The first chapter of Hebrews says: “...God…makes His servants flames of fire…”
Do you serve the mighty God of Israel? Have you received His engrafted word which is able to save you into your heart?
Have you asked the Lion of Judah to live in your heart and speak to others?
Then there’s a roar in your bones.
Many things come to war against this roar of the Spirit. Insecurity is so common nowadays, it seems weird to speak boldly.
You might look uncool.
Inferiority isn’t just a mindset. It’s a demonic spirit.
People will say things to me. Treat me a certain way. Before long, I look at myself and all my lack. And believe me, I have lack.
I’ve been so crippled up by inferiority in the past.
I’ve literally hidden away in my room when other guys came, convinced I wasn’t nearly as good as they were.
I’ve been in tears, my whole body a giant knot.
I’ve made a list of all my flaws, and felt like the most miserable being in the entire planet. I wanted to buy a T-shirt that said: “I’m the Idiot”.
I’ve struggled with looking at my own lack. I knew I needed to behold God in the situation.
But I was so “self” conscious, I struggled to be “God” conscious. It was not easy to leave that place of unworthiness.
I remember the day when I began to realize that that feeling on worthlessness didn’t come from me. I was working on cutting trim, and I heard that familiar narrative.
“You remember that time you screwed up that situation…”
I heard it then. That wasn’t me.
Nor did God say that about me. God was wanting to speak to me that day, move in my life, but it wasn’t about: “John, thus saith the Lord. You’re a loser.”
What’s more? I had authority to bind that.
“Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ…” 2 Corinthians 10:5.
I had authority over my thought life! That worthlessness I felt was actually a demonic stronghold wanting to distract me from what God was wanting to do. Even more, it wanted to distract me from the people God wanted me to speak to.
That revelation that day while I was cutting trim was the beginning of the end of that in my life.
Years ago, a man had a near death experience(NDE). He died and went to Heaven.
In Heaven, God spoke to him, and one of the things God told him was: “in the universe, there is something called a ‘black hole’. To prove to you that this experience is real, I’ll tell you that they will discover black holes soon.”
(This was in the 1960s. Sure enough, they discovered black holes a few years later.)
“Black holes are a picture of what happens when people focus on themselves. Black holes will suck everything in, even the light.”
Once I read an interview by someone who does parkour.
You know, those crazy people on YouTube who leap from rooftop to rooftop, performing crazy leaps high off the ground?
Someone asked: “how can you make all these jumps and do all these stunts so far off the ground without freaking out? What’s your secret?”
“The secret is you can’t focus on what isn’t there. You have to focus on what IS there.”
That quote changed my life.
Walking with God is the same.
Going through trials and the intensity–even the aggravation of dealing with other flawed humans like myself–it’s so easy to focus on the lack.
It’s easy to focus on what isn’t there. But looking at that constantly drains you.
Again, you have to focus on what IS there.
What’s that quote by that one philosopher? “If you look long enough into the void, the void begins to look back through you.”
You can focus on all the things you’re missing until the cows come home, but it still doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. It’s a trick of our enemy, satan, to redirect our focus.
After all, as 1 John 3:2 says: “...we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is”.
In other words, seeing God as He is makes us like Him.
Seeing our lack and our human frailty? It guts us of our confidence to speak to others.
“What do you have to ‘roar’ about?” That old serpent, satan, hisses. “Who do you think you are?”
It isn’t who we are. It is not about who we are.
It’s about Who God is.
Do you know how BIG God is?
Someone told me that years ago.
I was going through some trials–I can’t remember what now…they were probably nothing, really, but at the time, they seemed big.
I called up a friend for help, and I never forgot what he said.
“No matter how big your problems are, they’ll never be bigger than God.”
God’s spirit is a spirit of confidence. Boldness. Authority.
Do you remember in the Gospels, how the people were astonished at Jesus– “for he taught them as one having authority” and not as the mere religious people of Jesus’ day.
Well, that’s Jesus. Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah, after all.
But, no, that’s not just Jesus.
Do you remember in Acts 4: 13?
“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled…”
What happened to Peter and John that gave them boldness?
The Spirit of God filled Peter and John.
The same Spirit settled on Jesus in the form of a dove as Jesus was in the river Jordan. God has poured His Spirit upon all flesh, as it says in Acts 2:17.
That same Spirit–that Spirit of boldness and authority–is in us!!
“But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you…” Romans 8:11.
Someone told me once: “John, take a few steps forward.”
I was in a gathering of people, and I stepped out. Everyone was looking at me and I felt self-conscious.
“Why are you self-conscious?” I was asked. “Don’t you know the Bible says the footsteps of the righteous are ordered of the Lord?”
Someone once said, “Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden because of insecurity.”
The serpent in the garden hissed: “Surely God didn’t mean that.”
It made Eve insecure in what God said. That insecurity caused the fall.
We are blessed of all men for His Name’s sake. We are a royal priesthood.
“I will not fail you, nor forsake you. Be strong and of good courage...” Joshua 1:5,6.
“Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace...” Hebrew 4:16.
Set your face “like a flint”(Isaiah 50:7) and speak as God moves you.
Rise up, speak the word of the Lord as God leads even in the hard and awkward situations, and “roar” with boldness of God’s spirit.
God is with you!
HALLELUJAH!!!
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