Trust & Surrender

We are being invited by our very good and tenderhearted Father to trust Him implicitly when there is much happening around us that feels so unstable and untrustworthy. Trusting in the goodness of our Father’s heart is the only place of real rest there is, but to do so means we have to surrender everything in us that wants to be afraid, kick & scream, lash out at others, judge, justify, hate, accuse and a hundred other destructive outcomes of not trusting and resting in God. Last Saturday during Blazing Fire’s online worship service, I asked you to take note of what’s been happening in your heart—your strong emotional reactions—especially over this past month with all the escalating tensions and narratives. It would be to your great advantage to ask the Lord to show you what you cannot see clearly without His help. We are being given a great gift by God to make us aware of what is robbing us of the abundant life Jesus said we would have. But this gift of self-awareness will be given only to those who chose to want it. Here were the questions I posed:      * Do you have deep joy in your heart?      * Do you have a deep-seated peace in your heart?      * Where did fear get the better of you?      * Where did your fear lead to well-intentioned attempts to control what         seemed out of control and what did that look like?      * Where did you choose distance and disconnection, even with those you         were previously close with, in stead of seeing them through the eyes of         God?      * Where have we hated another person?      * If you say, "Well, I didn't actually hate them..." Okay then, where have you        not loved another with God's heart?      * Where are those reactions still occurring?      * How are you trying to justify them instead of humbling yourself, owning it        and asking for God's help to live His way instead of insisting on your own        way?  The goal of reflecting on these questions with the Lord isn’t to identify the problems and stop there. That would be fairly depressing. Instead, the Father’s goal for you is maturity, especially in the ways of love.   Be assured that the testing of your faith [through experience] produces endurance [leading to spiritual maturity and inner peace].  And let endurance have its perfect result and do a thorough work, so that you may be perfect and completely developed [in your faith], lacking in nothing. (James 1:3-4, AMP)   This Saturday I will be sharing some insights I’ve gleaned from my own journey in this maturing process that we’re all being invited into by God. I’m a co-learner with you, learning to be totally dependent on Holy Spirit’s power within.   Jesus is calling us further up and further in! Christ’s resurrection is your resurrection too. This is why we are to yearn for all that is above, for that’s where Christ sits enthroned at the place of all power, honor, and authority!  Yes, feast on all the treasures of the heavenly realm and fill your thoughts with heavenly realities, and not with the distractions of the natural realm.   (Col. 3:1-2, TPT)

With love,                 Pastor Brent

Vibrant Life

In this season where anything we’ve been relying upon other than Jesus is being exposed for what it is, the invitation to be a true disciple of Jesus and experience the good life he promised is more attractive and more necessary than ever!   Jesus told us, “I have come with the sole purpose for you to have life in its most complete form.” (John 10:10)  Jesus also said, “To take my word to its complete conclusion and then to abide in seamless union with its logic is to truly be my disciples. In this abiding, you will fully know the truth about who you are, and this knowing will be your freedom.” (John 8:31-32)   And Paul, who became a true disciple of Jesus, wrote this to us: “Consider your life now; there are no outstanding debts. You own sin nothing! A life bonded to God yields the sacred expression of his character and completes in your experience what life was always meant to be.”   (Romans 6:22)   True discipleship is: 1. Choosing to be "all in" as a follower of Jesus. 2. Leaving behind the "old stuff" that's not for you anymore. 3. Learning to hear form the Spirit of Jesus directly. 4. Trusting and believing what He says to be true. 5. Surrendering your ways to His ways. 6. Leading others to do the same so they can experience the vibrant life Jesus     offers.   Beginning in February, I will be providing a weekly “Vibrant Life” video as a tool to help draw you deeper in as an “all in” follower of Jesus, learning to hear his voice and surrender to his ways. I am also providing this tool as a way for you to intentionally reach out to a few others and meet with them (in person or on zoom) to encourage each other in this journey as disciples of Jesus.   I explained much more in my message this past Saturday: (Pastor Susan Fochler shares a powerful prophetic vision 44 minutes into the service and I share about our discipleship emphasis for 2021 and the purpose of the Vibrant Life videos starting at the 51-minute mark).

Click to Watch Saturday's Message

This week, a repairman came into our home to fix our gas fireplace. I wasn’t thinking about trying to bring Jesus into our conversation—it just happened somehow, because when life isn’t squelched, it’s just going to flow out!  Steven started sharing quite vulnerably with me about his past and the struggles of feeling like he never quite measures up and wondering if God really accepts him. Encouragement came—life flowed—Steven began to believe the truth of the goodness of our Father’s heart that was setting him free. Oh yeah, the fireplace got fixed too.   Expect the “repairman encounters” to start happening around you with greater frequency. God has been preparing your heart during this past difficult season for a reason. His children are beginning to stream into His Kingdom. Ready or not, here they come!   It’s time, more than ever, to embrace the joy of being an “all in” follower of Jesus as his disciple! Please let me help you in that journey of bringing others into the vibrant life of Christ.   With Love,              Pastor Brent

Graduating into 2021

As I thought about the coming new year God reminded me of being in elementary school with all the new information, new skills, and new ideas to learn. We were given many building blocks of learning to help us with the next concept or idea. This was challenging and even overwhelming at times.  But as the year progressed, we realized we had learned so much! We were being prepared and equipped to enter into the 'next grade'.    I’ve realized how much I’ve experienced, learned from and got through in this past year of 2020.  In 2020, the Lord helped me gain a new level of emotional and spiritual maturity.  I was being equipped for what’s ahead in 2021!  And I realize He has given me all I need to enter in the new year.  As our good Father and great Teacher, He has promised this to us....   “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you.”  1 Pet 5:10   Also, God impressed upon me specifically that we have gone through the 4th grade in 2020 and we are entering into 5th grade in 2021.  There are many things this could mean, to me and perhaps to you personally.  But this we do know: the number 5 means grace. God has prepared us and equipped us to live in a greater measure of grace!  Grace for others and grace for ourselves.     So enter into this new year of 2021 with the assurance that you are equipped!  God has made us ready to walk out this year in an amazing grace.   Because agreement with God is a big part of the transforming process of renewing our minds to believe what God believes is true, declare out loud from Ephesians 2:10 (Mirror Bible) what God says about you:      * I am engineered by God's design.      * God molded and manufactured me in Christ.      * I am His workmanship, His poetry.      * I am fully fit to do good.      * I am equipped to give attractive evidence of His likeness in me in        everything I do.                                                                 Love, Wanda

Take Heart

Wherever your opinions may be situated on the political spectrum, Wednesday’s events in our nation’s capital in Washington D.C. were disturbing. If we were thinking that turning the page on our calendars to 2021 would suddenly change the intensity of the world’s events, then we’ve already experienced a great disappointment this year and it’s only a week old. No, unsettling world events are still happening around us. What has changed, especially through the journey of this past year, is our hearts. What has changed is how God, in His grace, has been giving us a greater ability to see and perceive more of what He sees and perceives.   There’s no denying that troubling events have happened this past week and this past year, but please listen with new ears to the words of Jesus, who is our Master and Good Teacher: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33, NIV)   Jesus doesn’t deny that trouble exists in the world and doesn’t ask us to pretend so either. Yet, the focus is entirely upon the hope that arises in us because he has already overcome the world! Our hope and peace are anchored and rooted in Christ alone! Jesus is our only place of rest. If you look to world events or circumstances around you to be in perfect stillness and harmony, you haven’t yet understood where rest comes from. It begins and ends with a deep awareness of Christ in you.   In 2020, God was very intentional with us in bringing our hearts back to him. There was a good and loving reason God was pushing a reset button in us. There was a good and loving reason we were forced to abandon life the way we were used to so that we could be taught how to trust God in a new way and how to rest in the assurance of His goodness in our lives. I have watched so many of you mature deeply this past year in your connection with the Lord, and I want to show you from Ephesians 4:14-15 what that maturing process was for:   As our immaturity comes to an end, we will not be easily shaken by trouble, nor led astray by novel teachings or by the false doctrines of deceivers who teach clever lies. But instead we will remain strong and always sincere in our love as we express the truth. All our direction and ministries will flow from Christ and lead us deeper into him, the anointed Head of his body, the church.   Friends, we will not be easily shaken by trouble! Why? Because the Lord Himself has been teaching us the ways of love and truth and because our lives are flowing from His life in us. None of us knows what the coming days will hold, let alone the coming years. What we do know is that our very good Father has positioned us to represent Jesus in a clearer fashion than ever before to a world full of people who need the rest only He can provide. Remember that we cannot lead people to a place unless we’ve been there ourselves. So, God took an entire year to lead us into a deeper rest and trust in Him and to prepare our hearts for a significant change that’s coming to the earth—dare I even say—a love revolution. The goal isn’t to figure out exactly what that’s going to look like, but for each one of us to choose the ways of love as Jesus has been leading us to do.   Listen to the heartbeat of Jesus: Keep your eyes on me!  Steady…steady….I’m right here. Fear isn’t from me. Receive my peace as I breath upon you. Rest in me. Take heart! I have overcome the world.    With Love,                    Brent