P.S. God wins

IBS field time week 2 2 Chronicles 12:1 “When the rule of Rehoboam was established and he was strong, he abandoned the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him.” This is talking about the story of Solomon whom followed the desires of the Lord and his kingdom was greatly blessed and when he died his son Rehoboam was then king. He didn’t think he needed the Lord which ended up only bringing evil and destruction to the land. When I read this one verse alone I see myself and many others doing the same exact thing. So often we will be trusting and following the Lord but then somewhere along the lines we become prideful and think that everything we had accomplished was on our own efforts and none of the Lords, and that we don’t truly need Him. We were basically using the Lord to get what we wanted and when we did we ditched Him. This is a big mistake because like the saying goes “Pride comes before the fall” is just so true. We will become so prideful and then once something goes wron...

IBS ft 1 Ephesians 5:1 “ Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.” What does it truly mean to be imitators of Christ? God is our example and the more we read the bible to really understand the characteristics of Christ the more we also learn how we should be living. It’s very easy to just do our own thing during the day and not even double check our actions and the heart behind them to see if they match up with the Lord. We desire to do one thing but the Lord desires us to do another and then we just brush it off, but the more we dig into the word and deliberately take time to be alone with God the harder it is to be obedient to your fleshes desires. In the end your desires change to be the same as the Lords and it turns out to be much easier to know if what you were doing or wanting to do was the Lords desire for you or your flesh, and you will in turn want to do the will of the Lord because you know God has a perfect plan. And yours usually ends up causing more pain the...

2 Timothy 2:2 " You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others." Teach like Jesus did. He always taught with a purpose and wasn't meaning less when He did teach. So when we are going to teach Gods word we shouldn't just wait tell the last minute to prepare but to see the weight behind the words you are going to say and have the desire to learn as much as you can so you can effectively our out. This is also an encouragement because it shows that God thinks that we are ready to share the good news. Especially with the timing of training coming to an end. We have been trained by amazing leaders of God and have been poured into so much that its now time to go and find the people that God is wanting us to pour into, even while were at home we should be looking for people that God is calling us to minister to. And not to just see this coming we...

Luke 2:46 " Three days later they finally discovered him in the Temple, sitting among the religious teachers, listening to them and asking questions." If this does't encourage us to ask questions I don't know what does. Jesus Himself stayed and listened and asked questions. This just shows how important it is to think beyond what you hear and see but to really soak in as much as you can. I know for myself I don't use the guest pastors that come down and speak into our lives enough. I will sit in their teachings, listen to some stories afterwards but then go on with my day and not ask a single question because I figured others would. The more we ask questions the better we can be at spreading Gods word. We should be asking God questions, inquire of the Lord, that's how we can grow in Him. But we shouldn't just ask questions and then move on, no we need to learn how to wait and listen for the Lords response. When we become more accustomed to waiting on the ...

Mark 4:10-11 " Later, when Jesus was alone with the twelve disciples and with the others who were gathered around, they asked him what the parables meant. He replied, 'You are permitted to understand the secret of the Kingdom of God. `But I use parables for everything I say to outsiders, (vs 12) so that the scriptures might be fulfilled.'" You don't realize how important it is to be a student and teachable, until you start reading about the disciples. Its easy to think that you are supposed to just some how know every thing about God and the bible and you feel some what guilty if you don't know it all. But that is such a backwards way of thinking. God wants to teach us and He wants us to know the secrets of heaven. Which is so cool that the creator of this world wants us in on the secrets, it doesn't mean that we are equals with God but that He wants to share His joy with us. How unique is it that He states that the reason He does some things is so that ...

1 Peter 4:7 " The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers." It really does seem like the world is going to end soon with all the earthquakes, fires, hurricanes, and so much more. This should make us excited because that means Jesus is coming back soon. We should be pressing into the Lord more and one way to do that is by prayer. It can be hard to have a disciplined prayer life. I know for me I can get distracted in the middle of a prayer and start thinking of some random thing that doesn't even matter or bring honor to the Lord. It can be hard but when we do pray we really do see the fruits that come from talking with the Lord. A way that the Lord has been working on me in my prayer life is to pray about praying so that its truly meaning full. Also that I would learn to listen in the midst of my prayers, because I tend to ramble and forget that prayer is a two way radio not just me throwing everything at the Lord and not ex...

Mark 1:35 "Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray." We always say that we are trying to be more like Jesus, and one way that is very important is to go to quiet place and pray. Jesus is the best example to live by and if even He had to find somewhere quiet why would we not take the time to do the same. At the beginning of IGNITE I didn't really enjoy on the mount or see the point of it, I thought that it was more of a filler time. But now I look forward to on the mount time and see the fruit that comes from it. Its going to be important especially on our 10 days home to take the initiative and have your own "on the mount" time, even if it is just thirty minutes, when were used to two hours. God can still speak through that time, and it helps get our perspective focused back on the Lord. We are going to be put right back in the crazy for a short amount of time, and it will be easy to get over whelmed by this worl...

1 Timothy 4:8 " Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come" 1 Timoteo 4:8 "Porque el ejercicio corparal para poco es provechoso, pero la piedad para todo aprovecha, pues tiene promesa de esta vida presente, y de la venidera." We forget that God is a jealous God, and He is is jealous of how we spend our time. It is very easy to get caught up in moments and not think about God, or put things ahead of God in our minds without even knowing it. For me this verse hit home, because I know that before IGNITE I would spend so much more time excising physically then spending time in the word. This would leave me just dry and drained and not feeling like I had the energy to spend time with the Lord. I made physical exercise my god and my escape from having to deal with the root of problems and having fellowship about those problems with God and others. Since being here I am learning to create a ...

Philippians 3:10 "I want to know Christ and experience the might power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death." This verse is so true. We all want to know God so well that we are in tuned to His mighty power and we want to see that power at work in our own lives and be able to experience it. We say we want to know Christ and to know His power but most of the time we don't want to experience the pain that He had to go through we just want all the benefits. When really to know God we need to be removed from sin, even the sin that we didn't know we had. Through that process God breaks us and keeps on digging the gunk out. It's a painful process especially when we didn't know we were struggling with certain things. But when God breaks us that does mean we will have to sacrifice things that He is calling us to step out of. Through the breaking we learn to rely on God and to see His glory through it all. Especially when we re...

Philippians 3:9 "I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God's way of making us right with himself depends on faith." We so often try to make ourselves right with God through our own actions and end up failing because of it. Then it becomes this cycle of feeling like we are making ourselves feel right but then one bad thing happens and we fall apart and think its all Gods fault. We need to sacrifice our need for the thought of having control and being able to do things on our own. Instead we need to realize that God called us to give it all to Him, to open up and have a fellowship with Him that comes from a relationship built on trust and faith. And that's not it He doesn't just want you to process it on the inside, He gives us people who are here to listen and to have a fellowship that is centered on lifting up God in each others life. Life is just taking one step of faith at a ti...

Philippians 3:8 " Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ." Wow that is a humbling statement that everything is worthless compared to knowing Christ. How often do we not truly sit down to take the time to actually know and acknowledge the power and value that Christ is Lord and that He is all powerful. I know that for myself I get into the habit of thinking that what is going on is too much for God but that's completely wrong and I have been praying to see that God is all powerful and now when ever I have the thoughts that diminish Gods value I instantly get convicted, and He is showing me more and more every day how powerful He truly is, my thoughts are now starting to change to those honoring the Lords true value. Also its crazy how much God cares for us and wants a relationship with us and how far He w...

John 15:15 "I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn't confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me." Reading this makes me want to serve the Lord more and more out of love. What high king would have friends such as us, and choose to not call us his slaves. He could have any friends he would like but He chose us. This shows just how trustworthy the Lord is. We can confide in Him with whatever we are going through and we can trust that He is there listening and wanting to help. For me I'm learning that I don't trust the Lord as much as I thought I did and just seeing this helps me learn to trust more and more each day. It's also really amazing to know that we are told what God in heaven is telling Jesus. He wants a relationship with us not just a one sided prayer life, but a true relationship where we can confide everything to Him. God is working on me to keep my walls down when it comes to going ...

Matthew 20:26-28 " But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slaves. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many." In the previous verse it's saying how authority is always holding it over your head that they are in a higher power and are being very boastful about it all, and we can all see that today in most places of authority and leadership. But when we look at Jesus he did the complete opposite, even though He had every right to say 'no I'm not going to because I am the Lord over everything and I have people to do that'. He still went to the lowly and washed their feet, ate with the criminals and outcasts of the days, and did the hard work even though He didn't have to. But He did because He wanted to be an example to all of us that to be a good leader and someone in high author...

Luke 17:7-10 " When a servant comes in from plowing or taking care of sheep, does his master say, 'come in and eat with me'? No he says, 'Prepare my meal, put on your apron, and serve me while I eat. Then you can eat later.' And does the master thank the servant for doing what he was told to do? Of course not. In the same way, when you obey me you should say, 'We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.'" I see this and think that Jesus is telling us to come to Him humbly. Most of the time we come to the Lord after we have finished something with the attitude that we are done and that He should bless us. Obviously that's not what He is wanting, He wants us to come with a mindset that He could be calling us to more than what you just did and wants us to trust Him in that you will be given food, as the example in the verse, or you will be blessed just in His timing not our own. It can be hard to be humble and not arrogant, especially if ...

John 12:26 "Anyone who wants to serve me must follow me, because my servants must be where I am. And the Father will honor anyone who serves me." How honored would we be to be servants of the one true God. And we are, He chose us to be His servants, that's such a blessing and an honor. If we realized that we are truly Gods servants than when we are asked to do things we wouldn't grumble or complain because we aren't just doing them for man but we get to do them for our King. What a difference would it be to look at tasks with a mind set of getting to serve the Lord instead of having to because we were told to. But many times we could hear this passage and not like how it says that we are servants because we've grown up in a culture that says we are free to do whatever and being a servant to others is lowly and that instead people should be serving you. When in reality we are all serving something or someone and I would rather serve a Lord who is just and trea...