Dwelling Place Anaheim

We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. We will come through the struggle.

But it’s really not a win to come through our personal struggle devoid of tenderness and increased intimacy with the Father.  

The good fight is to bring him a loving heart conquered by love. The good fight is for tenderness in the thick of darkness.

It is the fight for softness of heart when the love of most grows cold and weariness and numbness threaten to take hold.

And to all His conquerors, he invites to become more than conquerors. His beloved lovers resting in Him.

Today, Alan continues our conversation on the “Beloved in the midst of Battle”. 

We are beloved.

When we live knowing this and no longer as orphans we no longer need to protect ourselves. We no longer need to prove our spirituality, our authority or our identity. We no longer need to promote ourselves. Those wrestles that are so constant in our hearts turn into resting in love and wrestling for the sake of others.

We are the beloved and we have learned to rest.

Alan opens up a new conversation today: Beloved in the midst of Battle.

We never cease being beloved. We never cease being in battle. Being beloved doesn’t protect us from battle, it prepares us for battle. We are to live as the beloved in the midst of battle.

When the battle is raging, we can discover that in ALL these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us.

James encourages us today through Acts 18 where Paul discovered that just next door, God was moving. Breakthrough was right next to Paul even though it didn’t feel like it.

But to get next door, he had to have next level thinking, he had to take a next step, and he entered what was next. Not so that he could escape what was happening around him but so he could enter into what God was doing around Him.

Joel takes us on a journey through Acts 3 and 4 as the early believers live out the Kingdom in their everyday. 

Despite ongoing persecution, the power of God was displayed. God continually showed His goodness in the midst of the darkness and that is available for us today.

Through Isaiah 53:1-3, Alan shares some keys on how do you begin the fight for joy when all you have known is emptiness not fulness?

There is a sound of joy rising from your lips and from your life that shatters the works of the enemy and raises people around you into life.

It’s the sound of your breakthrough, the sound of your enlargement, the sound of increase.

Today, Kathryn wraps up our series on Joy.

How do we take joy and make it the steady song at the top of our hearts, the persistent prayer on the tip of our tongues, the deliberate direction of the steps of our feet?

We must choose connection, choose what we consume, choose contentment and choose compassion. As we do, we can put joy on repeat.

Kathryn continues our series this morning by looking at joy for the journey.

Stand firm in joy that safeguards you from the things that would rob you of your future. Stand firm in joy that surpasses every other treasure as it sharpens your focus on Jesus.

Stand firm in joy that sustains in the middle of the worst suffering and the most difficult circumstances. Stand firm in joy that spurs you on until the glorious day of the Lord’s returning.

Today, Kathryn continues our summer series on joy. How do we lock in joy so that it becomes established in our lives?

If we want to be strengthened by joy in our relationships, we must cut out comparison, control, complaint and cynicism.

We must co-labor with those who live beyond themselves.

Kathryn kicks off our new summer series and invites us to be strengthened by joy through the book of Philippians.

The keys in being strengthened by joy is to enjoy God’s presence, to expect God’s goodness, to embrace God’s process for our life and to enter God’s purpose for our life.