Who’s gonna set the agenda?

If you have, what is called today, a “discernment ministry”, then who sets the agenda for you? If you are focused on what the devil is doing, then hasn’t the devil set the agenda for you, and not God?

Yes, be VERY discerning, and expose the works of the enemy, but never specialize solely on what the devil is doing, as that would be an unBiblical ministry.

It IS God’s will that we preach Jesus Christ, and Him crucified: preaching the Kingdom of God, AND in that context deal with error, as the need arises.

And this truth applies and extends into every sphere of our life, not just for discernment ministries. Who sets the agenda for us, God or the devil? Are we on the front foot or the back foot? Builders or reactionaries?

I will fear no evil

for you are with me… Psalm 23:4

For you are with me.… answers every question and doubt.

Do you believe that He is with you, right now, where you are?

Let’s be believing that everything concerning our life will be shaped and influenced by the FACT that He is with us. That settles everything. It settled David’s fears.

Israel is not an apartheid state

Arabs in Israel live freer lives than Arabs living anywhere in the Arab world. No Arab in any Arab country has the civil rights and personal liberty that Arabs in Israel enjoy.

Amazing.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=339317

Look now toward heaven, and count the stars

And He brought him forth outside, and said, Look now toward heaven, and count the stars, if you be able to number them: and He said unto him, So shall your descendants be. And he believed in the LORD; and He counted it to him for righteousness. Genesis 15:5-6

Abraham believed that the One who was speaking to him, who told him to look up at the stars and count them, is the same One who made all those stars.

If He is great enough to make all the universe, then He is great enough to make me a great nation, Abraham may have thought.

And in the books of heaven it is written, concerning the children of Abraham, And Tom, Mary, Jack [insert your name here] believed on the LORD Jesus, and He counted it to them as righteousness.

They looked up to see the crucified and risen LORD Jesus, and they believed Him, and it was counted to them as righteousness. He became their righteousness.

Pillars of the Church

And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship; that we should go unto the Gentiles, and they unto the circumcision. Galatians 2:9

Note, there was no single pillar of the Church in Jerusalem.

Jointly and equally, James, Peter and John were the pillars – none was above the other – none was the “head” of the Church in Jerusalem.

So it MUST be today, if we truly honor the same LORD, who decreed it to be this way.

The Biblical method to mature the Body

in this generation has less to do with teaching the doctrines of grace than it does with simply not retarding the saints through an unBiblical puritanical or clergy-laity religious system. The call for the hour is not to teach the “doctrines of grace”, it is to teach the whole council of the word of God! This includes laboring to build up the Body of Christ through the manifold grace of God.

It is time to shun the thought that we can build up God’s Church into maturity while spurning the clear means by which God ordained for it to be built up.

What an utter contradiction to reject and suppress the manifold grace of God and yet claim to be a teacher of God’s grace.

From my dear brother Jim in Detroit. Please read the whole article here.

The true spirit of shepherding

and one-anothering is to earnestly desire and pray that God will use your brothers and sisters MORE than you, and to REJOICE when He does. That’s one of the basics, the essentials.

( “One another” – 39 NT refs. Not all applicable, though. )

The New Mystics

This is just an FYI.

I was surprised by how much truth he spoke, considering the flakiness he is known for (i must be “religious”, right?). Some excellent points here regarding, Keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

You never know, there may be some things here we need to pay attention to.

We really need wisdom in order to navigate thru the mess of endtime apostasy.

Ironic, though, that he reads from Rick Joyner regarding the “religious spirit”, not realizing that Joyner is describing himself; one of the most elitist Christians you could ever meet (see his vision of heaven to know what i’m saying, where he claims to be even greater than Paul).

There is a huge divide (a chasm) between what is said and what is done.

I’ve got a thundering anointed message titled, Exposing the Merchandizers! It’s yours today for just $29.99!

: )

The benefits of fasting

outweigh the benefits of not fasting.

It’s still Jesus’ hand that heals, not ours

And now, LORD, behold their threatenings: and grant unto your servants, that with all boldness they may speak your Word, By stretching forth YOUR hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of your Holy child Jesus. Acts 4:29-30

He can still stretch forth His hand to heal. He can still use anyone who believes.

The Truth shall make you free

John 8:31-32

Jesus defines for us here what bondage actually is: It is to believe things that are not true. For, if the Truth shall make you free, then, if you’re not free, it’s bcos you’ve believed things which aren’t true. You’ve believed lies, and are held in bondage by those lies.

Rather than thinking of bondage as a wrestling match, where a big fat wrestler has sat on top of you and you can’t move; rather, think of bondage simply as believing a lie, and as soon as you believe and act upon the Truth in Jesus, then that big fat wrestler runs away in terror. THAT’s the kind of wrestling we need.

But some groups don’t understand this, and they think that getting free from bondage is like a WWF fight, rather than knowing that the chains of bondage were the lies we believed.

It’s been this way since the serpent met Eve in the garden. Satan didn’t get Eve in a headlock, or whatever, and slam her to the mat. He didn’t overpower her that way. He simply offered her a lie and she swallowed it.

I don’t live. It is Christ that lives in me

…I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me…

Just so profound and encouraging. Christ living in us.

The things which are not the expression of Christ living in us should be dead to us, and we dead to them.

Fudging

1. Present or deal with (something) in a vague, noncommittal, or inadequate way, esp. so as to conceal the truth or mislead.

2. Adjust or manipulate (facts or figures) so as to present a desired picture.

It’s rare to meet a Christian leader today who doesn’t fudge. Fudging is a clever way to conceal dishonesty (lying). I often refer to it as “dancing around the truth”.

It’s so refreshing when we do meet someone who doesn’t fudge.

Cessationism versus Continuationism

A Continuationist concludes that modern prophecies do not represent an infallible source of authority for the Church and, as such, the principle of Sola Scriptura is not violated.

…The main Continuationist objection is that the Bible does not offer any clear (explicit) text that would support Cessationism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cessationism_versus_Continuationism

Therefore, Continuationists CAN hold to Sola Scriptura, while Cessationists cannot. They are standing on something other than Scripture to establish Cessationism.

No restoration until Jesus comes

My correspondence with a brother, who said, …the entire creation is in the process of being restored.

The influence of Christians in the world is of a restraining and preservative nature, and not of a restorative nature, except for those who come into Christ and are restored in Him.

Others, including kings and governments, can be restrained by the hand of God, thru the prayers and influence of the saints, but while they are outside of Christ they are not restored and can’t be.

So, historically, thru revivals and thru the reformation, we can see the world was influenced by the Church, and often restrained from sinking into even worse evil and anarchy, but we’ve never seen restoration, nor the visible Kingdom of God, and we won’t until the King comes.

(Matt 5:13, 1Tim 2:1-2, 2Thess 2:7 )

There’s a bigger world than you’ve experienced so far

This illustration came to me yesterday.

Heaven is a country we know about, but we haven’t yet experienced living there. The Body of Christ is scattered over every country on earth. We are all truly one in our LORD Jesus Christ, by His Spirit.

Yet, naturally speaking, we live in different lands. Until you visit a strange land and experience living there, you really do not know what it’s like.

Similarly, there are different ‘lands’ when it comes down to what we, individually, have experienced so far in our walk with Jesus.

One man may have traversed many ‘lands’ and experienced much, while another may have stayed at home.

Then, the man who went everywhere comes back and tries to relate all that he experienced to the man who ‘stayed at home’.

The man who stayed at home, hopefully, will appreciate what the other man relates to him, but it won’t be the same until he goes there himself and experiences for himself the same ‘lands’.

But it’s also possible that the man who stayed at home just discounts as silly what the traveller tells him, bcos it is outside his experience.

That would be just as foolish as denying heaven is real, just bcos you’ve never been there or experienced life there.

Similarly, there are things clearly spelled out in Scripture, especially concerning gifts and the NT Church, of which many Christians think, Well, i’ve not experienced that, so it can’t be real.

Jesus defining covetousness for us

And He said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things which he possesses. Luke 12:15

Therefore, covetousness is to place a valuation on your life according to the value of the things you possess : to consider things to be your life : more things, more life.

Covetous people think their life consists of the things they possess.

Meaning, their identity, self-worth, self-evaluation, place in the world, standing in society, or in the church… everything, is determined, set and guaged by the things they possess.

They’re wrong. Your life does not consist of the things you possess. Things do not determine your life.

( 1 Cor. 5:11, 6:10, Eph. 5:5, 1 Tim. 3:3, 2 Tim. 3:2, 2 Peter 2:14 )

For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones

For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the Church. Ephesians 5:30-32

Yes, it’s a great mystery, but don’t let that prevent you from believing it.

This truth is one of the most hotly contested truths by the enemy of our souls.

How mighty in God the saints would be if they believed this!

The glory of the Son in us

These words spoke Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you… John 17:1

Does the Father glorify us, so that we can glorify Him?

…I am glorified in them. John 17:10b

And the glory which you gave me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one… John 17:22

We can only glorify the Father by the glory of the Son freely given to us. Only the Son can glorify the Father. It is the glory of the Son in us which glorifies the Father.

Maybe we forget that the glory of the Son is given to us, and why His glory is given? That we may be one in Him.

I’m not talking about the ecumenical movement. I’m talking about, for starters, having at least 2 or 3 brethren whom YOU REALLY LOVE, and see what grows from that.

For there shall arise false Christs

and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Matthew 24:24

a) The elect don’t deny that these are doing great miracles in Jesus name, but they don’t buy their message, cos it is not Jesus’ message. But they almost did. Very nearly.

b) These false prophets do not work alone. They have a religious system behind them, propelling them to the top.

c) The fact that they can show their miracles to the world indicates they are using the media, television and internet. They have to get a lot of support to get the money to do this.