It Will Cost You if You Lose Your Fierceness (Newsletter)

Friday, March 17, 2023

Hello, Friend

Welcome to the Royal Brew  ... the only newsletter that dresses in green and celebrates the triumph of Saint Patrick's Day every day of the year!

We're not even Irish here. Penny's a blend of Puerto Rican and Eastern Kentucky. I'm Italian and Romanian, though 'Brian' is an Irish name. Even so,  Penny began a tradition years ago that everyone loves ... a bit of Christmas in March.

She cooks an authentic Irish meal: stew meat cooked with red wine, mashed potatoes with leeks, and a daughter makes an Irish Soda bread that tastes just a little like heaven, or at least like you're on the green hills of Ireland. I keep Kerrygold Irish butter from grass-fed cows at the ready year-round, so I'll be anointing my soda bread with that!

I fancy myself a Kingdom descendant of Saint Patrick, crushing snakes and at least trying to give the devil a hard time.  😉

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Men by Design - Bruce Colbert on the Jesus Smart podcast

Listen to episodes 271 and 272 with Bruce Colbert

Bruce Colbert is all about men reclaiming their power, acquiring wisdom, and generating good. What can serious Christian men do to be equipped and empowered in a meaningful way?

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It will cost you if you lose your fierceness

The Body of Christ needs you.

Have you lost your fierceness? If so, it’s costing you. And others.

Our full-on engagement is necessary to reach our potential as an agent of Christ's Kingdom. The royal authority is from above, but a fierce mastery must flow through us.

“God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule'” (Genesis 1.28 NIV).

Rule.

Execute a fierce mastery

John Eldredge says we need to execute fierce mastery …

“Hebrew scholar Robert Alter has looked long and hard at this passage (Genesis 1:26-28), mining it for its riches. He says the idea of rule means ‘a fierce exercise of mastery.’ It is active, engaged, passionate. It is fierce.” (Waking the Dead)

Consider this incident in the life of Catherine of Sienna. She went to a secret place to pray (from Waking the Dead):

As she began to pray, her ears were assaulted by blasphemous words, and she cried out to God, “Oh, look Lord, I came up here to give you my day. Now look what is happening.” And the Lord said, “Does this please you, Catherine?” “Oh no, Lord,” she said. And the Lord said, “It is because I indwell you that this displeases you so.” These words brought instant understanding of my plight …

I also knew that the problem was not a state of condition of my mind or my heart, but that it was harassment from without, from the accuser of my soul. I knew beyond all shadow of a doubt that “Greater is he who is in you, than he who is in the world.” I then cried out to God, “Take it away, Lord. Send this filthy, horrible thing away.”

But the Lord said, “No, you do it.” It was then that I learned spiritual authority. Centered in God and He in me, I took authority over the evil spirit when it manifested itself and commanded it to leave. After several months of this, a concentrated training in moving from the center where Christ dwells, I was utterly free of this harassment.

What can we learn from her fight?

Eldredge says there are several things:

Her heart was good. The assault was coming from the outside, from the Enemy. We have to know that the new heart which Jesus gave us is good. We also have to know that we are at war.

Jesus told her to send it away. “You do it.” We are to resist. See the proactivity and partnership here? We must exercise fierce mastery. It’s His authority … yet, He has given it to us to use.

Her experience was training ... In this case, it took several months of battle. She was not blowing it. She was developing as an apprentice of His Kingdom. We must learn how to rule.

There’s No Way to Get Around This—His Dominion Flows Through Us

We are designed to live with strength!

Our thinking must be renewed. We’re in need of growing into a dominion mindset.

Become focused, proactive, and intentional.

Prayer will flow from the Word and our worship.

Authoritative decrees will flow from our prayer.

Prayer-borne action will soar on the wings of our belief-filled decrees.

Accurate, authentic action will release the success you are longing for.

Invest time meditating and praying over Genesis 1:26-28. Psalm 8 too. We are blessed (empowered) by the Creator. But we have to understand that our internal state has to be fierce.

A Godly ferocity.

A prayer ...

Father, I thank you for creating me in your image. I’m grateful that you have designed me to exercise a Godly dominion. You are sovereign … I’m designed to exercise dominion under your sovereignty. I yield myself to you to be transformed from the inside out. I say “Amen”—let it be—to your authority flowing through me in all spheres of my life! I take initiative moving forward. May you be glorified in every way …

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Appreciate you. Until next time.

Brian Del Turco

P.S.  Live every day in the triumph of Saint Patrick's Day. Fancy yourself as a Kingdom descendant of this great Christ-follower and Kingdom Agent.