Poverty Strongholds Post #3 – Poor Stewardship

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Poverty Strongholds – Post #3 – Poor Stewardship

  1. Demons
  2. Poor Stewardship
  3. Lack of Knowledge (common sense)
  4. Mind Sets (faulty thinking)
  5. Lack of Holiness
  6. Agreements with the Enemy
  7. Bad Theology
  8. Blaming & Excuses
  9. Refusing to be a Blessing
  10. Pain Upon Pain

Walking through these poverty strongholds we will begin with our second stronghold, Poor Stewardship. I’ll write a post on each of these separately, for I am realizing the depth of the material to explore.

Let’s Begin: Poor Stewardship 

Poor Stewardship refers to the basic principle of being faithful with a little. From my own experience and observations this ‘faithful with a little’ is either a character strength or a character flaw. We either take care of the things entrusted to us or we do not.

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Poverty Strongholds #2 – The Authority By Which I Speak

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In Part One of this topic I barely scratched the surface of the intricacies and poverty mindsets as many of us observe them, and/or live them out. There is so much that can be delineated within each of the ten strongholds as I am describing them. But let me continue on in this series with a bit about myself. I speak into this issue of poverty strongholds not from a place of observation or as an outsider, but I speak from a place of, “I’ve lived through these very same things”. I’ve intimately known the mindsets of poverty and the bad fruit that was piling up as a result.

For instance, there was a time in my history where I was continuing in bad relationship with ‘hope’ that refused to look at reality. There was a time when there was very little provision or food and I was starving myself so that my children could eat. There was a time when the money I did have seemed to be consistently and always disappearing as though my ‘bucket’ had a giant hole. And for years I carried accumulated pain upon pain (heart pain) that nearly stole my life in chronic autoimmune diseases. I’ve know what it is to be in despair and to be buried in pain that overwhelmed me in both good thinking and in energy required to rise above the current circumstances.

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Poverty Strongholds – Part One

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We were more than halfway through our ministry trip in Uganda. We had been alongside many, many pastors, had stayed in many homes, and had been to many districts and villages and churches.

So far, we had been experiencing a bounty of thought and action, of hospitality and sufficiency. Those we were alongside knew that God was caring for them, knew that life was good albeit hard, and out of that delighted in their care of us.

But then we ran across some thinking and perspectives that glared out at us as a poverty mindset extraordinaire all rolled into one. They claimed poverty as their biggest challenge and relayed to us stories of how the enemy was confounding everyone, literally everyone, in that surrounding area.

Now, we had heard bits and pieces of this same thinking in the months prior, but somehow it all came together in stark reality — all poverty was blamed on the devil; it was ALL satan’s fault.

Now, while we know that satan’s plan is one of destruction we could not abide by the belief that everything bad and wrong was of the enemy without any responsibility from the humans involved. If this were the case, then we would all be victims forever more, the end.

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The Covering of Jesus in Snapshot Mode

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Technically speaking, in terms of the legality, Jesus coming to earth was in service to our freedom and salvation, our covering from the impact of satan’s authority in this earth.

In Jesus we can begin to experience the Kingdom of God come to earth that Jesus foretold but also initiated in. While there is a future distant complete reality to the Kingdom of God on earth, there is opportunity to begin experiencing God’s kingdom even now.

We do this as we, first, accept the covering of Jesus, and second, as we increasingly align ourselves to the heart of God and his ways and manner.

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Capturing God’s Heart – Revival – Volume 43

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I grew up in the church and often heard about revivals that happened over the years in various places. Yet I never had a working definition for revival. Earlier this year I began asking the Lord to give me a better picture of revival, what it is, how it comes to us, and the impact it leaves in our lives.

To begin, let’s define revival. If I had to give a definition to revival it would be when the Kingdom of God breaks in upon our realities; it is when we are touched by the living God and our lives no longer remain the same.

In my study of revival I found out is that Revival requires three necessary ingredients.

  • A Hunger for More of God
  • Repentance & Humility
  • Religious Stronghold Broken

Lets take some time to look at these three key ingredients for revival.

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Capturing God’s Heart – Roots – Volume 42

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At Capturing Courage International Ministries we are called to work at the roots of difficulty and despair. Imagine, if you will, a tree. The tree has branches and on these branches there are fruits. The tree has a trunk and connected and below the surface of the soil are the roots of the tree.

Consider that the branches of the tree bear the bad fruit that we see in our communities. There is poverty, sexual abuses, injustice, corruption, educational difficulties, family breakdown, modern slavery, sex trafficking, and more.

Often, we look at these bad fruits and we are drawn to action. Now, action is always good and right and necessary, absolutely necessary. We must enter into these problems and make a better way for everyone involved.

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Hands Off!

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Every once in awhile I come across an indiscretion within the body of Christ. It is something that in some circles is considered normal but ultimately reveals itself to be the precursor to much bad fruit. It is this thing about permission and an assumed ownership of each other’s gifting and callings.

I remember many years ago sitting in a church service listening to a message regarding the verse, “To him who has been given much, much is required” and immediately through my mind ran a litany of all the things I had been given.

Now, the Lord had already been telling me for some years that one day I would be impacting many, many people around the world. I was slowly adjusting to this thought and preparing myself for this work of the Lord that was still off in some distant future.

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Jesus Fully

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I’ve preached once, twice, or three times every single day for more than four weeks now. Along with this preaching I pray for the heart healing, the restoration, and the refreshment of those in each congregation. It is good work.

The power of our healing lies in the work and name of our Lord Jesus Christ. This work was accomplished more than two-thousand years ago. When Jesus went to the cross, died, descended into Hades, and rose again, He entered into our personal hell with his life.

This means that our troubles and traumas are already touched by the healing power of our Lord. The very thing we may be afraid to look at and to enter into, is where He is and already has been.

This means that we must turn from our denial regarding the difficulties that each one of us has personally faced. Jesus died to free you from the smallest hurt in your life. He also died to free you from the biggest harm in your life.

Last night we had chicken for dinner. And as I was picking the meat off of the bones I was reminded (as I often am when I eat chicken in Africa) of Jesus Christ.

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Removing Religion

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We have been just over three weeks in Uganda. It has been an amazing time. The first week we were settling into the routine and rhythm of the complete immersion by which we move. We have stayed in 10 homes so far with each one of them different and lovely.

Our travel days have been long. Usually with 4-8 hours of travel in addition to preaching and ministering on the front or back end of that travel. Everywhere we go people are so thirsty for the word of God and the core of the gospel; we keep coming back to Jesus Christ.

I am convinced that the ‘wide way’ that Jesus spoke of is religion, while the narrow way is himself.

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Capturing God’s Heart – Lament – Volume 41

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Within our Christian cultures we do not often leave room for lament. The ability to lament may have been lost in our excitement over the saving of our Lord and yet, lament still holds an important place in our daily lives and in our walk with God.

To begin with, lament reminds us that we are hopeless without Jesus Christ.

It brings us to the end of ourselves and it is deliberate validation of the pain in our lives; this is key to a healing and releasing of our lives. In order to loose off the pain of our lives that pain must be acknowledged, recognized and spoken for what it is; only then are we are free to go on to forgiveness and the new things that God would have for us.

We read that Jesus was a man of sorrows, and that he wept.

“He was despised and rejected – a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.” Isaiah 53:3

“Then Jesus Wept” John 11:35

Lament brings us past being wounded, to being broken.

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