny balls of poop didn’t magically change color and scent as they were fertilizing our plants. They were still legit balls of bunny poop.

And this really stinky stuff you’re dealing with right now in your life, it’s not going to look or smell any better when it starts helping you grow. You don’t have to wait for that change to start changing. It’s still going to stink to high heavens while it makes you better. It’s still going to be highly undesirable while it does a good work in your life.

Why? Because crap is fertilizer while it’s still crap. There’s no magic transformation of the bad stuff, it’s what the bad stuff touches that is changed.

If you’ve been waiting on this bad stuff to suddenly start looking better, you’re waiting on the wrong thing. Crap stays crap. You don’t pick it up and start eating it. But what it’s growing underneath can become a delicious feast one day! Girl, you have no idea what God is growing underneath this layer of hardship you’re going through. You have no idea what harvest he is bringing in your life, and that harvest is coming because of the pure stench that is being applied right now.

This is what Proverbs 3:5 means “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”

Your own understanding is this crap you’re dealing with right now is tough, it is messy, it is stinky, it is unfair, it is undesirable, it is disappointing, it is disheartening, and you really want it to go away. And if all you do is lean into your understanding of what you’re currently going through, then all you will see are piles of useless waste all around you. Leaning into that does nothing but discourage and overwhelm you.

But sitting in that same exact pile of stinky waste, if you trust in the Lord with all your heart, you will see things differently. You will see you haven’t been buried here to die, you’ve been planted here to grow. And God, in all of his wisdom, has allowed buckets of his growth agent to be poured on you because he wants your ultimate growth potential.

What if the way has already been made, but it’s up to you to take the next step along the way? What if the victory is already yours, but the battle will still be required? What if God is totally FOR YOU in this, and your fear is the only thing holding you back?

I wonder what your fear has been costing you. You have been fearing what could happen, so you never fully show up for what IS happening. You fear not being enough, so you’ve completely missed the truth that God has already made you more than enough. You fear failure, so you forfeit success.

Girl, you don’t even know the victories God has already declared you will walk in! You don’t even know how YOU will be the one he uses to break these chains. These generational burdens that have been passed down in your family, they are to stop with YOU, but you don’t see that in yourself yet. Maybe you haven’t fully accepted that when Jesus said “with God, all things are possible”, he was talking about YOU specifically with God. When YOU are with God, ALL things are possible.

If all you’re doing is looking at things that are impossible and feeling defeated, you’re missing the whole point. Jesus says look at those impossible things and go forward WITH GOD and watch them be made possible! You’re holding back when God is calling you to go all-in!

What will this holding back cost you? What will you forfeit as you tip toe around what you COULD be doing, worrying about what MIGHT happen? What will your assumed position of ‘not good enough’ and ‘incapable’, cause you to miss in God’s good plans for your life?

ANSWER: Goodness you’re not willing to miss.

My Sister, what God has for you is so ridiculously good, you can’t afford for your fear to make you forfeit. Where God is leading you is so much bigger than the things that stand in your way. He will strengthen you to move forward if you will just pick up your foot.

The problem is, you’re no longer picking up your foot. You’re standing here with your feet planted, looking at the overwhelming journey, convinced you can’t do it. And you’re right … you can’t. But God can, and he will take you along with him when you start picking up your foot again. God’s not going to drag you into this victory, you will be required to move forward in faith.

What happens when you’re no longer willing to move forward in faith? You get stuck in your fear and you forfeit the victory God had available for you.

This is exactly what happened to Moses and the Israelites. They had been walking in miraculous victory. They had seen God’s mighty and powerful hand at work on their behalf. And God intended to bring them into their Promised Land of Canaan with continued victory, but they stopped when they began believing a fear report.

Yes, a fear report. A story that tells you it’s too hard, it’s too much, and you’re not enough. A story that even tells the facts truthfully, but drops the faith required to move past it. Have you believed a fear report? Have you stopped because someone told you it would take too long, it would be too difficult, and it would require more than you have? Hmmmmmmmm, how do you feel about that now?

Numbers 13:1 “The Lord said to Moses, “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders.” There were 12 tribes, so one leader from each made 12 spies.

So these 12 men went to Canaan, and they did as they were told. They checked out the land and the abundance it produced. They witnessed how their people worked and moved. Then after 40 days they returned to Moses and the Israelites with their report.

Oh, indeed the land was good, it was flowing with milk and honey. It was everything they had wanted,

What you see today are your problems and threats … what you do not see yet is your rescue and your redemption. You see what the enemy is doing, but perhaps you do not see how your God is going to use it all for good.

The real problem here is, sometimes we can become so overwhelmed in today’s hardships that we give up before we ever get to walk in tomorrow’s breakthrough. THIS IS NOT THE END FOR YOU. THIS IS NOT WHERE YOU SHALL STOP. We often ask God to make the hardship stop, but what if instead we began praying, “Lord, don’t let me stop when I’m supposed to keep moving forward.”

Sometimes it doesn’t make sense to keep showing up. Sometimes we feel so defeated that all attempts seem like a total waste. But what if there’s so much more than you can see? What if this battle is greater than you imagined and you’re already on the winning side without even knowing it? What if the odds are in your favor, but it’s never going to look like it or feel like it, you’re just going to have to trust it?

What God showed me this morning to share with you is not a way out of the battle … it’s not an escape from this … it’s not a way around the problem you most want to avoid, it’s simply a different perspective. A broader view to see more than you’ve been seeing. God took me to part of the story of Elisha … the part with chariots of fire!

Elisha was a man of God with the gift of prophesy. God spoke to him about things that were yet to be, and Elisha then helped the King of Israel to guide the Israelites in overcoming their enemies. Of course their enemies wanted to capture Elisha so he could no longer use his prophetic talents to stay one step ahead of their battle plans. So, here come the enemies to get Elisha.

2 Kings 6: 15-17 “When Elisha’s servant got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked.

“Don’t be afraid,” Elisha answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

Girls, what if instead of praying for all our worries to go away, we started asking God to show us what is really happening all around us? What if instead of asking for our problems to dissapear, we started asking for our solutions to appear.

We just want God to take it all away, clear the path and make life easier, but how many of you know God really doesn’t work that way? Have you lived long enough to know God’s objective isn’t to give you an easy life, but a full life, and a full life requires resistance. A full life comes only as the result of some crap along the way, because remember, crap is fertilizer. Literally. By God’s great design that we can’t wrap our head around, we grow best in this crap. He’s not going to make it go away, he’s going to help you grow through it.

Elisha didn’t pray for their enemies to disappear. He simply asked that his servant who was fearful would be able to see beyond the problem into what was really happening here. What was really happening here is the angels of heaven were protecting them and fighting for them.

Honey, do you realize that’s exactly what is happening for you right now? I know you don’t see it so it’s hard to believe it, but heaven’s army has your back through this. You’re not going through this alone, you are surrounded by the one who is always for you. And Romans 8:31 reminds us “If God is for us, then who can be against us?”

But wait, do you question if God is really for you? Well, let me assure you he is,

Has the vibrant, lively soul you’re created to be been overwhelmed by the circumstances of life, and now you’re barely living? Have you been burdened by a problem that instead of getting better, it just continues to get worse, and this problem hinders you from living the life you once imagined? Well Sis, it’s time for an encounter with Jesus!

I assure you, Jesus can take whatever problem you’ve been enduring and he can change it in an instant. He can do what no one else has done for you. He can remove a 12 year problem in a moment and restore you fully. Oh he can. He has that power. The question is, are you still seeking that power, or have you grown discouraged because it’s been so long that you’re no longer seeking him?

Scripture tells us of a woman who had been enduring a problem for 12 years. For 12 years she had bled. This issue had caused her great suffering and cost her all her money, but still her problem only grew worse instead of better. At what point do you just accept your problem as reality? When do you give up and settle into your problem as your only possible pathway through this life and stop pursuing a different future?

Is that where you are? You’ve been trying long enough, and you’ve tried everything there is to try, so really you’ve stopped seeking anything different. You’ve made peace with your problem and accepted your future days will only be more of your present days. Sis, this is why it’s so hard to wake up. This is why it requires all of your energy to drag your butt out of bed. You’ve assumed your current position will be your continued position and you’ve stopped seeking anything different.

Who says it has to be this way? Who says what has been has to continue? Who says this is your only lot in life and you have to just accept it? Has God told you that? Really, has God given you that revelation, or have you accepted it from ‘lesser than’ sources that do not hold the power to radically change these things in your life?

Mark 5: 21-34 “When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” So Jesus went with him.

A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”

“You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”

But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

This woman was considered an outcast. Due to her condition, she was not allowed into the temple and she was not allowed to touch another person. She was isolated, abandoned and rejected. If you notice when Jesus turned and said “who touched me, I felt power go out from me”, she was terrified and fell at his feet trembling. Trembling because everyone else told her she wasn’t allowed to be there.

I recently heard a great truth: Courage is knowing it might hurt, and doing it anyway. Stupidity is the same. And that’s why life is hard.

How do you know the difference between walking in courage, and being just plain stupid? The problem is, they both look and feel a whole lot the same. Your life calls for some courage right now, but since you have a track record of a little bit of stupid, you’re afraid to take the next step, right?

You’re questioning and second-guessing, because if you get this wrong, it’s going to really hurt. And naturally, we avoid the hurt. But as we avoid the hurt, are we missing what God is guiding us into? How do we live courageously without being stupid? If courage and stupidity basically look the same, how do we know which one we’re stepping into here?

Wouldn’t it be great if you had a clear sign right now of what you’re supposed to do next? Wouldn’t it just be grand if you knew for sure what God is doing, where he is leading, and how this is all going to work out?

I like confirmations. I like to know that I know that I know I’m doing the right thing. But, the problem is, when it comes time to take action, I don’t always know. Funny thing about my confirmations, they typically show up AFTER I’ve taken the action, rarely before. Is that the way it works in your life too? You’re never 100% certain about what you’re doing, but when you look back you see that it certainly was the right thing to do.

We want our confirmation first, but God says, nope buy into this fully first, then your confirmation will come. If you’re waiting on a confirmation before buying into what God is doing in your life, you may be missing the very thing you’re looking for. Confirmations come AFTER you buy it.

Have you ever prayed for a sign? A sign that the risky move you’re about to make is the right move? A sign that the door you’re about to walk through is the best door? A sign that God is divinely guiding you, and you’re not just making this up in your own head?

In the Bible we read about signs, crazy things happening to confirm God’s plans and desires. But where are the signs today?

Last week in a episode 1130 “Where Warriors Rise” we read about Gideon being called a mighty warrior by God, then being prompted to take his tiny army and defeat their massive enemies. But, do you know what Gideon did after God called him? He asked for a sign. Judges 6:17 ““If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me.”

Gideon could not believe the things God was asking him to do. He didn’t see himself as a mighty warrior, yet God was telling him that he was the chosen one for this battle, and it would end in victory. These were unbelievable things, so Gideon told God he was going to need a sign to be sure. But what’s really interesting is we see before Gideon made his special request of confirmation from God, he first worshiped him. He essentially said, God, I’m going to ask you for a sign to confirm what you are asking me to do, but first, I’m going to worship you out of faith.

Before Gideon makes his request of God, he builds an alter and worships him. Whew girl, couldn’t we learn from this! Have you been worshiping God, or just making your requests for clear signs, open doors and lit paths? Have you been sacrificing for him, making your offerings here in this uncertain and confusing time, or were you waiting for things to be less confusing and more certain, then you plan to give your offering of faith?

FIRST FAITH, THEN SIGNS.

FIRST SACRIFICE, THEN CONFIRMATION.

FIRST SURRENDER, THEN GUIDANCE.

So, Gideon made his offering and built an alter for God, all while he was still totally uncertain of God’s guidance into what was next.

Genesis 2:7 “God formed Man out of dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. The Man came alive—a living soul!” (MSG)

Let’s make this personal. When I say so insert your own name into this scripture. God blew into your nostrils the breath of life. ___(say your name)____ came ALIVE, a living soul.

The purpose of life is to live it. Not just survive it, or endure it. Not sleep it away or wish it away. But live it. In order to LIVE this life you have been given and fulfill your purpose, you must be ALIVE.

This breath of life God has breathed into you comes with a single expectation. That you would open your eyes, experience life fully and be ALIVE with life.

Our scripture today says man came ALIVE – a living soul. Not a miserable soul. Not a tired soul. Not a worried soul. Not a stressed out soul. But a LIVING soul.

Will you be a living soul?

There is no time to waste. We can’t afford to wait until next month to wake up and start living. We can’t sleep away today. James 4:14 puts the brevity of life into perspective with “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”

BUT YOU’RE HERE TODAY. You have a chance to live today. What a gift you and I have been given. And remember, with all great things comes great responsibility. Not everyone received the gift of life today, but you did, and you have a responsibility to live it.

Today, let’s fulfill our purpose. Let’s do with this day exactly what we’re supposed to do. Let’s LIVE it! The dictionary uses 3 words to define ALIVE: Alert, Active and Animated. We will use that as our gauge and intentionally go to work.

Today, we will be ALIVE by being ALERT. Wherever we are, we will actually BE THERE. Repeat to yourself, “right here, right now”. Hey, you will never get this back. Every moment today is a once in a lifetime moment, don’t miss it. Taste your food. Hear the sounds of life. Feel the touch of your loved ones. I mean really FEEL IT.

See the beauty all around you. There is beauty before you, beauty behind you. Beauty to your left, beauty to your right. Beauty above you, beauty below you. Beauty within you.

Today you will savor it because you are alert. Continue to bring your mind back to the state of right here, right now. Perhaps you need to write it on your hand.

Second, today we will be ALIVE by being ACTIVE. We refuse to sit and wonder and worry. If we are stuck in a rut, we won’t be by the end of the day because today, we’re taking the next step. We will be in action. We will get up and get going.

My Daddy used to see the buzzards circling in the sky and he would say, “Sis, you better look alive!” The morale of the story – buzzards are always looking to prey upon the things just sitting still. Maybe you’ve been sitting still, just thinking about making changes, worrying about all that needs to change, making plans for change, that the buzzards are circling you. Girl, you better look alive. Be ACTIVE today.

And third, today we will be ALIVE by being ANIMATED. This means be excited, energetic and lively. Put some pep in your step. You say you don’t have anything to be excited about … ah girl, that’s the result of not being fully alive. I guarantee you there are 10 reasons to be over the moon excited about your life surrounding you at this very moment.

Even in the darkest of times and hardest of seasons, there is good. You’re not discounting the hardships by being excited over all that is good and right. There’s no guilt in that.

Show your creator some energy today. If you don’t have any energy, fake it. That’s the funny thing about energy, if you use all the energy you have today, tomorrow your energy tank will be refilled, plus a little more. You can literally BUILD your energy, but the only way is to use it all up today. Get up, get dressed up and show up.

Who is waiting for something, and struggling with the timing of it?

Who is stuck in uncertainty, unsure of how it’s all going to work out?

Who feels stretched and pulled in a million different directions and losing themselves along the way?

Who is maybe even excited about what the future may hold, but you feel completely out of control in it all?

Maybe you feel the tingle of promise of what’s coming, or maybe you’re honestly just checked out and going through the motions, and lost sight of what God is doing in your life.

You too. Well, you’re in great company! I don’t know what is going to happen. I don’t know when it’s going to happen. I don’t know how it’s going to happen. But I do know my God, your God, OUR GOD has got this! Please, you need to know this … he’s got this, and he is with you, sweet daughter of the Almighty.

And because of that truth, you and I can do 3 things when we feel like we don’t know anything else. We can:

Trust the wait.

Embrace the uncertainty.

Enjoy the beauty of becoming.

Trust the wait. Embrace the uncertainty. Sounds sweet, but the reality of that is a tall order. An order we would rather avoid. Like, no thanks God, I’m not a fan of this whole waiting gig and uncertainty bit.

We like to be in control. Where are my planners, my thinkers, my organizers? Life is tough when you’re not in control, right? Maybe you’re in one of those seasons of life right now where the timing is not your own … the number of uncertainties seem to outweigh the certainties … and you’re not quite so sure you’re equipped for the journey.

If I were guessing, that’s likely the majority of us. How do I know? Because that is life. Life is a continual rollercoaster ride. I took my BIG Life retreat girls to a Michael Franti concert at Red Rocks over the weekend, and one of his songs goes like this, “life is amazing, then it sucks, then it’s amazing again.” Well dang if that isn’t the truth! And it’s by design.

Hey, if you could make a plan and force it all to come together every single time without fail, YOU WOULDN’T NEED GOD. It is our lack of control that keeps us dependent upon the one who holds the world in his hand. It’s what reminds us we’re alive. The truth is, without the downs, the ups would become a perpetual numbness to the beauty around us. So, sometimes life does take our breath away, and we’re reminded to breathe in deeper.

He who knows no hardship, knows only surface level happiness. He who faces no calamity will need no courage. Yes, it’s mysterious, but the truth is, our lives grow best in a soil mixed with trouble and questions and crap that doesn’t make sense. Afterall, never forget what all this crap really is … it is fertilizer. Seriously, crap is fertilizer and fertilizer makes things grow bigger, faster, stronger.

Check out this scripture I found this morning. 2 Corinthians 3:3 MSG “Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it—not with ink, but with God’s living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives—and we publish it. It’s written with Spirit on spirit, his life on our lives!”

The life God is leading you to live is written by the Spirit of God onto your spirit. Isn’t that just amazing?!!!! Does that speak to anyone else like it speaks to me?

Do you remember the song – “he’s got the whole world in his hands.”

It’s true. And let’s make it personal – he’s got YOUR whole world in his hands too.

Isaiah 40:12 says “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?” (NIV)

Where are my girls at that feel under pressure right now? Are you facing an intense, scary situation? Maybe you would say this place in your life genuinely stinks. Well I’m really glad you’re listening this morning, because I have an escape plan for you! You want to get out of this … today you’ll learn how!

This is your escape plan. Escape from all that is holding you back and step into the life God has for you. Escape from all that is going wrong and be aligned with all that is ready to go right. Escape from this dead end and find yourself on a path that leads somewhere ridiculously good.

That’s what you want, right? Today, I will show you how, and it’s really quite simple.

Sometimes we find ourselves in times of turmoil, chaos and conflict and we wonder why. Why is this happening to me? Why is life falling apart? Why am I under attack? Well, you are not alone. This morning I will share 3 stories in the bible of good people in ridiculously hard times and how they escaped. Listen closely to each of these 3 familiar stories and notice how they escaped.

First – We will call this story: “It’s HOT”.

This is the story of 3 young guys with funky names, Shadraq, Meshack and Abendigo, told in the book of Daniel chapter 3. These guys were bold. They refused to worship the king’s idol and were thrown into a fiery furnace. When the king looked in the furnace to his shock he saw not only these 3 young men walking through the fire, but a fourth in the fire with them. God was walking right along side them. He was with the the whole time. And they survived. I guess you could say things got real HEATED for Sadrach, Meschac and Abendigo. But because of their fiery furnace encounter, we still know their story today.

What did they do? One thing … They trusted God. In the middle of the fire… When it was unfair… When they were right and the king was wrong and they were punished anyway… They kept trusting God.

Our God is the God over the fire in your life. What are you going through right now that threatens to destroy you? God is right beside you, walking with you. All you must do is trust him. You escape from this fire by trusting God.

Second story: “It’s Scary”.

This is the story of Daniel in the book of Daniel chapter 6. Daniel was a good man and he was doing everything right, but a few people got jealous of his success and threw him under the bus, or in this situation, in the lion’s den.

Anyone feeling betrayed right now? Feeling talked about? Anyone feeling unfairly attacked? Left out? Anyone in a scary situation and you don’t know how you’re going to get out of it?

We can learn a lot from Daniel in the Lion’s Den. The image I used to see as a little girl in my parent’s big bible is still engraved in my mind. The image of a man in a maroon colored robe, bravely standing with his back against a dozen hungry lions in a dark pit, looking up toward the sunlight. Scripture says an angel of the Lord had sealed the mouths of the lions mouths shut.

I want you to imagine for a moment this scene. Maybe you don’t have to imagine too much because right now you’re almost living it out in your own life. Danger is all around you. And somehow you’re surviving. God has made a way when there seems to be no way. Somehow you can find peace even in the pit because all you have to do is TRUST God.

You don’t have to fight the lions. You don’t have to defend yourself. You don’t have to curse those attacking you. You turn your back on those attacks and you turn your face to the son Jesus and you then you stand with confidence knowing God is defending you. Someone needs to cry out to God and ask him to seal the lips of your attackers. Just as God sealed the mouths of the lion, he can seal some mouths today. Maybe the mouth that most needs to be sealed is your own. Ask him for that as you trust him fully.

Who remembers the show “Extreme Home Makeover”? At the end of the miraculous makeover of a home, the family would stand on the street with a bus blocking the view of their new home. Then Ty would yell, “move that bus!” In the same way we’re yelling today, “move that mountain!”

There’s something blocking your view. Something standing between you and the life God has available for you. Between you and your greatest potential. Between you and your destiny. Hey mountain, it’s time to move!

In Matthew 19:26, Jesus said “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

WITH God. In partnership with God. Working WITH Him, ALL things are possible. However, it will be impossible without Him.

Where is the impossible in your life? The definition of impossible is not able to occur, exist or be done. Where is it not happening? Where have you tried and failed? Where do all doors seem to be closed for you? Have you given up? Are you losing hope that things will ever change?

The very words I share with you today I actually journaled a few years ago. I was facing the impossible, and I had been staring it down for so long I was at the point of giving up. I was walking away from this dream of impacting YOUR life. It was my final declaration of “God, I can’t do this. I’ve tried it all. You’re going to have to show up here.”

I introduced my impossible situation to my unstoppable God. And while it didn’t happen in any way I imagined, it happened. Doors opened and here I am getting to talk to you today, fulfilling my purpose in life. And this is exactly how it happened.

It’s time to introduce your impossible to an unstoppable God. God has good plans for your life and NOTHING and NO ONE can stop those plans … except for you. In his infinite wisdom, our creator has given each of us free will, the ability to choose on our own. And the truth is, we can make a real mess of things. At the root of our bad decisions and wayward ways is fear. Fear we’re not good enough. Fear God’s plans won’t measure up to ours. Fear we’re alone.

Looking back, I see it was fear that overwhelmed me and had me quitting when I should have been pushing. It had me complaining when I should have been praying. It had me wallowing when I should have been rising. And that’s what fear does.

So, let me speak to your fear this morning. It’s not too late for you. You haven’t screwed this things up beyond repair. Every misstep you’ve ever taken and every delay you’ve caused can and will be used for good now. I know, you’re thinking, “yeah right … you don’t know how bad I’ve messed up.” Hey, most of us have that one thing we would never want to tell anyone. That shame that eats us up on the inside and reminds us of our guilt.

But let me remind you of your unstoppable God. His love for you is unstoppable. There’s nothing you have done, or could do, that would stop his love for you. Girl, He will move mountains for you. And even more than that, he’s given YOU power to move mountains.

Jesus says in Matthew 17:20 – If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Do you know how tiny a mustard seed is?

When we were battling to keep our daughters, we had to prepare them for being taken from school by strangers and rushed back across the border to Mexico. That’s a terrifying thought to little girls only 10 years old. Then, it was our impossible. And so I went to the pantry and grabbed the jar of mustard seeds. I put a tiny seed in each of my daughter’s hands and told them what Jesus said about faith that tiny with the power to move a mountain. And together we said “we believe … mountain, move.”

Did the Earth shake? Nope.

I wonder what God sees in you, that you don’t see in you. I wonder what purpose you’ve been perfectly aligned for, but in your eyes it just looks like one big mess you want out of. You have no idea who you really are and what you can really do … but are you ready to find out? Are you ready to discover how God sees you? Are you ready to step into your greatest potential and do things that will outlive you? Are you ready to stop settling for where you are, and dare to see where God wants to take you next?

If you look around and see nothing but destruction … if you feel like everything you’ve been working on has just been ruined … if you are overwhelmed and discouraged with all that has gone wrong, you’re actually standing on holy ground! This is where God does his greatest work. This is where he shows up and does what only he can do, but girl, he has chosen YOU to do it through.

The Israelites found themselves in complete destruction. These were the people God had chosen, protected, freed and led. The ones who were spared from the 7 plagues in Egypt. The ones who were miraculously freed from the captivity of Pharaoh and saved through the parting of the Red Sea. The ones who were supernaturally led by a pillar of cloud at day and a pillar of fire at night. The ones who were given manna from heaven on the daily to eat in the desert where there was no food.

But now, they’re in real trouble. Judges 6:1 “The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites.”

Why was God so angry with the Israelites? After all he had done for them, they were to be different. God told them as they traveled through different lands and different tribes, to not waiver from what he had shown them. To stay true to his word and his guidance. Exodus 23:24 “You must not worship the gods of these nations or serve them in any way or imitate their evil practices. Instead, you must utterly destroy them and smash their sacred pillars

But with a little time and a little freedom, they did exactly what they were told not to do. They fell into the lives of sin and pleasure they saw all around them. They worshiped the gods of the other tribes, and fell away from their God. So, things got hard … real hard. And God used the Midianites to make their lives miserable.

The Midianites were a nomadic tribe descending from Midian, a son of Abraham. They were relentless and brutal in their attack against the Israelites. They had no mercy, and used their power to make the Israelites hide in caves, fighting for sheer survival. They invaded their fields, stole their crops, killed their animals, took away their water sources, and left absolutely nothing for the Israelites to survive.

Basically, life royally sucked for the Israelites. Everything was a total mess. All that had gone right in the past for them had now gone terribly wrong. All hopes of life ever being better were forfeited, along with their means of survival. So the Israelites did the only thing they could do, they fell to their knees and cried out to the Lord.

And my friends, this is when things started changing.

No doubt, that is exactly when things will start changing for you too. When in full surrender you cry out to the Lord, the Lord turns the tables and makes things happen in a day that you couldn’t make happen in a lifetime.

Before we go any further, let me ask … just how big of a mess are you in? How ugly have things gotten? Are you finally desperate enough to cry out to the Lord for help? Whew, one thing I’ve discovered over the last 20 years in my walk with God is I really don’t have to wait until sheer destruction to cry out to him. I don’t have to wait until the dead end. I don’t have to wait until everything else has failed. Sometimes I still do,