Air1 Radio Feature – June 2011
Seeing With God’s Eyes
Are you embracing the season you are in? If not, you’re missing God’s best for you.
I’ve squandered too many wonderful days, in magnificent places, with fascinating people, because I was unable to get my heart around what was happening, and instead longed for what was not. I’ll never get those days back, but I’m committed to not repeat that mistake.
It’s dangerous to have a favorite season. People hate winter when everything they’re attached to lies dead or frozen. Frankly, our best season should be the one we’re presently in. It’s a matter of perspective! Believing yesterday wasn’t a great day, only means I missed what God was trying to do in me.
Today, see with God’s eyes! Let today be the best day of your life!
When God Uses Bulldozers
Do you feel like the rug has been pulled out from under you?
When God’s at work in our lives, He prunes away what is dead and dying! When it’s a vast, eternal work, He uses bulldozers. At times, the experience can be so overwhelming we think we’ll never recover! but don’t fear; in time, old fruit orchards are pulled up and new ones are planted. All for our good!
For a few short years you may not see the fruit you once did, but get ready, up around the bend, in God’s perfect time, your harvest will be abundant. You will be a different person, transformed by responding well to the dealings of God.
The Bible promises, “Let nothing move you…because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” (1Corinthians 15:58, NIV)
Mountain Moving Faith
Are you facing mountains of pain and discouragement? Does a mass of misery threaten to bankrupt your entire investment in God? Don’t let it!
It’s been powerfully said, “Stop telling God how big your mountains are, and start telling your mountains how big your God is.”
Life always comes down to a show down. A standoff! Who’s going to BLINK first! If God is God then trust Him! If God is able, then believe Him! The Bible says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” (Hebrews 11:6, NIV)
So what are you going to believe? How big your mountains are? Or how big your GOD is? Be encouraged, even with faith as little as a mustard seed your mountains can be moved. We serve a powerful God!
Being Successful
Are you convinced God wants you to be successful? He absolutely does! But only He knows what success looks like.
Like any good father, God wants us to experience fulfilled lives; but unlike our earthly fathers, He’s completely capable of making our fulfillment a reality. The primary problem we have is that we often fail to see our lives from God’s point of view.
Ask God to reveal what He is doing in and around you today. As you wade through life’s circumstances, resist the temptation to rejoice in only the opportunities that please you. The truly successful followers of God have learned to eat the meals placed before them with grateful hearts. The Bible says, “In everything give thanks.” (1Thessalonians 5:18)
Rejoicing forever…starts now!
The Invisible World
You and I have never seen anything eternal with our natural eyes. This world is the matrix. The real world is invisible, and can Only be seen with eyes of faith.
So, in order to change the visible realm, we must learn to see into the invisible. This world is not our final destiny. Our goal in life is to discover God’s eternal blessings, and not be seduced by earth’s temporary distractions.
Frankly, our time here is a dress rehearsal. every aspect of life on Earth is a test. As Jesus prayed to His Father, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Luke 11:2, NKJV)
His prayer was heard, and it will be answered.
Only Heaven can reveal the best in us. Allow Heaven to come to Earth in your life today.
Remember Who He Is
Are you asking God to reveal Himself to you? It’s a great prayer!
But we shouldn’t be surprised if God doesn’t give us new revelations of Himself until we are obedient to the old ones He’s already given us. If we mistakenly take our eyes off of all He’s revealed to us and in us, eventually our nature will lead us to focus primarily on our problems.
We must remember who God is, and who we are in Him.
How we feel is the greatest indication of what we’re looking at. Are we filled with faith or fear? Delight or dread? Hope or hopelessness?
Oh, that we would see Jesus! (John 12:21) Seeing and believing who He is, will help us remember who we are created to be. And this will make all the difference!
Measuring Up To God
Are you trying to measure up to God? You must be exhausted! Because you’ll never do it! Remember, He’s perfect, and as you’ve noticed, we’re not.
But, as we grow more attached to His perfection, we’ll be less stumbled by our own imperfection. The goal in life is not to measure up to God. That would be futile! Instead, His marvelous plan is that we would learn to rest so completely in His perfection that we are not overwhelmed by our own lack.
“Jesus saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy.” (Titus 3:5a, NIV)
When we receive God’s perfect love for us, we begin to understand that He covers us with such love and compassion and we can then more easily focus on what’s right in Him, more than what’s wrong in us.
Smiling Back At God
Do you think God answering your prayers will make your day? It won’t! You’ll just ask Him for something else. And the merry-go round will continue!
The satisfaction you’re looking for doesn’t come from God answering your prayers, it comes from learning to love and trust Him regardless of His answer.
When you really know God, you have to trust Him. Because everything about Him is completely trust-worthy. At that point, you’ll refuse to depend on what you seem to understand. You’ll be trusting God with all of your heart, and not leaning upon your own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5)
Once we believe God is smiling at us, the best response we can ever give Him is to smile back. Trust God today, and smile back!
Unthinkables
Are you experiencing an unthinkable situation? Life is filled with them!
We don’t mind the “good unthinkables”: we get an inheritance, we’re healed, we fall in love, or we even accept God’s forgiveness. But it’s the seemingly “bad unthinkables”: the left hooks: the sudden death of a loved one, divorce, bankruptcy, chronic pain, or a terminal illness.
These are the challenges of life that rock our world. BUT the Bible says, “Have no fear of sudden disaster…” (Proverbs 3:25, NIV)
If we respond properly to the unthinkable tests of life, they’ll bring us to a whole new level of faith in our relationship with God. It’s true: many things catch us off guard, but nothing is a surprise to God.
Believe that He is with you in the middle of your unthinkables.
Why? Because He really is!
The End is the Process
All of us think we know what’s best for us, but we rarely do.
We pray, “God, if you would just do this or that, then my life will be blessed!” As if we actually know better than God does. I don’t have enough information to know what’s best for me. So, I need to trust that God always does.
Oswald Chambers writes, “We must never put our dreams of success as God’s purpose for us; His purpose may be exactly the opposite. We have an idea that God is leading us to a particular end, a desired goal; He is not. The question of getting to a particular end is a mere incident. What we call the process, God calls the end.”
The end goal for God is the process He’s guiding us through. (My Utmost For His Highest)
Never Be Disappointed
Have you come to terms with what God wants for your life? It’s important that you do!
All good parents want their children to succeed. Though God’s definition of success and failure are often different than ours, a continual, conscious dependence upon Him will always lead us toward healthy growth and becoming more like Jesus.
God the Father is most glorified in us when we are most fruitful in Him. That’s why Jesus came: not to give us the life of our dreams, but the life of His dreams for us. Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10b, NKJV)
If you and I let God determine what his abundant life looks like we’ll never be disappointed.
God of All Seasons
All of us want to hear the voice of God. The inner voice that leads and guides our life. Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” (John 10:27, NKJV)
So, when will we hear God clearest? We hear God best in Winter seasons of life. During the more fragrant and obviously blessed seasons of our lives we are frankly, too busy, too distracted.
In winter, all we have is time. We’ve been rained-out, snowed under, or frozen solid. At last God has our attention. If we spend our time wishing winter was over, we’ll miss the best time to rest, listen, and be restored.
Adam and Eve were seduced in Summer. David fell in the springtime. Embrace your winters. They really are the best time for us to get to know God.
Keep Digging
Are you frustrated about something?
Frustrations are actually doorways to our destiny. Until we see our lives from God’s point of view, we’ll never understand the good that’s possible because of these frustrations. If we obsess over the pain and displeasure associated with the struggles of life, we’ll miss their entire point.
In 2Corinthains 12:10, the Bible even tells us to take pleasure in our pain!
Each of our lives are intentionally shrouded in secrecy; our true purpose is often disguised in a maze of problems. Complaining about our setbacks only distracts us from receiving the truth behind the mystery.
The key to life is to not stop at the surface of a problem, but to dig deep enough to uncover the reason and value behind each trouble.
Communicating With God
Every day God is trying to communicate with us—deep down in our spirit. Are we listening? An unbelieving planet resists loudly, while the Kingdom of faith persists quietly. Romanian pastor Richard Wurmbrand spent 14 years in a communist prison for his faith. He once wrote, “The one thing you Americans are most afraid of is silence.”
There’s so much noise in this world. So many voices! So many options! We must make a concerted effort to learn to listen. As God spoke the world into existence (Genesis 1:1–3), He can speak life to every dimension in our lives.
We need to let God speak to us through His Word… in worship… and in prayer. Even as we go through our day, God is speaking! May we hear Him today.
Loving the Light
Men love darkness; yet the God who is light still loves men.
Perhaps the greatest miracle that can take place in a person’s heart, is going from loving darkness to loving light. If there’s a greater miracle than that, I’ve never seen it.
The Bible says, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.” (Ephesians 5:8, NIV)
It is the gnawing repetition of darkness that makes us crave the light. No one ever ended their life wishing they had given themselves over to greater darkness. The opposite is true.
Are you sick of darkness? If so, crave the light! Let Jesus shine His life in and through you today! Remember, Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.”(Matthew 5:14, NKJV) Be that light!
What Season Are You In?
Do you know the spiritual season you are in? It will help if you do.
Looking for fruit in the middle of Winter, will leave you disappointed. Trying to hold on to parts of your life in Fall, when emotional leaves fall away, will make you frustrated. Look to Jesus in each season!
When God wants Spring and Summer to come in your life, it will happen. But we do ourselves a distinct disservice by refusing to embrace the season right in front of us. Spring flowers will come soon enough. Summer fruit is on the menu. In the meantime, don’t miss what God is trying to show you today.
From God’s point of view, there is no best season. Let the season you’re in be the best season of your life.
You Complete Me
What’s it going to take to make you and I the complete person we want to be?
There was a famous line at the end of a movie where a man finally admits he loves a woman and says, “You complete me!”
Wow! That’s romantic! Sensational! It’ll make you cry! But it’s just not true!
Now, I love my wife dearly, and she loves me. But I don’t complete her, and she doesn’t complete me. Unless you and I find our completeness in the God who created us, we’ll never be complete. In the Book of Colossians, the Bible is crystal clear, “We are complete in Him (in Jesus).” (Colossians 2:10)
I’ve seen people try and find the completeness they long for in everything imaginable, but there’s only one thing that works: a daily relationship with Jesus Christ.
Using God
What are you most attached to? God? Or what He can do for you?
Your answer will determine how much blessing you’ll see in your life.
Life’s all about being more committed to knowing God and less concerned with what we think we need from Him. No one wants to be used! Not even God.
Focus on abiding in Jesus–not using Him. Paul said, “I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead.”(Philippians 3:10, NLT)
God knows our needs even before we ask. It merely demonstrates a lack of relationship to keep parroting the obvious. He’s already done more than enough for each of us to fully trust Him.
May our eyes be opened to see Jesus, the lover of our soul, and not just what He’s done for us.
Trimming the Dead
Have you noticed anything dead in your heart? Let Jesus prune it away.
Let Him trim off what is dead and useless. Let Him remove what has no lasting value and will only weigh you down. Soon you will rebound from your winter, basking among the beautiful flowers and sweet fruit of a fully surrendered life, reflecting on how wonderful your winter was.
God is committed to establishing our internal, long-term health. Therefore, He cuts away what we’re attached to on Earth, even what appears to be somewhat healthy, in order to produce what’s eternal: His destiny for our life.
Be only attached to Jesus. The Bible says, “As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as His own children.” (Hebrews 12:7a, NLT)
A Life Worth Loving
Are you living the life you want to live? If not, what’s missing? Maybe it’s faith!
Everything God has for us must be received by faith. In other words, we must receive God’s gifts on His terms: by faith.
I need the same amount of faith to embrace the life God gives me, as I needed to embrace the God who saved me. It takes no faith to say, “God has not given me a life worth living.”
On the other hand, it takes great faith to believe the truth: “God can ONLY give me a life worth loving.” I love my life because it’s a gift from God. But I still need to see my life through His eyes of faith to really understand why it is worth living.
Faith makes all the difference!