PeACE of God

Okay, what you are about to hear is a sermon preached by the one who needs it most. Bear with me as I expose and attack my greatest weakness in my walk with God. It can be defined by one single word, a word I struggle with since I know when it was prophetically given to me that it was a direct word for me - that word is ‘PACE’.

"‘Clifton, the thing the Spirit is whispering to me to say to you is ‘God’s pace’". When the young man of God spoke this to me a few weeks ago I knew God was affirming what I’d been feeling for weeks. Hmmm . . . . God’s pace. Could it be that my inability to discern the ‘face of God’ is due to my unwillingness to live at the ‘pace of God’?

Let’s play with this word, pace. ‘Pace’ is the majority of the word ‘peace’. Bro. Tenney has often remarked, ‘the peace of God is rooted in the pace of God.’ Pace may be defined as the rate of speed at which an activity or a movement proceeds. It’s simply the stride. It’s my pride that affecting my stride. It’s my unwillingness to ‘be still and know’ that causes me to ‘be busy and hope.’ I do know this . . . that He loves me enough to convict me, to send little hints to correct me. I know that I love Him and that I desire His correction as well as His affection.

Another word comes to mind as I’m writing this . . . ‘plod’. To plod is to move or walk heavily or laboriously, to work or act perseveringly or monotonously. So, let’s see if we can put this all together.

Since man is made from the dust of the earth we might say that God is longing for sod that will not think it odd to plod with God! C’mon, Clifton . . . slow down to the pace of God and find the face of God.

Who Matters To You?

Who Matters To You?

"You don’t matter to me." I know that sounds cruel and uncaring but for the most part it’s true. I’m not trying to be crass or crude but I do believe I’ve discovered something that has brought me continued freedom and liberty.

The truth is very few people should matter to you. Of course, everyone matters to someone but not everybody should matter to you . . . at least not in the context I am framing this simple concept.

You see the people that matter to me are the people whose opinions about me cause me to change my behavior. In that context, very few people matter. The word ‘matter’ is derived from an Old French word ‘mater’ which is where we get the word ‘mother’. To mother something is to nourish it . . . therefore, the people who matter to me are the ones who ‘nourish’ me. This list is quite small.

This simple understanding frees an individual from being the slave of other people’s opinions and liberates them into becoming the unique individual God created them to be . . . not simply some product of another person’s opinion.

So, who matters to you?