This is a letter I wrote to my milledgeville family and these are some things I learned from being around them, if you want to know how to love and be part of something great go to school at georgia college and hang out with this crew!
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I am writing to you from not only experiences in your church, but from my heart. A lot of what I have learned and seen throughout my years being with your church has taught me to live. It has shown me the goodness of faith, not only why I should have faith, but why I should walk in it. It has been by the way you have lived your lives, I have seen Jesus in ways that blow my mind, my perspective, my thoughts, and my dreams. You have taught me to know Him, not just about Him. You taught me that prayer changes things.
I am talking to each one of you. If you are in Milledgeville, I am talking to you and you specifically. You all have shown me God in new ways, and in that respect, I am indebted to your devotion and love to the Lord and your care for my heart. You all are such a unified church and family. You have made yourselves a tight family and now you are the foundation for your church, so now that you have laid this ground work, God’s kingdom can come in an almighty way. Everyone in Milledgeville can know God because of this foundation, if you allow Him to be known. It starts with one person at a time. It starts with relationship. Seeing people the way God sees them. It is watching Him work on people’s hearts and not yourselves. It is living from heaven’s perspective. It is seeing every single moment as a holy moment, no matter if it is good or bad. Be thankful in all things, he has given you every moment for a specific reason. Embrace change. See yourself the way God sees you. The truth is God is within you all, so if you feel like you haven’t done anything to influence my life, you are wrong. He deserves more credit than we give Him, and because He is in you, I give you some credit for being obedient to Him and by making him come alive in your awareness of Him. That love and passion he has given you, you are definitely letting it shine, no bushels in this house. This is what I want to discuss with you. Your identity in Christ.
He is alive. He is the ground of your being. He is your homeland. If you want him, look within yourself. Stop searching other places, you don’t have to go anywhere. Stop adding things to your life, you have all you want and need inside of you. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Amen. This life is all about letting go and letting God. It is about subtracting, not adding. When you let go, you will be more aware of Him and in that you will see Him more and more. This intimacy with Him and seeing how He is in control of all things and moving throughout it all will birth you into action. You have all you need. His grace is enough and more than that. These things sound too good to be true, don’t they? God lives in me and that’s all I need? It is to focus on Him and be aware of Him where he is? See what he sees? Do what he does? All life is, is about Him and somehow these fruits from the spirit just become alive to others? It all sounds too good to be true. Well it is too good and it is way to true.
Know that there are two kingdoms you can serve: Yours or God’s.
If you ever serve yourself, you are probably questioning, Is God who he says he is. For example is “God really good? I don’t know so I will take control of it myself.” Or another doubt we can have is, am I really who he made me to be? and because of that doubt you take control. Answering these questions with a faithless heart can lead down a path of self righteousness and self seeking. And every decision we are ever faced with leads down one of these two paths: your fleshly path or God’s.
Now “the good news” is that God has created us so that we were really made for his path all the time and that is also the path that is most satisfying. Now you may feel that his path is not most satisfying in the moment, but it is the best for you. He knows the best way to love you. If you feel that it is not satisfying when you go down his path, then that means you are just being made more like him and he is building up your faith. Now we end up taking our own path, the faithless selfish one, because we don’t truly believe he has the best for us. We end up taking control because we always want answers, we don’t want to feel like we are left in the dark. When we take control, we can have the results turn out the way we want them to. We feel momentary satisfaction, because we are getting results on our time table. We imprison ourselves with our thoughts and our mind then it controls us. It “feels” ok to be put in prison because we know what is ahead of us. You were not made for a prison of the mind or selfish decision making. You were made to be free. It is for freedom Christ set us free, so do not submit yourselves again to a yoke to slavery. (Gal. 5:1) Your thoughts are not who you are. Your mind is not who you are. You are God’s and He is in you.
Do not let judgment bring you down, nor pride. If there is any quarrel amongst your group, know that it is a two way street of loving. If there is any “heat” you have between each other, open communication is the key. But meeting with the Lord before you speak is more important so you see them the way the Lord does. Know the Lord loves you and know you are already taken care, expect nothing in return from the ones you meet with to have open conversation. Love like you have love from the Lord. Remember you are all unique and you all leaders to someone in some way. But more importantly you are servants. If you cast judgment that is going to rip up your relationship with them and how you view that person. If you have a negative judgmental perspective on someone that is going to have some effect when you come in contact with them. If you feel they are not living out who they are (how God’s see them) tell them that, but they always have the identity that God have given them and that is Christ in them. So see Jesus in them.
Keep loving and unifying the other parts of the body (other ministries) in Milledgeville. If you are not moving or they are not moving you might be slowing down some kingdom advancement. Just like the foot can’t go anywhere without the leg. God’s kingdom has no divide and he wanted himself to be known to all. Your heart for unity and family is straight from the Father’s heart. Keep excelling in this and keep excelling in growing your family, by again seeing them the way God does, by pulling/calling out the Jesus in everyone.
I talked to brother Ben Battles and first I want to say you are in good hands. If you don’t know him, He is most attractive by his words of wisdom and acts of love. He is not phased by words or things of this world, he only moves to the beat of God’s heart. If I have learned something from him and our relationship it is his humility and servanthood. Having said this, he desires your church to be fully immersed in His presence, fully immersed in communing with every part of the body, and seeing everyone, whether they have faith in Jesus or not, as God sees them, the reward.
If you want to know how to break apathy or feel that your church isn’t moving to further the kingdom, walk in faith (act even if you don’t feel anything, God is there, He will show up and let Him love through you), prayer (talking to Him, Knowing Him) (John 17:3), and fasting (getting rid of things that are around the heart that aren’t of God, a life of surrender, the greatest way to love).
You have really been a people that know how to love. You are the best lovers I know, I give you these challenges or things to think about throughout this letter because I know you can handle it. God is so proud of you. You have the source of life in you and with that you can change Milledgeville forever and your time in Milledgeville can go down in history because there were a bunch of scrubs like yourselves decided that you would lose your life so God may be glorified, some people call this a revival; Jesus calls it normal Christianity.
I pray that God would release a grace and anointing on your heart to love Him with everything.
Be still and know He is God.
I love every single one of you with all my heart! You are so close to my heart, I will most definitely write you brothers and sisters again.
