The Realm of the Unseen

 

The Realm of the Unseen

 

2 Corinthians 4:18

While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen [are] temporal; but the things which are not seen [are] eternal.

 

Christianity is unique in that we exist and live in a world and reality that is both natural and spiritual.  We operate in two different realms that come together in faith.  We don’t just worship gods or ideas; we worship the one and only true and living God of all creation and glory.  We have seen His face in His Son, Jesus Christ and He not only exist outside of us, but He also inhabits His believers with His Holy Spirit.  The true Christian, likewise, in his spirit, indwells heaven and the touches the dimension of the spiritual realm.  Our faith is all about how these two worlds come together in our daily lives.

How do we know this other world outside of our natural self?  It is revealed to us through God’s written Word and it is made alive within us through the Holy Spirit.  Romans 8:24-25 tells us, “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, [then] do we with patience wait for [it].”  A Christian doesn’t worship, serve and hope in a God that he tangibly sees, touches and acknowledges with just their natural senses, but the true believer steps into the dimension called faith where we call things that are not as though they were.  Many of us still struggle with this concept, because our natural mind still wants to operate in a sense realm mentality, touch it, taste it, smell it, see it and hear it.  Many have rejected Christ because they will not allow themselves to believe and enter into the realm and dimension of faith, where realities are laid hold of in the spirit, before they are ever manifested in the natural.  Many of us as Christians are still missing it because even though we were able to embrace Christ as our Savior by faith we fail to carry that on through as a part and portion of our spiritual walk and life.  As a result, we are natural minded Christians who only see limited blessings.  As spiritually minded Christians, the realization is, that the less of the natural man is given place the more the spiritual man, in the image of Christ, can come forth.  It is not like we zombie out and just let the Lord possess our bodies, it is a union whereby the soul gives the place of lordship and dominion over to the spirit which is the habitation of the Holy Spirit.  Thus, by faith and knowledge in the Word of God, we can grow up in Him in all things.  We learn to live and operate out of a place of trust in the Lord as we are obedient to His will and commandments to our lives.  We learn to know, practice and operate out of the principles of the Spirit realm and not just the earthly.  We know that our obedience to the principles and commands of God’s Word will bring forth God’s promised results.  By faith we have embraced them, and our hope stands in the gap waiting for that which we have not yet seen, but believe we have.  The results and manifestation of our faith may be seen in a moment, days or over the course of years.  Sometimes it even supercedes our natural lifetime and extends into generations.  Look at the promises that Abraham believed for.  They are still seeing their fulfillment over the course of thousands of years.   God doesn’t promise a time; He just promises His faithfulness.

We are an impatient people and often we are prone to give up on our faith and let it go.  Some of the things that God teaches us through faith are patience, perseverance, and prevailing in the face of doubt and discouragement.  Often things are established in the heavens long before they are seen upon the earth.  How many things are still in heaven that never made it to earth, because our faith failed, and we gave up.  With our faith we need to release praise and thanksgiving, rejoicing in expectancy for what we hope for, but have not yet seen with our natural eyes.  Here we need our spiritual eyes to see and embrace God’s promises, despite what natural circumstances tell us.  Here, in the unseen realm, we call those things that are not as though they were.

Blessings,

#kent

Prepare for the Storm

 

Prepare for the Storm

 

Luke 12:36-40

And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed [are] those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find [them] so, blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.

 

When the weather forecaster tells you that there is a blizzard on the way and that it will be here the next day around a certain time, what is your response?  Most of us would think, “what do I need to get done and how do I need to prepare before the storm comes. Do I need anything from the grocery store?  Do I need to do things to the home to prepare for what is coming.”  Our thoughts are normally on preparation so that we have taken care of the necessary duties before the storm arrives.

When someone, even a reliable someone, tells us about something that is coming, but we don’t see it for sometime, we often grow complacent.  We might be apprehensive at first, but then after a time of nothing happening, we begin slipping back into our normal routine of life.  I think that is where many of us are in our spiritual preparation and walk with the Lord.  We have heard the prophetic warnings, but we have slipped back into our complacency with life.  Today, the Lord is speaking another warning for us not to go to sleep on our watch.  We are not only to be watching, but we are to be in an attitude of preparation for the spiritual battle and storm that lies ahead.  It comes at a time we don’t know, but when it comes it will leave us no more time for preparation.  If we haven’t prepared it will be too late to start.

Be thankful in the trying of your faith; for it is these smaller storms that will help prepare you for the big one.  God has not given us a spirit of fear, but neither has He given us a spirit of apathy and complacency.  He is calling us to ready ourselves in the Word, in prayer, in relationships and in practical living.  We must know Him now in an intimate relationship, for the coming storm will test the depths of that relationship.  If our knowledge and relationship with the Lord is only on the surface and we are shallow; the storm will sweep us away.  We need roots that go deep in their confidence and commitment to the Lord.  We must not be easily moved or shaken in our faith, for our faith may cost us our life.  That won’t shake us if we are confident in who and what we are in Christ, but if we are not it will cause us to forsake and deny our faith.

What is your level of preparation today?  Can you assume that all will always be well?  Our faith in Christ is our most important calling.  Prepare well for the coming storm.  It will come in a day that we don’t expect it.  Don’t be foolish to neglect it.  “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

(1 Thessalonians 5:3)”

Blessings,

#kent

The Road back to Love and Intimacy

 

Colossians 3:18-19

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.   Husbands, love [your] wives, and be not bitter against them.

 

The Road back to Love and Intimacy

 

Remember when your romance was as sweet as honey and the love of your life could do no wrong.  You adored them, idolized them and wanted to spend every moment together.  Many of us, looking back at those younger years, ask ourselves, “what happened to that first love?”  We still may love each other, but many couples struggle with the “feelings of love” that are missing.  The romance has died way down and now you may find that instead of really loving and cherishing that wonderful man or woman you are struggling to get along with them.  The man may feel like the wife is always nagging him, he can never do enough or anything right, she doesn’t respect and honor him.  The woman may feel like the husband has become an insensitive jerk that never communicates or works through the problems, he doesn’t meet her needs.  Over the years and the cycles of good and bad times, we can accumulate a lot of baggage.  If I ask you if you love your husband or your wife, you would quite likely reply, “will of course I do,” but neither one of you may be experiencing the love from one another that you feel and know should be there.  We may say we hold no unforgiveness toward one another, but in reality both parties bear scars, wounds, unresolved conflicts and issues that linger in the subconscious ready to rear their ugly heads at the right moment, opportunity or provocation.   We find that we fail to often treat each other with the love, dignity and respect that both parties are due in a marriage.

Fifty percent of our marriages fail due to these kind of issues, but how many more are struggling and hurting?  We need to return to that place of intimacy and closeness that we once shared, but we can’t until we are able let down the walls we’ve built up and are willing to let go of all the offenses, hurts and bitterness that we carry.

When the Word says, “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord,” that submission might be just creating a safe place where your husband can share with you.  It needs to be a place where you aren’t venting your anger, frustration, criticism and unhappiness, no matter how justified you may feel with those feelings.  If you want your husband to communicate and be sensitive to your needs, you have to create an atmosphere of submission where you really want to see, feel and understand his heart.  That can be a hard place for a man.  He may not be in touch with his feelings the way you are, so be gentle and be patient and above all, be kind.

“Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.”  Husbands can be very confrontational, critical and harsh, but many repress their feelings and emotions.  They retreat into that shell of seeming insensitivity and non-communication.  Many times it is a response of self-preservation.  Often, the harder the wife tries to break through that seeming insensitivity, with harsh or critical words the more the husband withdrawals.  If you want the turtle to stick his head out of the shell you have to stop beating on the shell and make him feel that when he sticks his head out it won’t get bit off.  Husbands can hold a lot of things in their hearts that they may not even be fully aware of.  Their means of retaliation may be more passive or subtle, but it may be coming from a bitterness that has built up in their hearts against their wives.  They, on the other hand, need to really listen to the heart of their wives and make those needs their goals to fulfill.  They need to make them feel secure in your love for them and remember them often in the little gifts, the things you do and say.  Marriage is a teaching ground for unconditional love and service.  It is where we should both be learning to lay down our lives for the other.  Love is not always about feeling, but about commitment, covenant and a decision to love your spouse unconditionally even when they don’t derserve it and you don’t always feel it.

Maybe we need to come together as a couple where we can agree that the love of Christ is going to rule and dictate our behavior and response to one another.  We need to hold one another, not sexually, but intimately, while we confess our sins, our hurts and failures to one another.  We need to truly commit to a willingness to really forgive and hear the other person’s heart.  We need an uninterrupted time of reconciliation where we can write down and commit to one another some realistic goals where we will begin to address some of our deepest issues.  Keep it simple and not more than we can realistically deal with at one time.  Start with just three things each.  Then let’s make a date for our next intimate time we can meet with the same right heart and attitude, in the love of Christ to see how we are doing. Again, we need to keep it safe and non-confrontational.  This is a team project and we can’t succeed if we only have our own agenda and interest at heart.  We can’t expect to mend and restore a broken down barn in a day or even a week, it will take time to restore, just as it took time to deteriorate.  We can change the cycle and the direction of our marriages if we will both commit to it and stay with it.  We will begin to see our true intimacy and love begin to come alive in our feelings and the way we treat one another.   God wants to see our marriages strong and alive with His love. There is a lot of truth to the addage that ‘the family that prays together, stays together’.  It is hard to be right with each other when we are not right with God.  If we are committed to Christ, then we must also be committed to one another, for we are one flesh.  Together let’s build the road back to true love and intimacy like we had in our first love.

Blessings,

#kent

Who Died and Made Us God?

 

Rom 14:4 Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.

 

Who Died and Made Us God?

 

The context of the chapter containing this verse is dealing with the different viewpoints of theology we may have as believers.  At the heart of this chapter is this verse that says who made you God, to judge if everyone else is serving God in the right or wrong manner?  The very nature, that people are different and view things different ways says we are not all going to be in agreement.  It is not our role to be the judge whether another believer’s theology lines up with ours.  How many walls have we built and how much division has come from this mindset.  God is first concerned about our heart attitude toward Him.  It is not the outward ceremonies or works that bring us in right relationship with God, it is what we do acting out of faith.  We are justified by faith, not by whether we do this or that a certain way.  The truth be known, none of us are right on the mark with all our thinking and ways of worship and service.  We can be certain we have missed the mark if we are caught up with judging whether others are right or wrong.

We have some dear friends and fellow believers in Christ who we have shared fellowship with and staid in contact with, some twenty years.  The day they worship and their ideas of diet are different than ours and it has been a source of debate many times, but is not the basis for our relationship.  The reason we are still close has nothing to do with how we worship, but with the quality of relationship we have with God.  While outwardly we may differ in how we view things, inwardly we are of one spirit in Christ and because of this we can have spiritual communion with one another.   Christ is at the center of our relationship and that is why we have known and loved each other for so long.

I have been blessed as I have seen in our city where more and more people are laying down their denominational views to come together and operate as the body of Christ, whether it be something like true spiritual worship or serving the poor and needy.  The true body of Christ cannot be divided to be effective.  Sure we can all have our opinions and viewpoints, but on the fundamental principles of Christ and His Word we must stand and live as one body, not fragmented factions.  It is before Christ we must all give account, so let us all first examine and judge our own hearts and let God judge the others.

Blessings,

#kent

The Well

 

John 4:8-17

So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. 10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? 12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” 15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.” 19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

27 And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?” 28 The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, 29 “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30 Then they went out of the city and came to Him.

 

The Well

 

This morning as I was praying I envisioned an open well with a pulley hung over the center of it.  Through the pulley was a rope on one end of the rope was a rock tied on to it for a counterweight, but on the other end was a wet rock tied to where a bucket should have been attached.  As I pondered this, I thought of this Samaritan woman coming to this same well everyday to collect water that never satisfied, but always left her empty and coming back for more.  She came in the sixth hour, which speaks of man and his works.

I think about how many times we go through life doing the same thing over and over again with the same results.  We have our religion, our routines, our secrets, our sins, our same old way of being.  Are we like that wet rock that I saw that keeps being lowered into the well, but has no capacity or ability to take within itself the life of the water, it only comes up wet?  It is the same as the one tied on the other end.  The rock is like our flesh and our soul, it can assist us in getting where we need to go, but it can never be the substance of life that will fill us and transform us.

After this woman had met Jesus and He had spoken to her heart about who she truly was and what He had for her.  He told her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”  I wonder sometimes, “which well am I still drinking from?”  Am I still coming up empty and unsatisfied?  I have access to a water with which I will never thirst again, but if I am still thirsty then maybe it isn’t the water that is the problem, but what I am trying to collect it with.  Flesh will never beget Spirit, only Spirit can beget Spirit.  Maybe I need to trade out that rock for a spiritual bucket called faith, trust and obedience.

After this Samaritan woman had spoken with Jesus it says she left her water pot and went into the city to share the news about Jesus.  I have a feeling that leaving your water pot is not something that you normally did.  The difference in this woman is that she got a revelation of who the real water of life was and she realized that the old water pot isn’t what she needed anymore.  It was the Christ that she now had drank from and that satisfied her soul till she was overflowing to share the wonderful news of the Messiah.

The second thing that I saw or envisioned was a man with one hand tied to the rope where the bucket was normally tied, as he was lowered down into the well and in his other hand a large water pot.  I saw him being lowered into the well to draw from the deep, cool water that it contained.  He had to become completely emerged in that water and he was a part of that means of collecting the water to bring it up and give it to those who thirst.

God is speaking to our hearts to leave our old water pots, our old ways of doing things that continue to yield the same results.  Through Christ we are a container of His life.  We are a part of the distribution system of His grace and mercy.  We are the priest and the ministers of His salvation.  It is only new wineskins that can contain the new wine.  Leave your old water pots.  Cease from being a wet rock and begin to open up your spirit so that the Lord may enlarge your spirit life to better contain and release Him.

This woman was concerned about the right place to worship God.  Jesus was revealing to her that it isn’t so much the place, it is the attitude of worship with which you come before the Father.  He is looking for those that will worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.  Those are the vessels that He desires to fill and make the fountains of His life.  Discard the old and renew your minds in the mind of Christ.  See your world through His eyes and with His heart.  Allow the Spirit to be the means with which you address your world, rather than your flesh and your soul.  Envision yourself lost in Him.  You are simply the vessel of His life and presence.  Allow Him to increase your capacity, fill you and overflow with the life of God toward others around you.  He has called us to be the fountains of living water.

Blessings,

#kent

When God is Silent and Understanding Fails

 

When God is Silent and Understanding Fails

(Part 1)

 

Job 23:8-17

8 “But if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him. 9 When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him. 10 But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. 11 My feet have closely followed his steps; I have kept to his way without turning aside. 12 I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread. 13 “But he stands alone, and who can oppose him? He does whatever he pleases. 14 He carries out his decree against me, and many such plans he still has in store. 15 That is why I am terrified before him; when I think of all this, I fear him. 16 God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me. 17 Yet I am not silenced by the darkness, by the thick darkness that covers my face.”

 

I ask God’s wisdom and counsel today in what we share.  There are times in our lives when we know and trust God with our heart, but we question Him with our mind, intellect and understanding.  We try and reason how God is, who God is and how He should act and work in our lives.  Life’s circumstances and trials can sometimes be very crushing and cruel.  They leave us in the wake of disasters that our natural reasoning struggles to understand and comprehend in the light of what we know about God.  The question is often asked and disputed, “If you are a loving and just God, how could you let this happen?”  Why do bad things happen to good people?  Many depart from their faith through the course of life, because God has disappointed them and failed to live up their expectations.  Sometimes when we are desperate for answers or a Word, God is silent.

The book of Job has long been a source of comfort and strength to those of us who find ourselves in these places in life.  It is not uncommon for any of us at times in our lives to have these hard questions, because God does not always respond to us the way we think that He should.  About the time we think we have God all figured out and put in the box of our finite understanding, He blows the lid off our box and defies our understanding.  God has defined Himself by certain characteristics and attributes, but His thoughts and ways are so beyond ours that they are unable to be corralled by human or conventional wisdom.  Some of you who are reading this now have struggled in your faith and perhaps have faltered because you couldn’t grasp why something happened as it did.  You prayed and you felt God didn’t answer.  You tried to walk in faith and you didn’t feel that God came through.  You may have trusted God and you felt He let you down or cried out to Him and it seemed He wasn’t there.  We may have said in our hearts, God, are you really real?  If You are who You say you are, then where are You, why have You abandoned me in my hour of need?  In times past we were so sure of His reality and we had experienced His presence, the joy of salvation and the precious power of the Holy Spirit.  Now our world has turned upside down and God seems nowhere to be found.  In the discourse of Job 29:1-6, “Job continued his discourse: 2 “How I long for the months gone by, for the days when God watched over me, 3 when his lamp shone upon my head and by his light I walked through darkness! 4 Oh, for the days when I was in my prime, when God’s intimate friendship blessed my house, 5 when the Almighty was still with me and my children were around me, 6 when my path was drenched with cream and the rock poured out for me streams of olive oil.”  Has that ever been the cry of our heart from the hardship and trials we have experienced?  Many of us, like Job, have searched for the answers that could bring comfort, consolation and satisfy our dejected soul.  In these times and through these monumental trials, what is our heart attitude toward God?  Can we still maintain our trust in God’s integrity and righteousness, or will we forsake and curse our God and turn away from our faith?  When the fires of hell are brought to bear upon our faith, when we can no longer with the natural eye behold the evidence of God, but only see the devastation of the enemy in our midst through death, sickness, poverty or affliction can we maintain our integrity and faith toward God?  Sometimes the fire of God will try and test our hearts in the ways that blessings and answered prayers never will.  It is easy to love and serve God when all is well, when we are prospering, healthy, wealthy and wise.  It is easy when we worship and sense God’s presence, favor and blessing, but what about when all of that is withdrawn?  Can you still trust Him and hold fast to Him as Job did?

Blessings,

#kent

A Word from the Lord

A Word from the Lord

 

Romans 13:12

The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

 

Leave this day the things of the earthly realm behind you.  Look into the dawn of the New Day for from the East arises your salvation and from the West the sun is setting on the former things and the things of this time and place.   Open your heart to me and I will fill it.  Open your mouth to me and I will fill it.  Open your hands to me and I will fill them.  I will be your supply and your provision.  All of your need is met in me.  Lean not upon the arm of the flesh to feed and provide in your day of want.  I am your Provider and the supplier of every need.  Lean not upon your own understanding, but lean on the council of My Word, for it is the light unto your path and a lamp unto your feet.  Take care that you walk in the light of the council of my Word.  It is a sword to prove you, to divide and separate soul and spirit.  Far too long my people have been a mixture and double-minded in their ways.  Let your eye be single and your heart true to the calling that I have given you to walk in My ways and obey My commands, if you do this, then do you love Me.  Far too long my people offer up the oblations of praise and worship, but their hearts are far from me.   Outwardly they do their homage, but within their heart and their thoughts they entertain wickedness and impurity.  I do not judge the outward man, but the inward man, the man of the heart.  What value does a beautiful cup or vessel have if it is full of abominations and wickedness?

The fire is sent to purify that which I have sanctified.  It will burn with unquenchable thirst until there is no more left to feed its desire.  Mercy and grace will wet and temper the steel of godliness in my people, lest they be consumed in judgement.  My people shall turn to me from the least to the greatest and those that are mine shall gather beneath My wing.  There I will shelter them from the storm.  It is a time of pruning and separation so that those who would bear fruit may do so more abundantly and those that are dead upon the vine may be cut off and cast into the fire.

What a man has sown and what he is now sowing will bear its fruit and he shall eat the fruit thereof either to life or to death.  Take care how you plant into your life and into the lives of others.

Clay pots hold divine life.  Only as they are emptied are they perpetually filled.  Stop holding the life till it becomes stagnant and putrified.  Pour out that which I place within each one of you.  It is only in giving that you truly receive.  Release the life.  You are not vessels for storage, you are a vessel of daily use to wash the feet of common people and make their way clean and sure.   Some of you say, what do I have to give?  Give your life, your service, and My love that abides within you.  With Me there is never a lack of supply or increase.  You are shallow, because your deeds are shallow.  Become the vessel that is tipped over and poured out.  If you sow sparingly you will reap sparingly.

Revelation is coming, but it comes with a price.  It must be received with humility and obedience.  The revelation of the Most High is revealed in what you live and not in what you know.  The revelation of Jesus Christ in you is revealed through a crucified life, laid upon the altar of obedience and service.

Today is the day to seek Me and lay all else aside.  I am your refuge, your hiding place, your mighty fortress, but you must truly know me to be hid in me.  It is no longer about outward actions of religion and godliness, it is a day to know intimately my heart and come into the inner sanctuary of relationship and abiding that is only found in intimacy and relationship.  Come quickly, for the days are getting short and times and seasons are at hand.  Rouse you up out of your sleep and slumber and come away with me.  I speak these things to you, because I love you.  Let him who has an ear hear what the Spirit is speaking to the Church.  It is the day for the Bride to prepare herself and make ready for her Groom.  Take heed and act quickly.

Blessings,

#kent

Blessing and a Curse

Deuteronomy 11:1,26-28

Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always.

See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse- 27 the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today; 28 the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.

 

 

 

Blessing and a Curse

 

Love is obedience to those things we might not other wise choose.  Love is, yes Lord, not my will, but thine be done.  The Lord set before us two laws and principles, blessing and cursing.  The Word reveals here that blessing is the fruit of obedience and the curse is the fruit of disobedience and unfaithfulness to God.   What are we pursuing and what are we incurring today?

The prophet Haggai speaks this from the Lord in Haggai 1:2-11, “This is what the LORD Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come for the LORD’s house to be built.’ ”

3 Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”

5 Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 6 You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”

7 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 8 Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the LORD. 9 “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the LORD Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. 10 Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. 11 I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands.””  Does our blessing not come because we are too busy in pursuit of building our own house, success, dreams and ambitions while the Lord’s house lies in ruins within us.  The Lord says, “Take a look, how’s that working out for you as you pursue your things and neglect mine?  There doesn’t seem to be much blessing in it does there?”

The Word of the Lord comes again through Haggai in Haggai 2:15-19, “” ‘Now give careful thought to this from this day on —consider how things were before one stone was laid on another in the LORD’s temple. 16 When anyone came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. When anyone went to a wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were only twenty. 17 I struck all the work of your hands with blight, mildew and hail, yet you did not turn to me,’ declares the LORD. 18 ‘From this day on, from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, give careful thought to the day when the foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid. Give careful thought: 19 Is there yet any seed left in the barn? Until now, the vine and the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have not borne fruit.

” ‘From this day on I will bless you.’ ”  The Lord is giving the call to our hearts and lives because the foundation of the apostles and the prophets has been laid and Jesus Christ, the Chief Cornerstone, has been set.  Now is the time to come build His temple both corporately and individually.  Now is the time for us to turn from our ways to His.  In our own ways, pursuing our own interest we have only experienced lack and coming up short.  If we will set our hearts to His work in obedience and faithfulness, we will experience His blessing.  Let us prove God’s Word to know the blessing of obedience by casting off the curse of our own selfishness and self-will.

Blessings,

#kent

Reign in Righteousness

 

Reign in Righteousness

 

Romans 5:17

For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)

 

We all have known what it is like to be identified with Adam.  We all have been partakers of that human nature whereby we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The reality is that most of us, who are Christians, even though we are saved, still primarily identify with our old Adamic nature.  Why is that?  I think inwardly we sense the presence and change of the Holy Spirit’s dwelling in our hearts, but outwardly we are still struggling with sin issues.  Many of us still struggle with condemnation because of our sin.  Sin didn’t just up and leave us just because we accepted Christ into our hearts or because we were filled with the Holy Spirit.  The infusion of God’s life into us brought to us an abundance of grace and it brought to us the gift of His righteousness.  The acceptance by faith of Christ into our lives brought to us a much greater destiny and purpose than we had ever known in the world of sin and death.  We struggle with who we are in Christ because of what we still see on the outside as the old us.

If I were to come to you today and say that our research has found that you are the long lost heir to the throne of another country.  It is definite; there is no question about it.  You are the prince or princess and you need to come to our country and prepare for learning how to rule.   What would be your reaction?  “Me! You’ve got to be kidding. There is no way I could be a king or Queen, I am just a mechanic, or housewife, or a whatever.”  You see there is no way we could, at this moment, successfully step into the place of leadership and rule in that country, even though we are the rightful heirs.  Why?  It is because we don’t have the mentality of a king or queen.  We still have the mentality of what we have been.  Now even though we don’t feel like royalty and we often don’t act like a royalty, doesn’t mean that we aren’t.  Perhaps it is easier to see that, in order for us to assume our new role as a heir in this country, there needs to take place in us a whole new way of thinking and living.  In order for us to be fit to rule we need to be set under tutors and learn the discipline and the perspective of royalty.  We need our minds and hearts transformed to think like a prince or princess.  At first, we might think this will be great.  I’ll have all these servants to wait on me and I’ll have everything I want.  The reality is, that when we get there we begin to learn the life of ruling and reigning isn’t about serving one’s self, it is about how to best serve others.  It is about self-sacrifice and acting on behalf of what will best benefit those that we are to reign over.  Jesus was the King of Kings, but did He come to do what was best for Him or what was best for us? As heavenly royals, and I speak this in the male and female gender, we need to be preparing to reign.  What we have been given, both grace and righteousness, is a gift.  We didn’t earn them and we certainly didn’t deserve them, but they are ours for simply reaching out in faith, believing and receiving them.

Now if I come to tell you and convince you that you really are a heir to the throne, but if you refuse your position and responsibility, where does that leave you?  If you just continue on, being whatever you were before, how could you ever be fit to reign or assume your God given position?  You can see why we have to come into a totally different mind set and way of thinking? This is where most of us are today.  We are still thinking and living in what we were rather than in who we are.  You are “the righteousness of God in Christ.”  With that gift and calling comes a responsibility on our part to begin to respond to our new King and His authority.  We have to learn the ways and become proficient in the culture of this New Kingdom, not our old one.  That has to be left behind as our mind and thinking are transformed and changed to think like our King.

You and I are called to be “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”(1Peter 2:9).  Isaiah 32:1 says, “Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment.”  In order for us to begin to prepare to come into our calling and destiny we have to get a vision and revelation of what the apostle Paul taught us in Romans 6: 1-7, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound, God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also [in the likeness] of [his] resurrection, Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with [him], that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.”  We have to get rid of that old mentality that only sees ourselves as defeated sinners.  Catch the vision and revelation of your calling and who you are in Christ.  Start learning to live and to think like a prince or princess of the Most High God.  There is no higher kingdom to which we could be called.  Accept and pursue the discipline that will train you up to receive the high calling to which you have been purposed.  We are called to reign in righteousness even as the One we follow is righteous.  Start to think and live as the prince or princess of God that you are.

Blessings,

#kent

The Call to Prayer

 

The Call to Prayer

 

1 Timothy 2:1-4

I urge, then, first of all, that request, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone-

For kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceable and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

 

How important is our prayer life?  Can we ever know to what extent the events of life are impacted through our prayer or lack of it?   Paul starts out this passage to Timothy saying the first order of business in our worship is prayer.  Obviously request, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving does make a tremendous difference in God’s economy for it is the means by which God channels His intervention and direction in human affairs.  It can affect every aspect of our lives from those who are in authority over us to our health and finances.  Faith is what moves the heart and hand of God.  Our prayer life communicates that faith into the spiritual realm and is a primary catalyst that activates change.  As people of God, we learn that our dependence is not in ourselves, or our government or our economy.  It is in GOD WE TRUST.  Our founders and forefathers of the United States knew how important this principle was when this country was established against tremendous natural odds.  We live in the country we do today as result of a supernatural God doing supernatural things.  We are losing our country to factions that want to tear out the very cornerstone and foundation of our country, our beliefs and reliance upon God.  This spiritual attack is against the very life and heartbeat of our nation.  How we need a standard of prayer to be raised up.  I speak of myself, as well as many of us when I say we have become lethargic and have fallen asleep at the wheel of our spiritual responsibilities to pray, not just for our personal lives and what directly affects us, but for our nation, our leaders, the body of Christ and the lost.  We have become so financially and materially focused that we have lost sight of our spiritual responsibility for the direction of our nation.  Many of us have disengaged from the privilege and responsibility we have as Americans to participate in our government to decide the direction we go.  If we are Spirit led people then we need to be spiritually led how to vote and take part in the type of government we have.  God’s holds His people responsible for setting the course of a nation.  We can not be complacent when it comes to prayer.  It must be our passion.

I believe the only reason God has withheld judgement from this nation as long as He has is because of the prayers and faithfulness of His saints.  To our shame, so many of us are riding the coattails of the few faithful ones.  A wave of prayer, intercession, request and thanksgiving needs to rise on behalf of this nation.  Let this stand as a call to arms for all of us to commit ourselves to prayer and fasting for the condition of our nation and God’s direction in the decisions and course of our government and in particular our judicial system at this time.  Our God is faithful and He does hear the cry of His people.  We must engage in the battle going on in the spirit for our nation.  Darkness has gained a foothold that is tearing at the very fabric of our life and morality.  Prayer is our weapon to fight this spiritual battle.  If we desert the battle we desert our heritage and our future.  As so many brave Americans have laid down their physical lives and well-being for this nation we must engage the enemy with no less commitment in the spiritual arena.  Our nation and our lives hang in the balance.

Blessings,

#kent