Refutation of the Purpose

Answering a Kingdom Call is not limited to the Church.

One of the challenges for many believers is that of answering a Kingdom Call. There is a difference between answering a call in the church and a call to the Kingdom of God. There are a lot of individuals who have answered a call to preach, a call to pastor, a call to sing, a call to work with youth; and all of these callings are valid and legitimate, but what you will find is that most of these callings take place within a local congregation. When one is challenged to answer a call to the Kingdom, it's not primarily for, or at least restricted to, the church, it's for the world! That's why the Bible says that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son (John 3). Therefore, when answering a call to the Kingdom of God, you're not being sent to work just in the church, you're being sent to serve in the world as an Ambassador for Christ!

The reason this can be challenging is because once you're sent to serve in the world on behalf of the Kingdom, your mission becomes misconstrued and misinterpreted at best. Many Christians are so bound by "church ministry," they have no clue as to how to negotiate the ministry of the Kingdom in worldly environments. So your ministry becomes misunderstood by the church. Then, because you're representing a value system that is not congruent with the principles of secular society, once you begin to execute the principles of the Kingdom, then people in the world look at you strange. It really is a challenge. For this reason, for those who are in the midst of answering a Kingdom Call, you must be prepared to resist the "refutation of the purpose."

As you prepare to launch into that which God has prepared and ordained for you to do in the name of the Kingdom, inevitably there will be someone, based upon their misunderstanding, that will refute and dispute that which God is calling you to do. If you're not armed and ready, based upon your own questions and uncertainty of what God is actually calling you to do, you will acquiesce to this ignorance and fail to complete your Divine mission from God. Needless to say, this is not the will of God.

Jesus had this challenge as He prepared to fulfill God's calling and purpose for His life. In Matthew 16, Jesus asks the disciples whom do men say that I Am. Peter responds and says thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. After this Divine Declaration, Jesus proceeds to lay out for the disciples what it is that God actually had called Him to do. Be not deceived saints, it's the people that are closest to you that will represent the most misunderstanding of your mission and ministry. Isn't it interesting that Peter was the one who identified Christ, and yet was the very one who represented the refutation of the purpose. Don't be surprised when your strongest supporters are equally your biggest detractors.

As Jesus lays out for the disciples God's plan for Him to suffer, die and be raised from the dead, Peter adamantly and vehemently rejects His affirmation of what the Father had called Him to do. Peter's response is "be it far from thee Lord, this shall not be unto thee." And what was Jesus' response? "Get thee behind me Satan." When you become the object of the refutation of purpose, it's all a satanic attack, so you must be prepared to fight! This wasn't Peter disagreeing with his Lord, this was Satan finding an available vessel to try to thwart the plans of God. Don't get wrapped up in flesh and blood, friends and family, personality and supporters, that's not who it is; it's Satan. And if you're going to fulfill God's Kingdom Calling for your life, your response has to be just like Jesus, "thou art an offense unto me." Why? Because "thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men."

Saints, as God prepares to release His Kingdom movement upon the earth, and calls and commissions you for your Kingdom assignment, be prepared for those vessels, particularly those closest to you, that have been strategically marked by Satan to be used as instruments for Refutation of the Purpose.

Preparation for the Assignment, part 3

After the training, comes God's power!

As we move into the specific dynamics of the preparation for the assignment, let's look at what is required of us as we progress through the wilderness experience and achieve the preparation required to fulfill God's Divine calling for our lives. 

The first thing we see that Jesus had to experience was self-denial. Jesus makes it clear that if we're going to be His disciples we "must" learn to deny ourselves (Matthew 16). Jesus went without food for 40 days. No bread, no water, no nothing. That is self-denial. The opposite of self-denial is self-indulgence. Saints, we have to be sensitive to those areas that God is calling us to deny ourselves in order to create more capacity for Him and what it is He is calling us to do. What we really want to understand with this is that self-denial isn't always about stopping some act of sinful behavior. Yes, if God is calling you to deny yourself in some area of blatant disobedience, by all means, allow the Spirit to circumcise your heart and govern yourself accordingly. But it is not a sin to eat. That's what Jesus was denying Himself of; and I would suspect that for most of us, what God is calling us to deny ourselves of isn't overtly "sinful."  Be sensitive and discerning. Remember, it's the little foxes that spoil the vine (Song of Solomon 2). Let the Spirit identify for you those areas that you need to give up or at least pull back on, so that you will have the necessary capacity to fulfill what God is calling you to do.

The next area that we're going to have to experience in order to be sufficiently prepared for God's next assignment for our lives is Spiritual Warfare. Once again, this is an area that doesn't get touched on "enough" in terms of Christians truly understanding that Spiritual Warfare is a staple part of the Christian lifestyle. If you're going to be a disciple of Christ you "are" going to experience and go through Spiritual Warfare. So don't act like some "strange phenomenon" has come upon you when you start getting attacked by the Enemy. It's par for the course. But if you allow the Holy Spirit to adequately train you during your Wilderness Experience, you'll know how to come out Victorious when God sends you out on the battle field.

In looking at how Jesus dealt with the Spiritual Warfare that He had to endure during His Wilderness Experience, His strategy was very simple, He stood on the Word. Saints, we've got to understand, if we're going to stand up against the wiles of the devil, the only way we're going to be effective in this area is if we stand on the Word. And we can't stand on the Word if we don't read the Word. We've got to get the Word of God in our spirits. There has to be a steady and significant diet of the Word in order to renew our minds and strengthen our faith. This is not an area that we can afford to be lazy and slothful in. Read the Word. Read the Word. Read the Word!

You need to understand, if you're preparing your heart to be a player in the next move of God and are positioning yourself accordingly, then Satan is coming after you. But be not afraid, nor discouraged, it's all part of the preparation process. Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world (1 John 4). We already have the victory; but we have to learn how to "exercise" that victory when fighting against the Enemy. Otherwise he can deceive us and we can lose what God has already procured and ordained (Genesis 2). 

When Jesus had completed His 40 days of training, the Scripture says He came out of the wilderness with "power" (Luke 4). Once you've completed your preparation for the assignment, according to the will of the Father, you, too, will be empowered to make the Kingdom of God a reality on earth as it is in Heaven.

Preparation for the Assignment, part 2

There's pain and isolation in our wilderness preparation.

As we continue to explore the theme of preparation for the assignment, let us re-visit the prelude to the preparation. In terms of Jesus' baptism before entering the preparation process, remember what kind of baptism Jesus experienced. Jesus experienced the Baptism of John, which was also the baptism of repentance (Mark 1). Of course Jesus had nothing to repent of, but the baptism of John was deeper than "turning away from sin." 

The word "repentance" in the Greek also means "to think again." Saints, there are some key and critical issues in many of our lives that, if we're going to be available vessels for the Kingdom of God, we're going to have to "re-think" or think again. Some of the ways we think about money, some of the ways we think about our jobs, some of the ways we think about our family, some of the ways we think about career, some of the ways we think about "church"; we're going to have to think again. We're going have to re-think some of the fundamental attitudes and perceptions we've developed over decades because they are not in alignment with the principles of the Kingdom of God. One of the biggest challenges to Kingdom Living is un-renewed thinking. Saints, there has to be a baptism of repentance, not just in terms of sin and dead works, but in terms of out-dated thinking that's not in alignment with the ways of the Kingdom of God.

Now, let us look at the location of the preparation Process. Once Jesus experienced the baptism of John and received Divine approval of the Father (Luke 3), the Holy Spirit led Him into the wilderness. Why the wilderness? Because Saints, the wilderness is a place of loneliness and solitude. This is one of the biggest challenges I'm finding in a lot of believers right now. The place and the path that God has temporarily positioned you is hard! There's pain, there's isolation, there's exasperation, there's frustration, and no mater how much moral support you receive and prayers of the saints, you still feel all alone. At the risk of sounding sarcastic, congratulations and welcome to the preparation process! If it's hard right now for you, congratulations! If you feel like you're all alone right now, congratulations! If you feel like you're going through with no "clue" as to when this agony and depression is going to end, congratulations, you are experiencing your preparation for the assignment! 

We need to be up front with people and be clear, the preparation process is hard. It's difficult, it's tedious, and it can be long (or at least longer than we expected). I wish I could soften it up and make it sugary, but I can't; it is what it is. Jesus wasn't led to a palace, He wasn't led to a tent, He wasn't led to the Temple, He was led to the wilderness. If you are not willing (God will make you able) to endure your wilderness experience in preparation for God's Divine assignment for your life and in this next season, then you're not fit for the call for the Kingdom of God.

Preparation for the Assignment

God will prepare us for what He has called us to do.

Probably the greatest example of preparation for the assignment was Jesus. When Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness after His baptism at the Jordan, the purpose of this forty-day period was preparation. Part of the lesson in this is that if Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, had to go through preparation for what the Father had called Him to do, it should go without saying that we as mere mortals will have to go through a preparation process as well. A lot of ministries and callings have been prematurely aborted or thwarted in large part because of a lack of preparation on the part of the minister. We, like our Saviour, must go through the preparation process.

Let's first look at the rationale for the preparation process. Why would Jesus, the Son of God, have to go through divine preparation for His assignment? Because every call of God requires character adjustment. Whether you know it or not, you're not ready for what it is that God has called and assigned you to do. I'm sure that doesn't come as a surprise to many, but the real part is, you don't know what's actually lacking for which you need development and preparation in order to fulfill God's Divine assignment for you in this next season. This is why the preparation process is mandatory. Even Jesus had to go through preparation as a man, in order to effectively fulfill His Kingdom assignment. So we must understand what the "process" is for.

We also want to explore the prelude to the preparation. Before Jesus was led by the Spirit into the preparation process, He was first baptized. Why is this significant? Because there has to be an immersion in the things of God before there is qualification to be responsible for handling the matters of the Kingdom. There are still too many Christians, preachers included, that are trying to "play it safe" with God. They still won't SELL OUT. They're still holding on to that little bit of flesh, that little bit of security, that little bit of self-appeasing, because they haven't reached for the Kingdom with wholesale reckless abandon.

If you're still holding on to a piece of yourself, then saints, you're not ready for the Kingdom 
movement. This doesn't mean that God can't and won't use you, but He won't be able to use you at the level for which the Kingdom of God and the manifestation thereof operates. You've got to get immersed, you have to experience a spiritual baptism before you're ready to experience the preparation process.

Honoring the Lord

We are entering a season Saints, where it is imperative that we develop a spirit and posture of honoring the Lord. If I am discerning the spirit of the times correctly, we are getting ready to enter a Season of Divine Judgment, and when this happens, the people of God must make sure that they are walking in a spirit of fear and reverence before the Lord.When we talk about the Judgment of God, the automatic connotation of it is negative. However, it doesn't have to be. Judgment is deliberation, assessment or evaluation. It's the passing out of God's divine grades. So if you get an A in the class, Judgment is a good thing. If you get an F, it's probably not something you're looking forward to. This is the season for which we are entering. But whatever your grade is, be not presumptuous, make sure that you're walking in a spirit that Honors the Lord.

One of the primary areas for which we need to honor the Lord is in our Giving. The Bible says to honor the Lord with our substance (or finances) (Proverbs 3). There are still too many Christians that are not giving God what they owe Him financially. At the bare minimum we owe God the tenth of what we financially earn (Malachi 3). You can't be honoring God and robbing Him at the same time. However, there are others that have been tithing for a long time, and God is calling you to give more. It's called sacrificial giving, and it doesn't always have to be to the church. Sometimes God will call you to give to a ministry. Sometimes He will call you to sow to someone in need. Sometimes there's a special cause that He's ordained you to financially support. But whatever it is, be obedient to the will of God and honor Him with your finances.

Another way God wants us to honor Him is with our bodies. Romans chapter 12 instructs us to present our bodies to the Lord as a Living Sacrifice, and that this is our reasonable service. Many times, when Christians read this text, they automatically think about sex. Yes, this reference is applicable to that subject, but it's not restricted thereto. One of the things that the Lord is continuing to show me is how we dishonor Him by the way we eat. If we were to be honest, and this includes a lot of Christians (particularly us preachers), our eating habits could be described as extremely dysfunctional. The older I get the more the Lord has to "tweak" how I eat. Remember that the Scriptures describe our bodies as the Temple of the Lord (1Corinthians 6). Yet we put all types of smoke, liquor, sweets (personal conviction), fast food and other toxins that just flat out are not healthy. This is not honoring to the Lord. Would you want to live in a house that 's always being bombarded with toxic material? I thought not, and neither does the Lord! Let's honor Him by taking better care of the vessels in which He resides.

The last thing we want to touch on in terms of honoring the Lord is with our minds. The Bible says to "let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2). Whether we as Christians are willing to admit it or not, we don't have the right to think however we want to think. We have a Cognitive Mandate from Christ to think like Him. So if you're walking around with bitterness in your heart, you're not honoring God. If you're walking around with lust in your heart, you're not honoring God. If you're walking around with pride and arrogance and conceit in your heart, you're not honoring God. God is meek and lowly in heart, always forgiving our sins (Matthew 11, Ephesians 4). There are some thought-patterns that we as Christians have adopted that do not reflect the Mind of Christ. We need to repent! And let the Holy Spirit transform us by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12). Saints, God has been too good and He's been too faithful for us to continue in our carnal ways. Let's Honor Him and submit to His Divine Will for our lives.

Press Into His Rest

I received a Prophetic Word this morning, where the Lord said that He has "called and required a rested people". Saints, many of us are tired. Many of us are worn out. Many of us are weary in our well-doing (Galatians 6). God knows your pain and He's in touch with your fatigue. However, we must understand, it's not God's will for us to be tired, it's not His will for us to be weary; it's His will for us to have Rest. The will of the Father for His children is for us to rest in Him in and through His Son, Jesus the Christ. The challenge of this is that you have to Press into that Rest. The Rest of God in Christ is not just something that's going to be bestowed upon you, it's something that you have to press into.

I'm sure many of us are saying, "I've been pressing for a long time". I will not argue with that, but the question is have you been pressing in the right direction, and have you been pressing for the right thing? A lot of us have been pressing into Ministry. What is God calling me to do? What is my office in the Kingdom of God? Where is my next Ministry Assignment? These are all excellent questions to raise and significant issues to address, but don't necessarily represent His Rest. Some of us have been pressing into Relationships. Trying to work things out with our spouse, trying to iron things out with our children, trying to find out who our husband or wife is going to be. Once again, all of these relational issues are valid, but they don't necessarily represent His Rest.

Have you ever wondered why it was so easy for Jesus to do Miracles? Of course the obvious answer is, He was the Son of God. That, of course, is correct, but that's not why Miracles came so easy for Him. The reason why the Miraculous was second nature to Jesus is because every Miracle He did grew out of the Rest He drew from His Father. That's why He said in the 5th chapter of John that He only does what He sees the Father doing. Jesus' Ministry wasn't of "original design", it was strictly patterned after the Design of the Father. That's what made it easy! And that is still the blueprint for Kingdom Advancement today.

Saints, I would like to challenge you as well as encourage you, if you are tired today, if you are weary (emotionally, physically, relationally or otherwise), redirect your energy from trying to "work things out in the Lord", to working to enter His Rest. PRESS into the Word, PRESS into Praise and Worship, PRESS into Fasting and Prayer, PRESS into sacrifice and surrender. If you learn to press into the Presence of God and let everything you do grow out of your Rest-Relationship with Him, you'll have the Testimony of Isaiah 40; you shall mount up with wings as an eagle, you will run and not be weary, you will walk and not faint.

A Brand New Life

There are many people, including people in the church, that are dissatisfied with their lives. Whether it's financially, emotionally, relationally, occupationally, even spiritually; they feel like life is not what they want it to be, let alone what it should be. This is not the will of God. Jesus said that He came that we might have life and life more abundantly (John 10). With this being the case, we should not be discontent and dissatisfied with our lives for the long-haul. Even in the rough times, God is still blessing us (whether you feel like it or not). So why do we go through those bouts of not liking our lives, when God has been so good?

In part, I believe it has to do with the fact that many of us as believers have never tapped into the Brand New Life that God has ordained for us. The life of the believer in Christ is supposed to be a Supernatural Adventure. However, many Christians are stuck in the same cultural rut that most non-believers trod through. Once again, this is not the will of God. The Bible says in the 16th Psalm that in God's Presence there is fulness of joy, and at His Right Hand, pleasures forevermore. Does that sound boring to you? So what's the problem? We haven't grasped our Brand New Life, full of adventure, excitement, joy and peace.

In order to grasp the Brand New Life that God has ordained for us, we must first come to grips with the fact that the Brand New Life in Christ is "otherworldly". In other words, it is not of this world. That's a stop sign for a lot of believers because there're  still too many of us that want to be "accepted" by the world. Wrong saints. The Bible clearly states that God has ordained us to be a "peculiar people" (1Peter 2). You're not going to be a die-hard disciple of Christ and fit in with the world. That's not happening. So if you're willing to compromise the Brand New Life that Jesus secured for you with His Blood because you want people to "like you", then you deem yourself unfit for the Abundant Life that God has ordained for you to experience as a believer in His Son.

The next challenge I think that a lot of believers have that precludes them from experiencing the Brand New Life is "cultural conditioning". There are too many Christians that have "conformed to this world" as opposed to being "transformed by the renewing of their minds" (Romans 12). God's ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are Higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55). Therefore, in order to experience the Brand New Life that God has ordained for you, you've got to learn to think differently. And more than anything else, think like God!

Saints, believe me when I tell you, the times are a changing. Now is not the time to be stuck in secular, carnal thinking that doesn't reflect the mind-set of the Kingdom. Get in the Word, learn to deny yourself, let the Holy Spirit renew you in the spirit of your mind; and in Due Season, you'll experience the Brand New Life that God ordained for you before the foundation of the world.

Can You Pass the Test

As we continue to explore the question of Can You Pass the Test, there are two more individuals that we want to look at that God tested in regards to the execution of His Divine Will for their lives. The next person we want to examine is Abraham. Abraham is the Father of Faith, and by the Grace of God, he passed the Test. The first test that He had to pass was to leave His family (Genesis 12). The Lord told him to leave his country, kindred and father's house, to a land that He would show him. In other words, Abraham didn't know "where" he was going. But he went anyway. Saints, if you're going to pass the test that God has prepared for you, you're going to have to walk in faith and obedience. You're going to have to trust God, even when what He tells you doesn't make sense, and you're going to have to obey Him even when you don't want to and it's inconvenient to do so. Abraham passed this test. However, it was the second test that got him "over the hump" so to speak. God told Abraham to sacrifice his his only begotten son (Hebrews 11) and place him on the altar to God (Genesis 22). This was the final exam. God had promised that Isaac would be Abraham's heir. Isaac was the "promised child", and now God was telling Abraham to sacrifice his son unto Him. Saints, in order to pass your final test before your promotion, there's something that you have to be willing to sacrifice and surrender unto God that will represent death. It will be something that represents your heart. Something that is very precious to you. Something that will render significant pain in order for you to part with it. But this is the test. And Abraham passed! And to this day he's still being blessed, and his family because he was able to pass the test.
The last person we want to look at is Jesus. He too had two tests. His first test was in the wilderness when he had to endure Satanic temptation. Saints, there are some of us, before God can trust you with the powers from the age to come (Hebrews 6), that are going to have to endure Satanic testing. Not just "spiritual warfare" but actual satanic confrontation. I can't totally explain what this entails, but in essence it is a testing of your character. God "requires" holiness (1Peter 1), and in order to insure that the spirit of holiness is established in you, God will allow you to endure satanic testing so that the Divine Nature may be sealed within your being. Needless to say, Jesus passed the test. But it was the last test that makes us all shout Hallelujah! It was the Test of the Cross. Please understand, if Jesus doesn't pass His final exam on Calvary, everything else would've been in vain. Saints, we must understand, yes we have gifts, yes we have callings, yes we have anointings and yes we have assignments, but we also have a cross. There is a cross that God has called each of His children to bear, and if you're going to pass your Final Exam and be ALL that God has called you to be, you've got to bear your cross (Matthew 16). What is the cross God is calling you to bear? And, are you bearing it? Once again, this is not a subject that is frequently preached in the mainstream church, but it is an indispensable message for the advancement of the Kingdom of God. I pray that wherever you are in the University of the Kingdom, whatever exams God has designed for you to take, that you will have the Faith and Maturity, to Pass the Test.

Can You Pass The Test

If you are going to walk with God and have a significant role in the building of His Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven, then you are going to have to be tested. This is not a subject that is very popular in the contemporary mainstream church because we don't like to think about the idea of our loving and merciful God actually "testing" His children. But yes, He does. God tests His children, particularly the ones He has chosen to use to His  Glory and to His Praise. Therefore, if you've been diligently seeking Him and you've been faithful over a few things, in order for you to receive the Promotion that God has ordained for you, then the question I raise today is, Can You Pass the Test?
The Bible is filled with examples of servants of God that the Lord tested in regards to their faithfulness and obedience to His Divine Will. As we explore this, I want to state on the front end that there are two components to the testing of God. In the natural it could be described as like a Mid-Term Exam and then the Final Exam, which of course determines whether or not you actually pass the class. I want to explore this concept from this particular vantage point because I suspect that there might be some of you that may feel like you've already been tested and, by the Grace of God, you've already passed. Your assessment may very well be correct, but there may yet be a "final exam" for you to take in order to get to where God has ordained you to be.
The first person we want to look at in terms of the Testing of God is Adam. A lot of times we may not look at it this way, but the commandment that God gave Adam and Eve regarding the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, was a Test (Genesis 2). I believe that Adam passed the first part, but He failed the Final. We have to remember that there was no true concept of "time" in the Garden of Eden. Before Adam sinned, humanity didn't live in time, they lived in Eternity. With that understanding, it may have been a "very long time" that Adam lived in the Garden, number one before Eve was even created, and before she actually sinned. If we look at this narrative from that perspective, I believe (and this is my faith, not my doctrine) that Adam was tempted to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil before Eve was even created. There's nothing biblically to substantiate that, but that's my faith. If my belief is true (hypothetically) then Adam passed the first test. But the nature of the test shifted when his wife sinned. Yes, we know the story of Eve listening to the serpent and subsequently offering the forbidden fruit to Adam (Genesis 3). But I believe (and once again this is my faith, not my doctrine) that Adam was supposed to die for His bride like the last Adam did (1Corinthians 15). I don't have space to fully elaborate on that, but when Adam failed this final exam, he then digressed into disobedience and repeated the same mishap as his wife.

The Inevitability of Offense

If you're going to live in this world, one thing you can expect to experience is to be offended. It would be great if we could live in a world where nobody offends us, nobody ever hurts our feelings, nobody ever insults us, this would be great. But it's not reality. At some point in our lives, eventually and inevitably, somebody is going to offend us. As Christians, we need to be prepared for how to deal with this, because if we're not, it can result in dire consequences in our relationship with God. We need to be prepared for the Inevitability of offense.

When somebody hurts you, when somebody offends you, when somebody makes you mad, how do you handle it? Sometimes people offend us or hurt us and they're not even aware that they did anything to us. When you experience that sting in your soul that somebody has done you wrong or not responded to you or treated you in the way you expect or prefer, the first thing you need to do is forgive. That's the first thing you need to do, forgive. 

The reason this response to offense is so significant is because it keeps your salvation in tact. Jesus makes it clear that if we don't forgive others, the Father will not forgive us (Matthew 6). Is it worth going to hell because somebody walked by you and didn't say hello, or didn't let you in the driving lane? I know these examples sound trivial, but you'd be surprised how much energy people are consuming over trivial things like these because of the level of offense they feel when it happens to them. If you fit this description, you may have a deeper issue, more than you realize.

Forgiveness is the key to the Inevitability of offense. What is forgiveness? Forgiveness is the release of a debt. So if I owe you $20, if you "forgive" my debt, it means you're saying to me, I no longer owe you that $20. The debt has been forgiven. This is what God has done for us. Our debt of sin, what we owe God for the price of our disobedience and transgressions, has been forgiven and released because of the Blood of His Son Jesus. The Father expects us to do the same. When offense comes, and it will, He expects us to release that debt because He has released us from ours. It doesn't mean you don't acknowledge that you were wronged or that you were hurt, but you don't hold on to it, you let it go. So many people, including Christians, are suffering all types of physical ailments and disease in large part because they've been holding on to grudges and bitterness for decades. This is not the will of God.

The next time somebody "ticks you off," the next time somebody "dogs you out", the next time somebody hurts your feelings, intentionally or unintentionally, the next time somebody mistreats you or disrespects you, let it go. Forgive them. Don't hold on to that bitterness. Don't hold on to that resentment. Don't hold on to that hurt. Give that pain and hurt to God, and allow His Holy Spirit to heal the pain of your heart and soul. This is the Divine Will of God for us as His children. It is the best and only way to deal with the Inevitability of offense.

Blessed Success, Part 3

God has a Blessed Success that He has reserved for His people. This Blessed Success can be accessed through Covenant Relationship with His Son, Jesus the Christ, and His shed blood for the remission and forgiveness of our sins. Galatians chapter 3 points out that Jesus died, not only that our sins may be forgiven, but also that we might take advantage of The Blessing of Abraham, which is the root of the Blessed Success that God has made available for His children through His Son Jesus. If we can understand the terms of the covenant that God originally made with Abraham, we can access that same blessing in and through our Lord Jesus Christ.

In reading Genesis 12 the Lord says to Abraham, "And I will make of thee a great nation and I will bless thee, and make thy name great". The Lord goes on to tell Abraham in the 17th chapter of Genesis, "I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect and I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly...and I will make thee exceeding fruitful and I will make nations of thee and kings shall come out of thee".  Hopefully this language sounds familiar, because it is basically the same covenant and blessing that God originally made with Adam in the Garden of Eden. God never intended for His people's success to be contingent upon work, it was always supposed to come from His Blessing. 

However, there are two keys to accessing this Blessed Success. The first one is obedience. In Genesis chapter 12, the Lord tells Abraham to leave his kindred and his father's house. If Abraham isn't obedient to the word of the Father, he forfeits the blessing. Blessed Success is contingent upon geographical obedience. If you're out of divine position, if you're not in divine alignment, you can miss the Blessed Success that God has prepared for you. 

The next key is obedience in the tithe. I've heard people say that the tithe is an Old Testament principle and is not applicable to the New Testament church. Yes, the tithe principle originated in the Old Testament, but it's not a part of The Law. And if you read the Book of Hebrews, you'll find that the tithe still has New Testament relevance. But the key to the Blessing of Abraham is found in Genesis 14. After Abraham defeated the kings that had kidnapped his nephew Lot, the scripture says that Melchizedek, king of Salem (referenced in Hebrews chapter 7) came to Abraham, and Abraham "gave him tithes of all" the spoils he received from the battle he had won. This, I believe, was the catalyst for the Blessing that Abraham received from God in Genesis chapter 17. You can't be blessed robbing God! If you're not paying your tithes and offerings according to Malachi chapter 3, as a child of God, you can expect to suffer financially. You're operating outside of covenant agreement. It's like a spouse who won't come home at night. The spouse doesn't care, if you will, about the neighbor down the street because they're not married to them. Remember, we are The Bride of Christ, so when you're in Covenant Relationship, there are consequences for not properly honoring that relationship. There are dire consequences, particularly financially, for not honoring God with the tithe.

I pray that at some level we've been able to glean from what has been shared, in order to take advantage of the Blessing of Abraham that Jesus died for us to receive. As a Christian and a child of God, you don't have to suffer lack. You don't have to be broke. You don't have to struggle financially. You can experience the Blessed Success that God has ordained for you from the foundation of the world.

Blessed Success, Part 2

God has granted to the believer in Christ the opportunity to experience what we call Blessed Success. It's not the success of the world, but it's a Divine Success that is rooted in one's relationship with Christ and the covenants that God established with our Jewish fathers. If a believer can learn how to access the covenant through their relationship with Jesus Christ, they can experience a success for which the world cannot compete. The root of experiencing this Blessed Success starts in Jesus Christ. The only way to operate in covenant relationship with God the Father is through faith in the Blood of Jesus Christ for the remission and forgiveness of our sins (Hebrews 9). This is called The New Covenant in Jesus Christ, under what we call the Grace Dispensation (Matthew 26, John 1).

What many Christians don't realize is that the New Covenant that God has established through the shed blood of His Son Jesus Christ is connected to the covenants that He established with the Jews. Don't be mistaken, Jesus is still Jewish. Even though He died for the "sins of the world" (John 3), His heritage remains that of the Hebrews. With that being the case, the promises of the New Testament are not in historical or even spiritual isolation. They are connected to the Jewish fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. If the church can identify and access the original terms of those covenants and apply them to our covenant established in Jesus Christ, we will experience the Blessed Success that God has ordained for His children.

Let us establish very quickly that Abraham, The Father of Faith, was wealthy. This means in common vernacular that he was rich, very, very rich (Genesis 13). The extensive wealth that Abraham received did not come from his educational prowess or pulling himself up from his proverbial bootstraps. His wealth came from God. This is called the Abrahamic blessing or The Blessing of Abraham. Why is this significant? Because God uses Abraham's witness as a prototype for the condition of our faith (Romans 4). No one else in the Bible is described as "the Friend of God" (James 2). With this being said, if Abraham experienced this Blessing, this "success," then this is also the birthright of God's children today.

In Galatians chapter 3, the scripture says, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ". Jesus actually died, not just that our sins may be forgiven, but that we might take advantage of The Blessing of Abraham. This is why something is wrong when Christians are content to be financially broke because it doesn't represent their rights in the New Covenant. All we have to do now is learn what the New Covenant consists of so we can learn to take advantage of it and be the beneficiaries of God's Blessed Success.

Blessed Success

I haven't met too many people in my life that didn't want to be successful. Whether it was financially, educationally, career, family or even ministerially, most of the people that I've encountered, at some level, want to be recognized as successful and feel like they've personally achieved their goals and dreams. With this being said, every culture has a "standard" by which success is measured, and a particular means or path for which to obtain that success. There's nothing wrong with this per se, but the challenge is that as Christians, we are not supposed to reach for the same success as the world.

The challenge with this thought over the years has been that if Christians aren't supposed to reach for "worldly success," then it's God's will for His children to live in poverty or somewhere close to it. This misinterpretation is not the will of God. A person isn't more spiritual just because they lack material possessions and wealth. Then we go to the other extreme. If it's not God's will for His people to be poor, then it must be His will for His people to be rich! This is where we get the "Prosperity Gospel" and the "name it and claim it" theology. This misunderstanding too, is not the will of God.

The challenge with believers and how we negotiate this all-important principle of success is significant and pertinent to our witness of Christ and our witness to the world. But let us clarify; God does not have a problem with His children experiencing what could be described as "worldly success." As a matter of fact, God says in His Word that He wants us to prosper (3J ohn). God's issue with the church is not us experiencing "worldly success," it's obtaining that success the world's way.

There's a success that God is ready to bring His people into that will "far exceed" the success of the world. It's called "Blessed Success". The success that the Christian is supposed to experience is rooted in our relationship with Christ and the covenants that God has established with our forefathers, the Jews. Blessed Success is based upon Covenant Agreement, which means it's contractually based. So if you don't know, understand, or adhere to the the terms of the contract, then you forfeit the ability to experience the Blessed Success that God has prepared and ordained for all of His children.

I really want to emphasize that the Blessed Success of the Father is not reserved for just a few of His "special children," it's for all of us! But the reason so few Christians are witnesses to this Blessed Success is because we don't understand how it works. Thus the Word says, "my people perish for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4). May God bless us with the wisdom and the revelation to position ourselves to receive the Blessed Success of God.

Walking in the Spirit, Part 3

In regards to Walking in the Spirit, the key is Crucifixion of the Flesh. The key to crucifixion of the flesh are the two primary components of the flesh, the Affections and Lusts (Galatians 5). After or as you deal with the crucifixion of the affections of the flesh, then one has to deal with crucifixion of the lusts of the flesh.

The lusts of the flesh can be described as an exaggerated and inordinate desire towards self-indulgence, self-promotion and self-exaltation. The key to lust is that it's all about you. Any sin that one commits is rooted in self-centeredness. The reason that's a problem for Christians is because we're supposed to be Christ-centered. If the flesh can keep us more focused on self than Christ, it diminishes our capacity to walk in the Spirit.

One of the greatest examples of lusts of the flesh is sex. America in particular, has totally perverted the Divine Ideal for sex. Why? Because we've made sex all about us. Let us clarify for the record, God made sex to be reserved for the marriage bed (Hebrews 13). Which means, if you're not married and you're having sex, you are outside of the Divine Will of God; including masturbation! Fornication and promiscuity, in a lot of our churches, has become acceptable behavior. This is not the Will of God. But it all has to do with lust.

A lot of people try to be abstinent, but many times, unfortunately, this doesn't work. Why? Because the flesh hasn't been crucified. So how do you do that? Two things: you have to starve one appetite and create another one. You have to starve the desire for sexual involvement. Any situation that "tempts you" in that area you have to "flee" (1 Corinthians 6, James 1). However, in addition to "starving the flesh," you then have to learn how to feed your spirit. You must learn to feast on the Word. Too many Christians are spiritually malnutritioned because they simply refuse to read the Word for themselves. I can't stress it enough, you've got to start reading the Bible everyday! And once you start proactively crucifying the flesh, your spiritual lifeline is going to literally be the Word of God (Ephesians 5). 

In addition to feasting on the Word, you've got to learn to get into the Presence of God. Prayer, praise and worship is an indispensable ingredient to crucifying the flesh. If you don't saturate your spirit with the Presence of God, you're going to inevitably go back to those cravings of the flesh and the lusts thereof. Take the time to bask in the Presence of God, Hallelujah!

As you proactively and persistently learn to crucify the flesh with the affections and lusts, you will find your capacity and ability to have the Divine Will of God manifested in your life stronger and greater. The Scripture says, "walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh" (Galatians 5). That same passage goes on to say, "if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." 

There's a Perfect Path that God has ordained for us to walk in as His children. However, we can't do it without the leadership of His Holy Spirit. As you learn to walk in the Spirit, you may fall sometimes. No baby learning to walk for the first time, does so without falling over and over and over again. Yet, I've never seen a parent give up on their child because they stumbled and fell while learning how to walk. As a matter of fact, it' to be expected. Be encouraged my brothers and sisters, God has not given up on you. No matter how many times you've fallen in the flesh, The Father is waiting with outstretched arms to pick you up so that you can walk together into Eternity.

Walking in the Spirit, Part 2

In order to have the Divine Will of God manifested in one's life, it is imperative that one learn how to Walk in the Spirit. It's one thing to have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you as a born-again believer, but it's another thing to learn how to walk in Him. One of the greatest obstacles to learning how to walk in the Spirit is the wrestle with the flesh (sinful nature, indwelling sin). The key to overcoming the wrestle of the flesh in order that one may have sufficient capacity to have the Divine Will of God performed in their life is the Crucifixion of the Flesh.The flesh is comprised of two primary components: The Affections and Lusts (Galatians 5). Let me reiterate, human will-power is not sufficient to combat the flesh in having the Divine Will of God fulfilled in one's life. One has to learn how to crucify the flesh, with the affections and lusts.

The affections of the flesh can be described as energy and passion directed towards something or someone designed to reinforce one's self-esteem, self-worth and significance. The key to this definition is energy and passion. Every human being has energy that they utilize to establish and affirm their sense of being and sense of self. The way it's "supposed" to work is that you find that affirmation and significance in Christ. However, since the church hasn't done a very good job of teaching believers how to practically do that, we find our sense of self-worth through the world like everybody else. This displacement of affection strengthens the flesh and weakens our ability to submit to the Divine Will of God for our lives. 

The thing that's tricky about the affections of the flesh is that they're not always overtly "sinful." That's why it is so important to understand grace and justification in Christ, because if you get caught up in the "sin game," you won't have sufficient focus to appropriately deal with the flesh, thereby not truly walking in the Spirit. One example of this is dating relationships. You'll never see in the Bible "thou shalt not date." But the danger in dating the opposite sex prematurely is that you can place your affections in a person and in a relationship that's supposed to be reserved for Christ. Ever been "in love" and after a while it turns to nothing? Heartbreak, heartache, can't live without them, all of this represents "affections of the flesh."  But yet at the same time it's not an "overt sin."

This is why Jesus said if you're going to be His disciple you have to "deny yourself" (Matthew 16). Not deny sin, deny yourself. This is how you address the crucifixion of the flesh in the area of the affections. This denial of self in this particular component of the flesh will increase your capacity to Walk in the Spirit.

Walking In the Spirit

In order for the Divine Will of God to be manifested and fulfilled in your life, it is imperative that one learn how to "walk in the Spirit." Hopefully everyone understands that once you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, who is the third person of the Godhead (John 3, 1John 5).  If you do not have the Holy Spirit living inside of you then you do not belong to Christ, which means in essence that you are not saved (Romans 8). So every Christian, every born-again believer in Christ, has the Holy Ghost. However, that is not enough. In order to have the perfect will of God executed in your life, you must learn to walk in the Spirit. It's one thing to "have" the Holy Spirit, it's another thing to learn how to walk in Him.

When you first get saved, you are described as a babe in Christ (1Peter 2). As a babe in Christ, this means that you have to "grow up." The challenge of growing up spiritually in Christ is the wrestle with the flesh (the sinful nature). Every person (not just born-again believer) is born with a sinful nature (Psalm 51).  Once you accept Christ and receive the Holy Spirit, the flesh wrestles with the Spirit and makes you do things that you know are wrong and against the Divine Will of God (Galatians 5, Romans 7). This is expected of babes, but something's suspicious if you're an adult and you're walking around with diapers on pottying in your pants. We have too many Christians that have been saved for far too long and been in Christ long enough to continue stumbling in the things of the flesh. The reason this is the case is a lack of maturity, and a lack of understanding in regards to how to appropriately address the sinful nature.

In order to appropriately and effectively deal with the sinful nature so that one may learn to Walk in the Spirit, one must learn how to crucify the flesh. This is where a lot of new Christians mess up, because they're taught to just stop sinning. Wrong. This doesn't work. Your will power to obey God is not greater than the sinful nature's ability to coerce you into sin (Romans 7). Until a believer learns this, no matter how sincere or even disciplined they are, they will continue to wrestle with indwelling sin and have some area in their lives that is not submitted to the Divine Will of God. The key to perfection is Crucifixion of the Flesh.
This in turn will create the necessary capacity to Walk in the Spirit.

Expectation of a Miracle

One of the things that you rarely see in the contemporary, mainstream church is the expectation of miracles. Most of the time when I attend services on Sunday morning, rarely do I see members of the congregation exhibiting a visible and palpable desire to witness and experience the Miraculous Power of God! There's the expectation to hear a word. There's the expectation of worship and praise. There may even be the expectation of the movement of the Spirit. But it's not often that you witness the expectation of Supernatural Manifestation.

In the 21st century, this is a sad indictment on the Body of Christ. Nearly 2,000 years after Christ's death and the majority of His church (at least in America) are not witnessing His miracles, signs and wonders. Why is this the case? When you read the scriptures, on numerous occasions, when Jesus was preparing to perform a miracle, He would often say, "according to your faith, be it unto thee" (Matthew 9). It's not like God is not still performing miracles (Hebrews 13). The faith level of the church is not commensurate to receive them!
This, saints, must change. 

We have to re-establish our desire and our demand to experience the miraculous. No more settling for the natural. No more being content with the Normal. We don't serve a Natural God, we serve a Supernatural God! Take the shackles off of God and release your faith to do something miraculous in your life. I want to challenge you today. I am persuaded that there is something in your life that can only change, that can only be addressed, that can only be fixed, with a Miracle. I strongly encourage you to go to God and ask Him for the Miracle that your situation needs. Stretch your faith. Know that within your own power and resources it's not going to be fixed. But the God we serve has All Power!. Even if it's not directly related to you. It could be a loved one who's sick. It could be a friend that's going through something and there seems like no way out. You know what it is. And please hear me today. I'm not saying "pray about it". No. I'm saying, ask God for a miracle! Go to Him with the expectation of Supernatural Manifestation.

We're entering a season saints where the supernatural is going to be the norm. But you have to start building your faith now so that when the move of God starts you'll be in position to move with Him. Stretch your faith, take the limits off of God and let the Holy Spirit condition you for the Expectation of a Miracle.

The Body of Christ

Generally when we think of the Body of Christ, we think about the church, particularly a local congregation or assembly. This of course is correct, considering that the church can be described as a body of baptized believers who confess Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior. However, I'd like to consider a somewhat broader perspective of what we describe as the Body of Christ.

The Body of Christ is more than simply an assembly of baptized believers gathered together in Jesus' Name. The Body of Christ is also the Temple of the Lord. This too is not news to many, but how we conceptualize it may be. A body, in the natural, is designed to house the spirit and the soul. If you don't have a physical body in the natural, legally, you can't operate in the Earth realm. That's why, in order for Jesus to serve as the Savior of the world, he had to be given a human body (Hebrews 10). Now that Jesus has Ascended and sits at the right hand of the Father, the Holy Spirit has been sent. Well, the Holy Spirit is just that, a spirit. So he too, must have a physical body to have legal presence in the earth realm. This is where the church comes in.

What we want to understand is that the Holy Spirit has been sent to the church so that we could literally serve as the body of Christ. Not simply an assembly of believers in Jesus' name, a "body" of believers. No, to actually serve as the "physical body" of Christ in the earth realm. The Divine Design of the Father is spiritual reproduction in the natural realm. That was the original plan with Adam, having made man (male and female) in His Image and after His likeness (Genesis 1).  But Adam messed that up when He rebelled against the authority of God. However, if Adam hadn't disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, all of the offspring that he and Eve would've produced would have been made in the Image of God, just like Adam was.

Remember, Christ is described as the last Adam (1Corinthians 15). So what God was doing wasn't "just" redeeming humanity back to Himself, He was re-starting the original reproduction plan that He originated with the first Adam. Jesus, of course, was successful in fulfilling the Divine Mandate of the Father, and so the Holy Spirit has been sent to impregnate the soul of every believer just as He impregnated Mary at the birth of Christ (Luke 1).

So the question today is, how much of your physical body is a manifestation of the Divine Personality of Jesus in the natural realm? What a lot of believers don't understand is that when you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, in essence you were saying that I am now making my body and mind available to be possessed by the Divine Personality of Jesus Christ that walked the earth nearly 2,000 years ago (1Corinthians 6). It's not just about going to heaven when you die or trying to live a nice "moral, Christian life." 

May all of us who name the name of Jesus be convicted in our spirits that we will deny ourselves so that our human vessels can truly represent the Body of Christ.

The Audacity of Uniqueness

One of the most significant things that a person needs in order to be socially functional is a sense of acceptance. Psychologists have said for years that this is one of the most basic social needs of human beings. Everybody wants to feel like they belong. However, for the believer in Christ and the child of God, this is not always the case. A lot of times, when you're living for God and having to take a stand for God, you can't always be accepted by the crowd. You don't always have the luxury of "fitting in". Sometimes you have to "stand out", and this requires the Audacity of Uniqueness.

If you are part of the elect that God has chosen to play an instrumental role in this next Kingdom Move, then I can already tell you that more than likely, you're not fitting into your current, present-day environment. Whether it's your family, whether it's your job, whether it's your community, or even your local church congregation; if you have been anointed and are submitting to the call that God has placed on your life for this Season, then probably for all intents and purposes, you're the oddball in the bunch.

For a lot of Christians, this is hard to handle. As stated earlier, everyone naturally wants to fit in. Everyone wants to feel a sense of social acceptance. But saints, what we have to wrap our minds around if we're going to diminish our frustration, is that God has set it up this way. God has called us to be separate. God has called us to stand out (1Peter 2). God has called us to be unique (Romans 12). And for this reason, we must summon the courage and the strength to demonstrate the Audacity of Uniqueness.

What helps us exhibit this Audacity is the fact that we're no longer looking for acceptance in the earth realm, we're looking for acceptance and reinforcement from the Heavenly realm. The Scripture says in the 1st chapter of Ephesians that we are "accepted in the Beloved". Our acceptance comes from God. When we resolve this belief in our hearts and souls, then we expect to stick it out. We expect to be different. Because we understand that this is what God has called us to be.

Let us not be guilty of the witness of the Pharisees. The Scripture says that they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God (John 12). God is looking for some warriors and some soldiers who will dare to be different. Who will dare to take a stand for The Kingdom; even if it makes them look "weird." But in order to take this type of Kingdom Stand, you must possess the Audacity of Uniqueness.