Holy Spirit is such a genius.

Consider these two statements, written by His friend - the Apostle John, from his personal account of the life of Jesus and the sequel, the book of Revelation:

1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1)
2. Now I saw heaven opened, and behold – epic description of Jesus – His name is called The Word of God.

What a powerful way to bookend the beauty, majesty, and glory that is Jesus - The Word.

But let’s not forget the role of scripture throughout history.

Remember what the Lord said through Moses to Israel’s future leaders in Deuteronomy:

And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law… And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life…

Consider how David, a man after God's own heart, cherished The Word in Psalm 19:

• The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul;
• The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple

We might be able to quote Hebrews 4:12 - For the word of God is living and active…, but let us never settle for merely quoting scripture when the Lord has called it sharper than any two-edged sword.

Remember

Set aside some time to reflect on your relationship with The Word over the years.

• How has The Living Word shaped your life?
• When were you most genuinely curious?
• When has it come alive and impacted you?

When you think of an impactful time, write it down. But don’t stop there,  take some time to remember - remember how it felt and how you were moved.

If you haven't already, put a summary in your GodSpeaks app. Don’t worry about getting the date perfect if you don’t remember. Never let insignificant details keep you from remembering the moment.

Live Now

• How is the Word living and active in your life right now?
• How is it anchoring you?

Whether you are in a season of genuine and sustained curiosity, or you’ve settled for less than the Lord’s full invitation, anticipate the Father’s goodness through His Word this week. Commit to spending a little extra time ready or listening to scripture and see what the Lord might do. When you experience His presence beyond the pages - in joy, hope, peace, conviction, or whatever it looks like, record it in GodSpeaks and let us remind you :).

Let's start with a quiz. Don't worry, we aren't keeping score.

Question 1: Can Google read your emails?

Question 2: Can Apple read your notes?

Question 3: Can Signal read your text messages?

Answers -

1. Yes.
2. Yes (unless you 'lock' the note).
3. No.

If you got those right, congrats! You have a basic (or maybe stronger?) understanding of how data security works. Though I think it's important to point out the key word in those questions - CAN. Which means someone at that company could. Do they? Almost certainly not, but it is largely misunderstood what someone can do verses what their internal policies are.

But let's take a deeper look into this before we talk about GodSpeaks. Feel free to skip to the heading "What We Do" if this doesn't interest you.

A Deeper Look

When you write something down in a notebook, as long as you keep your notebook with you and nobody touches it, your information is safe. However, if a flood, fire, or a hungry dog comes along; so long notebook. I probably think about this more than most people as I not only have 4+ years of journals (and counting), but I also keep a physical notebook for each of my children that I write in monthly on the date of their birth. If you want to know what I am going back in my house for (assuming everyone in my family is safe), it's those journals.

Along comes Electric Pencil in 1976 - the very first digital word processing software. Woohoo! Who needs journals when I can type on this sweet interface -

Problem solved! Thank you technology! Except, wait - we have a similar problem: the text is only in one place. So let's fast-forward to

The internet!

Now we've done it! Founded in 1983, the internet officially starts the conversation about having information shared beyond our living rooms. This is the answer we've been waiting for. All done, let's go, wrap it up... well sort of. Apparently being able to save things in a place that has fairly unlimited access comes the issue of having information stored in a place where basically anyone has access.  

Ugh.

You can probably imagine the cat and mouse game that has occurred over the years. As every feature of the internet has been created to give us more access to one another and to our information, it has also exposed our information to more threats. Most of our data isn't that useful to people, but at the same time, nobody wants to come home to a stranger in their house.

Let's take a look at our first three questions one more time and dig in a little bit. Do I think someone at Google or Apple is looking at your email or your personal notes? I do not. However, someone could if they wanted to. And that's probably not such a bad thing most of the time. Because the only way to restrict anyone from seeing your information except for you, is to make sure nobody can see your information except for you.

Are you seeing the issue?

Have you ever been to the Apple store where someone has forgotten their Apple ID?

Friendly Store Person: "I'm sorry sir/ma'am, there's really nothing I can do. Without your Apple ID, I can't unlock your phone."

Frustrated Customer: "BUT WHAT ABOUT MY PICTURES!?!?!?!"

Yeah - it goes a lot like that.

There are companies that prioritize your security (Signal is an example), but if you need access to something that you sent and don't have your password or 2-factor authentication. Good luck - nobody has access to that.

What We Do

If you've stayed with me this far, or jumped to this point, let me share our conviction and our dilemma.

Conviction: We want GodSpeaks to be a secure place for your most precious moments with the Lord.

Dilemma: We don't ever want to be in a position where you can lose access to your most precious moments with the Lord.

So now what?

Here's what we are doing now, and we will keep you updated on any future changes going forward.

As of May 26th, 2023 we will be encrypting all entries that are stored in the GodSpeaks database so that nobody from GodSpeaks can accidentally view them. From that point on, no entry will be stored without first being encrypted. However, the type of encryption we are using would allow us to recover them in the event it was absolutely necessary.

To be clear, it is possible that a developer from GodSpeaks could decrypt the memories and read them, however, we hope that you'd trust that we hire the kind of people that would not do that. At this point, the only developers in GodSpeaks are the founders and it would not ever be our goal to breach your privacy or break the trust we desire to build with our community.

The Future

The thing about technology and security is that they are constantly evolving. We also have ideas for how we can increase the secuirty of GodSpeaks without putting your memories in jeopardy.

An example would be how Apple notes or Evernote allow you to lock specific notes. This prevents even an engineer at their respective organization, no matter their desire, from viewing the content. We are also looking into allowing you to use biometrics (the same that your phone uses) to secure the app.

Whenever we do make a change, we will let you know.

In awe of Jesus,

Andrew & Nate

I love math.

So why don't you marry it!

Real mature. Fine, I enjoy math, but I love my wife. Happy now? Moving on.

About 2% of the population responds to me saying, "I love math," with "Me too!" So for 98% of you reading this, I have about 50 more words to convince you to stay with me. You can do it!

Math helps me think about the super-natural.

What is the natural, and why isn't it super all by itself? What does it mean to invite the supernatural? Has something super ever become just plain natural?

As we build GodSpeaks, we are mostly building something that would seem VERY super to people 100 years ago, but is very natural now. Except for a few things that we think will always be super. This is where I want to bring in some numbers.

In maths we often talk about sets of numbers. We might say that "set 1" (and label it S1) and fill it with numbers like this -

S1 = {2, 4, 6, 8, 10, ...}

You might want an easy way to describe S1 and realize they are all even numbers. If so, you nailed it - first try.

Let's think of another set, S2 and fill it with numbers.

S2 = {4, 8, 12, 16, ...}

S2 looks a lot like S1, but not quite. There might be more than one way to describe their relationship -

• S2 is every number in S1 multiplied by 2.
• S2 is every other number in S1.

Both are true, but there is (at least) one more general description -

S1 is a super set of S2.

Meaning, S1 contains all the numbers in S2, but also more.

Let's go back to the super-natural. I like to think of the supernatural as a set of all things both natural and more. I don't know that anyone could be overly specific about what is in the 'super' set of creation, but I believe that Jesus gives us access to this super-set and when it enters the natural, it is amazing.

Ephesians 1:3 says it like this - Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

The Father always has the super waiting for us and I like to look for ways to partner with it. I mean, Jesus did say to his disciples - Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

Again, I don't think anyone has the full understanding of what that super-set is full of, but we know it contains more than our natural understanding.

I believe that experiencing the super often starts as revelation, or wisdom beyond our understanding. However, what is divine revelation to one generation, over time becomes common knowledge - so much so that to future generations, it seems totally normal. I try to practice being thankful for normal things that were definitely super 100 years ago (Yea for refrigerators!).

While I believe that many things God has given us have become part of our natural understanding, I also believe that God STILL has something super available for us. This is the premise of GodSpeaks as we are using -

• Normal code (though super even just a couple decades ago)
• Normal phone (though super even one decade ago)

But we are asking God to invade our natural with His super.

When we pray over the code we wrote that chooses when to send you a push notification, or what memory to bring to your attention, we are asking God to do what we can't. We don't know how you are feeling. We don't know what you are thinking. We are asking God to bring you the right memory at the right time and giving him our very natural tools to work with.

Heavenly Father, thank you for doing far more than we can ask or imagine. Thank you for using the foolish things to shame the wise. Let our mustard seed of faith move mountains. Let our child-like wonder be fulfilled. In the name of Jesus, the ultimate creator. Amen.

For The Curious

If you're a developer, you know what this is doing. If you are not a developer, but are curious, this function (a block of code that can be called to perform a specific task) is called whenever we need to choose a number. We choose a number when -

• We are building a time for a reminder (hour, minute)
• We are choosing which day of the month for a reminder (day)
• We are choosing which memory to show you

In each of these cases, we give the minimum and maximum number and it returns a 'random' number. For example, if you have 20 memories, we'd say getPrayerfulInteger(0, 19) and whatever number it returned would be the index of the memory we returned to you. Ta-da!

It's time.

It's time for us to do what we set out to do nearly four years go.

It's time for GodSpeaks to be the kind of app we share without caveats.

It's time for us to put our foot in the water, and let God part the sea.

Let's do this.

Moving the GodSpeaks App from Friends & Family to Market Ready isn't a technical marvel. It's honestly more like eating your veggies.

You want a feature list? Hold on to your trousers!

• Password Resets
• User ID (Email) updates
• Redesigned settings page
• Upgraded app security and encryption
• Marketing site
• This blog (the one you're looking at right now)

You feeling that? Move out of the way Steve Jobs, this is the kind of product announcement we need a slide show for.

Okay, maybe I'm the king of hype and you're all jazzed up, but the truth is, those aren't the features we get excited about. Necessary, but not exciting.

What the launch of this version does is pave the way for us inviting people to use GodSpeaks that don't have our cell phone number. I don't mean we don't want feedback (we also built that into this launch), we absolutely do, but we needed to lay the foundations of  security and stability that gave us confidence we could be trusted to store people's memories.

We also learned that people downloaded the app (because they liked us) and not everyone knew how to use it. Along with this launch we have a "First 50 Days" strategy to help people experience God and start using the app. Our goal is for every user to have 10+ memories within 50 days of having the app.

That's where we get excited. If your app has 10+ memories, that gives GodSpeaks a chance to remind with one of those moments up to 22 times throughout the year. (Check out how memories work)

That's it. Get pumped. We are.

Almost every product or business venture starts somewhere, and that somewhere is usually the suckers who don't have the heart to say no -

Friends and family.

Don't believe me? Search "Start-up fundraising stages" and you'll see something along the lines of -  

Pre-seed stage - when only your grandma and grandpa believe in you.

You know what I always say - grandma and grandpa can't say no if you download it for them on their phone and they don't know how to delete it!

There is no shame in this phase (also, Bezos's parents did REALLY well with their initial investment). There are thousands of companies that spend millions of dollars trying to get our attention, our clicks, and our dollars. Nobody is going to buy your product just because you made it. Except grandma.

Who has two thumbs and needed two friends & family stages?

GodSpeaks. (Alright, I suppose the four of us have 8 thumbs)

We launched the Friends and Family version of GodSpeaks twice. Once in 2019 and then again in December of 2022. We never raised money, but we did get our friends and family to download the app and tell us what they thought about it. Nobody said no and that's what friends and family are for :).

The issue with 2019 wasn't that we didn't love the idea, it was that we weren't fully committed. Nate and I both still had our professional gigs that we were holding on to and we couldn't build a business on the side without compromising our values, which isn't an option if you read what our values mean to us. 2022 is different because we are all in.

What did this version do?

As little as possible.

• Sign in
• Record text
• Light & dark mode

That's about it.

But it did exactly what we needed it to. People downloaded it and used it. They gave us feedback on what features they wanted most.

Over the next several months we added the reminder notifications (kind of the whole point of the app) and cleaned up quite a few things. We were encouraged by -

• 75+ people signed up
• 900+ entries added
• People telling us the loved the idea

And we learned a few things from people who signed up and never added a memory - friends and family who didn't say no, but kind of said no ;)

All of it helps us get to the next version - Market Ready.

What's your price?

That's the question I think to myself whenever a person or a company tells me about their values. Don't get me wrong, I hear you, and I believe your values are important to you, but having values written down and having character are two different things. Values need character to survive like humans need oxygen, and character isn't given, it is forged.

Character develops when compromise will ease your suffering, or provide you with 'good enough,' but you refuse to settle.

Don't take my word for it. Check out my friend Paul who wrote this book called Romans -

...we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character;

So when we talk about our core values at GodSpeaks, we talk about the values we refuse to compromise when it hurts, or when doing so would lead to a win that isn't ours to have.

Have they been tested?

Yes.

Will they continue to be tested?

Absolutely.

Are we without fault?

Definitely not.

So why are you are you sharing them here?

Good question. We think that when we build a business and you use our products that you have the right to know what is important to us, and in a way, get to be a part of holding us accountable. When you spend your time and money on one of our products, you aren't just saying you agree with the product itself, you are also saying you agree with how we do business and want to enable us to keep doing business.

So what are your core values?

I'm SO glad you asked :).

1. His Glory - Our business is not for our will to be done or our kingdom to be built, but to align fully to Jesus. How can we remain in Jesus today?
2. People - We will not compromise a person for our vision. How can we believe in someone else today?
3. Virtue - Our values are not lived out of convenience; We live aligned no matter the cost.
4. Integrity - We are the same at every distance and from every angle, though the intensity varies with intimacy. How can we be authentic today?
5. Compassion - We help others see grace from where they are. We don't ignore compromise or shout from a self-righteous tower.
6. Adventure - We choose to build character by pursuing faith-filled adventure.

Prayer - What a beautiful invitation from the Father to connect.

Consider how Paul encourages us to pray without ceasing. Is there an upper-bound to our prayer lives?

Can we find it in Enoch, who walked faithfully with the Lord, and then was no more…

Or Abraham who left all he knew when the Lord invited him on a legacy altering adventure?

What about Moses who, when His leadership was questioned, was defended by the Lord when He said, he speaks to Me face to face?

How did David become a man after God’s own heart? How did his time taking care of the sheep usher in a revolution of praise and worship that we are still exploring 3000 years later?

What did Jesus find, though being God himself, in getting away with the Father, that He couldn’t find anywhere else?

Remember

• How has the Lord met you in your prayer life?
• How have your prayer times shaped your day to day decisions?
• How about your life altering decisions?

Try to remember a few times where your prayers, or someone else praying for you, impacted your life in a powerful way. Record at least one memory from your past in GodSpeaks, and if you have a lot, schedule some time in the next few months to remember more. We want to help make sure you never forget.

Live Now

Wherever you are, the Lord is inviting you to connect.

Pray without ceasing wasn’t hyperbole, or a command to endure. It was an encouragement and exhortation to respond to the invitation of the Lord to be in connection continually, without interruption, and without limitation.

Posture yourself towards the Lord this week more intentionally; create space for Him to speak. When He does, enter it in GodSpeaks - we’d love to remind you 😀.

What are we shooting for? What is our vision? What can we imagine?

Nate and I are natural visionaries. We love building products because we love imagining how people's lives change when we make something that equips them to do what is in their heart. When we see the future of GodSpeaks, we imagine a future where people -

• more consistently connect to the Lord
• more confidently hear His voice
• have a treasure trove of powerful and transformative encounters
• live a lifestyle of remembering who God is and what He has done

Those sentences are so cool to say...

But they are impractical for building a business.

I am not saying they can't be done! They absolutely can be and, God willing, we will be part of it. But they are not easy to measure, and therefore not quite what we are looking for in terms of 'vision.' If you haven't already, take a look at what we mean in "GodSpeaks On Mission."

The vision that drives our business is a collection of short, medium, and long-term objectives that we can measure and hold ourselves accountable to. They are aligned by our mission and held in check by our core values.

Would you like some examples?

Of course you would, that's why you're here!

Short Term Vision

Our short-term visions are typically things we can do in the next couple quarters and they don't end when we achieve them. After these are completed, we will replace them with new objectives, typically focused on product development. At this moment that includes things like -

• Completing the Market Ready version of GodSpeaks.
• Launching our website and the first digital devotional.
• Developing a payment structure we believe in and the accompanying premium features.

Medium Term Vision

Our medium term vision has to do with hitting benchmarks to help guide our future 'short-term' visions. Another way of saying it is that we use our medium-term vision, which is focused on growth, to balance our short-term vision, which is typically focused on product development. For example:

• 500 app downloads
• Develop baseline product metrics
• 50+ customer interviews

Long Term Vision

Our long term vision are things we know we want to keep in mind and build toward, but aren't quite ready to be prioritized yet. They eventually lead to short-term projects (when they are product related), or medium term projects (when they are growth involved). A couple examples are -

• In 2024 we will launch a physical product that aligns to our mission.
• In 2025 we will have a GodSpeaks user in all 50 states and over 20 countries.

Understanding Invitation

While all that vision stuff is really important, we know that the Lord's invitation will always be our highest priority. There are seasons where the Lord invites us to steward what we understand and build with excellence. But there are also seasons where He invites to go with Him somewhere we can't see clearly from where we are. Our conviction is to do our work with excellence, make ourselves available to the Lord's invitations, and be discerning about all other distractions.

I'm sure you've read the story - A Centurion (not a jew) who approaches Jesus with a request for his servant to be healed.

And Jesus must have seen into his soul. When else can you think of Jesus responding with, "Shall I come and heal him?" Talk about a leading question.

You know the story. The Centurion explains his own authority and uses that to recognize Jesus' authority. And Jesus responds with one of arguably the three highest compliments of his lifetime on earth -

Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith...

The author of Hebrews emphasizes the importance of faith in chapter 11, verse 6 -

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

And yet, Jesus' brother added an important caveat in the second chapter of his epistle -

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

What does all that mean?

1. Our faith must recognize who God is.
2. Our faith must be more than words.
3. Our faith must believe God responds.

The third week of Experiencing God is faith. God moves through His Word, prayer, and through faith.

Remember

Look through the names of God.

• How has God been that for you?
• How have you stepped out in faith and seen Him move with you?

Live Now

Using the names of God -

• How do you want to live differently this week because of who God is?
• How is God inviting you to experience Him this week?

Take notice when God moves - rejoice in the Lord, encourage your neighbor, and add it to GodSpeaks so that we can remind you, perhaps when you need it most.

Extras!

There are a few songs that have come out over the past few years that powerfully emphasize the names of God.

Shepherd - UPPERROOM

There are two sections of the song. It first walks through a list of the names of God and then sings through a section of Psalm 23. Simple, but beautiful.

Jireh - Elevation Worship & Maverick City

This song is a collaboration from Elevation Worship and Maverick City that emphasizes one of the names of God - Jehovah-Jireh, which means, The Lord Provides.

Jehovah - Elevation Worship (& Chris Brown)

I updated this article specifically because this song came out.

God moves, and when He moves, something changes.

God moves through His Word as creation continues to express His intentionality from the moment He gave it purpose.

God moves through our prayers as we respond to His un-ending and unlimited invitation to connect.

God moves through faith as we align our actions with our declaration of who He is.

God moves through fasting as we pull back from every distraction, good, bad, or indifferent, and focus wholeheartedly on the things of God.

True Fasting

As there were pharisees who memorized all of the law and missed their encounter, there is fasting that abstains, and is never filled by the Lord.

Even so, you cannot deny the power of fasting -

• Moses was sustained for 40 days on the mountain in a continuous encounter with the Lord.
• Elijah was strengthened for a 40-day journey with a meal served by an angel.
• Daniel, along with traditional fasting, lived a lifestyle that refused to assimilate with the compromise of his surroundings and was strengthened by his conviction and promoted into influence.
• The Father invited Jesus to be strengthened in a season of fasting in the dessert so that in His physical weakness, He could powerfully demonstrate His reliance on the Father.  

And while Jesus' sacrifice initiated a superior covenant between God & humanity, He was also clear that fasting would continue to amplify our relationship with the Father -

When you fast...
your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Fasting Without Compromise

I have a phrase that often anchors my thinking, if I ever get so confident -

If I am not wRESTling in a paradox, I am often compromising a truth.

And this is truly the case when we consider the words of Isaiah (Ch. 58) -

Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
   and exploit all your workers
Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
   and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
   and expect your voice to be heard on high.

Our abstaining must partner with the works of God and if ever we have influence over an outcome, it must align with the heart of the Father.

• To loose the chains of injustice
• To untie the cords of the yoke
• To set the oppressed free
• To share your food with the hungry
• To provide the wanderer with shelter
• To clothe the naked
• To not turn away from your own flesh and blood

Remember

Have you ever fasted? What happened? If you've ever seen a breakthrough from fasting, take time to remember and make sure you have it written down. If you aren't already, use GodSpeaks so that we can remind you of His faithfulness.

Live Now

The Bible has many fantastic examples of fasting (choose any 40-day adventure) as well as uncompromising and focused lifestyles (Daniel, Ezekiel). Don't let the fantastic discourage you from a genuine desire to connect with the Lord in fasting.

Whether you choose a meal, a day, or some other form of abstaining, don't forget to nourish yourself with His Word, and partner with His presence during your fast.

Before we introduce this week's challenge, I want to take a walk with Abraham for a few minutes.

We hear a bit about Abraham's father in Genesis 11, but the story really begins in Genesis 12 -

The Lord said to Abram -
Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you...

I like to re-phrase this a bit for my own understanding -

Leave behind everything and everyone you know. It will be worth it, I promise.

Abraham (at this time Abram) arrives in the land and -

• Encounters a famine.
• Heads to Egypt
• Is saved by the Lord and returns to the land
• Splits with Lot
• Rescues Lot
• Meets Melchizedek (Wait, who?)

And we slow down again in Genesis 15 when, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:

Do not be afraid, Abram.
 I am your shield,
 your very great reward...

Look up at the sky and count the stars--if indeed you can count them. So shall your offspring be.

And after this, the Lord makes a covenant with Abram that this land would not only be his, but would be inherited by his descendants.

We fast-forward again through -

• Abram having Ishmael with Hagar
• God introducing circumcision (wait, what?)
• God saying - no, not through Hagar, but through Sarah you will have a son
• Abraham and Sarah try to teach God about biology, but God doesn't listen
• Abraham saves Lot again

We slow down one more time in Genesis 20 to find Abraham nervous again about an influential ruler and introducing Sarah as his sister.  

But God came to Abimelek in a dream one night and said to him...

Don't touch Sarah or I'll kill you. (my paraphrase)

The story continues for a few more chapters, including -

• The birth of Isaac (apparently God is legit at biology)
• The willing sacrifice (Isaac deserves a lot of credit here)

Until the story of God building up His people through His promises continues with  the life of Isaac. If you're interested, feel free to review the full version from Genesis 12 to Genesis 25.

Why did we go through all this?

Because I want to point out Abrahams interruptibility and the ways that God interrupted.

It's easy to quote certain New Testament scriptures. Ephesians 3:20 for example -

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us...

But what does that look like in real life? How are we invited to immeasurably more than we ask or imagine?

In many ways, Abraham seems like a pretty regular guy who was invited by interruptions of immeasurably more. He certainly didn't get everything perfect, but -

• He was called out of the blue to leave everything he knew.
• He was given an impossible vision of his inheritance and believed God.
• He and Sarah (and Abimelek) were saved by a dream from the Lord.

This week is about inviting God's interruption in our life as we see Abraham respond to the Lord's voice, a vision, and saved by a dream.

Remember

Has the Lord ever interrupted you?

• How did He do it?
• How did you respond?

Take a moment with the Lord and invite additional perspective. Does He have anything else to say?

This Week

Make yourself available for interruption.

When you wake up, invite the Lord's interruption to your day, "Holy Spirit, I have room for you to interrupt me today!"

When you get to work, or whatever your rhythm is, remind the Lord (and yourself), "Lord, I am ready for an interruption today!"

Before you go to sleep, "Father, I welcome an interruption from you!"

In this final installment of the Experiencing God Devotional, it must first be mentioned that these ideas do not explicitly require one another in a specific way, but they are very much connected.

Impact without intimacy is the blind leading the blind.

We must know what it means to encounter the Lord through His Word.
We must develop a lifestyle of prayer and fasting.
We must learn to live by faith.
We must make ourselves available for His interruption.
Or our desire to impact becomes a distraction.

I've heard it said before that,

Jesus is perfect theology.

Can someone let me know when they have Jesus figured out so I can take their class on theology?

Okay, so maybe we don't try to figure Jesus out as much as we take a few pages out of His book. How did Jesus impact those around Him?

To the women at the well, he had insight into her situation and called her to become more than she had settled for.

To oppressive religious leaders, he had the courage to stand against the weight of their oppression.

To sinners, he had the compassion to call them to grace and empower their transformation.

To the sick, he prayed for healing.
To the broken, he proclaimed wholeness.
To those in bondage, he set free.

Unrolling [the scroll], he found the place where it is written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
   because he has anointed me
   to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
   and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
   to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Remember

When has God invited you to make an impact?
When has God used someone else to impact you?

This Week

Spend some time with the Lord and make yourself available to impact someone else. If you know you are going somewhere, or meeting with someone, take a couple minutes and ask, "Holy Spirit, is there someone you want me to talk to, pray for, or encourage?"