February 11, 2011
DREAM BIG
What an incredible start to the year!
Synergy was phenomenal and represented a significant shift in the heart of our Church!..
We saw a creative team that rose up to a whole new level and blew people away with explosive praise, passionate worship, inspirational media & most of all, with big warm, open hearts! I am so proud of how our team stepped up in such a significant way. Proving that what God has in-store for the shire is safe in your hands!
SO DREAM BIG IN 2011
1.Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. 2 See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you. 3 Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. Isaiah 60
People are starting to dream big again and are letting the desire that God has planted in their hearts grow. I believe that this year God wants to work our our confidence as individuals and as a team.. To know that what he has given us is Valuable and worth our very best efforts! To be proud of who he is, how he has made us & what he wants to do through us!
None of us have to serve.. but we choose to do it because we Love God and What to see him praised and Glorified through what we do creatively.. SO LETS GIVE HIM OUR VERY BEST
I see a team in 2011 who step up and own the direction of OUR TEAM.. and look for ways to contribute and build into the strength of OUR TEAM
Creative will only ever be as good as..
WE Dream it (not I)
WE Plan it (not I)
WE Make it (not I)
I need you as individuals to STEP up and own OUR team. make it bigger and better.
SO, ask yourself these questions:
WHAT can I contribute in 2011?
How can I step up to what God has for me within the team?
and whats stoping me!
WHEN DREAMING BIG, Watch your focus!
With all this in mind, when working towards something “BIG” It is very easy to become so consumed with what we are seeing with our natural vision that we fail to see what is happening in the spiritual realm. I love how Paul puts it in; 2 Corinthians 4:18: ...So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Frustratingly, when we start to think big, and start to work towards something greater, all the critical people in the world suddenly show up in our life!... SO, you need to Watch your focus!
Don’t focus on your natural ability, or allow others to cap your dreams.. but focus on God’s ability through you!
The bible is full of examples of God doing extraordinary things through very ordinary people. His concern is not so much with our natural ability, but our heart attitude and willingness to yield our lives to him.
Ps 147:10 in the Message paraphrase says: He’s not impressed with horse power; the size of our muscles means little to him. Those who fear GOD get GOD’s attention; they can depend on his strength. While we are depending on our own strength we will always be limited to our natural ability. Instead our dependence must be on God’s ability as he works behind the scenes on our behalf!
James 4:10 puts it well – When you bow down before the Lord and admit your dependence on him, he will lift you up and give you honour.
When reading numbers 13 recently I was reminded of how quickly a negative opinions can rip people off from Gods best
1Then the LORD spoke to Moses saying, 2 Send out for yourself men so that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I am going
to give to the sons of Israel; you shall send a man from each of their fathers’ tribes, every one a leader among them.
3So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran at the command of the LORD, all of them men who were heads of the sons of Israel.
So Moses sends out 12 choice leaders to spy out the Land that God has promised them.. (that God says he will give)
The Spies’ Reports
25 When they returned from spying out the land, at the end of forty days,
26 they proceeded to come to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; and they brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.
27 Thus they told him, and said, We went in to the land where you sent us; and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.
28 Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there.
29 Amalek is living in the land of the Negev and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites are living in the hill country, and the Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side of the Jordan.
30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it.
31 But the men who had gone up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.
32 So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, “The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size.
33 There also we saw the Nephilim and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.
Our tendency is to look at ourselves though natural eyes. We limit ourselves based on our own perceived ability. The spies made the same mistake when scouting the promised land in Numbers 13. They said that they felt like grasshoppers in their own eyes, and yet as far as God was concerned, the land was already theirs – it was just a matter of taking it!!
Watch the negative voices that say it cant be done..
After the spies negative report.. the people listened to their opinion rather than the promise of God and it lead them to Crumble, Complain and Rebel against Moses.. It ended up that the only people to enter the promised land were the ones who believed it could be done despite the challenges..
God can take our smallest offering and talent and do so much more than we can imagine with it.
Ultimately the difference between success and failure is only in your attitude..
feel free to chat to me about what God is speaking to you about in 2011 and lets work together on making that dream a reality
Ps Gary
