Stepping out in faith is one of those things that we all think we can do, until we have to do it. The word calls for us to be bold and to share the good news, yet many of us remain anxiously isolated in our comfort zones and daily routines sharing memes instead.
Are you as excited about sharing Jesus as you are about sharing your weekend plans? Are you as intimate with Jesus as you are your best friends, family or spouse? Do you know the word like you know those song lyrics or sports statistics?
Who and what are you focused on? Building up or tearing down? Sowing to the flesh or sowing to the Spirit? Praying to obtain favor and things from the Lord or praying to spend time with, worship, honor, hear from and serve the Lord?
Have you ever said, “Here I am Lord, send me?”
Then go!
There comes a time in every persons life when they will encounter Jesus Christ. At some point, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess and everything will change.
It can’t be the same anymore.
Like old and new wineskins, life with Christ will completely burst apart the wineskin of your old life. Behold He’s doing something new.
He’s calling us back to our first Love in Jesus.
He’s calling a generation back to the excitement of the Lion and the Lamb. The boldness and righteousness of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.
He’s calling us to remember the passion, excitement, and chain breaking freedom that we experienced when we first came to Christ, were water baptized, and were set on fire in His Holy name by the baptism of His Holy Spirit.
He’s calling us to never put out the flame. To cultivate it, fan it, and keep it burning. To run this race and finish it well. He’s calling us to live it and to show how simple it is to share His love with others everywhere you go.
It’s not about getting everyone saved, healed, delivered or set free in one encounter, even though that happens. It’s truly about joyfully sowing, watering, planting and reaping seeds sown in His glorious name as led by His Holy Spirit on earth as it is in Heaven, everywhere we go.
He’s calling the simple back to the forefront. The warmth and comfort that comes from the burning fire that refines and purifies our very essence in the presence of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Go proclaim the gospel.
He’s making it simple to share Him. He’s taking the religious pressure off of making the home run and saying just swing, and do your best, the Lord has got the rest.
The goal is to know Him, and to let His Holy Spirit lead you to other people that know Him too, or need to know Him through you.
Yesterday, while driving through a small town, we passed a local corner gas station as the worker was taking out the trash from between the pumps. I asked Daniel to turn the car around because I felt the tug in my spirit to stop by and talk with her. It was late at night and quiet, in a clear city parking lot. I met her as she went to walk back inside and we had such a nice chat. I told her that the Lord put it on my heart to stop by and say hi and to remind her that she was appreciated for her hard work. I gave her the gift the Lord told me to give her, we talked just a bit more and then we parted ways; joyfully thanking Jesus for this simple friendly encounter on a cold winters night.
It wasn’t a fail because she didn’t say a sinners prayer, throw her crutches down, jump out of a wheel chair, cough up demons, or immediately repent and go start spreading the gospel herself.
We have to take the pressure out of the religious perfection we think we have to obtain before we are “qualified” to share Jesus with others. We have to drop our expectations and meet His. You can’t expect yourself to run before taking your first steps.
This is your reminder to step out in simple ways as you are led by the Holy Spirit. Not just in this season, but all year long.
This is your encouragement, that it really is that easy. That you are called to share what the Lord leads you to share with the people you are sent to. One conversation, one prayer, with one person at one place, at one time, that needs a touch from Heaven sent straight to their door.
As we left I snapped this pic of Lion St, only to zoom in and realize it was crossroads with Liberty. The Lord put on my heart that every person that encounters Him has that crossroads moment of Lion and Liberty. Where the Lord completely liberates us, separating us from the bondage of the flesh, the world and its ways through the repentance and forgiveness of our sins.
It’s time to come back to your crossroads moment, to remember the feeling of liberation and love found in Jesus Christ. To recall that leap in your spirit that reminds you why you’re a Christian, and reminds you of your overwhelming love for Jesus. The love that fills you with the desire to obey and accomplish the will of the Father.
All He’s asking for is all you have!
Mark 16:15 15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation
Acts 4:31 - And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
Acts 4:13 - Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.
Ephesians 6:18-20 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, 19 and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.
Matthew 28:16-20 16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Acts 28:31 - Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.
Ephesians 3:12 - In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.
Proverbs 28:1 - The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.
Hebrews 13:6 - So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
Hebrews 4:16 - Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Psalms 138:3 - In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.
2 Corinthians 5:17 - Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
1 Peter 2:9 - But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
1 Corinthians 12:27 - Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.
Galatians 2:20 - I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Ephesians 2:10 - For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Isaiah 43:1 - But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.
John 15:5 - I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
Isaiah 63:7 I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord, the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord has granted us, and the great goodness to the house of Israel that he has granted them according to his compassion, according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
Isaiah 43:19 Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
Matthew 9:17 Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”
2 Timothy 4:7 - I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
Acts 20:24 - But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
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