John the Baptist

John 3:30 “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

    I want to point some things out to you in scripture concerning John the Baptist and the transition from the Old to the New Covenant. I believe many people have looked at what happened to John the Baptist after he baptized Jesus, in the wrong light. It says this about John the Baptist in Luke 1: 15 For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb. 16 And he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God. 17 It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” (NASB)
    God obviously had His hand on John the Baptist from the very start. It says this in Luke 1: 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.(NASB) Jesus was packing so much Glory that while He was in Mary’s belly He got people whacked in the Holy Ghost! John leaped in his mother’s womb when he came into contact with the King of Kings because we get overtaken with joy when we come into our destiny and being in the presence of Jesus is our destiny. Destiny is not a place it’s the person of Jesus Christ. I’m not suggesting that we don’t have specific purposes and callings, I’m just saying that we work from our destiny and not towards it.
    The account of John baptizing Jesus is in Luke 3, John 3, Mark 1, and Matthew 3. Let’s look at the Matthew 3 account. Matthew 3: 13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. 14 And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” 15 But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him. 16 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. 17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (NJKV)
    John knew what Jesus was coming to do. Matthew 3:11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. (ESV) I want to suggest to you that John missed coming into following Jesus on his own account and instead of baptizing Jesus and becoming His follower into the New, John stayed in condemnation and in the old by his own choice.
    In Luke 7: 18 John’s disciples come to Jesus to ask, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”  John sent his disciples because John had been put in jail. Luke 3: 19 But when Herod the tetrarch was reprimanded by him because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and because of all the wicked things which Herod had done, 20 Herod also added this to them all: he locked John up in prison. (NASB) John had been put in jail for condemning, the old covenant is 'the ministry that brought condemnation', 2 Corinthians 3:9.  John knew what his ministry was, ‘prepare the way of the Lord’. Ok, so he fulfills his calling and Jesus has John baptize Him “to fulfill all righteousness”.
    I think John missed it after he baptized Jesus and that John’s statement in John 3:30 "He must increase, but I must decrease,” was John missing the fact that after he baptized Jesus that he was to hop into the ministry of reconciliation and drop the ministry of condemnation. I have heard this verse preached as John talking about the old versus the new covenant. I think it may be a bit, but I think it is more true the John was declaring this over himself. I think John was prophesying over himself here and it came to pass.
    God’s will for John the Baptist was to prepare the way for the Lord, and then baptize the very King of Kings. But I don’t believe that God’s will was for John the Baptist to fizzle off into depression, jail, unbelief, and a beheading after fulfilling the latter. I think John missed the new because he was so consumed with the old. The bible does not contain God, it reveals God. And if you think that all the bible is a record of everyone doing everything exactly the way God wanted it done, reread it. Much of the Word is God showing us how He intervened, and where He intervened, amidst people’s actions.
    Look in Luke 7:18 John sent his disciples…. First off John shouldn’t have had anymore disciples, they all should have shifted to the King of Kings after John baptized Him. Secondly, following Jesus doesn’t make our unbelief grow, it makes our faith grow. John baptized Jesus and grew in unbelief because he stayed in the old and didn’t start following Jesus after preparing the way for the Lord. John spent his life preparing the way for the Lord and then John knew the second he saw the Christ that it was Him and he obeyed Jesus and baptized Him. Then John should have come into the new, instead he staying in his old covenant mindset and he condemned King Herod and ended up in jail and not even believing that he had baptized the Christ in the first place.
    19 And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to Jesus, saying, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” 20 When the men had come to Him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to You, saying, ‘Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?’”  (NJKV) John knew who he baptized and then watched the heavens open and the Spirit fall on Jesus. John couldn’t fathom how good God was and is. John didn’t drop the old and come into the new, so he is now in jail and not even sure if Jesus really is the Christ.
    Luke7: 21 And that very hour He cured many of infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits; and to many blind He gave sight. 22 Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them. 23 And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” (NKJV) I love how Jesus lets us decide, instead of making the decision for us. Jesus didn’t directly answer the question, He left it up to John to make a choice after showing John’s disciples who He was.
    24 When the messengers of John had departed, He began to speak to the multitudes concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 25 But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed those who are gorgeously appareled and live in luxury are in kings’ courts. 26 But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. 27 This is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.’ (NKJV) Jesus is reminding them of the reason that they went out to see John in the first place, to be prepared to follow Him.
    28 "I say to you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he." (NASB) It is important to understand what is really going on in this verse. John the Baptist is not in the ministry of reconciliation because he chose not to be, God’s will was for him to be. He was not because he didn’t drop his ministry and come into the ministry of the King. I’m not suggesting John is not in heaven or anything even like that. It’s important to get this. If we think that it was God’s will for John the Baptist to “prepare the way for the Lord”, then baptize the King of Glory, and then stay in the ministry of condemnation and get thrown in jail and beheaded we are seeing God's heart wrong.  I have to believe that God wanted John to “prepare the way for the Lord”, then baptize the King, and then come into the goodness of the King while here on earth.
    29 And when all the people heard Him, even the tax collectors justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John. 30 But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him. 31 And the Lord said, “To what then shall I liken the men of this generation, and what are they like? 32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, saying: ‘We played the flute for you, And you did not dance, We mourned to you, And you did not weep.’ 33 For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ 34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ 35 But wisdom is justified by all her children.” (NKJV)
    John’s ministry was amazingly glorious. He was filled with the Holy Spirit before birth and he had the amazing privilege to prepare the way for the most important person to ever walk the earth. But the goodness of God is better than John could fathom. God wanted John to prepare the way for the King of Kings and then step into His ministry and taste of heaven on earth. Jesus - ‘We played the flute for you, And you did not dance, We mourned to you, And you did not weep.’ Jesus presents us with every opportunity to step into more goodness, but He doesn’t force us to step into it. Jesus paid for us to have full access to all of heaven, but not everyone chooses to lay hold of it. And this has nothing to do with earning anything. We don't earn in the Kingdom, we learn in the Kingdom. It's all free! This is all about learning and believing that He really is as good as He says that He is.
    He always has more for you, bigger and better. An ever increasing glory to glory journey of tasting His goodness and grace has been freely given to all of us. It is so simple that most don’t taste it because they think they don’t deserve it, well you don’t deserve it, but God already single handedly paid for it and it is His good pleasure to give it to you. It is your choice whether or not you want to receive it. His love for us is far beyond what our minds can grasp.

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Evangelizing

    You don’t need to be an evangelist to evangelize. It says in Ephesians 4 that the role of a true evangelist is to teach and encourage people how to evangelize. If only the evangelist could evangelize then, only a small percentage of us would be allowed to share the Good News. Sharing the Good News is a joyous lifestyle and not an outreach event. 2 Corinthians 3: 2 You yourselves are all the endorsement we need. Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. (Message) We have the privilege of being a Living Bible, you are the Word that anyone can read just by observing the Christ in you.
    This glorious message is all about reconciling people to our loving Father in heaven. 2 Corinthians 5:18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. (ESV) We are the presentation of the Father, we are the re-presentation of Christ Himself, and we get to be love wrapped in flesh to a world that is desperately looking for Him. “Why would the world want what you say you have if what you say you have isn’t even working for you?” Todd White.
    What a privilege it is to imitate God, Ephesians 5:1, and it is not as hard as the enemy would have some think. God filled us with all of His nature and goodness, Romans 5:5. Growing in God is about constantly having our eyes more opened to what it is that we already have in Him. The word ‘evangelist’ in the Greek is –euaggelistés-a bringer of Good News, bearer of good tidings, and someone with a vocational calling from God to announce the good news of the Gospel. It is our joyous pleasure to love the hell out of people and not hold there trespasses against them. Our work in co-laboring is pointing out to them who God has fashioned them to be, we are to point out the gold in people and constantly encourage and pour out this limitless supply of power and love on them.We are to bring the power of God to set them free so they can live without the oppression, He empowered us to set the captives free for freedom's sake.
    For too long Christians have not had the relevance that we should have. We should have a leg up in every realm of society, not to dominate, but to serve and bring heaven's flavor to earth. We get to be a blessing to all nations, as it says in Galatians 3:8. When we show up everything gets better, because the God of never ending goodness pours Himself out through us. We have all access to all the answers to the world's problems, all the authority to destroy hell on earth, and an unlimited source of joy and peace. All of heaven is in us and for us. “For to long the church has been answering questions that the world has not been asking,” Bill Johnson. When you are led by the Spirit, God uses you to answer the questions that they have been asking. Romans 8: 14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. (NASB)
    Recently I was at a coffee shop. I ordered my drink and Holy Spirit gave me a word for the nice young lady working at the counter. She handed me my drink and I said, "This is your second job, right." She responded with a puzzled look and said, "yes, why do you say that?" I said, "I feel like God wants to tell you this. Your are working very hard and working two jobs, and He is very proud of you. God loves you very much, and an avalanche of His grace and provision is about to fall on you from your hard work." There was a bit more to it, but that was the basis of it. She immediately started crying tears of joy and gratitude saying how the word was exactly what she needed to hear. She started telling all her co-workers what just happened before I had even left the store.
   When we are led by the Spirit we show up and answer the questions most prevalent on their heart. Then what happens pretty much every time is this, they immediately start asking the right questions about God. When we partner with Holy Spirit He unlocks their heart and opens it up for Truth and grace. Now they are asking the right questions and their heart is wide open for it, because a God that knows them in perfect detail was just revealed to them in power and love.
    Being led by the Spirit does so much more in less time, and it is far more effective with far less effort. God showed up and answered her question with His powerful love, and destroyed the stress from the devil in her life. We carry all that the world is looking for. The world is desperate for healing, well the Healer has taken up residence in us and all we have to do is manifest the work He already completed on the cross. That young lady will be forever impacted, in such an amazing way, by one display of God’s love in her life. She won't remember my name, but she will always remember how Jesus rocked her world in a heartbeat. I could tell you hundreds and hundreds of testimonies of similar types of encounters. I’m not any more special than you, I just know God and I know who He has created me to be. My joy filled duty is to release the work He already completed on the cross, it really is that easy.
    For too long to many Christians have turned evangelizing into, “trying to get people saved."  Evangelizing is about being a living epistle that makes the Good News look so attractive that people observe and are drawn to something noticeably different in you. The word saved does not mean what most Christians even think it means. The word saved in the Greek is –sózó- to heal, preserve, and rescue.  To be delivered out of danger and into safety; used principally of God rescuing believers from the penalty and power of sin – and into His provisions (safety). Most Christians think being saved is praying the sinners prayer (which isn’t even in the bible) and because you prayed the prayer your ticket to heaven has been punched.
    Sharing the Good News is about people seeing our life lived and people saying, “I want what that person has.” People should be attracted to the peace we dwell in. The world should see His outrageous joy we dwell in and smell the sweet fragrance of Christ through us as He draws them closer to their true home, the heart of their loving Father in heaven. We just drop off gifts. The Holy Spirit is a better evangelist than us, so we do our part and just let Jesus drop off the goods through us and let Him do His part and lure people into Gods heart.
    When Christians make their mindset to try and get people saved right on the spot, chances are that they will screw up something God has been doing in that person’s life anyways. Not everyone is ready to hand over ownership rights of their lives to Jesus, even though He paid for it and His life in us is our true identity, but everyone is ready to be encountered by His out of this world power and love. Carrying the mindset that we need to get this person saved right now is fear based and manipulative. Our business is to plant and water, God always brings the increase. Yes there is a time to lead people to Christ, but what should happen more often than us bringing it up is them bringing it up. I lead people in a confession of Christ in public places frequently, but it is never my goal to "get someone saved." My goal is to give them Jesus with His power and love, and say what God is saying and do what God is doing.
    Colossians 4:5 Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. 6 Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person. (NASB) For too long people have seen Christianity as what it is not, but God is raising a generation that is and will display the Good News for what it truly is. And what it is, is that it is too good to be true. God is bigger and better than we think and our blissful co-mission is to present Him as He is. “…as He is, so also are we in this world.” 1 John 4:17.
    God is love, so any encounter that someone has with the Father is simply an encounter with love and the world is desperate for Mr. Love. God has blessed us with the filter to see Jesus in the eyes of all, and especially the eyes of the lost. If you can’t see Jesus in the eyes of the lost, then you need a greater revelation of the cross. 2 Corinthians 5: 14-15 Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own. (Message) Everything changes when you begin to grasp the magnitude of what took place on that lovely cross.
    This lost and dying world is just a “yes” away from eternal peace and joy in the presence of our Father. Christ hung on that cross for the person sitting next to you as much as He did for you. One violent act of love paid the price for any and all.

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LOVE

Love listens and petitions for His assistance as His grin whispers and glistens.

Love is fuel enough for its own vision and holds a concentration of provisions.  

Love is continuously living in the permission of His glorious wisdom.

Love isn't worked up, it was birthed from Christs cup, which is more than enough.

You are buried in His blessing, so every expression is an impression of His refreshment.

Christ was stamped and love is the brand, now we stand face to face to the Son of Man.

 He initiated the romance, now we stand toe to toe in an enhanced glance holding hands.

He paid the toll for us to own His lands, and then He filled us full of His plans.

God delights in us as friends, His lens towards us is cleansed with the blood of the Prince.

He understands us, as He expands and examines the plans of our heavenly mansions

The same love that entered the tomb with a powerful touch, has a crush on us.

Love detests darkness, but loves to enter it to impart His bliss for a wondrous harvest.

Love is patient, but it quickens others pace into His grip of amazement.

Love is amazing, it snaps out of day dreaming to reveal the Way and its meaning. 

Love lifts one another and releases grace on a brother with every word it loves to utter.

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Christ Cleansed Your Temple

    You are God’s dwelling place. You are His temple of heavenly blessedness. He created you to be just like Him and for Him and all His goodness to consume you. The cross is not a revealing of our sin, it is a revealing of our value. Yes sin was paid for on the cross, but it was because you are so valuable. You are so valuable in the eyes of God that He gave Jesus what we deserved so we could get what Jesus deserved, in this life and all eternity. God's eyes towards you beam with love and grace at all times.
    The Father is so passionate about this that He put everything that would hinder us from perfect union with Him, on His Son. Isaiah 53: 4 But the fact is, it was our pains he carried - our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. 5 But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him - our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed (Message Bible). He did this all for the sake of love! The greatest lover of all, Jesus, had this to say, “"Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus paid for it all, “It is finished."
    The Father warred for His temple to be free from any bondage or blemish, and He continues to war on lies that bring any doubt to that truth. Holy Spirit lead me to the story of Jesus cleansing the temple and the imagery of Jesus cleansing the temple and us being the temple has amazing goodness in it.
    The story is found in Mark 11:15-19, Matthew 21:12-17, Luke 19:45-48, and John 2:13-16. I find a few things interesting here. This story is in every Gospel, most of His stories are not found in all the Gospels. That tells us that this story has extreme significance and God is saying something loud and clear through it. Another thing I found interesting is that everywhere this story is found follows with the religious community rebutting with “By what authority are you doing these things," or, "who gave you this authority to do them?” This is still taking place today.
    God has given you the green light to take His power and love to the entire world, if He said so it's best we step into these things regardless the opposition. The biggest attack the enemy brought against Jesus was to try and get Him to question who He was. It’s the same with us, the enemy does not want you believing the Truth about who you are. The religious minded would rather debate than be great. When I speak of the "religious minded" I'm speaking of the people that have made God the center piece of everything, but they see Him as impersonal and powerless.
    Matthew 21:12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves (NASB). Their was a premeditated assault from the Father on His temple being tarnished. Jesus entered the temple and wreaked havoc on the religious activity that was void of intimacy with Love. I believe the mentioning of the dove is significant, the dove is representative of the Holy Spirit in the bible. Jesus overturns the seats of those trying to sell the Holy Spirit still to this day, and He will continue. The Holy Spirit is free. Any program, organization, method, ministry, minister, etc… that presents the idea that you need them to cleanse you is a lie, the cross already cleansed us. We need solid teaching on the finished works of Christ far more than new programs and methods on inner healing. Inner healing is ok, but its the cross that heals you and not the inner healing program. The Holy Spirit cannot dwell in an unclean vessel, does the holy Spirit live inside you? Then you are spotless, blameless, and holy in his eyes. God is not cleaning up your life piece by piece, you are growing in the awareness of how clean He has already made you.
    It would be of great benefit to start believing what He did for us on the cross actually has the effect He says it should. The Comforter is His gift for us in an uncomfortable world, because we are not of this world. So we should be uncomfortable in any environment that is not heaven, His presence. Yet we dwell in a lovely paradox. We should be so comfortable when the world is uncomfortable that people get comfortable around us and they don’t know why. Then people see the comfort ability in you and want your comfort, Jesus! God already won the war to cleanse you so His comforter could dwell in you, His temple! He did it on the cross.
    John 2:15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables (ESV). Jesus was whipped and ‘by His stripes we are healed’. Jesus cleansing the temple is a mirror of the Father cleansing us through Christ on the cross. The perfect peace that was in the Garden of Eden, before ‘sin entered through one man’, was completely restored when God’s temple was cleansed at the cross. God cleansed the temple through Jesus in this story, and God cleansed His temple (YOU) through the Messiah on the cross. In the second chapter of 1 Peter it says this, "you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." (NASB)
    Matthew 21:14 And blind and crooked came to him in the temple, and he healed them. (Wycliffe) In the midst of cleansing the temple, Jesus cleansed the temples, or "living stones" (their bodies) where God dwells. God is real serious about us being completely whole in health, serious enough to let His Son take on all the sickness and pain so we could have heavens health. We have everything needed to walk exactly like the King did (2 Peter 1:3), in character and health.
       Mark 11:17 And He began to teach and say to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? (NASB) You are the walking, talking, breathing, and living prayer for all nations. You are His temple of prayer! You are the temple that carries the “Desire of the nations”, Haggai 2:7. Psalm 2:8 Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations as Your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth as Your possession (Amplified). Asking of Him would be praying, and receiving the nations (plural) would be the becoming their hope part. You are the temple that hosts the ‘Hope of Glory’, Colossians 1:27. You are the hope that the world draws from, because rivers of hope, love, and power that never run dry live inside you. God cleansed us so The Perfect One could dwell in us as spotless vessels. Walk in Truth and let your experience catch up.
    Luke 19: 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.” (ESV) You are the living exchange of wishes with God for the world. The word for pray in the Greek is proseuchomai and it can be translated as - an exchange of wishes with God. Religion practices void of "on earth as it is in heaven" is bondage, it’s the den of robbers.
    “The Pharisees were the dream thieves of their day,” Graham Cooke. Religion robs you of freedom and your dreams that you can change this world. Religious practices void of intimacy with the Living Word will never satisfy you, it puts a tourniquet on His grace empowering you. Religion promotes fear and says, watch out the world is getting bad. Kingdom minded sons and daughters of God say, "the world had better watch out for me, I’m carrying the King of Glory!" You are gloriously free, don’t let the religious lies void of power and love turn your temple of His dwelling into a religious identity thief. He paid way too high a price for us to be walking around in the lie of bondage. You are free to change the world, to be outrageously creative, to be just who He created you to be, and to be so uncontrollably joyful that people think your nuts. It’s called ‘joy unspeakable and full of glory’ and you can find it in your bible, 1 Peter 1:8 KJV.
    Matthew 21: 15-16 When the religious leaders saw the outrageous things he was doing, and heard all the children running and shouting through the Temple, “Hosanna to David’s Son!” they were up in arms and took him to task. “Do you hear what these children are saying?” Jesus said, “Yes, I hear them. And haven’t you read in God’s Word, ‘From the mouths of children and babies I’ll furnish a place of praise’?” (Message) When the temple was clean the joy broke out, that is awesome! Your temple is clean, let His joy break out! The religious got upset when joy broke into the temple. A childlike faith lives in joy and thanksgiving. The children, the demons, the prostitutes, the drunks, and money frauds all knew who the Messiah was. It was the Pharisees, who spent their lives studying so that they could spot Him when He showed up, that couldn’t figure it out.
    You are already washed clean, grow in this place of His grace. You are full of everything you need to turn this world upside down with His goodness, take faith filled risks to step into this priceless truth. He paid the full price so you would have full access to all of heaven. Walk in His Truth and let His power and love change the world through you!

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Lost in Being Found

All the steps of your race can be traced to the Throne of Grace. 

We are encased adjacent to heavens patient supply of amazement. 

If you hold still you can taste it.

The raw awareness of His care for us, brings reality to His narratives. 

As His air whisks through your lips, your lungs fill with bliss.

Your punishment was dismissed in His sacrificial gift.  

His DNA has been woven into what you hear and say, He is here today.

He showers us with hugs and kisses. If we could only see how He loves to assist us.

Forget 'spiritual fitness' Christ finished it and crowned us as Victors.

We are rivers that fill visitors with the definition of His wonderful whispers. 

So let His fuel of eternity burn with the cool certainty of you being worthy.

I called and He heard me, then He answered me like it was an emergency. 

Simply to assure me that His love for us has a faithful urgency.

Get lost in being found, face down at the cross laying down your crown. 

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Romans 7 man ?

    I have heard many people come against the 'grace movement', whatever that even is. I don't consider myself a member of the 'grace movement', because it sounds silly to me. The Gospel is a grace movement, I am son of God and the only reason I'm not dead from my past lifestyle is His grace. My movement is only in His grace, as is all of ours. His grace is why you are alive.
    One of the biggest lies thrown towards the people that love to shout of His graceful goodness is that all the grace talk promotes a lifestyle that says you can sin all you want. I personally have never heard anyone ever preach that it is ok to sin because grace covers it. Sin is not ok, but grace does cover it. What I have heard many times though is people preach that we are destin to sin and we will need to deal with it, and almost always out of the predominately misunderstood Romans 7. Grace is the power of God that enables you to live sin-free. Grace is not a green light to sin, grace is complete freedom from sin.
    Many excuses to walk in sin have been made and preached out of Romans 7. You can't find a single place in your New Testament that says you are always going to sin, you can only misunderstand Truth. First off if you are saved and in His grace Romans 7 does not even apply to you. Romans 7:1 Do you not know, brethren—for I am speaking to men who are acquainted with the Law—that legal claims have power over a person only for as long as he is alive? (Amplified)  Romans 7: 6 But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. (NASB)
    Paul was not a split personality. He didn’t write Romans 6 about how our sin nature has been removed from us and that we are new creations and totally free from sin’s hold, and then switch back to his other personality in Romans 7 and say how we can’t do it anyways, and then switch back to his first personality and talk about being free from sin and walking in the Spirit again in Romans 8. That sounds absurd saying it that way, right, but that is how most people think about it and how it gets preached all the time.
    Jesus walked the law out in perfection, Matthew 5:17 "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.” (NASB) The law has been fulfilled and you are walking in perfection, Holiness, and righteousness before God because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross. Hebrews 10:14, Ephesians 1:3-4, Romans 5:19, and the New Testament is filled with more scriptures stating that we are perfect, holy, righteous, and blameless in God’s eyes. Romans 8: 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (NASB)
    We have a tendency to look at the apostles while they were with Jesus and say, “Man I can sure relate to that mess up of there’s”. Well, we shouldn’t be able to relate to their problems. Yes there is a process of stepping into manifesting righteousness daily, but it is stepping into who you are in Him. The apostles were not “born again” yet, or born from above. The word for again in the Greek is anóthen-from above, from heaven. Holy Spirit did not set up camp in their hearts until Jesus had died and risen, John 20:21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” 22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” (NKJV)
    When the disciples were healing the sick, casting out devils, cleansing lepers, raising the dead, and proclaiming the Kingdom they were doing it out of the umbrella of Jesus’ anointing and authority. They were moving from Jesus' power, we are moving in Jesus' power. We are spotless and one with Him. The disciples didn’t have Jesus on the inside so they were acting on His word, “GO, heal the sick.” Notice Jesus only told them, Matthew 10:7-And as you go, preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. (NASB) Jesus did not tell them to baptize and make disciples until they had Holy Spirit on the inside, Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (NKJV).
    Jesus said in John 14:12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father (ESV). I have never heard that talked about in any other way except that we will do the miracles, and greater ones, then He did. Which is true and we should be all for that all the time. But we forget Jesus walked sinless. He walked in perfect love and obedience with the Father. How he walked has to be included in that. Romans 6: 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. (NKJV) Romans 6:18 And having been set free from sin, you have become the servants of righteousness (of conformity to the divine will in thought, purpose, and action). (Amplified)
    This is what I am not saying. I am not saying that no one has ever sinned, except Jesus. I am also not saying that just because you are born from above that you will never sin again. I am saying that sin has no hold over you and that you have been given everything needed (2 Peter 1:3) to walk sinless and in perfect unison with the Father. We should never make much of sin, it no longer has power over us. We should always make much of righteousness, because we are 100% righteous. Romans 5:18 Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! 19 One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right (Message).
    Every time in the New Testament that sin is brought up in the manner of what we should if we have sinned, it says "if" you sin. It never says "when" you sin. You are a new creation that has had the sin nature removed from you, and you have been filled with Jesus. Any introspective exercise being carried out by a follower of Jesus should only result in a finding of more of Jesus, He is the only thing in you. Yes, a process has begun, but this is a process of knowing how perfect you are. You are not becoming more anointed, you are growing in the understanding of how anointed you already are. You are not becoming more holy and righteous, you are growing in the understanding of how holy and righteous you already are.
    So let’s look at the old man versus the new man shall we. In Mathew 16 Jesus asks the disciples who the people say that He is and Jesus responds to Peter after Peter says that Jesus in the Christ in verse 16. Verse 17 And Jesus said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven." (NASB) Four verses later Jesus is showing His disciples how He must "suffer many things...and be killed, and raised up on the third day". Verse 22 Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, "God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You." 23 But He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's."
    So Peter gets praised one moment and then is a mouth piece for Satan the next? Wowzers! In verse 23 the word for 'your mind' is phroneó-the midriff or diaphragm; the parts around the heart, properly, regulate (moderate) from within, as inner-perspective (insight) shows itself in corresponding, outward behavior. Essentially equates to personal opinion fleshing itself out in action. Peter's sin nature had not yet been crucified and removed from him because Holy Spirit had not yet made His home in Peter's heart. Thus, the Romans 7 man.
     How about in Matthew 26: 31 Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of Me this night, for it is written, ‘I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.’ 32 But after I have been raised, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.” 33 But Peter said to Him, “Even though all may fall away because of You, I will never fall away.” 34 Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you that this very night, before a rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” 35 Peter said to Him, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You.” All the disciples said the same thing too. Notice, ‘All the disciples said the same thing too’.
    Here is the Romans 7 man, they are still controlled by sin and the law because the power of sin had not yet been broken and the law hadn’t been fulfilled and they had not yet been ‘born from above’. Let’s look at what happened the same night that all the disciples said they would never deny Him. Matthew 26:47-50 Judas betrays Jesus. Verse 56…. Then ALL the disciples left Him and fled. All of them just agreed with Peter and said that they would never deny Him, verse 35 Peter said to Him, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You.” All the disciples said the same thing too. Later that same night, Matthew 26:69-75 Peter denies Jesus three times. They didn’t want to do that, but sin still had its power over them. Sin does not have power over you anymore, the only power the enemy has over us in the power we give him through believing his lies.
    John 21:15-17 Peter tells Jesus that He does indeed love Him all three times Jesus asks Peter. The response from Jesus was to make sure Peter knew that He was entrusting him with His bride, because Jesus didn’t see the sin. Jesus had abolished sin for good and was now resurrected triumphantly over death and sin. All 11 disciples that ran for their life when they seized Jesus after saying that they wouldn’t do that, came back and become sin-free Holy Spirit filled radical Christ-ians. Matthew 28: 16 But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. 17 When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful. 18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (NASB)
   Sin has no longer has power over you! Romans 6: 11 From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That's what Jesus did. 12 That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don't give it the time of day. 13 Don't even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time - remember, you've been raised from the dead! - into God's way of doing things. 14 Sin can't tell you how to live. After all, you're not living under that old tyranny any longer. You're living in the freedom of God....17 But thank God you've started listening to a new master,18 one whose commands set you free to live openly in his freedom! (Message bible)
    Walk in His freedom! Thank you Jesus that you took what we deserved so we can live in what you deserved. That’s my King! The greatest laid down lover ever! Thank you Jesus!

This is another fantastic teaching on this topic from Dan Mohler, enjoy!!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YacUejbtQ6I

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A Life Lived in Him

We are co-heirs that have been co-missioned and stitched into the flow of His wisdom.

We are all efficient in His vision of bringing heaven to people's prisons.

We centered in His authority, and a living epistle, that's His Sword to swing.

To your very core you are clean, washed in the blood of our gorgeous King.

We've been released to raise the deceased and increase His peace while partaking in the feast.

Evil will cease and bow its knee as we believe that we are free to speak His decrees.

And as you laugh at the fear, let it see the aftermath from the tip of your spear.

God's Glory is in your mirror, get in gear, destruction to darkness is why you are here.

Let His joy be so annoying to the demons that it destroys what there dreaming.

Sing with Him through your grin and let His wind manifest through your skin.

Cement your mindset in His kindness as His grace that is timeless reminds us that we are His finest.

Let your mind sit in His climate, you are in alignment shining in the ease of His assignment.

Now we walk like a Truth revolver that is infused in the hands of the Potter.

As His fire gets hotter our desire shifts into the image of the Father.

So we walk in His confidence and the prominence of what He already accomplished.

It's obvious that our Boss paid the cost that robbed us and washed us spotless.

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Christ! He's whats for dinner!

    Imagine your mind as your stomach that everything in your life feeds on, because it is. What you allow your mind to feast on will fuel your attitudes and actions. Proverbs 4:23 Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. (NLT) The word for ‘heart’ in the Hebrew here is ‘leb’ - inner man, mind, will. Protect what your mind feeds on, for from it, "A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of," Luke 6:45. (NIV)
    All of heaven has been placed in our hearts, Ecclesiastes 3:11. How we steward and access what is already freely ours is completely up to us. Romans 12: 1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (ESV)
    We have the privilege of partaking in the metamorphosis of new creation reality, so His nature can be seen by all people in and through us. The word for ‘transformed’ in the Greek is ‘metamorphoó’ - changed after being with, a changing of form in keeping with inner reality. We get our English word metamorphosis and metamorphize from this Greek word. Feasting on Truth, which is the person of Christ Jesus, is what renews your mind from a cocoon to a butterfly.
    There is a heavenly banquet that is fully laid out for us in our true home, heaven. We are not of this world, therefore it would make sense that feasting on the things of this world won’t give us the proper spiritual nutrition that our hearts need in order to function the way it is created to function.
    Colossians 3: 5 So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don't be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. 8 But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. 9 Don't lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. 10 Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him…. 15 And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. (NLT)
    Before Christ the food that our hearts feasted on was that silly list of things people do when they are not cleansed in perfection (Hebrews 10:14) and following the Perfect One. Your body will react to what it is fed. Feed it trash and it will run like a garbage disposal, always trying to get rid of the bad stuff instead of enjoying the good stuff. Feed your body healthy things and it will run at optimal performance, because that is what ours bodies were created for.
    God paints the same picture for us in His word. We are not of this world, John 17:16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. (ESV) So when we feast on the food of the world like gossip magazines, the bad news and fear that fills 95% of news broad casts, movies that promote garbage, music that promotes nonsense, gossiping, drugs, an abundance of alcohol, pornography, etc…. our mind reacts accordingly to what it is fed. The same as our body does. Colossians 3: 1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (ESV) Other translations say this in verse 1, “set your hearts on things above.” The best meal you could eat is the flesh of God (the Bread of Life) and His blood (the wine of heaven).
    Feed on the food that your body needs in order for it to function in the way it is set to function in its new creation rebirth. You have been set free from sin, so why would we feast on anything sinful? We were co-crucified with Christ and our sin nature was nailed to the cross and King Jesus Christ Himself is now what fills our heart. Matthew 6: 20 Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. 21 Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. (NLT)
    Treasures? What is He talking about? The word for ‘treasures’ in the Greek is ‘thésauros’ - a storehouse of treasure, treasured thoughts stored up in the heart and mind. We get our English word "thesaurus" from this word meaning, “storehouse (treasure) of synonyms”. If, “The mouth speaks what the heart is full of,” then remember that heaven is what fills your heart! Store up thoughts that are valuable in heavens perspective so that your mouth releases treasure in the earth, not trash. Our heart is the storehouse, when our minds stomach feds on the things that are from above your mouth releases heavenly treasure into the world. “I cannot afford to have a thought in my head about me that is not His,” Bill Johnson.
    Let’s paint a fun picture to help understand the picture God is painting here. The stomach is the area where food is broken down so the body can get its necessary energy. Our mind is the digestive system for our spiritual stomach. First it enters our mind, and what we believe in our mind is what our heart feasts on. The desire to operate like Christ would have to include feasting on what He feasted on. He feasted on intimacy with the Father, it was His food. Quite literally at times, John 4:31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." 32 But He said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." (NASB) He was talking about feasting on the Spirit within, which they couldn’t have yet known about because He had not torn the veil between heaven and earth through His crucifixion. Don’t take this to some extreme and read in to it in a way that says you don’t need to eat food in the natural. Jesus also said this in Matthew 4: 4 But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Jesus is revealing that you do need to eat bread (food) in the natural in order to survive, that can’t be your only food though. True life comes from feeding on intimacy with God.
    Your natural stomach is also the first line of defense for your body’s immune system. We are in the world, but not of the world (John 17: 16-26). We are called to go into darkness; going into darkness you will see things that are not food for our renewed minds/hearts. When we let our mind be renewed in God’s Spirit, “but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect,” we are able to know what is good and acceptable and perfect and what is not. Our mind is where we decide what our heart feeds on. When we agree with Truth, our heart feeds on Truth. When we agree with lies, it’s like putting the wrong gasoline if your car. It won’t run the way it’s created to.
    Truth, who is Jesus Christ, is your minds immune system. When life is taking into our mind, through the renewal of the mind, we are able to agree with His portion for us and disagree with what the world would try and feed us. Knowing our identity and Truth through intimately knowing Him and His word is our spiritual immune system. Ephesians 6:17 Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (NLT) A helmet goes over the mind, put on the helmet of wholeness. The word for salvation in the Greek is ‘sozo’ – rescued from all danger, set free, healed, delivered, it is the total package of wholeness. It means far more than just praying a prayer to go to heaven. “Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” The word for ‘word’ in this verse is ‘rhéma’ - a spoken word that proceeds from the mouth of God. ‘Word’ in this verse is not talking about the written word; it is talking about intimacy with Him and His voice. Intimacy with Him and an intimate ongoing dialogue with Him is your sword of Truth that fends off lies of the enemy. We know and follow Christ’s voice, a strangers voice we will not follow, just like Jesus illustrates in John 10.
    In your natural body the food you eat depends on how much faster you’ll get hungry after eating. If you eat foods high in sugar they will digest very fast, giving you quick energy and diminishing quickly and leaving you with even less energy than before. Just like the worlds food, it falsely satisfies for a very short time period. Drinking alcohol to be drunk, numbs your pain and issues for a few hours leaving your issues worse than before. Same with drugs, pornography, workaholics, making money your god, and the list could go on. Yes, it may appear to be satisfying momentarily but it will never leave you full in the way that one gets filled by feasting on the broken body and cleansing blood of our Christ Jesus. When we feast on healthy food in the natural, like protein and fruits and veggies, it lasts longer and it supplies our natural bodies with the proper nutrients necessary to function at their prime level. Only the Spirit of God can fully satisfy ones hunger in a way that constantly produces life and life more abundantly.
    John 7: 37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (KJV) 39 Jesus was prophesying about the Holy Spirit that believers were being prepared to receive. But the Holy Spirit had not yet been poured out upon them, because Jesus had not yet been unveiled in His full splendor. (Passion Translation)
    Jesus is the substance we drink of. Liquid does not need to be broken down in our stomachs; therefore the substance of liquid and its affects are released into our bodies much faster than food. 1 Corinthians 12:13…“and all were made to drink of one Spirit.” The ones that believes Truth will have multiple rivers of life exploding from the area of the body where food is digested, “out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” Feast on “Christ, who is your life” (Colossians 3:4) and His unlimited fullness with explode on this world as the natural by-product. Feast on intimacy and Truth and out of the overflow of knowing Him we will be the “men who have turned the world upside down.” (Acts 17:6).

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Jesus- The Door, not the doormat

    We are not doormats, we are world changers here to influence all realms of society with His presence, power, and love. Turning the other cheek is not weakness, it is the revealing of a depth of character that is too powerful to ignore. Returning evil with good is the revealing of the substance (Christ is the substance) that has no limit to its power and love. We are not looking like a doormat when we refuse to engage in hell's characteristics, we are revealing the door that they are all looking for in the first place.
    I have heard fellow followers of Jesus talk about how responding to evil with good can make us seem like they are just being stepped on like a doormat. We are called to repay evil with good, 1 Peter 3:9 Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. (ESV) And of course how could this topic come up without highlighting the extreme statement from Jesus, Matthew 5:39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also (ESV).
    Extending love to someone that has thrown evil at you is simply extending the invitation to them that is the Life of abundance. Living unoffended is the representation of the Door that they are looking for, Jesus Christ. This is the life that they are truly yearning for in the first place, Jesus is the Desire of the Nations (Haggai 2:7).
    So this ‘I’m being looked at as a doormat’ mindset needs a shift in order to understand heavens perspective on this. The truth is that we are showing them the Door when we lay down our life with Love and kindness for the sake of the Love Himself. It’s the returning evil with good that reveals to them a God that is not holding their trespasses against them, 2 Corinthians 5:19.
    It’s an invitation for them to enter through the same Door that is small, but at the same time it just so happens to be big enough to fit all humanity through. The Door to the abundant life is always open, but Love Himself gives us the choice whether or not we enter into to Him. Matthew 7: 13 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14 For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (NASB)
    It’s the anger that bursts out of a person that is their soul’s cry for help. The root of anger is fear, and living in fear is a revealing of the void of love. When we respond with heaven when hell is thrown at us, the Door to life and life more abundantly is presented in front of them, not the doormat that people wipe dirt off on. We are spotless before the Father, the world can't wipe dirt on us if they wanted to.
    When people live in the false identity of worry, anxiety, anger and the like it should not provoke judgment and annoyance from us, it doesn’t provoke annoyance from God. We shouldn't let someone's sin against us produce sin in us. God is in Christ, who lives in us, not counting their trespasses against them. People’s worry and anxiety should only present us with an opportunity to show them love, displaying to them what is available once they walk through the Door that they are standing in front of.
    When the world spews all its junk at you, simply look at them as standing right in front of the Door to true life, because they are. Jesus is the door and He lives in you. So the world’s childish, not childlike, activity is them wiping their feet off on the doormat in front of you, not on you. One cannot receive a Savior until they realize they are in need of one. This is why we are a living bible. The world thinks it is normal to gossip, be angry and fearful, judge, worry, be anxious, and so on. So when they see someone that is unaffected by all this and will not participate in it, what they are seeing is the abundant life that is available once someone has walked through the Door that is open to any and all.
    Stephen was not being a doormat in Acts 7 when they stoned him to death and His response just before death was, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them!" Stephen was showing them the Door. As a man named Saul oversaw this, and agreed with the brutal death, would later became Paul the Apostle. The Paul that preached the Gospel to everyone and everywhere and was used by God to birth our New Covenant theology.
    Jesus was not being a doormat when they laid stripes on Him, or when they pounded the nails through Him. When Christ said, "Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do," He was extending the invitation to walk through the Door and into Him.

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New Creation

All good and perfect gifts are backed by the Word from His lips.

He never shifts, He can't miss, the enemy is forever dismissed.

Now forgiveness is the emphasis and His tremendous presence defends us.

His grace is endless and His face sends our senses into adventures in His expenses.

His presence is enhancing as expansion is dancing in this tangible romancing.

I've taken my stance in His grin and all His fans raise there hands to rejoice in His win.

He has risen. He conquered sin's prison, now we are cleansed in His position.

We are filled with His wisdom, and with all His provision for this mission.

We are the living depiction of Christ risen, so we walk in His vision.

I'm not trying to fit in, I live in the pace of being heavenly efficient.

He is the God of peace, so let His ambiance increase and lay siege with His breeze.

He paid all your fees, and erased all your dirty deeds, so you could walk freely.

God removed confusion for us to be in unison with the beauty of Him.

We are not human, we have been infused with Him in a heavenly electrocution.

So love the view in Him, because you can no longer be accused, so grin. 

Love men for the value God has given them, which is to be intimate with Him.

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Prophetic Precision

    If prophecy is something new to you, I would encourage you to first go through another blog of mine called, "Basics in the Prophetic.". You can find it in my archives. It is very simple with a handful of brilliant YouTube videos from people that are seasoned in the prophetic. We will be diving much deeper into the realm of the Prophetic for this new journey, and you will be provoked to free fall deeper into His grace.
    My hope is to show you that there is no place in our thinking to plateau when it comes to things of the Spirit. John 3:34 "For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure.” (NASB) There is absolutely no place in our thinking for becoming mediocre or leveling off, and not pursuing more of what it is that we already have. John 17:22 "I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one.” (NLT) If we have been given the same glory that Jesus has, which we have, then we are out of excuses. Instead of excuses we get the privilege of living a lifestyle of conviction and breakthrough for the greater things of Jesus to manifest in this world for the purpose of the world knowing Him.
"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father,” John 14:12 (NASB). There is a limitless realm of goodness that is ours for the taking. If we have trouble agreeing with the fact that we can do everything Jesus did, how are we going to agree with His declaration of us doing greater things?
    The passage that really got me thinking and has been provoking me to never settle for anything less than more of “on earth as it is in heaven” is this passage, Matthew 24:3-28. No, this is not a blog on end times. Which by the way, this passage was a prophecy that already took place. This is the prophecy that took place from 68-70 AD, many of the great church fathers like the Wesley brothers, Jonathan Edwards, Augustine, the great Charles Spurgeon, and dozens of others also saw it the same way.
    The greatest persecution ever seen, took place in Jerusalem during those times. The Romans laid a most bloody and horrific siege on Jerusalem during those times. That is what Jesus was prophesying about while sitting on the Mount of Olives with His disciples in Matthew 24. Charles Spurgeon, “the siege of Jerusalem, which curdles the blood of everyone who reads it, and exactly bears out the statement of the Master that there was to be “great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world, no, nor ever shall be.”” I had to get that out of the way, simply because of how ridiculously entangled the majority of the churches mind is with the end times. If you believe in an eschatology (study of end times) that promotes fear, it’s not God. God does not promote fear. Fear is hell’s faith. For more on this topic here is a video from a brilliant man that explains it perfectly, Harold Eberle - Victorious Eschatology Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5xDdkzlmWc
    I’m going to dissect the stance Jesus holds while delivering this prophetic word, not the prophetic word itself. During this passage, in which Jesus is prophesying about what happened in Jerusalem during 68-70 AD, He goes from prophesying from the view point of looking at the great tribulation, to being in it and describing it, to being on the other side of it looking back at it. We have that same detailed access to the realm of the Spirit. We get to bring this outside of time realm of Holy Spirit into what we know as time to reveal His love and goodness.  
    In Matthew 24:4-8 Jesus speaks of what will happen in those days in detail, but He speaks from the stance of saying what will happen. NKJV, 7-“For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.” He is looking at the future explaining what to look for so they can escape this great persecution that is coming. He is telling them how it will begin and what to look for in its beginnings. The detail is pinpoint in its precision. He is taking the listeners on a journey by explaining clues that will show of these future events being near.
    If we have the same access to the Spirit, which we do, then are prophetic expressions should be far more accurate and revealing of helpful information. How much more helpful could Jesus get? He was telling them, in perfect detail, the signs of its beginning and when it was time to leave for good, what would happen if they didn't obey, and that the Gospel would thrive in the midst of it.
    He then changes His position of telling them the signs to look for in its beginning, and now enters into the moment itself to explain the trouble if they don't leave. In verses Matthew 24:15-28 As He speaks about it while being present in it, He takes His disciples into the future and continues to explain details as if He is standing right in the middle of the city looking around while it's happening. Because He was, He was in the Spirit (He is the Spirit) and the Spirit is outside of time.
    We have full access to this realm, and are given greater and greater access to it when we tap into this Spirit of Love with the purpose of bringing benefit to those we contact. Which is exactly what Jesus did here, He is telling them what to look for so they can escape it. “It is a remarkable fact that no Christians perished in the siege of Jerusalem; the followers of Christ fled away to the mountain city of Pella, in Perea, where they were preserved from the general destruction which overthrew the unbelieving Jews,” Charles Spurgeon’s bible commentary from Matthew 24.
    1 Corinthians 14:3 But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men. (NKJV) Jesus edified, He brought spiritual advancement. Without this knowledge His listeners would have died horrific deaths in Jerusalem during those times. He exhorted, He delivered evidence that stood up as true and beneficial to its listeners. He also comforted, He brought comfort by letting them know that they would be just fine if they did as He said. And He it in detail, we are given the same mandate to reveal His plans for the benefit of others in love and detail.
    In verse 16 of Matthew 24 until the end of the passage we are looking in verse 28, He begins speaking as though He is not only pointing out the future, but He is standing in it. And while looking at the future and standing in, He also speaks as though He is on the other side of it, looking back at it. The prophetic does not bow its knee to time, time bows its knee to the Prophetic.
    Revelation 19:10…“For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy,” (NASB). Verse 22 He begins speaking saying, "And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened," (NKJV). Now He is past tense, while still being future and present tense. Faith will let you leave your realm and be the mouthpiece for a realm that sees the present, and the future, so much so that you can speak about it from the past tense posture.
    Quick testimony… Some time back I was at a church ministering to people after the service. I was praying for a lady that I had never met before. I began praying and told her that she had two daughters. I then told her that she has a bad relationship with one of her daughters and that God is going to restore that relationship. A month or so later I saw this lady at the same church. She came up to me to tell me that two days after I gave her that word her daughter called her, and that they have been speaking multiple times a week since.
    What did God do here? First know this, I was not dissecting the process of all I’m explaining in this blog while I was prophesying. I simply let the Spirit take over, stepped out in faith, and allowed God Almighty to speak through little old me. Now, what did God do? He started by explaining the present problem He was going to solve for His beloved daughters, “You have two daughters, and one you are not in good relationship with.” He then explained the future by revealing it as though it already happened, “God is going to restore that relationship.” So God spoke through me and revealed that He sees the future, He is in the present, and He is also already on the other side of what He says will happen looking at it with a smile. He stands in present time and reveals how He is outside what we know as time.
    Much of operating in the prophetic is staying in childlike faith. If learning how to hear His voice and speak it is your question, refer to my old blog "The Prophetic". It breaks it down simply, and the videos are filled with wisdom and one of the videos shows you how to be activated in the prophetic in a quick and simple way. But most importantly just get to know Him, for that is eternal life. Children believe what their dad says, so much so that they tell everyone when they are kids with phrases like, “well my dad said.” It’s the same with us. John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me….John 10:5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” (ESV) The posture of childlike faith hears in loving detail and the heart that has experienced His grace-full reality lives in a place of passionately re-presenting Him in Word and action.
    Let your Kingdom Come through the mouths of all who read this Father! Let it come in more detail and more power and more accuracy. Let it be overflowing with the substance of Love which is Jesus Christ! Kingdom Come!

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The Perfect Journey

    The Word of God is a lovely and living Word of limitless goodness! God simply desires we would know Him through it, and believe what He has already said. The by-product of knowing His nature through His living Word, is knowing how to recognize His nature and works unfold in the now. “On earth as it is in heaven” is a statement for the now, and will always be applicable to the now with a constant increase for the future.
    Knowing the written Word lays the framework of who He is and how He speaks in the now. He has painted the picture of who He is in perfect detail through His written Word. Know this first… It is not Father, Son, and Holy bible. It is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The point here is this, there are many that know the written Word but their life reveals a void of intimacy with the Author. The early church didn’t have the written New Testament to fall back on, they had the Holy Spirit and the old testament. Through their willingness to be intimately acquainted with the Author He was able to write His New Testament through their yielded lives. Plus, bring clarity on what the old testament is truly pointing towards, which was always the fulfillment of all things, Christ in us the hope of glory.
    Yes, it clearly says this in Psalm 138:2 I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. (KJV) He has exalted His Word above everything. But know this, getting to know the words on the page without knowing the Author that makes the words alive inside you, will only make you more religious. You cannot even understand His Word that He exalts above everything unless you know Him and read it with Him.
    Even in John 3 when Nicodemus came to secretly ask Jesus questions, Jesus blatantly asked him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?” What was Jesus pointing to? Jesus was pointing out that all Nicodemus’ studying was pointing to Himself, the Word made flesh. If your studying of the scriptures is not producing the fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5:22-23, and igniting a flow of His power to be released from your inner being, what is it that you are even pursuing? We are in a constant forward motion of becoming more and more like Christ, 2 Corinthians 3:18. Christ is alive inside you and is the same yesterday, today, and forever, Heb.13:8. It is far more simple to know Him than our minds tend to tell us, He does live inside us after all.
    Everything points to this mystery being revealed in us, Colossians 1: 26 the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. 27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (NKJV) He washed us spotless to redeem our true value so He could live inside us.
    Everything points to God in us through Christ’s work on the cross! If you are studying your bible just to know the Law, the bible is clear about what is produced out of that. 2 Corinthians 3:6 He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant. This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life. (NLT) Other translations say, “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” If we are studying the scriptures simply to know the words on the page, this fuels a mindset of self-effort. Yes, knowing the Word takes some effort and self-discipline on our part, but we are not out to memorize letters we are pursuing the growth of intimacy with the living Word. Jesus, the living breathing manifestation of God’s love and power, is the Word made flesh! We are getting to know the Author as the living person that He is through His written resume.
    In Luke 24:13-35 is the lovely passage about the two travelers on the ‘Road to Emmaus’. During the duos 7 mile walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus, 7 is the number of perfection and completion in the Word, they are joined by the person of God Himself. While they were talking about what had just happened, the crucifixion and empty tomb of the King Jesus, the King decided to join them. It is very important to understand this passage by keeping this in mind throughout it, Luke 24:16 But God kept them from recognizing him. (NLT) These two were not completely oblivious to Jesus walking roughly 7 miles with them. God shielded them from knowing that the Christ was with them, and if God purposely shielded them from perceiving Himself walking with them in the flesh then God was teaching them something powerful in the midst of it.
    Jesus asks them what they are talking about, while obviously knowing exactly what they are talking about. Luke 24:19 …”The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people”… (NKJV) Notice that they don’t address Him as the Messiah. Read verses 17-24… The two disciples apparently had not fully believed that Jesus was who He said He was. Also, these were not just two strangers that knew little of what had taken place. They were amongst Peter and John and the apostles and the women who had been told by angels that Jesus was alive.
    Jesus, the Master Teacher, then hammers home the importance of knowing the Word and placing our trust in who God has already said He is. What did Jesus do? Luke 24:25 Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” 27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. (NKJV) He didn’t unveil Himself in the flesh to them, although He was standing next to them in the flesh purposely blocking them from knowing. He unveiled Himself through the written Word. In the same way that Jesus responded to Nicodemus, He responded to these two disciples. He makes a bold revealing and points out the fact that they are not cemented in God’s truth, if they had been they would have known through the written Word that Jesus was the Christ and that He would be resurrected and seated at the right hand of the Father. Old testament spoke of all He was coming to do at length.
    Jesus questioned Nicodemus by asking him, “you are teacher?” Meaning, you teach the Word which points entirely to Me, and you can’t understand how simply I am expounding on what it is you’ve been studying your whole life? He had the same train of thought for the two disciples, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!” He was pointing out to all who had any understanding whatsoever of the scriptures that all that had been studying was HIM! He is the prophecies fulfilled! He is the mystery revealed! Christ is the fulfillment of all things! Everything they had been preparing for, searching for, anticipating, was in front of them doing exactly what He said He would do.
    He fulfilled every single word from the Old Testament. It’s as if Jesus was almost having some righteous frustration. How can someone read the bible every day, and then have issues when they see what it is they are studying daily, walked out in front of them?
    For 7 miles the written Word was unleashed upon them through the Word made Flesh, as it always is. After 7 miles Jesus goes to walk on and depart from them, why? So He could see their hunger and response to believing the written word that He had been unloading upon them. Luke 24: 28 Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone farther. 29 But they constrained Him, saying, “Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.” And He went in to stay with them. (NKJV) Hunger for the real thing will always unveil more then your mind can even begin to grasp. These two disciples didn’t know what was about to hit them, but their response to the living word being spoken stirred a hunger inside them. So the Bread of Life couldn’t help but feed them.
    Luke 24: 30 When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight. 32 They said to one another, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?” 33 And they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found gathered together the eleven and those who were with them, 34 saying, “The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon.” 35 They began to relate their experiences on the road and how He was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread (NASB).
    Yes, these two were a bit a confused in the midst of all the trials and not understanding God’s plan for Christ. A plan that was clearly presented even in the Old Testament, but their hunger for the living God set them up for the encounter of a life time. They may not have understood everything, but they knew that while this Mysterious Character, God in the flesh, spoke “Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?”
    How beautiful that when the Bread of Life Himself broke the bread in the natural the veil fell from their eyes. “He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him.” He held the bread, just like the Father held the Bread of life, His Son. He “blessed it,” just like the Father blessed His Son. Then “breaking it,” just like Christ was broke upon the cross on our behalf. He then “began giving it to them,” in the same way that after Christ’s body was broken on our behalf we now feast on His flesh and drink His blood, John 6. “Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him,” the cross is the lens through which we clearly see Christ. He paid the price for us to see His kingdom and goodness with perfect vision.
    His written Word is the beauty that makes everything beautiful. This unspeakable beautifully written Word is alive inside us.Father, lead us into becoming the glorious Living Epistles that we truly are!

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Let His Grace Lead You

He can do more through you in a moment, when His finished work is the proponent. 

The only thing you owe Him is your heart wide open and exploding with the hope within. 

Haven't you been noticing that His focusing is to rescue people from an atrocious theme. 

He is not sending Moses or the locust to teach you to not be hopeless.

He sent Jesus to shred darkness to pieces and ease us into His grace filled thesis.

Our main thought should be how He sees us, not our silly needs list.
God doesn't scorn us, He adores us as He transforms us.
He courts us into more of His trust, as He forms us into being gloriously gorgeous.

His kindness reminds us that His love is timeless and shines in us.
His assignment was, to fill us with the buzz of His love and give us His mind from above.
He showers us with grace upon grace, and empowers us face to face.
Darkness no longer has a trace in our space, as we taste of His ways.

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Basics in the Prophetic

    Proverbs 20: 5 A plan in the heart of a man is like deep water, But a man of understanding draws it out. (NASB) God's unsearchable designs that dwell in the depth of a person’s heart (thought life and make up of the mind) are the dreams of God Himself. A person that sees with the lens of love and chooses to see the destiny and gold in people can water and nurture the harvest of God's dreams that reside inside any person. A simple co-laboring with God brings that harvest into its fullest potential.
    The prophetic is a life long journey of growing and remaining teachable and by no means dowe ever have it all figured out. But we have all heard the saying, “The more I learn the less I know.” That sounds stupid to me, I mean come on how can you learn more and know less. I understand what the saying is insinuating, but the more I learn I more I know and the more I realize I can get to know. False humility is not your identity. A true humble confidence in the knowledge and intimacy of Him who lives inside you is where your identity comes from.
    I have had the pleasure of growing in the prophetic and seeing wild miracles and also seeing new worlds birthed in people’s lives, by simply speaking His words, as a lifestyle for close to 4yrs now. I am a baby in this but, “a man with experience trumps a man with an argument,” or a man with an opinion. So I just want to share some of the glorious wisdom that the Lord has shown me and that I have gotten to experience with the Lord. People spend their life exploring, teaching, and growing in the prophetic. I just want to share a little goodness to spark your hunger and interest in seeing His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
    1 Corinthians 14:1 Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. (NASB) The word for ‘pursue’ in the Greek is -diókó- to put to flight, pursue with all haste ("chasing" after), earnestly desiring to overtake (apprehend), aggressively chase, like a hunter pursuing a catch (prize).
    God chased you down that way, now we get to grow and learn in the Truth that your identity has always been to, with all patience and kindness, love God and love people this way. The word for ‘desire earnestly’ in the Greek is –zéloó- to be jealous, to burn with zeal, to be deeply committed to something, with the implication of accompanying desire and to set one's heart on, to be completely intent upon. We are to have tunnel vision on growing in the gifts of the Spirit through love. Love is always the focus, the gifts are an expression of that love.
    1 Corinthians 14:1 is in order for a reason. First you remain in the place of growing in loving yourself and people the way God loves you and others, then you learn to burn with zeal in growing in the gifts of the Spirit while flowing in the love that lives inside you. We are to learn to constantly encourage and see people through the lens of heaven and tell them how God sees them. We have the privilege of being God's mouth piece. We get to tell people what God is doing, going to be doing, and how He sees them. We get to do this for Love's sake.
    The chapter that says what love is and what love is not, 1 Cor. 13, is sandwiched between the two chapters that talk about the gifts of the Spirit for a reason. Anytime a gift is delivered from the Father the center of it must be love. Love is the greatest pursuit of all, and it should be easier to love people than we have made it, seeing how Love Himself lives inside us. John 17: 26 “and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” (NASB)

This is a brilliant 8min clip on hearing God's voice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUlLpmJeDh4

    The more you grow in the knowledge of how loved you are, the more you will grow in the knowledge of how loved others are, “God so loved the world that He gave His Son”. The Good News is about learning how to become love wrapped in flesh. Prophesying is easy when you know how to love. The more you learn to love the more your speech changes, the more your vision changes, and the more your entire thought process changes. All the sudden you are seeing things in people that that couldn’t see before, all the sudden you are having strong impressions about something awesome that is going to be happening in a person’s life, and all the sudden you know how to deliver correction to a person (that is done in kindness and patience) for their extreme benefit.
    1 Corinthians 14: 3 But [on the other hand], the one who prophesies [who interprets the divine will and purpose in inspired preaching and teaching] speaks to men for their upbuilding and constructive spiritual progress and encouragement and consolation. (Amplified) The power that dwells in the prophetic terrifies the enemy, that is why the enemy works overtime to try and get people to stay away from it. This is also why love must always be the centerpiece of the prophetic. Nothing will silence the devil faster then prophetic precision delievered in love.

This is a great basic video on prophesy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3y4viHChOWI

    Ephesians 4:29 Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift. (Message)… Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.(NASB) Make encouraging people a lifestyle, not an activity. The more you learn how to genuinely encourage people the more God will trust you with supernatural information because He knows that you know how to deliver the message in love. The word for ‘edification’ in this verse is the same word used in 1 Cor. 14:3 and it is – oikodomé- the act of building spiritual advancement, constructive criticism and instruction that builds a person up to be the suitable dwelling place of God, where the Lord is "at home."

In the old testament we judged people, in the new testament we judge prophesy. This is an amazing 5min clip. Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsFs4hnutpU

    If God is showing you a negative about a person it is only for one of two reasons.. 1- He doesn’t want you to say anything to that person about their issue, He just wants you to pray for that person and let Him use you to bring His love into the area of that person’s life that needs correction.  Or 2- He wants you to prophesy the opposite over that person. He shows you the negative so you can prophesy and declare the exact positive opposite into their life. Your words carry the power and weight to break issues off people’s lives. Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those that love it will eat its fruits. (ESV)
    Seeing God move in public in powerful ways is almost always a very simple impression that we dismiss as a random thought. One time I was talking with two teenagers on the street after my friend and I had done some worship by the beach. I asked if they had any pain that we could pray for, one of them said that his wrist had issues. I prayed and Jesus in all His goodness healed his wrist. I then had this thought to tell the other boy that God was going to be strengthening his relationship with his father. I then thought twice about telling the young man this. I thought to myself, “That is a very basic word. I mean you could tell anyone that.” But I went with it and told him and the boy responded by telling me that the week before his father just started a 40yr prison term. The boy was awe struck and extremely encouraged, to say the least. That was about 3yrs ago, now after persevering in the understanding of what it is that I already possess I see God turns people's lives upside down with loving detail pretty much daily. Just last week we told a lady her business, her business plan, her passions, and what she was doing at the cafe that we were in. She was overwhelmed by Him, obviously. I had never met that lady, but God knows everything about her and He longs to speak through us in outrageous accuracy and love more then we want Him to. It's available to any and all of us when the agenda is simply to love people like God does.
    Amazing men of God have written many books on this topic and there is endless wisdom to gain from the prophetic, just remember that your focus is to reveal the love of God when prophesying. If you already prophesy I hope this was an encouraging reminder. If this is something new to you, I would greatly encourage you to pray into being activated in the prophetic and growing in loving the hell out of people by being God’s supernatural mouthpiece.

Here are some more videos that can help. Each of these videos covers different aspects of the prophetic. The areas and aspects covered in these videos will answer many questions people have. These vidoes are from a seasoned prophet named Kris Vallotton from Bethel Church in Redding, Ca.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkN5tTTo0Ds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV5wxsImD3g

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