Crying out to God, a place where conversation begins.  Lord, the sobs, the throws of my weary soul, my indefensible record of consistent and constant failure, these things, hopefully have prepared me for your molding hand.  There is no delusion in reserve.  Without your intervention I would rightfully be at the mercy of all condemnation whether earthly or above.  Reason demands explanation why this lump of humanity would be acceptable for shaping by a Holy and Righteous God.  I do not understand it, but as the angels desire to look into this mystery I know that I am not alone in my awe-stricken repose.

Father, I surrender to Your Shaping Hand.  I will not fight where you bid me stand.  I will not run where you bid me fight.  I will not stand upon the Holy Ground of our fellowship, but joyfully kneel at the foot of Your Throne.  I will not ask pity where conviction is discerned.  I will not ask mercy in my disobedience of Love.  I will not ask for answers without a desire to listen to righteous questioning.  I will not demand where you bid me wait. You are my God and I Your man.

Father, my failures are consistent with your call upon my heart for service.  I have been delaying, ignoring and avoiding the implication busying my self in idle service.  What is discernment that is ignored, but ignorance?  You designed it is voluntary this thing of purposeful completion.  How can I avoid your will and remain within Your Will?  The path is straight my thinking crooked.  I would rather stand firmly in the middle of this skinny path then take one more step of my own volition if that footfall should land me even one centimeter from Your intention.

This pain I am receiving is the necessary quickening of my soul.  Let me never forget its bitter sweetness.  I accept and acknowledge Your Loving Discipline for I am after all Your Son.  Teach me Father that I may limit my propensity to stray.  Show me Your wonders.  Let me see the miracle in the middle of my impossibilities.  Grant me peace by freeing me from my apparent repeated capacity of resounding failure.  Let me see Your victory, where Your Grace, Honor and Glory shine through my every action, thought and prayer.  Have Your WAY in my heart, soul, mind and life.  I implore you, may you hear my prayer this very moment.  Praise You in Jesus’ Name.

At war with God, at peace with God.  On Earth, yet seated in the heavenlies with Christ.  Cleansed yet still susceptible to sin.  Serving God or serving sin.  Reborn yet maintaining the characteristics of the previous man.  Two things in contradiction yet both true.  Alive in Christ, dead to sin.  Holy yet corrupt.  Resurrected without rebirth.  Impoverished prince.  Complaining in victory.  Consistent with prophecy yet not absolutely True.  Saved without obedience born of love.  Priests without intercessory prayer.  Warriors without knowledge of weapons usage.  Daylight without coming night.  Orders without subsequent action.  Leaders without following.  Seed without germination.  Crops without rain.

God without rules.  Love without adoration.  Kindness in selfishness.  Peace in anxiety.  Calm in the midst of storm.  Belief without faith.  Song without emotion.  Gifts without glory.  Courage without enemies.  Thought without meditation.  Sin without corruption.  Price without cost.  Freedom without payment.  Power without subjugation.  Seasons without change.  Silence in shouting.  Fear  without palsy.  Standing in the presence of an overwhelming and almighty God.

Debt without collection.  Penitence without humility.  Led yet self-serving.  Discerning yet confused.  In awe without reverence.  Truth without dependence and reliance upon it.  Puzzles without pieces.  Secrets without yearning for resolution.  Oppression without end.  Reconciled without relationship.  Impossible.

God be praised in the name of Jesus the King.

Are you trusting God?  Are you developing your own plan of maximum efficacy or are you being led into your next impossible task by the Voice of the Shepherd?  How do you view fear’s influence upon your current ambitious walk for Christ?  Do you hear the voice of your husband, wife, kids, flesh or desire flooding out the precious voice of Spirit?  Do you even recognize God’s voice when you hear it, or have you quenched it with the luke warm price of disobedience and inaction?  God told you to pray unceasingly, are you?  He told you to be Holy are you?  He told you to spread the good news of Christ’s Gospel, are you?  He told you to be ready, study to show yourself approved, follow Him and give Him all the Glory, are you?

What is  your evidence for salvation?  What fruits has your new life born?  Show me your likeness to Christ.  Show me your kinship to the Holy Spirit.  Show me your faith without which it is impossible to please God.  What is the rock upon which you stand if you do not know the voice, path, discernment, teachings, prophecy and Peace of the Prince?  Will you instead offer up deeds, works, thoughts and piety in place of the required faithful action?  Show me how the Holy Spirit has made you humble, reverent, Holy, sanctified, obedient and more like Christ, then we shall see your salvation.

Two paths, one serves Him and the other serves false gods of self or sin.  They are mutually exclusive, there is no symbiotic cumbaya, no parallel, no tolerance, no co-existence, only inclusion and its inverse.  Certainly, we wish to fashion a god of our own devices, something more consistent with our personal desires for gain, no pain and lasting pleasure or prosperity.  That is deceptive sin.  For God is God and does not need my definition, direction or approval.  He made me not the other way around.  His purpose upon which my service or disobedience have little affect against His intention, since I am a tool and He the tool maker, user and completer.  He may negate or turn to good anything I ill intended.  I know that I would like more influence upon the universe in my pride and demanding ego, but that just ain’t the way things are.  Ignoring reality is ineffectual.  Our existence is finite, there simply is or isn’t, no wiggle, no middle, no position for passivity with regard to our fateful decision.  We are either with Him or against Him.  Simple, clean, precise, undeniable, yet this world continues to seek gaps in omniscient Truth where no loophole ever existed.

If you are not hearing the Holy Spirit in your Church, shouldn’t you be asking why not?  If the Holy Spirit is our seal for eternity, our guide, our counselor, teacher, friend and conveyor of our prayers to God, wouldn’t it be insanity to proceed without Him?  If the Holy Spirit is not present in your church, fight until they listen and invite Him back in or run until you hear His Voice clearly.  Be prepared for tribulation and if you aren’t don’t stand around like and ill-informed maiden, find out how to fill your lamp with oil and do so out of obedient love for God, working out your salvation with fear and trembling.  Anything else is utter foolishness and none of should ever be considered fools that have first known the mind of Christ.  In Jesus’ Name.

Looking at life, I am compelled to ask, is there an objective toward which I have been injecting specific tasks?  When reviewing singularly or collectively my behaviors they should reflect a general strategic focus otherwise I would be living a life without purpose or direction.  Am I consciously aware of my guiding objective or am I captured by fulfilling the needs of a wanton form?

Within Christianity there are clearly defined strategic objectives; faith, belief, discipleship,  transformation, hope, readiness, service, holiness, constant prayer, courage and sin repentance/avoidance.  This list is not all inclusive but clearly demonstrates that there are defined, focused, worthy and unavoidable directions associated with Kingdom participation.  Now the difficult part, have you chosen one or many of these objectives or has the Holy Spirit of God directed you toward that purpose?  Is your faith a thing of personal works, power, authority, strength and gifts or is it an impossible task made real by the filling of His Spirit?  Am I led by me or Him?

If we were left at this point in our walk it might seem quite desperate, but we have never been alone with these questions, thoughts or subsequent actions.  God gave us His Word to guide, protect, encourage, direct, feed and shelter us from all obstacles, threats and confusion.  He invites us to relationship through study, meditation and prayer, a relationship providing edification beyond this world’s capacity to erode or deconstruct.  Trusting in man leads toward the reality of chaos, entropy and asset utilization where God’s Word leads to hope, possibility and promise.  We were never meant to walk through the fire alone, we were never meant for idle travel through life, we were designed with specific purpose and that is what gives our life meaning, peace and perfection, a perfection realized in the fulfillment of Divine Design.

Do you know who you are in Christ?  Do you know where and toward what the Holy Spirit guides?  Can you hear His voice and if not why not?

This story has a beginning a middle and an end.  The war began between God and man, the battles continued with God providing a way out for all who would surrender and the war will end with a single victor, God.  Do you know how it began?  Do you know how man struggled through the battles, some finding rescue through God’s guidance, prediction and protection?  Do you know what happens next?  What are doing about it?  If you don’t know the end of the story you certainly will not take the necessary steps to prepare for it.  Ignorance is capitulation.  How can you prepare for something you continue to ignore?

We only have so much time and as it is an unknown quantity, simple logic dictates a focused usage of an asset.  A continued misuse of that most precious asset would be akin to insanity or worse, addictive escapism.  I implore you toward an active investigation of who God is, who you are in Christ, what He planned as your purpose for His Kingdom and the rational steps associated with preparing yourself for what we all should know is coming.  Start with the Book of Hebrews and read, deliberately toward and through Revelation.  This will give you the meat to feed your hunger for direction and preparation consciousness.

Jesus called all of us to be ready.  Don’t you think it essential to know what that means for you?  Lord give us discernment in these most-important times.  Thank you Father for all you have given and continue to give.  In Jesus’ Name.

I completely understand your reluctance in accepting or agreeing with my following assertions, but they are all consistent with God’s Word.  If you can show me where they are inconsistent, I will be gladdened both by the humility it brings my spirit and the fact that you took the time to read God’s Word enough to find evidence with which to convict me.

Can you stand on the side of the river of worldly events and rationally deny the current is speeding up, perhaps even channeling toward rapids or an unseen precipice?  What manner or level of denial, avoidance or escapism does it take to refuse the facts of a “coming storm” upon the horizon?  Are you willing to investigate why we as a church or as individuals would hold so strongly to an ideal, wishing it to remain, desperately wanting our lives to be undisturbed by the radical throws of Biblical predicted change.  If we are unwilling to serve God’s call upon our lives, are we then serving God or are we serving another master?  There are only two sides in this battle.  Do not consider yourself the only person capable of sitting on the fence.  Christ is coming and though you may argue His return may still be a number of years off, you will not argue that the time prior to His return is nearing its end.  The question then becomes what should we doing during this remaining hours, days, weeks, months or years?

I see no revival in our future.  I see no revival mentioned in the Bible.  Yet I hear men saying that is what we need.  I totally agree, but God’s qualifications for revival require that Christians, “Those who call themselves by my name”, go through true repentance as a precursor to our humble cries being heard by God.  I see no such repentance.  I see churches concerned about church business, fellowship, raising money for fellowship halls, child care, buildings, salaries, furniture and programs.  I do not see churches, individuals or even myself investigating God’s call upon our lives and obeying out of love, humility and a sense of obedience.  James is very clear that if a man knows what is right to do and doesn’t do it then that is sin.  Taking my own medicine I must then ask myself what God is calling me to do right now that I am refraining, reluctant or out right disobedient in doing?  What the Bible indicates is that we will not be humble enough to begin a necessary revival but instead this world, which the Bible says is a wicked generation will not turn its face back to God but almost demand His retribution, wrath and tribulation.  God will give this world the tribulation it requests because He loves us enough to provide the devastating impetus sufficient to waking us from slumber, ignorance, pride or disobedience and driving us back to crying out to Him for Mercy and Grace.  Who would argue against this having always been God’s intention for introduction of calamity so that His glory and love may be revealed?

The Lord called us to be Holy.  So, am I keeping myself Holy?  Am I voluntarily allowing accountability in my life by others to keep me on the path to Holiness?  Am I voluntarily allowing the Holy Spirit of God to convict me and change me, sanctifying me in preparation of meeting a Holy and Righteous God?  The Lord calls me to be ready.  Am I studying His Word relentlessly?  Am I preparing my spiritual understanding, my spiritual gear and my spiritual health for the day when I will be called upon to be ready for the battle that rages in the heavenly’s as we speak?  The Lord calls us to make disciples through the use of our testimony, His Word and His Love.  Do I understand in a practical sense the use of those assets to bring the lost, lame, wounded or captive to the cross for a meeting with a Holy God?  Am I loving people enough to go out where they are in the interest of demonstrating that loving care or am I simply waiting around, unprepared, unprayed, hoping that God doesn’t really have any work to do through me.  Am I in continuous prayer with the Lord?  Let me say emphatically, I fall short in this area and I believe that I pray a lot.  Most of my friends beat themselves up about their prayer lives, yet I don’t see them praying more.  Isn’t that sin, this lack of prayer in our lives, especially since we know consistent prayer indicates our reliance, dependence and trust in God?

This past month God has been showing me my inherent spots of wickedness.  I have cried openly, regretting my current state of unholiness.  It has been both effective and good for my walk with Jesus, because it has again shown me that I am no longer full of darkness but now spotted with darkness, a darkness that the Holy Spirit is currently and consistently removing from my spirit.  I am being made Holy by a Holy Spirit because I volunteered to the Hands of the Master Potter.  Unfortunately, He isn’t done and He needs to show me the remaining works yet to be completed, so that I remain in humility, a necessary state for a Holy relationship with God.  I am not worthy, but that is the point of His having died for me.  I am not capable, but that is exactly why He may use me as a vessel for His capable hands.  I have no power, but that is why when I do works of great power His Glory is inescapably evident.  I am exactly where He needs me to be, now I need to get about doing exactly what He has called me to do and leave the rest to Him.  This is belief, sponsored by love leading to repentant, consistent and true actions of obedience to God.  In Jesus’ name I pray.

What is this road, the one I am on?  To Glory, to ruin, chance, dreams or change?  How may I love them with no knowledge of or love for myself?  I look, I listen, I pray and am left wanting nothing but the rare silence that comforts my head and heart this moment.  For God, You Lord have always been a thing of quiet to my heart, my spirit rests when we fellowship, it is good, a place where we see contentment.  Your Word as guide, I wish to wander through this world with purpose, seeking wounds and beat-down hearts needing Jesus.

My complacency certain witness to Kingdom Palsy.  I am not a good man, never was, thought that I could cajole, conceal or deceive all into thinking that falsehood, but my attempts were the only deception.  Some saw through, but not I.  I was forced by my own compulsion into believing my surreptitious lie.  I have always learned through trial, but for the Lord’s crucible I would remain bereft of any wisdom, courage or maturity.  God has not intended this life, my life to be one of comfort, complacency and satisfaction for these are not the sponsors of Holy, Righteous or experiential, battle-tested saints.  That only thing that makes me strong is Jesus, His Goodness, Love, Kindness, Strength and Sword.  Without it I would be a thing of this world, finite, unworthy, expendable.  Oh, but now, since I am His, there are no terms of explanation capable.

Father, there isn’t a thing I have stood against without You.  My will to run, stronger than the heart given by Father to Son.  Yet, here I stand, with shield and buckler, girding my loins with the truth of my own existence, resolved in the certainty of salvation.  I am a thing for You to use, but now they know I love them and that feels good.  Don’t let me fear anything but Your Glory, for all that may take this life has limited effect upon a man bent for eternity.  Let me live wholly for Your Reason, dedicating this short life to assisting in Your edification of humanity.  Let me be an obedient, trustworthy and useful tool in Your Hand as You shape future unseen.

This is my being, as if existence were the definition of man.  Possibly as You are the God who “IS”, then in being my living reflects Your image upon me.  Father, let us come to You.  I am sorry that it will take Your persistent wrath to convince us, but I am still overjoyed that so many shall be received into Your presence.  We are a wicked generation dedicated to self-service, happy in our pursuit of happiness.  This talk of revival is one for Christians, revived to service for the Lord’s Good Purpose.  Risen from our slumber serving false gods and enemies of the Almighty, we find the courage to listen and follow Your Holy direction.  Let us hear and obey with joyous spirit.  In Jesus Name I pray for all mankind today.  Run from the wrath to come and find rest in peace through Jesus, the King of Everything.

Why didn’t Jesus just throw around His power as demonstration of His Divinity?  You have to ask yourself why God, would put aside His authority, His Power to come and live as a simple powerless man, even to extent of saying that He could do nothing other than what the Father had sent Him to do?  This question provides many an atheist or unbeliever wide departure from understanding God’s Nature.

He came that we might be saved but every thing He did was also an example of how He wanted us to live.  If He served the Father in Spirit and Truth, then we do must do the same.  If He depended upon the Father for all provision, power, protection and authority, then we do must do the same.  If He laid down His life, seemingly helpless to fulfill God’s Plan for His existence on Earth, then we too ought to consider the same commitment.

I can do nothing apart from Christ who strengthens me.  I can’t save anyone, I can’t set anyone free from spiritual bondage, I cannot provide for anyone’s bounty.  I fail to see how God might use a visibly and notably imperfect man like myself to fulfill His perfect plans.  I have no authority, power or protection apart from God, but I can do all things within His will for my life through Christ.  That is the example He lived and it is the one that I may easily follow as He led.  My job is to surrender to God’s Plan and go up there on that hill of sacrifice at the exact timing at which God sends me.

This life has predetermination in that I was designed to do a specific thing but God’s Love allows that I have the choice to Love Him enough to do it.  I pray that we all make the right choice to serve God consistent with the timing and word He has programed into each of our hearts.  In Jesus Name, I pray for all of you freedom on this great day of reminder of independence that began this nation blessed by God.