Think It Not Strange

“Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.” --1^st Peter 4:12-13 (NIV)

As you follow the call of the Lord on your life, you will face opposition. The enemy of your soul hates nothing more than for you to burn so bright that others catch fire, too. He will try every trick he knows to discourage you, deceive you, and bump you off the path that is producing fruit for the Kingdom. You should expect this.

This opposition is not reason to run and hide. On the contrary, when you face opposition that flies in the face of what you know the Lord has told you, then it should be encouragement! You are doing something that is rocking the spiritual places enough that the enemy is taking note of you.

Don’t think it strange that attacks come harder and heavier as you push more into your calling. When you were sitting on the sidelines, content being saved and not really doing anything, you probably didn’t face as many spiritual battles because Satan wasn’t scared of you—you posed no real threat to him. Your complacency in Christ didn’t bother him…although he had lost the battle for your soul, he didn’t figure he’d lose many more people because of you. But as you become more consumed by the things God has called you to, then you should fully expect the devil to try to disrupt things.

The avenues in which he’ll come at you are endless. From external things (relationships deteriorating, having a perceived lack of resources, too many demands on your time) to internal things (exhaustion, loneliness, doubt), the enemy will attack you in your places of vulnerability. He is good at this. He’s been doing this to people for thousands of years. Expect it.

My word to you today is this: persevere. Keep pushing towards the Lord. It is well worth the fight to stay true to the call God has placed on your life. The very fact that the enemy is attacking you is an indication that you are doing the right thing. Take the attacks as signs that you are on the right path to destroying the kingdom of darkness!

There is nothing better you can do than walking out what the Lord has called you to; don't let the enemy scare you away from it or take it from you. Joy, peace, blessing, and abundance are yours through Jesus Christ Our Lord! Amen!!!

God's Will and You

The call of God is general and it is specific. God’s will on earth is to grow His Church—that every person on earth come to know Him as He is; i.e. to know Him as their creator, their master, their lover, their God. He wants everyone to experience Him and have relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. He wants His will on earth done as it is in Heaven. He does not want to see people sick, depressed, lonely, hurt, suffering from disease, broken, broke, unloved, defenseless, ridiculed, enslaved, abused, hated, ignored, burned, left for dead, disregarded, or lied to.

You are part of the bride of Christ. To be a bride means only to love Him, and to let him love you. Fully.

When you are asking to find your specific purpose, your specific role, it only makes sense to me that you seek to love Him first, that you seek to find His heart more. When that love relationship gets all kinds of messy then things will be birthed in your spirit. Then, those things won’t just be cool things that give you something to get excited about for a while; they will be things that already are drenched in the purposes and heart of God. THOSE are the things that turn out to do mighty Kingdom things.

Don’t necessarily look for things that everybody else is doing, things that are big, and looking at the way to do them the biggest and best. People don’t necessarily have to notice you…especially at first. If the goal is to be noticed, especially at first, then your heart probably isn’t in the right place. Don’t be the guy in the worship band that misses the worship b/c of the band. Don’t be the prayer warrior that only goes to major events but neglects the prayer closet. You’ve gotta lay the ground work in your heart correctly if you want to be part of something that is God-big, and sustainable.

Your specific purpose will tie to the big overall purpose: to grow His Church on earth. If you keep that in the forefront of your mind and heart, then the Lord will sooner or later show you your more specific role in the Body. The Body is His Bride. Let us love Him.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Jesus Culture conference

I spent 3 days last week in Georgia. ATL!! I was down for the Jesus Culture conference. That I even got to go is a testament to the mercy and favor of God.

The event was announced 2 or 3 months ago, and you could register online anytime you wanted to. Well, I keep putting it off and putting it off, even while telling a guy who is on the worship team with me to register because it was gonna be so awesome. So I finally get online to register the week before the event and I see that it’s sold out. SUCK!

At this point, I’ve got no way into an event I’ve been looking forward to for months… and not only that, but I’ve gotten an 18-year old dude all excited about it, who has already signed up and paid his registration fee, and now has no way there.

I contact the event coordinator via email asking if she could handle one more registrant; she says no. I call Jesus Culture event people and get no response. I tried getting a friend of mine who has connections with the church in Redding to “do me a favor”—no dice. Finally, I made my Facebook status a desperate cry for help to get me to the conference, just hoping something would happen.

A friend of mine hits me up on Facebook and suggests I call the church that the event is being held at to ask if they need volunteers. Pretty good idea, right?! So I call immediately, but get their answering machine b/c I call after office hours on a weekend.

By this point, I’m ready to just throw in the towel. I call my friend, Chris, to let him know that I’ve sucked the whole thing up… we won’t be going unless a last-ditch thing comes through. I feel real bad. This guy already rearranged his schedule so he could go, already paid for the event, gotten all excited about it. And now it’s looking like we’re gonna be staying in Kentucky all because I procrastinated.

Over the weekend, I begin planning for the week ahead thinking that I wouldn’t be going to the conference. I start to see that I might actually get some time to relax instead of traveling. I start to like idea of staying at home b/c I won’t have to get up really early for 4 straight days. I start to like that fact that I can sleep in my own bed at night. I am starting to be convinced that staying at home will be better than going.

Monday morning rolls around. I’ve got a whole agenda of things to do in Owensboro. I’m still kind of tired from a full weekend of World Cup soccer, hanging out with people, and a good worship service. Then I remember that the offices of Victory World Church (where the conference is taking place) should be open now. When that thought crosses my mind, a battle begins inside my head: “Adam, you should call b/c you know this conference is gonna be awesome.” “Dude, you’ve already called Chris and said you weren’t going, so don’t bother… you need the rest anyways.” “You better call b/c you never know, they might actually need volunteers.” “Don’t waste your time. The conference might not even be that great… the rumor is that Kim Walker's not even gonna be there.” Ever had this kind of thing happen before?

After battling it out in my head, I know that if I don’t call I’m not gonna be able to honestly tell Chris that I tried everything possible to get us there. So early Monday morning I make a call to their church offices. I talk to the lady at the front desk and explain my situation to her. She seems genuinely interested in helping me and transfers me to Melody, the lady in charge of all of the volunteers. I get Melody’s voicemail so I leave a message with details of the situation and hope for a returned call.

At this point, I’ve done all I can. I had already tried 3 avenues of getting into the event, and now, it comes down to a very busy woman finding time to return my call a mere 2 days before the conference starts.

About 1:30 in the afternoon I see a weird number pop up on my phone. I answer the phone and it’s Melody. She says she has never seen a situation like this before but she talked to some of her superiors and they are cool with me volunteering at the event as long as I pass a background check. What?!! That’s all it took?! It was that easy?!

After talking a bit more, she says she will send the information to me and Chris to fill out. All we have to do is show up before registration begins for some quick training. It was that quick. It was that easy.

I think we ended up being the only people on the entire event staff that were not from Victory World Church. We were the last people added to the volunteer list. One of Melody’s co-workers at the event said that Melody just “got a feeling that these guys were ok” when she talked to me over the phone.

* * * * *

None of this could have happened if I wouldn’t have made the decision to call. I had already tried 3 different ways of getting in late with no success. The event was sold out, and it seemed there was no way in. However, I sought out advice from godly voices in my life (posting the status to Facebook), and came up with an alternative. Even then, I was tempted to not call back on Monday after I initially got the answering machine at the church.

What happened to me over the weekend is what happens when we decide to settle on the easy way out, the usual, the ordinary. As I let the thoughts of not going to the conference set in, my mind starts to generate this crap telling me that sleeping in late is better, that comfort is better, that being able to relax is better. I’ve got news for you: following after the Lord and encountering Him will cost you something! Living a life for Christ is living a life of sacrifice and surrender. It’s not always going to be comfortable. It’s not always going to be feeling well-rested.

Satan will try to convince you that neither sacrifice nor surrender is necessary. That battle I had with myself on Monday morning is exactly how the devil will try to make you believe that you shouldn’t take that next step; that you shouldn’t put forth any more effort. He will whisper doubts into your ear that will make you second-guess yourself. But you’ve gotta make up your mind that it is worth it to follow the Lord, and that you will listen to His voice.

Everything fell into place for me to go to the Jesus Culture conference, and it was all God’s doing. It was most definitely a display of His mercy and favor on me. All I had to do was make the decision to try to get there. My responsibility was to exhaust all of my efforts in attempting to make it happen; He responded to my call.