Worry can show up quick and lead us to focus on everything other than the joys of being a part of His Kingdom and asking God to overflow that joy through us. The enemy would love nothing more than to get our focus away from God’s desire that His people know Him intimately and make Him known intentionally! Worry is a primary barrier to obtaining the wisdom you need to take your next steps of faith in your relationship with Jesus. Worry will always lead to wasted time and energy, but wisdom will help us walk through life with purpose and hope. However, wisdom only comes as we commit to ask and seek the One who holds the wisdom we need! 

With that being said, I’m asking God to move in us, His church, His people, in a way that only He can. I don’t want to be a part of a movement that can be manufactured incrementally by only improving variables we can control…. Music, marketing, programming, etc… This has been done by many churches before. This doesn’t mean we ignore variables we could improve if they exist. However, we cannot be reliant on these things to bring about Spirit-led growth. For example, Francis Chan, author of Forgotten God, wrote in this book…

“Even our church growth can happen without Him. Let’s be honest: If you combine a charismatic speaker, a talented worship band, and some hip, creative events, people will attend your church. Yet this does not mean that the Holy Spirit of God is actively working and moving in the lives of the people who are coming. It simply means that you have a created a space that is appealing enough to draw people in for an hour or two on Sunday. It certainly does not mean that people walk out the doors moved to worship and in awe of God.”

If we long to see Kingdom, Spirit-led movement, it requires spiritual means which only comes from the power of Holy Spirit moving in our lives individually… This is what we must pray for… This is the wisdom we need God to impart to us… This is what we must ask God to do… He is FOR us, and He longs to empower us to live for him. We must ask Him to open our hearts to this and to allow His Spirit to move.

I’m glad to begin this journey with each of you. Let’s not over-estimate what we could do in 6 months or under-estimate what He could do in 5 years!