Foundation for Faith

Foundation for Faith

Psalms 18:2

The LORD [is] my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, [and] my high tower.

              We find in life that often we are a self-filling prophecy.  We become and are shaped in the image of whom we think and believe that we are.  Maybe we started out in our lives doubtful, fearful, with a lack of confidence and very little faith in ourselves that we could do much of anything or be anything.  As long as we hold on to that mindset and it is coming through in our outward demeanor, do you think we will see much success in our lives?  If we don’t believe in ourselves, then how could we expect others to believe in us?  What if, on the other hand, we dare to believe all that God says about us and dare to believe all that He said He would be for us?  Now we have a foundation for success.  As we believe and then act upon that premise by faith and those beliefs, will our life change? 

              King David was a man who is a prime example of one who spoke, sang and wrote what God was to His life.  Even in the deepest valleys of his life he dared not trust his soul, but rather He spoke out of His spirit and ministered to His soul the truths and the realities of God’s Word.  He was constantly meditating and reminding Himself of the goodness of God, His faithfulness, His power, His salvation and all of the attributes and benefits of God and His nature.  This is what makes the Psalms so powerful.  They are Spirit anointed sonnets and songs of who God is and why life is worth the living because He is in it.  David would recite the Word of God and encourage His soul.  His faith would then lay hold of the truth that He spoke and begin to act upon it. 

              Many of us see ourselves as weak, untalented, insignificant people.  That may be you and I outside of Christ, but what can we be in Christ?  Are there any limitation to what God can do in and through us, except in our own mind and thinking?   The foundation of faith is wrapping our mind and heart around God’s Word, assimilating it into our hearts and speaking into our doubtful and fearful souls.  It is so often good just to pray the Psalms, reading and speaking them to God as if they were your own.  It will inspire faith in your heart and courage to your soul as it did for David. 

              Who is the Lord and what is that to me?  When we answer that question we find the foundation for our faith.  Upon that foundation we can build a successful life, for our confidence is in Him who is able to do abundantly more than we can even ask or think. 

              What is the foundation of your life today?   Is it the Rock or is it the sand?

Blessings,

#kent

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Forgiveness, Overcoming and Knowing

Forgiveness, Overcoming and Knowing

1 John 2:12-14

I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.

13I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning.

I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.

I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father.

14I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning.

I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

              The Word of the Lord meets each one of us wherever we are in our spiritual development and walk.  Initially when we came to know Christ, we came to know Him in salvation and the forgiveness of our sins.  Fathers have a depth of experience and knowledge that they bring.  With Fathers it is not just what they know, but what they have walked in and experienced.  The Word from Genesis to Revelation is continually unfolding and making itself known and real to them.  They carry in them the seed of life.  The depth of the Word that is able to inspire, stir up faith and bring life to those they are with.  Father’s are the seasoned ones that have known God from the beginning of their Christian childhood.  They have known both victory and defeat and they bare the scars of battle.  They have not only known, as the young men do, the place of overcoming, but they have also found the place of God’s rest.  They can rest because they do know Him and His sovereignty is fixed in their hearts. 

The young men are walking through the experience stages of their walk.  They are exercising their faith.  They are not complacent or lethargic in regards to their relationship and walk with Christ, but are engaging and fighting the good fight.  They are becoming experienced in the Word and in the exercise of its authority and power as they discern the temptations and the deceitfulness of the enemy and overcome Him with the light of truth and walk of purity.  The young men are gaining a revelation of who they are in Christ and are learning to live out of that life and power within them rather than relying upon their own strength and goodness.  The young men are a joy to be around because of their zest for life. Their continual quest for a deeper faith and walk are contagious and an inspiration to all that are around them. 

              As children we come into the faith and knowledge of Christ.  We experience God’s goodness and faithfulness to us.  We begin to know Him in the sense that we are getting a revelation of who Christ is in us and what our purpose in God is.  The children are growing in the sincere milk of the Word.  They are becoming grounded in its doctrinal and eternal truths.  They are beginning to experience and walk in the principles of faith for their lives and they are comng to know God through a daily relationship.

God’s Word is the bread of life to meet us at every level of life and every stage of growth in our walk with God.  It is the Believers Instructions Before Leaving Earth.  The BIBLE is our daily instruction manual to bring us from infancy, to youth and into fatherhood.  Every day it is a source of greater insight and understanding into who we are in Christ and how we fit into the purpose and the plan of the Almighty Father.  Our life is about abiding with Him and in Him always.  It is about knowing HIM from the beginning to the end.

Blessings,

#kent

The Increase of His Kingdom

Matthew 16:24-28

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. 26What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 27For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. 28I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

The Increase of His Kingdom

               John the Baptist says in John 3:30, “He must increase, but I [must] decrease.”  If we want to see the increase of His kingdom in our lives in this coming year this is how it will happen, you and I must decrease.  As you decrease, God will increase.  You must lose your head so that He might be your head.  Only as you experience the circumcision of your fleshly heart will you experience both the agony and the glory of the cross.  It is on the other side of the cross that you will begin to know and walk in resurrection life.  This is a John the Baptist ministry that declares “prepare ye the way for the King is coming.” ‘His kingdom come and His will be done in earth as it is in heaven.’ 

               God is leading us into a new season in our spiritual journey and experience.  We will begin to see His Spirit move frequently and in wonderful and mysterious ways.  You are a part of this movement if your life is drawn into Him.  Even as a moth is drawn into the light and gives up its life, we will give up our lives as we are drawn into the light of His presence and glory.  This body is simply a vessel in which we carry the presence of His glory.  Paul speaks of it this way in 2 Corinthians 4:6-12, “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

7But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. 12So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.”  God’s paradox is that life issues out of death and death is the release of life.  

               Those of us who have an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches must hear this.  “Great things are going to come out of great sacrifice.”  As we die, His life is going to be released through us to the nations.  We are standing on the precipice where we must make the decision to turn back to Egypt or to go all the way.  Discipleship comes with a cost.  We must count that cost for it may well cost us everything that we have held dear in this earth.  You can save and preserve your life, but in the end you will lose it or you can forfeit and lose your life now and know that He is your reward.  We are moving into the Valley of Decision.  Count the cost.  Once you start down this road you don’t want to turn back.  Judas Iscariot was a man that turned back. 

               Those who follow the Lamb wherever He goes will know His peace and provision, but it will not be without hardship and adversity.  God has called us to such a time as this and where He has called; His people must obey His voice.  We are crossing over Jordan into a new land.  It is our land, but the principalities, powers and rulers of darkness rule it.  In order to take our land there will be warfare of great spiritual intensity.  Do not waiver in your faith for He who has led us to this land is well able to deliver it into our hands.  ‘He has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, power and a sound mind.’

               If you want His kingdom to come and His will to be done then know that it first starts in your earth as it is in heaven.  He must increase and we must decrease. 

Blessings,

#kent

Prophetic Word of Rain and Harvest

James 5:7-8

Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. 8You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.

Prophetic Word of Rain and Harvest

               Are you beginning to sense the change and shift in the spiritual atmosphere?  Every place we look we are seeing the evidence of it.  We see it in the world economy.  We see in it in all of the natural events of nature that are taking place upon the earth.  We are seeing it as darkness and light are beginning to more and more polarize until we will see lightning and storms of the spiritual as well as the natural.  Fear not, this is what we have been so patiently waiting for.

Can you smell the rain with your spiritual nostrils and senses?  As the Lord dropped this scripture into my spirit this day I believe He is saying to us, “Get ready, for the rain is coming! It is not just any old rain and it is not just a spring shower.  It is the former and the latter rain, the autumn and the spring rain together.  It is not only rain for sowing into the earth, it is the rain for reaping from the earth the great harvest that God has prepared.  Even now we are feeling the raindrops as the Holy Spirit falls here and there; touching healing and restoring lives.  We are just beginning to taste and sense the outpouring of His Spirit upon the earth.  The Lord’s coming is near.  His Kingdom is about to rain down upon the earth in unprecedented ways.  Ways we have never seen or beheld before.  The Word of God asks, “Can a nation be saved in a day? Yea, says the Lord, You will see torrents and waves of salvation like the world has not seen before when My rain begins to fall.”  Your buildings will overflow with the souls that I will bring in.  Prepare yourselves for the harvest.  When My rain falls the ingathering will begin in unprecedented measure.  Your barns will not be able to contain them.  Even as the catch was so great that the nets began to break when I blessed Peter and his fishermen, so your nets will be strained and begin to break as I bring in the catch of heaven.

               Prepare your heart and rend your soul, not your garments.  Prepare your spirits for you will all have many to disciple and teach the ways of the Lord.  Humble yourself before my presence in this hour that I might do a quick work in you.  My Spirit is even now brooding over the earth.  It is stirring the deep.  It is bringing awareness of sin and depravity to the place where men’s hearts will be sickened by what they see.  They will long and cry out to be set free.  Prepare the nets my people, for you are the net and it is My spirit that networks you together and binds you to one another that you may be unified of Spirit and truth.  What I am bringing in the earth is not religion, it is My kingdom come and My will being done in earth as it is in heaven.  You have been created for purpose and my purpose is to gather in the nations before the time of great judgement.  You are my net to gather in the nations.  Circumcise your hearts and put away your differences.  This is so much greater than your petty divisions and quarrellings.  The Spirit of My Love is the order of the day.  That is how the world will recognize who you are, by your love.  

               The patience of the farmer is about to see his reward.  He is about to see this valuable crop come to fruition.  Prepare for the harvest for it is before you.  The fields are white unto harvest, pray the Lord to send forth laborers into the fields.  This is the season of ingathering. This is the season of the former and latter rain and the latter glory of My house shall be greater than the former.”

Blessings,

#kent

God Will Take Care of Us

 

God Will Take Care of Us

 

Matthew 6:25-30

Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, [shall he] not much more [clothe] you, O ye of little faith?

 

It was shortly after we were first married and I was called into the supervisor’s office where I worked.  There I was informed that the company was going bankrupt and they would have to let me go.  As I brought that sad news home to my young, then pregnant wife, she was devastated.  Suddenly all of her security was gone and future uncertain.  I remember it was this particular passage that God gave me to share with her that began to renew hope, faith and a confidence that God was there to take care of us even when I couldn’t.  No doubt many of you have experienced similar situations where the future looked bleak and no provisions were on the horizon.  All we could do is say, “God you are a ‘Way Maker’.  You make a way where there is no way.”

As I was reading through the many accounts of Jesus touching, healing and delivering people in need, it was evident that their need was met in response to their faith to believe.  Jesus would sometimes say to them, “be it unto you according to your faith”.  The Lord is continually stretching our faith to believe Him for greater and greater things.  Even in those things that don’t turn out the way we hoped or wanted we can know that, “God is working all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).”

David often found the way of provision was released through the voice of praise and thanksgiving.  This is the voice of faith and it stirs up faith within our souls as well.  Sometimes it is really hard for us to grasp and believe that such an infinitely wonderful and great God could care individually and personally so much for us, and yet He does.  If He can care and provide for all of the small creatures and His creation, then surely He can care for you and I as well.

Let’s say someone shows up at your door today and says, “Here is a check for a million dollars.  Take it and spend it anyway you want.”  Obviously, we are going to be pretty elated and our initial response is quite likely going to abound in praise toward God.  After a few weeks and all the bills are paid and the needs are met.  We are enjoying the good life.  Now, where is God in the light of our prosperity and good fortune?  Is our dependency, trust and reliance still as great then as it was before?  Is God still at the forefront of all our thoughts and activities as we use that money, or has He faded back to a lonely second position, as our new lifestyle compels us to think less of Him and more about us.  This is our human nature at work and as much as we say, “I wouldn’t be like that, we would be amazed at how quickly God can lose His significance in the light of our prosperity.”  Herein lies its danger, we begin to love and trust in the money more than our God.  God warns Israel about this when He promises to prosper them after they come through all of their trials in of the wilderness in Deuteronomy 8.  It is a great chapter to read and reflect on.  “And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of [mine] hand hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for [it is] he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as [it is] this day And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish (Deuteronomy 8:17-19).”  At the forefront of every blessing, of every trial, of every endeavor and circumstance in life, God must continue to reign as the Lord of all of our life.  Our reliance upon Him is not to change whether in much or in little.   The Son is forever to be the center of our universe and the One to bring life and warmth to each day, winter, spring, summer or fall, in good times or bad.

“But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).”

Blessings,

#kent

The Realm of the Unseen

 

The Realm of the Unseen

 

2 Corinthians 4:18

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

 

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

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

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

Blessings,
#kent

A Pure Heart

 

A Pure Heart

 

Psalm 24:3-5

Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

 

Titus 1:5 says, “Unto the pure all things [are] pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving [is] nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.”  The purity of our hearts and our relationship with God has so much more to do with the condition of our hearts than it does with just outward acts, or dos and don’ts.  Many of us are concerned with how others perceive us and how even God perceives us.  We spend much of our life and efforts trying so hard to project the right image or performing the outward works of righteousness.  The Lord wants us to focus on the truth that purity and righteousness are a condition of our heart.  If our heart isn’t right nothing else will be either, no matter how religious or pious we wish to present ourselves.

Jesus said in Luke 6:45, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.”  It stands to reason then that the condition of our heart toward God is the measure of our purity.  Impurity takes place when there is a mixture of unclean and clean.  With regard to our spiritual state, that could be a mixture of impure thoughts, desire, emotions, actions, or motives.  If we are God’s kids, His desire in us is purity of heart.  He wants every thought and motive of our hearts to be centered in Him, in His nature and character.  If the Lord is the treasure we are laying up in our hearts, then our motives, and that which is spoken out of our mouths, will reflect that.

One of the ways the Lords helps us achieve purity is by fire.  It is the tribulation and trials of life that reveal our true heart.  How do we act in stressful situations?  How do we handle sin and temptation?  The Holy Spirit within us discerns the thoughts and intents of our hearts.  If we want to be pure then it is by exercising the knife or the sword of the Word of God in our hearts through skillful instruction and conviction of the Holy Spirit that cuts us to the quick concerning the areas of impurity in our lives.  Hebrew 4:12 says, “For the word of God [is] quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and [is] a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”  The Word is able to cut into the gray areas of our lives and reveal true heart motive.  Then it is our will and choice to purify and cleanse ourselves by relinquishing these areas of our lives to the Lord.  If we are the Lord’s, then we must always be mindful that this why Jesus came, “Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. (Titus 2:14)” Jesus has saved us to deliver us from iniquity.  The purification is a process by which He is pruning us, cutting away the unproductive ways of our flesh and baptizing us into fire that is constantly dealing with the issues of our heart.  Why?  The Lord is desiring a peculiar, separated people unlike the world.  They are as Peter puts it in 1 Peter 2:9-10, “But ye [are] a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time past [were] not a people, but [are] now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.”

In order to have purity, we must by the help of the Holy Spirit and God’s Word, be willing to deal with the impurity.  This will come in that place of relationship and desire for all that He is, counting all that we value in this earth as dung in comparison.  James 4:8 says, “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse [your] hands, [ye] sinners; and purify [your] hearts, [ye] double minded.”  The motives of our hearts must be centered in His Love.  It is not out of legalism or ceremonial ritual or practice that we will be purified.  1 Timothy 1:5 says the end of the commandment is this, “Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and [of] a good conscience, and [of] faith unfeigned:”

What is the condition of our heart today?  Are we operating out of a pure heart and pure motives generated and birthed out of the love of Christ within us?  It is in that continual, life-giving union with Him that the exchange of His nature for ours is taking place and purity of heart is the cream that rises from His love within us.

Blessings,

#kent

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

The Righteous shall not be Forsaken

 

The Righteous shall not be Forsaken

 

Psalms 37:25

I have been young, and [now] am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.

 

Often times the walk of righteousness is not an easy walk.  As we draw near to God and more and more relinquish our life for His, we sometimes can be become discouraged and disheartened.   All around us the wicked and the ungodly seem to be prospering and enjoying life while it seems we are facing one struggle after another.  While life is an uphill battle for us, it seems to often be a roller coaster ride for others and we may be tempted to mummer, “This is unfair Lord.”  The psalmist saw the same thing in his day.  He gives an account in Psalms 73 of how he envied the prosperity of the wicked.  “For I was envious at the foolish, [when] I saw the prosperity of the wicked (Psalms 73:3).” Do we ever get discouraged and think I’m tired of this walk of righteousness.  Everyone is prospering and enjoying life and I’m trying to be godly and yet I’m struggling through life.  Where is the equity God?  The psalmist goes on to explain what he discovered and the folly of his reasoning.  “This is what the wicked are like- always carefree, they increase in wealth. Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been plagued; I have been punished every morning.  If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed your children. When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny. Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin. How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors! As a dream when one awakes, so when you arise, O Lord, you will despise them as fantasies (Psalms 73:12-20).”   Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where [there is] no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy [is] he.”  There are times when our vision becomes obscure when we start to look back at the world instead of steadfastly upon the Lord.   The enemy would begin to coax our minds and hearts into thinking that the way of the world is far better.  He is only able to do this as we get our eyes off of Jesus.  We only need to enter into the sanctuary of His holy awesome presence to be reminded of what the end and the destiny is for the wicked and unbelieving.  God is not withholding His good from the righteous, He is raising up His righteous to possess and rule all things.  In order to do that the “things” cannot possess us.  Only He, The Lord God, Pure and Holy, must possess us.  Our destiny is not of this world, for this world and all of it goods soon are to pass away and perish with the using, but the possession we have in Christ is eternal and only increases from glory to glory.

Don’t allow yourself to become discouraged by the struggles you have in this world.  It is by patience and steadfast faithfulness that we enter in and possess the greatest prize of all, God’s holy nature and manifest presence in our lives.  What our God desires to give us is unmatchable by anything in this natural world.  We must have the vision of what God’s heart and desire for us is lest we perish in the wilderness, failing to enter in and possess our inheritance by unbelief.

Let us take heart and faint not, knowing that the fullness of our salvation is near at hand.  We can know that Paul was right when he said, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with [him], that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time [are] not worthy [to be compared] with the glory which shall be revealed in us For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God (Romans 8:16-19).”  We don’t need what the world has.  They need what we have, for the scripture declares that the sons of God will the instruments of God’s restoration and restitution in the earth.  The outward apparel does not always reveal the wealthy man.  The righteous is being purified to be the containers of God’s wealth and blessing.  The blessing that seeks not it’s own, but is the dispenser of the life and love of God even as Jesus, the pattern Son.

If we want renewed vision and purpose we need only draw near by the blood of Jesus and enter the sanctuary of His presence.  When we experience the richness of His manifest presence we will know without a doubt that there is nothing in this earth richer or more satisfying than Christ is Himself.

Blessings,

#kent

Yielded to Whom?

 

Yielded to Whom?

 

Romans 6:12-14

 

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members [as] instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members [as] instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

 

Imagine when you receive Christ as your Savior and the Holy Spirit comes to abide in you.  Before that, you are in this chaotic marketplace of humanity.  It is loud with its music.  There are voices all around you calling you and enticing you to come and partake of their merchandise, while they make all of their promises of how it will fulfill you and satisfy your needs and wants.  Come buy this desire, buy this experience, if you only have this then you will have peace and contentment.  Many of us have spent a good deal of our lives in that marketplace of worldliness and ungodliness.  We have partaken of many of it wares and merchandise, but always we came up lacking, always there was this same emptiness inside.  What brought happiness and pleasure for the moment was always fleeting and temporal, never eternal and continual.

Then, one day, we heard about this Jesus, who was the Son of God.  We heard He could take away all of our sin and bring us into a right relationship with God the Father.  As we listened about this Jesus, it was different than all of the other religions we heard about before where it was up to our goodness and works to get us to heaven.  This Jesus said He did it all for us, not only did he take away our sins and give His life for all our bad, but in its place He gave us all His good.  All we had to do was believe on Him and ask Him to now come in and be the Lord and King of our hearts.  We felt this tugging and drawing in our hearts.  Something in us was saying, “this is right, this is true, I need to do this.”  Yet, there was a part of you that wanted hold back.  It was saying you don’t want to do this, then you will be obligated to live for this Jesus and you won’t be able to buy and sell in the marketplace of humanity like you did before.  There is a lot of good merchandise out there; are you sure you want to give all of that up?  Yet something greater rises up in you, that is greater that the reasoning of your natural mind.  Something in you says, “I need this, this is what I have really been looking for all of my life in all of these other things that never fulfilled their promise to satisfy and give me the peace and contentment I’ve been searching for so long. ”

Suddenly you make the decision and you step forward, by faith, embracing and receiving into your heart this new Savior.  It is like you stepped out of this marketplace of the world and into this sphere, this dimension, this place where the peace and love of God filled the room of your soul.  Suddenly this tremendous weight of sin and condemnation was lifted off of you, your heart and life felt clean and pure again.  You thought, I will never leave this place, this is what I have been looking and searching for.   While the brightness of that experience fills the room it is like the walls or the sides of that tent are somewhat transparent and outside of it you are aware that the former world and marketplace exist.  Over time, as you again are forced to walk and live around the marketplace, its spirit and influences begin to return with their enticing voices seeking to lure you again into its dominion and darkness.

Here is where you can lose sight of who you are and what you have become.  The Lord shows you that you were never just your own.  You were always a slave and a servant; the big difference was who your master was.  When you came through that door of salvation you, by faith, placed your self-life of sin upon that Cross with Jesus.  When it died you traded the master of sin and death for the master of righteousness and life.  Perhaps you, like most of us, are hearing voices from the grave of your old man as he may be trying to resurrect himself in your life.  On one thing you must be clear.  The life of Christ is one that is built upon His Word with absolute faith that He is true.  The sense realm of the natural man will always perceive this outer world as real.  The reality of who you are in Christ is said here in Romans 6:22-23, “But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life For the wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Blessings,

#kent