We Have to Let Go to Enter In

Matthew 10:39

If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.

We Have to Let Go to Enter In

This word is not to condemn us, but rather to exhort us to greater vision and higher purpose.  Many of us are well meaning Christians  who love the Lord and are honestly endeavoring to serve and please Him, but it is in the way that is comfortable and convenient for us.  We in America still have our comfortable nests that facilitate our life styles and creature comforts.  While our nests have been ruffled to some degree, at this point we see what may be coming, but we haven’t yet experienced the full brunt of the storm.  Many of our Christian brothers and sisters in other countries have not only experienced the storm, but are living in it.  They have had to come to a choice of which life they are going to cling too and which one they are going to give up.  Most of us, quite frankly, haven’t really come to that place of decision.  As a result we endeavor to embrace both lives to one degree or another.  It is because of this place that many of us dwell in a state of lethargy, complacency and apathy concerning our full pursuit of the kingdom of God and a purpose driven life that we are existing in, outside of the perfect will of God.  Our lives are still pretty much motivated and driven according to our own purpose.  We are content to pursue, pray and believe for the blessings of God, but are often unwilling to enter into the training and discipline of the army of God that is preparing and entering into spiritual warfare by appropriating the resources of the kingdom of God to bring that kingdom into the earth.  We still have our little compartments for “God time” and “me time”.  

Unfortunately, for most of us, it may take a radical life changing event to shift us into just which life we are going to cling too and which life we are going to give up.  I speak this to myself as well as anyone else, we have been living in a state of compromise.  That is why we see impotency of our faith.  The results of our faith are watered down just like the faith that we live.  

I’ll be honest with you, I am disheartened by the in-part results that I see in our Christian faith.  I don’t see that power and authority  revealed that I believe that Father has made available to us and I believe it is us robbing ourselves because of the level of commitment that is in much of our faith.  I see it in myself and I see it in others.  

What would our army be like and how effective or successful would they be if they only fought when they felt like it or obeyed orders if they wanted too or only showed up when it worked into their schedule?  What I am describing is God’s army in us.  Is it any wonder that we meet with such a small level of success?  

The Holy Spirit is not in the business of condemnation, but He does exhort us to godliness and good works.  I am not talking about earning our righteousness, but rather being the righteousness of God by lives that are sold out in faith to Him.  

Have we really defined which life we are saving and losing?  Perhaps we have mentally, but how about in the reality of how we live and purpose our lives?  

The people most likely to survive the killer storms are the ones who have prepared themselves for it.  We are talking spiritually here and not just physically.  There is no time in the middle of the storm or the battle to learn and practice proper warfare and survival; those are the preparations the wise man makes before they come.  

This is the final hour of preparation and we must shed our apathy and complacency.  We must have an ear to hear the trumpet sounding and prepare for battle.  If we really want to save our lives then we must learn to lose our life in pursuit of His.  

Blessings,

#kent

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Troubles that Confront Us

Philippians 1:19-24

…for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.d 20I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. 21For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; 24but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.

Troubles that Confront Us

Throughout life, those near us or ourselves personally, are touched by tragedy, disappointments, hardship, setbacks, hurts, sickness and trials of various kinds.  If we don’t have a revelation of what our life purpose is we can become discouraged, bitter, unforgiving and even blame God for what touches our life or the lives of those around us.  Paul gives us a perspective here of a life that is lived and dedicated to Christ.  No matter what adversity befalls him, Paul has one goal and purpose.  His life, he does not consider his own, but Christ’s and the life he now lives, he lives by faith, not for himself, but for Christ who died and gave Himself for Paul.  Whether in life or death, Paul’s life is about living for Christ and fulfilling his purpose in Him.  We all need to get a greater revelation of how Paul lived his life.  Most of us still see our lives as being mostly about us.  In that place of giving life to self there will always be things that we are struggling with that will touch us through our emotions, feelings, mind and will.  Things that we struggle with because we are rationalizing them with the natural mind and understanding.  For the person that is truly dead in Christ all that really matters is that Christ is fully living through them.  Rather good or bad, it His will and destiny that directs their lives and gives them the purpose for living and being.  The body and earthly life are but a tool in the hand of God to work His greater work and will through.  We are the callused hands of His working in the earth to make a difference in the lives of those He touches through us.  We are also the gentle touch of compassion and grace that leads others to repentance.  We are His precious hands and feet to bring the kingdom of God into the earth and we do that as He lives and has expression through us.  The more of self that is in the way, the more of that purpose is hindered and His true nature is polluted.  

Bad things do happen to good people,  Bad things happened to Jesus, the Son of God and bad things can happen to us.  It is not the bad things that happen that define our life, but rather the goodness of the God that lives within us.  We don’t always see the ultimate and long-term purposes of God.  The disciples couldn’t see the purpose and goodness of God when Jesus was crucified.   When, we, like Jesus are willing to pour out our lives for others then we can have assurance that God will take the seed of sacrifice that we planted and bring forth a harvest.  Let us not be so concerned about this current life, but rather living out of the eternal life that inhabits us.  Fear God and not the things you may suffer, for as Paul says in Romans 8:18, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”  All of this is the preparation for the revelation of the sons of God who will set creation free.  Our rest is in our death and His life, so when this life is spent it only gives place to a greater place of glory. It is not the physical death that we must fear, it is the spiritual life or death with which we must be concerned.  The purpose of our life is to perpetuate that spiritual life.  No matter what confronts us we live out of His life and not our physical strength and being or natural understanding. 

Blessings,

#kent

A Principle of Life about Fear

2 Timothy 1:7

For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

A Principle of Life about Fear

If given the choice, most of us would be quite content to live a nice, safe, secure, healthy and relatively uneventful life.  In many ways, a lot of us have.  We need to ask ourselves is that really living or is that comfortably dying a slow death?  

One thing fear does, is it gets us out of our comfort zone.  It often gets our heart racing and our adrenaline pumping.  Our senses come alive in the face of danger and uncertainty.  If we could see our lives in the light of the spiritual couch potatoes we would become if we never faced any trials, testing or adversity, then we can better appreciate why God allows them to come into our lives.  

In order for our faith to grow it must be challenged so that our faith can come up to the level of our challenge.  Since fear doesn’t come to us from God then we must realize that faith is the antidote to fear.  Faith sets our eyes and attention back where they belong.  Looking to the Father.  When we realize that fear comes from our inadequacy, weakness and inability to control a situation, we either have to face it in the frailty of human ability or have a revelation of what God has given us to counter it with.  God hasn’t given us the spirit of fear, but what He has given us is the Spirit of power, love and a sound mind.  We have a mighty arsenal to combat fear and to overcome it.  Fear only works as long as you are afraid.  When you are no longer afraid, fear has lost its power.  What the Word of God is telling us is that you don’t have to be afraid.  You don’t have to fret, worry or be anxious.  What you need to do, is lay hold with faith and confidence upon God’s Word, His promises and assurance.  The more you fill your self with the Word of God and spend time in His presence; the more bold, confident and faith-filled you become.  For the enemy and the spirit of fear, you then, become a force to be reckoned with.  The person who really has a revelation of their identity in Christ, who knows their position in heavenly places in Christ Jesus and operates in their God given and appointed purpose is a dangerous person to the enemy of fear and darkness.  The gates of hell can not prevail against that person.  

An example of such a person was seen in David.  He was called, appointed, anointed and knew who he was in God when he confronted Goliath.  He didn’t fall into that trap of fear like the rest of the camp of Israel.  He came from a place of faith and authority, not his, but the Spirit of God in him.  Later, we see Saul, with all the resources and armies of Israel at his command pursuing David’s life, but unable to capture and take it.  He was that spirit of fear that pursued David, but was unable to prevail, because David put his trust and confidence in the Lord.  

Was that an easy place for David? No, it was a very difficult place, but at that time David lived and walked with God closer than at any other time in his life.  Adversities are often allowed in our lives to stir us into faith.  They cause our spiritual senses to come alive and get our focus off of the world onto the Lord.  Fear isn’t always a bad thing, not because we want to succumb to it, but because we want the faith to arise in our hearts, along with the resident power, love and the mind of Christ to overcome all fear and the adversary that stands before us.  The force of opposition only serves to make us stronger.

We are sons and daughters of the Most High God.  Our Captain, King and Savior has conquered death and the grave.  He has set down at the right Hand of the Father until His enemies be made His footstool.  We are the body and feet of our Captain and King, Jesus.  He is putting the enemy beneath our feet, because we are His.  

Someone once said, “You need to either get busy living or get busy dying.”  Our time for being complacent, lethargic and comfortable is soon coming to an end.  We need to make the choice to live or to die, life or death.  If we are going to live then we need to live out of the place where we pursue fear and it doesn’t pursue us.  We have to come into that place of having assurance of who we are and what God put us on this earth for.  We were not put here to be subject to this kingdom that lives under the rule and power of sin and death.  We live under the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus.  We were put here to invade this earthly kingdom with the kingdom Heaven, Life and God.  “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven.”  We are God’s portals, conduits and well springs through which He invades the kingdom of this earth.  That is not going to happen through spiritual couch potatoes that are content with the leeks and onions of Egypt.  It is going to happen through an army of believers that are hearing the trumpet of war sounding in God’s camp and are responding to it.  If we don’t respond to God’s calling and come into that place of abiding in the Almighty and under the shadow of His wing, then soon the spirit of fear will arise and cover the earth and those who have not found their place in Him will be overtaken by it.  Father has not given us that spirit of fear,  He has given us the Spirit of Sonship, whereby we cry, “Abba, Father”.  We are His kids and we were born for this, so don’t allow fear to rule your hearts, but come up into the faith and confidence of who you are in Christ and trample fear beneath your feet!

Blessings,
#kent

In the Residence of His Being

Hebrews 4:3

Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,

   “So I declared on oath in my anger,

   ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ “And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world.”

In the Residence of His Being

“Let your hearts be not troubled.  Believe in God, Believe also in me (John 14:1).”  Burdens are carried when we are in unrest and worry.  

I was reading over in Hebrews 4:3 this morning, “And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world.”  It was striking me how God’s work is a finished work from beginning to end.  The only way we can be at peace and rest in that finished work is when we are in alignment with it.  God knows our beginning and our end.  Nothing we can do will surprise Him or catch Him unawares.  Our lives and future are still a mystery and an unknown to us, but not to Him.  His work is finished and He knows how every detail is going to work out.  The question we have is, “do we have enough confidence and faith in God to trust Him as we relinquish our lives and will into His hands?”

Peace is not just a state of being but a Person of residence.  The peace and rest of God are found, not in a state of being, but in the person of Christ in us.  The circumstances around us and the human interactions that we are caught up in, so often want to dislodge us from that place and person of peace.  It must of been disconcerting to those who sought to find fault with Jesus, so they would seek to provoke Him or trap Him, but they couldn’t dislodge Him from His peace.  Jesus had the discernment to see the motives of their heart, but more than that He had the residence of the Father abiding in Him.  He didn’t leave that place.  He didn’t see His world just as it appeared before Him in the natural realm, but He saw it through the love and purpose of God.  He discerned the spiritual activity and spirits that were present always scheming how they might kill, steal, destroy and discredit the name of Jesus.  Even with their scheming and devices, their was apparent victory for them when they moved in Judas to betray Him and through the Jewish leaders and Romans to scourge, torture and crucify Him.  What the enemy didn’t see was the finished work of the Father.  What the enemy meant for evil the Father had purposed for good.  That is a principle that we need to remember in our own lives in the trials and tribulations that we go through.  The enemy may be trying to destroy you, but Roman 8:28-31 declares, “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.

31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?”  

You see, God is in control of your life.  He has your destiny in His hands.  If you want the perfect will of God for you, then just trust Him for it and obey His Word.  It is only when we quit fighting the water that we learn to swim in it and allow it to carry us rather than drown us.  When we fight God through selfishness, doubt, fear, unbelief and disobedience, we nullify the very things that are in place to carry us into His peace and rest.  Let us not resist Him as the children of disobedience, but rest in the arms of His purpose and love for us.  Philippians 1:6 reassures us,”Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform [it] until the day of Jesus Christ.” 

Blessings,

#kent

The Substance of Reality

Colosians 2:13-17

And you who were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh (your sensuality, your sinful carnal nature), [God] brought to life together with [Christ], having [freely] forgiven us all our transgressions, 14Having cancelled and blotted out and wiped away the handwriting of the note (bond) with its legal decrees and demands which was in force and stood against us (hostile to us). This [note with its regulations, decrees, and demands] He set aside and cleared completely out of our way by nailing it to [His] cross. 15[God] disarmed the principalities and powers that were ranged against us and made a bold display and public example of them, in triumphing over them in Him and in it [the cross]. 16Therefore let no one sit in judgment on you in matters of food and drink, or with regard to a feast day or a New Moon or a Sabbath. 17Such [things] are only the shadow of things that are to come, and they have only a symbolic value. But the reality (the substance, the solid fact of what is foreshadowed, the body of it) belongs to Christ.

The Substance of Reality

The Law of Moses with its decrees, regulations and ordinances has stood as a weapon of destruction and condemnation in the hand of satan.  Because we are weak in our flesh and couldn’t live up to the holiness of the law it became death to us and not life.  When Jesus went to the cross the Word says that He took that former Law and nailed it to the cross so that when He died, it died with Him.  Our biggest mistake is that we want to resurrect our flesh and the former laws that governed it by identifying and putting back into place those former things for which Christ died.  There is a strong religious spirit out there in Christendom today that is putting men and women again under the bondage and regulations of the law.  The Word of God says that if we are in Christ we are dead to the law.  This was an on going battle that the Apostle Paul taught and preached against.  Judaizers were continually trying to bring new Christians under the ordinances and regulations of the Mosaic Law.  The former Law is dependent upon the flesh to keep and live up to it.  That is why it is death and condemnation to those that try to live under it.  Those that seek to live under it will be judged by it.  The Law of Moses was a type and shadow of that which was to replace it and the substance of that replacement is found in Christ.  Why would we settle for the lesser, the shadow when we can have the substance of the reality?  

Roman 8:1-4 sets it forth very plainly, “1THEREFORE, [there is] now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live [and] walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit. 2For the law of the Spirit of life [which is] in Christ Jesus [the law of our new being] has freed me from the law of sin and of death. 3For God has done what the Law could not do, [its power] being weakened by the flesh [the entire nature of man without the Holy Spirit]. Sending His own Son in the guise of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, [God] condemned sin in the flesh [subdued, overcame, deprived it of its power over all who accept that sacrifice], 4So that the righteous and just requirement of the Law might be fully met in us who live and move not in the ways of the flesh but in the ways of the Spirit [our lives governed not by the standards and according to the dictates of the flesh, but controlled by the Holy Spirit].

We are spiritual beings ruled by the law of Christ and the Holy Spirit that has come to abide in our hearts.  The New Testament bears witness of that Law of life in Christ Jesus that now governs our souls.  Let go of the former ordinances and ways that bring you again under the condemnation of the flesh and walk by the Spirit in the principles of life and godliness.  He has freed you to be the expression of Him and He has written His laws upon your heart.   No longer trade the former shadow for the substance of His reality.

Blessings,

#kent

Do You want more of God?

James 4:7-10

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. 

Do You want more of God?

When we work on many things it is hard to do any one thing well.  If we really want to see God showing up in our lives and circumstances, then the one thing we need to do really well is God.  God realizes that we have lives to live on this earth and responsibilities that go with that, but in all that we do He should be in the center of it.  He tells us in the scripture prior to this what is separating us from Him.  “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? 6But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: 

“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.””  How easy it is for us to get friendly with the world, because the world caters to our flesh, our want to’s and like to’s.   It is like when a good looking woman walks by as we are talking to our wife and our eyes come off of her and start following that woman.  God gets jealous over us, much like our wives do.  That other woman isn’t your business; God is your business.  So when He is exhorting us to ‘submit ourselves, then to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.’  He is telling us to focus with a single eye upon Him.  Don’t get distracted by what your flesh wants to do.  Remember that it is dead and has been crucified with Christ, so it doesn’t get to vote any longer.  We are a new creation, like Christ in that we are focused on doing what the Father wants us to do, saying what the Father wants us to say and going where the Father wants us to go.  We are always straining our spiritual ears to hear Him and watching with our spiritual eyes to see what He sees.  We do that by coming near to Him, not out of duty, guilt or religiosity, but out of the love and desire for His presence.   He must be like the air we breathe; we will suffocate without Him.  He becomes life itself and all that we do whether in the secular world or the religious world has its anchor in Him.  All that we are in this life is for His good pleasure.  

James then talks to us about how to get down to the business of pursuing God.  First there is the full submission of your heart.  Secondly there is the resisting of the devil and his devices that distract us from Father and then there is our approach to the Father.   First we take a bath, clean up in the blood of Jesus, and throw away our garments spotted in the flesh.  We purify our thoughts.  Philippians 4:8 exhorts us, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things [are] honest, whatsoever things [are] just, whatsoever things [are] pure, whatsoever things [are] lovely, whatsoever things [are] of good report; if [there be] any virtue, and if [there be] any praise, think on these things.”  Then we have to trash all of our boxes.  

“What do you mean, trash all of our boxes?” 

We have all of these boxes in our lives.  We have a job box, our social box, our sports box, our party box, our serious business box and then our God box.  We often compartmentalize our lives where we function under a different set of rules and standards, depending upon which box we are working out of and which circle of people we are dealing with.  That is a double-minded man.  The man of God has one standard and that is God.   Every area of life for this man or woman of God issues out of God’s standard and His heart.  This is kingdom living.  It is living our life in Christ’s principles from the simplest things to the most complex, from our social relationship and work relationship to our God relationship; we only have one toolbox and it is God’s Word!  

Once we have established that we have a single mind then we deal with our attitude.  God becomes our solemn assembly.  We are down to business with God where nothing else matters but Him.  We come into that place of a repentant, broken and contrite spirit, where “God, I have to have You and Your presence or I will die.  We crawl up on His altar and we become poured out before Him.  All of our dignity and self-respect is cast aside and we are on our face crying out for Him.  Our spirit is yearning and our heart is aching as we pursue His presence.  There is no other agenda, but God Himself.  God tells us, if we draw near to Him this way, then He will look upon us with compassion and draw near to us.  He is looking for a people that really mean business with Him in this hour.  Is that our heart and our passion?  Are we that people?

“For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of [them] whose heart [is] perfect toward him…” (2 Chronicles 16:9)

Blessings,

#kent

Destiny of Greatness

Destiny of Greatness

Ephesians 1:3-10

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. 9And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. 

The grace and calling of God toward us who have been called out of darkness and brought into the light of the kingdom of God is so phenomenal that it really staggers our natural thinking to comprehend it.  My guess is that even what we think we know and comprehend, even in the spirit, will be but a shadow in the light of the reality of that whichGod has for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.  The Apostle Paul had a revelation of this calling and destiny that is ours in Christ Jesus.  What that revelation did for him was to bring him to the place that his life was totally sold out to Christ.  It was this philosophy and attitude that brought him to declare his mission statement in Philippians 3:7-12, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” 

Paul had grasped and laid hold of a calling to greatness that made everything else in the world as dung in comparison to it.  Some might have considered Paul just a religious fanatic, but for those of us who have studied his writings we know that he was man of intense focus and commitment to the One who had met him on the road to Damascus.  Paul had what we so desperately need more of, a heavenly vision and purpose.  When we grasp and live out of who we are in Christ then our life will take on a whole new meaning and purpose.  We will no longer live for the momentary pleasures of this life, but for the eternal and heavenly calling we have in Christ Jesus.   

What others would count as gain in this world we would count as rubbish when we see it in the light of our God and His greatness.  Most of us are selling ourselves short and we are settling for cornhusks when our heavenly Father wants to prepare for us the fatted calf.  The paradox of this calling is that the way up is often the way down.  While our spirit is ascending, the body is descending as we walk the way of Christ.   His life was one destined to the cross.  Every step in His life was taking Him there.  What Jesus knew and what  kept Him true and obedient to His course is that the death He would die would be so eclipsed by the life that would result that it was so worth the price.  If we don’t have a real revelation of our calling and destiny in Christ it will be hard for us to walk in the way of the cross.  Hosea 4:6 says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.”  The knowledge and revelation of who we are in Christ is paramount to our identification in who we now are.  We struggle so because we continue to identify with who we are in the world rather than who we are in Christ.  We are who we are and we are becoming what God has called us to be because of the purpose and calling of God upon our lives.  In all humility we need to embrace with all of our being this calling and destiny we have in Christ Jesus.  Paul prayed for the people of God in Ephesians 1 that they would comprehend this high calling we have in Christ Jesus.  He prayed, “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints And what [is] the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set [him] at his own right hand in the heavenly [places], Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all [things] under his feet, and gave him [to be] the head over all [things] to the church Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.”

Let’s get in touch with the destiny of greatness that Christ has called us too and has made a way that we might be partakers of the divine nature.  Walk each day in the identification of who you are in Christ, not in this weak and perishable man.  It is not an arrogant thing to embrace what the Word has declared about you.  It is less than faith if we don’t.  You have a destiny of greatness, but you must believe and act upon who you are in Christ.  For it is now His life that we are to be living out of and not our own.   Embrace your destiny of greatness.

Blessings,

#kent

Establish the Earth

Isaiah 49:8-9

8Thus says the Lord, In an acceptable and favorable time I have heard and answered you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you; and I will preserve you and give you for a covenant to the people, to raise up and establish the land [from its present state of ruin] and to apportion and cause them to inherit the desolate [moral wastes of heathenism, their] heritages, 

9Saying to those who are bound, Come forth, and to those who are in [spiritual] darkness, Show yourselves [come into the light of the Sun of righteousness]. They shall feed in all the ways [in which they go], and their pastures shall be [not in deserts, but] on all the bare [grass-covered] hills.

Establish the Earth

Christ came to establish the kingdom of God in the earth.  He came as a prototype and firstfruits of that company of people that He would use to propagate and infuse this kingdom into the hearts of men throughout the earth.  The Lord Jesus gave us a commission to go out into all of the earth and bring the gospel and the good news to them.  What the Lord began with the Jews He has accomplished through the Gentiles, because as a whole, His own received Him not.  

Romans 11:25 says, “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.”  The rejection of Christ by the Jews has become the Gentile’s salvation.  We have reaped the benefit and blessing of their rejection.  God will not cast off His people for all time, but will again establish and restore their habitation and ruins. God has given us as a new covenant in Christ.  He has also given us the commission and the honor to establish this covenant in the earth.  What God has given us as a commission to do, He has not left us in our own strength and devices to carry it out.  Religions of men are built on such devices and the strength and wisdom of men will always fall short. The Lord has given us His signet ring, His authority and power for us to go to those who are bound in spiritual darkness and bring them into the light of the Son of righteousness.  

We are more than we think we are.  There is more potential power and authority in you than you can even imagine.  There is about to be a spiritual explosion in the earth.  The spirits of darkness and of light will manifest themselves as never before.  God has prepared us for this hour to magnify, declare and, with all spiritual authority, establish His Name in the earth.  

Most of us look at ourselves and say who am I?  What do I have?  What can I do?  You can be the instrument of God’s righteousness and deliverance.  Through our obedience and faith we can and will walk in places of spiritual authority and power that we have never known.  Take your eyes off of your flesh and get them upon Christ, for His headship and His life is being expressed through His body to carry out His will and covenant.  Our weakness is insignificant next to His strength.   

In 1 Chronicles 28:7-8 the Lord speaks concerning Solomon, “Moreover I will establish his kingdom for ever, if he be constant to do my commandments and my judgments, as at this day. Now therefore in the sight of all Israel the congregation of the LORD, and in the audience of our God, keep and seek for all the commandments of the LORD your God: that ye may possess this good land, and leave [it] for an inheritance for your children after you for ever.”  The Lord has given us His covenant to establish His kingdom.  What is working in us, will work through us, as we are constant to keep the Lord’s ways and set our hearts steadfastly upon Him.  The Lord is stirring in the hearts of His people to prepare our hearts. that we may walk in the faith and footsteps of the Son of God.  

Blessings,

#kent

Where is the Functioning Body?

1 Corinthians 4:1-11

There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.

7Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.

Where is the Functioning Body?

Isn’t it a wonder that the Holy Spirit, through Paul, takes several chapters here to explain and lay out the gifts of the Spirit and the functionality of the body of Christ and yet when we look at churches and service, with few exceptions, we don’t see this happening.  We may in a measure, but generally it is controlled, kept in the program and limited to very few individuals.  Somehow in our worship and assembly our eyes have been directed to the “ministry” and  “pastor” and not to the Holy Spirit. 

Don’t get me wrong.  There are a lot of pastor and teachers that deliver a great word, but where is the body functioning in the Holy Spirit through all of this.  We have put God in our neat little boxes and they vary in appearance from place to place, but does it really look like the Holy Spirit intended it too?  Is the body at large truly brought into participation through the leading and gifting of the Holy Spirit?

I think most churches and organization may consider this too dangerous.  It is too apt to get out of control and we can’t regulate it, so we don’t want to go there.  As a result the majority of the players set on the side line, while just our star players or coaches perform and play, usually in a well scripted manner of our own design.  Is that really what the Holy Spirit’s intent was for His Church? I believe many times the Holy Spirit Himself is setting out in the pews waiting on the sidelines while we have church as usual.  The Holy Spirit is in all of the body.  It is not just in the few that get up on stage.  Where is this Holy Spirit church operating in the freedom and “order” that the Word of God lays out for us?  We have become so dumbed down as the church, it is seldom we ever ask these questions, because this is the way we have always done it.  To us, that is what church is suppose to look like.  Is it?

As I read through the scriptures in 1 Corinthians 12-14, I see a many member body presented with multiple giftings, different kinds of services, but One and the same Lord.  I see that these giftings are to flow in harmony, in order and most of all out of love, not self, for the edification and the building up of the body of Christ.  

What I have been hearing in my spirit from the Holy Spirit is “Activation”.   I believe in this hour we are moving away from big names and singular people that headline our church, worship and ministry.  Holy Spirit needs to be put back in the forefront of our churches and assemblies, not any one man.  Do we still need pastors and teachers?  Of course we do.  We need all of the fivefold  and all of it’s functionality which is resident in all of us as Spirit filled believers to one degree or another.  

We are all at different levels in those Holy Spirit gifting that we possess, but how can they mature in us and through us unless they’re given place and opportunity to manifest and be cultivated in the right environment, which should be the church.  As we grow up and are built up in our faith and confidence in our giftings then those gifts need to be spilling over into our every day lives and how we can minister through them to the world around us.  Jesus gave us signs and wonders to confirm His Word.  How often do we see that operating?  

Maybe we have become impotent in seeing the power of God move, because we have sterilized Him.  We have kept Holy Spirit in the confines our religious box and thinking while we go through the motions of having church.  We weren’t birthed into Christ to play church; we were birthed into Christ to be the Church, in authority, power and love.  The five fold ministry of Ephesians 4 wasn’t given just to rule over and direct the services of the church.  Let’s look at what the Word of God says their function is for.  Ephesians 4:10-13 says, “He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,12to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.  The five-fold’s functionality is preparation and maturing the body.  Do football coaches go out and play the game while they leave their players on the bench to watch?  That’s what we do as the church.  We have a control issue, perhaps without even realizing it, because it has become to engrained in our thinking.  The coaches or the five-fold now want and are doing it all.  They teach about how to play the game and then they do all of the playing.  I wonder why so many pastors are getting burned out today and quitting the ministry?  They were never meant to do it all, but that is what has become the standard.  

People of God, Holy Spirit wants to activate us in this hour.  He wants us out on the field operating out of the giftings, service and abilities that He has placed within us.  We have become just as guilty as our leaders because we are content to be complacent and  just set back while we are taught, fed and someone else does all of the work.  I believe the Church, as a whole is out balance, and that balance is only going to be brought back as we are activated both within and without the walls of church to come into the fullness of what Christ designed each one of us to be.  If we want to see the power and love of God come back into the Church, then we have to put the Holy Spirit back in the driver’s seat, not just in word, but in action.

Blessings,

#kent

Kingdom Inheritors

1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Kingdom Inheritors

Romans 14:17-18 says, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.”  We are not inheriting a kingdom of flesh, but of Spirit.  God is making real to us who we are in Christ, that we are a spiritual and kingdom people being fashioned and transformed into His image and likeness.  It is just as important to know who we are not in Christ.  We are not what we used to be.  We are not what we came out of.  Those things have passed away and we are a new creature and creation in Christ Jesus.  God makes it clear that His kingdom is not made up of the thinking, ideology and behavior of this world.  Anyone that is still living and abiding in that paradigm in their thinking and living is not going to fit into the kingdom of God.  If we want God’s kingdom there is only one way and that is by being ‘washed, sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God’.  The blood of Jesus is the only thing that has the power to transform our lives from the world that is lost outside of Christ to those who are in Christ and become partakers of kingdom thinking, living and being.  

The Corinthians in this text were having a hard time transitioning their thinking and being to kingdom principles and kingdom ways.  The apostle Paul is telling them here that the former ways have no place in the kingdom.  They are enmity to it.  We live by a different standard and if we are not seeing the effectiveness and power of that kingdom, it may well be that things are not lining up in our thinking and living with kingdom principles and ways.  

We have a righteous King of glory, Jesus Christ the Righteous, who is establishing His kingdom within the hearts and the lives of His people.  If we consider ourselves His people then we need to find that place of complete submission to His Lordship.   Most all of us would agree that we want to go to heaven when we die, but how many of us are willing to go there while we live?  Ponder that question for a moment.  

You see living heaven on earth is a place we find first in our spirits.  Outwardly we still live in this world and as such we are faced with all of it trials and difficulties, as well as its pleasures, temptations and sins.  Heaven comes to earth when we are living and walking out the life of Christ and the principles of the kingdom in our earthly life and vessel.  We are the manifestation and expression of His kingdom in the earth.  When we mix the two realms of flesh and Spirit we get a muddy mess.  It is this muddy mess that defiles and taints the name of Jesus in the earth.  The world sees in us a people that proclaims and preaches one thing, but then tries to live it out with natural thinking and human ways.  No wonder they are put off by our hypocrisy.  God gives us some grace here.  We are growing and we are not fully matured yet, but it is important that our heart is after the kingdom of God and not the kingdoms of this world.  Already we see them passing away and more than ever we are impressed with the truth that we must lay hold of His kingdom in mind, word and deed.  Judgement is swiftly coming for the wicked, but our lives must stand as a testimony against all wickedness and perversity of men through the demonstration of righteous living and through the power of our love in Christ.  We stand as a testimony to God’s alternative to judgement.  We stand and walk with the light of hope and salvation for all that would believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and turn from their wicked ways.  Heaven is here, but it needs you as a vessel to reveal it and unveil it.  The kingdom of God has come, is come and is coming, but we are the revelation of its presence and reality in this world.  How will they know the King unless they see the reality of His kingdom in you and I?  We are where the rubber meets the road and where spiritual principles become practical reality in our daily living and actions.  If the wicked would see Jesus, they must see Him through us, not through our condemnation, but through our love and righteousness.  

A kingdom principle is, that our gain is often in our loss, and our life is found in our death. Paul reveals it this way in Philippians 3: 7-11, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”  This is a kingdom mentality and thinking.  It is how we transition into the kingdom of God.  We become the less that He might become the more, till He becomes our all in all. 

Blessings,

#kent