Blessings Come With Battles

God will use our promise to train us in warfare…
 
Have you ever felt promise heat? That promise heat, that promise struggle, gets tough when we get close. Sometimes it feels like when we pray hard it gets harder and when we stand up, more attacks show up.
 
God will teach us how to fight when the time is right.
 
Let’s unpack that…God uses the place He’s going to bless us in to teach us how to fight for our blessings. How to handle the conflict and the devils that come with new levels.
 
See, inheritance comes before possession. Between inheritance and possession there’s God warfare. When we inherit what God has for us, we have to be trained in the warfare that God knows will come with possession.
 
Put this in your spirit…When the children of Israel entered into the promise, God left some of their enemies in the land to teach them how to war for their promise. The Bible declares: “God left enemies in the land to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan…He did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience” (Judges 3:1-2).
 
Did you hear what God said? The warfare has a purpose. You won’t stand by those divine boundaries without divine tests that will convict you to stick by you. You won’t have a great relationship without divine tests that will convince you that a great relationship takes great work. You won’t guard your heart without warfare that pricks you to convince you that when God shows you who people are, believe Him. You won’t appreciate the right one until you get tired of the wrong one’s. 
 
You prayed for a business but did you understand the fight that comes along with possessing that promise? You can pray for a ministry, a marriage, authority to break generational curses but did you anticipate the attacks and the challenges that come along with that blessing? Most of us don’t. But God does…
 
“…for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8)
 
God’s promises come with warfare that will train us how to keep and fight for the land that we possess. Why? Because God won’t take us to a place or level without training us in the warfare that will enable us to stay there.
 
You can be set free from a past relationship and no sooner that you get free, all hell breaks loose in your emotions. Before you were free you were miserable about being in bondage and now that you’re free, you’re struggling to be happy about being free. Why? Because the battle is not over your history, the battle is over your destiny…God is going to allow the conflict you need to convince you that you don’t need what you had. You will have to war through emotions that will work out any doubt.
 
“Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5:3-5).
 
The battle is not against you, it’s for you. I know that makes no sense, I know it might contradict everything you’ve heard but the truth is, God trains us in warfare in our winning season!
 
You won’t learn how to fight for peace until enough peace breakers convince you that your oil is not free and your anointing is not to be played with. You won’t trust God in the waiting season, you won’t stop doubting God when you can’t see what He’s doing, until you go through enough to figure out that whining does not win and doubt won’t get you out.
 
That perfect relationship comes with hard work. That new chapter comes with new responsibilities. That business comes with sacrifice. That ministry comes with being cut. That breakthrough will require you to break out of some stuff. Resurrection power comes with resurrection suffering (Philippians 3:10).
 
Somebody knows what I’m talking about…Some of us have prayed for God to open a door, release us from a situation, reveal an enemy, launch a ministry or business, or give us the desire of our heart, only to find out that the blessing comes with a whole ‘nother set of problems.
 
This is your winning season! Your possession comes with preparation beloved. It might feel like you’re going backwards, it might feel like you can’t catch a break, it might feel like the blessing is a burden but this is warfare for your welfare beloved. God is getting your mind right, your heart right so you can keep what He gave you.
 
Prophesy over your possession…”I’m not being punished, I’m being prepared!”
 
Fight!
 
 
Pastor Patrick


Shares
facebook sharing button
Share
twitter sharing button
Tweet
email sharing button
Email
messenger sharing button
Share

Read more...

TAKE THE WEIGHT OFF YOUR WAIT ON GOD

 
Don’t you just want to scream sometimes when you know God is going to do it but the wait is killing you? We all go through this and if we keep on living, we’ll go through it again.
 
Have you noticed waiting on God is the only time that we feel the weight of our faith? Faith under pressure is the condition that challenges us to trust God on a new level, to walk in peace even though we’re in pieces.
 
I remember a time when I was in God’s waiting room and everything that could go wrong went wrong. Everything that was supposed to go right went wrong. The longer I waited, the more stuff seemed to go wrong. If you’ve ever been in that position, or maybe you are now, you know that keeping your sanity is a job all by itself. After I put down the weight, I thought to myself, “If God is real, this has to be a setup.” The fact that we’re in the waiting room is evidence that it is a setup. God said, “All things work together for the good.” That means all!
 
It’s hard to see a setup when emotions are hot when we’re stressed up and borderline desperate. When it has to happen on our schedule, when it has to go the way we planned it, when it has to do what we want it to do or they have to do what we want them to do when we want them to do it, the wait is 10 times worse. Eventually, we realize or God forces us to understand, no amount of worry, no amount of tears, no amount of frustration, no amount of anger will make God do anything. Only faith and work can do that (Hebrews 11:6).
 
Put This In Your Spirit: The thing you’re waiting on is the very thing that God is going to use to grow you with. When you’re waiting on God, God is growing you in an area that almost always hinders you from walking in peace when you’re going through the process.
 
God’s waiting room is always about preparation. Even when the deadline is coming, or passed, it’s always about preparation. Even when we think the worse is going to happen or is already happening, it’s still about preparation.
 
When we’re in God’s waiting room, it’s never about what we’re waiting for, it’s about what God is waiting for. What God is waiting on to grow inside of us. There is nothing wrong with putting a timer on a blessing or a breakthrough, as long as we don’t forget these 3 things:
 
  1. We’re never waiting on God to do something, we’re growing to what God has already done. (Psalm 139:16)
  2. God does not work on our schedule. He works things together for the good when the time is good. (Romans 8:28)
  3. God is not working on what we want, God is working on what we need — the two can be the same but the fact that we’re in the waiting room says that what we wanted or when we wanted does not line up with God’s plans. (Philippians 4:19)
 
Remember the bible says, “Be anxious for nothing…” This is not always easy to do and the harder it is for us to do it, the longer the wait will be. “Be anxious for nothing,” doesn’t mean don’t do anything while you’re waiting, it just means that trust in God has to go up in order for our focus to stay on our peace rather than on God’s timing.
 
“But they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).

 

If you’re in God’s waiting room, no matter how long or no matter what for, focus on keeping your peace while you keep walking. The bible says, “…And hope will never make us ashamed,” so as long as we hope right, walk right and wait right, God will make everything turn outright. Stay focused, talk to yourself, encourage yourself, you got this!
 
Pastor Patrick
 
 
 

Read more...

HOW TO DEAL WITH DIFFICULT PEOPLE

What do you do when you have to deal with difficult people?  You can’t just walk away from every difficult situation or just cut off every difficult person.  A difficult person is not somebody who’s optional, a difficult person is somebody who we have to deal with.
 
Why? Optional people are not difficult.  If they aren’t required or necessary, you can walk away from them instead of putting up with them.  Problem solved!
 
No, your difficult person is not that simple.  The spirit of difficulty has to use somebody who is a part of your life, who has a role and a position in your life that makes dealing with them necessary or even required.  Family can be difficult, bosses can be difficult, spouses can be difficult. We can even be our own difficult person. 
 
How do you deal with somebody who is difficult? Let’s address some points upfront. Somebody right now is being abused — mentally or physically.  If this is you or somebody you know, tolerating abuse is not difficult, it’s deadly.  Deadly is not to be tolerated, cooperated with, or confused with God’s will.  We’re not talking about people who are a threat to our well being, we’re talking about people who we desire to get along with but for some reason, it’s difficult.
 
Put This In Your Spirit: Haven’t you noticed that the difficult person affects the way you deal with them?  Remember, self-control is a fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).  The first rule for dealing with difficult people is, “Be the thermostat and not the thermometer.”  This is easier said than done but nothing is possible until you use your power to control you first.  
 
Some folks think that believing in God means that we don’t or won’t encounter difficult spirits. That’s foolery. Grown Christians have read: “A fool’s lips walk into a fight, and his mouth invites a beating” (Proverbs 18:6).
 
Remember, they are difficult because they are necessary, important or not optional at the moment. Every difficulty in life, every wall, every challenge is a symbol of our difficult person. Sometimes God puts us in difficult situations because there is no way around it except through Him — If we allow it, our most difficult person or situation will cause us to go deeper in Him and higher in power.
 
Without difficult situations, we would not know what Jesus meant when He said, “With man this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).  The difficult person, difficult situation is going to be overcome by your power.  This is what is meant by, “Turn the other cheek.”  Turning the other cheek has nothing to do with letting somebody slap you twice.  You’re not literally turning the other cheek, you’re turning to power to respond instead of turning into them, acting like them, or turning your power over to them.  Turning the other cheek and owning your power, feelings, and response is your victory in difficult situations.
 
When the situation or the person, the problem or the difficulty has control over us, we are owned by them and that’s what makes them difficult. Think about it — If you’re smart enough to know they’re difficult but you’re letting them dictate how you act or feel — they’re controlling your temperature.  You have to flip the script — be the thermostat and not the thermometer and watch what happens.
 
Every difficult person, difficult situation and the difficult problem has one thing in common, purpose.  When God allows difficult, He’s preparing you for a greater release of your power.    
 
They may never change, the problem may never change but the victory is not about them or it.  The victory is about walking in power when you have to deal with difficulty.  If you stay in power, God will move or remove what will not change.
 
Share and be blessed.
 
 
 


Read more...

THE TROUBLE WITH EXPECTING TOO LITTLE

Some of us have lived, lasted, and survived on too little for too long. Existing on crumbs or fumes instead of chasing the life that God planned for us.
 
Settling for less, expecting or accepting less than what we deserve is dangerous. We aren’t just living, we are fulfilling prophecy. Every decision allows or blocks what God planned for us: “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:16).
 
Put This In Your Spirit: The bible says, “For it is God who works in you to will and to act on behalf of His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). We close the door on God when we open the door to less than we deserve. 
 
We don’t have to get spooky but let’s get real. We don’t need to believe in God if we don’t believe that we were created for greatness (Psalm 17:8, Psalm 139:16, Jeremiah 29:11), that we were saved to leave a legacy by living a legacy (John 10:10).
 
Haven’t you been in a situation, a relationship that you couldn’t explain why but every day that you were in it, it felt like a bear was sitting on your chest? The longer you stayed in it, the heavier it felt. You actually started to feel depressed, sad, and even distressed without knowing why. You were not grieving beloved, the Holy Spirit was grieving (Ephesians 4:30).
 
When we abandon God’s plans for our life, His will, the Holy Spirit Grieves. Our soul knows, and we know when our soul is aching that something is wrong, something is off, something is not right. Call it a sixth sense or, call it woke or connected, but every Christian has a divine frequency that the Holy Spirit speaks on. The bible said it this way, “…The Holy Spirit is a witness to my conscience” (Romans 9:1).
 
If it causes us to walk away from God’s blueprint for our life, the Holy Spirit will disturb our conscience. The longer we keep doing whatever it is that is against God’s plans for our life, the more uncomfortable it becomes. Eventually, God will make settling or being on the wrong page unbearable.
 
Put This In Your Spirit: Continuing to settle for less, walking away from our promise denies Jesus (John 10:10). God said it’s like a Dog returning to his vomit (2 Peter 2:20-22). When we walk away from God’s will, the bible says: “They are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning” (2 Peter 2:20).
 
Haven’t you noticed whenever you’re out of order, nothing goes right, all hell breaks loose, and a feeling of joy dying starts to rise up?  God said it would — James 1:13-15.  Jesus was serious when He said we should pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). 
 
This is the key. Right now, you are going in the right direction. But sometimes we can be going in the right direction, “South,” but on the wrong road or with the wrong person, or with wrong thinking. With the wrong attitude or the wrong desire. With the wrong emotions or the wrong influences. You have to do right by you in order for God to prosper you.  
 
It’s time. From how you go through to who you go through with. From your love life to your best life. From emotions to thinking.  If it walks you away from, causes you to settle, act beneath, or detours you from God’s plan for your destiny, make it right beloved. You know like I know, we don’t always do right the first time but when we know better, we have to do better (James 4:17) — Our life, our prophecy is on the line.
 
When you do right by you, you give God the ability to work through you to bless your life in ways that you never dreamed of.
 
Share and be blessed.
 
Pastor Patrick
 

Read more...

GOD TURNED IT AROUND

God turned it around!  But what does that mean? You can’t see it, nothing has changed, the bill is still due, your heart is still hurting, but God already turned it around…
 
If you have been or are in God’s waiting room, you know that it can be the most uncomfortable place to be — It’s the nighttime of our faith (Psalm 30:5).  God is working things together for the good of our faith when it’s nighttime. Patience is a fruit of the spirit, not a skill of the flesh (Galatians 5:22).
 
Haven’t you noticed that when our faith is challenged, the light of hope tends to get dim — or goes out completely.  Anytime we have a faith challenge bigger than before, or a challenge that we have not grown from yet, it’s a set up for our come up.
 
Why?  Because God does His best work when we have to walk by faith and not by sight.  God already knew what you needed before you needed it: “…For your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:8). When we’re waiting, God is working — on us.
 
Take it one step farther. God knew when you would need it and what you would need before you were even born: “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:16).
 
Did you see that God wrote your need and the answer in His book before you were born into this life? We’re living in God’s history, our present is God’s past, today is God’s yesterday.  God is not turning it around, God already turned it around!
 
God uses “It,” whatever our it is that challenges our faith, to grow our faith.  It takes time and pressure to produce a diamond, and the only time we grow in faith is when our faith is challenged, resisted — the nighttime.  When it’s nighttime, it’s growing time.
 
Put This In Your Spirit:
 
The Apostle Paul was chief among Apostles.  As a requirement for the 12 Apostle’s in the new testament, one had to be taught directly by Christ.  Unlike the other Apostles in the bible, the Apostle Paul was not taught while Christ was on earth.  The bible tells us that while unconscious from a beating, Apostle Paul was caught up to heaven and revealed the word of God directly from the Lord.  Now, imagine being caught up to heaven and God giving you a private, one-on-one faith study, and then finding yourself with a thorn in the flesh — a pain so intense, that all of your teaching goes out of the window.  Nighttime — This is what happened to the Apostle Paul and will happen to us (2 Corinthians 12:3-10).
 
If you thought your faith had arrived, you would agree that the Apostle Paul should have been more than arrived.  But he wasn’t, and neither are we.  Faith does not grow because we have it, faith grows because we go through it with God. We don’t meet grace when we read about it, we meet grace when we cannot do anything about it.
 
The Apostle Paul tells us what God uses nighttime for: “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:8-10).
 
Did you catch it?  Nighttime is God’s time to:
 
  1. Introduce us to grace on a new level
  2. Perfect the power of His word in our weakness
  3. Increase the resurrection power of Jesus on our life
  4. Turn our fears, weaknesses into supernatural strength
 
Victory in Christ is not just what shows up on the outside but also what grows up on the inside.  Our victory in faith produces our victories in life.  You’re not being delayed or punished, you’re being prepared and promoted.  Have you asked God what He’s working on inside of you?  What fruit is God growing?
 
Trust God, your prayer is already answered.  You’re not waiting on victory, you’re growing to victory. God already turned it around!
 
Share and be blessed.
 
Pastor Patrick
 


Read more...

GOD IS TAKING YOU SLOW

We just are not wired to wait.  Nothing about waiting is appealing or enjoyable in the flesh.  We want what we want when we want it, and the less we understand about what the wait is for the worse the wait is.
 
Those times between prayers going up and promises coming down can “feel like” the worst times in our faith walk — if you’re human.  The fact is, the bible does not tell us that we wait on promises or that God goes to work when our need shows up. 
Put This In Your Spirit:  The bible said, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10).  We aren’t waiting on the promise, we’re waiting in the promise.  We don’t have a wait, we have a work that grows us to the level of faith that manifests the promise that existed before our need did!
 
The weight in our wait comes from our faith being challenged.  Have you noticed that our heart and mind is stressed up the most when we are, “Waiting on God?”  Have you noticed that when we cannot see (or trust) what God is doing, our emotions tend to start doing the fool? Don’t think some of us are exempt from the stress that comes from being in God’s waiting room — Jesus sweated blood in the waiting room (Luke 22:44).
 
God is saying, I’m not working on the promise, I’m using the problem to grow your fruit. Watch this, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).  God already knows that If we try to wait in the flesh, the wait will become a weightPatience is a fruit of the spirit, not a mental or an emotional skill (Galatians 5:22).
 
In other words, waiting starts to break us, stress us, discourage us because, without the fruit of Patience, we don’t have what it takes to wait. Sometimes God has to wait for the fruit of Joy to mature in order for us to handle His no.  Remember, the Apostle Paul didn’t get His thorn removed, he received grace for his race.  Can your Joy handle: He’s not bringing them back, He’s going to move you forward. He’s not going to fix them, He’s going to grow your trust so you will believe Him when He shows you who somebody is. He’s not going to make it happen overnight, it will happen when the time is right. He won’t open the door you want, He’s opening the door that leads to your destiny.  If our Joy is not mature enough to handle God’s will —  “Nevertheless, not my will but your will be done,” God will delay us to grow us so His answer won’t kill us.
Watch this: Remember, God said the victory is already won (1 Corinthians 15:57).  In order to have the fruit of Patience, we have to grow the fruit of Self-Control.  In order to grow the fruit of Self-Control, we have to grow the fruit of Joy – unshakable trust in God’s will and plan.  In order to experience the fruit of Peace in the storm, we have grow the fruit of Love — our love for God anchors all fruit.  All fruit are connected and Jesus said, “…Apart from Him we cannot bear fruit.”
 
God is a fruit inspector.  Look at the problem, the need, the challenge again but through God’s eyes.  Is it a fruit problem?  If God is not a man that He should lie, where is our anxiety coming from — if not our need to mature our fruit?  Our human reaction is a condition that cannot be solved without growing fruit — growing deeper in our faith and relationship with Jesus.
 
Put This In Your Spirit: We cannot cast our cares on the Lord without putting our trust in the Lord — Joy.  If the problem is causing us problems in our faith, access to the promise will be delayed until our fruit is matured to our next level (Philippians 2:12).
 
Your promise, your answer, your strategic plan, your escape, the divine intervention, the wisdom, and the connection you need are in God’s hands. Access is not denied, access is delayed when God is working on our fruit.  
 
Work your fruit. When it’s time to grow, God takes us slowly.  When we grow, God lets go of what He already has for us (Hebrews 11:6).  
 
Share and be blessed.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Read more...

WHEN HELL GETS THE GLORY

“Looking saved,” without being healed gives hell the glory.  Dancing in church without scoring in life might impress the church people but it gives hell the glory. Promoting faith that cares more about how high we jump as opposed to how healthy we are or how we walk when we come down, gives hell the glory. Anything that causes our faith to not represent our Truth, hell gets the glory.
 
Pastor Pete Scazzero once said, “A true surrender of our will to God’s will is a learned and struggled-for obedience.” We don’t glorify God by glorying in pretentiousness, pretending as if saved means solved or acting like salvation means we fell from heaven – we all came up from hell, and we’re all fighting or struggling to go higher in faith every day (Philippians 2:12).
 
I have never met a perfect Christian and I’m not looking for one. What we should see are Christians humbly working, and growing through adversity, tests, and trials that produce greatness. Christ died for our imperfection, not to confirm we don’t need God (Romans 4:25).  If we don’t have anything else in common, we have this: We will all always need God.
 
Denial and pretentiousness give hell the glory, denies our story, and prevents us from being transparent with each other. Iron sharpens iron when it’s transparent, not when it’s wearing a mask – A testimony cannot have blood in it if we were not cut for it (Revelation 12:11).
 
Christ said to the Apostle Peter, “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith will not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:31-32).  Peter’s sifting positioned him to help his brothers, not his belief alone (James 2:19). Just like Peter, belief does not grow us, what we grow through grows us.
 
We cannot strengthen each other if we’re not strong enough to admit that our strength comes from being sifted, not from being perfect. We cannot disciple people if we’re too busy trying to be too holy to be any earthly good (Romans 7:23-25). 
 
An authentic relationship with God is between the natural and the Supernatural, the weak and the Strong, the Holy, and the unclean.  We should be reminded of our condition whenever we are in the presence of God unless we’re deceived by our own ego – “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).
 
Our greatest challenge is not being saved, it’s embracing the meaning and the purpose of worship.  Catch this: 1 John 1:8 said, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”  John 4:24 says, “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”  If we didn’t know, now we know: If we claim to be without sin we cannot worship God in spirit and in truth – because the truth is not in us.
 
Nobody comes right out and says they’re perfect in God’s sight but it’s in our lack of humility, compassion, and judgment of others. It’s in our inability or refusal to sit with those who Christ called us to.  It’s in our denial and lack of sympathy for human conditions that cause us and others to struggle,  that cause us to need God (Galatians 6:1).
 
Nothing is more powerful than our ability to fellowship with one another (Matthew 18:20), but we cannot fellowship or help each other, in or out of the church, if we cannot be real with each other. Are you comfortable letting God use your truth, your healing, and the compassion that comes from your forgiveness to lift others up? Our greatest sacrifice, highest honor is to be used by God to help others.
 
As Christians, we are safe places for people to grow, for people to be sifted and for cutting to take place that produces the blood of our testimony.  When we love God, we are acknowledging that we’re all in it together, God is the potter and we’re the clay, we need the blood of each other’s testimony to survive, we are no better than and, our story gives God the glory. God is lifted up when we show up perfectly imperfect.
 
Share and be blessed.
 

Read more...

Faith Under Pressure

Scripture Reference: James 1:1-12

Life is not a cakewalk or a bed of roses all of the time. We know this but that doesn’t make life’s pressures or pains any less difficult. When our faith is being tested, we can feel alone, weak, defeated, anxious, and overwhelmed. Notice I said, “feel.” When life happens, the natural instinct, normal reaction is to feel first — as long as we’re human this will be true. Feelings tell us what to think about what we see.
 
We are never ready for a test, we can only be prepared to grow. God knows how to grow us because He created us. God doesn’t cause everything that happens in our life but He causes everything to work together for the good (Romans 8:28). Pressure busts pipes, and when the enemy has us under pressure, he usually has us believing and thinking things that cancel whose we are, who we are, and what the truth is (2 Corinthians 10:5).
 
No matter what the trial or pressure is, even if we’ve caused it, God is faithful (1 John 1:9). The bible says, “…And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). When we find ourselves under faith pressure, we have to fight every temptation to let emotions override our truth.
 
Confidence releases pressure. The bible says, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). In other words, God’s power increases as we release the pressure of doubt, fear, and anxiety through trust in God and hope in the divine assurance that no weapon formed against us will prosper, that with God all things are possible, that he who the Son sets free is free indeed, that every setback is set up and every miracle needs a mess. It’s not easy to turn off emotions or pretend as if hurt does not hurt — decreasing does not mean to dismiss what happened, it means to intentionally surrender emotions that stand between us and doing what beasts do, what greatness does to honor self.
 
Some have been tempted to believe that trials or pressure only comes to those who lack faith. Not true. Trials and pressure do not discriminate and they have no respect of person. In fact, without pressure faith would not grow — faith grows when our trust in God grows: “…When I am weak then am I strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10). God allows our resistance to cause pressure to grow us beyond our comfort zone. Destiny does not come to where we are, we grow to it.  The pressure is pushing you into destiny love, destiny joy, destiny peace, destiny visions.
 
When someone leaves your life, that’s not the test. The test and the pressure is whether or not we will trust in God’s word and “lean not to our own understanding,” about a season. God said, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11). This is God’s covenant with us, this is our pressure release valve — Hope and confidence in God’s promise is the only way that we can release the pressure that comes from the weight of hurt, fear, and failure.
 
Releasing weight is not easy. Releasing hurt is not easy. Pressures in life don’t come from easy issues. Conflict, guilt, disappointment, struggle are emotional attacks that will rage, war, and battle against us until we find the courage to hope in the Lord and walk in the strength that comes from releasing and being set free from the emotional weights that cause our pressure (Hebrews 12:1).
 
The bible says, “…Weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5); the morning of our joy — in any situation, trial or test, is the moment when we rise up in faith and tell our emotions, “Peace be still.” The morning comes when faith overrides what we see and confidence in our truth declares the victory, the healing, the recovery, the breakthrough, the divine intervention — in advance.  In other words, morning comes when we tell hell, “No, not today, not this time, not as long as I’m breathing.”
 
Life will sometimes blind you, people will sometimes hurt you, jobs will sometimes lay off, losses will occur and life lessons will come but God’s grace is sufficient to endure, to stand up in it, and release the emotional pressure that causes us to walk by sight and not by faith. It takes work, it takes time, it takes prayer for strength and courage to walk out of emotions and walk in power. But there is no other way out.
 
Stand in the faith. Focus on the release. Know that when you’re in life’s gym, you’re getting stronger, better and wiser. You might not see it or feel it right now but you are a miracle in the making — pressure produces diamonds. Grow through it, don’t die to it. When life works you out, do your faith work and remember, God is faithful to your faith!

 

Share and be blessed.
 
Pastor Patrick
 
 

Read more...

It’s An Inside Job

Haven’t you noticed that the biggest fights come from what you cannot control, what you cannot work out, or what you cannot change — on your own.  When God is working on the inside, the outside is impossible to change, impossible to fix, and impossible to control.
 
The power, the wisdom, the favor we desire and should expect, is a result of God’s ability to mold and shape our faith through adversity, challenges, and weaknesses (2 Corinthians 12:10). When God is working on the inside, He’s preparing us to produce His fruit on the outside: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you” (John 15:16).
 
Obedience is not just about doing what’s right, obedience is about the position. When God is positioning our thoughts, emotions, or growing us out of our comfort zone, life shows up to make blind spots visible and to make us uncomfortable being comfortable where God is trying to grow us from.  God desires to give us the desires of our heart but our heart has to desire what is in God’s will, what is in God’s plan for us (Jeremiah 29:11), and that our faith is mature enough to handle.
 
The breakup, the letdown, the struggle, the argument, the disappointment, the difficult choice, the hurt that cripples us, the relationship that nearly breaks us, the career that stalls, the job that quits us, the faith in wrong things all present a fight that will cause us to go deeper in Christ or go crazy in emotions. 
 
Haven’t you noticed the more it hurts, the harder it is to pray? The more afraid we are, the angrier we are, and the more disbelieving we are, the more distracted we are? The bible says, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” (Romans 8:35).  Are you separated from God by the problem, is your obedience to the truth subject to what’s happening? Can you trust God, own your peace through confidence in what God said even when all hell is breaking loose…when you’re in the fiery furnace or the lion’s den? 
 
When God is working on the inside, the outside will tell us why.  Did you give up on your life because a season ended?  Did you trust the enemy and doubt God because the situation looked impossible, because doing what comes next was uncomfortable or because emotions overrode the wisdom of God (Proverbs 4:7)? God is saying, “A storm is a Situation That Overrides a Righteous Mind.” The only thing that can and will bring us back into position to be blessed is obedience to our truth — lining up our thoughts with the wisdom of God, our hope in Christ, and God’s plans for our life (Psalm 23:4, 2 Corinthians 10:5).
 
If God is working on the inside, He’s not working on what’s going on outside.  He’s not trying to fix them, He’s working on you.  He’s not working on that job, that turndown, that failure or that rejection, that closed door or that wrong, God is working on the inside to keep what happens on the outside from destroying us.  We have this assurance, “God works all things together for the good…” (Romans 8:28).
 
God wants your obedience to His word. No matter how bad it hurts right now, no matter what emotions say, God desires our heart to tremble at the truth and not the situation: Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?” declares the LORD. “These are the ones I look on with favor: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word” (Isaiah 66:2).
 
You’re not being punished, you’re being prepared. This is God’s power move.  God is proving that you were stronger than you thought you were.  He’s drawing you closer to unstoppable, fearless faith.  He’s building up your confidence, He’s making your path straight and He’s reminding you that, “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.”  This is your setup for your divine come up.  Get in position, get in the truth, God is getting ready to turn your fire into your fruit.
 
Share and be blessed.
 
Pastor Patrick
 
 

Read more...

When Storms Come

If you’re like most of us, a storm can seem like all hell is breaking loose.  Winds of confusion can beat up against our faith, and problems can look like rivers overflowing the banks of our hope. A storm can come from any direction and can occur at any time.
 
The one thing we know about storms is that everybody will go through them (Matthew 5:45).  Every storm has clarity in it, a blessing in it, and destiny power in it. The biggest problem we have in a storm is getting over the initial reaction.  We don’t have to pretend like we’re not hurt or that the storm feels good — hurt hurts real people and to hurt is human (2 Corinthians 4:17).
 
When a storm comes into our life, a storm is almost always necessary.  Storms bring clarity.  The disciples went through a storm with Jesus (Matthew 8:23-27), just like we will. They were with Jesus when the storm came, just like we are.  They were frightened by the storm, they got in their feelings and their feelings overrode their trust in Jesus. Sound familiar?
 
While the disciples were stressing, Jesus was sleeping (Matthew 8:24). Can you imagine what God is thinking about the storms that come up against us? Are you able to see the storm as God sees it?  God sees, “No weapon formed against you will prosper.”
 
When the disciples woke Jesus to tell Him about the storm, Jesus said, “O you of little faith” (Matthew 8:26).  Here’s where the clarity comes in.  Jesus was not telling the disciples that they had a little amount of faith, He was telling them that they were not even using a small amount of the faith they have (Romans 12:3).  Every storm will give us clarity about the level of faith that we’re on; the level of faith we’re on decides how “Furious” the storm looks.
 
There’s a blessing in the storm.  To get the blessing out of the storm, to see the mess turned into a miracle, we have to move past the initial shock, awe and hurt to remember that the storm is not the threat, a lack of faith is the threat.  The bible says, “Be it, according to your faith” (Matthew 9:29).  Faith does not mean the absence of a storm, faith gives us power in and over the storm (Matthew 17:20, Hebrews 11:6).
 
Your storm is pushing you into your destiny.  A storm says, “It’s time to move, it’s time to go higher, it’s time to let go, it’s time to trust on a destiny level.  When destiny is growing us out of our comfort zone, it gets uncomfortable.  What is God growing you out of? What were you afraid of before the storm? What was holding your confidence back, your peace back, your love back, before the storm?  The storm becomes a blessing when we understand its purpose.
 
This is not just a storm, this is a divine wind, this is a supernatural force that is pushing you to trust God on a whole new level. When Jesus rebuked the storm it immediately calmed. Jesus was not only speaking to the storm, but He was also speaking to the emotions of the disciples.  Before we can have peace on the outside, we have to calm the storm on the inside — through faith and confidence in Jesus.
 
Get your blessing out of the storm.  Your destiny is too important not to!
 
Share and be blessed.
 
Pastor Patrick
 

Read more...