"During the 1957 World Series, Yankee catcher Yogi Berra noticed that Hank Aaron grasped the bat the wrong way.
“Turn it around,” Berra said, “so you can see the trademark.”
But Aaron kept his eye on the pitcher’s mound: “Didn’t come up here to read. Came up here to hit.”i
Simple truth but so much wisdom on the importance of staying focused.
Sometimes the Body of Christ cannot focus because their ground is contaminated…
Mark 4: 1 – 9; 13 – 20 {NKJV}The Parable of the Sower
4 And again He began to teach by the sea. And a great multitude was gathered to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat in it on the sea; and the whole multitude was on the land facing the sea. 2 Then He taught them many things by parables, and said to them in His teaching:
3 “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. 5 Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. 6 But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away. 7 And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. 8 But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.” 9 And He said to them, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”
The Parable of the Sower Explained
13 And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. 16 These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; 17 and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble. 18 Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, 19 and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 20 But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”
When you look at this parable and the explanation you can see what different parts of the Body of Christ are going through.
Some are in good shape, but others are not so good.
God has raised us up as strong towers in this time period to be able to help transition those who are due to come into the kingdom.
We’ve had some tribulations, but our ground is good and we are able to make through these tribulations.
Being honest, you may not like how you feel right now but the good things is that you made it. We are not just surviving but we are thriving in God.
Corporately, God has given us a vision, to win lower Delaware for Christ, that is our assignment.
As we stay focused on this assignment we will stay on track.
The enemies job is to try and get us off track but now is the time that we have to show him that he can’t turn us aside.
He cannot tempt us into saying that this is too hard, I’m too tired, I’m too sick and quit.
The temptation is real right now, but we must focus on God’s will being accomplished.
We have to avoid the distractions that the enemy has placed before us.
Being determined is not enough anymore, we must put our faith into action and trust that God has our best interest at heart.
Singleness of heart and purpose will win the day…
Unity in our purpose will demonstrate our faith and keep us from being pulled down by our circumstances.
1 Corinthians 12: 12 – 26 {NKJV} Unity and Diversity in One Body
12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many.
15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? 18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. 19 And if they were all one member, where would the body be?
20 But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. 21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. 23 And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, 24 but our presentable parts have no need.
But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, 25 that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
So now more than ever we need to see that we need each other.
We must work at staying out of offense and realizing how important we all are.
There is a reason that God put us all together as one Body.
There is a reason that God gave you the giftings that He gave you.
We should never allow the distraction of they are more anointed than me come into our circle.
We should never allow the distraction of my gift isn’t as important as theirs bring discord amongst the Body.
We all need each other.
As we abide in prayer fellowship, God will do His part and remind us and tell us what we need to hear.
He will do what is necessary to guide us down our paths.
The Father wants us all to complete our assignments in His timing and not our own, but we must work at keeping the Unity in the Body.
God is always telling us to keep our eyes upon Jesus.
Keep our focus on Him. If we allow disunity to come in, that’s the very second that our eyes are taken off of Jesus, we lose our focus and then we go down a side road.
Side roads that God never intended for us to be on our distractions that can cause us to lose time and anointing.
Over a century ago, a lion tamer named Clyde Beatty learned a lesson that is so important that it impacts nearly every area of your life today. What was that lesson?
Clyde Beatty was born in Bainbridge, Ohio in 1903. When he was a teenager, he left home to join the circus and landed a job as a cage cleaner. In the years that followed, Beatty quickly progressed from a lowly cage boy to a popular entertainer.
Beatty became famous for his “fighting act” in which he would tame fierce wild animals. At one point, Beatty’s act included a segment where he brought lions, tigers, cougars, and hyenas into the circus ring all at once and tamed the entire group.
But here's the most impressive feat of all… In an era when the majority of lion tamers died in the ring, Beatty lived into his 60s. In the end, it was cancer that took his life, not a lion.
How did he manage to survive? Thanks to a simple idea. Clyde Beatty was one of the first lion tamers to bring a chair into the circus ring. Here's what happened…
The classic image of a lion tamer is one of the entertainer holding a whip and a chair. The whip gets all of the attention, but it’s mostly for show. In reality, it’s the chair that does the important work.
When a lion tamer holds a chair in front of the lion’s face, the lion tries to focus on all four legs of the chair at the same time. With its focus divided, the lion becomes confused and is unsure about what to do next. When faced with so many options, the lion chooses to freeze and wait instead of attacking the man holding the chair.
How often do you find yourself in the same position as the lion? How often do you have something you want to achieve (i.e. lose weight, gain muscle, start a business, travel more)… only to end up confused by all of the options in front of you and never make progress?
Anytime you find the world waving a chair in your face, remember this: all you need to do is commit to one thing.
You have the ability to focus, you just need to choose what to direct it towards instead of acting like the lion and dividing your attention among the four legs of the chair. We all have the ability to focus and concentrate, but only if we decide what is important to us and what we want to commit to accomplishing. The only wrong choice is no choice.ii
We must make a choice in this season to stay focused.
We as children of God have to understand one very important thing about the enemy, if he can get distract us and get our focus away from God, he has done his job.
The interesting thing about the enemy is that he doesn’t necessarily have to kill you or corrupt you, all he really has to do is distract you to stop you from completing your assignment.
In Vietnam, when we entered into that conflict warfare tactics changed.
The enemy spent time developing weapons that wound our soldiers.
It’s one thing if your battle buddy is dead and quite another thing if you or your battle buddy is wounded.
In Vietnam, the enemy was very effective at using this tactic against us.
The enemy can wound you and if you let him, he can take you out of the battle with that wound.
For us this goes back to offenses, if the enemy can come in and have us get offended with each other and then we destroy our own unity… then the enemy has done an effective job.
It would make the enemy happy if we never completed our assignments.
The enemy doesn’t care how many times you go around the mountain of offense he will keep sending you around it if you let him.
Luke 17: 1 – 4 {NKJV} Jesus Warns of Offenses
17 Then He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come! 2 It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. 3 Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. 4 And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.”
So, there are going to be times when offenses will rise but it is our job to not let them stay.
Acts 6: 1 – 7 {NKJV} Seven Chosen to Serve
6 Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, xcbecause their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. 2 Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. 3 Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; 4 but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
5 And the saying pleased the whole multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch, 6 whom they set before the apostles; and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them.
7 Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.
There once was a man who had nothing for his family to eat. He had an old shotgun and three shells. So, he decided that he would go out and kill something for dinner.
As he went down the road, he saw a rabbit and he shot at the rabbit and missed it.
Then he saw a squirrel and fired a shot at the squirrel and missed it.
As he went further, he saw a wild turkey in the tree and he had only one bullet, but a voice came to him and said "pray first, aim high and stay focused."
However, at the same time, he saw a deer which was a better kill. He brought the gun down and aimed at the deer.
But, then he saw a rattle snake between his legs about to bite him, so he naturally brought the gun down further to shoot the rattle snake.
Still, the voice said again to him, "I said 'pray, aim high and stay focused.' "
So, the man decided to listen to the voice. He prayed, then aimed the gun high up in the tree and shot the wild turkey.
The bullet bounced off the turkey and killed the deer. The handle fell off the gun and hit the snake in the head and killed it. And, when the gun had gone off, it knocked him into a pond.
When he stood to look around, he had fish in all his pockets, a dead deer and a turkey to eat. The snake (Satan) was dead simply because the man listened to God.
Moral of the story: Pray first before you do anything, aim and shoot high in your goals, and stay focused on God.iii
Philippians 3: 12 – 16 {NKJV} Pressing Toward the Goal
12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
15 Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. 16 Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.
Paul had focus, Paul knew what his task was to be and he was constantly pressing toward the mark.
We are supposed to press, to strive towards reaching that goal that purpose that God has placed before us…
The enemy didn’t want Paul to complete his purpose.
He didn’t want Paul to finish, and I believe the enemy is trying to work this same plan for each one of us.
If he can keep you distracted and offended, then the enemy has you.
It’s an easy fight for the enemy, you do all the work for him. You wind up defeating yourself.
Let’s not miss what God is doing because we couldn’t stay focused on our purpose.
How many windows and doors have we missed in the past because we allowed ourselves to be distracted by our situations and circumstances? Too many.
I am not saying this for condemnation but to show us how slick the enemy is, he didn’t do anything to us but get us off course and we missed the timing of God.
God is faithful and hasn’t condemned us for getting off course but how much time have we wasted that we don’t have?
Things have already been set in motion for End Time events and we don’t have another 40 years to play in the wilderness.
John 19: 28 – 30 {NKJV} It Is Finished
28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!” 29 Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. 30 So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.
2 Timothy 4: 6 – 8 {NKJV} Paul’s Valedictory
6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.
Finished… Jesus and Paul finished their races.
God intends for each and every one of us to finish our races.
That needs to be a determination in our hearts, to finish.
To touch all of the lives that God has given us to touch.
To finish the assignments that He has placed before us.
As we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, we can walk through any circumstance no matter how big it becomes.
God is going to see us through. The key right now is to stay close to God, and as you stay close to God you will not lose focus upon the task that He has for you.
If we Let’s stay focused, and let’s complete our mission.