The new Creation (that's you!) -
In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Like a branch grafted into the tree of Life are you. That tree that stood in the garden, the tree of life. You are a new creation, given a new life and the old man is dead having been nailed to that cross with Jesus, sin being the old man. You have truly been crucified with Christ. This is not a new concept, this is the message. We need to always seek the testimony of Jesus, anything else is knowledge of good and evil. Again, no new concept, but one we still desperately need. The knowledge of good and evil was the curse, you have been brought back from the dead to the very beginning with Him, since He is seated at the right Hand of the Father on High and we have been made to sit with Him. You, in this very moment though you still see the physical world around you, you are seated with Him, belief is the key to accessing the reality of that, should you stumble because of disbelief He will lift you up. Your sins have been atoned for, the only thing left hanging on that cross are dead works and dead sins, He resurrected unto life eternal, once again I should say His Crucifixion meant nothing unless He rose again. You are brought back to a time before there was ever sin, that is the true nature of atonement.
In America we have replaced the notion of total dependence on Jesus with this ideology "I can do all things" replace the words "through Christ Who strengthens me" with this "through my own will power, strength, education, etc". I am not attacking education, or will power or anything of the sort, I am simply stating that even the very educated are lead astray by sins, and there is no amount of studying, reading, credentials, certifications, or worldly authority that can remove sin from your life, only through Jesus are we made whole. You might not like to think of cavities, you might hate the idea if you have one in your tooth and think it as shameful or embarrassing, but what about your spirit? Your inner man is rotting away with your flesh because sin causes cavities and damage to your life, knowledge of good and evil leads to both good an evil. This is why a drug addict, who snort heroin will say "I am still a good person, at least I don't inject it", what is the sense in that? Even though "common sense" says you can get aids from a dirty needle, it seems to disregard the part about the impact of the use of heroin on your body. How is illicit sex, or lying, or fear any different? Thought they seem to be "lesser evils" we seem to be left with only one choice in the world of common sense that is the lesser of two evils. We weigh consequences, and not the effects. We only think of ourselves in the world, and not the others. We justify this by saying "of course I care what others think of me", this does not equate to selflessness.
The mentality of total, intimate dependence on an "unseen deity" is foreign and frightening to the self sufficient, why would we need dependence? Do we not understand that the only way to true dependence is through the source of it? It is to depend on the source of independence that we will find it, and live in it. This is not a religion, this isn't even just a way of life, this is total dependence, intimate and deep.
Recovery -
The goal of recovery programs should be to get free, as completely and totally as possible, and effectively as deliverance through Jesus. The doors should be shut as effectively as possible, not because of lack of funding or lack of support or mistakes made within how you handle business, but because of absence of the problem. There should be a famine of addiction if you have done your job, there should be no stone left unturned in the pursuit of total freedom in your life. God has given us this freedom through Jesus Christ, the world sees this as a repeated thing and can not understand the magnitude of that statement - Through Jesus.
When the government is aware and supportive of addiction, then even a sponsored program would be "more control" because we see the mentality of the drug addict as one who lives off of measured doses and can control the appetite through dispersion of medications, and certain levels of use are allowed. There is no real liberty in this equation, it is the person who gets off a certain drug and then begins to drink massive quantities of coffee, or drink, or eat too much, an outlet for the still rotting cavity with the soul. The government can not met out the Spirit of the Living God, they can, although, put sanctions on how we feed the homeless, and next will try to say that we can not speak in public spaces without a certain permit, and already have done so suppressing free speech and freedom of religion, the truth is, we do not need "free religion", we need free Jesus. If we would start dispensing the truth about Him in our recovery centers, and not the truth disguised in pamphlets and curriculum, but walking as disciples of Christ, showing preference to one another and not preference to the amount of potential money we could make, then there would be true freedom. You can not say America is a Christian nation, when a "Christian charity" organization charges $1200 a week for help. And the results are only a 15% success rate! That is atrocious, we need to see that Jesus is the only answer, not some leader or pastor who disguises himself as Christ to prey on the hurting and poor, they are the worst of the lot. But to really rely on Jesus with each other, and to sit at His feet with one another, that is the way we will see true freedom reign in this nation, not through government sanctions and government control. If we would show preference to one another, we would be of one mind and one accord.
Common sense vs. Kingdom sense -
Believers struggle so often with many emotional and physical difficulties, being torn between one world and another. If common sense is not so common, how much less is Kingdom sense? How many protesters on the streets and sign holders do we see preaching the kingdom? Or is it a program they have or a book they need to sell. The world sees it this way "you will never get better, but with this drug/therapy/program, you can manage it", and the church "you can never get righteous but with this prayer cloth/program/ counseling/dating site/seminar, you can manage it. We are selling our wares and denying the Spirit of God. The kingdom of God says "be healed, go your way, you will never be under bondage to this thing again and you will not be brought under the power of anything except that which comes from the Spirit of the Living God", the world says "you can never be free of it" the kingdom says "you are free to be rid of it".
No wonder commons sense is not so common. Common sense preaching, and not practical application are more common and less sense. It sounds good and attainable, it is the watering down of the word to conform to the belief structure of the common world system. Christians struggle with conviction and fear and doubt, fence straddlers, backsliders, they live under fear because on the one hand they are being told "you can not attain it" and on the other "you are not good enough", where is the liberty in this? Do you not see that love of the world is animosity towards God? But what is this "love of the world", obviously the more ominous things are pornography, drugs, perversion, and maybe even movies music or drugs, but the more seductive, more dangerous habit of the Christian is to bring each other to court before unbelievers. When I say this, I mean you have been asking advice of worldly people, what seems to be common sense and the right decisions "no brainer" decisions you might call them, but in the end you face calamity and strife. In this way even the church has denied the Spirit of God, for the Spirit searches the deep things of God even "make friends of yourselves with unrighteous mammon", sin distorts this into "make money" the spirit clarifies by saying "be kind to your neighbor" common sense says that the same, but Kingdom sense says "bless and do not curse". Being kind to your neighbor is not just kindness as of watching the dog while they are out of town, it is more than that. It is blessing them, because when you show love to your neighbor you love Jesus, because Jesus is in their house, no matter what your appearance of them may be, do you not know that "God dwells in the thick darkness"? If God is in the thick darkness, and your neighbor is a sinner, then God is ever the more close to you and them, because He loves them and wants to see them set free.
More to come
Thursday, September 13, 2012
A Dance to the Promised Land - Part 2
In 1 Kings 17 Elijah showed an extreme diligence to the word of God. First by the brook , then by the Lord's provision by the widow. Elijah's "ministry became to the widow after he was ministered to by the ravens by the brook. You have been given faith, which must be worked out with all diligence. The first step is virtue, which is valor or intrinsic excellence. This valor is the same valor that is in Jesus. The widow means a desolate place, or a desolate house. - This is paralleled in our current age, we are becoming a desolate house. A house that has turned it's back on God, so we are seeing great famine in the land, and our wealth is drying into the dust, but "the wealth of the wicked are laid up for the righteous", even though we have been "widowed" the Lord will not leave us orphans, He has not left us without an inheritance, even though the world's economy closes, the fountains of heaven are always open to those who are open to what God is doing, to those who fear His name. We have a source of living water that even when there is famine in the Land, God sent His sent and then poured out His Spirit on all flesh that we might live long and prosperous in the Land God gave us. Even bread made from flour and oil is prosperous in a land that has drank itself to death, when all the meat is gone and there is nothing left in the storehouses, cakes will sustain you. Manna was plentiful when there was nothing else to eat.
We can not look at "our ministries" as a responsibility, that is just one sided. When we go out and do the Lord's business, we are not just helping the poor, the needy or the directionless, we are being helped by them. The church has been in a great famine, fancy sermons are like wine that betrays us. They sound really good and feel really good at the time, but at the end of the day, why are we going? Are we craving the sermon? Are we craving the crowd around us as if we were at the football game? No wonder some pastors have resorted to football speak when they should be focused on Jesus speak. Our lives are about bread and games, until it all comes apart. Now we are seemingly widowed and alone, without food or water, collecting sticks that we may go and die. But what kind of bride will we prove to be? Are we busy collecting sticks as Martha was busy cleaning the kitchen? I want to sit at His feet, and drink from the cup from His hand, I want to poor out my tears on His feet and even in a time of famine when I could sell all I own to earn a quick buck, I would rather poor it our on Him. I would rather give my all to the One Who gave it all for me, so that I might not be found a Martha, to busy to believe the word spoken to me "Go and bake me a cake, so that I might eat and then you and your son will have an abundance", I want to be Mary, pouring out my finest oil, kneeling down by His feet, giving the bread of my body to be part of His body. I want to give my all.
But, let's check our motives in ministry, is it a "Martha motive" or a "Mary motive", are we trying to appeal to the religious? The ones who are doing good deeds to be recognized? The ones who look good on camera but inside are hollow shells of people, busy cleaning house? Let our motives be pure before Him, and then let us consider that the ones we thought we were helping, were really the ones saving us.
We can not look at "our ministries" as a responsibility, that is just one sided. When we go out and do the Lord's business, we are not just helping the poor, the needy or the directionless, we are being helped by them. The church has been in a great famine, fancy sermons are like wine that betrays us. They sound really good and feel really good at the time, but at the end of the day, why are we going? Are we craving the sermon? Are we craving the crowd around us as if we were at the football game? No wonder some pastors have resorted to football speak when they should be focused on Jesus speak. Our lives are about bread and games, until it all comes apart. Now we are seemingly widowed and alone, without food or water, collecting sticks that we may go and die. But what kind of bride will we prove to be? Are we busy collecting sticks as Martha was busy cleaning the kitchen? I want to sit at His feet, and drink from the cup from His hand, I want to poor out my tears on His feet and even in a time of famine when I could sell all I own to earn a quick buck, I would rather poor it our on Him. I would rather give my all to the One Who gave it all for me, so that I might not be found a Martha, to busy to believe the word spoken to me "Go and bake me a cake, so that I might eat and then you and your son will have an abundance", I want to be Mary, pouring out my finest oil, kneeling down by His feet, giving the bread of my body to be part of His body. I want to give my all.
But, let's check our motives in ministry, is it a "Martha motive" or a "Mary motive", are we trying to appeal to the religious? The ones who are doing good deeds to be recognized? The ones who look good on camera but inside are hollow shells of people, busy cleaning house? Let our motives be pure before Him, and then let us consider that the ones we thought we were helping, were really the ones saving us.
A Dance to the Promised Land - Part 1
Introduction -
I do not want to say that this will be easy to write out, as while I was writing this I was completely in the Spirit, and He moves very fast. Grammar and proper English should not be your considerations,only try to hear the heart of what the Spirit has to say, because if we only see things on the surface then we are superficial, and if you only see things on the surface, you are a superficial Christian who has no depth, and I would question whether or not the Spirit of the Living God dwells within you for "the Spirit searches the deep things of God".
I am not deep. I am not highly educated in proper writing techniques and in what is right and wrong, so this has been a struggle for me to write and only now, after years of writing am I releasing any of this. At first I thought I might sell this as a book, or maybe wait until I am dead to release any of this, but I feel the Spirit wants to say things, things even I do not understand. I wish I could say this came from me, but the only things I can take credit for are spelling errors, bad grammar, and run on sentences. So, if that is all you see, then move on, don't read this. I don't want you to. I do not want a shallow believer to try to shove the deep things of God into a shallow grave and then bury it deep in the ground because what he or she is truly ashamed of is their own person, being cold for the Spirit and lukewarm to salvation. I will not spew you out, in face, I do not wish to be spewed out of His mouth myself, but I will tell you that you should let your light shine.
Letting your light shine does not mean "Stand on a corner holding a sign that says ' God hates fags'", it means that you shine just as you are when you are first called into His glory, not just salvation and Jesus as Saviour, but Him as LORD. Take your bushel, and burn it if you must so that you may shine brightly for a time and the world might be changed in this present darkness. Take your clothes and sell them too, buy gasoline with the money and matches and light the dead trees in your life on fire, if it is not Spirit breathed, it is dead.
With that being said, I will ask the reader, be it on or many to have patience with me, and ask that the Holy Spirit open your eyes to what HE wants to say, always bearing in mind that none of this came to me through any means of my own, all I did was try my best to write down with ink on paper what He was saying to me. I feel a sense of expectancy, if I had said urgency then it would be my own emotions, and these words would profit you nothing. But in this expectancy I feel a peeling away of the layers of skin and flesh, the rotten things of this present world system. The greed and corruption therein are redeemable, what is worse than that are the "good Christians" denying the Holy One, choosing rather to serve Him in their own constraints, as if these chains were placed on us by Him. His chain is to free us, the weight of it the realization that your life is not your own, and the burning of it the denial of self to follow Him, it is the constant denial of imprisonment. You are not a slave, even if you think yourself to be one, although you may attain to a set structure of ideals and beliefs, you might be the most clean pig in the pen, but pearls should still not be cast before swine. I do not believe if you have read this far, you are swine. You are called of God for great works, and I must say to you, I repent of my bushel. I have hid these things for too long. I have said "no one will read it" or "they will judge my grammar or spelling", I have let trivialities stand in the way of what God wants to do, and for that I am really sorry and hope that these words will still be exactly what this generation needs to hear, and in saying that I understand the weight of it, I still question His sovereignty. These are not the words of an educated Scholar, as far as I know the Holy Spirit never went to college, He just is and was and is to come. So many works, done by the Hands of a know-it-all God Who has every right to have that kind of attitude, yet chooses mercy, and grace. Such a magnificent creator, wouldn't you say?
Only one thing I ask of you, since this burden is my own, I do not ask that you should pray for me, I ask that you should pray for yourself, that you would gain your own understanding and that you would take this as a code and continue on in your own pursuits, in fact I give this to my generation, knowing that they will come in like a flood and do things bigger, better, and faster than I will. I do not mind, and I can not say that I am the first, for I am not, He is the first, He is the Last and He is the ever present Help in times of trouble.
Now that I have written out this lengthy introduction, and pushed past this fear:
Without further adieu I present to you
"A Dance To the Promised Land"
(wish I could say by W. L. Thuman)
But honestly, proper credits go to
H. Spirit
*More to follow....check back often for updates.
I do not want to say that this will be easy to write out, as while I was writing this I was completely in the Spirit, and He moves very fast. Grammar and proper English should not be your considerations,only try to hear the heart of what the Spirit has to say, because if we only see things on the surface then we are superficial, and if you only see things on the surface, you are a superficial Christian who has no depth, and I would question whether or not the Spirit of the Living God dwells within you for "the Spirit searches the deep things of God".
I am not deep. I am not highly educated in proper writing techniques and in what is right and wrong, so this has been a struggle for me to write and only now, after years of writing am I releasing any of this. At first I thought I might sell this as a book, or maybe wait until I am dead to release any of this, but I feel the Spirit wants to say things, things even I do not understand. I wish I could say this came from me, but the only things I can take credit for are spelling errors, bad grammar, and run on sentences. So, if that is all you see, then move on, don't read this. I don't want you to. I do not want a shallow believer to try to shove the deep things of God into a shallow grave and then bury it deep in the ground because what he or she is truly ashamed of is their own person, being cold for the Spirit and lukewarm to salvation. I will not spew you out, in face, I do not wish to be spewed out of His mouth myself, but I will tell you that you should let your light shine.
Letting your light shine does not mean "Stand on a corner holding a sign that says ' God hates fags'", it means that you shine just as you are when you are first called into His glory, not just salvation and Jesus as Saviour, but Him as LORD. Take your bushel, and burn it if you must so that you may shine brightly for a time and the world might be changed in this present darkness. Take your clothes and sell them too, buy gasoline with the money and matches and light the dead trees in your life on fire, if it is not Spirit breathed, it is dead.
With that being said, I will ask the reader, be it on or many to have patience with me, and ask that the Holy Spirit open your eyes to what HE wants to say, always bearing in mind that none of this came to me through any means of my own, all I did was try my best to write down with ink on paper what He was saying to me. I feel a sense of expectancy, if I had said urgency then it would be my own emotions, and these words would profit you nothing. But in this expectancy I feel a peeling away of the layers of skin and flesh, the rotten things of this present world system. The greed and corruption therein are redeemable, what is worse than that are the "good Christians" denying the Holy One, choosing rather to serve Him in their own constraints, as if these chains were placed on us by Him. His chain is to free us, the weight of it the realization that your life is not your own, and the burning of it the denial of self to follow Him, it is the constant denial of imprisonment. You are not a slave, even if you think yourself to be one, although you may attain to a set structure of ideals and beliefs, you might be the most clean pig in the pen, but pearls should still not be cast before swine. I do not believe if you have read this far, you are swine. You are called of God for great works, and I must say to you, I repent of my bushel. I have hid these things for too long. I have said "no one will read it" or "they will judge my grammar or spelling", I have let trivialities stand in the way of what God wants to do, and for that I am really sorry and hope that these words will still be exactly what this generation needs to hear, and in saying that I understand the weight of it, I still question His sovereignty. These are not the words of an educated Scholar, as far as I know the Holy Spirit never went to college, He just is and was and is to come. So many works, done by the Hands of a know-it-all God Who has every right to have that kind of attitude, yet chooses mercy, and grace. Such a magnificent creator, wouldn't you say?
Only one thing I ask of you, since this burden is my own, I do not ask that you should pray for me, I ask that you should pray for yourself, that you would gain your own understanding and that you would take this as a code and continue on in your own pursuits, in fact I give this to my generation, knowing that they will come in like a flood and do things bigger, better, and faster than I will. I do not mind, and I can not say that I am the first, for I am not, He is the first, He is the Last and He is the ever present Help in times of trouble.
Now that I have written out this lengthy introduction, and pushed past this fear:
Without further adieu I present to you
"A Dance To the Promised Land"
(wish I could say by W. L. Thuman)
But honestly, proper credits go to
H. Spirit
*More to follow....check back often for updates.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
They had everything in common
It has been a while guys, sorry about that.
God wants us to live our lives without barriers towards each other, without denomination and without prejudice. We have lived for a long time under denominational and doctrinal barriers that suppress the move of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we see these peeks, as if the Spirit of God is saying "I am still at work, no worries, I am working behind the scenes, I have a plan". The problem is not the Spirit itself, how could we allow the Spirit to move if we have these barriers between us? The word says "MY Spirit will be poured out upon ALL flesh", to say that it is worried about your color or your doctrine is a serious error.
I want God to move in my life, I hate barriers. God says "I will be a wall of fire around you", and "In Him I live and move and have my being", my fortress is a prison of man's inability to do for himself. God's grace is the destructive force that shatters these prison bars that have kept us silent for far too long. We have been silent, watching, waiting for a chance to see God's glory revealed when He already has given you the authority to do it, yet we have struggled with the concept of "In Him". The church still has yet to get it, revivals sensationalise the guest speaker and forget that God is after the glory? Is this what we are after?
We have seen the shaking of the world, the shaking does not come from the world itself, but from the knees of those who are fearful of the future, fearful of what they can not understand. Even Christians have become segregated, although churches do not post signs limiting who can go where, we have segregated liberty, and freedom because we are ashamed of it, we are ashamed of the dancer and the singer, we are ashamed that maybe society might judged us so we have crept into the ranks of society thinking to fight it from the inside but found ourselves trying to fit into that mold. "Come out from among them" says the Lord. You will see that no matter where you are, your perspective and your heart is what you must keep towards the Lord. The Lord will always look upon who is humble and of a contrite heart for this is the burden of the Lord "easy and light" yet, Christ was silent before His accusers.
Let us stand, before God and man, unashamed of just who we are for we know that God's grace is enough, and that love for one another covers over a multitude of sins. We have to see that the color of our skin is nothing but the outward expression of God's intimate and abstract creation, and the depth of His word is an expression of the depth of His love for us, it is not a letter without substance but a note written with a hand trembling with love for a special people. A kind of intimacy that the world rejects and tries to replace with supplements and serial magazines, a love that does no exist outside of God, it is a drug for the masses. The Spirit will open our eyes to see the futility in the advertisement of flesh and to be open to the supernatural where there are no limits to what God can and will do for the hungry and the thirsty. If you are already full of junk food, and you are already full of flesh, you have no need for food that does not perish, you have gotten drunk one too many times and now you have no need for Living water. We have to return to Him, I don't care what you denomination or your "doctrine" says, we have to return to Him! Come let us go together to His house! Let us turn to Him in Spirit and in truth! Let us see if He will not heal out land and our sick and turn the tides of this wickedness from our dwelling place! Turn to Him! See that the Lord is good!
Love is a force in itself. A force the world does not know. The world sees love, but it is just something written on a t-shirt, a billboard, and nothing more. The world sees love as something sell able and marketable, the put it in pill bottles and in plastic jugs, type it out on perverted websites and on television shows with the promise of drama and heartbreak, love found and lost daily, drive through weddings and instant gratification. Love is not that at all, it has been misrepresented, even by the church, the church has made love out to be a Sunday night service with a guest speaker who is selling books and merchandise, and raising money for new buildings and for pet-projects all in the name of "love". Our houses are in such a disarray, every hallway filled with money changing tables and with wares, what are we doing to ourselves?
Okay, so in Acts 2:23-27 , the first thing we see is a simple doctrine, one that believes only in Jesus Christ, the miracles and things done through that name stand only in testimony to Who He is, they stand as praise to God. We see that these apostles of faith were interested in only one thing, what Jesus was interested in , and people were interested in that one thing as well, everyone had everything in common, there was no distinction among them. No one held anyone in a higher office, yet highly esteemed one another and even showed preference to each other, they weren't building up their own personal ministries or justifying their need for a five million dollar mansion as a gift, they were selling all that they owned just to follow Jesus. They had forsaken everything that they once held dear, and considered it all joy when they were persecuted because they knew what we are now starting to realize once again, that to live is Christ and to die is gain. The church has quoted this ad-nauseum, but it is starting to dawn on us, that feeling we have had that we were returning to our first love, well He is at the door!
Things are going to rapidly change in the face of the church, where once the building itself was headquarters and the inner-circle closest to the pastor were the eldership and elitists abounded within and status was based on how long not how far you had gone to walk with Christ, our qualification is Him. Things are changing, home groups, small inner city outreach teams, small prayer circles, cell groups, little Bible studies, the home is going to be the base, and the person of God will begin to realize "I am the church". It will not be the church you go to, the church is you. We will continue to see the wave of the prophetic, we will see people drawing closer and closer together with all that they own and all that they do in these times, we will see true unity. Unity is a necessity for the survival of the infants in Christ, for the outsiders that we have so desperately been trying to minister to, for the family members and the friends that we have been trying to reach out to unity will be the key factor in their decision for Christ, "how pleasant is it when we dwell in unity", worldly people don't want to leave a chaotic life for yet another chaotic one, they need something real. We count the cost and discover it to be all joy that the end of our suffering is glory, so why add the chaos of prejudice with it? What good has that done anyone? It has only shut out the mighty move of God and robbed us of more of Him, it has shrouded us with more of ourselves, we are not free as long as we hold onto these barriers.
I do not in any way believe that God is angry with us, like He is judging us for what we have done wrong. Hurricanes happen, tornadoes happen, the Bible says that this will happen in the last days, but it is because the world has always been dying. Just like our buildings, you can look down the street and see a building that was built ten years ago, is now collapsing. This is the commission of this generation, that we grab hold of Him for everything that He is, that we abandon our old positions of hate and tolerance to move on with love and intolerance for the evil of this world, we will not see this plague come near our dwelling place, but evil gives birth to evil. How can we stand on this? We must begin to see His love, His real love. This movement is not over, the love movement is about to explode. What we saw before was just a preview, the next stage is something real, something you can touch and feel and taste and see. We are going to experience love and unity like the Church has never seen before, this is going to be magnificent!
Only believe and we will see these barriers disolved, only believe with me and we can build this network of believers up! Even if it's just one person that ever reads this blog, I know you will pray with me and believe with me that we will see us united as a church that is a people, not a church that is a building, because "God lives in a temple not built with human hands", RISE UP CHURCH!!!! (That's you!)
More to come!
God wants us to live our lives without barriers towards each other, without denomination and without prejudice. We have lived for a long time under denominational and doctrinal barriers that suppress the move of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we see these peeks, as if the Spirit of God is saying "I am still at work, no worries, I am working behind the scenes, I have a plan". The problem is not the Spirit itself, how could we allow the Spirit to move if we have these barriers between us? The word says "MY Spirit will be poured out upon ALL flesh", to say that it is worried about your color or your doctrine is a serious error.
I want God to move in my life, I hate barriers. God says "I will be a wall of fire around you", and "In Him I live and move and have my being", my fortress is a prison of man's inability to do for himself. God's grace is the destructive force that shatters these prison bars that have kept us silent for far too long. We have been silent, watching, waiting for a chance to see God's glory revealed when He already has given you the authority to do it, yet we have struggled with the concept of "In Him". The church still has yet to get it, revivals sensationalise the guest speaker and forget that God is after the glory? Is this what we are after?
We have seen the shaking of the world, the shaking does not come from the world itself, but from the knees of those who are fearful of the future, fearful of what they can not understand. Even Christians have become segregated, although churches do not post signs limiting who can go where, we have segregated liberty, and freedom because we are ashamed of it, we are ashamed of the dancer and the singer, we are ashamed that maybe society might judged us so we have crept into the ranks of society thinking to fight it from the inside but found ourselves trying to fit into that mold. "Come out from among them" says the Lord. You will see that no matter where you are, your perspective and your heart is what you must keep towards the Lord. The Lord will always look upon who is humble and of a contrite heart for this is the burden of the Lord "easy and light" yet, Christ was silent before His accusers.
Let us stand, before God and man, unashamed of just who we are for we know that God's grace is enough, and that love for one another covers over a multitude of sins. We have to see that the color of our skin is nothing but the outward expression of God's intimate and abstract creation, and the depth of His word is an expression of the depth of His love for us, it is not a letter without substance but a note written with a hand trembling with love for a special people. A kind of intimacy that the world rejects and tries to replace with supplements and serial magazines, a love that does no exist outside of God, it is a drug for the masses. The Spirit will open our eyes to see the futility in the advertisement of flesh and to be open to the supernatural where there are no limits to what God can and will do for the hungry and the thirsty. If you are already full of junk food, and you are already full of flesh, you have no need for food that does not perish, you have gotten drunk one too many times and now you have no need for Living water. We have to return to Him, I don't care what you denomination or your "doctrine" says, we have to return to Him! Come let us go together to His house! Let us turn to Him in Spirit and in truth! Let us see if He will not heal out land and our sick and turn the tides of this wickedness from our dwelling place! Turn to Him! See that the Lord is good!
Love is a force in itself. A force the world does not know. The world sees love, but it is just something written on a t-shirt, a billboard, and nothing more. The world sees love as something sell able and marketable, the put it in pill bottles and in plastic jugs, type it out on perverted websites and on television shows with the promise of drama and heartbreak, love found and lost daily, drive through weddings and instant gratification. Love is not that at all, it has been misrepresented, even by the church, the church has made love out to be a Sunday night service with a guest speaker who is selling books and merchandise, and raising money for new buildings and for pet-projects all in the name of "love". Our houses are in such a disarray, every hallway filled with money changing tables and with wares, what are we doing to ourselves?
Okay, so in Acts 2:23-27 , the first thing we see is a simple doctrine, one that believes only in Jesus Christ, the miracles and things done through that name stand only in testimony to Who He is, they stand as praise to God. We see that these apostles of faith were interested in only one thing, what Jesus was interested in , and people were interested in that one thing as well, everyone had everything in common, there was no distinction among them. No one held anyone in a higher office, yet highly esteemed one another and even showed preference to each other, they weren't building up their own personal ministries or justifying their need for a five million dollar mansion as a gift, they were selling all that they owned just to follow Jesus. They had forsaken everything that they once held dear, and considered it all joy when they were persecuted because they knew what we are now starting to realize once again, that to live is Christ and to die is gain. The church has quoted this ad-nauseum, but it is starting to dawn on us, that feeling we have had that we were returning to our first love, well He is at the door!
Things are going to rapidly change in the face of the church, where once the building itself was headquarters and the inner-circle closest to the pastor were the eldership and elitists abounded within and status was based on how long not how far you had gone to walk with Christ, our qualification is Him. Things are changing, home groups, small inner city outreach teams, small prayer circles, cell groups, little Bible studies, the home is going to be the base, and the person of God will begin to realize "I am the church". It will not be the church you go to, the church is you. We will continue to see the wave of the prophetic, we will see people drawing closer and closer together with all that they own and all that they do in these times, we will see true unity. Unity is a necessity for the survival of the infants in Christ, for the outsiders that we have so desperately been trying to minister to, for the family members and the friends that we have been trying to reach out to unity will be the key factor in their decision for Christ, "how pleasant is it when we dwell in unity", worldly people don't want to leave a chaotic life for yet another chaotic one, they need something real. We count the cost and discover it to be all joy that the end of our suffering is glory, so why add the chaos of prejudice with it? What good has that done anyone? It has only shut out the mighty move of God and robbed us of more of Him, it has shrouded us with more of ourselves, we are not free as long as we hold onto these barriers.
I do not in any way believe that God is angry with us, like He is judging us for what we have done wrong. Hurricanes happen, tornadoes happen, the Bible says that this will happen in the last days, but it is because the world has always been dying. Just like our buildings, you can look down the street and see a building that was built ten years ago, is now collapsing. This is the commission of this generation, that we grab hold of Him for everything that He is, that we abandon our old positions of hate and tolerance to move on with love and intolerance for the evil of this world, we will not see this plague come near our dwelling place, but evil gives birth to evil. How can we stand on this? We must begin to see His love, His real love. This movement is not over, the love movement is about to explode. What we saw before was just a preview, the next stage is something real, something you can touch and feel and taste and see. We are going to experience love and unity like the Church has never seen before, this is going to be magnificent!
Only believe and we will see these barriers disolved, only believe with me and we can build this network of believers up! Even if it's just one person that ever reads this blog, I know you will pray with me and believe with me that we will see us united as a church that is a people, not a church that is a building, because "God lives in a temple not built with human hands", RISE UP CHURCH!!!! (That's you!)
More to come!
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