2128 See the Unseen

2148 The Fruit of Love – Fruits Part 7

Galatians 5:22, “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: LOVE …” God isn’t asking us to manufacture love. This isn’t about trying harder. God invites us to connect with him and grow in him, and as we abide in him, his love naturally flows through us. Jesus says “Apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) This is why some people are incapable of loving well or loving at all – they don’t have the love of Jesus flowing through them. It’s like expecting the limb of the apple tree lying on the ground to keep producing apples. Of course it can’t – it’s disconnected from it’s source of life so no fruit will grow. When we are detached from our source, we are incapable of loving well. We don’t need more effort, we need more connection to our source. Every detail of God’s word is specific. The order here is important. Love comes first on the list of fruits because every other fruit grows out of love. Think about it: Joy is love rejoicing. Peace is love resting. Patience is love enduring. Kindness is love serving. Goodness is love acting. Faithfulness is love staying. Gentleness is love responding. Self-control is love choosing. Love is the root. The other fruits are expressions of it. So doesn’t it make sense that the enemy goes to work on our ability to love and be loved? If he takes away our love, he takes away every other fruit in our lives. For this reason, love in this world gets twisted. It becomes lust. It becomes self-serving. It becomes pain. Love is like the weapon taken right out of our hands and pointed at us by the enemy of our soul to destroy us. Loving like Jesus will defeat the enemy, but when that love is turned on us and twisted, the enemy nearly destroys us. If you watched the news at all yesterday, you likely saw a man and woman dressed in black illegally climb the Empire State Building yesterday. On the very top of the building, towering 1400 feet above New York City, they flew a flag that boldly proclaimed, “WHEN THE POWER OF LOVE BEATS THE LOVE OF POWER, THE WORLD KNOWS PEACE.” So true – but only when we remember this – 1 John 4:8, “GOD IS LOVE.” Love can get twisted, God cannot. God is strong and steady throughout the history of the universe. He is the same today, tomorrow and forever. His love is pure, and when his pure love flows through us, the world is radically changed. When God literally lives in us through his Holy Spirit, our nature is changed. We become a vessel of his love and it flows so naturally. Jesus teaches us that he is the vine and we are the branch. We aren’t created to survive without him. We aren’t created to grow without him. And we’re certainly not created to produce any type of goodness in our lives without him. Jesus says, “ABIDE IN ME.” (John 15:4) This means stay connected. Stop trying to do this on your own. Stop seeking the answer somewhere else. Fruit will grow because we stay connected to the vine of Jesus. Our job is abiding. God’s job is producing fruit. Have you been trying to produce fruit and will yourself into loving better instead of focusing on staying connected to Jesus? That’s exhausting and disappointing isn’t it? Trying to love someone better without a life-giving connection to Jesus will leave you absolutely depleted. You are trying to give what you cannot self-produce. You’re not capable of loving them enough on your own. You’re not the vine they need, Sis. Sometimes it’s humbling to realize you can’t love them enough to change them. BUT JESUS CAN! The more you get to know Jesus, the more you will naturally overflow in love. It’s not something you have to work for, it’s something you have to stay connected for. Love is like the electrical energy that flows through an extension cord when plugged in to the outlet. Unplug it and there’s no flow. Unplugged the extension cord has absolutely nothing to give. Plugged in, the energy is continually available. Honey, you’re not a power generator. You’re not the source. You’re the extension cord. LOVE FLOWS THROUGH YOU, BUT ONLY WHEN YOU’RE CONNECTED TO THE SOURCE! Love doesn’t come from you first – no, first you receive LOVE, then love flows through you. Jesus tells us that we will be known as his disciples through our love. Not through our memorized scriptures, not through our long wordy prayers, not through our church attendance – nope, through our love. When asked what the most important commandment was, Jesus replied in Matthew 22: 37-40, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself. The entire law is based on these two commandments.” It all boils down to LOVE. It started in LOVE, “For God so loved the world” and it continues in LOVE, “Now you go love.” But some people are really hard to love, aren’t they? Do you have some of those people in your life? I do. And some people are so easy to love. It’s easy to give them our best. Which one are we commanded to love? BOTH! It’s not always easy, but you don’t love under your own power – you love through the power of the Holy Spirit. This isn’t your love you’re giving, this is God’s love. Romans 5:5, “God has given us the Holy spirit to fill our hearts with HIS love.” You don’t have to produce this love, you simply have to let it flow through you. Sometimes we create a dam within our own hearts and keep his love from flowing. We decide to withhold love thinking it will teach a lesson or it will protect our hearts. Instead all it does is create a blockage within our own selves. Have you heard of the Dead Sea? The Dead Sea is called dead because nothing will grow in it. Do you know why nothing grows in it? Because it is so filled with nutrients and minerals that it’s become toxic. It has an inlet, but no outlet. So everything just sits within the Dead Sea and evaporates, leaving this dense, hardened water that nothing can live in. That’s really the picture of our hearts when we dam it up with self-protection or restriction. We become toxic to our own selves. You need an outlet. Let me tell you who is worthy of LOVE today – EVERY SINGLE SOUL YOU COME IN CONTACT WITH! Yes, every one of them – starting with that hard to love person in your own home, perhaps. Ask the Holy Spirit to love them through you today. Ultimately, here’s the goal – YOU BECOME MORE AND MORE LIKE JESUS. Jesus didn’t hang on the cross and say, “This is for the nice people, but all you mean people get none of my blood.” He didn’t say, “This is for the ones who act right, but all you jackwagons get none of my love.” No, he did it for every single one of us, even in our jackwagon era. As we become more and more like Jesus, we allow that kind of love to flow through us. Love isn’t becoming a nicer version of yourself, it’s Jesus becoming visible through everything you do. Faith without love becomes cold. Truth without love becomes harsh. Power without love becomes dangerous. Love is the life-changing power of God that flows through us. What the world most needs is precisely what we have in our connection with God! So here’s how love works in 4 parts: 1. The Father is the source of love (“God is love.”) 2. The Son perfectly reveals that love in His life, death, and resurrection. 3. The Holy Spirit pours that love into believers’ hearts and forms Christ’s character within them. 4. The believer abides in Christ by faith, and love emerges as fruit rather than as self-generated effort. Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela [https://instagram.com/headmamapamela] Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim [https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim] Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com [http://biglifehq.com]

2147 The Inside Story – Fruits Part 6

Returning to our study on the Fruits of the Spirit, this is part 6. So far we’ve looked at living on the wrong side of the list – what happens when we live WITHOUT the direction of the Holy Spirit and under the influence of the world and our flesh. We see all those things that create destruction and chaos in our lives, but wow, they happen so naturally. We don’t have to try to be selfish, that comes easily. We don’t have to strive to be jealous. Sexual immorality is something that peaks its head up as a temptation early in our teen years and continually pesters us. Then notice what Galatians 5:21says, “Anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.” Woah, now that’s scary. Heaven is on the line here? What exactly does this mean? Every single one of us have struggled with at least one of these things on the wrong side of the list. Does this mean we’re all excluded from eternity with God? Does this mean we’re out? This is a big deal, so we need to be sure. If Heaven depends on getting it right, let’s get it right! Nothing is worth missing out on Heaven. Here’s what this DOESN’T mean. This doesn’t mean that as a follower of Jesus we could never commit any of these sins. What this does mean is that as a follower of Jesus we can’t STAY in these sins. God has given us something that calls us out of that old way of life. He has made us new with a new operating system. Our new operating system as a follower of Jesus is the Holy Spirit. We studied the Holy Spirit in depth in episode #2146. This is literally God living IN YOU. This is the direct guidance and influence of something greater than you now directing your life. Do you know what this means? This means with a new operating system, you are naturally changing and you’re no longer who you once were. Girl, YOU’VE CHANGED! You don’t have to keep living the way you used to. You no longer have to struggle with the same things you’ve always struggled with. The Holy Spirit is changing you from within. Now, you get to be DIFFERENT. Under the direction of the Holy Spirit and it’s inner influence, you live different. This isn’t a New Year’s resolution that you forget about by February. This isn’t an “I’ll try to be better”. This is the true inner change that we seek. A change of your desires. A change of your will. A change of your operating system. Does Jesus really change lives? ABSOLUTELY AND THIS IS EXACTLY HOW. I’ve seen the soul who has struggled with addiction for years absolutely SET FREE when surrendered to Jesus. I’ve seen the hardened heart absolutely HEALED when surrendered to Jesus. I’ve seen the depression and anxiety lift. I’ve seen the change from within. I know it to be true because I’ve experienced it. What nothing else in the world can do, JESUS CAN! Oh what a little box we put our God in when we think this is too big for him. Girl, absolutely nothing is too far gone for the work of his Holy Spirit. Nothing is beyond his reach. Nothing is too late or too hard. God is good enough and God is BIG enough to change EVERYTHING inside of you, everything you’ve ever struggled with, everything that has ever bound you up and caused you to struggle. And here’s how he does it: The Fruit of His Spirit. Fruit. Fruit naturally grows on the right kind of tree. It’s not forced, it’s natural. If it’s an apple tree, it produces apples. If it’s a cherry tree, it produces cherries. If it’s a pear tree, it produces pears. Not because the tree has tried hard to change or willed itself into production, but because it naturally lives as it was created to live. And this is the example God chose to use to represent what happens in our lives when his Holy Spirit dwells within us. We just naturally begin producing very specific fruit that comes from our attachment and growth in Him. Galatians 5: 22-23, “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” How does that verse begin? BUT. BUT the Holy Spirit produces something different in our lives. This is an interruption to what has been explained in the verses before. Before we have what our lives naturally become without the Holy Spirit. That was the list of yuck we went through all last week. That was the envy, the drunkenness, the selfishness, the anger, the jealousy, the quarreling, the hostility, the immorality and impurity, and seeking everything but God. Thank God for his interruption. BUT THE HOLY SPIRIT. You can live on the wrong side of the list and be ruled by the world and your flesh. However, that’s not the way to Heaven. The way to Heaven is to connect and grow in Jesus – and when you do, the Holy Spirit begins doing his work in you to change you from the inside. These fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, NATURALLY grow in your life as a result of abiding in Jesus. This isn’t something you set your alarm for and work for. This isn’t something with a goal box you can check. This is something that GROWS within you because of connection. It’s a change that happens naturally that makes you different. Your focus is connection. The fruit will happen naturally. God didn’t have to design it all that way. He could have designed right living to be a goal we achieve. He could have designed the required change within us to be a 10 level system we work our way through. He could have given it all a grading curve in which only a few pass. BUT HE DIDN’T. It’s not about our work at all. It’s about the work of the Holy Spirit within us. Our job is to stay connected. Our job is to surrender to the change he starts within us. Our job is to embrace the growth. Our job is to naturally produce what he promises to grow within us. FRUIT. It’s the evidence of a different operating system. FRUIT. It’s not achieved by working, but by abiding. FRUIT – it’s fragile, it’s attractive, it’s nourishing, and it’s natural. So as we begin this study on each of the Fruits of the Spirit, don’t hear this as another list of things you have to go accomplish. Don’t turn this into another burden you carry or another measuring stick you beat yourself up with. Instead, let every fruit become an invitation. If I’m lacking peace, I don’t need to try harder—I need to draw closer. If I’m struggling with patience, I don’t need to grit my teeth—I need to stay connected to the One who grows patience in me. If I’m battling self-control, I don’t need more willpower—I need more surrender. The fruit is never the source. Jesus is. And here’s the beautiful thing: Fruit doesn’t appear overnight. It grows. Slowly. Steadily. Sometimes so gradually you don’t even notice it until one day you realize you don’t react the way you used to. You don’t chase the things you used to chase. You don’t become undone by the things that once controlled you. Why? Because the Holy Spirit has been faithfully doing His work all along. Don’t despise the growing season. Don’t quit because you’re not fully mature yet. Healthy things grow, and if you’re connected to Jesus, you will too. So over these next several days, we’re not studying a checklist. We’re studying the evidence of a life surrendered to God. We’re studying what naturally happens when His Spirit is alive within us. This is what Jesus came to do – not just forgive your past, but transform your future. Not just rescue you from sin, but restore you into the person you were always created to be. So stay connected. Stay surrendered. Stay growing. Because the Holy Spirit is still producing fruit in you. And one day, you’ll look back and realize the miracle wasn’t that you tried harder. The miracle is that Jesus changed you. Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela [https://instagram.com/headmamapamela] Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim [https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim] Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com [http://biglifehq.com]

2146 Seven Year Miracle

(This is an unscripted devotional sharing the story of a 7 year miracle in the making.) Story of the Prodigal – Luke 15: 11-24 Waited for 4 years – began to run out of hope – tried in desperation to do it my way – to regain control – to force, manipulate Story of Waiting – John 5: 2-9 38 years, but he still showed up there. He still had someone carry him there that day to await for the healing that still hadn’t come. God asked me for 30 years. Would I still trust him if it took 30 years for my daughter to come home? Would I choose joy over misery while waiting for 30 years? The moment I intentionally chose joy even if it took 30 years, I was given the gift of PEACE. Isaiah 26:3, “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!” Although God asked me for 30 years, HE DID IT IN SEVEN!!!!!!! The wedding – the party – the perfect peace! Here’s what I have learned: • 1. In the wait, you have a choice – choose faith and joy. Misery does not honor God. Psalm 42:11, “Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again – my Savior and my God!” • 2. There’s power in your thoughts. KEEP YOUR THOUGHTS FIXED ON GOD and HIS PROMISES. Again, Isaiah 26:3, “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!” • 3. You can’t always make it better, but you can make it worse – DON’T MAKE IT WORSE. • 4. Do everything in LOVE. If you can’t do it in love, don’t do it. • 5. Stop trying to save them from their testimony. Let God do his work in their lives. • 6. God is faithful beyond measure and his promises will stand through it all. (God had made promises to the Israelites of a future home of bountiful provision and blessings. A land he would make their own after hundreds of years of slavery in Egypt. Although the Israelites got lost along the way, wandered and wavered, God brought them to the land he promised. Joshua 21:43-45, “So the Lord gave to Israel all the land he had sworn to give their ancestors, and they took possession of it and settled there. And the Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had solemnly promised their ancestors. None of their enemies could stand against them, for the Lord helped them conquer all their enemies. NOT A SINGLE ONE OF ALL THE GOOD PROMISES THE LORD HAD GIVEN TO THE FAMILY OF ISRAEL WAS LEFT UNFULFILLED; EVERYTHING HE HAD SPOKE CAME TRUE.” • 7. Drop your expectations of perfection and trust God’s eternal plan. Every single thing I “wished” wouldn’t happen actually happened and then God used it all for good. I wished there wouldn’t be drugs or addiction involved. Then there was. God worked with that. I wished there wouldn’t be a baby. Then there was. God worked with that. I wished it wouldn’t get worse before it got better. Then it got worse. God worked with that. If you’re so busy with expectations of what you think it’s supposed to look like, you may miss the full blessing of God’s best plans. Proverbs 19:21, “You can make many plans, but the Lord’s purpose will prevail.” Isaiah 55:8 the Lord says, “My ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.” JUST TRUST HIM – HIS PLAN – HIS TIMING – HIS WAYS! You know what I realize now … God wasn’t just working on my daughter, HE WAS WORKING ON ME! I had so much to learn and so far to grow. I can honestly say today I’m better because of the long hard wait. I know how to pray. I know how to trust. I know how to seek. I know how to love. I know how to wait. I know how to live in peace. I know how to choose joy. If God pulled off a 7 year miracle for my family, he can pull off a 7 year miracle for your family! If I could find peace and joy in the wait, my friend, so can you! If God can receive glory in my story, then he can receive glory in your story. Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela [https://instagram.com/headmamapamela] Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim [https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim] Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com [http://biglifehq.com]

2145 Meet the Spirit – Fruits Part 5

This week we’ve studied what our lives looks like without the Holy Spirit. Without God’s influence, without God’s direction over our life, we naturally drift toward dysfunction, selfishness, broken relationships, and sin. Left to ourselves, our sinful nature becomes the driving force behind our decisions, our attitudes, and our actions. That’s exactly what Paul describes in Galatians 5. He paints an honest picture of what life looks like when the flesh is in control. It’s not a list meant to shame us – it’s a mirror showing us what every one of us is capable of apart from God. But thank God, we’re not left there. The good news is that God didn’t simply save us from our sin; He gave us His very presence. When we place our faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes to live within us. We are no longer left to navigate this life in our own strength. We have a Helper, a Guide, a Teacher, and the very power of God at work in us. So before we can understand the fruit of the Spirit, we have to understand the Spirit Himself. Who is the Holy Spirit? Why did God give Him to us? What is His purpose in our lives? And what does it actually look like to live under His influence every day? The fruit of the Spirit isn’t about trying harder to become a better person. It’s about allowing the Holy Spirit to transform us from the inside out. I spent many years not understanding who the Holy Spirit is and what it mean to have this influence in my life. Maybe you’re in that place. This doesn’t quite make sense to you. It can be a little confusing, so lets slow down to understand. Quite simply, the Holy Spirit is God HIMSELF. God reveals himself to us in 3 ways which we call the trinity. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit – all God. Think of it this way, the Father loved us, the Son saved us, the Spirit changes us. The Holy Spirit is God’s very own presence dwelling within us. Before Jesus returned to Heaven after his crucifixion, he made an incredible promise. In John 14: 16-17, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. You will know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.” In verse 23, Jesus says, “We will come and make our home in each one who loves me.” Jesus had been walking with his disciples. He had been living with them, teaching them, guiding them. In flesh, he was there with them. Now, before he returns to Heaven, he is promising for everyone who loves him, they will be given ANOTHER who will actually live in you and never leave you. The Greek, word translated “another” means another of the same kind. So we have been given someone exactly like Jesus in nature and purpose to live inside of us. That’s the Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit makes God’s presence permanent in everyone who believes in him. As real as Jesus walked this earth as God in human form, God now lives within us in Spirit form. The Holy Spirit empowers us to live like Jesus. So this isn’t about trying harder and harder, this is about allowing God to live through us. In the Old Testament, God’s Spirit dwelt in the tabernacle and later in the temple. Occasionally his Spirit would come upon specific people for specific purposes. Through the cleansing power of Jesus to make us holy and righteous, God Spirit is now available to each of us and we become his temple. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6:19, “Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God.” For real, God now lives within us! My mind can’t comprehend that, but by faith I choose to believe it. Do you? Let’s look at 3 things the Holy Spirit does: He teaches us, empowers us and transforms us. The Holy Spirit teaches us. When you read the Bible and actually understand it, that’s the work of the Holy Spirit. When you listen to this podcast or a sermon and it hits just right, that’s the work of the Holy Spirit. When you’re living your regular life and you remember what God said about it, that’s the work of the Holy Spirit. What a lot of people describe as a “gut feeling” is actually the prompting of the Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit empowers us. Acts 1:8, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.” Have you ever been stronger than you ever thought you could be? Girl, that was the Holy Spirit. Have you ever had the power to do things you never thought you could do? That’s the power from the Holy Spirit. We’re so quick to think we’re weak and incapable, but as a believer, remember who is living within you. God himself is inside of you! His power is in you! So yes, you do have the strength for this through the Holy Spirit. Yes, you are good enough. Yes, you are capable. Remember what’s in you! And ultimately what the Holy Spirit does within us is he transforms us. That’s where the Fruit of the Spirit comes in in Galatians 5. WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT, we are changed naturally. This change isn’t something we have to force and will, it’s a change that grows in us and makes us more like Jesus. That’s the goal of the Holy Spirit, to make us more and more like Jesus. As we move to the right side of our list and begin to see what it looks like to live under the influence of the Holy Spirit, rather than without him, think of it like this: If you are under the influence of alcohol, you think different, you talk different, you walk different, you have different emotions, and you make different decisions. Why? Because you’re under the influence of that alcohol so you operate different. Now, think of the influence of the Holy Spirit in your life. It changes everything. You think different under the influence of the Holy Spirit. The way you see things changes. The way you see people changes. Your thought process is changed. You talk different under the influence of the Holy Spirit. You don’t even want to be in the conversations you were once in. You walk different with different emotions, making different decisions. Under the influence of the Holy Spirit, your desires are literally changed. Your heart begins to align with God’s heart and you begin to pursue the things he created you for. And what happens when there’s a different life within us – FRUIT! Fruit is evidence of life. An apple tree doesn’t struggle to tape apples to its branches to look more like an apple tree. An apple tree just naturally produces apples. When the Holy Spirit lives within us, we don’t have to struggle and strive, we just surrender and then we naturally produce the Fruit of the Spirit. This is what makes us more and more like Jesus. Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela [https://instagram.com/headmamapamela] Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim [https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim] Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com [http://biglifehq.com]

2144 The Better Party – Fruits Part 4

Today, we’re wrapping it up – the yuck list of what our lives can become when we are not under the influence of the Holy Spirit and following his guidance. So far in Galatians 5: 19-21 we’ve seen the sexual sins we so easily fall into, then the attitudes and behaviors that damage our relationship with God and others. It’s been a real yuck fest hanging out on the wrong side under the wrong influence. What we’ve learned so far is that’s not what we want, nor is that who we want to be. Now finally in verse 21, we have our final things to add to the column on the left labeled ‘Without the Holy Spirit’ – “Drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these.” Before you push away and think the Holy Spirit would never allow you to have fun, that’s not what this is about. This isn’t about making your life boring. This is truly about taking away every imitation of happiness the enemy has tried to entangle you in. God offers us immense joy and overflowing happiness, then Satan swoops in and tries to twist that into a pursuit of things that simply aren’t good for you. Do you realize when God calls something a sin it’s because it’s not good for you. He created you with a specific design, and as your creator he knows what is harmful to your design, so he warns you, “Hey, my child, don’t do this … it’s not good for you.” It’s like the warning label on a hair dryer that says don’t put this in water … Why fight that? We have warning labels on us, why are we fighting it? Understand what is specifically being said—drunkenness and wild parties. The sin is not drinking. The problem is not a party. Jesus was once at a wedding celebration where the wine ran out, so His first public miracle was turning water into wine for the wedding feast (John 2). The sin is intoxication that masters the person. The problem is the party that celebrates the loss of self-control, encourages excess, and creates an atmosphere where people cast off moral restraint. The concern here is not with joy or celebration; the concern is with a culture of indulgence where people surrender themselves to their desires rather than submit themselves to the Spirit. The problem is the party that is built around excess. The Greek word kōmoi used in this scripture refers to revelries—wild, drunken celebrations where restraint is abandoned and sinful behavior is encouraged. This is not a condemnation on gatherings, celebrations, or even the enjoying good things. This is about the kind of partying where intoxication and reckless behavior become the purpose of the event. You know that, “We’re gonna get drunk tonight! Get lit! Let loose!” … yeah that is NOT from the Holy Spirit. It’s hard for me to talk about these things because I have to be honest with you – I have absolutely no experience with it. At 50 years old, I’ve never been drunk a single time in my life. I’ve never been to the club or a bar. I’ve never gotten tipsy and let loose. So no, I really don’t know what that is like. But let me tell you what I’m qualified to talk about – I’m absolutely certain you can have fun and be 100% sober. There’s not a gathering I don’t have fun at. There’s not a celebration where I can’t laugh and enjoy. You can throw a party and it not become wild and wreckless. You can dance, you can sing, you can celebrate, and you can be the life of the party without a single regret. Think about how Jesus must have been when he walked this Earth. The gospels are full of accounts of Jesus being invited to weddings, invited to celebrations and gatherings, continually invited to come over for dinner. Children loved to be around Jesus. You know what this tells me – this tells me Jesus wasn’t boring. He wasn’t a stick in the mud. He wasn’t a downer. He was LITERALLY the life of the party in every sense of the word. Now we carry his spirit within us as his followers. He lives within us. We are empowered to be the life of the party with what he has put within us through our connection with him – and we’ve gotten it all twisted thinking in order for us to be fun and have fun we have to get drunk? That’s just straight from Hell right there. Tomorrow is opening day of my 111th BIG Life Retreat. It’s a girls weekend on the lake where we will tie together all of our floaties and float in the sunshine on the lake. We’ll be playing music and singing. There will be dancing. There will be uncontrollable laughter. There will be random last minute competitions of floating obstacle courses, relays of nonsense, and cheering team mates like we’re winning real gold medals. It will be a full on celebration of happiness. And there won’t be a drop of alcohol. None. When I first started hosting retreats, a whole lot of people didn’t come because they thought it would be impossible to have fun at a gathering without something to loosen them up. How could a girls weekend be a good time without the good stuff? Now, we know THE GOOD STUFF isn’t found in a bottle. The GOOD STUFF is found in God showing us how to celebrate life with pure joy and no regrets. Drunkenness and wild parties intentionally lower restraint with a celebration of impulsiveness, excess and indulgence. That’s the problem. A drunken person often pulls others into the same behavior. It becomes a chain effect. One person gets stupid, then the next person gets stupid. And with a bunch of stupid people not thinking right, sin becomes normalized. That’s not under the direction of the Holy Spirit. God says, “That’s not good for my creation.” So, we come with a warning label just like the hair dryer that’s not to be put in water – we’re vessels for the Holy Spirit and we are not to be drunk going to wild parties. It’s simply not good for us. This isn’t a matter of having all our fun taken away from us. Actually quite the opposite – this is a matter of not being fooled by the enemy and living in such a deeper level of fun offered by God. A fun with no regrets. A fun with full awareness. A fun that represents the joy of the Lord. This week, I’ve given the girls I mentor a challenge – a challenge to be the Ambassador of Fun wherever they are. Fun is a ministry. Really think about that. Fun shows the goodness of God and draws others into him. Misery doesn’t do that. Boring doesn’t do that. But fun sure does. Fun is a breath of fresh air for the soul who questions how much longer they can carry their burden. Fun invites them to see the good in life again. Fun is warfare against darkness, pushing back what the enemy has tried to use to overwhelm. And we can literally minister to others through our holy fun. Walk into every room asking, “How can I leave this place lighter than I found it?” My friend, THAT IS MINISTRY! Do you think I’m a fun person? Do you think I know how to enjoy life? Do you think I know how to throw a party others really want to come to? I can promise you there’s something better than alcohol and stupidity … there’s the Holy Spirit and genuine fun! After the past 4 days of studying the list on the wrong side, maybe you’re breathing lighter because your specific sin hasn’t been listed. That’s why I love it’s all wrapped up with a “and other sins like these.” Yip, it’s covered. Anything not under the guidance of the Holy Spirit is not producing goodness in our lives. It is hurting us or hurting others. It’s not God’s best for us. There’s a song called “Search Me” by Kristian Stanfill that has given me the words to pray. Each morning during my time with God on my knees, I pray these song lyrics: Search me, Lord, and know me Purify my life Find in me anything That doesn’t bow to You as King I’m not ok to stay the same From now until life’s through Jesus, make me more like You Do whatever You have to do That’s what it’s about – Allow the Holy Spirit to search you and know you. Allow him to find anything within you that doesn’t bow to him as King. Decide right now you’re not okay with just staying the same. You want more – let the Holy Spirit set you free to experience the fullness of life Jesus came to offer you! Follow Pamela on Instagram – https://instagram.com/headmamapamela [https://instagram.com/headmamapamela] Or Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim [https://www.facebook.com/pamela.crim] Find out more about BIG Life – http://biglifehq.com [http://biglifehq.com]