OPEN UP HIS WORD

THANK YOU FATHER.

My desire in life is not some inordinate desire to have more things or more fans than the next person.
I'm satisfied.
My desire is that people know Jesus and understand that faith is not blind.
I have a desire that out burns anything that money could buy and it is that people know that their righteousness is not tied to how much they do anything but how they have trusted Christ.

Yes, that it is not even tied to church attendance.

I was never bored in church.
It's always exciting, amusing and active, so active and paced that I was numbed to what was going on in the world outside of the building.

I tied my righteousness and my holiness to being in the building.
Yet when God showed me His desire for me to leave what appeared to be the
"Comfort Zone" and an area that could have potentially shaped me into a protege' of prosperity to do what He designed me to do, I trusted Him.
I trusted The Father over resounding opinion.

It wasn't hard to trust the Father because He made it easy.
The Father made it clear to me that what I was relying on was not Him but an affiliation.

I never had to be forced to follow what the Father placed in me to do, I was never afraid or concerned about opinion.
I didn't have to be backed into a corner or swallowed by a big fish in order to know that I had heard from The Father.
When I look back at the things I denied trying to justify why I shouldn't do what God was saying, I marvel at how clear He made it from the start.

How in the midst of all the excitement you can miss Him.

There were times when I felt like I was the only one on the planet who understood what God was saying to me, like I was alone. Yet in those times where it looks like I am in a corner and on my own is when I can hear The Father and know His presence the strongest.

You do have to sit down and get quiet before Him.

You will take the heat of opinion whenever you step away from what many cling to and put their hope in above the sufficiency of Christ.
The 3 Hebrew boys did this.

You will be accused of refusing advice and failing to step out and do what God called you to do especially if you refuse the stepping stone of those that accuse you.
Many will believe that they are the light for your path and the lamp for your feet.
You may even be told that you will not experience all that God has for you.

But if you have a God esteem that is your self esteem, your faith in Him will remain in tact.
The thing that destroys self esteem more than anything else is believing that you have to measure up to a standard that those who set the standard don't actually measure up to.

Don't tie your success, happiness, blessing and relationship to The Father to a following, fans or a lifestyle.
Because when real success shows up (Jesus) you won't walk away from those things to follow Him.

Jesus didn't ask the rich young ruler to walk away from a corporate position or a white collar career, He asked him to walk away from a lifestyle.
Not a lifestyle of drugs, adultery, crime or lasciviousness as the sinner who is called by grace.

The Father does want us to turn from these things because they serve to destroy us, but they are not the only things that do.
The core of those things is a feeling of not being satisfied.

This religious young man was asked to leave a lifestyle where he was known in the gate for his deeds, wealth and his religious piety.

He was asked to lay down the ego and bling for the king.

The LORD didn't request that the young man stop working, He wanted the young man to not rely on his lifestyle above his relationship with The Father and The Son.

The LORD has taught me that when something is authentic it never has to convince people of it's realness, it just comes through.
Jesus said that those who would believe on Him without seeing Him would be blessed and it's true because He is real and He has never had to prove it with signs and wonders.

His Spirit testifies of His genuineness.
People who are crazy are always trying to convince you that they are not.
The enemy comes in many shapes, sizes, and packages with something that is supposed to authenticate them.
The Lord always reveals.

As you look at what's happening right in your own country, right in your own backyard, look at the bling, the bling that you have supported and see if it reaches your communities in proportion to the damage that they have suffered.

There is no way for you to measure from your living room who is truly being fed in Africa in a village or who is being clothed and supplied food and books in China, but on your block you can see those things.

You can see schools closing, job shortages and crime increasing.

Would you sell your plane and give up your cattle to build homes where the storms have blown through or are you waiting on the government who you say we shouldn't rely on?
Would you give up something that you value?
Is your television and radio time more valuable than the cities that you pass through for support?

Is your motive to have your books sold on the back tables at the free seminars or are you giving solid advice for free that will help people right now?

Faith is not blind and it doesn't overlook the true needs of people to fulfill it's own destiny.
Moses would rather live in Midian as a shepherd rather than have the riches of Egypt and He was used by God to lead people out of bondage.

Motive will bring prosperity and faith is not a Ponzi.

Open up the Word :)
Luke 18:18-30
LOVE Y'ALL