Leap of Faith

This year we were awarded a whole extra day of the year to work/play/pray/sleep/whatever! It just so happened that this leap day was  a BEAUTIFUL day in Texas (see picture --->), so our extra day was quite a blessing. We wanted to use this extra day as an opportunity to take a LEAP of faith. We felt like a leap of faith entailed praying and asking God what he wanted us to do - a challenge of sorts - and then doing it! We wanted to get out of our boxes and allow God to ask anything of us.

While praying all month about our leap of faith, we've been simultaneously praying about a vision for our church and in our personal lives. It's not surprising that these things we've been praying about coincide.

You might know a little of our history but I'll give you a refresher if you don't. My dad was the pastor of our small church for about 20 years when my husband felt the call through countless prophetic words that he was to be a preacher and that his ministry was in partnership with my dad. At that time, my dad started handing the ministry over to my husband and training him along the way. My dad is a smart man who hears from God regularly so we trust him and have been following in his footsteps for about 5 years now. While my dad's vision is great and his life is full of purpose, we felt like we needed a vision of our own to carry out with our church family. Not a different vision or a vision that contradicts my dad's, but one that complements and helps carry out his vision - kind of like a relay race when they hand off the baton.

In both aspects of our lives, church and home, we've felt the insatiable need to take ownership of our promises. We desperately want to carry out the things God has promised us and to change the lives of our people. Through our passions and vision from God, we now know we want to take possession of what's been promised. What does that look like? The battle cry of the generation before us was to hear the voice of the Lord and to answer the cry for freedom and they've won that battle. Now is the time to enter the land of promises and to start building up the blueprints laid on our hearts. (kind of like in Joshua)

For us, that entails a life of FREEDOM in Christ with light, love, joy, gratitude, truth, and encouragement (Ephesians 5:1-20). Our blueprints are directly related to our passions and desires; God has the building materials and measurements for us to complete the task. For our ministry, we want people to walk fully and confidently in freedom through Christ. For our personal lives, we want to assume ownership of the land we live on and build up God's vision for ministry purposes the way he's shown us (we talk about our journey of building this dream up HERE). All of this is scary and seems so much bigger than anything we can accomplish but we will walk forward knowing God is even bigger than the things that plague us. We know he will provide the ideas, finances, resources, and motivation to complete the vision he has for us and for you.

Even though leap day is over, it's not too late to join in on the challenge (after all, it is a leap YEAR). Please go before the Lord, step out of your safe little box, and ask him what he wants you to do (it could be anything! Quitting addictions, buying a house, moving, praying with someone, etc). Being embarrassed or scared will be a small price to pay in comparison to the return on your investment.

Please feel free to comment about your leap of faith hopes, challenges, triumphs and even failures. I'll be praying for all my readers to feel the touch of God on your hearts and minds.