alertness.

If in my head I quickly list some of the people I believe to be extraordinarily powerful and influential, I come to a disturbing discovery. Almost every person who's been called to a deeper and crazier life, a life of teaching and equipping others, has at least one loved one who suffers from some form of life-controlling addiction or battles some form mental instability and hardship. As I think of all my favorite pastors, missionaries, teachers, speakers, authors, musicians, and friends who are in the trenches of a foreign country working endlessly on behalf of the kingdom, I can list what almost all of those people's families deal with. On pretty intense levels. Now, maybe this is just coincidence and the truth is that a large majority of families today happen to be dealing with these issues. But to me it seems like there just might be someone roaming around, hungry, looking to devour. And I think this lion is pretty smart. So I think we need to be smarter. More aware. In tune. In prayer. This is a bloody and messy battle. He goes after those who have influence because they're a threat to him. We need to get more dirty and be in the trenches with each other way more often. Let's stop trying to make our lives look so grand on social media and just be raw and real and honest. Can you imagine what would happen if we talked about what was REALLY going on rather than our political agendas and opinions and pictures of our lunch or walk? Revolution would happen. Fresh, healing, unique, irresistible changes would take place. People wouldn't stay far away from worship on Sundays because they'd no longer fear hypocritical Christians and their judgement against them.(Did you know that's the #1 reason people don't attend a worship gathering?)And this world would not be able to deny the wave of Jesus that would be crashing down every bit of every one of the enemy's strongholds. A Tsunami of radical young people unlike anything seen before. Taking this world by storm. Who are some of your favorite influencers? Let's begin praying faithfully over their families. Over THEM. Standing boldly in truth without being deceived isn't easy.