A Year of Preparation

                             So a new year is upon us again.  2015!  2014 has been definitely challenging for us.  Things haven't happened in the way we thought they should.  There has been unforeseen challenges and hurdles.  We have felt the sting of disappointment and let down.  We have had things thrown at us that were misguided, inaccurate and out of left field.  If I am being open, honest and vulnerable, I have spent the last half of 2014 struggling with defaults.  I feel like the proverbial ostrich that has stuck his head in the sand (even though ostriches don't do that) and have let myself "go" in many ways.  God has been speaking to me on this.  I can't let that happen anymore.  It is time to pick myself up, dust myself off and focus on the things that are in my grasp and in my control.  Me...  I need to begin to work on me again.  Physically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally.  I need to be the warrior I am meant to be.  I work in parallels.  All areas of my life move together.  If I am being disciplined and training myself in some areas it flows into other areas of my life as well.  That is a good thing.  So it is time to GO!!

                              The dreams are still there.  The desires are still there.  Many of them are not in my control and the demand needs to be on God to open doors in His timing, not making them line up with my timing or how I think it should work.  That is another form of discipline we need in our lives.  So if I can't worry about my dreams and desires and trying to make them happen, what do I need to do?  I need to prepare myself to walk into these things when it is time.  Perhaps even I can speed up the process as I prepare myself?  All I know is that I want 2015 to be a year of preparation and bettering myself.  I want to be all I can be through partnering with Jesus in my refining process and disciplining myself to see it through.  By the end of 2015 I want to be a lean, mean, fighting machine in the Spirit, in the natural and every other aspect of my person.  I want to be a force to be reckoned with.  I want there to be presence when people are around me not because of me per se, but what God has done in my life...because of the capacity I have grown into...because of the atmosphere I carry.

                           In many ways, I want to be my version of the legacy that my mother carried and left for me to step into.  She left a mantle that I felt God tell me I was meant to pick up.  I cannot do that with my head in the sand.  I cannot do that by being complacent and not applying the work ethic and effort needed to go to the next level.  I NEED to do this.  For me, for my kids, for my wife, for my friends, for the people that could be on the other side of an encounter with the Holy Spirit through me.  Whether it is encouragement, prayer, a prophetic word, a message, a joke, a hug, etc...I want to be impacting to all those I cross paths with.  That is my prayer.  But I know it is on me to do my part to get there...I know God will be faithful to do his part.
     
                         This is NOT a New Year's Resolution.  Far from it.  This is decision to be who I am supposed to be.  The end of the year is just a good time to reflect and see where you need to change, adapt, remove, add, stop...  This has been on my heart for over a month and NOW is as good a time as any.  This is going to be a long, hard road but it is going to be a great road and great journey.  Let's get started...