The gran dream is to live the life the Father has for you.

I recently heard the story of a person who lost their leg below their knee in war. This person was still having shrapnel removed from various body parts, which was causing them pain; and yet, they had a great attitude about their future. This person smiles and laughs as they tell their story of pursuing their life ahead.

This attitude came from a singer, who auditioned for one of the many TV talent shows. Though he didn’t have to, after hearing that his country was at war, he returned home where he was killed in the defense of his country.

Before returning he wrote, “I imagined this year differently, a year of ambitions and fulfilling dreams. Now I am living an old dream to fight for the country … a new dream and another will have to wait a little.” The afore person caught fire with this statement. They still had a reason for living, though different than maybe they envisioned.

What a life lesson for us all! We can focus on the pain of living or the purpose of life the Father has for us (the “good work” [Eph. 2:10] of making disciples [Matt. 28:18-20]). Are we pursing our dreams or His? One drags us down, while the other pushes us forward and upward.

Pain, however, will be part of this process, no matter who you are or where you live. Walking with your Father in the pursuit of His purpose will keep you going forward despite the pain.

We all have dreams of what we think life should be. Living God’s dream for your life, no matter the personal cost, will bring greater meaning to and fulfillment of life today, tomorrow and into eternity.

Jesus knew the art of living the Father’s dream. He kept moving toward and through the purpose the Father had given Him – the cross, the suffering/pain. Yet, He experienced then and now the sense of fulfillment and accomplishment of God’s purpose for His life – the resurrection, the basis of our hope.

Follow Jesus in living the dream.

The God of the universe lives inside and is walking with you!

The immense God, which the universe is too small to contain, lives inside you. The Father, the Son and the Spirit dwell within you because of your faith in what Jesus did.

Let’s put the importance of that in perspective. There is an entire book that talks about this very thing, Exodus. Chapters 1-24 are about God taking a people/a nation, not just individuals, for His own. He gets this nation out of slavery. Fights their battles. And, provides their creature comforts despite their constant ungratefulness.

A dating life that probably should have ended for lack of mutual desire, God brings them to Mt. Sinai. He writes up a marriage contract between Himself and this nation, which is signed in blood. And wouldn’t you know it, the nation promptly commits adultery while the ink is still wet (32-34)!

What He does next is incredible. He makes plans to build a life with them! Exodus 25-31 speaks of the blueprints for a home that the Israelites in Exodus 35-39 used to build a dream home. Then in Exodus 40, God moves into that home to live among and walk with Israel, just as a husband and wife would do.

God has those same designs for us. Our flesh is His Temple, 2 Cor. 6:16, where He lives in and wants to walk with us. Therefore, life should be one gran adventure after another with this immense God living inside us.

Like Israel, we don’t deserve this gran adventure because of our ungratefulness. He has given everyday life, however, meaning and purpose like never before. We get to walk with this faithful God every single day.

This doesn’t mean life will not be without its aches and pains. We know, though, these stretching pains are an opportunity to experience our God just like the nation of Israel.

How we view each day is crucial to our peace of mind and heart. Is it just another day to get up, go to work, complain about the day and then go to bed? Or is each day another opportunity to walk with our God, in maybe new ways?

Check your perspective. Life is indeed a gran adventure if you are looking for one.

Faith is not asking God to stop the storm. It’s trusting Him to get you through it.

I remember my brother and I playing darts as kids. After hanging the dart board on a gate, he stepped back to throw while I stepped to the side.

Well, wouldn’t you know it. As I looked at the board, he planted one square in the side of my head above my ear! No blood. No foul where we came from. I should have been behind him or at least looking at him so I could have moved out of the way!

We have an enemy who loves to throw darts at us, the thoughts that seemingly come out of nowhere from without. And guess what those flaming darts are? Lies, as Satan is the father of lies and can say nothing but lies. Though some, at times, sound pretty believable!

How we defeat them is ingenious on God’s part – the shield of faith. Notice it is the shield (Eph. 6:16) that puts out the flames, not the person’s head! Yet, for them to be put out, they must hit the shield. This means the believer must be on the lookout for them to know where to put their shield.

This takes faith. Faith in the Spirit to give you the truths needed to win the battle. Faith to actually listen for them. And then faith to actually use them in a real-life battle for your mind and heart.

This is where the rubber meets the road. You can say you believe the Bible, but it’s not faith until you actually use them when attacked. Your belief is weak at best or useless at most until you use those truths in action.

Your enemy will use all kinds of lies to destroy your life. But you have to know where to put your shield. This way the truth of Jesus can douse those flames leaving you unscathed and victorious.

The days are coming when our faith will be tested. Hopefully, we will be the last ones standing victoriously. Start winning now!

The will to go forward is a faith choice to do so.

A thought seemingly out of nowhere leads you to make a sinful choice. You see a picture, hear a song, taste a food, touch a shirt, etc., and all of a sudden you find yourself asking for forgiveness.

What in the world is going on? You’re not crazy! This thought came from either one of two sources – one outside or one inside you. Today we’ll deal with the stronghold from within.

In the back of our brains is our hippocampus. Simply put, it stores our life’s experiences to the current moment in time. This information can be put there by us, by others or by the Spirit of God. And, is the source of the thoughts that can trigger us to either move with the Spirit toward truth and freedom or against Him toward lies and bondage.

This stored information (aka “flesh) battles the Spirit (Gal. 5:17). It is a very real battle won only through one faith choice at a time to follow the Spirit. Your enemy knows this. He also knows your past, even the stuff you’ve seemingly forgotten, and will try to use it to trigger disobedience.

The winner of this battle is called a stronghold (2 Cor. 10:4). As believers in Christ, though, we have been given the power to tear down the enemy’s strongholds – no matter who put them there (2 Cor. 10:4-6).

This power allows us to take every thought captive, match it with the truth of the Word of God in order to expose the origins of that thought, and then by faith act on the truth. This process brings freedom from the triggers that can blow up our lives.

The next time you’re triggered by a thought that seems to come out of nowhere, make the decision to deal with it, rather than go with it. Begin to create new neuropathways to victory by building a new Godly stronghold in your hippocampus (Rom. 12:2) through daily faith choices.

Choose to be triggered toward Jesus, the place of safety and strength.

Life is not about what you can achieve, but who you can become.

God found David to be a man after His own heart (Acts 13:22). David’s life had some extreme highs and extreme lows when it came to accomplishments, which David pursued even into his golden years.

Yet, God didn’t measure David’s life by what He did, but by who He was becoming – a man who loved Him with all his heart, even if that meant watching a few sheep or killing one very tall man.

Understand, God doesn’t need us to do anything for Him. He is self-sufficient. Nothing we do or don’t do adds to or subtracts from Him. All He wants from us is to love Him in faithful obedience.

The moment we put our faith in what Jesus achieved for us, not in what we achieved for Him, we became God’s workmanship for the good work He has for us to do. True fulfillment, then, is to seek His heart as to what that is and then doing it with Him no matter our age or gender.

What could that be? Well, Jesus once defined achievement as simply giving someone of a cup of cold water!

Life, therefore, is no longer about the what of the achievement, but everything in the becoming like Him while doing the what with Him. No matter how much you bargain with the Lord over the what, you will never be satisfied until you choose to do His what with Him.  

It takes both the bee and the flower to make sweet honey. Don’t worry about the what He has for others. Enjoy the what the Spirit has for you. Sweet Christlike qualities will taste like a cup of cold water on a hot day to a thirsty person.