Stand for Righeousness

I once heard a preacher say, “When you stand for what is right, you are never standing alone.”  This thought has been on my heart for a while.  As we look and listen to the culture around us, there seems to be greater and greater pressure for believers to lower their standard for righteousness.  When we lower our standard, we lower our voice.  This is the hour our voices must not be silent.  It is true that we all speak louder by the life we live, but let us also not hold our voice when the situation calls for it.  Prov. 14:34 (NAS) tells usthat righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people. Prov. 14:22 (NAS) tells us that there is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. Gal 6:7-9 (NAS) tells us  not to be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.

Be encouraged! We must take joy in living our lives God’s way. We must not conform to the pressures of the time we live in.  Look saints, it is not a burden to stand for righteousness, it is a great blessing!

I want to declare this over you today:

• To the married couples who are faithful to each other, keep standing!
• To the young man/woman who is still a virgin and who will wait until they are married to have sex, keep standing!
• To the business person who has ethical business principles and practices, keep standing!
• To the minister who is committed to his/her calling, keep standing!
• To the mothers/fathers who loves her children unconditionally, keep standing!
• To the politician who stands for righteousness and justice, keep standing!
• To the believers who are in authority positions who lead with justice … keep standing!
• To you who refuse to give up and quit … keep standing!
• To you who dare to dream and believe for the supernatural … keep standing!

Every day we are faced with the choice to stand for righteousness, (God’s way) or to give in to the pressure of unrighteousness (Satan’s way).  It isn’t always easy, but it is always possible.  It isn’t always easy, but it is worth it.  It isn’t the most popular thing you can do, but it always pleases God.  There is a line being drawn in the sand.  Who is truly on the Lord’s side?  Allow me to encourage you again; TAKE YOUR STAND! Heaven is backing you and LOVE is holding you.

“One final word, friends. We ask you (urge is more like it) that you keep on doing what we told you to do to please God, not in a dogged religious plod, but in a living, spirited dance. You know the guidelines we laid out for you from the Master Jesus. God wants you to live a pure life. Keep yourselves from sexual promiscuity. Learn to appreciate and give dignity to your body,not abusing it, as is so common among those who know nothing of God. Don’t run roughshod over the concerns of your brothers and sisters. Their concerns are God’s concerns, and he will take care of them. We’ve warned you about this before. God hasn’t invited us into a disorderly, unkempt life but into something holy and beautiful–as beautiful on the inside as the outside. If you disregard this advice, you’re not offending your neighbors; you’re rejecting God, who is making you a gift of his Holy Spirit.” 1 Thess. 4:1-8 (Message)

Do you “know” the Word?

DO YOU ‘KNOW’ THE WORD?

“For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword,

it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow;

it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.  Nothing in all creation

is hidden from God’s sight, everything is uncovered and laid bare

before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”

Hebrews 4.12-13

Beloved, I’d like to ask you a question:

Can you walk with God and not know God’s word?

1. It was through the Word (Logos) that the world(s) were framed – that is, they came into existence – Jn. 1.3; Gen. 1.1ff; Ps. 33.9
2. It is by the Word that everything is sustained and held in its natural order – Heb. 1.3; 2 Peter 3.7

• Ps. 107.20  The Word of God heals and delivers… (He sent His Word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions)

• Ps. 119.11  If this Word is hidden in the heart –it will prevent – hold off – put a stop to “sin” – (Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee)

1. Ps. 119.89  Forever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in heaven
2. Ps. 119.160 Thy Word is true from the beginning:  and every one of Thy righteous judgments endureth forever;  Jn. 17.17  Sanctify them through Thy truth:  Thy Word is truth
3. Ps. 119.140  Thy Word is very pure:  therefore Thy servant loveth it;  Prov. 30.5  Every Word of God is pure:  He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him
4. Ps. 119.114  Thou are my hiding place and my shield:  I hope in Thy word
5. Jn. 1.14  This Word – eternal truth – was made flesh – and that Word was/is Jesus – who still lives among us – giving us the opportunity even today – to behold His glory

The Bible — this God Breathed Book…this Inspired Word, Infallible Word, The Word of God…

1. Sanctifies/consecrates/cleanses/makes holy – 1 Tim. 4.5
2. Jesus told His disciples – in Jn. 15.3 – that the Word He had spoken to them – that Word – had made them clean
3. Speaking through the Prophet Jeremiah (23.29) – the Lord says – His Word is like fire – and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces
4. In Luke 11.28 – Jesus said — …blessed are they that hear the Word of God, and keep it.
5. If you’re in a battle – in a fight with the enemy – feeling inundated with the rigors and difficulties of warfare — Rev. 12.11 gives us key to victory … “And they overcame him (the devil and all his cohorts) by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”

No wonder the enemy of our soul has worked so hard to keep you and I away from the truth concerning the fullness of the Word of God.  No wonder, he has diligently sought to birth complacency and apathy towards the Word. It’s no wonder that the forces of darkness – have worked so hard to keep the Word of God out of you and you out of the places and opportunities that are provided for you to grow in the Word of God!

• 2 Cor. 4.3, 4 tells us, “And even if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
• Mark 4.14-20  tells us that this Word is a seed and our hearts is the soil!!!
• Jesus in Jn. 10.10 warned us that the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy —Steal What?  Steal the seed of the Word out of the soil of your heart (out of your DNA)– before it can become revelation!!

The devil knows – that if the Word (σπερμα = sperma/seed of God) goes in – deep into your heart (into your DNA) – into good fertile soil – it will yield fruit → it will restructure the way you think (which will be reflected in the way you speak and what you do/actions) → resulting in increase, and bring forth an abundant harvest (some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred fold!!!)  — Mark 4.8, 20   The thief knows – that if he can keep you out of truth and the truth out of you – if he can keep you from hearing the Word – believing the Word – speaking the Word – doing the Word — then he can prevent the Word from ever being confirmed or accomplished and from manifesting – in your life!!!

Most folk think that God is going to somehow just give them the treasures of wisdom and insight contained in The Bible, by osmosis or some type of supernatural impartation of divine revelation…

It doesn’t happen like that!  You can’t just lay the Bible on your head, close your eyes and wait 5 minutes – and think the Holy Spirit is just going to download all 66 books into the hard drive of your heart!  We have to mine for it!  We have to dig deep – and the mine shaft goes through the pages of Scripture – one page – one chapter – one book – at a time!

Most Christians – including those who have been saved for countless years – most Christians are clueless about the TRUTH contained in the Bible.  Folk can’t find the book of Psalms or Matthew! God forbid, I should say ‘open your Bible to Obadiah, Habakkuk, or Zephaniah.’  Some folk think that Ruth and Timothy are a new sit-com – like Will & Grace!  We can’t even quote a Bible verse for every year we’ve been believers!  We know the theme songs of television shows (e.g. Let me tell you all the story bout a man named Jed… or Green Acres is place for me, farm living is the life for me, land spreading out so far and wide, darling I love you but give me that country side…New York is where I’d rather stay, I gather ‘lurgic’ smelling hay, I just adore a pent house view…) and movies and a kazillion songs on the radio – but we are Biblically illiterate!!!

And yet – THE BIBLE IS THE BLUEPRINT FOR LIFE!!

• The writer of the book of Hebrews said that the Scriptures are “living and active” —not dead and buried – not boring and irrelevant like some of us think they are

• God’s Book may have been written centuries ago – but it is more up to date – more contemporary than any book on engineering, law, or medicine – because it reveals timeless insight about the human heart and God’s character — These don’t change!!

• The writer of the Book of Hebrews also stated – that the Word of God is sharp enough to cut through bone and marrow!!

• God’s Word – cuts deeply and accurately into the most remote corners of our heart (that’s why a lot of folk won’t read it…) – then He heals that area → and changes us!

Do you need to know what is in the heart of God?

Do you need wisdom when you are confused?

Do you need peace when anxiety and stress threatens to turn your world upside down?

Do you need encouragement because you have failed at something –or feel as if you have been betrayed?

The answer to all these questions is yes!!  We all do!!  So how do you and I obtain the faith to believe God in good times and in bad times – how do we get the faith to stand with God in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, for better or for worse…?

Faith – to stand ‘with God’– comes through hearing the Word of God!!  

Faith to carry Revival Glory comes through hearing the Word of God!!

FAITH TO PROPHESY – TO RELEASE THE VOICE OF GOD FOR EDIFICATION, EXHORTATION COMFORT, SIGNS, WONDERS, MIRACLES — COMES THROUGH HEARING THE WORD (LOGOS & RHEMA) OF GOD!!

• Rom. 10.17  “Faith comes by hearing…”

Here’s my point…

Becoming a student of God’s Word – will cost you some time, energy, commitment and discipline — but it will result in a wealth of insight, direction, revelation and understanding!!  And that (insight, direction, revelation and understanding)– shuts the enemy out!!!

Here are some practical ways we can absorb God’s Truth and revive our lives:

HEAR THE WORD

• In the field of education – experts tell us that about 10% of what we hear stays with us

READ THE WORD

• We absorb 25% of what we read

• Many Christians murmur, grumble, groan and complain that they don’t know what God’s will is!!! Well, you and I can know His will – if we read His book!!!

STUDY THE WORD

• Hearing and reading are effective – but not as effective as studying!

• The discipline of Studying allows us to take in and apply 50% of the truth!!

MEMORIZE THE WORD

Hearing, reading and studying the Word of God will have a huge impact on your life – but memorizing the Scriptures is even more effective in changing your life, because:

• 80% of what we memorize stays with us!!!

MEDITATE ON THE WORD

So – as believers – with a passion to grow in our walk with the Lord – we need to: hear the Word, read the Word, Study the Word, Memorize the Word  —- and — MEDITATE ON THE WORD!!

• Now in your mind – superimpose over the word meditate – the word MARINATE!!!

• God wants His Word – not just to be a “spice” that accents our life – adding a little flavor to it — but the Lord wants His Word to be a DAILY MARINATING PROCESS THAT LITERALLY SOAKS INTO THE CORE OF WHO WE ARE – forever changing our identity!!

• We need to be so immersed – soaked – marinated in the Word of God that we are able to follow Paul’s direction:  “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…” – Rom. 12.2

Let me end – where I started – by asking again this question:  Can you walk with God and not know God’s Word??  This week – be intentional about finding opportunities to:

• Hear the Word (bible study, audio CD’s or Tapes)

• Read the Word (start a ‘read through the Bible program’)

• Study the Word (Tues. nights, individual devotional Bible studies, LIFE Groups, etc.)

• Memorize the Word (how about Hebrews 4.12-13)

• Meditate on/Marinate in the Word (say and pray the Word)

I want to be so filled with the Word of God that my testimony echoes that of the Psalmist who said, “Even at night my heart instructs me”– (Ps. 16:7)!

Overcoming the Giant of Unbelief

It all started with a question, something seemingly innocent, but far from it. The snake in the garden asked Eve, “Did God really say?”. From that one simple question began the demise of the human race. From this moment with Adam and Eve to the Israelites wandering in the wilderness, to “doubting” Thomas requesting to see the holes in the hands of Christ, unbelief has always sought to abort the plans of God. I am convinced more than ever that this is one of the main battles we are in as a people of God. I also believe that before we see the fullness of the coming revival, this is one of the chief giants that must fall to the ground.

Many times this tactic of the enemy weaves itself in almost unknowingly. It starts with subtle little questions and queries arising in our hearts which then materialize into thoughts which become attitudes and many times, ultimately affect the way we behave. I believe all of us have strongholds in our minds and hearts of unbelief and don’t even know it. It could look like a low self esteem or a subtle doubt that God can heal or restore. It could look like disobedience and compromise, not fully believing that, “it really matters that much to do that one little sin.” All of these are manifestations of unbelief and they affect and infect the people of God to seek to neuter the effectiveness we are called to walk in.

The Bible says without faith it is impossible to please God. Unbelief and doubt flies in the face of this faith we are called to walk in, because it challenges and seeks to undermine the power and ability of God to act on our or others’ behalf. It challenges God’s power, his sovereignty, his grace, his truth etc. It raises that subtle, sly attitude of rebellion that was demonstrated in the enemy in the very beginning.

If we are to overcome this enemy I believe that the chief battle lies in the mind. The mind is where strongholds ultimately live, where demonic oppression and the will of the flesh are housed. The soul, which is where our mind, our will and our emotions live needs to be constantly brought into submission to the mind of Christ we have received through salvation. I feel that Paul knew exactly what he was doing when he described the armor of God in Ephesians 6. He said that the helmet, the thing which covers our head, our mind, needs to be covered with salvation. He knew the part that the battle of the mind plays in the life of the believer.

God has said that our destiny at Shekinah as well as in the region is to have revival. I believe this with all of my heart and feel that in many ways we have progressed towards this expected end in our hearts, homes and in this house of Shekinah. However, I feel that before we see the full manifestation of God’s move in our midst and in our region, the strongman of unbelief must be pulled down. Not in some esoteric sense in the cosmos someday in the sweet by and by, but in the here and now in every thought and in every attitude and in every belief. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 10:5, that we are to take every thought captive to make it obedient to God. The scripture also says in Hebrews 3:12, to take care not to have an unbelieving heart that turns away from God. In our world today there is so much pain and suffering that it is easy to fall into the old trap of, “did God say?” and have an unbelieving heart as a result. But God has called us to something so much higher.

Let’s lift our vision higher today and believe with reckless abandon. Let’s believe that God can do all that He has said! The facts obviously say many different things than what God has said. The facts often fly in the face of God’s word, but the facts simply live in the here and now; God lives outside of those confines! He sees the end even at the very beginning and is Lord over it all.

Whatever you are faced with, choose to believe today! What God has said, He will surely do! He who promised is faithful and we can hold fast to that even in the storms of life on this raging sea of a world we live in. He is the anchor for our souls.

 

Outrageous Love

Today, the day I’m writing this, is both Good Friday and the beginning of Passover. This morning I reviewed many of the scriptures on Passover and Good Friday. Why? Because I want to be fully immersed in the time, the season we are in. I struggle with the intensity of suffering Jesus experienced. I find myself feeling morose; yet knowing it was totally necessary. How could someone go to those lengths to save me? But I love, get excited about the fact that the entire experience led to victory over sin, death, sickness and disease, and hell.

I totally love Passover because it was animals that suffered, not a person. And Israel miraculously and victoriously marched out of Egypt into the journey toward the land of Promise across the Jordan. The failure of the death angel to even dare to touch one of the Israelites makes me want to go out and do a happy dance. (Leviticus 23, Exodus 12-15)

Last night I decided to watch the movie, The Passion to experience what Jesus went through. I’ve never been able to watch it. It felt too gory (yes, what Jesus went through was totally gory and true). I didn’t know if I’d emotionally survive the movie. The scenes were so graphic. I knew for sure that I couldn’t watch it alone. And when it came out in 2004, I just plain didn’t want to see it.

I finally mustered up the courage to watch the movie last night with a friend. It certainly was all that I had imagined and more. I had to catch my breath and hold back the depth of heart wrenching sobbing I internally experienced. I could hardly get my breath. The movie was totally raw, ugly, hateful, bloody, gory and just plain demonic. It felt so dark to me. Historians say the actual event was even worse than the movie portrayed because Jesus was so physically tortured that He was unrecognizable.

Then I struggled with the movie’s ending. With the degree of suffering and disgrace portrayed, I felt that to be true to Scripture; the degree of victory then needed to be coupled with His suffering, demonstrated, made plain. Jesus’s victory over hell and His resurrection, power over death, were the pieces of history that released eternal life giving victory over every issue to you and I.

Read Isaiah 53. It speaks of the degree of suffering Jesus was to experience in exchange for our freedom from sin, sickness and disease, death etc. Ephesians 4:8-10 and 1 Peter 3:18-21 speak about His descent into hell to win the victory over every demonic power, Hebrews 2:14 speaks specifically about His death bringing us victory over death. Colossians 2:13-14 tell us that He cancelled our sins by His taking them on Himself and nailing them to the cross once and for all. There is so much more in Scripture this could become an epistle.

The real story is that like Passover, Jesus provided us a way out of whatever we have been slaves to; be it sin (any and every sin), sickness, disease, death etc. He released us from slavery to any source other than the Father. He bound Himself both to the Father’s will and love for us that we might come into wholeness, freedom, love, life etc. through a living intimate relationship with Himself. He removed all the barriers and miraculously overcame everything that ails us by being hated, tortured, crucified, buried, descending into hell and then rising from the dead.

Now you, I can make different choices; life choices, love choices because one person, Jesus the Son of God, outrageously loved us. He chose to complete the purpose for which He came to earth. (1 John 3:8) It’s hard for me to fathom the degree of suffering to which He went. It actually hurts, even haunts me deeply. But the other side is Resurrection Day when that same Jesus was delivered from it all by rising from the dead. Romans 6:4 states that Jesus was raised from the dead by the Father of Glory, our Father and His.

Outrageous Love! It has changed me, transformed me, opened me up, healed me. Love begets love. It’s difficult to give away love, to express it until we’ve experienced it. And there is this ultimate experience of love, the Love of God! Experiencing it, transforms us.

So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture: They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.

We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.

NONE OF THIS FAZES US BECAUSE JESUS LOVES US. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us. (Romans 8:31-39)

And one more suggestion, read Isaiah 53 in the Message Bible. If you don’t have one, google it online. God settled what Jesus’ suffering and ultimate resurrection were all about in Isaiah 53. It was all for you and I.