You can “increase” your life value by being yoked to the Lord

Mat 28:19  "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,  (NASB)

In following the Lord in His way, the way is usually as important as the lessons or teachings.  We would struggle with a Christ who only taught of great love while living a life of self-love.  This is also true for us.  We too struggle with ourselves when what we teach and proclaim with our mouth is not in harmony with our actions.  Most of us face daily anxiety because of the inner reality that we are not inside what we proclaim on the outside.

To “be all that you can be” one must come to live a life and not just have a life.  You are on the “go”.  From the scripture above and from the ways of the Lord we see that our learning and our living are harmonized.  The word “go” above can mean to “pursue the journey on which one has entered”.  Those who “go” into the world to do His will of discipleship are those who journey with the Lord.  The Method of following the Lord and the mission of discipleship cannot be separated.

In the most basic way, you cannot help another follow the Lord unless you too are one who follows. 

“Go” also means to “depart from life”.  To go you must leave something in order to take on something different.  We who “go” are to depart from the life we had and take on a new life, both in kind and time.  We live and new kind of life and we live in a new time.  The “kind” is one of a disciple following the ways of Jesus and the “time” is one of eternity being in our hearts.  

Do you have inner anger issues because you are not the person inside that you project outside? – go

Do you wrestle with unanswered prayer and desires? – go

Do you have fears of tomorrow, your children's future, your retirement and security? – go

It is the Lord’s way to journey with you into transformation.  It is not a pill, a single prayer or prophetic word.  Discipleship, is both giving and receiving, it is about a life with God on the go.  Overcome sin and all the weakness of your life by living with God to acomplish His mission on the earth.  Your life always has value because you were made in His image.  You can “increase” your life value by being yoked to the Lord, because being linked to Him increases all that you can do.

Moment by moment living with God will take you on the journey of transformation you desire.

Discipleship - Fasting Words :)

Sometimes we do not need to call for another Solemn Assemble, not for another prayer meeting, nor another attempt at doing what we have already been doing. All these are good. Faithfulness is good. But at times what we need to do is change the way we live – in particular, the way we relate to God. It seems we tend to attend gatherings in the hope that simply showing up will be all that the Lord requires.

Our bodies are the temple (dwelling place) of the Holy Spirit. God has made our physical and spiritual parts to work together. The physical and the spiritual may be much more harmonized they we feel comfortable with. Most of us do not consider that when we sin we are using the dwelling place of God against Him. We tent to think in terms of ideas rather than reality. We know, sort of, that when we lie we are making a dwelling of God lie – right.

OK, maybe you have heard that life and death are in the power of the tongue. I hear that a lot. I hear people proclaim that giving verbal expression ( a bodily function) has the power of life or death. I believe that. What we do with our bodies, our minds, our emotions has a relationship upon our spirit and the Spirit of God. If I make my body kneel in prayer, fast, be silent when offended; I am using my body to do the will of the Lord in heaven.

Since our bodies are connected to the Spirit what we do with one relates to the other. I suggest to you a fast will greatly improve your ability to sense what the Spirit is doing. What he usually does in a fast is to reveal to you how much you love food and other every day comforts, like people honoring you for fasting. So I have something I would like you to try. Consider a fast, not a fast of food, but of words.

Silence has always been one of God’s spiritual disciplines. Ask anyone who is in the wilderness for 40 years alone about who they talked to. In fact ask anyone who is in the wilderness 4 days alone. If you could do that it would be great. Silence and solitude are great, but if you cannot make that happen – how about one of these expressions.

1) Fast Grumbling and complaining. I think I do better at fasting food than this. If you want to try giving your negative thoughts no expression, use self-control and be silent. When you do you may find a level of self-love arising to your awareness. You may see that you are more critical and complaining than you thought. You may see that you have a strong need or desire to fix the wrongs and repair the deceptions of others. You may also become aware of when “good judgment” has slipped into accusation, grumbling and complaining.

2) Fast long, drawn out, explanatory answers. When you do this you are fasting the expression of your opinion, the reason behind the answer and you are leaving yourself open to the judgments of others. This is a form of humility because you are, not defending yourself. Doing this may reveal to you how much pride you have in your life, in desiring to impress upon others your insight, wisdom or maturity. I personally love to impress more than be impressed.

3) As much as possible do not listen to man made sounds, this would include music. If at all possible, spend time in the park, on a hiking trail or in your backyard. Intentionally entering into this type of isolation diminishes the amount of distractions our lives are bombarded with and allows to be a rest, yet engaged with the Lord. We want to be aware of becoming overly dependent on others things, even good things to bring us into the Lord’s presence.

4) As you fast or reduce the amount of words you use, try to make your thoughts agree with your expressions. If you are not going to say it, don’t keep pondering it over in your head. This simple practice alone could help many people be free from the weight of unexpressed arguments, defenses or attempts at justification. You will come into greater peace simply by the reality of your mind having fewer issues to deal with.

Actually, I think, your mind will always “be on”. But seeking to have your mindset on things above, upon love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and the Father allows for your mind not to be in “expression” mode but “listening” mode. If you are in need of a place to practice silence, just come over and hang around me. I would love to have someone to talk to that will not talk back. 

He supplies my every need

For me, it is easy to look at life and try to gather enough resources to overcome all the obstacles standing in my way. Do you do that too? Have you ever sought to equip yourself enough to obtain the promises of God? It is good in the sight of the Lord to be faithful and fruitful. But we are not the source of our strength. Neither in the world or in ourselves is the strength, wisdom or resources we need to fully accomplish our life calling.

Do you need a house, a car, a mate, healing, understanding, anointing, favor or possible clean direction on what to do next? All this is in the Lord. You and I need Him. We need less worry, scheming and striving and more devotion, trust and obedience.

We do not have all we need today because something is out of alignment in our relationship with God. Hopelessness comes when we feel that even a great relationship with God will fail to bring to our lives all that we need for joy and love.

Be strong and courageous to pursue the Lord with the hope that He will give to you the promised land. Long for the Lord first and also the reward for devotion to Him. Your reward is a delight to Him because all that you obtain through God testifies of His love, faithfulness, mercy and grace. Every good gift from the Lord honors Him. Seek to obtain every promise He has spoken to you so that you know Him rightly and testify of His goodness on the earth.

Do not be overcome by time. Time is a servant of the Lord. If we must go through long periods of time to see a promised obtained - so what. We must not let time have dominion over us. Time must not be used to bring an accusation against God or against our own soul.

To use time rightly rather than being beaten up with time we must....
1) Make the most of every opportunity. This is not an opportunistic spirit but rather a heart that is a good steward of what we do have. Be faithful and you will be given more.
2) Live with God moment by moment. Do not carry the issues of tomorrow, next year or the next decade today. Plan, pray, obey and walk in this moment with the Lord- fully trusting in His ability to lead you in paths of righteousness for His name sake.
3) Replace all worry and fear with thanksgiving, rejoicing, recalling God's past faithfulness and intercession.
4) Realize that discouragement and depression are tools of the enemy to get you to miss opportunity and weaken relationships that advance the will of God in your life. Stay connected and involved.