by Rahim Nichols, Victory Program Supervisor at The City Mission

Are you ready? This simple question has so many people holding back from fulfilling the call of God on their lives. Are you ready to pursue God wholeheartedly? Are you ready to run after God? Are you ready to die? Are you ready to lay everything down that you have been holding onto year after year? Are you ready to trust God? Are you ready to give God your life? Most people would say no, our sin nature is not ever ready to lay it all down, to die, but this is not the time nor the season to hold on. God is calling out His soldiers and will continue to raise up an army with or without you. Are you ready?

God has a habit of calling people who are not ready, but once they decided to give God their life, He is able to use them in ways they could never imagine. Was Gideon ready? Was David ready? Was Jeremiah or Peter or Paul? In the flesh no, but God saw a spirit that was ready and that’s why He chose them.  When they said yes, He equipped them with every tool, every weapon they would need to go to war for the kingdom of God. Are you ready?

So why wouldn’t God do the same for you. Just say yes and with that YES comes the grace and power of God over your life. Are you ready? When will we learn that this walk is not a game or a fairy tale, but life or death? That we have been called to reach the world, to reach the city of Cleveland?

A good friend of mine wrote a song that says “Giant Killers, Sword Wielders, and Spirit Fillers.” Body of Christ, this is the call to set the captives free. Are you ready? If so, stand up warriors and aggressively pursue God. To live is Christ and to die is gain. God has positioned us in a place in this city where people are hopeless, desperate, and need change, but in order for us to reach the city; we must say yes.  Be encouraged, Body of Christ, for God is with us. 

Jeremiah 1:9 “Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “Now, I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.” 

All it takes is our obedience, our yes.