New Life

Language shapes and shifts us like sand dunes in the wind. 

Over the past few Sundays we have sought to change our way of thinking and ultimately, our speaking to reflect Who we are rooted and grounded upon: Jesus Christ. The only time Jesus spoke "negatively" about people or situations was with the Pharisees and religious rulers of the day. Other than that it seems He brought and released shaping and shifting language to those He ministered to. 

If we are to reflect Christ then we must communicate like Christ. Our thoughts that translate into words, do reveal where and into whom we are connected to and drawing from. Hence Christ called us the "branches" attached to Him, the Vine, as described in John 15:5. 

One of the most powerful weapons the enemy uses is the weapon of our experiences. If our experiences become the vine we draw from then Satan will make sure your experiences dictate what you believe. Throughout the Bible there were men and women whose experiences were very challenging; for some God actually changed their names so that the way in which they saw themselves and related to others and to God, became their reality. Abraham, Jacob and Peter all had their names changed in order to believe for the greater purposes God had planned. 

Your perception of who you are must be shifted and shaped by God's words about you and not your experiences. If necessary, check what you are drawing from and go back to drawing from the vine, in whom you are to abide. 

Let your language reflect Christ's language about you, others and the area we live in.

 

Finding opportunity in opposition has been our theme over the last two Sundays; here is another key in this regard: There are weapons for your overcoming warfare that are sanctioned by God.

The challenge is that His Word, the weapon sanctioned, attracts conflict. When you take a stand to actually believe God is good towards you, Satan comes along desperately creating storms around you that seem to indicate God does not care about you. The disciples discovered this when they crossed Lake Galilee with Christ on the way to the Gadarenes. A great storm arose and eventually the disciples woke Christ, who was asleep in the boat. "Teacher do you not care that we are perishing?" (Mark 4:38). Christ arose, rebuked the storm and then rebuked the disciples for their lack of faith in Him, the Living Word among them. They had seen the miracles, they knew because Christ had taught them. One of their problems was they succumbed to their immediate experience and condition, allowing that to steal their peace and rather choosing to empower that experience through fear.

The issue is not the size storm the enemy creates, but what will you resort to when dealing with that challenge? In the passage referred to the disciples never considered Christ as the option until literally all hell broke loose. Why wait until that moment before requesting Christ's help? They tried to handle the storm through their own fisherman's experience: strength and toil. The word of God is the sanctioned weapon of your warfare, nothing else. Within that word there are praises, prayers and plans by God for you and your life. Look at the examples of opportunities taken by the folk written about in the Bible. Know that they are there for our example. In conclusion realize Christ is in the boat with you, use the words He has given you that are found in the Bible.

 

Below are excerpts from an article by Dr Mike Chironna who leads The Master’s Touch International Church in Longwood, FL. It resonated with our hearts because he addresses the paradigm shift that is taking place in the church regarding evangelism; it is exactly what the course “Prophetic Evangelism” that we are currently doing, is all about.

He says, “There will come a radical shift away from the Church as an institution in the culture, to a MOVEMENT that will have the power to TRANSFORM the culture. Christianity as an institution has to die in order for Christianity as a MOVEMENT to be resurrected.

Evangelism will no longer be the work of a committee at an institutional church. Evangelism will become the by-product of a called-out company of renewed believers who will return to being a “witness’ of the Light in the presence of darkness. Many will come out of hiding and fear and will begin to boldly tell their own personal, simple story of what God has done for them in the current hour. The multitudes are crying out not for our dogmas or our traditions, they are crying out for a direct experience with Christ, even if they don’t know that is what they are crying out for.

Greater intimacy with God leads to greater intimacy with others. Relationship is going to be the all-governing principle for the coming days.

Compassion is NEVER HELPLESS; it moved Jesus to heal the sick, deliver the oppressed, and lift up the downcast. It is time for a fresh immersion in the compassion of Christ, A deepening of what it means to be “spiritual’, to be “in the Spirit”. It is time to bring healing and wholeness to those that are crying out for it, in every aspect of their lives, and in every area of their life experience. Destiny stands in need of YOU!!”

 

Romans 2:10 - "but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek."

Have you ever wanted "glory, honor and peace” in your life? Here Paul gives the answer to those desiring these life-gifts; I call them "life-gifts" because they release life to us. The issue here is not whether you are obeying a set of laws or that you have no grid, such as the law, to follow. The concept here is whether Jew or Gentile, because of your relationship with the Lord you are one "...who works what is good...". An example of someone without the law is the Roman soldier Cornelius (Acts 10:1); he did not know Christ but an angel appeared to him because of his prayer and good works. The angel said to him, "Your prayers and your gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial before God..." (verse 4).

We know that as a disciple of Jesus Christ (a disciple means one who follows daily and interacts with Christ), doing good things out of fear because you might not go to heaven is not Christ's intention for you. The reason why you are one who works good, meaning goodness towards people flows unobstructed from you is because of how you have come to know Christ as your Savior.

What you do is not out of compulsion but out of revelation. Doing good, or what is the right thing to do is because of Who lives in you, Jesus Christ. It is not because there are rules and a law by which you abide. When doing good is by a law or out of fear, it becomes performance based which eventually will lead to the expectation of a reward and if there is no reward, disappointment sets in. Paul believed that when one does good, glory, honor and peace will come our way. History shows that where people "do good" eventually that good will prevail and the reward will come. The Bible also says in Galatians 6:7, "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap". I do believe that God sees what we do with what He has given us to do: work what is good!

 

Our desire as believers is that the reality of Christ's indwelling presence manifest in such a way that when storms of life rage, peace supersedes the prevailing conditions and we live peace-filled in the midst of the storms. 

When we accept a personal relationship with Jesus Christ He dwells in our hearts by His Holy Spirit whom He sent to us. Do you remember meeting someone and they somehow "remained in your heart"? In other words you thought about them, "dwelt" on them. When you have children this is what takes place; they are constantly "on your mind", you remain "mindful" of them - you are "mind-filled". 

That's how relationship with Christ is. Holy Spirit works within our hearts and causes us, if we are willing, to be "mind-filled" with Christ. When we are "mind-filled" with Christ we then become "mind-full" with Christ. I say willing because God never violates our wills in that we have choices in all of this; you decide how full of Christ you want to be, worked out through how much you are willing to allow Him to be a priority in your everyday life. You can be mowing the lawn and be "mind-full" of the Lord. Whatever your activity (besides the set times you put aside to particularity seek Him), you can remain connected to the vine (Christ) with us being the branches - every day and all day.

Peace is the marker or the umpire of that "Christ-full" condition. Whenever Christ faced adverse conditions, challenges and various types of attacks He remained centered on the Father's will and purpose for Him. Peace, the shalom of God, kept and allowed Him that focus. The Word says to let the peace of God rule in your hearts (Colossians 3:15). That verse goes on to say, ""...to which you were called...". You are "called" to the position and condition of peace. You "let" the peace rule as you have the ability to either allow or disallow that peace to "rule", which means to have complete influence over or to "control" your heart. 

Be encouraged; the chosen condition of "Christ-full"  will have a peace that makes you say, "this is beyond me, this is past my understanding".

Our journey with the Lord is exactly that, a journey. We are all under the influence of the "cultural-time warp" where acceptance of how long certain things take is unconsciously measured by us and at times even for us. For instance, we measure our life span by increments of years; likewise trees grow a certain pace which is unchangeable; seasons are a period and the weather indicates those changing seasons.

However, when we look at our walk with Jesus in the context of God’s plan for us, somehow we are led to believe that the instant, the immediate and high speed can be expected because that is how life is experienced by the average  person - rushing off to work or the frazzled soccer mom on her endless rounds of kids, feeding the family in-between holding a job.

Hosea 10:12 says, “Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the Lord, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you.”

The prophet Hosea puts our journey into context for us; sow, reap, break up, seek. There is no instantaneous here, but there is a cultivating to be understood if reaping mercy and the raining of righteousness is to be experienced. The key to this verse for me is, "for it is time to seek the Lord". When we decide "it is time" for the purpose of God, rain, God rain, is on the horizon. The response of God is thus; "comes and rains righteousness on you".

God's righteousness is His mercy, loving kindness and grace extended to an undeserving individual; it is the "rightness" of God being demonstrated, even though He does not have to. However, your part is: Firstly - sowing "rightness" (God's attitudes and actions to those around you). Secondly - Reap His mercy towards you, which is to realize and actually experience His goodness to the point of no longer doubting His intentions towards you; this leads to thirdly, a desire to "break up" the fallow ground. These are areas in your life that are unproductive and not under the Lordship of Christ. Fourthly - that will then lead you to "seek" in straightening out those areas the Lord desires and a submitting to Him in response.

Your journey is in Christ, and Christ is in your journey. You can either journey  un-distracted with Christ as the central reason for the journey, or, go on that journey like the folk we see in the summer time walking down to the beach loaded down with enough paraphernalia to cause them to stagger under the weight of it all.

Slow down and do a thorough job of cultivating in order to reap what Christ intended you to reap.

 

In Acts 9:15-16 we read of Paul receiving his calling from Christ.

This calling was both dramatic and life altering and it was obvious from the outset that it would not be easy, but then, which calling is? Verse 16 says, "I will show him (Paul) how many things he must suffer for my name sake". Not exactly what  you want to hear, especially when receiving a direct word from the Lord. One would rather have hoped there would have been lofty words of how his ministry will span the nations, a ministry that would stand out and above the norm, something others would almost envy.

All of this actually did happen, but at a price. Paul the great apostle did "suffer many things" for Christ and lived what very few of us would want to live, but he also saw and experienced things in the Spirit that very few of us would ever see. Suffering is never part of the equation when receiving a calling in this day and age. Prophesies are at times a dime a dozen on how much we will do along with the money and fame that will be ours, yet very few, if ever, actually get to see that.

We are told the end, but not the process. It is this process that was relaid to Paul. The process of purity, persistence, the handling of power and the prevailing in the storm, none of which is easy, but necessary in order for Christ to have established in and through Paul a vessel that could accurately carry the revelations we would grow by as the church. There is no victory without the war, there is no great kingdom growth without the enemy at least trying to hinder that progress, all of which Paul faced. Paul did not "suffer"  in order to qualify. He suffered because of those truths as they changed people's lives and built the kingdom. It is also true that he was born for such a time back then, as we are for ours, but like him we are to remain faithful no matter what, to what Christ has given us to carry.

Run the race!

The culture of the day often influences or taints the belief system that shapes our world-view.  What if that world-view is not based on God's Word which is the foundation of a Christian's belief system? Good folk and upright people supported Hitler's Germany who established a disastrous culture of death; many essentially believed that his actions were justified and it became their world-view.

Your world-view must be able to withstand the scrutiny of an unromanticized, unemotional measurement of the Word of God. Does your interpretation of events and culture align itself with the Bible which is God's truth to us? Truth loves life, protects life and therefore remains connected to that life source, so opposite to the destruction of life as in Hitler's case.

Jesus Christ said "I am the way, the truth and the life" (John 10). His truth provides a way in which to live life and the actual life-source (Holy Spirit) to live that life. Thus Christ provides and models the perfect belief system that should shape our world-view. As a believer, wherever your jurisdiction is - family, work-place, friends etc - you have the mandate to bring the counter-culture of God's Kingdom into the world that you live in. This is done through your world-view being grounded in His Word, and through your world-view influence the current culture of the day.

Church history is rife with issues of varying impact and influence. Whether historical or present day reality,  all of these quirks, likes/dislikes and theological perspectives can degenerate into one single thing: distractions. Paul was consistent in his message of pulling believers away from distractions and refocusing them on the main thing being the main thing - expanding the Kingdom of God. Everyone is entitled to opinions and perspectives but we must not make that the motivation for relating to one another. Rather, we have been tasked with stewarding the Good News, evident at a grand scale in and through our lives. Live Christ's dream: love with the measure that He loves you. Period.