Get Excited About Change

I want to know something...

    Can you get excited about change in your life? Can you accept the fact that every time you make a move, change is activated? I stand on the premise that every step we make causes some sort of change to occur. It could be as minor as changing your position, your posture or to changing your mind. I look forward to every moment of each day because I am convinced that, no matter how repetitive the day seems, it is not like yesterday. And because of this, I affirm that "Yesterday is not my best of Days!"

    Yesterday is often understood to be the day before the present day, or today, but, in the more literal sense, yesterday is simply the past. It is everything you've gone through and oftentimes, lessons unlearned, and we dwell on them. These lessons hold a cloud over our heads of emotions and memories that, if unchecked, will cause us to move away from real change. You see, change should not just be on the surface, but also within. I am reminded of the parable of the wineskins found in Matthew 9:14-17,

    As Christ is teaching about fasting, he is providing a great illustration about change. He says some important things about change. First, it is ridiculous to try and cover up the old (sew a new patch into an old garment), because the untreated patch will end up causing the tear to be worse. The same is true about wineskins. Attempting to pour new wine into skins that have been used (soaked by old wine) then the new will cause it to burst. This occurs because the old wineskins have been weakened by time and usage and therefore, trying to refill it will only make matters worse.

    This is why anytime you go through change, everything connected to it should change as well; especially your attitude. Going through change without changing the way you think about it is just like the patchwork; everything about it looks new, but your thoughts are still the same old cloth. As I said in the beginning, being excited about the changes in your life will give you an incentive to make permanent changes and not just temporary.

    Temporary is sewing a patch onto an old garment. We do this because we are taught to hold on to things long after their expected usage. An old pair of jeans, favorite shirt, blanket from our childhood, etc. We hold on because their are so many memories involved in this garment that it was just seem wrong to let go. But, has it ever occurred to you that this particular item is keeping you from making any real change. Although we hold on to things that have good memories connected to them, we tend to forget, or ignore the negative memories attached as well. The negative memories oftentimes resurface when we spend way too much time with that memory. It is ironic that as soon as we think about how wonderful life was at that time, we also think about why we are not in that situation anymore. This is hindering change. Every time we go through reminding ourselves of the same events over and over again, we are revisiting too much and may end up reverting back into that old person. True change allows us to be completely free of these memories (not just forgetting them, but releasing them) in order to grow and mature into the person God calls us to be.

New Wine is a new life. New wine is change. New wine is new direction, therefore, if you are looking at things in a "new" way. you should also live a "new" life. Don't just change your thinking; change everything about you. The changes may be gradually or all at once, but, don't forget to be excited about it. Be excited that now, you are living the life God has for you. Now, you are doing what God spoke over you. Now, you are fulfilling purpose and because of this, you should be excited about it.

Can you Get Excited About Change?

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Failure is not Final

Don't be discouraged by a failure. It can be a positive experience. Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterwards carefully avoid.

John Keats
English lyric poet (1795 - 1821)

I want to announce today that anyone who stops at failure is doomed to fail. The reason is because failure is just a momentary step on the road to success. Most often, I have found that anyone who is successful has gone through some level of failure and the only difference between those who are successful and those who are failures is that the successful use their failings as a learning mechanism and not a reason to quit.

Failure is defined as an act or instance of failing or proving unsuccessful; lack of success. Fail is defined as to fall short of success or achievement in something expected, attempted, desired, or approved. These definition simply shows us that failure is not permanent but something temporary as well as a pathway to success. Anything that you fail at can be done over if you so desire. If the the moment is truly important, than repeating the process will eventually gain success.

We need to change the way we look at failure in order to give it a more positive perspective. Any advent weightlifter will tell you that, You'll never know how much weight you can lift until you reach an amount that you can't. This is commonly known as "lifting to failure" which means that you push yourself as far as you can until you cannot lift anymore. I've experienced this during my strength training days and it helped me to understand that, although you cannot lift it today, you can come back in a few days and try again. Pushing yourself as far as you can will let you know what is possible, but, by avoiding your limitations, you will never reach your peak. The fear of failure stops us a lot quicker than what true failure can do in itself. If you can push past failure, you will be surprised by what you can accomplish. Proverbs 24:10 says, If you fail under pressure, your strength is not very great. 

Failure is so important in weightlifting because it breaks the muscles down so much that you cannot possibly lift anymore at that point. But, this doesn't mean that you will never be able to lift the weights, you just won't lift it at that moment. It is important to understand that failure is not final, but just momentary.  It was once said,

You always pass failure on the way to success.

Mickey Rooney US actor (1920 - )

Anyone who works out, understand that, if you have reached failure, then stop for now, take time to allow the body to heal and when you come back, you will find that you are not only stronger, but you can now lift the weight you failed at before. Failure just means that the body is broken, but, once it is healed from the brokenness, the body is actually stronger. Therefore, in those areas where you have failed, you should not quit, but take time to heal and try again. You will discover that your approach to the situation will be different.

Also, any area of your life that you have experienced failure should not be a place of avoidance but a place of growth. This means that, as you go through life, you will meet failure but you shouldn't make it your home. It is just a part of the process.  Thomas Edison once said, Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. This is the true essence of failure and it is also the greatest weapon of defeat. As long as we stop at failure, we will miss out on some of life's greatest rewards.

I encourage you to press beyond failure. Don't just allow failure to stop you from getting everything God has for you. As long as you remember that "no word from God will ever fail." (Luke 1:37), then you will always have the strength to overcome.

Failure is not final....

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:14)

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The Place of Preparation

The Definition of Preparation    

    Preparation is defined as "a proceeding, measure, or provision by which one prepares for something; any proceeding, experience, or the like considered as a mode of preparing for the future; an act of preparing; the state of being prepared; something prepared, manufactured, or compounded."

    One of the things we must we willing to do is to prepare for the next stage of our lives. Too often we walk through a continual process of complacency because we don¿t do anything to improve on what we have already done and once we have completed that part of the process, we want to stay there longer than we need to. The reason why we stay longer is because, in reality, we haven¿t prepare for the next move of God. There is nothing more difficult than to embrace the idea that where God is taking you is hindered by the fact that you chose not to go where he needs you to go. It was once said that

¿Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.¿

Confucius

And William Osler once said that ¿The best preparation for tomorrow is to do today's work superbly well.¿

Preparation Breeds Success

I believe that the best way for us to grow is to be prepared for growth. God told Moses

"Tell the people: 'Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The Lord heard you when you wailed, "If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!" Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat it.  (Nu 11:18 )

    After the day of preparation, when the people awoke, they discover meat all around them, but, because they were not ready for the blessing, they once again complained about what they received. The problem with this is that because we don¿t prepare, then we often fall back into the same behavior that placed us here in the first place. In the Book of Joshua, we see that once again the children of Israel have sinned by not doing what was instructed of them. The Bible also tells us

That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction. Go, consecrate the people. Tell them, 'Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow; for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: That which is devoted is among you, O Israel. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove it.  (Jos 7: 12-13)

Preparation Builds Overcomers

    The one thing that the people lacked was confidence. Because of their sin, they lost belief in their ability. Richard Kline once said, ¿Confidence is preparation. Everything else is beyond your control.¿ This means that, through preparation, you can and will overcome every obstacle before you. There is not much that can be done if you do not look to the hills for whence cometh your help. Paul "Bear" Bryant once said, "It's not the will to win that matters¿everyone has that. It's the will to prepare to win that matters," and Thane Yost commented, "The will to win is worthless if you do not have the will to prepare." I found that all of these great leaders can sum up their comments in one line spoken by Mike Murdock,

"Failure to prepare is preparing to fail."

    We cannot be comfortable with just surviving and living like today is tomorrow, but living like tomorrow is on it¿s way. Just because we wake up the next day in the same place, building and posture doesn¿t mean that there isn¿t any change. If we have dreamt of a different place, then we can live differently. As long as we can envision growth and prepare for it, then we can accomplish it Just like John came before Christ to prepare the way for Him (Mark 1:2; Matthew 3:3, Luke 1:76), Christ came to prepare us for the next wave. (John 14)

Preparation Builds Dreamers

    We must learn to do  to pay heed to our dreams. Too often we have them and ignore them until something occurs that reminds us of them. In order to be fully divine, we must allow our dreams to take a form of living greater then just being a dream. Understand that, "Sometimes we have the dream but we are not ourselves ready for the dream. We have to grow to meet it." (Louis L'Amour ~ Bendigo Shafter) Preparation prepares us for the dreams we have. Why? Because our dreams are also the visions God has prepared for us. This is why we are instructed to ¿Write the vision and make it plain.¿

    I encourage you today to look more closely at your dreams and see just where they will take you. Sometimes you will find that the dreams you dream are not just some weird premonition of bad food, but a vision from God that will guide you and lead you into the next dimension of greatness.

Prophet Truesdale

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The Mystery of Position

    Clarity in thought can arise when a person goes through a tragic event. The event itself causes the thought process to heightened giving the person a clearer perception of the event they've experienced. It has been often said that the best time to ask someone what occurred is usually right after it happened because this is when the person is in a posture of analyzing and collecting mental data about the event. This is not only true in the natural realm, but also in the spiritual realm.

    When we as Christians go through a tragic event, we usually attempt to blame the devil. It is easier to blame them because the devil has become a scapegoat fro every wrong that occurs, but, if the person actually seeks clarity in thought, they will find that the one whom caused the event is not Satan but God. You see, God is the creator of good and evil. I say this because if God is the creator of everything, we cannot limit this nor make it a false statement by categorizing just what God created. God is the Supreme Being, the Alpha and Omega. He is the one who can build and destroy all in the same moment, but we as Christians oftentimes only want the good and will only accept the good from God. The unfortunate truth is that in order to obtain the good, one must persevere through the negative. Because the negative or tragic events causes one to think clearly, the only true way to reach where God desires us to be is through the rough waters. We can only be strengthened by the events because as we go through it, we are forced to see clearly what is happening so that we can embrace an understanding of the events. Not only this, we can also work to accept the errors we¿ve made and the things we¿ve done to cause the event, therefore, removing the devil from the posture of scapegoat and placing him in the place where he belongs ¿ a tool of evil to get our attention and push us into destiny.

    I find it true that we should not be afraid of the devil. But, we also should not deify him either. Because he is a worker for God, we must realize that his attempts to destroy us often occurs right before we reach a point of breakthrough. It reminds me of the space shuttle. NASA must time the launch of the shuttle just at the point where it will rendezvous with the space station. This window of opportunity is only about ten minutes long, which in time travel, is not much. This same equation can be applied tour lives. Whenever we are close to a point of breakthrough, there is only a small window of opportunity that we should walk through. This is the narrow gate spoken of in the synoptic gospels. But this window is also the moment of decision we face when we are unaware of which direction to take. Because we are afraid of the unknown, we hesitate, but that mere hesitation could cause us to miss the window of opportunity therefore causing us to suffer further in a situation we should have been out of a season ago. I do not contend with the belief that that is a time and place for everything, but I do believe that id we mss that season, we must wait for another opportunity to arise.

    Too often I have seen people who have finally made a decision to move, getting frustrated with themselves because now, they can look back and see what they were involved in. They become frustrated and angry because they cannot believe they stayed so long in such a trying event. Many times, the person will enter a place of depression because this is the only way for them to purge from the situation and gain an understanding about what they have just experienced. This is a good place for them to be in, but, we as watchmen, need to walk with them so that the depression does not overtake them and cause them to return to that situation of event. I believe that this is a major part of sanctification, where we as leaders help those who¿ve made a decision to follow through with the decision. While it is not our job to walk the road for them, we cannot be so callous as to leave them at the alter to fend for themselves with the pitfalls that salvation has now brought into their lives. We must, as leaders, be compassionate, understanding, but also firm in our walk with them so that they can complete the journey and walk in destiny.

    The church is a hospital environment, one where the physician will sit down and talk you through the procedure, then prep you for the procedure, perform the procedure and attend to you during the healing process. The physician does not leave you on the operating table. They will, from time to time, visit with you, check on your healing progress and, when you are strong enough to go on without them, release you from their care. But, this only speaks of specialized care and, as difficult it is for many in the church to accept, each church is specialized to address particular issues in a person's life.

    The commonality with the church is the same as with a hospital; you go to a hospital because you are sick. But, when you arrive at the hospital, you are directed to areas that specialize of curing what ails you. Meaning, we cannot just go to jus any ole church. The Bible tells us that our sheep will hear our voice, meaning, each church is designed to minister to a distinct group of people.

    Depending upon the specialty determines the size and number of people you addressed. For example, it is common that a ministry led by one with an evangelistic gifting will have a church of insurmountable numbers. This is true because the evangelist is gifted in gathering the people, therefore, people will be attracted to their word, presentation or style. Usually those who are not seeking that one on one interaction with their pastor, (meaning, I just want to go to church, don¿t be all up in my business) will gravitate to these types of ministries because of the great opportunity to be a part of the crowd.

    There is the ministries led by one who has a pastoral gifting. This ministry oftentimes is small because the membership is seeking a one on one relationship with the pastor. There is not a high turnaround of membership but a strong core of generational members, (those whose grandparents, parents and their children attend). This, in turn, provides a strong core membership, but little chance for growth (if the pastor is seeking to build a mega ministry, of course). In order to properly attend to the needs of each individual in that ministry, growth might be a negative if there is limited assistance in leadership. Therefore, if one seeks to growth this type of ministry, the pastor must also train up pastor while he attends to the needs of the people.

    Then there is the ministry led by the prophetic gifting, where the membership retention is difficult to account for, because their membership oftentimes stays for a season and then moves on, their number fluctuate in a midrange between evangelistic and apostolic ministries, but, will have a strong core of members. There is also the apostolic led ministries where the membership numbers really cannot be counted accurately because with this type of ministry, their reach goes beyond the single entity, or church. They will establish ministries, business and entities across the world, causing their touch to go beyond the Sunday Morning service and because of this, the accurate account of memberships could be exaggerated if it includes the entities and services it provides.

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“What governs men is the fear of truth.”
“What governs men is the fear of truth.” Henri Amiel

There is an elemental injustice occurring in the body of Christ. People are being misled by leadership that lacks proper training and preparation. Over history, it was common for preachers to be the most educated persons of leadership. From the days of Moses to the Azusa Street revival, leadership in the pulpit was trained to teach and preach the word of God. Today, we are faced with those who are educated but, are not allowing the training to come forth to built a strong, biblically rooted foundation.

I found myself, a few months ago, in a meeting where the leadership chastised their membership for not teaching the basic principles of their doctrine. It was a comment that went beyond my immediate attention because I knew in my heart that they were not talking about me. But, as time went by, I began to reflect on this comment and I realized that the leader was not chastising them for not teaching the Bible, but for not teaching their doctrine.

I found this to be interesting because it seemed that the leader was more interested in his doctrine than in the Word of God. There is only one doctrine we should abide by. That would be the Word of God. It is dangerous to be in a posture where our doctrine is more important than the Word in which we base it on.

Then I surmised one simple truth: we have allowed people to be elevated into position without evaluating the fruit that they produce. There is an unfortunate reality about this as well; that, Christians have been dealing with this same problem since the days of the Apostle Paul. Henri Amiel once said that “In order to see Christianity, one must forget almost all the Christian.” Meaning, in order to fully see and comprehend the Word of God, we must look beyond the person bringing the Word of God to us. We must go beyond the momentary emotional satisfaction and look for the intellectual fulfillment. We can no longer go to church to feel good but to be edified by the Word we hear. It is true that Praise and Worship is beautiful, powerful and wonderful, it should not be the only reason why we go to church. Praise and Worship sets the atmosphere for the truth of the Gospel to come forth. Jesus, as He spoke to the Samaritan woman, told her that a time will come when we will worship God in Spirit and in Truth. This means that when you enter the sanctuary and you enter into a posture of worship, the truth of God (revelation) will be revealed to you. This revelation is not only to present to you your inner faults and successes, but it will search your heart to pull out the true essence of your destiny and presented to you the steps to reach that goal. But we too often stop the revelation by staying so deep into worship (for the emotional elevation) that we miss the revelation surrounding us. I look at it like someone in a burning house with headphones on. They see the smoke, they smell the fire, but because they are so absorbed in the music, they ignore the dangers around them.

You see, the Word of God is often misused by those who seek to squander away the potential wealth and riches that are found in the church today, by selling the Word of God instead of presenting the Gospel to those who need it. While there are financial attachments to spreading the Gospel, one must be deep in meditation and prayer before any word comes forth. Too often we find ourselves shortchanged by those who only see the potential wealth and recognition that comes with ministry but ignore the pitfalls and extensive level of servitude that is required.

John MacArthur once said,
“Failure to appropriate the truth of the gospel produces stagnation in spiritual advancement and the inability to understand or assimilate additional teaching.”

The Bible tells us in Hebrews that
11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! (Hebrews 5:11-12)

When one becomes greater than the Word they teach, it causes them to become disobedient to the Word they teach.

“It is only when men begin to worship that they begin to grow.” – Calvin Coolidge

Reflections
Driving down the tree covered lane
I shade my eyes from the interruption
Of sun beams through leaves as I
Wonder if I could grasp its warmth;

I opened the sunroof to the salute of
Oaks holding hands over the road
Covered with multi-colored leafs
Painting a picture of crayola dreams;

I look through my rear view mirror as
I increase my pace to see the dance of
Colors flying high as though they believe
The wind will carry them back home;

I wonder if I drive fast enough could I
Throw them high enough for the oaks
To reach down and grab them just so
They could have another try at strength;

Maybe so but that will change the fate
Of life and the purpose of their fall onto
A road traveled my so many before me
And so many yet to appear in my sight;

That one day someone may pull over and
Get out to search for that one rustic colored
Leaf to carry with them through the day on
A journey so few leaves are willing to travel;

Could today be the day that another leaf
Will fall unwillingly or shall he let go of
Safety’s embrace to fall into the hands of
destiny awaiting them on the road we call life?

Tell me…which leaf are you today?

Welcome to our Blog!
Peace and Blessings!

I want to welcome you to a new addition to our website. This is the area where our pastor, Prophet Derrick Truesdale, will provide meditations, words of encouragement and prophetic insight on the events of the day. Come through often to experience his poetry as well!

Once again, we welcome you to Redeeming Oil's Blog!