Wednesday, February 16, 2011

The "Empire State of Mind"

"Faith doesn't grow in the house of certainty."

I would like to suggest to you that faith is the single most important possession we can have within our person. This noun can and will change your life if you choose to implant it within your spirit. I definitely hate to sound overly spiritual but during the past couple weeks I have been discovering the intricacies of a life defined by faith vs disbelief. You see both require an action, an action of receiving or rejection and both will come to knock on the door of your heart. So I guess my question is what happens when we choose faith instead of disbelief?

I have been very blessed to be able to set aside a month to test the waters of a world that I believe I will belong, if not now someday. I have been in New York City going after my dream of being an actor on the Broadway Stage, and as much as I thought I was prepared for the journey, I had no idea. I thought this was going to be about me showing up to auditions and just showing people what I'm about, but man have I struggled. Struggled getting in the door, struggled getting the courage; overall, it's been a struggle. As great and wonderful as my time has been here, I have found these looming questions of purpose and direction crawling over my head like the branches of a low hanging oak tree; threatening but somehow comforting. The threat I feel is from the enemy, the lie of inadequacy that keeps finding its way into my mind and yet I can only think about the comfort of the promise over my life. So this is the fork I think we all find ourselves at, faith vs. disbelief.

The problem that I see is that we are just people with eyes, meaning that we see first in the natural as apposed to the spiritual. In the natural, our brains dictate the actions of every member of our body, but what happens when we allow our brain to dictate the actions of spirit? In a word, trouble. We are created obviously in three parts: Spirit, Soul, then Flesh. Our spirit was designed to be the instigator of every action we make, and if we are diligent with our spirit, then the things that flow from it will be good, they have to be. Where we encounter issues is if we operate from Flesh to Spirit, our flesh is imperfect so if we set our soul and spirit upon what we see in the flesh then we lose, it's that simple.

Our spirit tells us that EVERYTHING must work out according to the will of God and that His Word cannot return void. If you choose to see things through that lens, you move with purpose and direction to the destiny of your life. When you choose to look down and around to the physical failures you begin to lose your focus. I remember taking skiing lessons a year or so ago and one thing that I will never forget is that my instructor said, "Look, you're falling because you keep looking at the snow, your skiis will follow wherever your eyes go." How true is that? Our lives will go where our eyes are focused, keep your eyes focused on the promises and truths of God, and that's where you'll end up.

Now, I'm stirring myself up as much as I hope I'm stirring you up, life is too short to believe lies and find yourself 20 years down the road still wallowing in self pity and unfinished destiny. I dare you to believe the truths and promises the Lord has spoken over you, His plans for you are for good. His character is perfect, His will is perfect, and His love for you is perfect. We are all going somewhere, but you get to choose if you want to go His somewhere or simply stay nowhere.

And let's not forget the purpose of our journey.

"However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace."- Acts 20:24