Send me somewhere

City search

Send me to a place unfamiliar

An undisclosed location

Uncharted

Unconquered

Unheard of

I’ll go to help facilitate Your presence there

I’ll aid in the manifestation of Your glory

So when it falls in such a way

That the place will never be the same again

Cartographers must remap the terrain

Because it’s so revised by heaven’s influence

Renovated to reflect the direct glory of Holy God

Everything new

Now properly prepared

For an open show of the glory

I am Your ambassador

Send me

I won’t hesitate

Or stutter step

Because you’ve readied me to stride

And sprint

And dive

When necessary

I’m set to obey

I’m set to survey

I’m set to see the hidden places

Nestled away in the spirit realm

Surface to be seen


Be More. Hear More. See More. Do More.
You can do anything [through Christ]

He wants it all!

As our day winds down from woshipping the Lord I just want to remind you that He wants all of you. Not just your Sunday but your whole week. Not just a moment but your whole life and existence. He created you for worship and to give all of that in everything you do is only reasonable. It says in John 3:16 that, "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son; that whosoever believes on him should not perish but have everlasting life." God is searching for a child that will give him their all. He gave His all and He is looking for those that look like Him. What are we doing today to cause us to look like him?

In worship, praise, and living today give God your all. Make it about Him so He can see His children manifest. He is searching the earth for those who are desperate enough to give Him their all. When you give it all you allow God to locate you, communicate with you, and bless you. He wants your all today so He can give you His all. He is a God of exchange. Will you exchange with Him today? Once and for all (all for all)!

Be More. Hear More. See More. Do More.
You can do anything [through Christ]

The "Strong" Man in the Room?

Fear, doubt, and unbelief is the "strong" man in the room (or at least we've thought he's been strong).  There I said it!  He is the one who is standing in the corner holding your destiny hostage.  He is the one that is stopping you from walking through your open door.  He is the one that will intimidate you until you become stagnant and stop moving forward.  He is the one that aggressively needs to be addressed and taken down.  He is the one that only has as much power as you give him.

I say him because the traits of fear, doubt, and unbelief all travel as a package.  Fear causes doubt to show up and unbelief keeps feeding the other two.  If you allow it enter in and dwell for a while it can be a crippling thing to your growth as a Christian.  Fear is something that came in behind the package that Adam and Eve opened called sin-death.  Once they sinned, death showed up, and then fear reared its ugly head.  In Genesis 2 we see the fall of man.  They sinned and became spiritually dead when they were disobedient to the commandment that God gave them.  Specifically in verse 10 Adam said, "I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself."  We see that fear was right there behind sin-death. Adam realized he was naked so there had to have been some doubt about God's provision and he hid himself because he questioned his safety and security.  From this moment on mankind now had to deal with this entity.

So now that this so-called "strong" man has been identified in the room of our lives what do we do?  Let's take a look at 1 John 4:16-19:
"And we have known and believed the love that god hath to us.  God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment:  because as he is, so are we in this world.  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear:  because fearth hath torment.  He that feareth is not made perfect in love.  We love him because he first loved us."

The only way that we can be strong enough to overtake the "strong" man is to have an encouter with Love.  In the passage above we can use God interchangeably with love; so if perfect love cast out fear the only way to be strong enough to cast fear out is to encounter Love. So how do we encounter Love?  We have to have encounters with His word.  In order for that to happen we must hear His word and have an encounter with His word.  When I say encounter I mean given an opportunity for God's word to manifest, come to full term, or proven.  When His word has been proven so has His love.  If we know that God is not a man that he should lie nor the Son of man that he should repent [Numbers 23:19] then having an encounter with His word that produces manifestation will secure in our lives the power of His love. 

When He manifests healing, peace, prosperity, wholeness, wellness, and everything else promised in His word then you are enabled to take down the fear, doubt, and unbelief in your life.  If there is no encounter with the word then the "strong" man will remain strong because he will try to exercise power that he truly doesn't have.  If I don't know why He loves me then I will question everything.  Why He loves me equates to what He wants for me.  He wants the best for me so that I can be in a place to manifest heaven on earth.  When I have constant encounters with His word then I am always at a place to combat the so-called strong man.

Now that this weak man full of fear, doubt, and unbelief has been knocked out and defeated, let's get to where we need to be!

Be More. Hear More. See More. Do More.
You can do anything [through Christ]

THAT'S NOT MY THOUGHT!

In this life we are presented with hundreds of thoughts daily. Some we take on our own and others are given to us. What do we do when we get a thought that we don't like or isn't beneficial to us?  Do we give it back to who it came from or do we meditate on that thought until it has affected our whole day?  There are plenty of things in life that we are forced to do but one thing we do not have to tolerate or entertain are thoughts that are not ours.

Have you ever taken something that is not yours, or purchased something, or been given something?  If we wanted it then we were immediately grateful and joyous that we received something that we had been longing for.  If we didn't want it then we would just give it back or even go to the lengths of exchanging it.  I know that I have received plenty of things that I either gave back or took back to the store to exchange.  But today I find myself asking the question, "Why don't I do it when it comes to my thoughts?"  There have been plenty of unGodly thoughts that have come to mind on many occasions that have created opportunities to sin.  What would have happened if I gave the thought back to where it came from?  What would have happened if I gave it back to who it came from, the devil.

2 Corinthians 10:3-6 says:
"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:  (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 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; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled."

So from this we find that we don't fight flesh with flesh.  We can only use spiritual laws to combat those things which challenge us in the flesh.  With that being said it is our job to take authority over every thought and imagination that we encounter that does not exalt or glorify God.  We have been given the ability to think and imagine for kingdom purposes, and not for evil.  To use our thoughts and imaginations to aid in facilitating glory in the earth is an awesome responsibility, but we must guard it at all cost. If it is against the knowledge of who God is then it is not our thought!  We must capture and pinpoint the thought and cast it down; hurl it from our minds and exalt a Godly thought so that the notion of sin can be uprooted.  Remember that anything that separates us from God or the knowledge of Him is sin.

As a believer we find ourselves amongst many different types of people at any given moment and we must be very diligent at catching thoughts are are not of God.  Simple conversations, jokes, side comments, or rude remarks can send our minds swirling to great lengths.  When this happens we must make a stand and declare, "That's not my thought!"  When we do that we clearly identify the unlawful thought and can then take action.  The only thing that can interrupt a thought is spoken words.  You don't believe me?  Then try this out.  Begin to count in your head from 1-10 and when you get to the number 5 say your name.  Did you try it?  Were you still counting in your head when you said your name?  Of course not!  So there we have it; if our confessions begin to identify and uproot thoughts we can combat those things which challenge our knowledge of God.

So once you locate it what do we do?  I'm glad you asked.  We then flood our minds with confessions about who we know God to be!  That is the opportunity that we need in order to make sure that thought will not return.  When something is uprooted it must be replaced because if not then that thing, or thought in this case, will come back stronger (Matthew 12:43-45; Luke 11:24-26).  We definitely don't want a thought to overtake us and cause us to sin.  We are striving for mature Christianity out here.  We do not have to sin, but that is another blog.

Now this is not just a one time occurrence.  We will have to identify, capture, confess against, uproot, and combat thoughts until Jesus returns.  As we do it more it will come more naturally but I challenge you to try it for a week.  When a thought occurs that challenges who God is just declare, "That's not my thought!"  Then replace it with the word.  Let us take this opportunity to root out: lying, cheating, stealing, backbiting, fornication, lust, idolatry, adultery, and the many other sins we are tempted with simply by thoughts. Proverbs 16:3 says, "Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established."  I know that if I'm living for Christ I definitely want the blessing of the Lord to be established and manifested in my life.  I will not let thoughts that challenge God in my life affect my daily outcome.  "That's not my thought!"

Be More. Hear More. See More. Do More.
You can do anything [through Christ]

Day Planner

Over the past several years I have tried a few different mediums to try and manage my day.  It all really first started in college when I met my wife.  She was the very organized and scheduled one and I was the one that was haphazardly moving through life, hoping to hit all of the points that I needed to hit, to get at least some things accomplished.  It started out with a Palm organizer.  It was electronic and I would find myself forgetting to use it, I would often misplace it, and, ultimately, I stepped on it while it was sitting on my floor.  Not a very effective tool.  I then tried to use a Blackberry 7520, arguably my favorite Blackberry handset of all time, but I digress.  This was my phone and my planner and for the first two weeks I was pretty good with it.  After those two weeks though I did not stay consistent and I would primarily use it as a phone.  I ultimately got rid of the phone for something more simple because I was not utilizing all the features that were made available to me.


Towards the end of my college career my wife and I experimented with Franklin Covey organizers.  For anyone who doesn't know about Franklin Covey they are pretty pricey but very effective when you work with them.  Using it took some getting used to but I was about 75% effective with utilizing it.  I had a case for it and everything that I eventually made my wallet.  When that got too big I scaled down to a smaller organizer similar to the ones that they give you in high school to use (why I didn't master the whole planner thing in high school is beyond me since they made me use it).  Even though I was planning 75% of the time I still wasn't getting the optimal results because I would still miss appointments and my life still felt a mess.  Finally, I have, once again, abandoned all things paper and gotten a Motorola Droid which is my phone and organizer. I'm at 85% efficiency and that is increasing daily.


I say all this to say that I have been sadly mistaken.  I have been unsuccessful with planning because I have neglected the fact that He, God, is a Day Planner.  I have been searching for what has been missing in my life for quite some time, finding myself hitting and missing with a lot points.  I would get results with little to no effect and wonder, why do I feel like it is not all together?  I was aimlessly seeking a solution within the natural realm when I know that I have been called to all things spiritual.  I can't remedy natural with natural.  I realize I need something Higher.  I realize that He is my Day Planner.  God/Jesus/Holy Spirit can do things for my day and my life that I cannot begin to fathom.  He has structure for me that I just need to accept.  He says in Isaiah 55:8-11:


"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways saith the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts your thoughts.  For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater:  So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth:  it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."


God said all of this to say I got this.  I've mapped this out. I know what I am doing and if you follow what I have for you, you will prosper.  I know that I have tried to think a certain way or go a certain way but God tells us that He has it mapped out to produce a result.  He knows the appointments we should make, places we should go, things we should, and it is planned out in such a ways that everything will be taken care of (hence the reference to the seed, time, and harvest).  If I let Him be my Day Planner I can't go wrong.  In Jeremiah 29:10-12 it says:


"For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you and expected end.  Then shall ye call upon me and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you."


God says He knows all that He thinks toward us and all of those thoughts are of peace to get me to His expected and final destination.  Whether circumstances be good, bad, or indifferent the Lord knows the direction of my life.  He knows when I will turn down a dark place but He also knows when I will get out.  How about I just sit tight!  I haven't been so willing to follow because of fear doubt and unbelief.  I realize today that I need to seriously let Him be my Day Planner.  If He knew me before I was formed in my mothers womb and called me [Jeremiah 1:5] then He has got to have a plan for me.  He tells me in Proverbs 8:17, "I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me."  I know that I want to find God so He can tell me what my day should look like.  I am giving up the days where I try to chart my course and prioritize my life.  I want every day to be a God encountered day because I heard His voice.  I want to acknowledge Him in all my ways so that He can direct my path [Proverbs 3:6].


God/Jesus/Holy Spirit is your Day Planner and if you incline your ear to hear then He will guide you.  There are things in the earth to be done and things that God wants us all to accomplish.  I am pretty convinced that if I stop concerning myself with trying to manage my own schedule and let God make all my appointments I will be 100x more effective than I am now.  Jesus says in John 16:13-15:


"Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth:  for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak:  and he will shew you things to come.  He shall glorify me:  for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.  All things that the Father hath are mine:  therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it you."


Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit to be "another Comforter."  One that walks like Him, talks like Him, acts like Him, and thinks like Him in order to show us where we need to go.  All the things that belong to the Father will be shown to us because we are in Christ.  I know that I want to know what God has for me.  I know that I don't have the know how to make the things happen that God has called me to without Him.  Today I make a change.  I make it priority to seek first and early so I can know exactly what my day should look like according to the word.  This is the place where I have seen the Lord and from this day forward He shall be my DAY PLANNER!


Be More. Hear More. See More. Do More.
You can do anything [through Christ]