Welcome to the lifestyles of the anointed
The weight of the walk seems to be consuming and the sacrifice it takes to continue is trying most of the time. The strength that it takes to continue in the path God has chosen for you seems to be slipping away and there seems to be no reprieve. You're holding on for dear life and just then, God sends a friend, family member, or even a stranger with that bit of encouragement that you need to continue on.
Have you ever noticed that when you are feeling low and stretched out by the call, there's no one around to help? This actually isn't the truth, the old war tactic calls for the enemy to divide and conquer. The enemy tries to separate us by any means he can, whether it be sibling rivalry, discord, lies or sin. But the word tells us that we cannot allow this to continue or even begin.
The strength that we as a family get from one another was the original intention of God, His word tells us that we are many members but one body. Hebrews 10:25 says "25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching."
Although our hearts, churches, ministries and intentions are filled with love, the weight of all this can cause us to be weary in our flesh, in our minds and our walks. For one, if our mind is not in check then we are subject to its tricks, we can easily fall into the traps the enemy sets and be used for his intentions. We wouldn't be a part of this body is it wasn't God's intention but we must do our part to guard our hearts and relationships as well as the hearts and relationships of those around us.
One of my favorite war stories is that of the Spartans of Greece. These soldiers had many war tactics but one that stuck out is the operation of their defense system. Each soldier protected the man to their left from thigh to neck with their shield and this made it mostly impossible to penetrate their ranks. It's funny how this foreshadows the scripture Romans 15:1-2 "1-2 Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status. Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, “How can I help?”
Each soldier in the Lord's army has weaknesses and strengths but it's amazing how God designed us that one's strength can cover their brother and sister's weakness.
It's imperative that we do our part to look after one another like we would do in our natural family. Often times pride, fear of rejection and shyness will keep siblings in Christ from reaching out for help or out to each other. As young leaders and people who profess the love and ministry of Christ, we must make it our job to tend to the fellow sheep, to call, text or go visit one another. How much more successful would this body be if we all were on one united front?!
Brothers and Sisters I beseech you by the mercies of God to do your best to love one another. No we won't always get along or want to be around each other but it is our commandment from God to LOVE EACH OTHER, which means helping, looking out, and showing concern for each other in and out of the church building...
Together we can achieve what God has destined us to do, together we can reclaim this world for the Kingdom of Heaven. I pray the love of God over you all my Father's children....
Please share, comment, spread and be on the look out for the next post. And as always be blessed...
Monday, November 11, 2013
Monday, September 30, 2013
Can you feel me?!
(Luke 22:1-6) 22 Now the Festival of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was approaching, 2 and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of the people. 3 Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. 4 And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. 5 They were delighted and agreed to give him money. 6 He consented, and watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was present.
Do you feel as if the call of God is your passion or do you feel like its just another job or assignment? What I've come to understand in this walk, is that when you take something serious and it becomes a part of you everything you are is attached to it, including your feelings.
How easy is it that we can get our feelings hurt while doing God's business? We work so hard and spend countless hours attempting to complete some aspect of the call on our lives. We go to each service, we attend the meetings, we love our neighbors, we do all we can to live the Christian life... But all of a sudden we get our feelings hurt, we get disappointed, we get overlooked, or something just isn't going the way we think they ought to. What is it that we are supposed to do? Are our feelings justified?
The word tells us that God's intention was to make us in His image, it also tells us that He has feelings. Naturally, we have feelings as a design by God. What do we do as Christians following the example when these feelings get hurt?!
The above scripture depicts a popular time in scripture in where Judas had agreed to betray Christ. Christ being God in the flesh and knowing who His betrayer was put in a situation where He not only had to acknowledge His hurt feelings but He had to carry out the mandate that was on Him. This in itself is a great example of the importance of continuing despite opposition, especially an attack against you spawned by yourself!
In all honesty do people mean to hurt our feelings? Sometimes yes and sometimes its unintentional, but what is more important, our feelings or what we are called to do for God's kingdom? What should we allow to stop us from completing our tasks? The answer saints, friends, future leaders and workers in the kingdom is... NOTHING!!!
Imagine the grace, faith and strength it took Christ to walk out the plan when He was looking His betrayer in the face, attempting to save His murderers, and giving His life for those who don't receive Him even 3500 years after His sacrifice. The world tells us that we are to accomplish what He did and even more, this is telling us to operate in grace and keep moving in strength, acknowledging our feelings but not allowing them to stand in the way of what we know the call is...
Despite what it feels like press on believer, continue to make progress in the kingdom, continue to retrieve your life back from the enemy and then turn and go back for the others still lost.
I pray your encouragement in the things of God, your strength against self and sent opposition and the tenacity, fervor and passion it takes to be success in this walk. In Jesus's name!
Please share, comment, spread and be on the look out for the next post. And as always be blessed...
Do you feel as if the call of God is your passion or do you feel like its just another job or assignment? What I've come to understand in this walk, is that when you take something serious and it becomes a part of you everything you are is attached to it, including your feelings.
How easy is it that we can get our feelings hurt while doing God's business? We work so hard and spend countless hours attempting to complete some aspect of the call on our lives. We go to each service, we attend the meetings, we love our neighbors, we do all we can to live the Christian life... But all of a sudden we get our feelings hurt, we get disappointed, we get overlooked, or something just isn't going the way we think they ought to. What is it that we are supposed to do? Are our feelings justified?
The word tells us that God's intention was to make us in His image, it also tells us that He has feelings. Naturally, we have feelings as a design by God. What do we do as Christians following the example when these feelings get hurt?!
The above scripture depicts a popular time in scripture in where Judas had agreed to betray Christ. Christ being God in the flesh and knowing who His betrayer was put in a situation where He not only had to acknowledge His hurt feelings but He had to carry out the mandate that was on Him. This in itself is a great example of the importance of continuing despite opposition, especially an attack against you spawned by yourself!
In all honesty do people mean to hurt our feelings? Sometimes yes and sometimes its unintentional, but what is more important, our feelings or what we are called to do for God's kingdom? What should we allow to stop us from completing our tasks? The answer saints, friends, future leaders and workers in the kingdom is... NOTHING!!!
Imagine the grace, faith and strength it took Christ to walk out the plan when He was looking His betrayer in the face, attempting to save His murderers, and giving His life for those who don't receive Him even 3500 years after His sacrifice. The world tells us that we are to accomplish what He did and even more, this is telling us to operate in grace and keep moving in strength, acknowledging our feelings but not allowing them to stand in the way of what we know the call is...
Despite what it feels like press on believer, continue to make progress in the kingdom, continue to retrieve your life back from the enemy and then turn and go back for the others still lost.
I pray your encouragement in the things of God, your strength against self and sent opposition and the tenacity, fervor and passion it takes to be success in this walk. In Jesus's name!
Please share, comment, spread and be on the look out for the next post. And as always be blessed...
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
What's love got to do with it?!
Welcome to the lifestyles of the anointed
13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
In my experience in the body of Christ, the question "What does love have to do with it?" is all too common. We achieve these great aspects in development in God and we grow in ministry and in personal character but the one thing that we forget is the one thing that is most important, LOVE! From my understanding, as we continue in this walk with Christ we are suppose to be following in His footsteps. In this next verse of scripture we even find the secret to Christ's ability to attract the people and help them see the light.
Jeremiah 31:3 says "3 Long ago the Lord said to Israel “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love.With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself." As the scripture says, it wasn't His flashiness, His power, His knowledge or any of that but it was His love.
As He has drawn us His people to Him through love we are to draw those who aren't saved and those who have not been witnessed to through love. The mistake we most often make is quoting scriptures, and attempting to know what these people need versus just loving them and allowing them to see Christ through our actions and thus making a way for anything else they may need through Christ
As most would agree we have to first define the subject matter before we are able to teach, preach and most importantly live it. One of the various biblical definitions of love can be found in...
1 Corinthians 13:4-8... "4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages[a] and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!"
Love done correctly personifies all these things and is more concerned with the person being loved and being effective than being selfish. Love sums up the character of God and shows us who we are to be by where we are to start...
This type of love actually spans farther than from God to man, and Man to unbeliever but from Christian to Christian...
Mark 12:31 "31 The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[a] No other commandment is greater than these.” It is so important that we not only love in words but to love in deed. The scripture says to love as if they were yourself. If we as a body would love each other with the same intensity that we love ourselves we would be making a lot more progress and making greater moves for the kingdom. Love isn't just an emotion or a state of mind but love actually has power to it. The scriptures speak of what love is able to do and most of all what love has done for us...
8 Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.
Not to say love will cover us from being able to sin, or love will block out our sins but love has the ability to weaken sins control over us. If we as brothers and sisters loved each other as the scriptures have said then confessing to one another wouldn't be as hard and getting delivered from sin wouldn't be so hard because we would be able to be transparent and allow others to help us with in prayer and guidance.
In conclusion love has done something for us that nothing else in this world could award or afford us. Love has put us in position to receive a savior, to redeemed, and to have our relationship reconciled with God the Father...
John 3:16 says 16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life."
13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
In my experience in the body of Christ, the question "What does love have to do with it?" is all too common. We achieve these great aspects in development in God and we grow in ministry and in personal character but the one thing that we forget is the one thing that is most important, LOVE! From my understanding, as we continue in this walk with Christ we are suppose to be following in His footsteps. In this next verse of scripture we even find the secret to Christ's ability to attract the people and help them see the light.
Jeremiah 31:3 says "3 Long ago the Lord said to Israel “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love.With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself." As the scripture says, it wasn't His flashiness, His power, His knowledge or any of that but it was His love.
As He has drawn us His people to Him through love we are to draw those who aren't saved and those who have not been witnessed to through love. The mistake we most often make is quoting scriptures, and attempting to know what these people need versus just loving them and allowing them to see Christ through our actions and thus making a way for anything else they may need through Christ
As most would agree we have to first define the subject matter before we are able to teach, preach and most importantly live it. One of the various biblical definitions of love can be found in...
1 Corinthians 13:4-8... "4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages[a] and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!"
Love done correctly personifies all these things and is more concerned with the person being loved and being effective than being selfish. Love sums up the character of God and shows us who we are to be by where we are to start...
This type of love actually spans farther than from God to man, and Man to unbeliever but from Christian to Christian...
Mark 12:31 "31 The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[a] No other commandment is greater than these.” It is so important that we not only love in words but to love in deed. The scripture says to love as if they were yourself. If we as a body would love each other with the same intensity that we love ourselves we would be making a lot more progress and making greater moves for the kingdom. Love isn't just an emotion or a state of mind but love actually has power to it. The scriptures speak of what love is able to do and most of all what love has done for us...
8 Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.
Not to say love will cover us from being able to sin, or love will block out our sins but love has the ability to weaken sins control over us. If we as brothers and sisters loved each other as the scriptures have said then confessing to one another wouldn't be as hard and getting delivered from sin wouldn't be so hard because we would be able to be transparent and allow others to help us with in prayer and guidance.
In conclusion love has done something for us that nothing else in this world could award or afford us. Love has put us in position to receive a savior, to redeemed, and to have our relationship reconciled with God the Father...
John 3:16 says 16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life."
Please feel free to comment, ask questions and give
respective opinions and perspectives...
And always in all things keep God first and contend
for the faith!!! God Bless.
An Effective Witness
Welcome to the lifestyles of the anointed and nameless
Have you ever questioned what people are saying about you or what they think of who you are? Has it crossed your mind if the person you are trying to portray is actually being received?
Growing up I was always taught that outside of the walls of the home you are representing your parents and the family, whatever people see you do or how you act will reflect on home. This is something that directly reflects on what we call our "witness" as believers, followers and children of the living God.
How we act towards people, in all situations and in general reflects on our Father and subconsciously will shape peoples opinion on God and what we say we believe in...
As a budding leader in the body of Christ it is so important that not only the church members see you as the man or woman of God but that the world sees you as such. Once our lives have been given unto God we have become an ambassador to His kingdom. When people see us in our day to day lives, in and out of the church they ought to see a reflection of Christ versus seeing us in the natural.
\16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)
The people of this world both saved and unsaved are still people, as spiritual as some can be in various levels of faith, we started out as humans. Humans by nature believe mostly by seeing, followed by hearing and knowing. When we as believers profess that we follow Jesus Christ we now have all eyes on us. People look at us to see if what we are saying if more than just words but an actual lifestyle, solidified by faith. In all that we do, we ought to allow or portray the attributes of our Father so that the people will be drawn in and attracted to what it is that we're a part of.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)
The fruit of the spirit are the characteristics of God, these are the standards by which our character should be defined. Often times we portray one or more qualities at a time but fall behind in the others. Not to say that this is an easy process, because honestly it requires work especially if they are not already active in your life. When interacting with people, these are what God has intended them to see through us, along with righteous living through the obedience of His word.
As up and coming leaders in the body, your witness unto others shapes how your ministry or ministry gift will be received, these gifts have been given by God out of His love for His people, how can one act in the gift without its fundamental loving nature?
The classic idiom says " It's easier to catch bees with honey than with vinegar", Matthew 5:13 says "You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.". Both of these allude to the metaphoric sense that we as Christians are the flavoring behind the attraction to God. Although the holy spirit is at work within those who come to Christ, we as ambassadors are the first ones they see, both walking around and in the church building. The sum of our responsibilites as Children of God and ambassadors to His kingdom in regards to our witness is found in the Great Commission:
16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:16-20)
According to this passage of scriptures we have been instructed to make disciples of all nations. Disciple by definition means "a person who is a pupil or an adherent of the doctrines of another; follower; any follower of Christ."
In conclusion, how do we accomplish our goals as described by the great commission? We as budding leaders in the body must live a life of a righteous witness, the people of God and those who are still unsaved need to be attracted not but us or the gifts we operate in but the Christ that lives within us, thus producing Galatians 5:22-23 and leading into Matthew 28:16-20. The point of an effective witness is to drawn in the people of this world to the love of God through our faith in Jesus Christ and the following of His example.
Please feel free to comment, ask questions and give
respective opinions and perspectives...
And always in all things keep God first and contend
for the faith!!! God Bless.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Christian in a crisis
Have you ever been in a situation where it seems near impossible to act as God would, where the only response you have is to act "out of character"?
I don't know about some of you but at times it gets hard to portray what God would want us to do versus what our feelings and thoughts are telling us to do. This is what I identify as "A Christian in a crisis"...
The truth of the matter is, we are spirits having a natural experience, we are following the examples left behind by Christ. The word says in Hebrews 4:15, For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
The things we face today are not uncommon to Christ...
The main thing we have to understand is how to remain a Christian in the midst of a crisis. How do I show the world God while under pressure?
Scripturally it sounds very easy but most of know that that isn't the case when we are in the situation but they key is application. When in a crisis apply what the scriptures have said. Keep in mind that the world is looking to the body of Christ as the example, even when it doesn't seem like it.
Below we are going to go over two verses of scripture and interpretations
Philippians 4:8... And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:8, 9 NLT)
When going over this verse what we see being taught is to focus your mind on God like behaviors and thoughts. Keep away from allowing your mind to stray and put into practice everything that we have learned as Christians and in our local churches as a part of our development.
You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You. (Isaiah 26:3 NKJV)
Simply enough as you keep your mind stayed on Jesus and the things that He would have you to focus on such as godly character, repentance and salvation you will take on the mind of Christ. As we see in Philippians 2:5 the word says it like this " Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, (Philippians 2:5 NKJV)"
When we as Christians are put into a situation where are backs are against the wall and we are required to show more God than we show ourselves... We rely on the scriptures to keep us, the power found in them to discipline us, and the example we show to increase the kingdom. We have taken the first step to succeeding as a Christians in a crisis...
Please share, comment, spread and be on the look out for the next post. And as always be blessed...
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