Tag Archives: Godly Success

Author, Christian, Kelly R. Jackson Publishing, Ministry

#DontDieWithIt!

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#DontDieWithIt is a movement. It’s a statement. It’s a call to action!

Whatever it is that God has called you to do and be, your mission should be to not leave this earth without giving it your very best. It doesn’t do anybody any good in the grave. Whatever you do, don’t die with it!

That business idea He gave you, that dream He woke you up in the middle of the night to tell you about, that talent, that gift, that anointing, that undying desire to be something other than what “they” said you could and should be, don’t you dare take it to the funeral home. God didn’t give it to you for nothing. You can’t leave it undone.

This is an encouragement movement! This a motivational movement. This is a God-ordained movement. You have the time. You have the talent. You have the call. Be courageous. Be active. Be progressive. Be aggressive. God is on your side and He’s gifted you and purposed you. Do it all and do it now. Don’t die with it!

Purchase your #DontDieWithIt t-shirt here!

Christian

Have you considered the tree?

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FullSizeRender (4)Nobody questions the tree. How it came to be, what it endured during its growth, or what it takes for it to maintain. You just know a tree when you see one. You have no idea what it took growing from a seed to the tree you see before you. You have no idea about the storms it has endured, limbs being broken away by strong winds that would’ve taken down a lesser tree.

People carving names and symbols on it, things that don’t represent who the tree actually is, but now it’s branded forever. Cars crashing into it, damaging its bark, and yet the tree is often left to supposedly heal itself (but we know that God is the healer). Dogs doing their business on it, and yet the tree continues to stand, renewing its leaves every year.

The message here is very few people will actually witness your growth, but that doesn’t change who and what you are. Many have enough vision to know that even though they didn’t witness the growth, their eyes aren’t deceiving them. You are what you are, whether they want you to be or not.

At the same time, some people know exactly what you are, they just refuse to respect it. They will brand you with names. They’ll dump on you. They’ll mercilessly crash into you and then blame you for being where you’ve always been, doing what you’ve always done. They resent you being in your calling! They’ll even desire to cut you down and cast you into the fire.

But don’t be discouraged! You are what God called you to be. Even when people don’t understand how you came to be, even when they didn’t witness your evolution, even when they wish to uproot you in the name of new development, stand strong. Just as God created you. He planted you and He will allow you to continue producing in your season.

“He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season. Whose leaf also shall not whither; And whatever he does shall prosper.” – Psalms 1:3

Christian, Church

The church is not a destination, it’s a launching pad

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Rev JacksonWhat I find most fascinating about the growth of the church in the Bible (Acts) is that it was never accomplished be people that stood still. As Jesus gave His disciples that Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20), the operative thing for them was to be mobile. They couldn’t spread the Gospel standing still. They were to tarry for the Holy Spirit, but once the Spirit came (Acts 1:8), they were to get moving. If this is in fact the mandate for Christians (followers of Christ), why are we fighting so hard to stand still?

As I look at the state of some churches today, particularly those without pastors, it seems to me that the Commission has become less important than the building itself. There isn’t as much emphasis on who’s getting up out of their seats and taking the Gospel out into the world as there is on who’s sitting in what particular seat within the church. We’ve forgotten that the church was never meant to be a breeding ground for people that want to stay seated and maintain control of the building. The church is supposed to make disciples that are willing to go.

So how did we get here? Well, it isn’t any one person’s fault. We as a congregation of believers lost sight of what is important. Those that are in leadership became more enamored with what they were doing at home than what they were called to do in the world. Pastors have decided that building bigger churches is the answer to drawing more people, as opposed to making disciples that can go out and draw (sheep will get other sheep).

We’ve placed people in key positions in our churches that don’t do much more than Sunday morning service, so they don’t know the value of ministry away from home. As churches, we’ve focused more on insolation and isolation than we have on exploration, exclamation, and salvation. That mentality is counter to what Christ Himself told us to do.

Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. It’s imperative that we take care of church business, but we should never do so at the expense of or in place of God’s business. What we’ve failed to realize is that just because we’re taking care of something in the church, that doesn’t necessarily make it God’s business that we’re handling. God’s primary business is salvation. God’s primary business is drawing people to Christ. This isn’t done in business meetings. It’s done through preaching, teaching, and evangelism. And contrary to popular belief, you don’t need a pulpit or a church building to do either of these things.

When the Word of God takes a back seat to our personal interests in the church, we cease to prepare people for discipleship. Our membership becomes afraid to invite people to church because an argument might break out or the Word isn’t going forth. Opportunities to save souls fall by the wayside because every attempt at ministry is thwarted by “business” and “protocol”. And if teaching is secondary, knowledge is as well. You can’t teach what you don’t know, and you can’t learn what’s not being taught.

If any church is more concerned with who’s in charge than who saves souls, it is in fact a church that’s in peril. It’s human nature to want to be in charge of everything, but it’s spiritual nature to know who’s in charge of everything. Many will come into church and say “This is God’s church”, but very few understand what that really means.

For example, there’s a difference between natural leaders and spiritual leaders. One is good for the world, and one is good for the church. Knowing God gives you the discernment needed to tell one from the other and would eliminate the need to ever argue about what should and shouldn’t be in God’s church.

As our churches have changed, we’ve become more focused on who we can mold into the spiritual leadership that we feel we need, and less focused on making the disciples that the world needs. We’ve forgotten that God will choose His own leaders from those that are converted by looking at their hearts. We’ve forgotten that when we’re in the Spirit, we don’t choose leaders, we simply agree with whom God has already chosen.

We’ve forgotten that we should be launching people into the world that love Christ rather than trying to turn into the next megachurch, turning out the next “hot” preacher, or having the best praise and worship team. The world needs Jesus, and we can’t give it to them if we’re so focused on who’s running the show. We can’t give it to them if our only purpose is to grow membership instead of helping people to grow spiritually.

I’ve heard it said that pastors are CEO’s, but I don’t agree with that. CEO’s make business decisions, but the church is not an organization, it’s an organism. It’s people working together for the cause of discipleship and Kingdom building. A pastor’s primary job is to feed and lead as inspired of God, not control, staff, and promote according to his own wishes. He is supposed to be more concerned with what’s profitable for the souls of the people than he is with financial profit and loss.

Pastors have begun making disciples for themselves and not Christ. The loyalty of the people belongs to man, not the Son of Man, and this has harmed the local church, and we should all be concerned. As I said in a recent lecture, the people should never quote their pastor more than they quote God’s Word. I’m instantly leery of people that love the building more than they love the Builder. I’m concerned when our churches are filled with people that covet a financial report more than they covet Psalms 51:10-13. When we’re more concerned with where we sit than whom we serve, it should give us all pause.

The reason we’re fighting so tough for the control of local churches is because we’re trying to find a place to be seated. Whether those seats are in the pulpit, on a board, or even our favorite pew, we care more about our place in the building than we do our place in the Kingdom. But true disciples are always on the go. They don’t come to church to take a rest. The come to church to be recharged so they can go back out on a mission once again.

Church was never supposed to be a place where we hurry to get there so that we can hold our spot. It was never supposed to be where we land, but where we launch from. It was never meant to be a social club, but rather where we gain the spiritual social skills to reach others. If we aren’t developing these traits in our churches, we’re either in the wrong place, or we’re the wrong people.

Christian, Church

In search of the Holy Ghost “push back”

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I only need three minutes of your time.

There’s a serious issue plaguing the local congregations. Because of this issue inside the church walls, we’ve become ineffective outside of them. Many of our communities are dying around us, and we in the local congregations are failing to do anything about it. Why? Because we’re too busy trying to kill one another inside the walls of the church.

This past weekend, our Sunday School lesson was on spiritual deliverance (Luke 8:26-39). When giving the minister’s remarks on the lesson, I stated that we in fact have many demonic spirits within the congregation that keep us from ministering outside of it. But they aren’t just spirits that are only in what we perceive as “hell raisers” in our local churches.

They’re also spirits in anyone that would seek to push hell raisers out of the church into the wilderness, rather than try and rid ourselves of the spirit that’s infected our church, while at the same time looking to save a brother or sister that may be under the influence (James 5:19-20).

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Here’s what we need to know: Hell raisers are always in attendance because demonic spirits transfer (study that Sunday School text I gave). They’re dedicated to their cause because the one that influences them never takes a day, hour, or minute off.

They’re always on time, they’re always together, they’re always loud, and they always state their position. And as members of the congregation, they have the right to do so. They’re at every meeting, every get together, and every function, and they make their presence known. Even if they don’t win, you will know that they were there. It’s their opposition that’s having the trouble.

Those that oppose this spirit are too meek, too passive, too quiet, and too afraid to speak in hostile situations. They’re living their lives on hope, but not a hope that produces action. They’re being pushed, but they’re unwilling to push back.

Now understand that being “holy spirit filled” is having the ability to give the benefit of the doubt. You’ll never convince me that you’re spirit filled if you can’t do two things:

  1. Not be so ready to believe the worst that you hear about people with no real proof.
  2. Even if you know that the worst is true about the individual, you believe that God can change them.

If we really and truly want to come together, at some point, we’ve got to be more willing to trust God for real change, and less willing to base all that we are on what we feel and past events. Because that’s what spirit filled people do. They accept the fact that the worst of us can be redeemed. But that requires activity. It requires prayer. It requires forgiveness. It requires restoration. And it requires resistance to those spirits that can cause us to believe that unity can only happen on our terms.

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So what is the benefit of a Holy Ghost push back? When we push back spiritually, we let the enemy know that we value unity more than we do confusion, and we show that by speaking out against what’s dividing us. We let the enemy know that we care for one another more than we do our position in the argument. We let the enemy know that we care more about being right with God than we do about winning an argument. We let the devil know that we need healing inside the congregation before we can go out into a sick world and show them what healed us.

Isaiah 54:17 tells us that no weapon formed against us shall prosper, and every tongue that rises against us in judgement, WE shall condemn. This not only means that the attacks of the enemy will fail, but it also means that we have the right to speak against the attacks. We can no longer keep silent about the dangers in the world, but we can’t help any of that if we refuse to speak against the dangers right at home.

I challenge anyone that’s being overrun by demonic spirits within your local congregation to spiritually push back. Not against the individuals that may be affected, but against the behavior. Push back against opposition that exists for the sake of opposition, and not for a defined principle or ideal, backed by Scripture. Push back against that spirit because that’s your true enemy, not the person you’re focusing on. Meek doesn’t have to mean weak. Find your push back!

Author, Christian, Kelly R. Jackson Publishing

Excerpt from “Going Through to Get Through”

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Read an excerpt from Rev. Kelly R. Jackson’s latest book “Going Through to Get Through: Activating your faith during life’s most trying times”.

BookCoverPreview (2)Taken from the chapter:
“The challenge of God’s timing: Working your way through the wilderness”.

Available March 1st!
Order now $12.99
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What are you waiting for?

When we’re trying to answer the question of why God brought us to a particular place, we must first examine ourselves. It’s so easy to begin questioning God and asking Him why we’re in a certain place or what we’re supposed to do now, but the first questions belong to us.

God may have in fact pointed us in a certain direction, but did we take the route that He told us to take? Did we go through the people that He told us to go through, or did our pride or our feelings about that individual cause us to use someone that God hadn’t authorized?

Did we commit to the vision that He gave us, or did we alter it? Most importantly, when we received that vision from a holy God, did we alter our living to coincide with living out the promise given to us by a holy God?

When you examine those questions for your own life before questioning, or even blaming God for why you have to wait in the wilderness, you may in fact find that it was never God’s plan for you to wait. Know that God’s blessings on your life aren’t yours no matter how you’re living.

When you ask God for a blessed destiny and He agrees to give it to you, you can’t continue on living however you want. God expects us to live up to the call and the blessings.

Also, you may find that it was God’s plan for you to go through some trials so that you might know that He delivered you, and so that you can appreciate your blessings when you reach them. All that you’re doing may have been designed for you to exercise your faith and for you to grow in that faith.

Consider again the Children of Israel. God could’ve made a way for Moses and the Israelites to escape captivity without ever having to confront Pharaoh. But by having to deal with Pharaoh head on, all were able to see that God’s power can deliver us without us ever having to cower in the face of those that wish to oppress us.

When they crossed the Red Sea, it wasn’t God’s desire for them to spend 40 years in the wilderness wandering. The journey from the wilderness to the Promised Land would’ve normally taken only a few weeks. It was their disobedience and lack of faith that kept them from reaching their destination sooner.

God’s promises to us are real, but we sometimes need to evaluate our commitment to God. There are times when we’re more committed to the promise than we are to the God of the promise. We want to go from point A to B, but God may want to add a few more letters to the equation.

God sometimes wants to refocus us on why it is we started out. So often we’re in this wilderness state looking to God and asking “What’s the holdup?” In the meantime, God is looking down at us and asking the same question.

There are times when God will slow progress because we’re moving in the wrong direction, or we’re moving in the right direction, but we’re skipping steps. There are also times when God will stop progress because we’ve stopped progressing. As we’re waiting patiently in the wilderness, we must also remember to wait FAITHfully!

We must remember to never give up on God just because traffic has momentarily stopped. There’s a plan, a path, and a purpose. But if you’re not moving, don’t always assume that God has stop working on your behalf. Sometimes, we’ve stopped working on His behalf. Sometimes, all you’re waiting on is you.

Isolation for elevation

Whether you’re in favor of the wilderness or not, you must understand that it’s all a part of God’s plan. It may not feel like it, it may not look like it, and it may be counter to what you thought God promised you, but know that it was always a part of God’s plan for us to be isolated before we’re elevated. This time of consecration is necessary if we’re to be what God would have us to be at the next level.

As God looks to shape and mold us into what He wants us to be, we must also understand that there is some reshaping that must go on as well.

So those of us that are passionate, but only passionate about sinful things, God wants to redirect our passion, not take it away from us. For those of us that are intellectuals, but only for worldly causes, God needs our intelligence, but He needs it focused on Him.

Those of us that are talented and gifted, but have used those talents and gifts for the world, God doesn’t want us to lay our talents down, He just wants us to use them for His glory.

When we come to God from the world or from a place where we weren’t in His service, we must understand that we have some things on us that must be removed. We have some habits, some ways, some addictions, and some behaviors that are not of God. Before we can truly be used for God’s purposes, these things have to be stripped away.

The easiest way to stay in a rut is to stay in the place that got you stuck. So when God calls us up and out for greater service, He’s going to call us out of the rut of former friendships, former family relationships, former jobs, former romantic relationships, and even former church relationships.

When He isolates us in the wilderness, He’s taking the time to strip us of all of our old allegiances in order to form some new alliances. When God is taking you to something new, you can’t be beholden to what’s old. Sometimes God has to break us apart in order to remake us into what He wants us to be.

When those Children of Israel had been in captivity all of those years, as much as they loved God, they had still taken on some characteristics of their oppressor Egypt. It’s been said that it took one night to get them out of Egypt, but it took 40 years to get Egypt out of them.

When we’ve been living in the world, following the edicts of the prince of darkness, we have some stuff on us. God can’t just elevate you to a Promised Land or a holy position just as you are. He’s got to have some alone time with you so that He can shape you into a vessel that He can fill, so that you may pour out into others.

Christian

Breaking tradition: It’s time for ministry outside of the pulpit

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PhotoGrid_1432925643414Are we serving God traditionally, or according to His Word? These days, whenever we talk in the church about breaking tradition, we suggest removing some things because they’re “religious”. As though there’s something wrong with religion. My Bible tells me in James 1:27 that there is a pure and undefiled religion. Religion is only in vain when the man himself isn’t changed (James 1:26), but there’s nothing wrong with religion itself. However, when it comes to spreading the Gospel, tradition is a threat to stifle what God wanted spread to the world.

It is in fact The Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) that tells us to go. Our ministries are called to be mobile, outside the church walls. The days of sitting still in the pulpit waiting for an opportunity to preach are past. This isn’t to suggest that anyone disrespect leadership or strike out on their own. However, it is to state that God has provided so many different avenues for ministry these days that it’s almost lazy for associate ministers or evangelists to sit still inside of a church and do nothing with their calling, and shortsighted for pastors to not allow room for those associates and evangelists to explore avenues outside of the church where the gospel can be spread.

Now, I realize that this thinking may get me in trouble with some traditionalists. I’m definitely on the radar for saying it out loud, but this has always been my nature: Think about it, pray about it, wait for confirmation, and then speak about it. Some pastors have progressed to the point of encouraging those under them to grow in their calling and go into the world and help to spread this Gospel. They keep a watchful eye to make sure that purity and context are maintained, but they’re also encouraging. But, let’s be real. There are plenty of ministers that have been trained, not to speak, but to sit still and quiet. There are still plenty of pastors that believe that those beneath them are to be seen and not heard until they’re comfortable in their own spirit. While this is wise in some cases (as some just aren’t ready), where there’s an obvious anointing on others, it’s counterproductive.

Understand that this isn’t a strike at older pastors. There are many younger pastors that hold to some of the same traditions because that’s how they were brought along (hence, tradition). However, it is a strike against holding to tradition instead of yielding to the Holy Spirit. There are times when God will anoint and ordain outside of what our traditions call for. There are times when God will elevate sooner than our timetable suggests that He should. There are times when God will break up our traditions just to make us aware that He is in fact God and that He is not beholden to the same rules that we try and hold man to.

Times are different now, and therefore, we must understand that ministry needs to be different to meet the needs of the time. There was a time when the only way the Gospel could be spread from city to city, state to state, and country to country, was through physical travel. While pastors were necessary, it was in fact evangelists that spread the Gospel beyond the church walls. However, with the advent of things like the internet, social media, cell phones, and independent publishing, along with the progression of television and radio ministries, we have a lot more avenues to reach the masses. Because of all of these advancements, we can’t allow tradition to stifle the spreading of God’s Word because “we’ve never done it like that before”.

It’s amazing that we sometimes believe that growth should stop with the invention of the thing that we excel in. What that means is we have many pulpit preachers and pastors that can’t handle the progress that ministry has made. The idea that someone could reach people using something other than just the pulpit can be intimidating to someone that only knows that model. What’s often overlooked is the fact that preaching the way that they preach was once new, different, and questioned as well.

Consider the fact that some preachers, and even pew members in the black church still don’t feel as if someone has “preached’ if they don’t get excited or “whoop” in their sermons, as if that’s the only way that God’s Word can be proclaimed. The truth is that God’s Word has prevailed through many changes in delivery over the centuries and millenniums, and there’s no reason to believe that it will stop because a minister has tapped into a new way that God has provided to spread the message.

This is not an endorsement for any and every one to start blogs, YouTube accounts and Facebook pages to spread just anything. A person still needs to be trained in the Word of God, they still need to be mentored, and they still need to be tried and proved before they embark on The Great Commission. After all, that’s what Jesus did with the disciples. But the notion that the pulpit provides some sort of validation that the truth is being spoken is shortsighted. Many a preacher, and even some pastors, have stood in the pulpit and spoken Scripture out of context, as well as given their own theology in place of what The Bible teaches.

The fact is every generation goes further than the previous, because God never downgrades His people. We can’t allow traditional ways of ministry to stifle the growth of the Kingdom. Some of God’s best preachers and evangelist are sitting in a pulpit silent because some pastors have a traditional mindset towards the Gospel. Because some of these pastors have this mindset, they’re silencing people that God has ordained to speak to the masses and to a new generation of believers, in languages and ways that they can comprehend. Some of these traditionalist are attempting to protect the sanctity of “their” pulpits, while at the same time attempting to silence many of God’s new spokesmen and women.

It’s not that God changes, because the Bible says that He doesn’t (Malachi 3:6, James 1:17). However, God always presents us with advancements. In technology, in learning, in thinking, and yes, in His servants. The idea that God hasn’t improved on the preaching, teaching, and evangelism of His Gospel is to sell God short. It is to limit God and to say that once He created all of the great preachers of years past, that He somehow became unable to top Himself. But as I’ve often mentioned while teaching Bible class, God has a replacement for all of us, and it’s an upgrade. Even if it isn’t necessarily in ability or delivery, in may be in sincerity towards the work of the Gospel.

The idea of tradition in itself is to suggest that the way it was done before and all of the years since was not only the best way, but the only way, the pinnacle, and there can be no modifications or improvements. To change anything at all is to damage it. How would that have worked out if we never improved from rotary phones to cells? From typewriters to computers? From the horse and carriage, to the Model T, to what we drive today? Some traditions are good and never need to be removed. However, every tradition should be periodically checked, and modified if necessary to reflect the times we live in now. Failing to do so will cause stagnation. The only thing worse than watching the world pass us by has to be standing still without even trying to keep up.

The church has a great many traditions. Some were meant to be oppressive, while others were there to maintain order in God’s house. But our overall mission should be that the Gospel is spread and souls are saved. We can’t get caught up in arguments about how, as long as it’s done according to God’s Word. If something is done according to the Word of God, that’s not tradition. That’s just doing things the right way. But when something is done in a way that we’re unaccustomed to and it offends our sensibilities, that’s when we are to rely on the Holy Spirit. Just because we don’t understand a way that’s new to us, doesn’t mean it isn’t God’s way.

God is not on our timetable, and He may be moving faster because the time in nigh. If we do what we’ve always done, we get what we’ve always gotten. We’re in a new level of spiritual warfare these days, as the Bible warned us we would be (2 Timothy 3:1-7). The devil has tweaked his approach (internet, cell phones, etc), but his message is still the same: death and destruction. Why can’t we do the same thing? Tweak the approach, but maintain the message (eternal life through Jesus Christ).

Christian

God favored you

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IMG_1486You were built for this. Before the foundation of the world, God had the design on your life. He favored you. Not because you were better than anyone else, not because you were more talented than anyone else, and not because of anything that anyone did for God on your behalf. God simply chose you to do His will and His work, so that others might come to know Him, glorify Him, and be saved by Him through Jesus Christ. It’s as simple as that.

These words of encouragement aren’t just for you, the reader. They’re words that I use to encourage myself as well. When you’re doing a work for The Lord, it’s easy to forget who called you to the work if you’re not focused. You begin looking at man and the difficulty he can often pose while you’re simply trying to walk as God has commanded. You become discouraged because they can’t see what God has put into your heart, your mind, and your being. The one thing you want everyone to accept, many (some of them close family and friends) reject.

It’s odd, but the more difficult we think something may be for us to do in the way of serving God, the more difficult we think it is for others to do. We often transfer our limitations to one another. And when we’re not doing that, we assume that if God chose someone, we’d automatically see it due to all of our time in the church, or our many years of being saved. After all of the miracles we’ve read about in our Bibles and some that we still witness today, we’re still capable of forgetting that God can still do things above our understanding. And that includes choosing people that we never suspected to do great work.

It can be quite difficult to stay focused on your call when you come face to face with people that have set out to discourage you and roadblock your success. We’re still human and in the midst of persecution, we forget that the God that’s for us is greater than any force that comes against us. And when things don’t fall into place as we expect them to, we wonder if we are in fact on the right path.

Sadly, the place where the most discouragement comes is the place where we’re first called to do the work. For Christians, that means that we’ll face some of our most difficult challenges within the church walls. There are all kinds of jealousies, cliques and agendas that will make working for The Lord the most challenging thing you’ve ever done.

I addressed this very thing once on my weekly radio broadcast. I talked about the jealousy that often exists in the preaching ministry. Preaching is a difficult and often lonely task. It seemed to me that if there was ever a time to welcome another soldier to the army, it would be in the ranks of preaching. However, there are times when other preachers don’t want to see others called into the ministry because they believe it will take something away from them. I surmise that any preacher that has a jealousy of another preacher probably hasn’t been called, because true preachers of the Gospel know that we need all the help we can get. Those of us that have been called welcome the help.

Difficulty in God’s favor also comes in the form of people that have a hard time accepting the transformation that comes in your life. They assume that everyone that God has preordained for the call simply walks out of their mother’s womb into the call. They fail to realize that the vast majority of us have to go through some sort of major transformation before we can really realize the work we’ve been called to do. As I often state, in our flesh we’re only interested in completed projects. We have no time or patience for works in progress.

Where home (the church) should be a place of reinforcement and encouragement, it often becomes a place of rejection and discouragement. People are willing to believe that God can part the Red Sea so that the children of Israel can walk over on dry land. They believe that Jesus Christ can raise a man from his grave after he’s been dead for four days. And they believe that the Son of God can be raised from the dead after 3 days. But they struggle to accept that God can transform someone that they never suspected into one of His greatest servants.

They fail to see that by not accepting God’s hands on your life, they’re not downplaying your ability to do God’s work, but they’re in fact downplaying God’s ability to transform you into a capable vessel to do His work. They’re not really selling you short. They’re selling God short!

As we look at Romans 8:28-31, we see that it is in fact God’s plan that the chosen among us do His will and His work. When you read those verses, it tells you that in His infinite wisdom, God chose. He didn’t do so based on man’s standards or expectations, because the moment He acquiesces to our standards, He ceases to be God.

So a preacher may or may not look like you envisioned. An evangelist may or may not look like someone told you they would. A pastor may or may not look like tradition has told you they would. It’s all according to God’s plan. And when you consider that scripture tells us that God will chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise (1 Corinthians 1:27), we must understand that we may never know why or how God chooses. All we need to know is that He is a sovereign God that doesn’t need anyone’s permission, nor does He have to explain His choices.

Even in Jesus’ ministry, His life was designed in such a way that He would be able to reach out to the poor and less fortunate. The rich Pharisees of His day had no compassion for those people, nor did they know how to reach them. However, they responded to One that came from the same impoverished areas that they did.

The same is true in ministry today. God is using new, radical, and non-traditional looking people to carry the Gospel forward. People that can reach the world today. Tradition doesn’t save people. The Word of God does. So when God calls something unexpected to the forefront, rather than question it, we should see it as God using something that He had already set aside for this point in time, and for His own purposes. It may not be your cup of tea, but there’s somebody out there that’s thirsty for what God has brought forward.

If you find yourself in a position where it seems as if man is trying to prevent you from reaching your God-ordained destiny, you must remember that God is more than the world against you. He favored you before anyone could ever disapprove of you. He gave you a foundation before anyone could ever attempt to tear you down. You are already marked for greatness and man can’t prevent what God has signed off on.

We understand that the world may not receive what God has placed on our lives. However, the church hurt is often difficult to get past, and at times, can be depressing. It’s sad to say, but the church itself does more to try and kill many ministries before they get started than the world does once they’re up and running. Mostly because of tradition, but also because of the fact that many don’t approve of what God has done, and it’s easier to challenge God indirectly (attacking you) than directly. But don’t you give up on God.

If Jesus had to leave home to have an effective ministry (Matthew 13:57-58), the same may be true for you. But as Jesus went through ridicule, rejection, abandonment, torment and torture, leading to the crucifixion, remember that the grave wasn’t the end of the story. Keep doing The Lord’s work. I promise there’s a Sunday morning in your future if you do. When you have the favor of The Lord, nothing can stop you.

Author, Christian

Walking the path to your purpose

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10846337_10203187423746321_5228810459576158689_nSomething you often hear from Christians is: What is my purpose? We often struggle with our purpose because we have an idea of what we want to do with our lives. From the time we’re children under the age of 10, many of us have dreams of what we wanna be when we grow up. On into high school and college, we’ll take classes and pick majors that line up with what we feel we wanna do. We do things that line up with our will. But all of that should change once we turn our lives over to Christ.

Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with pursuing your dreams, and scripture tells us that God will give us the desires of our hearts (Psalms 37:4), as long as it’s within His will (1 John 5:14). But as far as our purpose in concerned, as Christians, it should always be according to what God would have us to do.

The trouble we have is walking the path to our purpose. We all seem to want the purpose, but not the process that comes with living it. Even when following our dreams, there can be steps that we have to take that aren’t necessarily glamorous, but necessary in order to achieve what it is that we desire. The same is true with our purpose. There are times when God sends us through some things on our way to that purpose. It’s so easy to look up during these times and feel lost and confused, as if we’re not on track with what we’re supposed to do. This is where our faith is supposed to kick in.

When the children of Israel were led out of Egypt by Moses, there was a destiny awaiting them in Canaan. But in order to get to that destiny, they had to cross a river and spend some time in the wilderness. They had to overcome an obstacle and then go through years of preparation (which included some people and some habits dying off) in order to reach their promise. What this means is that in order to reach what God has promised for us, we sometimes have to be in uncomfortable situations. Situations where it seems as if there’s no progress or growth, but if we continue to walk the path ordered by God, we will eventually receive His promise.

Part of getting to our purpose is doing what God has ordered us to do right now. Even if it’s not what we want to do, it may be essential to what God wants us to do. At issue is the fact that we’re more focused on the finish than we are on the race. There are times when we’re doing things that seem to be (according to our understanding) a waste of time. However, it may in fact be those things that will lead us to our purpose. We get frustrated because we don’t know all of the steps to our purpose. Only God knows that. So when we feel we’re lost, we could very well be on track. It may not be comfortable, but necessary. The only way to find comfort during this time is to surrender our will to God’s will and trust Him along the journey.

If I may share my testimony, I started writing in my teenage years in high school. I started out writing poems and short stories. I was also a musician, playing in the school orchestra and dabbling in other instruments like guitar and piano. My plan was to put my gift of poetry and music together and become a professional musician. After graduation, I enrolled myself in a college for creative students and began taking music theory. As far as I was concerned, I was on my way!

A few years after that, however, I found myself in broadcast school, learning radio and television production. My mother, recognizing my love for music, thought I might make a great deejay and brought me some information on the school. However, I fell in love with and excelled at television production, so after graduation, I went that route instead. I still had dreams of fame, but now as a television producer/director.

After working in that industry for 7 years, I felt writing calling me again, so I began writing my first book. In the midst of doing that, I started making music on my computer. Though signs were there, and even the call on my life from God had come (with me running from it), I had no plans to become a minister. That was my ordained purpose from God, given to me from the time I was in my mother’s womb, but I couldn’t see it because, as far as my eyes were concerned, the path I was on said anything but minister.

PhotoGrid_1432925643414Fast forward to today, and it’s all clear to me now. I’m now the author of 6 books, the last three spiritual in nature, and references to God and His Word are all throughout the first three. I now host a weekly radio broadcast where I can use the training I received in broadcast school. The theme music for my broadcast was something I created on my computer 13 years before I ever had a radio broadcast. It was something I created for my personal enjoyment, never knowing how it would ever figure in ministry down the road. I’m now using my editing skills from my video background to create YouTube videos (we’ve only scratched the surface with this).

When God finally called me into the ministry, He begin to open up my understanding as to why I had gone down all of these different roads in life. I thought I was gonna be famous, but He wanted me to preach His Word. The ministry that He has called me to is unique. It’s not just a ministry for the pulpit or to be used only inside the church walls. For this specific time, in a very specific way, God prepared me for a very unique ministry. I didn’t understand the plan or the purpose, but I walked every road He told me to walk. For that reason, I’m able to do ministry exactly as He’s called me to.

Scripture tells us that the steps of a good man are ordered by The Lord (Psalms 37:23). If there’s anything I want anyone reading this to remember, it is the fact that there will be times when you’re walking certain roads in life and it will seem as if you have no clue of why you’re doing what you’re doing. It will seem as if what you’re doing is fruitless. I’m here to tell you that if you’ve given your life to Christ, you are what the scripture calls a “good man” (or woman). This means that God has ordered your steps. This means that just because you don’t know where you are, it doesn’t mean that God doesn’t know where you are. He won’t order your steps without mapping out your path. You must surrender your will (what you had planned for your life) to His will (what God has ordered for your life).

If we are servants of God, then we must come to understand that a servant has no will. A servant’s desire is to do the will of his master. In this case, we are all bound by Romans 8:28, which states that we are called to God’s purpose, not our own. Once you accept that, then you’ll truly know the difference between being lost and being uncomfortable. And when you’re living according to God’s purpose, there can be no greater definition to your life.

Christian

Laboring in vain: Our work is ineffective without God

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Old-NewUnless The Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.Unless The Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for He gives to His beloved sleep – Psalms 127:1-2 (ESV)

One of the most dangerous thoughts to ever enter the mind of a Christian is that of self-reliance. The idea that we can actually do something on our own. The idea that we alone can rise above issues, situations, and circumstances. The idea that if we can do things to our own level of satisfaction and by our own standards, we can somehow achieve a level of happiness that goes beyond what God can provide.

This attitude is often what shapes our prayers. It causes us to try and order God around as opposed to seeking His plan for our lives. We’re more concerned with our wishes and our desires than we are with the spiritual order of things. However, the scripture at the heading of this lesson tells us that a spirit of self-reliance is an exercise in futility. We know that God is there, but are we remembering why? In fact, it is the idea of self-reliance that will drive us crazy because we will inevitably come upon a situation that is beyond our control. If you’re only relying on self, what will you do in these moments?

Any act without prayer and acknowledgment of God is an act without real hope. For with everything WE attempt to put into place, we attempt to eliminate God. The reference “in vain” in our text speaks to something that is ineffective or improper. Therefore, to do anything without first seeking God’s guidance and blessings will be ineffective and improper. Where we often miss the mark is in falling in love with initial or temporary successes. Something works once, twice, or maybe even more without seeking God and we assume that it will work all the time. In our flesh, we seek that instant and immediate gratification, and not the long-term promises of God that those who are spiritual are seeking.

This particular text is stressing to us the importance of keeping God at the head of all that we do. It’s great that concerned citizens (the watchman) want to keep watch over their cities. But who are we counting on to cover the watchman? When we live in a society that has become not only anti-prayer, but anti-God, how can we expect things to remain peaceful and orderly? When we would rather rage than pray, what will the outcome be?

Your Christianity can’t only be skin deep and situational. You can’t look in the face of the evil in the world and say that you’re tired of praying and you’re now ready for revenge. Scripture tells us that we should never cease praying (Luke 18:1, 1 Thessalonians 5:17), but we only seem to believe that during times in which we’d like a blessing. But what about during times of death? What about during times of immorality? What about during times of destruction? What about praying to God just because He is God?

Look at our text today and look at how we’re conducting ourselves in society. There can be no real activism without first activating our faith in God. There can be no “grinding” for a better life without Godliness. There can be no peace without The Peacemaker. There can be no healing without The Healer. If God isn’t at the head of whatever it is that we’re doing, it will fail. Let me simplify: we will fail without God, but God Himself will never fail without us.

No matter what problems we may face in life, God is capable of delivering us from them all. If we face them alone, it is simply because we have chosen to. However, as this scripture tells us, to face them without God is to face them in vain. You can work all the days of your life, but if you haven’t placed God over your finances, your labor will be in vain. No matter how much you have, it will never seem to be enough. If you refuse to bless God with just a portion of what He has already blessed you with, you will find that what you have will disappear without explanation (Haggai 1:5-7). It is through God that we find the value of life, not the price of it. After all, Jesus has already paid the price for our lives (1 Corinthians 6:20). The cost was much too high for us.

This Scripture tells us that if God doesn’t build our house, we that do build it are doing so to no avail. This doesn’t just include your physical house, but also your spiritual house (1 Corinthians 6:19). What this says to me is that God must be at the foundation of what we do. If He’s not the foreman of the project that is our lives, the structure itself is for naught, constantly on the edge of implosion.

We must always remember that God is a provider to His children. Whatever we have need of, He will supply according to His will. If you’re hungry, He will feed you. If you’re struggling with a load, He’s there to help you carry it. If you’re grieving, He’s the best shoulder to lean on. And if you’re weary, He will give you peaceful rest. It makes no sense for us to stay up toiling day and night for material possessions or out of fear of what man can do to us. We mustn’t be weary in our well doing, so we must continue to stand and work for what is right. But we can never accomplish anything without acknowledging the God that owns it all.

Christian

Are you running your race: God provides all of us with the opportunity for success

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Old-NewAt one point or another in life, we find ourselves in a mad scramble to be what man has deemed a success. We watch television or look on social media, see what someone else has, and then begin envisioning what it would be like for us to have the same things. But as Christians, have we really considered what God has to say on the matter?

Whenever I teach on prosperity, I remind people that God has a different idea of success. We see material, God sees spiritual. We see a piece of the pie, God sees peace of mind. I recently stated on my radio show that success is a relative term. For someone that’s been poor all of their life, it may be money. For someone that’s been sick, it may be health. For someone with an addiction, it may be being clean and sober. All these things matter, and yet, they can seem elusive as well.

When looking at Ecclesiastes 9:10-12, I find that success isn’t always within the grasp of our own abilities. Sure, God has blessed us with said abilities, but we’ve all seen or known of someone that doesn’t seem to have lived up to their capabilities. We’ve all known people that seem to be well short of what they’re able to be. And the truth is, some of us may not be all that our abilities suggest we should be. But know that God wouldn’t give you the ability, without giving you the opportunity to utilize it. As we go through these verses, we will see that God will open the doors of chance, no matter where we are in life.

Let’s analyze the text:

10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest

In its simplest terms, this verse is telling us to work to our strength and ability while we yet have time. The popular phrase is stated “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today”. We often assume that we have time to do things, but how is it that we reach this conclusion? How do we know how much time we really have? (We’ll discuss this thinking when we get to Verse 12)

God wants us to know that we can’t do any work in the grave or beyond it. We must use all of the strength (might) that we have now to do whatever work needs to be done. Our earthly abilities have no value after we leave earth. We must take advantage of the life, health, and strength that God is giving us right now.

We often take the strength of our youth and use it to “live”. But as we wind down and aren’t capable of doing the things that we used to do, we then want to serve God from our seats. Well, God needs a youthful and energetic Christian, as well as a seasoned saint that can serve mentally when they can no longer do so physically.

11 I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all

One of my pet peeves with Scripture is misquoting and misapplication. This particular Scripture is one of the most misquoted Scriptures in the Bible, particular because of one portion. If you think about it, we’ve often heard this Scripture quoted in sermons, by people, and most definitely is song as “the race is not given to the swift nor strong”. Now, it seems like a small thing, but we must consider what Scripture is and its purpose before we go rearranging and even leaving out words. Scripture is God speaking to man and telling us through His Word how He expects us to live. Adding or taking away anything can confuse the message.

If I tell you that the “race is not given to the swift nor strong”, you become focused only on the race that you’re running. However, if I tell you, as Scripture states, that “the race is not given to the swift, nor the battle to the strong”, you’re aware that there will be a race and a battle. When this Scripture gets twisted, we’re prepared to run, but not to battle. This is why the devil loves a misquoted Scripture because it keeps us unprepared. You can’t properly apply what you don’t fully understand.

Once we do understand the Scripture in full, we can then apply what it’s saying to us. This 11th Verse keeps us focused on what it is that God has for us. Too often, we’re looking around at others that seem to be moving at a faster pace than we are, or they seem to be in a position of power that we desire for ourselves. However, we must continue to run the race that is before us. We must prepare for the battles that we have to face.

Additionally, people that seem to be faster than we are or stronger than we are, aren’t necessarily doing better than we are. God wants us to understand in this verse that what is for you will be there as long as you’re moving at your designed pace. We are required to do what God has designed us to do, and as long as we stay in that mode, the end of this verse tells us that time and opportunity will present itself. By running your own race and staying in your own lane, you will be prepared when presented with both.

12 For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them

Here, we find a conclusion to the thoughts stated in Verses 10 and 11. We have to remain focused on our task because we have no idea when our last day is upon us. I’ve often taught in Bible class that God gives us as much time as we need, no more, no less. This is why it bothers me when I hear Christians state that God took someone from physical life to death too soon. It’s an emotional statement that suggests that God makes mistakes, that He somehow doesn’t know what He’s doing, or that something is happening that is beyond His control. Death may sneak up on us, but it never will on God.

Also in this verse, death is discussed in unflattering terms. Fishes caught in an “evil” net. Birds caught in a “snare”. The sons of man “snared in an evil time”. This verse reminds us that death is at times unexpected and even unsettling. We’ve all been caught off guard by the way a person dies. This is what causes us to say things like “too soon” or “this isn’t of God”. But what this verse was designed to do is remind us that death can be sudden, and therefore we must really consider Verses 10 and 11.

It concludes that thought that we must live while we can. We must work on whatever gifts God has given us while we can, and do it to His glory. We must work to the level of our own strengths, and not to what we perceive others to be doing, because God will present us with opportunities for success in due time. It doesn’t matter how strong, gifted, intelligent, or financially blessed we are. If we fail to take advantage of the time and opportunity that God gives us to succeed, it won’t matter and we’ll fail to see success that matches what we were blessed with.

Also, we must forgive while we can because Verse 12 tells us that death can come upon us suddenly and we may not have as much time for reconciliation as we think. We must be willing to live in the moment as God has prospered us. Be active in our God-given abilities, not merely spectators of others. Not only is God able, but He’s made us able as well.