Testimony of a Prisoner

Jeremiah 33:3

Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’

Testimony of a Prisoner

I found this testimony of a prisoner named Billy Schmidt on Facebook through a man that friended me.  It was compelling as I read it and felt the Lord would have me share it with you for your edification. 

June1,2012

Please take the time to read this letter. Through it I explain something great that has changed my life forever. About four months ago I ended up in prison four a couple of months. While I was there Jesus Our God sent an angel of His to me. Along with the angel, Jesus sent with him the Most Powerful visual message I have ever seen In my life.

When I was placed In jail I asked to be put into solitary confinement by myself because at the time I was mentally crushed and exhausted from the miserable self-lead mislead life style that I had been living for over thirteen years of my life at that time.

For years now I have believed in Jesus our God and at times prayed directly to Him. But because of my own path that I chose to lead my life with I could never seem to put my life together for a long period of time.

While I was in solitary confinement by myself I begin praying to Jesus our God asking Him to help me in any way that He would. When I was there about three weeks I had a bail hearing coming up. Around that time I begin to read a Holy Bible that was in my jail cell, I read the book of Matthew and the book of Revelations both that are in the New Testament. Also about that time I asked Jesus to be in control of my life and to guide me and direct me and to have happen for me whatever He as God sees best for me. I explained to Him that if I did not get out of jail when I was to go to my bail hearing I would understand because He is God and God knows what is best for me. When I went to my bail hearing the outcome of it was that I had no one to bail me out of prison. I was not upset because I believed that this was part of the plan that Jesus had for me. So at that time I remained in custody and I was returned to the jail.

Again I picked up the Holy Bible and started reading it, This time from the beginning. I wanted to figure out how humanity and creation really did come to be. I became very interested in what the Holy Bible was saying and I believed what it was explaining did happen and that it was infact real. Throughout the next couple weeks from that time I read the Holy Bible quite abit. I was just over a couple hundred pages into the Holy Bible some were when Moses was leading the twelve tribes of Israel out of Egypt to the land that God promised Jacob, It was called the promise land.

So one day in around this time I was lying down on the bottom bunk of the bunk beds. I stood up and put my hands along the top steal bunk bed frame in front of me. I looked straight ahead towards the wall in front of me when I noticed someone beside me. He turned and stood right in front of me. In my mind I said a ghost then I said no an angel, I knew it right then and there. I could literally feel his presence from him it was a very strong alive feeling. He stood in front of me and I was amazed. I could not talk. He knew I noticed how different he was from us. The structure of his skull and jaw line was awesome and nothing at all like ours. Were our temples are on each side of our skull, his skull was wider there and on both sides there on each side of his skull was a round plate about three inches wide and round. The plates were not flush with his skull but slightly deeper in each side of his head. The plates held more color in them than the rest of his skin.

His jaw was a lot wider than ours. His jaw line reminded me of a spaded shovel. From the back of his jaw right around to the other side. This was truly the work of Jesus our God. I must say this angel was Hardcore and I knew because of his appearance that he has a grate life. He appeared to be about thirty years old and he was in his prime condition.

His hair was brown and nothing like ours. His hair came out of his scalp in tight spirals. It appeared that each individual hair on his head was much thicker than each of the hairs on our heads.

His eyes were brown in color and glossy. His eyes were much bigger than ours. I must add his entire eyes were dark brown. There was no white at all in his eyes. Towards the middle of his eyes mixed in the brown were black speckles. Suddenly he appeared right in front of me face to face eye to eye. I do not remember him moving forward towards me suddenly he was just there. I stared right into his eyes and saw something that I had never seen before that day. His entire brown eyes and the black speckles through them. Under his eyes there was no stress misery or pain. This was something that I had really noticed. Suddenly we were no longer face to face but he was standing back were he was standing before we were eye to eye. Again I do not remember him stepping back suddenly he was just there.

Then his eyes changed and in each one of his eyes the black speckles formed together as a black pupil in each brown eye. Then in each black pupil I seen something that I have never seen before. At first I could not even comprehend it. Then I realized that in his pupils was the look of Powerful Strong Peace. Peace with such Strength that at first I could not grasp. Then in each pupil of each of his eyes his pupils literally began to swarm with such a Peaceful Power. Then in each of his pupils along with the swarming Peaceful power came a White swarming mist.

Then the angel came forward and locked his eyes directly into my eyes. Then In each of his eyes I saw a dark brown Powerful Cross. Then suddenly I no longer saw the angel or anything else. What I did see was one dark brown wood grain Cross on a hill. Then the Cross I saw began to form silver capping around each end of it.

Suddenly I was standing near the edge of a mountain on the mountain flat were Jesus was crucified died and gave His life for the salvation of humanity. I noticed that the mountain flat that I was standing on was very flat. The mountain appeared to be made from some shiny beautiful black gem. I remember looking ahead of me and far back behind the mountain flat were miles of nice yellow fields of hills that went straight back.

I saw the Cross of Jesus coming up the side path that comes to the back of the mountain flat. From behind the Cross I heard the Loudest Thunderous Sounds following the Cross of Jesus. The Cross reached the back of the mountain flat then turned and started coming towards me. The Cross was Tremendous and held the Most Power I had ever seen. Then the Thunderous Sounds followed behind the Cross and up the mountainside path and up over the hill on to the mountain flat. Than I saw that the Thunderous Sounds was Powerful Flames of Burning Fire that stretched out in a long half circular shape row behind the Cross. The Fire went from the far left side of the Cross, behind the Cross and over to the far right side of the Cross. As the Cross Of Jesus came closer towards me the Flames of Burning Fire grew Extremely Tall with such Powerful Strength.

Once the Cross of Jesus moved forward to the spot were I believe was the very spot were Jesus our God was crucified and died for humanities sins, The Most Powerful Cross and its Supreme Flames of Burning Fire then stood still. I remember looking over my left shoulder towards the mountainside cliff ledge. The cliff side of the mountain edge that was on the side of my left shoulder went out a lot more then the other side. I remember that beyond the cliff ledge down below from a distance was a round white city.

Then It was if the Most Powerful Power of the Cross of Jesus and Exceedingly Great Burning Flames of Fire and the Superior Sounds of Thunder all became One. The mixture of this was the Extremist Most Powerful Power I had ever seen and herd in my life. I realized that what I was starring at was the Power of Jesus my Lord my God the Holy Spirit. I knew then, Jesus our God is the One and only Extremist Power in all existence.

Then suddenly I was no longer standing on the mountain flat in front of the Cross of Jesus our God. Then again what I remember seeing was one dark brown wood grain Cross on a hill. Again silver capping began forming around each end of the Cross, But this time in the middle of the Cross shone the brightest ray of LIGHT I have ever seen.

Then I saw two Most Powerful Crosses with Wild Burning Flames of Fire behind the Crosses. Again along with the Flames of Fire was the Loudest Sounds of Thunder from the Flames of Burning Fire. Again the mixture of the two Most Powerful Crosses the Burning Flames of Fire and the Thunder became the Most Powerful Extremist Power I have ever seen and herd.

Then again I realized that I was face to face with the angel and that the Most Powerful two Crosses and Flames of Fire behind the two Crosses and the Thunder was in each eye of the angel. In each eye of the angel was the Most Powerful Cross of Jesus the Extremist Flames of Burning Fire and the Wildest Thunder. Again I was watching the Power of Jesus The One Only True Extremist God Of All, through the eyes of His messenger the angel. Then the Crosses in each eye of the angel and the Burning Fire and the Thunder from the Burning Flames of Fire and the angel suddenly all disappeared.

Then I realized that I was standing in front of the bunk beds in my jail cell. I then realized that the entire time the angel was standing in front of me he was standing exactly were the metal bunk beds were. When the angel was standing in front of me the steal bunk beds were they should have been were not even there. The angel was there. The bunk beds had disappeared. Then when the angel disappeared the bunk beds reappeared.

What happen to me that day was so powerful and much for my mind to comprehend that I was disoriented afterwards for some time. I remembered the angel up until about were he locked his eyes onto my eyes. After that the rest of what had happened took some time to sink in. That swarming Peace that I saw in the angels eyes right before the angel locked his eyes onto my eyes. I’m sure that was the Holy Sprit and I believe Jesus our God sent that with the angel as a gift for me. When the angel locked his eyes onto my eyes the angel put that swarming Peace that was in the pupils of his eyes directly into my soul and it healed me on the spot. Much of my misery and fear for life is gone. I sleep better and now see this life of mine completely different than before that day when all this of what I explained happened. I no longer crave the addiction to misery that I once had.

Jesus our God sent me a visual message with His messenger the angel. The message was Jesus. Jesus our God. The message strait out showed me that Jesus is our One True Only God. Jesus came to this earth and let Himself be crucified on His Cross. Jesus died so that humanity could have forgiveness of sins. Jesus is our Savior from death. If humanity believes in Jesus through Him we can enter eternal life forever.

This Is all real. Jesus our Lord our God is real. The Holy Spirit is real. Prayer towards Jesus our God Is real. The Holy Bible is real. There is no shame at all if you honor our LORD JESUS THE HOLY SPIRIT. Jesus is our Savior from death. The forgiveness of our sins. He is Jesus our God. He created us and it is thanks towards Him why we are here on this earth. From what I have seen I now Know that Jesus our God is the Extremist Power in all creation. JESUS is our LORD our GOD the HOLY SPIRIT. He is more than any of us will ever be. Jesus our God has literally saved my life and I believe my soul forever. If you honor Jesus our God and ask Jesus to forgive you for your sins and to have Him help you with your soul and your life, your life through Jesus our God can only become better.

Billy Schmidt

Blessings,

#kent

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A Heart Perfect with the Lord

1 King 8:61

Let your heart therefore be perfect with the LORD our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day.

A Heart Perfect with the Lord

               If a heart is perfect it is at unity and oneness with the Father.  Its ways, desires and ambitions are in alignment with the Father’s will, purpose and plan.  It is at the center of where He wants us to be in Him today.  All that the Father is working in you is to bring you to this place where it is no longer I that live, but Christ in me.  

               I had a young lady tell me the other day that she was finally at a place in her life where she was finding herself.  As I thought about that, I thought I am in a place in my life where I am losing myself, for it is no longer self that I want, but Christ.  Who I want to be is no longer me, but Him. 

               It isn’t even about me keeping the written laws and ordinances, not that these aren’t valid and right, but there is the law that He has written in our hearts on tables of flesh.  The Holy Spirit indelibly writes them so that as I observe them I can walk after the spirit and no longer after the flesh.  Even the efforts of righteousness and right doing are not my doing but the Spirit of Him that is living through me.  Maybe that just sounds like semantics, but I believe it is more than that. The former righteousness spoke of my self efforts to please and walk before God, but in Christ it is the rest in His divine life and presence that we enter into by faith, ceasing from our efforts as we simply yield to His life living through us.  This is a progressive work.  Certainly not one done in a day, but it is accomplished in a lifestyle of living through Christ.  It starts with the first order of the day being to submit our life unto Him afresh.   We ask Him to order our steps in His purpose, to establish our ways and lives in His will and purpose and to be the power that energizes our mind, will and emotions in conformity with His righteous directives.

               Have we arrived there yet in practice and in deed?  No, but we are daily conforming our heart to an attitude that is perfect toward the Lord.  John 7:18 says, “He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.”   Let us be of this latter one who works for the honor of the One who sent us.  For we are a people of truth.  May there be no false way about us because our hearts are perfect toward Him who has called us into His marvelous light and truth. 

Blessings,

#kent

The Pot of Wickedness

The Pot of Wickedness

Zechariah 5:5-11

⁵ Then the angel who was speaking to me came forward and said to me, “Look up and see what this is that is appearing.”

⁶ I asked, “What is it?”

He replied, “It is a measuring basket. ^[2] ” And he added, “This is the iniquity ^[3] of the people throughout the land.”

⁷ Then the cover of lead was raised, and there in the basket sat a woman! ⁸ He said, “This is wickedness,” and he pushed her back into the basket and pushed the lead cover down over its mouth.

⁹ Then I looked up-and there before me were two women, with the wind in their wings! They had wings like those of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between heaven and earth.

¹⁰ “Where are they taking the basket?” I asked the angel who was speaking to me.

¹¹ He replied, “To the country of Babylonia to build a house for it. When it is ready, the basket will be set there in its place.”

               Put on the eyes of your spiritual understanding with me today as we trust the Lord to show us a little more in the area of the mystery of iniquity.  In Israel of old we read about the times when God’s people failed to hear and obey the prophets of the land.  We read about a time when Hezekiah had been sick and ambassadors from Babylon came to visit him.  We find he did a foolish thing.  Isaiah the prophet comes to visit Hezekiah after these Babylonians left.  His conversation is recorded in Isaiah 39:3-6. “Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said these men? and from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country unto me, [even] from Babylon.

 Then said he, What have they seen in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All that [is] in mine house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shewed them.

 Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the LORD of hosts Behold, the days come, that all that [is] in thine house, and [that] which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the LORD.”  Jesus said along the same order in Matthew 7:6, “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.”  There are holy truths and treasures in God’s Word that aren’t to be shared with everybody.  There are things we only give to those who by reason of maturity and understanding will appreciate and use these holy things in a proper context. 

               In the light of what we have shared before about Babylon, we must begin to see Babylon in the light of a spiritual condition, place or realm.  God uses the natural things to show us the things of the Spirit.  We learned that Babylon or Babel means confusion or mixing.  In a spiritual sense you might say it could be a place of a mixture of religion.   It is a place of pollution of man and God, an unholy mixture of flesh and spirit.  What Hezekiah didn’t realize was that in giving that which was holy and of the Spirit to natural men they would take it and pollute it with the unholiness of the natural religious mind.  The Church has long been led away into this land of Babylon where the holy things of God have been polluted, mixed, watered down and defiled by religion and natural minded thinking.  This Babylon has become the breeding ground of demonic activity and deception.  It has become the resting-place for the basket of iniquity we see here in Zechariah 5.   The woman in this basket may well correspond with the woman we see in Revelation 17:3-6.  “So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead [was] a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.”  Many precious and true saints have been martyred through history not by the unbelievers, but by the religious.  Who was behind the condemnation and crucifixion of Jesus?  It was a pretentious religious spirit, convincing the minds of the religious leaders that they were working God’s will.  We see that same spirit alive in terrorism today.  It is made up of people of zealous religious convictions.  This is that spirit of Babylon. 

               These are some very meaty things we are sharing, but I feel the Spirit compelling me to make us aware that not every spirit is God’s Spirit.  1John tells us to test the spirits (1 John 4:1).  The only way too truly know God’s Spirit is to intimately know Him as He is revealed through His Word by the Holy Spirit. 

               We are in the last days.  It is a time when the Lord is calling us out of the captivity of Babylon where much of the Church has been led and even now stills lives.  God is calling out the remnant that will hear His voice to come back into the land of your inheritance, the spiritual land of Canaan and again possess the land.  He wants us to rebuild the walls, the city and the temple.  God is calling us out of what has the appearance of godliness into what is Godliness.  God is seeking out a people that will pursue Him with all of the passion of their hearts.  They are no longer content to feed off of the stale dry manna of yesterday’s revelation.  They are intent on pursuing the lover of their souls and will be content with nothing less than His presence.  Are you of this remnant?  Are we those passionate ones that will leave the ease and comfort of Babylon to press in and possess the inheritance we have in Christ Jesus?  We may find that the places we come out of in our pursuit of Him may well be our source of our greatest persecution. 

Blessings,

#kent

Discontentment of the Soul

Discontentment of the Soul

Romans 12:1-2

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [which is] your reasonable service And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

               How many of us like to have fun?  We love what entertains us and provides us with external stimuli that excites our senses and appetites.  Sometimes we think and we do what is in our natural desires to do.  If we are “in Christ” we begin to feel convictions from His Spirit within us.  We might ask, “Why doesn’t God want me to have a good time?”  God does want us to a have a good time in the things that pertain to life and godliness.  There is no joy on earth that is greater than the joy of the Lord and truly experiencing His awesome presence.  Our joy comes from our relationship, but our relationship often becomes stale and unexciting. 

               We can liken it to many of our marriages.  We married that person because at one time they were fun to be with.  They were exciting and they were everything that we desired and wanted.  What happens as we go down the road of life and the honeymoon is over?  What happened to those feelings we used to have and the passion we felt?  Hopefully it is still there, but for many it fades as the demands of life take over.  Our weaknesses surface and seem to be glaring blights to our partner who once never even noticed or seemed to care about the faults, perhaps now that is all that they see or all that we see in them. 

Our relationship with God can be a burden to us as well when our hearts are drawn to the glitter and the romance of the world.  We, as people, tend to get into ruts and routines with our religion and our relationships.  In that place we start growing often discontent, disconnected and disinterested in that one which we once loved and cherished.  That can happen to us spiritually as well as in our natural relationships. 

               It is said that ‘one thing is certain and that is nothing ever stays the same.”  Many of us have had those time when we had wonderful experiences and feelings and somehow we were under the illusion that this would go on into happily ever after and nothing would change.  “Boy, did we buy into the lie on that one.”  We have found that things do change, circumstances, feeling, attitudes, desires, priorities and a number of other variables have come in to change the dynamics of our relationship with God and with our spouse.  Even God doesn’t always meet our expectations. 

               What do we do when we find ourselves struggling in our relationship with God or with our spouse?  Funny how there is often a correlation between those two relationships. 

               Life and long term relationships are not about an experience or a feeling that we once had, they are a journey.  On a journey the terrain and surroundings are always changing.  The climate is changing.  Those changes are sometimes good and sometimes bad, but never the less they are changes.  The important part of a journey is that we aren’t aimlessly wandering the countryside, looking for the best place, the best climate or just the good times.  It is important in a journey that we have a fixed destination and a course that we are following to get there.  A lot of things will happen between where we started and where we end up, but it is important that our commitment is to our destination and that everything else becomes secondary to where we are headed.  There will be many other paths to follow in life that will lead us away from our destination and occasionally we take a wrong turn and get off on these, but what do we do when we are traveling on a trip and take a wrong turn?  When we discover it and acknowledge it we repent and turn around so that we can get back to the road that will lead us to our destination. 

               We are going to face some hard times both in our marriages and in our relationship with God, that is part of the journey, but we can’t quit, we have come too far.  We must make the adjustments in our hearts and attitudes to find joy even in those hard places.  Often our failing relationships are the result of our own hardened heart.  We would like to blame the other, but restoration begins with us.  It is ourselves that we are wholly responsible and accountable for.  Our reward doesn’t come from how well we were able to conform someone else to our will or God’s will, but on how well we were able to offer our will as a living sacrifice to the Lord.  He is our destination and our joy and contentment come in fulfilling the calling He has placed upon our lives.   We can’t be moved by the natural man, that’s a wrong road, we must move according the direction of God’s Word and how the Holy Spirit makes that personal and alive to each one of us.

Blessings,

#kent

I AM

I AM

John 18:1-8

When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was an olive grove, and he and his disciples went into it.

2Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. 3So Judas came to the grove, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons.

4Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?”

5″Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied.

“I am he,” Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) 6When Jesus said, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground.

7Again he asked them, “Who is it you want?”

And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.”

8″I told you that I am he,” Jesus answered. “If you are looking for me, then let these men go.” 9This happened so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled: “I have not lost one of those you gave me.”

               When Moses met with God at the burning bush in Exodus 3:13-14, “And Moses said unto God, Behold, [when] I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What [is] his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.”  How great is our God that is everything to every one of us.  As we go through the Word of God, we just see time after time how God was the provision, the providence and Divine Provider.  These are some of the statements that God made to Abram, “After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I [am] thy shield, [and] thy exceeding great reward.”  “And he said unto him, I [am] the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.”  “And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I [am] the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.”

God said to Moses in Exodus 6:2, “And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I [am] the LORD:”  “I Am that I Am” speaks of everything that God is and that is contained in Him.  Which of us can fathom the depths of the great “I AM”?  His character is unfolded and revealed as we read through the Word of God.  We see how He delivers His people from their enemies, how He provides for their needs in wilderness where so many people, abide so long in a place that could not begin to support them in the natural.  We see God as “I Am” in the righteous judgements He carries out. We also see Him in His mercy and lovingkindness.  When we come to the New Testament and Christ is revealed we see God revealed as, “I AM LOVE” in Christ.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever would believe upon Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)” This Jesus Christ of Nazareth, was the “I AM” incarnate, in human flesh and form.  Mark 8 :27 –28 says, “And Jesus went out, and his disciples, into the towns of Caesarea Philippi: and by the way he asked his disciples, saying unto them, Whom do men say that I am?  And he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answereth and saith unto him, Thou art the Christ.” 

               Finally at the end of Jesus’ days when he is taken into custody and He asked the soldiers who they sought when they come after Him.  They said, “Jesus of Nazareth” and He said, “I AM” He.  So powerful was that “I AM” when He spoke of who He was that soldiers were knocked back and fell to the ground.  If there was that much power in Jesus just saying who He was, is there any doubt that the power that resided in Christ could have easily defeated any attempts to arrest or abduct him. 

               Today Christ stands in God on the resurrected side of Calvary.  He is still declaring to mankind and to His people, “I AM, THAT I AM”. 

               Whatever you need or whatever your circumstance God is “I AM” for you.  He is everything that you need to take you through whatever you have to face or whatever is pressing upon you.  He is always the “I AM” for you.

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

A Measure of Faith

Romans 12:3

For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think [of himself] more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

               This experience we call being a Christian and partaking of God’s salvation through Christ has one key element that we all have to start with, and that is faith.  It starts with faith to believe upon Christ and receive that which we cannot see into our hearts.   We start our walk with God and we enter into His saving grace because we heard a Word and by that Word we believed in our heart and acted upon it by praying a sinner’s prayer, asking Christ into our hearts and lives.  For all of us to have taken this first step into a Christian walk we had to have a measure of faith.  The Word says here in Romans 12:3 that, “God has dealt every man the measure of faith.”  Now this faith will be common in many ways to the faith of other believers, but it will also develop its own personality because each of us has been given different gifts and abilities by the Holy Spirit.  All of us grow and function out of the faith that works through our lives.  As we begin to grow in faith and act out of faith we learn a reliance not on ourselves and our abilities, but upon God’s ability to channel Himself through these earthly vessels as we yield and trust Him to do so. 

               Jesus, in His ministry and walk upon this earth, told us that He didn’t do His own will, “I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me (John 5:30).”  Even Jesus is demonstrating through His earthly ministry that His life is functioning not in self-will or purpose but as an extension of the Father, to do His will and speak His Words into the earth.  In Christ we see the full measure of faith in operation as the Godhead is channeled through His life through the full surrender of His will to the Father.   In the wilderness the account of Matthew 4:3-4 says the tempter came to Jesus and told Him He could turn these stones into bread, but Jesus knew that His life was not about what He could do, that would have only given place to pride and self-reliance.  Instead, He said, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”  He is communicating a profound revelation that my life is not about me; it is about the Father.  His Word is life, substance and reality.  At that moment, that statement didn’t make Jesus any less hungry, but Jesus knew and expressed that the spiritual realities of God’s Word superseded the natural realities of His hunger and present physical condition.  Throughout the trial Jesus faced, in a place of great physical exhaustion. His focus was on the Father and His strength and confidence was in the Word. 

               We live in a natural world where we are constantly assaulted with trials and tribulations.  Whether they are physical, financial, emotional, family, work or any number of other things, problems are a part of our lives.  We have an enemy whose sole purpose is to rob, steal, kill and destroy.  Our faith is at the top of his hit list.  Our reality, as children of God, must be based foremost on the Word of God.  The enemy’s strategy is to divert our attention from what God’s Word says to what our circumstances and natural reality is telling us.  Jesus didn’t deny that He was hungry, but the basis of His obedience and trust was based on the Word of God, not his hunger.  We have to exercise our faith to exalt God’s Word above our circumstances and natural realities.  2 Corinthians 5:7 says, “We walk by faith, not by sight.”  Spiritual reality is first to be spiritually minded, natural reality is second and subject to the first.  If ‘faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God,’ as Romans 10:17 declares, then God’s Word is what we listen too, His promises are what we rely on, His Word is our declaration and profession over the obstacles in our lives that we face.  Our hope and confidence in that Word stands in the gap, our profession of His Truth and our praise in the midst of our battle, release the forces of heaven till faith has its manifestation in the natural.  Ephesians 6:10-13 tells us, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places]. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” 

               As we exercise the measure of faith that God has given each one of us we will see His faithfulness, but it will not come without it stretching us from where we are to where He wants to take us.  Fix your eyes upon Jesus, set your heart upon His Word and rest upon His Promises.  That measure of faith will grow as you mature and exercise that daily and constant trust in Him.

Blessings,

#kent

Appeasing or Pleasing

Appeasing or Pleasing

Hebrews 11:6

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

               I think that I may not be so different than many others who earnestly love God, want to have an intimate relationship with Him, but are often tempted to make compromises to please the flesh rather than to please God.  I was meditating this morning on how much appease and please sound alike only they are different.  If we examine our hearts we will probably find that there are many times we actually try to appease the Lord, rather than please Him. 

“So what’s the difference?” you might ask.

               I’m glad you asked that question.  The dictionary defines appease as, “To pacify or attempt to pacify (an enemy) by granting concessions, often at the expense of principle.”

Now we don’t think of God as our enemy, but He is the enemy of our flesh and when we are trying to appease God that is usually where we are operating from.  Romans 8:5-8 tells us, “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.”   When we get out of faith and into the flesh then we begin operating out of a mindset that wants to appease God rather than please Him.  We want God to wink at our sin and to let us slide.  We want the favor and blessing of God, but on our terms.  Maybe we start to bargain with God. “God, if you will just let me do that, or have this or grant me that, then I’ll do this.”  Maybe we give more and try to do good things.  Usually we are not only trying to appease God, but our conscience as well.  It is not that we want to forsake God or not serve Him and believe in Him anymore.  It is not that we want to displease Him, it is just that we want our way more than we want His way.  What we don’t want to acknowledge and submit too is, that it is always our ways that lead us away from His.  It is our ways that separate and break fellowship with Him and it is our ways, the natural mind, that hinders us from God’s highest and His best for us. 

               Like King Saul of the Old Testament we become headstrong about doing things our way rather than God’s way.  Listen as Saul attempts to appease God rather than please Him.  1 Samuel 15:13-26 says, “When Samuel reached him, Saul said, “The LORD bless you! I have carried out the LORD’s instructions.”

14 But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?”

15 Saul answered, “The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the LORD your God, but we totally destroyed the rest.”

16 “Stop!” Samuel said to Saul. “Let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night.”

“Tell me,” Saul replied.

17 Samuel said, “Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel. 18 And he sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; make war on them until you have wiped them out.’ 19 Why did you not obey the LORD ? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the LORD?”

20 “But I did obey the LORD,” Saul said. “I went on the mission the LORD assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. 21 The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the LORD your God at Gilgal.”

22 But Samuel replied:

“Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD?

To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king.”

24 Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned. I violated the LORD’s command and your instructions. I was afraid of the people and so I gave in to them. 25 Now I beg you, forgive my sin and come back with me, so that I may worship the LORD.”

26 But Samuel said to him, “I will not go back with you. You have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you as king over Israel!”

Whenever we compromise what God has instructed by doing it our way rather than His, we only are deceiving ourselves and leading ourselves to heartache and misery.  Hebrews 10:5-10 says in contrast,  “Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; 6with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. 7Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, O God.’ ” 8First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them” (although the law required them to be made). 9Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” 

               Father is now asking the same of us.  He doesn’t any longer want our burnt offering and sacrifices, our concessions and appeasement.  He wants our lives, our obedience and our faith to trust and walk with Him wherever it is that He chooses to lead us.  We can no longer seek to appease our Lord; we must walk in the faith and obedience that pleases Him.

“No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of [this] life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” (2 Timothy 2:4)

Blessings,

#kent

Temptation

Temptation

Matthew 4:1

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

               Temptation is an issue that we all deal with on a continual basis.  We are all tempted to go against God’s Word and principles.  It is with this issue that we spend a good deal of time, energy and prayer to overcome, especially if those temptations are ones that we tend to yield too on a far too frequent basis.  We should all know that the temptation itself is not sin, but it is what we do with it that allows it to become sin or not.  There are two primary sources of temptation. The first we see in the scripture above where we are tempted of the devil.  We see, often not soon enough, how with subtlety he works his way into our mind to draw us into disobedience to God.  Sometimes it is through another person that has also yielded their members to the tempter.

                 The second source of temptation is the lust, craving and desires of our own hearts and minds.  James 4:1 says, ” From whence [come] wars and fightings among you? [come they] not hence, [even] of your lusts that war in your members.” Are we not in a constant battle to bring this body and its related attitudes, feelings, and desires under subjection and obedience to the lordship of Christ?  This is our constant dealing with temptation.   Roman 7:22-25 and the passage prior to it discusses the battle we struggle within our bodies against sin:  “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.   O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”   Haven’t we all cried out, on probably more than one occasion, “O wretched man that I am? Who shall deliver me from this body of death?”  Many of us hate the sin that is in us.  And all of us have areas of weakness in us that are more prone to yielding to temptation than others.  But, then Paul in the next sentence declares the answer to our cry; “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  Notice he doesn’t say, praise God, I’ll try harder next time.  If you could overcome that sin and temptation, wouldn’t you have already done it?  One of our biggest sources of failure is reliance upon our own strength to fix the problem.  The fix is in Christ not in us.  But you say “I prayed and it didn’t help.”   

               Some of us have become so guilt ridden and condemned by our sin that we have given up and said “it is no use, I can’t change and God can’t possibly love me like this.”  GOD DOES STILL LOVE YOU AND HE HASN’T GIVEN UP ON YOU!  This is why you need a Savior, because you are unable of yourself to change yourself.  The change and deliverance we seek comes from us working in concert and cooperation with the Holy Spirit.

               In Romans 8 Paul starts out by saying, “There is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus.  Our faith in Christ has brought us into Him.  In Christ is where we now reside and live out our lives by the Spirit, not in the flesh.  Does that mean it’s okay to sin since there is no more condemnation.  No, it is telling us that our mind and heart are no longer set on the former attitudes and desires for sin.  We are “in Christ”, so our heart is to please Him.  It is not “I’ve got to do this and this and not do that.”  It is by setting my eyes and my heart on Christ.  “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” Galatians 2:20.  Paul says there are two spiritual laws at work here.  “For the law of the Spirit of Life has set me free from the law of sin and death.” We who are in Christ now live by a higher law, “the law of the Spirit of Life.”   In this law it is not in our self-efforts we overcome temptation, it as we walk in the Spirit (the higher law) that we put to death the deeds of the flesh.  “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify (put to death) the deeds of the body, ye shall live.”  Overcoming the flesh is then turning inward to the Spirit of God, into Christ, allowing the Spirit of God to have His expression through us as He becomes everything to us.  We are exchanging our old nature for His divine nature.  We are transformed as we renew our minds to line up with the Word of God in our thinking and walk in the revelation of who we are in Christ.  If the monster of temptation is not fed he starves and withers away, but if we continue to feed him, he always cries out for more. 

Blessings, 

#kent 

God is Love

1 John 4:8

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

God is Love

               The one characteristic that most defines the nature and character of God is His love.  It is a love that is unconditional, everlasting and without measure.  It is a love that we are still trying to comprehend in Christ Jesus, the expression of God’s righteousness, holiness and most beloved of all that God holds dear.  Yet God’s love is so great, along with that of His Son, who is in His nature, that His divine life was given and sacrificed on behalf of His creation.  Romans 5:6-8 states it this way, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” So God’s love is an unmerited, limitless, undeserved and selfless love. 

               Isn’t it God’s purpose to bring a people into the image of who He is?  This scripture tells us that love is the foundation of walking and coming into the image of God.  We already have a pretty fair revelation of the limitations of our natural love.  It often rises and falls along with our moods and attitudes.  Our love is often influenced by our self preservation and self-interest.  It is a love of condition and as such can be given and taken back at will.  Perhaps this why we struggle with the concept of God’s love that loves us unconditionally as sinners, even though He hates our sin.  Especially if we don’t even love ourselves, how can we reconcile our thinking and understanding that God can still love us? 

               There are sin issues that people carry that are not only abhorred by society, but by the individuals that carry them.  They would believe that there is no one and nothing that could love them the way they are.  They even hate and despise who they are and yet God’s love reaches even to the lowest hell and the greatest of sinners.  If we ever judge that someone is unredeemable then we don’t comprehend the love of God.   What is impossible with man is not impossible with God.  His love is that great.

               What this scripture is telling us as believers in Christ and in the love of God is that we also must carry this mantle of love, because we have been first partakers of it.  If the Spirit of God’s Son reigns upon the throne of our hearts then what is the dispensation of His kingdom if it is not love?  Our mind and earthly thinking are often a paradox and contradiction to the mind of the Spirit.  That is why Romans 8:5-8, “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.”  It is the love of God through His Spirit that will motivate and encourage us to do what may be a contradiction of our natural thinking to do.  As such we are learning to act in obedience to the prompting of the Spirit.  What often tips us off that they are from God is that is may in total contradiction to the way we feel, our fears or what we want to do in the natural.  When the Spirit of God begins to prompt us to act out of love and obedience we usually have a barrage of natural reasoning come at us to why we can’t or should do what the Spirit is prompting us to do.  One of the things that defines the Holy Spirit’s prompting is that He acts out of love.  If we follow Him in obedience, then our actions will carry that same love with them.  Because we are to be a Spirit led people then it only follows that our actions are defined by God’s love.  If our life is still only defined by selfishness and self-interest, then we need to strongly take a look at where we are in our relationship with the Father.  Whose image are we walking in, the first Adam or the last Adam, which is being conformed to the image of the incorruptible Christ? 

               If we are in God and know God, then our love, or rather His love in us, and our actions should be defining and expressing who we are.   Because Christ is in you, you are the expression of His love.

Blessings,

#kent