​God doesn’t need you… He wants you! (Read time ≈ 4 minutes)
 
1 Peter 2:9
"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light."
 
There are certain things that we hear or that we learn that may hurt us if we are filled with pride. But they are things that will set us free if we accept them and embrace the reality. One of those things is this fact: God does not need you. It’s true. He is almighty, everlasting, creator of the universe. He does not need you to carry out His will. This can be hard to accept because sometimes we feel the need to be important. But this reality is followed up by something that should be far more comforting than someone claiming that God needs you… God does not need you. He wants you.
 
You are not an essential part of Gods plan because of how great you are. You are an essential part of Gods plan because He WANTS you to be. God can accomplish all things without you, He is powerful enough. Instead, He chose you. He loved you so much that He weakened Himself to be confined to flesh and died for you (Philippians 2:7-8) just so that He could choose you to be on His team. This reality that God does not need us, He wants us, is freeing and empowering. The God who can do it on it His own, who spoke creation into existence, is the God who chose you and can empower you to do the things that He chose you to do. If you begin to think that God needs you and your skillsets, you will quickly learn that you lack the skillset necessary for what God has for you. But when you set yourself free from your own limitations and embrace the fact that God chose to use you thereby, empowering you to succeed in these things in which He has called you to, then you will experience the supernatural help He has for you in your life. It was only by the choice He made, for you and I, that could ever make us a “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession”. Embrace this reality, and He will embrace you and He will brace you for what is to come. He chose you out of your weakness and despite your weakness. In your weakness, He makes you strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-11).

​Are you qualified for your calling? (Read time ≈ 4 minutes)
Matthew 3:13-15
Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented.
 
John the Baptist saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” was not incorrect and Jesus did not disagree with him. John was not worthy to baptize Jesus. Even though later on, Jesus said John was the greatest man to ever be born of a woman (Matthew 11:11) he still was nothing compared to Jesus. John was correct in saying that he was not even worthy to untie Jesus’ sandal (John 1:27) let alone baptize him! There is no question.
 
But the question was not about worthiness. The question is about calling. Jesus did not come to John and tell him, you are worthy, therefore, baptize me. John was perhaps the most qualified, but still not qualified. Jesus simply came to him and asked him to do it and said “let it be so”. John understood this was above him and Jesus ultimately said, I know, do it anyway. This is not a unique situation to John the Baptist, rather it is true for all who follow Jesus. He will call us to things, He will ask us to do things that we are not worthy of. He did not ask for our qualifications; He asked for our obedience. Much of serving God looks like this. Jesus asks something of us and we then realize how inadequate and unworthy we are for the task. Isaiah experienced the same feeling in the presence of God in Isaiah 6:5 when he said “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”.
 
You need to stop trying to qualify yourself for the labor of Gods kingdom and you need to just start obeying Him. If God is calling you, He has qualified you by His grace over your life. Nothing you can do will ever qualify you for the service of our King. What does qualify you is the Blood of Jesus Christ. As long as you are under the Blood of Christ and you are eager to obey His Word and His command then you are then made qualified by Christ. This is how it was possible for John the Baptist to not be worthy to even untie Jesus’ sandal but still be called by God to baptize Jesus! It wasn’t about qualification; it was all about calling and obedience. Are you ready to be obedient to the calling that is above your life? Then stop looking at yourself and start looking at Christ. Stop listening to your own opinions about your life and start listening to God.

​Are your words felt? (Read time ≈ 5 minutes)
Revelation 12:11
And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.
The power of your personal testimony in Christ is immeasurable. Sharing your testimonies and telling of the victories of Christ in your life are an essential part of being a Christian. We use our testimonies to encourage other believers and perhaps even more importantly, as evidence to the non-believer of the very real, very relevant, very active God in our lives.
We come in contact with many different people in many different ways. Are we eager to share Christ with them? How could it be possible, or would it be effective to share your testimony with every single one of them? We don’t get someone’s attention for as long we want. Sometimes, it is in passing and we only have a moment or two before we lose their attention. This is when we can, instead of telling of our testimony, let our testimony be the fuel that drives our talk. There is a lot of Christian lingo, mumbo jumbo, that we get too carried away with sometimes that generally has no meaning or no value unless there is some real conviction behind it. We say, “God bless you”, “Jesus loves you”, “Jesus saves”, and the list could go on. While, those aren’t bad or wrong things to say, if they are just tossed out there as some kind of religious ritual that we must say then the words will fall flat to the ground and our audience is unfazed.
You are a saved, sanctified, redeemed person who has been given new life by the Blood of Jesus Christ! Your testimony is unique and powerful. The question is, does this show itself in the way you speak to people. When you tell someone, “Jesus can save you” do they get a sense that not only do you believe it, but that you have experienced it? When we profess to people that you can be born again” and made a “new creation” do they feel as though they are talking to someone who has experienced just that? As we witness to people, do we have enough gratitude within us as we speak that they can sense that something real is coming from your mouth? Not a poorly rehearsed, regurgitated script? Do they not only hear your words but feel your own experience oozing out from those words? The power of your testimony can be spoken through your passion without even saying a single word about yourself. The person standing before you could be on the brink of the same painful, dark decisions you once were yourself. Christ saved you. Christ can save them. Is there passion in that statement? A reality that cannot be denied by the power of your own experiences being brought to life by the Gospel itself? “They have conquered him (satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony”. When you speak, are your words coming forth covered in the blood of the Lamb who gave you your testimony? When you witness, is it scripted and dull? Or does the power of your personal testimony in Christ bring an energy to your words that causes them to feel the need to experience the same change you have? This can be expressed in just a few sentences, in a short encounter, when our witness is shot from our mouth by the excitement of our testimony and our words and covered by the Blood of the Lamb.

​Enduring Revival (Read time ≈ 4 minutes)
Isaiah 57:15
"For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite."
 
To be revived is to be given life again or to greatly increase the quality of life. What then, should we do with revival? Keep it revived! God can bring revival to a soul or to a people in just a moment of supernatural brilliance. It can be through many different ways or methods. But what matters the most is, will we maintain it? The life that has been given, will we tend to it? We cannot go from revival experience to revival experience and expect to form any meaningful type of relationship with our Lord. In fact, we run great risk of that flame dying out all together and never being reignited. Revival of our lives is God stoking the flame in our spirit but that flame must be steadily fed and maintained to experience an enduring revival that will go beyond just a moment and become more than just an experience.  
 
If we want enduring revival, we need to be enduring saints. That as we once were all of contrite and lowly spirits, we now have been given a revived spiritual life by God but now, we are redeemed, sanctified and called to purpose. Those who are sanctified by the Blood of Jesus are made saints (1 Corinthians 1:2). We are brought from contrite and lowly spirits to sainthood by the supernatural revival of God.
 
Revelation 14:12
Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus
 
The Kingdom of Heaven is near and the attacks on the faith of the saints are real. True revival is not a moment, but it is something that lasts. At the heart of every revival in church history, you will find enduring saints who have stayed true to the Lord and His ways for them. Do you want enduring revival? Then be an enduring saint. Hold Jesus as Lord over your life and allow His word to direct your life, even outside of the bonfire, gasoline on a fire, type of revival moments and then you will find something even more valuable. An enduring faith centered around the eternally enduring love of God. A life of continual, enduring revival. Don’t wait for moments. Life is but a mist, here today and gone tomorrow (James 4:14). Life is just a moment, rise to it, endure as a saint and you will continue to see Him revive you each day.
 

​The Heart of God Towards All Who Wonder (Read time ≈ 4 minutes)
Mark 16:6–7 (ESV)
And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.”
 
“And Peter”! What a call out! See, if we are not aware of the heart of God this may seem almost like a diss. Like, “my disciples… oh and Peter too”. We can almost take it as a dismissal of Peter as a disciple. We are well aware of Peter’s denial of Christ during His crucifixion. Peter crashed and burned… bad. If this angel had only told them “Go and tell the disciples.” then human judgement may have determined to leave Peter out of that classification. That because of Peter’s actions, he clearly is no longer a disciple. What was the status of Peter’s soul at that time? That is between Peter and God, but what we do know, is that Peter was in a rough spot.
 
No, this was no diss, this was no call out, this was the very love of God breaking through to Peter directly. This was, “go and tell the disciples that Christ fulfilled His promises to all of them! And for Peter too!” This was, “Peter is still mine, and I still care for him.” This was, “Peter, I’m not giving up on you that easy.” This was the very heart of God towards a struggling believer. That when someone has given up on themselves, and people have given up on them, God has not! This is the heart of God towards all who wonder. Not condemnation, but He calls to them for redemption.
 
We can both rest assured of Gods desire to restore us to repentance, but also we should reflect this heart towards others. That we should “put on” the characteristics of Christ in our lives (Colossians 3:12-15). That as our life crosses the paths others who perhaps are going through their own seasons that resemble Peter’s life in this moment, we too can be sure to reach them in this same manner. That we understand the very love of God and His compassion towards us and others. His desire for redemption for us and for others. That as God calls us to “go and tell” the ‘Peter’ around us that we would not go begrudgingly, but excitedly. That the Good News is good news every single day to every person and that we would be eager to deliver it to all.