I love God’s law with all my heart.

But there is another power?? within me that is at war with my mind. 

Rom 7:22-23

I recently read a disturbing article about a church planter wife who literally gave up the fight in the ultimate way, by taking her own life.  I don’t know any details of her life or what would drive her to do such a drastic thing, but we all know too well the pressures of starting and leading a new church.  I was reminded of our need for support, for each other, and for the encouragement to “fight the good fight” (1Tim 6:12) and to “not grow weary in doing good” because we will reap a harvest in the proper time if we don’t lose heart. (Gal 6:9)

But, I’m afraid these “encouragements” might not be the right truth to apply to the wounds of a person who is too far down that road of despair.  I can imagine that “Keep fighting” and “Don’t give up” could feel like a whip cracking on the back of someone who has already given up hope, is tired, despondent and depressed. These words, though powerful reminders, don’t put practical weapons in their hand.  How do you fight the good fight, especially when you are tired, wounded, disheartened and depressed?  I’m just guessing that a vast majority of us have been there, or will be.  We live on the front lines after all.  We are taking ground from the enemy.  Flaming arrows are constantly coming our way.  We didn’t sign up for church planting because we thought it would be easy!

Let me share a practical weapon that I learned to wield from my father and mentor in the faith, Jeff Floyd.  When I have taken time to work through this process, or to help others work through the process, it has truly been transformational.  We know from scripture that we are “transformed by the renewing of our mind” (Rom12:2), so our thoughts are at the center of the battle.  A million things a day stimulate thoughts in us.  Those thoughts are what precipitate a certain action. (If we hadn’t had that particular thought we might not have done that particular action.) That action leads to certain reactions, by us or others around who were acted on.  Those reactions are likely to then stimulate further thoughts in us that cause us to go around the same or a similar path over and over. 

Now this process is not necessarily a bad thing, as long as our thoughts are in line with Christ’s teaching.  That’s the key. 2 Corinthians 10:5 says that we need to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. When our thinking is out of line with Christ and takes us in the wrong direction again and again, forming a habit, we can find ourselves enslaved to that mindset and trapped in wrong attitudes and behaviors that lead to frustration, despair and depression.

Let’s make it practical now and follow the diagram with an example.  Let’s imagine something goes wrong in our church plant.  That’s not hard to imagine.  Ministry is constantly messy.  Things don’t go the way we would have liked, people mess up, fail to follow through, oppose us or don’t live up to our expectations.  Any of these could be the “stimulus” that gets us going. Let’s imagine, just hypothetically, that our immediate thought is “We’re failing as leaders”, or “We’re not good enough”, or maybe even “We might not make it as a church.” Any of these ungodly thoughts could easily lead to the action of “striving”.  Just work harder.  Figure this out. Try this model instead. We could spend hours and days struggling, trying hard, fighting to overcome this mess.  The inevitable reaction is “weariness”.  It’s tiring to constantly fight and strive. Now what happens when our button is pushed again when we are already weary?  Another mess comes up and a few more times around instead of just weariness we turn to despair, then depression, then who knows what.  The underlying faulty belief system that is feeding this cycle is that “if we do things right then everything should run smoothly”.  The prevailing spirit that results in this situation is “frustration”. 

But it doesn’t have to continue like this!  We have the choice to take our thought captive before it wreaks more havoc in our minds, hearts and ministries!  Instead of one of those ungodly thoughts, let’s choose something wholesome like “Here’s an opportunity for God to shine and me to learn”, or “I am not in control, but God is”, or “Here’s a mess, but God has an answer”.   Where does that lead us?  An expected action might be something like “quietness and trust” (Is 30:15) or “resting in God”.  Then the resulting reaction is “strength” and “joy”.  Now when the next mess comes up, the joy of the Lord is your strength!  The belief system that is being fed by this is that “ministry is messy but God is in control and His plans will prevail”.  The prevailing spirit in this scenario is “satisfaction”.

Of course, this is just one example of the many many situations you face in ministry and life and the many many ways your thoughts and actions could go.  Try working through this for something specific that has you stuck in your ministry, your marriage or your relationship with your kids.  Focus on very specific thoughts and actions.  You might have to start with an action or reaction that you know is not right and work your way back to determine what thought led you there.  God will be faithful to help you replace your ungodly thoughts.

There may be a power that is warring against your mind (Rom7:23), but God’s Spirit gives us the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16) and  “you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory… because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world (1John 4:4)!

If you’ve been in church planting for any length of time, even if you are pre-launch, you’ve probably experienced some spectacular victories but also some stinging defeats. Have you ever found yourself metaphorically  flat on your church planting face wondering what in the world you tripped over and how in the world you missed it?  Well, you are not alone.  It happens to the best of church planters and it happened to another great conqueror centuries ago. 

Joshua found himself flattened after the humiliating defeat at Ai.  It was a small town and the leaders of Joshua’s intelligence department had decided they didn’t need to spend too much effort taking them off the map. Other cities had appeared much more daunting.  This one should have been a quick conquest.  Instead they were “soundly defeated”, according to Joshua 7:4.  The leaders of Israel were dismayed (vs6) and cried out to God, “Why did you bring us across the Jordan River if you are going to let the Amorites kill us?”  Have you ever been there before?  “God, why did you move our family across the country to this God-forsaken city if you are just going to let us die at the hands of our own launch team (or whatever your latest struggle has been)?”  The Israelites never saw this one coming and were ready to pack it up.

Instead of losing ground, God helped them find the source of their defeat and ready themselves for the next battle.  He told them, “Hidden among you, O Israel, are things set apart for the Lord.  You will never defeat your enemies until you remove these things.” (Josh 7:13)  Before their previous battle at Jericho God had given them explicit instructions on what things should be completely destroyed (things from the pagan nations Duet 20:17) and what things should be taken as plunder for the treasury of the Lord (anything silver, gold, bronze or iron Josh 6:18). Achan had ignored God’s instructions and taken a Babylonian robe (definitely from a pagan nation) as well as some silver and gold.  The robe should have been destroyed altogether and the silver and gold was meant to be redeemed for God’s Kingdom.

We too must be careful to eradicate anything connected to the enemy and present or surrender to God anything that can be redeemed for His glory and use if we expect to win battles in His name.  Things connected to the enemy could be any old ungodly habits like stretching the truth just a hair to make us look better, or saying just a little more than we should have about that person “in the name of a prayer request”.   Other things connected to the enemy could be any beliefs that are not based on God’s word– beliefs about your city, your sister churches, your launch team, beliefs about yourself- your weaknesses or your strengths, beliefs about sin, authority, etc. etc.  These things have to go if they do not line up exactly with the Word of God.  They have to be wiped out of our lives, thoughts and actions.  They are connected to the enemy and keep us from being holy.

Other things from our conquests are meant to be presented to God for His Kingdom and glory.  If we take them for ourselves we jeopardize our next step.  Things meant to be surrendered to Him include the glory of our “success”, the skills and talents we possess that have only been heightened and strengthened through church planting,  the people we have discipled (who might need to be sent on to another new church, city or country).  These things, though good and pure like gold, in the wrong hands (ours) become a millstone around our neck and will only sink us.  We must give back to God anything that can be redeemed for His purposes.

The best part of this story is that “The Defeat AT Ai” becomes “The Defeat OF Ai”.  Once Israel rectified their wrong, God sent them right back to the place they had been defeated in order to conquer the land as His own.  “Then the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Point your spear toward Ai, for I will give you the city.’” (Josh 8:18)  Ai was wiped out that day. It was completely destroyed.

What is a place of former failure for you?  Allow God to show you what went wrong.  Where did you trip up?  What needs to be surrendered to Him?  What needs to be destroyed?  After you ponder these questions and act on the answers, then get back in there and take the land for your King!

There is a story in 2Kings 3 about the king of Moab rebelling against Joram, king of Israel. King Joram

calls Jehoshaphat king of Judah to go with him to fight against the king of Moab. They set out along with the king of Edom and after 7 days of what the scriptures call a “round about march in the desert”, they have run out of water for themselves and their animals. They decide to seek the council of Elisha because Jehoshaphat says the word of the Lord is with him. Elisha instructs them to make the valley full of ditches. He tells them that even though they will not see rain the valley will be filled with water and they and their animals will drink. Then he says to them, “This is an easy thing in the eyes of the Lord.” (vs. 18)

Several years ago, in the beginning of our ministry, the Lord spoke to my husband and me told us that we were in a hard place but it wasn’t what we thought because nothing is hard for him. At the time things were very hard and I was very focused on the circumstances around me. I began to ask myself this question. If the hard place is not what I think then what is it? I asked the Lord to show me.

We live in a very instant society and we like answers right away but God enjoys the journey of our lives. In the year that followed,  I learned that the hard places were in me. Church planting is a road loaded with challenging circumstances. Where will the people come from? How do we reach them? Will we have enough money? Do I have what it takes to do this? Will we survive this? It can at times feel like we are in a very hard place just like the kings were in a hard place in the desert. But the truth was and still is—that these are easy things in the eyes of the Lord. Just like the water in the desert, you could go to church on Sunday and 2000 people could be waiting to get in the door and God would not have even broken a sweat.  I think we forget sometimes just how powerful our God is.

We also forget just how loving He is and how important to Him we are. That’s why He allows circumstances in our lives that will expose the hard places inside. Our freedom in Christ is as important to Him as the freedom of the community to which He has sent us. You are not just the tool in His hand, you are the apple of His eye.

As this truth became a reality in my life I began to see His intentionality towards me. I began looking at my mindset as I walked in my circumstances. As I let Him renew my mind he set me free from the fear of failure and lack. He upgraded my trust and faith and completely redefined success and strategy for both my husband and me.

As I look back on the last few years I am overwhelmed. I am so grateful for my circumstances and the hard places in my heart and mind from which He has freed me. The real challenge in church planting

is not overcoming our circumstances but overcoming ourselves. Our circumstances are after all, an

easy thing in the eyes of the Lord.

 ”A healthy tree produces good fruit…
The way to identify a tree or a person is by the kind of fruit that is produced.” 
 Matt 7:17,20

“Those who remain in me, and I in them will produce much fruit.
Apart from me you can do nothing.”
John 15:5

“My true disciples produce much fruit. This brings great glory to my Father.”

John 15:8

As church planters, I think it is safe to say that we all want to bear fruit.  That’s what we’re here for, right?  We want to bring glory to our Father by producing fruit, and not just a little handful of fruit; we want to bear much fruit.  We are typically apostles and evangelists.  We don’t want to just see a few disciples made. We’re jumpin’ in deep.  We want whole cities! 

I think we also understand that we can do nothing apart from Jesus.  That’s pretty much 101.  But how to get from just bearing some fruit to bearing much fruit is something most of us long for and wrestle with.  I know I do.  When I meet Jesus someday I want to show Him that I have not hidden away the gifts He has entrusted to me, but have used them to produce much fruit.  I want to hear him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

I recently ran across some notes I took over ten years ago about bearing much fruit.  The following is my very short recap of the message I heard from Dan Spader at Sonlife Ministries in Elburn, IL.

First, imagine four buckets.  One has no fruit in it. The next has some fruit, the next more fruit and the last one much fruit.  Between each of these buckets is a barrier that keeps you from getting to the next fullest bucket.  For each of these barriers there is also a way to break through to the next level.

To get from the first bucket of no fruit to the one with some fruit we have to break through the barrier of sin.  Sin keeps us from connecting to God, and since apart from Him we can do nothing we must first remove the sin and get connected to the Vine.  The way we do this is through repentance.  It is this cleansing that causes the first breakthrough.   As church planters, we know and teach this.

Each barrier gets progressively more challenging (and convicting).  The barrier that keeps us from moving from some fruit to more fruit is often just “stuff”.  Just like in the parable of the soils, the weeds choked out the growing plant, the “cares of this world” and all the stuff in our life can hold us back from being all that we can be.  “Stuff” could be tangible things like money, homes, cars, motorcycles, motor homes, clothes, shoes, etc.  But it could also be non-tangible things like emotional baggage: past hurts, failures, false beliefs, unforgiveness.  All of this “stuff”, tangible or not, needs to be pruned away.  How we participate in the breakthrough is by rejoicing.  This is not our typical/natural response to pruning!  Pruning is painful and most of the time we resist or even run from pain.  But, just like a shot hurts more if you tense up your muscle, pruning hurts more if we resist.  If we instead choose to relax and even rejoice in what God is doing, then the pruning will feel less like a wrestling match and more like a pedicure!

There is so much I could say about pruning!  As church planters, I’m sure you’ve all undergone pruning.  If you haven’t yet it probably means you just finished assessment!  You will be pruned if you are to grow. There were times in the beginning that it felt like this whole endeavor of church planting was only about my pruning, God working IN me.  The stripping away that happens at the beginning of a plant is such a necessary process.  Allow God to do His thing in you.  It will certainly lead to more fruit.  Let Him cut away as much as he needs to and rejoice as He does it, knowing that the beauty will soon be revealed.

Then you can move on to the next level and break through to “much fruit”.  I’ve found this barrier also to be common to church planters, but probably in a different way than the regular church attender.  The next barrier is satisfaction.  Plenty of people might be satisfied with “more fruit”. They become complacent.  It’s pretty good.  They don’t want to endure the work it takes to get to the next level.  They need to break through their satisfaction with the amount of fruit they have.

But as church planters we are usually strong willed and “go-getters”.  That’s why we passed assessment.  We will make it one way or another.  We are survivors and we want it all.  We aren’t satisfied with “more fruit”; we want “much fruit”.  Satisfaction in that way is not usually the problem. BUT are we satisfied with how God will lead us to that fruit?  The breakthrough is through deep abiding and by remaining in Him.  Can we rest in Him and allow the Holy Spirit to do His thing in His timing?  Can we be satisfied for Him to use His strength and not ours? 

The first two breakthroughs of “repenting” and “rejoicing” are active ways we participate.  We like to be active and “do” things.  “Remaining” and “abiding” are much more passive and don’t need our active, “go-get-em” strength (which we too often like to show off).  The breakthrough to “much fruit” is about the power of the Holy Spirit and not our power.  We must decrease so He can increase.  Will we be satisfied for Him to get the glory and us to get none?  I think Dan might have called the last barrier “surrender” if he was talking to church planters.  Will we surrender all the results of our ministry to God while we spend our time abiding in Him?   If we do, we will produce much fruit, and “this brings great glory to our Father.”  (John 15:8)

Remaining and Abiding are not things that happen quickly and are done.  There isn’t an ending like there is with cleansing and pruning.  Those things might need to be done over again, but remaining doesn’t end and begin again. This is where we must stay.  Once you wrestle with the barrier of surrender it will be much easier to relax and remain in Him.  What things, ideas, fears, and futures do you need to surrender to God?  Be honest with yourself and God, and lean into the wind of the Spirit as you move to “much fruit.”