Kingdom Principle of Power and Provision
February 11, 2016
Matthew 10:6-20
These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. 6Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. 7As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ 8Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. 9Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts; 10take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff; for the worker is worth his keep.
11″Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at his house until you leave. 12As you enter the home, give it your greeting. 13If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. 14If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. 15I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town. 16I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.
17″Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues. 18On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. 19But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, 20for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
Kingdom Principle of Power and Provision
One of the principles that Christ taught His disciple in this exercise and that He would have us to learn is that your power and your provision are in your assignment and commission. What God has called you to do He will enable you to do and provide for you to do. Along with these provisions is the responsibility to walk in obedience and the direction of your calling and assignment.
I pray we are all getting a revelation in this hour that God is through with the time of segregation between “Ministry” and “Laity”. God has called us all in one capacity or another to “Ministry”. It may not look like what it traditionally has, but the body of Christ has been crippled so long by the paradigm that the congregation or general church body is only to be preached at and often members have set in pews and heard the same message of salvation spoon fed to them a thousand different ways. That is like repeating the first grade a thousand different times. God doesn’t want us to be content with remaining on the milk of the Word and the foundational principles. We each have a calling of ministry in our lives that we need to grow up in and be empowered to act upon. Hebrews 5:11-14 gives us somewhat of a rebuke in this area when it says, “We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. 12In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” The Word of God is exhorting us, “Body of Christ it is time to grow up and become of full age and maturity.” We, as the body, have often been quite content to sit back, pay our tithes and relegate the spiritual responsibilities to those in “Ministry”. If we are to move into the things of God and the calling He has upon our lives in this hour then our free pass is over. Let’s grow up and find what it is that God has called us too. Ministry leadership’s responsibility is to help you through their gift and calling to come into yours. The body of Christ has been lethargic far too long. It is time we become activated. When we do and we act upon what the Holy Spirit is directing and calling us to do our power and provision will be in our obedience to respond to that calling and direction.
Jesus didn’t tell the disciples to take anything extra with them on their assignment, for a workman is worthy of his hire. Many of God’s people may be lacking because we are not responding to meeting the needs in one another. We may often rob the servants of God because of our selfishness and unwillingness to see our responsibility in adequately providing for those who are operating in their calling. For the body of Christ to be whole it has to operate in unity and oneness under the headship of Christ and the direction of the Holy Spirit. We are no longer about “us four and no more”. We are our brother’s keeper, his provision and his blessing. Likewise, he should be ours. Let us arise from our complacency and come into our function in the body. Do not worry that you don’t feel worthy or able. Christ is your worthiness and the Holy Spirit is well able to help you fulfill the assignment He has given you. Just be faithful and obedient and He will empower and provide. Like I heard one dear Christian lady say, “His will, His bill.” First of all, let us get in His will.
Blessings,
#kent
“Is the LORD’s Arm too Short?”
September 21, 2015
Numbers 11:23
The LORD answered Moses, “Is the LORD’s arm too short? You will now see whether or not what I say will come true for you.”
“Is the LORD’s Arm too Short?”
It was not so many years ago that this was the scripture that I stood on concerning a house we felt the Lord had put in our hearts to believe for. That house didn’t come to us in the way we had envisioned nor did it come at the time we thought it should come. It wasn’t even the house we originally thought that God was promising us, but when it did come to pass it was so much better than what we had even hoped for.
When we read the passage that this scripture comes from we find the people of Israel out in the wilderness and they have become discontent with the manna that God has provided to sustain them. They are wailing and crying out for meat. They are lamenting the fact that they ever left Egypt.
God speaks to Moses in verses 18-19, “”Tell the people: ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The LORD heard you when you wailed, “If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!” Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat it. 19 You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, 20 but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it—because you have rejected the LORD, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?” ‘ ” Now how is God going to feed a million plus people in the wilderness meat for a month? Moses is thinking even if they slaughtered all of the livestock that they had there would not be enough meat to last that long. Moses is saying that is a lot of meat Lord, how can you supply that much meat and then you want me to put my reputation on the line by telling them that they are going to receive the seemingly impossible. They were already living the seemly impossible by the very fact that they were no longer in Egypt, but here in the wilderness, being supernaturally fed with manna from heaven.
It is then that God gave Moses this Word concerning what He had spoken that would come to pass. “Is the LORD’s arm too short? You will now see whether or not what I say will come true for you.”
It teaches this lesson, no matter how impossible it seems He is able and will perform the Word that He has spoken. In this particular case the meat that He brought to Israel turned into a judgement, rather than a blessing, because of their murmuring and complaint. Yet God honors those who operate out of faith, not murmuring and complaining about what they don’t have, but rather worshipping and giving thanks for what they do have even before they have received it. It is faith in God that reaps His blessing, but doubt, fear, discontentment and unbelief only attract judgement.
Our God, is a mighty God whose arm has not waxed short. What He says, He will do. It may not be in our time or our way, but God is God and we do Him great injustice to try to confine Him to the little box of our understanding and human comprehension. 2 Corinthians 1:20 says, “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.”
As we pursue what God has for us and as He proclaims in 2 Peter 1:3-4, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires,” lay hold of your inheritance with faith, confidence and thanksgiving. God is true to His Word and what He has promised He will bring to pass. Philippians 4:4-7 gives us the proper basis of how to approach the Lord for our needs: “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.” Let us magnify the Lord for His faithfulness as we walk this walk of faith, for He does all things after the counsel of His will and not ours. What God has promised and what the Spirit, has truly spoken into your hearts, He will bring to pass in its season. Meanwhile, rejoice and be glad in Him, giving thanks and counting as already done that which He has faithfully promised.
Blessings,
#kent
The Death that Defiles Us
March 3, 2014
The Death that Defiles Us
Haggai 2: 10-19
10 On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Haggai: 11 “This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Ask the priests what the law says: 12 If a person carries consecrated meat in the fold of his garment, and that fold touches some bread or stew, some wine, oil or other food, does it become consecrated?’ ”
The priests answered, “No.”
13 Then Haggai said, “If a person defiled by contact with a dead body touches one of these things, does it become defiled?” “Yes,” the priests replied, “it becomes defiled.”
14 Then Haggai said, ” ‘So it is with this people and this nation in my sight,’ declares the LORD. ‘Whatever they do and whatever they offer there is defiled.
15 ” ‘Now give careful thought to this from this day on —consider how things were before one stone was laid on another in the LORD’s temple. 16 When anyone came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. When anyone went to a wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were only twenty. 17 I struck all the work of your hands with blight, mildew and hail, yet you did not turn to me,’ declares the LORD. 18 ‘From this day on, from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, give careful thought to the day when the foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid. Give careful thought: 19 Is there yet any seed left in the barn? Until now, the vine and the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have not borne fruit.
” ‘From this day on I will bless you.’ ”
The Book of Haggai is written during a time when a remnant of Israel has returned from their Babylonian captivity. They have returned to a devastated Jerusalem and a former glorious temple of Solomon that now lies in ruin. The Spirit of the Lord is stirring up the people through the prophet Haggai to come together and rebuild the temple. Up till this time every one has pretty much been to themselves and only concerned with their own welfare and building back their own houses.
Our scripture today may not make a lot of sense to a lot of us, but I felt compelled to share a few spiritual truths from it. This analogy that the Lord is giving is about those things which sanctify and those things which defile. First He is saying that just because a priest has sanctified meat or meat that had been offered on the altar and it touches some other food or drink does that mean this other substance becomes sanctified. For instance, spiritually speaking, you carry around in you the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. For He has said, “ except you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood you have not life in you.” Therefore by faith we are partakers of God’s holy sacrifice, Jesus, and as such carry Him in our spiritual garments. Does that mean that every life that we touch becomes sanctified and redeemed because we have touched them? No, they have to come into a personal relationship with Christ by faith and partake of the Christ for themselves. It doesn’t just rub off of us onto someone else.
The same is not true concerning the contact with a dead body. Anyone touching a dead body became defiled by it. Then Haggai reminds the people that before one stone was laid on another in the Lord’s temple when anyone came to a heap of twenty measures there were only ten and whenever they went to the wine vat to draw fifty measures there was only twenty. How many times have we came to lay hold of the life and substance of Christ and His Spirit and we have come up short? We haven’t found the fullness and the substance that we needed. How many times have we experienced want, or need or adversity instead of blessing? “You did not turn to Me, declares the Lord.” The law of sin and death around us has defiled us. So many of us are still trying to live out of that life or else we are allowing it to touch and contaminate us. We are in Christ, but Christ has not been fully formed in us. This is why we must come together in the unity of the body of Christ to rebuild the true temple and tabernacle of God whom we are. Too long we have been contented to abide in our “ceiled houses” our own denominations, doctrines and religious houses, ideologies and thinking. God is calling us to come out of the defilement of flesh and spirit and come together to build His house. What we see in the world today has little to do with His true house. What we see is a fragmented bunch of religious people, many of whom are into it for their own profit and gain. The world is seeing people that call themselves by the name of Christ and yet they are dishonest, unreliable, backbiting, slanderous and many other things that shouldn’t even be named among us. We have become a mockery of His holiness. We are a defiled people. We are defiled by the world and defiled by a dead religion still operating under the principles of sin and death, rather than life and peace in Christ Jesus. Where is Christ really seen and glorified in all of this? His true temple lies in ruin, but He is calling forth a people to build it again. He tells us that when we put His house first there will be blessing. Where you haven’t seen fruit before you will begin to see fruit as the Lord is lifted up and His house is built. How is the house of God built? Christ has to be formed in us. He has to be not only our habitation, but also our expression in this life. It is not just about believing in Jesus; the faith has to become substance and Christ wants to be the substance of your life and of His entire house. The Spirit of God will build the house as we come together in the unity of the Spirit and the love of Christ to join hands and hearts and be ONE in Him. Christ is not divided; He is ONE Man, ONE Lord, ONE Spirit and ONE Baptism. If we will separate ourselves from the defilement of this world, from religion and dead works, if we will consecrate ourselves to His work, we will see blessings in areas that we have never seen them before. He has called us to build HIS HOUSE!
“7But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.” 9(What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? 10He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:7-13)
Blessings,
kent
tricklesoftruth 