Happy New Year! 2016 has officially started and is off to a grand start. To kick off this first letter of 2016 I want to share a few things that the Lord has been speaking to me about. I want to bring these words and thoughts to light and pray that they cause us all to draw closer to our heavenly Father as we continue to grow into the fullness of all that He has for our lives.
Let me take us back a few years to the beginning moments when the Lord spoke to Mandy and I’s hearts as we stepped out in faith to answer the call of God where our ministry is concerned. In the beginning months and conception of Martin Ministries International (MMI) the Lord gave us a clear focus of simply pursuing and knowing Him. In fact on November 7, 2011 the Lord said to me, “Dustin, this is not a time of preparing messages, but a time of intimacy and working knowledge of who I AM – for you can’t give what you don’t know or have.” The reason the Lord spoke this to me was because He wanted me to know, from the start, the direction and purpose of MMI. Unfortunately I soon forgot and began believing that the success of our ministry was found not in knowing God, but in having somewhere to preach, and filling our calendar with meetings. I remember on June 6, 2013 when the Lord called us into aviation He said, “Don’t doubt Me, know Me!” It should never surprise us that every time the Lord places a vision in our hearts or gives us direction He first requires a revelation of Himself to be solidified in our hearts before we move forward. I believe He does so because it is only the awaking of who our God is in us that brings stability, and removes all doubt and fear from the picture.
For example, after Moses passed away, the position as the leader of the children of Israel was divinely given to Joshua. God gave precise instruction to Joshua on his new office by informing him what to think, see and say. Joshua 1:8 “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” The instructions really were simple—God wanted Joshua’s number one pursuit and focus to be Him, not leading or conquering. Being able to lead and bring the children of Israel into a promise land of rest was not only secondary, but would be impossible without the knowledge of God and understanding of His nature, character and way.
In the same light, we see in Galatians 1:12 and 2:2 that Paul’s preaching of God’s grace was not received from man, rather it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ. It was because of that revelation and knowledge that he was mobilized and went to those in Jerusalem. If we are to accomplish our missions like Joshua and Paul, we must know God and to know God intimately there must be a revelation of His love. Jesus Christ is the manifested love of God in all of its extravagant dimensions. This is what I want us to see and know—to make this knowledge of His love a priority.
Look at 1 John 4:16
“And we have KNOWN and BELIEVED the love that God has for us, God is love, and he who ABIDES in love abides in God, and God in him.”
I will be, in the months to come, highlighting the love of God. I believe that this is the focus and mandate for this ministry in this season. I believe that as we come to confidently know and unwaveringly believe in the love that God has for us, that we will operate boldly and live fearlessly from this love. I believe that there can never be doubt where absolute knowledge is; God revealed is doubt removed.
There is so much in my heart concerning this area and I am asking God for all of us that “He may grant us a spirit of wisdom and revelation [of insight into mysteries and secrets] in the [deep and intimate] knowledge of Him and that we would be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love…” Eph. 1:17; 3:17 AMP
We know 2016 will be, as we make the knowledge of God’s love priority, a year of #NOLIMITS