The Power of Words

Ecclesiastes 10:12

The words of a wise man’s mouth win him favor, but the lips of a fool consume him.

The Power of Words

               Words can be so powerful that once there was a man who was called “the Word”.  John 1:1-5 says, ” In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.”  Take special note of the creative power of “the Word”.  It was Christ, the creative word of faith, spoken out of the mouth of the Father that brought all of creation into being and it is by the current and everlasting power of that word that every molecule and atom is held in perfect alignment and place.  Christ is the power of the Word made manifest in all of creation.  This same Word came dwealt among us in the man, Jesus.   Is it any wonder that the power of His Word and the Word of God birthed out of the Spirit of God still carries the power to transform and change lives today.  His Word never grows old or obsolete and its power never ceases.  We, as believers, are the product of that Word and that Word is alive, living in us and is still transforming us from day to day, unto the day of the Lord. 

               Matthew 24:25, Jesus says this, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”  The words of Jesus possess an everlasting life of their own and as such they have the power to impart life and transform the recipient who receives and believes them in faith. 

               If God’s Word has such power and we were created in His image then know that the words you speak have power as well.  Most of us are familiar with Proverbs 18:21 which says, ” The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences. (NLT)”  The Word of God lets us know that even our words have the power of death and life. The words of your mouth are a two-edged sword. They can kill or they can give life. You can emotionally assault, maim and murder without ever raising your hand or you can give words of healing, hope and life. The tongue is a sharp instrument. Use it wisely, carefully and always in love.  Most of us know this through our own experiences. We have all been on the giving and receiving end of words that either built us up or tore us down.  We have felt how deep words could inflict their wounds into our heart.  When these come, especially from one we love or respect, they pierce our heart like a sword.  We don’t just erase them from our memory banks, but they play over and over again.  Often these wounds then become infected with bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness, offense or shame, guilt, condemnation and the destruction of self worth.  People have committed suicide based upon the words that others spoke to them.  In our tongue we even have the power to murder and take life, if not physically, then emotionally.  We wouldn’t give a gun to an emotionally distraught person, but they often use their tongue as that weapon to vehemently vomit cursing, criticism, condemnation, ridicule and debasement upon the object of their scorn and anger.  Their tongue becomes the weapon of death as they swing it wildly with all abandon of good sense; cutting and whacking away at whatever they can to cut down their opponent.  Have we ever committed murder with our tongue? 

               Remember what James 6:3-12 says about the tongue?  “When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.”  You see the tongue becomes the expression of the emotions of the heart and if the heart is not ruled by “the Word” and led by the Spirit of God, it can be immensely destructive. 

               On the other hand, the heart and life that is ruled by the Word of God and led by the Holy Spirit has at its disposal those same creative words of life that Jesus spoke.  That Word in us, energized by the power of the Spirit has the same power that Jesus had when He spoke as “the Word”, made flesh. 

               Many of us struggle with our tongue which is only the manifestation of deeper issues of our heart.  Jesus said in Luke 6:45, “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.”   The Lord wants to help heal and deliver us from those places where maybe our hearts have been wounded and out of that woundedness we lash out on others from our pain.  They may even be the cause of that pain, but Jesus wants to bring us into higher way. 

               Here is the instruction we receive in Romans 12:17-21, “Do not repay anyone evil for evil.  Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary:

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.

In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”  Father God wants to suck the poison out of hearts and replace it with His love.  That love will rule not only our hearts, but our tongues.  Allow Him to heal your heart today and put within your mouth the words of life and not death.

Blessings,

#kent

You Will Know the Truth and the Truth will Set You Free

John 8:31-32

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

33They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”

34Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37I know you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are ready to kill me, because you have no room for my word. 38I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you do what you have heard from your father.

You Will Know the Truth and the Truth Will Set You Free

               Two camps are set before Jesus in the midst of this discourse.  The Pharisees that challenged Him about who He is  and those Jews who had believed Him.  Jesus makes this statement to the believers, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  The son of the bond or slave woman will always try to mock and even try to put to death the son of the free woman.  They have a form of godliness in their religion, but they don’t have the anointing and it is the anointing that they are jealous of.  The birthright belongs to the son of the free woman. 

               I know I am speaking in somewhat riddles, but what we must realize is that the true disciples of God are those who hold fast “His Word”, not the traditions of their fathers and the way things have always been done.  In this day we have we have seen a great calling and moving out of organized and structured religion.  The true seekers of God have become weary of playing church.  They have tasted of God’s Spirit and they desire to move into the liberty of its blessing.   Unfortunately, many of the “comer-outers” have only succeeded in duplicating what they have come out of.  If we look back over church history we see a trail of denominations each one perhaps founded upon an expanded and greater revealed truth than the last, but they all make the same mistake.  They put down their roots in their truth, build their churches and universities.   We must grasp that God is an ever moving and expanding truth.  The Spirit keeps moving, but these denominations remain behind and stagnate.  It is not that God’s truth changes, but as the day of the Lord has drawn nearer the truth has grown brighter in its intensity and revelation.  For those of us who would be His disciples, we must keep swimming in this river of truth and move where it moves.  We are moving from glory to glory even into the same image as our Savior.  We must keep ourselves free not to fall into the ruts of our forefathers, but to follow the Shepherd’s voice wherever He leads us to go.  We are a people that are no longer about religion, but a people that are passionate about a relationship with our Lord.  We are no longer content to know Him from a distance through a religious viewpoint.  We want to know and hear from Him personally. 

               Jesus says, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  The Lord is teaching us kingdom principles and kingdom ways.  They are not founded upon the traditions of man, but upon His Word and His Spirit that is quickening and making alive His Word.  We are coming into a new dimension of spiritual revelation and understanding that is calling for us to throw off our old paradigms of thinking and even worshipping God.  The Holy Spirit is beginning to show many of us the human limitations that we put upon our spiritual relationship.  It is these limitations of fear, doubt, unbelief, along with the unwillingness to fully hear and obey His Word that render us so powerless and ineffective in operating in the power and the freedom of His Spirit.  We have to break this yoke if we are to come into the fullness and liberty of the Sons of God.  Only as we are willing to open up and yield our hearts without reservation can the Holy Spirit begin to reveal and deliver us from the hindrances we carry with us, often unawares.   As you passionately pursue your God and respond in obedience, as He reveals those areas of hindrance, will you come into the anointing that He has for you.  As you operate out of that anointing and the confidence, of who you are in Christ, then know that much of religion will not be your friend.  Remember these people were your brethren, but just as Cain slew Able, Ishmael persecuted Isaac, Jacob fled from Esau, Joseph was put into slavery by his brothers and Saul sought to kill David, your brethren will turn on you.  Even as Jesus is engaged in this conversation with the religious leaders of His day they want to kill the anointing.  The anointing will prevail, as it was in Jesus, so it will be in His body.  If you really want to be His disciple then know the truth and the truth will set you free.

Blessings,

#kent

A Principle of Life about Fear

2 Timothy 1:7

For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

A Principle of Life about Fear

If given the choice, most of us would be quite content to live a nice, safe, secure, healthy and relatively uneventful life.  In many ways, a lot of us have.  We need to ask ourselves is that really living or is that comfortably dying a slow death?  

One thing fear does, is it gets us out of our comfort zone.  It often gets our heart racing and our adrenaline pumping.  Our senses come alive in the face of danger and uncertainty.  If we could see our lives in the light of the spiritual couch potatoes we would become if we never faced any trials, testing or adversity, then we can better appreciate why God allows them to come into our lives.  

In order for our faith to grow it must be challenged so that our faith can come up to the level of our challenge.  Since fear doesn’t come to us from God then we must realize that faith is the antidote to fear.  Faith sets our eyes and attention back where they belong.  Looking to the Father.  When we realize that fear comes from our inadequacy, weakness and inability to control a situation, we either have to face it in the frailty of human ability or have a revelation of what God has given us to counter it with.  God hasn’t given us the spirit of fear, but what He has given us is the Spirit of power, love and a sound mind.  We have a mighty arsenal to combat fear and to overcome it.  Fear only works as long as you are afraid.  When you are no longer afraid, fear has lost its power.  What the Word of God is telling us is that you don’t have to be afraid.  You don’t have to fret, worry or be anxious.  What you need to do, is lay hold with faith and confidence upon God’s Word, His promises and assurance.  The more you fill your self with the Word of God and spend time in His presence; the more bold, confident and faith-filled you become.  For the enemy and the spirit of fear, you then, become a force to be reckoned with.  The person who really has a revelation of their identity in Christ, who knows their position in heavenly places in Christ Jesus and operates in their God given and appointed purpose is a dangerous person to the enemy of fear and darkness.  The gates of hell can not prevail against that person.  

An example of such a person was seen in David.  He was called, appointed, anointed and knew who he was in God when he confronted Goliath.  He didn’t fall into that trap of fear like the rest of the camp of Israel.  He came from a place of faith and authority, not his, but the Spirit of God in him.  Later, we see Saul, with all the resources and armies of Israel at his command pursuing David’s life, but unable to capture and take it.  He was that spirit of fear that pursued David, but was unable to prevail, because David put his trust and confidence in the Lord.  

Was that an easy place for David? No, it was a very difficult place, but at that time David lived and walked with God closer than at any other time in his life.  Adversities are often allowed in our lives to stir us into faith.  They cause our spiritual senses to come alive and get our focus off of the world onto the Lord.  Fear isn’t always a bad thing, not because we want to succumb to it, but because we want the faith to arise in our hearts, along with the resident power, love and the mind of Christ to overcome all fear and the adversary that stands before us.  The force of opposition only serves to make us stronger.

We are sons and daughters of the Most High God.  Our Captain, King and Savior has conquered death and the grave.  He has set down at the right Hand of the Father until His enemies be made His footstool.  We are the body and feet of our Captain and King, Jesus.  He is putting the enemy beneath our feet, because we are His.  

Someone once said, “You need to either get busy living or get busy dying.”  Our time for being complacent, lethargic and comfortable is soon coming to an end.  We need to make the choice to live or to die, life or death.  If we are going to live then we need to live out of the place where we pursue fear and it doesn’t pursue us.  We have to come into that place of having assurance of who we are and what God put us on this earth for.  We were not put here to be subject to this kingdom that lives under the rule and power of sin and death.  We live under the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus.  We were put here to invade this earthly kingdom with the kingdom Heaven, Life and God.  “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven.”  We are God’s portals, conduits and well springs through which He invades the kingdom of this earth.  That is not going to happen through spiritual couch potatoes that are content with the leeks and onions of Egypt.  It is going to happen through an army of believers that are hearing the trumpet of war sounding in God’s camp and are responding to it.  If we don’t respond to God’s calling and come into that place of abiding in the Almighty and under the shadow of His wing, then soon the spirit of fear will arise and cover the earth and those who have not found their place in Him will be overtaken by it.  Father has not given us that spirit of fear,  He has given us the Spirit of Sonship, whereby we cry, “Abba, Father”.  We are His kids and we were born for this, so don’t allow fear to rule your hearts, but come up into the faith and confidence of who you are in Christ and trample fear beneath your feet!

Blessings,
#kent

Kingdom Principle of Power and Provision

 

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

Things are not as they Appear

2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Things are not as they Appear

All around me it grieves my heart to see so many people even the family of God struggling financially, out or work or underemployed. Especially when I see that they are faithful men and women of God. They are not lazy or looking for a free ride, they are just struggling in their finances and often in other areas as well. While this is a difficult time for many it is causing us as a people of God to get our eyes back upon Him as our supply. It is bringing us into a greater inner reliance upon the body of Christ to come together to meet one another’s needs. I believe this is a God thing. It is often in our poverty that we obtain the greatest wisdom to handle wealth. I believe a breakthrough is coming and wealth is coming upon the body of Christ, but we are in a training period. This is where we learn that wealth and blessing aren’t just about our needs and wants, it is about learning stewardship to administrate what God gives us for the benefit of others.
Quite frankly, there may be many out there that feels, as Paul, like they also are wasting away. That outward wasting is to bring an inward renewing of your faith and trust in the limitless supply of all that our God is.
“So if God loves me why isn’t He sharing the wealth?”
He is imparting a greater wealth of learning to operate and lay hold of His life and substance in present sufferings and trials. Remember the children in Daniel that were thrown into fire heated seven times hotter. Because they knew who they were in their God and entrusted themselves to His faithfulness rather than bow the knee to idolatry they had to go through this fire. While the fire consumed the strong men that threw them in and burned off only the ropes that bound them, the flames did not harm them or even leave the smell of its presence upon them. The furnace of affliction is for our purification that God may bring us forth as fine gold in the likeness of His image and nature. Don’t allow yourselves to fear the fiery afflictions that you face, ‘for these light and momentary afflictions are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.’ See in the fire the One who stands among them, like unto the Son of Man. Your life is hid in Christ and the only things the fire can touch are the corruptible things that perish with the using.
God is replacing our natural eyes with spiritual eyes and our fears with faith, as we look not at things, which are seen after the natural man, but the unseen things, which are eternal. With this kind of faith vision it is like night vision goggles that allow us to see in the darkness what the natural eyes cannot see. Faith vision is the same way; it sees the Word of God as the reality in the darkness. Take heart and know that God is training you up for greater things. Right now He is causing you to know your heart and where your affections are. Are they upon the things of this world or are they upon Him. God can’t entrust His glory and power to a people that are not of His heart. Even now He is separating out unto Himself those who are His. Faint not in the day of trial, but see beyond to the glory that He is bringing you into and to the victory and blessing that are yours in Christ.

Blessings,
#kent

You Have a Purpose

Ephesians 2:8-9
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

You Have a Purpose

What has been worked in us by the grace of God is a God-thing. It has not been birthed out of man’s wisdom, strength or ability. You are a God-thing. You are His handiwork and design, not just because He created you, but because He created you for a reason and purpose. You are not an accident, but a God intention.
Sometimes we can get pretty down on ourselves. We see the difficulties and challenges that this life constantly poses. We see our own weaknesses and failures. Sometimes we may tend to think what real good am I to myself or anyone else? There are times we want to just give up and either just live like the world or even give up on life altogether.
The enemy of our soul always wants to magnify and condemn our faults. He is always trying to get our eyes off of Jesus and on to self. We can always see self for more than it is or less than it is. If we put our eyes and minds where they belong, upon Him and upon His Word then it gives us His perspective. Verse 10 says, ” For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” You were prepared in advance for a mission and a purpose. Get your eyes upon the One by whose power you can carry out your purpose. Your purpose is good works, His works, the will and do of His good pleasure. It is no longer about us, but Him. He is the One we live for, we serve and we delight to please. He is our Papa and He loves us dearly in spite of all the reasons why He shouldn’t.
You and I have a purpose today. He is our purpose and it is His work that we have to do. We can’t carry that out as long as our eyes are upon us. Let us fix our eyes on the prize of the high calling that is in Christ Jesus. Psalms 119:15 says, “I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.” Only He can lead us into the fullness of our purpose and destiny, but it is only as we fix our eyes upon Him and walk fully in the calling He has set before us. Your purpose is good works. They are good because they are His works and the Holy Spirit will lead you in how to carry them out as you yield your heart and life to Him. The accomplishment of your calling is centered in your identity with Christ. 1 John 4:4 declares,” You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”
You are the object of His grace. Make Him the object of your life’s purpose.

Blessings,
#kent

Attitude

Philippians 2:5
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus

Attitude

Our attitude, the condition and state of your mind, can be our greatest attribute and strength or our greatest detriment and weakness. Our attitude is one of the most important things that we possess and can have control over. Far too often we allow circumstances and feelings to dictate our attitude. We allow our attitude to be a thermometer, indicating the temperature of our life at any given moment, instead of a thermostat where we set the temperature we want to maintain regardless of the circumstances and feelings in our life. Our attitude, our state of mind, more than perhaps any other thing, determines our success and our failure in life and in relationships. We tend to attract what our attitude is conveying. If we are in a foul mood and our attitude is ugly and cantankerous, then we aren’t going to tend to attract a lot of smiling faces and sweet dispositions toward us. We tend produce strife and negative responses from others. On the other hand if we are bright, cheery, full of a positive and bright outlook on life, that tends to draw that response out of those we are around and it may serve to inspire them to a more positive outlook and attitude.
Our attitude is largely governed by the state of our mind. We all have days and times in our lives when everything coming at us is negative and bad news. If our attitude is a thermometer we will respond to that with a mental attitude that is defeated and depressed. If we are the thermostats we will set the temperature of our heart and attitude by the Word of God.
David was a good example of a man that had learned how to choose his attitude rather than letting his attitude choose him. In Psalms 42:5 David cries out, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and [why] art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him [for] the help of his countenance.” Psalm 35:9-10 says, “And my soul shall be joyful in the LORD: it shall rejoice in his salvation. All my bones shall say, LORD, who [is] like unto thee, which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him? Psalms 62:5 says, “My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation [is] from him.” All through the Psalms David speaks often of those that pursued his life unto death. He struggled with fear, despair, disappointment, failure and rejection. So many times he had to give himself attitude adjustments and remind himself of whom His God was rather than what the circumstances indicated. Right and positive attitudes don’t just always happen. The sun usually isn’t shining upon our life everyday and some of us are going through some pretty dark valleys and deep pits. Isn’t it wonderful that God gave us men like David that could show us how to sit ourselves down and talk to the attitude of our soul from the Spirit man within us. If everything was turning up roses why would we need faith? We need faith to trust God for the things that we cannot see and feel. It is faith that can rectify our negative and wrong attitudes. It is faith that can cause us to hope in our salvation and deliverance that only comes from the Lord.
If there is one thing that determines the direction, the success or failure of a man’s life, attitude is the key factor. While two men may meet with the same defeat or failure, one will give up and say, “It can’t be done, I am just a failure,” and the other will say, “I will not be denied, I will find a way to overcome.” Attitude, more than aptitude or ability determines our success or failure in life. This is why it is so imperative that we seek to put on the mind of Christ. It is that attitude that was in Him that changed the world and the lives of so many. It changed us and we want it to continue changing us as we meet the challenges we face every day of our lives.
It is time for you to rule and set your attitude by the Spirit of Christ within you. Don’t allow your circumstances and feelings to dictate what your attitude will be. It is time for our soul to subject it’s self to our spirit. God’s has called us to overcome and to be more than conquerors in Christ Jesus. We shall be what He has called us to be by the strength and power of His life in us. Have this mind and attitude in you that was also in Christ Jesus.
Blessings,
#kent

Coming into the Light

Coming into the Light
John 12:44-50
44Then Jesus cried out, “When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. 45When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me. 46I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.
47″As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. 48There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day. 49For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. 50I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”

When we see and comprehend Jesus as the Son of God, that understanding brings spiritual light and illumination. We have before us a pathway of light that we might walk into and take on the nature of that light. Many who have seen Jesus have seen a great light. They even acknowledge that He is that light of God that is come into the world. Many of them sit in church every Sunday and while they acknowledge the light they still abide in darkness.
We can see the lights of a great city from a great distance. We can acknowledge that it is a city and we may even admire it, but until we move there and abide there we are not citizens of that city. Many who acknowledge Christ miss this point. We are not children of God by mere association and agreement with Truth. We must come into Truth and have our residence and being in that place.
If we simply hear the words of Jesus and the gospel, but they never really become a part of who we are and part of our nature then it will be the very Word that we said that we agreed with that shall judge us. When we are truly born again of Spirit, we are no longer trying to be holy or spiritual by association, we are holy and spiritual because we have embraced the Light by faith and asked Him to come into our hearts. Now we are to be the expression of the Light that burns within us. We abide in the truth and in the Word of God because that is now who we are. As the children of Light we must continually exercise the Light of God’s Truth so that we are conformed to the same nature as the Light that we possess. God has called us to be the Light of our world and to be the expression of His truth before men. Our obedience to the Word of God is our abiding in the truth and the light. Faith embraces it and obedience brings it into substance.
Are we abiding in the Light? We can be all around the Light, but until we become the vessel of the Light we abide in darkness. The Light glorifies the Father and acknowledges Him in all of its ways. For He is the source, the generator, the dynamo of all that is Light and Truth. All that embrace God’s light and power will put away the works of darkness and come into conformity with the Light.

Blessings,
#kent

The Rains are Coming!

Joel 2:21-24 (The Message translation)
Fear not, Earth! Be glad and celebrate! God has done great things. Fear not, wild animals! The fields and meadows are greening up. The trees are bearing fruit again: a bumper crop of fig trees and vines! Children of Zion, celebrate! Be glad in your God. He’s giving you a teacher to train you how to live right—Teaching, like rain out of heaven, showers of words to refresh and nourish your soul, just as he used to do. And plenty of food for your body—silos full of grain, casks of wine and barrels of olive oil.

The Rains are Coming!

As I was asking the Lord about what to write this morning, I heard in my Spirit, “Tell my people the rains are coming.” He then reminded me of the rains spoken of in Joel 2:23. King James reads, “Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.” Just as the rains of heaven rejuvenate and give the life giving fluids to grow the crops, so the Spirit anointed teaching of God’s Word will come like rain to cause His people to come forth in spiritual fruitfulness. We have all set under much teaching and even good instruction, but this teaching and Word of God will be life changing and spirit transforming. It will come with the demonstration of such power and life that it will be a well of restoration, breakthrough and freedom. This rain comes after a time of great darkness upon the earth. It comes after a time where the people of God have entered into fasting and praying, of rending their hearts and not just their garments. It comes as we fully return to the Lord and bring the acceptable sacrifices of a broken and contrite heart.
When this rain breaks forth it will be like none you have seen before. It will be the former and the latter rain together, a double portion blessing upon the people of God. The rains are necessary both for preparing the soil to plant and also for bringing the harvest to fruition. These rains are for the bringing forth of a great harvest in the earth and also for the fruition of that which has already been planted. The rest of the passage of Joel 2 goes on to read, “24And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. 25And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. 26And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. 27And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed. 28And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
29And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.
30And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
31The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD come. 32And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.”
There is a season for every purpose under heaven. There is a season for tearing down and destruction, but that preceeds the season of restoration, blessing and life. Let us prepare our hearts in the manner that God has prescribed, seeking Him in fasting, repentance and prayer. For surely He will answer us and bring the showers of His blessing and life.

Blessings,
#kent

Losing my Head

Losing my Head

Philippians 4:12-13
I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

As I was praying this morning my thoughts went back to my childhood where I spent a great deal of time with my grandparents on their farm in Oklahoma. I remember times when my grandmother would get a chicken that she was going to prepare for a meal. She would put its head under a metal bar, step on it and pull its head off. I’m sorry if that is a little gruesome and graphic for some. The thing that was coming to me is that after the chicken’s head was removed I saw them do things that I never saw them do in everyday life. They might just flop around, but I saw some of them fly distances that I had never seen a chicken fly before. How could they do that without a head? I know, involuntary reflexes and such. The thing that struck me is that if they could do that in death, why did they never do it in life? The only time a chicken would leave the ground normally is if it was being pursued and took flight out of fear.
I believe what the Lord was showing me is that our greatest limitation is between our two ears. We grow up saying, doing and being what everyone else around us does. Think of the disciples. Here were twelve very ordinary men. I imagine not all of them were the sharpest pencils in the drawer, but they all did one thing, they left all to follow this man Jesus. As they followed, communed and lived with this man they observed someone who was not like all of the other chickens in the hen house. They observed someone who thought differently, acted differently and did things they had never imagined anyone could do. It was a process over time where the normal way they used to view their world changed. They begin to see and understand their world from a heavenly and kingdom perspective rather than an earthly one. After the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus they received power from on High when the Holy Spirit came upon them at Pentecost. Now Jesus was physically gone. They had lost their earthly head and a new mentality had to kick in. The mind of Christ had now come within them for them to carry on the work of the Kingdom with power and authority. They began to speak under the anointing of the Spirit and would see thousands respond and come to Christ. They had miracles happening as they extended their wings in faith. In some cases people were even raised from the dead. These ordinary men were doing exploits that rattled the religious order of the barnyard. The religious leadership thought that they had rid the hen house of this One that upset the natural order of things. He was obviously out of the pecking order. Now there were more of these people doing the same kind of things while proclaiming this Jesus as the Christ and the Messiah, not only in word, but also with signs and wonders.
What we have to realize is that when we accepted Christ as our Savior we became identified with His death on that cross. In effect, out head got pulled off. We are no longer like every other chicken in the barnyard. The great news is that we didn’t just lose our head, we put on the headship of Christ in the process. We lost our mind that we might have His. Like the disciples before us we have began a process of changed thinking. Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” It goes on to say ‘don’t think of yourselves more highly than you ought.’ It is never this earthen vessel that is great; it is what fills it.
What fills you my friend is what gives you the power and abilities to do what you have never done before. It gives you the ability to rise to heights that in the natural mind you never thought possible.
There are wings of faith in God’s Word that must be stretched and exercised. We have had them all along; we just have never really used them. God has given us the ability to be extraordinary people and maybe not in the way the world views as extraordinary. We have the power within us now to be different, something more. That more may not be as the world views greatness, but it will be seen in the power of an obedient life yielded to Christ and available for His power to manifest through in the ways that please Him and further His Kingdom. Have you lost your head and put on His?

Greetings,
#kent