Episode 40 Strength From The Inside Out

We are created to be fruit bearers. We are created for influence. We are created to multiply our efforts. So what does the activity look like with those outcomes?

Let me also tell you that in this process, never trust your feelings. They are not worthy of your trust.

You need to trust the ONE who guided you to this path and stay on the path with the steps that it takes to remain on the path.

I promise you, that you will gain traction and you will encounter people who will find you and what you are offering that lines up with where they are at and they will value the connection. You most likely will need to continue to broaden your influence and what I mean by that is you have to grow your connections with people. 

You are good. But can you be great?! 

I am not referring to a life of being content with what you have. Contentment is a mindset.

I believe, as people whose lives are rooted in faith, we walk a fine line between desiring more for this life and having a spirit of contentment. What I will be sharing with you is a perspective around what God is capable of doing through you. When we look at our lives as holy and belonging to HIM, we have a higher understanding that we are His vessels and we need to always be in communication with Him for what He desires we do with our lives for more impact.

We are also called to be living sacrifices. We should be willing to do hard things. Our job is not to arrive safely at the end. Our job is to run this race like it's the one chance we get to run and in the end, God is at the finish line. My desire for you is that you see yourself as a person on-mission to consider yourself LESS and to consider more how God can be glorified in your workplace and with the monetary resources He can generate through you for His kingdom.

Over 20 years ago God opened up space for one of my life’s challenges - a 10 year battle with autoimmunity to be a place that stung, a place that hurt, a place that would render me not present physically, emotionally and sometimes spiritually. I prayed for healing for what seemed like a selfish prayer. And God heard me. But he didn’t just hear me, he prepared me to walk in new freedom both physically, emotionally and spiritually but also to lead others. 

Other people’s opinions:

1. None of your business

2. If those opinions prevent you from doing what you are called to do, they become an idol for you

When you are on mission for meaningful things, you should have one person who you are looking to for validation or approval, and that is YOUR creator.

So unless those people loved you enough to die for you, they should NOT be who you are considering as part of the equation for your ability to impact people in this world.

In case you struggle with having value with your life.

In case you frequently wonder what this life is about anyway.

You are not alone. Most people undervalue who they are.

Once we realize WHOSE we are, we can better understand Who we are.

Then have the audacity to actually believe it! 

You are made for more. 

Get clear on who God is. Get clear on who you are as a result of who God is and then have the audacity to believe that He desires to do meaningful work through you - the kind of impact that is MORE THAN you can think, ask or imagine. 

I actually have the audacity to believe that God desires to do BIG things through me.

Buuuuut, I also have these very conflicting thoughts that accompany that same belief. Its a very confusing mixed message I navigate.

How can you move from doubt to belief in any area of your life? 

Maybe you are like me?
Maybe you put attention and priority towards things that have no earthly value?

Maybe you struggle with the desire to see and do things that matter most for all of eternity?

God is growing my thought process around doing everything I do as if for the Lord.

He is teaching me that when my heart aligns more with His, that doors open to more of the things that matter most, including the least of these.

Our behaviors leave us clues.

Sometimes our behaviors are not just about the behavior. Many times there is a root cause to our behaviors that we can connect the dots to point to a direction that indicate where our faith, hope and love reside.

Its important to realize and know that there are behaviors that happen as a result of those root fears and lack of trust that can lead us down paths that render us feeling powerless and out of control.

We grab the steering wheel and course correct ourselves into a fetal, helpless inadequate space where we are lacking the fruit we are designed to have.

We have a loving creator that taps into our GPS and says, is this thing on?

When we let his love in, love wins all day.

When you’re in the depths of pain, whether it’s separation from loved ones, financial crisis, marital discord, and the challenges of raising a family, God is not the one who moves. We are the ones who move. We are the ones who remain less faithful. We lose our focus and we become self reliant on how to move through. 

Our position is not faithful 

God is always faithful to us so why can’t we be faithful to him? 

Why do we lose our focus? 

Why do we lose our fervency 

Since the beginning of time, humanity has always encountered pain, chaos and discord. 

When sin entered our world and opened up space for us to always navigate challenge 

In the Bible. God‘s word says that we are to consider it joy to have a trial and challenge. And we are in fact, promised to have trial, 

I think deep down ultimately no one wants to acknowledge the fact the common denominator we all face is to be in a world that is filled with sinful people. 

We are those sinful people. 

We have thoughts we have feelings we have emotions that all open up the capacity for us to succumb to arson for nature, but as we grow spiritually, pray and talk to our creator, read God’s word we can strengthen our position to how we navigate these challenges. 

Pride keeps us from doing what we can still do. 

Shame keeps us in regret.  

Pride closes the door to spiritual growth, but humility opens the door of your life to more of God's grace. 

In the end,it is because of Jesus’s humility that we can be forgiven of our pride. This life is not about us and we only deserve the wrath of God for our sin. Jesus took the punishment of our pride upon himself at the cross so we are renewed amd made humble like our savior.

Being humbled is not smooth or painless, but it’s our rescue. 

Jesus is our rescue from Pride 

I want to encourage you to advocate today.

Advocate for your best self. Advocate for your belief that you are worthy of being set free. Advocate that your life matters and that there is more to your life than just existing. That you are made to thrive. You are made for purpose and your body is designed to carry you to that life purpose.

You can take all the dream vacations and live in the dream home and have the dream this and dream that, but if you are not walking out the plans that God has intended for you to live because you don’t sleep great, you don’t have the energy your body is weighed down it's not your calling that is weighing you down, it's your resistance to it.

You have a calling. You should be on mission. You should be making a difference in the lives of others and if there is anything about your body and the state that its in that is not conducive to you getting up each and every day asking yourself whose life can you make better today because you were in it, than I urge you to consider a conversation with me or someone you trust what that looks like for you.