Pursuit to meet

I seek Jesus to manifest daily
In unusual ways
I search out secret
Unsuspecting places to find Him
Wherever I turn I want to be face to face
With Him
I pursue Jesus like a stalker in the evening
All day watching His every move
Anticipating where He will show up
But expecting
The unexpected

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

One Encounter Away

I talk about encounters...a lot. It is something that has always been a driving force in my pursuit of God. Even when I didn't know how to classify it I know that it was something to go after. You see, each time you encounter Christ you are in the presence of His person. You are affected by Him because He is near you. Now you can think of people that you have been around for extended periods of time and can remember how you took on some of their mannerisms. You took on some of their speech and sayings, especially if you liked the person or what they were saying. Now this happens when we hang out with Christ a lot, but even deeper than that, Christ is like a black light.

Imagine that who you are is written and created in you with a fluorescent marker. God drew the plan for your life in fluorescent marker into your spirit. Now naturally we know that we cannot see fluorescent markers without a special type of light. So in order to see exactly what it is that is written we need a black light. Now here is where Jesus comes in because He is our black light. Every time that we encounter Him more of who we are is revealed. It may not all come out at once but the expectation can be that I am changed each time I encounter Christ.

When I use the word encounter I mean any experience with Christ where change has initiated and can be established. You can have an encounter by reading the word, praying, hearing the preached word, during praise and worship, during soaking, or meditation, or any time that you invite God into your midst. When an encounter happens your affect changes. You know and sense there is something different about what is happening. Your spirit man wakes up and you are more spiritually aware than most times. An encounter can also happen when you dream or have open visions. Like I said, it will initiate change and give you a point to establish it. You can have encounters and not change. But it is an opportunity to increase your spiritual capacity with God.

Now you may be saying, "I have encountered Christ before but I never felt or noticed a difference." That doesn't mean that you didn't change. This life that we live is based off of faith. We live by faith because we are believers so the majority of what we know is not in what we can see. If I throw you a ball and you catch it but then I take the ball back from you, because it's my ball, does that mean you never caught the ball? No, of course not. Something did happen and you know that it did but it may seem like you didn't have proof. But if I come around again to confirm that you caught it, even though no one saw it, there is evidence. So we get around Christ, something happens in us and we walk away feeling like it didn't. But when we get around Christ again then it is evident of the change. Christ will confirm the things that He does.

If Jesus is a black light and God has written the plan for our lives in our spirits with fluorescent markers then we have to stay in the black light in order to fully know how and where we are called. The amount of information we can receive just by being in His presence can be vital  to the plan that God has for our lives. We don't always know where we should go but Christ knows all. Let's take a look at Colossians 3:1-4:

"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid [concealed or kept secret] with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear [render apparent, manifestly declare], then shall ye also appear [render apparent, manifestly declare] with him in glory [honor]."

Each time we encounter Christ the "life [that] is hid with Christ in God" "shall appear!" It is truly that simple. Every moment that I spend in the presence of God I am allowing Him to reveal something new about myself to me. It will be something that I never knew before. Something that I never thought about before. It will be something life changing because my life is having an encounter with Christ. Jesus never went anywhere and did nothing! It is my expectation that every time he shows up in my life I will change. If I don't physically see a change then I know one happened by faith and will get back under my black light, Jesus, to reveal what has been written on me.

I know that an encounter with God can change the very fabric of my life. I endeavor, or chase after, or hard pursue, or seek an encounter with God that will change my whole existence. I want to fully see God the way I should see Him so that I can be exactly who He needs me to be. I should have what He wants me to have and experience His fullness, regardless of what I may think right now. I am constantly pursuing Him and in that pursuit I will continue to let Him shine light on me to reveal what I cannot currently see. If who I am is hidden in Him then I have to be found in Him in order to be revealed.

Know that the next encounter may be "the" encounter that will hurl you into destiny! Be bold and go after it today!

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

Aspiration

Inspired by Rend by Misty Edwards

Dearest Love
I know that You have gone away
To prepare our eternal home
But I have an immediate request
Would You come?
Rend the heavenlies
And descend upon where I am
Right now
The Spirit and I say come
My lovesickness
Has my stomach turned upon itself
In utter anguish for Your return

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

Too Big For Bondage

Would you ever sit in a chair that was too small for you if you knew you had to sit for a long time? Would you sleep in a bed where your feet hang off the end? Would you wear clothes that a 7 year old would wear? Would you wear a ring or a bracelet that wouldn't fit your hand? Would you wear a hat that was too small? Would yo try to sit it in a desk that was too small? Excessive? Maybe it was but there is a point to be made. Naturally when things are too small we do not accept them. We recognize that we are too big for those things and go to the things which fit us. I can tell you honestly and boldly that Bondage Does Not Fit You!


"You've gotten too big for bondage! You've outgrown it! It doesn't fit you anymore! Just like when a person tries to put on shoes that are sizes too small for them, you cannot walk in bondage because you have grown too much. Just like when clothes don't fit and it's uncomfortable and looks silly on you that is what bondage is for you. I've caused you to be bigger than any bondage that can ever try to contain you! You're just too big for it! You're just too big! You're just too big!"

This statement is not arbitrarily contrived or made up. It's not something that I thought would be something good to post or nice to say. God said this to me in a moment of seeking his face and worshiping Him. He plainly said that we have outgrown bondage. He has grown us to a point where the very notion of bondage is foolish. When Jesus went to the cross and died for our sins, arose with all power, and ascended to heaven; He then made bondage too small for us.

Jesus said, "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed (John 8:36). This wasn't something optional or an accessory of salvation. When Jesus died He made all those who would accept Him free. With that freedom we shall surely, without a doubt be free! He has secured that "we are more than conquerors through him that loved us" (Romans 8:37). It was His love for us that made it possible for us to be free. No one will bail you out of jail if they don't love you. There is always a relational connection to purchasing freedom. Jesus saw us in the bondages of sin and death and made sure we would be free.

1 Corinthians 15:57 says, "But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." We see here that victory ore the power to overcome is in Christ. A person who is free has the victory over anything that tries to hold him.  If we are indeed more than conquerors then we can do more than what a conqueror does. Think about that. We know that conquerors have victory and overtake whatever is in their way. Since we have been called more than conquerors, you mean to tell me that we more than overcome and have the victory? The only thing that equates to in my mind is being larger than any bondage. There were times when conquerors lost but us being more than those, we will never lose in Christ!

It was God's intention from the beginning for us to overcome anything that even tried to put us in any situation or predicament. Genesis 1:26-28 says:

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:  and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth on the earth."

God created man to subdue and dominate! That was his intention. He created man with the capacity and ability to overcome anything on the earth. At creation Adam and Eve were already too small for bondage. Sin and death came in though and temporarily suspended the ability, but Christ came and redeemed it. If it was God's plan for us to be able to subdue and dominate then that is what we shall do. Christ secured the rights for us to be larger than bondage. Bondage is not a good look on anyone anyway. It is restrictive, cruel, and just downright unrighteous.

Know today that God has allowed you to be too big for any bondage that could ever try to take hold of you! Whatever it may be know that you are too big for it. 1 John 5:4 declares that "whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." If we have the ability to overcome the world, being born of God through Christ, then clearly everything else that may try to hold us back is too small. If I have already overcome anything of world size proportion just by my faith, in Christ, then clearly everything else is peanuts.

Whether it is nail biting, overspending, guilt, shame, unbelief, doubt, lust, disobedience, insensitivity, or anything else that may hinder you from being full in God, know that God has caused you to be larger than that. Your relationship with Christ has cause you to be too big for bondage. You are too big in the spirit in order for some weak devil to try and hold you back from fulfilling destiny. Whatever it is today assert your authority over it. If it is trying to hold you back know that you've outgrown it. You're too big for bondage; it's not a good look on you!

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

Habitat for Humanity

He comes
Not for visitations
Nor extended stays
Not for sleepovers
Nor extended vacay's
He comes
Not for encounters that can be numbered
Or limited
Or contained in one moment
One thought
One memory
He comes
Not to be constrained to one sighting
One location
Or even one person to behold how beautiful He is
He comes
For a habitation
A permanent tangible expression of His presence
To take residence and dissipate
Every untruth and fallacy
Ever uttered into the atmosphere
He changes the very scene
That's been seen
So what we've been seeing is no more
And what He sees
Is all that we endeavor to know
Because
He comes to establish habitation
Allowing his preeminence to rest upon a shattered reality
Destroying temples
And in 3 days building them up
Only to exceed the appearance of former glory
That pales in comparison to what He does
Because what He does
Is eliminate all questions
Notions and thoughts
That aren't His
And allows those who have never seen Him before
To see Him for who He really is
All in the first few seconds of introductions
He's pleased to meet your acquaintance
Because He's known you all your life
That's why He's returning urgently
And permanently to the place where we are
Not to facilitate one time encounters
Two time encounters
Three time encounters
But a habitation that extends beyond eternity
And meets us where we are

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

Moving into the Unfamiliar

We all have familiar places, familiar saying, familiar relationships, familiar foods, and the list goes on into eternity.  Because of the way that life is structured we find ourselves moving into patterns; things we do on a consistent basis to a consistent schedule in our lives.  The problem with patterns and familiar places is that they can stifle growth.  There are many times when we can go to familiar places without even thinking because they have been so programmed in our lives. Have our jobs become familiar?  Have our routines become familiar?  Have our expectations become familiar?  If they have then we are at a point where we need to get up.

In John 5:2-8 we find a man who had found himself in a familiar place:
"Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water:  whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool:  but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up they bed, and walk."

So we have this guy who is impotent or lacking the ability to perform a task necessary for life. He has been like this for at least 38 years, which is a long time, and the only thing he did was sit at a pool. And he waited. And waited. And waited for the right season, at the right time, for a man to come pick him up and take him to the water. He was looking for an event, waiting for a moment, when all conditions would work in his favor and he would miraculously be healed by the water touched by the angel. He was waiting and hoping from a familiar place. I suspect that the man sat there with expectation and hope each year for change. He didn't move forward on his own because he was satisfied in the idea of just hoping. Sometimes we find ourselves in the same condition:  finding euphoria and satisfaction from the simple hope of moving forward. But when destiny is concerned we cannot rely solely on hope.

I believe this man could have easily positioned himself closer to the pool of Bethesda. He could have had a man pick him up and place him by the pool in anticipation for the angel to trouble the water. When the water was troubled he could just have fallen in and he would have been made whole. But I truly believe it was him being in his familiar spot, with his familiar people, talking about being made whole that fueled his complacency.  Where do you find yourself being familiar at today? Are there people around you hindering you from moving forward because you revel in the hope of change. Are you looking for someone to pick you up and take you to your fullness.

It took this man to have an encounter with Jesus in order for him to realize where his potential was. Jesus told him, "Rise, take up they bed, and walk." Verse 9 says, "And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked." It only took him to have an encounter with God to propel him into his destiny. Though the man was able to receive from God it took his encounter with God to facilitate his change past what was familiar.

Know today that every time we encounter Christ there is a grace to get up from familiar places. Jesus who is the way, the truth, and the life, opens up an opportunity for us to be propelled into greatness every time he speaks to us. Each time he visits us in church, at home, in worship, and in prayer, he is calling us out from our places. He is commanding you to pick up your bed and walk into where he is leading. We all will find ourselves in places that are comfortable and familiar but let us use our encounters with Christ to get up. He is here right now telling you to pick up your bed, put away what is familiar, and be bold to walk by faith where you have never walked before!

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

**Writer's note**
It has been a very strong tug on my heart for the past few weeks about this topic.  I know that within my own life there are areas that are very familiar.  Even with writing this blog I find myself in familiar places of simply not being used to writing a blog.  I do know that God has called me in many areas and it is simply the faith to get up that causes something supernatural to happen.  When I commit to what he has says in the moment that he says it there is an overwhelming power to overcome.  Just like the man at the pool, there was power to get up because he did what Jesus said.  I find myself, now more than ever, endeavoring to do what Jesus says so that I can access the power.  So wherever I have familiarized and patterned my life I'm looking and expecting Jesus to come in and say get up!  I want to be in a position where I can walk into the destiny and fullness that he has created for me.  I know there is more and I sense that there is more and I know that simply experience a nice feeling from hoping and thinking about it isn't going to cut it.  So this is not only something he laid on my heart to share but something very personal.  I'm getting up, because he said so, because he got up for me, because I'm tired of what is familiar. I'm ready to believe differently, see differently, and experience differently.   I've thrown my mat away; there is no need for it where I'm going.