Living a Significant Life

By: Mike and Kristi Polhemus

By: Mike and Kristi Polhemus

Mike & Kristi Polhemus moved to Castle Rock with their three children Katelyn (14), Ryken(13), and Aliya (9) in 2014 to help pastor The Rock in Castle Rock, Colorado. On January 29, 2017, they stepped in as lead pastors and are learning that the best leaders are great followers of Jesus. Colorado is on the verge of a great move of the Holy Spirit and The Rock is helping to prepare the churches of Colorado to be the ecclesia (church), the oikos (family), and the ergates (workers). Unity of the churches and partnership with the government are two key areas where the Lord has given them favor. They are also spiritual children of Leif and Jennifer and part of the Global Mission Awareness family.

LIVING A SIGNIFICANT LIFE

Hello GMA Family,

I am honored to share my heart with you and I pray these truths help shed light on living a significant life.  7 years ago, I laid down what many would consider an amazing career in Texas to follow God’s leading to serve a church in Colorado.  I had been operating as vice president of development for a prestigious company, developing a 4,000-acre city with a $5.5B budget.  I was given a career opportunity many only dream of.  In the world’s eyes, and in my eyes at that time, I was living a life of significance!

I have since come to understand that living a significant life requires a surrendered life, fully dependent on the Holy Spirit.  Let me explain.  As I followed the leading of the Holy Spirit and transitioned out of the business world into the church world, I quickly began to realize that my engineering skills, negotiation tactics, leadership ways, and business mindset were not so helpful for the plan God had for me.  Everything I learned in the prior 22 years through education and experience became irrelevant.  The Lord took me on a journey of learning to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and then walk in radical obedience even when it didn’t make sense or please people.  This style of leadership was hard for some people to accept and we saw many leave our church family. This was difficult to walk through and at times I questioned whether I was hearing the Lord.  However, as I look back, this was a necessary test of my heart and a part of setting the foundation for the Lord’s plan and direction.  Church success in the world’s eyes is often based on growth, but that is not God’s standard.  Gideon was called by the Lord to save Israel from the enemy.  He worked diligently and raised up 32,000 warriors to fight against a massive Midian army.  Yet the Lord didn’t applaud Gideon’s accomplishment, rather He commanded Gideon to reduce his warriors from 32,000 to 300 and then walk in obedience to His leading. 

So often we determine our significance by the world’s scale, in the same way, Gideon responded when he was told he was a mighty warrior (Judges 6:12-15).  Our true significance begins with a posture of sonship, not with our accomplishments.  God tells us His significant plan for us in Ezek 36:27 & 37:14: “I will put my Spirit in you and you will follow my ways…and you will live.”  And again in Romans 8:14, “For the sons of God are led by the Spirit.”   It is through Holy Spirit in us and leading us that we live in a position of sonship to the Father…a life of significance on this earth!  I could tell you things that have recently happened and that are happening now at The Rock that would amaze you…far beyond what I ever imagined the Lord would do.  And I can honestly say I don’t know how it all happened, other than we are listening to the Spirit and obeying.

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to travel with Papa Leif to Pakistan and experience “living a significant life”, not because of anything I had done, but solely because of my position as a spiritual son to Papa Leif.  Papa Leif has spent the past 26 years of his life plowing ground, sowing into and cultivating relationships with many top leaders in Pakistan.  Although I had never been to Pakistan and carried no favor or influence of my own in this nation, my position as “son” to Leif instantly gave me great favor and significance with the top leaders of a nation…something I could have never experienced on my own.

The life of true significance is found as we surrender our own agendas, plans, and ultimately our life as ‘a living sacrifice’.  From this place, we are able to live in step with the Holy Spirit and walk as a son to the Father.  This is the life we were created to live!  Outside of this, there is a groaning…an uneasiness in our spirit for more.  Some will try and fill it with the world’s solutions, but I pray that we together would engage and abide in our God-given position of sonship, and remain fully reliant on the Spirit’s leadings.  From this place, it will never matter how much we have to offer, how much we accomplish, or how the world sees us.  And in this posture, we will undoubtedly live a life of significance.  Jesus did this SO WELL when He came to this earth as a Son with the only agenda of “doing the will of the Father” through the leading of the Spirit. 

My question for you today is this:  Are you listening to the Holy Spirit and following His leading in EVERY area of your life?

“You did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.  And by the Spirit, we joyfully and intimately cry out, “Abba, Father”  The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”

Romans 8:15-16

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