Your Greatest Purpose

Your Greatest Purpose
By Jeremy Caris www.abidingglory.com

Over the last couple of weeks, the Lord has been repeatedly telling me to simplify my life. It is so easy to get caught up in the daily grind of being busy, even with good things. It is also possible to be extremely productive and still not accomplish anything that leads you to the next landmark along your God-given destiny. Nothing in life matters more than pleasing God. The one thing that pleases Him the most is to have someone who is fully surrendered to Him and His design for their life.

He urgently looks for those whose heart is devoted to Him to the point that they will rearrange everything to pursue the life that He intends. When you have that single focus of heart, the decisions you make and the actions you take become simple and determined. Are you spending your time and energy on pleasing Him, and on doing the things that keep you moving along His path for your life also? The second actually accomplishes the first when it flows from your heart. It is time to simplify your life.

Your Unique Purpose

If you have any glimpse of God's plan for your future, you know that it involves your deepest passions. That is because He created you with a purpose and He intends for you to fulfill the unique purpose for which He created you. The only way you will accomplish this is to become the fullest uninhibited expression of everything He intends for you to be. The Bible confirms that God has a plan for each one of us. Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

In addition, if you are a Christian then you are a part of Jesus' Body in the earth today and you have an unlimited future because of your inheritance through Him. That inheritance is your potential. Because of Christ, you already have the potential to live your life to His full intent, but it is your responsibility to surrender to His path of developing that potential. You must focus your time doing what helps you along in this process of becoming the best that God intends for you to be.

Take a minute to imagine who you are from God's perspective. 1 Corinthians 6:17 says, "But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him." That means He is inseparable from you. Through Jesus, He has fully invested Himself in you. He spent Himself completely in order to have His way with you and through you. Even before you surrendered to Him, He made you a unique and special person for His own pleasure. That not only means that He loves you, but it also means that He has a deliberate plan for your life.

Do you think that He could be so intentional concerning your very life without having a future designed especially for you? Maybe that life has been stolen from you, or maybe you have simply walked away from it. But if you want the happiness and fulfillment that every other person on the planet desires, then don't let life just happen to you, and don't allow your path to be determined by anyone but God.

His Plan Becomes Your Plan

You may be nowhere close to who you will become, but that's okay. He will give you the grace and strength to become who you are as long as you desire to continue. We would all like to become the person at the end of a successful journey, but "the journey" is part of the process of becoming that successful person. Choosing that journey will require your willingness and obedience. According to Isaiah 1:19, it is the willing and obedient who will eat the good of the land. In other words, that is what it will take for you to make the most of this life and receive the greatest benefit. Willingness is a motivated heart while obedience is motivated action.

You see, the first secret to living your successful and fulfilling life is to find what it is that God wants and then to act in agreement. You will go through many seasons along the way. You must not only focus your efforts in alignment with the purposes of God, but you must also work within the season of life you are in. Those seasons are defined by God, but your willingness and obedience in that season is decided by you. God will not force you to align with His plan, He will tell you to simplify your life until His plan very clearly becomes your plan as well.

What is defining your life? Are you focused on who you are created to be? Are you being positioned to fulfill your greatest purpose? There is a reason you are here! Giving your life to Christ is not a prayer you pray, it is an action you take. It is all for Him and all about Him; pleasing Him with your very life. This is what it means to minister to God. It is giving Him what He wants, which is all of you. It is surrendering your entire life and focus. It is choosing His path and future for you. Decide right now to give the rest of your life as an offering of worship that is pleasing to God.

So,Whose Test Is This?

So, Whose Test Is This?
by Francis Frangipane

I think moFrancis Frangipanest of us do not grasp the degree of suffering and devastation that has hit Haiti. We think because the front-page news about Haiti has diminished that Haiti's need has also diminished, but it has not. The urgency of people being buried alive has been replaced with the urgency of a million and a half people without homes or shelter.



To put this disaster into perspective, recall the terrifying Sumatran tsunami that killed 230,000 people in December 2004. Eighteen nations were affected. In contrast, the Haitian earthquake killed approximately the same number of people as the Asian tsunami, but the death toll was focused primarily in one city in the most impoverished nation in the western hemisphere! Nearly everyone in Port-au-Prince has lost a family member, friends or neighbors. Many have lost several loved ones. Approximately one-fourth of the city died. The collective burden upon the Haitian people is without parallel.



Let Compassion Grow


Some people familiar with Haiti's worship of elemental spirits (in voodoo) have concluded Haiti has only itself to blame for its catastrophe. This is a convenient analysis. For once we determine that this disaster is the fault of its victims, an icy veneer begins to form over our heart. We feel detached from their suffering, delivered from the discomforting demands of mercy.



But God isn't looking at who's responsible as much as who is able to respond in the compassion of Christ. And this isn't so much about God testing Haiti as much as He is testing us, His church. How we respond, how we give, how we pray or sacrifice to see this nation redeemed has the full attention of the Lord's eyes. He has not blessed us with so much so we can hoard our wealth, but so we can give to help others.



This is our test. God has opened wide doors to minister in Haiti. Anyone who has wanted an opportunity to serve and make a difference, here is your chance. There is no competition here, no "voodoo aid agencies" helping the hungry or homeless in Haiti, no Muslim outreaches lending a hand. Those helping are either from secular agencies sent from a couple dozen nations or they are members of hundreds of Christian outreaches. Our friends on the ground are feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and giving shelter to the homeless - and they are speaking the word of God to the newly saved Haitians.



The people in Haiti could not be more desperate or more open to the love of Christ. Remember Jesus' words: "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few" (Luke 10:2). He said to pray for the laborers to be sent out, and this is my daily prayer, "Lord of the Harvest, send forth Your anointed laborers, those whom You've raised up, those who simply want to show the love of Jesus, who know in their hearts that You have put Your compassion in their hearts."



Get Involved


I'm going to keep asking you to remember Haiti in prayer. You will continue to hear me urging Christians to take a week or two, or a year, and get involved whenever possible in Haiti's renewal. I'm going to not stop asking pastors to send teams to serve the needs in Haiti and to also go there themselves. Of course, let us continue giving to Christian aid organizations that are already functioning on the ground in Haiti, and let us give sacrificially and with vision.



Haiti is our test. How we respond to Haiti's need, to its outstretched hands, will be a determining factor concerning how God will respond to our outstretched hands in our time of need. Yes, miracles and revivals are breaking out, as we mentioned last week, and certainly God has a better future planned for the people of Haiti. But the test we must be concerned about isn't for the Haitians; God is testing us.

The Healthy Branch

The Healthy Branch
By Dudley Hall www.sclm.org

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. John 15:7-8 (ESV)

It seems too simple. Surely there is more to it than abiding and asking. We tend to make the ways of God more complicated than he makes them. Could it be as simple as Jesus has indicated?

God the Father has gone to a lot of trouble to establish such a possibility as Jesus suggests. Alienated from God, mankind had no way to ever be so intimate with the Father. We were "in Adam" and Adam was cast out of the Garden and lived from a perspective of hiding behind a bush. Jesus, the last Adam, has made it possible for us to be as united with the Father as he was while on the earth. There is nothing we could do to make us closer to God. We are in him! So what could we do in addition to abiding?

God did the placement. We abide by living accordingly. As we choose to believe what he has done, we enjoy the benefits of the relationship. We don't always feel or sense that we are so united with the Father, but our sensory awareness is not the last word. When we choose to live by what he says, we experience what he says.

Do you get the impression that God the Father looks forward to answering our prayers? It seems that we often live with a built-in doubt that he is interested. It is by answering our prayers that we are distinguished as disciples of Jesus. Actually he will lead us into circumstances of deficit in order to supply our needs.

If you have a legitimate need today, it is God's invitation to pray. When you pray, remember that you are an extension of his will on the earth. You represent him and he is not hesitant to establish you and supply all you need for your assignment.

Give it a try. Abide and ask. There is no better way to live as his son on earth.

Growth of the Mysterious Eternal Seed

Growth of the Mysterious Eternal Seed
By Bob Mumford www.lifechangers.org

God’s kingdom is like seed thrown on a field by a man who then goes to bed and forgets about it. The seed sprouts and grows—he has no idea how it happens. The earth does it all without his help: first a green stem of grass, then a bud, then the ripened grain.

It is mystery how anything can grow out of a pile of dirt. When I was a kid there was a huge maple tree in front of my house and one of the seeds dropped into the crack in the sidewalk. Eventually, that seed grew until the whole sidewalk was pushed up. I can remember flying over the concrete ramp that the roots created on my scooter made out of orange crates and old skates.

Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to a seed. In so doing, He reveals several aspects of the Kingdom that will help us know the Father’s ways and move with them. It is always fascinating to see how the four Gospels amplify and clarify different aspects of the Kingdom of God. The parable of the Sower is pivotal, far-reaching, and monumental in helping us understand the Kingdom mystery. Mark, after recording this parable, adds important and fundamental insights:

1. Casting Seed. This implies that our confidence is in the Seed because it contains all that is necessary to produce fruit.

2. The growth of the Seed is a mystery. We sleep or rest in the power of the Seed and we embrace the mystery that we do not really know how the growth occurs.

3. The Seed bears fruit in its season. The earth brings forth fruit from the Seed by some “automatic” process. It grows and produces fruit by itself. We can cultivate, water, and nourish, but we cannot make the fruit grow.

4. Harvest of fruit. The harvest cannot happen until or unless the fruit has appeared.
What a beautiful picture Mark gives us of how the Kingdom fruit does not emerge fully mature. As the crop grows, we first see a green stem of grass, then the bud, then the ripened grain—and only when the crop permits is it harvested for use. Every farmer knows the futility of forcing a seed to grow. He also knows it is not possible to plant watermelon seeds today and get watermelons tomorrow. The farmer quickly learns not to give himself a spiritual hernia trying to make the seed grow or reap a crop before it is ready.

THOUGHTS & QUESTIONS
• What does the nature of the Seed tell you about Father’s ways?
• In what areas of your life have you cultivated, watered, and nourished the Seed and are now waiting for fruit?
• In what ways have you given yourself a spiritual hernia trying to produce some characteristic or spiritual attribute?

Leading, As One Who Serves

Leading, As One Who Serves
By Robert Ricciardelli www.vision2advance.com

Luke 22:24-29 24Also a dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. 25Jesus said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. 26But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. 27For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves. 28You are those who have stood by me in my trials. 29And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me.

Jesus just had a wonderful and final time of fellowship with His team, the team that had walked beside Him, witnessed the signs and wonders, and should have had perceived by now that the Kingdom of God was not like the kingdoms of this world. But human nature took over, and thoughts of power, control, and status led to a dispute among them.

We see the same dispute today all around us. Those who have been called to lead, want to collect servants, and do not understand that they were called to lead like Jesus Himself, AS ONE WHO SERVES, and release servants to the world. As a whole I think we can say, “Ouch, we somehow missed that memo from Jesus, and now must be determined to make the shift towards His likeness, and His desire for all of us.”

It is way past the time for godly leadership to make this shift. “Top down” methods must give way to Christ’s “Bottom Up” mandate. Here is how it works, if you are a leader, you go low, and stop propping yourself or your agenda up. You choose to go way low in serving and lifting up the heads, hearts, and vision of others. Do this, and Father says, “That is the Way the Truth, and the Life my child, and you are now Kingdom great.” Of course that is presupposing that most of God’s people want to live their life as a Father pleasers, like Jesus did.

Many leaders who were supposed to be informed have now become those that need to be reformed. Reformed in the Kingdom. Reformed in mindsets as to being as one who serves, rather than expecting lights, the red carpet, and an entourage of servants. Reformation, and actually transformation must take place, and can only happen with willing and humble hearts.

Think of leadership as the process of setting people free to do the best work they can, while the Holy Spirit whom you have released them to, guides them. It is not about you, it is about the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory of God, and unleashing others into that Kingdomized place of freedom. We do not own anything, but we are called to steward everything God has given us.

Many leaders on the world’s scene are getting this and becoming successful by releasing others to be and to do. Phil Jackson has made a “Hall of Fame” career by following a few principles of this truth. In his career, Jackson has gone from coaching the record-setting champion Chicago Bulls to the present NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers. He says his principal task is creating an environment in which his players can flourish. In communicating with his championship teams, Jackson convinced them that they had the talent to win championships and that the main goal of the coach was freeing them to use that talent.

In businesses today, team members say they want, more than anything else, the autonomy to do their jobs without the boss’s interference. Empowered and trusted, their productivity soars. Nearly a decade into the new century, it’s already clear that the CEOs of our best-run companies believe that the more power leaders have, the less they should use. They become facilitators of principles and let people manage themselves within those values.

The job of a leader is to help others hear the voice of God, train and prepare them, and release them into strategic vision and mission opportunities. People need to feel safe and valued as a Kingdom citizen to fulfill God’s destiny for their life. In other words, people will flourish in God when a leader seeks to serve, rather than be served.

The key to authentic leadership is to listen to those within your community, and then open the door for them to lead themselves into God directed service. The secret is education, training, and empowerment. The main incentive is genuine love, caring, and recognizing the need for every member to be free to serve in the sphere’s of society the Lord has placed him or her into, while being part of a relational and missional community.

A good leader recognizes that every believer is called to do great things for God, but was not called to do it alone. So the leader gathers, serves, facilitates, and prepares others for Kingdom service, and rolls up their sleeves and works alongside them. It is rarely what the believer does in a building on Sunday, but what they are released and empowered to do daily. The more decentralized and relational a community can be, the freer they are to move in the power of the Holy Spirit as a unified Body of Christ.

Lord, may leaders understand the power of strength and honor for every single person. That they might lay down their agenda, for your agenda, as your people rise up “As One” who serves!

THE MOST EXTREME MAN or WOMAN in the CHURCH

THE MOST EXTREME MAN or WOMAN in the CHURCH
-Joyce Perdue.

The most extreme man in the church today is the man is the one who
stands on God’s Word alone.

He is the “voice crying in the wilderness” of modern churchanity.

It is he who dares to ask not, ”Is this okay? Can we “get away with
it”?”, but “Is this honoring to God Almighty?”

Here is one who refuses to engage in frivolity while the world slides to hell.

Here is the man who isn’t afraid to stand before men and be laughed
at; he is afraid only of standing before God and being condemned.

He stands for truth in a time of compromise.

He constantly searches out the Word of God and demands a “thus saith
the Lord” in a time of me-centered, watered-down, cotton candy
teachings.

He believes that there is one way, God’s Way, and he is willing to
give up home, income, reputation…indeed, he is willing to give up all
that he has, all that he is…in order that it may be taught.

Here is the one who knows “doing for God” must grow out of “being with
God” and not the other way around.

Here is the preacher who isn’t afraid to “step on toes” or make
someone uncomfortable when the need arises.

He is one who will preach boldly against sin in all of its manifestations.

He is a man who constantly invites his Lord to “search me…try me…see
if there is any wicked way in me”.

He is one who knows Jesus wasn’t just “meek and mild” but also the
Lion of Judah Who was zealous for God’s house and he tirelessly seeks
to follow his Master’s example.

He is the husband, the father, who leads his family to go against the
world–no matter how unpopular, how uncomfortable the position–rather
than ride the flow that leads to hell.

Here is the young man who seeks out a woman of true loveliness, one
who loves God and shows much growth in godliness, rather than one
whose beauty is only skin deep.

The most extreme man in the church is the one who unfailingly takes
God at His Word and then, believing, acts on it.

He teaches truth even when persecuted for it.

He sees the times and, understanding the dangers ahead, beseeches God
on behalf of the people who are failing Him.

Here is one who will lose sleep to “stand in the gap” for his family,
the church, the nation.

He is not afraid of censure, of unpopularity,of ridicule but only of
displeasing his Lord.

He is one who has obviously ”been with Jesus”.

He knows intimately the throne of grace and lives at the foot of it.

He knows the Cross of Christ for he makes his home in its shadow.

He loves God and thus loves the unlovely–even those who would cause
him harm for his “extreme” positions.

Here is one to whom praying is as natural as breathing.

He is known in hell and hated for his prayers aren’t prayers for
personal comfort but for God’s will to be done–and then, when the
prayers are momentarily complete, he gets up and makes himself
available to be the instrument through which God’s will can be
accomplished.

One who knows sleepless nights spent crying out to God that He may be
known and honored among men.

A man who has absolute faith in God that His Lord is able to do all
that He has promised.

Here is a man to whom the thought has never occurred to not “accept”
Jesus as His Lord.

One whom, knowing his own sinfulness, is humbled by the grace-filled
opportunity to serve His Lord in any and every fashion that God
bestows upon him.

A man to whom God Himself is more important than any other gift that
God could bestow.