And ask yourself:

or ask God

Or both:

If I drain away all the stress

and entanglements

and struggles

of the last decade

and close my eyes

and envision my future in 10 years

is it doing what I’ve been doing the last 10 years, just bigger, better, faster?

or is it more transformational for other humans?

And less demanding on me?

There is no right answer.

But there is a right life direction/path for YOU.

and what you decide is what influences what you do next.

Big trials that push us to rely on Him more than ever.

Big wins that lead us to thank Him and praise Him.

We tend to ride on the successes and the successful rides.

And as much as we dislike - utterly despair - of the low moments, the trials of life, the deaths and divorces and uncertainty and poverty and scarcity and lack of confidence -

It’s during those moments that we grow closer to Him, when we learn to depend on Him like never before.

But then those moments pass.

The high moments normalize.

The trials are solved or disappear or we learn to adapt or cope.

Most of our life is lived in the in-between.

For a driven person like me, the in-between is HARD.

Day in, day out, monotony.

Boring.

And yet it’s these in-between moments when we keep our faith grown in trial . . . or slowly revert back to coping and our old patterns.

It’s these in-between moments which - if we don’t navigate them well - that foster neglect and disrepair. We don’t save enough. We don’t nurture relationships enough. We overspend. Or we over-scrimp and never live.

Or we slowly drift from God.

Or we slowly drift from our spouse.

Or we slowly grow to resent our children’s needs.

Or we slowly despair of our friends.

And then there’s another low moment - birthed actually, out of the neglect and disrepair of the boring, in-between moments.

How do YOU nurture your own in-between life?

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You know, the life that’s not on the mountain top, and the life that’s not in the middle of the valley?

Where are you at now?

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By the way, I’ll personally respond to every comment today.

— Sean

I believe that we develop true closeness to God and to Jesus not just when we talk with Him more and more, but when we actively lean on Him and trust Him no matter what. Just like in human relationships we can talk, talk, talk - but it’s when the rubber meets the road, when times are tough and we see on whom we can rely, we see who sticks with us - the relationship with our Lord is the same.

When we actively rely on Him rather than trying to do everything ourselves, we experience the act of trusting. Not talking about trust, but actually trusting.

And when He provides, we experience trust.

But if we are always doing, doing, doing, forcing our own results in our own power and striving, we don’t grow in relationship with Him, because we didn’t rely on Him!

We did it ourselves.

I shared in a small group Thursday night that sometimes I feel like I use a crowbar on shut doors. And while persistence and hard work are admirable - and usually success comes over time with persistence and hard work - and Proverbs talks about diligence and riches versus laziness and poverty, it also talks about overlaboring from the morning till the night.

Sometimes in today’s success-driven and success-rewarded world, ambitious people like myself (and possibly you) are persistent and hard working to a fault, to the place where we are striving and we eventually burn out.

Because God didn’t create us with endless energy and even when we think we are “making it” on the outside, our stress from pushing, pushing, pushing is clogging our hearts, fatty-ing up the liver, and filling our joints with inflammation.

Is that the reward of true success, or of striving to do the impossible - in our own strength?

I think I have a tendency to “make things happen” - and maybe you do too - but isn’t that a lot like Abraham and Sarah using Hagar to birth Ishmael, instead of waiting patiently for God to provide Isaac?

Is that a lot like Jacob stealing the blessing from his brother Esau, instead of just living his lot in life (and probably succeeding wildly as an honest man, instead of succeeding with ill-gotten riches by lying and hiding?)?

Just because I *can* doesn’t mean I should.

So even today, if God has a plan that takes time to germinate, but I work, work, work to force open a door He has allowed to stay shut . . .

Does it not delay His plan?

About 1 ½ years ago I received a prophecy with a date when certain things would occur . . . .

It was about a 9 month wait.

During that time I took some things into my own hands, willfully ignoring God.

The certain things occurred - but one month late.

Consider these scenarios in the Word:

I Samuel 30 is about David coming back to Ziglag and finding the Amalekites had pillaged the town and taken his wives and children and the wives and children of the other fighting men.

Verse 8: And David enquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.

Notice the dependence on God.

David didn’t just go fight.

He asked God.

And that allows that God might have said, no. Stay put.

But God said Go.

And now in verses 18-20 we see: 18 And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away: and David rescued his two wives.

19 And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil, nor any thing that they had taken to them: David recovered all.

20 And David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drave before those other cattle, and said, This is David’s spoil.

That occurred out of dependence on God!

I consider Elijah in I Kings 17:

Elijah prophesied that there would be no rain for several years.

Then God told him in verse 3: 3 Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.

4 And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.

5 So he went and did according unto the word of the Lord: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.

6 And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.

God provided for Elijah, by commanding the ravens to feed him!

Then the brook dried up and God said to Elijah in verse 9:

9 Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.

You can continue reading there, the Sean Mize paraphrase is that the widow woman was getting ready to prepare her last meal with her last food, and then her and her son were prepared to die.

But Elijah told her to prepare him a cake first . . .and that the meal and oil would last.

It lasted many days.

Then the son became sick to death.

Then Elijah prayed for him and he lived.

And the widow woman concludes in verse 24: 24 And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth.

From Elijah’s perspective, that’s dependence and reliance on God!

Now consider each of these cases . . . David at Ziglag, Elijah at the brook and with the widow woman, Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego refusing to bow . . . Abraham being willing to sacrifice his son Isaac (the promised one), believing God would raise him from the dead . . . sheer and utter dependence.

Can you imagine that as a result of becoming truly dependent, truly and completely trusting God, that their relationship with God grew deeper?

I believe so.

My own trial of the prior 18 months before 6 months ago instilled in me a much, much deeper relationship with God - and I believe it was not just the time I spent with Him, but the sheer and utter dependence on Him to provide solutions.

Even now, my faith is being tested and I am writing this as a response to contemplating about dependence and trust! And I truly believe that as I depend on Him and not myself, as I trust Him for solutions instead of crowbarring them . . . I will grow even closer to Him AND he will provide miraculous results and solutions.

How much more would your own faith and relationship with God grow, if you leaned into more dependence and more trust, instead of doing it all yourself?

I’d love for you to share your own thoughts about this, as I have here, in the comments:

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Thanks for leaving a comment!

Does it come from time with Him?

Does it come from trusting Him more?

Listen to this article here:

Does it come from walking and talking with Him?

Is it a one-time burst that once you have it, you are closer?

Consider this:

Over the years I have spent many many hours in His Presence, praying and talking.

In the last 2 years I have spent many many hours in HIs Presence, praying and talking and worshiping.

I have grown exponentially closer to Jesus over the last 2 years.

Why?

I think that initially it’s easy to correlate the raw time with Him and the nature of it (more praise and worship) as the reason.

But I think it’s deeper/different than that.

You see, I can emerge from an hour of worship and “feel” really close to Jesus . . . but as soon as I read that text, remember the drama, recall that battle . . .

I don’t “feel” so close anymore.

It’s as if I equate “calm” with Jesus.

It’s as if I equate “calm” with peace.

So I spend an hour with Him, worshiping or praying and I feel . . . calm.

I call it peace.

But then something interrupts my calm . . and I am no longer peaceful.

How close am I really, then?

Stick with me . . .

However, if in a moment I recall the battle, the fight, the drama, the pain . . .

And I make a conscious decision to simply give it to Him.

Not to say I’m giving it to Him, hoping He takes it.

But literally dumping it in HIs lap . . and walking away.

All of that is mental, of course.

But once I walk away, knowing in my mind that I gave it to HIm - whether He took it or not!!!

I gave it to Him . . .

The battle is not mine, it’s the Lord’s.

Do I really believe that?

I can pray, worship, recite . . . but if I don’t really believe that, it’s just a feeling, it’s just a calm.

But when I take the worry, the pain, the attack, the misunderstood words . . . and I give them to Him, and I completely submit to His will, to His power, to knowing He will take care of it . . .

I feel so close to Him.

Not just calm.

But true peace.

You see, calm can come from behaviors we do.

Praying, worshiping, tapping, visualizing.

Calm can come from those things.

But we know Jesus lives in us if we follow Him, if we are born again.

So how much closer can Jesus be than to live in us?

And He is Spirit, and spirit is pervasive.

He doesn’t just live in a corner of my heart . . . He Being, His Essence, His Presence . . . it completely engulfs me, it’s all the way through me.

It’s complete.

And no matter how much I pray or worship, I am not going to get more of His Presence.

Yes, I might feel more.

I might connect more.

I might communicate more.

But true, close relationship - trust - trust-based relationship -

I now believe that comes from the lived experience of trusting HIm moment to moment.

That’s real trust, real closeness.

Connection WITH the Spirit, Connection WITH the Essence, Connection WITH the Presence.

Not just Him actually being there in me, living in me.

Not just His physical Presence.

But connecting WITH His Presence.

Connecting.

Trust.

Walking with HIm.

Trusting Him.

That’s true closeness.

Want more from Sean?

Get his new book from Barnes and Noble:

Close to Jesus - Sean Mize

Book: Close to Jesus

God loves you personally, and intimately. He cares for you.

He crafted you from birth - before birth, in your mother’s womb.

He doesn’t want anyone to hurt you.

He cherishes you.

He doesn’t want you to be anyone’s doormat.

He wants you to be His own, His son, His daughter, a son or daughter of the King.

He created you in His image.

He didn’t create you as a slave, or even as a servant, but as a friend.

He desires communication with you, He desires for you to get to know Him personally, because He loves you.

You are fearfully and wonderfully made.

He has plans for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you.

He has life-giving wisdom for your life, not because He’s controlling, but because He knows how He made you,

Just like a carmaker prescribes 10W-40 oil for your car for the first 100,000 miles, then a higher viscosity oil after 100,000, it’s not because they want to control you. It’s because they created the car with a certain metal that gets hot when you run it, and that viscosity of oil is the ideal viscosity for the metal to not wear down faster.

God is the same way as the carmaker. He knows what He made you with, and He knows your personality runs hot when you:

Work too hard

Try to fix other people too much

Take care of everyone else except yourself

Get triggered because people let you down

Get triggered because people say things that hurt you

In those and many other situations, your particular “model” runs hot. And what makes you run hot is different than what makes your friend or spouse or parent run hot. What makes me run hot is different than what makes you run hot.

But God knows that you need 10W-10 weight oil and I need full - synthetic 100,000 mile oil because I’m not changing my oil on time!!

And he loves me enough to help me learn over time to slow down, take breaks, get healthy time for myself . . . and then maybe I can switch to another oil.

He loves you enough to help you learn over time to . . . take time for yourself . . . take time for Him . . . not work too much . . . not work too little . . . not be bitter . . . love more . . . whatever it is.

When I’m peaceful I’m close with God.

If I’m not peaceful, God may be there, He is close to me, but I’m not actively engaged in Him.

I can have peace in a turbulent situation.

But if I’m in turbulent situations all the time, if it’s a life pattern, it’s worth considering that life with God would be more peaceful more regularly if peace were attained in the rest of life.

Paul said, as much as lieth in you, seek peace with all men.

God intends for us to be at peace.

Whatever is stealing your peace should be evaluated.

Is it changeable?

Some situations, people we have to care for, results of bad decisions, life circumstances, may be unchangeable, and for those we must of course attempt to experience as much peace from God as possible. That peace can pervade the situation and make it calmer.

But many other situations, even long standing relationships, and situations that are bad as a result of bad decisions, can be changed over time. Toxic relationships do not need to stay toxic. You can learn peaceful communication patterns that can impact the relationships.

And peaceful communication doesn’t mean, doormat or giving in all the time communication. Part of achieving peace is drawing a line or a boundary about what you are not willing to accept, in your new standing of deeper peace with God.

So anytime we are pushing for something that is just beyond our reach, and we are enjoying doing it, we can get into a flow state.

Think about learning a new boardgame.

At first it’s a challenge. You have to learn the rules, and play a few games to figure out how the rules work. Assuming you enjoy the game, and your companions with whom you are playing, you can probably play for a few hours, time flies, and you are having a blast. That’s flow.

But once you learn all the rules, and you are now just mindlessly moving the board game pieces to their next logical place on the board based on the rules you now have internalized, and you are either winning every game because you have learned them better than your foes, or you are randomly winning some games and losing some games because there’s no strategy involved, over time that game becomes less fun, less exciting, dare we say boring.

Now, what changed?

The friends didn’t change.

The rules didn’t change.

The pieces didn’t change.

The board didn’t change.

What changed?

Your own internal challenge level with the game, along with possibly an element of repetitiveness that leads to boredom.

Is that bad?

I’d say no.

It just naturally happens.

Does God understand that?

Yes, He made us the way He made us.

He could have made us like our favorite dog: every single day, for the rest of his life, you can throw the ball 100 times, and he will joyfully catch the ball 100 times until he gets tired . . . or, you guessed it, he gets bored.

But the difference between you and me, and the dog is that tomorrow, the dog forgets he got bored, and he wants 100 more balls today.

We humans, we have human-level memory that says, yesterday this was boring, and if you don’t throw the ball farther or faster or higher, I’m bored.

I personally believe this is why God moves us humans through different phases of our lives. Because we would be bored otherwise, we would max out our current capability.

Every meaningful Bible hero had multiple eras in their lives:

Joseph: dreamer, then sandwich - carrier, then slave, then prisoner, then 2nd in command in Egypt during the famine

Jacob: early years, working for Laban, doing basic work, God gives him advanced breeding strategies, he implements them, then he moves back to his family’s land, reconciles with Esua . . .

David: Musician, playing for the King, errand boy for his father, Goliath-killer, Future king on the run with a rag tag group of followers, King of Israel, Warrior, gets bored at home and gets in trouble, has family trouble, raises the money and the supplies for his son to build the House of God

Gideon: ordinary man, hiding from the enemy, threshing wheat in a winepress to be hidden, then is called to lead an army

Moses: grows up an elite in the house of Pharoah, then 40 years as a shepherd, then he is the leader of millions of Israelites

Even Jesus had phases in his life: baby, then learned the Word, then likely worked as a Carpenter and developed a deep working knowledge of the Word, then at 30 is commissioned to heal the sick and grow up a cadre of disciples, then is sacrificed, now sits on the throne at the right hand of God.

What about you?

Naturally, you’ve likely gotten bored when things become common or not challenging.

Even in close relationships, your activities and depth of conversation, perhaps even the topics of your discussion, change over time. Why? You outgrow the former level of interaction.

I believe that when you initiate a new way of praying, or use a new prayer guide or a new journal, or learn something new in this book, that when you do that new thing, your natural mind and body are energized by the new, possibly challenged a little, there’s a fresh natural enjoyment, you might even enter a state of natural flow.

All of that is natural and God-given; He made you that way. Just like you get excited by a new boardgame or a new friend.

But over a few months or a few years, as the “new” way of praying or reading or studying or talking with God is no longer new, it’s no longer a challenge, it’s no longer an effort - it becomes boring.

NOT because the activity is boring, or because you have lost interest in God (like the enemy will try to tell you), but simply because your God-given excitement with new and challenging things has worn off and you have become naturally bored.

We can start a new prayer routine, a new praise routine, a new way to study the Bible, and a new way to talk with God, and it’s all really exciting.

But over time, the practice becomes boring, but instead of changing the practices up, we decide that God must be getting boring, or God doesn’t care anymore, or God isn’t listening.

I believe this is the essence of what some refer to as the “dark night of the soul.” The dark night of the soul is that time when you have connected with God well in the past, but it feels like He’s not speaking to you anymore. He isn’t hearing your prayers, He isn’t talking, and it feels like He doesn’t care.

Is it possible that your own body got so bored with the way you’ve been communicating with Him that you simply stopped hearing Him?

How can you change things in your interaction with God such that you shift from bored to engaged?

Adapt this prayer for yourself, and pray it today:

Dear Father, I’m so grateful to be in Your World. Thank You for sending Your Son, thank YOU for sending the Comforter, thank You for making me and giving me a place in this world.

Thank You that I can read this online, thank You that I have a place to live, breathe to breathe, and people to help.

Your goodness is amazing.

Your Godness is refreshing.

Your Presence fills me and keeps me going.

You own the cattle on a thousands hills . . . and You give me access to anything I need.

Lord Jesus, thank You for Your sacrifice.

Thank You for being right here with me.

Thank You for giving me purpose today.

Thank You for the challenge you’ve given me these last 18 months that has been instrumental in me drawing SO CLOSE to You!

I love You, Jesus!

Help me today bless one person deeply, even if I have to find them.

Help me today to step into Your work for me for this year.

Show me how I can bless 1 person today.

Show me how I can be a Voice in the wilderness.

Walk with me today, Be the Presence in my life.

I want to experience Your Presence today.

Help me to step INTO Your Presence.

I love You, Jesus . . .

I love You, Father . . .

I love You, Holy Spirit!

Let’s go get the day, Lord!

—

End prayer

Seriously - you’ve read it - now pray it

Make it your own

Then pray it again.

Then add at least one personalized line, right now in the comments:

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Would a daily prayer like this be helpful . . or not?

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For 5 decades my relationship with Him has been transactional, and it’s been sold that way. We are sinful, we exchange our sinful life for His sacrifice. We give and we are blessed. We follow the rules and there’s a result. It’s all transactional. But what I’m experiencing with Him isn’t transactional. It’s time and intimacy with Him, with no expectation of Him giving me something and no expectation of me giving Him something. It feels like a genuine closeness.

But there’s a part of me that feels almost guilty, as if I should be giving human earthly things more attention, like my attention is being drawn somewhere that’s not “productive.” And yet when I think about Jesus comment about the first commandment: Love the Lord thy God with all thine heart . . .  and realizing that the original word in Hebrew for that love was more about intimacy and relationship than a transactional, even worship-based love, that what He truly desires is intimacy. He wants to spend time with us, and that’s more important than anything transactional.

I look back at the last 5 decades almost with a regret, like why didn’t I find this sooner . . but as soon as I do that, I realize that’s rooted in pride, because who am I to say I “found” this. Instead He found me at a point of deep need, and He has opened my eyes to this new level of intimacy. So then I ask, why didn’t He find me sooner, at this level? And I don’t have an answer - maybe I wasn’t ready, maybe He gave me glimpses that I ignored.

I think back to 20+ years ago when I had more of a OCD response in life, and when I felt like i was being led by Him, I became almost OCD with it, and I remember clearly saying, I can’t do that anymore, I must take control and not respond to those impulses. Not fully realizing I was saying “no” to Him - but knowing in the back of my mind that I was risking that I was losing part of Him. And that ended up being 20 years away from the intimacy that He might have been putting in me then. I think about the prayer room in Colorado Springs, that I had access to - but I got bored or distracted, and didn’t keep going. I think about the worship sets in the Springs? where I didn’t feel connected, so I stopped going. I think about how I willfully took growing closer to MA in my own hands, how I was intimidated to do Bible Study with her, and one thing led to another, and although He blessed me during that time, He took care of me, I had ignored so many signals from Him . . .

And here I am, 20 years later, on the path of intimacy.

I said, I want everyone to be able to experience this. There is such a freedom, such a return to our original design, and yet it’s so scary because it’s not the way the world says it’s done. I think about even typing this out, the Lord’s guidance to just do FBC first each morning, write like this, record, publish - and He will take care of the rest.

And it’s scary because bills are real, and responsibility is real.

So what does this really look like?

It’s a genuine desire to just be in His presence, to let everything else fall away and look at Him, talk to Him, listen to Him, be in His presence. Just be with Him. Listen to Him. Worship Him. At the exclusion of anything else. Accepting that the things around me might not work out, at least at first. Fear of not paying bills, not taking care of things, and having to let that fall away, and just trust Him, lean into the time with Him.

A complete submission to “whatever You want, Lord.” Even daily, this concept of just asking Him, what do You want me to do next? Feeling like I want to plan in the business . . . and feeling like, no, don’t plan. Let Me lead you each hour. That feels so irresponsible. And yet I feel Him asking me to do that. A complete submission to His will, to His leading, and not doing anything without His guidance. If I don’t feel that I should do it - from Him - to not do it. And not to say this is working perfectly. I feel compelled to do something I “should” do and then I do it . . . and then I second guess, did God really want me to do it? And I think He didn’t. Yet I’ll justify that I thought I should, that the result is what it is.

Friend, I can only suggest to give this a try. Spend time with the Lord, completely submitted to His thoughts, what He wants you to do. Allow Him to guide each step. Trust that He says, My sheep hear my voice, and so trusting that you are hearing Him, and that if you are not, He will adjust you. Instead of constantly second guessing that you are not hearing Him. And that if you don’t think it’s Him - you lean away from doing what it is, until you feel released that it is Him. Trusting that He will release it when it’s time - even if you are wrong, even if you incorrectly guess that He isn’t leading you, if you don’t do it, then the tension from Him will increase to do it, especially if you are relying on trusting Him. He said if we ask for wisdom, He will give it to us liberally - so we must believe that He is giving us wisdom.

We are taking a risk that we are wrong, that we are not hearing Him, that it’s not wisdom. But if we totally trust that He is leading us, then when we do it, if it is not Him, we trust that He will course - correct.

It’s an incredible level of dependency, of just spending time with Him without an agenda. Leaning into Him. Allow Him to mold to the time with Him, and direct it. When my mind wanders, bringing it back to Him. And then letting this dependency ooze into the rest of my life, not just the special time with Him. Obviously, if I’m having a conversation with someone else, my mind isn’t as focused on Jesus,. But the more time I spend with Him, the more my mind is tuned to His thoughts and His way. But it requires that deep time with Him.

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We had so much fun yesterday, I held a new one today!

Join us here: Live Praise and Worship, 12 noon ET

Today I went live with an immersive prayer, praise, and “hearing from God” live zoom stream . . . .

Join Us Here: Live Praise and Worship

And if you lean in, you might hear God for a need in your life.

I encourage you to join me for this special time with God (and me leading)

Watch Here

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I invite you to join me for a personal time with God . . .

This will be an open time of entering His presence in a unique and fresh way, guided by Him.

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Part 1: Worship and Admiration for God Part

2: You have a purpose inside you, the enemy uses judgment, accusations, and other tactics to discourage you.

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God bless you!

If you are skeptical, I encourage you to just arrive with a willingness to lean in and just see what happens.

And although when they are in a room with me, and their eyes are focused on me (united by Jesus, but focused on me, lol), they are willing to have differences with each other but tolerate them in their relationship with me -

But when they are once again with each other, they fight over doctrine.

We should focus on Jesus and not fight each other!

I see so many writers online - let’s take Substack for example - that have 100 readers and want to get “their message” out there.

But they aren’t willing to be a reader of 10 other people’s material.

They aren’t willing to write for other people’s publications.

They just want their own readers.

They want “their message” out there.

I see so many of these people.

All over the web.

I’ve seen this for years.

Long before Substack.

Isolated Christians writing about Biblical passages and their reflections on it.

And wondering why they don’t have more readers.

In so many other niches, people band together under a similar topic.

But in Christianity, they’ll only band under their own denomination.

And so many writers and teachers online are anti-denomination, so they won’t even band with their own denomination.

So we have hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands . . possibly millions of Christians, putting their own flag in the ground, their own writing, and getting . . . 10, 100, 1000 readers.

But never banding together in such a way that a powerful presence can take the Word of God to the World.

It’s honestly, very frustrating to me.

Because my heart is to have a multi-denominational community that will come together and share and grow.

But it feels like as soon as I’m not there to moderate - they get out their swords and start fighting each other.

Thoughts?

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Perhaps like when Jesus got serious with both his disciples AND with the Pharisees.

As a Christian writer, I find that there are many many Christians online.

And they typically interact with me in a friendly way.

And in my own community, the Christians that interact, do so peacefully.

But I’ve noticed that in the bigger Christian groups and forums, if they aren’t segregated by denomination, they get pretty dirty and mean really fast.

And when I try to bring Christians together with each other, if their theological beliefs don’t match exactly, they have such a hard time working together.

You see, you might follow Jesus

and be:

• Baptist

• Presbyterian

• Protestant

• No denomination

• Catholic

• Charismatic

• Boring

• Excited for Jesus

  Now, my guess is that when you look at that list you think, yes . . . Christians

BUT

In real life, I see it so often . . . we allow the discrepancies between what each of us believes, to mar our ability to work together as Christians, outside of our own denomination or local church.

Now, I totally understand that if you put an “it’s so easy to accept Jesus” person in the same forum as a “you have to be chosen, and you have to do these things after you are saved to stay saved AND you have to accept Jesus AND you have to keep Him first always” person in the same room . .

My experience is, instead of uniting on all the things they agree on:

• Jesus is the way the truth, and the life

• Jesus is the ONLY way

• Jesus wants us all to follow Him

• Jesus loves me

• Jesus loves your family and wants you to love them too

• Jesus is the Son of God

• Jesus died and rose again for us

• Jesus loves us all!

• Jesus wants us ALL to have community!

  They quickly ignore ALL of those things that they agree on, and like a laser-guided bullet, they zone in on the one thing they disagree on.

They argue and fight over exactly what we have to do or believe to actually “believe in Jesus”!

Yes, I get it . . . Jesus told us how.

And He said, follow Me!

Once the disciples came to Him and said, someone is preaching about You but we don’t know him (I’m paraphrasing).

And Jesus responded: That’s okay, whoever is not against me is for me.

Now, I don’t want to read too much into that, but I think what He meant was, look fellas, it’s okay if those guys aren’t breaking bread with us, but if they are preaching ME, I’m good with that.

I hope you are laughing by now!

Because you’ve probably seen it before.

Maybe you’ve been the “victim” of it.

Or maybe you are guilty of it.

It’s all good.

But here’s how I feel about it:

Jesus wants ALL of us who follow Him to come together as one body.

Not JUST in our local church, where the other 100 members look like us, speak like us, believe the exact idiosyncrasies we do, read the same translation of the Bible, and so on.

When Paul wrote to the Corinthians about the nose having a part, and the lesser parts of the body having a part, and the eyes and the ears, and so on, I don’t believe he was referring ONLY to the Corinthian church.

Here’s the thing, sure, in our local church, we all believe the same thing.

And if the only way we want to connect with other Christians is in our hometown, then maybe being exclusionary works . . . but I don’t think so!

But if we look at this whole big world, and there are hundreds of millions of Christians, but they can’t gather together across the nations and across denominations because we are more focused on our differences than in Who unites us, I think perhaps the enemy is in glee.

Is there possibly a better way to prevent the gospel from spreading, people from being healed, and people from learning from other Christians online, than to get them to start picking petty fights with each other?

Let’s all be more tolerant of our fellow Christ followers, even if we don’t quite understand them, or their understand of a verse is a little different than ours!

If we can do this, we can UNITE as Christians online in a POWERFUL Way!!

You are struggling with something in your life, so you can’t teach, or pray into others, or help others or help out at church, or be of service in your community?

You are in the middle of pain that has been inflicted on you, someone betrayed you and you haven’t completely forgiven yet, someone cheated on you, someone hurt you, and your heart hurts.

You are in debt and someone told you that is sin.

You struggle with some sin, lustful thoughts or envy or pride.

You did something really bad a year ago.

You are depressed.

You have times when you doubt God loves you.

You are in pain.

It hurts.

And because of that hurt, because of your shame, because you are going through it, you feel like you can’t serve?

You can’t help others.

You can’t offer advice.

You can’t pray.

You can’t teach.

I get it.

Could we look at this logically?

If you look at all the things that I’ve listed above, if you go to church and look around, what percentage of people are currently living through that issue?

I suspect it 80% or more.

One of the things on that list.

Here’s the thing, when you are going through something - anything on the list - or anything else I didn’t mention - you think you are the only one.

Or if you realize you are not the only one, you think this is the one thing that will hold you back from ministering to God’s people.

But consider this:

Which of those things on the list should be excluded?

Should be start taking that list and saying, okay, if you have unforgiveness you can’t teach Sunday School, but if you have lustful thoughts you can?

Ouch . . that hurts someone.

Let’s flip it, if you lustful thoughts you can’t teach Sunday School, but if you have unforgiveness you can.

Hmmm . . .does that feel better?

Which is the greater sin?

What if in God’s eyes the sins are the same.

We are the ones who rate our sins in severity.

So if they are both the same . . .either you can both teach, you can both greet visitors . . . or you both cannot.

Now if we go through that list . . . and do the same thing . . . we get to the place where we have to either rate all the sins, and the worser sins mean you can be a parking lot attendant (no contact with humans), the middle ones you can greet at the door (harmless hellos) but only little sins allow you to teach or pray?

Is this getting ridiculous?

I think so.

I’ve been through a lot of pain recently.

Some of it self imposed.

Some of it a result of bad decisions.

Some of it a result of tolerating things I shouldn’t have for far too long.

Some of it . . . I could go on and on . . .

So for all of those reasons . . . I struggle with feeling like I can’t serve.

Where do we draw the line?

I think the point I am making is that if we exclude all of you and me from serving if we have committed a sin in the last 12 months . . 

We ALL would be excommunicated!

So I want to turn this around then and say:

I believe, as a direct result of the pain and trauma I’ve personally been through recently, that God WANTS broken Christians to serve.

Yes, repentance is necessary.

But let’s face it, if you have deep unforgiveness in your heart, 99% of the time one quick prayer and confession isn’t going to just take it all away.

If you have a pattern in life of exaggerating things to the point that sometimes they are lies . . that isn’t going away in a heartbeat.

If you have an addiction, short of a miracle, it’s isn’t going away cold turkey.

I am writing this to encourage Broken Christians to step out of their pain - no, step THROUGH their pain - and serve.

Help others.

Hold the door.

Give to the poor.

Pray for someone.

Offer advice in an area you HAVE mastered.

Or in an area where you have experienced comfort and relief in the past.

If you are a broken Christian - and I believe most or all of us are in some way - you should be serving. Helping. Praying. Teaching. Operating in your gift.

The instructions of Romans 12 apply to ALL of us.

There is no exclusion for not not using your gifts from Corinthians.

Now, some might say, the Bible says, an elder should have his life in order . . .

I think it’s a mistake to assume that means “anyone who serves.”

It says elder for a reason.

God is an intentional God.

If you are broken, it’s okay - it’s GOOD - for you to serve.

You CAN serve even though you are broken.

Even if you have some unforgiveness.

Even if you have harmed someone and the pain is still real.

Even if you have harmed someone and they haven’t forgiven you yet.

Even if you are divorced.

Even if you have slandered someone.

Even if you have lied.

Even if you have stolen.

Even if you have gossiped.

Even if you have committed adultery.

Even if you are in debt.

Even if you are in bankruptcy.

Even if you ruined someone’s life.

Even if you killed someone.

Even if  . . .

Even if . . .

Fill in your own blank.

You have purpose in God.

Isaac lied about his wife and in the next season, God gave him a 100 fold return.

Moses killed a man, and was chosen to lead the Israelites out.

David committed adultery with Bathsheba, then sent her husband to be killed to cover up his crime of adultery . . . and just 9 months later was forgiven and restored.

Jonah was in great anger and hostility when he preached to the Ninevites - and they changed their ways.

Isaiah said, my lips are unclean when God called him.

Gideon was depressed or feeling worthless when God called him.

What if each of them had followed the lie of the enemy, that they were broken and could not serve, could not follow their calling?

We would have a Bible full of incomplete stories, unfulfilled promises, and only holy, perfect people doing anything worthwhile.

But the Bible says, there is none righteous, no not one.

Friend, when you are berating yourself for your sins are worse than someone else - stop that.

To them, their sin is worse.

To God, all sin is sin.

Let God forgive you.

Clean you.

Empower you.

Mobilize you.

May the words in this article give you the strength and comfort to “get back on the horse,” to get “back in the water,” and be an effective messenger, teacher, or servant of God.

Years I’ve strayed (more than I realized it) and years I drew closer.

But looking back, I feel like most of my growth periods, and times of closeness, were related to Christian activities or disciplines: a prayer habit, a reading the Word habit, more time in church, studying, etc.

And it felt like I was getting closer . . . but always something missing.

Like, can I do more?

What do I need to do to make this better?

This year, I’ve spent a ton of time just worshiping and talking with Him. Being in His presence. Worshiping until I feel calm.

Not just praying words and praying for things, not just praying praises, but leaning in. Leaning in to His presence.

As I write this, it’s very very hard to explain what has shifted for me.

Maybe in months or years I can write about it better!

I heard someone say recently: Wasted time with Jesus.

And I was immediately offended . . . like of course it’s not wasted.

But then he went on to say, the more wasted time with Jesus we get . . . the closer we get to Him.

And I realized that so often I don’t stay in time with Jesus, because the purpose is accomplished . . .

I’ve prayed, interceded . . . like there is nothing left to “do” in my time, in my prayer time, in my worship time.

I think our lives condition us to always feel like every moment has to be accounted for.

Every moment has to be productive.

5 minutes in line at the coffeeshop must be converted to productive time by returning emails (as if that’s productive time)

And that bleeds into our prayer time.

Anyhow, I leaned into wasted time with Jesus.

It’s that time when you think you are finished praying, you have no more words, your 22 minutes is up, you’ve sung the songs and prayed the prayers.

And you feel like you have to do something productive.

And anymore time is . . . wasted time with Jesus.

So I’ve tried spending more time . . . in that window.

Of wasted time with Jesus.

Just worshiping.

Just listening.

Just saying the name of Jesus.

Just saying, thank You Jesus. Thank you Jesus.

I worship You God.

And when I lose myself in that . . .

I feel closer to Him.

Now, I KNOW feelings are not our driver.

Nor should we evaluate things by feelings.

BUT . . . feelings normally reflect our inner state.

If we feel angry . . . we have an angry inner state.

If we feel bitter  . . . we might have unforgiveness inside.

So if we FEEL peace with God . . . not just for a moment, but ongoing . . 

I’d say we are reflecting an inner peace.

So I’m not looking for the feeling . . .

BUT I’m expecting the feeling will come once the peace happens.

Friend, as you read this, it might not all resonate perfectly.

Your journey might not resonate with me, either.

It doesn’t make your journey wrong.

We can each learn from each other’s journey.

What can you learn from this article, what can you take away - that will lead you closer to Jesus?

(To watch or listen):

Not rushing Him, letting Him lead you when He is ready. 

Not doing it for Him. 

Not taking things in your own hands. 

But instead, leaning into His presence. 

Just waiting. 

Trusting that he will give the next step when ready.

It’s really hard, especially on two fronts:

Relationships: because we have this conditioning that if we don’t act, we will lose the person or the opportunity.

Business: because we are conditioned to believe that business is this huge, hard undertaking of immense action.

But imagine if we were to reverse this . . . and simple BE and let relationships unfold as they may, let others adjust, and you take non-stressful action.

And in business, you wait for the lead. When you feel led to go all - in, you do. When you don’t, don’t. Imagine small efforts that move big levers. Release your expectation of what has to happen.

Lean into Jesus!

Daily.

Now.

Love Him.

Rest in Him.

Let Him lead.

Let him guide you.

Let Him be God and you be you.

Imagine a trust that says, God I trust You to provide for my family, I trust You to provide for my needs, I come to You and pray when I need my business to grow, and I trust that You will grow it.

I stand on Phil 4:13: I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me.

If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. John 14:14

We encounter challenges and struggles in our lives, we go to God and we implore Him to solve these problems for us, to create breakthroughs, and to give us certain victories.

And it takes great faith to truly believe that He will do it, and rescue us.

For that reason, so many don’t believe to this degree.

It’s hard to have that much faith.

It’s hard to have that much trust.

I am calling it Transactional Trust.

And for years, I have lived in that trust level.

And because my faith was great, and God came through over and over and over again, I thought I was at a high level of trust and relationship with God.

I have a need or a condition, and I stand on the Word of God and His promises to provide it, and I trust that He will.

Transactional Trust.

But . . .

What if there is a DEEPER level of trust?

Imagine a trust that takes Him our greatest needs . . . and instead of giving Him our solution and asking “In His Name” to give us the answer . . . we lay it at His feet and simply say, I want what You want.

You want this business to be blessed and grow?

I’ll take it.

You want me to close my business and do something different that I don’t understand?

Ok, I’ll do that.

You have something different You want me to do?

I’ll do that instead.

Instead of coming to Him with an agenda, we come to Him in surrender.

Complete surrender that not ONLY does He know best (He does) but also that His best is good for me.

I think sometimes that we Christians are afraid to give Him everything . . . because we are afraid His will is for us to go to Africa.

Or the slums.

Or be a houseparent in a house full of recovering teenagers.

Sort of like if we let Him decide, we are so scared He will send us to do “punishment work” no one else will do, that we don’t let Him decide.

Someone said to me recently:

Give it all to God, Sean. He knows the talents He gave you. Lay the talents down. God doesn’t care how many followers you have. He knows the talents He gave you. 

That’s a bit of a paraphrase from a longer conversation.

But my thought went to this:

Yes, He knows the talents He gave me.

So it’s pretty likely that’s how He’ll use me anyhow.

But I have to let it go first.

But THEN - what if He does give me something I don’t want to do?

Well . . . what if Father DOES really know better?

Seriously.

Jesus said, what Father, when the son asks for bread, He will give him a stone?

Jesus loves me.

Jesus really wants my best.

Even if I don’t know what’s best.

So what if I lean in - completely - to WHATEVER He has for me.

He says He’ll give me the desires of my heart.

Can I not trust Him to do just that?

Surrendered trust is not easy.

It’s 1000x harder than transactional trust.

Because we have to trust that He knows best, He knows us best, His will really is best - AND we will want what He gives us when we get it! 

Now, this might involve waiting past my comfortable timeline.

This might involve Him giving me a transitional assignment, like Joseph had to hang out in prison for a few years because he became the 2nd ruler in Egypt and God rescued his family out of famine through him.

This might involve me completely letting go of my things, my attachments, my current dreams and aspirations, and completely lay them down at His feet.

And if they are still best for me . . He gives them back.

But if He has something better, He has the space to in which to place something better.

(I believe that sometimes God doesn’t give us new things because there is no room in our life for them.)

So we choose to give Him our choices, our desires, our crowns, our aspirations, our everything.

And simply trust His way.

To simply walk in the center of His will.

I was in a group worship and prayer time this morning and it was just about 15 of us.

And there was a worship leader and a guitar and someone guiding our thoughts.

So I was able to lean into the time, and worship, and when my mind started to wander, like it often does in my personal prayer time, within a couple minutes one of the leaders would suggest something . . .

For example, today was this: Imagine you are facing Jesus, and He offers you his hand . . . he reaches out and you take His hand . . . and He walks with you through the day . . .

And so for 5—7 minutes, I’m visualizing and praying into this . . .

Then further instructions . . .

What’s special about this is that during a one hour prayer time, my mind wandered, but I didn’t have to work hard to bring it back, like I do in my private time.

(Of course there is a huge place for private time . . . but this is just one contrast.)

I talked with one of the other attendees afterwards, and this really became real, and I considered the thought, it’s the “discipline” of group worship and prayer.

So what about you?

Maybe it’s a private time . . .

Here are a few ways you can “keep on track” during your worship time:

1. Have a handy list of topics or background sounds that will guide you (prepared in advance)

2. Commit to yourself that any errant thoughts that come your way, you will simply ignore them - in fact, deeper than ignore - just go back to your prayer or worship.

3. Possibly structure your prayer time into segments of 10 minutes, so each segment has a purpose:

   For example:

   a) 10 minutes: worship

   b) 10 minutes intercession

   c) 10 minutes thanksgiving

   d) 10 minutes worship

4. After your prayer time, reflect on the quality of your time and make a note of it in a journal (this will allow you to track progress over time)

By the way, if you would like to connect with other Christians sharing ideas like this in a Christian + business context, I invite you to check out our Christian Business Community:

Christian Business Community

This is deep, life altering teaching plus live discussion on this replay:

I hope that it blesses your heart and relationship with Christ!

Sean

For more about Christian Growth, check out this course:

Grow Close to God Course

Grow Close to God Course

2025 Explosive Results Mastermind

Here's a sneak peak at the agenda (with each of these line items taught in deep detail over the ensuing months:

The Heart to Grow Big:

• God is a big God and thinks BIG

• You are created in His image:

• Limitation: 

  • Time and Scope

  • Be content with His plan

• Enlarge my tents

• 100x return in one year

• Planted by the river

Relationship with the King/Creator:

• Hearing God - preparing your heart and mind

• Trusting God to lead you correctly

• Must be tuned to listen to Him

Godly success principles:

• God gives you the power to get wealth

• Sowing and Reaping

• Vision

• Planning

• Giving

• Hard Work

• Get wise counsel - learn from others

• The more you give, the more you get back

• Get into favor - favor isn’t fair

Cutting Edge Business Principles:

• Clarity

• The One Thing

• Knowing the state of your time

• 80/20 to the 5th power

• 3 month cycles of using 80/20

• Cut your work time in ½ and double your productivity each year

• Relentlessly optimize for what’s important - the ceiling for happiness and satisfaction constantly changing.

• Humans are highly adaptive - the 9 month habituation principle

• Do you want constant growth? Really?

• Cyclical Growth may be better

• Balance work and family and God and everything else

• Hard to optimize them all at one time, but once each becomes more of a habit, you can leave it for awhile and work on something else.

• Constantly having something new to push to the next level.

• God doesn’t want for you to go stale (Caleb when he was 80) (Moses when he was 80; learned to delegate and then pass on the torch to Joshua)

• Are YOU passing on the torch?

Anyhow we start TODAY at 12 noon ET:

2025 Explosive Results Mastermind

(Note: there's also a personal component to it - I will personally evaluate YOUR business plan and give YOU a plan to 10x your results within 12 months.

To join, tap a blue button on this page and scroll to the enrollment section:

2025 Explosive Results Mastermind

Sean