June 14th, 2011 by Zach Mapes
Christianity is a faith that sort of began with gardening. In gardens and nature we see transformation occurring daily in things all around us. Seeds fall to ground and return as little spouts that eventually turn into trees, bushes, vegetables and of course weeds. But each of these seeds follows its kind. You wouldn’t plant an avocado pip and expect a maple tree. In the same way we can see seeds that are planted in our lives that will grow to reflect where it comes from. Some of these turn into fantastic successes and others have to be weeded and pulled out. Much like decorative bamboo some things that we want to remove can have very deep roots.
For our first exercise in gardening our lives we will look at seeds that are being planted into our life and find out how we are to respond.
Step 1 Ask the Lord to show you a seed that has been planted in your life.
Step 2 Ask the Lord to show how long this seed has been germinating.
Step 3 Ask the Lord to show you where this seed came from.
Step 4 Ask the Lord how you should treat this seed.
Step 5 Ask the Lord to show what fruit this seed will produce.
We only want good fruit in our lives. A dying tree can still produce good seed.
Posted in What I See | No Comments »
May 24th, 2011 by Zach Mapes
One of the most difficult aspects of growing in the seer arena is understanding what you are to do with what you are seeing. Without an outlet or some other practical use the gift can feel frustrating or even disillusioning. One practical step that you can take is to work on seeing things that are practically useful.
The saying goes that we become like the people that we spend time with. The root of this saying comes from the tendency that we have to mimic what we see. If we are around kind people, we tend find kindness comes to us more naturally. The inverse is also often true.
For this exercise we are going to work on seeing positive things in others. This will help us in two ways, first it helps us to focus on the positive and it also helps us to identify good behavior to mimic.
Step 1 Ask the Lord to show you who you are to focus on.
Step 2 Ask the Lord to show you a trait or behavior of the person that he finds pleasing.
Step 3 Ask the Lord to tell you how you can make this more a part of your life.
Step 4 Make a journal note of what you are going to be working on and set a date to come back and see how you have been making progress.
Posted in Exercise, What I See | 3 Comments »
May 19th, 2011 by Zach Mapes
Matthew 6:9-13
“This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
Part of these instructions tells us to pray that God’s will be done. Through the Bible we have some understanding of following the rules that God has set out for us, while there is room for interpretation in some areas it is pretty clear that we are to respect our parents, pay our taxes, tithe, and so on. This is a great starting point. But what about “should I take this job, or that job? Should I get this car or that car? Should I attend this church or that church?” So many questions, and so much potential room for error.
We face many huge life decisions, choices that affect who our friends will be, what sort of accents our children will grow up with, and eventually what sort of opportunities will be available to us later on. One of the biggest choices I ever made was to move to Britain in the summer 2004. Looking back, you would be forgiven for thinking my move was a big mistake. There were some great things about moving – new friends, new experiences; however there were also crushing defeats and failures. However, one important thing happened while I was living in Britain. I developed a friendship with the parents of my future wife. A few years later we got married and I have been incredibly happy and blessed to be with such an amazing person. Maybe a year or so in the wilderness wasn’t all for loss! At times it certainly didn’t seem like God’s will that I should be in that place, and yet he was doing something deep and extraordinary, something I could have never anticipated or planned.
Through life so far I find I have gathered a number of stories like that. Stories where it seemed like I had made bad choices (and I have made more than my fair share) and yet later on, sometimes much later on, I see positive things that have resulted. As Christians we aspire to follow God’s will. We seek his will and we attempt to make choices that conform to our understanding of his will. But, once the choices have been made we then have to walk them out. Sometimes we look back and see that we clearly made the right choice other times we simply have to wonder what we were thinking and wait to see what God was doing. This is where Proverbs 3:5-6 comes into life every single day of our lives. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” We don’t have to know what God is doing, but we do have to trust him.
So, for me a big part of seeing that God’s will is accomplished, is trusting him. I know that I don’t always have to understand to know that he has a plan.
Tags: Lord's Prayer, obey, plan, Proverbs, trust, walk
Posted in Prophetic Concepts | 1 Comment »
May 10th, 2011 by Zach Mapes
Some locations have special history that creates a spiritual atmosphere. I love old buildings, particularly cathedrals. Whenever I have a chance I go and check them out and have on several occasions taken two or three hour detours to have a visit. One of the things that I have always found fascinating is the way that these great buildings change in the spiritual atmosphere as you stroll through them. I think that is largely due to years and years of worship that has taken place in these place.
This is an exercise to help increase sensitivity to the spiritual environment around you.
Step one: Choose a suitable place to practice. This could be a church, a mall, or even your home.
Step two: Take an inventory of what is going on around you and how you feel. Ask God what is unique about this spot.
Step three: Choose a place to compare to present environment that you are in.
Step four: With your first locations environment in mind head to your second location and compare.
Step five: Ask God how this spot is different from the first.
Step six: Keep going and notice how the spiritual atmosphere changes all around you.
Try this with variations such as at different times of day, or maybe take an inventory of how the atmosphere changes at different parts of a church service. Or, try it with a friend and compare notes.
Tags: Atmosphere, church, enviroment, History
Posted in Exercise, What I See | 1 Comment »
April 26th, 2011 by Zach Mapes
What do you see? Each and everyday we see things all around us that are common, interesting, mundane and most of the things that we see we don’t even notice. They are filler, just the stuff that is around us, but not worth paying any attention. I’d like to challenge you to notice something that you don’t normally ‘notice’ and ask your self a few questions such as:
1. What is this called?
2. What is it for?
3. What is an alternate use for this?
4. If this was something else, how would that change things?
5. If I could ask this object 1 question what would it be?
Come up with a few extra questions yourself. The more that we notice, the more attentive we are, the more we can notice and the more attentive we can be.
Tags: notice, questions, What I See
Posted in Exercise, What I See | 1 Comment »
