LouEllen Hoffman November, 1995 @ TWM

Make YOURSELF Great Again!

Something I Must Do Myself!

Yes!   I am taking a political campaign slogan and  want to show you how to apply it to YOUR WALK in Christ!  

          Just a short summary of my walk as a Christian!  My heart was totally and completely given to the Lord at the age of 8 or 9 yrs. old.   I began a platform ministry around the age of thirteen.  Don't get too excited!  There was no other person in our small church who could play an instrument so we had no one who could play music. The summer before I was thirteen, I taught myself how to play the organ.  Crazy huh!  Just so you know, I had an ear for music.  From that day forward I never left the platform until much later in life as a young adult for a few years, then found myself positioned again "on the platform."

           Now here is where things began to get tricky in my walk with the Lord!   I am now interacting with other people in a closer dimension than before.  The pastor begin to express things to me about his expectations for the music.  Soon and very soon (lol that is the words to an old song) others began to have an "opinion" about what they thought about the music.  It was too Fast, too slow, too old, too this or that!  (Hang in here with me....even though most of us have done this ourselves).

       Man O Man!  Who's opinion is RIGHT!  

 Well the answer is:  (trumpet blast)    God's!

Okay!  Let me lay it out for you!

As a Believer we should never "halt between two man's opinions."  (1 Kings 18:21)

Halt Defined:  Standstill; stop, cease moving, operating, etc., either permanently or temporarily

TWO FAST WAYS to HANDLE OTHER PEOPLE'S OPINION!

1. We must Submit to the Authority that is over us. (Apostle, Pastor, Worship Leader, Administrator, Boss....you name it).  We can have an opinion but the ultimate decision is the LEADER!  We must TRUST!

If we never learn to yield up ourselves 

to the wishes of another,  we will never yield to Father God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit, therefore  

stunting our Growth in KINGDOM ADVANCEMENT! 

(Marriage, Business Partners, Team Player) 

   2.  Secondly, we must EXAMINE OURSELVES!   Ask yourself the following:

               What is my motivation in this opinion I have? Why am I even offering this opinion?

               Is this something that I should even give an opinion on?  Is it my "Place" to give it!

               Is it to have my way?  

               Do I have the Mind of Christ in this opinion?  

               Is this what the Holy Spirit is speaking? 

              Have I handled myself CHRIST LIKE in giving this opinion? [anger, wrong attitude]

              Do I Honor & Respect the person to whom is receiving my opinion? .....

 

Can you see how powerful your opinion can be?  It is important to be aware and think about it before inserting so:

 3.  Keep your OPINION to YOURSELF!  
            Wow!  How easy it would be to stay out of conflict if we could just learn to zip it up!

There are lots of other factors in giving your opinion that I have not stated.  My heart motivation for writing this blog post is to show you two quick responses in giving opinions.  Every thing else will flow out of this!

Heavenly Father, I come to you today to confess the times that I have given an opinion and thought that it was the only one of value.  I confess the times that I have offered an opinion when it was not my place to give one, or when I have not handled the giving of the opinion in the right Spirit.  Today Father,  "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Psalms 51:10" 

Arm me with your mind so that I operate in Love when my opinion is needed!  (2 Cor. 2:15)  I thank you for this in Jesus Name!    AMEN! 
         

The Grasshopper Mentality!

       Recently a friend of mine taught a class on "The Grasshopper Mentality."  It was such an eye opening teaching in the fact that what ever we perceive ourselves to be, is the image that other's will see us as....

      He referred us to the book of Numbers 13:33....  (NKJV)

³³  There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and  
we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight." 

              It reminded me that what we think about  ourselves is so very important in this Life!  If you think you are nothing, then others think you are nothing because your actions and behavior will behave as if you are a no body!  On the other side of the coin, if I have confidence in myself, then others will see me as confident!  WOW!  I know that hit some of you right now because you have been seeing yourself as depressed, defeated, sick, tired of fighting, less than...should I go on.  NO!  It stops here and now.

     Let me give you a little encouraging today!  If you are a believer in Christ then your identity is no longer in You!  Your identity is in Christ!

          Identity Defined 
                     1 : the condition of being exactly alike : SAMENESS
                     2 : INDIVIDUALITY 1
                     3 : the fact of being the same person or thing as claimed <prove one's identity>
 

     In Water Baptism, we act out who we are in Christ by acting out His death, buriel, & then resurrection.     We chose to die to self by going in the water.  Going under the water is a sign of our burial, and then when we come out of the water we are acting out His Resurrection.  I am so excited about this because sometimes I forget Who I Am in Christ!  Every time I remind myself of this, that I am no longer Lou Ellen Hoffman, and I have taken on the identity of Christ,  it greatly encourages me.  WHY?

     Because the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead now lives in ME!  (Rom.8:11) Resurrection power lifts me up from depression, feeling defeated, and on and on.  

I IDENTIFY WITH HIM not my humanness!  Glory to God!

    Chose this exact moment to say out loud as my friend says:  I AM NOT A GRASSHOPPER!

Heavenly Father:  Thank you so much today that we do not have to live in despair, not understanding that there is someone on the inside of us who is greater than our human ness.  We choose today to no longer identify ourselves as what our mind speaks to us and what words from others have spoken to us.  That is not Who We Are!  WE ARE NOT GRASSHOPPER'S!  WE ARE GIANTS IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD!  Now let others around us be encouraged by the change they see in our actions, attitudes, and behavior as we move into VICTORY!  In Jesus Name.....Amen