learn covenant

Keeping in Step

2012-02-14T10:30:00.000-06:00

The secret of walking in step with Jesus is your focus. Jesus spoke of the "love of the world" as a distraction. He spoke of "mammon" and we limit this to money. Fewer people love money as such than those who love what money can buy. There are many who cannot buy even bare necessities but still love the "world". Being poor does not change your focus, nor does being rich. Only love for God can change your focus. Jesus asked Peter, "do you love Me more than these?" It was a lifestyle that Jesus was holding out to Peter, not just a fish. Love for a career, for success, for recognition and appreciation can be as compelling as any love. Many a marriage has suffered because work and the love for advancement has come between a man and his wife and family. I have seen ministry cause marital problems because the ministry became more important than the family or even a relationship with God. When focus slips away from your love for God and fastens to anything in this realm, it becomes idolatry.

I watched my grandson drive (he teaches driving!) and he may take a hand off the steering wheel (not like my "deathgrip"!) and pick up something, but his eyes are on the road. He says you will go where you are looking! Jesus said to put your hand to the plow and don't look back. We sometimes sing a little song with the children, "be careful little eyes what you see". Our focus is very important no matter what we do. A singleminded focus is the reason for success. Strangely enough, if your love for God is total, He will give you the ministry, the success, the happiness in all areas of your life. Matthew 6:33 (NASB) ³³ But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. In the margin of my Bible, I have written, "this first before 7:7." Matthew 7:7 (NASB) “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. Seeking Him first and putting His will before your own, is the key to having your focus on Him. It will change what you desire, what you are asking and seeking. It will reveal the door on which to knock.

Identifying by Passion

2012-02-10T09:47:00.000-06:00

We are all familiar with the movie, The Passion of Christ. Easter ceremonies speak of the passion. When I was very young I thought that word meant death and I suppose many people associate His death with that word, for the archaic meaning of the word is "agony". We now identify it with any very strong, expressive feeling. Zeal, also, is a word used to express a person who has a passion for a certain lifestyle. Jesus told His disciples in John 4:34 what was His zeal. (NASB) ³⁴ Jesus *said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work. When Jesus cleansed the temple by driving out the moneychangers, His disciples remembered it in connection with Psalm 119:139. John 2:17 (NLT) ¹⁷ Then his disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures: “Passion for God’s house will consume me.” (Psalm 119:139 (NASB) ¹³⁹ My zeal has consumed me, because my adversaries have forgotten Your words.

If we are to identify with Jesus, there are some steps we must take. First, we must know with Whom we are identifying. John 15:7 (NASB) If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. Abiding is dwelling, living, inhabiting. Where you go to be yourself, kick off your shoes, fellowship with your family, find your comfort zone and rest. It is part of your identity. It is what the world sees when it no longer sees you, and it is where people know they can find you. It is your abiding place. If the Word has that abiding place in you, you know it. If Jesus is your abiding place, you know Him. His will is your will. His passion is your passion. Your "work place" should have "God and Sons" over it. What drove Jesus was to do the Father's will. What drives you? I ask myself this on a regular basis. I do a reality check. Why am I here? What am I trying to accomplish? If the answer is an honest, to do His will, I seek the Spirit's guidance and do some time in conversation with my Boss, or it is repentance time until I get back on track.

Second, know what He is doing. Jesus had a passion to do just what He was sent to do. He could not do what He is doing now because the cross was His goal and that ended His earthly ministry. Now, seated once more on His throne, He administers the Father's will through His Body on earth. We cannot have a true passion to do the will of God and not have a passion for His Body on earth. We must seek the blessing on the Body of Christ the same as we cry out for blessing on our own body. We cannot identify with Jesus without identifying with His Body.

Satan's attempt to thwart God is to get believers to criticize, judge, limit and neglect the other members of Jesus' Body. The command we have in the New Covenant is to love one another as He has loved us. His zeal to complete the work that He was sent to do has opened the door for you to become just like Him. The only way we can see that accomplished is to give Him a covenant response and love. Care for His Body as you care for your own. The family is the vital unit in all that God has done, is doing and will do. In our own home, the husband reveals Jesus to his family by loving his wife and caring for her as he does his own body and covering his household with faith. The wife, the picture of the church, respects and loves her husband with a passion to please him and be the one to respond to his leading. The children learn and follow in honor and obedience. It is the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom! Luke 12:32 (ESV) “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

Members of the Body of Christ

2012-02-03T13:00:00.000-06:00

When we consider the Body of Christ, and we all believe in this, we find many opinions. Some try to establish their place, but we are positioned by God. Some may feel they are the least in the Body, but if we consider the lying accusation of Satan to all of us, we may all feel this at one time or another. The important thing is not to look on someone else and consider this! Jesus warned us about this attitude. Matthew 25:40, 45 (ESV) ⁴⁰ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ ⁴⁵ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’

Jesus fulfilled the Law and then gave us a new commandment for the New Covenant. John 13:34-35 (NASB)³⁴ A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. ³⁵ By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John lived out this commandment and knew how this had enriched his life so he exhorts us to love. I John 4:7-12 (ASV) ⁷ Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is begotten of God, and knoweth God. ⁸ He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. ⁹ Herein was the love of God manifested in us, that God hath sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No man hath beheld God at any time: if we love one another, God abideth in us, and his love is perfected in us:

Satan does not only accuse us to ourselves but he accuses others to us to make us critical. Don't let an accusation become an opinion that will rule your reactions to a member of His Body. We have to set ourselves to walk in God's love and let our lives reveal His love to all.

The Source of Our Victory

2012-02-02T10:20:00.001-06:00

We live in a time when there is a consistant push to deny what God has accomplished in providing us access to Him and to His purpose for us. Jesus is denigrated to the level of "other religious figures" and the highest praise accorded Jesus is that he was a good man. All religions prevent man from becoming his full potential in God. When the authority of the Holy Spirit to teach and lead into all Truth is ignored, the result is what we saw in the Sanhedrin that sought to kill Jesus because they did not recognize God. We cannot be left to human reasoning or we will miss God.

We see how people develop a language to express what they believe until it often becomes so accepted by those who use it that others do not really know what they are saying. I was born into a Christian home, actually I am a PK (preacher's kid) as is my husband, and I grew up with phrases I never heard outside the home and church, such as "born again", "joy from above", "soon coming king", and other such expressions. When Jesus spoke to Nicodemus of being born again, Nicodemus could not understand. Jesus explained to him what He meant. We have so accepted the term that I wonder if we have underestimated the true meaning. Jesus told Nicodemus that unless he was born again he could not see the kingdom of God.

As expressed in the title above, I want to talk about the source of our victory. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life." He is indeed the source of our victory. But we need to know beyond all doubt this source for the world around us is eroding this knowledge.

Jesus is the second Adam. He was not born of man. He was not created, He was begotten. He was born of God. The Body of Christ is not created but begotten of God. Being born again is being born of the Spirit and receiving a new Life. I Peter 1:3 (Young's Literal Translation) ³Blessed [is] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to the abundance of His kindness did beget us again to a living hope, through the rising again of Jesus Christ out of the dead,

I John 5:1 (YLT) ¹Every one who is believing that Jesus is the Christ, of God he hath been begotten, and every one who is loving Him who did beget, doth love also him who is begotten of Him: This is the identity of the Body of Christ. You cannot join it through accepting membership, you cannot fake it nor can you desire it without the Holy Spirit's work in you.

The Body of Christ was not begotten until the work of Jesus was completely finished. It took the work of Jesus on the cross and the triumph of the resurrection for our redemption. But it took the ascension back to the throne of God for the body of Christ to be completed, begotten, empowered to do the will of the Father on earth. We are not a concept, a religious phrase, a vague institution of believers. We are a threat to Satan, a part of God's eternal plan, begotten of God to reveal His Glory to a world that does not know Him and a Light to the darkness of this realm. We loose a power greater than anything man can devise. We are the hand and foot, voice and heart of God walking among men who have no hope. We are connected to the Head by the Holy Spirit Who always knows the Father's mind or will. We are governed, empowered, directed and instructed by the Head, Who sits in victory on the throne of heaven, having completed all that we need to share in His victory and joy.

Keeping in Step

2012-02-01T10:53:00.001-06:00

I have often wondered at the Sanhedrin's reception of Jesus. Why, knowing the Law and the Prophet's words, did they hate Jesus so much as to harbor murder in their hearts? They, as people, are no different than people of today. They represented, as does the church, the holders of God's Word and actions of Love as He reaches to redeem and connect to mankind. I have come to a few conclusions that I consider a warning to myself.
They were locked in to a past revelation of God, but had not let that inspire them as individuals to press forward to seek to know God. They studied His Words and knew what the prophets said, but the connection to God's heart was not a part of their collective intention. A group of people can study the Bible and all the books written explaining it, and still not have as their goal to know God's heart and what He is presently doing. There seems to be a desire to know what God has done and a fascination with knowing the future, but a reluctance to be a part of the I AM's present action. Jesus did not measure up to the Sanhedrin's idea of the Messiah. They were so busy measuring His visible history and ministry that they could not hear the Voice of God in Him. Their opinion of the prophetic word concerning the Messiah had prevented their perceiving the reality of God's action.
The warning that I have taken to heart is to keep in step with Him as He unfolds His continuing manifestation to draw us closer to Him and to His purpose. No one has all the answers or knows completely. None has known His heart or understands His holiness and Being. We all have had only glimpses. Only One knew and understood and followed exactly. John 6:46 (NASB) Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father. John 5:37-40 (NLT) ³⁷ And the Father who sent me has testified about me himself. You have never heard his voice or seen him face to face, ³⁸ and you do not have his message in your hearts, because you do not believe me—the one he sent to you. ³⁹ “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! ⁴⁰ Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.
Today God does not move through just one man or one denomination. Jesus is the Head of the Body of Christ. The body is one unit with one Head. Ephesians 4:4-6 (NASB) ⁴ There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶ one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
I Corinthians 12:12-13 (NLT) ¹² The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. ¹³ Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.
Because this is the present work of God and there are many scriptures concerning this, the ministry of the Body of Christ is a consuming study. I would like to touch on some parts of this as it concerns each of us, so will go in more detail in future blogs. I would be very interested in your comments. I have not been able to get them introduced into the page of the blog, but I do get them and appreciate them. I will copy your comments on this subject into future blogs if you give permission. Thank you in advance and may the Lord bless you.

The Prayers of Jesus

2012-01-28T12:22:00.000-06:00

We "almost" understand the need to pray, but still stagger at the attitude of Jesus to prayer. He felt the need to pray. In His humility, He had a complete reliance on the Holy Spirit in Him and His relationship to the Father. How can we do less? By the grace of God and His long suffering kindness, we still manage, but we need to work on that complete reliance on the Holy Spirit. At least, let me speak for myself, I do. I am a repenter, and I have earned that by practicing it daily. I don't understand the power the old nature has to cause us to fall back on human reasoning and experience instead of that complete reliance on the Holy Spirit to be our Guide and Teacher, but it takes diligence to guard against that very common weakness. The world cannot understand that reliance and it becomes their greatest criticism, but Jesus said that they could not know the Holy Spirit. John 14:15-17 ¹⁵ “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.  ¹⁶ I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; ¹⁷ that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you."

Matthew 6:9-13 (NKJV) In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. ¹⁰Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. ¹¹Give us this day our daily bread. ¹²And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. ¹³And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.   In Luke 11, one of the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray and Jesus gave them this prayer. I believe the prayer teaches us to pray and not just what to say. If we live with and approach The Father with the reverence and respectful love that is in the phrase, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, we will know our need of prayer for it positions us to Almighty, Holy, Loving Father. The next phrase, Your kingdom come, is what I want to dwell on in this blog. This was the focus of Jesus walking in His ministry as the Son of Man. It is the focus of God for this realm that man see and recognize, know and live in the Kingdom of God. God's teaching of covenant to Adam became the basis of government in that beginning time. Cities began to be built, nations came into being, kings began to rule and covenant was the basis of all government and relationship. But though man used covenant and knew what covenant meant, they turned from God's control to follow their adamic nature.
But God had His people who honored Him and obeyed His Word and bowed in reverance to Him.

God's covenant with Abraham opened the door to God forming a nation that would be His. Israel was governed by God's Law and acknowledged Him as their King until they wanted to be as the other nations of the world and have their own king. Many of those kings led Israel farther away from God and ignored His Law. God's path to lead man into His purpose was forgotten and ignored. David was a man after God's heart and with him, God made a kingdom covenant that, when obeyed and honored, would allow God to once again bring His kingdom into focus for man to abide in and God's control to be honored and obeyed. Through the obedience of John, the Baptist, the proclamation could be sounded, the Kingdom of God is at hand. Jesus came preaching the good news of the kingdom. When you pray, Thy Kingdom come, you are in agreement with God and acknowledge His Kingly right to rule over your affairs. Our nation was founded with this acknowledgement. Our founding fathers knew and understood what a king was to a nation. They knew the need for a king. They acknowledged God as their King and gave us the freedom to follow Him.

This freedom to follow our King is something Satan wants to nullify. He gets churches to restrict it, he gets governments to restrict it and he works with condemnation and accusation to restrict it in those who seek to follow the King. God has provided all you need in Jesus. Trust Him, honor Him and let the Holy Spirit guide you into a life of prayer, for, the King is coming!

What is Our Testimony?

2012-01-23T20:38:00.000-06:00

Revelation 12:11 ¹¹ They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
I have often meditated on this verse and I consider our testimony the manner of the way we live our lives. If we identify with Jesus in all the aspects of our life, our manner of life will reflect Him. The humility of Jesus was not that He accepted poverty, homelessness and the quality of life at that particular time, but that He was so focused on the Father's Will, he did what the Spirit spoke to Him to do. He did nothing more than that, and He never did less than that. True humility is to do the will of the Father even if it looks foolish, accomplishes nothing in the eyes of men, strips us of man's approval and costs us everything. It does not demand that we understand what God is doing but simply that we obey His Word. True humility can be bold and courageous, or silent and misunderstood. It can mean speaking the truth when doing so will be disastrous for your "image". True humility does not have a self image to protect. It dares to love as God loves without recompense of reward. It means pressing forward to stand to proclaim what God is speaking though people may think you are "arrogant"! It is a doctor praying for a man to be healed and live when God says pray, even though he has already pronounced the time of the man's death. It means believing God in the face of all contradiction. True humility will not love self more than being like Jesus even if it means your death.

What can Satan or man do to a man who fears nothing but God? Jesus knew our salvation hung on His obedience to God's purpose for His being on earth. His love for the purpose of God to create man in His image empowered Him to suffer any humility, degradation and shame, and unbearable agony of taking on our sins and death. In the light of God's work to bring us to His victory, of what value is man's pride? It was pride that caused Lucifer to be cast down and it is his desire to see man walk in that same pride. But identifying with Jesus' redemptive sacrifice and His true humility will allow you to overcome your own nature and limitation and see Satan defeated.

The Focus of Thanksgiving

2012-01-20T12:37:00.000-06:00

Colossians 3:17 (Amplified) And whatever you do [no matter what it is] in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus and in [dependence upon] His Person, giving praise to God the Father through Him. This identification with Jesus, the Victor and Lord of all creation, is the path to your own victory over circumstances. I have been fascinated with the subject of beginnings for we face this over and over in our lifetime. The beginning of learning to live with new siblings, the beginning of school, life after graduation and the beginning of work and earning your own money, beginning life with a spouse after marriage, the beginning of parenting, the beginning of retirement, facing life after losing a spouse, losing a friend or a job or a home, facing new commitments or relationships are all beginnings but are all a part of your life. How you face these circumstances will be the measure of the peace and happiness you will have in your life.

I often hear people say they do not know how they would face (any situation) without the Lord. It is our reliance upon Him that carries us through our circumstances. But identification with Him moves us into the realm of victory and peace that triumphs over our own natural responses to difficult times. When the "word of our testimony" is an identification with the victory Jesus won for us, we overcome more than the problem we face. We see a triumph over our own nature as we surrender it to the Blood of the Lamb.

Remember when God speaks of beginning, He is identifying with us! Philippians 1:6 (Amp)
⁶And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you.

Beginnings to Completion

2012-01-19T11:29:00.001-06:00

Revelation 1:8 (NLT) ⁸ “I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end,” says the Lord God. “I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One.” Your Bible starts with the words, "In the beginning God...." The last word is "Amen". God, Who has no beginning, begins all things. As the Author of covenants, His covenants with man are open ended, to lead to, and be fulfilled in the next covenant. I see three of His covenants with us, two have been a part of our lives and the third is yet to be opened but will take us into and through eternity. Each covenant gives man a new identity with God. The Abrahamic covenant, made with Abraham, made him a father of nations. From Jacob came Israel, the nation chosen by God to reveal Him to the other nations. From David, with whom God made the covenant of an everlasting kingdom, came Jesus, Whose covenant birthed the Church and gave us the identity of members of His Body, the Body of Christ. From those who keep His covenant and identify with His sufferings and His glorious resurrection, will come the Bride made ready for her Bridegroom. There are many names given for these. "Those who overcome", the "Sons of God", and those "who endure to the end", are some of the identifications of the Bride. I am not teaching "selectivity" as that is something left only to God. But I do emphasize having the faith of Abraham to believe you are included in a covenant with God, and, therefore responsible for giving to Him a covenant response. Mary said it for us, "whatever He says to you, do it." (John 2:3)

We all have "beginnings" in our lives. We need to recognize them as doors of opportunity to see God's work of fulfillment in our lives. Identify with God in all areas of your life and let Him lead you to completion.

The Generosity of God

2011-12-23T22:51:00.000-06:00

In contemplating on God's purpose in creating man, we see Love that is beyond human understanding. The act of creation and the beginning of time were to provide the atmosphere and climate for the human race to live and have the opportunity to become the fulfillment of God's desire. John 3:16 (NASB) ¹⁶ “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. The Greek for "world" is "kosmos"--this planet earth and all that have lived on it or will yet live. Jesus, the begottten, not the created, is the only one who could pay the price for us to become as He is, the image of God. Hebrews 1:3 (EST) ³ He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, ⁴ having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

God's covenant desire is to make us in His image and He sent Jesus to provide the Way and show us what we can become when we accept and relate to all He is. He becomes to us Savior, Redeemer, Baptizer, Healer, Priest, Lord, and King. But He calls us "friends" for we are in covenant with Him!

Being Thankful

2011-11-28T11:09:00.002-06:00

We have just celebrated another American Thanksgiving. It is the only "holiday" we have that still has God at the center of our response. Even this day is beginning to be called "turkey day" for it becomes more obvious that the focus is not on the Eternal God but on imaginations of man. But while we are in this world, we are not of this world. It is good to take time to give thanks.

We see the response of giving thanks is one of two covenant responses that Jesus expected in the following scripture. One was the obedience to the written response for leprosy of showing oneself to the priests, the disease that afflicted the ten men who met Jesus. Luke 17:12-19 ¹² As He entered a village, ten leprous men who stood at a distance met Him; ¹³ and they raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” ¹⁴ When He saw them, He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they were going, they were cleansed. ¹⁵ Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, ¹⁶ and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. ¹⁷ Then Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine—where are they? ¹⁸ Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?” ¹⁹ And He said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.”

Make every day a Thanksgiving Day. Let praise and thankfulness be continually in your heart and your voice and face will echo it.

Cause and Effect

2011-11-12T13:19:00.002-06:00

Covenant study is a wonderful way of learning the ways of God. Because a covenant is so constant it gives us understanding of the nature of God for He is the Author of covenant making. The knowledge Adam received before his fall was from God. In the times he walked and talked with God, Adam was taught those things God wanted him to know. In his fall, Adam came to a different understanding of God and covenant. He found out by experience that broken covenant has a price and that the price will be paid. In studying the Old Testament Scriptures and the Law of the first covenant, we see two things about covenant. We see God's mercy and love shown in His patience in giving Israel so many warnings through the prophets He sent, and, a seeming reluctance to bring the judgment of which He had warned would come. We also see why God used covenant to be the means by which He would work in this realm to bring to maturity His desire to make "man in His image".
You have heard people say, 'if God is love, why does He allow wars and famine and natural disasters!' In the long suffering patience of God, we begin to see the depth of His love and why He established covenant as His tool. Covenant is God's protection as well as ours. Man has a choice to come under His covenant protection or remain his own master. When Jesus came to fulfill the first covenant and to cut a New Covenant in His blood, He gave us a very important part of that New Covenant when He declared no one comes to the Father but through Him. Jesus is the Door to our becoming in the image of God and living eternally in God's joy!
We rejoice in being under the covenant of Jesus' Blood and the freedom from the weight of our sin. But from the Old Testament Law, we see the breaking of the laws as man's choice to live his own way. David's grief in breaking God's laws and losing a son was compounded by the realization he had broken the connection to God he had through covenant. Psalm 51 is a marvelous teaching on the ways of God and how we are taught them. Just as Adam had more understanding of the teaching God had given him by living out the price, so David came to a deeper understanding of God's Word. Psalm 51:6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
In the New Testament, under the covenant we have in Jesus, Paul told the Galatians that what you sow, you reap.   Covenant does not change. We may have a new covenant we are under through faith in His Blood, but the rules of covenant have not changed. You obey the expectation of covenant or you go your own way. Paul's writings, the Gospels, the Epistles and the Revelation give us the understanding of our response to God. Sow to the flesh, you reap the broken con-nection. Sow to the Spirit and you learn to live in that connection.
God moves in direct relation to our response. Genesis 22:16-18 Young's Literal Translation (YLT) and saith, `By Myself I have sworn -- the affirmation of Jehovah -- that because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only one -- 17that blessing I bless thee, and multiplying I multiply thy seed as stars of the heavens, and as sand which [is] on the sea-shore; and thy seed doth possess the gate of his enemies; 18and blessed themselves in thy seed have all nations of the earth, because that thou hast hearkened to My voice.'
In the New Testament, we see this statement repeated. Matthew 16:17 (YLT) And Jesus answering said to him, `Happy art thou, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh and blood did not reveal [it] to thee, but my Father who is in the heavens.

Matthew 16:18 (NASB) I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
Simon's name was changed to Peter which means "stone". But the rock on which He built His church was the revelation of Truth He could give to man through the Holy Spirit. On this He could build His church. The same promise He gave to Abraham, He repeated for His Church.
What God reveals and you believe and act on will bring God's purpose to fulfillment. Because you believe and obey....

Breaking the Chains--Prayerlessness

2011-10-26T09:03:00.000-05:00

Breaking the chains that bind us is extremely important in this day of preparation for the next "move of God" in His Church. This is a time of sanctifying our self nature for God will not share His glory with man's fleshlife. He will glorify Himself in us but the glory will all be His. Prayer becomes more important now for we benefit so much from prayer. Even our food is sanctified by prayer. Every created thing is sanctified by prayer, so we have a responsibility to not only be thankful in all things, but to pray without ceasing. Pray for one another and especially those who bear the responsibility of service and teaching. They bear not only the responsibility of speaking God's Word to His people but they will be judged by the Word they speak.
Why are we lacking in prayer? Again, unbelief works in us to fail in this response of prayer. There is no greater challenge to our faith than to step out boldly in prayer. One reason, I am sure, is the feeling of condemnation that prevents our being positive that we will be heard. The recorded prayers of Jesus are for our sake. When He stood at the tomb of Lazarus and said, "I know you always hear me when I pray....." (John 11:41-43) He gave us this understanding of His approach to prayer.
Why is prayer so difficult? We may not understand the power of prayer, but Satan does. He fears the fervent prayers of the saints. If he can keep you from praying, he can keep you from binding his efforts to keep the church powerless. Satan can keep the church from knowing the humility that comes from a life of prayer. This humility is not the humility of helplessness and poverty. It comes from knowing and identifying with the power and riches that are in Christ Jesus. It comes from that dependence on the Spirit of God to give you wisdom and knowledge and direct your steps and words, and yes, even your thoughts. This is the humility that says with Paul, "I can do all things through Christ Jesus, Who strengthens me."
We do not understand how important this humility is to us and to God. He resists the proud. Pride is the basis of most every sin. We do not realize how subject we are to pride. We pride ourselves in our control, our place, our organizing ability, our accomplishments, our experience, our education, our "self". This pride is also the basis of self-condemnation and embarassment. It is the essence of the fear of man and what "people will say!"
How do we pray without ceasing? Start with being thankful in all things. Let an attitude of thanksgiving be a part of your spirit and soul. Then, in whatever you do, in word or deed, do it wholeheartedly as unto the Lord. Let an awareness be in you of the contintual presence of the Lord. A communion with the Lord will follow that becomes a part of your very nature and is always there to hold any circumstance or person before the Lord in prayer.
The early Church moved by power of prayer. This last-day Church will also be brought to maturity, deliverance and power by the power of prayer.

When Prayer is a Covenant Response

2011-10-17T11:19:00.000-05:00

I have been thinking much about the subject of prayer. We have several references to prayer in the Scriptures and 99.99% of the time these refer to our responsibility to take the action of prayer. The action that comes to mind first is to believe in prayer. The second action that comes to my mind is to do it. How often we worry first and then pray!
As the title reveals, I want to show that prayer is, and should be, a covenant response. When prayer is not a covenant response is so seldom that it is almost non-existant, and never is any cry not heard. But we go back to the elements of covenant making to understand the necessity of a response. The covenant approach is made by one who has the authority and capability of protecting, providing and love/concern to carry the responsibility to responding to the demands of a covenant response. This is magnified by the length of time the covenant is to be in effect. The accepted and expected time being to the third generation of most covenants, and until death would separate and end the covenant responsibility of the marriage covenant. God made His covenants with man everlasting, for He is eternal and puts eternity in our spirit.
When a need arose, the covenant was put into action by a plea for help. A king, in covenant with a king of a larger territory, with more men and greater strength, would make a demand on the covenant with that king. It did not matter if that king was busy and the timing inconvenient, a covenant demand had to be answered or there was a breach in that covenant and the curse of covenant immediately enacted. It was the nature of covenant for thousands of years. When Jesus cut covenant with God, He took the punishment of the curse of broken covenant for us. His very nature of love and mercy is eternal. The signs of His covenant are visibile to the Father every time we come with a demand on that covenant. The stripes on His back, the holes of the nails in His hands, are the evidence of covenant and our Father immediately responds and looses His covenant purpose in our behalf.
We have to ask. There are two references I want to use to show this. James 4:2(NASB) ² You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.
Ephesians 3:20 (NASB) ²⁰ Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us,
The covenant responsibility is on us to make the covenant demand. Jesus has declared the work of God, to make our salvation possible and our welfare assured, is finished. Now we need to ask.
Paul shows us the necessity of humbly making this our lifestyle by praying without ceasing. It is our identity with God to continually recognize we are in covenant with Almighty God. We are not alone in this realm of darkness. He never leaves us and knows us by name.

Breaking the Chains--Unbelief

2011-10-14T15:40:00.001-05:00

In meditating on the power of unbelief, I have come to some thoughts that are worthy of note. The one person who has walked this earth without unbelief is Jesus. He was amazed at the unbelief in people, especially those who walked with Him, listened to Him and saw the works He did.

My husband preached a sermon (years ago!) on Belief, Unbelief and Disbelief. He says many times that we may come to a place where we have no "disbelief", but it is rare for anyone to arrive to a height of no "unbelief". The measure of unbelief we have differs as we grow spiritually. There are many reasons for this. The knowledge of God, Jesus, the Word of God and the working of the Spirit brings changes to your spirit and soul. These changes are evident in your character and personality. The major change is the change from self awareness to God awareness. You also begin to exchange your idea (opinion!) of a God with your limitations to an awareness of the might and majesty of the unlimited, eternal Jehovah.

We can measure the degree of unbelief in us by seeing our reactions to circumstances, people and teachings. Being able to hold all of these with an open hand is the measure of our faith in God. Let us look at these singly. We see the reaction of the disciples to a storm in Mark 4:37-41. Undoubtedly, this storm, in a sea with sudden storms with which they were well acquainted, must have been very severe to cause them such a degree of terror that they thought they were perishing. They were more concerned with the boat they were in than Who was in the boat. They appreciated and believed in Jesus, but their knowledge of "Who" was limited and did not exceed their knowledge of storms. You can put any storm in your life, physical, fiinancial or emotional, and weigh it against your knowledge of God and check your reaction.

People are another source of a reaction of unbelief. When you work with people, or have relatives or friends, who consistently reject your efforts to help them toward peace with God or with some person or persons, you begin to have a reaction of unbelief. This is most marked within marriages. The faults that become objects of criticism seem impossible obstacles. The unbelief in God's power to change causes reactions that divide. It is what happens in church families also. The unbelief in people is transferred to God and you begin to feel prayer is useless.

Finances become a devestating storm when there seems to be no hope. But remember Jesus said, "I will never leave you!" He is in the boat. His covenant word is to protect and provide. Trust Him. He is able! The last one I want to leave with you is "teachings". From the time of Martin Luther until today, the Light has been growing brighter and will continue to do so until the fullness of His day. If a teaching seems wrong, pray about it. It does not mean we have to be gullible in order to be open. Because you are hesitant at first does not mean you cannot accept a Truth later. But it is not with our minds but our spirit that accepts God's Word of righteousness. If the teaching appeals to the mind, hold it with an open hand and let God witness to it. His Spirit will lead you into all Truth and God will never give you anything false.

Breaking the Chains

2011-10-12T13:07:00.000-05:00

Hebrews 4:12-13 (NASB) ¹² For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. ¹³ And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

There is nothing so divisive as the opinions we hold. Opinions form because we have the choice to be in control of our thoughts and reactions. I am dismayed at how often those thoughts are critical and judgmental concerning everything. The foods we eat, what foods we will eat, what we will read and what we will wear and what others are doing. The list goes on and on. No matter what the subject, we will have an opinion. The problem, opinions are hard to shake and they can be contagious, also. The Pharisees had an opinion concerning Jesus and no matter how many times they tested him, and what answer He gave, they were determined to get rid of Him. Our culture has picked up on that opinion and many are seeking to be rid of Him.
One thing I know--our opinions will not change or limit God. What He intends to do, He does. His nature is the same, His love never fails, His holiness is without measure and His power, wisdom and mercy are endless. The marvel is that His purpose is to make us in His image. Mankind has been trying to make a god in their image and they do not have the power to produce one that is constant.
Nothing can so bind and limit your growth and development as opinions that will not yield. Let the Word abide in you richly, feeding your spirit and soul with the Truth of God and revealing Jesus to you and let your control over your thoughts, desires and opinions be open to the cutting of that sword. You will be surprised at the growth and maturity the Spirit can bring as you let the Word abide in you.

The Body of Christ (continued)

2011-10-08T06:46:00.001-05:00

As I was woke this morning, the phrase, "the Blood of the everlasting covenant", was in my mind. I went to the Word to check it. The praise in my heart was for the precious gift Jesus gave us of His Blood. Many of you know how I have marveled at the wisdom of God in making the human body so He could complete His plan of salvation and His purpose in making man in His image. When Jesus suffered in our place, His Blood fell to the ground and remains in this realm. The power, the Life, the nature of God is in the Blood. It has never lost its power! Hebrews 13::20-21(KJV) ²⁰Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
I want also to include another version. Hebrews 13:20-21(NLT) ²⁰ Now may the God of peace—who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, and ratified an eternal covenant with his blood—²¹ may he equip you with all you need for doing his will. May he produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to him. All glory to him forever and ever! Amen.
He, Who is at work in you, is able to complete that which He began and present you faultless to the Father. He is ABLE.
This rings in my spirit and I know the realization of the Power that is loosed by your faith will create that praise and worship in your spirit without ceasing. We are a part of the work of God. Not only are we the result of His work, we are a part of His continuing work in the earth. What a privilege. What an awesome God!

Created Need

2011-10-07T13:52:00.003-05:00

One thing I have been aware and appreciate is the way the Spirit speaks through the Word. A portion of Scripture, that has a theological meaning that is generally accepted, can speak to us in a personal way that is different. This morning as I awakened I was meditating on the body ministry of the church worldwide. This Scripture came to mind. ;Hebrews 10:5 (ESV) 5Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, "Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me". I know this means the miraculous birth of Jesus, but I saw also the miraculous moving of the Spirit in creating the Body of Christ of which we are a part. We, as a Body, are the miraculous work of God.
I Corinthians 12:18, 27 18But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.
27Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
The twelfth chapter of First Corinthians is a teaching chapter on the Body of Christ and you can find your place as you study this. We may not have a public ministry but we all have a ministry in Christ. I love the phrase, Body of Christ. Christ means “the anointed one.”
As I get older, I find the importance of members of my body that I once took for granted. I realize the knee has much value in my ability to rise from a seated position to a standing one. At one time in my life it was the show place for a band-aid. Maturity in the Spirit gives understanding and appreciation for the placing in the Body and the importance of each member. I think we have to learn to “use” the other members to appreciate their value. I know I go back and read past posts in the blog that is connected to mine, the indecoblog, the blog by our pastor. I have grown spiritually and find many times the correction I need by contemplating these articles and listening to the sermons that are recorded. I find the “pull on my reins” from things I read or hear from other members of the Body. Each time, I go to the Lord for a reality check. Repentance and praise are a way of life for a member of His Body.
But what I want to dwell on this time is the marvelous flow of the Body. As we respond to the nerve center, the Spirit, bringing the command from the Head, we find different members are called into service. Suddenly, our need for another member comes to the front. We begin to appreciate the anointing on that member as we flow together in doing the purpose of our Head. We cannot say of anyone, I have no need of you. Need primes the flow. People who isolate themselves from others become stagnant. Groups that isolate themselves become stagnant. When the Spirit, who hovers over the whole earth, moves in one place, it is felt in the whole Body. We need what is happening in foreign fields, for even if we do not speak their language, they can minister to us and we to them. The Spirit forms a vast network that unites the Body of Christ.
Just as we learn to walk with the Lord in family relationships, so we learn the meaning of Body ministry in our local church family. Reach out in love, in prayer and faith, and absorb the anointed ministry of each one. Appreciate the smiles, the hugs and the outstretched hand. It is important that each one feels needed and the responsibility to the Body that implies.

Worship as a Covenant Result

2011-09-30T14:28:00.000-05:00

There is a difference between covenant response and a covenant result in the covenants mankind has with God. Because covenants are the means by which we attain to the purpose of God, God is interested in the result of our covenant response. God has a goal in mind for us. That goal is for us to be in His image. On the day of judgment, it will not be our works that are judged but what we have become. When each of us stands alone before Him, He will seek to see Himself in us. That is what I mean by a covenant result.

The fourth chapter of John is a teaching chapter on worship. It shows our human response to the subject of worship for we tend to view place and circumstance as important to worship. God has established a path to salvation and to the knowledge of God. We tend to interpret that path in many diverse human ideas. But Jesus said very clearly that the path God had established would open to the path of spirit and truth. It is up to us if we seek to travel that path. Many are content to "worship" on the "mountain" or "in Jerusalem". John 4:23-24 (NLT) 23 But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. 24 For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

We speak of worship as an act or an identification such as "Christian", "Judaic", "Morman", "Buddhist", or "Islamic". This tells us that we regard the importance of our worship as a way of life-style that is as important as our race in identifying us. But this type of worship is a religion that can be followed by manner of dress, habitual practices and rituals. Jesus is speaking of true worship that results from giving to God the response His covenant requires.

Praise is a part of worship but worship is not necessarily a part of praise. If we only follow a ritual that signifies we have "worshipped", we do not understand true worship. The same word is used for both the ritualistic worship and the worship in spirit and truth. How do we worship in spirit and truth? Pilate asked Jesus, 'What is truth?' That question is still being asked. Jesus said, "I am the Truth...." Truth is not a fact that is learned, it is a Person. Jesus came the exact representation of the Father so we would know what a man in God's image would be. When He left to go back to the Father, the Spirit of Truth came to dwell in us. We make room for Him to dwell in us, to teach us, to lead us into all Truth. John 16:13-15 (NASB) 13 But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.

Jesus did nothing as God, but was constantly calling Himself, the son of man. He came to take our place and our punishment so we could become as He is. The Spirit takes what was committed to Jesus and all His victories and discloses this to us. The Spirit speaks to us, "This is the way, walk in it." We do not have a list of expectations in the Covenant Jesus has cut for us, but we have the Spirit to lead us if we will listen. We follow the Spirit of Truth as Jesus walked out the way for us. When we yield the control to Him, we walk in Truth. We worship in spirit and truth. We learn to control our tongue and our steps by yielding the control to the Spirit. It does not matter if we are in church or in a store building. We can be on the highway or in bed. We are worshippers. Constant obedience to the Spirit creates worship in our spirit. When it is in our spirit and not an action on which we rely, we worship God in the flow of spirit. It is the one activity we enjoy here that will be with us in all eternity.

Praise a Covenant Response

2011-09-29T11:38:00.000-05:00

I have used the term "covenant response" many times as obedience to God's covenant expectation from those who are in covenant with Him. I will be exploring this aspect of covenant at a later time. But for some time I have been considering praise as more than an obedient response. Yes, the Scriptures do encourage our praise. But praise does not seem to flow freely from some that I know honestly feel they belong to the family of God. This has been a concern to me and one I ask the Spirit"s help. I believe there is a response to a covenant that goes beyond fulfilling a covenant expectation.

To see this, we have to understand with Whom we are in covenant. Jesus gave us God's pattern of our response when He said for us to "ask, seek and knock". It goes beyond reading the Bible and praying. It becomes feeding on His Word, meditating on His Word until it fills our conscious and unconsicous reactions. Our desire to know Him alienates us from this realm. We become strangers seeking another City. We become seekers.

The more we know Him, the more we view those around us in the eternal view of God. Speaking of His love and mercy to those who have no hope becomes second nature. It is not a conscious effort to win the lost, but a natural compulsion to introduce them to the One Who loves them unconditionally.

It is no longer a covenant response for me to respect my husband. It is in my spirit and soul. It is in my very nature to do so. This to me is the true source of praise. Constant contact with the nature of God produces reverent praise. It comes from the knowledge of His love and the response to that love. It becomes a part of your nature to praise Him. It is that intimate relationship that mutual love produces.

Praise no longer becomes something we are supposed to do. For many Christians, praise is programmed by their church. No matter how meaningful a song is to you, if only sung in church when the program announces it, praise is limited. God receives the praise we give Him, but it does not create within us that intimate relationship with God. God does expect us to be grateful to Him. An example that comes to mind is the reaction of Jesus when nine of the ten lepers that were healed did not come back to thank Him. It is an expected reaction. Generally, praise is a thankful reaction to a blessing. This is an element of praise that is a covenant response that we are conditioned to give as children of God. We do not drop this element of praise because our praise deepens into true worship. Thankfulness robs doubt of its hold on us. Being thankful and praising God through the testing that comes to all of us, robs the darkness of the testing. When we are focused on our own self and our reactions to the testing, we grope to find a way out.

Praise is the gateway to the faith that produces our entrance into His Rest.

Posting questions

2011-09-29T07:39:00.000-05:00

For some time I have been trying to get comments posted on this blog and have not been able to do so. If you have questions type them in the "comments" and I will include them in the blog and answer your question with the invitation for others to agree or disagree. It seems the only way we are going to have a "classroom" discussion! Thank you!

Now or Deception?

2011-09-01T11:41:00.001-05:00

I Peter 1:5 (NIV) who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
Without a doubt, the early apostles felt they were living in the last times. But moved as they were by the Holy Spirit, their words are as viable for us as they felt they were for their day. For over 80 years I have heard the teaching of the end as though it were possible at any hour. This is a very healthy concept for we should always live with that expectation--it is called hope! But in studying God's covenant ways, we see that certain expectations of God must be met. The Church must return to, and go beyond, the early Church, for they did not fulfill all the prophecies given by the prophets under the Abrahamic covenant. There remains a Rest for the people of God. Jesus moved in this Rest. He had that contact with the Father that we are yet to come into. Jesus came as the exact representation of the Father. This gives us the goal the Father has to make man in the image of God. The same Spirit that lived in Jesus without measure, abides in us. He allowed the Spirit full control over all His thoughts and actions. We must set this as our goal so we can see the full measure of our doing the Father's will and the same oneness Jesus had. We will have the full measure of this as we come into oneness with each other and with Jesus, through the oneness we have with the Holy Spirit.

When we rely on our human nature (capabilities, experience, education or desires) to accomplish any thing regarding the fulfillment of God's expectation, we fall short. We must learn to rely on, and communicate with, the Holy Spirit. Learning His Voice is only the first step. We must learn instant obedience and have the faith to move in that obedience. Having oneness with one another has to be the work of the Holy Spirit in us. So much yielding of our emotions, natural responses and control is required to achieve this. All the polite response to our cultural demands cannot achieve oneness. Our thoughts and emotional responses have to be surrendered to the Holy Spirit. Our obedience is not made complete until our thoughts and imaginations are brought under His control! Apostle Paul addresses this in the tenth chapter of Second Corinthians. But he not only addresses our obedience of bringing every thought captive, but shows us the path to oneness with God in resisting the fortresses of Satan and all opposition to God. So when Jesus prayed for our oneness with each other and with Him in the Father, that is a goal for the Church. The emphasis on becoming like Jesus in our nature, our relationship with the Father, and our ministry on earth doing the Father's will, is an important step toward entering that Rest.

I see the result of that Rest in Jesus' complete confidence in completing the work He was to do.
Mark 4:37-40 (NLT) 37 But soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat, and it began to fill with water. 38 Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him up, shouting, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?” 39 When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. 40 Then he asked them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Jesus knew that nothing could hinder His accomplishing the Father's purpose for Him.

This is the salvation yet to be revealed, that we, the Church, move into the Rest of knowing we are vessels in His Hand to accomplish His will and nothing can prevent His Word from coming to fulfillment. This is a Church without blemish or wrinkle, prepared as a Bride for her Bridegroom, clothed in the garment that God has prepared for her to wear! A Church moving in the Resurrection anointing to be witnesses of His Resurrection! We have to shake off the passive response that everything is as it was from the beginning. (Second Peter 3:3-4) We are moving upward and onward! We are not just waiting for the end! We are a part of the Day of the Lord. Let us be alive with hope and faith to do the will of the Father!

A Living Hope

2011-08-22T07:24:00.002-05:00

I love reading the Gospels and then an epistle by one of the disciples/apostles. I see the change in their nature. The disciples reacted in their adamic nature and I see the likeness in myself and others around me. Then I see the work of the Holy Spirit in them and realize we are all God's workmanship. Jesus saw their failings but did not dwell on that. He sees our nature, also, but continues to use us. Being used by God is not our justification. We may have marvelous experiences being used by God, but that is not to our praise. Becoming like Him is our goal. It is our covenant response that allows God to accomplish His purpose in us. I was just a young girl when the Spirit warned me of this. He pointed out to me then that God reaches for the lost and needs vessels to use for that purpose. He also pointed out that He once used a jackass!

The call Jesus gave to His disciples was not to a great ministry but to follow Him. In following Him, my husband and I have found that life to be a wonderful adventure. But the painful part of that journey has been the dying to self. We are a work under construction. In following Him, Who always did only what the Father showed Him, I have learned to respect with great awe, the restraint that is necessary to follow Jesus, not in doing the works the Spirit does, but in not doing a work that I think needs to be done. Not in speaking His Word, but not speaking when I think it seems necessary! I can empathize with Peter but also with Jesus, Who had to bite His tongue many times around Peter! But then I turn to Peter's epistle and see the work of the Holy Spirit and rejoice in hope!

I Peter 1:1-5 (NASB) ¹ Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen ² according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure. ³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, ⁵ who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

I know there are many ways portions of that Scripture are interpreted, but I want to share with you what the Spirit impressed me. There are many ways this living hope keeps us in different stages of our growth into His image. For most of our journey, this hope keeps us pressing to be like Jesus as He walked this earth. This is a big challenge for all of us. If we faced this challenge in ourselves in trying to be like Him, we could not do it. But the Spirit in us does a dual work in us. He blesses and encourages us, using us to do the Father's Will on earth, at the same time that He is working in us to change us. Satan is a useful tool in the Father's hand during this process. Satans's challenges to us keeps us aware of our human failings and drives us to prayer and repentance while learning to lean on the Everlasting Arms! Learning to be led by the Spirit is a process! But that Living Hope is there at every stage of our growth!

This living hope is not just for our own personal growth, but also in the progressive revelation of the will and work of God as He moves toward the finish line. We live in the "last time". There is a salvation waiting to be revealed. This salvation is revealed in God's people who have labored to enter His Rest. Jesus, on this earth, walked in the Rest of God, led by the Spirit of God that dwelled in Him. We have this hope living in us when we are led by the same Spirit. I see the church of God that Jesus purchased, witnessing of His death and resurrection, coming into a new awareness of becoming more than witnesses speaking of His resurrection, but living the power of it! This is what I see in the epistles of the apostles. They lived in the power of His resurrection Life. That faded in the first century of the church. But Jesus is returning to a church alive in that resurrection Life. We are a church prepared to meet Him. We have a Living Hope!

Satan's Tools--Adamic nature

2011-08-11T09:01:00.000-05:00

The Spirit has been showing me the power of the adamic nature. When we speak of, or meditate on, the need and process of overcoming, we tend to minimize the problem, and begin to look for "instant" results. But the birth proces is exactly that--a process. From conception to the thrill of holding the baby for the first time, there is a process. There is a process in the spirit realm also. From the speaking of the Word until the final moment of beholding the fulflilllment, is a process. We quote so often the words, "nothing is impossible with God." But I was led by the Spirit this morning to go deeper into that verse. Every time it was used in the Bible, from Genesis on, it pertained to birth or the creative flow of God's Will being fulfilled. In Luke 1:37 the better translation would be "not any Word of God is impossible". What God has declared in revealing His Will and direction is always possible. In II Timothy 1:12 the actual wording is "what has been committed". Every translation says "what I have committed", but it could go both ways. The Word that God has committed to us, He is able to keep or guard or complete, for His Word is possible. Let the Word of God abide in you. Like yeast in dough, the Word of God will work in you, accomplishing that for which it was sent forth to accomplish. His Nature will be birthed in you by the work of the Holy Spirit in you.

The adamic nature must die within us. Jesus said, "Take up your cross, and follow me." Be willing to pay the price for change. Opinions, comfort, desires and efforts must all be held with an open hand to God. The reluctance to do this is often reasoned out as not necessary. Eve reasoned within herself and found that it was to her advantage to disobey and so ate of the forbidden fruit. Keep your eyes on Jesus, the Auther and the finisher of our faith! He is the exact representation of the Father and the One we are to be fashioned to be as He is! He IS the way, the Truth and the Life. Just follow Him!

Light or Darkness

2011-08-05T15:46:00.003-05:00

Recently I spoke with a couple of women who tried to explain the way Jesus viewed "churches". When I said that Jesus created the church from His Blood and pierced side, I realized they did not believe He was God in man. There can be no light without this marvelous, yet hard to fathom, truth. John, who walked this earth with Jesus, heard the words of Jesus as He taught and walked with His disciples, came to understand and love, ever more deeply, the Light of life. I John 1:5-7 (NLT)  ⁵ This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. ⁶ So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. ⁷ But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
There is a difference in receiving the Light and walking, or living, in the Light. I know from experience the difference. The Holy Spirit taught me the difference through the experiences I had while only knowing the Light. Living in the light means trust, peace and joy are no longer words, but a way of life. Using the light of the Scriptures (when we know the light) when circumstances are full of darkness, is like a flashlight. When I am awakened to pray and leave my bed to go to another room, so I can read the Word and pray without wakening my husband, I grab a flashlight, and it lights my way through the darkness to a room where I can turn on the light. Then I turn off the flashlight, for it is no longer needed. I turn it on again when I leave the room of light. It was during one of these times that the Spirit said to me, "This is how many walk daily." I immediately realized it was a common error that I also make many times.  A first reaction to circumstances is a telling view. Is it trust or panic? Do we take our reactions from our past experience and our "knowledge" we have gleaned, or do we turn to the Source and lean? This is a dark realm but God has caused His Light to shine in it.
Psalm 36:9 (NASV)⁹ For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light.
John 12:46 (NLT) I have come as a light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in me will no longer remain in the dark.
John 8:12  Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”
John 3:19-21 ¹⁹ And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. ²⁰ All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. ²¹ But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”
Matthew 5:14-16 ¹⁴ “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

Every day and in every way let your focus be on Jesus. This is how we walk in the Light. Don't let what you do or where you go be a separate part of your life and following Jesus another part.

Colossians 3:17   And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.

Riches or Poverty?

2011-08-03T10:39:00.000-05:00

If you have ever heard someone speak of their conversion, you have heard of the "moment of decision". This is that moment in eternity when a person chooses to accept Jesus Christ and the offer of surrender to the Life He provides. In that moment life is chosen over death. The covenants of God with this realm and with man are His provision for all that is needed for a person to enter into, and successfully travel on, the path that leads to an eternity spent in the light and joy of dwelling in the presence of God. But that decision is not the only decision one must make. All along that path there are major decisions to accept God's provision. Why? Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful and desperately sick... The decisions are made out of the human (adamic) nature or by listening to the Spirit of God. When the decision is made it always involves surrender to God's covenant provision. My father used to say to me, "repentance is the first line of defense when we have a conflict of interest." What is that conflict? God's riches offered in Christ Jesus or the poverty of our own adamic nature. It is a "civil war" going on within. Our way or God's way!

A person asked me recently why I spoke of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as a present decision and what it means to us. Actually, the same thing it meant to Adam. Adam, with his lack of covenant response to God, took the control of knowledge out of God's hand and put it in his own. From that moment, man became the arbiter of what was "good" and what was "evil". Mankind has sought what was considered good and, regardless of the outcome, went for his own coveted "good." But the human nature is limited in all ways and is nothing but poverty.
Romans 11:33 (NASB) ³³ Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!
Ephesians 1:18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
Ephesians 2:7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 3:8 ⁸ To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ,
Ephesians 3:16-20 ¹⁶ that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. ²⁰ Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us,

Those are just a few of the Scriptures that speak of the vast riches that are in Jesus to be released to us as we learn to accept them. What we call the "fruit of the Spirit" is actually the Nature of God waiting for us to make the decision to allow our nature to die so the Holy Spirit can implant His Nature in us. All the works that Jesus did and the works that God yet wants to do in this realm by His mighty power are waiting on the decision to be made that we are available for the Holy Spirit to move through us.

It comes down to this, it is your decision to make. His riches or the poverty of your own nature.

Satan's tools--Guilt

2011-07-28T11:17:00.001-05:00

In meditating on the fears that bind us, I realized that guilt is probably the most common of the results of fear. So many people carry guilt like a backpack, and, no matter what they are doing, the backpack stays in place. I John 4:18 (NLT)  Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.   The Phillips translation reads: "fear brings torture of feeling guilt". There is no doubt about it, carrying guilt around is torture.

There is a path to knowing God's love. That path is opened to us by the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. If we have not surrendered to allow the Spirit to live in us, we only have the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. When the Spirit dwells in us and we commune with Him, listen to Him and are obedient to Him, He will open to us the fear of God. This fear is a reverent awe of God. We only begin to know Him when the Spirit makes alive this in us. True worship and obedience are the result of this awe being quickened in you. Look at this passage in Psalm 25. ⁹ He leads the humble in doing right, teaching them his way.  ¹⁰ The Lord leads with unfailing love and faithfulness all who keep his covenant and obey his demands.   ¹¹ For the honor of your name, O Lord, forgive my many, many sins.  ¹² Who are those who fear the Lord?  He will show them the path they should choose.  ¹³ They will live in prosperity, and their children will inherit the land.  ¹⁴ The Lord is a friend to those who fear him.  He teaches them his covenant.   (Remember, "friend" is the term used for those in covenant!)

Knowing how great is His love and power gives understanding of what has been provided. The Creator of all creation has the power to remove even the memory of sins committed, and for which repentance has been made, as far as the east is from the west. He will not remember them. Satan will accuse you of them and thus cause guilt. Guilt will keep you from walking in God's ways. Paul declared we are the righteousness of God in Christ. In Psalm 145, the Psalmist declares "celebrate Your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of Your righteousness!" He continues the same refrain in verses 17-19. "¹⁷ The Lord is righteous in everything he does; he is filled with kindness.  ¹⁸ The Lord is close to all who call on him, yes, to all who call on him in truth.  ¹⁹ He grants the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cries for help and rescues them."

Let the Spirit of God reveal God's love and mercy to you. When you begin to see His nature, faith in Him is born as you ponder His Word and see His ways. You enter a large place where anything is possible in Him!

Satan's Tools--Fear

2011-07-23T13:11:00.001-05:00

How does Satan cause us to fear? We live in a water realm and there is always danger--from the elements, natural disasters such as avalanches, earthquakes, eruptions and tidal waves. There is disease, accidents and violence from other people, and our own experience with these things cause our nature to develop fear of death, and Satan plays on this. Our fears become a "button" he can push. These fears can be (and must be) overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony, the same way we overcome all the weakness of our nature. We cannot trust until we overcome these fears.

But there is another source of fear that is most deadly to us as the Church of our Lord. Satan attacks the knowledge of God's love for us. When we lose the knowledge and the awareness of God's great love for us, we become the prey of the other weapons that Satan uses. His accusation of God to us becomes our picture of God. The Will of God becomes suspect to us. Instead of loving God's Will and choosing only His Will over our own will, we then begin to doubt His Will. Without knowing how very much God loves us and seeks only our best welfare, both now and in eternity, we hesitate to ask Him for "very big things" as though we are not worthy of having His best. Paul addressed this in his letter to the Ephesians as he exalted the love of God. Ephesians 3:16-21 (NIV) 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

From this we see the fault does not lie with God's will but with our lack of asking. We do not ask because we are not confident of His love! Confidence in His love allows us to ask and trust that He will answer in the way that is best for us. We measure God's love by our own ability to love. But the love of God, revealed to us by His Spirit, goes far beyond our own ability to comprehend. If we do not rely on the Holy Spirit to lead, guide and teach us, we are trusting in our own limited capacity. When we first come to God and our spirit is born into His family, we rejoice in His love. Satan goes on the alert and seeks to rob us of this relationship born of the flow of love that brings us into the circle of love. Our worship of God is born out of this flow and we move in the strength of His love. Satan's attack of fear is easily accepted, because, being so new to His realm, and not yet having let go of the pull of this realm, we fall back into the path of doubt. Satan has been "going to school" on mankind for thousands of years and knows which lever in us to pull so we yield to fear. Listen to the Apostle John, who, though he had walked with Jesus, only came to know the depths of the love of God later in life. He became so immersed in God's love that he used that love as his identity in writing the Gospel of John. I John 4:14-19 (NLT) 14 Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. 16 We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 17 And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. 18 Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. 19 We love each other because he loved us first.

II Timothy 1:7 (NLT) For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

God's love is imparted to us as we receive His love. When we turn aside to view anything in our own ability and rely on our limited capacity, we are denying God. He will not push against our free choice. Satan knows and understands this, so he approaches us as he did Eve, to reason out and decide what is best for us. Because we are a covenanted people, we only need to call on God--ask! That frees His hand to move in our behalf. Instead of keeping the control the adamic nature loves, we freely give our self into His hand and His love flows to us. We learn to live in His love. The more we worship, letting our love flow back to Him, the stronger the flow of His love reaches into us and the greater the flow of love out to those around us. We know a greater burden for the lost, have more mercy for fellow Christians and the more clearly we hear the Voice of the Spirit. We grow in love.

Satan's Tools--Accusation

2011-07-20T12:17:00.001-05:00

I Peter 5:8 (NLT) Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.
Revelation 12:10 10 Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the heavens, “It has come at last—salvation and power and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down to earth—the one who accuses them before our God day and night. 11 And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.
Divide and conquer are tactics of Satan. His tool to separate is accusation. He wants to separate you into isolation so that you feel alone and forsaken by friends and God. From the time you first realize how much God loves you, Satan begins to erode that certainty. You begin to lose that awareness of His love that had driven you forward and upward into that relationship that was above all other desires or relationships. Other things crowded out the thought of God or the time to spend with Him. The delight began to fade. Tragically so does trust and faith. Long-time Christians belittle that childlike faith until the numbness of unbelief begins. The accusation of Satan against God becomes lodged in the soul and soon you doubt the very Love that brought you to freedom.

Satan is also the accuser of your family relationships. This accusation of another to you enhances your feelings of self protection. Protecting yourself becomes a deception, for you can no longer follow closely the Lamb Who gave Himself for you. Following afar off gives you more room to follow your own desires. The problem is that agreement with Satan becomes more comfortable than your agreement with God's Word. Voicing blame, criticism and even antagonism becomes a weapon of self-defense against viable or imagined wrongs. It is easier to see wrong in someone else than face it in yourself. Opinions formed in such a climate are very hard to break or be forgotten. These chains that bind you become as uncomfortable to you as to those around you. Bridges are formed that no one wants to cross. Families become disfunctionable. This happens also in the Family of God. Opinions of ritual, doctrine and what is considered sin begin to erode connection between individuals and churches. We do not realize we are working for Satan and not for God. We become accusers.

What is the answer? The love of God. God loves. Because He loves, we, too, are enabled to love. When we listen to Satan and lose sight of God's great love for us, we begin to lose that ability to love. Go back to that first realization of God's love for you and how He revealed it in Jesus Christ, and follow the Lamb.

Satan's Tools--Deception

2011-07-16T07:34:00.000-05:00

Because Satan was deceived by his own greed, he has become the great deceiver. He despises mankind as being beneath him, yet he fears those who walk in covenant obedience and are empowered by the Spirit of God to do the will of God. It is because of this and the tragedy this deception works in so many lives, I have sought the Spirit to show me deception. There are tentacles of deception that reach into every facet of our lives.

Our human, adamic nature is very susceptible to deception. Our response to the circumstances and events that come into our lives opens us to Satan's weapon of deception to disrupt and destroy the path that would lead us to God's fullness and best. So many start out with hunger and humble zeal to walk with God but make choices that detour them off that straight path. The desire to walk with God, to worship Him are still there, but they have been relegated to a "back burner". I have looked at some of the elements within our nature that open us to this danger.

We all have a desire to succeed. We want the best for ourselves and our loved ones. When we see the opportunity for that we begin to seek ways to take advantage of that opportunity. Very good, very human and worthy of appreciation, but how do we know? Eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil looked like a very wise and worthy decision, but, at what cost? Seeking God, yielding your own wisdom to the guidance of the Holy Spirit is our safeguard.

We all have events that cause us sorrow and grief of soul so deep that it is difficult to do daily responsibilities. Nothing seems to us as it had been and it is difficult to be motivated. We find solace in God and try to give it into His hand, but the flesh is so in tune with the soul that it feels like symptoms of an illness. We know we have to give ourselves time to recover but there are times of hopelessness. This is when Satan moves in to take advantage. Here the "fork in the road" appears and the choice is not always considered for the comfort presented is grabbed as a "light in the tunnel". Sadly, the realization only hits years later at a great price. But at the time of such devastating grief, anything that will distract and give ease is grabbed. I have seen people who cocoon themselves in God's comfort grow and develop because of their grief and are not detered by people's sympathy and efforts to distract, but these are few. Our prayers for guidance are very important for those who face these times of grief.

Sucess and praise are often sandtraps and open us to more deception than difficult times. Joseph went through terrible testings of the Word God gave him in dreams. They sustained him and kept him "on course" during that time. Because he lived in the time when God was revealing Himself to man through the family, his dreams involved his family. Yet, when he finally arrived on the throne of success, he gave up on his family and named his firstborn son, Manasseh. (Manasseh means, I will forget my past and my family and be content.) I believe this is why he went by himself and wept bitterly when his brothers came to him in Egypt, for he realized he had abandoned the important part of God's Word to him.

These are just a few of our human responses, but I hope it reveals to you how susceptible we are to deception if we do not walk closely to our Lord and rely on the Spirit's guidance in all our ways.

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT) 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.

A Covenant Enemy

2011-07-13T12:27:00.001-05:00

As we saw earlier there is an exchange of enemies in covenant. The purpose is for protection and security. The covenant-making and keeping had many advantages but it was never undertaken lightly, especially between city governments, tribes or later, nations. The curse of broken covenant was too severe. We can understand Abraham's hesitation when God approached him with covenant language, the precursor of a covenant ceremony. What is more difficult to see and understand is the length of time involved in cutting the Abrahamic Covenant. Many years lapsed between the "walking among the pieces" part of the ceremony and the final response of Abraham offering Isaac, but this time allowed Abraham to walk in a relationship with God that increased the release of all other responsibilities that could justify Abraham's failure to give God the response of covenant. His obedience to ignore everything but to answer God's covenant request was the final permission God was seeking to allow Him to send Jesus to this realm. Abraham's total obedience and faith cut off Satan's opportunity to prevent this final step. This gives understanding of how important is our response to God in resisting the enemy. Abraham had learned much in his walking with God in covenant. The lack of knowledge and understanding of covenant today, gives rise to religious response to God's Word of Covenant. We speak of "Old Testament" and "New Testament" but do not understand they are the covenants of God with His people and we are responsible for giving covenant response to that Word. The response is always to the person giving the required response and is not up for personal interpretation. Abraham's response in taking Isaac to a certain mountain shows us this. He did not excuse, justify or explain his action. He just obeyed. Satan did not have a chance to deny God. God's enemy had become Abraham's enemy and Abraham responded to God. Do you see what this means to us?

We must rid ourselves of the "religious" response to God's Word and respond to God's Word in spirit and truth. A pure worship of our omniscient, holy, omnipotent Jehovah, Who ministers to us in completion, denies the enemy his effort to hinder God from accomplishing His will on earth. Satan became the enemy of God when he chose to resist God's purpose to make man in His image. Lucifer had everything--wisdom, power, and opportunity for he ruled from earth, but he became jealous of God's purpose to make another creature in the image of God. He saw it written in the stars and so determined to exalt himself above the stars. (Isaiah 14:12-13) He uses religion to accomplish this. The religions of the ancients, roman and greek gods and other myths have changed the names of the stars and so dictated a different purpose. The greed for money, power, and knowledge have become a religion for Satan's use. Man's interpretation of Scripture and man's desire for control have perverted the message taught, so that even the desire for God is chained by ritual and regulations that seem to justify.

Jesus told His disciples that He would send the Holy Spirit to teach and guide them into all Truth. Jesus is The Truth, Way and Life to Whom the Holy Spirit guides us, teaching, correcting, and revealing the way of Truth.
Listen to Paul's admonitions: "Let no one deceive you with empty words.." "Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.." Agree with God's purpose for you to be in His image, follow Jesus and let the Spirit guide you. Above all, let praise and thanksgiving in all things be your response.

Philippians 4:8-9 (NASB) 8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. 9 The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Fight the good fight of faith.

God Is Rich

2011-07-07T09:37:00.000-05:00

In my meditation this morning, the Spirit reminded me that "My God will supply all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus." The Spirit emphasized the "riches in Christ Jesus." I want to contemplate the idea of the riches that are in Jesus Christ.

Sadly, this verse is often used to encourage thoughts toward the human idea of riches. Having traveled and lived in other countries, I realize the concept of "riches" is not always shared with those of us who live in America. There is a constant "upward" trend in our country of what is considered rich. When I was a child, living in the great depression, any one who had new shoes and carried a full lunch sack to school was considered as "rich". I think of the parable Jesus gave of the rich man who tore down his barns to build bigger barns when I see the race of some to have "bigger and better" than what the neighbors have.

But this is not the riches in Christ Jesus, nor is this the need we all have. Sunk in the limitation of our human nature, we do not fully comprehend the full measure of our need. I know this verse is in the passage of the epistle of Paul to the church at Philippi and concerns their giving. But Paul is addressing something beyond the physical element of their giving. He is reaching to the mercy, the compassion, the generosity of spirit and the motive in the giving of the gift. His speaking of the attitude toward money and being content with what one has, seems to be almost a parenthetical thought. But it is the essence of an overflowing life in Christ Jesus.

Jesus spoke of the widow's gift of the mite as being greater than the "show" of greater amounts, for she gave all she had. This speaks of a lack of fear in the widow. Giving beyond the fear of not having enough for one's self, speaks of a trust in God to supply our human needs, that reaches in to the riches in Christ Jesus. Reckless abandonment to live your life in Him, to trust Him for the supplying of your needs, opens the door to His riches. This goes far beyond money, the need for food, shelter, clothing, etc. This reaches in to the care God has for all His creation. His mercy, compassion and love flows freely to this realm. It is blocked only by those things in our nature that we justify. These things are born out of the fear that is so hard to shake. Fear generates carefulness of self, greed, criticism, lust and all the lacks of mercy and love. Fear holds us captive to our human nature.

Yielding ourselves in trust to lean on the everlasting arms of the One Who gave Himself for us, opens us to the Spirit's guidance into all truth. That truth, abiding in us, yields the harvest of the nature of God in us. Isn't that the covenant response to His desire to make us in His image? Don't hoard your poverty in the fear of "what if?" but release it in trust and acknowledgment of His great riches of mercy, love and compassion. Live in Him and know the victory He has won over all of this realm, even your nature!

The Nature of God -- Complete (continued)

2011-06-23T11:36:00.000-05:00

When I contemplate the completeness of God, I am aware of my own nature. I think I can best describe any human nature as "bits and pieces". We all have weak areas in our nature and also bits of strength. I have found that the stronger the area, the more danger to my spirit's growth in God. Where I am strong, I rely on myself! Where I am weak, I rely on God. I have had to learn to lean on God and follow the Spirit's leading. Probably the hardest thing to overcome is the strength of human opinions. Hebrews 4:11 (KJV) Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. To enter His rest is to give over our own control and trust in being led by the Father's will. Our trust of full obedience despises the cost to our personal image and comfort.

These areas in our nature that are not surrendered to the Spirit's control rob the joy of the complete possession of the Spirit. It is God's desire that you be in His image. You are His workmanship! To the degree you are empty of self and yielded to His hand, He can fill you.

John 15:11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

John 17:13 But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.

Ephesians 3:19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Colossians 1:9 So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.

These are only a few of the Scriptures that speak of God's desire to bring you to a completion in Him. In ourselves, we are fragmented in our focus, our desires, our knowledge and understanding, in our emotional responses and in our strengths. But we are not left on our own, He is the Way to the Father and He has provided for the Spirit to be our Guide. He is ABLE to complete the work in you!

The Nature of God -- Complete

2011-06-17T11:14:00.002-05:00

It is difficult to comprehend the completeness of God because of our limitations. God has no need to make Him complete. That is why covenant is such a blessing to us for it allows us to tap in to God's completeness. He becomes available to us in covenant. We see that in the covenants He made with nature, for no person living is not exposed to the wonders of God's creation, from the vastness of the universe to the tiny petals on the smallest flower, and thus is exposed to the wonder of God and so may call on Him when their need is exposed.

To me, it is wonderful to contemplate God's completeness, but it is awesome to read in His Word that He wants to make me complete in Him! Colossians 2:9-10(NASB)9 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, 10 and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority.

Colossians 1:28 (NASB) We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.

In covenant, it is all about identification. God identifies with us and we identify with Him. His purpose is to make you in His image. He has done everything to bring this to completion and Jesus has pronounced, It is finished! You must identify with His purpose for and in you. Philippians 1:6 (NIV) being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

We all have the ability to identify but it is up to each individual with what you choose to identify. Don't identify with faults and sins that "easily beset you", but identify with His complete power to deliver you. You are not alone in this work of crucifying your old nature. You are HIS workmanship! The cleansing work of The Blood is an ongoing power in you, so submit your self to His cleansing power to bring His victory in you.

The Nature of Our God-Protecter

2011-06-07T17:11:00.000-05:00

In studying the covenants of God, we see likeness to other covenants. In the Nature of God is the essence of covenant making. He has embodied Himself in each covenant so that we are without excuse as mankind on the earth, for He is revealed to the extent we are invited to call on Him. The marriage covenant, though cut between mortals, is a part of both the Old and New Covenants of God, for each of these covenants demanded response in the marriage covenant. Under the Law, the expectation of the Old Covenant, a woman was under her father's protection until she married and then she was under her husband's protection. If she made a vow or an obligating pledge, it could be disallowed by her father, or, if married, by her husband. If they did not, the vow or pledge would stand. (Numbers 30:6-8) Adam's sin was his lack of taking his place as Eve's husband to protect her by rebuking Satan and refusing the temptation to sin against God's covenant demand.

In the New Covenant, Paul shows the identification the Lord accepts with each husband. When the husband accepts that identification with the Lord, he moves in great authority as his wife's protecter. This reveals another facet in the Nature of God. His caring and protective cover over each of us is awesome in the minute detail of His knowledge of us. Jesus said even the hairs of our head are numbered, and He knows our downsitting and our uprising!

In our present condition, we do not know how very much we need that protection. It is this ignorance that God covers. All that is required of us is that we seek Him. When we do, God is found by us. Daily come before the Lord seeking His guidance and wisdom, His protection and blessing. Why? This positions you before Him. Aaron was instructed to daily bless Israel with the blessing God gave him to use, so He could bless Israel. It is not that we are not covered by God in covenant, but this recognition of your need of Him keeps us in His knowledge of you. Your relationship with Him is made strong and you walk under His banner. Let me use a personal illustration. My husband and I will soon be celebrating our 63rd anniversary of our wedding vows. The first years were difficult with their own particular problems. Learning to blend two into one is a very personal problem, especially when self is still ruling. But as we grew in the Lord by yielding self to Him, we found great treasure in our marriage. We learned to communicate our need of each other and to receive help. We learned to communicate our love for each other and our trust. This is a part of living out a covenant. When our relationship with the Lord grew, our relationship with each other grew. We relied on the protection of covenant and learned to appreciate it. Your appreciation of God's protection will cause your understanding of it to grow. You will see how He protects in the smallest and profoundly miraculous ways. If it takes a miracle, He is able!

The Nature of Our God-Merciful

2011-06-03T09:22:00.000-05:00

We often think of the love God expressed in Jesus, but I want you to contemplate His mercy today. I often see the power of self-condemnation in talking with people. The efforts that we take to hide that condemnation reveals the depth of injury that it has caused us. In the extreme, it causes a person to withdraw almost completely from others in isolation. In other degrees, it can go from "just shy" to a complete "cover-up" brashness that appears arrogant.

Condemnation is a weapon the enemy uses against us. There is a reason to use a weapon in war; you face an enemy. So when Satan comes to condemn you, rejoice that he considers you his enemy. Therefore, it is "normal" for a Christian to know condemnation. It is not "normal" to entertain it or accept it, identifying with it, for we have no condemnation in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

In covenant, there is an exchange of enemies. The covering that covenant offers is partly this exchange. God takes on our enemies and we learn to fight the enemy of His purpose. God so completely took on our enemy on the cross that we can boldly say, "there is no condemnation!" That does not mean we won't fight the battle with condemnation, but it does mean that we learn the reality of identification. Do we identify with the condemnation that is coming against us, or, do we identify with Jesus, Who took our condemnation to the cross?

God, in His Mercy, gave us His Son to free us from all condemnation. Walk in His Mercy and be merciful.

The Nature of Our God-Giver

2011-05-31T13:53:00.004-05:00

In seeking to know Him, the Scriptures become the pieces of the puzzle to knowing Him. One Scripture that is repeated often is a part of II Corinthians 9:7 "....God loves a cheerful giver." I know in the context of the Scripture that this concerns our monetary giving, but it reveals an aspect of God's Nature, also. He loves for us to be cheerful in our response of giving.

We have nothing to give that was not given to us. The very breath we breathe was given to us. Time, that we spend so freely, is a gift of God to us. Paul exhorts us in Colossians that whatever we do in word or deed, do wholeheartedly as unto the Lord. Paul had found the secret of a life lived in God. Cheerfully, with our whole being involved, live each day as an offering to God. Give back cheerfully the time you have been given each morning. Work, play, relax in God's Presence. God's response? Jesus told us. Luke 6:38 (NLT) Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”

God is making us in His image. We open the door for Him to abide in us by giving all we are to Him. To me, repentance of all that is in me that is in opposition to Him, is a daily or even constant reaction when I realize I am yielding to the pressure of this realm or the condemnation of Satan. I begin to praise until the peace and joy that He gives is my reaction. Practice His Presence with joy.

The Hope of Covenant

2011-05-30T06:40:00.007-05:00

There has been a lot of excitement about races recently. While I am not a fan of races, I am not deaf and I am aware of the emphasis on "starting lineups". There seems to be an advantage in good beginnings. This is true of many things. People with advantage seem to be the successful ones. But it does not always hold true.

With covenant relationships the advantage is not personal advantage but in the covenant that is cut. There is hope in a covenant relationship that does not depend on your abilities or your beginning-advantage or your misfortunes. It is not about you but all about Him. However, back to the anology of races, it is not how you begin but how you end the race that counts. How faithful you are in your response to Him is the only factor in how you run your race.

Hebrews 12:1-3 (NLT) 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. 2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. 3 Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up.

Many start out with great enthusiasm, but when the way gets difficult, the obstacles become too much, the length becomes too long, the enthusiasm wanes because the sight of the goal has been lost.

Your faithfulness will depend on your keeping your eyes on Jesus and your willingness to endure. People and circumstances are the obstacles of this course, but Jesus is the Way. Consider Him. How did He endure? For the joy set before Him. How will you endure? Consider the goal, an eternity in His Presence, doing the will of the Father and abiding in His joy. The things of this earth are fleeting and its pain will not last if you cross the finish line. The hope of covenant is the strength of your covenant maker. Philippians 1:6 (ESV) And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Bless you and have a good day!

Being Faithful

2011-05-28T07:33:00.002-05:00

There is a difference between having faith and being faithful. When our faith is in God and Who He is, we are challenged to become like Jesus, the representation of God, Who is Spirit and totally complete. This demands faithfulness on our part.

Because we are mortal and live in this realm, faithfulness is a challenge. We learn faithfulness as small children when we are given a chore as our responsibility. We receive praise when we are faithful in carrying out that responsibility without being constantly reminded. When we joyfully accept that responsibility as our part in the family, even when we have something we would rather do or feel pressured to do something else, we learn faithfulness. We carry that characteristic into our adult lives for it becomes a part of us. When we bring that into our relationship with God, it becomes a significant covenant response, for it echoes God's faithfulness.

James 4:17 (NASB) Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin. Adultery, fornication, lying or fudging on the truth, speeding, gluttony, laziness, the list of failures on our part goes on and on, but it is simply, failing to do what we know is right. As those who are following Jesus with the goal of becoming like Him, we must practice faithfulness. I Corinthians 4:2 (KJV) Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. The challenge to us is not to "do by rote", but to be faithful to the Holy Spirit to allow ourselves to be led in doing the Will of God. The faithfulness we seek is to be like our Lord, Who was faithful in all He did.

The Importance of Faith

2011-05-24T06:42:00.007-05:00

Hebrews 11:6 (NLT) And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness. I remember when I first began to search out this and how amazed I was to realize how few "things" were available to Abraham to enrich his faith. We have Bibles, books on faith, church families with sermons available at any time via electronics and the fellowship of believers. But Abraham believed God.

This brings us to the question, Where is our faith? Usually it is on the problem we face and for which we are praying. Abraham faced a very large problem in that a covenant cut with eternal God would end with him as he had no son. But when he focused on God and trusted Him, he was willing to enter covenant with God. It was his faith in God without seeing any evidence that was counted to him as righteousness. His hope was in God.

I Thessalonians 5:6 (NIV) But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. If we are to have faith, we must have hope. The enemy of our hope is the accusation of Satan, accusing God to us and accusing ourselves to us. This blocks the flow of covenant when we accept the accusations. To accuse us of being unworthy is a dangerous weapon to us because unfailingly there is a good measure of truth in what he accuses. We don't deserve God's grace. But our hope is in God whose grace is unmerited but flows to us from Him. There is the solid rock of Truth, Jesus our Lord, that allows us to stand in the Day and freely appropriate all that God has provided. Our hope is in the love of God and in Jesus Who took our place and opened the door to enter into the covenant relationship with God.

Faith is vital to exist in covenant relationship. We obey and praise by faith. God receives and responds. God speaks, we receive and respond. There is a flow in covenant. It is called give and take! We must receive and praise, be thankful and hopeful, and God receives our praise and obedience and responds with His protective care and blessing. We call Him Father and He child-trains us to be His heirs and His family. He opens His arms and receives us to share in His glory.

Covenant relationship is a life style and a very rewarding one.

Importance of Repentance

2011-05-21T06:47:00.006-05:00

In the O.T., we have two examples of men chosen by God to be king over Israel. Saul, the first king of Israel, knew the miracle of God's leading and the unexpected opportunity of being anointed to be king by the prophet, Samuel. David also had the stunning, but dangerous, opportunity of being anointed to be king of Israel by the prophet, Samuel. Both kings sinned against God. To the natural mind, the sin of David was much worse than the sin of Saul, but both sins were failures to respond to the Covenant with God.

Saul repented with excuses. He held on to his pride of being king and in control. David repented in sackcloth and ashes in front of anyone to see. He acknowledged he had sinned against God. Psalm 51 shows us the depth of his agony at the thought of losing his relationship to God. Losing his awareness of God's Presence was more dreaded than losing his position as king. Knowing what was in his heart was a despair worse than the thought of people knowing what he had done. His repentance centered on God rather than who people thought he was. He humbled himself before God and did not care what effect it might have on his image. His relationship with God was his treasure and the thought of losing that was the source of his sorrow. He mourned that his son's death was the result of his sin but his comfort lay in his faith in God's mercy.

We have the tragedy with us that people are not allowed to mourne over their lost condition but are encouraged to repeat a sinner's prayer with the assurance that they are now saved. The tears of a repentant heart are beautiful to God and are preserved by Him. Birth is never without labor pains. Our new birth cost Jesus everything and it should be so with us. We move out of this realm's control over us with a cutting off of that control. We do so with the recognition of the sin within us that has cut us off from God.

I pray that God becomes so real to us that we truly realize His Holiness and Love and our lives reflect that light to all around us. Then sin will be exposed by that light and true repentance will usher people into the power of the gospel that is able to set all free who come to Him. Paul warns us that in the last days there would be those who have a form of godliness but deny the power in true godliness. God shows us what His Church is to be by the parable of the early Church, walking in love and power of the Spirit dwelling within. When this realm is not denied the control it exerts, we lose the power of a relationship of following Jesus. Those who follow the Lamb are called eunuchs in the Revelation, for they have freed themselves of this realm's temptations. How? By true repentance that longs for that relationship with God and will not be denied.

The Spirit Of Deception

2011-05-07T07:04:00.003-05:00

I Timothy 4:1-2 (NLT) 1 Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith; they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons. 2 These people are hypocrites and liars, and their consciences are dead.

Jesus taught of the deception of the last days and expressed the power of that deception as being so that even the elect would be deceived if possible. What is the protection against such a deception. Paul said that the spirit of deception is expressed by hypocritical liars whose conscience has been seared as with a hot iron or is dead. So a tender conscience toward God is a good protection. Studying God's Word with an intent to live it is also a good protection. Staying in harmony with the Body of Christ and heeding Godly teachers who follow Jesus is also good protection. Listen to the Holy Spirit and follow your Guide for He always beholds the face of the Father. When Jesus returned to the Father, He clearly said that the Holy Spirit would be our teacher and would lead us into all Truth. So don't be complacent thinking you have received everything and so cease to seek God.

Deception is more than just distorted facts. It is a spirit of Satan to lead those who have set their path to follow on to know the Lord to a complacency that will accept The Lie to make their own way to God. Jesus warned us. Matthew 7:13-14(NASB) 13"Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14"For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. This is not a warning to those who have not made the decision to accept the sacrifice of Jesus for their redemption. This is a warning to those who are seeking their promised destiny. They are on a road. The deception comes to hide the way of Truth so they can follow the broad way. Jesus went on to say that it is very difficult for a rich man to enter that narrow gate. I have seen the poor that live on the narrow edge of starvation. They wear a few rags over and over until that is the only covering they have. We live in a land of plenty and protest when any sacrifice of that plenty seems to be demanded. We want our comfort and the richer we are the more it takes to satisfy that demand. The tragedy of this is we think we deserve it. James said that true religion is to look for those who have no support system and share with them. Keep on being aware of that constant need. Not giving a pittance and return to your comfort. Yes, the need goes on and on because they have no means of ending the cycle. True religion recognizes the lack and seeks to find a way of moving them out of that cycle. We have accepted the deception that providing one meal is enough and we go back to our cycle of comfort. Jesus came to our realm, saw our poverty and continued all the way to remove us from our cycle of darkness and bring us into His Kingdom of Light.

Follow Jesus--He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

Responding to The Truth

2011-05-06T08:02:00.001-05:00

III John 1:3-4 (NLT)3 Some of the traveling teachers recently returned and made me very happy by telling me about your faithfulness and that you are living according to the truth. 4 I could have no greater joy than to hear that my children are following the truth.

The opposite of "following the truth" is to follow deception. It seems to be very easy to deceive the adamic nature. The pull to be successful, be admired, have comfort and pleasure may be the exchange for truth. We are advised by Scriptures to buy the truth and sell it not. We must first realize the price of truth and the value of truth or we may easily exchange it and so lose the path of truth. Jesus did not pander to our human desire to have things explained or reasoned out. He simply said, "Follow Me." The Spirit within Jesus drew the disciples to leave everything and follow Him. Jesus also said that we have not chosen Him, but He chose us. That truth is a pearl of great price. It is cause for rejoicing and thanksgiving. But along the way, there is great temptation to choose comfort and ease rather than struggle to stay in the Way. Human nature rises to take over and we begin to reason out why it is good to "rest" rather than follow. I sometimes think there is no greater deception than self deception.

Self righteousness is a self-deception. Galatians 6:3 (NASB)For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
Truth demands a carefulness and attention to what we say and how we react so the human nature does not divert us from the way of harm, either to ourselves or others. James 1:26-27 (NLT) 26 If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. 27 Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.

I know that it is common for anyone who dies to "be looking down on us", and every funeral speaks of going to heaven, but do not be deceived, the unrighteous do not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21 (NLT) 19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

To live in Truth is to live in Jesus!

A Living Response

2011-05-05T09:59:00.003-05:00

When we begin to understand the living element of covenant making, we learn a new response. We see in Abraham's response to God's covenant demand to offer up his son, Isaac, as a proof of his faith in the covenant God had made with him, that covenant with God demands faith. We also see that covenant is not one sided. We need God as a covenant friend, but God needs us as instruments in this realm to assure His perfect Will to be carried out. God needed Abraham to respond to Him. He needed Mary to respond to Him. He needs a ready Church to carry out a total response to Him in this hour. Jesus showed us His complete response to the Father.

This brings us to the question, What is total response? A covenant response answers a covenant expectation. Israel, in keeping the law, gave God a covenant response. But the early church learned to give God a total response as they were faced with martyrdom to follow Jesus. They were willing to die for Him rather than deny Him. But the Spirit has been speaking to me concerning a Living Response. This is what I want to discuss with you, today.

Jesus said, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He came as the manifestation of God's covenant purpose. He came revealing the Father in human flesh. This is the fulfillment of God's purpose to make man in His image. It takes faith to become the evidence of this purpose. We must walk in the Way, be responsive to the Truth and manifest His Life in our flesh. This demands faith in God, in Jesus' finished work and the power of the Holy Spirit within us. We are His workmanship. We are His desired, cherished and eternal work of God. The creation, made for our benefit as mortals to be given the opportunity of becoming His, will be changed into the new earth. The work accomplished in you is eternal.

Our attitude must be revealed in the living response. Thankfulness in all things, praise and worship as a perpetual response for our lips, adoration for God as He is, and a love that reaches out to those around us and all His creation that is under His covenant. For The Truth to live in you, there must be a resistance to deception no matter what the source. Jesus is The Truth. Satan is The Lie. Jesus speaks nothing that is not of the Father. Satan, who lives in darkness, cannot speak truth that expresses the Father. So, when Satan comes to slander you and condemn you, he speaks The Lie. He declared he would make himself as God and he tries to get you to achieve that through your efforts. He condemns you to motivate you to "do something" to make you feel righteous. Your righteousness is by faith in Jesus Who accomplished it for you. Your identification by faith to Jesus is not easy in the face of Satan's condemnation, but it is your victory. Live each day as His workmanship and let those who live in darkness, see your Light.

Running to Win

2011-04-26T10:33:00.002-05:00

Hebrews 11:1 (KJV) Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Men of the Old Testament spoke of things to come but did not see them. Jesus spoke of the end of the age. Many have thought they lived in that time but did not see the fulfillment of the prophecies. Covenant gives us a pattern. The covenant made with David reveals an everlasting kingdom with a descendent of David sitting on the throne. Jesus came as the son of David and proclaimed Himself the Son of Man. He has won the right to sit on the throne. When you understand covenant fullfillment, you know that His coming is to rule. He will bring thousands of conquering warriors with Him. At His coming those who are prepared will receive resurrected bodies and join the throng coming with Him. He will subdue all opposition to His rule and He will rule justly. Now is the time for individuals to receive the Kingdom of God but at His coming, the time will be for nations to receive His Kingdom. His kingdom began when He came the first time. We learn to bow to our King and do His bidding now, with the time coming to rule and reign with Him.

The circumstances and dark days are opportunities to see the triumph of the kingdom of light over this realm's darkness. We learn to live in His kingdom while facing the opposition of this realm to His dominion. We see people trying to eliminate any reference to Him and to deny His victory. Perhaps because they do not see those who profess Him moving in His victory. We celebrate His victory by triumphing over this darkness. He promised that we were to do the works He did. Covenant response is to believe His word and act on it. Our lives to be poured out before Him to do His will. Our words confirming His Word. Our love to be evident to all. Our desire consumed by a love for the lost and see them set free in Him. We are His body obedient to the commands sent us by the Head. We live connected to Him. Pray for His supply to your need but trust that He hears and answers. Do not lose your confidence.

Friend of Covenant

2011-04-23T14:56:00.005-05:00

Abraham was called "the friend of God". This is covenant language. Those in covenant were called "friends". This denotes a relationship far deeper than what we consider when we speak of our friends. A passage of scripture that meant much to me as a teenager speaks of this relationship. I John 1:1-7 (NLT) 1 We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. 2 This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy. 5 This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. 6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. 7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

James said faith without action is dead. Abraham knew covenant and he knew when God said for him to take his son Isaac to a certain mountain and sacrifice him there, this was a covenant demand and he acted immediately. When the disciples realized that Jesus was not a victim of hate but One Who was cutting a New Covenant, they acted on His Word as a covenant response. This is why John is explicit in his wording that we live in spiritual darkness when we do not act on (practice) the truth. Walking in the light, responding to His Word, is the way to fellowship with God. Look closely at verse 7. Living in covenant relationship with God means a life of fellowship with each other which results in an ever present cleansing. Jesus told us clearly that we are to love one another. John shows us this is covenant action. If we hate our brother that we have seen how can we say we love Jesus Whom we have not seen. This goes far beyond tolerating people because they go to the same church. This is fellowship of friends. Our response to God is to recognize His identification with us. We cannot truly love God and not love those with whom He identifies Himself. His death is total identification with all who have lived, now live and will yet live on this earth. He is totally identified with the baby about to be aborted. How we act toward those with whom He identifies will be how we are judged for it is a covenant response. Jesus identifies himself with the marriage covenant and how we treat our spouse will be accounted as a covenant response to Him. Kindness, gentleness, compassion and consideration are the building blocks of fellowship.

Power of the Covenant

2011-04-22T09:26:00.005-05:00

Darkness is a large subject. It is often mentioned but can be (and often is) passed over. Genesis starts with the mention of darkness and the covenant of light begins. I have always been intrigued with the darkness that covered Mt. Sinaii. Moses went up through darkness to meet God. That darkness must have been very frightening. But out of that darkness came the Law, the written part of the covenant signed by the finger of God. That covenant was brought to fullness by the Blood of the cross, which opened the New Covenant. This also was cut in darkness. It took the resurrection of Jesus to bring the glorious Light of the New Covenant. It was in His resurrected body that Jesus breathed on His disciples the Holy Spirit that ministered new birth to their spirits.

The full circle of Jesus being seated on the throne in victory became for all of us the transference into the Kingdom of Light. I Peter 2:9 (ESV) But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Colossians 1:13 (NASB) For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son,
I John 1:5-7 (NLT) 5 This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. 6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. 7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

This water realm fractures light. If we view the Light of the Gospel with the understanding of this realm, the light is fractured. We get many views and many opinions. But when seen through the eye of the Spirit, we get one view. We have to walk in the Light as He is in the Light, then we have connection. We do not view one another by our own opinion but in the Light of His love. We are connected by the Blood and His Spirit. We must identify with the risen Lord and walk in the light of His victory. Put off the depression of discouragement and rejection and experience His Love by letting His love flow through you to each member of His Body. We all have the same covenant.

Appreciating our Covenant

2011-04-19T15:48:00.003-05:00

When God cut the covenant with Abraham, it was a miracle connection between God and man. Abraham knew this and respected it by giving the obedience of faith. His obedience was beyond any response most Christians are called on to give. It began a covenant that governed the response of the natural. What you did, wore, ate, and how you worshipped were all within the natural but bore spiritual results in acceptance and natural blessings. Jesus came and walked out this covenant before God meeting all the requirements but went beyond to please the heart of God by giving total obedience and worship.

The connection God sought in this New Covenant was not possible until the cutting of this covenant was complete. Jesus walked with His disciples, taught, ministered to them and the multitudes, healed the sick and cast out demons but that did not open the connection with God. His death and resurrection did. Jesus completed the work during the time His body lay in the grave. He released the believing and obedient ones to a better place and took the Blood of the sacrifice to the altar in heaven. The connection was complete when He ascended to the Father so the Holy Spirit could come and indwell us. The power that raised Jesus from the grave can now dwell in mortal man through the faithful obedience to His Word.

The covenant we have in Jesus, not only gives us the opportunity to give God the response of covenant, but opens to us the same connection Jesus had with the Father. His resurrection proved Him to be the Son of God. Romans 1:1-2 He has opened the door for us to be adopted as sons of God; God's workmanship in us to be in the image of God. The empty tomb means to us a very personal relationship to the victory of Jesus. The covenant Jesus cut is a covenant of power.

The connection of exchange

2011-04-18T07:04:00.004-05:00

When Jesus said, "the work that I do you, too, shall do, and greater than these...", He started a theological debate on what He meant. To me, the greatest work He did was to go to the cross and exchange our sinfull existance for His unlimited Life. You can't have a connection without exchange. Jesus took on our likeness and came and walked out a human life in our realm. But until He took the step that allowed exchange, there could be no connection for us with Him. We could not die to sin and self and be resurrected into His eternal likeness without that exchange.

We learned that exchange is the bottom line of covenant cutting. You exchange names, possessions, blood and vows in a cutting ceremony. I heard a sermon yesterday on the 7 exchanges Jesus made on the cross. I want to give you a very condensed outline of those seven exchanges and I will only give you the Scripture reference. If you take the time to look up these references and meditate on them, you will benefit greatly.

In John 19:16-19, Jesus describes the event (His crucifixion) that was to follow, as the time of His glorification. (If you can see your cross experience as glorification you are well on your way to maturity in Him!) This was not how any of the disciples, or any of us, would have viewed that horrible sight. It was the most cruel of all punishments Rome could devise. Hundreds of years before, Isaiah described this exchange. Isaiah 53.
1. The punishment for our sin and iniquity. God punished Jesus for our sin. He does not punish you. When you have cancer, any grave illness, financial trouble, sudden losses due to flood or fire, accident or any bad thing, God is not punishing you. He may be trying to get your attention or discipline you to bring you into a greater relationship with Him, but it is NOT punishment. The time of punishment for all who refuse His provision and Love is held for a time of judgment after this time of opportunity is over. You may reap what you sow, Galatians 6:7-8, but that is not God punishing you. That is a covenant law that governs all this realm.
2. He took our sin and iniquity. He gives you in exchange washing, forgiveness, salvation to righteousness. II Corinthians 5:21
3. He took our sickness. ALL sickness and illness so we could have wholeness. Isaiah 53:4 I Peter 2:24
4. He took our separation from God. Mark 15:24 His Presence is with us constantly even when we are in our darkest hours and cannot feel His Presence, He is there. He carries us, holds us in His hand and enfolds us in His love. Thessalonians 5:9-1I
5. Isaiah 53:12 Jesus took our poverty. Not just our financial poverty but the extreme poverty of our limitation in ability, understanding, flesh, emotion and relationship. When we come as little children, understanding our lack and need, He opens the storehouse of heaven and we can see and enter into His kingdom. Jesus ravaged the kingdom of Satan and took the spoils and will allot our portion with the great. II Corinthians 8:9 Philippians 4:19
6. Jesus took our shame. When Adam and Eve sinned, they knew they were naked. God provided a temporary covering that required the blood of an animal. Jesus took our shame, hanging naked on the cross, that He might become the covering for us. He gives us His glory. Isaiah 53:3 Hebrews 12:1-3 Romans 8:17-18 I Peter 2:4-10
7. Jesus took the curse of the broken covenant. Isaiah 53:6 Galatians 3:13-22Your covenant response to take up your cross and follow Him involves so much more than token actions and words. It is not complete until your adamic nature is nailed to that cross and you live in Him. The connection Jesus provided is a total connection with all of His fulness and it will involve the emptying of all of our self-life. Jesus said to come drink of Him and out of your innermost being will flow rivers of living water. You will walk in His steps.

Why Connection?

2011-04-14T07:28:00.003-05:00

The necessity for a connection to God is understood. But it should be checked just as a trailer-hitch is checked before pulling. Is the connection resulting in the flow of God to you and through you? Is your whole being involved in the connection? Is it resulting in fruitfulness? If not, the connection could be just a mental acceptance or a religious opinion concerning a ritualistic justification. I have often confronted a superstitous reliance on repeated action as the justification, such as chapters read in the Bible, prayers said, how much was done for charity, church attendance, etc. All of these are part of a connection but not the connection itself. Your spirit must be connected and the soul will follow. This is what Jesus was explaining to Nichodemus. You must be born again. Your mind can learn the facts concerning God, your emotions can be stirred and your body be trained to follow commands, but your spirit not be involved. Jesus said it was necessary for Him to return to the Father so the Comforter could come to live within the believer. He had to pay the price for your spirit to be born anew.

It takes connection to have a relationship. You expose yourself to hurt, rejection, and time. You have to share yourself and be available to help in time of need. It is actually the basic relationship of covenant. This is what Body ministry is all about. You give and you take. You help and you are helped. You give love and receive love. Your sorrow and your discouragement are visible, your success and your failures are shared. We are members of His Body.

Making Connection

2011-04-07T07:24:00.003-05:00

When meditating on the life of Joseph, I realized God was showing us a very important element in His making us in His image. It is the truth concerning connection. Joseph lost all connection with his family. Family was very important in Joseph's day for God was relating to this realm through the family line. With no significant connection to anyone in this realm, Joseph focused on his connection to God through the dreams God had given him and through his covenant God had made with his ancester.

A truth about connection that is very important for us to see is the carefulness Joseph took in making connections to this realm. He connected to Potiphar as his master and treated that connection in reverance to God. He treated his connection to the warden in prison in the same way. This allowed these men to see God in Joseph. We need to be very careful how we treat the connections to this realm. Many people are brought to acceptance to Christ after marriage. If the spouse does not follow, there is a connection with this realm that is dangerous if not treated with reverance to God. Peter tells us that the wife of an unsaved husband can be a witness of the new life in God by submission. Paul explains this more extensively in Ephesians by showing the submission is as to the Lord. In school and in the work place, in any relationship we have with the unsaved of this world, must be treated with focus on the Lord. Remember who you are in Christ and follow Him. He was in this realm but not of it. He prayed to the Father that He would keep us safe in this world.

Our civilization is constantly defined by the television that exposes the good and the bad. We have to be careful how we connect to the television and the computer. Both are in our world with dangerous elements to our relationship to God. Treat them with respect and reliance on the Holy Spirit to guide you.

But I first came to see this important lesson as I meditated on Joseph's reaction to seeing his brothers. He saw the opportunity for the connection he needed. He did not rush to make it, but allowed God to lead him. It was God Who was making the connection and Joseph had to be sensitive to this. It is God Who sets us in His Body as it pleases Him, and we need to be sensitive to this. It is not our privilege to make that connection or to break it. If we are to know God and He is to know us, we have to allow Him to work in us. He leads, we must follow. When the way is not to our liking, we focus on Him and seek to see His Face. If the connection is not of Him, He will break it. If it is His will, we will see our will tested until we learn to yield to Him.

The connection to His Body is so much of God that you will look back on His leading and marvel at His mercy. The other most important connection you will make in this life is your marriage. Seek God for wisdom in this connection if you are married or not. We can form opinions that bind us and prevent the connection that God can use in you. God said it is not good for man to be alone. You will understand God's covenant better when you live it in the connections God provides. You will understand need and provision better. The hand cannot say of the foot, I have no need of you. We need to respect all connections to the Body of Christ. Seeing Christ in each one needs focus on Jesus and not the flesh of the person. This works in your church family and the members of other churches. It works in your family relaltionships and in your marriage. Focus on what the Lord is doing in them and not what you see needs yet to be done. Thankfulness and praise keeps us focused on Him and helps us to be kind in our dealings with one another.

Attaining Purity

2011-04-02T07:57:00.004-05:00

Joseph is an excellant example of attainig purity. We can see his immature handling of the revelation of God to him in the reaction of his family. Sadly, he was only being human. The consequent events were not only to fulfill the covenant word by God to Abraham, but, also, to bring Joseph to the relationship with God that would allow God to move through him. This truth reveals the necessity for each of us to come to maturity and purity.

First, let us look at purity. What is purity? Jesus was pure. I have heard the response to that statement so many times that it is almost the common response. "Yes, but that was Jesus. I can't have that until I get to heaven." Jesus is the plumbline to which we will be judged. Before you get riled by that statement, let me explain. Jesus came to reveal the Father and the relationship possible for a person in this realm to attain to the same relationship with the Father that He had by prayer, obedience to the Spirit's leading, and submission to the will of the Father. These are part of the process toward relationship with God, but are also the elements of your path to purity. Purity demands we outgrow our self involvement. Losing our dependence on the wrong motivation, i.e., acting out what we think people want to see, reaching for a higher position for our own glory, or for self-justification.

What would Jesus do? This becomes a check with purity. The Word of God reveals what Jesus did, but the Spirit is our guide for that inner response. Forgiveness and thankfulness are two elements of purity that have to be practiced to become a part of us. Practice forgiveness among strangers when you are out driving or shopping or relaxing instead of giving way to criticism. Practice turning your eyes away from anything that would drive your mind to temptation. Philippians 4:8-9 (NLT) And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. 9 Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.

The purity of Jesus that God is seeking to find in all of us is not a product of our own works. It requires our focus, our response and our carefulness to avoid vital connection with this world. We may be in it but we are not to be of it. But we do not achieve this by our own will power. The Holy Spirit in us nudges us toward that which pleases God. Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

David cried, Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a stedfast spirit within me. And in the same fifty-first psalm, he prayed that God would save him from bloodguilt. There are things we do out of human-adamic nature that we would not do when we are focused on our relationship with God and that we regret bitterly later. But David realized his blood was guilty. The fountain of his life stood condemned. Only God could deliver him from his guilt. This is what Jesus took into Himself and paid for with His blood. We can be pure because of Jesus' sacrifice and we can walk in His way. We choose to follow and in so doing, we choose purity. Repentance is the cane that keeps us from falling from the way.

Resisting Condemnation

2011-03-31T07:46:00.003-05:00

When people condemn us, we have choices. We can refuse it outright or we can weigh it. If it is partly truth, we can repent and put it under the Blood. The rest we can forgive and move on. When Satan condemns us, we also have a choice. Usually he is bringing up something already under the Blood and we can stand on God's Word that it is not only forgiven but forgotten by God. Therefore what Satan is saying to you is a lie. The other choice we have when Satan accuses is to believe it. Walking in condemnation is not an easy path.

Our human nature differs and is unique and we call it personality. Some are easily condemned and others seem to shake it off easily. No one escapes it, however. Some are victims of verbal abuse and have shaped an image of themselves that is not a true picture. For some, it is a familial curse that sees and accepts a lower standard for their future. For some, it is an excuse to not try. By now, you are seeing that our human nature is often overcome by our adamic nature. Because we are born in sin, we follow our adamic nature. Jesus came in the likeness of man but not with adamic nature, therefore, in His obedience to God in all things and overcoming Satan at every oportunity, He was without sin. Jesus took the body of sin to the cross. Not only every sin that could be committed but our adamic nature as well. Before He said, "It is finished!", He also conquered and overcame our dust, or human nature. This gives us the right to move toward Resurrection Life. He overcame death, the ultimate separation from God. We have eternal Life in Him.

God is Love. You have heard and you have said it. Knowing that God is making us in His image, you know that our covenant response is to love. Jesus said that to love one another is His "new commandment." John 13:34 (NASB) "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. He said we are to love as He loves us. That is without condition and with a pure response to God. In this way we see His face in each other and we know how much He loves.

The hardest person to love with a constant purity is yourself. You belittle your actions, your responses, and your abilities. You belittle your appearance and your image to others. You belittle the ability to love and to be loved. This is not of God and it belittles God to you. The greatest freedom you have is to know God loves you. You can rest in His care and faith for you. Remember, it is not about you but all about Him! He finished, completed, perfected all that is necessary for you to be in His image.

Being Led

2011-03-28T08:35:00.002-05:00

Joseph did not have a choice of the path he would take once he was sold to the slavers. He was taken to Egypt. Was that the will of God? We can say "yes" because we have the knowledge that Joseph did not have. Did Joseph know this was God's path for him? I do not think so. Too many times I have been on a path that I did not choose but was there anyway. I turned to my relationship with the Lord and began to worship and talk to Him. I strengthened myself in the Lord. I believe that is what Joseph did. He could not revert to the rituals of worship for he could not make a sacrifice. He could only rely on his right to trust and commune with God. God is the I Am, never changing. The relationship we can have with God was available to the men of the Old Testament for God is the instigator of relationship with man. The blood of covenant has always been the reason we could have a relationship with God.

If you are confused concerning the path you are on, make it a Biblical path. Worship, trust, and obey His Word. Commit your way to Him and let God change the path or give you the witness of His Presence. The knowledge of His Will may or may not come immediately, for the lack of knowledge may be the testing for you. Trust is a difficult issue for our human nature. We have to learn to lean on Him. Joseph had only his dreams and the teaching of covenant from his father. It was enough for him to make a Biblical path for his feet.

A Biblical path is one that follows God's Word, the examples that others have given us, and a response in our own spirit of love, adoration and thankfulness. It is a path of integrity, honesty, purity toward God and others, and a sincere desire to please God in all things. Jesus said, "I am the Way." Follow Him.

Know Who You Are

2011-03-25T07:03:00.004-05:00

Did Joseph know about Jesus? Did he know about sons of God? Did he know about the Church that would become the Bride? No, but he knew he was under covenant with God. Jacob had told his sons what his grandfather and father had told him concerning Abraham's Covenant with God. His covenant response was to hold God in high esteem and know that he had a covenant Friend on Whom he could rely. The testing he endured with this knowledge gave him his covenant identity. He refused the identity Satan tried to give him. He refused the "victim" identity.

The question came to me this morning, 'do we know who we are?', and with that, I began to wonder how many know Jesus, know sonship, know that we are His Bride. That knowledge is our identity. It allows us to hold our head high even in the hardest testing. It will allow us to shine when the world despises us and belittles our "religion" as a crutch. Our own identity with Jesus is a light that shines in the darkness. We know who we are because we know Who He is!

I have had so many people tell me they do not know how to pray. I realize they do not have a relationship with God that causes prayer to be a way of life. I love to be with my husband, to talk to him and listen to him. We have a relationship. In that same way I love to talk to Jesus, chat with Him and listen to Him. We have a relationship. I talk to and listen to the Holy Spirit and let Him know how much I appreciate Him. I talk to the Father and love to listen to Him for I am His child. I am a Christian to the world, but I am a friend of God, and that covenant relationship is my identity.

Understanding the Day

2011-03-23T14:57:00.002-05:00

Joseph not only remembered the dreams God had given him but he remembered God in his circumstances. I have often wondered how someone so young without any family or priest or written word, without the law delineating the expectation of God or the promise of a prophet's word, could so accurately project the path of God. All of us are called to walk in His path. Jesus showed it to us, the Word expresses it and we have others who walk in His path to show us the way. Joseph had no one but his own awareness of God. That is enough.

Keeping God in your focus will reveal His ways to you. Allowing Him to teach you and guide you is enough. But when Adam ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and took the gaining of knowledge into his own hand, we have been trying to tell God how we want it done and we seek the knowledge of this realm rather than turning to God. So God sends trouble and testing to help us seek Him. Even then, with the wrong focus, we seek some way out of the trouble on our own. I love the example of Joseph, for I realize from his example, God wants to lead me more than I want to be led.

Joseph lived in a crucial day. God was getting ready to move people and circumstances to achieve His purpose. God had told Abraham his descendants would be in Egypt and that He would bring them out. God was moving Joseph into the place He wanted him for His purpose to be fulfilled. We live in a similar day. Don't curse what is happening to you, interpret it in the Light of God's purpose. See God in all that happens to you and flow with Him, walking in His path.

Recognizing God

2011-03-22T06:31:00.004-05:00

Last Sunday we visited another church. The minister was an immediate old friend. We recognized God in him. He made a statement I want to repeat to you. "When God speaks to you, respond immediately in the response He wants, and you enter His flow." It is wonderful to know God's Word, believe and walk as a Christian. But now and then, you recognize one who flows with God. How do we flow with God?

Responding as God wants is simply recognizing the moment as a covenant moment. He has given the responses He desires in the Scriptures. That is why you hide them in your heart, meditate on them, cherish the "Aha" moments the Spirit gives you as you read them and know what God requires of you. This prepares you for the moment God has prepared for you and your response will cause you to enter into the "flow of God." I'm going to give you some examples from men who so entered the flow of God, their entire lives become an example for us.

Joseph had ample opportunity to become bitter, vengeful, and a victim of unhappy circumstances. Instead, he took the opportunity of a long, hot and painful walk through the hot sands toward Egypt to remember his dreams and let God walk with him. Psalm 105:16-19 16And He called for a famine upon the land; He broke the whole staff of bread. 17He sent a man before them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. 18They afflicted his feet with fetters, He himself was laid in irons; 19until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the LORD tested him.

What does it mean "the word tested him"? The Word of the Lord became the test. Would Joseph believe that word or reject it and feed on his own feelings and opinions? That test comes to each of us nearly every day. God gives us an opportunity to respond to Him so we can enter into that special place where His Spirit teaches, guides and enriches us. But that moment can also result in an outburst of anger, hurt, and bitterness. The test is, what is your focus: God's Word to your heart or your own opinion. Let "reason" direct your reaction or let God's Word ordain your response and you will understand the word "test".

David had many covenant moments. One when he faced Goliath. All those around him were afraid of Goliath, but his focus was not on the giant but on God Who was greater and His people who were not trusting Him. Because His focus was on God, Goliath was no more to him than the lion or bear that God had helped him overcome. Keeping your focus on God will belittle any circumstance.

I understand why people begin to doubt prayer, but if I never saw anyone healed, I would still believe in healing for it is in God's covenanted word. Don't let the fiery trial throw you, keep His Word before you and trust. Everything is being shaken now but God has promised the kingdom you are receiving cannot be shaken.

Eyes to See

2011-03-16T07:04:00.004-05:00

I woke this morning with a Scripture going through my mind. I have always felt the frustration of Jesus in this verse, but this morning I heard something different. John 14:9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father'? I have said and have heard others say, "We need to see the Father." This morning I realized we need a clearer look at Jesus. I John 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. The phrase "when He appears" should more accurately read, "if He be manifested". We need to see Jesus as He is and then we will be like Him.

It is more than seeing Jesus in the flesh, for, though the 12 men who walked with Him saw Him and His ministry, they did not perceive the Father. Their own limitations prevented them from seeing Him. It was not ignorance of the Scriptures that limited them, for, though they were "uneducated" in the Scriptures, they saw more clearly than the Sanhedrin who were "educated". It is not what we do not know that limits us, but what we do know. Paul found that being stripped of what he knew about the Scriptures opened the door to the Spirit's teaching.

Jesus was very clear that He was not the Father but the Father was in Him and He was in the Father. He said just as clearly that if we abide in Him and His Word abides in us..... It is not just the written Word but Jesus AS the Word that is to abide in us. The written word must be a part of us, but the way Jesus walked, the life He lived, the union with the Father's Will must be in us. He IS the manifestation of the Father in flesh. We must be the manifestation of Jesus in our life here in this realm. The world will never know me as a manifestation of Jesus in eternity. They can only know that manifestation if they see it now.

What is the key? One, our faith. "Blessed are those who have not seen, yet believe." Second, our love. Two things Jesus emphasized were to believe on Him and to love Him. This is the price of truth. To believe Him in the face of all opposing views and to love Him enough to walk in His footsteps. We all want to do the miracles He did, but the greatest "work" Jesus did was to lay down His life for us. Do we love Him enough to lay down our life? Not just our mortal life, but our nature-life? Our prejudices, our opinions, our "knowledge" and experience? Our own judgment concerning ourselves? Paul said he would not judge himself. Satan is the accuser, and he accuses us to ourselves and to others. Do we listen to him or to the Word? Jesus had his ear tuned to the Father. He quoted Scripture to Satan when he accused Him. Jesus turned His Blood-bought Church over to His disciples, not because He saw them as they were but He saw them through the Faith of God.

I am going to give you (as I promised last time!) some types and shadows of men who were led by God to follow Him. In these we can see our own nature and the price we need to pay for Truth. I think Joseph is a wonderful example for us and in the next few blogs, I will endeavor to dig into his price and the Truth he found. The Lord bless you and keep you and give you peace.

Types and Shadows

2011-03-13T16:35:00.006-05:00

To continue the subject of purity, there are several O.T. people who were used by God to reveal the patterns of His ways. They are called "examples" by Paul to be used to instruct us in this path toward being like Jesus to manifest God as did Jesus. The Holy Spirit is given to empower us on this journey.

Genesis is called the book of "beginnings", so let us start with Adam. The difference between the Adam in the garden and the Adam denied the garden and separated from God's Presence is the reverse of what happens to us. We are separated from God and united with Him when we are born of the Spirit when we accept the sacrifice of Jesus as taking our place. The journey for Adam was downhill for a time until the birth of Seth, when men began to call on the Lord. We see him sinking in his guilt and self-condemnation for a time and then turning to teach future generations until in the seventh generation he saw Enoch walking with God. What a terrible recognition for Adam to realze he had thrown away a relationship that he could have pursued! I start with Adam, for though the study of types and shadows is usually to reveal Christ in these lives, they also are about us. We see our weakness and the hand of God leading us in these examples.

The example of Jacob is precious to us, for though a person with recognized faults, he had a hunger for God that overshadowed any faults. He was 15 years old when his greatgrandfather, Abraham, died. I can only imagine Abraham's joy in teaching the child the things God had shown him and the experiences he had learning to walk in covenant with God. Esau had no time to sit and learn from an old man. This hunger to possess the birthright revealed the widening difference between Jacob and Esau. Nothing willl set you apart from this realm like a driving hunger for God. Jacob recognized God's visitations to him in dreams and visions and allowed them to shape his life. He recognized God's hand on Joseph and though he pondered Joseph's dreams, he did not let them reveal God's purpose to him. This is to me a vital truth. Recognizing revelation in others and accepting it for yourself to see God's purpose is a victory over this adamic nature. This was Israel's problem with the prophets God sent to them. It is the problem the church faces today. The scripture says God will do nothing without first revealing it to His messengers, the prophets. We need to recognize the prophetic Voice of God in man and accept it for ourselves to guide our thinking and actions. It is vital to know the Spirit's voice to yourself, but you must also recognize it in others. Jesus said, "My sheep know my voice and another they will not follow." Why do so many follow man? They do not know the Voice of the Spirit. There are many voices being heard today but blessed are you when you recognize the Voice of the Spirit, spoken by man, and allow it to drive you closer to God. Blessed are the people whose pastor waits for the Voice of the Spirit before he speaks. We have this blessing, for I believe our pastor seeks the Lord for his voice to the people as well as asking counsel from those who also seek the Lord. "Blessed are the ears that ear...."

Pure and Holy

2011-03-11T08:56:00.005-06:00

There is a phrase in the chorus, "Oh to be like Thee," that prays to be "pure as Thou art." Another song carries the phrase "pure and holy" to describe the Lord.
We know our Lord is pure and without sin, but God's expectation of us in covenant is to be pure as He is! Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God." I John 3:3 (NASB) And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

II Corinthians 7:1 (NIV) Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

There is a difference between pure and holy. Holiness is ministered by God through our covenant response to His Word. Righteousness is accounted to us through our faith. We have to purify our selves through means offered to us by God. There are several scriptures concerning purifying. Many are in the O.T. rituals that offered purification. Water and blood were the means of this purifying. So how do we purify ourselves?

One, by faith in the finished work of Jesus. Titus 2:11-14 11 For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. 12 And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God, 13 while we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed. 14 He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds.

Two, by the water of the Word. The Word reveals our need and we are washed by the cleansing of the water of the Word as we take it into our spirit.

We overcome the desires of this Adamic nature and recognize our human heart is not a natural follower of God and not eager to respond to His Word. We overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. (Revelation 12:11) Two words explain those two actions: repentance and identification. We repent and put the sin found in our adamic nature under the blood of Jesus. We identify with the Word of God and the nature of Jesus and appropriate by identification. Paul did this and showed the Corinthians how to identify with His victory.
II Corinthians 5:21 (NLT) For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

The purity we seek is a purity toward God. We focus on His Lordship over our lives and want to please Him. We turn away from the temptations our realm presents to us and refuse to dwell on them. Even when David sinned, his heart was right toward God for he turned to repentance with his whole heart. There are many times and many ways in which we may fail God, but how we turn to Him reveals the intent and focus of our heart. God knows our frame that it is but dust, but what He has provided for us is enough to overcome that dust, if we desire the Lord enough to apply it.

A Time of Deception

2011-03-08T08:01:00.005-06:00

We stand at the beginning of the end. We see things happening that were prophesied by prophets of old and by our Lord as He spoke of the things to come with His disciples. All my life I have heard sermons on the end time, but seeing things happen are not as I imagined it when I heard those sermons. The sermons were, to a great measure, a description that relied on the imagination of the speaker as well as sermons they had heard. Distortion of the end time causes us to fear and also to miss what God is doing. This is why knowledge of the covenants of God are so vital to us for they keep us rooted in God and not in man's opinions.

Judgment is a part of covenant. It is what makes it a covenant and not a promise. The whole being of each covenant partner is involved. Your very being and existance depends on the covenant response. To understand that God's covenants with man are open-ended so that they are never done away with but only fulfilled to go into a greater covenant keeps us looking forward with hope. The covenant with David was an everlasting covenant, but his Descendant brought it into a deeper understanding of "everlasting" with His obedience and overcoming victory. His kingdom within you will endure and is a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

Satan's scheme in this last day is to so deceive mankind that God's Word will be despised and not followed. Now more than ever we must be students of His Word and not follow the imaginations or strategies of man. The deception Jesus showed us was of the pretense of man to be what they are not. Matthew 24:23-25 (NLT) 23 “Then if anyone tells you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah,’ or ‘There he is,’ don’t believe it. 24 For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform great signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God’s chosen ones. 25 See, I have warned you about this ahead of time.

If we are looking for miracles and signs, we could be deceived. But when we are rooted in His Word and looking to Jesus and following the guidance of the Spirit, we will not be deceived. Neither will we be fearful. Faith in His Word and trust in His Might are the steps to entering His Rest.

Why Judgment?

2011-03-07T06:31:00.004-06:00

You hear many opinions about God. Why does God allow such terrible things to happen? A loving God would not send people to hell. If God is love, then why does He punish people. The list of opinions goes on and on. God's Word is not the answer to opinions. The action of God does not regard man's opinion. When God speaks of His judgment, He speaks of that which will come. Fortunately for our eternal well being, judgment is something with which the Christian becomes acquainted. He does not allow us to continue on a wrong path but judges our deception so we can walk in Truth.

We will continue to justify our Adamic nature until God exposes it. This is not because He is angry with us but because He loves us and wants to share the rest of eternity with us. Sin cannot exist in His Holy Presence so sin must be dealt with in our nature. The ninth chapter of Hebrews explains the fulfillment of the Law concerning the covenant of blood and the ministry of the High Priest. The following verses highlight this subject of judgment.
Hebrews 9:24-28 24 For Christ did not enter into a holy place made with human hands, which was only a copy of the true one in heaven. He entered into heaven itself to appear now before God on our behalf. 25 And he did not enter heaven to offer himself again and again, like the high priest here on earth who enters the Most Holy Place year after year with the blood of an animal. 26 If that had been necessary, Christ would have had to die again and again, ever since the world began. But now, once for all time, he has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice. 27 And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, 28 so also Christ died once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him.

God manifested what the creation of man in God's image is to be by giving us Jesus. God infused Himself into us by giving us the Blood of Jesus. Jesus returned to His realm as the manifested Son of God and our High Priest. Only the Spirit can give us a revelation of the Holiness of God. All the creatures of heaven sing praise to His holiness. We will understand the blessing of covenant when we truly understand how holy is God. What God judges in us is that sinful nature that excuses, justifies and accepts deception to cover up this nature. Only God can reveal this to us and only His Blood can remove it. But, in covenant, we are responsible for releasing it to His judgment by accepting His provision to rid us of this nature. None of us can live a day without needing this cleansing. But John described the precious gift we have been given as an ongoing, continuous work of the Blood cleansing us. The Holy Spirit is at work in us to keep us aware of our need to remain in connection. We are held in the Father's hand but we need to be aware of that privilege. Praise and worship keep that connection alive to us.

Peter speaks of the judgment that must begin with the family of God. We must be prepared for the day of the shaking by allowing God to cleanse us of "the filthiness of the flesh". We are to be the witnesses of His Resurrected Life in this time of great darkness. The Light is to shine, brighter and brighter, to the Day of His coming. Our light of witness is to be brighter and greater than even the witness of the early apostles. As we radiate this Light, the judgment will be manifest in those who hate the Light. Jesus is returning for a church without spot or wrinkle, prepared as a Bride for her Bridegroom. It is time to embrace God's judgment rather than resist it. Embrace His provision to put to death those things that still resist God.

Where Do We Stand?

2011-03-03T15:21:00.005-06:00

I remember a sermon my husband preached on "Praising God on the Right Side of the Red Sea!" He said the panic of fear in the people caused them to rail on Moses. But Moses told them, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptian you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still." (Exodus 14:13) The Israelites had a wonderful time of rejoicing and praise on the other side but how much better if they had rejoiced by faith before they crossed over.

God has deliverance for His people and has made provision to take care of you. Your covenant response is to trust, believe His Word and stand firm. God has provided you with armor for the battle. Ephesians 6:13 (NASB)Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.

This day that is upon us will try us in every way. The human nature that has been the enemy in our "civil war", will be overcome until the "enemy you see today, you will never see again." This will be a time of judgment as everything is shaken. We will come out of this time rooted in Him with every response that has bothered us stilled in the victory of His deliverance. Yes, we will praise and rejoice then, but let us stand firm now and praise in faith.

My prayer for all of us is that we enter His Rest. Know Who your Victory is and embrace your victory. We cannot enter His rest if we are still coming up with the answers. Just trust!

Stand Firm

2011-03-02T08:10:00.003-06:00

Ephesians 6:10-11 (NTL) A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil.

I want to point out two of the things we need to take note of in these verses. First, this pertains to you and to your response. The armor is for your sake to aid you in overcoming the scheme or (as this translation puts it!) strategy of the devil. You are not fighting the devil but his strategy. The devil is limited in his use of the usurped authority he still is able to use to attack the purpose of God to make man in His image. He must stop your faith before it is turned loose. He must stop your relationship with God so you lose your way in resisting him. The issue here is your protecting yourself and your being effective in your resisting his strategy. What happens if you are not protected personally? You lose sight of who the enemy is. You become resentful of people or, worse, vengeful in your thoughts and comments which spreads to those around you. You become critical and blame people who are visible and therefore the instigators of the problem rather than seeing them as pawns used by the devil.

You also lose your ability to stand. Things are going to get much worse as far as persecution of Christians is concerned. Will you be able to make the hard choices to remain faithful when your security, your home, your children and your life is in danger? The Scripture calls it "the evil day", but that day is upon us. Are you protected?

What about the darts that attack your mind? Do the thoughts of discouragement, doubt of His love and/or willingness to hear and answer your prayer, and concern if you are in the right place or if you have enough "stuff" for a future need shake your peace and trust? These darts aimed at your mind will find a destructive course through your emotions into your spirit if they are not extinguished with your shield of faith. The helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit work together to protect your mind. Don't forget you are limited, so don't think you are standing if you are not prepared to do so. God has provided this armor to protect you. It is His covenant provision, you have to put it on. The things that are part of the devil's strategy will discourage, defeat and rob you of what you now have. There is no joy in losing this battle. If you lose the kingdom that cannot be shaken, there is nothing in this shakeable world that can replace it.

Second, you were chosen to live in this time. Your putting on the armor is important for this day. God trusts you to witness of His Life by revealing to the world a soul at peace in Him, prepared to speak His word, victor over those strategies that have come against you and standing in His victory over this world. This generation of mankind will be the generation that ushers in the King to set up His kingdom over all the earth. Begin now to prepare yourself for this final battle over the evil that would seek to prevent the will of God.

God's Workmanship

2011-03-01T08:04:00.003-06:00

I think my favorite verse in the Bible is Ephesians 2:10. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." In my last blog I was speaking of the limitation that is placed on creation. If we realize the real big bang was the declaration of God, "Let us make man in our image", which started all the creation process, we have to realize that the works were also declared before creation began. We were also there in God's presence for the sons of God sang at creation's dawn! God does not have process for if He has a thought, it is completed. Process is a tool in God's hand as He works in us! "For it is God Who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose."(Philippians 2:13)

Jesus said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." He knew the schemes of Satan to discourage you, isolate you from feeling a part of His Body, and to tempt you to let go and slide back into the mire of this realm. He knew also the need for you to make a covenant response to activate your awareness to His Presence. His Presence is always there, but for you to be aware of His Presence is your victory.

I am going to list some of the things I do when I go through a "cloud" experience that hides the Son. Pray for someone else you know needs awareness of the Lord's Presence. Begin to praise God for His love in sending Jesus to take our punishment and lead us out of this muck. I meditate on Who God is--His majesty, love, honor, holiness, glory and mercy. I thank Him that He has chosen me, forgiven and brought me into His family and presence. By then, I am standing in His Presence and the awareness of our relationship is back in place. The important thing is that you do not willingly stay in a place where you are not aware of His Presence. Remember, ask, seek and knock. You can be abiding in Him and not be aware of it and then the pressures of this realm rob you of your victory over them in Christ Jesus. It is vital that you are aware of His Presence so that all you do is an expression of His life in you. You are His workmanship, so cast your cares on Him, and enjoy the ride!

What Is Human Nature?

2011-02-28T07:22:00.006-06:00

There is a difference between human and adamic nature. We are human and were created human but we received the adamic nature when Adam sinned. As humans, we have the right to accept the covenants God has made for us. These covenants are the means to overcoming the adamic nature. Colossians 1:21-23 (NASB) 21And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, 22yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach--23if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.

This passage shows the covenant work of God and what is expected by God of us as a covenant response. This also leads me to a very important truth regarding us as humans.

Last night I was awake for several hours as I prayed and meditated on His Word. I felt to repent of something that has bothered me somewhat. As much as I love the Word of God, I get rather bored in some Bible studies. I was convinced this was my fault and I was confessing this to the Lord when the Spirit spoke very clearly to me that the problem lay in not discerning the essence of the Scriptures. As I knocked on this word, this amazing revelation was in my spirit. We as humans do not perceive the limitation God has put on all created things. The essence of the Scriptures is not a historical recording of events but an unveiling of human limitation and the very real truth God is not limited but is limitless and dwells in eternity and, therefore, is not limited by time. Time was created for man who dwells in this limitation. Astronauts take their calenders and watches with them into space as they are still limited by time.

There are physical limitations, limitations of spirit, limitations on celestial beings, limitations on every created thing for all will know the end of all "things" as God establishes a new order. This limitation existed in the Garden of Eden but was a blessed time of being taught by God. Adam knew he was limited in knowledge and knew God as the Awesome One Who fellowshipped with him and led him into understanding and knowledge. The temptation to Eve was taking control over the attaining of knowledge. When Adam sinned, the knowledge of that limitation disappeared and he began to trust in the knowledge he attained through experience and his own opinions. This dangerous reliance on our own opinion for knowledge is the basis of following false gods. While Satan is the author of religion, man's imagination cements him to the concept of false worship. We begin to think of ourselves in wrong ways because we do not have a true understanding of the limitation placed on us as human beings. We judge ourselves wrongly. We condemn ourselves wrongly. We judge others and we judge God because we do not understand the limitation on us.

Men have a limitation on them as well as women. Both have human limitation but there is another limitation that we need to understand when judging the opposite sex. Man is not complete without a wife and the wife must understand she is as the church that must rely wholly on the Lord as the Head of the Church, with respect and reverance to Him. When we realize we are limited with a purpose, we begin to rely on God for guidance. We begin to lean on Him and not on our own resources.

Jesus said that IF we abide in Him and His Word abides in us, we may ask..... What does that mean to you? Without knowing how limited you are, you cannot know how vital it is to abide in Him. It no longer is a nice saying but an absolute necessity. His word in you becomes a flow of His unlimited Life flowing in you and you abiding in Him so His strength surrounds you. Why do we need to know our limitation? When we know our need and turn to the Lord, He is able to teach us His ways and manifest Himself to us and work within us. Paul came to this realization when he saw his own weakness. II Corinthians 12:9-10 (NASB)9And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness " Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

Colossians 1:11-10 (NLT) 9And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness " Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

This is the reason all created things have limitation. In covenant, God is able to work in those who respond to Him and create His image in them. Only as you release your weakness to God is He free to work His strength in you. Paul said, "I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me." We will be set free of limitation when we receive our resurrected body, fashioned after His glorious Body. Jesus shed His limited time in this realm through the death on the cross, but before He did, He declared it is finished. The finished work means a finish of limitation. Man in God's image will know no limitation to do God's will. Even now, if we move through covenant as Jesus did, filled with the Holy Spirit, there is no limitation to do His will.

Created Things

2011-02-25T08:39:00.003-06:00

Colossians 1:15-20 (NLT) 15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, 16 for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. 17 He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. 18 Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything. 19 For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, 20 and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

It is difficult to consider angels, prinicipalities and dominions created "things". It is also difficult to consider angels and Satan as created things. When you can consider yourself a created thing, you begin to get the picture. Realizing eternity without any created thing is extremely challenging, but God had no beginning and all created things were created by God. We are seeing these created things in the early stages of the shaking. Watching the faces of people on TV, you see the gamut of human reaction to this shaking. Remember, this is only the beginning.

To receive the Kingdom that cannot be shaken is still our perogative now. Soon we will get past that point for the shaking will demand a reaction from us and that action will move you closer to the Kingdom and root you into it or shake you out of your mental acceptance that you are in the Kingdom. Many have been following the broad and easy way that leads to destruction. Mental acceptance that relies on feelings is not going to protect you. "Feelings" have too long been the barometer of our spiritual condition. When you are "up", you "feel" confident, but when you are "down", you feel discouraged. When you are pleased, you are happy, but when you are thwarted, you are angry. These feelings are of the soul and are only going to be overcome when you allow God's Word to cut between the soul and spirit and you walk in the Spirit and do not rely on feelings to dictate your reactions.

We just covered some thoughts on the verse in Second Timothy where Paul was exhorting young Timothy that fear was not from God, but a part of his Adamic nature and not a reaction for him to follow. But are we not constantly fighting that reaction to everything we see and hear? When do we overcome it? Only when the soul no longer determines our reaction but our spirit is strong to trust in God! Letting the Word convict you and quick repentance with faith in the Blood to cleanse is the fastest way to embracing that cutting action of the Sword of the Word. Making the choice now to follow the Lamb, no matter the cost, is a strong blow to the soul life. Embracing what you fear to commit it to God is a nail in the coffin of that Adamic nature. Right now, the judgment of the shaking is causing our nature much to fear. Either we give way to that fear or we nail it to the cross.

God, Who created all things, is able to keep you in His hand. Fear of loss makes the Adamic nature unable to reason or commit to sacrifice. But when that fear is committed to God, His Word is a guiding light. Follow the Lamb. You may see some of the greatest miracles since the beginning of time in this last period of time before His Kingdom is established in this realm. He is in control and we are the sheep of His pasture.

What Cost Love?

2011-02-21T08:14:00.006-06:00

If we are to consider the cost of love, we have only one example for comparison and that is Jesus. I have always felt that, no matter how much His human sacrifice cost, the sacrifice He made to come into our realm as a man was the greatest sacrifice of all. He will forever, through the rest of eternity, be the creation as well as the Creator. He is indeed the firstfruits, not only of the resurrection, but of God's purpose. It cost Him everything.

If we are to have the same love, what will it cost us? Everything. Jesus gave up His pre-time eternal existance to take on the likeness of man in flesh to live in this realm as we do. If we are to live with Him in post-time eternity, we must give up our dependence on our human nature to live in Him and walk in the spirit. This is truly difficult for the pull of this realm and the cares of life are a constant distraction. How do we overcome this to live and abide in Him when we are living in this realm? Look at the Children of Israel in the wilderness. They were so distracted by the "dust" at their feet they could not rejoice in the Cloud above them. No matter how many times God delivered them nor how great the miracle of that deliverance, the everyday problems were bigger than the Promise. What did they need to do to enter into His Rest? Just trust Him and step out in obedience. If you enter His Rest, that is what it will cost you. Stepping out without this realm's assurance that you will make it.

We see the beginning of the "shaking" that was prophesied in the book of Hebrews. Hebrews 12:26-29 (NLT)26 When God spoke from Mount Sinai his voice shook the earth, but now he makes another promise: “Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also.” 27 This means that all of creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain. 28 Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. 29 For our God is a devouring fire.

The shaking that is starting is on so many levels: financial, governments of nations, education, and general morality and respect for life. It began slowly but in the past few years has gained momentum and is now speeding toward a total change in our world. Many are saying the way of life we have known is fast disappearing. What does this mean? The choices you have had time to think about are about to be made for you. You will either be in the kingdom of God or be shaken with all the rest of created things. So often Jesus spoke to His disciples concerning the choice set before them, saying, "Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:2 NIV) Following Jesus was not to mean walking from city to city with Him. This choice to follow would involve losing their control and walking in intimate relationship with Him and embracing their cross. It would mean to follow Him in His relationship with the Father and His willingness to do the Father's will. It would mean paying the price to follow in obedience to every word the Spirit would reveal. Saying with meaning, "Not my will, but Yours be done."

The question Jesus asked Peter, "Do you love Me more than these?" must be answered by each of us in every situation. Where is our focus? Where is our treasure? Are you willing to lay down your life for Him as He did for you? It may be a choice in the near future.

God Gives

2011-02-19T08:16:00.001-06:00

II Timothy1:7 (NLT) For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

Philippians 2:13 (NLT) For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

Fear is of this realm and a part of the Adamic nature. It is fed by feeding on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Jesus spoke the Word of God in a covenant relationship with the Father with total response. His will and control were totally given over to the Father. Disobedience is all about control. You lose your trust to the degree you keep your control. God gave us the freedom of choice. If you choose to go your way and make your decisions based on your own knowledge or source thereof, you move yourself out of the blessing of covenant because you are no longer giving to God the response He desires.

Jesus prayed for us in John 17:14-19 (KJV) 14I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. 16They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. 18As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. 19And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Notice the strong connection with the words, WORD, WORLD, TRUTH, and SANCTIFY. How did Jesus sanctify Himself? By total obedience and submission to the Father. Because He did this, He enables us to be sanctified through Him, the Truth. The Word separates, as a sword, between the soul and spirit. It is the soul that is linked most closely to this realm and the evil schemes of Satan exhibited in this realm. Our turning to the Word to give our control over to God and live in Him is the response that allows Jesus to bring us to the same sanctification. This allows us to receive the discipline over self that Jesus walked out before His disciples. It is part of the "It is finished!" that Jesus declared from the cross. It only needs your response to possess all that God has provided! It is part of the covenant Jesus has cut for us.

What Measure Love?

2011-02-15T11:35:00.004-06:00

I John 4:9 (NASB) By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. When God stated the purpose for all covenant making, He made the way to infuse Himself into us in direct response to our response. As I have said so many times, covenant is all about response. The wheel turns and the flow starts with your response. Jesus showed us by continually moving in response to the Father. We get a "flat tire" and the flow stops when we stop giving response to God. Your life takes on new meaning when you give God the response of loving God with all of your heart, all of your soul and strength. The more total the response, the more total the flow of God into you.

We say the words, God is love. But what do we know of love? People fall in love and they fall out of love. People say, I love you, and then you hear some of the backbiting they say behind your back. Letters end with the word love and cards say "I love you", but we are a people who use words without meaning.

Jeaus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life." He is the meaning. He came as the exact representation of the Father in the likeness of man. He is the pattern. He did not speak out of this realm but only what He heard the Father say. I often imagine this realm as the door posts that I push against in isometric exercise. It stengthens my spiritual muscles! Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Resist the pull of this realm and it will lose its hold on you. If you want to know the meaning of the words you read when you read the Scripture, read with the Spirit guiding you and revealing Jesus to you.

What does "love" mean? God has revealed His love for you in Jesus. God has made great sacrifice to make you in the image of God. Jesus has made great sacrifice to reveal that love. Now the Word requires you to love as Jesus has loved you. Husbands, the love you have for your wife must be as the love Jesus has revealed. Wives, the reverance you have for your husband and the response you give him is to be as the walk Jesus revealed to His church. The Church Jesus died to create is to follow in Jesus' footsteps. This is how a wife is to respond to her marriage covenant. In doing so, the flow of God into your marriage is unbelievable in the eyes of those who follow only this realm. Love becomes unshakeable and eternal. It bypasses personal opinion and becomes a word with meaning. Love never fails and becomes trust. It hopes and becomes faith.

I was meditating on the love Jesus revealed on the cross and suddenly His words, "It is finished!" took on new meaning. This is why the apostles said, "Be healed in Jesus' Name!" and they were healed. This is why Jesus simply said to blind eyes and deaf ears, "Be opened!" They believed in the finished work. All those who gave covenant response in the Old Testament and saw miracles were looking forward to the finished work. Somehow Christians have lost sight of the finished work and still pray for God to save and to heal.

What measure love? It is the breadth and length, depth and height of God Who fills all space. It is eternal. Love is the essence God gives you.
I John 4:16-19 (NASB)16We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. 18There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 19We love, because He first loved us.

Believe you are chosen to be in His image and He is able to complete His work in you!

Love

2011-02-12T14:03:00.004-06:00

I John 4:15-16 NTL 15 All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. 16 We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.

This is the essence of the New Covenant in Jesus' Blood. His commandment for this covenant is "Love one another". John 13:34-35 (NLT)34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” John had grown in love, not only for His Lord, but for the children of God. He knew the necessity as well as the cost. His own opinion of how to follow Jesus and his opinion of how others were doing so could not influence or hinder the flow of God's Love through him to those for whom Jesus died. I am humbled by the depth of appreciation the apostles showed in their respect for the calling Jesus had given them. John's love for His Lord overflowed to the people to whom John ministered. The calling is the same for each of us: "Follow Me." What He asks of us as we follow is just a part of the following. Jesus never takes us where He does not go before.

The purpose of God to make us in the image of God is realized as we follow Jesus. He sent his disciples out into the field to do the works they had seen Him doing. He commanded them to love as He loved. Following Jesus is to answer the question, "What would Jesus do?" and then do it. He is the Way, so walk in it. As you follow, you come to know Him. Letting the Word of God abide in you, feeding your thoughts and emotions, guiding your feet and motivating your actions, until you find yourself abiding in Him. Jesus must never be an abstract truth to us. He must be alive in you. You are called to be witnesses of His Resurrection, not only with the words, but with His life shining through you! Love with His love.
I John 4:19 (NLT)19 We love each other because he loved us first.

Power

2011-02-06T10:03:00.003-06:00

Acts 1:8 ...You wll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; ... It is God's purpose to infuse Himself into us. So He gives power to us. This power is for more than working miracles. It is God's response to our Covenant response of an unconditional YES to His expressed purpose. John 1:14 KJV ... he has given us the power to become children of God... Jesus not only came revealing God to us and what a son in His image is, but He IS the Way! We overcome by His Blood and by the word of our testimony--our identification with His Word and our covenant response to it. The power loosed in this changes us.

Looking steadfastly into the mirror of His Word and seeing His face looses the power to change us.

Walking in His footsteps in every challenge to our nature, looses the power to change us.

Living in thanksgiving in ALL things and worshipping His Name and reveling in His Presence and Glory looses the power to dwell in us, changing us into His image.

We do not take on His likeness because of our efforts for we are His workmanship. He infuses us with Himself as we respond to Him. Every turning of our face toward Him is effective in allowing Him to work within us. Just ask Him, seek Him, and knock on this wall that must exist until our obedience is complete. Every little obedience opens the door a little more. But our complete obedience will result in this old nature bowing in complete submission to His nature taking control. It is His power that is at work within us. Don't give way to fear.

II Timothy 1:7

2011-02-03T15:48:00.002-06:00

II Timothy 1:7 But God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a disciplined mind. These intended gifts are of the essence of God. The declared purpose of God is to make man in Their image. God imparts His attributes into us as we are prepared to receive them. This is not blasphemous presumption on our part. God seeks this fruit in us and failure on our part to develop the characteristics of His nature and demonstrate the result of close following of Jesus to do as He bids us, will result in our being rejected. When Jesus cursed the fig tree He was looking for the promise of figs that would naturally appear in the season of figs. Something had caused the tree to fail to produce this promise. It had been created to fulfill the promise.

What has caused the church in general to fail to produce the promise of sonship in the likeness of Jesus? It is God's purpose, and His power to produce this in us is not in question. What has happened that we have become a tree without promise to produce what God expects in the proper season?

Fear has become the common mode of operation in our realm. It is how we are governed from childhood through the rest of our lives. Fear of failure, of poverty, hunger, illness, danger and death keep us in a mold of our own making. Fear of being fanatical, or "being out of order" keep many from stepping out to respond to God's expectation. The scheme of Satan to produce a religion that satisfies but does not produce what God expects is easier to follow than to follow Jesus all the way into God's expectation. I want to explore this first gift of power and see what it will produce in us. We have seen the result of living in fear but what will be the result of living with the awareness of the power that God longs to give us.

First let us look at the power of God. Our earliest "experience" of this power is the creation. There have been many theories concerning creation when mankind has chosen to disregard God's Word. But the proof is lacking and to accept man's theory takes more faith than trusting God. To believe in God Who balances universes and galaxies and makes a man out of dust with every organ and nerve working throughout a lifetime with a spirit and soul that will live on into eternity, is actually easier than believing it all just happened.

But the power exerted in creation was to prepare a place for man to develop and choose to allow God to exert the power to bring that dust creature into the likeness of God and stand with Jesus as a finished project. The desire to be like Him looses that power into your life. Many want power for power's sake but are not desiring it to accomplish God's desire. I think of the example of Samson. God put that power in Samson's life and made it available to him through the anointing. But Samson did not focus on God's purpose in giving him this power, but let his own desires become the guide of his steps. It was only when he lost everything that he came to the realization of what was truly important. Then he sought God to use that power to do God's will. Jesus gave power to his 12 disciples and they marveled at the miracles they were able to do and that even the demons were subject to them. Jesus showed them their focus needed to be on what God had provided for them rather than on what they could do.

God gives us the power but we give Him the covenant response of being an instrument in His hand to do His will and fulfill His desire. The power of God in the hand of a totally yielded vessel intent on becoming like Jesus, is what God can use in this time of the shaking of all things that can be shaken.

Who is Jesus?

2011-02-01T06:51:00.004-06:00

Jesus asked the question, "Who do men say that I am?" He asked this at the time of the greatest upheavel His disciples had ever faced. We are facing a similar time. It is the time prophesied when all things that can be shaken will be shaken. We need to answer this question now for we need to know, as did Peter, who Jesus is to us.

As I realized the Spirit was giving me a Word for this blog, the word "limitation" came to me. Every answer the disciples gave in response to Jesus' question was a limitation until Peter had a revelation from God. To see Jesus as our Savior is a revelation that brought New Birth. To see Jesus as our Healer is a revelation that brings healing. To see Him as our Priest is a revelation that brings us the peace that we have an intercessor who understands our limitation. Each of these viewpoints can be challenged by our human understanding and our faith shaken by human experience that reasons against a revelation and causes us to limit Jesus again in our thinking. Through all the years of Church history, man has struggled with the identity of Jesus and so found peace in the doctrine of the Trinity.

There is a key in the verse we know so well. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son... We have to go back to the beginning to understandd this. Back to eternity before there was any creation. The scientific world goes back to the Big Bang. We go farther to LOVE. God did not create us because He needed us. Remember well this one truth about God. God has no need. He is totally complete. He has no begiining. He fills all space and God is LOVE. Because He is so complete, God does not need process. Out of His love, God proclaimed to make man in His image. The eighth chapter of Proverbs goes back to this period. The wisdom to govern the workmanship of making man in the image of God was set aside out of God and the govern by covenant came into being. Everything in all creation is under covenant with God. In Genesis 1 we see that God rested from all His work of creation. That is such a significant statement that He made the Sabbath a covenant expectation, or demand, in His covenant with Israel. Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath and through Him we enter into His rest. But what does it mean for us that God rested? Another very significant scripture is Genesis 1:28. He gave man authority over his created habitation. We have to request God to move on our behalf and so we pray. We pray for wisdom, for help and guidance in all our ways. We give our authority back to God to move as He wills. (Not my will but Yours be done!) Prayer is our surrender of control back to Him. Many do not realize this and so dictate to God how to answer.

God knew that man would fail to respond to His covenant with man in obedience and relationship. Back in that eternity moment when God said, "Let US..." the plural ministry to create man was born. The protype of man in God's image was there. Colossians reveals Jesus in His ministry to creation. Only the Spirit of God can reveal to you the ultimate power of God to move without process. It is significant that Jesus is the ministry of Creation. It is the beginning of process. Instead of instant creation because of a thought of God, there is now the process of covenant. That was the revelation God gave me to see the setting aside of Wisdom for the control of making man in God's image became the beginning of covenant. All creation is protected by covenant. God will not destroy His creation outside of covenant. But covenant will be the avenue for its destruction. The lack of covenant response is permission for judgment. The timing in covenant becomes the protection of God's purpose. Until God has what was first proclaimed, man in His image, covenant will protect the process.

The awesome recognition of God's Love and Power comes from the revelation of Jesus that removes all limitation of man's reasoning concerning Him. We see a man moving thrugh a limited ministry, speaking and doing only what He sees the Father speaking and doing, and ending in death and resurrection. We form our own opinion of this based on our measure of faith. Paul called it seeing through a glass "darkly". Our "water realm" distorts our vision. Use the Spirit's glasses and see it through Love. Let the Spirit overwhelm your soul and spirit with His Love. God allowed the great power of creation to be loosed by The Word and energized by The Spirit and then sealed it into covenant by His signature of approval. Why? Because of His great love for us. Jesus is in the heart of this power source. What happened on that cross at Calvary? Jesus was in the heart of that power source. A likeness of man, under unimaginable distress of blood loss and suffering, can speak with a loud voice that is still ringing through time? We cannot imagine the suffering, the cost and the magnitude of that sacrifice for us, but can we even begin to imagine or understand the power source that was loosed in our behalf?

Jesus in Covenant

2011-01-27T06:27:00.003-06:00

There are so many scriptures that have been memorized and used for explicit purposes that we place that limitation on them whenever we read them and so pass over them. Spirit maturity always seeks for more and recognizes our limitation as a barrier that serves to urge us on to a deeper surrender and relationship. I was meditating on Paul's letter to Timothy as he sought to teach Timothy basic understanding of God's ways. "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a disciplined mind."

This verse has so much for us but I just want to touch on it and using just one word to show you what I mean when I say we place limitation on God's Word. God gives to us and to His Church "power". To me, this opens to my imagination the tremendous force exerted in the creation. Man's limited knowledge calls it "the big bang" and erroneously tribute the tremendous organization and detail of all creation as an "evolution". But they do recognize a tremendous force of power.

All through God's Word we see evidence of God's Power exerted in our realm. The flood that is still evident in archeological findings is one example. The parting of the Red Sea and the Jordan River, the deliverance from lions, firey furnace and enemy armies are other evidences. The power over nature that Jesus revealed as "normal reaction to faith" brings us closer to the realization of the power that God gives.

As I meditated on this, I saw something in the parable of Samson's life that is to be a teaching for us. We speak of the strength of Samson and often see pictures that depict a very strong man but He gave no physical evidence of the "strength" of the power that he was given. His enemies had no clue as to the source of his strength. The Scripture is very explicit in showing the anointing that came on Samson as the source of his power. Jesus walked out a life lived under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. He constantly pointed to Himself as the Son of man. He took on the limitations of a man but lived filled with the Spirit of God anointing Him to see and hear the Father and to live so close to Him through the union of the Spirit that He could do what the Father was doing and speak what the Father was speaking.

Samson had the power when the anointing came on him. He did not live under that anointing but was available to do God's will when the anointing came on him. This seems to be where the Church of believers is today. Samson had the power but lacked the love and the disciplined mind that also comes from God. I see some who want the miracles but resist the love by keeping the control to judge and criticize and isolate others who do not share their opinions. The prayer of faith is the source of unity. We substitute natural closeness to create unity but that can only resullt in small cells of unity that depend on familiarity for the justification of "unity". The prayer of faith relies on God to perfect His will on this earth and keep us open to His Spirit to lead and teach us and give us His power, love and a disciplined mind.

About Covenants

2010-12-22T08:38:00.003-06:00

I must first apologize for the length of time since I last published. We have had a testing of our faith in the health of my husband but, as with all testing, we have a stronger footing and a deeper respect and relationship with our Father and the Lord of Life. The Lord reminded us of the night 62 years ago when we knelt together and totally surrendered our lives into His Hand to do as He would with us. He assured us He has never let us go! It has been an adventure and one we will never regret.

I asked the children I teach in Children's Church the simple question, "What is a covenant?" They thought about it for a bit of time and one said, "Is it like a contract?" We began to compare a covenant with a contract and came up with some interesting similarities and differences. I thought it might be of interest for you to consider these also.

Both are signed with a signature.
Both have provisions that must be fulfilled.
Both have a time period.

The differences are significant. While both have consequences if broken, the covenant consequence is death.
Covenant goes on to another generation and the length of that time is determined by the Instigator of the covenant. (In the history of man's covenant it was usually to the third generation. In God's covenant with Israel, it was to the thousandth generation. We are still covered!)
Blood is involved in the cutting of the covenant. Animals were used to demonstrate the serious oath of covenant. The two cutting the covenant stood in the midst of the pieces of the slain animal to take their oath, ending with the phrase, 'so be it unto me, as these, if I break this covenant.' The signatures of that covenant was in their own blood, written by their own hand.

The most significant difference is in their origin. God created covenant to be a protection of the creation as well as a protection for Himself. His purpose in making a creation was to make man in His image. All creation was made after God purposed to so make man. Every thing came into being for the sake of man to give him a place to live and be protected during the time alotted him to make his choice and to become in the image of God. God does not have to live in the rest of eternity with rebellious and sinful man. God does not send man into eternal punishment, man makes his own choice. God provides the way and lovingly provides everything to allow man to be shaped into His image. We are the work of His Hand. But we are constantly allowed to withdraw and go our own way. God does not force us in our choice. The Way is set before us and we choose to follow or go our own way.

Man's answer to the covenant is a contract. It allows us to negotiate rules and price. It gives us what we want at the price we are willing to pay. There is little or no protection if we fail and very little help in the process. It can be broken with no obvious penalty other than losing the object of the contract's purpose. This has seemed to be such a good substitute that most of mankind today has little or no understanding of covenant.

In the learning and keeping of God's covenants with man, there is the opportunity of learning God's ways. The deepest relationship with God comes from the knowledge of His ways and the deep appreciation of those ways gives a depth to the worship response to Him. We flounder in guilt and self condemnation, discouragement and constant appraisal when we do not have this relationship with Him.

Learning to Heed

2010-11-08T07:33:00.004-06:00

When Jesus was in the wilderness tempted by Satan, He used only the Word of God as His protection and answer to Satan. The answer He gave to the temptation of the body's craving was from Deuteronomy 8. The words of Moses to Israel of admonition before he was to depart from them are very important for us today. Moses had cried out to God to teach him His ways. While Israel saw God's acts, Moses had God's ways revealed to him. (Psalm 103:7) We need to understand God's ways in this day of increased deception. Satan uses God's Word to deceive, politicians quote it to impress, people use it to strengthen an opinion and some to justify their ways. But Jesus taught us to let His Word abide in us and for us to find our abiding place in Him.

We see a revelation of God's ways in Deuteronomy 8:2-5(NLT) 2 Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands. 3 Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4 For all these forty years your clothes didn’t wear out, and your feet didn’t blister or swell. 5 Think about it: Just as a parent disciplines a child, the Lord your God disciplines you for your own good.
In the Amplified Bible, it says He "humbled you to know what was in your mind and heart". In a testing we find out what our reactions are and so realize what is still within us that we need to overcome. In the Revelation, we find that we overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. The act of repentance and the process of identifying with God's Word is the way we overcome our adamic nature.

We live by EVERY word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. I appreciate translations that try to stay as accurately as possible to the language in which the Word came to men of old. I know this becomes something people become obsessed with and usually I don't even think of it when I am feeding on the Word for I know the Spirit will reveal. But when I am doing this blog, I try to be very careful how I use the Word and so often use several translations to compare a verse and rely on the Holy Spirit to direct me. To me it is vital that we listen carefully to what God is saying to us. Everything pertaining to our lives is included in His Word. Past, present and future are covered.

God did not leave us with just a recorded Word, but sent us a living manifestation in Jesus. For God is making us in His image. Not the image of God we form in our imagination or from doctrine or man's opinion of Who He is. God wanted us to know to What we are being conformed. He sent to us Jesus, the exact representation of the Father, to walk out the Law so we can understand the heart of God in giving us the Law. He fulfilled the Law so we are not left to our own ability to keep the Law. In Him, we keep the Law. In Him, we are the righteousness of God. In Him we are able to be pleasing to God. In Him, we are enabled and we do the works He did.

God gave to us the ministry of the Holy Spirit to live in us. His grace enables us to understand, feed on and become His Word. When we are commanded to love, the Spirit works love within us until we come to that perfect representation of His love and we love as we are loved. When we see the covenant expectation that we forgive even our enemies, the Spirit works forgiveness in us until we can forgive as we are forgiven, completely without reservation. This carefulness is "taking heed" and it is our own responsibility and a covenant response.

Learning Response

2010-11-03T09:35:00.005-05:00

One thing I have learned very well and that is that every action has consequence. Covenant requires action. There must be response to a covenant expectation. God created covenant for the very purpose that mankind would be partners with Him in the creating of man in God's image. So every covenant requires response or action on both sides. This creates a flow or a circle. God gives us His expectation or commandment and we respond with an action that God can respond with His action, that we can respond with our action, and so on and on until we reach God's goal.

The Spirit spoke something to me that was startling to me. Every person does God's will one way or another! The Sanhedrin of Jesus' day fulfilled God's will by crucifying Jesus. That action came out of their Adamic nature that they had not allowed to be subdued by the Law. They had carried out the letter of the Law, but they had not responded to God to be led by the Law to understand Him. Instead, they used the Law. Religious action does not change the human nature. So the very ones who stood in the office of teaching the Law did not know God. There is an action of refusal to respond to God's expectation. Keeping the control in yourself to make judgments, to have your own way, and react out of your human nature are actions that will result in judgment for this keeps one in darkness. Paul addressed this in his letter to the Galatians. Galatians 6:7-8 NLT 7 Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. 8 Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.

To "work out your salvation with fear and trembling", you pay attention to your actions and reactions. Do they come from your adamic nature or are they the response trained by the Spirit as you feed on God's Word? The difference in your own nature and the nature of Jesus that is produced in you by the Holy Spirit is outlined by Paul. Galatians 5:19-26 NLT 19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. 22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. 25 Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. 26 Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.

Actions for either nature will have consequence. You are either building or tearing down. Speaking is an action. Even feeling or thinking is an action. Paul exhorts us to meditate on God's Word. Jesus spoke to us of eating or feeding on it. The Psalmist said, "Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O God, my strength and my Redeemer." We are warned to "guard your heart, for out of it are the issues of life." Listen carefully to your own words and measure your actions. For we are becoming slowly and step by step into the being that will live in eternity -- somewhere.

Learning to Knock--Trust

2010-10-09T07:08:00.003-05:00

Luke 11:9-13(NLT) 9 “And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 “You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? 12 Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! 13 So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”

I have come to find the difference between "seeking" and "knocking". I began to seek the meaning of Paul's admonition in Philippians 2:12-13 (NASB) 12So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. I asked the question many ask, "What is the 'work' when our salvation is a free gift?" It goes back to the word "salvation". We throw the word around loosly. We speak of salvation of souls as being an initial experience of a sinner coming to believe and accept Jesus Christ as his Savior. At that moment his spirit is born into the Family of God and he becomes a blood-washed new creature in a new nation that is not geographical or of this realm. There remains the "saving of his soul" that is an on-going experience and will involve many ministries and your own personal work with the Holy Spirit leading the way and revealing the Word. The soul, like our spirit, is everlasting. We are a spirit, we have a soul, and we live in a body. The body and soul are very close. So close, that when the spirit and soul leave the body, the body dies, while parts of that body may be used in a person with a soul and still live and be effective.

Our soul is our personality, our drive and motivation. How we think and react to circumstances is in our soul. I believe our energy is tied to our soul also. While our bodies can be trained to more energy, our soul can cause lethargy through despondency. A happy outlook is better than medicine in many cases. We have to "work" at the saving of the soul. Let the Word of God abide in you. Meditate on it and eat it. Let it be the mirror into which you look. Then apply it to your reactions, motivations and relationships.

Knocking is the way we have a door opened. We do not change in our human nature's reactions to people and circumstances without knocking. It is putting into our own being a "natural" response that is Christ-like. It is walking in His Rest, His Peace, His Forgiveness and Mercy. I capitalize these because we have a human response that is often mistaken for these. This is why we go through tests. The human response fails in the testing, so we go back to knocking at the door.

The greatest tool in the task of knocking is trust. Proverbs 3:5-6(NLT) 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. I have witnessed people seeking to be filled with the Holy Spirit and realize that the most needed asset in this asking, seeking, and knocking is trust. The deeper we go in God and the more we receive, the greater the need to trust. The more we see in our self of our own nature, the greater the need to trust in the One Who is at work in us. Knock, and keep on knocking, until the door is opened and you witness the completed work that God has in His mind.

When God created the vegetation on this earth, He commanded the ground to bring it forth. He had in mind what He wanted in all its detail, but He commanded the ground to produce it. He has brought your spirit to Life and now He commands you to do the works prepared before all creation for you to do. It is not enough for you to know, or even to understand, you must become. He came to BE the Way for you to become as He IS. So, keep on knocking!

Learning to Seek--Curiosity

2010-10-03T06:40:00.003-05:00

We are awesomely made by the hand of God. Our bodies are awesome in the ability to grow and renew. Our souls are awesome in the ability to change--better or worse! But our spirit is a true gift from God and can retain His touch and grow to be like Him! Curiosity is a part of our being. It is expressed in spirit, soul and body! Without curiosity we would never ask, seek or knock! It is the means of progress in this realm. "Necessity is the mother of invention!" but "Curosity leads to wonder!" are two sayings that remind us that change is possible. We are made to make choices and change.

Have you ever just wondered about God? Nature is a great inspiration to the wonder of curiosity. Viewing the heavens, the ocean, the mountains and the woods is an opportunity to wonder at the Creator's attention to detail. I have been privileged to be familiar with many places and have found how little I know of any of them. Some were visited, and even lived in, many years ago and so would be vastly different now. Not in their geographical appearance but in what man has done to them. But these are only places. What of His Word? You say but that never changes! Not in some respects, but God in His progressive leading of us in our understanding, reveals more to us constantly. Without the curiosity of "What does God have for me today?", we become lethargic toward God in our everyday life.

We become so experienced in the way we live and work and play, we do not seek God in the "little" things of our life to be identified with God in them. "We are in control of this situation" has become a way of life to us! Little children learn very quickly the impatience of help with the cry, "I can do it!" But they are also quick to say, "Help me!" We need to keep this child-like attitude. Yes, God wants us to step out and learn to be responsible, mature and capable in Him. But He also wants us to remember where our help is.

This awesome, majestic, omnipotent and omniscient God is our covenant Friend saying today to you, "I Am your shield and exceeding great reward!"

Living With an Inheritance

2010-10-01T07:41:00.003-05:00

As a young person, I used to wonder how it would be to "be rich" and know you have an inheritance. I think it was about the time that Queen Elizabeth became a princess and her father crowned king of England and magazines and newspapers were full of their new lifestyle. My father showed me a scripture that changed my concept of being rich. Ephesians 1:13-14(NASB) 13In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation--having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory.

Listen to Jesus' word as related by Luke. Luke 11:9-13(NLT) 9 “And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 “You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? 12 Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! 13 So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”

In learning to seek, we also have to learn to live with the wealth that is ours in Him. In seeking, and in the confidence of finding, we not only have to refuse to become contented with what we have received and keep on seeking, we have to learn to appreciate what we have. There is a big difference in thinking we have "received it all" and so rest contented, and being appreciative of all we have received, while seeking more of God. I am so thankful that God has given us a part of our inheritance now. The Holy Spirit is true riches! We are rich while becoming richer! Not only is He our Teacher, He fills us with the awareness of who we are in Christ Jesus. Our inheritance is not just for the rest of our lives on earth, but for all eternity. We are the evidence of God's desire to make man "in Our image."

We must learn to live with such an inheritance. Live as His children, not paupers, but rich in His wealth. Be filled with all He longs to give you. Show who is your Father and your place in His Family by being radiant with His love, His mercy, and His forgiveness. All the wealth of His storehouse is yours. All Jesus paid for is laid up in that storehouse. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is to take what Jesus has won for you and manifest it into you and through you.

Walk in His peace and in His joy. Jesus spoke it into this realm while here and it is yours for the finding.

Learning to Seek -- believing

2010-09-29T08:15:00.003-05:00

Hosea 6:3(NLT) Oh, that we might know the Lord! Let us press on to know him. He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring.”

This was one of the earliest verses I learned as a child (of course in KJV)and has been one my husband and I have used many times in preaching, teaching and counseling. There is encouragement, instruction and hope in that verse that we need to remember daily. Hundreds of years after Hosea spoke these words, the writer to the Hebrews said to persevere. Hebrews 10:35-38(NLT) 35 So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! 36 Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised. 37 “For in just a little while, the Coming One will come and not delay. 38 And my righteous one will live by faith. But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away.”

It is vital that we do two things in seeking: keep on seeking and believe you are receiving. No matter how much we learn, know and receive, we never come to the end, or the total, of what God has for us. We have no idea of the vast change God has in mind for us. So keep on seeking. But do not become discouraged. Keep your confidence that He Who has begun a good work in you will complete it!

The more I seek, the more I know I have to learn. The closer you get to Him in your relationship, the easier it is to be humble. Isaiah saw the Lord, high and lifted up, and he fell to the ground and said, "Woe is me!" He will come to you, bless and refresh you, but it is not a prideful thing. His coming in revelation and manifestation only makes you want more! Seeking is a lifetime occupation.

Learning to Seek by Hearing

2010-09-24T07:15:00.003-05:00

Mark 4:24-25(NIV) 24"Consider carefully what you hear," he continued. "With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. 25Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him." What you hear is going to depend on two things, the speaker and the listener. Jesus was speaking what He had heard from the Father but He was speaking to a mixed crowd. Some were listening to the Word of God and some were listening to hear a man. Some of these had different motives for listening. They might have wanted to be entertained and some might have wanted to judge him for their own purposes.

How often Jesus said, "Take heed..." I have fed on the parables of Jesus often. In them is buried so much truth to guide us. In the eleventh verse of this chapter, Jesus said to the Twelve, "The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you." This statement alone must have boggled their minds. It still makes those who hear wonder. It is God's intent that you know Him. Most are willing to know about Him but Jesus said to KNOW Him is eternal life (John 17:3). Paul prayed often that the hearer would be filled with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. This knowledge is hidden only to those who do not respond to Him.

Humility is an essential response. The humility of a child asking questions because they want to know and are seeking answers. The child understands they do not know. The disciples knew they did not know. They came to Jesus to seek understanding. This humble state is the foundation of our relationship to Truth. (Adam and Eve were forsaking that foundation when they started listening to Lucifer. He was offering them a different approach to knowledge they could control.) Jesus said they had the secret of the kingdom of God. The Word of God is given to us to reveal, to change, and mature us. Only by the Holy Spirit, our Teacher and Guide, does Truth become this to us.

Be a little child, ask the Holy Spirit to show you, reveal to you, and to guide you.

Learning to seek

2010-09-23T06:03:00.003-05:00

I often say the phrase "learning to seek", for it reminds me that this realm and its circumstances automatically distract us to seek "things" on this level. Only the Holy Spirit leads us to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and reveals how to do this.

My own experience in this has been (and still is!) a gradual unveiling of the Word of God and a learning to identify with Jesus through His Word. The Holy Spirit is a great teacher. He reveals a lesson and then demands action to express faith in what is learned. The "action" is usually a response to a circumstance that comes to test what we think we "learned". I have found that identification with Jesus is far more difficult than learning a "factual knowledge", even if it is something in the Word revealed by the Holy Spirit. We rejoice in a passage that comes alive to us. We have a tendency to think we have "learned" when we can meditate on and even pass it on with a degree of anointing. We have not learned it until, in our identification with Jesus, it becomes a part of our being.

Jesus came into our realm as the Son of Man, One with the Father and filled with the Holy Spirit. He kept that oneness with the Father by the Holy Spirit and His identification with the Father. In His humble obedience to the Holy Spirit's work in Him, He did only what He saw the Father doing and said only what He heard the Father saying.

We have the same Holy Spirit in us, revealing Jesus to us through the Word and through our identification with Him. We are born anew in our spirit when we identify with Jesus' death on the cross as our own punishment for our sin. We identify with Jesus in all the ways that the Spirit reveals Truth to us. But it isn't until we begin to act like Jesus that we begin to seek to know Him on a higher level than just being redeemed. We begin to see the purpose God has for us. We begin to do His works. But most important, we begin to change into His image. It is no longer that we "know" but now we "become". Old reactions fall away and we react to the circumstances around us with His peace, His compassion, His mercy and the Spirit's perception of the "truth" found in people and circumstances. This perception is the grace of the Holy Spirit we call the discerning of spirit. Jesus walked in this. He knew what was in the heart of a person and what was motivating them. He had laid aside His Omniscience to rely on the Holy Spirit to reveal to Him. He did this so that in every way we can follow Him! Don't deny the right to the Holy Spirit to lead you to follow Jesus and manifest into you what belongs to Jesus, our Savior.

A Closed Door

2010-09-18T06:26:00.004-05:00

I have been meditating on the word "enter" (Matthew 7:13) we were considering last time. It includes not only the command to do so, but shows our responsibility of taking an action. God reaches out to us, providing through His Love an access to Him. But we have to take the next step and, unless we do, for us in that passisve state, there might as well be no provision at all. God is so awesome in His Being. His love and mercy, holiness and power, wisdom and knowledge are so complete we cannot perceive in our limited capacity such Light that in Him is no darkness at all. He fills all space and is ever present, all knowing, and from Him we cannot hide. Yet we live our lives as though we, and our circumstances, actions and dreams, are everything. Most people in your own city don't even know you and couldn't care less about your circumstances. In five years you won't even have full memory recall of your circumstances and actions. But we still ignore God's extended invitation to "enter" His realm.

Jesus outlines the path of our responsibility in taking a step toward God. It is a progressive path, leading onward and upward, toward His complete provision for us. Matthew 7:7-12(NLT) 7 “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 “You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? 10 Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! 11 So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him. 12 “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.

This passages reveals the progressive growth in our approach to God and in God's response to us at each level. We don't start out "knocking" because we do not know how to do so. "Asking" is on our human level of achieving. Many do not go beyond that stage. Only the Spirit of God can teach us how to seek. Many of our opinions and "hang-ups" have to be dealt with and overcome before we can learn to seek. How much more so with learning to "knock". Many never even realize there is a door on which to knock, but being earnest to seek God's ways and being obedient to walk in the way revealed, will lead you to the door and it will be opened.

Taking Heed

2010-09-17T07:24:00.005-05:00

My apologies for the long delay in the blogs. Will be keeping these up now and hope you are able to follow with me.

There has been a thought that has been with me for several weeks and I know it is something that needs to be considered here. Jesus often said, "Take heed," and it must not be ignored for it is a covenant response. We live in a realm that is a constant distraction from the pursuit of righteousness. God gives us the commands, or His covenant expectations, that will produce His goal to make you in His image.
I Peter 1:16(NIV)for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."
Matthew 5:48(NASB)"Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
To the human nature, this would seem to be impossible and I have often heard the excuse that only when we are in heaven can we be perfect. It is common to hear "only God is perfect", and it is comfortable to say "we are only human!" But all through the Scriptures in both the Old and New Testament, the word "perfect" is applied to man in both description and command to become.
In Ephesians 4 the provision Jesus made for His Church is defined and the result of the five-fold ministry is described. One facet is "a perfect man".
Ephesians 4:13(KJV) Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: Most translations substitute "mature" for "perfect", but the meaning is the same. Our spiritual maturity is to become just like Jesus Who was perfect in all His ways, manifesting the Father and doing His Will.
All action has consequence. Paul says it so well in His letter to the Galatians. Galatians 6:7-8(NLT) 7 Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. 8 Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. I am most familiar with the King James' "Be not deceived!" Human deception is a part of all of us. We have to resist it and overcome it with the Word of God. Only in God is Truth and in every way deception "dogs our path". In the smallest action there is choice, and, either our nature or God's is going to be expressed. If you "sow" to the human nature, you reap darkness and death. We either give to God a covenant response or we ignore Him.
Matthew 7:13(NIV) "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it."
The key word in this passage is "enter". This is not speaking of sinners choosing but those who desire to "enter". We who call ourselves "Christian", are the ones to whom Jesus is speaking! We seek to "enter" the Kingdom of God. There are two gates. One is of our own devising and placates the human nature, (broad), and the other, (narrow), is God's way that means death to our nature and a life pursuing His righteousness by His Spirit living in us and controlling our actions. Every day, in every way, we are making this choice. EVERY action has consequence!!

Following Jesus

2010-08-16T06:17:00.004-05:00

I love it when my spirit is "quickened" by an anointed Word. I feel the "tandom yoking" with another member of the Body of Christ and the feeling of pulling forward that oxen must feel when they are yoked with "equal strength" and can do what could not be done alone. We have that "yoking" with the Holy Spirit binding us together in Christ and our motto is indeed, "I can do all things through Christ Jesus Who strengthens me!" Yesterday, our Pastor brought a sermon from Acts 15 on His intentional church. (Our blogs are connected so you can track this down!) I felt like a person who has been on welfare all their lives and suddenly told he did not have to pay back anything but was free to become whatever he wanted to be! I am not going to "preach" his sermon but I am going to give you one of the questions he gave us. Why did Jesus not address the most difficult problem the early Church had to face when Gentiles were faced with Judaizers insisting on circumcision? I pondered this the rest of the day and was thinking on it when I awakened in the night and again this morning when a "light" went on in my spirit!

Jesus had a "mission" from the Father to accomplish on earth. He had to fulfill the first covenant with Israel before another covenant could be cut. He walked out the first completely according to the heart of the Father, not according to man's idea of the Law. The disciples, following Jesus, saw Him fulfilling the Law and the covenant, teaching the Father's heart in each aspect of that covenant, bringing it to a higher level of motivation rather than just the action. He only introduced the New Covenant at the Passover table just before His crucifixion. They could not be under the New Covenant until He had cut the covenant in His Blood.

After His resurrection, in His appearances and teaching them, He still did not bring them into the understanding of the expectations of the New Covenant. They would learn from the Holy Spirit, Who was to be their Teacher and Guide in laying a foundation for His Church. Just as Moses would teach Israel the expectation of their covenant, so the Holy Spirit would teach these Apostles, as He wrote it on their hearts. As the Church would be led in the future, so would it begin. Until they were filled with the Holy Spirit and became acquainted with His method of teaching, they could not understand the New Covenant or the new "nation" that would be birthed by that covenant. A new people, a new choosing, a holy nation was about to be revealed by a new "baptism". Paul became the product of that New Covenant when God separated him by sending him to the "wilderness" to be taught by the Holy Spirit.

The only way the Church today is going to be the power of God in this last day is by the Holy Spirit being our Guide and Teacher. The Holy Spirit will unite us to the Head of the Church, Jesus Christ, in a relationship not known when under the "headquarters" of man. Jesus gave us, the church, what we needed when He gave us the gift ministries. The Spirit separates those people to Jesus Christ. They are shaped into the ministries to His church so the body of Christ might be brought into the same maturity, filled with the same measure of the Holy Spirit, doing the same works that Jesus revealed in His walk among us. We need to be His church, shaped by His hand, led by His Spirit and His provision to us of ministers in tune with His purpose. "Yoked" together by His Spirit and purpose, we can be what He wants us to be!

The Right to Repair

2010-08-14T07:08:00.004-05:00

Revelation 3:14-22(NIV) 14"To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:
These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. 15I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. 19Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. 20Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. 21To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."

This letter to the Laodiceon Church presents Jesus, the Lord of Creation, the Head of the Church and King triumphant over all God's creation. He Who came to take our place of shame, now offers the right to share His place on the throne. He revealed the Way to the throne and told us to follow Him. To follow anyone, we have to keep them in our focus. The Apostle Paul showed us that, while not knowing Jesus in the flesh to follow Him, it is possible to follow Jesus and do His work by keeping our spiritual eye on Him. But first we must be able to "see" Him. In verse 17, we know that Jesus saw this church as blind, yet in verse 18 He offers the salve to put on their eyes to see. He saw this church as naked. We humans seek to be clothed with this world's ideas and do not know it is the Emporer's robe. A church may have the building and the signs proclaiming to all that they are a church and not know they have nothing to offer. The church can only give what they have. Peter said to the blind man at the temple gate, "Such as I have, I give to you..." Jesus offers the white raiment to clothe ourselves with. Revelation 19:7-8(NIV) 7Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. 8Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear." (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)
To every condition that would cause them to be rejected, Jesus offers something for them to do to correct and reverse. There are two key words in this offer Jesus holds out to this church. Be "earnest" and "repent". The wide road that is easy and leads to destruction lacks these two signs. The way back to God requires these two things. Earnestly seeking Him means a whole-hearted seeking. "Repent" is more than being fearful of punishment or sorry while being scolded. There must be a turning away from a familiar way and a turning toward a new way that is earnestly sought.

Two covenant actions are revealed. Jesus states that He will rebuke and discipline because He loves. The response that is required is earnest corrective action that reveals true repentance. Overcome the human tendency that created the condition that God must reject. The human tendency was to be rich in this realm's wealth. Now seek the gold that has been refined by fire and can only be purchased from the hand of Jesus. Do you remember the revelation of Jesus with feet like burnished bronze? That only comes from walking through fire and He did it for us. He walked out the Law and the rejection of men that He might please the Father in all things. This earned Him the sonship He can extend to us, if we walk in His Way. (Philippians 2:5-13) He is a son in two ways: begotten of God into this realm, and faithful and obedient in all ways to the Father while walking out our salvation. Gold represents the Diety. You must purchase this gold with your human nature in an exchange. Your nature for His! Your desires for His. Your motivations for His. Your pleasure for His. It will cost you everything. But this is your only opportunity to purchase!

He knocks at the door He created for you. That door opens the way for you into His eternal joy. Only you can respond to His knocking. You hold in your self the key to overcome or remain in your passivity and human understanding and need.

Responding to God's Amen

2010-08-13T06:31:00.003-05:00

Revelation 3:14-16 (NLT) 14 “Write this letter to the angel of the church in Laodicea. This is the message from the one who is the Amen—the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s new creation: 15 “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! 16 But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! 17 You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.
The identity revealed to the Church in Laodicea is a very powerful revelation with great meaning for our day. The "So be it" of God is a powerful statement. How I yearn to be the Amen of Jesus! Should the Church respond to the Nature and Being of Jesus and become the Amen of our Lord and Savior, we would make a powerful statement to our generation! There will be a remnant that makes that statement. It is our choice to be a part of that remnant!
To understand this identity of Jesus, we must turn to the revelation of Jesus that the Apostle Paul received of Him. Colossians 1:15-20 (NLT) 15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, 16 for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. 17 He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. 18 Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything. 19 For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, 20 and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. And again in Hebrews we see the purpose of God in sending His Son to this realm, for only through the revealing power of Jesus walking among us do we see what we are to become. Hebrews 1:2-3 (NIV)2but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. 3The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
This is the revelation given to the Church that has not given to God the response to the glorious covenant cut to give us the right to bear His image. Instead, the church in Laodicea has become what they desired to be: rich, successful in the eye of the age in which they live, powerful in their own control and passive toward God. This church ignores the desire of God, spurns His purpose for them, and continues in their own program as though God had never made such a sacrifice of love for them to become sons like the Son He sent to them.
There is a phrase in this that causes me to marvel. "I will spit them out of my mouth..." I know it is an expression of distaste and rejection, but it also expresses a condition of intimacy, of delightful anticipation on the part of God in His regard to His Church. In His watching over us, does He have this anticipation of sharing with us His joy in His eternal purpose? Does He taste the sweet honey of our response of worship and obedience and trust and our own anticipation of His joy? Does He find what pleases Him or is the taste He gets the bitter and putrid stench of our adamic nature of self-pity, criticism, and pride in what is decaying and putrid in His sight? Yes, there are deeds and works, but they are not the flow of His hand using the hand of the church. The deeds are not "cold" in that they are good works that man can produce. But they are not "hot" in that they are what the Father is doing! This church was not following in Jesus' footsteps. They were walking on their own road and not the Way Jesus revealed.
There is a human condition that does not see "past their own nose" to desire to see by the Spirit a realm in which God is. The new birth opens the door to dwell in that realm of spirit. So many Christians receive the new birth but never grow in their new inheritance. They do not develop the ears to hear or the eyes to see. They seek to please "man" but not God. They do not become a "sweet savor" to the Father. They do not "check" to see if they are pleasing to Him.
Yes, I agree with the many that say we live in the days of the church in Laodicea!

The Name of Covenant

2010-08-09T06:05:00.004-05:00

As I have said in earlier discussions of covenant, the exchange of names is a very important part of the proof of the existence of a covenant. Taking the name, or a part of a name, of the instigator of the covenant, gives credence to the fact they are "in covenant", as well as the identity of the covenant-protector. The disciples were first called "Christians" at Antioch. (Acts 11:26) In the covenants God has made with this realm there is progression allowed by the open-ended condition of covenant to include future generations. In the covenants God uses with this realm, there is progression from the natural realm to the spiritual and on into eternity. This is what we see in the letter to the church in Philadelphia. The Name given in the New Covenant Jesus gave to us will be changed in the next, eternal, covenant. We saw the importance of the Names of God in the Old Covenant. In the New Covenant, Jesus is the Name by which we are redeemed and come into full salvation.

Our covenant response to God in this New Covenant is to follow Jesus completely to become an overcomer. What do we overcome? Jesus has overcome the world (this realm of darkness)and death, the grave and the devil. Our Adamic nature and our link to this realm are our responsibility to overcome. That will involve our unbelief, our passivity to following in His footsteps, and our ignorance of spiritual matters. The last, our ignorance, is most dangerous, for it is most susceptible to Satan's temptation. We learn from our Teacher, Counselor, and Guide, the Holy Spirit. He opens the Word of God to us and will woo us into hunger and thirst for God, to know His Ways and obey His Word. To lean on the Holy Spirit is the only safe way to attain knowledge of the spirit realm. Overcoming our natural responses to any circumstance, our human motivation and our human understanding by trust and obedience to God's Word, is not an easy response. A religious ritual that does not interfere with our lives is much easier and opens the wide road that most travel.

Giving the response to the Covenant under which you live, opens the door to the next Covenant God makes with mankind. We now live under the banner of the Name, Jesus. A faithful response to Him now will open the door to receiving His new Name and a new name for us. We will go into His eternal purpose as a covenanted people.

Rewarding Response

2010-08-07T07:18:00.006-05:00

There is something about the letter to the Church in Philadelphia that has always made me feel like a child sitting on a father's lap and listening to him tell of the wonderful things planned for the days ahead. It is a safe, comfortable and yet exciting feeling of anticipation. God has "a joy" planned for us that He anticipates opening to us, His children. There are thousands of His children who are looking to Him with joyful, loving hearts that say a heart-felt "Yes!" to His Word and expectation of obedient worship. It is the response of Job who said, "though He slay me, yet will I trust Him!" Their focus is not on their own comfort or desires but on His desire. To please Him, to serve Him and to respond to His plan and purpose is their greatest desire. To spend time with Him in precious communion of thought and worship is the best part of any day. To these, He has a special message of purpose.

Revelation 3:11-13(NASB) 11'I am coming quickly; hold fast what you have, so that no one will take your crown. 12'He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name. 13'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'

The ear to hear is the ear tuned to the Spirit of God, given to us to guide us, counsel us, and comfort us. He opens to us the realm of spirit where God is enthroned. His temple is that awesome place where worship is continually heard and Light dwells and music is visible. To most people this is a place they anticipate to see when they die because they "dwell" in this realm. When Jesus said, "if you abide in Me, and My Words abide in you," and this word "abide" means "dwell", He was not talking of heaven or life after death. I do not read this passage and say, "when I die", but I reach for this now. I want to dwell in His temple now, with praise and worship in my heart and on my lips, with His Light radiating in my spirit. I want to be a pillar in His temple now. (A pillar is a stable, permanent part of His temple!) I don't want to ever leave it no matter what circumstance may be in this realm! I can only do that if I overcome the control this realm has on me. I can only do that if I enter into His Rest! I can only do that if my control is given over to His hand and I refuse the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil so I can eat of the tree of Life! I have to be an overcomer! I have to "dwell" in Him, not be an occasional visitor. My emotions can't be tapped by circumstances to go back into worry, frustration, discouragement and anger. You don't live with one foot in depression and one foot in joy. You can't live in two places at once. You only visit one or the other. When Jesus prayed that we would not be removed from this realm, He asked that we not be "of" this realm. I must confess, I feel like an "alien" most of the time. I can't feel a part of the "tube" or of most "casual" conversations. If you want to discuss His Word or His goodness, I can talk all day with you, but I can't think of much to say otherwise. I praise God I am beginning to make that switch to abiding in Him, but I haven't made it all the way, so I need the prayers of all of you. I pray for you that your heart will yearn more for Him than anything in this earthly realm. To hear His Voice, to understand His language, to dwell in His temple! The blessing of God go with you and fill your day!

Living in Awareness

2010-08-06T07:09:00.003-05:00

Revelation 3:7-13 (NLT) 7 “Write this letter to the angel of the church in Philadelphia. This is the message from the one who is holy and true, the one who has the key of David. What he opens, no one can close; and what he closes, no one can open: 8 “I know all the things you do, and I have opened a door for you that no one can close. You have little strength, yet you obeyed my word and did not deny me. 9 Look, I will force those who belong to Satan’s synagogue—those liars who say they are Jews but are not—to come and bow down at your feet. They will acknowledge that you are the ones I love. 10 “Because you have obeyed my command to persevere, I will protect you from the great time of testing that will come upon the whole world to test those who belong to this world. 11 I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take away your crown. 12 All who are victorious will become pillars in the Temple of my God, and they will never have to leave it. And I will write on them the name of my God, and they will be citizens in the city of my God—the new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven from my God. And I will also write on them my new name. 13 “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.

Jesus prefaces this letter with His identity of the victory of completion. He holds the key of David because He fulfilled the Davidic covenant. He opens doors to His realm because He triumphed over every closed door in this realm. He can close every door in this realm that man has opened because He remained faithful to His Father's will in all things and did not go through any door Lucifer or man opened to Him. We, His Church, inherit His victory. He opens a door to us that no man can close. He knows the limit of our strength and He values our faithfulness to His Name and His word. A part of that faithfulness is to walk in His steps and avoid the religious bypaths that man makes. Lucifer, in his desire to detour the worship of God to himself, creates religion to pacify and deceive all who are not willing to pay the price for Truth. So many walk that broad path. These are the ones who criticize and ostracize those who humbly walk in Jesus' footsteps. Man's education and achievements mean more than following the Spirit's leading and teaching. Pride of titles that man can give ignores the calling and placing of the Head of the Church. Jesus shows in this letter what He thinks of this. His love for His own will lift them in Him so His love for them will be recognized by all. His protection over them, the promise of all covenant, will cover them.

Our response to His love, to follow Him no matter how hard the path grows, is rewarded with His promise of immunity to the hour of testing that will come to this earth. This testing is greater than the assault that comes to the believer from Satan when he is given the same right over the church that he was given over Job. Much is stripped from us in this short period but nothing is stripped away that God does not restore in a double portion. Our patience through the stripping must be shown by our continual focus on the love and mercy of our Lord. We do not let circumstances dictate our place in Him or His love for us. Do not let any one's trial be your "evidence" for criticism or judgment. When Satan's hatred is vented on God's people, it is not because they have sinned, so let us not become Job's comforters. Stay close to the Lord and let His Spirit lead you. This is a difficult time but it is covenanted by His Word!

Response and Reward

2010-08-02T07:49:00.003-05:00

In the letter to the church in Sardis, Jesus presented Himself as the victorious Lord of the church. The reward to the overcoming church in Sardis was the eternal position in His hand and the garment prepared for eternity. There is much said in the Revelation concerning garments and how a person appears clothed. Rev 19:7-8(NASB)7"Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready." 8It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. 9Then he said to me, "Write, 'Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb '" And he said to me, "These are true words of God." Ephesians 2:10(NASB) For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
I see in this that God provides and we accept and move in His provision with faith in Him as our covenant response to Him and His provision. Our focus has to remain on Him, even when we are doing the work that is His will for us. If our focus waivers, we do not complete the work He gave us to do because if we waiver, the work becomes ours and not His.

The reward for the overcoming of this human hindrance of losing our focus is to be given the privilege of doing His works with faithful connection with Him and He will be faithful to us that we do not lose that connection. II Timothy 1:12(ESV) which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me. In most translations that verse reads, "what I have entrusted..." But this translation points out that the works and the completion of the works is entrusted to us. I appreciate that He is able to guard not only the works but my fulfilling the same! I need that. I falter in my focus and need the Holy Spirit to bring me back to awareness too many times not to recognize my need for complete reliance on God.

The church in Sardis

2010-07-28T13:30:00.004-05:00

Revelation 3:1-6(NASB) 1"To the angel of the church in Sardis write: He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars, says this: 'I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. 2'Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God. 3'So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you. 4'But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. 5'He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. 6'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'

This revelation of the identity of Jesus is the same as to John when He came walking among the seven lampstands. It is the revelation of the resurrected, ascended, Victorious Jesus, Head of the Church and King of the whole realm. He speaks to the church that is regarding themselves as "being alive", but is regarded as dead by the One Who is alive! Jesus said, "I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive...." We need to go to school on these letters to the churches. A reputation of being alive is not good enough. Man is not the judge of a church, God is. What He considers dead is the dangerous truth.

The first and foremost action they were to take was to "wake up!" If they did not wake up, Jesus would come as a thief and they would not be aware of the time. In the parable of the five wise and five foolish virgins, Jesus said that all of them were asleep. This is a very dangerous element of our human nature. The world around us is so very "real" and we so labor to keep up with "our lives" that we become oblivious of the constant, omnipresent activity of the Spirit realm and His will that is to be carried out on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus walked with this awareness constantly as He ministered here. He did only those things He saw the Father doing and spoke only what He heard the Father speaking. It is the mixture of motivation that causes the separation from God. We have too many things "pressing in on us" to give the time to prayer that keeps that union a life-giving flow into our lives.

I have often voiced the warning of the contamination that opinions have on our spiritual state. We get an opinion of what is God and what is not and that can be the most dangerous opinion of all. The Pharisees are an example to us of what that strong opinion, stubbornly held, can cause us to do. Certainly, if we rely on our own human knowledge and judgment, we will have soiled garments. No matter what generation or culture a person has ever lived in or now lives in, the ever present circumstances of that culture will help shape your reaction to and your response to God. The people we see in the Bible are a parable to us of human reaction and response. Notice my use of those two words. A reaction can sponser unbelief and withdrawal but a response is given regardless of any circumstance and is evidence of deep faith in the Being of God. Church attendance, reading the Bible and praying can be learned reactions and not a response. We have to give ourselves a reality check and see what is in our spirit. Some circumstances are present in my life right now that are causing me to give myself that reality check. Am I reacting to what is happening or am I moving in the flow of the Father's will as Jesus did on earth. How can I follow Him if I do not know the path my feet are on? Do you see how easily our garments can be stained with this life? One circumstance, wrongly viewed and reacted to, can change the course of our life! That is why life is so full of regrets. Yes, the steps of a righteous man are ordered of the Lord, but are we always responding to His order? That does not mean we cannot get back on course, but it does mean we have to wake up, repent and follow through until we get in the flow of God's will. Jesus said to Sardis, "I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of My God." We can make a good start but have we followed through with the revelation of His Word that we have received? What you purpose to do while listening to your pastor or when reading your Bible, do you continue in the moment of stress or weariness? We know His Presence is always with us but how is your awareness of His Presence?

This message to Sardis is all about His Resurrected, victorious Life and how that is reflected by His church. Are we following in His Resurrected Life, clothed in the white garments of His victory, or are we revealing our weary reaction to this age we live in? What is more important to you? His Word revealing His plan and purpose or the circumstances of the life you are living? By importance I mean the measuring stick of your joy and sustaining element of your "self". What drives you? What gives you joy? What motivates you and gives you purpose? Is it your job? Is it your relationships? Is it your house or your car or your possessions? What do you plan for and dream? What fills your imagination? Are you alive to this realm but asleep to God's realm? There is still a little time, let us "wake up" to His desire!

Response and Consequence

2010-07-27T07:26:00.002-05:00

In reading the letters of Jesus to the seven churches given to John, there is so much we can learn concerning the Ways of God. The identity He shows to each church has much to do with the way that church is responding to the Head of the church, Jesus. The reward to that church is in direct relationship to their overcoming those things that hinder them. The enemy seeks to disrupt and destroy the connection with the Head. This causes confusion and human reaction to the disruptive influence.

We have seen in the church in Thyatira that the disruptive influence was the Jezabel spirit that sought to manipulate the authority of the church. Those who accepted her ways or "committed adultery" with her misleading guidance into sexual and religious practices against the Truth, were committed to God's judgment. Any time authority is taken out of the hand of God and put into the natural reasoning of man, there is a removal of God's favor and Light. The enemy saw it work in the Garden of Eden and it has been an effective tool in his arsenal ever since.

To those who continue in their faith, love and perseverance in walking in the truth of following Jesus, overcoming the influence of the ways of the world around them, doing the will of their Savior and Lord, there is the reward of increased authority in the age to come. Revelation 2:26-27 (NASB) 26'He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, TO HIM I WILL GIVE AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS; 27AND HE SHALL RULE THEM WITH A ROD OF IRON, AS THE VESSELS OF THE POTTER ARE BROKEN TO PIECES, as I also have received authority from My Father;
Note that the authority is as Jesus received from the Father. His identity of One with feet of burnished bronze, who walked out in victory the will of the Father, is connected with the overcoming, obedient and faithful ones who follow Him. He will also give to them the morning star.

Living a Covenant Response

2010-07-17T06:19:00.003-05:00

To the Church in Thyatira, Jesus revealed Himself in relation to their response to Him. He revealed His zeal and His faithfulness that this church was echoing. Revelation 2:18-19 (NASB)18"And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze, says this: 19'I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first.
It is important that we walk in the ways of God. Keeping our focus on Jesus, we are able to grow from glory to glory and keep pressing onward to the goal He has set for us. But again, we see Satan's effort to thwart and destroy by infiltrating and working within. We saw those who followed Balaam's teaching in the Church in Pergmum and now we see those who identify with Jezebel working in Thyatira as the church tolerates her presence.

I want to just point out the subtle difference in Satan's efforts to deceive and destroy these churches. Both churches were tolerating these influences, which though very subtle, were being effective. The "Balaam" sin was to get people to give way to temptation that appealed to their appetites and so get God to destroy them. The teaching of the Nicolaitans was that God would embrace and excuse whatever seemed to be "good" from other religions even if it was not in His Word. These appealed to the church in Pergamum enough to tolerate them.

The Jezebel spirit was so strong in the church in Thyatira that Jesus called the woman Jezebel. This spirit is manipulative while expressing the arrogance of the attraction and temptation of sex and using it to pervert authority. Combined with the fleshly appetite for forbidden foods and a stubborn refusal to repent, this became a deadly force that Jesus was going to punish those who agreed with her and followed her by yielding to her ways.

The attack of Satan on these two churches reveals a truth we need to see and understand for we face it today. Satan always attacks what God is doing. One of the most precious gifts God has given to mankind is to allow us to be a part of His creative work to "make man in Our image." The Psalmist said we are "wonderfully and fearfully made" for our bodies are created for covenant making and producing children. We are allowed to enjoy family life and watch the generations on earth reproduced over and over again with unique facets that delight and satisfy the soul. Satan hates this part of God's plan and has, from the beginning, sought to destroy mankind with that which God meant to be a great blessing. Every kind of beastial and perverted way of destroying the beauty of sexual relationship is inspired by Satan in the unredeemed. As we approach the fulfillment of God's purpose of The Church made ready as a Bride for her Beloved, Satan's anger and defilement are approaching the insane. Every kind of defilement is available to every age and in every environment. As God's chosen people, cleansed by His Blood, enriched by His Grace, led by His Spirit, we must not tolerate any form of the temptation Satan forces into our space. We must not let our human nature tolerate and condone the evil practices that Satan inspires.

Thyatira

2010-07-16T07:09:00.003-05:00

Revelation 2:18-29(ESV) 18"And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: 'The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze. 19 "'I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. 20But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. 21I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. 22Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, 23and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. 24But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. 25Only hold fast what you have until I come. 26 The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, 27and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. 28And I will give him the morning star. 29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'

Let us first look at the identity of Jesus to this church. His eyes are as a flame of fire and his feet as polished bronze. The eyes are often called the window to the spirit within. His eyes reveal the fire of the Spirit of God. The feet are the vehicle of our being and reveal the path we walk. Jesus walked out the Law and the path human beings walk to reach God's purpose of being in His image, mature sons of God. He was faithful in all His ways to God's purpose and desire. He was faithful to the very nature of God as well as His will. He carried out God's plan with a complete faithfulness in His attitude and response. He became a Son of God in two ways. He is the only begotten Son, God in the likeness of man. As a man, He walked in faithfulness and submission to the Father in all things and in His obedience, even to the death of the punishment of sinful man, was proven to be the Son of God by His resurrection. He is not ashamed to look at His followers and call them His brothers.

In these letters to the churches, Jesus reveals His identity in covenant in a deeper way than in the first covenant. In the Old Testament, we see the revelation of God was in His Names of covenant. The worship of God was identified by the sacrifice and the Temple. It was "exterior" worship. Jesus came and walked among us and led us into a relationship with His Father. He opened the way for us to become a part of His Royal family, His "House". He paid the price for us to become as He IS. We are enabled to worship Him with an invasive worship, a life changing identification with Him that produces change into His likeness. I feel so sorry for all these people that have to keep changing God's Word to fit their own image of their "self". They have to keep a neutral God that is "she" and "mother" and keep every thing on this temporal plane. Jesus plainly said that in the spirit realm there is neither male nor female. God is a Spirit and our identification with Him is in the spirit. The covenant promise I embrace is that I shall be like Him and receive a body like unto His glorious body, an eternal dwelling.

Identity

2010-07-14T06:36:00.004-05:00

One of the rich advantage of being a covenant friend is the identity of covenant. The exchange of names, the scars of cutting a covenant, the exchange of items that are strongly linked to the owner are all means of identifying a person "in covenant". A person's enemy knows immediately that he is taking on not only that person, but also the covenant friend, should he attack. Satan knows and can identify one walking in covenant with God. He knows the power and authority of a covenant.

To the Church in Pergamum, Jesus' identity is linked to the double-edged sword. All through this message there are references to teaching and eating. We know both of these are descriptions of our relation to The Word of God. Satan uses these same methods to link people to his "doctrines". I have been impressed many times as I read these messages to the churches, how very closely Satan stays to the methods of true worship of God to get people to worship him. Deception is very hard to identify by sight and hearing. To the observer there seems to be little difference. Only when you know and have paid the price for Truth do you hear the lack of Life in the words used. The religious rulers did not hear Truth even when they heard it from the mouth of Jesus. The discerning of Truth is not a human capability, but is a part of the grace of the Holy Spirit. We do not come to the Father except the Spirit draws us! This church in Pergamum had a mixture of those walking in Truth and those who clung to the Lie. Jesus told the church to repent!

The power of repentance is beyond human observance. We are told to humble ourselves and repent for sins we do not even commit so God can heal our land! We are identified by the covenant we are under. God has always seen that people are a part of the nation to which they belong, the church to which they belong, the family to which they belong and holds them responsible for that to which they are identified! It was not enough that some were holding fast to the faith in the midst of Satan's persecution if they could not expose the darkness within their own group! If they could not use the "sword of His mouth" and cut out the false, Jesus would come and do it (verse 16).

To those who would overcome, the fruit, or blessing, of covenant would be theirs. The blessing is linked to the identity of Jesus to that church. This message is concerning the Word of God. It is powerful to the bringing down of strongholds and is the bread of Life to those who eat it. Being faithful to the Truth, the very nature of God revealed in Jesus, is to overcome our human nature and let the Holy Spirit reveal in us and through us God's nature. This is walking in Light in the midst of darkness. This is abiding in Him even when we are walking in the "city" where Satan dwells! Being faithful to what we have in Him opens the door to receive more from Him. Responding to the Spirit's leading as we eat His Word, is the key to receiving the hidden manna kept from the casual and reserved for those who knock.

The exchange of names in covenant is complete when God gives to us the new name by which He knows us. It will only be complete as we give to Him the covenant response of being faithful to His Name!

Passive Attitudes

2010-07-12T07:26:00.004-05:00

When the Israelites faced the battle God had been preparing them to fight, the enemy sought a prophet to be on his side to help fight God' people. This should tell us something of the enemy's fear of God's people! When Jesus said that just before His return, the Church would be asleep, He certainly saw our condition. The only way we can become "aware" of what is happening is to trim our lamps! Then we will be aware of our need for more oil! Only the Holy Spirit will lead us through these days of preparation to meet our Bridegroom!

The enemy has been infiltrating the church all over the world by influencing people's opinions so they will preach their opinion as did Balaam. Whoever thought homeosexuality would not only be practiced by "Christians" but would be defended from the pulpit? And even have them in the pulpit to lead people seeking to be Christians? I have no doubt the great deception that Jesus warned us is upon us. That deception has lulled the Christian world away from seeking God and have settled with the comfort of religion, the broad way that leads to destruction. Religion can have any range of "the lie" and still find those who will embrace it. Satan is the author of "the lie" and he uses it as his weapon to bring people over to his side. He declared he would make himself as God and exalt himself above the stars, the declaration of God of His purpose written in the stars. Isaiah 14:13-14 (NASB)13"But you said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven;I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. 14'I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.' The key phrase of deception is "I will make myself". Paul warned Timothy of this when he charged him to hold to the Truth and to sound doctrine. II Timothy 4:12-17(NLT)12 Yes, and everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. 13 But evil people and impostors will flourish. They will deceive others and will themselves be deceived. 14 But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you. 15 You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 17 God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. Satan's attack against God's Word has always been to lead people away from those who hold to the Truth and lull them into passivity concerning the Word. Those who would read and "study" God's Word and then teach that God is not against homeosexuality and murder, do not know God. They have never crossed over into Life but continue in the way of the arch-deceiver, the author of the lie. Jesus' covenant word to us is that He will come and fight them with the sword of His mouth.

Living In Truth

2010-07-10T06:36:00.003-05:00

Revelation 2:12-17(NLT) 12 “Write this letter to the angel of the church in Pergamum. This is the message from the one with the sharp two-edged sword: 13 “I know that you live in the city where Satan has his throne, yet you have remained loyal to me. You refused to deny me even when Antipas, my faithful witness, was martyred among you there in Satan’s city. 14 “But I have a few complaints against you. You tolerate some among you whose teaching is like that of Balaam, who showed Balak how to trip up the people of Israel. He taught them to sin by eating food offered to idols and by committing sexual sin. 15 In a similar way, you have some Nicolaitans among you who follow the same teaching. 16 Repent of your sin, or I will come to you suddenly and fight against them with the sword of my mouth. 17 “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give some of the manna that has been hidden away in heaven. And I will give to each one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name that no one understands except the one who receives it.
It became important to me this morning to explain that I am not trying to "explain" these messages to the churches. My goal in these times with you is to show you the covenant relationship that is expressed, not only in these letters by Jesus to the churches, but in all of His Word. The letter to the Church in Pergamum is rich in covenant reference but also contains much that must be revealed by the Spirit.

The identity of Jesus is One with the two-edged sword. Hebrews 4:12(NIV) 12For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. The entire Word of God is revealing Jesus. He told this to Israel's rulers. John 5:39-40(NLT)39 “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! 40 Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.

There are two strong facets of a covenant that this church held strongly. The Name of Jesus and the faith of covenant. Abraham believed that Eternal Jehovah could and would cut covenant with a mortal man and it was accounted to him as righteousness. This church in Pergamum also held true to His Name and did not deny their faith in Him. They had ample opportunity to do so because of the strong persecution directed against them. Antipas, evidently one who had taught and led this people, was martyred brutally before them, yet they held strong.

They lived in the midst of darkness. Their light was established in the heart of darkness. This city was called by Jesus the dwelling of Satan, yet here was one of the seven lampstands! But the human weakness that could destroy them faster than Satan's persecution was exposed to them by Jesus so they could overcome it. They were suffering from human tolerance. They were allowing those who were following the teaching of Balaam and the Nicolaitans to co-exist as part of the church. God was prepared to make war on these elements with His sword. This church had to overcome their tolerance to those who embraced this sin and face them with the Truth, or the Lord would come to the church and do it His way!

You have a treasure when you have a leader who is courageous to hold to the Truth of God's Word and line up with that and not with compromise. Courage to face persecution is praiseworthy, but the courage to stand only on God's Word is life eternal. Compromise with Satan's attitude toward sex and the feeding on the "food" of the idols of this age, will destroy your relationship to God. What the world seeks and plays with are not to be a part of our attitude and desires, nor are we to excuse those who do as a tolerated part of God's purpose. This has nothing to do with our love for sinners and desire to see them brought to God. We can go into the dens of iniquity and hold forth the light. This church was living in the city where Satan dwelt and was a light. Jesus went among sinners to reach them and did not judge where they were but led them away from it. This is not the same as being tolerant and co-existing with that which God hates. When we abide in Jesus, we have found our dwelling place and in Him, there is no darkness at all.