Leading From The Edge

Who to blame when things go wrong...

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Ok - kind of a baiting title - but I don't think that I am the only one who questions when things go bad... What could I have done differently, what was God trying to teach me, is the enemy attacking?   But, one thing that I have been learning more and more is... the story is just unfinished...

B

 

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SHOW NOTES

This week I want to talk about something we did right.

I actually try to avoid that for some reason - always teaching from something that I have done wrong,

As if that is a better qualifier

When its really just my battle with not wanting to be prideful

Ha - so backward we can be!

So in this podcast today I want to teach a quick point about how w approach situations

Growing up charismatic in my faith, seeing all the name it and claim, prosperity messages, tongue talking the way of listening to the Holy Spirit - I’ve had to do some unlearning these past 2 years

Not that any of those things are wrong - and I know some that hear me say that may disagree with me…

But the unlearning that I am talking about is the fact that I had determined so much of my WALK by what I see…

While I believe that God wants us to be with instead of without (like I would my own kids)

And that God wants us to walk in the spirit and putting the right emphasis on the power of the Holy Spirit - the gift given to us by God himself on the departure of Jesus.. something to be celebrat3ed whether you believe in praying in tongues, prophecy or not… just simple the gift of the Holy Spirit

But too often in my charismatic background, I made these things the evidence of God in our lives

Not the tools that God gives us to live our lives

In other words, when I wasn’t walking in prosperity - that meant that I messed up, or that it was an attack of the enemy… and instead of battling my discontentment, I was battling  the wrong battle

Instead of walking the situation OUT and trusting the Lord

I would trust in my faith and my ability

 

Dangerous territory

What am I saying

I think that as believers we have this NEED to know the value of what we are going through RIGHT NOW

We have to have an explanation RIGHT NOW

and what happens is that we go to our reserves when we are depleted or challenged

 

We start pulling from what WE KNOW, instead of leaning in and trusting God

We NEED to know right now

I need to explain this RIGHT NOW

I need answers RIGHT NOW

 

Maybe this is a process/

Maybe this is so multifaceted in what it is doing in me that there is NO WAY for me to know what this is doing RIGHT NOW
Why am I suffering?
Why did I make that decision?

Was it a bad decision or a good one?
Why when I listened to God is this HARD?

Did miss God when I took that job?

Cause this is hard, the house has flooded, the business isn’t growing

I'm stressed out

I'm losing my peace!

Is this YOU GOD?

WHERE AM I?

 

 

And I feel like we take those moments and we turn to ourselves to explain..

At least I do!

I look at Ephesians 1:7 a little differently since I have been thinking through this

7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

 

We focus on forgiveness and grace… but what about redemption through the blood?

Jesus went through SOOOO much pain, torture, and being ridiculed and even questioned God…

 

 

Matthew 20:18 - Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death,

 

 

 

Jesus is letting them know - hey so, here is how it's going to go with me

I am about to be delivered to the people and they are going to beat me till my last breath, mock me in front of everyone, stripped naked, then - they are going to give me a chunk of wood to walk and carry it to the place where I am going to be nailed to it and killed in front of the whole world

 

All because I am doing what I am supposed to do

All because this is part of God's plan for me and for you…

 

Can we think about that?

We just pass over that HE went through JUNK on this earth

 

 

But I find hope in this that in Luke we hear Jesus talking to God about this situation

 

Luke 22:42 - saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.”

 

So, is Jesus saying Hey God, is this you?

Is he saying, Hey God, can we make this easier?

 

 

I think what we are learning in this Eason of our life is this

And please hear me - you have heard all of this before - but when do we LIVE IT???

 

1 - Not everything I think is bad, is bad…

 

Here is my story of what we got right

We have been remodeling the camp for our opening dates.

Let me stop and give a plug - if you have never invested in the goals, dreams, and God’s plan for your family - you need to really consider coming to our camp.  We are literally walking families through the experience of hearing from God for the reason why they are together as a family. 

There is nothing more powerful than having a FULLY GOD CENTERED Family

Not that you will achieve perfection - we still argue, have strife moments in our family, but the expectation is in GODs plan and what each of us bring to the family

PLEASE _ PLEASE consider coming to ur camp for your family

We do this AT cost

And if you don’t like what you got - we will give you your money back

Pray about

 

Ok - back to the story we have been remodeling up here and decided to find a furniture piece that would go into the cafeteria for books and supplies… well, I found the one and was pretty excited as it was “PERFECT” for what we needed. 

So we Hooke dup the trailer, grabbed a few kids, and drove 45 minutes to the house where we oddly purchase

 

Pulled up, went, and looked at it - hmmm looks a little darker than what I thought

And it is a little larger than I thought…

But hey let's consider

 

I called Nili and we both felt like it was worth a shot

And I pray3ed about it - felt like it was a yes

 

We loaded it all up (5 pieces ) and drove back home

Sper excited I get it all unloaded and set up and then Nili is looking at it

And… she’s like, so, this is not going to work

Now pause - in the past where we got this wrong was pride

Nili would feel pressure because I took the time and money to get something

I would feel pressure because I don’t like wasting time or money

We would both feel pressure because we would get frustrated that either of us either missed what God was saying, or we were making our own decision

 

In th3 past 0- this was huge potential to walk in bad thoughts and relationships

To get offended at each other

To be disappointed in me

Lots of options

Inst3ead, there was this easy place of just trusting God

I was like - hey I'll post it for sale online and let's just sell it

And Nili was like, it's all good - let's just see what happens

 

Wow - this was amazing

We were handling this like adults and TRUSTING GOD

Not sure God how this was good for us, but I know that I can learn

Am I to learn that I need to hear you better

Am I to learn that we can have bad decisions and we can get along through it?

Work the money spent…

But rather than feeling the need to ASSIGN what God was doing - I felt this peace and unction to just be in the moment and not try to define God and his plan for this entertainment center.

 

This leads me to point number 2

Point number 1 is Not everything I think is BADS, is BAD

 

Number 2

2 - Not everything I see NOW is everything to be seen

 

Sometimes I think we rush to make judgment

So that WE have peace or direction - instead of relying on GOD

 

Jesus dealt with the NOW as if it was part of his journey

Yep - I think we can do that a LOT BETTER!

There is peace there - you know?
There is joy there - you know?
That place of confidently relying on God and not looking at what you see as the end of what God is doing…

 

So we put the entertainment back on the Facebook marketplace and just trusted God

The next day someone comes out to see it and loves it for their remodeled

Asked if I could deliver it

Sure - I can deliver it - no problem…

Again, normally I would not even consider delivering, but I felt like that is what we were supposed to put up this time (I’m a non - delivery guy - I'm like, you want it, come get it)

Yep _ I am that guy

 

So, instead of thinking that there is a loss I just leave it to the Lords's hands

We sell it to the person and the next day I load all of it up and we drive the 20 minutes to deliver the furniture

 

We get there and we unload it

They are so thankful, and appreciative (and my super strong 16-year-old daughter is showing up these construction guys)…

And we unload it all

AND we make 20% on the sale

BUT it doesn’t stop there

 

My daughter and son get paid by the lady for working  (an unexpected blessing for them)

And then she asked me

 

Do you need kitchen cabinets we are remodeling and I don't need these particular cabinets? 

You can use them for your camp

Well - what she didn't know is that we are putting a mini kitchen in one of the large rooms at the top of the mountain. 
So we were blessed
And when I look back at the entire situation

We purchased a $275 entrainment center that we couldn’t use

That we sold for $370 with Talia and Zion getting $10 each to help

Plus about $1500 in kitchen cabinets and stainless sink for a project that we hadn’t even asked God for provision for….

Say what?
Brings me to point three

 

 

3 - I need to look more to Code than what I am seeing

I believe that in this situati0on - God was leading us the entire time

Does it makes sense to make a bad purchase and it be God>

Not in the natural mind

But to ask HIM, get the, yes, and then immediately have the disappointment of it is the wrong item, to then selling it for a profit, and then to have my kids get blessed and complimented on their attitude of helping, and then to get blessed in an area that we aren’t even ready to do…

 

Looking to God instead of relying on what I am seeing…

That is the win!

 

But why do I share all of this?

Lets recap

 

There are going to be times in your leading life

Putting yourself out there to lead others

That you are going to make decisions that look like a failure

But the story is still unwritten

Could it have been a wrong decision, yes or maybe no

But that isn’t what the end is about -

It is about the journey and how amazingly God works for our good

 

 

Not just ou financial good

But our health, spiritual growth, relationships, finances, peace, the fruit of the spirit

EVERYTHING

 

And when we stop thinking everything that goes wrong is Bad, or that we have all the information of the situation, or that we should be looking to what it LOOKS like right now as a determiner of our emotions or strength… We are likely, missing God’s best

 

And.. if Jesus needed to go to God… well, you probably need to also!

 

Because that what leade3rship is about

It is about being one step ahead

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Leading From The EdgeBy leadingfromtheedge