As month two has come to a close, I wanted to give y’all a glimpse at what my ministry as a squad leader has looked like in Nicaragua. This month was all squad month, meaning that Soto and I got to spend time with all 3 teams.
More specifically, I got to spend intentional time with team Daughter Zion. These women are bold, wild and goofy, and the joy of the Lord shines in them. This team reminds me a lot of my first team on my race, so it was a blast to be their 8th team member for the month!
The team (minus one) right before our Thanksgiving sock wrestling tournament
Since it was all-squad month, Soto and I got to give a few teachings. This is a really unique and cool way that my ministry has looked different as a squad leader with these 20 women as my focus. Teaching has challenged me and helped me grown in confidence. In the last month I have taught on inner healing, spiritual disciplines, and learning personality tools.
I’m going to spend the rest of this blog (and even the next blog) sharing the notes from my teaching on spiritual disciplines and rhythms. So here it goes!
First of all, let’s remind ourselves:
God is love. He loves us. The Father wants deeper intimacy and connection with us. That’s what we were created for.
In Genesis, God pursued intimacy with us by creating a space (Garden of Eden) and told humans to fill it. As we know, through our sin that didn’t work out too well for us.
In Exodus, God did something new. He asked us to create the space (the tabernacle) and allow Him to fill it. The first time in the Bible it talks about God filling a human with His Spirit is here in Exodus 31. He cared so much about creating an appropriate space for Him to fill that He filled Bezalel with His Spirit to create that perfect space.
He was saying “If you create a space, I will fill it.”
Now, there was the tabernacle, then the temple…and once Jesus died for our sins the Spirit came. The Spirit now dwells in us, we are now the temple.
If you create the space (in yourself), God will fill it…..because He desires that intimacy with you.
There’s a quote about success that has changed things for me. It’s changed how I view my life and how I view ministry. The quote is as follows:
“Success is developing intimacy with God and community with each other through a living relationship with Jesus. An individual that is developing intimacy with God in the context of Christian community will make an impact for the Kingdom of God. A team of individuals who make an impact for the Kingdom of God will have a fruitful ministry. Though we do not strive for making an impact and we do not strive for fruitful ministry, we recognize that these two situations will supernaturally occur when individuals develop intimacy with God and Christian community. Ministry is the product of our love for God, an expression of a heart devoted to God. We must not allow ministry for God to crowd intimacy with God out of our lives. We can not control making an impact and we cannot control fruitful ministries, but we have absolute control over developing intimacy with God and being devoted to one another.”
So, how do we grow in intimacy? One very practical way is by setting up rhythms and spiritual disciplines in our life. This is a way for us to create space for the Lord.
What are spiritual disciplines? One definition says it’s activity or experience that provides training. Another definition says it’s choosing to position ourselves to the immediacy of God, regardless of how we feel.
Most of my talk was based off of the book The Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster, and I highly recommend y’all giving it a read. Foster states that “The purpose of the disciplines is liberation from the stifling slavery to self interest and fear.” and “The primary requirement is a longing after God.” This is so evident in Psalm 42 – “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?”
As we start to implement disciplines there are 2 challenges we often face:
1. We have doubts of our ability to reach beyond the physical/flesh of this world
Here’s the truth: Thankfully, we are not left to do this on our own. We tend to fall into relying on our will power and determination, but we cannot free our own heart by exerting our own will. “The moment we feel we can succeed and attain victory over sin by the strength of our will alone is the moment we are worshiping the will.”
Col 2:20-23 says “Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belong to the world, do you submit to its rules? These rules are based on merely human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.” We cannot combat flesh with flesh.
2. We simply don’t know how…..and that’s okay.
Here’s the truth: It’s a continual practice and learning experience our whole lives. To simply know the mechanics DOES NOT mean that we are practicing the disciplines…the inner attitude of the heart is far more crucial than the mechanics.
“The life that is pleasing to God is not a series of religious duties. We only have one thing to do: experience a life of relationship and intimacy with God.”
Don’t hear that and assume the complete opposite, thinking “Great, I can just sit here passively waiting for God to transform me.” Spiritual disciplines allow us to place ourselves before God so that He can transform us….Gal 6:8 “he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”
Think of it like a farmer. He actually can’t completely control the growing of crops, but he can provide the right conditions for growing crops. He cultivates the ground, plants the seed, waters the plant, but then has to wait for natural forces to take over and up comes the crop. We can use the disciplines as a way to provide the right conditions for bearing fruit. They aren’t producing the fruits all by themselves, but they are getting us to the place where something can happen. Having the freedom and peace to know that we don’t have to force the fruits out of the ground, because we can’t. We can create a space for God to show up.
Things to be mindful/cautious of:
Spiritual disciplines are meant to bring the abundance of God into our lives. It is possible, however, to turn them into another set of laws, and law-bound disciplines breathe death.
Think about when Jesus talks about Pharisees in the Bible. One factor that was consistent in their version of righteousness was externalism (control over what is externally seen). This can create a lot of PRIDE and FEAR in us. When we solely focus on the externals, PRIDE takes over because we start to believe that we are the right kind of people. FEAR takes over because we dread losing control over how we are perceived.
“Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” -2 Cor 3:5-6
Yes, there will be external fruit and results, but we must remember the work is internal, and the inner transformation is God’s work and not our own.
Stay tuned for the second blog that’ll talk about how we can apply spiritual disciplines in our life!
Fundraising!
The Lord has graciously provided $4,400 in just these few short months, WOOHOO! I still have over $2,000 to go, and I’m praying that I will be completely funded by the new year. To help with that, I’ve got my current “Buy a Box Raffle” fundraiser. I’m currently purchasing from each country I’m in, and will raffle them off once I’m fully funded. You can buy a white box to enter you name in the raffle. Box 10 = $10 = 1 name in the raffle. Box 90 = $90 = 9 names in the raffle. The higher the box number, the higher your chances are of winning! Here’s the most up to date picture of the available boxes with the newest gift: a coffee mug from Nicaragua!
The items from Guatemala include a painting of Antigua and a bag of coffee beans!
To donate click the “support me” link on the left, and let me know which box you would like to claim. This fundraiser has already raised $1,165 and there’s still so many open boxes. This shows that every little bit really does add up!
