Learning as I go

How is everyone doing? My name is William, and I’m new here. This blog is going to be geared towards Christian living; the journey, the struggles, the blessings, the lessons, and everything between! As I mentioned above, I am relatively new to blogging and this is going to be a learning experience for me. With that being said, if you have suggestions, ideas, or input do not hesitate to give me feedback 🙂. Until the next post, be blessed! I look forward to hearing from you; and seeing you back here the next time!

I am convinced

If you won’t be, I’ll be honest for all of us.

This life is hard… Life is hard as a sinner, life is hard as a believer, the Christian walk is hard… 

All those “unanswered” prayers, the hurts, the confusion…

We struggle with faith… We struggle to believe… We don’t know how to reach the lost… We don’t have answers for them… 

Where is God? Why isn’t he answering?

Do you want the truth? If not you’re on the wrong blog… I’m not going to scratch itching ears… I’m not going to sugar-coat things…

The church is missing it… We are so consumed with our own ambitions that we can’t truly see… 

Why do you pray? Is it so God will move solely on your situations? Is it to do away with disbelief by asking for signs to prove the existence and goodness of God? 

What happened to faith?

As you begin to move in faith towards God, and do not rely on the physical senses to show you a spiritual God, and you operate in true faith, he will begin to make himself more obvious to you… It will become so that faith truly is the evidence of things not seen; as they will become seen.

Seek first the Kingdom of God… Stop looking for God with your flesh… Seek him with your spirit… That is the only way this will all make sense and work… Look with your spirit, not your eyes… Trust with your spirit not your heart… 

I am convinced, yes thoroughly, that no matter where we go God is there… He is waiting for us to stop doubting, to stop striving, to simply believe…

I am convinced that by faith all things are possible… That we will so encounter him that we will no longer rely solely on faith, but on the very word and presence of God himself…

Now God, I pray that every person who reads this will have an encounter with you that will change the way they view faith. I pray a supernatural increase of faith in their lives to overflow God, that they no longer doubt, that they realize that faith isn’t simply walking blindly but rather to encounter your Spirit in a way that causes them to see that which is unseen.

Learning to walk

Sometimes God seems far away. It is hard for our finite, human, minds to understand this. However, this is a necessary part of faith and growing to maturity in Christ. Think about it this way, for those of us who have kids, when will are teaching them to walk we hold their hands for a while; and then we start letting go at some point. As we begin this “removing our hands from their” they fall down a few times, they freeze up and just stand there sometimes, but eventually they start to walk on their own! Same thing when their learning to ride a bike… They start with training wheels, then we remove the training wheels… We hold onto the bicycle and run along side them, and then we give them a push and let them go… Trust God in the process, know that when it seems like he’s not “holding you hand” that he is trying to help you grow and learn to walk on your own!

Got power?

​For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

Philippians 2:13 NLT

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So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.

Galatians 5:1 NLT

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What pleases God? 

• Does going to church every Sunday please Him?
• Does going through the motions in prayer make him happy?
• What about telling people we will put them on our prayer list?
• Never reaching out to the lost?

And…

Are you truly free in Christ?

• Is your church the only ones going to heaven?
• Can you cut your hair as a woman?
• Grow a beard as a man?
• Do you have to wear certain clothes?
• Only sing from a hymn book?
• Maybe the only true Bible is the King James Version?

As followers of Christ we have been set free from sin and death; and given a ability to do the things that please God. 

God doesn’t get pleasure out of our half-hearted worship, or our powerless prayers that are really just us going through the motions. When you pray do you actually believe God hears you? Do you believe he will answer? Or are you just doing it because “you’re supposed to”? 

Our hearts should seek God above all else. When we are in communion with him, prayer is no longer a have to with no results, it becomes our most powerful weapon on the face of the Earth. Able to set the captives free and tear down every form of deception the enemy manifests.

We read in the New Testament where Jesus told the Pharisees that they were keeping the people in bondage, and holding them to standards that no one could uphold. Many of the churches today are not to far from that… 

I have seen so many people, in the church, lost, hurting, in bondage, and even headed for hell. Freedom is not being told by a church that you you have to dress a certain way, only use certain Bibles, that the red book or white book is the only true worship, or that your church/denomination is the only ones who are gonna make it, and the list goes on and on. 

Jesus died to set us free! We are not meant to pass from death in sin to death in the church! The bondages that many are oppressed by in church houses is not of God, and lead to spiritual death; thereby passing from death to life back to death!

God is tearing down denominational walls! Annihilating the deceptions that have caused so much pain, strife, and division! Breaking every man made yoke that has held His people in bondage and prevented them from experiencing true freedom in Christ!

Who turned off the lights

If we’re honest, there is not one Christian who is continually on the mountain.

There are always going to be valleys that we have to go through; if we didn’t how would we ever grow spiritually?

And sometimes, what we think is a valley really isn’t. There are calls, anointings, giftings, and graces upon all of our lives. God put them there, he intended those for each of us before we were even born. 

Here’s the thing. How many of you experienced some supernatural gifting or anointing, for no matter how long, and then it seemed as though overnight it just went away? 

Probably all of us.

The good news is that God is trying to teach you something. When you first began operating in those capacities, God was turning it on for you. Once you become more familiar with the giftings/anointings God basically turns the light switch off and it’s time for you to begin turning it on and off for yourself.

If you are in a season where you are wondering, “what happened”, take heart it’s going to be ok.

Seek God first, he should always be number one; but then begin to all him to teach you. All him for wisdom and discernment concerning the times that those gifts are to be activated, and what it takes to turn it on. Most times it’s really as simple as just seeing the correct timing and then walking into it with trust in God.

Do not be discouraged, just continue to seek God and he will never let you down.

Desperate pursuit

Do you long for God?

Do you long for the call of God to burn in you?

Do you desire to hear His voice?

To see His face?

Does your heart long for His lost sheep to be found?

What about to suffer for Christ?

When we lay down our lives, and allow the Spirit of God to work in our lives the will of the Father becomes our desire.

God longs for us to seek after Him.

Think of that song:

I want you to want me

I need you to need me

I’d love you to love me

God is there, just waiting… Waiting for us to put aside the cares of the world, our personal agendas, our self-centered reasons for praying, the fear and doubts, anything that would complete for our attention from God.

Seek His face, His heart, and don’t worry about the rest. If you desire a true relationship with Him over anything else, including the things that would come from Him, the other stuff will come…

God bless-

William

Thanks giving

It’s that time of year again. Thanksgiving. We get busy preparing our plans for friends and loved ones to arrive, or us to go to them, cook big feast, and spend a day or two together.

But are we really thankful? Do we really give thanks? 

Maybe we say a prayer over the food, and even thank God in the prayer for His blessings through the year. But does it stop there? Do we give any more thought to the true blessings that the Lord has given us after that prayer? Or do we did into the bountiful feast and then start thinking about the parade, and the football games, and everything that we don’t have that we want to run out and buy on Black Friday and Cyber Monday? 

This Thanksgiving, I want to encourage you to really give thanks and be appreciative of all that God has and will do for you. 

Also, think of the ones who do not have family, or someone to share this day with. Maybe invite someone over to share in your THANKSgiving that otherwise would not have the opportunity to be around others. All those leftovers that will honestly never get eaten, give some away to people who are hungry.

Enjoy your time with friends and family this season, and above all truly be thanks giving.

Love you all and God bless!

Getting old

I got an email from WordPress today. It tells me that it has been one month since Shelter91 came into existence. It really doesn’t seem like it’s been a month.

On this one-month-aversery I want to ask, how has the Lord encouraged or challenged you through the posts here so far? 

Also, what would you like to see in the days to come? As I stated in my last entry, I am still trying to find direction, so to speak, and at the same time I would like to listen to the voice of the readers.

God has been speaking to me more and more recently, and I do believe there are some specific things that He wants released, I’m just looking for His timing.

In the meantime, share your input; thoughts, opinions, concerns, testimonies of how God is using you, ask questions whatever the Lord leads. 

God bless!

Living for God is hard, blogging is harder

Who has ever heard, “Just give your life to God, and all your problems will go away!” or some variant of that? I’m sure that most, if not all of us have… Maybe we’ve even been the one who was leading someone to God and we, out of good intentions, made a similar statement.

I can not remember if this was said to me before I came to God, however there seems to be this resonance in me that I had heard it before… 

As I began reading the Word and walking out this life in Christ I began to realize that this statement just wasn’t true, no matter how well intended it may be when said.

The good news is that even though we will face trials, struggles, adversity, hardship, and pain God is ALWAYS right there with us. He promises that he will never leave or forsake us, and that we are more than conquerers in Christ Jesus! 

He tells us to cast our cares upon him, to lay our struggles before him, and that he will go before us. What must not rely on our own understanding, but trust completely in the Lord.

I’m still seeking his guidance for this blog. Finding a “niche” and staying in it is easier said than done, it would seem. I know that evangelism burns in my heart, and the great commission is very near and dear to The Lord’s heart, however I wonder how many post one can do on this without simply becoming a broken record.

My main goal in life, in ministry, is simply to see the captives set free, the lost saved, and God’s people to find liberty, and a fresh fire from the Spirit of God. 

So concerning Shelter91, it is an ongoing process just as our walk with God. My prayer is that no matter what facet of Christian content may be posted, no matter how many fancy pictures, or clever anecdotes may be in these writings that you are blessed and that you experience growth in your spiritual life; and the lost get saved. 

As always, thank you for stopping in! Make sure to subscribe, share, and leave a comment! If you need anything let me know! God bless!

What will you do with it?

I pray that through the last several posts on the main through obstacles to walking out The Great Commission that God blessed you and gave you something to run with. 

In those three readings we learned that:

• Lack of knowledge
• Not knowing how
• And fear

Are the struggles most are faced with.

I know that it can be intimidating the first time, or even the first several times that we step out and ask someone, “Do you know Jesus?” However, I’m here to tell you that once you get out there and start spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ it is worth the discomfort the first few times! 

When you see people’s lives impacted by the glory of The Lord, and souls saved from eternal hell fire it is like nothing else! Your spirit will leap inside of you, a desire to reach the Nations begins to burn in you, and you realize that this is so special.

I need you to understand that just because someone does not make a decision to give their life to God at the moment you talk to them does not mean that you have failed. Paul told us that someone plants the seed and someone waters the seed, he then says that it is God who causes it to grow.

 In another place Jesus says: 

You know the saying, ‘Four months between planting and harvest.’ But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest. The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike! You know the saying, ‘One plants and another harvests.’ And it’s true. I sent you to harvest where you didn’t plant; others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest.

John 4:35-38

You may be the one to plant, or the one to water, or the one to harvest; just remember God makes the seed grow! Either way, you are not a failure! You have done what you were called to do! 

As the Lord leads, I will continue to share with you more on this invaluable subject. I want to share a few great tools that I have personally used and have found to make things a little easier. 

Pocket Testament League

Fellowship Tract League 

Both of these websites offer free tracts that you can use in your work for the Kingdom. Pocket testament league offers high quality gloss cover pocket Gospel of John, these are by far my favorite! Fellowship tract league have your traditional tracts that we have all seen laying on a park bench or the sink in Wal Mart 🙂 and they are great tools as well! 

Each will help in giving an open door to speak with people and share your story. It also leaves them with something tangible to take with them as they leave. You can write your name, phone number, your pastor’s name and number, or whatever God leads you to on these life-changing pieces of material so that the person you witness to can follow up with someone if they need or want to.

If you have any questions, concerns, suggestions, feedback please do not hesitate to let me know! 

As always, thank you for stopping in! Make sure to subscribe, share, and leave a comment! If you need anything let me know! God bless!

But I’m scared

Alright, it’s time to discuss the last obstacle that most face when considering evangelism!

This is a big one right?

Rather it is fear of failure, or persecution, or being mocked, or whatever it may be that strikes that heart racing, nauseating panic whenever you think about sharing your faith, fear is probably the number one reason why we fail to share the Gospel.

I want to encourage you in the Lord that the fear you experience is a lie of the enemy! It’s not real! If the enemy can convince you that you are legitimately afraid, for whatever reason, then he can stop you from reaching out to the lost. 

There are going to be people that you encounter in life that only you can witness to. And if you don’t speak life and grace into their lives they will be lost forever.

Just think about that for a minute… Really let it sink in… 

Paul said: 

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord.

2 Timothy 1:7‭-‬8 NLT

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And Jesus said: 

“I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.  Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:18‭-‬20 NLT

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*Emphasis added

The two parts that you need to grab hold of and run with are 

1. Jesus gave us ALL authority in heaven and on Earth
2. He is with us ALWAYS

Now, if we believe the Bible, and more specifically Jesus, then in this one little section He is telling us there is nothing to fear!

I believe that God will use you! Stand up, declare the Word of God, and go win souls for the Kingdom of God! 

As always, thank you for stopping in! Make sure to subscribe, share, and leave a comment! If you need anything let me know! God bless!