A GENERATION OF TRIBUTARIES AND ONE RIVER
On December 29, 2020, right at the close of the year, I had an extremely specific dream. I want to share it with you today, as it is only just recently that God has given me the ability to release what I feel like He is saying to this generation through the dream.
As I was listening to a YouTube video yesterday, I heard someone quote a statement from Kenneth Copeland, made a few years ago. “IT’S TIME FOR THE STREAMS OF MINISTRY TO COME TOGETHER.” I am not saying I endorse Kenneth Copeland, but I felt the magnitude of this quote considering the dream God gave me.
In the dream, I was somewhere remote and beautiful. This area was gorgeously breathtaking. It was summer, and the sun was shining brightly through the trees. As I was standing near the bank of a large, rushing river, I looked up and saw at least three tinier rivers, tributaries, like streams, trickling steadily into the expansive river below them.
I heard a voice from behind me. In a deep and commanding tone, it said, “Do you understand? A river must have all the smaller ones. Otherwise, the larger river dries up completely.”
As I woke up from this dream, I could not help but feel like the voice was that of the Holy Spirit. According to Isaiah 30:21, “You will hear a voice behind you saying, this is my way, walk in it and I will walk with you.” So was this voice behind me in the dream. It felt like I was brought to this wonderful, remote scene for a reason. I was meant to understand something about the season of life we are in as God’s people.
This generation must be one where all the tributaries flow together. We must be willing to step out of our denominations, our segregations, our theological differences, and flow with His Holy Spirit and His truth into a place where we are simply ONE river.
When I think of a river, I think of something powerful, big, and life-giving to the forest around it. A river carves a path where there is thick and hazardous terrain. It is said that if you are ever lost in the woods, find the river, and follow it; for a river always leads to civilization in the end. A river gives lifesaving water to the life within the wilderness. It alone shapes the terrain of the mountains, forests, and scenery around it.
For too long in our world, there have been many streams without flowing into ONE river. We have each been little rivers within ourselves, kept safely behind our own personal beliefs, theologies, and ideologies about what life as God’s people looks like. But in this season, I honestly believe that God wants each of us to recognize, as PEOPLE, that we are His tributaries. Tributaries are responsible for “channeling material or supplies into something more inclusive: a CONTRIBUTORY.” (Webster’s Dictionary)
When we come together as one PEOPLE, one BODY, under God, we will begin to see a mighty rushing river as foretold in Revelation 22:1 “Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the lamb.” I believe that God is wanting us to understand where we are at in terms of eternity. The LORD is calling upon each of us to seek Him personally. He wants to show you and help you understand how your tributary in HIM feeds the river of life which has the eternal power and capacity to shape the landscape of our culture and our world.
Many people are calling for unity in a world that is divided. People never address “how” unity comes about. Unity comes when there is true repentance. Why? Because true repentance always leads to restoration. When we come to a place of personal repentance for our part in the divisions we see today, and corporately confess and repent of these places within the church, our streams can start to flow together again as one. It is only in a place of true repentance and lament, that we begin to see each tributary flow towards the same rushing RIVER, the one flowing from the throne of God and of the lamb.
WORDS FOR THIS GENERATION: A REMNANT IS RISING
“But now for a brief moment favor has been shown by the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant and to give us a secure hold within his holy place, that our God may brighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our slavery.” (Ezra 9:8)
The remnant is the key to a secure hold within the holy place. It gave brightness to the eyes, cheered the heart, and revived those who were in slavery. It was critical in maintaining security in the promise of God and encouragement amidst fierce opposition.
As I have been watching, like all of you, the events of this year and the monumental shifts happening in personal lives throughout the world, I have been hearing the Holy Spirit remind me of the remnant. Perplexed by this word, I looked up what it meant. Simply put remnant means “what is left…” (Anchor Bible Dictionary)
If you are a young person or if you know a young person, then this word is for you. Many months ago, I had a dream where young people were volunteering to go behind enemy lines and invade the enemy’s camp. It was a dream about war, but the war did not seem to scare the young men and women, even young children, who were volunteering to fight.
In the dream, I was sitting on the other end of a communication device asking them if they needed reinforcements, but they kept laughing as if it was a game. There were children of all ages, from about 6 years old all the way up to eighteen or nineteen. What struck me most is how they worked together. They hardly ever asked for help and it was like they were being led by some unseen general who was telling them the next moves to make.
I feel like the young people of this generation, who are in Christ Jesus, need to understand that they are a remnant who are being called to rise in this season. You are what is left. You have been given a platform to change the tide of the culture around you. You can no longer afford to sit back and ride on the coattails of your parent’s faith. You can no longer stand back and just continue hoping that things will go back to normal. In fact, I believe this generation is being called to surpass the generations before them in both their understanding of God and how to walk in the fullness of His power.
A remnant is what is left over. I believe that this generation of young people have had to pivot this year in ways they never thought would happen. You are reconciling the world you thought you understood with the world which now lays before you. You are what is left. You are being called to create a new normal in the world around you and bring forward the potent power that has been stirring within you throughout this year.
I keep having a picture of those young people in my dream. Like a chemical element that has been put on a Bunsen burner and forced under incredible heat to be reduced to its most potent form, so is this generation of young people. You have undergone extreme heat and change this year, for such a time as this. As you sit with the Lord at the close of 2020, know that you are the remnant that is rising. You are the remnant who have been shaped by the Lord this year, reduced to your most potent form, to do something NEW upon the earth in this generation.
WORDS FOR THIS GENERATION: THE LOST ART OF LAMENT
I don’t know about you in this season, but what I have felt in 2020 has been a deep and aching emotional rollercoaster which just hasn’t fit into a category for me. Oh, I have had strained relationships with people I love. We, as a family, made big moves in 2020 and lost the friendship of many who were dear to us and couldn’t understand our decisions. I quit a job I loved for a new opportunity, which was cut short as the new company went in a different direction. And I was laid off 1.5 months later. Oh, I have had some things to grieve about this year. (As I am sure many of you have) And when I need to, I have let myself grieve those things.
But to be honest, none of those things have caused this ache. I have learned that situations always change but the God who loves me never will. So, not being able to pin down this pain has been an interesting journey. It’s like an undercurrent that just sort of settled somewhere in my spirit as 2020 dawned and it hasn’t left me nearly 12 months later.
When this happens to me, I have learned this means I am just supposed to sit in it and let God show me why it is there. Sometimes it takes a whole year for Him to tell me what’s up. About a week ago, I felt the Holy Spirit whisper to me, “I want you to write to my people and tell them about the lost art of the lament.”
I immediately went to the dictionary to look up what lament meant. To lament: a passionate expression of grief or sorrow. But that definition felt like it was talking about a certain kind of lament, one expressing grief or sorrow. But what I have been feeling doesn’t fit into the category of grief nor sorrow. I mostly just felt deep emotion, which comprised lots of different emotions with it. I was trying to process what God was wanting me to understand and release over this generation. So, I do what I always do; I turned to the Scripture for help.
One of the people in the Bible who I think had the closest, most honest, and powerful relationships with God was King David. David was called by God to be a man after God’s own heart. King David is credited with writing over 50% of the book of Psalms. And scholars believe anywhere between one third to one half of the Psalms are laments.
This is where I felt all that undercurrent of ache start to pour out. The Lord wasn’t talking to me about grief in the traditional sense, where it’s about something or someone you lost, he was talking about lament as it has to do with our relationship to Him. When you read over the Psalms of David which are classified as laments, David is talking about himself and God. That is pretty much it.
David’s laments are conversations with God which don’t look pretty, aren’t perfectly fluffed up and proofread, they are just hardcore raw emotion that he was literally pouring out before His God, His Heavenly Father, and His friend. “How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? Will you hide your face from me? (Psalm 13:1) “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me. My mouth is dried up…” (Psalm 22:14-15a)
As I began to unpack what this meant for me and for this generation, I realized something incredible. The lost art of the lament is the part of our walk with Jesus where we get to be a complete and total mess before Him. BUT it is also that this process of lamenting to Him and with Him is not only something we are supposed to do. It is something that GLORIFIES Him and brings Him the WORSHIP of a “broken and contrite heart”; something which He has promised not to despise. (Psalm 51, paraphrased).
In our Christian culture it has for too long become a place of “if you name it and if you claim it”, you will experience blessing and breakthrough. And although our words do have great power; and we must declare that which we believe to be true about God, ourselves, and our future. Maybe we also need to understand that lamenting before Him, just as David did, also brings a breakthrough into our situation which can only be birthed in a relationship; one that is not built on my perfect words of praise but of my honest declaration of the ache, the emotions, the truth of my situation brought before a God who desperately wants us to allow Him to show up when we truly are so weak that our “bones are out of joint and we are completely and fully washed up, poured out, and drained”. Not only does God desperately desire your laments to be brought before Him, but it also brings Him glory when we trust Him with the depth of the ache we feel.
In fact, I would imagine that the type of laments David was bringing before the Lord were literally things He could only have said to God amid a dark, quiet, and completely isolated room. I pray that we, as a generation, are unafraid to approach God in the same manner and rediscover the lost art of lamenting before a God who desires to be known by you in all seasons, moments, and places.
In order to walk in our Kingdom identity, we must be willing to give God all of ourselves. In the same way that David did in his laments. If we cannot stand before our God in the nakedness of all our “stuff” how will we ever be able to show our true self to a world which is desperately crying out for the authenticity of a gospel which promises a full measure of Heavenly identity, authority, and power.
WORDS FOR THIS GENERATION: THIS GENERATION WILL KNOW THE DEPTH OF MY EROS LOVE FOR THEM
For months now, I have been having dreams where I am getting married. This has always seemed odd to me given the fact that I am already very happily married. Each dream seemed to have the same themes. I knew the bridegroom and could not wait to be his bride. I looked different than I do now, as if all my blemishes and short comings had just been eliminated. The most perfect dress fit right in all the right places. I looked the same…but…different. Like it was me, but not the me which I see in the world today. It was like I was better, more beautiful, perfect even.
In every single dream, I never see the bridegroom’s face. But I know his voice. I know the way he walks. I even know the way his feet sound when they walk. But I never see his face and I never actually get married. I am only preparing for the wedding. I would wake up with the feeling of deep, deep love washing over me in waves. I was beautiful. I was desired. And, I was to be married to a man who I knew would love me and cherish me all the days of my life. Again, only odd because I am already married to a man who I think is amazing. But this groom, this bride, seemed different. So, I just wrote the dreams down or recorded them somewhere and put them aside to be unpacked with the Lord.
About a week ago, I woke up in the weirdest way. I woke up with a word repeating over and over inside my head. the Lord woke me up with one, single word repeating over and over inside my head. I usually remember my dreams, and the weird thing about this word was that I did not have a dream at all that would have provoked this word to be in my head or my heart. But still, I kept hearing it repeated…. “EROS”, “EROS”, “EROS”, “EROS”. What did that possibly have to do with anything the Lord wanted to say over this generation in this moment? What did it even mean for me, forget everyone else?
As I prayed into this word along with my very dear friends and prayer warriors, I began to hear the Lord Say…IT IS TIME THIS GENERATION HEARS AND FEELS THE PROCLAMATION OF MY EROS LOVE FOR THEM.
EROS is a Greek word used to describe a certain type of love. This word can be applied to sexual love. But it can also mean DESIRE. As in, to be the object of desire. Just like in my dreams, where I felt this perfect, overwhelming love from a man whose face I had never seen, I began to understand that the man in my dreams was Jesus himself. Don’t look so shocked! Should it surprise us that God desires us. We are called his BRIDE after all. (see Revelation 21:9). It’s only in our oversexed culture that we see EROS love as being as far away from God as we can get. But, I don’t think God was talking about that when He gave me these visions and told me this word. He was speaking of His unabashed, unashamed, completely biased desire for you.
You are the object of His desire. As we are living in a world where things are uncertain and almost everything, we normally use to fill our time with is either closed or altered, I kept hearing Him heralding HIS overwhelming desire for you. Maybe everything is closed down right now, so that we can just focus on being completely, only HIS. What if this moment we are living in is like a honeymoon between us as the bride of Christ and Him as our bridegroom, and we are missing it because we want to get back to life as usual. Life is not going back to its usual pace. Wherever this leads, it won’t lead backwards. Whatever is transpiring in our world has changed its landscape forever.
I feel like this is the new wineskin everyone has been talking about. This is the place where we get to be His and His alone. In fact, I hear Him saying that both He and you need this time together. We can’t let go of what was WHILE also moving into what comes next, if we don’t spend this time with Him. He is looking for a bride who is consecrated to Him in this hour. We are not supposed to share this time with Him with anyone else. This is a season for Him and for you and for your relationship to grow as the object of both His desire and affection. Be in the honeymoon suite with Jesus.
WORDS FOR THIS GENERATION: LOOKING AT THIS VALLEY OF DRY BONES
Recently, I was brought back to a familiar passage of Scripture; one that I have read many times. I love the story in Ezekiel about the army which was raised out of a valley of dry bones. But this time, as I was reading it, something deep began to stir in my heart for this generation at this point in our lives and in our world. I began to read this story, not as a mere miracle, but as a proclamation over our country, over each man and each woman on this planet, and over the dry bones in each of our personal valleys. Today, I declare these words over you, over the valley of dry bones you are facing. Be it a business lost, finances in ruin, health that refuses to heal, or simply a loneliness creeping to overwhelm you, I speak to that valley today in the words of Ezekiel 37. To you I declare:
“The hand of the Lord is on you, and he has brought you out by the Spirit of the Lord and set you in the middle of a valley, a valley full of dry bones. He has led you back and forth among them, and you have seen a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He has turned to you in this season and has asked you, ‘My child, can these bones live?’.
You answer Him with, ‘Sovereign Lord, you alone know’. Then He helped you turn to that valley of dry bones and prophesy over them saying, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!’ This is what the Sovereign LORD says to you, these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you WILL come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life.’
This is how you know that HE is indeed LORD. You, Son and Daughter of the Most High God, have prophesied over your valley, over the dry bones there, just as He has taught you. I declare and decree that as you have prophesied, a noise, a great rattling sound will begin to rise up in your ears and all around you. The bones will come together, bone to bone, and tendons and flesh will appear on them with skin covering them. And you will again, prophesy to these bones saying, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: ‘Come, breath, from the flour winds and breathe into what has been slain, that these bones may live.’
And just as you have prophesied, I decree and declare that out of this valley of dry bones, breath will enter that they will come to life and stand to their feet – A VERY VAST ARMY. That just as in Ezekiels day, when the LORD said to him that the bones were the ruins of the Israeli people, that there is a promise of our God to resurrect our ruins. He will say to you, “My People, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land which I have promised you. Then you will know that I am the LORD, I have put my Spirit in you, and you will live. And I will settle you in your own land. I will do all that I have spoken.”
He will do all that He has spoken. The God who promised to raise your valley of dry bones will do what He has said. Command them to come alive, through the power of the word of God which was given to you in Ezekiel. Amen
KINGDOM MINDED ENTREPRENEURSHIP: LIVE BY FAITH, NOT BY SIGHT
“For we live by faith and not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7) Welcome to the life of an entrepreneur. Welcome to the main reason I never wanted to be an entrepreneur’s wife.
Warning: super vulnerable post ahead. To really be a Kingdom Minded Entrepreneur, you have to get comfortable being in a place where all you have is the work God has given you to do, the belief in what you are building, and the faith to trust a God who says He will be your provider. (see Philippians 4:19; 4:6-7). This is not a place I like to be. It puts me in a place where I can be responsible and diligent with the work of my hands, but I cannot control the outcome of how successful I will be or how I will make sure my bills are paid and my family is fed.
I read a story recently about an extraordinarily successful business couple. They were being interviewed about their beginnings in business. The wife was speaking about how her husband loved to build and was phenomenal at construction/real estate. When she married him, her parents worried. There were times the only money they had to live on was cash that was in her husband’s pocket. Her parents would tell him he needed to go get a real job. She would tell him to go after his dreams. Today they have one of the most successful renovation, construction, and design businesses in the world. What if she had been so worried about other people’s opinions, paying their bills, or not having food that she had told her husband to give up on his dreams and go get a real job?
Even as I am writing this, tears are stinging my eyes. Her approach to her husband cuts me to the quick. I am not this woman, and for years I have spent time being so afraid of not having enough or having to honestly rely on God for things, that I have never really supported my husband, his talents, or the businesses he has desired to create.
Oh, I have “allowed” him to work on them. I have helped him do some things for the business hear and there. I have even “given” him money to help him. But, let’s be honest, I have never really just BELIEVED in him. And as I have begun to unravel why this is, I discovered something I never expected. My lack of belief in my husband actually had nothing to do with him. It had everything to do with my lack of belief in God. And that brings me to today.
Today, I am choosing to do this differently. I am choosing to stand up and honor the call of building businesses that God has placed on my husband’s life. I am choosing to walk by faith and not by sight; that no matter what, my God is faithful. I am choosing to believe (and I do) in the work God has brought to us and the call He has placed on our lives; and most of all, I am embracing a life like Paul was talking about in 2 Corinthians. It is not always easy. Sometimes it is extremely hard. This week has been one of those hard times. But at the end of the day, I want to live my life to the glory of the Kingdom. And, if you are going to be called to be an entrepreneur, or an entrepreneurs wife, you have to be willing to take God at His word and walk by faith without seeing exactly how its all going to work out.
CHALLENGING CULTURAL SYSTEMS WITH KINGDOM IDENTITY: THE LIE OF INDIVIDUALISM
Webster’s dictionary defines INDIVIDUALISM as the habit of being independent and self-reliant. Webster’s dictionary defines IDENTITY as the fact of being what a person or thing is; the characteristics that determine who or what a person or thing is; similar personality, character, originality, distinction, singularity, uniqueness.
I don’t know if you notice, but when I read those two definitions. They feel like they are coming from a very different heart. An individual becomes independent and self-reliant. I don’t need you. I don’t need to be you. And, I am ok being way over here by myself being me.
But identity is the fact of who I am. I don’t have to be independent of you to be me. I am made up of distinct characteristics that determine my uniqueness. And that uniqueness is something I am. It’s not something I can compartmentalize. It is the WHOLE of me.
We have become really good in our culture at being individuals. Individualism is sold to us as an ideal that will make us more united. It says that if I can just be accepted for my individuality, and then turn around and accept you for your individuality, then that will create unity among us. But I ask you, do you see more unity in our culture or our churches because of our individualism? Probably not.
That is because we have replaced true IDENTITY for the lie of INDIVIDUALITY. Identity and Individuality sound similar, but are not even remotely defined the same way. The Enemy is a master at this. He has always taken things that “sound right” and twisted them to fit his own agenda. Just read the temptation of Jesus account in Luke 4:1-13. He loves to make things sound right, even when they are completely wrong.
When we replace true identity with individualism, we become a culture that is segregated. Segregation is the action of setting someone or something apart from people or things. Individualism does that well because it makes me independent of you and reliant on me. Paul defines it this way in I Corinthians 1:12: “What I mean is this: One of you says, ‘I follow Paul’; another, ‘I follow Apollos’; another ‘I follow Cephas’; still another, ‘I follow Christ’.” Is Christ divided?”
Compartmentalizing ourselves into categories makes us divided. This is the same point Paul was trying to make above. We do this both within the church and within the culture.
As an example, we do this in the church with denominations. We say that one of us is charismatic and belongs to a denomination like the Assemblies of God. We say that some of us are more traditional and belong to a denomination like Presbyterian or Baptist. Or, we say we do not IDENTIFY with either of those and become Non-Denominational. We have separated ourselves from one another based on the category we belong to instead of the GOD who we belong to. If I just stand with you on the word of God, I don’t have to individualize my interpretation of God in order to be different in my identity than you. We are not of “Paul”. We are not of “Apollos”. And we are not of a “denomination” either. Christ cannot be divided. Individualism has divided our churches.
We do the same thing in our culture. We say that one of us identifies as trans-gender or bi-sexual. We say that one of us identifies with being liberal or conservative. And we have accepted that my identification with something is now my identity. But the truth is, identity is not something you can choose. Identity is the whole of what makes you singular and unique as something that was given to you by the God who created you.
True IDENTITY would make us united. When I am fully operating as me, not identifying with the categories the world has created to make me an individual, I can be fully me and you can be fully you. The diversity in each of us is what makes us able to be united. Individuality makes me independent. And that is the problem. When it becomes that I do not need you. Nor do I associate with you, segregation creeps in and tears us apart.
Paul said it like this “There is one body, but many parts.” (I Corinthians 12:12). “The eye cannot say to the hand, I don’t need you!” (I Corinthians 12:21) “…God has put together all the parts of the body…In that way, the parts of the body will not take sides. All of them will take care of one another. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is honored, every part shares in its joy.” (I Corinthians 24-26, paraphrase)
When we understand our identity as part of the whole, we step into a Biblical identity which is unique, but not separate. It is counter cultural to not exact my individuality. But, it seems to me, that according to Heaven, seeing myself as a unique and vital part of the body as a WHOLE is actually what makes our culture united as one, even though we are each different. When we separate and individualize, is when we fall apart. When we understand our identity according to how a body functions TOGETHER, we can all work together. So I ask you…in your original, unique, and special design…what part of the body are you as it functions together in the world, in the workplace, in the church? Maybe if we start asking ourselves that question, we will create a world where my diversity, my unique makeup in Christ, is the key to my unity.
WORDS FOR THIS GENERATON: REVIVAL DOESN'T SIFT THE WORLD, IT SIFTS THE CHURCH
REVIVAL DOESN’T SIFT THE WORLD: IT SIFTS THE CHURCH
Last Year I had a dream. It was one of those dreams that felt important. I was in an arena where revival was breaking out. I did not recognize many of the people, but there were MANY people there. As I was walking through the crowd, the sounds of the revival quieted, and I began to hear the thoughts and private conversations of those in attendance. One group of people were talking about leaving. They were talking about how “weird” people get in what is supposed to be a church setting. They were saying how this loud, different, Holy Spirit, dancing kind of stuff just made them uncomfortable. This group of people collected their things and walked away.
The next person I walked past was thinking about how underqualified they felt to be part of something so great as a revival. They did not feel adequate to be a part of the powerful things unfolding that day. Their lack of confidence and belief pained me. They did not feel like they had a place in this part of God’s Kingdom. They too walked out of the arena and left.
This kept happening. Some of the people stayed and some of them left. Both for various reasons. When I woke up, I remember thinking how sad it was for those who left. They left because of their insecurity. They left because of the religious spirit they carried. Much like the Pharisees in Jesus time, when the revival came for them, they could not see it because it didn’t FIT what they had been expecting.
When I began to ask the Lord about this dream, and began to pray over what it was He wanted to say, this is what I heard: THE REVIVAL THAT I AM BRINGING WILL NOT BE USED TO SIFT THE WORLD, IT WILL BE USED TO SIFT THE CHURCH.
Do you feel the power of that statement? The weight that it carries. Over the last year, I have been carrying this dream in my heart. I have shared it with a few people, who the Lord had asked me to share it with. But, I honestly feel like this word is so relevant for us today. Make no mistake, we are amidst of God doing something radical, new, crazy, scary, exciting, and different. But as I look around at our world today, I cannot help being reminded of this dream. Maybe the revival He is bringing is not supposed to look like anything you or I have ever seen before. Maybe it is not going to look anything like we expect, or even want, it to look like.
When I look at what He is doing today, I can see the truth of His words to me over a year ago when I had that dream. We, as the church body, are being sifted. Sifted, “the act of sifting something, so as to isolate that which is most important or useful or that which must be discarded”. In the wheat harvest, since the ancient of days, there has been a process for sifting. Once wheat is threshed, it is winnowed. At this time, the chaff (which is unusable for food) is removed entirely. The wind blows it away, and the heavier (good) grain falls into a waiting basket or tray to be used for food.
I am just going to ask you, straight up. What is being sifted from your life in this hour? How is God sifting our churches, our families, our friendships, and our finances? What will be left from our harvest after this season that can be used by Him in the times we will be facing? What good grain needs to remain and what chaff needs to be removed? What will be left so that we can truly become the living bread to a world who is so desperately in need of the Savior who can satisfy their every hunger?
The church is the one being sifted in this moment. And, I honestly believe we have to embrace this season. So that we come out of this season more rich, more full of the harvest, more full of nutrients, and less weighed down with the chaff of our lives heading into the NEW REVIVAL God is bringing.
KINGDOM MINDED ENTREPRENUERSHIP: YOU DO NOT CREATE YOUR FAVOR
Stop trying to fashion something you were already given in Christ. Proverbs 18:16 says “A man’s gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men.” According to this promise, all you have to do is what you are gifted at. Your gift ACTUALLY MAKES ROOM FOR YOU. It opens doors which no one can shut. You can’t create your favor. You can’t earn your favor. You can’t work for your favor. Your favor follows your gifting.
In what area(s) would you say you’ve experienced the most favor in your life? What have you done throughout your life that has always been easy for you or has felt second nature? I feel like answering these questions can and will potentially lead you right into the area or arena where God has given you favor. Knowing you do not create your favor is the mindset of a Kingdom entrepreneur. Favor isn’t something I can work to achieve; it’s something I have already been given, as a son of the Most High God.
It has taken me awhile to figure out where my favor was, because I used to think I had to work hard in order to obtain favor. Thus why I thought I had to do a certain thing or go a certain place or be a certain way in order to get where I wanted to be. But, over the years, I began to see that true favor is found in the place of your gifting.
As far back as I can remember (and I will tell you that I can’t really remember a lot from my childhood), I loved to create and build new things. I liked to take things apart and rebuild them better. I liked to take something that I wanted to see in the world and build it from scratch. Strategy of how to do something new, came easy to me. I enjoy taking something and dissecting it from every angle, researching how it would work, and then testing it to see what happens. This creative strategy has always thrived in me.
Whether that was some sort of Lego structure, a class project, a toothpick bridge, a live edge table, bodybuilding, t-shirts, a comic book, or a business, I’ve always had favor in the area of creating and building something from scratch and doing it with excellence. For me, this is second nature. It has never been difficult for me. In fact, I like the challenge of doing something new. But what I didn’t realize, for years, is that this place of raw creativity is exactly where the favor of God has been and always will be in my life. As I drew near to that reality, the favor over this place began to open the doors of opportunity.
My challenge to you is think back over the course of your life; think about the things in your life that you loved, enjoyed, had a passion for, or was easy for you. Now, ask yourself, is what I’m doing now (growing in favor that comes from God by doing what I was designed to do) or is this job, this promotion, this life I live, simply the result of hard work? Getting recognition, because of your work isn’t always synonymous with the favor which results from your gifting. Favor and recognition aren’t always the same thing.
Take a minute and ask yourself if you are truly utilizing your gifts? If so, you’re right where you’re supposed to be. If not, you might want to reevaluate what you’re doing, go back to the drawing board, and begin to think about where you went off track. Remember: you don’t create your favor. Your favor follows your gifting. But if you’re not plowing (using your gifts) in the right field (what you’re called to do) you’ll never experience the true harvest (favor) that was given to you by God. This is the harvest which ultimately allows the Kingdom of God to flow through you into the fields of others.
CHALLENGING CULTURAL SYSTEMS WITH KINGDOM IDENTITY: CONFESSIONS OF A LIKE-A-HOLIC
I have a confession to make. I am a recovering like-a-holic. What does that mean? It means that I like being liked. And, I don’t just like it. For a long time, I sought after the approval, the friendships, and the love of others. I consume friendships. I consume the praise and approval of others. Like an addiction, being liked by others became a drug to me.
People who meet me call me outgoing. I hear them say, “Man, I feel like I have known you forever.” Even though I just met them. Phrases like, you are such an extrovert. You are so easy to talk to. You can talk to anyone. These are phrases I hear all the time. Although I am outgoing and my interest in others is truly genuine. I can tell you that the authentic gifting I have been given to connect well with lots of different people, has often been exploited by the way the world sells the concept of acceptance.
We live in a world obsessed with being liked. We program people to like being liked. And, in my case, I LEARNED how to make people like me. I learned how to be outgoing and tailor what I say and how I say it, so that it invokes a favorable response from the people around me. I LEARNED how to be pleasing to others. It was as if I have been taking an inventory, a poll, a survey in my head all of my life. Every time I said something, or went somewhere new, or met someone new or bought new clothes, I stopped asking myself if that was really what I wanted to say, or if that person I was talking to was really who God was drawing me to, or if those clothes were really what I LIKE TO WEAR. I was taking a survey.
Certain types of clothes got a certain amount of approval from my peers, adults I was around, even boys I liked. Every time I got a “like” from someone, if you will, I filed it away in my brain, as if I was keeping an internal tally of how many people liked what I said or what I did or what I wore. The same was true if people didn’t like what I said or did.
When I started to notice my addiction to being liked, to the approval of others, I was in my 30’s. As me and my family moved to a new place, I was made painfully aware of how I do this. I change my speech, ever so slightly, so that the new person I am talking to likes what I have to say. I change the interests I talk about, so that it creates this connection with the new person I just met. Not that I don’t like the interests I am talking about, but I just change the interests based on what I have sized up in being important to the person I am talking to. Coming face to face with being a like-a-holic has been really hard for me.
I loathe this quality in myself. And, let me tell you why. Because it distorts my Heavenly identity. The truth of the matter is that when I take things like strengths tests, or personality quizzes, I am literally BUILT for relationship. Every test I have ever taken tells me that I can literally feel what people are feeling. I am a master of sizing people up and knowing exactly where they are at within 5 minutes of meeting them. The Lord literally gave me gifts, in my genetic makeup, that make me phenomenal with people.
When I met Jesus, and received the Holy Spirit. This gifting was heightened and highlighted even more. I lead with my communication. My love of information and desire to know a lot about tons of different subjects helps me connect with almost everyone. Figuring out what makes people tick and what their good at or interested in is how God created me to lead others.
But in my fleshly, human desire to be liked, those amazing and wonderful qualities get distorted. I mean, as a follower of Jesus, my whole commission is to go into all the world and make disciples. It’s kind of hard to do that when the natural gifts, talents, and abilities God has given me to make connections with others becomes about them liking me instead of God impacting their lives through me. My Heavenly identity becomes distorted by my own desire to be liked, instead of being effective.
Let’s be real, we live in a world where “LIKES” and “LOVES” are a thing we seek. We are all being programmed to desire the approval of others, whether we realize it or not. You can deny it if you want. But there is not one young person reading this who posts on their social media without getting an alert minutes later letting you know that someone has liked, loved, or commented on your post or your picture. We have begun to identify ourselves by the way we are seen, pictured, or represented on social media.
I believe that we, as a generation, have not really given social media and its implications on our identity, as much scrutiny as we should. There is a documentary on Netflix called “The Social Dilemma”. You don’t believe me that we are being programmed to crave approval by who knows what type of complex computer algorithm is populating our news feed? Go watch the documentary for yourselves. Start to think critically about social media, its creators, and if the computer behind that screen truly have YOUR best interest at heart.
We live in a society of like-a-holics. We want to be liked more than we want to walk in the true, individual, Heavenly identity for which we were created. We let the world distort our Heavenly gifts, talents, and abilities. Just like me, we have LEARNED what gets the approval of others.
My desire in sharing this with you is to challenge you. I hope this may even start you thinking. It is time we rise up and become a generation of young people who start to wake up and ask tough questions of ourselves. Am I allowing others to dictate how I use the gifts, talents and abilities God gave uniquely to me? Am I allowing the “likes” of those around me to dictate and feed my sense of self-worth? Or, am I asking God how He made me uniquely to bring the Heavenly identity He gave to me into the world around me to change it, affect it, and create kingdom minded solutions to the problems I see in the world.
What God created you for is more important than people liking you. Take it from me. I have missed out on countless opportunities to truly lead others to Him by my insatiable addiction to be well liked. I have also missed out on some radical encounters with God because I thought about what people would think before I asked what God thought. Do not make my mistake. Ask Him about yourself. Ask Him what He thinks about you. Jeremiah 33:3 promises us “Call to me and I will answer you and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.” WOW! When was the last time you just asked Him about yourself? He has made you a promise. When you call, He will answer. And, HE has things He wants to tell you.
I would love to hear your thoughts. Are you a like-a-holic? Or, like me, are you a recovering like-a-holic? You don’t have to be. You have a God who LOVES you and desires to show you how He created you. He wants to show you the truth of your Heavenly Identity according to His image in you, so that you can stop letting others define and dictate how your earthly identity gets expressed to the world around you.
Have questions or comments, please drop me a message below, or send me a message at whitney@brandedgen.com
WORDS FOR THIS GENERATION: IT IS MOLTING SEASON
As I was spending time with the Lord recently, I heard Him say “IT’S MOLTING SEASON”. To Molt: to shed old feathers, hair, or skin, or an old shell, to make way for a NEW growth. This is a regular feature in an animal’s life cycle, but it is not a term I have heard over myself or any person before. As I began to sit with the Lord and ask Him what that meant for me, I felt like it could be a word for many of you right now in this generation. Did you know that when Chickens molt, they must have a very specific and high-quality food, because it requires such a high amount of energy? Losing feathers during molting season happens in a very specific sequence, and when new feathers begin to grow, they will grow in following the same sequence in which they were lost. This process of re-growth can be very painful, and most chickens do not like to be touched or held at all during the molting process. This is because newly formed feathers have a vein filled shaft that will bleed if injured or cut. These new pinfeathers are very sensitive when touched.
As I asked the Lord why this was so important, He began to show me that many of you have been in a process of molting. You are losing things that were old. And this process can and has been painful at times. Give yourself permission to process those painful places with the Lord God Most High. We cannot live in the abundance of the new, until we shed the old. This molting process is happening in a very specific sequence, which may make you feel out of control and worry filled. But I am here to encourage you that for every place you experience loss, God has something new ready to come in and fill those vacant places in perfect timing and sequence. Make sure that you are keeping a close eye on what it is that you are digesting; emotionally, physically, and spiritually. You must make sure that the Spiritual and emotional “diet” you are consuming is of the highest nutritional quality. And, you may need to understand that in this season it is ok for the relationships around you to change. You may be more sensitive than normal to things which are taking place or people who are in your lives. Do not be dismayed, take heart and take this time to spend time alone with your Creator. The new sensitivity you are experiencing is bringing with it new growth. Do not resist it. Give yourself permission to undergo the molting process. It will expose you. It will leave you feeling a little bit more vulnerable than usual, but it will give way to glorious new growth.
KINGDOM MINDED ENTREPRENEURSHIP: KEEP THE DILIGENCE, LOST THE HUSTLE AND GRIND
Before we dive in, let’s take a look at the definitions of hustle, grind, and diligence.
Hustle: to push or force one’s way; to jostle or shove; to be aggressive, especially in business or other financial dealings; to earn one’s living by illicit or unethical means.
Grind: To shape, sharpen, or refine with friction.
Diligence: Careful and persistent work or effort.
When we sit down and think about the way these words are defined, “hustle” and “grind” become interesting terms to describe a Kingdom minded approach to entrepreneurship. Don’t get me wrong, I will be the first to raise my hand and admit I have absolutely used these terms a lot in the past. There are times when I still catch myself using these words.
I thought I needed to hustle and grind in order to prove myself, define my worth, force something, make it happen, get validation from my peers, or just fit in with the entrepreneurial crowd and rhetoric. At the time, I didn’t even bother questioning what the true meanings of the words “hustle” and “grind” meant. I just followed suit with the rest of the world, the entrepreneurial influencers, and the terminology they were all using to express “what it takes” to build a business.
That is, until I began to really ponder how entrepreneurship should be modeled from a kingdom perspective versus how the world modeled entrepreneurship. This is where my mind and thoughts began to take a step back and shift to a Kingdom mindset of entrepreneurship. For a large portion of my life, the world was defining my view of entrepreneurship. But I soon started coming before the Lord to ask Him what it meant to be an entrepreneur in His kingdom.
First, I heard Him say that it’s not my responsibility to supply everything. I don’t have to hustle to make sure I get what I need. “And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19) Sometimes as an entrepreneur we have to take a step back and determine what it is we are working FOR. The Lord promises to supply what we need. So maybe I have to be honest with myself that my own hustle and grind might be driven more by doing it for my family, doing it for my kids, my desire to have money, not necessarily supply what I need.
The worldly model of entrepreneurship tells me that if I just hustle, I will get rich. We live in a culture that worships “fiat money”, and we often get caught in a place of hustling (forcing or shoving) our way into getting MORE. I have found a lot of entrepreneurs will justify their hustle to as a means to provide for their family or children when in reality it’s a pursuit of MORE money, wealth, possessions, and status. I believe the enemy loves it when he traps entrepreneur’s in this worldly mindset (present company included), because it honestly distracts them from being in a place of gratitude to a God who supplies all their needs while also taking time away from what is most important (their family and the purpose for their life). When we come into building a business not out of what we do not have, but out of a place of what we have already been given, our approach to how we build that business can come more into alignment with how God works.
“For everything there is a season… A time for every activity under Heaven.“ (Ecclesiastes 3:1) Someone who grinds always searches for, moves, seeks to master and forcibly create their position. A grinder desperately seeks opportunity for themselves in order to prove their worth to others. A grinder shapes themselves into what they feel like they will need to be in order to become who they want to become, especially in regards to business. According to Ecclesiastes, you cannot create your season. The time for your success or for your business to grow or for the product to see completion, cannot be appointed by you. I truly believe the Lord will position you where He wants you to be. It’s not your job to make yourself into something. You were already created with value. And, there is a season to you, your business, and your product development. Know what season you are in, and you won’t have to grind to create a season God didn’t give you. Each season contains in it preparation for the next season. It is the Lord’s job, not yours, to refine you. Let HIM do the grinding. Shaping you and refining you to be ready for the season you will step into next.
Let’s look at Jesus’ life for a minute. I do not believe people or even theologians would see Him as someone who was a hustler and grinder. In fact, I believe the life He lived looked the exact opposite. He worked when He needed to. He was not lazy. But, I don’t believe that Jesus woke up thinking about what He needed to do to get His hustle on. Jesus would wake up while it was still dark and leave his house to a secluded place to spend time with the Father. (Mark 1:35) This verse alone should tell you Jesus was not quick to get up and get his hustle and grind on (or go build in Jesus’ case). He wasn’t even concerned about that. He was most concerned about spending time with the Father. He was prepared to do the work God had asked of Him, when He had first aligned Himself with the will of the Father and allowed God to outline His tasks for the day.
I believe that is a place that we, as entrepreneurs, need to get to. Keep the diligence, but lose the hustle and grind. We have to remember the Kingdom of Heaven is an upside down Kingdom and operates the opposite of how the world operates. I would say Jesus was a hard worker, a carpenter by trade. But He made time to be about God’s business. We must be the same. We must ask God everyday what we are to be about. We must allow Him to order each and every step. When Kingdom Minded entrepreneurs define hard work, we must do it in the same way that God defines it.
Our focus should be DILIGENCE. Diligence is different than a hustle. Diligence requires excellence and it requires persistence. “The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the DILIGENT is richly supplied.” (Proverbs 13:4) “A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the DILIGENT makes rich.” (Proverbs 10:4) Diligence simply means consistency with careful excellence. The only way to be careful in our excellence is to let God order our tasks. And the only way to be consistent is to hold true to the belief that small steps, completed over time actually create the results. A kingdom minded entrepreneur goes at the Lord’s pace and knows when to hit the gas or pump the brakes. There’s no rush or quick way to the finish line. In the fairy tale, The Tortoise and The Hare, the tortoise always wins the race. If you are consistent in your work (not trying to force anything to happen), are persistent, and do it with excellence, He will make the way for you. It’s His promise to you and my encouragement to you. BE DILIGENT!
CHALLENGING CULTURAL SYSTEMS WITH KINGDOM IDENTITY: MY MIND IS NOT FOR SALE
I decree and declare over this generation of young people, that they will be the first generation to fight back against the Spirit of Perversion coming against their sexuality standing up against it saying MY MIND IS NOT FOR SALE. My mind is not a playground for fantasies placed there by companies who make millions of dollars off this industry and my addiction to the videos, magazines, websites, and social media platforms which are published at their hands. I will no longer allow these industries to wreak havoc in my life by making women an object of desire instead of a powerful, mighty, beautiful person created in the image of God to stand at the side of a man, created EQUALLY to rule with him and have dominion over the earth multiplying the goodness of God unto all of creation. I will no longer allow these industries to wreak havoc in my life or the world by making men out to be sadistic, ravenous sexual predators or insatiable sexual beings instead of a ruler fit to go out into the world and have dominion over the earth conquering all things and fulfilling his God given destiny by the power of Jesus Christ who made me in His image to bring The Kingdom of God into all the earth.
I decree that this will be a generation of young people who take back the world of imagination and creativity which was created by God as a GIFT. I DECREE that my imagination and creativity were never meant to be perverted into something gross or addicting.
I decree that NO ONE was created to carry a Spirit of Perversion which has kept them enslaved to guilt, toxicity, shame, and anger in their lives. We will not tolerate this encroachment on our rights as children of the Most High God any longer.
We will be the generation who stands in their proper identity from Heaven and says that there is a right and beautiful way for my wildest sexual dreams to be fulfilled according to Proverbs 5:18-19, Genesis 2:18-25, Genesis 1:28, Ephesians 5:33, Song of Solomon 2:7, 1:2, Proverbs 4:23, 1 Corinthians 7:3-5, Genesis 2:25, 1 Peter 3:7, and Song of Solomon 7:6-12.
Pornography is no longer my identity. I am the head and not the tail, according to Deuteronomy 28:13, in the sight of God through Jesus Christ. This will be the first generation who says NO! We are not a place for the traps of this industry any longer. We do not want it. We don’t need it, and we break the yoke of these chains off of our lives, off of the generational lines from those who came before us, and off of our children’s, children’s, children to the third and the fourth generation.
We are a branded generation made for a purpose and we do not have time for pornography and all the destruction it creates in our lives and in our world. We will not stand the exploitation of our minds any longer. We will walk in our identity, given to us from the God of Heaven; that we are more than conquerors, according to Romans 8:37! AND, where the Spirit of the Lord is there is FREEDOM. I am no longer a slave, according to 2 Corinthians 3:17. I am a child of God, and I walk as HIS son or daughter forever and ever AMEN.
WORDS FOR THIS GENERATION: AWAKEN WHAT HAS BEEN SLEEPING
I hear the Lord saying to this generation in this moment, yes, even in 2020, that there is something He is awakening in you, a gifting and talent that has been lying dormant. There is something you enjoy, something you have a love for, something out of your normal purview of life. This something is a place He wants to meet you. The God of the universe wants to meet you in that place of enjoyment. Where you do something just because you love it. Pick up your illustration book. Dust off the old grand piano. Pull out the rollerblades. Take an extra drive around the block. Do not ignore the prompting to do things out of the sheer enjoyment you have in them. He wants to meet you there.
KINGDOM MINDED ENTREPRENEURSHIP: THE ART OF PERSEVERANCE
Getting into hunting was always something I have desired to get into, but I never lived in an area where that was possible. That was until my family and I moved to Northern Idaho where you can pretty much drive up the road and you are in the National forest ready to hunt. Within a month of moving to Northern Idaho, I went on my first elk hunting excursion with a couple buddies. I was so excited! I could not wait to go even though I knew nothing about hunting, but I wanted to learn, gain experience, hang with the guys, and be alone in God’s country. I was up by 2am and on the road with my buddies by 4am to our destination in the national forest. It was still dark at 6am when we arrived.
Before 7am, we began to assemble all our gear so we could head up the trail before sunrise. What I did not notice, since the sun was not quite up, was how steep the face of the mountain was that we were about to embark on. It had snowed a couple days prior to our trip, so the trail was covered with a few inches of snow. Therefore, we decided to create our own trail and head straight up the face of the mountain to the ridge. Starting out it was exciting, fun, and everything went smoothly. I made it up about halfway up the mountain when my boots began to slip on the snow. Still, it was manageable, and we kept on moving.
It was a little tougher, but nothing I could not handle. I could tell we had reached an elevation where my lungs had started to burn and my heart began to pound, working on overdrive. But I had been waiting my whole life to be here. I knew I was born to be a hunter. Once I made it 3/4 of the way up the incline, however, the idea of turning back started to sound more appealing than continuing the climb. Before we had set out, my buddies and I created a system in case we got separated. Any one of us could, at any time, fire off 3 rounds from our pistol to alert the others that we were heading back down the mountain to the truck. I wanted so badly to take out my pistol and fire those three rounds and turn around. My boots had zero traction, and I began to slip every time I would take a step due to the incline of the mountain, the snow on the ground, and wearing boots with poor tread.
This was when the rubber hit the road. I was at a crossroads here. The voices in my head began to get overwhelmingly loud telling me, “Just quit. Give up. You do not have to do this. You’re not going to make it.” But I was determined to make it to the top. I was not going to throw in the towel just yet. I had to keep trying even though it was rough. Being the strong achiever that I am, I started to make up different solutions or ways to help me finish the climb. First, I began to dig out grooves in the snow with my hands exposing the dirt to make sure I would not slip. When my legs got too tired to do this and it took way too long, I started climbing on all fours. I got to one point where I was gaining momentum. Then, both of my boots slipped, and I slid down the mountain about 50 feet until I ran into a tree. I had never been so thankful for that stupid tree. If it had not stopped me, I would have kept sliding down, because my boots could not get enough traction to stop.
Honestly, I was fed up at this point. I questioned throwing in the towel. Thinking to myself, I should have listened to those voices in my head telling me to quit. At least then, I would not have spent so much time to get to where I was only to have to start over again. My hands hurt. My forearms hurt. My quads were on fire. My body hurt. My ego hurt. I had snow in my pants. I had snow in my boots. I had snow in my shirt. I was dripping with sweat, and now, I was IRATE. I wanted so badly to make it to the top, but I was not sure if that was going to be a possibility.
Finally, I just called out to my buddy who was up in the distance ahead of me. Letting him know I slid down the mountain and that I was not sure if I was going to be able to climb up the rest of the way, my ego was taking a beating. After talking to him for a minute, he suggested pulling me up with survival cord he had in his backpack. Now, I am a 220-pound man, not light by any means. I was not even sure the cord would hold me. But, again, I did NOT want to quit. “Let’s give it a shot”, I told him. He threw down the survival cord to me and surprisingly it worked. Slowly, surely, step by step, I started to climb.
I was stoked. Beginning again, with the help of my friend, hope started to rise. It ignited a fire deep within me to just keep going. I may have felt more like Bambi on ice than a conquering climber, but a little bit of hope goes a long way. The process was slow, but my buddy never left me. He walked the entire rest of the way up the mountain with me in tow. He would climb up so many yards ahead of me to a tree where he would stop to get support. Then I would climb up, holding the survival cord, while he waited and held the rope steady. There were times when I slipped and fell. But with the help of my friend, and the survival cord, I was able to pick myself back up, wipe myself off, and keep going.
Without my buddy, I could not and would not have made it. It would have been impossible. We eventually made it to the ridge, after 2.5 hours of pure hell, pain, bruises, and sweating like a pig, but it was a huge victory knowing I did not quit. I did not listen to the negative voices in my head. I persevered. I kept pushing. Had I thrown in the towel; I would not have experienced what was waiting for me at the top. Our other buddy had already made a warm campfire, and there was a priceless view overlooking the mountains which I really do not think I have ever seen its equal. Not to mention the joy I felt inside knowing I conquered this mountain (with help).
You are probably wondering why I told you this story. Well, the truth of the matter is that my journey as an entrepreneur has felt like climbing that mountain. I believe this story is a great analogy for young men and women of this generation who desire to be entrepreneurs. I have learned this the hard way. If you want to be an entrepreneur, you will have to possess the tenacity to persevere. This is even more true if you want to be a Kingdom Minded Entrepreneur. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4)
To be a Kingdom minded entrepreneur, you must be determined to persevere and push through adversity and pain no matter what. When issues, circumstances, and problems arise in your entrepreneurial journey, you must have made the choice from the beginning to allow perseverance to finish its work in you. Unforeseen issues will come up along the way, and these issues may stop you in your tracks. The entrepreneurial life will challenge you to see how deeply committed you are to the calling God has given you to impact the world for His Kingdom.
Just like my climb up that hill, this is where you must dig deep down and know your identity. You must know, like I did, that you were meant to do this, and you were not born to quit. You must hold onto the vision and the goal so that when you persevere, you will be mature and complete and lack nothing. I just want to encourage you today, whether you’re a serial entrepreneur, an aspiring entrepreneur, or just getting started on your entrepreneurial journey, keep fighting the good fight even when you feel like giving up.
I want to tell you, it is worth it. Eventually you will fulfill the God given destiny for your life, because you chose not to quit. Reaching your destiny will be painful and agonizing. It is the road less traveled. I truly do not believe you can fully step into the calling God has promised you without pushing through the wall of pain and agony. These barriers are the tests the Lord will use to build you up and prepare you along the way, so that you will not fail.
There will be many times in your journey when you must completely give a situation or your business to God, trust Him, and know He is going to help you climb the mountain. Just like I had to completely rely on my buddy to help me, you will have to completely rely on God to help you. I could not have made it to the top of the mountain on my own and you were not meant to reach your destiny on your own either. You need God’s help to get you there, and He is standing by with the survival cord of rope to help you climb. Perseverance always produced victory. You got this! Keep pushing! The Lord has already gone before you and has your back! You were born to win!
My buddy, Chad, (left) and me (right).
CHALLENING CULTURAL SYSTEMS WITH KINGDOM IDENTITY: TAKING BACK PRO-CHOICE
God began to release this word to me (Whitney Stadtman) over the course of the last month. I feel like this is timely, and that it is something which needs to be said NOW. Hoping this will challenge us to think about this topic the way God thinks about it.
Branded Gen Blog Intro
We challenge cultural systems and speak Biblical truth and identity into the lives of this generation, as we stand on the promises of scripture. We discuss all things “entrepreneurship” through the lens of our Kingdom identity in Christ. We talk about prophetic words God has been releasing to us over this generation.
We challenge cultural systems and speak Biblical truth and identity into the lives of this generation, as we stand on the promises of scripture. We discuss all things “entrepreneurship” through the lens of our Kingdom identity in Christ. We talk about prophetic words God has been releasing to us over this generation.