Show me your friends and I will prophecy your future!

It has been a great encouragement to read all the blogs of people who are in love with Jesus and passionate about seeing his kingdom revealed in the lives of young people. My name is Dusty Carl and I have just taken over the youth ministry at CityHill church. I moved here from Botswana at the beginning of this year. I was leading the worship and youth ministry at a local church in Botswana for the past 6 years and it is a great privilege to be a part of Gods calling he has over his people.

The statement, “Show me your friends and I will prophesy your future” has really shaped my thinking and style of leadership. As a young man it is key and important to never stop visioning and growing in your own personal life and not just your ministry. It seems so easy as leaders to forget about ME and focus a lot on US when in actual fact, if the ME element of our ministry in not in check then the US element won’t work.

Throughout scripture, we see key people being raised to take hold of the leadership calling God set over their lives. Who in turn, became powerful and effective people in History. Moses raised Joshua who led the people into their promised land, Elijah raised Elisha, Jesus raised the 12 disciples, Paul Raised timothy and so on. God laid two questions in my heart that I want to throw at you guys today;

1)      Who is raising you up?

2)      Who are you raising up?

“Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction; pay attention and gain understanding. I give you sound learning, so do not forsake my teaching.” Proverbs 4vs1

If you want to be a doctor, then you have to spend time with a doctor. It is hard to become a doctor when you are spending all your time with a musician. Who are the “fathers” in our lives that help us pattern our lives to fulfill the calling God has for them? When I moved to Botswana in 2001, I made friends with two local guys in the church there. Over time, we became best friends and spent most of our days together. I started learning to play guitar and became very passionate about worship. So it was not long from then I started leading worship in the local church. Because I spent so much time with those two friends and my eldest brother, by the time I left Botswana to lead in Durban, my one friend plays guitar and leads worship, other friend is a bass player and my brother is a phenomenal drummer. Why? Not because I took time to teach them or encourage them to become musicians, but because I was so passionate about music and the worship ministry that because they spent so much time with me, it rubbed off on them and they became passionate and taught themselves to play.

Who is rubbing off onto us to help shape us and get us inspired and enthusiastic about our ministries? Who is the hot coal in the fire that keeps us burning? Is it the fathers? Or is it friends around us who are also trying to find hot coals to set them on fire and help them burn. “Be slow to talk and quick to listen”, sometimes we miss this important part of growth.

And lastly when we have the privilege of leading, naturally we will have people who will rub shoulders with us and become like us. This is why Paul states a few times to become like him as he becomes like Christ. It is a bold statement to tell people to become like you, but Paul had a revelation of who Christ was and he constantly rubbed shoulders with Christ which gave him the confidence to encourage others to become like him. When we have fathers in our lives who are rubbing off on us as we pursue a Godly life rubbing against Christ, it helps us say to our flock with boldness and confidence, “I urge you to become like me”.  Remember the scripture bad company corrupts good character, well good company perfects Godly character.

I look forward to meeting you all and being able to partner in building Gods kingdom in this City. Each one of you are a blessing to me and your blogs an inspiration to continue running this race and living up to what we have already attained.

“SHOW ME YOUR FRIEND’S AND I WILL PROPHECY YOUR FUTURE”

written by Dusty Carl

Foolishness…

So I have been presented with the awesome opportunity to write on the blog. I must admit that at first thought of doing a post on the blog it was quite daunting. Having read previous posts, I would sit back and think, “Where did these guys come from?” I felt like I was in a different world altogether and felt that I knew nothing at all about youth.

This was when God took me to quite a crucial verse which taught me a lot more about myself and about whom God wants to use. In 1 Corinthians 1, Paul talks about how God’s wisdom is to use the foolish things of this world to shame the wise. Paul relates to the Church in Corinth that he came to them trembling and weak only knowing the knowledge of Christ and preaching only the cross. This made me realize 2 things. 1. I AM FOOLISH – this is not a bad thing, I know nothing which is a good place to be. In the bible Paul relates to us how he boasts in his weakness, as when he is weak he is then strong because God becomes his strength (2 Corinthians 12vs9ff). This is how I view my foolishness, I boast in my foolishness because when I become foolish Christ becomes my wisdom (1 Corinthians 1vs24). 2. We are here as representatives of Christ, if we break this word up it says RE-Present Christ, there is nothing new or old to bring that was not already brought through Jesus, we just need to RE-Present Him and who He is and what He has done.

I can only speak of what I have experienced so I will share some testimony along my learning journey of how God can still use us even when we feel FOOLISH. On our way to youth one Friday, I was feeling down and out for some reason, the week hadn’t gone too well so I felt useless. I turned to my girlfriend, who leads the youth with me, and said “How can God still use me for His glory when I have messed up during the week?” She then told me something that will stay with me for the rest of my life. She said “If God wants His glory to come, He will let His glory come it has nothing to do with you and the way you feel it has everything to do with Him and what He wants to do”. WOW! It is not about my feelings and me but about Him and His grace, to still use me even in my weakness. That night at youth, I said to God I want to see demonstration of Your power so that the youth will stand on You not our wisdom, no wise words just You. One of the girls came to youth but was lying on the floor for most of the night. As I started sharing, I said to her what was wrong, she said she was feeling dizzy and had some headaches, I said well lets pray, she got up we prayed and she was fully healed. Thank You Lord. That is all I could say because I knew it was not me in my foolishness but God using my foolishness by His grace to show His work by His hand of who He is and what He wants to do. Foolish things of this world even me in my thinking I was not good enough. WOW. God blows my mind.

I began to think about all the things the world considers foolish, this made me realize that this is how God will shame the wise in our foolishness. For instance, when someone comes to us and says I have problems with my sinuses, our first reaction is “shame, I think I have some Allergex in my car/bag”. Why is our first reaction not, I serve a God who wants you to be healed, lets pray. When I approached my parents, a while back, on going into full time ministry my dad’s first question was “How will you provide?” my answer was God. The world thinks that is foolish but I serve a God who fed His people, provided them with shelter and water so they could live to do His will. He is the same God then that is now so I know He will provide for me in my foolishness. For instance, not sure how many of you have heard this one so bare with me. One day waiting for a meeting with the Powerful man of God, James Preston , I was sitting at our coffee shop and I was super hungry and had no cash in my account to pay for this. I saw the menu and said Lord I am hungry, so I picked up the menu and ordered. Asked the waitress for the bill. As I was eating I sat there thinking, Lord I am super hungry and as I eat this I have no idea how I will pay. At this point one of the men from our church walks in, we chat for a while and he leaves. I asked if he was meeting anyone for coffee, he said no he was meeting someone in the parking area so I said cheers. As he gets up to leave he picks up my bill and pays for it in FULL. Ha ha. Jesus has already paid for our lives in FULL, He has paid for our provision, He has paid for our wisdom, He has paid for our health everything we could ever need He has paid for in FULL. Thank You, Jesus.

All that I want to leave you with is a song by Delirious called King of fools, I want to walk before the King of fools, and I want to be more foolish each day so that our King can be glorified. In my foolishness/weakness He is made strong.

written by Lee Lubbee