The Most Important Things

Well, it took me longer than I anticipated to finish off this blog. Or rather, longer than I procrastinated. Anyway, here are the last 2 thoughts, to complete the 4 thoughts regarding seed faith! (Click here to read part 1.)

1. Continual Harvest - Many people overlook this simple principle. If you want to harvest all year long, you have to plant all year long. Every season yields a new harvest and a new fruit in your life. Each natural season yields its own special harvests and so it is in the spiritual. Sow consistently and you will get a consistent harvest. Sow occasionally and/or erratically and you will get an inconsistent harvest!
2. Due Season - In Galatians 6:9, Paul writes: “Do not grow weary…for in DUE SEASON you shall reap…” While there are 4 seasons to every year and many spiritual seasons to every lifetime. The Due Season is a spirit-ordained season, that can override the natural timing of seedtime and harvest. To put that into some natural terms, imagine the due season like this: It takes a tomato seed anywhere between 55-100 days to go from seed to fruit. (Tomato is a fruit, after all.) The Due Season for a tomato seed would work like this, you plant a tomato seed today and you reap tomato fruit tomorrow. The Due Season defies the logic of nature to produce a harvest immediately! Now imagine that in a spiritual context. You sow a seed of money today, you get a harvest tomorrow.

I have been reading and meditating on “seed” and “seed faith” for the last few months. It has been very rewarding and interesting. All of this has “evolved” from studying the broader topic of faith this past year. There are four really important points that I have learned, and want to share, about seed faith and planting spiritual seed in general. Ready? Ok, here we go!

1. Qualify the soil. In the parable of the sower, the sower throws seed onto 4 different types of soil. They are: the path, the rocky, the thorny and the good soil. 3 of the 4 soils result in no usable harvest! But the seed that fell on good soil produced a harvest of 30, 60, and 100-fold. It’s easy for us to do the math. Either you have no harvest or 30, 60, 100-fold harvest. So, qualify the soil! Make sure that you are putting your seed into good ground. Don’t just throw it everywhere, plant it in good soil. Choose the soil that you are sowing into very carefully.
2. Define the harvest. Oral Roberts once said, “we’ve taught people how to sow, but they don’t know how to receive their harvest.”(Full disclosure: I must admit that I am learning and growing in this second point.) His point being that, maybe, you have done a good job of sowing and qualifying the soil. But have you defined and identified your harvest? A farmer knows what kind of harvest he’s going to receive by the seed he planted. So, the conclusion is when you sow your seed, define what type of harvest you are believing for in return.

These two thoughts have been transforming my seed sowing life. (Remember, seed isn’t just money. It can be time, energy, love, or anything that can be “planted.”) God has put laws in place in the universe, like sowing and reaping, that anybody (even unbelievers) can comprehend and apply. However, when a person of faith learns these laws and applies them WITH FAITH the result is accelerated and exponential! So, learn them and apply them with faith.

Stay tuned for part 2…you will love the last 2 points!

Kingdom DNA is what Jesus carried with Him during His time on earth. Kingdom DNA is the impartation of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit carries within Himself this Kingdom DNA. He, the Holy Spirit, was given to Jesus at baptism and He was given to the disciples at Pentecost. Kingdom DNA is what the disciples imparted to as many as would receive it at the advent of the church. Kingdom DNA sets captives free, opens the eyes of the blind, destroys poverty, abolishes sickness and disease and releases the power of God on earth. It is the desire of God that His Kingdom [DNA] come on earth as it is in heaven. So…how do we unlock it in our life? Here’s 4 simple keys that will unlock and unleash the power of the Kingdom in your life!

1. Have complete integrity. John 1:47 “Here is a genuine son of Israel–a man of complete integrity.” You have nothing to hide and everything to show, that will make you a genuine son or daughter. Complete integrity is what Jesus walked in at all times. So should we.
2. Do whatever He tells you. John 2:5 Jesus has shown us and told us what we need to be doing. (See Mt. 28 for more info) So, get out there and DO IT! The Holy Spirit is speaking, listen to Him.
3. Passion for the house. John 2:15-17 “Passion for your house has consumed me.” Hate anything that does not fit in the Kingdom, run to those things which are of the Kingdom. Jesus made a whip and chased impurity out of the house. Make yourself a spiritual whip and whip the impurity out of your own life. Let passion for the Kingdom flow through you!
4. Walk in the divine nature. John 2:24-25 Jesus knew the nature of man, that it was always to do wrong. His divine nature continually confronted human nature (and won, I might add). His divine nature caused the religious to run away and the hungry to run towards Him. He was totally different from mankind because He was totally submitted to the divine nature! Submit your nature to God’s.

If you are hungry you will be filled! Unleash the Kingdom of God on this earth, starting in your own life first!

Recently, I have been talking with my children about the “First Answer.” What is the “First Answer?” It’s, Yes. The reason we have been talking about this is that excuses, arguments and “buts” arise when an instruction is given. Nobody is looking for any of those. We are all very tired of hearing excuses as to why things can’t get done (i.e. controlled budget in the gov’t or why a project “can’t” be done). I would rather have someone tell me, “no” than make excuses. At that point, I can deal with their rebellion because it is blatant and obvious. Whereas somebody who is always giving excuses tries to veil their motives through a partial “yes.”  Yet, we live in a culture today that has ZERO respect for yes and no. And, in many instances, is afraid of saying: “no.”

Don’t believe me? When asked by Facebook if somebody is your friend, what are your options? Yes and no? Wrong. It’s “confirm” and “not now.” Why is that? Fear of responsibility and follow through. (It’s also a measure of tolerance. Who are you to say if somebody is your friend or not.) If somebody friended you and you hit “not now” you have the chance to weasel out of why you declined their “friending.” You just didn’t want to be friends with them right now. Contrast that with this answer, “No, I do not know you. Therefore, I am declining your friend request.” Sounds harsh? Not really. Yet, too much tolerance and political correctness in our lives pushes us into the grey areas of life. To the point that we live in fear of being considered “intolerant.” So, what does Jesus have to say about yes and no?

Jesus has always been very clear about the answers we are to have. He was also very clear with His answers. He says in the Gospels to let your “Yes be yes and your no, no.” Later, Paul writes “All His promises in Christ Jesus are Yes and Amen.” (paraphrased.) These are insights into how God desires us to respond.  There’s also the parable of the 2 men who the Master offered work to. One said, “no” and later came back to work. The other said, “yes” and never got around to it. This only furthers our example of being forthright and honest in our answers.

The point that is being made here is that our first answer to Jesus should be yes, and we should follow through with it. I want my children to be people of their word, accountability and responsibility. I want to be that too! My first answer to authority and to Jesus is YES! And Amen!

What’s your first answer?

I love Jesus. I love His word, it always builds my faith and increases my understanding. There is a major lack, in the church today, of spiritual understanding. Many are not aware of the Holy Spirit or are quickly stuffing Him away. We need spiritual understanding to help us in every situation because we live in a spiritual world. Anyone of us can have natural understanding, just by living life. But there IS a difference between natural understanding and spiritual understanding. We MUST discern and pursue spiritual understanding. Spiritual understanding is an awareness, recognition and dedication to hearing the what the Spirit is saying.

If you are not aware that the Holy Spirit wants to speak to you all the time, you lack spiritual understanding. If you are not recognizing the Holy Spirit is working (and wants to work) in every situation, you lack spiritual understanding. If you are not pursuing intimacy with the Holy Spirit everyday, you will never have spiritual understanding!

In Matthew 13:12 Jesus says this, “to those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge.” I call this the “spiritual understanding parable of the talents.” If you don’t use the understanding given to you by the Holy Spirit, you will lose it. This situation happens in many believers lives. They hear something from God and they don’t apply it or search it out. The result is that they lose their understanding. I don’t want to be that way. I want to be so hungry to hear God’s voice, that I hear something from Him everyday!

In fact, it has been my personal goal to hear from the voice of God everyday of my life. This has helped me understand the bible, the world and many other things. But the Holy Spirit has spoken to me, recently, and put a new goal in my spirit. The goal is this: to be “in the Spirit” all day long. It may sound simple, but let me tell you–it takes more effort than it sounds! Yet I have found great joy in walking in the Spirit! And it has only been by the Spirit that I have been able to walk in the Spirit for any amount of my day. (Full disclosure: I have not lived a whole day in the Spirit yet. But I press on!)

I would encourage you today, be hungry for more of the Holy Spirit. Pursue understanding that comes from the Holy Spirit! Make yourself recognize and be aware that the Holy Spirit was given by Jesus, to help you out…in everything! In all your getting get understanding, in the Spirit!

I am sure we are all familiar with the phrase, “opportunity knocks.” Well, it’s true. There are many forms of opportunity and it’s “knocking.” Typically, we associate that phrase with some sort of financial gain, but that’s not all it represents. Here are 3 opportunities you should NEVER pass up!

1) The opportunity to receive Jesus Christ. Rev. 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, Iwill come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” Jesus was never overly aggressive in His ministry. He never opened “doors” Himself. He would knock and wait for each individual to open it. Open the door. If you miss this opportunity, it could be your last!

2) The opportunity to serve. Servanthood is a seed into the life of another person! You may not have any material possession to sow into somebody’s life. But you do have your life! Sow your life into serving others. As you serve others you will gain favor and more opportunity to serve. Rebecca served Abraham’s servant unquestioningly and her reward was: her husband Isaac, the inheritance of Abraham and birthing Israel! All she did was serve. Who can you serve today?

3) The opportunity to learn. This is important because, learning (and more importantly revelation from God) increases our capacity. I love to read books that expand and push my thinking outside of the norm. Having said, that I won’t just read anything. I am very selective as to what goes into my spirit through my mind. My first love is the word of God and I read it everyday.

Also, learning doesn’t come from books. Who is mentoring you? Who is holding you accountable in your life? Who is pushing you to be great? If you want uncommon results you need an uncommon mentor. (Think Elijah and Elisha.) You need to find a mentor who will press you onto greater results. Often times, this is someone who is not easy to be around. Elijah told Elisha to leave him 3 different times! He also asked Elisha what he wanted, after Elisha had burned all of his livelihood! Talk about hard stuff! Jesus told people to eat His flesh and drink His blood. He told them to let the dead bury themselves. Paul told Timothy he had to be circumcised. The list goes on. If you want uncommon success, you must find an uncommon mentor.

The door of your life is being knocked on today. Open the door! Receive Jesus! Find someone to serve! Read a book! Find an uncommon mentor!

For the record, I have three kids. That’s why I know lots of Disney movie quotes. So…ever seen the movie Tangled? There’s a part in the movie (which is a re-make of the Rapunzel story) where Rapunzel just wants to live out her dream. To do that she needs a thief to make that happen. This thief has a dream to retire on a private island with lots of money. Rapunzel’s dream is to get out and see the world. At one point, they go into a pub filled with thugs and all these tough guys start singing about the dreams they have. It’s really funny. At the end of the scene, one of the thugs says to Rapunzel, “go, live your dream!” The thief answers, “Thanks. I will.” To which the thug responds, “Your dream stinks. I was talking to her.”

I said all of that to ask this, does your dream stink? Is your dream a selfish, isolated dream? Or is it a dream that is from God’s heart? How do you know if your dream comes from God’s heart? Here’s a great quote from John Piper that makes reference to our topic:

“The critical question for our generation—and for every generation—
is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the
friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and
all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties
you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no
human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with
heaven, if Christ were not there?”

What does that have to do with your dream, you ask? The above quote can easily define most American’s dream. And it stinks. If your dream is void of Jesus Christ it’s not from God. If you can accomplish your dream without Jesus Christ, it’s not from God. If your dream is all about you and what you can get for yourself, it’s not from God. Your dream stinks, because it reeks of the flesh. We must begin to dream like God does. We must see how God sees the world. He does not see the world in profit and loss, or possessions gained. He sees the world as family to be born, brothers and sisters to be reconciled, lives to be healed, heaven to be received.

Reinhard Bonnke is known for this quote, “a blood-washed Africa.” He’s been known to stare off into space in the middle of a conversation and when asked what’s the matter? He will respond, “a blood-washed Africa.” He has a dream from God that is so entrenched into his life that it consumes his thoughts. And note that it is not for himself, it’s what God wants. That’s a dream that will come to pass! (To date, he has seen over 50 million souls in Africa come to salvation in the last 10 years.) It’s time to change our dream. I used to dream about being wealthy and having this or that. Not anymore. I have a dream that makes me cry, pray and laugh because it’s for God and there’s no way I can “make it happen.” Can your dream be fulfilled with more money? Can your dream be fulfilled without God’s help? (I am not talking about “God helping you” win the lotto either.)

I will end with this verse, John 4:35, “But I say wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest…and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life.” This is God’s dream: people brought to Eternal Life! Let’s allow His dream to sink deep into our spirits and begin to lift our eyes! What’s your dream?

Ever hear somebody say, “it’s not the end of the world?!” Well, in the case of Harold Camping, it literally was not the end of the world. However, it is the end of his “prophetic words.” No one should take him seriously again, until he actually prophecies something that happens. That may sound harsh but it’s true. Here’s what the bible says in 1 Thess. 5:20-21, ”Do not scoff at prophecies, BUT test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good.”

In this verse we see a great and easy-to-follow guideline from God. We shouldn’t scoff or despise prophecies. But we should test them, to see if they come to pass. When you spend $100 million on a global campaign and it turns out to be dead wrong (not to mention unscriptural) then you don’t get the right to be take seriously on prophecy. I have nothing against Harold Camping. He just missed out on an obvious mistake, namely, no one knows the day or hour of Christ’s return. As a result, he failed the test; and miserably I might add. But there is hope!

The best thing about scripture is that applies to every area of life. In this instance, we see how shouldn’t scoff or despise prophecy. Just because one guy was terribly off, doesn’t mean every prophecy is wrong for the rest of time. Instead, we are told to test them and see if they come to pass. In addition, look at the final piece of that verse again, “…hold on to what is good.” Can anything good come from this? I say, emphatically, yes! Scores of people were alerted to the fact that there will be a 2nd Coming of Jesus Christ. Many Christians were actually on-guard, in the event it was the end of the world. And it brought up some great conversations that centered on Jesus’ return. Hopefully, this will continue to assist in motivating Christians (in the USA) of something that was extremely prevalent in the New Testament, the return of Christ.

This topic of the 2nd Coming is not mentioned very much in our modern context and it is a sad state of affairs. It is mentioned numerous times in the New Testament, it was the motivation for fulfilling the Great Commission. It should be ours today as well. There will be a 2nd Coming. And only Christians will go with Jesus. So, who are you sharing the gospel with and discipling? Now is the perfect time!

Spiritually dull is becoming the norm in the western church. We seem to have placed an inordinate amount of focus on the temporal. We are always thinking about how to improve our lives on earth or how we can become more successful. Of course, we have created elaborate justifications for it all. We say things like: I want to be rich to bless others. Or, we are just trying to reach more people by becoming more diplomatic in our gospel presentation.(note: I am not against generosity and/or gospel preaching) Instead of preaching in–depth messages and bringing more believers to maturity we end up creating a fickle, temporal christianity. A kind of christianity that gets offended and hurt at basic gospel truths. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way: “There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen.” OUCH! Imagine how immature those believers had to have been for them to say that! What’s even more shocking is that the writer is talking to jewish converts. Jews were required to memorize the first 5 books of the “bible.” As opposed to our 1–minute bible christianity.

Anyway, the argument gets worse as he continues, “you have been believers so long now that you OUGHT to be teaching others.” OUCH again! How many christians are held back or are afraid to teach others? Part of that is their own fault, part is the fault of the american church which has done a poor job of properly maturing believers. There are countless christians who really should be discipling/ teaching others but are not because they are content to sit and “listen” to the word. This ought not be so!

Finally, the writer gets to this part, “Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.(also good and evil)” It’s on that verse that I want to focus. A definition of immaturity can be this: the inability to discern the difference between right and wrong. That seems overly simplistic, doesn’t it? Yet, how many christians do you know who cannot do that? They cannot discern that listening to music with overtly sexual and/or perverted themes is evil. They cannot discern that watching horror movies is wrong. They cannot discern that rebellion and pride are still sin in God’s eyes. All the while they continue to do their own will rather than submit to God. If you desire to be mature in your faith, you must begin to understand the difference between good and evil and right and wrong. The only way to do this is to know the Word of God and to know the God of the Word.

Notice also, how it says “who through training have the skill?” There is no shortage of training offered christians in America. We have bible colleges, internships and every church has a litany of training courses for believers. Yet, the problem is that no one has the skill to recognize the difference. Why is that?! (I say it’s the training, but that’s for another post.)

God’s desire that everyone of us become mature believers. Here’s a way I look at it: if you have ever been in a relationship, then you know that the more time goes on the greater you understand the other person and their nuances.You really begin to understand what they like and don’t like. This same idea can be applied to God, the one who created relationship. If you want to know what God loves and hates – SPEND TIME WITH HIM AND HIS WORD! It really is that simple. The more you know Him and become like Him, the more mature you will become. Our goal is to become like Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Whatever you obsess about, you will be possessed about. This is a simple way that the devil works in our life. He will work overtime to get us obsessed with something. We get obsessed with money. Or we get obsessed with having material items. Or we get obsessed about a negative thought. The more you obsess on something the deeper it will get into your mind. Then, the deeper it gets into your mind it begins to saturate into your spirit. That obsession opens a door to the demonic and allows for oppression (and possession if it goes too far) which has no place in a Believer’s life!

Perhaps, you have been obsessing about past failures. Or maybe you have been obsessing about something bad that happened in your life. No matter what you are obsessing about, STOP! Obsession will lead to possession. That’s why the Bible tells us to forgive, it tells us to focus on heaven, it tells us to fix our eyes on Jesus, etc. The Bible is filled with all kinds of exhortations to stop obsessing about our ourselves and this earth!

One of our greatest obsessions, right now in America, is with the temporal. We are obsessed with clothes, homes, cars, church buildings and the list goes on. Yet, we give no thought to the the eternal. A great benefit of the Bible is it’s timeless message. It applies to all mankind past, present, and future! It will never grow old or old-fashioned. But how much of our stress and tension is related to our temporal mindset? All of it! If you are madly in love with Jesus, you’re serving Him faithfully, and pleasing Him; what is there to be stressed about? Some would say, “I am stressed about making more money.” Well if you are content with what God has given you (and if you live in the USA you are in the top 10% of the richest people in the world) there’s no reason to stress, God will provide. What about my job? If you’re pleasing God, you will definitely be pleasing your employers and walking in God’s perfect will.

Too many Christians stumble over sins that continue to haunt them all their life. Why? Obsession. They are obsessed with trying to “conquer” their flesh. When, in reality, they should be obsessed with Jesus. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way, “…let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up…” Then he answers our question of “how?” He says, “we do this by KEEPING OUR EYES on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.”

The answer to your obsession with sin and how to get over it, is to be obsessed with the One who defeated sin! Be obsessed with the eternal. Be obsessed with Jesus!