Thoughts on God preferring fruits of the spirit over religious nuts...

suffering outside the gate...

2009-12-30T16:39:00.010-07:00

I really have no idea where to start as I sit down this evening. Hahaha, instead of my blog being “God preferring fruits of the Spirit...” it could just as aptly be “dear diary...” I thought about it when I first started on what topics to write about. I could be writing about all kinds of things in this world, on Israel, on Politics, on the anti-christ being amongst us, on aliens, or whatever, but that seemed to me the easy stuff. Its right there in our faces. Yes we must stand by Israel, yes our country is in shambles politically, yes we are on the cusp of the anti christ bringing a wickedness this earth has never seen, yes there is any number of wicked spirits here with us right now in this fourth watch, yes a war is coming that will wipe out 1/3 of the earth. Its right there, its undeniable. All we have to do is turn on our televisions and it becomes immediately evident that the world is swiftly spiraling out of control. But how does that affect me here, in this little town up here in the blood of Christ mountains? Where do we start when dealing with such global disaray? I know that a day is coming and will be here soon that all of these topics will become a “do or die” situation. But at this moment I am sitting in my leather recliner on my macintosh drinking an un-believeably tasty glass of Brita filtered water referencing scripture from my Iphone! I could go to the my fridge and get anything out I want and if I don't have it I can go down to the local grocery store and get it. Its that simple, we are blessed beyond measure. I was pondering about my time in Africa and how sick to my stomach I was when I got home and saw how much these things are taken for granted. Oh how easy we forget. We have it sooooo good.

So when we peel off all those layers, what are we left to do? How do we each as individuals do our part in this global chaos? Well, its as easy “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.“ In the midst of all of the chaos in the first century when God Himself was walking this earth, I am sure He could have spent His time dealing with all of the chaos, but instead He was taking the time to stop and talk to an adulterous woman at a well, or telling a woman who was annointing his feet with oil “Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her.“ Jesus was more concerned with what was going on in our individual hearts, every sheep if you will, more than all the chaos in the world. And if I truly believe the Word of God, which I do, I believe that “the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.(eph 4:16). The WHOLE body, all of us, every last member of the body of Christ, affect each other. I know that if there are things going on in my life, struggles, etc... you can bet on it there are brothers and sisters out there struggling too. You ever see a finger try to pick a nose without a elbow or shoulder? Ever bruise your heel? I can promise you, the whole body suffers when your feet hurt. Stub your pinky toe and then come tell me that little parts arent important in the whole body. Its so easy to think of “the body” as some religious system outside ourselves, and to think that our own personal struggles aren't global, aren't “body issues” its time to wake up church!! We are all in this together, and if we are to be called member of the Body of Christ, we need to start acting like it. God has used the individual things and my own personal suffering to reveal the global sense of whats really going on in the Body. Its not just my life, its not just the people in Red River, it ALL of us. every one of us is beat up, bruised and attacked. We just all get a different flavor because we are different parts of the SAME body. Its what we signed up for. We have to count the cost of what it really means to be a disciple. We have to FULLY trust in Him to fit it all together. Jesus says in luke 14
Now large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate (by comparison of his love for me) his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? “Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.' “Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? “Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. “So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions. “Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? “It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.“

Jesus is not telling us to hate each other, He is telling us to count the cost. He is just letting us know what it really takes to get to know Him, and follow Him. I love how he compares it to construction work. He is giving us a clue as to what it really takes to be a body. We can build our own lives, we can get all of our ducks in order, our house our wives, our families, but He also asks, “are you willing to take it to the next level?” HE is the body, WE (the church) are His body. Are we willing to say that we love Him and all of His body more than we love those things closest to us? Are we truly willing to say that we are a part of His family before we are a part of our own? Are we truly willing to put the best interests of His family before our own? The cost is high, but amazing is the reward! When I asked myself these questions today, it really sank in about “taking up our crosses daily”. It seems so amazingly difficult and far fetched. It seems, with our human minds that “it doesn't apply to me”. Trust me, it does. If we truly don't want Jesus to say, “depart from me I never knew you” we must truly take heed to what He says about what it takes to “know” Him. The most amazing thing is that He GAVE us our families so that we can fully understand what He is saying here as a living example of what He does for us. In our own families we will do ANYTHING to protect them. As a father we would “empty the clip” if any intruder came in to try to harm them without question. We would huddle our families together when there is crisis to love and support each other. Its a no brainer, we just have apply that to the HIS family first and foremost if we wish to truly be a disciple. The fact of the matter is that if we promise to believe in the family of God and trust Him to be the father, He promises to give us all that same protection, and make our own families stronger beyond comprehension. He doesn't want us to suffer alone. He is just simply telling us that if we will be willing to love His family more than our own, HE can take it to the next level. He will finish our work, or “building” per se. Its not a curse to be willing to forsake, its an honor. He doesn't want the world to laugh at us, to come across the work of our own personal lives and say “nice slab of concrete you got there buddy”. He want us to trust Him to be the Father “from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” (eph 4 20-21) He knows we will do anything for our families, but he graciously asks us to step aside in faith and trust the Holy Father, the creator of Heaven and earth to submit even them to the greater, which is the Body of God, the Son of God, the group of salty earth haters He called to be the church. He is the head of that Body, and promises to make us all stronger than we can imagine if we just trust.

Having said all that, that is why I chose to write about the things that are going on in my life. I belong to the Body of the Lord and the only things I truly know in this world are Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and the only perspective I have is my own. So by knowing that the body is fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, I share my life with others in the body so that the pieces of my life that might overlap with yours will stimulate edification. Just as I love to listen to other believers walk because it edifies me. We struggle with each other because the truth of the matter is we are all wretches. The longer that we pretend that there is anything righteous in us, or about us but Him, the farther we will get from Him. We have to admit that we need each other. I need all of you. All of you are an amazingly unique representation of How much love God really is. How amazing of a creator He us to make us all so peculiar and unique. We are salt. We are crazy people by this worlds standard. To them its foolishness, but to us its POWER!!!

I will be a whack job for Jesus, I will gladly bear who I am being misunderstood by those who have been left in the dark because I had enough honor to bear it for Jesus. its a compliment now. Grace and peace to all of you in the name of Jesus, who will reconcile all things unto Himself.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

He leads me beside quiet waters...

2009-12-25T07:26:00.008-07:00

HE restores my soul....

Its always incredible when Joy is inexpressible, Isn't it! I don't even have words to describe my last few weeks, with this last week being the kicker. If you believers in Him don't believe that God still works miracles, feel free to email me and I will have a quite different perspective for you! After a week of fasting and fervent prayer, God turned bondage, attacks, and anxiety into tackle, tickle and rejoice. I really have no other way to describe it. After so many days of laboring in prayer, to feel the fruit is overwhelming. God does perform miracles. He does it however he sees fit physically, mentally, and most definitely spiritually. He absolutely honors our commitments, and our petitions to Him for the saints. I am speechless at His grace and His mercy. This blog will more than likely be stream of consciousness, because I am just a flat out fool for Jesus right now!

A couple of weeks ago the saints got together to pray for a miracle, and even though it didn't turn out as we believed, we still trained for war, as a friend of mine put it “with live rounds” and many different blessings poured out of that devotion. I know that none of our lives will be the same. I also know that the adversary was quite angry with the blows he received that week, causing LOTS of attack from the spiritual awakening that occurred.

that really sent me down a road I cant say I have been down before. Everything changed. The way I pray, and the way I ask have all been renewed since then. We must increase our asking for faith, and the bread of the Holy Spirit, we cant have enough! I also longed for the day that the body would come together for all warfare that way, with such devotion and fervor. That is who we are called to be as a family of believers and as warriors. Together as one mind and body unified Christ there is so much power it is unbelievable. God gave us all a glimpse of who we are to be, and I rejoice in that witness.

Well, that led to one of the most intense weeks I have had in a LONG time with attacks on myself, but also an endless stream of warnings in my heart. At one point friday I was riding in a truck with my friend Ronnie and he could sense my distress, it was so intense I don't even have the words. To the point he wanted to go visit some friends at the Lift House and I confessed that “there was just no way I could be around the anyone who wasn't a Christian right now” I knew the devil was on the prowl. I knew exactly where and what the warnings were, but I resisted them because I was trying to learn to repent of fear from the last time I had been given the same unmistakable groanings. I was so mad at disunity, I was so incredibly fed up with bondage that it just about took me out. I knew that when the Holy Spirit gives you such information you drop everything and fast and pray, you do whatever it takes to entreat God. I let the fear of loss squash what the Holy Spirit was giving me. God forgive me I knew better. It finally hit me so hard that I went to a friend and laid it out, there's danger and I cant do anything, you have to help me.... I had been feeling so judged for so long I let stupid self will and fear in letting the devil water down in me what I knew to be the will of God tugging at me to pay attention. I had made a commitment years ago that God was honoring, and I let fear of man stop me. Its kind of hard to explain. When we let doubt and fear in it becomes extremely hard to hear God. I was experiencing this something fierce. We have all experienced it, we are asking if we should do this or that, and something pops in to our head and we either agree or disagree or both for a split second thinking, was that me, or God? And how could this be when God tells us not to be double minded? He promised me that He was not a God of confusion, but a God of peace! I really had to know, I had let doubt in and I had let “rational” thought stop me where I had not let it in the past. I had questioned myself to the point where I didn't do anything. Ugghh... Saturday night was one for the books, I was in knots and so freaked out that I finally broke down. I knew that I had to give it to God, there was no choice, I had nothing left. so I did. I didn't see what happened next coming at all, I LOVE how HE works like that. Its incomprehensible. He changed my heart in amazing ways, He sat me down and I just poured it all out in sundays blog. He filled me with such love and understanding that it was pouring out of me. I knew that nothing mattered but His love in me, and Him manifesting His love through me. I that His will was to honor the commitments I had had made in my heart, with my mouth, and to the one I love. That is what mattered most to me, and I knew that was His will for me. No more bondage, I couldn't take it. Anything that keeps me from acting on what the Holy Spirit is giving must be tackled immediately. I didn't want to let it ever happen again. The most awesome thing about love is that its so much more powerful than anger or resentment...He affirmed to me that His grace and mercy is abundantly sufficient. Its the only path to walking in the light with Him. Its the ONLY place I want to be. He affirmed me in it, He grounded me in it, he filled me with it, and then the next day He tested me in it. When that happened immediately I felt His love just fill me till it overflowed, I couldn't hardly comprehend it. True love is from Him and I knew it instantly. God IS love and if we give ourselves to Him, He will show is just how amazing true love is. It doesn't perish, it doesn't fail, it doesn't ever stop enduring. Its definitely not an emotion but God honoring the commitment in our heart. I have never felt love so amazing or true. He is such an amazing God!!! So as the day progressed I knew I had to repent of disunity, I didn't know how, but I knew it was what I needed to do. He had shown me how to love that day and I knew that there was still much more to do. He had shown me His power that day, and I couldn't let the sun go down before I honored what God had put on my heart the night before. He had prepared me for it, albeit in an unexpected way that morning, but God is amazing that way. I had no idea the night before, when I had decided to go and talk to a dear brother about letting him know what was on my heart, the circumstances that would prelude that talk that day. I experienced James 1:2-4 up close and personal Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. WOW! Any doubts of God having His hand in my life at that moment were immediately unavailable. I am still in awe of how astonishing God truly is. A miracle of affirmation happened in my life that day, I didn't see it coming, but I am still rejoicing. God is still working and finishing this work, and I am honored to be a part of it. Hahaha, but after all of that we havnt even made it to monday! Phwew! So thus starts the waiting...

Not to digress, but lets fast forward into the future a few days. I set out on a journey. I had questions about how to know Gods will for my life, how to know when its His will for me to continue in a direction and be able to discern if its me or Him doing it. God has “spoken” to me in many ways in my life, and I guess I had just flew by the seat of my pants until I really thought about it. I had let doubt in and I wanted it gone. I wanted only faith back, I wanted to know if I was hearing Him or myself. Big questions, but nothing scripture doesn't promise us, (rom 12:1-2) right? He impressed it on my heart so I looked in to the matter. 14 hours later I am still sitting in my chair, just in overload of information. I need ten lifetimes to just scratch the surface! Just as I suspected...God is so amazingly awesome that He does what He wants. He strikes people down on roads to Damascus, He talks to people in burning bushes. He talks to us through affirmation, and He gives us promises of “all things working together for the good”. Hahahaha, you know how many scriptures deal with the will of God? ALL OF THEM!!!! He is more amazing to me than ever. I am glad I asked. I was overwhelmed. In all that, I did still come across some incredible gleanings. There is no set way that God speaks to us, He does so as He pleases. I don't think that there is any set formula either on how to go about it, but I did see a lot of wisdom in one method I came about during my research. they are four general approaches to discernment in decision making through God's Word. All of these principles are clearly under the rule that God will NEVER ask you to do ANYTHING that falls outside or doesn't line up with the written Word of God.

1. The Principle of OBEDIENCE: Where God commands, we must obey.
Some things are absolute in Gods Word. they are clearly outlined as Sin.

2. The Principle of FREEDOM: Where there is no command, God gives us freedom (and responsibility) to choose
There is freedom from all bondage in Christ. The yoke is easy. We give all anxiety to Him knowing that. He gives us freedom of choice. He doesn't command us what color shoes to put on each day, or what shirt to wear. We are not religious robots, but salt of the earth. He gives us free will to make our decisions as long as they do not fall outside the written word, He wants us to be free in Him.

3. The Principle of WISDOM: Where there is no command, God gives us wisdom to choose.
There is no secret section of the Bible that gives us direct answers to really hard decisions. He gives us His written word so that the more we read it, the more we know how God thinks, and we can start thinking like Him. We know from psalm 23 that “He leads us in paths of righteousness”, so from that we know that He ONLY wants us to, when we make big decisions, to chose paths that lead us closer to him, not this world. This life is like grass, time is way to short to cultivate futility. I know, I know, the world has some pretty shiny stuff out there, but if we want to know that the decision is what God wants from us we just ask ourselves, is it a path I think will lead me closer to Him, or does it lead more towards the fleshly indulgence side of things. He wants us to make tough decisions in life, its what life is about. Its what faith is about “the assurance of things hoped for, the Conviction of things not seen” We are supposed to be sheep who follow and trust the shepherd. They arent constantly told what to do, or even bridled. They just stick together willingly following the shepherd for protection and general guidance. he doesn't want us to be like the donkey or the horse with a bridle in our mouth having to be constantly directed. Psalm 32:9 He doesn't want us to be the guy who buried his talent out of fear. He trusts us to make our own wise decisions and invest in things that draw us nearer to Him. He doesn't want us to constantly live our lives wondering if we made the right decision or not. It makes us powerless. It cultivates fear and doubt. know that He loves us and trusts us to “walk uprightly”psalm 84:11. which ties in with the next principle

4. The Principle of HUMBLE TRUST: When we have chosen what is moral and wise, we must trust the sovereign God to work all the details together for good.
Once we have made a decision, we stick to it trusting in Him to work it out. I don't think this means stubborn beyond repair. But marriage for example. God hates divorce, it was a decision that was made from the heart, and God tells us HE will work it out when we have problems if we just humbly trust Him. He trusted us enough to chose a mate in accordance with his will, so WE must trust HIM by honoring that free will decision that He gave us to chose as we please.

Ahhh... sounds good, but what about adversity? Well, from reading ACTS I know that there is no general rule on open doors or closed doors, God works through them all. When the Apostles were told they were going to be killed if they went back to Jerusalem(obviously a closed door) but they went anyway and won souls. But there were also times they were winning souls (an open door) and were led to leave. We must trust in Gods soveregnity. We cannot forget the fact the Holy Spirit is IN US to guide us. its not an audible voice that says ZANE...DO THIS OR DO THAT... He puts things on our heart, and trusts us walk out our walk with fear and trembling. We have His written Word which IS Jesus. We don't need the bit or bridle, He put His Spirit in us, we just have to discern(which He also gave us) with the wisdom He gives us through His Spirit and Word, what will lead us closer to Him. And this is just scratching the surface.. like james says, if anyone lacks wisdom let him ask. God wants to reveal His will to us WAY more than we want to know it. Faith without works is dead, so we walk and trust in Him to sovereignly guide us. Here is a few more gleanings from a book by Strauss. He has some solid statements on discernment.

---We pray, “Lord, show me your will.” But he has already shown it to us in areas which we may have conveniently ignored. And we cannot discover the next step in his plan for our lives until we demonstrate our sincerity by obeying what we already know. The key to knowing the will of God is not only a decisive act of surrender, but also a daily life of obedience.
How can we be sure we really want to do God’s will? By doing what we already know to be his will! The more important question is not, “What does God want me to do with my future?” It is, “Am I living as God wants me to live today?” When we get today squared away, we can rest assured that God will guide us tomorrow.
It is when our hearts are tuned to the Word and our minds are filled with the Word, that we are best equipped to recognize God’s guidance. It works like this: As we learn more of the Word, we grow to think as God thinks, we learn to see things from his perspective. Our attitudes, our opinions, our goals, our ideals, and our values become more like his. When we face major decisions we are able to evaluate them with the mind of Christ rather than with the mind of the flesh. In many instances we will automatically know what God wants us to do, and doing what he desires will become our daily life style and normal habit pattern of living.
The Word of God is the indispensable key to the whole subject of divine guidance. Think back to what we have already learned. We saw that the Word has assured us that God has a plan for every detail of our lives, and that he wants to reveal it to us step by step. We saw that we get to know him and learn to trust him through the Word. We saw that our minds are renewed and our lives transformed by the Word, so that we can be prepared to discern and do his will. And now we learn that the directions themselves are found in the Word. G. Christian Weiss summed it up beautifully: “There can never be any guidance contrary to the Word; there will seldom be guidance apart from the Word. Divine guidance must either come through, or in perfect harmony with, the written Word of God. Anything else is not divine guidance.”
“Giving thanks always for all things unto God. eph 5:20

Yet we can be genuinely thankful in our hearts for tragedies such as that, knowing
that they are part of God’s perfect plan for our spiritual enrichment.

The first thing God wants each of them to do is to thank him genuinely and sincerely for the problem, and to thank him for another opportunity to grow spiritually and to learn more about his all-sufficient grace. That thankful spirit may be the very thing God will use to relieve the tension and make the situation more tolerable. Do you want to know God’s will for your life? It is that you give thanks always, in every situation, for everything.

Should we share our hurts, our struggles, and our weaknesses with other believers, or should we keep them to ourselves? Some of us feel that our reputation as Christians and our influence for Christ would be destroyed if anyone ever found out what we were really like on the inside. But the biblical principle establishing the church as the Body of Christ should help us see this issue from God’s viewpoint. “The body is a unit though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body.” “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it.”
How can we feel with one who is hurting if we do not know where he hurts? How can we support him before God’s throne of grace if we do not know where he needs support? How can we bear his burden with him if we do not know what his burden is? I am not suggesting that we broadcast all of our faults for everyone to know. But the practical outworking of this principle might demand a greater openness with one another than most of us have. The honest admission of our shortcomings to our closest Christian friends will be an encouragement to them. They will know that they are not the only ones with weaknesses. It will likewise be a blessing to us as they pray for us, encourage us, and check with us periodically on our progress. The proper application of this principle stimulates spiritual growth.
I’m afraid some Christians seek signs in an effort to relieve themselves of responsibility for their actions. “God didn’t do what I asked him to do, so he must not have wanted me to . . .” But God does not always accommodate himself to our unbelief, our lack of spiritual discernment, or our carnal demands. He will not let us turn our personal relationship with him into a mechanical operation in which we punch buttons, pull levers, and get a readout of his will. He wants us to walk in fellowship with him, get to know him intimately, and then trust him implicitly to guide us by whatever means he chooses.

Maybe because we talk about finding God’s will they get the idea that it is lost or hidden, or that God is playing some kind of heavenly hide-and-seek game.
God’s plan for our lives is much too important for that kind of foolishness. He does not take pleasure in making things difficult for us. He wants to show us his will far more than we want to know it. If we have not yet discovered what it is, it has to be our fault, not his. Finding God’s will is not a matter of frantically searching for something hidden. It is following the divine Shepherd, and there is nothing mysterious about that.

Well, I know, that was a long digression, but that was my monday and I really just scratched the surface, God is so wonderfully real and right here with us and in us. I was grateful that I could ask Him, the creator of Heaven and earth, all of the questions I had and He took time out of His unfathomably busy day to sit with me for a day in class taking me through some of these things. My homework assignment was a lifetime more of study to get to know Him better so that when I see Him as He is He knows me.

Knowing that our walks are a daily battle, we get to tuesday. Tuesday was day two of fasting and praying and it got crazy for me. I mentioned at the first mile of this blog that God had even changed the way I pray, well even knowing that, I was in no way prepared for that night. It pretty much ran the gamut from solemnness, to crying out, to praying in the Spirit in all shapes and forms, Hahahaha, I even burst out in to song a few times. At least my neighbor across the hall has known me since high school, so theres no surprises there! It was a wonderful night spent with God.
Wednesday I had the joy of an 8 hour drive through Colorado and it was such a wonderful trip. I just put on praise music for a while worshipping and then I sat in silence while I reflected on how wonderful God is and how grateful I was for working so diligently on our lives. Thanking Him for the trials that He blesses us with to give us the choice to choose Him and not this world. When I got home that evening I got an answer, and I nearly jumped for Joy. Wow! FREEDOM!!!! Hahahaha, It came in the form of waiting on the Lord, which is something I have become gratefully fond in my life. He has affirmed in me one portion of what I am sure will be a lifetime of affirmation and revelation of love from Him. He has upheld in me that the path I seek leads me to righteousness, It cultivates it in me everyday and that's all I need to know its His will. I am not afraid of feelings I might have in the future. I know that He will prepare me beforehand for any obstacle that comes my way because I trust Him to make it all work out for the good, so it doesn't matter anymore, the devil has no power over us when we trust in HIM who holds us to guide us and lead us every step of the way.

this is only the tip of the iceberg of these past few weeks, the rest I reserve to tell my best friend whom I have never trusted, loved, missed or am honored to know more than I do today. The best friend I will surely tackle, tickle and rejoice with the next time I see them. The most awesome part about love between believers is its not emotion when you see them, its devotion. Just as it says when Jacob worked seven years to have his darling Racheal, it seemed to him as a few days. God has put more love than I can even fathom through all of this in me. I am humbled and grateful to know and belong to such a powerful God. A God that is so powerful but yet loving enough to nail ALL sin to a rugged cross. So I gratefully continue to wait. Rejoicing that all bondage and pressure is finally gone and the blessing is there. Watching Gods incredible plan unfold before my eyes because I know He is in it, in me, in all of us that belong to Him. Grace and peace in our Lord to all who followed with me through every mile of this blog...

on Unity

2009-12-20T02:36:00.006-07:00

"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brothers to dwell together in unity!"(psalm 133:1). I have been longing lately to see unity restored in the Body so much these last few months I figured I needed to write about it. It means so much to me as a believer (as it should us all) that I find myself groaning for it. I have been orphaned twice in my life, once at birth (I was blessed enough to be adopted) and then again in my early twenties when my folks both went to be with YHWH. I only preface with that to drive home the point that the Body of Christ which is the church IS my family. God has blessed me with a real life view of what it means to be an “adopted son” (rom 8:15) in the Lord.

I was talking with a friend today about how when Jesus was speaking on the sabbath in matt 12, and His disciples came to Him and said that His mother and brothers were outside wishing to speak with Him, He replied “who is my mother and who are my brothers?... For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother.” We are talking about Mary here...the woman who immaculately conceived the Son of God (who is God), and He makes it a point to let His disciples know that we who believe ARE family and we are called to be unified in this manner, no if and or buts! We are part of an imperishable kingdom and “any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste”(matt 12:25). I tried a search of how many “denominations” there are in the world today and it turned up anywhere from 34,000 to 40,000!!! Makes me want to puke!! The fact that the very word denomination literally means division aught to say something about the state of things.

So what is the answer? Well, I don't have any clue how to get “churchianity” to stand on the Rock, but I do know that everything we do as believers starts right in our own hearts. I think of the modern church today as a similar form of the ancient Israelite form of temple worship. I know it had to have been a good party. The priests come out all decked out in their robes and shiny ephods and a mighty worship team, or chorus per se, and THEY gave the sacrifice for the body. THEY gave the atonement while the people sat back and joyfully shouted. There was a BBQ (animal sacrifice), reading from the Law and quite a show I am sure. Kind of an outward/inward flow of worship.

Now things are a little different, when our Lord nailed our sins to the cross everything changed. Instead of going to the temple in Jerusalem, our bodies became the Temple of the Holy Spirit (1 cor 6:19) and WE became a kingdom of priests (rev 1:6). We now “speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody WITH YOUR HEART to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even to the Father; and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.” (eph 5:19) Worship took a 180 and flows now from the inside/outside. worship no longer is merely entertainment, but a gathering of Holy Spirit temples coming together to devote ourselves to the teaching of YHWH while breaking bread to remember the body and blood of the Lord (acts 2:42). We are to be unified in the devotion to God first and His family which is the church. We are to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being DILIGENT to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.” (eph 4:1-7)

We are shown again in col 3:12-17 “as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.”

Christ is the head of the church....period. At some point religion let the leaven of the Pharisees in which is hypocrisy and we started ranking ourselves in righteousness when none of us are worthy(rom 3:23), and that is made abundantly clear in my life daily. We make mistakes all the time and repent and turn, learning loving and moving on as a unified Body of mercy. We love each other and “remember no wrong suffering”(1 cor 13:5) because we are unified in the fact we all make mistakes. “Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus” (phil 2:1-5)

We are to become like Christ and empty ourselves out, not pretending that there is a “justice league” of super christians that are more righteous than others. A friend reminded me of that today when Jesus refers to the churches in Revelation, that the ones who thought they were doing the best were in actuality doing the worst. The ones who thought that they were doing the worst because of their poverty and affliction were rich. we are to “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” (eph 4:31). We have to be VERY careful to not let the spirit of the accuser into our lives. We must have the spirit as the apostles did in the upper room. When jesus said “tonight one of you will betray me” the apostles replied, “is it I?” They did not immediately start pointing fingers saying “its definitely peter, or James!!” No, they realized that we are all capable of doing things to Jesus even though we don't even want to. We have no reason to accuse each other of anything, the devil is more than enough, as a matter of fact that is his nature. “”Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night.” (rev 12:10) He spends day and night accusing us, so must constantly be in check when we accuse each other. Christ made us “alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” Nailed it to the cross!!!!! I LOVE IT!!!! PRAISE GOD!!! Our sins are forgiven, PERIOD!!! No room for opinions, or worldly thinking. If that was the case, Paul could have never been an apostle. If it were today, religion would be saying, “well, we have to see if you don't kill any christians for a while first”, and stood as his judge. May it never be!!! They would have told peter “well, you denied Jesus a few times, as we all read, so we have to see if you are over that first”. AHHHH!!!! If we belong to the Lord we are vessels of MERCY!!! Only in the case of un-repentance is dis-fellowship an option, other than that we all agree, ITS NAILED TO THE CROSS!!! BY HIS STRIPES WE WERE HEALED!!!!! WOOOOOOOO HOOOOO!!!!! Dont forget it, write it down, tie a string around your finger if you have to, remember that the devil does enough accusing for all of the brethren and uses it to take unity from us. More forgiveness can be found in a bar in todays day and age than in the church and it HAS TO STOP!!!! They will know we are christians because of our LOVE FOR ONE ANOTHER!!! We are at war, and if we want to be overcomers and do things like pray for miracles we have to be UNIFIED. Even if its a hard pill to swallow sometimes, its not about us, but about HIM. HIS way not our way. If anyone is born of the water and Spirit and baptized in the name of Jesus, calling on His name they are a part of the Body. Like paul says “who are you to judge the servant of another? To His own master he stands or falls; and he WILL stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand” (rom 14:4).

We are to be fruit inspectors in the church (1 cor 5:12), but it is to keep the body healthy, and other than the context of un-repentance, we deal with sin promptly, forgive and move on. How can we even dream of throwing anything on the alter and expect an answer if we have problems with one another, don't forgive and don't reconcile it to Him? “”Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.” (matt 5:23-24) This scripture is really speaking to me in my own life right now, Lord give me the strength.

Be patient with one another, church don't act as accusers of each other, but put on love fighting to stimulate one another to love and good deeds (Heb 10:24). Like James says “Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains. You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door.” (Jas 5:7-9). We are not capable of being God and acting as if we are the authority on heart conditions. We pray for each other, we love each other, we bear one anothers burdens and think of others as more important than ourselves. We are patient and trust in God to bring rain in His timing. That is who we are as the body, that is unity, it the spirit of love not the spirit of the accuser we are to have. The good news of the gospel is that God forgives even when we forget and put our own opinions of each other over His opinion of us. We all have the tendency of being like Jonah from time to time. Upset when God forgives, and for some reason feeling as if we have the right to believe that God nailed ALL sin to the cross to those who repent and believe in Him. I love the fact that God uses something as simple as a plant to illustrate “So the LORD God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered. When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah's head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, “Death is better to me than life.“ Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?“ And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.“ Then the LORD said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. “Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?“

God knows that we have a hard time with forgiveness sometimes, but He IS love. We cant even comprehend it without Him, its impossible. But knowing Him we just forgive and trust in Him to make each other stand. un-forgiveness is a great enemy that is not to be taken lightly. GOD hands us over to the torturers! Read matt 28:21-35 if you have forgotten. This is in the context of Brothers, and it really puts the fear of God in me. None of us are immune to this parable, it is something that all of us as believers need to read OFTEN to remember that God isnt fooling around when it comes to forgiveness. It must be FROM THE HEART.

Its time for the body of Christ to be who we are called to be. I will be the first so admit that I have been wrong, and I have done many things in my life that have caused disunity, but that is the beauty of the Gospel of Jesus christ. We live our lives from day to day and we are given a daily opportunity to repent, forgive and feel the love pour in, being better people than we were yesterday. like jonathan swift said “A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying...that he is wiser today than yesterday.”

Lets be the people we are called to be, lets take the light yoke that is promised through Jesus Christ and not wasting our time letting the spirit of the accuser have any hold in us any longer. we cannot be afraid to admit when we are wrong, thinking that it somehow lessens our spiritual credibility. That is such a prideful stance that all of us have been guilty of, and it is not credible. We all fall ridiculously short of the Glory of God and its only HIM in us that justifies us and it is a debt to sin that was PAID IN FULL. God is perfecting us daily, and we will spend our whole lives fighting daily to die to ourselves and the bad news is that none of us will obtain it till this race is over(1 john 3:2) the good news is that if we but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.” So lets walk in the light, and have some fellowship letting that precious blood wash us clean. No more plank eye, please. I admit I am a sinner, but I also confess that Jesus Christ IS God and walked in the flesh, conquering ALL sin on my behalf, and my election is true. Dont forget, He LOVES YOU TOO!!!!

Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus Christ.

This world is NOT my home...

2009-12-03T23:18:00.003-07:00

As I am sitting here after drinking way to much coffee, and stuffed to my gills with sushi, I cant help but to be introspective. How could I, an unworthy meat vessel, be so blessed in a time of absolute chaos?? What an incredible mixture this life is! With doses of emotion, service and insanity all mixed up with the root of belonging to the God of heaven and earth. Even with a gullet of fresh fish still feel the urgency of remembering that we are at the cusp of one of the most deceptive and destructive times this tiny blue ball traveling at 1118.4 miles an hour through space has ever seen(matt 24:21). This week has been flat out disturbing with its synchronicity. I have been in Daniel chapters 7-11, and 1 John. The thing about it is that I am not alone in this, from radio broadcasts, to just talking about YHWH with other believers, it is comes up over, and over and over and over again that time is short. We must all as followers of of the Son of God, who IS God and walked in the flesh, be unified and absolutely unfailing in our love for one another. This crazy world HAS to know us by this standard, it is a COMMANDMENT from our KING (1 John 3:23-4) Even when other brothers and sisters don't show us love, or or only pay lip service to the fact they do, it CAN NOT stop us from loving them, as a matter of fact we must love them even more! Love NEVER fails! I just want to shout it out! Hallelujah! We are blessed with such a gift as being a part of the body of the Son of God. Right now the condition of our hearts is CRITICAL. The best definition I ever heard for Agape (which is the Greek word for the type of love we are to have for one another) is "to will the well being of the whole being of the other being" Its not about us, its about caring about others even to the extent of having no concern whatsoever if they love us back, its not about that AT ALL! That is EROS. Eros is "you scratch my back and ill scratch yours" Its all fun and games till someone stops scratching. Suddenly both parties are sitting around complaining about how no one loves them. Its not about reciprocation at all. If we want to be "conformed to the image of the Son" its unconditional. Period. There is no "but they said..." "or but they did...." He loved us till death... even death on a cross... if we want to be a part of the Body of the Son of God we must act in this manner. So get out there and give someone a hug and let them know know you love them, even if it is just a neighbor. It is WAY easy to love someone that loves you back, so give it a try on someone who doesn't... give it a try, want nothing in return! Speak those words and mean them...I LOVE YOU! It is a gift to be able to tell someone you love them, trust me.. Right now I cant tell the woman I love how amazing and wonderful and a treasure she is to me, so I just tell God how much I love her. He is the one who gave me that gift in the first place, so I have found joy in thanking Him for her. Remember....Love NEVER fails... Its a gift, an honor, and a mark of designation to those who are written in the Lambs book of Life. So go out and be unconditional, give it a try! Lay down all the distractions this life has to offer and remember why we are here.. to "love God and keep His commandments" Just relax and be a vessel of mercy and forgiveness it is our calling. When the Son of God comes back it is not going to be in reference to sin, He paid that price IN FULL. We have already been redeemed...done deal... He is coming back with reference to SALVATION(heb 9:28)! Isn't it great!!!! remember "do not judge so that YOU WILL NOT BE JUDGED. for in the way you judge you WILL BE JUDGED; and you YOUR standard of measure, it will be measured to YOU"(matt 7:1-2 WOW!!! Isnt God amazing! He loves us SO much as to give us the option of how severe our judgment will be! Consider the mercy and honor that conveys to all of us unfit sinners. I recommend you dont carry around with you a measuring device of any kind, life is so much more fulfilling if the yoke of judgment is where it belongs...with the King of Kings. He can handle it and can see into the depths of our hearts, conforming us to the image of His Son because he loves us. We will get our turn in the judgment seat when we judge the angels(1 cor 8:3) after this world runs its course. Until then our struggle is not against flesh and blood, we are to be fruit inspectors within the Body, keeping the leaven of the pharisees out which is hypocrisy. We ALL fall short, we ALL do things that are wrong, but that is the reason we increase in our Love for one another, because without Him we are nothing. Without His blood we cannot be washed. ALL have sinned and fall short, it is our common bond, there are no degrees of sin, we all have differing flavors of unrighteousness in us and that is why HE is our righteousness!!! Christ IN us is all we can cling to in this flesh. By even calling another brother "good for nothing" or "foolish" or even being angry with them is equated to murder by our Lord(matt 5:22)! AHHHHHHH!!!! I want no part of it!!! Love, people, LOVE!!! Forgive, people, forgive!!! Be washed in the blood and trust in the propitiation of Jesus Christ. Be examples of Love and Mercy towards one another. Let go of the false sense of control our flesh tries to deceive us into thinking we have. We are not God that we have control of anything, we must give it all to Him and know that He is a mighty God, creator of Heaven and earth. Take off the yoke and give it to Him where it belongs. Give your brothers and sisters the free will that God has given you by letting the Holy Spirit guide their lives. He loves us enough to give us the "perfect law of Liberty" (james 1:25), love each other enough to give them the power of that liberty, to make their own mistakes. Trust and have faith in the Living God to know that He is with them too, guiding them in every step. Time is short in this world, the end is right at the door. Allow each brother and sister to be free from human control, to experience the burdensome free love of Christ so that we can concentrate on the task at hand.. Loving God, preparing our hearts and minds for the return of our Lord and Savior. Being negative towards one another does not plant seeds of righteousness. Guilt is NOT a fruit of the Spirit. None of us are righteous, I am the first to admit that. God made Him who had no sin to become sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 cor 5:21). We have to stop picking each other apart by being so negative towards our Family, the Body of Christ and instead encouraging one another in Him more and more day by day even more so as we see the day drawing near (heb 10:25) We must have unity! We must fight to lay aside our differences and lock shields for the daily battle. We have to love and trust in God. Give each other freedom as we have been given freedom. I love you all, Have a wonderful day in the Lord.

1 cor 13

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails

On endurance...

2009-11-28T15:16:00.003-07:00

“Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds...” Heb 10:22-24. What a calling we have. We are given authority to draw near to our God if we have sincere hearts! Are our hearts capable of such glory? It is if we are cleansed of an evil conscience and we are born of the water and spirit. The writer continues in verse 35 “...do not throw away your confidence, which has a GREAT reward. for you have need of ENDURANCE, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. for yet in a little while, He who is coming will come, and not delay. but My righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him. but we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul. Now faith is the ASSURANCE of things hoped for, the CONVICTION of things not seen.”
Hail Him who saves us by His grace!!! Oh that I could remember these words daily! In a world full of every temptation and outlet of flesh, we must remember to hold fast to endurance. I have fallen short of almost every aspect of these stimulations because it is so easy to forget our assurance. God has established for us a marvelous path in Hope in His promises, but we all get so caught up in our own failings. That is not our glory my brothers and sisters. Forgiveness is absolute, and we must not forget He has become failings on our behalf so that we do not have to bear such thoughts. We all fall short in every way, and our meat vessels are corrupt in every way, so where does this leave us? “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet appeared as yet what we will be We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.
You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous” 1 John 3: 2-7. We will not know what we will be till He appears. We must PRACTICE righteousness! If any of you have ever practiced anything, you know that we usually stink pretty bad at it, but that is the nature of practicing. If it where not for the grace He gives us we would all (especially myself) have been struck by lightening convulsing where we lay, but that is why we ENDURE!! KEEP RUNNING!!! We must all strive to be ambassadors, and vessels of mercy because we were all shown more than abundant MERCY. Look to the ROCK in which you were hewn!! The Church today seems to be trying to find a comfortable “church home” today, and all seem to forget that “the church comes to the building” , not the church “finds its home in the building”. May we never hinder the power of God to Sundays and Wednesdays! We must not “forsake our own assembling together” Heb 10:25, for we need each other as the body of Jesus the messiah which spans time and is not limited to buildings on certain days. Our everyday lives must be filled with practicing things of righteousness regardless of how much we fail at it. In the same way there is a HUGE difference between practicing sin and falling to it. We all fall, but we must never stop ENDURING. Love each other and bear one another's burdens with absolute sincerity for it is the way of the people of God, and absolutely foreign to the world. We have to love each other, forgive and have mercy towards each other so that our lights can be seen and not hindered. Remember “faith is the ASSURANCE of things hoped for, the CONVICTION of things not seen.” I have failed all of you at some point, and most of you have seen me at my worst, weakest points and you all know I am not a religious person at all, and dont even pretend to be righteous, but I do love Jesus who is God and walked in the flesh amongst us. So I trust that all my failings, as all of our failings will, manifest good in Him if we endure and BELIEVE in Him who became sin on our behalf. so that is my encouragement to you all... KEEP RUNNING!!!