Leadership Nugget: A Leader Passionately Prayers

A LEADER PASSIONATELY PRAYS

Nehemiah 1:11c For I was the king’s cupbearer.

Every great story has a beginning. The book of Nehemiah is a great story full of amazing leadership principles and great accomplishments….but it all started with Nehemiah praying. Don’t overlook this. Nehemiah passionately prayed. Before the great accomplishment of a wall being built, the restoration of a ancient city, families being restored to their homeland and the rise of a great leader, it started with prayer. It started with God. 

Prayer is simply talking and listening to God. As we pray to God, we are aligning our hearts to His will, and we get to know Him in a closer way. This is why Jesus prayed, “not my will, but your will be done,” before he endured the cross. So we also pray according to God’s will. Many even say the words “in Jesus name,” which is another way of saying “according to your nature and will.” We take all sort of circumstances, situations, and emotions to God through prayer and allow His will to be done and pray for His plan to succeed. 

Often, when we hear successful stories of leaders, we want to learn from them so we can succeed as well. We learn that Nehemiah wasn’t a great commander or leader in the nation of Israel, he wasn’t even living in the Jewish nation at the time. He was simply working as the cupbearer for King Artaxerxes in a foreign land. Although he didn’t seem like the greatest candidate to lead the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, God had great plans for Him to accomplish this great task. We see His journey start with him praying passionately to God for the nation of Israel, and as he prays, God starts to align his heart to His plan to restore His people, the city and rebuild the wall through Nehemiah. I believe Nehemiah’s success started with the secret Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:6 “But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” 

Don’t miss how this book starts off. In Nehemiah chapter 1 we see Nehemiah passionately praying. If you want to lead well, it will be good for you to pray to God as well. 

Luke 14:11 ”For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Be blessed,

Pastor Daniel 

The Holy Spirit is God and we shouldn’t neglect Him

As we are studying this week, Jesus promised His disciples that He would send His Spirit to give them power and comfort. Jesus said in John 16:7, “it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.” It’s amazing that He would say that it was to their (and our) advantage that He was leaving so that the Holy Spirit could come into our lives! He is a person sent to us with numerous promises about all that He is able to do in and through us. It is so vital that we embrace the Spirit of God as the person He is and do not simply ignore His presence in our lives. When we do allow ourselves to forget Him, we can also forget the role He plays in our lives every single day. I’m including a non-exhaustive list of what the Bible says is the role of the Holy Spirit—read these verses and pray through them! Ask the Holy Spirit to do these things in your own life.

He creates and gives life (Job 33:4; Gen 1:26)

He appoints and commissions ministers (Isaiah 48:16; Acts 13:2;20:28)

He directs people where to preach (Acts 8:29;10:19-20)

He directs people where not to preach (Acts 16:6-7)

He instructs people what to preach (1 Corinthians 2:13; 2 Tim 3:16)

He spoke in, and by, the prophets (Acts 1:16; 1 Peter 1:11,12; 2 Peter 1:21)

He convicts people of sin (John 16:8)

He can be grieved (Ephesians 4:30; Isaiah 63:10)

He comforts (Acts 9:31)

He helps our infirmities and helps us pray (Romans 8:26, Eph 6:18)

He teaches ( John 14:26; 1 Corinthians 2:10)

He guides ( John 16:13)

He gives gifts to believers (1 Cor 12:4-11)

He sanctifies (Romans 15:16; 1 Corinthians 6:11)

He testifies of Christ ( John 15:26, 1 Cor 12:3)

He glorifies Christ ( John 16:14)

He has a power of his own (Romans 15:13; 2 Tim 1:7)

He empowers believers to do His work (Zechariah 4:7; Acts 1:8; 1 Tim 1:12)

He searches all things (Romans 11:33-34; 1 Corinthians 2:10-11)

He works according to his own will (1 Corinthians 12:11)

He dwells with saints ( John 14:17; Rom 8:9; 2 Tim 1:14)

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May you be filled and empowered with God’s Spirit!

Pastor Daniel

Practical Ways To Share Your Faith (Pt 3)

As the final segment in this three part series on sharing our faith, I wanted to address the final practical step that we can engage in as we pray for and pursue those people that are in our lives and need Jesus. This third topic is one that may bring out a negative response from you at first, but give me a couple of minutes to explore this idea with you. Our last topic is: PERSUADE! 

PERSUADE

Perhaps you are thinking…Three P’s is a cute thing to remember but I should have picked a different word than persuade. Persuade is a strong word, and when I first considered this as a means of sharing our faith in Jesus, it didn’t seem quite right.  This is because when I think persuading, I think of “arguing.” But let me give you a few other synonyms for persuade: influence, convince, plead your case, win over, or change somebody’s mind. I literally want you to think of persuading as pleading your case about Christ to someone, or influencing your friend in such a way that it leads them to Christ, or convincing your friend that God is real in your life and loves them, or changing your friend’s mind about the way they are living and submitting their lives to Christ. Persuading is not arguing at all in this context, but influencing people in their thoughts about Jesus.  The ultimate goal of persuading someone is to change their mind about a certain subject. We as ambassadors of Christ, want to share who God says He is and what He has done to reveal Himself to the world and to us personally.

We can persuade many people about God by how we live.

Are we practicing what we preach at work, at home, at church, or wherever we go? We are told in by the apostle Matthew that we are to live in such a way that unsaved people will glorify God and submit their lives to Him just by looking at our lives (Matt 5:13-16). A practical way you can persuade someone to follow Christ is by living for Jesus in the choices you make and the way you live. You can invite them to spend time with some of your Christian friends to see what people who follow Jesus are really like. The Bible says that when two or more are gathered in Jesus’ name, He is there. Are your friendships a place where unsaved people can come and see Jesus living? You can invite some of your unsaved friends to church or community group. As a pastor, I want you to know that I WANT UNSAVED PEOPLE TO COME TO CHURCH!!! Why wouldn’t we want people to come to church and hear the word taught and have a chance to worship God and have an opportunity to pray with people and even accept Christ?

We can also persuade people to understand the truth about Jesus by clearly explaining who He is and what has done.

The apostle Peter said “in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15).” We as Christians are told to be able to explain the gospel to people and what we believe with love and respect. Paul asked the Roman church, “How will unsaved people know how to have a relationship with God unless you tell them (Rom 10:14-15)?”  Paul also lived out this principle and “reasoned” with the people of Athens and clearly explained the Gospel to them (Acts 17:16-34). Sadly, God has been misrepresented to a lot of unsaved people, and we, as Christians, are told to share the truth with these people so they can get a clear and accurate picture of our Savior. So we need to know what we believe and why!!! Can you clearly explain the gospel to someone? Will you allow God to use you to share with people that God loves them and wants to have fellowship with them?

So, as we continue to do the work of the ministry, I want to encourage you to make the most of every opportunity you have to share the love of Christ with people. I hope this series of blogs has helped you see that you can reach people in wherever you are. Remember that God wants to use you and has empowered you with His Spirit and will give you the words to say (John 14:26-27). These are just some practical tips and principles and nothing here is set in stone. The reason why I wrote these blogs was to get you thinking about sharing your faith with others! Hopefully you can think of other ways as well. This is great because my heart is that people would come to know and love Jesus Christ, and I believe that God wants to use EVERY Christian to share His love with as many people as possible.

Could you imagine if every Christian in our community began to PRAY for at least one friend, PURSUE bringing God up in conversations, and PERSUADE them to come to Christ by clearing explaining the gospel to them and THEN made disciples for Christ?

Matt 28:19-20

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” 

Be blessed,

Pastor Daniel

Practical Ways To Share Your Faith (Pt 2)

Last time, I wrote on the necessity of prayer being the first step in practical ways to share your faith. I hope you were able to take that to heart and have begun to lift up your friends and people you know who need to come to Christ. We will now move on to the second very practical step in sharing your faith in Jesus with those around you, and that is: PURSUE!

PURSUE

We must pursue those relationships we have on a deeper spiritual level. This means we need to actually bring Jesus into our conversations. This can be done in a very natural way and we need to understand that there are many opportunities to talk about God in normal conversation, but we have to be willing to do so. There are many different ways that you talk about Jesus in your conversations, and here are three examples for you: 1. Asking questions, 2. Sharing what God has been doing in your life, and 3.Using relevant issues.

Practical Ways To Share Your Faith (Pt 2) By Pastor Daniel
Last time, I wrote on the necessity of prayer being the first step in practical ways to share your faith. I hope you were able to take that to heart and have begun to lift up your friends and people you know who need to come to Christ. We will now move on to the second very practical step in sharing your faith in Jesus with those around you, and that is: PURSUE!

PURSUE

We must pursue those relationships we have on a deeper spiritual level. This means we need to actually bring Jesus into our conversations. This can be done in a very natural way and we need to understand that there are many opportunities to talk about God in normal conversation, but we have to be willing to do so. There are many different ways that you talk about Jesus in your conversations, and here are three examples for you: 1. Asking questions, 2. Sharing what God has been doing in your life, and 3.Using relevant issues.

1. Asking questions. 

Whether you know this or not, people like to talk…especially about themselves. So a great way to bring God into conversations is to ask questions. Ask your unsaved friends what their spiritual beliefs are? If they were to die today would they make it to heaven? Are they afraid of death? Who do they think Jesus is? Now when you ask these questions, remember to actually listen. Love your friends and don’t get ready to attack them and say that they are wrong. The point of a question is to find out information and learn more about the person you are talking to—many times, this will you give you a direct opportunity to share about Jesus. So if you respond respectfully and lovingly, they might even ask you some of the same question back.

2. Sharing what God has been doing in your life. 

We talk with our friends about our relationships with our family, our spouse, our kids, and so on, so what is so weird about talking about our relationship with Jesus? If we have a relationship with Jesus it should be easy and natural for us to explain what He has been teaching us or how He loves you or what you have been doing with Him or whatever. An easy way to bring God up in your conversation is when your unsaved friends ask you what you did over the weekend. Rather than just talking about how you mowed the lawn, went to the mall, and updated your facebook, you could also mention that you went to church, read your Bible, or prayed to God about a certain situation. Just talk about God like He is a real person, and don’t always try to hide Him and what He is doing in your life with your unsaved friends.

3. Using relevant issues. 

Did you know that Christians watch movies, listen to music, ride skateboards, read books, play X-Box 360, play sports, read the newspaper, go to the mall, and even have a facebook page? I know it is hard to believe, but you are a culturally relevant person just like most people in your life. So, that means you can probably talk about a lot of relevant topics that happen in your job, your town, and even in the world. You can talk to your friends about Whitney Houston’s recent death. Then explain that nothing has satisfied your soul like having a relationship with God, and you don’t need to be rich and popular to have joy. Or maybe you can talk to your friends about the Grammy Awards, and explain that you agree with the mentality of rewarding someone for a good job, and that God promises to reward those of us who diligently seek HIM! And you can’t get there by your own good works but by faith in Jesus. You can totally talk about many relevant issues without approving of them and still point people to Christ. Paul used this principle when he went to Athens. He “perceived” that the city was given over to idols and “considered” their objects of worship. Basically he found out a little about their culture and used the relevant topics of their many gods to preach about Christ the true and living God (Acts 17:16-34).

I pray that you will take the time to consider and act on some of these ideas as you’ve read this blog and will begin to pursue people in your life in Jesus’s name!

Whether you know this or not, people like to talk…especially about themselves. So a great way to bring God into conversations is to ask questions. Ask your unsaved friends what their spiritual beliefs are? If they were to die today would they make it to heaven? Are they afraid of death? Who do they think Jesus is? Now when you ask these questions, remember to actually listen. Love your friends and don’t get ready to attack them and say that they are wrong. The point of a question is to find out information and learn more about the person you are talking to—many times, this will you give you a direct opportunity to share about Jesus. So if you respond respectfully and lovingly, they might even ask you some of the same question back.

Practical Ways To Share Your Faith (Pt 2) By Pastor Daniel
Last time, I wrote on the necessity of prayer being the first step in practical ways to share your faith. I hope you were able to take that to heart and have begun to lift up your friends and people you know who need to come to Christ. We will now move on to the second very practical step in sharing your faith in Jesus with those around you, and that is: PURSUE!

PURSUE

We must pursue those relationships we have on a deeper spiritual level. This means we need to actually bring Jesus into our conversations. This can be done in a very natural way and we need to understand that there are many opportunities to talk about God in normal conversation, but we have to be willing to do so. There are many different ways that you talk about Jesus in your conversations, and here are three examples for you: 1. Asking questions, 2. Sharing what God has been doing in your life, and 3.Using relevant issues.

1. Asking questions. 

Whether you know this or not, people like to talk…especially about themselves. So a great way to bring God into conversations is to ask questions. Ask your unsaved friends what their spiritual beliefs are? If they were to die today would they make it to heaven? Are they afraid of death? Who do they think Jesus is? Now when you ask these questions, remember to actually listen. Love your friends and don’t get ready to attack them and say that they are wrong. The point of a question is to find out information and learn more about the person you are talking to—many times, this will you give you a direct opportunity to share about Jesus. So if you respond respectfully and lovingly, they might even ask you some of the same question back.

2. Sharing what God has been doing in your life. 

We talk with our friends about our relationships with our family, our spouse, our kids, and so on, so what is so weird about talking about our relationship with Jesus? If we have a relationship with Jesus it should be easy and natural for us to explain what He has been teaching us or how He loves you or what you have been doing with Him or whatever. An easy way to bring God up in your conversation is when your unsaved friends ask you what you did over the weekend. Rather than just talking about how you mowed the lawn, went to the mall, and updated your facebook, you could also mention that you went to church, read your Bible, or prayed to God about a certain situation. Just talk about God like He is a real person, and don’t always try to hide Him and what He is doing in your life with your unsaved friends.

3. Using relevant issues. 

Did you know that Christians watch movies, listen to music, ride skateboards, read books, play X-Box 360, play sports, read the newspaper, go to the mall, and even have a facebook page? I know it is hard to believe, but you are a culturally relevant person just like most people in your life. So, that means you can probably talk about a lot of relevant topics that happen in your job, your town, and even in the world. You can talk to your friends about Whitney Houston’s recent death. Then explain that nothing has satisfied your soul like having a relationship with God, and you don’t need to be rich and popular to have joy. Or maybe you can talk to your friends about the Grammy Awards, and explain that you agree with the mentality of rewarding someone for a good job, and that God promises to reward those of us who diligently seek HIM! And you can’t get there by your own good works but by faith in Jesus. You can totally talk about many relevant issues without approving of them and still point people to Christ. Paul used this principle when he went to Athens. He “perceived” that the city was given over to idols and “considered” their objects of worship. Basically he found out a little about their culture and used the relevant topics of their many gods to preach about Christ the true and living God (Acts 17:16-34).

I pray that you will take the time to consider and act on some of these ideas as you’ve read this blog and will begin to pursue people in your life in Jesus’s name!

We talk with our friends about our relationships with our family, our spouse, our kids, and so on, so what is so weird about talking about our relationship with Jesus? If we have a relationship with Jesus it should be easy and natural for us to explain what He has been teaching us or how He loves you or what you have been doing with Him or whatever. An easy way to bring God up in your conversation is when your unsaved friends ask you what you did over the weekend. Rather than just talking about how you mowed the lawn, went to the mall, and updated your facebook, you could also mention that you went to church, read your Bible, or prayed to God about a certain situation. Just talk about God like He is a real person, and don’t always try to hide Him and what He is doing in your life with your unsaved friends.

3. Using relevant issues. 

Did you know that Christians watch movies, listen to music, ride skateboards, read books, play X-Box 360, play sports, read the newspaper, go to the mall, and even have a facebook page? I know it is hard to believe, but you are a culturally relevant person just like most people in your life. So, that means you can probably talk about a lot of relevant topics that happen in your job, your town, and even in the world. You can talk to your friends about Whitney Houston’s recent death. Then explain that nothing has satisfied your soul like having a relationship with God, and you don’t need to be rich and popular to have joy. Or maybe you can talk to your friends about the Grammy Awards, and explain that you agree with the mentality of rewarding someone for a good job, and that God promises to reward those of us who diligently seek HIM! And you can’t get there by your own good works but by faith in Jesus. You can totally talk about many relevant issues without approving of them and still point people to Christ. Paul used this principle when he went to Athens. He “perceived” that the city was given over to idols and “considered” their objects of worship. Basically he found out a little about their culture and used the relevant topics of their many gods to preach about Christ the true and living God (Acts 17:16-34).

I pray that you will take the time to consider and act on some of these ideas as you’ve read this blog and will begin to pursue people in your life in Jesus’s name!

Practical Ways To Share Your Faith (Part 1)

Colossians 4:2-6 

“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”

As we are joining together as a new church plant, I want to encourage you to make the most of every opportunity you have to share the love of Christ with people. There are going to be many opportunities to share your faith and tell others about the glorious good news of Jesus Christ. But for many of us these conversations that occur in the grocery check out or local coffee shop about God do not feel like opportunities at all—they become more like panic attacks! Many of us want to share our faith with our unsaved friends and people we meet, but have aren’t quite sure how to go about it.  So I want to share with you a practical strategy that I just found a while back from dare2share.org on how to be an ambassador for Christ and share the gospel with your unsaved friends in a very practical way. There are three steps to this strategy: 1.Pray, 2.Pursue, and 3.Persuade. This first segment will address the first topic: PRAY!

PRAY

This makes sense doesn’t it? There are so many promises from God’s Word (Matt 7:7-11; John 15:7; Phil 4:6-7; Luke 18:1; 1 Thes 5:17; James 5:15-18) that confirm the power of prayer, yet it seems that many of us (including myself) forget to go to God first about our situations and try to take control of them ourselves. We will try to talk to people about God without talking to Him first. In Romans 10:1 Paul said that his “heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.” The word in this verse literally means begged. Paul wanted so desperately for his friends and brothers to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior that he begged God to save them from their sin. When was the last time you begged God to save one of your unsaved friends?

There was a study done to find out what made an effective student evangelist. After studying, they discovered that the most effective student evangelist (meaning that the student reached the most of their unsaved friends for Christ) prayed every single day for his unsaved friends to come to know Christ. We are not all students, but we can see the same principle at work in our lives whether we are professionals, parents, or students. Paul said to the Colossian Church to devote themselves to prayer and to pray for him to have an opportunity to share Christ clearly with those that have not received Him. Before we start sharing with our unsaved friends, we need to start praying for them! Andrew Murray, South African minister and author, wrote, “Reading a book about prayer, listening to lectures and talking about it is very good, but it won’t teach you to pray. You get nothing without exercise, without practice. I might listen for a year to a professor of music playing the most beautiful music, but that won’t teach me to play an instrument.” So even as I write this article now and am praying that you might receive it and apply it, it is up to you how you respond and make your request known to God. I challenge you to pray for at least one of your unsaved friends every day and wait to see how God answers your prayers!

Love One Another

We are studying through the teachings of Jesus, and it is amazing that God not only wants to restore our relationships with Him, but with others as well. When we accept Christ, we are brought into the family of God—He uses words like “body with many members” or “brothers and sisters” to describe the type of relationship that we are to have with ONE ANOTHER. When we become more like Jesus and grow in our relationships with Him, this will spill over into our relationships with people as well. Jesus is the perfect demonstration of what it looks like to love perfectly, and we know that when we obey the command to love ONE ANOTHER, we are blessed! As you read through these verses, ask the Holy Spirit to help you as you seek to love others as Christ has loved you!

Much Love,

Pastor Daniel

Luke 10:37

27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

Zechariah 8:16-17

16 These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace; 17 do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, declares the LORD.”

Roms 12:10;16

Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.

1 Cor 6:7

To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?

Gal 5:13

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

Eph 4:1-2

1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,

Col 3:13-14

13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

1 Thes 3:12

and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you,

Heb 3:13

But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

James 5:9

Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.

1 Pet 4:8

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

Phil 2:3-5

3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,

1 John 4:7-11; 20-21

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 

20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

1 Cor 13:1-3

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,but have not love, I gain nothing.