Enough: The Watch Letter

Hey, you! Yeah, you! There is something I need to tell you:

YOU ARE ENOUGH!

For the last few weeks, my pastor, Chief Apostle H.C. Gunn, has been reminding me of those three words. I am healing from not seeing that I am enough ... 39 years in the making. Until I got saved and came under the ministry of my pastor, I never thought I was good enough until he taught me that our life is valued first in God not in others, our education, our career, our possessions, or the world around us. No matter what compliments/encouragements people gave, in the past, I was not persuaded in my own heart that I was good enough. But it makes sense when you think about it. We are not to be driven by flattery or self-motivation but by what the word says about us: Psalm 12: Help, LORD; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men. 2 They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak. 3 The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things

And while I have learned to value who I am in God more, I am still growing and being delivered in this area. So, I am writing this blog to share what I learned from my pastor thus far with my brothers and sisters. And, yes, to encourage myself.

(Just to expound: As I reference the word value in this blog, I am not talking about pride, arrogance or self-ambition, but to know the important person you are to God and your significance in the kingdom and God's plan.)

So, today's blog is for anyone reading this who has ever felt or still feels they are not enough. When you feel like you aren't enough you don't realize it, but you are always in the position of compromise, destruction and sabotage. Why? Because when you don't know your value, you do whatever it takes to please people, to fit in, to feel good, to feel understood, to feel right, to feel appreciated, to feel loved, to feel respected, to feel compensated, to feel recognized, to feel justified, to feel needed, and to feel wanted. And as you do that, you are rejecting God. Because you are telling him that being accepted and enough to him alone is not good enough for you.

Sometimes the very person who has consistently disappointed you, ignored you, overlooked you, mistreated you, deceived you, abandoned you, and belittled you is the person you try so hard to impress because you are still waiting for them to say that you are enough. But the truth is you may never hear those words from them, and as you wait for them to realize your enough you become deafened and can't hear God's whisper: I made you enough. You were enough when I created mankind. You were enough when my son died for you on the cross. God will never cast his people down and he has always promised to love us, take care of us and not forsake us, and that should be enough.

Think about Jesus. He was hated, belittled, criticized, mocked, abused, and bruised but he knew who he was and didn't declare: I cannot be Jesus, I cannot save, heal, teach or sacrifice because I am not good enough. I am so glad Jesus knew who he was in God and his value or else our souls would be lost.

As I write this, I continue to see more places where I have not fully received God's love, because I equated my worth to people and not to what the Creator has said. Think about it, the person who gives us life, who redeems us and who judges our soul and gives us a seat in his kingdom already believes we are enough despite of our sin and failures, but we instead want to be enough to the world, to our family, our friends, our companions, our bosses, our co-workers, etc.

When I was in college, studying journalism, I always thought I was the lesser student. Then one day, we got our annual portfolio grades back and I was the only student that received an A. So, the whole time, I was comparing myself to others and feeling bad about my abilities and my professor had ranked me the top student in one of the hardest journalism classes on campus.

God has written us a love letter to show us our value to him: It is the WHOLE BIBLE. And then he uses our pastors, like Chief Apostle Gunn, to further shower us with his word to underscore how valuable we are to him.

For the last several weeks, Chief Apostle Gunn has been teaching and reminding us of this scripture:

Deuteronomy 28:13 And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them.

It alone tells us how valuable we are to God, but it also has a key to us really tapping into that value. When you begin to truly hearken to his commandments and his voice, and observe and do his will, you can become who you really are in him and your eyes can become open to see that you are enough.

So, this causes me to ponder: For those of us who are saved and living for God: how come we still feel like we are not enough? For me, I believe its because I have not fully embraced God's word, and his commandments like God is calling for. Don't get me wrong, our pastor has taught us well and has taught us the power of obedience and ensuring God's commandments are in our hearts, but like Chief Apostle Gunn has told me, we have to sow in the spirit and we have to be spirit led and not self-led.

We have to bring our souls in subjection to God, so his spirit can take over, because beyond our souls needing salvation, we have to remember that the soul contains the essence of our humanity: That can include our will, our imagination, our feelings, our perceptions, our awareness, etc. And without God's word and will leading the way our souls will always be out of whack.

So, let's go back to this part of the scripture: "If that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord."

There are many commandments that God has given us and Jesus gave on earth, he even sends commandments through his word from the pulpit. But let's look at the 10 commandments as example of how obeying them can help us to receive being above and not beneath and the head and not the tail.

When you look at the overarching theme, the commanments are about valuing God and his creation. So, if we learn to value God, and we are made in his image, then we will learn to value ourselves and in turn we can move further away from the compromise, destructiveness and sabotage that comes with not believing we are enough. Let's look at Exodus 20, and in parenthesis I have but some notes we can all reflect on as we choose today to receive our enough.

EXODUS 20: And God spake all these words, saying,

2 I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. (Know that you're freedom and liberty only comes at the hand of God.)

3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. (Don't make your self-image or the image others have of you more important that God and what he says.)

4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. (You can't worship two masters: if a person and what they think about you or feel about you is more important than what God has told you, then you have made them your God, because it is God's opinion that matters most.)

5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; (Don't lower yourself and your commitment to Christ to fit in or to fit into someone's vision of you. Don't settle for less than what God has for you.)

6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. (If we make God our prize and the apple of our eye than we can truly experience his mercy. Mercy is just not forgiveness, it is compassion, it is grace, it is charity, it is generosity, it is tolerance, it is kindness, it is favor --- all of things we seek and sell out to receive from other people, when God is offering them all along by simply obeying his commandments.)

7 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. (We can so easily take for granted the power of calling on the name of the Lord. While we get caught up on wanting others to listen to us, talk to us, speak highly of us, understand us, we have a God we can pray to, who will tell us what we need and encourage us and correct us and heal us and listen to us. He cares about everything we say and everything we do.)

8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. (I find myself in this verse a lot. We get so busy trying to make sure our jobs are pleased with us, trying to make sure people are pleased with us, our children are pleased with us, that we don't rest in the Lord and appreciate and bask in the river of love he has already flowing toward us. Probably 15 years ago or so, Chief Apostle Gunn told me that God wanted me to know that he had a river of love flowing toward me, and from time to time I would pray that and remind myself but it is finally now soaking in, even as I write this. God's love is ever-flowing toward us. Mankind can cut off love toward another like a faucet, but God never stops loving us, even when we disappoint him and sin against him.)

12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. 13 Thou shalt not kill. 14 Thou shalt not commit adultery. 15 Thou shalt not steal. 16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. 17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's. (Value people. Don't take them for granted, don't defraud them. Don't seek their demise and their hurt. They are God's. Take care of one another. We forget that when we sin against mankind, we sin against God, because we are made in his image. I was recently reminded of this by Chief Apostle Gunn. Perhaps one reason we have trouble valuing who we are in God, is because we aren't valuing who others are in God. And I'm not just talking about the people who we think are "easy to love" because they do things for us, or because we are in some form of relationship with them, what about the people that we ignore or cast aside because they don't say or do what we want them to or will cause us to look beyond ourselves?)

In other words, the commandments of God tell us these five things: God is enough. His creation is enough. His people are enough. I am enough. You are enough….If we walk in his commandments.

In closing, let us all remember that we must all individually give an account to God, that when we are to go and be with the Lord we go based on our account in Heaven, so what people think or what we want people to think cannot save us. We cannot go to heaven on someone else's value of us.

P.S. Happy anniversary to Chief Apostle Gunn. November 28 marks 42 years of him walking with and serving the Lord. What a blessing to have a leader who has remained instant in and out of season and who continues to live a fasted life before the Lord. Please join me in celebrating by praying for his ministry, message and family and, if you are able, sow a seed into his walk with the Lord. Also, in September we will be showing our appreciation to him, so please join us in sowing a seed of gratitude: https://www.thebodyofchristinc.com/donate

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