What is sin - God's perspective!

This is a question we all need to answer. Lately, I have been meeting with people that are on the opposite spectrum of what I grew up believing. We have had great discussions about “What is Truth” and “Is there something like ultimate truth”?

This past week I had the privilege to sit with them and look at the question: What is a sin?

This is a great question especially based on the previous week of discovering that Truth is a person and that Jesus is that Truth. If that is true, He alone can give us the proper perspective on what sin is. Sin is not what we define or understand. That leaves very little room to interpret or define what sin could be.

Before we go any further, we must establish a line in the sand. The first thing we must understand is how we think about sin. We can be sin conscious or God-conscious. What does that mean?

Sin consciousness is when I look at myself and see myself or others through my perspective.

God-consciousness is when I look at myself or others through Gods perspective.

This is pivotal because it will determine how we define sin. From my perspective, it will steal my hope and keep me under condemnation. From God’s perspective, it will show me what God did and how He sees me, redeemed and restored to a relationship.

The second line in the sand is this: Sin does not separate us from God, we separate ourselves from God because of our sins. God did not stay away from Adam and Eve after they sinned, they hid from God. Because God has the answer to our sin problem He chooses to engage us even while we are still in sin. Romans 5 says that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

So what is sin from God’s perspective. Let me make it simple. Lying, stealing, killing, unforgiveness, bitterness, sexual immorality and anything else is not the problem. These are all just manifestations because of a much greater issue. These are the fruit of a tree that we all are eating. There were two trees in the Garden. The Tree of Life, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Only one of these trees produces Life. The second Tree produces death through Good and Evil. There are a lot of things that feels good, looks good and sounds good but still brings death to us.

Jesus said that you shall know a tree by its fruit. All these things we see are just the fruit. What about the Root?

The Root of sin is our hearts. See what Jesus says: Mark 7-14-23:

And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand: There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. If any man has ears to hear, let him hear. And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable. And he said unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without enters into the man, it cannot defile him; Because it enters not into his heart, but the belly, and goes out into the draught, purging all meats? And he said: That which cometh out of the man, that defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

Jesus makes it clear that what defiles us is what comes from our hearts. What we see people do is just an expression of what is in the heart. Sin is not what you do, it is what you are. The very first thing Jesus says about His ministry is this: 

Luke 4:18-19: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

God knows that we all have brokenness and we need our hearts changed and redeemed. It is amazing to think that sin is not what I do, it is who I am. For that reason, God did an amazing thing. 2 Cor 5:21:

God made him who knew no sin, TO BE SIN FOR US, that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

God made Him what we are, so we might become what HE is. This is too great to understand. 

Even the Prophets understood this principle of what sin is.

God is talking with Moses and this is the requirement God asks of Moses and Israel. Jesus repeats that in His conversation with the people.

Deut 6:5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul and your strength. 

It is a heart problem. David prays in Psalms 51:10 after he was caught in adultery:

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. David knew that it was more than the act of adultery, it was what was in his heart. He also prays in Psalm 139:23-24.

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Jeremiah helps us further understand the scope of our sin as a heart issue. Look at what he says:

Jer 17:9-10: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

We will be judged for what we had in our hearts, not just our actions. Sin is a heart issue, no matter what you do. We must stop calling the actions people do sin. They will never change until their hearts change.

Jesus makes this statement against the religious people of his time. Your traditions have made the Word of God of no effect. You worship me with your mouth but your heart is far from me.

Matt. 15:8 This people draw nigh unto me with their mouth and honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

In acts when Peter stood up and preached on the day of Pentecost, look at what happened. Three Thousand people were saved that day, but how?

Acts 2:37  Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men, and brethren, what shall we do?

Salvation is when God gets your heart back. LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, ALL YOUR SOUL AND ALL YOUR MIND. Salvation is when the enemy no longer has your heart and sin no longer has a place to stay.

Next time we will look more into what God does with your heart. Just in closing:

What is a sin? Sin is a heart issue. We all need to pray this every day: Search my heart O God and see if there is any wicked way in me.

TRUTH!

We are seeing more and more confusion with this generation about what is truth. They don't read the Bible anymore and we are up against the things that Hollywood and secularism have taught them. The truth still prevails and sets people free. We must start by re-establishing what "Truth" is:

In an age where “truth” is relative, it is of utmost importance that we establish a few things.

1. What is the truth?

2. Is there something like ultimate truth?

3. What is the difference between truth and something true?

We are constantly bombarded by the media, social websites and a culture of education that are brainwashing this generation about alternative truth. We constantly hear from young people that the “new thing” or "fad" is to deconstruct what they use to believe is the truth, for many their truth is what makes them feel good. I am meeting with young people that believe that for them nature is what is the truth. For others, it is the feeling of feeling safe to express their sexuality. One comment I heard was: Ever since I came out, I have felt God so near.

Is truth relative? We must answer a few questions first.

What is the truth?

Truth is not your denomination, your affiliation or even your experience. Truth is not a set of believes because you can change what you believe. Truth cannot be nature, because nature can be destroyed. Truth cannot be your experience, because experiences change. So what is the truth?

John 8:32. You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.

John 8:36. Whom the Son sets free is free indeed.

John 14:6. I am the Way, the Truth, the Life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.

Truth is a person. His name is Jesus. Truth is not something you believe, it is someone you know. The problem with most evangelism in the past was that it converted people to a set of believes. That is called religion. We were not saved to be a part of a denomination, God saves people to be a part of His family. You must be converted to a place of relationship with the Father - John 17:3.

Is there something like ultimate truth?

Emphatically YES!

Every scientific experiment is conducted by having a constant. You must have a measurable to compare your findings against, otherwise your experiments will be unprovable. Without that constant none of your results are definable and tested as correct. The same is true in math. You have a mathematical formula that helps you determine the correct answer. Nature functions on a set of laws or constants that never changes. The same is true for the spiritual. If we don’t have an ultimate truth, everything becomes suspect and can masquerade as truth when it is not. So how will you find the truth if you have nothing to test it against? We must have an ultimate truth.

When Jesus claims that He is the only way, truth, and the life, He is not making a statement of ultimate truth, that excludes people. Ultimate truth only excludes things that want to pose as the truth and mislead people. This together is the most inclusive and exclusive statement anybody can make. Buddha, Mohammed or nobody else ever claimed to be the only way. Jesus is the only one that claims this to be the truth. His invitation still stands to all men, that whoever wants to come to him, are welcome. Exclusive in revoking the right for anything else to claim to be the truth, inclusive as all men are invited to come and find the truth.

Truth does not exclude people because they see it different, truth is patient and waits until people find the way to it. This generation needs to find the only constant that never changes. God is the same yesterday, today and forever – Heb 13:8.

What is the difference between truth and something that is true?

What you experience is true. We can never deny people the right to think that what they are experiencing is not real. Being sick is real. Being rejected is real. Feeling judged is real. All these things are true, but it might not be the truth. Truth is the way God sees things. I am sick, that is true, but by His tripe’s I am healed, that is the truth. I can not make my experience the truth as truth is a person, not an experience.

For too long we have allowed the music culture to define truth for us. It was based on emotions and how people feel. What they felt was true, just not the truth. Truth is established through the “Word” and not through worship or anything else.

There were two Trees in the Garden. The Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil. Only the Tree of Life brings life. We have been eating from the wrong tree for too long. On the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, there are good things. It still produces death and not life. The good things can make you feel good but still kill you. Your experience is real but you must hold it up against the Word of God.

Psalm 119:160. The sum of your word is the truth and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.

We must be able to help them see that God has a different perspective than what they are experiencing. Tell me what you think?

Serve God with your mind.

This week we want to look at how to serve God with your mind. 

In the Old Covenant, God gave Israel the Law. This is commonly referred to as the “Ten Commandments.” The purpose of the commandments was to show Israel how to serve God and how to stay focused on Him. This law would keep them from sinning.

The commandments were given to Moses on stone tablets on Mount Sinai in the third month after they left Egypt. Exodus 19-20 tells the whole story. Most people don’t realize that while Moses went up on the mountain, God spoke to him and all of Israel could hear God speaking to Moses.

Exodus 19:9 And the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever.”

This was their response after God gave the Ten Commandments.

Ex. 20:18-19  Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.”

Remember that they heard God’s audible voice. You would think that it would change them. Not so because they requested not to be able to hear God. Instead, now God gives Moses the “Law” on tablets. This would start a whole new problem. They would have the Law on tablets but not in their hearts. Their bodies were freed from slavery but their minds were still in Egypt. They lived as free men still shackled to their past. Their thinking was not renewed. Now they will serve God with their strength. They had to keep the Law. Now the focus was on their actions and their behavior.

Deut. 6:4-5  “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

Now they will serve God using their heart, their soul and their strength. Their heart was unchanged, their soul was unchanged and their strength was limited. 

What people don’t realize is that the Ten Commandments does not change your heart. For that, you need a different experience. You must be born again through repentance and the renewal of the Holy Spirit. When you get born again, God writes His laws on your heart. Your heart and your mind are connected. What is in your heart will dominate your thinking. The New Covenant promises that God will write His laws on our hearts.

Jer. 31:31-33  “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

2 Cor 3:3 And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but tablets of human hearts.

This change the whole thing. In the Old Covenant, you had to use your strength to serve God. You had a body that was free from slavery but you were still a slave n your mind. In the New Covenant God writes His Law on your heart and you a chance to renew your mind. 

Eph. 4:23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;

Look at what Jesus says now when they ask him; What is the Law and the Prophets?

Matt. 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. (Jesus changed the word strength for the word mind)

Did Jesus just misquote the scripture? No, I believe He is showing us the reality of the New Covenant. Because God writes His Law on our hearts, we have a renewed way of thinking. Not only does he set us free from slavery in our walk(Bodies) but He now sets us free from slavery in our thinking(mind). We no longer struggle with loving God because we think differently. We now have the same mind as Jesus.

1Cor. 2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Now we are free to serve God with our bodies as well as our thinking. This is freeing to understand that my mind is no longer a slave to sin. Paul commanded us to set our minds on things that are above and not on things that are on the earth- Col 3:1. 

Rom 8:5-9 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

Spirit of your mind.

Did you know that your mind has a spirit? Paul writes in Ephesians 4:23. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

What does Paul mean by: "the spirit of your mind."

You might be more familiar with the word "conscience." We all have a conscience whether we acknowledge it or not. So what is our conscience? It is that inner voice directing us and guiding us.

Rom 8:14. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

Is it possible that your conscience can be the voice of the Spirit speaking to you? We all know what we think about certain things, but sometimes we are confronted by our conscience in spite of what we are thinking.

As an example, there is a $100.00 bill lying on a table. You think: If I take it, this might help me with putting gas in my car. At the same time, your conscience is saying: Do not take it because it does not belong to you.

Your conscience is the spirit of your mind. Your conscience is connected to your heart. Your heart or the Spirit will speak to you in spite of what you are thinking.

In John chapter 8 we see a woman brought to Jesus because she was caught committing adultery. They were ready to stone her for her trespass. These men brought her to Jesus, driven by their training in the law of God. The problem was that they ignored the voice of their conscience trying to convict them of their sin, while eagerly wanting to kill someone else for their sin. Jesus had to ask them a question so that they would pay attention to the spirit of their minds.

"He that is without sin, cast the first stone!"

John 8:9 And they which heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

The word "Conscience" literally means Co-perception.

The challenge Jesus gave them was simply: See it from my perception.!!!!!

The only way to see it from Gods perception is to listen to the Spirit of God.

John 16:8 And when he comes, he will convict the world of sin.

We all can have our conscience influenced by good or bad, by God or the enemy. Who is influencing your conviction? When I listen to peoples arguments, I am amazed at what I perceive behind their convictions. They don't even know what the enemy is doing with them. Remember that Solomon said: As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. You can never be different than your conviction. You can be different if you allow God to change your perception and allow the spirit of your mind to be renewed.

Rom. 9:1   I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost.

Paul states that his conscience is bearing witness to him. When you do something, your conscience will speak to you. You have a choice of how you respond to your conscience. Some people ignore the inner voice and by doing so they stifle the spirit of their mind. Paul clearly states in 1 Thess 5:19 - Do not quench the Spirit. Others give heed to that inner voice and learn to grow in their walk with God. When we keep our walk pure, we keep our conscience pure.

Titus 1:15 Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled.

If we refuse to listen to the voice of the Spirit(your pure conscience), we will listen to the voice of the enemy(your defiled conscience).

The enemy tactics are to get you to give him a place and a voice in your life. We all struggled with this before we surrendered our lives. We had an evil conscience. Our hearts and thoughts were only bent towards sin and satisfying our flesh. We gave too much place to the devil.

There is a way to clean your conscience. You have to renew your mind and allow the Holy Spirit to cleanse your conscience. You must allow the Spirit's voice to be louder than the enemies voice in your life.

Heb. 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Finally, we can have a clear and pure conscience.

Heb. 13:18   Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.

Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Paul tells us to renew our mind so that we can know God's perfectly good and acceptable will. Allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you through your conscience. He will never lead you astray or away from what pleases God.

What is in your mind?

Last week we looked at how scripture defines the mind and the heart of a man as the same thing in some scriptures. What is in your heart will determine how you think, and what you think will determine what you do or how you act.

This week I want to go a little bit deeper with this thought. How do we change our actions. It is impossible to act different unless you change the way you think. It is impossible to change the heart of man unless you change their thinking. So how do you change a man’s thinking?

Let me start with the word: Repent.

Not a popular subject today. When was the last time you heard your pastor talk about that. The very first think Jesus said is a taboo in most churches today. You talk about repentance and immediately you are looked upon as being judgmental. When did we allow our fear of man to become greater than our fear of God. Jesus started his entire ministry with this: “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.”

The word “repent” has a very specific meaning. You have been told it means: turn the other way. In some sense it means exactly that because when you repent it must show that your walk is different. If your actions doesn’t line up with the confession coming out of your mouth, you might be deceived. But not just your walk needs to change, so does your thinking.

The real meaning of repentance though is this: 

To put your mind or thinking alongside or change the way you think. (Not just sorry I got caught)

Metanoia: Made up of two words.

Meta: accompany or alongside

Noia: from the root word “nous” which is the word for mind.

So to repent is to put your thinking alongside the mind of God and see it from the way He sees it. Look at this scripture in Isaiah 55.

Is. 55:6-7 Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsakehis way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts;

Let the wicked forsake his way and his thoughts. Change your walk and change your thinking. To say you are sorry is only to be sorry you got caught, if you don’t change what you are thinking you will just go back and do it again. People struggle with sin because they “repent” but do not change the way they understand and think. As you think in your heart, so you will be. 

The following two verses in Isaiah 55 states the following:

Is. 55:8-9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

God obviously does not think the way we do. That is why He is asking us to abandon our thinking. Forsake the way you see things and see it the way He sees it because his thoughts are higher and better than your thoughts. Repent, change the way you are thinking, and then you can change the way you are walking. 

Paul reminds us very pertinent that we must renew our minds. What will happen when you place your thinking alongside the mind or the Word of God. If you place your thinking next to the way the enemy thinks, you will only leave feeling defeated, guilty and full of shame. Why does people have no problem thinking bad and negative thoughts but struggle to think good things? They have not been told that there is a better way. Here is the better way!

Rom. 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers,by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship (reasonable sacrifice).Do not be conformed to this world,but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Renew your mind. The meaning for “renew” in Greek means to renovate. When you renovate a house, you take out the old stuff and install new things. When you renovate the kitchen you take out the old kitchen. There is not room enough for both the old and the new kitchen. So Paul is saying that we need to renovate our minds by taking out the old stuff, the old way of thinking and put some new thinking in there. 

The next thing he says that is important is what we have already said: “Be transformedby the renewal of your mind.” Can you see it? When your thinking changes, you are transformed. When you change your thinking, the heart is transformed.

Change your thinking. When you see it from God’s perspective then you get hope and strength to stand up again. 

Lastly I want to look at this scripture. 

Rom 8:5-7 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.

Choose what you will be thinking about. 

If you set your mind on earthly things then you will end in a place of being hostile to God. Because of unregenerate thinking, people get mad at God. They blame Him for things he did not do but that they chose. They choose to live in the flesh instead of the spirit. When you do live by the flesh, things that will bring death and destruction will be evident in your life. The very God that offers help and wants to give life and peace, will be viewed as the source of your calamity, because of your thinking. Again Paul admonishes us:

Col 3:1If you are then risen with Christ, set your mind on things above and not on things that are on the earth. 

What is in your heart?

The biggest struggle for most people is not the devil. I know we hear people say: the devil made me do it. Don’t give him any credit because he has no power to decide for you. If you struggle with something, you got there through the decisions and choices you made.

In the book of Proverbs Solomon makes a profound statement:

Prov. 23:7a For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

The heart is the origin and issue of what most people struggle with. Did you know that your heart and thoughts are closely related and in some scriptures it refers to the same thing.

What is in your heart will influence your thoughts and what is in your thoughts will captivate your heart. Solomon goes even further with this statement he makes about your heart.

Prov. 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

What he is saying is simply that your issues started with your heart. Not the person that did you wrong, not the circumstances that did not work out, no it starts in your heart. In short: We all have issues and it starts in our heart, which are influenced by the way we think. We all struggle with stinking thinking.

Most of what we deal today in our country is the issues of men’s hearts and what they think about it. Why is abortion an issue? Why is LGBTQ an issue? It is because it is coming from the heart of men who has not renewed their thinking. They take issue with the Word of God. 

Look at what Jesus says:

Mark 7:20-23 And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

Jesus makes it clear that the heart is the issue and what is in the heart, is what is defiling man. The first thing He mentions of the thirteen things that defiles us are: evil thoughts. It almost sounds like he is looking at all the things we are dealing with today. He then identifies not only what is defiling man but why it is defiling man. It is not what is coming at you but what is coming out of you that defiles you.

When God destroyed the earth in Noah’s day the reason why God did it was:

Gen. 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

The sin in Noah’s day was not what they did, but because the mind of man was continually evil!

Can you see the problem? We deal with people every day of our lives and the issue is their heart, not their sin. The sin is the manifestation of their hearts. Lying, fornication, abortion, homosexuality or any other sin is a heart issue.

How do we deal with the heart of people? Jesus says that He came to heal the broken hearted - Luke 4:17.

I want to suggest something. Unless we learn how to get to the heart of people, we will not change a generation. The Church today are more concerned about entertaining the hearts of men than changing the hearts of men. Call me old school but I cannot sit by and watch people God loves living a lie thinking they are okay. 

The only thing that can reach the heart of man is the Gospel. No training or counseling or anything else can change people’s heart, only God can.

We must get back to speaking the truth. We are not called to win a popularity contest. We are called to set people free.

Go get One

In Matt 10:42 And whosoever shall give a drink to one of these little ones shall in no wise loose his reward.

What a powerful verse. Let me talk about the “one of these.”

There are a lot of “one of these” out there. We always look for the crowds because that makes us feel good. How many people in your church? How many at your conference? The best musicians and the most popular singers. The one with lots of money and lots of influence.

What about the one. Jesus always left the crowd to go and find the one that was left out or lost. He constantly told parables of the lost coin, the ninety nine sheep and the prodigal son.

A farmer had 100 sheep and one got lost. So what did he do? He left the ninety nine to go and find the one that was lost. The same thing happened when a woman who had ten pieces of silver and lost one, she swept the whole house to find the one that was lost.

Then Jesus equates that one lost sheep and one lost piece of silver with sinners. If one is recovered then all the Angels rejoice. What about the one that is lost. Have we lost our passion for the one that is lost?

A similar thing happens in John chapter eight. They bring a woman that was caught in adultery to Jesus. There is a crowd demanding justice and they are ready to stone her to death. They missed the point that these ones are the very ones that Jesus came to die for. Jesus does two things in this story. He helps them see their own depravity by asking a simple question: If any one of you are without sin, then cast the first stone. One by one they left, convicted that they are also one of these that need salvation. It is easy to hide in a crowd but what about when you are alone with God? Secondly He makes sure this woman understood that He sees her. 

No one is left out of God’s plan of salvation. God will that no man be lost but all be saved.

Again I see another story in John chapter five. There is a pool and a man that has been there for 38 years. God stirs the water and anyone can get healed from whatever disease they have. You just have to be first. As a matter of fact it says that there were many blind and lame people. How does the blind see when the Angel stirs the water? How does the lame get in before anyone else. Sounds pretty unfair to me. So what chance does the lame or the blind have. Nobody else around that pool cared about them. Maybe that is why that man was there that long. Can you imagine what it must feel like to see a move of God but the only person that gets touched and healed is the next guy. Can you feel this man’s frustration?

When Jesus asks him if he wants to be healed, his response was profound. “I have no one.”  

Thirty eight years waiting to be healed. Thirty eight years must have been enough time for someone to befriend him and ask if they can help. Thirty eight years is a long time to be ignored. Thirty eight years of rejection and no compassion. Thirty eight years is a lifetime of missing out on a move of God. 

No one that cares about the ones that have been there the longest. No one that sees his frustration and respond to him in love. Everyone is just too busy making sure they get in before someone else does. I wonder how many people are out there that are saying that they have no one. No one telling them about God. No one saying they care. No one loving them, feeding them or even giving them a cup of water. No one cares about their rejection, their shattered dreams or even their constant disappointment. This man at the pool got to the point that he gave up on himself. He resolved that for him things would never change. He was an invalid and he would die as a invalid. 

Jesus shows up for the one that was ignored, shunned and overlooked. He loves the ones that are rejected, unable to help themselves or even the outcast. He loves the one that are waiting for someone to see their need. 

I have to ask myself the question: Who gets his attention?

The widows and the orphans. The outcast and the poor. The deranged and the demoniacs. The judged and the criticized. The sick and the lame. The blind and the deaf. The ones dead in their sins and the ones dead in their bodies. He hears them, sees them and respond to them. 

What will we do? Will we continue to ignore what he has chosen. Will we be the one that makes the one that experience a life without God, feel that God does see them, hear them and care about them?

Who in your community is the one? Who is the one that you can talk with, love and connect with. Will you be his hands and his feet?

Genesis 1 - 2

Genesis 1 and Salvation - 2.

In the last blog we saw that God sort of hid his plan of salvation in Genesis 1 and reveals it through His actions in the creation as we know it. I want to take it one step further and explain something again. Genesis one is about creation and recreation. It contains the acts of God and how He redeems something that are seemingly in total chaos. 

Apart from seeing how God reveals his plan of salvation we also see another thing in this chapter. In verse two we see that the Spirit of God is present and hovering over the seemingly chaos. He is present but nothing is happening. To understand what is happening you must understand how the Godhead functions. The easiest way to understand is to understand the functions of the God head. 

Gen 1:2 And the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the water.

1.    The Father wants it. His desire is pivotal and must be fulfilled or done. Jesus even teaches us to pray in that manner. Your Kingdom come Your will be done on earth as in heaven. Jesus never did anything contrary to the will of the Father. Adam and Eve’s sin was that they followed the will of the enemy. Jesus would not say or do anything unless he was sure it was what God wanted. 

2.    The Son speaks it. He is the Word of God. He is the voice of the Trinity. He is the Word made flesh and he came to tell us about the Father. Faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the Word of God. God is pleased by faith according to Hebrews chapter 6. When the Son speaks he reveals the will of the Father, you hear the will(Word) of the Father and that creates faith in your heart that pleases the Father. 

3.    The Spirit does the word spoken by the Son, and that pleases the Father. He is the acting agent of the Trinity. The Spirit always responds to the Word spoken and fulfills the will of the Father spoken by the Son. Zechariah 4:6 says This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel saying: Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit says the Lord. The Spirit does what God wants.

So we see in verse two that the Spirit is present but He is waiting to act. Then when God spoke in verse three of Genesis one, He, the Spirit acts and start recreating the purposes of God. So we see that when the Spirit are present God will use Him to create His purposes. I hope you begin to see what is happening here. 

1.    Chaos does not remove his Spirit from our lives. He came to convict the world of sin. God knew that things will be dark, without form and void and in chaos. The good news are that His Spirit is present to cause a new creation to happen. 

2.    He is waiting for the Word. That is why nobody gets saved without hearing about Jesus. He is not a philosophy but he is a person they need to meet. He gives us faith to believe for salvation. 

3.    The Spirit hovering literally means to vibrate and brood like and eagle will brood on its nest. We will look at this word later and I will show you the only other place this word is used in the scripture. For now we see the Spirit and water.

We see another story in the Bible of Jesus and Nicodemus in John Chapter three. Nicodemus is asking Jesus how to inherit the kingdom of God. Jesus is very plain in his requirement when he responds to Nicodemus. 

John 3:1-7 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water andofthe Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

You must be born again by the Spirit and water. First Nicodemus thinks naturally but Jesus corrects his thinking. This is not a natural birth but a spiritual birth. Important is to see that Jesus mentions both the water and the Spirit. For these Jews that must have been familiar. Where and when was the last time we read about the Spirit and water? I remember, at creation. They understood that Jesus was saying that the spiritual birth is just like the time God created the earth, the Spirit is present to create the purposes of God in man. The difference was that this time it is not a natural creation but a spiritual creation. This time God will star with man that are void and without form and create man in his form and image and fill him with His Spirit. Your born again experience was a creational act of God and he made you a new creation.

2 Cor 5:17;21 I am a new creation, old things have passed away behold all things have become new. God made him who knew no sin to be sin for me so that I might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus my Lord.

In your lost state the Holy Spirit was hovering over you and convicting you of sin. Then when you heard the Word you received faith to believe. As soon as the Word was present in your mouth, if we confess with our mouth and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead we shall be saved, the Spirit acted and birthed you into the kingdom of God. God desired it, the Word spoke it and the Spirit did it.

So we see the Spirit of God brooding over chaos. To better understand this word we must add Deut 32:11 to it.

As an Eagle stirs over her nest, flutters(hovers) over her young, spreads abroad her wings, takes them and bears them on her wings, so alone the Lord led you and there was no strange god with you. 

This is the only other time this word is used. God tells Israel through Moses that when He brought them out of Egypt, out of slavery and bondage and chaos, He was like an eagle hovering over them. The same image that is used in Genesis one when God creates. So what it means is that when God brought Israel out of Egypt it was an act of creation. Making slaves sons again. Taking chaos and bringing in a new order. Look at what God Says in Ex 19 right after they left Egypt and what He is making them. 

Ex 19:3-6  And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel;  Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and howI bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.  Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earthismine:  And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.

The same picture of an eagle, the Spirit hovering to create them into a kingdom of kings and priests. The born again experience is an act of creation where God constitutes us into sons and daughters but even more than that. Unless you are born of the water and the Spirit you cannot enter the kingdom of God. Why does He create us into new beings and for what purpose?

1 Pet 2:9-10 But yearea chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:  Which in time pastwerenot a people, butarenow the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

Isn’t that what happened at creation? Darkness covered the face of the deep but God spoke light and created something good. In times past you were not His people but now through the recreation and the born again experience by the Spirit you are a king and a priest. The same thing God made them after their act of creation, the same thing God makes you after your act of creation.

Are you born again by the Spirit. There is no other way to enter the kingdom. 

Rom 8:9 You are not in the flesh but in the spirit if so that the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is not his. 

You have the Spirit of God that continually dwells in you. HE is ready to bring order out of chaos in any area of your life. He is present but not acting until the Word speaks. Find out what the Word says and you will be amazed at what the Spirit can do with you.

Genesis 1 - 1

Genesis 1 and Salvation - 1.

Gen 1 is not just the story of creation but a picture of what God has planned and purposed from the beginning for us. The plan of salvation is contained in this chapter in pictures that represent what God would do as time unfolds. Before the foundations of the earth was laid, God already purposed Christ the lamb to redeem us. He also chose us before He created the worlds.

1 Pet 1:18-20 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, assilver and gold, from your vain conversationreceivedby tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you

Eph 1:4 According as he chose us in Him before the foundations of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. 

So before it all happened God planned it and He included you in his choice. He picked you first. Then he created and revealed his purpose for it all.

A.   It starts off with Gen 1:1 that says: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 

God’s Purpose:You must understand that God never creates chaos. Whenever HE creates, it is perfect. So this verse spells out in pictures what God’s original intend was. Heaven and earth perfectly created and fulfilling the purpose He created it for in the first place. That is what Adam and Eve would look like when God creates them.

B.   Then comes Gen 1:2. And the earth was void and without form and the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep. 

Here we see the original plan and purpose of God off track. What was perfect at first is now a mess. This was Adam and Eve after the fall. This pictures what sin would do to man when man would turn his heart away from God and accept another master. This will bring chaos and destruction but will not alter the purpose of God. Sin could never change the plan God had for us. I am so glad I am called and predestined according to his purpose – Rom 8:29-30.

C.    Thirdly we see what happens in Gen 1:3. And God said: Let there be light! 

God’s Provision:Here God starts to recreate the earth that were in chaos back to its original intend and purpose. We see God creating something that he would declare to be very good in the end. Dust we are and to dust we will return. Re-creation pictures how God restores us back to his plan through the light he provides through Jesus Christ. In Him was light and the light was the life of men – John 1:4. Jesus says: I am the true light that lights every man – John 1:9. I am the light of the world – John 8:12. He is also the Word of God.

Psalm 119:115 Your Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. 

When God spoke “Light BE” he was setting the standard of what things will look like when he is done. He will have a people that would look just like their Father.

D.   Next we see in Gen 1:26-27 God saying: Let us make man in our image. 

God’s Action:That was what He intended from the beginning, heaven and earth in perfect harmony and sync. This is how we ought to pray, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Gen 1:1 all established again. 

1 Cor 5:17 states: I am a new creation, old things have passed away behold all things have become new. I no longer am a sinner but a son of God recreated in His purpose. God did not repair my old man, he replaced it. I now have his divine nature and the mind of Christ – 2 Pet 1:4 and 1 Cor 2:16

The chapter on Creation shows God intent and purpose and how He would achieve this in Jesus Christ. But what about after we are saved and put back into our original purpose?

E.    In Gen 1:7 we see God separating the firmament and the waters above and beneath.

God’s intention: This speaks of how we ought to live after we are a new creation. We are called to live separately from sin and the world. We are in the world but not of the world. We are called to be a holy nation and set apart for God. 

Psalm 4:3 But know that God has set apart him that is Godly for Himself, the Lord will hear when I call on Him.

We are now called to be priests and kings unto God. We are a peculiar people meaning that we are different. You are a creation that has never existed before. You are a son and a daughter of God and you are a holy(set apart) nation – 1 Pet 2:9. A people that are called out of darkness into His marvelous light.

2 Cor 6:17 Come out from amongst them and be ye separate says the Lord. 

F.    In Gen 1:11 God says that the earth should bring forth plants that will have its seed in itself to produce fruit and more seeds.

God’s Plan:This is a picture of us as being productive and being able to multiply and produce the Christ life that is in us. Jesus commands us to go and make disciples and he expects us to bear fruit that proves what we are. 

John 15:8 Herein is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit, so shall you be my disciples. 

The way we produce good fruit is to stay grafted into Him. He is the vine and we are the branches. A branch does not strain to produce as long as it is connected to the vine. The vine supplies all it needs to produce the fruit – John 15:4-5.

G.   Lastly we see the fulfilment of God redemption purpose. Gen 1:26-27.

God’s Resolve:And God said let is make man in our image and our likeness. Gods plan is to have sons and daughters that are in His image and in His likeness. We not only have his character but we represent Him. Has anybody ever said: You are just like your mother or father. You are not them but the way you do things remind them about your parents. When people see us it reminds them of God.

You see me you see who my Papa is. That is what Jesus said on many occasions. If you see me you see the Father. A man in His image. Us in His image and likeness. See what Paul writes to the people in Colossians and Corinthians:

Col 3:10 And have put on the new man (the new you) which is renewed after the image of Him that created him. 

2 Cor 3:18 But we all with open face behold as in a mirror the glory of God are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 

From the very first Chapter of the Bible to the very last chapter we see one purpose. God restoring man back to His original purpose. We find the full purpose of salvation revealed in Genesis one. We see the fulfilment in Revelation 22. God has your life and purpose spelled out clearly. God will that no man be lost but all be saved.

Next time we will look at what the Spirit does in this chapter and how Jesus refers back to Gen 1 in a subtle way. Gen 1 is about recreation and redemption. I hope you join me for that as well.

The Children's bread.

New Creation Realities – 5

Children’s bread:

Mark 7:25-30 For a certainwoman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet: The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to castitunto the dogs.  And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs.  And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter. And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.

In this story Jesus refers to healing as the “children’s bread”.

Let us look at that for today. Bread is significant because it is the very thing that sustains us. In Jesus time it was the staple food source, like today it would be hamburgers and hot dogs for Americans. In the story where Jesus feeds the five thousand we see the boy had five loaves of bread and some fishes. 

What Jesus is saying here is significant because he understood the culture and the day he was living in. What a strong point to make that as sure as they needed bread every day, they will need healing as well. HE came to give them the thing that just didn’t sustain them for a day but for a life time. 

In John 6 Jesus says: I am the bread of life – John 6:48.

Not only is he the eternal bread, he warns them in verse twenty six of the same chapter not to labor for the bread that perishes but rather for the food or bread that endures into everlasting life. What is the everlasting bread? Jesus is the bread from heaven that God send.

Every time after he multiplied the natural bread, they had excess and left overs. Both times they were commanded to gather the fragments. I have to come to the conclusion that when the supernatural gets a hold of the natural the result is fullness and abundance. It is the very essence of the supernatural to supply above what we will ever need to fill the natural.

The same principle is implied by Jesus when he calls them to partake of the living bread. The natural can temporarily fill you, but the eternal can permanently fill you. As the bread of life he did to himself what he did to the bread and fishes. He broke himself and multiplied himself as the bread of life so that all men can now be fed with the eternal sustenance we all need and crave. As he took the bread at the Passover meal he said: This is my body, take it and eat it. 

He is more than enough. Who eats his flesh and drinks is blood will have eternal life. These statements are the things that made people turn away from him and his mission. 

The bread is also the healing for the children. Healing is the children’s bread. Just as we need bread for food we need healing in our bodies. The great news are that God provided for our healing in Jesus wo is the Bread of Life. 

In Isaiah 53 we read that we are healed by his stripes. His body was torn apart and beaten so that we can have healing through his brokenness. His body for our healing and his blood for the remission of our sins. He totally provided for us in Christ’ sacrifice.

Healing is the children’s bread. The response this mother gives is profound. The “crumbs” will be enough. I don’t need a whole lot, just something small will be enough. We don’t need a lot from God. Something small is always enough. The problem is that we are not desperate enough to ask for what seems to be not ours. We have become independent and feel that we have need of nothing when we are the ones that need it most. 

What do you need today. Christ is universal and the bread are not just for one tribe or geographical group. HE came as the bread of heaven so all can have to eat and live. You don’t need much. Just get so desperate that you won’t be denied. He is waiting for you to ask. 

Who am I?

New Creation Realities – 4

This time I want to look at why Jesus makes a statement that we are greater than John.:

Matt. 11:11Most assuredly I tell you, among those who are born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptizer; yet he who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he.

Luke 7:28  “For I tell you, among those who are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptizer, yet he who is least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he.”

I always wondered about this statement. Wasn’t Elijah or Elisha greater than john? What about Moses and some others that did great and wonderful things in the Bible.

Think about Moses for a minute with me. First God speaks to him personally in a face to face encounter through a burning bush that is not consumed. Then he throws his staff down and it becomes a snake and he picks it up again and it is a staff again. He turns water into blood, causes ten plaques to come on Egypt and delivers a nation out of bondage and slavery. Then he speaks to a rock and brings forth water. Isn’t that a great man in the kingdom? Jesu doesn’t think so.

What about Elijah. He calls down fire from heaven and then God speaks to him in an audible voice. HE stops the rain for three and a half years and then makes it rain again. He performed eight miracles in his life that included raising someone from the dead. Wasn’t he a great man in the kingdom. Jesus didn’t think so.

Elisha is next. Double the amount of miracles that Elijah did. Also raised someone from the dead, multiplied the oil in a bottle for a widow and her son, healed a leper king and many more. Prophesied a famine to stop and it did. Surely he must be great in the kingdom and even better than John the Baptist. 

John never performed a miracle I his life. Surely Elisha bust be bigger than John in the kingdom. Jesus didn’t think so. 

What about all the others we have not even mentioned like Daniel, David, Solomon, Joseph and Abraham. The list goes on and on. The question remains as to why Jesus would say John is bigger in the kingdom than all of them. And then you must understand that if you are in his kingdom, through the born again experience, you are greater than John. That is what Jesus thinks. 

So what made john the greatest of all the prophets?

John not only had a message of repentance, which most of the prophets had, but he had an announcement to make. He was the one that would no longer talk about a coming Messiah. He was the one chosen to announce that Jesus was here. 

John 1:29  The next day, he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

All the prophets before John was looking into the future and knowing that God will send the Messiah, but knew that it was not in their lifetime. John was the one that would experience the reality of seeing the Messiah walk amongst them as a nation. For them it was a prediction for him it was reality. 

So why does Jesus think that we are greater than John who saw him and announced him?

God was not looking at the miracles, He is looking for the message. Jesus is the message of God. He is the Word of God made manifest. The Word not amongst a people but inside a people.

In the kingdom today we don’t see him but we have him in us, and his word written on our hearts. In the Book of John it clearly states that “The Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us.”

Jesus as the Word of God came two thousand years ago and when he ascended to the Father he gave us a promise.

John 14:16-20 I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever,— the Spirit of truth, whom the world can’t receive; for it doesn’t see him, neither knows him. You know him, for he lives with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more; but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

HE did not leave us as orphans, He send his Spirit and through the Spirit he now lives inside of us. This time it is not Him amongst a people, but Him inside of people. This time it is not one prophet announcing his presence, it is all that have him announcing his presence. Indeed the word has become flesh, indeed the word is flesh in people amongst every tribe and tongue and nation. Think about it. Jesus has chosen to multiply himself and live in all of us.

Why are you greater than John the Baptist? Jesus never lived inside of John but he is living in us and because we all now have Him, we are greater than any prophet that ever lived. It was not the miracles that made them great, it was the message. They were announcing and waiting, John announced and saw, we announce and experience. It was not the miracles, it was the message. You have the Word of God, Jesus the word made flesh in you, as the message of God in you. That is who you are. 

Rom 10:6-8 But the righteousness which is of faith says this, “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down);  or, ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.)” But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart;” that is, the word of faith, which we preach:

Who am I?

New Creation Realities – 3

Let’s look further into who we are. You were created for Him and by Him. You originated from God. He is responsible for the fact that you are here.

The first thing He did was give you identity. You belong to Him because you came from Him. Your identity is Him. 

Rom 8 :29  He has predestined us to be conformed to the IMAGE of his Son. 

Let us make man in our IMAGE. Your purpose is to look like Him. I love what Paul writes in 2 Cor 3:18 

But we all with an open face are beholding as in a mirror the glory of God, are changed from one degree of glory to the next degree of glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

An image is what you see when you look into the mirror. He is our mirror. You only have permission to look at him. Only then can you change. You have no permission to look at a friend, a teacher, a hero or an idol to mirror yourself. They never created you. God is your blueprint. Only when you mirror yourself in him will you see yourself without condemnation.

2 Pet 1:4  Whereby is given unto us exceedingly great promises, that by these you might be partakers of his divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world.

Here is the next Creation Reality. He has made us partakers of His divine Nature. What a wonderful Truth. You are not the old man anymore. You were recreated into His nature and you don’t live a natural life trying to have a spiritual experience but you are fully alive to a Spiritual life having a natural experience. God has restored you back to your original purpose. 

John 1:12 All that have excepted Him he gave the authority(living from the I AM) to become the sons of God, even them that believe in His name. 

It is not prideful to act like Jesus. It is not narcissistic to act like you are favored by God. It should be your normal because that is who He made you to be. 

In Luke 4 we see the enemy trying to negotiate with Jesus. I will give you all these if you fall down and worship me. Be very careful with this. We were not called to negotiate what we are and what God has made us. Even after the temptation Jesus was regularly asked to proof something. “Do a miracle and we will believe in you.” Meet us on our terms and we will change. 

Never ever fall for this ploy from the enemy. What we are and who’s we are is not negotiable. I see people everywhere that think it is okay to negotiate who they are with sin. Just this one time won’t hurt anybody, right? It is not a big deal to God. Adam and Eve negotiated in the garden of Eden and it didn’t work. Light and darkness have nothing in common. Light overcomes darkness and the only option we have when it comes to the enemy is to resist him and cast him out.

Jesus taught us to pray in a certain way. 

Matt 6:10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.

When do know it is time to be a son of God. When do I walk in my divine nature. Everyday!

Anytime you see something that is not like it is in heaven, then you have the right to restore that. See that Jesus didn’t say when you see it is not like it is in heaven, then negotiate with the enemy and see what you can restore. What Jesus is saying is that in our prayer we don’t ask for the earth to be like heaven, will your kingdom come, will your will be done on earth as in heaven. No he clearly asks us to state what it should be, no negotiations. 

How do I know the enemy is lying to me? Every time he opens his mouth he lies. He is the father of all lies and cannot speak the truth. So why should I even speak to him. John 8:44.

You are of your father the devil and the lust of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not abide in the truth, because there is no truth in him. WHEN HE SPEAKS A LIE, he speaks of his own, he is a liar and the father of it.

How do we overcome the enemy? When we know who we are – identity.

2 Cor 5:20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you through us, we pray for you in Christ stead, be reconciled to God.

You are an Ambassador for Christ. When you are an Ambassador you represent your Government and they supply you with a card that says:

THIS PERSON IS NOT TO BE DETAINED FOR ANY REASON. 

That is called diplomatic immunity. It means that if I am a diplomat and they catch me for speeding, they can not arrest me and detail me. Even if I am in another country and break the rule, those laws does not apply to me because I am under the laws of my own government. 

You have diplomatic immunity in the kingdom and satan has no right to detain you. You are not living under the law of the old man or the flesh but you are now under the laws of the kingdom and his divine nature. There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ who does not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit(divine nature).

Are you seeing what the enemy is trying to do? Do not allow him to open his mouth. He is not the mirror we look at. Jesus Christ is the only one that can change you from glory to glory.

Who am I?

New Creation Realities – 2.

This time we want to look at what was said when God said “Let us make man in our image”.

Last time we saw that God found himself as a source for man. You were created out of the I AM.  Your origin is not some monkey somewhere. God did not find an ape and said let us make man from that. Neither did he find something else, an amoeba somewhere, not an angel, not a planet, not a star, no he found you in Himself. Wow!!!!!

Eph 1:4 says: Just as he choose us in Him before the foundation of the world. 

You were created before anything ever existed. You are from eternity and created for eternity. 

Let’s see what God says when he plans to create Adam and Eve.

Let us make man in our image – Gen 1:26

The very first statement that God made concerning you and me is about our identity. His image is your identity. 

Ever since the fall of man there has been a struggle for our identity. The enemy’s attack was on Adams identity. “Is it so that God said, because if you partake of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you will be just like God.”

What a lie. They were in his image and God did not hold out on them. He didn’t say lets make man like a part of us. Let us make man so they will never know what it is to be in my image. No and a million times more I say NO!

The very statement that God made established your identity. You are one of His kind. 

You are not what your father or your mother said about you. You are not what the coach said about you. You are not what your neighbor said after you ran over his dog. Nothing that you can do, can affect your origin. You had no say and no part in making or creating yourself. You are who God says you are. An original in the image of God.

He chose you before you could make that choice. He had you in mind before you ever understood a thing or had a thought. Why will we listen to the enemy trying to make us feel less valued?

The word for “Choose” in Eph 1:4 literally means “Out of the I AM”. He looked at himself, saw you and picked you. You are one of a kind.

Secondly we see that God said: and let them have dominion.

You were created to rule. First God spoke your identity and then He spoke your purpose. You are destined for greatness. Your creational purpose is to overcome and be more than an overcomer. Adam was to rule the world. 

Psalm 115:15-16 May you be blessed by the Lord who made the heavens and the earth. The heaven, even the heavens belong to God but the earth he has given unto the sons of men. 

So we see that God has given the earth to man to rule and reign and have dominion. As man multiplied he was to populate the earth with people in the image of God. What went wrong?

To find out we must look at the temptation of Jesus in Luke 4: 5-6.

Then the devil took him up on a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to him, All this authority I will give you and their glory; for it has been delivered to me and I give it to whomever I wish.

The enemy says that someone gave him the authority. Adam had that authority and by sinning he gave that to the enemy. For the enemy to have it means that Adam had to have it to be able to give it away. 

2 Cor 4:3-4 says that our Gospel is hid from them because the god of this world has blinded their minds. Adam made the enemy a god. Again that means that Adam must have had the authority of a god. 

John 10:34 Jesus said: Is it not written in your law, I said, you are gods.

The Last Adam:

The first Adam failed. He missed it and messed it up. Jesus came as the Last Adam, God in the flesh to take back what the first Adam lost. If the first Adam lost authority then we know what Jesus as the Last Adam took back by defeating him. That is why Jesus can say: 

ALL AUTHORITY HAS BEEN GIVEN TO ME IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH.

What great news. Jesus bought our purpose back. He restored it all to us that are part of the second Adams Race. 

2 Cor 5:17 I am a new creation, old thigs have passed away behold it has become new.

You have an identity. You have a purpose. Jesus said: I give you authority over all the power of the enemy. Go and make disciples of all the nations.

Who am I?

New Creation Realities - 1

I need to take some time and write about the things I am learning about my identity in Christ. We work with a lot of young people and they all struggle for identity. What is coming at them is confusing them and because they are not grounded in the word they end up feeling “Hybrid.” 

Even people that have lived and served Jesus for years are struggling because they were taught wrong. What do we do with that? We have to educate people and train them up in the way they should go.

Let’s start with John 8:32. Jesus makes a statement that rattle everything you have ever believed about yourself. The purpose of God is to have us walk in the freedom of our purpose. The enemy wants us to walk in a lie and his purpose. We are up against the truth or the lie. One will set you free and one will keep you in chains. You choose which one you want.

“You shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set your free. – John 8:32

Whenever Truth is present you can be free. Anytime truth is absent you are bound to a life of struggle. Nothing else can set you free. Truth is the thing that God chooses to set you free. Everything else is a lie and will keep you in deception.

Let’s look at that for a second. Truth is not what I believe. Truth is not my doctrine or my dogma. Truth is not defined by theology or ethics. Truth is nothing else but a person and his name is Jesus.

John 14:6 Jesus speaks and says: I AM the Way, the Truth the Life.

To say there is another way is to reject the very one that can set you free. It is not even about what you believe about him, it is do you believe him. Why is this so important to believe him?

First he is the one that created you. The enemy did not have anything to do with it. He doesn’t understand you the way God understands you. Why would you believe him and reject the one that was there before you were born. If you want to know the potential of something ask the creator. If I take my car and try to plow my field I would only end up frustrated. The car was not made for that. If I ask the creator he would tell me why I am struggling. He can direct me to the person that created the tractor and the plow. Do you get my point. There is nothing the enemy can tell you about your purpose because he didn’t create you. He doesn’t mind to abuse you by the way. Stop listening to him. 

Secondly you must understand that only truth can break the power of the lie. One lie does not break another lie, it only leads to greater deception. The lie is not what you need to measure things against. Jesus said it in this way: When the blind leads the blind they both fall into the ditch. The only way to destroy the lie is to find the truth about it. That brings us to our first point in identity.

Who are you? 

Let’s look at your origin. Where do you come from?

Gen 1 is the key for us to look at. In the first chapter we find a pattern when God created the universe.

Gen 1:11 Then God said let the earth bring forth grass and the herb that yields it seed and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, who’s seed is in itself on the earth and it was so.

What do we see here. God finds a source that can reproduce a plant that has a seed that can reproduce more just like it. The earth would produce all the trees and the plants and grass and they all will be sustained by the earth so that they can reproduce and bring forth more of their own kind. WOW!

Then God looked at the waters and did the same thing. 

Gen 1:20 Then God said: Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures. 

Again God finds a source and brings out of it the very thing it would sustain. Fish of all kinds and see animals. In them they have the potential to reproduce and multiply and have many more just like them. 

Then we read in Gen 1:26. And God said: Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness.

Instead of finding a source outside of himself, this time he says, I WILL BE THE SOURCE THAT REPRODUCES SOMETHING. This time I will be the one reproducing something that belongs to this source and they will be able to multiply and reproduce many more just like them. 

If you take a tree out of the ground it dies. If you take a fish out of the water it dies. If you take man out of God he dies. 

You are one of a kind: No one has your DNA. No one has your finger prints, your eye imprint, your tongue imprint or your teeth imprint. There is no one that can represent you like you. You are one of a kind.

Not only are you one of a kind, you are one of His kind. Because you were created in his image, there is no one that can represent God like you can represent him. Does God have red hair, in you he does. Does God have brown hair, in you he does. You are one of his kind.

Why would we take the enemies word about who we are. You are not a failure. You are beloved and special. Never allow the enemy to steal what God said about you.

Before you get a wife!

As I was reading Gen 1-2, I realized something. In the story of creation there are a definite pattern that God is following. HE creates everything and then lastly he created man. 

There are a few things we need to take notice of here:

Gen. 1:26-28  And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.  So God created man in his ownimage, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Gen. 1:29-31  And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which isupon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which isthe fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.  And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there islife, I have givenevery green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold,it wasvery good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Gen 2:15-18 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And the LORD God said, It isnot good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

First we see God creating Adam. Everything God created he called good. On the sixth day he says that it is all very good. But then the only time God says something is not good is here in chapter two. “It is NOT good for man to be alone.”

Then God puts Adam to sleep and makes Eve out of the rib of Adam. So before God made Eve, Adam was alone for a season. During this season God gave Adam a few things. Before God gives a man a woman he gives him other things.

The first thing God gave Adam was a PLACE -  And God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden. Men belong somewhere. The original plan was that man would have a place with God. Adam walked with God and Talked with God. Men will do anything to feel that they are a part of something. Growing up I remember we had our neighborhood gang. It had nothing to do with drugs and violence like we see today. We belonged and we did things together. We would go ride our bicycles together or go and hunt birds together. The point being is that man has a place. Do you know your place with God. Are you a man that walks and talks with God. Adam had a place, you need a place.

The second thing God gives Adam is PURPOSE – Rule and reign and subdue the earth. Have dominion over the earth. Man was created to rule and reign. Men were created to be leaders. We were created to step up to the plate and make sure things are in place. This dominion only works through submission to God. We were not created to rule it over people but over the things that God gives us as men. The perverted and sinful way of dominion has had massive genocides as a result of men trying to lord it over people. What is your purpose. Are you ruling your home well. Are you a spiritual leader in your house? Does your wife and children feel protected and safe? IS something ruling you like anger, bitterness and unforgiveness?

The third thing that God gives Adam is PROVISION – You can eat from all the trees in the garden. God is the owner of everything and He alone provides for our daily need. Men have traded trust for fear. We have lost sight of the fact that when we steward the little things we will be trusted in the big things. Stewardship is not about keeping it safe but it is about stepping out in faith, trusting God and increasing what He has given us.

The fourth thing God gave Adam was IDENTITY – Let us make man in our image. Man finds his identity only in Christ, not the things he owns, the things he does or the things other people say. We were created to be a representor of God in the earth. Our identity is to bring heaven to earth. We come from God and we will go back to God. 

The fifth thing God gave Adam was PERAMETERS – “You shall not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” You must understand that God was not trying to control Adam or to deny him something. Parameters are there to protect us. When I taught my daughter how to cross the street it was not to deny her or to control her, it was to teach her how to be safe and how to stay out of harm’s way. This is where a lot of men struggle because they believed a lie that the enemy have told them. The same thing happened when satan tempted them. He was trying to make them think that God is holding out on them. “Is it so that God said, you shall surely not die if you et of that tree.” 

Why are these things so important. Adam had to learn what these things were before God would give him a wife. Men that don’t know their place with God, do not understand their purpose, can’t steward God’s provision, struggle with their identity and don’t know what their parameters are, are not ready to take care of a wife.

I believe this is clear and concise. Think about it before you engage in wanting to marry.

Commit or Surrender?

Commitment or surrender?

Recently I had a leadership meeting. Before I started I was wondering what I could share with them. I love to give my leaders something to think about. Just a little thought provoking idea that will make them live outside of the box.

I asked them to do something. I handed each one of them a clean sheet of paper. I requested they all write contract on the top of the paper. They all did it willingly. Then I requested them to sign and date the bottom. Out of the eight in the room only one person did it. The others immediately questioned my motives and why should they sign a blank piece of paper?

This opened the discussion for me to talk about commitment and surrender. You might ask: What are the difference?

Commitment:  This is like paying your mortgage or your car payment. You as the buyer commit to paying a certain amount each month for the next 3o years or in the case of the car the next 48 months. You have the ability to make the decision and decide how long you are willing to commit to that payment. 

Another example about commitment is when I invite you over for dinner and you reply: I am sorry but I already have a prior commitment on that night. Do you get what I am saying? Commitment is something you choose. You decide how well that goes with what you want for your life.

Surrender:When someone sticks a gun in your face you immediately put up your hands and you say: I surrender. I will do anything you ask, please don’t shoot me. Surrender is not something you planned. It happened and you choose to not fight and give up all your rights. You are now at the mercy of that person.

Why is this important? I think in our Christian society today we hear much about commitment but not about surrender. We use to sing a hymn when I was growing up: I surrender all, I surrender all, All to Jesus I surrender, I surrender all.

In Church today the buzz word is commitment. Will you commit to help with the Children’s Church? Will you commit to help with the Youth outreach? We have lost the meaning of surrender.

Why is surrender such a big thing? Neither the word commit or surrender are found in the Bible. We do see examples of both though. 

Commitment:The first example of commitment is the Law. Here are some expectations that you need to commit too. You might think that the Law was not a commitment, but it was because it was left up to them to decide if they wanted it or not. The second example of commitment was the Covenant. There are also the story of David after he became King over Israel, he found Saul’s only son that was left, Mephibosheth and brought him to the palace, and committed to feed him and take care of him the rest of his life. He was lame because his nurse dropped him. That was a lifelong commitment. The problem with commitment was that it didn’t have the power to change their hearts.

Surrender: There are a few really great examples of surrender in the Bible. The first story I want to look at was Abraham. In Gen 22 God asks him to sacrifice his son. This was after that God promised him and Sarah a son because they were unable to have any children. So Isaac is born. Imagine how much Abraham must have loved Isaac and how he felt about him. Then God asks him for the impossible. 

Abraham was committed to Isaac as a father. Now he had to show that he was not just committed to God and the blessing, he was surrendered. Will he obey God and surrender his instinct as a father to refuse to sacrifice his son. Even though he was committed as a father, he was surrendered as a servant to God. 

In the story of Daniel we see a degree by the king that no one should pray to any other God but him. Daniel is submitted to the king in service. He is under the kings authority but he is surrendered to God. So in spite of the degree he still kneels and prays three times a day. 

David in 1 Sam 24 proves this point as well. Saul is after him. He is trying to find him and kill him. David and his men are hiding in a cave when Saul and his men show up. Saul is sleeping and David has a chance to go and kill Saul. His men offer to do it for him. David refuses. Not only was he committed to serving the very king that wanted him dead, but he was surrendered to the anointing that was on Saul. HE cut a piece of the robe from Saul and feels convicted afterwards. He was surrendered to God and his time to make him king when the time was right. 

Heb 11 are full of names of people. We refer to them as people that had great acts of faith. I want to suggest that these were all people that knew what it was to be surrendered.

Commitment: -We all start here. Commitment is known by its time requirements. We commit in marriage for as long as we both shall live. Commitment starts today and can last a lifetime.

Surrender: - Surrender is not a future thing. Surrender is a constant “NOW.” Paul puts it this way: I die daily. Every moment of every day I have a choice to surrender. As I am living this life of surrender I will understand how much of it is really working its way in me.  

Commitment will chain you but surrender will set you free. Surrender does not mean bondage, slavery, abuse or control. Surrender means freedom from self-effort, self-righteousness and skepticism. 

People struggle to surrender because they struggle to trust. You can trust God. HE does not want to control you, bind you or manipulate you. That is why he is giving us a free will so we can freely chose to surrender ourselves to Him.

Plows for Mantles

Plows for a mantle.

In the story of Elijah we read that after he had the encounter with the Baal priests he had to flee from his life. Elijah was a great man of God that did eight miracles. Three times he called fire down from heaven when they wanted to take him to Ahab. He multiplied the oil for the widow and her son. He stopped the rain for three years and said it would not rain. Then he met with the Baal priests and called fire down again on the sacrifice that they made. He mocked the Ball priests and their effort to call down fire. 

He challenged all of Israel to turn their hearts back to God if he is the God that answers by fire alone. After the Ball priests failed, he stopped them, then he had them throw water on the sacrifice a few times so that they could not doubt that it was God sending fire down on the alter. Then he called on God and God consumed the sacrifice on the altar. After that he too the Ball priest and had them all killed. 

Jezebel, Ahab’s wife heard of it and threatened to kill him before the next day was over. So he fled to a cave and there God met with him. The Angel of the Lord appeared to him, fed him and had him walk until he met with Elisha. 

Here is where our story starts:

1Kings 19:19-21  So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who wasplowingwithtwelve yokeof oxenbefore him, and he with the twelfth: and Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him.  And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and thenI will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again: for what have I done to thee?  And he returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen, and gave unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him.

As soon as Elijah encounters Elisha, he finds him plowing his father’s field. This was hard work as he was plowing a field that had been in a drought for three years. What I like about this story is that Elisha did not give up when it got hard. When it made no sense to keep doing what he was doing, he persisted because he was after a harvest. Maybe this was what attracted the Prophet to him. We know he cared for his father because he asked Elijah if he could say goodbye first. 

Elijah does not speak a word. He does not ask Elisha if he is ready to do an exchange. He simply throws his mantle over Elisha. We are at a season where God knows that it is time to exchange the plow for the mantle. He is not asking your permission. When the time has come to be called to a higher calling, God executes his plan. The choice is yours if you want to receive the mantle or if you want to keep plowing. When you take up the mantle you leave the hard work behind. The plow causes you to work while the Mantle causes God to work. The plowing come first. Plowing happens when the drought is upon you but the mantle comes when the rain is returning. If you were faithful during the dry season, you will be faithful during the season of abundance.

Next thing Elisha does is he kills the oxen, the very thing that would secure a success in this season, and give it to the people. Many people will struggle to kill the thing that guarantee success to pursue what is the unknown of God. Having a mantle doesn’t mean you know how to carry it, it simply means you have qualified to be raised up in walking in it. This mantle will release the super natural where you would be the one controlling the natural. The mantle give you power to live free from the ordinary and qualifies you for the extra ordinary. You too will now multiply food and oil, see into the supernatural and declare things that has not happened yet.

Elisha would do twice as many miracles. He would be able to ask for more than anyone before him. This season doesn’t start by doing the miraculous but by serving the one that gave you his mantle. You will also learn what it is to serve and to stay focused. The supernatural demands obedience and sacrifice. The natural demanded commitment. Hard work for little rewards. Ploughing the thing that is under the curse. 

The new dimension doesn’t require a commitment, it requires a surrender. Elisha you are used to driving the cattle. They work at your every bid. Now that you take on the mantel you will learn what it is to live by His demand. 

Seed and Rain

This is God's plan for the earth!

Isaiah 55:10-11 

For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky, and doesn’t return there, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater;

The purpose of rain is to water the earth and assist with the growth of the seeds that are planted. Because of the rain, seeds can grow and reproduce. Seed can stay in the ground for years being dry, but when the rain comes, the seeds grow and produce what is in it.

Rain and water are types of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says that the spirit will be a river of living water in us. In Luke 8:11 Jesus explains the parable of the sower. "The seed is the Word."

We have both the seed(Word) and the rain(Holy Spirit) in us. Sometimes people have the word of God in their hearts but the Holy Spirit has not been invited to water that seed. So they constantly struggle to see  the reality of the Word in their lives. We need both the seed and the rain.

Seeds have potential:

The fruit of the seed is in it. When you see seed, do you see the seed or do you see the tree with the fruit. The potential of a harvest is in each seed. Once the seeds are planted, it dies and births the harvest. That is what Jesus says in the book of John.

John 12:24 Verily, verily I say unto you, except a seed falls into the ground and dies, it cannot bring forth much fruit.

The dying releases the potential. Inside the seed are the fruit that will reproduce seeds that will look like the first seed and have the same potential to produce when it dies. What a wonderful concept. Jesus was the seed that died so that he can produce us, looking just like him and having the same potential to produce a harvest. When we die to ourselves we give birth to the next generation that will produce a harvest.

Seeds can be wasted.

1. If no seeds are planted, the rain has no effect. 

When a farmer stop sowing, even if it rains, he will not have a harvest to bless him. Too many times people stop sowing seeds and when the blessing of God comes, they are without a blessing or a harvest. The kingdom are advancing and we constantly sow seeds that will produce a harvest in the future. 

2. We can plant good seeds or bad seeds.

The rain does not discriminate against the seed. It doesn't fall on good seeds only. The bible says that God makes it to rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous. The seeds you are planting is your choice. The bad seeds will produce as much as the good seeds. The rain doesn't wait until you planted good seeds. 

3. The farmer doesn't dig up the seed to make sure it grows.

Digging up the seeds will stun its growth or even kill it. You have to trust that the seed will produce what is in it. The harvest takes time. The farmer has to be patient for both the rain and the harvest.

What seeds are we planting right now. Sometimes we don't know until the harvest as only the fruit reveals what was in the seed. 

Luke 8:11 Jesus explains the parable of the sower. "The seed is the Word."

Words are seed that we plant for a harvest. Speak life and not death.

Wrestle with God!

There are two ways to wrestle – God or the devil.

Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in highplaces.

If you would ask the average Christian about spiritual warfare, the very first verse they will refer to is this one in Ephesians 6. They will be able to recount many stories where they had to ”wrestle” against the enemy. One time I ask an elder about his week and his reply was: Pastor I had the devil on my back all week.”

Who decided that it was okay to piggy back him or even give him that much space in your life? He didn’t like my answer a bit: “That is fantastic because if he is on your back he is not on mine.”

The word for “wrestle” in the Greek means: “to throw out or away.” 

When I throw the trash out, it doesn’t fight me. It is not a battle. But what about the enemy. If I want to be a bouncer he will engage me. You are not a spiritual bouncer trying to clear a night club, you have the authority of the name of Jesus. 

Engaging in this kind of wrestling match is not what we were called to do. Jesus already came and overcame the enemy. All we have to do is to take a stand against him. 

Jam 4:17. Submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. 

The second kind of wrestling you can engage in is found in Gen 32:24-26.

And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.  And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.

Here we see Jacob wrestle with a man that represents God. This kind of wrestling are different than the one we previously talked about. Why do we need to wrestle with God? A few things happens with Jacob when he wrestled with God:

First we see that they wrestled until the braking of the new day. This is significant. God will not leave us halfway through our darkest hours. He will stay with us until something new breaks through. If you feel like you are still in a wrestle match, keep going because the new thing God wants to do for you has not come yet. Once your new day break through you will have something new to celebrate.

Secondly we see Jacob asking God to bless him. You have a blessing in the new day. I love how Jacob kept fighting until he got it. Your yesterday was known by fear and rejection. Your yesterday was known by wandering and seeking. You were carrying the curse of your past decisions but God is about to change your curse to a blessing. The wrestling was not just to experience the difficult things but also to inherit a blessing.

Thirdly we see that Angel saying to Jacob that his name will be changed. Now longer will you be Jacob – supplanter/cheater – but now you will be known as one that have power with God. In your time of wrestling, God speaks new things over you. In the difficult times He chooses to say the things that will make your enemy wonder. 

Lastly I believe God wrestles with us because he wants to deliver us from our hang-ups. We all have them. When God struck Jacob’s thigh, he walked differently. Of course people will ask why and what happened. What a great thing God is doing, giving you something that will ask about your encounter with God. People with and encounter walks differently.

The kingdom are not passive but advancing. The enemy wants us to settle and get comfortable. There is no no-man’s land between the kingdom of God and the power of darkness. If we are not advancing and growing, we are retracting and dying. The kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent take it by force.

I pray we all get into a wrestling match with God. You will never win but you will never regret the encounter.

Dying to self - 4

Dying to self.

I have written about this and every time I meditate on this topic I get to learn something new. Two weeks ago, I did a memorial service for a friend that was in a prophetic worship team that we had. He was a prodigy when it came to music and writing songs. I would preach on a Sunday morning and then on Sunday evening he would bring me a song he wrote about what I preached on in the morning service. He really was that good. In spite of his talent he had struggles. Like all of us he was on the mountain top one day and down in the valley the next. I learned a lot from Michael. One thing about him was that he only had two settings as a human being: totally off or totally on. He did not have any “in between” setting.

He taught me about total abandonment and passion. You never had to wonder where Mikey was in his commitment. That was a blessing to all of us that called him a friend.

As I was preparing for his memorial I was reading through 1 Cor 15 again. This is the chapter where Paul argues the reality of Jesus’ death and resurrection. If Christ was not resurrected then our faith is in vain, Paul states. Another thing he states in this chapter is when he concludes: Death where is your sting? The last enemy is death. That statement made me think a lot.

The last enemy is death. Think about that. Once death is conquered then there is no more enemy. Let me put it in another picture for you. When there is flesh that still can die, the enemy is empowered. When the flesh is killed, the enemy has been neutralized. On the other side of death, the enemy is conquered, defeated and overcome. Why is this so important for us?

Paul admonishes us to die to ourselves. As a matter of fact, Paul says: I die daily! Jesus commanded us to take up our cross (instrument of death) and follow him. You see Jesus knows that death is not what kills us, it is the thing that disarms and puts the enemy out of a job.

How do we die to self?

What a great question. Let’s see what the scripture says:

Rom. 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

When we crucify the flesh and the lust of the flesh, we no longer serve sin or the father of sin, satan. Death kills the old man but gives birth to the new man.

Jesus did not die alone. We were crucified with him. He identified with our sin so we can identify with his death. I did not die with him, I am living with him. Death where is your sting? Death lost its power through his death, my death. The principle of John chapter eight is so prevalent. Jesus said: Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies it can not bring forth fruit.

His death brought forth fruit. My death produces fruit for him. I am alive now more than ever because I died and the enemy has been defeated. On the other side of death, the enemy is nullified and neutralized.

Gal. 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Do you belong to Christ? If you are you have made a choice. This is not a choice of I am 25% in. No, He requires everything. He wants 100%. Death has that ability.

Will you come and die to self? Will you come and move past what the enemy says you need to fear to a place where death is a rebirth and not something to fear.

Gal. 5:24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.