Top Ten Ways To Know You’re Growing In The Lord

30 Tuesday Aug 2011

Posted by in Our Spiritual Process

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       Are you growing up in the Lord?  It’s not like you can stand in the doorway of God’s kitchen and let Him measure your height and make a notch on the door frame.  But there should be indicators that we are growing strong in the Lord.  I am not talking about church attendance or regular Bible reading.  Hopefully you have those things under control. 

     Follow in the next few devotionals and examine yourself to determine if you are truly growing. 

  1.  Your Appetite Changes!  Tastes for certain types of material and activities should leave your system and be replaced with a Godly appetites.  Job said, “I have esteemed the words of Thy mouth more than my necessary food.”  (Job 23:12)  If you struggle in this area, ask the Lord to change your appetite.  Once you move away from worldly junk food and begin treasuring the revelational words from heaven, your appetites will change. 
  2. You Become Disgusted With The Shameful!  The more you become like Christ (this is God’s plan for every believer) the more you will find yourself turning away in disgust at activities that once fascinated you.  There  is no need to list a bunch of activities to illustrate what is shameful.  Paul wrote that before we met Christ we were enemies with God and our “god was our belly and whose glory was in our shame.”  Now that we are His children, He gives us a “shame meter.”  The world doesn’t possess this type of shame meter, but the believer is given a strong sense of right and wrong.  We know we are growing up in the Lord when this shame meter speaks to us with clarity.      

      Remember, the Lord is not expecting you to inflict your appetite and shame meter on other believers.   These first two changes are internal transformations within you.  They are a part of the Lord’s “salt and light” program and reveal that we are His children.

Are You Ready To Be Used By The Holy Spirit?

28 Sunday Aug 2011

Posted by in When the Holy Spirit Comes

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      Our readiness to be used is important.  The Lord knows the truth.  The question remains, do we?  We have a tendency to think of ourselves in better spiritual shape than we actually are.  Here is a six fold test to measure our readiness. 

  1. Have you been obedient to what you already know?  The Holy Spirit has already been speaking to you in some shape, form or fashion.  To assure you hear new information, you must be obedient to what the Holy Spirit has previously spoken. 
  2. Are you open to receive divine appointments?  Before you get big assignments, you are given small assignments.  These small assignments reveal whether you are willing to have your life interrupted for His service. 
  3. Are you available to be prompted by the Holy Spirit?  The Holy Spirit doesn’t forecast two weeks in advance when He is going to speak to you.  He doesn’t consult with your Daytimer.  He prompts conveniently and inconveniently.  This shouldn’t test our obedience, but simply prove it. 
  4. Are you open to be a part of supernatural movements of the Spirit?  The movements of the Holy Spirit are not always neat and orderly.  Miracles, deliverances, and healings are often surrounded by commotion.  Most will be uncomfortable with the flow of the Holy Spirit, but you must remain in the center of what the Holy Spirit is doing. 
  5. Are you open to the insight and revelations of other believers?  The Holy Spirit moves in other believers and you must be able to receive from them as well.  This knits you into the greater body of Christ. 
  6. Are you willing to let God change what you want?  If you have been a believer for any length of time, you have some “wants” for yourself and the Kingdom of God.  Part of the Holy Spirit’s job description is to take the things of God and make them known to you.  As this process unfolds, it changes us.   Our wants and desires become the Lord’s wants and desires. 

The Holy Spirit Is Your Wing-Man

24 Wednesday Aug 2011

Posted by in When the Holy Spirit Comes

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“But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.”  John 16:11

      The various Bible translations struggle with this word “Helper“.  Some translations use the word “Comforter, Helper” or “Advocate“.  The actual word is “Paraclete“.  It means to “come along side.”  Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to come along beside the believer to help him accomplish the will of God. 

      So the Holy Spirit is our wing-man!  I am not trying to be cavalier.  This word Paraclete is actually a greek military term.  Greek soldiers fought in pairs.  When in the heat of battle, each soldier became the other’s Paraclete in combat.  They would back-up to each other so that each man had a rear guard against the enemy.   It is interesting Jesus chose this word to describe the type of job the Holy Spirit would have in the life of those who followed the Lord.  Is the Holy Spirit your Paraclete today?  Are you trying to accomplish the known will of God on your own?  Maybe you fancy yourself a “Lone Ranger” type of Christian. 

     Jesus never intended for you to travel alone without a Paraclete.  The truth is we all need help, especially when it comes to spiritual warfare.  Ask the Lord for a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit in your life today.  Treat Him as your Holy Wing-man.

Use It, Or Lose It

23 Tuesday Aug 2011

Posted by in Receiving Revelation

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Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. 12 For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.”  Matthew 13:11-12

      I hate to see people lose anything.  Whether it is an athletic ability, musical talent, or mental capacity.  There is a phrase we hear bantered around quite often.  It is, “use it or lose it.”  It means if you stop using your ability, talent, or gift atrophy will set in and the gift you once possessed will fade.  It is a slow fade, but a costly one. 

      What is true in the physical world is equally true in the spiritual world as well.  Jesus is seeking to communicate this principle to His disciples.  Except Jesus is not necessarily talking about a talent or ability, but spiritual revelation, wisdom and truth. 

      Maybe you have seen this principle of the Kingdom at work in your life.  A truth you once possessed with great conviction is now a thing of the past.  You used to believe that truth.  You once tried to help others in that area where you had victory, but now you wonder it was ever true. 

      Listen, the mysteries of the Kingdom do not have to be mysteries.  They can once again be self-evident revelations you actually believe and possess.  If you would go back and pick up those precious revelations and allow the Lord to breath new life in them, they will become alive to you just like the day you first discovered them.  You may have lost them because you failed to treat them as holy.  The worse sin is to not repent and correct the issues that now confront you.  The Lord desperately wants to give you fresh revelations of Himself right now so that you will have an abundance of His Kingdom.

Guide You In All Truth

22 Monday Aug 2011

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But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.  John 16:13

      Have you ever traveled anywhere using GPS?  Insert your own joke here.  In reality, we as a society have had to grow accustomed to having a computer voice telling us our next turn.  Now that we have gotten used to the idea of using them, we have gotten better at using them.  We know when they will be reliable and when it might be better simply following the signs.  The point is that a GPS is only as good as the maps inside. 

       The Holy Spirit works on our behalf like a GPS in this fashion.  He speaks to us and gives us directional information from heaven’s perspective.  If we fail to follow His directions, it is not His fault.  He cannot make our turns or coerce us to choose correctly.  His job is to speak what He hears from heaven.  Our job is to listen.  Just like it doesn’t make good sense to yell back to the GPS, it doesn’t do any good to be in disagreement with the Holy Spirit.  He is our Guide, not our consultant.  When we choose to treat Him as a consultant, He simply stops speaking. 

      Jesus was trying to convince His disciples of the benefits and advantages of trusting the Holy Spirit.  Jesus trusted the Spirit’s guidance and so should you.  If we can learn to trust and use a man-made GPS, we can learn to trust and use God’s spiritual GPS, the Holy Spirit.  His maps and guidance of our spiritual journey are not incomplete, but perfect.  The Holy Spirit’s mandate is to guide us in all truth.  Are you taking advantage of His wisdom and trusting Him with your future?

Are You Expecting a Visitation?

18 Thursday Aug 2011

Posted by in The Lord's Return

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When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.   Luke 14:41-42

      Ever had someone show up unexpectedly?  We commonly say things like, “Well, if I had known you were coming, I would have...”  The reason we say these types of things is because we were not expecting company. 

      The Jews of Jesus’ day were expecting a political Messiah, not a spiritual leader.  Much like our day, we are looking for a political leader to help solve our economic problems.  Therefore, the people of Jesus’ day missed a real visitation from God.  They missed out on real deliverance, real salvation, and real peace.  How can anyone miss the time of God’s visitation? 

     Evidently if we hold fast to false expectations of how God moves or should move, we can miss His visitation.  Lets face it, none of us knows the Lord as well as we think we do.  The result of missing God’s visitation is that real peace is now hidden from our eyes! 

      As we roll further down the path towards the end of days, it is imperative we get a clear picture of how the Lord moves and how to walk in His ways.  Lay aside useless information that doesn’t benefit your walk with God.  The good news is we can know the Lord and be a part of His return!  Are you ready to meet Him this time around? 

“Not of This World”

17 Wednesday Aug 2011

Posted by in Kingdom of God

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While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. II Corinthians 4:18

      Many people want to know what the Kingdom of God looks like.  They want to see it in action.  I would be one of those people.  I have prayed continuously for the Kingdom of God to be manifested.  The Bible tells us to focus not upon the kingdoms of this world, but the Kingdom of God.  But how can we when we never actually see it, or do we? 

      Kingdoms or nations have boundaries.  Even when countries have firm boundaries, they will influence each other for good or evil.  Having said this, the Kingdom of God does not have boundaries.  God’s spiritual kingdom exists in the same realm or sphere as our physical world.  This is why Jesus taught we are to “be in the world but not of it.”  He did not want the physical world dominating a believer’s spiritual world. 

      In addition, Jesus taught that His Kingdom was “not of this world.”  He was asserting that we should be interested first in discovering our spiritual dominion instead of the physical.  Jesus said, “Seek first the Kingdom of God“…then all these other physical issues will be added to you.  (Matthew 6:33)

      When we choose to fix our eyes of God’s Kingdom and discover its value and worth, everything else in the physical world falls into place.  The question is have we allowed the Kingdom of God to expand within our own hearts?  We will never see the Kingdom of God manifest outside until it has done its work inside our hearts. 

 

 

Don’t Believe in a Kingdom Far, Far, Away!

16 Tuesday Aug 2011

Posted by in The Lord's Return

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“While they were listening to these things, Jesus went on to tell a parable, because He was near Jerusalem, and they supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately.”  Luke 19:11

      What’s your belief about the return of Christ?  Everybody believes something.  Even before I committed my life to Christ, I believed Christ’s return to be imminent.  But that was a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away.  Ok, it was 35 years ago. 

     There is nothing wrong with having expectations.  Jesus told everyone to “be ready” and expect His return.  His instructions were to live as though His return will be tomorrow, but plan as though it will be a lifetime away. 

      The parable Jesus employs here in Luke 19 corrects this type of faulty thinking.  Evidently many people believed “the Kingdom of God was going to appear immediately.”  The Kingdom is going to manifest today, just not in its full manifestation, with Jesus returning to Jerusalem to reign supreme. 

      Why does Jesus mention this issue?  Because we have a tendency to waste the real investment opportunities the Lord has made in us.  We believe that in the future God will make us complete, perfect and whole just like Jesus. The truth … God is actually working in our “now”, making us in the image of His Son. 

      God expects us to be investors like Him.  Those who invest wisely are given more investment capital.  Those who neglect their opportunities, lose their entire investment.  See, if you believe Kingdom work and Kingdom realities are a “future” event you will miss God’s best now.  The Kingdom is now and exists within you.  The Lord has placed you here to conduct Kingdom business until He returns. 

       Will you miss the investment opportunity of a lifetime?  Don’t believe in a Kingdom far, far, away!  Believe in a Kingdom right in your heart.  God does.

Your Wedding Clothes Are Coming!

15 Monday Aug 2011

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Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” 8 It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.  Luke 19:7-8

      The Lord has told me numerous times in the past two years to “get ready for the wedding!”  I have heard this so many times, I believe it to be imminent.  The Lord is shaking and waking anyone “who has ears to hear” to look forward to a greater reality that is about to happen.  The church, of course, is the bride of Christ.  The Father’s call is to ready ourselves now by putting on our wedding clothes. 

      Practically speaking, have you received any of your wedding clothes yet?  According to Scripture, God the Father provides everyone wedding clothes.  Believe it or not, today and everyday you will receive multiple opportunities to get portions of your wedding clothes.  They are the “righteous acts” you perform everyday.  “Righteous acts” are those words, opportunities and deeds the Father gives you to perform.  Simply put, it is your pure and simple obedience to the known will of God in your life.  More than likely, no one will ever know your simple obedience.  This is why it is “fine linen.” 

       Remember, the Lord is calling for His Bride to ready herself for the wedding.  He wants all believers to be dressed for that day.  Your wedding clothes are on their way this very moment.  Be ready for them!

Hurdles in Hearing God

14 Sunday Aug 2011

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      “When one of those who was reclining at the table with Him heard this, he said to Him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”  Luke 14:15

       There are two main hurdles we must overcome to hear God speak to us.  One is understanding that God constantly speaks.  If you already spend quality time with the Lord every day, then you have jumped this hurdle. 

       The second hurdle is knowing God continually speaks from one reality to a greater reality.  While we do not find meaning in our ordinary circumstances and situations, God does!  He relishes the opportunity to speak from our ordinary, mundane circumstances about greater realities of the Kingdom.  In fact, He does this so often we miss hearing the Lord speak.  While we are waiting for God to move and speak from some mountain top experience, He has spoken a hundred times in the valley of our everyday hardship. 

      Jesus did this constantly.   When Jesus sat down to eat a meal with His disciples or religious leaders, it became more than just a simple meal.  Mealtimes reminded Him of greater Kingdom realities.  In the case of this passage in Luke, it reminded Jesus of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.  This is not just “God Speak.”  God is not some parent telling their child to put on a coat before going out in the cold.  When God speaks to you it is the most important event in your life at the moment. 

      Just as Jesus spoke to His followers that day around the table at supper time ,He speaks to us today in the same fashion.  Remember, the Lord is not going to speak to you any differently.  Yesterday’s opportunities are past.  Today is a new day.  Train your ear to hear the Lord’s voice in your everyday experience.  Look for the Lord in the ordinary rather than the extraordinary.