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Faith and Expectation

Psalms 31:24 (AMP) Be strong and let your hearts take courage, all you who wait for and confidently expect the Lord.

Are we showing up to places expecting calamity? Are we expecting a struggle? Are we expecting to walk into confusion? I want to tell you something about this faith life, we cannot pray against something that we have invited. We need to change our mindset and our expectation. God is not going past what we expect and speak with our mouths.

Matthew 15:15, 17-20 (AMP) Peter asked Him, “Explain this parable [about what defiles a person] to us.” Do you not understand that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated? But whatever [word] comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this is what defiles and dishonors the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts and plans, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, slanders (verbal abuse, irreverent speech, blaspheming). These are the things which defile and dishonor the man; but eating with [ceremonially] unwashed hands does not defile the man.”

Ephesians 4:29-31 (AMP) Do not let unwholesome [foul, profane, worthless, vulgar] words ever come out of your mouth, but only such speech as is good for building up others, according to the need and the occasion, so that it will be a blessing to those who hear [you speak]. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God [but seek to please Him], by whom you were sealed and marked [branded as God’s own] for the day of redemption [the final deliverance from the consequences of sin]. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor [perpetual animosity, resentment, strife, fault-finding] and slander be put away from you, along with every kind of malice [all spitefulness, verbal abuse, malevolence].

I was in prayer yesterday about some of the confusion we have had with setting up on Sunday mornings. It has been effecting our worship and media (which includes the sound) teams. Where is all this confusion coming from? As of right now we are renting from another church. We have a 1:30 in the afternoon service. Their worship and media teams have been doing some changes with the equipment and it is different every week. There is discouragement, and I understand that, it is not easy to figure out when we are not a part of the whole picture. What we cannot do is lose the joy in that we have a place to come to worship together. We cannot allow it to cause discouragement in how we approach worship.

The first thing we have to do is to check our heart attitude. Have we lost the joy? If so, what are we doing to find it again? Psalms 31:24 says, “Be strong and let your hearts take courage.” Discouragement cannot enter our hearts. Out of hearts we will speak what we expect. My prayer was, “God let our hearts remain steadfast to your Word. Let us not grieve the Holy Spirit by our complaining when we come into this place. Holy Spirit, we value You more than any inconvenience we may face. Let our words build up. Let our words be used to bless.”

I am praying against the confusion, but I am also praying for our minds to be in correct alignment with the Word. No matter what, the Holy Spirit is more important than what we sound like or look like on the camera. We are not producing a product, we are ushering in His Presence. We should have excellence, but not at the expense of not sitting at His feet. We can often get into the works of it all, that we forget the most important part, being with Him.

Joshua 6:10 (AMP) But Joshua commanded the people, “You shall not shout [the battle cry] nor let your voice be heard nor let a word come out of your mouth, until the day I tell you to shout. Then you shall shout!”

This is the story of how God delivered the city of Jericho into the hands of the Israelites. They marched around the city walls six days with only the trumpets being blown by the priests, and the ark of the covenant being carried behind the priests. On the seventh day, when they had walked around the city seven times, this time when the priests blew the trumpets the people were to give out a shout. I believe it was a shout of praise, it was a shout of victory, it was a shout of expectation. Their faith had lined up with their expectation that God had delivered the victory.

We cannot pray against something we have invited. Change your mindset and change your words. Stop inviting confusion into your life and into your worship. Do not allow discouragement to take root and cause your mouth to curse what God wants to do in that moment. Speak faith, speak expectation, speak to build up. Your faith will meet your expectation.

Our Lord, Our God, Our Banner, You are more precious than the sun you put in the sky. We want to bring glory to Your Name. Thank You for Your Son, for coming to earth to live among us and for restoring us to our rightful place in Your Presence. Thank You for the Holy Spirit. Your Word says that the Holy Spirit is the seal of our redemption. That means we have been inspected and approved. We are no longer broken vessels, Your Son redeemed us. We repent for speaking words that are not uplifting, that we have spoken out of the confusion without going to Your Word and Your Promise. We choose to forgive ourselves and others for having expectations that do not line up with Your Word. Let us choose to remain silent and get our hearts and minds in correct alignment so that we do not dishonor You with our words. We choose hope today. We choose joy today. We choose forgiveness today. We choose love today. In Jesus Name, Amen.

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Celebrate People

My oldest, Ari, and I

Romans 15:2 (AMP) Let each one of us [make it a practice to] please his neighbor for his good, to build him up spiritually.

1 Thessalonians 5:11 (AMP) Therefore encourage and comfort one another and build up one another, just as you are doing.

Romans 1:11-12 (AMP) For I long to see you so that I may share with you some spiritual gift, to strengthen and establish you; that is, that we may be mutually encouraged and comforted by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.

We had a busy weekend at the Brogdon house. Our oldest son (my mother’s first born grandchild) graduated from high school. We spent the weekend celebrating him. We prepared the home to have family and friends over to celebrate. We put steaks and chicken on the grill. Friends came early and helped pitch in. It was a wonderful time. He felt so loved and is looking forward to going out into the world…because that is what we have been preparing him for.

There were some family that did not come. We did not leave our focus there. We cannot focus on those that do not show up, we have to appreciate the ones that do.

The same is true in all aspects of our lives. Some of you start a business and would love the support of your friends of family. They do not always show up for you the way that you hope. Appreciate the ones that do.

On the other hand, if you are one who struggles to show up for people, why? There are times that I do not feel like it, but I do not want to be known for not being there. I want to be someone that people can count on. I want to be a person that people look forward to coming around because they know that I will celebrate them. Honestly, I am one that avoids the people that want to put me down by comparing what others are doing. I will duck and hide, I will quickly walk the other way and I will even move in a hurry.

We recently have had someone in our lives that is constantly telling us about how much they enjoy attending this other service before they attend the afternoon service we have on Sundays. For the past three years we have been in transition and having to rebuild financially. The place we are able to meet in gave us an availability for us to have Sunday services at one thirty in the afternoon. Some really enjoy it. We have never discouraged anyone from watching or attending someone else’s church. We never imagined how much it would hurt to find out that loyalty and honor are not a part of culture anymore. How easy it is for others to tell you how much they are learning at so and so’s church. We tell them, good for them, but honestly it makes me want to hide.

Hebrews 11:24-25 (AMP)  Let us consider [thoughtfully] how we may encourage one another to love and to do good deeds, not forsaking our meeting together [as believers for worship and instruction], as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more [faithfully] as you see the day [of Christ’s return] approaching.

I do not give myself permission to hide. My heart goes out to all those who fight the same battles that I do, and that are not longer in the five fold ministry. We know many who have left the assembly of a church and gone to online church due to just what I have described above. Online church was not meant to replace assembling together, it was meant to supplement when you could not (not choose not). It hurts to not be encouraged. So here is my encouragement for you today, learn to celebrate people. Learn to build people up. When you get in the middle of a life giving community, the ones that did not show up for you and the ones who try to tear you down with comparison, will not have the power to keep you from doing what God put you on earth to do.

God created us unique. God created us with a purpose. Jesus was accepted by everyone, so why should it surprise you that you are not. Celebrate each other and encourage each other. We are stronger together. Do not allow the discouragements to put you into hiding. You are called out to be a light. Why would He bring us the light for us to hide it? You are wonderfully and beautifully made. The glory of His being is within you. You are celebrated!

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See a Victory

My husband I pastor a church in Opelika, Alabama. If you are not from the area, you probably mispronounced that city. It’s pretty funny that God brought us here, because my husband was born here, but never lived in this city until he turned thirty. When we took over the church from his parents we set out and wrote down what God was telling us the vision for the church would be.

The vision statement He gave us was, “We exist to touch the world through our community.” Habakkuk 2:2-3 in the Message translation says, “And then God answered: ‘Write this. Write what you see. Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read on the run. The vision-message is a witness pointing to what’s coming. It aches for the coming – it can hardly wait! And it doesn’t lie. If it seems slow in coming, wait. It’s on its way. It will come right on time.'”

“We exist to touch the world through our community.”

Connect Church Vision Statement

We were so excited for what God was going to do in our church. This was not a starting from scratch church plant. That did not mean were were not faced with challenges. Our heart was to empower the church for ministry. This is how we were going to reach our world. Empower them to see the importance of their community, so that we could reach this world.

First book we read as a church was Greater by Steven Furtick. Our desire was to see the church get excited for the greater. One of my favorite quotes from this book was, “Most believers are not in imminent danger of ruining their lives. They’re facing a danger that’s greater: wasting them.” We envisioned a church that saw the importance of reaching the lost. We may have been a bit too pushy. Not six months into this leadership shift did we get push back. We were told that we could not expect them to love “our baby” the way that we do. The vision had not been received and it stung. It took my husband and I a few years, and the church too, to overcome such a blow. Did that mean that the vision God gave us was not for our church. No…it just meant we did not lay the foundation properly.

We have to watch our hearts in this season of vision casting. Do you know that you have the power to extinguish someone else’s dreams? It is not your job to judge if that persons dream will succeed; it is not your dream. You are however, not suppose to speak against it.

Ephesians 4:9 “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

God put a vision for our church, but we knew that things had to change in order for us to see that promise. We decided to put our property up for sale. We were sitting on twenty acres, with almost fifty thousand square feet of building and that meant our overhead was between twelve to fourteen thousand dollars a month. We were not a church that could sustain that much overhead and sow into our community.

We walked away from the sale with no profit. Nothing to start fresh with. Did that mean God did not give us that vision still? No…it meant we had to trust Him more. For the past one and a half years, God had been healing our hearts from the words that stung us those five years ago. He has been building upon a foundation in His Word. Our church, and I believe churches around the world, are waking up! There is a fire and a hunger in the church like we have not seen in the past two decades.

Ecclesiastes 11:4 “He who watches the wind (waiting for all conditions to be perfect) will not sow (seed), and he who looks at the clouds will not reap (a harvest).” (AMP)

That vision for Connect Church is still there. God has given us a BIG DREAM! However, in order to see that come to pass we need to sow into other’s dreams. We are sowing into the construction of a church in Uganda. Right now we are not meeting in our own building. We are renting from another church and have a one thirty service. We could get comfortable here. Our church members are growing so much spiritually that we are loving this call of being their pastors. That discouragement is now a distant memory. There is life again! We are seeing victory in their lives. God is not done with us yet…there is still that vision.

We are also giving like never before into local organizations and ministries. Deep down there is still a desire to do and reach more. You may not be leading a church but you are called to ministry.

I have a vision for loved ones lifting up their hands in worship, completely surrendered to our Father. I envision our children worshiping whole-heartedly. A fire is burning in our young people (Jeremiah 20:9)! When people walk in the doors of our church I envision the chains of bondage breaking off of them, that they fall so in love with God they cannot walk out the doors the same.

Can you know see the victory? Can you envision the promise? I can. God gives you the dreams and He is intentional of what He puts in your heart to accomplish. Trust God. Remember He is an amazing architect. He created this world that you exist in. He is the “Everlasting to Everlasting.”

“I pray with great faith for you, because I’m fully convinced that the One who began this glorious work in you will faithfully continue the process of maturing you and will put his finishing touches to it until the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1:6 TPT