ELEVATION NORTH has NEWS for YOU!

NOTHING YOU DO IS POINTLESS!  Well, that is, nothing you do is pointless when you are part of the kingdom of heaven.  Because when you are, everything is for a SPECIFIC PURPOSE!  ~ (thanks to a quote by Dani Johnson!)  When our lives are about more than us . . . when our lives are lived in pursuit of pleasing our Lord, then everything we do has reason and purpose.  Our waking moments will be defined by the early morning prayer that rolls off our lips and is sent heavenward:  “Lord Jesus, just take my life and DO SOMETHING with it today!”  Pray that.  MEAN that.  And be amazed at the things God will DO with your life on any given day!  Our everyday lives will be more than just the hours we spend at our jobs.  Those hours will be bathed with the very presence of the living God!  And your conversations, actions, work ethics, and relationships with co-workers will be opportunities to live out God in ways you never thought possible.  You won’t have to figure out ways to share Jesus … the doors will swing wide open and words will flow from your mouth almost before you realize what you are saying!  You will catch yourself walking away and looking up with this huge smile on your face as you say, “Wow, God!  That was SO You just now!”  Pointless?  No … on purpose!  With purpose … for a greater purpose:  God’s purpose!  I believe this is how God meant for His church to live out their faith in their everyday lives.  We must choose to be in training daily at His feet so that we will be ready when He chooses those precise moments to DO SOMETHING with us!   

Are we needed?  Yes . . . more than we can know!  Just step back - and look around.  Just be quiet – and listen.  You will see the heartaches, the brokenness.  The cries, the tears.  You will hear the despair, the hopelessness.  The fear, the anger.  Look at people’s eyes and hear their voices.  They are asking if there is anyone.  Any One?  They might not even know you.  And many have no idea that HE is the ONE!  And when these lost souls or disillusioned Christians are in crash and burn mode, the stark reality is that they need God.  But often, they don’t know that or are not ready yet.  So God sends us as a forerunner to His save-and-rescue arrival on the scene.  We get the privilege to help prepare them for His voice and His divine intervention.  They hear His voice through ours, gentle and compassionate.  Some respond to His love through ours.  Others don’t want to face reality or believe that they can rise above their present state.  At those times they need to experience a tough love that demands they pull up their bootstraps and climb out of the muddy pit that is pulling them under.  They’ll soon learn that we will get in that muddy mess with them to help them out, because that is what Jesus did for us.  And we will love them too much to just let them go back again and again, because that is how Christ loves us.  We will battle the enemy with them and declare victory over their circumstances, because we have the Word of God that is powerful and sharp enough to execute the win!  And when we’ve done all we’ve been called and trained to do, our God shows up!  Actually, He has been there all along, with us and in us and flowing through us by His Spirit.  But now He comes to do the impossible … the supernatural … the miraculous!  We witness heartaches – healed.  Brokenness – mended.  Cries silenced and tears dried.  The despair bent on destruction – thwarted.  Hopelessness - giving way to God’s plan for a hope and a future!  The grip of fear is disabled, and anger dissipates and is no more.  Each person God brings us to has a story that grips our hearts, but His grace re-writes the outcome of each soul.  Are we needed?  Yes!  Are all these “forerunner connections” pointless?  No!  When we see the scales of eternity tipped from “lost” to “saved” ~ and from “hell” to “heaven”, we have no doubt but that God has us on a mission for a specific purpose!  May God give each of us a renewed passion to see God reverse the many types of captivity that the enemy has thrust upon us and others.  We declare that the chains of sin and evil will fall powerless at the Name of Jesus, and that complete freedom to live redeemed, restored lives will be claimed and experienced through the shed blood of Jesus!  Let’s get outside our comfort zone and set some people free!  Jesus did it ~ still does it … and says we can, too!  So let’s not be shy, dear people!

REMEMBER . . .

“At that time I will bring you in; yes, at that time I will gather you, 
for I will make you a name and a praise among all the nations of the earth
 when I reverse your captivity before your eyes, says the Lord.”

~ Zephaniah 3:20  

Joyfully Serving Christ . . .

Pastor Doug and Debbie