February 2017- Recently, all I believe in, and all God has entrusted me to share, began whirling around in my spirit. Like fuel being thrown on the fire inside of me, the flames grew fierce.
This is why I FIGHT. This is why I share. This is WAR. We live smack dab in the middle of a battleground; spiritual warfare. As Christians we cannot live blind to this profound truth. Being blindsided by death makes me feel like I got suckerpunched and rouses the fighter within me. Little did I know that most of my life I had been fighting the wrong battles and in the wrong strength.
Death is what shook me from the comfort and complacency of my lukewarm faith to help me see this reality. God allowed me to see crystal clear through the eyes of a Lion, and to see that my life was destined for impact. All I had to do was take hold of it.
Heaven is our true HOME. This world is not. We should be living this life as pilgrims on a journey with heaven being our destination.
After I tasted death and grief in a personal way, God gave me a gift. In my groaning, I asked Him every day what the true meaning of life was. What is our purpose here? God graciosly answered my heartfelt cry for understanding.
The answer He gave me, and the vision He gave me, changed me forever.
Our purpose is to share the Hope, and to glorify God until all things are made right. We have a mission.
Jesus is our HOPE and our ANCHOR in this fallen and corrupt world. He is our Compass and our Light. He is the Lion.
I LOVE how Pastor Levi gave this analogy. He likens it to Iron Mans suit.
“As a child of God you have been entrusted with the Holy spirit. The SAME Holy Spirit that RAISED Jesus from the dead now lives in your heart and is ready and waiting to be activated. Greater energy courses through you than can be measured with horsepower. As often as you ask, the Spirit is prepared to surge afresh into your soul, like the power coming from Iron Man’s glowing chest piece, turbocharging your efforts as you RISE UP to do ALL God wants you to do.”
Without the suit, in his own efforts, Iron Man was powerless.
We are ambassadors. We get to represent God with our lives. We can represent in all POWER wearing the suit, or represent God carrying the suit and carrying unmet potential. Suited up our potential is unlimited. God’s desire is to do through your life “exceedingly abundantly above” what you could ask for or even think of (Ephesians 3:20)
We are to DEFY “NORMAL.” Disrupt the status quo.
It is possible to live a saved but wasted life; un-met potential, power not tapped in to, cozy and comfortable, NOT radical, audacious, BIG FAITH. We are capable of moving mountains in Jesus name, and for His kingdom here on earth. We are called to follow Him, and lay down our own lives for Him.
As Christians, we ARE NOT called to compartmentalize our time, devotion, and relationship with God. He wants, and ask us for ALL our heart and soul, not SOME of it.
Complacent is where the enemy wants us. Appetites settled and quenched with the WORLD and the things in it instead of being hungry for God.
He wants to dull our spiritual senses, and keep us comfortable in our lives so that we make no progression in our walking and running in faith. He will do anything he can to distort your vision. This is why DIFFICULTY and GRIEF often helps us be shaken out of comfort and complacency helping us to see more clearly God’s purpose for our lives. Not only does difficulty often give you vision, but it also helps to train you for the WAR. God uses the difficulty, or fire, to refine and strengthen, and to prepare us for the WAR to further His kingdom here on Earth.
Each STEP in following Jesus will eventually lead to picking up the pace in a rhythm of victory and joy until we find ourselves beginning to run.
Don’t look back! Keep your eyes to the skies! Cut off every sin that entangles your feet. Every weight that weighs you down AND RUN!
Cut and Run.
Ask God today what He might cut from your life (maybe even a good thing) that might be holding you back or weighing you down.
Or perhaps what good thing or good habit you might need MORE of.
Ask. Then listen.
Are you living your life in FAITH? Faith is an action. Faith seems risky. Faith steps out blindly trusting God. Do you take action everyday believing what is there? OR what God says is there? You must NOT rely on the NAKED EYE, but bravely step out and go AGAINST what feels safe and comfortable, allowing God to work through you. This is what it’s like to hand over the reins; submitting your life.
It looks a little like this. Train, obey, listen, step. Train, obey, listen, step. Train, obey, listen, step. And before you know it, you will be running.
Focus on the day you are in. Don’t look ahead or behind. Be focused, intentional and CONSISTENT.
All this training and taking action takes self-control and discipline. But don’t fear. The Holy Spirit is there to help and strengthen you. Our flesh is weak, but He is STRONG.
Public victory comes from private discipline.
We were created and destined to make an eternal impact on this world for God’s glory. We have to suit up, and step out in the faith that He’s called us to, like mighty warriors. We are in training FOR the battles we face.
As Pastor Levi says in Through the Eyes of a Lion, “Right NOW is the time to strengthen your faith. TODAY is the day to put down roots in a local church and sew yourself into the fabric of the body of Christ. Sing your guts out to the Lord as a drowning man cries for air, even when you don’t feel a need for Him. Open your Bible and seek God’s face each morning, on both the days you don’t get anything out of it and the days when the verses jump off the page. Have family devotions with your kids regularly. Don’t wait. Do it today. Keep your ANCHOR on a short leash. Be diligent and consistent until it becomes your nature. Eventually you won’t have to think about what to do; your spiritual memory will be honed. You will not faint in the day of adversity. Your trial will not be easy or over quickly, but you will get through it. Your anchor will hold within the veil, and one day the forerunner will bring you safely to the other side.
As Christ follower’s death does not have the final word. It has been defeated. We keep on running our race, getting closer and closer to heaven, carrying our loss with heavy hearts, but triumphantly, knowing every day we are closer to seeing them and living with them forever.
Living this kind of life and living in Christ means having the hope that,
Jesus has ABOLISHED DEATH and brought LIFE and IMMORTALITY to LIGHT through the Gospel.
2 Timothy 1:10
Heaven is our HOME. Suit up! Let’s FIGHT and RUN towards the roar until we get there!
Eyes Of A Lion 