ELEVATION NORTH has NEWS for YOU!

HAVE YOU FOUND YOUR VOICE?  You were created with one, you know!  And it is a unique voice, with a tone that is unmatched by any other.  It has its own words … its own inflection, style, and personality.  It gets your message across, be it positive or negative.  Nasty or nice!  It can bless or it can curse.  With it, you can speak and you can sing.  You can scream or you can whisper.  This voice you’ve been given can be used in a myriad of ways:  it can belligerently bully or it can soothe with sensitivity and compassion.  It can promote or demote.  It can be projected to the masses with a mighty message. Or it can minister to an audience of one hurting soul. It can ultimately lift up the Lord Jesus Christ – or it can give latitude to the enemy.  At any rate, however you look at it, or rather … listen to it, YOU have a VOICE!  May I ask, what are you doing with yours?

You know, I must tell you that I would never ask you that question, had I not first asked it of myself.  And a question like that deserves an honest answer from ourselves – to ourselves. It takes some soul-searching deep within our hearts to come up with a true assessment of what we use our voices for, and how.  Each of us only gets one voice, you know.  And no matter how we try (even if we should be a ventriloquist!) we will never have anyone else’s voice!  Amazingly enough, our Creator gifted us with a “one-in-several billion” voice.  He left His fingerprints on our one-of-a-kind designed voice, and no one on this earth can duplicate it.  Believe it or not, God has a divine purpose for that voice of yours!  You might think it is scratchy sounding, nasally and annoying, whiny far too often, too loud, too weak and meek, too braggy, too shy, too abrupt or too rambling.  Well, now I am rambling . . .

While we might never have a famous voice, what is important is that we have a voice with availability to the God who gave it to us!  Isn’t that what others before us have done?  Like Moses, Abraham, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Elijah, John the Baptist, Peter, Paul, and a host of others?  And in no special order, this is just a short list to remind us that God can use any of us!  ALL of us – IF we will let Him. 

What about these days?  Are there any bold voices?  Any voices crying in the wilderness telling us to “Repent!”?  I am ecstatic to report a resounding “yes”!  Billy Graham and his son, Franklin Graham, John Hagee, David Jeremiah, husband and wife team, John and Lisa Bevere, Andy Stanley, Jentezen Franklin, Christine Caine, Matthew Barnett, plus a host of others, including a new, young voice warning people all over this nation to “Repent!” – unabashedly, without apology, passionately speaking the Name of Jesus into the lives of anyone who will hear and listen:  only 25 years old, his name is Clayton Jennings.  I encourage you and urge you to check out his ministry on youtube.com.  And then pray for him!  Larry and Gloria Lundstrom … and Josh and Sarah Seykora, who our church family supports – Lundstroms:  dedicated, faithful evangelists here in the U.S. and beyond, and the young Seykora family in Australia: serving in many other nations and then back here at home in the mid-west from time to time!  Evangelists, missionaries, pastors, speakers, authors.  The number seems so few in proportion to the masses that spew anger and hatred and violence.  And yet the number of those who God is raising up is increasing.  The voices are getting louder and bolder.  They are preaching salvation and proclaiming the prophetic.  God is raising a mighty army that is unstoppable!  Unstoppable when we finally recognize Whose we are, and Whose Kingdom battles we are engaged in and armed for!!  We are marked with the shed blood of Jesus and no one can harm us or destroy us! 

Have you begun to “hear” your voice by now?  Do you see how it is being used – or how it could be used?  The thing is, you don’t have to speak on your own merit or with your own gifts, or lack of them.  Who God calls to speak, He will give words to.  Who God calls to be bold, He will give passion and anointing to.  It is not by our might or our power; it is by the Spirit of God that we are given a message to put our voice to!  What is your message, friend?  What are you saying?  What are you speaking into the lives of others?  Does it have eternal value?  Do your words have the right motive for the end result you are hoping for?  What impact can you make to effect an eternal difference?  What gifts can you lay on the altar willingly?  And remember, we can have the most amazing voice with the most profound message – but if we do not live what we are saying, then our words are worthless, powerless, and empty.  How tragic it would be to waste the voice that God has given us!  I hope and pray you are stirred up to think and pray about how God desires to use YOUR distinctive, personal voice for His glory in these unbelievable, but opportunity-filled days!

REMEMBER . . .

“And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you 
will continue until the day of Jesus Christ, (right up to the time of His return), 
developing (that good work) and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you.”

~ Philippians 1:6 

Serving Christ Joyfully . . .  

Pastor Doug and Debbie