You are a Motivational Speaker

Did you know that you are a motivational speaker? Well, now you do. It's true. Within each of us is the ability to MOTIVATE others.

I've just finished reading a book called 'When did you last see her?' from Lemony Snicket's series, 'All the Wrong Questions.' If you didn't know, it's a spin off series from the successful 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' books. 'All the Wrong Questions' stars the character Lemony Snicket as a child and the adventures that he undertook as a member of an incredibly secret and dangerous organisation. Towards the end of the book one of the characters, Cleo Knight, who is a scientist shares with everyone her experience of the treachery and evil deeds of an evil 'scientist' (if that's what he really is) called Dr Flammarion and his villainous master Hangfire. Here's an extract that I want to talk about from the book: 

"You're a monster," she said. It was an angry voice and a quiet voice, and it made me flinch. "You drugged my parents until they couldn't think straight," she said. "You destroyed the note I left for my parents and Zada and Zora. You vandalized my car and lured me into your clutches. You locked me down here and made me work on invisible ink so you could fill this clinic with children and continue your treachery. But that story is over now, Flammarion. You'll never get your hands on my formula, and I'll never rest until Stain'd-by-the-Sea is a proper town again." 

(All the Wrong Questions ch 12, pg 249 - 250.)

'An angry and quiet voice',  reminds me of righteous anger - recognizing that wrong has been done and the desire to sort things out righteously. Sometimes we can't keep our cool and that's okay. Righteous anger results in a burden to see what is right come to pass. I love it how the character Cleo Knight ends on a high note. She starts her speech by pointing out all that has happened and then ends with her dream - ends with what she is passionate about. I'll never rest until stained-by-the-sea is a proper town again.' I don't know what effect Cleo's speech had on the characters who were on her side in the story, but it surely motivated me! And just as this motivated me, each of us, I believe has a burden that we can use to motivate others. We don't have to think long and hard about it, but just share what we're passionate about with the people we see around us. 

Matthew 23 - 24 is an incredible example of the righteous anger that Jesus displays when speaking to the crowds and disciples. He speaks about the pharisees and teachers of religious law hypocrites. They talk the talk but discard the walk. And for a whole chapter Jesus talks about the religious leaders and the rebellion of Jerusalem until in chapter 24, he finishes on a high note with a vision... 'And he (Jesus) will send out his angels with the mighty blast of a trumpet, and they will gather his chosen ones from all over the world—from the farthest ends of the earth and heaven.' - Matthew 24 v 31. Jesus was working to this end... He had his eyes set on the vision - the end goal - seeing what is right come to pass. And earlier on in Matthew 7 v 28 it says that the crowds were amazed at Jesus' teaching. They were stirred. It motivated them. When we know Christ we have that same power. 'The same power that conquered the grave lives in me.' (Ephesians 1 v 19. ... Hillsong, 'You are Here'.) Christ has given us the same drive. The same righteous anger. The same desire to see things put right and for the Kingdom of God to prevail. Believe it. Discover it. Remind yourself of it. Be changed by it. The power of Christ in you. You ARE a motivational speaker and you can change your world.

Let's pray.

God, thank you for giving me your righteousness. Thank you for giving me a passion for what's right. I choose to use this passion to fight my vision. I will not rest until my town is a proper town again. I will not rest until I see my vision come to pass. Help me not to lose heart but to find new strength in the dawning of every new day, in Jesus' name, amen.

To finish with I'm going to ask a few questions. Hopefully these are 'All the Right Questions'. Lol. Spend some time mulling over these thoughts:

1. What dream have you got that you will never put to rest until you have fulfilled it?

2. What story do you need to put to death?

3. Who is your audience?

See you soon! For all those who are looking, keep searching. God Bless X 

[B.T: New Living Translation.]

The REAL You

Ever feel like your mind is a minefield? One minute you seem okay and the next minute you have a thought and *BOOM!* everything goes crazy and you do something stupid...

In the film Avengers Assemble, the avenger known as Hawkeye has had his mind poisoned by Loki, who is one of the gods of Asgard. Loki has invaded planet earth and wants to get his hands on the 'tesseract' which he plans to use to create a dimensional hole, bringing evil from an unknown world to wage war on earth. The beginning phase of Loki's plans involve polluting the minds of innocent scientists and soldiers using his sceptre. Using his sceptre, Loki gets Hawkeye to do his dirty work. Being lulled into a false sense of security, Hawkeye gets brainwashed and ends up turning against his own side ... Eventually Black Widow, another of the avengers catches up with Hawkeye and engages with him in combat in order to bring him back to his senses. Eventually she manages to whack his head against a metal bar - ouch - which fortunately brings the real Hawkeye round.

Hawkeye wakes up later on to find himself strapped to a doctor's bench with Black Widow watching over him. His mind is still cloudy but eventually, being strapped down, he manages to fight the torment and snaps out of it. He then opens up to Black Widow, sharing all that he went through while under Loki's control.

In Avengers Assemble, Hawkeye went through a process and in using some imagery from the film I want us to look at the process that we have to go through over and over at times in order for to discover the REAL you.

There are three common processes that we go through if we want to fight that lies and become the bold warriors that God wants us to be:

1. THE LIE. - We will most likely be aware of the lie. Although, in our minds the lie may not be a lie but will appear to be true. Deeply shaken by what has happened to him, Hawkeye describes his experience to Black Widow when he comes back to consciousness. He says, 'Do you know what it's like to have someone take over your mind, pull you out and put something else in?' Sometimes when we deal with sin or doubts or fear it can feel like these feelings have taken us over. And then Hawkeye says, 'Do you know what it's like to be unmade?' Sometimes it can feel like we have become someone else - that we are not our own anymore. But we can choose to say, 'No, this isn't me. I'm NOT unmade. The real me IS here. The real me will not be lost in the exaggerated lies that I have been exposed to...' When we believe the lies we'll do things that we never thought we'd do.

2. THE BLOW. - Another word for blow can be 'punched', 'hit' or 'knocked'. I love this imagery showing the process that Hawkeye goes through. When he awakes and sees Natasha (aka. Black Widow) and is isolated - strapped to the bench - he eventually snaps out of his trance. When Hawkeye inquires about how he broke through, Black Widow says to Clint (aka. Hawkeye), 'I hit you really hard on the head.' God knows how to get our attention and sometimes that's through hitting us round the head. In fact, every time that the devil is giving us gyp ask God to give you a good whack round the head. The Word of God - The BLOW, is stronger than the devil - The LIE. When Jesus was being tempted in the wilderness, each time the devil made suggestions that seemed reasonably inoffensive, but each time Jesus replied with a command from God. “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone.’” - “The Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’” - “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’” (Luke 4.) The devil goes around with a couldn't care less attitude, but we as God's people know that boldly combating this with scripture gives us breakthrough. The BLOW is stronger than The LIE.

The next phase is the hard bit. - Persevering through the isolation.

3. THE RESTRAINT. - Before Hawkeye completely recovers he has to be strapped up or he would have caused havoc with his Loki - contaminated mind. He had to be restrained until his mind cleared. To be healed we need to be restrained or 'tied up' for a season... For us that's our private time of prayer, our devotion to the Word, our separation from unhealthy influences. If we don't then we'll run wild and do no one - especially our selves - any good. But when we've spent enough time in those places, praying, studying the word and separating ourselves from unhealthy influences, God says, 'Okay, you're ready - GO fight the good fight.' The key to persevering is to keep speaking scripture over your life - as Jesus did in Luke. Whenever The LIE tries to come back to you - speak The BLOW into action. My cousin encouraged me the other week when I was fighting the lie that I need to just spend some time in The Word. Get alone. Get before God. Get stuck into prayer. When we do this - when we strap ourselves to the doctor's bench and pray and read the Word, the devil will flee. 'So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.' - James 4 v 7. The restraint is necessary. To restrain yourself is to humble yourself before God. To restrain yourself is to resist the devil. Before you know it you'll be firing arrows at your targets in no time, on your guard, ready for anything. FIGHT! 

Keep on fighting! See you soon.

[Bible Translation: NLT (New Living)]