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Leading Yourself IN Success Part 5
Be The Doer
If you read the Gospels you have found that Jesus went. He didn’t stay in Nazareth for the people to come to Him. He travelled all over Galilee. When we go to Israel in May of 2019 we will go where He went by bus. It will be a packed trip imagine if we were walking every place He walked. The amazing thing about the distance He traveled is how far He went to show people He cares. There was not one person in all of Israel that did not know about Jesus, whether they needed a compassionate hand or not.
Be a Doer
James, the brother of Jesus, tells us in James 1:22 to be doers of the word rather than just hearers. The whole chapter is filled with information we can all use. We have talked about changing our mindset to that of Jesus but changing our mind is useless if we never put those new thoughts into action. Putting those new thoughts into action requires us to find out exactly who we are in Christ.
The Leading Yourself IN Success Workshop
The second half of Leading Yourself IN Success is called Success Takes Root IN your Actions. They are how we get to the place we are needed. They are how we get into the position to plant seeds for God to grow. We cannot expect people to come to us all the time.
Your Deeds have Roots
How you perform your deeds is rooted in how you think but what you do also takes root in the way other people think as well. If you are expecting people will always come to you, you are allowing them to think you are only serving self. When you go to them, you are showing them, through your actions, that you care about them. You can meet people half way as well. I do a women’s retreat, not in my home town, but in another town. I go and so do they.
Take an Inventory
We sometimes think that our works are where we are but they are not, they are where the work is, where the people are we are to serve, where the need is. Where is that for you? Do you know? Now, is a good time to find out. The summer is here, when all the activities you are involved in are on hold. Do an inventory of your activities to see if they are for serving the Kingdom or serving yourself.
You can also get to know you better by doing a Spiritual Gifts Assessment in your down time to find out what God has gifted you with, then revisit your inventory again. The summer is not just a good time to spend time with family and friends. It is a good time to spend time with self and with Jesus too. No one knows you better than He does. He will direct your path to become a doer of His Word.
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The 3 Ways to Live
My Goal to Live
As you know by now my whole goal for you is for you to live. I want you to stop sitting on the sidelines while others live. I want you to stop agonizing over a spent life. I want you to live. I want you to be somebody who is proud of the way you have lived. I want you to say on your deathbed, “I have lived a good life.”
This is why Jesus has made me who I am. To bring you the news that no matter what is going on in your life, you can live. I know struggle. I know hatred. I know medical problems. I know loss of time. I know every excuse that is known to man, but I still make it my goal every day to do what Jesus has called me to do: live.
If you are able to grapple with and overcome three major problems to living, you will live. Before Jesus gave up His life for us, He told us three things about living that we ought to pay attention too. He told us we must die to live. He told us we must see to live, and He told us we must feed off of Him to live.
Way One: Die to Live
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. John 11:25
You will never live until you kill yourself. To live the life Jesus has for you killing yourself is mandatory. Up until you were saved, you were living your own life. BUT now you must live for Jesus or you will surely die. This is a conundrum all of us grapple with, but I can tell you that once you have successfully overcome this, you will begin to live a life more abundant.
Your mind changes from striving for goods to striving for God. You look at people differently. You love differently. You plan differently. You begin to live as if death has no hold on you.
Way Two: See to Live
A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. John 14:19
You will never live until you see Jesus all around you. To live a life for Jesus you must be able to see Him at work. Jesus is alive and at work in this world. He is alive and at work in the people around you. It is because He is alive in this world that we can possibly live a life more abundant than before.
When you see Jesus at work, He is easier to follow. When you see Him, you see His plan for you. You see Him at work in others’ lives. It is because He manifests Himself to you, that you are able to see Him, follow Him and live through Him. Your previous blindness falls away leaving you are able to see.
Way Three: Feed to Live
As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. John 6:57
You will never live until you feed on the Word. Everything that happens in our life can be understood by Word. Your life will always remain a mystery if you never feed on the Word. While you are trying to solve life’s issues you are not living. You are moving from one problem to the other instead of one event to another. Jesus has provided the food for us, so we can use it to live a life more abundant.
Have you ever heard that if you eat too many carrots your skin turns orange? Well, if you eat much of the Word, you will look like the Word. We already have the image of the Word, now we need the character of the Word. The world will see the image of the Word working like the Word. You will live because of the Word, and your life will become much more abundant.
Your Goal to Live
None of us want to reach our deathbed full of regret and sorrow. Jesus came that we might live (John 10:10) so why aren’t we? Why aren’t we dying to self? Why aren’t we seeing Jesus? Why aren’t we working like the Word? We are grappling with life and we must overcome it.
Living for Jesus is the most wonderful thing in the world to do. He supplies us with everything we need to do what He has asked us to do. He makes the way for us to do His will. He has provided us with a room in the Fathers mansion. He intercedes for us when we fail. What more could we ask for? What more do you want?
If all of the provisions are available living for Jesus should be easy but it takes time and effort in the beginning. You just need to get past this stage no matter how hard it is so that you may live. I want your goal to be to live. I will be with you every step of the way bringing you my stories and solutions to life’s problems. We can and will overcome this life, so we may live His life more abundant.
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Cry out to Him and See!
There is nothing like a death in the family to make us evaluate (or me anyway) the things we are doing. We watch as people walk through the room and how they react. We react with curiosity about how they have impacted the lives of those they knew. We evaluate how they have impacted our life. The only real way we can know what they have done for others is to listen to stories and listen intently to how people felt about that person. This is a skill that we must learn to utilize as we get older because we learn much about ourselves and about others. We can know someone all of our life and still not know the impact that person has had on others outside of our own relationship with them.
This begs me to ask of myself, “How have I had an impact on those in my life?” Have I created an atmosphere of love or contention? Have I taught my loved ones that I am determined or lazy? BUT the biggest question is, “Have I shown (not told) them that I love Jesus?” Will that be the first thing people say or will they have to find out from the pastor during my service. I have no other desire for you to know anything other than my love for Jesus and how I work that out in my life. What I want you to see is I love Jesus, I love my family, I love my friends and anyone whom I can touch through my teaching of Jesus Christ and my writings about how we can learn from Him.I want you to see my passion for the Word when I teach you what Jesus has been teaching me. I want you to see my determined devotion to Him while I help you learn what I have learned. I want you to see my steadfastness in doing what Jesus has asked me to do. In this you will find out that I have dedicated my life to knowing Jesus by studying His word so I can be of use to the women in the area in which Jesus has placed me. I cry out to God daily for them and I ask Him to position me to be of the most use to them.
How can we go forward when we feel like we are not doing enough? Jeremiah 33:3 says “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’” Cry out to Jesus and ask Him daily what He has planned for you. He will reveal in you just as He will reveal in me just exactly what He wants us to learn and how He wants us to use that knowledge. Then we must do it!
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Let Him Choose!
Elijah, the prophet of God Almighty, killed 450 prophets of Baal and believed at this time that he alone stood for God (1 Kings 18-19). He was exhausted and ready to give up. He went up to the top of carmel and put his head between his knees waiting for the rain to come. It came but it poured down more than just water. Elijah had to run for his life to Bersheba. God ministered to him there but he was still running under the impression that he was the only one. It is a great encouragement to know that God has a plan and you are not the only one working it but until you know you are still alone. God asked Elijah what he was doing in Horeb. He told God he alone is zealous for Him. God, before He told Elijah about His plan first showed him His glory then He informed him he is not alone.
Elijah built his ministry by himself. He walked by himself in the zeal of the Lord! He alone went against Jezebel. He looked around and listened but there was not anyone with this same zeal. I feel like this sometimes. I feel like I alone am filled with the zeal of God and it is draining sometimes. Over this couple of weeks I have seen that Jesus has spoken the same words to others as He has spoken to me. He is training me with the same instruction He is using with others. He is showing us His glory before He chooses our fellow workers for His cause. When we are ready He will unite us!
Sometimes we feel we are alone but when God tells us that He is going to do something He does it. We CANNOT do God’s works on our own and if He has shown us that we will join with others He has those others already chosen. He is moving them into place just as He is moving us into place. God knows exactly what we need in a partner worker to accomplish His Word. I am finished trying to pick my fellow workers I am going to let Jesus do that for me and see the wonderful people He adds to my life for the glory of God. He definitely has revealed to me that He can do a better job choosing His workers than I can!
Action Plan: If you feel alone you are in a good place because your aloneness will make you available to view the glory of God from the place where you can see it best. This week open you eyes and ears to what others are saying so you can hear how God is working just for you. Sometimes you have to reveal God’s plan for you even though you have discounted it out of barrenness. That is when God will reveal to you the work He is doing!
