The Cart Before the Horse

This present world is in darkness. What is wrong is obvious to all men. In the kingoms of this world evil rules in places of authority, in the systems of every thing that is of man. The days are evil. Malice, murder, and every evil work are seen through out the world. Because of the darkness, men fashion their lives on what they can see, hear, and reason about the world in which they are a participant. Such knowledge is grounded in blindness. No one can see in the dark, where there is no light.

This basis is the cause of believing in lies. If a lie is thought to be truth and rehearsed in their thinking, the end results in wrong actions. Then the law of sowing and reaping in it's affect causes all sorts of calamities. Man is a creature of his beliefs. What ever he believes is what he speaks. And what ever he speaks he will do. And what ever he does will produce after it's own kind. This is the way of all men.

Along came Jesus; he preached "the kingdom of God". This is not what we have seen in the earth, but a heavenly kingdom. Jesus declared it to be eternal, never ending. This is news, not as the earthly where all men die. Jesus declared it to be unchanging ruled by God the creator of all things. Not as with men who are subject to the flow of power and authority. Jesus declared it to be without evil or darkness, but in righteousness. Now this is news! The order of "the kingdom of God" is just to all with-out any of the things that corrupt. This is a place where there is no lack, no sickness, no trouble, nothing unpure will ever enter this kingdom. Every need is supplied, every desire is pure, and God is enjoyed forever.

Jesus provided the way to enter this kingdom, through His sacrifice and resurrection. We who have believed are now the citizens of this "heavenly kingdom". The prayer of Jesus was; "thy kingdom come, THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven". This is very instructive. We see that the will of God is done in heaven. We see exactly what kind of kingdom it is, "righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost". Where there is no lack, no sickness, no sorrow, no poverty, but abundance of life in all avenues. Even the streets are pure gold, there is no limit to our joy.

So here we see THE WILL OF GOD. He has given us this picture of heaven to know what is established by His good will. Any thing that doesn't belong in heaven, is not God's will. His kingdom is already established, as the example of the life we are now to live. Your life should be a reflection of the heavenly kingdom, here, now in this earthly realm. "ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN". This is God's will.

This brings us to our issue; "the Cart before the Horse". In our ignorance of the will of God, we as all men, have believed lies. Now that we see the truth of God, we will have to dispose of all the fables of the past. There is no mixture with God. The old and the new will not work together. The Lord alone is to be our life. And His word stands alone.

Where the will of God is known, faith is born. Where faith is born the mind and the speech will think right thoughts, and say right words. Where these are at work the person will act in accordance with there words. Where these words and actions are working in a life; the good and the blessing of the will of God will be manifest. And the world will see the glory of the Lord rest upon you, and will be drawn to Him.

This is the news; "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation." IICor5:17-19

So take a look around at your life, if anything is there that is not the goodness of God, get rid of it. Sickness, illness, confusion, sorrow or pain. Or any thing that is not in heaven. God didn't give any one any of those things. He has given us His name to use against them, to heal, to cast out devils, to set free, to preach His good news of the gospel.

The ministry of reconciliation in the "SUFFERING" that we are to endure, to be open to the injury of rejection by the world. This is our "SUFFERING", and to endure the temptation to sin, by the grace of God. That's the only Godly suffering. To suffer with Christ in reconciling the world to God.

A Leap of Faith

I have been found out, I'm not am educated man. I've been having a discussion with Gayla, a dear sister in the Lord. The issue's are the gifts of the Spirit, and tongues in particular. Well the questions are over my knowledge, I find I can't answer all the details. So I'll have to show how I've come to know about these things.

After my conversion I was very zealous for the Lord. From the start I would pray for anyone to be healed. My reason for this was that the Lord had given me his overwhelming love in my heart, and I just knew that this love would refuse no request to help any fellow man. And I found out time and time again that I was right. I could pray for healing of saint and sinner alike, either know to me or total strangers, and God would honor my prayer and heal. Do I have a gift of healing, No. How could I do this, I had no knowledge of word or scripture to lead me, no one else who was doing this, or even believed it was possible? How, A Leap of Faith.

Then we come to the "Gifts of the Spirit". I remember a fellow christian and I having a discussion. I asked, "do you know anything about these", he answered, "out church doesn't believe in them, but I know there are churchs who do". So I said, "then why don't we go and find out if this is from God?", he replied, "not me, if you go I'm not going". That was rediculous, if it was God, I wanted it, and I couldn't understand why anyone wouldn't trust God to give them good gifts. So I went to where the "gifts of the spirit" were taught and practiced. If you want to understand how to bake a cake, you go to a baker don't you. If you want to understand how something works, you go were it is working, simple isn't it.

I also went to a christian book-store and found authors who had experience and teaching on the "Gifts of the Spirit". My logic was, if I discribe home-made ice cream, like grandma made, if you had never had any, no matter how well I could discribe it, you couldn't know how good it was. So in my thinking anyone without this experience couldn't help on this issue. The Lord also at this time witnessed to me that it was from Him in a dream.

I sat with the pastor of this penecostal church, after some discussion I had him lay hands on me to impart the Gift of the Holy Spirit. I saw in the scripture that the Spirit was imparted by the apostle's hand's. I had also gained this understanding, "when you pray, believe that you recieve, and you shall have what you ask for". This is faith, know that it is given, and act on it. So when he layed his hand on me, I started to speak what ever sound that would come out of my mouth. The articulation eventually got clearer, as with a baby, the sounds have meaning and are formed by the Holy Spirit. Our part is to speak and give voice. As the scripture says, "THEY ALL SPOKE as the Spirit gave them utterance". The Spirit will not speak for you, you speak and He gives the voice meaning.

There is also the issue of "cleaness or santification". I found out later that there were people who had sought this experience for years. And were waiting for some kind of "Divine Approval" so they could recieve. This is like telling a sinner, "when you clean up your mess and live right God will save you," if that was the case NO-ONE could ever be saved! The Holy Spirit will enpower you to live right, you can't do it on your own! Another issue is those who at one time or another spoke in tongues and were now waiting for the Spirit to move on them to do it again. This is wrong, the gift of the Spirit has been given, not loaned, not dished out as the need arises, given, you have Him, exercise your faith and SPEAK, He is there to take a-hold together with you and pray the will of God into your life.

This is my defence. I haven't yet been to a university, I have cheated, I've used the wisdom of other men of God. For this short coming, the Lord has used me to minister healings and other manifestations of the Lord, in a total of seven different denominations of churchs, have been ordained into a fellowship of ministers, have seen people saved healed and deliverer in resturants, parking lots, gas stations, 7-11, and in parks. So I have tricked you, I was not after your intellect, I'm not trying to make you smart, I'm wanting to make you hungery and thristy for the reality of the power and presence of the Lord. To hear His voice, to know His love, to be moved with His compassion, and to bring Him Glory!

Walk by Faith

In my life before Christ I was a typical person. Hated school, loved girls, would do almost anything, and could party for days. Every thing I did I would go after whole-hearted. The sad thing was nothing good came out of any of this. There was no fulfillment in any of it. I either got hurt, or hurt someone else. The whole thing was a total mess. Bad plans, bad ideas, bad results.

But I count myself fortunate. Some seem to have a little success in life. Either through education, or hard work, or perserverance to a goal. I pity these, they have a false sense of well being, and as such may never reach out for help from a higher power, the Almighty. I hope they do, the practices that are employed by the successful are ordained by God. And He has blessed them, even though they might think it was by their own effort. These would make fine fellow christians, and we could learn from them.

The reason I count myself fortunate is that I came to Jesus as a blank slate. I knew I didn't have a clue. I took the word of God as the final authority. I read to find out what to think, what to do, and how to do it. What-ever it said that is what I would do, with all of my heart. This gives me a great peace, I don't have to figure out anything, just do what it says. Someone has said; God said it, I believe it, and that settles it, I would like to add, so I'll do it.

Whatever is in there I want it, whatever is promised is for me, whatever it takes to receive it I'll do. And for all this I found that if I can believe, I can receive. The way God has ordained for His word to work in us and for us is BY FAITH. This is what that means to me. To rely on the intergity of God. That what He has said is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And nothing or any other discussion will or can void it. If Jesus said I am one with Him and the Father, so be it. If Jesus said I am healed, so be it. If Jesus said I can recieve power of the Holy Spirit, so be it. If Jesus said I can lay hands on the sick and they will recover, so be it. As Paul said, all things are your, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's. So I say, Amen, so be it.

This is the first step of faith, to believe the report, that is the word of God. The second step of faith is to speak it, to call it forth. We are now a God class of being. We are to operate on the same principals as God. Who spoke and all things came into being. Our voice is to give utterance to the word of God so that it may be established in our life and situation and time. It is our voice speaking on behalf of God to bring His will to pass for our life. As Jesus said, "thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven". So we are to speak the will of God into the earth. This may be new to you, there are many other references to this step of faith. Consider this prayerfully asking for enlightenment to see it.

The next step is the fun part; to do it. To act on it. After boldly speaking the words of God, you will find a new zeal and a greater anticipation of the reality of the things and power of God. Truely His word is alive and powerful and active. Keep speaking the word till you find your level of faith has grown to the point of expecting results when you speak. Just like Jesus, awesome. Doing the word, knowing that it will come to pass, even though you have not yet seen it, THAT'S FAITH. To lay hands on the sick expecting them to be healed. Or to witness about Jesus, expecting conversions.

To do what ever the word says. If it says, "what ever is pure, of good report, lovely, noble, think on these things". Then if any thought doesn't qualify, it gets thrown out. I refuse it. If it says share with the poor, then I'll gladly share, and pray for more to give away. The doing of His word will work both for us and in the world around us.

Let me ask you, when you speak do you expect to recieve what you said? You should. If we don't, how can we expect the lost to believe us, if we don't believe ourselves? What-ever you can believe you can recieve. And whoever believes you will receive from you. If you can help the lost to believe you, then you will have good success.

Some of this may be news to a few, take and search the word, give yourself time to reflect on these things. And ask the Lord for clarity. The bottom line is to always act, think, and do as it's written, with confidence that the Father has heard us and will honor us because we are speaking forth His word. And will manifest those things that we ask to bring glory to the Son that the world may know that we are in the Father.

Offended by Truth

Jesus's reply to the disciples of John the Baptist.

"Go and tell him what you have seen and heard; The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who is not offended on account of me."

On this blog I have endeavored to set forth the things that I also have seen and heard. Mind you my walk is no-where near what Jesus did in His life.I have seen healings in the name of Jesus, and the good news of the gospel work wonders in the lives of people. I have received the gift of the Spirit with evidence of tongues. The Lord has given us many teachers and ministers of his word, with the wisdom of God to show us how to walk in truth. One would think that everyone would like to know and join with God in the out-working of His good will. That we would endeavor to lay-ahold of all the ministries with the "present truth". The greater revealing of the continuing work of God.

Unfortunately that is not the case. The gospel is offensive to the carnal mind. The ways of God are foolish to man's understanding. The working of the Spirit is contrary to the fleshly desires. In short, we fight and resist God! Even though we have received His life! As Paul said "the flesh wars against the spirit".

So the truth will offend us, will threaten us, will anger us, will upset us, will test our faith, and if we allow it to work in us will heal and help us and set us free. Jesus's works and life was the exact display of God's will. If we model our lives to do these same works in speech and deeds then we are showing forth the life of God in us. If not, then a very weak and watered down gospel. This is the truth.

God's sires God beings, just as a man sires man. The gospel is the good news that makes us "the sons of God, and that is what we are in fact." This is God's plan. The fulness of this plan is our walking and working in the same way as Jesus. We have been born into this class of being by the Father who called us. So the Father has already provided everything that we need to reveal the life of God within us to the lost, and needy.

Rather than be threatened by this news; we should make every effort to enter into this life, seeing that we have not yet obtained to all this, as with Paul. So I don't have all faith, I can learn. So not all are healed, I can still believe. So I don't hear the Spirit's leading all the time, I can trust. I am not waiting to be qualified by how much I pray. Or how much I believe. Or how much of the word I understand. No matter if it's more than some or less. I am qualified by God by the life that He has placed in me. I don't need any-ones or even my own approval, I already have it from God.

So then the church is to be a training ground, to equip me with the knowledge of God. To be a place for the impartation of the anointing of God. The gathering of like "sons of God", where we are encouraged, and filled with joy, and the love of the Lord. The body where He is exalted and the word that proceeds from God is heard and believed and acted upon. To go forth in one accord, and one heart, and the good news. Jesus, saves, heals, and delivers.

The Big Picture

Some times we are to close to the problems to see there solution. Join me as I go to one of my favorite places to reflect and to see the Big Picture. Here on the moon I've found a nice spot in a valley. With a clear view of the earth as we lay back and rest our heads on these rocks. Things seem more peaceful here, and time slows down. We can watch the earth slowly spin in it's rotation, and the sun shine warm the lands of the continents. It's really quite a spectical! Then we can gaze at the multitude of the stars of the heavenly host, this is really impressive!! Who made all these? What is there purpose? Why are they here?

The heavens declare the glory of God, they show his invisible qualities. They show forth his eternal power and divine nature. They reveal that there is a God. And he does what pleases him. There is no power greater, and none can stay his hand.

We the church have received this eternal God into our lifes, the very life of God, through Jesus. This Jesus is described by John as,

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it."

In heaven he's known as the Word. As such we need to review our faith to see that it measures up. When a people go to war, do they just charge ahead, or do they consider; if they are strong enough; trained; have superior weapons; are their number enough, and etc.

From up here on the moon, we can see that God was not rushed in creation. He doesn't act in haste he's had forever to plan and to create. If we look at the sun we can observe the power of it's energy. If we now look at the stars and galaxy's and milky way, we see that God is not limited in his power. But in every place we look we see his power manifest in all these. His wisdom is also displayed in all the configurations and diverse designs, each different and unique.

This then is what we need to grasp. God is supreme, his Word is his creative power, and anything that we could ever need has already been planed and provided for. This means that His church; has power enough (the power of the Creator), has the best weapons (the Word of God), is the best trained (the Holy Spirit, who leads and guides us into all truth). The church is Jesus in the earth, having received His fulness.

Let's reconsider this war we are in with evil and the host of Satan. Is evil to trimph? No, we know God is supreme. Is there any situation that can surprise God. No, God saw the end from the beginning. Is there anything to hard for God. No, with God all things are possible. So then we are to be more than conquerors through Christ. We have been given the authority of Jesus. Who said, "all authority is given unto me, go you therefore." Can any sickness resist God. No. Can any devil resist God. No. Can any principality, or power, or ruler of darkness be stronger or more powerful than God. No. Can anything that can be named be stronger than God. No.

Well now, from our view on the moon these things are more obvious. We see the evidence of God before our eyes. Let's remind ourselves when we are back on earth that the view may be distorted. But in our minds go back and see, the stars still burn in His glory. The hosts of heaven are all there with none missing. And God reigns and rules and there is none to oppose Him.

I enjoyed our trip together, maybe next time we'll be in the gates of the celestial city, the place where God's glory rest. And we can listen with awe to the elders tell of the wonders of God seen in their life and time. Until then, be blessed.