November Update - Leaning on Promise!

We are settling into month two of our time in Macon. This last month we as a family have encountered many trying situations both emotionally, financially and socially. In the midst of such circumstances though one thing has become apparent. 

We have an enemy, but there is a Savior. 

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The worst thing you can do is go into a battle not prepared or worst not knowing there is a battle. Our battle so far as been an attack on the mind to undermine the plans and promises of God. The enemy likes to use the age old trick he used in the beginning "Did God really say?". 

I look at the vastness of this place the Lord has called us to and feel so ineffective, inadequate, so unprepared, but I hear the Holy Spirit urging me to lean upon promise and not strength. If I lean upon my own strength, that limits the realm of my influence, but when I lean upon promise my possibilities are unlimited. Jesus promised that He would build his church and that He would give us power through the Holy Spirit to be His witnesses.

Ephesians 3:20 "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us."

Jesus has plans for Macon and Middle Georgia that are far bigger than I can imagine or accomplish. Which is why my most powerful tools now are not strategies and tactics but rather scripture, prayer and the Holy Spirit. As I write this I am reminded of Paul's words to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:18 "This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare..".

Words of advice I would give any aspiring missionary/church planter, either domestic or abroad, do not naively step out being unaware of the tactics of your enemy. You have one and he wages war against your soul. But meet him on the offensive because he is a defeated foe! 

As a church we believe that the battle is always won in prayer. Ephesians tells us that we battle not against flesh and blood but spirits in the heavenly places. So everyday do battle in the place of prayer by declaring what Jesus has promised us.