Hi friends!! I’ll be posting a quick summary of what we learned each week at G42 this last semester as I’m gearing up to head into our last trimester. If you have any questions or want to hear more about something please let me know!! These are just a few highlights that still stick out to me.
Week 1 was our introductory week where we had the opportunity to hear the testimonies of staff and my fellow classmates. Take away… God. Is. So. Good. He is faithful, He is kind, He is King over all. Hearing how God has taken all of us through storms, trials, mountain tops and valleys to bring us all to this one point is amazing. Getting to learn the hearts of our staff and why they want to pour into us is inspiring. This was a time of settling in and getting to know my new roommates (who by the way, are hilarious and I found myself laughing for hours every night).
Week 2 was taught by Andrew Shearman on what “Born to Be Loved” means and the reason why the leadership academy is called Generation 42.
We were not born to fulfill a purpose or just pursue a calling. We can walk out any path on life and God will still be completely in love with us. We were created with the sole purpose of being loved; by God and by others. There are 41 generations listed from Abraham to Jesus but it is written as 42 generations. However, Jesus is listed and then Christ. Being the Messiah is the 42nd generation and since we have Christ in us we are also the 42nd generation. The generation of the promise! While I can dig much deeper into these two concepts that is the final concept. You were born to be loved, and you, living as a Christian can live out as the generation of the promise.
Throughout the week of teaching there were many great golden nuggets dropped that I love and made me rethink certain things. These are going to go a little fast so may pause between each one and just dwell on it for a moment!
“Mission is allowing the love of God to flow through you to others.” Many of us talk about what our mission in life is but it boils down to love flowing through us. If our “mission” isn’t loving people in some way then we may need to take another look at what we are pursuing.
“Responsibility is ones ability to respond.” DANG. If you have an ability to respond then you are responsible to respond. What do you have an ability to respond to?
“Jesus is not going to die again every time you sin. You are already forgiven.” YES YOU ARE! You are forgiven for all. Grace has covered every sin and it is there to give you space to grow. Jesus doesn’t need to go to the cross every time we fail, it was already taken care of! Along with this one was “God is more committed to me than I am to him.” He is so good!!!
And onto the topic of sins and temptations… “Sin advertises itself as pleasure, not the death it will bring.” That is so true!! We can look back at the times we’ve fallen into sin, when we thought it would bring something good and instead saw how we fell into death instead. “The best lies are 80% true.” Yes they are! They are easy to believe because a piece of it is true but ultimately, the ‘truth’ is hiding the pain and death. One more… “Use temptations as reminders of who you are.” When you are tempted in something, remember your identity, that you are an overcomer, made with a purpose, innocent, and strong!! Temptations are the enemy trying to attack a piece of who you are so remind him that he can’t destroy what God has confirmed.
“Jesus cost you nothing. Christ will cost you everything.” To accept Jesus, forgiveness and citizenship in heaven will cost you nothing. However, to fully follow Christ and submit to Him will cost you everything. It will cost the way you live, the words you use, how you love people, sometimes even your career and relationships. It’s not easy to follow Christ, but it is worth it. Along the same line of difficulty… “live a disciplined life. It’s not difficult, just expensive.” To choose into disciplines is an easy choice but requires hard sacrifices. To your time, your rest, or anything else you have to give up to walk out a disciplined life.
“Why are they preaching what you can’t have vs what you can have.” The gospel is meant to be about the things we are receiving and are open to us! Not the few things God asks us to lay down. It is so much more about what we get rather than what we may give up. Yet we hear preachers saying ‘don’t, don’t, don’t!’ “The biggest biblical blessing (Jesus) came after the biggest silence (400 years between then old and new testament).” In your difficult times, in the silence, in doubt, remember that your biggest blessing or breakthrough can be on it’s way!
“Forgiveness is giving up on any hope of a different past.” To fully forgive someone is to stop hoping that things had been different. To release someone from what they have done, accept what happened and be willing to meet them where they are right now.
And last one! “You can stop anywhere you want on the journey and will die in the wilderness, short of your full potential.” As the Israelites were leaving Egypt they could have chosen to stop at any point and die short of the promised land, and many did! It is the same for us. We are working towards a promised land and we never know at which point we are one stop away from reaching our land of milk and honey.
Many of these were dug into a little more during class but sometimes they were just said and we moved on. The beautiful thing about this leadership academy is that we typically have 1 teacher for the entire week. That’s 18 hours with one person who is pouring out their heart and sharing their knowledge. They have tons of experience and through conversation simply drop these little bombs all over the place.
I would love to hear your thoughts on any of these and dig into deeper conversations if they jumped out at you!!
Also, I leave Nashville in 1 week to start heading out to Colorado Springs for our final semester of teachings! I would appreciate your prayers for a safe journey out (driving an old car during the winter season!) and on reaching my financial deadline for the start of class! I need $2,000 in the next 2 weeks which is 100% possible with God. If you’d like to get in on the current fundraiser we are selling raffle tickets for $10. On March 8th half of what was raised for the raffle will go to the winner!! Buy raffle tickets through venmo (Musiclover17) cash app (ashismi) or paypal ([email protected]). If you’d simply like to make a donation where 100% goes to me you can donate at pages.donately.com/g42inc/fundraiser/ashley-smith/donate which will be a tax deductible donation!
Thank you all for your support emotionally, spiritually, and financially during this journey!
