Category Archives: Walking with God

Takes Time To Master

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I often find myself trying rush into things.  I come into something new, a new job, a new task, something, and I feel like I have to hit the ground running.  When I’ve been on job interviews in the past, one of the things always asked for is needing someone to hit the ground running.  When I make the decision to move into counseling and ministry, I felt like I had to consume as much as possible and get rolling as quickly as possible.  Then I realized something this year, while out west, mastery of anything takes time.  It’s going to take time to learn the best way to counsel and minister to people.  I can’t just go right into it and know it all.  When I started my current job 10 years ago, it’s taken time and trial and error to figure out what works best and the learning continues.

Morgan Snyder reminded me of this in his teachings when he quoted author Malcolm Gladwell.  Gladwell stated that it takes roughly 10,000 hours of practice to achieve mastery in a field.  10,000 hours, that’s 416 days.  Divided to 2.5 hours a day brings us to about 10 years.  It’s a lot of time, but I’ve come to realize that anything we devote to will always take time to learn and master.

I’m not just talking about work skills.  What I really wanted to focus on here is spiritual disciplines and practices in the faith.  There are many that think, “I’m good…I was saved, baptized…I pray (occasionally)…I go to church on Sunday, etc.”  The list can go on.  But let’s think about real practice of a real and deep intimate relationship with the Father. It takes time.  As I’ve come to learn, there is a way things work and the only way to grow is through learning to develop a life that gives time to Father.  A.W. Tozer said, “The man who would know God, must give time to Him.”

Through Jesus, the Father desires to restore us to a life in Him.  The way to life in Jesus is a vigorous journey and it’s one, if we truly want to come alive, requires our total attention.  It’s never instantaneous, though.  There are not any shortcuts through this journey.

For many years, I’ve lived a life of shortcuts.  Trying to find the quickest way to get to where I needed, whether that was through schooling, in my work, and in my spiritual growth in the last few years.  It’s taken a long time to learn that I have allow for time.  It will truly take a decade of working, of trial and error, to fully build a life of real authentic disciplines that is fully invested in the Father day after day.

Don’t compromise a piece of the journey.  Make the choice to fully invest in time grow into an exercise of real mastery, no matter what you invest into.  Most importantly, choose to invest in a life of real mastery in your walk with God, day after day.  I’m in the early parts of this journey.  Come along.  Think about your life and where your trying to take shortcuts.  Ask the Father to reveal where you’ve taken shortcuts in your growth.

I’m so thankful that I’ve come across a ministry of men that has helped me to learn this and know that I need to begin to inventory my life and begin to develop real habits in the life I live with God, habits of self care, the way I care for and walk with my wife, the way I father my own children in leading them to the real Father, and in the investments I make others around me.  In that order, by the way.

It all takes time.  The journey can’t be rushed, and I’m so excited to see the fruit that comes from this decade.  As Morgan Snyder reminded us at Become Good Soil, “Live in the day…Measure in the decade.”

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Planting Seeds

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I’ve been reminded lately of the teachings of Jesus regarding planting seeds in Matthew 13, from the Parable of the Farmer Scattering Seed to the Parable of the Mustard Seed.  I’ve heard this teaching so many times over the years and as I began to study Scripture myself, I continued to run across it.  It took some time for these teachings to really sink in.  To know what it means to become the good soil and the harvest that is produced as a result of this.  Then having faith like a mustard seed and how faith, even so small can grow to be so big.  Then the Parable of the Yeast and how faith is like that yeast in that it permeates all through the dough.

These have become so significant to my life and how I continue to strive to live out my faith so that I continue digging to become that good soil and to be like the yeast or the mustard seed in how they continue to grow and spread.  What’s interesting is that I’ve never thought of my faith in the context of how it can impact others until recently.  I wrote early this year about the ripple effect that faith has when seen by others.  The impact of Baptizing my wife and our  three teenagers in January was so substantial.  Being able to share my own faith and insights from God  of my life and how that has helped others in different settings, both at home in my community, out west in on my last trip to Colorado, while on campus at Liberty University last month for an Intensive course, and then my writing on this page, and counseling and ministering to people.  All of it, I’ve been able to start to see movement in the lives of others.hand-seed

When I was at the Become Good Soil Intensive in May, one of the things the Father revealed to me through one of my mentors was the the image of Jesus planting seeds in our lives and then in my growth, me standing along side Him to plant seeds.  Then he showed my wife and children joining me to plant seeds as well.  That was such a powerful moment for me and realizing that yes, God is using me to continue to plant seeds in the soil, or the lives of others to help them grow their faith like the mustard see or the yeast.  It helped me to realize the impact that is very real and spreads more than I ever thought.

I write and share all this for a reason.  I firmly believe that God desires to use each of us in this way.  I have thought of some of the short-term effects, but never really gave thought to the long-term.  The seed we plant to day can grow to produce so much more for years and years to come.  I have heard and seen the effects people have had on each other.  I never thought that simply meeting my good friend and pastor, Tim, while our sons played baseball together 5 years ago, would have had such an intricate role in leading me to where I am today.  I never thought that my colleague, KC, handing me Wild at Heart as a gift one day 4 years ago, during some of the most challenging periods of my life, would have led me to walk the life I do now.

The Father is planting seeds in our lives and seeking growth and deeper intimacy with each of us.  The fruit of those seeds may not be seen immediately, even thought we may desire it to.  As the saying goes, God’s timing is perfect.  One of the most beautiful things God does is take time.  When we dedicate our lives to what He has for us, however, the results can be tremendous that we are drawn closer to Him, help lead others to desire deeper relationship with Him, who may then lead others to draw to Him.

You never know the effect simple things may have on the lives of others.  Become that good soil to allow the fruit of God to grow in your life and watch the abundance in the fruit that will be produced all around you.  I’m excited to see where God takes me and how I may be able to help others planting seeds in their lives for greater growth.  He’s using us all.

I Have Been Called Worthy

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I’ve been pondering something that has been on my mind a great deal since coming home from Colorado a month ago.  Since then I have committed myself to a decade of excavation to begin getting at the core of my soul and to truly begin walking with God day in and day out.  The whole experience with my story group was probably the richest part of all I experienced, getting to glean life from men who had walked the path before me.  A truly holy time in the presence of the Father.  The things I felt and that the Lord showed me was so amazing and it set the stage for the coming decade and beyond.

What I have been pondering is has to do with something that God spoke through one of my mentors.  He said that I am worthy.  This is something I really had to learn to truly embrace.  My relationship with God has grown immensely the last couple of years, but the idea of being called worthy, for some reason was very difficult to receive and own.  I think this came from years of hearing that we were not worthy and only Jesus was.  I’ve heard years of religious speak that had been trying to pound home that I was simply a filthy sinner, unworthy of the Father.

I then think of the prodigal son.  I wrote a post last year, (Prodigal Son – A Reflection) reflecting on the parable of the prodigal son and how the Father met me on that mountain top in Colorado in January 2015, embracing me, calling me son.  My life was transformed that weekend, but still was I worthy.  Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:1 to live a life worthy of our calling, but still the religious guilt and teachings were ringing that my heart is forever bad and I could not be worthy of the Father.

HisFavorite-01In his latest podcast, Morgan Snyder from Become Good Soil and Ransomed Heart shared this:

Scripture says that soon in fact (1 Peter 1) the day is coming when the wine will flow once again (Isaiah 25:6), and thrilling stories will be shared at the great wedding feast of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9); and your Father will run toward you at your arrival on that day, full of strength and tears to celebrate you (Luke 15: 20-32).  He’ll say, “Welcome home, son. Welcome home.  We’ve been waiting for you. You are my favorite, and you make my heart so very happy.”

You are my favorite.  Those words really helped to bring it all home.  It is a great reminder that the Father has always been seeking us and our restoration.  We have to be able to receive what He has always believed about us and why He has wanted from the very beginning to bring us back to Him.  We are His favorite, we have been called worthy.  Because of the finished works of Jesus Christ, through is crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension to the Father’s right hand, we have been been given the way to return to the Father and to who He created us to be from the beginning and called us in the beginning as the final piece of creation, Very Good (Genesis 1:31).

There’s a reason He has always pursued us.  There’s a reason, He took on a robe of flesh to rescue us through the shed blood of Christ.  There’s reason, Jesus was raised to a new life, conquering death, hell, and the grave.  There’s a reason Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father.  There’s a reason, as Paul says, we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ.  There’s a reason we have been called sons and daughters of the Father.  We are worthy and we are His favorite.

I am working at letting this sink in every day.  To remember each morning that I have been pursued, you have been pursued, by a Father that has loved us from the very beginning, knows every intricate detail of our being, because He created us.  He desires deeper intimacy with each of us for this very reason.  I am so thankful for this.

This isn’t self-serving writing.  This is writing what the Father revealed to me and is only possible and receivable because of the Father’s unfailing love, the finished works of Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit.  Without any of this, I am nothing.  I am not worthy and continue to be sucked into a soul killing world and open myself up to be devoured by the enemy.  2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here.”  We are made new and we are made worthy in Christ, who was first worthy.

Allow For His Gift of Time

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I have come to a realization that I have been hard charging so much following the Father’s calling, that sometimes I have to sit and wait for my soul to catch-up with me.  Morgan Snyder, at the Become Good Soil Intensive last month, shared that the most beautiful thing God does is take time.  I’ve thought about that a lot in the last month.  We often get so fired-up about new ideas and new directions that it’s easy to hard charge in.  I’ve worked my tail off with this Counseling degree the last year looking to get through the end of the program and begin to truly work with people, putting all of these new skills and ideas to use.

I was on campus at Liberty University last week for my second of three intensives.  Sitting in a group discussion the Lord put on my heart that I needed to be okay with time.  I don’t need to charge ahead 100 miles per hour.  He helped me to realize that I needed to just relax.  Growth, both as a counselor and in my faith is a life-long journey.  He told me to be okay with the process and the journey.

I realized something.  What a real gift time is.  It will take a whole lifetime for me to grow remotely close to who God created me to be.  What I can do now and continue to seek Him out and knowing that there will bumps in the road.  He’s growing me up right now just as He seeks to grow us all up, but that growing takes time.  John Eldredge wrote, “It takes courage to seek God, and courage to wait for His reply.”

I’m thankful for the time the Father has taken for my life and for my growth.  There is so much grace to be received, there is so much that the Father has in store for us in the life to come and we will spend the rest of our lives here in this world trying to seek that out.  Perfection won’t come in this life.  The Father is using time to grow us, to mold us into who we were intended to be.  To shake free from the old and come into the new.  This takes a lifetime.

So let’s slow down.  The world will tell us time and time again that we need to go faster and faster.  Everything needs to be done yesterday.  This is a sure fire way to be taken out and I have seen the carnage of this happening all over the place.  Good people completely taken out by busyness and the rush and demands to be done now and done faster.

Slow down.  The Father is not in any kind of a rush.  The goal of our lives and in growing with God is union with Him and the fruit is intimacy with the Father.  Busyness is the enemy of intimacy.  Jim Winney said, “When I am busy, the Father is quiet.”  While the world has gotten itself in a big hurry, the Father hasn’t, and we don’t need to either.  This is a hard lesson for me, that I have to remind myself about over and over.  It is soul killing.  Don’t let that happen.  Allow for the Father’s gift of time to truly grown you the way He intends.

Castaways In Need Of Ropes

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You ever feel like you’re floating away?  Like your life has become so overwhelming and busy that you just cannot find a way back and life begins to drift. I look at the demands that we have our lives day in and day out and this is the story for so many of us.  This is most particularly true in our walk with God.  We seem to get so busy with life that we just cannot find the time to be still and walk with the Father.  I was listening to this song by Josh Garrels called Farther Along.  A very good song if you’ve never heard it, but one line says that we’re all castaways in need of rope.  I thought, how true that is.  We are all castaways drifting through the rough seas of this life with busyness as the wind and the storms and waves of the enemy and our false-selves.

I’ve felt like this on many occasions juggling the demands of life, fighting off the attacks on my heart and soul, and trying to stay locked into the Father.  I’ve had times when I felt that I was definitely drifting farther and farther away because I didn’t think there was enough time to engage with the Father and my connection with Him just seemed to strain, thinking I may find time later.  I read a Dallas Willard quote about time that really got me thinking, though.  He said, “Time is made, not found.”  This helped me to realize that if I spent every day just waiting to find time with the Father, I never would.  I had to make the time.rope-911994_960_720

Without that needed time, whether it’s daily time with the Father or period of prolonged connection with Him, unplugged from life, we continue to drift further out to sea.  I’m a firm believer in starting my day locked into prayer and quiet each day as well as times where we get away, to myself without distractions to just be there in His presence.  That’s the rope that I’ve found that I needed and the rope that we all need.  He is there is pull us back with this needed lifeline, but we have to be willing to make the time for Him as well.

Spiritual disciplines are essential to our daily life with the Father.  That is our rope.  Dallas Willard explained that Spiritual Disciplines are “activities within our power that enable us to accomplish what we cannot do by direct effort because we meet with the actions of God (grace) with us. The effect of discipline is to enable us to do what needs to be done when it needs to be done (e.g., we develop a heart-engaging habit.) There is no complete list of disciplines for the spiritual life but there are some main ones to learn.”

We need disciplines or practices of engagement through study, worship, fellowship and others as well as disciplines or practices of abstinence through solitude, silence, fasting, sacrifice and others.  Not doing so out of a feeling of religious or legalistic obligation, but doing so for the joy of being in the Father’s presence each day, practicing the disciplines that Jesus modeled for each of us.  One more thing that I was reminded of in Colorado a few weeks back was the discipline or practice of my weird.  What is it that we do that we love and is uniquely us that brings us joy, which the Father also delights in when we are joyful.

Don’t spend your life drifting further and further out to sea caught in the currents of busyness and the storms of attacks on your heart and soul.  That rope just gets longer and longer the further we drift, but no matter how far you’ve drifted out, this is the key.  The rope is always out there for you to grab a hold of.  The Father is always seeking to bring you back.  Through the works of Christ, through his shed blood, his resurrection, and his ascension to the Father’s right hand, that rope is always there for us and will go with us.  There is freedom to be found and hope in Jesus.

Think of the effect this has on those around you when you begin to care for your own soul pulling on that rope that’s given.  I’ve seen it my own eyes through my own family and people close to us.  When you find your away, others realize they no longer have to live as castaways either and will long for a life with the Father.  Don’t keep drifting.  Care for your soul with God as your foundation, then you can be even more effective in all areas of life.  Parker Palmer stated, “Self-care is not a selfish act – it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer to others.”

A Decade of Excavation

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I feel like it has been forever since I last wrote anything.  Well, it’s been a couple of weeks.  Two weeks ago, I made took a journey across the country.  Loading up my truck and driving west to the mountains outside Colorado Springs.  This was my 2nd trip out there for such a trip.  The first was the Wild at Heart Boot Camp last year, and this trip was for the Become Good Soil Intensive, both with Ransomed Heart Ministries.  People thought I was nuts for driving out there, but it was just what the Father called for to allow me the opportunity to really unplug from the world for a few days.

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My story group from the Intensive

When I came home from the Wild at Heart event, I was on fire.  I was ready to share with the world everything the Father had done.  I was found real freedom and fully surrendered my life to Christ that weekend.  This trip out was different.  The experience was so holy and the Father’s presence was so profound and real.  Getting the chance to sit in the presence of some older, godly men, along with 47 other men close to my age was so rich.  I came home with so much on my heart, but I made a conscience decision to slow it down first.  I really need to take time to process, even slowing my return to social media in any real way.bgs-logo-offset-min

So what was different?  I gained so much and a big part of me was ready to just get out there and share it with everyone.  I realized, however, that this was a journey about really becoming the good soil that Jesus speaks of in the Matthew 13.  This is growth and teaching to take to the world, but the first part that must be worked is me.  I’m entering into a decade of excavation of my own heart and soul.  Truly getting at the core within, tilling the soil with the Father to become good soil.  It takes a lot of shit to become good soil, and it requires truly getting into the depth of my heart to bring that out.

One of the biggest things I took away is that one of the most beautiful things God does is take time.  The world is in a hurry, but God isn’t.  He is beginning a work in me to truly come into my role as a king over my own domain that He has entrusted me with in this life.  This is a work that He desires to begin in all of us.  To step into this decade, I must crawl, then walk, and then run.  With that, I wanted to be very deliberate in how I returned to writing and to life in general.

There’s so much to share and so much to bring to those around me in my world and through this writing.  Going to take time with this though as this decade gets underway.  I will say that this weekend was one of the most richest times of my life.  The encounter with the Father and the other men in attendance was so awesome.  It was truly good medicine for the heart and soul.

The most difficult part of it all was coming back into the matrix again.  The demands of life were right back again.  It was plainly obvious that the enemy was trying to turn me away from this and turn me away from this journey.  He tried the same thing when I returned from Wild at Heart.  It doesn’t take long.  The attacks and the messages come right away if you’re not ready for them.

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My piece of the Colorado Rockies. I cut and branded this piece of ponderosa pine as a daily reminder of the journey I am on with the Father

So let the decade begin.  You may be thinking…decade?!?!  Yes, decade.  As I said, God is not in a hurry.  If I try to run through life trying to do everything so fast, I’ll be standing there waiting for my soul to catch up to me.  Dallas Willard shared that “The most important thing about a man is not what he does, it is who he becomes.”  I can’t be focused on doing, doing, doing, but rather on arranging my life in a way that I grow to experience God fully every single day.  The goal is union with God.  Walking as the son he has called me and he has called all who chose to follow through Christ.  The union and intimacy with the Father is available with us all.  Who will you become?

 

Inviting His Presence

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Well today is the day.  Truck is all loaded up and I am now on the road heading for the mountains of Colorado. I’ve been anticipating this journey for the last several months.  I don’t know what all will be waiting while I am there and what all the Father will have prepared me for.  Over the past month, we were given a series of things to do as we get ready for this time in the mountains.  Some included listening to various teachings, re-reading Wild at Heart, and spending time in deep prayer asking the Fathers hand and presence in preparation for this event.

There was one thing that was asked of us that seemed very out of the ordinary and just different.  We were asked to plant a tree.  For some this may not be a big deal, but I don’t have the greenest of thumbs and it’s just not something that on my radar too often.  We were asked that however we do it was up to us, but to invite the Father into it.  Invite his presence.

I love my time with the Father each day.  Getting to walk with Him and bring His presence over my life.  For some reason, bringing Him into the activity of planting of tree was very challenging.  I was too preoccupied with why and what kind of tree and where to put it.  Feeling His presence in this particular thing was tough.  As I wrote last week, my oldest son graduated high school.  It’s been a special time for our family celebrating his accomplishments and his coming journey to college.  With all of that, the day for this trip was looming.  I had not planted a tree and didn’t know where to begin.  20160523_185637.jpg

The other day I finally released all of my presumptions about this one activity.  I walked around thinking about my son’s graduation and the future.  Then I hear, “plant a tree for Shawn.”  It was so profound to hear that.  I started seeing images of the roots of a tree growing deep just as the roots of my faith has grown deep which has branched to my family as their faith grows deep.  So that’s what I did.

I found a tree, a red maple to be exact, with Amber’s help, found a great place for it and yesterday planted that tree.  This young red maple now stands for as a symbol of my son, Shawn and the hope that his roots in his faith will grow deeper and deeper as he journeys into manhood.  This is now something I will do for each of my kids as they move to the next step in their journey in life.

I now make my way to Colorado fully ready for all the Father is going to have for me.  I don’t know what it will all be, but I look forward to being unplugged and locked into His presence.  It all starts with letting go and inviting His presence.  You’ll be amazed at what He will reveal when you are in a position to receive.

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Looking Deeper

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I just spent a rare evening at a movie theater this evening.  Not something that we get and do very often. This time, it was with my two sons, Shawn and Brandon, the day before Shawn graduates high school, to go see a film produced by Ransomed Heart Ministries and And Sons Magazine, called A Story Worth Living.  This was a one time nationwide showing of this new film.  I wrote about it a few weeks back as the anticipation of this evening was becoming a reality.  Hopefully some of you had the opportunity step out and see it as well.

To give some insight, this film takes place with the backdrop of a motorcycle adventure through back country of Colorado with John Eldredge, his sons Sam, Blaine, and Luke, Dan Allender, and Jon Dale.  Throughout the film we see some cool imagery and footage following their adventure.  The real meat of the film, however came in the discussion and the stories that were shared throughout this film.  That’s where you really see what they are after, to share with larger audience the message that many men and women who have connected to the ministry have learned.  That we are a part of a larger and more epic story.  We were created for adventure and risk, to walk with faith in full trust of where the Father is leading us.

I usually don’t let social media stuff get under my skin.  I was posting something about the film and how well done I thought it was in sharing the message that is the backdrop of this ministry and the excite of getting to share this with my two sons.  As we all know, you can’t please anyone and we see plenty of posts from people who just were about the off-road adventure, not having a clue what the purpose and meat behind this film was.  It was actually rather disturbing at first to see.  Stepping back after a minute, I realized that unfortunately, this is just something that was bound to happen.

This film was such a great reminder of the story that we are a part of.  That each of our lives and stories are just one piece of God’s larger story.  We have all been invited into this by the Father.  Invited into risk and adventure, to live by faith in full trust of wherever He is leading us.  We are meant to spend our lives continually pursuing that adventure and risk.  To continue pursing God’s heart and draw closer to Him through deeper and deeper faith and trust.  We have to go deeper.  We have to look deeper into what He is has invited us into.  The world wants you to see surface level, self-consumed adventure.  The Father is inviting you to take a risk and step into His adventure.

Don’t Allow The Enemy a Foothold

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As I prepare for my trip to Colorado in 2 weeks, one of the many things they asked us to do is to re-read John Eldredge’s book, Wild at Heart.  When I first saw this on the list, I thought, “really?”.  I’ve already read it 3 times over the past couple of years.  After going through some of the other things, I picked the book back up again began to read it once more.  After not reading it for a year and half, I was immediately sucked in again.  The reason being is the practical teaching that Eldredge placed in this book.

41ebvat8gvl-_sy344_bo1204203200_My last post a couple of week’s ago, I wrote about the Father’s restoration.  I thought more about that as I read through this book. I’m on the last couple of chapters now.  I realize just how desperately I needed restoration again and how complacent I was getting in my own spiritual discipline.  Life moves so quickly, so fast, and mine is no exception.  I’ve been on such a fast track that I think my time with God became more of an obligation, than a full on desire to be with God and walk with Him.  It really hit me yesterday, when I was sitting in prayer and a million thoughts began to run through my head, distracting me.  Later I was sitting and reading the book again and on the first page I was on, it talked about this very thing, being in prayer and just consumed with so many other things.

In essence, this is a battle that the Enemy is waging against us.  Knowing you’re trying to speak with the Father, the Enemy immediately thwarts us in some way.  I recognized that this was once again, another one of his tactics to distance me from the Father.  Satan will try in every way he can to pull you way from the Father.  William Gurnall stated, “It is the image of God reflected in you that so enrages hell, it is this at which the demons hurl their mightiest weapons.”

So what do we do with all of this?  How in the world do we handle this?  Knowing we are in a world at war.  Knowing as Jesus said, that thief wants to kill and steal and destroy.  Knowing as Peter stated that our adversary, the devil, prowls around the world, looking for someone to devour.  What do we do?  Discipline!  Being disciplined every day to walk with God, not out of a sense of obligation, but from the reality that we are in a world at war and we need to be able to stand strong and firm in the faith of who we are in Christ.

Spiritual discipline seems so hard for many of us though.  John wrote, “A man will devote long hours to his finances when he as a goal of an early retirement; he’ll endure rigorous training when he aims to run a 10k or even a marathon.  The ability to discipline himself is there, but dormant for many of us.”  In essence, although it requires work, when we have our own goals in life, we can find a way to discipline ourselves to attain those goals.  The Father has the goal of walking intimately with each and everyone of us.  It’s readily available to us, yet we find it so difficult to do.  We don’t want to get up in the morning.  We don’t feel the sense of connection with the Father when try praying or reading Scripture.

This may, for many of us, be easier said than done, but we have to become more intentional, more disciplined through real prayer, meditation, fasting, submission, journaling, and studying of Scripture.  All of these disciplines coincide together.  If we don’t get intentional about how we walk with God and if we don’t stay on alert through this armored with the full Armor of God, which He has given us, the Enemy will easily gain a foothold in our hearts and find a way to take us out.armor-of-god_seriesbutton2_raster_web

Eldredge wrote, “Against the Evil One we wear the armor of God.  That God has provided weapons of war for us sure makes a lot more sense if our days are like a scene from Saving Private Ryan.”  God has given us the armor for a reason.  This is no fairy tale we live in.  Don’t live in fear of the Enemy, but rather live with a sense of knowing he is there and wants in every way to destroy your connection with the Father, through lies, deceit, pain, and struggles.  Being disciplined enough to prepare yourself each day and not walk through this world, blind to this reality will help you stand stronger.

This armor is what you need and you need to pray it over your life every day, authentically. Put on the belt of truth, choosing to live a life of honesty and integrity, the breastplate of righteousness, knowing that His righteousness can stand against any condemnation and corruption, the shoes of the Gospel of peace, choosing to live for the Gospel at any moment.  He has given us a shield of faith to deflect the arrows that the Enemy will try to fire our way.  Those arrows come in the form of wounds, sin, agreements, and anything else meant to draw you from God.  We have the helmet of salvation, which declares nothing can now separate us from love of Christ and our place in His Kingdom. Lastly, we have the sword of the Spirit, through which the Holy Spirit reveals God’s truth’s through His Word to enable you to counter the assaults of the Enemy.

Being disciplined and intentional enough each day to walk with God and pray His full armor over your life, will help you to be prepared for the onslaught that is to come.  We will continue to be attacked.  Look around you.  People we love are being taken out everyday.  It’s a reality.  We have to be prepared and discipline ourselves to truly walk in this reality and walk with the Father allowing Him to come over our lives to Father us and guide us in the way we should go.  It’s a daily struggle.  Don’t let complacency set in.

The Father’s Restoration

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In about 4 weeks, I’ll be loading up my truck and making my way across the country back to the mountains of Colorado.  This week, I received final details for that week including things to do as a prepared, including finding more time to just speak to the Father asking Him to open my heart to all that He has ready for me on this trip.  I realized something.  I’ve been on fast forward since last January, after my first trip out there.  The Father grabbed a hold of me transforming every part of my life.  It was real restoration.  I think at this point however, I’ve almost become overwhelmed.

Just as I wrote the other day, walking in real relationship with God requires more of us than we expect.  Since last year, my life has been moving fast.  We’ve experienced more radical transformation in so many areas of our lives, in my home, than we expected.  It’s been something amazing to experience.  I do realize however, that if we are not careful, it can be very easy to be taken out again.  It can be easy to fall back into ways of the false-self.  It can be easy to put back on the fig-leaf.  It can be easy to let the exhaustion of the pace leave you spent and vulnerable to the enemy who is seeking to steal, kill, and destroy.

tumblr_mx7ilvaljr1rii36xo1_500Proverbs 4:23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it determines the course of your life.”  This is so crucial for all of us no matter where we walk with the Father.  No matter where we stand.  If we are not careful, our hearts can easily be taken out again.  We are constantly battling with our sin nature and the enemy wants to use that against us.  If we are not guarding our hearts, we can be taken out again and again.  So the key, I found, is to pray the Father’s restoration through Christ, every day.

I know this seems simple.  I realized though, this week, as I was beginning my preparation activities, that I allowed a little more distance to build again.  I was trying to do so much, so quickly, that I found it easy to put off walking with God.  I’d have thoughts like “Oh, I have to get work going early, so I’ll do that later” or “I slept later, so I have less time to converse with Him, read the Word, and journal…maybe tomorrow.”  This does not make me any less of a believer, but I realized that I need to make restoration and renewal an intentional thing…everyday!

Restoration is crucial for.  I realized that I need this time unplugged more than I thought I would.  It’s like the Father orchestrating another rescue of the heart.  Allowing me an opportunity to step back from the front lines and bandage my wounds and hit the reset button once more.  I’ve wrote time and again about unplugging from the matrix that this life is.  Do an honest assessment and ask yourself how often do you truly unplug?  It’s crucial.

We need restoration of the heart, mind, body, soul, and spirit every single day.  We also need times where we take days to get away from everything.  Whether we retreat to wilderness, the mountains, or the beach.  You don’t have to go to retreats to unplug.  You can get away on your own.  I realize I need this time each year.  It’s more than just going on a family vacation, which can also be full of distractions.  Find time to yourself to just be with the Father.

be-stillA friend of mine one told me he was counseled to do just that.  He had become cynical in his faith and was told to make preparations and go away into the wilderness.  Don’t even take his Bible.  Just a journal to record what the Father reveals.  He came back fully alive again, just as I did.  This life can run you down, so you need His restoration.  He wants to rescue you from this world.  Just a Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still and know that I am God.”

Be still.  Why is this so hard for us to do?  The Father is seeking to restore each of us.  He is seeking to walk with us and guide us.  He wants to speak to us and through us.  We have to be able to shut out the rest of the world, and allow that.  Why do you think Jesus always retreated to wilderness to be alone and to pray?  He had to allow himself to be restored and stay in connection with the Father.  This world can take anyone out.  Jesus faced just as much, if not more, temptation from the world and enemy as the rest of us.  He needed the time to stay connected to the Father and stay focus on His mission and purpose.  We need time to get away and stay connected to the Father to allow Him to Father us, restore us, and keep us focused on our mission and purpose.

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