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Living Free, Living Full

Rousseau said,

“Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.”

Genesis paints a picture of the absolute right of every human being to live in freedom everyday.

Until each of us experience the liberation which only comes in an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus, we have not lived free and lived full.

2 Corinthians 3:18 MSG - And so we are transfigured much like [Jesus], our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like Him.

Liberty is produced within us by the power of His Spirit.

Liberty in mind - Freedom from fear, ignorance, error, prejudice and jealously.

Liberty from sin - He helps us to conquer everything that is alien to His will.

Liberty in prayer - Unrestrained, prevailing intercession is ours to enjoy.

Liberty of worship - He frees us from all formality, superficiality, and restraint as we endeavor to approach God.

Liberty in service - Instead of forcing ourselves to labor for Him, we delight to do His will with the gifts He deposits into us.

Liberty in giving - First we surrender up our hearts and then He owns us - all of us.

Are you living in His glorious liberty?

The Power of the Church

Jesus has given us the church as an instrument of instruction, guidance and protection.

Anything significant that happens in your life will be a result of God’s activity in your life.

The fuel, energy and life of the church is prayer.

Prayer is a relationship – not just an activity.  It is designed more to adjust you to God than to adjust God to you.

God doesn’t need your prayers, but He wants you to pray because of what He wants to do in and through your life.

We often think of prayer as an outlet for expressing what we need – a cry to God for help.

But prayer is the asking of God to fulfill His needs through us.

God’s original thought is not the letting of believers to achieve their own aims through prayer, but God accomplishing His purpose through the prayers of believers.

God wants to meet our needs and will as it relates to His purpose.

Prayer is responding to God’s will since He seeks our cooperation with Him.

Isaiah 45:11

¹¹Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: Would you question Me about things to come concerning My children, and concerning the work of My hands [would you] command Me?

During the period called “time” all of God’s actions are governed by the church.

Today the church stands on earth as God’s vehicle for His will to be done.  To the degree that we do His will, His power is released.

God is always waiting on the church to come into agreement with His will.

The church’s ministry today is the proclamation of the Gospel and the manifesting, on the earth, of the will which is in heaven.

Prayer & Fasting

Please read Matthew 6:16-18.

¹⁶And whenever you are fasting, do not look gloomy and sour and dreary like the hypocrites, for they put on a dismal countenance, that their fasting may be apparent to and seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full already.

¹⁷But when you fast, perfume your head and wash your face,

¹⁸So that your fasting may not be noticed by men but by your Father, Who sees in secret; and your Father, Who sees in secret, will reward you in the open.

Many years ago a great man of faith was asked, “What do you really think about God?”

His reply – “It matters very little what I think about God, but it matters a great deal what God thinks about me.”

Perhaps a better question for all of us would be – “What does God expect of me?”

Perhaps we should ask ourselves – “Who am I really trying to impress with my faith walk?”

In Matthew 6 Jesus gives us a pattern by which each of us is to live as a child of God – When you give, when you pray, when you fast.  This is how we are to live before God and our fellow man.

God must always be the audience for whom we perform our daily life.  He hates hypocrisy, but loves reality.

To fast is to humble ourselves before God.

To pray is to seek intimacy with God.

To give is to serve others.

To fast is to discipline the desires of our flesh.

The real purpose of our fasting is that we become unselfish.

It implies the giving up of anything which may hinder us in the main business of life, which is that we may be perfected (matured, complete, whole) for His use, to be His instruments, that His purpose for us be fulfilled.

Fasting and prayer bring us to a place that we may be quite willing to undertake any work God may assign us to do.

One thing is very clear – prayer and fasting links us up with, connects us to, and focuses us on the very ministry of Jesus Christ.

Only through prayer and fasting will the ministry and message of Jesus be restored in our lives and to the church.

21 Days of Prayer

Nothing is more needed in our world today than a clear, concise Word from God.  His voice dispels fear and doubt and fills our hearts with peace.

Jeremiah 33:3 (MSG) – “Call to me and I will answer you.  I’ll tell you marvelous and wondrous things that you could never figure out on your own.”

Philippians 4:6,7 – “Don’t fret or worry.  Instead of worrying, pray, let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns.  Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down.  It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.”

Beginning September 10 and continuing for 21 days, theChurch will open both campuses for prayer every day.

            Mornings 6-8am          Mid-day 11am-1pm      Evenings       7-9pm

If you cannot come to theChurch, we ask you to pray wherever you are.

Our Nation and our world is in crisis.  Our economy is in crisis.  Families everywhere are hurting and need healing and restoration.  Pray for each of these concerns and earnestly ask God to give us a time of refreshing and renewal.

Name at least three people you are praying for to come to know Christ and do all in your power to bring them to theChurch.  As God so directs, fast when you can.  Fasting details are available online.

Are You Ready for Your Kingdom Moment?

Have you ever earnestly longed for, prayed for, believed for something so fervently that every fiber of your being waited in anticipation for it to happen, and then, suddenly – it happened – and things began moving so fast you could hardly keep up?

All those long years of waiting, praying, believing and then it happens!  Your time, your day, your hour has finally arrived.

Then as the reality sets in and you are staring in the face this huge open door of opportunity, the questions flood your mind.  Am I ready for this?  Can I handle this kind of responsibility? Am I spiritually mature enough to deal with all that goes with this kind of position?

Of course, God-opportunities never come to us unless He believes we are ready.

If you wait until you think you’re “ready enough” for your “kingdom moment” you will most likely not accomplish anything great for Christ because you’ll probably never really “feel” like you are ready.

After all you are not the best judge of your “kingdom readiness” – He is.

1 Corinthians 4:3:  Paul says, “I do not judge mine own self.”

We should judge ourselves in matters of discipline, but never judge ourselves “ready” or “not ready” for a great kingdom assignment.  If you let your emotions dictate your “readiness,” you will probably never achieve anything worthwhile in life.

Most likely, you won’t feel good enough, prepared enough, or mature enough to handle a great new assignment.  But when God thinks you are ready for a tremendous new leap of faith, He will provide the grace, power and miracles to make you ready.  He will mature you and equip you for the task.

One thing is sure – You are more than you have become and you can accomplish more than you have accomplished. 

God is a master at taking insignificant lives and making them significant.  When He calls us to do something, He also equips, provides, sustains, and empowers us to do more than we think or even imagine we can do.

God is always calling us to push beyond the limits of our lives into bigger and broader dreams and adventures.  You and I stand in the midst of a “kingdom moment” that will touch and change lives the world over.

Finding Your Significance

 Proverbs 23:7:  For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. As one who reckons, he says to you, eat and drink, yet his heart is not with you [but is grudging the cost].

Proverbs 4:23:  Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life.

Proverbs 18:24:  The man of many friends [a friend of all the world] will prove himself a bad friend, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

A long time ago someone wrote a powerful statement about man and God–

 A person’s purpose is to know God, worship Him, enjoy Him, and serve Him forever.

Our most innate need is the need to be significant – to find purpose and meaning.

This calls for the pursuit of the God who is, rather than the God we want.

To be significant we must answer two questions –
          Who am I?  Why do I exist?

When you discover who you are in Christ, you will understand your purpose. 

When you are contributing to God’s agenda on earth, you become fulfilled. The essence of who you are is found in your identity.

Whoever you are in private determines your actions and decisions in public.

Every person has to deal with four identities:

1.           The person you want others to think you are.

2.           The person you think you are.

3.           The person you really are.

4.           The person God created you to be.

The first three of those identities are determined by the person individually.  The fourth is determined only as the person surrenders to the Lordship of Christ.

The process of becoming who God needs you to be includes: studying God’s Word, intimacy in prayer, and continually practicing righteousness.

The most secure and confident people on earth are those who know who they are in Christ.

The key to your future is found in your daily routine.

• With whom do you associate?
• What places do you frequent?
• What things occupy your time?
• What thoughts permeate your brain?
• What words fill your speech?

What you believe shapes your life.  Where you go determines your relationships. Your relationships affect your character.

One of life’s greatest treasures is a true friend.  Choose your friends carefully since a friend will either add to your life or take away from it.

Ask, Seek, Knock

One of the most important principles of life is called perseverance.

Perseverance means to maintain a continuous plan of action regardless of the hindrances.

To-keep-on-keeping-on in spite of negative circumstances or negative situations.

In a word, it is to develop staying power whatever one may encounter.

Every obstacle introduces a person to himself.  Each new obstacle should force you to go to the next level.  No obstacle will ever leave you the way it found you.

You will either be better or you will be worse as a result of how you deal with each obstacle.  In times of adversity, you don’t have an obstacle to deal with – you have a choice to make.

It is what you are willing to endure that expresses how deeply you desire.

Jesus’ command to ask, to seek, and to knock teaches us the power of headstrong persistence in prayer.

Pursuit is the proof of desire. 

The sense of this command is to ask and keep on asking, to seek and keep on seeking, and to knock and keep on knocking.

There is a progression involved in the process of prayer, from the simple “asking,” to the more intense “seeking,” to the not to be denied “knocking.”

Our prayer is not to induce God to give, but to fit us to receive.

God designed prayer in order to develop intimacy with us and to work out His will through us.

The reason His giving depends on our asking is neither because He is ignorant until we inform Him, nor because He is reluctant until we persuade Him.

Persistence in prayer is always about our submission to Him.

We ask by instinct – we pursue by desire.  Prayer helps us cooperate with God in working out His plan through us.  The more we persist in prayer, the more we conform and submit to His will.

Prayer is absolutely necessary to release God’s redemptive gifts into the earth.

When we ask and keep on asking, we receive;

When we seek and keep on seeking, we find;

When we knock and keep on knocking, it shall be opened.

If You Missed this Weekend at theChurch…

The Upside Down Life:  The Mystery of the Kingdom

Perhaps it is the most asked question ever presented to me –

          What is God’s will for my life and how can I know it?

Here is my answer –

It is God’s will for you to intimately know Jesus Christ and to learn how His secret Kingdom functions in the earth.

The words “mystery” and “mysteries” occur some 27 times in the New Testament.  As this word is used in the Bible, it refers to something which has been kept secret through times eternal, but is now revealed.

It also is a divine purpose, hidden in the heart of God for a long period of time until He unveils it with a new revelation.

The “mystery” of the Kingdom is unveiled by Jesus as He demonstrates the Upside Down Life.  The secret of this unveiling is found in the dynamics of Jesus’ prayer life.

He listened to God’s heart and then spoke God’s will to those around Him.

God has entered into a partnership with every believer. 

Prayer is the link between us and the unlimited purposes of God.  Prayer is our “Kingdom connection” to the will of God in our lives.  Prayer in its purest sense means to put our lives totally into God’s desires for us.

Literally, we determine His will and then make ourselves available to Him for His will to be done through us.

His desire for us is to live in His Kingdom, live by Kingdom laws, and carry out His directives, which we receive from His Word and by His Spirit.

Prayer…it’s not just an activity

From the war front in Iraq, we have learned that thousands of land mines were buried in the sand in order to kill and injure American and coalition soldiers.

Finding those who know where they are buried or using technical equipment is a safeguard against this weapon.

Life has some “land mines” that can wreck or destroy our lives.

Suppose you as a soldier had to cross a field full of buried land mines.  A person who knew where each of them was buried offered to take you through.

Would you say, “I don’t want to be told what to do; I don’t want you to impose your ways upon me”?

Knowing that person could save my life, I’d stay as close behind him as possible.  I certainly would not chart my own course.

Jesus has given us the church as an instrument of instruction, guidance and protection.

Anything significant that happens in your life will be a result of God’s activity in your life.

The fuel, energy and life of the church is prayer.  Prayer is a relationship – not just an activity.  It is designed more to adjust you to God than to adjust God to you.

God doesn’t need your prayers, but He wants you to pray because of what He wants to do in and through your life.

We often think of prayer as an outlet for expressing what we need – a cry to God for help.

But prayer is the asking of God to fulfill His needs through us.

God’s original thought is not the letting of believers to achieve their own aims through prayer, but God accomplishing His purpose through the prayers of believers.

God wants to meet our needs and will as it relates to His purpose.

Prayer is responding to God’s will since He seeks our cooperation with Him.

Ordinary prayer is praying from earth to heaven.  Commanding prayer is praying from heaven to earth.

Will you be praying with me?