mirrors and truth

For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

1 Peter 2:25

Buckle up and get ready because we are looking in the wrong mirror when we aren’t actively looking at Christ throughout our days, weeks, and life moments. Our life mirror, our inner thoughts, that place we live in our minds, that place can either tear us down or lift us up. Our minds are the most intimate place we spend the most time, so what you hold up as your mirror or sounding board is exactly what you feed yourself on a daily basis. When you converse with yourself or problem solve, you have to ask what or who is the influence on how you draw conclusions, solve problems, or outwardly choose to go forward in your life. The greatest question for me lately has been, is it friends, family, clients, co-workers, or other outside influences? Who is holding up the inner mirror of your mind? Who is defining your deepest character of self? Who are you talking to when you are processing your life and where is your greatest influence coming from? Our answer should be that the Good Shepherd is our sounding board, our standard, the definer of us, the standard of Truth, and the complete totality of what we hold our lives up against to see the truest reflection of who we are. I fear that like me, you, and every other believer who has devoted their lives to Christ, have let another person or people hold the mirror up in front of them, and that is the identity they have believed and held as Truth. We are going to dive into who the Shepherd, mirror, and sounding board of our lives is and why He is SO WORTHY of being the One who we converse with and allow our image to be defined by. So we must let go of the mirror we allow to be held up as our standard of truth and see what our Father, and Creator of our hearts and souls truly intended.

Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’” The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. But the Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand— “that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

Exodus 4:1-5

Jesus is our righteous Branch (Jeremiah 23:5), our staff of Truth (Psalm 23:4), and the Shepherd of our souls (John 10:7-11). Throughout the Old Testament God empowered, equipped, and gave authority to men to be the shepherd of His people, one example is Moses. We all know the story of Moses, but if we look at how God equipped him, He gave him a staff, this staff was representative of the power, authority, and presence of God to wield over His people in order to lead and guide them to greener pastures. We see the rich testimony of how God gives us imagery for the Truth this staff held in Moses’ hands to give Him authority over Satan in (Exodus 4:1-5). Sin is represented by the snake in this passage, God gives Moses authority over it to pick the snake (sin) up by its tail and turn it back into the Staff of Truth (our staff is the Holy Spirit). The scene here is very important, because with God being Moses’ standard (staff) of Truth, Moses was able to confront and face the sin of God’s people throughout his journey and abide in God. The staff of truth, the authority, power, and presence of God was who and what Moses held up before him as his mirror and standard for his life. Was Moses perfect, no, but did God equip him with all that he needed to live his life in a manner pleasing to God, yes. We see this parallel into the New Testament with the life and leadership of Christ, our great Shepherd, the overseer of all of God’s people.

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

Mark 16:16-18

Christ came so that we could have the standard of God, His truth, nature, holiness, and His full embodiment, walk with us, and commission each of us to wield the staff of Truth (Holy Spirit). With Christ we can pick up the serpents of life by their tails and turn them back to truth just as Moses did. The staff of Truth is the embodiment of Christ, our bread of life, staff of life which we must hold up as our mirror in our lives. Our mirror should be the Shepherd of our souls, Jesus. Jesus empowers us and gives us authority of the heavens to work on His behalf, but how can we do that if we are operating out of a staff of self, our earthly bodies dead in sin, seeking the bread of self, the physical life in front of us? God gives us a lot of imagery in the Old Testament of people of His nation and many others who run around with their staff of self. We see this over thirty times in the Old Testament references of people wielding their own authority and self righteousness. God desires you to look at Him for the Truth, not anywhere else. Discerning daily where you seek affirmation, conviction, growth, and general pursuit of your life is very important. We can easily get caught up allowing others to hold up our mirror in our minds, and not our Shepherd. We see this illustrated in Hosea where the people have fallen from God, and are pursuing their own truth and righteousness and not allowing God into their walk.

My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their walking staff gives them oracles. For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they have left their God to play the whore.

Hosea 4:12

I read this passage on what God thought of His people and I just about spit out my coffee. God equated His people to whores, because they lent their hearts and souls out to all of the passerby of life. His people created their own staff of truth, idols, relied on it, and were led astray. His people pimped themselves out to the opinions and pursuits of others, instead of steadfast dedication to Him, their Father and Creator, who knows the intimate details of their hearts because He created each on of them. The mirror His people were holding up in their hearts and minds were not of Him, but instead lead to a life without Him, without His goodness. They basically pimped themselves out to the world, and who does the world belong to, Satan, he became their truth. How many times in our lives have we allowed God’s standard of truth to be twisted unknowingly and allowed our identity in our one true Shepherd of our souls to go awry? Probably a lot. I’m sitting there, on this cliff of realization and revelation that God desires so much more for us than whatever convenient and/or fun mirror we are trying to hold up as our staff of truth. Those staffs will always rot and fade, worldly mirrors break, and do not lead to eternal joy, or an honest picture of who you are or where you should be going. Satan pulled a nice little magic trick and got you comfortable in believing that God resides in the fun, self fulfilling pursuits of life, oops. Have been there and will probably be again, but thank God for Jesus, and the ability to repent of all of these ways we whore ourselves out to the world. Seems harsh as a term, but that is the depth of God’s love, that He feels we are cheating on Him, when He isn’t our center, and someone else is. Jesus came so we could be able to experience the richness of fellowship with Him, the way God desired from the beginning. Jesus speaks of this in John 10, of how He came to Shepherd our hearts and souls.

I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 

John 10:14-15

John 10 is a resonant chapter of the bible where Jesus teaches us exactly who He is, why He came, and what God has desired for us from the beginning. Jesus speaks of how each of us were created to come into His presence and be ministered to by Him. Us, the sheep, will go out, always following the teachings of Jesus, even into the unknown places, knowing we are able to come right back into His presence for His guidance. We hear His voice uniquely (John 5:25) because we were created to, and Jesus meets with each of us individually to uniquely minister to our hearts. We see this throughout His ministry in the New Testament of the unique knowledge, and intimacy of relationship He has with each person He encounters. That is the same for us, He calls us by name, and meet in the deepest parts of our souls daily if we allow Him. Then in this space He becomes our mirror, the definer, and refiner of our character, the Truth. We find security and liberty in Jesus and in that Truth we can operate in the power and authority of Christ. Because of Jesus, God has equipped us with our staff of Truth, our daily guide, the Holy Spirit, and with Him, we shall not want for anything.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Psalm 23

Psalm 23 is beautifully rich in God’s love for us, and we see again this theme of the Shepherd’s staff, the most important tool of a shepherd being what brings us comfort and guidance. Jesus left us with the great Comforter (John 14:15-31), our guiding staff, and our mirror to help us see God and seek Him each day with our whole heart, the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the reason we can access God’s presence daily and come in and out of the gates of Heaven on earth as we please. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit allows each of us access to the green pastures and restoration God desires for our resurrected spirits in our bodies. In this space, is where God does His best work as our Father, and where Jesus as our Shepherd is able to minister to our character, knowing us just as well as the Father. God’s generosity allows us to have His Spirit and Christ as our advocate daily before Him, so He can maintain a richness of fellowship that we were made for. Jesus desired for us to each understand and know that He is fully present, so we may be Shepherded by Him each day, through the indwelling of His Spirit.

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Hebrews 13:20-21

If by now you have not come to the realization that your life as a believer was created by the God of the universe, and created for more than the earth and the things of it, then I pray that you come to know who our God is and how intimately He knows you. He desires to be your everything, from your foundation, to your highest achievements for His glory, and your lowest places. Do not allow people be your shepherd or any flesh of this earth, there is only One who stands in that place, and He is your King, Creator, and Lover of your soul. God spoke this over me yesterday while riding through the woods on my bike and this word is for the Church as a whole. “You are made for the Heavenlies, your heart and soul were made for Me, and only created to be satisfied by Me. Things of this earth always fade, but the Heavenly realm you were made for, Me, is eternal. I love you and know you because I made you and chose you. Stop desiring fulfillment in the world, because it will never satisfy, you forget who and where you were made for. It is not a dream, for that is not where I reside, live for Heaven on earth, I am here and I am present. I am your Good Shepherd, lover of your soul, and the redeemer of your life. Trust me, know me, and seek me, for I am with you. “

Letting Go of your wisdom

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Hebrews 10:19-25

Jesus always sought communion with our Father throughout His life and ministry. He is the example and epitome of what seeking the Kingdom and communing with the Father looks like. One of His gifts to us is the ability to come to a Holy, secret place with the Father whenever we choose. Out of this space we seek with the Father, we will operate out of Divine overflow, with genuine sincerity, clarity, and encouragement towards others. Jesus is seen throughout the New Testament retreating to God’s presence before or after large decisions and actions. He always looks to be guided and filled up by God, even though He is God. A challenge to us is, although Jesus is fully God and fully man as one, He still NEEDED to get with the Father to find center in His earthly life and ministry, so who are we to think we don’t need to regularly retreat to God’s presence for the same thing. We need God even more so, because we are not Divine, we are just human, and more importantly Jesus knew that we needed access to God, therefore He became that intermediary for us. We are in complete reliance on God for our redemption, yet somehow, many times we treat our lives as if we know what is best, by busying ourselves, and complicating our days. Jesus as fully man did neither, He was intentional and simple with how He lived and taught. There was one clear and true vision for His life, that was to look clearly and steadily at God to lead His life on earth, and serve Him well. So that is what we are to do in the midst of any and all circumstance and not allow our sinful bodies to busy our minds and distract us from a righteous path. Jesus never looks back on the past fretting over things that have happened, or is found busily running around trying to ‘fix’ or ‘manage’ things of the present or future. He is steady in His approach to life, feeling fully, the emotional spectrum of humanity, knowing His purpose, and yet He is steady in His focus on God no matter what the day brings. So what does that look like? We will walk through places where Jesus sought solitude to find simplicity with God in His ministry.

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. 

Ecclesiastes 5:1-2

The enemy wants to keep you out of the presence of God and our battle is to seek freedom through simplicity in our lives. The enemy will tempt you into toiling away at all of these distractions and you end up sacrificing time and emotion to things outside of your purpose and control. The past is in the past, let go of it. Present struggles are temporary, and God is greater than those too. The greatest question posed to me lately is, where are my eyes? Busyness and worry of life fade when I look at the Father, realizing He just asks me to sit still and see, that if I’m looking at Him and walking side by side, then everything is taken care of. The busyness of life fades in completion; all those struggles with all of those people and situations fade because He is sovereign over it, greater than my toiling. God is simple with us, asking us to seek first the Kingdom of God in everything. In doing that we are able to un-complicate the choices we make and this allows us to put our focus in the right place.

Solitude allows us the space and clarity to hear the Father’s voice and gain trust, understanding, and guidance. When we look at Jesus, He continually kept His life simple by retreating to solitude with the Father to find strength (Matt 4:1-11) knowledge (Luke 6:12), softening of His heart (Matt 14:13), restoration (Matt 14:23 Mark 6:31), renewed humility (Luke 5:16) hear/see God (Matt 17:1-9), and clarity/obedience (Matt 26:36-46). He did this many times after tragedy, after miracles, before facing trial, before making large decisions etc. Jesus prioritized solitude with the Father regularly in His ministry in order to align His heart with Him. Simplicity in our lives comes with one single move which is to allow Him Lord over our lives.

Strength

In Matthew 4:1-11, Jesus finds strength in the Lord when He is led by the Spirit to the wilderness for 40 days to then be tempted by Satan at the end of those 40 days. Jesus sought communion with the Father during that time in order to sustain Him as He fasted in the wilderness alone. Without the Father sustaining His every fiber, Jesus human body would not have had the strength to withstand that time. He would have completely fallen apart as a human and needed to rely on God to sustain Him and see Him to the other side of that 40 days and leave victorious over Satan walking away physically and spiritually full.

Knowledge

In Luke 6:12, Jesus is at the point in His ministry where He is ready to choose His apostles. Instead of relying on His own Divine nature to choose them, He understands the importance of the choices He will make and that they are to be appointed by the Father. Each of those people would be pivotal to the spread of early Christianity. Jesus sought out solitude on a mountain to pray over each person He was to choose and hear God’s voice to confirm each person chosen as an apostle.

Softening of the Heart

In Matthew 14:13 Jesus receives the news of John the Baptists death from His apostles and immediately retreats to a boat by Himself to sit in the presence of God. He is fully human and feels the well of emotions of losing such a person in His life, which is very painful. He seeks God’s presence knowing God will soften His heart not allowing it to harden against people, and in that space God is able to comfort Him and heal Him so He is able to go back out and continue to serve without the crippling pain of loss. Immediately after the news, and seeking solitude, He ended up feeding the five thousand.

Restoration and Recovery

In Matthew 14:23 Jesus has just fed the five thousand and seeks out solitude with God once again so He could sit in prayer and find restoration and recovery for His heart and His strength. He sends His disciples ahead on the boat, and He went up to the mountain again to sit and soak. He knows He needs this time so He can center Himself again and be filled.

Renewed Humility

In Luke 5:16 Jesus is approached by a sick man, with leprosy, and is begged to heal him. Jesus of course heals the man and encourages him to tell no one but instead to go to the priest and make an offering for his cleansing. Of course many people hear about the miraculous healing and find Jesus, gathering to be healed by Him. Based on the scripture, it was multiple crowds in multiple places. Instead of bolstering Himself on each occasion and making a scene, He retreats to a solitary place to pray each time. Jesus could have easily healed everyone on every occasion. That would not have been out of a place of humility, seems like something we would do if we had the opportunity. Instead He sought God’s will and found renewed humility each time He was confronted with healing large crowds. Jesus was more interested in God’s will for His interaction with people than He was with healing them. WOW.

Hearing and Seeing the Lord

In Matthew 17:1-9 Jesus brings three of His disciples up to a high mountain to be so they can see and hear God in all His glory. Jesus reveals Himself physically, as Divine to them on top of a mountain. He allows them to see who He is, as well as see an interaction with Elijah and Moses upon the mountain. During this interaction God the Father speaks to them and the disciples fall to their faces frightened by the presence, and Jesus reassures them that it is okay. Here we have a full view of what solitude on our ‘mountain’ with God looks like. This is so important! This is the intimacy God desires to have with each of us, so we can know Him.

Clarity and Obedience

In Matthew 26:36-46 Jesus is found in the Garden of Gethsemane before His betrayal and arrest. He knew what was to come, and knew He was to be obedient to God in allowing the arrest and crucifixion to go forward. He also knew how much strength and fortitude it would take to abide in God’s will for His life and death. Jesus prays three times for clarity and to be encouraged in His obedience by the Father. This is MASSIVE, Jesus would have abided either way, but He knew the importance of encouragement and clarity from the Father. He knew He needed that to get past the finish line and truly abide in God, even though He knew full well the outcome, and is also fully Divine. Even with all of Jesus’ knowledge and Divinity, He NEEDED God. He NEEDED HIS ENCOURAGEMENT and GUIDANCE.

Suffice to say these are all amazing examples to us of how Jesus sought time with the Father. God is here to restore us to His vision for our lives if we choose to sit with Him. Jesus could not have completed His ministry and been our sinless Savior without it. He would not be the model for our lives if He didn’t seek communion with God regularly for a complete filling of His soul. Jesus as fully human and fully divine shows us how desperately we need God as Father and Lord over our lives, to walk a simple walk, uncomplicated, with clear lines of what we are to be doing and how we are supposed to do it. He desires our whole heart and eyes to be set on Him, only then can we walk freely with no chains. Jesus gave us that, so lets go. Walk in freedom friends.

Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”

Matthew 26:36-46

Come to the table

“When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

Luke 14:12-14

Everyone has a seat at the eternal table with the Father. The greatest questions posed to me by the Holy Spirit are intense. Do we choose to sit at the table on a daily basis and encourage others to join? Are we encouraging to have them stay and join each of us every day? What does our familial kitchen table with God look like in our lives and how many sit with us? Who is still sitting in the cold we haven’t reached? Jesus says go and make disciples, that is the largest calling on each of our lives. God calls each of us uniquely to fulfill that call to cultivate new believers as well as spur on believers to go forth in faith. We each have a place at the table of the Father, and it is our duty to help others see their eternal place there as well. We are God’s hands and feet, and our job is to pull people in from the cold and invite them into the glorious mystery, and warm love of God who fills our lives.

God created each of us uniquely and individually with gifts, passions, and vision in order to fulfill Jesus’ great commission of reaching as many souls as we can. Our life long pursuit is a pursuit of relationship with God and relationship with people. God first, people second, is very important to remember. Without God being our main priority, then there’s no way we can reach people with the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit within us. In order to understand who Jesus is and how He walked when He was on this earth, we have to know Him to emulate Him and activate the Holy Spirit in our lives. Jesus set the stage for the way we can live and the things we can do. We are at a huge advantage because He left us with His Spirit which allows us direct access to Jesus and the Father. Yet somehow we lose along the line during our day, week, month, year the true vision Jesus set out for our lives.

Identifying your passions, skills, and positive qualities to serve the kingdom is vital in then being able to see where God wants to use, grow, or change them to reach the people you are surrounded by each day. We are called to ministry wherever we are, church, work, school, social circles, activities, and even very specific callings of ministry. There is no one way that ministry is cultivated in our lives each day. We are to live a life of daily mission, looking to operate from an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the people around us. Jesus surrendered His privileges of comfort and God-nature to live in complete surrender to the Father’s will for His life. He is the image of living on mission, and shows us how to become empty of ourselves and dependent on God; then the Holy Spirit can use us.

“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him. For the Lord comforts Zion; he comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.”

Isaiah 51:1-3

So, we as a Holy people, are meant to reach others without judgement with an open hand and invite them into relationship with God. We are to show that no matter who they’ve been or what they’ve done in their lives, that Jesus gave all so they could be washed clean of every iniquity. We aren’t to pass judgement or think of ourselves as higher than others but rather lower oursleves to the lowest and get on our knees and show others the path we’ve walked to get to God’s table. None of us got to the banquet table of God by being high and mighty, rather we accepted the tragic status of our sinful souls and recognized we need God’s grace and mercy. I think we forget that on the day to day and try to raise ourselves above others at times, when in reality, we are all residing in gross sinful bodies and have to constantly pursue a washing of our souls by the Holy Spirit on a daily basis. We have to allow ourselves to be constantly convicted by the Spirit so that we are constantly brought back down to a reality of understanding where we stand. The only reason we have the joy and understanding of relationship and communiion at God’s table is because of His ever flowing grace. We never earned it, so we need to be careful of thinking we are better or cleaner than others because of something we did. God’s dinner table is for everyone of every status and walk of life; our job is to see that we stay on our knees serving our God who wants us to reach the messiest of souls. Giving up our feelings and status so people can understand the humility we try to walk in, is the only way we can reach others, a complete walk of humility and bareness of our soul. Then individuals can see and understand how God sustains each of us every day. Jesus wants everyone at the table with Him, but people need to see Him as the host, not us. Let Him shine, and lower yourself, and let someone see who sustains you. Maybe then they will see Jesus can sustain them too.

I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

1 Corinthians 1:4-9

where is my identity?

A primary question I regularly ask myself is where my identity lies. Am I looking to my preconceived ideas of who I am and how I’ve been shaped by the world around me since I was a kid? Am I allowing those ideas or feelings of what I’ve been told or the things I’ve done, or what I tell myself, to rule my life on a daily basis? Who is shaping my identity as a person? Me? Others? Past relationships, World view? Opinion? If I find myself in that place of allowing my identity to be defined by something that is fluid, ever changing, emotional, high and low like waves crashing, and not found in unwavering, never changing TRUTH, then YIKES.

Our emotions, opinions, ideas, and processes of how we do things are all defined by some influence somewhere and depending on where we are at, the source of where we rely on our feedback tends to change. But guess what, God didn’t design us to constantly be searching for all the sources and places to find our truth about our lives, drive, passions, and identity. God calls us to look to Him every single day to see our past, present, and future self and to see the reality of who we were created to be. Because I can guarantee you no matter where you are in your walk with the Lord, your vision for your life will always pale in comparison for the plans He has made for you if you truly walk with Him in fulfilling them. God has given each of us an eternal purpose for our lives, and no matter what the world says to you, you were created perfectly and uniquely in His image to carry His image out to the world around you. That is your purpose, that is your drive. When we don’t look to God to drive us and give us purpose, we will constantly chase and seek every other avenue possible to fill that void in our lives. We will seek material pleasures, the nice car, perfect spouse, pretty house, perfect family, newest things, best vacations, best paying job, etc. We will also operate out of a place of always chasing down the next big thing in our lives, the next event, like that promotion, vacation, bigger house, next expansion, new product, next relationship, new hobby, more followers on social media, more knowledge, etc. We will fill our time with everything but God, and always feel empty once we’ve exhausted the excitement and interest of the newest thing, idea, achievement, relationship, or experience. Then it is on to the next thing, whatever that may be for you.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”

Jeremiah 29:11-13

But what if I told you we weren’t designed to chase the material world, what if you believed, that if you lived with none of these things and sought relationship and identity from our Almighty Creator God, you would NEVER feel empty, without passion, love, joy, excitement, drive and an unwavering identity rooted in truth. God is all of that for His people and then SO MUCH MORE. You were created for more than just yourself and whatever revolves around you in your life. God created you for greater calling, serving a greater Kingdom than your own. You are not supposed to be the king or queen of your life. There is only one King, and His name is Jesus Christ Emmanuel, Son of God, and He gave his life for you, so you would have the opportunity to serve our Lord God and take a seat at his heavenly table when you pass through this life and on to the next. God desires to work with you and through you in your life, if you will allow Him. He wants to see you fulfill the calling on your life to the fullest and not squander it on the things of the world that you can’t take to the grave. When you die, God desires that you leave a mark on the world that can’t be erased by the world. A Divine mark of His Kingdom, an impact that spurs others to do the same, make more disciples of Christ, see more people enter the Kingdom of Heaven when they finish their work here. A by product of that being the ultimate unwavering passion and mission of your life, is a beautiful thing, you will be found operating out of a love and joy for yourself and others in your life that can only be defined as Divine. Love and joy of divine nature is like a fire that never burns out or burns others, it spreads and grows touching other people bringing light and a warmth to their lives they have never seen before.

Saying let’s go with God means we trash all the ideas the world throws at us as far as what it looks like to have a good life, be a good person, and be successful. I promise you, with God, pressing into His vision for how He created you, the sinless you, there will be intense growth in seeing who you are and what you can REALLY do when you let HIM do the work. God can help you shed your pride, anger, fear, anxiety, depression, lust, insecurities, frustration, sadness, striving, overachieving, and anything else you could define in your life as a life sucking quality that stresses you out and drives you to seek comfort. With God, you are capable of SO MUCH MORE, because He starts to cultivate this new life in front of your eyes. Those old ways of yourself start to fall away, and you start to see what can be, who you really are, and it DOESN’T CHANGE, because GOD’s TRUTH DOESN’T CHANGE. So as we get further into this idea of Let Go to Let’s Go, I’ll press more into specific ways that we do that and say YES to God’s will for our life. Because man He has plans that you and I can’t even begin to fathom that bring the greatest glory to Him and the greatest positive impact to ourselves and the community around us.

Thus says the Lord… Do not call on former things, or ponder things of the past. Behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth; will you be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert. “

Isaiah 43:16, 18-19

Let go of your rebellion

Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.”

Hosea 6:1-3

Re-read that again, and maybe a few more times, line by line, of what Hosea is prophesying over Israel and Judah. The three verses are jam packed summarizing our rebellion against God, His reprimanding of us, redemption found for our souls because of Jesus Christ, and how our Father’s love is steadfast every day of our lives. God wants YOU, all of YOU, not just whatever part you give Him when it is convenient. He desires relationship with you, is for you, with you, and wants to work through you. BUT first we have to let go…

Hosea first speaks of returning to the Lord, to turn from our rebellion against Him. If we don’t, we get to learn the hard way through God allowing us to suffer and soak in misery. God allows us to make bad choices, allows us to turn from Him and follow the world Satan runs. He loves us enough to let us choose wrong and loves us enough to take us back when we realize the poor choices that we made without His counsel. The Father will let you take a spanking from the world if you live in disobedience. He allows it so you can choose to keep chasing you, your desires, and your strength, or you can choose relationship with Him, choosing His desires and His strength. So where do you begin to change and turn to the Lord, and seek His will for your life?

The bible speaks of letting go of your life and relying on God’s wisdom and guidance each day, rather than leaning on your own. So you must let go of YOU, let go of YOUR life, let go of YOUR thoughts, YOUR feelings, YOUR desires, YOUR identity, YOUR world, YOUR passion, LET GO OF YOUR FLESH and EVERYTHING that comes with it. God desires ALL of YOU, your complete and total submission, attention, emotions, feelings, desires, identity, talents, ideas, all of it. Why? Because God is: perfect, sovereign, creator of you and the world around you, all knowing, all seeing, and all powerful, perfectly kind, just, and merciful, grace giving, loving, and kind Father. He knows best for your life; the Creator of the universe, who gave His Son to pay your debt, for your sins, wants to know YOU and wants you to know HIM. We have a heavenly Father who uniquely made each one of us, and knows our every, everything better than we do. Yet we constantly live our lives acting like we know more about us and how we should feel, work, love, play, and spend our time. We act like our own gods on a daily basis making choices and excluding God from them as if we somehow have better plans than He does for our lives.

We have a problem with submission to God, our Father, who created us. We have an issue with living in daily surrender to God and His will for our daily walk. He knows this, yet doesn’t give up on each of our souls. He gave us Jesus, the perfect example of surrender and submission to God, in the flesh for the world to see. If you are unsure of what your walk should look like, get to know Jesus, make Him your best friend. He is the epitome of who God is and who we are called to be. Jesus lived a life constantly seeking the will God had for His life, always working to align His heart, with the heart of the Father. Jesus then outwardly encouraged everyone else to do the same. Jesus didn’t look to His own wisdom, identity, passions, ideas, or work to fill His life and His heart. Even though He was wholly God and wholly man, He looked to the Father, His Father, OUR Father, to seek out His identity, joy, and life mission. If we are really seeking God, and relationship with Him, then that means we are not seeking self satisfaction or self righteous lives. We are called to live greater than our own desires; our hearts are deceitful and imperfect because of our sin, so look to the One who is perfect.

Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”

Jeremiah 17:5-10

We encounter worldly temptations daily like a battering ram, and frequently lean on our own deceitful hearts (corrupted by our sin), but there’s a better solution and it is God’s solution, which is a complete turning away from self focus, to God focus. We are each completely equipped no matter where we are in our walk to seek communion with God each day and get before Him in total submission and thankfulness. If we create a space where we meet with God each day with intention, He will meet us there without fail every time. That is the beginning of relationship and then we see the transformative power of God working in our hearts. From that space where the Holy Spirit is working in our hearts and minds, we start to operate outwardly and not just inwardly. Then we can fulfill the ultimate calling on each of our lives, which is living outwardly a lifestyle of selfless love towards others and a spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ, our ultimate commission.

We cultivate relationship with God and change in our hearts through the active Holy Spirit, who Jesus left within each of us, the day He ascended to Heaven. He left us a helper, comforter, wise counsel, and direct line access to the voice of God and Spirit who gives us eyes to see life differently. The Holy Spirit knows the intimate knowledge of each of us and the complete and total nature, thoughts, and works of God. We have access to a mediator, the Spirit of God, who hovered over the waters and darkness in Genesis 1:2 as God created the world. We have that unique access to God, just as Jesus did; we just have to choose to cultivate that relationship, because He’s ready to go to work and grow us. We find the Holy Spirit many times in prayer, worship, scripture, and Christ centered community. It is in these places we find revelation, truth and true change of the heart. Prayer allows us to speak to God about where we need help in our growth, seek wise counsel, hear His voice, praise Him, and thank Him for all He does and has done. Scripture is the unwavering truth and living word of God, which speaks into our lives, breathing sobriety into the chaos we inevitably live in. Scripture without fail, never lies to us, and allows us to understand who God is throughout time, coming to understand His nature, and intentions for His people. Worship allows us to get before God in the most raw and open way. Worship whether there is music or silence is a place to praise, thank, and cry before God for all He has done, and all He has yet to do. Finally Christ focused community is a place where we can meet with other fellow believers and come to meet and speak truth to one another. Community allows us to have a space where we can encourage others, press into spiritual gifts, push on another forward to where they are called, as well as rebuke those falling from the truth.

So press on to know the Lord and let Him shape your life and identity. Allow Him to cultivate your soul and grow you in a way that the world never will. God desires unique and intimate relationship with each of us, so that we can spread His love, and the good news to others, fulfilling an eternal destiny in heaven. God wants to see all people come to know Him, so they can commune with Him at His table. All we have to do to accept and grow in relationship with God is to openly receive all that He has already given us. Hosea speaks of God coming to us as sure as the dawn every morning, and He does, but many times we don’t and He stands waiting. He waters us like spring rains encouraging growth, but we have to accept and soak in the rain. God is very simple with us, but we make it complicated. So the challenge is, will we receive what we are given freely, or will we keep God locked out of our house, only allowing Him to enter when it serves our purposes. God can bring peace, purpose, and patience in process to each of us in our walk. So will you let go of your life as you see it and allow God to give it greater vision? Will you let Him use you for greater purposes leading to an eternity with Him for you and for others? Will you tell God YES, to Him saying let’s go? Will you say yes to let’s go, no matter where it takes you? Will you put your faith in letting go of your life and identity and trusting God with it instead? Will you actively pursue His vision, instead of your own?

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

Galations 5:16-25