Faith Matters Podcast

Warrior; Day 2

Warrior; Day 1

Warrior; Day 5

Refresh Your Time

Just as a cold glass of water after finishing summer yard work refreshes and revitalizes us, manna provides us with the strength to keep going.This provides us with what we often refer to as a fresh wind.Many people know about the 80/20 principle; 80% of the value of your work comes from 20% of your time and effort. Sometimes it’s 70/30 or 90/10, but the general point is that a majority of your results come from a small minority of your time.Fewer people understand that 80/20 is iterative. The 20% breaks down into its own 80/20, and so on. The first iteration would predict that 4% of your time yields 64% of the results.The challenge is to figure out where to use your time!What is that 4%? Much leadership work is with people. Which people should you spend time with and why? How much energy should you allocate for strategic study and preparation?You could go to 50 respected leaders and get 20 different answers. There’s no clear formula.Christian leaders, however, are fortunate enough to have direction from the Holy Spirit. In this age of expanding choices and amplified noise, we need direction to make the highest value choices for our time, attention, and energy.Make time today to listen for divine direction.Get the big picture. You might find it helpful to step back and see how your role and current journey fits into the bigger picture of God’s plan.Reset your expectations.Set realistic timelines, and let God do what only He can do.Don’t let the fresh wind escape your sails. Instead, utilize it to guide you, the vessel, towards a brighter future.Remember, when God is on your side, who or what could possibly form against you?

Whisper; Day 1 - The Loudest Voice

The Loudest Voice in Your LifeIs it possible that what we perceive to be relational, emotional, and spiritual problems are actually hearing problems—ears that have been deafened to the voice of God? And it’s that inability to hear His voice that causes us to lose our voice and lose our way.Let me make a bold statement: Learning how to hear the voice of God is the solution to a thousand problems! It’s also the key to discovering our destiny and fulfilling our potential. His voice is love.His voice is power.His voice is healing.His voice is wisdom.His voice is joy.If your life is off-key, maybe it’s because you’ve been deafened by the negative self-talk that doesn’t let God get a Word in edgewise! Maybe you’ve listened to the voice of criticism so long you can’t believe anything else about yourself. Or maybe it’s the Enemy’s voice of condemnation that speaks lies about who you really are. If you don’t silence those competing voices, they’ll eventually deafen you. You won’t be able to sing God’s song because you won’t be able to hear His voice. Is God’s voice the loudest voice in your life?That’s the question.If the answer is no, that’s the problem.We live in a culture where everyone wants to have his or her voice heard but has so little to say. And that’s because we do so little listening, especially to God. The best way to get people to listen to us is for us to listen to God. Why? Because we’ll have something to say that is worth hearing. Ultimately, all of us need to find our voice. And by voice I mean the unique message God wants to speak through our lives. But finding our voice starts with hearing His voice. Let me issue a warning, though. If you aren’t willing to listen to everything God has to say, you eventually won’t hear anything He has to say. If you want to hear His comforting voice, you have to listen to His convicting voice. And it’s often what we want to hear least that we need to hear most. Trust me, though, you want to hear what He has to say. Are you ready?When was the last time you heard God’s voice? What did He say or ask? How did you respond?

Whisper; Day 2 - Come Closer

Come CloserGod has an outside voice, and He’s not afraid to use it. But when God wants to be heard, when what He has to say is too important to miss, He often speaks in a whisper just above the absolute threshold of hearing. My dictionary defines whisper as “speaking very softly using one’s breath without one’s vocal cords.” The use of breath instead of vocal cords is significant. Isn’t that how God created Adam? He whispered into the dust and named it Adam. Adam was once a whisper. So were you. So was everything else. Whispering is typically employed for the sake of secrecy. No form of communication is more intimate. So why does God so often speak in whispers? When someone speaks in a whisper, you have to get very close to hear. In fact, you have to put your ear near the person’s mouth. We lean toward a whisper, and that’s what God wants. The goal of hearing the heavenly Father’s voice isn’t just hearing His voice; it’s intimacy with Him. He speaks in a whisper because He wants to be as close to us as is divinely possible! He loves us, likes us, that much. When our children were young, I’d sometimes speak in a whisper so they would inch closer to me. That’s when I’d grab them and hug them. God plays the same trick on us. We want to hear what He has to say, but He wants us to know how much He loves us. Aren’t you grateful for a gentle God? The Almighty could intimidate us with His outside voice, but He woos us with a whisper. And His whisper is the very breath of life. There’s an old adage that those who dance are thought mad by those who hear not the music. That is certainly true of those who walk to the beat of God’s drum. When you take your cues from the Holy Spirit, you’ll do some things that will make people think you’re crazy. So be it. Obey the whisper and see what God does. Because nothing has the potential to change your life like the whisper of God. Nothing will determine your destiny more than your ability to hear His still small voice. That’s how God-sized dreams are birthed. That’s how miracles happen. When was the last time you invited the Holy Spirit to speak to you? Are you actively inviting God to speak to you?