#260: Staying on Mission

Welcome to Kingdom Writers, where we help equip and empower Christian writers of all genres to share your unique gifts with the world. We're your hosts, C.J. and Shelley Hitz.

This podcast is filled with spiritual encouragement as well as prayers to help you overcome the resistance you face as a writer. Your story matters.

So today is all about staying on mission. And it was interesting because I like to read through the Bible in different ways. And right now I'm reading through the Bible with a chronological Bible and I decided to do some in the Old Testament and then skip forward some in the the New Testament. So I'm kind of reading chronologically through the New Testament Old. And I recently read this scripture and it's found Both in Mark 1:35, 39 and Luke 4:42, 44. And I'm going to read the version from Mark. So Again, it's mark 1:35, 39, if you want to look it up and read along with me. Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray. Later, Simon and the others went out to find him. When they found him, they said, everyone is looking for you. But Jesus replied, we must go on to other towns as well. And I will preach to them, too. That is why I came. So they traveled throughout the region of Galilee, preaching in the synagogues and casting out demons. Now, I've read this many, many times, but how many of you know the scripture is alive and active? And that means every time you read it, there's different things that can pop out at you, right? And so when I read this the other day, there was just something that really popped out at me, and it was that, you know, people were crowding in. They wanted Jesus, and even his disciples were saying, everyone is looking for you. But even when others gave Jesus advice and when the crowds were calling for him, he knew his purpose. He knew his purpose and so stayed on on mission. He could have stayed in that one town the rest of his life and had a great ministry, right? But he knew his purpose. It said we must go. He said, we must go on to other towns as well. And I will preach to them, too. That is why I came. So I want to ask you today, Kingdom writers, do you know your mission and who or what trying to get you to go off course or to get off your mission to do something that's good? You know, it would have been good for Jesus to stay in that town, but it wasn't his mission, right? And so I want to really challenge you today and so if we look at this scripture and I was just breaking it apart just even a little bit more today, it says Jesus got up and went out. What does that tell you? To me, it tells me that Jesus was intentional. Amen. He was being intentional and then said he went out to an isolated place to pray. He set boundaries. How many of you know that in the social media world that, the texting and cell phone world we live in, we have to be intentional. And often we have to set boundaries in order to spend that time with God, that time in our business meetings, with God, in prayer, seeking his heart, his mission for us in this season, because it changes often in different seasons. But he was intentional. He set boundaries so that he could hear from. From God. He wasn't just hearing from the crowds. He wasn't just hearing from his disciples. He wasn't just getting his own opinion. How many of you know that in our culture, it's all about, oh, what you feel, what's your opinion, what do you think? And, you know, do what your heart says instead of doing what God says. Right? And so I wanna challenge you. Like, this weekend, we are being intentional, right? And we're setting boundaries in order to stay on mission, in order to hear from God, in order to do the things he's called us to do. And then if you look at that word, it says the people sought him. And in the new or in the King James version, that word sought is zeteo Z E T E o. And it means to seek in order, to find, strive after, demand something from someone. They were, you know, people were after Jesus, they were demanding something from him. And, you know, often there will be something in your life that is demanding something from you, right? Could be relationships, it could be you haven't turned off the notifications on your phone and you have notifications popping up every minute. If so, do that now, turn those notifications off.

You guys know I'm, I'm intense about that. But what is demanding attention in your life? And you know, it could actually be something that's good. It could be that you're involved in a ton of volunteer activities, something that's really good. But it's not the mission that God has for you. You're trapped into people pleasing instead of God pleasing. And I've been there, and I still struggle with this almost every day. Like, it is still something that I have to be so intentional about and set very deliberate boundaries or else I get caught up, swept up in it. Like, you know, it's so easy in the Social media world, people are like, oh, Shelley, you should do this and do that and would you create a video on this and this and would you coach me and do this and dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. I just got an email the other day and she's like, you are the perfect person. And I know you're the one that's, you know, God has shown me you're the one that's supposed to do this for me and coach me in this and da, da, da. I'm like, I felt so compelled to help her because, I mean, I just saw her ministry and I. But I was like, God isn't telling me that I'm the person for that. Even though she was saying, you know what I mean? And I'm like, I'm not doing one on one coaching right now. I am so sorry. But you know, I have a program, Christian Book Academ Academy, that you can join. So there will always be someone or something pushing you or demanding something from you. And yeah, Lisa says that's so very, very true. Thank you for that. That ministers to me. You're welcome. Because we live in a culture right now that is, it's just pressure all around, right? And we can listen to those voices or we can be intentional, set boundaries and listen to the voice of God so that we know our purpose, so that when those voices come, when the disciples come and say, but Jesus, everyone is looking for you. And then in the, the other passage in Luke, it said, in the King James verses version, it says, and stayed him that he should not depart from them. And that word stayed is to hold back, detain, restrain, hinder. They were trying to hold him back. They were trying to restrain him. They were like, you need to stay here. And some people will even try to keep you down from rising up in your goals, from publishing that book, from becoming a published author. They want to keep you down, they want to restrain you, they want to keep you back. Can you tell I'm starting to preach here?

Don't listen to those voices. Listen to the voice of God. And the only way that you're going to know your purpose and your mission is to what.

Is to spend time with him in His Word. Not just prayer, in His Word. The Bible is him speaking to us, right? We have to be in His Word. We have to be hearing from Him. We have to know His Word so well that we can know when there's a counterfeit. We can know when something is not quite right. And no, that's not really what I'm to do or no, that's not really where I'm to go. I need to stay on my. I'm on my mission. I need to stay on mission. And so I just want to really encourage you, you know, Jesus replied, we must go. He said, we must go on to other towns as well. That is why I came. And that phrase, let us go in the King James version, it says let us go is aego the Greek 71. And it says to lead by laying hold of and this way to bring to the point of destination of an animal. So it's like leading an animal to a destination. Again, it's purposeful. It's like purposeful. You're leading. You're saying, okay, this is where we're going to go. And another definition was to lead ourself. So sometimes we need to lead ourselves. Amen. Not let everyone else lead us.

Once God tells us what we need to do, we need to lead ourselves. And we need to say, okay, we must go. Let's get our butt in the seat and let's write, Amen. Let's get the butt in the chair.

And then it says to lead, guide and direct. So this is the affirmation.

Or actually, you know, like I said earlier, people may be very persuasive to try to get us to do what they want us to do. Just like the email I got this week, she. I mean, she was trying to call me and email. She was like being very persuasive. And I don't know, maybe she would have paid me a lot of money, but I was just like, that's not what I'm supposed to do. But people may be very persuasive to get us to do what they want us to do, or even there are the thoughts in our minds. Lately, I've been working through. I shared last night, those of you that stayed for the Q and A. I've been working through the switch app with Dr. Caroline Leaf, a 21 day brain detox. This is my third round. This round I'm working on the toxic thought of that I always have to be doing more. And it's not necessarily other people. It's my own mind. It's like the Lord has shown me. It's like the enemy is like a bully bullying me. Shelly, you need to be doing more. You're not doing enough. Do more, do more, more, more, more, More and more is not always better, right? Better is better. So I've been working through this. So sometimes it's not even other people. It's our own mind. Right. Pushing ourselves, striving, you know, striving or. Or, you know, berating ourselves or whatever it is. But again, people may be very persuasive to try to get us to do what they want us to do. That's why we need to spend time with God alone and hear from Him. He will let us know what our purpose is and which steps to take. And then the affirmation that I wrote was through time with God in prayer and His Word. I know my purpose and stay on mission no matter what my circumstances, no matter if it's a pandemic, no matter if it's an election year, no matter my circumstances or what other people say. Can I get an amen?

Amen.

So I'm not going to add too much to that.

But one of this There was a scripture I ran across yesterday. As a matter of fact, I've been just starting to read through Romans and it's the last verse in chapter two.

And the whole verse says.

It'S 229. No, a true Jew, you know, is Paul talking about Jews and Gentiles. A true Jew is one whose heart is right with God.

And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law. Rather, it is a change of heart produced by the Spirit.

And a person. Now here's the part that hit me. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people. I thought that was interesting. Yeah, I just sandwiched right in there. I'm sure I've read that verse many times in previous times of going through Romans. But it hit me right there regarding just the praise. You know, when you have a transformed heart from the Lord and when your heart is being sanctified. Worked on. It's under construction. We're not there yet. But as it's being worked on, you desire to please God more than you do to earn the praises of men and women. And we're all again, under construction in that area that it's very easy to want to yearn for the praise of men in our social media age. But I just thought I'd share that verse. And again, I'm going to share from my. My old. My old friend John Flavel. Keeping the Heart is the name of the book. And again, he's. These words were written in the 1600s. He was an English Puritan. But listen to a couple little snippets that I'll read. And again, this just happened to be what I read yesterday. I just think it's so Timely. How many of you have. Have had that happen over and over again where you're reading something from a book or a scripture? And it just was the exact day when something else.

Confirmed that. Oh, that's. That's. The Lord had me reading that out of every day of the year, 365 days. It was that day that I read that. Yeah, but listen to this. He says, and he's speaking of keeping the heart directed toward the Lord. That's really the general sense. But listen to what he says here. I think it's so pertinent to we as Christian writers or preachers or anyone endeavoring to seek deeper and then share that with others. He says, when the soul is intent upon any work.

It gathers in its strength and hands or. And bends all its thoughts to that work. And when it is deeply affected, it will pursue its object with intenseness.

The affections. And so what he's talking about here is you could be working in your garden. When you're engaged in that duty and you're loving it as well, it just takes over even your thoughts. It permeates every part of you. You just do that job, whether it's digging and planting or pulling up weeds, whatever it might be. You're engaged and your affections take over. Now listen to what he says here. The affections will gain an ascendancy over the thoughts and guide them. But deadness causes distraction, and distraction increases deadness. So how many distractions do we have again in our culture? It's so easy to go down a million rabbit trails. That just begins to deaden us because we sort of. Our affections get waned. We just go from one thing to the next. We don't focus intensely on one thing and allow those affections to then rise within us. Instead, we're flittering around. It's almost like we've aborted that thought or aborted that work that could have gone into another realm, spiritually speaking. And we sort of cut it off and we move on to the next thing.

Flip over to the other app or answer that call or reply to that text.

I'll admit, these things here, these things can be killers of those affections to ascendancy that John Flavel is talking about. We as writers, you know this as well as I do, that you can get into such a groove at times that you wish you could just spend eternity right there. You get into a flow, you get into that ascendancy of, oh, I just feel like I'm almost in heaven right now. The thoughts are Flowing. There's clarity. If you'll recognize that it's probably during times when your affections are rising and you're alive. There's not a deadness. You're not dreading it, you're not drudging it. How many know that we dread something that we. We don't really have the energy to work on? And yet, if we'll set aside that time, like Shelly said, getting our rear ends in the chair, focusing, I think the affections will begin to rise in us. The Lord will let us break through those barriers that want to keep us down so that we can break through to the level of writing that God's calling us to again. Good old John flavel from the 1600s. This stuff was so relevant, and I even just want to share a prayer. He shares a prayer. He says he's referring. And I'll just read the whole little, little section here. When. When you are disturbed by vain thoughts, humble yourself before God and call in assistance from heaven. When the messenger of Satan buffeted St. Paul by Wicked suggestions, as many supposed, he mourned before God on account of it. That's that situation where Paul is crying out, please remove this thorn from my side. Please remove it. This thing's a distraction. We don't know exactly what that was, but it was hindering him. It was a distraction. He mourned before God on account of it. Never slight wandering thoughts in duty. So in our case, in writing, as small matters, follow every such thought with a deep regret. Turn to God with such words as these, and here's the prayer. Lord, I came hither to commune with Thee. And here a busy adversary and a vain heart conspiring together have opposed me. O my God, what a heart have I. Shall I never wait upon thee without distraction? When shall I enjoy an hour of free communion with Thee? Grant me thine assistance at this time. Discover thy glory to me and my heart will quickly be recovered. I came hither to enjoy Thee, and shall I go away without thee?

Behold my distress and help me. And that's the end of the prayer. But you can almost feel the emotion in that.

Just.

Oh, I need help, Lord. This distraction, help me focus. And I believe the Lord will give us that clarity of heart and mind as we persevere.

Yeah, so the theme today is mission. And we just want to give you a minute and really just ask God what or who is trying to hold you back from the mission, distract you, or demand something from you that is causing you to put your time and energy into other things. Instead of what you know, God has called you to do. So just pray about this. Ask God. And if you need to take the time to confess to God that you've been running after these other things or listening to the voices in your head or, you know, whatever, trying to please other people and take the time to confess and get right before God so that today, you know, this second day of our virtual writing retreat, you can be clean, you can move forward, you can have joy, but just take a minute and spend some time with the Lord and then we will close this moment in a little bit of prayer.

All right, if you are willing, go ahead and share in the comments, anything you feel like God is saying to you about this today. But Lord, we just thank you right now that you always with us, that you are always.

Right there when we are willing just to turn to you, confess, to turn away from the worthless things like CJ was saying yesterday, and just to turn our eyes and fix our eyes to you. When we turn our eyes upon Jesus, the things of this world will fade away like the song says. And God, we just thank you that you have given us your spirit in us that gives us the ability to be intentional, to set boundaries so that we can, you know, spend that time with you, that, that so important time, you know, to get clear on what is our mission, what is it we're to do, even when other people are very persuasive or other things are very persuasive, to try to go us, to help, try to get us to go a different way, or that we will stay on mission, we will know our purpose and we will stay on mission. And even when we do get distracted, you know, Lord, you are right there. You will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so I thank you, God, that you are a God that forgives, that restores. You are a God of second chances and 352nd chances. Lord, thank you that you are here with us. Thank you that you have a mission for us, that you have a purpose for us, us and for each one of us. It's different, it looks different, it will play out differently. But we thank you that we can walk in it. We can go forth today and walk in your purpose. And we thank you in Jesus name, Amen.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Kingdom Writers. We believe that you, as a Christian writer, have a specific role to play in the Kingdom of Heaven to impact lives for eternity.

And because of this, we choose to pour out our lives into encouraging writers like you to not only tell your stories, but to take the courageous step of self publishing your stories in books that will outlive you and leave behind a powerful legacy. This podcast is sponsored by Christian Book Academy where we help you. You give birth to your books. We invite you to join our community of Kingdom writers.