En-courage(the team devo I got to give!)

Heb 10:24:

Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as in the habit of some but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

What's this scripture saying, what's the goal here? It's saying okay let's consider how to stir up each other, not let's consider how to calm each other down and mellow out all these radical people, no it says let's consider how to stir one another. What I read you about Lacy, did that stir your heart? Did that push you and prod you to want to do something awesome like that for the Lord. That's what I'm talking about when I say stirring your heart. We should be finding ways we can stir one another up to what it says to do love and good works. So what your saying is wait a minute i don't have to be a pastor or a ______ I can  use whatever gift and desire God has given me and pursue that? And I'm not nuts if after studying the word one day I decide to surrender everything and go do what I feel called to do? No your not crazy, it makes all the sense in the world. I mean I pray because I'm still selfish and I'm still greedy, but i go God I don't wanna be, i don't wanna be, I don't make excuses for my selfishness or greediness, i don't make excuses for my lack of love. i say God will your holy spirit change me, cause at the end of my life I wanna be a girl that is just so full of love and all these people around me that got a chance and a life and a relationship with Jesus Christ because they saw Jesus in action in me. So how can we get together and figure out ways that we can stir one another up to good works. Your not alone. That's the whole point of church is for you to look around and see that your not alone. You don't just draw into yourself and depend on yourself for everything you need, that's not the way God intended. So we get together and do what is says next, encourage each other....encouraging one another not just me encouraging you but you all encouraging each other. Have you ever noticed that the word encourage has the word courage in it? I mean I always knew how to spell it. But get this what we should be doing when we get together is we should be putting courage into one other. I mean I always thought encourage was just like, i like your shirt, no encourage is would you build me up and remind me that i can do something because i have the spirit of God is inside of me. And as i gather with you That's my job, is to remind you that you of what you are able to do because the holy spirit of God is in you that might stir you up. That's what I'm doing is trying to put courage into you so that you will say you know what I'm not stupid, everyones been telling me that I'm crazy,  no I can do this thing. Just like Caleb and Joshua no they weren't crazy everyone else was, those two out of that whole nation had it right. They prob had to get together and encourage one another, we're right, our God is that mighty and he can use a piece of trash like me and change the world! In fact that's what he wants to do is take the weak and uneducated and astonish the world with them. So we need to be encouraging one another all the more as we see the day drawing near, I don't know about you but i see the day drawing near when Christ is gonna return, and the greatest thing that i can do as your coach is try to stir you up and say look God has not called us to live boring lives. No one looks at a boring life and says awww i want that....no...they wanna see people who are stirred up and who have the holy spirit working through them and say how did that common girl have this much passion and this much boldness and do this much stuff, and you can answer the holy spirit of God, you want him? You know it's because I've been forgiven because of what Jesus did on that cross for me and he died so he could put his spirit in me! And now there is crazy things that I'm doing but its not my own power i don't know what's happened to me, but i get together with these other people who are doing crazy things, and let me tell you about what they're doing and then we just keep encouraging and encouraging and putting that courage into one another. So let me close with how that chapter ends......

Heb. 10:37-39

For Yet a little while, and the coming will come and not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him." For we are not of those who are shrink back and destroyed, but those who have faith and preserve their souls.

okay listen to that, what a powerful statement. look in a little while, you know the coming one, we've been talking about this, jesus is coming, he is actually gonna come. and the righteous ones, the ones who actually lived by faith, the Calebs the Joshuas,  those that said, no my God can do this through me, I can defeat this army i can have this happen, and he says if he shrinks back, he says my soul has no pleasure it him. I think to myself man i was so fired up at that time, but have i shrunk back? did i let all the other voices get in my head? some of you know there have been times in your lives when God wanted you to do something and he wanted you to go hard after it but you heard all of the discouragement, people took courage away from you. And said no you can't do this, You didn't have believers coming along side of you and praying for greater boldness greater power, you didn't have the believers coming beside you and encouraging you and saying you can do this, and don't shrink back from it. I wonder to myself have I listened to these voices? That's my prayer is that this be a place and a team where you come to find encouragement. I mean this book if filled with a bunch of total losers who got filled with the holy spirit of God and did amazing and unbelievable things and people see that and say i want to be a part of that. Are there things right now in your life  that God is wanting you to do and your shrinking back and getting scared? Maybe some of you are wondering if your own family is with you on some of this stuff. We need to be encouragers, and I hope we leave here today and if no one else believes in you know that if the holy spirit is in you, i believe that God can do whatever it is that he has put in your heart. He's not gonna give you something you cannot handle. He doesn't do that.  If their is a sin in your life he will give you a way out of it. You can get out of it! If there is a calling a vision something you need to do, go after it! He is enough.  Some of you just need the courage to get saved. I'm telling you he is worth it, he is greater than anything the world can offer you. We are talking about the creator here. I am constantly going t God asking God what do you need from me cause your the greatest. So let's do it. Let's be encouragers. Let's be a team where we come together and put courage into one another.

Face to Face with the enemy....

Something that has been on my heart this week especially is just realizing that spiritual warfare is real. Satan is real. He wants to steal, kill, and destroy. He wants to get in the middle of whatever he can and stir things up beyond what we ever thought they would turn into. We too often underestimate Satan's attack and let him crawl into to situations without recognizing that he slowly took a situation from good to bad, then from bad to worse. We as Christians must realize that satan will do anything to prevent you from becoming the person God has planned for you to be. I mean God never wants us to fear the enemy's threats, but a key step in spiritual victory comes when we acknowledge that we have an enemy who poses a real threat. Satan's strategic plan is laid out to entice you to sin and to drift your devotion to God most the time without you even recognizing that its happening. He uses things like, greed, selfishness, disappointment, and pride just to name a few. He also watches how we react to a certain situation. If there is an opportunity for him to weave his evil mischief into our thoughts, he will take it. This is the reason we need to know how to detect , identify, and protect ourselves from the destruction that comes as a result of the enemy's tactics. 

Here's the deal God doesn't intend for us to go through life blindly, just as you wouldn't march into a war without a battle plan and a map of the combat zone. God expects us to consider the consequences of our actions and the responsibility we have been given as believers. Even Paul cautions in Eph 5:15-17 to, " Walk not as unwise mean but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." 

It may seem really hard and impossible at the point your at in your life, maybe your struggling with a sin, maybe your struggling with a temptation or thoughts. Let's get real, why not?? I'm just going to lay it out here, haha, no need to be fake. For me, I have been struggling with a whopping dissapointment. I have let Satan just pound on me from every direction. I have prayed, and cried out to God weeping for him to make things known to me and for him to bring restoration, and for whatever reason he hasn't yet. I know in my heart and mind that he has a plan and is in total control, but that doesn't seem to make it any easier and it definitely doesn't make it less painful. And now and again I will allow Satan to creep in and just put me in bondage. There have been times when I literally had trouble breathing because i could feel something just pushing in on my chest and feel my heart aching, but in all that God is still faithful. He always finds a way to remind me that he has promised to be our strength in times of difficulty, heartache, and brokenness. Here's what God is so faithfully teaching me through it. Take David for example. Saul knew that David was going to be the next King over Israel. God used Saul's unbridled jealousy to force David to wait until he was ready to become king. Disappointment is an emotional response  to some failed expectation or some desire that we have. It is a land-mine that explodes with heartache and sorrow. But what did David do?? He prayed,"Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me, for my soul takes refuge in You; and in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge until destruction passes by."(Ps. 57:1) David knew his survival and his future depended on one thing- God's faithfulness. While David did not know the future, he realized that he knew someone who did. God-who is infinite in knowledge- can take the most troublesome circumstances an turn them around for good(Rom. 8:28). We conquer disappointment by standing strong in our faith and not wavering through doubt or self-pity. God has promised us victory over the very things that the enemy would use for your defeat. All we have to do is settle in our heart that God is greater than any weapon that Satan can bring against you. No matter how horrendous Satan's attack may seem, God is all powerful. (check these out: Lamentations 3:22-23, Eph. 6:10-13, Phil. 4:13, 1 Cor. 10:13, Ps. 139:11-12) Standing on the other side of any situation you can begin to see where Satan slowly infiltrated his way in and started to cause chaos. It is something that unfortunately this side of heaven we are going to have to put up with and learn how to battle against. We're going to be thrown into situations where Satan is going to tempt us in every direction and every way possible to cause disruption in our lives, disruption in our families, and disruption in the church. It's hard, it's really hard. It's hard not to just want to to take things into your own hands and vindicate yourself in the way that you feel is best. Trust me, I've lived it. It's hard to trust God to be your vindicator especially when precious relationships are involved. The reality is it's a lot harder said than done. There are a lot of tears and a lot of pain, and it doesn't really go away. It may mask itself for a while, but it always comes back and hurts just has bad or worse than before. Even just this week I have found myself hurting and literally weeping over circumstances that are just out of my control. It's so evident now to me that that's why God calls us to be seekers of peace. That's why God's ultimate goal for his earth is restoration, so why wouldn't it be the same for his children??!! So because of what we know to be true, all we can do is put our trust in him. We can fast and pray and ask him to bring restoration in His way and His time. We can learn to be sensitive to His spirit and voice. Mostly though, i feel like we just need to keep an eternal perspective. That no matter what chaos Satan causes here on earth. It will not last. God will vindicate us. He will be the final judge. One day we will all be at peace together and we will no longer have to worry or think about the treats of satan. If we just keep our eyes on fixated on our God, he will sustain us, carry us, hold us, love us, and strengthen us to continue living for him amongst what is going on around us. If we can train ourselves to see the world in that way, I think in a catch 22 kind of way, we would see Satan and his subtle attacks being a lot less effective. It's all about perspective. Sooooo all that to say Keep on keeping on and in the words of my favorite Journey song, Don't stop believin. haha :) Love you.

Ran