There’s a song that we sing in our churches “Who Am I?” We sing about how God is so great and who are we really? Who are we that God would look down upon us to take note of us. So I ask myself tonight, Who Am I? I feel as if my world is one of loss and pain and hurt. I go through my days feeling like the old Greenday song says “My Shadow’s the only one that walks beside me, My Shallow heart’s the only thing that’s beating, Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me, till then I’ll walk alone.” That’s truly how I feel every day. I’m surrounded by people of the same faith. I walk into the classrooms and they are all around me, but I’m alone. I sit down to eat my lunch at a table full of laughter and joy, yet I’m eating at a table by myself. I sing in a choir of 150 voices, but I hear nothing but the cry of my broken heart. How far have I come? Yet how far have I fallen? I believe in my Savior and I believe He ultimately knows what it is that He is doing. I’m not worried about God, I’m worried about me. I’m fallible, He’s not. His will is perfect, I’m the one that limits those possibilities.

Will I ever truly let God have complete control of my life. My history of continuously letting Him yet relinquishing control is getting old to me. I never want to leave His spirit. He’s the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. The problem is that I’m battling inside of myself  against my flesh to figure out who I am in the Ministry and even in my personal life. I’m confused and lost. Who Am I God? That you still anoint me when I’m called upon? Who Am I that you would still seek to use me even with this strife within me?

I wanna serve God, that’s the bottom line. I’m a traditionalist and I believe in holding on to what our forefathers taught. I don’t want to let down or let go of our beliefs. I need God now more than ever to show me Who I Am.

Christmas is coming quick here at IBC, what does that mean? Indiana Bible College Christmas Banquet. It’s that dreaded time of the year where introverts like me want to curl up into a ball and hibernate the next month away. Walking through the hall this morning at IBC you’ll find a table set up in the Student Lobby with Christmas music playing. If you walk up toward the business lobby on the ramp there is a sock monkey ornament hanging from the ceiling with an envelope with a girl’s name on it. Why are these random things going on? It’s a young man’s way of singling a special young woman out to ask her to the banquet. See, for an introvert like me this is a terrible ordeal because we’d rather ask the girl in private so that if the rejection does come then it’s not public. As for me, no I don’t have a banquet date yet. I’m even debating whether I even want to go at this point. Will I survive this Christmas or will I be run over by the sleigh?

So, now I’ve spent my first day in classes at IBC. Been through the Job Fair and everything. I have mixed feelings at the moment but I’m sure everything will work itself out in time. Dorms are nice in part, the other part that’s bad is the shower in our dorm is broke. Yeah, definitely not what I call ideal for my first dorm experience, but for that matter it is a dorm, I guess that’s part of the experience.

So my classes are interesting also. So far I like my teachers, I like the subjects, and my heart is in the learning part. Must be completely honest I can definitely feel that I am away from home and that’s hard to do. I’ve been based out of home for so long and to go from that to being here away from everyone I know, love, and care for, it’s just hard.

But the calling of God is why I’m here and I’m going to attempt to fulfill that calling to become the best servant and minister for the kingdom that I can be. I covet each and every one of your prayers and thank you greatly for them.

IBC

So, I know I don’t post on this much but I figured I’d try… AGAIN… to start posting more. Just wanted to update anyone out there in blog land that might possibly be reading this that I’m about to step into a new aspect of my life. Begin a new Journey if you will. My life will change on January 8th for sure. How exactly this will effect the rest of my life yet, I’m not sure. The fact that it will effect the rest of my life and the rest of my ministry is for sure though.

I’m about to become a new student of Indiana Bible College. I’ve dreamed about this for probably 8 years now. I am not sure if I’m prepared, nor am I sure how I will do in bible college, but I am continuing to pray and ask God for His strength and guidance in this uncharted territory that I am stepping into.

I will admit that I am the type of person who is unaccustomed to change sometimes and quite reluctant to be honest. It’s not that I don’t believe in change because I do. It’s just that I fear my inability to cope with the change and adapt to it.

Regardless of my inabilities though, there is one certain thing. God is my guide and he will not send me to bible college if I’m unprepared to handle the challenges that await me behind the doors of the classrooms. I look forward to the challenges and with the strength of God I will overcome them all!

So as you already know, we’re in a new year. 2010. The first thing that comes to my mind thinking about this new season is, what is this year going to bring? Is it going to be the same as 2009? Is it going to open some doors that I’ve been dreaming about? Or am I going to have to wait longer to see those doors open. I was thinking all these things and more. I was also thinking about the move of God that our  church has been prophesied to about. Our youth group, what does this new year have in store for them? Well my inspiration came when I stumbled across some lyrics to a song on a friends Facebook page. They said this.

It’s a new season, it’s a new day.
A fresh anointing is flowing my way.
It’s a season of power and prosperity.
It’s a new season coming to me.

The devil’s time is up no longer can he bother me,
’cause the Creator of the universe He fathers me,
and it’s transferable my children’s children shall be free;
it’s a new season (it’s a new season).

That spoke to me and and answered my questions. Guys,  yesterday was our past, right now is your future, 5 minutes from now is your future, 5 days from now is your future, 5 months from now is your future. But 5 seconds ago was your past. Right here and now is what we need to focus on. God’s given us a new year, a new season. Those doors are going to open that you walk through and see revival. I believe I’m going to make this song the anthem of our youth group.

The bible says ‘Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. ’ Be encouraged that this new year has brought you new chances. It’s brining that revival you’ve been promised. Don’t be discouraged and give up on t he promises of God.

The truth that there is power in unity is irrefutable. You can look through history, any great movement that’s ever taken place has been by a group of people who all wanted the same thing and come together in unity to accomplish it. More than ever before it is crucial that our churches become unified in the single goal to win souls. We’re living in a day where there is numerous denominations and religions. There’s more separation in the Christian church then there ever has been. You can find churches splitting from their organization on a continuous basis because of a small disagreement that isn’t even a salvation issue. More and more children are growing up in single parent homes or in home with step parents. This is not what God wanted for his children.

A few weeks back we started a youth service every Saturday night at church. We’ve never had anything like this before.  Our Pastor felt that this was the change that needed to be made that would move our youth group in the right direction. We scrambled to get things together. We didn’t have a piano player, music leader, singers, or anything. One stepped up to dedicated their time to finding songs to sing that would be easy for beginning musicians. Some stepped up and said they would do their best singing. Others offered to help with running the sound and video. This was amazing that all these volunteered but what happen next made the difference. If they had went their own ways and the singers all learned different songs and the music director learned her own song and never told them to the musicians or singers, and the musicians practiced songs that no one knew how to sing, then when church started Saturday night you would have had chaos.

Division is one of the tools of the devil. You can look into the hunting habits of the lion. Lions tend to hunt in the early morning or late at night, but if the opportunity arises they will hunt in the middle of the day. You see, when they are hungry they will hunt anytime. The devil is always hungry, he doesn’t care what time of day it is, he’ll always hunt you. Lions also are not really fast, but they hunt some of the fastest animals. In fact such is the disparity between predator and prey that the faster species sometimes don’t even bother to run away at full speed, which must be galling to say the least.

There are two things that help the lion considerably. First they’re incredibly good at hiding and phenomenally patient. Secondly, the antelopes, while physically fast, are mentally not quite so sprightly and pay perhaps too little attention to learning from their mistakes. This reminds me so much about the devil. He is very patient; he can wait till you’re most vulnerable moment. We on the other hand don’t seem to pay enough attention to what is going on. We also don’t seem to learn from the mistakes we’ve already made quick enough. I’ve seen so many people put themselves in positions that they never should have been in.

The devil is hunting each and every one of us. He’s in hiding waiting for you to step away from the herd, and get into territory you have no business as a Christian being in. The devil is going to be like the lion, he will pick off the ones on the outsides of the herd so that the others won’t notice. There is power in unity. When you begin to unify with those around you then the devil has a much harder time getting to you. He’s going to pick out the ones on the edge of the youth group, on the outsides of the church, those that are the gossipers, and the hypocrites. It’s time that we begin to come together in unity. I don’t mean just leave the struggling ones out on the edge to be picked off, it’s time we pick them up, encourage them.

We’re in the roughest time our country has faced in a long time, it’s not time to give place to the devil and let him take our family and friends. It’s time that we pick them up, bring them into the circle, and create a unity that the devil can’t penetrate. The Word says “And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” Eccl 4:12. Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s time that we stand up together against the devil. It’s time that we bind together in unity to withstand the devil. Alone he may take us, but when we unify in the name of Jesus, he doesn’t stand a chance. No longer do we need to half heartedly give ourselves to the work of the lord as the lion’s prey half heartedly run away. It’s time we take the whole Word of God, and we begin to stand on that Rock that is Christ, the one whom with him all things are possible. It’s time we dedicated our lives to a higher cause in unity with our brethren and begin to take the Word to all those that are separated and alone in this dark world, Bring the light that is Christ to their lives and let them stand in his marvelous light in unity to create the greatest force this world has ever seen.

Yours in Christ, James Mitchell

So I’ve been meaning to do this for quite some time now. I’ve moved my blog to another site, and I’ve switched to WordPress.org . I must admit that I am extremely pleased with how this is set up and the simplicity of editing post. I hope that all of you will continue to read my blog even though I have moved it to a new site and changed it’s name.

With new improvements comes the inevitable desire and pleasure of more updates. The choices spoken up in the previous post have been made and life is moving forward in the calling of God. It’s truly amazing how much God will work in our lives if we will just allow him to do so. Just because choices are made once does not mean that we must not continue steadfast in prayer and fasting though.  I pray that God will use me to touch lives through these simple writings. The desire to be a willing vessle will not go unnoticed by God. But I was thinking about something today that really hit me hard in the heart. God’s word tells us ‘despise not the day of small things.’ That should be in the heart of all young ministers, including myself. This may be a small thing, but I pray God will use it to touch lives. God bless you all, yours in Christ, James Mitchell.

Sometimes we find ourselves at a crossroad in our lives that we’ve
came to before. The tricky part of this situation is do you take the
road you traveled before or do you take a new path?

You see, I am at that crossroads and I desperatly need to make a decision. But I don’t want to step out of the will of God. So if you guys could help pray an mention to God to help me make this decision then I would greatly appretiate it!

So I’m doing laundry tonight and I decided to sit down and I had music playing for the past few hours on the computer before I sat down, so I sat down and put my headphones on and the song I hear is “Blessed Be Your Name.” I suddenly felt the urge to write, what is in a name anyway? What’s so big about the name? What’s so special? How come we stress the name so much?
The Name of Jesus! Why is it stressed so much? Because that Identifies and recognizes from who we are blessed. See, the bible says in Deuteronomy 6:4 ‘Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD’. You see, there is only ONE. There’s not two or three. Jesus was God, he wasn’t God the Son. He was God. John 10:30 ‘I and my Father are one.’

You see, the significance is realizing that he wasn’t just a person, he was God in the flesh, 1 Timothy 3:16 ‘And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.’

Jesus Christ. So what is this Christ part? Christ is the English term for the Greek Χριστός (Khristós) meaning “the anointed”.[1] It is a translation of the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ (Mašíaḥ). The term “Christ” was a title rather than a proper name. See, Jesus was the one spoken of and prophesied about. If you’ll notice Christ derives from Messiah. So what does Messiah mean? Messiah – an expected deliverer.

See, there is Power in the Name. If we struggle with bondage, there is deliverance in the Name. I remember when I was younger I was baptized in the “name of the father, son and the Holy Ghost” and they dunked me. Well, to be honest I felt there was more. It was years later that I realized the importance that Jesus said “John 5:43 I am come in my Father’s name”, and the Son was Jesus, and then Jesus said “John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name.” Wow, you mean all three of those can be said as the Name of JESUS?

So lets also look into the Book of ACTS. The Apostles and Disciples didn’t go fourth and baptise with titles. They baptized In the name of Jesus Christ.

So with all of this said, I was thinking about how BLESSED we as Apostolics are to have the full revelation of the Power of the name of Jesus. That he wasn’t just a Son of a living God, but he was the Living God! And thanks to his decision to robe himself in flesh and die on a cross, we’re blessed to be able to call on that blessed name and see our mountains fall, our enemies surrender, our needs met.

If you find yourself in a valley, hanging onto the side of a mountain, encamped about by your enemies, struck between the choice of right and wrong, you can always call on the name of Jesus and God will bless you with understanding, guidance, direction, LOVE, and power.

Yours in Christ,
James Mitchell