ITS ABOUT TIME!!!!

Sorry i havent updated in a while. Not that you may care too much but i would like to consistently be sharing what is on my heart. Its more of a venting session for me and that is always good. Well…..its about time folks!! It truly is.  Not only is it about time that i submit a post on this site but its about time for a lot of things.  Its about time that around May 9th my beautiful wife will allow our son Malachi to be born. Its about time to get into the nitty gritty of 2009.  Its about time that the weather desides to stay consistent (at least in Chicago) so we can plan our days correctly. 

Its about time to not just get things right with God but to get on about what God has called you to. Lets get past these times where we are always going back to the things we struggle with, where we are asking God over and over and over again to fogive us for the same stinking sin that takes over our mind and desicion-making process and move on and get away from these things that weigh us down. These things not only weigh down our relationships with people and with God but they weigh us down so much that we arent able to stand tall enough to see over these things and to see the things that God has called us to, ultimately.  I have spoken with many students who are just so frustrated about not being able to hear Gods voice for what they are supposed to do in their future and they are wondering why this is so.  Its those same students/people who continue to struggle with the same ol’ same ol’ and dont allow the spirit of God to consume them and purify them from these wicked ways.  Its those type of people who just default and say they are called to Africa or some other 3rd world country but truly dont know what in the world they are trying to do or supposed to do, so they just follow some leader/pastor hoping that that leader/pastor will just pave the way for them. 

Its time to surrender folks.  Its time to get past the things that God wants to help us get past and live our lives as was meant to be and throw it back in the enemys face.  the only weapon we can use against the enemy is ourselves being lit on fire for God. With God NO WEAPON FORMED AGAINST US SHALL PROSPER…

He is THE way THE truth and THE life.

Faith is what you dream…

Faith is not what you hope to happen. I have always thought that having faith meant to really hope something might happen or come to pass. I realized with hope there is nothing for sure going to happen. Faith is having the dream and assurance that God will do something. It’s the “for sure” we have about a certain situation. I’ve thought of myself as a dreamer. But to be honest I haven’t been. Lately I have been doing a lot of reflection and realized that the dreamer everyone thought I was, was more like a day-dreamer. I’m not trying to be harsh on myself I really am not. I don’t like when people do that. But I thought I was dreaming for real. And literally my dreaming was dreams. I was sleep I think. I have realized lately with new job and a new season in my life that it’s really time to dream. I gotta have the faith! To dream, to have faith (to me they work together/almost one in the same) means to DO. I gotta be more than vocal. If I want God to use me as an influential voice in the inner-cities of America. If I feel that God has called me to affect and infect this generation with a new set of values and a new dream then, right now I must do things that aim toward that dream. Let’s go baby! God please put more dreams in me. Give me the strength to hold on to the dreams you want me to have. My youth pastor once said, “Faith is the fuel to get you where God wants you to be.” let’s all dream!

The following pictures are dedicated to the season I wish we stayed in keep dreamin’

Prayer is lonely without Practice

“He must rid his mind of the false notion that prayer alone will bring the blessing.  Normally all transactions between the soul and God are carried on by prayer. It is right and scriptural and according to the testimony of all the saints that any spiritual advance on any front, any deliverance, any purification, any enduement of power, comes by the prayer of faith. Our error is that we try to secure these benefits by prayer alone.“ ~A.W. Tozer

To know God is important.  It is the relationship that we have with God that we hold dear and cherish.  It is in our doctrine where we learn about God and figure him out.  It is in our writing that we express our feelings toward God.  Another thing Christians do is PRAY.  We must pray! We must have faith to know that God will do what he said he would do and that he would remain faithful.  If we want the move of God to be evident, authentic, radical, about healing, about revolution, about true spiritual renewal, and about Gods revival to his people then it cannot be only in our prayers that we seek these things out but it must be in our practice.  Jesus did not only say to God, “Father forgive them” and then God carried out the plan he had. Jesus also had to carry his cross, He was beat for our sin, He was put to death on a cross, He had to obey first.  If we want to see Gods Revival and moving we must obey.  It is not enough to pray our way through situations.  And we wonder why we dont see blessing in our life, why we dont see our ministries grow, why we dont see the things we are praying for really happen.  Prayer is evidence that we have our faith in God.  But to Obey oohhh man it is in our obedience to God that our healing comes, that our visions become realities, and the blessings start to become more evident.  It is unbelievable how far we will go to disobey God and how quickly we will go when we are faced with a difficult circumstance to fall on our knees to pray.  I am not taking the importance out of prayer.  Prayer is where our relationship with God grows.  Its vital to our walk. Prayer is one way we communicate with our Lord, it’s where our Joy becomes evident in our life, it’s where our fire begins to burn, and where God builds us.  But its one thing to communicate your loyalty to a friend and then turn around and dishonor your friends existence by lying about him/her and live as if they never were around.  Its the same thing with God.  Its one thing to pray and then turn around and disregard his commandments.  

“It is almost unbelievable how far we will go to avoid obeying God. We call Jesus “Lord” and beg Him to rejuvenate our souls, but we are careful to do not the things He says. When faced with a sin, a confession or a moral alteration in our life, we find it much easier to pray half a night than to obey God.” ~Tozer

So just remember next time you lay your head to rest.  Just as one would ask themselves, “Have I prayed today?” ask yourself if you have obeyed as well.  My prayer is that everyday I can say that I have obeyed.  We spend so much time getting down on ourselves for not praying 5 hours a day when in that same effort we disobey the Lord.   As Gods people we are called to obey.  For it is in our obedience that brings true revival.  

 

“Your testimony is not enough!”

“Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13 NASB)

 

For years I have shared my testimony in churches and with people.  Its what people do.  Its the story of your transformation and the epic of how you came to know Christ through all your struggles and your issues. The church has taught us to make sure we have this story planned perfectly and learn how to communicate it to the people. God has allowed me to feel passionate about the inner city and its issues and lifestyle and also He has taught me to help influence students with the urban mindset that may not live in the hood’ but have adapted this urban “coolness” from media and the culture as a whole.  So the other day I started to think about my relationship with God and communicating a powerful, true gospel to this generation but specifically to the inner city. And I thought, “Gang members, drug dealers, and struggling families do not want to hear how ‘you made it,’ they do not want to really know that someone used to do drugs and now they don’t.”  They can do those things and still not give their lives to Jesus.  First of all the testimony that really shocks those in the inner city and really surprises them is the story of the one kid who stayed away from all that stuff and stayed committed and faithful to God through their teenage years. One thing I realized is this generation doesn’t need more people who used to do drugs, or used to disrespect their parents, or used to have sex and now they are Christian so they don’t.  This generation needs to be led by those who have been with Jesus.  In Acts 4:13 Peter and John are in the center of what we would see as a court room.  They are defending themselves and the power of Jesus concerning the healing that had been performed.  When asked if they were responsible for this and when they stood up to speak about the situation they spoke about Jesus and how he was the only way to Salvation. After they shared their heart people who were observing couldn’t tell that John and Peter used to swear when they got angry. People could not tell that they used to be lazy, dumb, killers, druggies, etc.  They could tell that these men had been with Jesus.  The Message version says that “They recognized them as companions of Jesus.”  When people see me I dont want them to say that I was funny, smart, wise, talented, etc. My desire is when people see me they might be able to say, “Wow he has been with Jesus and I want that too.” 

This should be our desire and expectation. The days of relying on our testimonies are over ladies and gentlemen.  People need to hear of our experiences with Jesus not our experiences of the pipe.  The more we share our experiences of our past the more we are describing what the people we are trying to influence are already going through. Share with them Jesus and show them without saying it that you have “been with Jesus” and their lives will change because you will have something that they want.  Everybody needs the Lord, but everybody in the world needs to see that everybody who calls themselves Christian has an anointing and shows that the spirit of God is alive today, simply because they have been with Jesus. 

Instead of looking in the mirror practicing your testimony, kneel down and practice being with Jesus. Have you been with Him?

Where are you going?

I love driving in my car. It allows for my mind to focus – where usually it’s difficult for me to focus. Focus on life, focus on my marriage, my ministry, my friends, on the car that I just dodged cause I’m blogging from my phone while driving…ha. I think we need to use our time in our cars to focus on the next thing that God wants us to work on. Being in the car represents transition and also represents that next destination your headed to. My question for you is Where are you going?
I don’t think you need to know that answer specifically but it’s important to know where your life is headed. Are your actions headed in the direction of the kingdom? Is the way you talk representing the One who died? Is what we fill our mind musically or intelectually with glorifying the King of Kings? I don’t mean to sound religious or legalistic I just want to raise these questions because this question of, “Where are you going?” is a question I have asked myself recently. “Juan, where are you going?” Lets help each others lives go the right direction. Let’s encourage one-another towards holiness. The type of Holiness that hurts the eyes and the Holiness Paul explains in Collosians 3. What can we as Gods people do to answer that question, Where are you going, not perfectly or even specifically, but just a little bit better today than yesterday? Think about that…

Where are you going?

FaiTH~FUL~ness

“When the angels rolled the stone away you better know the roman soldiers were blown away – we gotta stow away nah, jesus christ that died resurrected folded his clothes and stole away – now thats incredible – he showed himself the credible witnesses that witnessed his death but didnt expect him to come out of the grave just as the scripture had said they thought the ladies were sick in the head when they came back reporting what they had seen with their eyes the disciples was skeptical so they sent Peter and John to verify what they told him – Jesus is risen meanwhile the chief priests was proppin the soldiers obviously with a valuable token they told him to keep quiet and just to say that his body was stolen by the disciples at night when the soldiers was sleepin – but the story was leakin they showed himself breathin living and moving made appearances showed them his feet and his nailed scarred hands, re-iterating and told them a secret, he said “I’m the fulfillment of moses’ teachings, cleopesus’ greavings turned into joy cause he was hoping to see his redeemer. even Josephus wrote in his Jesus the historical Christ even explorers alike, this irrefutable evidence its a part of His life – plus its dying and i am not lying tell a friend thats agnostic God has no skeletons in his closet, nope, they cant find his bones, no where to be found not even his teeth, no where in the ground -why? he is home wearing the crown the disciples watched him ascend. 
 

Therefore, we are holy spirit endowed, with the power to be witnesses how many listeners know that when you die you’ll rise and be with the rest of us, we are not cocky we are confident in a God who rescued us plus resurrected a son from out of the seplica, have you accepted these facts and if you haven’t lets chat. after the show email me and ill be happy to rap about these matters concerning our faith Jesus Christ’s resurrection has determined our fate.”  (Da Truth ~Resurrection)

 

I heard this song today and had to sit on it for a second.  It has caused me to think about what faithfulness really is.  I am just in this study of how can we truly be faithful to where God has currently called us.  Its not just about “sticking around” and chillin.  We have faithfulness all wrong.  As a culture in the world and also as people who are in ministry.  To be faithful means to surrender to God. If I surrender to God everything I’m faithful to Him. If I surrender to my wife everything I am unselfish and therefore, faithful to her.  If I give everything to the students that I am reaching out to then I am faithful to them and committed to seeing Christ lifted up in their everyday lives.   My wife and I have just re-committed to one another and to the ministry we are serving under (www.nxtonline.org) that we would be faithful during this season.  Katelynn and I are working jobs and finishing school (me) and are just hanging in there trying to live a fully committed life that is surrendered to this culture/generation. We are called to be faithful to the people we are serving and to the God who’s plan is perfect for us all.  I know His plan is perfect, if His plan for His son turned out the way He wanted it, even though it was a tough situation for God – then His plan for us will prevail and will go into affect.  This generation needs faithful people serving them.

Are you faithful?

Refreshing trip

I am curently on a bus (megabus.com) on the way to Chicago from St. Louis. David Choi and I went to be involved in our friends wedding. It was a great trip of reconnecting with old faces and just sharing our lives and stories of what the past year has been like. And lots of me bragging about my beautiful wife.

God really taught me this week exactly how he needs me in His strategy of reaching people/this generation for Him. He needs me to be faithful and asks of me to not get ancy or nervous or worried about the future or present -but to stay faithful.

This has been a simple blog. I just wanted to begin somewhere I love WORDPRESS.

JUAN.