Holy Spirit – Peter Gowesky

In Spiritual Growth

The Habit of Desire

August 29, 2011 2 Comments

This morning I read an interesting article over at Catalystspace. The title was, “A Lifestyle Of Enough” by Eugene Cho. In it he writes:

In our hope to honor a conviction of the Holy Spirit to give up a year’s salary, we had begun the two year process of saving, selling, and simplifying in 2007. Our goal was to come up with our then year’s wages of $68,000 – in order to launch One Day’s Wages. With only a few months left to come up with the total sum, we were a bit short and decided to sublet our home for couple months and asked some friends if we could stay with them on their couches or their guest room.

I still remember crying the night I told our kids of our plans. This wasn’t what I had signed up for; This was by far more difficult that I had imagined. Had I known, there is no way in Hades I would have agreed to this conviction.

This made me think about our habits of desiring more and more. We live in a culture that screams the more you have the happier you’ll be. Our culture bases success on how much you have, how many you manage, and how big of a salary you receive. We are taught from a very young age that newer is better. Just about every eight months a new edition of that ‘thing’ that you desperately longed for has come out. Now it is mandatory that you have the newer version. This is a marketing ploy, playing on the conditioned American response to long for more!

We easily form habits of desire. The problem is that we are also a culture that does not celebrate in any form or fashion denying yourself anything. It is no wonder that when our habits of desire meet up with our habits of satisfying our longings we end up in great financial ruin. Our homes are feeling too small. Our attics are buckling in the middle from all of the weight up there. And our garages no longer house cars but extra stuff!

My wife and I watched a chick-flick the other night. The romantic male character challenged the lead female to think about what she would grab if her home were on fire and she had 60 seconds to get out.

Pretty fair question if you ask me.

It makes me wonder if my desires and focus are in the right direction. Believe me I like my toys and my luxuries like the rest of you. I can’t wait for the iphone 5 to come out. The problem lies right in front of us when our balance is off and we long for those things more than we long for Jesus. Can we say along with Paul that we want to know Christ, and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead? Do I want to suffer with Him, sharing in His death as Paul writes in Philippians 3:10? Or am I more consumed with my expressions of wealth and comfort?

This is what the LORD says: “Don’t let the wise boast in their wisdom, or the powerful boast in their power, or the rich boast in their riches. But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the LORD who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and that I delight in these things. I, the LORD, have spoken!

Jeremiah 9:23-24

It is time for our posture to change from that of comfort to that of a disciple’s.

So, what would you grab if your house was on fire and you had 60 seconds to do it?

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Thoughts on Chan: Part 2

May 1, 2009 2 Comments

Francis quoted Oswald Chambers… “Be careful not to turn your experiences into principles; Allow the Holy Spirit to be as original with others as He was with you.”

Well, this blew me away and convicted me to the core. See here’s the deal… I’m going to be honest with you today, in hopes that you’ll be honest with me. For me, I needed to change the quote to read this way, “Be careful not to turn other’s experiences into principles; Allow the Holy Spirit to be as original with ME as He was with others!” Too often I find myself looking at other successful church’s who seem to be lighting up their towns and cities and just doing some serious stuff for God and I look at that and go, “MAN! I want to be doing THAT!” Then quickly I realize that I am not like that. I am who God has made me. See, for me… Sometimes I get frustrated because I feel like I need to be doing what Francis Chan, or Pete Wilson, or Andy Stanley, or Perry Noble is doing.

Here’s what it boils down to. God has not called me to be Francis Chan, Bill Hybels, Rob Bell, Pete Wilson or Perry Noble. God has called me to be Peter Gowesky. He has uniquely equipped me to do the task that He has laid in front of me. God will speak to and through me uniquely.

I need to pray and ask God, what have you asked me to do? I don’t know about you, but it is easy for me to get distracted by what God is doing in other peoples lives so much so that I can’t see what God wants to be doing in my life.

Does this resonate with anyone else? Are you letting God be as amazingly creative in your life as He was in the lives of all those around you?

Isaiah 64:8

“You, Lord , are our Father.
We are nothing but clay,
but you are the potter
who molded us.”

Thankful…

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Thoughts on Chan: Part 1

April 30, 2009 2 Comments

Okay, so I promised that I would expound a little bit more on what I learned from Francis Chan’s challenge to the group at the Shift Conference, at Willow Creek Community Church. Well, here we go. (If you haven’t gotten a chance to watch his teaching yet, jump over here and do it now!)

I couldn’t agree with Francis more… Let’s just put it out there right now.

I was challenged… moved… and convicted. At the end of this session I was just blown away. I loved the quote that Francis said, “I believe the church needs a radical shift, I believe youth ministry needs a radical shift, I believe I need a radical shift. Every time I read the book of Acts, I don’t put it down and say, ‘Man that’s just like us.'” I laughed out loud, and winced a little on the inside. It was funny and sad at the same time. Clearly he was being sarcastic there at the end… Funny because he worded it in a humorous way. Yet at the same time, there is truth that resonates with me and it is unbelievably painful to think about. Are our churches like the book of Acts?

I love when Francis just says really simply, okay, so it’s not the same as back then, but they had the same Holy Spirit that we do! This is an incredible thought! We have the same Holy Spirit that Peter and John had, and we have the same “Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead” inside of us, why are we so complacent and frustratingly timid?