God of Light

God of Light

1 John 1:5

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

               Without the light and Spirit of God we would still be in state of the earth and the heavens when they were first formed and created.  Genesis 1:1-5 says, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.“  In John 1:1-5 gives us the spiritual interpretation of the natural creation.  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”

               This morning, as the Lord had impressed upon my heart this scripture from 1John, I was studying through some of the scriptures on light.  I began to get a little drowsy so I got up to stretch my legs.  I walked over to the back door and looked out, it was dawn and the light was beautifully illuminating the clouds at the end of the mountain range.  There were a couple of small cloud beneath the others that were like little floating flames of fire as they caught and reflected the light of the rising sun.  Quickly, I walked back to my office and grabbed my camera to take a picture.  As I hurriedly tried to set the exposure and I took a couple of pictures, I looked down at the display and it was informing me that I didn’t have a flash card in my digital camera. I had to make a dash back to the office to get a flash card.  While the scene was still pretty I had missed the climax of its beauty. 

               I began to think about the analogy of how God created man to capture and reflect His beauty and nature, but like John 1:5 the light shined in the darkness, but the darkness comprehended it not.  You might say we are all like a bunch of cameras, but without film or a flash card we can’t fulfill our destiny and the reason for which we were created.  We can go through the motions, but we can’t comprehend or capture the light of God unless we have received Christ into our hearts and been quickened in our spirits.  He is the film in our cameras.  He is the one that gives meaning and purpose to our being.   Cameras without film or a means of capturing the light are of no use to us.  God needs a people who are able to capture and comprehend by His Spirit their reason and purpose for being and then start becoming the image of the light that they see and capture in their spirits.  2 Samuel 22:29 says, “For thou art my lamp, O LORD: and the LORD will lighten my darkness.”  It is only the light of God that gives us understanding and comprehension of who and what we are in Him.  Psalms 36:9 says, “For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.”  God has given us His torchbearer to manifest and demonstrate His life in the world through Christ.  The Church is like the candlestick that maintains and bears that light. 

               Exodus 25 tells us how God commanded Moses to make the golden candlestick, which is a type of Christ and the Church.  “”Make a lampstand of pure gold and hammer it out, base and shaft; its flowerlike cups, buds and blossoms shall be of one piece with it. Six branches are to extend from the sides of the lampstand—three on one side and three on the other… “Then make its seven lamps and set them up on it so that they light the space in front of it.””  Here we get a picture of a golden candlestick beaten out of one piece of pure gold.  It is telling us that the Church is of one substance in Christ, that pure holy nature being like the gold.  It is formed by being hammered out; “…we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22). “ The lamp stand has six branches, three on each side, six being the number of man, but it has seven lamps.  The base and the center stem make up the seventh, like Christ who is the chief cornerstone of our foundation of faith, the six branches come out of the center-supporting candlestick.  The purpose of the candlestick was to illuminate what was in front of it.  Likewise the Church in Christ is to illuminate each generation with the light of the gospel and the Spirit of Christ.  Exodus 27:20 goes on to inform us, “And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always.”  The pure beaten olive oil is like the Holy Spirit that keeps us burning continually.  Again, we see the beating and the processing involved in getting each thing to a usable state.  The candlestick illuminates a glorious realm of the Holy Place in the tabernacle, but in this place there are still shadows and areas of darkness. 

               The Holy of Holies is where God Almighty resides and in that place the illumination is His Light.  While mortal sinful man can not approach this light, the perfect high priest, Jesus Christ can and we are told that we are in Him.  1 John 5:20 tells us, “And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.” Are we comprehending and capturing where our position is?  It is in Christ.  And where does the Christ dwell.  Colossians 3:3 puts it all in perspective, “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”  We have been brought into the Most Holy Place, in Christ.  It is in Christ that we have been told that we can approach His throne boldly.  Hebrew 4:14 –16, “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. 16Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”  In Christ we are being brought into the Light that will dispel every shadow and darkness in us.  We have been called to be light bearers, capturing the light of God in our Spirits and presenting that image before men.  For we serve the God who is Light and in whom there is no darkness or shadow of turning.

Blessings,

#kent

The Wounded and Broken

Deuteronomy 32:39

See now that I, [even] I, [am] he, and [there is] no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither [is there any] that can deliver out of my hand.

The Wounded and Broken

               In the Garden of Eden were two trees, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life.  Choices were given to man as to which way he would come to know God and walk with Him.  When wrong choices were made, consequences ensued that brought darkness, sin and death into our world and all of creation.  We must know that this came as no surprise to God and that His plan was before the foundation of this world.  Life and death have become the cycles of life that have carried down since the beginning.   In between that cycle of life and death many things touch our lives.  Life can bring much joy and blessing, but it can also bring us much heartache and pain.  Many of us today bear in our lives the marks of pain and suffering.  That can take many forms, mental, physical, psychological and even spiritual.  Pain has many avenues.  Many times, it comes as consequences of what we sow knowingly or unknowingly into our lives, bodies and minds.  Sometimes our pain comes from the consequences and actions of others.  Sometimes it comes as part of the fallen world that we live in.  However it comes, we are left to endure. 

               Now as unpleasant as pain is, it is not all bad.  It often works in us what no amount of blessings could.  It is much like our enemies, as unpleasant as they are; they can touch areas in our lives that friends never will.  Often we wonder, “God why all of the unpleasantness?  Why all of this pain and suffering?  Why do our enemies persecute us?  God why must I suffer?”  Joseph, in the book of Genesis 50:20 reveals it so well, “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; [but] God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as [it is] this day, to save much people alive.”  We have an enemy of our soul that perpetrates evil upon us, but what he has thought for evil, God has meant for good.

               How can this be good?

               Romans 8:18-25 helps us to see into the eternal and far reaching purposes of God. “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

22We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.”  The Word says that God is the one that subjected creation to this frustration, but in hope, hope of what?  “That the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage and decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children or the sons of God.” 

               Jesus Christ was the prototype and firstfruits of this glorious liberation.  What did He say His purpose was?  It says of Jesus in Luke 4:14-20, “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. 16He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. 17The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: 18″The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

20Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.””  The people were murmuring, “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?”  This was a proclamation that Jesus had stepped out of the earthly paradigm of humanity into His divine purpose of eternity.  What was begun in the headship of Jesus, He will complete in and through His body, the church, which Ephesians 1:23 declares is, “…the fullness of him that filleth all in all.” 

               Pain and suffering can rend our hearts and bodies like few things can.  They are processing tools that bring us into the purposes of God if we catch that revelation.  They are areas we can see God work supernaturally in, both in the areas of healing and deliverance, but also in the areas of tribulation, patience and longsuffering.  Job certainly wanted to be free from his pain that he felt unjustly afflicted with, but it was a process that brought him into a double portion anointing and priesthood ministry that he would have never experienced without it.  David would certainly have not chosen to be fleeing his enemies that sought for years to take his his life, but it was preparation for kingship.  Joseph wouldn’t have chosen captivity, slavery and prison, but it prepared him to rule and reign.  Even of Jesus it says in Hebrews 5:7-9, “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him 10and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.”  We, like our Savior have been called to a royal priesthood.  We also will pass through our seasons of suffering.  When we pass through these valleys, for however long we must endure them, let them have their perfect work in us.  Allow them not to discourage you, but to encourage you that, “whom the Lord loves He chastens.”  He doesn’t discipline bastards or illegitimate ones, he disciplines His sons that in due time it might work the peaceable fruits of righteousness (Hebrews 12).   God is preparing us for greatness and what the evil one has meant for evil, God has meant for good.

Blessings,

#kent

He Must Increase, I Must Decrease

He Must Increase, I must decrease

John 3:30

He must increase, but I [must] decrease

               These were the words of John the Baptist as his disciples questioned him about this other man, Jesus, and why everyone was going over to Him.  John understood his life’s purpose and that all that God had given him and all that he had become was to point the way to Christ.  He was a forerunner sent before to prepare men’s hearts to receive Christ and the salvation only He could bring.  Our purpose is very much the same today.  Our lives are not about us being glorified and put upon a pedestal, it is about bringing Jesus before men that they may see all that He is and all that He has provided.  Sometimes Christians miss this.  They get caught up in what the Lord can do through them and instead of really building His Kingdom, they end up building their own.  We must guard against the glory men may want to bestow on us when they see Christ working through us especially in love and the demonstration of miraculous works.  There are signs that Jesus said would follow His disciples, but in whatever the Lord chooses to bring forth through our lives, we must be careful to give the praise and the glory back to Him. 

Isaiah 48: 9-12 tells this about what He thinks of His glory, “For my name’s sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off.  Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. For mine own sake, [even] for mine own sake, will I do [it]: for how should [my name] be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.  Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I [am] he; I [am] the first, I also [am] the last.” 

When we deserved God’s anger and judgement, He did not cast us off, but He is refining us through the furnace of affliction.  If we aren’t trained up in humility and brokenness, understanding the true grace and goodness of God, we will pollute His name.  In fact, we are seeing the Lord’s name being polluted in Christendom today.  Much of why the world rejects Christ and Christianity is not because of who Christ is, but because of who we are.  We proclaim His name, but we don’t proclaim His nature.  Because we do not truly live to His glory, we rob from Him the glory and praise due to His name by our selfishness, greed, and worldliness.  Is the world really seeing anything in us different than what they see in themselves?  I believe Christianity spread like wildfire in the early years of Christianity, even in the midst of great persecution, because people saw the glory of God.  It was not because these Christians glorified themselves, but it was because they allowed Christ to be glorified through them.   They truly learned what it meant that He must increase, and they must decrease.  Aren’t most of us still caught up in our increase, in our success, our name and our fame?  Who is really being glorified in and through our lives, Christ, or ourselves?   Galatians 5:26 warns us, “Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.” God has called us out to be a people for His possession and for the praise of His name.  Where is our focus in life; is it on us or on Him? 

               The greatest honor the Lord could bestow on us is the privilege of allowing Him to be glorified through us.  When He is glorified through us then men no longer see us, they see Christ in His glory and splendor.  They just see a vessel that is the facilitator of His majestic glory and wonder.   This is the desire and purpose of God, to be glorified in His saints.  2 Thessalonians 1:10 tells us that with the Lord’s coming He will be glorified in us, “When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.”  The Lord may well grace our lives with some miraculous things, but we must never presumptuously take the glory from that to ourselves.  There is only one who is worthy of all the glory and all the honor and all the praise and we are simply the lamps that allows His glory to shine forth.  We are privileged to be the instruments of His praise and His glory.  We must decrease and He must increase, so that in all things we point the way to Jesus and defer all praise and glory to His worthy Name.  As we decrease in this life and the things of this world, He will increase within us and His kingdom will come in us.  His will, will be done in us as it is in heaven.  Let us not pollute or diminish that light by allowing ourselves to have the preeminence of all that belongs only to Him.

Blessings,

#kent

Attitudes of the Heart

Attitudes of the Heart

Luke 6:45

A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.

               We are fountains and our words are the waters that flow out of them.  Just as we taste water to see if it is sweet or bitter, so our words are indicators of the source of our fountain, whether they are life or death or a mixture.  James 3:8-14 “But the tongue can no man tame; [it is] an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.  Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet [water] and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so [can] no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. Who [is] a wise man and endued with knowledge among you?  Let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom but if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.” Many of us have studied, read books or heard sermons on the tongue, and the power of the words that are spoken out of our mouth.  Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life [are] in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. ” 

What is the source from which the tongue speaks?  It is the heart.  Jesus even said, ‘it is not what goes into a man that defiles, but what comes out of a man that defiles him.’  So the heart attitude is a pretty important thing.  If it isn’t right, nothing else is going to be right either.  Our words are a pretty good spiritual thermometer and indicator of what is in our heart.  Are your words oriented toward praise, do they edify others, do they speak the things that make for peace and harmony?  Are your words gentle, kind, merciful, and patient?  Do they turn away wrath with a gentle answer or do they incite strife and wrath, and anger?  I’ve often thought how good it would be for all of us to listen to a tape recording of our conversations throughout the day.  Most of us would probably be amazed if we heard ourselves as others hear us.  Especially our loved ones, because they are the ones, we most speak our heart too. What would that recording tell us about the condition of our heart today?  Even as I write this, I am convicted about the things I speak and the way in which I speak them.  If I want to be a Life giver as Christ was, my words and my actions must coincide with a heart that is full of the Spirit of God and an expression of the fruit of the Spirit of God.  If my heart is to be in this right spiritual condition, then it is also equally important what goes into my heart.  The Word of God is the Spirit of Life that is health and vitality to my spiritual man.  When God spoke, out of His mouth came the Christ, the Word of God, which brought all of creation and life into existence.  By that Word all Creation is held in its proper state.  If God spoke a negative word, all of that could be destroyed in a heartbeat, but God’s Word is Life.  That is why it is the source of our life.  It is what must fill our hearts and flow out of our mouths to the glory of God and be the fountain of Life to the world around us.  It is what must motivate our actions to good works. 

               James is paralleling what 1^st John speaks when it says we can’t really love God if we hate our brother.  In the same way we can’t bless God out of one side our mouth and talk ugly to our fellow man out of the other.  Our love and words toward God have to be consistent with our words and actions toward our fellow man, spouse, children, employees and whoever else we interact with.  James is making a point that just like we can’t serve God and mammon we can’t be a fountain of salt water and fresh.  Our words should be consistent with our heart attitudes and our heart should be feeding off the Life of God’s Word.  If our words are not bringing grace to the hearers, then we need to check these heart attitudes and align them with God’s heart.  If our words are speaking Life to all, especially our family, then it is a good indicator that our hearts are right with God also.  What is the attitude of your heart today?  Do you need an attitude adjustment?

Blessings,]

#kent

Wise Counsel

Wise Counsel

Proverbs 24:6

For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counsellors [there is] safety.

               Most of us appreciate wise counsel, especially in the hard decisions of our life, but we have a choice of who we choose to hear and receive counsel from.  Essentially, all our decisions are made from counsel that we gather mentally from different sources, then evaluate and arrive at our decision.  Where are we going to get our counsel?  

               The fruit of our lives will reveal the source of our counsel.  If we are walking in the counsel of the ungodly, then our actions, decisions and choices are going to be ungodly.   Psalms 1:1 exhorts us, “Blessed [is] the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” 

               Most all of us want and need wise counsel.  We realize that we are not all wise and experienced in many of the areas of life we must make decisions, so it is quite common that we would seek out those who are wiser and more experienced in these areas of life.   Proverbs 15:22 says, “Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counselors they are established”

Proverbs 19:20 exhorts us, “Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end.”  As Christians, most of us have come to realize that our best advice and counsel comes from the Word of God and His people who are skilled and experienced in His Word.  One of the reasons we go to church and bible studies, listen to tapes and read Christian books is to hear the counsel of the word of God and its interpretation.  It is a resource we can use to make wise decisions for the direction of our lives. 

               One of the names of God and Christ is “Counselor” (Isaiah 9:6).  One of the seven spirits of God spoken of in Isaiah 11:2 is “counsel”.  God is our greatest resource of wise counsel and direction for our lives if we take the time to seek it out.  Too often we are in a hurry with the decisions we make, or we have preconceived notions about what we want.  As a result, we don’t take the time to wait on the counsel of the Holy Spirit or pursue the counsel of wise and godly men.  This is difficult for many of us because we are not given to patience.  We want our answer right now.  With God, His requirements are often that we wait upon Him, that we are “anxious for nothing, but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God (Philippians 4:6).”   Proverbs 20:5 says, “Counsel in the heart of man [is like] deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out.”  I believe the same is true of God.  We have to take the time to draw out what is the wisdom and counsel of God for our lives and the decisions we must make along the way.  Proverbs 19:21 tells us, “There are] many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless, the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.”  We must discern in our hearts and sort out what is of God and what is of natural reasoning and thinking.  We do that by connecting the points that make a straight line through the things that line up with the Word and counsel of God.  God’s counsel shouldn’t be confusion; it should bear witness with itself all along the way. 

               It is most important, if we want wise counsel, to keep our hearts in tune with the Holy Spirit, seeking His counsel and wisdom through prayer and the Word.  It is equally important to check the attitudes and the condition of our heart and motives to be sure they are pure and submitted to Him.   Proverbs is a wonderful resource concerning the wisdom, understanding, knowledge and counsel of the Lord. Let’s conclude with a passage from Proverbs 2:1-8 “My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,

2turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding—3indeed, if you call out for insight

and cry aloud for understanding, 4and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,

5then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. 6For the Lord gives wisdom;

from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.  7He holds success in store for the upright,

he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, 8for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.” 

Blessings,

#kent

The Story of a Cripple

The Story of a Cripple

Isaiah 30:20-21

And [though] the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers: And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This [is] the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.

               A little girl sits staring out her window.  Her thoughts and dreams take her on journeys that her legs never can.  Struck by a drunken driver while riding her bicycle she no longer knows the pleasures of running and playing with her friends the way she used too.  At first, it didn’t seem real and she thought that surely, she would get better and be able to walk again, but she never has.  Then she became very angry with this person who had hit her on her bike, she hated them and wanted them to die.  This person had robbed her of a normal life, of friendships and had forever handicapped her from being like everyone else. 

               Elsa was just eight years old when it happened.  After her body had recovered as much as it was going too, she would spend hours looking out her large second story bedroom window.  Below in the street and yards she would watch the kids play.  Often, she would be saddened and angry as she set there, a captive of her circumstances.  Eventually she began to look beyond the neighborhood into the nearby fields and forest that surrounded the area.  She began to observe nature, the seasons, the birds and the little animals.  She began to see that just like humans, animals, birds and even the trees sometimes experienced tragedies, but adjustments were made, and life went on. 

               One day when she looked out, the field was on fire and it was quickly moving toward the forest.  She hurriedly dialed 911 and reported the fire.  She observed as the fire fighters arrived quickly upon the scene and as they battled the blaze, doing all that they could to contain its damage.  It went on for some time and the fire had reached the forest, burning a good area of it, before they finally got it under control and put it out.  Elsa was saddened as the landscape had been forever changed and she felt it would never be as beautiful or the same again as she looked out over the charred trees and burnt ground.  As the seasons changed, she was amazed the next spring when the grass was actually greener in the burnt area than any place else.  Elsa observed that over time the burnt area filled back in with growth and animals started coming back into the new growth and shrubs.  In many ways it was even more beautiful and lush than before.  The Lord began to speak to her heart, and she began to make the connection that bitterness and unforgiveness only will leave your heart barren and unproductive.  It poisons the ground.  Elsa began to hear the voice of God telling her and showing her that she was like that burnt ground.  Wonderful things could still happen in her life.  Yes, it might be different than most, but perhaps even more beautiful in some ways because she had a perspective that others didn’t have.  She began to pray and release the anger, bitterness and offense she had so long held inside.  She prayed for the person that crippled her and asked God to make them whole as well.  Elsa came out of her room and began to become involved with life and people again.  She accepted that circumstances beyond her control had forever changed her, but perhaps it could be for the better and not for the worse.  As she began to embrace life, relationships and people again, she felt her life enriched somehow.  She missed being normal; walking and running like others, but she saw opportunities to help people in ways she never had before.  She realized that, like that that burnt field, God was restoring her to be an even better person than she had been before.  She realized her right attitude and God perspective made her grass a little greener than a lot of those around her.  She found herself walking no longer with the natural legs that she was born with, but with legs of faith, trust and dependency upon God to now direct her life in the way and the plan that He had for her.  Now instead of feeling robbed of life, she felt enriched with new meaning and purpose that her new life had found.  Instead of the burnt field of bitterness, hate and unforgiveness she found herself flourishing in the greenery and new life of her relationship with the Lord and with people.  She was learning what it is to be a new creation in Christ Jesus, that even in adversity there is blessing and holding on to offenses is more crippling than physical handicaps. 

Blessings,

#kent

Blessing and Cursing

Blessing and Cursing

Deuteronomy 30:19

I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, [that] I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:

               This scripture in Deuteronomy brings to light that as life is the opposite of death, so it is blessing and cursing.  The Lord is also teaching us that it is the choice of life that brings blessing and the choice of death that brings cursing.  In Deuteronomy 30:16-18 the Lord further qualifies this principle of life and death, blessing and cursing; “In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, [and that] ye shall not prolong [your] days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.” 

               Our God is calling us to Life today.  He is calling us back to a sanctified and committed walk with Him.  Even in the light of world events, we are beginning to see a greater distinction of light and dark, good and evil, godly values and worldly values.  The grays are fading into black and white and God is calling us to the place of no more compromise.  Our nation is in peril because we have become tolerant and complacent with sin, not only in our nation and its values, but foremost in our own lives.  Our nation is reflecting the values of our own hearts.  We, as a nation who has said our trust is in the Lord, have stopped honoring, reverencing and fearing Him in the way that is due His awesome name.  We like Aaron’s son’s, Nadab and Abihu, have been offering up strange fire in our sacrifice of worship to God.  We worship and serve God our way and not His way.  We count as common and ordinary that which is Holy and to be feared.  God is a wonderful and loving God who desires to bless us and bring us into the fullness of His blessing and inheritance for us, but we must never allow ourselves, as we already have, to become careless and sloppy about who our God is.  He is not a God that will wink at our sin and continue to allow us to go our own way.  Whenever we get careless and fail to truly fear, reverence and adore our awesome Lord and Father, judgements are soon to follow for we are making a choice for cursing and not blessings, we are choosing death and not life.  God says in the scripture in Deuteronomy, “But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear”.  Are you and I truly hearing the voice of the Spirit of God in this hour?

Joshua put a challenge before the children of Israel in Joshua 24:15, “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that [were] on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”  Our God is not honored by, nor will He continue to tolerate our religious, fleshly worship and way of life.  We have made His name a reproach, because the world so often sees in us, less of what they perceive God to be, and more of what they see in those of the world.  What we see in the general embodiment of Christianity is not the heart of God, but a strange fire of sin, self, flesh and Spirit, an unholy mixture.  God wants to visit us again with His glory and His presence, but if He does in the state that we are in, we will die.  Judgement will come swiftly upon us.  His presence must manifest itself in a sanctified and holy place that has been consecrated unto Him alone.  God is not interested in our religious trappings; He is interested in believers who want an intimate relationship with Him and are willing to pay the price to obtain it.  In the Song of Solomon there were virgins without number, but there was only one Beloved, only one bride with whom He would be intimate and lover.

Our blessing is His Life.  When we possess our Father’s heart and He fully possesses us we will not be turned away to other gods.  We will pursue His life and presence with all that is within us.  We will be His sanctuary, His priesthood and His beloved.  It is time for us to make the choice of life or death, blessing or cursing.  If we continue lukewarm and double-minded He will spew us out of His mouth. We must prepare the way of the Lord for He is coming to a bride as it says in Ephesians 5:27, “That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”  Today is our day to repent and return unto Him with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength.  He is worthy.

Blessings,

#kent

We, the Priesthood of the Almighty

We, the Priesthood of the Almighty

Zechariah 3:1-7

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with rich apparel.” And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments; and the angel of the LORD was standing by.  And the angel of the LORD enjoined Joshua, “Thus says the LORD of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here.

               Joshua stands to us as an example of a priesthood ministry that God wants to raise up in His people.  This is an awesome calling and one we can’t relate with in the natural mind.   We can only grasp it and really lay hold of it with the mind of Christ who is the High Priest of our confession. 

               This passage is in type, a reflection of what Peter has spoken in 1 Peter 2:9, “But ye [are] a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:.”  We are like Joshua standing before the Lord in the spirit.  Satan, the accuser is there, at our right hand bringing before us and before the Lord all the filth and vileness in our lives as he heaps our unworthiness out by the bushel basket.  As we stand there with our head hung low, our shame revealing the filthy garments that clothe us, the Lord has had enough and He speaks.  The first thing He says is, ‘satan, put a cork in it.’  “The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem”, (a city made up of a whole lot more like Joshua), “rebuke you.”  When the Lord speaks, even satan has to listen.  “Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?”  Of course, that is exactly what satan is squawking about?  He had you and I going to hell, the judgement had already been pronounced and we were destined for the fire when God reached down and plucked us out. 

               Why would He choose this priest dressed with filthy garments, covered with ugliness and the stench of sin?  And how did he become a high priest other than the fact that God appointed and ordained that he should be one?  Why should He want us, let alone make us anything great in Him?  But if He is willing to pluck us out of the fire and clothe us in the righteousness of Christ, what should be our response to such a high and holy calling?  Like Joshua, God is removing our filthy garments of flesh and sinfulness, for he says, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with rich apparel.”  What could be richer than the righteousness of Christ and His blood that cleanses us from all unrighteousness?  Then the Lord says, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” And so they did.  That turbine is like a mitre or diadem.  When the Lord places that turbine on our heads it is like a renewing of our minds.  We become spiritually minded and no longer earthly minded.  We are putting on the mind of Christ.  Every day we put this turbine on as we are not “conformed to the world, but transformed by the renewing of our minds, that you may prove what is that good, acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2). 

               Joshua in the Old Testament is the equivalent of Jesus in the New Testament.  Are we not Christians, “little Christ”, members in particular, that make up the body of Christ?  Are we not the expression and the members that carry out the orders and ministry of our head, Jesus Christ?  In Christ we carry that office of who He is, our High Priest.  How does He draw the world to Himself and the saving knowledge of Christ if it is not by His body moving under the power and unction of the Holy Spirit?  Are you beginning to catch a glimpse of the priesthood ministry that is in you and I, if this high priesthood ministry is operating in us now, how much more at His coming? 

               There is an order and hierarchy in God.  While we, as believers, are all redeemed by the blood of the Lamb and a part of the general assembly of saints.  There are those in His body that are responding to a higher calling, as Paul puts it in Philippians 3:14, “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” There is a call from heaven for those that have ears to hear to come up higher.   It is a calling to lay aside the ordinary, the common and the “good”, to find not only what is the “acceptable” will of God, but, even more, what is the “perfect” will of God.  God, our Father, has made a way into the Holiest of Holies; through the cross He has rent the veil and given us access.  We are being given a high holy privilege to respond to His call.  Paul saw it and spent His life running for it.  How about you and I?   Will we be willing to respond to the priesthood ministry we have in Christ?  Remember the priest ministered between God and man.  This calling is much higher than just being a priest or preacher in the natural.   Are we willing to come out of the shallow end of the pool and swim into the depths where our feet no longer touch the bottom?  God is calling us up higher, how will you respond to that call?

Blessings,

#kent

Conformed to His Image

Romans 8:28-30

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

Conformed to His Image

               Early in the morning the alarm sounds to wake him from his sleep.  After a few groggy minutes he stirs and arises from his bed. The first thoughts are, “Praise you Father, thank you for a new day.”  As he staggers towards the bathroom his minds begins to clear.  “Who am I?”, are among the first thoughts that he thinks and hears.   

               “I am a son, a called and set apart one for my Father.  I am what Jesus prayed I would be in John 17:20-23.  “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. “

 I am the product of sonship, Father God’s adoption and acceptance of me in Christ.  I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.  I am the product of God’s unconditional love, calling, purpose and design.  He has created me for His glory and I have been brought into unity with the Godhead, through Christ to let the world know that Jesus still lives, that God sent Him and that they may believe that He sent Him for them.  Even as Jesus told Thomas in John 14 that He was the expression of the Father, He has called me out of darkness to be the expression of Christ in me. 

               I am no longer the man I used to be.  Old Adam has been crucified with Christ and no longer lives.  “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)”  Old things have passed away and behold all things are new, for I am new creation in Christ Jesus, no longer conformed to the world, but transformed, metamorphosed into His image through the renewing of my mind (Romans 12).  I am being changed from glory to glory.  With unveiled face I am being transformed into His likeness with ever increasing glory which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18).  “As He is, so are we in this world (John 4:17).” 

               “There is now no condemnation for me for I am in Christ Jesus and the law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death (Roman 8:1).” I will no longer embrace, identify and think upon the former life of sin, death and judgement.  As a son, I live under a new law, a higher law and a more glorious dispensation.  By faith I receive it and embrace it.  I no longer walk after the flesh, but after the Spirit, because I am a product of the Spirit and His life now abides in me.  I am for His glory and no longer for my own, therefore by the Spirit I will put to death the deeds of the flesh, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.  “For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. (1 John 5:4)””

               Then he thinks what is my position as God sees me and he remembers the scripture from Ephesians 2:22, “And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”  So I am God’s habitation and abiding place, but positionally Ephesians 2:4-6 says, ” But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.”  So I am in Christ in heavenly realms and places.  With that heavenly position and perspective my giants will become as grasshoppers.  I will do as Colossians 3:1 says, ‘Since, then, I have been raised with Christ, I will set my heart on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2Set my mind on things above, not on earthly things. 3For I died, and my life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is my life, appears, then I also will appear with him in glory.’  If my life is hid in Christ then I sit with Him at the right hand of the Father.  For anything to touch me, it first must go through the Father, through the Son and back to me.  What touches me ‘I know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.’

               What is my purpose?  Ephesians 2:10 says, ‘For I am God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for me to do.’  If the purpose of Jesus is to draw all men to Himself and destroy the works of the devil then that must be my purpose as well since I manifest Him.  I am to be the expression of His love, because He first loved me (1 John4).  1 Peter 2 says, “But I am a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that I may declare the praises of him who called me out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10Once I was not His people, but now I am one of the people of God; once I had not received mercy, but now I have received mercy.”

               Now that he has refreshed his heart, mind and spirit in who God says he is, he is ready to arise, spend time with Papa God and conquer his day in Christ Jesus as he walks in the power of the Spirit. He is more than a conqueror through Christ who loved him.

Blessings,

#kent

Divine Health

Divine Health

Isaiah 53:5

But he [was] wounded for our transgressions, [he was] bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace [was] upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

There is a spectrum of beliefs about divine healing across Christendom today, ranging from it doesn’t exist to every aspect of health is a matter of faith.  It is not my intent to debate these points, but to communicate what the Word of God has to say on this subject and how the Holy Spirit would help us to believe and appropriate it’s truths. 

Most of us, as believers in Christ, if indeed we are believers, have no problem accepting by faith that Jesus died on the cross to take away our sins. We embrace, by faith in Him, that He has washed away our sins, casting them as far as the East is from the West, into the sea of forgetfulness, never to be remembered anymore.  I dare say many of us probably struggle more with forgiving ourselves than God does with forgiving us.  This is probably true of the aspect of our healing as well.  If indeed we believe in the cross and the power of Christ to forgive our sins and the truth that we are saved by His grace.  If we can truly believe that we are a new creation in Christ Jesus as the Word declares we are then we can no more deny the other aspects of our salvation.  Isaiah, written hundreds of years before the crucifixion of Christ, prophesies very accurately of this great act of sacrifice and salvation that would come through our Christ.  Part of that salvation encompasses divine healing as our scripture today indicates.  If we don’t want to believe that, then we can make attempts to explain it away as we do with other passages that don’t fit our theology, but the fact is, ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).’ 

               God in his covenant with Israel, when He was about to bring them into the promise land, in Exodus 15:26, He said, “If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you.”  If this promise was true of the old covenant how much more so by the new covenant of Christ blood?  The Word of God bears witness that our God is a healing God, healing us physically, emotionally and spiritually.  Jeremiah 17:14 says, “Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou [art] my praise.”  David says of the Lord in Psalms 103:3, “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;” He shows how health and salvation are tied closely together.  

               Now some of you may be saying, “well I prayed and God didn’t heal me”.  Why, because you don’t see the evidence of it?  You believe that you are saved, do you see yourself fully walking without sin and in the full manifest nature of Christ?   This is probably not the case.  We have the foretaste of the Spirit, but it’s fullness we still await.  What can take place in the spiritual realm is not always immediately revealed in the natural realm.  This is where we struggle, because we have to see it to believe it.  Treat your healing as you do your salvation.  If you do not doubt that Christ can and has saved you, then accept and receive healing the same way.  Praise and thank Him for what He has done, not just what you see with the natural eye. 

               1 Peter reiterates what Isaiah says in 1Peter 2:24, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” As much as the nails purchased our salvation, those stripes paid for our healing.  How God works in this area is varied and different.  We can’t put God in a box and regulate his miraculous working with a magic formula, God is God and He works all things after the council of His will and purpose.  This we do know, God is healing and raising people up from sickness and even death, every day.  What He has done for others, He can do for you.  Lay hold of His Word, confess, believe and rest in His promises.  He is the Lord your God that heals you.  May our health trials be but the greater motivation to praise Him, to remember and declare all the areas of His faithfulness.  The greater our pain, the higher our praise as we declare the light of His truth in the face of our darkness.  The victory is won in the heavenlies, before it is revealed in the earth.  God is faithful to see you through. 

Blessings,

#kent