In the Beginning
February 23, 2012
Genesis 1:1-4
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.
“In the beginning, God…” Think back to that day when God started a new beginning in you. Do you remember the day when God said “let their be light in the midst of your soul” and you agreed and said yes. Do you remember how He took you when you were formless, void and dwelling in darkness and He caused the light of Jesus Christ to dawn upon your soul? The Lord began a new day in you that separated light and darkness.
John picks up on this theme in John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” In the beginning was the Word…and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Christ is the express Word of God, the expression of all of creation, the breath of God’s own life, the light of His glory and countenance. Christ is that light of the world and the author of life to all of its inhabitance. The light is never a part of the darkness, but rather it always dispels darkness relative to the intensity with which it is present. Darkness cannot comprehend light because it is contrary and opposite in nature to light. Isn’t it only God’s grace and the opening of our understanding by His Spirit that we begin to comprehend the Light of the World? Every candle has a wick, but until it is lit, it remains an object of darkness. Hearing the Word of God, coupled with a quickening of understanding by the Holy Spirit gave us the empowerment to light the candle of faith that burns within our hearts. This light of faith, that flickers and burns within us is of the same nature and characteristic as that which burns in the Light of the World. He has placed His light in us. He has called us to a new day and to walk in the light of the knowledge and revelation of God that He has imparted to us in the Word and through His manifest presence. When lights gather together they grow in intensity, greater dispelling the darkness and lighting the place with His glory. What’s more, is that now, as we walk and dwell in this light, we have fellowship with the author of light and life.
1 John 1:1, John carries on this theme of the beginning, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life— 2 the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. 4 And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.” Because we have embraced this life, John 1:12 – 13 tells us that now we have a right to become the sons of God, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” When you are born of God you are given the right to fellowship and commune with God. You are given the privilege and the mandate to live to the praise and glory of Him who now indwells you. You are given entrance and fellowship into His presence with others of like faith. From this beginning we become children of the day who walk in the light, as He is in the light. We become the living signposts, the neon lights that show and direct others to the author of light and life, so that they also might experience a new beginning. We have the fellowship and relationship with the Lord that it speaks of in 1John 1:5-10, “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” When we embrace the day and choose to walk in the light, as He is in the light, then we live and dwell in the power and love of God’s forgiveness and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all our darkness and sin. We know that we have all had darkness and sin in our lives and in fact we are still struggling with its temptations, but as we continually turn our faces into the light and away from darkness, the power of the blood dispels the darkness with its light and life.
Christ is the beginning and the end, the first and the last and He wants to be that to us throughout all of our existence, both in this life and that which is to come. Continue on in the light of the good work that God began in you from your beginning. Bathe yourself continually in the light of His countenance and glory and that light wherewith He has lit our souls, let is so shine to be a light and a beginning for others.
Blessings,
kent
Husband, Wife, Spirit, Soul
February 22, 2012
Ephesians 5:21-33
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— 30for we are members of his body. 31″For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
There are some correlations between husband and wife, spirit and soul that we need to consider and think about. One of the first things we have to realize is that we live in a time and society where the rights and privileges of the woman are probably greater than perhaps they have ever been. In many ways this is good and I am all for women’s equality and rights. The thing we need to be careful to consider, both men and women, is our God ordained position and authority.
When we start fashioning our ideas and values of our position in the home, family and work upon the values of our society rather than the Word of God we are going to start missing His highest and best for us.
God has given us an example of a marriage and the dynamics of it within the temple of our own bodies. He has given us principles of marriage that we can and should understand whether we are married or not. For the Christian man or woman it is the marriage of the spirit and the soul and how it corresponds in the spiritual realm to Christ and the church and in the natural realm of husband and wife. We have within our bodies a spirit that we know to be the abiding place of the Holy Spirit, our God center, so to speak. It is where we were first united in spirit with God. We know that the head of the spirit of a person is Christ. The spirit’s responsibility, if you will, is to be in communion and fellowship with Lord. The spirit has a two fold responsibility, to be in communion with Christ and then to direct and lead the soul to follow in the ways of the Lord or to walk by the spirit and not after the flesh. The soul on the other hand is made up of the mind, will and emotions and is joined to the spirit. The soul is like the woman part of us. She is so essential and yet can be so volatile. Just as in real life we look to the woman to kind of bring all of the elements of daily life together and make them work. This soul of ours, just like the woman, can be very opinionated about what her thoughts and desires are concerning any one particular subject. This wife, woman, soul has the ability to think, reason, feel and express all that she is. She also has a choice of how to use these faculties. She can submit to the spirit, who is to be submitted to the Holy Spirit or she can be a law and a dictate unto herself and do what seems right in her own eyes.
Now concerning the attributes and demeanor of the husband or the spirit. What the Lord is to us should be the example of what the husband is to the wife. The husband’s first thoughts and motives should not be for himself, but for his wife. As her head we wants to fully love her, serve her and nurture her within the confines and direction of the Father’s will and purpose. Just as the Holy Spirit doesn’t force Himself upon us and bully us into submission, this is not the role of the husband. Often we totally miss the mind and direction of the Holy Spirit because we are so insistent on doing things our way. So we just dismiss the Holy Spirit, like women often dismiss their husbands. We are going to do it our way. This is why so much of our lives are out of balance on so many planes, because we are out of balance with God’s plan and divine order in our lives.
We could carry this on in many different directions, but the point of the matter is this; for the dynamics of our home life, our society and most importantly our godly relationship to be in harmony and balance we have to have that right balance between soul and spirit. Just as the man or spirit must lay down his life for the woman, so the woman or soul must relinquish her will to his, so that both might meet as one in the direction and purpose of God. These are decisions of the heart and of the will. Our will is ours to keep or to relinquish as we choose, but we know that to realize God’s best and His highest for us, we all must relinquish the will of our souls to His divine will and purpose for us. Thus we can see how this plays out within our own personal lives, our marriage and our relationship with Christ. They all work together to accomplish the same end; lives in harmony with the will and purpose of God.
Blessings,
kent
Foolishness
February 21, 2012
Ecclesiastes 7:25
25 So I turned my mind to understand, to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly.
Folly and foolishness is bound up in the heart of all of us. What motivates one man to pursue wisdom and another to pursue folly and foolishness? What is folly and foolishness? In this scripture it is defined as the “stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly.” Stupidity isn’t just ignorance or not knowing. It is knowing what the right choice is and still choosing the wrong one. None of us have ever been stupid or foolish have we; knowing what is right and choosing to do the wrong thing anyway? We do it far more than we would like to admit. What motivates us to sin? It is foolishness. Now why are we so stupid? I guess it is what our stubborn flesh wants to do and the desire to satisfy it is stronger than the desire to be obedient to the mind and will of God.
The book of Proverbs spends quite a bit of its content addressing the contrast between wisdom and foolishness. Wisdom is the pursuit of life and the knowledge and understanding of it. It opposes foolishness, because wisdom’s direction is grounded in the principles that lead us to understanding and embracing the mind, will and purpose of God. Proverbs says that “folly is bound up in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction will drive it far from him.” As God’s children and even as adults we want to hold on to a lot of our foolishness. We can be wise in some areas, but there are other areas we don’t want to let go of folly. As a result we see the fruit of it in our lives. It affects our relationships, our finances and taints so much of our life. Why are we so stupid we won’t let go of it? Usually it has become a stronghold in us that now rules over us instead of us over it. These strongholds of foolishness can destroy us if we let them. We know what is right, but seem helpless to be obedient to the truth in certain areas. Here again the wisdom of the Lord is our deliverance. The first act of wisdom is when we acknowledge that these areas are wrong and we no longer want to be a slave to them. In our repentance we must seek God’s help; for it will not be conquered in our own power. It is wisdom to seek the help of trusted brothers or sisters who will pray with us, stand with us and hold us accountable. Our deliverance is when we come out of the darkness and into the light. In the light, satan is powerless and all his deceitfulness is exposed. It is in the darkness of our minds and the privacy our own thoughts he works to deceive and entice us to sin and folly.
Wisdom is known, not by her knowledge, but by her works. Many are ever learning, but never able to come to knowledge of the truth. Wisdom is spiritual and practical application of godly principles. Foolishness is poor judgment and wrong choices motivated by selfishness. All of us have a certain amount of foolishness left in us, but what are we pursuing today? Are we hungry and passionate about laying hold of the mind of Christ which is wisdom in circumstances of life or are we given to folly and just going with the flow? 1 Corinthians 1:18 tells us; “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” Our foolishness is bound up in the heart of our selfishness, only the cross at work in us will deliver us into the wisdom of the life and mind of God. Are we willing to release the stupidity of our folly and pursue wisdom at all cost to us?
Paul exhorts the Colossians, as well as us in Colossians 2: 1-4, “For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and [for] them at Laodicea, and [for] as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.” Christ is our wisdom and the standard against our folly. He is the deliverance from our foolish ways as we apply the principles of wisdom He is teaching us daily through our obedience. Remember, “The way of a fool [is] right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel [is] wise. (Proverbs 12:15)” Will you seek wisdom today as you pursue to know and do the will of God in every area of your life?
Blessings,
kent
Whose Image are You Identified With
February 20, 2012
2 Corinthians 5:21
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
When we see ourselves and others through the natural eyes of our understanding often all we see is cracked pots and broken vessels. We see the flaws, the shortcomings and all the reasons why God shouldn’t or wouldn’t accept us. As a result we make judgements upon ourselves and others that are not after God’s heart, but our own.
The enemy capitalizes upon the weaknesses, frailties and failures of men to bring further feelings of condemnation and unworthiness to us. Through that image satan brings us to place where all we may see is our separation and unworthiness from the Father. So often we allow this orphan spirit to become our identity and we begin to embrace his lie that robs us of our hope of restoration and relationship with our Creator.
Is that really truth? Is that the reality God wants us to live in?
If it were, would Jesus have needed to sacrifice His holy life for us. He took our sin upon Himself and became that sin for us, suffering the cross which was God’s holy judgement upon our sin, failure and shortcomings. Even though many of us as believers acknowledge and receive that message, we still allow the law of sin and death to bring its condemnation in upon us and we still see ourselves after the natural man, embracing condemnation and defeat.
God wants to give us the eyes of the Spirit to see ourselves through His Truth and through His Word. Jesus died to bring us into freedom and victory and into the identity of the way He has made for us to be sons and daughters of our Father God. Jesus came to give back to us that godly identity and sonship that was robbed from in the garden through the first Adam. It is only as we are willing to look in the mirror of God’s Word that we can begin to see the image of Him who formed us in His likeness. There His Word declares the riches of who we are in Christ. What we see is what we once were is dead. We identified it with Christ upon the cross. It has been crucified therefore it no longer lives. Yet we so often lose sight of that as believers and we become the walking dead, resurrecting an old man that we crucified. That is an unholy thing and an affront to Him who gave His life for us. He raised us up a new creation to walk in the newness of His life, not our old one. He didn’t just accomplish this for us and then expect us to do it on our own, but He placed His Holy Spirit within us, that bears witness and gives power to this new life within us.
Now the Word exhorts us that even as in times past we gave life to the flesh we do so no more, but now we give place and give life to the Spirit of God and by this same Spirit that abides within us we put to death the deeds of the flesh that we may live out of the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. Our bodies are no longer the instruments of sin, but of righteousness to express and communicate His life that now abides within us. Our soul is now being transformed into the image and likeness of Him who indwells our spirit. Our outward man is now becoming the expression and instrument of that life giving force, power and righteousness that abides within us.
We are no longer are working under the fallacy of taking an old unredeemed life and body and making good and acceptable enough to worthy. We have already seen through the law that this doesn’t work, but Christ comes within us by faith we accept and receive Him to transform us from the inside out by His righteousness and by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit within us.
People of God, let us lay hold of the identity that Christ has imparted into us, for our lives are hid in Him and as the Father looks upon us He sees us through the righteousness of His Son who is now our life and our righteousness. Stop seeing yourself after the flesh and the natural man and start identifying with who the Father says you are. Stop embracing the lie of the enemy and start embracing the truth of your God.
We may still see that we have shortcomings, issues and areas we know aren’t lining up with the Word of God, but rather than condemning ourselves, let us press into Him the more in those areas that He may be Lord of All. He loves and accepts us in spite of ourselves, but He also loves us too much to leave us the way we were. So Father we renounce the works of darkness that still try to operate in our lives and we embrace the Spirit of life that is dispelling all the darkness that once had dominion. “For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:13)” “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Romans 8:37)”
Blessings,
kent
Be Willing to let the Former Things Go
February 17, 2012
Matthew 18:16-22
Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
17″Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.”
18″Which ones?” the man inquired.
Jesus replied, ” ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, 19honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.'”
20″All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”
21Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
22When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
Many of us are seeking God for a greater revelation, a deeper experience, closer relationship and greater power in our lives. We are much like this rich young ruler. We may well have found the eternal life, but we are looking for how we can come into that next level of relationship and intimacy with the Lord. For many of us, we are not so different than this rich young man is. Like him, we love God and we have followed after righteousness, but how do we press into the Most Holy Place. We have the basics, but we are hungry for more.
What I hear the Lord speaking is that often the riches we think we have are our greatest detriment to going further in our walk with Christ. We have done all that we know to do and we are asking the Lord, “What do I still lack?”
What Jesus tells the young man is this, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Now some of you are thinking, “that is not my problem, I don’t have a lot of possessions. More accurately for all of us, Jesus could be saying, “ If you want to be perfect, be willing to let go of the affections and the things that possess your heart.” Many of us are missing out today because we are unwilling to let go of what is in our hand so that we can take the hand of Jesus to lift us to higher ground. Some of the things we count as important and our riches are actually our detriment and deterrent from experiencing a richer deeper life in the Spirit. For some of us it is material things, for others it is old paradigms and ways of thinking, for others it is fear and unbelief and for others it is wrong affections or relationships. There are many things that we may be unwilling to let go of today, but like the rich young man we have a choice. We can go away mad or we can get glad. The choice is ours to make. Often we have to be willing to let go of the former things if we want to press on to experience the greater things in Christ Jesus.
Blessings,
kent
Living in a New Dimension
February 16, 2012
Romans 8:1-17
1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
5Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7the sinful mindf is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
9You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
12Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
Romans 8 is perhaps one of the most high velocity and revolutionary chapters in the Word of God because it speaks so powerfully into who we are and who we are not. So many of us continue to carry with us this “Old Man” mentality. It is so detrimental to our spiritual walk and the identity of who we are in Christ Jesus. In the church world there is so much emphasis and how to change the old man and become better. In the Lord’s eyes the old man no longer exists to the believer in Christ Jesus. He has been nailed with Jesus to the cross. He was buried and he passed away in that old law of sin and death. This is the whole significance of water baptism to help our minds comprehend this reality that old things and old natures have passed away and behold we have been resurrected in Christ into the newness of His life.
Father has brought us into a new dimension, a new realm and a new place. Things may look much the same outwardly, but now we are to be living out of a new law. It is just like if we go to outer space, many of the laws that restrict and rule us here, no longer are in effect in that dimension. In Christ, the law of the Spirit of Life, has set us free from the law of sin and death.
Jesus tells us in John 4 that God is Spirit and they that worship Him must worship in Spirit and in Truth. This is the reality of where we should now be living. Yes, we maintain the outward man, with its weaknesses and flaws, but now we realize that what we could never change from “the outside in”, because of the weakness of our flesh. We can be transformed from “the inside out” through the power and in-working of the Spirit of Christ in us. We have to spiritually grasp the paradigm shift that has taken place. When we do, we will reckon ourselves dead to sin, but alive unto Christ. Everything that we formally were was hostile to God, nevertheless, God’s grace in Christ has brought us into the place where now we are the friend of God; not only are we the friend of God, but God calls us His sons. In order for us to walk in this place of sonship we have to be led by the Spirit of God and live out of that law of the Spirit of Life that is in Christ Jesus. This passage is telling us what that looks like. The sinful nature of the person we were has to be past tense, because it can’t effectually operate in this dimension and realm.
Yes, we all still deal with our issues.
How do we deal with them?
Romans 8:13 provides us with the key. “… but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” It is the Spirit of God within you that is empowering you to live a victorious life and overcome the areas of the former realm you are still dealing with. Remember, that is not who you are or what you are any longer, so don’t let the enemy try and put that identity back on you. This is what happens so often to so many of us. We find ourselves living again in the identity of who we were in our former man, rather than who we now are in Christ. Your identity is paramount to your victory. You can’t be victorious in something that you think your not. Where there is no faith, there is no victory. Faith is not looking at the thing you see, it is looking at the things you can not see, but that God says are true. Only the faith in His truth can make them a reality to you. As you walk by the Spirit, out of the power of the Spirit, believing what God says about you, you will find yourself being transformed from glory to glory even into the same likeness as Jesus. This only follows if Father God has put His DNA in you through His Spirit. Your spiritual birth should cause you to grow up in His likeness.
Remember who you are, and the law that you now function under. It is no longer the law of sin and death that leads to your condemnation. You live under the law of FREEDOM! The law of the Spirit of Life that has set you free from the law of sin and death. Don’t allow yourself to be put under that law again as we find the Galatians starting to do as they started yielding to that old mindset and teaching of the law.
Father wants His highest for you. Get a revelation of who you are and don’t settle for anything less. You are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and His Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are His children; heirs and joint-heirs with Christ. Live out of that new dimension of His Spirit Life
Blessings,
kent
God Works Best in Broken Vessels
February 15, 2012
Isaiah 66:2
For all those [things] hath mine hand made, and all those [things] have been, saith the LORD: but to this [man] will I look, [even] to [him that is] poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.
Has life, experiences and people brought you to a place of brokenness? Has all that you sought to build and do came to nothing? Have you fully come to the end of yourself and your efforts? If you have that is a good place to be. It doesn’t always feel good or appear good, but it is at the end of ourselves that we finally find God’s will and purpose. It is there that we come to the full revelation that we are nothing outside of Him who is everything. It is there that we can confront God in naked honesty and abandonment of self. It is there that we fully realize that He alone is God; He establishes and He tears down, but what ever remains has to be of Him. It is the poor, humble and contrite man that comes in total honesty and brokenness before His God. There are no pretenses, no self-righteousness and no illusions that He is anything outside of God’s will and purpose for His life.
Often the inroads to this state and place are very hard and painful. Often we come there through the loss of all that we held dear in this world. Yet, in that place there is such honesty in our brokeness. We have finally come to a place where now God can fill the emptiness with Himself. We have come through our Gethsemane place of temptation and we have experienced a Calvary through the work of the cross in our lives. We have died to self, but in that death we are now about to experience our resurrection in the greater place of His life. It is on the other side of the cross that we touch God’s glory and we find a restoration beyond that which we have experienced in the world or through any efforts of our own.
No wonder God is looking for this person of a broken, poor and contrite spirit. One who now trembles at God’s Word and lives in the awesome fear of Him. This man is now ready for God’s use and His power to be demonstrated through Him, because in this place none will receive the glory other than God who gives the increase. This person is an emptied vessel that God can fill with the richness of Himself and His Spirit.
“God, as painful as it may be, bring us to this place. This is the place of true godly men and women that are ripe for Your increase and Your outpouring. Bring us to that state of spirit because you work best in broken vessels.”
Blessings,
kentA
Purest Love
February 14, 2012
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love has many descriptions and forms, but the purest love is that which gives itself unselfishly on behalf of another, expecting and looking for nothing in return. The purest expression of that love was found in the face of Jesus. From the time that Christ determined to give His life for us in Jesus, His motives were for none other than our good, salvation and blessing. He alone could do for us what we could not do for ourselves.
The greatest gift of love is for a father to give his only son, because the greatest gift of love is in the greatest sacrifice of love. I don’t know if it is fully in the capacity of man to comprehend the immensity and gravity of God’s gift of love to us. All I know is it is a love like none other.
It is that love I pray God so baptizes us into that we may love His creation with the passion and intensity that we realize that He has love us. It is only in the experience and the apprehension of that love that we can really move with God’s heart toward the world that He desires to reconcile back to Himself. No religion can truly mimic that love, it can only come from the heart of Himself that He has placed within us. Only then can we move out of His motive of true sacrificial love.
There is a love that is unique to heaven itself and it desires its expression through the ones who have partaken of it and experienced first hand its redeeming grace.
”Holy Spirit baptize your people in that same love that You have had for us. Allow us to love and pursue Your humanity as You have loved and pursued us. Only that purest form of love will do, because that purest form of love we see fully in the face of You.”
Blessings,
kent
The End of Worldly Reliance
February 13, 2012
Revelations 14:8
A second angel followed and said, “Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great, which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.”
We have grown up in a way of life that has been dependent upon the world system for our livelihood and survival. As a result in many ways it has become our master; controlling our time, our resources and our lives. Revelation makes clear here what its end shall be and then what?
God isn’t trying to instill fear in His people, but He is awakening us to what it is to operate out of a new system. When Jesus came as the kingdom of God to deposit the kingdom of God in the earth. Many of us as believers have embraced that to a degree, but we have a mixture of both kingdoms operating in our lives. This the time for us to begin to learn operating out of the kingdom of God as we are coming out of the Babylonish system that controls the world. In order for us to do that we have to really turn our attention to more fully and intimately know our God and His ways. We must unlearn our religious thinking while learning to embrace kingdom principles and precepts of God’s Word. For most of us that is like Peter when he stepped out of the boat to come to Jesus on the water. In the process of our learning what kingdom really looks like and how we are to operate in it, we are going to be like Peter. There will be times our circumstances will rise up like billowing waves and they will take our eyes off of Jesus. Know that Jesus is always there to save.
Kingdom of heaven living comes out of knowing who you are, your God given identity. It comes from knowing where you live. If you only live with an earthly mindset that only see the surrounding circumstances as reality, then how can you do as Ephesians 2:4-7 tells us? “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, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” Kingdom people are learning to live out of their heavenly position and not their earthly one. The kingdom of God is a realm of faith and to live there we must learn to operate and live out of faith. It is not faith in ourselves and our abilities any longer; it is faith in the Word of God and the direction of the Holy Spirit.
God is pulling back the veil that has hidden the kingdom from our eyes of unbelief. He is making that dimension more real and known as we are moving forward in this new day. But the eyes that see and step into it are the eyes of faith.
Jesus has completed the work and set down at the right hand of the Father till His enemies be made His footstool. That means all of the enemies of Christ must be put under our feet as well if we are indeed the body of Christ. We are the completion and fulfillment of what Jesus accomplished upon the cross. He did the hard part, now we must appropriate what He has already accomplished.
Father is moving and calling us out of Babylon. It is already a fallen and failed system. What takes its place, is for us to learn how to operate out of a heavenly system with Father God as our resource. The old system was built upon your works, this one is built upon your rest. Trust and obedience are the foundational supports.
Blessings,
kent
Do not Abandon the Works of Your Hands
February 10, 2012
Psalms 138
I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart; before the “gods” I will sing your praise.
2I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name
for your love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things
your name and your word.
3When I called, you answered me; you made me bold and stouthearted.
4May all the kings of the earth praise you, O Lord, when they hear the words of your mouth.
5May they sing of the ways of the Lord, for the glory of the Lord is great.
6Though the Lord is on high, he looks upon the lowly, but the proud he knows from afar.
7Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life;
you stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes, with your right hand you save me.
8The Lord will fulfill [his purpose] for me; your love, O Lord, endures forever—
do not abandon the works of your hands.
Those who walk with the Father, in the Son and through the loving direction of His Spirit know, appreciate and worship how awesome He is. Our testimonies are many as we look back over His faithfulness in our lives. Before, all that are acknowledged as gods in this world, we exalt our God and sing His praise. We have embraced and been embraced by our love affair with Jesus and in the intimacy of that relationship we have come to know Him personally. As the scripture says, we have come to recognize that above and beyond all things stands the integrity, power and foundational truth of His Name and His Word.
God has put that awesome Word in our hands that we may live out of the power and the kingdom dimension of His holy truth. That truth He is not only forming in our minds, but conforming in our beings. We are becoming that truth, as we move by faith in that truth.
What is the name of God? Did you know that the Father gave Jesus His name? John 17:11 says, “I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your NAME—the NAME you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one.” Jesus came both as the Word of God and the Name of God. He was the incarnate physical manifestation of those in the earth. Do we fully comprehend that when we have received Christ and embraced Him by faith, God’s Name and His Word have been imparted into us by the Holy Spirit?
God often takes us places in our lives where we begin to experience and lay hold of what is resident inside of us. As such we see Father move on our behalf in the midst our troubles as we humbly lean upon His Name and trust in His Word. We live with the resources of heaven on our side. We are coming to know Him as our resource in every need. It is the trials and the testing that stirs us to begin to really draw upon the resources that Father has made available to us.
What we don’t sometimes see is that because He has invested Himself so much in us, we are His resource as well. Even as Jesus carried the Father in His earthen vessel to manifest His nature, character and love, so we carry Christ in us. Jesus declares more than once in John 17 how we are one with the Father and the Son. We are part of the Holy Family. We are God’s resource in the earth to communicate through every aspect of our being who He is. As we look over the earth it is evident that maybe we, as the body of Christ, aren’t really grasping and living into who we are. Religion has again become the replacement for what God looks like to the world. Only we, who have a revelation of the Father and who He is in us can truly manifest Him to the world.
Our cry in this hour is, “Father, do not abandon the works of your hands.” Bring forth in your true people the image and likeness of who you are. Allow the world to see you for who and what you truly are. May God’s Name and His Word be what is operating through us and providing the resources that we need to bring the kingdom of God to earth and to see His will done in the earth as it is in heaven. We are the resources of God’s kingdom building. We are what make up His holy mountain and the temple of His glory that will be exalted above every other mountain and kingdom. He has chosen us to be the light and the outshining of His glory in the earth.
“Father, do not abandon the works of you hands, but bring us into the fullness of what you created us for.”
Blessings,
kent
tricklesoftruth 