Holy Spirit Rantings
January 31, 2012
1 John 3:1-3
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 2Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 3And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
Lose yourself in Father today. Don’t allow it to be prayer as usual. Got out of your box, get out of yourself, your routine, your norm. Be radically in love and carried away in His presence. Be extreme in your worship and be violent in your pursuit.
How easy it is for us to get into our religious routines and do the same thing day after day. Sweep us away Holy Spirit. Rapture us into your loving presence. Catch us up into a higher realm. Usher us into Your throne room, into your Holy presence. Bring us into such awe of You, till we can’t stand, but can only fall on our faces in worship of Your awesome greatness.
Holy Spirit energize and make alive every part of us, Your people, to be so alive and aware in Your Love. Baptize us with the same Love that compelled Lord Jesus to die that horrible death for us. May we burn with Your passion and may we feel with Your heart. Take us out of us and into You. You are the ocean we desire to swim into with such abandon that we only delight as the waves of Your holy presence crash over us and we are immersed into the depths of Your love.
Holy One, YOU are the air we breath, the song we sing, the light we behold. Let our world be so colored with You that it puts rainbows to shame. Allow all of the spectrums of Your light and truth to be seen in us who delight in Your Name. With overwhelming peace fill Your people with such confident rest and trust in You. Allow fear to have no place in anything we do. Only confident resolve that You are all and all. That You are more than enough and able to do so much more that we could ever do; it is simply relying on You.
We are the people called by Your Name. We will put our trust in no other, for You alone cover us under the shadow of Your wing. The world is blessed today because we release You to live through us in unprecedented love and abandon. Be glorified, be magnified, be exalted in and through all that call upon Your name. We love You mighty God and our grateful hearts pound with your grace and blessing. We are so rich because we have You, poverty can not touch us. We are so strong in Your might that no weakness can infirm us. Sickness must flee from Your presence today. Infirmity must bow to Your Name. All disease is dead as Your feet tread over them. YOUR KINGDOM COME, YOUR WILL BE DONE IN EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN! Allow it to begin in this earthen man that we are. May we be the holy lights You hold up for all the world to see Your great glory. Come be glorified in all of Your saints. Let us be the mountain of Your house that is established in the earth above all other mountains. May Your kingdom flow through us, Your redeemed.
How GREAT and AWESOME are YOU in all of the earth. May the darkness flee and the demons tremble as Your great light shines in the earth to dispel all darkness and we storm the gates of hell to prevail in every battle. May our oppressors become our slaves as we conquer all in Jesus Name.
Blessings,
kent
The Secret of the Kingdom
January 30, 2012
Mark 4:10-12
When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. 11He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables 12so that,
“‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding;
otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’”
Jesus spoke to the multitudes in parables which were stories of word pictures that carried within them kingdom truth. Now to many in the multitude they either didn’t understand or they may have just caught the natural understanding of what was being said. What Jesus was telling His disciples is that these parables carry kingdom mysteries and truths that are meant to be revealed by the Holy Spirit to true believers and followers of Christ. As we come to an understanding and revelation of kingdom truth it is to teach us how to live out of that truth and not what we see in the world. The blind follow the blind, but those who have spiritual eyes to see and spiritual ears to hear, pursue the truth that the Spirit wants to reveal and not just what their natural mind perceives.
What I believe Jesus was saying is that a lot of what He was sharing wouldn’t make a lot of sense or have a lot of meaning unless you have a real heart for the kingdom and the truth that is contained in these parables. A lot of us, through personal revelation or the teaching, we have heard through the years have some grasp of the these kingdom truths that Jesus spoke. What He spoke for His people to really hear was how to change your paradigm and thinking from the worldly culture you have grown up in to the heavenly culture of the kingdom. The secrets of the kingdom are keys for transformation from what we have been into what we have been called to be. Many of us hear, but don’t put into practice what Christ taught. They just remain noble ideas, but they fail to transform our culture and paradigm because we haven’t become kingdom minded.
Jesus expresses it well in His parable in Matthew 7:24-27, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
Kingdom building in our lives establishes Jesus Christ as the foundational rock upon which all of our life values, principles and cultures are built. Many will sit in church or hear the messages of the kingdom and give mental ascent, but fail to put into practice these truths. What Jesus is saying is, ‘it is not what you hear and agree with as being truth that makes you wise, it what you begin to apply and walk in that builds the kingdom in you. God’s kingdom can not be moved, but every pretense of it will be washed away. That is the foundation of sand. Sand is believing something in your heart, but never acting upon it to become reality in your life. This where many “so called” Christians are deceived. They acknowledged the reality and truth of Christ, but denied the power of its life changing ability within them, by only coming and hearing, but not putting it into practice.
The secret of the kingdom is stepping into what you know with the grace, the power and direction of the Holy Spirit. Christ in you is not just in word, but it is in power, love and a faithful walking into kingdom truth.
Blessings,
kent
A Word for the New Year
January 27, 2012
Matthew 6:33
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
The path of the righteous is not forsaken, nor will I see My people begging bread. Lift up your eyes My people for I the Lord am about to shine forth on you and illuminate your path before you. I will speak and you will hear and listen. I will show you the way and you will walk in it.
Set your hearts on obedience and trust, that is where you will find your resting place. In the place of rest is the place of confidence. Pick up your Word and declare it over your life and your circumstances. It is My great and precious promises that allow you to become partakers of the divine nature as you appropriate them by faith. Without faith it is impossible to please Me, for operation and residence in heavenly places is lived out of the realm of faith. Kingdom joy is found out of obedient response to My Word and leading. As you live out of the kingdom of heaven you will have joy, for My kingdom is comprised of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
Lift up your feeble hands that hang down and your weak knees that dangle. As you will respond to My love and discipline in your life you will be energized with greater power and authority. Do not be discouraged when I bring correction, be encouraged and rejoice, because only in your positive response to that correction can I take you higher into My will and plan, and into your destiny. Destiny is defined by obedience, faithfulness and your willingness to relinquish all of yourself to Me. I will define your life with great things, but often it will be in the midst of great trials. I am burning with a purifying fire all that is not of Me. These are the weights and sins that hinder your ascent into My highest. Be quick to obey and release those weights and sins to Me, though it may hurt for the moment, they will be nothing in comparison to what I can release in their place.
As you see My hand move through your life and obedience, don’t become proud or possessive of the glory I reveal through you. Always turn the glory and praise back to Me. Walk in all humility and love for that is the place where you will see My hand move. For you who have been awakened in this hour, keep your eyes and your heart fixed upon Me, for I will not disappoint you. I will exceed your expectations, but it will not be without repercussions. Again, trust Me, in all that comes against you. My banner over you is love and My love will triumph through you as you live out of Me. I delight in those who delight in Me and I will show Myself faithful in your weakness. Let your faith be bold as the lions and don’t hold back as My Spirit prompts you into action. My rest is believing that I am the one who is in charge and not you. If you think and rely on your abilities, you will fail. Learn to allow Me to bear you up on My wings of faithfulness and promise. Don’t be moved by what you see or don’t see. You do not walk by sight, but by faith.
You are the government of the kingdom. As you abide and live out of Me, my righteousness will be expressed and administrated through you. You will administrate My kingdom in the earth. People will truly know Me through your love, because you carry the true Agape in your hearts and you allow it’s expression through your lives. My kingdom rules in love and by love darkness will be turned into light. You are a covenant people, live out of that covenant blessing.
Blessings,
kent
Your Blind Side
January 26, 2012
Hebrews 3:12-14
See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. 14We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.
We all have a blind side. A side that we often don’t see clearly as it ought to be seen, A side that is often skewed by the deceitfulness of our own heart and passions. Jeremiah 17:7 says, “The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it?” We all have our areas of weakness, of passions, of sin, of impure thoughts or desires and lust. Where we lose our way is when begin to yield by rationalizing and justifying our actions. Soon our hearts become hardened, our conscience ceases to affect us as it should and we succumb to the deceitfulness of sin. No one is alone in this matter we are all prone to it. The enemy always looks for our areas of weakness and that varies with every person, but the motive is the same, it is to deceive our hearts and bring us into the consequences of our sin that is often more far reaching than we can ever imagine.
How do we guard ourselves from this deceitfulness? There are several ways. One is by walking in the light and doing nothing in darkness or that we have to hide from others. 1 John 1:7 says, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Another is to make ourselves accountable to other godly men and women. We often want to surround ourselves with like-mannered men or women that help us in justifying our sin or whom we involve in our sin, further hardening our hearts. Proverbs 27:6 reminds us who our true friends are and are not, ” Faithful [are] the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy [are] deceitful.” If we are friends then we watch one another’s backs, helping and correcting one another in love, because we know that we all have blind sides. We are not out to judge one another, but as verse 13 of Hebrews 3 says, “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” We are here for one another’s encouragement, edification and exhortation. We are our brother’s keeper. We help protect and be the spiritual eyes for one another. It is always so much easier to see the weaknesses and faults in others than it is to see them in ourselves. Even in our marriages we think if only my spouse would change in these areas our marriage would be great. The reality of the change is often what you don’t see that needs to be changed in you. It is our blind side. We don’t need brothers and sister that just come to us in condemnation. “Let him who is without sin throw the first stone.” No, we all have blinds sides and we need the love and humility of Jesus to confront one another in love and share the truth. Often times it is our spouse, if we are willing to hear, that will be that voice of the Lord speaking correction and direction into our lives. Again, we can continue to harden our hearts or submit to the Holy Spirit that is quite likely speaking through them. Just remember as you are that instrument of correction the reminder we have in Romans 2:4, “Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? It is not your condemnation, but your love that will restore your brother or your sister. We all have our blinds sides, so in the love of Christ let us watch over one another that none of us fall into unbelieving hearts that turn from the living God. “We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.” We share by watching over one another and protecting one another from the deceitfulness of sin. Galatians 6:1 gives us this instruction, ” Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” Watch your blind side and from the love and meekness of Christ help your brother or sister watch theirs.
“Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. (2 Corinthians 4:2)”
Blessings,
kent
Today is the Day to Hear His Voice
January 25, 2012
Hebrews 3:7-11
7So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, 8do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, 9where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did. 10That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ 11So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”
Perhaps the greatest purpose God has for what is written here is to stir us to pursue His highest and to know that we are on the threshold of His hour of visitation. A situation and event like 9/11 might have been prevented had certain people not have become complacent or more worried about being politically correct than about responding to the warnings and indications of this impending attack. Today the Lord is giving us warnings to prepare our hearts as never before.
Satan is ever at work to dull down our spiritual nerve center. We, like our Jewish predecessors have become hardened of heart and dull of spiritual hearing. Our minds tell us that things will go on as they have been. Tomorrow we will buy and sell, marry and give in marriage and life will go on as it always has. Doesn’t Jesus warn us that He will come as a thief in the night? The people that fell in the wilderness and failed to enter in are the same ones that Moses led out of Egypt with mighty deliverance. Many of us have experienced salvation, but our hearts have become hardened and we are testing God through our rebellion and disobedience.
“ THE HOLY SPIRIT SAYS, “TODAY, IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS…” The Holy Spirit is blowing a trumpet in our ear, but some of us have become too deaf to hear it. If this were our last week to live before you died, how would you live it? Would your priorities change? Would things suddenly become important that you typically took for granted? How would our life and outlook change? Would we be preparing and getting in a state of readiness in the areas of both our spiritual and natural relationships?
The Lord is continually warning us and exhorting us to move our lives into the place of faith and obedience. He wants us to move into the place of His rest. That is a place is where we cease with the activities of the flesh and our efforts and we begin to rest our lives in who He is, what He is and what we are in Him. We all tend to identify and define ourselves by who we are and what we do in this world, but Christ wants us identified with who we are in Him. The deceitfulness of sin will harden our hearts and prevent us from entering into the rest that God has for us. Perhaps today is the day you and I need to bow before the Almighty with a heart of repentance and brokenness for where and how we have strayed from Him. Today is the day to open up our spiritual ears and hear what the Spirit would say to the churches. The rest of God is found in our faithfulness, trust and obedience to Him. God is calling forth and preparing His overcomers to inherit and possess the riches of His glory, but they have to have ears to hear and a heart that is tender and compliant to obey.
We have entered a new day in the Spirit. It is a Sabbath day, a Holy day, and a day for the people of God to come and bow before their Maker. Today is the DAY to begin to hear the voice of the Spirit of God and harden not your hearts.
Blessings,
kent
Holy Spirit, Help Us Know You
January 24, 2012
John 16: 5-14
“Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. 7But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; 10in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
12“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. 15All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.
How we thank God for His precious Holy Spirit the lives in us, walks with us, reveals the Father to us and leads us into all truth. It is my continual cry and prayer to hear Him more accurately, distinctly and more often. Without Him I can not have the Spirit of truth, of love and of His power. Holy Spirit is God’s channel through us to do what Jesus said He would do, “he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; 10in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.”
It is not because we preach condemnation and judgement upon people. The mistake so many of make in our self-righteousness is that we think we are the Holy Spirit and it is our responsibility to do the Holy Spirit’s work. The Holy Spirit is a big boy and He can do His work far better than we ever could. When the nature of Christ’s love is upon because of the Holy Spirit working through us then as we live like Him and are obedient to the Holy Spirit’s prompting then the Holy Spirit can move in the circumstances to bring that conviction, judgement and righteousness upon others. The cross of Christ stands as the condemnation of the prince of this world. We are not here to stand in condemnation upon those who are still under his influence we are here to rescue the perishing and give life to the dying. When we are living out of the life and love of Christ the Holy Spirit is fully able to do His work through us. One of the hardest things for us to learn is to wait upon Him and not go rushing ahead in our fleshly enthusiasm to usurp what the Holy Spirit wants to do by acting and doing outside His direction. If His sheep hear His voice and will not follow the voice of a stranger then we want to learn and discern our own thoughts from those of His, because our own thoughts are that “stranger” if they are separate from His.
We all know how impetuous children can be, thinking they know how to do something, just because they have heard it or seen it done. That is how many of us are in the Spirit. We are sometimes too anxious to be spiritual that we actually miss the Holy Spirit in what we are attempting to do. The Holy Spirit will train us and lead us as we practice daily being in communion and fellowship with Him. He will gently deal with the issues that all of us are still dealing with as we learn to do two things, trust and obey. What He is leading us into is unfamiliar to the natural man, so it is important that our spirit remains open to Him to guide us in His ways. We often do fail, but the love and blood of Jesus covers us with grace. If our hearts are right then we can trust that Holy Spirit is working in us the will and do of His good pleasure.
Blessings,
kent
Destined to Rule
January 23, 2012
Isaiah 32:1-8
See, a king will reign in righteousness and rulers will rule with justice. 2 Each man will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land. 3 Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed, and the ears of those who hear will listen. 4 The mind of the rash will know and understand, and the stammering tongue will be fluent and clear. 5 No longer will the fool be called noble nor the scoundrel be highly respected. 6 For the fool speaks folly, his mind is busy with evil: He practices ungodliness and spreads error concerning the LORD; the hungry he leaves empty and from the thirsty he withholds water. 7 The scoundrel’s methods are wicked,
he makes up evil schemes to destroy the poor with lies, even when the plea of the needy is just. 8 But the noble man makes noble plans, and by noble deeds he stands.
Obadiah 1:21 says, “And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S.” God is raising up a people of destiny and purpose. He is coming to rule and reign in and through His saints. He is coming to be glorified and manifested through them. Isaiah 60:1-3 says, “”Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. 2 See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you. 3 Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.” This is not something that we can produce or bring to pass. This is God’s doing in His fullness of time. That time is growing very near. He is opening up the eyes of our understanding. He is giving us spiritual wisdom and causing us to hear by the Spirit those things, which He is about to bring to pass in the earth. Even today there is a trumpet sounding in Zion. It is a trumpet that only the redeemed of the Lord can hear. It is calling us up unto Him. We are a people of destiny and purpose that He is preparing. “A King will reign in righteousness and rulers will rule with justice.” Jesus Christ is that King of Kings and we are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own possession, through whom He is preparing to rule the nations. Not all will hear this and not all will receive it, but to those who can let faith arise in your hearts and answer your destiny’s call. “Each man will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like steams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.” Isn’t this a beautiful portrait of Christ in His people, setting creation free and being the expression of who they are in Christ?
Isn’t it time that we stop looking at what we haven’t been and what we have failed to be? Isn’t it time that we catch a vision of God’s ultimate plan for those love Him and follow on to know Him. God has great things in store for us if we will have the ears to hear His call, the eyes to see His vision and the heart to become all that He has called us into. “It is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord.” Soon, the Lord will bring to fruition and completion His great plan and purpose. Why would we not want to be in the center of His will and given to His purpose?
“A noble man makes noble plans, and by noble deeds he stands.” There is no nobler plan or noble deed than to set your eyes and heart upon the high calling that you have in Christ Jesus. Let your noble deeds be those which express His life living in and through you.
Blessings,
kent
Effectual Christian Living
January 20, 2012
Isaiah 58:2-14
They look for me every day and want to know my ways. They act as if they were a nation that has done what is right and as if they haven’t disregarded God’s judgment [on them]. They ask me for just decrees. They want God to be near them.
3Why have we fasted if you are not aware of it? Why have we inflicted pain on ourselves if you don’t pay attention? Don’t you see that on the days you fast, you do what you want to do? You mistreat all your workers.
4Don’t you see that when you fast, you quarrel and fight and beat your workers? The way you fast today keeps you from being heard in heaven.
5Is this the kind of fasting I have chosen? Should people humble themselves for [only] a day? Is fasting just bowing your head like a cattail and making your bed from sackcloth and ashes? Is this what you call fasting? Is this an acceptable day to the LORD?
6This is the kind of fasting I have chosen: Loosen the chains of wickedness, untie the straps of the yoke, let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke.
7Share your food with the hungry, take the poor and homeless into your house, and cover them with clothes when you see [them] naked. Don’t refuse to help your relatives.
8Then your light will break through like the dawn, and you will heal quickly. Your righteousness will go ahead of you, and the glory of the LORD will guard you from behind.
9Then you will call, and the LORD will answer. You will cry for help, and he will say, “Here I am!” Get rid of that yoke. Don’t point your finger and say wicked things.
10If you give some of your own food to [feed] those who are hungry and to satisfy [the needs of] those who are humble, then your light will rise in the dark, and your darkness will become as bright as the noonday sun.
11The LORD will continually guide you and satisfy you even in sun-baked places. He will strengthen your bones. You will become like a watered garden and like a spring whose water does not stop flowing.
12Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the foundations of past generations. You will be called the Rebuilder of Broken Walls and the Restorer of Streets Where People Live.
13If you stop trampling on the day of worship and doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the day of worship a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable, if you honor it by not going your own way, by not going out when you want, and by not talking idly,
14then you will find joy in the LORD. I will make you ride on the heights of the earth. I will feed you with the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob. The LORD has spoken.
As we ask ourselves at times why our faith seems so impotent, let us meditate on these precepts. The motions and pretenses of religion will never be an adequate substitute for the reality of faith and godly living. James 1:22-27 says much the same thing in a New Testament context. ” Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.
26If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. 27Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
My heart is to have a faith that is effective, relevant, powerful, loving and life changing. It doesn’t matter how much I say I believe something if I am not walking it out in practice. God called us not to just have a faith of theory, but practical living. Sometimes our faith is not supernatural by virtue of miracles, signs and wonders, but because its love goes where others don’t want to go and do what other don’t want to do. Love is the greatest and most effectual miracle of all. It is something we all carry and posses in Christ, but we don’t always choose to use it as effectual as we can. Love is not mystical, it is just practical. It meets people at the point of their need. It is willing to roll up its sleeve and get dirty in order to meet that need. We can’t be spiritual until we are first practical. It doesn’t matter how much we know or how much revelation we have if we don’t walk in it.
Yes, my heart’s cry is to see God working again through His people in signs, wonders and miracles, but all of these outward things can only effectual work through a heart that truly knows how to love. When we truly have God’s heart and we live out of that heart, then He will prove Himself mighty in all that we do.
Blessings,
kent
The Love of God through Us
January 19, 2012
1 John 3:16
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
I would imagine that most of us know John 3:16 by heart. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” It is interesting to note the parallel between 1 John 3:16 and John 3:16. Both of them deal with the laying down of one’s life. Now in 1 John it is telling us that even as Jesus did that for us, we now ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
Why?
Because this is what love is and this is how love acts. Romans 5:6-8 says, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” He didn’t just talk about His love for us, He showed it to us in one of the greatest examples and expressions of love a being could ever give, the life of His only begotten son for the life of another. Christ willing became that sacrifice for our sin. Why? Because of love.
If this same love now indwells us through Christ in us, then it follows that it will demonstrate itself in its willingness to be poured out and to lay down it’s life for others. Self will be poured out in selflessness as it seeks to meet the needs in others.
1 John 3:17-20 further defines itself this way, ” If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.”
We know that we belong to the truth by the love that is expressed through our actions toward others. God is not just a God of words; He is a God of actions and His actions define His nature, which is love. True Christians are not defined by what they say, but by what they do, because we are becoming like our Daddy. This same Spirit of love now resides in us and it is in the giving of our lives that we define ourselves in Him.
Blessings,
kent
The Footsteps of Service
January 18, 2012
John 13:1-17
1It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love, 2The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. 3Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. 6He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 7Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” 8″No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” 9″Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!” 10Jesus answered, “A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” 11For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean. 12When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13″You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
Imagine the CEO of the most powerful company in the world taking off his jacket, tucking back his tie, rolling up his sleeves and washing the feet of his board of directors. Imagine the president of the United States doing the same with his cabinet. One by one he removes their shoes and socks, washes their feet and dries them. We would think that was pretty odd and out of place for a person of their stature, power and authority to do such a thing. That isn’t in the job description, is it? For Jesus it was and He was far greater than even the men I have just described.
Through this servant act of foot washing Jesus was demonstrating the mission statement of the Kingdom, “Service out of love.”
Jesus gave us the bath when we accepted Him as our Savior. We were washed by the blood of the Lamb and baptized into Him. While His righteousness covers us, our feet still get dirty as we trod this earth. We don’t live and walk through this world without getting tainted from it. Sometimes our feet can get down right dirty and muddy. They have to be washed. Spiritually speaking, we need those feet of our spiritual walk cleansed as it says in Ephesians 5:26, “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word”
The principle of the natural world and natural man is to live for self. Selfishness, in the person of God, defiles their walk and yet most all of us have that in us. That is why Jesus gave us an example of washing one another’s feet with selfless acts of kindness and mercy. That is why the Word tells us we are not to judge our brother, but seek to restore them in humility and love, taking heed that we don’t fall into disobedience.
We have talked about how our feet carry us through life and in the path that we choose to follow. Our feet govern our walk in the natural and the spirit. The only way the man of God knows how to walk is by the light of the Word of God. Psalms 119:101 says, “I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey your word.” And verse 105, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” What Jesus taught His disciple on this last night before His death is a key principle of the kingdom. It is like what He told his disciples when they were fussing over who would be the greatest in the kingdom. In Mark 9:35 it tells us, “And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, [the same] shall be last of all, and servant of all.” That is what our walk is all about and that is the economy of the kingdom, “service out of love.” Our vision has to be, not to be served, but to serve.” We have all been called into the ministry. It is the ministry of service.” I would expect to see a great many women promoted in heaven, because more of them have learned what it is to serve out of love.
There will be those who abuse your service. There will be those whom you will wash their feet and they will turn and betray you, as Judas did Jesus. Your greatness is not in your authority or riches or power or giftings; it is in your humility, your love and your service to others. Humility is simply strength under control.
Listen to Paul’s philosophy of his ministry in 1 Corinthians 10:31-33, “31So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 32Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God— 33even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.” You see, many of us are walking in a wrong way of thinking; it is about us and what we can accomplish. We may have the pretense and delussion that it is for the Lord’s glory, when really it is for ours.
Will you wash someone’s feet today? Will you serve them, love them, minister the Word of God to them, not in condemnation and judgement, but in love. Will you help someone find their way and set their feet on the path of the kingdom of heaven? Your greatness is in your love and your ability to serve others. Everyday we can wash someone’s feet. How great are we?
Blessings,
kent
tricklesoftruth 