Listen to the words of Jesus in the following passage found in Luke 12:49-58. “I’ve come to start a fire on this earth-how I wish it were blazing even right now! I’ve come to change everything, turn everything right side up-how I long for it to be finished! Do you think I came to smooth things over and make everything nice? Not so. I’ve come to disrupt and confront! From now on, when you find five in a house, it will be: Three against two and two against three, Father against son, and son against father, Mother against daughter and daughter against mother, Mother-in-law against bride and bride against mother-in-law. Then he turned to the crowd: When you see clouds coming in from the west, you say, Storms coming- and you’re right. And when the wind comes out of the south, you say, this’ll be a hot one- and you’re right. Frauds! You know how to tell a change in the weather, so don’t tell me you can’t tell a change in the season, the God-season you are in right now. You don’t have to be a genius to understand these things. Just use your common sense, the kind you’d use if, while being taken to court, you decided to settle up with your accuser on the way, knowing that if you went before the judge you’d probably go to jail and pay every last penny of the fine.
THAT’S THE KIND OF DECISION I’M ASKING YOU TO MAKE!
So what is Jesus asking us to do?
1. Expect Him to come into our lives with change.
2. Prepare to live in a constant cycles of change because without it we can’t grow.
3. Don’t be surprised by the disruption to our life.
4. Welcome the confrontation of everything in our life that is keeping us from growing.
5. Understand that there will be friends and family that won’t go where God wants to take us. Move on!
6. Discern the season as a God-season where people, things, attitudes and sins are being removed to move us to the next level. Don’t fight it.
7. Learn to count losses as gains in the kingdom.
8. Make hard decisions in a timely manner. Indecision will cost us more in the long run.
9. Remember, that Jesus started this fire and He will be with us every step of the way.
- Pastor Al Hill
Tags: change, disruption, growth
