Holiness

Holiness comes from the heart. And if you don’t believe that your heart is Good now that it/you belong to Christ, then you will not live from your heart or find true holiness.

Holiness is not a position or an attitude or a type of behavior. It is the essence of who you were meant to be in Christ. It is the completeness of your union with God.  Christ didn’t just come to take your sins away, He came to make you One with Himself, the Father and the Holy Spirit. Read John 17 for more.

Today’s striving and service and right appearance gospels are killing the hearts of thousands across this world.  Are you putting burdens on others with your expectations for acting a certain way? How about checking your own motives first? Lord, forgive me for trying to control and manipulate and secure my own way. Forgive me for pushing and pulling others, when I should be caressing with love and encouragement.

The holiness of God is not about separateness, either. There was never a moment of separateness of Christ from those around him, from those who needed but didn’t deserve him, kind of like us.  Christ was holy because He operated with the power of love in every circumstance He encountered.

See my text on the Powerful Life, where John Eldredge illustrated Christ’s compassion, integrity, kindness, and trueness in every situation He encountered.

Again, as Eldredge illustrates in The Utter Relief of Holiness, as you discover your true motives for the choices you make in every situation, pause, and by faith exercise your God-given integrity, and by faith, lay down your sinful desires.

Try taking one situation you find yourself in tomorrow. Anticipate your posture of relating and forecast how you would come out.

Its Friday tomorrow.  I’ll get up at 5:30 Read and Pray. I’ll do my Crossfit workout and get some breakfast. Then I’ll encounter the pull of work.  I’ll either embrace it as a true mission and calling or curse a bunch because someone is not doing what I expect them to do.  Humm, lets see, if I know I’m about to face some tough decisions about my attitude and relationships, I could pray for strength, guidance, and integrity, so I can conform my thoughts to Christ and my motives to His will.

What a relief that is, to now run in the path of His will, with a heart free and confident in holiness.

Are you Holy?  By Christ’s design you are.  Now live.

Surrender Again

Like a Father’s hand reaching to out rescue his child from harm

Comes a Voice from distant blue seas calling for me to answer

It stirs such longing inside, and casts all my shadows away

“Oh Surrender to Me, I love you, Yea, x2″

CHORUS

VERSE 2

Of deeper substance and truth than I’ve ever known

I heard Him calling my own name, as He’s known me all this time

Wresting to hear, I’m running to find out if He’s real…

“Oh Surrender to Me, I love you, Yea, x2″

CHORUS

“Come to Me, I am here to heal you.

Come to Me, I have freedom to reveal.

Surrender to Me (x3), I will My put hope inside you x2

BRIDGE

His Voice speaks light into the darkness and

Comfort for your weary soul x 2

VERSE 3

Overwhelmed by light, I am captured by His eternal love

I’m down on my knees wrapped in His Glory

There’s never been a home, where I’d rather be

“Oh Surrender to Me, I love you, Yea, x2″

CHORUS & BRIDGE

My Rich Dad

Those who are confident in their financial  position in this current economic upheaval are to  be consulted.I would ask them several questions.  When did you know the crisis would occur? They  would say, “When Nixon severed the US Dollar’s  tie to Gold.” What’s the secret to sustained wealth  when so many are losing their jobs and their  homes? They would say, “Financial education,  which leads to focused investments, like real  estate, gold, silver, oil, and business. The key is to  create a lasting system of cash flow, so you don’t  have to rely upon your time to generate a  paycheck. Money is made faster today than you  can imagine. Finally, How does an average bear  like me get started? Answer: “Don’t be average    any more. You weren’t created to be average.”

Robert Kiyosoki has made a fortune educating folks on becoming financially free. It’s his passion and his thinking that has directly affected my own journey. One thing he mentioned captures the essence of wealth. He says that everyone has a “God-given talent” to bring to the table. The essence of wealth is not about making money so you can drive a nicer car; it really becomes, fulfilling your destiny within the Body of Christ.

Wealth is primarily a spiritual affect, like integrity and honor.

Kiyosoki was mentored by and frequently quotes his “rich dad”, the father of one of his childhood friends. The effect that Rich Dad had on Kiyosoki is immeasurable. Much wisdom and guidance was passed.

Who is your “rich dad”?

Mine is the Lord God, the creator and Owner of all creation. The US Dollar used to be a valuable “derivative” of our gold reserve. When someone pours their life into a New York Times best seller, they are creating a derivative of their life, work, and experience which yield royalties. In the business word, you make money by creating a marketable derivative of what you can sell and then selling it like crazy.

I am a derivative of God. I have come from Him and I belong to Him. In fact, he had to purchase me back after I rejected him via my sin. In the spiritual world, your words and actions reflect upon the character of God, since he is communicating his message of the Gospel through you, the derivative. I am a Wunderkind, to quote Alanis Morissette. I am part of the Royal Family of God. My children are a derivative of my wife and me. They are heirs of all my wealth, material and spiritual.

In fact, the wealth of my Father and Family knows no boundaries, because it is based upon spiritual power and love, the greatest commodities of all time. Wealth is not about money. It’s about the depth of your surrender to God and the generosity of your soul.

God created the world by speaking it into existence. Today, our banks are printing money out of thin-air. We will destroy our economy and the worlds if this foolishness doesn’t stop. However, how about these words for creating true spiritual wealth: Where your treasure is, that is where your heart is. Lay your treasure in heaven, where nothing can destroy it.

In other words, Seek First the Kingdom of God and All these things will be added unto you.

 

Eternal Reflective Gear for Mortals

Reflective Gear: Is it working?

“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God…. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that His life may be revealed in our mortal body.” 2 Corinthians 4:4,4:11

The light of the Gospel is powerful, powerful enough to pierce even those who are totally blinded. So don’t give up on those who have turned their backs on God. Of course, Satan has plans for them; but you have the LIGHT.  If you could only see how powerful you really are as a Daughter/Son in the  Kingdom of God.

The light of the Gospel is the very Glory of Christ which according to  John 17:22 (I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one.) is GIVEN TO YOU.  You now have in your true nature, the very Glory of Christ as an imprint upon your mortal body.

Then notice that His LIFE is being revealed in your mortal body.  It doesn’t say that you have to have a transformed or heavenly body to reflect the Glory of Christ. While you are still mortal, Christ has chosen to reveal His Life and His LIGHT within you.

Therefore, be very courageous. By FIAT, Christ has chosen you to be HIS LIGHT and LIFE to an otherwise perishing world.  You have the FULL Weight of Heaven behind you!

Don’t leave your church. Don’t waste time hating your boss. Don’t sweat the small stuff, like when someone offends you, or cuts you off in traffic, or arrives 10 minutes late to a meeting.

Reflect the Life of Christ. He is Immortal, and His has revealed His Immortality in your mortal body. You are on a journey toward Immortality, because you can’t stop the progress or mission of God.

Reflect the Light of the Gospel, the very Glory of Christ.

The god of this age can’t do this. In fact, he chose a long time ago to possess the Glory of Christ on his own. And when he found out God wanted to give US His Glory to reveal, Satan became determined to steal, kill, and destroy the very Nature of Light, Love, and Glory of God in us.

Look around you today. Who shares this Light with you?  Why not, is it because you haven’t share the light you have with the one who is blind? Come on, you would easily help a blind person cross the street safely, why wouldn’t you share your Light so that they would cease being blind?

How do I get this Glory reflective gear? Ask Him to share His Light with you.

The Space Between

I love the DMB song, The Space Between.

For me, it captures the angst of our attempt to reconcile the tug that death has on what we were meant to be, i.e. Fully Alive in Christ.  There is a sense in which you are just around the corner from real meaning, from wholeness, holiness, connection with God, others, or just rest. BUT, what is keeping you from turning that corner, is a deceptive tug on your soul.

You know what I’m talking about. Its that temptation, that rationalization, the subtle, or not so subtle nug to … indulge, to relax when you should be engaging, to omit the words needed, to slip those words out that don’t need to be said, or to entertain the unholy.

So, those of us who have tasted the Goodness of God, and yet still find ourselves in desperate need of Forgiveness and Grace each day, know that we live in the Space Between the slippery slope of death’s grasp and Full Life.

God has given us His Salvation, but He didn’t leave you here without the ability to Live Out that Salvation and so become Holy.  No, He gives us Himself, to live in us. Christ in you, the hope of Glory.

So, the Space inside you is filled with Christ, although it doesn’t feel like it 24/7, and the Space around you is filled with Christ. So you are Filled.  He has chosen to dwell in the hearts of Mankind. We are now the Temple of God.

Dwell here for a while, and receive Him in your Temple. It is not an empty Space. Isaiah saw this. Now see it in your heart, soul, mind, strength, and will.

The void wherein we live between Death and Full Life, is actually Filled by Christ.  He rescues us and then protects us, Intimately taking us home in His Good time.

Identify what you fill your Space Between with.  Repent, Rebuke the Enemy, and Fill the Space with songs, truth, joy, and the sheer weight and glory of the Presence of God.

He’s been waiting all your life to Give Himself completely to you.

TIME: The Power of Attention

Have you ever really observed the passage of time?

Really.  Have you notice that some periods of time seem to move faster than others?  Why is my week just dragging on?

It’s a mystery.  I call it the “power of attention”.

God, I believe, has given us the ability to slow down time or to speed it up, according to our ability to focus our attention on the present moment.

Remember that the history of man, is the story of God wanted to give us his power to accomplish His will, i.e. to usher in His Kingdom on earth, but our inability to handle it.

This is one of the most unique gifts of God, and its straight out of His character and points to the eternal soul which we’ve are all stewards of, whether you are Christian or not.  The difference that, as a Christian, you have the ability to focus on moment, FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD and TO BE A VESSEL for CHANGE ON BEHALF of the Kingdom of God.

Practice this.  First, surrender your time to God. Whatever the moment, whatever the activity, surrender the moment to God.  Second, listen to what God has for you in the moment. Third, obey what He says, and what as time slows significantly as the Kingdom, which is made of unknown multiple dimensions, SQUEEZES into our limited space/time world.

Time is owned by God. It’s a tool, a gift, a part of everything that happens, and it points to God’s Grace, His Healing, His provision for life and death.

Your ATTENTION is the greatest commodity anyone has to offer.  SHIFT your attention to the work of the Kingdom.  God is not bound by time, but He created it and it gives us the opportunity to wield great influence over what happens and how to affect others.

Time will slow, SO that the kingdom can be increased.

The Way Home- Fall ‘94

Suspect of winter, the hopeful spring shields  itself with the business and sweat of summer  while desert sands dance defiantly leaving  crystallized illusions in my mind’s eye,  without protection from the predictable pain.

Beneath the confusion of confession drips  the dew rot with healing. An inner balm,  secret, intangible. Cast like colored marbles  from His Hand.

There will be a time, I believe, where  children escape the evil of the interior,  where authenticity awaits the weary warrior,  when our dog tags will be exchanged for a  Crown.

I know that to release is to harden, to grow strong is to ignore. So strange how the burning in my solo-flight heart fights against the whirl-wind of self-excommunication.

Cover me with creativity and compassion, for these are the tools for the task of daily re-living. Give me a voice, Oh God, to vent my dreams… to call into question the restlessness of the Now and the Not Yet.

Like intelligent lightening surveying the scene, You send splintering lasers to shatter the cold darkness to warm the hearth of the few remaining, who know the Way Home.

The Unspoken

I’m just a man. I’ve lived for nearly 39 years. I have seen death and I have see life. I’m blessed beyond comprehension, simply because I live freely, and yet I see everyday, those around me who chose death over life with but the slightest, chilling agreement to the spirit of Rebellion.

You know this is true for you as well. The spirit of rebellion, aka Beelzebub. He enters upon birth, to claim for himself another life. He slowly, over time, gathers and fortifies the very nature of sin within every human who has ever lived.

I’ve known this, but have been too entrenched to expel him, until today.

After collapsing into the clutches of pornography and finding my heart calloused and my mind blackened with shame, I said, “No!” I can’t describe it here, but I prayed the Daily Prayer with a determination, and surrender that I have not had before. There was a since that I would soon face a final turn in my battle against sin. Period. Everything was telling me to stop praying, that it would be too dangerous to take this battle to the Enemy.

And so, I prayed the Daily Prayer, and when I reached the part about bringing the work of Christ against Satan, and all his efforts, I did. But I dug much deeper than I thought I needed to go.

First there was the spirit of lust. By the name and authority of Jesus Christ, I commanded the spirit of lust to leave me and to go to the foot of the Cross for its judgment. It left with such force, I was left gasping for air.

Second came the spirit of pornography, and as before I confessed my sin, and commanded this spirit to leave in Jesus’ name. Nothing. I then asked its name, which it physically said, as I was wrenched forward on the floor. Out came “Altar”. I asked how long it had been with me, and it verbalized, “22 years”. I immediately confessed whatever I could relating to my college days, then I commanded this spirit to leave. I was rocked back and forth, unable to breathe for some 30 seconds, and involuntarily opened my mouth as wide as possible, until it left me.

Then came temptation, which plants thoughts in my mind about entertaining lust, etc. Its name was “Contar”. I found myself grasping the back of my neck and head and seemingly peeling back the spirit’s clutches over my mind, while expelling the spirit out of my mouth.

Then came masturbation, which left through my hands and pelvic area. And then, as I was trying to breath normally, and seal myself in Christ, I asked Jesus if that was it, and up from the depth of my soul I heard, “No.” And then, I knew.

I’ve always known. Its like the kind of knowing that Neo experienced as Morpheus revealed the truth of the “Matrix”.

I was already exhausted, that was why the spirit of rebellion doesn’t leave. Its because when we try to clean ourselves up, its so far down the list, having been buried in obscurity, and hidden with deception and silence.

But no more. In the Name and the Authority of Jesus, I expelled the spirit of Rebellion, which revealed its name as Bealzelbub. It took a longer time, and under the Power of Christ alone, it was sent to the Cross, for judgment. It left the same way as the other foul and unclean spirits. I broke my agreements with the sin, confessed everything I could remember, and followed Jesus’ guidance, fully relying upon Christ’s strength and authority.

I sealed myself in the Holy Spirit, and put on the full armor of God. I was clean. I am clean.

I’m just a man, and I’ve made choices I fully regret, but I’m free now. I’m free because Jesus is the Bondage Breaker. I praise His Name!!

This is unspoken, that a man, like me, is somehow freed from the clutches of Satan, by making a choice to Surrender to Jesus.

Therefore, Speak this Truth in Song, Touch, Whispers at night, through Art, Dance, Theatre, Exercise, Studying, Working, Eating and Loving. It is Unspoken, that Christ’s authority to expel demons and spirits really works, and can provide a clean conscience, and Freedom.

I belong to Jesus. I am dead to sin, but alive to God. Don’t be afraid, don’t hesitate, don’t fatigue, don’t give up. Jesus has given you the tools. He has done all the hard work. Speak the Unspoken.

Live!

The majesty of God is too great, too powerful, too holy, and too much…it hurts to describe if you get to this place really.

And what are you doing about it?

We worry. We fret. We get wrapped around the axle about everything. We get angry about the slightest problem.  We gossip. We threaten. We avoid the hard questions.  We find a fleeting moment of pleasure, and call it happiness. We resolve to do so much less than what we are truly called to be.  We fail to live freely and settle way too often.  We sin and make horrible agreements without doing what it really takes to find freedom and life.

I’ve just been so convicted that all God wants me to do is live, and all I’m doing is settling.

So, I’m going to live. I’m going to stretch myself. Why not? I’m going to preach, sing, work hard, do Crossfit, and rock as a husband and father. Come on! I’m getting off my ass, and I’m going to put my life into another gear of surrender to Christ. This isn’t about striving to be a better person. This is about harnessing the God-given power we have.

Live. Live. Live. Live for God. Live as He intended. Live, even though you are crumbling. Live, even though the world is telling you that you can’t as a believer! Live, even though Satan is at your door. Live, dry bones.

Hear God, as He walks by you and breathes into your heart.  Hear God say to you now, “Live!”

You were once dead. Now you are alive. This is your actual disposition in life. How is your state of existence measuring up to “life” in Christ?

I’ve been messing up.  I’ve been caught up in sin and realized my consumption of lies. No more.

I’m going to live.

Kingdom Economy

Isaiah 55:1 “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.”

Are you being stretched financially right now? Have you still got a job? How is the “rat race” for your soul? How much money is enough? Are you a paycheck away from losing your home? Are you laboring for nothing, because it seems the debt is too high?

Isaiah 55:2 “Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.”

Oh, the simplicity of the Truth. I am thirsty, but I take my thirst to places other than the Goodness of God. But having tasted the Goodness of God, I can’t help but return, penniless and simply pay for wine and milk and bread without money. How can I do that? I simply kneel, SURRENDER, and ask. That’s it really. However, Pride is in the way. I can’t “pay” my way to a soul-quenching meal. I have to lay DOWN my Pride and RECEIVE His Goodness instead.

This is so difficult, that no one I know is close to living like this.

God’s Kingdom has a spiritual economy which radically challenges the world’s. As a lawyer, I’ve learned that in order to establish a contract, not only do you have to have a meeting of the minds over the terms of the transaction, but there is reasonable CONSIDERATION which is provided as a means of demonstrating good faith, detrimental reliance, and intent to complete an act. “Consideration” is what is actually given to secure or anchor the credibility of the contract.

Without paying for the movie, you won’t be given a ticket and thereby enter the theater.

So, how can you buy wine, milk, and bread without money, and still receive the Goodness of God?

Where is the Consideration that must be exchanged? In God’s Kingdom Economy, He not only provides the meal, He also provided the Payment which satisfied the Debt owed, which prevented you from entering His banquet table.

This is foolishness to the world. Until now, when you don’t have any cash, when the job is lost, when the debt is piling higher, when the bank is threatening to take your home.

Surrender everything. Lay down your pride. Take your thirst to the One who offers Streams of Living Water. Stop laboring for the sake of a paycheck. YOUR GOD has something so much greater for you than “existence”. The word “come” appears 4 times in Isaiah 55:1. God says, “Come”. What is keeping you back?