"Be Strong and Courageous"

I want to sleep. I should be reading. There is way too much homework to be done. I honestly don't have any idea why I'm posting.

My spirit is heavy for the body of Christ. Why? look around. if your bride was in bondage to herself and begging for help but wouldn't help herself, wouldn't you hurt? I am His bride, and you probably are too (hopefully). God's heart has really just become real to me. Entering into His presence has a new meaning, a new.. freshness. i have a new passion for running to Him. Often times I think we look to God as holding this.. bar that we can never attain or.. we are called to a standard. Although that's true, our perspective is way distorted. The Lord is God, Joel. If your name is joel.. sick. He doesn't want you to do something out of obligation. He just wants you to love Him. to SEE Him. If He can move you to set your face upon Him, to become the main focus and desire of you heart, then the rest will overflow. When you find the heart of God and really dig into what He is all about, obedience and faith are secondhand. just. love. Him. All that He asks is for you. it sounds hard, but He's just crying out in jealousy (Joshua says so.. more on him later), "I LOVE YOU. just....let.....go." He thinks we're to die for. He chose you. He's been calling you, wooing you, since you were first conceived. Why are we so scared to give the Lord all that we have, all that we are? He is so faithful and so good and trusting Him is something we just aren't down for. Why? We must find His heart and His truth, therein we find God's vision and the utmost calling, potential, and fulfillment of our lives. My heart breaks because the Creator has so much in store for us, so much laid out for us, and we refuse to take hold of our inheritance. We are SONS of the LIVING GOD. Why are we so afraid? What's the deal?

Joshua. Oh, Joshua. well, one word: awakening. get ready to see a generation raise up and declare victory and freedom in the name of Jesus. prepare for a people who will abandon everything for Jesus and see that His justice is spread in our time on this planet. I don't wanna make things too simple, but now is the time for a generation to see God for who He really is, and live as He desires us to live. Why? because they are propelled by His Spirit. why? because they share His vision. why? because they found His heart.

pray and seek.

"When The Sons Become Fathers"

I am so tempted to post, but i cannot. there is too much work to be done and not enough time for that AND sleep and everything else. i enjoy school work. i enjoy being busy. i'm weird, crucify me. this is gonna be brief.

"where there is no vision, the people perish...to align our vision with the divine perspective is to attain holiness." - Mattie Montgomery, When The Sons Become Fathers. < BUY THAT ALBUM! please. it will change your life.

God doesn't want your religion, your righteousness, or your reasoning. God wants you. He wants your heart. He doesn't want to give you His will, His gifts, or His power, He wants to give you Himself and His heart, because from there flows every entity. of anything. God included. Power and Majesty flow forth from the throne of God like a river sweeping up all who stand before it. Go before His throne, enter in to His presence, find His heart, and chase it. Run after Jesus Christ like you have never run before and there you will find every aspect of life fulfilled. EVERYTHING. will everything be perfect? no.. but you will be. what's the point?

vision

When you seek the heart of God, His very core, you will find His vision. You will see as He sees and you will be utterly transformed beyond fathom or explanation. You will love as He loves and you will pray like you have never prayed before. When you catch His vision, you will then attain His will for your life, and it will spread like fire to the nations. He is raising up a movement like nothing we have ever known. prepare. if you take one thing from this post, take this..

Jesus Christ took your wrath. 

welcome to true love. if He died for you, don't you think He would want what is best for you? enter in, He's waiting for you.

inhale//exhale

I would just like to say that the faithful promises of the Lord are your shield and your protection (ps. 91:4). God is crying out to all of us, smitten with jealousy, saying, "TRUST ME." He just wants our eyes and our hearts. His word never comes back void; He loves you too much. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act (ps 37). just trust Him. always. It keeps working for me. When you feel like you're losing it.. trust Him. when all seems lost and hopeless.. trust Him. when everything is fine and dandy.. trust Him all the more. take joy, trials produce character. "step out into the water, stop looking at the waves" (gwen stacy). pray pray pray pray pray pray pray pray. Jesus. that's all.


now.. basketball. praise the Lord.

"YOU.. ARE NOT.. WORTHY of me." - America

after attending the Passion conference a few weeks ago, I was asked to write a reflection paper for class. That's what this post is. This is my reflection and response to the Passion conference and a picture of what my heart looks like. it's long... sorry. if you don't read, if this is never read ever by anyone ever.. oh, well. enjoy?

All My Fountains

                If there were two goals I could set while typing this, they would be 1) to cry and 2) to make you relive the revelation of Jesus I did. My reasoning for the first goal is a desire to continually remember and react intentionally to the “experience” of the Passion conference. God completely revolutionized my entire mindset; He had been teaching and preparing me specifically for that weekend. He made crystal clear what my purpose in this life is and how to achieve it. Secondly, I desire a similar response for your life. This is a reflection paper, so it should be professional, but I intend to make it a little more personal to draw you into my mindset, if I may. To kick start my intention, I included a short post from my blog (feel free to judge) on the following Tuesday:

This weekend was the Passion conference in Fort Worth, Texas and God was moving His people towards Himself in such mighty ways. There is so much to say and so much to share, but all that matters is Jesus. This is what has been shared and discovered and this is what is creating the Jesus Movement. He is raising up a generation with a purpose statement stronger than ever before: "Yes, LORD, walking in the way of Your truth, we wait eagerly for You; Your name and Your renown are the desires of our souls" (Isaiah 26:8). All we want is to remain in His truth, knowing and loving Him more, waiting for Him, and to see His name and His fame spread. That is ALL that matters. Proverbs 14:27 says, "The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life." Life pours into and out of those who fear Him. Revere Him. Stand in awe of Him. Praise His name. We sang a song as a declaration to God proclaiming ALL our fountains are in Him. All of them. He's our joy, our life, our peace, our all. Jesus is worth it all. Philippians 1:27, "Behave as citizens WORTHY of the Gospel of Christ." We have a call, a mandate, to give ourselves completely for the Gospel of Jesus, and we will be filled because in making much of us, in allowing Him to work our salvation out for us (Philippians 2), He is made much of beyond description. His glory shines brighter than the sun. Let's live for what matters most. Let's join the movement, the Jesus Movement.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, “He is a terrible writer and even WORSE in his blogs!” Though that may be true, this reflection will spark something deep within your spirit which will resonate long after you grade this paper. This is my prayer for this assignment. May God move mightily in your mind, your heart, and your spirit and may my words cease here as the Spirit reflects His own work in my life.

                “You are good; You are good when there’s nothing good in me. You are hope, You are hope, You have covered all my sin.” My prayers prior to Passion were for God to continually reveal to me one specific thing ­– I am NOTHING without Him. Aside from the blood of Jesus Christ, I am worthless, filthy, doomed, and enslaved to sin, death, and hell, BUT, praise be to GOD, I am no longer in bondage and can freely sing, “Oh, I’m running to Your arms. The riches of Your love will always be enough; nothing compares to Your embrace.”  Due to Jesus’ sacrifice and my acceptance thereof, whether personally chosen or divinely elected, I took on more than redemption, I took on responsibility. In the words of Jamie Lash, I took on “response-ability.”  He reached out and saved me from myself; therefore, I am eternally indebted to my Lord. Romans puts it plainly, saying, “But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, HAVING BEEN SET FREE FROM SIN, have become SLAVES of righteousness. …you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God” (6:17-18, 22).

                As previously stated (I know you hate that sentence starter), I discovered the “what” and “how” regarding my purpose in life. I have been called to die to myself and live to Christ (profound, right?). This is the problem, though, Americans know the verses, they know the call, yet we STILL DO NOT UNDERSTAND this is a call to die! We know Galatians 2:20 “by heart,” but apparently do not grasp the implication therein. Christianity has become a cancer, not a cure. The “gospel” is now a plague instead of POWER. We are robbing the cross of Christ. We are slapping and yelling in our Savior’s precious face, screaming, “I tasted, I saw You, the Lord, are good, but I prefer myself. YOU.. ARE NOT.. WORTHY of me.” We are the reason God seems unattractive. We have 10 bibles in our room but read them as a chore, if at all, and wonder why our lives are going to hell or why we can’t seem to find the right girl or the right job. Why can’t things just go my way for once? IT WAS NEVER MEANT TO. Here is a side note, God gave me a sermon idea and I would love to share it: 1) Acts 3 says Jesus is the Author of life; He wrote your story, 2) 1 Corinthians 6:20 says Jesus bought you with a price; He bought your story, and 3) Galatians 2:20 says we were crucified with Him and now Jesus lives our lives for us; He IS our story. Moreover, Philippians 1:27 exists, therefore we must live like it.

                “How, Ryan?! How can we live out this call to die?” I am enthralled you asked! Passion’s theme verse since “birth” fifteen years ago has been Isaiah 26:8, “Yes, LORD, walking in the way of Your TRUTH, we wait eagerly for You; Your name and Your renown are the desires of our souls.” There is one way to follow Jesus:  seek Him, know Him, love Him. We must walk hand in hand with the Creator on the pathway of Truth, desiring His fame to be made in our lives. We must seek to give Him glory, thanks, and praise in all areas of life. We must renounce our desires because we trust and know that “His faithful promises are our shield and our protection” (Psalm 91:4). His plan is perfect. When God is at the bottom of our joy, when He is the reason behind every facet of our lives, when all our fountains are in Him, we will be satisfied to no end and free beyond fathom. In the book of Psalms, David cries out to God, saying, “send out Your light and Your truth; let them lead me” (43:3). Our guidance is found in God’s light and His truth which has been made readily available in His Word. We have the most powerful entity fathomable within our grasp, yet we refuse to respond in obedience. Philippians 2 provides insight to how we can accomplish this purpose in verse 16, “holding fast to the word of life.” Jesus leads us to life, but His Word leads us a clear response resulting in abundance.

We know “what” the purpose is, and we have covered “how” to attain it, but why? Why would we want to, why does it matter? Personally, God has hand selected me for a specific purpose which cannot be fulfilled by anyone but me. He chose me. There is no way to be sure what to, but He is pleased by faith. His Gospel must be furthered and His kingdom must be advanced. I have been called to give up EVERYTHING to follow Him and broadcast to the world, to the nations, that Jesus lives and they can, too. I’ve been chosen to bring America back to the Most High, but not by my own strength or power. The Gospel of Christ is the power of God (Romans 1:16). All I have in this life is Christ, and in the next, Christ. If I die for His name, then I will just see His face, His beautiful, smiling face, saying, “Well done, Ryan Lee Sears, well done.” He is everything. Jesus is all that I have; this life is not my own. It is my JOY to honor You, Jesus. “You are joy; You are joy, You’re the reason why I sing. You are life; You are life; in You, death has lost its sting.”

What central theme did I pull from the conference? What one thing continually resounded in every session, every sermon, and every shout of praise? His name is Jesus: truth, life, freedom, joy, peace, kindness, a perfect plan, a beautiful girl with a beautiful heart, and a beautifully surrendered life. “My heart will sing no other name, Jesus.” He broke my heart for the Gospel, and He took everything I was holding on to. My first year at DBU can be summed up in two words: let go. God has just been relentlessly calling out to me, “let go! I have such a huge, prosperous plan for your life. This is not the everyday calling you hear about, Ry; I chose you for this. Before the foundations of the world, I established this purpose. Step out by faith, let go of your guilt, your shame, your pride, your theology, your selfishness, your plans, your desires, your thoughts, your wants, your opinion, your life. Just let go.” Whether easy or hard, the “list of let goes” continued and will continue to grow, but, Praise be to God, my joy, peace, patience, and faith do too. He’s called me to the nations. His Gospel owns my life. This is all due to His revelation during the Passion conference. This is all due to Him. “Jesus, You endured my pain; Savior, You bore all my shame all because of Your love.” Thank You, God, for Your grace, thank You, Jesus, for the cross, and thank You, Holy Spirit, for guiding to all truth and working out my salvation for me. I do not know what the future holds per se, but I do know who holds the future, and I trust Him completely.

"All My Fountains"

This weekend was the Passion conference in Fort Worth, Texas and God was moving His people towards Himself in such mighty ways. There is so much to say and so much to share, but all that matters is Jesus. This is what has been shared and discovered and this is what is creating the Jesus Movement. He is raising up a generation with a purpose statement stronger than ever before: "Yes, LORD, walking in the way of Your truth, we wait eagerly for You; Your name and Your renown are the desires of our souls" (Isaiah 26:8). All we want is to remain in His truth, knowing and loving Him more, waiting for Him, and to see His name and His fame spread. That is ALL that matters. Proverbs 14:27 says, "The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life." Life pours into and out of those who fear Him. Revere Him. Stand in awe of Him. Praise His name. We sang a song as a declaration to God that All our fountains are in Him. All of them. He's our joy, our life, our peace, our all. Jesus is worth it all. Philippians 1:27, "Behave as citizens WORTHY of the Gospel of Christ." We have a call to give ourselves and we will be fulfilled because in making much of us, in allowing Him to work our salvation out for us, He is made much of so much more. His glory shines brighter than the sun. Let's live for what matters most. Let's join the movement. The Jesus Movement.