Thinking outside the box

Since we have moved to Florida I have heard from several of you, that you maybe have had that same ‘inkling’ of God calling you out. Maybe you are not certain of the game-plan, but just prayerfully watching and waiting for God to reveal it to you. Ready to do the ‘next thing’ in whatever His plans are for you! I just wanted to take the time to share with you that this is a very exciting thing and I am glad some of you have taken the time to share this awesome blessing with us so we can be praying for you. If you are not getting this inkling quite yet, I hope that by my writing this you would be stirred to consider a small challenge. I want to encourage you that, you can do this in your own Jerusalem, wherever that may be at the moment! Being taught under Steve in CCTC, has equipped us ALL so very well that you can only get so ‘well fed’, before needing to act upon it and bless others. I shared in one of my original journals/blog from last year……….. when we first felt God tugging and He was going to move us, out biggest problem there in Tri-cities was contentment & complacency…….. Simply put, that amongst the awesome BOLD teaching, wonderful accountability & great fellowship that we experienced in TC, we got very comfortable in where God was using us. We were ‘giving out’ and serving but not beyond areas that were, honestly, out of our comfort zones. It was easy to do as we have always done, simply because we lacked the ability to think ‘outside of the box’ in many ways. We had niches where God was using us because these were the areas we ‘allowed Him’ to use us. Beyond this, was too far fetched and shamefully absent. To be honest, we put God in a box by allowing our comfort to me more important than the possibilities of what He could have done with us.In the loneliness of being ‘sequestered’ from everything I knew from TC, many of which were awesome, edifying and wonderful things, it is amazing how much God has revealed to me to begin thinking outside my comfort zone……… When it is no longer convenient to consult with a GODLY friend and down play how God would never tell me to do ________ because it would interfere with _________ or use the excuse that I am just not equipped to do__________. Well, then it is just between God and you. There are things God is calling me to do here, that I would have never even considered doing in TC. I had my ‘things’, my schedules were pretty set, the goals were very clear and there really was ‘no time’ for thinking outside the box back home. God forbid if I had begun prayerfully considered thinking this way and I am sure something shiney could have come alongside and distracted me since it is always Satans plan to keep us from having a true impact in the lives of others. When there is no one to argue with, but the Lord, and we 'get out of ourselves' long enough to find out where God wants us, that is the point where God can do show us what he can do with a lump of dirt. YOU TOO can experience the same thing we have experienced, without the need to move at all. Ask the Lord to reveal to you, if you are even open to thinking outside of your comfort zone. Sequester yourself from whatever talks you out of doing what is not comfortable or logical. Ask the Lord what distracts you from thinking outside of your comfort zone? I pray that some of you do get sent out of ‘the nest’ and go on to do some pretty awesome things with God’s leading. However, to those of you who are not being called out I challenge you to also be prayerful in the same manner. Until God sends you elsewhere don’t make the same mistake I made. Think outside the box and make an impact there in your Jerusalem while you still can! Evaluate your time spent? Are you spending time on what is eternally valuable? Are you investing in more than the everyday mundane or asking God to help you invest in the eternally valuable, beyond what you could ordinarily imagine? GOD BLESS ALL!