If I cannot rule over my thoughts, what kind of influence am I going to have ruling and reigning with Christ
My inability to choose joy in any given situation only reveals my inability to find victory over my emotions
I get alone with God spend time with Him and suddenly this yolk that I thought was put upon me by others, becomes the most liberating thing to carry, because I am now walking in tandem with the One who called me to walk with Him and in doing so learning to be more Christlike in my behaviour and my response
Some of us would never pray if there was not a problem and even if there is a problem we find it difficult to pray out of passion when there is a problem
Pain gives birth to passion in prayer
Passion in prayer brings the hand of God into situations more than anything else one can think of
The passion of crying out to the Lord

He will not violate my personality, who He has made me to be, but oftentimes He puts me in situations to expose to me if I am willing to learn, exposed to me what’s in my thinking, what’s in my behaviour that He has nothing to do with and he wants it gone.
He wants it changed and so He put me together with people that rubs the wrong way
It’s called God’s gift
Turn to the person next door to you and tell them
“God loves you too much to leave you the way you are”
So the Lord puts us in situations where we are anxious
We pray and peace comes to our soul
We think this person has caused me so many problems
Maybe that is what He was looking for, to take a son at a very inconvenient time
And to cry out of true compassion and get a kingdom solution a kingdom answer and the end result is that that yoke that is causing so much pain, I don’t feel it now
Why, I don’t know?
I prayed for a few hours and He spoke
I will never understand but I know it’s going to be okay
And three days later it happens again
Why?
Because we are not perfect yet

I can try to make sure that all my personal dreams are answered but that is not what I am here for
I am not in this position for that
I am here to hear the dreams of the people around me
I want to see someone in motion to burn for something
I am looking for people to explode in who God made them to be
And to become something that God always intended for them to be
We create this environment where that is a possibility
But this environment also causes a lot of rubbing in the wrong way
Because that is the nature of the game
And it is the nature of my needs
I actually need people who don’t think like me
I need people who don’t handle stuff like I handle it
It’s important to be with people who think differently from you
I love to support other peoples dreams
Watching what they have done, what they have accomplished
It is so easy to get dialled into our little world and think we are a spot on the map
Randy says, “Every stream thinks they are the river.”

Take your biggest problem and put it right in front of you
The biggest aggravation in your life
Put it right in front of you
Now listen don’t ever forget this
There are 1 million people who would gladly take your biggest problem if they can also handle your greatest privilege
There is income and there is income tax
In a good nation your income will always be greater than your income tax
He puts us in situations where there is extreme benefit
But it is also painful, there is a tax to pay
If I only see the tax pay, I will be disgruntled, complain, I want to distance myself from the people who cause this pain, not realising I’m in development and in a process
This is income tax

There are many people who will take your biggest problem if they can only have your biggest privilege
So we come face-to-face with the fact that we are blessed beyond reason, we are favoured by the Lord and because we are favoured I have to use that favour for the welfare of others, otherwise I misuse favor.
If at any point the favour is used for self promotion to insolate me from problems or challenges, then I have misused the favour
The favour is to be used for the promotion of the gospel, for the empowerment of the people around me
This is a mandate from the Lord
There is no option here
If I choose to isolate myself from the people who God yolked me with
Then what happens?
I have delayed my own development and maturing process
I have put off far into the future my Christlike transformation
What seems to me like a shortcut, is actually the long route
We say if only this situation were different I would have so much faith,
I would be so much more devoted, so much more single focused, I would be so much better at what I do
This situation would change, this person would change, but it is simply just not true
What God has put in your heart is to become something significant – that is wrapped up entirely in the journey that you walk with Jesus
And that can only be done when we are yoked together
We are called not to change peoples environment
But to equip them to thrive in that environment.
We are not trying to change the environment so that everyone is safe
We are trying to empower people so that they can change the environment themselves
There will be a challenging situation
Just take time to pray and to ponder on the gifts and the strengths in the other persons life and start giving thanks for specific things and not look for things to try and change them
A lot of times it is me that needs to change
What can I celebrate in that person
Most of us have conflicts and problems with really good people
We say how can he be that good and cause me so much pain!
And really it is the getting up in the middle of the night and praying until there is a breakthrough
And you will find that your joke has been adjusted
And actually all that changed was you