Transforming Truth With Jeff Lyle Jeff Lyle

The New Testament paints a vivid picture of every believer waging war against their own sin. We are told to put sin to death. We are told what it looks like to beat our bodies into submission, and to slay every sinful longing. When we live successfully in this manner, victory is ours to the fullest. When we stumble and fail, we experience defeats that could have been avoided. In the end of these wars against sin, we find that God is faithful to His word. We return home from the war victorious - scarred but saved. Psalm 85 reveals what it looks like to be welcomed home after a long battle. More than anything, we see the heart of God and how welcomes us home in spite of the scars we cannot hide.

One of the greatest challenges for believers occurs when we find ourselves in a season where we cannot hear God’s voice. We read His written Word, and we know He speaks there, but Jesus did not merely say we would have His book. He said that His sheep would hear His voice. We pray and it seems that God does not respond. We plead for answers and they do not come. We feel we have endured and waited long enough but Heaven’s silence causes or despair. We begin to believe that nobody else has ever gone through the silence of God and made it out whole. What is the Christian to do in seasons of God’s silence? Today’s podcast will help us see that this experience is common among Christians and that there a few simple instructions available to us when we are waiting for God to speak.

Most Christians learn a handful of important spiritual disciplines as they begin to grow in Christ. Bible reading, attending church services, witnessing to non-believers, and committing to times of prayer are among the elementary disciplines of the Christian life. Yet, after years of living out these disciplines, it is inevitable that we will encounter a season filled with challenges that our spiritual disciplines cannot bring use through. We find that our “good enough” pattern son living are not enough at all during seasons of warfare, relational struggle, sickness or pain. In these times, we learn that we must go deeper with a “whatever it takes” approach. In Mark chapter 9, the disciples learned that they would encounter battle sin life and ministry that could only be won through intentional seasons of fasting and prayer. From this crisis moment, we learn today the deep value of living a lifestyle of regular fasting and prayer so that we are prepared to overcome anything the enemy might bring our way.

Sometimes God is in our midst, working on our behalf, and we fail to properly discern Him. We must realize that God didn’t stop being creative after he put the final touches on the physical universe. He still manifests and moves today in ways that the casual or natural eye does not clearly see. As the story of Samson’s parents continues, they find themselves in the middle of an afternoon with God but do not realize it until He vanishes from their midst. This message calls all of us to pursue greater awareness of how God might be working this very moment in our lives.

Theology is essential but theology is not enough on its own. God created man for the purpose of interactive experience with Himself. He is a glorious being who delights in pouring out His goodness into the lives of His people. For some reason, many in the Church are reluctant not only to believe this, butter also reluctant to live and pursue this truth. Is it spiritual to not pursue God's blessing? Are people who live with a poverty spirit somehow more mature than those who desire all that God may have for them? This Truth Shot dares the listener to first recognize that God is a rewarder of those who seek Him, and then to pursue Him as their foremost priority. Those who do so are in position to experience the blessings of the Father through the fullness of the Spirit. Theology teaches us that God is good. Personal pursuit of Him teaches us that God is good TO US.

We hear many sermons on our need to be good stewards of the money God gives us. We also hear messages on the importance of stewarding the time He gives us, along with stewarding the spiritual gifts & natural abilities given to us by God. Not as frequently do we hear calls to be good stewards of all the vision and opportunities which God presents to us. Yes, God is still opening doors of purpose for us. He is still calling us to step though those doors by faith. This message from the life of Joshua connects Joshua and Israel's calling, vision, and opportunity from God with our own lives today. In Joshua 1, we find the essential elements to stewarding a vision and commission from God, remembering all that He has said to us in the past, and then taking trusting steps to walk through those open Kingdom doors into the essential things which He purposes for us.