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Strengthen Yourself in The Lord

I get it — people are afraid. For the last two years, fear drove ratings, fear created clout, and fear was a supremely effective tool at gaining and maintaining control. Some got rich from pushing fear, some saw their social media followings swell, and at every turn fear took root in the psyche of America and most other nations around the world. Fear was the currency that was trafficked in 2020 and 2021, but for 2022, let’s not let fear bankrupt us. We have had enough. That’s why I started an organization called “Let Us Worship” that was borne out of the Covid lockdowns installed by radical politicians that shut the doors on our places of worship. I decided to fight because closing churches conflicts with everything that is fundamental to nations like America, Canada and others, including the guarantee of religious liberty. Even if our churches were closed, however, we could still gather for fellowship. As the Bible’s Matthew 18:20 says, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Over the last year and a half, “Let Us Worship” brought revival church services to cities across America. When governments tried to close churches, we rejected the fear they pushed and leaned into hope. From the beginning of the pandemic, we heard fear-mongers proclaim that our worship services would be super-spreaders, while other “peaceful protests” happening around the country were deemed safe. We’ve seen this time and time again — stoke fear, then stay silent when that fear fails to materialize. What about giving hope a chance? Why do we believe so strongly in hope? Because we’ve seen it first hand, over and over and over again. Last summer, at a “Let Us Worship” revival in Seattle we saw Antifa threaten our worship service, pepper spray our families, throw rocks and spikes in the road, and cause huge disturbances, but we also saw Antifa members throw down the black masks and give their lives to Jesus. How could you not have hope? This past week we rang in the new year at a very special revival gathering in Miami. It was a powerful time of worship, thanksgiving, and celebration for all God has done. Leading up to the event, we held a Jesus march through the streets, passed out groceries, and fed the homeless. In Miami, we had the opportunity to pray for the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, a man who has prioritized religious freedom over government intervention. We prayed for wisdom and strength for DeSantis as he leads a state during such a difficult time, and we prayed for full healing and complete restoration for his wife, Casey, as she battles breast cancer. At revivals in cities all across the nation, baggies of heroin, crystal meth, drug paraphernalia, razor blades are all commonplace, thrown on stage as people reject hopeless lifestyles and allow Jesus into their hearts. At one revival, a young man came thinking suicide was the only way to be set free from the grip of depression and anxiety, and walked away with newfound freedom and an eternal hope. He and I have hope because we know the One who gives hope. As we start off a new year, let’s reject the fear being pushed on us at every turn, and let our communities, cities and nations be a land of hope once again.

It's so easy to become jaded or cynical amongst the busyness and bustle of the Christmas season. Add to this the challenges of Covid and all that comes with it and the s tress and anxiety seem to be amplified. Maybe you're unable to gather with the ones you love this year or maybe you've lost a loved one and this Christmas will feel empty without them. It could be that you've lost your job and income, or like many, maybe you're tired and weary, weighed down by all that is happening in the world and wondering if everything will return to normal. I can't tell you that everything will go back to the way it was. Honestly, I don't know that I would want to tell you that anyway. If going back to normal means going back to what is easy, comfortable and familiar then I don't want that. Those things breed apathy and mediocrity in our walk with the Lord. In that "normal" we are consumed by getting things and making our lives better and easy when we are actually called to pursue something else as believers. That something else actually turns out to be someone else. It is the most wonderful time of the year, not because of the gifts and gatherings or food and festivities. It's wonderful because we have the opportunity to re-focus on what really matters. Despite the hardships we are facing, we can come back to that scene in a stable where the hope of the world was brought into the world. And yes, Jesus really is the hope of the world and for you and me. Through every loss, every struggle, on the top of every mountain of anxiety stands our Saviour, beckoning us to come up higher and be seated with him above it all. But it all started with His humble entrance into humanity as a helpless, dependent newborn. My encouragement to you this season is to stop and take time...really take time to refocus your heart on Jesus and all that He has for you. God is doing a new thing on the earth, just like he did 2000 years ago by clothing himself in humanity and ushering a new era of grace. I know It may not seem that way or worse yet it may seem like the complete opposite but the Holy Spirit is really moving. A great harvest of souls is on the horizon and is already taking place in parts of the world. We can be stuck in the mud of despair or we can walk in the confidence and revelation that our feet are firmly planted on the rock of our salvation. Though everything around us is being shaken, we can stand firm and move ahead with Kingdom purpose. This is a season to refocus and renew your hope. It is the most wonderful time of the year!

We never ask to be thrust into a season of war… it usually sneaks up upon us when we least expect. The first explosion shocks us and shakes us to the core, but the ongoi ng ripples of battle can send us reeling as intensely as the initial strike we experienced. It was only a few weeks ago that I was nervously surveying the post-war landscape of my life. The grenades and explosions of 2020, coupled with the aftershocks of 2021, had taken their toll on my heart, mind, and body, finances, health and relationships. Taking inventory of the damage, I wasn’t sure what kind of future I would be walking into and how I would manage it. I tried to visualize myself moving forward in life, a little more broken, with a newly acquired health condition, ongoing depression and anxiety, splintered relationships, and undermined confidence. “It’ll be ok,” I heard myself say, “I can handle a bit of brokenness in my body, mind and soul, so long as it’s not complete devastation. I can get by with a little more anxiety… a little more depression. I can handle small problems in my body so long as they don’t turn into bigger ones.” I thought myself a hero for rallying myself in that moment, doing the right thing by motivating myself to cut my losses and limp along. Yes indeed, a hero, until moments later, when the interjecting, thundering voice of the Lord came, piercing my thoughts as He asked me: “Erin, WHY ARE YOU NEGOTIATING WITH A TERRORIST?” Had I heard right? Had I just been rebuked by God? “Why are you negotiating with a terrorist??”, He asked once again. “Erin, you are willing to give up ground that I’ve never asked you to give. This is not your season to limp forward; this is your season to RECOVER ALL.” Recover all? I wasn’t sure where in Scripture I had heard that before, but as I searched, the Lord led me to read the account of David in 1 Samuel 30. In this passage, we learn that David had just returned with his men after a season of warring victories, back to Ziklag, the place they were living with their families. When they arrived home, what they discovered waiting for them was absolutely devastating. Their homes had been destroyed, and their women, children and possessions had been carried away by the enemy. The landscape of their lives was in absolute ruins, and their grief insurmountable. The Bible says they “wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep. Their losses were incalculable. To make matters worse, the men blamed David for all of this and considered stoning him. In this moment of total devastation, David, the man after God's heart, did two things: first, he strengthened (encouraged) himself in the Lord, and second, he inquired of the Lord for what he should do next. The strategy of the Lord was clear: "Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail, recover all . ” What happened next was exactly as the Lord had declared. David took his men, pursued, overtook his enemies, and he RECOVERED ALL. In the end, nothing was lacking and nothing was missing… in fact, David acquired additional spoils for his trouble. As I read this account of David only weeks ago, I felt the strong unction of the Holy Spirit, that the season of trouble we have been in is giving way to a season of full recovery and of spoils. As long as I would STOP NEGOTIATING with loss, depression, fear, calamity, sickness, division and strife, I could actually position myself to hear the strategy of the Lord for FULL recovery and breakthrough. The first thing God showed me to do was to write a “RECOVER ALL” list. I wrote down every last sliver of loss I had experienced in this past season, and held it out it before the Lord, with my heart realigned to His expectation of healing, breakthrough and recovery. The second thing I felt the Lord say was to move this into a corporate experience. Our church has since created a “Recover All Wall” filled with taped up sheets of paper written by families outlining every loss they are believing to be recovered. As we pray for one another, and seek the Lord for strategies to recover all, the “Recover All Wall” will soon become a wall of testimony and breakthrough, prophesying to every future problem of the Lord's goodness and power. Finally, I have sought to do as David did during this season, and strengthen myself in the Lord. For me, this means a consistent reciting of the testimonies of my history with the Lord. I recount to myself—sometimes daily—the miracles He has performed throughout my life with Him. When I run out of my own testimonies, I have been actively seeking out other people’s testimonies of breakthrough and healing to help fuel my faith. Often, I will begin my day with a simple declaration of faith: "Today Lord, we will recover all!" The spoil I am believing for and actively pursuing in this season is the salvation of my friends and neighbours, the impartation of greater faith for miracles, and boldness in sharing the gospel. In only a matter of a few short weeks, I already have a list of testimonies growing—ways the Lord is “recovering all” in my life. Some are sudden sovereign interventions, and some are slowly evolving miracles as I walk forward in faith and perseverance. Each is a story of His faithfulness and every individual breakthrough becomes a corporate victory and testimony. As we leave the war zone and fix our eyes on the horizon of His promises, may we have greater and greater faith that the spoils and recoveries of this next season will far outshine and outweigh every loss and hurt we are leaving behind, and that this truly is our season to recover all.

One of the most profound prayers in the New Testament is found in Paul's letter to the Ephesian church. "Ephesians 1:16-19 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, r emembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might Paul prays that the Ephesians would be given a Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, that being Jesus. I can't help but think that the church needs a fresh revelation in the knowledge of Jesus. In his book, The Knowledge of the Holy, A.W. Tozer famously states, "What comes into our mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us. Tozer continues on a couple of paragraphs later and says, "Always the most revealing thing about the church is her view of God. For this reason, the gravest question before the church is what do we conceive in our heart, God to be like." I often think we pray weak prayers, lack honest real confession and worship half-heartedly because we don't have a high enough view of the God we worship. I love Exodus 34, where God meets with Moses up on the mountain in the cloud. There God declares the "name of the Lord" to Moses. Essentially God is declaring his character and nature to Moses before they renew the covenant together. God declares himself to be Yahweh, the God who is "I AM," meaning the God who was and is and is to come. John Calvin states in his institutes that Yahweh refers to "He who is alone." Our God "is alone," there is no one like him, he is incomparable. The creatures in Revelation four declare Holy Holy Holy, is the Lord God Almighty, the one who was and is and is to come. God continues to declare who he is to Moses. "Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation." I love Moses' response when God is finished speaking. He QUICKLY gets on his knees, bows his head low to the ground and worships. The only correct response to encountering and receiving the revelation of who God is is to respond in awestruck worship. Today I pray Paul's prayer for the Ephesians church that you would receive the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of HIM.

Mark 4:3-8 “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky plac es, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.” Jeremiah 17:7-8 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit” Psalm 1:1-3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither - whatever they do prospers. In the early days of my business, sometimes there would be a total of 5 customers walk through the front door in a whole day. I would wonder how we would ever grow enough to become financially sustainable. At the end of some months, I realized that I could have made more money if I worked at McDonald’s. Still I was happy to be where I was. It felt right. But something needed to change, and change quick. Well, nothing changed quick. But it did change. Little by little. One inch at a time. I realized the value of small steps. Not just small steps, but continual and consistent small steps. It looked like one little addition to the website. One little update to a product label. One new pricing update. One new video. One new way of displaying product. One new product variation. The list is a mile long. But added together, the small changes led to small growth which, compounded by time, led to big changes and fairly big growth. Instead of 5 customers in a day, it would not be too abnormal now to have 5 sales within 5 minutes at some points. This is how we are instructed to live out our faith… as a tree growing one inch at a time. Sometimes we’d just like to blossom quickly to fullness of success in so many areas of our lives. But Jesus tells us that the one’s who bore fruit 30, 60 and 100 fold were not the ones who sprang up quickly. But the ones with roots. The ones with history and time in their story. Slow growth. The greatest success is not seen in a snapshot. The greatest success is seen over a lifetime. ————— It’s kind of embarrassing but the best thing I ever did for my walk with God was to commit to pray a lowly 2 minutes a day. I decided to pray 1 minute in the morning and 1 minute at night. I had loved God for many years, serving in the church, praying regularly (but mostly irregularly), worshipping, giving etc. But true transformation in my heart was missing. Some weeks I would go without any personal time with God. So I committed to pray 2 minutes a day and slowly increase my morning and evening prayer time by 1 minute each week. This was something I knew I could accomplish. I was ready for small steps. Over the next months, my heart came alive. I got into a regular pattern of small changes. After a month, I was up to 6 minutes of prayer in the morning and 6 minutes of prayer at night. After 3 months I was at 15 and 15, which worked out to 3.5 hours a week of devoted time with God. I was blown away at how easily that had happened. After 6-7 months, I was praying over an hour a day!! I never imagined I could do that. So much changed over that year. The business grew and grew. My prayer life developed. I could feel the smile of God in my heart. —————- An oak tree grows about two inches a month, depending on its stage of life. It’s so minor and slow that it would be boring to watch it grow. But in 10, 20, 30, 50 years, the change is so profound, it gives joy to all its surroundings. Let’s not grow weary in well doing, cause in due season the harvest will come. But I encourage all of us to take one small step today and one small step tomorrow and one small step next week as well. And let’s see what God can do with our little steps and our little faith.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name - Psalm 100:4 It was Thanksgiving in Canada this past weekend and i t has traditionally been a time to recognize the blessings we have received from God and is an opportunity to give thanks for all that he's done. Despite the challenges of the past 18 months, we still have much to be thankful for. Even if things were much worse, we would still have endless room to be thankful because our grafefulness is not based on our circumstances but based on who God is and His promises which never fail us. Thankfulness requires us to be humble and recognize that it is not us but God who makes all things work together for good. It's our humility and contrite heart that draws His presence into our lives. In contrast a grumbling and complaining heart is full of pride and entitlement and we know from His word (James 4:5, I Peter 5:5) that the Lord resists the proud. Psalms 100:4 provides some insight into the power of thankfulness. In this scripture it is coupled with praise and in fact precedes praise indicating that it is a prerequisite to praising and worshipping God. It is our attitude of thankfulness and gratefulness that positions our hearts to praise God in the way that he deserves. He deserves all the praise...not some, not a portion, but all of it. If we attribute even just some of our life's success and blessings to ourselves or to others and place them ahead of God, then are we really giving Him all the praise, worship and honour that he's worthy of? Thankfulness also opens the door to worship the Lord in every area of our lives. When we are thankful it is so much easier to worship with our finances, our words, our actions towards others etc. We become more generous because we recognize that it's God from whom all our blessings come from. Thankfulness also elicits joy in our hearts and releases us from worry and anxiety as it literally changes the chemicals in our brains and reroutes our neural pathways away from negative thought patterns. In understanding these things, my heart's desire is to give God a pure and whole offering of worship. This leads me to posture my heart towards the Lord in humility as I choose to lay down any thought of being self-made and notion of entitlement. No matter how difficult and crazy the world becomes, I choose to walk in the knowledge that I am alive and blessed only by the grace of God. He is the very breath that I breathe. And so the incense of my worship is forever mingled with thankfulness.

Isaiah 55:12 “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.” The worst decisions I’ve ever made in life have not necessarily been wrong decisions, but rather, they have been wrongly made decisions. They have been impatient decisions. They have been hasty decisions. They have been decisions I made when I prioritized the seeming urgency of the moment above the sometimes-slow clarity of the Holy Spirit. It’s always the same loud racket and noise that assaults my heart and mind and pushes me to react to the situation rather than respond to His leading. I hear alarming chatter like “you don’t have time to wait” and “you’re going to miss out” and “you’ll never get this chance again” and “bad things could happen if you don’t hurry!” I worry about missing out. I worry about lost opportunity. I worry about disappointing people. I justify the rush. I ignore the disquiet building inside of me. I press “play” instead of pressing “pause,” and suddenly I wonder where all my peace has gone. Living from the Presence of the Lord IS to live in a place of peace. This is normal life for a believer. When I am anchored to the reality of His Kingship and His Goodness, there is nothing and will be nothing to come that can phase me. Jesus holds my past, my present and my tomorrow. All the plans He has for me are for good and not for calamity—to give me a hope and a future. All things work together for my good. He my shield, my strength, my rock and my defender. He is my light and my salvation. My help is in the maker of Heaven and earth. And… He’s not in a hurry. He’s never anxious and He’s never rushed. When the rulers of this earth rage and scheme, He simply laughs. He is completely confident in His Lordship, in His timing and completely confident in His unfailing love for me. There is no situation in my life that He lacks an answer for. There is no problem I face where He lacks a solution or answer. It’s not because He knows the answer… it’s because He IS the answer. When I live prioritizing continual connection with Him, I become the tree planted by the rivers of living water—fruitful in every season, never dry or lacking, always blessed and always prospering (Psalm 1:3). I feed from Him continually and He becomes the source of all my wisdom and understanding. So what does this mean in the moments when I have difficult choices to make? When the situations around me feel like emergencies demanding my urgency? It means I live according to a plumb line of peace, and therefore I do not yield to panicked or frantic decision making. I’m led… not driven. Because connection with the Lord is my priority and I live anchored in His Presence, If I don’t have His peace—I don’t “pass go.” I wait. I don’t stew and stress to find the right path—He is my path. I don’t freak out because it’s dark and difficult to see—He is my light. I don’t google myself down a million rabbit holes—I climb onto His lap, and I wait. I wait for Him to either move the situation, or I wait for Him to move me. I surrender my busy heart and my striving—and my need to understand everything. I worship. I read His word. I remember what He’s done before. I listen. And I wait. Sometimes I watch with Him as opportunities and relationships slip past me—missed moments I thought were so important, but He knew better. I wave goodbye and grip His hand a little tighter—He is my opportunity, my open door. Waiting for His peace makes the new possibilities He opens up for me all the sweeter—He never runs out of doors. Sometimes as I wait on His lap, I watch as the landscape and lighting around me changes—as He adjusts people and situations with His gracious hand—and all of a sudden those things that felt so confusing not that long ago, become crystal clear and my waiting makes sense. I never needed to fret—He knew what He was doing all along. And then there are some times it looks dark and stays dark for a very long time—even on His lap—but I will not venture off to find a quick fix “light” to explain away my pain—He IS the trustworthy lamp and His eyes still see when mine do not. Isaiah 55:12 is one the banner verses of my life: “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.” I know the leading of the Lord because it resounds with His peace, it leads me into joy (even when it’s hard), and it carries confirmation within it from the people around me I trust the most. The longer I walk with the Lord, the more I understand how crucial it is to stay rooted to His Presence and to remain in His peace. Compromising peace in order to satisfy a hasty decision has always led to regret. But waiting on Him—is always the key.

An angel appeared and spoke to Cornelius, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. Now…” (Acts 10:4) An angel appears to C ornelius. A vision appears to Peter. The course of church history is setup for a shift. Both supernatural encounters lead to a divine collision of people from different worlds. The outcome… the Spirit of God is poured out on a whole new sect of society and the church is forever changed. (Acts 10) This was the beginning of salvation and the baptism of the Spirit being poured out among all nations. Even when the Jewish believers heard the whole story, “they had no further objections and praised God, saying ‘even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.’” (Acts 11:18) But how did this begin? It began with a devout seeker who prayed to God and gave gifts to the poor. It began with a single person devoting them-self in prayer to God and in generosity to those in need. An angel appeared and spoke to Cornelius, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. Now…” (Acts 10:4) In other words, God has seen your history of praying/seeking/gazing/burning and has remembered your selfless love. Your history has become a permanent memorial of faith and love before God. And it is now moving God’s heart and hand. One man’s personal history in God made a difference. God saw him. His family and household were the first ones outside of the “local church” as they knew it, to receive the gift of salvation and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Our times seeking God and praising Him, are not forgotten. They are not meaningless. The times of not seeing immediate results are not without reward. Our gifts to the poor and our moments of surrender are the setup for a God intervention. They are going up before God as a memorial. God is remembering the times we have turned to Him, the times we have sung, the times we have cried. He sees every personal moment. He hears every Burn set with 3 people or 300 people. Our history in God is changing history.