Category Archives: Capturing Courage Daily

Everything that doesn’t fit in elsewhere lands here. A smattering of thought and action from which we take courage for each day.

The Second Witness

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008 compressedThe Bible time and time again speaks about the second or third witness. How when two or more are gathered in the Lords name, that what is asked for is done, (Matthew 18:19). That in matters of law and court, that a second witness is the necessary piece, (2 Corinthians 13:1).

In light of this need for testimony and the importance of a second witness all through scriptures, imagine this:

You are standing. On your right is God and what God says about you. The beautiful, encouraging, affirming, loving words over your life.

On your left side, is Satan and what Satan says about you. The ugly, slanderous, condemning, hateful words about your life.

And in all that God is declaring are the good plans for you, the life he has available, the ministries and influences, the good works, made just for you.

In all that Satan is declaring are the destruction, the losses, the chaos and degradations, and all that Satan seeks to rob from you.

God is declaring about your future, declaring his love for you, declaring hope and a promise of life.

Satan is spewing hatred and shame about your past, spewing condemnation and death.

Two voices. Two intentions. One for life and purpose, the other for death and loss.

And you, standing between the two, hearing both, you provide the second witness.

You, by your words and actions declare if you are agreeing with Satan or with God. You are the second witness.

As we read in Isaiah 43:12

“I declared and saved and proclaimed, when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and I am God.”

We read about John, “He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.”  1:7

Is your life, your words, your actions, the decisions you are making, the way you are living, do these things bear witness to God or to Satan?

Do we bear witness to the light, to life, to miracles, to the Spirit, to the goodness of God, or not?

Some years ago I was working through sexual abuse memories and had been delving into the resulting destructive behaviors in my life, looking for the Lord’s healing and freedom.

And in the midst of that particular summer, when I starkly and with raw emotion saw the destruction over my life, the initial attacks, my own crippling dysfunctions and immense hatreds, into that ugly process the Spirit asked me this,

“In light of all that has gone wrong in your life. In light of all that is ugly and oh so wrong,

Will you love me?

Will you trust me?

Will you know me to be good?”

It was an experience of being at the cross once more, of seeing the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, and the salvation of Christ, and deciding once more, do I want him and will I accept him?

Will we agree with God’s words over my life, or will we agree with the attacks of Satan over my life?

Looking back, I clearly see that in light of all the evil and ugly in my own life, it was a time of decision – to whom would I give witness?

It lands with us. We either give witness to the enemy in our lives or to God in our lives. Not both. For a divided house will fall, (Luke 11:17). We must choose and live accordingly.

Choosing to be a second witness for the Lord has us doing a few things:

1. We let go of needing God to make account of our life. We let God off the hook, so to speak, about the things that have gone wrong.

2. We move our gaze from what has been to what will be. Our focus shifts from the past to the present and the future. We grow forward.

3. In this we surrender our past to the Lord. We give it over as a gift of sorts, allowing the full working of God through it. We let it go and put it into his hands.

The attitudes of our heart shifts to:

1. Worship – we give God the praise.

2. Gratitude – our hearts are grateful.

3. Trusting – our future rests in the Lord.

As the second witness we choose how our life will go. Our words and actions are incredibly powerful and as a second witness they speak volumes.

Step back from your own life for a moment. Think of just yesterday and the things you chose to do, the manner in which you acted, the words that came from your mouth, as well as the self-talk that was in your head and heart.

To whom were you giving second witness to? Did your thoughts reflect the truth that God speaks over you and others, or did your thoughts reflect the lies that Satan speaks over you. To whom are you in agreement?

With a bit of introspection and prayer we can look at all areas of our lives and the way we go about living and see quite easily where we are agreeing with God or not.

The point of course being, that we want to be the second witness to God in our lives, not the enemy.

The things of the enemy have a spirit of:

1. Condemnation

2. Criticism

3. Doubt

4. Fear

And much more. Agree with these things in either emotion, thought, word, or action and you will get what you are focusing on. Make choices based on fear and you will strengthen the stronghold of fear on your life. Speak words riddled with doubt and you will increase the doubt in your life. Literally.

The things of God are marked by:

1. Acceptance

2. Courage

3. Grace

4. Generosity

And much more. Agree with these things in either emotion, thought, word, or action and you will receive back your investment. Make choices based on generosity and you will live an expansive open life. Speak words laden with grace and you will live life flavored  by grace.

The manner by which you do life is completely and 100% yours to decide. No one is living your life but you. To whom will you give witness?

:::   :::   :::

This is an excerpt from our Walking in Spiritual Authority Discipleship Course

To support this course around the world Donate Here

Pain Upon Pain

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Mbale March 2012 331

Before my first trip to Uganda I inquired of the Lord, “Why me?”

“Why is it so important that I, a simple woman from Surrey, go to Africa?”

While God had been telling me for quite some time about the work to come, I still didn’t completely get it, “Why me?”

Like all queries I held this one open before the Lord and waited on the answer, and within a few weeks time, I had my answer.

I was in conversation with a pastor who had been partnering in Uganda for nine years. And over tea he spoke about his experiences, and in the midst spoke this one sentence, “There is so much pain upon pain.”

Bingo! Then I knew why I was going to Africa and beyond.

Through my own journey I’ve come to learn and carry the authority to speak into pain upon pain, and loose it off of folks. It’s been my own journey and now I give it out to others.

There is a single sentence in Jeremiah 22:3 that says, “Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed.”

This is what we do. You can read more about it HERE>

My first trip to Uganda I met many lovely people. One couple really stood out to me. They were beautiful, alive, and obviously delighted with each other. He helped to get me around on his boda-boda, she gave me her scarf one evening. They were friends I’d simply not yet met.

The next time I was there, some four months later, there was trouble. Violence and disruption had entered the home, and the light was going from her eyes.

Another three months passed and I was there once again. This time, things were really not well. He had taken a second wife. Her world had collapsed. She was the primary caretaker of some 12 children and the second wife was giving no assistance.

Besides that, her heart was broken. She was deeply grieving. And the woman I’d known to be so energetic and delightful was somber and sad. Deeply sad.

The change and the sorrow, and the rage of my own heart, as I watched this play out reminds me of why I am going to these places. It is to ease sorrows.

The Lord gives me pictures you see. And I then simply pray into them.

On my first trip as we went from one elderly home to another, we came to a lovely older woman sitting serenely on her mat in front of her house.

As my companion spoke with her, I saw a picture of many arrows lodged in her body. So I asked my companion to inquire of her, “Was there ever a time when many bad things happened to you all at once?”

She replied a simple, “Yes.”

So right there I prayed away those ‘arrows’. The attacks upon a life can in fact be rendered null and void when the blood and name of Jesus Christ are spoken over that life.

Everywhere I went the most common testimony was, “You’ve just taken us to the next level Cyndy.”

But of course, it wasn’t me, it is the power of Jesus Christ.

You see, it is not the lack of physical things per se that have us in pain. It is not a simple life that bears down upon us. There is something much more going on behind the scenes.

Our hearts that bear too much for too long need healing, releasing, freedom. Quite simply, the touch of Jesus Christ. This is the primary work of Capturing Courage Int’l.

We are praying away that pain upon pain, easing emotions, releasing strongholds.

I’m praying for my friend who no longer has a husband, who has been relegated to the ‘other wife’. I pray for their children. For though their situation is humble, there was order and discipline and amazing peace in their home, before the pain began.

Jesus Christ came to heal pain upon pain, to carry it himself so that we don’t have to. It’s the least we can do, declaring this around the world.

Amen and amen – to God be the glory.

Nothing

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god and us pic 4We used to think that Jesus died on the cross to detour us around our worst case scenarios.

While our years are full of the good and the bad and the ugly, we prefer to bring only our good to the Lord.

Yet this isn’t what Christ died for.

The cross is planted in the darkest pits of our realities, past or present.

After all, life has swallowed up death and the light has invaded the darkness.

If we are detoured around it all, death is not swallowed up and light doesn’t invade.

As believers though, we can often just want to get to the good stuff. We want the high of salvation without the depths of repentance and sorrow.

We want the feel good of forgiveness without ever once really looking our sin in the eye.

But this doesn’t work. Skimming over our darkness means we get a surface coat of Christ.

Wouldn’t you like more of him than that?

How much saving would you like?

How much do you need?

That is exactly how much you will get. I’m pretty sure, there is even more for you, if you’ll just pick up your cross and follow Christ.

p.s. Once you’ve followed Christ into and through your personal darkness, nothing is scary anymore.

Nothing

Have you Drank from Marah Yet?

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Baptisms in UgandaA tiny passage in Exodus sums up the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Israelites were moving away from Egypt, away from the Red Sea and through the desert of Shur (15:22).

Very thirsty they came to a spring of water that was unfit to drink. It was bitter and the people complained against Moses who was leading them (15:24)

Moses then cried out to the Lord for help, upon which we read the simple answer. Here is a piece of wood, throw it in the water and the water will be sweet and fit to drink (15:25).

I cannot help but realize that the wood tossed into the water at Marah was a prophetic act turning out attention to the cross.

For the cross does this exact thing. The cross of Christ has turned bitter water sweet.

Where all has been bitter the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ changes the context completely.

Instead of threat of death, we have sweet life.

Instead of fear of thirst, we are confident of provision.

Instead of bitter, life is eased, and expanded, and multiplied (go on to read through Exodus 15:27).

For those of us who walk with Christ we are called to the same ministry.

Our presence and our manner is meant to eliminate assignments unto death (we do not cooperate with condemnation), faith is meant to ease fear and the complaining that goes with it, and we are meant to bring a fragrance of Christ whereby the sweet returns to our days experiences.

This is the work of believer and of the church.

The entire conversation has been changed in the person of Jesus Christ. No longer need we nit-pick, no longer need we live in fear, no longer are we party to condemnation. Rather, we realize there is enough for everyone and we live this out in the world.

We realize that ‘bitter’ is part of the old way, the new way is ‘sweet’, we therefore bring gladness to the hearts around us, we open up the way for others.

Poverty and neglect shuts down options. Love opens it all back up again.

The church is called to love, but to do this it has to stop needing to be right, stop requiring payment for offenses, and stop keeping church life small and narrow.

A church that is pinched and suspicious, critical and condemning, hasn’t yet drank at the now-sweet waters of Marah, and hasn’t yet moved on to the oasis of Elim – God help us walk in grace and the work of Jesus Christ.

For otherwise, we may as well go back to Egypt.

Investing Mommyness

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real emotions and strong livesI began my own mothering journey some twenty-five years ago. At the time I had no idea the years to come and the full hearts and years of being a Mom.

Today I look back and I am simply so glad that I invested years into the lives of my children. I’m also deeply thankful for the profound strengths that they built into me.

The journey of motherhood is fraught with emotion and momentum, with service beyond what we think we can do, and with the unaccountable at every turn. Mothering is hard work.

Yet the privilege of carrying lives in our hearts is just that, a profound privilege.

And it is not unlike our opportunity in service to others around our world. All ministry is the heart of a mother’s heart. It is the courage to carry another in the heart, to resonate with dreams and priorities different than our own.

Being a Mom simply makes our hearts bigger – and into this expanded place of love we have much to pour out into other lives. Once made strong we have strength to give to others.

This is the privilege of being a Mom.

It is meant to take us beyond ourselves, and into the world.

Our bodies, as women, are prohibited from bearing children for our entire lives. It appears that the Lord set it up so our years as Mom would in fact be limited, for there is just so much more of the world that needs the strength of Moms.

The lessons learned as Mom are to be taken out there. While we are nurtured in our homes and with our families, the goal of all nurturing is to make strong people, to instill confidence and skill sets that can serve a wider audience.

This applies to Moms as well. The most resilient and strong people on the planet are Moms.

So, harness up your life, and invest it in something bigger than yourself. You’ve already been doing this for years no doubt, where might you like it to go now?

What Have You Learned?

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008 compressedIt is nearly a year ago that a friend said to me, “Cyndy, can you write a book about spiritual authority?”

My gut response was an immediate ‘Yes’ and within two weeks I had downloaded nearly 20,000 words from my heart and head onto paper. I quickly realized that the topic was one I had barely talked about, but had been living for well over a dozen years.

Although I had been blogging for over three years I had rarely touched on the topic of spiritual authority. It never seemed quite the time or place, and to be quite frank, I didn’t realize the wealth of knowledge and wisdom I had accumulated on the subject. Until my friend prodded me.

In the months following I continued to work at articulating and fine-tuning, writing and organizing the material, we at Capturing Courage began to realize that this was the primary job at this time: Prepare and work through, present and make ready, a course on Walking in Spiritual Authority.

What is most stunning to me as I work on this material, is the disquieting reality that all those years of my being in the fiery furnace of life, of entering into the dark pit of my own heart and soul, of coming to find God’s heart in the worst of circumstance, all of it, all those years … were the work.

I’m only now recording it all.

Not my story so much, but the story of God and the way this entire universe (and our lives) operates around the outflow of our Lord.

There is a small group taking our Walking in Spiritual Authority course this year here in the Vancouver area, and in less than two weeks our first pilot project of the re-crafted Part One – The King’s Heart will begin in Madudu, Uganda.

Thank-You to those who donated to free my time and focus to work on the re-crafting of the material for our overseas pastors. Continue to pray for me as I finish this over the next week.

Your take-away today: never discount the experiences and the lessons learned in your every day.

I thought I was just living my life (and in many ways it was a mess at the time), but it turns out that the heart of God, the wisdom found, the principles of the kingdom of God experienced, are now the basis for a work that will bless thousands of people around the world.  Who’d a thunk.

Never discount your journey – rather harness it for the encouragement and edification and building up of others.

Fasting Unto the Lord

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P1290233 compressedThis is the fasting that God wants: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you.

Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless.

Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help.

Then your salvation will come like the dawn, and your wounds will quickly heal. Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.

Then you will call, the Lord will quickly answer, ‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.

Remove the heavy yoke of oppression. Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors! Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble.

Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.

The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength.

You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring.

Some of you will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities.

Then you will be known as a rebuilder of walls and a restorer of homes.

Isaiah 58:6-12

Crux of the Matter

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Life and LegacyAt Capturing Courage we have been grappling with sorrow these last few days. Some sad things have taken place and we’ve simply found ourselves before the Lord – disillusioned, sad, questioning, in shock.

Concurrent to this I’ve been working on Workbook 3 of our Walking in Spiritual Authority course. Now spiritual authority is all about waging war of sorts. It’s about standing firmly against what should not be happening, and yet, and YET the real fight… is a fight for life.

Sorrow, I find, brings me right back to the crux of what we are about. Who are we in the world? What are we to be about? How might we engage and advocate?

While it takes a certain kind of strength to reconcile death, it takes a completely different kind of strength to fight for life.

At CCI we are engaging the fight for life.

Spiritual authority played out correctly brings about more life, greater strength, deeper affirmations. Just to name a few.

It’s not about keeping others low, its not about micromanaging lives, its not about any kind of say or permission.

It’s all about expanding our opportunities together, its all about engaging that risks to give our lives away, its all about lifting everyone around us to that next level.

We agree with what the enemy is saying about us (and others) or we agree with what God is saying about us (and others), simple as that. This is spiritual authority either gone bad or done right.

The choice is up to each one of us. Where we agree with the enemy we end up with death. Where we agree with the Lord we end up with life.

You and I declare the second witness.

What are you agreeing to?

 

Anointing

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Anointing

Anointing – I wrote this today over on my cyndylavoie.com site – enjoy!

I am always struck by the story in Mark 14 of the woman anointing Jesus’ feet.

Now I have anointed people. Quite regularly the Spirit leads me to place my hands on someone, often a client I am working with, a Pastor overseas whom I’ve been ministering alongside, or a fellow prophet here at home, and I know the ‘work’ of anointing.

There is an authority in anointing that is unlike any other kind of work. It is a work that goes beyond simple affirmation to that place of allowing God’s power to flow through and onto another for an express purpose in the Spirit realm.

It is also a work that taxes ones being. There is always ‘power that has gone out’ to quote Jesus words (when another woman touched the hem of his robe one day).

Anointing requires an investment of self in a way, it is an opening of one’s spirit to allow the breath of God to blow through onto another, with the velocity and strength of the anointing differing from one person to another as determined by the Lord.

It’s why the story of the woman at Jesus’ feet, with her alabaster jar of expensive perfume stands me in delight and wonder at the spiritual and personal investment she made at that moment.

We think the expense was the perfume, but imagine if you will being the one compelled to anoint the son of God.

What kind of risking, what kind of surrender, what kind of eyes that could see bigger than her immediate circumstances and the norm of her day.

She was called into a holy act that would have her putting all of her own self aside, her self talk, her insecurities, her concern with what others might think, everything would have been put aside to enter into a simple yet profound act of service.

Thing is, we too are called to such humility.

We are called to the same kind of surrender.

Called into a way of being that puts our own selves aside, where we ignore our insecurities, where we say ‘shush’ to the naysayers, and where in accord with the compelling of God almighty we simply invest ourselves in profound acts of service.

To our King and one to another.

Hiding in Plain Sight

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P1320276 compressedI’ve been spending a lot of time working on Walking in Spiritual Authority. Both the manuscript and the course are well under way.

Into the mix there has been a heavenly peace superseding and surrounding us at Capturing Courage. And I am reminded of late that the task of identifying our Spiritual Authority can be an interesting and lengthy process.

Most of the time it is right in front of us, and yet we often miss it.

I was at the local T&T market the other day. This is an small Asian supermarket that I frequent, and this day I was looking to buy some cream and some tea.

Now I am a tea snob. Just ask anyone. It has to be made just the right way (cream and sugar and tea bag combined before the hot water is poured in), and with just the right kind of tea. Tetley is my favorite.

There I was, Saturday morning out of tea and on the search. Now T&T, being an Asian store, does not have everything that I would normally find in any other supermarket, and I wasn’t too sure I’d find Tetley Tea there.

I stood in the aisle before some 60 square feet of various teas. In boxes and tins and bags, most of which I couldn’t read, I searched and looked and perused.

And then I searched and looked and perused some more, “Dang it, I just might have to buy that Red-Rose Tea instead!” I muttered to myself.

Yet I reasoned that maybe there was an exotic Asian black tea that would be a delight to try. So I kept standing there, rooted in the same spot, searching, looking, and perusing some more.

And there – after a full 4-5 minutes of standing there – right in front of my face, was the Tetley Tea.

Right in front of my face, not 20 inches away.

Wow. Now if I’d not stood there for the vast length of time that I had, I would have missed it. I would have bought something in a settling sort of way – a giving up kind of gesture.

Thank-You Lord that I stood there long enough.

But of course, I tell this story because it indicates so much more than tea.

How many things are right in front of our faces that we miss?

What might be right there that we are not getting?

I seriously wonder.

Our spiritual authorities hide like this.

The parts of us harnessed forward in and through the Kingdom of God are always right in front of our faces.

Somehow we look for the magnificent, the grand, the extravagant. But the deepest works of the Lord through us to others comes in what feels very easy and normal and ordinary ways.

It’s right in front of us, and we easily miss it.

It’s not about what we do. It’s about who we are, that piece of our DNA through which the living breath of our Holy Spirit blows and where the finger of God mixes our bits with much impact.

What might your spiritual authority be?

Find out more about Walking in Spiritual Authority HERE

A Gift of Contrition

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P1340113 compressedGood Friday. A day of juxtapositions. A day of death and a day of hope. A day of torture and a day that frees our souls. A day of everything gone wrong and everything set right.

The gift of Good Friday is the gift of repentance.

A day that forever more opens up opportunity to put our lives out on the table, say it like it is, all the good the bad and the ugly, and find sweet relief.

It is a day that marks a new freedom to confess, to say ‘I did that’ and to be released.

Released from the guilt and the shame and regret. A day for new beginnings. Fresh starts.

We cannot talk about freedom until we have talked about repentance. For freedom only comes on the back-side of our admitting what has not gone so well; the back-side of our acknowledging where in fact it has gone very badly.

It is a crises of our psych’s to admit wrong-doing and less-than living. An incredibly vulnerable moment when we do not know if a sword will fall or a hand will be extended.

Before the cross, before the King of Kings, what is the verdict? In the deepest parts of our being our hearts are unsure.

It is only as we come with nothing left to lose that we find grace and mercy and freedom.

The blood of Jesus shed on Calvary truly washes away our sin.

We are new creatures. Fresh. Alive. Free.

We find upon repentance that Jesus has in fact already claimed 100% responsibility for your and my sin and all the resulting ramifications.

“You didn’t do that, I did” Jesus declares.

Bring to mind the worst thing you’ve ever done. It doesn’t have to be big, it may be very small, but it is that thing that won’t leave you. That act or word or decision that never leaves you. That haunts you day and night. That though you move forward in all of life that one thing feels like a mill-stone about your neck.

About that thing, Jesus declares, “You didn’t do that, I did. I’ve taken responsibility and though you cannot see it I am working behind the scenes of your life that all the ugly and the nasty might be leveled off and made smooth. Made right. You didn’t do that thing, I did.”

But of course, those denying and refusing to acknowledge whats gone wrong through them, will never receive this gift.

Life is for those who admit they are dying.

Denials of heart and mind are found in all walks and stations around the world. Some of the deepest denials are those of believers, those of Christians who’ve managed to live lives of restraint and caution and prudence, but cannot see their own hearts judgments and condemnations.

These are the worst sins of all. Believers impervious to saving grace.

Believers still counting on their good works and their prudent lives to save them. It doesn’t work this way.

At the cross we are all on level ground. Every single one of us. And where we are angry for the grace and mercy shown another, we will not receive it ourselves.

Think of the kind of person that offends you to your very core. Bring to mind the kinds of acts that disgust you. Imagine the depths of horrors perpetrated on innocents around the world.

And get it, that that one stands beside you at the cross. That one is right there, elbow to elbow with you. That one has access to the same grace that you have.

Two very different lives standing before the cross. One clean and unsmeared. The other filthy and degrading. Stand equal at the cross.

For those who’ve lived ‘good’ lives this should break us. We are no better. In fact, unless we can find the core of our sin we will be worse off.

For the cross is for those who repent. The gift is given only to the contrite.

“Jesus I come to you today with parts of my life deeply offensive to you. I am sorry. Today I give over my life and take on your life. You have shown us the way to God and I say thank-you. Please teach me how to live and in fact, I now depend on you to transform me from the inside out, something I’ve never been able to do myself. I welcome you Jesus into my life. Thank-you for loving me. Amen”