WHEN IT'S HARD

When it’s hard to practice, practice anyway. When the pain says quit, practice anyway. When the going gets rough, practice anyway.

When it’s hard to understand, keep seeking. When you lose your way, keep searching. When it won’t budge keep knocking.

                When life is hard, keep on keeping on. When there are no answers, keep on asking. When the path is unclear keep on anyway.

                Practice what? And what for? Is it not easier to resign to the circumstances and just quit?

                “I thought when I became a Christian life would be easy.”

                “I thought when I became a Christian I would be loved.”

                “I thought if I forgave I’d be forgiven”.

                “I thought I would never get sick again”.

                “I thought I would experience a do over and it would be easier”.

                Where is the reality? Is there a reality I do not know of? If so, how can I find it?

                Well…it’s hard, really hard because we’re taught the total opposite. Have faith, we’re told. Simply believe, we’re told.          Really?

                Well…I’m tired of being told. I want to experience. I don’t want to listen to someone else’s experience any more.

                I’ve come to know that even what I know I do not really know. I just think I know. And I’m not by myself. You who are reading may be having a similar experience.

                I’ve been made jealous, not of any person, but of their relationship with God which I so desperately want. So I guess I’ll just have to do the hard thing I do not want to do. Forsake all, crucify my way and follow Him who then becomes my Way. When I say forsake all I mean all. My knowledge is not enough. Even my humility is not enough. I want the more that I know is waiting. “Unless a man loses his soul for My sake he’ll not find it”.

I remember some time ago, I was talking to God (mostly what we do rather than with Him) and reflecting on what Jesus said, “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33. My response was,” that is OK for You but what about me?” Obviously I had not studied in context and I was focused on me rather than Him.

In the first part of that verse it says, “These things I have spoken to you that in Me you may have peace.” It’s the “in Me” I was searching understanding for.

In chapter 17 we see the intercessory prayer, the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus, for the disciples then and all who would later come. In verse 3 He said, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you sent”. And he was sent so we may know the only true God-because He was the expressed, manifested presence in the flesh of God exhibiting on earth every attribute of the God of heavens and earth.

To know, to have a real relationship, not with a fantasy described in ink but with a living being who has invited us to live in His house, with Him and His Father. He goes on to say here and in many and varied ways that the very instant we believed we became one with Him, vs.20-21. That oneness is our new spirit, INSTANTLY one with His Spirit.

But you have to know that in His house there are rules. Rules to enter and rules to live by. Only Jesus is the door and the way. Only those who are pure of heart who after having accepted the faith to believe receive grace to enter after firstly believing, “God is a rewarder of all those who desire to know Him.” To know Him for Him not for some selfish misguided motive, but to know Him for Himself alone.

It may come to pass that once you know Him, that this world that we’re in will reject us in ways we do not now comprehend. Will we endure the hard things in order to gain Christ? Testing is on its way and it will not delay. The testing is for your benefit to prove to yourself that you have truly in Him “overcome the world”.

LOOK FOR THE SILVER LINING

Monday late afternoon as I was driving home from the office there was a large cloud in the western sky’s horizon coming out of some smaller clouds. What struck me was the bright lining on the edges of the clouds, even the largest one which was as if an explosion had occurred among the clouds and a plume of smoke was rising from them. It too had a bright lining around its edges. The sun was hidden and was going down and a slight hint of pinkish rays were seen coming over the clouds.

                I was immediately reminded of our high school graduating song, “Look for the Silver Lining”.  The part I remember most was:

“Look for the silver lining
When e'er a cloud appears in the blue.
Remember somewhere, the sun is shining
And so the right thing to do is let it shine for you.

A heart, full of joy and gladness
Will always banish sadness and strife
So always look for the silver lining
And try to find the sunny side of life.”

Now it’s Wednesday morning and the USA has indicated yet once again that the majority wants nothing to do with the Righteous One and each is so individually myopic that they cannot even see the obvious. Will the country that was once of one mind and purpose and now evenly divided fall further into the slavery of its own creation until there is no semblance of what it once was?

Has it all been for naught? Is it really over? Has the one with outstretched arms succumbed to the disease that killed other great nations? Does sin win?

I say NO! But who is the leader that God will raise? Who is the one who has forsaken all for an appointment by the King? Who is the one who speaks with the boldness of heaven the words of Life?

That ONE is US. But we must leave traditions and convention. We must repent from the evil of compromise and seek with all that we are, giving up all our possessions whether physical, soulish or spirit and be consumed in the Love Dimension.

The call is for all, and all to be that one man who will in humility and unity with one voice proclaim, declare and decree the law of the Spirit, the law of Eternal Life, Christ in you, the hope of Glory!

The SON is ever shining no matter the clouds!

REFORMATION TO WHERE HE IS

This came to me after hearing Chuck Pierce talk about the will of God in light of our repentance from error. When we go back in time to where we allowed rebellion to open the gates to evil and truly repent, the Father restores us to the plan He has for us in time and fast forwards us to the present. Great deliverance can occur here.

I was meditating on this very thing some months back when it came to me that God just puts His finger on the pause button until we begin to agree with Him and we decide to repent, to turn from our wicked ways and seek His face He then brings us to a place within Himself that He has prepared for us so that we “may be where He is”.

Understand that there are some things that we created out of an errant mind set which need to be worked out on the time line. An example would be certain debts incurred out of selfish wanting that must still be repaid. Even though in the now of God we are judged right in His sight the consequences are still present on the time line. The difference is that we are loosed from the old mind way and can in the now receive God’s way and what He has purposed for us and from the now of God can on the time line put into practice the plan of restoration he has for us by reforming all our mind sets to the proper image and likeness. (Remember the old song that says, “Mold me and make me after thine own will)

For me this explains why in some areas of my life I can hear from God but others areas not or not so well. Where ever there is darkness we must seek His face in that darkness and meet with Him there so He can show us what that darkness truly looks like in His light. Then when we see the true light we have eyes to see the true path.

In some areas of our lives and therefore in our living we have run from Him and run to the darkness because we “loved the darkness more than the light”. We committed the presumptuous sin that grace would abound to us even in the darkness. Not so. We do not have license to sin and turn to our own way all over again. That only allows us to be entrapped again and all that results from enthroning self above the knowledge of God.

So when we repent, truly repent and ask the Lord to show us His way and not our own we see much more clearly that we are forgiven, guilt has been removed and we are truly seated with Him in the Heavens but at the same time we are walking out of the troubles we have created in time. When we choose to walk out by walking with Him we are in the will of God and no longer left alone to our own devises.

His Great Grace is ever available to those He has chosen. We just need to make less of self in order to see it.

The word came for those who have ears to hear – “Because you have decided in your heart to repent of prior practices I am NOW restoring to you the call and bringing you to a set place I have prepared for you. From the day you decided to repent I have been in the processes of restoring you to My plans.”

Beginnings And Endings

I really get tired of people talking about “end time events” as if they have been the only ones in close contact with the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit and heard the secret of secrets. I wonder if they have ever stopped to think; or are they so anxious to parrot what someone else is saying. They remind me of a gossip who can’t wait to reveal the latest news on the block, blog or face book. They truly need a true encounter with the Truth.

Jesus said, “You indeed search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me and you are unwilling to come to Me, that you may have life.”Jn 5:39-40

Jesus is the King on earth (time) and in heaven (now) at the same moment and from moment to moment. If He wasn’t present the earth would explode because all things in heaven and earth are “held together by the word of His power” (Heb 1:3).

Jesus said, “I am the beginning and the end”.

What beginning? What end?

When time began, it began in Him and when time ends it will end in Him. Everything in between starts and ends with Him. – Ecc. 3:1

If you need a beginning He is. If you need an ending He is. All you’ve ever needed is Him. Why is He all I’ve ever needed, you ask. Because He is the way to Eternal Life and He is Eternal Life. All truth, knowledge, wisdom, understanding, counsel and might are in Him.

Seek first the Kingdom of God. Seek first the rule and reign of the King and His Righteousness, which is Jesus Christ.

But God gave me a brain you say. And he has given us a way to use it in this hour. “Present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice…”. Is not your brain part of your body? Doing so evidences to the world to whom you belong and becomes your “spiritual service of worship”-Rms 12:1. Then in vs. 2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

How many beginnings and endings are in those two verses? How many prerequisites before you even get to this point?

Back to the opening paragraph – Many “believers” are looking for a way out rather than a way in and have instead embraced and are walking hand in hand with a spirit of fear hoping to avoid some “great tribulation”. Isn’t it obvious that if someone is walking in fear they can’t at the same time be walking in the Spirit.

People of this fear are so paralyzed in the spirit of their mind they hope that the change that comes finds them somewhere other than here when the proverbial hits the fan. They are so occupied with propagating this fear they do not present their bodies as living sacrifices by seeking first the Kingdom and all that is within Righteousness, which by the way includes freedom from fear. They are not aware that the true worshipers “love not their life (Lit: =soul) even to death”. Rev 12:11

Rather than becoming involved in eschatology (study to know the end of time), why not become a seeker in the epistemological quest (the quest of to know and most specifically to know Him who is the eventual end to everything)?

GOT A GLIMPSE

As my wife, Kathy Ann (which means pure grace; and she is) were searching the word in an attitude of expectancy, I was telling her that the old form of church with buildings and self appointed ministries and ministers interested only in the things of terra firma is being replaced, and quickly the Lord is gathering together those of one mind and one heart who are only “seeking the city whose architect and builder is God” which is not made with the hands of man.

As I was revealing what the Lord was showing me my hands were hovering above the table moving with palms face down and circling like someone gathering together things on a table and I knew that this is what the Lord is NOW doing.

I suddenly saw the cloud and I heard “a cloud of witnesses”. Immediately I was in the presence of the Spirit and began to sob uncontrollably for His people for they have not their eyes on the Lord today but on the things of the past of form and tradition and there will be those who will not embrace this move of the Spirit because it means letting go of the little kingdoms they have built, yes, even those men and women who have certain gifting and callings who are stuck in the old structures and mind sets. This is the result of assumption and presumption that the manna of yesterday is the same for today. Jesus is building His ecclesia, but men and women are running to and fro not truly knowing where and to whom they are appointed to be joined with but like having a shotgun approach of getting a word and letting it go. We are to “be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger”. We are to enter His rest!

Those who are in the NOW of God will to go to the New City in the New Jerusalem to be joined with those of like mind and heart to obtain that which is only found in Zion, the mountain of God, where He wills to reveal of His Glory and once obtained they, the cloud of witnesses, return to the earth with and in the Spirit of the Lord to speak and to do according to what they have heard and seen.

                There is a new thing in computing called the cloud, some of which according to Wikipedia, is called the “Community Cloud and is a sharing of infrastructure between several organizations from a specific community with common concerns. Cloud architecture delivers communications with multiple clouds over a loose coupling mechanism such as a messaging queue. Elastic provision implies intelligence in the use of tight or loose couplings as applied to mechanisms …”          

                God has called all of us to be in that “cloud” to become one with one another where we will share what has been communicated with each of us, first to the cloud we are in and then with other multiple clouds to reveal the message of today. The mind of Christ, the intelligence of God is revealed as we seek His face, His presence. The works, mechanisms of God are that we know Him and the Son whom He sent.

God has always been interested in a people as a nation, not those who go it alone (although some may be called for a season to go it alone). For years I personally have felt that I would not be complete until I was joined with those of like mind and heart and as one would administer the things of God’s own heart. It is happening NOW in my life and in other places all over the world.

Let not your heart be troubled dear ones, for He has prepared a place for you in His Mountain and Temple of Glory to live forever in His presence. Seek Him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength for when you do you shall certainly see that He is that City, the New Jerusalem, the all in all for which you seek. Be encouraged that the One who has you in His hand will surely bring you into all that He has promised.