One of the reasons I think it is hard, is because of assumptions... I assume I already know what the other person is thinking. I hate it when telemarketers call my phone or salesmen knock on my door. So I have a predisposed mindset that people view me the same way. I am thinking, that they will think, that all I want is their money. And then they will never want anything to do with me. But my assumptions have been changing, and so has that roadblock!
Because what I have discovered, is that when people really begin to comprehend the radical transformation that takes place in a student's life they usually want to be connected to it some way. That is the same reason I wanted to come to work with this ministry full time - it was a bit of a lifestyle change for us. To be honest, I wasn't sure my wife would want to be a part of it. But when I talked to her about it almost three years ago now, she didn't flinch or hesitate. She just started packing boxes. We both wanted to be a part of it and we were at a point in our lives where we could say, "Yes." We wanted to be a part of the ministry that we had often supported in the past.
We still love what we are doing and every day I walk into my office with an anxious excitement about who I will be talking to and spending time with today.One of the things I am reminded of as I think about the way God has grown me the past two and a half years; and the way he has stretched some of our staff and students spiritually--is the fact that sometimes He asks us or requires us to take a pretty big step of faith (which is sometimes disguised as a leap).
I talk to people almost every day who are struggling with addictions. And one of their biggest struggles is trying to grasp why God would want them to commit to something so radical as a twelve-month discipleship program. Their thought process is often their biggest roadblock to the greatest decision they could ever make! I can almost feel them teetering on the other side of the phone sometimes. Just when I think they are ready to give God 100% of their future, their hurts, their dreams and their struggles, it seems like something pulls them back and the walls of resistance are re-established. It's all in their mindset.
I think that all of us are guilty of making assumptions. We live most of our life on assumptions - also called paradigms. I am thoroughly convinced one of the biggest roadblocks to deeper spiritual encounters in God is our need to understand something before we experience it. But Jesus often asks us to step out and experience something before we have received the logical framework to understand it.
Human wisdom loves to justify disobedience or make excuses to avoid stretching circumstances. Human wisdom says, "If it isn't in the Word, don't do it." Jesus says, "Do what I tell you, then I'll show you where it is in the Word."
Sometimes, our greatest sin is settling for a mundane life and not stepping out into the unknown. God is looking for courageous pioneers. I think that is why Teen Challenge is so exciting. Our founder, David Wilkerson got rid of his television so it would be easier for him to spend more time talking to God. In talking to God, he was told to go to New York. So he left the comfortable community, where he was comfortable pastoring a cozy church that provided him with a comfortable house for his family. But the problem for David Wilkerson is that the more he talked to God, the more uncomfortable he became staying where he was at.
I think one of the reasons some people are so miserable, is because they can no longer be comfortable where they are at.
A person's mind is an important part of their being. It is a fortress that we strengthen with Scriptures, to fend off the enemy of our souls, but at times it can also be a stronghold to ward off God. As our spirits are renewed, we can move into forms of sanctified imagination and pattern recognition that are not "delusional thinking," but actually revelatory inspirations of the Holy Spirit. Rational thinking is good, only incomplete.
It was an illogical, nonsensical step of faith when Peter left the stern of the boat and launched out onto the platform of a foaming, churning sea. But from what I understand about the story, he did just fine as a water walker until he took his eyes off of Jesus and focused on the waves instead.
One of the spiritual realities I have always known, but God has been teaching in new ways; is that we will never step out to face giants without raw faith, because reason will always point to the fact that they are bigger than us. Faith pleases God, not brains. It is faith in the unseen that assures me God is over all.
I feel like I am facing some serious giants right now. Maybe you feel like there are some giants that are trying to keep you, and members of your family, out of the endzone of victory. I want to remind you that faith is the fueled by hope. Godly hope isn't pie-in-the-sky fantasizing! It is the ability to see something through spiritual eyes - a divinely anointed imagination. When a family member or addict begins to see what can happen if they give their lives totally to God, you can hear the change in their voice. When a potential donor, begins to catch the vision in their spirit, the opportunity of giving becomes a privilege of participating in something supernatural. When prayers become anointed with inspired expectation, religious formality is replaced with powerful proclamations!
If you would like to be a part of something that is so amazing, please get connected! We want you to be a part of what God is doing! You can be a part of it!
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