fourteen minutes
fifty-three
point one
seconds
In the book of Hebrews chapter 13 verse 8 it says "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday & today & forever."
That means, my friends, that He never changes.
I preached my first ever sermon last month in Thailand to a beautiful group of Thai people.
I felt bold. I felt secure in the power that I had in that moment because Jesus lives in me. I felt strong. Jesus has been really working on my heart and showing me that anything and everything I can do is not because of myself but because of Him.
I'm not bold on my own, I'm bold because of Him.
I'm not eloquent on my own, I'm eloquent because of Him.
My words aren't powerful on their own, they are powerful because of Him.
Saturday night I was told that they needed someone to preach on Sunday at church. God has been taking me through a season of boldness & I heavily felt The Lord telling me to volunteer.
My heart longs to be obedient to Him, so the decision was obvious.
I felt peace about this all day and only felt a twinge of nervousness as I stood up and preached my sermon, a whole fourteen minutes fifty-three point one seconds worth of nothing but pure Jesus.
Afterwards, I looked at the crowd, I mean really looked at them. What I realized was there were about 30 kids under the age of 10 and only 4 adults.
I immediately felt attacked by satan and his minions.
"Ha! You just preached to kids". "They probably got nothing out of that". "No one was listening to you".
The lies started to filter in and for a moment, just a moment, I started to feel defeated. But as fast as it came on, it went away. Jesus immediately came in and said to me, "You are building my kingdom, you are pouring into the generation who I've chosen as the army that is going to rise up and break the chains that are so tightly locked around these people." "I've chosen you for this moment in time to preach exactly the words that I have given you. You don't know the plans I have for these children, thank you for your obedience."
You see, the harder you chase after Jesus, the more obedient you are, the harder the devil attacks you. Things don't get easier-but I know the truth & that truth is that my Jesus ALREADY DEFEATED satan. I have nothing to fear-satan is terrified knowing that God's army is rising up all over this world and he tries every pitiful way to try & knock us down.
We are not shaken. We are NOT moved.
Stand firm, feet planted, head held high. Stay obedient to The Lord, listen to His voice, & recognize when satan is so desperately trying to get at you from any angle.
I learned a beautiful lesson that day & in my obedience I feel stronger & trust The Lord beyond all things. He is perfect, loving, & beautiful and He wants nothing more than obedience from us and to fight for us.
Rise up, warriors. Fight the good fight and remember that we have NO IDEA what poppa is doing behind the scenes.
