Trouble comes in all shapes and sizes.  Trouble is pliable, persistent and unrelenting.  The matter how hard you try, you can't run or hide from it.  Trouble always finds you, and when it does, it adjusts itself to suit you perfectly.

Trouble even eats away at faith of those who would consider themselves to be ardent followers of Christ, by occupying their attention so that they either forget or fail to recognize that God is always with them. But those who know Him also know that every situation is nothing more than an opportunity that God uses to reveal more of Himself...

Christ didn't come and die to establish a new religion. He came to restore your relationship with God, not pour concrete into a some theological construct. His purpose was to complete the adoption and bring you into his divine bloodline and He is calling you to enter into intimate, personal relationship with Him, a relationship enabled and empowered through the indwelling Holy Spirit, a relationship made possible because of what Jesus did FOR us. But unfortunately, too few of those who would follow Him are interested in what Jesus wants to do THROUGH us.

Church is to your Christian life something like what an advanced education is to your career. It can provide a lot of preparation, valuable information and help you develop your skills, but it doesn’t ensure your success. The real purpose of church is to help you cultivate a personal relationship with God. That’s what you need not just to survive, but to thrive in the real world.

You have a story. A story worth telling. Some Believers think they don’t because they are still a work in progress. But they do have one. Key to the story is the value that God placed on you even before you were born. It’s time you learned your story. To do that, you must discover and embrace your identity.  To do that, there’s something you’ve absolutely, positively got to do…

Christian culture, as we have lived it, has for too long tried to fight in the flesh, battles that can only be won through the Holy Spirit. Because of this, divine power and authority has typically been in short supply and the manifestation of God's glory in our lives is virtually non-existent. The enemy has succeeded in rendering the children of the Lord largely ineffectual in greater society.  

And he was able to do it because religion has replaced relationship in our lives. But a new thing is happening and God is calling you into it.

Many Christians aren’t standing where they think they are with Jesus. Here are 7 Levels of relationship that the Lord shared with me one day. It’s not that any of them are wrong, it’s that a lot of Christians have a tendency to rise to the level that is within their comfort zone. Then they stop pursuing God and plant themselves right there. Is that you?   Which of these levels would Jesus say you are at?

A lot of Believers want God close in their lives... but not too close. Frankly, they want a safety valve, not a relationship. They’re satisfied with learning ABOUT God and are not too interested in getting to KNOW God personally.  

The Lord is looking for His children to enter into intimate, personal relationship with Him. It’s what we were created for, it’s what He intended for us from the beginning. It’s what He desires. However, it seems that intimacy with God is not what most of us really want.   

How do you feel about it?

Reference Texts: Isaiah 29:13, Exodus 20:19, John 1:16-17, John 14:16-17  

A prayer for today:  Dear Father, I declare your goodness and give thanks for all that Jesus provided to me, for restoring and reconciling me back into the relationship that you and I were intended to have. I thank you for not just abiding with me, but for living in me that we might be ever closer to one another. Help me to see this clearly. I thank you for this remarkable blessing and for the opportunities to bless others through it as well. Open my mind and heart and teach me what you would have me know. Direct and guide my life through the Holy Spirit, transform my heart and mind to be more like you.

Christ restored our dominion over the Earth at the cross. We have a God-given right to reclaim it, but like the Israel facing the Promised Land, we are required to take it by force.   

“The Church” failed in that mission. It got sidetracked. The reason the world is in crisis, the reason there is death and disease, the reason men are at each other’s throats, is because the Children of God don't know their identity and have failed to step back into their proper role or exercise their God-given power and authority.   

Now, the Lord is raising up an Ekklesia of today to take territory and subdue the enemy.   

References: 

Job 13:15

Ephesians 6:12

2 Chronicles 20:15

John 16:33 

"Becoming A Second Mile Leader" - Jon Ashcraft   https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Second-Mile-Leader-expectations/dp/1086242386/

How you view God depends directly on your personal relationship with Him (or lack thereof). The same goes for how you view the world at large, society in general, and people in specific, also depends on your personal relationship with Him because it’s the difference between seeing and assessing circumstances in the natural and discerning all things under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. God is a God of personal relationships and the advance of the Kingdom of Heaven is being made accordingly.

Many Christians mistakenly believe that their sins make them unworthy and prevents them from coming before the Heavenly Father. This lie has caused them to miss numerous blessings that He wants to release into their lives. Many prefer to think that God is either too busy to be interested in their day-to-day lives or that their sin precludes them from having a close relationship with God.  

To its detriment, Christianity is frequently presented as — and presumed to be — the moral lifestyle choice that grants believers access to Heaven and eternal life. That is a devastatingly erroneous view. God who isn’t looking for you to perform for Him. What He desires is to restore the relationship you were created to have with Him.   

We have it backwards. Salvation is not a reward for what you do or haven’t done. It is the starting block of your personal relationship with God, not the finish line.