The last year of my life has been an amazing time of growth with God.  It has probably been one of the most difficult and challenging times, while at the same time being one of the most rewarding and growing times!  God has taught me so much and the more He teaches me, the more I realize how much I have to learn.

In His book “Why Revival Tarries Leonard Ravenhill says:  “One praying man stands as a majority with God!”  This sounds good, but many of us fail to understand what this powerful statement really means!

To many times in this world, we become so self-sufficient that we write God right out of the equation.  Our ability gets in the way of our availability!  God is teaching me that I don’t have to do it all, I just have to be available to Him and He will take care of the doing.  He has a plan, I get to be a part and this is not about me, but Him!

Everyone is trying to figure out how to get God to bless.  Our human reasoning comes up with all kinds of ideas and schemes, but usually leaves us flat and yearning for something more.  The formula for God’s blessing is a very simple one:  We need to do God’s work in God’s way with God’s power and in God’s time, and then we are guaranteed God’s blessings, as well as the enemies curses.

To be a prophet is not a popular thing, especially in today’s world.  The preacher can go along with the crowd, but the prophet often has to go against the crowd!  The problem with the modern-day Christian is we are not even interested in having a partnership with God, as if partnership were even really possible.  Who do we think we are that we would deserve to be in partnership with God?

God is teaching me something new:  He is not interested in partnership!  God is only interested in ownership!  When God owns you – you think like God, grieve like God and love like God.  God is not looking to make life easier for us and He is not looking for us to make it easy for Him!  God is looking for us to make it hard, because then the miracle is not because of our planning, but because of His power and majesty.  We often waste God’s time with the smallness of our praying!

Stop asking God to make it easier and start asking God to make you stronger and more dependent upon Him and His great strength!  Stop praying for what you want or for what you think is best and start praying for what God wants and for what God knows is best!

God is more than able and a lot of times He is just waiting for us to ask!

One year ago God brought me to a very interesting place.  It was that place where you come to a fork in the road and it is obvious which way you are supposed to go, but you are not so sure because of all of the unknowns.  If you really love God, there is really only one way you can travel and that is on that unknown road of faith.

I have served as a pastor for over twenty years.  I love the church and have always believed the best about what it could and should accomplish for God and His glory.  I have always been totally sold out to the local church and it’s ministry in, to and through the community.  It has never been a job to me, it has always been a calling and even on the hard, frustrating days of challenge and warfare, I have been glad to have had the privilege to have a small part in God’s great big plan.

A year ago, God began to speak to my heart about the way we do church.  Specifically, He began to show me how church had become about all of the wrong things.  Church had become more about buildings and budgets and less about bridges and blessing.  Church had become about entertaintment and satisfaction, while trashing challenge and sacrifice!  Church had become inward focused and lost its outward drive.

I was in the process of finishing up three different books that at the time seemed to be dovetailing with my personal devotions.  The books were “Radical” by David Platt, “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan and “Outlive Your Life” by Max Lucado.  All three books talked about the same thing, but from very different perspectives.  These books, along with my devotions allowed the Holy Spirit to get a hold of me in ways that I never dreamed or imagined.

I had lost some weight and was trying on clothes one day and the Spirit started to take me to school.  God began to show me a movie in my head, heart and spirit of how His Church could build a bridge right into the heart of the community and really share love, grace and hope that makes a difference in people’s lives and eternities.  (And when I say church, I am not talking about a builiding, but people!)  I could not keep it to myself.  I began to share it with family and friends.  Some looked at me like I was crazy and others like I was inspirational.

Before I knew it, the movie that God played for me, began to become reality and today, we have ministered love, grace and hope to over 5000 families.  We have seen many come to the Lord and many come back to an interest in the spiritual.  We have seen a lot of church attenders become church ministers.  We have seen the hand of God move again and again to accomplish the supernatural and unexplainable.

I am thankful for this journey God has taken me on.  I do not have any idea where this journey will continue to take me, but I will trust God, because I know His plan is much better than any plan man can come up with!