Lord, Help Me in My Unbelief ***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  He whispers His counsel into my ear as my mind comes to conscious attention.

 “Bring every thought into the captivity of Christ”.

The Holy Spirit knows my deepest wrestles and there is no point in trying to be “righteous” and deny the mental assault by evil.  Almost before my feet hit the floor, He takes me back to a day when Jesus was asked by a distraught father to help his demonized son. The disciples were powerless to deliver this young boy and the matter ended up at the feet of Jesus.

Upon deeper assessment of the situation, Jesus addressed the father and asked if he believed that his son could be delivered.  The father replied, “Yes, I believe, help me in my unbelief”.   Mark 9:23

This situation is one we will all experience one time or another in our earthly journey with Jesus.  There will always be situations that call for faith beyond what we have at the moment of a crisis.  And, most of us who are Christians, will say, “Yes, I believe”, but then realize our weakness and come to confess, “Help me in my unbelief”.

The wisdom of God in creation is greater than we could ever attain with our finite minds.  We never arrive at the place where we know all things or where we can completely control anything.  The Holy Spirit reminds me yet again the words of Jesus, “Apart from Me you can do nothing” and that applies even to the condition of our faith.

Jesus made it clear that His departure from planet earth was the best thing that could happen to humanity once He died for our sin.  By departing He would then send the Holy Spirit to supernaturally indwell all who would come to believe and acknowledge that He, Jesus, is God.

The 3^rd Person of the Triune Godhead was sent to dwell within us to complete our design.  The Holy Spirit is the final element to the human being that completes us and makes us whole.  We are not perfect nor flawless but with Him we are complete in our design according to the work of the Divine craftsman; Creator of all.  We are all born with that God ordained and God shaped hole (void) that can only be filled by the Holy Spirit of Christ Himself.

The father of the demonized boy had a physical encounter with God in flesh form and had to wrap his brain around that fact and then choose to believe.  Since the resurrection of Christ, the Holy Spirit has been unleashed into the world and for those of us who believe, we have the Holy One within.  His strength and His power, His wisdom even His faith is always available to us 24/7.

The enemy of our soul is ancient and always present in this fallen world.  His weapon of choice is the same he has used since confronting Eve in the garden and his strategy never changes:  He is a liar and his field of battle is our mind.

As the days draw down and we get closer to the return of our Lord Jesus, the King of Kings, the battle will get more intense and the lies more convincing.   The Holy Spirit reminds me that in order to stay out of the grip of the serial liar, I must bring every thought and make it captive to Jesus.

 

This is a tall order and I am not sure how to manage it given my analytical brain, so, like the father of the demonized boy I say, “I will to obey, help me in my weakness”.  I need the Holy One to discern the truth from the lie and then I need Him to empower me to reject the lie.

More and more I realize that my helpless cry is music to my Lord’s ears.  The very thing He is and plans to be, is my strength in weakness.  What a wonderful God we serve.  He never leaves us to face life and its challenges on our own. 

Relief surges as I know His Presence and Counsel will ultimately resolve all the wrestles.  With the Holy Spirit I am whole, complete and one with the Trinity by Divine design.  Now, what about those thoughts?

The Holy Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?

    

  

The Witching Hour***

The Holy One calls to me this morning. After a deep wrestle in what I call the “witching hour” of the night, the Holy Spirit calls for an important meeting. The “witching hour” is my title and description of the hour(s) on the clock where every sane person should be deep asleep but instead the enemy starts peddling his trashy lies and the carnal mind seems to be defenseless and most vulnerable.

The Holy One speaks a command I have heard before, “Don’t believe Satan’s lies or even your own eyes, believe only in My Word”. 

The devil is a consummate liar. But even more, the devil can orchestrate signs and wonders to support the lies he spews into our lives to challenge and destroy our faith. God’s word says that:

“The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders….” 2 Thess 2:8.

This condition is part of the great apostasy and the rise of the Anti-Christ in the world. The apostasy is the falling away or turning away from Truth and should serve as a warning for the Church to beware of progressive ideas that contradict the ancient Scriptures that are the basis of our faith.

My question of the Holy Spirit as I seek His wisdom is “I see that some things in the Word are circular like “without faith it is impossible to please you”, but then I know also from Your Word that apart from You I can do nothing”. Faith is the act of believing in a sense, so where does the truth lie?” Or rather, “what is the expectation of me in regard to faith?”

The Holy Spirit was sent to Glorify the Lord Jesus Christ and to lead us into all truth. He has always been gracious for my deep questions and today is no exception. Because I am dull in my ability to grasp Divine perspective at times, I ask Him to paint pictures that convey the lesson or directive He wants me to understand. Today it is a picture He has given that helps me in my wrestle.

The lie the enemy posed this morning deals with an ongoing trial of deep emotional heartache and my faith in the midst of it. While God’s word speaks of victory, circumstances are stacked up in opposition. The enemy delivers a thought arrow that my faith (or lack thereof) is the reason the victory is out of my grasp. The Lord’s mercy provides a very powerful picture that relieves the confusion the enemy tries to cause:

The Divine structure of God’s authority and my life appeared like a circle. God, at the top of the circle, always initiates. God sent His Son to pay the price for sin and open the way back to a personal relationship with our Heavenly Father. God also sent the Holy Spirit to indwell us and He is the One who provides for unity with the Trinity. I call that Trinity Unity. The Holy Spirit makes us complete in that circle. Jesus said we will come to see that: “I am in the Father, and you in Me and I in you” John 14:20. This makes up that circle of unity. Faith is a gift that flows in a circle from the Father to the Son through His Holy Spirit to me and I give it back to the Father.

The same can be said of the desires of our heart and the prayers we have been given to pray. The lies of the enemy are an effort to destroy our unity with the Trinity.

As I apply the truth, the picture reveals that God will supply the faith that I need to please Him. Just like He supplied His Son to pay the price for humanity’s sin and then supplied the Holy Spirit to be our strength in flesh weakness. My requirement in all of this is to remain in conscious Unity with the Trinity through surrender to the Holy Spirit and obedience to the Word of God. Simply speaking, I ask Him to supply the faith I need to please Him. As I pray for wisdom, the Word says, I have it and I am not to doubt. So the picture of the circle is truth.

There is no enemy within my circle of “life”. Whatever comes to me has been filtered through fingers of love. I may not always understand the plan, but the God ordained purpose is for my best: whether for this moment or for tomorrow or even further for my eternal future. The enemy and all his nonsense is merely a tool in the hands of the Master to hone the vessel. In that I can trust.

It is apparent to me that while the enemy was having me focus on the circumstances, his real target was my faith.

With this confidence, I reject the lies that tormented me in the “witching hour” of the night and declare (in faith) that I have been redeemed out of the hands of the devil by the Blood of Jesus and not he nor his lies have any authority over me or power within me. I stand in unity with the Trinity and know that the victory promised in God’s Word is certain, no matter how long it takes to manifest here on earth.

This morning I see that the challenge the enemy made to my faith was the very thing I needed to declare my faith. Interesting how that worked….

The Holy Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

The Curse On The Fruitless Fig Tree***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  I am thankful to be reminded that as a Christian we never arrive at a place of perfection in and of ourselves.  The pressure would be too great because failure in our flesh is inevitable.   I am thankful that I know the Lord and understand His rebukes as “loving training for reigning” at some future time.

When pride rears its ugly head, I can count on Him to let all the air out and bring me back to reality.  Today is one of those days. Rebuke may be a hard word for some but it conveys a sharp reprimand, or charge or admonishment and as a current day disciple of Christ, He has all authority as Master and Lord to rebuke, admonish, charge or reprimand me as He surveys my reaction to life challenges.

His words today bring conviction, “The Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them”.

The back drop of this conversation has been a personal study on the account of the fig tree that withered in Matt 21:18-22 NKJV:

 “Now the morning as He returned to the city, He was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves and said to it "Let no fruit grow on you ever again” Immediately the fig tree withered. .  And when the disciples saw it they marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree wither away so soon?"

So Jesus answered and said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you that if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to that fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea' , it will be done".  And whatever you ask in prayer believing you will receive."

 At the first pass through, this is such a powerful promise for answered prayer.  The question we all have is how can we have such confidence in our prayers?  When we read about the life of Christ, we learn He spend long hours in prayer.  I believe He was always asking the Father how to handle whatever crossed his path in any given day.  That is quite different than we pray most of the time.

He said that He only did what He saw the Father do and He only said what He heard the Father say.  I believe that their unity of purpose and method was the power behind the miraculous acts The Son of God executed while on earth.

With the Word telling us that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but Divine, I see that this situation with the withered fig tree may be an example of that Divine weapon and is one of a spoken word.  Words can be and do bring blessing and also can be and do bring curses. This should open our eyes to the fact that Jesus called this fruitless fig to wither and then used it as a lesson on the power we possess.

My thoughts go running to all the evil around us.  Much can be gleaned from this account and lesson.  There are many things in life that this fruitless fig tree symbolically represents.  I think about the evil we are up against.  I think about all the "fruitless fig trees" there are.  Systems and organizations and people who look like it/they should offer nourishment or provide an expectation that betray the trust or fail to provide for the expectation they represent. We are facing off with dangerous deceptions as well as those things providing false hope.    

I believe that part of what grieves the heart of God is when His people see these "fruitless figs" and allow them to continue to flourish.  Jesus stopped his journey and cursed this tree that looked like it should provide an answer to a hunger.  He found it was nothing but good looking leaves when its function was to provide fruit to satisfy that hunger.

I begin making a mental list of all the fruitless figs I should and can call to wither.  But His rebuke stops me from saddling up my warrior horse and riding into the field of battle today.   More and deeper thoughts must be undertaken and shared with my Heavenly Counselor before I take up this Divine weapon in the battle.  

I take note that what stands in the way called "doubt" is also a word that means desert, withdraw, waver, hesitate and oppose.   It is an imperative that we move and operate under the ruling authority of the Holy Spirit when we undertake to “curse” what we interpret/discern to be a “fruitless fig tree”.

All our thoughts and actions as a Christian must be those of a servant of the Most High God.  We must never undertake a calling or action that contradicts the eternal purpose of our Lord and Savior.   

The Holy One has taken me to His Word and the Lord’s rebuke of the disciples when they asked if they should bring down fire upon those who rejected Him in Luke 9:55.  “But He turned and rebuked them and said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of.  To discern we must have the counsel of the Holy One within.  Our only way of discerning the real difference between good and evil is to surrender our thoughts and feelings to the Holy Spirit who will lead us into all truth.

We are never to undertake the use of so powerful a weapon without the directive of the Lord.  He alone has the knowledge of how and when it is to be applied in the proper way.  And yes, I have seen some fruitless fig trees wither.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him? 

  

   

For Such A Time As This?***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  We as a nation are in the lead up to another election of our President and legislative leaders.  We are placed at a crossroad and again being offered 2 choices each of which represents a world view, and a set of values upon which the candidates stand and promise to accordingly rule this nation. 

Professing Christians have an obligation and privilege to lend their vote in each and every great contest and yet fear or apathy seems to immobilize them. 

Politics is government and God has His eyes on the government of nations…all of them.  If God is interested in who governs His people shouldn’t we be interested as well?  He sees behind the scenes and has exposed much for us to consider in these epic and historical elections.  Even if we cannot know the "heart" of the candidate we can absolutely know the platform upon which they stand and intend to govern. 

History in governing shows us the truth about where the two parties stand and how each might go about enacting their agenda.  Day to day the political waters may get muddied, but the platform of each party does not change:  Law and order or chaos in the streets.  Protect the sanctity of life or support infanticide at any point in the development of a human.  The list goes on and the differences are clear cut.

Buyer beware of those who want to fundamentally change our nation and overturn and upend the foundation upon which our nation has stood for all these years. We are a democratic republic and one nation under God.  We are a different nation than any who have come and gone before. We are a blessed nation and must look to the One who has blessed us and then fight for what we have and how our founders under Divine guidance established the form of government that has protected it's citizens over the course of history and time.       

Sometimes the best way to assess and process where we are in our life and nation today, is to take a look back in scripture to learn how God made a way for Israel to survive and prosper even in their land of exile. The Holy Spirit takes me to the account and life of Esther who was elevated through interesting circumstance to become Queen of Persia.   

Queen Esther was living the life of royalty not by her own desire but by God’s Design.  In her position, she was not necessarily subject to the threat that had been leveled against her people, (the Jews) living in Persia, their land of exile, but she was given a huge role to play in their ultimate survival.   

Mordecai, Esther’s beloved uncle became aware of the threat and brought it to the Queen.  For sake of the symbolism and application of the lesson for our days and time, I will share it in today’s terms:   

An executive order written by an enemy of the God’s chosen people went out to all the states that they (God’s people) were to be destroyed, killed, annihilated: all of God’s chosen, both young and old, little children and women…and in one day to plunder their possessions….I.E. take their bank accounts, businesses, homes, properties ….The executive order was published and sent to all the provinces for execution of the order and for all the people in all the provinces to be ready for that day.

Confusion entered the faith community, for they had lived in peace with their neighbors and provided no reason for the genocide executive order.  There was great mourning among God’s people with fasting and weeping and wailing. 

I cannot speak for God in the matter of these elections, but I hear Him say to me: “For such a time as this”.   

When the Holy One speaks to my heart, there are times when He starts a sentence He wants me to finish and this is one of those times.  The book of Esther is recorded in the Old testament.  This is a testimony of God’s deliverance of His people orchestrated through the natural circumstances they were facing at the time. Esther was in a strategic position in history to influence the survival of the nation of Israel.  

To understand the character of our God, it is important to realize that He is a God of Precedents.  Precedents are revealed as His acts in the Old Testament days and through the Biblical history of Israel, that He will enact in like kind today.  Even the miracles that Jesus executed in the New Testament are available and act as precedents for us to ask for and even prayerfully expect in our lives today. 

Our God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow…He never changes so things He did in days gone by, He can and will repeat in our days.

Back to the account of Esther and God’s people set up for destruction.  Esther fasted for 3 days along with the rest of her people in a petition for Divine favor from the King.    

Since the genocide executive order was sealed by the authority of the King, it could not be revoked or rescinded.  Favor came to Esther as the wicked plot was revealed to the King, and the King who loved Esther, offered the opportunity to write a new executive order whereby God’s people could defend themselves. 

The 2^nd edict (executive order) permitted Gods people to gather together and protect their lives thereby empowering them to fight against all who would assault them.  The “battle” ensued and the day that the enemies of God’s people had hoped to overpower them, the opposite occurred in that Gods people overpowered those who hated them….

We may ask ourselves why we have come to this in our nation?  In God’s economy, maybe it is to rally the troops and unify the Body against the threats that would silence our voices for years and years to come.  Perhaps this is a day like for Esther but as a citizen with a vote to cast and a stand to make.  Maybe we are here with feet on planet earth “for such a time as this”.   

I pray this is a precedent the Lord has provided us and intends to repeat in this our One Nation Under God "elections".  I pray this is our time to defeat the evil plot against us in the land.  I pray we will all gather together to defend ourselves and crush those whose agenda is for the destruction of our faith and our traditional Biblical values. 

I pray we might all see the great influence our vote may have on the survival of the church in America.  And I pray that we stand together in unity as “One nation under God”.  All for the glory of our Kingdom and our King.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him? 

The Failing Church***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  I have set my mind to inquire of my Holy Counselor.  Sometimes I get answers in the blink of an eye, but other questions seem to get swallowed up by a black hole and when I accept that the answer is no answer then the answer comes.  I guess that is part of the “Be Still and know that I AM God” and waiting means be still but not to give up on the answer coming in God’s time.

The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth.  His role in part is to lead us, Christ followers, into all truth.   The truth is sometimes hard to take and I find I have to press in to convince both of us that I am willing to listen and with His help, respond appropriately, which means I have to be willing to change if the truth calls for it.

I am a member of the big Body of Christ and in a fellowship of spirit filled believers.   Not just a member of an organization but a part (member) of a living organism.  I have been asking the Lord to help me understand why so many fellowships within the Body of Christ are so powerless and in essence failing in our assignment?

  

The Lord our God is the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow, so there is no use in blaming Him for why we are not doing the greater things that Jesus said we would do after He left planet earth.

Today He speaks a convicting word to my heart, “Many are those who seek the power without the Person”. 

  

Riddles are sometimes the way the Lord calls me to go deep.  Superficial conversations give me a pass and that is not the way He chooses to lead me into all truth.  He begins with a curious statement for personal evaluation.   First question I must ask is “Lord, are you referring to me?”  “Am I among the many?”

First lesson in truth applies, “Take the beam out of our own eye before you dare try to take the splinter out of someone else’s”.

With that ice breaker, conversation starter, I surrender to what He wants to teach me.  The courses in the school of the Holy Spirit are never ending.  I am convinced that there is so much to learn that I will never graduate from that institution of higher education and that is fine by me.  Learning about my Lord and God is an eternal blessing and I will never ever know all there is to know.

  

Small pieces of His majesty are all I can process but even small pieces are sometimes beyond all my comprehension.    My salvation being one of those things.   I know that at the moment of my salvation I received the Holy Spirit of Christ as my indwelling Comforter, Counselor and “power” over flesh.  The understanding of His nearness takes some getting used to.  The reality that I am “possessed” by another creates a power struggle with my flesh. 

But once I begin to realize and co-operate with the perfect plan and unity with the Trinity provided by the Lord through His death and resurrection, life takes on a whole new perspective.  We come to a sense of power and authority yet are adolescent in the understanding of how it works (or doesn’t).   Training for reigning is life-long since it is a fundamental transformation of our soul AKA our character, our persona. 

Which brings me to the lesson from the Holy One today: “Power without the Person”.   I have been shown that the fruit of the indwelling Holy Spirit is actually the character virtues and qualities of Jesus.  I may possess these things by nature but not to the depth and degree of what the Holy Spirit will bear as His fruit once He takes up residency in my heart which is the place and core of my being.

Jesus said, “You did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of My Father in My name, He may give you”.   John 14:16. The supernatural intervention and provision for what we ask of our Heavenly Father is promised but not without conditions.

Jesus chose and appointed us to bear fruit that will remain.  When all else burns or corrupts over time, character remains.  The fruit we are to bear, is the virtue and character qualities of Gal 5:22-23, which we are told is the “fruit of the Spirit”.  Christ’s Spirit, bearing Christ’s character, in and through us is called fruit. 

 

In the sequence of the promise, we are chosen and appointed to first bear fruit.  First we must allow the Holy One within to manifest the character (identity/name) of Christ in our unique person.  Emulating Jesus’s character as His disciple/representative to the world around us is key. 

While we are in the ongoing process of this transformation, our unity with the Holy Spirit and co-operation in the process, (sanctification and fruit bearing) brings us to the manifestations of His gifts through which miracles are brought from Heaven and the Father’s Hand.

Asking for something in the name of another, to me, means that I am so closely identified with that person in the knowledge of His character, His motives, His desire to act, that I know my petition would be like His.   Asking for something “in Jesus Name” is not just words to be slapped on the end of our own willful agenda. 

I truly believe our Heaven Father is looking deep at the fruit (Character) we are bearing as He sends answers to our petitions. In the delays of the answers, we might need to look at our “fruit bearing” to see if the Holy Spirit is pruning off dead branches on our end even as preparing others for the answers to come.

As this message relates to the church as His Body, I am aware that in many fellowships and denominations the Presence of the Holy Spirit is rarely discussed or sought after.  Yet by the Holy Spirit we are transformed into the likeness of Christ and apart from Christ we are reminded that we can do nothing.

  

We cannot bear His fruit in and of ourselves.  We cannot draw anyone to Christ in and of ourselves.  We cannot do the greater things Jesus promised in and of ourselves.  There is no Power without the Person of Christ.  Can we do good deeds in our flesh?   Of course.  But the question is: “can we heal the sick, and raise the dead”?

If the church is to reclaim her authority, she must reinstate the Holy Spirit as her head.   He will glorify the Person of Jesus in, to, and through us and then we will be able to wield the power of our Lord.  To neglect this important link between who we are and what we can do makes for a powerless life as a Christian and a powerless Church in the world. 

   

In the Character and Name of Jesus, authority has been delegated to us, not to the end of our glory but His.  I believe the Church can rebound if we will stop seeking “the power without the Person” and yield authority back to the Holy Spirit of Christ.

The Body of Christ is comprised of many members and many pieces to the puzzle that we individually hold and must lay down collectively if we are to complete the picture.   I will say that this is my piece and you may have another one that relates to the failures within.  But the failures need to be addressed for the health of the whole. 

Unless we share what we are shown that needs prayer, any action that needs repentance and ultimately correction, we will stall in a place of powerlessness and no one will see Jesus in our lives or His Church.       

The Holy Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him? 

          

Our Strength In Weakness*** 2

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  There are days when I feel like more than a conqueror, but today is not one of those days.  Today is a day when I look around at all that seems to be falling apart in the world and I cannot find my sling or a stone.

Thankfully the Holy Spirit knows my every thought before I find it.  “I AM your strength in weakness.  Be still and know that I am God”.

Much ado is made about being valiant, courageous and strong.  Weakness is not a pleasant nor desirable self-assessment.  Weakness does not fit with a warrior mentality yet where else can we truly know the power of God separate from our own?

I have learned that over our lifetime and circumstances, our prayers are heard and answered but not always in the ways we expect.  I have for many years prayed that hard circumstances and difficult people would be removed from my life.  Lately my Counselor has helped me to realize that I need those weights to grow stronger in faith and dependency upon Him.  He has told me that to ask for their removal is like going to a gym and asking the coach too remove the weights from the bar I am about to lift; a totally pointless workout time at the gym.

Paul, who was among the greatest of Apostles and gave us most of the New Testament, when dealing with his “thorn” in the flesh wrote this as the Lord’s answer:    

2 Corinthian 12:9-10, “And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you for my strength is made perfect in weakness”.  Therefore, most gladly I will boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me….”  And in the issues of life, he went on to say, “Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions for Christ’s sake, for when I am weak then I am strong.”

Here is here the rubber meets the road in my faith.  My pride and great temptation is to win…my way.  Even as I relate life trials to the unseen enemy’s opposition, the battle provokes me to independent flesh maneuvers and failure is defined as losing a skirmish where I see the evil one temporarily gaining ground. I try to take him out in my own strength and even my own “power” (strength) in prayer. 

Prayer is not the power.  God is the power.  Prayer is my way of connecting with God’s power.  If I think that “power” is in the prayer and not in the One who calls me to pray, then it is my strength at issue. 

Prayer power is not enough to defeat he opposition.  Grace is God's power in our weakness and we fail to recognize it until we can get a breather and look back at where we came from.  Grace is seen in the rear view mirror and from that perspective we know that it was not our great power or slick moves that got us through the swamp land when we were overwhelmed and broken.

It is the role and desire of the Holy Spirit who dwells within the heart of every believer and Christ follower to Glorify Jesus, the Son of God.  This should be our desire as well.  His glory through us depends on the ruling authority of the Holy Spirit in our lives. 

When we overcome our flesh reactions by the virtues of Christ which is His fruit to bear when we face the challenges of people and life, then Jesus is glorified to the world around us.  Love instead of hate, joy instead of despair, peace instead of war, and all the fruit of the Spirit instead of the sins of the flesh. 

The fruit of the Holy Spirit is in such contrast to a natural flesh reaction, people see that something is different about us.  That contrast between flesh and spirit, when the Spirit controls us and peace prevails is the attraction that draws others to Christ through us.

This life is hard and designed to be that way.  Flesh cannot handle life with grace.  Only the Holy Spirit can handle life with grace.  But that grace (defined as God’s ability and power) is provided to Christians and is our strength in weakness. 

We are told, “Do not be surprised at the fiery trials you are facing”.  It is in the midst of these fiery trials that God’s grace is found to be sufficient and as we rely on the Holy Spirit within to be our strength in weakness His grace brings great glory to Jesus, our Savior, our Lord and our King.

In these days of feeling personal weakness in the trials of life, may I remember Paul’s words, follow his example and maybe even take pleasure in the hard things, “for Christ’s sake” when He says, ‘My strength is made perfect in weakness”.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him? 

Perfect Love Casts Out Fear***

 The Holy One calls to me this morning.  With all the stress of the days and times we are in, fear and anger flood the streets and the atmosphere.  The Holy Spirit speaks to calm my racing heartbeat;

 “My perfect love casts out all fear”.

I know this is a passage out of Scripture, so I pick up my Bible, along with my pen, my notebook and my coffee and head into our early morning conference.

I John 4:18 “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment.  But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.  We love Him because He first loved us.”

In this life long crazy “journey with Jesus”, He leads me along some unfamiliar pathways. When the Holy Spirit enters a life, one can be sure that changes are about to take place.  Habits will be changed and the old ways will be ditched, but not always as we might expect or in ways that are easy to manage.

The Lord operates on a whole different plain than we do.  His thoughts and ways are so much higher.  I think about the raising of Lazarus and how Jesus turned a funeral into a party and a celebration of resurrection life.  All Mary and Martha wanted was a healing for their beloved brother.  But instead they got a firsthand outrageous lesson on the Deity of their good “friend” Jesus and His power over death.

Perfect love casts out fear.

For years, I have thought about that “perfect" love as being the love of God for us.  His perfect love for His created and in Christ we need not fear.  Today as I ponder His words, a different perspective begins to emerge. 

The Holy Spirit reminds me that His fruit is love; unconditional love, perfect love.  When I stop the usual thought stream, and application of His love for me or my love to my temporal world of people, I can pick up on another place of application and that is my love relationship with my Lord. 

I confess that just like Jesus said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing”, when it comes to operating in love, there is never a greater truth told.  Human love is selfish and conditional, self-exalting and self-centered in what and how it tries to bring the benefit to self.

Unconditional love is the ultimate virtue for man.  Unconditional love held Jesus on the Cross.

Unconditional love for each other is not the only place of necessary operation.  Unconditional love for our Lord and Savior, our Heavenly Father and indwelling Holy Spirit is a place where many of us may not be operating at that depth of love. 

Perfect love casts out fear.

If I feel a perfect love from God, all the fear of judgment and punishment goes away.  But if I do not have the confidence in the Lord’s perfect love for me, I might live in constant fear of impending disaster.  But then to switch out a perfect love FROM the Lord to a perfect love FOR the Lord and  the picture changes somewhat.

Love is the fruit of the Holy Spirit and apart from Him I cannot love as Christ loves.

Jesus, the Son, loves the Father unconditionally.  His life and obedience unto that brutal death on the Cross is the evidence of His unconditional love for the Father.  Likewise, His unconditional love for humanity was evidenced by that same brutal Cross. 

Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will obey my commands”.    How many are the times when His commands cross our human will and put unconditional love for Him to the test?

The Holy Spirit lives inside us to bear His fruit through our lives. His fruit is nothing less than the virtues of Jesus AKA His character qualities.  Over our lifetime, His role is to bring us into the conforming image (character) of Jesus.

Today I realize my human conditional love for my Lord where fear dictates, is less than the perfect unconditional love that dwells (in potential) inside me. Today I need to cast off the imperfect conditional love that fear exposes and challenges obedience and in repentance ask the Holy One to work out and bring out His unconditional love for My Lord as well as for all the humans in my life.

Today, I pray I can begin to bear the fruit of His unconditional, perfect love for each one of the Trinity in obedient surrender and live where perfect love casts out fear.  

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?

For more of the Role and benefit of the indwelling Holy Spirit visit my website:

http://www.thespiritiscalling.org/home.html    

The Politics of Christianity***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  I hear Him say “Watch Me work”.

These are very exciting days on planet earth.   And there is no greater comfort to my heart than these words He has spoken to me today. 

Lately He has given me the directive in Isaiah 26:20-21:

 “Come, my people, enter your chambers and shut your doors behind you.  Hide yourselves, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation is past.  For behold the Lord comes out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; The earth will also disclose her blood and will no more cover her slain”.

The reader may say this verse belongs only in the context of history and applies only to Israel.   But I would respectfully disagree.   The Word of God is applicable to every generation of His people in every nation and in every age. 

In this verse, I see the Lord's anger against the abortionist and the bloodshed of babies in the womb.  I see His anger for the slain and blood shed of the poor and needy from the hands of the ruthless tyrants who hunt their souls (and demand their vote) for personal gain and to reinforce the power of their own empire.  This draws me to judge politics and politicians beyond their personalities to the platform upon which they stand.

The Lord God is not a democrat nor a republican but a Savior.

As a follower of the One True God, Jesus the Christ, I recognize that the principles of our country’s foundation are based on the God-ordained freedom we have to choose our eternal destination after leaving planet earth.

There is a nefarious and wicked agenda being offered to our citizens that brings chaos, lawlessness and war to our gates.  Under the cloak they call “freedom of speech”, the call for anarchy is filling the airwaves and since the enemy of our soul is the “prince of the power of the air” it should come as no surprise to God’s people that cyber space is dominated by his calls for anarchy and rebellion of order that destroys our peace. While at the same time we know that the ultimate goal (of God’s enemy) is to silence our freedom of speech rights by which we share the message of God’s love for all humanity.

If we are silenced, then the message of the love of God that Jesus brought is silenced.  The battle then is not a right or left flesh battle but rather a kingdom battle between good and evil.  The battle is to destroy the foundation of freedom upon which our country was founded.  Our history and legacy is God ordained and freedom to choose Him and Jesus is His idea.  God's will is good government. 

The freedom to take or leave Christianity is a heart and individual decision.  The freedom to take or leave Christianity is every citizen’s right and no one by law is required to accept Jesus as Savior or follow a religious or faith doctrine.  But the plot to destroy our legacy and silence the offering to become a follower of Christ is not a “right” but an undermining of our equal right to speak.

Add to that the movement to persecute and prosecute those of us to choose to live out our faith in the world and not participate in lifestyles we consider to be unethical or ungodly and we must be ready to battle against such an attack no matter what beings whether spirit or flesh are involved. 

To those who are considering "sitting this one (or any time leadership is being decided) out", I would caution you to consider this:  What if the Lord wants the righteous in the land to defeat the evil in the land?  What if this is a test of our loyalty to the Word and principles of our Lord and our love and understanding of His being?  What if, with all that has been revealed of corruption at the highest levels of government the Lord is willing to send His warrior angels to come to defend us and fight this battle against the oppressive forces of evil trying to destroy this nation that bears the title as “One Nation Under God”?  

With the words of Mordecai to his niece Esther, (the chosen Queen of Persia) who was still a Jewess living in a national situation not unlike our today: “For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish.  Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”  (Esther 4)

We may not always understand nor completely agree with the ways of our God and how He might deliver us from evil.  I am sure the Jews could not have fathomed that a Persian King would provide them the freedom to fight against and have victory over their plotted annihilation.

As a Christian I feel that this is white knuckle fight for our established freedom to share the gospel to a lost and dying world.  If my voice is silenced, things like this post will not be permitted and while I know we will be taken care of by the Lord, our ability to help others will be constrained and resources to aid and assist the helpless will be reduced and even taken out of our hands.  The nation of Israel fought many wars to survive, and I see that we are no different.                 

To those who point to prophecy to justify inaction, I will share my thoughts in another post for this is a very active and fluid situation with events changing each day. 

I will end with the reminder that the Lord lived His earth life with the same challenges we face today:  John the Baptist was beheaded for his message and “religion” not relationship with God was dictating the life of the people of God.

Much prayer is being sent up to the Throne and God is sending answers.  The Lord is a Warrior for His people.  I am excited for his message to me today, “Watch Me work”.  I am on the edge of my seat, and I don’t want to miss a thing….

The Holy Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?