Eyes Of A Lion

#FEATURECREEP NOVEMBER 1ST, 2016 FRESH LIFE NOTES

One of the most frequent analogies to following Jesus, is running and/or running a race.

“Running” IS challenging. Running well takes vigor, energy, and COMMITMENT.
You can make progress if you commit yourself to it.

The longer you walk with Jesus the stronger you become…(the more committed you are to running…the stronger you become.) The more strength you GAIN from being COMMITTED, the MORE Jesus is able to do THROUGH YOU.

Levi taught from Hebrews 12 for this teaching, and how he made it come to life so that we can learn how to apply to our own lives was amazing.

“The weights we carry in our lives kill our spiritual passion and dim our spiritual vision.”

We have to rid any unnecessary weight to run our races well.

What needs to be “cut” to lighten our load?

We need to decide what will stay and what will go.

When you are running a race “every ounce” matters.

” A crowded heart is the enemy of a fruitful life.”

We are weighed down by the up keep of the “stuff” that occupies our time and energy.

The “stuff” we FILL our lives with weighs us down and keeps us from spending more time with God.

How much TIME is dedicated to keeping up the stuff we have?

Our hearts, minds, and souls can quickly become cluttered and bloated with too many options and accessories.

“The GOAL of Christ followers is to bear FRUIT, and MORE FRUIT, and FRUIT that remains.”

SIN can stop our forward progress. It’s there to choke us out and entangle us, holding us back from running our races well.

PETER DRUCKER said, “Half the leaders I have met don’t need to learn what to do. They need to learn what stop.”

Pastor Levi gave a visual of what it looks like to take off the weights, and sin, that hold us back and entangle our feet keeping us from running.

Decisions in my life have to be made to no longer allow these things to have control over me, so I can do what God wants me to do. I won’t be held back from the forward progress that He has been dreaming about for me!

I have to look for unruly growth and cut it out if I want to make any PROGRESS!

What am I willing to cut in order for me to be able to run?

Pastor Levi gave three main points to help drive this message into our hearts and lives.

PRIORITIZATION- Sit down and make a PLAN. What is the goal of my garden?
RUN the RACE. There IS a FINISH LINE! Figure out WHAT the finish line is.

Figure out what is is…(Pleasing and honoring God) and orient everything around that one thing being accomplished.

Run to WIN!

INSPIRATION- Nothing determines HOW you run MORE that WHO you run with.

I have to get the right people in my life who have the same priorities as me.

It doesn’t mean we abandon the world…our goal is to REACH the world.

Run your race surrounded as you are by a cloud of WITNESSES (cheering us all on)!!! ❤

CONCNTRATION-(FOCUS) Hebrews 12:2

When I am FOCUSED on Him, I can receive POWER FROM Him. (Tunnel vision on Jesus)

CUT AND RUN!

I’m going to take courage this morning, and press through discouragement. I’m going to try a new tactic for my blogging. I watch several sermons a week and I try my best to take notes. I feel like it’s a waste if I don’t. Then after I take notes I feel like it’s a waste if I don’t visit those notes. I have felt like starting to write in a blog was a good way to express myself, and to keep things written in a place, but it has made me feel pressured in “what” I write. I love sharing things on facebook when they come fresh off the press from the center of my heart. The thoughts may be one sentence or they may be five pages but I always feel lead to share them. I quickly started feeling like “blogging” wasn’t my thing but while I pray through it…I’m going to not give up on God possibly using it as a platform, and I am going to start summarizing notes that I have taken first- to give them life, and second- to keep pressing on and being consistent with writing. I know following means taking action and I feel like if God is leading me to it, then I have to actually take steps toward it or I will never get there. Does that make sense? So bare with me! I’m not giving up!

My very first blog post.

Well, this is it. This is my very first time to write on my blog. I can’t even believe I am saying that. It is very scary yet exhilerating all rolled into one. I have seen what God can do when in complete fear, but yet I step out in trust and obedience. I read something recently that I loved. It said, “if your faith doesn’t scare you, or cause you to be dependent on God to walk in it, is it really faith at all?” Or something like that… I LOVE that thought. It inspires me to run TOWARDS THE ROAR….meaning running toward the very thing that scares you, and in this instance, it’s me starting a blog!

I honestly don’t feel inspired to share on a certain topic. I DO feel like I’m being nudged to step out in faith and share more of my journey in a more routine manner. This very blog post is me putting my faith INTO ACTION. I’m stepping out of my comfort zone, because I’ll be honest the devil was doing a good job at keeping  me living in fear, keeping me discouraged, and keeping me comfortable and complacent where I was just posting from time to time on Facebook. He did. But, my God opened my eyes, and called me out of my cozy dwelling place and into deeper waters where I will have to depend on Him to give me the words, the time, the energy, the inspiration. This isn’t about what Erin Hall CAN DO. It’s about what Jesus can DO THROUGH ME. It’s about Him getting the glory. It’s about people seeing what God can do through a life willing to submit to His calling, His ideas, and His purpose.

I have made every excuse in the book, but God did not give up on me, and He has laid on my heart  that it’s time. I honestly have no idea what this is going to look like, but I told Him that I am willing.

I thought I would tell you for starters what the “eyes of a lion means to me,” because it is a big part of the season of life that I’ve recently walked through.

Eyes of a lion means to me waking up each day I am blessed enough to wake up to, and somehow or in some way, making the most of it and making waves for eternity. It means to see life every single day intentionally through a scope of FAITH. It means to see what is really there (what God says is there) instead of what my natural eyes see. The things my eyes in the flesh see are temporary and carnal, but when I choose to see it through the eyes of a lion… I’m seeing what will impact eternity. The hardest part of seeing life this way from day to day is going against, and acting against what I FEEL. Dying to (my)self. And to say it simply…. it’s having a vision of what REALLY matters in this life. And probably MOST of all to have a REAL AWARENESS of how any given day could be my last. My focus needs to be on heaven, not the trivial things we so easily get tangled up in here on earth.

One of my biggest fears is going to heaven and finding out  that because of my lack of faith I forfeited a multitude of blessings that God had for my life if I had only placed my full trust and hope IN Him. That terrifies me and also INSPIRES me to get moving…TODAY.

I believe that possibilities are endless and our potential is unlimited when we allow God to have control of our lives. I also think it’s much more simple than most think it is. Anyone can have an intimate relationship with our Creator and Savior, and be used for the purpose He created us for, if we CHOOSE Him, and surrender ourselves to Him. He created us to glorify Him and to make an impact for His glory, and all the gifts we have been given were given to do just THAT. We were created to be a part and play a role in advancing His kingdom. (His kingdom on our planet Earth.) And every day that we live blind and don’t have spiritual eyesight, is a day wasted.  War is being raged all around us every single moment. Having the eyes of a lion means to CHOOSE to believe and see every little detail of your life the way God intends for us to. “The Christian life is not a playground…it’s a battleground.”

Steven Furtick from Elevation church recently delivered a message that greatly impacted me. It was about what his church’s mission statement would be. Ultimately, within the teaching, he proclaimed that his church’s mission was to not just help you to see what God could do “for you”, but more importantly help you to see what God can do “through you.”

I want to be a part of what God is doing, and I want Him to do something grand THROUGH my life.

A lion uses the light that he takes in during the day and reflects it AT NIGHT so that he can SEE IN THE DARK. I want to reflect the LIGHT I’ve been given INTO this dark world, dark culture, dark society, and have the VISION to SEE as I WALK, instead of wandering aimlessly with no greater purpose than to live and die leaving behind only memories. I want to bea light so that OTHERS can see in the dark too. We have been given, in God’s word, orders to spread the love of Christ and to preach the gospel. Our DUTY as a Christ follower is to be a part of that. To DO that. But first you have to resolve in your heart that you are going to see things differently, and you have to allow the Holy spirit to take residence within you, and allow Him to work through you.

THAT is how you make waves for eternity. That is what having the eyes of a lion means to me.

As I’ve been trying to make sense of what a blog from myself might look like….I think it might possibly be just helping people along to see with crystal clear spiritual vision. I spent so much time walking in the dark that I want to shine some light and help others see what “seeing spiritually” actually looks like on a day to day basis in the ordinary routine’s that occupy our time. I could be wrong but that’s what I’m feeling for now. And that may not be what God has planned at all. I’m open to that too. OFTEN what I think and what God thinks are very different. That is the glorious adventure we get to be a part of when we let Him have the wheel. That’s the beauty of FAITH. Ultimetely, I want this blog to be His.

On an ending note…can I just say within the last year, that putting faith to action with sheer determination after losing a loved one, has brought me community, unity, love, influence, sisters, friends, vision, and blessings even in the midst of storms, and a great sense of purpose that I never DREAMED I would EVER have. I want to share that.I want others, friends and loved ones, to experience that. If you don’t know what it means to live in faith, then I want to help you by just sharing what I’ve learned for myself. I’ve been there too, and I’m still learning, and I’m still growing. I’ve also had some amazing people helping me along in my spiritual journey and I wouldn’t be where I am without them.

My deepest desire is just to be a vessel that God can use. I want to stay so close to Him that I hear His whispers, and am able to obey when He calls me walk in obedience TO His commands. I want to be faithful, and have audacious faith. I want to stand before Him on my appointed day and hear him say, “well done my good and faithful servant.” My life is His and there is NO looking back.

This is a passage from the book Through The Eyes Of A Lion by Levi Lusko, that I loved.

“It’s the same with you and me: if we won’t stand up and do what God has planned for us, He will bless the person down the block or the church around the corner with the opportunity. Whenever His still small voice calls us to do something, it’s as though we are given the right of first refusal. Warren Weirsbe, the author of the profound book On Being a Servant of God, once said, “It’s not ability God is looking for but availability.” Too often we are full of ourselves; God can use us only when we offer Him our emptiness.

A thousand years from now, we won’t be able to change what we did in our lifetimes, but if we do it right, we will be enjoying the fruits from it. To quote the words Maximus from Gladiator- quite possibly the best movie ever made- “What we do in life echoes in eternity.” I pray that no matter what life throws your way, you would honor God, give Him space to move in your life, and run towards the roar with all your heart until you stand before Him face- to- face.”  -Levi Lusko

I owe some very important people my DEEPEST gratitide for giving me THIS VISION right in the middle of my sweet, comfortable, good, honest, God seeking, Christian life. My Father in Heaven most of all for literally picking me up from SINKING sand, forgiving me, dusting me off, and placing me on His solid ground, all those years ago, and giving me the VISION of my one true Lion.  Levi Lusko for having the COURAGE to write Through The Eyes Of A LION in the face of loss and tragedy. And both he (Levi) and Steven Furtick for being the literal voice of God in my life and teaching me pretty much all I know. I hope someday in my life or even in Heaven that I will be able to express my thankfulness to them. And my daddy for always pointing me towards the way, in his life and spirit STILL, and  for loving me unconditionally. ALL of these I owe for helping me know and understand what it means to live a life of FAITH in ACTION.

Well….here goes nothing.

❤ Erin

((However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me- the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.  Acts 20:24)) ❤