166. Are you prepared for anything?

 

Are you prepared for anything? There have been two things the Lord has been working on in my heart over the last few years. One has been patience and the other has been to be led by spirit at all costs. Especially when it makes your flesh uncomfortable. Today I want to talk about being led by the Spirit at the cost of our flesh. 

Jesus was mocked, tortured, and hung on a cross to die. Yet many Christians won’t step out of their comfort zones to obtain the freedom He died for. We won’t go up for altar call. We won’t lay our problems at His feet. We will bottle everything up, enjoy that 20 minute sermon and struggle internally for another week. We are afraid of what others will think of us. We are afraid that we will be judged for our sin, for our struggles, for being weak. We are afraid to admit that we need help. So we struggle. Month after month, year after year, slowly dying inside with the enemy’s poison contaminating our souls and seeping into our every day life. 

We hide in the pews, we watch the you tube sermons, we quote scripture but we don’t live it. We pray for miracles, signs, wonders, healing and deliverance to happen for us, but we don’t go after it. We passively expect the Lord to hand it to us. It reminds me of me and the kids. They know I love them. If I know it’s dinner time I’ll feed them, but what if they want more? Do I withhold it from them? No. But they have to let me know what they want in order for me to provide it for them. I have food abundantly in the fridge and cupboards but if they don’t ask for it, how will I know what they want? How much more will our Lord give us what we ask for, if we ask with the right heart and right motive? To glorify Him and not ourselves.  

Ask and you shall receive. Don’t sit there in the same struggle week after week wondering why you can’t find a breakthrough. There is effort required of us. Go to Him, make your needs and wants known to the Lord and petition Him. He will not hold back. I’m living proof of that. Go to your church family. We aren’t here to judge you, we are here to help one another. The body of Christ is iron sharpening iron. Yet iron can’t be sharpened unless it’s been in the refining fire. More often than not, refining fire burns. It cuts through the flesh.

Last Thursday at the prayer meeting I had enough requests in my inbox to fill a sheet of paper front and back. My heart was heavy. My sleep that week had been broken up into an hour here, an hour there, for multiple nights in a row. I felt drained. During worship at church that night I felt the presence of the Lord come up behind me and it felt like He kicked the back of my knees out from under me. I heard “Are you prepared for anything, Ash?” It was such a sweet conviction that came with that heart drop of a surprise attack. I wasn’t ready for anything and I needed to be. I should have been. 

We need to be ready. We need to stay vigilant in our prayer life. We need to intercede to interfere with the enemy’s plans. The world is a mess. People are struggling, homes and families are being attacked every day. We can’t be tired, we can’t have an off day. The devil never takes a day off. We have to be ready for anything at anytime and we have to fight the spiritual battle with the weapons of our warfare. 

If you want to be used by the Lord step out and let Him use you. There has never once been a time where I’ve felt confident when I lay hands on someone to pray. I’m shaking in my skin, my heart is pounding out of my chest and I just open my mouth and let the Lord work. I can’t even remember half of what I say. I’m no one special. I’m just fighting through the discomfort of my flesh for the glory of the Lord, and when I do, the Lord shows up. Every. Single. Time. 

I encourage you to step out of your comfort zone, I encourage you to step into the calling on your life. You are equipped with the same Holy Spirit that rose Jesus from the dead, act like it! Don’t care what people think, don’t care what the world will say. Go with the Spirit of the Lord as you are led. Pray, listen, act. 

Some of the best things happen when you step out of your normal and step into your destiny. Break through the discomfort. Stand up for what you pray for. Now is a time to go after the promises of God. To walk in our inheritance as sons and daughters of the King of Kings. The kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Push through the discomfort of your flesh and grab the hem of His garment. You’ll be so glad that you did! 

Matthew 21:22 - And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

1 John 5:14 - And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:

John 14:13 - And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

Matthew 7:7 - Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

John 16:24 - Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.

James 4:3 - Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

Proverbs 27:17 “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.”

1 Thessalonians 5:11 - Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.

Romans 12:15 - Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.

1 Corinthians 12:26 - And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.

Hebrews 10:24 - And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:

Matthew 18:20 - For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

Ephesians 5:11 - And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.

Hebrews 3:13 - But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

Ephesians 5:8 - For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:

Galatians 5:16 - This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

2 Corinthians 5:7 - (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)

Ephesians 5:2 - And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.

1 John 2:6 - He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

Colossians 3:16 - Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

Romans 12:2 - And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.