The Stumbling Block

    1 Corinthians 1: 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. 22 For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (NASB)
    No workings of our own has saved us, what Christ did on the cross has saved us. Ephesians 2:8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God. (NLT) Saved in the Greek –sozo-to save, keep safe and sound, to rescue from danger or destruction, to save a suffering one (from perishing), one suffering from disease, to make well, heal, restore to health. If the message of the Good News you are hearing doesn’t sound too good to be true, you are probably not hearing the real message of the Good News. This is the greatest message in the history of this planet, this is actually the only message of pure and true significance.
    The stumbling block, yes, the part that trips most people up is that they find it hard to believe God is as good as He says He is. Christ really did finished the job and all we do is receive and manifest the victory that already took place. In one way or another people are searching for what they have to do to get to heaven, instead of thanking Him for what He did so they can have perfection and heaven now. Hebrews 10:14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. (NASB) Ephesians 2:6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. (NLT)
    Let’s take an in depth look at this ‘stumbling block’ phrase. The word for ‘stumbling block’ in the Greek is -skandalon-the trigger of a trap (the mechanism closing a trap down on the unsuspecting victim); (figuratively) an offense, how someone is caught by their own devices (like their personal bias, carnal thinking). A snare, stumbling-block, cause for error. This word -skandalon- is where we get our English word scandal.
    Note that Paul, who doesn't get enough credit for being the absolute genius that he was, claimed to resolve to nothing but “Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” Why would Paul whittle all of his life’s work down to something so simple? Because Philippians 3:8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, (KJV).
    You must understand that the devil’s gig is to get you to try and earn something through performance that God has already given you through relationship. This is nothing new, it started in the Garden of Eden. Eve was already like God, the enemy was getting her to trigger the trap on herself. The devil was getting her caught up in all her own devices (a stumbling block), instead of being free in all of His goodness.
    The devil tried the same thing with Jesus in Matthew 4, he tried to trick Him into thinking he could give Him something better then He already had. Matthew 4: 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” (ESV) What an outrageous downgrade that would have been for the King of glory to just take the kingdoms of earth and their glory, when He is rightful owner of the entire universe and all that is in it. The comparison is no different with us. What the devil tries to trick people into is an massive downgrade compared to what God has already freely given us.
    The devil is trying so hard to get you caught up in the things of this world, and trying to earn everything that you actually already have. All the while the Spirit beckons, Revelation 11:12 And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." Then they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies watched them. (NASB) He summons us to take our rightful place and come to the recognition of our co-seated authority in Him while He makes our enemies our footstool. Sounds too good to be true? That is because it is the real Good News. He already did all the work, your job is to rest in the finished job and manifest His already accomplished victory.
    The mindset that works in grace, continually sinks into an ever increasing growth of His goodness. While a mindset in that works in law of Moses falls over the stumbling block of self-effort and draining confusion. Relationship rests in the glory realm that is free to all, while someone who is trying to walk out the law of Moses tries to climb into what is freely theirs anyways.
    Imagine a hamster going round and round on its wheel trying to get the cheese that is sitting right next to him as soon as he steps of his tiring wheel. Think of a stumbling block, think of a little block that keeps tripping someone and halting them from a destination that is right in front of them. It can’t be that simple, or can it. This little block can completely block off an entirely new realm, yes. Everything that man has and is trying to earn from God is free through the grace in Christ. All goodness is found in the Kingdom, and it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. There is no earning in the Kingdom, it is all free. It is a matter of learning what it is that you already have, and learning and growing in the Truth of who you already are.
    Man’s obsession with scandals is all a distraction from thee only scandal worth our attention. God has completely rigged the ballot box in our favor. God has 100% set us up for freely receiving everything that we didn’t earn. The stumbling block is believing that you have to do more work and add to what Christ has already finished. It is that simple, the job is finished. The choice is yours whether you want to receive and grow in all of heaven now, or not.
    It is offensive to the mindset that wants a sign from heaven, to think that you “just believe” in faith that it’s all yours, gibberish they say. And the flip side, you must gain knowledge and wisdom in order to earn an understanding so God will love you more. All the while the real signs from heaven and the True knowledge and wisdom come once you stop trying to get it and surrender to the Truth of growing in already having it. 2 Corinthians 5:7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. (ESV) And we walk in His faith not our own. If it was dependent on our faith then why would we even need our Lord and Savior Jesus? Claiming that it is dependent on our faith is still saying that we are earning the Kingdom. The Gospel supplies far more faith then it demands.
    All the worlds efforts and attempts to earn God's favor are a rat race into confusion. God was thrilled to confuse the confused with the message of free salvation for anyone that would retire from their work and enter into His finished work. Those that think they must work miracles in order to be holy and right with God are simply spinning their own wheels into exhaustion, all the while Christ was crucified so those at rest in Him see even more miracles with almost no effort of their own involved. This is the place just before the narrow gate where many trip over the stumbling block, and instead of entering into a realm beyond human comprehension they let their mind trap them from where their heart desires to take them. Once one has given ownership rights of their life to the King, He is what has filled them and the Spirit will never stop leading them towards the free and limitless realm that is to good to be true, yet it is true.
    The same applies to the pursuit of knowledge. Thinking one must gain heaps of knowledge through never ending earning, is just another disguise the trapper sets just before the narrow gate. Knowledge is a must in relationship with Jesus, but it's knowledge that comes through intimacy. When we make it about gaining knowledge as a notch on our belt towards earning favor from God, we can easily fall into "We know that "We all possess knowledge." But knowledge puffs up while love builds up," 1 Corinthians 8:1. Knowledge gained through love is the knowledge God gives, knowledge worked up on our own breeds arrogant pride.
   The real knowledge we are looking for cannot be understood, even if stumbled upon, until the Helper has taken residence inside us. "He will guide you into all truth," John 16:13. The Truth is a foreign language to us until Love Himself has become the lens through which we see. God in all His foolishness is wiser then man in all His accolades, and even if God had a weak moment (which has never happened), a mere flick of His pinky finger packs more strength then all of mans combined strength over the history of all mankind’s existence.
    Holy Spirit truly is better than we can ever imagine. He leads us into the intimate knowledge of Love. This knowledge of Love always builds us up to more of the image of Christ and empowers us to reveal Him as He truly is in this world. It's free, our job is to rest and receive all the grace full goodness He has for us.

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Rest In Victory

I'm drifting down stream into the gifting of His profound dream.

His goodness is shifting all around me, to bring me into more of His crowned scene. 

He lavishes us with heaven, with access through trust in resurrection.

This new testament is deliciously refreshing and imprinted in His impression.

We have the best of Him in our flesh and grin, we are heavenly specimens.

God's aggression was towards sin, He took care of that. On the cross He got His win.

His ideas for us, are more then to simply support us. He sees us as gorgeous.

He is not asking Himself, "Can I afford this?" We have full access to His portions.

We live at His expense in the bliss of being cleansed and free from offense.

So stay inside His fence so He can Shepard you through the depths.

We are inept to be elect, and He canceled all regrets and handled all our debts.

He crushed sin and its effects on the whole, He made the enemy the foolish public spectacle. 

Live for Him, He was innocent but became indigent and 'finished it'

So we could mimic Him and always be delivering life sweet as cinnamon.

  Be the power and joy conduit, love speaks louder and He already accomplished it. 

He is not out for admonishment, the obstacles are gone so just sit in the palm of His grip.

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Acts 2- Love Speaks Louder

    God made so many amazing statements on the glorious day of Pentecost in Acts 2. So many promises and prophetic words were fulfilled that day. So much of His amazing character and propensity to love was revealed in that seemingly chaotic unveiling. But the real statement God made was about the depth of His unsearchable love for people and His amazing ability to redeem any and all people no matter what they have done.
    I want to point something different out here in Acts 2, but first I want to break it down so you can see how precise God was with this act of breath taking goodness. In Acts 2: 1-4 God pours out His Spirit to fill believers from the inside out. Acts 2: 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. (NASB) God makes sure that He gets everyone’s attention. He sets the stage for His emphatic statement of love, and what a glorious showing it was.
    So now that God has His beloved children hammered drunk in His love, and ‘And there appeared to them tongues as of fire’, it attracts the religious experts of the day who God had already gathered beforehand in one place. God planned this massive love encounter so well its mind boggling. Pentecost in the Greek is – pentékosté- a one day festival celebrated at the end of the barley harvest. This was a joyous time of giving great thanks to God, Strong’s Concordance. So during a great harvest in the natural, God brings in one of the greatest harvests for the Kingdom. Only He could plan something so beautiful.
    So as the ‘religious experts’ were gathering around, because of the Holy order that heaven was unleashing, God has His kids drunk in His love and speaking the languages of the religious experts that are looking on with confusion. Not only are His fully redeemed children speaking in languages they themselves don’t know, but they were ‘speaking of the mighty deeds of God’ in the languages of the Pharisees from all over the world. It says the Pharisees were ‘bewildered, amazed, astonished, with amazement and great perplexity’. People can critic, judge, try and explain, and etc etc all day long, those responses won't stop the love and power of God. God is going to find people that live with the lens of love and will not be affected by critics and skeptics, and He will use these people to bring heaven to earth. And heaven coming to earth has a tendency to look quite different then what we would expect.
    God is so precise here. He has His sons and daughters speaking the languages of the skeptics, ‘devout men from every nation under heaven’. Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, and Cretans and Arabs. The religious mindset has to be able to rationally explain everything that happens. That strong hold over peoples thinking can be debunked over and over and over again in the Word. God doesn’t need our OK to do something that we have never seen or heard of before, and just because it didn’t originate with us or our church doesn’t mean it’s not God.
    In Romans 12:2 it says, ‘…be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.’ Your mind is to be renewed so that when something comes up you can discern if it is God. Implying, let your mind be like His so you can tell when something happens if its Him or not. Your mind is to prove (the word for ‘prove’ in the Greek is – dokimazo- and it really means, approve or examine). God is saying that there is going to be plenty of things that come up that you have never seen before and your mind needs renewing so you will be able to approve it as the will and doings of God.
    In Acts 2 God set the stage for a monumental act of His kindness and grace. Peter stands and addresses the crowd. Peter’s mind was renewed, through intimate relationship with Jesus. He had obviously never seen this before, no one had, but He knew God and was able to discern His mighty hand of love and power. Peter knew the Word made flesh, and they were waiting for God’s promise, Luke 24:49 "And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven." (NLT)
    So Holy Spirit takes the microphone and through Peter He explains what this is in a way that they can understand. Acts 2:14 That’s when Peter stood up and, backed by the other eleven, spoke out with bold urgency… (Message) He explained what was happening with the written word, because the people he was addressing would have completely understood what he was saying. After Peter expounds on the fulfillment of prophecy in verses 17-21 he drives a sword of Truth into their hearts. Acts 2: 22 “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know— 23 this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. 24 But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power. (NASB)
    Ouch! Understand what God is saying here through Peter, God just called the religious experts of the day godless murders. All their bible memorizing, all their hours of prayer, all their performance, etc… amounted to being godless murders. They couldn’t see love when it was standing in front of them in the flesh. Acts 2: 36 “All Israel, then, know this: There’s no longer room for doubt—God made him Master and Messiah, this Jesus whom you killed on a cross.” (Message)  Now that’s the facts, but Truth always overrides the facts, and Truth cleanses anyone and everyone that will receive Him. Christ is Truth and He washes us completely spotless and empowers us to walk as a brand new creation (2 Cor. 5:17-21, Col. 3: 9-10, and more... ).
    Here is the amazing statement God was setting the stage to make. Acts 2: 37 Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” 38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (NASB)
    The first harvest that our Father of Love brought into the Kingdom was the very ones that murdered the Messiah Himself. The first people that tasted of redemption were the ones that killed our Redeemer. The ones that premeditated the torture and death of the Savior of the world, was the first harvest God reeled in. Don’t just read through this. Stop and let this loving Truth drill your heart! God didn’t take them through long ‘sozo’ sessions. God didn’t explain a never-ending ‘repentance’ process. God washed those that wanted Him spotless and made them a re-presentation of Christ, the very One they tortured and murdered. The process of knowing who He has made us is real, but it is not required up front. They have a revelation of the some degree of the Truth and He gives them everything. It's the Good News. The blood of Jesus speaks louder than anything! The facts are that they did brutally murder the Son of God, the Truth is that God paid for ALL sin through His Son on the cross (no matter the brutality and severity of it).
    God made such an outrageous statement of love and redemption here. He washed the ones that we would think were the filthiest of all, spotless and filled them with the very One they murdered. The scandal of grace, yes that is our God. It’s as if He wanted to make sure we understood what He was really like, and what the cross had really done. So the first ones God made just as spotless as the King Himself, were the ones that murdered the King Himself.

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Being

    What does it mean to ‘Be’? After all, we are not called to ‘do a son', that just sounds ridiculous. We are called to be a son of God. We are not the ‘doloved’, again, that is not even a word and it sounds outlandish. We are the Beloved. We are to dwell in a place of being loved, of knowing that our very stance and countenance all derives from the place of being perfectly loved by the Creator of the universe. The overflow of all He has done in us and will do through us stems from the place of being who He has declared we are. The Beloved.
    God did not say, “Do still and know that I am God.” He said, “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” Psalm 46:10 (ESV). The New American Standard Translation says this in Psalm 46:10, “Cease striving and know that I am God…” The word in Hebrew for ‘cease’ or ‘be still’ is -raphah-sink, relax, or fall limp. The bible is filled with commands, so in context of the entire Word this verse is not saying be nothing. We are positioned and fully equipped, right now, to be fully satisfied in Him, and extend that blissful satisfaction toward everyone we meet.
    Paul said this in 1 Corinthians 9:22…I have become all things to all men… This verse is saying to stop trying to do it your way and do it His way. God is able to supply every person you come in contact with everything that they may need for them to proceed in wholeness. You were created to know how to BE, and from the revelation of BEING all righteous doing flows.
    Getting it backwards and trying to do, in order to earn what is already yours, will have you performing for everything you already possess. That is falling back into the law, trying to earn righteousness. And falling back into the law brings your wrong doings to the surface. Romans 3:20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. (ESV)
    It’s free. You being a holy and blameless son is His idea, not yours. Just be who He says you are and He will be who He says He is in and through you. Focusing on a sin nature, which was removed from you when you said yes to Jesus, is simply resurrecting your old dead sinful self that was co-crucified with Christ on the cross. You were co-crucified, co-buried, co-risen, co-baptized, you are co-seated in Christ, and now you are a co-heir that has been co-missioned to re-present His power and love. It’s the simplicity of the Good News.
    The greatest sermon ever preached is Matthew 5, 6, and 7, The Beatitudes, or the Sermon on the Mount, or the Attitudes of Being. Jesus lays out the blue print of our true nature in these chapters. All of our sin nature was removed from us and we have been filled with the perfection of Him. We are not trying to do Christianity, trying to do without first understanding being brings a false sin nature identity to the surface. We are being a son of God. We are not doing works for God, we are being a vessel that He does His work through.
    We are not supposed to “do love” to the world, again that just sounds silly. Knowing how out of whack it sounds to, “do love”. Imagine what it looks like to God when you try and “do love”. We are called to be love to the world. Yes, love is a verb, but trying to give something away that you don’t fully understand you have is how the pureness of the Good News gets misrepresented with “do-it-yourself” religious nonsense.
    Matthew 5: 5 Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth. (NKJV) I have pondered this verse many times and it just didn’t make sense to me for a long time. I then looked up the word ‘meek’ in the Greek. The word for ‘meek’ in the Greek is –praus- This difficult-to-translate root (pra-) means more than "meek." Biblical meekness is not weakness but rather refers to exercising God's strength under His control – i.e. demonstrating power without undue harshness, Strong’s Concordance. God wants to give you the earth as your inheritance, just ask Him for it, Psalm 2:8. You are not going to inherit the earth through false humility. He gives the earth to those that walk in His power and love while being kindness and patience. This is a lifestyle Jesus is talking about.
    We are to be charged by Holy Spirit, that’s our place of BEING. Our efforts will never accomplish the task. Knowing that the task has been accomplished, “It is finished”, brings the revelation of a light and easy burden into reality. We are called to be a son that manifests all the work that was already completed for the world. All while demonstrating His power and love, as a lifestyle, without undue harshness.
    I am not trying to become someone, I am growing in the Truth of who it is I already am. I am not trying to earn something, I am growing in the reality of everything that He already paid for and freely gave me. I am not trying to earn favor with God, I am putting to use all the unmerited favor He has already giving me.
    When we let the glorious and never ending revelation of what took place on the cross begin to take charge and deep root in our lives we become over taken with passion. Paul said this in 2 Corinthians 5:14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; (ESV). Paul was overtaken in the place of dwelling in the True Vine. Paul had learned to stay in and never leave the place of being loved, hence our position in the Christ, the Beloved. This love affair catapulted him into outrageously good works. All his doing found its force, drive, and passion from the place of BEING.
    Paul was absolutely blitzed in the revelation of what God did on the Cross through His Son. Everything Paul spent his life trying to earn was free. When Paul found this out he spent his life giving away the entirety of heaven, because he knew that in the place of being he possessed the entirety of heaven. The Champion of Heaven was without spot or wrinkle, yet He took on all imperfections so any and all could receive His perfection. He took what you deserved so you could get what He deserved, Jesus paid for everything for everyone!
    Ephesians 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; (NASB). He says you have full access to all of heaven, John 17, so BE-lieve God and BE the son that gives away what He says you have. God gives you the Spirit without limits, John 3:34, so BE-lieve God and run off the heavenly fuel that you are built to run on. God has made you a brand new creation, 2 Corinthians 5:17, and He has made you whole, Hebrews 10:14,  God has done the job and what He says is Truth. We have the privilege of being who He says we are to a world that desperately needs what is alive inside us.
    Jesus did not tell us to pray for the sick, Jesus told us to heal the sick. He wouldn’t have given us a command that we couldn’t fulfill. The person that is being who He says they are will step right into doing what He told us that we could do. And the King of Kings just so happened to tell us that we could do anything in Matthew 19:26, yes that is correct you can do anything if you simply BE-lieve.
    When we dwell in that place of knowing how loved we are we stay in a place of being whole. It’s what salvation means. Salvation is far more about who you are now, rather than you praying some prayer thinking that you just punched your ticket to heaven. Jesus punched your ticket to heaven and inviting Him into your heart is not so you can hang on for dear life hoping Jesus hurries up His return. The very word for Salvation in the Greek is ‘sozo’ or ‘soteria’ meaning- welfare, prosperity, deliverance, preservation, salvation, safety. God's rescue which delivers believers out of destruction and into His safety, Strongs Concordance.
    Complete wholeness for any and all who will receive it is what God purchased through His Son on the cross. He paid for your wholeness and wholeness is your state of being, for you and for everyone that welcomes Him in. We begin to become familiar with heaven now, and it continues through eternity. No one is excluded from heaven on earths party, which does not start when you get to heaven, it started 2,000yrs ago when heaven came to earth. We get to BE who He paid for us to Be, and so He can BE who He says He is in and through us.

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Clichés

    Let's take a look at some clichés that we so often speak over each other, and silly things that we buy into with our thinking that go against our true identity as royal sons and daughters of Our Father in Heaven. Proverbs 23:7 For as he thinks within himself, so he is… (NASB). Our thought life has far more impact in our actions then we realize and our thinking patterns are what manifest in our lives.
    Although subtle, we can buy into phrases that are contrary to our true identity of being citizens of the kingdom of heaven. We are brand new creations as children of the King of Kings that have been washed spotless in the blood of God Himself. Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (NKJV) Let Him transform your thinking from the old sin full patterns, into the new creation kingdom reality that is now your true identity. 1 Corinthians 2:16 …But we have the mind of Christ.
    As this glorious repentance comes into being in our thinking we begin to see the world through the lens of knowing God’s will. The word for ‘prove’ in this verse in the Greek is ‘dokimazo’ – approve, put to the test to reveal what is good, Strong’s Concordance. How would we be able to approve His will, unless we first know his will? It’s simple, the Word of God has fully revealed His will, the biggest mystery being revealed is “Christ in us the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27) So let’s take a look at some things here…

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”

    I understand this is a nursery rhyme, but this is a perfect example of how we can sink into thinking that is completely counter to Truth. Sticks and stones sure can break your bones, but words can actually produce death. Proverbs 18:21 The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences. (NLT)
    There is a reason Paul said this in 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) Look at your words as seeds, because they are. In Matthew 13 Jesus gives us the parable about seeds and them growing. Later in the chapter He explains the parable and calls the seeds, “the word of the kingdom.” Let your words be seeds that produce life, not death, and know that your words are far more powerful than you think. Let’s use the power of our words to produce life, not death.

“Everything happens for a reason.”

    This is actually true, but not Truth. There is a huge difference between what is true and what is Truth. Everything does happen for a reason… but the way most people use this cliché is to suggest that God is in control, no He is not! I’m not suggesting that He couldn’t be in control if He desired to be, He simply has chosen not to be in control because love doesn’t control. God is love, and love does not have us like puppets on strings controlling our every move. Yet many of us think that God is in control.
    If God is in control then why do you even pray? He has everything in control and He has chosen when and why everything is going to happen. Why would He tell us to pray His will to earth (Matthew 6:9-10) if He has it all mapped out and we have no say in the matter? There is a massive difference between being in control, and being in charge. Love doesn’t control, God loves us into change (Romans 2:4). He doesn’t control us into changing. Being in charge is His position, and His way of taking charge is sending His Son to die on behalf of a world that wanted nothing to do with Him when He did it. His Son died once, so we could live forever. Love doesn't control, Love takes charge.

“What goes around comes around”

    Our actions definitely produce consequences. Consequences that are both positive and negative, but this statement is a Buddhist teaching not a Kingdom mindset of grace and Truth. Yes, we reap what we sow, but if we got what we deserved we’d all be going straight to hell. What’s coming around is called the Good News, and it’s the free gift of salvation to any and all who will call on his name. There is the curse of the law on anyone’s life until they simply say yes to Jesus and all that He paid for on everyone's behalf, but once a person confesses with their mouth and believes in their heart (Romans 10:9) that curse is broken (Galatians 3:13) and His grace is their portion.
    Grace doesn’t just set us free from what we deserve, God's grace has given us what Jesus deserved. Because of our sin nature He had to become what we looked like on the cross, so we could become what He looks like in the here and now. Now we get to look like Jesus in this world, 1 John 4:17 … because as He is, so also are we in this world. When God sees you He sees the perfection of Jesus, He extends what Jesus deserves to you.

“The grass is always greener on the other side.”

    2 Corinthians 6:2 … Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. (ESV) The word for ‘salvation’ in the Greek is ‘sozo’ or ‘sótéria’ - welfare, prosperity, deliverance, preservation, salvation, safety, Strong’s Concordance. We often think of salvation as a prayer we pray and that gets us to heaven. It's unfortunate that the Gospel is presented and looked at this way so often, but here is the Truth. Jesus got us to heaven, us confessing with our mouth and believing in our heart is us receiving what Jesus paid for on our behalf, and He paid for complete and total wholeness in the here and now. The prayer is not an end ticket that gets us to heaven one day. The confession and believing in our heart is the beginning of us experiencing heaven on earth and its increase for eternity. Jesus didn't just pay for us to get to heaven, He did do that, but its far more than that. Jesus paid for heaven to live inside us in the here and now.
    Yes, obeying God will always lead you from glory to glory and it being ever increasing in nature (2 Corinthians 3:18), but the grass is outrageously green right where you are standing. This cliché is almost always used in a train of thinking that suggests that the big thing is never where you are now. This is not truth, enjoy the journey. The big thing is Jesus, and He is fully alive with all His goodness right here and right now inside the believer.

“Better safe than sorry.”

    Is this cliché true at times? I suppose so, but it is used in a manner that is most often promoting fear. John Wimber had this to say about faith, “Faith is spelled R-I-S-K.” Many people want more of the Holy Spirit, I understand we already have Him, but Jesus would not have told us in Luke 11:9-13 to keep seeking and knocking for more of Holy Spirit if there was not more of Him then we have already experienced. So do you want more of the ‘Comforter’? Would it make sense then that you will have to step out into situations that may make you uncomfortable in order to receive the revelation and experience of more of the ‘Comforter’?
    God calls us to big things. He calls us to be Light in dark places. If what you feel He is calling you to do can be accomplished in your own strength then I can assure you that you are not hearing the greatness of the calling He has for you. The cliché, “Better safe than sorry,” unfortunately dominates a lot of our thinking when it comes to stepping out in our true identity of bold faith. We are so focused on the possibility of failing because we don’t realize that we already have succeeded in Christ Jesus, 2 Corinthians 2:14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. (ESV) Failure is not possible when your seeking to obey His word. You may not see it happen right away but if you step into your true identity and believe His word over your experience, then your experience will become His word.  

    There are many more clichés we could look at, I simply wanted to provoke thinking that continually finds itself falling short. We have been bought with the price of God’s very Son bleeding to death on our behalf, we cannot afford to degrade our value. The value of something is determined by the price paid for it and God paid an extremely high price to restore us to our true value. Let’s let Him weed out silly things we buy into with our thinking, so we can be freed up to dream and think with the mind of Christ.

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Tis The Season

Tis the season to be giving, being totally forgiven

 grants you full permission to give for a living.

Let generosity flow like a river, circumstances don't make you differ. 

His kindness is what we deliver. 

Let grace take it's place deep in the space that you encase, 

and flood each place with the glow of His face.

You've been embraced and all your mistakes have been erased. 

Be patient and grow in His amazement.

Spread His moist joy and let it be the voice that you employ. 

Hoist His loyal poise and boil in His oil of joy.

Lies are decoys that we avoid. Darkness is annoyed,

 and we destroy its void with a smile joined to the Anointed. 

You and bliss have been joined at the hips. 

You have been baptized in His mist of happiness.

Your heavenly Daddy and His activeness has lavished His kids,

 with the gift of an above average countenance.

 His success cancels our regrets,

 as we invest in all that He freshly erects in our life of rest. 

We might get stressed, but He is always at His best. 

As we get to embody Holy Spirit dressed in our flesh.

He surpasses the hype, so smear His life all over the fear that people hide. 

He died so we could stride in the high of His life. 

We are seated in His heights and never defeated in His eyes. 

While armored like an Ephesian for this fight. 

He empowered us with heavenly howitzers to bust, 

as the demons say 'wowzers' with disgust. 

His grace filled touch comes with a graceful facial,

 that will make you blush in His comforting clutch.

Share the goodness that cushions,

 the lamp of your soul that people look in. 

He never left you, He couldn't. 

He wouldn't, His love has smushed you into His bosom.

 As He holds you there it cancels confusion.

Now live your life of praise, wielding His Word as a knife the slices disgrace. 

So His life can take it's place.

Be the heavenly prototype that He has raised. 

You have been fortified in His fortress of grace.

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Love Yourself

    Galatians 5:14 For the whole Law [concerning human relationships] is complied with in the one precept, You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself. (Amplified)
 
    If we could get a glimpse of what love does in the spirit realm, we would whole heartedly lay down everything to fully become love. “The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread,” Mother Teresa. Love is seeing with His eyes. When we see people the way God sees them, we can only see the gold in them, the destiny in them, the worth in them, and God in them.
    2 Corinthians 5:14 For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; 15 and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. 16 Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. 17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. (NASB)
    We regard no one according to the flesh because we have His eyes and we are called to imitate God and not count people's trespasses against them so people can see God in us reconciling them back to Him. Loving ourselves and understanding how God sees us enables us to love people the way they should be loved.
     Song of Solomon 1:15 "How beautiful you are, my darling, How beautiful you are! Your eyes are like doves." (NASB) What was Solomon saying when He said, “Your eyes are like doves”? Song of Solomon is a back and forth romantic exchange between us (God’s bride) and Him (Jesus). Verse 15 is Him speaking to us. Doves represent Holy Spirit. Luke 3:21 When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened. 22 And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.” (NKJV) He says the same to you, “You are My beloved child; in You I am well pleased.” You have been pleasing to God before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1:4.
    He sees us as being filled with Him. We have His eyes. Matthew 6:22 "The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. (NASB) The word for ‘clear’ in this verse in the Greek is haplous- unfolded, single – literally, referring to a single (undivided) focus, without a (secret) double agenda. When our agenda is to love with no strings attached we have dove’s eyes that are filled with the light of the world and the Kingdom within us cannot be hidden.
    Galatians 5:14… You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself. I believe people are loving others the way they love themselves, which is far below our standard. How are you going to love others the way they are supposed to be loved, if we don’t love ourselves the way we are supposed to? Ephesians 1:4 Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes (NLT). We are holy in God’s eyes. Holy in the Greek, hagios-different (unlike), other, holy; for the believer, hágios means "likeness of nature with the Lord" because "different from the world."
    We should see ourselves the way God sees us so we can see others the way Him sees them. We are the very likeness of His nature. We have been born from above. This is what it says in the in Romans 5:6 [For] When we were unable to help ourselves [still helpless/weak], at the right [or appointed] time, Christ died for us sinners [the ungodly/wicked]. 7 Very few people will [or Rarely/Scarcely will anyone] die for a righteous [just; pious] person. Although perhaps for a good [truly good; noble] person someone might possibly die [the “righteous” person may be someone who is outwardly religious, while the “good” person is genuinely generous and loving]. 8 But God shows [demonstrates; proves] his great [own] love for us in this way: Christ died for us while we were still sinners. (Expanded Bible)
    Jesus died for you when you wanted nothing to do with Him. Why? Because He sees your value, He sees who you really are, and He is going to love you right into it! That’s how we are supposed to love other people. We are supposed to see the value in them and point it out to them and then love them into it, because we are called to imitate God (Ephesians 5:1) and that’s what God does. But we can’t do it until we love and see ourselves the way God sees us through the blood stained lens of His perfect Son Jesus Christ. God sees you as 100% righteous in His eyes.
    You are a palace fit for a King. God seems to think so. That’s why He you washed you spotless. How much more can He love us? Colossians 1:22 Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault (NLT). God’s opinion of you will never change, He is absolutely bonkers about you. Hebrews 10:14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified (KJV). The word for sanctified is the same word for holy (hagiazó) in Ephesians 1:4.
    He LOVES you! You might say, “Well that’s great, but that’s not my experience.” We are not called to live by past experiences, we are called to live by Truth. Walk in, preach, and demonstrate Truth and your experience will catch up. God is patient and kind with us. He never dishonors us. He is not easily angered towards us and He keeps no record of our wrongs. God does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. He always protects, He always trusts, He always hopes, He always perseveres. God never fails, and He has given us everything needed (2 Peter 1:3) to imitate Him (Ephesians 5:1).
    The problem comes when we use our circumstances as the barometer of how much God loves us. You will never grasp how much God loves you if you measure His love for you by life’s circumstances. His love for us is not shown through our circumstances, it was already shown when Jesus died to make you blameless before the Father (Romans 5:8). There is a devil that comes to kill, steal, and destroy and if we gauge how loved we are by life’s circumstances then the enemy will keep you on shaky ground. Death, loss, or destruction is never from God. God loves you 100%, 100% of the time. This is not my opinion this is His Word, and His Word trumps everything. He says in Psalm 138:2 that His Word is above ALL things. So what He says about you through His written Word, He holds above all things!
    Psalm 139:17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You (NASB). Pick up a handful of sand and try and count just the grains of sand that you can hold in your hand. Good luck! Then look down the beach and try and count all the sand on the beach. Good luck! Good has more good thoughts about you than all of that. That would be a good verse to meditate on forever. “I cannot afford to have a thought in my head about me that is not in His,” Bill Johnson.
    So like I said at the beginning, I believe people in deed are loving others the way they love themselves, which is far below our standard. 1 Corinthians 6:19 Or didn't you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don't you see that you can't live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. 20 God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body. (Message) People see God through you when you walk in love, and you will see people the way you see yourself. You will love people the way you love yourself.
    The loving eyes of God are set squarely on you and your amazing and wonderful value. He sees you as spotless and 100% righteous because of what Jesus did on the cross. John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life (WEB). God loves you so much that he put all your sins on His perfect Son, so you could be as perfect as His Son in His eyes. It would benefit us to love ourselves the way He loves us, so we can love others the way He loves them.

For more resources 

Erikfrederickson.com 

Erikfrederickson.wordpress.com