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Rest on Your Biblical Boundaries
Change is not easy but if part of your plan is to rest in the Lord everything will work out for the good to those who love God (Romans 8:28). Time to work the plan is all we have unless Jesus has said He wants change NOW. I can understand that directive because that has always been my directive from Jesus. He wanted the change right now from me. When I first began to follow Jesus, I was not a good Christian woman. I didn’t even begin to read the Bible until one year and two months after I got saved but when I started, change happened. When change started it was not easy and it certainly wasn’t cozy. It was painful and heart breaking. It was time consuming to make the changes Jesus wanted and if I refused He sent a punishment almost instantly. The most painful part about the changes was that it never let up. It was one right change after another with no rest in between. I was learning constantly but that was not good either. I should have rested from learning and just ingrained the boundaries and the teaching a little more. I needed to just rest in the Lord for a while but I didn’t know better. My resistance to do that was probably responsible for some of my boundaries taking longer to implement.
A planned rest from learning is very important. A rest after week five is a good idea. You have your “fence” to look at and implement into your life. In the week after you create it, spend time knowing the ramification your fence will have. Read them daily so you know them. Then, hunker in to implement them into your life every day, every minute, and every second.
Since we are in the Christmas season, with everything we do focusing on Jesus, I want you to hunker into the Bible as well. All the way through The White Picket Fence you were given verses to look up, to read and to memorize. You know every work written in there was from the Father. My ability to give you that information came from Him. My ability to interest you in the women’s stories came from Him. The strength you gain from knowing what to do will come from Him. The understanding you have of what you will need to do next will come from Him.
This is a very important process to get right. Jesus is how we do everything. He is responsible for your welfare and it takes that seriously. He also wants you to take it seriously. Your welfare is very important to Him because everything you do is for His glory. If you think He doesn’t take your welfare seriously you won’t take your welfare seriously. As a result, you will muddle through life not taking anything seriously.
From now until we talk again hunker into your boundaries and hunker into the Word of God. Talk to Jesus and believe everything He is for you. He will lead you and guide you through everything you are doing for Him. If you focus on what He is asking you to do while asking Him what each of your steps should be He will bring you into all righteousness. He will bring you into success through all your failures. He will do EVERYTHING He said He will do based on your faith in Him. Rest in the Lord and you will know true rest.
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The Time is Right!
The Wrong Time!
Leola sits in the front window dreaming about being on a ranch, in the Southern United States, riding horses and working the ranch. She has had this dream since she was a child but it has never come to pass. She thinks she was too lazy to go after it or too uninvolved in her own life to actual make it come true maybe simply side tracked. She was born in the wrong time, in the wrong city to the wrong parents. She just feels like her whole life is just wrong. Her vacations reflect country life with streams of rushing clean water and her mind is always going to country living. She dreams of redecorating her house to look like a country cabin. Her dreams of the Life Skills Center are all inside a country house with a wrap around porch for the women to have alone time and swing their cares away. The laziness and the work of it all draws her attention. She sees someone riding a horse and she is off daydreaming about doing it herself yet she has only ridden a horse twice. She loves to watch movies about ranches and horses. Oh, how she wishes she were born down South one hundred years ago.
When Leola was reading romance novels she would always choose the westerns. Her dream was not only to be born during that time but also to be married to a rancher. They would struggle together to make it work and it would flourish. “How childish,” she thought, “to have this dream still!” Sam, her husband, is aware of this dream because they discussed what they thought they would be when they grew up. She loves to watch the westerns from the fifties and sixties with Sam. He wasn’t shocked about her dream because his dreams were just as wild. Leola knows most people dream of a life when they are children but don’t see it come to fruition as an adult. Some are just too extravagant, some to wild and some are just plain impossible. Sam and Leola dreamed the impossible for the time they lived in and the people they were. One of the things they had in common is a love of the country so they vacation in the country. She has the best of both worlds where they live and she is happy but she still pines every now and then for what could have been. Or could it have been? God will show her she is useful in this era!
God’s timing is so frustrating for most of us. He takes people from us to soon, He moves us to other pastures to late, His plan looks like it makes no sense some times, He doesn’t bring us what we need when we think we need it and He makes us live in a time we feel uncomfortable living in. We feel useless because we are doing nothing we deem important. If we could just be in this time what we had to do would be important. It would be time consuming and we wouldn’t have to dream about being productive because we would be. We are waiting on a God we don’t expect the expected from. We have experienced the unexpected and we don’t like it. Solomon tells us He has made everything beautiful in its time even if we feel out of place and awkward we are in our time. As long as we remain in the dream of other times we will not see the beauty in our time. God will put a dream of eternity in our heart that will satisfy us but still we will question because we cannot know the work that God does from beginning to end.
The Right Time!
Still staring out the window God begins to point out the beauty in her world today, right now! All the things she loves today were not even a glimmer in the eyes of the inventors one hundred years ago. God had created her for this time because He wanted her to follow His plan for this moment in history. She is not living in the past nor is she living in the future she is living today and today is where God wants her. It is frightening to give up the dream she has had for so many years. It gave her comfort but it also caused her sorrow for what she didn’t have. There is nothing now. No dream of a ranch, no dream of horses, no dream of a house on rolling hills with a view of a running stream. Her feeling of being useless is overwhelming her. What is to work for? No future images to look forward too. Leola will spend a good six months with no future dream and no goals to go with it. God waited for her to be completely stripped of that time then He went to work. God brought her to Revelation where she discovered the dream she should have. The New Earth and the New Jerusalem are her dream now. She wonders about it and has great joy thinking about it. The God she so longs to be with will be there. Jesus has put a great dream in her head and it will be hers in the right time!
Scripture tells us we are to be eternity minded to see Jesus. If we continue to allow our mind to wander into our time and our space alone He can not be found. He is our future as Christians. He is in the right time with the Father and speaking to us through the Holy Spirit. In the Fathers time He will bring us into the future to a beauty we cannot even fathom but He did give us clues in Revelation about what the New Jerusalem will look like. I want to be there, do you? The time is eternity, the time is right!
Meditation Verses: Ecclesiastes 3:11; Revelation 21; 22
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My Father Who Art in Heaven
Her Father
Father’s Day is coming and Leola doesn’t have one to regale with gifts and pleasantries. Her earthly father passed away in 2001 from the damage inflicted by a stroke the year before. She wasn’t a Christian then but was getting close. In just a couple of years she will be saved by the calling of her Heavenly Father. She is not sure if her earthly father is with her heavenly Father but she does know she will be. Her Father who art in Heaven has called her from the death into life. The sun is shining this morning because of Him. Her hope is secure because of Him. There is no father on earth who can promise the hope He can.
Leola used to be upset at her earthly father for not taking care of himself during his time on earth. She is without him today because of that yet today she is reflecting on her Heavenly Father and how she can talk to Him daily. She did not talk to her earthly father daily nor weekly for that matter even though he lived just miles away. The Father has taught her more than her earthly father ever could because he can never know her heart. The Father searches her heart and cleans it. His goodness brings her into repentance. His discipline grows her. His love teaches her to love. She sometimes questions how she lived without Him in her dead life but as she looks back she can see she never did. He has been with her from the day she was born. She understands she was predestined to be called to His purpose therefore her life has always been under the Wings of Love. He has ordered her steps and numbered her hairs for her whole life. She was created to live in this time by her Father who art in Heaven and she is eternally thankful to Him!
Ephesians 5:20 tells us to give thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. How fitting we should thank the Father through Jesus, His Son, for everything even for the time we were not saved from hell for all of our times belong to Him. It is during that time we were subject to the absence of the Father that makes us appreciate His presence today. Even though my father is dead I am subject to my Heavenly Father who shows His love toward me each and every day of my life. I offer myself as a gift to Him on this Father’s Day and every day because He created every single one of them. So I will pray to Him from Matthew 6;
Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
The Father
Leola is reminded of how the Lord taught His disciples to pray. It is all about giving thanks to the Father who is in Heaven but is also here. His closeness will never go unnoticed by Leola. She can do nothing for Him without Him. Her righteousness vanishes when He does. Her soul falls apart when she cannot see Him. How she loves the Father more than life itself! He gave her life for His glory. He gave her work for His Son. He is forever the lover of her soul and she will do anything for Him. The Father has proven Himself to be faithful to her therefore she will dedicate her life to Him, over and over again. Psalm 103 speaks her heart perfectly, Bless the Lord, O my soul and all that is within me bless His Holy Name. Her soul still baulks against it, in its selfishness, but she does it anyway. She is beyond grateful for His presence in her life therefore she will bless the Father, O her soul!
Our gratefulness toward the Father in Heaven is paramount to our thankfulness for what we have and who the Father has placed our life. If you find yourself critical toward people and things look deeper into how you feel about the Father. When you are of the belief the Father is holding back His favour, you will be critical of everything He has given you. Remember He has chosen you and loves you as much as He loves His own Son. You can turn your thinking around by just blessing the Father one time each day. Your Father who is in Heaven is in love with you and wants to be your Father. He wants you to say Happy Father’s Day Father but more so He desires to prove to you He is a good Father worthy of praise.
Mediation verses this week: Matthew 6:9:13; Psalm 103
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Our Effective Control
The Awakening
As she sits on her ‘have-to-have-it’ couch she thinks back to when there were no choices to make. As a child she was told what to do and as a teenager she fought to make choices of her own. She had no idea at the time what a mess she will make with that right. Then, when she became an adult Leola made too many wrong choices. Too many choices with her time and too many ungodly choices with her morals. The result of that is she has too much furniture, gadgets, clothes, food, body fat, shoes and worse, flimsy morals. Leola just has too much of everything except money and godly morals. How did she get so out of control? Loela was not watching her future nor was she controlling her current wants. She has in effect lost control of herself.
Leola has seen the word ‘sober’ in the bible! It always brought to mind alcohol but she is getting a good picture of what sober means outside of drinking. She wonders if there is much of a difference between what she has been doing with her life and what someone who is drunk all the time is doing. They make impulsive decisions weighing the cost later when they are sober yet is that any different than what she is doing? Are either one of us clear-headed when we are sober? She is recklessly spending her life on useless things meant for instant gratification. She knows it isn’t going to last because she will soon be bankrupt. Her husband, Sam, is frustrated with her spending. As long as Sam stays in the dark about all the purchases and donations he will never voice his frustrations and she is off the hook. Leola has become accustomed to deceiving her husband. She isn’t seeing how ineffective she is at this deception; she is sound asleep.
Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober (1 Thessalonians 5:6). We need to make sure we do not fall asleep while we are living our life for Jesus. We have a roaring lion following us around whose goal it is too make us ineffective in the Body of Christ and in the world. Our effectiveness depends on our own self-control. This is something we need to learn over time. Self-control doesn’t just show up overnight, it is learned. It takes a little self-control to gain a lot of self-control. The issue with lack of control is it engulfs our whole life and our whole being. If we lose control in one area I am pretty sure we have lost control in many other areas. Let’s think about alcohol for a minute. Someone who drinks to excess has lost control of the alcohol but what has he lost control of before the drink. The area God will go after to get control over is what is causing our life to be ineffective right now. Once we are effective at controlling that other areas to control will show up.
The Conviction
One more lie won’t change anything except Leola. God has had enough of the deception. She has lost control of the truth! God ordained her to teach women life skills but how will she be able to be of any effect to them when lying has become her norm instead of the truth. She is extremely grieved by her behaviour. She looked around the room to see all the money she has spent on frivolous stuff. Sam was right! It is time to clean this mess up. Leola would embark on a two year quest to get rid of the frivolous stuff everywhere in the house and control her spending. The first thing she had to do was stop lying to her husband. Leola has asked the Holy Spirit to convict her on this because it has become so habitual she won’t catch it fast enough before the dirty deed is done. Since Sam is not saved yet, his only view of Jesus is her. She is determined to be a good effect on him and anyone else she teaches!
It takes a long time to clean up a mess that was years in the making. When we lose control it effects our whole life as well as the people around us. Discord is the mainstay with loss of control but we don’t first try to fix it, we attempt to hide it, making everything worse. Paul wants us to watch and be sober about our life because our Lord Jesus Christ is coming back and we do not want to be caught in the middle of dishonouring Him when the trumpet blows. Fear not because you can do this! God has chosen us, equipped us and set us to His work that we would be effective to all, honouring Him.
This weeks meditation verses: 1 Thessalonians 5:6; 1 Peter 5:8-9; 2 Timothy 1:7
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You can Problem Solve your way into Real Truth!
When it comes to life skills, desperation is a driving factor for all manner of horrible things to happen. What is the driving factor for those who have been caught up in human trafficking? They were desperate for a better life and someone took advantage of that. What is the driving factor for overwhelming debt? They were desperate to have what they wanted or to have what someone else has. In the world today we are taught to have what we want and if we don’t have it, get it. We are taught to buy now pay later but, my lovelies, later comes sooner than we expect and we still don’t have everything we want. Now we not only are still desperate for our wants but we have to pay back the debt for our past wants we really don’t want now. What we need to do is face the truth and learn how to problem solve.
Three Truth’s to Face Head-on!
Truth 1: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. John 10:10
Whether you are saved or not this is the truth. We are in this life for one purpose – to live the abundant life Jesus promised. If your life is not filled with abundant peace, love and joy you are being killed by the thief. BUT John 10:10 also says “I [Jesus] have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
Instruction: Face the truth the devil may very well have a grip on you. If indeed you have been called by the Father for salvation then submit yourself to Him, resist the devil and he will flee. James 4:7
Truth 2: You might be able to have everything but not everything is good for you. 1 Corinthians 6:12
We see so much stuff in the world we become desperate to have what others have or even not to have what we already have. We become desperate when we allow stuff to control us. We might have too little stuff so we class ourselves as lacking or our stuff isn’t the right stuff. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
Instruction: Face the truth that stuff has power over you and relinquish what you have! Unless you relinquish the grip stuff has on you it will continue to upset you and dig a deep pit for you to wallow in. You cannot worship mammon and God therefore do a Scripture search about heavenly treasures to see what you will get if you worship God before stuff.
Truth 3: What you see is not always thought worthy! 2 Corinthians 4:18
Our senses are running overtime with all of the great things out there to sense. We smell those delicious Cinnabon’s, we hear great things about stuff, we touch soft things, our mouth waters for a taste of great things and we see so many new and wonderful things we are constantly confused about what we want and what we need. God is clear about what we need – the Kingdom of Heaven and His righteousness and all of the other things will be provided to us. Matthew 6:33 How much time do we waste fulfilling our senses when we shouldn’t be putting any thought into it at all.
Instruction: Face the truth that your daily bread is from the Scriptures. Matthew 4:4 Please relinquish the fact that time is not of the essence about this. Jesus is coming soon and we are not ready. We are living in the world and are of the world. This should not be so. Know the Lord and all the things you need will be provided to you.
Problem Solving Starts in the Mind and is Proven out with Action!
We have faced truths because that happens to be the first step in problem solving. There is no problem until we admit there is one. Sometimes others see our problems as problems before we do so if you think you have no problems just ask a friend yet I am sure by this point God has already convicted you about your need to do something different. Problem solving begins in the mind because it takes time to solve some of the life problems we have such as debt. We need to formulate boundaries and set goals. The best person to go to is Jesus and His Words because His plan for us will always overrun our best plans anyway. We have to decipher in our mind first what this problem fully solved looks like and go in that direction. Our problem may have continued to be a problem because we were never able to imagine ourselves being free from it. In that case we will need to rely heavily on Jesus to show us the way until we can see it ourselves.
The proof that we have problem solving skills is apparent in our actions. When the solution begins to take form we will see how functional our problem solving skills are. First, act out the solution for your eyes only. There are only two people who know your problem deeply enough to see if it is being worked out or not – Jesus and you! Your actions will prove nothing to the people around you except that you are not doing what they want you to do. Be prepared to have opposition but fight for the solution because your life is worth it.
Every Problem is Solvable if you Develop the Skills it takes!
None of this is easier said than it is done, but what is said, can be done! Each piece of advice I have written for you is written in the Words of God therefore it can be done. We can problem solve our way into real truth! Some find one problem easy to solve while another almost impossible and will have to go again and again to their knees before the Lord for help. The most helpful thing we can do at this point is learn to take our negative emotions out of each and every problem so we can see clearly to solve it completely. Only Jesus can help with that by providing the fruits of the Spirit.
We have three truths to face up too: the devil is out to kill, everything is not good for us and we do not have to think about everything we see. The solution to those is to admit them and fight them every minute of the day. Solve your problems in your head first with the help of Jesus and then act accordingly. There is always going to be opposition but know this – your own thoughts and the devils plan for you will be the hardest to fight. Every problem is solvable if you have the skills to do it and you are going to need every skills you can get your hands on. Developing those skills will improve your life significantly. Wanting a better life is not good enough! What we need is the life that Jesus has planned for us filled with peace, love and joy and the abundance. We can have that in spades if we seek Him!
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How far away is improving our life skills from applying the Words of God?
Our life skills, in my vision, are more advanced than brushing our teeth. It is caring for our everyday life from the time we wake up until we retire at night. They engulf our every decision for today and the future. They are personal and social, mental and physical, financial and environmental and, of course, moral. I also know that the actions we take are based on what we believe is right whether it is morally right or not. Moral laws are defined in this area as well. If you do not believe in God then your moral compass doesn’t always point to North but if you do then your compass should always point North.
So then, how far away is improving our life skills from applying the Words of God into our lives? Closer than you think. Accepting Jesus as Saviour has put us in a position to improve our life skills the Spiritual way. God is very interested with our everyday life from the time we wake up until we retire. How do we know? How can we tell? There are two topics prevalent in the Scriptures; our mind and our actions. These topics are talked about so much it is hard to miss it even if we aren’t looking.
Our Thinking Process can be Transformed!
How does God approach this topic in His Words? We can see right from the very beginning of man that our mind is a horrible place to be. Sin began with Satan deceiving Eve’s with her thinking (Genesis 3). Her mind was on what she was doing for God then Satan got her thinking about forbidden areas. Then that was all she could think about. Have you ever had food in front of you that you are trying to stay away from but cannot stop thinking about it? The minute your thinking changes from ‘stay away’ to ‘it’s okay’ you’re done. You eat until you are delighted but later the delight fades, a bellyache ensues or a guilt trip invades. We are peculiar creatures. In spite of our peculiarity God still transforms us.
The truth about our thinking process being transformed is found ‘literally’ in the Words of God! We are called and will be raised up on the last days (John 6:44) so we need to set our mind on the Spirit (Romans 8:5-6). This takes our thinking process (our choice) in a whole new direction from inward/worldly to heavenly! The Father endows us with grace that instructs us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts living a righteous life (Titus 2:11-12). The Spirit teaches us what to think about with many different methods designed to transform the way we think. We can do exactly this because we are endowed now with the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). We are able to do exactly what Elohim is instructing us to think about due to the fact that we do have the mind of Christ. If we choose to take on the mind of Christ our thinking process will be transformed beyond what we ever think possible as a result our actions change.
Our Actions Reflect our Thinking Process!
I think I want a cookie, I get a cookie and eat it! Don’t think that we do anything mindlessly because as we think we do! It is a Biblical principle (Proverbs 27:3). You might say this verse has nothing to with actions! How will we know what a man thinks other than his actions? Only the spirit of the man knows what the man is thinking (1 Corinthians 2:11) therefore since we are not his spirit we are only privy to how he thinks by observing his actions. Since our thinking process is transformed by the instruction of God what must follow is our actions being a reflection of that change. I think I want a cookie, Spirit lead sugar fast, Spirit power upon me, no eating the cookie! It is that simple but that hard. Our Spirit is telling our soul what to do and our soul is telling the body. The body wants that cookie so the soul must repeat itself but if our soul is weak the Spirit will endow us with the power needed to resist the temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13) and a way out is provided. Can you guess what the way out is? You guessed it – Romans 8:5-6. Why would fighting a temptation be about the mind? Because as a man thinks so he is! Paul talks about this in Romans 7:13-25. He delights in the law of God according to his inward man (spirit) but another law is present in his members (body) and it is warring against his mind. Our mind caught in the middle between Spirit and body but can take control of our body. The arm does not punch unless the mind tells it too nor does the foot stomp. As we transform our mind into Spiritual things our body will throw an absolute fit. What do you mean I cannot hit that person? I need to hit him! Did you hear what he said? Yes, I did but the Spirit is telling my soul to restrain you, arm, because it will hurt that person and drive him away from God. Transformation complete in that situation!
As in Water, Face reflects Face!
The topics, the mind and the body, are talked about so much it is hard to miss them in Scripture even if we aren’t looking. As in water face reflects face; so a man’s heart reveals the man (Proverbs 27:19). We are revealed for every human to see by our actions but God searches the heart and tests the mind (Jeremiah 17:10). If we modify our life skills we need to start with the mind knowing that any action we take has started in our mind. The best place to go to learn the right thing to do in every subject is the Scriptures. We will not only get a life lesson but find love too. Search the Scriptures and see for yourself.
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Our Significance in the Body of Christ is Christ’s Job not Ours!
We are significant to Christ at all times because He chose us but how often do we feel as if we are making a significant difference in the Body of Christ? Do we know how significant we are to the Body of Christ right now? Are we pushing our way in to make significance or are we so far removed we believe we make no significant difference? Who has defined significance? Do we understand how significant we are to the workings of the world right now? Not knowing this causes two type of mindsets. The one mindset leads us into the direction of laziness while the other leads us in the direction of uselessness. Getting a balance between these two will improve the life skills we get from finding significance in every day living for Jesus. Jesus has put us on this earth TODAY for His use in His Body. He wants us to overcome our feeling of insignificance by knowing there is something you can do, doing what you deem as useful and knowing you need not know the future to live for today.
There is something I can do!
Our significance comes from what God has designed us to do for Him. It is not enough to know that we are significant we need to work out our understanding or we will lose the knowledge. To sustain the feeling of worth we need to see our worth in what we are doing right now. At this moment I am learning but I am also doing what God has asked me to do on a daily basis. I have been doing the same thing for almost two years now and my patience is being tested but because I am learning I am also maturing. The way I felt about my significance two years ago is completely different from what I feel today. Our attitude that our work means nothing is not the truth but we have to see it to believe it. The Bible tells us faith without works is dead and as I continue in my walk with Jesus I can understand the whole ramifications of that statement. Faith is believing that something will happen even though you cannot see it right now. I am learning right now but that learning will be put to use in the Body of Christ eventually. Doing nothing is not an option for those who follow Jesus therefore a Christian should never be called a sluggard. Whatever you are doing for Jesus right now is something that is adding significance to your life and the Body of Christ. Jesus is always working to make that happen.
I am going to do what I deem useful
The other end of this is doing so much that nothing is useful. Let’s slow our pace for a while to see what we are supposed to do. Sitting down alone with Jesus is not going to hurt your ministry in any way. As a matter of fact, if you are aware whose ministry your ministry actually is, you will understand the more time we spend with Jesus the better off we will be. I know how hard it is to slow down because we begin to feel useless ourselves because we have identified ourselves with the work we are doing rather than identifying ourselves with Jesus. Jesus sends us each day to do works useful for His Kingdom and they may very well be all done in your own home or they could be outside of your home. Both are uncomfortable in their own way but they are being done to prepare us for the next work. I am an extrovert so doing works in my own home by myself is very uncomfortable, and in my head, useless. As I continue to do what Jesus leads me to do I have discovered how important my alone time with Jesus is? That time is useful to the Body of Christ more so now than before. My demeanor has changed, my understanding has broadened and my love for Jesus and His people has transformed into something significant. What I fear most now is when He sends me out will I want to go because I like spending time alone with Him. My house has become my haven. I am over the feeling of uselessness away from the body and I don’t see significant communion beginning any time soon. I am ready to make use of myself outside of my home when He makes a way for it because I have learned to be of use inside my home. Useful is defined by Jesus and my goal is to follow Him being as useful as He wants me to be.
We don’t need future knowledge
We do not need to know what the future holds to do what Jesus wants us to do today to feel significant. Our need to know the future is what allows us to deem ourselves insignificant in the body of Christ. We know the future – Jesus wins but how are we contributing to that? Are we saving souls? Are we teaching? Are we serving? We might say no to all of those because He has us learning right now and we might say yes but too much. You might have heard a preacher tell you that you are supposed to do this and that because we are all supposed to do it but the bigger questions is – is Jesus calling you to do this or that right now? If He isn’t but the preacher said we are then we feel insignificant because we aren’t doing what that man tells us to do. That man’s opinion is not important especially because he does not know us or our life. The Man that is important is Jesus. What He wants us to do is more important than what a preacher wants us to do. Don’t base your significance in the body of Chris on what the preacher or teacher thinks base it on what the Holy One says. Our significance, in the Body and out of it, comes from Him alone.
Ask yourself some questions this week.
- Am I called to what I am doing now or am I doing it to feel significant?
- Am I doing nothing because I feel insignificant or because I am ignorant of what I should do?
- Am I overworking because I think I can find who I am in that work?
Let Jesus define who you are and you will see your significance in the Body of Christ much more clearly. Let Jesus do His job while we do ours!
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Our Knowledge of God and Understanding our Plan Perfects Us!
Knowledge and understanding are the best tools for planning our future but how do we get them. Solomon, the wise king, said, “Without counsel plans go awry but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.” (Proverbs 15:22) Why, this was the wisest man alive saying this! If the wisest man alive says we need help with out plans, so be it. Let’s get some help! Our knowledge of God and understanding our plan perfect us, but where does our help come from? Sing the song!!!! Our help comes from the Lord!
Know what you’re doing!
Knowledge is most important to have when we decide we are going to do something. For me the knowledge of God is my most important asset so I depend on the Holy Spirit to provide many answers about who God is. I use the Internet for research and I listen to speakers. If we go back two weeks we asked ourselves some questions. We began looking at how much we have learned over the last year then last week we looked at how to make a plan for change. One of the goals I talked about is ‘knowing God better.’ For all of us to know God better we must know Him in a personal way for every day living. This even includes the teachers of the Word. We must know Him personally so we are proving out our faith as not to be disqualified from being respected as a teacher. In my plan of action my first go to is the Scriptures but yours might be to listen to a teacher. Either way we are getting the knowledge we need. Let’s say you are learning about human trafficking, abortion, church, women, men or children. No matter what topic you are learning you need knowledge to continue in it. Regardless of our task or career we must obtain knowledge or we will be deemed incompetent. I design cars as my day job for which I learn daily to complete the tasks I am assigned. Obtaining knowledge is how we are able to complete a task or a goal or even make a plan. We do not know everything and are not expected to know everything that is why we need Elohim. Leave perfection to Him and learn all you can about what you are currently doing.
Understand WHY you’re doing it!
Learning is one thing; understanding is a different animal all together. Solomon said, “Get wisdom and in all your getting get understanding.” [Paraphrased by me] There will be no wisdom without understanding and no knowledge is remembered unless it is accompanied by understanding. It is questioning the people who know, which leads us to an understanding. Some people understand quite quickly while others are involved in a lengthy process to understand. Our understanding depends on what we are learning and how we learn. There are visual learners who must see it to understand it. There are auditory learners who need to hear it and there are kinesthetic learners who need to touch it to understand it. These are not the only factors by far. God has gifted us to do a particular job for Him and He has gifted us to learn how to do the job in a specific way. We understand the way He wants us to understand and what He wants us to understand. We need to get the understanding. It is not good enough to get knowledge. We cannot go through life lacking understanding of our own plan and why we got to where we are. Failure will plague us if we choose to ignore the answer to the questions ‘WHY?’ God is not going to zap understanding into us! He can and maybe Has for certain topics or questions for us but on the whole He makes us work for our understanding through a process that really drills it into us. Sometimes He gives us quick ways to understand (thank You Jesus for the Internet) and sometimes He takes us on a journey to understand. He knows us, our mind and our purpose therefore the journey is always a means to His end. Leave perfection to God and understand all you can about why you are doing what you are doing!
My Understanding from My Knowledge
I have come to a much-needed understanding that perfection is from God alone. I am a carnal perfectionist! I like to do perfect work with no mistakes and no criticisms but it is impossible to do without the Father. I have also come to the understanding that if not for our imperfections we would have no advancements which has given me great ease to be imperfect. We can improve our life skills significantly if we give ourselves permission to use God’s knowledge and understanding to advance our plan. Our plans do not have to be perfect off the start they just need more knowledge and understanding to get us to where we want to go. All knowledge about God comes from God. Elohim will lead you to all the knowledge and understanding you need to be able to do His works (all of our works should be His works). He is perfect and His ways are perfect so to be the perfect person (obedient) He has asked us to be we need to get knowledge and understanding while working our plan out with God. Jesus has called us to be perfect and we can be under His tutelage!
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The Great Plan to Walk out the Door!
Last week we talked about putting questions to ourselves in this New Year. When we question ourselves it leads us into a plan resulting in change but what if we don’t know how to plan. Didn’t James say, “we do not know what tomorrow will bring so don’t make plans!” We could use this verse as a great excuse to avoid making plans yet we would be incorrect. James was talking about bragging about the future. Planning is a whole new ballgame God has a hand in. Before you begin your plans though there are three directives from God we need to think about; count the cost, commit them to the Lord, and watch them.
Luke 14:28 says, “Count the cost”
A lot of people never reach their goals because they never first counted the cost of getting to those goals. Let us use the goals of last week as our examples for this week. If I am to know God more I need to count the cost of doing that in my daily life. What will it take to know God better? Reading the Word. How much reading? This will take the rest of my life and it is unreasonable to think that I will be able to spend all day just reading. A good way to start is five minutes per day. This is the beginning of a plan but what is the cost of this plan. We need to be alone, we need to make the time and we need a Bible. The cost of getting to know people better is ‘shutting up’ to hear them talk about themselves. The cost of knowing ourselves better is probably a box of tissues. No matter what the plan is there will always be a cost to be counted otherwise the plan will fail. Do you think Jesus knew the cost of His plan? He did! Regardless, the plan still went forward and many people benefited from His obedience to God! When you count the cost and you are not willing to spend it then you are not willing to purchase your goal either but if you are willing many people will benefit.
Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit them to the Lord.”
If you have counted the cost and decided you are willing to spend the time, the resources and the effort it is time to commit the goal to the Lord. Is it what you are being called to do? Has the Spirit been leading you to do what you are about to do? This is the stage of goal setting most people will forgo because the goal they have is not the goal God has for them and they know it. If you know it right now stop going so time is not wasted. If you are sure the directive is from the Spirit then let’s go! Commit the thing to the Lord every time you work on it. Each time you create a plan or act commit it to the Lord too. It is in doing this He establishes our plans. His way of establishing our plan is to give them a nay or a yay. We can only know the difference when we know Him. If we go in the directions He guides us into we will get to our goal. Elohim will establish our plan if the goal is His. To commit your work to the Lord is to commit your goal to the Lord and follow Him throughout the whole process. You will go in directions you never dreamed and accomplish more than you ever imagined.
Proverbs 21:5 says, “Diligently watch them!”
We can count the cost and go! Commit them to the Lord but if we just let them work themselves out they are bound to fail. We have to work our plan from the time of conception until fruition. When we start slacking in our work the goal starts to fall apart. This is where the hard work and commitment come into play. Without hard work there is no plan and without commitment our hard work will go nowhere. Diligently watching our plan means knowing it location and its direction. Where are you right now in the plan? Beginning, middle or end? Determining that information is important because the work changes as the plan continues. There may be days we work endlessly and stand still. There may be days when we think the plan is working on its own and everything in between. If we do not know where we are with our plan we will not know how hard to work or for how long, leaving us lagging in our commitment to it as well. This lagging is not in our plan but in God’s plan too. This is very costly for us for our future. Not only for our goals but for our residence on the New Earth too. If we cannot be trusted with the small stuff we will not be trusted with the big stuff (Luke 16:10). I do not want to be stuck with the small stuff for eternity, do you? Let us watch our plan so it goes exactly where Elohim wants it to go.
Planning is time consuming and tedious work but avoiding it will leave us with failed goals all of our lives. We can talk about a goal and dream about the fruition of the goal for years but the day we start planning the goal is the day we get one step closer to completing the goal. I know there are a lot of folks out there who have trouble planning their goals as a result they have trouble accomplishing their goals too. Once we get used to planning, it then becomes the first thing we do outside of going to the Father with our petition to adopt the goal as our own and the direction He wants us to go. He does not come down and move our feet for us He expects us to move our own feet. Just put one foot in front of the other and you too will be walking out the door.
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What Kind of Questions do You Put to Your Self?
Happy New Year to you all! It is now 2017 and another year has come and gone. I am not one for resolutions but I am the kind who looks back on the past year to see what worked and what didn’t. As a result of the look at the past I put questions to myself. Normally, I keep asking myself questions until I get to the root of what needs to change. What kind of questions do you put to your self? What are they based on? Are they based on past failures or past successes? Do they lead to more failure or more success? Do you ask anything of yourself?
There are three questions we should ask ourselves once a year at the very least.
- Did I know God better?
- Did I know people better?
- Did I know self better?
Do I know God Better?
We are in an age where knowing God is not a good thing to the world but Jesus warned us in Matthew 24:24 we would be inundated by false Christ’s and false prophets that would fool many, even the elect, if that is possible. How are you preparing yourself so you are not fooled? Eating solid food is the most important part of not being fooled in your ignorance. I can tell you that I do not like being fooled. I have heard some untruths about the Lord and believed them only to discover I had been fooled. How did I know I was fooled? I set my face to knowing God the Father, God the Man, God the Spirit. To know God better you have to ask yourself how well you know all three.
Once you have discovered how much you know and how much you don’t know set a goal for 2017 to know Him better. I do know how hard it is but it determines life or death, hope or despair. You have to choose life and hope over death and despair! Start out by committing to five minutes per day of Bible time or God time. You can spend one minute reading and the rest thinking about what you read allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to you. I have been a Jesus follower for 15 years but I have not read the whole bible 15 times only three and studied the different books or words thousands of times. I am reading through my fourth time chronologically, which is very exciting. My next time will be with an Archeological Bible because I want to know history and geography much better. I will assume that will take me a couple maybe three years to read. There is no time limit reading the Bible and there is no set schedule for this daunting task but there is a need to do so! Without this task you will never know God better. Not everything you learn will be found in the Bible but it is the only place to start learning Him better.
Do I know People Better?
The second important question I ask myself is also about knowing God better. Since God has created all of us we need to know each other better to know God better. The one goal I set in 2016 was based on Ephesians 4:29 to make sure every word I utter is to build up not tear down. On the whole I was successful especially if I look back on pasted years. Since gossip is not allowed in my conversations I had to learn to listen more so I would be able to talk about other things giving me the opportunity to know people better.
Sometimes our goals have to be sought out and tested over the years before we are able to make them happen. A goal to know people better might start with a goal to talk less and if you are an extravert (like me) that will take some time. It is doable though and very rewarding when we are able to succeed. Our friends become true friends, our family becomes new to us and our encouragement to people has real meaning. These might be daunting goals for 2017 so we need to start small and test our goals first. Pay attention to your daily activities for the next couple of times you meet with people including your spouse. Who does most of the talking? What do you know about them? What do you talk about? What are you thinking about? If you discover that more corrupt words come out of your mouth than encouraging words you are not alone. I discovered that to be true for me many years ago and have been working on it for just as long. I have made great progress and am pretty happy with my words now. I still revert back to my old self sometimes but on the whole encouraging words are first out of my mouth rather than corrupt words. That is a complete turn around for me so if I can do it you can as well but you have to start. Set a goal for 2017 to lead you in this direction and you will know people better.
Do I know Me Better?
Unlike knowing God and people better this is more of a self-serving goal. To know God better or to know people better we need to know how we do this best. How best do I worship God? How best do I make people feel encouraged? These are things only we can discover about ourselves because outside of our Lord we know us best. No one spends more time with us than us! The big question is, “Do you spend enough time with you to actually know these answers?” If you are avoiding yourself you will never know God or people better because you will never know how to know them better.
Set goals this year to discover who God created you to be. How are you gifted? What do you do best? How do you learn best? You are new in Christ and discovering the new you makes life very exciting. It is like opening Christmas presents every day. To get to the new you we have to shed the old and that may be where the stumbling block resides. Colossians 3:1-17 is a very good start to learning more. There are plenty of good things we already know about ourselves and I suggest you start there. Discover the good and use it to discard the bad. Are you tenacious? Use the tenacity to learn. Are you passionate? Use the passion to discover. Are you quick witted? Use your wit to wade through your trash. Set your mind to performing your utmost best to discover who you are this year and why you exist today. Why has God seen fit to allow you to live today and not 100 years ago? He has a plan that includes everyone in the world but you are special. You have your own plan, no one else can complete, and this plan is why you need to know yourself better.
Knowing more should be a daily goal!
To overcome in God’s economy we should set knowing more as our daily goal. It has been my goal for as long as I can remember to learn something new each day but I have centered it over time. I do not spend my days learning useless information about events or details that will not move me closer to knowing God, people and myself better.
To improve our life skills we need to govern the way we spend our days. When I look at each day my goal is to have improved my outlook on life from the day before. Do I have more hope today than yesterday? Why, no matter what the answer. We tend to think because we are followers of Jesus Christ that hope is a by-product but it is not! We have the hope that we will live with Him forever but is that hope grounded in how we are living on a daily basis?
Let me write out my goals for 2017 regarding these questions for you so you see where I am going this year.
- How will I get to know Elohim better: by reading, studying the Scriptures and communing with Them to understand end times better. (I focus on topics)
- How will I get to know people better: by enjoying their presence at all times while listening and asking more questions. (‘enjoying them’ is new for me)
- How will I get to know me better: by focusing more on my daily tasks for God opposed to the future. (I am future task oriented so God has put it on my heart to concentrate on today and let Him worry about tomorrow)
I am gifted by God to be able to set goals but that doesn’t mean that I have the stamina to stay the course on every goal I set. Elohim has said ‘no’ to many of my goals forcing me to change direction. If you are not a goal setter, learn, because goals are how we get work done. Ask yourself with each thing you want to do in your life how you can realistically get to that place then begin setting small goals that will take you in that direction.
We are here to accomplish something greater than what we can ever imagine! When we set out mind to know God, people and ourselves better that greater accomplishment will eventually be revealed to us!
