podcast

Ever face interactions or circumstances that “rattle your cage”? In this episode I share a question my wife wisely highlighted recently when I expressed a bump in my own emotional road, and 3 daily disciplines I am exercising to grow and break out from the limits my thinking and emotions place on me.

https://davidleemartin.com/rattling-cages-and-3-keys-to-escape-your-limitations/

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00:00:00.960]
Today, I want to talk about something that I’m sure most of us experience at times. Last night I was just talking with Larna about something that I don’t know if this saying is a universal saying or way to describe. A certain way of feeling, but my cage was rattled by something I don’t know if you’ve heard the saying, I really just felt kind of emotional at my emotional equilibrium, a little bit upset by a particular situation that I faced. Not nothing, nothing important necessarily, or kind of particularly deep or upsetting in some ways.

00:00:48.800]
But I could feel kind of that sense of peace and well-being had been rattled a little bit. And I was sharing with Larna just concerning this thing, because I found that sometimes it’s difficult to in those moments where we feel rattled emotionally, sometimes it’s difficult to know whether our response or our reaction is kind of an honest one or whether it’s just touched on something deeper on the inside of her. And like Larna bless her heart. And she’s just we’ve been married for over 21 years now, so she knows me well.

00:01:32.450]
And, you know, we’ve learnt to be honest with one another, which is a good thing. I guess, you know, maybe it’s not something that we need to learn, but I’m I’m finding that kind of really even knowing who we are and knowing when we when we are being honest is actually a key thing, because sometimes we don’t see our own blind spots and we need people around us who will help us recognise our own blind spots. It’s like, what if we’re driving in a car and you look in the mirror?

00:02:07.490]
You know, sometimes there can be a blind spot and you’ve got to be careful of those things. And we can be like that in life as well. Sometimes the emotional reactions that we have to think to things puts us in a place where we we no longer see things as they really are. And so having people around us that we know that we can be honest and real with is such a key thing. Now, that may be kind of your spouse or a partner or it may be a good friend, but surrounding yourself with people that, you know, you can be kind of very forthright with and he won’t kind of shut you down or judge you, but will at the same time be willing to challenge you on certain things I think is really important.

00:02:55.010]
And so I share this with her and she said and I said, you know, my cage is really rattled and she and she, in a wonderfully loving way, said, why are you in the cage in the first place? Maybe. Maybe the Holy Ghost is letting the kind of the cage be rattled so you can recognise that the door has been opened and you are you can step out. And I think sometimes like these situations that we come into that actually do touch on some emotional things that that are reside in us.

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Are there really as much to highlight avenues out of them and avenues for us to grow and change as they are necessary, like to kind of maybe put us on the spot? They’re not there to put us on the spot. They’re to highlight something. I write this down today that rattling bars reveal emotional roots or rattling bars reveal emotional scars. It’s often often the way that situations present themselves to us. And we feel kind of our equilibrium a little bit upset.

00:04:12.890]
We feel out of sorts with something and it can reveal something on the inside. And it’s important that we come and we begin to explore some of those things if we want to grow. And, you know, it. Got it. Got me thinking about how this journey of growth and self discovery that we’re on. And I’m sure that you are on as well, how that really demands that we don’t just go through life with blinders on, that we allow our heart to be sensitive to our responses and our reactions to things.

00:04:50.750]
And rather than kind of judging ourself or belittling ourself or or maybe the opposite of that, like like putting ourself up on some pedestal or getting proud or whatever it may be, we allow those things to give us a view on areas that we can grow in and that we can become a bigger person in. And it got to me it got me thinking about the kind of things that I am practicing in that desire to become a bigger person, in that desire to peel away maybe some of the stuff that the layers that kind of wrap themselves around our heart as we go through life.

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So, sir, and peeling away those layers and being aware of who we are on the inside sometimes is not not necessarily a comfortable thing. So there are three things really that I want to share today that I believe can be helpful. And I would love to hear from you as well. What things you are practicing that help you kind of negotiate these these circumstances and situations that you go through. You may be in a certainly for me, one of the biggest areas and the biggest keys is prayer and meditation.

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And as a friend of mine pointed out earlier, that worship would be wrapped up into that this engagement with God. But the idea of having a specific time set apart each day to spend time in the presence of God, spend time in his words, spend time in prayer, spend time kind of just bringing I mean, I wrote today, like dumping your day onto him, like rolling your cares on to him, opening up that conversation with him and kind of letting your heart hang out for God to come in is such a such an important thing.

00:07:04.550]
There’s a there’s a scripture in that is very, very powerful one. It says we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the law. And it’s like I am becoming really is a result of beholding. It’s it’s really what we are looking at, what we are focussing on, what we’re leading our heart into will so much affect what we become.

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And of course, what better what what better thing to look up on, what better thing to gaze upon than God himself through his word and also in prayer because. He will reveal himself in in kind of numerous different ways so we can become bigger people on the inside and her and become more impactful in what we do. And then secondly, the scriptures tell us that faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the word of God. And I would broaden that and say, really, faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by words.

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Those words could be words of God. They could be the words that you hear on the news every day. They could be the words on the radio. They could be the words of the songs you listen to. They could be the words of the books that you read. Words affect our lives in a very, very significant way. And so choosing what we hear, choosing what we allow into our eyes and into our ears and through to our heart is such a key, key area of development and growth and becoming the person that God wants you to be and is designed to be.

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And of course, as that that that old saying garbage in, garbage out is so true. But there’s also that conversely, the other side of that is if you choose to feed on the right things, just as with our body, you know, if you choose to feed the right things, if it’s not like Big Mac every day, all day, if you choose to feed the right things, you’re going to get the right results. You’re going to see the results of that and the fruits of that.

00:09:33.690]
Exactly the same for us with their spirit. You know, what are you allowing in your ears? Understand that this is a great collectors of sound and information, but they don’t filter that information. They will. They your ears basically will just suck in whatever you expose them to. You know, your eyes will draw in whatever you expose them to. They’re not going to filter it for you. You have to do that. Your heart is the translator of what comes in either through your eyes or through your ears.

00:10:14.670]
And so our place as men and women of God is to filter what we allow past the gatekeeper. We choose what we hear and so we can be very intentional in what we choose to listen to. One of the ways in which I do that is through audio books. So certainly prayer is a big, big kind of daily discipline and also like exposing myself to positive words. No one, obviously the word of God now that can either be reading the Scriptures, but it can also be listening T- to the scriptures.

00:10:55.530]
It can be listening to preaching, teaching, training, whatever, and also audio books. You know, it’s important that we feed the areas that we want to grow in. You know, if you want to grow in your marriage, make sure you’re sowing marriage seeds. OK, so in in the sense of like words going in, OK, good good training, good teaching, good edifying material that will feed in and build your home life if it’s business, you know, feeding in good.

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I personally love to listen to audiobooks. That is something that that I find really helpful because it’s something that I can not that I’m a believer necessarily in multitasking. But if, if listening to podcasts or listening to audio books as I run, I do running most days is if that can be counted as multitasking. That’s about as close as I get. Some of the books that I’ve been listening to recently. Some, like current favourites are The Practise by Seth Godin.

00:12:11.220]
That’s a great book, The Pumpkin Plan by Mike Miklowitz. I think that’s how you say his name is another good one. The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John. Mark Kohima is an amazing book and so kind of rich with Revelation Fresh Power by Jim Sembler, one of my all time favourites, The Word of Promise Audio Bible is a great one. If you’re looking to listen to the Scriptures and breathe. New Testament is another is another one that I’ve quite enjoyed.

00:12:45.000]
And then the third practice that I would really massively recommend and say that this could be tremendously helpful for. If you are looking to kind of bust out of your cage, you know, like if you hear the bars rattling, you understand that there are ways out of that. There are ways to step beyond your current experience and your current level of exposure to what’s possible, and that’s to weigh journalling. A great book that I massively recommend is it’s called The Four Keys to Hearing God’s Voice by a guy called Mark Voeckler.

00:13:29.820]
Absolutely. Life changing, obviously, only if you take it and apply it. But if you take what’s taught in there and begin to consistently apply the principles that are taught in that book, I would be most surprised if it did not radically transform your experience of conversation with God, hearing God, hearing his voice and being able to really enter into a kind of two way discussion, all intimate friendship with him that speaks into every area of your life, you know, in detail.

00:14:12.240]
It’s not just kind of as sometimes I think the faith life can seem a little bit kind of twice removed. But this brings it totally to home. This brings it closed into every situation. And there’s not one situation now that I don’t bring to him utilising kind of prayer as the foundation engagement in that that kind of just intimate relationship and worship and but then adding the component of journaling to that makes such a big difference. And this idea of two way journaling.

00:14:52.170]
So where there is a kind of question, response type conversation that we open up with the Holy Ghost, that allows him in to speak directly to the situations that we are looking for answers in. And for almost like a few weeks ago, I asked the Lord, like, what’s the key to expansion? Because that we were talking about expansion. And he said the key is this not just thinking about me, but thinking with me, opening up an arena, opening up a way to think with God and have him speak directly into your situation.

00:15:37.710]
And so I recommend those three things, certainly setting time, regular time every day to pray to to to meditate on God’s word, to allow him to to kind of lean into his presence. No, to to be very careful and very intentional in what you hear every day, what you allow in your eyes and what you allow in your ears. And of course, in that really be like choosing to lean into the things that and the areas that you believe God wants you to grow in and expand in and explore, you know, and so giving yourself daily to to do that.

00:16:22.440]
And then the idea of two way journaling, adding some kind of journaling, practise some kind of intentional kind of thinking on paper or in my case, thinking on iPad, I use a an app called Jurnee. It’s like a journaling app. I prefer to use that. Not not necessarily because I I’m a big technology fan, although I do love gadgets, I have to admit. But more because it makes it searchable, so if something comes to my remembrance or if I need to kind of backtrack and like think, oh, well, I know that God spoke to me concerning this situation or this thing.

00:17:11.150]
You know, at some point I can actually search and find those entries at a later date, which I certainly find really, really helpful. So what practices do you engage in every day to help become a bigger person? And what practices do you engage in that help you kind of navigate some of those emotional bumps that we go over in the road of growth and and becoming bigger, more helpful, more impactful people? What are the practices that you engage in?

00:17:52.400]
What’s helpful advice would you give to people who are wanting to kind of break out of their limits and move into new areas of effectiveness? OK, move into new areas of peace, move into new areas of acceptance and growth. What do you do every day to keep the progress happening, the growth happening, the moving toward maturity happening? I would love to hear what you engage with and how you are using and leveraging the tools that are at your disposal and leveraging your time to, number one, help yourself and grow yourself.

00:18:53.450]
And number two, in that persued, help other people and grow other people. You know, there’s a great verse that I would love to just share here. I think this is the one. It’s from Psalms. And there are a couple of places in the Psalms where this kind of picture is drawn in this word picture. It says, he brought me out into a broad place. He delivered me because he delighted in me Psalm 18. And just this picture of being brought out into a broad place, like I say, is at the beginning of this broadcast.

00:19:33.590]
And on my blog, there are Davidleemartin.com, what prompted me to to share what I’ve shared today was this idea of my own emotional cage being rattled by a particular interaction in a particular situation. You know, and this idea, like Larna said, you know, like if your cage is being rattled, it’s probably kind of trying to alert you to the fact that you’re actually in a cage like hello. You wake up and like they’re looking like, OK, God, I’m in a cage here.

00:20:15.980]
How can I step out? How can I step into what the Bible calls a broad place? I want to come into a broad place of peace, a broad place, Lord, where I can be more useful, more helpful, more impactful, more loving, more graceful, more like joyful, whatever it may be. You name anything positive. That’s what we want to come into, isn’t it? And we want to exit the things that keep us small and keep us limited in our interactions, in our relationships and in our businesses and ministries and our impact.

00:21:00.500]
So, yeah, let’s allow the Holy Ghost to teach us ways to come into that, allow him to deliver us and delight in us just as we delight in him, delight in the day in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. But how much more exciting is it to also recognise that God delights in you, God delights in you and wants to bring you into that place of freedom, wants to release you from whatever restrictions you feel at like emotionally or spiritually, and deliver you into a new place.

00:21:42.590]
And I think that one of the key ways to do that, as I say, just as I wrap up here, is to indeed still install some daily practice. Is that help you to consistently and persistently move toward that place of kind of breaking out of the mould, breaking out of maybe old ways of thinking, old ways of responding, old ways of reacting and thinking and coming in to this broad place that God has for you? God bless you.

00:22:19.630]
And thanks for listening. Much appreciated. Have a great day. Well, thanks for listening. Hopefully it’s been an encouragement to you today. If you want to connect any further, you can do so through my website at Davidleemartin.com. Have a great day.

Out of literally millions in the race you were the sole victor!

Only one very special seed broke that finish tape and fertilised that egg, and it was you!

You started as a winner, and you’ll end as one also. As a Christian, even death will not be able to hold you. Sin has already lost it’s grip and the grim reaper has no claim to your eternal destiny.

The greatest power in this natural universe, death itself, is rendered null in your presence. He may take a swipe, he will cost certainly swing his weight, but the final bell will declare your triumph!

You begin as a winner.

You end as a winner.

It seems that there’s a pattern here.

https://davidleemartin.com/you-are-a-winner/

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Hey there, folks, I want to talk today about just the reality of the creative life that we’ve been called to live as Christians, as as, you know, my wife Larna and I passed it and planted churches for many years. And we during all that time, we always kind of engaged very much with creative people, you know, whether it be artists or dancers or musicians. We felt very much called to kind of work with people who were ideas, people, people who were communicators and wanted to communicate a message, but maybe not in in the typical sense of the word yet.

00:00:47.660]
Man, we would do it out on the streets with groups of dancers. We would do it with painters. We would do it with artists, musicians, all sorts of different ways. And, you know, over the years, I’ve really thought a lot about the creative life and the just living out of that place and that DNA that God has placed in us as creative people. And I was thinking today about how it is so much about being willing to share the journey, how really the boldness and the courage to step out and step up and share our worth with the world.

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It does take courage, you know, and sometimes we feel as though we have to have kind of gone somewhere before we can have anything worth sharing. We need to feel as though we’ve made it or become something or become someone or made a name for ourselves before we can actually begin to kind of presume to stand and speak and help others. But, you know, I just want to tell you today that that is really not the case. That’s not the way that God is wired things to work.

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Each one of us is called to play our part in the kind of development and building of other people. And, you know, that doesn’t always have to be from a place of kind of high standing. It doesn’t have to be from some pulpit or some stage somewhere. It can be even just as I am right now, right here in my office at home with a garden light behind me and a grey painted wall. You know, it’s there’s just there’s so much that God wants to do in us and through us and for us.

00:02:58.820]
And it’s when we begin to just step out and share the journey with others, that we begin to discover really who we are and what we’ve got to bring rather than waiting until we feel as though we’ve got something. How about we just begin sharing what we have and in that process discover more? It’s like drawing water up from a well. It can take a bit of strength and a bit of pumping to get the thing flowing. But once it’s flowing, once the flow begins, it really becomes it becomes easier.

00:03:40.670]
And I’m learning as I go that as I step out, as I step forward, as I come and kind of just. Like, don’t allow my own doubts, don’t allow my own insecurities, don’t allow my own fears to dictate to me that this whole thing becomes much more adventurous, it becomes much richer, it becomes much fuller. And I’m just I really feel kind of stoked and anointed to encourage other people to do the same. Now, I’m not saying jump up in front of a camera and speak like this live every day.

00:04:26.150]
But what I am saying is, you know, there are there are ways that are fitted for each one of us. The scriptures say that Jesus yoke is easy and his burden is light, that we should follow him and follow his leading whatever. The reason that his yoke is easy is because it’s well fitting for me that is that means writing. I love to write. That’s one of my favourite ways to communicate the value that God has placed in my heart.

00:04:58.940]
I actually do believe it or not, even though I sometimes get nervous with it. I do. I do enjoy speaking, especially if I feel as though the words are penetrating and going deeper than just the surface. I really don’t want to just be adding more noise to the world. I want to bring value in what I share. But I was thinking today, like, man, you are a winner, OK? You like out of literally millions of others, you were the one who broke through and became.

00:05:36.650]
Yeah. Like there were so many seeds, but only one of them reached the egg and fertilised the egg and it was you. And then and then like, like you began life as a winner. And I know that that’s kind of twee and sounds like. Yeah, right. But you know, even at the end of your life and here we are, it doesn’t matter what we go through in between to some degree, because at the end of life, if we have followed Jesus, if we have given our hearts and our minds and our passions to follow him and build his kingdom, he then at the end, even death itself cannot stop us standing on the winner’s podium.

00:06:20.120]
You know, it may knock us down for a moment, but I can assure you we will rise again and we will stand before our God and we will taste victory right from beginning. You begin as a winner. You finish as a winner. I tell you, this is a pattern. There’s a pattern here. And I believe that the Holy Ghost has got great things for you here. I mean, the scriptures here, the scriptures here tell us that we are more than conquerors through him that loved us in Romans Chapter eight, that you are more than a conqueror.

00:07:04.700]
It doesn’t matter what life throws at you. It doesn’t matter what challenges you face. It doesn’t matter that, you know, sometimes things may seem difficult. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve had your fair share of failures or whatever you are on the winning side and not like I don’t know about you, but I joke sometimes, probably more often than I should, that I’m a bit of a Gideon. You know, in the story of Gideon, in the Book of Judges, God comes to him and says, Gideon, you might be a man of valour.

00:07:43.790]
And Gideon’s like, Yeah, who? And sometimes I feel as though I certainly can be, but I don’t know about you. Sometimes God wants to reveal our greatness. Sometimes what God wants to call for, what he is placed and planted within us. Yeah. And we’re like looking around thinking, okay, great and mighty man or great and mighty woman of valour. Where where are they? And and like Gideon, we have our excuses. We have our reasons why not, you know, we have that kind of smelly statement, but.

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Okay, but oh but I’m the least amongst the least of the least family in the least tribe, you know, that was Gideons excuse. You know, that’s how he tried to divert away from the call of God to become something more and step into his destiny. You know, what’s your excuse? What is it that that speaks to you or what do you say to yourself when you. Can the mirror that would run contrary to what you believe God is saying over your life?

00:08:57.740]
I believe, like Gideon, God is standing there and he is saying great and mighty one, great and mighty one, beautiful one intelligent one, breakthrough one, victorious one. And the funny thing is, in the story of Gideon there, you know, he God says great and mighty man of valour. And then Gideons like, yeah, right. Who I’m the least amongst the least. God does not turn around and suddenly say, oh, man, actually, you’re right.

00:09:31.810]
You are pathetic. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. You know, you’re right. Oh, man. You know, you’d think is that the ultimate intelligence in the universe? And the all knowing one, I would have realised, Gideon, that you’re not the right man for the job. I do apologise. Sorry for wasting your time. I’ll go find someone else. God doesn’t do that. You know, God does not turn away. God does not turn away from you.

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God does not change his testimony just because you’ve had some hard yards, just because you’ve had some seeming failures, just because you’ve maybe tried and it hasn’t worked out the way you wanted. I mean, honestly, Larna and we’ve got the badges to show for it. We’ve got the bruises to show for some of those things that could easily be translate some of those circumstances, some of those kind of hopes that didn’t realise we’ve got the bruises to show.

00:10:34.120]
Yeah, we’ve got the badges, the t shirt, the hat, the cap, the shoes and the pants. Okay. And those things, those those circumstances sometimes can translate into a testimony that simply is not true. Okay. We can look at ourselves in the mirror and we can say like Gideon. But but but but Lord, how could I ever be a businessman? You know, I would have said that many years ago. And by God’s grace and by his goodness and through his word, we now run a six figure publishing business.

00:11:10.930]
I mean, I am the most I’m the most mind boggled that that’s possible of anyone. I honestly, I just I can tell you this much. Jesus is someone who thinks bigger than we do, and Jesus does not change his testimony. He said Gideon mighty man of valour. And he didn’t change his test. He didn’t ignore it. He like it’s like God ignored Gideons kind of diversionary tactics and just kept speaking over him, you know? And I believe that he does the same for us, is saying, you know, Lori Alli, Glenn, George, Bill, Jason, Jack, Jacklyn, Margaret, whatever your name is, Mighty Man and Woman of Valour.

00:12:16.120]
I’ve called you to greatness. You are a winner. You started a winner. You ended a winner. And in between, there are going to be many, many milestones of victory as you go forward, not victory as the world gives, not victory as the world measures, although there may be some of those accolades in there as well. But we don’t put our identity and our trust in those things. We put our identity and our trust in the one who are spoken into our hearts and has called us force.

00:12:51.830]
You know, if you want to write a book, write the book, start. If you want to start a blog, start the blog, share your story, create your course. You know, prepare and create. Prepare your retreat, invite people into your world, invite people in that you know you can help take the next steps in their journey. That’s what this whole thing is about. And God is with you. Yeah. God is here today with you to keep you moving forward.

00:13:31.570]
And he is speaking over you today just as he spoke of his servant, Gideon, I believe. And I think for all of our excuses for all of our butts and ifs and wise, I know in the name of Jesus that he can bring a mighty turn. Around for you, whatever your situation and circumstance, I encourage you today, you are more than a conqueror. Go for it, step out, do something today toward fulfilling whatever it is that the Holy Ghost has planted in your heart.

00:14:11.490]
Don’t let anyone even and maybe especially not yourself, talk you out of it. Well, thanks for listening. Hopefully it’s been an encouragement to you today. If you want to connect any further, you can do so through my website at Davidleemartin.com. Have a great day.

God is a God of expansion. His words, “Let there be…” are still hurtling in every direction extending the bounds of the universe we inhabit.

The same nature lives in you as His child, but there are ways in which we can limit Him if we are not careful to stay connected.

Lift the lid on your limits today, and let God speak into your circumstances.

https://davidleemartin.com/taking-off-the-limits/

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00:00:03.450]
Well, hello, and yeah, I’m glad to be with you again today, trying to do this every day, really, I’ve been kind of convicted in my heart that it’s essential that I’m always telling other people to step out, to have a go, to share their value with the world, to do everything they can to encourage others. And and then the Holy Ghost comes along and does exactly the same thing to me. So do be careful what you ask of other people.

00:00:38.820]
Do be careful of the things that you encourage others to do, because, you know, you may find that the Holy Ghost turns right, right back around and puts it back on you and says, well, yes, go ahead then. So today I want to talk about expansion. One of the words that God has given me for this year, a personal word is the word expansion. And, you know, I God, it really is a god of expansion.

00:01:08.700]
His character is one that is always expanding, always moving forward, always, you know, if you think the universe supposedly is expanding in every direction at some kind of breakneck speed. And it all began with that first utterance from our father’s hard when he said, let there be. And those words are still working today and the universe is hurtling outwards in all directions. God is a God whose nature is to expand. God is a God. His nature is to grow and become bigger, become more.

00:01:56.280]
And I believe that as children of God, as people of God, his thinking is also within us. His nature is also within us. And so it’s understandable that we also want to explore and expand in what we do. We want to expand in our income and in our influence, in our ability to help other people, in our ability to accomplish what we believe God has put in our heart. And I’ve been having this conversation with the Holy Ghost for a few weeks now, particularly coming off this idea that he spoke to me and said, you know, your word for this, your son is expansion.

00:02:42.750]
And I knew immediately that he was talking on a number of levels. But essentially he was talking about my thinking. You know, he was talking about there’s there’s a scripture that says as a man sinks in his heart, so is he as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. You know, as we think within that’s what becomes without. It’s so important that we understand the import, the the the key part that how we think affects how we live.

00:03:24.000]
And, you know, I asked in the Holy Ghost, I said, so how does that and that play out in my day? How does that play out in my every day? And he said to me, said, you’ve got to think with me, not just think about me. Sometimes we can come and have this religious idea that if we think about God and think good thoughts about him, it’s somehow going to help change our life. But actually, God wants to engage us in something far more personal than that.

00:03:59.490]
He wants to move us into a place of real personal engagement. So so we are involved in conversation with him. I mean, this is this seems to be my my pet hobby horse, but it’s so powerful and so real and so important, I believe, for us as Christian creatives, as entrepreneurs, authors, artists, you know, whatever, whatever you’re involved in, God wants to take you higher, whatever you’re involved in, God wants to expand the borders of your thinking.

00:04:38.070]
And there’s this there’s this incredibly scary scripture that that I was reminded of in the Book of Psalms. And it says they turned back and they tempted God and limited the holy one of Israel. They limited God in their mind. They limited God in thinking. That he could not accomplish all of the things that he had promised them, I bet today you have promises in your heart that you are looking to see fulfilled. You have ideas. You have creative projects that may be kind of lodged there on the inside, begging to get out and begging to become.

00:05:26.540]
And and your thinking is really going to be the conduit through which that comes. The Bible talks about how hard is like a well of water springing up within us. But like any kind of course of water, it’s going to need some conduit to flow through. And I think that the restrictions sometimes comes in our thinking. Our thinking is like the pipe through which God’s power and wisdom can flow. But if we, like the children of Israel, limit what we believe God can do, if in our thinking we can’t stretch beyond our present experience or we can’t stretch beyond what we’ve already seen or what we’ve already kind of moved our mind and our heart to expect, it kind of restricts the flow.

00:06:21.860]
I want to encourage you today that that, you know, let’s let’s just make sure that we blow the pipes. Yeah. Let’s make sure that we clear the pipes out so God can come in and so God can flow through. God wants to do incredible things in your life. You know that word where talks about limiting the holy one, that word limit means to scratch a mark or to set a boundary. And I think it’s typical of us as as just as people, you know, that we scratch certain marks and we say that this is this is as far as I can go.

00:07:06.590]
This is as much as I can expect. And maybe sometimes we see other people and, you know, if we’re honest, it can make us feel jealous. It can make us feel as though somehow we are lacking or inadequate. And, you know, even the other day I caught myself, I, I heard about someone else’s success in something. And, you know, I was dismayed to to like, recognise and realise that in my heart I could feel a constriction.

00:07:42.920]
I could feel a kind of a like do something in me. Wasn’t happy that someone else was maybe out there doing the things or doing something that I feel that I should have been doing or some of the rewards that I should have been getting. I mean, like, like this is confessional. You know, we’re not I’m I think most of us are like the rest of us. And a lot of these things aren’t talked about.

00:08:12.500]
A lot of the a lot of the challenges that we face and a lot of the fears that we come up against aren’t often talked about. You know, we we want to present a positive face to the world. We want to present ourselves as maybe someone who’s got it all together and who doesn’t have some of these kind of internal issues and arguments that that do take place. But, you know, honestly, I I caught this at negative reaction to some news that I heard of somebody else’s success.

00:08:51.800]
And and I kind of rolled it back and brought it to the Holy Ghost and said, you know, what is that? What’s the problem here? And, you know, I really felt as though sometimes we we feel that way. It’s almost like we would much prefer someone to fail in what they are stepping into, particularly if it’s outside the boundaries of what we would feel comfortable with and the level that we would feel comfortable with, because basically it challenges us to go beyond our own our own boundary as as we saw in this scripture that they limited the holy one of Israel.

00:09:38.060]
It means to scratch a mark. And so many of us, I think, and I can only well, I can speak for myself. I know that in areas of my thinking, I’ve scratched marks in the ground and said, well, I’ve tried that before and this is as far as it went. I’ve well, I’ve seen that. And it didn’t work for this one or whatever else it may be. And we scratch these marks. That we are then fearful to step beyond in case we fail, and I think sometimes some of the jealousies that we wrestle with, sometimes some of that kind of negative responses we can have to other people’s positive results or that all those that sense of depletion and inadequacy and insecurity or whatever else it may be, I think sometimes a lot of it is, is that we become very comfortable dwelling within the boundaries of our fears, dwelling within the boundaries of our current experience.

00:10:43.880]
But we all know that God wants us to step beyond those fears and step into something more satisfying, more fulfilling, that we could become more helpful and more useful to other people and be used of God to bring good news, to bring value and to lift other people and release other people into their into their destiny. You know, one of one of our roles, I believe, is men and women of God is not so necessarily. So we can just grow, but so we can help others grow as well.

00:11:24.140]
And it reminded me of some of the stupid questions that Jesus asked people. And like that may sound really kind of like, I don’t know what it may sound like. So I don’t even know what the word heretical, like stupid questions that Jesus asked, like, goes up to a blind man and he says to the blind man, Do you want to receive your sight? I mean, like, duh, it goes up to a cripple. And he says, Do you want to walk?

00:11:58.460]
Well, of course I want to walk. Goes up to a leper and says, like, do you want to be cleansed? And, you know, sometimes I got to wonder, well, why did why did you ask these questions, Lord? And I really believe that sometimes they may be asking you some questions. You know, he may be asking you, do you want to prosper? Do you want to grow? Do you what do you want to step into your destiny?

00:12:25.100]
Do you want to step into and walk in the plans? And the purpose is that I’ve got for you, for your life, for your marriage, for your business, whatever else it may be. And it led me to this scripture in the book of Ezekiel. And I’ve often applied this to in prayer. It says, I, the Lord have spoken it and I will do it. Thus says the Lord God, I will yet for this be enquired of by the House of Israel to do it for them.

00:12:57.290]
I will increase them. And like we’ve been talking today, God wants to bring increased to our life. God wants to bring increased to our ministry, to our business, to our finances. He is a God of expansion. And he has spoken that increase and he has spoken that that expansion over us, I believe. And he’s even said, man, I’m ready to do it. I want to do it. I want to release my children into this place of influence, this place of income, this place of impact.

00:13:35.960]
But I will yet for this be enquired of to do it for them, that I might increase them. And like the like the blind guy, you know, like, hey, do you want to see, like, the cripple? Hey, do you want to walk like the leper. Do you want to be cleansed. Maybe is asking us hey do you want your business to grow. Hey do you want to experience more of my presence in my power?

00:14:02.630]
HADEED And I am certain that the reason that he says I’ve done it, I’ve said it, I’ll do it, but I’m waiting for you to ask. He is ready to and he is ready to act on our behalf, on your behalf, but is waiting for that conversation to be opened. And and that’s because God is building the man. He’s not building the ministry. Okay. That’s because God is building the girl. He’s not just growing her business or whatever it may be.

00:14:39.440]
He is interested in engaging in a journey together where he he and you walk as one. It’s in hearing his voice and following his lead that you will see the greatest results and the greatest satisfaction, the greatest delight in as the script. Just say delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. God wants that conversation with you. He has spoken in. He’s declared that he will do it, but he will yet be enquired of by you before you see the increase and in that conversation he will give you the directions that are necessary for you to make whatever your next move may be, whatever your next breakthrough action is.

00:15:42.680]
He is there to help and direct you toward that. You know, I really believe that this this year, 2021, is going to be a year of incredible increase and expansion for many, many people. Even in I mean, it’s it would be it would be just like the Holy Ghost to take a time of such restriction and turn it and transform it into a time of massive expansion for his people and for his gospel and for his body and for your business and for your family and for your marriage, whatever it may be, and say, go to the Lord, enquire of him, find out what he has said, find out what he wants to do, Lee your requests before him and then expect to see the increase.

00:16:44.480]
Well, thanks for listening. Hopefully it’s been an encouragement to you today. If you want to connect any further, you can do so through my website at Davidleemartin.com. Have a great day.

If you are anything like me you live to discover more of God and His purposes for your life here on the green planet. It’s a lifetime of inquisitive deduction that unfolds through a growing relationship with an invisible but oh-so-real and ever present God who shows up in a multitude of ways that are undeniable.

God is real.

The idea that He has a purpose for your life is not just sermon-fodder. It’s true.

How do we enter into the place where our work and our worth align so perfectly that we feel we are living out our purpose with authentic faith?

Here’s my take for what it’s worth.

A Simple Truth For All Your Life And Loves

It all begins with something so simple you’ll kick yourself for not seeing it before. Truth is, you may have read it, you may even have nodded in agreement. The question is, how would this truth look if it were applied on a daily basis in your life and work.

Would the simplicity of what I’m about to share change the perspective you approach your everyday with, and would it affect your daily practices and disciplines?

Ready? Here it comes. This is as simple as it gets…

“Then said they unto him, “What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said unto them, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” (John 6:28-29 KJV)

To do the work of God is first to believe in the work He did and does for us!

Jesus first!

Everything else follows.

Doing The Work Of God By Being Thoroughly And Unashamedly You

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00:00:03.830]
Well, good morning, folks, or afternoon or evening, depending on where you are in the world today, I want to talk about something that’s actually. Very much, it’s something that I think about a lot nowadays, and it really is it’s really arisen from a kind of this desire to seek and find and discover more of God and more of his ways. And and, you know, there’s it’s like why we spend our lives sometimes pursuing something, looking for something.

00:00:43.520]
I remember as a young man looking in in like really honestly looking in all the wrong places. But, you know, and then discovering and finding Jesus at like 19 years old. And and then suddenly a new pursuit began. A new adventure, a new desire. And that desire and that pursuit has never stopped since that time. You know, I’m the there’s this curious, inquisitive nature. There’s this kind of dedication to discover more of this invisible but real God that we serve.

00:01:28.460]
You know, God proves himself in so many ways in the lives of those who’ve chosen to follow him. You know, there is not there’s I was talking with Larna just yesterday. We were just talking about the nature of faith and believing in God and believing in the things of God. And, you know, I’m sure you’ll understand when I say to you, you know, there comes a point where you actually go here. You go beyond belief.

00:01:57.260]
You know, you go beyond just believing because you’ve experienced so much of kind of God’s work and God’s reality and and God’s intimate, real solid, substantial friendship in your life, that it’s no longer a matter of belief. It’s a fact. It’s as much of a fact as the nose on your face. It’s and so we go beyond that place of belief. But we want to move deeper into the things of God. We want to really I think my my exploration at the moment, my pursuit is to find the place of integrity where my kind of my work and my world really come together, that there’s not a distinction between who I am and what I do.

00:02:54.020]
I believe that God has called us primarily to be in the business of being our self. And when we discover that, when we discover who we are, when we discover our identity in Christ, along with that blueprint comes the plan to and the purpose that then fuels what we do and how we turn up in the world. And again, I was thinking about this, and there’s just this amazingly simple truth about how we can align our life and our loves and our desires and our personality and our passions with what we are actually here and how we’re turning up for others in the world.

00:03:44.630]
And it’s just such a simple scripture that, you know, like so many things with with Jesus and like so many things in scripture, there’s just a kind of profound simplicity to it, that if we allow our pride to get involved, we would actually say, well, no, that that really can’t be true. It’s too good to be true. That’s too simple. But just take a look at this scripture here. Take a look at this trees.

00:04:20.480]
The disciples came to Jesus and they said to him, what shall we do that we might work the works of God. And Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God. So here, my dear friends, is your job description. OK, this is this is the job description of every man and woman who walks on the planet, OK? This is the work of God. This is what God is asking of you. This is this is what is on your mind.

00:04:55.880]
This is what you can write on your resumé whenever you kind of turn up at the pearly gates. This is the work of God that you believe on him, whom he has sent the work of God is simply to believe and enter deeper and deeper into. A life of trust to teach to to set your heart and lean your heart into this, this exploration of the goodness of God, the fever, the blessing and the life of faith, and to move more and more fully into that that like the reality of that.

00:05:37.670]
So you’ve not got, like, one part of your life over here and another part here and another part can be compartmentalised somewhere else. But there’s this integrity and this wholeness that we enter into, which really kind of strips out this striving because we’re no longer trying to be someone. We’re no longer trying to become something. We’re no longer looking for accolades or badges or names or whatever else titles or whatever else it may be. But we’ve found a place of comfort that we’ve found that place of comfortable fitting into the clothes at the God and the circumstances and the actions and the way of life that God has designed for us to walk in.

00:06:36.020]
You know, it’s such a simple truth, isn’t it? And so here we find that to do the work of God is simply to believe in the work that he does, that he did and that he does for us. That is where we begin. And I know it sounds like way too simple because there are all sorts of complicated things that we have to deal with in life. We’ve got to pay our bills. I get it. We’ve got to pay the rent or the mortgage.

00:07:07.670]
We’ve got to turn up at work and fulfil certain kind of responsibilities, etc., etc., etc. There’s so many kind of factors that make up this thing that we call life. But, you know, just just like boil it down to this statement. This is the statement that kind of just keeps kind of coming to my heart again and again and again. I’m asking the Holy Ghost every day, Lord, what does this look like? What does this look like for me?

00:07:42.600]
Okay. And it’s going to be different for everyone. It’s not like, you know, the great thing about the way God has designed us and the way God wants us to turn up for others is that he doesn’t do it with, like, just some kind of cut-out. He doesn’t do it where he just stamps out humanity. So everyone is exactly the same. And his expectations and his requirements and desires for each and every person are all exactly the same.

00:08:13.340]
So we can walk around like robots. Okay, being nice religious chaps and chaps is it’s just not true, you know. And this statement, Jesus, first everything else follows Jesus first, everything else follows. They said to him, what shall we do that we might work the works of God and Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God that you believe on him, whom he sent. That’s where it begins. That’s the foundation that we begin to build from.

00:09:00.620]
And when we align our hearts and say, OK, Jesus, I’m not going to try and do this myself, I’m not going to try and make my own way. I mean, you know, but I’m going to allow you to lead me in, you know, the scriptures. Talk about a guy, two men. There’s the man. He built his house on sand, the scripture says. And then this other guy, he built his house on the rock.

00:09:30.500]
The guy built his house on sand, was someone who heard Jesus but did not pay heed and did not act on what he heard. The man who built his house on the rock is the man who heard what Jesus was saying to him. You know, you heard not just I’m not talking about listening to a sermon, OK? I’m not talking about listening to some preacher or even listening to me. I’m talking about hearing God speak in your heart, in your conscience, at the hearing God speak and that kind of gut knowledge that like, man, I know there’s something more.

00:10:09.830]
I know that I’m here for a purpose. I know that I’m here for a reason. And then we. Responding to that and becoming more and more sensitive to the leadings of the Holy Ghost as we go forward in life, the guy who built his house on the Rock the Scriptures tell us is the one who heard and then responded and acted on what he heard. It’s a daily thing. It’s not like a one one time thing. It’s every day we come and we choose to to stand on the rock and we say, God, in my marriage, Jesus first.

00:10:47.690]
Everything else will follow in my work, in my business, Jesus first. Everything else will follow. Yeah. You know, in whatever endeavour you are involved in, whatever whatever is being asked of you and demanded of you, I believe with all my heart that Jesus wants to be creatively involved in what you’re doing, you know, and in believing first we believe in Jesus and he brings us into this experience. Okay. This this salvation experience. He then sent the Holy Spirit and these words, man, are in the scriptures.

00:11:37.160]
He says that I’m going to send the Holy Spirit not just to be with you, but to be in you. There’s a leading from without the Holy Ghost will will use circumstances and he will conspire in the best possible way to to bring you into connexion with the right people, the people in the knowledge and the circumstances that you need to discover who you are and step into it. And then he is in us leading us from within that we would turn our ear to the still small voice of the Holy Ghost.

00:12:17.750]
And he wants that that voice wants to wants to help you navigate through all of the noise you have. He wants to help you navigate through all of the questions and the confusion that comes sometimes with with kind of just everything that’s kind of frothing around us. Jesus has not left you alone. You know, he said this. He said my piece. I leave you my peace. I give to you not as the world gives, OK? This isn’t based on everything kind of lining up and everything being exactly as you’d want it.

00:13:01.070]
And like everything feeling perfectly as you think it should be. This is not peace like the world gives. You know, this isn’t this isn’t kind of sit up with your popcorn and watch a movie piece. It’s it’s a piece that goes far beyond kind of just like your weekend piece or or you’re walking on the Hill piece or whatever it is you do to chill. This goes far beyond that. He says, let not your heart be troubled neither.

00:13:32.030]
Let it be afraid. You know, the Bible calls in the Old Testament this word peace is the word Shalom Ark. And the word shalom means a peace that passes understanding. It means harmony, wholeness, prosperity, wellbeing, security and completeness. That is the experience that that I believe God wants to bring you into. That’s the experience that I believe God wants to bring me in to. Thank God. And man, I’m like I I’ll be honest with you.

00:14:10.730]
Yeah. I’m not easily pleased. I have high expectations of myself and I I have I have very high expectations of God. I want to see him move and do miracles. I want to see him move and do great things in my life and the lives of my children in Larna live my wife and in the lives of the people that God has committed to my care in relationship. You know, in in in connexion, I want to see God move in powerful, real, tangible ways in their life.

00:14:58.520]
And and, you know, I asked the Holy Ghost asked me today. He said. What kind of legacy do you want to leave? I’ll be honest with you, I was complaining to him about some things. I was complaining to him and just, you know, sometimes it’s easy. I know I said sometimes I’m real prone to say, sometimes it’s easy for us, but I can’t speak for anyone else. I can only speak for myself sometimes.

00:15:31.710]
Sometimes it’s easy for me to get ahead of myself. Sometimes it’s easy for me to feel as though the world somehow owes me something. Sometimes it’s easy for me to measure others by what the expectations that I have placed upon them that that that and when they when they don’t fully deliver on what my kind of maybe even unspoken expectations were, I get a kind of out of sorts and get gnarly about it. And I was having a bit of one of those conversations with I don’t know if you ever have them.

00:16:08.580]
I mean, it’s maybe maybe you’re a great deal more holy than I am. But I was having one of those conversations with the Holy Ghost this morning just just over a couple of things. And the Holy Ghost spoke to me and he said, David, what kind of legacy do you want to leave? What kind of legacy do you want to leave? And and, you know, I’m I’m pushing on a lot of fronts, I’m pushing in business, I’m pushing in in my creativity, I’m pushing to see what we can do and what we can accomplish as a couple and with our children.

00:16:53.320]
Larna particularly is working so hard to see our children raised up and and shot like arrows into the world to fulfil what God has called them to do. And, you know, I could think of all of the different things that I want to see happen. But my answer was this. I want to leave a legacy of love. Not money. Not words even, and I’m a man of words, and I believe in leaving a legacy of of the things that God has taught you, the things that God has placed within you, your experience, your expertise, I believe it’s it’s important that you leave a record of that, that when you exit the planet, you do not leave with everything that God has put in you.

00:17:45.580]
I believe it’s important that we put it out there. That’s why we opened the Christian Creative Academy to try and help people write and publish their books, create their their training courses, or start their blogs or websites or whatever it may be, is really fuelled by a desire to see people leave a mark on this planet, both presently as they go through life and share their journey. And also ultimately really, you know, should Jesus kind of continue to tary come, Lord Jesus, you know, like that they would leave a legacy that others can build on, that they would build and lay those foundations and that what they have laid in their own heart would not leave with them, that we can stand, as people say, on the shoulders of giants, that we move from generation to generation, and we grow in stature.

00:18:46.630]
We grow in maturity. We grow in our earth, our ability to fulfil the that the the perfect will of God on this planet and become better representatives. And I just love to think of being like a representative of God as representing Jesus to the world. And I’m like fully aware that I am a I like I’m a poor reflection, but I’m only part of the reflection. And that’s what makes it OK. You know, it’s like I don’t have to be everything to everyone.

00:19:26.920]
I just have to be something to someone. And that’s why I’m saying, you know, like moving into this place of Jesus first. Everything else follows the work of God is not for me to be perfect. It’s not for me to do everything and be everything and be everywhere. It’s for me to be one hundred percent myself and turn up for other people in the best way. I know how to turn up and say, Hey, this is me.

00:19:58.150]
This is everything I am, this is all I’ve got. And I’m bringing it to the table because not not because I want to be something or be someone because that’s taken care of. Jesus has taken care of that Jesus first Jesus first Jesus first everything else follows. But because I my my heart yearns to see the body of Christ step into its creative destiny, my heart yearns to see the people of God being raised up and and and shot out into every sector of society to bring solutions, to bring answers, to bring faith and life to the table, to bring something that is that that flows from this place of peace, not as the world gives from this place of harmony and fullness and completeness, that we would be the ones who furnished the tables of the world with all the goodness of God and all the wisdom of heaven.

00:21:10.960]
I believe that I believe that we should have the greatest artists, the greatest songwriters, the greatest singers, the greatest architects, the greatest cooks. I believe that we should have that, like politicians so close with the Holy Ghost that no one can resist the power and the strength of the wisdom and the grace that they come with. I believe it. I believe it. I believe that society and our generation is crying out for the manifestation of the children of God.

00:21:47.320]
And I believe that you are one of those people. And I said, I want to leave a legacy of love, you know, and not money, not words, not empire or enterprise. It could be some. It could be all or it could be none of those things. But friend, I’m working towards with an end in mind. I’m working with the end in mind. The end in mind, good and faithful servant, you’ve been faithful with a little come in and I will make you ruler over much.

00:22:29.530]
Now the Bible talks about making disciples, and I made a word up this morning, you know, I don’t think it will probably end up in the Oxford English Dictionary or anything like that, but I do think it’s a good one. And it’s the word religious ised. Here we go. This is this is like from from the dictionary that I’m going to this is my new word. OK, maybe maybe it will be adopted into into like common vernacular, religious sized.

00:23:05.850]
OK. And this is what this means to make small God’s amazing promises through overfamiliarity. He’s an example. OK, David, religious ised, the great commission into something that only special people can do. So he could excuse himself from taking action in his everyday circumstances. Friend, I don’t want to religious size anything. I don’t want to religious size this commission to reach out and to build up and to be present to help other people, to make a disciple is simply to work with others and to help them recognise and remember who they really are.

00:23:58.800]
Because when we recognise them, we remember who we really are. We begin to act in alignment with that that harmony, that shalom begins to work in our lives. And we turn up in a powerful way for other people to help them accomplish what God has called them to do. And in doing so, we build one another up in love. Love faith works by love, pointing people to Jesus, Jesus in your heart, Jesus in your home, Jesus in your work, Jesus in your play.

00:24:38.850]
Jesus first everything else follows and starting with that end in mind. That we would one day stand and be judged for all that we’ve said, one day will stand and will be judged for everything that we’ve done. Everything that we’ve built here. Yeah, well, Stand will have to withstand the test to see what its true nature is. Is this is this built from the ego or is this built with eternity in mind? Is this built from the blueprint that the Holy Ghost has placed on the inside?

00:25:23.680]
Is this built from a place of humble following and humble hearing, or is this built to extend the empire of man’s ego? And everything will be tested? Everything will be. And we don’t want our works to be burnt up. See, a man can gain the whole world and lose everything at the end of it. He can lose his own soul. What does it what does that what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul and say, you know, it’s so important as businessmen, as business women, entrepreneurs, as men and women of influence and stature and whatever you are doing, wherever you are, whatever your circumstance, this truth applies.

00:26:17.590]
We are all called to the work of the kingdom. What is the work of the kingdom? What is the work of the kingdom? This is the work of the kingdom to believe. In the one whom Jesus sent to believe in, the one that God sent and then to receive the one who Jesus sent the Holy Spirit so we can walk in the truth. And so I just encourage you today, I know I’ve been kind of pretty kind of excitable today, but I and I encourage you to make Jesus your business model.

00:27:02.010]
I encourage you to make him the model for your family, the model for your home, the model for your marriage. I encourage you to to trust the Holy Spirit, to give you the strategy that you need. We can chase a lot of things. And there’s a lot we can learn from other people and a lot we can learn. And we should be we should be lifelong learners. We should always be seeking to expand and move forward. But like, don’t ever forget don’t ever forget that the work of God is not complicated.

00:27:41.070]
The work of God is not 66. Steps to the work of God is not some secret mystical thing. It’s not there’s no secret sauce here. There’s no hidden agenda. It’s just plain and simple. Believe and trust in the one who was sent to die for your sins and receive. The one who is sent the precious, amazing, wonderful, wise and gracious Holy Spirit who will teach you and lead you in the way that you need to go.

00:28:17.640]
And so, Jesus, we believe in you. We humble our hearts before you. We thank you, God, that there is nothing father there you do not want to get involved in in our lives. There’s there’s nothing that you’ve withheld from us. And Father, we want to get to the place where we withhold nothing from you. And so father in Jesus name, I just declare favour and grace and blessing over anyone who watches this or he is this.

00:28:51.060]
And Father, even if no one did God, I claim it for myself. I’ll have some. There’s more than enough to go around and I choose to partake of it today in Jesus name. Well, thanks for listening, hopefully. It’s been an encouragement to you today, if you want to connect any further, you can do so through my website at Davidleemartin.com. Have a great day.

One of the boldest statements you will find in Scripture is the time Jesus put it out there and declared, “I am the Light of the world!” (John 8:12)

Perhaps even more mind boggling is that He also said, “YOU are the light of the world!” (Matthew 5:14)

It is a startling statement, but it’s right there in red. He said it, I believe it, and to hell with any other opinion.

And if you are the light of the world, is it not time to stop skulking in the shadows?

Read More?

https://davidleemartin.com/let-your-light-shine/

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Hey, folks, I just wanted to jump in here today a little later than usual, been a busy morning doing various things, schooling kids with Larna, trying to organise a few things for, like, my daughter and stuff, I’m sure with many of us will be in the same boat right now having to kind of kind of just roll with the punches. But today, as I was running, I try and run a good number of times a week to just try and be honest to get rid of Christmas Bell, if I’m honest at the moment.

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That’s my present goal. But I wanted to talk to it. As I was running. I was thinking about how Jesus said that he was the light of the world. I guess it was the fact that we’re having a rare sunny morning here. Maybe that’s what provoked me to think about that particular thing. But, you know, it was a very bold statement that Jesus made when he said, I am the light of the world. But even more more stunning, really more like mind boggling is the fact that he said of his people, you are the light of the world, Matthew.

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I think it’s in. Matthew, let me just pull up this scripture here so you can note it down if it’s of interest. Yeah, Matthew 5:14, Jesus said, you are the light of the world, and my question today to you is, as the light of the world, is it right that you should allow your and your light to be hidden under a and stored away and stashed away somewhere and not actually let it shine?

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I know that there’s like numerous reasons why we procrastinate or why we don’t take action. We are all prone to it. In fact, even today, Larna had to pull me up. I was kind of faffing around with some sound equipment on behalf of my daughter. Unrequested. It was just me and Larna kind of pulled me aside and said, sweetheart, you’re procrastinating again. And sometimes we can get ourselves busy with a lot of things to really put off doing some of the things that no one we know we need to do.

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And number two, maybe we don’t particularly want to do them. You know, there’s some organisational stuff that I’m currently doing in my book publishing business that’s not really the most exciting part of what I’ve built, but I’m the only one presently anyways who can do it. I need to get some systems in place there. But but kind of what I found with systems is if you do not if you do not maintain them, if you do not make sure that you feed everything into them consistently and diligently, they break down very quickly.

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So I would encourage you to put systems in place, whether it’s like for your personal life and growth or whether it’s for like your business life and growth. But, you know, it’s it’s important that we let our light shine, that we don’t allow procrastination. We don’t allow fear. We don’t allow excuses or the many reasons why we will do it tomorrow. I read a quote today, I think it was from Shaquille O’Neal or Shaquille O’Neal or someone I can’t even remember the guy’s name.

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I’m sure you may be able to tell me. But he said there are seven days in a week and not one of them is called someday. And so we want to be sure not to put things off to someday. Jesus said you are the light of the world and what you have to bring is important. You know, there’s another story that he told of these ten ladies. Yeah. And all of these ten ladies are waiting for their bridegroom to come.

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And five of the ladies, it says, you know, they don’t know when he’s coming in the fire. Five of the ladies have got their lamps ready. They’ve got their lamps trimmed. They’ve got their lamps filled with oil and burning, ready for the return of their bridegroom. Five of the others, the other five had kind of lost. Lost hope, lost faith that he was ever coming back. I guess they just thought, you know, this is this is never going to happen.

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It’s never going to work out for me. I’m going to be left on the shelf somewhere. Why should I even try? And we know if you if you’re familiar with scripture, we know the outcome of it. The bridegroom came at an unexpected moment. The five who were prepared and ready and had their light shining at work kind of stepped into their destiny, where as the the other five who had not prepared, who had not been diligent to keep themselves filled and flowing and burning bright, I kind of lost out.

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The door was closed and they couldn’t come in. And, you know, although it’s somewhat taking it out of context, I think it’s the same for us. You know, we have you have you you have something special and unique to bring to the world. You have ideas and value that you know, that you carry on the inside. And sometimes it’s just a matter of really mustering the confidence and the courage to step out and begin to that, to begin to share that kind of on a broader basis with the world.

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You know, sometimes one of the issues is and and, you know, believe it or not, even people who are seemingly successful struggle with this same thing. We allow our insecurities and our sense of inadequacy to prevent us again from stepping out and just having a go from stepping out and saying, you know, what we may feel is like all we’ve got is this little light of mine. Yeah. This tiny little light, some kind of little insignificant match that we are carrying on the inside that, you know, why would anyone ever want to hear what I’ve got to say?

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Why would anyone ever want to engage with me or learn from me or I see what I’ve got to bring the pictures that I’ve got to paint, the songs that I’ve got to sing. Why would anyone ever want that? I’ve just got this tiny, tiny, tiny little light. But I can tell you something I used to up until recently when the weather got really kind of adverse to to this and then this lockdown last year that’s happening in the UK at the moment.

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I used to go out on the hills with some friends on Wednesday mornings and we would drive to a local place and we would go out six o’clock in the morning and walk across the hills and pray together and just spend some time in fellowship. And there was this one guy every time, and I think it must do it every day. You would he would go running in the mornings and he would run over the hills. And for his exercise, he and his dog and he had one of these strapon headlights.

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He had like a lamp that he put round his head. And it would show him the way because like up until a few months ago and I tell you, it was really dark in the mornings. I mean, it was pitch dark when we got there. And then we would see the sun come up as we as we were walking. But like even way off, like on there on that kind of in the distance on the hills here, you could see this chap coming.

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He may have had a little light, but in the pitch dark, he was very much able to No one be noticed, no one be significant in the broad vista that was before us. And, you know, it doesn’t take a big light to lead the way when so many people are walking in darkness or ignorance and by darkness or ignorance. You know, obviously there’s a spiritual connotation to that and their spiritual connotations to all of these things that I’m saying, significant ones.

00:09:06.900]
But even on a practical level, many people are stuck in their creative projects because they simply are in the dark. They don’t they maybe don’t know that you can today. You can publish a book completely for free. Maybe they don’t know that you can even publish a print book, OK, for completely for free. And if someone purchases that book, Amazon or some other print on demand company will print that one book and send it to anywhere in the world.

00:09:39.540]
And you just share the profit with it with whatever platform you’re selling from. Yeah, no cost, no money down. Many people. May not know that many people may not know that there is so many different for every problem, there is a solution. Yeah, and you can be a problem solver. You can help someone else get where they want to get. You have skills, you have experience. You have a history that that can help someone else.

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Yeah. And sometimes they might be walking in. What you might be in the light. You might be out there thinking, oh wow, this stuff is so easy. This is so easy to do. Why would anyone want to know what I know? How could I ever help anyone else? But like I say, it doesn’t take a big, big light to help and lead someone else if they’re kind of stumbling around thinking, what do I do next?

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You have a creative value that you you need to be bringing to the table. And, you know, it’s important as well, I think, for us to realise that this this idea of standing up and stepping out and like looking to share our worth with the world, it does take courage. It does take time. It may mean stepping outside of your comfort zone. Believe me, standing here and choosing to do these live, just jump on here and do this every day of the week, choosing to kind of put myself out and develop in a podcast and some different things, lots of different ways in which I’m actually looking to step outside of my comfort zone and what I’ve learnt to be kind of comfortable with stepping into new areas, because I absolutely believe that each one of us is called to let our light shine.

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You know, stepping up and stepping out may need may mean learning and growing and filling your lamp with some fresh oil, you know, really going out there, getting some fresh information, some fresh knowledge, fresh wisdom, fresh understanding how to do the things that you want to do. And really, there is no glowing without growing. All of us are lifelong learners. Every one of us is is is stretching in and moving into new things so we can become more useful to other people.

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And and but it’s worth it, you know, be really unleashing your genius is so important and so worthwhile. Whatever it takes, whatever the end, whatever the investment of time, whatever the investment of of money. And it doesn’t have to cost a lot. This is the thing. You know, you can you can begin right where you are right now. The scriptures tell us in Hebrews ten, verse fourteen. Again, I’ll bring this I’ll bring this scripture up.

00:13:07.180]
So for those of you who are interested, yeah, it says, let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. Hebrews 10 verse 14 one one version says, Let us provoke one another and to good works, let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And I encourage you today, you know, and if I can do anything, I’m like this is one of the ways that I have thought that I can actually.

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Help to motivate and encourage you and other people to acts of love and good works, that is important to me. That’s something that I want to do. That’s something that’s that’s very much on my heart. And I really believe that together we can make a difference. You know, one of the. One of the another way that that I’m looking to to do this is I’ve opened an online I call it an academy. It’s it’s kind of a grand title.

00:14:22.700]
It really is. I’ve opened something called the Christian Creative Academy. You can check it out at ChristianCreative.Academy if you’re interested. And we’re really committed to help other Christian creatives, artists, authors, entrepreneurs step up and step out and begin to share their awesome with the world looking, looking to do all we can to help equip the Saints for their specific work of ministry. And your work of ministry can be so diverse. I mean, Jesus is again another scripture.

00:15:04.650]
I’ve not got this I’ve not got this written down somewhere. OK, but let me just look it up here. There’s another scripture that I think may be helpful. If I can find it here, I may. It may have been elsewhere that that I saw it. But the the scriptures tell us that each man has been given a gift, OK? Each man each woman has been given specific gifts to share with the world for the upbuilding of other people, for the edification of other people to help and to build and to bless other people.

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And I believe that you are called to do that in the name of Jesus. Well, thanks for listening. Hopefully it’s been an encouragement to you today. If you want to connect any further, you can do so through my website at Davidleemartin.com. Have a great day.