The Time is Now!

Tick tock.  Tick tock.  Tick tock.

Another day goes by….

Another season goes by….

Another year goes by….

We use phrases like:  “Time sure flies!”,  “Where does the time go?”,  “They grow up so fast”,  “It happened in the blink of an eye…”  “Seems like yesterday…” and so on.

Matthew 25:14-30 – “The Parable of the Talents”

Time is a form of talent or currency, we’ve all been given the same amount each day to spend, no hope of a lottery ticket giving us overnight millions of extra hours, no neighbor to borrow from when you’ve come up short and no government to bail us out when we run out.  Every single moment is important, every single moment.  Every moment you have a choice of how you will manage the time you’ve been given and the difference between time and money is that you cannot bank time in the natural sense, you use it or lose it, there is no savings account, no emergency fund, no retirement plan.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 – “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the sun.”

So what time is it?

THE TIME IS NOW!

The time is now to tighten up your borders, find healing in the broken places, receive deliverance in the darkness, mend relationships, kick bad habits, cast down vein imaginations, declare victory over your life and family, and roll your sleeves up and DIG DEEP!  Educate, train, listen, speak, fight, and get to work!

Even as the world looks dark and hopeless, this is your time to shine, this is your time to rise up and do what Christ commissioned you to do.  There are no more excuses, no more whining, no more meditating on darkness, no more seeking shelter, NO MORE!

The time is now to be present in each day.

Being Present

My husband and I were out for breakfast one morning, just the two of us.  As we chatted over our coffee, I noticed a family of three sit at the table directly beside us.  After about 10 minutes I’d taken note that nobody was moving or talking so I turned to observe and I saw the mom messing around on her phone, the dad had his Ipad out fiddling around, and their, what seemed to be pre-teen, son had a Nintendo DS that he was playing on.  Not a word spoken through the whole meal, they ate, and they messed around on their devices….. “seriously?” I thought.

Much of the way our time is stolen from us, and others that come in contact with us, is that we are not present in the moment we stand in.  When we’re at work, we’re on our phone, when we are at dinner, we are on our phone, when we are playing a game with our kids, we are on our phone, when our family is having a movie night, we are on our phone.  Here’s your first tip:  SHUT YOUR PHONE OFF!!  Shut off your TV, your emails, your Facebook, etc. and be present in your life.  The mass amount of communication is inundating our thoughts, controlling our moods, and stealing our time!

The bible says in Galatians 4:4 – “In the fullness of time”  Jesus came; there was no tweeting, texting, Face booking, or emailing, there was one on one contact, present relationships, speaking out, reaching out, helping out, training, equipping, and the giving over of one’s will to do the will of Him who sent us forth.  Therefore, we don’t need all this technology in order to maintain status, reputation, relationship or the like, we NEED to get off our devices, and get to work!  Technology is great for many things, and brings advancement to communication but the overuse of it is killing our spiritual fruit.

The Commission

Matthew 10:7-8 “As you GO, PREACH, saying: ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!’.  Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils; freely you have received, freely give.”

Notice the action verbs here: Go, preach, say, heal, raise, cleanse, cast out, give…. The time is now for you to lay hands on the broken and lost, proclaim the good news of everlasting life, especially in this time that the world is showing it’s true colors.  Don’t make your life about YOUR will, and just resolve to love Jesus, and love others and call it a day.  You’ve been built with a purpose to be God’s legal access into the earth so that the Kingdom of darkness can be overcome and the Kingdom of Heaven can be populated.  You can do this, you were made for this!

Is it always easy and comfortable?  absolutely not!  Anyone who gives you the feel good gospel and says that life’s just grand after your saved is selling you a bill of goods, salvation is only the first step, the honeymoon phase if you will…. here look at this verse as Jesus speaks to His disciples: “Truly, truly I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you and bring you where you do not wish to go.” (John 21:18)

What is He saying here?  Look, there is a time to be a baby in the faith, to figure things out, and do what you will, but as you mature, your life will no longer be about YOU, but about what He wants to do through you, and you will not necessarily like it all the time, but it’s about growing up, and putting your big boy/girl pants on and getting the job done, and that time is NOW!

Ephesians 5:15-17 “So be careful how you live.  Don’t live like fools, but those who are wise.  Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.  Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what The Lord wants you to do.”

Take control of your time and as you put the Kingdom work first in life, God will redeem your time supernaturally so that all balance is complete.  Stop trying to spin all the plates, trust Him, He’s got this.

Let’s do this!