For the past several days the teachers in class, the speaker at the fellowship meeting on Saturday, and what I’ve been reading have all been fitting together into a nice package. I’m not saying it wasn’t their intention, but it is rather convenient.
Friday morning, Mark, the head of our One Thing Internship at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City gave a talk about “the power of a focused life” sighting Proverbs 29:18 “Where there is no vision, the people perish” and that the greatest law, Mark 12:30 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” So from here he starts talking about desire… What?
Mike Bickle does a great job in his book The 7 Longings of the Human Heart describing things that we were all created to desire. We long for these aspects: to be enjoyed, to be fascinated, to be beautiful, to be great, to be intimate without shame, to be whole hearted and to make a deep lasting impact, because we are created in God’s image, and these things are in his heart as well. I gotta say that I’ve been meaning to read this book for a long time, but have just never made the time to do it. Well I told you that part to tell you this part, I had just read the chapter on our longing to be fascinated the night previous to Mark’s teaching and it all fit together.
Mark basically outlined how if we have a small vision of who God is and what He intends to do in our life, our desire will be turned to any number of things. We were made to be fascinated. We cannot repent of desire. We were made for this. We can only repent of trying to fill it by means other then God given ones.
We need to have a focus in life, a goal if you will, because without it we wont get anywhere because we are going no where. We need to have a goal, so that we redeem the time we have, avoid laziness and will prepare for Jesus’ return in an appropriate manner. Surely we should be fascinated by whatever we make our goal, otherwise we’ll just be trudging through life desperately trying to get to the end. How depressing is that? But if we are fascinated, it will give use the energy and strength to press on and enjoy the work we are doing. If we are lining up our goals with the purposes the Lord has for us, it will come more naturally too because it will be the very things we were created for! Could He really be so good and to create us for a purpose and a work that we are excited for and want to do? Paul was maybe one of the hardest working people ever. He planted more churches then anyone, how could he have had the stamina to keep up such and pace especially going though the persecution and beatings he received on a frequent basis for preaching Jesus Christ is Lord? He must have loved doing it. Paul gives us a glimpse in his writing; 1Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. The grace of God being the very thing that empowered Paul (and us) to do the task before him. Isn’t it great when you’re given the very tools you’ll need to what you’re supposed to? Few things aggravate me more then I’m told to perform a task or duty but am not giving the ability or authority with the command. I’ve heard it said before by several people “A lover will out work a worker any day of the week.” And I think I’m starting to get it.
To give you all of the examples that Mark gave in class would make this post obnoxiously long(er). He had about 2 hours to talk, and I know I don’t stay on any single internet page for more then five minutes. But hopefully this will prick your heart as it has mine. I would encourage anyone to seek this out yourselves, and definitely read the book by Mike Bickle. I know for me, Mark’s talk, especially combined with how some of the other talks, and what I’m reading, all fitting together synergisticly has been very exciting. Before arriving here I knew this was an area in my life that I had problems in, but I had no language for it. I couldn’t address my lack of motivation, and excitement because I had no language to define it. Through reading that chapter, and hearing Mark’s talk, it put handles on the problem I couldn’t address, so now I can look at it, and build a strategy and game plan to reach that goal. What is my goal? I dunno yet, but if I’m able to maintain God as my fascination, it’s gonna be a lot of fun.
pb
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