Do you feel like an outsider? Do you wonder if God could really love you? Do you think who you were in the past could keep you from the love of God? Watch this encouragement to see what God has to say:
6 Facets of Speaking Life To Your Generation
The church needs a group of people who will speak life to this generation. Simply a word from God can totally change a situation. I remind myself of this when I am preaching. One of the Bible passages that come to mind in those situations is Jeremiah 23:21-22 (NIV):
21I did not send these prophets,
yet they have run with their message;
I did not speak to them,
yet they have prophesied.
22But if they had stood in my council,
they would have proclaimed my words to my people
and would have turned them from their evil ways
and from their evil deeds.
The setting of these verses is a reminder of how the prophets of the day were doing it wrong. Then we get these verses that anyone can use to speak life whether you are speaking to a thousand people or to your kids before they head off to school.
Take time to be with God
The biggest danger was that they were not spending time in God’s council. I like to think of this council as a combination war room, court house and throne area of a king. We are invited to come boldly there during our time in prayer and the Word. If we do not we will become like those prophets who had to make something up or simply repeat something they heard someone else say. There is no substitute for our own time with God.
Listen for God to speak
The danger we have when we do take time to be with God is that we dominate the conversation. Not that we shouldn’t speak and bring our needs but we do need to remember that one word from God is more important than anything that I could ever say. Take a notepad or some other way of capturing what we feel that God is saying.
[tweetthis]One word from God is more important than anything that I could ever say[/tweetthis]
Speak life courageously
If God gives us something to share with someone it will bound to be scary for us. In these verses the person is even called to proclaim a word that would turn people from their evil ways and evil deeds. So speaking will require some courage to be obedient to say what God has given you.
Speak with humility
It is easy for courage to turn into arrogance. As I wrote about when talking about increasing your speed of listening to God, we are going to make mistakes. We will make mistakes by adding to what God has told us to say. We will make mistakes by picking the wrong place or medium to communicate the message. That is just two of the possible mistakes we can make. If we are wise we will give room for our possibility of failure and manage our attitude accordingly.
Speak with grace and love
Anything that God speaks through you must be communicated with love. Jeremiah was known as a prophet of tears. Being prophetic doesn’t give you license to be a jerk. Too many bring “a word from God” but by being obnoxious miss out on anyone hearing what they are even saying. So I must ask myself, “What is the most loving way to say this?”
[tweetthis]Being prophetic doesn’t give you license to be a jerk.[/tweetthis]
Leave the results to God
Jeremiah spoke the truth and people wanted to kill him. Even if it is a positive response it may take people months or years for people to really digest the message. So as long as you have done the things above, don’t stress out by people’s response. Pray for them and as is possible live at peace with them into the future.
Although all of this is hard and I make mistakes in this all the time it is what our generation needs. It will also bring new life and hope to your adventure with Jesus.
Advanced Bible Memory: Help Accelerate Your Prayer Life
(Special note: I originally published this post some time ago, but it was lost from the site when we had a website crash. I was having an email conversation with a young man from Kenya who was asking about Bible memorization so I thought it would be valuable to bring it back. I do not use all of these techniques currently everyday because I am experimenting with some other things but all the points here are valid today if you are getting started. Now on to the post- Kevin 10/17/2016)
This post will definitely be an embracing of the nerd within. Memorization is a hobby of mine. One thing that helps my prayer time is when I begin to pray a Bible passage that I have memorized. It can take it to a whole new level. Psalms 119 is a great reminder of how important God’s word is to our lives. God’s word is like food to our spirit!
Because of this I am always looking for new ways to improve my Bible memory. If you have things that work for you please include them in the comments below. Here are three ways that I have used in Bible memory that help me. WARNING: The nerd factor on this is high so enter at your own risk. Some of your coolness may fall off in the reading.
Use A Number System to Memorize the Reference
One of the best audio books I have listened to on the subject of memory is called Quantum Memory Power: Learn to Improve Your Memory with the World Memory Champion by Dominic O’Brien. Anyone interested in the subject of memory would be well served by checking out this resource.
In this program he talks about turning numbers into pictures. This is a huge help in learning the reference of a Bible verse. Although he goes into detail about this in the program the basic idea is to pick people to represent each of the numbers from 1-99. The majority that I use are famous people. Then pick an action for each of those people. For example I use Albert Einstein for the number 15. His action is always to be writing on the chalk board. This may take a bit to learn up front, but the payoff is huge later. It will also come in handy when you are trying to learn your pin number at the bank as well.
Once you have the numbers and actions for 1-99 it is easy to remember memorize and reference. Here is an example. Say you are trying to memorize a passage found at Chapter 33 verse 23. For me 33 is Charlie Chaplin. 23 is Michael Jordan. I use the person for the chapter and they are using the action of the verse. So in this case Charlie Chaplin is shooting basketballs. If it was chapter 23 verse 33 I would picture Michael Jordan swirling a cane. Both are much easier to remember than a random number.
With a little work this will become easy and almost automatic. This may affect your cool factor when you memorize passages with ease and easily memorize street numbers.
Use the Remember Me App
The Remember Me app is easily one of my favorite apps. It is a simple to use and makes memorizing scripture a little like a video game. I am including a video to briefly explain how I use it.
Use the Journey method to memorize passages of scripture.
After listening to Quantum Memory Power I wrote to Dominic O’Brien to see what advice he would recommend for memorizing scripture. He emailed that the journey method would be what he would suggest. Basically the idea is people remember better when they have a location to put what they are looking to remember.
So just for example say we are trying to memorize a chapter that has 10 verses. You can use your house for this example. Maybe a bathroom will be verse 1. Your bedroom next to it will be verse 2. You then pick 8 other places in a row in your house to attach each of the verses of your chapter. After the journey is set you go back and attach the content of the verses to the places of your house.
All you need to do to memorize another chapter is find another location to make a journey. It can be a trip to work or the town you grew up. Again, like the number system, it will take a little practice to start with but one you get used to it you will find memorizing longer passages a lot of fun.
Maybe pick one of these methods to start and give it a try. Like I said up front memorization is a hobby of mine and I have a lot of fun with it. Please let me know in the comments below any other methods you have used to memorize the Bible.
Pursuing Jesus when you are discouraged emotionally
About a week ago I was in a hit and run car accident with my daughter in the back seat. We both are fine, but my car was totaled. Having gone through the process of dealing with the insurance and the like we are now moving ahead. Due to the nature of my ministry it is time to find a used car to replace the last one.
For some people the idea of shopping for a car would be fun. I am not even close to being a car guy. The whole process feels a lot like walking through a maze with a lot of dead ends. I am hoping that every phone call, Google search, and visit to a dealership is leading me toward my new to me car.
To be honest this whole process is an emotionally exhausting event at times. It can be discouraging to be on a journey and not there yet. Since I know very little about cars I wonder if the effort will be worth it.
This reminds me of the blind man on the road to Jericho in Luke 18. He hears that Jesus is coming by and begins to cry out for him. The people around him just tell him to be quiet. This blind man doesn’t know if his crying out will even be worth it. Will Jesus hear him? Even if Jesus does hear him is He going to stop? And then what will happen?
But the blind man doesn’t let the crowd shut him down. It actually says that, “He cried out all the more…” (18:39). He didn’t let the discouragement keep him back but tried even harder. And that crying out changed his life. Not only could he now see, but he was able to follow Jesus and worship God.
We can easily get discouraged in our pursuit of God. Whether the discouragement comes from outside or maybe even from within ourselves. Sometimes we need to be like like David and talk to ourselves, “Bless the Lord, O my soul” (Psalm 103:1). Inside or out discouragement must never stop us from pursuing Jesus.
[tweetthis]Inside or out discouragement must never stop us from pursuing Jesus.[/tweetthis]
Jesus is worth pushing through the discouragement. I may question the effort of pushing through the discouragement of looking for a car, but being with Jesus is worth the effort. My emotions, physical tiredness, discouragement from other people and any other reason must not keep us from seeking the greatest treasure we can ever find. Will you cry out for Jesus again today?
5 Tips To Feel Confident Leading People In Prayer
They say that one of the greatest fears people have is speaking in public. It might be even higher if we were to ask Christians about leading in prayer. I teach pastors that leading in prayer is one of the main reasons that people don’t come to prayer meetings. I have even heard of someone who left a church because she was called on to lead in prayer.
I was doing a seminar at a church and after the seminar a lady came up to me and asked for some pointers on praying better in public. She loved praying when she was alone, but she never felt comfortable leading others in prayer. I don’t think she is the only one.
But leading in prayer does not need to be a terrifying situation. It can actually be a great opportunity to make a difference for the kingdom. With a few tips and tricks you will be raising your hand to volunteer to be the person to pray in public.
Realize that it is not about being impressive– Pretty words do not impress God or engage the hearts of people that you are leading in prayer. Actually using the language you use everyday is more likely to get people praying with you than something that makes people go “wow!” The Bible is filled with simple, straightforward prayers that God answered.
Keep it short. Elijah prayed what was probably a 60 second prayer and fire fell from heaven. Revivalist Charles Finney actually encourages short prayers in the prayer meeting. If you are a leader trying to engage new people in praying in public I would even recommend having a bunch of people pray 1 sentence prayers.
Engage your emotions. Leading others in prayer is often about connecting the people you are leading with the request and then bringing that request to God. Emotion is a great way to do that. If you are praying for a prayer request think about the feeling of those connected to the request. This is not about emotionalism but connecting to the emotion.
Connect to scripture. The people you are leading have more faith in prayer when it is connected to the word of God (Romans 10:17). Even if you don’t feel like a Bible scholar there maybe a story that comes to mind that will give you the content for your prayer. If you are praying for a big challenge someone is facing you might think of David and Goliath or a person who is alone may remind you that “the Lord is our shepherd.”
Practice– Somehow we think that since praying in public is a “spiritual” activity we should automatically feel comfortable with doing it. Maybe a better way to think about it is a skill like cooking. The more you practice, using the recipe above the more comfortable you will become. So my encouragement would be to volunteer to pray whenever you get a chance. Whether it is at your small group or as a family the more you pray in public the more confident you will become.
Do these things and before you realize praying in pubic will be a skill that you are not terrified at having to do. But something even more important will happen. You will now be able to help people to touch heaven and see God’s kingdom advance. Let’s be a people who pray together!
