Kris Vallotton has been rocking my world recently. i would highly recommend listening to his sermons (free on itunes, and hes funny :)..
Something he just said on a sermon actually made me want to write this post. the sermon is called "apostleship". He said "we cant just sit around polishing our crowns. you can tell how close someone is to the throne by how they act towards injustice" and that makes so much sense. we sit around talking about how awesome Jesus is when we havent even truly tasted and seen His goodness. were just basing our "salvation" off the wedding instead of the marriage. the marriage is when we actually fight the good fight. we live out what it means to even be a christian. we love the Lord with our whole heart. we bask and worship in His presence. we love and forgive people (even the unlovable) with everything we can sacrifice, including our thoughts about them. we bring heaven to earth! we tend to the poor, we listen to those hurting, we heal the blind and the deaf, we go into the darkness. and we are filled with JOY all the time by being led by the Holy Spirit! this is what life is!
it doesnt make sense to be born, say the acceptance words of Christ, be baptized, live the rest of your life with those close to you, and then die.
wouldnt a Lord who put such amazing detail into the creation of this earth be able to come up with a more fulfilling plan for our life then just that?! He loves us! he doesnt want us to have a meaningless life!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Inheritence!
I read an article by Todd Bentley as well as reflected on some scripture recently and wanted to share some of what i got from it.
Who we are and what we have:
3 verses from romans 8 do a good job of explaining this.
"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death" (v. 2).
"For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father'" (v. 15).
"And if children, then heirs -- heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together" (v. 17).
So if we are adobted by the Father then we have an inheritance in Chirst. Bentley says "God wants His sons and daughters to walk victoriously, triumphantly, conquering and overcoming the enemy. His desire is to see His children walking in God consciousness -- possessing and manifesting the anointing like the apostles Peter, Paul, Moses, and the prophet Elisha"
Reasons why we should want this:
As a child we want our parents to provide for us. Who would be a better provider than the Heavenly Father? When we seek the Lord, nothing of the world seems to satisfy or even seem interesting anymore. it says in 2 Corinthians 2-"meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked" vs 9 says "so we make it our goal to please Him" because we all we long for is the glory of the Father.
-vs 14 says "for Christ's love compels us." What a small yet powerful verse to perfectly explain why we want to be lay down lovers for Christ and give up our lives so freely.
Inheritence
In order to explain our inheritence, it is best to look first at Jesus. who modeled the Holy Spirit's presence perfectly. He was able to model this because He is the Son of God. Matthew 14:36 says that the annointing on Him was so present that if people touched the "hem of His garment" they would be perfectly healed. (also in matthew 9:21-22).
The apostle Peter, once an adopted son of God, possessed and understood this same manifestation of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 5, Peter carried such a great presence of the Holy Ghost that sick people were healed by his shadow. It was not literally his shadow but the same presence that overshadowed Mary (Jesus' mother) with the power of the Most High when she conceived
Bentley continues to talk about how amazing the presence of the Lord is. In 2 kings 13:21 it shows the lingering presence of God still lived in Elisha's bones after His death..
-Also..when Moses spent 40 days and 40 nights on Mt. Sinaii with the Father, He had to wear a veil over his face because it radiated so brightly that people were afraid. and that was only after seeing the "pixie dust" (as Mark Moore calls it) of where the Father had been. (Exodus 34:29-35)
so if all of these people in scriptures are human beings just like us, and they received their annointings by having intimate relationships with the Father, then we can obviously have this kind of tangible, intimate presence of the Lord's glory poured over our lives.
the presence can be so strong on our life that we could walk into a room and with out saying a word, the fullness of the Lord would lead people to conviction...its crazy stuff and its so awesome that we can have that by spending time in His presence.
Bentley concludes with this statement and i totally agree with it:
"Instead of looking at how defeated the world is, let's look at the potential there is for the world to become the kingdom of God. We need to understand that it's the knowledge of the glory of the Lord released through us as sons and daughters of God and the dispensers of His glory that will cause His kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven."
"For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." Habakkuk 2:14
Who we are and what we have:
3 verses from romans 8 do a good job of explaining this.
"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death" (v. 2).
"For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father'" (v. 15).
"And if children, then heirs -- heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together" (v. 17).
So if we are adobted by the Father then we have an inheritance in Chirst. Bentley says "God wants His sons and daughters to walk victoriously, triumphantly, conquering and overcoming the enemy. His desire is to see His children walking in God consciousness -- possessing and manifesting the anointing like the apostles Peter, Paul, Moses, and the prophet Elisha"
Reasons why we should want this:
As a child we want our parents to provide for us. Who would be a better provider than the Heavenly Father? When we seek the Lord, nothing of the world seems to satisfy or even seem interesting anymore. it says in 2 Corinthians 2-"meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked" vs 9 says "so we make it our goal to please Him" because we all we long for is the glory of the Father.
-vs 14 says "for Christ's love compels us." What a small yet powerful verse to perfectly explain why we want to be lay down lovers for Christ and give up our lives so freely.
Inheritence
In order to explain our inheritence, it is best to look first at Jesus. who modeled the Holy Spirit's presence perfectly. He was able to model this because He is the Son of God. Matthew 14:36 says that the annointing on Him was so present that if people touched the "hem of His garment" they would be perfectly healed. (also in matthew 9:21-22).
The apostle Peter, once an adopted son of God, possessed and understood this same manifestation of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 5, Peter carried such a great presence of the Holy Ghost that sick people were healed by his shadow. It was not literally his shadow but the same presence that overshadowed Mary (Jesus' mother) with the power of the Most High when she conceived
Bentley continues to talk about how amazing the presence of the Lord is. In 2 kings 13:21 it shows the lingering presence of God still lived in Elisha's bones after His death..
-Also..when Moses spent 40 days and 40 nights on Mt. Sinaii with the Father, He had to wear a veil over his face because it radiated so brightly that people were afraid. and that was only after seeing the "pixie dust" (as Mark Moore calls it) of where the Father had been. (Exodus 34:29-35)
so if all of these people in scriptures are human beings just like us, and they received their annointings by having intimate relationships with the Father, then we can obviously have this kind of tangible, intimate presence of the Lord's glory poured over our lives.
the presence can be so strong on our life that we could walk into a room and with out saying a word, the fullness of the Lord would lead people to conviction...its crazy stuff and its so awesome that we can have that by spending time in His presence.
Bentley concludes with this statement and i totally agree with it:
"Instead of looking at how defeated the world is, let's look at the potential there is for the world to become the kingdom of God. We need to understand that it's the knowledge of the glory of the Lord released through us as sons and daughters of God and the dispensers of His glory that will cause His kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven."
"For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." Habakkuk 2:14
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