Hitting a spiritual wall? - How to reignite your faith in 2025

As believers, we should all want to become more like Yeshua in character. But if you ever felt like you're hitting a wall, like there's a part of you that you really just don't like and you want to get rid of it, and you see Yeshua in the Scriptures, you're like, I want that part of Him. I want to be patient as he is. I want to love like he loved. I want to be merciful as he is merciful. One way that God changes us is by writing his law on our hearts and by giving us an example in Yeshua of how to walk it out. But there are certain aspects of our character that can only be changed into the image of Yeshua by obeying certain commandments. And he did. It is the Holy Spirit that empowers obedience in us. But we must step out in faith and in obedience in. In order to allow the Spirit to move and work in our life and to refine us. Some believers, they really do not change much. They struggle their whole life because they refuse to surrender parts of themselves picking up their cross. They refuse to step out in deeper levels of faith, remaining comfortable with a church pew Christianity that requires no deeper intervention into their own lives. In the west, especially, Christians struggle with pride because of certain commandments that have been neglected. I want to go over some of those, and I want you to recognize if there is a lack in your life, because I can tell you that I, growing up as a believer, I went to church, I did all this stuff, but it came to a point in my life where I could not sleep anymore with the character flaws that I had. I wanted to love more like he did. And it took me stepping out of my door, walking onto the streets, finding a stranger a neighborhood and loving them there, whether it's praying for the sick or feeding the poor, serving the poor. In least in some way, I found myself walking away being more changed than they themselves were, perhaps considering them now equal. See, here's something that's really a tragedy, especially in the west, but in the east as well. We walk by people who are in a different social, economic or cultural world. We think, and we consider them as lower than us, even if we wouldn't say it because of course it would be an embarrassment to admit. But we live that way. We treat them that way. That's why when you see people walking by, homeless people on the streets, they wouldn't even glance at them. See? But when you go out of your way to do what no one else wants to do, and that is to Reach out. Then suddenly you start realizing some things. For one, that no one has what they deserve, that we're all running on mercy and that we all based of our own works, we're all in big trouble. And the fact that we're healthy enough to be successful at our job, that's mercy. Or the fact that we have children who know God and who love him and us and we have a good relationship with that's mercy. Or the fact that we have a good relationship for parents, or the fact that we own a car or a house or a phone or whatever, that's mercy. We can lose our abilities like that. We live on mercy. But yet then how can we judge the success of others? We can then realize that our judgments have so often been based off worldly factors that do not consider the mercies of God. But when we serve the least, we start realizing that we're all made in God's image. And if I'm in a place right now where I have something that someone else doesn't have, God commands me. And I will say this loudly. God commands me to give to those who ask. Yeshua said, give to the one who asks of you. That was not an optional thing. That was a beatitude, a way of life for his disciples that he laid out. And so just this December, I spent some time in South Africa and we spent some time doing something, serving people on the streets. And I realized that every time that I serve people, the Father always seems to point out a new character flaw in me wherein he refines me in the moments that I am serving. At the same time of me realizing what character flaw I have, he heals me of it in the act of servanthood. But when we don't serve, the world revolves around us. It becomes all about how the world should serve me and my interests. It only feeds the flesh. It does nothing to feed the Spirit. Our spirit is strengthened when the Holy Spirit can move through us. And he moves powerfully through us when we step out to lay ourselves down for others and to make sacrifices and to love. Another thing that happens is we realize about all the false assumptions that we've been making about others. Just a month ago, I spoke to a homeless man on the street. And there was a big mistake that I made as I began speaking with him based off some of the first things he told me I judged too early. I thought, this man, he just wants money from me. And I think he's just pretending in five in his faith and in his beliefs in order to receive that money from Me. And as the conversation progressed, my wife came and asked, hey, can I buy you some food? And he says, yes, he would really appreciate that. He hasn't eaten in more than a day. And I continue the conversation about God and faith with him. And as my wife, about 15 minutes later, brings him food, he takes the food and he places it right next to him. Not even he says thank you. But he. He doesn't even pay attention past that. Regarding the food he just received. He is way more interested to speak about spiritual things with me. For man does not live but by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. And so when I walked away from him, I had to repent. I had to say God. I assumed that this man, he just wanted money, or he just wanted food, or he just wanted material possessions. He wanted something of this world. But I was so wrong. All he wanted was to hear and to talk about God and to tell me about God. That's how it ended with me listening to him, he ministering to me very unexpectedly since I went out there to minister to him. So it turned out I was wrong. And immediately, in that moment of repenting for the thought that I had in my heart, God heals me in that he gives me mercy, he gives me grace, and he allows me to give more mercy and more grace the next time I am in an interaction with anyone so that I do not judge them too quickly. See, it can be so easy to judge people based off things we've heard before. But not everyone is the same and we have to be careful. Another thing that serving the least does is that it exposes our favoritisms. When a homeless man is dirty, seems to have no worth or purpose to this world, maybe even is struggling with deep sins or addictions. Do you serve him as Yeshua would serve him? Do you visit him as Yeshua would visit him? Do you speak life into him as Yeshua would? Because as you do, he will be transformed by Yeshua. You are visiting him in the name of Yeshua. And in the name that you visit him, he will be healed. But you have to visit him. You have to serve. No matter what you see in the flesh, you have to still be there. Because Yeshua controversy, the controversy of his life that everyone was gossiping about is that he was among sinners, the prostitutes, the alcoholics, the tax collectors. But what if that very reality was what healed the prostitutes, the addicts, the drug dealers and tax collectors? What if being there is going to be the light that heals their hearts? And so you see now how sitting in a church pew is wonderful, but would never be enough. God has always called us to be a light. Putting our light on a stand, that means positionally placing our light somewhere where it can be seen. Is your light somewhere it can be seen. And so all of this causes us to honor and love greater in our everyday. It changes our interactions with people in every way. And so even when someone then betrays us, we can now stop and ask why? Why are they acting this way? Why do they feel insecure because they did not receive the love that they should have received? How can I show mercy to their circumstances despite them acting out against me? For of course, they do that with reason. See, this is why in the parable of the field workers, Yeshua said that no matter what time of day the worker comes in, that they will all receive the same compensation for labor. See, we must remember that this life is about God welcoming home his children. It's not about the survival of the fittest. It's not about who's most intelligent. It's not about who's been serving the longest. But it's about sacrifice and obedience and what you do today. Serving the least. And the poor was not provided as optional by the Messiah, but it is an essential part of his life, who he is, what he was and will forever be known by. And a time is coming when the least and the poor will no longer be as it is today. Today we still have the poor with us, but a day is coming when there will be no more poor among us. A day is coming where you will never have the same opportunity again. So whether they have ears to hear or not, today, go and be obedient and let him deal with reaching their heart. Show up, trust in him and let him do the work. And then perhaps we'll see that this current pride issue that's so part of Western Christianity especially can starve when we, instead of expecting everyone to serve us, we start serving deeper. See, we do well to receive, but not to give. We do well to speak, but not to do. We do well to teach, but not to show up. Instead of showing up to another online podcast, show up this year to the outcast and downcast, and you will see the Holy Spirit use you and change you in ways like never before. Father, I ask that you would give us the boldness to step out this year like never before. And as we step out, that you would use us, speak through us, and even heal us of our wounds, of our character flaws, our lack of mercy, our impatience, our bitterness, our own insecurities. Father, I ask that you would come upon your people and put a new spirit within them. That you would come and show them that you have made them to be a light. And if not, a light to the darkness, a light to whom you have called us into dark places so we may illuminate the room. Father, help us to not hid our light under a basket but to put it on the stand. Help us to love those who we have not loved before. Help us to seek those who the world says is unlovable. Help us to have new eyes to see people the way you see them. I pray all this in the name of Yeshua. Amen. Thank you so much for joining me. I pray that the Father blesses you and your household this year with his spirit. May the Father bless you and keep you and shine his face upon you. Lift up his countenance upon you. Give you his shalom and his mercy and his grace. And a special thank you to our partners who've made this teaching possible. We'll see you guys in the next one. Shalom.