Forever Starts Now How to Focus Your Life to Impact Eternity

Tyler Cook

Copyright © 2020 by Tyler Cook All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Printed in the United States of America

Unless noted otherwise, all Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

DEDICATION

I dedicate this book to my beautiful bride. Thank you sweetheart for sticking with me through thick and thin. Your grace, mercy, love, and compassion direct my heart to Jesus. I promise to love you all of my days.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

~Theodore Roosevelt

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 1

1. Finding Success in God’s Eyes 9

2. Pursuing Eternal Rewards for God’s Glory 29

3. Discerning Your Life Vision 45

4. Why a Biblical Approach to Time Management? 61

5. First Things First 71

6. Cultivating a Consistent Devotional Life 91

7. Where Do You Stand? 107

8. Priorities for the Season 121

9. Developing a Maintainable Schedule 145

10. The Power of Focus 165

11. Humility: Unlocking Your Spiritual Potential 179

12. Eternity in Our Midst 201

NOTES 217

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To have a book solely credited to the author’s effort is a false presumption. I never would have been able to sit down and write this work had it not been for a number of people who have greatly impacted my life. Starting first and foremost with Jesus, I thank my Savior who has redeemed my soul and has given me the joy and desire to undertake an endeavor such as this. He is the ultimate source of every word written and any wisdom given in this text originated with Him.

The greatest human acknowledgment I owe is to my wife and family. Through sacrificing time with me so I could write and through their great encouragement and inspiration, I have been able complete this pursuit. Along with my family’s inspiration, I am indebted to many of the teachers and mentors who have helped steer my life to a deeper pursuit of God. Among them would be Mike Bickle, John Piper, Patrick Hill, John Sowash, Bill Johnson, and a plethora of others who have contributed to my overall understanding on the matters of faith. I also am appreciative for my editor, Abigail Knutson, who has painstakingly journeyed with me sentence by sentence to see that this work is of the highest standard. To all these people and many more not mentioned here, I am forever grateful.

INTRODUCTION

If you’re anything like me, you probably spend quite a bit of time wondering, “What should I be doing right now?” This question may infer that I do not have a clear direction for my life or that I am a bit unorganized. But that’s not me. Ask anyone who knows me, and they will tell you that I am a very driven and structured individual. I thrive off being able to dream, plan, and execute.

I am one of those nerdy types with productivity software and books about creating good habits, being productive, and managing my time. I am your typical type A, first child, with an insatiable hunger to accomplish whatever God puts on my heart.

Maybe you’re not like me. You struggle with time- management, executing plans (or even making them in the first place), and are not obsessed with productivity. If you fall into this group, I have some good news for you. First off, you are amazing! No really, you are a remarkable and irreplaceable member of God’s family. Don’t think for one moment that those with a type A personality are more valuable than you. The Father has uniquely designed each of us with characteristics necessary to fulfill a specific purpose in this world.

Second, if you are feeling guilty for not being able to focus your life, stop now! “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). To stew on

1 Forever Starts Now your shortcomings is to play right into the devil’s hand. He wants you discouraged, disheartened, and hopeless that things can ever be different. Conviction is from the Holy Spirit and always brings with it anticipation for positive change. Condemnation is from the enemy and exists to keep you stuck in the failures of your past.

Third, there is hope for real, lasting, impactful change in this area of your life. The process involves taking some simple, practical steps, but most of your transformation comes through aligning with God’s perspective of a fruitful life. Both aspects are necessary for focusing your life to produce the most significant eternal impact. Showing you how to accomplish this is the primary mission of this book.

Now, back to the question we all ask ourselves regardless of personality type, “What should I be doing right now?” This question has plagued humanity since the fall of Adam. Most of us have plenty of things to do (or that we think we should do), but which task is most valuable for me to focus my attention on now?

As you will read in upcoming chapters, I am unwaveringly certain that developing an intimate relationship with God is the most important thing you can do with your life. But just because it is most important does not mean that you should be focused on reading my Bible all day. God has blessed each of us with many different assignments, and it is our responsibility to fulfill all that the Father has called us to. At one moment, you may be called to intercede for your community, prepare a bible study, or counsel a friend who is

2 Introduction struggling with depression. During another part of your day, time would be better spent playing with your children, doing the dishes, or taking a nap. How do you choose what to do from one moment to the next? This is the root question that this book seeks to address.

In short, what I am supposed to do from one moment to the next can only be answered by submitting myself exclusively to the leadership of the Holy Spirit throughout every moment of my day! This may seem like a daunting task, but before you begin to feel overwhelmed, let me assure you that this is not stressful. Walking in the Spirit is not about frantically asking for His will to be revealed every second of the day. Walking in the Spirit is about an intimate union with God. Through this connection, His will slowly but surely becomes our will. We begin to see the world as He sees it, and this dramatically affects how we live. We soon realize that it is only through our abiding in Christ that we can accomplish anything of lasting value.

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. (John 15:4-5)

As we abide in Christ, we see that He has blessed each of us with an opportunity to change the world. This opportunity, though exciting, is also a major responsibility. What we do for Christ matters! He has put us on this earth for a reason and

3 Forever Starts Now it is critical that we make each moment count. CT Studd relates this point in a powerful way: “Only one life, ‘twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.” If you believe this statement, then you are well on your way to truly understanding how precious every moment is in relation to the eternal destiny of humanity. Many have read the Scripture, “You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away” (James 4:14). It is one thing to merely read over these words in a casual manner, and it is quite another to let this truth sink deep into your being.

We are constantly fooled into believing that we have an abundance of time. So much time, in fact, that it is no big deal to waste it on vain pursuits. We as a generation have become so controlled by our emotions that we use precious minutes on this planet to chase after good feelings, escaping into the world of fantasy. Movies, television, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Xbox, etc. are stealing the most valuable resource that God has given us. . . our time. And this time on earth is not infinite but a mere vapor. This truth must permeate our being until we become so convicted by our poor management of time that we cry out for God to change us.

Unfortunately Christians have no place to judge in this matter. Instead of separating ourselves from the vain pursuits of the world, many of us join in this abuse of time. As I write these words, I readily relate and have remorse in my heart over the countless hours lost in my past. Please do not misunderstand what I am saying as if I am only speaking of other people, for I am first and foremost speaking to myself. This matter has become so precious to me. With regret I look back on

4 Introduction priceless time squandered in my own life and I wonder what I could have accomplished for the kingdom of God in its place. But there is hope! One verse where I have found encouragement is in Paul’s letter to the Philippians: “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14, emphasis mine).

And from that position I write to you as a man who has made plenty of errors regarding how I have used this most valuable resource. But through Christ I can let the past be the past and pursue a life that is filled to the brim with glorifying God in every moment! I have confidence in the paradox laid out by the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10. “And He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’ Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” It is only through the grace of God and His mighty power working through our weak members that we are able to achieve any triumph in honoring the Lord with our moments.

Early in this book I champion the biblical call to obey God with the use of our time. Only once we have a clear conviction of the importance of time can we begin to care enough to

5 Forever Starts Now change our habits and truly use this resource more beneficially. Squandering time is a sin. How easy to view this as a passive problem with little impact on the world, but this would be a grave mistake. Edmund Burke’s famous remark comes to mind in light of this argument: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” As Christians waste hours of time on self-seeking satisfaction, the remainder of the world plunges deeper into despair. This is not a minor detail in the panorama of life. There are vast and extreme repercussions for how we utilize our time.

Amongst the theological premise of time management, you will also view many practical ways to better manage your moments in order to have the greatest impact for the kingdom of heaven. These strategies are tools that I have used in my personal experience. I pose them to you as a means of how to begin taking action in your fight to gain control over your life, or I should say more accurately, allowing God to have control over your life. I am indebted to many mentors and leaders in the body of Christ who have blazed the trail for me in this pursuit. Thus, this work is not merely my own, but is a compilation of years of gathering insight concerning spiritual matters from a variety of teachers.

I recognize that everyone is different and the strategies laid out in this book may not be a perfect fit for you. You may decide to take some ideas while leaving out others. You may choose to tweak or modify some of these tools to better fit how you operate. Great! Please do! My goal is not to force

6 Introduction you to follow a system but instead to encourage you to follow a Savior.

Permeating these pages is the call to focus on what your earthly life is producing in heaven. God has promised us that the temporary sacrifices made on this planet will result in eternal rewards. The goal of our life is to die to this world with all its riches, pleasures, and popularity so that we may receive our abundant inheritance in the age to come. It was from the lips of our Lord that we were told, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?” (Luke 9:23-25) Our primary aim is to live a life God calls successful. This type of existence is often viewed as worthless in the eyes of man, but this must not deter us from the truth. At the end of our life, only God’s opinion matters. May we seek to please Him alone!

Finally, this book is not meant to be worked through alone. As you will soon see, an intimate relationship with Jesus is the only way to successfully approach any area of life. As you read and work on some of the exercises, I implore you to do so while in a spirit of prayer. Only through a divine partnership with your Creator will you have any hope to regain control of your schedule and flee from the temptation of losing time to vanity. I hope the contents of this book are a great encouragement to you. It is my desire to cheer you on

7 Forever Starts Now to make the most of the time God has given you so that you can fulfill the destiny He has called you to!

CHAPTER 1

Finding Success in God’s Eyes

One of humanity’s primary desires is to live a life of deep meaning and purpose. We are all born with an insatiable craving to make a difference, to do something that stands the test of time. I shudder at the thought of looking back on my life with regret about all the good things I should have done. “Unfulfilled potential” is not something you want to hear when you stand before the Lord! This conviction should cause you to regularly evaluate your current position in life, to determine whether you are on the trajectory God is calling you. Far above man’s approval, we want to be a success in God’s eyes. We want to live a life that will one day be rewarded by God saying, “‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’” (Matthew25:23 NIV).

In order to be a success in God’s eyes, we need to know how He measures faithfulness. After much investigation of the Scriptures, I am certain that the way the world and God define success is very different. Unfortunately, much of the world’s

9 Forever Starts Now definition of success has overflowed into the church. The famous Christian minister with a large organization is deemed highly successful, while the pastor at a small country church is seen as ineffective. But does God view it this way?

I am constantly fighting off my concern about how others appraise me. My inner craving for popularity in man’s eyes needs to be crucified daily. But by God’s grace, I now understand that the Lord’s perspective is truly all that matters. I want a life that God renders successful! After I take my final breath on this planet, His is the only opinion that means anything. God’s opinion about how I lived my life will impact the way I exist for all eternity.

Do you see why defining God’s view of success is so important? It is critical for us to diligently search God’s word to discover His criteria for having an effective life. The approval of man is temporary and will one day mean nothing. God’s approval is eternal, and living for Him alone is the only way to be successful in this life and the next.

ABIDE AND OBEY: THE SIMPLICITY OF SUCCESS IN CHRIST

Becoming successful in Christ is not a confusing process. Here is what it comes down to. First, it is of utmost importance that we are continually abiding in Christ. When we notice any drifting from Him either through the sins of omission or sins of commission, we quickly repent and draw near to the throne of grace with confidence. “Therefore, since

10 Finding Success in God’s Eyes we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:14- 16). Here is where the devil will try to obstruct you from abiding in the Lord. One of Satan’s primary deceptions is to hide the revelation given to us in Romans 8:1: “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” The devil understands that the most dangerous threat to his kingdom of darkness is a man or woman confident in God. The moment we lose that confidence, he can begin to work. The enemy desperately wants you to forget about your identity in Christ so that you instead focus on your sin. This is where he can destroy our confidence and replace it with guilt and shame. These feelings of defeat have a snowball effect in that guilt begets more guilt, which leads us further away from grace. This is the point where our success in the Lord is at its greatest danger! But I have good news! We don’t need to wallow in this disgrace. Our return to abiding in Christ is available the second after we sin. We were saved by grace through faith the moment we gave our life to Jesus, and this same principle applies throughout the entirety of our life. We do not need to earn our way back into God’s favor. Repent and return to abiding in Him! Don’t beat yourself up over your failure. You do not need to sit on the spiritual sidelines for a few days before returning to God.

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The second piece to the successful Christian life is merely obeying whatever the Spirit tells you to do. This next statement goes without saying, but just so I am clear, the Spirit will never instruct you to do something contrary to the word of God. Obedience to the Spirit of God never contradicts observation of the word of God. Unfortunately, obedience has gotten a bad rap in our society. People often view obedience as being forced into submission; it involves us being required to do something we don’t want to do. This attitude is not the way of the kingdom. Once we come to know the Lord, there is an immediate shift in our identity. The Bible describes that the transformation is so extensive that we actually become a “new creature” (2 Cor 5:17). Any desire we feel that is not in obedience to Christ no longer comes from who we are in our new identity. “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20). So, when the Spirit leads us to obey God, we are being led to conform to our new nature and not our old. There is a joy that arises within our spirits as we follow the Lord no matter how difficult that act of obedience is to our fleshly nature.

The source of success is not in what you do but in who you are. The natural overflow of who you are is what you will do. If you recognize you are not doing the right things, the answer is not to just “try harder.” That will get you nowhere and will inevitably lead to you feeling like a failure. The answer for how to stop doing what is wrong and start doing what is right is to engage in deeper spiritual formation. As you are

12 Finding Success in God’s Eyes conformed to the image of Christ, the proper behavior will follow.

Jesus directly describes this issue in the gospel of Luke: “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart” (Luke 6:45). What we think, say, and do is an overflow of what fills our hearts. Sure, we can fake it from time to time, willing our way into good behavior, but this method leads only to temporary results. If you are looking for long-term authentic sanctification, the only way to arrive at that destination is a transformed heart.

One final aspect that brings us joy in our obedience is knowing that God is omniscient. Being omniscient means that God knows everything there is to know about all things in the universe. “He counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them. Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite” (Psalm 147:4-5). He has never, nor will He ever, learn anything new. The One who is the originator of all things has perfect knowledge of the things He has created. Taking this one step further, we can also conclude that God is perfectly wise. This means that God knows the absolute best way to accomplish His purpose in and through us. The One who knows every minute detail of the problems we face also knows the best possible solution for them as well. This revelation should bring about much confidence and joy as we follow the One who will never lead us astray.

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DEBUNKING THE “BIGGER IS BETTER” PHILOSOPHY

Based upon the hundreds of church growth books, seminars, courses, etc. one may assume that bigger is always better! This seems to make perfect sense. In the context of Christian ministry, don’t we all want to see more people come to the Lord and grow in their spiritual walk? It appears that the amount of people we impact determines how successful our life is. Using that logic, people leading large ministries must really be hearing from the Lord, while those leading organizations smaller in number are missing the mark. There even appears to be a few Bible verses to back up this claim. One of the most famous parables that seems to hint at the “bigger is better” philosophy appears in Mathew 25. This parable starts with a man who distributes his possessions to his slaves before heading on a journey. To one slave he gave five talents, to another two, and to the last, he entrusted just one talent. Let’s pick up from there to see how each slave managed his master’s money.

His master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.”

14 Finding Success in God’s Eyes

Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said, “Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have gained two more talents.”

His master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.”

And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, “Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.”

But his master answered and said to him, “You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest. Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 25:19-30)

In this parable, the master rewarded the slaves who could increase the number of talents entrusted to them, while he

15 Forever Starts Now rebuked the slave who did not improve on his original amount. From this account, it seems fair to conclude that the more we do with what the Lord has commended to us, the more successful we are in His sight. The more we do with what He has given, the more we will be rewarded by Him. I agree with this interpretation 100%. What I do not agree with is how it is often applied. The most common way this interpretation is used both inside and outside the church is in view of increased quantity over and above improved quality. Larger numerical quantity does not always equate with greater success.

You could look at a church with 5000 members and be tempted to think it is superior to a different church in town with just 50 members. But what if the majority of this 5,000- member church lived lukewarm lives not fully invested in the Lord. On the other hand, let’s say the 50-member church was full of passionate sold out Christ followers. Without a doubt, the 5,000-member church with its fancy architecture, perfectly manicured services, extensive program list, etc. would be more successful in the eyes of man. But what about the eyes of God? God is not impressed with our fancy buildings and large service attendance. God is impressed with the man or woman who has fully surrendered their life for the gospel. God can do far more with 50 dedicated saints than He can with 5,000 ambivalent church-goers.

Does this mean that God does not care about numbers? To say that would be to swing too far in the opposite direction. The Scripture declares that God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4

16 Finding Success in God’s Eyes emphasis mine). Jesus himself commanded us to “go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15 emphasis mine). Notice the emphasis regarding the 3,000 souls that accepted Christ and were baptized in just one day at Pentecost (Acts 2:41). God cares about numerical growth, but it is not His top priority.

THE CHURCHES MANDATE TO MAKE DISCIPLES

Here is the trap that we as the church have fallen into. We have begun to define success in many of the same ways that the world defines it. This fallacy becomes blatantly evident as you scan the Christian landscape and see many professors of Christ but few disciples. The church’s primary emphasis has become “get them in the kingdom,” but oh how we have lost our focus on discipleship and spiritual maturation.

In the Great Commission, Jesus commands us to go out and “make disciples of all the nations” (Mathew 25:19). The phrase translated in the NASB “and make disciples” is the Greek word mathéteuó. This word stems from the root word mathētḗs, which means “helping someone to progressively learn the Word of God to become a matured, growing disciple” and “to train (develop) in the truths of Scripture and the lifestyle required.”1 This phrase extends to far more than simply getting a person to sign a membership card and start paying a tithe. Authentic discipleship requires diligent and sacrificial relationship with others. This is one of the primary ways profound spiritual formation occurs.

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Because of the necessity of deep personal relationships in the process of discipleship, it may be risky to join a large congregation. Without a stable network of smaller group discipleship, a large church can actually hinder a believer’s growth. Being discipled is not about observing a well- rehearsed performance once a week. True discipleship involves intentionally diving into the Scriptures with other mature believers who can lead and guide you into the truth. This is a situation where the impersonal structure of a “mega- church” stunts many believer’s spiritual lives. I am not against “mega-churches,” I just think it is challenging within these models to cultivate the deep interpersonal relationships necessary to grow in faith. Ultimately, I am against any hindrance to the spiritual development of God’s children. A church is in great danger when it begins to care more about drawing large crowds than effectively discipling the body’s members.

It was the Father that “chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will” (Ephesians 1:4-5). It is now our responsibility as His chosen ones to preach the gospel and make zealous disciples of all those He has elected in Christ.

One of my missions in life is to encourage those who have a smaller numerical calling to stop feeling like failures. The majority of God’s children fit into this category which makes it so unfair for them to be compared to those with big ministries. If you truly are following the Lord and obeying

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Him every step of the way, then it does not matter how big or small your ministry is. The stay at home mom who pours her heart and soul into her husband and children is just as successful as the Reinhardt Bonkes of this world who have led thousands to Christ as long as both are working with their eyes on the Father. We are many members in one body. It is not our responsibility to be something other than what God has called us to be. He is the perfect architect and has assigned each of the best roles to help in “building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12-13).

HOW GOD VIEWS YOUR ASSIGNMENT

When God calls you to do something, it is important to Him that you fulfill your assignment. Taking action and following through on the Holy Spirit’s promptings is critical, but it is not all God cares about. Beyond completing the task, I think God is more interested in our attitude and heart posture as we obey Him. Don’t forget that anything you do for God, He could easily accomplish on His own. “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things” (Acts 17:24-25).

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Humans are often guilty of believing they are helping God out. He does not need our help but has graciously chosen to involve us in His work. It is like a mother with a toddler that wants to help do the dishes. Things are far more challenging with the toddler’s involvement, but for the sake of growing the relational bond and teaching the toddler, the mother gladly welcomes her child to “help” her. After the dishes are done, the toddler leaves with a feeling of accomplishment without the slightest clue that Mom could have finished the task in half the time. This analogy can only apply to God in a metaphorical sense, for with God nothing is easier or more difficult than anything else. He has infinite power! His power supersedes anything that we can even envision, for God “is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20).

Because God is omnipotent (all powerful), it doesn’t matter how big and important our assignment is. Importance is a word that society has created its own definition for. Our definition of importance centers around an earthly value system invented by our imaginations. We judge specific jobs, activities, tasks, etc. as being more or less important than others based on money, prestige, difficulty, and rarity but this is not how God sees them.

An activity’s impact may affect more or fewer people, but impact and value are different in God’s eyes. God chooses the tangible results of our assignment. Some people, like Billy Graham for example, God has assigned to have a sizeable effect. Other people, like the local small business

20 Finding Success in God’s Eyes owner, has been given a different scale of influence. One assignment is not more important than the other. In this circumstance, both people have an equal value to God. This reality sets the heart free. It removes the burden of continually chasing a bigger and bigger numerical vision. If you pursue a vision more extensive than what the Lord has designated to you, then you are disobeying God. Suppose the person assigned to a specific yet small numerical impact pursues and even achieves an enormous influence. Believe it or not, in this case their reward will be smaller because they were not focused on accomplishing the assignment God gave them.

This revelation is the great equalizer among men. No man has the right to look with judgment upon another man’s assignment. There is no superiority or inferiority in the value of what God has called us to do. Our primary consideration is not about how many people we influence, but in our level of faithfulness to our unique calling. God is not interested in the size or scale of what someone achieves. Instead, He looks at the faithfulness by which the individual accomplishes their God-given purpose. Shoveling a walkway and preaching in a stadium have the same value to God as long as it is in obedience to each of our specific callings.

Why then do we constantly pursue bigger, better, and greater? Chasing the numerical “more” could be in direct alignment with God’s will for your life, or pursuing it could be contrary to what He is calling you to do. Personally, I have set my heart to win as many souls as I can and to disciple the maximum amount of people God has allotted to my charge (1

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Peter 5:3). I pursue this calling with my gaze fixed on the glory of God knowing that I am living for an audience of one. There is nothing wrong with having a vision of big numerical impact if it aligns with God’s calling on your life.2 But if He has called you to impact the two’s and three’s instead of the hundreds or thousands, that does not make you any less successful to Him. Our mission is to be obedient to His calling for our life, no matter the size.

AVOIDING JEALOUSY OVER OTHERS ASSIGNMENTS

The previous section leads us seamlessly into a subject that a significant number struggle with. The topic of jealousy, specifically jealousy over others’ achievements, has severe implications on our ability to live a successful life. “A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones” (Proverbs 14:30 NIV). I am regularly guarding my heart against jealousy as I notice the numerous men and women with large followings worldwide. What I have realized is that my jealousy about someone else’s impact is essentially telling God that His calling on my life is not good enough.

Who is it that you envy? Whether in a big or small way, each of us has desired the success of someone else’s life. If this person has the same calling as you, then there would be some merit in longing for their achievements. But just as each of us has been blessed with a special gift, every believer has also been given a unique assignment from the Lord. “For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do

22 Finding Success in God’s Eyes not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly” (Romans 12:4- 6).

Of course, there are similarities between our assignments, but no two people have identical callings. Knowing that we each have a unique destiny gives us no room to envy the success of another individual. Each unique calling comes with its own unique results. Copying someone else’s path as a means of achieving their God-ordained fruitfulness is idolatry. At this stage, fulfilling your personal calling from the Lord has been trumped by chasing someone else’s achievements.

Avoiding this type of idolatry does not remove our responsibility to surround ourselves with positive role models. Paul speaks of this very thing in 1 Corinthians 11:1 when he says, “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” Having positive role models to follow is not the problem. The issue comes down to your motivation. Do you think your status will be elevated if you look, sound, and act like a particular leader in the body of Christ? Will your life have more fulfillment if only you can achieve the success of your favorite preacher, entrepreneur, author, politician etc.? It is these selfish motivations that we must guard against.

Unfortunately this idolatry is thriving in our current Christian culture. If we are not careful about pursuing success solely from the Lord’s point of view, we can quickly be dragged into envying the latest preacher on the cover of Charisma

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Magazine. For most of us, our assignment does not involve being in the spotlight. Be careful not to lust after a calling that may never have been given to you in the first place. When we lust after another person’s calling, we ignore and downplay our own. When that happens, we cannot be an effective member of the body of Christ. We end up creating a void in the universal church. Unfortunately, the church’s house is full of missing bricks. These gaps exist from well- intentioned Christians seeking positions that they were never called to fulfill. As they pursue these callings outside of God’s will, they become unable to devote the time and energy to the assignment that they were intended to complete.

MY PERSONAL JOURNEY WITH ENVY

I must acknowledge that I find myself regularly warring against the sin of envy and jealousy. One of my primary assignments in life is to teach the word of God. This vocation leaves me with a long legacy of preachers who have accomplished great things for the Lord. I think of men like CH Spurgeon, Charles Wesley, John Stott, and Jonathan Edwards, who have turned the world upside down for Christ. There are the great preachers of this present age: John Piper, Mike Bickle, Billy Graham, Francis Chan, etc. All these men have a significant level of fame associated with their names. They have made a substantial impact on a considerable number of people across the globe. If they call a conference … chances are it will be sold out!

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Then I look to myself, a young, mostly unknown man leading a startup ministry in a town that most people have never heard of. I teach and preach regularly, but rarely have I had a crowd of over 100 people. I have dipped my toe now into the digital content machine with hopes of influencing a younger generation with the gospel of Christ. While I watch others accumulate thousands of watches from their messages or teaching clips, I am lucky to hit the 100 views mark.

Trust me, I understand how vain this all sounds. I am not proud of these cynical emotions. This topic is a regular dialogue that I continue to work through with the Lord. I hope that by being vulnerable, I can help those who also struggle to realize they are not alone. I write to you not as someone who has it all figured out but as someone still working out my calling with the Lord. I don’t merely want to accept His will for my life. I want to have great joy over the calling He has given me, regardless of how many people I reach.

Who knows, maybe one day I will have a broader audience. But just because the numbers are larger does not mean I have become more successful in the eyes of God. In the eyes of man, people will look more fondly upon me if I can drum up a larger following. But to the Lord, I have been equally successful all along. My challenge is not to equate my popularity with my success. Once I make popularity my litmus test for success, I enter a rat race that I will never win or even be able to see the finish line. I choose instead to enter the race in which I have already received the gold medal. Because of Christ’s atoning sacrifice, I am already victorious whether I preach to 10, 100, or 1,000 people. My goal is to

25 Forever Starts Now align with His plan for my life, and to the extent that I can do that, I am successful

What I continue to learn is that our success is directly tied to the level of obedience that we cultivate in following Christ. Man’s definition of success is typically based on exterior results. But God does not judge as man judges. God looks at the heart. This is evident from a story in the life of Samuel. The Lord sent this prophet to the family of Jesse to anoint Israel’s first king. When the family entered his presence, Samuel “looked at Eliab and thought, ‘Surely the LORD’S anointed is before Him’” (1 Samuel 16:6). The prophet Samuel focused on the Eliab’s appearance as he predicted Israel’s first king, but this was not God’s primary concern. “But the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart’” (1 Samuel 16:7).

Like the prophet Samuel, we too are naturally inclined to judge based on outer appearance. This does not just mean someone’s physical looks, but their popularity and following. After judging others, we then turn this same standard of measure on ourselves. This man-centered approach to success is at the heart of our jealousy and must be replaced with a Christ-centered approach to evaluating the success of our life.

We are all on a level playing field. Each of us have been given a glorious assignment that only we can fulfil. Our

26 Finding Success in God’s Eyes success in this life hinges on discovering that calling and walking it out by the grace of God. Do not be distracted by what the ministry, business, or stay-at-home mom down the street is doing. Remain focused on God’s will for your life. Aim for the very best God has for you! Bigger is not always better and in many instances can be a hindrance to fulfilling your calling. Trust that God is sovereign and will accomplish all His purposes on the earth (Job 42:2). May we be like the prophet Jeremiah who declared “Ah Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You” (Jeremiah 32:17).

CHAPTER 2

Pursuing Eternal Rewards for God’s Glory

Deep down inside of every person exists an intrinsic desire to be rewarded. This motivation is evidenced in even the youngest children. When asked to do something beyond their typical responsibilities, my kids often respond with the question, “Am I getting paid for this?” It is human nature to expect rewards for our labor, and this intrinsic desire has been placed in us by God.

I used to think that serving others with the motivation of getting something in return was wrong. In one sense, it is wrong if I am focused solely on getting something physical in return on this earth. Luke 6:34-35 says, “If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great.”

It was this final statement in verse 35 that left me wondering, “How will my reward be great if I expect (and probably get) nothing in return for those I am lending to?” The reward spoken about here is the reward that we will receive from

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God, not from man. This reward is far superior to anything we could gain from another person. There are expressions of God’s reward we experience on earth, but the ultimate fulfillment of this promise is our heavenly inheritance.

Many Christians believe that it is wrong to be motivated by our eternal prize. They assume their only motivation should be to obey God in fulfilling their earthly duty with no thought of their future reward. This notion seems right and humble at face value, the only problem is … it is not what the Bible teaches. I was shocked by how many times Jesus Himself tells us to do things for the reward we will inherit in heaven. In fact, in the most important act of all human history, Christ endured the cross “for the joy set before Him” (Hebrews 12:2). Even Jesus was motivated by His eternal reward as He accomplished His earthly assignment.

Being inspired to obey God by looking forward to our eternal reward is splashed all over the pages of Scripture. From the Old Testament to the New, we are told how our obedience in following the Lord will surely be rewarded. This truth has been underemphasized in the church for fear of appearing self-serving in our works for the kingdom. I hope that this false humility will soon be overtaken by the revelation of what God’s word reveals about this topic. The truth is, God is actually glorified as He shares His glory with His beloved children. Once you believe this concept, you will be far more inclined to “set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” so that “when Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:2,4).

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THE REVELATION OF ETERNAL REWARDS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT PATRIARCHS

A brief look at Hebrews 11 will give us great insight into the motivation behind many of the most extraordinary acts of faith displayed in the Old Testament. The testimonies of these saints of old is built off a foundational statement given to us in verse 6, “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). These great men of old walked not only in the faith that God exists but that He also bountifully rewards those who pursue Him.

Abraham was given a mighty promise that he would be “the father of a multitude of nations” (Genesis 17:5). This was an earthly promise that came with an earthly fulfillment. But this was not ultimately the promise that motivated Abraham to leave his homeland in search of the promised land. So why was it that Abraham “lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land” (Hebrews 11:9)? We see the answer in the very next verse; it was because “he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10). Abraham fixed his hope on an eternal city, using that image as one of his primary motives for obeying the Lord. He knew that he was guaranteed an impressive earthly inheritance (being the father of many nations is kind of a big deal), but this is not what ultimately drove him. Abraham was ultimately stirred by his desire for “a better country, that is, a heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:16).

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Now let’s consider the man who led the Jewish people’s exodus out of Egyptian captivity. Many of us know the miraculous story of how Pharos’ daughter adopted Moses after finding him in a basket on the Nile river. This took place during the period of the horrific edict given by the king of Egypt to immediately kill every newborn Jewish male (Exodus 1-2).

Though Moses grew up in the Pharos household, enjoying royalty’s comforts, he did not accept this position as his destiny. He knew that God had a different plan. So, Moses “when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt …” (Hebrews 11:24-26). Let’s pause and consider a moment before finishing verse 26. Why did Moses forsake this position of royalty in the King’s household to endure ill-treatment and experience the reproach of Christ? It was because “he was looking to the reward” (Hebrews 11:26). Moses understood what would be so eloquently written by the apostle Paul to the church in Corinth when he declared that “momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). Moses removed his gaze from earthly pleasure and instead chose to “look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).

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STORING UP TREASURES IN HEAVEN

After observing how two Old Testament saints used heaven’s reward as an inspiration for completing their earthly assignment, let’s now look at how Christ and the early church viewed eternal rewards. Beginning with Christ’s words in Matthew 6:19-21, we see how we are to view earthly riches while considering endless treasures: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Christ removes the focus from earthly treasures and shows the superiority of heavenly rewards. This is a lesson my wife and I are attempting to teach our three children. Anyone with kids understands that it is a minor miracle to keep a toy in good working condition for more than a year. At the dinner table the other night, Sarah and I were sharing with our children the concepts of spending, saving, and giving (thank you Dave Ramsey). When we asked them about what happened to most of the toys they had purchased, my youngest boy responded with something to the effect that “they became broken.” His answer opened the door to share with our kids that eventually all earthly possessions end up in this condition. Whether they wear out, become outdated, or get lost, we can be sure that all our material belongings have a shelf life. 2 Peter 3:10 confirms that “the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its

33 Forever Starts Now works will be burned up.” If this is true, what are we to put our hope in when considering the final destruction of everything the earth contains? The answer is found if we continue reading:

Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. (2 Peter 3:11-13)

Our hope is not in this world! Scripture reveals time and again that we must look beyond our natural existence and prepare ourselves for the new heavens and new earth where we will dwell for eternity. By living a life focused on storing up treasures in heaven, we can accomplish much both now and for all eternity. All earthy riches come with an expiration date. To fix your hope on money is like fixing your hope on the gallon of milk in your fridge. It is for this reason Paul gives his beloved child in the faith Timothy the following directive,

Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the

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future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed (1 Timothy 6:17-19).

Through our earthly generosity, we are storing up treasures of a good foundation for the future. Partial fulfillment of that reward will happen in this lifetime (although not always in material riches), but the ultimate future foundation that we are sowing into is our heavenly reward. This allows us to move beyond investing in the temporal to investing in the eternal, which is life indeed! Randy Alcorn, the author of The Treasure Principle, conveys this truth in a simple but clever way,

Ever seen that bumper sticker “He who dies with the most toys wins”? Millions of people act as if it were true. The more accurate saying is “He who dies with the most toys still dies—and never takes his toys with him.” When we die after devoting our lives to acquiring things, we don’t win—we lose. We move into eternity, but our toys stay behind, filling junkyards. The bumper sticker couldn’t be more wrong.1

EXCHANGING EARTHLY COMFORT FOR ETERNAL PLEASURE

Worldly comfort is one of the greatest limiters of true revival. It is also one of the primary culprits of the saint’s eternal blessings. Satan has deceived many to believe that God’s desire for us is to have a cozy, pain-free existence. Because we believe this lie, we despise any thoughts of suffering for

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His name’s sake (Philippians 1:29). Many Christians want to “know Him and the power of His resurrection,” but they are unwilling to travel the road of bearing with “the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Philippians 3:10). If we can recognize the eternal benefit of enduring trials and tribulations, we would welcome them into our life instead of running from them.

When looked upon in a purely natural way, suffering is negative. If all I am living for is pleasure in this life, then suffering has no place in my fairytale existence. But what if there was more to this life than what meets the eye? What if this life was but a shadow of another that would continue for eternity? If that is the case (which the Bible says it is), wouldn’t we want to experience anything that would benefit our transition into the eternal state? Herein lies the great benefit of suffering in this age. This is how we can “exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:3- 5).

Now let me be clear at the forefront. I do not believe in a poverty mindset that chases pain and suffering. I don’t encourage anyone to go and try to find ways to suffer for Christ. The primary concern of my life is to follow and obey the Lord through His word. But here’s the catch. If you do study and obey the Scripture, I can guarantee that you will

36 Pursuing Eternal Rewards for God’s Glory suffer for the sake of Christ. “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (1 Timothy 3:12).

Our challenge is to look past the initial trial of suffering to what it accomplishes. As we see the refining work that takes place through trials and tribulations, we can be like the early apostles who, after being flogged, “went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name” (Acts 5:41).

Herein lies the great paradox of spreading the gospel. If it were up to us, the gospel would spread without any hindrance. Our fantasy is for world revival to come without any persecution, martyrdom, slandering, heartache, etc. This sounds like a reasonable approach; the only problem is that it is not how God plans to do it. He reveals something much different in His word. Sure, there is plenty of joy, healing, love, and many other society shifting results that come with revival. But these results are often forged in the fire of great suffering and persecution of the saints.

Paul the apostle was the primary person used by God to bring the gospel to the world during the time of the early church. The Spirit used Paul in miraculous ways to spark awakenings in many different regions. The joy associated with this great work of God was not without its hardships though. In 2 Corinthians 11:23-27, we get an overview of the great suffering Paul endured as he spread the gospel of Christ,

Are they servants of Christ? - I speak as if insane - I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten

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times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.

We fall into great danger when we don’t realize that pain and suffering are tools God uses in our sanctification and His kingdom’s growth. Those not acquainted with what God’s word says about persecution may mistakenly believe that God has abandoned them in their struggle. On the contrary, when we face these hardships while serving the Lord, we know that He is with us and that He “causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). Peter admonishes his fellow Christians to “not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you” (1 Peter 4:12-14).

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All the suffering and pain we experience has an eternal purpose. This is one of the greatest sources of comfort for me as I endure hardships for my faith in Christ. If God had not given me this revelation, I might have given up on the Christian life a long time ago. Knowing that any suffering I experience is ultimately for God’s glory and my eternal reward helps me to overcome in times of testing. I can rest in the joy of knowing that I have been adopted into God’s family. God has given all of us the blessed assurance that “we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:16-18).

EXULTING GOD BY SHARING IN HIS GLORY

In all this talk of pursuing our eternal inheritance, you may well be wondering how God’s glory fits into the equation. I whole-heartedly agree with Paul’s sentiment in 1 Corinthians 10:32 that “whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” The primary goal of my life is the magnification of His glory. Christ likewise lived His life for the Father’s glory (John 17:4), but to my surprise prayed that “the glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one” (John 17:22). I had always attributed God’s glory to be separate from me. If anything good resulted on my behalf, then if I acknowledged it, it seemed I was in some way robbing God

39 Forever Starts Now of the fullness of glory He deserved. But what I had failed to realize was how God was exalted as I participated in His glory.

This “dual-glorification” can easily be seen in the relationship a parent has with their child. Within God’s design, a parent wants the absolute best for their child. They want the child to succeed in every area of life, and they do all they can to help the child succeed on their journey. A loving parent rejoices in the accomplishments of their children and the glory and honor they receive. But it does not end there.

Let’s use a child’s high school graduation as an example. As the child walks across the stage and receives his or her high school diploma, Mom and Dad are undoubtedly cheering and celebrating their child’s accomplishment. They feel so proud of all the diligent effort applied by their son or daughter to achieve this incredible feat. They, and others in attendance, are in a sense glorifying the student for their success. But that’s not all. The student’s triumph and glory are shared with the Father and Mother that helped raise him or her. The child’s graduation is not only a result of their own hard work but of the faithful upbringing of their parents. The child’s glory is the parents’ glory. I realize that this is not a perfect example, but it gives you an idea of how the Father is glorified through His children as they joyfully share in His glory.

Through this example, we get a taste of what glory is like from heaven’s perspective. Unfortunately, as natural creatures, we often look at glory through the prism of shortsighted and humanistic thinking. In the natural world,

40 Pursuing Eternal Rewards for God’s Glory everything has a limitation. There is a limited amount of oxygen to breathe, water to drink, money to make, etc. But in the kingdom of God, all limitations are destroyed by God’s infinite provision.

In the natural, if two people are working on a project, one person may receive more credit for the project’s success than the other. This usually results in one party feeling betrayed that the other member received more recognition. In the natural, there is a limited amount of “glory,” and so we fight for our fair share. But this is not how things work in the kingdom. In the kingdom of God, there is an infinite amount of glory, and God does not lose one iota of His divine magnificence when sharing His glory with us. This glory that we share with the Father begins in our spirit the moment we are born again. It finds its culmination in the day that we see Him face to face in heaven.

To fully understand our glory, we must understand the process of salvation. There are three aspects to our salvation. A believer begins their new life by receiving justification in the sight of God. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8, emphasis mine). This is a past tense reality that occurs one time in the believer’s life.

After this initial salvation, the Christian continues to grow in the grace of God through the process of sanctification. “For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing” (2

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Corinthians 2:15, emphasis mine). This is a present-tense reality that never ends during the physical life of the believer.

Finally, each Christian will undergo one final transformative experience through their glorification. “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Romans 5:9-10, emphasis mine). This is the future reality of our salvation and is our final stage of being conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29).

I describe these three stages of salvation to help you understand the tremendous investment the Father has in your glorification. We need to realize that “our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory” (Philippians 3:20-21). Your glorification is God’s final brushstroke on the masterpiece of your life.

Now, before any pride has an opportunity to creep in, let me make something abundantly clear. Every eternal reward and ounce of glory you will one day receive has no origin in yourself. This does not neglect the fact that you are responsible for your actions, “for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10). What you do and how you live in this world impacts your eternal

42 Pursuing Eternal Rewards for God’s Glory life! But just because we are responsible in part for our eternal reward does not mean that we have in some way earned or deserved it. Everything that we have now and forevermore is given to us “by grace … through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

The glory you have in your eternal state is not independently yours. Acquiring eternal rewards is not about flaunting your earthly accomplishments. It is only in God that we have “become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4), for “every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James1:17). We share in His glory, and we would have no glory or rewards apart from Him.2

As we draw to the close of this chapter, you may well be thinking that the subject of our future glorification is exciting to consider, but how is it applied to daily life? Far from being an existential topic, there are many real-world implications for approaching each day with the end in mind. By escaping the grip of earthly gratification, we open our hearts to experience the superior pleasures of heaven. Our life takes on a whole new sense of purpose as we reflect God’s glory to a hurting world. Nothing can erase “the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension,” (Philippians 4:7) when we place our trust and life completely in His Hands. Knowing where we are going and what we are becoming gives us encouragement to persevere through our daily challenges. Without knowing where this is all headed, it would be easy to feel discouraged and perhaps eventually give up our pursuit

43 Forever Starts Now of holy living all together. But as we have seen, that would be a tragedy in light of the eternal rewards God is storing up for us right now. By keeping this at the forefront of your mind, you can be strengthened to live a life wholly consecrated to the Lord. Take hope in knowing that “after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you” (1 Peter 5:10). Amen to that!

CHAPTER 3

Discerning Your Life Vision

“For I know the plans that I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” ~ Jeremiah 29:11

Time is the most valuable earthly resource that God has provided us. If used wisely, our time has the potential to revolutionize an entire generation. Honoring God with our time is not about setting out a little time for devotions each day but about focusing every waking moment on Christ and the vision He has given to us. Now to the modern day church- goer that may seem a little radical and even legalistic. If every waking moment is focused on Christ, where do I come in? When do I get time for me? Exactly! In giving every moment of our life to God we begin to gain power over the dominion of darkness because our every second is spent in the realm of light! We become focused not on our own desires but on the longings of our eternal Father. The more we apply our minds to accomplishing the Father’s purpose, the more He will transform the yearnings of our hearts to match His sovereign

45 Forever Starts Now will. “Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4).

Though this life is short in comparison to the expanse of eternity past and future, God has given us breath for a reason. We should not wallow in the fact that our time in these mortal bodies will not endure but should instead use this life to achieve our full potential in Christ. The ancient philosopher Seneca writes with powerful insight on this matter.

It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested. But when it is wasted in heedless luxury and spent on no good activity, we are forced at last by death’s final constraint to realize that it has passed away before we knew it was passing. So it is: we are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it. Just as when ample and princely wealth falls to a bad owner it is squandered in a moment, but wealth however modest, if entrusted to a good custodian, increases with use, so our lifetime extends amply if you manage it properly.1

To echo the words of Seneca, “we are not ill-supplied.” For God has given us one of the most powerful resources in all of creation, the Word of God. “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16, 17). Our challenge is to use the Word of God to dictate our

46 Discerning Your Life Vision every step in order to transform our life. Only after our own hearts have been renewed are we able to give our all to seeing change in others.

THE TRAGEDY OF A VISIONLESS LIFE

A great mentor of mine and a man that has made a huge contribution to my spiritual walk is Mike Bickle. It was years ago that I heard a sermon of his that set my heart on fire for creating an intentional vision for my own life. As the director of the International House of Pray in Kansas City, MO, Bickle is determined to see young people pursue the Lord with reckless abandon. But it is not always easy to get young people on board with properly managing their time. In one of his Bible teachings, Bickle explains this link between developing discipline and having a vision for your future.

To help somebody establish discipline in their life is help them get a clear vision for their life. It is very difficult to get people disciplined for the sake of discipline … instead of calling them to discipline as a thing of itself, give them a new picture of what they can be, they buy into the picture, they will live disciplined. Undisciplined people have a vision problem, not a laziness problem, as a rule.2

Developing a life vision is the key to creating a life focused on using time with excellence. Far too many people spend their lives just drifting about here and there, hoping to stumble across something that will make their lives significant. Most

47 Forever Starts Now of the time, they continue to be drawn away by whatever looks good in that moment and never fully achieve what they were once called to accomplish. Proverbs 29:18 warns that “where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained.” Where there is no focus for our lives, we lose control, having no discipline in our pursuit of God’s vision. Instead, the majority of our time and energy is spent chasing after the next best thing. We must understand that in this context of life focus, it is good to be restrained and to have a vision that we are committed to. By restraining our desires from following the next fad, and focusing our energy on the vision God has given us, we become considerably more effective in increasing the dominion of His kingdom.3

It is in focusing our lives that we begin to understand the importance of using our time wisely. God does not dispense tiny, minute visions to His beloved children. Remember that the value of your vision is not always related to the numerical size of your impact. A big vision does not always mean big numbers. By using the entire body of Christ, God wishes to turn this world upside down and pour out a revival that has the potential to forever shape the history of the earth. We are a key component to that happening.

Too often we settle for the smaller things in life because we fear failure. We fear that if we set out for the large callings that God has for us, we may come up short and be unable to achieve all that we were destined for. I would much rather chase after the mighty vision that God has for my life and come up short than settle for a lesser vision and easily fulfill it. If I feel that I have the capacity on my own to fulfill a vision

48 Discerning Your Life Vision that God has given me, will I desperately seek the Lord for help? We must pursue callings that we know full well we cannot achieve in our own strength but only accomplish through the power and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is in that understanding of weakness that Christ’s power is perfected (2 Corinthians 12:9). His grace is always sufficient for us (2 Corinthians 12:9), and in partnering with Him we can overcome the impossible (Matthew 19:26).

Recognizing that the Lord does not dole out small visions to His elect, we must also understand the enormous amount of time and energy that goes into seeing these destinies fulfilled. This is why managing our time is so imperative. With large vision comes large responsibility. After the Holy Spirit plants His vision in our hearts, we then become responsible in spending every waking minute to see that vision come to fulfillment. When the temptation arises to be careless with our time, we must force ourselves to focus on fulfilling our destiny and throw off the lethargy that attempts to swallow us.

If at this point in your life you are clueless as to what your vision may be, I encourage you not to worry. I promise that God has a vision for every life that He has given breath to. In His timing, God will reveal a personal, holy calling, and will begin to give you strategies on how to achieve it! In saying this, I am not giving you a free ticket to just sit around hoping to feel inspired. There is a crucial aspect that you play in hearing and pursuing God. If you believe that having a life vision is one of the most essential areas in developing a life worthy of your calling, then you must press into the face of

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God and continually ask Him to confirm this vision within you. “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened” (Matthew 7:7, 8). This pursuit of hearing God’s direction will look different for everyone. When I suggest pressing in to the face of God that may mean spending long blocks of time waiting on the Lord in silence. It could mean storming the throne for an answer. It may even include giving up a few meals as you utilize the power of fasting to better hear the Lord for direction. I will go into greater detail concerning practical steps on hearing the voice of God in future chapters.

The important idea for us to comprehend now is that God desires for you to understand your calling even more than you desire to know it for yourself. He is a faithful Father, and as you seek His face, He will begin to pour desires into your heart. These holy longings will eventually guide you toward your life vision. Rick Warren puts it like this: “This phrase is the ultimate definition of a life well lived. You do the eternal and timeless (God’s Purpose) in a contemporary and timely way (in your generation). That is what the purpose-driven life is all about. Neither past nor future generations can serve God’s purpose in this generation. Only we can. Like Esther, God created you ‘for such a time as this’” (emphasis in the original).4

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ASPECTS OF THE VISION: IDENTITY & PURPOSE

Normally a person’s vision is going to consist of two main facets. The first component is discovering who you will be. After realizing your identity you can then move on to the second aspect being what you will do.5 Both features are necessary in order to fulfill the destiny that God has called you toward.

Let’s look at the first and most important aspect: who you will be. A piece of this involves your spiritual identity and could be considered the vision statement for your spiritual life. It must be deeply rooted in the person and character of Christ and will be very similar for most believers. This aspect will remain consistent for the entirety of your life. This part is somewhat of a paradox because it involves your identity in Christ, who you already are, and the desire and pursuit of your soul, who you are becoming. These two things are intimately woven together. Only from an understanding of who you are in Christ will you ever be able to chase the true longing of your heart. It is from your identity that you derive the ability to pursue. Since this is specifically in reference to our life vision (future), I will refer to this area as “who you will be.” Consider the following verses when crafting this aspect of your life vision.

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love

51 Forever Starts Now your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” ~ Matthew 22:36-40

The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. . . . And I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them. ~ John 17:22, 23, 26

I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. ~ John 15:5

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. ~ 2 Corinthians 5:17

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. ~ Galatians 2:20

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. ~ Philippians 3:20

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For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. ~ Galatians 3:26

The second piece of the puzzle is discerning what God has specifically purposed you to do with your life. For some this will involve what seems to be a secular pursuit. But I encourage you not to view it as such. We are to do everything in our life with a wholehearted desire to glorify God. “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). Jesus calls men and women to the business world, homemaking, construction, farming, etc. just the same as He calls some to be pastors, evangelists, and missionaries. We know as Christians that everything in our lives is actually a spiritual matter if we choose to glorify God in it. The main concern in discerning this facet of your life vision is not merely pursuing something that “looks spiritual” but instead remaining faithful in whatever God has called you to do. That is the make-up of the body of Christ and why each member is so vital in the overall success of the church. See here what Paul has to say regarding each believer’s importance within the church:

For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now

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God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. (1 Corinthians 12:14-18)

We must be careful here to not judge for ourselves whether our calling is significant or not. Every vision the Lord gives to His children is paramount in His own eyes. It is vital in His eternal plan for humanity. Renowned psychiatrist and holocaust survivor Victor Frankl puts it like this: “Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated, thus, everyone’s task is unique as his specific opportunity to implement it.”6 When we shrink back from God’s will because we don’t view it as a worthy endeavor, we harm the body of Christ. Paul expounds on this point by taking different features of a human body and comparing them to how people compare and relate to each other within the church.

And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, so that there may be no division in the body,

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but that the members may have the same care for one another. (1 Corinthians 12:21-25)

FORFEITING THE POPULARITY CONTEST

We were not created to be average or mediocre. We have been summoned by God and empowered by His Spirit to step out of the crowd and be counted among the brave. We must refuse to hide among the riskless, mindless, zombielike flock. We must put on the mind of Christ and expose the world to the supernatural wisdom of the ages—wisdom that stuns the intelligent, silences the critics and transforms our cities and nations. Jesus said that we are to make disciples of all nations and teach them the ways of the Kingdom.7

Kris Vallotton’s description of how we are to look and act emphasizes that we will be different from the world around us. This radical way of life may not always be seen as admirable by those around you. There is a caveat to developing a life vision and making practical decisions to live it out. You must be willing to sacrifice popularity in an attempt to remain focused on your personal calling. You will undoubtedly upset many people by not running with them into vain, time wasting pleasures. There will be plenty of invitations turned down in order to remain focused on the activities that God has called you to. There is even a good chance you will be seen as overzealous for your faith and for how you spend your time.8

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Once you begin to experience this, be encouraged, you are on the right path. “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12). Intentionally giving preference to the activities God has called you to will surely bring conflict between you and others. Jesus warned us of this very thing: “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you” (John 15:18, 19). It is necessary to remain firm in our desire to serve God alone. We must know where our allegiance lies. I encourage you to stand as Paul did when he declared, “For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10).

BREAKING DOWN YOUR VISION INTO INCREMENTAL GOALS

As mentioned previously, the first step in effectively using your time is to understand the vision God has given you. After that, the next step is to create goals to accomplish that vision. We must have goals to keep us focused on the necessary steps to fulfilling our mandate in Christ. You can’t just take on a life-size vision in one day. It takes countless days, months, and years to fulfill your destiny. Having specific goals to complete will provide a sense of accomplishment and help keep you focused on the little things that need to be done in

56 Discerning Your Life Vision light of your large vision! There are two main categories to consider: long term goals and short term goals.9

Long term goals will be a focal point for you in everyday life. These goals give you something to look toward if you ever become discouraged from the everyday battle you will face to use your time with excellence. It is like playing the game Monopoly; every time you cross the start line (long term goal achievement), you are rewarded. As you go through the motions of rolling the dice over and over (short term goal achievement), you can look forward to that moment of passing go and collecting $200!

Before you will ever reach a long term goal, there are many short term goals that you will have victory over first. In Figure 1.1 I have listed personal long term goals that will lead me toward a fulfilled destiny. My short term goals to accomplish these larger visions will be much more practical and specific. They also change depending on which season of my life I am in. We will look much more into this in the chapter titled: “Priorities for the Season.” As you view these long term goals, you will likely notice many goals that are similar if not exactly the same for you. Use this list as a match to start the fire on your own list of long term dreams.

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Figure 3.1

Long Term Goals List

1. To have an intimate relationship with God. 2. To uphold a Godly standard of purity in everything that I do. 3. To have a close, submissive, loving, honoring, joy filled, trusting, and intimate relationship with my wife. To love my wife as Christ loves the Church. 4. To be close with my family, not putting my fleshly goals and desires above them. 5. To have a close relationship with my children: guiding and directing them in a spirit of love, with a passion and fervency to model Christ to them in everything I say and do. 6. To have many deep and personal friendships with people whom I would give up my life for. 7. To teach the word of God as one of my primary ministries. 8. To be a cheerful and generous giver, giving to the point where it actually affects me. Giving out of lack and abundance, having full faith that I will always be provided for by God. 9. To have an intimate, effective, and fruitful prayer life that expects and sees answers. 10. To have love at the center of everything I do. To love every individual I come in contact with, with the same love that Christ has for me.

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11. To be a servant to all, putting the needs of others before my own needs. To consider others as more important than myself and be no respecter of persons. 12. To be a man of the Word, listening for and obeying the voice of the Holy Spirit. 13. To love the poor, broken, and afflicted. To reach out to those who have been abandoned and forgotten, going to areas that are neglected by the world. To come with the love of God and the salvation of Jesus.

It is impossible for me to adequately describe the immense worth of having a detailed and written out life vision. This vision will aid you in your pursuit of pleasing God in everything that you do. There will be plenty of periods in life where laziness and lethargy will attempt to set in. It is in these stages where having a life vision can help keep you moving in the right direction and help you to weather the storm of the moment. This is the initial and probably the most important stage of tapping into the power of a focused life!

CHAPTER 4

Why a Biblical Approach

to Time Management?

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. ~ Matthew 6:33

As you pursue God’s presence and discover your life vision, you will engage in much more than time management strategies. Though time management is a vital aspect to living out our callings in God, there are other deep concerns and spiritual issues at the heart of our life choices. Nevertheless, it is vital to begin with how time management has been taught within society so as to have a biblical framework for this topic. Satan is the master of deception. He loves to twist and taint perfectly good practices to achieve his results. Now I am not suggesting that every book in the productivity genre is evil. There have been many helpful books written regarding the topics of time management and productivity, so why reiterate the subject? While establishing practical strategies are necessary to using time effectively, these alone do not cause us to honor God with this most valuable resource. As with most things, the world has a different take on what is

61 Forever Starts Now truly important, and the way in which a person is to spend his or her time is no different. We must not allow the ways of the world to influence our decision making. There are a myriad of issues and priorities to consider when looking at how to spend our lives as Christians. Secular books on time management would probably view many vital Christian practices as a waste of time. That is why it is imperative to view time management and productivity through the eyes of Jesus and not the eyes of the world.

THE LIFESTYLE OF MARTHA VS. MARY

The secular view of productivity focuses primarily on completing tangible tasks in order to achieve an end goal. With that world-view, activities such as Bible reading, prayer, meditation, discipleship, evangelism etc. are pushed down our to-do list and replaced with tasks that produce immediate and visible results. That is the threat of devoting time to studying secular models of managing time. If one was able to study these models with a singular view of learning tools and techniques, then these strategies could prove to be valuable. But most of us are unable to consume a source of information without its essential message permeating our being. So, though we may not realize it, the goal of exclusively obtaining physical results infiltrates our consciousness and we begin to cultivate a “Martha” disposition toward our success, all the while disregarding the “Mary” lifestyle. Let’s take a look at the story of Mary and Martha and how Jesus responded to their pursuits.

62 Why a Biblical Approach to Time Management?

Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.” But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38-42)

In the scripture above we see Martha working diligently to prepare and care for her guests. Most would view this as a noble and necessary task, in no manner deserving rebuke. And they would be right, except for one thing. Martha had become so consumed in the work of serving that she disregarded the most important reason for having guests over in the first place, which is cultivating relationship. Her focus was merely on working for the guests, and she neglected spending adequate time with them. It’s important to mention that these were not just some random friends that she was overlooking. This guest happened to be Jesus, the Savior of the World! To be clear it was not Martha’s serving that Jesus was rebuking. He was instead confronting the spirit in which the service was being performed. Joanna Weaver further details this in her book, Having a Mary Spirit: Allowing God to Change Us From the Inside Out. She explains her surprise in realizing that “when Jesus scolded Martha about her busyness, He wasn’t condemning her efficiency and hard work or her can-do personality. He wasn’t telling her she had

63 Forever Starts Now to be just like Mary to please Him. Jesus simply didn’t want Martha to be so caught up in kitchen service for Him that she missed out on the joy of living-room intimacy with Him” (emphasis in the original).1

Unfortunately, I find myself guilty of the same thing when I focus my attention on completing tasks above cultivating an intimate relationship with Jesus. I can become so consumed in serving God, my family, or myself that my relationship with God ends up becoming dull and dry. Now let’s set one thing straight, serving the Lord does further my relationship with Him, but only to the extent that my serving is accompanied by intimate fellowship with Him. To merely spend time serving Him without spending time with Him is a recipe for a cold heart.

Switch your focus now from Martha to Mary. First, it is vital to note the physical position that Mary selected. Unlike Martha who was bustling to and fro, Mary chose to sit at the feet of Jesus. She elected for a posture of submission with a fixed concentration on being in His presence. Any parent can relate to why this would be “the good part” (Luke 10:42). If you are a mother or father, would you enjoy your child spending countless hours away working to pay for an extravagant gift for you? Or would you rather have your child replace the time working for you and instead spend that time being with you? Most parents would much rather choose to spend time with their child. To have their child far away from them, in an attempt to serve them, falls immensely short of cultivating a relationship together. Our relationship with Father God is no different. Though God appreciates our

64 Why a Biblical Approach to Time Management? service and desires to partner with us in expanding His Kingdom, Jesus’ first priority is connecting with our hearts. From this intimate connection He brings about change in us through His presence. Mary recognized this desire from Jesus and it inspired her to enter into deeper communion with Him.

DECIDING BETWEEN VISIBLE TEMPORAL VS. INVISIBLE ETERNAL RESULTS

Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. ~ 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

It is a great challenge to focus energy toward activities that normally produce invisible results. What comes more naturally for us is to gravitate toward actions which quickly and visibly display progress. Let me give you an example. As an artist, I enjoy the process of working diligently on a project. After I have made some noticeable progress, I like to step back and see what I have completed. There is a sense of purpose and fulfillment when I do this. What I must come to realize, though, is that the picture I have painted or the woodworking project I have assembled will not survive the test of time. All of my physical creations will one day be eliminated. “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in

65 Forever Starts Now which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10). Thus, this use of my time created something that was visible but temporal.

Now just because something is visible and temporal does not mean that it is sinful or inherently bad. There are many things that fall into this category that are necessary for the functioning of society and the building up of the body of Christ. Food, shelter, clothing, industry, technology, art, sports etc. are all meaningful to this world. The problem does not lie in these temporal things themselves but instead in the priority that they take in our day-to-day life. The temptation to pursue activities that achieve visible results is much greater than pursuing activities that yield results in the invisible realm. Visible results create a sudden reward for our labor. We can see them, and sometimes more importantly to us, others can see them also. Invisible results may take years before we recognize progress, and they may remain unnoticed by the world around us.

One of the chief categories of the visible, temporal realm that permeates our society is our pursuit of vain entertainment. How many hours have been squandered with mind-numbing television sitcoms, sporting events, Netflix, and video games? Or maybe your temptation falls under the social media division as you are constantly checking and updating Facebook, Email, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Now to reiterate, some of these things (as long as they uphold a high standard of purity) are not sinful in and of themselves. But the dilemma centers on the extent to which they have consumed our

66 Why a Biblical Approach to Time Management? society and unfortunately have likewise consumed us as Christians. I will expound more on this topic in the chapter “First Things First,” but I wanted to introduce you to a couple of the chief menaces. These entertainment avenues have become prominent because of the immediate pleasure they deliver. They provide us a way of escape. People today are more apt to turn to a mindless television show to unwind from a long day instead of taking our pain, stress, and struggles to the Lord. In many instances, these futile activities have become our “gods” as we deny the true God for ones made by human hands. “For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen” (Romans 1:25).

Time devoted to endeavors that cultivate an invisible eternal reward are much less appealing to our flesh. This is the case because these undertakings do not always provide an instant reward or a tangible result. There is a large level of faith required in pursuing eternal efforts. There must be a deep conviction that they truly do produce fruit or we will easily give them up due to the lack of noticeable outcomes. Some examples of these activities are prayer, meditation, Bible reading, evangelism, discipleship, etc. Now to be accurate, there are earthly effects to these pursuits as well as heavenly ones. Many have experienced answers to prayer, intimate rushes of love during meditation, and awesome revelations when reading the Bible. It is not my desire to diminish the fact that these things occur. It is my hope that they take place in your life more often than not. But the truth is these tangible effects do not come about on every occasion. In fact, there may be many instances where we don’t feel anything

67 Forever Starts Now happening at all. Just because we do not have an instant positive result from these actions does not mean we should neglect them altogether. In fact, these are the areas we are called to press into the most, regardless of what the physical outcome may be.

The activities which produce invisible eternal results are so important and necessary for the Christian because they go far beyond merely benefiting us in this present life. They have a dual reward in which they profit us now and, more significantly, they benefit us for eternity. “But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Timothy 4:7, 8). That is why I am passionate about giving time toward activities that produce eternal results, sometimes invisible, sometimes not. This is a focus not typically found in the average time management book. Thus, the man or woman of God must be very discerning when consuming such information.

As you continue to read and process the information discussed in this manuscript, be aware that every tip, tool, method, and suggestion must be viewed under the umbrella of your eternal destiny. “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).

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To illustrate this point, see Figure 2.1 below. Though it is impossible to accurately display eternity (for it never ends!), I hope this model reveals the brevity of our life on earth.2 In comparison, this life is but a blip on the radar when viewing the big picture of eternity past and future. The astonishing truth is that what happens in this tiny blip sets the course of eternity for us and those we impact.

Figure 4.1

Eternity (Never Ends)

Time on Earth

CHAPTER 5

First Things First

He does not ask much of us, merely a thought of Him from time to time, a little act of adoration, sometimes to ask for His grace, sometimes to offer Him your sufferings, at other times to thank Him for the graces, past and present, He has bestowed on you, in the midst of your troubles to take solace in Him as often as you can. Lift up your heart to Him during your meals and in company; the least little remembrance will always be the most pleasing to Him. One need not cry out very loudly; He is nearer to us than we think. ~ Brother Lawrence1

Before diving into creating priorities and developing a schedule, it is vital that we evaluate the necessary areas of the Christian life. This chapter is where a secular productivity book and a Bible saturated book such as this will clash the most. Where most secular books on time management focus on getting things done, I will be placing a large emphasis on cultivating a life centered on God.

I hope it is obvious to you that my intention is not to influence you on the grounds of personal opinion. It is of little concern what my opinion is or what anyone else might counsel you to

71 Forever Starts Now do. Rather we must be determined to be saturated with God’s outlook which we have the opportunity to see in the Bible. Thus, this chapter requires a great immersion and bathing in the Scripture to truly see from Christ’s vantage point where our time needs to be devoted. The world may view many of these activities as a waste of time, but to the man or woman of faith, these pursuits are vital in maintaining an intimate relationship with Jesus. Only through that relationship are we able to bring about lasting change in our own life and the lives of those around us.

UNDERSTANDING GOD’S PART VS. OUR PART

When it comes to any action we pursue or project we complete, it is vital to realize that the origin of all things is with God. This foundation helps keep us from pride in our personal accomplishments. God has destined us all for magnificent conquests whether that is evangelizing a nation, managing a household, or pursuing a business endeavor. But, we must keep in mind that “every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow” (James 1:17). Even the faith we posess did not stem from us, for it is only by the grace of God that we are able to believe in the first place (Ephesians 2:8, 9). This point is expounded upon elegantly by A.W. Tozer in his book The Pursuit of God.

Christian theology teaches the doctrine of prevenient grace, which, briefly stated, means that before a man can seek God, God must first have sought the man. Before a

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sinful man can think a right thought of God, there must have been a work of enlightenment done within him. Imperfect it may be, but a true work nonetheless, and the secret cause of all desiring and seeking and praying which may follow. We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit.2

This humbling reality provides a real perspective on how much God is in the equation. I sometimes feel as if I am taking the world on by myself, but this is not reality. God is intimately connected to every act of righteousness I pursue. It is therefore vital to understand that life is not an individual sport. We are part of God’s team. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10, emphasis mine).

After we have determined that all our accomplishments are due to the Lord, we can then approach holy endeavors with a proper mindset. Doing good works does not earn us favor with God, for every good thing began in Him anyway. He does not need us to accomplish His will on the earth but still has chosen us to partner with Him. So it is important to keep in mind the last portion of Ephesians 2:10 which says God readied these works “so that we would walk in them.” There is a divine tension here where God prepares the good work for us, His responsibility, while we put in motion this work while abiding in Christ, our responsibility. This holy partnership is how God has decided to carry out most of His purposes on the earth.

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Profound preacher, teacher, and author Ravi Zacharias describes this beautifully: “The classic illustration of this in theology is the paradox between the responsibility of man and the sovereignty of God. How can God give us the freedom to exercise our own will and still be sovereign over the universe? Western theologians tend to confuse the question by asking which one of the two is binding. The answer is ‘both are binding.’”3

Oftentimes we as Christians want to see things as black and white. It is uncomfortable for us to have any grey matter in our theology. 4 This could be the very reason why so many denominations exist today. Instead of being willing to accept other biblical interpretations on less significant areas of doctrine, people became obsessed with having only one answer for each theological circumstance.5 This has brought about great devastation as churches have split over minor areas of belief. We as a Christian community must be able to embrace some form of mystery within our theological understanding. God has given us an immense amount of grace by allowing us to understand many of His wonderful attributes. But to say that we have full knowledge of who God is would be blasphemy. For the Scripture proclaims, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor?” (Romans 11:33, 34)

To drive home this point let’s turn once again to Ravi Zacharias as he finishes this thought on the paradox of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility.

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The paradox we encounter in matters of faith is not comfortable because we do not know how to hold the two parts of it in balance. Our compartmentalizing minds want to put everything into a box, and yet the claims of Christian belief are not mutually exclusive. God, in His divine sovereignty, has given to us liberties and freedoms. Since our sovereign God chose to grant us this privilege, it cannot be something that in any way diminishes His sovereignty. He circumscribes the limits of that freedom such that we cannot violate His sovereign plan and His will, but that does not negate the freedom that we enjoy. Paradox sits uncomfortably on our rational mind, but then so should the Incarnation, since it is the advent of a Person who is proclaimed to be very God of very God while also being very man of very man. How can God be entirely man while still being entirely God? It’s a paradox of the highest order.6

This paradox should be a source of encouragement and not turmoil. It empowers us to realize we have a necessary role in expanding the kingdom of God. In the same note, we also have reassurance that God is in complete control and that His sovereign hand is omnipotent.

CULTIVATING GOD’S LOVE WITHIN US

When discussing the topic “first things first,” we must begin with cultivating an intimate relationship with Jesus. Only out of this relationship will we bear any fruit in our own lives or in the lives of others. “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the

75 Forever Starts Now branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:4, 5). Keep in mind that loving God and experiencing His love is not to be thought of solely as a way to impact the world but actually as an end in itself. We do not merely use intimacy with Jesus as means to become more productive because connecting with the heart of God is the highest form of productivity in and of itself. There is no greater activity than to fully immerse oneself in the presence of the Lord.

Mother Teresa understood the vast importance of this time alone with Christ. In one of her letters she makes mention of her intent to be used first by the Lord before she made herself available to any human being. This purpose was necessary for her to be able to give all that she could in her ministry to the poor. Read how she practically made time with Jesus her first priority, “I make my holy hour with Jesus straight after Mass– so that I get the 2 hours with Jesus before people & Sisters start using me.–I let Him use me first.”7 In all activities, secular or spiritual, there must be a desire to connect with the living God. The next section will deal exclusively with communing with God in every moment but for now my desire is to focus on specific activities that are critical in maintaining a fervent relationship with the Lord. Listed below are disciplines that are absolutely necessary for Christians to stand strong in the faith and continue to fall deeper in love with Christ.8

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PRAYER AND FASTING

Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart. ~ Luke 18:1

Storming the throne room of heaven has the potential to bring into existence that which once seemed impossible. In this conversation with God, power is released and faith is strengthened as we both labor and rest in the ministry of prayer. We labor with our words and our diligent requests, but we rest in knowing that “if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him” (1 John 5:14, 15). Through words of adoration, thanksgiving, and intercession we display the great need for God in our life.

Another biblical discipline that goes right along with prayer is the act of fasting. This discipline, although largely left out of the contemporary teaching of the church, is a dynamic and powerful activity commanded by God. Mike Bickle and Dana Chandler address the frequency and normality with which fasting was intended to assist the believer.

Regular fasting is part of the normal Christian life. It is Christianity 101. In Matthew 6:16, Jesus used the phrase, “When you fast” (not if you fast), implying that fasting was meant to occur in the normal course of any disciple’s life. Jesus promised that God would openly reward those who approach fasting with the right spirit (Matt. 6:18). Fasting is a grace that significantly

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increases our receptivity to the Lord’s voice and His Word. It allows us to enter into depths in our relationships with God that are beyond what we normally experience. We fast in order to encounter God more intimately and more profoundly and to change the world.9

When we combine the power of prayer and fasting together the results can be extraordinary. God has chosen to link these two disciplines so that one is a springboard for the other. As I fast, I find myself able to enter the presence of the Lord more easily. This greatly affects my prayer life as I find myself open vulnerable, and willing to be bold and courageous in my supplications to God. All the while I understand that the grace that I receive to begin and continue in a fast is greatly sustained by intercession. It wasn’t a coincidence that Jesus told His disciples how to exercise a malicious demon by instructing, “This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:21). These dynamic disciplines offer us great hope for transformation. Through prayer and fasting we possess the power to connect and partner with God through cultivating love in our own hearts and in the world around us.

MEDITATION

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. ~ Joshua 1:8

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Unfortunately, the art of meditation has been overlooked in our postmodern world. It has even been viewed by the church as dangerous because of its emphasis among eastern religions. My plea is that you would not fear this discipline for as noted in Joshua 1:8 above, meditation is a fruitful practice to be used in your daily walk with God. Meditation is actually a very simple exercise. Some mistakenly believe it is outside their scope of possibility, reserved only for monks and the spiritual elite. This simply is not true. There are many different ways for the Christian to meditate but our concern with each must be in intimately communing with Jesus. By taking time to still our mind and heart and put full concentration on the Creator of the universe, we can begin to experience greater depths of the Father’s love. It is in these times that the Lord releases deep revelations that have the power to transform our entire life.

A great resource concerning this topic is the first chapter of Richard Foster’s book Celebration of Discipline. He goes into greater depths regarding misconceptions of meditation, preparing your mind to meditate, and most importantly he provides some great beginning exercises to start you on your meditation journey. This is a practice that must be neglected no longer. Though it is simple it is not always easy. Let’s wrap this subject up with some encouragement from Foster himself. “You must not be discouraged if in the beginning your meditations have no meaning to you. You are learning an art for which you have received no training. Nor does our culture encourage you to develop these skills. You will be going against the tide, but take heart; your task is of immense worth.”10

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SCRIPTURE READING/STUDY/MEDITATION

But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’” ~ Matthew 4:4

Reading, studying, and memorizing the Bible are crucial activities in living a life which pleases God. This is an activity that needs to be sought on a daily basis. The best way for us to determine God’s will for our life is by dwelling on the words of Scripture. This literally is His love letter to humanity. In this text we can clearly see what great love the Father has for us (1 John 3:1).

Studying the Scripture is crucial to our ultimate growth in God, but we must take care to do this in the correct manner. Getting up at 4 am every morning to read the Bible for an hour is only worthwhile if it is pursued with a legitimate heart attitude. The Pharisees of Jesus’ time were extremely well versed in Scripture to the point where they would commit the entire Torah to memory.11 But Jesus Himself rebuked them not because of the knowledge in their head but because of the attitude of their heart. When we read the Scripture with the right heart disposition, we give permission to the Holy Spirit to move mightily in our lives. Examining our motivation behind reading the Bible is a crucial aspect in taking full advantage of its power.

I have met many people who have a deep desire for God but who do not study, read, and memorize the Bible in a consistent way. If you fall into this category, do not despair.

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The remainder of this book will provide a great platform for turning these hopes into realities. But for now, I want to highlight the necessity of having a specific strategy in your approach to being in God’s word. This approach can take many different forms. What’s important is creating a sustainable and consistent plan to develop a better understanding of the Bible. By writing out short terms goals that will lead us to accomplishing our long-term desires, we can begin to take practical steps to growing in the Word of God. So I encourage you to get a Bible reading plan, join a Bible study, establish your own personal Bible Study program, set a goal to memorize one verse a week, etc. Remember to pursue all of these avenues with a heart far from pride and set on gaining a closer walk with Jesus. We must be intentional here or we will easily find ourselves slipping in this discipline. We cannot afford this to happen for we must determine to be men and women steeped in the entirety of God’s Word. Jesus said it best when confronting the devil in the wilderness, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

WORSHIP

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to His name; Worship the Lord in holy array. ~ Psalm 29:2

There is something spectacular that transpires in our heart when we worship the Lord. It is as if we begin to realize the purpose behind our creation. If our ultimate purpose in this

81 Forever Starts Now life is to glorify God, then one of the greatest demonstrations of this is in exalting the King of Kings through our worship and praise. It is during this ministering to the Lord that we often experience our greatest breakthroughs and our most intimate experiences with Him. As we worship we are able to leave the business and anxiety of the world and get caught up in a place of union and satisfaction with our Maker.

When I say worship, I am aware that many people’s first thought goes to the singing portion of the Sunday morning church service. This is no doubt an example of worship and one that must not be neglected. There is something truly special about praising the Lord amongst other born-again believers. But I also want to bring to your attention another form of worship. This style could be called “worshiping in the secret place.” When worshipping in this manner one normally finds a place of solitude to be alone with God. In this place there is an interweaving of worship, meditation, and prayer as we focus on intimately connecting with the Lord. I personally have experienced amazing moments of affection with Jesus as I shut out the world around me and search His heart in the secret place. This fashion of worship has an amazing potential to soften our hearts and transform our minds as we pour out our love on the Savior.

A very practical measure to begin cultivating this habit in your daily life is to find a “prayer closet” or a place where you can be alone without the risk of interruptions. For some this may be hard to find, but I believe that solitude is a key ingredient in this style of worship. Another great tool will be discovering what music really stirs your heart. Now to be

82 First Things First clear it is not the music that works on our hearts but instead the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Anointed worship music accompanied by our praise is a gateway to experiencing divine intimacy.12

FELLOWSHIP AND SERVICE

Not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. ~ Hebrews 10:25

Here is a fundamental area deserving much more time than I can devote in this brief section. When I use the word fellowship, I am really referring to relationships. This would include family relationships, friendships, mentor/disciple relationships, and relationships with those who don’t know God. Neglecting this area of our life is extremely dangerous. Unfortunately, for the highly motivated, task-oriented individual, it is quite easy to disregard other people in an attempt to pursue our “mission” in life. What we as Christians must conclude is that people are the mission. In fact, only behind our personal pursuit of God comes the pursuit to pour out our life sacrificially in relationships with others. Jesus was asked, “‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ And He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:36-40). It is through

83 Forever Starts Now people and our relationship with them that we are able to greatly change the world around us. We will inevitably draw closer to the heart of God and glorify Him the more we pursue deep, holy, and transparent relationships with one another.

God has such a heart for relationships that they are even a part of His very make-up. The Trinity operates together as one, in a unity of intimate love. The mysterious one in three and three in one abide in relationship with each other as they sovereignly rule the universe. Listen to Christ’s intimate prayer to the Father which highlights this divine truth: “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me” (John 17:20-23).

PRACTICING THE PRESENCE OF GOD

We should fix ourselves firmly in the presence of God by conversing all the time with Him...we should feed our soul with a lofty conception of God and from that derive great joy in being his. We should put life in our faith. We should give ourselves utterly to God in pure abandonment, in temporal and spiritual matters alike,

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and find contentment in the doing of His will, whether he takes us through sufferings or consolations.13

This advice comes from a short book written by Brother Lawrence called The Practice of the Presence of God. In this book Brother Lawrence describes his insatiable desire to have intimate communion with God in all his daily activities no matter how mundane they may be.

This is especially vital to the 21st century believer as we are inundated with so many tasks and activities which would initially be penned “unspiritual.” Cleaning the house, cooking dinner, giving the car an oil change, etc. are all basic activities that are vital to our day-to-day existence. But what if we were able to look at these routine chores not merely as secular responsibilities but instead as spiritual undertakings? What if we truly lived out the Scripture “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31)? How would our perception change if we decided to even scrub the toilet with an attitude set on glorifying the Most High?

In the same way the laity/clergy divide must be abolished, so too does the holy/secular gulf need to be removed. Let me describe what I mean. The church has held an erroneous view that some people are called to full-time ministry while others merely pay their way as observers. Here, the term “full-time ministry” refers to an individual devoted to some religious occupation as a means of their livelihood. There is nothing wrong with this, and many people are called to this type of career. But unfortunately, this viewpoint has caused an

85 Forever Starts Now unhealthy understanding of how clergy and laity relate to one another. There is a sense that people in a religious occupation are doing the “real” work of the ministry while the rest are left only to help fund their endeavors. Christians see themselves as going to their typical secular job in order to feed their family and fund the kingdom. Before I go any further, I can’t overstate how important the giver’s role is to the body of Christ. These people are essential members who mightily engage in the work of the gospel. The funding they provide is precious to the church, but that cannot be where their focus ends in contributing to the kingdom. You see, we are all actually in full-time ministry. Just because one person spends their time preparing sermons and leading a congregation does not make them any more “full-time ministers” than the man who heads off to engage in his craft at a construction site. The missionary who gives their life for an unreached people group is just as much in full-time ministry as the stay at home mother of three. We need to break this religious/secular divide in how we view ministry assignments.

This conclusion also relates to how we view our responsibilities. The way society and the church view daily activities quickly reveal the sacred/secular divide in our thinking. I will use myself as an example. I often feel I am engaging in much holier and productive activities when I am doing something in relation to the ministry. I see time involved in this work as somehow superior to the routine day- to-day tasks that I am required to do as a father, husband, and citizen of my country. Even in the work of the ministry itself, I find greater value in studying the Scriptures and preparing

86 First Things First teachings compared to the time I spend looking over the ministry’s financials or answering emails. At first glance, it may appear that the first endeavors do indeed carry a more holy and “kingdom-productive” nature than the others. But to view things this way is to have a skewed perspective on the victorious Christian life.

A fruitful Christian life involves doing “all things” for the glory of God regardless of whether they appear to be “holy.” We are responsible for engaging in each task God has prepared for us. There is a time and place for everything, and we cannot wholly neglect one assignment as we pursue another. Unfortunately, this behavior has been significantly abused in church leadership. With his many responsibilities and large flock to attend to, the pastor often neglects his superior call to be a present husband and father. Christian leaders get a pass in this arena because they are “doing the work of the ministry.” The lie goes that these influential men and women should not be distracted by the needs of their 5- member family when their 500 member church requires attention. Oh, how we have gotten our priorities backward.

I can describe this mentality because I have wrestled with it myself. Even today, when faced with the decision to mow the lawn or continue writing this book, my internal barometer concluded that discipling people through my writing is far more worthwhile than mowing the lawn. But if I neglect my responsibility to cut the grass, soon it would become too high for my kids to play in the yard. The eyesore of the lawn would become an embarrassment and frustration to my wife. In making this one simple decision to do what feels more

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“spiritual,” I would be dishonoring my family. In this scenario, I bring more glory to God by mowing my lawn than I do in engaging in any other so-called “Christian activity.”

Understanding this point brings us to a fantastic realization. Every moment of our life is valuable! There are not some activities that are spiritually superior to others (sinful activities obviously being omitted in this discussion). This means that the time I spend cooking dinner, cleaning the house, doing laundry, and changing my toddlers’ diaper is no more spiritual than the time I spend in prayer, reading the word, preparing a teaching, etc. Someone may argue, “Tyler, are you saying that taking out the trash and spending time in prayer has the same spiritual value in God’s eyes?” My answer to this is a resounding yes! The key is to do what God has called you to do when you are supposed to do it. This may seem like a bizarre and maybe even blasphemous conclusion, but I believe it is true!

Now for most of us, spending time in prayer and reading the word will create a closer connection to God than vacuuming the carpet. In an ideal world, we would keep the same heightened union with our Creator regardless of what we were doing (I imagine that heaven will be this way). But realistically, perfect consistency in communion is not possible in our present earthly bodies. I am not saying that everything we do has the same outcome on our connection with the Lord. I am saying that we do not need to feel guilty as we engage in some of this world’s necessary responsibilities.

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Before I move on, I want to be very clear. I am not giving you a license to forsake things like prayer, reading the word, worship, Christian fellowship, etc. because you have become too busy with other activities. Most believers in the western church spend far too little time getting alone to engage with God. We have become a money and comfort-driven culture, even within a lot of the church. In our flesh, it is far more appealing to put in a few extra hours of work for a bigger paycheck or to lounge around binging Netflix than it is to engage in prayer and reading the word. Just because each of our activities has an equal value at the moment we are called to do them does not mean that we are engaging in them the way God is asking us to. The application of this truth is that we do not have to feel guilty for taking an hour to go for a run instead of using that hour to be in concentrated prayer. Exercise has immense spiritual value in that it helps to keep the body healthy and active. Your prayer life will actually suffer if your body is unhealthy. Do you see how all these components of life work together to help us fulfill our God- given calling? By tearing down the sacred/secular divide as we engage in our daily activities, we can truly “do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Brother Lawrence reminds us that it is the condition of the heart that makes the act pleasing to God: “We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.”14 Or what about the 40 hours per week that most of devote to a secular job? Imagine if we truly viewed our careers with the mindset Paul describes, "Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men,

89 Forever Starts Now knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve" (Colossians 3:23-24). If this became our outlook, we would soon discover how ordinary responsibilities are avenues to meet with God. Our everyday life would be transformed as we devoted every moment to unhindered communion with Jesus. Not only would the quality of our work be exponentially improved, but our hearts would also be filled to the brim as we used every opportunity with a motive to serve Jesus.

In closing, meditate on Brother Lawrence’s assurance that in Christ we truly live and move and have our being. Ask God to show you how you could begin to live out the mundane details of your life with this kind of awareness of His presence. “Do not be discouraged by the resistance you will encounter from your human nature; you must go against your human inclinations. Often, in the beginning, you will think that you are wasting time, but you must go on, be determined and persevere in it until death, despite all the difficulties.”15

CHAPTER 6

Cultivating a Consistent Devotional Life

But the news about Him was spreading even farther, and large crowds were gathering to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray. ~ Luke 5:15, 16

I suppose the best place for me to begin is to define what I mean by the phrase “Devotion Time.” A devotion time or quiet time is basically a designated time within your day to intentionally pursue a deeper relationship with God. It will look different for everyone but the spiritual disciplines of prayer, worship, reading Scripture, and meditation are regular activities that take place in this time. There is no set time frame for this pursuit although I encourage you to spend at least 30 minutes every day in this practice. This devotion time is a necessary part of the Christian life. Just as the physical body needs water to survive, so the spirit needs daily time with God to maintain proper health.

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In this chapter I detail several “steps” to help in your endeavor to meet with God daily. My hope is to bring a practical dimension to this supernatural time of encounter. But merely following the steps I lay out here will not be enough. The notion that a person can follow a certain formula to achieve a spiritual objective is an inaccurate presumption. Only through the grace of God are we able to obtain any growth in our spiritual relationship with Him. But we also have a large part to play in positioning ourselves to receive this gift. The steps it takes to get there are usually simple but rarely easy. In that sense, thinking about the steps involved helps us to place ourselves in a position to receive from God. This brings hope that there is a simple, objective way to put our hearts before the Lord. Our lives are not like a lottery ticket where we anxiously hope that all our numbers are chosen in a order by chance. This is not how God has designed His Kingdom to work, for “he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6 NIV). We do have a practical part to play in our overall spiritual growth. Remember God is the one who ultimately releases the blessing, but we must position ourselves to accept it. You will never catch a ball with your hands tied behind your back.

I say all of this to bring you to the basic premise of this chapter. Through an intimate, daily devotional time with the Lord, it is possible to grow exponentially in your relationship with Him. He will release the growth but there are many practical ways to prepare yourself to receive His blessing. I have chosen to focus mainly on achieving consistency in the discipline of having a quiet time because I have noticed from my personal walk of faith how important this regularity is. I

92 Cultivating a Consistent Devotional Life find that if I can repeatedly put myself before the Lord, He normally grants me the grace to grow during these moments. The hard part is not so much being alone with God as it is getting alone with Him. The intense and all-encompassing demands of the world tend to overshadow our need to be with Him. It is easy to put off this sacred time by choosing instead to respond to the need of the moment. Our spiritual life is greatly harmed when this happens. But if we string together day after day of seeking God in the secret place, the results are astounding. It is like a small snowball that picks up momentum, growing in mass as it rolls down a mountain. With each revolution this tiny object grows little by little until it becomes enormous in size and power. It is the same with our daily devotion time; each day the effects are normally small and sometimes barely noticeable, but after a while you will look back with amazement at your progress.

SCHEDULE YOUR TIME WITH GOD

One of the most practical and important steps to establishing consistency in one’s devotional life is to set apart a specific time each day to do it. Choosing not to schedule this time is an immediate setup for failure. Scheduling must not be viewed as a legalistic effort. Scheduling a quiet time declares to yourself and others the importance you place on time spent alone with God.

Life nowadays is filled with many responsibilities that are constantly tugging at our time. Without intentionally setting a time each day to get alone with God, it is easy to replace

93 Forever Starts Now this sacred time with tasks that appear more urgent. Living this way causes the heart to grow cold as we seek after the things of this world while neglecting that which is most important. Remember the story of Martha and Mary found in Luke 10:38-42. Jesus and His disciples were waiting to enjoy a meal together; Martha was distracted with many preparations while Mary chose to simply sit at the Lord’s feet. When Martha complained to the Lord regarding her sister, Jesus replied, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41-42 NIV).

If we conclude from Christ’s statement that spending time with Him is more important than spending time serving Him, then we must give precedence in our schedule to activities that draw us nearer to Jesus. It is vital not only that we schedule time to be with the Lord on a daily basis, but also that this time becomes a primary focus in our daily routine. We do not fit time with God into our busy day, instead we must schedule the entirety of our day so that it does not interfere with our time with the Lord. Since this time takes precedence over our other activities, it is crucial that we schedule it when we are most mentally, emotionally, and physically prepared. The key is to position ourselves for receiving all the Lord has to give us.

If you feel most alert and attentive early in the morning, then this is when you schedule your quiet time. If the thought of being awake before the sun rises frightens you, then there is probably another time during the day when you should spend

94 Cultivating a Consistent Devotional Life your devotional time with the Lord. The crucial thing is to find out when you are at your best, and determine to give that time to be alone with Jesus. This will not only impact your quiet time but it will also have a positive effect on the entirety of your life.

WHERE YOU MEET WITH GOD MATTERS

After scheduling the best time of day to intentionally get alone with God, the next step is to find the best place to meet with Him. There are a few things to consider before choosing this sacred place.

The primary concern in finding solitude is to discover an area that is free of noise and distraction. It is imperative to concentrate on the voice of God during a devotional time. This becomes very difficult if you are constantly bombarded by noise and clamor. Finding a place where silence can be achieved is vital to having an effective quiet time.

Once you have found a quiet place to retreat to, your next task is to cultivate an environment that encourages deep spiritual growth. A cold, dimly lit room or a cluttered office is not an ideal environment to connect with God. I do believe that connection with the Lord is an internal process, but it is easy for that process to be hindered by external factors. Something as simple as new lighting or a piece of artwork has the potential to change your emotional framework. This place needs to be a safe haven that produces a sense of peace and tranquility. It is a space that we should long to retreat to.

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We live in a world consumed with distractions. Billboards, text messages, phone calls, Facebook notification, etc. are constantly fighting for our attention. These distractions destroy solitude and are problematic in establishing intimate communion with God.

The greatest piece of advice I can offer with this is to put distance between you and your phone. Put it on silent and keep it out of the room you are in. It is too great of a temptation to have it in arms reach. Tell your family when you will be having your devotion time so they know to avoid interrupting you. Eliminating distractions frees us to fully focus on Jesus during our quiet time. Once you discover a quiet, tranquil, and distraction-free location, it is time to settle in. It is beneficial to consistently use this place in your devotional pursuit of God. Whether it be a prayer closet, spare bedroom, home study, or bench in the woods, make the choice to return to this sacred place on a regular basis. You will begin to notice greater ease in entering into the presence of God as you establish a peaceful environment to return to again and again.

CREATE A FLEXIBLE PLAN

Developing a practical plan will prove extremely valuable in establishing a regular and effective quiet time. Without a plan it becomes easy to sit down for your devotion but have no clue where to start. You may flippantly move through your spiritual disciplines with no focus on your ultimate goal. Some may believe that creating a plan is a legalistic and

96 Cultivating a Consistent Devotional Life works-based approach to spending time with God. I think the is opposite is true. A plan merely a on framework that keeps you track to accomplish your ultimate end goal. Not having a plan makes it difficult to be sure that you are consistently applying yourself to the spiritual disciplines that lead to progress in your devotional life. Admittedly, you do have to be cautious that you are not merely going through the motions and checking each particular discipline off your list. If you are careful in avoiding this Pharisaical mindset, a well thought out plan can greatly impact your quiet times with the Lord.

As much as I believe in having a well-constructed plan, I will never allow that plan to trump the movement of the Spirit. Remember a plan is ultimately a framework that positions a person to commune with Jesus. Meticulously following that plan is not the end goal. Intimacy with Jesus and growing in knowledge and understanding of Him must remain our focus. So, if I feel the Spirit of God leading me to diverge from my plan, it is crucial for me to follow. My plan becomes an idol and a stumbling block if I put following it above following the Spirit.

A discussion on developing a plan would be incomplete if I were not to give some practical areas to consider while preparing. The list of spiritual disciplines below is not comprehensive but contains vital pieces to position one’s heart to commune with God.

• Scripture: read, study, & memorize the Word of God

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• Prayer: intercession, confession, thanksgiving, listening, adoration, etc. Meditation: listening to God and stilling your heart to hear His voice • Worship: singing, praising God, and rejoicing in His presence • Journaling: recording what He has revealed in your quiet time and what you have been taught

We must take our quiet time seriously enough to prepare a strategy for success. By implementing this plan on a consistent basis, we will notice our spiritual muscles being strengthened. Consistency in our approach has the potential to produce great fruit in our relationship with Jesus.

FIND TOOLS FOR THE JOURNEY

A creative way to add variety to a devotional time is to use some external resources. These should not be a main focus as nothing should come before seeking the Lord in prayer, worship, meditation, and in the Scripture. Think of these tools as icing on the cake of a quiet time grounded in the main disciplines of the Christian faith. These are to only be added to the principle ways of connecting with Jesus and should never take precedence over our central pursuits.

There are a plethora of great devotional books available to help encourage your daily time spent with God. These books normally contain a Scripture, a brief exhortation with the aim of relating the specific text to our everyday life, and then either a prayer or challenge for the day ahead. These

98 Cultivating a Consistent Devotional Life devotional books are a fantastic way to spark interest in different spiritual subjects. They usually provide a new topic to consider each day and can really help to kick start a devotional time. The main warning I give is to make sure that your quiet time does not start and end with just the devotional. This is a tool that should lead to further prayer, Bible study, meditation, etc. The devotional itself is not the end-all. And as with every book written by man, there must still be discernment applied to each exhortation of Scripture. These devotions though usually written by Godly people do not guarantee perfect theology.

Resources aimed to clarify and expound on the Scriptures can prove immensely helpful in certain situations. Material such as commentaries, Bible dictionaries, Bible handbooks, concordances, literal translations from the Greek & Hebrew text, etc. are all valuable resources to help better understand the Bible. These can be used to gain greater insight concerning a subject that interests you or can help answer questions about Scriptures that you may not understand. As with devotional books the warning still remains that these are books written by humans and, although very helpful, these books must also be viewed with a heart and mind consumed by the Holy Sprit’s direction.

A great resource that I use on a regular basis is listening to the Kansas City International House of Prayer’s web stream (www.ihopkc/prayeroom.org). This anointed worship music provides a great spiritual atmosphere to go deeper in God. “Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness” (Psalm 29:2 NIV).

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MAKE CONNECTING WITH GOD A HABIT

This is an obvious but foundational topic on developing a consistent quiet time. This step actually unifies the previous steps and expounds on their necessity in forming a habit. One definition of the word “habit” on Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary is “a usual way of behaving: something that a person does often in a regular and repeated way.” The amount of power and change that we receive in our devotional time is directly related to our consistency in implementing it into our daily lives. There is a great reward for our souls as we diligently put ourselves before the Lord on a regular basis. To partner with God in gaining the greatest value out of our quiet times, it is essential that we form a deeply rooted habit of getting alone with Him every single day!

As noted earlier, it is crucial to schedule a time for a daily devotion. I would like to take that one step further and suggest you should aim for a regular time to meet with God each day. This programs your personal “body clock” causing your mind and body begin to look forward to this time. Now due to your schedule you may not always be able to maintain a specific time every day to meet with God. That is fine, but my encouragement would be to still aim for a regular stage of the day (mornings, afternoons, evenings, or nights) to be with Jesus.

Another way to mold this practice into a habit is to define a regular place to meet with the Lord. By linking a specific time with a specific place there becomes a higher likelihood of a habit being formed.

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And finally, do not neglect the process of developing a rough “plan” regarding what you will do in your normal devotional time. Remember, the ultimate consideration when conducting your devotional time must be the leadership of the Holy Spirt, but having a regular plan to implement can provide great structure. This structure provides consistency and is solid gateway to creating a habit.

A habit is best formed when multiple factors are consistently combined. By setting a time, establishing a place, and developing a rhythm with your devotions, you unlock great potential for a positive habit to be engrained in your life.

DON’T JOURNEY ALONE

Accountability is a significant biblical principle that must not be neglected. “Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17). To most people the word “accountability” is associated with helping a person avoid a negative or sinful action rather than encouraging someone in a God-honoring practice. But I find that being accountable to someone for the purpose of consistently pursuing a holy endeavor is extremely wise.

Accountability is so crucial because humans lack will power. We especially struggle in pursuits that do not bring about immediate and tangible results. Though a devotion time can produce amazing emotional, mental, and spiritual feelings and blessings, there are times where it will feel like nothing is happening at all. It is in these times that having someone to

101 Forever Starts Now turn to is essential. This accountability partner can remind us of the great rewards we receive both now and in eternity as we diligently pursue the Lord. They can be a great source of encouragement when we are feeling frustrated. There will also be times that you may not feel like opening your Bible, or bowing your head in prayer, but the thought of telling your accountability partner about this failure will drive you to press on. There are many areas where you will find great benefit by confiding in a close friend regarding your devotional life.

Deciding who to choose for your accountability partner is an important aspect to this process. It is wise to choose somebody whom you respect and whom you know has a solid devotional life themselves. You may want to avoid a best friend or someone who is not strong in this area as they may be tempted to let you off the hook time and time again. It is good to have a little bit of “holy fear” with the person you choose as this will better motivate you to push forward when you don’t feel like it.

How you decide to interact with your accountability partner is mainly up to you. Your goal here should be to seek as much accountability as necessary to bring about growth. To some this may look like checking in once a week and reporting how you have done. To others who require a more stringent approach it may be necessary to check in with your partner on a daily basis. The key is to determine what is best for you. Let’s be intentional about this as we heed the words written in Hebrews 10:24: “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (NIV).

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STEP BACK AND EVALUATE

I once heard that the definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing over and over again all the while expecting a different result. This phrase seems fitting as we begin to discuss the process of evaluation. It is critical to evaluate your personal devotion time in order to mold it into a habit that can be sustained and enjoyed. If you have a sense of dread before beginning each quiet time, then it is obvious that something is not right. The Bible alludes to the fact that meeting with God should be a great source of delight: “In Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever” (Psalms 16:11). Evaluation is a primary discipline to comprehend where we may be missing the mark. It is also meant to be an encouragement as we notice patterns of success in our times alone with God. In either direction, evaluation proves to be a necessary action for continued growth.

The attitude or mindset with which you approach the process of evaluation is vital in achieving success. The purpose of evaluation is not to beat yourself up over all your personal deficiencies. Evaluation is meant to be an honest assessment of the way things currently are. We examine specific areas of our life with the sole purpose of improvement. The moment we begin degrading ourselves is the moment the enemy begins to win. We must evaluate ourselves with a head held high, knowing that only by first realizing our shortcomings can we then begin to change.

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There will never be a time this side of eternity where we will achieve ultimate success in the practice of our devotional life. We will no doubt have days where our mind wanders, or where our heart becomes unengaged during this time with God. Thus, it is necessary that we stay in a constant state of evaluation. Now I am not suggesting that you scrutinize every detail of your quiet time on a daily basis. What I am instead proposing is that you maintain a humble heart posture that is willing to tweak certain facets of your devotion time in order to go deeper in God.

The process of evaluation revolves around asking yourself questions. What is my attitude regarding my quiet time? Am I actually connecting with the Lord? Am I devoting enough time to prayer? After asking these sorts of questions it is vital to answer honestly. As you realize areas of success, take note and grab insight into why you are doing well in these spheres. As you detect weakness, ask God to give you a solution to improve in these areas. Remember evaluation is centered around hope of improvement, not condemnation.

SOLIDIFY THE PURPOSE IN YOUR HEART

The final step in this series deals not so much with a specific action but instead with your heart’s disposition toward this topic. To reach your full potential it is necessary that you not only apply practical steps to achieve your goals, but that you also solidify the purpose of this activity in your heart. If this subject remains merely a desire and does not become a necessity, than failure in maintaining consistency is

104 Cultivating a Consistent Devotional Life inevitable. The purpose of this activity must be solidified in our hearts if we want to see true growth and discipline in our devotional life.

Jesus proclaims in Matthew 5:36–37, “Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no.’” I have made the mistake before of taking an oath before God. I thought that by promising God to do something, I would somehow muster up more strength to be faithful. This proved to be futile in my situation. To solidify the purpose of a daily devotion time does not mean promising God that you will do it. What it does mean is making a resolute effort each and every day to connect with Him in this area. As this connection grows deeper, the desire to get alone with God will also grow. So, we must make a strong stance in our heart to get alone with God but we must recognize that merely relying on our own resolve will not carry us through. Coupled with this strong and resolute attitude must be the practical action of slipping away into our prayer closets and allowing the living God to move upon our hearts.

Solidifying this purpose in our heart is directly related to understanding the value of having a daily devotional time. Until we comprehend the eternal weight of intentionally connecting with Jesus on a daily basis, it will be easy for us to replace this time with some other “pressing” activity. But if we see this activity from God’s point of view we will find a deep conviction and desire to daily throw ourselves at His feet. The challenge here is to keep our eyes heavenward and not distract ourselves with the many temporal concerns

105 Forever Starts Now this world offers. For encouragement in this endeavor consider this verse: “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18 NIV). This step is not marked with an end point for it is a progressive pursuit with unlimited opportunity for growth. Solidifying our purpose in making daily time with God a priority, will be of immense value each and every day of our earthly existence.

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CHAPTER 7

Where Do You Stand?

For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another. For each one will bear his own load. ~ Galatians 6:3-5

It is the holy and righteous duty of every born again believer to examine his or her own life. Without Spirit-lead examination, the Christian can go through life greatly deceived, thinking that they are living well, all the while missing out on an abundance of blessings from the Lord. Many avoid examining themselves out of fear of what they will find. Others are afraid of falling short or are worried about what God may ask them to do or to give up. But only in this courageous act of examination are we able to clearly recognize our shortcomings.

It is important to understand that we are not examining ourselves in light of human standards. This is not about comparing ourselves to our co-workers, spouse, fellow church goers, pastor etc. Self-examination is more about

107 Forever Starts Now seeing the totality of our life from God’s point of view. Christ is the only standard that we should seek to follow and thus He is the only person we must compare ourselves with. Only by holding to this standard can we accurately assess our present position before the Lord. I am not advocating so much for introspection but more for Spirt-lead discernment about our present walk with the Jesus. We can be easily fooled by our own thinking but the Spirit of God does not lie: “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13). As we pursue this practice, it is important that we inspect our life with the sole purpose of correcting any deficiencies in order to grow closer to God. We must not fear self-examination. Actually, we should fear not examining ourselves "for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds" (2 Corinthians 5:10). I would much rather examine myself now and find a plethora of errors than continue on in my ignorance.1 Feeling guilt and conviction over my failures is painful for the moment, but it also opens up the opportunity for change. If I never seek to see my shortcomings, I may risk settling for a life that is less than what God has intended for me. It is vital to relentlessly cry out to God for true discernment as I continue my pursuit of growing in His grace. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way” (Psalm 139:23,24).

It is crucial to note that we are to scrutinize ourselves with a correct mindset. To examine ourselves is not to condemn ourselves. We must always remember that "there is now no

108 Where Do You Stand? condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1). It is crucial to avoid degrading or belittling ourselves during the process of self-examination. This is not a time to feel rotten about our limitations but is instead an opportunity to see where we can grow in the grace of God. We must do this analysis gently, all the time conversing with the Lord in order to avoid the trap of self-condemnation. If we dive into self-attack mode we will only be giving the devil a greater opportunity to wreak havoc in our lives as we live in a spirit of defeat instead of in the hope of progression. “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

To view self-examination in light of managing our time, we may be very surprised at what we find. Where we thought we devoted much time, we might see mere minutes spent on such activities. And where we would have said we just dabbled in certain guilty pleasures, we may discover hours of time lost in vain. After discovering the importance of time in the Kingdom of God, this is the critical next step for us to take. In the remainder of this chapter I will discuss practical ways to evaluate where time is spent. Only by knowing your current status will you be able to make headway in changing defeats into victories and transforming wasted moments into time well spent.

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RECORDING YOUR PERSONAL TIME LOG

Keeping a personal time log may seem like a daunting task. You may initially view this exercise as boring and inconvenient, but I must stress the necessity of beginning here! The temptation will be to bypass this step and try to immediately begin tackling your time management issues using the other practical applications found in this book. This shortcut would be a great hindrance to you. Remember that only after you evaluate your current situation will you be able to notice both productive and poor uses of your time. Girded with this information, you can then apply other principals to effectively change any time-wasting habits.

There are a number of key factors to remember before embarking on this journey:

BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF

Filling out your time log needs to be done without a spirit of judgement. It is not time to criticize what areas need work in your life. This is the time to simply record things the way they are. Throughout the duration of recording your log, live life as you normally would. Do not make wide sweeping changes in your schedule in order to have a better looking time log, but simply live as you have been living. Remember that change is right around the corner, but first we need to find what needs to be transformed!

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USE AN ADEQUATE SAMPLE SIZE

In order to have accuracy with your time log, it is important to log your time for an entire week. For most of you, your weekends are going to look different from your weekdays. It is important to notice how each day of your normal week looks. Monday night you have soccer practice, Wednesday night is Bible Study, Saturday morning is the time-honored pancake breakfast etc. By logging an entire week you are able to get a clear overview of how your time is spent.

DON’T GO CRAZY

Depending on your personality type, you may be tempted to record every minute precisely in an attempt to be 100% accurate. Please do not do this! For one, you will drive your family and yourself crazy with this obsessive approach. Two, this will actually lead to less accuracy, as normal life is not spent examining each minute. This approach will lead to overanalyzing which will sway what your normal week truly looks like. A good model for time logging is to record blocks of time. Do it in 15 minute intervals to avoid overanalyzing every second. Estimate about how much time was spent on each activity and leave it at that. If you focus too much on perfection, you will never time log again. The task will seem so intense that the mere thought of it will consume your mind with stress and anxiety. This is an important exercise, but one that should not be very taxing and should be done to the best of your ability . . . not flawlessly!

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I must add a note to this section for all of you multitaskers. The question may arise, how are you supposed to record how much time you spend on an activity if you are doing three things at once? Well, we will delve later into why that may not always be the most useful approach for maximum productivity. For now, the best thing to do is estimate about how much time you spent on each activity within your multitasking segment. So maybe you spent an hour balancing the checkbook, writing thank you cards, and watching TV all at the same time. Think back to about how much time was disbursed between each activity. Maybe it was 15 min watching TV, 35 min balancing your check book and 10 minutes writing thank you cards. Record it as such instead of grouping all three activities together in one time block of an hour.

CARRY IT WITH YOU

To keep an accurate time log it is important that you have quick access to it at all times. I guarantee you will make large mistakes if you try to review your entire day and sort of guess about the amount of time you spent on certain projects. It is much better to have your log quickly available so that you can record changes of activity as they happen. For some (including me) this may prove to be a little too much. If you fall into this category it may be easier to review and record a few hours at a time after they occur. I would also suggest not carrying a big paper log or your laptop with you through the day as a means to record your time. Instead have a little

112 Where Do You Stand? notebook that you can jot down certain time blocks which you can then input into your official time log later that night.

Now for those of you who are comfortable with technology, the best thing to do is to use an app for your time log. Most people have a smart phone attached to their hip. While I may poke fun at our head down, screen staring, “zombie” culture, I understand these potential downsides are not going to keep people from using a smart phone. And in this instance this piece of gadgetry is quite accommodating. An app that I have personally used and would recommend is Toggl. You can check out this app at www.toggl.com.

RE-EVALUATE

The initial time log you complete is extremely beneficial in discovering poor habits which result in fruitless time. But please note, this is not a “one and done” type of activity. It is important to time log repeatedly (I recommend every six months) in order to see, where you have improved and what areas still need some work. Properly valuing and using time is a lifelong process and not one that we can expect to conquer in a year or two. Regular and honest evaluation is crucial in becoming a more productive member in the body of Christ.

To give you some guidance please see Figure 4.2 for an example of a one day time log (remember to round up or down to the closest 15 minute interval).

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Figure 7.1

Tuesday Time Total Time End Activity Start Time 10:00pm 6:00am Sleep 8:00 6:00am 6:30am Breakfast 0:30 6:30am 7:30am Devotion Time 1:00 7:30am 8:00am Prepare for Work 0:30 8:00am 8:30am Commute 0:30 8:30am 12:00pm Work 3:30 12:00pm 12:30pm Lunch Break 0:30 12:30pm 4:30pm Work 4:00 4:30pm 5:00pm Commute 0:30 Family Time 5:00pm 6:00pm 0:30 (Rest) 6:00pm 6:30pm Dinner 0:30 Family Time 6:30pm 8:30pm 2:00 (Rest) 8:30pm 9:00pm Prayer 0:30 9:00pm 9:30pm Bible Study 0:30 9:30pm 10:00pm Read (Rest) 0:30

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ANALYZING YOUR RESULTS

Alright, so you have completed your week long time log. Congratulations! Maybe that wasn't the most enjoyable task you have ever attempted, but I believe it is one that is essential on your journey toward better honoring God with your time. Now that you have 168 hours of logged activities, you have reached the stage to examine where those hours were spent. The steps below should give you a simple outline on how to analyze the data you have recorded. Please remember we have not entered judgement mode yet! Simply compile the data, and we will get into what to do with it after that. If you have used an app to track your time then most of this will already be done for you. Even if that’s the case, I still encourage you to read through this section as there may be some things your app has not provided.

GENERALIZE

Remember step three in the section above is titled "Don’t Go Crazy.” Well, this is the mirror image of that in your analyzation process. Your goal in this endeavor is to review your time log and begin to jot down broad areas that are consistent uses of your time. Let’s use an example to really show you what I mean. Say that you spent a total of 2 hours each week in the personal hygiene department. Great! Leave it at that. Do not break it down into 14 minutes of brushing teeth, 40 minutes showering, 20 minutes shaving, etc. Your initial task is to get an overarching view of how your time is being used. Do not go beyond 15 minutes increments . . .

115 Forever Starts Now ever! See Figure 7.2 for some examples of popular time blocks for Christians.

Figure 7.2

Categories Examples of activities

Sleep Nighttime sleep and naps Taking a bath, laying in a hammock, Rest light reading, sitting on your porch, going to the spa What you consider your occupation: regular income earning, managing Work the household, volunteering your time, full-time schooling Movies, social media (non-work Entertainment related), TV, YouTube, Magazines Showering, brushing teeth, shaving, Personal Hygiene haircuts, make-up, Personal prayer, prayer meetings, Prayer family prayer time Church service, small groups, church Church Activities workshops Group Bible study, personal Bible Bible Study study, basic Bible reading, Bible memorization Immediate family but can also Family include time spent with other family Relationships members Meals Formal meals and snacks

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Fellowship Relationships with other Christians Driving to and from different Commuting locations Dishes, cleaning, cooking, home Household Chores maintenance, lawn mowing Serving Volunteer projects Intentional activity: hiking, Exercise swimming, weight lifting, running, soccer, basketball, Pilates Grocery shopping, clothes shopping, Shopping online shopping, purchasing gifts

This step is also a great place to remove anomalies in your time log. Maybe there was some crazy event that took place that normally would not have eaten up 2 hours on Tuesday. Replace this anomaly with what normally would have transpired, or if you have a life filled with events such as these, create a time block for such events.

ORGANIZE

Now is the time to list your time blocks in order from most time to least time. This should give you a little perspective on where a lot of your time is going. Make sure that this is shown in a way that is easy for you to view such as a simple line graph or a list in descending order. Take some liberty in this step to make it best suit your ability to evaluate the information. The example below may be a good place to start.

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Figure 7.3

EVALUATE

Now is the time to do some minor evaluation. Once again we are not scrutinizing every detail here, instead we are looking at the overarching areas in our lives. Feel free to highlight, circle, and make notes here as you notice activities that take up too much time or some activities that you think you would like to devote more time to. Once again this is a very brief review process with a general overview in mind. We will get into more of the "nuts and bolts" of evaluation, prioritization, and planning in future chapters.

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This exercise of examination and evaluation has the capability to bring about great discouragement. Attempting to complete this process alone could create a vulnerable area for satan’s condemnation to enter. That is why it is vital that we journey down this road hand in hand with God. The Holy Spirit becomes an integral part of this process as we lean on His wisdom for each area of our life. It is He who is there to help and comfort us as we pursue this endeavor. “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you” (John 14:16, 17).

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CHAPTER 8

Priorities for the Season

There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven. ~ Ecclesiastes 3:1

Life is not one long continuum of the same routine year after year but could more accurately be portrayed as a dot to dot children’s game with certain expanses of long, medium, and short stretches. These stretches I have chosen to call seasons. During these seasons we may not always understand their general purpose or how they will play out in our overall life vision. So just like the children’s game our motive must be to stay in the present season and connect one dot to the next. The overall picture may not be clear at first, but if we decide to skip seasons or jump to dots out of order, the end result will not be what the Creator had intended. But if we faithfully live out our seasons the way they were designed, we will be able to step back at the end of our life and see a masterpiece!

There are a wide variety of seasons that we may experience. Most everyone goes through many different seasons depending on jobs, relationships, external circumstance, etc. Some periods are long, lasting many years or even decades,

121 Forever Starts Now and some are short, lasting only a month or two. It is significant to recognize what season the Lord has you in. From this understanding you will be able to evaluate your priorities in order to effectively use your time.

SEEKING GOD’S GUIDANCE

A biblical understanding of the nature of God and a resulting confidence of pure harmony with Jesus is critical in determining life priorities. With that initial premise we can move to asking for God's guidance and listening to what He has to say. I am not suggesting that God will speak to you audibly as He did to Moses (Exodus 33:11), but I am confident in the fact that God does guide our hearts and minds as we earnestly seek His will for the current season. “For such is God, our God forever and ever; He will guide us until death” (Psalm 48:14). This process must not be avoided! Many people have been deceived into thinking they have God’s green light for their present season. But I argue that until one seeks Him intentionally for direction, and feels a peace regarding His answer, no conclusion may be drawn. This asking must be done in faith that God will grant you wisdom concerning your life direction. “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:5-8). For those of you

122 Priorities for the Season who have sought the Lord and have confidence concerning your present circumstance, it may be good to merely ask again if there is anything more that God is calling you toward or steering you from. Before delving into the different particulars, let’s take some time to refresh on the top priorities for all believers.

THE FIRST COMMANDMENT IN FIRST PLACE

You shall have no other gods before Me. ~ Exodus 20:3

I can write with no hesitation that the first priority for every born again believer is to grow in intimate satisfaction with the Holy One in order to achieve His maximum glory! John Piper puts it best in his well-known quote on Christian Hedonism: "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”1 If the greatest life pursuit is glorifying God, and we achieve that aim by growing more satisfied in Him, our question must be, what specific actions can we pursue to deepen our satisfaction in God?

Now let me state this plainly, this is about achieving fulfilment in God, not gratification in the flesh. In fact, many things from which we derive satisfaction in the flesh are opposed to cultivating ultimate satisfaction in God. "For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please" (Galatians 5:17). This is not about chasing fleshly pleasure as a means to glorify God. No! It is about pursuing activities that result in

123 Forever Starts Now incomparable joy in our spirits. We must run hard toward the things that make our souls come alive. For as these desires are achieved, we quench our deep thirst for the immortal, leading to satisfaction in the only one who can bring about true joy, that being Christ! “You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever” (Psalm 16:11).

It is from here that I redirect your attention to the topic of a previous chapter titled “First Things First!” The activities listed in this chapter have the capacity to elicit enormous spiritual benefit to the believer. Prayer/ Fasting, Meditation, Scripture Reading/Studying/Memorization, Worship, and Fellowship/Serving are all gateways which lead toward gratification in Christ. By prioritizing these pursuits in each and every season, we will have the best opportunity to be consumed by the power and love of Christ.2

It must be noted that just because you have these key ingredients, there is no set formula on how they should be used. For God uses these areas in different measures at different times in order to prepare and grow us into mature saints. In one season God may be leading you to intimate times of worship and meditation where you sit at His feet for hours on end. Next may follow a season of intense Bible study involving a deep wrestling with matters of theology and doctrine. Each of these disciplines need to be constant priorities in the believer’s life, but the time spent on each may vary depending on the season.

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These disciplines in our life must trump other self-seeking pursuits. As I discussed in Chapter 2 we may be tempted to pursue activities that provide us an immediate and tangible result. The temptation to impress others with my personal accomplishments is a constant battle that I fight. At times I struggle to choose prayer and Bible study over something that would provide a concrete result and look better to others. But I must not let this fear of people’s opinions consume me. It is vital to understand that I will not answer to my friends, neighbors, co-workers or any other human being when my life on earth is over. My main mission and desire must be to please God. I know from personal experience that these are some of the disciplines that must stay central in order for me to achieve this end goal. Though the blessing does not come in the disciplines themselves, I recognize how my heart grows before the Lord as I pursue them. Thus, I deem them utterly necessary.

PRACTICAL TIPS FOR LISTENING TO GOD

Then the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for Your servant is listening.” ~ 1 Samuel 3:10

There are many times I have wished that God would grant me the same experience as Moses where He verbally spoke face to face with him as a man speaks to his friend (Exodus 33:11). But in God’s divine wisdom the usual experience for me and most believers has been listening to God through His gentle whisper. This whisper is typically not audible and is more of

125 Forever Starts Now an impression, derived from the Holy Spirit in times of intimate connection. These impressions in our heart are guided and maintained through the correct doctrine of the Holy Scriptures. This voice of guidance is normally followed by a great sense of peace and understanding that the Lord truly has spoken regarding a certain matter.

Below are listed some practical tips on listening to the voice of the Lord. It is important to note that this is not a comprehensive list as whole books have been written about hearing God.

READ THE BIBLE

The most accurate way to determine the voice of the Lord from your own voice or even the voice of the devil is to be well versed in the Scriptures. God will never reveal to you any special revelation that contradicts His infallible word in the Bible. This is the most imperative rule regarding hearing the voice of God.

Think of God's voice as a rushing river. The banks of this river which enclose the flowing water (the voice of God) is the Bible. All of the water flowing between the banks of the river is God’s Word and His will, safeguarded by the walls of the inerrant Scriptures. But any droplet of water found outside of these barriers must be regarded as poison. I resolutely believe that God still speaks to His chosen people and offers divine revelation concerning present circumstances. But this revelation must be treated with great care as it is constantly

126 Priorities for the Season challenged against the Bible. It’s crucial that we keep a firm stance that anything which contradicts the word of God is not the will of God. “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16, 17).

Purely reading and studying the Bible is also one of the best ways to receive direction from the Lord. The Bible is filled with different accounts of finite people who faced many of the same situations which we encounter today. If you are ever wondering what to do in a certain situation, gain insight and experience from how the situation was dealt with by biblical characters. Remember that not all biblical characters acted according to the will of God, so it is vital to recognize how God responded in either praise or discipline. The text of the Bible gives insight into many of the problems we face and situations we need answers for in our world.

But what about circumstances that we run into today that are not directly discussed in Scripture? How are we to know God’s will in these areas? John Piper highlights some of these specific circumstances: “The Bible does not tell you which person to marry, or which car to drive, or whether to own a home, where you take your vacation, what cell phone plan to buy, or which brand of orange juice to drink. Or a thousand other choices you must make.”3 Though the Bible may not speak to these issues directly, we must search for certain links from the Bible to our present circumstance. For example, you will not find a Bible verse that gives the name of who you will

127 Forever Starts Now one day marry. But there are many verses that describe what characteristics a man or woman of God should possess. Are these traits present in the person you are currently dating? Or is the person you plan on spending the rest of your life with even a follower of Christ? 2 Corinthians 6:14 (NIV) says “do not be yoked together with unbelievers.” So in light of this verse we can conclude that a Christian should not marry someone outside of the faith. By studying the Scriptures we are able to narrow down our option in these circumstances. By combining biblical principles with a heart set on listening and obeying God, we are able to determine His will for situations that are not clearly spelled out in Scripture.

QUIET YOUR SOUL

The modern world we live in brings noise from every direction: billboards, radio, commercials, social media, movies, etc. Christians are bombarded on a daily basis from devious outside influences. We cannot view worldly influences as neutral because the Bible warns us that we are not of the world. “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you" (John 15:19). The world is against us in many ways and the constant influx of non-biblical noise tends to deafen our ears to the voice of God. Great attention is needed concerning what we allow our eyes and ears to linger on. The initial sights or sounds of such obstacles may be unavoidable, but the longer we fix our gaze on them, the more they will make an impression on our hearts. In order to live a life focused on

128 Priorities for the Season hearing the voice of God, I would advise you to eliminate secular noise as much as possible. Day by day we will face countless decisions that will either bolster or obstruct our ability to hear the true voice of God.

STOP TALKING

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. ~ John 10:27-28

I am astounded by how much of my prayer time is spent talking to God and how little of it is spent listening to Him. Many have been taught that prayer is conversing with God. Unfortunately, most of the conversation tends to be dominated by humans. As we crowd this sacred time with our own fallible words, God is yearning for us to be quiet so He can share His eternal truth. As the Scripture above attests, we will hear the voice of God if we allow Him to speak into our life. Dividing our prayer time into segments of verbal intercession and quiet reflection is monumental in growing in God. This practice will pay huge dividends in furthering your ability to discern His will for the season in which you find yourself.

As with anything in life, the more we practice something the better we become at it. It may at first seem foreign to sit quietly before God and attempt to hear or feel what He has to say. But once the intense rushes of love and insightful revelations begin to be released, it is something you will

129 Forever Starts Now desire to return to again and again. God craves to talk with those who eagerly want to hear from Him. One of the ways we show our eager desire to listen to Jesus is to merely place ourselves at His feet every single day (Luke 10:38-42). In order to build this rapport, form a habit of listening prayer. It is essential that we become intentional about scheduling prayer into our life with a specific focus on listening to Jesus. Finding a quiet place, free from distractions, to dialog and listen to God is a great practical step that will lead toward better hearing. This commitment will lead to great fruitfulness as confidence grows relating to God's will for your life.

GREAT RISK … GREAT REWARD

I would like to extract some insight regarding this rapport with God from the Parable of the Talents found in Mathew 25. We looked at this parable in a previous chapter. Now let’s examine it with the topic of hearing God’s voice at the forefront of our thinking.

For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey. Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and gained five more talents. In the same manner the one who had received the two talents gained two more. But he who received the one talent went away, and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

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Now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, “Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents.” His master said to him, “Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.” (Matthew 25:14-21)

Without finishing the remainder of the parable, we can glean great insight from the relationship between the first faithful slave and his master. This slave realized the importance of the talents given to him and instead of merely storing them away, he wanted to press on further to see what could become of his master’s initial deposit. This was rewarded by the master as he compensated his slave’s faithfulness in a few things by putting him in charge of many things. In the same manner, we as slaves of Christ (1 Corinthians 7:22) position ourselves to receive more revelation from our Master as we continue to regularly set apart time to listen to Him. The mere obedience in coming time and time again to listen to the Master’s voice for guidance will be rewarded with a greater understanding of His will for our lives.

A WORD ON DREAMS

In searching the Scripture one will find many accounts of God speaking through dreams. Both in the Old and New Testament, God delivers guidance and instruction as people are asleep. Dreams prove to be a valid avenue on hearing from

131 Forever Starts Now the Lord and should not be ignored. This divine tool was used even to protect Jesus soon after His birth. “And having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, the magi left for their own country by another way. Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.’ So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt” (Matthew 2:12-14). Soon after this we read that Herod “slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under” (Matthew 2:16).

This account delivered from God to Joseph in Matthew 2 is an example of a literal dream. The command that was given had no symbolism or allegory in it. It was very clear to Joseph what God was commanding him to do. These dreams are the easiest to discern as the instruction is very matter of fact. Though the dream’s meaning is straight-forward, it is still crucial to make sure that dreams of this nature fall within the teachings of Scripture. As stated previously God will never reveal to you any special revelation that contradicts His infallible word in the Bible. This proves true in the instance of literal dreams as well.

Obviously literal dreams are easy to understand, but what about other dreams that we find in the Bible which aren’t so straightforward? The Bible gives us many examples of dreams that require Holy Spirit interpretation to be

132 Priorities for the Season understood. Let’s take the dream that Joseph interpreted for Pharaoh in Genesis 41.

To summarize Pharaoh dreamed about seven plump cows and seven full ears of corn. In the first dream the seven fat cows were eaten up by seven gaunt cows. The gaunt cows did not change in their appearance even after eating the plump cattle for they were “just as ugly as before” (Genesis 41:21). In the same way the seven good ears of corn were swallowed up by seven thin and withered ears of corn.

To the average man this dream would have been very confusing. Even “the magicians of Egypt, and all its wise men” could not comprehend the dream (Genesis 41:8). But Joseph had been given the ability to interpret the dream (Genesis 41:16). Joseph delivers the interpretation concerning the seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine (Genesis 41:25-31). This is not something that Joseph would have been able to discern on his own. There are no keys or clues within the dream itself that the cows and corn represent years of plenty and years of famine. The only way Joseph could accurately interpret the dream was through a direct revelation from God.

When we are given dreams of this nature it is crucial to tread carefully. It is easy to “interpret” dreams of this form to fit in with self-seeking desires. Much prayer, Christian council, searching of the Scriptures, and divine direction of the Holy Spirit is usually required to confidently arrive at an answer. It is in these instances that our Christian experience is not black and white. I have no guarantee as to whether the conclusion

133 Forever Starts Now you arrive at is from the Lord. What I do guarantee is that we have a responsibility to search out an interpretation if we feel that God is providing us direction through a specific dream.

A practical step in this endeavor would be to start writing down all of your dreams. Keep a journal on your night stand and develop the habit of recording your dreams each morning. Whether the dream seems to be significant or not does not matter at this point. Only after seeking God regarding the dream can we begin to determine its value. You may begin to notice trends and consistencies with your dreams. Some may be relevant, others may prove inapplicable.4 But the real danger would be to forego seeking a conclusion at all. It would be regrettable to not seek God’s will in these situations because you were afraid of misinterpreting your dreams. Through both petitioning and listening prayer, new revelation or direction may be acquired. We must believe that if God gives us a pertinent dream that He also has the ability to lead us to an accurate interpretation.5

DRAFTING YOUR PRIORITY MAP

The wisdom of the sensible is to understand his way, but the foolishness of fools is deceit. ~ Proverbs 14:8

If you have been diligent in completing the steps stated previously, then you are ready to develop a personal priority map. Remember this step only begins after deeply searching the heart of God for what He is calling you to do at this stage in your life. Some priorities may change from season to

134 Priorities for the Season season but they should always be in line with accomplishing long term goals which lead to fulfilling your life vision. In the three sections that follow I will breakdown what each of these facets contains. I detail practical examples for each including a visual model.

Below I have listed the three main aspects to a priority map.

1. Broad Priorities 2. Break Down Activities 3. Practical Goals and Implementations

BROAD PRIORITY

The initial step is to take a look at the main broad regions God is calling you to pursue. These may remain quite similar throughout the years with a change here and there as major life situations occur.

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Figure 8.1

As noted earlier, the first priority for the believer will always be cultivating a deeper personal relationship with God. This priority has no wiggle room for second place and in order to have a theocentric life, it must always take this primary position. For those who have a family, my conviction is that your relationship with them will always come next (with your spouse taking precedence over your children). After these top priorities there will be some variety among individuals. For

136 Priorities for the Season many, it will be a career or perhaps physical health. Whatever comes after these first two necessities needs to be bathed in prayer to guarantee you are moving in the direction He is calling you toward. This broad-lensed focus needs only to yield a small number of priorities. It would be wise to keep the total below five, as the temptation to spread yourself too thin will cause neglect in your essential priorities. Remember to avoid the myriad of distractions that pull for your time. Be devoted to giving the majority of your time to the specific areas God has called you to pursue.

BREAK DOWN ACTIVITIES

The next move is to discover what activities will lead to success in your major priorities. These still remain somewhat generalized and should be prioritized from most to least important in achieving your broad priorities. Let’s take the example above to show this in greater detail. Under the first broad priority “God” come six specific areas that need attention in order to achieve this main objective.

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Figure 8.2

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These are examples of some specific areas that need to be focused on in order to achieve the end goal of this broad priority. The activities may vary slightly from person to person but will more than likely contain many of the disciplines that I have listed here. They are generalized in that I have not linked specific time parameters or achievable goals to them. That is what our next step brings!

PRACTICAL GOALS AND IMPLEMENTATIONS

Your final step is to look at each sub-unit of your break down activities and set practical actions and goals to achieve success. This is one of the most crucial tasks in creating a priority map. Without practical actions, priorities remain nothing but a distant dream.

Let’s look once again at the broad priority titled “God.” The first priority listed in this sub-unit is having a “Daily Devotion.” The task now is to ascertain practical ways to have a consistent and powerful daily devotion. These steps should be specific and may have detailed goals attached to them. See the figure below to view examples of these specific and practical steps.

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Figure 8.3

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These are all concrete things that need to be pursued in a daily personal devotion time in order to gain a closer relationship with God. This is to be done in each sub-unit to give you a framework of what activities you will actually be spending your time doing. Once again, these lists need to be made in order from most necessary to least necessary. As always, I encourage brevity in this area to avoid bogging yourself down. Remember you can always add new tasks and actions in order to achieve your specific goal.

In the list above, I have included specific measurements like the number of days and total times I want to devote to many activities. There are a few things to consider when creating goals like this. First, we must differentiate between completing a task and getting the most out of it. For example, I could finish my three chapters of Bible reading each day but get very little from it. Don’t go through the motions to simply check off the box that you completed a goal. That is why for most plans I suggest using time frames instead of amounts. Using time frames gives you the ability to go at your own pace and get the most out of what you’re doing. This is far more productive than simply rushing to get to the end of a particular task.

For many, it will be critical to be specific as you set each goal. Most people who are new to the concept of time management will benefit greatly from this straightforward approach. Still, I caution you to be aware of developing a Pharisee-like mentality when keeping your goals. Yes, we want to be disciplined, but we also want to make sure that our heart is

141 Forever Starts Now right and gain the most significant benefit from every task we complete.

After some time of being faithful to your goals, you may find that you do not need such a structured approach. My goals are not as specific and detailed in my current season of life as the list above. I still have goals and know where I am heading, but the discipline of time management has largely been ingrained in me. At this stage, it is not as necessary for me to use specific times and days when setting some of my goals.

I have become less specific with goals because a lot of what used to be a discipline to me has now become a delight! For example, when I first started seriously reading my Bible and engaging in prayer, I pushed myself to do something unfamiliar. I needed a more rigid structure to help keep me on track. But after a while, what used to be a discipline became a delight and something I craved doing. At that stage, it was much less necessary for me to motivate myself by creating precise goals. This is something you will have to feel out for yourself to figure out what works best for you over time.

REVIEW AND ADJUST

As with most aspects of planning, prioritizing, and managing time, it is crucial to regularly review and adjust your priority map. Some goals underneath your broad-lensed priorities will have a completion point. Once this occurs, it is crucial to get

142 Priorities for the Season them off the map and open up space for something else. Some goals such as “practicing the presence of God” have no end in sight and will probably remain on your map until death do you part. My point is that it is necessary to review, evaluate, and change your map along the way. It is a huge benefit to get these priorities before your eyes on a regular basis. I suggest putting a recurring reminder in your calendar to review your goals and priorities weekly. This will help you evaluate what priorities you are succeeding in and which ones need more time and effort. Creating your priority map is not a one-time task. Regular review and assessment are crucial in using this tool to pursue your destiny.

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CHAPTER 9

Developing A Maintainable Schedule

The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage, but everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty. ~ Proverbs 21:5

All the previous assignments you have completed in this book have been groundwork to prepare you for this chapter. We will now begin setting in motion an intentional approach toward completing the goals you have set. Developing a schedule that can be sustained week after week is one of the most practical steps in honoring God with the life He has given you. Without a calculated schedule, it becomes easy to squander hours that lead to days which become months and eventually end up in years lost to vain pleasure. By creating a daily schedule, you begin to take control or even better said, you allow God to take control of every moment, to see that it is best used to glorify Him.

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EXPERIENCING FREEDOM BY SCHEDULING YOUR TIME

The word schedule has the power to strike fear in the heart of all fun-having, jolly, lighthearted people. With it comes the anxiety that there is no longer spontaneity in life. Many people view a schedule as a boring and habitual list of chores to be completed at a certain point on a certain day. My desire is for the Holy Spirit to revolutionize your mindset concerning what it means to organize your week. Many believe that having a schedule means becoming enslaved to your calendar, but I am here to say that having a schedule actually provides you immense freedom. By developing a schedule it becomes possible to intentionally pursue the things you’re purposed for. These pursuits bring about true joy and a renewed sense of determination in the life of the believer.

Creating a schedule is one of the most practical ways to take control of how your time is spent. Scheduling constructs a framework in which you can begin to tackle things that have always been idealistic desires in life. When you are approaching life in an undisciplined manner, constantly being swept away by the need of the moment, it is inevitable for your schedule to be filled with activities that do not lead toward fulfilling your destiny. Other people and situations begin to control you instead of God. A schedule becomes a safeguard, triggering you to delegate your time in an appropriate manner. Without it, massive amounts of time will be squandered.

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Lastly, one of the great fears to having a schedule is the dread of the loss of spontaneity in life. Some believe that a schedule is a 100% binding force that must be upheld at all cost. These folks base their success on maintaining a schedule instead of listening and doing the will of God. A schedule is a great tool in developing consistency with our top priority items. It is a great framework for us to day by day tackle the spiritual essentials. A schedule helps us break away from if we "feel like" doing something and gives us a deeper resolve to begin a project that we normally would have procrastinated over. But a schedule is not the end-all! Remember our desire here is to glorify God with every moment that we have been given by Him. In many circumstances this will fit right in line with your schedule, but in the situations when a legitimate need arises or when there is a move of the Spirit upon your heart, be willing to change plans. The story of the Good Samaritan is a great example concerning this topic. When Jesus was asked by the lawyer, “Who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29), He responded with this parable.

Jesus replied and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought

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him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’ Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?” And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.” Luke 10:30-37

We must give precedence to the leadership of Jesus in our life over the leadership of our schedule. Perhaps the priest and Levite had legitimate tasks to complete, meetings to attend, or ceremonies to perform. But to forsake a half-dead man to attend to their business was not the correct route for them in this scenario. This is where our relationship with the Holy Spirit is so crucial. There will be moments where a need arises, but He calls us to stick with what we are scheduled to be doing. We cannot forsake the path that leads us toward our destiny by distracting ourselves with every urgent cry. If we did, we would become so distracted by the needs of others that we would never be faithful in achieving the main priorities God has called us toward.

Conversely, as was the situation with the Good Samaritan, we will be faced with other circumstances in which He calls us to break our schedule and attend to whatever affair is at hand. There is no hard and fast rule for these situations. Only through submitting to the leadership of the Holy Spirit in our lives will we be able to react in God’s will. A schedule protects us from being distracted by every whim or desire, but

148 Developing a Maintainable Schedule in the end we must be obedient to what Jesus is calling us to each and every moment.

EVALUATE YOUR CURRENT SCHEDULE

Let’s go back to one of our previous exercises and dig out that time log. You didn't think I was going to have you do that for no reason did you? We will now investigate on a deeper level how our time was spent with the specific aim to search out our problem areas. We can also evaluate our log to see where we have been successful with the use of our time. As we glean wisdom from these areas we can search for patterns to replicate in the future. Reviewing our log breakdown, we can now implement those statistics to help mold a schedule.

PROBLEM AREAS

The first things to draw your attention to are the most obvious problem areas within your time log. These are areas where you can clearly see that your time was spent in an un- productive manner. This does not mean that every moment requires you to be busy, but what it does mean is that every part of your day has a purpose behind it. One may not consider sleep a productive activity, but without it the entire day will be negatively affected. On the flip side, an overindulgence in sleep will lead to lost opportunities to achieve the goals God has laid on your heart (Proverbs 20:13).

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The main culprit you will notice in this category is entertainment. Many of you may be shocked at the amount of life lost in pleasing the desires of the flesh, especially in comparison with spirit-developing pursuits. Once again this does not mean that we are never to enjoy a movie on occasion, but this must be held in balance. Most of all, it must have a purpose in the overall focus of loving and pursuing the glory of God.

Once you have discovered your problem areas, my suggestion is to find the sum of time that has been misspent throughout the week. As I have stated before, this is not to be done in a spirit of shame and self-degradation. This is about establishing a baseline of where you are in order to see where improvement is necessary. You can compare this number with future logs to notice improvement and gain encouragement that you’re heading in the right direction. By measuring progress you will be more likely to continue on the path toward honoring God with your schedule. This step also provides a framework to detect where there are possibilities to input productive, Christ-exalting activities and remove self-seeking habits.

WHEN YOU WORK BEST

As you evaluate the problem areas, take note of what point in the day they are occurring. This brings insight into what parts of the day you lack motivation and need to be especially on the alert. You will also notice in your time log patterns spent in productive, God-honoring behaviors. These are also

150 Developing a Maintainable Schedule important to notice as they are normally your "high- productivity" times. Every person is different. I am a morning person and am able to work earlier in the day. Many others are night owls and get their best work done late into the night. When you accomplish these tasks is not important. What is important is that you are able to recognize the times where you function at the highest level and are able to properly use that period of the day on your most important priorities. Take the effort to jot down your best and worst "productivity" times of the day as this will be very useful in creating a schedule that works for you.

IMPLEMENTING YOUR PRIORITY MAP

After evaluating your time log, the next step is to review your priority map in order to see what areas deserve the most priority in your schedule. I must bring attention to the fact that priority and time do not mean the same thing. Your career may take up 40 to 50 hours each week, but it also may be your third or fourth broad-lensed priority. Frequently, sleep falls under people’s last broad-lensed category, but for most of us it takes up 50 to 60 hours every week. In the same instance, under your top priority of cultivating a “Personal Relationship with God” you may notice that you have only twelve hours of prayer and Bible reading that you can manage to pursue at this point of your life. Most of us would consider prayer and Bible reading a higher priority than our career and sleep, but this does not mean we will be able to devote more time to it. In an ideal world this would be the case, but we have only been given 168 hours to work with each week. When I use the

151 Forever Starts Now word priority what I really mean is how beneficial the results of an activity is to fulfilling your life’s purpose. If something deserves a lot of attention or is a high priority that means it will be something you rarely are able to replace. It also means that this task or activity should normally be scheduled when you are freshest, most alert, and at your highest capacity to excel. So if prayer and Bible reading are a high priority, then you intelligently schedule them during your high productivity hours so as to give the best of yourself to these tasks. It also means that you will be less likely to replace these high priorities with lower desires.

This is why it is important to rank your endeavors in order of precedence on your priority map. This gives you a very clear and organized way in which you can schedule your life. Higher priorities will be given greater partiality in your schedule while lower priorities may be missed all together. Higher priorities may also be given preference during your most attentive stretches of day while lower priorities will be dealt with when you aren’t feeling top notch. This is a generalization and not a hard and fast rule as there are instances when low priority tasks may take a strong focus and attention to detail. These pursuits should then be scheduled during the period of day where you are most alert.

Ultimately the best thing to do is to study yourself. We all have a “body clock.” This phrase refers to the fact that there are certain stints in the day when we are at our best to perform certain types of activities. It is important to know these times as they will greatly affect how you create your schedule. It would be counter-productive to force yourself to accomplish

152 Developing a Maintainable Schedule a task during a period of the day where your body is not on board with the activity. Don’t believe me? Try and get a night owl to develop a consistent exercise routine early in the morning! It won’t happen. We are all different. What is important is that we discover how we best function and then create our schedule accordingly. This will give us the greatest opportunity to succeed.

CREATING YOUR SCHEDULE LIKE A PRO

In this section I will outline some key factors in creating a dynamic and maintainable schedule. You will notice my continued use of the word “maintainable” as I find it valuable to create a schedule that will not become overwhelming. Overwhelming schedules nearly always lead to abandoning the program. The goal is to work toward a more productive use of your time. To create a schedule that evokes stress will be counterproductive in the end. As a rule, I would suggest easing into this process by continuing to make small positive changes. These changes will elicit great feelings of purpose and accomplishment thus encouraging you in your pursuit to make other progressive adjustments. As with each step, it is important to be in communication with the Holy Spirit as small incremental adjustments may not be what He is asking of you. Some people may be required to make large sweeping changes as they are prompted by the Lord. Your ultimate conviction on how to reorient your schedule must be from God alone! “The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves” (Romans 14:22).

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CHOOSE YOUR MEDIUM

Deciding on your scheduling medium may take some tweaking before finding out what works best for you. There are a myriad of options to choose between when deciding how to actually write a schedule. Some prefer an old fashioned day planner. Those who are more technically inclined usually turn to an online program such as Google Calendar. Others fare best by creating an individual template and using that in their program. Whatever means you choose, it must be something that is convenient and maintainable over the long haul. There is little benefit to create your first weeklong schedule only to drop the process all together because it was too much trouble. What we are shooting for is a method that can be replicated over and over as you learn to schedule time effectively.

THE BASICS

Here are some very basic tips in creating a schedule:

1. Only schedule one week in advance.

Obviously you are able to schedule special events, trips, meetings, etc. as far in advance as you would like, but when it comes to the bulk of your schedule it is best to take it week by week. Each week usually looks a little different and thus needs special attention and flexibility to make room for your high priority items. Only scheduling one week at a time also allows you to consciously evaluate your schedule every single

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week. This will fast-track your efforts in developing a solid schedule.

2. Schedule out your whole day.

This means literally scheduling out 24 hours. This would include scheduling sleep, work, meals, prayer, commuting, exercise, naps, time with family, etc. More than likely you will not follow this schedule exactly, but it will give you a framework to know what you should be doing and when you should be doing it. If there are gaps in your schedule the first inclination is to veg out or fill them with entertainment.

3. Schedule to the nearest 15 minutes.

This sticks with our theme of generalization. The easiest way to become overwhelmed in your schedule is to list every single activity to the minute you will be starting and ending it. Give yourself a little breathing room and be aware of specific tasks to work on under certain time blocks, but do not record each one in your schedule.

4. Be in constant communication with God.

The overarching concern in arranging your week must be in pleasing and glorifying God in each moment. As you continue this practice you will probably develop a certain pattern in your schedule. This proves helpful in developing consistency.

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But we never want our patterns or habits to trump God’s will. There may be weeks where you feel called to give more time to certain areas of your life. Listen to God and be willing to change your schedule according to how He leads and directs you.

INCLUDE SIGNIFICANT OTHERS

The process of scheduling your week is not a solitary action. This practice will also touch all e whose lives are impacted by your decisions. For those who are married, this means it is necessary to consult your spouse before writing your schedule. If you have older children, it would be a good idea to check in with them as well. This displays honor to your family as you include them in some of the decision-making process. It gives them an opportunity to feel important and cherished as you give them preference in certain situations. This will help your pursuit of selflessness and fulfill Romans 12:10, “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor." One thing you do not want to convey in creating your schedule is a sense of superiority. Conflict will result if you treat your time as more valuable than the time of those close to you. “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:3-5).

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It is crucial to express to your family the deep desire you have to honor God with your time. This will inevitably mean changing the way things are normally done. There will be moments where this will result in sacrifice for the whole family, but this should only occur if there is an intentional desire to please God in that sacrifice. It will be much easier for your wife to give up a Saturday morning with you if you devote a few hours to prayer and studying the Bible rather than time out on the golf course. This is a great way to model the Christian life for your family. Through your actions you will most effectively lead your loved ones toward Christ.

MOVE FROM GENERAL TO SPECIFIC

As you begin compiling your schedule, it is important to first look at blocks of time in a generalized fashion. Only after developing general time blocks are you then able to divide them into more specific and achievable items. Let’s use a person's devotion time as an example. You may have given yourself 45 minutes every day to have a devotional time with the Lord. Fantastic, record that first in your schedule. Now for most, leaving it at that may be the best approach. But for you Type A personalities, it may prove beneficial to divide that 45 minutes into different activities. You may choose to allot each task a certain timespan or you might just list the projects to work on within those 45 minutes. For example, the first 15 minutes could be devoted to prayer, followed by 20 minutes of Scripture reading, and then finishing with 10 minutes of worship.1 Remember, it is great to have a plan, but in the end it is the Spirit of God who needs to be leading you. So, your

157 Forever Starts Now actual quiet time may not always look exactly like your scheduled quiet time.

BLOCK OUT ALL REQUIRED ACTIVITIES

There are certain obligations that will remain a consistent part of your schedule. It is best to get these out of the way first. Sleep, work, personal hygiene, meals, commuting, and exercise are examples of normal required activities. If you end up using an online calendar such as Google Calendar, much effort can be saved by scheduling these blocks to recur every week at the same time of day. Logging these into your schedule allows you to take a step back and notice the holes or gaps in your week where you will be able to insert higher priority items.

Though I call these activities “required,” I still want to place emphasis on your need to seek the Lord regarding their duration or existence. Some activities that we consider to be mandatory may not even be God’s will for our life. Other activities may need to be given more or less attention. Blocking out 70 hours each week for work at the expense of spending time with God and your family would be a pertinent example. Only allowing yourself 4 hours of sleep each night to trudge through your mammoth to-do list is another instance where you probably are not obeying the Lord. It is just as imperative to seek God’s direction in this area as it is when consider how to spend you free time.

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INPUT PRIORITIZED ACTIVITIES

This is where our schedule has its greatest value. Most of our required activities occur without much thought. There is not really a choice in doing these things; they become second nature. You will go to bed at night. You will show up for work Monday morning. You are most likely showering and eating every day. These are your norms and will be take place day in and day out for the majority of your life. But it is the gaps between these tasks where there is great potential. Some gaps are as small as 15 minutes, others can go on for hours between required responsibilities. These are the areas where we can begin to take control of our free time. Instead of wasting these gaps on mind numbing leisure and entertainment, we can focus these stretches toward fulfilling our destiny in God.

It is so easy to get home from work and spend the next 45 minutes watching television before dinner is served. But imagine, instead of spending that time glued to a television set, you devoted that 45 minutes, five days a week to studying your Bible? That would amount to an extra 3 hours and 45 minutes spent in the Word of God each week, compared to the same amount of time watching old re-runs of “Shark Tank.” Some may object, claiming to need this period of staring at the TV in order to wind down after a long day at work. My response to that would be that this is what you think you need. This is what you have conditioned yourself to use as a way of winding down. But I challenge you to step outside your box. Why not try unwinding with something that feeds your spirit? I guarantee you will not regret spending this time feasting on the Word of God or basking in His presence

159 Forever Starts Now through prayer and worship. I am confident that you will begin to crave these moments and will unwind much better in the Word of Life than in the trap of entertainment.

This is where a renewed mindset is required. We must break off from the ways of the world and forge our own path under the Lord’s leading. "Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect" (Romans 12:1, 2).

The first practical stride in this arena is to add up all of the time used by your normal required activities. After you arrive at that number subtract it from the total 168 hours you have each week. Whatever is remaining is the time that you have left to spend on your other priorities.

Required Activity Time – 168 Hours = Weekly Available Time for Other Priorities

Next, review your priority map and pray about how much time God desires for you to spend on each activity. With the Holy Spirit leading the way, begin plugging in each activity into its proper slot in your schedule until you have reached your total allotment for that week.

Taking control over these holes in our schedule and predetermining to use them in a productive manner will

160 Developing a Maintainable Schedule change your life! No longer will you be wandering aimlessly but instead you will have purpose for each and every moment of your day. Even your scheduled rest periods will have purpose as they are used in recharging your mind and body for your next spiritual undertaking.

GET ACCOUNTABILITY

As you have surely noticed, developing a schedule is a necessary step forward to productively using your time. But creating a schedule and implementing a schedule are two separate matters. It is simple to sit down for 30 minutes and divide up how you should spend your 168 hours over the coming week. On the other hand, it can be challenging to remain faithful to that schedule and actually do the things you proposed in the time frame you intended on doing them. This is where outside help is needed. Alone, it is easy to skip over priorities that may be taxing. Without anyone to check in on you, you may procrastinate and put off a task/activity for months. Or you may find yourself regularly cutting into your high priorities such as your prayer life, in order to hop online and surf the web. Whatever the case may be, if you are serious about being faithful to God with your time, it is crucial to develop a system of accountability regarding your schedule.

I would not recommend making someone who lives with you an accountability partner. You don’t want to feel as if someone is always looking over your shoulder or judging you if you are not exactly in line with your program. Instead, ask someone whom you respect to keep you accountable. Share

161 Forever Starts Now with him or her your life vision, time log, priority list, and schedule. This should be someone who also has a good reputation of using their time well as they will be better positioned to cheer you on or offer advice. “Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17).

RE-EVALUATE

If you are a novice at scheduling, then this point is especially important. More than likely you will not create the most efficient and maintainable schedule your first go around. You will undoubtedly give too much time to one area while neglecting another. The key here is to continually re-evaluate your schedule. Week to week as you sit down and write out a schedule, you will be tweaking certain time blocks and their durations. This must carry on until you have a Holy Spirit inspired confidence that you are allocating the right amount of time to each area on your priority list. Each week will probably look a little different as various events take place, but after some experimenting, you should come to a somewhat consistent schedule for your current life season. Remember, the core focus here is to work within your priority map. The weeks that are packed with extra required activities should still include your high priority items with nearly the same amount of time spent pursuing them. This may cause lower priorities to be completely removed for that week, but this is a necessary sacrifice in order to continue to achieve the main goals that you have set forth. By consistently devoting time to these high priority items, you intentionally work toward chasing your destiny in God.

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PERSEVERING IN GRACE

Outside of Jesus, achieving perfection in the use of our time is impossible. There will certainly be intervals throughout the week where you blow it and wind up losing a chunk of time to some useless activity. This is especially true at the outset of this undertaking where everything is new and positive habits are not yet established. Do not panic! The only way to grow in the discipline of time management is to practice. The worst thing to do when you fail is to overemphasize the failure and condemn your effort. This leads to a dejected and melancholy attitude which soon brings about rejection of the pursuit all together. I urge you to avoid this disposition. We must stand on the truth that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death” (Romans 8:1, 2). What may be unnatural and challenging at first will soon become a regular way of life as habits are established and mindsets are transformed. When mistakes occur, it is necessary to take note of them, confess and repent, but then press forward. The longer you stay in the attitude of defeat, the more hours you end up losing to the enemy. God’s will is that you keep the course and continue to persevere through the power of His grace. “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13, 14).

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CHAPTER 10

The Power of Focus

Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus. ~ Alexander Graham Bell1

Our Western world has been caught in deception. What looks to be a brilliant idea from the outside is actually a snare that binds individuals and prevents them from achieving their full potential. Under the false notion that doing two things at once will double production, people attempt to do more than they can accomplish successfully. With an inability to apply focus to either task, the end result of both products is less than optimal. With our focus being split in two, three, or four directions at once, how is it possible to achieve the best result? One of my hopes in this chapter is to echo the cry of many experts and persuade you to avoid the trap of multitasking. In place of this I prescribe a method called time blocking to achieve better results, faster!

Time blocking is a productivity method which focuses on the power of working on a single task at a time. Each responsibility is assigned a certain block of time in which the focus of the worker is only on the task at hand. Minimizing

165 Forever Starts Now distractions and applying attention to one project establishes focus leading to a superior quality of work. This is vital to the Christian man and woman: "Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve" (Colossians 3:23, 24). If it is our responsibility to glorify God in all things, even our everyday jobs, then we must put great emphasis on the result of our labor. We become a witness to God among our co- workers and bosses as we carefully strive to achieve the best in even the most menial tasks. Above that, we practically display our love for Christ as we serve Him with great attention and much care in our efforts.

Another benefit of time blocking is the diminishing of a necessary evil called context switching. Context switching involves jumping from one task to another. The more tasks we hop back and forth between, the less productive we become. Obviously we are unable to work on only one task all day long, so context switching is necessary as we end one project and begin another. The danger comes when we do this with great frequency. The more hopping around we do, the less focus we are able to apply to each area of our lives. When we time block, we cut down on the number of context switches throughout the day. There are fewer breaks in concentration as we have designated a definite amount of time to work on a specific goal. As we work, we are able to think ahead in order to establish a good end point for the time block we are currently in. There is a freedom that comes with choosing your end point instead of it being forced upon you. This raises both the quality and quantity of our production by

166 The Power of Focus creating clean breaks in our mind as we end one job and initiate another. Then, when it is time to continue work on that project either later that day or maybe the next day, there is a predetermined starting point to dive into instead of a disorderly mess.2

In a blog post titled “Multitasking is a Productivity Killer: Use Time Blocking,” Amy Mortenson gives insight on how time blocking also allows for a systematic approach to work toward accomplishing large projects before their deadline. Instead of falling into the trap of procrastination, we can adequately plan and predict the amount of time needed to finish an assignment. Not only can we input these generalized time blocks into our schedule, but we can also think about all the specific requirements needed to finish the venture. We can trace out the order of specific jobs to reach our end goal. This reduces stress, improves the quality of our work, and gives a greater feeling of control over the task at hand.3

On the other hand, multi-tasking is the deceptive trap which lures you into thinking you are accomplishing more things at one time. But as stated before this is not exactly the case as it is almost inevitable to see your end product suffer. I would also argue that there is much less return on your investment when multitasking. The illusion is that we accomplish work faster by doing two things at once. But the reality is our brains end up being so mixed-up that it is difficult to achieve good results with any efficiency. Multi-tasking leads to stress, chaos, and, in the end, a lower quality of work. There is no rhyme or reason but instead a plethora of projects being blended together in a melting pot of pandemonium. Attention

167 Forever Starts Now to detail goes out the window as the focus often becomes a race against the clock instead of a diligent effort to achieve one’s full potential.

Cutting corners never works. "With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free" (Ephesians 6:7,8). If you want to receive great blessings from the Lord, then it is vital that you put in diligent, faithful, and quality service to Him. Whether the blessing comes in this life or, more importantly, in the life to come, we can be assured that the reward is certain.

WARDING OFF DISTRACTIONS

Under a chapter titled “Wandering Minds” in his book Sanctuary of the Soul, Richard Foster quotes a Mr. Sven Birkets who back in the 1990’s had profound foresight into how technology was about revolutionize our world.

In 1994 Sven Birkerts wrote The Gutenberg Elegies, in which he predicted that in a decade or so the electronic revolution would have changed our world beyond recognition: “We will be swimming in impulses and data – the microchip will make us offers that will be very hard to refuse.” Today, we know just how accurate his prediction has become. We click through an endless stream of Internet links, multitask in numerous media, write a daily blog, check our e-mail every few hours, text friends and others regularly throughout the day.

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Neuroscience studies are now showing that the neural pathways of our brains are being rewired accordingly so that our capacity for sustained attention is decreasing.4

Along with excessive context switching and multitasking, another factor hindering our productivity is negligence in fending off external distractions. Now more than ever, we are bombarded with insignificant disturbances that constantly draw attention away from the task at hand. Primarily because of social media, we struggle to leave our virtual world and attend to life before our eyes. This is especially evident in times dedicated to the Lord. How many breaks in communion have transpired because someone received a text message or a Facebook notification? How many revelations have been cut short due to a best friend’s photo on Instagram? How many times have the 140 characters of Twitter taken precedence over the Word of God in our life?

Whether in times of intimate connection with the Lord or in the midst of any work that demands concentration, we must remain diligent in warding off distractions. These social updates in our virtual world are destroying what is real in our life. As you begin to focus on a project, there is a "flow" that develops. We have all experienced it. It is that high state of concentration where we dominate the work in front of us with ease. This is why time blocking is so crucial because it opens the opportunity to reach that "flow" state and maintain it for a longer period of time. It is in this zone that we can most efficiently achieve whatever is in front of us. But with every ding of our phone and glance at our inbox, we are destroying this precious concentration. Over and over we must re-focus.

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Once again we must pull ourselves from virtual reality and use arduous energy to get back to the job at hand. These productivity and concentration killers are weapons disguised as daisies in satan's arsenal.

Before I am convicted of being a social media killjoy, I want to state that I am not against this influx of new technology. In fact, it can be extremely beneficial if used in the right way. The ability to connect with people all over the globe is a true gift and an amazing tool for ministry. The problem is not with the technology itself, but with our over-consumption and obsession with it. Don't believe me? Just walk through an airport and see the hundreds of mindless drones with their necks cranked down staring at a 2" x 5" box. The world still continues on around them, but unable to see or experience it, they remain transfixed in this hypnotic state.

These constant interruptions are destroying our ability to connect with Jesus. These disturbances persistently win the battle for our time, even over and above God. How is it possible to "practice the presence of God" if every 5 minutes we are being drawn back to the world? The question then becomes where does our mind belong? Is it possible to keep our gaze heavenward while still being present and effective in our earthly duties? These questions find their answer in what we deem to be truly important. If the concerns of this world are our primary desire than it will be difficult to apply any focus on things above. But if we keep God and the matters of His Kingdom as our chief priority, then it is necessary that we direct our attention on His heavenly presence. It is vital to realize that by keeping our mind focused on God we actually

170 The Power of Focus are far more effective in our day-to-day life on the earth. We do not forsake a focus on God to achieve productivity in this world. Instead by having our mind consumed with things above we are able to complete our earthly tasks in a far superior fashion. “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:1-3). By releasing ourselves from unnecessary distractions we can begin to experience freedom in the authentic life that exists before us.

WHAT ARE WE TO DO?

Hopefully the argument above has persuaded you in some degree to back away from these constant technological naggings. But are we to disown all modern high-tech gadgetry as a way of obtaining focus to in our life. The answer to that question varies depending on the individual and his or her conviction from the Lord. Some have become so entrenched in these virtual worlds that they need to break away completely to gain back what is real. But I think for the majority of us, technology and social media are not things that we need to run from. Instead I see them as tools that should be utilized with temperance. This can be achieved in a number of ways. The first suggestion I give is to schedule in times for social media as you would any other priority in your day. Instead of checking your Facebook wall twenty times per day, take 10 minutes at night to see what’s new. The same goes for

171 Forever Starts Now your email inbox. Some professionals live with this tab constantly open in their browser, anxiously waiting the next update. The moment they hear "you’ve got mail," everything falls by the wayside so they can read the next imperative email.

After scheduling in time for social media, I propose unplugging when times of concentration are required. During time blocks which require acute attentiveness, especially spiritual growth activities, why not unplug from the outside world in order to give all of your consideration to the task at hand? How great would the quality of our work improve? How much deeper would we grow in relationships with others and with the Lord if we took a stand to ward off little distractions in an effort to honor the person or the omnipotent being we were spending time with?5 This intentional pursuit to remain focused will reap major dividends in our work and personal life if we truly apply ourselves to it.

The final area I want to address when dealing with the subject of distraction is that of your physical environment. You have more than likely heard the line, “A cluttered desk leads to a cluttered mind.” I have found this statement to be true but unfortunately it is overlooked by many people. Amidst a pile of bills, books, office supplies, sticky notes, etc. is a mind prone to disorder. When our physical environment is a mess, our thinking usually follows suit. Before working on your next project, take the time to organize yourself and your workspace beforehand. You will be amazed how this small detail will impact the quality of your focus.6

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INCREASED FOCUS: RECORD, REDUCE, REPEAT

A great increase in focus is achieved when a person develops the habits of recording essential aspects of his or her life. It is vital to get dreams, desires, chores, appointments, etc. from our head down on paper. Otherwise, important responsibilities tend to get lost in the galaxy between our ears. That is why in four chapters of this book I have urged you to physically put pen to paper and write out strategies to overcome the colossal mountain of managing time. When we write things down, we give our mind permission to focus on the matter at hand.

A great personal example comes from my prayer time. On many occasions I have begun conversing with the Lord when all of a sudden a million and one pressing thoughts enter my head. At that moment it becomes nearly impossible for me to pray as my mind is spilling over with different ideas, tasks, and responsibilities. Until I take the time to record all of these thoughts, I am unable to truly focus on praying.

This discipline remains true in the overarching focus of our life. Until we physically record a life vision, time log, goals, priorities, tasks, and finally a schedule, these elements remain like clouds in the atmosphere of our mind. They come and go but are never set in stone. We never have an opportunity to really grasp them and formulate an action plan to begin achieving our destiny. Not only that, our stress level stays elevated as we pick our brains for what we should be doing. Everything is a jumbled mess up there! Freedom only comes

173 Forever Starts Now when we are able to record these desires and responsibilities and begin to tackle them in an organized manner.

KEEPING A RUNNING TO-DO LIST

It is my opinion that to-do lists are a must in order to remain focused in different areas of our lives. As time is blocked out for certain assignments, we provide ourselves the opportunity to focus and accomplish. But, these time blocks do us no good if we get to the starting line and don’t know which direction to run. A to-do list is an instrument leading us to tackle specific areas of our life in the best possible order.

To-do lists should be organized in priority and/or in accordance to time deadlines. This allows us to effortlessly jump into time blocks and begin confronting the most important or the most time-sensitive items first. It also helps to categorize your to-do lists so that you are not left with a three page record of everything needing to be accomplished in your life. As we record our tasks, reduce them (aka the rush received when crossing something off your list), and then repeat with writing down future tasks, we begin taking measurable steps toward achieving our goals.

Schedule a Weekly Review

Productivity guru and New Your Times bestselling author David Allen defines a weekly review as a personal “regrouping at an operational level once a week, ‘bringing up

174 The Power of Focus the rearguard,’ by getting clean, clear, current, and creative to sustain week-to-week control and focus.”7

A weekly personal review has been invaluable to me as I seek to complete my long-term goals. Mr. Allen’s book Getting Things Done goes into detail about performing a weekly review and other incredible insights regarding productivity. I highly recommend it with the precaution to always look through the prism of the Christ-centered life as you read it and any other non-Christian book.

In short, a weekly review is an overview of your previous week in order to best plan for your week to come. Through this review, you gain a heightened confidence that you are not forgetting something important or leaving a loose end. You can head into the new week feeling energized and hopeful about your schedule and tasks. There is so much more to say on this topic, but I wanted to simply bring it to your attention as you seek to excel in focusing your life.

THE ROLE OF REST IN PRODUCTIVITY

If you have been paying attention, you will notice my strong bias toward pursuing actionable activities in our quest to please God with our time. This has been done intentionally. It is not my desire to leave out good old-fashioned R&R from this book, but I have felt it necessary to strongly lean in the direction of diligent and practical hard work unto the Lord. This conviction has been brought about by the infiltration of rest, leisure, materialism, and entertainment within our

175 Forever Starts Now society. We have been deceived into thinking we deserve hour upon hour of fleshly pleasure because of all of the "hard work" we do. It is not supposed to be this way. Rest is not merely a reward for hard work; rest is a catalyst that allows us to work even harder toward achieving our full potential in God.8 When I discuss managing our time, I am not trying to convey that life must always contain constant, frantic activity. What I am trying to get across is that every moment needs to have a purpose behind it. I make sure to spend ample time resting and recharging my batteries, but it is for the purpose of being refreshed when I begin my work and ministry. I believe that many ministers of the gospel become burnt out because they spend so much time focusing on the needs of others that they never find a moment to relax. Without rest it is impossible to produce to the fullness of our potential. Rest in and of itself is a productive activity if it is held in measure and used correctly. So after spending the majority of my writing to cheer you on to actionably pursue the Lord, let me now take a stand for the importance of rest.

“You shall work six days, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during plowing time and harvest you shall rest" (Exodus 34:21). The importance God places on rest cannot be understated as you notice His direct command given to the Israelites here. But God is not just talk, for we read in the Genesis account how even the Lord Himself rested after creating the world. "By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made" (Genesis 2:2, 3).

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Rest is obviously an important element in the Kingdom if even the omnipotent God of the universe decided to partake in it. But note a significant component here. God worked for six days before He rested for one. In the same way He commands the Israelites, "You shall work six days" (Exodus 34:21), before He gives the command to rest. From these Scriptures we can take away that rest is imperative, rest is commanded, but rest is not in the majority.

The rest I am referring to here is in direct light to our laboring for the Lord and not the spiritual rest received through faith in Christ (Matthew 11:28). The focus here is not on earning our salvation through works and good deeds. What I am highlighting is the need to be faithful to achieve all that God has prepared for us to accomplish this side of eternity. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8- 10).

Rest is a necessary function of life. It is designed by God and is a blessing to His children. It is a way for us to recharge our mental, spiritual, emotional, and physical batteries. In our rest we cultivate strength to once again charge after Godly pursuits. Rest is given as a great way to avoid unnecessary busyness. It delivers a break from the constant barrage of life. The only way to assure that rest is achieved is to intentionally pursue it. Just as there needs to be time blocks for prayer and Scripture study, it is also necessary to schedule rest and

177 Forever Starts Now relaxation. These bring balance to our work and help fend off burn out in the Christian life. As we rest physically, it is also crucial to rest in the Lord. It is only in Him that we can find true peace and discover ultimate rest from the anxieties of the world. I urge you to take time to rest, but do it in a responsible manner so that you may give your all to pursuing the destiny that the Lord has so graciously set before you.

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CHAPTER 11

Humility: Unlocking Your Spiritual Potential

It may seem strange that in a book about focusing your life to impact eternity, I would devote an entire chapter to the virtue of humility. You might think that instead I would be championing boldness, daring, and faith as we contemplate our destinies. The reason humility is so paramount is because of the subtle but dramatic impact it has on your attitude and perspective. If you have a pompous attitude, everything you do in life will be tainted. This is how the attributes of pride and humility effect your eternal destiny. In order to achieve your full potential in God, you will need to cultivate a lifestyle of humility.

Humility is a foundational but increasingly uncommon character trait in society. Even within the church, it is difficult to grasp the concept of humility as we are regularly faced with the idea that self-promotion and self-exaltation are required to be noticed by others. We may not use those words, but in light of our tactics to promote our message, we often find men and women of God actually promoting themselves. I am no stranger to this temptation. I desire to have a message that transforms people’s lives, but how can I walk out that calling

179 Forever Starts Now if I go unnoticed and much of my teaching goes unread or unheard? So, I have found myself personally in this “tug of war” reality between wanting to promote and share the message God has given me while remaining on guard that I am not the one stepping into the spotlight.

In reality, there is nothing wrong with being noticed by others. Jesus was one of the most well-known people in the areas in which he ministered. He had thousands of followers who marveled at His teaching and the authority that accompanied it. Jesus had the greatest teaching and supernatural ministry of anyone who has ever stepped foot on the earth, yet He also exceeded all in His attitude of humility. “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:5-8). The danger does not come from being known but instead from the heart attitude of the one who has been recognized. In this moment of recognition, two paths are made available: the way of humility or the path of pride. Let’s look at each of these options in greater detail to get a broader picture of their reality.

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DESCENDING THE PRIDEFUL PATH

There are multiple factors to consider as we examine the nature of pride. A good starting place is to explore the definition of pride. Dictionary.com defines pride as “a high or inordinate opinion of one’s own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc.”1 Utilizing this definition, we can categorize pride as an attitude of the heart or a perspective of the mind that considers self ahead or above others. Both are based on an internal understanding of our external accomplishments. Our internal condition plays a massive role in how we interact with our world. When sharing about the heart of man Jesus makes it clear that “ there is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man” (Mark 7:15). In his article “Straight from the Heart: The Negative Side of Pride,” Jeff Winters expresses how our heart is the source of all our external behavior: “Pride, like many other things that God condemns, comes from within man. That area in us is our heart. Everything we do and everything we say stem from our hearts (Proverbs 4:23). Have we ever stopped to notice the middle letter of the word ‘pride?’ Just like in the word ‘sin,’ the middle letter is ‘I.’ Could it be said that pride and sin are always what ‘I’ want to do, think, and act?”2

Two people may accomplish the same thing under the same circumstance with the result of one person abiding in humility while the other walks in pride. Recognizing that pride is an internal reality is vital. The temptation of pride can increase

181 Forever Starts Now as one achieves more and more accolades. Still, it is crucial to understand that there is no direct correlation between a person’s notoriety and the condition of their heart. I have met some relatively unaccomplished people who are drenched in an attitude of pride. I have also met some men and women who have achieved great things in this life and yet carry their hearts in an attitude of humility. Thus, pride is an internal perspective and attitude that can be affected by external circumstances, but ultimately, it is determined by how a person carries their heart before the Lord.

THE BIRTH OF PRIDE

We can trace pride back to the fall of man. It was one of the most decisive factors in causing Eve to disobey God. Let’s take a look at this account in Genesis 3:1-6:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to

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make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

Pride was birthed in Eve the moment she decided to approach the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Many believe that sin began when Eve took a bite of the fruit produced by the tree of knowledge, but I would argue that the temptation of the fall started before that actual act. From my understanding of Scripture, Eve was not supernaturally transported to the tree of knowledge. She wasn’t one moment walking peacefully in the garden and the next moment suddenly face to face with the tree. Since the tree of knowledge was the only thing off-limits in the entire garden, I imagine both Adam and Eve had a keen awareness of where the tree was located. Pride was at work in Eve far before she sank her teeth into the piece of fruit.

Pride begins the moment we seriously consider that our way is better than God’s way. Pride is ultimately a discontentment with the will of God for our life. When we don’t walk in agreement with God in His plan for our existence, we find ourselves in the very crux of pride. Pride occurs anytime we strive to achieve something that we know to be outside of God’s desire for us. This may be a blatantly sinful ambition, but it often takes the form of something that appears to be good. This is the more deceptive birthplace of pride and where we must continually abide in the Spirit of God in order to avoid its grasp.

I have personally experienced this form of pride while directing the Illinois Valley House of Prayer. At times I have

183 Forever Starts Now ran ahead of God’s leading by going outside of my calling with the hopes of achieving a larger impact. One of the most challenging parts of leading a ministry is saying no to exciting opportunities. Just because an opportunity appears to be promising, does not mean you are supposed to be a part of it.

Pride can also take root through how we pursue our destiny in God. When we choose to pursue the will of God outside of the ways of God, we find ourselves in a similar danger. Even if we have the right destination, it is of supreme importance that we take the right trail to get there. So, before we even have the opportunity to experience a prideful spirit because of our accomplishments, we see that pride is the attitude that sets the whole thing in motion. Pride may not be evident at the start of your journey but it will try to rear its ugly head along the way. We must demolish this attitude as soon as we detect it. The birth of pride leads to a life of pride when left unchecked.

THE LIFE OF PRIDE

The temptation of pride is one that will continue to present itself. If we fall into pride, we then decide whether or not to dwell in this state. Our war against pride and every other form of sin has three primary dynamics. First, we experience the initial temptation. Second, we either stand in obedience to God or fall prey to corruption. Third, if we do sin, we choose between continuation in sin or repentance for that sin. This last decision is of supreme importance to our spiritual health. Consistent communication and partnership with the Holy

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Spirit are essential in our efforts for holy living. Yes, it is also true that on this side of heaven will remain areas in which we are not wholly sanctified. There is a crucial difference between a fall in sin and a life of sin. This point cannot be overstated.

Before I get too far into this, allow me to make something clear at the start. Every act of sin is harmful both to God and to us. Every act of disobedience that we allow is to be fought against with all of our might in the grace of God. I am not condoning failure. What I am trying to get across is that there is a major difference between someone with an unwavering intention for holiness who then falls into sin due to weakness of the flesh, and someone who lives in a state of continual disobedience with little regard to how it is affecting them or their relationship with God. The latter position is the description of a person living in pride.

A person who knows that they live a life of compromise and believes they can get away with it is playing with theological fire. This doctrinal stance is becoming more prominent in what many have labeled the “False Grace Movement.” This movement takes a false view of the grace of God, giving a license for people to sin because they believe God will forgive them. As with all heresy, there is a dimension of truth in this message. Believers do have abundant grace in God, no matter the depth of their iniquity. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Although this abundant grace consumes every act of iniquity, it does not give us a license to live in disobedience to the commands of

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God. Instead, that grace should produce in us gratitude and confidence to walk in holiness and come boldly to God’s throne in intimacy. Paul confronts this heresy in Romans 6:1: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”

Bill Muehlenberg’s article on the false grace message gives keen insight into what the apostle Paul was saying to the church of Rome.

Here is a biblical truth you can bank on: any gospel which makes it easier for you to sin, and to feel OK about sinning, is not a gospel of Jesus Christ, but comes straight out of the pits of hell. Any message proclaimed from the pulpit, printed in books, or heard in conferences, which gives the believer the idea that sin is no big deal and that we can just relax about it all is a gospel of demons . . . Yes, in Christ we are complete and perfect – all due to his grace – but we must work out what we already are in Him by our daily choices. We must resist and fight sin, and we must desire and pursue holiness. Obedience is a crucial part of the Christian walk, and we dare not allow a doctrine of cheap grace to trap us in sin.3

THE DEATH OF PRIDE

We serve a loving and patient God who displays mercy and grace far beyond our comprehension. This message was

186 Humility: Unlocking Your Spiritual Potential proclaimed by the early church and is also being highlighted among believers today. It is impossible to exaggerate the love and grace of God, but I have noticed the current trend of underemphasizing His righteous judgment. We must hold these two manifestations of God’s love in tandem with one another. In Romans 2:4-6, Paul presents these two facets of God’s love toward His creation: “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each person according to his deeds."

So, while God patiently endures our stubborn and prideful hearts, He also is passionate about establishing holiness in the earth. For the unsaved and unrepentant heart, pride combined with a myriad of other acts of disobedience ultimately leads to eternal destruction. For the one who has given their life to God, it is still possible for pride to have a foothold in the believer’s life. When this is the case, the most loving thing we can do is reveal the truth about the consequences of continuing in pride. The book of Proverbs has much to say about the penalties of pride:

“When pride comes, then comes dishonor” (Proverbs 11:2).

“Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; assuredly, he will not be unpunished. (Proverbs 16:5).

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“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling” (Proverbs 16:18).

Pride is one of the most destructive forces on earth. As a loving Father, God cannot allow this attitude to remain. This correction from the Lord at first seems painful, but in reality, it is one of his most loving acts.

My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.” It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness (Hebrews 12:6-11).

Marching down the prideful path is something that comes naturally to the human race. The birth of pride gone unchecked inevitably leads to a life of pride. The consequences of living in an unrepentant state of pride are dishonor, punishment, stumbling, and destruction. But there

188 Humility: Unlocking Your Spiritual Potential is a better way. Unlike pride, this path is difficult to choose in the moment, but the result is a more abundant life filled with greater freedom and joy.

ASCENDING THE MOUNTAIN OF HUMILITY

Humility is the antithesis of pride. It does not come naturally and requires the Holy Spirit’s anointing on a believer. In our natural strength, humility is an impossible standard. But thankfully, “nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37). These are the areas we are to get excited about as children of God. What good is it to pursue only parts of our life that can be accomplished sheerly from our own strength and wisdom? Why do we shy away from the things that require us to have God working in us in order to be accomplished? Our very salvation was determined under these terms: “‘Then who can be saved?’ And looking at them Jesus said to them, ‘With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible’” (Matthew 19:25, 26). Oh, what a great joy to press into the impossible! God receives great glory when your achievement necessitated His divine hand in the process. A life of humility indeed falls into this category.

We all face situations on a daily basis where we are forced to decide between responding with humility or with pride. This is not a temptation that we can simply avoid but one we must face head-on in all of our relationships and circumstances. These situations commonly originate when a “first shot” is fired. This could be your child talking back to you, your mother-in-law criticizing your outfit, your spouse blaming

189 Forever Starts Now you for your child’s misbehavior, or any number of criticial attacks. How we respond as we come under fire is an external expression of the attitude of our hearts. Using your workplace as an example, how would you react to a co-worker who has spoken falsely about you behind your back? What about when your boss openly criticizes you to your face? What if someone received the promotion that you were most qualified for? The examples are endless of situations that present us with the opportunity to choose to either walk in humility or pride.

Many feel that they are powerless when being victimized, but the truth is that each of us is given the option of how we will respond. Ultimately the condition of our heart will determine the nature of our response. That is why it so important to “watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23). Our initial reaction to any circumstance is actually an overflow of the attitude we have cultivated inside our hearts. Jesus describes this in Luke 6:45: “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.”

CULTIVATING A HUMBLE HEART

Operating from a humble spirit positively affects every aspect of our lives. Thomas Moore describes humility as “that low, sweet root, from which all heavenly virtues shoot.”4 Gaining victory in this area transforms the way we live and respond to all of life’s circumstances. It is impossible to separate the

190 Humility: Unlocking Your Spiritual Potential virtue of humility from any other godly quality you are reaching for. Humility truly is the root that upholds the tree. Without the root, there is no trunk. Without the trunk, there are no branches. And without the branches, there is no fruit! That is why in his accusation against the Pharisees, John the Baptist says, “The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 3:10). There is a direct correlation between our roots (the invisible condition of our heart) and our fruit (the visible production of our life).

If we recognize that the attitude of our heart dramatically impacts the outcome of our life, we should be motivated to improve our inner condition. But how does one go about improving their interior world as they pursue a life of humility? Fortunately, we have been given a perfect example of a man who walked in perfect humility. The starting point of learning how to cultivate a humble heart is to gain a profound revelation of the way Jesus operated in humility. One of the best descriptions of Christ’s humility is found in Philippians 2:3-11:

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in

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appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

It is inconceivable for us to fully understand the depth of humility in which Jesus walked. His incarnation is the most incredible display of humility in all of human history. Jesus existed as the omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God of the universe. Before His incarnation, He dwelled in unlimited dominion: “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:16,17). But instead of rightfully remaining in this position, He made the willful decision to take on human flesh and subject Himself to the limitation and pain of earthly existence. For God to become a man has to be the greatest act of humility ever displayed. Even if Jesus had lived the most luxurious life, with absolute power and control over everything, His incarnation still would have ranked as the most humiliating sacrifice ever endured since the creation of the world. Instead, He came to earth in a startling display of lowliness, beginning with a stable and ending with a cross.

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Since most of us have not experienced the heavenly realm, it is difficult to understand the stark contrast between heaven and earth. But Jesus, having lived since eternity past in this perfect dwelling place, knew of its complete joy and still chose to subject Himself to the agony of this world. He even takes it one step further. Not only does He join us in creation, but He also endures a life filled with trial and pain. Notice how even the foxes and the birds lived in more lavish luxury and physical security than Him: “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head” (Matthew 8:20). Jesus was, and will forever be the king of the universe, yet He lived nothing like a king during His time on earth. He willingly chose to empty Himself and take the form of a bondservant, becoming the perfect model of humility for the rest of creation to follow.

Between Christ’s incarnation and crucifixion, we witness another unbelievable display of His humility. While in the wilderness, after fasting for 40 days and 40 nights, He comes face to face with Satan. After failing to tempt Jesus in two previous situations, Satan decides to go all-in for his final act of deception. “Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; and he said to Him, ‘All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Go, Satan! For it is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.”’ Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him” (Matthew 4:8-11).

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This temptation was unique in that it was in direct correlation with Christ’s ultimate mission. Being a man with a great understanding of the Old Testament’s prophecies, He knew that it was His eternal destiny to rule over all creation. Daniel prophecied this when describing what he saw in a night vision: “I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed” (Daniel 7:13,14).

Jesus understood that this portion of Scripture was prophesying about Him! He knew that one of the chief purposes for His existence was to glorify God in His absolute dominion over creation. The primary temptation that Christ faced here was that Satan was giving Jesus a shortcut to “fulfill” one of His essential missions on earth. For Jesus to deny this path took the utmost humility. He chose to humbly submit to the plan of the Father for His life even though He knew it would lead to great agony and pain. Similarly, we will also face the temptation to take shortcuts en route to our life purpose. When we face these enticements from the enemy, it is of supreme importance that we deny our prideful impulse to do things our way. There can be no compromise here! There is great benefit in humbly submitting ourselves to God’s plan. God’s will, God’s way is the only avenue for real victory and success. It will seem painful at the time, but the end result will be glorious if we remain faithful.

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SUMMITING THE MOUNTAIN OF HUMILITY

Humility is a supernatural character trait. I say it is supernatural because it requires the Holy Spirit’s divine work to walk in Christlike humility. There is no amount of self- discipline or positive thinking that will grant us the power to submit to the yolk of humility that Christ calls us to. Only through the divine hand of God can we experience the reality found in 1 Corinthians 3:18: “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”

If it takes the power of the Holy Spirit to enable us to walk in true humility, are we free to be passive spectators in this process of transformation? May it never be! That is the beauty of our relationship with Jesus. He wants a partnership with His people to accomplish His will, both in our lives and in His grand plan for all humanity. Mike Bickle, the director of the International House of Prayer, accurately describes this divine partnership:

God will not do our part and we cannot do His part. Our part includes making quality decisions to deny ourselves (say no to sin), to feed our spirit on the Word, to ask for God’s help through prayer with fasting, and to embrace godly activities and relationships (fellowship, confessing), etc. God’s part is to release supernatural influences on our heart (power, wisdom, desires), body (healing), circumstances (provision, protection, direction) and relationships (favor).5

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Ascending the mountain of humility requires our full surrender to the will of God. Coinciding with that surrender is a setting of our hearts to do all that is necessary to cultivate this attitude in our everyday life. In this, there will be positive activities to embrace and harmful activities to avoid.

Cultivating a humble heart is like tending a garden. God begins by planting the seed of humility in our hearts. Humility is not a natural desire and so for us to even long to walk humbly first requires God to plant that seed of desire in us. Don’t shy away from asking God for more humility in your life and make sure to thank Him when you see it begin to manifest. After the seed is planted, we have a responsibility to weed our garden by removing every form of pride that surfaces in our life. At the same time, we fertilize our garden by enriching our heart’s soil to be a place where growth for the seed of humility is possible. This can be done through spiritual disciplines such as prayer, fasting, solitude, meditating on God’s Word, fellowship with other believers, etc.

But even with a perfectly fertilized and weeded garden, there remains the requirement of the sun and the rain for the seed to grow. These things come from our heavenly Father, who is the only One with the capability to provide them. Out of God’s supernatural provision comes the supernatural development of the seed. We provide a fertile heart for the seed of humility to grow. God releases His supernatural influence on the seed to enable growth. The grace of God is then magnified as He supernaturally turns the seed into a plant that bears the fruit of humility.

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We must differentiate between our part of the process and God’s part. Roadblocks to humility will come if we try to do what only God can do or when we are not faithful to do what He is calling us to do. Only in agreement with His perfect partnership are we able to obtain success in this arena. Paul uses this same metaphor of a growing seed as He rebukes the Corinthian church for attributing the work of God to men:

For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not mere men? What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building (1 Corinthians 3:4-9).

THE JOY SET BEFORE US

Living a life of humility requires constant surrender to God and denial of our flesh. Our greatest temptation is to focus only on the moment of painful surrender with no consideration of the joy that will be obtained through our faithful submission to God. In any trial or temptation, the devil will try to get us to only focus on the difficulties that present themselves in real-time. He knows that if he can keep us focused on the pain of self-denial, he can lead us into self-

197 Forever Starts Now destruction. Choosing the humble path will inevitably be challenging to our natural instincts. In this temptation, we aim to follow the example of Jesus and endure the trial focusing on the joy set before us. This example is highlighted in Hebrews 12:1-3:

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

This “end-game” thinking is powerful. Often, we fall into alluring sin because we forget about the joy that would result from being faithful in our obedience. In our battle against a prideful spirit, this long-term thinking has the power to help us endure in humility. The key is to not focus on our self- denial but instead to remain focused on the reward of a humble spirit. If we remain faithful, the pain of surrendering our pride will submit to the joy of walking in humility.

After working this muscle over and over again, something amazing will begin to happen. We will experience a spiritual transformation where we start to be formed into the image of Christ. “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face,

198 Humility: Unlocking Your Spiritual Potential beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:17, 18). This spiritual formation is so precious, for it is the place where our desires begin to align with God’s desires.

At first, our decisions to respond to issues in humility will be difficult. In this season, we are experiencing a paradigm shift where we learn not to submit to our natural reaction of pride hastily. Instead, we make the conscious decision to move in the opposite spirit. But be encouraged; the more that you practice responding to life’s circumstances in humility, the easier and more natural it will come for you. In every act of obedience, we get the opportunity to partner with the Holy Spirit in the process of renewing our mind (Romans 12:2). Over time it becomes natural for us to respond to a circumstance in a spirit of humility instead of pride. No doubt, there will always be situations where we are tempted to feed our prideful appetite. Our great hope remains that the more we surrender our hearts to walking in humility, the weaker the temptation to respond in pride becomes.

The revelation of joyful obedience combined with our heart and mind’s consistent transformation is necessary to succeed in this virtue. Above all, the desire to please God in all respects will help us sustain this life of humility. Like the loving discipline of the Lord, our struggle in choosing humility “for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness (Hebrews 12:11). I challenge you to join me in the great

199 Forever Starts Now adventure of ascending the mountain of humility. It will not be easy, but it will be worth it! Remember that you are never alone in this, for Jesus Himself promises to be “with you always, even to the end of the age.”

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CHAPTER 12

Eternity in Our Midst

A fish would never be happy living on land, because it was made for water. An eagle could never feel satisfied if it wasn’t allowed to fly. You will never feel completely satisfied on earth, because you were made for more. You will have happy moments here, but nothing compared with what God has planned for you. Realizing that life on earth is just a temporary assignment should radically alter your values. Eternal values, not temporal ones, should become the deciding factors for your decisions. As C.S. Lewis observed, “All that is not eternal is eternally useless.” ~ Rick Warren1

To understand the true value of time, it is necessary to perceive how small our time is on earth compared to the grandness of eternity. “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away” (James 4:14). One’s mortal life span can be deceiving. We evaluate our lives and are tricked into believing that we have an immeasurable amount of time to accomplish what we wish. But the truth of the matter is, in light of the timelessness of eternity, our mortal existence is but a blink of an eye. Comprehending that

201 Forever Starts Now life is but a moment is the first step of valuing the time God has given us.

The decisions that you make during this brief stay on earth will affect the outcome of your eternal destiny. Thus, eternity is actually in our midst. Every action has an eternal consequence. Every word you say, every step you take, every moment you breathe will result in either an eternal reward or an eternal punishment. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10). Thanks to the forgiveness bought for us by the blood of our Savior, we have grace in the light of even our darkest iniquity. If we humbly come before Him and repent from our heart, He will forgive us our every wrong (1 John 1:9). But in all this, it is key to understand that we are held accountable for every second wasted on meaningless pleasures. The thought that terrifies me the most is that I might approach the end of my life and look back with regret at the time I have exhausted. To stand before the judgement seat of Christ and know in my heart that my destiny was not fulfilled because I squandered hours each day would be devastating. This is a healthy fear as I derive encouragement from it to pursue the vision God has bestowed upon me.

LIVING IN THE NOW

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in

202 Eternity in Our Midst business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. ~ James 4:13, 14

My reason for dwelling on every deed’s eternal consequence is not to cause shame concerning the sins of your past. Nor is it my desire to incite fear about being perfect every moment of your future existence. My goal is to have you concentrate on the weight of your life in the present. So often Christians are bogged down by the sins of their past. They go about day by day feeling unworthy and ashamed of what they did the day before. While on the other hand, some are distracted by the victories of their past accomplishments and derive purpose from the achievements of long ago.

Then we have the people who spend the majority of their time thinking about what their future will look like. They plan, worry, and waste precious time thinking about the things to come. Jesus warns us, “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34). I am not suggesting to never look at our past, for in doing so we are able to consider our shortcomings and learn from them to produce future fruit. It is also valuable to plan out the future direction in which God is calling you, so you avoid squandering hours on pursuing activity unrelated to your destiny. But in both instances, we must be on guard to avoid dwelling so much in the past or future that we lose our present moment of existence. To focus our energy on doing all that we can for the Lord in this very moment is one of the most valuable disciplines we can learn. Our present existence is the only time that is real. The past is

203 Forever Starts Now lost, the future is not guaranteed, but living in the present will be the only way to truly make a difference in this life. Every moment is the best moment to release the love of God and begin our journey to change the course of history. So I urge you, do not waste these precious seconds that God has so graciously provided, right here, right now!

LIVING WITHOUT REMORSE

To be saved at a young age is a fantastic blessing. Those granted this gift have been able to spend the majority of their life in relationship with the Lord. For those who have found God later in life, they may feel regret for the many years of rebellion against God. At times I have been tempted to believe that I have somehow missed out because I have not experienced some of the pleasures of this world. This is foolishness. These temporal pleasures do not stand the test of time and only end in pain and regret. In the following paragraph you will read a story told by John Piper that has really touched my heart concerning this matter. As you read, I ask that you would try to identify with the old man. Feel his sorrow, regret, and pain for spending the majority of his life chasing foolishness. My prayer is that this story would be a safeguard for you to remember how precious each moment is and how blessed we are to know God at this stage of our life.

For me as a boy, one of the most gripping illustrations my fiery father used was the story of a man converted in old age. The church had prayed for this man for decades. He was hard and resistant. But this time, for some

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reason, he showed up when my father was preaching. At the end of the service, during a hymn, to everyone’s amazement he came and took my father’s hand. They sat down together on the front pew of the church as the people were dismissed. God opened his heart to the Gospel of Christ, and he was saved from his sins and given eternal life. But that did not stop him from sobbing and saying, as the tears ran down his wrinkled face—and what an impact it made on me to hear my father say this through his own tears—“I’ve wasted it! I’ve wasted it!”

This was the story that gripped me more than all the stories of young people who died in car wrecks before they were converted—the story of an old man weeping that he had wasted his life. In those early years God awakened in me a fear and a passion not to waste my life. The thought of coming to my old age and saying through tears, “I’ve wasted it! I’ve wasted it!” was a fearful and horrible thought to me.2

The notion that we would be able to live a life without regret is a bit outlandish. In our fallen state we are liable to make plenty of mistakes along the way. These regrets, though unavoidable, are controllable to a degree.

To best illustrate this, I would like to lead you through a brief exercise. Begin by focusing on the end of your life. Now none of us know when that will be or exactly how that will look, but for the sake of example, imagine yourself late into your years, reclining in a rocking chair on the front porch. As you sway back and forth, thinking back on your life, what do you

205 Forever Starts Now suppose you will regret? Will it be the super bowl party you couldn’t attend that one year? Or maybe it is the sitcom that you missed on Wednesday night because you were begrudgingly attending a Bible study? Or perhaps you will regret not spending enough time at work, not checking up enough on Facebook, or not taking enough vacations? No, we are not going to regret the temporal, fleshly pleasures that we missed out on. Instead it will be the plethora of hours wasted and squandered which will bring about remorse. I believe great dread will fall on those who look at that time in light of what could have been accomplished for the Kingdom of God. But what are you to do? It is not like you can turn back time and do this life over again. Well . . . here is the gift! For most of you reading this, you are not at the end of your life. You still have many years to come. There is still hope to change all these potential future regrets. Rejoice! There is still hope. But we must be fervent. We must not compromise and back down. No matter how many mistakes we make, we must pick ourselves back up, or better yet cry out to God to lift us up, and carry on our pursuit toward Christ with reckless abandonment. The choice still remains to erase years of regret in our future by making changes in how we live our life now. Don't let this precious life slip away from you. Treasure every moment given to you by God and use it for the furtherance of His glory.

DON’T WASTE YOUR LIFE

One of the paramount objectives of this book is to encourage you to not waste your life. It is critical to remember that our

206 Eternity in Our Midst days on earth are numbered (Job 14:5). I cry out with David in his prayer, “Lord, make me to know my end and what is the extent of my days; let me know how transient I am. Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing in Your sight” (Psalm 39:4, 5). Though this life is but a blip on the radar of eternity, it holds in it eternal significance. From the greatest memorable moments to the most mundane tasks, each second is an opportunity to affect eternity. We must be determined to not let a moment slip by in vanity but be vigilant on focusing every minute to glorify the Lord. To lose a day, an hour, a minute, or even a second to pursue something that is not eternally significant is an utter waste.

Though this endeavor may pose a great challenge, we realize “with people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). Through His mighty power working in us and a fierce determination on our part to focus our lives for His glory, we are able to make great strides in how we manage out time.

We began our journey by looking at the Scriptures to see what God calls successful. In this process, we learned that man’s view and God’s view of a successful life is very different. We saw the value of living a life fully consecrated to God so that we would one day receive the eternal rewards He has promised us. With this in mind, we then took some time to discover God’s vision for our life. Next, we determined to examine our life and our own use of time. Avoiding self- condemnation we were able to see our personal pitfalls by taking a step back and getting a big picture look at our

207 Forever Starts Now schedules. From this point of examination we launched ourselves into action by seeking the Lord for guidance concerning our present season of life. We set broad priorities and then systematically set goals to achieve success in these areas. Finally we arrived at the critical moment of putting our plan into action. Through learning the keys of developing a maintainable schedule we began to truly order our minutes to achieve what is most important to us.

Tools such as time blocking, creating to-do lists, eliminating distractions, and limiting context switching have proved very useful in this process. These are some of the practical helps we are able to implement while partnering with Jesus to make the best use of our time. While all of this is important we also realize the ultimate shortcoming of relying on tools, steps, and strategies to reach our end goal. Just as the Scribes and Pharisees were unable to earn salvation through their earnest desire to obey the law, we too are unable to rely on a mere system to get us where we want to be. Following God is so much more than that and without giving our entire life to Him, we will always fall short of success. So while we play our role in positioning our lives to seek God in every moment, we are utterly aware that it is God who is in control. Only from this mindset are we able to see transformation in how we use our time.

Though so much more could be written on this topic, I have chosen to leave you with a portion of a prayer by one of the greatest teachers in my life. In his book, Don’t Waste Your Life, Pastor John Piper concludes with this cry for the people

208 Eternity in Our Midst of God to not approach life with negligence, but instead to value each and every second.

And now shall we who treasure Christ and know your love is better far than life lay up, like all the world, our treasures on this earth? Would not we hear you say, as you once said, “Fool, will not this same night your soul be taken back? And then whose will these barns of bounty be?” Forbid, O Lord, that while the world is filled with need we would sit down and say, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” A terrible reversal awaits such lovelessness. “Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.” We tremble at the words you spoke once to the heartless rich: “Remember in your lifetime you received good things, and that poor man, beside your door, received the pain; but now the great reversal comes, and he has comfort here, while you lie there in anguish.”

O God, such riches are a wasted life. Protect us, Lord. Grant us to hear and heed another call: “Lay up your treasure not on earth, but in the place where moth and thief will never come. Make treasures for yourself that cannot fail.” But then we ask, “What treasures, Lord?” We see you smile. “I am your Treasure and your great Reward. I am your food, your drink, your festal garments and your everlasting gain. I am your life and your all-satisfying Joy.”3

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Notes

CHAPTER 1 1HELPS Word Studies - Copyright © 1987, 2011 by Helps Ministries, Inc. 2See the chapter titled “Discerning Your Life Vision.” In this chapter I break down how to discern God’s calling for your life.

CHAPTER 2 1 Alcorn, Randy. “The Treasure Principle.” New York: Multnomah, 2017. 2 There is an aspect of God’s glory that is separate from us. Being the uncreated author of the universe is something that we cannot relate with. Though we become partakers in the divine nature we are not divine in the same sense of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There will forever be a form of God’s glory that is ascribed only to Himself, “I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another” (Isaiah 42:8).

CHAPTER 3 1 Seneca, On the Shortness of Life (New York: Penguin Group, 1997), 1-2. 2 Mike Bickle, “The Power of a Focused Life” (sermon), August 22, 2014, accessed January 24, 2016, http://mikebickle.org/resources/resource/3585?return_url=http%3 A%2F%2Fmikebickle.org%2Fresources%2Fseries%2Fthe-power- of-a-focused-life-2/. 3 Ibid. 4 Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth am I Here For? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002), 318. 5 Mike Bickle, “The Power of a Focused Life.”

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6 Victor e. Frankl, “Victor E. Frankl Quotes,” Brainy Quote (website), accessed January 24, 2016, http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/v/viktor_e_frankl.htm l#Cjve452B4Y7RGSmu.99/. 7 Kris Vallotton, School of the Prophets; Advanced Training for Prophetic Ministry, accessed January 24, 2016, https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/41951437-school-of-the- prophets-advanced-training-for-prophetic-ministry/. 8 Mike Bickle, “The Power of a Focused Life.” 9 Ibid.

CHAPTER 4 1 Joanna Weaver, Having a Mary Spirit: Allowing God to Change Us From the Inside Out (Colorado Springs: WaterBrook Press, 2006), 3. 2 This attempt to illustrate eternity finds further fault in that it has a starting point. In reality, the figure should have an arrow pointing both ways for eternity has no actual beginning or end. I have chosen to display the figure as such to represent what most of us can remember as the beginning of our conscious existence.

CHAPTER 5 1 Brother Lawrence, “The Practice of the Presence of God,” Goodreads (website), accessed February 18, 2016, https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/2133549-the-practice-of- the-presence-of-god 2 A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God (Camp Hill: Christian Publications, Inc., 1993), 11. 3 Ravi Zacharias, “Reading: The Fingerprints on Your Soul” (online article), December 15, 2003, accessed February 2, 2016, http://rzim.org/just-thinking/reading-the-fingerprints-on-your- soul/. 4 Ravi Zacharias. “Reading: The Fingerprints on Your Soul.”

218 Notes

5 Please note my emphasis on “minor theological doctrines.” I would never suggest any compromise in major theological premises such as: the Trinity, the perfection of Christ, the virgin birth, salvation by faith in Christ, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, etc. The minor theological areas I am referring to in this section do not alter the foundations of the Christian faith. 6 Ravi Zacharias. “Reading: The Fingerprints on Your Soul.” 7 Mother Teresa, Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the “Saint of Calcutta” ed. Brian Kolodiejchuk (New York: Doubleday, 2007), 270. 8 For a more in depth look at disciplines that position a person for a holy life see the book Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster. 9 Mike Bickle with Dana Candler. “The Rewards of Fasting: Experiencing the Power and Affections of God” (Kansas City: Forerunner Books, 2005), Electronic Version, 6. 10 Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth (San Francisco: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1978) 28-29. 11 Marc La Porte, “Consider This,” Deurpost Blog, February 11, 2010, accessed January 27, 2016 https://deurpost.wordpress.com/2010/02/11/consider-this/. 12 I suggest listening to the Kansas City International House of Prayer’s live webstream. You can visit www.ihopkc.org/prayerroom/ to hear anointed live worship and prayer sets 24 hours a day. 13 Brother Lawrence, “The Practice of the Presence of God,” Goodreads (website), accessed February 18, 2016, http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/219796-we-should-fix- ourselves-firmly-in-the-presence-of-god 14 Brother Lawrence, “The Practice of the Presence of God,” Goodreads (website), accessed February 18, 2016, https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/2133549-the-practice-of- the-presence-of-god 15 Ibid.

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CHAPTER 7 1 Mike Bickle, “Living Without Regret” (sermon), January 28, 2006, accessed January 29, 2016, http://mikebickle.org/resources/resource/1241/.

CHAPTER 8 1 John Piper, “Christian Hedonism: Forgive the Label, But Don’t Miss the Truth” (article), January 1, 1995, accessed February 1, 2016, http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/christian-hedonism/. 2 This list of spiritual disciplines is not comprehensive. These are simply the disciplines that I wish to highlight as I understand their immense worth to the believer. 3 John Piper, “What Is the Will of God and How Do We Know It” (sermon), August 22, 2004, accessed Fenruary 1, 2016, http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/what-is-the-will-of-god-and- how-do-we-know-it/. 4 I do not have an answer as to whether all dreams are from the Lord. It is my speculation that some dreams have immense value while others are to be disregarded. How to discern one from the other is between you and God. 5 In this section I have decided to focus exclusively on the God’s direct communication with us. There is much to be said about the gift of prophecy and how God speaks through other believers to provide direction to our life.

CHAPTER 9 1 Do not list each activity within your weekly schedule as this will be a major pain to replicate week by week and will overpower most people. Have it listed in a notebook or some other reference that you can view before beginning the activity.

CHAPTER 10 1Alexander Graham Bell, quoted by Stephen Guise, “21 Inspiring Quotes On Focused Living,” Deep Existence (blog), accessed

220 Notes

February 6, 2016, http://deepexistence.com/21-inspiring-quotes- on-focused-living/. 2 Credit is due to Patrick Hill, campus minister with His House at Northwestern Michigan College, for largely influencing me in the area of Time Management. I want to give specific acknowledgement for his wisdom given to me in the area of context switching and warding off distractions. These sections contain some significant insights that I learned under his teaching. 3 Amy Mortenson, “Multitasking is a Productivity Killer: Use Time Blocking,” SPRKD (blog), July 13, 2015, accessed February 2, 2016, http://www.sprk-d.com/blog/multitasking-is-a- productivity-killer-use-time-blocking/. 4 Richard J. Foster, Sanctuary of the Soul: Journey Into Meditative Prayer (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2011), 103-104. 5 Depending on your situation you may need to have some way a significant other can reach you in case of emergency. 6 Jonathan Welton, “Writing Environment,” Welton Academy (website), March 9, 2012, accessed February 4, 2016, http://weltonacademy.com/blogs/jonathanwelton/50132993- writing-environment/. 7 David Allen, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (New York: Penguin Books, 2015), 308 8 I derived this understanding from a teaching by Mike Bickle. I have been unable to locate which teaching it was from

CHAPTER 11 1 “Pride.” Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/pride. 2 Winters, Jeff. “STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART: The Negative Side of Pride.” Stltoday.com, 8 June 2011, www.stltoday.com/suburban-journals/stcharles/opinion/straight- from-the-heart-the-negative-side-of-pride/article_bc6f4081-9b5d- 523a-a60b-971c8aa51d62.html.

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3 Muehlenberg, Bill. “The False Gospel of False Grace.” Culture Watch, 1 Feb. 2015, billmuehlenberg.com/2015/02/01/the-false- gospel-of-false-grace/. 4 Kerpen, Dave. “15 Quotes That Remind Us of The Awesome Power of Humility.” Inc.com, Inc., 8 Oct. 2014, www.inc.com/dave-kerpen/15-quotes-that-remind-us-of-the- awesome-power-of-humility.html. 5 Bickle, Mike. “Discerning Truth and Error about God’s Grace (Part 4).” Forerunner School of Ministry. PDF. https://backup.storage.sardius.media/file/akamaiBackup-ihopkc- 103762/IHOP/772/127/20061110_Discerning_Truth_and_Error_A bout_Gods_Grace_DTE04.pdf

CHAPTER 12 1 Warren, Rick, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth am I Here For? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002), 50. 2 John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2007), PDF e-book, 11-12. 3 Ibid., 186-187.

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