Why are so predisposed to defend what violates our selfish concepts of God? What makes us feel as if we need to protect God when we can’t explain Him? When I hear someone say, “I don’t want that person to lose confidence in God because of what has happened,” it causes me to realize how misdirected our efforts are in some of our Christian representations.
Joshua 7:1-26 gives the detailed events surrounding the actions of Israel’s inexplicable God. Something completely unexpected has happened. God has displayed the audacity to allow Israel and Joshua to be in the position of defeat and utter embarrassment. They have lost the first battle at Ai. Some of God’s people have lost their lives at the hand of the enemy.
How could an enemy that God has already declared defeated, hurt, kill, and devastate Israel? Joshua struggles with how this might appear to everyone. Joshua believes it would have been better to stay on the wilderness side of the Jordan, rather than been in the promise land and not be able to explain God because of their loss. He even goes so far as to suggest that the disappointment at Ai could hurt God’s great name in the earth! Have you ever asked God why? No, I don’t mean so you could truly understand what God’s purpose was through your tragedy. I am talking about the “Why” you ask when you are embarrassed by events that fail to support your proclaimed faith in God. You know the questions we throw in the face of God when we know what He said, we’ve told others, and then God let’s us down by not following our expectations.
I’ve got a simple message from God for you. You are not God! God is not you! This might be a good time for you to distinguish between what is divine, and what is human. What are God’s defined responsibilities, and what are yours. I can hear the Holy Spirit saying to you, what God said to Joshua at the deepest depths of his personal pity party, “Get up! Why are you lying on your face?” God has never needed you to help His credibility stay defensible. HE IS GOD - YOU ARE YOU! Please don’t get these mixed up.
God has a very distinct purpose for your life. Yes, He has made you many promises. He has made those promises to you from the vantage point of an eternal perspective, His destined purpose for your earthly journey, and the pre-eminence He enjoys as God. He alone is God. What God expects from you is humanity. The only thing that interests God about you is your humanity. God is completely comfortable with the fact that you are who you are.
Distinguish what is divine, and what is human. Let God be who He is, and you be who you are. He is not creating scenarios for you to defend Him. God is looking for ways to show Himself strong on your behalf.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
The Blessing In Endurance
It is a little tough for us to associate the words blessing and endurance in the same sentence; Especially when we have to count endurance as a blessing in the context of temptation. But, when you remember what we are learning from James regarding the trying of our faith, you begin to understand patience as the vehicle that moves you deeper in faith. Temptation then becomes a definer of the level of your commitment, as it relates to your faith through endurance.
Our endurance levels are high in most areas due to the mental evaluation we go through that allows us to justify the actions of others. We can take the pressures of our jobs because we get a check at the end of the pay period. Dealing with a contrary in-law is offset by the love we have for our spouse. I read recently about the endurance of some fans that camped for over a week for the privilege purchasing overpriced tickets to an event, for someone else. However, when it comes to temptation, since it is only me that is involved in my struggle, my endurance is fragile. We become like the person who stated, “I can handle almost anything except temptation!”
There is a blessing for you in the endurance of temptation. When you fall into various temptations the first reaction is usually to give up on yourself, and give in. Endurance is the result of building up your stamina through repeated, similar actions. You will be tempted, and you will make mistakes. I am glad I was able to settle that for you. But, every time you get back on your feet, carried by patience deeper into your faith, you build your endurance and your blessing.
James makes it plain in verse twelve, of chapter one, “Blessed is the man that endures temptation; for after he is tried, he shall receive a crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him.” There is a blessing for those who endure temptation. There is a crown of life from our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice the verse did not say anything about the success or failure of the temptation, just the endurance of it. When you come out of the other side of the temptation you will be rewarded. You will get through the temptation if you refuse to give up. Endure the temptation until patience brings you up under your faith and works the blessing you will receive.
Our endurance levels are high in most areas due to the mental evaluation we go through that allows us to justify the actions of others. We can take the pressures of our jobs because we get a check at the end of the pay period. Dealing with a contrary in-law is offset by the love we have for our spouse. I read recently about the endurance of some fans that camped for over a week for the privilege purchasing overpriced tickets to an event, for someone else. However, when it comes to temptation, since it is only me that is involved in my struggle, my endurance is fragile. We become like the person who stated, “I can handle almost anything except temptation!”
There is a blessing for you in the endurance of temptation. When you fall into various temptations the first reaction is usually to give up on yourself, and give in. Endurance is the result of building up your stamina through repeated, similar actions. You will be tempted, and you will make mistakes. I am glad I was able to settle that for you. But, every time you get back on your feet, carried by patience deeper into your faith, you build your endurance and your blessing.
James makes it plain in verse twelve, of chapter one, “Blessed is the man that endures temptation; for after he is tried, he shall receive a crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him.” There is a blessing for those who endure temptation. There is a crown of life from our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice the verse did not say anything about the success or failure of the temptation, just the endurance of it. When you come out of the other side of the temptation you will be rewarded. You will get through the temptation if you refuse to give up. Endure the temptation until patience brings you up under your faith and works the blessing you will receive.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Soul Searching
Soul searching is not in its true form supposed to be a comfortable process. The very term defies comfort. We are usually not in the habit of using a word like comfort when we embrace introspection. Most of us know what we have buried inside the dark caverns of who we are, and illuminating those areas only magnifies the initial reason for their burial.
In truth, it is out of the depths of what we have sometimes feared, that we have been afforded the kiss of greatness. We are being led into a promised land. We are not here by chance. God be praised who has given us the honor of living in this time, for this purpose. For many of us, this passage marks the end of an era of wilderness experiences inflicted on us by the doubt of a religious system. A system of religious traditions that provide a sense of measured comfort in exchange for the supernatural direction of the Holy Spirit. As the Israelites prepared to end their wilderness pilgrimage of forty years there were distinct commands given regarding the passage over the Jordan river into the land of Canaan.
God commanded that Joshua choose a man from each tribe of the Twelve Tribes of Isreal. Each of the selected men was to pick up a stone from the dry river-bed after the Priests and the Ark of the Covenant had stopped in the center of the river which God had dried up. The river was overflowing all of its banks from the harvest rains, yet God said to walk into it! The Priests stepped in bearing the Ark, and the waters parted. God’s people passed through into their “promised land” and the selected twelve men each retrieved a stone from the river and carried it to the other side.
God wanted a memorial built out of the impossibility He had opened before His people. Your impossible situation is going to provide you with the elements you need to erect a memorial to God’s abundant provision. The probabilities are stacked against you. The odds speak of your imminent demise. Everybody knows that you cannot do what you say you are going to do! But God has spoken. He will not fail you. Step out in faith. Watch the impossible fade with the miracle of God’s word acted upon in faith! Your children are going to see the memorial of your faith and be encouraged to know God will do what He speaks!
There must have been a flurry of activity surrounding the events of Joshua 4:1-24. So much had happened in rapid succession leading up to this moment. Moses had passed, Joshua has assumed leadership, the wilderness experience was coming to a close. The Isrealites were camped near the river; spies had already been sent to Jericho, and they were ready to possess the land of their promise. You could sense the excitement of this young generation who had lived their lives up to this moment with the realization of their ancestors unbelief, and the expectation of their own destiny to occupy the land God had promised. How many of us are carrying the sins of our fathers, and the promise of our children’s heritage? We must not miss the precedents of passage that have been set in this transition from wilderness to promise. God affirms the promises given to Moses in the leadership of Joshua, “As I was with Moses so shall I be with You.” Next, God allows His hidden allies in the promise land to be revealed, and Rahab assists the Isrealite spies from being discovered. Joshua then commands the people to follow that Ark of the Covenant at a respectable distance for this reason; “You have not passed this way before.” The Priests carry the Ark into the river and the flooded waters recede and stand up to allow dry passage from the wilderness into the promise land. One man from each Tribe carries a stone from the center of the riverbed to the promise side to build and altar that would serve to memorialize the provision of God in the passage.
The sense of God’s awesome power had to be overwhelming. The waters towering, the people passing over, twelve men building a memorial, Priests standing with the Ark in the river, so many incredible acts simultaneously unfolding. Sometimes in the midst of God’s greatness, as it is unfolding in rapid succession, we could miss significant the most actions if we are not careful to regard each individual God has placed in our lives. Where is Joshua during this pageantry of providence? Except for one sentence in the whirling array of verses we would never know. Joshua 4:9 And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan in the place where the feet of the Priest who bore the Ark stood. Something was so important to Joshua that he had to create his own memorial.
I don’t know what Joshua’s altar meant to him personally, but because he was human like us maybe we can look at ourselves and discover his motive. Was it a boundary for past doubt? Could it have been a memorial to the guilt he felt for Moses’ inability to finish the task he was now assigned with? Did Joshua build this altar simply to mark, from his own heart, a distinct moment of passage from faith to faith? We will never know the answers to these questions. However, we can answer a more important question. In this time of passage in your own life, what altar are you feeling compelled to build? While others are enamored with the transition process you are being drawn to pause and reflect. It’s okay. This altar of personal consecration you are constructing will never be destroyed. Like Joshua’s altar in the riverbed, it will remain forever to mark your commitment.
In truth, it is out of the depths of what we have sometimes feared, that we have been afforded the kiss of greatness. We are being led into a promised land. We are not here by chance. God be praised who has given us the honor of living in this time, for this purpose. For many of us, this passage marks the end of an era of wilderness experiences inflicted on us by the doubt of a religious system. A system of religious traditions that provide a sense of measured comfort in exchange for the supernatural direction of the Holy Spirit. As the Israelites prepared to end their wilderness pilgrimage of forty years there were distinct commands given regarding the passage over the Jordan river into the land of Canaan.
God commanded that Joshua choose a man from each tribe of the Twelve Tribes of Isreal. Each of the selected men was to pick up a stone from the dry river-bed after the Priests and the Ark of the Covenant had stopped in the center of the river which God had dried up. The river was overflowing all of its banks from the harvest rains, yet God said to walk into it! The Priests stepped in bearing the Ark, and the waters parted. God’s people passed through into their “promised land” and the selected twelve men each retrieved a stone from the river and carried it to the other side.
God wanted a memorial built out of the impossibility He had opened before His people. Your impossible situation is going to provide you with the elements you need to erect a memorial to God’s abundant provision. The probabilities are stacked against you. The odds speak of your imminent demise. Everybody knows that you cannot do what you say you are going to do! But God has spoken. He will not fail you. Step out in faith. Watch the impossible fade with the miracle of God’s word acted upon in faith! Your children are going to see the memorial of your faith and be encouraged to know God will do what He speaks!
There must have been a flurry of activity surrounding the events of Joshua 4:1-24. So much had happened in rapid succession leading up to this moment. Moses had passed, Joshua has assumed leadership, the wilderness experience was coming to a close. The Isrealites were camped near the river; spies had already been sent to Jericho, and they were ready to possess the land of their promise. You could sense the excitement of this young generation who had lived their lives up to this moment with the realization of their ancestors unbelief, and the expectation of their own destiny to occupy the land God had promised. How many of us are carrying the sins of our fathers, and the promise of our children’s heritage? We must not miss the precedents of passage that have been set in this transition from wilderness to promise. God affirms the promises given to Moses in the leadership of Joshua, “As I was with Moses so shall I be with You.” Next, God allows His hidden allies in the promise land to be revealed, and Rahab assists the Isrealite spies from being discovered. Joshua then commands the people to follow that Ark of the Covenant at a respectable distance for this reason; “You have not passed this way before.” The Priests carry the Ark into the river and the flooded waters recede and stand up to allow dry passage from the wilderness into the promise land. One man from each Tribe carries a stone from the center of the riverbed to the promise side to build and altar that would serve to memorialize the provision of God in the passage.
The sense of God’s awesome power had to be overwhelming. The waters towering, the people passing over, twelve men building a memorial, Priests standing with the Ark in the river, so many incredible acts simultaneously unfolding. Sometimes in the midst of God’s greatness, as it is unfolding in rapid succession, we could miss significant the most actions if we are not careful to regard each individual God has placed in our lives. Where is Joshua during this pageantry of providence? Except for one sentence in the whirling array of verses we would never know. Joshua 4:9 And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan in the place where the feet of the Priest who bore the Ark stood. Something was so important to Joshua that he had to create his own memorial.
I don’t know what Joshua’s altar meant to him personally, but because he was human like us maybe we can look at ourselves and discover his motive. Was it a boundary for past doubt? Could it have been a memorial to the guilt he felt for Moses’ inability to finish the task he was now assigned with? Did Joshua build this altar simply to mark, from his own heart, a distinct moment of passage from faith to faith? We will never know the answers to these questions. However, we can answer a more important question. In this time of passage in your own life, what altar are you feeling compelled to build? While others are enamored with the transition process you are being drawn to pause and reflect. It’s okay. This altar of personal consecration you are constructing will never be destroyed. Like Joshua’s altar in the riverbed, it will remain forever to mark your commitment.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
It Ain't Over Til' God Gets Through
I have watched people through the course of their lives endeavor to reach a goal; begin a project; determine a specific success; or simply invest their personal energy into a social program only to discover the horror of their personal deficiency when they were not able to complete the process to an acceptable degree of recognized self worth. Simply put, the longer they worked on the endeavor, the less energy they found to continue due to a diminishing sense of fulfillment. I know you thought you were the only person who felt like quitting when it was no longer fun, but you are not.
The pressure of impending personal failure seems to intensify when you associate the demise in any manner with God, or what we know as His work. I believe this was the mood and setting in which we find Joshua and Israel as chapter eight of the Book of Joshua begins. Mixed emotions would certainly be an understatement. Put the victory at Jericho with the defeat at Ai and you have a clear picture of what most of us experience at some point, maybe on a daily basis.
It always seems easy to revisit the memory of Jericho with it’s victory and triumph, but much harder to go back to Ai. Hey God, send me back to Jericho, I am ready to be your Ambassador. But please, don’t send me back to Ai. I lost it all there. It is the place of my failure. Ai represents for me the constant reminder that I did not have what it took to complete the assignment.
God has a way of going to the heart of the matter when it comes to your place in His purpose. He tells Joshua in crystal clear terms, “Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed; take all the people of war with you, and arise and go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land. God is giving you the same distinct direction. Go back to the place of your defeat and loss. He is not through with the situation that you perceived as your downfall and ruin. Get back into the battle! Your not defeated just a little delayed. Hold your head up. That incident was not your failure it was the beginning of your salvation. You have yet to see what it was that God purposed from the beginning. Watch God reverse the tide of public opinion. God is not concerned with what “they” think about the place of your apparent destruction. He is more concerned about your thinking! Renew your mind through the washing of His word in you. Your first visit to Ai was the result of not putting God first at Jericho. This time will be different. In fact Jericho was God’s, but Ai is yours. God tells Joshua, “it’s spoil and cattle shall ye take as booty for yourselves.” This is for your blessing and prosperity.
When Joshua realizes “It ain’t over ’till God gets through” he is able to move in dimensions of faith that open supernatural ability to alter natural laws for the benefit of his personal victory. Get back into the battle. Your finest hour of blessing is waiting on your spiritual authority.
The pressure of impending personal failure seems to intensify when you associate the demise in any manner with God, or what we know as His work. I believe this was the mood and setting in which we find Joshua and Israel as chapter eight of the Book of Joshua begins. Mixed emotions would certainly be an understatement. Put the victory at Jericho with the defeat at Ai and you have a clear picture of what most of us experience at some point, maybe on a daily basis.
It always seems easy to revisit the memory of Jericho with it’s victory and triumph, but much harder to go back to Ai. Hey God, send me back to Jericho, I am ready to be your Ambassador. But please, don’t send me back to Ai. I lost it all there. It is the place of my failure. Ai represents for me the constant reminder that I did not have what it took to complete the assignment.
God has a way of going to the heart of the matter when it comes to your place in His purpose. He tells Joshua in crystal clear terms, “Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed; take all the people of war with you, and arise and go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land. God is giving you the same distinct direction. Go back to the place of your defeat and loss. He is not through with the situation that you perceived as your downfall and ruin. Get back into the battle! Your not defeated just a little delayed. Hold your head up. That incident was not your failure it was the beginning of your salvation. You have yet to see what it was that God purposed from the beginning. Watch God reverse the tide of public opinion. God is not concerned with what “they” think about the place of your apparent destruction. He is more concerned about your thinking! Renew your mind through the washing of His word in you. Your first visit to Ai was the result of not putting God first at Jericho. This time will be different. In fact Jericho was God’s, but Ai is yours. God tells Joshua, “it’s spoil and cattle shall ye take as booty for yourselves.” This is for your blessing and prosperity.
When Joshua realizes “It ain’t over ’till God gets through” he is able to move in dimensions of faith that open supernatural ability to alter natural laws for the benefit of his personal victory. Get back into the battle. Your finest hour of blessing is waiting on your spiritual authority.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
March 1, 2008
March 1, 2008
“What’s in it for me?” Have you ever asked that question before? I think maybe we all ask that everyday of our lives. No one ever asked it better than David in 1 Samuel 17:26, “And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” Let me ask you a question, “When is it not okay to ask for the reward of service?
Paul’s letter in Philippians 3:14 makes a bold statement regarding this subject, “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Really our entire Christian expereince is the result of a revelation of eternity, and the reward salvation promises regarding it.
Start asking, “What’s in it for me!”
“What’s in it for me?” Have you ever asked that question before? I think maybe we all ask that everyday of our lives. No one ever asked it better than David in 1 Samuel 17:26, “And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” Let me ask you a question, “When is it not okay to ask for the reward of service?
Paul’s letter in Philippians 3:14 makes a bold statement regarding this subject, “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Really our entire Christian expereince is the result of a revelation of eternity, and the reward salvation promises regarding it.
Start asking, “What’s in it for me!”
February 29, 2008
February 29, 2008
I want to follow this thread of restoration again today. There is a second dimension of restoration. We are all comfortable with restoration from disobedience. That’s something we can fit easily into our understanding of an all loving, all merciful God. We blew it-He fixed it! That is simply grasped. But what about the loss you have suffered because you completely obeyed what God required of you? Really, how do you reconcile obedience with loss?
We don’t associate obedience as requiring restoration, that entire thought process is disjointed. It’s is easier to justify and accept your restoration when the loss has been a result of disobedience. You can wrap your mind around the “why”. Cause & effect works perfectly for us. And, when your obedience to God becomes the culprit that takes everything away, we have learned to acknowledge that as sacrifice! But maybe that’s not what it is at all. The overwhelming majority of scriptural references related to sacrifice have to do with worship, not restoration. I am writing to someone today who obeyed God and it has cost you everything.
When God spoke to Abraham initially, he could not have known that incredible price that obedience would require of him. Hebrews 11:8 reveals this to us, “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.” All true obedience is blind because it involves a “yes” to a single frame of reference in our lives that is connected to an eternal purpose that we cannot see. When we answer the Call of God we do so in blind faith. Maybe that is why we call it faith!
Let’s talk about obedience to God for a moment. Your obedience to God, and your affirmative answer to His call, will involve three distinct life patterns you must embrace. They are found in Mark 8:34:35, “…whosoever will (1) come after me, let him (2) deny himself, and (3) take up his cross, and follow me…”
THERE IS NO PARTIAL ACCEPTANCE OF OBEDIENCE FOR THOSE WHO TRULY DESIRE INTIMACY WITH GOD! Jesus heralded this in Luke 14:33, “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.” JESUS HIMSELF FULFILLED WHAT HE WAS ASKING BY THE GIVING OF HIS ALL ON THE CROSS! Mark 15:34 shows Jesus’ struggle, “And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
OBEDIENCE DEMANDS WE BECOME VESSELS TO BE FILLED AND EMPTIED BY GOD! PICKED UP AND PUT DOWN! USED IN GOD’S HANDS TO POUR OUT HIS DESIRE ON OTHERS!
We can see a picture of this in 2 Corinthians 4:7, “…we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body…”
OBEDIENCE THAT IS NOT TIED TO GIVING OF WHAT YOU HAVE IS IMPERFECT! PARTAIL OBEDIENCE IS FULL DISOBEDIENCE! Matthew 19:16-22 displays this in the manner Jesus answered the Rich Young Ruler, “…If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
Now, let’s get back to how we approach the subject of restoration when your only reference you can connect it to is obedience.
The Bible describes a great woman of Shunem. This woman had a desire to bless the Man of God without expectation of return or reward. 2 Kings 4:8-11 records this account, “And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread.”
HER DESIRE WAS TO SUSTAIN THE MAN OF GOD WITH STRENGTH SO SHE MADE THE INVITATION AND STARTED THE GIVING PROCESS HERSELF! SHE WAS NOT FORCED BY FEAR, SHE WAS MOVED BY OBEDIENCE!HER SECOND GIFT WAS OUT OF WHAT SHE DID NOT HAVE - IT INVOLVED OTHERS - FELLOWSHIP
This great woman of Shunem didn’t stop there, she pressed even further, “And she said unto her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this is an holy man of God, which passeth by us continually. Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick: and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither.”
HER OFFERING INCREASED AS SHE DESIRED TO MAKE THE MAN OF GOD MORE COMFORTABLE! SHE EVEN WENT TO A DECORATIVE TOUCH BEYOND THE NECESSARY! SHE WANTED TO BE CLOSE TO THE SOURCE OF DIRECTION!
Her reward came in the form of a son. God blessed her womb at the command of the Prophet and she received what she could not produce on her own. But even though her heart was right and she had received a son from God, trouble found her in 2 Kings 4:19-20, “And he said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said to a lad, Carry him to his mother. And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died.”
SHE HAD DONE NOTHING BUT OBEYED THE DIRECTION OF GOD IN HER LIFE. SHE DIDN’T DESERVE THIS! WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOUR ONLY FAILURE IS THAT YOU HAVE OBEYED EVERYTHING GOD PUT IN YOUR HEART TO DO?Watch closely what she does in 2 Kings 4:21, “…she went up, and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him…” What she thought was just a room for the Prophet now became a resurrection chamber for her son. She laid the harvest she received in the seed she had sown and went to find the Prophet. You know the story; God restored her son to her. All that you have lost through obedience will be returned to you! Listen to the words of Jesus in Matthew 19:29, “And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.”YOUR OBEDIENCE WILL BECOME THE SEED THAT YOUR RESTORATION GROWS OUT OF. GOD HAS PROMISED THAT SEED TIME AND HARVEST WILL NOT FAIL AS LONG AS THE EARTYH EXISTS. THERE IS A PROGRESSIVE GROWTH OF OBEDIENCE IN YOUR LIFE THAT WILL NOT ONLY SUSTAIN YOU, IT WILL RESTORE YOU IF YOU SUFFER LOSS BECAUSE OF IT!
Watch how this restoration continues to follow the Shunemite woman in 2 Kings 8:1-6, “Then spake Elisha unto the woman, whose son he had restored to life, saying, Arise, and go thou and thine household, and sojourn wheresoever thou canst sojourn: for the LORD hath called for a famine; and it shall also come upon the land seven years.” It sounds like she has been asked to leave everything and start over in a strange place. It appears for her to continue to walk in obedience she will have to forsake everything, even the Prophets quarters!
Read on with me, “And the woman arose, and did after the saying of the man of God: and she went with her household, and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years. And it came to pass at the seven years’ end, that the woman returned out of the land of the Philistines: and she went forth to cry unto the king for her house and for her land.”
THERE IS A CRY FOR JUSTICE THAT IS UNDENIABLE WHEN YOU HAVE OBEYED WHAT GOD HAS INSTRUCTED YOU TO DO! GOD WILL RESTORE! HE WILL NOT SUFFER HIS FAITHFULNESS TO FAIL! WATCH HOW GOD BRINGS IT ALL BACK AROUND FOR THE GREAT SHUNEMITE WOMAN, “And the king talked with Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying, Tell me, I pray thee, all the great things that Elisha hath done. And it came to pass, as he was telling the king how he had restored a dead body to life, that, behold, the woman, whose son he had restored to life, cried to the king for her house and for her land. And Gehazi said, My lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life. And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed unto her a certain officer, saying, Restore all that was hers, and all the fruits of the field since the day that she left the land, even until now.”
The word restore in this passage is the Hebrew Word “Shuwb” which means to put it back. It is a verb or action word. YOU NEED TO CRY BEFORE YOUR KING FOR THE RESTORATION OF ALL THAT YOU HAVE LOST IN YOUR PATH OF OBEDIENCE. GOD IS ACTIVELY MOVING TO BRING BACK EVERYTHING YOUR OBEDIENCE COST YOU!
Read your promises from Deuteronomy 6:1-11 aloud, “Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it: That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full…”
WHEN OBEDEINCE COST YOU EVERYTHING GOD WILL NOT BE MOCKED! HE WILL RESTORE ALL THAT YOU HAVE LOST AND WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN PRODUCED DURING THE SEASON OF YOUR LOSS!
I want to follow this thread of restoration again today. There is a second dimension of restoration. We are all comfortable with restoration from disobedience. That’s something we can fit easily into our understanding of an all loving, all merciful God. We blew it-He fixed it! That is simply grasped. But what about the loss you have suffered because you completely obeyed what God required of you? Really, how do you reconcile obedience with loss?
We don’t associate obedience as requiring restoration, that entire thought process is disjointed. It’s is easier to justify and accept your restoration when the loss has been a result of disobedience. You can wrap your mind around the “why”. Cause & effect works perfectly for us. And, when your obedience to God becomes the culprit that takes everything away, we have learned to acknowledge that as sacrifice! But maybe that’s not what it is at all. The overwhelming majority of scriptural references related to sacrifice have to do with worship, not restoration. I am writing to someone today who obeyed God and it has cost you everything.
When God spoke to Abraham initially, he could not have known that incredible price that obedience would require of him. Hebrews 11:8 reveals this to us, “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.” All true obedience is blind because it involves a “yes” to a single frame of reference in our lives that is connected to an eternal purpose that we cannot see. When we answer the Call of God we do so in blind faith. Maybe that is why we call it faith!
Let’s talk about obedience to God for a moment. Your obedience to God, and your affirmative answer to His call, will involve three distinct life patterns you must embrace. They are found in Mark 8:34:35, “…whosoever will (1) come after me, let him (2) deny himself, and (3) take up his cross, and follow me…”
THERE IS NO PARTIAL ACCEPTANCE OF OBEDIENCE FOR THOSE WHO TRULY DESIRE INTIMACY WITH GOD! Jesus heralded this in Luke 14:33, “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.” JESUS HIMSELF FULFILLED WHAT HE WAS ASKING BY THE GIVING OF HIS ALL ON THE CROSS! Mark 15:34 shows Jesus’ struggle, “And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
OBEDIENCE DEMANDS WE BECOME VESSELS TO BE FILLED AND EMPTIED BY GOD! PICKED UP AND PUT DOWN! USED IN GOD’S HANDS TO POUR OUT HIS DESIRE ON OTHERS!
We can see a picture of this in 2 Corinthians 4:7, “…we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body…”
OBEDIENCE THAT IS NOT TIED TO GIVING OF WHAT YOU HAVE IS IMPERFECT! PARTAIL OBEDIENCE IS FULL DISOBEDIENCE! Matthew 19:16-22 displays this in the manner Jesus answered the Rich Young Ruler, “…If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
Now, let’s get back to how we approach the subject of restoration when your only reference you can connect it to is obedience.
The Bible describes a great woman of Shunem. This woman had a desire to bless the Man of God without expectation of return or reward. 2 Kings 4:8-11 records this account, “And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread.”
HER DESIRE WAS TO SUSTAIN THE MAN OF GOD WITH STRENGTH SO SHE MADE THE INVITATION AND STARTED THE GIVING PROCESS HERSELF! SHE WAS NOT FORCED BY FEAR, SHE WAS MOVED BY OBEDIENCE!HER SECOND GIFT WAS OUT OF WHAT SHE DID NOT HAVE - IT INVOLVED OTHERS - FELLOWSHIP
This great woman of Shunem didn’t stop there, she pressed even further, “And she said unto her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this is an holy man of God, which passeth by us continually. Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick: and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither.”
HER OFFERING INCREASED AS SHE DESIRED TO MAKE THE MAN OF GOD MORE COMFORTABLE! SHE EVEN WENT TO A DECORATIVE TOUCH BEYOND THE NECESSARY! SHE WANTED TO BE CLOSE TO THE SOURCE OF DIRECTION!
Her reward came in the form of a son. God blessed her womb at the command of the Prophet and she received what she could not produce on her own. But even though her heart was right and she had received a son from God, trouble found her in 2 Kings 4:19-20, “And he said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said to a lad, Carry him to his mother. And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died.”
SHE HAD DONE NOTHING BUT OBEYED THE DIRECTION OF GOD IN HER LIFE. SHE DIDN’T DESERVE THIS! WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOUR ONLY FAILURE IS THAT YOU HAVE OBEYED EVERYTHING GOD PUT IN YOUR HEART TO DO?Watch closely what she does in 2 Kings 4:21, “…she went up, and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him…” What she thought was just a room for the Prophet now became a resurrection chamber for her son. She laid the harvest she received in the seed she had sown and went to find the Prophet. You know the story; God restored her son to her. All that you have lost through obedience will be returned to you! Listen to the words of Jesus in Matthew 19:29, “And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.”YOUR OBEDIENCE WILL BECOME THE SEED THAT YOUR RESTORATION GROWS OUT OF. GOD HAS PROMISED THAT SEED TIME AND HARVEST WILL NOT FAIL AS LONG AS THE EARTYH EXISTS. THERE IS A PROGRESSIVE GROWTH OF OBEDIENCE IN YOUR LIFE THAT WILL NOT ONLY SUSTAIN YOU, IT WILL RESTORE YOU IF YOU SUFFER LOSS BECAUSE OF IT!
Watch how this restoration continues to follow the Shunemite woman in 2 Kings 8:1-6, “Then spake Elisha unto the woman, whose son he had restored to life, saying, Arise, and go thou and thine household, and sojourn wheresoever thou canst sojourn: for the LORD hath called for a famine; and it shall also come upon the land seven years.” It sounds like she has been asked to leave everything and start over in a strange place. It appears for her to continue to walk in obedience she will have to forsake everything, even the Prophets quarters!
Read on with me, “And the woman arose, and did after the saying of the man of God: and she went with her household, and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years. And it came to pass at the seven years’ end, that the woman returned out of the land of the Philistines: and she went forth to cry unto the king for her house and for her land.”
THERE IS A CRY FOR JUSTICE THAT IS UNDENIABLE WHEN YOU HAVE OBEYED WHAT GOD HAS INSTRUCTED YOU TO DO! GOD WILL RESTORE! HE WILL NOT SUFFER HIS FAITHFULNESS TO FAIL! WATCH HOW GOD BRINGS IT ALL BACK AROUND FOR THE GREAT SHUNEMITE WOMAN, “And the king talked with Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying, Tell me, I pray thee, all the great things that Elisha hath done. And it came to pass, as he was telling the king how he had restored a dead body to life, that, behold, the woman, whose son he had restored to life, cried to the king for her house and for her land. And Gehazi said, My lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life. And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed unto her a certain officer, saying, Restore all that was hers, and all the fruits of the field since the day that she left the land, even until now.”
The word restore in this passage is the Hebrew Word “Shuwb” which means to put it back. It is a verb or action word. YOU NEED TO CRY BEFORE YOUR KING FOR THE RESTORATION OF ALL THAT YOU HAVE LOST IN YOUR PATH OF OBEDIENCE. GOD IS ACTIVELY MOVING TO BRING BACK EVERYTHING YOUR OBEDIENCE COST YOU!
Read your promises from Deuteronomy 6:1-11 aloud, “Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it: That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full…”
WHEN OBEDEINCE COST YOU EVERYTHING GOD WILL NOT BE MOCKED! HE WILL RESTORE ALL THAT YOU HAVE LOST AND WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN PRODUCED DURING THE SEASON OF YOUR LOSS!
February 28, 2008
February 28, 2008
This morning I want to let you in on a little known secret. Well maybe it’s not that well hidden. Maybe it is just that most people in religious circles don’t really want to acknowledge it openly. It is found in Romans 5:19, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” We love the second part about getting a pass to righteousness by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, but we like to hurry past the first section that settles the whole sin issue once and for all. You were born a sinner! Psalm 51:5 makes this fact clear, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” There is no way around it! You were born in sin, and thanks to Adam and Eve, you inherited a fallen nature in need of restoration.
You need to be restored. Ephesians 2 show us what we were, “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience…” Thank God you and I were given the second part of Romans 5:19, but it is our complete understanding of the first part that releases the power of the cross to us. We can fully embrace and appreciate the freedom from sin the cross offers us by realizing how doomed we are as human beings without it. I am going to try and keep this short but let’s dig a little deeper for a moment.
2 Corinthians 10:6 gives us a very interesting command, “And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.” The word revenge in this text comes from a Greek Word “Ekdikeo”. It means to vindicate one’s right; to clear, as from an accusation, imputation, suspicion, or the like. What we are actually being commanded to do is demand a total restoration of ourselves to the original intent and design for which we were created. You and I actually seek revenge on the disobedient nature we were born into to by receiving the revelation of the cross, and Jesus’ sacrifice. You and I are commanded to be restored from the fallen nature of disobedience that brought sin and death to us all. We are further commanded in Galatians 6:1 to spread that restoration, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.”
There is an amazing prophetic promise found in Joel 2:23-27 regarding restoration, “Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately…” Up until now your experiences with God have been limited to your personal capacity. You have had a moderate flow of revelation, but you are getting ready to receive a downpour of power and purpose in a greater flow of revelation that you have ever even imagined.
Let’s read on, “…and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month…” YOUR RESTORATION FROM DISOBEDIENCE IS GOING TO BE MORE THAN YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD HANDLE! YOU’RE GETTING WHAT WAS, AND WHAT IS GOING TO BE ALL AT ONE TIME!
“ …And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil…”YOUR RESTORATION FROM DISOBEDIENCE WILL BE AN OVERFLOWING MIRACLE!
“…And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you…” The word restore in this text comes from the Hebrew word “Shalam”. The word literally means a Covenant of Peace, and it is a verb or action word which denotes that God is the one who is doing something for you. He is the restorer!
GOD WILL REPLACE YEARS OF STRIFE AND AGONY WITH A COVENANT OF PEACE! THE FRUIT DESTROYERS HAVE NOT REMOVED THE ROOT ABILITY YOU HAVE TO LIVE IN PEACE AND PLENTY!
“…And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.”YOUR SHAME WILL BE REPLACED WITH PRESTIGE FROM MAN AND PRAISE TO GOD!
Today is your appointment with revelation. You are free from the Law of Sin and Death. Shed that cloak of failure right now and walk out into a world God created for you with dominion. Power and purpose!
This morning I want to let you in on a little known secret. Well maybe it’s not that well hidden. Maybe it is just that most people in religious circles don’t really want to acknowledge it openly. It is found in Romans 5:19, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” We love the second part about getting a pass to righteousness by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, but we like to hurry past the first section that settles the whole sin issue once and for all. You were born a sinner! Psalm 51:5 makes this fact clear, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” There is no way around it! You were born in sin, and thanks to Adam and Eve, you inherited a fallen nature in need of restoration.
You need to be restored. Ephesians 2 show us what we were, “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience…” Thank God you and I were given the second part of Romans 5:19, but it is our complete understanding of the first part that releases the power of the cross to us. We can fully embrace and appreciate the freedom from sin the cross offers us by realizing how doomed we are as human beings without it. I am going to try and keep this short but let’s dig a little deeper for a moment.
2 Corinthians 10:6 gives us a very interesting command, “And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.” The word revenge in this text comes from a Greek Word “Ekdikeo”. It means to vindicate one’s right; to clear, as from an accusation, imputation, suspicion, or the like. What we are actually being commanded to do is demand a total restoration of ourselves to the original intent and design for which we were created. You and I actually seek revenge on the disobedient nature we were born into to by receiving the revelation of the cross, and Jesus’ sacrifice. You and I are commanded to be restored from the fallen nature of disobedience that brought sin and death to us all. We are further commanded in Galatians 6:1 to spread that restoration, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.”
There is an amazing prophetic promise found in Joel 2:23-27 regarding restoration, “Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately…” Up until now your experiences with God have been limited to your personal capacity. You have had a moderate flow of revelation, but you are getting ready to receive a downpour of power and purpose in a greater flow of revelation that you have ever even imagined.
Let’s read on, “…and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month…” YOUR RESTORATION FROM DISOBEDIENCE IS GOING TO BE MORE THAN YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD HANDLE! YOU’RE GETTING WHAT WAS, AND WHAT IS GOING TO BE ALL AT ONE TIME!
“ …And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil…”YOUR RESTORATION FROM DISOBEDIENCE WILL BE AN OVERFLOWING MIRACLE!
“…And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you…” The word restore in this text comes from the Hebrew word “Shalam”. The word literally means a Covenant of Peace, and it is a verb or action word which denotes that God is the one who is doing something for you. He is the restorer!
GOD WILL REPLACE YEARS OF STRIFE AND AGONY WITH A COVENANT OF PEACE! THE FRUIT DESTROYERS HAVE NOT REMOVED THE ROOT ABILITY YOU HAVE TO LIVE IN PEACE AND PLENTY!
“…And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.”YOUR SHAME WILL BE REPLACED WITH PRESTIGE FROM MAN AND PRAISE TO GOD!
Today is your appointment with revelation. You are free from the Law of Sin and Death. Shed that cloak of failure right now and walk out into a world God created for you with dominion. Power and purpose!
February 27, 2008
February 27, 2008
It is incredible how vastly different the climate of life can change in the course of twenty-four hours. Jesus said that each day was sufficient unto itself. What I get from that is this; every day is a unit that is to be lived and experienced, then tucked gently away each night and left somewhere in the land of night dreams and the subconscious to be logged as another example of grace and mercy. The Bible tells us that God’s mercy is new every morning. If God starts over with the mercy you and I will need to get through each new day, maybe we should follow His example and do the same.
I have had people tell me that approaching life in that manner is to simplistic and naïve. Maybe. Or maybe the hussle and bussle of frantically attempting to make every one happy, meet all the expectations, and juggle all of the tasks you have defined as crucial, maybe that’s too complex. I think it would be best to take another lesson from God; have an eternal plan with one-day-at-a-time application.
For instance, today I woke up to fifty degrees and overcast skies. Two hours and eight hundred miles later I stepped out into eighty degrees and sunshine. By the time another four hours had passed I was in the middle of tornados and seventy mile per hour winds. After a delayed flight, another four hours and another eight hundred miles I was in twenty degree weather and a snow covered landscape. Wow! See what I mean? In the course of a single day you can experience so many changes. By the way, how are you doing with the changes in your life?
One of the most common phrases of the New Testament is, “and it came to pass.” How do you handle living in a constant state of passage? Change is the most constant thing we will experience. If you resist change you create a negative tension that holds your life in a suppressed state. Every person who excels in life learns to accept change as the passage from glory to glory, and from faith to faith. When my middle child Tyler was an elementary student he struggled with change. He had to have the same bowl and spoon for his cereal every morning. He had to sit in the same seat at the table while he ate the cereal. He had to have his routine, his way. How are you doing with making room for change in your live to be welcomed instead of feared.
You are changing. Your world is changing. Everything is changing except the one thing that cannot change-Jesus Christ!
It is incredible how vastly different the climate of life can change in the course of twenty-four hours. Jesus said that each day was sufficient unto itself. What I get from that is this; every day is a unit that is to be lived and experienced, then tucked gently away each night and left somewhere in the land of night dreams and the subconscious to be logged as another example of grace and mercy. The Bible tells us that God’s mercy is new every morning. If God starts over with the mercy you and I will need to get through each new day, maybe we should follow His example and do the same.
I have had people tell me that approaching life in that manner is to simplistic and naïve. Maybe. Or maybe the hussle and bussle of frantically attempting to make every one happy, meet all the expectations, and juggle all of the tasks you have defined as crucial, maybe that’s too complex. I think it would be best to take another lesson from God; have an eternal plan with one-day-at-a-time application.
For instance, today I woke up to fifty degrees and overcast skies. Two hours and eight hundred miles later I stepped out into eighty degrees and sunshine. By the time another four hours had passed I was in the middle of tornados and seventy mile per hour winds. After a delayed flight, another four hours and another eight hundred miles I was in twenty degree weather and a snow covered landscape. Wow! See what I mean? In the course of a single day you can experience so many changes. By the way, how are you doing with the changes in your life?
One of the most common phrases of the New Testament is, “and it came to pass.” How do you handle living in a constant state of passage? Change is the most constant thing we will experience. If you resist change you create a negative tension that holds your life in a suppressed state. Every person who excels in life learns to accept change as the passage from glory to glory, and from faith to faith. When my middle child Tyler was an elementary student he struggled with change. He had to have the same bowl and spoon for his cereal every morning. He had to sit in the same seat at the table while he ate the cereal. He had to have his routine, his way. How are you doing with making room for change in your live to be welcomed instead of feared.
You are changing. Your world is changing. Everything is changing except the one thing that cannot change-Jesus Christ!
February 26, 2008
February 26, 2008
Is honesty something we extend exclusively to others, or does it apply to each of us individually and personally? I read a statement years ago that posed the question, “Can a person really be trustworthy if they are not true to themselves?” I don’t remember who said it, but it has stuck with me through the years and the question became a part of my decision making process. Let’s go a little deeper here now that I’ve got you thinking. Who are you are at the core of your being? What are your foundational values as a person? What do you really believe about life, people, and even God for that matter? Until you know who you are and what you believe, how could you possibly be true to yourself?
I have had a workshop going in my own home for over twenty-two years. The purpose of the lab was unknown to me in the beginning. The day it started, without my specific consent, I was informed by someone else that I had to administrate the process. I entered it unprepared and uncommitted. No one briefed me on the scope of the project. The workshop expanded to three times the original size and the cost associated with managing it were astronomical! Most days I felt overwhelmed, understaffed, and completely helpless with the day to day production. But the one thing I was forced to accomplish was to find out who I am, and what I believe. That workshop was my three beautiful children who have taught me more about life than anything else in this world.
This past year I reached the “half-way to ninety” point of my life. Maybe I am just a slow learner, but I have finally been able to identify my core being, and quantify the level of honesty I am offering myself on a day-today basis. As a Pastor, the most significant source of frustration I see people struggle with is found in not being able to identify who they are and what they believe. Let me just ask you now, “Who are you?” Not what you do! Not what you have accomplished! Not even what you are expected to be by others! Who are you? What is at the core of your being? What do you live for? What would you die for? Today I want to help you recognize what that nagging emptiness within you is.
You were created a living soul and your soul is crying out for access into your world. Your soul does not have an ego. It is not screaming for release to take over your comfortable life with wild and totally outlandish expectations. Your soul continues to call you to who you truly are. You are not what yo u do. You are something far more complex than you may have previously understood. You are the workmanship of God. He designed you for an earthly purpose with eternal values. You will never be true to yourself until you can be honest about how incomplete you are. It is the areas of your life which are incomplete that require the most attention from your subconscious. The depth of who you are can only be ignored with activity and function that dominate your mental processes. You must stay extremely busy to consistently disregard the cry of your soul. But even then, eventually you will answer the call of your soul, or disassociate yourself with that inner reality through illicit substances or actions. We have clever words for this process in our society; breakdown; addiction; disorder; dysfunction; the list is growing daily.
Over the past few months I have been attempting to pay close attention to conversations and dialogue between myself and others, and even third party exchanges that I listen to. I wanted to observe a pattern I began to notice. People are not listening to each other; they are simply recycling their personal rhetoric in a mindless rote. It is absolutely alarming the tremendous percentage of the people in those discussions who are not actually listening to the other person when that person speaks. They actually use the pause in their own voice to load the next file of stored opinions, or what they will say next-not to hear the other dialogue. I believe this is a symptom of the skill we have acquired through modern media to carry on multiple exchanges without ever answering the voice of our spirit within. Eventually, your soul will demand to be heard. Even if that appointment requires the cancelling of all other associations in our lives, each of us has a destined date with the soul within us. Because your soul is the breath of God, your spirit will inhale and exhale the divine possibility you were created to be, regardless of the controls and restraints we have become so adept at administering.
I want to challenge you today to do something completely unexplainable. Just stop. Don’t ask why, or for what reason, or for how long, just stop. Where ever you are right now at this exact moment, simply let all of the gears that turn your mechanized world and systems of acceptance grind to a halt. Take a deep breath. Spiritually inhale and exhale. Listen. Can you hear it? It is the voice of your Creator within you softly speaking your name. Keep listening. Listen to how your name is being said. What is that longing so sadly resident in that voice that is whispering your name? It is the desire to be answered. Answer the voice of God speaking from within you now by calmly saying, “Yes!” The affirmation you just spoke was not for approval or acceptance. You just said “yes” to what God created you to be. You have just touched the core of who you are. Honestly, that’s who you are; an amazing, wonderful, powerful life force displayed for God’s glory and anointed with Kingdom purpose.
Make a note of these miracles that have already begun to work in your life and be aware as they unfold daily before you. From this point forward you will begin to see a realignment of the world around you as parallel destinies that have been unable to reach you, converge with your core being. Depression will no longer have the ability to suppress the voice of the spirit you have identified. Physical manifestations of spiritual deficits will begin to diminish as you grow into your true self. Divine Order will become more and more visible to you each time you acknowledge the voice of the spirit within you. You will never be the same.
Don’t look back. There is nothing back there but questions; questions that have no answers; faceless people who hurt us, or were victims of our process. It is unfortunate that the by-product of our human search is carnage and causality. The wages of sin have always been death. But you are moving from death to life. Everything you are to be is before you. Get in the habit of stopping and listening. The real world is waiting for you to be honest with yourself. The real world, the world of the spirit. The world where you know, as you are known. Listen. There is a deep call coming to you today, simply say yes.
Is honesty something we extend exclusively to others, or does it apply to each of us individually and personally? I read a statement years ago that posed the question, “Can a person really be trustworthy if they are not true to themselves?” I don’t remember who said it, but it has stuck with me through the years and the question became a part of my decision making process. Let’s go a little deeper here now that I’ve got you thinking. Who are you are at the core of your being? What are your foundational values as a person? What do you really believe about life, people, and even God for that matter? Until you know who you are and what you believe, how could you possibly be true to yourself?
I have had a workshop going in my own home for over twenty-two years. The purpose of the lab was unknown to me in the beginning. The day it started, without my specific consent, I was informed by someone else that I had to administrate the process. I entered it unprepared and uncommitted. No one briefed me on the scope of the project. The workshop expanded to three times the original size and the cost associated with managing it were astronomical! Most days I felt overwhelmed, understaffed, and completely helpless with the day to day production. But the one thing I was forced to accomplish was to find out who I am, and what I believe. That workshop was my three beautiful children who have taught me more about life than anything else in this world.
This past year I reached the “half-way to ninety” point of my life. Maybe I am just a slow learner, but I have finally been able to identify my core being, and quantify the level of honesty I am offering myself on a day-today basis. As a Pastor, the most significant source of frustration I see people struggle with is found in not being able to identify who they are and what they believe. Let me just ask you now, “Who are you?” Not what you do! Not what you have accomplished! Not even what you are expected to be by others! Who are you? What is at the core of your being? What do you live for? What would you die for? Today I want to help you recognize what that nagging emptiness within you is.
You were created a living soul and your soul is crying out for access into your world. Your soul does not have an ego. It is not screaming for release to take over your comfortable life with wild and totally outlandish expectations. Your soul continues to call you to who you truly are. You are not what yo u do. You are something far more complex than you may have previously understood. You are the workmanship of God. He designed you for an earthly purpose with eternal values. You will never be true to yourself until you can be honest about how incomplete you are. It is the areas of your life which are incomplete that require the most attention from your subconscious. The depth of who you are can only be ignored with activity and function that dominate your mental processes. You must stay extremely busy to consistently disregard the cry of your soul. But even then, eventually you will answer the call of your soul, or disassociate yourself with that inner reality through illicit substances or actions. We have clever words for this process in our society; breakdown; addiction; disorder; dysfunction; the list is growing daily.
Over the past few months I have been attempting to pay close attention to conversations and dialogue between myself and others, and even third party exchanges that I listen to. I wanted to observe a pattern I began to notice. People are not listening to each other; they are simply recycling their personal rhetoric in a mindless rote. It is absolutely alarming the tremendous percentage of the people in those discussions who are not actually listening to the other person when that person speaks. They actually use the pause in their own voice to load the next file of stored opinions, or what they will say next-not to hear the other dialogue. I believe this is a symptom of the skill we have acquired through modern media to carry on multiple exchanges without ever answering the voice of our spirit within. Eventually, your soul will demand to be heard. Even if that appointment requires the cancelling of all other associations in our lives, each of us has a destined date with the soul within us. Because your soul is the breath of God, your spirit will inhale and exhale the divine possibility you were created to be, regardless of the controls and restraints we have become so adept at administering.
I want to challenge you today to do something completely unexplainable. Just stop. Don’t ask why, or for what reason, or for how long, just stop. Where ever you are right now at this exact moment, simply let all of the gears that turn your mechanized world and systems of acceptance grind to a halt. Take a deep breath. Spiritually inhale and exhale. Listen. Can you hear it? It is the voice of your Creator within you softly speaking your name. Keep listening. Listen to how your name is being said. What is that longing so sadly resident in that voice that is whispering your name? It is the desire to be answered. Answer the voice of God speaking from within you now by calmly saying, “Yes!” The affirmation you just spoke was not for approval or acceptance. You just said “yes” to what God created you to be. You have just touched the core of who you are. Honestly, that’s who you are; an amazing, wonderful, powerful life force displayed for God’s glory and anointed with Kingdom purpose.
Make a note of these miracles that have already begun to work in your life and be aware as they unfold daily before you. From this point forward you will begin to see a realignment of the world around you as parallel destinies that have been unable to reach you, converge with your core being. Depression will no longer have the ability to suppress the voice of the spirit you have identified. Physical manifestations of spiritual deficits will begin to diminish as you grow into your true self. Divine Order will become more and more visible to you each time you acknowledge the voice of the spirit within you. You will never be the same.
Don’t look back. There is nothing back there but questions; questions that have no answers; faceless people who hurt us, or were victims of our process. It is unfortunate that the by-product of our human search is carnage and causality. The wages of sin have always been death. But you are moving from death to life. Everything you are to be is before you. Get in the habit of stopping and listening. The real world is waiting for you to be honest with yourself. The real world, the world of the spirit. The world where you know, as you are known. Listen. There is a deep call coming to you today, simply say yes.
February 25, 2008
February 25, 2008
Revelation 12:10 makes an astonishing statement regarding Satan and what he is; “…the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.” There has never been a time in human history before now when accusations, innuendos and conjecture were the first source of accepted truth. Speculation is acknowledged as the first option for discovery. The Pharisees used false accusations in an attempt to trap Jesus, “…looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” (Matthew 12:10 NIV) There is only one place for accusations to come from. We read the origin in Revelations 12:10. Satan is the accuser of the brethren.
Jesus made the position of the Pharisees very plain in John 8:44, “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” When you accuse someone of something you are joining yourself to the father of lies. God did not appoint you to be an accuser. God called you to bear the burdens of the weak.
You should expect to suffer accusations in this life. People will attack you when you excel. Prosperity produces it own brand of suffering at the hands of people who feel entitled to what you have without paying the personal price of work and patience to have it. Even in the realms of Christianity, leaders will be targeted for accusations. Acts 23:12 reveals what Paul endured, “The next morning the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul.” Conspiracy is to accusation, what gasoline is to fire. Every evil falsehood needs an accelerant to spread. Be careful that you do not get caught up in being God’s police force to take down those who are doing wrong. Are you greater than God? Should you really assume that you could step into a divine role as judge and executioner?
Each of us has an obligation according to 1 Peter 2:12 that we, “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” But even in doing so we are not exempt from the accusation of the jealous. Nor are we free from the unwarranted scrutiny of a tainted personal perspective. It’s called perspective because it your view of what is seen. Our perspective is filtered through our memory of past experiences to form an opinion. Once we form an opinion we then make a value judgment, followed by a criteria of acceptance that we measure relationships with. Finally, we open our mouth to apply the accelerant that commences the process of character assassination; we make the accusation!
I can hear you screaming at the monitor, “But what if it’s true?” Okay, what did Jesus do with the woman caught in the very act of adultery? John 8:7 gives us His response, “…He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” What? She is guilty-this is no accusation. Jesus said He did not come to condemn the world, but to give it life. Are you speaking life or death over someone today by the accusations that are coming from you? John 8:10-11 takes the whole scenario even further, “When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.” So now, lets go back to your question, “What if it’s true?” Even then you have the power to choose freedom and life over someone rather than punishment and death. You can stone them if you want to but remember the requirement that has to be met; “he that is without sin must cast the first stone.”
Proverbs 17:5 shocks us into examining our attitudes about accusing others, true or false, by stating, “and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished.” Isaiah 5:20 warns us to be careful with the accusations by declaring, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Remember this; accusations are the tool of equalization used by those who suffer with an inferior self-image or a spirit of entitlement. Sometimes when you isolate yourself from evildoers the result will be accusations, according to 1 Peter 4:4, “Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you.”
Matthew 5:10-12 gives you this promise, “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”
Revelation 12:10 makes an astonishing statement regarding Satan and what he is; “…the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.” There has never been a time in human history before now when accusations, innuendos and conjecture were the first source of accepted truth. Speculation is acknowledged as the first option for discovery. The Pharisees used false accusations in an attempt to trap Jesus, “…looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” (Matthew 12:10 NIV) There is only one place for accusations to come from. We read the origin in Revelations 12:10. Satan is the accuser of the brethren.
Jesus made the position of the Pharisees very plain in John 8:44, “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” When you accuse someone of something you are joining yourself to the father of lies. God did not appoint you to be an accuser. God called you to bear the burdens of the weak.
You should expect to suffer accusations in this life. People will attack you when you excel. Prosperity produces it own brand of suffering at the hands of people who feel entitled to what you have without paying the personal price of work and patience to have it. Even in the realms of Christianity, leaders will be targeted for accusations. Acts 23:12 reveals what Paul endured, “The next morning the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul.” Conspiracy is to accusation, what gasoline is to fire. Every evil falsehood needs an accelerant to spread. Be careful that you do not get caught up in being God’s police force to take down those who are doing wrong. Are you greater than God? Should you really assume that you could step into a divine role as judge and executioner?
Each of us has an obligation according to 1 Peter 2:12 that we, “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” But even in doing so we are not exempt from the accusation of the jealous. Nor are we free from the unwarranted scrutiny of a tainted personal perspective. It’s called perspective because it your view of what is seen. Our perspective is filtered through our memory of past experiences to form an opinion. Once we form an opinion we then make a value judgment, followed by a criteria of acceptance that we measure relationships with. Finally, we open our mouth to apply the accelerant that commences the process of character assassination; we make the accusation!
I can hear you screaming at the monitor, “But what if it’s true?” Okay, what did Jesus do with the woman caught in the very act of adultery? John 8:7 gives us His response, “…He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” What? She is guilty-this is no accusation. Jesus said He did not come to condemn the world, but to give it life. Are you speaking life or death over someone today by the accusations that are coming from you? John 8:10-11 takes the whole scenario even further, “When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.” So now, lets go back to your question, “What if it’s true?” Even then you have the power to choose freedom and life over someone rather than punishment and death. You can stone them if you want to but remember the requirement that has to be met; “he that is without sin must cast the first stone.”
Proverbs 17:5 shocks us into examining our attitudes about accusing others, true or false, by stating, “and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished.” Isaiah 5:20 warns us to be careful with the accusations by declaring, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Remember this; accusations are the tool of equalization used by those who suffer with an inferior self-image or a spirit of entitlement. Sometimes when you isolate yourself from evildoers the result will be accusations, according to 1 Peter 4:4, “Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you.”
Matthew 5:10-12 gives you this promise, “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”
February 24, 2008
February 24, 2008
Today was an amazing day to discover the greatness of God. In particular, His ability to complete us with every good work He has ordained for our lives. My spirit is stirred today about restoration. God has the power to restore our lives to the original intent for which He created us.I was moved today with the Biblical account of King David desiring to bless the house of Saul. Saul had made it his mission to destroy David out of jealousy, and the harsh reality that God had rejected Saul. In spite of how much personal agony David had lived at the hand of Saul, he still longed to bless his descendants. After the search was over, Mephibosheth was located.
Mephibosheth was the son of Jonathan, and the grandson of Saul. Mephibosheth was a cripple. When the news of Saul and Jonathan’s death had reached the royal palace during his childhood, Mephibosheth’s baby sitter fled the house with him and fell in the process, leaving Mephibosheth paralyzed from the waist down. 2 Samuel 9:7 relays the blessings David bestowed upon him, “I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.” What struck me about this generous display of restoration was the bitter sweet fact that it was going to be incomplete. Mephibosheth was still going to be a cripple.
Is it possible for you to be alive, but functioning at a capacity far less than you were created for? In John 10:10 Jesus tells us, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Why is it that after we know the truth that sets us free, we are so easily ensnared again unto bondage?
Galatians 5:1 commands us to, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” There is even the dire effect of 2 Peter 2:20 we must contend with when considering how easily we are moved from freedom back into bondage, “ For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.” Break the cycle of returning to the acquaintance of your past bondage.
You were created to be complete in Jesus Christ.Accepting partial restoration is the myth that you should be satisfied with where you are, instead of being made whole. John 11:38-40 reveals the story of Lazarus death, and Jesus’ actions surrounding it, “Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” God has the power to remove the stone and yet He asks someone else to do it. Why? Because we have a spiritual obligation to not seal as finished the events of our live until God says it is over! When it is time for you to have closure there will be a sense of completeness and an awareness of being whole. Until then, remove the barriers and open the passages of what you have buried as being dead! Until the, “Roll the stone away!”
You and I must stop relegating God to our human understanding to make Him more palatable! Romans 1:18-23 gives us this reality check, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man.” The effects of this has caused Spirits of Infirmity to be released, and to take hold of our land and plague us with illnesses that have no physical reasoning’s for their torment! I came across two startling statistics to support this: “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, was released in 1952, and had about 106 different mental disorders. It has since gone through 5 revisions and now has about 375.” “In 1999 the World Health Organization ranked depression as the world’s fourth most devastating illness, projecting that it would climb to second place by 2020”
Luke 13: 10-13 gives a perfect illustration for the modern dillemna we face with mental illness that are the result of a spiritual issue, “Now He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.” And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.” Your mental health is directly correlated to the condition of your spiritual wholeness! You are not crazy-you are bound! I speak freedom over your life today that every Spirit of Infirmity release its hold on your life in Jesus Name! Disclaimer: Some mental illnesses are pysically related and require proper medical treatment. For those we offer the added support of prayer to the physician’s treatment decisions.
You are being called to rise up out of your incomplete life and embrace a healing wholeness that only God can give you! Luke 7:14 shows God’s ability to alter what looks like a finished scenario, “Then He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” It is not over until Jesus has made you complete. After the young man was commanded to get up, Jesus told those who had been carrying the boy, “Take him to his Mother.” The young man was resurrected, but his Mother was made complete!God is calling you today to come out of the tomb you have enshrined your hopes and dreams in. He is speaking release into your life to enact wholeness in you. John 11:43 shows the power of Jesus to call you forth, “Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” Hear the voice of the Spirit today! You are being summoned out of death into life more abundantly!
Your resurrection is at hand. You are being called to step out of darkness into His marvelous light!I want to ask you a piercing question, “How long do you intend to live in a state of partial restoration?” Break all the way free right now in Jesus Name! John 11:44 paints the scene of so many lives today, “And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.” Yes you are saved! Yes you have been brought back from death! Yes you have experienced resurrection! But are you free? Lazarus hobbles out of the graver at Jesus’ command, resurrected but restricted! Born again but bound! Saved but suffering! I hear the words of Jesus being spoken over the incomplete restoration your life represents, “Loose him and let him go!” This is your day to shed the stench of death from your life. This is your day to move out of the tomb, and leave the community of death behind! This is your moment for complete wholeness and total restoration! I am standing with you today for a finished work in your life!
Today was an amazing day to discover the greatness of God. In particular, His ability to complete us with every good work He has ordained for our lives. My spirit is stirred today about restoration. God has the power to restore our lives to the original intent for which He created us.I was moved today with the Biblical account of King David desiring to bless the house of Saul. Saul had made it his mission to destroy David out of jealousy, and the harsh reality that God had rejected Saul. In spite of how much personal agony David had lived at the hand of Saul, he still longed to bless his descendants. After the search was over, Mephibosheth was located.
Mephibosheth was the son of Jonathan, and the grandson of Saul. Mephibosheth was a cripple. When the news of Saul and Jonathan’s death had reached the royal palace during his childhood, Mephibosheth’s baby sitter fled the house with him and fell in the process, leaving Mephibosheth paralyzed from the waist down. 2 Samuel 9:7 relays the blessings David bestowed upon him, “I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.” What struck me about this generous display of restoration was the bitter sweet fact that it was going to be incomplete. Mephibosheth was still going to be a cripple.
Is it possible for you to be alive, but functioning at a capacity far less than you were created for? In John 10:10 Jesus tells us, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Why is it that after we know the truth that sets us free, we are so easily ensnared again unto bondage?
Galatians 5:1 commands us to, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” There is even the dire effect of 2 Peter 2:20 we must contend with when considering how easily we are moved from freedom back into bondage, “ For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.” Break the cycle of returning to the acquaintance of your past bondage.
You were created to be complete in Jesus Christ.Accepting partial restoration is the myth that you should be satisfied with where you are, instead of being made whole. John 11:38-40 reveals the story of Lazarus death, and Jesus’ actions surrounding it, “Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” God has the power to remove the stone and yet He asks someone else to do it. Why? Because we have a spiritual obligation to not seal as finished the events of our live until God says it is over! When it is time for you to have closure there will be a sense of completeness and an awareness of being whole. Until then, remove the barriers and open the passages of what you have buried as being dead! Until the, “Roll the stone away!”
You and I must stop relegating God to our human understanding to make Him more palatable! Romans 1:18-23 gives us this reality check, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man.” The effects of this has caused Spirits of Infirmity to be released, and to take hold of our land and plague us with illnesses that have no physical reasoning’s for their torment! I came across two startling statistics to support this: “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, was released in 1952, and had about 106 different mental disorders. It has since gone through 5 revisions and now has about 375.” “In 1999 the World Health Organization ranked depression as the world’s fourth most devastating illness, projecting that it would climb to second place by 2020”
Luke 13: 10-13 gives a perfect illustration for the modern dillemna we face with mental illness that are the result of a spiritual issue, “Now He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.” And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.” Your mental health is directly correlated to the condition of your spiritual wholeness! You are not crazy-you are bound! I speak freedom over your life today that every Spirit of Infirmity release its hold on your life in Jesus Name! Disclaimer: Some mental illnesses are pysically related and require proper medical treatment. For those we offer the added support of prayer to the physician’s treatment decisions.
You are being called to rise up out of your incomplete life and embrace a healing wholeness that only God can give you! Luke 7:14 shows God’s ability to alter what looks like a finished scenario, “Then He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” It is not over until Jesus has made you complete. After the young man was commanded to get up, Jesus told those who had been carrying the boy, “Take him to his Mother.” The young man was resurrected, but his Mother was made complete!God is calling you today to come out of the tomb you have enshrined your hopes and dreams in. He is speaking release into your life to enact wholeness in you. John 11:43 shows the power of Jesus to call you forth, “Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” Hear the voice of the Spirit today! You are being summoned out of death into life more abundantly!
Your resurrection is at hand. You are being called to step out of darkness into His marvelous light!I want to ask you a piercing question, “How long do you intend to live in a state of partial restoration?” Break all the way free right now in Jesus Name! John 11:44 paints the scene of so many lives today, “And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.” Yes you are saved! Yes you have been brought back from death! Yes you have experienced resurrection! But are you free? Lazarus hobbles out of the graver at Jesus’ command, resurrected but restricted! Born again but bound! Saved but suffering! I hear the words of Jesus being spoken over the incomplete restoration your life represents, “Loose him and let him go!” This is your day to shed the stench of death from your life. This is your day to move out of the tomb, and leave the community of death behind! This is your moment for complete wholeness and total restoration! I am standing with you today for a finished work in your life!
February 23, 2008
February 23, 2008
It’s Saturday morning and this is what I know right now in the early morning fog that surrounds my first waking moments. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” (Hebrews 13: So, even though it will be thirty minutes before I have complete functionality of my cognitive motor skills, Jesus is here now and He will be there when I get it all moving in one direction! Here’s the question that arises out of all of this deep contemplation, “How did God hold it all together last night while I slept?”
I mean really, after all, I am so completely in control of every aspect of my life that I was wondering if I should forgo sleep in an effort to be sure God won’t be over worked through the night shift? Sounds crazy doesn’t it? Believe me, it is just as crazy to try and usurp that kind of control during the waking hours also! Whether we believe it or not, God is going to do just fine as God. He has eternity to prove that He can handle it! In fact God declares His ability Himself in Isaiah 46:9-10, “Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.”
This weekend why not give yourself a break and let God run everything out of the sovereignty of His will and purpose for a couple of days, or how about the rest of your life. 2 Timothy 1:12 is our declaration for today, “for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”
Blessings and peace be upon you. Be sure you are in a Spirit-filled, Bible believing Church this weekend. You can see my sermon live this Sunday at 10:30 AM by visiting our website at http://www.communitylifefellowship.org.
It’s Saturday morning and this is what I know right now in the early morning fog that surrounds my first waking moments. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” (Hebrews 13: So, even though it will be thirty minutes before I have complete functionality of my cognitive motor skills, Jesus is here now and He will be there when I get it all moving in one direction! Here’s the question that arises out of all of this deep contemplation, “How did God hold it all together last night while I slept?”
I mean really, after all, I am so completely in control of every aspect of my life that I was wondering if I should forgo sleep in an effort to be sure God won’t be over worked through the night shift? Sounds crazy doesn’t it? Believe me, it is just as crazy to try and usurp that kind of control during the waking hours also! Whether we believe it or not, God is going to do just fine as God. He has eternity to prove that He can handle it! In fact God declares His ability Himself in Isaiah 46:9-10, “Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.”
This weekend why not give yourself a break and let God run everything out of the sovereignty of His will and purpose for a couple of days, or how about the rest of your life. 2 Timothy 1:12 is our declaration for today, “for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”
Blessings and peace be upon you. Be sure you are in a Spirit-filled, Bible believing Church this weekend. You can see my sermon live this Sunday at 10:30 AM by visiting our website at http://www.communitylifefellowship.org.
February 22, 2008
February 22, 2008
Most of us have heard the cliché, “When things get tough, you find out what you are made of!” I’ve got a better idea for you today, “Find out what you are made of before you face tough times and the tough times won’t matter!” You are not the result of what you can handle! Meeting the fluctuating expectations of someone’s standardized academic evaluation does not define you! You are the living, breathing, purposed, exhibition of God’s intent. What you are made of, the substance of who and what you are, is the same elements that created everything you see and then gave you dominion over it! Let me show you what you are made of!
Genesis 1:26 give us the first statement of our origin, and His intent regarding us, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness and let them have dominion…” God purposed you! His intent was to create you and I, and that’s what He did! But how did He do that? In Genesis 1:27 we see the fulfillment of God’s intent, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” You and I were made in the likeness and image of God. We were fashioned as He is! Intricately formed by His own hands, molded in a fleshly model. Delicately shaped with divine design. Psalm 139:14 gives us more detail, “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works…” You are the product of eternal purpose, set in a human environment, as a supernatural access point. You are made out of eternity! You are made out of the supernatural! You are made out of the indestructible will of God!
Romans 7:22-25 gives us deeper look at the revelation of who and what you are. I have added in bold italics what I hear my spirit crying as I read these words, “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: (Something I was created out of, on the inside of me, has the innate ability to find pleasure and peace in the order of God’s universal law)
But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. (I have this intuitive spiritual knowledge and delight of God’s order, but I am constantly living in restraint by the limitations of this human environment)
O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Is there any hope of me overcoming the shackles of my flesh to live in divine flow and supernatural order)
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (My uninhibited exit from this dichotomy is Jesus Christ)
So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin (I allow my spirit to lead my intellect with divine impartation and all my mistakes or deficiencies are the result of yielding to a lesser nature).”
Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 2:9-16 in the same format, “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. (There is a written record of our long struggle to comprehend the purposed intent of God to those who were created by Him)
But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: (But these things are not a secret to the supernatural nature we have inside of us)
for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. (By giving our full attention to the Spirit we can actually know how all of the pieces fit together in the daily scheme of our lives)
For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. (We have to make a minute by minute decision to assimilate the information that is being input into our daily lives into the Spirit first. Doing so will automatically separate the temporal from the eternal)
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. (We were made out of eternal wisdom which is accessible from within through the Holy Spirit. God has already endowed us with everything we will ever need. God has already prepared us for everything we will ever face. We are not waiting to go through something to find out what we are. What we are made of is waiting to manifest supernatural power and strength to what is coming our way)
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. (This is what we are talking about in the Spirit when we preach and teach through the power of the Holy Spirit. We must stop trying to identify God through our natural circumstances. We must identify our natural circumstances through the Spirit and then we will see it for what it really is; an access point for the Spirit to effect divine impartation)
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (Every time we attempt to understand God through this world system our flesh lives in, we are wasting time. Living a Spirit-led life requires a total commitment to the Holy Spirit for all direction)
But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ.” (We can discern the path and purpose of everything in our lives and remain a mystery to those who reject a Spirit-led life. While everyone questions the ability to understand what God’s will actually is, we can access the creative power that we were created by, and be Spirit-led into peace, prosperity, purpose and power)
These are just a few of the thoughts I as having this morning. Blessings and peace be upon you today. You are not what others think of you. You are the Righteousness of God in Christ! Nothing you face or go through, tough or easy, good or bad, high or low, will ever change that!
Most of us have heard the cliché, “When things get tough, you find out what you are made of!” I’ve got a better idea for you today, “Find out what you are made of before you face tough times and the tough times won’t matter!” You are not the result of what you can handle! Meeting the fluctuating expectations of someone’s standardized academic evaluation does not define you! You are the living, breathing, purposed, exhibition of God’s intent. What you are made of, the substance of who and what you are, is the same elements that created everything you see and then gave you dominion over it! Let me show you what you are made of!
Genesis 1:26 give us the first statement of our origin, and His intent regarding us, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness and let them have dominion…” God purposed you! His intent was to create you and I, and that’s what He did! But how did He do that? In Genesis 1:27 we see the fulfillment of God’s intent, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” You and I were made in the likeness and image of God. We were fashioned as He is! Intricately formed by His own hands, molded in a fleshly model. Delicately shaped with divine design. Psalm 139:14 gives us more detail, “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works…” You are the product of eternal purpose, set in a human environment, as a supernatural access point. You are made out of eternity! You are made out of the supernatural! You are made out of the indestructible will of God!
Romans 7:22-25 gives us deeper look at the revelation of who and what you are. I have added in bold italics what I hear my spirit crying as I read these words, “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: (Something I was created out of, on the inside of me, has the innate ability to find pleasure and peace in the order of God’s universal law)
But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. (I have this intuitive spiritual knowledge and delight of God’s order, but I am constantly living in restraint by the limitations of this human environment)
O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Is there any hope of me overcoming the shackles of my flesh to live in divine flow and supernatural order)
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (My uninhibited exit from this dichotomy is Jesus Christ)
So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin (I allow my spirit to lead my intellect with divine impartation and all my mistakes or deficiencies are the result of yielding to a lesser nature).”
Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 2:9-16 in the same format, “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. (There is a written record of our long struggle to comprehend the purposed intent of God to those who were created by Him)
But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: (But these things are not a secret to the supernatural nature we have inside of us)
for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. (By giving our full attention to the Spirit we can actually know how all of the pieces fit together in the daily scheme of our lives)
For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. (We have to make a minute by minute decision to assimilate the information that is being input into our daily lives into the Spirit first. Doing so will automatically separate the temporal from the eternal)
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. (We were made out of eternal wisdom which is accessible from within through the Holy Spirit. God has already endowed us with everything we will ever need. God has already prepared us for everything we will ever face. We are not waiting to go through something to find out what we are. What we are made of is waiting to manifest supernatural power and strength to what is coming our way)
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. (This is what we are talking about in the Spirit when we preach and teach through the power of the Holy Spirit. We must stop trying to identify God through our natural circumstances. We must identify our natural circumstances through the Spirit and then we will see it for what it really is; an access point for the Spirit to effect divine impartation)
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (Every time we attempt to understand God through this world system our flesh lives in, we are wasting time. Living a Spirit-led life requires a total commitment to the Holy Spirit for all direction)
But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ.” (We can discern the path and purpose of everything in our lives and remain a mystery to those who reject a Spirit-led life. While everyone questions the ability to understand what God’s will actually is, we can access the creative power that we were created by, and be Spirit-led into peace, prosperity, purpose and power)
These are just a few of the thoughts I as having this morning. Blessings and peace be upon you today. You are not what others think of you. You are the Righteousness of God in Christ! Nothing you face or go through, tough or easy, good or bad, high or low, will ever change that!
February 21, 2008
February 21, 2008
All hell breaks loose when Heaven releases providence. You cannot gauge spiritual activity by a lack of turmoil; turmoil is the result of spiritual activity. Watch how nature responds in Psalms 77:14-18, “Thou art the God that doest wonders: thou hast declared thy strength among the people. Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah. The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled. The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad. The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook. When we falsely identify turmoil as a foe, we miss the indicators of great spiritual activity and shut out divine possibility. When God moves, nature responds!
Who told you that your life only glorified God when things were going smooth? We learn the most about Gods character when we are in the trenches of spiritual warfare. We are postured as an advancing force of righteousness. Matthew 16:18 makes our position clear, “…and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” As the Body of Christ we are stationed at the very entrance of eternal damnation to offer hope and deliverance. Jesus made it even plainer in Matthew 9:12, “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.” You are at your best for God when you are engaged in the hand to hand combat that true spiritual warfare involves.
Today has been a day of fighting in the spirit. My flesh is screaming for dominance but my spirit has been endued with power from on high! We must not reduce this battle to the whims of the flesh. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 declares, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” We walk in the flesh. We live an everyday existence. We have interaction in a world and society of opposing positions. But, we do not war after the flesh. People are not our enemies. We are fighting spirits! Ephesians 6:12 shows us the battlefield, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
Our flesh wants to control everything. Our flesh does not voluntarily submit. Our flesh, and they way it works is described in Galatians 5:19-21, “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” When we engage these actions we are giving our submission to the flesh. Flesh cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. We must deny our flesh to submit it to spiritual principles. Galatians 5:16, “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” Our flesh was created to glorify God, not lead us daily into a self indulgent lifestyle.
We must be filled with the Spirit of God. We must set our mind on God and His Kingdom. Our minds are the decision centers we rely when faced with options. Philippians 4:8 give us this formula for protecting and conditioning our minds, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. There is no substitute for the positive influence of the Holy Spirit through a mind set on God. Colossians 3:2 encourages us to, “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”
Say these words with me. “I must break free from the tyranny of the urgent. Instead of Hell breaking loose on me, I am breaking loose on Hell. I am leaving the platform of the victimized and stepping into the circle of the victorious. I am more than a Conqueror through Christ! (Romans 8:37) My posture for this day of spiritual warfare is found in Matthew 11:12, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.” I will rise up and seize the earthly domain and the prophetic release God has ordained to give me.”
All hell breaks loose when Heaven releases providence. You cannot gauge spiritual activity by a lack of turmoil; turmoil is the result of spiritual activity. Watch how nature responds in Psalms 77:14-18, “Thou art the God that doest wonders: thou hast declared thy strength among the people. Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah. The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled. The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad. The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook. When we falsely identify turmoil as a foe, we miss the indicators of great spiritual activity and shut out divine possibility. When God moves, nature responds!
Who told you that your life only glorified God when things were going smooth? We learn the most about Gods character when we are in the trenches of spiritual warfare. We are postured as an advancing force of righteousness. Matthew 16:18 makes our position clear, “…and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” As the Body of Christ we are stationed at the very entrance of eternal damnation to offer hope and deliverance. Jesus made it even plainer in Matthew 9:12, “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.” You are at your best for God when you are engaged in the hand to hand combat that true spiritual warfare involves.
Today has been a day of fighting in the spirit. My flesh is screaming for dominance but my spirit has been endued with power from on high! We must not reduce this battle to the whims of the flesh. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 declares, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” We walk in the flesh. We live an everyday existence. We have interaction in a world and society of opposing positions. But, we do not war after the flesh. People are not our enemies. We are fighting spirits! Ephesians 6:12 shows us the battlefield, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
Our flesh wants to control everything. Our flesh does not voluntarily submit. Our flesh, and they way it works is described in Galatians 5:19-21, “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” When we engage these actions we are giving our submission to the flesh. Flesh cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. We must deny our flesh to submit it to spiritual principles. Galatians 5:16, “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” Our flesh was created to glorify God, not lead us daily into a self indulgent lifestyle.
We must be filled with the Spirit of God. We must set our mind on God and His Kingdom. Our minds are the decision centers we rely when faced with options. Philippians 4:8 give us this formula for protecting and conditioning our minds, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. There is no substitute for the positive influence of the Holy Spirit through a mind set on God. Colossians 3:2 encourages us to, “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”
Say these words with me. “I must break free from the tyranny of the urgent. Instead of Hell breaking loose on me, I am breaking loose on Hell. I am leaving the platform of the victimized and stepping into the circle of the victorious. I am more than a Conqueror through Christ! (Romans 8:37) My posture for this day of spiritual warfare is found in Matthew 11:12, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.” I will rise up and seize the earthly domain and the prophetic release God has ordained to give me.”
February 20, 2008
February 20, 2008
Today I begin my second twenty-one day fast of this New Year. Over the next three weeks I will be chronicling this journey on a daily basis here in my blog. My purpose in telling you of my fast is to give you a context for the writing that will appear here. At the beginning of the year over one hundred people joined me in a similar fast and we are seeing the results of that consecrated time of sacrifice. A group of about forty people have committed to fast the first seven days of each month with me beginning on the first Sunday of the month. Fasting is one of the most powerful ways to break negative life cycles and realign to God’s purpose for our lives.
I am fasting to increase my capacity for spiritual revelation. I am fasting to deny my flesh the carcinogens it craves from a diet of processed foods. I am fasting to clear my mind of the clutter that forms when the swift pace of everyday life leaves a trail of carnage in unfinished ideas and projects that taunt me to accept mediocrity. I am fasting to diminish the voices of secular humanism that scream for access to my belief system, so they may inject the godless rhetoric of a nation that is rapidly forgetting God. I am fasting to present my body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, because this is my reasonable service. I am fasting because I cannot lead the people I pastor somewhere I am not willing to go.
The command of Jesus in Matthew 16:24 is pounding in my spirit, “…If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” In these nineteen words there are four distinct areas that we must deal with to truly become the Disciples of Christ. Today I want to examine these four areas in my own heart, and as I do maybe you can find some similar places in your own life for spiritual growth.
Jesus left the power of choice completely up to you and I when He said, “If any man will come after me.” What are we pursuing with the twenty-four hour segments we are given each day? Each day I wake up with a driving urgency in my spirit to personally engage the spirit realm and be led of God to do His will on this earth. Matthew 7:7-8 gives us the daily key to access the Divine, and implement the protocols of God’s Kingdom upon the earth, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened.” The power of choice we have is one of the most awesome tools God has given us. We can choose the truth of spiritual satisfaction in the patter of Psalm 42:1, “As the hart pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul after you, O God.”
When we read the words of Jesus, “let him deny himself,” they are much easier to accept if we can point them at someone other than ourselves. But the reality regarding self-denial is found in the fact that only you can deny yourself! John the Baptist came preaching a two part message in John 3:30, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Jesus himself proclaimed this message in Mark 10:44, “And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all.” The word “deny” in this text comes from the Greek word, Aparneomai, which means: to forget one’s self, lose sight of one’s self and one’s own interests. How long has it been since we really lost sight of our own interests to see the desires of God!
We don’t hear much any more in modern Christianity about taking up an individual cross, and bearing it for the Lord Jesus Christ. Have we come so far from Golgotha, the place where Jesus was crucified, that we can no longer associate the suffering and bearing of the cross with the Christian lifestyle we embrace? Without the cross we have no connection to approach a Holy God who must punish the sinful. The cross is our symbol of access to the freedom Jesus died to give us. Bearing the cross of Christ is the act of physically correlating our daily lives in fellowship with the suffering of Christ. 1 Corinthians 1:18 reveals to us the advantage of the cross, “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” We must take up the cross God has given us to bear if we are to truly know Him in the power of His resurrection.
The final separation of service to God in Matthew 16:24 leaves no room for doubt, “…If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Ephesians 5:1-2 commands us, “Be therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us, and has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. We have an obligation to do more than just hear what God desires of our lives. James 1:22 encourages us to escape deception by being, “…doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” Make up your mind to follow Christ today with reckless abandon. What have you go to lose, your life? Jesus already covered that in Matthew 16:25, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”
There is a powerful encounter with the Holy Spirit waiting for you when you, come after Jesus, deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Christ. What are we waiting for?
Today I begin my second twenty-one day fast of this New Year. Over the next three weeks I will be chronicling this journey on a daily basis here in my blog. My purpose in telling you of my fast is to give you a context for the writing that will appear here. At the beginning of the year over one hundred people joined me in a similar fast and we are seeing the results of that consecrated time of sacrifice. A group of about forty people have committed to fast the first seven days of each month with me beginning on the first Sunday of the month. Fasting is one of the most powerful ways to break negative life cycles and realign to God’s purpose for our lives.
I am fasting to increase my capacity for spiritual revelation. I am fasting to deny my flesh the carcinogens it craves from a diet of processed foods. I am fasting to clear my mind of the clutter that forms when the swift pace of everyday life leaves a trail of carnage in unfinished ideas and projects that taunt me to accept mediocrity. I am fasting to diminish the voices of secular humanism that scream for access to my belief system, so they may inject the godless rhetoric of a nation that is rapidly forgetting God. I am fasting to present my body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, because this is my reasonable service. I am fasting because I cannot lead the people I pastor somewhere I am not willing to go.
The command of Jesus in Matthew 16:24 is pounding in my spirit, “…If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” In these nineteen words there are four distinct areas that we must deal with to truly become the Disciples of Christ. Today I want to examine these four areas in my own heart, and as I do maybe you can find some similar places in your own life for spiritual growth.
Jesus left the power of choice completely up to you and I when He said, “If any man will come after me.” What are we pursuing with the twenty-four hour segments we are given each day? Each day I wake up with a driving urgency in my spirit to personally engage the spirit realm and be led of God to do His will on this earth. Matthew 7:7-8 gives us the daily key to access the Divine, and implement the protocols of God’s Kingdom upon the earth, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened.” The power of choice we have is one of the most awesome tools God has given us. We can choose the truth of spiritual satisfaction in the patter of Psalm 42:1, “As the hart pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul after you, O God.”
When we read the words of Jesus, “let him deny himself,” they are much easier to accept if we can point them at someone other than ourselves. But the reality regarding self-denial is found in the fact that only you can deny yourself! John the Baptist came preaching a two part message in John 3:30, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Jesus himself proclaimed this message in Mark 10:44, “And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all.” The word “deny” in this text comes from the Greek word, Aparneomai, which means: to forget one’s self, lose sight of one’s self and one’s own interests. How long has it been since we really lost sight of our own interests to see the desires of God!
We don’t hear much any more in modern Christianity about taking up an individual cross, and bearing it for the Lord Jesus Christ. Have we come so far from Golgotha, the place where Jesus was crucified, that we can no longer associate the suffering and bearing of the cross with the Christian lifestyle we embrace? Without the cross we have no connection to approach a Holy God who must punish the sinful. The cross is our symbol of access to the freedom Jesus died to give us. Bearing the cross of Christ is the act of physically correlating our daily lives in fellowship with the suffering of Christ. 1 Corinthians 1:18 reveals to us the advantage of the cross, “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” We must take up the cross God has given us to bear if we are to truly know Him in the power of His resurrection.
The final separation of service to God in Matthew 16:24 leaves no room for doubt, “…If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Ephesians 5:1-2 commands us, “Be therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us, and has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. We have an obligation to do more than just hear what God desires of our lives. James 1:22 encourages us to escape deception by being, “…doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” Make up your mind to follow Christ today with reckless abandon. What have you go to lose, your life? Jesus already covered that in Matthew 16:25, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”
There is a powerful encounter with the Holy Spirit waiting for you when you, come after Jesus, deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Christ. What are we waiting for?
February 19, 2008
February 19, 2008
It is snowing this morning in Tennessee! I know this because I was in a deep, tranquil sleep when my wonderful, amazing, thoughtful and considerate wife opened the blinds and brought the reality of the day to me in a white blaze of light! At that moment I received my first paradox of the day; opening the blinds actually blinded me! That process has been happening a lot to me lately.
It initially seems overwhelming when you receive a blast of light after a prolonged period of darkness. Why does that happen? Because your senses have not been acclimated to the rapid change you are experiencing. Isn’t it odd that we pray for revelation, a revealing of what we have not seen or known, and then shy away from the action of receiving it because we don’t want to change? Jesus makes a statement to the same effect in John 11:10, “But if a man walk in the night, he stumbles, because there is no light in him.” If you only see what you know, you have received no revelation!
The revelations I am receiving from God over the past few weeks have caused me to become aware of how blind I can become to what really exists in the Spirit world. The Scripture makes this concept plain in these terms, “we love darkness because our deeds are evil.” (John 3:19) What I hear when I read those words is this, “our actions have dictated our environment.” Our challenge today is to embrace 1 John 1:7, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin.”
Today we must examine and evaluate what our actions are producing. Luke 11:34 gives us this formula for self-evaluation, “The light of the body is the eye: therefore when your eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when your eye is evil, your body also is full of darkness.” Singleness of vision, or purpose, is vitally important to maintain a constant flow of daily revelation. It is when our vision is divided that we experience division. It is actually the impossible attempt to pursue two opposing life purposes; God’s will or your will.
Matthew 18:9 strongly suggests that we deal with personal division, “And if your eye offends you, pluck it out, and cast it from you: it is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.” Notice the writing only uses “eyes”, or the ability to see more than one vision, when it references outer darkness or hell. The context is this, “whatever is causing you to be divided in your personal vision needs to be separated from you at even the most drastic of costs.
Hey! Wake up out of your sleep and open the blinds! There is a beautiful revelation of God’s purpose for your life radiating out of the bright change happening right before your closed eyes. To see it, all you have to do is open your eyes, accept the change, and embrace the beauty.
It is snowing this morning in Tennessee! I know this because I was in a deep, tranquil sleep when my wonderful, amazing, thoughtful and considerate wife opened the blinds and brought the reality of the day to me in a white blaze of light! At that moment I received my first paradox of the day; opening the blinds actually blinded me! That process has been happening a lot to me lately.
It initially seems overwhelming when you receive a blast of light after a prolonged period of darkness. Why does that happen? Because your senses have not been acclimated to the rapid change you are experiencing. Isn’t it odd that we pray for revelation, a revealing of what we have not seen or known, and then shy away from the action of receiving it because we don’t want to change? Jesus makes a statement to the same effect in John 11:10, “But if a man walk in the night, he stumbles, because there is no light in him.” If you only see what you know, you have received no revelation!
The revelations I am receiving from God over the past few weeks have caused me to become aware of how blind I can become to what really exists in the Spirit world. The Scripture makes this concept plain in these terms, “we love darkness because our deeds are evil.” (John 3:19) What I hear when I read those words is this, “our actions have dictated our environment.” Our challenge today is to embrace 1 John 1:7, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin.”
Today we must examine and evaluate what our actions are producing. Luke 11:34 gives us this formula for self-evaluation, “The light of the body is the eye: therefore when your eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when your eye is evil, your body also is full of darkness.” Singleness of vision, or purpose, is vitally important to maintain a constant flow of daily revelation. It is when our vision is divided that we experience division. It is actually the impossible attempt to pursue two opposing life purposes; God’s will or your will.
Matthew 18:9 strongly suggests that we deal with personal division, “And if your eye offends you, pluck it out, and cast it from you: it is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.” Notice the writing only uses “eyes”, or the ability to see more than one vision, when it references outer darkness or hell. The context is this, “whatever is causing you to be divided in your personal vision needs to be separated from you at even the most drastic of costs.
Hey! Wake up out of your sleep and open the blinds! There is a beautiful revelation of God’s purpose for your life radiating out of the bright change happening right before your closed eyes. To see it, all you have to do is open your eyes, accept the change, and embrace the beauty.
The Gift You Are
The Gift You Are
Your life is a gift God has given to Himself. Your worth has already been determined as invaluable by God, to Himself. Life for you was never meant to be the compilation of everyone’s expectations. Your life is the sum of what God already knows about you, and it doesn’t frighten Him one bit! God believes in you. The proof of that is in the Destiny He has given you. Destiny is God’s faith in you, and His ability to accomplish that purpose through you. God cannot fail Himself! Destiny is a divinely charted course that God uses to define your purpose in life from His eternal perspective. He knows where you are going, even when you do not! Follow your heart; it is being led by your soul. You soul is the reservoir God fills with Destiny. Your soul is filled with the completion of eternal actions that are released in time through your life. God know where you are going even when you do not! Some will mistake your confidence for arrogance. Your comfort with who you are will make them uncomfortable. Those who listen inwardly; recognize confidence, as the symptom of wholeness, even when those closest to you do not understand, and will tell you you are too “soulful”. Confidence is the strength that comes from knowing who you are. Arrogance is the cheap substitution of personal projection in place of confidence. The real difference between confidence and arrogance is found in the purpose of its use. Confidence is used to promote others; arrogance is used for self-promotion. Don’t waste one second of your time seeking the approval or acceptance of others. The people who are important to your destiny will be led to you through providence. Approval by others is a fantasy that changes with their personal self-esteem issues; every time you get it, the conditions that were met to receive it fluctuate to another set of values, based on their emotional deficits. Acceptance is a tiny doorway designated for people who refuse to deal with their own personal barriers. You only walk through it when the opinion of others is most important to you, and you always have to bow to their limited point of view. Seeking the acceptance of one who has no ability to promote your personal growth is to epitomize mediocrity, and to settle for the ease of mere existence. You were never meant to be mediocre! People will provide you with one of two very separate opportunities; the greatest love you can comprehend, or the vilest depths of hatred you will ever know. The choice between the two is not theirs; the choice is yours. If you embrace every person that will come and go throughout your life as having divine possibility, regardless of their actions, you will have experienced a perfect love that leaves no place for fear. “Getting Even” is the act of lowering yourself to someone’s level of failure. We approach the act of getting even in an attempt to force those blinded by their own mistakes to see the light. Diving deeper into darkness does not increase light. Increasing light does not alter the ability of the blind to see. “Getting Even” is the futile exercise of increasing light to cure blindness. You are a rare and precious treasure. If you bury a treasure it only survives in a single moment of memory. Give it to the world and the treasure you are will create its own environment of people who travel from everywhere to understand its beauty. You are a rare and precious treasure! You are not becoming anything; you are simply discovering what you already are. What you are, was meant to emerge slowly; quite simply because the world can’t handle all of you at one time. You are a gift God has given Himself. What He enjoys the most about you is the simple fact of who and what you are. Just be!
Your life is a gift God has given to Himself. Your worth has already been determined as invaluable by God, to Himself. Life for you was never meant to be the compilation of everyone’s expectations. Your life is the sum of what God already knows about you, and it doesn’t frighten Him one bit! God believes in you. The proof of that is in the Destiny He has given you. Destiny is God’s faith in you, and His ability to accomplish that purpose through you. God cannot fail Himself! Destiny is a divinely charted course that God uses to define your purpose in life from His eternal perspective. He knows where you are going, even when you do not! Follow your heart; it is being led by your soul. You soul is the reservoir God fills with Destiny. Your soul is filled with the completion of eternal actions that are released in time through your life. God know where you are going even when you do not! Some will mistake your confidence for arrogance. Your comfort with who you are will make them uncomfortable. Those who listen inwardly; recognize confidence, as the symptom of wholeness, even when those closest to you do not understand, and will tell you you are too “soulful”. Confidence is the strength that comes from knowing who you are. Arrogance is the cheap substitution of personal projection in place of confidence. The real difference between confidence and arrogance is found in the purpose of its use. Confidence is used to promote others; arrogance is used for self-promotion. Don’t waste one second of your time seeking the approval or acceptance of others. The people who are important to your destiny will be led to you through providence. Approval by others is a fantasy that changes with their personal self-esteem issues; every time you get it, the conditions that were met to receive it fluctuate to another set of values, based on their emotional deficits. Acceptance is a tiny doorway designated for people who refuse to deal with their own personal barriers. You only walk through it when the opinion of others is most important to you, and you always have to bow to their limited point of view. Seeking the acceptance of one who has no ability to promote your personal growth is to epitomize mediocrity, and to settle for the ease of mere existence. You were never meant to be mediocre! People will provide you with one of two very separate opportunities; the greatest love you can comprehend, or the vilest depths of hatred you will ever know. The choice between the two is not theirs; the choice is yours. If you embrace every person that will come and go throughout your life as having divine possibility, regardless of their actions, you will have experienced a perfect love that leaves no place for fear. “Getting Even” is the act of lowering yourself to someone’s level of failure. We approach the act of getting even in an attempt to force those blinded by their own mistakes to see the light. Diving deeper into darkness does not increase light. Increasing light does not alter the ability of the blind to see. “Getting Even” is the futile exercise of increasing light to cure blindness. You are a rare and precious treasure. If you bury a treasure it only survives in a single moment of memory. Give it to the world and the treasure you are will create its own environment of people who travel from everywhere to understand its beauty. You are a rare and precious treasure! You are not becoming anything; you are simply discovering what you already are. What you are, was meant to emerge slowly; quite simply because the world can’t handle all of you at one time. You are a gift God has given Himself. What He enjoys the most about you is the simple fact of who and what you are. Just be!
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