Posted in Training Camp by Julian Sutton II on 1/16/2012
When God calls us to go and speak, we
must go! Even if we face obstacles, or
turmoil, or people telling us to stop, we must be obedient to the command of
the LORD. {Reference from Amos 7:7-17}
God called me to speak while at
training camp for the next group of missionaries going out on the field from January
till about May. He gave me a vision of a
line drawn in the sand. On one side were you and all you hold on to: fear,
insecurity, rejection, shame, guilt, worry, pride, low-self-esteem, etc. On the other was Jesus with His arms out
wide. He said, "You must choose, Me or you?"
He continued," Are you going to live a life reliant on yourself and
bound by fear, worry, guilt, shame, discouragement, rejection, or are you going
to trust me and allow me to embrace you and take you deep into my heart that is
ravished for you? You must choose for yourself."
I was then riddled with fear. My heart
was pounding. The thought of standing in front of all the people gathered for
some reason struck a strong chord of fear in me and I was legitimately afraid.
I was being silenced and shut up by fear. God called me to share this Word to
the participants going out into the field, some for the first time, but I was
under the weight of fear. God spoke to me in the moment of my agony and told me
that I would not feel His peace unless I faced this fear.
So, finally, without any peace and my
heart pounding with fear, I got up to the microphone and proclaimed the vision
God gave me. In that moment peace invaded every part of my being. There was no
space left for fear to hide!! I poured out the vision and proclaimed freedom
and grace over a generation. In a flash, true to His promise, He gave me the
words to speak out over His children that He is head over heels for them and
wants them all and all of them!
May God be magnified and glorified in
our lives. I have an overwhelming sense of joy and peace from walking into my
freedom and authority by trusting that God was with me and for me. I trusted
that God would speak through me and in a moment of triumph over the enemy, let
go!
FREEDOM
REIGNS IN MY HEART!!
Read Matthew 10:19-20 & Proverbs 16:1 in faith and believe
it!
God will give you the words to speak; do not worry what you will
say!
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Posted in Guatemala by Julian Sutton II on 12/11/2011

Fire
burn deep
Don't
let me be the same
Let
Your flame of love overflow
Out
of the ashes I rise and stand
I
come out clean and purified
What
am I apart from you?
What
is my life without You Jesus?
I
have only You in this world
Let
nothing but praise come from these veins
I
have only the life you have given me
Burn
in me all consuming fire
Ignite
a fireball of love and grace that cannot be extinguished
Forgiveness
and repentance will be my lifesong
I
turn to you LORD
You
are precious to me
Your
beauty intrigues me
All
I want is more
In
your arms I find peace for my restless soul
Never
let me go, Lover of my soul
Take
this life and all that I am
Let
nothing stand between us
You
vanquish everything that tries to destroy me
You
are my hope and salvation
You
chose me and now I choose YOU!
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Posted in Guatemala by Julian Sutton II on 11/23/2011
God has been speaking intimacy over me a lot while
I have been here in Guatemala. Specifically, I think, because I tend to get
busy "doing" things for Him or the team and miss the whole point: Being in His
presence.
I have read two books outside of the Word of God
that have helped me to see the value of sitting in the silence, "waiting on the
LORD." The books are Abba's Child
by Brennan Manning and Bridal
Intercession by Gary Wiens. I
make mention of them because I recommend them as a helpful tool to enlighten
you on how God feels about you and also the reason we pray and how it should be
a direct response to our intimacy with Jesus, not a chore.
My feelings contradict what God asks of me. I find
it very difficult to sit quietly alone in the stillness and wait on God. Many
times, my response to his call for intimacy is: to jam in some earphones, open
a book, turn on the computer or some other form of distraction so that I don't
have to feel the weight of silence and aloneness. I think this is important for
us to get passed if we truly want intimacy with God. We can't expect to hear
from Him if all we do is drown Him out.
I have a challenge for myself that I want to extend
to you: Set aside an hour a day to
sit quietly in SILENCE. Don't allow
anything to take that silent time away from you. Fight for it. In essence you
will be fighting for time with God.
I warn you though. Anything and everything will try
to stand in your way. The first thing to come to your mind as you sit in
silence is all the things you have to get done today. Then comes the feeling
that you are wasting your time and you need to be "doing" something. It happens
without fail. I ask you though, what is your priority? Spending time with the
LORD or doing things for Him. Martha and Mary had this same struggle when Jesus
came to their home in Bethany:
Now
it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman
named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat
at Jesus' feet and heard His word.
But
Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said,
"Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore
tell her to help me."
And
Jesus answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you
are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary
has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her."
(Luke 10:38-42)
"The Living
Word is sitting in her living room and Martha chooses to serve Him as opposed
to sit and be in His presence like Mary. This isn't a focus on are you a Mary
or a Martha. Both were loved by Jesus. The focus here is: which is most
important to you? Being WITH Jesus or serving Him with the things we DO." ~From Bridal Intercession
I encourage you brethren. Spend time alone with the
LORD. He is incredible and thinks the same way about you. Be blessed by His
presence. I pray that this message finds you where you are and brings you into
His loving arms. JESUS IS LORD!!!! Amen.
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Posted in Guatemala by Julian Sutton II on 11/2/2011
I feel pressed on every side. I hear the loud
whispers from my enemy: "You can't do it! You suck! You are a loser! You
have been forsaken! Go home! Do it, go home! You have failed! Your passion is
gone! Nothing you do is good enough! Your Father doesn't want you! God doesn't
love you! Look around! He's not even here!!" And on they go. They sound so
real; so true at times. I think about who God says I am and lately they seem so
farfetched. I feel like David in Psalm 31:
"Have mercy on me, O LORD, for I am in
trouble; my eye wastes away with grief, yes, my soul and my body! For my life
is spent with grief, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my
iniquity, and my bones waste away. I am a reproach among all my enemies, but
especially among my neighbors, and am repulsive to my acquaintances; those who
see me outside flee from me. I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind; I am
like a broken vessel. For I hear the slander of many; fear is on every side;
while they take counsel together against me, they scheme to take away my life."
Psalm 31: 9-13
In the midst of this haze of lies and slander stands
Jesus. More and more He comes into focus. He reveals to me that I am not what I
am hearing. I must make WAR on these thoughts.
As I write this blog, with tears streaming down my
face and snot running riot, I hear Him saying, "I'm never giving up on
you!!! I will never let you go!!! I love you! Julian, I LOVE YOU!!!!! Listen to
my voice and no other!! Listen to Me! I LOVE YOU!!! I can't stop loving you! No
matter what, You are Mine and I am yours! Believe Me Julian!!!"
My heart sings back to Him. "Jesus I love You!!
Thank You Jesus! Embrace me Jesus. Save me from these lies. I want to believe
You! I want to live out of who You say I am. O God save me! Help me! All I want
is You!"
He is redeeming me, even now. In this moment the lies are being silenced and all I hear is Jesus singing over me. "I'm never giving up on you!"
"I can do it! God is with me! God is for me! I am a son of God! I am a friend of God! I am born for this!! I am strengthened through God alone! You are with me!! Abba Loves Me!!!!"
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Posted in Guatemala by Julian Sutton II on 11/2/2011
There are so
many things that are being stirred in my heart. So many! I have experienced so
many ups and downs and inside outs that I am a living, breathing paradox! I'm a
Saint that sins. I'm a believer that doubts. I'm confident and insecure. I have
peace yet worry about the future. I know that God has called me to be a leader,
but I question if I have authority. I know who I am in Christ yet I fall to
pieces in my shortcomings. I speak the truth but sometimes lie. I am a radical
giver that tends to be quite selfish. I'm brave yet afraid. I'm patient and yet
strangely impatient. I have faith in God yet wonder if He even exists. I am a God
fearing man that is a people pleaser. I am Holy yet I think unholy thoughts. I
am a walking, talking, breathing, paradox.
So what does
God think about all of this? He is accepting. He accepts me as I am and not as
I should be, because I'm never going to be as I should be:
"This is a
faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." ~1 Timothy 1:15
The
astonishing truth is that He has always known that I am this way. Only my
knowledge of precisely who I am is unfolding as He sheds light on my darkness.
He radically loves us. Enough to pour out His entire wrath on His only Son so
that we don't have to experience it. The Word over and over again says that we
are evil! Utterly evil! In our hearts we hate God. Yet, because GOD IS LOVE
(Dios es Amor), He came down from heaven as a man to bear God's Wrath for us. All of it. WHAT!? WHY?! Who are we that we deserve
such a thing? The truth is....we don't deserve
anything good. Let that sink in. Deserving?
You and me? Not at all.
God loves us
and calls us lovable only because, GOD IS LOVE. So that is why it is so pure, amazing,
and miraculous!! Jesus does not need us...we desperately need Him! He longs for
us to know Him, but His glory doesn't depend on us. He is going to get His
glory. Besides.....He DESERVES
it!
What does
that do for you? What does the processing that is going through my heart and
mind stir in you? Anything? Nothing?
I wonder
what it takes to truly be convinced that our God Loves Us. After all He gave us
everything. He gave us His best. He saved us from His wrath and judgment for
those who believe. He made a way to Himself. The Way is JESUS.
"Jesus said to him, 'I
am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through
Me.'" ~ John 14:6
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Posted in Guatemala by Julian Sutton II on 10/11/2011
"So,
when He heard that
he
was sick, He stayed two more
days
in the place where He was."
JOHN
11:6
When God is silent in your life, what is
your instant reaction? "Oh my God has
forsaken me. He has left me here utterly alone." NO. On the contrary God is showing you a
deeper level of intimacy and trust.
"Has God trusted you with a silence-a silence that is big with meaning? God's
silences are His answers. Think of those days of absolute silence in the home
at Bethany! Is there anything analogous to those days in your life? Can God
trust you like that, or are you still asking for a visible answer? God will
give you the blessings you ask if you will not go any further without them; but
His silence is the sign that He is bringing you into a marvelous understanding
of Himself. Are you mourning before God because you have not had an audible
response? You will find that God has trusted you in the most intimate way
possible, with an absolute silence, not of despair, but of pleasure, because He
saw that you could stand a bigger revelation." - My Utmost for His Highest, by
Oswald Chambers
Not only is it a revelation when God is
silent, but it is also imperative that we ourselves be silent that we may hear
from Him when He is speaking. In his book, Abba's
Child, Brennan Manning writes this about silent solitude:
"The
indispensible condition for developing and maintaining the awareness of our
belovedness is time with God. In solitude we tune out the nay-saying whispers
of our worthlessness and sink down into the mystery of our true self. Our
longing to know who we really are-which is the source of all our discontent-will
never be satisfied until we confront and accept our solitude. There we discover
that the truth of our belovedness is really true."
If I were to be bluntly honest and real
with you, I would tell you that I am in many ways, afraid to be alone in
solitude. I always have to have some sort of noise going on, something to read,
or someone to talk to. Are you like me and feel very awkward when you are all
alone and are just sitting in the quietness doing nothing? In that moment, every
idea that I could possibly think of to keep myself busy comes to my mind. In
all honesty, in that quietness and solitude is exactly where God wants me so
that I may discover more of Him and more of who I am. All the noise and
business of our lives keeps the very voice of God silenced in our lives. He is the ONLY source of our identity that is REAL.
I encourage you brethren as I myself have
been encouraged. Go into that silent solitude and find some rest. It is in that
quietness that you will hear God tell you, "I love you my dearest one. You are
my beloved. I accept you just as you are and not as you should be. Because you
will never be as you should be. You are mine and I am yours."
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Posted in Guatemala by Julian Sutton II on 10/6/2011
I have a few questions that I
have been pondering that I would like to ask you:
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If you profess Jesus as Lord and Savior yet don't
have Grace do you really
know Jesus?
If people are not obeying the standards that people have
established based on God's Word, is it the Church or the Pastor's right to shut
the door to them?
Have we drastically
lost sight of why Jesus Christ of Nazareth came to this earth, died to destroy
the power of sin and death, and rose again to give eternal life???
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have been pondering these questions because it is
happening. Some pastors here in Guatemala (I can't be ignorant enough to think
that it is only happening in Guatemala) have been deathly legalistic. Some
believe that soccer is sin. Others believe that dancing, singing, and listening
to secular music is sin for the Christian Believer. If I make the mistake of dancing in public to a song that is not a Christian song, and a pastor or church member sees it, they would deem me a non-Christian. Show me that in your Bible
because it is not in mine.
So what do we do with this? I can't pretend like it doesn't
exist and go about my time here ignorantly. I can't just go up to each pastor
and say, "Your theology is equivalent to that of a Pharisee and you have become
a stiff-necked people!" As much as I would like to, I don't see that changing
anything. So I pray. And pray. And pray. I'm still praying. Join me.
May God's Holy Spirit fall in these churches and in the
hearts of the pastors leading Jesus' sheep. May they see the grace they have
freely been given through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ; To pour it out, not only on the church, but also the sinners who desperately need to
find grace!!
Join me in prayer. Fight with me to bring the Kingdom of
Heaven to earth.
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Posted in Guatemala by Julian Sutton II on 9/23/2011
Proverbs
21:2
"Every way of man is right in his own eyes,
But the LORD weighs the hearts."
God showed me that I
have a tendency to be a creature of habit
and this can have negative consequences on my spiritual life. In our
relationship with Him motions of repetitiveness can take away some of our
passion in who we are and what we do as Christians. Let me explain.
In the morning when I
first wake up, I formed a good habit of giving thanks to God and praying for
the day that lies ahead. Over time it has formed a religious tendency in me.
One morning I got up and didn't pray. As a result, I felt a sense of guilt
because I didn't pray as soon as my eyes opened (guilt is not from the LORD).
This revealed to me
that I was living in a place of performance for God in one area of my life. This showed
that deep down I was afraid that God was going to be upset with me if I didn't
pray (that is not Jesus
at all)
and I got into this place that it was about what I was doing for Him as opposed to my heart's
attitude.
These feelings sent me
on a search for Truth that I may walk in freedom
and not be bound by performance. God showed me that I believed a few lies. In
my pursuit He reassured me as He showed me that He is good and that His grace is enough.
I could hear Him say that although there are some things that are not of Him in
me that may look like a Pharisee, I am not a Pharisee.
He reminded me of His tremendous mercies and outrageous love for me. He spoke
my identity over me and reminded me that I am His son. In His love I am free. His faithfulness
to me is not in response to my faithfulness to Him. He is faithful always, regardless of how I respond
to Him.
Nehemiah
9:18-21 "Even when they
made a molded calf for themselves, And said, 'This is your god that brought you
up out of Egypt', and worked great provocations, yet in Your manifold mercies
You did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of the cloud did not
depart from them by day, to lead them on the road; nor the pillar of fire by
night, to show them light, and the way they should go. You also gave Your good
Spirit to instruct them, and did not withhold Your manna from their mouth, and
gave them water for their thirst. Forty years You sustained them in the
wilderness; They lacked nothing; Their clothes did not wear out and their feet
did not swell."

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Posted in Guatemala by Julian Sutton II on 9/21/2011
Praise Report!
We prayed
as a team yesterday for God to rain down healing on us and believed that
He was going to heal us, because we believe our prayers are powerful and
effective. After we closed out group feedback with a word of healing prayer, I
already felt much better. I woke up this morning and my sickness was nearly gone. I
went from feeling like I had a fever, chest congestion, stomach cramps,
diarrhea, and dizziness to a slight head cold and minor cramps. The medicine
that I am taking actually causes some of the symptoms that I currently have,
but I rather have these symptoms than parasites (I am being treated for a sinus
infection and parasites).
Glory to God! Jehovah Rapha is my healer!!
I believe that God has many amazing things in store for us here in Guatemala! I
know that God is awakening a generation that hears His voice and moves to the
beat of His heart. oh praise the one who paid my debt and raised this life up
from the dead!!
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Posted in Guatemala by Julian Sutton II on 9/20/2011
It has
been hard to put my thoughts together that I may write a blog. So here are the
thoughts that come to me as I type. It may look a bit scattered:
I
am physically exhausted and spiritually tired. I haven't been spending enough
time with my Daddy. I feel the weight of
trying to cram everything I can in one day. I want to be
the kind of leader that I would follow. I want to set an example of
what a man of God looks like that is chasing after God. I give all I have and
now I feel spent. I am also sick. It has been tough to find the resources to
get all my duties done when I haven't been refilled by spending time with my Papa.
God
has shown me throughout our time here in Guatemala just how weak I really am
and just how strong He is. I am learning to embrace my
weakness, although that is very hard to do, because I want to be
strong. God led me to the book of Nehemiah today for me to start to study. I
thank God for the example of a Godly leader like Nehemiah. Already I feel
encouraged that God wants to make me great through His greatness. For apart from Him I can do nothing.
God
promises us rest
when we come to Him. I lean into my weakness that He may be strong in me. I
am reminded of a song by Elevation Worship - "Give me faith". The
lyrics stick out to me right where I am:
"I may be weak, but Your Spirit's
strong in me. My flesh may fail, but my God You never will."
God is good!
All
the time!! (Dios es bueno! Todo el tiempo!!) He
is faithful and merciful! He is my rock and my refuge! I will trust in
Him and not in myself. Bring on the rain O God. I am Yours and I trust
You!!!
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