The Most Important Things

Communication with God is essential. God wants to communicate with us. It was His design, from creation, that He and man have a relationship and communicate with each other. God is the perfect communicator. He never miscommunicates. If there was a ever problem hearing God, the fault is squarely on us and our sin nature. We are the ones who hear what we want to hear, or disregard the voice of God entirely. Jesus says, “he who has (spiritual) ears to hear, let him hear.” This is God’s desire for us: that we hear what He is speaking to us. To do that we need some surgical work done in our life so that we can properly hear God.

In Hebrews 4:12 it reads, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” This verse has a lot of hidden meaning in the original greek. Much of it’s original description is based on surgical precision to remove, expose, and analyze our brain, bones, and heart. Throughout the New Testament we see that the word is likened to a sword. We are, as disciples of Christ, to wield this sword effectively. Jesus was the master of sword-wielding. Paul was a skilled swordsman, as well. Peter, well, he is easier to look at and draw examples of what most of us would do and have done with the word. So, let me give you 3 surgeries that will repair your hearing and help you to wield the sword more accurately.

Surgery #1: Brain Surgery

Mark 8:33 – “Get behind me Satan! You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” Jesus just called Peter, Satan. He equated Peter’s human perspective to that of the guy who originated sin. The guy that introduced mankind to sin and it’s horrible effects on humanity. Why did He do that? Peter’s thoughts and intentions were not God’s. They were Peter’s. Jesus is looking for disciples who will accept and proclaim the mind of Christ. He is looking for our thoughts to be as close to His thoughts as we can. He wants our intentions to be His intentions, His intentions are: holiness, purity, salvation, discipleship, Kingdom, etc.

What happens when you don’t get your way? Or when you don’t agree with other believers? What about when God doesn’t answer a prayer or do something on your time table? Where are you thoughts and intentions then? Do you see things from a human point of view? Or can you still accept God’s thoughts and intentions?

The word of God in this first surgery is like a surgeon taking his scalpel and light to shine into the dark crevices of your brain. He is searching for cancerous tumors that need to be removed before they spread. He is looking to remove man’s thoughts and put His in their place.(Note: He’s not looking to lobotomize you, He doesn’t want mindless robots. He wants to remove the doubt, unbelief, and error.)

So, are you seeing things from a human point of view today? Or from God’s? Let God remove the wrong thoughts and intentions today!

Stay tuned for Surgery #2, Bone Marrow Transplant!

Nike didn’t invent that phrase and it’s not theirs to trademark. God’s the one who started it all. He created the earth and everything in it. He just did it. So, now it’s your turn. Act like God and just do it!

That’s right, stop procrastinating. Stop thinking about it. Stop caring what other people think. Just do it. Jesus picked up His cross, went ahead and did it. He lived a perfect, sinless life. He went through a brutal destruction of His body and then rose again! Paul, was totally blind and went to a strangers house. Scales fell of his eyes, then he went and preached the gospel to the world. He just did it. King David, a teenager, just went out and did it. He lopped the head off of a giant, against all odds and “wisdom.” You can do it, too. Don’t wait. Don’t fear. Don’t hesitate.

You could fail marvelously or you could succeed enormously. Either way, there’s only one way to find out…Just do it!

The righteous man fell 7x and picked himself up. That means he tried it 7x. Probably 7 more than you! Just do it already!

You must be fed up with your present situation, to change your future! Just do it. Get fed up with today and make tomorrow amazing. Lift your eyes and say, “if God is for me who can POSSIBLY be against me?” And then do it.

This little phrase has been rolling around in my spirit for a little while now, “willing to yield.” It comes from James 3:17. James is talking about the wisdom that comes from above or descends from heaven. He lists a number of different things that are important to remember. But James also drops “willing to yield” in there.

Probably most of our references to the word, “yield” come from our daily driving experiences. We see yield signs everywhere. Here, in Baton Rouge, it seems as if most driver’s ed courses skipped the definition of this sign. 99% of the drivers here in BR stop, when they see a yield sign. This ruins the flow of traffic and makes me want to yell, “it’s A YIELD SIGN!” (Full disclosure: I often yell, “it’s A YIELD SIGN, dear child loved by God!”)

Yield, according to the US DOT, means to proceed with caution. Not stop! In a spiritual context, willing to yield can easily be applied with the same definition. Wisdom that comes from above allows us to willingly proceed with caution, where necessary. It doesn’t mean that we stop moving forward or that we proceed cautiously everywhere. It means that when the Holy Spirit prompts us once (or more times as is often the case) that we willingly respond to Him and proceed with caution. It means that we are so submitted to His Lordship that we are prepared to move at the pace He defines. That pace can be fast and full of faith, it can also be proceeding with caution and walking by faith, not by sight.

Is there an area in your life where the Holy Spirit is prompting you to proceed with caution? Are you willing to yield?

I was reading the Gospel of Matthew the other day. I came across this verse: “You [Peter] are a dangerous trap to Me [Jesus]. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, and not from God’s.” I thought that was an interesting statement. Jesus was telling Peter that his point of view was a “dangerous trap.” But it wasn’t just Peter’s point of view, it was that his point of view was seeing things “merely” from a human perspective.

To paraphrase, Jesus was saying this to Peter: “Your human perspective of Me, the Will of God and the task at hand; is a dangerous trap. Stop thinking that way and start thinking like God.” This, of course, begs the question: how are you thinking today? Are you seeing life merely from a human point of view? Or are you setting your mind on things above? We must get out of the dangerous trap of thinking naturally and humanistic. Life is eternal and where you spend that eternity depends on how you think here on earth.

Make a deliberate effort today to think eternally and from God’s perspective. God’s perspective on everything can be found in His Word. So, if you want to know what God thinks so you can think that way…read the bible. It’s as easy as that. Stay away from the dangerous trap of earthly thinking, think like God.

“Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening.” Acts 16:25

We are all prisoners. Whether we are enslaved to sin and unrighteousness or we are prisoners of the Lord and His righteousness. We are all bound to something. Through Jesus’ work on the cross and His resurrection, I have chosen to be bound to Him. I am His captive and I am captivated by Him.

Other people are listening and watching your life and mine. It’s with this knowledge that I go through life choosing to pray and sing and glorify God. I know that somewhere down the line another “prisoner” will see me glorifying God in a tribulation or in a blessing. They’ll see God’s miraculous hand rescue me or provide for me. And then they, and their whole household, will be saved.

So, fellow prisoner, make a choice today to pray and sing to God knowing that the other prisoners are listening.

Do work that matters. What does that mean? To each person it will be different. To me, since I am working for God as a disciple of Jesus, work that matters is work that builds the kingdom. Work that matters is work that pleases God. If you read Luke 12, you will see what kind of work matters to God. Here’s a couple samples:

Verse 14, “Life is not measured by how much you own.”

Verse 21, “Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.”

Verse 33, “Store up treasure in heaven…And the purses of heaven never get old or develop holes.”

Verse 42, “A faithful, sensible servant is one to whom the master can give the responsibility of managing his other household servants and feeding them.”

So, do work that matters…to God. That kind of work matters for eternity. Don’t just talk about it, do it. Do work that matters.

The other night I found myself thinking, after a particularly powerful service, that it [the service] was old school. I thought, “yea that was good and old school!” Only moments later did I catch myself recounting Jesus words about “old school” or rather “old vs. new.” More about that later.

It’s interesting to me to note that whenever we refer to a powerful or charismatic service that we typically rely on the phrase, “old school” or “classic” or “old time revival.” We rarely say, things along the line of, “that service was brand new” or “fresh.” Every now and again we talk about the “next level,” but that’s not a new thing so much as it is a replacement thing. No, our typical verbiage is about the “old.” Jesus had something to say about this in Luke 5:39, He says, “And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.’”

We typically prefer the “old” for 2 reasons:

1. The old is familiar. We have experienced it already and we can relate to it. It’s far easier to remember what HAS happened than imagine what CAN happen.
2. The old is “better.” From what I have heard, old wine is typically less potent in flavor than the new. So, it’s something that is more palatable than the new wine. The new wine is sharp and biting. The old wine is smooth and mature.

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!