Our church has just begun a 21 day fast. It’s designed to get us to slow down, re-focus, and regain our passion. But, it’s not merely to regain or restore anything. I think what we all want is an increased capacity for God in our lives. We want to press beyond what we think our limits are, and dare to request more.

“Dare to request more.” If you have read my blog, you’ve probably heard me reference Francis Chan. He is an author and pastor with a heart for the Trinity unlike many that I have ever seen. I am re-reading his book “Forgotten God“. It is a book that explores our relationship, or lack thereof, with the Holy Spirit and His action or inaction in our lives. Reading it this time around, I’m finding it challenging on many different fronts. In the 2nd chapter of the book, he explores some reasons why we are often reticent to open ourselves up to the move of the Holy Spirit. The first reason is public perception, meaning we are afraid of what others would think about us. We function and operate so much within labels in these times. We want everything to fit into a nice little box that we can pack away neatly. We want to say that we are what we are. We want so say what God is. We want God, but only the God who won’t cause us embarrassment or who won’t get us labeled as radicals or weirdos. We want God, but on our terms, which in effect means that we really don’t want Him. The fact is that God doesn’t fit into a nice little box. We can not pack Him away. We can not dictate to Him what we will and won’t do with our lives. We’re either all in or not in at all. God dislikes lukewarm stuff.

So, why do we worry so much about what people think about us versus what God thinks about us? I’ve been asking myself that question the last couple of days and an answer is starting to come to me. Our peers ans society are more real to us than God is. That is a painful truth. I mean, we can see our friends and family. We can see their faces when we fly off of the handle. We can hear the whispers and interpret the stares. But God is this great invisible “being”. We pray to Him and talk to Him sometimes, but we don’t have to see His displeasure. We can make believe that He is pleased with us and interpret His word to fit our attitudes and behaviors. He is not real enough to us, and therein lies the problem. We can only begin pleasing God and following after Him when He becomes real to us. I would add that God must become the realest thing in our entire lives. We must be able to perceive Him, because unless we can, he becomes no different than a childhood imaginary friend. I honestly believe, and am striving, to make God so real in my life that I don’t notice what others say and think about me. I want God to be so real in my life that His presence overrides what I think about myself. We can’t be wrapped up in others and expect God to be satisfied with the scraps. Inversely, when we become wrapped up completely in God, He moves through us to affect the very ones that we were formerly concerned about.

Chan’s second point had to do with us being afraid that God won’t do what He says that He will do. Basically, we are afraid that God will fail. Check out this quote from the book:

“I think the fear of God failing us leads us to ‘cover for God’. This means we ask for less, expect less, and are satisfied with less because we are afraid to ask for or expect more. We convince ourselves that we don’t want more- that we have all the ‘God’ we need or could want. I can’t imagine how much it pains God to see His children hold back from relationship with the Holy Spirit because of fear that He won’t come through”- Francis Chan from Forgotten God

We deal in disappointment. We come to expect it. We never forget it. It’s like that one big toy that you wanted for Christmas as a child, that Santa never brought for you. It stays with you. And I know that we all have prayed prayers that we have not seen answered. After a while, we feel like we have to protect God and as Chan says, we expect less. Instead of seeking God for the fullness of His Spirit, we learn to live as paupers when God has created us so live as Kings and Queens. Our own spirits begin to shrivel, because it needs God’s fullness. It was created to experience a daily diet of what God can only provide for it. In truth, God never fails. He is never slack concerning His promises. What we can not afford to do is pray to God for our wants, and then blame Him when He sees our needs differently than our wants. He has promised what He has promised. In addition to that, He has not promised that He shall deviate from his plans for our lives simply because we see something superficial that we just have to have. I think this is a part of spiritual maturity that can come slowly for us and hinder us if we are not careful. We throw temper tantrums and then give God the silent treatment. This can not happen. We will never fully receive the Spirit of God with this kind of attitude. Whatever disappointments we feel God has caused us, we have to understand what Jeremiah 29:11 says to us. God has a plan that will cause us success and give us a great future. We have to hold fast to this!

I want the Holy Spirit to have His way in my life. This is what I am actively praying for during our fast. No matter where He has to take me, and what has to happen, I want His Holy Spirit to be the realest thing on earth to me. And yes, I will admit that this thought is frightening, but living life without the Holy Spirit at work in me is a far more frightening prospect.

Anyway, that’s all for now folks. be blessed!

“General on Deck”

Falling down on my knees

Skin skin’t, scraped and scarred.

Hands lifted, heart lifted

Eyes searching beyond afar.

Mind open, recognizing something now more than ever before

That inside of me

Rages a most intensive war.

Living life as a spirit submitted

Yet a soul sitting in the balance.

The flesh seeks to best, brings stress

Against constant striving for holiness.

The sin slinking within

Beneath the surface, it bubbles.

Causing toil and trouble

Heart pains- it brings double.

So many war wounds,

Yet a prisoner no longer.

The General is coming

Victory won’t be long.

Since Adam‘s teeth bit it,

The whole creation has bit it.

Harmful degradation of all.

It’s just been infested.

Afflcited by the subsistent insistence

Of carnal pleasure.

So whether I wish to fall or not,

My nature’s fallen.

Flash forward to D-Day

Him hanging on the tree-day

Ground swells and shaking as He fulfilled while He lay

Hell shook with vigor

Dry bones regained life

And bore witness of the birthing

Of God‘s plan of eternal life.

And this strife that life is rife with..

At some point it will be pointless,

Yet now its pointed

To the wood that’s still caked with blood stained redemptiveness.

His remainders a reminder that my life has been purchased.

My struggles serve a purpose

Much deeper than comprehension.

Cause I belong to Him

And daily my flesh is searing.

Fearing it’s death is nearing,

Let His Holy Fire consume it.

No plans of Satan prospering

My General is coming to ruin it.

So now this life I’m living

By faith, it’s in existence.

Living full of his presence

Intent on giving reverence.

Victory ensured

Sound the trumpet and beat the drums,

The General is coming,

Come, Song of God, COME!!!

I AM Jacob.
I stole from my brother
Conspired with another to steal the blessing.
Figured that I deserved it,
So I forcibly purged it from the grip of my blind father’s hands.
Conceited, I believed that it would make my life worth it
Now I’m running because murder’s leaving markers
In my mind’s puzzled coffers.
Stealing his future to secure my own present
Gifted beyond measure
Told that I’d been chosen by Heaven.
Convinced I was special, my name destined for lights
Conversations converged, convoluted, then combined
So that now I find myself in a position for a fight.
To buck against tradition was only right
I justify this to myself,
So that I can close my eyes at night.
I am Jacob,
Sinner, yet a saint in my own eyes
Justified on one hand, yet convicted by my left.
Death in my rearview, I flee now.
Alone in my despair, now may the desert swallow me.
A fitting end…limitless sand as penance for my limitless pride.
God if you hear me,
I am Jacob…the Deceiver, stripped of my pride
Furthermore, while I still live,
I’m yet dying inside.
I stole from my brother for my own selfish gain
And nothing now can quell this pain.
I am Jacob.

What you will find about my poems is that they really deal with my own personal issues with sin and faith. I do believe God, and in God. As a matter of fact, I read a verse today in Galatians 2:20 that is probably going to become my own statement of faith and confession. It simply says “And this life that I live now is by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” I can stand on that verse, because it is truer now of me than at any time in my life prior. But many times I feel like David, pouring out to God my mistakes, praising Him for His grace and mercy, and then moving on. Anyway, here is a first one. I hope that you all like it.

“Conflicted”

And while I know that I’m only a minor part in the equation of life
So many times I allow internal strife
To lead me far from where you’ve worked so hard
To prepare.
Your promises I believe, but really do I?
Or am I merely a life living a lie
Biding my time.
I’ve fallen so many times that my knees are scruffed.
Built out of tougher stuff,
Sure,
But not by much.
So conflicted, I’m a convulution of consequences.
My senses crying out for understanding
Yet my flesh demands fulfillment,
And my ears are tickled by the whispers.
Lord, let me hear you above the noise.
Drown out the temptations
Clear a path through my broken inhibitions
Where I can be with you.
Where you could accuse me, you recuse me
Have declared me righteous.
Your all consuming love has bitten my heart
Like a viper.
Poison my sin nature with your holiness.
Curse my flesh with the blessing of your presence.
Then maybe this man
Will grow fully into your man.
Finally resting, being fully able to understand
Your design, and your plan.

ND-

Starting with chapter 40, we see God restoring the temple procedures. They have been restored to the land that God had promised them, land that He intended and set aside for them from the very beginning. And now that they are back where they belong, God is very specifically having Zeke give them instructions on how to worship him and reconstruct the temple. Keep in mind that this is a new generation, and they need to be schooled on the proper way to worship God. That in itself is a separate blog, but I won’t go there right now.

Let’s skip to chapter 46 starting at verse 16:

^{16 -18} “‘A Message from God, the Master: If the prince deeds a gift from his inheritance to one of his sons, it stays in the family. But if he deeds a gift from his inheritance to a servant, the servant keeps it only until the year of liberation (the Jubilee year). After that, it comes back to the prince. His inheritance is only for his sons. It stays in the family. The prince must not take the inheritance from any of the people, dispossessing them of their land. He can give his sons only what he himself owns. None of my people are to be run off their land.’”

Now, when I read this passage, my soul shouted. I’m going to just throw out there the way that I’m interpreting this passage. If you don’t feel it in the same way, please let me know if I’m in error.

When I look at this passage, I see God saying to us clearly that when He gives us something, it’s an eternal gift. This inheritance that Zeke speaks of, it is a a lifetime of spiritual blessings and physical blessings that God wants to pour out. There is no stipulation except this…that we continue to be a son (or a daughter). These verses make an important distinction that we really ought to pay close attention to. If we are a child of the Prince (Jesus, therefore God), then the inheritance is ours. We never have to give it back. But see, keep in mind that any true son or daughter never turns his or her back on their father. They remain loyal and obey the father with a dedication born out of love. Remember Jesus said that if we love Him, we will keep His commands? The same sentiment is imposed here, while it is not expressly written out. In my opinion, this passage might as well say that if a prince gives his inheritance to someone who really, REALLY loves HIM, then that inheritance is theirs for life. I can’t stress this enough.

Also, notice that the verse says that if the Prince gives a gift of some, not all. As a parent, I know that sometimes giving my child all of their gifts at one time would breed “madness”, so I have to gift with the intention of being responsible to them for what they can handle. If I give my child an XBOX360, a PS3, AND a Wii all at one time, and then wonder why I never see them and they are always locked up in their rooms, the blame lies with me. This is why God spreads every blessing out across our lifetimes. He loves us too much to watch us self destruct simply because He has blessed us so abundantly.

Now, remember when I said that there is a distinct difference detailed for us as it deals with inheritances? Well, in verse17 it says that if the prince gives a gift of some of his inheritance to a worker, then it only belongs to that worker until the year of Jubilee, then it has to be given back. We wonder sometimes why people are so blessed who have not given themselves to Him. We wonder why it appears that they have all of the luck and prosperity. Well, these are the people who work, not the people who belong. There is no connection other than familiarity born from the fact that God created them as well, and God chooses when it rains and when the sun shines, and on whom. The worker only has use. They never have ownership. The worker has to give the gift back! The son or daughter gets to keep it. For the worker, there is a temporary loan. Hallelujah!

Finally, the last couple of verses talk about the prince not being able to evict the people from their property. Once God gives, then He gives. We may walk away from the blessing, but it still remains there for us. The Israelites sinned their way out of their land, but God never took their names off of the title deed. It was always still theirs! In our lives, God sometimes has to remove us from the land of the blessings in our lives, but those blessings still have our names inscribed on them! We are never evicted, merely relocated at times! And the last verse should be a source of comfort.

“..he shall provide an inheritance for his sons from his own property, so that none of My people may be scattered from his property.”

It is God’s will that we walk in the field of His blessings forevermore. God will provide it, and if we walk with him in love and devotion, we will live in it. It is ours! Sons and daughters of the King, the blessings are ours!!! How great is our God!!

Until next time, family, be blessed!

See, the part of this that has me so riled up lies in the two things. First, the lifeless bodies result from the word..I mean from the WORD. At the word of God, the decayed body was recreated. It reminds me of the verse saying that in Christ we are new creature, that old things pass away and all things become new. We literally see this happening in the Old Testament. God speaks and bones become functioning bodies once again. And while they are lifeless, they are bodies, capable of living. They are capable of infinite things, but first they must be imbued with life. The key here is that from bones, dried and de-calcified bones, God’s word creates newness. Secondly, life comes after God’s breath blows into the lifeless bodies. They are no longer bodies covering the floor of a valley. They are an army. They are men of purpose. They are men no longer merely capable, but ready and willing to be about action. They are men who know what they have to do, and they are ready to do it full out.

It’s like us. We receive newness when we receive Christ into our lives. We are new, brand new. Our minds are being renewed. Our spiritual bodies are being reconstructed into the image of Christ. Then when we receive the Spirit of God, when God breathes on us, our purpose is revealed. We move from merely taking up space to finding a place in Christ to inhabit. From that place, our purpose moves us forward into our destinies. The difference is so stark. From bodies lining the valley to an exceedingly large army. What kind of image does that provoke for you? For me, I see men who had only minutes before been empty, who are now filled with Godly desire and fervor.

That’s what God wants from all of us. He wants us to live. He’s tired of looking down at his creation and seeing people taking up space. He’s tired of watching people sit in churches and small groups and not share their lives, not open up their hearts. He is tired of people merely being content to live out their lives on a string, when God so desperately wants to cut the string and show us that Christian like is not us being puppets. He is sick of the same sermons, the same music. He is sick of the same responses, the same calls. We can no longer be just bodies covering the valley floor.

God just wants to breathe. In God’s breath, vitality and passion are found. When God breathes, His life becomes our life. When God breathes, we receive His revelation, we feel His heart, we understand His word. When God breathes, we are reborn. What He reforms on us at salvation, His breath reanimates. He replaces the deadness in our eyes with such a deep desire to live that we are willing to fight to the death to protect the light and life of Christ that is burning withing us. The Gospel of the Kingdom is not merely about dying to self. It’s also about living!

God’s breath transformed useless bodies into a fierce army, ready and primed to do accomplish His will. So, my challenge to you today is this:

1. Will you be Ezekiel? God has asked all of us at one time or another if “these dry bones can live”. We are standing and looking over a valley filled with dead and dying people. We are smelling the stench of rotten decay. God has asked the question. How will we respond. My Pastor preached a message a while back saying that we all could prophesy. Will you? God’s word is there. Will you? God’s urging is there. Will you? The dry bones in your neighborhood, your job, your church. Can they live? If your answer is anything other than yes, then I suggest that you get your eyes checked, and your faith strengthened. YES!!! The dry bones can live, Lord! That is our reasonable response!

2. Will you be an army of 1? Will you catch God’s breath and allow it to fill your lungs? Will you allow your red blood cells to vibrate with the life of Christ? And then once this happens, are you ready to abandon yourself? See, the great thing about those dry bones is that they had long ago ceased being who they were when they died. Their identity had passed along with their lives. So, when they were reformed and reborn, they were merely extensions of God’s will. In the army, they are trained to be on one accord. They are one thought with one mentality. They are extensions of whoever is giving the commands. So, will you receive the breath of life and become an extension of God’s arm, or His heart, or His feet?

It’s time to live! Amen!

Until next time fam, be blessed!

In Genesis 19, we read about Sodom’s sin. Abraham has just finished bargaining with God in chapter 18, and God had agreed not to destroy the city of there were just 10 righteous people living within its gates. So the Angel’s of the Lord go into the city, and Lot greets them and invites them into his house. Men of the city then come and try to force their way into the house to get to the Angels, wanting to “party” with them.

So, that leads us into what I really want to get to. In verse 12, Lot is told to take his family and get out of Sodom. He spends the rest of that night trying to convince his family that they need to leave. Now, up until this part, I was cool, but what comes next really hit my spirit. It left an impression on me.Starting with verse 17,

“Now, run for your lives! Don’t stop to look back! Keep going right through the valley and up into the hills.”

“Run for your lives!” Does it get anymore plain? Now, listen, I’m not going to get into a lot of specifics. Here me when I say this though. This is what God is telling anyone who is dealing in sin right now. Run! Don’t walk. The tentacles of sin are so strong that a walk will not generate enough force for you to break the hold. When you run frantically, like a prisoner during a jail break, each step generates the force that you need to start your breaksthrough. When you run, it also shows God that you are serious about escaping your sinful ways.

I think sometimes we casually choose to walk away from our sin for a while and think that we have walked far enough that it won’t affect us anymore. What tends to happen is that at some point, maybe 3 weeks down the line, or 3 years down the line, we turn to look back at our progress, and get sucked back in. Later on in chapter 19, we see that when Sarah turns to look back, in defiance of what God has commanded, she turns into a pillar of salt and is blown away. Sometimes I think that God would rather this happen to us rather than we fall back into sin. The fact of the matter is that we make no progress when we think we’ve made progress. True progress is only made when we can keep ourselves focused on God in spite of the temptation to return to sin accosting us.

So we are to run, not walk, as fast as we can away from our sin. It’s not a retreat. It’s a battle strategy designed by God. By doing so, we allow His power to overcome our weakness, and His Spirit fights on our behalf. Just as importantly, God tells them to run through the valley and into the hills. Where we run is just as important as how fast we run. If you are trying to escape an addiction to pornography, you can not keep frequenting the sites and looking at the magazines and hope to stay clean. By doing so, you are staying in the valley.

God wants us to run into the hill. The hills are where our help comes from. The hills are where our shelter is. The hills is where we can encounter God’s presence. He wants to lift us far above our sinful circumstances, and we can not fully encounter this type of deliverance until we want to ascend to God’s hill.

Initially, Lot resisted the Hills, saying that it was too hard of a climb. Getting up the hill, leaving your sin behind, is often an arduous task. You will slip and slide. You may even fall back down into the valley. But if you will keep running, keep churning those legs, and never give up, you will reach the hills and have an awesome testimony about the goodness and delivering power of God.

I hope that I got the point across with this blog. I hope it accomplished what God wants it too. I fell like my words on this are to vague and jumbled, and not as clear, but I pray that God is glorified. He wants us to be free. Therefore we have to turn and run from our sin.

Until next time, be blessed!

The name of the song is “God Is” by James Cleveland.

Sometimes is helps to be reminded of who He is.

“All the kings who visit my palace will praise you, O Lord, when they head how you keep your promises. They will leave my palace singing the praises of Israel’s God and His great glory.”

How often do you testify to God’s goodness? How many people have heard your confession of faith? How many people have you told about the goodness of God? David made it a point to tell his visitors, Kings, about the goodness of God. I have no doubt that perhaps over dinner or a glass of wine, or maybe even through a walk in his lush gardens, that David turned every conversation over to the goodness and power of God. I’m convinced now that we miss so many oportunities, because they are there. Watching football, shopping, sitting in the park. There are so many opportunities. When we strike up a simple conversation with a stranger, or when we are talking with a co-worker during lunch, if we would listen for God’s leading, I believe that there are ways in which God wants to shift the conversation. He gives us a testimony not so we can shout and dance about it on Sunday mornings. He gives us a testimony because it is powerful out in the world. He gives us a confession of personal faith so that it may inspire and motivate someone else to delve deeper. He causes us to break through so that we might tell someone and pull them along beside us. This is not a selfish Gospel that we have, family. This is a “give till it hurts and then give some more” kind of Gospel. It may not require that we give all of our earthly posession, but it does require that we give all of our physical and spiritual strength for it.

Whenever people come into your “palace”, or I think this could even mean your presence, how are they leaving? Are they praising God? Do they know more about God than when they entered your presence? Do they know what God delivered you from?

God is too good for us to keep Him all to ourselves. If David can testify to kings, who had great earthly power, surely we can use our limited realms of power to testify to those whom God would save, and to those whom God has called. lt’s our due service to a great and mighty God. Amen.

Until next time, be blessed!