It all starts with, “I can’t, but You can.”

After an early morning prayer struggle, I wondered what the Lord would show me in His Word. He showed me, alright.

I “just happened” to be in Genesis 41. Up to this point, Joseph had been suffering for 13 years: Put in a dry well. Sold as a slave. Falsely accused of rape. And imprisoned.

Unfair? Yes, but it was partially his own fault. At 17, Joseph was given dreams of both his and his family’s future. Where did they come from? Joseph never says. But he does tell his dad and brothers about the dream. “Every one of you will bow down to me.” You can imagine how that went over, like a lead balloon.

His long struggle would only be over when Pharoah had two dreams. Pharoah asked, “Can you interpret my dreams?” Joseph said, “Nope, I can’t, but God can.” In fact, Joseph emphasized that it was God who gave the dream and God who would give the dream’s interpretation.

This was not the same Joseph, who 17 years earlier seemed to brag about his dream and his interpretation of it. It took 17 years for Joseph to give up the struggle to be ready for the purpose God had for him – save his entire family despite the Satanic attack on it.

Joseph had to learn to surrender to God. Yes, Joseph’s dream came true. Yes, Pharoah’s dream came true. But who gave the dreams and was responsible to make them happen? God.

Sometimes our struggles are self-induced because we are trying to do God’s job for Him. The Lord will not only give you the direction, but the power to get there as well because He can.

Be salty…there will always be someone watching your life.

There are salt licks – natural or artificial deposits of salts and minerals – that wild and domesticated animals can lick to get vital minerals into their diets.

Jesus called His followers the “salt of the earth” (Matt. 5:13), whose speech should be “seasoned with salt” (Col. 4:6) in order to be ready to share Him with those around them.  

“Why is Tim Tebow such a fascinating and polarizing figure?” wrote one columnist. “It’s not just because he claims to be religious; that claim is commonplace among football stars and ordinary Americans alike. Rather, it’s because his conduct – kind, charitable, chaste, guileless – seems to actually vindicate his claim to be in possession of a life-altering truth.

“Nothing discredits religion quite like the gap that often yawns between what believers profess and how they live. With Tebow, that gap seems so narrow as to be invisible. He fascinates, in part, because he behaves – at least in public, and at least for now – the way one would expect more Christians to behave if their faith were really true.”

In the Spirit’s power, we are to always keep our biblically-based truth filter turned “On” in both our public and our private life. Thus, we can be the salt Jesus commands us to be.

It’s not about politics. It’s not about the issues of today, of which there are many. It’s about letting the Spirit change our lives while living among those who need to see/lick Jesus in order to come into a life saving and altering faith in Him.

We never know who is watching our lives at any given moment. So, be the salt people see/lick not trample underfoot.

Another aspect of faith is separation.

I apologize for being a day late. I ate some bad beef jerky that gave me food poisoning. Needless to say, I’ve been resting and drinking lots of water to flush out my system. I had to get rid of the bacteria that was causing me to…well you know. It wasn’t pretty.

Bacteria are small. But bad bacteria can cause a lot of damage. And in order to get better, I had to separate myself from the damaging bacteria.

Faith. The above quote gives another perspective on what it is. It’s choosing to separate ourselves from the harmful bacteria – sin – to stay healthy not just spiritually but physically as well.

There are consequences to sin on earth. True, Scripture does say Jesus forgave all our sinful choices. This doesn’t mean, however, that there are not consequences on earth, which is why one of the names for the Holy Spirit is “fear of the LORD” (Is. 11:2).

This is a name of God! This is Who He is. Fear is not just reverence. It is also acknowledgment that there can be consequences for not choosing to separate ourselves from (“process”) whatever area of our lives that the Spirit is calling to transform.

Confession acknowledges it as sin after we sin. Faith acknowledges it as sin before we sin in order in the might of the Spirit, another name of Who He is (Is. 11:2), we can become more like Jesus.

Confess quickly. Choose faith quicker.

“In failing to confess, Lord, I only hide You from myself, not myself from You.” Augustine

For those who wear glasses, you know exactly what the following means: Spots on your lenses.

You’re cleaning them one moment. And the next, you’re seeing water spots. Dust particles. Fingerprint smudges. It doesn’t matter where or what, those spots affect your vision.

You’ll put up with them for a while. But when the sun hits them while you’re driving – watch out!

Augustine was spot on. Unconfessed sin doesn’t keep Jesus from seeing us or altering His view of us one iota. It does, however, allow our lie-based choices, sin, to stay on our lenses.

Let that sink in. Past unconfessed sin will overtime become the basis for our decision making in the present. The sin, the action we took based on a lie-based thought, is now stored in our brains (“the flesh” of Gal.6:8), which can become the basis of future choices.

Yet, 1 John 1:9 starts off with, “If we confess our sins.” Notice the word if. It’s our choice whether or not we confess or acknowledge that our choice was sin.

Confession is calling the thought we chose to follow a lie. This leads to asking for and receiving forgiveness for choosing to follow that lie. And because Jesus is faithful, He will cleanse us from that sin.

Stay clean. Make confession part of your daily devotional life. Start off by asking the Spirit to show you where you’ve sinned. Then be quiet. When He points out something, confess it. And when He’s done, you’re in a much better position to hear from Jesus in the Scriptures.

By the way, I carry a cloth to clean my lenses the moment I notice a spot. We all carry that same cloth, it’s called confession. Use it to stay clean throughout your day.

Words – catch ‘em, match ‘em, toss ‘em, keep ‘em. Your growth counts on it.

Last week we talked about the tremendously positive effect our words can have on those for whom the Lord leads us to pray.

Now, lets examine the words that we use on ourselves – self-talk. It’s the nouns we call and adjectives we use to describe ourselves, “I am such a….” “How could I be….?” I purposely didn’t mention any. But you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Know this, those words either spoken aloud or only in our heads, still plant neurons on our brains. These neurons will be places where the “you” part of you will draw on to make decisions. These self-talk words, then, can either become freedom fighters or slavery producers.

We are told, though, to take every thought captive, including the words we say to or about ourselves!  We are to catch those words with both hands and match them against the truths found in Scripture.

If those words are lies – rebuke where they came from (the adversary – no matter if he used humans – past or present – to say them) and then toss and replace them with truths the Spirit gives you. If the words are truth, however, keep them by acting on them.

What words do you use to call or describe yourself? Hopefully your powerful words will only reinforce the path to freedom and becoming more like Jesus.

So, let’s use our prayerful words for each other – prayer – to see our self-talk become more in line with Scripture, which leads to our lives being transformed.