FEARLESS

If you're finding yourself walking through a difficult situation, or a season of continuous crying, you are most likely in The Valley of Trouble and Weeping. Through these valleys, we can hold on to the comfort of knowing that God will NEVER waste a hurt. God does not just let things happen to happen so trust Him in the darkness!

Has there been a situation that you thought was over—and God had healed you from it—but as time passed, it came up again? Some stubborn issues or sins will keep chasing you as long as you're alive but the SAME God who defeated it the first time will do it again! He doesn't do it the same way—usually ever. For Him it's not about changing the battle, it's about changing YOU! When the Israelites walked around the mountain for 40 years, He wasn't trying to change the mountain, he was trying to change THEM! Pain is a part of the process and it WILL produce fruit. Pain is a gift, pain will make you pause and realize you can't keep doing what you're doing.

We have to recognize that we can't experience healing unless we've been hurt. We have to be okay with the unfiltered version of ourselves because that's the version God works with. So, the next time you're hurting and broken, the next time you can't shake a sin or pain, the next time you can keep yourself from crying, know that He is near to the broken hearted and He is weeping right there with you. He will meet you in a valley where He has placed you in, or even in a valley you have stumbled in on your own. Ask God for help; cry out to Him! Pride will always rob you of full submission and obedience to God. Seek to hear His voice and His cries in those valleys and take heart because He has overcome the WORLD! In God, and in Him alone, you WILL have peace!

At some point, we all find ourselves having to face some extremely tough decisions in life—even some really small decisions that may seem meaningless to you but will play a role in determining your future. If you find yourself in the valley of decisions, fear not, there are many ways to navigate this!

Life is the sum total of all of our decisions. You are who you are based on the decisions you make in the life that you've been handed. You are not what you've been given rather, you arehow you use w​ hat you've been given. ​Focus on the big picture;​ not every open door is from God and not every closed door is from the enemy. The Bible says to KNOCK, and it will be opened. If you have to knock on a door for Him to open, it's must already be closed to begin with. ​Know your values​; how you see yourself is how others will see you. ​Recognize the snowball effect​; one bad decision will lead to many other bad decisions. On the contrary, one ​good decision​ will lead to many other good decisions! We have to create an atmosphere where the Holy Spirit is openly welcome and He will be able to guide us through life's difficult decisions. We must take immediate​ action; if you need to make a decision today, make it ​today​! Don't sit on it! If you're following all of these steps and letting the Holy Spirit guide you, the decision should be loud and clear! Take heart in knowing that a right decision will lead you to positivity, but acknowledging a wrong decision and getting back in tune with Him will lead you right back to a clean slate!

Everyone loves being on the mountain tops, but seasons in the valleys are inevitable. It is important to acknowledge that the valley seasons produce harvests that you could never grow on the mountains. As sure as the grapes grow in the valleys of California, the fruits of our lives are produced through the valley. There are different types of valleys that we walk through in our lives—some of them we are even called to. One valley in particular, the Valley of Elah, is a valley that we are called to where we have the opportunity to destroy our giants.

You may be sitting on top of the mountain top right now, but something still doesn't feel right... Something is still tormenting you. The giant in your life is in the valley shouting up at you, taunting you. Maybe your giant is ​anger,​ maybe your giant is ​depression,​ or maybe your giant is the past ​abuse​ that you pretend never happened. Whatever it is, your giant is a big problem. A giant won't go away until you destroy it. It's not a one-day torment or even a week long torment. A giant makes its stand 40 days and 40 nights, wearing you down with each day it remains. You go to sleep with this giant and you wake up to this giant. The giant takes your peace by yelling from the valley below. Those are the times in our lives where we find ourselves called to go down into the valley to take out that giant once and for all. Giants don't sneak up on you, they are too big and too loud. You know it's there and ​it's up to you to confront it.

As believers, we have a tendency to solely focus on the mountain tops—the good moments, the season where everything goes right. But that's the thing; it's just a ​season.​ Just as the mountain top is a season, so are the valleys—the low moments where the attack against you has been specifically made to take you out. Don't be discouraged that others aren't struggling with the same thing—that's not ​their ​battle. But even though there is a tailor made attack for you, fear not because there is also a tailor made plan to get you through it.

We have to understand that whether or not we believe that God is in the valley does not actually dictate his presence in it. ​He is there! ​He is omnipresent—everywhere at once and with you always!​ ​​We must acknowledge and be prepared for the valleys to come while we're on the mountain tops. If you don't understand that He is the God of the hills ​and ​the valleys, you will give up when you're going through the low moments. Hills and valleys are the rollercoaster of life. Let's just lift our hands and ride out this bumpy, loopy, crazy life because joy ​will ​come in the morning!

As disciples of Christ, one the most faithful action we can take is to love others the way Christ loves us. We know that as humans, it is a challenge to love people well. We are often better at cutting people off rather than loving them unconditionally. So when we do love people unconditionally, we know it is supernatural. That type of love is not human; when other people see it, they see God through us! Not only that, but when we see it, we also know it is God. When we are loved well by people in our circle and in our community, it makes us grateful to God.

It is that type of love that changes the atmosphere, the community, and even the world. In order to love others like that, we must first recognize and accept that God loves us despite us. When we begin to accept the type of love that God is offering, it instills in us confidence which, in turn, increases our faith. As our faith increases, we no longer wish for God to remove us from situations or remove barriers in our life. Instead, we ask for God to open our eyes to what He is trying to do. We begin to trust that His way is greater and that maybe, like Job, we don't know it all. We humble ourselves in God's presence and begin to realize that this game is fixed in our favor.

In this podcast Pastor Jeremy shares how in John 2, Jesus turned water into wine, and how that miracle can apply to our lives. Sometimes we ask God for one thing, and he gives us something else that he is going to use as a miracle. Maybe the thing in your hands today seems minuscule, but Jesus wants to turn that into a miracle. He wants to turn your water into wine. Listen today to this life changing message from Pastor Jeremy Johnson

Spiritual hunger comes from a place of knowing that you need God in your life. Pastor Corey Russell shares a word on what it looks like to be hungry for more of God. Having an appetite for Gods presence. Hunger gets the attention of Heaven. In this podcast, hear how your life can be impacted through the power of spiritual hunger.

Pastor Corey Russell shares an exciting work on the biblical principles of prayer. The disciples walked with Jesus for three and a half years, and the one thing that they constantly asked was that Jesus would teach them to pray. Prayer changes things, it shifts things in our atmosphere, and without it, we are only as strong as ourself. With God for us, who can be against us.