There is more power in our words then we think. “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” sounds like a sweet nursery rhyme, but it isn't truth. We are filled with the power of God. It’s not a fleeing thought, or a good theological idea. It’s a fact, Colossians 2:10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. (ESV) This gift of authority over all darkness and evil has been placed in the hearts of every believer, what the believer does with this Truth is up to them.
The words coming out of a person's mouth reveal what they have agreed with on the inside. Joshua 1:8 "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.” (NASB) This is a powerful verse, but your understanding of it is about to totally change. The word meditate in the Hebrew is – hagah- to declare, or growl, to speak out or make a sound. We think of meditating as soaking in Him, that is great but it is not what this verse is saying. It is saying to declare His Word of Truth and Life over our life and circumstances night and day. Speak the identity He has given us over ourselves every day and night and His promises and our identity will be the theme of our life.
Why though? Why speak out His Word? I can assure you it is not religious exercise, or a holy muscle building program. God is emphasizing the power of our words, and the importance of getting the words that come out of our mouth to be in agreement with the words that come out of His mouth. When you declare His goodness, grace, power, love, authority, etc… over yourself, a situation, another person, etc… you are bringing that person, place, or thing that you are praying for into agreement with what heaven thinks and says about them.
Revelation 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. (NKJV) This verse is powerful and gets mentioned a lot, as it should. The word ‘him’ in this verse is referring to the devil. Look at some things here though. The verse says, “they overcame” not, He overcame. He already defeated the devil, Colossians 2:15. Then it says the first place we start is “by the blood of the Lamb”. Our starting place is in His victory. We don’t work towards victory, we work from victory. There is a huge difference. One mindset tires it self out trying to earn something He already gave us, the other mindset enjoys and increases in the awareness of what they already have because they know their identity in Him.
Now this is the main thing I wanted to point out in this verse, “by the word of their testimony”. The word for ‘word’ in this verse in the Greek is –logos- a word, being the expression of a thought; a saying that was preeminently used of Christ (Jn 1:1), expressing the thoughts of the Father through the Spirit. This verse clearly gives us the simple way to overcome the enemy, it is crucial that we understand how powerful our spoken words are. The thoughts of the Father towards us are, Psalm 139: 17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! 18 If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You. (NKJV)
Your words are either helping build in the Kingdom, or bringing much resistance to it. James 3:5 A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything - or destroy it! (Message)
And this last part of the verse that gets left off so often when people quote it, “and they did not love their lives to the death.” You and I can’t die anyways, you are alive to bring Him glory! Any place in our lives where fear has a foothold we are still holding on to us, and when we came to Christ we died so He could live in us. Colossians 3:3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (NASB)
Have you ever tried to carry someone passed out or totally asleep? Lugging dead weight around is really heavy. We can drop our dead past life and live in Him, He already killed it off so we could live in in our true identity in Him. “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light,” Jesus.
When you know His heart and are on page with His will, you will literally speak things into existence. Jesus did it time and time again. Luke 13: 12 When Jesus saw her, He called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your sickness.” 13 And He laid His hands on her; and immediately she was made erect again and began glorifying God. (NASB) Again, take a look. Luke 7: 14 Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” 15 And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. (ESV) He even spoke food into existence. Jesus only said what He heard the Father saying, John 12:49, and all of Jesus' words released life. This reveals the Truth that God is always speaking goodness into existence and motion, and when we say what He is saying we reveal heaven on earth.
If His words are so powerful that they bring the dead back to life and heal sickness, imagine what they can do to our perception, joy, hope, and so on. Speak His Truth over your life and others and watch it come into being. It’s not a magic trick, its calling that person, place, or thing into alignment with the Father's purposes.
Job 22:28 "You will also decree a thing, and it will be established for you; And light will shine on your ways.” (NASB) The word for decree in the Greek –gazar- to cut, or divide, or slice off. Gazar is the same word ‘divided’ used in the verse, Psalm 136:13 To Him who divided the Red Sea asunder, For His lovingkindness is everlasting, (NASB) When we speak His words it is a sword that cuts off what is not of Him, and brings to life what is Him.
It is true when we speak negative of someone as well, our words are more powerful then we realize. Proverbs 18:21 Words kill, words give life; they’re either poison or fruit—you choose. (Message) Speak love over politicians, family members, co-workers, the religious community, etc….The words you speak over yourself or others are either making it easier for you or them, or harder. Ephesians 4:29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. (ESV)
The link below is an unbelievably powerful experiment along the lines of this topic. I have seen this experiment done by quite a few people. I thought this one painted the best illustration of what I’ve been talking about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31shlv5Z71A
Our words build or tear down. They release life or they release death. His words release life at all times and infuse what is spoken over with the ability to walk out what was spoken.
Friday, February 20, 2015
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Does God Pray?
Yes, God prays. This thought may challenge some of you, but a clear perspective on prayer is needed in order to understand God's mind on what dialogue with Him truly is. It is unfortunate that many people, those that follow Jesus and those that don't, think of prayer as begging and complaining to God for things they need and want.
Think of a never ending conversation with the Person of Love that owns everything, and He is so generous He simply spends His time trying to give it all away. This Person can do anything at any time, their is no limit to His power. This Person is hilariously brilliant and thoroughly enjoys good conversation. That Person of Love is God, so if we are board in prayer the issue is on our end not His.
Prayer is a on going conversation with Love that never ends. It's a conversation with the One that has every solution to every problem, and He wants to help more then we want Him to. Simply getting to know Him as He is opens up far more favor with Him then long hours of pray methods and formulas. We are not His slaves, we are His friends.
Imagine a friend of yours and every time, or at least most of the time, the two of you talk you simply tell this friend what you need and want all while complaining and questioning why and what they are doing. Do you think that friend will be jumping at the chance to converse with you? Of course God is a loving Father and He never leaves us, but maybe He doesn't jump at conversation with those that simply want to gripe and whine over all the things that He needs to do for them. He has a personality, you know. He has a sense of humor, a brilliant one at that. Maybe sometimes He just wants to chat about what He wants to talk about, instead of us running through the list of what many have come to think prayer is.
Most of what we pray for He already gave us, so a lot of the prayers people pray He cannot answer anyways. He gave us the kingdom, and their is nothing outside of the King's dominion. God already gave us full access to all of heaven through Christ, your perspective on prayer and accessing all heaven has is far more important then all the begging and pleading God for what He already gave us. He gave us all His peace, love, joy, power, and the mind of Christ. Prayer is about growing in the understanding of what it is we already have and who we already are in Him, rather then reminding God of all the things He is not doing that we think He should be doing.
Let's take a look at Jesus talking about prayer. Matthew 6: 6 “Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.
7-13 “The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this: Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are. Set the world right; Do what’s best—as above, so below. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You’re in charge! You can do anything you want! You’re ablaze in beauty! Yes. Yes. Yes. (Message Bible)
Asking for what He already knows we need is how we humbly align our hearts and keep our thinking rooted in the Truth that with out Him and His grace we truly have nothing. Praying for what is going to happen anyways, prepares our hearts to be grateful when it does.
The evidence of healthy ongoing conversations with Love is a life fully alive and increasing in His abundance. Matthew 4:4 But He answered and said, "It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'" (NASB) The word for 'word' in this verse in the Greek is rhéma- a spoken word, made by the living voice. Your quality of life depends on how much you hear His voice, life is drawn from the substance of power and love in His freshly spoken words.
The definition of the word for 'praying' in the Greek is proseuchomai- an exchange of wishes. So when we carry out His will we are answering His prayers. Him carrying out our will, is Him answering our prayers. Yes, He carries out our will. We are not robot slaves that are not allowed to enjoy life and ask for things from their loving Father. The most important thought we will ever have is our thought about who God is. If you cannot see Him as a loving Father, you will not position yourself to receive the things a good Father wants to give you.
Psalm 37: 3 Trust in the LORD and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart. (NASB) "Trust in the Lord," be-loved and be a believer. "Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness," that would be establishing His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. "Delight yourself in the LORD," the word for Delight in this verse could also be translated as 'enjoy your life with God.' The result of this lifestyle is, "And He will give you the desires of your heart." It doesn't say He will give us the desires of His heart, but I can assure you that we truly do want the desires He has in His heart for us. A good Father in the our world would do everything they could to bring about the dreams of their kids, and support them in the desires they have in their life.
He is a Father that desires His desires come because His desires are the purest dreams for us and earth that their can be, and in the process of living a lifestyle of making earth look like heaven our heart gets refined with more and more purity and our desires sync with heavens. It's a glorious exchange of heavenly wishes that propel hope and excitement in such beautiful ways that it is hard to put it into words.
Love is set on building others up into their destiny. Love, "does not insist on its own way," 1 Corinthians 13:5. Wait, God is not out to get His way? Nope! He is Love, not control. He has wishes that He asks of us, but it is always our choice. He is not a controlling tyrant, He is a loving Father. He finds willing vessels to carry out His will of making earth look like heaven. He doesn't control us into obedience, He loves us into obedience, because obedience is our true identity and the place where we truly want to abide. Obedience is where the yoke is easy and the burden is light, Matthew 11:30.
Think of a never ending conversation with the Person of Love that owns everything, and He is so generous He simply spends His time trying to give it all away. This Person can do anything at any time, their is no limit to His power. This Person is hilariously brilliant and thoroughly enjoys good conversation. That Person of Love is God, so if we are board in prayer the issue is on our end not His.
Prayer is a on going conversation with Love that never ends. It's a conversation with the One that has every solution to every problem, and He wants to help more then we want Him to. Simply getting to know Him as He is opens up far more favor with Him then long hours of pray methods and formulas. We are not His slaves, we are His friends.
Imagine a friend of yours and every time, or at least most of the time, the two of you talk you simply tell this friend what you need and want all while complaining and questioning why and what they are doing. Do you think that friend will be jumping at the chance to converse with you? Of course God is a loving Father and He never leaves us, but maybe He doesn't jump at conversation with those that simply want to gripe and whine over all the things that He needs to do for them. He has a personality, you know. He has a sense of humor, a brilliant one at that. Maybe sometimes He just wants to chat about what He wants to talk about, instead of us running through the list of what many have come to think prayer is.
Most of what we pray for He already gave us, so a lot of the prayers people pray He cannot answer anyways. He gave us the kingdom, and their is nothing outside of the King's dominion. God already gave us full access to all of heaven through Christ, your perspective on prayer and accessing all heaven has is far more important then all the begging and pleading God for what He already gave us. He gave us all His peace, love, joy, power, and the mind of Christ. Prayer is about growing in the understanding of what it is we already have and who we already are in Him, rather then reminding God of all the things He is not doing that we think He should be doing.
Let's take a look at Jesus talking about prayer. Matthew 6: 6 “Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.
7-13 “The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this: Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are. Set the world right; Do what’s best—as above, so below. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You’re in charge! You can do anything you want! You’re ablaze in beauty! Yes. Yes. Yes. (Message Bible)
Asking for what He already knows we need is how we humbly align our hearts and keep our thinking rooted in the Truth that with out Him and His grace we truly have nothing. Praying for what is going to happen anyways, prepares our hearts to be grateful when it does.
The evidence of healthy ongoing conversations with Love is a life fully alive and increasing in His abundance. Matthew 4:4 But He answered and said, "It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'" (NASB) The word for 'word' in this verse in the Greek is rhéma- a spoken word, made by the living voice. Your quality of life depends on how much you hear His voice, life is drawn from the substance of power and love in His freshly spoken words.
The definition of the word for 'praying' in the Greek is proseuchomai- an exchange of wishes. So when we carry out His will we are answering His prayers. Him carrying out our will, is Him answering our prayers. Yes, He carries out our will. We are not robot slaves that are not allowed to enjoy life and ask for things from their loving Father. The most important thought we will ever have is our thought about who God is. If you cannot see Him as a loving Father, you will not position yourself to receive the things a good Father wants to give you.
Psalm 37: 3 Trust in the LORD and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart. (NASB) "Trust in the Lord," be-loved and be a believer. "Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness," that would be establishing His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. "Delight yourself in the LORD," the word for Delight in this verse could also be translated as 'enjoy your life with God.' The result of this lifestyle is, "And He will give you the desires of your heart." It doesn't say He will give us the desires of His heart, but I can assure you that we truly do want the desires He has in His heart for us. A good Father in the our world would do everything they could to bring about the dreams of their kids, and support them in the desires they have in their life.
He is a Father that desires His desires come because His desires are the purest dreams for us and earth that their can be, and in the process of living a lifestyle of making earth look like heaven our heart gets refined with more and more purity and our desires sync with heavens. It's a glorious exchange of heavenly wishes that propel hope and excitement in such beautiful ways that it is hard to put it into words.
Love is set on building others up into their destiny. Love, "does not insist on its own way," 1 Corinthians 13:5. Wait, God is not out to get His way? Nope! He is Love, not control. He has wishes that He asks of us, but it is always our choice. He is not a controlling tyrant, He is a loving Father. He finds willing vessels to carry out His will of making earth look like heaven. He doesn't control us into obedience, He loves us into obedience, because obedience is our true identity and the place where we truly want to abide. Obedience is where the yoke is easy and the burden is light, Matthew 11:30.
God's will is that none should perish, 2 Peter 3:9. Well people are perishing all around that don't know Him. He is not getting His way in that matter, why? We are not answering His prayers and sharing Jesus as a lifestyle like we've so clearly been asked to in the Word. He doesn't hold it against though, 1 Corinthians 13:5, He is love and we cannot change who He is. Getting to know Him as He is, is the best thing we can do for ourselves and anyone around us. Us being obedient is where God's wishes get fulfilled, not because He needs slaves to feel better about Himself, but because obedience to His wishes is the place of complete prosperity. "Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers," 3 John 1:2.
Friday, February 6, 2015
Greatness
That burning passion that provokes you toward more of His reality is Him in you wanting to be Himself through your life. It is Him boiling in you so that you steam out His presence everywhere you go. That desire to see Jesus get what He paid for through your life, was awakened in you the very second you said yes to the Lordship of the King of Kings and became a living sacrifice that reveals His goodness. The craving for greatness is the effects of being in the presence of the Great One. He wants you to be great!
The apostles lived and breathed running their race with passion and potency. All the while knowing Who was fueling them and why they were truly running. It doesn’t say anywhere in the Gospels to walk your race, or watch others run their race. It says RUN YOUR race, run in what He has for YOU!
When the apostles argued over who was the greatest in the Kingdom, did you ever notice how Jesus never rebuked them for it. Instead He subtlety corrected their thinking and told them how to be great. He didn’t say what most pastors say, which is some long sermon on how to ‘watch out for pride’ (your sin nature has been removed from you, Romans 6). Jesus wants us knowing who we are, which is greatness Himself! When the apostles argued over who was the greatest, Jesus told them how to be great. We were born from above to be just like the Greatest One of all. Luke 22:26 "But it is not this way with you, but the one who is the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like the servant. (NASB) Welcome to the paradoxical paradise of the upside down and inside out Kingdom of God. The way the world goes for greatness is how you get humbled by God, and the backwards way of being the lowest servant of all is how you become the greatest.
Again in Mark 9:33 Then He came to Capernaum. And when He was in the house He asked them, “What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?” 34 But they kept silent, for on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest. 35 And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.” (NKJV) The recipe for greatness was His response to His disciples trying to ‘one-up’ each other.
You were created to do greater works then Jesus, John 14:12. It doesn’t get much greater than that, does it? The false identity of false humility has exalted the fear of pride in the name of trying to be humble, when Jesus said that if you are truly humble then He will exalt you. Real humility gets promoted in the Kingdom. Matthew 23:12 "Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted. (NASB) In the Greek the word for ‘humbles’ is –tapeinóō- show humility, true lowliness happens by being fully dependent on the Lord – dismissing reliance upon self (self-government) and emptying carnal ego. This exalts the Lord as our all-in-all and prompts the gift of His fullness in us.
Are you willing to look like a fool for Him? He looked like a fool for you, Isaiah 52:14 But many were amazed when they saw him. His face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human, and from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man. (NLT) Are you willing to obey His guidance, which can look absolutely insane to carnal minded on lookers? 1 Corinthians 1:27 But God chose what is foolish in this world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. (ESV) He might ask you to look like a fool for a second, but only to make Him look like a genius in us. i.e. spit in the mud and rub in their eyes so they are healed.
Are you ok with being the donkey that carries in the King? Are you willing to lay down everything you are so you can become everything He is? The lower you go for Him, the higher He will take you in Him. That is the implication and magnitude of the Good News, Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (NASB) Look how low the apostle Paul went, and look how much God entrusted to Paul.
Jesus spoke on this topic of how to be great multiple times in the Good News, always encouraging and never rebuking. Matthew 18: 1 At about the same time, the disciples came to Jesus asking, "Who gets the highest rank in God's kingdom?" 2 For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, 3 and said, "I'm telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you're not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. 4 Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God's kingdom. 5 What's more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it's the same as receiving me. (Message) The childlike are the center of attention to heaven.
Have you ever watched a child interact with their parents? They live in the simplest place of being that is possible. They trust their parents for everything, every time. Actually children don’t even know how to stress or worry, or what that even is, until they observe it from someone. They just know that their parents will provide everything, and take care of everything. Dare to believe that God will supply for the dreams He has birthed in you the way it says to pray and believe in Ephesians 3:20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, (NASB).
You are actually called to live and move and have your being in greatness. Philippians 1:27 Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ. Then, whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith, which is the Good News. (NLT) ‘Above all’, other translations say ‘whatever happens’ or ‘only’, whatever happens conduct yourselves like Jesus. In other words, conduct yourselves in a manner of greatness no matter what happens! Jesus is the model on how to walk in greatness, and it is your true nature now. He lives inside you, and desires to be Himself in us.
You were born from above to change nations for Christ. You are a walking atomic bomb of glory, power, and love! You have full access to all creativity, after all doesn’t the Creator (the Uncreated One) live inside you? All authority on earth and in heaven rests within you. You cannot help but manifest greatness! You are a new creation, the sound of heaven is your feet touching the ground. 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come! (Amplified)
You are a brand new creature that the world has never seen. You walk in the Greatest Person that has ever lived, and He walks in you! Mr. Greatness Himself desires that you do greater things that He did, John 14:12, and He paid for everything so you could.
John 17: 22 “I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. 23 I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. 24 Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am. Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began! (NLT) You are seated in Christ next to the Throne of Grace as you read this. Greatness is in you and burning with unlimited energy and passion, and this world is begging to see what real greatness is.
For more resources
Erikfrederickson.com
Erikfrederickson.wordpress.com
Good News!
The Good News is not to accuse, or about sitting in the pews with the blues.
Its not debating or waiting its creating an environment, where love begins invading like a fire pit.
Its being filled with heaven, where words drenched in grace spill from your weapon.
The Good News is that Christ is my confession,and all actions are a choice to simply bless Him.
Spread His fragrance like a blissful infection, and stroll to His cadence to whistle His impressions.
Carry His presence and all His precious affections, and watch your reflection brighten all directions.
Its His joy unspeakable that helps every seed to grow.
Its peace past our understanding, as we feast in His lap with all heaven as our family.
So be a radical blessing to those that are mad and stressing.
Manifest His finished work, like a man possessed by Holy Spirit gone berserk.
His lovely speech about you, counts more then the sands on all the beaches that surround you.
And as you go heal the sick, let His habits glow and if its time snap His whip and let the tables flip.
The Good News let's love lead the way, even in the heat of the day keeps his cool in what they say.
The Good News is that Christ took the bullet for you, because His eyes burn with fire towards you.
For more resources
Erikfrederickson.com
Erikfrederickson.wordpress.com
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