- [Reporter] Banning Liebscher

is a popular pastor, speaker and author.

He Founded Jesus Culturein 1999 at Bethel Church

in Redding California, aministry of worship, conferences,

and leadership development.

Banning says that manybelievers are discontent,

sensing there's more to the Christian life

than they're experiencing.

- My heart as a pastor isto come alongside people

and encourage them

to engage the call thatGod has on their life.

- [Reporter] In Banning's newestbook, The Three-Mile Walk,

he explains how to livethe life God wants for you.

- Joining me now via Skypeis Banning Liebscher.

Banning great to have you with us today.

I really love the book.

- Oh, it's so good to be with you.

- It was wonderful.

You say in the book

that believers need toengage their callings.

What do you mean by that?

- Well I really believe thatbiblically every single person,

every believer has a call in their life.

Whether or not you're engagedin that call is different,

but we all have a call on our life

and there's not like ahierarchy of calls either

and so we all have a call in two areas.

We have a call to be someone.

God is shaping us andmolding us to look like Jesus

and we have a call to do something.

He invites us to partner with him

and his plans and purposes in the earth.

So ultimately, engaging the call is that.

We all have a call on our life.

Are you engaging that call?

So that's a pretty biginvitation from the Lord.

Why do you think so many Christians

are discontented with their lives?

- Yeah, you know, I've beenin full time ministry now

for 25 years walking with people

and both from reading theBible and walking with people,

I really believe that we aremost fulfilled, most satisfied,

most thriving when we'reactually stepping out

and going after and towards the things

that God has called us to

and I think a lot of people, either one,

don't know that God has called them,

or two, are just so inundated

with the distractions of the world

that they haven't said yes tothe call of God on their life

and I think if you're not moving

towards what God is called you to,

you'll never fully experienceall that he has for you.

- I love in the book how youuse the example of Jonathan.

I had never thought aboutso much of what you wrote

and providing a blueprintfor us as believers.

Talk about that particularstory and why you used it.

- Yeah, well the three milewalk actually comes from

first Samuel 14

and it's this story that'salways just resonated with me

since I started youthpastoring in my early 20s,

but it's just this incrediblepicture of a contrast

between King Saul,

who is sitting on one hillunderneath a pomegranate tree,

looking at a distance the Philistines,

not engaging them, contentto just look from a distance,

and then you've Jonathan, his son,

who has this divine dissatisfaction

and there's and awakeningthat happens in his heart

where he says I don'twanna sit any longer.

I don't wanna sit with everybody else,

somehow content to look atmy destiny from a distance.

I wanna get up and I wanna engage this

and so when does get up to engage it,

we call it the three mile walk,

because the Israelitesare camped on one hill,

the Philistines are camped on another hill

and in between those twohills is a three mile valley.

So when he says yes to the call of God

he starts a three mile walk,

a three mile journeyto engage in that call.

- You share three characteristicsin your book, holiness,

courage, and faith, andthese are all necessary

for us to really engage in our calling.

Will you talk about those?

- Yeah, we kinda took the three mile walk

and then said there'skinda three ingredients.

When you say yes to thecall of God on your life,

it starts with holiness.

Holiness is a non negotiable.

I think it's something

we need to be talking aboutin the body of Christ.

That if you're going to pursue Jesus,

if you're going to say yes,

it starts by saying yesto a life of holiness.

It starts by being set apart.

So just talking through that concept

and then the other twothings are courage and faith

and I think anybody who'sreally gone after this stuff

to say I wanna be whoGod's called me to be,

I wanna do what God's called me to do.

You very quickly find out,

it takes a massive,massive amount of courage.

- [Terry] Yeah.

- Massive amount ofcourage to follow Jesus

and I think this is one of thereasons why I wrote the book

was I wanna encourage people

that I realize one of themain tactics the enemy uses

is he comes to discourage you.

He's trying to disarm you of your courage,

because he knows you'll neverbe who God's called you to be,

you'll never do whatGod's called you to do

apart from courage.

So he comes to discourage us

and so we have to knowhow to position our lives

to be filled with courage

and then of course faith toreally walk this stuff out,

it requires faith.

So we just unpack those three concepts.

- Yeah, you know, in today'sworld, the world is so noisy.

There's so much going on aroundus and so much negativity.

It kind of has lent itself in a way

to Christian's doing what Saul did,

sitting down and saying it's all too big,

what am I to do.

What would you say to people today

about the call on everylive, it's not just some,

it's not just sitting on one side

and watching someoneelse follow their call,

but it's for everyone?

- Yeah, well this is the big one.

I talk about this in the book,

that hopelessness, hopelessnessis what begins to set in

and when I feel hopeless I just sit down.

- [Terry] Yeah.

I sit down, I no longer moveforward, I'm not dreaming,

I'm not taking risks, I'm notleaning in to what God has,

because I just feel it's hopeless

and what we talk about isthis, is that hopeless,

all hopelessness and discouragementis connected to a lie.

Somewhere there's a lie you're believing

if you feel hopeless, or discouraged

and so taking the time just to stop

and go what is truth

and I would say most of the time the lie

is that God's not with me.

Most of the time thelie that I'm believing,

if I feel discouraged or hopeless,

is that somehow God is notwith me in this situation.

When I look at my finances,when I look at my health,

when I look at my family, whenI look at my relationships,

when I look at my future,

if I'm not full of hopein those situations,

somewhere I believe a liethat God is not for me

and that he is not with me

and so when you can gettruth that he is with me

and he is for me,

then all of a sudden

the hope begins to ariseagain in every situation.

- Amen.

It's the message in thisbook, The Three Mile Walk.

I highly recommend it.

It's a great book to read, to ponder,

and then to move forward inthe call God has on your life.

It's available wherever books are sold.

Banning, thanks so muchfor sharing with us today.

Good message.