Spirit Life Walk

Does anyone like change out there, raise your hand! Yes, it's rather quiet right now. Well, indeed we don't line up for opportunities for change unless you're worn out in your present situation maybe, or a bit fried, or even depressed. Despite how we feel, though, we should recognize that the Harvest is the Lord's priority. And while a natural harvest is going on here in Illinois, a spiritual harvest is also going on. Not just people passing from life to death and going on to heaven...or to hell if they denied Christ :(. But also a spiritual harvest of those things dying in our lives to make way for the new--death to our flesh--youthful lusts aka all the things or pursuits we think are worth our investment of time, money and "love." Amazing enough, we can have a collection of good looking things to other Christians--all the things we give to others in the name of Christ--so that others looking at us think we are a "good person." These too can become traps believe it or not. But more than anything, I believe we are in a new season with the Lord and there is a clearing away of the old to now birth a new, just like these old dried up corn stalks and bean fields are being removed and stored away to be sold for a price, to make room for the future, but also to provide us a clear view for what's next. God has a plan, but we must align ourselves with His Way and His Truth with the help of the Holy Spirit in order to experience His Life in this next season (John 14:6). We don't have to be completely clueless in our walk with Him, did you know that? Jesus said that He would share with His "friends" what His future plans were, if we were doing what He commanded us to (John 15:15). He said that "if" we love Him, we keep His commandments--not just because we say we're a Christian (John 14:15). He's looking for those who are willing AND obedient...these will be those who will eat good of the land (Isaiah 1:19). God bless you!

"Life and Life more abundantly," is not just a phrase for our benefit. Jesus's LIFE inside of us is for giving out to others. If we seek to grow in the responsibilities that Christ wants to give us, we have to first know Him, as we have no life apart from Him and we can't do anything without Him. We may be able to walk in ignorant fashion for a time and may be able to perform pretty good for the eyes of others. But eventually we will all be held in account. Therefore we need to make Jesus and the Holy Spirit a priority daily in our reading of His Word and in praying in the Spirit. This is how we not only get built up, but stay strong when the storms come against us. Jesus is our foundation and we can build on Him however we like--in regards no to open choice to do as we wish and He's okay with it--no. We can choose to be like that story of the three little piggies--yes I know, but its what comes to my mind. Two out of three chose the cheap and quick way to make their habitation. They chose what was popular. They chose what people recommended to them, when they knew better. The wolf comes along and trashes those two cheaply built houses but cannot withstand the one built solidly--of which the other two have taken refuge in now with the wise one. If we are faithful to stay close to Jesus and filled with the Spirit, we indeed will be conduits for the Lord's river of His Life. And this closeness will mean that we will be able to direct that flow toward anyone who needs a refreshing from the Lord. Sometimes that River involves giving a scripture or encouraging word/exhortation. Sometimes its healing or deliverance or prophecy. But remember, operating in the gifts comes because of time with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. And there are some things that can be manufactured to look legit--so don't mess around because the moment satan comes around to test you, if you've built your structure from things that just look good to others, it will be obliterated with next to nothing from an attack he initiates. However, if we make the right decisions, and repent when we haven't been doing right, and get right with the Lord and trust Him to guide us through the GUIDE He gave us--our friend the Holy Spirit--then we will be okay. Draw near to Jesus today, abide in Him, rest in Him. He said we can let Him help carry it--and He'll take the heaviest part! What a wonderful Savior we have that longs to help make things easier for us as we obey Him. Submit to God, Resist the devil--and he will flee! God bless you!

The phrase "life and life more abundantly" can be defined a lot of ways. Beyond blessings in this life of ours that are a result of our Father's kindness and mercy toward us, we receive greater blessings through our obedience to the Lord Jesus. That means obeying His Word which keeps us in His Way. The Holy Spirit is our Helper who guides us into all Truth. We cannot have Truth apart from Jesus, otherwise we are actually not in His Way, we're in the ditch! You don't get very far if you run your car into the ditch. Jesus is looking for believers who will choose to obey him in these great time of compromise. Jesus said this phrase in the middle of his teaching about himself being the Door of salvation. In John 10:10, "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." This "life" that Jesus promised was Himself.  We must know His Word and His Spirit to be able to love and obey Him. In John 14:15 Jesus says, “If you love Me, keep My commandments."  Short and to the point. If we love Him then we will want to obey Him, to please Him! In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus defines the seriousness of choosing not to truly know Him, "Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’" We don't take it very seriously that the Lord is looking for us to love Him and depart from evil. He doesn't give us permission to mess with His Words to come up with a meaning that discounts what He just got done saying. That would send us into destruction, and He's hoping we don't choose that route. Lastly, John 15: 5-8, Jesus clarifies the  “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples." Do you want to be His disciple? Abide in Jesus, Abide in the Way, Abide in the Truth and have His life.-------I had mentioned a couple of references in the podcast today for two different things, Andrew Wommack's ministry podcast can be found here. Jay Sekulow's website concerning their amazing legal work in the fight for life can be found here.

Are you a golfer? I have only been just a handful of times, literally. But I distinctly remember getting my golf ball into the "rough" or the sand pit or the tall grass more than it ever got on the green! I CAN say that I have made an eagle once to the surprise of my dad and my brother! That was the only time we golfed together, or rather the only time I got invited probably due to my former stated issues. But yes, overall, I would easily admit I'm not a good golfer. One of my sister-in-laws, who is a true golfer and spends daily time on the course has encouraged me, saying I would probably be a great golfer with practice. My knees currently disagree with her. My knees and the weeds. If the weeds were gone, if the rough was gone, if the sand pits were absent, if I had control of having them removed, well then yes, I would have less trouble for sure. Maybe these are put in a golf course to develop our patience and even our endurance in the game? I'm not sure. I actually found more joy in finding random golf balls in the grass, much like an Easter egg hunt, than I did from pounding away in the sand lol. So, though I don't talk about golf at all in this podcast, I do talk about wrestling with the weeds in my yard. Weeds in our life are really NOT God's will, did you know that? He does NOT like weeds in His fields in Heaven, and if its His Will On Earth As It Is In Heaven--which is the prayer that the Lord Jesus instructed us to pray, because obviously, without our cooperation in prayer and in obedience to His Word, we cannot experience His Will--and the benefits of it!!--in our personal life or family, much less in the earth, if we are not working with Him. Wow, that was quite a run-on wasn't it. But it's so true! But what is wonderful, especially when you feel overtaken by your weeds, which the Bible defines as the "cares of this world" or the "lust for other things" or the "deceitfulness of riches"---these crowd out God's blessings for you and His ability to use you to impact others. Just look at what Jesus says about it in Mark 4:3-9, "Listen to this! Behold, the sower went out to sow; as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil. And when the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundred times as much.” And He was saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” And we need to hear, we need our ears open to the HELPER who is our wonderful Holy Spirit. He can help us with the weed removal that we are overwhelmed with. He can help heal us below the root line so that they don't come back again!! Listen to this episode for how to address these things. There is hope for greater freedom through the Word of God and with our Friend, the Holy Spirit!

I don't watch the news very much. I am however inundated with headlines in my email inbox from a news outlet and I get several emails daily and weekly from non-profits keeping me up to date on the sheer chaos that's going on in our world. My heart is to keep aware of these things but I never want them to take my focus or my peace. We have to keep our hands on the plow lest we make a mess of our field. We cannot afford to let the cares of the world or the lust for other things invade our space in Christ. These come in and seek to fill our field with weeds and tangle us up in brambles. Chaos ensues. There is a way however to stay ABOVE all the craziness--stay IN Christ Jesus! Stay IN Him through staying in church AND staying in reading and obeying God's Word, the Bible AND here's a big one friend, keep your lamps full of oil by praying in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our Guide into All Truth and helps us stay on track. His Word wielded by our tongue keeps our head from steering us off track--this is where we get renewed. This is how experience a transformation where we reflect the life and Light of the Lord Jesus to others. Then and only then can we do the works of Christ the way He prefers them done. So, we either buckle up and say, "okay, I know the storm is coming, but I am founded on the Rock of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I know I will be okay if I stay close to Him!" or we try to keep ourselves looking good and presentable to others while crumbling internally because we fail to put Jesus first in our private life. The devil likes that. He likes to make us a whole lot of something when inside we are all bound up, so that when we get big, we are really a hollow tree, rotted from within. Don't allow yourself to be a Christian in name only. Today is the day to get right with Jesus, to repent and forgive yourself, AND to forgive others. When it comes down to the tough times, it is really the litmus test as they say for whether or not we really love Jesus. I've you're listening, you're still on track! You still want to walk with Jesus and get to know the Holy Spirit. If this really is the season where more persecution comes, we may even see more tests to see how much we really love Him. Will we follow Jesus if we lose everything through our allegiance to Him? It comes down to a decision on our part. So when the going gets tough, the tough get going--meaning, we don't give up, we press in, we dig in and fight back and overcome through the Blood of Jesus and the Name of Jesus and our Testimony. We overcome because we refuse to do anything apart from the direction of the Lord Jesus. We overcome as a BODY of Christ, not a wandering sheep that jumps from church to church or stays home to "have church" by watching TV and self-isolating. Don't be hiding out. We've got work to do for Jesus. It's all hands on deck! #overcomersinChrist #JesusisKing #AbundantLife #SpiritGuide 

If you've every worked for any corporate employer, you will receive a boatload of paperwork upon your first day or first week of work. Included in that will be the company policy overview which will include that company's code of conduct. Each company has its own idea of what their employees should and should not be doing, how they should and should not be dressing, what they should prioritize in their speech and what they should nix. This goes beyond all the harassment training and so on. Let's simplify it, Websters dictionary didn't even have the phrase, which I find comical. But here the Cambridge Dictionary had it and here is their definition:  "a set of rules that members of an organization or people with a particular job or position must follow." And if you don't follow the rules of your organization, if you start to go against the "code of conduct" you might get by for a time with a light infringement, especially if you are the low man on the totem pole as they say--where you might go unnoticed. But you see, in God's Kingdom, its the little things that matter. The little moments of disobedience where we are doing things in direct opposition of God's Word, but we are justifying it because no one sees us. But God does. So the Divine Power that He gives us, and the Life He gives us is from Him and through Him as 2 Peter 1 details. But we are not to fail to KNOW Him when we are walking out the activities of DOING the gospel. Just because we receive proof or signs of the power of God at work, doesn't mean that we are in obedience to Him. Jesus addressed this in Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven." It's that latter part that people miss. It's not the image of godliness that God cares about. It's the obedience. Jesus said to this bunch addressing Him that they didn't know Him and that they were "practicing lawlessness".  That's pretty heavy! The fact is, God has a code of conduct called His Word and His Spirit. We have to abide in Christ Jesus (John 15), the Word, in order to be able to do anything, for apart from Him we can do NOTHING. Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit to be our Comforter, but also to GUIDE us into All TRUTH. Jesus is the Way, the Life, and the Truth. IN Him we have life and have it more abundantly. Zoe is the Greek word for Life. It's Divine Life, not just I have a happy prosperous life with flowers and kittens. No, its the Life of the Lord Jesus flowing through us to Do our Father's Will in the earth--the WAY HE wants it done. His Kingdom, His Code. Period. 

Just wanted to share a story from my time overseas and how the Holy Spirit helped me walk through a challenging transfer between countries. We don't know what's ahead for us in this world's system. It is important that though we see the world flailing, or the statue tumbling as I like to call it, we must stay rooted and grounded in our faith. That means learning how to rely on the Lord Jesus through instruction and guidance by our Helper, and member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. The world's religions want to give you a "spirit guide" or they ask you to reach out and seek after such guidance, and if you adhere to these directives, you will not meet with the Spirit of the Lord God, the Holy Spirit, but you will meet up with something parading itself as Jesus that is not. How do you discern the difference? Well, first you should not be seeking a guide apart from the Lord Jesus and His Holy Spirit. If you get a visit as a believer, or you are "seeking an encounter" or "seeking to contact" a dead relative, etc, or you think you might've had a visit from one. This is very dangerous if you continue to "commune" with this familiar spirit.

The Bible is very clear about this: “For satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.” (2 Corinthians 11:14). That's saying that satan and his angels--who are really demonic spirits--can play the game of pretend. After all, satan is the mother and father of all liars and will take anyone down the road of darkness who is seeking something more apart from seeking the Truth of Jesus and His Word. “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, BUT TEST THE SPIRITS, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.” (1 John 4:1-4). If you get a spirit visiting you, test them with the above verse! We are to NOT seek out an experience with ghosts, as is so popular now to go visit a haunted this or that, or go seek the dead, etc. You are playing with fire if you do that and that is how people get demon possessed frankly. I've seen demon possessed people on the field and its not a pretty sight! Jesus has come that we can be FREE from all forms of demonic bondage! We have authority over satan and demonic presences through the Blood of Jesus and the Word of our Testimony of how we received Jesus as our Savior and who God is in our lives. We cannot overcome without the Lord. We can do nothing apart from Him (John 15).

DO seek the Lord! DO cry out to Jesus, Repent of your sins and ASK Jesus to come into your heart and He will protect you from any foul spirit! You CAN ask the Lord Jesus to fill you with His Holy Spirit---but note, the Holy Spirit infilling and baptism with evidence of tongues cannot be received by someone who has rejected Jesus as their Savior! Start with square one, accept Jesus and the Holy Spirit of God will fill you and comfort and guide you into ALL TRUTH! 

I put this title on this message because my pastor regularly brings up how people make this comment to him as a sort of way to deal with the bad things they are seeing happening in the earth. And he gives them an answer back, something like, "NO, you and I have this." Because WE, who call ourselves Christians and apart of the Body of Christ are responsible for the things going on in the body, in our churches, and even in our nation! We have responsibility to pray in the authority of the Name of Jesus Christ and plead the Blood of Jesus in engagement with the demonic realm around us--and put it under our feet. You know I could've said that to you five years ago and you might've balked at me. Now we have people who want to identify as cats. I met someone who said they were just in Portland and witnessed someone dressed like a dog and barking on a street corner. This bit of weirdness is not too surprising to me as on the mission field, I've seen devils manifest through people and make those people do some pretty weird things. No matter what happens, we are supposed to be the ones who are making an impact on the world for Jesus! Jesus said "occupy til I come" in a parable He was telling regarding  ten servants who were given instructions and money by their new King to carry out His business until He returned. He said "occupy" or do business or do the thing I've told you to do, basically, and see how you can make a gain of it.  God expects us to not just do something with our physical money, but greater---the great unsearchable riches of the Lord Jesus---He expects us to share Him with others! We are called to bring the Truth of God's Word, not some watered down version to people. A grace not corrupted by compromise but one that enables the prodigal to REPENT and RETURN to be ACCEPTED by our Father God! In Luke 19 is also found where Jesus gets a dinner invitation to the home of a despised, and rather short, tax collector named Zaccheus. And Jesus's love and witness impacted Zaccheus to such a point that this happened in verse 8, "And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold." He was CONVICTED in the Lord's presence enough to repent and do something about his past wrongs. The religious only saw Zaccheus "the sinner" but Jesus saw His prodigal son.  Return to Jesus, friend! Jesus is calling you to repent and come back to Him. His mercy is new every morning and time is growing short. Get back into church. Get back right with the Lord and forgive others. We have all fallen short. We all need the Blood of Jesus to cleanse us of unrighteous and unholy behavior. Whether you are a "religious" leader who appears to all to be doing right when in fact you are privately disobeying the Lord. Or maybe you're the one whose sin is out in the open for all to see. Everyone needs Jesus for NO ONE is worthy to enter the gates of Heaven without Jesus's BLOOD covering us in atonement---if we repent and confess Him as our only Lord and Savior. God bless you and keep going...whether its your first day with Jesus or you 10,000th, whether you've fallen once or a dozen times, get back up, repent and ask God to forgive you. Get back on track and let the Holy Spirit guide you and keep you in step with Jesus! #SalvationinJesus #JesusLovesYou

There is such a trend being pushed today for a form of transformation that can only be achieved through forced medical procedures and indoctrination of an ideology, and that transformation is indeed forced. Not just forcing others to accept those who take this route, but it is even a forcing by those individuals who choose that route for their own selves. It is a forcing of the flesh through the forcing of a mind until that mind is so forced, it becomes "seared with a hot iron." Paul addressed what apostasy--or "departing from the faith"-- looked like and how to identify fallacies--in the Body of Christ, not just the world--in his letter to Timothy. Paul's intention was to help Timothy minister a pure gospel and he couldn't minister it to others if he was walking in error himself. So, Paul guided Timothy to listen to the counsel of the Holy Spirit--who always guides you into the Truth of what the Bible says and will never guide you elsewhere! In 1 Timothy 4:1-2, Paul writes, "Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith" and why did they depart? Paul goes on to say that they departed because they gave "heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons" and the only reason this happens is when pure doctrine is not being taught or when you choose to reject it. This is "iniquity" or willful or even ignorant choices to sin that Jesus defines when dividing out the faithful from the liars, is found in Matthew 7:21-23, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness [iniquity]!’" 

When you pervert the Truth of God's Word and you seek a form of tranformation to meet a feeling or an emotion, an ache or hunger, a desire or lust, or even trying to answer a question that seems to fill you with distress on the inside. Know this, you will never find that answer without Jesus Christ. When we come to Jesus Christ and repent of our sins that the Bible so clearly defines, He begins His process of transformation by renewing our spirit and then comes to live within us through the Holy Spirit who abides in us and is with us. The key to TRUE transformation and the HEALING that comes to a battered soul or mind comes only through time spent with the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. Only then can we experience LASTING transformation and not a fly by night feeling! God is so gracious and kind, so merciful and always ready to receive us back into His waiting arms! Come to Him today and let Him restore your soul, let Him heal your heart, and bind your wounds! Let Him transform you into the image of Jesus Christ through this process of submission to His Guidance. God Bless!

Whenever I hear the phrase "he made the cut" or "making the cut" I think of players on some sort of sports team or something where they had to go through a great testing period before they were considered acceptable enough to move on up to the final action, or be drafted. I tried to look that phrase or idiom up and apparently it is used a lot in golf lol. I couldn't seem to find the phrase origin but in my mind, I also thought of the early origin of the film industry when the editors physically cut out parts of a film and if your performance wasn't good enough, you might, as they say, "end up on the cutting room floor" and possibly even cut out of the movie's end credits! The fact is, that none of us want to be cut out of the action. None of us want to be cut out of the winnings and rewards that come from participating in the action either! And do you know that the Lord doesn't want to cut us out? But WE are the ones who are making a decision day by day as to whether we are IN Christ or OUT of Christ. That is a choice WE make. And John 15 goes over this and describes the results of not "abiding" in Christ. Disobedience to the Word of God is one way to not abide. Loving our idols and the things that take our heart or service away from Him is not abiding. Accepting the principles of this world and making them our truths and placing them above the stated Word of God is not abiding in Him. When we choose to sin. When we choose to not forgive. When we're "too busy" to go to church or to do something God has directed us to do. When we spiritualize disobedience, meaning, we say that "the Holy Spirit told me" to do this or that which is in direct contradiction to a command so clearly defined in the Bible but looks good to others when you say it. No that is called a slap in the Lord's face. What is it then? Is it through works that we make the cut then? Jesus spoke of having a confrontation in the future with these so-called "Christian" believers who were doing some pretty convincing works, signs as you might say of a believer: "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." (Matthew 7: 22-23) May God have mercy on us! Today is the day of salvation! Today is the day that we make a choice to repent and turn back toward the Lord, to KNOW HIM is to KNOW HIS WORD AND OBEY IT. "Working iniquity" is actively choosing to disobey God's Word or even claiming ignorance to it! We can break the law here on earth and still be fined despite claiming ignorance to it! How much more does God consider His Law holy?? We cannot plead the Blood of Jesus or come under His Wings of protection if we are actively disobeying Him. And we can only learn how to obey Him and do His Works with His help, with the Helper He gave us, the Holy Spirit. It is He who guides us into all Truth (John 16:13), and who is the Truth? Jesus said "I am the Way, the Life and the Truth" (John 14:6) and we know in John 15--apart from Jesus WE CAN DO NOTHING (John 15:5)! And the opposite is true!  With faith in God and obedience to His Word, we can do the impossible things that the Father tells us to do and that is the difference (Hebrews 11:6)! That is why we need His Word AND the Guide, His Holy Spirit. For when we choose to not "abide" in Him as John 15 describes, we are shriveled branches of the Vine --yikes!--and the Bible says that "men" will gather those branches up to be "burned". We may look good to others even as we walk in disobedience and the Bible warns us NOT to be those or associate with those who have chosen the religious "form of godliness but deny the power thereof" in 2 Timothy 3:5. Persecution does come to believers but