Pursuing The Possible – Walking In Power with Nate Ortiz

Hey everyone, I'm Nate Ortiz and this is Walking in Power and I want to talk to you

today about pursuing the possible.

As you develop your faith and you walk with God, there's going to be elements where you're

going to say, you know, I don't have enough understanding, I don't have enough, whatever

resource you might think it is for you to pursue what you really believe is possible.

We understand in scriptures that God says that with him that all things are truly possible.

So I want this to be encouragement to you that you would be able to develop your faith

in all areas of your life, not just one area where you say, I believe God could do this

for me in this area but not in this area.

So maybe it's your finances, maybe it's a relationship, maybe it's in your family,

you know, or even in the business.

Whatever it is, I want you to have this understanding and understanding of faith that you can pursue

the possible with Jesus by your side and when you develop your faith, there's going to be moments

where you're stretched, there's going to be moments where you feel uncomfortable, but we really

have to believe that wherever God takes you as long as he is with you, that's the best case scenario.

And so I always say like this, if you want to do anything that is worthy of being

reduplicated, you've got to have a level of faith that says, this goes beyond what I feel like

is my capabilities, what I feel is my skill set and you're really trusting God and giving

God glory as he takes you through those things.

Winston Churchill said this, he said, the price of greatness is responsibility.

We have a responsibility to walk on our faith, not just in our words, but in our actions.

I see throughout scriptures, Jesus consistently lived it and he also taught it to his disciples.

So we're going to look at a passage of scripture here that we can really understand of how

Jesus taught his disciples how to pursue possible, how to make this a part of their everyday

life. And so Matthew chapter 8 verse 18, we're going to start there.

It says, now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to the part to the other side of the

sea. Then a scribe came and said to him, teacher, I will follow you wherever you go. Jesus said to

him, the foxes have holes and birds have of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to

lay his head. Another of the disciples said to him, Lord, permit me to go first and bury my father

and allow and Jesus, but Jesus said to him, follow me and allow the dead to bury their own dead.

When he got into the boat, his disciples followed him and behold, there arose a great storm on the sea

so that the boat was being covered with the waves, but Jesus himself was asleep. And they came

to him and woke him saying, save us, Lord, we are perishing. He said to them, why are you afraid

you men of little faith? Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea and it became perfectly calm.

The men were amazed and said, what kind of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him?

I like to say like this, the gap between what is probable and what is possible is discipline.

These disciples where they had all these experiences with God, they had people who were

around being healed, being touched by God. And there's this understanding that Jesus was trying to

tell them, listen, there's going to be situations, there's going to be storms you're in and you're

going to not understand why you're going through the storm, you're not going to understand why it's

happening, but you have to have the faith and let God is going to get you through it. So here are

three traits of discipline that you should have when you're pursuing the possible in your life.

The first one is leave comfortable behind. Many times in our faith, I see it in, when people come to

church or people are talking about their faith, they like to feel comfortable, right? They don't like

to maybe talk about their faith or share their faith with people, but I'm telling you, Jesus has given

us the power and the authority to be able to share our faith with people. There shouldn't be this sense of,

well, I don't want to offend anybody, right? If you're walking with the Lord, it's a part of who you are.

Don't live your life or don't make your faith about being comfortable. A disciple wants to follow

Jesus in this story and Jesus tells them essentially, there is no stopping point. If you want to follow me,

you are always going to have to leave the comfort behind. If you are seeking comfort, you're always

going to be falling short of all that God has for you, right? Not that God's just saying, hey, your

whole life is going to be hard, you're going to be uncomfortable, but it's from the understanding,

right? Whether it's in business or in your life, it's in through with your spiritual walk. If you're

always seeking comfort, you're not going to be really living to your maximum potential. And so,

I always say this longing to be comfortable is the Achilles heel of the apathetic, right? Those people

who search for comfort, it's hard for them to move forward, it's hard for them to strive for more

in their spiritual walk with God. The kingdom of God is always moving you forward. The kingdom of

God is never going to say, hey, you found the Lord to stay where you are, don't change, it's always

going to pull you forward. And if we aren't living that way, we'll look for leaders who don't

require much from us because they'll make us comfortable. You will achieve your goal of comfort,

but you won't accomplish anything worth duplicating, right? We want to live a life, right? We should

want to live a life as believers that our faith is big, that we are seeing great things happen,

that people around us saying, that's something I want to see in my life. I don't want to become,

well, I want to say, God, use my life for anything that you see fit. I mean, even for myself,

even for some of you who've been watching this, you might have never picked yourself doing what

you're currently doing today. I encourage you, as every step that God takes, it graces you to take,

always give praise and thank him for what he's doing. The moments that he stretched, the moments that

you took those big steps of faith, right? Those moments where people didn't understand why you're doing

what you were doing, but you did it and God was with you and met you there. Give thanks to God,

give glory to him as you leave comfort behind and every step you take, every, you know, next

phase of life, every new season, God's going to be faithful to you. The second thing to like to tell

you as you pursue possible is lean into the now. Many times in our faith, right? We could just feel like,

well, I'll get to it later. I'll read my Bible later or I'll just take care of this at another time.

In this passage of scripture, Jesus tells this man who wants to follow him, that he has to let the

dead bear the dead. This guy say, hey, I want to follow you, Jesus, but let me go bury my father first.

Right? That seems like a reasonable request. And Jesus has let the dead bear the dead, right?

Right? Lots of people took different takes on this and how they viewed it and approached it.

But I think this is my takeaway from it. Not that Jesus was saying, hey, you can't be part of your

family, that you can't have this, this, this, a connection there. But I think there's this understanding

that when you have to lean into the now that there's things that will try to pull you away, there's

things that will try to distract you, especially in your faith, right? There's things that,

it's called time oysters, right? Where you'll maybe, you'll just, hey, I don't know, watch this show

for hours when it's like, hey, have you even read your word? You know, have you read the Bible?

Have you spent some time in worship? When has the last time you've been in the church? Have you

been praying for people, right? Lean into the now. I should believe that God is always speaking, but

are we always listening? You know, God doesn't always speaking this loud, booming voice, right? I've

never heard God speak to me in a loud, booming voice. Sometimes it's in the hustle of my day and I

feel like there's this moment of pause. This moment is saying, all right, Lord, what do you have to

me to do? Maybe Lord's going to have me pray for somebody. Maybe Lord's going to have you strike up

a conversation who someone needs to encourage, right? All the ministry, all things that God wants to do in

our lives as we pursue possible. It doesn't happen in, in, right, church settings all the time. It

happens. We're living life. So we have to lean into the now, right, that we pray before we go to

business means and we before we make big decisions to say, Lord, help me understand, helping

I get pulled into different things that are maybe going to keep my attention for this guy in the

story when he's asking go, you know, various father, maybe Jesus knew that if this guy goes with his

family, he's not going to follow me like he says he wants to. He's not going to lean into the now.

And there's maybe areas of your life that you're saying, you know what? I really need to like kind of

put this off to the side and lean into what God is speaking to me now, right? Sometimes friends don't

understand or people don't understand it. But when you do what God is asking you to do, your faith

continues to grow and you begin to have this understanding of what God wants to do in your life

specifically because all of us, all of us have a different call, a different pool upon our life.

Not everyone's meant to be a pastor, not everyone's meant to be a business person. But when we could be

in the place of saying God, I want to lean to your now right now. What are you speaking to me, right?

Even after this video is done, pray, write it down. What is God asking you to do with your life?

What is God asking you to do for His kingdom? And that's where I feel like when we grow and that,

when we understand that our faith continues to develop. And the last thing I want to say is we learn

from this passage of scripture is learn to trust. One of the hardest things in our faith is learning

to trust God. We have this feeling in our hearts that we that we that we think God, I know what's

best for me, but the truth is God really knows what's best. And it takes time for us to develop that

trust and our relationship with him because in our human mind, we just think linear. We think

A gets to B gets to C gets to D, right? And that's just how we're driven. But God sometimes saying,

yeah, you're at A, but it's really not about B or C. It's really about D. That's where I need you to

go. That's where I'm taking you. But God says if I take you from A to D, it's going to crush you.

You're not going to have the character. You're not going to have the integrity. You're not going to

have the understanding if I took you right there. But there is a process that God takes us in.

And our faith has to grow and trust in him. And so even the disciples in this passage, we read the

very end of it that they get into the boat with Jesus. They've seen Jesus do all these amazing

miracles. They have spent the most time with him, right? And their storm just begins to take place.

And they're in the middle of it. And they're they're losing their their faith in God of if you're

in Jesus who's with them in the boat. We have to remember that it's most important that Jesus

in your boat. It doesn't matter what's going on. It doesn't matter if if maybe things aren't going

the way you thought they were going to go, we have to develop this trust in Jesus. That when things

are going our way, we understand that he's good. When things even aren't going our ways, we

understand that he's still good. And I've had many conversations with people who've walked through

difficult things and challenging things. And they keep their eyes on Jesus and they're saying,

I just trust him wherever is going on in my life, I trust him and I give my all to him.

So these disciples, they were learning to trust Jesus even in this hard situation, even in this

storm. And he had to remind them as he calms the sea, he says, you know, see, be still in the

disciples. I think, who is this guy? Right? That even the the winds and the sea obey him. Right?

In our lives today, Jesus, right? Jesus has that same power and authority in our lives,

right? He's given it to us that we can speak to situations that we can begin to see things shift,

atmosphere is change, things that you thought were never ever going to be different. They begin

to do that. Here's our faith begins to rise up. We believe, we believe that God can do amazing things,

God can restore things, God can renew things that there is this understanding that we can pursue the

possible when Jesus is with us. So listen, I want to encourage you again that as we recap here that

you need to leave comfortable. Don't be comfortable in your faith. Don't just settle in,

right? Just don't say this is good enough, but get everything that God has for you.

Lean into the now. What is God speaking to you today? What is God speaking to you right now?

How can you lean into it? Then lastly, learn to trust. Learn to trust him with everything. Every

aspect of your life is you pursue possible. Don't let him in certain areas, not other areas.

We'll say, Jesus, I want you right in the middle of everything that have going on in my life.

And so I pray that you guys will be blessed and take this word of heart and I will talk to you next time.