Walk Boldly With Jesus

What If He Doesn’t Show Up?

Judges 7:2 “The Lord said to Gideon, “The troops with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand. Israel would only take the credit away from me, saying, ‘My own hand has delivered me.’”

At the conference this weekend one of the talks was all about Gideon.  It covered Judges 6 and 7, however, this morning I am going to talk about the verse above.  I will give you a quick summary of Judges 6 and 7 in case you are not familiar with Gideon as when they mentioned His name, I didn’t know who they were talking about.  An angel of God went to Gideon and called him a mighty warrior.  Gideon was confused as his family was among the weakest clan of Manasseh and Gideon himself was the least in His family.  Never the less, the angel of God was calling him to save Israel.  I have talked about Gideon before because what he did next is something most of us would do.  He asked God to show him a sign if he was really God and if God really wanted him to do this thing.  God gave him a sign, but Gideon was still scared because God was asking Gideon to lead His people into battle against their enemies.  Gideon asked God for two more signs and when God gave them to him, he couldn’t refuse Him anymore.  

Gideon called upon God’s people to come and fight their enemy with him and 32,000 people showed up to fight.  Gideon and his army were still outnumbered by a lot.  This is where the verse above picks up.  God looked at the 32,000 men and told Gideon that he had too many troops.  God told Gideon that if he went into battle with that many men, the Israelites would believe they saved themselves from Midian, instead of God saving them.  God told Gideon to send home any man that was afraid to fight in this war.  Gideon probably expected a few hundred, maybe even a few thousand to go home.  However, twenty two thousand men left.  Now Gideon was left with 10,000 men up against the whole Midianite army.  I can imagine Gideon was probably a lot more anxious about the battle now.  He started with 32,000 which was already a small amount compared to the enemy and now they are down to 10,000.  You would think that would be good now.  

God had other plans, He told Gideon there were still too many men.  He said he needed to narrow it down even more and God told Gideon how to do it.  After this next cut, Gideon was down to 300 men against all of the enemies armies.  Can you take a minute and put yourself in Gideon’s shoes?  Can you imagine what it would be like to show up to a war against an army that far out numbers you and then to let most of that army go home?  I wonder what Gideon was thinking?  I know he asked God to give him signs that God was going to do what He said He would do.  However, in the moment, I wonder if he doubted, I wonder if he was scared?  I don’t really know how one wouldn’t be scared in that situation.  Gideon and his army was successful in defeating the Midianites.  Even though He may have been scared Gideon trusted in the Lord and it paid off, it always does.  

Now that you know the basics of Gideon’s story, let's get back to this verse.  ““The Lord said to Gideon, “The troops with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand. Israel would only take the credit away from me, saying, ‘My own hand has delivered me.’”  The part of this verse that stands out to me the most is when it says, “Israel would only take the credit away from me.”  This is something that I think we tend to do often.  It is not just for those that lived back in Gideon’s time, we are still doing this today.  I wonder how many times I have had something miraculous happen and have given credit to everything except for God.  I wonder how many times I have gotten exactly what I had been praying for and then given thanks to everyone around me, except for God.  Have you ever done this?  You were praying for a new job and you got it and you called up and thanked those that helped you prepare for the interview, and those that looked over your resume or helped you practice interviews but you didn’t thank God.  Or maybe you did thank Him, but you attribute your success in getting the job to your own efforts.  

One of the speakers asked a question at the conference last weekend that really hit me and really stuck with me.  His question was, “Do you ever put yourself in situations where everyone would notice if the Holy Spirit doesn’t show up?”  If most of us are being honest we would probably say no.  Why not?  Because doing that would make us vulnerable.  What if He didn’t show up, what would we do then?  We would look like fools.  We would be so embarrassed.  The thing I have learned from reading various books is that the Holy Spirit always shows up when we call upon Him.  If we create a situation where everyone would notice if He didn’t show up then God would not let us down.  If we step out in that kind of radical faith, God rewards it.  There is a great example of this in 1 Kings 18:22-24, "Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only one of the Lord’s prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets. Get two bulls for us. Let Baal’s prophets choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers by fire—he is God.”  Elijah was putting God’s reputation on the line by saying God would light the fire.  What if He didn’t show up?  Everyone would have noticed.  God showed up, as He always does.  Because Elijah did this demonstration of God’s power, the people turned back to God.  Elijah’s willingness and trust to put himself and God into this situation helped others deepen their trust and faith.  

One of the speakers last weekend told us a story of how he put himself in a situation where everyone would notice if the Holy Spirit didn’t show up.  He was on a mission trip with two other guys in Belize.  They felt called to hold a healing service.  They had never done this before, but they felt the Holy Spirit calling them to do it, so they said yes.  They weren’t really that nervous as they figured there wouldn’t be that many people that showed up anyway.  When they arrived to the church they noticed that all the doors were open and when they got closer they could see that there were over 200 men in that church waiting for the healing service to begin.  They prayed for the Holy Spirit to show up that night and He did.  They had an amazing healing service.  Not because these men were particularly gifted with healing, but because they stepped out in faith and said yes when the Holy Spirit asked them to do something that they didn’t know how to do.  They said yes, and potentially put their reputation on the line, to answer the call.  When you have this type of radical faith, or obedience, God will not let you down.  If you are stepping out in faith for His sake, He will always be there to back you up.  He will never abandon you or leave you on your own.  

Have you ever said no to the Holy Spirit because you didn’t want to be embarrassed.  I know I have.  Sometimes the Holy Spirit asks you to do some hard things, some things that are out of your comfort zone.  I will actually give a witness tomorrow about how the Holy Spirit asked me to step way outside of my comfort zone to do something and how I struggled with it.  Over this next week, give some thought to the question, “Do you ever put yourself in situations where everyone would notice if the Holy Spirit doesn’t show up?”  Then think about how you could do this, or pray that if God does ask you to put yourself in this type of situation that you have the strength and the boldness to say yes.  He won’t abandon you and He won’t leave you alone.  God will always show up and you may just deepen other’s faith by demonstrating your ability to step out in faith.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we want to step out in faith, please help us.  We want to be in situations where we have to rely on the Holy Spirit to show up.  Well, if we are being honest, we may not want to yet, but we want to want to.  We want to have the faith that Elijah had, we want to have the faith that these three missionaries had.  Lord, fill us with the faith of these men and then more.  Fill us with a radical trust that we can step out in faith and know that we know you will always be there to catch us.  We love you so much Lord and we are so grateful that you are always there for us and that you never abandon us.  We are so grateful you trust us and use us to help bring others into your kingdom.  You are so amazing Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I will be the speaker tomorrow and I will talk about a time when the Holy Spirit asked me to step way outside my comfort zone and what that looked like for me.  Also, I will talk about a special experience I had with the Holy Spirit that shows He shows up when asked.  I look forward to sharing that with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

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Steadfast Love

Psalm 143:8 “Let me hear of your steadfast love in the morning, for in you I put my trust. Teach me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.”

Steadfast love, do you know what that means?  I looked it up as I know it is good, but I didn’t know exactly what it meant.  The whole point of this podcast is to examine scripture more closely, to really get an idea of what it is saying to us.  This scripture verse starts off by saying, “Let me hear of your steadfast love in the morning, for in you I put my trust.”  So, what is this steadfast love that we want to hear about?  Steadfast means firmly fixed in place or immovable.  Doesn’t that paint a nice picture of God’s love for us?  It is firmly fixed in place, there is nothing we can do to get rid of His love.  Sometimes we think that God must not love us anymore because we did something that was so bad, so unforgivable that God couldn’t possibly love us anymore.  This is false thinking. This is just what the enemy wants you to think.  

If you think that the Lord doesn’t love you then you won’t turn to Him in times of need.  You will turn to things of tis world.  Did you know that the word steadfast is used 127 times in the book of psalms.  Apparently we are not the only ones that need the reassurance that God’s love is fixed and immoveable.  Why is that?  Why do we question God’s love?  I ask that question a lot because it helps get our brains thinking.  We see things we wouldn’t have seen otherwise.  When we are reading the Bible, we can have a tendency to gloss over things that we hear because we don’t understand them or because we don’t agree with them.  This podcast is examining scripture closely.  I am trying to understand what it means and share that message with you so we can all grow in our understanding of God’s word.  In order to understand it more deeply sometimes we need to ask ourselves why we do things.  Why did the Lord need to use the word 127 times in just one book of the Bible?  Why do we questions His love?  

I think we question it because we have never known a love like it before.  We have only know love from those of us that live in this broken world.  Even if we had really good examples of love, they were not as good as the Father’s love.  Our parents might have shown us a lot of love.  However, was it unconditional love?  Did you feel like you had to do something to earn it?  Did you feel like you were loved no matter what you did, good or bad?  Was it an everlasting love?  Was it a love that was fixed and immoveable?  I hope it was.  I would like to think that I loved my kids unconditionally with no strings attached, but I am not sure they feel that way.  Sometimes we can do our very best and yet the way others interpret our love can vary from how it is intended.  God’s love is steady and unchanging.  It is fixed and immovable.  This is definitely something to pause and take in for a moment.  Can you believe He loves you that much, all the time?

The next line says, I put my trust in you.  Did you know it is safe to put your trust in the Lord?  The Lord is always there for us.  His love is steadfast and never leaves us.  Therefore, we can trust Him in all that we do.  The Lord never leaves us alone, He walks with us in the good times and bad times.  We had a word of prophecy at prayer group last November that said, “ I am here.  I am here with you wherever you go, whatever you do, I am with you.  Know that I am your God.  I will be with you in the good times and the bad times.  Know that I am with you.”  God is reaffirming to us that we can trust Him because He will always be with us.

The last sentence of the verse says, “Teach me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.”  God is trying to teach us the way we should go by giving us the Bible, by giving us the Saints, by giving the priests, and the Pope, or if you are not Catholic, your minister or pastor.  God is not wanting us to blindly follow those of the world.  Sometimes what we are called to do may seem very foreign from what the rest of the world is doing.  That is o.k. we should do it anyway.  If you read about God’s chosen people in the Bible, they often did things that were different from those around them.  God has always called His people to be set apart from the rest of the world.  When you look at your life, is it set apart from others?  Can you tell you are Christian by the way you are living?  When Jesus comes back to earth, will He find faithful people?  

If we want to live the way God wants us to live, Jesus simplified it for us.  God gave the Israelites 10 commandments in the Old Testament.  Jesus said in Matthew 22:37-40, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’   All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” All the Law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.  If you are doing these first two then you will be doing the others.  I know this sounds simpler then it really is.

I know some of you may be thinking, “love my neighbor?  Have you met my neighbor?” No, I haven’t. But God has and He is calling you to love your neighbor anyway.  He is even calling you to love those that are your enemies.  He says in Matthew 5:44 “But I tell you, love your neighbor and pray for those that persecute you.”  This is not easy and God knows this.  However, it is possible with the love and power of God.  God not only teaches us how to live, He gives us all we need to live the life He is calling us to live.  He will never call us to do something and not give us everything we need to do it.  If He is calling you to love someone that is hard to love, he will give you the strength to love that person.  All we need to do is ask for it and then be open to receiving it.  God is showing us how to live, we just have to be open to listening.  Love is at the center of living a Christian life.  It is not judgement, or condemnation.  It is not our job to judge those that are not living the way we feel they should be.  It is our job to love them where they are at.  

When Jesus encountered people that were not living their lives according to the Lord, what did He do?  Did He explain to them all the ways they were falling short?  Did He scold them and condemn them for all they had done?  No, He simply loved them where they were at.  This is so important.  Often times we feel it is our job to tell people that they are living in sin.  This isn’t our job, our job is to love them and to share Jesus’ love with them.  We can share the Gospel with them if they are open to it, but they won’t be open to it if we aren’t showing them that they are accepted and loved just as they are.  Reading the stories in the Bible, especially the new Testament, can be a great place to turn when we don’t know what to do.  Jesus gives us so many good examples.  Jesus has taught us the way to go, it is now our job to follow.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, show us they way you want us to live.  Give us the strength and boldness to live that way even if it contradicts the way the world is telling us to live.  We trust you Lord, and we are grateful for your steadfast love.  Lord, help our love of you and of our neighbors be a steadfast.  Show us what that means.  We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow.  Have a blessed day! 

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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Baptism of the Holy Spirit

Acts 4:29-31 “And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your Word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus." When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.”

Last night I attended the East Coast Encounter Ministry Conference.  I was so happy to be there.  I love being in a room that is full of the Holy Spirit.  Have you ever had the privilege?  Have you ever been in a room and you could just feel the Holy Spirit?  I am not even talking about when you have a sense that the Holy Spirit might be there.  I am talking about when you walk in to a room and you can feel the Holy Spirit is there in a big way.  It is a feeling I can’t quite describe.  There is so much joy in the room.  It is truly amazing.  Last night was one of those nights.  The conference started with worship, which is how we should start anything.  Even your own personal prayer time will be more meaningful if you start it with praise.  God loves when we praise Him.  There isn’t one certain way that we need to praise Him.  He leaves the how up to us.  My favorite way is to listen to Christian music and sing a long.  Maybe you would prefer to tell God how great He is, or call out various names for Him.  The choice is yours.  

After worship we had prayer time where a Deacon spoke words of prayer and words of prophecy over the whole group.  Next we had a speaker talk to us about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.  It was a wonderful and funny talk.  I am sure I will pass along some of what I learned at a later date. Right now I am just letting it all sink in.  After the talk there were prayer teams that were set up to do individual prayers over people.  It was so beautiful.  There were people who were overcome with the Holy Spirit every where you looked.  It was amazing.  The Holy Spirit definitely showed up there last night.  Although I wasn’t surprised as He always shows up when we call on Him.  He is so good like that.  He wants to give us all He has, His gifts and His fruits, we just aren’t usually asking for them.  

The speaker went through several scriptures tonight, one of which was the scripture above.  I liked how this verse begins because the person writing this verse is telling God to “look at their threats,” talking about the Jews that killed Jesus.  It’s as if the speaker is telling God something He didn’t already know.  There is nothing that goes on that God does not know about.  He not only knows about it while it is going on, He knew about it long before it started.  He knows everything, from the beginning of time until the end.  It wasn’t necessary for Peter or John, whoever was speaking at that time, to make that statement and yet it speaks to their human nature.  It is tough for us to wrap our heads around the fact that God knows everything.  So, sometimes, oftentimes, we feel the need to remind Him of what we are going through.  

What Peter and John are looking for in this verse is boldness, along with signs and wonders to be preformed in Jesus’ name.  They understand what they are up against.  They are trying to spread the Gospel to people who lived the same time Jesus lived and yet still don’t believe.  They are trying to spread the Gospel in a time when they could be put in jail, stoned to death, or crucified just for saying Jesus’ name.  They know if they want to have any chance at being successful in their mission, they will need to preach with a holy boldness.  They know if they expect people to believe them they need to also have signs and wonders to back up their teaching.  It would be so great if we could all believe without seeing, but that is not how a lot of us work.  We need to see first and then believe.  The apostles knew this.  

What happened after they asked for boldness, signs and wonders?  “When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.”  What happened?  God answered their prayers.  He always does!  He is good like that.  I know there may be a lot of people in your life that you can’t count on.  We live in a fallen and broken world.  However, God is not one of these people.  You can count on God to answer your prayers every time you ask.  He will never let you down.  I feel like I should say something about that last statement.  Every time I write that statement, I wonder if this is true.  When I say He will never let you down, I mean He never says He will do something and then fails to do it.  He never breaks His promises.  He never leaves us, He is always with us.  He always answers your prayers.  There is never a time when you are asking for something and He is ignoring you.  He always comes through.

I think why I get this funny feeling when I write that God never lets us down is because I know people who have been let down by God.  I think anyone that has lost a loved one probably feels let down by God when it happens.  I know when we lost a member of our prayer group, a young member that was in her 40s, I felt let down.  I didn’t understand why He didn’t save her when I know that He could have.  If you have lost a loved one, you may have had similar feelings.  So I think that is why I am hesitant to say God never lets us down.  Although, what I feel the Holy Spirit saying to me right now is that God didn’t let us down, we were disappointed with His decision.  We asked for our loved one to be saved and they weren’t and we are understandably upset with God for that.  However, God did answer our prayers, it just wasn’t how we wanted Him to.  Our expectation was that He would save our loved one here on earth and He decided to save them by brining them to heaven.  God didn’t do what we wanted Him to do and we are disappointed and that is OK.  God can handle our disappointment.  He can even handle our anger.  As long as we are turning to God in our time of need, He will be there to help us through all of our emotions.  

I may have gone on a little tangent there, but every time I write that God won’t let us down, I get a funny feeling and the Holy Spirit let me to address that feeling today in case any of you were listening and feeling like you have been let down by the Lord.  We may not always like the answers to our prayers, but He does always answer them and He is always there with us to provide us with the strength to get through another day.  He gives us the strength to get through the circumstances we are presented with.  He is a good good Father.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this podcast today.  Lord, we want the holy boldness that you gave to you apostles.  We want the signs and wonders also.  Lord, we want all your Holy Spirit wants to give us.  We are open to the gifts and the fruits of the Holy Spirit.  If there is someone listening to this episode that is does not know about the Holy Spirit and how amazing He is, I ask that you put a desire to learn more on their hearts.  I ask for you to put a desire to grown more in the Holy Spirit on every person listening Lord.  I pray for a revival of the Holy Spirit in this town, in this state, in this country and in the world.  Lord, help everyone know you, your son and your Holy Spirit.  Lord we love you, you are truly amazing.  We are so grateful you gave us your Holy Spirit.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you on Monday.  Have a blessed weekend!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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Rely on God

2 Chronicles 16:7-9 “At that time the seer Hanani came to King Asa of Judah, and said to him, “Because you relied on the king of Aram, and did not rely on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped you.  Were not the Ethiopians and the Libyans a huge army with exceedingly many chariots and cavalry? Yet because you relied on the Lord, he gave them into your hand. For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the entire earth, to strengthen those whose heart is true to him. You have done foolishly in this; for from now on you will have wars.”

I love the way the Holy Spirit works.  I heard this verse recently on the Bible in a year podcast and I was thinking it would be a great verse to talk about with you.  Then I forgot.  Today I was typing up the minutes from our prayer group meetings back in December of last year and I saw this verse again.  I felt it was a confirmation that God wanted me to talk to you about this verse.  This is just one of the many things I love about God.  He asks us to do something, and then if we forget, he gently reminds us.  I also love that He doesn’t seem to be upset with us that we forgot.  He doesn’t make us feel bad, He just reminds us of what we said we would do.  He is such a loving Father.  

The reason this verse stood out to me is because it is about a king who turned to others for help instead of turning to the Lord.  King Asa was went to the King of Aram and asked to make a treaty with him and for that king to break his treaty with the King of Isreael so that Isreal would withdraw from Judah.  Up until this point when King Asa went to battle he would rely on the Lord to help him win the battle and the Lord did.  So in this verse the seer Hanani went to the king of Judah and told him that because he didn’t rely on the Lord, he relied on someone else, then the army he wanted to get escaped him.  

I thought this was good because it is a reminder to us to rely on the Lord.  How many times have we turned to things in the world for help, instead of relying on God?  How many times have things seemed overwhelming and we don’t see a way out and so we ask others for help before we ask the Lord for help.  Asking others for help is not a bad thing.  However, when you stop relying on the Lord, that is when it becomes a problem.  The seer reminds King Asa about some of the other armies that he went up against that were huge armies with lots of chariots and calvary and yet King Asa defeated them because he relied on the Lord.  I wonder what changed?  I wonder why he was able to rely on the Lord for some of the time, and yet not other times.  Especially when the Lord delivered him from some pretty tough enemies.  

I don’t understand what was going through the king’s mind.  Even though I don’t understand what the king was thinking I would say we probably do the same thing.  There are times when we rely on the Lord more easily than others.  There are times when something happens and we go straight to the Lord and we ask Him to fix it or to take care of it.  Then there are other times when we try to fix it ourselves.  We ask others to help, we may even go to people we don’t like just because we think we really need their help.  This is when we need the reminder that God is all we need.  Rely on Him and He will always come through.  In the daily devotional that I am reading titled “Jesus Calling” it has messages from Jesus each day.  Two sentences from today’s devotional stuck out to me.  It said, “A trusting response includes Me in your thoughts as you consider strategies to deal with a situation. My continual Presence is a promise, guaranteeing that you never have to face anything alone.” This is confirming what I said earlier.  It is not that you shouldn’t ask others for help, asking for help is great.  It is only a problem if you don’t have God in your thoughts as part of your plan.  If you are doing all you are doing without God.  

I love the second to last sentence in this verse also.  “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the entire earth, to strengthen those whose heart is true to him.” “The eyes of the Lord range throughout the entire earth, to strengthen those whose heart is true to him.”  Isn’t that beautiful?  It's as if the Lord is just constantly scanning earth to see who needs Him to help them.  If you are in trouble, the Lord knows it.  There is no hiding anything from the Lord.  He knew what you were going to do before you did.  He is always there to help you get out of it.  We had a word of prophecy at our prayer group that said, “I am here.  I am here with you wherever you go, whatever you do, I am with you.  Know that I am your God.  I will be with you in the good times and bad times.  Know that I am with you.”  God tells us this weekly.  I think it must be something He really wants us to hear.  

If you are trying to solve things are your own, don’t.  Lean into God, rely on Him and He will get you through.  God was upset with the King of Judah for not relying on Him and for turning to things of this world.  Don’t let that be you.  Keep God in your thoughts as you come up with strategies for dealing with all situations.  Begin your day with asking the Lord what He wants you to do.  Whenever you encounter a difficult situation turn to the Lord and ask Him how He can help you.  Ask God to lead you and you can’t go wrong.  Consult Him as you would consult your best friend.  Tell Him what is wrong and then listen to what He has to say.  Don’t just tell Him how to fix your situation, tell Him the problem and let Him tell you the way to solve it.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we all fail to turn to you at times, help us to change this.  We all rely on the things of this world, help us to rely on you first, every time Lord. We are so grateful that you keep constant watch on earth, scanning for trouble so you can help those whose heart is true to you.  Our heart is true to you Lord, and if it isn’t please change it so it is.  Let us know what we need to do to be more true to you.    God you are the great “I AM” and you are the Word of Live.  You are our joy and our live.  We love you Lord.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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We have all seen God working in our lives, however, we might not all be aware it is God who is working in our lives.  This is why it is so important we start talking about it more.  The more we share our experiences the more people understand how God works and how much He truly loves us.  If you would be willing to share any experience you have had of how God has worked or is working your life, please email me at [email protected] or just click on the link below.  It won’t take up much of your time and your story could be just the story that someone needs to hear today.  Prayerfully consider sharing.  Everyone has a story and the world needs to hear them.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow and I will have another witness for you next Wednesday.  Have a blessed day!

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Take The Log Out Of Your Own Eye First

Psalm 85:8 “ I will listen for what God, the LORD, has to say; surely he will speak of peace to his people and to his faithful. May they not turn to foolishness!”

May they not turn to foolishness, seems like a pretty tall order.  It seems in the Bible God’s people are always turning to foolishness.  Right now in the Bible in a year podcast with Father Mike, we are finishing up the books of Chronicles and Kings.  We have gone over a long line of kings since we began these two books.  One thing that most of these kings had in common is that they turned to foolishness.  Some of the kings started out as great kings and then they turned away from the Lord and started to worship other gods.  They all turned to foolishness.  One of the first kings to do this was King Solomon.  He really wanted to be a good king.  When God told him that he could ask for whatever he wanted and God would give it to him, he asked for Wisdom.  That sounds like a great thing to wish for.  He wanted to be a fair and just ruler and so he asked for wisdom to rule his people.  However, along with wisdom, he also got the wealth and the strength as a reward for making such a selfless request.  

Doesn’t this story sound like King Solomon is set up to be a really great king in the sight of the Lord?  The problem is Solomon starts to really like the riches he is collecting.  He builds up his army, he started to accumulate horses and chariots, which God has instructed kings not to do.  He also started accumulating wives and concubines.  God told his people not to intermarry with the people of other nations as they will turn your hearts away from God.  Solomon didn’t listen, he had seven hundred wives of noble birth and 300 concubines.  Think about that for a minute.  That is 1000 woman that Solomon had under his care.  If you thought it was difficult to keep your husband or wife happy, imagine if you had 1,000.  Of course with this many wives, it was bound to happen that Solomon’s heart would be pulled away from the Lord.  He wanted to keep his wives happy so he allowed them to build an alter to their Gods and he would worship with them.  God gave Solomon so much, it was clear that God was walking with Solomon, and then he turns to other Gods, it makes no sense to me.

Then yesterday we learned about another king named Joash.  Joash was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem.  Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest.  Jehoiada was his advisor and mentor and helped Joash follow the Lord.  However, when Jehoiada the priest dies, Joash turned to the false God’s of the people he conquered.  It’s interesting because God helped him win the battle.  He was close enough to the Lord to listen to His advise in battle and to trust what God told Him in battle, and then as soon as they win the battle, Joash takes on worship of these false God’s.  It seems so crazy to me.  It is so easy for me to judge the people of the old testament.  

Why is that? Why is it so easy for us to judge others and yet so hard for us to see all the ways we are getting it wrong?  I do take some comfort in the fact that I am not the only one who does this.  It must have been a pretty common problem back in the day if they are addressing it in the Bible.  It says in Matthew 7:3-5, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”  Actually I will read to you the verse right before that too, as they go together, Matthew 7:1-2 says, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.  For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”  Wow, that is a lot to take in.  “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.”  This is something that is so hard.  Do you find this hard too, or is it just me?  Not judging others is something I have been consciously working on for a long time now.  I have even prayed often for God to help me learn to not judge others.  

Have you ever been warned not to pray for patience?  I know that probably sounds weird, but I have been warned not to pray for patience because the way you build up your patience is by having opportunities to practice it.  So, if you pray for patience, the next thing you know, you are stuck in a traffic jam, or some other uncomfortable scenario where you have to practice patience.  It is not fun.  The reason I tell you this is because I did not get a warning about praying for God to help me not judge people.  I kept hearing things at church like the verse above, do not judge people or you too will be judged.  So, I prayed that God would help me stop judging people.  I did not pray this once, I prayed it often, so God would know I was serious.  Guess what, God heard my prayers, as He always does.  However, he did not just fill me supernaturally with the ability to not judge people.  This is what I was expecting.  I asked for Him to help me not judge and so I was expecting for me just to have the ability to not judge people.  That is how prayer works, right?  Wrong.

Instead of having a supernatural ability to not judge people, God gave me lots of opportunities to learn not to judge.  How did He do that, you ask?  Every time I had a judgmental thought about any situation or the way a mom or anyone was handling the situation, that same situation would happen to me.  You probably think I am exaggerating when I say every time, but I really don’t think I am.  It didn’t even have to be a full blown judgement.  Even if it was a fleeting thought like, “if that was me I would do it like this…” Then the next thing I know I am in the same scenario.  If you want to learn to not judge others, step into their shoes, it is eye opening.  I remember watching Super Nanny, a show about a nanny that would come in and teach parents how to deal with unruly kids.  I remember watching the show and thinking to myself, “If my kids ever did that I would…” I can’t for the life of me figure out how I ended that sentence, but it would have come in pretty handy when my child did do that thing, because they did.  Although I am not sure I could recommend praying for help with judging others, it has made me extremely understanding to others.  I definitely judge others less, and try to lead others by example so they don’t judge either.  

We are all doing the best we can and at the same time, we could all be doing better.  That is a fact, a confusing fact, but still a fact.  We are doing what we can, with what we have, with wherever we are at.  It is easy to for me to judge the people of the Old Testament because I have the benefit of looking back on their life and seeing where they went wrong.  However, in the moment, without the benefit of hindsight, who know what I would have done in their situation.  I can’t imagine it was easy for Solomon to have 700 wives and 300 concubines.  I know it was a situation of his own making and at the same time I am sure some of those wives were to make alliances with neighboring nations, as that is how things were done back then.  

It is easy for us to judge others but that is not what the Lord wants us to do.  It is not our place to judge, it is God’s.  He knows everything, even the things we can’t see, like what is truly in someone’s heart.  The verse above says, “I will listen for what God, the LORD, has to say; surely he will speak of peace to his people and to his faithful. May they not turn to foolishness!”  This verse is telling us that if we listen for what God has to say then we will not turn to foolishness.  I really like that the verse says surely God will speak of peace to His children.  We all could use a little more peace in our lives.  How about we all try to listen for what God, the Lord, has to say to us and then just try to do what He tells us to do and not worry about whether others are doing the same.  Remember what we learned in Matthew 7 today.  Take the log out of your own eye before you try to remove the speck from someone else’s eye.  If you want to judge someone, turn that judgement inward and see what it is you can to do listen to what God has to say.  If you are looking for more peace in your life, listen to what God has to say.  Are you listening?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to listen to all you are saying to us.  Help us to not turn to foolishness.  Lord, help us not to judge others.  Help us to leave that up to you and help us to just have compassion and understanding for others.  Lord, help us to keep our eyes and ears fixed on you so you and only you can lead us on the right path.  It is so easy to stray off the path you want us to follow.  Please help us stay on that path.  Lord, God almighty, you are the just one and you are the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  We are so grateful for all you do for us.  We love you Lord!  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  Tomorrow’s guest witness will be Mary C.  I know you will enjoy hearing her witness.  I look forward to sharing that with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

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Your Body is a Temple

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

I thought this verse was a good one for me today because yesterday I did not honor my body.  Yesterday I took full advantage of the fact that it was Father’s Day.  I ate cookies for dessert, after breakfast.  I had ice cream a little later in the day.  Then I may or may not have had another cookie or so.  I also did not do any exercise yesterday but I did sit on the couch with Tony and watch about six or seven hours of TV.  That is not taking good care of my body.  Yesterday I was not treating my body as a temple of the Holy Spirit within me.  I like how this verse starts off by giving you the benefit of the doubt.  “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God?”  The reason I say giving you the benefit of the doubt is because He is saying, “did you not know?”  In other words, maybe you didn’t realize that your body was a temple, so this is your reminder.  The bad news is, you can’t use that as an excuse anymore because I just shared this verse with you.  

This is one of those times when sometimes I feel like learning about scripture can make life harder.  I remember thinking once, ok maybe more than once on my journey, wouldn’t it be better if I didn’t learn this stuff, if I didn’t study scripture?  The reason I felt this way was because God is calling us to live a better life.  He is calling us into so much more. However, that call is not easy, and it requires sacrifice.  If you study the Bible and learn how God wants you to live, it can limit what you can do.  I remember thinking on numerous occasions that if one of the requirements for something to be a sin is that you  know it is a sin, then what if I stopped learning.  What if I stop reading how God wants me to live and then if I do something I am not supposed to do, it won’t be a sin because I didn’t know any better.  Have you ever had thoughts like these?  Be honest, have you?  I think this is normal.  I think it can be scary to live life as a Christian.  Especially in a world that doesn’t value the Christian lifestyle.  

There is so much that goes against the Christian lifestyle surrounding us these days.  There are so many tv shows that are so graphic either with sex or violence.  The music as well, seems to be getting worse and worse.  Then there are so many restaurants that offer such gluttonous foods.  You can have any kind of food you want delivered to your house within the hour these days.  At least it used to be a little harder to over indulge.  You would at least have to drive to the grocery store and pick out what you wanted.  Now you can just sit at your computer and click on all the junk you like and then someone will bring it right to your door.  It is so simple and yet, not helpful in a lot of ways.  

I was listening to the Bible in a year podcast with Tony yesterday and I remember saying I can’t believe how God’s people in the Old Testament kept turning away from God.  They saw amazing miracles and yet, they kept turning away.  However, this morning I can understand it.  The allure of the world is overwhelming sometimes.  The want to just do what everyone else is doing can be hard to resist.  The TV shows look so interesting, the idea of sleeping in on Sunday instead of going to mass looks appealing, and it can also be so easy to get sucked into gossiping, why not everyone else is doing it?  There are things that I know I shouldn’t be doing, but what if I didn’t know, would that be better.  Could I blissfully go about my life doing things that are wrong, but not actually sinning, because I don’t know for sure they are sins?  I was going to write the answer to this question is no.  However, I don’t actually know if that is true or not.  My hunch is that we have a duty to learn and grow and remaining ignorant about our faith and God’s word just so we can go on living in a way we are pretty sure God wouldn’t approve of but don’t know for sure because we are avoiding learning about it can’t be ok.  I am pretty sure that is a loophole that God would close.  

However, even if we could do that, I am glad I am not.  I am glad I am learning more about His word and How God wants me to live.  Yes, learning and studying scripture does mean that we are limited in doing things sometimes.  However, He is limiting us from doing things that are not good for us.  They are not good for our soul.  He is protecting us, just as we are protecting our children when we tell them they can’t eat candy for every meal.  We are not trying to be mean, we know it isn’t healthy and they will get sick if they eat candy for every meal.  The Lord is doing the same.  He know’s our soul will get sick if we watch too much violence and sex on TV.  He know if we eat too much junk, we will get sick.  He knows the more we follow the ways of the world, the further away from Him we will get.  

On the other hand, the more we learn about God and His ways, the closer to Him we get.  The more we study His word and try to imitate the way He wants us to live the more God blesses us and pours down His graces on us.  I don’t know if you can remember a time when you weren’t living your life according to God’s purpose or God’s plan, but if you can I bet your life wasn’t going as good as it does when you are living according to God’s plan.  Studying the scripture is a blessing because we get to know God on a deeper lever.  We develop a more intimate relationship with Him and that is so much better than anything the world has to offer.  The ways of the world can be enticing and sometimes living the Christian lifestyle can feel restrictive, especially if you are surrounded by others that don’t understand it.  However, whatever you are sacrificing to live according to God’s ways is nothing compared to what God sacrificed to save you and me.  

The verse above says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”  I believe this verse is a great reminder to us.  The first thing I think of when I hear this verse is of course food.  It is a reminder to me to not eat everything that I want to eat.  Since my body is a temple and I should Glorify God in my body, I should probably take care of it.  That is not to say I can’t enjoy anything that is not good for me, it is just a reminder that moderation is important.  This verse is not just about food though.  We should also glorify God with what we do with our bodies and what we wear on our bodies.  I like how the verse says, “you are not your own, you were bought with a price.”  Since this is the case, we should act accordingly and treat our bodies as the temple they are.  

We are beyond lucky that God sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within us.  The least we can do is create an environment where the Holy Spirit can happily dwell.  Think about it, if you were a guest living in your body, would you want to stay there?  I know that may be a weird question but I think it is an important one for us to ponder.  When we do we might come up with some things we are doing that we may want to change.  If not, no worries, maybe you are doing a great job living the way God is calling us to live.  If you do notice some things you want to change, know that you aren’t on your own changing them.  God will help you if you ask.  He is always willing to give us the strength we need to make changes.  Take some time today and think about this verse.  Am I glorifying God in my body, with my body?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we love you and we are so grateful that you gave us the Holy Spirit to dwell within us.  Help us to make our bodies a temple to the Holy Spirit.

Help give us the strength to say no to all that is bad for our bodies.  Help us to have the strength to not over indulge.  Lord, renew the desire to learn and study your word.  Give us the desire to walk in your ways, even when it is hard.  Even when others aren’t walking in your ways.  Give us the strength to go against the grain of the world Lord, this world that knows nothing of you.  Lord you are the Light of the world, and you are the hope of the hopeless.  We are so grateful for all you do for us and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

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Listen and the Lord will speak

Psalm 85:8 “Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints, to those who turn to him in their hearts.”

I like this verse fro two reasons.  The first is because it starts with saying, “Let me hear what God the Lord will speak.”  I like this because I do not think that everyone is aware that the Lord wants to speak to us.  Do you know that the Lord is wanting to speak with you?  He does not want to just sit and listen while you spout off all our requests.  The Lord wants to have a conversation.  He wants to help guide you and He will give you direction.  We often think that we can’t ask the Lord questions because He doesn’t talk back.  However, the Lord will speak to you if you give Him the attention and silence that He needs.  What happens a lot of the time is that we ask the Lord questions but we don’t give Him the time and space to sit and listen to His answer.  This is probably because we aren’t expecting Him to answer.  God is busy, He is worrying about the whole world, He doesn’t have time to answer my silly little question about this or that, right?  Wrong.  God has all the time in the world for you and for me.  He can deal with our questions at the same time as He can deal with everything else.

We have a hard time understanding this because our brains are limited in our capacity to understand things beyond our imaginations.  It is hard for us to understand how God works with time because we can only go forward in time.  Trying to grasp or understand how God can see all things that are happening in time at the same time is very confusing for us.  This is where faith comes in.  Faith is trusting in things you can’t see, and even things you can’t understand sometimes.  St. Augustine said, “ Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of faith is to see what you do not believe.”  I use this quote as inspiration to remind me that if I want to see that which is unbelievable and extraordinary, first I need to have faith in those things I can’t see.  This starts with spending time with the Lord.   Spending time getting to know God better.  Spend time with HIs Word, read the scriptures, study them and see how the apply to your lives.  Did you know the scriptures are just as relevant to our lives today as they were more than two thousand years ago?  The books of Proverbs is chuck full of advice for how we should be living our lives.  When you spend time in the scripture you get to know God better and you also want to be a better person.  

The more you learn about God and who He truly is, the more you want to be closer to Him.  God is truly amazing.  There are no words I could say that will help you see how remarkable He is.  However, when you read the Bible, when you read how many times and how many different ways He has saved His people, you can’t help but fall more and more in love with Him.  You also can’t help trust Him more as well.  Spending time with the scriptures is a great way to grow in your faith.  Sometimes when you sit and ask God questions, He will answer you with scripture.  I have had several people tell stories about how they asked God a question and then over the next day or two they either got a scripture verse randomly come to them, or they had people give them a scripture verse and the verse was an answer to their question.  God works in so many different ways.  He is amazing!  

Spending time with scripture is so important and the more time you find to spend with scripture, the more you will see your faith grow.  However, I think it is just as important to spend time in silence with the Lord as well.  We tend to turn to the Lord when we need Him and we ask Him for a bunch of stuff.  We put our requests in and that is great.  God wants us to turn to Him and ask Him for all that we need.  He is our provider and He loves when we ask for things.  He also loves when we just sit with Him in silence and let him minister to us.  He loves when we talk with Him and then also give Him a chance to talk back.  See what God wants to tell you.  He can only talk to us when we let Him.  If we are always busy, and fill all of our time with noise, then He can’t talk to us.  Well, He can, but we won’t hear Him because we aren’t listening.  

Spending quiet time with God can be difficult.  Not because we don’t want to but because we live in a busy and noise world and we are not used of quiet time anymore.  Our brains are used to going a million miles a minute and so even when we sit down and try to spend time just listening to the Lord, our brains keep thinking of a million other things we should be doing.  That’s ok, God understands how we work.  He is looking more for the effort and He will do the rest.  God is so amazing, he has the ability to take our imperfect effort and make it perfect.  If you have the desire to grow closer to Him, He will help you.  If you have the desire to trust Him, He will help you.  He is amazing like that.  He turns our imperfections into perfections if we allow Him to.

The other thing I really liked about this verse is the last part of the sentence when it says, “for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints, to those who turn to him in their hearts.” I think we could all use God speaking a little more peace into our lives.  We are all struggling to find peace these days.  There is so much turmoil, anger and hate in the world right now.  Having God speak peace into us would be awesome.  If we want to hear this peace the Lord is speaking we need to turn our hearts to Him.  That means we are not turning our hearts to the world, to TV, or other worldly vices.  We need to turn to God and spend time with Him in silence and in His scriptures.  If you trust me, and start to spend more time with God in Silence as well as spending more time in the scriptures I guarantee you will be surprised how much closer you feel to Him.  If you did not know before today that God wants to talk with you then I urge you to spend some time talking with Him and then giving Him time to talk with you.

One thing I wanted to mention because one of my prayer group ladies mentioned she wish someone told her this.  She said sometimes when she asks God a question the answer doesn’t come right away.  She will ask God for advice on a situation and often times the answer doesn’t come right then.  She said, for her, the answer usually comes from something someone else said.  For instance, she will be talking to a friend, or read something in a daily devotional, and she will just know that is God talking to her though that person or thought that devotional.  God will get His answer to your question to you in a variety of ways if you are open to hearing it and are looking for an answer.  The first step to hearing God talk with you more is to know He wants to.  If you aren’t even aware that God wants to talk with you then you won’t be on the lookout for it and you won’t spend time in silence listening for it.  I hope after hearing this today, if you didn’t already know God wants to talk with you, then you will start listening for all He has to say to you.  I hope you will start to be on the lookout for all the ways He might be talking to you.  Imagine how amazing it will feel to actually get answers to your questions.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us find quiet time to sit and listen to you.  Give us the desire to sit and study scripture and learn more about you.  Lord, you have always been here for your people and reading about all of that gives us more trust that you will always be there for us.  Lord, we want the peace that you give those who turn to you, help us turn to you.  Lord we love you so very much.  You are the great “I AM,” and you are the King of Kings.  We are so grateful for all you do for us.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you on Monday.  Have a blessed weekend.

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Hello all, before I get started with today’s episode I just want to mention that I started this podcast one year ago today.  I can’t believe it’s been a year already!  I really didn’t know what I was doing and am thankful for my brother John and his wife Rebecca for walking me through how to get started.  I am so grateful for each and everyone of you that has listened to this podcast.  Whether you listened just once or whether you listen each day.  I am honored you choose to spend part of your day with me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I have grown so much over this last year by spending time each day with a scripture verse or two and I hope you have too!  I love you all, thank you for your support and company on this journey.  

A Bubbling Spring of Joy

John 3:8 “ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Today’s scripture verse came from my daily devotional book that I have started reading.  A very good friend of mine, who’s witness you heard a few weeks ago, recommended this book.  This book helped introduce her to Jesus and I thought it would be a good addition to my morning routine.  The daily devotions are written as though it is God talking to you.  They are really beautiful and can really make you think some days.  Today’s devotional touched me, actually it is from June 13th, but I was a few days behind and so I caught up this morning.  Remember when we talked awhile ago about God not expecting perfection?  My being behind on my devotional is a great example.  It’s ok if you get behind.  Just pick back up where you left off.  No one but you is keeping score, so just let it go.

I want to read the June 13th devotional to you because I think God was talking to each one of us for this one.

“I am creating something new in you: a bubbling spring of joy that fills over into others lives. Do not mistake this joy for your own or try to take credit for it in anyway. Instead, watch in the light as my spirit flows through you to bless others. Let yourself become a Reservoir of the spirits fruit. Your part is to live close to me, open to all that I am doing in you. Don't try to control the streaming of my spirit through you. Just keep focusing on me as we walk through this day together. Enjoy my presence, which permeates you with love, joy, and peace.”

Isn’t that beautiful?  God is creating something new in us, a bubbling spring of joy that fills over into others lives.  Have you noticed that our lives always spill over into others lives?  Have you even been in a bad mood and then noticed that your bad mood spread to others and now they are having a bad mood?  The reverse can happen too.  You can be in a great mood and your great mood can spread to others.  This is why it is so important to be mindful of our mood and what we are sharing with those around us.  Are we spreading joy or pain?  This is one reason I like this devotional so much.  God is saying that He is creating a bubbling spring of joy.  He also tells us not to control the streaming of His Spirit through us.  This is great.  That means we can let God do the work when it comes to filling us with joy and showing us how to spread that joy to others.  

Often times we think we need to do it all ourselves.  We think we need to figure out how to spread God’s love and joy to others.  God is reassuring us here that we don’t have to figure out how to do any of it.  He said our part is to live close to Him and to be open to all He is doing.  This last part can be harder than we think.  Being open to what He is doing is something that is easy to agree to and hard to actually do.  How easy do you think it would be to be open to His plan when you don’t understand His plan?  Sometimes we don’t understand why God is asking us to do something and so it is harder to be open to it.  It is also harder to be open to it if He is asking us to do something that is outside of our comfort zone.  If we struggle with being open to God’s plan, all we need to do is pray for Him to open our hearts and mind.  I also like how God tells us in this devotional to not try and control the streaming of His spirit through us.  Just keep our focus on Him and He will do the rest.  

Our verse for today says, ““ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”  This is so true and so powerful.  We do hear the sound of the wind, we can even feel the wind, and yet we don’t know where it is coming from or where it is going.  The Holy Spirit has often been described as like the wind.  I have heard people say that when you feel the wind upon your face think of it as the breath of God.  I love imagining myself standing there on a windy day feeling the wind all around me and thinking it is the breath of God.  I never really wondered though where the wind was going and where it came from, have you?  I think we don’t worry about where the wind is going or coming from because God is in control of the wind.  He knows what He is doing.  We don’t have to worry.  I don’t know if that was a big a ha moment for you or not, but it felt like it was for me.  

When that thought came to my mind I instantly thought, ‘Oh, I get it. We are worrying in our lives because we are not letting God be in control.”  Or maybe we are not trusting that He is in control.  Are you holding back control of your life?  Are you trying to figure it all out on your own?  Are you worrying because you don’t trust that God has got this, that He knows what He is doing?  If so, you are not alone, we all do this.  We want God to be in control, but we don’t know how to let go of the control.  We want to trust God and yet, we have been let down by others so often that we find trusting others, even God, really difficult.  In the devotional above it shows us that God knows we have trouble letting go of the control. This is why He tells us not to try to control the streaming of His spirit through us. He tells us to just keep focusing on Him as we walk through this day together.  When we are struggling with worry, or letting go of control, we need to shift our focus to God and keep our focus on Him throughout the whole day.  He is the one to rely on.

I will leave you with the words from the devotional again as I think they are really powerful and I believe God is talking to each and everyone one of us through this devotional.  I hope you look at the show notes and re-read these words.  I hope you spend some time thinking about them and what they mean to you.  How could you implement these words into your life?  Imagine your heavenly Father speaking these words directly to you.  How would you reply?

“I am creating something new in you: a bubbling spring of joy that fills over into others lives. Do not mistake this joy for your own or try to take credit for it in anyway. Instead, watch in the light as my spirit flows through you to bless others. Let yourself become a Reservoir of the spirits fruit. Your part is to live close to me, open to all that I am doing in you. Don't try to control the streaming of my spirit through you. Just keep focusing on me as we walk through this day together. Enjoy my presence, which permeates you with love, joy, and peace.”

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we want to be open to all that you are doing in our lives.  If we are not, please help us.  Lord, help us to live close to you.  Help us to not try and control everything.  Help us to just focus on you and walk through our days with you.  Lord, you are so amazing.  You are the almighty one and we are grateful for you.  We say yes to you Lord, yes to you creating something new in us,  Yes to spreading your love, joy and peace to others.  We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

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We have all seen God working in our lives, however, we might not all be aware it is God who is working in our lives.  This is why it is so important we start talking about it more.  The more we share our experiences the more people understand how God works and how much He truly loves us.  If you would be willing to share any experience you have had of how God has worked or is working your life, please email me at [email protected] or just click on the link below.  It won’t take up much of your time and your story could be just the story that someone needs to hear today.  Prayerfully consider sharing.  Everyone has a story and the world needs to hear them.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow and I will have another witness for you next Wednesday.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring 

CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails

CLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life

CLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace