The Gift of Unhurried Time

by Rebekah Simon-Peter | Apr 5, 2021

The Gift of Unhurried Time

The gift of unhurried time is a prize we long for these days. Pulling together online worship and doing remote ministry takes more time than anyone could have imagined. Many leaders have shared with me that they are weary to the bone.

I can relate.

Most of my days are structured and filled to the brim with things to do. While I enjoy them, and get a lot done, one key element is missing: free-flowing creative time with God.

As of this writing, I am once again in Florida spending time with my aging parents. Though busy here, I have stepped away from the intensive work of teaching, leading, and meetings, and am receiving a gift that I had forgotten I needed: unhurried time.

Jesus spent unhurried time away from healing, teaching and mentoring. He was the better for it. His life reminds me that spiritual leaders need unhurried time with the Spirit. Are you taking time away to hear from your soul?

A cross in someone's hands.

As more of us get vaccinated and move around more freely, our calendars will quickly start to fill. As our days become packed with activity, anxiety may follow. Will you be open to hearing the message your soul is yearning to give you?

The truth is, your people can’t go farther than you can lead them. Click To Tweet

If you’d like a more responsive, faith-filled congregation, it is time to do the inner work yourself. As you grow in both faith and skill, the world around you shifts. You will see it in your personal relationships and in the culture of the congregation you lead. That’s because an internal shift in consciousness, faith, and expectation precedes a shift in the people and culture around you.

Both John, the cousin of Jesus, and Jesus himself demonstrate this truth. They each grew in the knowledge and grace of God before they began their public, prophetic work. Their inner work was a prerequisite to co-creating miracles with God. In the same way, both the Twelve and the Seventy grew in their understanding of Jesus and his teachings before they could cast out demons, heal the sick or preach the Kin(g)dom.

Give yourself the gift of unhurried time to grow in the knowledge and grace of God. Join me on my free webinar, How to Create a Culture of Renewal, in which you’ll learn the barriers to achieving renewal, the miracles renewal can bring, and how to take your next step – all part of the process of opening your heart to your soul and seeing the miraculous come to life!

Then watch out world, because you will be unstoppable!

(Adapted from the 3rd edition of Culture Shift, the Track 3 Workbook of Creating a Culture of Renewal®.)

Believe in Your Potential

by Rebekah Simon-Peter | Mar 22, 2021

Believe in Your Potential

As vaccinations for Covid become increasingly available and case numbers begin to fall, the many impacts of this virus linger on—the loss of work, the loss of human contact, and, most devastating, the loss of life. With new variants of the virus seemingly hitting the news on a weekly basis, the loss of a predictable future looms large. When will life truly return to normal?

Will life ever return to normal? The uncertainty can be debilitating.

I wonder, though, if this loss of certainty, of predictability, is what Jesus felt as he set his face toward Jerusalem. If so, your Lenten journey is likely more closely aligned with his than ever before.

Jesus had to deepen his faith to make it through an uncertain future. The same is true for you. I want to tell you how Jesus did it, and how you can too.

Believe in your potential

During this 40-day journey, we have been exploring how to expand our faith from simply believing in Jesus to believing like Jesus. This expansion accompanies the move from discipleship to apostleship. Are you ready to take the next step?

Jesus Believed in His Potential

Because Jesus believed that he and the Father were one and that he did nothing apart from the Father, he could maintain an abiding belief in his own potential. In other words, Jesus trusted that with God, he was capable of accomplishing what he had been sent to accomplish. That he could be all he was meant to be. Even on the way to the cross—in the midst of great suffering and uncertainty—Jesus leans into this belief. Listen in as Jesus talks with God: “Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.” (John 17: 1, 4). You can hear the trust and confidence in Jesus’ prayer.

But what does this prayer actually mean? I had to look up glory and glorify to be sure myself. The glory of God refers to the radiant presence of God. To glorify, then, means to confer this quality on another. It’s done as a sign of divine approval. Jesus, through the quiet confidence of his belief, is asking to share in the glorious presence of God as a sign of God’s divine approval.

Soulful Step

When you are facing extreme uncertainty, belief in your own potential is essential. It is one thing to know that God fully approves of Jesus, and that the Divine presence and radiance is with him. It is another to know that Jesus and God fully approve of you. And that the radiant presence of God dwells within you. Yes, it truly does.

Check this out. After Jesus prays for himself, he reveals his desire for every believer to be welcomed into divine unity. “I have given [all believers] the glory that you have given, that they may be one as we are one. I in them and you in me.” (John 17:22-23a)

Embrace the Belief

Do you believe that you can fulfill your potential? Or do you wrestle with the 7 fears of highly effective leaders? If fear gets the best of you in uncertain times, you are not alone. So, let me ask you this: Would it make a difference to know that you bear the radiant glory of Christ within you? Not as an afterthought or an earned reward, but simply by virtue of your connection with him? Most of us yearn for God’s “attagirl” or “attaboy.” The scriptures say you have it.

As you embrace this belief, it becomes easier to believe in your own potential. Your ability to do what is in front of you.

Forty Days of Apostleship: Six Soulful Steps to Believe Like Jesus - Rebekah Simon-Peter

Perhaps you have heard of the “human potential movement.” It’s the idea that even ordinary people have extraordinary untapped capacity. While it’s a movement that gained footing in the 70s, it’s actually a biblical concept. If mere fishermen could be trained into apostleship, then you can rise to COVID-19 and the leadership challenges it presents.

The truth is, you not only have untapped human potential, you have untapped spiritual potential. Click To Tweet

Believing like Jesus means that you have divine partnership, your prayers have power, you have superpowers, and a purposeful life. The more you believe like Jesus, the more your spiritual potential begins to take shape.

Apostolic Action: It’s time to let the glory of God shine through you. Co-create a positive future with God, by rising to the challenges that are before you now. Join me on my free online seminar, “How to Create a Culture of Renewal” to reconnect your pandemic-weary congregation to the spiritual values of the gospel.

Finally, practice seeing the glory of God in yourself, and in the people around you.

Believe Your Life Has Purpose

by Rebekah Simon-Peter | Mar 15, 2021

Believe Your Life Has Purpose

Believe your life has purpose: Your church services, your congregations, and even your calling have been tested in the past year. You’ve added online services, learned the tips and tricks of the webinar world, and dug deep into your creative and spiritual consciousness to touch your congregants’ lives and hearts at a distance. In person, you changed your music to avoid spreading disease through singing and you’ve required masking and social distancing.

You’ve longed to be at the bedsides of those dying of Covid, unable to be with them in their final moments and say goodbye. And you’ve comforted families at their loved ones’ funerals.

In the midst of the pain is the emotional suffering of those targeted with racism and injustice that is encouraged by those we called leaders. What we hoped to be a way of the past rose with a full vengeance, leaving beloved people dead and a country laid in ruins.

Racism is a pandemic sign

Your people need your care and continue to need your teaching. This is your moment as people look to their faith for comfort, clarity, and calls to action.

You can give them the deep connection they are longing for by empowering them to believe like Jesus. That’s the mark of an apostle.

Jesus Believed in His Purpose

What did Jesus believe? Jesus believed in his divine partnership with God, that his prayers had power, and that he had superpowers. Most importantly, Jesus believed his life had purpose.

And Jesus transferred that purpose to you. Your job is to embrace the belief that he had and share it with others. So how do you believe like Jesus and how does that lead to action? Walk with me through this process to deepen your own faith, and that of the people you lead.

Soulful Steps: Jesus’ Four-Part Process

Jesus’ life reveals a four-part process of identifying purpose in the Gospels. Take for example this story of healing in Luke 4:40-44.

At sunset, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them. Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Messiah. At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. But he said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.”

In this story, you can see the four-part process, and how it connects you with Jesus and purpose.

A cross in someone's hands.

Part One—Doing What You Love: What deeply engages you, comes easily, is natural for you and serves the greater good? That’s (at least one of) your purpose(s). In this story, Jesus was laying hands on people who were sick and ailing—physically and spiritually. He healed them and cast out demons that were tormenting them.

Part Two—Challenges Arise: Something contrary to your purpose happens. Identify what pulls you off course, or causes you to settle for a lesser good. In Jesus’ life, the people he had healed came back to beg him to stay with them. Understandably, they didn’t want him to go.

Part Three—Clarity Emerges: Contrary or challenging conditions make a way for you to get clear on your purpose. In this Gospel story, Jesus answers the people, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” In other words—No can do. I have other places to go and people to heal.

Part Four—Clarity Leads to Action: This chain of events makes the way clear for you to take action. We see it in Jesus’ life: “He kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.”

Embrace the Belief that Your Life Has Purpose

To embrace the belief that your life has purpose, personalize the process by writing out these steps:

First, write out the things that come naturally and easily to you, and that serve a greater good.

Second, write out situations that have arisen that are contrary to the things you noted in step one.

Third, note what you have found yourself saying or thinking that point you back to your purpose.

Fourth, write what actions you have taken or now can take that are aligned with your life’s purpose.

These steps can help you believe your life has a purpose.

Apostolic Action

Get into action! Say YES! to requests, needs, and circumstances that are consistent with your life’s purpose. Or create the conditions in which your gifts are needed. Click To Tweet

At the same time, be free to say NO! when something threatens to derail you from living out your life’s purpose.

Believe Your Life Has Purpose

But don’t worry if you are not crystal clear on your purpose. I remember when I was agonizing over my call. Everyone else seemed to know what they were doing, but I didn’t. One day it occurred to me that my gifts were my path. God would not have called me to a path that I wasn’t prepared for in some way. Just as Jesus’ purpose was revealed in his gifts, your purpose will be too.

If all else fails, simply act as though you do have purpose. And trust that what you are currently involved in reveals some aspect of your purposeful life.

Join me on my next free session of “How to Create a Culture of Renewal.” After all, “All things work together for the good for those who love the Lord and are called according to God’s purpose.”

Believe Your Prayers Have Power

by Rebekah Simon-Peter | Feb 18, 2021

During this 40 Days of Apostleship, we are looking at how to expand our faith from the faith of a disciple to the faith of an apostle. That means up-leveling your faith from believing in Jesus to believing like Jesus. My theory is those who believe like Jesus can do the kinds of things Jesus did.

Last week we looked at Jesus’ belief in divine partnership. This week, we explore a second of his beliefs: that his prayers had power.

Jesus’ Belief: Prayer Has Power

I have to believe that Jesus believed that his prayers had power. Consider the chutzpah it took for him to call forth a very dead Lazarus from the tomb. Yet, Jesus preceded this bold act with a prayer: “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I know that you always hear me.” (John 11:41-42a) Only after he prayed did Jesus cry out, “Lazarus! Come out!”

Not only did Jesus believe that his prayers had power, he absolutely believed that your prayers have power, too. Listen to this audacious advice from Jesus found in Mark 11:24 and elsewhere, “Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

Whatever?! Yep, that’s what the scriptures say.

“I tell you the truth,” Jesus says elsewhere in the Gospels, “if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” (Matthew 21:21-22).

Did you catch that? When you believe like Jesus, you can ask for whatever you want in prayer. No matter how outrageous. All it takes is faith and belief. But when doubt enters in, it can derail you. Somehow, you need to suspend disbelief and refocus on faith.

Soul Work: Allow Your Prayers to be Answered

Let me tell you how I visualize prayer working. I envision a constant conveyor belt of blessing and abundance that flows from God to us. You ask, God answers. In fact, the moment you ask for something, the answer to your prayer gets plopped on the divine conveyor belt and begins to make its way to you.

But what if, along the way, you second-guess your request or worry about your ability to handle the blessing? Let’s say you’re not sure you can integrate the new reality the answered prayer would bring. Then what?

These doubts—if felt strong enough and long enough—can slow down, stop or even reverse the conveyor belt of blessing. In other words, you can unintentionally work against your own prayers.

In order to allow your prayers to be answered, you have to weed out doubt. Begin to notice and name the doubts that may accompany your prayers. As you name them, send them on a different conveyor belt back to God. Then ask God to strengthen your faith and increase your belief as you refocus on joyfully receiving whatever you have asked for in prayer.

Embrace the Belief: Start Small

Several years ago, I began to experiment with believing like Jesus. When it came to the belief that my prayers had power, I decided to ask God for something small and inconsequential that wouldn’t trip the wires of self-doubt.

I asked God to have someone gift me with a mug. Then, I practiced believing that I had received the mug by visualizing the act of opening my hands and seeing a mug placed in them. I rehearsed the feeling of happiness that would accompany it. I did that for about a week, then I forgot about it.

One afternoon, three or four weeks later, the doorbell rang. I opened the front door and saw a man I didn’t recognize.

“Can I help you?” I asked.

“I’m Willie,” he answered. “This mug is for you,” he said handing over a slightly misshapen blue ceramic coffee mug. “Well, for your husband actually. I made it for him after the last construction job we finished. It’s been sitting on the floor of my pick-up truck for months. I just never got around to stopping by. ‘Til today.”

I could hardly believe it. “Why, thank you,” I beamed, holding the mug in my hand. “You wouldn’t believe it, but this is just what I’ve been praying for.”

Apostolic Action: Build Your Faith

Now a coffee mug isn’t that big a deal. But believing like Jesus is. Master the art of believing without doubt and you can have a greater impact than you could ever imagine.

As you move from discipleship to apostleship, no doubt you will want to make a bigger ask of God than a mere mug. There are rights to wrong, loaves and fishes to multiply, and wounds to bind up. Considering the impact our prayers can have on the world today, believing that our prayers have power is critical to creating the just and compassionate society for which we long. Combining our prayers with action like Jesus did with Lazarus, can bring about results nothing short of miraculous.

So start small. Build your faith in your ability to ask and receive. Then visualize the conveyor belt delivering all kinds of answered prayers, and the delight you’ll feel when the doorbell rings.

Forty Days of Apostleship: Believe in Your Divine Partnership

by Rebekah Simon-Peter | Feb 18, 2021

As the United States struggles to get a handle on the deadly pandemic that has left so many families missing loved ones and tries to move forward after the vicious and deadly attack on our capital by white supremacists and conspiracy theorists, we can be left feeling powerless.

Sometimes it looks like there is nothing we can do to right the many injustices of systemic racism, poverty, food inequity, and homelessness. There are those who would have you believe this. However, nothing could be further from the truth.

As a Christian you come from a long line of miracle-workers, healers of the sick, and banishers of demons. Your people proclaimed the Gospel of the Kin(g)dom of God since Jesus first walked the earth. So put away the notion that you have no say in how things go. You are a spiritual badass in the making!

After all, Jesus lived under tough times, too. One of his primary beliefs, however, lifted him above the fray and activated his agency so that he dared to make a difference. As you learn to believe like Jesus, this belief will activate your agency as well.

The Forty Days of Apostleship is designed to guide you to step into your spiritual power by emboldening you to expand your beliefs from simply believing in Jesus, to believing like Jesus. This vital shift undergirds your evolution from practicing the faith of a disciple to developing and living the faith of an apostle. This faith expansion gives you access to new perspectives, which in turn gives you access to new actions.

Jesus’ Belief: Divine Partnership

Jesus believed that he operated in divine partnership with God. In fact, Jesus believed that he was one with God: “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30) To those who doubted him, Jesus went on to say that this unity should be apparent through his many good works. I’m paraphrasing his words here, but he basically said—”Look, even if you don’t believe my words, believe the works you’ve seen me do. Then you’ll know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” (John 10:38)

Jesus’ belief in divine partnership is manifested through both his words and his works. So, to begin to believe like Jesus, you’ll need to re-consider both your words and your works.

Soul Work

Here is the two-part process to take this soulful step of belief.

Words: First, personalize and put yourself into the scripture: “I and the Father are one.” For instance, “I, Rebekah, and the Father are one.” Meditate on, repeat, and reflect on the truth of these words. As you do, draw your awareness from your head to your heart. Your head—headquarters of fear and self-doubt—will probably want to talk you out of this. If so, turn to your heart—your local hub for God-consciousness and divine connection. Notice how your heart responds as you repeat these words.

Works: Second, consider the good works that you have already done. Include who you have prayed for, cared for, blessed, and contributed to. Include the projects you have undertaken, the leadership you have offered, and the behind-the-scenes know-how you have given. Make a list of these good works. Then, celebrate them. I mean really celebrate them! Not for ego fulfillment but as a way of acknowledging your very real partnership with God. Doing these good works could not have happened without a holy alliance between you and God!

Embrace the Belief

As you re-frame both your words and your works, there is one more step to begin to believe like Jesus: fully embrace this Jesus-belief in divine partnership. For help with this, let’s turn to ancient wisdom.

The ancients have always understood that to be human is to house the divine within through the soul. More recent spiritual teachers have gently corrected this understanding: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, but spiritual beings having a human experience.” Whether the soul houses the body, or the body houses the soul, your soul is the spiritual counterpart to your physical being. Together, body and soul are the complete you.

But unity with God is bigger than what happens within your body or your soul—as if either could be disconnected from a larger whole. As I note in Dream Like Jesus, “…if God is everywhere present, not a discrete being in the sky, but the quality of Being itself, that means that each of you is inside of God, and God is inside of each of you. You are surrounded by, and suffused with, Divine Power…Consider the vine and branches imagery in John 14:20. ‘I am in God and God is in me and you are in us. I am in you and you are in me,’ Jesus says.”

Apostolic Action

Jesus taught the apostles of old how to do the things he did, and how to tap into the zone of the miraculous to do so. The apostles cast out demons, healed the sick, and proclaimed the Kin(g)dom. Clearly, they had to believe as he did in order to accomplish these things.

Beliefs shape your thoughts, thoughts are the vessels of your actions, and actions demonstrate your beliefs. So, as you begin to believe like Jesus, you will find that you are now able to take new kinds of actions and, with recent years bringing serious systemic injustices to light, there are plenty of action opportunities.

As you grow in your belief in your partnership with the Divine, pay attention to new actions the Spirit is prompting you to try. Again, preference the encouragements of your heart over the cautions of your head. For instance, what evil or injustice would you address? What kindness or healing would you offer? What words of love or acts of hospitality would you risk? Join me for my free webinar, “How to Create a Culture of Renewal”, to help break down the barriers to achieving renewal and move on to your next step in working in partnership with the Divine.

Dare to put your emerging belief of divine partnership into action as we journey together during this Forty Days of Apostleship. Be sure to let me know how it goes!

« Older Entries

Next Entries »