Tuesday, May 22, 2012

CHRIST IN YOU

Christ never gave us a baton to snatch from Him, turn around and continue running with..."I'm done, now it's your turn, brother".
We died with Him (dead) so that HE could continue to live in us - the good news WAS Him, it IS Him and will ALWAYS be HIM, in you, the hope of glory!

Does this negate daily decision making?
No.
What it should do is stir us to discover, with increasing revelation, the very nature of CHRIST IN US - a journey that may appear different from person to person, but will reveal a common cause - to build up and set free...but as I said, this isn't a baton, but simply what Christ is doing in His new body (the church).

When the church recognizes its true identity, CHRIST IN US, we have "revival"/the miraculous/abundant fruit/good works, and we embrace diversity because we rocognize it as the move of GOD;
when the church finds its identity in the "revival"/the miraculous/abundant fruit/good works, we slowly fester and become aggressively possessive of whose (human) perspectives are the most right.
Hahaha!

You are blessed and abundantly gifted. Enter His rest and allow Him to absolutely blow you away with a greater revelation and taste of His glory...as you drink the Wine, He'll take you deeper into the Vine.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

It IS finished!

Oh my word (or His...whatever, HAHAHAHA)!

"It is finished"!

Some might wonder, "how finished is it if God is currently still doing a work in and through His body - the church?"

God, by His Spirit, is doing a work of drawing, calling and leading us toward, into and DEEPER into the FINISHED work of Christ.

SHEW!!

The Kingdom of God is at hand; the Kingdom of God is WITHIN YOU.
And the power and nature of this Kingdom is not incomplete or 'under construction' - it is a PERFECT Kingdom at hand; a PERFECT Kingdom within YOU!

It is a Kingdom that wants to be entered into and encountered by its citizens...heirs...sons and daughters...YOU!!!

There will never be a shortage of hearing "Freely give", but take some time to consume and drink up just how much you have "Freely received"!

Much love and grace peeps :-)

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Love changes

‎"Those forgiven much will love much(Lk 7:47) and those who love much will sin less.The secret to sinning less is receiving forgiveness more".

When I hear pastors speak of having issues with members in their congregation, I start to wonder what criteria are in operation to create this conflict?
How much of it is legitimate, Spirit-lead "conflict", and how much of it is, in fact, a controlling spirit.

The degree to which we are being renewed by how much WE are loved and forgiven, is proportional to the ease and pleasure with which we exercise love and forgiveness towards others, even if they may be in error.
And, the degree to which we FORGET how much we are loved and forgiven, yet still attempt to love and forgive others, is proportional to the level of control we exercise over wanting to ensure that others DON'T go into error.

In both cases the motives are good and pure, but one has love as its motivation and the other has control (to avoid any "issues").

Jesus's motivation was always love, that's why we don't see Him obsessed with trying to control Peter - Why didn't Jesus pull Peter aside at any time and just spell things out for Him? After all, He chose Peter, Peter didn't choose Him. Why didn't He pull Peter aside and say "pull yourself together buddy, you're embarrassing me and my ministry here!"?

Yes, there were tough moments for old Peter, but Jesus was motivated by loving Peter and edifying him to who Peter REALLY was, even though Peter couldn't see it himself yet - 'the rock upon which the church would be built'.

I know a pastor (ex pastor) who, after tangibly encountering the Glory of God at an international conference, returned to his flock and said "I owe you all an encounter with God".
Of course, he never realized how much control he would end up losing over his flock (in a good way, yet difficult considering his history).
People began receiving and growing in their OWN revelations, yet all the while still remaining in a strong togetherness. 
Some were loving the change; some were anxiously judging the change; Traditional, institutional "hand rails" were slowly removed and many felt insecure, and change and diversity was embraced and slowly understood - not easy for many though (Jesus knew that Peter's understanding of truth was tainted and blury, but He lead him and built him up into an understanding of truth - the breakthrough of which only really began after Jesus died and ascended).

The gospel of God's grace shouldn't just be seen as a set of brilliant preaches to be downloaded from the archive files.
The heartbeat and life-blood of living a life of love and forgiveness towards others, is the revelation of how much we are loved and forgiven (as individuals and the church body).

I'll always say that I desire to love as Christ loves, but when I forget how loved I am, I begin to TRY and love and forgive, and quickly become frustrated with non-conformity...until I am renewed with the fact that Christ died for me, before I even had the chance to think about conforming to HIS ways.

Much love and Grace!

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

His nature is grace!

The Grace of God only becomes a contentious issue when a revelation of what it actually is, is either missing or forgotten.


Our memories will certainly allow us to hold onto the DEFINITION of grace, but we can easily lose the life giving REVELATION.



The grace of God is quite simply His nature, and it is in constant operation, whether we feel it or not, like it or not, believe it or not - it's HIS... attitude towards us...HIS decision...HIS feeling...HIS heart...HIS plan...HIS motivation...JESUS!



It's difficult to trust someone if you don't know them...in actual fact, on a human level, it can be foolish and very risky to blindly trust someone.

Yet many who have "put it out there" and blindly trusted God in a leap of faith, would have, in some way or another walked into something GOOD.

Why?

Because God is faithful.



Now, by telling people to "Just do it because God is faithful", we merely feed them with a "risky" sense of walking in faith.

You ask the average person to define faith, I'm pretty sure that somewhere in that conversation the word "risk" will surface (and sure, certain circumstances may stir up doubt within us), but how much more certainty and boldness will we possess in living by faith, when we are drenched with the revelation of GOD'S NATURE AND ATTITUDE TOWARDS US...When we actually get to know HIM.



The more I get to know Him, the more my skittish "blind faith" is replaced by bold TRUST in what/who I am now CONVINCED of!



The wrong thing to do with this now, is scrape together a few scriptures and "pointers" to deliver a "solid sermon" on "God's Nature". It's not a topic, it's the essence...if the scent of the UNCONDITIONALLY ACCEPTING NATURE OF GOD and WHO WE ALREADY ARE AS SONS AND DAUGHTERS does not fill the air when we share the word, then the bible becomes a sword we aimlessly weild around, prooning some and killing others.