Fixate PHX

MATTHEW 1:18-25;2:1-12

LUKE 2:1-20

3 REMINDERS OF GIFTS YOU SHOULD NEVER FORGET THAT ARE WRAPPED IN THIS STORY

1- If your eyes are open, and your heart is open, he speaks profoundly, no matter who you are, and how far you are from him.

2- From the beginning his purpose has been you. Everything written, remembered, and spoken about is designed to get you to see; that it is all for a relationship with you.

3- There are two kings and kingdoms in this story, just as there are two kings in your story. These contrast each other as they fight for control of the outcome, and fight for control of the hearts of people. Kings we swear loyalty to in the fallen world will only fail. The choice of following the true king comes down to choosing the manger over the palace, the stable over the crown, the child over the man. These pictures do not make sense, but that is the beauty of it, to choose something that relinquishes control.... And makes your life, a life about him.

1 Kings 19:15-16, 19-21 AMP

1. When it’s harder than I thought, will I stay all in where I’m at.

2. I must learn to see past and get over the poop and the dirt and stay focused on the right things.

3. With God my attitude is connected to my latitude.

4. He was a servant to Elijah.

5. Avoid the Trap of comparison.

Romans 5:1 NLT Philippians 4:6-7 NIV John 14:27 ESV John 16:7; 33

How to Unwrap the Gift of Peace Daily:

1. Peace is found in a person
2. Peace is accessible through prayer
3. Peace knows there is a purpose
4. Peace can be extended to other people
5. Peace is in your pocket

John 11:1-44

Hebrews 4:14-16

1. He wants to shape you, not hurt you
2. He can handle what you bring to the table
3. You're His own & He loves you

Reflection Time:

Ask, Be, Rest

JAMES 5:7-20

3 OUTCOMES OF ROOTED RHYTHMS THAT COME FROM JAMES FINAL VERSES

1- There is an increased measure of compassion, mercy, and blessing for the unwavering and patient person. The most common test we see over and over in scripture is that of patience; God’s timing vs ours. God's heart of blessing in the Bible is more often than not shown to those who have weathered the tests, stayed faithful, and remained planted in him in all seasons. Lordship comes down to control, and the sooner we can release it, and trust it, the sooner the roots found in a life of righteousness will get to work producing a life that knows and walks in the mercy, compassion, and blessing of God.

2- The prayer of a truly righteous person should accomplish much. Your prayers should put you out on the ledge of life, trusting that it is he who keeps you above the waves. Accomplishing much in prayer is when you are standing for neighbors, standing in love, standing for justice... and producing HEALING in this world. Prayer is the canvas that God paints his will and personhood upon, so if you're not praying… he's not painting. In time what we most discover about prayer is it is not what they accomplish externally, as much as what they accomplish internally, that starts to knit in the calling he has for our lives. Your prayers have healing and revelation to accomplish... Do you believe that?

3- When we accept Jesus into our heart, our lives start bending toward finding the lost, and telling them they can be found. Our kingdom-character is bankrupt if we cannot remember the last time we tried to bring our light into someone's darkness through being a healing presence, and revelation of God’s love. We are the mission of God on this earth outside of these doors, that says we don’t have to accept a life of death, and that sin does not have the final say. The enemy wants you to stop trying, so you can start spiritually dying. You're a messenger as long as you have breath inside you. How are you with strays?

James 3:16-4:10

3 ways to know if our pursuit of pleasure is costing us our peace

1- The opposite of jealousy and selfish ambition is peacefulness. You can assess your own selfishness/jealousy and that of those around you by the peace they carry and bring to the environments they enter. Peace is a product of dependance on the prince of peace, rhythmically and in discipline communing with him. Time with the prince of peace in his word and spirit helps us sow peace, then reap peace, and become.. peaceful.

2- We must assess the motives within asking for pleasures.. Many times we are asking for something to complete us that was only intended to complement us. If your search for completion is by what was only intended to complement, don't be upset when God tests the heart and motive, through trials and timing. A peace in him will multiply the pleasure you experience if you can learn and lean into him deeper… and you might find the pleasure you seek might actually be replaced by the peace he brings.

3- Beware the attack of duplicity and double mindedness. God will allow you to go through tests in order to purify the heart's motives. Don’t run from them. The test of duplicity is to think that you are allowed a heavenly mind and way of being, and also a dark side that no one knows about, stemming from an unrenewed mind. If you choose the work of renovation, you will know personally the power you carry to restore, and in restoring your own world, you might find he uses you to restore this world.

James 3:1-12

3 tips on cleaning corrosion and resetting the breakers on how you speak

1. A TONGUE THAT LACKS CONTROL IS A LIFE THAT LACKS CONTROL. The words we speak are not a product of spiritual maturity as much as it is the evidence that you are spiritually mature. Winning the battle of the words you speak directly influences all the battles you are fighting and will fight. Don’t be mad there isn't any power present in your life if you have allowed the main avenue of power transfer to be corroded. A life in the light or in the darkness just comes down to how often you speak light and how often you speak darkness.
2. IT WILL ALWAYS BE YOUR CHOICE WHAT FIRE COMES FORTH FROM YOUR WORDS. THE FIRES OF HEAVEN OR THE FIRES OF HELL. IF YOUR WORDS ARE ONLY CRITICAL, DESTRUCTIVE, FULL OF GOSSIP, SLANDER, COMPLAINTS, WORRY, OR DIVISIVE IT IS YOUR JOB TO TAME THE TONGUE BEFORE THE FIRE DESTROYS THE GOOD WORK PLACED INSIDE OF YOU AND THE GOOD NEWS YOU ARE MADE TO LIVE IN. SOME OF US WANT ‘MORE FIRE’ FROM GOD BUT OUR MOUTH DESTROYS ANYTHING GOOD HE EVER TRIES TO GIVE US.
3. What is said about you, is usually what people have heard said through you. I challenge you right now to take inventory of how often your words are blessing and how often your words are cursing. Speaking the truth doesn’t give you a free pass on transmitting words of death. Corrosion slowly takes the power away, until one day you have none. There is no coincidence to man’s need for fresh water for survival; both physically and spiritually. Don’t let your spring become so polluted that no one values what you say anymore.

James 2:14-26

3 thoughts on understanding the relationship between faith and works

1. The mission field is your business field. Your daily Work, works, and witness say more about who you serve than your christian activities involvement. Faith and Works is about the lifestyle you live and the lives it touches of those around you. Faith and Works feel dead and dormant when they have not woven a level of calling into your career. Inviting God into your daily work, may do more for your “works” then you ever imagined.
2. YOUR “DOING” CAN BE THE GREAT ERASER, EQUALIZER, AND ENERGIZER OF FULFILLMENT IN CHRIST. Your faith gets you access to God, your works develop the proximity to God. Faith becomes perfected when works become regularly enacted. Some of us all our questions, concerns, fears, and paralysis would dissipate if we just thought less, and did a little more. Paralysis is frozen inactivity. If you're active, you never feel frozen.
3. F YOU WANT WORK THAT HAS WORTH, IT USUALLY INVOLVES A COST THAT WILL SEEM EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TO PAY. WHEN WE WILL NOT PAY THE COST OF CONSISTENT AND COSTLY “DOING” OUR SPIRITS WITHER BECAUSE OUR WORKS BECOME DORMANT AND THEN DEAD. THE CROWN HAS A COST REQUIRED TO WEAR IT. Rhythmically dying to self through our doing is way easier than never doing anything in faith and then God taking you through an unforseen test to see if our heart and motives are pure. Paying tolls of doing help us pass the tests within our being.

1. THE EXTENT OF YOUR LOVE TO THE LEAST, SHOWS THE DEPTHS OF WHO YOU FOLLOW THE MOST. The test of who you are when no one is looking usually comes down to your love for those who can give nothing in return. The god we serve usually uses the ones we don’t think we can learn from, to teach us most. A saint with dirty hands, is one whose heart is full.
2. There is no such thing as a personal relationship with Christ that does not require personal care for our neighbors. The poor have just as much a right to the riches of faith as us. Partiality on appearance and superiority must be repented of. If you make your decisions of those who are allowed access to your time and resource by the outward appearance, you will atrophy the spiritual muscles needed for the marathon of following jesus. The neighbor you're called to love is the people God places in your direct path, everyday.
3. I'm convinced that the level of judgment we feel today as followers of Christ comes from a mercy dispensing deficiency in our personal walk. If mercy triumphs over judgment then the invitation is whenever we feel the judgment of man, or even the judgment and blame we cast upon ourselves, we look for ways to apply mercy to our fellow man, preferably the downcast and downtrodden. You might be surprised when you give mercy and grace to someone less fortunate, what it does for your fortunes and your future. Mercy triumphs over judgment, if you practice it, you may find out first hand.