Power!
A wild lion can live up to 15 years in the African bush. I’ve spent some time in remote wild places and the bush is an unforgiving place. Every tree is covered with thorns. Creatures great and small can harm, maim, and even kill you! These wild places bite back! I don’t know if I’d last 15 hours out there much less 15 years. But lions have immense power. And that power keeps them at the top of the pecking order out there.
Their bite force is estimated at between 600-1,000 pounds per square inch…that is strong enough to crush through bone! Each of a lion’s claws is an inch and a half long and they are razor sharp. A single paw-swipe from the king of beasts is estimated to carry with it 400-600 pounds of brute force. That coupled with the razor-sharp claws can literally break bones, tear through muscle and knock down the largest of prey, or opponents, for that matter.
These bad boys are top predators and extreme overcoming survivors for good reason.
And you and I have been created to live like lions. Romans 8:11 tells us, “…if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.”
We are meant to face life with decisiveness and power. We were never meant to cower in fear or backpedal from challenges. We were meant to be overcomers and victors. We were never meant to be victims. But it takes a true realization of the power that is inside us; a true dependence on the source of our power, Jesus Christ alive in us, to live powerfully. And once we have experienced a true revelation of who we are in Jesus’ eyes, and an understanding that we are infused with his strength, then we start to live like powerful lions.
One of our Young Lions named Jack has faced incredible challenge in his life, and at his lowest point, when he felt the least empowered and the most vulnerable, he decided to give himself a nickname. It sounds trite, but it became a finish line for him to race toward. He called himself Jack Power. And he is still called that throughout Chifubu today!
Heidi and I have written a book loosely based on Jack’s life struggles and adventures, and it is part of a special Young Lions series: Book one is Young Lion Rising, book two is Young Lion Running, and book three is Young Lion Roaring. I am so excited to announce that later this month, Jack Power: Young Lion Rising will be available through Amazon Kindle direct publishing.
All the proceeds…every cent raised from the sale of this book will go towards developing our Roar campus in Ndola, Zambia to provide a safe, fun, God-filled place for kids and youth to come and belong; and a training center for future Zambian missionaries who will carry the fire and the power…the firepower of God’s big love to the reaches of their nation and beyond! We also believe this book will instill the will to rise up in young readers all around the world!
Please help us equip more Young Lions like Jack by purchasing this book. Please also tell many others to go and do the same. I’ll send a special email with a link for purchase upon release…WE CAN’T WAIT to share this with you.
And this week, be sure to live your life like a powerful wild lion would, knowing full well who and whose you are. You have not been made to be timid, but you have been given a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline (2 Timothy 1:7)! That’s Lion living