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As you say it is, it will be for you = if you think it is too difficult, your life will be difficult.  You decided the measure of difficulty of your own ministry.  As is your faith, so it will be done to you.

Every community has its own set of problems.  If God did not believe that we can't overcome it, God wouldn't have sent us there.  Start within your heart and mind that it can be done.  May not know the vision, but still know it can be done.  A great leader is a great follower/disciple of Jesus.

Sometimes our visions will diverge us from the VisionCaster.  Best way to come to Jesus is to come stupid.  The longer the storm, the more courage can grow in you.

It's the "short blasts" that disrupt us.  Prepare your soul for the short blasts that will come upon you.  Keep a clean sense of continuity between the Spirit of God my heart and my hands.  The way to prepare.  Keep the conduits open for the Spirit to come upon you.  Keeping a relationship with the Holy Spirit.  Jesus says when you are dragged into court, don't prepare ahead of time a speech, but be prepared for the Spirit to tell you what to say.
We preach it.  It's time to live it.

FIVE LESSONS
1. Take the initiative to learn. Ps 32:8-9.
What will it take for your to learn?  Founder of judo when he was dying asked his community to bury him in a white belt (novice) when he died rather than his achieved black belt of judo.  He was entering a new learning experience of life.
Wisdom is gained by increasing in learning, not necessarily having arrived.  Proverbs 1:5a 20% of new knowledge is entering the workplace every year.  Change is a way of life.  Wayne plans out each year books he will read.  On his planning calendar he lists them when he is read them.  24 books a year.  Buys them and puts them on his desk in a pile.  May read up to 36 as people recommend other books as the year goes on.  His prayer goal is to grow in 30% of knowledge each year to stay ahead of the curve.  Every day improve something about yourself or increase in learning.  Make quality a lifestyle instead of a goal I reach and than hold on to.  Just 1% a day is over 300% a year. 
That is the mission God has sent us on.  Improve.  How you sit.  Your posture.  Your smile.  Your handshake.  Your attitude.  Your physical fitness and so on.  You can communicate what you know, but only reproduce what you are.
Leave a good legacy that is firm in you.  Not just ideas, but convictions.  Not just what you teach.  Authentic.  People are still coming to the legacy that Jesus left us.  If you want to leave Jesus' footprints behind you in your life, you need to be real and authentic in being obedient and following his life.  Work on who you are…clean to the core. 
You can learn from the bad as well as the good.  Proverbs 24:30-34
To only learn from the good is to only learn half of what you can learn.  Envy and jealousy will stop all learning.  Recognize the hand of God and learn from it.  Partner up.  e.g. Elijah and Elisha.  Don't have jealous.  Like Elisha, ask for a double portion.
Judges 8:5ff - Succoth and Penuel didn't recognize the hand of God and partner up…they paid the price.
Have a pacesetter.  Not competitive, but community/koinonia.  Learn from the elite.  Partner up with a pacesetter. 
Contemporary mentors
Distance mentors
Historical/literary mentors

Read books - catalog them: 
Topic  -  Subject  -  pg no
In the front blank pages of the book.
Arrow mark illustrations across page ends

2 teachers in life:
wisdom - she will teach you, but you have to enroll in "her" class or else you will only learn by consequences.  Teaches you the lesson before the mistake.
consequences - you make the mistake and then learn the lesson.
Both are good.
You learn wisdom from:
Personal experience
Others experiences - testimonies. Take wisdom from others.
Word of God.  Bible=library

The greatest book of ancient wisdom is the Bible
2. Be disciplined in your devotions.  Devotion to God's word on a daily basis!  Shepherding souls that are at war with the adversary.  All other profit and loss pales in light of this.  Begin a church with faith and spirit, not money.  What if we saw people not as they are physically, but in their spiritual health and body?  We would look emaciated and weak.  Not an army God could rely on.  We need a self-feeding program.  Church cannot survive dependent on the trained professional to do all the feeding.  As we get older we will be less self-reliant.  More dependent and even weaker.  That's what "pastoral care" has become in the church, today. 

We need to sit one hour a day at the feet of the Master and be mentored.  Wisdom to be poured into our soul through the Bible.  Teach the congregation how to do daily devotions.  Life Journal prayer and scripture journal. (on the Fairlawn-West web site front page)  Bookmark with readings passed out periodically.  Invite people to journal with these.  Find one thing that the Holy Spirit highlights for you from that ready.

Five items to bring with you:

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