All You Need Is Love - A Truthful Response to Sin, Sexuality and Injustice

This morning I woke up and saw a video that my son had commented on. It moved me so much to know that there's this whole conversation going on out there, right now, among our young people, about sexuality and Christianity that is deeply disturbing and confusing in it's nature. I asked God how can I be part of this discussion with so many who may disregard what I say. I don't have an answer to that, but I know that my silence only lends strength to the enemy's message (and by the enemy I mean no person, but Satan himself). So this was my response to this video. I hope you will carefully consider it and share or discuss it with others. Here's a link to the video: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=577730898958017

For the sake of brevity (haha) I do not actually go into detail about the movie and it's message. I think the movie is heartbreaking and very damaging. I understand and acknowledge the persecution that the LGBT community has endured. I feel like it's damaging because it so subtly twists truth and lies together to evoke an emotional response that leads us away from real truth. To unpack this please keep reading.


This is a very complex subject that I care about deeply, to which this video only depicts one possible view on either side. God is perfect; His word is perfect. Every person interprets scripture whether they have ever read a bible in there lives or not, because the bible is part of our culture and we know what others think it says by what they say and how they act. I love Jesus and I believe the bible is the inspired word of God. But, I also believe that in order to interpret it correctly, one must have an intimate relationship with the author (God). Some of the bible was written to tell us what happened; other parts of it was written to tell us how God wants us to do things. You need the Spirit of God to reveal what applies to which scripture. Many scriptures on slavery and women are misinterpreted because they are meant to reveal what was taking place in that part of culture when it was written. But those same passages DO have a meaning to us today that God wants us to know about, they aren't simply to be thrown aside. Many Christians misinterpret the bible just the same as anyone else who reads it (or hears parts of it out of context). We are all prideful, we have all gone our own way without God and that makes us equal in His eyes. There is a real enemy whose plan is to pour so much pain and confusion into the subject of God and religion that many will never find truth as a result. But let me tell you about the God that I know.

There is no darkness or deception in Him. He is love; no love exists outside of Him. The God I know sent His own son to earth and allowed Him, Jesus, to be a sacrifice, paying the eternal penalty for ALL sin, past, present and future. Because God is pure and sinless, ANY sin and darkness is destroyed in His Presence. But God created us to be with Him; He is a lovesick God, who despite our rejection and obstinacy, pursues us like a star-crossed lover. He knew that the fall of man separated Him from His creations. He had a plan, and that was Jesus. Jesus took on our punishment, our shame and gave us His righteousness (right standing with God) in place of what we really deserved.

God does NOT hate homosexuals; nor does He hate heterosexuals; God hates sin and darkness which are the "things" or "behaviors, patterns, beliefs, actions" that separate us from Him. But He is not like us; He is able to separate the sin from the person. Many people who truly love God and honor to do His will and seek after Him get confused on this subject, and they wrongly believe that hating people is what they are called to do. But just because many people who call themselves Christians do a poor job of understanding and living out the scriptures does not invalidate them. God's word was created before time existed; it does not need mankind to validate it. God does not NEED mankind; He wants us. He desires us. He created us for Himself. We are the only creatures created in His likeness.

There is a spiritual realm that is more real than the physical realm we live in, because it existed long before ours did. This spiritual realm has laws and beings associated with it, that unless you are aware of and begin to understand, you can live your whole life unaware of how it affects your sphere of life in the natural realm. To put it simply, every emotion has a spirit attached to it; a real live spirit being. So I would say to every person who struggles with gender confusion or sexuality issues (including heterosexuals), the truth that you feel a certain thing is absolutely 100% correct, I do not argue that with you. But what I'd like to suggest is that there are spirits behind feelings - when someone is driven to murder or to cheat on their spouse or to rob a bank, there is a spirit attached to those feelings that lead us to do those things. Spirits influence our lives based on our agreement with that spirit. The outcome is bad and sinful; but the feeling behind it simply reveals the desperation and confusion of the person struggling before they committed that action. It's all sin and it all separates us from God.

I will use myself as an example to illustrate this point. I was saved when I was 9 yrs. old and accepted Jesus into my heart. At that time, the Spirit of God came and lived in me and made my inner spirit man come alive. But there was a lot of fear associated with religion that told me that I was barely saved, that I was a wretched sinner and it was about escaping hell. I was taught that being a Christian was about following a list of rules, so I was a good girl, the best. That's what I focused on. But as life happened, my beliefs began to change as a result of my unmet needs. We all were created with needs and if we are unable to get those met in a healthy way we will find an unhealthy way to get them met. I grew up without my dad and had a lot of poor father models in my life. No one was there to instill identity and self worth into me. So when I got old enough to start being in relationships, I looked to get this unfulfilled need met in those. I lived decades (30+ years) of my life in darkness and pain and misery, struggling with overeating and depression because I still couldn't get those needs met. What I know now is that my earthy father was just a part of it, that it was his job to point me to my heavenly Father, and my identity, self-value and love come from my Papa God.

When I tried everything I could on my own and surrendered it all to Him (God), he took me on a journey of self-discovery, healing and restoration. The God-shaped hole in my heart was finally filled with Him, and it changed my life. It didn't happen overnight; I had 30 something years of lies and wrong thinking I had to overcome. But it's His Spirit that brings life, it's His Spirit that brings truth; no other truth is superior to His, not even your reality. Our reality is a result of our beliefs. What we believe affects what we think, what we think affects what we say, what we say becomes what we expect to happen in our lives and that becomes what we live in. Life and death are in the power of our words; that is truth. I lived out of my feelings for 30 years; but now I've learned that God's word is superior to my feelings; that I control me, I control what I walk in, how great my life is, how loved I feel. So when I learned to teach myself truth from His word, being led by His Spirit, I began the process of mind renewal. I learned to say things over my life out loud that began to affect my feelings and change them. I will be on this journey forever. Learning to live out of truth and convictions means that you acknowledge your feelings and use them to diagnose what is going on inside of you, but you do not allow yourself to be driven by them. God's Spirit empowers us to live free and victorious from these cycles that have kept us in bondage in our lives. And whether you're twelve or sixty, it is never too soon or too late to be free and begin your path toward wholeness and victory.

I'm speaking to all people; regardless of sexuality. I lived in sexual sin for 20+ years of my life; that sin is no different to me than homosexuality. The pain and consequences of that were and are still very real. We are all slaves to something in our lives, make no mistake about it. We are either a slave to our feelings and passions, going every which way, doing all sorts of things, never finding "that thing" that will satisfy the cry of our heart - or we can be a slave to Christ which is the only freedom. Jesus was God; he gave up His right to be God for 33 years and put on human flesh so that He could walk our walk, live our life and know the pain, struggle and agony that we deal with. He is the way, the truth, and the life because before He came, the way to God had been severed and we were hopelessly lost, separated eternally from God. Hell is eternal separation from God, and I believe that God loves us so much that He lets us choose what we want and He gives it to us, forever. The problem is the majority of people make that decision not knowing what they're really deciding on because the truth has been so twisted they think they know what they are rejecting.

If your heart has been stirred by any of this and you're confused about what I'm saying or want to know more, please feel free to message me. I would love to talk with you. My heart is to simply have an honest, open, respectful conversation about this and other important topics that so affect our lives. Bless you all.

Follow Along

For those of you who have been following my old blog, I have a new one about my Adventures in Redding as a BSSM student, so be sure to follow me!!! Blessings

http://jensbethelblog.blogspot.com/

Jesus as First and Last

In the book of Revelation, Jesus calls himself the First and the Last, four separate times; three of those he told John to write this down, pay attention, make sure this truth gets to the church. Yet I would say the majority of the body of Christ has no idea what that title means. 

Rev. 1-8;17 "I am the Alpha and Omega (speaks of Jesus' deity); I am the First and the Last (speaks of Jesus in his humanity)." 

This title emphasizes his sovereignty (supreme power and authority) and preeminence (someone who surpasses all others) as a man, and His ultimate and total victory over death. We know who Jesus is as God, but the most mysterious truth is who He is as a man. This title relates to Jesus' resurrection; the reality of Jesus as a man.

Jesus is First. What does that mean?
He's the source of all blessing 
- what he did as a human high priest
- as a human taking our place and exalted 
- and as a human He shares the fruit of that work with other humans
- as a man who paid the debt for us
- and as a man who loves humans 

He is the first cause or source of blessing in our life. 
Most of us look to people as our source for blessing, so when people are happy, we're excited. When they give us opportunities, finance, promotion; things are well - but Jesus says I am the source. I may use them, but I am your source. I gave it to you originally, therefore I can return it to you a thousand fold as I see fit. We can lose in our lives because of obedience to God (through persecution from the enemy), a changing season, through the actions of others (some through the hand of the enemy), or through pruning. Jesus says, I am the well of blessing; I am the first, lock into me. I thought of blessing you before you were even born. I have the final word on what you possess and what you lose. Neither the devil nor man has the final word on that. 

Why is this so important? 
When we get hold of this in our spirit - it changes how we perceive everything. Knowing that Jesus has the power to give back anything taken from us by man or by the devil, positions us in a place of wholehearted obedience to God. I am loved and protected by God; no one can take away from me what can be restored to me by God - then my focus shifts from worrying about what others can do to me to focusing on Jesus. This reality brings with it more than just the words but a heart conviction that if I always look to Jesus in every crisis, every circumstance, whatever has been taken away will be justified and rectified by Jesus. 

Now, he doesn't say that we will always have a correct understanding of why certain things or blessings are taken; but we can hold fast to the reality that He is the source for our blessing and He has the last word on what blessings we receive. Some believers looks to Jesus as their source, but then are offended by Him when the result to that situation or experience doesn't look the way we think it should look. This is entitlement. Trusting Jesus as first means He's not only the first source of blessing but He has your best interest in mind first. He planned a future for you before you were formed in your mother's womb; He had plans to bless you long before you existed. If every situation or outcome ended as you wanted and expected, you'd have absolutely no reason to trust in Him first. But really believing He wants the best for us (as He sees it; and He already knows the beginning and the end so His view is more informed than our own) will free us to trust His leadership regardless of how it looks or what's happening in front of us. 

He was the first one to come after you. You might say, well, I sought after God and found him. Not exactly. The Lord says, "You weren't thinking about me, I trapped you in a corner, ambushed you, took away all your options, and you said 'I want you, Lord', and now you think you sought me and found me; I'm the first reason you were saved. You didn't have any interest in me for a long time and I stirred you and blessed you and courted you in. I'm the first cause of why you even have a destiny in the first place". So when the enemy traps you or a change in season comes or you endure persecution, you don't have to worry, because the one who thought of you originally, is still thinking of you - and He's a man and he understand everything humans go through. Not from a distance or from His omniscience, but because he experienced it; He felt it, so He has sympathy. 

He has the first place of authority as a man 
- over all nations - and when he returns, all nations will give their allegiance willingly to Him, as a man, as a Jewish man. With a physical flesh body. When we get who He is - the inevitability of who He is, we don't try to get away with compromise in our spiritual life, the glory and worthiness of that - He's the first. Because He's worthy and His place is inevitable. Jesus was fully God AND fully man; but the reality that often escapes us is that when He took on the form of flesh and came to serve on this earth, He didn't use the God card; He didn't use any special power, authority or privilege of His deity to accomplish His task on earth. He did it as a man to show us as men (women) how to tap into the power of heaven available to us through Christ as adopted sons and daughters of His kingdom. 

He's the first to receive a resurrected body. 
Jesus is the first man to connect with the realm of death and lived in light of it. He is the first and only man, right now, in heaven, with a resurrected body; and that is a precursor for us to know and believe that we will also have a resurrected body, just like him, as he promised. He's called the firstborn from the dead - the guarantee everyone connected to him will have one. He's also the first place of authority over the realm of the resurrected. He is the first one in charge; God has given all dominion, all power, all glory - into the hand of the Son. 


Jesus is the last.
As the last, He's the ultimate purpose; the highest goal; the reason for our life. Our lives only make sense in a growing understanding and relationship with him. All other agendas - for real - must be secondary. If they are, we'll have a vibrant spirit. The problem is, we have the language that He's first, but really other things are, and our spirits are dull as a result. We're still saved, but we live with a dull spirit. 

He's the last word on everything.  
He declares the end from the beginning. He says I can tell you where everything is going - my council, my plan will stand if you say yes to me. He will bring His purpose to completion, if you come into agreement with Him. Doesn't matter how much persecution is after you; Jesus has the last word regarding the will of God in your life. Leaders can't cancel out blessings intended for you. You might experience a momentary hiccup as a result of someone's decision, but no one can override Jesus' authority as the last word in your life. 

He's the last word of judgement/evaluation in your life 
Your pastor isn't; your pastor might tell you your awesome but he might have a man-pleasing spirit because your walking in the flesh serves his purposes - the Lord says. "don't believe that; you're not awesome; I love you, but you're living full of compromise". Well the man of God says I'm awesome; well he's lying, he's seducing you with his flattery. Let's go the other way; the man of God says, you're a rebel - Jesus says you're not, you're obeying me. No man has the last word; Jesus does. Regardless of what it costs you, stay loyal to that man - He is the last. 

Jesus brings this title up again in Rev. 2:8-11; writing to the persecuted church in Smyrna, He calls himself the First and Last...  breaks it down again and connects it to human suffering, just like before; but this time He connects it with the confidence and the expectation that there's a resurrection and eternal reward that would far exceed the loss of human suffering related to our obedience. He said, I was dead, I had the ultimate experience of human cruelty; I get it. They beat me, not just physical - before the cruelty of his torment related to the cross, He was rejected ridiculed by his disciples - they fled in their fear. The leadership of the nations rejected Him; His own family did not believe Him.

Rev. Vs. 9: I know your works, trouble, poverty - I get your works, I get it; I worked my whole life hard and mostly nobody appreciated it. I take note of it all, your faithfulness. v.10 some of you are going to suffer - some will go to prison for me, you'll be killed - you'll be tested - be faithful unto death and I'll give you the crown of life - Jesus won't promise breakthrough in every area - some preachers will. We should have the vision of breakthrough and blessing and in believing God to double everything; if He does, believe Him for another double; if not, keep loving Him and believe anyway. Not in a woe is me, groveling sort of way - but stay steady when the seasons don't work out the way we think they should. 

There's a man that has the last word on the works of your life - your weak reachings - when you obey Him with your attitude and no one sees it, that's a work; when you serve in the most unnoticed way because you love Him, He sees that and it moves Him. We can overcome fear with revelation of Him as First and Last. We won't see the fullness of who we are to Him until the end of this age - He has last word on our value of our works and obedience, on our desire to walk in humility because we love Him that people may or may not see, the last word is down the road, and it's in His mouth and His heart. And I want to live with that hope anchored in my spirit. Jesus, as Last, has final vindication forever of how I spent my time and how I loved Him. 

- inspired by teaching from Mike Bickle - IHOP-KC

Victory is Ours

When I see tragedy happen to those who are serving God, I don't see it as a sign that God somehow forgot to protect them. I don't see it as a sign that... well maybe that person had something they were hiding that was bad or maybe that person wasn't good enough to deserve protection. I don't see it as a sign that God must somehow be complacent about these events and can't be bothered with their petty outcomes. I don't see it as that person must have somehow deserved it, right? Or else why would God allow this to happen?

What I see is a child of God that is succeeding at winning souls for God, at changing the lives of others for good, at having a dramatic positive influence in the lives of those around them. A child, who is waging an effective war against the enemy.

What I see is war. Spiritual warfare is waging all around us, every moment of every day. And regardless of whether or not we choose to acknowledge it, or whether or not we choose to engage in it purposefully; we do not negate its presence by our ignorance. We are caught in the grips of a war with our souls and the souls of others left in the balance. And unless we acknowledge and understand our enemy and the weapons he uses, we are helpless to win (or rather to take hold of our victory).

The father of lies is skilled in the art of spiritual warfare; and his lies are the 50 cal machine gun of his arsenal. His sole purpose is to steal, kill and destroy. He is a master at his chosen occupation and knows his enemy and what it takes to bring them down to their knees. His attacks are waged in the recesses of our minds, clothed in enough half-truths to keep us confused, doubting, and vulnerable.

"If you'd have done this, this other thing wouldn't have happened. If you were really favored and protected by God, he wouldn't have allowed this to happen. You don't deserve God's favor and protection. You aren't a mighty warrior for God, you can't even protect your own family. You're not really loved and accepted by God unless you do this. You yelled at your kids (spouse) last night, God's not going to use you for this. If you really had the power of Christ at your disposal, this wouldn't have happened." ......and on and on and on.

This battle is fought and won within our minds, and its root is based in what we believe. What we believe to be true is what we speak over ourselves and is what comes to pass. And what we believe with our minds cannot alone protect us against this warfare unless our spirit man believes also. But the real truth that we must arm ourselves with, is that in our smallness, we aren't able (or supposed) to fully understand and make sense of the mind of God; therefore, we can't judge him based on our experience, we can't second guess him based on attacks from the enemy - we must simply have faith and believe that he doesn't make mistakes and nothing surprises him. We must arm our minds with his word and believe in its truth with our minds, our souls, our bodies and our spirits. And the most important truth in every situation is that Jesus has already defeated Satan, death, sickness and curses on the cross.

And the only lie that has power over us is the one we give life to through our belief.

Jesus has wiped out the room full of ninja assassins and left the front door open for you to escape. If you stay in the room, mesmerized at how many ninjas there were, and how much danger you were in, or what color the paint on the wall is, or distracted by your (kids, spouses, friends family) in the room screaming bloody murder that we're all going to die, or believe that the devil standing in our open doorway has the power to stop you from walking through - then you are stuck in that room. Let me put it another way.

Jesus has defeated our enemy in every way and left a clear way out for us. The room is our experience and everything we experience in it are the lies the enemy tries to use to keep us trapped within our room. We are too distracted by his lies to escape (which sounds daunting, except it's really just to walk out the front door); we are distracted by how many things and what types of things are attacking us; we are distracted by our pain in the moment to take hold of God's promises and Jesus' victory; we are distracted by the world around us (the paint on the wall), in all it's glitz and glamour, and we think that's our escape and our reward; we are distracted by everyone else's feelings, thoughts and opinions of us to take hold of the truth of who we are in Christ; and most of all, we believe that the prisons we are in are predetermined and inescapable, and we don't realize the devil that is standing in our way has already been defeated. And the reality of that lies in what we believe to be true.

For every lie we replace with truth, we win that battle. For every fiery dart of the enemy we extinguish with the truth, we exercise our spiritual muscle (faith) and are strengthened in the promises spoken for us. But if the word of God remains only intellectual theology and are just abstract thoughts, concepts, and principles that we can pat on the head and say "good boy" to, then that's the limit to the power it will have in our lives. If we believe the word of God is true, that we are wholly loved, beloved and accepted by God, that our prayers move the throne room of God, that we have inherited all that belongs to Christ, that we can never, ever earn his love but receive it as a free gift, and that we have the power to walk in the victories Christ has secured for us (freedom from sickness, death, despair and emotional imprisonment), then it will be so. And the key isn't whether or not God wants us to have that power, or whether or not he's willing to freely give it to us - it's already been done - we simply have to claim it, believe it, and speak it over our lives to walk in it.

So in this bloody, battlefield of spiritual warfare that is our lives, we must renew the spirit of our minds continually in our training. We must teach ourselves to call forth what is not as if it is; to not believe our emotions, our experience and our failures but to take hold of the promises of the word of God and insert them as reality into our lives through the act of speaking them; and to believe in those promises regardless of what we hear, see, feel, and experience. When we implement and practice this in every area of our lives, we will begin to see our lives transformed by the power of God; we will no longer be helpless victims of an enemy that has already been defeated, but we will walk in the reality of victory because we believe we live, breathe, love and serve from a place of victory, not to obtain victory. So I say to my loved ones, my friends, my brothers in Christ; upward and onward - let us take hold of victory in our own lives and come together in agreement for victory in each others lives.  

The Importance of Relentless Mind Renewal in Your Life

I've been studying a pastor from Bethel named Steve Backlund, and he has a series on Relentless Mind Renewal that I'd just like to walk out here because it's had such a huge impact on my life already in just over a week.

I had a chance to hear him speak right before the RAIN conference. And it's awesome when God is ready to introduce higher levels of his will and thinking in your life, because that weekend I was bombarded with the same messages from two completely different, unrelated areas. So when truth hits you in the forehead at 90 mph from two different directions, it gets your attention. :-)

Many Christians think that once they become saved, we are just going to radically change - and many times we have the mindset that God is going to do it all on his end, that we just have to sit back and enjoy the ride.

Romans 12:2 says "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." The Lord wants to make dramatic transformation in our lives, and the basis for that is our mind.

Ephesians 4:23 says "...and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds" and he gives us the way by which we do this in v. 22 "...put off our old self.." and v. 24 "...put on the new self.."

Hosea 4:6; my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge (or wrong knowledge). John 10:10; the thief (Satan) comes to kill, steal and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. The devil's only hold on us is deception, and we have to come into agreement with him for his power to take hold. But through the renewal of our thoughts we begin to take hold of what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross.

Joshua 1:8 says, "This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success."   The word meditate means mutter - start muttering on my promises, (through Christ I can do all things; I am strong in Christ; I am more than an overcomer; the devil is defeated; I resist him, he must flee in the name of Jesus). These get into your heart/spirit; you'll obey.

2 Corinthians 10: 3-5 says, "For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds (lies within the mind). We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ...". We recognize our Christian battle is in our thoughts. If we can win in what we think, then the devil has no hold on us.

What we believe is what we experience. The word is our chief weapon (the armor of God; shield of faith, and take up the sword of the spirit which is the word of God). Our power is in our words - what we speak over our lives is what controls our path. When we equip ourselves and speak the truth of the word over our lives, we make our way prosperous and experience good success.

So our primary battle is to break down strongholds in our mind and replace it with truth. Our truth must be rooted in a vibrant love relationship with Jesus.

Proverbs 23:7 says; As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. So who we are is the accumulation of our thoughts and beliefs about God, ourselves, about life and is the essence of who we are.

Philipians 4:8 says; Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

God is telling us here that we are to fill our minds with thoughts worthy of praise.


Tracing the fruit of a thought is the best way to discern its origin; ask yourself:

Does that thought help me to respect and fear the Lord and depart from evil?
Does that thought increase my faith in and or knowledge of God's word?
Actions taken by listening to this thought, will they bring purity, peace, and fruit of the spirit?
Will this thought help strengthen me in all my might to help my endurance?
Does this thought bring joyfulness and bring thanksgiving to my spirit? 

If not, then that thought is either from your flesh or from Satan. He is constantly whispering in our ears; baiting us, waiting for us to come into agreement with any of them so that he has an invitation to come in. We can and must control our thought life. And we are called to do so through repentance.

Matt 3:1-2 

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

Repentance is a decision that results in change of mind and in turn, leads to change of purpose and action.

Jesus, after being tempted by the devil, began his ministry and his first words were, in Matt. chap. 4, verse 17 "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

Changing our minds is the first step in God - repentance isn't going to the altar and shedding tears; it's setting our minds intentionally on if we don't change the way we think, we are not repentant - we are not actually agreeing with and walking out the changing of our mind in that area. 

Common Lies Christians Believe:

1. I do not want to move forward in God, because the enemy attacks me when I do it; something bad always happens. People who believe that are putting more faith in the power of the enemy to attack them than in their belief in God's power to protect them. If you believe things are going to get worse for you, that will be your experience. 

What to say instead: as I move forward in my faith, God's protection moves with me and covers me and my family. I am blessed and favored by God. 

2. Being in the ministry is hard; or doing God's will is hard. Your belief determines your experience. Matt. 11 says my burden is easy, my yolk is light. Romans 5: Talks about what happened in Jesus is much more and greater than (the impact of) what happened in Adam's sin. Verse 17: For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Chapter 5 says "much more" like 5 times - there's a greater force towards good and obedience and power through Jesus because of what he did. To reign mean to rule; this is a declaration, a promise that we must take hold of to activate in our lives. 

3. I will not receive honor in my hometown or home church - yes Jesus said that; but we can't take one verse to lock ourselves in an experience. Jesus' sacrifice on the cross made ALL of God's promises in the bible available to us. 

The Path To Renewing Our Minds.

1. We must increase in our understanding of the goodness of God.

We serve a good God. God is for me, not against me. He loves us, wants to bless us, "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, then how much more will your Heavenly Father give good things to those who ask". That revelation has not been predominant in the body of Christ. People with a poverty spirit, have a difficult time conceiving of a God who is good, they think God wants them to suffer - they see themselves as little fish struggling against the current; whereas, one with a prosperous spirit believes that God's purpose is to bless us and channel blessing through us, seeing themselves in a stream of favor and blessing. How we view this area and the goodness of God and to what level you attack to that is going to be the level that you are able to impact others. 

"Matt. 6:22-23 The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy (good), your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!" What we see and how we see affects everything. Tying this verse into the concept of the goodness of God; if you see God as good, as your source of blessing, then the light that comes from that in through your eye and filters through your life in a positive way; if what you see through your eye is darkness, then that affects how you see and feel about every area of your life, what you expect to happen to you, what you expect the outcome to be. If you expect yourself to be undervalued, persecuted, treated with disrespect, unloved or any bad pattern of perpetual encounters or outcomes in your life - you are opening the door to those and manifesting those experiences in your life because that's what you expect to happen. If you are stuck in that, then your view of God is not based in the truth of who he is and what his word says about him, but is based on wrong religious beliefs passed down from whatever sphere of influence you've been subjected to. 

And verses 25-26 say to not be anxious about your life, what you'll eat or drink or your body or clothes. The birds of the air neither sow nor reap nor gather food, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? If you do not believe God's promises, that he is your source, then you're depending on yourself to provide and that is the root of your anxiety. Our greatest opponent in life is what we beleive. Worrying is meditating on the lies of the devil. The devil has no power over us unless we believe one of his lies. Jesus is tying faith into how we see his goodness. This worry, this fear, this anger is just proof that I believe I have to take care of myself and that God is really not that good of a God. Verse 33: But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. We need to refocus our eye on God's goodness and his promises. 

2. God's promises (just a taste)

Psalm 34: "I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul (which is my mind, will and emotions) makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad." We're speaking out boasting how big God is, how great he is, how wonderful his promises are, and how abundant his blessings are. The humble out there are going to hear your boasting and be glad and encouraged, because we have good news to share. 

One way to magnify God is to get to know his names, which talk about his character - my healer, my provider, my peace, my victory, my breakthrough, my banner, my hope - Psm. 34:4, I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears - when you really seek God and touch him then you know you're delivered internally. He doesn't say we'll be delivered from all our negative circumstances; but from our fear. 

Further in the psalm, first he delivers David (us) from our fear, then from our troubles. 'The angle of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. O' Taste and see that the Lord is good. O' fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. (stop speaking the lies of the devil - negativity) Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it (internal and relational). The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil (he lifts his blessing), to cut off the memory of them from the earth. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.'

We have to break the flow of negativity, past lies, past experiences in our lives. We must learn how to encourage ourselves in God in those moments of small issues so we can be prepared to use those tactics on the big stuff. Small things like discouragement, I'm bummed, that person didn't treat me right, etc. give us an opportunity to train ourselves, like spiritual boot camp, where we break off the lies in our minds; because God is preparing us for something big. That's why the bible says we should welcome difficulty - because it's our opportunity to exercise the weapons God's given us. 

Philippians 4:4 - rejoice in the Lord always; again I said rejoice. 3:13 - ...for one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 

God's call for us isn't just to go to heaven; he wants to pull us up into greater usability, he wants us to walk in great influence. 

1. Forget past. The only thing in the past you need to remember are testimonies of God's victories in your life. 2. Forget failure. 3. Reach forward - I don't have time to go backwards because I have something forward calling me; then press in.

Praying and speaking aloud God's promises to us will help us to repent to what we want and not just repent from what we don't want. A right view of God is essential to breaking strongholds in the mind. As God in your prayer life to reveal his nature to you; seek out scripture that talks about the attributes of God, study them and then use them to debunk lies that are trapping you in wrong modes of thinking. The reason God says to take captive our thoughts is because he knows that our thoughts establish our beliefs, our beliefs impact our experience, and ultimately, define who we are. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. So who we are is the accumulation of our thoughts and beliefs about God, ourselves, about life and is the essence of who we are. 

Freely Receiving from the Spirit and Walking Free of Legalism

Listening today to Mike Bickle teaching about Freely Receiving from the Spirit and Walking Free of Legalism. We hear that term a lot - and I thought I knew what that meant, but today I'm getting a new perspective on that. A simple definition of legalism is: engaging in spiritual activities to earn God's favor. Praying, fasting, giving, serving, outreach, bible study - we can engage in legitimate, necessary spiritual activities, but when we do them based on favor we seek from God, we are practicing legalism.

Ask any Christian and they'll tell you they know they can't earn their salvation, that it's a free gift from God. But our natural mindset automatically kicks into the gear of wanting to earn God's favor and God's blessing. Even though we know better, we all naturally do this. Verbally we acknowledge God's grace is free; but at the emotional level, we don't really buy into it.

One of the main reasons we struggle with this is because there's no natural occurrence of this in the earth. Isaiah 55:7-8 says "God's ways are higher than man's ways, as high as the heavens are above the earth; God's ways are as superior to and different from man's ways as the heavens are from the earth." He's actually talking about His tenderness towards our brokenness - the way that God offers mercy is so superior to any human beings' ability to show mercy - there's nothing on earth to compare it to. It takes the revelation of grace to understand. This comes down to us trapping (or trying to) God's love into the same box ours is contained in; changing to definition of God's love to mean what man calls love.

God's righteousness, blessing, and favor are given freely to those who have faith or confidence in Jesus' work on the cross and in His deep love for His people. (2 Cor. 5:17-21) says anyone in Christ is a new creation... that Jesus became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. God releases His power by faith - faith is having confidence in our agreement with the Spirit and the Word of God. That means we operate in our faith from the standpoint that Jesus paid for every sin, and that we stand spotless before God as Christ does. That means we operate in the confidence that when we repent of sin, it is gone and forgotten; that we cast off our natural spirit of shame after we repent and set ourselves before God with confidence that we are blameless.

Many find it easy to believe that their initial salvation is a free gift; but then believe that God listens to them, desires them, and uses them based on how well they are performing in their spiritual life. "Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law [earning it], or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh [earning it]?...He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" (Gal. 3:2-5) 


There are 2 different expressions of pride that tempt God's people; the pride that seeks to gain man's praise and the pride that seeks to earn God's favor. Many of the activities related to serving God are the same - the legalistic man will pray, fast, tithe, make time commitments to God just as the man empowered by grace does. It's not the activity but the motivation behind the activity that determines legalism.

Well, why is that such an issue? Both are serving, both love God. Because if we serve from a desire to earn God's favor or from a fear of God rejecting us, we are actually trusting more in our commitment to God than in God's commitment to us. God's love and desire for us existed before we acknowledged Him; God thought of us long before we thought of Him. Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith (Heb. 12:2). God's desire for us doesn't change based on what we do and don't do as believers; God's desire is for us to "take and say thank you" for all that He gives us. (Ps. 116:12-17).

When we operate in our faith with a legalistic mindset, our eyes are on ourselves (and how well we're performing) instead of on Jesus, and our motivation is based on doing enough to earn God's favor instead of simply receiving it freely and thanking God for it. And focusing on ourselves as the source leaves us preoccupied in measuring our dedication, our calling, and our relationship with the Spirit and comparing it with others. But when we operate in our faith with a supernatural revelation of God's grace, we are confident that in every season of our walk, God is paying attention, desires us and is waiting to release blessing on us. Even when we fail, God will still answer our prayers and still wants to use us; He still wants us to talk to Him with extravagant language of love. We can't pray and fast and tithe our way into God's love; but those activities increase our capacity to RECEIVE the love He already has for us.

We can have seasons where we faithfully keep all our commitments to God and then slip into seasons where we fall short - but God's reaction to us is still the same, it doesn't change. We are still the righteousness of God through Jesus; we are still set before God as spotless as the Lamb of God!!! But our connection to Him is based on US. We can fail - and either fall into our shame, put ourselves in a kind of spiritual detention, and change how we relate to God because of that - OR - we can fail - have legitimate shame; repent of our weakness and walk away from that for good and set our hearts back to God in wholeheartedness, talking with Him in confidence in His love. But if we are proud when we do good and feel shame and depression when we do bad, we are operating in our own confidence in OUR commitment to God, not His commitment to us.

How are you emotionally responding to God in your walk? Is your faith based on your ability to stick to your commitments to God or based on freely receiving and accepting with thanksgiving God's commitment to you? The righteousness you received as a free gift on your bank account in Heaven, the day you were born again, can never ever be improved upon. A million years from now, you will never have more righteousness in God's eyes than you did the moment you were born again. It's the righteousness of Christ; it can't be improved upon. You didn't receive a 10% part; you received all 100% the first moment. All the hinderance from God's standpoint is gone; His heart is wide-open, there's nothing stopping Him from expressing His love for you - the only thing stopping you is your ability to receive it. Christ's desire is to guide us to maturity in our love for God. Focusing our thoughts, our feelings, our desires on Christ and not on our own morbid introspection will free us from our own emotional traffic and clear the way for God to communicate to us.

Paralysis by analysis grips us when we are focused on comparing our walk, our blessings, our gifting with others. We are engaged in a continuous conversation with ourselves; "why is this person receiving more than me, are my motives right, is the Holy Spirit really touching me, my ministry is as good as theirs, he seems more dedicated than me" - the Lord says, "ok I want you to hang the phone up on that conversation with yourself, I can't get a word in edgewise". "OK, Lord, hold on while I talk to me about me, just give me a minute, I'll be finished." We're trying to sort it all out. The Lord says - just talk to me. I'll tell you where you are at, why you're receiving what you're receiving, what my plan is for you, why your blessings look different than my blessings to someone else. Stop talking to yourself and talk to me; stop taking personal inventory of how many times you fail. When you fall short, repent, push delete and talk to Jesus.

God as Our Source

Nobody starts strong in God. The maturity of our faith has less to do with how much time has passed since we were saved, and more to do with how much time has passed since we were saved that we've spent going deeper into the things of God. What does that even mean? What does it mean to have God as our source, and how does that affect our maturity as followers of Christ?

We have seasons of plenty, and we have seasons of need. We have times when it seems we're on top of the world, everything is going our way, and then times of trouble when our world is falling apart around us. But it is our heart response to God during each of those times that determines our blessing. Our culture promotes such romantic ideals about life, and when we embrace Christianity, we bring our romanticism with us. Our expectations are that once we choose God, we expect Heaven - we believe we'll be somehow automatically transformed, full of God; that once we've chosen God, he'll do all the work in us. But in reality, we're still angry, full of lust, drawn to the things of our flesh and at odds with each other, reacting at the wrongs inflicted on us. And just as the choice to choose God is ours and ours alone, the choice to pursue him is also.

Part of those idealistic expectations, we set upon each other as the body of Christ, when we receive those new in the faith. We teach them to cultivate their works for God to establish their place in the ranks of God's people. We take the bible stories of Jesus' life and his service to others and we try to apply it to ourselves. And those are biblical concepts; but without a growing intimacy with God, without an ever-increasing fascination with Jesus, we are doomed to fail. We serve out of an obligation placed on us by each other, or from a wrong paradigm that our salvation is related to our works - not from a place of overflowing joy inside from the love of Christ. And after a season, we drop like flies, burnt out, saying "I've served and served, now I want someone to serve me".

God's purpose in our lives is to expose our sin and weakness, not to promise us a perfect, easy life. But we're offended by that - we assume that because he wants us to be transformed that he'll just do it - with or without our help. And that is the conundrum that so many live in and struggle to get out of. And many of us resent God for that or think he's mean; "well if God loves me so much, why doesn't he just make everything better in my life; I'll serve him better when everything is as it should be" - and that is wrong. We do not have an accurate picture of how much sin and entitlement is in our hearts, how prone our flesh is to seek its own reward, how fleeting the days of our existence are. We truncate God's love for us to fit our own sphere of understanding of what love looks like to us, through our broken and selfish eyes. And when God acts in our life outside of what we feel those parameters of love should look like, we stop trusting him at the heart level.

But God knows that the only way to bring us closer to him is to reveal the sin and weakness that separates us from him. And all the seasons of plenty in our lives won't motivate us to seek him out; only in our pain and weakness and misery do we finally break down, after turning to everything BUT God and failing, and call out for him. And it is by seeing God as our source for everything that will empower us to walk through every season of life, abounding in joy. Happiness is not joy. Happiness is having your every whim fancied; it changes with the fading of color, the changing of weather, the smile or frown of another. It is fleeting, momentary, and satisfying only for a time, then it is gone. Our happiness is subject to the randomness of our universe, to the whims of our fickle associates, and to the temperament of our own desires.

Joy is a biblical term that refers to many different principles. Christ is the source of our joy; and tapped in deep enough, we are promised it as a wellspring that will flow for eternity through Christ to us. That means the attributes of Christ are available to us through his joy, not to wipe out our dissatisfaction but to calm our minds, steady our thoughts, bridle our tongues, heal our hearts and our bodies, and offer us peace and rest - regardless of our outward circumstances. That means when someone hurts us, the joy of Christ gives us power to forgive, to heal our wounds, and to reach out in love back to the person who hurt us. That means when our financial situation changes or we are stricken with illness, the joy of Christ gives us the power to heal, the strength of heart to weather the storm, and the assuredness of his hand holding us up during our crisis. When we understand God as our source, we have assuredness that his strength is mighty enough; that he is the source for every blessing in our lives. No boss or church leader can take away any favor he puts upon you, no family member can remove his love for you; and he promises that if you see him as your source, you will walk in confidence that his favor will be upon you in this life and the next in fullness.

God is our source. He's the source of our salvation, the source of our person, our talent, creativity, ability, life. He's the source of our strength, he gives us every breath; the power of his name casts out demons and moves the spirit realm at his command. But if you are looking for happiness instead of joy, you'll be disappointed and not understand how he's moving in your life and your intimacy with him will suffer. If you can completely accept in your heart that he is is perfect, that his ways are righteous, that he is always right, that he desires good and magnificent things for your life, and that his love for you is unfailing, then you are on your way to walking in his joy. In every moment of your life, believe him for full blessing - when it comes, bless him as the source; when it doesn't come, believe him for it anyway in the next breath and watch and see how your attitude, your heart, and your faith are transformed by his abounding joy.