Recently I read a comment on Facebook regarding how people give credit to God when they succeed but don’t blame him for their failures. He was pointing out how hypocritical it is that they give God the Glory when they succeed yet wont blame him for their failures.

The act of thanking Jesus in a public venue sometimes is cultural and sometimes it is a true expression of ones faith. The issue as I see it is not necessarily in the outcome but an expression of thanksgiving. We all have faith and we place it in whatever paradigm we are willing to accept.

Faith is a substance and it manifests itself in whatever it is invested in. Some just don’t believe invest it and don’t see any thing

A fundamental difference for a Christian is that they have encountered the living God.

That encounter has changed their lives forever. Now some have encountered God but yet their cultural construct of what is real or what is not real may prevent them from accepting that it was a God encounter.

The existence of God is not dependent on your acknowledgement or not.

As fundamentalist as this may sound there is a living God who interacts with his children every day. He is not dead and buried somewhere or a simple construct of peoples imagination. His language is not simply English and he communicates in a variety of ways.

He makes himself known in all of his creation yet his creation does not contain him (by that I mean restrain).

A persons faith no matter how small or large is not dependent on my interpretation. If he chooses to express his thankfulness that is his choice. One important thing to consider is we are all a work in progress and some of us are further along than others. It is not for me to decide what is and is not acceptable for someone to do because on my best day the most I can do is control myself.

Spiritual realities are as real as natural, the manifestation of these realities in the natural real comes about when activated by faith.

Heidi Baker in Mozambique is an example of going to the poorest of the poor. Taking what she had and God multiplied it. She has seen blind eyes healed, dead raised, food multiplied, and much more. She is passionately in love with God and she sees miracles every day. She has a book Always-Enough-Miraculous-Provision-Children which is a collection of the miraculous stories and encounters they have had. I can go on to list a whole bunch more people who have seen miraculous interventions of God.

The biggest problem is not on Gods end it is on ours. Unbelief is what restrains him. He has done everything possible to get us to co labor with him yet we act as spoilt children demanding our way, despising him because things go wrong. He asks what do you want me to do about it I left you in charge. When we come to the realization that we can do very little without his help and start co laboring with him listening to his instructions and doing it we see his miraculous interventions.

To a man who denies the existence of God he has no framework within which God can begin to work in his life. He will consistently look for another plausible reason not to believe to put his faith in the natural created realm. The denial of the existence of things beyond our reason is one of the greatest paradoxes I see in the scientific community because they are using what is known to explore that which is unknown yet deny some of the fundamental tenants that hold the unknown together.

Contrary to cultural opinion there is not a ying and yang equal and opposite power struggle. The struggle is on the earth granted but in the heavens it is decided. God has limited his power on earth to the will of man. Its the free will thing I mentioned earlier. He is not looking for clones he is looking for sons (and daughters) who will capture his will and his heart for people and release it on earth. Faith in the negative invites the negative to manifest. Evil will show itself when you place more faith in it and act upon it. Faith in God will manifest itself in signs and wonders.

Free will is one of the biggest values of the kingdom. If you look at the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis there are two trees in the garden. Have you ever asked yourself who put them there and why? God did. Why? He gave man dominion over all the earth but had one stipulation not to eat of the fruit of one tree. Man was completely free to choose.

He chose to listen to a serpent instead of God who had given them everything. The serpent lost his legs apparently (figure that one for evolution). Who created the serpent? Why?

God give man a choice and waits for man to ask for his help, to believe what he says so he can work on his behalf.

There are many seeming inconsistencies in the bible but the bible is Gods word not God. The knowledge of the book without the encounter only makes people religious (having the form without the substance.) If you read the bible and do not encounter the living God you are simply reading a story.

When you read the bible and encounter the living God, it inspires you, it builds you up, it becomes the resting place for your faith to grow. The more you encounter Him and his love the more you become like him, the more you become like him the more you do the things he does and the more of heaven is released on earth.

God is not angry at men, he poured out his wrath on Jesus on the cross to bring men back into relationship with him satisfying his being a just and true God. He even says in 2 Peter 3:9 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
9 The Lord does not delay His promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.

He also says
Ecclesiastes 3:11 (HCSB)
11 He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also put eternity in their hearts, but man cannot discover the work God has done from beginning to end.

John 17:3 (HCSB)
3 This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and the One You have sent —Jesus Christ.

Life is a journey of discovery. Discovering who you are and who you are meant to be and the fullness of that is found in Jesus. The more we get to “know” Jesus the more we become like him. To the word know used in that verse does not simply mean to know about, it is fuller than that. It has many implications such as to; follow, allow, be aware (of), feel, (have) knowledge, perceive, be resolved, be sure, understand.

Do I have perfect theology, no, but I do have the perfect God who happens to be my best friend. He tells me things about people and lets me share his heart and goodness towards them, yes even those who don’t like me.

Just some thoughts.

I am really enjoying the creativity coming out currently. I love the song featured here. All I have to say is the story of Jesus is a Love story of a creator and His creation. Enjoy and be blessed. He truly does love you.

Have you ever considered the fact that ALL Father Gods’ wrath against sin was poured out on Jesus on the cross. Every drop of it!!! When we accept Jesus the Christ He takes all our sin and the punishment it deserves and places it upon himself on the cross. Father God in his righteousness poured out all the punishment for sin on His Son who had been full obedient and sinless. He had to be sinless to be qualified to take someone elses sin. By doing that He substituted his sinlessness for our sinfullness.

Now that all punishment for sin has been poured out on Jesus on the cross Father God has no anger or punishment left for those who have accepted Christs sacrifice by Faith. Faith is essential in this process. What is faith?

Hebrews 11:1 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)  1 Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.

We accept Jesus sacrifice by faith and we accept his sinlessness and forgiveness by the same faith.

Romans 5:1-3 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)  1 Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  2 Also through Him, we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Now having accepted Jesus we are free from the punishment of God and now enter into unhindered access to the love of God. We get to experience the great goodness and love of our God. What is so amazing is He is even good to those who dont acknowledge him. They will have no excuse when He returns. For us who believe we get to grow in our relationship with Him and experience greater depths of His love and goodness.

Be blessed. If you don’t know him thats easy to rectify. Ask him by faith to forgive your sins and enter into your heart and life. Leave me a note and I will get in touch and celebrate with you.

What is prophecy?

Well there have been books written about this very topic and I am not here to give an exhaustive definition. I can refer you to many great books about this topic should you wish to know more.

Essentially prophecy to me is connecting to the heart and mind of Jesus and declaring what you hear or see. Its primary purposes are for edification, exhortation and encouragement. 2 Peter 1:21 (New American Standard Bible)

21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God

Paul exhorts all believers to prophecy 1 Corinthians 14

1 Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.

James Goll, Mike Bickle, Kim Clement, Graham Cooke, Larry Randolph, Kris Vallotton and Steve Thompson have all written exceptional books on prophecy and how it function in and around the local church.

Below is a video of one of my most admired prophetic voices in the nation, Graham Cooke. Enjoy.

In the third part of my series on listening for the voice of God I would like to cover the issues of events and seeming coincidence.

The language of God is not only English. God can and does talk through events. It is usually when we open our selves up to the different ways in which God communicates that we get to see that God is always talking to us, directing us and encouraging us.

There are times when I am pursuing God for something and I will wake up at seemingly random times. Well I heard a testimony of James Goll how the Lord would wake him up and he would look at the clock. Then he would search the bible for any verse that has the related numbers in it. eg if I wake up at 3:16 the verse could relate to John 3:16.

Sometimes I will see a billboard with a few words highlighted. It is like you simply see those words and know they carry more weight. Like the word FREE standing out on a billboard talking about getting free breakfast. Well by itself it may not mean much unless God highlights it and then confirms He has set us free. He reminds us we are free to worship, free to love and be loved, free to dance and so on.

Sometimes if I have something happen repeatedly it is the Lord highlighting an area or something he wants us to pursue until we get the message or breakthrough on.

Sometimes I will be thinking about someone and then bump into them later in the day or get a phone call. Usually it is a good time to encourage people and pray for them. If God is in control and orders our steps nothing is a coincidence it is a divine appointment for you to release something of God you carry. Your unique spiritual DNA is what the Lord has placed in that persons path simply because they need what you have or your need something they have. It is wonderful to walk around with open eyes and heart to see what and where the Lord is speaking.

Happy new year to all of you.

As I said in my last post I would go through some of the ways I hear from God. The word of God in the bible is one of the primary ways we hear from God.

What makes the Bible different from any other book is that it is divinly inspired over thousands of years with a consistent message.

When reading the bible I ask for a Spirit of wisdom and revelation. By doing this I ask God to highlight what he wants me to know or wants me to be aware of. When reading the bible I get to feed off the very heart of God. What tends to happen then is I can be reading the logos (written word)  and the Spirit of God will breath of it and it becomes what we call the Rhema (God breathed alive word). When the Holy Spirit wants me to pay attention to a particular passage or verse it seems to jump off the page and become prominent in my mind.

Sometime the I ask questions of what I am reading and in asking the questions I am providing the Holy Spirit an opportunity to teach me from the word.

Sometimes If I have a question I will ask God for some guidance or an explaination and a verse will come to mind. If I go and read it it usually contains the answer I was looking for.

The more I read the word and let the word reside in me through meditating (thinking about / absorbing it) on it, the more effective I become at hearing  God’s Voice.

Does God communicate with man? What are some of the ways God communicates with man?

It is my intention to give you a few idea’s how God communicates with man.

Here are a few ways in which God communicates with me.

1. God speaks through his word in the bible.

2. God speaks in the still small voice, some call the inner voice.

3. God speaks through events, some would call “coincidence”.

4. God speaks through prophecy.

5. God speaks through dreams and visions.

In the coming weeks it is my intent to look at each of these and give some real world examples. This is by no means an exhaustive list but is a start. It is my intent to explore each of these with you and share stories. The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy so lets declare all the wonderous works of the Lord and learn from him. Please take time to share your thoughts in the comments section.