Your Life is Not a Test

Your life is not a test. In Christ, it is a masterpiece that God is creating. Your calling is to surrender and discover that God is good regardless of your circumstances. If we will trust in the resilience that only Jesus can bring, the potential of what can happen through us in His name is mind-blowing. We would not need His perseverance if living for God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven was easy. God wants you to know that he is crafting an incomparable work of art with your life. That is not the same as creating a life of ease for you. This is not easy to accept. But, it is the truth. You and I were created for more than a life of ease. Left to ourselves, we would never fulfill our calling as God’s image-bearers. But, in Christ, we have joy in any circumstance because we know we are a part of his story, his workmanship. (inspired by Ephesians 2:10)

Christ is walking where you walk

I was reaching out to friends of mine this morning with a “stirring up” word. After I sent the message to them, I realized that it is an important word for all of us. We have come into a time of unprecedented harvest around the world. We have been sent as his children to do the harvest work. We HAVE TO get it done with Christ.

Wherever you place your feet, Christ in you is also placing his feet. Because he is in you and you are in him every place you walk is a place that the kingdom intends to show up. The Spirit has me contending for greatly improved vision for the eyes of your heart.

You and I can’t let the stubborn resistance of the rebellious world we are living in outwit us as children of God. It will submit to us in Christ if we remain present and enforce the kingdom (in love of course) wherever we go. The very places that resist us or that we don’t feel we belong are places that will be transformed by the kingdom soon! Jesus intends to do this with us as his family if we will keep showing up.

In Christ, you are a blessing!

Giving up our lives? – inspired by 1 John 3:16

King Jesus did SOMEthing that changed EVERYthing. What he accomplished re-launched creation. He gave up his life for us.

But, don’t let that overshadow the greater glory he achieved by rising again from the dead. By giving up his life, he actually opened a massive door for heaven to mesh with the earth that will never be closed. When he rose again, the life he had surrendered began to multiply. As a result, the increase of his government will never end.

What is our call… our response to this? God is awakening people and nations because King Jesus gave up his life. For all of us who say yes to becoming God’s daughters and sons, there is an expectation. It is more than an expectation… it is a fire that we fan with the wind of the Holy Spirit.

Because Jesus gave up his life, we must also give up our lives. It is time for us to blow up the myth that Jesus gave up his life so that we are free to live for ourselves. You and I actually get to give up our lives to increase the legacy of King Jesus… now and for generations to come!

Whatever it costs you today to give your life to what matters, it won’t go unnoticed in heaven. We praise God for you and for the life you are living for the glory of Jesus.

In Christ, you are a blessing!

Miraculous, not Magical

I order to live a story surrendered to God’s appointment you need grit, grind, and grace every day. It is miraculous but it’s not magic. It requires living on earth tapped into the resources of heaven.

“But you, my delightfully loved friends, constantly and progressively build yourselves upon the foundation of your most holy faith by praying every moment in the Spirit. Fasten your hearts to the love of God and receive the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who gives us eternal life. Keep being compassionate to those who still have doubts, and snatch others out of the fire to save them. Be merciful over and over to them, but always couple your mercy with the fear of God. Be extremely careful to keep yourselves free from the pollutions of the flesh.” (Jude 20-23 TPT)

In Christ, you are a blessing!

Why do you exist? Write it down.

Have you taken the time to write your life mission statement? I am referring to a one or at the most two-sentence statement that answers the question, “Why do I exist?”. If not, please make it a priority to ask the Lord about it. In Christ, you have access to come before the throne of grace and ask for revelation on why you were created. God longs for you to see and know His design in you. As you ask him for help in knowing what you were created to do, listen and begin to write out what you hear. Let it unfold even as you write. Eventually, you will be able to get it into one or two sentences (preferably one sentence that is easy to repeat and share.)

Recently I was remembering my mission statement. I wrote it a few decades ago. Here it is… “I exist to help young people discover their God-designed life mission and give their whole lives in order to see it fulfilled”.

With some coaching, I began to envision what that would look like, praying for God’s help in order to get it done. It is amazing to me how that small beginning as marked my journey from then until today.

Writing down and pursuing my mission statement locked me into a partnership on earth as in heaven with the Holy Spirit. It broke up the ground in my life so that the prophetic could be planted and nurtured in me. I am eternally grateful for the grace released to my life story through that one important exercise.

Maybe it is your time to beginning asking the Father to show you your mission. If so, do yourself, all of us, and all of creation a favor and mark it down, covenant with the Lord over it, don’t change it, live into it, and we will all glory with you as God produces heaven’s fruit through you as a result.

In Christ, you are a blessing!

Are you shading your light?

The Holy Spirit has been reminding me that I have the ability to either let my light shine before others or hinder it. We all tend to act like we don’t really have much to say about whether or not the light of the world will break out from within us to the world. But, that is not what Jesus has said. 

This morning, I was reading Matthew 5:14-16. A mentor of mine recently suggested to me that I imagine Jesus sending me a note in order to encourage me. They asked, “What might he say to you?” 

As I wrote in my journal, I realized that I should share it with you too. Let it encourage you as you start into your week. Read it as a message from King Jesus to you. 

My joy is to shine with you and through you… as you. I am not playing games with your life, identity, or your well-being. Your place of security is always in life-union with me… “I in you and you in me”. You will feel much better in every way if you will forget about being safe as the world defines it. And embrace security as heaven sees it. 

When you allow your light (actually my light in you and for you) to shine in front of everyone all of the time, my security will overwhelm and empower you. 

The religious spirit tells you that you are offending me when you don’t hold back and instead let your blazing light fully shine. You have been deceived for too long that you are kept safe by shading your light. If you would only rest in knowing that I love you and I love shining with you and as you. The unique way we shine together is so fun for me. I do see your struggle to trust me. But, I won’t coddle you and let you stay shaded in your fears. I will keep insisting that you let your light shine. You were designed to let your light shine because your light is my presence in you. 

So here is my invitation… Make this day a fresh start. Own your ability to open up in my name and “let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” 

You are a blessing! 

Don’t say you are too________

Growing in the prophetic has required me to surrender my conversations to the Lord. And by that, I do mean surrendering them over and over again… sometimes daily. Better said, I surrender by letting him put his words in my mouth. The prophet, Jeremiah had his life-altering encounter with the Lord when he was young. In his opinion… TOO young. In the middle of one of the most amazing visitations from the Lord (you can read about it in Jeremiah 1), this young man got distracted and he almost derailed God’s appointment with his own words… “Alas, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”

In order to grow in the spiritual gift of prophecy, I have learned over many years to trust God’s living word more than anyone else’s opinion, including my own. I have learned to cooperate with him as he puts his word in my mouth.

Jeremiah tells us more about his encounter with God, 
“But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,’ declares the Lord. Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, ‘I have put my words in your mouth.'” (Jeremiah 1:6-9)

When I prophesy, I know according to God’s word that he wants to strengthen, encourage, and comfort people. (1 Corinthians 14:3). Right up until this morning, just before I began to write, I had to intentionally reject the limiting, negative words (objections) I wanted to speak over my own life. I have my own set of excuses of why I should not be able to prophesy. I get too easily distracted by the limitations, fears, failures, and weaknesses that I see. But, I need to have God’s words in my mouth instead of my own. I am who he says I am!

I process it this way: How would I fill in the blank if I were Jeremiah? “Alas, Sovereign Lord, I do not know how to speak, I am too _______.” How would you fill in that blank for yourself? Whatever it is, you, by the grace of God, must let him confront it with, “Do not say you are too ______.” He is not pitying us when he confronts us this way. He is lovingly rebuking our limited vision of ourselves and calling His design up from within us.

I have learned that growing in the prophetic is a patient growing process. It involves not just reading and knowing what the Bible says. But, it is the daily habit of surrendering your words, objections, and opinions to the Lord who is sending you and longs to put His words in your mouth. Don’t rush the process. There will be many learning experiences. That means you will make a ton of mistakes as I have. Our Father is patient and calls us to go work in the vineyard of our lives every day. He is always full of joy and hope for you.

Still, my words… your words will not release God’s transformation in people or nations or even ourselves. But, thankfully the Spirit of God longs to fill our mouths with his words. His word is living and active! (Hebrews 4:12)

If you hold a dime in front of your eye, you can block out the sun from your vision. Are you blinding yourself from seeing who God has appointed you to be with your own words? If so, let me urge you to surrender to the Lord and let him touch your mouth. He created and redeemed you to do good works for His reasons. (Ephesians 2:10)

You are a blessing!

God never had to discover you…

The Lord knows us completely. There is nothing that is hidden from him. More than that, he never had to discover you. He knew you before you were in your mother’s womb. There is a reason why you have been set apart. God has appointed you for his purposes.

These were all foundational to my journey in the prophetic. Lately, I have been led to take another look at the way I have told my story to myself. The Holy Spirit has been encouraging me that there are keys and treasures in the ground of our stories if we will allow him to transform our perspective.

Speaking of the people of God, Isaiah declared this prophecy, 
“Then all your people will be righteous
and they will possess the land forever.
They are the shoot I have planted,
the work of my hands,
for the display of my splendor.
The least of you will become a thousand,
the smallest a mighty nation.
I am the Lord;
in its time I will do this swiftly… 
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.” (Isaiah 60:21-22, 61:3)

As sons and daughters of God in Christ Jesus, we have been planted by God. His desire and intention have always been to grow us into productive “oaks of righteousness”.

The Lord interrupted my thoughts last week. I sensed that he was saying to me, “I have driven you into the rock like an anchor. I have done that to make you a blessing. By driving you into the ground, I am able to cause shakings and at the same time provide stability to those around you.”

While I meditated on what that could mean, I was led to the image of the tree from Isaiah’s prophetic writing. I am beginning to understand that the Lord faithfully heard my “Yes” to him and in turn, planted me deep in the ground. Throughout the years and experiences, the Gardener has never stopped taking care of me.

I am planning to share more of what the Lord teaches me in this process over the next few weeks. I am hoping that it encourages you and helps you appreciate just how committed Jesus is to you as you live for the “display of his splendor”.

You are a blessing!

Awesome Kings Valley Weekend Plans!

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This weekend is going to be exciting in the life of Kings Valley!

Awesome creative worship gatherings will be happening at both campuses.

Sunday morning (Cineplex SJ, 10:30) we will be throwing a party for our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY as a church community! God has done amazing things in and through KV East this year! Pastor Josiah will be back and leading worship. He and his wife, Jamie were married just two weeks ago and we are stoked to have them back home with us. I am super excited to be preaching “live”. Jeremy Lamos will be painting. AND we are having a One Year Anniversary CAKE! Come on out & bring some friends! Don’t forget we will be drawing for a prize from all of those who have filled out a connection card.

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On Saturday, 6:00 PM at KV’s Valley Campus (332 Hampton Road, Quispamsis) KV Worship & Pastor Greg Hanson will be hosting a creative night of worship for Thanksgiving including live worship band, creative media, awesome teaching & sharing in communion together. It would awesome to make a weekend of it and be part of Saturday night in the Valley and Sunday morning at the East Campus (Cineplex SJ)

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God is good all the time! I feel like He has beenu his love & awesomeness on us and we are overflowing with it. So glad you are part of KV East! Can’t wait to see you and your friends this weekend.

Dan Lamos

KV East Campus Pastor/650-2600/twitter: @papabearlamos

Happy ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY KV East!!

OCTOBER 2014 is our One Year Anniversary month!

God has done huge things for us in only our first year of existence. God is good all the time and ALL the time God is good!!

3 quick things that I would LOVE for you to plug into this month:

ONE:

Please provide your name & best contact info (phone & email) as part our growing church community. My personal goal for October is to gather at least 100 names & solid contact info for my own use in getting to know & serve you better. I am at 32 right now! You can email me at danclamos@gmail.com, text or call me at 506-650-2600 or fill out a contact card at church on Sunday. We will be entering all of the contact cards completed on the Sundays in October in a weekly draw for a cool prize!

TWO:

INVITE ALL (our as many as you can) of your friends to join us for church on Sunday, October 12, 10:30 am Cineplex SJ for our One year Celebration Sunday (click here for event details) . I will be preaching live about “LOVE”, Jeremy Lamos will be painting, we will worship with live band Pastor Josiah & KV Worship, & we will have CAKE!

THREE:

Join us for a POTLUCK Lunch right after church on Sunday, October 26 @ Glen Falls Elementary School on Rothesay Ave (click here to confirm). Bring your friends & a dish to share! It’s gonna be a blast!! & We will take our FIRST ANNUAL group picture! We DON’T want you to miss being in that shot!

SEE YOU THERE!!