Fountain of Knowledge

On May 1, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Proverb 1: 7

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

I have been blessed to sit under a teaching where we are learning how great men of science have relied on God for their scientific inspiration and discovery. We have learned that we can be as brilliant as Einstein if we will avail ourselves of the same tools he used. No, perhaps we won’t have an IQ as high as Einstein’s but we can receive the knowledge of God through meditation and reliance on the Holy Spirit just like he and others have.

Revering the Lord is what connects us to that unlimited source of wisdom and knowledge. It is almost like hooking up a water hose to the faucet. There is constant availability for each need. All we have to do is turn on the tap and the knowledge flows. Interestingly enough, there is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit called the word of knowledge (1 Corinthians 12: 8). The same verse tells us that there is also a word of wisdom. The point is that God isn’t withholding wisdom and knowledge. He is trying to get them to us. So much so that part of the Holy Spirit’s mission in the earth is to help us to receive them.

In James 1: 5 we are told if we lack wisdom we should ask of God “who freely gives to all men generously and without reproach.” There is no reason we should go through our days, our jobs or our lives lacking the knowledge and wisdom we need. In fact, Solomon tells us that only fools despise wisdom and instruction. Which brings up another point, although the beginning of wisdom and knowledge is a reverential attitude towards the Holy One, there are multiple avenues through which God will deliver wisdom and knowledge. We have already seen that the Holy Spirit is equipped with multiple tools for conveying God’s wisdom but we must recognize that those gifts are exercised by the Holy Spirit through a human being. The anointing of God speaks through people just as God spoke through Solomon when Solomon wrote this proverb. God has also set teachers and others in the body for our edification and instruction. The Lord has given wisdom to people who can transfer those divine insights to us if we will not be foolish.

Lastly, let us not forget two other important ways God conveys His knowledge and wisdom to us. One is meditation. As we meditate on God and His Word the Holy Spirit speaks directly to our spirits giving us precise information for our specific need. Secondly, God speaks to us through His Word. He will lead you to a scripture that speaks to your situation or cause a scripture to practically jump off of the page at you. The main point to appreciate is that God wants to get His wisdom and knowledge to you. It all begins with a heart turned to God, seeking Him, seeking His face.

Back to Top

Meaning in Omnipresence

On April 30, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 139: 7

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence.

We commonly accept that God is omnipresent, existing everywhere at once. If you want a scriptural basis for this concept you wouldn’t go wrong with today’s verse. God’s omnipresence can mean many things for you. If you have been lonely, know that He is with you always. It might help someone else avoid sin knowing that God will witness it. I want to take you to a different place today but in keeping with the thoughts and ideas from yesterday’s examination of Romans 12: 1.

I believe that when we think of God being everywhere we often imagine Him in the empty spaces of our environment. Think about where you are right now. Do you imagine God is somewhere in the room or everywhere in the room? Does He fill all the space where there is nothing else: no furniture, people, computers, lamps, etc.? I would like to explore another idea.

Let’s think about your body. Are you porous or non-porous? We are porous right, meaning that we have pores and are therefore, absorbent.  Body lotions would have little effect if we couldn’t absorb them into our skin. Now imagine yourself surrounded by the Holy Spirit of God. Can you absorb Him? Think of the inside of your body. We know that the Holy Spirit now resides within us; God has made His abode within us as His new temple. Where does He live? Do you imagine empty places within you which the Spirit occupies?

I would like to propose another idea. Imagine the Holy Spirit of God being absorbed into your tissues, your molecules and even the atoms that make up every fiber of your body. Do you have an injury? Suppose you had a back injury. We learned yesterday to give our bodies to God and even to make our gifts specific so give Him your back and then invite Him to fill your back with His presence. He is omnipresent. He exists everywhere, not just where other things are not. See God insinuating Himself into every muscle fiber, every bone, all cartilage, tissue and fluid in your back. Think of that. See the Holy Spirit indwelling your spinal column, filling you with His radiant power and glory. This is the radiation treatment we need, the Holy Spirit indwelling every fiber of our being right down to the smallest sub-atomic particle.

He is the life (John 14: 6), so the more we allow ourselves to be filled up with Him the more we are filled with life. It makes perfect sense doesn’t it? Jesus said he came to give us abundant life (John 10: 10). He also said that He and the Father would come and make their abode with us (John 14: 23). Then doesn’t it just make sense that allowing them to fill us is going to be a life-giving proposition?  But I have one caveat. I would not suggest this is a once and for all prayer. We ought to be praying this every day over our bodies. What I have found is that as I grow spiritually I find additional ways to allow the Father to fill me more. I also, unfortunately, discover places that I have not allowed Him to indwell even though I thought I gave all. We have sentries posted that we have forgotten about. Some of them have been there for a long time. As you retire the sentries and allow God into those barred rooms and spaces you will always experience new life and renewed life.

So, allow God’s omnipresence to be more than God with you. He is with you, around you and in you. Let this revelation comfort you and work healing in your body.

Back to Top

Human Sacrifice

On April 29, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Romans 12: 1

I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

This passage is so familiar that we often fail to look at the words. This isn’t just a call to present your body to God. There is more to it than that. This is a form of worship. It is part of our service to God. Note how urgently Paul entreats his followers. He seems to think this is very important. He tells us to present our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice. If I sacrifice my body to God’s service then that must mean that I am giving up some level of control. My body is no longer my own. Isn’t that right? We are no longer our own. We have been purchased with a price, the blood of Jesus (Revelation 5: 9). Further, this offering is meant to be a sacrifice which is acceptable to God. What does that mean? People have many answers to that question, you hopefully will find your own, but one way to think about it is that I will not take God’s body anywhere I should not. It also seems that it would mean that when I use this body, I use it in ways that are consistent with the Word of God. And I would mention that when we present our bodies to God it means that we give each part, all members of our bodies to God. That means even our tongues. What we say ought to edify the Father and His children.

I wish to give you one other perspective on giving your body to God. I recently made a long bike ride. In the last eight miles it started getting tough. Well, the Father and I have a running deal that the last three miles are His. He helps me through all the other miles but that last three are His alone. Well, with eight miles to go I started praying. I said, “Dad, it looks like you are going to have to take the last eight miles today.” That presented no problem to Him at all. I started releasing everything to Him and then I said, “Father, I give you my legs.” Wow! An epiphany went off in my head. I received a revelation of God’s healing and energizing power flowing into my legs and of Him using my legs to power that bike. I tell you I am getting thrilled again just writing to you about it.

When we present our bodies we need to present each and every part. Don’t just present your body as a whole. Give Him your eyes and then look out through those eyes with Him. Look at your hands and give them to Him. How does your back feel? Give Him your back. Give all to Him and what you will find is that He just multiplies your sacrifices and offerings back to you a hundredfold. I don’t know when we will ever let this hundredfold return on our offerings really sink in but it is right there in our bodies as well as our pocketbooks. Every time Dad demands an offering or a gift it is because He wants to do something for you. If you will give Him your body you will receive it back in much better working order. He has healing in His hands so whatever you put into His hands comes out with healing in it. Hey, that wouldn’t be bad for our pocketbooks either, would it?

Well, the moral of the story is that I had a great ride. I completed my first 50 mile bike ride ever and my average speed was as high as for a 25 mile ride. And that is not all. The next day I was not sore at all. In fact, I walked on the treadmill the next day. It wasn’t in my strength but, hallelujah, when I am weak, then I am strong. Think I will give the sacrifice of my body on the next ride.

Back to Top

Show Me You Love Me

On April 28, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

John 14: 23 – 24

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.”

Would you like a test for the maturity of your Christianity? Well, here it is, delivered by Jesus himself. He told his followers, “Hey look, if you are going to be a follower of mine then you must keep my word.” That is why generations upon generations of believers have honored the Bible. If we are true Christians, i.e. followers of Christ, then we evidence, not only a reverence for the Bible but more importantly we follow its precepts and teachings. We are not followers of law but rather we live the Word. The answer is not in feeding the poor and housing widows. That is all good but the unsaved do that also. Those works are from a human ethos and will not buy our way into heaven nor show our love and devotion to Jesus. He said if we love him, we will keep his word.

I would posit that the first step to keeping his word is reading his word. How many “believers” do you know who never pick up the Bible?  Frankly, there is a catastrophic epidemic of non-believing believers. How can we believe if we never read the book? In what do we believe?

The second step is to do what we see there. For example, the Bible teaches us to pray for those who persecute us and mistreat us. Do we do that? There are hundreds of places, literally, in the Bible which tell us not to be afraid. Do we ever battle the fear that attacks us? God said to lay hands on the sick and pray for them. Are we praying for the sick? This is not about perfection, nor about those times we fail. It is about intending to live what we learn from the Bible. Jesus is quite strong on this point. He says that if we do not keep his word then we don’t love him. It is just that simple.

Christian faith doesn’t have to be complicated. Jesus didn’t give us a laundry list of things to do. He gave us one commandment – love others as he himself loved us. Then he said, if you love me, you will keep my word. Honestly, that is pretty simple. If we love him, then we will find out what his word says and keep it in our hearts. If we do not do so then we may well have reason to question whether or not we really do love him. The prayer we prayed for salvation is not a ticket to get into heaven. It is a marriage proposal. And we engage our love through the Word. That’s it. Nothing else will do.

Back to Top

The Welcome Mat

On April 27, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Ezekiel 33: 11

“Say to them, ‘As I live!’ declares the Lord God, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live.’”

God isn’t into punishment. He is into salvation. He desires that none should perish. That is why He sent His Son, so that every person may be saved. 

We get skewed ideas of God sometimes, that He is full of hate and contempt. Nothing could be further from the truth. He is love but there are a lot of people in the world who cannot perceive of love nor accept love so they remake God in their image rather than accepting Him as He is. Because they are unlovely, unworthy to be loved, they make God a hateful, unloving God.

Another problem is that God gets the blame when things go wrong. Satan has done an amazing job of camouflaging himself. He has become almost invisible and intentionally so. There are many people who do not recognize his existence any longer. One person told me that she does not believe in the existence of evil. Look around! How can one truly not understand that there are evil actors in the world? Furthermore, some folks get really nervous when you talk, or even teach, about the devil. This has helped him to run around stealing, killing and destroying with impunity. It is even worse than that. Not only does he get away with it, all too often God gets the blame. Satan scores twice with one swipe. And it is not only the unsaved, the uninitiated who criticize God for Satan’s evil deeds, we Christians are guilty of it too. I ought to know. I blamed God for my sports injuries and troubles. I was helped along by Christians who told me that God was doing these things to me in order to make me strong. What a horrible and wrong teaching. God uses love to strengthen you. He doesn’t blow out your knees in order to make your faith and trust in Him stronger. It only takes a small exercise of logic to figure that one out. 

Another common mistake is to judge Christianity by Christians. We are still flawed and make mistakes all of the time. It isn’t very logical when you think about it to judge God by the behavior of people but it is a pretty natural thing to do. Any human institution is going to suffer from the growing pains of its members but God is perfect and so is His love. We certainly are ambassadors for the kingdom of God whether or not we wish to be. A true seeker, though, should exercise wisdom and seek the face of God. I will promise you this. You will not see the face of God and walk away from Him. When a person seeks God they find love and acceptance. When they look at us they sometimes find judgment and condemnation. That is not God’s way. While we are learning to walk and act like God, the wise person will look to Him rather than to judge Him by what they see in us. Actually, if one really thought about it, the fact that the Father loves us enough to accept us should speak volumes about His love. The unsaved ought to look at Christians and say, “If God can love and accept them, then He will most certainly love me.” And it is true. There is no person on this earth that He does not love and wish to spend eternity with. Think of the most vile person you know. God’s will, His heart’s desire, is to save that person and give him a home in heaven.

Back to Top

Investment Return

On April 24, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Matthew 13: 23

And the one on whom seed was sown on good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit, and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.

This verse is from the famous parable of the seed. It is such a great expression of the kingdom of God. One of the things that has always struck me about this verse, though, is that Jesus mentioned the hundredfold return first. Then, as if he knew that some people could not receive a hundred fold he said, “Okay, sixty fold.” Still there were some who could not believe for a sixty fold return on seed so he said, “Alright, some will receive thirty fold.” It has made me wonder for years where we could have gone on the other end if we could believe. Would Jesus speak about a thousand fold return with someone who has faith for big returns?

I think sometimes of the stock market and other investments. We all want the largest return on our investment that we can get. If an investment broker offered us a 30%, 60% or 100% return on our money I am pretty sure each of us would choose 100%. So what happens to our thinking when Jesus starts talking about the return on seed sown? Does something about that short circuit our brain patterns?

The first instance of this crop is that the word has been sown as seed to us. Are we fertile soil which produces a crop? The good soil, which is the person who receives the word, brings forth a crop. Some people produce a small crop, others produce a large crop. The second instance of the parable is the seed that we sow back. Those from a farming background will tell us that some of the crop is saved in order to sow for the next crop. We take what Jesus first gave us and sow it back into the kingdom so that others may hear the word. Now, we have invested in the kingdom. What return should you expect on your investment. Here is where people get a little choked but you see, Jesus is expecting every seed to yield at least a 30% return and for those who can believe he is willing to double the investment. That alone becomes a very interesting proposition. 

In the book of Exodus we discover that when a man is caught stealing he must repay double (Exodus 22: 4). Elisha asked for a double portion of Elijah’s anointing and got it (2 Kings 2: 9). And in Isaiah 61: 7 we are promised a double portion for our former shame. So, the double portion would not have sounded remarkable to the Jews to whom Jesus spoke. None the less, he kept backing down to reach the belief level of others there, or at least that is my theory. 

My point is this. First we should give Jesus a hundred fold return on his investment. We are to produce fruit and every fruit bearing tree or bush gives off much more than that which was planted. Secondly, we should eagerly invest in the kingdom of God from the harvest of our fruit and we should expect a hundredfold return. Those who sow, ought to reap. It would be a perversion otherwise. We shouldn’t get all choked up and “Holy” when it comes to investment and return. After all, Jesus is Jewish and he knows how money works. This is the guy who could get money from a fish’s mouth. He isn’t going to freak out if we want to talk about money. It certainly didn’t seem to bother him when Peter asked him about money for the taxes. Jesus was so cool. He just said, “Go fishin” and that was all the advice Peter needed.

Invest in the kingdom. That is God’s will for us all but also expect a big return.

Back to Top

Set Apart

On April 23, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

2 Thessalonians 2: 13

But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

Before time began, in the beginning when there was only the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, God chose you and predestined you for salvation. That is some good news and you could use a little good news. There has never been a moment throughout all of history that your Father has not has His mind on you. He predetermined when you would be born and He awaited that moment with great anticipation. 

By the grace and love of God you have been set apart, sanctified, to God. You were chosen. The love of God and the Spirit have called you out and you have been called specifically to this point of time. Your sanctification is by the Spirit of God and your belief, your faith in the truth.

The truth is a constant guide for us. Thy word is truth (John 17: 17). Jesus is the truth (John 14:6). The truth has set us apart and we are set apart for the truth. A lie will never lead us into our appointment. The devil is the father of lies (John 8: 44). Lies are what lead us away from our ordained position in Christ. That is what happened to Adam and Eve, they believed the lie instead of following the truth. They lost their way and lost their pre-ordained appointment with God. They were in the most enviable of positions but lost it all because they entertained the lie instead of adhering to the truth.

We all are in the same position today. We have been ordained, set apart, for such a time as this. Each one of us has a God anointed and ordained position in His family. We have been sanctified for this purpose by the Holy Spirit of God. Ultimately, though, it is our choice whom we shall serve. Shall we follow the truth and accept our inheritance through Christ who is Lord? Will we turn our eyes to the Word of truth and fill our spirits with the life of Jesus? Or, will we follow the lie? The world constantly floods our environment with the lies and fear. And those words can be very enticing and, of course, they appear to be the truth if we don’t hold them up to the light because the devil is a deceiver. He makes the false look true and the truth to look ridiculous. It takes an effort to follow the truth but that is why Jesus gave us the Spirit. He will always lead us in the truth and pave the way to our glorious position in the Father. 

Your faith in the truth has set you apart for God’s glory. Never take your eyes off of that which saves.

Back to Top