Social Outbreak!

Social Outbreak is allowing pre-placement of leaders prior to launch.
This means you have an opportunity to get pre-placed high in the matrix
and to preplace your leaders directly under you
so that they may also pre-position their leaders.
This will put you in a very strong position when we launch and the enrollments explode.
If you would like to get going with this, please send me an email to useroverride@gmail with the following information:

Your Name:
Address:
Phone number:
email address:
desired username:

Words

I've had many nights lately where my sleep was interrupted constantly. This usually happens when I have something important coming up and little devils try to wear me out before I get there, but I don't have anything more than normal that I know of, but they must think I do. For those of you who don't believe in such things I feel sorry for you. Just because you don't believe in them, does not mean they are not real. Your believing does not validate or invalidate the truth. Satan is a very real enemy and he is ruler over many a fallen spirit, and they have great deceptive powers and must be dealt with in the spirit not in the flesh. Our weapons, which are not carnal, are our words and nothing else, our faith, truth, salvation, and preaching are all defensive in nature. But our words are like swords coming out of our mouths.

Is Your Gift Bigger Than You?

"O Lord, who may dwell on Your holy hill? He who walks with Integrity." Psalm 15:1-2 NAS

You wouldn't give your 5-year-old a 12-gauge shotgun or a big Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Shotguns and motorcycles are great - but they're for adults. You need maturity to handle them. Giving such gifts to your child would endanger them, and everybody else around them. The gifts just don't fit the person.

Perhaps you're a talented individual. God's given you some large gifts like the ability to speak well, or organize things, or create and design. But we sabotage ourselves when our gift becomes bigger than we are. How does this happen? When we begin to lean on the talents God gave us and don't mature emotionally and spiritually - we ruin our chance to use those talents as God designed them. When our character doesn't keep up with our talent, we learn to "wing it" through life. We live on the surface but lack real strength underneath. And it shows up when the crisis hits, the storm comes, or we are under pressure. You can't "wing it" when it comes to character building.

The greater the size of your gifts, the more you must dedicate time to developing your character. Eugene Peterson paraphrases the Psalmist in The Message: "God, who gets invited to dinner at your place? How do we get on your guest list? Walk straight, act right, tell the truth. Don't hurt your friend, don't blame your neighbor; despise the despicable. Keep your word even when it costs you, make an honest living, never take a bribe. You'll never get blacklisted if you live like this" (Ps 15:1-5 TM).

So, do you live that way?

Dirt

God made everything in this world. He made the trees. He made the sky, the moon, the stars. Everything in this world that we see and use every day was made by God. I find this amazing in itself; however, God made all of these lavish, beautiful, and amazing things so why did he choose to make us out of Dirt? He made gold and silver, and so many more beautiful things, but his prized possession? He made it from dirt?

I spent a few days pondering this idea, and even though I felt like a nerd when people would ask me what I am thinking about whereupon I would reply “dirt”, I found several different possibilities as to why this might be that he chose to use such a substance. Could it be that by choosing to create us using the dust of the earth God wanted to show us that he doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty? Or, that even though God has made all of these wonderful things he still finds joy in something as simple as dirt? It reminds me of children during Christmas time. Their parents will go out and spend lots of money to buy their child the fancy new toy that they have wanted to have all year. They open it up on Christmas eve, because their parents are gullible and they can easily convince them to let them open their gifts early, and they are super excited that they finally got what they desired; however, after just a short period of time they are building a fort in the corner of the room with the box that it came in while the toy itself lies motionless in the middle of the room. Even though they have this lavish toy they still find joy in something as simple as the box that it came in. Even though God has all of these beautiful things, he still finds joy in something as simple as dirt.

Now as I continued to look into and ponder dirt I realized a few things that I think are significant in God’s decision to make us out of dirt. First, dirt is the only natural substance that you can place a seed in and watch it grow. Now I’m sure that you could melt down gold or silver and place a seed inside of it; however, I haven’t seen any plants growing out of a bar of gold lately. Why would this matter? Well, this is important because when God chose to make us he didn’t want to create something that will just sit there and look pretty on a shelf, or in this case, on a round ball in the middle of a galaxy. He wanted to be able to breathe life into us and then as we live he could plant things inside of us, watch them grow, and enjoy the fruit that is produced from that growth.

I wasn’t content just to stop with these answers so I searched deeper and realized that not only can you plant a seed inside of dirt and watch it grow, but it is also one of the few substances that cannot be burned by fire. You can see an example of this with massive forest fires where everything is destroyed; however, the one thing that is not destroyed is the dirt. In fact, once the old things that have been growing in the dirt have been burned away, new seeds can be planted in that soil producing new life in the area. This takes place in every one of us as well. We all know times when we go through the “refiner’s fire.” The times when God brings to our attention the things that we have kept buried away so that we can take care of those things, burn them away, and allow God to plant new things in us that couldn’t grow when the old things were still deeply rooted within us.

Another interesting feature about dirt is that if you take it, mix it with water, mold it and shape it a little, you can then place it in that very same fire you will have a pot, or a vessel. With these pots/vessels you can do many things; however, since I’m still stuck on dirt at the moment my thoughts immediately went to “hey lets fill this pot with dirt.” This thought brought up some other things as well that I’m sure can relate spiritually. Many times people will take a pot and use it to plant something during the early stages of its growth. This step is generally important when the soil in the area is not suitable to germinate the seed, or the climate/environment is not capable to initiating the desired growth. People will fill a pot with dirt, place a seed in it, and nurture the seed until it has reached a point where it can be transplanted into the soil in the area. Now you may ask, “How does this relate spiritually?” Well when someone first starts out as a Christian they are not firmly planted yet. They are still in seed form. Many times they will go and try to position themselves equally with others who are more mature in their walk with God. This would generally be a good thing because they can learn from them; however many times in an attempt to impress them they will try to make it seem as though they are at a different place in their growth than they actually are. It’s like trying to plant a seed in the middle of a bush. It will not be very easy for it to grow, and if it does start to grow it has to try to adapt to the preset form of the bush that it is growing underneath. Now back to what I was saying about the pot though. When making a pot you will take the dirt and mix it with water to make clay. Water is generally symbolic of anointing throughout the scriptures. So let’s look at this as it relates to our lives… we take ourselves and mix it with the anointing that God has placed on us and then we go through the fire that God has presented us with so that we can cleanse the impurities then we become an earthen vessel. Now that we are a pot we are able to be used as the base where God can use us to help someone else grow.

I really like this particular analogy of the dirt because it shows an example of discipleship. The pot is there to help protect the new plant as it grows; however, the new plant will eventually grow to a point where it has to be removed from that pot and transplanted into the ground where it will obtain it’s nutrients on it’s own and be able to feed itself. The same thing goes for us. We are to disciple those around us; however, there comes a point where they will have to be able to receive from God on their own.

This generation doesn’t want your money! They want your time!

There are numerous times that people have told me that they want to be a spiritual mentor to me… Usually it comes when God is stirring their hearts to do something for a younger generation so they figure they will take a hold of me because I’m a worship leader and they think that would be easier than reaching out to someone else who seriously needs help; however, that is another story altogether.

For now I want to take a look at the approaches that many people take to ministering to this generation. Pastors have become so busy now that they don’t have time to spend and pour into the lives of the ones who desire to learn from them and be discipled; however, that is exactly what needs to be done. I can remember spending time with some pastors and sharing my heart and visions with them only to have them tell me that they think I should go to a master commission or a bible college to get more training if I want to see those vision and dreams come true. They would give me money because that is how they felt that they could help and show their love and support for what God was wanting to do in my life; however, That left me feeling so empty because I didn’t want to go away to be filled, and I didn’t want their money. I wanted THEIR love and I wanted to be discipled by THEM and have THEM pour into me; however, it seemed that they did not have the time.

The youth of this generation are completely different than the one that went before us. A good friend once said that the previous generation are like eagles and those in this generation are doves. Eagles are usually soaring alone and rely on their own learning and their own techniques to survive. They are perfectly fine soaring alone; however, Doves are animals that are not generally found by themselves. Doves are found in groups of two or more. They symbolize love, affection, and bonding.

I believe that describes this generation so much more than we think. The youth of this generation love to spend time together and just be in community with each other. They will drive around for hours just to be with someone they care about. They are so in tune to the need for each other and the need for community that it confuses the leaders and people who want to pour into their lives. To pour into the lives of this generation it doesn’t take money. It doesn’t take lavish gifts. It doesn’t take sending them off to a bible college or bible training program. It takes YOUR time. They want YOUR affection. They want YOUR love. All they want is for you to spend time with them and pour into their lives.

Adversity

Adversity presents itself to us in many different forms. These are often perplexing and confusing situations that show up at the most inconvenient and awkward times in our lives, and the most annoying part is that adversity does not need an invitation to come pay you a visit. It’s like that neighbor kid who just shows up everyday unannounced around time for dinner, or the telemarketer who calls around the same time. Nobody sent them an invitation; however, they are still there

One moment life may appear to be calm, peaceful and quiet; then the very next moment we may find ourselves caught in the middle of a huge storm. For some of us it is just one storm after another.

One of the only constant things about this “season” is that it seems like it is going to last forever. I think there is a purpose for this adversity though because one of the purposes God has for our lives is that we grow to maturity in our faith in Him and not in people or the things of this world. Many times you can tell that your faith is maturing by what you do and how you react during the storms that you are facing and in your problems. Here is a very good example:

"And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were loosed. And the keeper of the prison, awaking from sleep and seeing the prison doors open, supposing the prisoners had fled, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. But Paul called with a loud voice, saying, "Do yourself no harm, for we are all here." Acts 16:23-28 (NKJV)

Here in the Acts there is a story about Paul and Silas. These two lovable individuals find themselves in what seems to be a pretty big storm, or maybe a monsoon even. Now Paul & Silas were called by God to take the gospel into the region of Macedonia; However, when they got there, instead of wide open doors, like they might have expected, they ran into a season of opposition!

Instead of being welcomed with open arms and taken out to dinner by the locals, they are locked up in chains because they were at the place God wanted them to be, doing the very thing God told them to do. What I love about this is that they still had faith in God. The passage does not say they were crying and angry but that they were praying and singing praises.

Now for my favorite part of the text, it says "but at midnight". You know I’ve have heard people say that midnight is the darkest hour of the night and that it is when you are at your lowest, but what I want to point out here is that midnight is also a transition period. Midnight is the transition from an old day to a new day. It can confuse you because when you think of transition you think of a sudden, rapid change.

The midnight transition is very minute because nothing really changes but the time. I want you today to put all your faith in God no matter how it looks and no matter what they say. Don't allow the tornado siren to detour you because there is a transition about to take place in your life but you have to trust God.

Remember you are where He wants you to be. It's not time to put your faith in the things you see but put to your faith in the God who holds you in His hand.

Blog series: John (part 2)

Last week we looked at a brief overview of John the Baptist; however, this week I want to look a little deeper in his purpose and the reason behind the things that he did. I’m just going to be straight to the point here. John’s entire purpose was to lay down his life so that others could experiences Jesus. Let me say that again. His ENTIRE PURPOSE was to lay down his life so that through his laid down life others could experience Jesus. You see, John understood something that if we could grasp it today would greatly change our approach to ministry. He understood that a life well spent is not a life spent building John the Baptist International, but instead a life well spent is a life void of other lovers, a life laid down so that others can experience Christ.

John laid down things that were not easy and many today would not be willing to lay down. Because of his heritage John should have been teaching in the temple as a priest, the highest honor and prestige that one could hold at that time; however, because John understood his purpose he realized that if he did what his fathers before him had done then nothing would change. In essence he realized that the modern approach to ministry was not effective and that he needed to kill off some traditions and lay down some other lovers before he could accomplish what he was called to do. Because of this he chose to go off into the wilderness to prepare himself for the things that God was calling him to do. How many people today would be willing to walk away from popular ministry to go into the wilderness and chose to live a fasted lifestyle. These people are greatly needed. Imagine for a moment, a “John the Baptist Generation.” A generation of worshipers who lay down their other lovers. A generation whose sole purpose is to prepare the way for others to see Christ. This is the Lord’s generation. This is a generation that would walk into the hospitals and empty them out. What would you be willing to lay down to be a part of that generation?