Love Revolution - Joyce Meyer

[Luke 6:38]

We need to declare war on selfishness.

[2 Corinthians 5:15]

I take up compassion and surrender my excuses.
I stand against injustice and commit to live out simple acts of God's love.
I refuse to do nothing. This is my resolve.
I am the Love Revolution.

"Will I continue being part of the problem or will I be part of the answer?"

I am only one, but still I am one, I cannot do everything, but I can do something and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something i can do.
---Edward Everett Hale

We must beware of thinking that words are enough.

[Acts 10:38]

Talking is not expensive, nor does it require much effort, but real love is costly.

If you can only relieve someone's pain one time for one hour, it is still worth doing.

[Matthew 5:13-14]

I am going to go out into the world today to spice things up!

Nothing good ever happens accidentally.

If we want to be part of a revolution, that means things must change, and things cannot change unless people do.
Change begins with me.

[Isaiah 61:11]

The heaviest tragedy of all tragedies is the tragedy of humanity's broken heart.

[Luke 4]

[Hebrews 6:19]

[Psalm 39:7]

Hope is always alive, even when the situation is bleak or seemingly impossible.

Our mission is to bring that hope along with faith and love to hurting people.

[Zechariah 9:12]

[Hebrews 13:15-16]

Singing a God song, joining in the great anthem of eternity, is one of the great joys of life here on Earth.

Empowering, defining, we are fueled in His presence to live out the great commission.

Fueled with our hands outstretched to heaven, and then readied with our hands presented in a stance ready to serve. Without times of prayer, meditation on the Word of God and those tender, stunning moments of a deepening relationship with Christ, our acts of service can easily become simply "works based", with the agenda driving the service being about us, rather than being about those who we are serving..

[Proverbs 4:23]

[Matthew 18:5]

Roll our sleeves up, swallow hard, pray and believe, and step out in faith.

*weekend buddy system?*

The journey of the heart is one of the most complex mysteries there is - the elation and the sadness, the hoping and the waiting, and for many, the unutterable disappointment that makes us not want to feel anything anymore.

When we don't understand the great love of God meant for us to lean into and find strength in, our hearts find other ways to cope, to manage, to survive even the harshest of realities. And this is where many people find themselves today, from the richest to the poorest, as poverty of the heart does not discriminate in its search to find a home.

[Psalm 27:3]

Seizing Your Divine Moment - Erwin Raphael McManus (part 2)

"You must leave while it is still night," Maven reminded Ayden.

"Is that so we might slip past the shadows before they wake?" Kembr asked hopefully.

"No!" snapped Ayden. "It is so they know that it was we who woke them and dared interrupt their sleep!"

"The way is full of peril. Must we beckon it?" asked Kembr.

Maven knew it was not fear but thought that guided Kembr's queries. He looked past Ayden and spoke to her what she already knew from her dreams.

"The shadows rule the night. They hide blinded by the day and thus cannot be seen. The day is free. It is during the night they take mankind captive, keeping them in their slumber."

Ayden continued Maven's thoughts, "We must walk into the shadow's darkest place. Only there will we know if we have light enough."

-----Entry 988/The Perils of Ayden.

RiSk
Live before you die, and vice versa

• The most important decisions of our lives will require us to forsake invisibility and risk becoming visible. Whenever you choose to seize a divine moment, you move from invisibility to visibility.

• If we want to live life to the fullest, we must be willing to trust God and risk everything.

• Do you hear what he's telling us? Think any God thoughts you want; do any God deeds you desire to do. Do it boldly, whatever it cost.

• Whenever God is involved, the epilogue is not mysterious. God wins.

• Divine moments are not fail-safe, and they are not risk-free.

• You cannot fail without risking. If you have never failed, it might just be possible that you have never risked.

• If it is difficult to fail without risk, it is even more difficult to succeed without failure.

• You do youself a disservice when every story has a happy ending in this life. It's far more important that there be a meaningful middle.

• The fuel for a life of faith is more inspiration than information.

• To live outside God's will puts us in danger, but to live in His will makes us dangerous.

• When we begin to seize our divine moments, we do not begin to live risk-free but instead become free to risk.

Ayden led the way as Kembr followed. With every step the path thickened in its darkness. Their eyes provided little help to them, but somehow they were more than able to find their way.

Everything carried its own heat and vibration. The darkness did not diminish the colors, which exploded from the degrees of warm and contrasting cold.

In the midst of silence they could feel the sounds all around them. Sounds so melodious they would sweep a traveler from his course to simply sit and listen. Yet behind them were cries of despair and even torment. It was becoming more difficult with every step to move forward. The darkness was almost suffocating.

Ayden interrupted Kembr's struggle with a stark reminder. "With one blow they have the strength to slay you. Fear will grip at you and strive to pull you back. They can do us no harm as long as we advance. They can only strike if we hesitate or step back."

Kembr confirmed his meaning : "Then to retreat is to ensure our death. Let us move forward then and live!"

------Entry 1223/The Perils of Ayden

ADvaNce
Go unless you get a no

• Life is full of high boards, the place we stand where we realize that the altitude is higher than we expected.

• God was more than ready to act.

• God would give them victory in the battle, but He would not fight their battle for them.

"Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?"
[Judges 6:14]

• This is the intersection that we must cross: God begins with go, and we often begin with wait.

• God invites us to go in our own strength, trusting in Him and in our obedience receiving His strength.

• How would your life be different if you worked from a giant YES rather than a giant NO?

• Many times when we claim we are waiting on God, He is waiting on us.

• You are called not to be a survivor, but to be a conqueror.

• I don't know what it means for others, but for a follower of Jesus Christ, what it means to live on the edge is to stand at the epicenter of where the kingdom of God confronts the kingdom of darkness.

• When we become a people of the spirit, we join the wind of God as He moves through human history.

• You are going to make mistakes in this life, so make sure you make good mistakes.

• Even when we are committed to doing the good, we should not fool ourselves to think that we are doing the perfect.

• The one bad tree has turned into a jungle. God is looking for adventurers who will fight their way through to rescue those who are lost in its darkness.

• When you lean on the arms of God, you may find yourself in the most alarming situations, not safe from alarm. And even more important, when you begin leaning on God, you begin leaning forward rather than backward.

• Yet we have not been as faithful in capturing other aspects of who God is as described through rushing wind and fire.

• God's instructions are to go, live life, take risks, move forward, advance.

• You cannot advance the kingdom of God with people who are in retreat.

• No phobia, no fear, just pure defiance - leaning forward, seizing the divine moments, advancing the kingdom of God.

• After risk comes advance. After "no turning back" comes "you must go forward."

• The closer you get to a divine challenge, the bigger it will seem, and the smaller you will feel.

Aftershock

Creation groans for all to be set right.
The earth roars in violence -
disrupting what is to make room for what is to come.
Only after everything is shaken
can it find its rightful place.
Its movement destroys, divides and defines.
Even the mountains tremble.
Yet there is a kingdom that remains.

----Maven, The Perils of Ayden.

"What weapons have you brought?" Kembr asked Ayden as she felt the conflict drawing near.

"There were no weapons to bring," Ayden explained.

"And, Maven, he would let us come defenseless?" Kembr asked in disbelief.

"We did not come to defend but to conquer," Ayden declared, as if he missed the point. "We are both warrior and weapon." Ayden went on, "There is but one hope against the shadows, and that is the light within us. If it is not enough, there is no blade sharp enough to cut the thick darkness."

Kembr's steps felt heavy as she walked. Is this how fear paralyzes you? she thought to herself. Yet with every step it seemed as if the ground would tremble. Or was it her?

"What is happening beneath me?" she shouted to Ayden as the earth below shook with increasing force.

"It is the density of the light!" Ayden yelled back with excitement. "It is the weight of the Presence!"

-----Entry 1771/ The Perils of Ayden

ImpAcT
leave a mark

• Most divine moments need to be seized, not simply walked through.

• You cannot be a people of conquest if you're unwilling to enter the battle.

• There will come a moment of impact when your insistence will meet the world's resistance.

• You can talk all day about what God has promised to do through His people, but you wil never live in those promises until you act on them.

[1 Kings 19]

"For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him."
[2 Chronicles 16:9]

• It is a privilege to be called to go first even when it means you are the first to suffer and the only one at risk.

• Often alone when it comes to men, never alone when it comes to God.

• They were not carbon copies of Jesus, but dynamic expressions of His character.

• When we offer ourselves as instruments for God's purpose, we create opportunities for others to experience God through us.

The battle raged from one place and time to another. The enemy held such unfair advantage. He knew every fear, every doubt, every weakness they held. He would choose the battleground and then change it when it was to his favor.

Ayden and Kembr stood shoulder to shoulder as they fought back the endless darkness. The light served them as sickles cutting through the shadows.

Their shrieks would expose them as they moved with force toward Ayden and Kembr. The shadows knew if they could divide the two, it would cause them to weaken and perhaps fall back.

"We are almost to the darkest place," Ayden exhorted as they fought their way forward. It was there that Maven told him the light would find its highest density.

They all heard the distant rumblings. Then like the most glorious of sunrises, light appeared that was so expansive, it marked the horizon.

"Look," Ayden shouted. "The light pursues us!"

-----Entry 2358/ The Perils of Ayden

MovEmeNt
ignite a reaction


[1 Samuel 14:16-19]

• Live out what God has already spoken, and you will not find God silent.

• To live a prayerless life is to miss the life that God created you to experience. Yet there are times when prayer can become a religious veil for an empty life.

• If one danger in regard to prayer is to be prayerless, another is to pray more and remain empty of genuine contact with God.

[1 Kings 18:26-29]

[1 Kings 18:36-39]

[1 Samuel 15:19,22]

• There are moments when our obedience is to stop and pray, and in those moments comes the word that we must go and obey. And it is in this obedience that the voice of God becomes intimately clear.

• There is an old saying that there are no atheists in fox-holes. I wonder if it's also true that there are no true believers in bomb shelters.

• What you may never see is the number of people who are pulled into God's purpose for their lives through the wind shear of your obedience.

• Take Jesus to godless place.

Maven was with them once again. He, too, was weary from the battle fought. Even in victory there is pain and death, and his thoughts traveled far beyond this moment.

He turned to Ayden and seemed to answer his thoughts: "Today we have seen a great victory, and to celebrate is a pleasure we must not neglect."

Ayden responded with joyous exuberance, "The valley of darkness is now a forest of lights!"

"Yes," Maven acknowledged. "The density of the light restrains the weight of the darkness."

"Will we settle here?" asked Kembr as she reveled in the beauty of the land.

"No," answered Maven. "The light of mankind shines only when moving forward to engage the darkness."

"Are they ready for the journey? Certainly we should stay until it is safe for them to go?" Kembr pressed.

Ayden spoked in a calming tone, "It is not the place but the Presence that upholds them! This is their only certainty."

-----Entry 715/The Perils of Ayden

AWakEnInG
wake the dead

• Asleep within the people of God is an army waiting to be aroused.

• Potential is a glimpse of what could be, yet there must be a shift from where we have potential to where we are potent.

• Jonathan was simply the first part of the whole.

• When we choose to do what is right, what is true, what is good, it always bleeds over into the lives of others.

• Those who are willing to live the adventurer's life may be required to endure great hardship for the good of the kingdom.

• There will be places on the adventure where you will have to stand alone. If God is using you to launch a new adventure, you may even have to bear the burden of pioneering a dangerous trail.

• The armor-bearer reminds us that half the battle of seizing your divine moments is just being there, just showing up.

• Faith is such a big word. It's exciting, daring, magnetic. Faithful is such an ordinary word. It is somewhat dull, routine, and bland.Have faith and be faithful.

• When you grow up in the battle, you don't fear the war.

• He modeled that you look for a person who is willing to take on the lowly tasks and develop him in his God-given potential.

• God wasn't just freeing the land; God was shaping the people.
• It is not simply battles that are won, but fear that is conquered.
• Simply translated, we get better when we give ourselves away.

• If you have ever dared to love deeply, then you have been deeply disappointed.

• A part of challenge is to never give up on people.

[Ezekiel 37:1-10]

• A valley of dry bones transformed into a vast army of God.

[Ezekiel 37:11-14]

• You know where to begin: take initiative. You know who God is, so embrace life's uncertainty.

• Impact your world by fighting the battles that are on God's heart.

• Move with an urgency that creates a movement.

• Engage in an adventure so compelling that it causes the awakening of the dead in spirit.

[1 Corinthians 15:50-58]

Seizing Your Divine Moment - Erwin Raphael McManus (part 1)

Foreshock

Rumblings are more felt than heard
and certainly never seen.
They come to you through the soles of your feet
into the depth of your soul.
Only then do they open the eyes of your heart.
They speak of a shift that is about to take place.

-----Kembr, The Perils of Ayden



1 Samuel 13:22-14:23

Ayden felt still the tyro when Maven gave him his first choice.
Shouldn't first he practice on decisions of little weight?

Why would someone as wise as the Maven entrust him with so great a gift?

Was it really true that the riches of all men and kingdoms rested in him? That the good of all stood hanging in the balance?

And how could all of time be bound to one moment?

Even so he could not decline this invitation. This choice was not his to make. His birthright brought both privilege and responsibility.

The journey chose him, but the adventure was his to choose.

To choose is to know the pleasure of freedom, or is it the freedom of pleasure?

------Entry 203/The Perils of Ayden

ChoicEs
Choose to live

• Don't sleep through your dreams

• Somehow we all know that to play it safe is to lose the game

"For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it" [Luke 9:24]

• However mundane a moment may appear, the miraculous may wait to be unwrapped within it.

• Moments move in a timely manner, and time waits for no one.

• When you seize a divine moment, you instigate an atomic reaction. You become a human catalyst creating a divine impact.

• To relive the past is to relinquish the future.

• Living in the past is an enemy of the future.

• Moments carry the momentum of the past and fuel the momentum for the future.

• While moments are the context within which we live, choices chart the course and determine the destination.

"Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, "Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, "Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.
[Deuteronomy 30:11-14]

• At our worst, good is only one decision away.

"Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho - and she lives among the Israelites to this day."
[Joshua 6:25]

[Numbers 13:26-33]


Epicenter

Do not stand in the center if you do not wish to be shaken.
There is always danger when the movement comes.
Its force is most powerful underneath the surface,
then breaks through the hardest of ground.
Epic change moves from the inside out.

-----Ayden, The Perils of Ayden

Ayden waited as Maven sat patiently by the fire. His silence only made the time pass more slowly.

What was he listening for? Only the wind dared speak. Would his commission come from the mountain's breath? Would the north or the east call his name?

How would he know when to leave and begin his pilgrimage? How would he know which way to go?

When he could bear it no longer, he chanced to interrupt his mentor and blurted, "When will I begin?"

"Now," Maven replied.

"Then which way do I go?" Ayden could not hide his frustration in his asking.

Maven instructed, "Anywhere there's not a path."

Suddenly Ayden realized that all through the night it was Maven who waited on him.

-----Entry 392/The Perils of Ayden

IniTiAtivE
just do something

• The great tragedy is not the sins that we commit, but the life that we fail to live.

• We have put so much emphasis on avoiding evil that we have become virtually blind to the endless opportunities for doing good.

• We act when we refuse to stay there.

• In the same way, where there is freedom, we must initiate, and where there are boundaries, we must honor them.

• The greatest danger that success brings, aside from arrogance, is the fear to lose what has been gained.

• We must ensure that while we celebrate the goodness of God, we do not neglect the purpose of God.

• Seizing your divine moment is not simply about opportunity; at the core it is about essence. It's about the kind of life you live as a result of the person you are becoming.

• When you draw near to God, God infuses passion. God works through human desires.

• Do what you know you should do, and you will know what to do. God clarifies in the midst of obedience, not beforehand.

• Even if everyone around you chooses to sleep, you must resist the temptation to join their slumber. Wake up! Get out of bed.

"I'm afraid," he confessed as Maven stood with him in the place where his quest would begin.

"Of what?" Maven asked in his calming voice.

"For this journey. Have I learned all I need to know?" Ayden queried.

"Ayden," he replied, "you know all you need to learn."

"What should I take with me?" Ayden continued.

"Leave all you have and take all you are."

Ayden persisted, "And the path, is it safe to travel?"

Maven looked at him sternly for the first time he could remember and scolded him, "It is not safe to remain! It is not the place but the Presence that upholds you! This is your only certainty. Go! Walk where no man has walked, yet you find footprints."

-----Entry 709/ The Perils of Ayden

UnceRtaINty
know you don't know



"If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines."
[1 Samuel 7:3]

• If we are going to seize our divine moments, we must accept the reality that we have no control over many things.

• One of the wonderful things about living in the realm of uncertainty is that you find the journey with God is full of surprises.

• You cannot speak about faith without talking about obedience.

• Faith is all about character, trusting in the character of God, being certain in who God is and following Him into the unknown.

• When we play is safe, we squeeze God out of the formula.

• Whenever we take on a God-sized challenge, self-sufficiency is no longer an option.

[John 9]

• To follow Jesus is to enter the unknown, to relinquish security, and to exchange certainty for confidence in Him.

"They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you." [Jeremiah 1:19]

• The door we fear going through the most may be the very one where we will meet God most profoundly.

• Yes, the new way out is full of uncertainty, but with that uncertainty come mystery, adventure, and wonder. The Jonathan Factor moves you confidently forward into the future when you know that you don't know.

Their sleep was deep but not restful. "Take the flower. With your breath it holds enough for one life. You must decide who among the sleeping will awake."

A fragrance emanated from the earth beneath them, making the air sweet and intoxicating. Its effect was not slumber, but surrender. Most would rather sleep through life than live their dreams.

One would respond to Ayden's breath. To choose wrongly was to waste the healing essence of the iris. If he could only know what dreams helf them to their sleep. Maven, if he knew, would offer no clue. Not once did he flinch or change his expression as Ayden moved toward Kembr - face to face, mouth to mouth, then breath to breath.

Her eyes opened and she spoke as if she had known this moment a thousand times before.
"Is this yet another dream?"

Ayden questioned her as if she had said nothing:
"What dream held you?"

"Only that I had been awakened."

------Entry 828/ The Perils of Ayden

InFluEnce
breathe in, breathe out

• A life touched by God always ends in touching others.

• Title position, and authority may hold power, but influence travels through relationships. And in the end, influence is the foundationhead of power.

• This is the essence of influence, to win the heart and soul of another person through the strength of your own character and soul.

• Influence is born out of trust and finds its strength in the connection of heart and soul.

• All of us pass a bit of ourselves onto others. You better like who you are and make what you give to others from yourself a gift and not a curse.

• Often divine moments look like inconveniences on the front end.

• Divine opportunities are sometimes like windows, but other times they are like corridors.

• Never underestimate how far God can take the momentum of what you feel is your nominal influence.

• Our influence is not limited to our present condition. It is expanded by our intended destination when we are committed to the journey.

• A significant part of seizing a divine moment is recognizing that God's intention is to use us as vessels for good. Not simply to do good, but to generate good, to lead others toward good.