Luke 12:13-21

1 Timothy 6:6-11, 17-19

Philippians 4:11-13

Matthew 6:26-30

Ephesians 6:7-8

2 Corinthians 8:1-5

Acts 4:32-37; 5:1-11

How to Avoid the Destruction of Coveting and Comparison:

1- Comparison is trying to be someone you're not to gain what was never meant for you. If your eyes are on any other person besides Jesus, there will be destruction in your future. When you crave titles, accolades, recognition, and riches over righteousness, obedience, and devotion to God you set yourself up to build your house on a sandy foundation. You were made unique in the image of God, don’t get caught up in the pursuit of the fallen image of man. He must increase, we must decrease.

2- The opposite of coveting is contentment. Oftentimes our lack of contentment is rooted in our coveting of what everyone else has that we think means we are less than. If you are struggling to find peace in your life I challenge you to shrink your exposure to what you don’t have in order to maximize your ability to see what you do have. It's hard to focus on what is in God’s hands when we crave what is produced by man’s. It’s hard to be happy with the BLESSOR if the blessing is never enough.

3- God cannot bless what you willingly withhold. Wishing for what others have leads to life that feels as though we are locked out of promises and fulfillment with God, unless HE produces/gives a lifestyle that has more than everyone else, and better than everyone else. If you have a scorecard of material blessing attached to your salvation, you will have a coffin attached to your christianity. There is only one who gives good and perfect gifts, and our lives must be postured on his kingdom above to see them.

1 Samuel L 13:1-14

How To Win the War of Trusting God's Timing and Control.

1- The test of timing takes place before the gift of God given ability and blessing. If the timing is off the ability will be off, and the blessing will be off... a man after His own heart, puts God's heart and commands above the needs of my own heart and plans and learns to trust His timing above mine... and in this action and disposition; the kingdom you seek to build He will make sure endures.

2- The tired and trembling is healed by walking the straight path. My impatience and control are rooted in a fear of improper timing and inadequate ability. There is freedom when we realize it's His timing, not ours, and it is His ability, not ours. We must make the choice to lift tired hands and strengthen weak knees, and trust that on the straight path of holiness there is healing for our brokenness.

3- God not showing up when you wanted is not Him not following through, it's Him confronting the idols of control and impatience. Impatience and control are rooted in us wanting specific outcomes, and not having faith in God and His plan. It is our responsibility to build an altar of a life that honors the commands of God, not one that rewrites them to our feelings and needs when they aren't met how we want, in the timeframes we want. We don't serve a genie in a bottle, we serve a king on a cross.

John 4:46-53

4 Tips on How to Walk Blind with the Words of Jesus:

1- Your asking for interventions is the easiest part of the journey, Your persistence in what you do with that ask is what determines the comfort (or terror) level of the blind walk of faith. What are you saying to yourself and finding out about yourself on the way from the ask to the miracle you seek?

2- We need to be willing to pray for God to shut the wrong doors as much as we pray for Him to open the right ones. You sometimes learn more from the doors you thought you were going to walk through, than the ones you actually have walked through.

3 - A crack in the door deserves a kick to see if we can get it open... sometimes we are too passive, too non-committal, too cost-averse and comfort seeking, to seek out a life that forces God to open doors of healing, wholeness, and opportunity for us. His journey to find Jesus for his son was 28 miles, uphill, in a desert... sometimes we forget there is no testimony, without the word "test".

4- Would you have trusted the 4 words, or only trusted if he physically stood next to you and made the 28 mile hike back? Oftentimes it is what we think Jesus should do for us that is hindering what He is actually wanting to do for us.

2 Kings 5:1-14-

HOW TO FOLLOW THROUGH WHEN EVERYTHING IN YOU SAYS TO QUIT

1 - Your healing is a provision purchased from your healer's broken body for you... however, how He heals is often deeper than our logic interprets healing should happen. Before we walk in the fruit of the external we must prune the branches of the internal... healing through God's hands oftentimes does not come how you think, by who you think, or when you think... but if you're faithful to follow... it is His wish, and His desire.. to heal and restore you.

2 - Your obstacles of follow through most likely will be confronted by the pursuit of affluence and identity. If you are busy building an image of yourself that is separate from God's Word, you will feel the tension of duplicity. It's hard to receive the power of God when we want the power and to be our own God. Every part of you must be surrendered so every part of you can be restored.... your image and affluence are either used for His glory, or for yours.

3 - If you follow through with you walk with Jesus it has a way of restoring more than what you set out to fix to begin with. We come to God seeking healing in a few areas, but He seeks wholeness in all areas. We come to God for our problems to be fixed, He seeks to use us to fix others problems while working on our own. Following through has no finish line, only a starting line. Your restoration is not about you becoming better, it's about you becoming the child of God He created you to be.

Luke 7:11-17

How to Break the Cycles You Need To, To Walk In Who You Were Made To Be:

1- Get a group around your coffin. Honesty is a chemical building block to healing.

2- Find ways to get Jesus' fingerprints on your coffin.

3- Be unoffendable. (Repeat to yourself 1 million times)

4- Switch your thinking; short term sacrifice for longterm reward, and what do I have to lost but what could I possibly gain.

2 Sam. 11:1-5; 14-25

How to Discern If You're Fighting the Right Battles

1- When kings won’t fight they end up in situations they shouldn't have been in, doing things they shouldn't be doing, in relationships with people they shouldn't have given access to… which ultimately leads to consequences they couldn't imagine.

2- When you're not in the fight, but you should be, your eyes drift to something that will get your blood pumping like the battles you should be fighting. Time is not your most valuable currency, attention is.. And the easiest way to be fighting a losing fight is giving your attention to the wrong places. Seasons of IDLE attention are revealing times of the IDOLS of attention in our lives.

3- You prioritize what's important. What's worth the fight. How to drift from God is to not be aware of the fights you should be battling for, and using your energy on things that in the grand scheme of things are not that important. The three most important fights you must prioritize to walk in the royal priesthood that's been purchased for you; your faith, your family, your future.

John 5:1-9

How to choose the love of the Savior, over the love of stirred water.

1- To man love is what you can offer me, to God love is what can I offer you. In a world in which we trample each other if it means our benefit, Jesus stops to show you proximity to him and his power is the only blessing worth having in this world. Our souls are fatigued trying to find a place to be healed and restored, and the only place your soul can be healed and restored is in the hands of Jesus. If we will drink deep of the living water, our life eventually finds what we looked for first in the stirred water.

2- To man belonging is based on appearance, to God belonging is faith and obedience. You do not have a category to God, you are not stereotyped in his eyes. You must fight to keep your eyes upward, because what you're surrounded by is not your condition. Your condition is what you will accept as truth over your life that then you adapt behaviors from. Just because you may feel you're surrounded by the sick, blind, lame, and withered, does not make you sick, blind, lame, and withered. Keep your eyes on the healer, not on whatever it is you think can heal you.

3- You cannot be the love you need, the acceptance you need, the healing you need, and the restoration you need. No promise of ‘stirred waters’ can either.. This is the love of Jesus in this story; for 38 years a man trying but failing to get what he wanted most, and then discovering what he needed most is just a person, who walks right up to him, and brings healing. If our eyes, even if they are weak and defeated, will look towards him and away from what we think brings whatever we think we need, he responds to the needs of our souls, he responds to the needs of his beloved.