Coach 40 Days of Focus - Phase 4
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You have been faithful on this journey of 40 days of focus and the Lord would just have me pray that you would continue on in strength. Father in Jesus name, Father we just lift those that you have joined with us as pray partners, and worship partners during this 40 day of focus.
Father I pray that the words that they are allowing to seep into their ears these words will inspire them will motivate them to live out the kingdom of God that you have predestined in them before the beginning of time. Father I pray that their very dna will cry out for purpose that they will be all that you have called them to be. Their bones will burn for desire to serve you. Father we thank you for them now, in Jesus name amen.
Most of us wait until we feel like acting according to what the word of God would say to us. However, behaviorist would tell us that it is easier to act your way into a feeling than to wait to feel your way into an action. Galatians 2:20 says, no longer I live but its Christ that lives within me. In other words, you will act whether you feel like it or not. You don’t feel like getting out of bed this morning but you dig down deep and you do it anyway. If you do it often enough it will become an addiction, a compulsory, a mandatory way of acting, in other words, it will become a habit. Form Godly habits. Run it out. You can do it.
Since the 40 day of focus has started some of you have awakened to find that you don’t like the way your mind has worked. You haven’t been actively pursuing your dreams and visions. You’re being stirred up again to go back to college but it is easier not to battle those frustrations that would stand in your way.
God wants to remove the barrier. But some of you would say how do I get out of my comfort zone. The answer is simple. Become addicted to the word. God wants his word to be so addictive so compulsory so mandatory through repetition that you obey them without thinking. You can do it.
God wants to stir up the dreams in you. It will be a state that feels like unrest. Most of us get afraid when we hear stir it up or change because we think that we have leave something familiar or cozy to get something unknown. However God is guiding you to your purpose, the key is to stay conscious. Stop running. Remember God loves you and is moving you to your purpose. Stay on track. You can do it.
Failure is not physical it is spiritual. Failure occurs when you give up in the spirit. The devil wants you to quit lye down and die in the spirit. He knows that the physical will soon follow. God wants you to stand up, resist the pressure of the devil and keep pressing for the mark he has set as success for you. Remember your battle is not physical it is spiritual and you must use the word of God as your battle weapon. You can do it!
Persistence works if you’re willing to fail often in order to succeed only once. Success is based upon repeated attempts to reach your dreams. Consider the game of football, a contact sport that requires people to throw their bodies into each other no matter how great you are if you are an active player you will be knocked down. The more often you play, the more often you experience the pain of contact in competing with others. So to is life. Life is measured the same way. If you persist long enough in spite of all of the pain, you will succeed. Don’t you quit?
Now is the time you can master a bad attitude. Now is the zero to five seconds you hold on to a thought in short term memory before it becomes long term. So you’re angry but the word of God says you should forgive.
When do you do it, you do It now. The bible says salvation is now. If you want to have a godly good attitude, you must do it now. Now is all you have. Zero to five seconds. The greatest… will be within your own household between your ears.
A wrong attitude will kill your dream. The dreams of your heart are going to have opposition. And not just on the outside. Our greatest problem will come from the inside. The difference between success and failure is attitude. You can have all the talent in the world, you could be filled with passion for your hearts desire but you will get stuck if you can’t master your attitude.
The greatest opposition to the dreams of your heart will be on the inside not the outside. Matthew 10:34 says the greatest enemy will be within your household between your ears.
Jesus brought us the good news of a new realty based on trusting Gods word. His word would produce faith. Faith is the substance of things that we hope for says Hebrews 11:1. Faith comes by hearing Gods word until we believe it. Mark 11:23 -24 says, believing and acting on his word can produce and bring forth realty, things that before never existed and seems impossible. The question is though, do you believe his word. Do you trust him?
Jesus demonstrated the Kingdom of God at hand. The laws and the rituals of this world could not contain him. He walked on water and broke the laws of weight and density. He ascended to Heaven and broke the laws of gravity. He rose from the dead to break the law of sin and death. The Father showed him what to do and when he did exactly what he saw to do, nothing was impossible for him. He was sinless, John 4:34. He believed his Father more than he believed his natural logic and physical senses. Do you trust him?
As a child I believed Santa Clause came down a picture of a chimney that hung on my wall. I likewise believed that he came down all chimneys in the world at exactly the same time 12 midnight. He would only miss the chimneys of children who had not been good in obeying their parents. The answer to my question in my older age of how could I believe such a perception is I believed it because I trusted my parents and they told me so. That simple act of trusting my parents who are like god to me is exactly where god wants us to be right now so that we too must learn to walk by faith and not by sight. Trust Him. You can do it.
Christians are peculiar because they choose kingdom realty even when it is not confirmed by their five senses. For the world things are the first cause of realty, to the Christian it is the word of god. The world demands physical confirmation of realty but Christians except the word of god as first and final evidence of realty. We trust gods word more than our own sight or feelings, do you trust him.
In my travels to Africa and Japan, I became aware of the ancient custom of subject bowing before the King or Emperor not to do so would suggest rebellion to authority and could be punished by death. The act of bowing reflected extravagant respect to the point that the reality and belief of the subject was submitted to the will of the leader. If the ruler made a decree that was opposite to the subject’s senses, the ruler’s truth was deemed to be greater and the subject would submit his senses to the ruler’s truth. This is the biblical charge we are given by Romans 12:2. The earthly reality of our sickness, poverty, bondage and so forth must submit to the higher king, Submit. You can do it!
I had a painful experience in my youth that so embarrassed me that I became ill. My first day of school I had a dirty nose and no one told me so I walked around all day with that horrible monster sitting on my nose. So I asked my best friend at the end of the day, why didn’t you tell me. His response was he didn’t want to hurt my feelings. My mother was the only one who told me. How many people are you seeing walking around with bad attitudes and destructive life styles but because you don’t want to hurt their feelings you’re not saying a word and letting them fail. I learned that my mother truly loved me because she was willing to deal with my momentary discomfort so that I wouldn’t go through a long term pain. Are you helping others? You can do it!
I’ve often been asked a question “how do you stay conscious in the midst of suffering?” The answer is simple; you stay conscious by resisting the pressure to go unconscious. In the book of Exodus God demonstrates this process by delivering Israel from Egypt to the promise land by way of a desert place. That is the place where you go through the toughening process. A process of expanding your threshold for suffering. A process of building your mental ability to no longer be a slave to conditions of the quitting, the faking of the path. After the desert you will be a warrior-strong and able. You can fight and stay alive. You can do it. Don’t go unconscious.
God so designed a physical body that when pressure gets to tough we can faint. When it comes to our spiritual man many of us have a very low threshold of suffering. In like manner, when suffering comes to our souls, we shut down, we go unconscious, we faint. We are great at fainting under pressure Often times we faint by being angry and fighting or by running away physically or mentally. 1 Peter 4:12 says “fiery trials come to test us” in other words trials will make you strong if you won’t quit. You can do it.
A leader is a problem solver. God gives us problems so that we can become their masters. It is like learning math. You are given math problems not so that you will fail but so that you can solve them. Problems are defined as events and conflicts that cause pain and suffering.
A leader should have the ability to endure greater pain and suffering than those that he leads. Legitimate suffering will cause you to become wise. Suffering teaches wisdom lessons that you can teach to others. Jesus suffered to bring many sons to glory, Hebrews 2:9-14.
Seek to gain knowledge and wisdom from your suffering. Do you suffer in the right spirit? Are you suffering as unto the Lord? Whatever your pain, do you charge it to God’s account. When you suffer and can’t afford it does it become illegitimate suffering because you murmur and complain?
The suffering of Jesus brought him closer to his father. In contrast, the suffering of the children of Israel drove them from God. Their suffering and sacrifice to god was illegitimate. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices … Isaiah 1:10
On the other side of every great adversity is an equal or greater reward. There was a time when I worked out with weights when I had that burning feeling in my muscles there was a joy in it because I knew that the burning meant the exercise was working. It was through pain that I had reached my goal of having muscles. The suffering became legitimate. Legitimate suffering will make you wise and fit. Illegitimate suffering brings absolutely no value to you.
You go through it and feel the hurt and only the pain. You have bad attitudes, angry and you become self destructing. Hebrews 5:8 says Jesus learned obedience through his suffering.
At times I struggle with having my opinions about things that are not my business or of my control. My head is busy living out the possibilities of vein imagining. I can even become angry and fearful about things that may never have happen. Why, because the small I, me, and mine, rather than the I am of God is ruling me. Began to observe your self thinking, test the spirit. What is the small I in you thinking? Next time that small I in you tells you to do something of worry or fear, tell it to shut up, quote the scripture. It is no longer I who lives but it is Christ who lives within me. Galatians 2:20. You can do it.
At times I struggle with having my opinions about things that are not my business or of my control. Like…living out the possibilities of vein imagining. I can even become angry and fearful about things that may never have happen. Why, because the small I, me, mine, rather than the I am ruling me. Began to observe your self thinking, test the spirit. What is the small I thinking?
Next time speak to it. Tell it to shut up and be still. It is no longer I who lives but it is Christ who lives within me. Galatians 2:20. Speak the word to that condition.
The bible provides us with many examples of things that people need to let die in order to follow gods will. Abraham when called by God to leave his home in Haran had to die in his comfort zone in order to move to the life and power of God, Genesis 12: 1-6.
Moses faced death to his power and position in Egypt when he was driven into the desert to find life and be Gods anointed profit, Exodus 2:15-3:22 Nicademus had to die to his religious beliefs to have eternal life, John 3:1-21. What is God calling you to die to?
Most apparent find of growth and power is that one spiritual immune system becomes stronger. Material foods feed the flesh and its nutrients protect the flesh from physical diseases.
Prayer, fasting, praise and meditation on God’s words feed the spiritual immune system. With these power sources, one can ward off stresses of life and become strengthen to take risks, no longer powerless the body of Christ becomes free to move as directed by the Holy Spirit. For the dead to self but alive in Christ all things are possible through him who strengthens and makes a lie.Ephesians 3:16. You can do it. Eat of his Word.
When you are dead to self, you are helpless to do what you want. When you are dead to self, you no longer feel pain. Does it hurt? If it hurts you aren’t dead yet. Pain is one of the surest proofs of life. Jesus thought that his disciple’s reactions to pain were to be completely different from those around them. Where they were slapped on one cheek they were to turn another.
When required to go a mile what is it to a dead man to go two. When we are dead we are no longer affected by pride, shyness, fear of rejection, failure and so on because it is no longer I who lives but Christ that lives within me. Galatians 2:20, guide to self.
