When my family's life took a turn towards the unknown, it was a trust in God's plan that held us steady. As your host, John, I share a very personal journey in this episode, revealing how uprooting everything familiar to answer God's call led to unexpected growth and a deeper peace. It's a testament to the belief that surrendering to His guidance yields stability, even when everything else seems to be in turmoil. Join me as I open up about the challenges and the profound serenity found in entrusting our lives to a higher purpose, drawing inspiration from the promises found in Isaiah 33.
This conversation isn't just about my story—it's an invitation for all of us to recommit to our spiritual disciplines and recognize God's hand in every part of our day. We take a page from the prophet Elisha's book, honing in on his unshakeable focus in the face of adversity, as told in 2 Kings 6. By sharing these narratives, I hope to encourage you to start each day in gratitude, to make space for reflection on God's will, and to fortify your heart against the distractions that can lead us astray. So let's explore together how a steadfast focus on the divine can bring clarity and strength, no matter what life throws our way.
When my family's life took a turn towards the unknown, it was a trust in God's plan that held us steady. As your host, John, I share a very personal journey in this episode, revealing how uprooting everything familiar to answer God's call led to unexpected growth and a deeper peace. It's a testament to the belief that surrendering to His guidance yields stability, even when everything else seems to be in turmoil. Join me as I open up about the challenges and the profound serenity found in entrusting our lives to a higher purpose, drawing inspiration from the promises found in Isaiah 33.
This conversation isn't just about my story—it's an invitation for all of us to recommit to our spiritual disciplines and recognize God's hand in every part of our day. We take a page from the prophet Elisha's book, honing in on his unshakeable focus in the face of adversity, as told in 2 Kings 6. By sharing these narratives, I hope to encourage you to start each day in gratitude, to make space for reflection on God's will, and to fortify your heart against the distractions that can lead us astray. So let's explore together how a steadfast focus on the divine can bring clarity and strength, no matter what life throws our way.
Thank you, god. For those of you who have come back to hear His words, my name is John and it's an honor to be your host for this next episode. Today, we're going to be seeing what happens when life begins to get in the way of what God has in store for us. So buckle up or lean in, because this episode is going to shine a light into a place that we all need to be a little more aware of. This is season one, episode 13. This is Season 1, episode 13.
Jon:
Don't lose focus Now. Before we begin, as always, I want to open us up in prayer. Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us our daily bread, lord, and forgive our trespasses, as we forgive those who've trespassed against us. Lead us not to temptation, lord, but deliver us from evil. In Jesus' name, I pray God. As we dive into today's word, lord, we ask that you help us keep our focus solely on you, lord, to help us keep our eyes on you. God, focus solely on you, lord, to help us keep our eyes on you. God, help us put distractions that are designed by the enemy to put us in a place that is not meant to honor you and that is designed to distract us to the back of our minds. So that we may not interfere with the plans and the purpose that you have set for us, lord, I ask that you see us for who we are, god, and guide us. See the intent that lies within our hearts, god, and the necessity in our lives, and protect us, as you have protected those who were faithful to you through your words in the past. Lead us not to want anything but you, god, and teach us that in this life, you, god, are more than enough to get us through anything that the world has thrown at us. In Jesus' holy name, I pray Amen.
Jon:
Today we're going to be talking about focus. Today we're going to be talking about focus and, as you guys are all probably aware and know by now at least I'd hope you do, because I would hope that you already listened to episode one, except in the call that I recently took steps to move from one state to the other. And what do I mean by that? I was in a place where I was extremely comfortable and I had absolutely everything that I could ever imagine that this world had to offer and I gave all of it up to follow God. I uprooted my family and moved from one area to the other, taking us away from our friends, our family, our culture, taking us away from our friends, our family, our culture. And again, I kind of went over all of this in episode one, accepting the call. And since I made that move happen well, I can't say I made it happen. I want to give credit to God because I wouldn't have made it through without him.
Jon:
But since God made that move happen, I know that I have grown. I've seen it. I have grown so much in my faith that I have been dumbfounded by the works that he keeps doing in my life. I have seen my wife's relationship and I heal. I have grown closer to my wife. My wife has also grown closer to God. My children have learned to follow and grow closer to God as well.
Jon:
My family overall has seen growth in their faith and that's because we walk in Christ, knowing that God is our foundation and that this was promised to us in God's words through the prophet Isaiah in chapter 33, verse 5 through 6. It says the Lord is honored. He lives in heaven. He will fill Zion's people with what is fair and right. Verse 6 continues and says he will be the firm foundation for their entire lives. He's talking about us, that he's going to fill our lives with what is fair and right and that he will continually be the foundation in our lives.
Jon:
And in knowing that God is my foundation, throughout this entire process I have felt an overwhelming sense of peace. That didn't make any sense Because my life as it is and it currently is to this very day is still crumbling all around me, but yet there is peace in this chaos. There is peace in this chaos, A peace that doesn't allow me to be phased by the destruction that is continually happening around me. And as I'm going through this journey, I continue to pray and pray for God to deliver me and place me where I could serve him, however he chooses. And through those prayers, god has been faithful to me. In Proverbs 6, verse 13, it says commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans. And that's what my plan was all along.
Jon:
I wanted to take my own plans and throw them in the garbage. I wanted to throw them out. I wanted to get rid of them. I wanted to give what I thought were my plans to God. And I wanted to say to God God, take who I am and what I am and turn it into something that honors you, that you can use as a light, as a beacon for those who are lost. Use me as an instrument to help those who need to see the little bit of you in me.
Jon:
And he has been continually working on me to this very single day. He's been taking my problems and he's been delivering me, one at a time, in ways that I could never imagine. My problems haven't gone away, but imagine, my problems haven't gone away, but I continually sought after God and I would say, god, if this is your will, then so be it. Whatever it is you'll have me do, lord, I will do them. But please, god, throughout this storm, throughout this change in my life, please allow me to be able to provide for my family, allow me to be able to uphold my home in a righteous manner. Amen. I know that I've sinned and I know that I don't deserve anything other than death, god. But Lord, please have mercy on me and don't let my family suffer for my past failures and my current failures.
Jon:
I would pray, guys, and pray, because God has been so good to us. And after I would pray these prayers, it was amazing because God would open my eyes and soon after I found myself seeing and looking back, that there was a path that was carved through the storms that I was walking through. There were steps that were added to be able to get out of the valleys that I found myself in. I moved from one area to the other without work, without income, without a plan, and I was living off of God's provision. And as those provisions began to run out, I began to lose my focus on the Lord and I began to see the pressures of the world starting to build up and I just continued to ask God, please help me, just provide for my family, don't punish them because of me. And God heard me and he was able to provide work for me and I said, god, if this work that you're giving me is going to take me away from what you have me doing, god, I don't want it, and I was blessed in ways that you couldn't even imagine. God gave me the opportunity to be able to not only find work, but to have a team of people that I'm working with that respect and honor what I am doing in this ministry and they are allowing me to continue to work towards God's plans by not interfering what God has in store for me, by not interfering what God has in store for me.
Jon:
So, with all these blessings and all these things that God is doing in my life, I find myself still asking why do I feel like I am failing God consistently, like it doesn't matter which way I turn, I mess something up, something. It doesn't go the right way. And as I was reflecting on that, I came to realize this very morning that it all boiled down to the message of this episode and it all boils down to the message of this episode and it all boils down to one word, and that is the word focus. See God, as God is working towards his plans for me. I found myself beginning to juggle all the blessings that he had given me together with all the things that belong to this world, and I started to look at my everyday life and analyzing the bills that were coming in the family that I was missing or that would end up coming up to my house to stay with me and visit with us. I was also concentrating on the new job that I had just gotten some health situations that were arising, my friends, my hobbies, the church, the ministry, and by the time I noticed it was a whirlwind of things that I was beginning to balance in a very similar fashion that I used to do before I turned my life to Christ.
Jon:
I turned my life to Christ, I was beginning to slide back, taking steps back towards a man that I was showing the same patterns that I had shown before, and then I began to lose my focus on what the Lord was doing in my life and all his splendors, all the blessings that he was giving me. I was concentrating on everything around me except God. I stopped reading the Bible every day with my wife at night just because other things took priority. And that leads me to remind you guys that when things like this happen, it's understandable, because we all fall short from the glory of God. Let the enemy come in and wiggle his way in, this deceitful enemy and allow him to confuse me into subtly rearranging my priorities so that my priorities were flipped and the last thing on my mind was God and the message that he was trying to impart in my mind.
Jon:
So I can pass it on to you, and it was just as of this morning that it finally dawned on me that my focus hasn't been God, and I have been feeling the pressures of this world building up again in me. I've been feeling the anxiety and the hints of fear and the signs of depression all over again, because my focus has been on deadlines for work and the collection calls and the bills and everything that doesn't really matter. None of that matters and doesn't mean anything. At the very end, when you are standing in front of God and he is judging you, he is looking at you through the lens of the blood of Christ and he is saying I am judging you as a servant. Have you done good or have you done bad? Are you my friend or are you my enemy? There is no other way. Or are you my enemy? There is no other way. So God gave me the message today, and it was to learn how to focus on God and not lose your focus. And you may be asking what does focus do when it comes to God? Why is it important? And to answer that I have to dive into the word of God and talk about the prophet Elisha. Now, elisha was a man that loved God so profoundly that he consulted with kings delivering God's message. This was a man that never lost focus on God, and God uses him in the Bible to guide and lead other people to God, performing miracles in the name of the Lord. So we turn to the book 2 Kings 6, and we're going to start at verse 8.
Jon:
During the aramean war versus israel and this is what it begins in saying when the king of aram or aram, I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that right, guys, you guys are gonna have to forgive me on this one was waging war against israel, he conferred with his servants my camp will be at such and such place. He was stopping to tell his servants where they were going to camp as an army and going back into the word it says. But the man of God sent word to the king of Israel. He's talking about Elisha here. Be careful passing this place, for the Arameans are going down there. See, elisha was being told by God where the Arameans were heading to. Consequently, the king of Israel sent word to the place the man of God had told him about. The man of God repeatedly warned the king, so the king would be on his guard. God was able to deliver messages to Elisha about the Aramean king's movement in this time of war. And this was infuriating the king because it didn't just happen once, it continually happened.
Jon:
And in verse 11, it continues by saying the king of Aram I apologize, I keep stumbling over this Aram. Aram was enraged because of this matter and he called his servants and demanded of them tell me which one of us is for the king of Israel. The king of Aram was telling his servants which one of us is serving the other king. And one of his servants said no one. My Lord, the King Elisha, the prophet in Israel, tells the King of Israel even the words you speak in your bedroom, showing you that God is always watching, he's always seeing what we're doing. So the King said said, go and see where he is so I can send men to capture him. When he was told elisha is in dothan. Now, before I continue reading, I want to stop for a moment and talk about what kind of feelings any of us would experience right now if we knew somebody was sending an army after us to kill us. I think that's pretty distracting, if you ask me. But yet let's keep reading.
Jon:
And in the verse and it continues in verse 14, it continues by saying he sent horses. This is the king of Aram. He sent horses, chariots and a massive army there and they went by night and surrounded the city. And this is a city that Elisha was staying in, guys, when the servant of the man of God got up early and went out, he discovered an army with horses and chariots surrounding the city. So he goes to elisha and he asked elisha, oh my master, what are we to do? And elisha said don't be afraid, for those who are with us outnumber those who are with them. His focus wasn't on the army that was camped right outside the walls. They were on the lord, they were on god.
Jon:
Then elisha prayed lord, please open his eyes and let him see. He was talking about his servant. Lord, open his servant's eyes so he can see. And the lord answered and said so. The lord opened his servant's eyes. He looked and saw that the mountain was covered with horses and chariots of fire all around elisha. This was a focus that god or that elisha had on the lord, that the lord was calling the armies of heaven to protect them. And he knew that, as long as his eyes remained on the Lord, that God would not abandon him. And when the Arameans came against him, elisha prayed to the Lord please strike this nation with blindness. So God struck them with blindness, according to Elisha's word. Then Elisha said to them this is not the way and this is not the city. Follow me and I will take you to the man you're looking for. And he led them to Samaria. When they entered Samaria, elisha said Lord, open these men's eyes and let them see. So the Lord opened their eyes and they look and discovered they were in Samaria. They were in Samaria.
Jon:
Elisha was so focused on God that he did not give time for fear to strike his heart at the sound of an army camping outside the city poised to kill him. His focus again was on the Lord, so much so that God took his armies and defended Elisha from the armies that this same focus is what we need to have in God. When the problems arise in our lives and threaten to kill our spirit, threaten to kill our hope in the Lord, we need to remain looking up at the heavens and continue to walk towards God. And this poises us to ask ourselves a question why is it that we find ourselves placing our focus on anything else but God, if God can deliver a man from the grips of an army due to his unwavering loyalty and focus in him. That is the same God that we worship. He hasn't changed. The God of the universe and the leader of angel armies is on our side.
Jon:
So why do we constantly find ourselves fearing anything? There's no point. The only thing that I know is that the fear, anxiety and the depression that the enemy uses to hurt us causes us to lose focus on what God has in store for us, and I know that. So long as I keep my faith and focus in the Lord and I continue to look up at the heavens for my directions, I will continue to seek the will of my master, and in psalms, chapter 6, verse 8, it says I keep my eyes on the lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken. The foundation that is the lord jesus christ is the rock in which we stand. That is a foundation that cannot be shaken with any storm or with any wave. Anything that gets thrown at you will not move you, for God is our foundation and his will in our lives should be all we focus on. It should be what we strive to complete every single day. I recently have failed majorly in this aspect, and I know this is something I have to work on. God is the only reason that we are alive. When he conquered the grave, he cleansed us of our sins, relieving us by his blood. He took the wickedness of the world onto his own shoulders, so that we may be seen by God as his children, but not as wicked children.
Jon:
So between now and the next episode, I challenge you all to do a few simple things. First, I want you to spend one minute every morning, the moment you open your eyes. Forget about looking at your phone, forget about thinking about work or what you're going to wear, or even getting up to go to the bathroom. I want you to open your eyes, realize that it is a new day and close them and give thanks to God for another day that we are able to carry out his will as he deems fit, and allowing you to wake up and rise in his presence, to rise to the occasion that God has in store for you, to rise to the occasion that God has in store for you. Then the second thing is I want you to give God for at least a minute for each moment that you sit to eat a meal, for those are blessings that he is throwing your way, blessings that you may not even realize, that some people don't have. And third, I want you to carve out some time in the day or at night, it doesn't matter when, but every single day, to learn his word and to ask him for directions and how he wants you to carry out his will, because we are his servants. And what kind of servants would we be if we ignored the will of our master?
Jon:
Use these three things to begin to hone in your focus on God and his works in your life, each and every day. The more we are grateful to God, the more we begin to see how wonderful he is to us. Perhaps you've been going through life every single day not knowing that God is on your side, not knowing what to focus on. You can change that with a willing heart. Giving your life to God is not a burden. It's a relief, because you have somebody who is looking out for you, somebody who is working towards your good, and there are some of you who are listening who have never taken the first step, and I want to invite you to do that very thing.
Jon:
So pray with me and say God, I know that I'm a sinner. I know that I sin constantly. I have lost my focus or I have never known what my focus was meant to be to begin with. I know that you've sent your son to earth to die on the cross for my sins and I accept him as my Lord and Savior. Thank you, god. Come into my heart and save me from eternal damnation and give me life. Lord in you, grant me the purpose that I am seeking. Fill that void in my heart, lord, so that others may see me and see that small piece of you, that light that can only come from you. God, help me be a better version of myself every day. Help me keep my focus on you, lord. Keep my eyes trained on you, lord, so that I may walk every single day in peace and in rest in your name, lord. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
Jon:
If you were bold enough to say that prayer, I want to be the first to welcome you to God's family, for you are now a brother or sister in Christ, our Heavenly Father. I want you to know that in the book of Luke, chapter 15, it says there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who don't need repentance. So know that there are choirs of angels rejoicing over you right now. I also want to welcome you to Guidance Life, where we are doing our best to pour back into the community with daily content. In our Facebook and Instagram account, we post daily Bible verses and scripture aimed at helping anyone face their day For my followers. Your ongoing love and support for this channel has been an absolute blessing in my family's life. Our growth has been something I could never imagine on my own, as we have episodes downloaded in countries like Europe, africa, asia and we finally got our first downloads in South America.
Jon:
I'm asking for your help sincerely in keeping this fire going. I am personally asking you to continually spread the word of this channel to friends and family and to follow us on Instagram. These are ways in which you can help support our ministry. It doesn't have to be financial donations, but simply clicking a follow button or spreading the podcast episodes to friends and family. It's free and we're all on major platforms like Spotify, amazon Music. The only one we're not currently on is YouTube, which, if God allows, will be coming soon. I thank God because he's allowed me to voice his words on this show every week so far.
Jon:
Guidance Light Ministry also has a new website where you can do cool things like submit prayer requests, send me emails, purchase Christian merchandise designed by my family and I and also listen to the episodes, just in case you don't have subscriptions to other platforms. We're also so, so excited because together we see how God is working towards fulfilling the vision he has in store for us. Honestly, it is beyond exciting to continually serve God and his family and to reach out into the void of this world to cast a net to find those who need his light. If you have been following me since the beginning or just began, I want to say thank you for your support means the world to me and my family. Again, please visit us on our new website, wwwguidance-lightcom. It's filled with all types of cool information and prayer request forms and official Guidance Light merchandise in our store to help support our ministry in developing more content. Your support is helping me and my family push through and focus on the vision that God has in store for us.
Jon:
Again, follow us on Instagram and Facebook. We are posting daily things for you and we are also looking to be able to promote events and promotions, so make sure you follow us not only for those daily motivations, but to carve out just a few seconds for God each day. Please leave comments and reviews on our channel, as it helps the algorithms promote our show, so that others can hear what God may have in store for them. If you're going through something, please don't hesitate to send us prayer requests. It remains anonymous, but my wife and I pray for each one submitted. We are in this together and I am excited for what God has in store for us in the future.
Jon:
Visit us on our website or email me at john at guidance-lightcom, and again, I'm going to ask you for your help in sharing these podcasts to friends and family members. God can work through you and this may be your chance to feel that fulfillment that God has in store for you. God bless you and keep you safe. I thank God for every single one of you. Guidance Light will continually air one episode every Friday night into Saturday morning. If you're interested in the list of the verses we covered today, please email me and I would be happy to send them your way. Stay tuned on our website for that as well. Thank you again, and may God continue to bless you. This is John, with Guidance Light, signing out with all the love in the world. May God bless you and keep you. I will see you guys next week.