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Archive for the ‘Under-the-Influence, Devo Shorts 2011’ Category

Day Sixty-Eight, Dwelling in the Secret Place – A Refuge Beyond Harm

Posted in Under-the-Influence, Devo Shorts 2011, tagged , , , , , , on September 19, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Day Sixty –Eight

Dwelling In the Secret Place – A Refuge Beyond Harm

“He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall remain stable and fixed under the shadow of the Almighty [Whose power no foe can withstand].” Ps 91:1 Amp

 

          All of us need a secret place.  All of us need a place beyond the reach of the enemy of our soul.  Unfortunately, many of us don’t know of such a place – let alone find it.

          More than just a place of physical safety, the secret place of the Most High God affords us safety for our soul and our spirit.  It is our refuge in Jesus Christ.  It is a stronghold of safety where no other power can overcome you!

          Growing up – I wish I had known of this place.  You may recall that whole: “sticks and stones” adage – which was and is basically a lie.  Words do hurt us: especially if they are embraced and allowed to enter the thoughts of our mind to be played over and over.  They are given power at that point to affect who we become, and how we become.  I was affected like this.

          Some of the earliest words I remember my dad saying to us three kids (I was the youngest) was: “You are only guests in this house – you were not wanted.”  At another time he said to me specifically, “If you don’t hold this still I will kill you!” (I was helping him put siding on our house. My job was to hold the board as he sawed it.)  Words like those can do damage.  They easily bobble around in our thinking like a loose marble, making mush of emotional health and stability.

This is what I love about the Lord and His Word.  It lifts me out of my pit of despair and hopelessness; it binds up the emotional hurts and wounds where no one even sees them.  But more than a band-aide on my hurts, the Lord renews my thinking concerning my situation.  He gives me light in my thoughts, and love in my heart to understand how such hard situations occur.  He covers me with His own love and protection and bathes me in His acceptance!  It is then that I can become stable and fixed in my outlook.

My dad was a wounded and broken man, unhappy and consumed with self-despising thoughts.  When I was still in the womb he was diagnosed with early-onset  Parkinson’s Disease.  He was just in his thirty’s. The Parkinson’s took his critical, hard nature and enhanced it with paranoia and deep rage.  Most every response of his was out of that place.

But as I became a believer in Jesus, He began to sow forgiveness in my heart towards my dad, even though he had already passed away.  The Lord gave me a recollection of my dad, how he loved to go to the shopping mall and sit in the parked car to watch people.  My dad loved people – to chat and socialize.  He was a mega- extravert.  But his own view of his Parkinson’s made him a thing of derision in his own eyes.  He had felt this same scathing towards an old-man in Swissvale, PA that he would see lumbering in a shaky, unsteady gate across a small bridge there. This man had Parkinson’s.  In my dad’s thinking – he had become that man.  The one whom he had derided was now himself.

          The Lord showed me how my dad lived in a place beyond happiness or contentment, because he assumed others despised him as he loathed himself.  He was captive to his own unstable thinking.  The hurt he felt he took out on others.

The Lord broke my heart for my dad as he unveiled this understanding to me.  It became easy to forgive my dad for his hurtful, harsh manner as I saw the prison (albeit self-constructed) he dwelt in.  He desperately wanted interaction with people, but was forced by his thinking to live on the outskirts of true fellowship.

My dad was a victim of the enemy’s lies, and an adversary of God’s truth.  Thus he was not able to dwell in the Secret Place of the Most High God.  His thinking was not renewed according to the Word of God.  This is what kept him captive to misery. But it need not be so with you or me.  We do not need to stay on the outskirts of fellowship with God.

Every one of us has endured harsh words or painful experiences of some type.  The enemy’s desire is that we would curl –up and die.  But the Lord has made a way for us to be set free from every prison of our thoughts, perceptions, and crooked thinking.  We can even be free from those wounding and hurts that have scarred us deeply.

What is needed – is to be willing and open to the Lord’s perspective rather than nursing our own grudges and stroking our own entitled sense of rage.

The Lord would have each of us embrace His truth, His heart and His mind about everything.  He would have us let go of our axes to grind, and instead be freed from that bile and hatred that will consume us.  He wants to bring us to the Secret Place of perpetually dwelling with Him, where no foe’s power can withstand Him.  So the question stands before us — Are you willing?

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Day Sixty-Seven, The Enemy of Faith — Unbelief

Posted in Under-the-Influence, Devo Shorts 2011, tagged , , , , , , , on September 2, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Day Sixty-Seven

The Enemy of Faith – Unbelief, and the Mercy that Overcomes

“But without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him.”  Heb 11:6

            Many people are unbelievers in Jesus Christ because they have never had an encounter with the living God.  Few can remain unbelievers after having such an encounter.  Ever fewer make it their posture in life to actively fight against God by blaspheming, persecuting His people, and being outrageously insulting to the God of the Universe – but Saul of Tarsus was just this.  It was in this behavior that the Apostle Paul (previously called Saul) confesses that he was Chief among sinners.  He was not just an unbeliever – he aggressively contested against God and His recognition, and he persecuted other believers in the church unto their death.

Now maybe you are an unbeliever.  Maybe you have found it impossible to find this God.  Maybe you find yourself stuck in unbelief like a pit of quicksand!  But let me assure you – if there was hope for Saul of Tarsus (who was an Uber persecutor) – there is hope for you!

What is this hope?  MERCY!  Paul says that he obtained mercy for the reason that (through Paul’s life) Jesus might show forth and display all His perfect long-suffering and patience for an example to [encourage] those who would thereafter believe on Him for [the gaining of] eternal life. (1Tim2:6)  You see, Jesus has made a special provision for those who wrestle against Him in unbelief.  He has made a way to come to belief – it is through His mercy!

I look at this provision for Paul like I look at the raising of Lazarus from the dead. (John Chapter 11)  Jesus established His authority and power over life and death by raising Lazarus after being dead for four days.  Jesus also overturned every religious superstition that the spirits of the dead hung around for three days (and could have then been the explanation for Lazarus’ resurrection), by waiting it out for four days.  The point is, if Jesus could raise Lazarus, what situation could then be too hard for Him?  Likewise, if Jesus could win over Saul of Tarsus by mercy, who can be too hard, too unbelieving, too persecuting, or too obnoxious for Jesus to also win over?  No one can! Saul was the Chief of Sinners – and yet the Lord’s mercy reached out to him and won him over!

Now the point must be made here, that Saul had had no encounter with Jesus previously.  Saul was a Pharisee and hence steeped in the religious doctrine of the Law of Moses.  He excelled at it!  Yet the Law had not helped Saul find the true Jesus because Saul’s confidence was in his own righteousness according to the standard of the Law.  In his own mind Saul saw no need for the Jesus of the Christians.  In Saul’s religious thinking — he already had all he needed.  Saul was in fact quite ignorant of the truth.  First Tim 1:13 declares that Paul obtained mercy because he acted out of ignorance in unbelief.  Unbelief blocks faith from arising in you!  Unbelief is a mental stance where you are closed and have made up your mind concerning an issue.  Unbelief lodges in your thinking refusing to give way or yield to truth – and it is a device of the enemy (Satan) to keep you from believing. The Lord’s mercy overcame Saul in this because His appearing was so dramatic as to leave Saul unable to continue in his unbelief.  Saul simply could no longer entertain any other stance but to believe Jesus was Lord and He was at that moment standing before Saul! (Acts Chapter 9)

The same provision has been made for you!  The Lord would not have you continue in your same mode of unbelief about Him!  He has extended mercy already – that you will lay down your unbelief and turn to find Him!  He will reach out and make Himself known to you.  But you must let go of unbelief and not pick up it or doubt again!

Unbelief fills the mental pathways to receiving Jesus life like drugs fill and block neural receptors to be open to other life-giving substances.  But Jesus desires to fill and satisfy you at every point of your need.  Only when you make a conscious choice and let go of the doubt and unbelief can you begin to have faith rise in you to fill your heart and thinking!

The provision has been made – it stands!  But before doubt and unbelief so harden in you and harden your heart before God – choose today to lay them aside.  Open yourself to the Lord.  Receive faith from Him to believe this very moment.  Like Paul, your life will never be the same!

 

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Day Sixty-Five, The God Who Gives and Takes Away

Posted in Under-the-Influence, Devo Shorts 2011, tagged , , , on August 31, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Day Sixty-Five

 The God Who Gives and Takes Away

“For I declare to you, you will not see Me again until you say, Blessed (magnified in worship, adored, and exalted) is He Who comes in the name of the Lord!” Matt 23:39 Amp

One serious struggle we believers have before and after coming to faith, is rationalizing the character of God against the concept that things are given and things are taken away.  We don’t really like this concept.  In fact I’ve heard several otherwise mature believers say they don’t embrace this notion of “give and take away.” And yet for all our not “receiving” this notion – it is in fact there in black and white, splashed across the Bible terrain for all to see, and it begs the question.  How is God so compassionate and giving but then also just and intractable — set like flint on taking… away? I’m here today to simply testify that this concept exists.  I don’t have the mental prowess nor the wisdom of God to try and explain all of its ins and outs.

Even a cursory review of the Gospel will bring you straight-away into this seeming dichotomy of God:  He gives and He takes away.  It is in this search arena that we become most aware of the fact — God is different from us!  He is the Lord, and we comprehend Him not!  Take comfort in this truth, however, that He is bigger than you and me.  If He were not, and we had what we thought was a “handle’ on Him, I doubt that we’d respect Him let alone obey Him or serve Him.  But as I come to know His character more, I know I can trust Him, even when He behaves contrary to what I understand or agree with. More than that, it is in that very place of tacit disagreement that I learn how to “submit.”

No sadder description of “giving and taking away” exists in history than the Scripture referenced above.  The Jews of Jerusalem have failed to recognize the day of their visitation from God.  Jesus is there, walking in their midst.  He’s teaching, and healing, and living among them.  Yet pride and a preference to maintain the status quo motivates them to not acknowledge Him as their Lord.  Thus, He is leaving them on their own until a future date when they will not only cry out to Him, but will cry out with full recognition.  His departure from the Jews ushers in the age of the church and opens the way for gentiles to be in-grafted into the Body of Christ.  The saddest day for the Jews becomes an entrance to salvation for the people not a people of God – for which we should be simultaneously grateful and humbled.

But back with the Jews, Jesus tells them their house (the temple) is forsaken, desolate, and destitute of God’s help.  He has come to the Jews first – given Himself to them in fact, and now withdraws and takes Himself away.  And this giving and taking away can be seen as a pivotal characteristic of the gospels and the pattern of intervention of God in the life of His saints.

In the Book of Job, (after the destruction of losing family, property, and possessions) Job falls down and worships the Lord saying, “…Naked came I from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I depart.  The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!” (Job 1:20-22)

In Isaiah we are told that unto us a Child is born, and a Son is given. (Isa 9:6)  Later in Isaiah, we see the very cross-beams of the Gospel substructure when we read that it pleased the Father to bruise Him (Jesus).  That on the Cross Jesus bore our iniquities and our guilt.  That Jesus poured out His life unto death, and He let Himself be regarded as a criminal and be numbered with transgressors; yet He bore and took away the sin of many, and made intersession for the transgressors. (Isa 53:10-12)  For all eternity, this stands alone as the singular, most earth shaking, enormously pivotal of all giving and taking away that there has ever been!  The Son was given – and the Son was taken away, (and your sin was taken, and His life was given to you)! (Check your Bible for the “Rest of the Story.”J).

Lastly, in the Gospel of Mark we see another aspect to giving and taking away.  In talking about spiritual knowledge, Jesus says to those listening to His parables: “If any man has ears to hear, let them be listening and let him perceive and comprehend.  And He said to them, “Be careful what you are hearing. The measure [of thought and study] you give [to the truth you hear] will be the measure [of virtue and knowledge] that comes back to you – and more [besides] will be given to you who hear.  For to him who has will more be given; and from him who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away [by force].” (Mark 4:23-25)  Translation:  the more you embrace the truth of the word – the more you will have truth.  More will be given to you.  But the more you resist and refute this truth – even what you had previously will dissipate  and decay within you.  Your darkness will become darker.

The concept the God gives and takes away cannot be refuted.  It is there over and over.  What we can’t get a handle on is: the outcome.  Sometimes benefit comes from the taking away of something (like the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us because the Lord has gone to the Father).  Job’s life proved that even in the taking (of family, possessions, fortune, status) Job could triumph over trial as he came before the Lord and chose to continue trusting Him.  As he chose the way of righteousness through the trial not only was his own personal captivity turned by the Lord, but he was blessed with double increase back!

The goal here is not to adopt a winning strategy for handling loss, it is rather to stick close with the One Whom we should trust and obey no matter what is going on! (Matt 24:10)  Don’t desert Him no matter what is thrown your way.  Don’t try to figure it out (and truly we cannot figure it out) — just trust Him.  He is the One worth your trust!  He is the One completely Faithfull!

 

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Day Sixty-Four, What Kind of House are You?

Posted in Under-the-Influence, Devo Shorts 2011, tagged , , , , on August 17, 2013| 1 Comment »

Day Sixty-Four

What Kind of House are You?

“In the beginning [before all time] was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself.” John 1:1 Amp

          If there was a direct correlation between how much of the Word of God dwells in us, and what we looked like from an architectural sense – some of us would be palatial estates, some mansions, some houses, some of us mud huts, while with others it would be an exaggeration to call them a cardboard box.  Unfortunately, this limitation is not attributable to any lack from God – but it is in fact a lack with us.  It is directly the result of us not perceiving the Word in its fullness, but rather parsing this Word and marginalizing it so that its impact is lessened.  We indeed, as has been often said, have as much of God as we desire.

My hope is that you will be provoked here to have a glimpse of what has been truly given to you and that there will be a corresponding expansion in us of all that the Word affords.

Let us begin by searching what the term “Logos” actually means from the Greek.  Strongs #3056 renders logos as: “something said, (incl. the thought); by impl. a topic (subject of discourse), also reasoning (the mental faculty) or motive; by extens. a computation; spec. (with the art. In John) the Divine Expression (i.e. Christ); — account, cause, communication, x concerning, doctrine, fame”,…etc.

As “account” is one of the descriptors above, let us examine that from a purely monetary sense as it relates to receiving the Word.  Say someone gives you a monetary gift as a check for one-hundred dollars.  How we fail to take in the fullness of the Word would be comparable to you only depositing $25 of that check and losing the rest of the assets.  We would readily understand the foolishness of that, yet we fail to see the parallel foolishness of not apprehending the fullness of the provision of the Word of God.

Like an old movie script once said, “What we have here is a failure to communicate!” (Good quote – awful movieJ). So how do we obtain all that was provided and intended by God from His Word? The short answer is increasingly by faith to faith.

Each of us is first given a measure of faith so that by faith we can receive by hearing the Word.  As that initial faith is exercised and used by us, it grows and can receive more.  As we are changed by the Word (through repentance) and believe and obey it, it makes deeper inroads into us, renewing out mind, making straight even our posture and attitudes of thinking and the heart. We are becoming Christ-like and changing from glory to glory.

Bottom-line, we grow from simply hearing the Word, to becoming doers of the Word.  The Word has renewed us at a fundamental level (think DNA), and we are forever changed.  Though it is not just hearing and agreeing with the Word that we hear — it is becoming so aligned with the Word and yielded to that Word, that it is being walked out in me and through me.

This is not some ethereal aesthetic valuation of the Word.  It is fundamentally an embracing of the Truth of the Word and all the many layers of meaning that we don’t initially see intellectually.  It is embracing by faith a deposit of Truth that I don’t have the mental power to authenticate as real.  But the Holy Spirit in me validates Its authenticity in the spirit!

Look at this example.  One of my favorites, Matthew 4:4: “…Man shall not live and be upheld and sustained by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”  Every word that has come from the mouth of God is embodied in Christ.  The Strong’s Logos definition called the “Divine Expression” — Christ.  Christ is the thought of God.  He is the motive, the discourse and reasoning of God. He is the cause, and the doctrine, and the fame of God!  I love in Hebrews 1:3 where is describes Jesus, the Son of God as the sole expression of the glory of God, the very out-raying radiance of the divine!  He is God’s very thumbprint!  Jesus Christ is the method and substance of the way God has chosen to present and manifest Himself to us!  He is the physical embodiment of God the Father, presented to us!

So when it comes to embracing the fullness of God, I best not parse it out according to what I like, or what I want to be true, or what I want to be accountable for.  In fact I better realize that I have come face to face with a Truth that I not only can’t control, but Truth that overwhelms, and overcomes, like a tsunami of Grace it runs through me at every level imaginable.  If … I will choose to believe and receive.

If I choose not, God will not force me, but I will be left like a house partially refurbished, foundation restored, but lacking any real living space to recommend it, unable to be a shelter or to give shelter.  This becomes the end of those who seek to limit the vastness of the blessing of God that is delivered by the agency of His Word — His Son’s life in us.

Back then to Matthew 4:4, what is the Truth of how I live?  I live not by food or natural substance alone.  I live not by status, or monetary power.  I live not even by the perceived value or impact of my life and its merits.  No, I live and am upheld and sustained by every single word, every utterance brought to earth by Jesus and spoken by Him, every promise that He has delivered to us (which are all yes and amen in Him)!  They nourish me, sustain me and fulfill me, and change me as I take them in by faith and eat of them.

We have been provided a diet of the Word of God that feeds us not just for this realm of the physical, but we have been provided food from the Kingdom of God – that we may live according to the order of that Kingdom even while yet here on earth.  There is nothing we lack for life or godliness.  Hunger then for all the fullness of God and what He has already given us!

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Day Sixty-Three, The Work of His Presence

Posted in Under-the-Influence, Devo Shorts 2011, tagged , , , , on August 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Day Sixty-Three

The Work of His Presence

“But the fruit of the [Holy] Spirit [the work which His presence within accomplishes] is love, joy (gladness), peace, patience (and even temper, forbearance), kindness, goodness (benevolence), faithfulness, gentleness (meekness, humility), self-control (self-restraint, continence).”               Gal 5:22-23

          His Presence within ….  If we are a believer in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior – we have the assurance of His word that the Holy Spirit abides and dwells within us and that He will remain with us forever.  So why then do we so often lack the qualities depicted above that are the fruit of His Presence in us?  More accurately – why do I lack those qualities in the face of life’s challenges?  I have been given all things for life and godliness – so where is the glitch?

I am alternately overjoyed, challenged, guilty, and yet confident by this issue and the questions it provokes.  Overjoyed: because I know the Lord’s word never falls to the ground – there is a promise for me that these things will be displayed through me.  Challenged:  because those are some mighty shoes to fill to walk in the Spirit through the tempests of life.  Guilty: because I have so often fallen short of the standard of this behavior, but I am alternately assured: because I know the Lord is still working in me.  I don’t have to strain to fill these shoes (any more than an apple tree has to strain to produce fruit), but there is a place where my lack — my agony over my meagerness will cause me to cry out to the One Who makes me what I ought to be – as I yield to Him all that I am.  This is the place where the Lord’s timing and provision, and my humility and need, all meet together.  But before I cry out to Him – I must first see my need in all its blazing reality, bumps and blemishes, and be moved to humility by it.  The truth is – in myself I lack, and yet in Christ I become whole!

It’s not like throwing a light switch on.  It’s more like renovating the whole electrical schematics of a house.  I am a work in progress.  But be assured, the Lord Whose Name I carry will not be mocked.  He knows the genuineness of my heart before Him, and He will deal with me if I am only displaying outward compliance to His nature without an inward truth.

This is why we can have such confidence!  The Lord is both the Architect and the Builder.  He knows what He is calling us to, and where we are not yet demonstrating.  Success in walking out the fruit of His nature is less about my proficient study – then my humble reliance and waiting on Him.  It is more about the depth of my relationship with Him, then my scholarly acquisitions. The latter supports the former – but it can never replace it.

So maybe you have witnessed a believer in a less than Christ-like stance when the road of life got bumpy.  Should you use that as a reason to doubt the power of God, the commitment of that particular believer, or that Christianity is even real today? Should someone’s behavioral train wreck cause us to cry liar or fraud? Not even.  Would you declare a house under renovation a failure?  No … for it is not yet finished.  And your confidence is not in the house – it is in the Builder of the house. (Now if years go by and no change in their behavior – another story!) God, however, will succeed in the final outcome.  We can trust He is working, and changing, and renovating us all – for the Glory of His Name and His word which He has elevated high above His Name.  It will be done, and we will see through His saints being perfected – the goodness of the Lord!  Booyah to the Lord!

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Day Sixty-Two, “Seedy” Intercession

Posted in Under-the-Influence, Devo Shorts 2011, tagged , , , on July 27, 2013| 1 Comment »

Day Sixty-Two

A Time for Seedy Intercession

“To everything there is a season, and a time for every matter or purpose under heaven:”  Eccl 3:1

            The Gospel of Luke shares the parable of the sower in Luke8:5-15.  We are provided with four types of seed situations that describe the conditions of people concerning their “take” on the word of God – the word being of course the seed.

We may be familiar with these situations:  seed which fell on a path; seed which fell on the rock; seed in the midst of thorns; and seed which fell into good soil.  Of the four only the last appears to be the life of a seemingly successful believer in Jesus Christ, as the others are lacking in various ways.  For instance:  seed on the traveled path depicts a person who hears the word, but the enemy (Satan) steals the message.  Seed on the rock: they hear the word with joy, and believe for a while, but because they lack a deep root in Jesus they eventually fall away. See Luke 8:14-15 for the last two interpretations for my point is not to relay what the word is already clear on.  Rather I would provoke you to an insight.

Nowhere in this discussion of the seed is there any statement that says these various situations are unchangeable.  In fact, I believe this is an amazingly delicious strategy for us to actually pray and “interseed” for the people in these situations, and to thwart the enemy in his plans.  I believe the Lord would have us see the limitations and pray for His remedy!

So say we or someone we know is like the seed that fell along a traveled road.  There is no requirement or limitation that says we or them has to cry in our cherrios because that is the current status.  In humility we can come before the Lord and ask for the very thing we lack (in this case belief in the word that would be received before the devil can whisk it away).  For the seed upon the rock we can pray that the Lord would provide a deep root in Himself so that in temptation or trial they would not fall away.  You see –d?

Thus, we are not just seeing this word as some terminal diagnosis, but by faith we believe the power of Jesus can ameliorate even these natural situations with a supernatural intervention.  Jesus Himself said that He desires that none should perish but that all would come to repentance.  This is license for us to pray for those that we know or see in this seedy dilemma, and in fact is also true for ourselves.  What does it require of us? Umm… humility, a hope for those struggling, and a passion for those not yet saved.  We need to see the reality of a situation, but to not be put off by what we see. Rather, to arise and pray for what can be instead!

 

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Day Sixty-One, “Whom do you serve: Rules or The Ruler?”

Posted in Under-the-Influence, Devo Shorts 2011, tagged , , , , , , , on July 16, 2013| 1 Comment »

Day Sixty-One

Whom do you serve: Rules or The Ruler?

“…choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve….” Joshua 24:15

            Two sisters: Mary and Martha – famous, yet perhaps even still underestimated in the fullness of what they truly convey.

I believe in a very real sense they represent two types of dependence. Indeed, I believe they clarify and address the issue posed by Paul’s question in Galatians 3:3: “Having begun [your new life spiritually] with the [Holy] Spirit, are you now reaching perfection [by dependence] on the flesh?”  I believe neglecting this question is a danger for all believers.  We begin our journey with Christ by faith, but as we proceed we allow works and the flesh to take the helm – and as a result we suffer great loss. Our dependence on the Spirit is transferred to burgeoning dependence on the flesh.  It is based on the misconception that the Holy Spirit will work among us on the basis of us doing what the Law demands, more than because of our believing or trusting on the message that we heard. (Gal 3:5)  We have then trusted our righteousness to be a product of our actions vice our faith in Jesus and the Gospel message.

Recall the story of the two sisters in Luke 10:38-42.  Jesus was coming to visit them in Bethany.  Martha was overly occupied with much serving and brought a complaint before Jesus about her sister and her lack of helpfulness.  I love the way my husband framed this in a recent sermon, “Martha was busy making sandwiches that the Lord hadn’t asked for.” Mary, however, was seated at the Lord’s feet and was listening to Him.

Now I have to confess, having been engaged in ministry over the last fifteen years I have seen the works mentality creep up in my own activity. Many times I have slid into a place where I’m sure I was making sandwiches that the Lord hadn’t called for.  It is in fact the very heart of the issue before us.  As a believer, a part of the Body, and one having a place within the Bride of Christ – my primary engagement is to be with the Lord.  He is the One to Whom we are betrothed, and all of our serving is to radiate out of our relationship to Him.  Another way to say that is, every serving that I do should flow out of obedience to Jesus and in the overflow of the abundance of His life in me. While there is perhaps no food shortage in the Body of sandwiches not ordered, there is indeed a shortage of the food that Jesus spoke of.  He said, I have food which you know nothing of. My food is to do the will of My Father.

Yet what we see in great volume within the Body of Christ is the same kind of service and serving that Martha was doing, which results in the greater works being left undone. Mary’s life seems to be aligned with the freedom spoken of in Galatians 4, speaking of the New Jerusalem, where there is a supernatural birth which gives rise to children of the free. This life is a product of living according to the Spirit of Life in Christ which sets us free from the law of sin and death (Rom 8:2). What we in the Body need to remember is that the covenant of promise (Abraham’s Destiny) supersedes the law.  The law came 430 years after the promise and its purpose was simply to build an awareness of our sin in preparation for the coming Messiah.

Recognize then, that the Law itself serves the purpose of the Messiah.  It causes us to see our need, though the law itself cannot save.  All of Martha’s sandwiches could not bring righteousness, for they only served her flesh. This is the reason she was angry with her sister – she wanted Mary to serve according to external rites so that she could glory in Mary’s subjection to the law and that wasn’t happening (Gal 6:12-14).  We are not justified and declared righteous by the law, but rather we are to rely on the Holy Spirit by faith and wait for the blessing and good for which our righteousness and right standing with God causes us to hope.  In other words, the law serves God – isn’t that what we should be doing too? Like Mary, or even like Ruth seeking the covering at the feet of her kinsmen redeemer, our true service and serving should be at the feet of our Master, waiting and receiving, and being awash in the fullness of His presence.  Not serving rules in bondage, but serving the Ruler of All – in freedom.

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Day Sixty, Who’s Your Mommy Now?

Posted in Under-the-Influence, Devo Shorts 2011 on July 16, 2013| Leave a Comment »

https://insolomonsporch.wordpress.com/2013/07/06/day-sixtywhos-your-mommy-nowbut-the-jerusalem-above/

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Day Sixty, Who’s Your Mommy Now?

Posted in Under-the-Influence, Devo Shorts 2011, tagged , , , , , on July 6, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Day Sixty

Who’s Your Mommy Now?

“”But the Jerusalem above (the Messianic kingdom of Christ) is free, and she is our mother.”    Gal 4:26

            If you are a born again believer in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior – then you have… been born again.  You have had a second birth!  Now your lineage has changed, your life has changed, and also – your future has changed!

Your first birth was completely natural.  You had a natural birth from a natural mother.  You were born of bloods and water.  At that point your life and destiny were in the natural realm – and because of that you were a slave.  You were in fact born into slavery.  It was the best that could be done in the natural realm.  You were exactly like the child of Hagar, spoken of in Galatians 4:24-25.  Hagar is an allegorical figure here, who represents the first Covenant, originating at Mt Sinai (the Law.)  All who are her children are slaves born under the law, and Hagar is in bondage to the law – just as are her children. Like Jerusalem today, this refers to all who have had only a natural birth and are children by physical descent.  They are all slaves to the law, and thus guilty and condemned – for no one can be justified by the law.  No one can be saved by the law.

However, when you were born again, you were in fact born from above.  You were born of the will of God, not man. (Jn 1;13) Your birth was not natural and fleshly, it was supernatural !  Thus the life you now have in you is supernatural!  It of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and originates out of His Messianic Kingdom! This life is no longer of slavery, but is a life born in freedom – just like Isaac’s life – who was the son of Promise.  You then too are a son of promise.  You share an inheritance in the realm of the Messianic kingdom because you were born of Christ’s Spirit.  You are now free!

But just as Ishmael (son of Hagar and slave under bondage) despised and persecuted Isaac (the free son of promise), so too children of the Messianic kingdom and Promise will be despised and persecuted by those not having a new birth.  The world will persecute and despise believers in Jesus Christ.  The Word says: “So it is now also.” (Gal 4:29)

Thus, we stand today as sons of promise, a people with an inheritance, a future and a destiny.  It doesn’t begin tomorrow — or when we die.  The eternity we have begins the moment we receive Jesus and begin to walk out His new live lived in us today – in the spirit.  So now what? Just as you know the members of your natural family, get to know the Body of Christ (your new family)!  We’ll be together for a long time!  Also get fully acquainted with the guidelines Jesus has inspired through the Holy Spirit, the Bible: Your Basic Instructions BEFORE Leaving Earth.  This Word will help you to grow and mature. But also become intimate with your Savior and His Kingdom.  Spend time with Him – it will help you to trust Him!  After all – His Father is your Father, and His Kingdom (the New Jerusalem) – well… She’s your Mommy now!

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Day Fifty-Nine, “God’s Enemies”

Posted in Under-the-Influence, Devo Shorts 2011, tagged , , , , , , on July 3, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Day Fifty-Nine

God’s Dealings with Internal vs External Enemies to the Church

“… how I persecuted and abused the church of God furiously and extensively and [with fanatical zeal did my best] to make havoc of it and destroy it.” Gal 1:13 Amp

          It’s the difference between “hot” and “lukewarm!”  In the Scripture reference above Saul of Tarsus (who later would be converted to become the Apostle Paul) was red hot to destroy the church. Yet God in His grace did not destroy Saul – He saved Him, and redirected Him mightily!

No, the harshest dealings from God do not befall His enemies that persecute and try and destroy the church – the harshest penalty comes to those who posture themselves as “part of the church”, yet have another agenda that is not God’s.  If they preach another Gospel, if they put a carnal even evil twist – on Truth, for these, God says … “Let them be accursed – Anathema (devoted to destruction).” Gal 1:8-9 [These] are the lukewarm!  They have been around the fire of the Presence – but in the midst of that glory setting they have not embraced the fire, rather they have withstood it for their own cause.

Like Judas – who betrayed Jesus because he was swayed by the evil one to hand Jesus over – these internal adversaries have withstood the fire of glory and goodness, and been corrupted instead by the enemy.  There is a great warning for us all who consider ourselves a bondservant to Jesus — to humbly, continually, yield and submit ourselves, to ensure we are one with His party and siding wholly with Him.  The deception the enemy uses perverts one’s perception of good – for evil.  Its heart and core are rebellion – it deceives its slaves into believing they are doing God’s will (see John 16:1-2).

Now I take a strange comfort here.  Are any of my loved ones adversarial to the church of Jesus Christ?  Now I pray that they will become red hot – even persecuting it (as God allows).  But now I pray heartily, Lord, they would not be lukewarm, and not be corrupted in the very midst of Your glory and presence.

God help us all to not fear Your blatant enemies externally, but instead to pray for them to become red hot, and that they would be converted!  Lord, let us regard with discernment those who appear to be Yours, yet are not: who preach another Gospel, another Jesus, in another spirit  – but we perceive it not!  God help us to reverentially fear only You Lord, and remain secure in that place without deception! Amen!

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