258. Is Jesus Enough?

Is Jesus enough for you?

What if we never arrive? What if like Moses you wander in the desert for years only to have the Joshua generation be the one to enter the promised land? The land that was originally promised to Abraham 42 generations prior. 42 generations it took to fulfill that promise. 

What if you’re generation 37, or 16, or 5 or 41. What if your family is this close to the breakthrough of the promised land that you’ve been praying for, and you give up now? What if you take the bait of the enemy and quit before you reach the finish line? Or worse yet, you give up, erase the efforts of every generation before you, and your kids or grandkids never meet Jesus at all. 

This is your reminder…don’t fall for it. Same evil tactics different worldly package. All designed to kill, steal and destroy. 

Satan doesn’t have to take your life if he can take your peace, wrap you in groundhog’s days, and have you spread that woe is me, lack of joy under a “Christian” label, like wild fire, to everyone around you for the years to come. Don’t come into agreement with the devils plans for idol hands, comparisons, and self made efforts that produce bad fruit. 

This is the season to keep your hands on that plow and to move with the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ. 

No matter what it takes, keep moving forward. 

The enemy has been wearing down the body of Christ with a season of monotony, complacency and apathetic attacks. All designed to steal TIME. Making us feel stuck in place or like we have lost any progress made in seasons prior. Like walking in quick sand every attempt to move forward seems to sink us deeper in despair, hopelessness and uncertainty. 

I am here to tell you. This is not your portion! This is a mirage, a lie from the enemy to keep your mind focused on the external circumstances you face instead of the eternal promises that lie ahead. Promises contained for you as truth in the living word of God. 

As a child of God, you belong to Christ! We are in covenant with the Lord God almighty!!! Let’s act like it. Let’s recognize it, let’s glorify the name of Jesus like we are called to do, no matter what it looks like to the world around us!!!! Let’s act like we have the gift of eternal salvation, shall we?! 

You think Satan is after souls like an evangelist for the underworld when he’s really after that ten minutes you set aside to pray this morning getting you to hit snooze on that alarm till it’s too late. 

Boom first thing in the am, Devil 1 Jesus 0. But, here’s the kicker, it wasn’t the devil at all, it was our flesh. It was our free will, it was our lack of self discipline and we blame the devil. 

Over and over, and over, all day long the enemy attacks with little time stealers, distractions, and whispers that keep us from hearing the Father speak, and that prevent us from spending any quality alone time with Him. It’s really that simple. 

This is where we lose as Christians every single day. 

With our minds wrapped up in a demonic loop of confusion and questions, self focused, wondering where things went wrong or what to do next; we are blinded by our inability to take our thoughts captive, and are unable to recognize the blessings we currently walk in, or to see that we are right where the Lord has needed us all along. 

If God is not doing something in your life it’s because He’s doing something IN YOU! 

He is strengthening the body. Are you selfless, are you long suffering? Is that what will come out of you when you are hard pressed on all sides?

Does the free will of your flesh love Jesus more than it loves to blame the devil for its lack of self discipline?

This is a call to guard our time. The Lord is JEALOUS for it. 

The Lord is speaking directly to those called to advance the kingdom of God. The enemy is wanting to take that time before we give it to Christ. The enemy wants our eyes, ears, hands and minds bound in this life far more than he wants our souls for all eternity. The first leads to the next. 

If you are in a place where you’ve been feeling lost, forgotten, alone, stuck in the wilderness, like your family is drudging through the sand, barely surviving on mana and shoes that never wear out, you are not alone. But you have a choice to make. Is Jesus enough? Just Jesus. 

If you are generation 22 or 40, is Jesus enough for you? Can you have joy in your life if you never get the breakthrough you have been praying for? Is just knowing Jesus enough to keep you moving forward every day pressing forward to what lies ahead?!

This walk is not a call to sunshine and rainbows but one to take up our cross and follow Him. 

When the going gets tough where does your mind get going? To the Lord or to the lack? To the promise or to the pavement? To what lies ahead or to what was left behind? 

What is the condition of your heart?

In prayer the Lord took me to a large open warehouse. There were mantles lined in rows as far as I could see. Every mantle was assigned to a worker on the line. Some were happily polishing them. Some were begrudging scraping paint off of others. Some were temporarily abandoned while the workers were on a break. Some workers looked exhausted or annoyed while others toiled on cheerfully with sweat covered brows and smiles on their faces. 

I asked the Lord what He wanted me to see and I felt the hearts of those tending their mantles. Some labored in joy giving glory and honor to the Lord. Others had pridefully painted their fleshly ambitions onto beautiful assignments the Lord had given them and they had to scrape off what didn’t belong before they could glorify God. Some abandoned their mantles temporarily to tend to family needs and emergencies. While others abandoned them because they didn’t feel like working on it right now and they wanted an extra break, like Noah building the ark they felt what’s another ten minutes away if this is going to take a hundred years to accomplish. If Jesus is coming one day, we still have time. 

This was an overview of the mantles the Lord has handed out to the body of Christ in this season. The smallest number of people were the few working to glorify the Lord and to praise His Holy name with smiles on their faces and sweat on their brows. The largest number of mantles were the ones unattended, left for the some days or the one days. Waiting to be picked up and polished. The flashiest, most adorned, most elaborate, were the ones being stripped of every prideful selfish thing the Lord didn’t call for, and it was the condition of the heart of the one stripping the paint, and how they took that correction, that would determine if complete restoration was possible or if the mantle was ruined beyond repair. 

What is the condition of your heart if all you have is Jesus? 

Is Jesus really enough?

This is a season for selflessness, for self discipline and to stop blaming the enemy for the failures of our free will. No matter what your current circumstances may be, let Jesus be enough. You never know who may be counting on you 42 generations from now. Take your thoughts captive, hold fast to the promises of our savior Jesus Christ and keep moving forward. It’s bigger than just you. 

Luke 9:62 And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. 

Romans 15:13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

Deuteronomy 31:6 - Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

2 Corinthians 10:4-6 4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; 6 And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.

Isaiah 40:31 - But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Isaiah 41:10 - Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

Psalms 39:7 - And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.

2 Corinthians 4:8-18 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair;9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you. 13 Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, 14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. 15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. 16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Hebrews 10:23-24 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works

Hebrews 10:35-39  Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. 37 For “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; 38  but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” 39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.