In 1955, a 42-year old black woman, exhausted from a hard day at work, refused to sit in the back of the transit bus. The southern bus driver warned her that her defiance would be cause for him to call the police and have her arrested. But she had had enough of white bigotry. She resented being judged by the color of her skin, instead of by the integrity of her heart, so she steadfastly refused to move. Her name was Rosa Parks. Rosa stepped out of the crowd and made the call. She wasn’t a part of a movement, because there was no movement at the time. Instead, Ms. Parks put her shoulder to the boulder of history, gave it a shove and history moved! She didn’t just cause a movement, but she created forward motion. Later in life Rosa wrote, “Without a vision the people perish, but without courage dreams die.”
Rosa Parks is a hero in history, and the day she decided to take a stand, she did it by herself against everything the culture around her was saying to be true. I wish we all could be a little more like Ms. Parks—courageous risk-takers who persevere—something I feel we can all step up in. I believe that low self-esteem is stealing our ability to disciple nations. False humility is killing us as it strips away our boldness and our God-given anointing. If we want to be history-makers, I believe we need to embrace the core values of world-changers. Here are three of them that I hope you’ll decide to adopt today:
1. Courage: Every year at the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry, I do an exercise with our students. I ask them to take out a piece of paper and write down what they would do if they were 10 times bolder. Then I tell them if they’ve written anything down on the paper, then they have sadly partnered with fear in some area of their lives. The same is true for any of us. Fear is the most socially accepted sin in the church and probably the most common destructive thing in our lives. The thing we have to understand is that courage isn’t a lack of fear but rather the boldness to look fear in the eyes when it tries to intimidate us and tell it to get lost!
2. Risk: The dogs of doom stand at the doors of your destiny and bark loud snarls of fear at us. We have to take up supernatural faith if we’re going to be able to drown out their yelps and step through the door into the calling God has on our lives. The funny thing is that most often it’s not what happens in our lives that scares us. Rather, it’s the stories we make up about what could happen that actually cause fear. We shouldn’t entertain thoughts that reduce us to our fears. If we’re going to be risk-takers, we need to learn to entertain hopeful thoughts about our futures and learn how to fail well and without shame.
3. Perseverance: Perseverance is rooted in hope, and it’s hope that causes us to refuse to give up. Romans 15:4 says, “For whatever was previously written was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” Being a winner means you step up even when you don’t feel like it; this is the key to integrity and being a noble person. And this is a key to changing the world.
My Prayer for You
Today I want to pray for a courageous spirit to be on your life and that there would be such a bold spirit on you that you’d be a mover and shaker in the atmosphere. Lord, I ask that you would shake us into a new dimension and awaken us to our dreams. Help us to look at obstacles with a new spirit of perseverance. God, give us vision for the legacy we are leaving on earth, that we would have a burning hope and urgency to see the world better for our children and children’s children. Jesus, give us righteous indignance about our life purposes so that we would be filled with faith to believe what you say. Bless us with a gift of boldness and perseverance, and may we be the bravest risk-takers the world has ever seen!
I want to challenge you today to be the kind of person who does not give up. What is something that you’re persevering for or taking a risk in? I’d love to hear about it so that my team and I can join you in prayer! {eoa}
Kris Vallotton is the senior associate leader of Bethel Church in Redding, California, and cofounder of Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry (BSSM). Kris travels internationally, training and equipping people to successfully fulfill their divine purpose. He’s a best-selling author, having written more than a dozen books and training manuals to help prepare believers for life in the kingdom. He has a diverse background in business, counseling, consulting, pastoring and teaching, which gives him unique leadership insights and perspectives. Kris has a passion to use his experience and his prophetic gift to assist world leaders in achieving their goals and accomplishing their mission.
This article originally appeared at krisvallotton.com.
Curt Landry 
Michael L. Brown 
Rabbi Eric Tokajer