The God who created everything

desires to manifest His Glory through us.

Are we willing to step up to the

plate and allow it to happen?

The knowledge and the Glory of God

will be revealed to this earth. It will cover this earth. He’s looking for

someone who will stand in the gap. He’s looking for someone who will step up to

the plate and say let it be me.

A lot of people decided they’ve got better things to do with their life. They’ve got another journey they wanna take, another direction. They have the box checked off they’re going to heaven. All they want to do is not go to hell, but they are not willing to manifest the kingdom. They have their own agenda, their own kingdom they are building.

I’m as guilty as many of them.  I have things that I would like to do. I have an

agenda, I want to accomplish. I have companies I want a build. I’ve had this

podcast and books that I am writing. These are things I’ve been struggling with.

Things I’ve tried to piece together and come to an understanding of how they

fit in the Kingdom of Heaven.

In truth everything that I have – every

idea that I have, all these desires to build companies, to write books, to make

podcast –  when it comes down to it the

only thing I really want is for God’s Glory to be manifest on this earth.

Everything I do I give it to God. Everything I am is for Him. I would turn it all over to Him. I would stop the podcast. I would stop writing. I would stop doing everything,  to create an avenue through which God’s Glory could be manifest in this earth, so that the knowledge of His Glory will cover the earth as the water covers the sea.

It is not about my agenda,  it’s not about my strategy, it’s not about how

well I do anything, it’s not about the books I write or the words and I say, or

the preaching that I do.

It really comes down to this, does

my life show and forth His Glory?

It’s not about my flesh receiving glory and it’s not about the accolades,

All my publications, all my prestige, pedigree, position and pomp matters. That will all burn. It is not about a checklist or accomplishments. It’s about pressing into God’s presence. Building a relationship with Him to where He consumes you and you are no longer your own. You’re fully surrendered, fully submit to His purpose. When you fully submit and fully surrendered to His purpose as you begin to interact with the world around you they will see the Glory of God residing upon your life.

Leaning not on my own understanding, this is where I really

struggled. I want to understand how God thinks and understand His principles, His

precepts the the actions that He asks me to do. I want to understand why. I

want to understand so I can act upon them and work to help God out. This is a

part of my nature that I have come to understand from year of looking at how I have

tried to analys God’s ways.

This process of trusting the Lord is hard.

I use my own understanding my own skill set to do what god

wants me to do. It is because I am trying to lean my own understanding to help God

along.  But God does not need my help. God

wants me to trust Him and not to lean on my own understanding.

Sometimes people who have a higher intelligence level or who

have a a lot of book learning tend to fall short when it comes to trusting the Lord

and leaning not on their understanding. Because it is so easy to fall back into

to the mindset of believeing we understand what is going on.

We say to ourselves, “ I’m going to set these dominoes in a

line so when God moves it will cause the following events to fall into place.”  We try to help God accomplish His will because

we hope we are helping God out.

The truth is God does not need our help.

A lot of what I have been dealing with over the last year is me trying to help God achieve God’s purpose and plan in my own life.

What God truly desires is for me to step back and seek Him.

He wants me to just obey what He asks, to hold on to His promise, and trust He

will work it out.  All he wants is our

trust, obedience and availability.

There is a process to change.  Things happen in stages. The same is true with our Christian walk.  We begin as babes, then we mature. All the while we are moving toward the full stature of Christ.  However, many have become lost along the way or tried to to take the steps out of order.

We all were once sinners alienated from God.  We did things which would destroy the person God wanted us to be.  I can look back at my life and see the mistakes I have made and the things I have done that did not work to build my future. I destroyed relationships and wasted opportunities because I could not see God’s plan for me.

When God transformed me into a new creature the things of my past could not support the new creation that I had become.  I needed to learn to live another way.

Many people today struggle with how to live the Christian life.  Many religions have made a list of rules to follow. God never meant for us to follow a rule-book. His desire was for us to mature into his image.

I want to step into the role God has called me to knowing

the vision, purpose the intent God has given mr.  Inside of me my spirit longes to see God’s

plan fulfilled. But I do not see where the resources are coming from. I want what

God has put in my spirit to flourish. All the dream I see need to manifest.  The issue at hand is  I can not do it without resources. I need the

lord to step in and in take can of what He has put on my heart

A lot of people find themselves at the start of a great adventure.

Their faith is stretched. The day they walk out and step down on the waters as Peter

did. And now the next step is sink or swim.

I think God puts us in the situation to see if we are desiring a relationship with Him or religion. The driving desire in most of us causes us to jump back in the boat instead of holding on watching great adventure unfold

When God calles us out onto the deep waters, when He asked

us to do seomtihng that takes us out of our comfort zone are we willing to

follow no matter the cost?

Or are we going to go away also because the cost it to great?

“But the helper the Holy Spirit, whom the father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to you remember to all things of that I said to you” James 14:26 KJV

I have read this passage a number of times. However,  i actually overlooked exactly what it is

telling us.I have spent decades learning and studying. It is one of the things

that I enjoy. My search for knowledge and information is something that I love

to do. Reading books, studying theology and writing books is a part of who I am.

Studying and learning is one of things God has put in me, but I never realized

that the Holy Ghost was given to us to teacher us all things.

 Our Christian walk is

not just head knowledge. It is not just an experience. It is actually an opportunity

for us to learn the supernatural things of God. These things are not written in

a book. They must be written on our hearts. God has given us the Spirit to

teach us all these things, if we would just take the opportunity to get into His

presence and allow His Spirit to teach to us.

When God called us into this kingdom, He set in order and place the opportunity before us to become His child. We were born again into the Kingdom of Heaven and we become a child of God. The spiritual genetic potential for us to become like God was put inside of us. Because of this we have the opportunity through the Spirit of that raised Christ from the dead to manifest this spiritual potential. We can begin to be the image and likeness of God. This is what God originally designed when he made Adam.  He made Adam in His image and likeness. Adam was going to mature and be the image and likeness of God. This is what God wanted from Adam’s life and it is what He wants from our lives.

God wants mankind to reflect who He is.

Through disobedience mankind devolved from that state of God

likeness into a state of sin. The new birth takes us from a sinful state into a

state where we become the righteousness of God. The way we do that is not to

adjusting our life to fit into this is patterned of a religious model. That is

not how we become the righteousness of God. That is not how we step out of our

sinful nature and become what God intended us to be.  The way that we do it is when we allow Him to

adapt our nature to His purpose. We allow Him to change our nature in such a

way that we fit into the Kingdom.

It is not an easy process. What most people want to do is develop

their own religion. They want to get this list of criteria. They make a checklist

that they can check off.

They say, “I am doing this.I’m reading my bible daily I am praying my 5 minutes and mournI am praying over my foodI am doing all these things.”

Every item on the list has a tick mark. They are trying to prove

they are worthy and justified before God, so where they need God they can say, “Look

at all that I have been doing.”

This approach is an outward show of our own righteousness. The Bible says that our righteousness is as filthy rags. When we are allowing ourselves to justify ourselves, we are not righteous. With this approach we are not becoming the righteousness of Christ. Thereby, we are becoming self-righteous and all we are doing is adjusting our lives to fit a mold other people think we should fit.

God did not call us to fit the mold of others, to adjust our lives to match our opinion or the opinion of others.

God called us to fulfill our destiny in His kingdom.

We must step into the role of a teachable son and allow God to adapt our life to the environment where He wants us to live. We will never fulfill the manifest calling and destiny that god has for us until we allow Him to adapt us to thrive in the Kingdom.

We cannot live a Kindgom life following the ways of the

flesh. Many people seek their own benefits in life. There is far more to living

for God than just the physical acts of a religious ritual. God desires to

change us and transform us in a Spiritual way.

Many people only do things that benefit themselves. God has called

us into His Kingdom for His glory, not for for us to glory in ourselves. We

need to be able to hear the voice of God and follow after His will and purpose.

If we truly desire to see the Kingdom of God manifest in the world around us we must begin to move, operate and exist in the Spirit of God and rest upon the foundation of His word.

The Scripture declares that in the beginning was the “Word.”

This Greek word used in this passage found in John 1 is logos. What an

interesting Greek word choice. Aristotle utilized this word in his work On Rhetoric

where he compiled his thoughts on what is called the astatic proofs (Ethos,

Pathos, and Logos). This work by Aristotle was written almost 400 years before

Jesus walked the earth.

In the beginning was the Logos. Logos as defined by Aristotle

means the logical appeal. When God stepped out onto nothing and began to speak

into existence everything that was made. He did not step out and speak because

of His Pathos or sympathy, or empathy towards what had not been created. He did

not step out and speak based on Hit Ethos, or authority or credibility. He stepped

out and created the heavens and the earth because it was the logical thing to

do.

Why was creating the heavens and the earth the logical thing

to do?

God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord.Ephesians 3:10-11 (NLT)

Colossians 1:16 declares that everything was created through

Him and for Him, The Logos of God was to show forth His glory.

We have been chosen and drawn nigh to God not for our own purpose or our own promotion. We have been brought into the church to show forth the Glory of God. His Word will not fail to come to pass. What He said HE will watch over to perform it.

Many people are in search of a Rhema (right now word) from the Lord but they fail to listen to the Logos (word) or the Lord.

Nevertheless, His word of forever settled in Heaven and it will come to pass. As sure as the Sun comes up in the morning and the moon rules the night, so will His Logos and Rhema come to pass.

This weekend my wife and I were blessed by a couple in the

church with a trip to Pigeon Forge Tennesse for a marriage retreat. It was a

wonderful time hearing from other couples about their struggles and wins as married

couples and how God had brought them through.

My wife and I spent much of the time we were driving there

and back talking about the struggles we had faced. And there have been some

major struggles. We have faced three miscarriages together, the loss of our son

Isaiah the day he was born. We pastored churches together for 8 years, and the

list could go on for the length of this podcast.

Through all the struggles we faced we stood together through

them all. For 17 years we have stood together. We would have never guessed on

the day that we got married the struggles we would have to face.  But through it all God has brought us through.

I loved the Lord with all my heart before I ever married my

wife. On the day that we married I did not just make a commitment to her to

love honor and cherish her till death do us part. I made that commitment to God.

 As I know she did as well. If there were

a way out of that commitment I am sure my wife would have loved to find it.

Being married to me I am sure is not the easiest.

The years we have faced together have made us so much stronger.

She is not the woman I married, she is so much more today than she was then.

We need to learn to cleave to our spouse through every

adversity that comes our way. We will face terrible times, but then the trouble

comes it is not time to abandon that Ship (relationship that is), it is time to

grab hold of the most precious possession and cleave to it so it does not get

lost in the tempest. The storm is not to destroy you it is to strengthen you to

face the future.

Many people strive for perfection. But the whole connotation

of perfection is subjective. How can you ever achieve perfection without

knowing what perfection looks like? Many Christian will claim that Jesus is our

example of what perfection is, but in reality, to use Jesus as the perfect

example for everyone’s unique journey robs people of their full potential.

Christ lived His own life according to the will of God. So we

must live our own unique lives according to the will of God. We must run our

own race. We must stay in our own lane. If we try to run the race of another,

we fail to achieve the mark of the high calling of Christ Jesus that is unique

to our own gifts, callings, and talents.

So how can we achieve perfection if we do not know what it

looks like?

Many people sit in judgment over the lives of others using their view of perfection to qualify or condemn. But is this the true message of the Scripture? The word in Greek used for perfection (teleiósis) or perfect (teleios) has at its root the denotation of being; complete in all its parts, full-grown, of full age. Therefore the Kingdom is not about being perfect but about growing up.