Life Is To Be Lived

The Book of Creation

December 24, 2011 in Book Chapters with 0 Comments

I have always been a sci-fi fan, I was a Star Wars nut, I had everything. In fact, I still have about 200 original figures, 4 or 5 ships, a couple of systems like Dagobah and the Death Star, a couple large figures and of course an original VHS of Star Wars. Wow, I’ve never written out that list before, I have some great stuff…

I have also always enjoyed a good story, I wrote my first short story when I was 5 about some lions that lived in the woods behind my house. I have an old notebook of poems that I have written throughout the years, maybe one day I’ll make those available. Many of you know that my first book, Devil Walk, is about my possession and deliverance. Once I walked out of that, I knew I needed to begin writing, at least one book. The process was enjoyable and that book has helped lots of people, to God be the glory. I am now writing about 4 or 5 more non-fiction books, I plan to release 2 or 3 in 2012.

Now jumping to The Book of Creation. In my sci-fi movie watching, I came across Stargate, which began my fascination with ancient Egypt which led to studying other ancient civilizations. I was amazed by the ancient archeology that was supposed to be impossible in the time it was built, such as the Giza Pyramids, Tiahuanaco, the Ajunta Caves in India and many others. In my personal reading, I stumbled legends of giants in the past and how many of the older civilizations “gods” were of massive stature. Somewhere along the line I read the Book of Enoch and loved it.

From there I began to daydream about the process that Lucifer went through when he fell, how that could have happened and what it actually meant for mankind. If you’ve ever read the Book of Enoch, you know there’s a story of other angels that fell and corrupted mankind, of course this could be what Genesis 6 is referring to. Out of that I developed a story I originally called The Watchers. I approached a friend, Evan Braun, for help writing the story. Evan is an excellent writer and shares my love of sci-fi. I told him the story, it took a couple of hours but he was hooked.

He then took the story and wrote a screenplay that eventually became the novel that we’ve just released. In the process, I would write a scene or have an idea for an encounter and send it to Evan. I would then come across some piece of ancient history that would back what I thought I made up, it was really kind of freaky because it happened about 4 or 5 times. For instance, I “made up” a scene about the giants dreaming that the great flood was coming then found the “Book of Giants” in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which gives the account of the giants (Nephilim) dreaming of a coming flood.

We’re now in the process of promoting this book but also framing up books 2 and 3, in a way they will be more exciting but it will be hard to top the experience of developing the first story. If you’ve bought a copy, thank you, if you haven’t, what are you waiting for? The Kindle and eBook PDF versions are available and the print version comes out March 2012.

Purchase Kindle version for $2.99 Purchase PDF eBook for $2.99

Do Believers Still Have A Sin Nature?

November 7, 2011 in Grace & Love, Maturity & Responsibility, The Heart, The Law with 0 Comments

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Romans 6
3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.

We’re still taught that the heart of man is evil and there’s nothing good in man. Well that used to be true, but for those who have been born again, nothing could be further form the truth. The heart can yield itself to allow evil in your life but is not inherently corrupt.

For the believer, there remains no part of us that is sinful, not even our body. We have confused “the flesh” with our physical bodies and think that our spirit is perfect but our body is sinful. Your body is the temple of the living God, would God choose to inhabit a corrupt vessel? It’s impossible.

According to Strong’s, the flesh is “the earthly nature of man apart from divine influence”. The flesh can also be defined as man’s efforts. When we’re in “the flesh”, we’re in our own strength, which gets us nowhere spiritually. In fact, when we try to function in God’s Kingdom through “the flesh”, we make His grace ineffective. If we try to come to God based on our efforts, we are just like Cain with his sin offering, it’s no good before God.

So, what about sin? Did you know that the Greek word for sin “harmartia” is a noun? It’s not a verb. It’s a thing, not an action. Now we can of course commit sins but when talking about our old man vs our newly created self, sin is a noun. This is why believers still sin. Sin can be a thing in you, that is not you. Just because something is in you doesn’t make you that thing. I just ate some eggs for breakfast but that doesn’t make me an egg.

The point is, for those who have trusted in Christ for our justification before God, there is no part of us that remains sinful, you were crucified with Christ and raised with Him. That means you died, the old you, the sinful nature you…it’s gone forever.

So why do we still sin? Because we seek to be gratified or see God’s promises fulfilled through “the flesh”, which is basically self-righteousness. You didn’t do anything to become a sinner except be born, likewise, you can’t do anything to be wholly righteous except be born again.

I go into much more detail in this message. Many said it was the clearest teaching they’ve ever heard on sin nature. I pray you are encouraged by this message. Please contact us and let us know if this message ministers to you.

The Sin Nature Is Gone

http://forwardmin.com/podcast/sinnature.mp3

What about the 10 Commandments?

October 28, 2011 in Grace & Love, The Law with 1 Comment

A friend sent me an article today to ask what I thought about it. I love this man and his wife even though we’ve disagreed on a few Biblical points. I’ll post the short article first then I’ll post my response, I hope it adds to your understanding today.

::: Article :::

(Personal message removed)

I always find it good to take Bible scripture in the context of the whole passage of scripture or at least the verses surrounding. It is also good to take the bible as a whole and to study and find other related scripture to get the whole picture. When looking at Colossians 2:16 it is good to take note of the verses before and after.

Some people argue that it was the Ten Commandment law that was nailed to the cross rather than the law of ordinances, sometimes referred to as the ceremonial law as the Strong dictionary translates the word ordinances to ceremonial law. I believe Colossians 2:14-17 to be talking about the ceremonial law. As Colossians 2:14 says “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances.” I have looked at Old Testament scriptures of where the Ten Commandment law was given and where the ceremonial law was given. As you can see the Ten Commandment law was “written with the finger of God.” where the ceremonial law was written in Moses handwriting.

Exodus 31:18 “And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.” Deuteronomy 31:9 “And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it unto the priests the sons of Levi, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and unto all the elders of Israel.”

When you take Colossians 2:16 in light of the context of the passage you can see that Paul is referring to meat and drink offerings, holydays, the new moon festivals and the Sabbath days of which there where many in the ceremonial law. Leviticus 23:3 onwards is a good example of this. Also this law of ordinances (ceremonial law) was a temporary law “Which are a shadow of things to come” where as the Ten Commandment law is an eternal law that defines what sin is 1 John 3:4 “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” We will be keeping the Ten Commandment law for all eternity as God cannot stand sin and there will be no more sin in heaven. I do not think that the scriptures would contradict each other if these verses were really referring to the Ten Commandment law being nailed the cross it would contradict the very words of Jesus himself in Matthew 5:17-19

::: My Response :::

(Personal message removed)

I’m not sure if you have a direct question in regard to the Ten Commandments or not but I do see a couple of issues with this. First off, the guy says “I believe” it was the ceremonial law right after he says to let the Bible speak for itself, in context.

He also says that Sabbath is ceremonial, but it’s actually one of the big 10, so he’s kind of taking one the list of 10.

I think he’s exactly right in that the 10 commandments define sin, that’s what they’re designed to do, to show us that we can’t keep the law on our own and that we need a savior.

He’s not clear on the point in this article but I hope he’s not also saying that the 10 commandments are to be kept in order for us to be righteous. Righteousness is something given as a result of the blood of Christ. That doesn’t mean it’s ok to sin, sin still brings death but our “not sinning” isn’t what makes us or even keeps us righteous.

Here’s what Paul says about the 10 commandments:
2Cr 3:7 But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away,
2Cr 3:8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?
2Cr 3:9 For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.

Specifically referring to the 10 commandments (those were the only ones engraved in stone), he calls them the “ministry of death” and the “ministry of condemnation”.

So this guy is exactly right, they define what sin is and sin brings death. But we’re now under a covenant of grace which is the ministry of the Spirit.

One last point, he says the 10 commandments are eternal but there is no sin in eternity so I’m not sure why it would still need to be defined but I guess that’s a matter of opinion.

I always teach that Christ didn’t do away with the Law, he fulfilled it for us and made us joint-heirs in his inheritance, that comes as a result of fulfilling the Law.

Galatians 3:24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.

How I Heard The “Grace” / New Covenant Message

October 25, 2011 in Church with 2 Comments

“The grace message” is on the rise, and I say praise God. There’s also a growing number of people preaching a New Covenant message, and again I say praise God. But are grace and the New Covenant the same message? Well…sort of. The New Covenant is established on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ who was full of grace and truth and but grace is only a part of the New Covenant. Grace is how we’re saved, grace is how we display the power of the Holy Spirit and grace is how we stay out of sin, but again, grace is only part of the New Covenant.

It may be just semantics but sometimes words are important. If you preach grace, praise God but the focus of our message should be Jesus and what he accomplished through his death, burial and resurrection. Grace is how we walk in what’s available as a result of that. Grace is God’s capacity or ability that works through our heart, but it’s not the whole of the New Covenant.

People these days want to know who we’ve heard grace from; was it Andrew Wommack, was it Joseph Prince, was it Jim Richards, was it Andrew Farley, was it (insert your favorite grace preacher)… I’m thankful I heard it from Jesus. I may be a little unique in this but it’s my journey nonetheless. I wasn’t raised in church so I was not indoctrinated with religion. In my late teens, I had an encounter where I became possessed, complete with hearing voices, being attacked by demons at night and delusional thinking. What delivered me was a decision to turn to Jesus. When I decided to try to believe in him, he answered loudly. I go into much more detail in my book, Devil Walk, but the short version is I called on him and he was there.

Over a period of a year, I would talk to Jesus and he would listen. I felt completely comfortable in his presence, not once did I feel like he was upset with me. He always seemed to have time for me and was interested in every thought I came up with. I didn’t go to church until about 5 years after I was born again, I simply read the Bible on my own. That’s probably one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life. By the time I went to church I was well acquainted with Jesus through personal relationship and I knew the Bible for myself. So, when people ask me how I discovered grace, my answer is, “I met Jesus.”

You may be reading this and I would ask you, have you met Jesus? I don’t mean are you born again or do you believe in him for your righteousness before God, I mean, do you know him? For yourself. I have a sneaking suspicion that the reason God placed his spirit in us was so we could know him for ourselves without having to go through another human’s ability to explain God. I believe in teaching the Word of God but that is not substitute for a relationship.

It’s cliche to say that Christianity is a personal relationship with God but I say that unless you have that, you have no clue what his Word means even if you read it everyday of your life.

Discover grace, learn for yourself the details of the New Covenant but above all, love God and become convinced of his love for you. Get to know him in your own heart so that when someone asks you how you heard about grace,you can say, He’s my friend.

Grace is everywhere

October 19, 2011 in Grace & Love, Leadership with 3 Comments

We just hosted Cornel & Rensai Marais and Simon Wilson of Charisma Ministries (www.charismaministries.org) in Auckland New Zealand at Forward Church. I also just returned from the North American Grace Conference (www.northamericangraceconference.com) in South Bend Indiana, which was organized by Lucas Miles where Andrew Farley and Jim Richards spoke. The one thought I’m left with is that “Grace Is Everywhere.”

I heard several different people preach a New Covenant message, many of which used different scripture than I typically use and it was glaringly obvious that no matter where you go in the Bible, you will find grace. There are so many voices and messages in Christianity that people are often left not knowing what to think. There are so many contradictions in our churches that it’s no wonder we’re not winning the lost and reaching the dark places consistently.

The thing that I value about a strict New Covenant interpretation of the Bible is that no matter what scriptures are used and no matter what the focus of the ministry, the conclusion we’re left with is that God is good, he is seeking to bless us and we are complete in him. When you mix the covenants you’re left with questions about God’s view of us and what we have to do to get our prayers answered BUT when the New Covenant is truly preached, no matter the voice, what’s spoken is love and what’s produced is unhindered trust for God.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses have a consistent message, the New Testament church should too. The only reason there are so many confusing messages in the modern church is the we still have too many Pastors preaching a little law with their grace.

The bottom line is that Christ died for the ungodly and there’s nothing we can do to improve upon ourselves once we are born again. We can become more effective in walking out the holiness that is already in us but that has no bearing at all on our status in God’s eyes.

If you’re in a church that mixes the covenants and God is not telling you specifically to stay, run as fast as you can. Find a New Covenant church and give up the lifestyle of trying to keep God happy through your performance.

How to Walk In an Open Heaven

October 7, 2011 in Grace & Love, Kingdom with 0 Comments

Psalm 24:7 Lift up your heads, O you gates! And be lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in.

Do you want the King of glory to come into your life? Do you want the strength of the Lord of Hosts to fight for you? The Psalmist tells us to lift up our heads and it will happen.

Walk In An Open Heaven

I’ve heard it said that certain locations have an “open Heaven”. That’s usually a reference to some kind of spiritual portal or some other mystical phenomenon. It’s ok if you like your relationship with the Holy Spirit to be a little mystical, just don’t let it rob you of your identity in the family of God. Don’t let it send you on a journey to discover the mysteries of the Kingdom of God any other place than inside.

We all desire to see the Kingdom of God in our lives and see His promises become reality but the secret is that we already have everything we need inside of us because the presence of God dwells within us. Anytime we look outside of ourselves to meet a need, we either end up in sin and forget who we are.

Under the Old Covenant, the presence of God would come into the Holy of Holies once a year. His presence would come down, fill the room and then lift, then the priest would go in to the residual presence. And even that could kill an unrighteous man.

We now have not just the residual presence of God but the full, unhindered measure of all that He is in us. We are the current Ark of the Covenant walking around carrying the presence of God. Our bodies are the Holy of Holies that the presence of God emanates from. It’s true that God is omnipresent but not everyone is able to connect to that presence that’s everywhere. God is all around is but in this physical dimension, is limited by our choices and willingness to co-labor with Him. Psalm 24 shows that we can lift up our heads, or come into agreement with the will of God and that will allow the King of Glory to “come in.” God is everywhere but it’s up to us to allow His presence to “come in.”

We do not need to ask God to show up, He’s here. We do not need to ask God to bless us, He’s already made that promise sure. We simply need to allow Him to come into our bodies, lives and circumstances and we do this by lifting up our heads or in other terms, directing our thoughts toward him.

All of this is so that God would be glorified. God has a perfect will for mankind and wants to see it totally manifested but it’s up to us to release his presence into our lives. His presence is life. When God touches our lives, life happens. We don’t have to figure it out, we don’t have to conquer the sin first, we don’t even have to have the right beliefs on our hearts. When we experience the unhindered presence of God, it immediately brings about change. Transformation happens when you encounter God, not when you learn new information or perform a psychological exorcism.

If you want to see your life changed, if you need a miracle, if you lack in any of the areas of promise, lift up your heads, quit striving and just let the King of Glory touch your life. He’s waiting, he’s knocking, he’s willing, get out of the way with all of your efforts and let God be God in your life!

The message I just gave entitled How to Walk In An Open Heaven goes into much more detail. Please listen when you have time, I know it will encourage you.

Click on this link for the message and more details from this week’s Forward Ministries Update http://conta.cc/pQCrFc

Thoughts on Steve Jobs

October 6, 2011 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

By now you’ve probably heard that Steve Jobs of the wildly popular company, Apple, has passed away. I’ve been a Mac user since 1997 when Sara and I bought a PowerMac 8500 to start a graphic design business. I’ve bought all kinds of Mac stuff since then, their stuff just works. I even preach from an iPad, which Steve would probably not like.

That brings me to my findings on his blog, www.fakesteve.net. It may not be the most politically correct thing to talk about right after the guy’s death but Jesus is pretty much what my life is about and I was interested to see if there was any spiritual content on his blog. Boy is there… He seems to have a high regard for the teachings of Jesus but staunchly opposes Jesus’ virgin birth and the idea of him being the son of God, much less the savior of the world. That saddens me.

While he deserves to be on the short list of pioneers in world history, all of that stuff doesn’t really matter that much. I don’t want to sound insensitive toward Steve, his family and his accomplishments but all I can think about is where is he now. I know I’m not the only one thinking that. I’m not going to make judgments and presume to know what he believed in his heart or what happened in his moment of death but I can’t help it, I’m just grieved over what I’ve read in his blog.

Anyway, thanks for stopping in and reading this post, I welcome your comments.

R.I.P. Steve, my condolences to his family and loved ones.

Summary of my trip to Kenya

August 25, 2011 in Kenya, Kingdom with 0 Comments

The country of Kenya has a saying…

Forward Ever… Backward Never!
I love that…

Many of you made it possible for me to go to the beautiful country of Kenya and experience the resiliency and resourcefulness behind that statement. Thank you to all who supported this mission financially and thank you to all of you who were praying for me! My flights were uneventful, my travels were seamless and my health was excellent the entire trip. Even the nights I was soaked, sleeping in my tent were a blessing because I knew the Pokot need the rain. Praise God!

Here’s a summary of the trip

I arrived in Nairobi and spent the night at a mission then drove to Nakuru the next morning with Teresa Webb and her assistant, Moses. After a night in Nakuru we left for Pastor Chochoi’s home in Nginyang. Pastor Chochoi and his wife, Nelly, started Cana Girl’s Rescue Home. They take in girls who have escaped early forced marriage and female genitalia mutilation. Cana contacts the girls parents and lets them know they are safe. Many of the parents appreciate the opportunity because at Cana their girls receive regular meals and an education. If you would like information on sponsoring a girl for $40/month, contact Forward at 770-500-9217. We will work through Teresa Webb for anything we do with the Cana girls.

After a night at Pastor Chochoi’s, where I had goat meat and Ugali for the first time, we took the very rough road to Paka. Many of you watched the video and are familiar with the story. They told Teresa that they wanted to know more about the God that loved them. Word went ahead that we were coming and they truly were waiting on us. A pastor had followed up after Teresa’s first visit a year ago so a few of them had heard about Jesus but it wasn’t until we got there and shared the Gospel of the Kingdom that most of them truly believed. We saw 43 born again within two hours of our arrival. As you can see from the testimonies I posted on YouTube, they believed on Jesus because they saw that he is powerful.

Every child was healed, that’s no exaggeration. As far as we could tell, there was not even one sick adult by the time we left. We saw Malaria and Typhoid healed, injured knees, hurting backs… even the animals were healed. They said they had never seen anything like that and told us that we were like God. We told them that if they believe on Jesus, so are they. That was my greatest joy, seeing the look in their faces when I told them that they had the same spirit in them. It was truly beautiful to watch faith come alive in them.

We lived among them and participated in their annual celebration. During our stay we were able to pray with them as those who spoke their language were able to hear them making decisions for Christ throughout our stay.

During the first meeting, we prayed for healing of the children and everyone present. We noticed that all of the children began sitting up, see the video here. One little boy had Malaria, he was laying lifelessly under a tree. After we spoke life over him, he immediately sat up (that doesn’t happen with Malaria). A man named Moses who drove us there said that was the first time he had actually seen a miracle. He and I have become friends during this trip. I taught them to love and pray for one another, that it wasn’t just us that had anything special from God.

They can’t read and have never been taught anything about the life of Jesus. I told them several stories about Jesus; multiplying bread, calming storms, walking on water… I told them the creation story and how God made everything for mankind. I told them about Adam and Eve, they all laughed for a long time when I told them that the first woman was created from the rib of a man. They were all like children listening to the stories I told them. It truly was an amazing experience in more ways than one.

I ate goat meat 2 more days in a row and other ethnic food the entire time. I did pretty well with until the last night, thankfully I had some Tums : ) Every night we camped, it poured down rain. I got soaked all night but I was praising God because I knew it was an answer to prayer for them. Many of them believed on Jesus because they saw that he had power to bless their land as a result of prayer.

The elders in the tribe made me an elder. They said I was a shepherd to them because I taught them about God and how he created them then sent his son to be judged and die in our place. One of the men told a testimony about seeing Jesus teaching them. It sounded like he actually saw Jesus walking among them teaching them, it was difficult to grasp what he meant from the translation.

One of the most impressive testimonies came from a man that said many in his village, which was over an hour away, were suffering from Typhoid. After our first gathering, he went home and discovered that all of the Typhoid was gone from his village!

On Saturday, a village guide took me and a few of our team members to the top of Paka. It took 2.5 hours and was pretty rough African bush terrain. The guide said my commitment to make it to the top impressed him and made him believe we were committed to them.

The biggest need now is water. The women hike 8 hours a day to get 20 liters of water for them, their children and their animals when there is no rain. Many times they have miscarriages from walking so far. The men stay in the villages and tend the goats, sheep and other livestock.

We talked to the assistant Chief (the local government official for that territory) and he said there was water underground just near the location of the structure they built to gather to hear about Jesus. We later had a divine appointment with a local drilling company that gave us invaluable information about drilling a bore hole (well) for them. We have several steps of research to take but it has already begun. We’re going to research all the options but we’ll get them water somehow. Please contact me if you would like to help the Pokot drill a well. It will cost between $35,000 and $50,000 since it is so remote but that’s peanuts for God. These people need water, they will forever be in my heart.

The solar powered audio Bibles were late arriving so Teresa will be taking them back up there in a couple of weeks when they come it.

Once we returned to Nakuru, we prayed for some “street boys.” These are kids that are left on their own and only have what they can get from begging. I met a man named Pastor Sammy Nawali. He has Sure 24, a home for almost 40 street boys. He has basically adopted them and become their Dad, they all call him Dad. It was humbling for me to see what this man is doing. We feel good about ourselves when we carry a bag of groceries to someone once a week but this man has given his entire life for these boys, surely this is the work of God. Sure 24 boards these boys full time, feeds them, clothes them and educated them. I toured their compound and walked away touched. Contact me if you would like to help them, $40/month sponsors one boy.

I then preached a Friday night Kingdom Night at Bride of Christ Church pastored by John Makongo. Here I was introduced to a very exciting young group of people who call themselves Grace Aflame. They are a group of friends that go around to several churches and set them on fire with the love and power of God. Through David Remi, they have heard the true Gospel. They preach the goodness of God all over the place. I was so impressed by their pastor Kelvin, Caleb, David, Kevin, Naomi and the rest of them. Caleb told me that high schools and colleges will invite them onto their campuses to walk around freely praying for and encouraging the students. These people are amazing. I am in touch with many of them on facebook.

The next morning we went to Freedom Fellowship Church in the Kaptimbwa slums. Pastor Steven Towett put together a Pastor’s conference where 7 pastor’s came from up to 5 hours away just to hear the good news. These pastors are hungry for God and desire to be trained. They saw miracles and were blessed by the messages but they need more training, they are asking for it. I will begin speaking to a few people to put together curriculum to get them trained in the Gospel of the Kingdom. One young pastor showed up that has already started two churches. Click for a video of him. He is very excited to be trained. I received a message from him yesterday that local government officials, tribal elders and others came to his home to hear what he learned in the Pastor’s conference. He preached to them about changing the way we think (repentance) because Jesus has joined us to the Kingdom, we have a new way of living that we have to change our minds to experience. Sound familiar?

I also met Matt Holleman, he is a talented musician. He is from New Zealand but moved to Kenya to start a school near an IDP camp that is home to 966 families, over 7,000 people. Matt is just one example of people all over the world that are laying their lives down to help people. I was forever changed by the compassion I saw in all of these people and feel more compelled to continue to tell people about God’s love and show people his power.

Thanks again for all the prayers and support!

Forward Ever… Backward Never!

You can see more photos on my facebook page facebook.com/clintbyars

Harmonizing with Heaven through Meditation

May 27, 2011 in Kingdom, The Heart with 0 Comments

One of the most common questions I hear after people are exposed to the goodness of God message is, “How do I get this stuff to work?” That is an honest and fair question. We know God loves us, we know we’re freely righteous through the sacrifice of Christ, we know God has qualified us for blessing by promise, we know all the promises are yes and we know that Jesus said, “all things are possible to him who believe.”

The next logical question should be, “how do I get all that to work?” The problem is not if God is willing or if he is sending blessings our way, the problem is with our minds. We still think with our carnal minds, we are still looking to an outward solution rather than realizing that the Kingdom is within and the promises flow from a heart that one with God through Christ.

Mark 4 tells us that the heart determines the degree of the Kingdom we’ll experience and the manifestation is directly related to the measure we meet. “The measure we meet” is referring to the amount of significance we place on the process of Kingdom seeds growing in and out of our hearts. Kingdom promises are spiritual, eternal truths that can become physical realities in our lives. Most of us simply choke those Kingdom fruits out before they have a chance to mature. We choke them out by worry, lust and the cares of the material, fallen world.

The Kingdom is not magic, it’s just spiritual. That which is spiritual can and will affect that which is physical. That which is physical cannot change but only hinder that which is spiritual from becoming physical. Spiritual truths are far greater than temporary realities, we just don’t remain faithful until we see the full manifestation of Spirit.

One day, the fullness of God’s Kingdom will be manifested 100% without hindrance, at the Resurrection at the end of time we will all see the complete manifestation of the promises of God. But for now, we can see as much of it as we can experience in our hearts and allow to manifest in our lives. One way to facilitate manifestation and stop hindering Kingdom fruit from growing in our lives is through meditation.

I’ve just preached a message on Harmonizing with Heaven through Meditation, please take a listen. I pray it will inspire you to trust God deeper and begin to shape your experience of the promises that He’s made to you. God always keeps His promises and all of His promises are for you!

Harmonizing with Heaven through Meditation

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Announcing Grace In Motion @ Forward Church

May 11, 2011 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

Whoever calls on the name of the Lord Jesus will be healed, made whole, restored, rescued, delivered and kept safe. Do you need to experience any of those in your life? Do you want to learn how to operate in the Gifts of the Spirit? Grace In Motion is the perfect opportunity. Come to be blessed and learn to pray over others.

Grace In Motion is an open prayer meeting held every 2nd and 4th Thursday at 7pm at Forward Church. We often follow our time in prayer with outreach into our community but you are not required to participate.

Who should come?

- Those who desire hands-on training in the gifts of the Spirit
- Those who need prayer
- Intercessors
- Those who just want to soak in an environment
where the presence of God is manifested
- You can also bring others in need of prayer
- Not just for Forward Church people, all are welcome

Why Grace?

The word Grace is the Greek word, Charis. This word is also translated as gifts in the Bible. Grace = Gifts. Charis / Grace / Gifts is not just unmerited favor, it’s also a divine influence in our hearts that brings the capacity to operate in the love and power of God. Believing is a matter of the heart, Grace In Motion is an opportunity to become persuaded to believe and see the promises of God manifest in your life and others lives.

Grace is not just about knowing that God loves you then becoming unproductive, we are to represent Christ in this earth through the ministry of reconciliation AND do the works of God.

You can see miracles through your hands because the full measure of the Spirit of Christ dwells in all believers to heal the sick and drive out devils!

Beginning this Thursday! Grace in Motion will be every 2nd and 4th Thursday of every month. Starts at 7pm at Forward Church.

www.forward-church.com

770-500-9217

3500 Hwy 34 E, Suite 15 | Sharpsburg, GA 30277
Map: http://bit.ly/kL4A6Q

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