Take Time for What Is Important This Season

When God speaks, often it is easy to miss what He is saying. We get busy and lose confidence in our ability to recognize it is Him speaking. Fortunately, He cares for us and is faithful to repeat Himself in many ways because He wants us to know Him and His voice. God is faithful to nurture what He has planted in out hearts until it begins to produce fruit, and even beyond. The last two months have been one of those places for me and I want to share what He has been speaking. I pray that in the middle of the busyness of Christmas, He speaks to you and gives you His rest and peace.

The thing that He has been speaking to me quite clearly lately is my complete lack of ability to accomplish anything for the Kingdom apart from Him and that I can only move with Him when I allow myself to know His rest and peace. It is easy to look at all of the needs that surround us and feel pressed to do something. I have spent much of my Christian life that way. See a need and react. Sometimes it has produced okay results and other times it has fallen far short of expectations. Either way, I often came away feeling burned out, tired, frustrated or discouraged. Often I felt like nobody cared if they did not jump up to support my idea. God has been showing me that this is not a good place to minister from.

Over the last two months, I have had little responsibility and been able to spend a lot of time reading. That is good because I have 8 books that are required for the Iris/Kaleo School of Ministry I will be going to next month. Normally when I look at a pile of books that I have to read and want to finish them in a short time, it feels stressful of I feel guilty for reading when there is so much else to do. For the last month, I have been at perfect peace while I just sit and read for an hour, two or even more. Through it all, I have realized that this rest is the starting place for all ministry. It is the place where God can most clearly show us what He is doing and we can hear His invitation to join Him. A lot of us tend to jump in to meet a need before we hear the invitation. That becomes counterproductive to ministry and harmful to our personal lives and relationships. It is easy to become consumed with making a thing happen and completely missing the way that God wants to work in a situation.

In my time of reading, it really struck home that Jesus only did what He saw the Father doing. He did nothing on His own. He was far more wise than I yet He did not initiate anything on His own. He waited and moved only as He saw the Father moving. Jn 5:19+20 and Jn 8:28. If Jesus needed to hear and see the Father before He moved, how much more is that true for me. I hear people say to just obey the Bible and you will be fine but Jesus is the living Word and He only moved in step with the Father. People will often say, "But I don't hear God". If we do not hear Him, how do we think that we can do anything for Him? Jesus called the disciples friends because He showed them all that He was doing and I believe that is still His heart today. He wants to show us His activity and invite us into it. He does not want us running off after everything that seems like a good idea but He wants us waiting on Him.

In Heb 4, we are told to strive to enter the rest of God and that we fall into disobedience when we do not enter it. You ask how we can strive to enter God's rest. That seems like an oxymoron; striving to rest. For most people, staying busy is a prerequisite. They cannot imaging life without some productive activity. That is partly how we are made but since the fall, it has unfortunately also become the seat of our identity. If we are not working and accomplishing things, we have no sense of worth. To determine to just be quiet, rest and let God speak seems unnatural. We give it 15 or 20 minutes, feel like we have done our duty and then jump into work. It is difficult to determine to sit and wait until we know the move God is making and then step with Him. That really is a challenge for most of us. It is one that I faced in October when, for the first time in years, I was healthy and had no responsibility. I just had the opportunity to read, seek God, put worship music on and just soak. It was an incredible, refreshing two months for me.

I can hear many already saying, that sounds amazing. I wish I could do that but I have kids. The ministry would collapse if I took time away. People would suffer if I am not there. For every reason that I can give why you should find time to rest in Jesus with no other agenda, people can find 10 reasons why it is not possible. The truth is that you probably cannot spend 2 months just seeking God. You might need a weekend, an extra hour in the morning or evening while everyone is sleeping or a day just to be with Jesus. I know this though: You need intimacy with Jesus if you are going to do anything of value for the kingdom of God. Your time spent separating yourself with only Jesus will make you more peaceful and more fruitful. It is the key to living a fulfilled Christian life. I am praying that you will find a way do be able to get quite with God and hear His call for today.

As I have said before, I am looking for ministry partners. I am less concerned about finances than I have been at any time in the past. One of the benefits of spending this time listening for God's voice is that I have a new confidence in His ability to meet my every need and a security that His love for me motivates Him to do that. I am looking for partners because I believe God is getting ready to do some amazing things and I want you to be able to join in. I am looking for 30 people to support at $25 a month and 2 or more Churches at $100 a month. I am also looking for these people to commit to praying for what God is doing and to also join in by coming, seeing and working in the future. Please pray about this.

If you would like to support, you can send checks to;
Life Church Morris
P.O. Box 679
Morris, IL 60450
Write: Mission San Lucas on the memo line 

If you are going to begin supporting, I ask that you would also drop me a quick note and let me know at thegeokr@yahoo. com. I am beginning to plan a budget for next year and would like an idea of what that will look like. Thank you all for your faithful prayers and support for the last 5 years.