Nurturing the Seed of God’s Kingdom in Your Heart
As you acknowledge God, you will find the path God is laying out before you. He is not waiting on you to acknowledge him before he leads you. He is waiting for you to change the way you think so you can perceive where and how he is leading you. The definition of the word “acknowledge” gives us more insight into how God leads us.
The Hebrew word for “acknowledge” is yada. This word means:
know
perceive
consider
be acquainted with
declare
to make oneself known
to reveal oneself
click for more
#7 in FAITH & HOPE: Living in the Balance of Wisdom and Revelation
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He shall direct your paths.”
As you acknowledge God, you will find the straight path God is laying out before you. He is not waiting on you to acknowledge him before he leads you. We must change the way we think so we can perceive where and how he is leading us. I promise you he is trying to lead you, now you must be willing to acknowledge him.
The Hebrew word for “acknowledge” is yada. This word means:
know
perceive
consider
be acquainted with
declare
to make oneself known
to reveal oneself
The last two are interesting. The first few make sense, but the last two go a bit deeper. To acknowledge God is to make yourself known to him or to reveal yourself to him. In other words, be honest with God and reveal your innermost thoughts to him.
These aspects of “acknowledge” indicate confession and repentance. Both of which are mind-renewal exercises and changes of the heart.
When seeking to perceive God’s leading in your life, you must be honest with him AND yourself. You must be willing to open your heart and admit to yourself where you currently are. You must be willing to recognize where you’re self-reliant, where you are trusting in your own strength, where you are doubting God, where you are trapped in sin, as well as any number of things that may be keeping the eyes of your heart from hearing him and seeing the steps he’s laying before you.
There’s a shift that happens in your capacity to see, hear, and follow God when you are willing to set aside your logic and trust that God has a better way. This is true repentance, this is having a true change of heart.
“Leaning not to your own understanding” is not an invitation to live ignorantly in blind faith, it is clear instruction to find out how God thinks about a matter and apply his logic to your life no matter how much you want to do it your own way. We are not ignorant of his ways, we have his Word which tells us what he expects and how he thinks about everything.
If you want to see fruit and success in specific areas of life, like relationships, finances, health, and purpose, find out what God says about those areas and choose to live and make choices that are consistent with his logic rather than yours. Make a commitment to his Word and his ways above your desires.
Find out what he says and believe it, no matter what you have to admit to yourself along the way. Commit to his Word above any other source of information and instruction, no matter how appealing it may sound.
To lean not on your understanding and acknowledge him is to seek his wisdom and align your thinking and choices with his perspective. You may find that you disagree with God as you are seeking to be led by him, what will you do then? When that happens, don’t worry, it is safe to acknowledge your self-reliance and ask him for help.
As you plant and nurture his logic and wisdom in your heart, above your own emotions and logic, his kingdom will manifest in your life. His kingdom will bear fruit beyond anything you could make happen on your own. His kingdom is in you. It is spiritual. His kingdom in you is an unlimited field of potential fruit and power just waiting to be cultivated. You can nurture it by aligning your heart, emotions, thoughts, and choices with his logic above your own understanding, and your paths will become straight. You will see the blessing of the Lord!
This is just one aspect of the video above, as you with it, identify areas of life that aren’t working and be willing to acknowledge his ways so you will see kingdom fruit and God will be glorified in your life.
The Law of the Seed: Understanding Faith and the Kingdom of God
The Law of the Seed: Understanding Faith and the Kingdom of God
When Jesus taught about faith, He emphasized the importance of experiencing God's kingdom. He often used the illustration of the mustard seed to illustrate the connection between faith and God's kingdom, ultimately conveying the message that faith leads to the manifestation of God's kingdom in our lives. In other words, faith enables us to see and experience the presence of God's kingdom in the present moment. Therefore, by embracing and practicing faith, we can live a life filled with the hope and peace that comes from experiencing the reality of God's kingdom every day.
#6 in FAITH & HOPE: Living in the Balance of Wisdom and Revelation
“when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade.””
When Jesus taught about faith, He emphasized the importance of experiencing God's Kingdom. He often used the illustration of the mustard seed to illustrate the connection between faith and God's Kingdom, ultimately conveying the message that faith leads to the manifestation of God's Kingdom in our lives. In other words, faith enables us to see and experience the presence of God's Kingdom in the present moment.
When we walk by faith, we can live a life filled with the hope and peace that comes from experiencing the reality of God's Kingdom every day.
How do we walk by faith? Know God's Word in an area of life, understand what Jesus did for you in that area, and believe fully until it comes to pass, leaving no room for doubt.
When It Is Sown
We must sow the Word in our hearts so the seed of the Kingdom of God within us will become fruitful. The Kingdom is in there, and it's trying to grow. Faith clears out the thorns, rocks, and other impediments keeping the Kingdom from increasing.
The more Jesus teaches about faith, the more we see he's talking about experiencing his Kingdom. It will manifest when we rest in Christ's finished work and actively believe to experience God's Kingdom here and now.
In this passage, Jesus gives us the secret of how to walk by faith and experience Kingdom fruit by sowing the Word in our hearts.
Mark 4:26 And He said, "The Kingdom of God is as if a man should [f]scatter seed on the ground, 27 and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. 28 For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come." 30 Then He said, "To what shall we liken the Kingdom of God? Or with what parable shall we picture it? 31 It is like a mustard seed which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth; 32 but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade." 33 And with many such parables He spoke the Word to them as they were able to hear it. 34 But without a parable He did not speak to them. And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples.
To walk by faith and not by sight is to live with an expectation of experiencing His Kingdom in everyday life. As we nurture His Kingdom within us, by faith, it will become fruitful and bear fruit.
What Kingdom expectations do you have? What would you say is limiting the Kingdom from growing in your life? Fear, worry, your past, lack, loss, concern for money? Deal with those things, get your thinking in alignment with God's promises in Christ, and expect to live in His Kingdom now.
Water Walking Faith vs Sinking Doubt
Doubt is a faith killer. Jesus said that all things are possible for those who believe, but he also instructed us to “doubt not.” Doubt is like the opposing force to faith. Doubt chokes the seed of God’s kingdom. Doubt is carnal by nature. Join us today as we discuss how to stay in faith and not let doubt steal our hope.
#5 in FAITH & HOPE: Living in the Balance of Wisdom and Revelation
“And He said, “Come!” And Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water, and came toward Jesus. ”
Doubt is a faith killer. Notice the effects of doubt in Peter's heart.
But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and when he began to sink, he cried out, saying, "Lord, save me!" Immediately Jesus reached out with His hand and took hold of him, and *said to him, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?" Matthew 14:30-31
Peter was walking on water because he saw Jesus walking on water. Just like he healed people because he saw Jesus heal people. But when the wind and waves increased, Peter became afraid and began to sink, which is interesting. Have you ever stepped into a pool from the edge? Did you BEGIN to sink, or did you immediately sink? You don't BEGIN to sink. You sink. But Peter began to sink.
There was an intermediate period where his faith, or trust in Jesus, began to waiver, and he was caught between faith and doubt, beginning to sink.
Ponder the parallels in your life for a moment. Where are you wavering, caught between fear and faith? Where are you distracted by wind and waves, caught between distracted doubt and focused confidence?
Lord, Increase Our Faith!
In the Gospel of Luke, the disciples asked Jesus to increase their faith, believing that they could do the impossible with more faith. But Jesus responded by saying that faith as small as a mustard seed could move a tree into the sea. Jesus was teaching his disciples that the strength of their faith did not depend on its size but on its quality.
Jesus said that all things are possible for those who believe, but he also instructed us to "doubt not." Doubt is like the opposing force to faith. Doubt chokes the seed of God's kingdom that is trying to grow in your heart and affect your life on every level.
In the story of Peter walking on water for a little while before sinking, we see a paradox in Jesus' response. He saves Peter, but he also asks him why he doubted. Jesus held Peter and his faith accountable for being able to do the impossible.
Jesus gives us the secret - doubt not in your heart. James echoes this in his letter. Notice the language James uses, it's a call back to Peter walking on water, but he applies it in a broader sense. I believe what James learned from Jesus" response that night in the boat changed how he operated in faith forever.
James 1:5 Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6 But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That man should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Doubt makes you unstable. Doubt makes you begin to sink. But faith keeps its eyes on Jesus and expects to experience life as it is in Christ's kingdom, right here on earth.
We can cultivate water-walking faith by eliminating doubt. As we do so, we will discover that the impossible becomes possible, and we can accomplish great things for the glory of God. Let us, therefore, trust in the power of the Holy Spirit and have faith in the promises of Jesus, who challenges us to step out of the boat and walk on water.
I hope you watch the full video, it will bless you and increase your faith!
The Role of Faith in Healing
Jesus said a variation of the same idea most of the time people came to him for healing.
Matthew 8:13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go! As you have believed, so will it be done for you." And his servant was healed at that very hour.
Matthew 9:29 Then He touched their eyes and said, "According to your faith will it be done to you."
Matthew 15:28 "O woman," Jesus answered, "your faith is great! Let it be done for you as you desire." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.
Mark 5:34 "Daughter," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be free of your affliction."
Mark 10:52 "Go," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you." And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.
Luke 17:19 And He said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has [n]made you well.”
Then when he taught on faith he said this.
Matthew 13:31 He presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a person took and sowed in his field; 32 and this is smaller than all the other seeds, but when it is fully grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that THE BIRDS OF THE SKY come and NEST IN ITS BRANCHES.” 33 He spoke another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three sat of flour until it was all leavened.”
The word "hid" is also translated as "mixed into." Faith doesn't make God do something, he's already offered everything in Christ. Faith makes the effort to mix Christ into the area that needs healing. How will you mix the word of Christ into your issue? Once you do, it will work its way through the whole thing and bring healing.
#4 in FAITH & HOPE: Living in the Balance of Wisdom and Revelation
“Jesus said, “your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be free of your affliction.””
Jesus often repeated similar phrases when people sought healing from him.
Matthew 8:13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go! As you have believed, so will it be done for you." And his servant was healed at that very hour.
Matthew 9:29 Then He touched their eyes and said, "According to your faith will it be done to you."
Matthew 15:28 "O woman," Jesus answered, "your faith is great! Let it be done for you as you desire." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.
Mark 5:34 "Daughter," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be free of your affliction."
Mark 10:52 "Go," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you." And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.
Luke 17:19 And He said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.”
This can be an empowering concept, but it can also cause great frustration.
What Is Faith?
Defining something often requires clarification of what it is not. Faith is not a means to manipulate God, a measurable quantity, or a reason for God to grant blessings or answer prayers. Faith is not something you do to get God to respond to you. Faith is a response to who God is.
Faith is trust and conviction in God's nature and character. It is a response to who God is and what he has done for you in Christ. It is not a means to manipulate God or earn blessings but a recognition of His desire to heal and deliver. Faith is not a measure of one's abilities or a commodity with varying amounts, but a personal belief in God's power and love.
Faith is this…
Matthew 9:28 And after He entered the house, the men who were blind came up to Him, and Jesus *said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They *said to Him, “Yes, Lord.” 29 Then He touched their eyes, saying, “It shall be done for you according to your faith.”
Matthew 8:2 And a man with leprosy came to Him and bowed down before Him, and said, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” 3 Jesus reached out with His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
Jesus is willing AND able.
Faith does not doubt that God is willing to heal, provide or deliver.
Theology focused on circumstances undermines faith and weakens the church's power. By reducing the Word of God to match individual experiences, it robs believers of the promise of life and health. This watered-down theology stunts faith growth and hinders the church's ability to access the full power of God.
GOD IS ABLE AND HE IS WILLING TO HEAL YOU!!!
People are not healed because of a lack of conviction that God is willing, not because God is withholding or waiting. God has already granted the power to receive healing through Christ, as revealed in Jesus' teachings on faith.
What Did Jesus Teach About Faith?
Matthew 13:31 He presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a person took and sowed in his field; 32 and this is smaller than all the other seeds, but when it is fully grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that THE BIRDS OF THE SKY come and NEST IN ITS BRANCHES.” 33 He spoke another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three sat of flour until it was all leavened.”
The heart is like a field and the power of healing is like seed and yeast. As a farmer plants seed or a baker adds yeast to dough, it begins to spread and affect the entire substance. The tiny mustard seed grows into a large plant, and yeast permeates the entire dough, causing it to rise and become usable.
The word 'hid' in verse 33 can also mean 'mixed into'. Faith doesn't coerce God, but rather integrates His promises in Christ into the need for healing. By meditating on and sowing the Word of God into your heart, faith produces results and expects the Word to bring change in your life.
Sow the Word of God related to joy to overcome fear and depression. Sow the word of righteousness to overcome sin. Speak it out, memorize passages that target your specific need, and believe God's word above circumstances. This will bring life and produce results.
How will you mix the word of Christ into your issue? Once you do, it will work its way through the whole thing and bring healing.
I give more examples and a longer description of how to sow the Word in the video.
Build a Home in Your Heart for the Promises of God to Dwell
We walk by faith, not by sight. But our faith is not of our own making, our faith in God’s promises and purposes. To be faithful is to expect God’s promises to come to pass, and to yield to his leading to accomplish his purposes. Join us today as we discuss how to reason in our hearts that God is faithful.
#3 in FAITH & HOPE: Living in the Balance of Wisdom and Revelation
“By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country...”
Abraham, the father of faith-righteousness, made several mistakes. God told him to leave his family and go to a new land, but Abraham brought his nephew, Lot, and his family, which caused all sorts of problems. He lied about his wife to Pharaoh and gave his wife to him, the wife he was to have a promised child. He gave his wife away again to another king. He had a child with a different woman who was not his wife. And I'm sure there were more along the way.
Yet he is the man through which God birthed the nation of Israel. God's chosen people, his elect, the ones with whom he cut covenant and revealed his name.
I say this not to disparage Abraham but to encourage you. Abraham is someone we are to regard as a model of faith.
Why?
Because Abraham believed God.
That's it. That's faith. Believe what God said and make every decision accordingly.
Faith is not something you need more of, faith is a commitment to God's promised reality. God has a plan for your life. It comes with promises and purposes. Blessings and assignments.
All of those promises are in Christ, who is in you. The more you know and experience Christ in you, the more you will experience the promises of your joint inheritance with Christ.
The more you search out God's nature and character, the more you will understand his will for your life.
But it's not the accruement of time that yields the fruit of faith, it's being convinced of who God is and that he will accomplish what he promised, like in Abraham's life.
What has God promised you?
What purposes has God revealed to you?
How are you prioritizing your life to apply the wisdom he's giving you concerning those things?
There is more detail on these questions, along with a suggested exercise to write out the promises you are believing and the purposes you're pursuing.
Abraham's Faith
Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; 10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
A few verses later, we're reminded that God asked Abraham to sacrifice his child of promise, Isaac. In Hebrews 11:19 we see that Abraham "reasoned" or rationalized that God could raise Isaac from the dead, so he was willing to sacrifice him. But that was just God's test to ensure that Abraham would see everything through. God never intended for Abraham to kill Isaac.
As a side note, God was doing something else with this test. He was rewriting what kind of god he was. Abraham was used to gods requiring blood sacrifices of children from living in the kingdom of Nimrod. But God wanted to reveal himself as the one who provides for himself a sacrifice, as a foreshadowing of Jesus. So this test was not an external trial, it was an internal searching out of Abraham's heart to make sure he had a willing vessel.
The word "reasoned" is an interesting choice. I think of it more as an equation. You must have all the correct integers or factors in the equation to come to the proper conclusion. Abraham persuaded his heart that God was faithful, even in a circumstance that was confusing to him. He reasoned or processed in his heart that God was a healer and could raise his son from the dead if that needed to happen.
We can learn a lesson from this. As we are believing God, we too must consider his nature, character, promises, and revealed purposes as we form beliefs and make choices. All of our beliefs and choices must consider who God has revealed himself to be throughout history and what he accomplished in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
Ask yourself those two questions in everything; who is God? Did Jesus do anything about this? And whatever those answers are, do whatever it takes to believe those Word-based conclusions and do not deviate or doubt.
Setting Up A Home for Your Faith
Abraham built his tent or home in a foreign land before the promise was manifested. While this was a literal event for him, and might be for us in a way as well, this is something we can do in our hearts. You can dwell in or on the promises God has made to you in Christ before you see the manifestation as part of the process to persuade your heart of his promises.
Most of us dwell in or on what might go wrong, or the past, or a thought that usually never happens. We set up a home for our faith that is riddled with doubt, fear, worry, anger, disappointment, frustration, etc. But do you take the time to frame up a dwelling place in your heart for God's promises to manifest? His promises are in you already because Christ is in you. But is your heart receptive to his Word? Do you allow it to take root and bear full fruit, or do you uproot it with indecision, doubt, and self-reliance?
I hope you jump into the video above and apply my suggestion regarding the intentional stewarding of God's promises and purposes.
This series will continue for several more weeks as I look at what Jesus taught about faith and our role in persuading our hearts. Stay tuned!!
Cooperating with the Spiritual Laws of God's Kingdom
There are laws that govern the spiritual Kingdom of God, just like there are laws of physics in the physical dimension. Like the law of faith or the law of sowing and reaping. We can discover how to cooperate with these laws and experience the benefits of those laws. Mark 11:24 says, Therefore, I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted to you. That is an amazing statement by Jesus. What does he mean? How can we apply this promise? Click for more on Faith, Hope and the Laws of the Kingdom of God.
#2 in FAITH & HOPE: Living in the Balance of Wisdom and Revelation
“For we walk by faith, not by sight.”
There are laws that govern the spiritual Kingdom of God. We see one example in Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. The law of sin and death is easy to understand - when you sin, it produces death in your life. But the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus seems to supersede the law of sin and death.
The law of the spirit of life does not absolve you from obeying God, but it has a greater effect than the physical law of sin and death. What is this law, and how do we operate in it or experience it?
The short answer is, by grace through faith - just like how we got saved.
Think of the law of sin and death as the law of gravity. Gravity is constant, and it affects every aspect of our earthly existence. And think of the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus as the law of lift. The law of lift can supersede the law of gravity if you have the proper factors in place, such as thrust and speed.
It doesn't matter how much a craft weighs. If it has the right kind of wings, the right speed, and the proper thrust capacity, that craft will be lifted into the air despite the force of gravity working to pull the plane back to the ground.
Sin will always try to pull you back into the darkness and produce death in your life, but the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus can lift you out of the darkness and cause you to rise above the effects of sin and death. Of course, we know this is true of our regenerated spirits, but you can also experience the benefit of the law of the spirit of life in your mind, soul, body, and life circumstances.
I am in the beginning phase of a series titled FAITH & HOPE: Living in the Balance of Wisdom and Revelation. I plan to talk a lot about spiritual laws, and the role faith has in experiencing the benefits of these laws.
Here are a few laws we'll discuss:
Law of the Lord
Law of God's Word
Law of Sowing and Reaping
Law of the Seed
Law of the Spirit of Life
Law of Sin and Death
Law of Liberty
Law of Sin
Law of Righteousness
Law of Faith
Law of Love
These are not moral, civil, or dietary laws to be judged and governed, they are the constant laws of the spiritual dimension. Like the physical laws of nature/physics, they're consistent. They're not personal, meaning they're not evaluated for each person per case.
If you fall off a ladder and get hurt, gravity did not decide to teach you a lesson that day, you experienced the effect of a consistent law that's always in place and should be observed and respected. So likewise, if you stay in sin, you will experience some level of death, but it's not God judging you or sending difficulty into your life as a penalty.
Jesus was already tried, judged, and punished for all laws that applied to obedience and righteousness. Christ became the manifestation of the curse of those laws in our place. That aspect of our experience of the New Covenant is a done deal.
Now we are joined to a new realm we previously didn't have access to. We are now joined to and are in the midst of the Kingdom of God. But we must apply something akin to the law of lift to experience the laws of that kingdom and rise above the effects of the laws of the physical realm.
I believe faith is that law of lift we can live in. In fact, Galatians 2:20 tells us that we can now live by the faith OF the son of God. Faith, however, is not an ability you have to exert, it's a response to who Christ is and who we are in him. Faith is not what we do to get God to respond to us, faith is our response to what God has already done in Christ.
Faith is typically thought of as belief despite the lack of evidence, but faith itself is the evidence (Hebrews 11:1). Faith is not a simple choice to believe in God, faith is a response to God revealing himself to you. It takes faith or a willingness of heart to seek and experience God. Faith is the spiritual law God has placed in you that enables you to be lifted into a higher dimensional experience of Heaven, even though your feet are firmly planted on planet earth.
God Rewards Those Who Seek Him
These two passages reveal the same concept from my perspective.
Hebrews 11:1 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Proverbs 25:2 It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.
If you have a Newtonian view of faith, you will read these as cause and effect. You must act for God to respond with an equal and opposite reaction. But if you have a quantum view of faith, you will discern the constant spiritual law within these passages.
The law is this, God has made himself known, but you must get to know him and search him out to see what is concealed in him.
This example will make my point clear.
Sir Isaac Newton discovered gravity in 1665. Daniel Bernoulli discovered the law of lift in the 1730s. The Wright brothers took flight using their knowledge of gravity and the law of lift in 1903. Albert Einstein predicted that gravity existed in waves in 1916, but the proof of that prediction wasn't discovered until 1976. We are still learning about gravity today.
Why didn't Newton know everything about gravity when he discovered it? Because there was more to it than he knew. There was more to be discovered.
As these scientists diligently searched out the dynamics of gravity and the law of lift and flight, they were each rewarded with new discoveries.
The Wright brothers were rewarded with flight when they applied these principles just the right way. The same is true when we search out what God has given us in Christ in the spiritual dimension of his kingdom.
While we are in a relationship with God and he's active in our lives, he is not hiding things from us. On the contrary, he has made everything knowable in Christ, and we are rewarded with the effects of our discoveries of the riches in him as we diligently seek him. We're spiritual explorers, searching out the wondrous realm that God has joined us to.
He's not playing hide and seek. He's already given us everything that pertains to life and Godliness. All his promises are yes, and amen. We are complete in him. God is a provider, healer, and our endless source of inerrant knowledge, but we are to seek him, and as we know him better, we KNOW him, which is in wisdom and revelation, knowledge and experience.
If you need healing, search out the healer and you will discover healing. If you need provision, get to know the provider and provision will be revealed. The rewards God has for you are not merit based, they are facets of his character and are received as your relationship with him becomes closer and closer.
I pray you KNOW him. I pray you experience him. And I pray you walk in all the wonderful purposes he is inviting you to.
What promises are you believing for and what purposes are you living?
Faith pleases God, but what is faith? Faith is a response to God’s purpose and a hopeful expectation of rHis promises. Join us this New Year’s Day as we discuss how to live a lifestyle of faith.
#1 in FAITH & HOPE: Living in the Balance of Wisdom and Revelation
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Welcome to a New Year!! The Lord has laid it on my heart to focus on faith and hope for the first part of this year. Faith means to trust, and hope is to have a confident expectation of good things. One source defines hope as a confident expectation of eternal salvation.
Hebrews 11:1 tells us that faith is the title deed or proof of the good things we expect. The fact that you have faith for it in your heart is proof that it can be a reality in your life.
I want to live a lifestyle that is always full of faith toward God and is always hopeful of God’s promises and purposes coming to pass in my life. I want to confidently expect to experience all the benefits of the spiritual eternal salvation that Christ has given me. I want to experience the promises that come with salvation personally and walk in the responsibility toward others that comes with eternal salvation.
To do this, I believe we need to live in the balance of wisdom and revelation. In Ephesians 1:7, Paul prays that God would grant us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ.
Wisdom and revelation are paradoxical. Wisdom is the practical application of knowledge. While revelation is a spiritual process that isn’t written down anywhere for you to read. It’s the product of a personal and intimate relationship with the spirit of God. Revelation happens when the written Word comes alive in your heart in a new way. Revelation is when you see God more profoundly or understand His will due to intimate time with him.
Wisdom is when you go to the Word and put it into practice in measurable ways. Revelation is when you have an impression or unction and follow it into fruit that is hard to define. But the two meet in the knowledge of Christ. The knowledge of Christ will always keep your revelation anchored in wisdom, and the knowledge of Christ will always stretch your wisdom into revelation.
What joins the two is faith and hope. Trust and expectation. When you trust God but expect to see his promises and purposes manifest, you will always stay anchored in wisdom but allow revelation to challenge your current state.
I want to live anchored in wisdom but always expectant to see the impossible come to pass. I want to stretch my faith out there to experience all that God wants FOR ME and all that God wants to do THROUGH ME. Experiencing his PROMISES and PURPOSES.
I want to guide my life in this direction this year personally, and I hope to be an encouragement to help you do the same. I invite you to make this journey with me this year.
Guiding Thoughts
Hebrews 11:3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
Faith comes before understanding. We must trust God before we understand and be willing to move before we know.
Revelation will fill in the steps as we move forward. And the knowledge of Christ will keep your steps anchored along this journey.
Know Christ, know his Word, and see who you are as the result of his finished work.
Everything you see was created by something unseen. So we walk by faith, not by sight. So we are to walk by faith, not sight, because that which we hope for is being created, built, grown, or manifested by something you can’t see, which is the living Word of God.
Stretch your faith and be confident in your expectation.
Questions to Ponder
What has God promised you?
What promises are you believing?
What purposes has God revealed to you?
What purposes are you living?
How will you prioritize hope in God’s promises and purposes for your life this year?
You Don't Have to Prove Anything to Anyone But Yourself
You don’t have to prove anything to anyone except yourself. People will place all kinds of expectations on you if you let them. They will tell you what they think you should do based on their own lives. Much of the time, we think about what someone else will think when we’re making our decisions.
We live with an underlying sense of expectation from our parents, spouses, our friends, our boss, and our coworkers. We worry about what our political affiliates will think. We worry about what our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ will think. We worry about what our pastors will think.
But none of those people are living your life. You alone have to process your thoughts and emotions when you lay your head on your pillow night. You are the one who has to determine whether you’re following God or not.
You are the only one you have to prove anything to. You know what you’ve done, you know what you need to do, and it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks, they can’t live out the results of your choices for you.
You don’t have to prove anything to anyone except yourself. People will place all kinds of expectations on you if you let them. They will tell you what they think you should do based on their own lives. Much of the time, we think about what someone else will think when we’re making our decisions.
We live with an underlying sense of expectation from our parents, spouses, our friends, our boss, and our coworkers. We worry about what our political affiliates will think. We worry about what our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ will think. We worry about what our pastors will think.
But none of those people are living your life. You alone have to process your thoughts and emotions when you lay your head on your pillow night. You are the one who has to determine whether you’re following God or not.
You are the only one you have to prove anything to. You know what you’ve done, you know what you need to do, and it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks, they can’t live out the results of your choices for you.
2 Ways
This is important in 2 ways. You have to answer to yourself for your bad decisions and mistakes. And you have to live with not giving 100% toward your calling and passions.
You have things deep within you that you know you should do, but you don’t because you’re worried what someone else will think.
And you are paralyzed with guilt and condemnation from hiding those things that no one knows but you.
Your own heart is itching for you to rise up and prove to yourself that you are not the worst parts of you, you are not your failures, you are not a worthless, perverted scumbag, or whatever else you call yourself in secret.
You are the righteousness of God in Christ with the power of Christ within your heart. You know that. You know that you can be and do much more than you are accomplishing right now.
I want to challenge you to forget about what everyone else thinks and go for it. Don’t be foolish or immoral, but seriously, quit letting your judgments about other people’s thoughts about you determine what you’ll do.
Who cares what they think?! You don’t have to be mad at them, just put them out of your head and live your life. Quit arguing with the people in the stands and run your race.
What Do You Owe Yourself?
You owe yourself honesty. You owe yourself a good attitude. You owe yourself compassion. You owe yourself some effort. Get up, get over it, get moving!
You’re the only one listening to your self-talk. You know yourself better than anyone else. Make a promise to yourself that you will not lie to yourself, you will not drag yourself down, you will not stay stuck in the past, you will not continue to see yourself in light of what someone else did to you. You are not a victim, you are a victor!!
You can live a life you can be proud of. You have God’s grace in your inner man to empower you and to teach you to live upright and godly along the way.
Get busy living, be someone you can be proud of!! You can do it, God is for you and is behind you with his unlimited resources, and he will not fail you.
GO!!
You SHALL Inherit the Promises of God
The children Manasseh had a giant problem, literally. They had seen God’s deliverance from Egypt’s oppression, daily experienced God’s provision, crossed the river into the land promised their father Abraham but there was still one problem…giants. They were in the promised land, it was under their feet, they could see it but it didn’t quite look like what they were expecting. Have you ever felt like you were where God wanted you to be but it was full of problems? Maybe those problems even caused you to question if you’re in the right place. You’re not alone.
The nation of Israel had the promised land in reach, all that was left was to take the land. We are in a similar position yet under a new covenant. We have been translated into the Kingdom of Jesus, delivered from the power of darkness with all spiritual blessings within our grasp yet our outer world may be full of problems. Let’s check back in with the tribe of Manasseh and see how they handled this issue.
The children Manasseh had a giant problem, literally. They had seen God’s deliverance from Egypt’s oppression, daily experienced God’s provision, crossed the river into the land promised their father Abraham but there was still one problem…giants. They were in the promised land, it was under their feet, they could see it but it didn’t quite look like what they were expecting. Have you ever felt like you were where God wanted you to be but it was full of problems? Maybe those problems even caused you to question if you’re in the right place. You’re not alone.
The nation of Israel had the promised land in reach, all that was left was to take the land. We are in a similar position yet under a new covenant. We have been translated into the Kingdom of Jesus, delivered from the power of darkness with all spiritual blessings within our grasp yet our outer world may be full of problems. Let’s check back in with the tribe of Manasseh and see how they handled this issue.
The children of Manasseh came before Joshua and Eleazar the priest to remind them they were supposed to get some land. Joshua divides to them ten portions of land. The inheritance had been given, more than enough for the men, women, and children. I can see it now, the tribe packs up and heads toward their promised land, full of hope and expectation of a bright future. Maybe they’re even singing the song of Moses and telling tales of having to eat all that quail and manna. They arrive at the borders of their new sanctuary and then they see them, giants.
They were emboldened by the victories of Joshua and Caleb so they begin to fight for their land. It soon becomes clear they are not strong enough to take care of this problem so they go back to Joshua to ask for help.
Keep in mind Joshua is the one called by God to take Israel into the promised, he’s the one who led them to their promise and got them to a place of deliverance and given the land. He’s a type and shadow of Jesus. He’s God’s representative at this time. The promised land is under their feet but now they have to fight for it. What Joshua does next is a clue into how we’re to fight to see the manifestation of all the spiritual promises God has made to all who believe in the name of the Lord Jesus.
In Joshua 17 we also see the children of Joseph come before Joshua. Their issue is a little different than Manasseh. Joseph’s children complain about not having enough land and add that the land they do have is also full of giant Canaanites and there are too many trees. Joshua says ok, head up to the land of the Perizzites, cut down the trees and take that land too. Then they tell Joshua the giant Canaanites have iron chariots.
Then Joshua says, “do I have to do everything for you?” Not really but I can imagine he begins to get frustrated with all the excuses. He probably wanted to remind them of all the giants he’d killed, how he took Jericho, how he defeated 31 kings, how God sent hornets to clear the land but he didn’t. Instead, he declares the future of God’s favor and desire for them.
And Joshua spoke to the house of Joseph—to Ephraim and Manasseh—saying, “You are a great people and have great power; you SHALL not have only one lot, “but the mountain country SHALL be yours. Although it is wooded, you SHALL cut it down, and its farthest extent SHALL be yours; for you SHALL drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots and are strong.” Joshua 17:17-18
I believe Joshua is prophesying the will of God for these tribes at this moment. He is speaking from a place of confidence and personal trust in the Lord but he is also representing the desire of the Lord for them in his declaration. Notice how many times he says shall, he’s not playing around, he’s very serious about what he is saying. He knows God is faithful, he has seen it. Joshua knows the Lord is trustworthy and when he makes a promise he does everything in his power to empower you to inherit that promise in its fullness.
I believe this is what God has done over our lives. Through Christ he has declared victory, he has made us righteous, he has sealed those who believe with his eternal spirit of promise, his favor goes before us and his protection follows behind, all that is left is to walk with him while renewing our minds to see his salvation in its fullness. We become dismayed at the sight of a problem or are afraid of a little work and allow the kingdom seed within our hearts to be choked out. Like we’re about to see in the destiny of these tribes all it takes to see God’s promises is to remain confident in what he has already declared.
These tribes must have been inspired and emboldened by Joshua in this exchange because we see a very different story a few chapters later.
Joshua 21:43 So the LORD gave to Israel all the land of which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it and dwelt in it. 44 The LORD gave them rest all around, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers. And not a man of all their enemies stood against them; the LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand. 45 Not a word failed of any good thing which the LORD had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass.
WOW! All came to pass! This is God’s desire for you, that everything he has promised you comes to pass. Jesus said all things were possible to those who believe. Do you believe all of the promises You’ve stood on will come to pass?
So why don’t we see the manifestation of these promises? Possibly like the children of Israel we’re complaining in our hearts, perhaps like Manasseh we think our problems are too strong, maybe like the children of Joseph we don’t want to get to work and cut down the trees that stand in the way. It doesn’t matter why. That’s the wrong question anyway. The right question is “what has God said?”
God’s favor is not magic. Everything God has for us is experienced by grace through faith. The outward manifestation is directly tied to the inward expectation and commitment to be empowered by God. Far too often we complain or remain in our laziness rather than getting up, taking steps forward and putting our hand to the plow. We’ve somehow been lulled into an idealistic stupor that God will sovereignly make everything happen in our lives independent from our co-laboring.
We can never perform our way into a blessing but the paradox is we’ll never experience the fullness of what God has promised until we trust him and move forward to take the land. Faith comes before understanding, plowing comes before harvesting, foundations are laid before structures are built…do not let yourself be fooled into thinking your time of inactivity is being spent waiting on the Lord to perform a magic trick on your behalf. When we begin to move we can be led, while we’re parked at the dock it only serves to ensure nothing will happen.
That may be a little strong but I want to inspire you to trust God. I want you to take responsibility for what God has promised you and not let it go. His grace is ever-present and more than you’ll ever need to accomplish what is in your heart but grace doesn’t take the first step for you. God is seeking to bless you but you might have to kill a few giants to see the manifestation.
I dare you to take God at his word and step out in what he has declared over your life. Don’t know what God has declared over your life? Pick a promise, any promise and go for it for all of his promises are a resounding YES!
2 Corinthians 1:20 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God.
Either you’re going to believe God or you’re going to settle and come up with excuses, which will you do?
In my series “The City of God: Entering the Promised Land,” I discuss how God goes before you and fights for you. He’s the God of the impossible, he can make a way where there is no way. I look at the concept of abiding in Jesus as our place of victory and rest. I firmly establish the fact that God is for you and is, in fact, seeking to bless you every moment of the day. And I discuss the paradox of effortlessly producing fruit while gaining ground by the grace of God.
I believe this series will convince you that God’s promises are sure for you and he is relentless in helping you move toward complete manifestation.
Download MP3s
MESSAGE TITLES
Why Are You Crying To Me?
Producing Effortless Fruit
God Fights For You
You SHALL Inherit the Promise
FREE SERIES - Detox from Religion
In this series, I define religion as "your attempt to approach and be acceptable to God through your own efforts." You would never say you are righteous through good behavior, but you might say you are unrighteous through sinful behavior. Both are legalistic and TOXIC.
The challenge with overcoming Toxic Religion is the same as overcoming any addiction, if you take on the identity of the sin, you’ll repeat it, if you take on the identity of someone who doesn’t have that problem, you can walk away from it.
Toxic Religion is focused on sin, failure, guilt, and condemnation. Toxic Religion assumes that you’re evil and you can never do enough. Toxic Religion keeps you focused on the old man and never fully puts on the new man. Toxic Religion will leave you continually seeking God for forgiveness and never truly resting in the peace that salvation by grace through faith should bring. Toxic Religion is addictive and must be cleansed from your identity.
Is God controlling everything?
Does God do evil?
Can you fully trust God?
In this series, I define religion as "your attempt to approach and be acceptable to God through your own efforts." You would never say you are righteous through good behavior, but you might say you are unrighteous through sinful behavior. Both are legalistic and TOXIC.
The challenge with overcoming Toxic Religion is the same as overcoming any addiction, if you take on the identity of the sin, you’ll repeat it, if you take on the identity of someone who doesn’t have that problem, you can walk away from it.
Toxic Religion is focused on sin, failure, guilt, and condemnation. Toxic Religion assumes that you’re evil and you can never do enough. Toxic Religion keeps you focused on the old man and never fully puts on the new man. Toxic Religion will leave you continually seeking God for forgiveness and never truly resting in the peace that salvation by grace through faith should bring. Toxic Religion is addictive and must be cleansed from your identity.
Religion is an addiction because addiction attempts to meet a need that is actually, at its root, an inner imbalance of some kind, whether it be physical or psychological. Religion seeks to meet that imbalance through rule-keeping or obsolete covenant restrictions.
To break any addiction the inner man must reach a place of healthy homeostasis so it can involuntarily regulate toward health (I cover this idea in this series). The toxicity of religion is that it says you’ll always be imbalanced, never finding homeostasis because you are flawed at your core, therefore perpetuating toxic behavior.
In this series you’ll learn how to:
Break free from your addiction to self-righteousness
Live from inner balance
Trust God with your heart
Know God’s true character
Build your faith on TRUTH rather than CIRCUMSTANCE THEOLOGY
In this series I address a few examples of toxic beliefs like these:
God is angry with me because I messed up. How to detox from that belief - God promised that he would never again be angry with me after Christ’s sacrifice because he established and everlasting covenant of peace with me through the finished work of Christ. (remember, toxic beliefs drive toxic behavior, what behavior do you think this toxic belief will drive?) This is actually self righteousness
I still mess up because I’m just a sinner saved by grace. To detox from that belief you must understand your new creation identity. (what behavior do you think this belief will drive?) It’s actually
Matthew 23:25 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
My life is difficult sometimes because God is teaching me a lesson. To detox from this belief you must understand the nature of God and how he treats people.
If you feel like God is angry with you or you’re always questioning circumstances through your skewed perspective of God’s sovereignty, you’ll feel like you’re doing something wrong when you begin to think a different way. Let me help you break free from Toxic Religion!! It’s time to KICK THE HABIT OF BLAMING YOUR PROBLEMS ON GOD and discover your freedom in Christ!
Lack is at the root of addiction. Feeling like something is missing and trying to fill that gap with toxic substances or behaviors is the engine for addiction. We see that same cycle in religion. Religion is the king of causing you to feel like something is missing. Under religion you’re never good enough and you can never do enough to keep God happy. Most people never say it this clearly but they believe that God’s happiness is based on your behavior. This lie is the root or toxic religion.
Toxic religion is the mindset that acceptance or rejection with God is based on how good or bad you are. Religious folks would never say they’re good because of their behavior, but they might say they’re bad or unrighteous because of sinful behavior. That’s just as self-righteous and toxic as thinking your righteous because you kept the commandments.
The solution to breaking the addiction to toxic religion is to find a place of inner balance that’s rooted in Christ’s finished work. Your true, spiritual, eternal identity is complete already. Your standing before God doesn’t change. Only toxic religion believes otherwise, and if you believe God changes his mind about you based on your performance, it’s tine to detox from religion.