Do We Believe the Facts or Truth?

Do We Believe Facts or Truth?

Psalms 33:4

For the word of the LORD [is] right; and all his works [are done] in truth.

               It is interesting to note that the word “fact or facts” does not even occur in the King James Version of the Bible one time.  On the other hand the word “truth” occurs some two hundred and thirty-five times.  The point this brings us too is that the Bible is a book about Truth.  While it may well be factual, it is not based on fact; it is based on truth.  We may ask what is the difference?  I thought facts were truth.  Facts are based on information presented as objectively real, such a real occurrence or event.  It is something having a real demonstrable existence.  It is something that can be seen or proven in our natural world.  Truth can be more real than fact even though it is not always seen or yet manifested in the real or natural world. 

               We grow up being a fact-oriented people.  We look at science and mathematics as being disciplines built upon facts.  That works pretty good in a natural world made up of natural people, but we have discovered that there is far more to our world than just the natural existence around us.  As we have come to know God, we who are believers in Christ have come to accept that God is the epitome and standard for truth.  Deuteronomy 32:4 says,”[He is] the Rock, his work [is] perfect: for all his ways [are] judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right [is] he.” We know and believe that the very nature and character of God is truth and with Him it is impossible that He should lie.  Numbers 23:19 tells us, “God [is] not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do [it]? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?”  While we don’t yet see the existence of all that God has promised manifested in this natural world, we can take it to the bank, that if He has promised it He will make it good.  Hebrews 6:17-18 tells us, “Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability (unchangableness) of his counsel, confirmed [it] by an oath: That by two immutable things, in which [it was] impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:”

               As believers in Christ we activate the promises of the truths of God by our faith in those promises.  Our very salvation was our act of faith to believe and receive Christ into our hearts and become joint heirs with Him of the promises of God.  Even though we reached out and received our salvation, we didn’t see the fullness of it in that moment.  What we see is that as we plant the seeds of faith in the truth of God’s Word it begins a process of producing the fruit and the fullness of that truth.  We don’t plant a kernel of corn in the ground and then say that seed is a lie because I don’t see any corn produced yet.  We know that through time and patience we will reap that which we have sown.  In due season it will bring forth the fruit of the seed that was planted in the ground.  God’s Word operates under this like principal.  As we walk in the truth, as we plant our faith in the promises of God, we abide in the confidence that in due season it will produce fruit.  The reality of that fact is dormant in the womb of truth until it is given birth.  That which gives birth to the manifestation and fact of a truth is faith. 

               We live in a very negative world in many respects.  There is much in our world that speaks contrary to the Word of God.  In the natural world we readily accept these things as fact.  In a spiritual dimension we can see that the Hand of God is moved by our faith that activates and brings into being His promises.  Though God is sovereign, He has integrated man into the bringing forth of His plans and His promises by the working of faith.  Hebrews 12:1 tells us that, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen.” 

               What is fact and what is truth in our lives today?  Many of the facts that we see are not the truth that we want to see revealed.  In fact, they may be there contrary to God’s will and highest for us.   We don’t plant weeds in a garden but they are very much a fact.  A good garden is purged of the weeds, those things contrary to the seed we have planted in faith and the product of what we are hoping for.  We likewise must purge from our lives the thoughts, words and actions that are contrary to the harvest we are believing for.  Let us begin to stand upon the promises of God’s eternal and ever true Word, declaring the things that are not as though they are according to the quickening of God’s Word by His Spirit.  Let us by faith plant that truth of God’s promises into our every situation, believing God for His faithfulness to bring to pass that which He has declared.

Blessings,

#kent

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Healing

Healing

Jeremiah 17:14

Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou [art] my praise.

               There is a time and season for all things under heaven.  Ecclessiastes 3:1,3 tells us, “To every [thing there is] a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven…. A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up.”  Our lives are a series of seasons, some of those seasons bring perceived goodness and blessing to our lives, while others we don’t relish or necessarily enjoy and yet all of it is a part of this life, even the dying. We know that we don’t always have a lot of control over the seasons that affect our lives, anymore than we have control over winter, summer, fall or spring.  Through the cycle of life and seasons God has worked all things to bring balance and we see that even winter isn’t the absence of life, it is simply life in hibernation, in waiting for its season and time to bring forth.  Through each season, our circumstances can bring to pass inner workings in our lives that couldn’t be brought forth or worked in us in other ways.  It brings us to the perspective that whether in life or death, He lives and we who are in Christ live in Him.  That is where we live and move and have our being.  When our hearts and spiritual eyes are fixed on Him then what we see, or what man tells us or what natural circumstances dictate to us, does not move us.  Our God is the Lord of the seasons of our lives and just like there is a time for every purpose under heaven there is a time when God alone is God.  He moves as God in our circumstances and trials.  It may be in a moment and it may be in the course of years, but God is the Lord of our seasons. 

               We have the sovereignty of God’s Word concerning healing.  Deuteronomy 32:9 says, “See now that I, [even] I, [am] he, and [there is] no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither [is there any] that can deliver out of my hand.”  God is the Lord of our seasons, but He also promises provision.  Jeremiah 30:17 says, “For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; because they called thee an Outcast, [saying], This [is] Zion, whom no man seeketh after.”  Sometimes there is affliction that moves us to right relationship with God.  God is not sadistic, simply wishing to see us suffer.  Suffering has spiritual medicinal powers to move us often to where we need to be in relationship with Him and His purpose.  Even Jesus learned obedience through the things that He suffered.   He had to willingly come to that place where He was totally surrendered to the Father’s will and not His own.  Ultimately God is moving us in the direction of restoration and wholeness, but the path to getting there may be with suffering.  At the waters of Marah (bitterness) Exodus 15:25-26 says of Moses, “And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, [which] when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them, And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I [am] the LORD that healeth thee.”  God has showed us a tree in this day and we know it is the cross of Calvary.  Because that tree knew the bitterness of suffering and death, when it is cast into the bitter waters of our life’s circumstances it brings sweetness, healing and restoration, but we must guard our hearts that we fall not into the snare of murmuring and complaint while we await our deliverance.

We believe in healing, because the Word of God has promised it to us.  Psalm 103:2-4 encourages us, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies.”  1 Peter 2:24 speaks to us that life giving promise, “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”  Christ provided it, we must possess it and God must manifest it, but the promise is ours.  James 5:16 exhorts us, “Confess [your] faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”  Sometimes there can be things in our lives that hinder us from receiving the manifestation of the promise such as sin or unforgiveness.  We must search our hearts to be sure there are no such unconfessed and unresolved encumbrances.   “By His stripes we are healed” for He is the Lord our God “who healeth all our diseases.”  He has healing in His wings for you today.  Make His Word your standard, the continual confession of your lips and the faith that fills your heart.

Blessings,

#kent

The Benefits of His Promises

Psalms 147:5-6

Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.

6The Lord sustains the humble but casts the wicked to the ground.

The Benefits of His Promises

                Tender is the heart of the Father toward His own.  Faithfully He watches over them.  His steadfast love never forsakes us and He keeps us in the shadow of His wing. 

               Faithful are the wounds of a friend as He corrects us, guides and matures us.  Often, through the sufferings we endure, we learn obedience, trust and reliance.  We know that we are not our own, but we were bought with the price of the blood of the Lamb.  He who redeemed is faithful to complete that good work that He has began in us. 

               Holy Spirit blow upon Your people the breath of divine power and life.  Bring through our lives everything that will conform us to the image and likeness of You.  Guide us into and help us to submit to the “all Truth”\ that You are.  Position us, align us and set us in Your order and not that of our choosing.  Help us to hear, know and understand You in all of the ways that You speak and move in our lives.  Sometimes you may seem so quiet and so distant, but even in those times we know that You are as close as our breath; for Christ has promised us that He would never leave us or forsake us. You promised You would not leave us as orphans, but that You would come for us.  Your Word tells us that, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as he is. (1 John 3:2)” 

               Your Word has encouraged us with the identity of who we are in You.  1 John 4:17 speaks to us, “Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world.”  In Romans 8:15-17 we are encouraged, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”  Then once again we are encouraged as to the nature that we have received from You in 2 Peter 1:3-4, “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 4Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” We know that our purpose is that you may be glorified in us even as 2 Thessalonians 1:10 declares, “When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.”

               What great and awesome encouragement You have given Your saints as the Three agree in One.  Thank you that Your love is so great and unconditional that if You be for us who can be against us, nothing can separate us from it as you promise in Romans 8:31-39, “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 33Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. 34Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

36As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

37Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

               Thank God that He has put within us the overcoming Spirit of His Son.  It is not that we will not have to endure much, but in all that we endure we have the power to prevail through Him who has loved us and gave Himself for us.  Thank You Father for Your great love that envelopes us through the sacrifice of Jesus and the blood He shed.  Thank You for the Holy Spirit that is actively working in our lives as we are in relationship with You to bring us into all that You have promised to us. 

               This is the day the Lord has made we will rejoice and be glad in it because you live in us, Your glory to display.  Be glorified as we give You all of the glory, honor and praise for the awesome God of love and salvation that You are.  Amen

Blessings,

#kent

Random Order

Random Order

Psalms 119:133

Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.

              God does not operate out of chance.  He does not spin a wheel and wherever the ball lands that’s the direction He goes.  Our God is a magnificent God of design and order.  He has a plan and He knows the beginning to the end.  Your life and mine aren’t a chance happening, they are ordered of the Lord.  He has put within each one of us a destiny and a purpose for our being. 

              Someone may be thinking, “You don’t know my life, what I have been through or what a mess I am.”  God does and He is able to take what the enemy has meant for evil and destruction and turn it around to be a stronghold for His glory and praise.  He is able to lift you up out of the death and darkness you have been in and set your feet in the way of light and truth.  He is able to take our weakness and turn them into the strongest areas of righteousness and victory in our lives.  God has a destiny, plan and purpose for your life, but the only way you will fully realize it is as you allow Him to order your steps according to His Word.  God has a divine and fulfilling plan for each of us, but we don’t have to follow it.  It is sin and rebellion that have caused us to miss it and that is why many of us are in the misery we are in. 

              As we look back over our lives, what do we see?  Are we satisfied and content with the results?  Do you feel you have lived your life to the fullness of God’s will and design for you.  We must come to the place that we realize our greatest joy, happiness and fulfillment doesn’t come out pursuing our own pleasures and desires, it will only be realized in the unity with God’s will and order for your life.  As I look back over my own life and the times I have walked close to God and the times I haven’t, I can see that my greatest joy, blessing and fulfillment are the times when I am passionately pursuing Him and seeking the fullness of His will for my life.  Our Father didn’t give us His Word and commandments to imprison us and make us miserable.  He gave them to set us free to be the children of righteousness and holiness that could enjoy the riches of all that He has for us.  It is our own sin and rebellion that prevent, inhibit and imprison us from enjoying the full blessings and promises that God has given us. 

              Our God is a God of divine and precise order.  We can look all around our universe and see the evidence of that in all of creation.  Only the fool could truly say the world and all its wonders were created by mere chance, how absurd.  An atheist has to have more faith to believe that, than a believer does to believe in God.  All of creation is a testimony to the wonder, greatness and order of God.  We have to realize that so much of our thinking, values and beliefs have been the persuasion of a lie.  All the chaos, disorder, anarchy, rebellion and discord in the world is the result of the devil’s influence on the minds and hearts of men.  We at war with terrorism today because men bought the lies of satan and in the name of religion and their god they terrorize by killing, wounding and maiming innocent men, women and children.  That certainly has no connection with the God I know. 

              If our steps are ordered of the Lord then He will not allow iniquity to have dominion over you.  In fact, in Christ, He has already empowered you to have victory and dominion over sin and iniquity.  He is our righteousness and we stand complete Him today because of Jesus.  Jesus did it all. He has issued us all the equipment we need to go out, conquer and prevail.  All we have to do is, in faith, put it on and use it according the operations manual of the Word of God, your Bible.  If we are living in defeat, oppression and failure in our lives, then we are like a homeless person using hundred dollar bills to stuff the bag he is sleeping on.  God has given us the resources, but we must rise up in the authority of His Word and the name of Jesus Christ and use them. 

              We cannot live our lives by random order and expect the fullness of God’s best in our lives.  It will be a hit and miss proposition.  As we live methodically and purposefully in the principles of God’s Word then we will reap the benefits of His promises and provisions.  If you want victory, joy and fulfillment in your life then order your steps in the Lord and in His Word.

Blessings,

#kent

Joy Cometh in the Morning

Psalms 30:5

For his anger [endureth but] a moment; in his favour [is] life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy [cometh] in the morning.

              Where is your life spiritually today?  Would you characterize it as nighttime or daytime?  Most all of us, who have been walking in Christ for a time, know that we go through seasons in a spiritual sense.  There are times we go through such close intimate times with our Lord and sense His presence and love in such a wonderful way and then there are those nighttime experiences.  It may come as a result of allowing sin to come into our lives.  It may be the result of God’s chastening or dealings in our lives.  It may be through persecution or tribulation.   Whatever the reason it is nighttime experience, one in which we fail to sense God’s presence in our soul.  Our prayers may seem hollow and of none effect.  These are times when spiritually we cry out for God, perhaps it is in these times we really begin to seek God’s help, His presence, His deliverance through a trial or tribulation we are facing.  There are times our lives can feel pretty bleak.  Our circumstances are overtaking us.  Where is God? 

              King David experienced this nighttime ordeal before He became King.  Psalm 30:7-9 says, “

LORD, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong: thou didst hide thy face, [and] I was troubled. I cried to thee, O LORD; and unto the LORD I made supplication.  What profit [is there] in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth? Hear, O LORD, and have mercy upon me: LORD, be thou my helper.”  Perhaps you and I have prayed prayers similar to this.  One thing that is so admirable about David and I think a spiritual key to us overcoming in these dark times is that David, no matter how low, remembered the goodness and the faithfulness of God.  He continually brought God’s promises and His benefits before the Lord in his prayers and psalms.   And he never ceased to praise and thank God even in those dark times.  He was quite honest with God about what he was going through and the emotions that wanted to overtake him, but he always brought his thoughts and focus back to a place of faith in the faithfulness of God.  We may go through some long nights that may go for years, but learn those principles that David learned.  They will sustain you in those times. David even says an interesting thing in this passage, he says, ” by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong: thou didst hide thy face.”  Have you ever thought of your mountain as favor from God?  Remember that what God is allowing in your life is designed to press you into Him.  He wants us to learn and trust Him for who He is, not what He can do for us.  This is the place of maturing faith where the rubber meets the road.  God has to become very real to us or we give up and turn away.  God is processing us through the hardships of our life.   “The trial of your faith is much more precious than Gold” (1 Peter 1:7a)

              In this scripture David says “joy does come in the morning”, our trials, darkness and seeming separation from God won’t last forever.  He is faithful to bring us through if we faithfully hold fast to Him.  David’s next expression after talking of how severe the trial says, “Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness; To the end that [my] glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.”

              If you are in your night season, don’t be discouraged, have hope, God has not forsaken you.  He is proving you and bringing you into whom you really are in Him.  Stand the test, stay the course, for joy comes in the morning.

Blessings,

#kent

Joy is a Spiritual fruit, Happiness is a Choice

 

Joy is a Spiritual fruit, Happiness is a Choice

 

1 Timothy 6:6

But godliness with contentment is great gain.

              

               Isaiah 12:3 says, “Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.”  The thing I have experienced through my life is that when I am walking the closest in fellowship and relationship with the Lord is when I experience the greatest joy in life.  Since joy is a spiritual attribute and fruit of the Spirit described in Galatians 5:22-23, it only makes sense that as we walk in the Spirit and feed off of the fullness and goodness of God we are going to experience the joy and contentment of the Lord.  The thing about the joy of the Lord is that it isn’t dependent up the circumstances around us.  There can be great storms raging in our lives, but yet joy and peace can remain in our hearts when our eyes are fixed on Christ and upon the promises of His Word.  When we walk in the Spirit we see things and life from a God perspective.  If it pleases the Lord, it pleases us.  It is no longer about all of my needs and my wants being fulfilled.  This is where a lot of people confuse joy and happiness.  If happiness is reliant upon our feelings then it is going to be an elusive experience.  It will be here one minute and gone the next.  Why, because our feelings are up and down.  It rides the roller coaster of our emotions.  The feelings of happiness are circumstantial.  They are based again a lot on self: self-contentment, self-fulfillment, self-gratification, but not on self-control. 

               Here is an example many of us can relate with: Why do I have an unhappy marriage?  He or she doesn’t meet my needs.  They only think about themselves.  They don’t care if I am happy or fulfilled.  They don’t provide enough.  They don’t give enough.  They don’t do enough.  What is the central theme you hear in all of these phrases?  You don’t make me happy and what makes you happy for a short time is going to change to feelings of unhappiness and discontentment the moment your expectations aren’t met.  Happiness has to be a choice that you make that isn’t dependent upon what someone else does or doesn’t do.  I read this morning where marriages are more successful with people who go into marriage as already happy people rather than those who go into marriage looking for happiness.  Don’t put the responsibility for your happiness upon someone else.  That is your responsibility.  Otherwise you are always going to be disappointed and hurt.  People can never give you what only God can give you and that is joy and contentment. 

               Our verse today is so powerful because it is short but it says so much, “Godliness with contentment is great gain.”  It simply says we have made a decision that God is enough.  What ever He supplies and provides in my life is enough.  That may be much or that may be little, but as long as I have God that is enough.  The apostle Paul made the statement in Philippians 4:11-13, “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, [therewith] to be content. 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.”  Paul didn’t have his eyes on people to meet his needs.  Many of the churches didn’t help him financially or support him.  He could have gotten bitter or angry or upset with them, but he didn’t.  They weren’t his source and his supply, God was.  He had learned to be content with whatever God brought into his life because he had this revelation; “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”  Who is your strength today?  Who is your supply?  Who is your joy and contentment?  Maybe anger, bitterness, resentment and unforgiveness have come in to make you so miserable because you have been looking to others to meet your needs and they have disappointed you. Let us learn what Paul did, that the Lord is enough.  We can make the decision that we are going to be happy because God is enough rather in much or little, rather we are abased or abound, rather we are full or we are hungry.   In order to experience the fullness of joy in our salvation we must take our eyes off of us and let Christ become the focus of why we live.  We live to serve not to be served.  We live to give and not to take.  We live that in all things we may please Him who has given us life.  “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).”  Experience the joy of your salvation by walking in the Spirit and make the choice to be happy because of the One that resides within you.

Blessings,

#kent

How Special You Are!

Ephesians 1:4-6
4Before the world was created, God had Christ choose us to live with him and to be his holy and innocent and loving people. 5God was kind and decided that Christ would choose us to be God’s own adopted children. 6God was very kind to us because of the Son he dearly loves, and so we should praise God.

How Special You Are!

Imagine that God chose you and I as individual grains from the sands of eternity, from the vast incomprehensible expanse of His Universe and from the foundations of the world to be His very own adopted children. Before we ever voice another complaint or think how hard life is sometimes, really think about how special you are to the Lord that He would choose to reveal Himself to you. He, in His great love and goodness has brought us into the fellowship of the Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He has imparted into us His very life, Spirit and blood. Do we really comprehend who we are in Him? All that He is and all that He has promised has been imparted to us. We are the expression of His heart and His love, could we be any more privileged or blessed?
If we comprehend these things how can we help but want to offer all that we are and have back to Him? He has given us everything and He is our everything. Every breath we breath, every morsel we eat, every dollar that we spend and every child that we birth; all of it is His. All of it is through Him, because of Him and should be for Him. It is our privilege to honor, praise and serve our mighty Father through our Lord Jesus Christ. We are an immeasurably blessed and chosen people through no merit of our own, but only according to our mighty God’s grace and election, He has drawn us to Himself.
Ephesians 1: 11-14 goes on to say, “God always does what he plans, and that’s why he appointed Christ to choose us. 12He did this so that we Jews would bring honor to him and be the first ones to have hope because of him. 13Christ also brought you the truth, which is the good news about how you can be saved. You put your faith in Christ and were given the promised Holy Spirit to show that you belong to God. 14The Spirit also makes us sure that we will be given what God has stored up for his people. Then we will be set free, and God will be honored and praised.” We may struggle in the moment. We may endure and grow weary with trials, but these present sufferings can not hold a candle to the glory that will be revealed to us who remain faithful and steadfast in our faith.
We are a people for a purpose and the purpose is not our own, but His who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light. Christ has called us and filled us with His Spirit to be the ministry and fulfillment of Himself, a many-membered, multi-faceted expression of His love, mercy and grace. The apostle Paul goes on here to literally pray a Spirit anointed prayer that we truly comprehend and get a revelation of who we are and what we have been called out for. Verses17-23 goes on to say, “I ask the glorious Father and God of our Lord Jesus Christ to give you his Spirit. The Spirit will make you wise and let you understand what it means to know God. 18My prayer is that light will flood your hearts and that you will understand the hope that was given to you when God chose you. Then you will discover the glorious blessings that will be yours together with all of God’s people. 19I want you to know about the great and mighty power that God has for us followers. It is the same wonderful power he used 20when he raised Christ from death and let him sit at his right side in heaven. 21There Christ rules over all forces, authorities, powers, and rulers. He rules over all beings in this world and will rule in the future world as well. 22God has put all things under the power of Christ, and for the good of the church he has made him the head of everything. 23The church is Christ’s body and is filled with Christ who completely fills everything.
Did anybody tell you today how very special you are?

Blessings,
#kent

The Deliverer

Psalms 107:6 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, [and] he delivered them out of their distresses.

The Deliverer

The Word of God is a book of deliverance. Time and time again in story after story we see God moving on behalf of His chosen people to deliver them. Many times it was their sin and rebellion that had brought them to the place where there was no way out but God. The ultimate Deliverer we have found in the person of God’s own Son, Jesus Christ. He has not only delivered us from the law of sin and death, but He continues to be our Deliverer today. We, like the people of God before us, often cry out in faith for the Lord’s deliverance. Psalms 34:4 holds as true for us today as it did for David, “I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.” Many of us are seeking the Lord for areas of deliverance in our personal lives. We find ourselves captivated by fear, doubt, sickness, debt, sin, oppression and other areas that have brought us into a bondage in which we have no way out. I believe the Lord is that same Deliver He has always been, both in the Old and the New Testament. He will hear the cries of His people who humble themselves and pray. Some of us may believe the Lord is our Deliverer, but we have become discouraged in the wait. Our faith may be wavering as we may have stood for a long period in hopes of our deliverance. Moses had a similar issue when He was waiting on God to move in delivering God’s people from Pharaoh’s bondage. In Exodus 5:22 –23 it says, “And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou [so] evil entreated this people? why [is] it [that] thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all.” Sometimes, like Moses, we know the Lord is faithful to His promises, but we don’t see anything happening. In fact, sometimes it just seems to get worse instead of better. There is a period gestation and pregnancy before a child is brought forth. So it is with many of God’s promises. When they are brought forth it is often through great travail and pain, but we can’t give up on the child of promise. We must continue to carry it till it is the Lord’s time. Galatians 6:9 admonishes us, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Continue to hold fast to the promises of God and His deliverance for He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

Blessings,

#kent

We Have the Mind of Christ

1 Corinthians 2:14-16
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ

We Have the Mind of Christ

What a bold statement that the apostle Paul makes here when he says, “But we have the mind of Christ.” If you or I were to come out and say something like that many Christians might consider us heretics. It is made clear by what is written preceding this that we can’t make this statement if we are walking and reasoning out of the natural man. It is after we live and walk in the Spirit that we become spiritually minded and put on the mind of Christ. We can discern that the man who is not centered in the mind of the Spirit is often one that is a mixture of flesh and spirit. Most of us have seen or heard of someone who thought they were “the Christ” and were caught up in a God complex where they spoke as God. We all know of Jim Jones and David Karesh, for example, that led many astray and to a tragic end. Paul is not speaking in this context, because we never see ourselves as “the Christ”, we see that we are in Christ with the Lord Jesus being our head and yet He is bringing us into His likeness in mind and in being. Many are so afraid of identifying with Christ that they rob and deny the power of what He has called us to be in Him. Apart from Him we can do nothing, but as a part of Him all things are possible. Our faith is taking what God’s word says and counting it as so, even when the physical world and natural evidence doesn’t support it. Faith is what bridges the gap of time and space and the eternal. In Christ and in the flesh we stand between two dimensions and we are trying to reconcile who we truly are. In the natural we often see evidence in us that is often contrary to what we know we should be, but our faith renounces the old, repents of the shortcomings, sins and mistakes and then embraces God’s word and promise as to our true identity. Satan is always trying to convince us of who we are not, through feelings of unworthiness, condemnation, keeping our eyes on the natural man. Christ is saying to us, “Count that former man of the flesh as dead, as crucified with me upon the cross. Identify with me in resurrection life, for the power of sin over you is broken. You are a new and spiritual creation that no longer has to be subject to the law of sin and death. You have been called to be the children of God who walk after the Spirit and put no confidence in the flesh. As a part of your faith in identifying with me I am imparting my life to you and through you by My Spirit that dwells in you.”
God’s word provides our pattern of thinking and living. His Spirit is guiding and leading us into all truth. He is exploring our inward parts and revealing those areas that still need to line up with His nature and character. The difference is that the Spirit doesn’t bring conviction in us to condemn us, but to transform and change us. It is the man of the soul that must come into submission and obedience to this man of the spirit. As this happens our spiritual mind becomes more and more a way of our daily thinking and reasoning, for the natural gives way to the mind of the Spirit.
We have the mind of Christ, but it is our choice to embrace it and put it on by faith that leads to good works and righteousness.

Blessings,
#kent

Count Your Blessings

Matthew 5:45
That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

Count Your Blessings

The rain falls softly upon my head,
Water droplets diffuse vision on my glasses,
But I lift my head to heaven to say “Thank You.”
Each raindrop is a blessing, from Father’s hand it passes.

In the midst of the storm that rages,
I appreciate Him who reigns above it.
Even in its darkest times,
His Word is the candle of promise lit.

God’s throne room is filled with lightening and thunder.
He hides Himself in the clouds.
He shows Himself strong in those who trust Him.
He lifts the humble and crushes the proud.

Take heed of this mighty God we serve.
His everlasting covenants obey and preserve.
Can you count the raindrops as they fall?
Such are the blessings from the God of all.

Kent
Blessings,
#kent