Monthly Archives: February 2017

Hearing God

1 Kings 19:11-12 Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.
I knew last night when I heard that still small voice inside of me, God wanted me to share of the past month or so with him. God wanted me to attest of his guiding me down this path of my life to encourage you; to point you to the evidences of himself, from a humble one who seeks only to abide in him, to be his disciple, and to be used to draw others to Him by whichever means He uses. He had let me go down to one of the lowest points in my life, where I received criticism and praise for being open about my struggles; now he has me on a mountaintop, and I want to shout his name from there.

The struggles in my life are many, no different from you, and a huge one of mine is our company, and what the future held with it. Everything with my life revolves around my business; to move it, sell it, to grow it effects my family, where we live, how we live, and an endless discussion of how much sleep I loose over the depth of this topic. One night, God had me awake, and I know not if it was seconds of time or hours, but clearly he whispered to my spirit, “I have given you what you desire in your basement.” This began an intimate conversation on some medium that he answered all my questions of the details of the move, a story within itself. I arose excited and came to my secret place to pray and spend time in his Word to draw even closer to him. In that prayer time he revealed another thing he wished from me, to invest in a ministry again he had used to draw others to himself.

The last month has been incredible. The excitement of knowing you are in the center of God’s will is evident and contagious. He began to reveal himself in seemingly every aspect of this huge undertaking; everything was and is still just falling into place. I testified of why we were doing it every chance I got. The office furniture came at a HUGE discount after we “randomly” ran into the owner and shared our story. We were told how he never gave discounts by his employees, and yet when we returned a few weeks later for more, we were granted the same deal. Fences, security systems, computers, flooring, big projects seemed small. The work poured in with perfect timing to allow us to do the work, but to recoup enough to make payroll and not worry. The blessing of a growth like I have only seen one time before is becoming evident daily. We are hiring, when all other HVAC companies are laying off because it is 80* in February.

This past Friday morning I felt the presence of our Lord upon me. It is so hard to describe, and how I wish I felt it more, but I could feel him around me. I wanted nothing more that to disappear into solitude to pray and spend time in his Word, but the world would have none of it. He strengthened me for the attack that would come that afternoon. I got the call that our van was broke down AGAIN, on the interstate, and let’s just say that is a nightmare. My $6000, 300,000 mile van has been a thorn to me for the six months I have owned it. The seller disappeared when we had troubles right from the start. I now have $10,000 invested, sitting at the dealership, and it became clear it was time to cut my losses and buy a replacement. This all came when our finances are very low with the growth and outpouring of cash in a slow winter. I saw the attack from my enemy and would not give him a victory in it. I posted, “Mountaintop experiences are only appreciated when Satan swings to try and knock you off of them. #abide.” I still lost much sleep over the worry of everything involved with likely a $30,000 purchase, which I set for my limit.

Yesterday I contacted a salesman I had met earlier, one we had talked to about a purchase that didn’t work out, but he is a man of faith and Dana and I shared openly with him. We all agreed it just wasn’t supposed to work out for our trade. Don and I began to text about the van I had narrowed down to, but plan A had a plan B, because I didn’t think I could afford it. When I got there and sat down, what was told me seemed unreal. Carrier had a $6000 rebate, putting me at budget almost exactly. It got better; a fleet purchase came with an extended 100,000 warranty for free. It got better; he got the deal approved with no money down. We both agreed God said this was supposed to work out.

I left the dealership exhausted from being there four hours, lack of sleep, and still some service work to do. I finally began to head home around 4pm, and God reminded me of the promise I had made to take our boys fishing. I will be honest in telling you I really did not want to go, but God pressed in my spirit that I needed to. Dalton met me at the truck with the question about it. Eric texted me while I sat there and talked to them about my day. He told me what to try, and they loaded up while I grabbed lunch at 4pm. We had maybe an hour to fish, and oh my gosh, we caught. It quickly became a competition catching close to 20 fish, and the best fishing trip ever with my boys. The high of that was indescribable, because they only now reading this, might realize how it was even more of a gift from God that hour we had at the pond last night.

Why do I tell you the details of my life? Why do I tell you of all the highs and lows of my life? It is to be an open book to encourage you to pursue God daily. It is to share with you my struggles and how I seek God throughout them. It is to share with you the highs such as this to point you to the blessing of an abiding heart. God will speak to you. God will let you know whether to turn to the right or the left. Genesis 24:48 And I bowed my head and worshiped the Lord, and blessed the Lord God of my master Abraham, who had led me in the way of truth to take the daughter of my master’s brother for his son. 49 Now if you will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me. And if not, tell me, that I may turn to the right hand or to the left.” The only way you are ever going to hear from God, is to silence the world by seeking him daily, and listening for that still small voice within you.

The End Result

2 Corinthians 12:7-9 And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. 8 Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
As one whose testimony is rooted in pride, I understand this from the Apostle Paul, yet seemingly that statement itself seems prideful. Pride is the root of all sin; pride is the reason from which Satan was cast from heaven, he wanted to be like God. Pride grows in the Garden of Eden when they followed Satan’s lead and wanted to be like God, and then we have the Fall of Man into sin forever. It takes deep reflection and somewhat heavenly revelations, but you can trace much of your sins struggles also back to pride; it is a byproduct of the sin-nature that lies within us, all of us. Pride is as sly as the devil himself, many time creeping in unknowingly to ourselves, but God knows….and sometimes even those around us see it too. God knows the conditions of our hearts, why we do what we do, even when it is represented in a different light to those here. Pride may be at more of your root struggles than you care to admit.

If you read the context of this passage, you see this is on the heels of Paul, almost covertly, boasting of what God has shown him. You must understand what Paul has seen, and where Paul has been. 1 Boasting is necessary, though it is not profitable; but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago -whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows -such a man was caught up to the third heaven. 3 And I know how such a man -whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows – 4 was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak. (NASB) Grasp the understanding that Paul has been to Heaven, has been to the highest Heaven in God’s presence, and returned with that revelation. Grasp that he has been with God, and now imagine in our lifetime now what headlines that would be. Once the news got out, social media would explode, seven figure contracts would be at his feet, and his name would be praised more that the One he visited…… God knew he had to keep Paul humble even in a day seemingly simpler than these. He still would have been elevated to a King’s status, and worshipped accordingly. Paul’s heart was right with God, and I believe Paul understood the thorn in his flesh that God had given him was that. It was uncomfortable, and most scholars agree it was physical (maybe eyesight), but regardless it was an act of God for Paul’s good, and an act of God that Paul could use to point others to God through their own struggles.

You are no different from Paul; you have struggles too and many times plea with God to take them away, many times for God to heal those he has not chosen to heal. God is sovereign on an unfathomable level; the designer, sustainer, and ruler of all in his universe. We are the pinnacle of his creation and designed to draw glory to Him in all that we do. Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Grasp that God has flowed all time through his hands, that he does not recognize the restraints of the time he placed upon us. He sees the past, present, and future all the same, therefore the complexities of the struggles we see and feel, he sees the end result, before the struggle even started.

Fix the Foundaion

1 Corinthians 3:10-11   According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. 11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Being around the construction industry for 25 years, I grasp the understanding of anythings foundation. The beginning of the project, the preparation and installation of any structure being built. If it is wrong, even slightly, the more that is added to it in the building process, the more the foundational error is revealed. A hundred story building would likely collapse if the foundation was even unlevel one inch; the building would begin to lean as it began to grow. Can you see how that analogy relates to one’s faith? Can you see that if your faith system is based on anything other than grace, God’s grace through Jesus, your faith system will fail also? If your faith system is built on good works, church attendance, not bad works, false hope in all paths will lead to God (universalism), any blend of religions to make one religion, hanging around good people, hyper-grace(continued living in sin-Romans 6:15), giving to the poor or churches, or anything you may have heard or devised yourself to earn your way into heaven, you will fall like that building.
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. That is one of the most foundational truths penned by the Apostle Paul; a truth that must be clearly understood. There is no way that you can ever earn your way into heaven, NONE, and until you grasp the free gift of God through the sacrifice of his Son, your foundation is way off. You are building your faith building on a poor foundation, and your building will faith when it is tested by fire on the Day of Judgement, when we all answer for our lives and our beliefs. But the simplicity, freedom, hope, and joy that comes to the Christian that God reveals grace to is indescribable and overflowing. That Christians seeks to share with others what they possess themselves, to share in the love of God through Jesus and the promise of eternal paradise. The little things and big things here don’t have the same effect on the Christian that understands grace and glimpses of God’s sovereignty.

Take some time and reflect on your faith. Take some time and pray for God to reveal your foundation to you. He knows your heart, your foundation, and in humble pleas for his revelation he will reveal himself to you. Christianity is all a matter of your heart; your heart’s relationship to your Savior. The level of your faith and your understanding of grace is answered within. God can straighten even the most crooked skyscraper before it falls, by placing the understanding of grace in just the right spot to right the foundation.

It all points to Jesus

Psalm 6:8 Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity; For the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping.

I love how the Lord works, of how when we pursue him in prayer and his Word, he takes us down paths we have not seen, takes us to scriptures we may have perused over many times, yet they become new to us. He uses scholars ahead of us to reveal truths to us; he speaks to our minds through our hearts as we study God’s Word to us. These do not have to be great revelations, many times they are just reminding us of things we hopefully already knew. This morning I found myself deep into the Psalms; following the paths of two good study Bibles, which is always interesting because they sometimes lead down different roads when you go deep; evident that the Holy Spirit speaks differently to even the greats of our time that dedicate themselves to expounding God’s Word. The path that seemed to be the center was Messianic tug of the Psalms; the evidence of the foretelling of the coming Jesus, and how Jesus was foreshadowed throughout all the Old Testament. We must understand that the OT points to the coming Christ, the NT declares Jesus’ arrival, and prophetically his final return to judge his creation.

David uttered these words in Psalms six above in a plea to the Lord. The author of this Psalm is unknown, but credited to David, and he had no knowledge of how Jesus was using him. When you begin to study this passage, it goes much deeper into how Jesus is found and proclaimed throughout the Psalm writings. Jesus even references this in his proclamation of his final coming judgement of the world (Matthew 7:23/Luke 13:27). The more we dig deeper into God’s Word, the more he reveals both the complexity and simplicity of it’s heavenly woven, Holy Spirit inspired writings; no other book can compare to the depth of God’s Word.

As I continued to study, I read of how John the Baptist sent his disciples to question Jesus. John was spending his life proclaiming of the coming Messiah, and now John was hearing news of someone that might be Him. John gathered two of his disciples and sent them to find Jesus. Luke 7:20 When the men had come to Him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to You, saying, ‘Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?’ “ You can almost feel Jesus say, sit down and watch, and you decide for yourselves. 21 And that very hour He cured many of infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits; and to many blind He gave sight. 22 Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them. I cannot help but think they bowed at Jesus’ feet for the KNEW who and what stood before them. They probably ran back to John to tell him the good news. Jesus gave John’s disciples a great word of encouragement as they departed, astounded and overcome with joy. 23 And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” Take the joy of studying your Bible, and letting God encourage you just as Jesus encouraged John the Baptist disciples. Jesus will speak to you with exhortations just as he did them. The power of God’s Word is likely laying around your house somewhere, silently waiting for God to speak to you, and proclaim his message to you.