Influence. You've got it. How are you using it?

What an interesting time to be alive. Seems like we're surrounded by craziness everywhere we look. Everyone has a voice nowadays due to social media. You have influence whether you realize it or not. Some of us have just a few we reach, or a particular niche. Others of us have the ability to reach masses. No matter which dynamic it is, your voice is important. So, how are you choosing to use it? Many of us have areas that we are extremely passionate about and whether we realize it or not, our influence is not being effective because we're using it wrong. How it that possible? Pressure. No matter how right, true, or noble our cause is, if we have to pressure people to influence them, we're doing it wrong. For example, I'm a "born again" believer who loves God with everything in me, but I absolutely detest "religion." I live the way I do from love and if I put those same expectations on others who aren't "in love" yet, it's just a matter of pressure and rules. It doesn't work. Just a few days ago there was a big uproar about the Super Bowl halftime show. There was a tremendous amount of pressure from both sides. The liberals want to use every platform to voice their opinion while the conservatives want to boycott anything they don't agree with. I want to decide for myself. I was in a group setting where we had the game on, but chose to turn it off during the halftime show. Come to find out, there was no reason for concern. Besides God, I have a love and passion for family and patriotism. I want to stir that in others. Putting pressure on people and forcing them to do things just uses the same tactics as the enemy. Even if we're putting pressure on people to "serve God," the devil loves it cuz he knows it's not productive. If you truly have a love for God, and country, and family, then just live out loud. Don't get in a hurry. Build relationships. Don't pressure people. Be contagious. That's my desire. When you truly love something you'll do anything to lay your life down for it. No pressure needed.

Bungee

My childhood memories are few and far between. One thing that stands out to me now is the fact that when asked in elementary school what I wanted to be when I grow up I said I wanted to be an author and an illustrator. Funny how I hated writing in high school and even though artistic ability runs in my genetics, I always thought my doodles didn't amount to much. Now I'm always trying to figure out how to paint a picture with words and telling myself I need to speed more time "doodling." So, here it goes.
I was reading "God is Good" by Bill Johnson a few days ago. He really speaks my language. He was talking about how God wants us to be on this journey with Him. He said, "The greatest gift we could ever give ourselves is to anchor our intellect and will into the strongest foundation possible - the goodness of God." And he goes on to say, "The voyage is one of faith...Faith is the result of surrender, not self-will...So faith then anchors us into the substance of eternity...His goodness then becomes the real estate that I live on and explore freely." Yes! That's it! I've been saying for years that I feel like I'm connected to a bungee cord that's connected to eternity. Bill's words described that perfectly! So, I doodled for you. Beautiful artwork, huh?

 I live on planet earth, inside linear time, yet I'm anchored in eternity. I've never specifically related it to "faith" before, but I do know that I settled on the fact that God is good a long time ago. It's foundational. I like how he says it's real estate that I live on! My grandson, Xavier, was being silly the other day and said, "Grandma, you scared me, I thought you were an alien!" And of course, I said, "I really am an alien!" His reply was "What?!?" I explained to him how I'm really from heaven, just hanging out on the earth for a while. Told him that he was, too. I wonder how that's going to go over when the story is retold.

Hearing. Listening. Understanding. Knowing.

Hearing.

Perceiving sound. Our ears work. If there’s a noise, music, a conversation, etc… we have acknowledged that we heard something.

Listening.

Now that we’ve heard something, we give attention to it. We focus to determine what the sound is, or what is being said.

Understanding.

Now you’ve heard a sound in your ears. You’ve given attention to it to the point that you are comprehending what the sound is communicating.  Whether it’s a sound that causes alarm, a piece of music, or a conversation. Comprehension produces a result, or a reaction. You move out of the way of a falling limb, your emotions are moved by lyrics and melody, or you relay your thoughts on the subject to someone.

Knowing.

This is a level accomplished in relationship with an environment, or a person you are familiar with. You’ve listened to a particular piece of machinery long enough that you know when it doesn’t sound right. You can play or sing a piece of music because you know what note is coming next. You hear someone enter a room and can tell who it is just by their footsteps. Your mother’s voice brings you comfort. And often, even though you know this thing, this sound, this voice, beyond a shadow of a doubt, you can’t fully explain it to someone else. Knowing can’t be transferred. It has to be cultivated within.

I encourage you to evaluate. Your environments. Your relationships. Friends, family, God. Do you get stuck in the hearing or listening stage? How often do you move on to the understanding or knowing? Not every place or person needs to be known by everyone. But you have a specific sphere that you’re called to and you should know it and own it. God designed you to do that.

I Still Believe

My goal this year has been to post on my blog at least once a month. Here it is the last day of July. Even down to the last few hours. As I've been praying and contemplating the last few days on what to write about, it has come down to this. I still believe. If you know me personally, you know this has been a difficult month for me. But I want you to know that my faith, my trust in God, my belief in supernatural miracles has not wavered. On June 16 my dad was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer with only 2-4 months to live. On June 18 my husband, Glen, and I prayed with him. We covered a lot of ground in his soul and in his heart before we addressed the cancer. I felt something shift that day. I left believing the cancer was gone. I stood on that every day, praying for the physical manifestation of that miracle in his body, for almost a month. When there were good signs, I stood. When he was still having symptoms, I stood. When family didn't understand, I stood. Until July 12. God told me I had to let him go. So, I did. My dad chose to leave this earth on July 13. He picked the day and he took his last breath surrounded by family as we called the angels to take him home. I can't explain why it happened the way it did, but here's what I do know. God didn't need him in heaven, He didn't need an angel, cancer wasn't too big for God, and I didn't miss it when I felt healing go into him. Dad was changed after we prayed. His last weeks on earth was from a place of freedom that he had never experienced before. Could he have chosen to stay? Maybe. I know my dad was a prayer warrior. I never knew to what extent until I heard all the stories at the end of his life. I know he would encourage me to keep praying the impossible prayers. He's up there now as part of the great cloud of witnesses. He's meeting Pastor Bill from the other side each morning still interceding for his family. If anything has changed through all of this, it is that my faith has actually grown stronger. I will continue to pray the cancer eradicating, life changing, supernatural healing prayers. Every part of me cries out for heaven on earth. It's what we're made for. Love you, Dad!

Position, Posture,and Freedom

Glen and I love spending time riding our motorcycle. Wind therapy. I spend a lot of time while we're out there in prayer or meditation. While riding the other day I was thinking about the current message coming across to the body of Christ. Do we want just enough of Jesus to look good and have fire insurance, or do we really want Him to be Lord in our lives? Or do we preach that He's Lord and in order to keep everyone safe and in line we keep them boxed in with rules? What does true freedom look like? I'd have to say that until you've tasted it, it looks scary. Dangerous. From a biker perspective, it's like riding in a "cage." That's what we call it when you're in a vehicle other than a bike. All boxed in. You can get down the road, but there's no freedom in it. Now, if you're ready for more freedom, you can't just jump on a bike and go. There are some things you need to understand first. The key word is balance. I want to share my perspective with you. I like the back. I enjoy the ride and the scenery. But, that also means I'm not in control. I've got to trust Glen. That's how I view my relationship with God. I have to invite Him to have control, then I trust Him. I enjoy the ride. I don't kick him off when a storm comes and try to take control again. I have to keep Him in that position in my life. Now, although He's steering, I have a huge part to play. I've got to know how to ride and maintain posture. Now matter how skilled my driver is, if I throw my weight around, especially in a curve, we're going down. No one's fault but my own. I think that's where the church has gotten it wrong for so long. They've been in one of two ditches: legalism or hyper grace. We're either using rules to keep us boxed in and safe, or we're crashing and burning because we don't understand how to posture ourselves in freedom. I love how John Bevere brings out holiness in his book, Good or God. We must have it to bring God's presence and be able to posture ourselves correctly to enjoy true freedom. Riding is my passion, but we've got to take this analogy a little farther because as I like to say over and over, we are meant to fly! In an airplane, your posture comes into play in trusting the instruments. You have to completely re-train your senses to do that. Are you ready to position Jesus as Lord and posture yourself to enjoy freedom?

More Grace

Grace was a recent topic of discussion in our group of leadership. How do we incorporate grace and growth into words that accurately depict our relationship with our Father? Many examples of the parent/child paradigm came into play. When we teach our kids to walk, we don't take them to the edge of a cliff. We put bumpers around them to protect them, we catch them before they fall, etc... But, eventually, we have to let them fall. We may pick them up a few times, but then again, they need to learn to pick themselves up. So, as a good parent, are we taking grace away as they grow? Somehow that wording doesn't seem to fit with our knowledge of our good Father. God told Paul that His grace was sufficient for his circumstance. So, do we just call it sufficient grace? Today a phrase stuck out to me while listening to an interview of John Bevere. He used the phrase "more grace." All of a sudden I had this "duh" moment. I have said it countless times to numerous people, grace is the higher standard. What the law made you accountable for in outward action only, the new covenant, grace, makes us accountable for in our inward thoughts. Grace is the enabling power for God to do through us what we can never accomplish in our own strength. In James 4:6 it says that God gives us more grace and goes on to say that He resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Doesn't that make sense to say that He gives us more grace? As we encourage our child to walk, we're giving them more grace because we know they can handle it. As we hand our 16 year old the keys to the car, we're giving them more grace with that promotion of responsibility because we trust them to handle it. Promotion carries more responsibility and therefore feels like more pressure, particularly in the beginning. It may cause us to feel lacking and unable. That's where God's grace comes in. As we approach each new level or place with humility, He lavishes us with more grace, enabling us to do through Him what we could never do on our own. Every scripture I read on grace proves that very thing. In 1 Corinthians 15:10 Paul said, "But by the grace of God I am what I am." He also said in 2 Corinthians 1:12 that the confidence in their testimony came through the grace of God, not through human wisdom. According to Hebrews 2:9 it was the grace of God that empowered Jesus to die on the cross. 2 Corinthians 6:1 encourages us not to receive His grace in vain. It is that very grace that empowers us to do what truth demands. We are to live in a way that would never be possible without it. To mature and handle more of His kingdom. Think of it like this, in the video game world it's called leveling up. Each new level you come to you start out with new tools or an extra life because you're going to need it. Just remember, in the real world, He resists the proud, so humility is key. What do I need? More grace!

Forget About Breaking the Rules, You Are Meant to Fly

We've been discussing in our LFMC Life Groups recently how we shouldn't live with a sin consciousness. I shared a couple of illustrations last night and I haven't been able to get it off my mind. If you live focused on sin, like I was taught growing up, you feel like you're always breaking a rule. Then God has to punish you. That's not how He wants us to live. I read an illustration in book a few weeks ago that really put in into perspective for me. If you step off a cliff and fall to the bottom of the canyon, are you breaking the law of gravity? Think about that. You're not breaking a law, but you are illustrating it. So God looks at you at the bottom of the canyon saying, "What are you doing down there? Here, let me help you up." He is not punishing you, you just felt the consequence of your own action. Spiritual laws work the same as natural laws. You will reap what you sow. That's why He encourages us not to sin, because He knows the effect sin has on us. In our immaturity we step off the cliff without understanding what's coming. After we've felt the effects, we learn to put boundaries up and steer away from the edge. In Galatians 3:23-25 it refers to the law as our schoolmaster, or our tutor. As we learn the cause and effect of spiritual laws, it teaches us. But it also refers to a higher way now that "faith has come." It's good to set boundaries and learn to steer away from those things that have the gravity effect on us and pull us down. But if that's where we stop in our growth, we're falling short of the higher potential. Romans 8:1-2 says, "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death." I remember a sermon I heard Pastor Bob Petersen preach a long time ago. He referred to the law of sin as death as the law of gravity and the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus as the law of lift. We can't deny the effects of sin, but we can learn to fly. Let's use addiction for an example. As you are becoming clean and learning the effects of the drugs, alcohol, pornography, etc... you have to draw healthy boundaries so you won't end up at the bottom of the canyon. You may have to choose to not go to the bar, or stay away from certain friends, or stay off of social media. But there comes a time, through the law of lift, or the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, that you can fly right above the canyon without feeling the effects of gravity. You now have complete freedom and can go back to places and friends and reach them through your testimony. Isn't God amazing? Even though His thoughts and ways are higher than ours, we can access them through our perfect born again spirit.  Freedom is calling us! May we all find our wings!