2018 - The Year of The Bull Ride!
I sense this new year will be like a rodeo bull ride for many of us. The stirrings, shakings and heavenly interruptions will feel like we are on a championship bull that defies us to hold onto it. We will need to learn quickly how to hold on and how to let go. This bull ride will expose what
is in us. We must be fully persuaded that greater is He who is in us, than he who is in the world. And that He, Christ in us, is not afraid of being bullied by any bull.
Often After a Great Victory or Success Comes the Greatest Defeats
If you've watched bull riding before, you've most likely
seen the scenario
of both victory and danger between a bull rider and the bull...and here's how it relates to us. As you're trusting the Lord with all of your heart through blood, sweat and tears on your last "eight" seconds of victory of riding a bull, you can feel like a champion! But when you fail to let go and exit quickly out of the electrifying arena, the bull begins to become the champion instead. Bulls will begin to attack their riders and
retaliate with full blown death in their horns and hoofs, which have been building up during those eight seconds they were being ridden. Watching this unfold, the standing and cheering ovation of the crowd changes to gasping and dread for the very life of the rider.
Spiritually speaking about this scenario, the number "eight" means "new beginnings." Many times at the height of success in certain areas of our
life and ministry, a new beginning will have already started for you to
enter into within another area of your life, which will yield greater fruitfulness. "Nine" means "fruitfulness" so you better be off the bull by
the end of eight seconds to catch up with your new beginning.
How To Exit the Arena That Made You a Champion
I have never seen one champion bull rider leave the arena without his
face in the dirt, a limp, a wound, or a bruise of some sort. With all of the fame, every bone in his body is crying out with pain, and often there is assistance needed from others to help him get up and away from the
bull that he had overcome.
When you see someone being used greatly in ministry, and you think
they are a champion in the spirit, you don't know the pain that comes
with overcoming the enemy of their ministry. You will be able to tell the
real champions from the false. They will walk with a limp, and if you look real close, they will have a tear running down their championship face.
And perhaps to your surprise, they are not really confident after all, as
their security has just been shaken at the very core of their being at the height of their success.
Many times, champions have difficulty limping off the field, as they
discover fresh revelation that God is calling them away from the bull
or arena of ministry they had victory in.
"Let Go Now, I Want You Off the Bull!"
For myself and others, I sense we may feel an accomplishment in some areas of ministry, and have seemingly experienced success as we have loved what we have been doing—especially when it seems to be blessing many others. But somehow I see many fingers besides mine, getting
stuck around the rope of success, and God is announcing from the judge's booth, high above the arena of champions to, "Let go now! I want you off the
bull."
Perhaps the bull is your "Isaac" ministry that everyone has fallen in love with and your identity has become wrapped up in it. I wonder if Abraham's fingers got stuck longer than eight seconds on the rope that he wrapped around his son Isaac when he was about to sacrifice him.
Let go of the rope of your success—embrace your
new beginnings. It
may take you from being a championship bull rider to possibly being not
as well known, where the only person who may know you is God, but you will get to know Him all over again. Or who knows, maybe you will get to ride a bigger bull!
Come Unto Me All Ye "Champions" that Labor and Are Heavy
Laden
I sense the Lord calling to many of us who have experienced some
degree of success and even some degree of honor in ministry. Getting
off of the bull can be risky and dangerous, but God is now reaching out
His arms to catch us as we let go. As we are sometimes
seemingly
thrown to the ground, He will bind our wounds and pour in the oil and
the wine to restore our souls.
Maybe I am alone in what I am experiencing in ministry...but I don't think so. I believe there are perhaps thousands more out there like me, and I want you to know that you are not alone—God is with us. His new
beginnings have already started for you and me.
It's in the letting go of the rope or ministry that we seal our spiritual championship! And that's, "No Bull!"
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