There is a place in God where everything in life is exciting and adventurous and that is when you are living your life completely at the end of your own will and desire, when you are living for God. If you desire it, God will completely strip you of the things that hinder your walk with him, and you WILL walk in the newness, adventure, and peace.
The opposite of the comfort zone that is so widely preached in America is the “danger zone” where things are dangerous and exciting. I am not speaking of only the temporal but the spiritual – for there is where reality lies. Why strive for physical comfort, assets, and possessions when these things only add stress, grief, and separation from God? (The Biblical term is hardening of your heart.) When we strive for what everyone else is, material wealth, power, or sex, we turn our focus from him to this world. Our vision gets blurry and we don’t listen to God. This comfort zone is where I used to live and where God is pulling me out of.
So this adventure starts when you commit to dying to your desires. Then you will see God for who He is – a strong, caring, dangerous lover of our soul. He tells us in Matthew 11:12 that “the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.” This kingdom is not for the faint or lackadaisical. You need to put all of your strength, desire, emotions, and thoughts into it. You can walk in comfort as most Christians do and go to church, attend small group, and read Christian books, or you can sell out and start to pray dangerous prayers. Prayers like, “God do what you want in my life.” Or, “Jesus, break me.” Again, “God I take me where you want me to go.”
I guarantee that when you commit to living life in the fire, that God will work more in you more than you ever thought imaginable. He will break you, he will speak to you, take you to places you never thought you would be, and you will be totally his. There will be stuff that you see that very few ever do – you will see demons come out of people, people healed, and God’s Spirit come down like you never have. These are things I have seen, hope for, and been a part of.
So what if God takes everything from you? Who will you be? Will it matter? If you had nothing would you still be happy? Happiness and joy consists not in the abundance of possessions, but in the continual pouring out of God’s grace and Spirit into your life. Do you want this? Do you want to experience joy that only continues to grow in your life? Happiness and pleasure is exciting and then fades, but God’s working in your life will only be adventurous and fulfilling and you will finally find true life.
Wake up friends! There is a world dying and we are dying right along with it if we decide to live a complacent life. The Holy Spirit is the most under preached, most needed things in the American church and in our lives. We judge those who don’t know Christ, when all Jesus had was love for the lost. We tell church people to separate from sinners, people who love to drink and gamble and to stay away from the immoral. But these are the people who need God’s love the most. God’s Spirit enables us to go into bad places like warriors and claim people for God. These are the crowns we bring back and lay at God’s feet. Are you doing this or are you just hanging out with safe people? Challenge yourself!
Joshua 1:7 says, “Be strong and very courageous.” This strength comes from God, but it only comes when you lay down your will and desire. Are you willing to do this? Are you willing to give up the way you live now? What holds you back? I dare you to ask God to take these things from you and show you his glory. You WILL see it as you pass from the pain of giving these things up into His righteousness because you are living life on the edge; you are being refined by fire. Rise up! Repent, and be changed into Christ’s likeness.
