Kim Walker-Smith - JCMIN 2014

hello hi there we go I don't get to use the pink sparkly microphone oh darn so I know some of you are wondering if I am eternally pregnant considering I spent most of last year pregnant and I'm now pregnant again it's baffling to myself even in September I had a little boy named Wyatt and thank you he just turned nine months old and he is humongous I mean giant I have giant babies apparently and he's probably the size of most people's one year old and he's the cutest chubbiest little cowboy you'd ever see in your life completely adorable and this baby number two is arriving in December and I know I'm just going to say now because I get asked these questions a lot um but I do not know if I'm having a boy or girl and I'm a total hippie I don't do ultrasounds so I like the surprise so I don't ever find out and so all through my pregnancy last time and already I've been asked you know what you're having I say no have no clue the surprise is amazing so I am um wanting to share something really aa really raw for me right now I want to talk about embracing this season that you're in and let me just talk to you about why this is so raw for me right now this has been such an exciting season and such a hard season being a mom is like whoa I mean all you moms out there I probably call my mom all the time and say I'm so sorry I don't know what I was thinking why I put you through that but please forgive me being a mom it's the most rewarding and the most wonderful thing and the hardest thing I've ever done in my life uh and on top of everything else that we're doing you know Wyatt at by eight months old he has been in nine countries and 15 different states that is a lot for a little baby we just took him all around the world with us and we walk into a hotel room and he just lights up like it's just his second home and he doesn't sleep pretty much ever and I'm completely exhausted all the time and a million moms everywhere have given me advice about what to do and I am desperate I'm like I will try anything when lady even told me try just putting him upside down for a couple minutes and then put him right side up because it just sets his clock right and I was like okay all right so I pick up Wyatt woo and back and I'm like even sleep now no no didn't work didn't work the kid does not sleep at all and I can't really blame him you know he's getting toted all over the world and I'm like well probably doesn't so i confused about time zones and whatnot and i can't really blame the kid mean poor guy and um I just said yesterday to someone I said you know the last two weeks he's been waking up every single hour in the night and I said so it can't get worse well guess what it did I had no idea could but it did that kid woke up last night it well this morning I'll say 6:30 but on California time that's 4:30 and he was wide awake till 9:00 a.m. just talking he crawled over and he'd kissed me and then he laughs and he talked and I couldn't get mad about it I couldn't get mad that my baby is waking me up and I'm just completely exhausted because he's just so darn cute just what can I say you know yeah but I would love for him to sleep and I don't know how to make that happen maybe one day so embracing the season we're in as you can tell I'm in very tired season God has a plan for our lives God sees the beginning and the end and the middle he sees everything in between and God knows what's ahead he knows what you're about to walk into he knows every situation and the trials the good things the hard things he knows every single part of your life and the amazing and wonderful thing about God and the fact that he is a good and a loving father is that he wants you to be successful you have these dreams in your heart and these visions and these things that you you want to do with your life these goals that you're aiming your life towards and God doesn't put these dreams and these desires in your heart just to dangle them in front of you and say I hope you get there good luck buddy life is hard God puts those things inside of you and he wants you to achieve those things in your heart but he doesn't want you to just land there he wants you to be successful when you get there he wants you to do it well and at the end of your life you can say that you did it well you walked the road that you were called to walk and you did it well this requires a ton of trust and a life that is completely surrendered and and I'm not talking about coming to a conference or Church on Sunday and just making that one time I surrender my life to you God I'm learning and finding out that walking with Jesus and I mean a daily relationship with him looks like daily surrender my son teaches me this as I daily surrender to no sleep daily surrender I'm going to read Isaiah 55 verse 8 for my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways declares the Lord as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater so is my word that goes out from my mouth it will not return to me empty but it will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it what this says right here is that first of all it says to me two things number one is what what we see is not always matching what God sees God sees further he sees beyond he sees the things that we can't always see but secondly this says that God promises that the things the promises that he has put inside your heart that when he speaks outward it will not return empty but that word will be accomplished in your life how is that accomplished through total daily surrender to Jesus to allowing him to transform you and to work in your life what needs to be done what needs to happen to get there because this is what it is there's there's just these circumstances these trials these these things that we go through these may be hard seasons these learning seasons these curve balls that come our way and God I really really really believe that God is such a gracious and loving God that he brings us opportunity to grow and to learn and it's only for our benefit so that when we get to whatever destination we're going towards we'll be successful and we can do it well I can tell you that in my own life I look back on the different things that I've walked through in my life and the challenges that I faced the times when I chose to press into the presence of God when I couldn't see when I didn't know when I was scared and I was confused when I felt lost when I when I had all these whirlwind of emotions whatever is that I might have been feeling maybe maybe I felt abandoned my god maybe I felt frustrated maybe I felt that frustration of oh I see where I want to be and I can't get there and it's driving me crazy I'm stuck here at point B and I really want to be like way down there at point why I think really big really long-term and I get frustrated that I'm not there why can't I get there and learning to just embrace the season that I'm in and understanding that there is something that God wants to do inside of me right now there's something that God wants to plant inside of me to prepare me to give me the tools necessary so that when I get there I can do it well a great example of this is when we went to Chicago and we did our Chicago Arena gathering now way back when Jesus Culture started Oh some of you were there maybe yeah when Jesus culture started like way way back we we were like you know in our youth group of not a ton of people and we're praying and we we have vision and we're believing that one day we're going to go to an arena and we're going to see thousands of people worshipping Jesus but right now in our youth group we're trying to get ten kids to worship Jesus you know what I mean there was always that one group that they just wanted to run around and chew gum and you know be silly I don't know where the chewing gum came from except that's what I remember about youth group is all the kids chewing gum I don't know so here we are and we've got this huge vision and all these years later here we are in Chicago and I'm standing backstage and it's the first night session and bannings up on the stage and he's about to he's like saying hello and greeting everyone and praying and the band is about to come up and do worship in it's 15,000 people and all of us can just feel the excitement of this is a dream come true right now years and years and years ago we're praying into this and investing into this and believing for this moment even when it didn't look like it was going to happen but believing that this is where God had us and just patiently waiting on the Lord to lead us down the road to that point that destination and I knew that I could very easily walk up on that stage and just sing let's call it the greatest hits like how he loves rooftops your love never fails I don't know just the greatest and I knew I could just walk up there and I could just sing the songs and everyone would be so excited because there was just so much excitement in the room at just being there and it would be so easy and then I could just walk off the stage and it'd be like bah that was simple but something inside of me always makes a choice to not go down that easy road but to step aside and say god this cannot just be another night I can't walk through the motions I can't be fake I can't be phony I want to know what is it that you want to accomplish tonight and I want to partner with you to bring your kingdom to bring heaven so that people encounter you and their lives are changed and let me tell you this is not always the easier way this is typically the harder way because it requires me to first of all push aside the pressure that I can't really describe it except that I I can literally feel I'm just getting real vulnerable right now okay I can literally feel a a weight of of people's expectation on me I can literally feel this almost like a peer pressure to like want to just like give in to just please man to just sing the songs it makes everybody happy instead of waiting and pressing in to God and figuring out what it is that he wants to do it means that I have to know how to push aside all distraction it means that the enemy is going to paint a big old target and try to come and bring distraction and speak different things and I have to know how to be up on the stage and lead the thousands of people into worship but also how to push out any distraction of the enemy and to hear from the Lord do you see I'm saying this is this is a fight but it is a fight that is so worth it and I can tell you that I would not ever have learned how to do that if I hadn't gone through all the years before that of learning well I have what I've learned and what I've grown in my relationship with the Lord in understanding and knowing it's so worth it every time this is making sense I don't think that if I hadn't learned those things and gone through those things I don't think that I would have been successful when I got there it could have looked successful to everyone else because like I said I could have gone up and sang songs and just gone through the motions and everyone would have been like yeah a-and maybe never would have known but I would know my team would know because it's so it's so worth it to allow God to do in me what he wants to do and to teach me and train me and mold me so that when I arrive I'm ready in one of my um testimonies I think it's floating around on YouTube but I talk about this season I went through with the Lord when I was in the school of ministry and it was a it was a rough season because God was rewiring me on the inside and he was teaching me about Who I am according to who he says I am not what anyone else says but just simply being his daughter and it was a healing process for me and it was a painful process it was so good but I got to the point where I desired nothing but Jesus and every day after school after ESSM I would either go to our prayer house or go home and I just go to my room and just start worshiping and pressing into Jesus and I spent hours and hours and hours just alone in my bedroom just pressing into God just so hungry to know him as as much and as deeply as I could and I didn't care if I ever became a worship leader a missionary a doctor a lawyer anything all I cared about that whatever I was doing in my life was that I had him and I had my eyes so set on him and I know I know I know that the fruit that I walk in today is because of that time and I understand and I know that the circumstances and the season that I'm in right now is going to determine the fruit in my future I understand and I know that every decision I make right now in my life the way that I handle the big waves on my way the way that I handle the curveballs the way that I handle the hard situations those those decisions are what determines the fruit I'm going to be living in in my future you guys know the story of Peter in Matthew 1425 he's in the boat with his other friends I'm just going to tell this story in the Kin version and this storm comes and they're all freaked out and all of a sudden they look out on the water and they see a man and they're like oh it's a ghost and Jesus is like no sillies it's me and Peter who must have been out of his mind crazy in love with Jesus now let me tell you why I think this because when you are in love you are seriously out of your mind when I first fell in love with my husband okay those initial feelings of you I couldn't talk about anything else I couldn't eat I couldn't sleep I could have walked out and got hit by a car and my arm fell off and I go I love Skylar yeah those gooey gooey gooey feelings so in love out of your mind crazy okay Peter had to have been that because people in love they don't always think rationally because Peter says whoa Jesus if that is you call out to me one more time so I know and I'm running out there to be with you are you kidding me Peter couldn't just wait a few minutes for Jesus to get to the boat it's not enough for him he wants to be where Jesus is he wants to be right out there where he is he doesn't consider that the man is walking on water in the middle of a storm hello in love out of your mind completely so Peter calls to him and Jesus is like yeah Peter it's me and Peter climbs out of the boat and runs out on the water to be with Jesus but all of this sudden as he gets out there he takes his eyes off of Jesus for a moment and he looks and he sees these giant winds in these giant waves and suddenly reality smacks him in the face and he realizes what he's just done and he starts to sink and he calls out to Jesus like help me and Jesus comes over and picks him up out of the waters like you of little faith why did you doubt goofball Peter was so in love with Jesus and so wanted to be with him he set his eyes on Jesus and that's what gave him the faith that he needed to walk out on the water but the moment he took his eyes off of Jesus and he looked around at the circumstances around him that's the moment he began to sink but because of what he heard because he heard the voice of the one he loves calling out to him he went he ran but then when he looked around he saw this is such an important lesson for all of us that the moment we get in those difficult situations those hard seasons the moment we take our eyes off of Jesus that's the moment we begin to sink that's the moment when the storm begins to overtake us and overwhelm us but if we just fix our eyes on him if we set our eyes on Jesus and we just keep walking and we keep pressing in Jesus is right there with us to help us every step along the way you know that um Hillsong song oceans it's a beautiful song I have no idea if it was written about that section of scripture but when I hear it that's what I think of is the story of Peter I'm going to just read the lyrics for a minute here spirit lead me where my trust is Without Borders let's just stop right there first of all when we sing this song I wonder do people know what they just said hello you just said Jesus lead me where there is no boundaries to my trust in you whoa that's a big statement huge listen your words are powerful people spirit lead me where my trust is Without Borders let me walk upon the waters wherever you would call me take me deeper than my feet could ever wander and my faith will be made stronger in the presence of my Savior as I'm walking after you Jesus as my faith grows stronger as I set my eyes on you as I climb those mountains as I push through the storms my faith is growing stronger your grace abounds in deepest waters that means when you feel like you're in the darkest season or the hardest season God's grace is there even more I can testify to that over and over and over in my life the seasons that were the hardest seasons of my life that is when God had so much more grace for me your sovereign hand will be my guide where feet may fail and fear surrounds me you've never failed and you won't start now isn't it amazing that we serve a God that has never failed not one time he has never failed and he has gone before us and he has prepared a way for us isn't that amazing that right there should just give you faith to know that I will get there I will conquer this mountain I will get through this storm I will beat this thing my baby will sleep through the night I will get there I will call upon your name and keep my eyes above the waves when oceans rise my soul will rest in your embrace for I am yours and you are mine this part is what means the most to me this is what I hold on to personally when I'm in the tough seasons knowing that I belong to Jesus I'm his a long time ago I gave my life to him I surrender my life everyday to him and I know that no matter what comes up my way no matter what season no matter how hard it is no matter how easy it is I know that I know that I know that I belong to him and he's not about to just abandon me to figure it out on my own he's not about to abandon me to just fail the he is there with me he's like you're mine you belong to me I know that with with my son I want him to succeed he's mine that little boy that chubby cute little boy he belongs to me and I understand and I know that I'm gonna do my best to love him and to help him I know that he's going to make his own decisions I know that he's going to make his own choices I know that I can't control him I can't control his life but I'm gonna do everything I can to pour every part of me into him and because he belongs to me because I so love him I want him to be successful I want him to to do well in life I want him to be happy the father his love is that that kind of love is so amazing but the Father's love is so much greater and so much bigger than that it's a love that I feel like I'm spending my life trying to understand and I'm okay with that even if all I have is a small taste of the Father's love I don't mind spending my entire life trying to seek it out and learn more about it because it's so deep and it's so big and I'm so amazed that it doesn't even matter how many times I mess up it doesn't even matter how many times I make the wrong choice or one of my issues is sometimes I speak before I think doesn't matter how many times I might say something I should not have said or how many messes I might make that he still loves me he still embraces me he still comes and he's like Kim I don't care about the mess I'm gonna help you work through it I'm gonna help you clean it up but listen you're going to get there and you're going to be successful spirit lead me where my trust is Without Borders can't ever sing the song the same now that I pointed out huh that message right there it's just saying Jesus listen I will put all my trust in you and there will be no limit no boundary no border to all my trust in you that means I am all-in 100% I trust you with my life completely I trust your will I trust your goodness I trust your grace that means that we are in total surrender to Him that means that when you go through those difficult circumstances or whatever the season may look like that you're saying god I completely trust you with my life and trust what you want to do in my life I just recently the last year there was some really challenging things that I was dealing with and I was walking through some healing and Jesus came and I saw him standing in front of me and he said Kim give me more and I gotta be honest I was so offended I was so offended I couldn't believe that Jesus had the audacity I know I know listen I'm all attitude sometimes to dare to ask me to give him more and I threw my hands up and I was so angry and I was like are you kidding me look what I walked through my entire life the challenges of my childhood the things that I went through as an innocent child that I should not have had to deal with the challenges I walked through as an adult going through lots in her healing trying to get free of the childhood and the past and everything else all the times I have surrendered every single time that I have laid down my life for you over and over and over what have I not given to you what have I not surrendered to you and yet here you are daring to ask me to give you more and I was so offended and all of a sudden because Jesus is completely overwhelmingly attractive to me because my heart cannot resist Jesus I crumbled into a heap on the floor and was bawling my eyes out and I understood in that moment what he wanted he was asking me to reach down deeper inside of me and to bring him something more he was saying Kim every time you think you've given it all and surrender all there is still something deeper something more inside of you to bring and to give to Jesus because the reality is Jesus is worthy of every single thing that I have inside of me Jesus is worthy of all of my praise and all of my worship and just when I feel like listen I have not slept in what feels like decades I am exhausted I have nothing left to give I feel completely empty completely broken I just want to go to bed for like two years I'm I have nothing left to give but yet I still will reach down inside of me and I just reach so deep deep deep deep and I find something in the depths of me to bring and to give to Jesus my sacrifice of praise my offering my worship because this is what I've learned in every situation in every trial every circumstance I have learned that I worship my way through those moments I worship my way through those circumstances I bring my sacrifice appraised there is something deeper inside of you to bring to Jesus and to give to Jesus I'm not talking about just a external just a Here I am I surrender I'm talking about reaching in the depths and finding something more to bring to him because he is worthy he's deserving of that I love it's my favorite verse of all time Hosea 2:14 I'm going to read it in just a second but this section of scripture I'm about to read it's talking about the desert and so often when people talk about oh I'm in a desert season I can't hear Jesus I can't see him I think he left me where where where hey I've been there a million times but this is what I've discovered the desert season is actually God's grace in your life when I was just talking about His grace abounds in deepest waters the desert season is not a you fell into a hole somewhere and God kept walking and didn't notice that you fell in the desert season is God's grace on your life it is an invitation from him to come into a deeper intimacy the desert season is him saying listen I care so much about you and I'm looking down the road and I see where you're headed and I understand that when you get there you're going to need something and you're gonna need it too in order to do it well down there so right now my grace for you is that I'm gonna lead you Jesus actually leads us into the desert season so that our intimacy with him can grow maybe he's saying listen the way that we communicated before is not how I want to communicate now the way that I was speaking to you before is not how I want to speak to you now what you've learned before is not what I want you to learn right now it's a real relationship people think about the other relationships in your life I know that my relationship with my husband if this stayed this way it was in our first year of marriage now in our fifth year of marriage there would be something wrong there would be something really wrong if the way that we communicated and related to each other just stayed exactly the same all the time and it never grew there would be a real issue a real problem if you think about your real relationships that you have around you why would our relationship with Jesus be any different it's a real relationship he wants it to grow I'm gonna read this therefore I am now going to allure her I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her there I will give her back her vineyards and we'll make the valley of Achor which means trouble the valley of trouble a door of hope there she will sing as in the days of her youth as in the day she came up out of Egypt and that day declares the Lord you will no longer call me my master I will remove the names of the bills from her lips no longer will their names be invoked in that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the birds in the air and the creatures that move along the ground bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land so that all may lie down and safety I will betroth you to me forever I will be truth you in righteousness and justice in love and compassion I will be truth you in faithfulness and you will acknowledge the Lord I love this because this right here just makes it so clear that every time you feel yourself go into that season it's not to wallow and to get upset but it is an invitation to go deeper with the Lord every time I feel myself coming into a desert or wilderness type season I get really excited because I know what's coming afterwards because it's usually a promotion and let me tell you for someone who is a pretty you know career driven goal-oriented reward oriented type person okay just being honest I get really excited about that Jesus thank you thank you for this season that really sucks right now because I know that on the other side of this is a promotion waiting for me and deeper intimacy with you yes it's not easy to embrace the process you're in whatever that process looks like but this is what is required of us to be successful I have a funny story that for years I never shared this story publicly because I thought people would think it was weird and wouldn't understand but then I decided that I didn't care what they thought so I decided to start sharing it publicly but um years and years years ago this is even before I was really leading worship much at all there was this competition in Northern California with Fox Television and it was connected to American Idol and American Idol at that time I think it was maybe in its second season or something and my friends decided without telling me to sign me up for this singing competition that Fox was putting on and the winner of this competition got a guaranteed audition for American Idol for the producers of the show and my friends are like hey Kim you want to go to Chico and go shopping for the day and hang out and I'm like yeah shopping of course and so we load in the car and we drive to Chico this other town where the competition was being held and instead of going to the mall my friends drive to Fox television station where there is a of people for days outside and I'm like what are we doing here what is this and my friends are like surprise we entered you in a singing competition and I was like what I'm like I am NOT doing that I was terrified I didn't want to go sing in front of people especially people I didn't know I mean I was terrifying and I certainly didn't want to compete at that I mean I'm competitive but I don't want to compete doing that I mean that was scary I mean give me a game of Yahtzee or something I'll be really excited but competing singing no no thank you and my friends finally talked me into it and I go in there like shaking like this and I sing asylum no what I sang I sang something and long story short I ended up winning the competition so now here I am I've got this guaranteed audition for the producers of the show they're gonna fly me and a friend out to Atlanta why Atlanta I don't know and we're asmin audition and all of a sudden people all over the church everywhere somehow somehow everyone found out about this and I was so embarrassed and everyone's coming to me and they're like Kim the Lord said that you are gonna win American Idol and you're gonna take over the music industry for Jesus hallelujah and I'm like okay and suddenly I'm carrying the weight of the world on me as everyone's telling me these prophetic words that I'm gonna somehow win American Idol and I'm gonna somehow change the entire music industry and everybody in the world is going to get saved and I'm like wow that's a lot of pressure on the girl who's terrified to be on a stage and I remember afraid I was afraid to tell people like um I don't want to do that I'm really scared I was afraid to tell people I was afraid of disappointing them and on the inside I'm like Jesus help me I'm like I don't I don't know what to do I don't think I want to do this and as I'm flying in the airplane with my friend to Atlanta and I'm so nervous and I'm pouring sweat from my hands and I'm praying the whole way there and I'm like Jesus I don't know what to do and I felt Jesus say to me if you want this I'll give it to you and I'm like this is a test did did I did I hear that right and I clear as day I heard it again if you want this I'll give it to you now suddenly I'm like okay well this is a different kind of pressure I need to figure out if I want this what's what's really in my heart what do i what do I want and I get there and the way that they had it set up was there was a group of people like myself who'd won some other competition and we were allowed this audition and they had us lined up one two three and it was maybe about 20 or so rows back and I was towards the end of the line I was number two standing in the middle my favorite number and they would call people up the producers are sitting in front there's a lady in the middle who is kind of like the main producer lady I don't know and this is how it went they go one sing thank you to sing thank you three sing thank you no no yes next that fast they did not speak a word to anybody there was no conversation happening there was not I'm gonna be singing bla bla bla bla for you I mean nothing like that it was so quick and I'm standing back there and I'm you know slowly moving up and I'm I'm going I don't know I don't know I don't know do I want this I don't know I don't know I do I want this and I could not decide I'm like Jesus I don't know what to do I don't know what to do and I still had not even decided what I was singing and all of a sudden and this is a part that I know sounds crazy but this is just how it was it's just what happened Jesus says if you sing this song it'll put you through and if you're seeing this song you won't go through what would you want what do you want and it wasn't like one was a bad song they're both great songs but it's just that one goes through and that one doesn't and I'm sitting there going I don't know what to pick I don't know what I don't know what to decide and all sudden my groups up and I'm standing there and it's like one sing and the moment she says to sing I've made a split decision and I chose the song that wouldn't put me through I sing the song she goes to the next one and then she says one no three she skips me three yes and then she looks back at me and she goes I just can't take you and she has this confused look on her face like I don't know why I'm saying this and she's going like that at me and I go I know and I walked off and I remember calling banning before I was flying home and I was like banning I'm not coming home I can't face the people they'll be so disappointed listen I chose the song that wouldn't put me through and he's like what are you talking about and I'm like it's a long story but I'm not gonna do it I'm not gonna save you the music industry and I can't do it in banning it's like Kim everybody loves you every everyone's gonna be supportive it's okay just come home it's all right and I'm like I don't wanna come oh but the airplane took me there instead and I get home and there were so many awkward moments people come running up to me like so and they're totally thinking that I'm gonna be like yes I'm in I'm going and I'd be like nope and they'd be like oh like super awkward okay the awkwardness lasted for months I was like can't the word spread a little bit quicker come on people let everyone know shout it from the rooftops Kim's not going to American Idol but you know what I look back on my life this is years ago and I look back at all that time since then and I got to be honest and tell you if I had done it if I had gone through whether or not I would have won American Idol that doesn't matter but I know it would have set me on a course that I was not ready for I know that would have set me on a course that would have taken me out and honestly I don't even know if I would still be a Christian I'm just being honest where I was in my life at that time I still needed a lot of healing I still needed a lot of Jesus I was still a very wounded and scared little girl there was so much healing and freedom and growth that Jesus did in my life through all of those years up to now and I can honestly say and look back on that and know that I made the right choice for what God wanted to accomplish in my life and to do in my life but that's His grace and His goodness and that's what I'm talking about that God he's looking beyond and he he sees these circumstances and these choices and these decisions that come our way and sometimes it's not easy to choose something sometimes it's the harder decision that you're required to make but it's the one that will prepare you for where he has you to be because Jesus wants you to do it well he wants you to succeed at whatever dream is in your heart he wants us to be able to handle it when we get there there's a reality of what I'm doing now in my life there's a certain like I talked about earlier there's a certain weight that I feel sometimes the weight of the anointing the weight of what God has required of me what I'm doing in my life and where I'm at that if I had not walked through the different things I've walked through I would crumble underneath that I wouldn't be able to handle it I wouldn't be able to withstand that weight it's just making sense it's kind of a hard thing to communicate except I just want you to understand that it's so important that we embrace the process and embrace the season that we're in so that when we get there we don't crumble and we don't fall apart under whatever it is that God has for us we have to fully trust God with provision trust God with our reputation that's a hard one trust God for justice when you feel like there's been an injustice trust God that he is good and he will fulfill the promises that he has spoken in your life and when it gets really hard and when you're feeling like god I can't see you I can't hear you I don't even know if you're there this is such a hard season I just feel just kind of lifeless and I'm trying real hard here but I just feel alone listen those are the moments when it's so important to press into him to reach down deeper and to pull something out to bring to him I can tell you over and over the I've witnessed this in my own life that in those moments I would say to myself Kim one day you will live in the fruit of this moment so it matters it matters what you do and it matters what you choose it matters whether or not you choose to worship it matters whether or not you choose him it matters whether or not you decide to trust him and to keep running after him and keep pursuing him even when you don't feel anything because there will come a day when you'll be walking in the fruit of that moment because those moments don't go unseen by him he sees every moment every single moment even when you can't feel and you can't see but you press in anyways and you give him all of yourself anyways those moments aren't unnoticed by him and all you're doing is you're storing something amazing up in heaven with him that at one moment one day he's going to open up and pour it all out back on you every decision every decision matters every choice matters it matters what you're doing in your life right now every single choice will determine the fruit that you're living in in the future every choice why you guys stand up and we pray and then sherry will come out and close us here Jesus I thank you so much for your grace and your kindness that you would lead us into opportunities to grow that you would lead us into opportunities to know you more and to love you more that you would lead us into opportunities to stretch our faith and our endurance God god I asked for every single person in this room Lord that they would just be overwhelmed by your love that they would be filled with courage and hope right now god Lord though no matter the season the trial the circumstance whether it's good or bad whatever it is God that they would so run after you Jesus that there would be no borders there'd be no limit to our trust in you God God I asked for courage in this room for every person to truly 100% surrender to you daily every day to lay down our lives for you Jesus and to give you all to hold nothing back from you God that we would have the courage to reach down deeper inside of ourselves to bring an offering to you to bring our sacrifice of praise to you to give you everything that you are so worthy and so deserving of Jesus and God I ask that every person in this room would just be overwhelmed by your kindness but what a good father you are such a loving father Jesus that you would just show us how you're there with us every step along the way guiding us and leading us Lord that we would rest in the knowledge that we belong to you you're not going to let us fail you're not going to let us mess up you're going to be right there along the way and you're going to see every word that you've spoken every promise accomplished accomplished in our lives God and I thank you I thank you for your promises I thank you for your goodness Jesus new name amen

Channel: Jesus Culture

Views: 19,028

Rating: 4.8947368 out of 5

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Id: 4Gn5D_n0NDI

Length: 53min 3sec (3183 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 04 2015