I’ve been hearing the word, “focus” a lot lately. To focus on something is “to have a concentrated effort or attention on a particular thing, an area of concern or responsibility; to have a sharpness of an image or vision.” So when we focus on something we are operating in a concentrated pursuit. I want to stress the word, “concentrated.” To have a concentrated focus means to have an intense focus. I’m sure you’ve seen the juice you buy in a store that says, “Made from concentrate.” That means it’s intense in flavor.
The devil knows that when you focus on those things that are Godly you will produce results. So he tries to make several attempts throughout your day to have you concentrating on things that are not producing but rather consuming. They consume your time, your energy, your ability to be alert, your joy, and many other things. The flavor of drama, depression and darkness is what the devil wants to fill your life with. If he can get you to concentrate your focus on those things he knows he can potentially get you to think those kinds of thoughts and speak those kinds of words. Focus is determined by what you constantly put in front of you. You cannot focus on something that is not before you. If you go in for an eye exam the optometrist will have you look at a card with a bunch of letters on it, and the size of the letters will decrease down the card to test the strength of your vision. Well, in order to focus on negativity, it had to be allowed to be in front of us. In order to focus on Godly things we must make an effort to put it in front of us. There must be such a strong focus in us that even when the letters get smaller, even when it seems like the Word of God is tough to digest and the lies of the enemy are bigger and screaming louder, we must continue to scrunch our eyes to see the good in everything. We must make the effort to remove things from us that cause wrong concentrated focus. Could it be that it’s hard to focus because we are easily distracted? Could it be that we have a hard time viewing the fine print because we’re too lazy to scrunch our eyes to read deeper? Could it be that all we’re interested in are the letters that are the biggest and easiest to access, the instructions that are easiest to do, but cheat in effort when it comes to doing the hard things, or subduing the little foxes of our lives? Focus is an effort, a concentrated one. In order to have it, and have it in the right place, we must do our part to make sure that the environment we live in is one that is conducive to productivity and life. Selah.
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I want to start by sharing one of my favorite scriptures with you found in Ephesians 5:15-17: 15 “Look carefully then how you walk! Live purposefully and worthily and accurately, not as the unwise and witless, but as wise (sensible, intelligent people), 16 Making the very most of the time [buying up each opportunity], because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be vague and thoughtless and foolish, but understanding and firmly grasping what the will of the Lord is” (AMP).
There are six important words in these three verses that I’d like us to focus our attention on, “purposefully, accurately, and wise,” as well as “vague, thoughtless, and foolish.” Why is it that some of us cannot have a “good conversation” unless it’s about someone else’s business? Why is it that we get quiet when it comes to knowing our purpose and who we are? This is a deceptive trick of the enemy. Sin is going to always be entertaining to the flesh, and following after the ways of God will always appear as if it’s not worth it. But according to these verses the days we are living in are evil, and it is unwise to not know what the will of the Lord is. Those six words mentioned above are words that produce one another. For instance, a purposeful heart produces accuracy, and accuracy (or an aim) makes one wise. To be vague is to live life without thought, and to live without thought is to be foolish. Let me explain more. If I do not seek to know what was on God’s mind when He created me, I will be subjected to opinions, assumptions, and illusions all around me. In my opinion, nothing’s worse than waking up everyday not having an aim, not having a divine focal point that drives you, motivates you, and keeps you consistent. It’s hard to be passionate if you don’t know who you are and where you’re headed. Passion has nothing to hold on to if there is no aim. So, to be purposeful is to be accurate, and to be accurate is to be wise. Wise people are concise people. They don’t talk a lot, but when they do, the few words they speak are highly and purposefully intentional. People with an aim do not go through their day without a goal, a plan, and a vision. They caught a glimpse of who they are, and they structured their lives around that one glimpse. They do not become ensnared with the trends of society, nor live life all over the place, indecisive, irrational, and wishy-washy. They are also taken seriously. See, when we live life without an aim it’s hard for people to trust us because our lives are all over the place. To be vague is to be unclear, and far too many times have we made decisions and put others in the balance when we are not sure. We can negatively affect the next generation when we live vague lives, pray vague prayers and live aimlessly. The Word says that to live aimlessly is to live a life without thought, to be foolish. All in the book of Proverbs the Word teaches us that foolishness is a result of a lack of wisdom and an abundance of pride. So let’s do some soul-searching. What did God create you to do, and even more importantly, who did He create you to be? When we seek to understand our identity in Him we will be less swayed by the world’s mentality (Romans 12:2). Selah. Everyone has a desire to feel important and appreciated, no matter who or what the status of the person is. The aim is to live a life that is not predicated so much upon man’s opinions that we feel we’re not important unless people say we are. Having trusted people around us to tell us the Truth, while at the same time encouraging us to walk in our God-given identity, is something to be treasured. Having those who try to control us and make us be what they desire us to be is dangerous. We must be very intentional in distinguishing and discerning the difference.
If you take a look back over the last few years of your life where have you found yourself putting your value in? Has it been in people’s opinions? Has it been in making assumptions about what you think people are saying about you? Has it been in your bank account? Has it been in how many friends you have? The Good News is that our value is in the blood of Jesus! God loves us with an everlasting love, one that’s unconditional and eternal. But the point of the matter is that this cannot be just a mere statement in our lives; it must be received as our reality. If not, we will continue to base our value on what people say rather than who God says we are. Countless times have we found ourselves dressing different, talking different and compromising our God I.D. for the sake of being accepted. I will share with you a thought that changed my life. God told me that the greatest gift I can offer Him is me. And that same concept should apply to everyone else in my life. If our relationships are event-driven, and if we find ourselves basing our love for one another on gifts rather than cultivating an environment where a person can be who they are truly called to be, it is safe to say that it may not be a true relationship. If this behavior is in our relationships without true identity being established, we will go broke trying to prove our love for people. People enter into friendships for many reasons, often times needing someone to fulfill them rather than come to bring something. Truth be told, many are not yet whole enough to be a safe place for others. A misplaced value in a person causes one-sided relationships. In other words, we will have a tendency to love a person for what they give to us and totally neglect the amazing qualities of who that person is. For instance, “I love you because you are always there for me when I call,” versus, “I love you because you are a great leader to your family and a very wise person.” Do you hear the difference? The first statement was centered on us; the second statement was centered on them. We must be very careful how we treat people. Even deeper, we must allow God to fill us with His love so that we do not take advantage of and misuse people. God loves us, and we need to receive His love rather than trying to find it in other sources. Selah. Communication is something we are ever-learning in our lives. We discussed in the past two blogs how our prayer time with God as well as assumptions are two of the driving forces of how we communicate with others. I would like to share about the last one – stereotypes. A stereotype is, “to believe unfairly that all people or things with a particular characteristic are the same.” Assumptions and stereotypes go together, because if a person assumes something about you, they will automatically categorize you in some way. Let me give you an example of a stereotype. Say, for instance, a person dresses very nice. One could assume that they are arrogant, ultimately forming a stereotype about them. If we really give this some thought, a stereotype is usually based on a past experience we had, positively or negatively. If we encountered a person in our past who dressed nice but struggled with arrogance, if we are not careful, we can assume that those we meet today and in the future who dress nice are that way as well. To stereotype an individual is very unfair. As stated in the last blog, every person deserves the right to show who they really are to us. Far too many times have pastors and religious leaders experienced being negatively stereotyped. Just because a leader in our past had some growing to do does not give us the right to group all pastors together and call them fake. The point I want to drive home is that when we are not healed from the experiences we had in the past, we can easily look at people with the wrong perception, and we can also treat them unfairly, even though they are not the person who offended us. The ways we talk to and communicate with people we’ve formed stereotypes about are directly connected to what we’ve experienced in times past. So it pays for us to be delivered from those experiences, and give everyone a fresh chance to show their true selves. Effective communication is highly important, and it is a lesson we will constantly learn when dealing with family, coworkers, brothers and sisters in Christ, our Heavenly Father, and even ourselves. Yes, the way we talk to ourselves is just as important. Communication, whether positive or negative, is heavily influenced by how we view ourselves as well as the environments we are constantly around. For instance, if we live in an environment where the atmosphere is inviting enough for everyone to express and share how they feel, more than likely, we will be open to sharing our thoughts in a healthy way. If we are exposed to environments where people yelled and argued to get their point across, more than likely, arguments are how we attempt to handle conflict. The point I’m trying to make is that the way we communicate with others is a direct correspondence of our environments.
In the last blog I shared how the lack of communication can be linked to three areas: the lack of communication with God (prayer), assumptions and stereotypes. We only covered the first one. I’d like to cover the second one – assumptions. To assume means, “to think something is true without really knowing if it is true.” This is a strong statement, but to assume something about someone is a cowardice and yet lazy approach to finding out who they really are. It is not fair, nor wise, to go off of someone else’s experience about a person, especially if we have not experienced knowing them for ourselves. We don’t know if what we heard is true or not. There are two sides to every story. When we assume things about a person we treat them a certain way, or we avoid them altogether. Could it be that you’re avoiding a key to your life’s growth by paying more attention to what you heard rather than the Spirit of God? The Bible speaks about knowing the tree by its fruit (Matthew 12:33b; Luke 6:44a). The word, “fruit” in those verses mean, “work, acts, deeds.” The problem with assumptions is that everyone does not have the right perspective. For example, and unfortunately, this happens all the time, a person gets mad at their pastor for telling them the truth about a certain issue. That person gets mad, leaves the church, and tries to take other weak-minded people with them while attempting to drag the pastor’s reputation down. Some of those people actually believe what is being told to them, though they have not personally experienced anything negative. They could have had an amazing relationship with the pastor, but because one person didn’t have the right perspective, it caused an unnecessary tear in the Body. This brings me to my next point. Let’s not be weak-minded people. To listen to others without making the final decision for ourselves through the leading of the Holy Spirit is weak-minded. It’s immature. It says that we cannot think for ourselves, that we would rather lean on the information of others about an individual, even if it’s faulty information. Do you see how damaging assumptions can be? Choose not to give in to the distraction of assuming anything about anyone. Everyone deserves a fair chance to prove their character to you directly. Give them an opportunity as you would also desire that same right. Selah. For the past few days I have been meditating on how important effective communication is. Being able to talk to people the right way is major all across the board, including spouses, family, children, co-workers, and people altogether. The lack of effective communication results in a lot of misunderstandings. It may sound very elementary, but if we avoid learning the lessons on how to communicate effectively, the resolve of any issue will not be in sight.
Before proceeding further let me explain what effective communication is. It’s not just talking; it’s saying words carefully that gets your point across without having a confrontational tone. It’s screening what you say before you say it. It’s asking yourself these questions before you open your mouth, “would I talk to me like I’m about to talk to them? Would I want to be talked to like that? Does what I’m thinking about saying contribute to further growth or further division? Do my words edify people or tear them down?” These are things we must ask ourselves before flying off the handle. Another point I’d like to make is, not talking does not constitute good communication, and neither does talking in abundance. Arguing is not talking effectively; neither is silence. The lack of effective communication stems from many areas. I have been meditating on three: the lack of communication with God (prayer), assumptions and stereotypes. Let me briefly explain the first one. If we do not learn how to communicate with God it will be difficult to know how to communicate with others. Think about it. The cross is vertical as well as horizontal. If our relationship with God is without effective communication, that same tone will occur in our earthly relationships. Have you paid attention lately to how you talk to God? Have you talked to Him at all, or do you only call on Him when you’re in trouble? Have you witnessed people in your life who only call on you when they want something but don’t seem to show up otherwise? Or maybe you’ve seen people who just come to you when they have issues, and you seem to always be their release container. Have you witnessed one-sided relationships where you’re doing all the giving and they are doing all of the receiving? We must learn how to be trained in the Spirit with wisdom, and even deeper, have the heart of God, to know how to communicate effectively. We are living in the last days. We cannot know what’s going on without a prayer life. I heard someone say that a prayerless preacher, teacher, person is a dangerous person.
See, without prayer, we cannot see what’s going on in the Spirit. We need to be alert and vigilant. There is an attack that’s been sent against the people of God concerning our prayer lives. It’s manifesting in many ways, and one of those ways is laziness. We just don’t feel like praying and studying the Word. Another one is being busy. We all of a sudden don’t have time to pray because we’re too busy doing other things, even if those other things are ministry related. There’s also a passiveness or a nonchalant attitude involving prayer, where we don’t think it’s that serious to pray and seek God anymore. We’ve become casual in our walk with God until other things are lifted higher on our priority list, and God becomes simply an option. I just want to sound an alarm. It’s time to pray again. We cannot afford not to pray. Whatever you have to do to seek God, do it. If it’s turning the phones and TVs off, getting off of social media for a while, pulling away from the busyness of life, whatever it takes, get back to your Father again. The Lord desires to speak to you about what’s to come. He desires to share with you who you are, and how to access your God-given purpose and assignment. Attend your church prayer gatherings. Set a daily personal prayer time with the Lord. Make prayer and studying the Word a priority. It’s not only important, our lives depend on it. I write this with urgency in my heart. We are living in a time where we must be vigilant and alert. We cannot allow the distractions of life to come along and dull our hearing, causing us to be immune to a chaotic lifestyle. I admonish you, whatever you have to do to get back to God again, do so. If the distraction is social media, break away from it. If it’s television, turn it off. If it’s the phone, get off of it. Whatever it takes to get back into the real Presence of God to hear His voice, do it. He desires to talk to you.
We must take a stand against a casual prayer life, against nonchalant attitudes of just a church-goer. We must embrace that God is for us, and He has given us the tools to defeat the enemy of depression, doubt, defeat, worry, fear, and any other obstacle we may be facing. You see, it is the goal of the enemy to get us busy so we can be too tired to pray, so that we can become too drained to hear God. The enemy desires to wear us out with things that are good, but not God. Romans 13:11 tells us to wake up out of our sleep. This is a critical hour; we have no time to play around as if Jesus Christ is not coming. Meanwhile, while we are waiting on His return, there’s work for us to do. We must get back to prayer. Prayer is the communication between you and God. It is not a monologue; it is a dialogue. Not only does God welcome you to talk to Him, but He also desires to talk to you. We should not leave the praying to the elders and pastors of the church; we all must pray. The enemy is after your mouth; he’s after your confession. Your prayer life is important to God, and He wants to talk to you. The enemy knows this Truth, so he works hard to distract us from praying. Not only must we take a stand against a casual prayer life, but we also must confront laziness. We must intentionally carve out daily meaningful quality time with our Father. We all have family and life responsibilities, but God is there to give us instructions on how to handle those things by His wisdom. Let’s get back to prayer. Let’s set our prayer times daily; let’s be an active part of our church intercessory prayer gatherings. It’s time for the people of God to speak what Heaven is saying so Heaven can release it in the earth realm. I've discovered, in the last few weeks, even more so now than ever, that faith does not just believe God for things; it’s trusting Him and being faithful to Him. It’s fidelity. It’s staying committed to Him through everything. Just like in a physical relationship trust must be there in order for there to be a valid commitment.
We must understand that the enemy is against commitment, so he will try to suggest to us that God is not real, that God doesn't care, that God is not concerned about what we go through, which ultimately could be an open door for many of us to throw in the towel and stop trusting God. Trust is linked to love. If there is no trust there is fear. And according to 1 John 4:18, “there is no fear in love.” If there is an issue with faith there is an issue with love. We come to God for so many different reasons. Many of us were introduced to God out of fear of hell, so we went to Him because we wanted Him to save us from eternal damnation. We were scared to God, and this can cause us to always feel like we have to protect ourselves and make our own way when it comes to the promises of God. When we are in tight situations where our faith is being tested we feel the pressure to run the other way and try to do things on our own. However, God wants us to know that He loves us. He cares about us, and He is concerned about what concerns us. He sees what we’re dealing with; He knows about them. He’s not oblivious to them, neither is He intimidated by them. Our reality says otherwise, but reality and Truth are two different things. We must hold on to the Word of God and abandon those thoughts that want us to go the other way. One strong thought comes to mind that I cannot shake when it involves trusting in the Lord or anybody. Trust is a risk! It is a risk we have to be willing to take. Fear needs fluffy explanations to secure us in some way, and yet, we still have a hard time trusting. However, when the Lord speaks to us, He gives no extra explanations; He just says things like, “I will never leave you or forsake you,” “if you put your trust in me you will never be put to shame or disappointed.” And we have to be ok with that and hold on to it.
I know many of us, like myself, have experienced many disappointments in life, but why have we been experiencing them if the Lord says that we will not be disappointed if we put our trust in Him (Romans 10:11)? I will not put myself out there as to know all the answers, but all I know so far is that when I plan for disappointment it usually comes to me. Let’s be honest with ourselves. Anytime we have plan B’s and several other options, we are planning to be rejected by God; we are planning for failure, and this is not trust. Fear is something that takes the place of God’s love in our lives. When I base my decisions on fear I am telling God that I don’t trust His way of doing things. Fear is a lie that appears to be real. All of us have plenty of opportunities to believe plenty of lies on a daily basis, and when we're in a storm or a test it is one strong aggressive lie that constantly desires to steal our focus from what the Word of the Lord has spoken over us. We cannot be passive about those illusions anymore. We cannot receive them in our lives as Truth. There’s a difference between reality and Truth, and the only Truth is the Word of God. Stay focused people of God. Take all options out and trust the Lord, not just as your King, but as your Father. |
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