Spot On With The Word

In the book of Ecclesiastes Chapter four, the writer says, ‘Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift his brother. But woe unto him who is alone when he falls, for he has not another to help him up.’ Relationships are probably the most valuable currency that you will ever gain in your life. Jesus talks about the blessing. It will come pressed down, shaken together and running over, shall MEN give unto you. God will bless you through someone. It is imperative that we recognize the healthy and the unhealthy relationships in our lives. Everyone in your past is not in your present. Likewise, not everyone in your present is to be a part of your future. Not everyone in your life will be able to shift with you into the next season. Don’t force relationships. You must learn to recognize and be aware when the best of you is not enough. Don’t get angry. Just move forward. God gave the very best of Himself when He gave His Son Jesus, and yet there are those who will never receive Him.  Discern the right relationships for the appropriate seasons.

To live your life without restraint, means to have no boundaries. It means that life can define you. Instead, why not make a choice to let purpose define you? The word perish is found in the book of Exodus. It is the story of Israel, lead by Moses out of Egypt. At a certain point in the story, Moses met God on the mountain to receive the laws that would be given him to govern the people. While he was gone, the people were left with Aaron and they began to rebel and revert to the Egyptian culture from which they had been delivered. They built a golden calf, because that is the way Egypt worshipped. When Moses came down, he saw that the people were running wild. It is what happens when there is no clear vision. Aaron had let them become out of control and they became a laughingstock to their enemies. The enemy is not afraid of people who live with no purpose. The moment that you begin to put purpose into practice, and add discipline to desire, you will face resistance. The enemy will push back. The good news is that, No weapon formed against you will prosper! Take these words and embrace them. Get with God and find out your “ WHY!”  Partner with Him. Be prepared to be unstoppable!

We must have clarity in life! Without it, we will wander. People who are wandering are probably also wondering. Without clarity, we seem to live life defensively. There are some truly gifted people who live without motivational drive or a sense of purpose and destiny. An awareness of destiny can carry you through the tough spots. When this self-awareness becomes unclear, it can cause one to become swallowed up by life and begin to flounder. The Psalmist said, ”I would have fainted if I had not seen the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” If he had not had a vision for the goodness of God, he would have been overcome. At every stage of life or any arena in which you may  function, you must have a vision that keeps you on point and moving toward your purpose. You can endure many challenges and overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles, if you have something that is set before you. Something  that is worth the process. You can be athletically gifted but not have the discipline to train. If you lose focus, then you will lose heart when the resistance comes, and it will come. If you have written the vision and it is plain, there will be no doubt about the plan. It will keep you in the game. It will create endurance.  At the end of his life, The Apostle Paul said, “I was not disobedient to the vision.”  Discern who you are and why you are. Run your race! Finish your course!

Don’t be afraid to change your perspective. In Habakkuk, the prophet in The Old Testament, chooses to sit high in the tower to see what God has to say. Do you have a high place to go? Maybe you will need to come up a bit higher by avoiding some places, or conversations or possibly even relationships that are interfering with your ability to see what God has in store for you. It is hard to discern His voice when there is so much noise and so many distractions. A straight line has two points. In order to live your life without wandering all over the place, you will need to accurately assess where you are and where you want to go. The Psalmist said,” Your Word is a lamp unto my feet (that shows where you are) and a Light to my path. (That shows where you are headed) The Lord instructs the prophet Habakkuk to write the vision, and make it plain, so that he who reads it, may run with it! People who are not living life with purpose, and on purpose, probably don’t have a clear picture of what they are supposed to do. The goal of an effective teacher or leader should not be to impress rather to equip the listener to be effective. Run your race on point! There is something that you were created to do that nobody else can do. You have been uniquely and wonderfully designed!

Do you have a destination in mind? Do you have a goal for your life? When you have a desire in your heart, it will manifest as discipline in your decision-making process. Vision is paramount! You can lose your joy and zest for life if you have nothing to wake up for. Habakkuk was a prophet in the Old Testament. He asked two questions. The first  question was, ”Why is this happening” and then, ”How long will it go on?”. Isn’t this typical of human nature? God doesn’t answer the questions. Instead, he asks the prophet to change his perspective. Your perspective determines your perception. Where you sit will determine what you see. If you are sitting in confusion, you will see confusion. The prophet chooses to move higher into the tower to “see what God says.”  It is interesting that he doesn’t say that would hear what God says. If you are not seeing everything you want to see, you may need to change your perspective. Be willing to position yourself in a better, clearer space, so that you can begin to see on the outside what God has been saying on the inside. Don’t be afraid to alter your perspective. It may mean the world of difference in your perception!

One of the most important things we can have in life is clear vision. Proverbs 29 tells us that, ‘without a vision, the people perish’. The interpretation of the word “perish” in the original Hebrew means to be without restraints. It can be interpreted that without a vision, the people run wild like horses. Without a specific goal or target, you will live life wandering and wondering. The difference between wishing for something and really wanting It, is having the discipline to see that it comes to fruition. You must be willing to pay the necessary price. Great desire breeds great discipline. Don’t let life pass you by because you failed to focus on fulfilling the desire of your heart. Do you have a vision for your life that is so strong, you will be willing to say ‘No!’ to anything that gets in the way? Don’t live aimlessly. Time passes so quickly. Instead of having a vision for a career, you may end up just having a job. If you don’t care where you are going, then any road will do. If on the other hand, God has placed a dream in your heart that He has created and gifted you to do, embrace it! Write it down, so that anything that comes into your field of vision, that may compromise it, you will be able to guard it with discipline. Live your life with purpose and on purpose!

When we go through tough situations, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we are out of the will of God. He is the same God on the mountain that He is in the valley. He never changes. There will be times in our lives when we experience the dirt of trouble. It is during our valley experiences that we discover aspects of the nature of God that we never would have known were we not there. He is the lily of the valley. David said that The Lord prepared a table for Him in the presence of his enemies. If our enemies are always avoided, then we might miss the table God has prepared for us. In order to have a mature outlook, we must learn to embrace the high places and the low places of our experience, because both are necessary. Nobody wants trouble. Sometimes it can cause us to discover what we professed we believe. In the time of trouble, God said He would hide us. We will never be a strong witness to the world if our lives are void of struggle. In contrast, I am a strong witness when others observe me go through some of the same challenges that others are facing, with hope, strength and confidence in God. I learn to praise him on the mountain and in the valley. Trouble is the crucible that molds us and shapes us into the very likeness, image and character of God. It can be an interesting present. It can fortify absolutes. Let the dirt of trouble work for you, so that you can know that you are more than a conqueror, through Christ who strengthens you!

Preaching can make you happy, but inspired teaching will cause you to become healthy. We can miss some of the most important lessons from God because we don’t like the packaging. We love the seed. We love the service. Sometimes, however, we will have to walk through the dirt. Today’s session is about the dirt of rejection. Nobody wants to volunteer for this. Unfortunately, it is a fact of life, that at some point in time, you will suffer rejection. God will use the rejection of people for your good. He proves Himself to you and He proves your worth during those seasons. Hatred is a difficult pill for most of us to swallow, but it can be excruciatingly painful when it comes at the hands of someone from whom you expected more. It is hurtful when you are betrayed by friends or family. In fact, you can’t be betrayed by someone who wasn’t close to you in the first place. In the scriptures, Joseph was hated by his brothers. He was thrown into a pit, sold into slavery in Egypt, and eventually lied about and sent to prison. Joseph was a seed. He was used to be a seed. He was being planted; he wasn’t being buried. His brothers meant evil against him, but God meant it for good. Joseph became the vehicle by which God sustained Israel in the time of famine. Your rejection may have left you devastated but look up. Your Heavenly Father saw it all. He will turn it around in time. Trust Him.

The Dirt of insecurity. Most of the time, when we begin our Christian journey, we start from the place of excitement, inspiration and enthusiasm. Eventually, life happens to us all. We don’t live in church. Sometimes your atmosphere will not be as serene as a church environment. You must get out there and experience life. It will happen whether you are a professing Christian or an atheist. It will happen if you have been saved for ten minutes or forty years. When the rug has been pulled out from underneath you by life experiences, you can begin to question yourself, question your faith, or even question God. Insecurity is a real issue. There will have to be a season of discovery, even when you don’t feel that you are up for the challenge. In the book of Judges, you will find the story of Gideon. He was the least of the least of the least. When the angel addresses him, he calls him a mighty man of valor. Isn’t it wonderful that God never addresses us by our weakness or limitations? He always addresses us according to what He created us to be. We are never saddled by man’s opinion. If God is for us, no man can be against us. This realization is the remedy for insecurity.

It will be necessary for you to walk out in the light, what God has told you in the dark, for it to become the truth for you. Walking out the proceeding word of God in your life is going to require a situation that places a demand on that revelation. An illuminating word is often awe inspiring and exciting. The difficulty lies in our willingness and obedience to walk out the word that we heard. The seed will only be activated when it is placed in the specific environment for which it was created. Scripture encourages us to count it all joy when you walk through the trials of your faith. The trials of your faith are more precious than gold. The trials are meant to prove what you professed to believe. If you take the dirt out of the equation, the seed will never be activated. If you take the situation away, then the revelation will never be fully activated. Sometimes you must stay planted in the situation, so He can get out of you what He has already planted inside of you. Todays discussion is about the dirt of disappointment. Being a Christian doesn’t mean that life will never give you the opportunity to experience this. Scripture teaches us that the rain falls on the just and the unjust. Don’t be alarmed. You learn things in the valleys that you never learn on the mountaintop. It is when you are totally alone that you can discover that God will never leave you. It is when you feel deceived that you can discover, He alone is the truth. God can use disappointment to teach you that your fulfillment can be found in Him. He is the One who will never fail you. Trust the work of the dirt of disappointment.