Looking Ahead

2 Corinthians 4:18 “so we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.”

Set or focus on something. Look at intently. That is the idea behind the words to fix our eyes. You take distractions out of the way and see with a singleness. Have you ever focused in on something you were seeing in the distance and everything around you went out of focus? You still know other things are all around you but your gaze is fixed on one item.

This is a great faith builder. There is clear instruction on how to obtain faith or strengthen your faith mentioned in Romans 10:17. Basically it states that faith comes by hearing the word. The word is the message of Christ or the good news. So by listening to God’s word faith enters into us.

Notice that faith doesn’t come by listening to just anything. There are a lot of things vying for your time. There are many voices speaking throughout the day and we end up listening to quite a large number of things that don’t benefit our faith at all. As a matter of fact they have the opposite effect of killing our faith and raising doubt to choke out our faith.

So if you are going to  have a faith that can move mountains then you need the right source for that to have a fighting chance. Listen to the right thing! Listen to the source of faith. You can’t help finding promises and truths that we need to work in our lives if you read the bible. It is full of good things that honestly we all need. It gives us hope to see and read about all the tremendous things that are laid out in the word of God. But it also begins giving us something to focus on and pursue by faith.

Let’s be real. Most of our time is commonly spent on things that can be seen. So it makes sense to say with all honesty that the greatest influence in our lives are the everyday visible things that are happening in life. We have to determine to fix or focus on things that are unseen. There must be discipline in our lives to set our ears on the invisible Kingdom of God. But the benefits are outstanding. By giving our energy, time, effort, hearing, etc. to the Kingdom of God and His word we are preparing our lives for a windfall blessing that will happen when we least expect it.

So don’t become weary hoping in the unseen. Don’t lose heart because of what you are hearing and seeing daily in the visible world around us. Be bold and believe in what is not tangible and seen. Have faith for what God promises and give yourself to the hearing of those things. Focus your life toward what God has planned for you. His word will remain faithful and God will do and act according to His word.

RELEASE

Release. we hear that word and it can bring a lot of thoughts to our mind. New release in theaters, release from something, release valve, etc. The list is endless and much longer than the one I just made!

i like that word a lot more than the opposite which would be bound or held. Actually both words are used in one scripture found in Matthew 16. Jesus said to His disciples that whatever they bound on earth would be bound in heaven and whatever was loosed or released on earth would be released in heaven.

Another version gives us clearer understanding of this concept. It is actually saying that what is already released or bound in heaven is our legal right to bind or release on the earth! Now that is mind shattering isn't it! It really makes it a lot easier to understand. First of all we are to carry out on earth what is done in heaven! Secondly we need to know what is finished in heaven before we can finish it here on the earth!! Actually that should be first and the other one second..... OK you get my point. Heaven and earth are interlinked.

Here is the point I am getting to although adding a bit as we go. It is the principle of release. When Jesus healed people he released them from sickness. When he forgave he released from sin and its bondage. When he resurrected he released from death and its power. When he spoke he released power. Actually Jesus released people and still does in all kinds of ways. It should be of no surprise that he is still releasing in us.

Now let me add a thought to this. Most of the time we are looking at being released from something. How about looking at it from another angle. God doesn't just release us from stuff, he releases us into something new! The greatest benefit of being released is not being free. It is being released or free in order to move into something better!! I like that thought. Too many times we only concentrate on what we are coming out of. Well what we are going into is cause for great joy. We should rejoice in our freedom and release that God has purchased and finished in heaven and use it to move into what is awaiting us! Let's declare release in our lives. Add to your declaration what you have been released to accomplish!! 

Be Like Jesus

It is very widely believed that all of us are called to imitate and become like the one we follow who is Jesus. Of course all that desire to be His disciples that is. It is a very safe assumption. so as I think about this concept the first thing that comes to mind is the question, "what is Jesus like?". If I am supposed to be like Him then I need to know what I am supposed to incorporate in my life before I can begin.
We need a pattern to follow. Obviously we do have such a pattern in the life of Jesus we find in our bibles. It's actually laid out for us in living color you might say. Sadly though we still get hung up trying to figure out the what rather the who we are to be like. You see it is not about imitating His deeds, although we will mention more on that in a moment, but about becoming like Him in regards to the person and character of Jesus.
Sounds simple and actually is made much more difficult than it really is supposed to be. You see Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice by giving His life in our place and providing as a result a full pardon, forgiveness, and power to live. It is by grace that we are saved and redeemed. There is nothing you and I can pay to obtain more from God. He has provided it all. Now that is a big idea!! Let that sink in for every area of life that we strive to accomplish in the Lord. We can't add to the work of Jesus. We CAN enjoy and receive all that He has provided. Ok, I know it is still hard.
That is why Paul talked to the Galatian believers about not changing course after having started in total freedom. He spoke and taught them about the importance of living in freedom and not becoming enslaved over again. We need to do the same. It seems to be the hardest lesson to learn in life. Live by grace and yet not be lazy by doing nothing. You see it is so easy to fall on the grace side that we put no effort in our spiritual life and wonder why we always end up back where we started.
Anyway I could keep going on about that because it is a great subject. But let me get back to where we began. Jesus is our example of how to live. We are called to imitate Him. The plan is laid is out clearly in His life that He lived out for all of us to see.
I have been a student of the life of Jesus ever since I first met Him and came into relationship with Him. For me that was the easiest part of the bible. I figured if Jesus is the image of the Father and we are to know the Father in heaven then a good place to start is to know Jesus. So over the years I have spent a lot of time getting to know Jesus so that I could also as a result know the Father. Here is a thought that has helped me through the years: Everything Jesus was and did shows us the nature of the Father.
Here is another thought: There is nothing that Jesus shows us that He doesn't want us to copy! Ever heard them say on a TV show, "warning, don't try this at home" when they are doing something dangerous? Well Jesus has no disclaimers in His saying, "now don't try this for your life, this is only for me, you can't do this". Does that sound like something Jesus would even say??
Rest assured that it is not. In fact everything He did was in order to teach us a lesson and equip us for life. Let's go a step further and say that Jesus showed us how in order for us to do the same! Wow did you get that? Let your spirit catch the possibilities that this implies. Read the stories with new insight and prayerful meditation to see what we are empowered to do in this life.
Here is challenge to think about as you pursue the Lord. What part of Jesus are we supposed to be like? Now that will take time to answer. It is not meant to be answered quickly but to make us think and open the realm of possibilities that God has planned for you and I. All of us choose the parts or aspects of Jesus we doctrinally think we are to imitate. But do you think we can pick and choose which part?
Adding to this idea I must admit that my concept of Jesus and all He wants us to be expands over time. The closer I get to Him the more I understand and the more I want to be like Him. It is important to take the limits off our belief system. Expand the possibilities and the awesomeness of our God towards us. Remember this as you meditate on theses thoughts: He is able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all that we ask or think according to His power which works in US!! (Ephesians 3:20)

Fire Inside

One of the highlights of a camping trip is making a camp fire. There's just something about having a fire in the evening or night. Everybody wants to gather around it and there are usually s'mores or hot dogs on sticks that get put in. Or you just stare at it and enjoy the crackling sounds while watching the flames. Fire is fascinating and mesmerizing. It attracts us. Once you get the campfire going you will attract everybody in the group to get around it.

Okay maybe you can see where I'm going with this. I'm going to talk briefly about fire. It is attractive as well as many other things such as a purifier, and light producer. The word of God speaks of fire often in reference to God and to the Holy Spirit and even to Jesus. There are many scriptures that relate fire to God. One example in particular is when Moses saw the burning bush. He saw a phenomenon on the mountain which was the burning bush and became very curious to the point of approaching it to see what it was. The fire did not consume the bush. But it did attract Moses.

In a similar way God wants to kindle a fire inside of us. Actually, when Jesus comes into our life he starts a fire. That fire in part describes a passion that you and I have for seeking after the Lord. It is the drive that's inside of us that keeps us going after Him and being faithful to Him. Of course many of us know what it feels like to lose the fire or for it to go out altogether. It is important to maintain the fire and to feed it in order for it to grow inside of us. The more you neglect it, the more it will cool and eventually go out.

Now if fire attracts then it also stands to reason that if you have a fire inside of you others will be attracted to the light and warmth of it. I think that is why we like to be around passionate people. They have something that we want. Elijah the prophet said to the prophets of Baal that the God who answers by fire would be the true God. In that story when Elijah finally called fire down from heaven to consume the offering, immediately all of the people present fell down and worshiped the true God. They were not only attracted to the fire, but it got their attention in a big way. It will do the same today. People will go where the fire is burning.

Keep the fires burning. Those were the instructions to the priests in the Old Testament. They were to never let the fire of the burnt offering go out. They were to keep it going perpetually. The only thing they were asked to do besides keeping the fire going was to take out the ashes. In the same way. We've got to remove the ashes from our life and keep the fire burning hot. We have to remove the dross, sin, things that hinder our relationship with God and with others. Let the fire burn in your life and don't forget to take out the ashes.

Prepare Today

As a think about the life of David in the Old Testament I can look at many aspects. The one that I have been focusing on lately is his ability to fight. Psalm 18 is written by David where he speaks of being prepared and trained for battle by God in order to face his enemy. He says in one part that God trained his hands to fight.

It's interesting that David took down Goliath with a slingshot and one smooth stone. But it is not so hard to believe when you start to look at David's life. For a time he cared for sheep in the desert. He actually told the King that he would face Goliath and conquer him because he had already beaten wild animals in the desert while caring for his sheep. He talked about protecting the sheep by killing a lion and a bear.

A friend shared some thoughts with me about David being out in the desert with a lot of time on his hands. His observation was that David probably used that slingshot a lot target practicing. That is probably how you kill some of the boredom of being out there. But it also trained him to become more and more accurate with that slingshot. David didn't face Goliath using the slingshot for the first time. He was trained and ready. He was confident as he faced his giant.

One of the things I have heard people say as part of learning to use a gun is how they need to relax and squeeze the trigger instead of pulling it. When you're unlearned with a gun the natural tendency is to pull the trigger. This usually causes a jerk and will always miss the target. But when you squeeze it while relaxing you can be a lot more accurate. Confidence is built through the use and practice.
It is very dangerous to send a soldier out who has not been proven with his weapon. Dangerous for his fellow soldiers, not the enemy!

So of course the spiritual lesson in this is how we are trained on a daily basis through life's situations to act according to the word of God and defeat our giants. The training happens on a daily basis. It happens during mundane activities. It happens every day that we act by faith using the truth of the word of God in our life. It happens in daily situations and circumstances. Little by little we are learning how to use what God has given us. And the more we use it, the more we become proficient with it.

All of us go through hard times and hard circumstances. But we’re not always in those circumstances, were not always under the gun so to speak. There are times when life is not so difficult and we can use those times to still apply the word of God and to be trained for a future event. It is a lot easier to target practice rather than face a lion being untried to do so. We need the target practice time. Here is a simple example. If we learn to pray on a daily basis believing God in the little things, then it's not so hard when a big thing happens. For example, with our children as they were growing up we would stop and pray for whatever pain or injury they had. Many times it was nothing and after a moment of prayer they would go back to playing like nothing ever happened. But then there were occasions that we really needed God to come through. And guess what? We already knew how to pray, we already knew how to trust, and so did our children.

Let's not wait for the hard moments in life to come along and then have to trust God in those moments, having absolutely no confidence. Let's learn to trust God on a daily basis in the little things and train for those moments that we don't plan for. Let’s apply the promises and word of God in our daily routines rather than wait for times that force us to believe while experiencing great anxiety and fear. If we train by constant use then when those harder times come along we can stand confidently with God's peace and use the weapons He's already trained us to use against the enemy of our soul. God has called us to be conquerors over the enemy. Practice makes perfect. Practice prepares us to win tomorrows battles!

Where is your faith?

There were several occasions where Jesus addressed the people after having performed miracles and signs. At those moments, Jesus said basically said that they only followed him because of the signs and miracles. Right after the feeding of the 5000 he also made a strong statement. He asked the people if they followed him because they had their fill of bread.

I think this is a good question for us to ask ourselves today. As we look at having faith in God, what do we really base our faith on? Do we base it on the blessings we have in our lives? Do we base it on the fact that we have all that we need? What happens when our expectations of God are disappointed? What happens to our faith at times like that?

I believe our faith in God has to go much further than that. We need to trust and love him for who he is not for what he does. Although we can say that he is a God that is always good, we need to be careful that we do not use physical blessings as a measure by which we believe God or not. Believe God because he loves us. Believe him because he gave his son in our place to forgive our sins and give us eternal life. Believe him because he is God and there is no other like him.

Our faith will be tried. As a matter-of-fact, James says, count it all joy when you face all kinds of trials because this develops perseverance. We cannot choose to believe God when everything is easy and turn against him when life throws a curveball at us. It is hard to understand this but God actually is closer to us we are going through rough times. When we go through the fire He is with us. Keep your faith no matter what is going on in your life. God will never abandon you.

Isaiah 43:1-2 "But now, this is what the Lord says-he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze."

Breaking the Dam

There are some things that Jesus said that really make you sit back and think. There's one in particular where he was addressing the people in John chapter 7:37 and he says "if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."

What a great promise! This is not the only time that Jesus talked about being thirsty. But on this occasion he talks about living water flowing from within us. Of course directly after this. The author gives us an explanation of what he is talking about, which is the Holy Spirit that has not been sent as of yet. How desperately do we need those streams of living water flowing from within us today.

I think it is fairly safe to say that streams of living water flowing within us would something wonderful. It would replenish lack that is in our souls. I think it is safe to say that it would also energize us to continue on in this life. Imagine how hurts and damaged areas of our life can be positively affected by the streams of living water. It would replenish our lack of passion, lack of boldness, and so much more. When you begin to meditate on all that these streams can provide in our life, it would be ludicrous not to ask for them. "Lord, send the streams and break the dam that's holding them back.".

See the Lord has provided these streams through his Holy Spirit that lives within us. If we have called on the name of the Lord for salvation then we have access to the throne of God and to the benefits of living in the kingdom of God. One of the greatest benefits is the arrival of the Holy Spirit who helps us and fills us with his power and goodness. The simplest way I know to allow the Holy Spirit to flow with those streams of life is to ask him. Sure, there are many things that we can do to facilitate the spirit moving in us but the easiest to understand is simply asking. God has provided, all we need to do is ask. Once we ask then we allow him to fill us. We break the dam.

We tear down the barriers of unbelief and doubt that so quickly arise in our minds. We allow God to be a supernatural God in our lives and stop trying to analyze everything that he wants to do for us. So many times we fail to receive all that is available to us because we over analyze God's promises. Let the word of God override your thoughts. Let what God says be what you believe. Let the rivers flow in your soul and replenish every dry area.

Luke 11:13 "if you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" Ask and receive.

Purpose

The subject of purpose has really been on my mind for the last couple of months so I thought I would pen a few quotes that I have randomly come across. Here is one from a movie. Don’t ask me which one. I wasn’t even watching it but my wife heard it and repeated it to me.

“Without purpose life is boring.”

I can agree with that can’t you? When you have a sense of purpose in what you are doing it takes the boredom away because you want to occupy your time with things that help the purpose get accomplished. It really does give you direction and help you make decisions. Here is another quote from a men’s magazine article that I happened to read:

“When you are confident of your purpose, you worry less and devote more energy to constructive endeavors”

This is so true. When you are about your purpose you just don’t spend time worrying about things. I really think this relates to several scriptures where Paul the apostle addressed the idea occupying our time with work. There seemed to be a problem in the church at Thessalonica because of the very accurate and real truth of Jesus’ return. It seems that because His return was so imminent the people just became idle in waiting. They did nothing which began to cause many other problems such as becoming meddlers, gossipers, busybodies. Paul encouraged them to work with their hands and be busy. Occupy was the term he used.

Occupy doesn’t mean to just take up space. It means to work. To be busy getting things done. It infers the use of the facilities God has given us in order to carry out the many tasks that are necessary to live. It means to devote energy to constructive endeavors and not just waste time. Purpose helps us focus our energy, abilities, talents, and time. It gives us fulfillment and life.

I believe this is why we feel so good about joining with groups and organizations that share a common purpose. It is very fulfilling to be a part of something that causes us to feel worth in life. So many times we might think we don’t have an individual, unique purpose. That is fine. In reality I believe everyone needs to join God in His purpose. It is the most fulfilling. But it is also very good to be a part of something that gives us purpose. In the end it all serves the same purpose (pun intended!).