Mark 2:14-17

Matthew 9:9-13

Luke 5:27-32

Walking in Activated Advocation:

1 - Advocacy is when we desire to recognize purpose beneath the surface of every person made in the image of God. There is no stereotype, skin color, past-situation, socio-economic class, sin, or mistake that invalidates someone's right to belong. We believe through our written Word of God that the pronouncement of faith and surrendered life brings you into alignment within the family of God. Advocacy is my maturity into activated faith that bridges the gap between heaven to remind people we are all sons and daughters of God (Yahweh). We build bridges, we don't burn them. We will not be a church that offers sacrifice, but does not offer mercy, or we will need a new pastor.

2 - The foundation of advocacy is the foundation of the character of the throne of God; righteousness and justice. Righteousness is the inward challenge of surrendered life, justice is the outward fruit of it. How we walk in advocacy rooted in righteousness and justice is centered on three words: awareness (pursuit of knowledge), empathy (pursuit of proximity), and solidarity (action born of previous two things). Jesus was aware of Matthew's situation, went to his house and got proximate not just to him to others that had been considered outcasts and sinners, and then defended him in solidarity to those who would accuse or condemn him based off his life. Our call is to unite all people into kingdom purposes.

3 - Vasili Arkhipov

1 Kings 19:1-18

How to experience breakthrough from a breakdown.

1- There is a difference between fatigue and failure. Just because you are tired, worn down, scared, questioning, running does not make you a failure. However, fatigue can bring all sorts of failure if you do not properly reorient yourself to God's rest, provision, and voice. Health starts when your pursuit of help does. Your mind, heart, and spirit will always be restless until it finds its rest in Jesus.

2- Spiritual maturity is when your mind starts to switch from just looking for God in the profound; to the one gentle blowing... the powerful; to the low whisper... the extraordinary; to the realization of God as a present person in my ordinary life. Maturity is inviting and learning to see God outside of the arenas I expect to see Him in (the flat and bang of cultural Christianity)... and that He longs to reveal to us a space of hearing the blowing and wisher of his spirit as it affirms, guides, protects, and provides for the deep needs of our souls.

3- The black rat.

Luke 7:11-18-28

Luke 22:31-32

Hebrews 4:12-13

What To Do When What's Happening to Them Isn't Happening to Me:

1- Doubt begins to entomb when the outside circumstances begin to prevail against the internal disposition. When the external reality doesn't match the internal optimism we are taught to have in faith, it is up to us to go to a deeper place, and that's by design. You cannot stay in the spiritual shallows when life gets heavy. When outside is getting loud, the inside better be learning and leaning into the quiet with God. Life can easily become a reaction to the world around me, rather than an overflow of the world I have built within me. We are to be inwardly formed, while outwardly facing.

2 - There is a distinct difference between healthy doubt and deconstruction, and walking away and deconversion. Jesus can go as deep as we want to go, the tension is if we trust Him and His plan with our unknowns... He is with you in the prison, pain, weakness, unmet request, tension of waiting, fear, brokenness, and the main question of it all, "why doesn't He just do for me what He has done for others?"... it is life's great question that we find He does not always give answers, as much as He just becomes the answer, and reinforces who we are, and what we mean to Him.

3 - The Spirit's greatest work in your life is 'sifting'. Sifting either purifies the promise or offends the promisee towards the promiser. Doubt is the sifting of our souls to purify the purposes of our Creator in His creation. To wrestle, to question, to seek more... is an invitation to drink of deeper waters, to find a deeper rest. When His spirit sifts our motives, desires, pursuits, and ambitions, we become the home in which His Spirit dwells in its fullness. Don't allow the offense of what He hasn't done rob you of the faith in what He is going to do.

Matthew26:36-46

3 statements from Jesus designed to stir a sleepy soul awake:

1- “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me” (vs 39,42,44). Do you trust his will even when the cup you are drinking is one you don’t want to drink, the cup you are drinking doesn't make sense, the cup you are drinking is not your timing or your plan, the cup you are drinking is a cost you absolutely do not want to pay… when the cup is not being taken away, and not being passed off.. Do you trust God and drink? Your willingness to drink from the cup you don't understand is oftentimes the greatest ask of faith in our journey with God. The cup of communion was filled with His blood, the cup of a life in Him may have deep cost associated as well.

2- “Keep watching and praying, so that you do not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (vs41)... If you have not trained yourself to watch and pray in night seasons, at some point a dark night of life will come upon you and you will be forced to develop this muscle. "To watch" is practicing discernment and awareness of what is around you... "to pray" is to communicate with God in such a way that you're strengthened by His nearness even if the feeling is weakness. Your spirit must be strengthened to take control of your life, because your foes will always be weak when the temperature of trials rises.

3- “Yet not as I will, but as You will.”(vs 39,42, 44)... the foundation of every argument we have, every question we have, every reason to walk away… my will or His. Peter was falling asleep with his will, before he was using his will power to aggressively deny his walk with Jesus. We don't go from disciple to denial on the surface of our lives without a deep war internally of his will vs ours. Our will must be submitted before his will can sanctify. Our will must be purified, before his will can teach us to abide. This is not a one time test either, rather a life-time of his will or mine is a part of the journey.. But if we put his will above our own, drink from the cup we don’t want to drink, and stay awake and in prayer, there is remembrance of how we lived.

Mark 8:22-26

Luke 9:59-62

How to Get Through the Spit to Experience the Shine:

1- Jesus uses uncomfortable to lead to completion. Meaning if you're looking for comfort you will always be searching for completion. Human nature has a tendency within its desire to drift toward disobedience and call it freedom. Leaning into the sanctification process and refinement of your character is the journey of trusting that the Lord will be faithful to use the ‘spitty’ seasons to shine.

2 - The first step of spit producing a shine is coming to the end of any dishonesty and walking in 100% honesty/transparency. We want our lives to shine but they feel like spit and no one knows... you cannot heal unless you are first honest. This might even mean telling Jesus that it's not working, and pressing into Him again, and again... until you find the healing your soul searches for. Don't stop pursuing the healer, until the healing power flows into your life.

3- If you do not train yourself to look up, you will not get out. We must rhythmically allow Jesus to reposition our spirit to look upon Him in order to receive the leading that has been purchased for us... we want all the benefits of a healthy spiritual life with none of the habits that make it healthy... you must learn your Savior is just as much in the spit as He is in the shine of life.

JOHN 2:1-11—

Your life is not an overlooked detail to God. Your problems are not an overlooked detail to God... your pain is not an overlooked detail to God... your grief is not an overlooked detail to God... your relationships are not an overlooked detail to God... your family is not an overlooked detail to God... your health is not an overlooked detail to God... your desire is not an overlooked detail to God... your finances are not an overlooked detail to God... your dreams are not an overlooked detail to God... if it matters to you it matters to Him.

Mark 11:12-24

How To Make Sure Your Leaves Are Producing Fruit:

1 - No matter what you do externally, Jesus will always seek to purify you internally. How he purifies is by drawing close enough to challenge the leaves to produce fruit. If you're the one who sings/yells 'Hosanna", don't be surprised when the Spirit shows up in the temple of your heart to purify it in order to produce the right fruit of a surrendered spirit. External fruit is born from the internally disciplines life. The internal life must be reoriented, repositioned, and renewed to the heart of Jesus for fruit to be produced.

2 - The fruit of a healthy tree is there to be picked by others.... if people can't see the fruit of a godly lifestyle or don't want to pick the fruit that is present in your life, be careful.... as the roots may be withering. The purpose of fruit being picked is so a tree can produce more in the future. You cannot be a tree that produces fruit if you're too busy being a tree that protects its fruit. Don't be a leaf that turns to a thorn, when you're supposed to be a fig that quenches the needs of the hungry souls of this world.

3 - It's easier to choose leafiness over fruitfulness. Anyone can grow leaves, but it is hard to produce fruit. Leafiness is elementary knowledge of Scripture, but not fruit of the Spirit present in the my life. Leafiness has spiritual activity, but not deep sacrificial dependency. Leafiness knows what to say, fruitfulness learns to listen and discern what the Spirit is saying. Leafiness wants a testimony, but won't embrace the test it takes to produce the fruit of one. You produce leaves first that then produce fruit, but the leaves will never be the same as fruit.

Matthew 17:24-27

How to Fish for the Right Things, and Walk in the Miracle of an Unoffendable Heart of Gold

1- We must change our perspective of those who wrong us. Offensive people are hurting people, possessing wounds that have not healed that infect those around them. When you choose offense oftentimes it is you who adopts the wounds of others. Your spiritual journey is to become thick skinned while having a tender heart, not thin skin with a hard heart. Forgiveness is oxygen, unforgiveness is carbon dioxide. It's your choice what your spirit breathes in everyday.

2- Forgiveness does not mean resolution of all problems. In fact, in some cases there is needed to be protective distance or time that takes place even in the midst of a heart posture that's releasing. Healing is everyone's journey, and the only person you will give an account for is yourself. You cannot control what you want from someone else, or what you feel you deserve from someone else... let that fish off the line.

3- If everything that happens to you is a big deal, your life will have a small impact; as you cannot handle the cost of elevation. Jesus was killed for how He lived, there may be something that has to die for you to fully live in what He has called you to walk in. Spiritual maturity is when you learn not to waste your energy on the small things, and keep your eyes on the prize. If you live in cycles of offense, you build an electric fence around your heart that the Spirit is repelled from getting close enough to transform. You're fishing for gold, not fishing for carp.