Spirit to spirit

Outcomes vs. Inputs by Mark Batterson | Evotional

I'm at a place in my life where I don't care about outcomes. I'm focused on inputs. I don't care about extrinsics. I'm focused on intrinsics. If we simply do the right things, God is going to bless it. Period.

Throughout my ministry, I've found that when I focus on numbers I get easily discouraged or distracted. Numbers can easily become more important than people. And it generally leads toward pride or jealousy. And what we need to do is refocus on doing the rights things: meditate on God's word, pray through, obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit, genuinely love people. And when you do the right things, everything takes care of itself.

To put it another way, I'm not concerned about church growth. I'm concerned about personal growth. And if you're experiencing personal growth, church growth will take care of itself.

I feel like God gave me a promise today while I was praying. I'm careful sharing things like these. I didn't hear an audible voice. I never have! But God speaks Spirit to spirit. And I felt like the Lord impressed this simple thought on me: if you pray twice as much you'll accomplish twice as much. I think sometimes ministry becomes a hamster's wheel. We do more and accomplish less. On one level we think, if I pray more I'll have less time to do what needs to be done. But if you pray, maybe it'll take half as long.

Here's what I'm getting at. I feel like the Lord was saying: write less and pray more. Same with preaching prep. I'm not saying you shouldn't study, but what do you think will have more impact? Twenty hours of study? Or fifteen hours of study plus five hours of prayer?