Spiritual Mindset

Spiritual Mindset

Romans 8:5

.  ⁵Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.

            If we ask ourselves today, “what is my mind most often filled with, what are the predominate thoughts that are foremost in my heart?”  Take just a minute to meditate on that question and try and arrive at an honest answer.  Generally, it will be about what we are most passionate about, whether it is our family, our job, our spouse, our sports, hobbies or pleasures.  The spiritual man may enjoy and appreciate a lot of things, but the one thing he is passionate about is God.  His or her heart will continually be in state of meditation, thinking, singing, praising, worshipping and fellowship with the Lord.  The Lord is the lover of the spirit’s heart.   When we read the Song of Songs we are reading a love story, a passion story of the soul in pursuit of Christ.  If He is not fully the passion of our hearts and souls, then He must become so.  Nothing will ever do more to deliver us from sin and conform us to His nature than continually abiding in His presence.  Psalms 16:11 declares, “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence [is] fulness of joy; at thy right hand [there are] pleasures for evermore.”  The richest place of contentment, joy and fulfillment is in the Lord’s presence.   When we truly taste of His presence, we understand that there is not a replacement for it on earth.  Nothing can take us higher, nothing can bring us greater joy, and nothing can have as great an emotional and spiritual impact as encountering His presence.  It can be somewhat elusive as it was for the Shulamite maid in pursuit of her lover, but once she found His love, she would settle for no less, nor no other. She would pursue Him, no matter how far or what the cost.  Songs 6:3 says, “I [am] my beloved’s, and my beloved [is] mine: he feedeth among the lilies.”  For us the lily has become a symbol of resurrection life and that is exactly where we find Christ.  We want to feed and eat with Him in that place of resurrection, Spirit Life.  Songs 7:10 reveals to us, “I [am] my beloved’s, and his desire [is] toward me.”  As much as we may desire Him, He desires us more.  He is passionately in love with us and is wooing us into His bedchamber.  He desires to impart into us His divine life; the life that lifts us above the natural realms of earth and living into the realms of His glory and presence. 

            We so often think of spiritual life in terms of life and death.  “When I die and go to heaven then I will be with Jesus.”  Why are we waiting for death, when we can press into Life now?  Jesus never taught that we had to die before we could become spiritual.  He taught us that when we came to Him we already died; we already became identified with that cross and at the same time we became identified with His Life.  We stepped out of natural thinking, living, being, into a new creature formed in His image and likeness.  His desire is that we unwrap its mystery and begin to taste of it now.

            The Lord has called us to a spiritual mindset where our minds, our hearts, our souls are continually in love and pursuit of Him.  Do we love Him like He loves us?  Are we willing to give our all for Him as He did for us?  This is the place of abiding in Him; this is the place fellowship and relationship.  We will never find the intimacy with Christ that we desire in the midst of other lovers.  Will He still love us?  Yes, always and forever, but He is looking and earnestly desiring the soul whose heart is single toward Him, who has forsaken all other lovers and He is the sole passion and love of their hearts.  Are we that person?  Is Christ really everything to us, our all in all? Are we the ones “who live in accordance with the Spirit and have their minds set on what the Spirit desires”?  Do we find ourselves falling short of the love relationship Jesus desires with us?  I think, in truth, most all of us fall so short of the spiritual men and women that He has called us to be.  We are but a phantom of the real.  We don’t have to stay that way.  Look into the yearning eyes of your loving Lord.  He is calling us unto His heart and bosom today.  He is calling us to come up higher, to be a partaker of His divine life, to be the spiritual men and women who walk and live in the Spirit. “Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”

Blessings,

#kent

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The Power of Touch

The Power of Touch

Luke 6:19

And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed [them] all.

               What is contained in this sense we call touch?  We could make the argument that it was touch that actually caused mankind to die.  In Genesis 3:3 God told Adam and Eve, “’You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ” Touch is a powerful thing both in a positive and negative sense.  Through the power of touch we can communicate life and death, healing and wounding, love and hate.  Touch is a sense that both gives and receives.  Touch also carries with it the connotation of how we affect others and how they affect us.  So we can actually touch or be touched without ever physically contacting another person. 

               God knows the power of touch and because of that He set boundaries on the things we should not touch.  In these situations, to reach out and touch what God had prohibited could result in death, or in being unclean.  God has commanded us not to touch the things that would result in defilement and negative consequences.  Because of the nature and freewill of man, we have not always obeyed the Lord concerning these things and now we live with death and the consequences of our sin, disobedience and defilement. 

               Christ had a ministry of touch.  He first touched this world when He created it through the spoken Word of the Father.  Still nothing has touched humanity more profoundly and eternally than when Christ came forth in the earth in Jesus.  This was like God’s personal loving touch upon the face of all flesh.  In Jesus we saw the manifest nature, expression and purpose of God come among us.  We came to know and understand God in a more personal way than perhaps we ever had.  As Jesus began His ministry we saw Him healing and changing lives by the touch of His hand, but then we saw a little afflicted woman who said to herself, “if I can just touch the hem of His garment I know I will be healed.”  So it was that she reached out in faith, touched His garment and she was healed.  After that people weren’t waiting for Jesus to just touch them, they were seeking the opportunity to touch Jesus for their need.  There are many people today that want to touch Jesus in a real and personal way. 

               When God gave the commandment in the Garden not to touch or eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, disobedience to that command brought death into all of humanity.  When Jesus lived out the obedience to the Father, the sin of humanity nailed Him to an old rugged cross on Calvary.  That old rugged cross has become to mankind the tree of life and restoration back to relationship with our God.  If we desire life, salvation, healing and restoration we need to come and first partake of that tree of life at Calvary, touching and laying hold of Christ in faith.                 Colossians 2 tells us that if we have come to Calvary we have also died to the rudiments and elements of this world.  We are no longer bound by the ordinances of taste not, touch not, handle not which all are to perish with the using after the commandments and doctrines of men.  We have now been touched and infused with His very Life.  Disease spreads to destroy and bring death, but the Life of Christ grows and spreads within us to bring life out of death.  In that embrace with Calvary we have touched heaven.  With our one hand touching heaven, the Lord has told us to reach back with the other hand and touch earth.  Become the touch of Christ to those the Lord places within your life.  Be the channel and the hand of the Almighty to touch and communicate God’s love and grace to the world you live and exist in.  You are like the hem of the Lord’s garment, as people begin to see the power and love of Christ issuing from your life they will seek you as point of contact to help them receive what they need from the Lord.  Never underestimate the power of touch.  God wants to touch lives through you every day.  Are we a willing and supple hand, willing to stretch forth and offer life to all that we are with?  Touch someone’s life today with the power of the endless life that dwells within you

Blessings,

#kent

The Footsteps of Service

The Footsteps of Service

John 13:1-17

1It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love, 2The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. 3Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. 6He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 7Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” 8″No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” 9″Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!” 10Jesus answered, “A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” 11For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean. 12When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13″You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

               Imagine the CEO of the most powerful company in the world taking off his jacket, tucking back his tie, rolling up his sleeves and washing the feet of his board of directors.  Imagine the president of the United States doing the same with his cabinet.  One by one he removes their shoes and socks, washes their feet and dries them.  We would think that was pretty odd and out of place for a person of their stature, power and authority to do such a thing.  That isn’t in the job description, is it?  For Jesus it was, and He was far greater than even the men I have just described. 

               Through this servant act of foot washing Jesus was demonstrating the mission statement of the Kingdom, “Service out of love.” 

               Jesus gave us the bath when we accepted Him as our Savior.  We were washed by the blood of the Lamb and baptized into Him.  While His righteousness covers us, our feet still get dirty as we trod this earth.  We don’t live and walk through this world without getting tainted from it.  Sometimes our feet can get down right dirty and muddy.  They have to be washed.  Spiritually speaking, we need those feet of our spiritual walk cleansed as it says in Ephesians 5:26, “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word” 

               The principle of the natural world and natural man is to live for self.  Selfishness, in a person of God, defiles their walk and yet most all of us have that in us.  That is why Jesus gave us an example of washing one another’s feet with selfless acts of kindness and mercy.  That is why the Word tells us we are not to judge our brother, but seek to restore them in humility and love, taking heed that we don’t fall into disobedience. 

               We have talked about how our feet carry us through life and in the path that we choose to follow.  Our feet govern our walk in the natural and the spirit.  The only way the man of God knows how to walk, is by the light of the Word of God.  Psalms 119:101 says, “I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey your word.” And verse 105, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.”  What Jesus taught His disciple on this last night before His death is a key principle of the kingdom.  It is like what He told his disciples when they were fussing over who would be the greatest in the kingdom.  In Mark 9:35 it tells us, “And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, [the same] shall be last of all, and servant of all.” That is what our walk is all about and that is the economy of the kingdom, “service out of love.”  Our vision has to be, not to be served, but to serve.”  We have all been called into the ministry.  It is the ministry of service.”  I would expect to see a great many women promoted in heaven, because more of them have learned what it is to serve out of love. 

                There will be those who abuse your service.  There will be those whom you will wash their feet and they will turn and betray you, as Judas did Jesus.   Your greatness is not in your authority or riches or power or giftings; it is in your humility, your love and your service to others.  Humility is simply strength under control. 

               Listen to Paul’s philosophy of his ministry in 1 Corinthians 10:31-33, “31So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 32Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God— 33even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.”  You see, many of us are walking in a wrong way of thinking; it is about us and what we can accomplish.  We may have the pretense and delusion that it is for the Lord’s glory, when in really it is for ours. 

               Will you wash someone’s feet today?  Will you serve them, love them, minister the Word of God to them, not in condemnation and judgement, but in love.  Will you help someone find their way and set their feet on the path of the kingdom of heaven?  Your greatness is in your love and your ability to serve others.  Everyday, we can wash someone’s feet.  How great are we?

Blessings,

#kent

Cool Your Jets

Cool Your Jets

Philippians 4: 4-7

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

               None of us ever get stressed about things do we?  We’re able to take everything in stride.  The pressures and demands of life, family, jobs, finances, relationships, are all handled with the peace and calm of the Lord, right?  Not likely, we all feel the pressures of life and its demands.  It is hard for even those of us who are normally calm, not to get wound up about things at times.  It is hard for us to rest in the Lord when we are like a turbine wound up at full throttle.  Let’s face it, life is hard a lot of the time.  We are all trying to problem solve and best figure out how to get ourselves out of the pickle we often find ourselves in. 

               Then we come across this scripture in Philippians 4 and we think, “wow, that is easier said than done”.  Most of our problems, pressures and how we handle them are in our minds.  That is not to say they are not real, it is just that how they present themselves has a lot to do with how we handle them mentally.  Philippians 4:4-7 is prompting us to get in the right mindset to handle our pressures and our problems.  It is God’s way of saying, “Cool your jets, take a deep breath and start exhaling with praise, worship, and rejoicing.  I know you don’t feel like it and the circumstances don’t warrant it but do it anyway.”  The peace and the rest of the Lord can’t be found while we are thrashing around and struggling in our flesh.  It can only be found as we enter into Him in that place of rest and relinquishment of all that we are, or better yet, all that we are not, into what He is.  The great “I Am” is with you, in you and in your circumstances.  You just can’t see Him through all of the smoke of your screaming engine as you are racing to solve your problems.  That is why the Word says, “Be still and know that I am God.”  Turn the key off, kill the engine for a little while, let things cool down and park your self in the presence of Jesus.  As important as we feel things are sometimes, if we were taken out of the world, it would not stop, adjustments would be made and things would continue on as they always have.  Life is too short to burn ourselves out with stress and worry.  So much of what we do worry about isn’t even that important.  Will what we are worrying about even matter tomorrow or next week or next month.  There is a reason that Jesus taught us in Matthew 6:33-34, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day [is] the evil thereof.”  Live for the day and in the moment.  It is all right to plan, but always let your plans be subject to God’s will and timing.  Our peace is in putting Him first.  He tells us if we will do that, He will take care of the other. 

               So, maybe it is time that we quit stressing so much about everything in life.  Maybe it is time that we “cool our jets.”  Rest in Him who is without limitations.  Rejoice in Him who has your back and is your resource.  He is able to work all things out for your good as you enter into His rest, rejoicing, praising Him continually and leaning on the everlasting arms of Christ.                 Stress and pressures are always going to be out there, but we must renew our minds in Christ if we want the victory in dealing with it.  As we are put in the pressure cooker of life, let’s just let it make us ever more tender to Jesus.  Sometimes life feels like we are driving the car with no steering and no brakes and all that we can do is throw up our hands and say, “please take the wheel sweet Jesus”.  That is the rest He wants to bring us too, where we can let go and let Him be God in each situation

Blessings,

#kent

Stir Up the Gift

 2 Timothy 1:3-7

3I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. 4Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. 5I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. 6For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

Stir up the Gift

               Many of you who take the time to read these little trickles do so because there is something inside you that burns and hungers for more of God.  Many of you have heard God speak to you, or had a word spoken over you or you just have a knowing that God wants to work in your life and use you in some way.  Maybe what you have heard or felt in your heart has lain dormant for the most part and you haven’t really stepped out and stepped up to what God has for you.  Certainly, there is a timing in God when He brings you into the fullness of your calling, but there is always a preparation rather you are aware of it or not. 

               A lot of us rather timidly hold back, because we lack the confidence to think that God really could or would really use us.  Often, we tend to focus on our weaknesses and listen to the voices of doubt and condemnation that tells us God really can’t use us, because we have too many sins or failures or we have a past.  The blood of Jesus washes our past away, along with all our sins and failures.  This is the day that God is speaking to many of you to begin to really step up and step out into the calling that He has prepared for you.  That doesn’t mean you radically change your life, but this word is to stir up your gift and say to you as Paul did to Timothy, begin to exercise what God has put within you.  Begin to step out, even in small ways, to exercise the gift and the calling that is upon your life.  God will meet you there as you step out in faith.  Don’t be discouraged if initially you flounder and stumble.  Even though you were destined to walk upright on two legs it was a process of learning how.  Begin to step out and if you fall, get back up and try again and again, but keep your eyes on the Lord and keep walking toward Him and what He is calling you into.  Put away your doubts and your fears because those don’t come from the Spirit of the Lord.  He is giving you the spirit of power, of love, of soundness of mind and discipline.  As you stir up and exercise that gift you will see it grow stronger and stronger.  You will begin to experience the Lord’s anointing in it as you trust Him and exercise it in faith.  Now is the time to stir up your gift and walk in your calling.  You have had your time that you called your own, now it is time to go where He will lead you and give yourself fully to His service.  If you deny your gift, you are no different than the steward who took the talent His master gave him and hid it in the dirt or in your humanity.  Begin to invest the talent that God has given you and give the increase and the glory back to Him.  Listen to what God is speaking to your heart today.

Blessings,

#kent

Got to Quit Holding Out

Got to quit holding out!

Proverbs 3:27

Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do [it].

               How many times are we in a position to be a blessing, especially to someone deserving, and we hold back?  Maybe it as simple as giving a little extra on the tip to good waiter or waitress.  Maybe it is something as simple as spending more time with a person you say you love.  Maybe it is just pitching in and helping or lending a hand to a friend, neighbor or family member.  There are many ways we can rob deserving individuals because of selfishness in our hearts. 

               What if I need a helping hand and no one is willing to help me?  What if there is something that is really special that I need or want badly but can’t afford it and no one is willing to help me? 

               The truth is we are all constantly surrounded by the needs of others.  We have the wife or husband always expressing their needs, the children demanding their needs, letters in the mail asking for money, knocks on the door and a barrage of phone solicitors that need and want something from you.   And then of course we go to church and we need to give there.  It easy for us to grow callused in our hearts to the pleas and needs of others.  Then one day when we are down and out or facing a pressing need, we may wonder why someone isn’t there for us?  Or perhaps they are there for us and we are convicted of the fact that we have never been there for them.  

               Often the hardest thing for me is to do is give out what I feel I need to be holding on too.  After all there is only so much and if I don’t horde it back there won’t be enough for later.  Do any of you share that mentality with me?  One of the areas I believe God is dealing with me personally in is the area of giving.  Sometimes we can be faithful to give in one area, but then justify not giving in another.  Jesus spoke to some Pharisees like that in Luke 11:41-42, “So give to the needy what you greedily possess, and you will be clean all over. But how terrible it will be for you Pharisees! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest part of your income, but you completely forget about justice and the love of God. You should tithe, yes, but you should not leave undone the more important things.”  How many of us may be the same way in our lives, we are generous or faithful in our giving in one area, but then we are robbing someone in another area.  We justify our lack of giving in the one area by our faithful giving in another.  Jesus is saying, no, that is legalism, that is not the true heart of a giver.  A giver will give when they see no more supply in front of them.  They just believe that there is more coming.  The more selfish and greedy person is only willing to give out of their abundance based on the supply that they have.  The giver is living out of faith, but the selfish and greedy person is living out of fear and unbelief.  He is trusting in himself and not in God who supplies all of our need according to His riches in glory.  What if I’m to be the supply for someone’s particular need, but I decide to withhold?  Have I robbed God’s supply to that individual or that need?  Have I kept back what God intended for someone else for my selfish gain?  This can take place on many different levels, financially, emotionally, physically, spiritually; we must ask ourselves where we might be withholding good from whom it is due. 

               The love of God in us must express itself in giving.  It is true that there are often more demands upon us to give than what we have resources for, but what is the attitude of our heart?  Is it always open to God’s direction in giving?  Is it willing to give out of need rather than just out of its abundance?  Jesus saw the widow’s mite given in the temple and expressed to His disciples that she had given more than all the other wealthy givers.  The difference was that she gave out of her need and they out of their excess.  I know the Lord is dealing with attitudes in my heart concerning the spirit of giving, how about you?  I know that as long as I am not a true giver, I am not a true lover and the Love of God is still lacking in my heart.  The Lord has to be the resource and the motivation for all that I do, not so I can impress men, but so that I might please Him.  We need to all ask God for a revelation of our hearts in the area of giving.  We all want to be faithful to ‘withhold not good from whom it is due, when it is in the power of our hand to do it.’

Blessings,

#kent

God’s Life Map

God’s Life Map

Psalms 119:1-16 (Amplified)

BLESSED (HAPPY, fortunate, to be envied) are the undefiled (the upright, truly sincere, and blameless) in the way [of the revealed will of God], who walk (order their conduct and conversation) in the law of the Lord (the whole of God’s revealed will).

2Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are they who keep His testimonies, and who seek, inquire for and of Him and crave Him with the whole heart.

3Yes, they do no unrighteousness [no willful wandering from His precepts]; they walk in His ways.

4You have commanded us to keep Your precepts, that we should observe them diligently.

5Oh, that my ways were directed and established to observe Your statutes [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying them]!

6Then shall I not be put to shame [by failing to inherit Your promises] when I have respect to all Your commandments.

7I will praise and give thanks to You with uprightness of heart when I learn [by sanctified experiences] Your righteous judgments [Your decisions against and punishments for particular lines of thought and conduct].

8I will keep Your statutes; O forsake me not utterly.

9How shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed and keeping watch [on himself] according to Your word [conforming his life to it].

10With my whole heart have I sought You, inquiring for and of You and yearning for You; Oh, let me not wander or step aside [either in ignorance or willfully] from Your commandments.

11Your word have I laid up in my heart, that I might not sin against You.

12Blessed are You, O Lord; teach me Your statutes.

13With my lips have I declared and recounted all the ordinances of Your mouth.

14I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies as much as in all riches.

15I will meditate on Your precepts and have respect to Your ways [the paths of life marked out by Your law].

16I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.

               God has a road map for our lives that will help us maneuver and steer through all the obstacles, trials and confusions of life.  A lot of us are prone to wander.  We read the map for awhile and listen to its instruction.  We think we have the jest of it, so often we tend lay it aside, occasionally listen to the instructions of others and think we can pretty well find our way.  So off we go like a prideful man on a journey.  Things are going well for while, but then we take some wrong turns and suddenly we find ourselves off course.  Not to worry, we can find our way back and we only read instructions, consult maps or ask advice when all else fails.  The more we struggle in our strength and wisdom the more lost we seem to become, but I’m sure we will find the way back up at the next corner or just over the hill. 

Does that sound like any of us?  Are any of us off course today and struggling to find our way.  Sometimes we can think we know the Word of God pretty well, we don’t really need to read and study it like we used too, but God’s Word is not just literature, it is food and water to our soul, it is the substance of life.  When we depart from it, we slowly start to drift away from our Lord.  Even as I write these papers and have just tried to listen to the voice of the Lord, He has started to direct me to go back and look into His Word for the inspired word from Him.  God’s Word is a vital part of who He is and what we are.  It is written so that by the Holy Spirit’s understanding we can comprehend it and apply it personally to our lives and circumstances; being transformed by it.

God’s Word is not only our spiritual food and water; it is our cleansing and washing.  It is what renews our mind, our thinking, our vision and our destiny.  It is the compass that keeps us on course with the will and purpose of God for our lives.  Some of you may be faithful to read these writings, other devotionals or books, but never let these become a substitute for your time and meditation in the Word of God. 

The Word tells us in the above passage that if we desire true joy and happiness, and I presume that we all do, then delight yourself in the Word and the precepts of the Lord.  It is when we are walking in the will of God that we enjoy the greatest and deepest blessings of God. 

Often it is our pride and selfishness that are our greatest enemies.  Most of us know that we, in our soulish and selfish thinking, are our own worst enemies.  It seems I am always praying God deliver me from me.  That deliverance is in accordance with filling my mind, my thinking and my being with God’s Word, ordinances and instructions.  Even in this there is a danger, because often times, we want to compartmentalize God in one part of our life and our soulish activities in another part of our lives.  We can become this multiple personality and isn’t that what we have seen a lot of in Christianity.  No wonder the world is confused when they look at us.  They see us in this pious and holy context on one hand and on the other we are breaking our word, lying, cheating and being every bit as bad, if not worse, than the world.  The world is so disillusioned with that kind of Christianity.  They are hungry for the real, the genuine.  They are looking for the God manifested in people who are not just looking down to condemn them and despise them, but those who are willing to humble themselves, get under them and lift them up.  Those who can look past their sin and faults and see their need as God saw ours.   The true knowledge and wisdom of the Word is not a prideful thing.  It is not a head-trip.  It is a place of brokenness and humility, of love and devotion, of serving and pouring out for others.  It is conformity to the image and nature of Christ. 

As the breast of a baby’s mother and their blanky are the security and life of a baby, so let God’s Word be that to us.  Let us crave it, cling to it, live it, breathe it, eat it and drink it.  Let it be our meditation day and night.  It is our map to the center of God’s love, will and presence.  We are lost without it.

Blessings,

#kent

Blessed are the Peacemakers

James 3:17-18

But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.

Blessed are the Peacemakers

               Romans 14:7 says, “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.”  Peacemakers are a kingdom people who sow after the spirit and not after the flesh.  Their intent is to reap a spiritual harvest of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.   There are not a lot of peacemakers out here in the body of Christ.  Most of us have our own agendas, our own opinions, doctrines of men and will to see things go our way.  Therefore, our agenda isn’t peace; it is warfare, perhaps not physically, but often verbally and psychologically.  We want to manipulate things our way, because that is the way we think they should be.  But when you think one way and I think another and when we both think that we are right, are we going to have peace?  No, we are both going to strive to establish our own opinion as right. 

               A peacemaker works out of the wisdom that comes from above.  He or she grasps a concept that life isn’t just about the here and now, but what perpetuates into eternity.  Their concept isn’t about their way; it is about God’s way.  Strife, envy, division and disunity cannot accomplish the purposes of God.  That is why the enemy tries to sow them in our midst.   We so often speak, move and find our expression out of the emotions of our flesh rather than out of the peace and spirit of the Lord.  We need only to look to the Holy Spirit to see the example of the peacemaker.  The Holy Spirit is with us to help us, comfort us, teach us, empower us and guide us into peace and righteousness.  The Holy Spirit is often referred to as the perfect gentleman.  He doesn’t override our will.  He doesn’t force us to learn of Him.  He won’t force comfort on you if you don’t want it.  The Holy Spirit, as awesome and Holy as He is, is not forward in His dealing with us.  He will work with us when we are yielded to allow Him to have control, but He doesn’t force His control upon us.  Hopefully we are wise enough to realize that we are far better with Him than we are without Him.  Yet how many of us keep the Holy Spirit locked in the closet while we continue to do things our way and for our own end?  If we are peacemakers, we are going to operate like the Holy Spirit.  We can’t force peace on those who are bent upon war.  Often they must go their own way until they come to the end of themselves, but the mature ones will always be there ready to help, assist, comfort, counsel and move in God on your behalf, but their nature is considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit.  They are not judgmental or prejudice in their dealings, but are impartial and sincere.  The end and the fruit of what they do is righteousness.  They are not in this walk for themselves; they are in it for you and me.  If we are one of them, then that is where our heart must be also.  One of the definitions of a peacemaker from the Lexicon is this, “of Christianity, the tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and content with its earthly lot, of whatsoever sort that is.”  Are we at peace with God and man?  Are we at peace with ourselves and with what God has given us?  If we are not at peace how can we be a peacemaker?  Find your rest in God, the Holy One.  When you are at peace with Him and in your relationship with Him, then you are in a position to communicate that peace through your life, words and actions.  You will stand in the gap to reconcile men to God and to one another.  The body of Christ is in great need of a lot more peacemakers who walk in the Spirit and the love of the Lord.  If you want to win your argument and your way by being louder, more aggressive and insistent or through the use of manipulation and subversives, you may win the battle but you will lose the war.  In order to get your way you may end up proving yourself to be the enemy of God rather than His friend.                 Matthew 5:9 says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”  If sonship is what you long for, then learn to be a peacemaker

Blessingsd,

#kent

I Am that I Am

Exodus 3:14

God said to Moses, “I am who I am . This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.'”

I AM that I AM

               It is really hard for us as human beings to truly wrap our minds around the “I AM”.  We have concepts; we have some imagery in our minds of whom we think He is.  We have His Word that expresses His character and nature, His mighty acts and conveys to us how He deals with His creation.  Most of all, we have Jesus who is the divine expression of God’s character and nature in flesh.  God has conveyed to us in the ways that our human understanding can grasp, some of what and who He is, but even that doesn’t begin to express the magnitude of His greatness. 

               When we ponder the stars and the universe, we catch a glimpse of how infinitely great and powerful our God is.  When we see that He would send to us undeserving humans His very own Son to die for our sins we get some since of the magnitude of His love, but can we ever grasp all that I AM is?  I don’t believe in this earthly mind we fully can.  What we should realize is that there is nothing our God can not do.  Upon Him there are no limitations except those He would impose upon Himself. 

               As God brings us into the realm of the I AM, we come to a state of rest as we cease from who we were and start becoming what He is through the work of His Spirit that now indwells us.  Have you ever taken a child’s hand to guide it and show them how to form letters only to have them take back control and make scribble out of the order of what you were trying to teach them?  That is what we do every time we take the control of our lives back away from God.  His ways will bring the order and the peace that we seek in our lives, while our own ways will only bring us back into chaos. 

               God wants us to know Him for who He is in the measure that we can comprehend Him.  Never underestimate what He can and will do for you if you will rest in the confidence of who He is.  I AM that I AM is resident in His people today.  As He showed Himself mighty in bringing the people of God out Egypt, He will show Himself mighty to us.  Let us not fall into the same sin of murmuring and unbelief that so many of the children of Israel did. Because God is God, His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.  Trust Him even when your heart and your faith are being tested.  Know that I AM is in control no matter what the circumstances speak.  His love, truth and promises never fail.  I AM who I AM is ever with you.

Blessings,

#kent

Defining Love

1 John 4:8

He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

Defining Love

               How do we define love?  1 John 4:16 says, “…God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.”  We know that, in and of ourselves, our love is limited and conditional, but in Christ it knows no such boundaries, ‘for while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.’  The secret to loving as God has commanded us too is in the abiding in Him.  That abiding love is not static, it is dynamic in its expression toward all that surrounds it.  The eyes of that love are always looking to the real needs in each individual that it encounters.  Outwardly men say that they need a lot of things that aren’t really even relevant to the deeper need of their heart.  They might not even understand what there need is, but God does.  As we walk in the love of God, we become the expression of God by the Spirit at work in and through us.  We want to ask God to help us see each individual, from those in our own family to those who are strangers, through His eyes and His heart.  Operating and living out of the love of God is in seeing your life as a ministry and service to those around you.  Love is an open door of giving.  It is often returned with ungratefulness and abuse, but it stays open because it is the avenue of God’s love to our fellow man.  When we suffer reproach, abuse and ungratefulness from others then we are, in a sense, filling up the sufferings of Christ.  We are experiencing and feeling what He felt.  We understand the sadness and heartache for those who reject Him, while at the same time we share in the joy of those who embrace Him. 

               We have become a very self-contained society wanting our own space and our own things.  God blesses us to be a blessing.  Abiding in the love of God will often take us out of our comfort zone, as it requires that we often lay down our wants and desires so that we might meet the needs in others.  For us to intimately know God we must truly respond to the love of God and become the expression of His love to others.  If we are a closed channel, then we have effectively cut off the life to God to someone who needs it.  God says, “that is not my love.  My love extends its arms open to all who will receive Christ and come into Me.” 

               Do we really know God?  For us to really know Him means that we have to be the expression of that same love wherewith He has loved and gave His life for us.   Are we willing to give our life for others?

Ask God to give you the eyes to see the world and the individuals around you through His eyes and His love.  Then ask Him to help you to respond accordingly.  The world is starving for genuine love.  You are that love because God abides in you. 

Blessings,

#kent