Preparing for the greatest days in our lifetime

What are you preparing for in this new reality, a new job, a new school, a new normal? Have you ever asked the question, what does God have in store for you? Are you preparing for Him?

In the book of Acts, we see the unfolding of a new and glorious movement, the “ecclesia”. We see a group of disciples waiting for ten days to receive the promised “gift” from the Lord. Ten days of waiting converted into an explosion of power. This power catapulted the disciples from the cavernous corners of the ancient world to the epicenter of thought and demonstration.

Today, we are ten days away from the Grand Opening and Launch date of Legacy Church. I have asked our church family, especially our leadership to join me in prayer & fasting for another explosion of God’s presence & power on and through His people.
Amazingly, even though Jesus gave the command to his disciples and followers, not all followed his instruction. Jesus when ascending up into the clouds, spoke to a crowd of over 500, but only 120 were willing to submit to His instruction to experience an earth shattering moment.
Why? Have you ever wondered, “why?” The ancient world and the modern world are not vastly different when it comes to human behavior. We all want the dream, the miracle, the “power”, but we aren’t willing to follow the process.
Today, I would like for us to go on a journey to our launch. The process of what God does is tied to PRIORITY.
Remember, the first command, Jesus summarized in Matthew 22
37Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

PROCESS IS TIED TO PRIORITY.

Priority is how we rank and place everything in its proper place and perspective. Jesus was saying, God first, everything is a distant second.

If God is going to increase, there must be a place for Him to make room. God cannot fit into our priorities, he must be given all priorities. When we talk about PRIORITIES, it’s not just carving out more time, praying a little longer, giving a little more, doing what is required. PRIORITY is tied to VALUE, and God is not just our TOP PRIORITY, He is the one who ranks our PRIORITY. We have surrendered the “list”, we have given up the control, we have removed ourselves as administrators of the “schedule”, and we have become stewards in allowing GOD to have His rightful place as the King of our Hearts, our Soul, and our Mind. We have given Him the keys to own the spaces of our lives.

It’s difficult to relinquish unregulated control without some restraint. Yet, the disciples were willing to say, YES to His process and surrender their pretenses, prejudices, and priorities to follow after their Lord and Savior. The space was to empty themselves of all that they wanted and planned, for Him to fill them with His desires and dreams.

It was Matthew 6:33, Seek First the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Priorities places “perspective” on how things are viewed. When Christ takes place in our hearts, the perspective is filtered through His heart and His eyes.

I live with the pressure of conflicting perspective, what should we do, how should we do, and the correlation between what we are doing versus what we “should” be doing. As a pastor, a father, and a child of God, I deal with the conflicting perspectives and demands of priorities. Perspective is always based on the seat that we sit.

Depending on where we sit, determines what we see. This is the narrative of Mary & Martha, conflicting perspectives on what we should be doing in the moment in which we are doing it. Martha is frustrated with Mary and a little agitated with Jesus, because Martha is preparing the food and sitting in the seat of hospitality while Mary is gazing idly at the feet of Jesus. In Martha’s view, Mary is careless, but Jesus reprimands Martha, because Mary has chosen to sit in the seat of priority. GASP! Jesus reprimanded Martha? How? Why Because, here is the question, we must all ask ourselves, Who is Martha serving? Is Martha serving Jesus or is Mary? Martha is so preoccupied with the lists and the “priorities”, she has forgotten the purpose of Jesus visit and His desires. In light of Jesus reprimand, Mary is the true servant of Jesus in the best possible way, by giving him her undivided attention and adoration. WOW! You have been there, when the hustle and bustle was distracting you from the real reason of a visit. In lieu of all of the gifts and acts of hospitality, all you want is just “face to face” or “skin to skin”.

Can you hear the perspective of God’s desire, all I want is “face to face”. All I want is your undivided attention, without the distractions of life, the trepidations of insecurities and inadequacies, the pretenses of works and importance.

Today, I would encourage all of us to sit in the seat of a servant and ask God to illuminate His perspective of what He truly desires. I promise you, its not duties & obligations, but all he wants is our undivided, unadulterated HEART.

Today, this is my prayer,

God sit on the throne of my heart and fashion the PRIORITIES of my life according to your perspective. I give you PLACE, take the reigns of my life and heart, remove the unnecessary and replace it with YOUR DIVINE PRESENCE. I repent of making other gods before you in the name of the only, true and living God. My works, my plans, my dreams, and my desires I lay at your feet and I pray with my whole heart, not my will, but yours be done. Thank you Jesus for bringing me back to my First Love and I give you PRIORITY.