Matthew 6:33 says to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and THEN all these things will be added unto you.
In other words, when we put God first everything else falls into place. I can't think of anything more important in living a victorious Christian life than putting God first.
Daily time with God is essential.
Do you ever wonder why you are having a hard time getting answered prayer or walking in peace, love, and joy? Do you wonder why you are constantly battling? There is a rest for the people of God and this rest is found in His presence.
We don't spend time with God to "earn" his blessings or our salvation or anything else. We spend time with God to be shaped into His image. We spend time with God to be healed, restored, renewed, empowered. We spend time with God because we love Him and we want to be with Him.
All our answers are found in His presence. All of them. All of them. Everything that pertains to life and Godliness is found in Him.
In John chapter 15 Jesus describes how He is the vine and we are the branches. In order to live, in order to produce fruit, we must remain in the vine! Apart from Him we can do no good works!
I've always been a "need to know exactly "how" to do it" kind of person. When I am learning the things of God, I always want to know exactly how to do it. For example, people would say, "you must remain in the vine." Ok, I would think, HOW do you remain in the vine? I like concrete specific examples (thanks to my high school English teacher).
We remain in the vine by spending time with God everyday, by making time with Him our priority. We don't schedule our time with God around our day, we schedule our day around our time with God.
Throughout the day, we remain in the vine by continually being aware of His presence. We meditate scripture, we listen to worship music, we walk in joy and love. The Bible says that when we walk in love, we are walking in Him!
Do I ever mess up? Yes! I get distracted, I lose my way sometimes. When I notice things are not right in my heart, I realize, I've been neglecting my FIRST priority and God so graciously and lovingly reminds me to come back to Him, to put Him first once again.
If there is any lesson I've learned of life or death importance, it is this one. Where there is God, there is life! Time with God is a life or death matter... literally!
Friday, June 10, 2011
Saturday, June 4, 2011
I Dare You!
The church in America today, with all it's "good intentions" has done much to destroy the basic principles of Christianity, to create a wimpy church, a church without power. The simple but powerful principle of faith has been destroyed. No longer are we taught to believe and act on the promises of God. Instead we are taught that God has us like puppets on a string, micromanaging every detail of life on this planet, and that He is arbitrarily handing out or withdrawing His blessings based on His whims. When in fact, God's promises are meant for "whosoever" will believe and receive them!
The true gospel is a gospel of power! We, as God's representatives on this earth, have been given authority to change circumstances on this earth through our prayers and our faith.
Much of the church does not want to accept the full truth of the gospel... Why, I wonder? Could it be that the true gospel requires too much of us? We may have to give up the American dream in order to live God's dream? We may have to sacrifice, to live a life apart, to give up our own hopes and desires and be fully consumed by God's desires.
The true gospel, requires a laying down of our own lives, a dying to ourselves, so to speak. But the glorious truth is that once we do this, and it is not easy, we gain back so much more than we lost. His desires become our desires, His will becomes our will.
America's wimpy gospel says, it is a blessing to be poor. It says, sometimes it is God's will for us to be sick to teach us something. Though we believe it is God's will for a person to be sick we still pray and pray for God to heal them while seeking all help possible from doctors. If it's God's will why not let them stay sick? The church in America says that all that is happening around us must be God's will, all the while thinking if we get enough education we can fix everything. We pursue the American dream. We teach our children, that they must educate themselves so they can get high paying jobs and own lots of stuff and then they are successful.
The true gospel of Jesus Christ says that God desires above all things that we prosper and be in health even as our soul prospers. If we are healthy and prosperous, we then can reach out to a dying world. We can be helpful and relevant to the hurting. The true gospel says that, "By Jesus's stripes we were healed!" This means we received our healing at the cross! We just have to walk in what God has already given us.
Sometimes people ask me, What good is praying when God will just do whatever He wants anyway? With this kind of view, it is true, there is no use in praying. If we don't believe God heals today, that it is His will to heal, then why pray for healing? It's a waste of our time and God's. If we believe it is God's will to keep us sick to teach us something then why waste our time praying for healing?
It is so exciting when we get the revelation that God's Word is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The Word of God was not just written for "back then", the Word is written for such a day as TODAY! It is relevant today. His promises are as fresh and good now as they ever were.
If the gospel was only preached for salvation, it would be worth it. Avoiding hell, spending eternity in Heaven, is the greatest treasure that God gave us in the gospel. Much of the church in America really only sees the gospel as a means to avoid hell. And if that was all it was, that would be OK. Still completely worth being Christians. But the gospel is so so much more. God is so big. He is so powerful. He is EXCITING, not boring! In the gospel God offers us so much more than we know, so much more than we are willing to receive... Personally, I think the God so many people serve is just plain wimpy and boring... He is in a little tiny box that they create.
I DARE you today, take God out of the box. Read the Word, believe the Word, let your life and your beliefs be established on the Word. Put the Word above the World. Find out what God promises you and take Him up on it. Come to the banqueting table. It has been laid out for you. Take and eat of all that is good. God will never force you to come. He will never force you to partake. If you choose not to believe or receive what He offers, He will be sad, but He will not shove it down your throat. God is a gentleman!
There are lots of good Christians out there who are on their way to Heaven, they are dearly loved by God, yet their prayers go unanswered. Why, you ask? It's not a matter of God loving them any less. It's not a matter of Him arbitrarily choosing to answer some and not others... it's a matter of FAITH! The Bible says that without faith it is impossible to please God. It says, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. The Bible says that he who doubts is like a boat tossed about on the waves! He is a rewarder of those who believe and who diligently seek Him!
Dear Lord, reveal yourself to us! Give us revelation of your promises and help us to increase our faith by using it. Give us revelation each and everyday of our lives, for every situation that we have!
The true gospel is a gospel of power! We, as God's representatives on this earth, have been given authority to change circumstances on this earth through our prayers and our faith.
Much of the church does not want to accept the full truth of the gospel... Why, I wonder? Could it be that the true gospel requires too much of us? We may have to give up the American dream in order to live God's dream? We may have to sacrifice, to live a life apart, to give up our own hopes and desires and be fully consumed by God's desires.
The true gospel, requires a laying down of our own lives, a dying to ourselves, so to speak. But the glorious truth is that once we do this, and it is not easy, we gain back so much more than we lost. His desires become our desires, His will becomes our will.
America's wimpy gospel says, it is a blessing to be poor. It says, sometimes it is God's will for us to be sick to teach us something. Though we believe it is God's will for a person to be sick we still pray and pray for God to heal them while seeking all help possible from doctors. If it's God's will why not let them stay sick? The church in America says that all that is happening around us must be God's will, all the while thinking if we get enough education we can fix everything. We pursue the American dream. We teach our children, that they must educate themselves so they can get high paying jobs and own lots of stuff and then they are successful.
The true gospel of Jesus Christ says that God desires above all things that we prosper and be in health even as our soul prospers. If we are healthy and prosperous, we then can reach out to a dying world. We can be helpful and relevant to the hurting. The true gospel says that, "By Jesus's stripes we were healed!" This means we received our healing at the cross! We just have to walk in what God has already given us.
Sometimes people ask me, What good is praying when God will just do whatever He wants anyway? With this kind of view, it is true, there is no use in praying. If we don't believe God heals today, that it is His will to heal, then why pray for healing? It's a waste of our time and God's. If we believe it is God's will to keep us sick to teach us something then why waste our time praying for healing?
It is so exciting when we get the revelation that God's Word is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The Word of God was not just written for "back then", the Word is written for such a day as TODAY! It is relevant today. His promises are as fresh and good now as they ever were.
If the gospel was only preached for salvation, it would be worth it. Avoiding hell, spending eternity in Heaven, is the greatest treasure that God gave us in the gospel. Much of the church in America really only sees the gospel as a means to avoid hell. And if that was all it was, that would be OK. Still completely worth being Christians. But the gospel is so so much more. God is so big. He is so powerful. He is EXCITING, not boring! In the gospel God offers us so much more than we know, so much more than we are willing to receive... Personally, I think the God so many people serve is just plain wimpy and boring... He is in a little tiny box that they create.
I DARE you today, take God out of the box. Read the Word, believe the Word, let your life and your beliefs be established on the Word. Put the Word above the World. Find out what God promises you and take Him up on it. Come to the banqueting table. It has been laid out for you. Take and eat of all that is good. God will never force you to come. He will never force you to partake. If you choose not to believe or receive what He offers, He will be sad, but He will not shove it down your throat. God is a gentleman!
There are lots of good Christians out there who are on their way to Heaven, they are dearly loved by God, yet their prayers go unanswered. Why, you ask? It's not a matter of God loving them any less. It's not a matter of Him arbitrarily choosing to answer some and not others... it's a matter of FAITH! The Bible says that without faith it is impossible to please God. It says, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. The Bible says that he who doubts is like a boat tossed about on the waves! He is a rewarder of those who believe and who diligently seek Him!
Dear Lord, reveal yourself to us! Give us revelation of your promises and help us to increase our faith by using it. Give us revelation each and everyday of our lives, for every situation that we have!
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