Psalm 144:12-14:
May our sons flourish in their youth like well-nurtured plants.
May our daughters be like graceful pillars, carved to beautify a palace.
May our barns be filled with crops of every kind.
May the flocks in our fields multiply by the thousands, even tens of thousands,and may our oxen be loaded down with produce.
May there be no enemy breaking through our walls, no going into captivity, no cries of alarm in our town squares.

The difference between an adult and child is responsibility. The assumption and acceptance of responsibility will make you grow up fast. Sons and daughters bear the genetic code of the house. They are part of the structure of the house. They provide strength to hold the house up and hold up the people of the house. Daughters and sons take responsibility for the house and serve the house. Whatever is going on in the house, they get into it.
(Read on …)

When you are in the will of God, things are not easy. There is a war going on. Our war cry is that we will build the church. Don’t think that you are in the will of God because everything is going well. Christians go through trials. To be warriors for God we have to be constantly growing through challenges and breaking through obstacles.

Everything I do in life is designed so that I will build the house of God. I want you to own that on the inside as your life theme. That you will build the church. A lot of church members/ministers are out there to tear the church down. We build up, not tear down. God simply wants a full house. The churches that will be full are full because we have compelled people to come in. The difference between a church on fire to a church that isn’t is the same as the difference between uncooked dough and fresh bread. You have to add fire.

In Leviticus, the priest always kept the temple fire burning. We have to have fire and passion in our church. That’s what makes church compelling. People are attracted to fire, to life, to music. Isaiah 64:4 says that God works with those who wait for Him and He meets with those who rejoice. When you become a compelling church you attract not only people but God.

We need to build not only churches but also the people in the churches. We need to create environments that release, not restrict. We want to build the lives and dreams of our members so that they are equipped to go forth and reach the lost - expanding God’s kingdom and building God’s church.

Expanding God’s Kingdom and building God’s church requires vision. We have to have vision. Whatever your vision is, that is where you are going. If you want to go one way, but the train of your thoughts – your vision – is going another way, that is where you will end up. You vision will always determine where you will go.

The great thing about thoughts is that you can change them. Change your vision. See it. Believe it. That is how faith works. It’s called vision. See it. Name it before God.

Genesis 2:8-9: Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. The LORD God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

God planted seed in the ground to plant trees. We can’t have fruit without trees and we can’t have seeds without fruit. God created this cycle and this principle when He created the first seed.

God planted beautiful trees in the garden, and in the center of the garden he placed the tree of life. Jesus – Jesus was meant to be in the middle. “I am the vine and my Father is the gardener.” Christ is the vine, we are the branches, grafted into the vine as we connect to Christ. His seed is planted in us.

God wills it that we all should prosper, multiply and be fruitful. He has given us the ability to bear fruit. Part of the fruit that comes from and is released from our life comes from giving. Our gifts are like seed. When we sow, we create a field of righteousness in our lives. By putting seed in the ground and creating our own garden, our gifts of giving put Christ at the center of our life – our garden. The Bible says where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Our attitude towards giving demonstrates very clearly what is at the center of our garden – our world.

When we plant in the soil of our lives and Christ is at the center, God multiplies our seed. But if we aren’t planting, how can we be fruitful? If we don’t plant, God has nothing to multiply.

Jesus said if you don’t understand this parable – you sow, you reap – you won’t understand any of the other parables or principles of the Kingdom. When we give, we are giving to Christ, the head of our church, the high priest, the center of our garden. The result is fruit and blessing in our lives, as we become fruitful and multiply.

If you want to birth anything, you birth it in PRAYER.

Birthing anything, especially a church, takes commitment and a willingness to serve, whatever the need. There are many “things” that make a church run…not just “your thing”. When someone asks you to do something that is not your thing, that is your moment to choose. Are you going to be a source of division in the church or are you going to help bring that “thing” together?

God used the unlikely to grow the early church. Stephen and Phillip cared for the poor and the widows in the early church. They were the food bringers, not the apostles preaching the gospel to the masses or the ones “on the stage” that everyone noticed.

But, when it came down to it, God used them to bring about an explosion of the faith. Philip birthed a revival in a Gentile land. Stephen’s death inspired Christians to prayer and boldness. God used them because of their hearts, and made them leaders because they were willing to put their pride aside and serve God in whatever way He asked them to. You go nowhere with God if you serve in the house to be seen. If you want to do something in the house, then you need to be prepared to feed the widows.

Being a leader is about taking control and taking people to the next level. It is also about training people up to do that thing that is yours. Good leaders train, empower and release people to do things even better than they do. Thats the only way to grow something.

For example, it is not the pastor’s job to grow the church. It is his job to lead and empower the body so that they can go out, minister, reach others and bring them into the house.

There are 3 main things to look for in a leader:

1-Respect on the inside and outside - Leaders are people that have their lives together. They understand that it isn’t what you do in public that defines who you are. It is how you live your life when no one is watching.

2-Filled with the holy spirit

3-Wisdom - Leaders know its not about the glory of man. They know that when we do things for God to see we will get a glimpse of the glory of God. Thats true leadership

It’s not always about the calling of God; its also about the gifting. God gives us gifts that he wants us to use for Him. If our hearts are right, he will bring us into the full manifestation of those gifts. Don’t get hung up on “your calling.” Just because you are over one ministry, doesn’t mean that you won’t preach the word or reach the world. But you have to be wiling to serve the need now and show God that He has your heart. It’s not about your ministry, it’s about the move of God, and God moves through those whose hearts are open and soft towards Him.

When your heart is soft, you can hear the voice of God and sense the instruction of the Holy Spirit. Understand the voice of the Holy Spirit. Be obedient and move! It’s not about your calling, its about church growth. If you are willing to serve the house, you will find your calling. Once you decide that you are all in, things will begin to happen.

Discover who you are in the house by serving. The most important parts of the body are the ones you can’t see. The heart carries the body, which is the church.

No matter what we’re going after, its always helpful to do it with other people. When we first become Christians, we don’t know a lot about Christ or His word. As we begin to grow, we want to find out more.

As we get stronger, people attach themselves to our strength and we take them on the journey. As the kingdom of God is revealed to the earth through the church, we are on a journey of growth. James says for us to appreciate the trials we go through because that is part of our growth. Not many of us will have our faith tested by living or dying like the New Testament saints did. That’s not to downplay our testing, but we just need to keep it in perspective.

Sometimes things go on around our life that we have no control over, and our only answer is to trust God. When we can’t work it out in our brain or see the answer, all we have left is our trust in God. Trusting in God starts with small steps of faith. Sometimes even just coming to God’s house requires trust. There is always something that is just beyond our reach that God will ask of us. That is right where God wants us, because all we can do is trust Him. Doing anything else will take us AWAY from where we want to go. There’s only one move we can make and that’s to go forward.

Jesus required something of the people that He healed (spit in the mud, the woman that touched His garment). When we read about miracles, the person that is getting healed is always involved in the miracle. Jesus could have instantly turned the water pots into wine. He could have just laid hands on whoever He wanted and they would have been healed. But he wanted them to take part of their own miracles. Faith without action is like a rocket without fuel. We move, God moves.

Luke 17:11 - If you were a leper, you were an outcast. In the Bible, leprosy can often represent sin. When there is sin in our life, we can’t connect to God because He is pure and holy and can’t fellowship with sin.

Jesus told the lepers to go and show themselves to the priest. In the Torah, if lepers were healed, the first thing that they had to do was to show themselves to the priest so that they could do a ritual. Jesus was speaking to them as if they were already healed - the only way that they could go to see the priest was if they were healed. So, the lepers WENT to the temple…and as they WENT, they were HEALED! They moved and God moved. That is the way that God works.

When we hear about a promise, we have to move towards God. We have to believe by moving, and God moves with us. We can’t find what God has for us unless we move. Do what you can do, so that God can do what you CAN’T do. It will take boldness and a huge trust factor, but we just have to start moving.

When we are standing still, God has no power in our lives. When we move, we unleash the power of heaven, and the supernatural power of God. Faith isn’t complicated: it just requires action on our part. No matter where we want to go, we have to just start moving. We move, God moves - bottom line. We are going to live our lives by making moves. Will we make bad choices? Yes. But don’t let your pride get in the way of turning around and moving again.

In the area of Reach, we are all making sacrifices. We will keep moving towards the new building through our commitments. This is a faith move and something that will build our family.