11:50pm

One of my goals for 2011 is to write more music—worship music, music for my band, music for me. As far as worship music goes, I put a very specific measurement on myself to make sure that I keep on top of things: I must write and have ready to present to our worship team at least 1 song per month.

January was pretty easy. I wrote “Who We Are” (which I will post on here once we get a good recording) in basically 2 or 3 days. It was one of those songs that just came quickly and wouldn’t leave my head until it was completed. Gotta love those kind :) And it seemed like February was gonna be easy, too, because I had already gotten a good start on a song that had lots of potential. In fact, I had started working on this song before composing “Who We Are”. But as the month wore on, no real progress was made on it. Every time I sat down to write, I would just replay what I already had done…then just sit there, stuck. Even when I sat down very deliberately a week ago to hammer something out (which is what this post was about), nothing substantial ever came.

So February 28^th rolls around and the song still isn’t done. I’m still lacking an entire bridge, and at least half of the 2^nd verse. Plus, I still haven’t determined the exact structure of the song…. Does it need a bridge? If so, should there be the 3^rd verse? Where should the buildups be? 8 or 16 measures for the guitar solo? Should there even be a guitar solo? Ha. You music people know what I’m talking about.

Anyways, since I’m determined to meet my goal of finishing one song per month, I made sure to schedule lots of time on the 28^th dedicated to completing “Your Name is Love”. Due to unforeseen circumstances, I didn’t get started until around 5 in the evening...not good. Then when I finally do get started, it’s not exactly with a bang; just more of the same—replaying things I had already done, and not coming up with anything I want to keep. But then I start to get pieces here and there that I begin to weave together: the chord structure for the bridge (and a melody to go with it!), the topic of the material that will become the 2^nd verse, and snippets of the lyrics for the bridge and 2^nd verse. Looks like it just might happen!

…11pm, and I’m still not done. I’ve stopped to eat, and just take a break. I’m hoping that clearing my mind for a little while will help me when I attack it again. But when I sit back down nothing new comes immediately. I consider calling it a night because I had truthfully made some real progress—2 or 3 lyrical ideas that I was pretty sure could become half of the 2^nd verse, and I had definitely finished the first half of the bridge lyrics. Plus, I didn’t want to “force” myself to write something if it just wasn’t right, ya know?

But instead of giving into the urge to do the easy thing and quit for the night, I told myself at the very least I would sit there until midnight and see if anything would come. I prayed for more words to come. And they did. Out of the muck in my mind, actual phrases that I could use in the song started to form and piece together. The first half of the 2^nd verse rolled out and fit together with another lyrical idea I had written out earlier. Then, it hit me to let the 2^nd half of the bridge wrap back around to lyrics from the 1^st verse. Far beyond just “filling the gap” in the song, wrapping it back to those specific words was a perfect fit and made for a great transition to then go straight back into the chorus; thus, solving the structural question as well. BAM! Song complete!

All of this got done around 11:50pm. So I did, indeed, get my song done by my self-imposed deadline.

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I believe the Lord helped me honor my commitment to Him and myself because I chose to stick it out. I really do think that since I consciously chose to at least put forth the effort in trying to meet the demands I put on myself (which, in fact, were designed to make sure I was nourishing that aspect of my life, gifting, and calling), God came in at the last second and helped me make it to the finish line.

Making promises to God, yourself, and others is a big deal. Following through with your commitment is a big deal. I want you to know that God does care about what you care about—after all, He put a lot of those things in you. I also want you to know that you’ve got to make a decision to go after what you care about; it won’t always fall into your lap without any effort. But I have first-hand experience that says when you make a choice to push through the hard stuff and ask God to help you with what you’ve made a commitment to (when what you’re doing is inside of His will, of course), He is faithful to show up and help you out.

He will do the same thing for you that He’s done for me. God is no respecter of persons, and He loves us all. Go do YOUR thing. In Jesus' Mighty Name, Amen.

Discernment

Satan is a master of deception. He has a knack for making things look and feel real when all the while it’s a fake. This presents those of us who follow the Lord with problems sometimes: being able to discern what is of God; being able to distinguish between the voice of God, the Enemy, and ourselves; being able to separate the real from the fake.

I feel like this must be an area that needs some attention b/c I didn’t start out writing this blog in this specific direction. Let’s shine some light in.

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So how can you be sure you are hearing from God? not being deceived? heeding the right voice? doing the right thing? It can be tough, for sure. When you don’t have a clear-cut “yes” or “no” from the Lord, it can make things difficult to decipher. But I think I can help you a little.

1. Pray for discernment

Pray in all things!! You are gonna hear that a lot from me :) When you pray for discernment, you are asking God to give you insight into how things really are; you are praying to see past the natural into the spiritual realm. You are asking for the Lord to help you see things that your eyes can’t see. When you do this, you may notice the Holy Spirit quicken certain things to you that you could otherwise never know...you may get a certain feeling…you may experience weird sensations in your body that clue you in to what is happening…you may “just know”. It can happen in a lot of different ways. Just be open to what God is trying to tell you and don’t be surprised if it comes in a way you aren’t used to.

2. Stay in the Word

If you are always in the Word—the real deal—then you know when something is false. For example, let’s say all you’ve ever had is Angus beef. When somebody comes along and tries to give you a soy burger, you are gonna know instantly. The same principle applies here: when you constantly feed yourself the authenticity of the Bible, worldly knock-offs are easier to spot because they are so glaringly different from what you are used to. Satan can only offer you imitations of the real thing. So if you can tell that it ain’t real, then it ain’t from God.

3. Learn from experience

As you are subject to more challenging situations and overcome them, you are gonna have more personal knowledge to draw from—you can compare your current situation to what you’ve already seen. The things that used to confuse you and maybe require lots of prayer, study, and guidance will now take only a quick, “Oh, I’ve seen this before.” Your experience can help you to identify the situation for what it is and take the necessary steps of action. Obviously, there are gonna be new things all the time (which is why you never cease to pray and read the Word), but your past victories will strengthen you and give you more confidence and competence going forward.

Don’t be sad or discouraged or down today—the Lord loves you!!! Keep pushing in and believing for revelation—it will come :) Remember, our God is not a god of confusion (1 Cor. 14:33). I’m praying that He shines some light into the dark and/or confusing situations in your life, and that He gives you clear direction and clear discernment on the decisions you have to make. I’m praying with you. And I love you, too.

In Christ’s Amazing and Never-Ending Love,

adam

Embrace Your Greatness!

If you have the audacity to embrace the greatness put in you, people are going to mock you. They will scoff, they will laugh. They will tell you that you can’t do it, they will tell you that you are crazy. They will try anything to keep you from pushing past the norm into that magnificent place where your talents and giftings collide with the power of Throneroom blessing.

Your Creator, Our God in Heaven, has put things in you that you are passionate about. It doesn’t matter if that passion is in the vein of the usual “churchy” gifts; i.e. teaching, preaching, music, mission work, etc. It doesn’t matter if it’s something that people haven’t traditionally used to glorify God. Your love for fixing cars, designing clothes, flipping houses, politics, pet grooming, business, fitness, cooking, or whatever else has been put in you by God. If the Bible is not telling you it's sinful, then it's probably from Heaven :)

You know it’s your passion because the way it makes you feel alive, the way it moves your heart in a way hardly anything else can. That feeling is what makes your passion special. You already have an inherent drive and motivation to do these things, and do them well, because it’s what you naturally get pleasure from. It’s easy to do things you enjoy!

It’s also that zeal which will cause people to take notice. Bill Johnson, the lead pastor of Bethel Church in Redding, California, says, “When I live out of discipline, I am admired; when I live out of passion, I am contagious.” Everybody can tell when you are doing something you love. It’s obvious. When you talk about what you’re doing your eyes light up, there is excitement in your voice, and nobody can get you to shut up about it :) It’s infectious. Sometimes I’ll get excited with you just from listening—even when it’s an area I could care less about!

So what is your passion? And why aren’t you living it out? I don’t care how normal (or unorthodox) you think your passion is, if you purpose it in your heart to live it out and line it up with the Word of God to bring glory to the Father, you can be an earth shaker. A business mogul. A fashion icon. A TV fitness guru. A sold-out, Spirit-filled, President of the United States of America.

Don’t let those that laugh at you keep you from your pursuit. Let’s be real: most of them don’t want you to go after your dreams because they are sitting around not pursuing theirs. The prospect of you doing something you love and wildly succeeding at it makes them uncomfortable…and maybe even a little jealous. If they’ve given up on their dreams, or bought into the lie that says they are insignificant and can’t possibly make a difference in this world, then you going after your passions just might get them all kinds of messed up.

You have to be ok with the fact that a lot of people are going to hope you don’t succeed. You have to know from the start that when you embrace the greatness that lies within you that people who have settled for average will oftentimes try to convince you to settle for average as well. On the one hand, as referenced above, your passion is contagious; on the other hand, to some people, you are absolutely scary.

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I’ve made up my mind that I’m not going to maintain mediocrity so that I can keep other people feeling comfortable. Does that decision ruffle some feathers? Yes. Does it damage some relationships? Unfortunately, yes. But that decision also unleashes the potential for greatness to flow out of me. It’s a decision that’s well worth the cost. I hope you join me.