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Come to our Questions Dgroup after school today (Tuesday) from 4:15-5:15 at Escape in Castle Hills. Come with questions ready!

For instance, when we begin training for a marathon, our bodies are nowhere near ready to run so great a distance. Yet, as we train at greater and greater distances we eventually adapt. Before long, we can run for over 26 miles!

In the same way, our spirits grow and adapt. According to the New Testament, the way we train our spirits to become strong and grow is by renewing our minds.

Romans 12:2 says, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Do you long to see the power of God in your life? Do you desire to experience manifestations of the Spirit? Do you want to produce all the fruit of the Spirit?

Then believe you already have and experience and see all of these things!

On the cross, Jesus purchased every spiritual blessing for you. It is yours. You don’t have to strain for it or pray it down, you only have to believe it’s yours. 

On the cross, you were crucified with Christ and are now continually living in heavenly places. You don’t have to worship for 20 minutes or read a chapter of the Bible to get in His presence, you are already living there.

Regardless of what you see now, believe the truth of Scripture and everything will change!

There is so much in God. Who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been His counselor? He is deeper and wider and higher than we could ever fathom.

There is a provision in the person of Jesus that is sufficient for every need you have – today and forever. Christ is the firstborn of all creation and the upholder of all things. To gaze upon the Lord realizes the abundance of who He is for you.

You are never held hostage to your circumstance. Your bank statement is not your reality. Neither is your failure. He is the realest reality. He is the plasma, high definition, Real-D reality that flows through you every moment.

Allow all your needs and circumstances to grow dim in the light of Jesus. He always provides from His glorious riches. Even sowing and reaping is overshadowed by His unending provision for you.

“And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19, NIV

There are many good books on leadership I could point you to, but instead I want to share a simple principle God has taught me over the years.

It doesn’t have to do with persuasive speaking or fancy ice breaker questions. It doesn’t even have to do with developing particular character attributes.

It has to do with the greatest leadership strategy Jesus ever taught us: irresponsible love.

Jesus loved radically and irresponsibly. He loved tax-collectors, sinners, and prostitutes. He didn’t force them to comply to His doctrinal statements before He loved them. He started with unconditional love and ended with unconditional love.

Many leaders are afraid of irresponsible love because they assume that someone will abuse it. Guess what - they are right! Someone will abuse it!

In fact, I would suggest that if your leadership style does not leave room for a Judas to emerge then you are not leading in the same way Jesus did.

But when our spiritual weight increases there are areas of our life, especially regarding our belief systems, that are weak and flawed and cannot handle the increase. In the same way that flaws in a house's foundation aren't revealed until the foundation is required to bear the weight of a finished house, so it is with our spirit.

Unknowingly, many Christians have lived their Christian lives with serious cracks in their spiritual foundation. These cracks aren't exposed until God, in His mercy, delays breakthrough, growth, or answered prayer because He knows our weak foundation is not ready to bear more weight and maturity.

For the next few weeks I'm going to share some very common "cracks" in the foundation of many of our belief systems about God. If you have sensed a level of complacency or frustration regarding your present growth and maturity, ask Holy Spirit to reveal to you if you need to fill in these cracks with the truth of Scripture. Some of these cracks are actually taught as truth in the Church, so please spend time in prayer asking God for discernment. 

Crack #1: We must be "balanced" in our Christian walk...

Context: There is no specific verse with this phrase, but we can infer that there is to be "balance" in our lives because of numerous seeming contradictory commands given to us (i.e. have justice AND mercy, be prepared AND spontaneous, worship AND serve, pray AND be productive, be joyful AND be serious, be administrative AND spirit-led, be sensitive to people's feelings AND be bold, help the needy BUT don't enable the slothful, etc.)

Positive: Every situation requires specific wisdom to understand which biblical truth to apply. For example, Paul adapted his behavior to influence people. "...I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those..." (1 Cor. 9:19-21). Paul was a "balanced person" who could respond successfully in the best and worst of circumstances (Phil. 4:11-13). We too can respond in whatever manner is needed to help people and to advance the Kingdom.

There will be a crack in our spiritual foundation if we believe the balanced Christian life is a mixture of faith and unbelief, passion and cynicism, or victory and defeat. Many believers want to embrace a little of every doctrinal teaching in order to have an acceptable, "balanced" Christianity. Unfortunately, this will lead to a dilution of power (through double-mindedness) by trying to combine faith in God's promises with traditional explanations for why there is suffering and unanswered prayer. James speaks of this when he says, "a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways." He is referring to the one who does not believe God will do what He said He would do (James 1:8). To live as a "crack free" Christian, we must be single minded and "unbalanced" in the belief that God's promises are true and that God is good (all the time).

Conclusion: Yes, we need to avoid extremes in many areas of life; but many believers are weak, hopeless and confused because of a fear of being considered fanatical concerning the promises and goodness of God. This comes from a tendency to take a little "truth" from every tradition, and then mixing them together to form a politically correct, but anemic (powerless) Christianity.

Selah.

(Much of this was taken from Steve Backlund's book "Cracks in the Foundation." His book is available to purchase from store.ibethel.org)

Grace and Peace,

JP Hennessy, youth director

Take the book of Proverbs for instance. Essentially, Proverbs lays out hundreds of spiritual laws that, if followed, will lead to blessing. Some of these include the laws of honesty, integrity, and dilligence. 

The New Testament writers use a different phrase for this same reality: "Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap." Galatians 6:7

Today, I want to share a very important spiritual law with you that will lead to great fruit in your life: "The Law of not Losing Heart."

Now, there is no verse in the Bible that uses that exact phrasing, but I believe there are many passages that communicate the same idea. This law basically states that if you don't give up in seeking God you will eventually reap a huge spiritual harvest in your life.

Let's look at an amazing passage in Isaiah 55 that communicates this idea:

Do you see the presence of the spiritual law of "not losing heart"? Here God says that every word from his mouth (meaning every word of Scripture and every word He speaks directly to you) will not return empty, but instead reap a spiritual harvest in our lives. 

Now, many may be frustrated with this reality because there are areas of your life that are still broken, hurting, and immature. I want you to think about something - do you see prayer, worship and Bible reading (to name a few spiritual "deposits") as a bag of popcorn you put in the microwave or as seeds you plant?

Subconsciouly many of us are so used to immediate gratification that we assume God works in our lives at the same pace our inboxes fill up or our twitter feed updates. Unfortunately, the overwhelming illustration the Bible uses for spiritual growth and maturity is that of a farmer planting seeds.

Consider a farmer: After he plants seed for his new crop he enters into a time of patient waiting. During this time he knows that he is moving from unfruitfulness to fruitfulness even though he has no physical evidence of it. All along he is active with his faith (making spiritual deposits) by faithfully pulling weeds and watering the planted seeds. He does not lose heart because of the delay of seeing a manifestation of his harvest, becasue he knows that eventually he will reap what he has sown.

Make a decision right now to be a spiritual farmer. Sow seeds of humility, love, and honesty. Sow seeds of worship, prayer, and Bible reading. Be resiliant in your pursuit of God, knowing that what you sow you will reap in due season. Learn to love the process of patiently waiting for the harvest to come, which itself is an exercise of faith that will be produce yet another harvest.

This spiritual secret of not losing heart can make all the difference in the world. What will you sow today?

Grace and Peace, 

JP Hennessy