February 16, 2010

The Inspiration of Spiritual Initiative

Arise from the dead . . . —Ephesians 5:14

Not all initiative, the willingness to take the first step, is inspired by God. Someone may say to you, “Get up and get going! Take your reluctance by the throat and throw it overboard— just do what needs to be done!” That is what we mean by ordinary human initiative. But when the Spirit of God comes to us and says, in effect, “Get up and get going,” suddenly we find that the initiative is inspired.

We all have many dreams and aspirations when we are young, but sooner or later we realize we have no power to accomplish them. We cannot do the things we long to do, so our tendency is to think of our dreams and aspirations as dead. But God comes and says to us, “Arise from the dead . . . .” When God sends His inspiration, it comes to us with such miraculous power that we are able to “arise from the dead” and do the impossible. The remarkable thing about spiritual initiative is that the life and power comes after we “get up and get going.” God does not give us overcoming life— He gives us life as weovercome. When the inspiration of God comes, and He says, “Arise from the dead . . . ,” we have to get ourselves up; God will not lift us up. Our Lord said to the man with the withered hand, “Stretch out your hand” (Matthew 12:13 ). As soon as the man did so, his hand was healed. But he had to take the initiative. If we will take the initiative to overcome, we will find that we have the inspiration of God, because He immediately gives us the power of life.

It can be a struggle to understand when it is our own voice, our own strength or the voice, strength and initiative from God. We are told to wait on the Lord, be patient and wait upon Him, and now we are told, we are to take the initiative. Which is it to be?In every spiritual example we can find, God does require us to accept His grace, gifts and blessings. We are required to reach out and up, we are required to believe. The key once again is our connection.

When we are connected to God, we know when God speaks to us, we know when He wants us to move or stay or simply wait patiently.  When we are connected to God we hear His voice very clearly and know it is God guiding us. When we know it is God guiding us, we are always inspired to do exactly what He wants.  JDV/DJR

February 15, 2010

“Am I My Brother’s Keeper?”

None of us lives to himself . . . —Romans 14:7

Has it ever dawned on you that you are responsible spiritually to God for other people? For instance, if I allow any turning away from God in my private life, everyone around me suffers. We “sit together in the heavenly places . . .” ( Ephesians 2:6 ). “If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it . . .” ( 1 Corinthians 12:26 ). If you allow physical selfishness, mental carelessness, moral insensitivity, or spiritual weakness, everyone in contact with you will suffer. But you ask, “Who is sufficient to be able to live up to such a lofty standard?” “Our sufficiency is from God . . .” and God alone (2 Corinthians 3:5 ).

“You shall be witnesses to Me . . .” ( Acts 1:8 ). How many of us are willing to spend every bit of our nervous, mental, moral, and spiritual energy for Jesus Christ? That is what God means when He uses the word witness. But it takes time, so be patient with yourself. Why has God left us on the earth? Is it simply to be saved and sanctified? No, it is to be at work in service to Him. Am I willing to be broken bread and poured-out wine for Him? Am I willing to be of no value to this age or this life except for one purpose and one alone— to be used to disciple men and women to the Lord Jesus Christ. My life of service to God is the way I say “thank you” to Him for His inexpressibly wonderful salvation. Remember, it is quite possible for God to set any of us aside if we refuse to be of service to Him— “. . . lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified” ( 1 Corinthians 9:27 ).

February 11, 2010

Is Your Mind Stayed on God?

You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You —Isaiah 26:3

Is your mind stayed on God or is it starved? Starvation of the mind, caused by neglect, is one of the chief sources of exhaustion and weakness in a servant’s life.

If you have never used your mind to place yourself before God, begin to do it now. There is no reason to wait for God to come to you. You must turn your thoughts and your eyes away from the face of idols and look to Him and be saved (see Isaiah 45:22 ).

Your mind is the greatest gift God has given you and it ought to be devoted entirely to Him. You should seek to be “bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ . . .” ( 2 Corinthians 10:5 ). This will be one of the greatest assets of your faith when a time of trial comes, because then your faith and the Spirit of God will work together. When you have thoughts and ideas that are worthy of credit to God,

learn to compare and associate them with all that happens in nature-the rising and the setting of the sun, the shining of the moon and the stars, and the changing of the seasons. You will begin to see that your thoughts are from God as well, and your mind will no longer be at the mercy of your impulsive thinking, but will always be used in service to God.
“We have sinned with our fathers . . . [and] . . . did not remember . . .” ( Psalm 106:6-7 ). Then prod your memory and wake up immediately. Don’t say to yourself, “But God is not talking to me right now.” He ought to be. Remember whose you are and whom you serve. Encourage yourself to remember, and your affection for God will increase tenfold. Your mind will no longer be starved, but will be quick and enthusiastic, and your hope will be inexpressibly bright.

The key for us we have discovered, is to stay connected to God through Christ Jesus. AND Our experience is that rememberingwe are NOT connected, we can remember when we were, and the remembering will help us reconnect. If we will recall walking close to God, we can recall the hope, faith and victory that suddenly will come alive as  we are reconnected. JDV/DJR

February 10, 2010

Is Your Ability to See God Blinded?

Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things . . . —Isaiah 40:26

The people of God in Isaiah’s time had blinded their minds’ ability to see God by looking on the face of idols. But Isaiah made them look up at the heavens; that is, he made them begin to use their power to think and to visualize correctly. If we are children of God, we have a tremendous treasure in nature and will realize that it is holy and sacred. We will see God reaching out to us in every wind that blows, every sunrise and sunset, every cloud in the sky, every flower that blooms, and every leaf that fades, if we will only begin to use our blinded thinking to visualize it.

The real test of spiritual focus is being able to bring your mind and thoughts under control. Is your mind focused on the face of an idol? Is the idol yourself? Is it your work? Is it your idea of what a servant should be, or maybe your experience of salvation and sanctification? If so, then your ability to see God is blinded. You will be powerless when faced with difficulties and will be forced to endure in darkness. If your power to see has been blinded, don’t look back on your own experiences, but look to God. It is God you need. Go beyond yourself and away from the faces of your idols and away from everything else that has been blinding your thinking. Wake up and accept the ridicule that Isaiah gave to his people, and deliberately turn your thoughts and your eyes to God.

One of the reasons for our sense of futility in prayer is that we have lost our power to visualize. We can no longer even imagine putting ourselves deliberately before God. It is actually more important to be broken bread and poured-out wine in the area of intercession than in our personal contact with others. The power of visualization is what God gives a saint so that he can go beyond himself and be firmly placed into relationships he never before experienced.

February 9, 2010

Are You Exhausted Spiritually?

The everlasting God . . . neither faints nor is weary —Isaiah 40:28

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvrBQL8swLI  (:58 &1:47)

Exhaustion means that our vital energies are completely worn out and spent. Spiritual exhaustion is never the result of sin, but of service. Whether or not you experience exhaustion will depend on where you get your supplies. Jesus said to Peter, “Feed My sheep,” but He gave him nothing with which to feed them ( John 21:17 ). The process of being made broken bread and poured-out wine means that you have to be the nourishment for other people’s souls until they learn to feed on God. They must drain you completely— to the very last drop. But be careful to replenish your supply, or you will quickly be utterly exhausted. Until others learn to draw on the life of the Lord Jesus directly, they will have to draw on His life through you. You must literally be their source of supply, until they learn to take their nourishment from God.

When we are connected to God, truly connected, tothers can draw their nurishment from Him through us, without drawing our strength from us. JDV/DJR

We owe it to God to be our best for His lambs and sheep, as well as for Him.

Have you delivered yourself over to exhaustion because of the way you have been serving God? If so, then renew and rekindle your desires and affections. Examine your reasons for service. Is your source based on your own understanding or is it grounded on the redemption of Jesus Christ? Continually look back to the foundation of your love and affection and remember where your Source of power lies. You have no right to complain, “O Lord, I am so exhausted.” He saved and sanctified you to exhaust you. Be exhausted for God, but remember that He is your supply. “All my springs are in you” ( Psalm 87:7 ).

Perhaps we can use exhaustion as one more indicatior of our connection to and with God. Connected we can do all things through Christ Jesus. However, if we find ourselves exhausted, it is probably becasue we have been supplying our energy instead of being a conduit to the energy and power of the Spirit of God. JDV/DJR

February 8, 2010

The Cost of Sanctification

May the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely . . . —1 Thessalonians 5:23

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdMJ9LH-Lc0  (see 1;28/1:48)

When we pray, asking God to sanctify us, are we prepared to measure up to what that really means? We take the word sanctification much too lightly. Are we prepared to pay the cost of sanctification? The cost will be a deep restriction of all our earthly concerns, and an extensive cultivation of all our godly concerns. Sanctification means to be intensely focused on God’s point of view. It means to secure and to keep all the strength of our body, soul, and spirit for God’s purpose alone. Are we really prepared for God to perform in us everything for which He separated us? And after He has done His work, are we then prepared to separate ourselves to God just as Jesus did? “For their sakes I sanctify Myself . . .” ( John 17:19 ). The reason some of us have not entered into the experience of sanctification is that we have not realized the meaning of sanctification from God’s perspective. Sanctification means being made one with Jesus so that the nature that controlled Him will control us. Are we really prepared for what that will cost? It will cost absolutely everything in us which is not of God.

Are we prepared to be caught up into the full meaning of Paul’s prayer in this verse? Are we prepared to say, “Lord, make me, a sinner saved by grace, as holy as You can”? Jesus prayed that we might be one with Him, just as He is one with the Father (see John 17:21-23 ). The resounding evidence of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life is the unmistakable family likeness to Jesus Christ, and the freedom from everything which is not like Him. Are we prepared to set ourselves apart for the Holy Spirit’s work in us?

February 6, 2010

Are You Ready To Be Poured Out As an Offering? (2)

Verse 1:
To give unselfishly, to love the least of these
Jesus i’m learning how to live with open hands
All of these treasures that i hold will never satisfy my soul
Jesus i lay it at your throne with open hands

chorus:
And i lift my hands open wide let the whole world see
how u’ve loved, how you died, how you set me free!
Free at last i surrender all i am with open hands
with open hands

Verse 2:
To finally let go of my plans
These earthly kingdoms built of sand
Jesus at your cross i stand with open hands

chorus:
And i lift my hands open wide let the whole world see
how u’ve loved, how you died, how you set me free!
Free at last i surrender all i am with open hands
with open hands
You took the nails and you wore the crown
You hung your head, your love poured out
You took my place and you paid the price
So Jesus now i will give my life!!!!!!!!!

chorus:
And i lift my hands open wide let the whold world see
how u’ve loved, how you died, how you set me free!
Free at last i surrender all i am with open hands
Jesus i lift my hands open wide let the whole world see
how u’ve loved, how you died, how you set me free!
Free at last i surrender all i am with open hands with open hands

with open hands
with open hands
with open hands

Are you ready to be poured out as an offering? It is an act of your will, not your emotions. Tell God you are ready to be offered as a sacrifice for Him. Then accept the consequences as they come, without any complaints, in spite of what God may send your way. God sends you through a crisis in private, where no other person can help you. From the outside your life may appear to be the same, but the difference is taking place in your will. Once you have experienced the crisis in your will, you will take no thought of the cost when it begins to affect you externally. If you don’t deal with God on the level of your will first, the result will be only to arouse sympathy for yourself.

“Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar” ( Psalm 118:27 ). You must be willing to be placed on the altar and go through the fire; willing to experience what the altar represents-burning, purification, and separation for only one purpose-the elimination of every desire and affection not grounded in or directed toward God. But you don’t eliminate it, God does. You “bind the sacrifice . . . to the horns of the altar” and see to it that you don’t wallow in self-pity once the fire begins. After you have gone through the fire, there will be nothing that will be able to trouble or depress you. When another crisis arises, you will realize that things cannot touch you as they used to do. What fire lies ahead in your life?

Tell God you are ready to be poured out as an offering, and God will prove Himself to be all you ever dreamed He would be.

In the “Upside Down” world of His Kingdom,  We get our freedom when we surrender all.  As opposed to “normal” =  carnal thinking which says, “I’ll do some things for God but I’ll hang on to my freedom,  I’ll retain the final executive choices about my life.”   Total Surrender is the place of Maximum Freedom – because if we’ve really surrendered it,  we have nothing left to lose or protect  DJR

February 5, 2010

Are you willing to sacrifice yourself for the work of another believer—to pour out your life sacrificially for the ministry and faith of others? Or do you say, “I am not willing to be poured out right now, and I don’t want God to tell me how to serve Him. I want to choose the place of my own sacrifice. And I want to have certain people watching me and saying, ’Well done.’ “

February 4, 2010

The Compelling Majesty of His Power

The love of Christ compels us . . . —2 Corinthians 5:14

Paul said that he was overpowered, subdued, and held as in a vise by “the love of Christ.” Very few of us really know what it means to be held in the grip of the love of God. We tend so often to be controlled simply by our own experience.The one thing that gripped and held Paul, to the exclusion of everything else, was the love of God. “The love of Christ compels us . . . .” When you hear that coming from the life of a man or woman it is unmistakable. You will know that the Spirit of God is completely unhindered in that person’s life.

When we are born again by the Spirit of God, our testimony is based solely on what God has done for us, and rightly so. But that will change and be removed forever once you “receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you . . .” (Acts 1:8 ). Only then will you begin to realize what Jesus meant when He went on to say, “. . . you shall be witnesses to Me . . . .” Not witnesses to what Jesus can do— that is basic and understood— but “witnesses to Me . . . .”

We will accept everything that happens as if it were happening to Him, whether we receive praise or blame, persecution or reward. No one is able to take this stand for Jesus Christ who is not totally compelled by the majesty of His power. It is the only thing that matters, and yet it is strange that it’s the last thing we as Christian workers realize.

Paul said that he was gripped by the love of God and that is why he acted as he did. People could perceive him as mad or sane-he did not care. There was only one thing he lived for— to persuade people of the coming judgment of God and to tell them of “the love of Christ.”This total surrender to “the love of Christ” is the only thing that will bear fruit in your life. And it will always leave the mark of God’s holiness and His power, never drawing attention to your personal holiness.

The only thing that matters to paraphrase Oswald and Paul, is our connection and from that (the power of the Holy Spirit) flows our connection and awareness of His love….from that flows our actions that are really His actions through us. When this occurs, we truly and supernaturally understand His love.

It is inside of this love and our acting on it that we begin to understand St Francis of Asissi when he said (paraphrase)…we are to share the Gospel and use words only when necessary. JDV/DJR

February 3, 2010

Becoming the “Filth of the World”

></object>We can become as the filth of this world because He is so beautiful JDV/DJR

We have been made as the filth of the world . . . —1 Corinthians 4:13

These words are not an exaggeration.

The only reason they may not be true of us who call ourselves ministers of the gospel is not that Paul forgot or misunderstood the exact truth of them, but that we are too cautious and concerned about our own desires to allow ourselves to become the refuse or “filth of the world.”

“Fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ . . .” ( Colossians 1:24 ) is not the result of the holiness of sanctification, but the evidence of consecration-being “separated to the gospel of God . . .” ( Romans 1:1 ).

When we are connected to Jesus it dowsen’t matter how we are perceived. We know we are exactly where Jesus wants us. JDV/DJR

“Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you . . .” (1 Peter 4:12). If we do think the things we encounter are strange, it is because we are fearful and cowardly. We pay such close attention to our own interests and desires that we stay out of the mire and say, “I won’t submit; I won’t bow or bend.”

And you don’t have to— you can be saved by the “skin of your teeth” if you like. You can refuse to let God count you as one who is “separated to the gospel . . . .” Or you can say, “I don’t care if I am treated like ’the filth of the world’ as long as the gospel is proclaimed.”

A true servant of Jesus Christ is one who is willing to experience martyrdom for the reality of the gospel of God.

And the martyrdom may be simply living as God would have us live…staying connected and open to whatever comes our way. JDV/DJR

When a moral person is confronted with contempt, immorality, disloyalty, or dishonesty, he is so repulsed by the offense that he turns away and in despair closes his heart to the offender.

But the miracle of the redemptive reality of God is that the worst and the vilest offender can never exhaust the depths of His love. Paul did not say that God separated him to show what a wonderful man He could make of him, but “to reveal His Son in me. . .” ( Galatians 1:16 ).