Off with the Old and on with the New

"I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you. You will still be eating last year's harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new. I will put my dwelling place among you.  . ." Leviticus 26:9-11a 

This season, begun in 2012, is strikingly different from what we have known prior. In so doing, we need to take inventory of our lives. We need to examine what is to be left behind and what is to carry on into this season. This pertains even to our belongings. What items are marking an old season that we have yet to dispense with? To give an example, I recently went through my collection of books and removed those books that marked an old way of thinking that no longer held relevance for me. I felt strongly compelled to do so. I have also been working to complete projects that were started long ago and need to find completion. I am still looking for those things that I need to not carry with me into the new season. I remove them from my life either by giving away stuff that I don’t need anymore, or by completing something left undone. We need to look at the paying off of bills and debts that have the feel of being something that ought to be repaid already. We need to make a space for the new. If we are living surrounded with a season that has gone by, we cannot fully embrace the season that is now. We need to truly take stock of what should carry over, as there are things that need to, and what needs to be expediently completed, given away, or thrown out. Some things that were begun in an old season will change over into the new season for they are things that have been and continue to be on time with God. We must not abandon the labor that He has called us into.

Then we also need to look at what is to be in this season. It is like we are starting fresh, only retaining the good things learned and acquired in the past in this new day. In what ways do we need to align our thinking to the new? What are the things we are to put our time and energy into? What are the signs of the new season for us? What is God highlighting? Follow the signs of life, the things that are flourishing and advancing. Make space in your life to move forward with God. Let go of the old, and embrace the new. Things that were impossible, and yet God, in 2011, will be possible with God in 2012. Do not let go of His promises, for 2010 and 2011 were preparation for their fruition in 2012. He is always faithful; we can take that to the bank. 

2012 -- Deliverance is Coming

Some are concerned that time is running out. Legend would have it that we are nearing the day of the world’s demise, December 21, 2012. It would seem, regardless of one’s view on the Mayan prediction instigated by a calendar that abruptly ends on this now ominous day, that 2012 is noteworthy year. 

Many in Christendom are filled with expectation for the Lord to show His glory this year in a manner never before experienced in the Church. Some have experienced a foreshadowing of this greater glory, but the fullness is still yet to come.

Many delays, distractions, and destructive forces have been at work in previous years, especially in 2011. Some have been betrayed, trampled, attacked, forsaken, and walked all over by a number of injustices. We strain to see beyond into this new season with hope gently rising forth from its deep seeded burial place. It is like the crocus that peaks its stem above the ground as spring approaches, looking around to see if winter truly has abated. 

It feels unusual to have this hope, as if it ought to have died after such an arid dry season, and yet instead we find it had hibernated and grown strong during our adversity to now rise stronger than we thought possible. This is not yet the experience of everyone in 2012, for some are still struggling with 2011. Just the same, despite what things feel like and look like, a new season has dawned. What would have been a delay last year, will be a deliberate positioning this year. The nature of what is going on has changed even when we feel the effects and fear of more of the same.  It is not the same.

The Lord is doing a new thing, and it starts with us and in us.  When we find that we are stable despite the shaking going on around us, we will find that we have come out into the new season even when it hasn’t manifested into our circumstances yet.  We haven’t much longer to wait. Where the tension is mounting, the Lord is preparing a launching point for victory.  For each this will feel and look different, but at the same time it is the same thing happening in many lives and organizations across the spectrum. 

Everywhere one looks one should see or hear of things changing. Right now it is like things are all aligning from a variety of different points – all transitioning to come to a head. For those following the Lord this is going to be a great deliverance. It is not a far off as it may feel. It is just around the corner. We only have to hold on a little while longer, if we are holding on to Jesus. If we are holding on to something else, that something else will have to be shaken first, because God is not going to harm you by this deliverance, but bring you into the fullness of authority, power, and victory that this season holds for you. If there is still a shaking, rejoice for the Lord will make it all for your good.

For those who are not in Christ, this shaking will look different. It will be different. Things are still coming to a head for those not in Christ – this is happening the world over. This is why this year is so crucial – it is not just a Church thing, it is a world thing. The whole world is shifting into a new season. The old ways cannot remain. Things are going to change. People will be reaping what they have sown and some have not sown well and they will see the fruit of that – so that they will come to repentance.  This shift is good even when it does not look favorable.

2012 is different. There is no going back. There is only going forward. This is a year of advancing into the next season of the journey. Do not despair. The Lord is near and He is drawing nearer. He is our steadfast anchor, our only hope. The bounty of our seed well sown comes from Jesus. It cannot come from any other source and do us any good. This is why we cannot make it happen, we cannot circumnavigate His process. We have to be obedient and steadfast and He will bring His promises about. For first and foremost He is the promise. We have to realize it is all about Jesus. Our only mandate is to do what He is doing and nothing more, and nothing less. He, and He alone, is our deliverance.  

Poetry

Of late I have been compelled to put my words into poetic form.  Here are a few of my latest poems archived at Helium.com.

Army Arising

The Shift

The Promise 

Unbound

A Great Hope

Freedom

Experiencing Heaven

Life lived by the Spirit is an incredible journey full of adventure and intrigue. When you exercise your spirit to connect to His Spirit to hear by spirit or see by spirit or know by spirit you open a whole new world of knowledge. This knowledge takes deep root in one’s soul and the spirit renews the mind to new understanding and paradigms of thinking that produce creative freedom. 

Often times we do not know we are bound until we are unbound. We don’t know we cannot see well until someone offers to clean the lenses of our glasses for us. I was once strolling through a mall with my sister when she saw the jewelry store chain from which her wedding ring was purchased.  She wanted to step inside to have it cleaned. The gentlemen offered to clean my ring as well. I gave it to him, not really thinking it needed it.  When he returned a few minutes later I could not believe the difference. It was stunning to look at how brilliantly it shined. I was taken aback at how dirty it must have truly been to now shine so noticeably. 

Before we first start experiencing the awakening of our spirit-person we do not know that our outlook is inhibited and limited. We think we see quiet clearly, in fact, even more clearly than those contaminated with overly spiritual minded thinking.  That is, until we step through the door and find a wonderful world of color and 3D experience we never knew was behind the door we carefully kept shut. 

Behind the door is a world that makes our natural world have a deeper purpose and meaning. It does not remove meaning, but enhances it.  It does not distort our sight, but removes the distortions. We truly step through the Wardrobe to find a world that looks a lot like our own, but this one has more substance and carries a brighter reality.  It also provides a contrast to show where our world does not line up with what is possible and true, but it also provides the way to bring the true about.

That Door Way to this world is Jesus. When we step into Him we step into a whole new world for this alternate reality of which I speak is found in Him for it is an extension of Jesus. Heaven is its name, or the Kingdom of God. However, heaven has been errantly taught to be a paradise only entered upon death when in reality it is a Kingdom entered first in life.  The reason some go to heaven when they die is because they were born again of heaven in Christ when they lived.  It isn’t the destination decided by God upon our death, but the home chosen while upon the earth. 

When we live by spirit we live from above, rather than from earth. Doing so causes a manifestation of our home upon the earth – every time we prophesy, heal the sick, raise the dead, set the captives free, or release the peace of the Lord.    

The Christian life is a life lived by the spirit in the Spirit and when we do that heaven is released to be tangibly experienced by those who live by their natural five senses so that we can help them find Jesus who will in turn awaken their spirits by His Spirit. 

Yes, Jesus Loves Me . . .

Many are familiar with the popular children’s song “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.  .  .”   I have come to realize that I must take issue with this line in the song, because the way I know Jesus loves me is because I know His love and that is why I also believe the Bible.  The Bible testifies about Him and tells us what He did for us, but the way we truly know He loves us is because we experience His loving us.  We do not need to settle for reading that He loves us. 

It is by His Spirit awakening our spirits that we know He is real.  I hold the Bible in high regard as it is fully inspired by the Living God.  But I think the Church has often elevated the Bible beyond its intended position.  We treat it as if it were Jesus instead of the book that tells all about Him.  It is a book that points beyond itself to the heavenly One who gives it meaning. 

I don’t know that Jesus loves me because the Bible tells me so. I do not know it because I can give reasoned evidences of its veracity. I simply know the Lord loves me because I know the love of the Lord.  My heart is alive to His presence and I hear His voice.  This is why I love His Word, not vice versa.

The way to know His love is to know Him. The Bible is a great place to start learning about Him, but Jesus is the Way and there is no substitute for Him.  The way to Jesus is Jesus.  This is why we are to seek the Lord with all our heart. This is why those that seek truth shall find Him.  It is the heart that seeks and the mind is renewed by what the heart encounters.

Seeking the proof sometimes sends us in the wrong direction because we are looking for intellectual reasons when what we need is a God encounter.  Often no reason will suffice until one experiences Him for him or herself.  I think that is why most reasons only satisfy believers, because unbelief is not a condition of the mind, but of the heart. Only when the heart has found God do the intellectual answers make much sense. It really all boils down to Jesus. 

Internal Hearing of God's Voice

Hearing is not only a matter of receiving physical sound waves that our brains interpret as meaningful communication. You can silently read, forming each word in your mind, as if audibly received and yet there is no sound.  Similarly when God speaks to us in our spirit it is a receiving of knowledge, wisdom, or understanding that is heard from within.  It is still a hearing that is happening, but one that circumvents our physical ears. 


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The Day The Earth Shook

It seemed like an ordinary day at the office, albeit slow and quiet. The silence stretched on for hours as I completed my work and then began to read a bit of Chesterton. I recently purchased two Chesterton books from Borders during their going out of business sales.  I have successfully finished one and commenced reading the other.  Interestingly the current read is entitled “Tremendous Trifles” for Chesterton uses the ordinary to expound on the extraordinary, the natural to comment on the supernatural.  His aim is to cause the reader to take note of the ordinary and see what is there more so than what is not there. 

While engrossed in Chesterton, my world begins to shake quiet literally. The room rocked, the walls moved, I shook about, and the 6 story building swayed as if it was no longer a solid stable structure.  The abnormal occurrence passed in seconds, leaving my insides a bit unsettled.  My eyes had to readjust to my surroundings just a bit as I opened my office door to discover from the testimony of others I had just experienced my first earthquake. 

After an expedient Google search I found that there had just been a 5.8 earthquake in Virginia. After some expending some time on Facebook status updates and comments I decided I wished to write, now inspired both by Chesterton and the strange event of the day.  Although I have no profound correlations or postulations to extrapolate from this event I wished to put it to words.  Thus, I will draw this post to a close as it has served its intended purpose—a note of a short moment in time on an otherwise uneventful day.  

Origin of Satan & Evil

God did not create Satan, He created Lucifer.  Lucifer was a mighty archangel who had charge over many other angels.  He dwelt in the glory of God in the realm of the heavenlies. 

Lucifer began to get proud and think He could be better than God. He rebelled against God and caused an uprising of angels to join forces with Him in efforts to go against God.  Due to this, Lucifer and one-third of the heavenly hosts were cast out of heaven.

To continue reading this article please click here to be taken to Helium.com where the original article is posted. 

More on God's Goodness

I was recently asked to expound on the nature of the goodness of God in a manner that describes what is meant by goodness, rather than what is not meant.

There is nothing one can point to other than God to illustrate what is absolutely good.  The reason stating what is not meant is easier than stating what is meant, is that we can point to things that are not God for an example, but to speak of what is meant, I can only point to God. 

Many would dismiss this as circular reasoning. What is good? God.  How do we know God is good? God.  To be true, it is something that cannot be proven by another measure. If God were not the supreme good, then if there is such a thing, something else would have to be that self-referencing standard. 

Humans certainly aren’t absolute references for ultimate good. This is a fact we know too well. And yet, if we know it, how do we explain that we know it? How do we have a sense that we aren’t doing what is right all the time? And yet, we do know this. We know we fail to be good even though most of us want to be good and beat ourselves up internally when we are not.  If we reject the Biblical reason for this conflict between our desire to be good and our failure to be thus, what are we left with?

Of course, there are many postulations by many different belief systems, but all religion puts forth the need for striving to be more moral, better people.  Prayers, petitions, penance, and priest are all a part of our attempt to be better than we are and to somehow qualify for something greater than we deserve.  Christianity is not exempt. In many people, churches, and cultures, Christianity is about doing the same thing – striving to be better on their own merit to earn God’s acceptance. 

It’s not really debatable any longer that across the board we know we fail to be what we feel we ought to be.  But where is this invisible standard that makes it impossible to do whatever we want without any guilt? Why are we guilt ridden?  Why do we call those who cannot distinguish right from wrong, insane?

The Bible says the truth of God is written all around us in nature so that we are without excuse. We all know we have fallen short. We all know there is a good that we do not measure up to.  Jesus came to show us the way out of our sins and guilt.  He came not to condemn us for we were in that place of condemnation already. We knew full well the guilt and He came not to heap more rules and condemnation upon us, but to remove it. He came to do all the “work” to qualify for us, because work would never get us there.  But He can get us there and He who was pure because impure (became sin) for us and took the wages of sin upon Himself.  He took it all to the grave and He rose again leaving it all buried so that we no longer have to strive to burry our sins, for He came to bring life to whosoever will step into Him and experience His life. 

The reason we fail to be good, is because we are separated from the good God.  Jesus dealt with the sin so that we could be transformed in Him and know the Father just as we know Him. For if we have seen Jesus we have seen the Father.  The good life is not something we can work for, but something we can be given by the good Father. 

This is the essence of the goodness of God.  His heart is turned towards us while we were yet sinners. We were unable to make ourselves good, because goodness was not something that is separate from God. So the only way to become good is for God to take us into Himself again and He did this through Jesus.  There is no other name, no other way, and no other life that will do it for us.  We have a full history from the beginning of time of man trying and failing to be good on their own.  We know this full well. 

Goodness is not definable because a definition denotes limitation and His goodness knows no bounds.  Goodness can only be known by personal experiential connection with God directly or indirectly. Sometimes the indirect experience precedes the direct. We see the goodness of God by seeing a supernatural love demonstrated by a follower of Jesus, or we hear testimony of a miracle that opens our heart towards Him.  Sometimes it is a direct experience where God covers us in His presence and we feel and know His amazing goodness and love.  There are many ways to witness the goodness of God, and once our eyes are open to recognize Him we see that He was there all along and His goodness never failed us.  

Worship

I read an interesting article from the June edition of National Geographic.  The article conveyed that there is a new theory which is a major shift from the traditional theory about when religion arose in early civilizations. The traditional theory is that the nomadic hunter-gatherers settled down for purposes of agriculture, developed community, arts, and then religious worship. The religion was believed to be a construct of necessary social development to maintain class structure and the morality of the community.

However, archeologists have discovered a religious temple with no signs that it came after civilization, but before and then the society organized around it.  Worship preceded a society, rather than developing out of a society.  The writer was of the persuasion that a supernatural world was a man-made construct serving man made purposes, but the archeological theory was interesting none-the-less.

It would seem that we could agree that humanity has been poised for worship since the beginning of our existence.  Even those who would see themselves as having no religious or spiritual interests can be found singing with their hands out stretched at a concert.  Others relish the outdoors with a spiritual adoration.

Interestingly, it seems that many (not all) atheists are also very interested in Buddhist spirituality. This way they can have the benefits of spiritualism devoid of the religious tenants and theistic beliefs they disavow.  Most it would seem will allow a place for spirituality as long as Western religious tenants are not interwoven in the package.

Worship is birthed out of our desire to connect with something greater than us whether we direct it to God, a celebrity, nature, or a favorite pass time.  We also thrive on community. We want to connect with people. It’s in our nature to be communal, but we just can’t seem to get close enough to a human to satisfy that desire for meaningful connection.  Often relationships fail to work because people are seeking more than a human can give.  This is why a strand of three cords is not easily broken, but two cords often cannot handle the strain of seeking what can be only found in the missing cord in the other person. 

Worship draws man out of himself into connectivity with God.  The depths of man can connect with God in a way that it is impossible to connect with another human.  When we replace that God connection with a human we have an unhealthy relationship.  We seek intimacy, and we can find temporary fulfillment of that desire, but eventually all that is available to us to find connection fails to fulfill the desire.  We think it is the other person and for a time we reach a new high with a new person, but again we fail to attain because we have worn through the experience and are again in search for something more. 

Worship is the act of man which brings about that spirit to Spirit connection we so desperately need and awakens our being to His Being.  Worship comes in many forms, not all of them are a matter of singing and dancing.  Worship is also giving, and loving, and doing that which God has called you to do.  Obedience to the call of God is an act of worship. But even these things cannot take the place of physically exalting God through some form of expression.  Cry out to Him and He will draw near to you.