fear?

ok...new revelation for the day.

this morning i reread the quote from the last post by Mark Batterson...the first sentence.

"quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death."

here is the revelation...

God gives us our calling.

and once we hear it, we can know it and follow after it/Him with everything in us...and anything that says otherwise is irrelevant.

satan sees us and sees that calling and that is where his mission begins. he does all he can to keep us away from what God has. sometimes he lies, sometimes he twists the truth, and sometimes all he has to do is just take the scary truths, the ones that make us nervous, and just shove it in our face - like "you agreed to this calling...but did you see this? did you hear what happened there? did you know its dangerous?"

and while its true...while he is not lying..........is it even relevant?

if God calls you to something...does anything else matter? do you have to look at the circumstances? does God call us and expect us to accept - on the condition that we feel comfortable with it?

i dont believe that.

fear is a VERY effective weapon satan uses...and he knows this.

all he has to do is get us to doubt.

and in that - we start to justify why we cant follow God, and why its crazy, and why although we know its satan...he might be right. that God couldnt possibly be calling us to this.

but here is what God made me realize...

He might call us to something else...BUT HE WILL NEVER USE FEAR TO DO IT.

again...if fear is what is keeping us from following the calling..however justified and figured out our fears are - its not God.

He will shut doors or take away opportunities or just straight up tell us...but He will never scare you out of following Him.

i have been struggling with fear this past week...starting to listen to the voices that say
"just dont risk it...just dont, its easier and no one will blame you or judge you for staying..." and THAT is a scary place to be. scarier than walking into the unknown that God is calling me to...the place where the world has more influence on my decisions than God does. and that is how God is helping me have confirmation on my calling...i can see where satan wants me, i can hear what he is telling me...so i know i have to run in the opposite direction with utter abandon.

as we listen for His calling, as we pray that God will speak and lead and stretch us, here is what God has been speaking to me...and im not saying that i am a master of this - im not. im just learning it - but i know its something i need put into practice starting NOW.

be ready and open to hear WHATEVER it is that He's about to say.

hear it, know it, cling to it.

dont let anything tell you that its too crazy or too dangerous or impossible.

dont listen for a second to the voices making you doubt or fear or second guess.

and fight with everything in you to follow after it...and if you start to be unsure that its actually your calling...pray, and keep fighting for it until God tells you otherwise.

quit living life as if the purpose is to arrive safely at death.

God has so much more than that for us...and we will never see Him do big things if we never take big steps.

dont ignore the calling...its the only way we will ever experience God in the way we were designed to.