5 Tips for Paying Attention to God’s Leadership in Your Day

As a follower of Jesus, you know you have been called to be a light in the world. You may also know that God has invited you to see the world with compassionate eyes. To dig deeper into why we need to “see” our world the way Jesus did, check out “Don’t miss the Spirit’s strategic move!“.

Wrestle with “how” to see the world the way Jesus did?

When he looked at the crowds in his day, his streets, his village, his workplace, etc… He had compassion on them and he longed to see them come alive to God’s new creation and to find their purpose in his mission.

Part of the adventure of following Jesus is…

developing an authentic love for the people we do life with every day.

Sometimes that is easier said than done! There is no way any of us are just going to magically learn to see our world the way God does without being intentional about it.

How can you pay better attention to God’s leadership in your everyday life? The following 5 habits have been huge for me.  But first I want to say:

You are here for a reason and God intends for you to make a difference for his kingdom here and now!

Habits you can start today:

1. Invite God into each day

In the morning invite God into the flow and events of your day. click to tweet Tell him that it is ok with you if he rearranges or interrupts some things if necessary. It has been said that most of our authentic ministry happens in the middle of interruptions. So, don’t be surprised and always be flexible. The blessing will be worth it!

2. Ask God to involve you in what He is doing to reach people

Jesus taught that the Holy Spirit would continue to testify to the world about him and that we as His followers should do the same. It is powerful to remind yourself that God is going ahead of you and tirelessly working all around you to reach people in the transforming name of Jesus. Your part in this is to make yourself available. You can pray a simple daily prayer like this:

“Lord, I know you are working hard to reach people all around me. I would love to be involved however you want me to help. This is not about doing things my way. Involve me in reaching people the way you choose.” – Amen

3. Expect that God is attracting people around you to His family 

God’s desire is not only to make people aware of His presence in the world. He actually wants every person to embrace faith in Jesus and to become a son or daughter in his family. Remind yourself daily that His unconditional love is compelling every person you encounter in your day.

4. Remember the 2:1 ratio

Choosing to take the time to really “see” people in your world is a powerful way to pay more attention to God’s leadership. The kind of seeing that picks up on what God is doing to reach people includes listening as well. click to tweet Good listening includes seeking to really understand and a willingness to engage in what others want to talk about more than pressing forward on the point you want to make.  The 2:1 ratio is so helpful in remembering God’s heart for people. You have two eyes, two ears but only one mouth. Watch and listen twice as much as you speak. It will surprise you how much more aware you will become.

5. Pray onsite with insight

As Christians we learn to pray in every place on all occasions. But remember, prayer is not always spoken aloud. Many prayers are quiet or even silent. As you go through your day, develop the habit of silently or quietly praying for those you notice around you. If you keep a journal you can even write your prayers for them. Praying that God would bless them and that His will would be done in their lives is powerful and effective. This will also have a restoring effect on your love for people who show up in your everyday places.

I’m praying that you grow in your ability to watch for God’s leadership in your day. If this has been an encouragement to you please take a minute to leave a comment. It means a lot!

Live THIS day!

 

The OTHER story about the two sons… “First son” followers

One of Jesus’s best stories is a story about two sons. But, I bet it’s not the story you are thinking about. It’s the other one. Not the story about the “prodigal” but the one about a vineyard and a Dad and work he assigned to his sons. You can read the story for yourself in Matthew 21:28-32

The son who eventually does what his father wants is the “first son”. Even though he actually flat out disobeyed in the beginning, as the story goes, he changed his mind and went to do the work. Jesus explains that a life that taps into heaven looks a lot like that. The second son DID NOT do what his father wanted even though he gave the right reply in the beginning. He lost connection with his father’s agenda when he never went to the vineyard.

HUGE picture of life!!

THE VINEYARD = engaging in the life you have been given here through faith in Jesus.

ENTERING GOD”S KINGDOM = looking for the culture of heaven in the life you have been given

here and now. Eternal life isn’t just about what happens after you die.

It is available in this moment we are in right now.

I have been drawn into this story many times as a way to remind me that being truly ALIVE is about letting wishful daydreams blow away in the reality of the life right in front of me. This life regularly requires  me to “change my mind” and to actually roll up my sleeves and get my hands dirty in the work of “the vineyard” my Father in heaven has given me to do here in this day. I have learned that is where the Holy Spirit meets me… in the vineyard of my ordinary stuff!

There is a powerful fresh “Aliveness” in living like the “first son”. How would things look and feel different in our lives, friendships, families & communities if we followed Jesus like “first sons”?

Breathe fresh fire into your praying!

Many of us have memories of praying “The Lord’s Prayer” or “The Our Father” in our childhood years. It may or may not have meant very much to you. Often it is used to make an emotional/sentimental journey of comfort for people at a time of great need in their lives. I get that! But, we all know even at an intuitive level that there is much more to what Jesus had in mind as He taught his followers how to pray! The prayer found in Matthew 6:9-13 is designed as a resource to help us commune with our Father in heaven who is within us and all around us by the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus.

The phrase that echoes in our minds… “Thy kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as in heaven” is a treasure of wisdom and empowerment.

Try praying it this way:

Father, Let the culture of heaven invade & surround my life today.”

In this prayer I am inviting you to substitute the phrase “culture of heaven” for the word “kingdom” and the phrase “my life today” for “on earth”.

In order to engage with the LIFE God has blessed us with as part of His family we need to desire to experience life according to His house rules! What’s it like in The Father’s house? That’s the way it should be in and around our relationships with friends & enemies here and now in THIS day.

So breathe some fresh fire into your praying and invite the culture of heaven to invade you and this moment right here and right now!

A “breakthrough” in your mind

As I sat and listened to the sermon in our worship gathering yesterday, a light really came on for me on the inside. This was the latest message in the sermon series called “Hidden Treasure”. The focus of the truth being delivered was that we all have walls of limitation that we run into when it comes to fulfilling life goals and/or running after the dreams we believe in for ourselves. Our pastor was challenging the powerful mantra of our culture which says; “If you can dream it then you can do it!”. He was provoking us to face reality. It’s just not true… we can’t accomplish everything we set our mind to and our dreams don’t all come true. We run into walls of limitation.

Somewhere in the middle of his talk a bolt of spiritual wisdom from the Lord nailed me. He was talking about our need not only to believe in Jesus and be baptized with water but to also to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and power. My heart was already stirred up when he got me right in his sites and said: “You need a breakthrough in your mind to change your life”!

That was a good 24 hours ago and yet the Holy Spirit is continuing to work away on me. It dawned on me that many years ago I came to the end of myself in what I was able to conceive of and piece together philosophically about my beliefs, my life, my worldview. I am so grateful for that season in my life when I surrendered (even daily for a few years) to the Lord in prayer turning away from my self sufficiency and asking the Holy Spirit to come fill me with His love, power and gifts so that I could flow with what He is doing in the world. I can testify that over the years He has empowered me over and over again  to break through and tear down stubborn walls of limitation in my mind based on human thinking that is completely preoccupied  with the earthly realm. He has changed my life by renewing my mind with the realm of his kingdom which by the way has come and is all around us. I am convinced that His will for your life and mine is to be a place where the realm of heaven and earth meet and He is allowed to shine freely through our ordinary lives that Jesus truly is Lord. He wants His kingdom to come and His will to be done in and around us in our sometimes nasty earthly challenges as it is in heaven.

In one of Paul’s letters to his friends who were learning to follow Jesus in their very earthly lives, he coached them this way: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Colossians 3:1-2

It matters that you ask the Holy Spirit to bring a breakthrough in your mind so that the walls of limitation that keep you imprisoned can be demolished! He is faithful and if we will surrender our mind to him, meditate on His word as greater than our thoughts and emotions, He will set us free and we will experience His glory in increasingly practical and tangible ways. Baptize us Lord!!

 

John 17:20-26 Living Jesus prayer

I love this prayer of Jesus recorded in John 17. There is life giving power in knowing that who we are as God’s children and the Body of Christ… the Church is a result of the desires of His heart.

I have decided to write a series of blogs based on this scripture. I am excited about it because there is so much contained in Jesus prayer. Here it is:

John 17:20-26

New Living Translation (NLT)

20 “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. 21 I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.

22 “I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. 23 I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. 24 Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began!

25 “O righteous Father, the world doesn’t know you, but I do; and these disciples know you sent me. 26 I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so. Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them.”

Jesus’ heart for us as his people is that we would be one. That unity comes together in our experience of his glory and his love.

It should be the longing of our hearts to live as a resounding “yes” to Jesus prayer!

Let me suggest this prayer that we could pray together in light of this scripture: “Father, I ask you to do a work of the Holy Spirit in my heart that I would love Jesus with the same passionate love you have for him. I also ask you to help me to see & embrace the unifying glory of your presence joining me with all of my brothers & sisters in Christ.” Amen 

Are you from around here?

If you have embraced faith in Jesus Christ, you are becoming a brand new “you” 2 Cor 5:17  That is awesome & beautiful! But, there are times when it feels complicated and even threatening as you engage every day in your “same old same old” life.

The powerful work that God is accomplishing in and around us through the living presence of the risen Jesus is a beautiful mixture of heaven and the everyday life we have always known.

In Philippians 3:18-21, Paul writes about how people (most people) “think only about life here on this earth” (v.19). But as Jesus’ family, we are “citizens of heaven where… Jesus… lives” (v.20).  That is powerful! We belong to an unseen but present reality called “heaven” and yet we live here in the seen world.

18 For I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes,that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ.19 They are headed for destruction. Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and they think only about this life here on earth. 20 But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior.21 He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control. Philippians 3:18-21

The great news is that “heaven” is taking over in Jesus name and for His glory. You and I and all of your friends get to be part of this awesome restoring creative work of God by allowing Jesus to be God of our lives!

So, don’t lose heart if it gets rough.. you are from the right place!

Embracing this life AS you but not FOR you

I love the song Hope for Now by City & Colour.  The lyrics refer to the deep fulfillment that we artists feel in dreaming that we could save somebody’s life through our art. As a musician I am deeply moved as I listen. One line in the song especially grabs & disturbs me:  “How can I instill such hope, but be left with none of my own?”

Life for a Jesus follower is not meant to be hopeless! It is full of hope and full of light. But, how does that really work?

You were designed by God to be a light in this life. But, the path to shining as that light may surprise you. I Corinthians 5:15 says:

15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves

 but for him who died for them and was raised again.”

The “good news’ is that we don’t have to live for ourselves anymore! Living the way Jesus did means discovering the passionate life of loving service to God and everyone around us!

But, you can’t afford to confuse no longer living FOR yourself with not living AS yourself. Your hope is found in Jesus because he frees you to embrace this life AS yourself but not FOR yourself. God restoring you as a new creation through faith in Jesus is the first step to real life!

As Christians, we have entered the life that the whole world is thirsty for. We have been rescued by Jesus to embrace our true identity as true children of God. So, ask God to grant you the grace to live this day AS yourself FOR the One who lived, surrendered His life and was raised again for you.

 

 

If you don’t know what you are doing…

These words from James 1 from “The Message” grabbed me and shook me this morning; “If you don’t know what you are doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it…” And there is more. I encourage you to read the whole chapter and listen for the Holy Spirit speaking to you.  I know it seems completely counterintuitive, but God actually loves to hear us admit that we don’t know what to do. When we are willing to throw ourselves on him and cry out that the only thing we really know to do is to trust him and depend on his agenda, we are actually getting somewhere.

A Jesus follower is someone who operates from a place of wisdom, honesty and gritty surrender to our real situation… We are completely lost unless we depend on the Father every moment of every day. Check your heart and ask yourself whether or not you actually believe God loves to help you. He does! And there is no moment like this one right now to cry out to Him for wisdom!