Compassionate Capitalism Conference

The first word spoke by God into His new creation Adam was “Be” (Gen.1: 28) the next four words all speak of increase, increase, increase and increase. (Fruitful, multiply, subdue and dominion). God did not put a footnote qualifying any of those four words. Jesus became the “Word made flesh” and His Blood has once again attached our identity to those four words. So it’s time to end our own false humility and self generated disqualifying footnotes to His original words. We ARE fruitful! We ARE multipliers. We ARE subduers. We ARE dominion –ers. And we ARE by His Blood. These four words are foundational truths. They are four “rivers of living water” waiting to flow out of the declarations of our mouth. They are already ours. The One who declared “IT IS FINISHED” and then rose from dead and brought His perfect shed Blood to right hand of the Father is the same One who lives inside of you and me. All disqualifiers have been removed. We are full of increase, increase, increase and increase and the “truth” (that sets us free) has nothing to do with our good, bad or in between behavior. We rest- we “are” on His perfect Blood. Our natural mind will always demands to “see to believe ”. But we have the mind of Christ so we instruct and renew our mind that we ARE “believe to see” people – made in His image and likeness. So let’s BE increase, increase, increaser and increase. I not talking about rote proclamations of scripture. I’m taking about a whole new language that flows out of who we ARE – not who we are “trying” to be.

{ 0 comments }

Be honest, whenever you’ve read Jesus instructions to “Consider the birds or the lilies” in relation to your worries and anxieties, you liked the analogy but you never really did it – you never actually “consider” the birds or lilies. Jesus did not say analyze the deep connection between His care for birds and lilies and His care for you. What He said was “consider” both the birds and lilies. Look at them and keep looking at them until they begin to speak revelation to your “innermost being”. Don’t ponder the truth in your head. Just “consider” – look with such attention that you become what He was saying. Try this. The next time worry or anxiety is harassing you, find a spot where you can actually look at some birds coming and going. Look long enough to let their activity become your focus and then wait. And listen. It could be that Jesus never intended to instruct on what to “do” about our worries and anxieties but rather what to “be”… “BE anxious for nothing…”

{ 0 comments }

Recently a friend and I were having lunch and discussing why, as Christians, we see so little manifestation of Kingdom power. If we have, in fact, have the very same Kingdom authority as Jesus, why the vast “distance” between His and our “manifested” power. We began to imagine that Jesus was a visible present eating lunch with us and, if so, how His “thinking” would be different than ours. Our first observation was that Jesus would be with us as He was 2000 yrs. ago – always full time supernatural. He would talk, laugh, discuss with us freely but not to the point of becoming oblivious of the people around us. That’s because, no matter how hungry He was, satisfying His hunger was nowhere near as high on His agenda as it was on ours (remember Satan’s first temptation in the desert). So we would “naturally” study the food menu, while He would be supernaturally studying our waitress, listening to Holy Spirit’s leading (See the Woman at the well). We would be looking for her to serve us and He would be looking for a way to serve her (see the woman who washed His feet). We would tend to measure our time by the satisfaction of our natural hunger and He would measure it by the satisfaction of His supernatural hunger. (See Zacchaeus in the tree). We would have gotten lost in our passion to speak. He would have gotten lost in His passion to listen. (See the woman caught in adultery). And finally we would have focused on the sharing of our thoughts. He would have focused on the engagement of our hearts (see the men on the road to Emmaus). The vast “distance” between Jesus and us turns out to be only eighteen inches. Most of our engagement would have come from our head and stomachs while most of His would have come from His Heart.

{ 0 comments }

We hear a lot of talk about Kingdom “power”. But with few exceptions the talk far out weights actual manifestations. Why? We all could give our right-on answers to that simple “why”, however if our thoughts do not come from “it is written” the only other source would be the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – certainly not a very reliable source at all. For example, if you think that Kingdom “power” was given to us the moment we were saved, the “it-is-written” source tells us differently.
Let’s take a close look in Luke 3 at Jesus’ baptism and the events that immediately followed. Luke 3: 21,22 describes very briefly the beginnings of Jesus’ public ministry. As Jesus was baptized, heaven opened, Holy Spirit descended (and did not return) and the Father spoke. What happened to Jesus right then? The authority of Heaven – the full capability to manifest heaven on earth descended permanently on Jesus. What happens when we are saved and baptized? The full authority of heaven (“as He is so are we in this world”) becomes ours.
But read on. Holy Spirit immediately led Jesus to a place of extreme hunger. (Luke 4:2). At that place, God used Satan to test Jesus to satisfy His hunger by His own power. Remember, that’s what Satan had already done – satisfied his hunger (to rule and reign) by own self-willed power (“I will ascend.”). Jesus responds to Satan’s entire test by declaring in effect that He will do nothing of His own power. So the first event that follows Jesus’ Baptism – the receiving of the full authority of Heaven- is that He is led to a place where He surrenders all of His own self willed power.
Read on some more. Luke 4: 14 – “THEN (after the forty days in the desert) Jesus returned in the POWER of the Spirit….” So Jesus experienced a place of “acquiring” between the time He received His Heaven authority and the time He began to manifest that authority in “power”.
Let go back to our original “Why”. Why does power talk far out weight power manifestations? Could it be that so few really embrace the leading of Holy Spirit into that “place of acquiring”? Not a literal desert place but those many every day places where we surrender our way of satisfying our hunger (to fix, be in control, handle, manage, deal with, cope….) for His way. Let me quote it once again – “As He is so are we in this world”. The “it-is-written” answer, then, is clear – authority is given but power is acquired. “But solid food (authority with consequence) belongs to those who … by reason of use have their senses exercised…”

{ 0 comments }

When the author of Hebrews quotes in Chapter three from Psalm 95 “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts….”, he prefaces that quote by saying “Therefore. as the Holy Spirit says..” For the Holy Spirit, “today” means “this present moment” because God is always speaking to us. And He is also not say “if” but “when” for the same reason.

The focus of this whole section of Hebrews is REST. Biblical rest in its simplest form is the state of being where all “trying” has ceased – it is ceasing from any attempt to establish by self-effort one’s identity. Rest does not imply the absence of all “doing”. “Doing out of” is a vital part of rest. “Doing for” is the opposite. When we do anything “out of” an understanding that it is already finished then we are functioning in the REST. When we do anything “for” the purpose of trying to “finish” it, then we are not in the REST. REST and KINGDOM are synonymous.

Hearing now becomes extremely significant because our ability to function “out of” the understanding it is already finished can only come from a place of “hearing” not a place of thinking. When you are thinking about entering the REST you are already in the “doing for” realm. However when you are “hearing His voice” declare it is finished at the very moment that worry, fear, doubt are trying to “harden your heart” and you simply yield to that “voice”, then you will enter the REST. That does not mean you stop doing. You may well be in a place of extreme activity. You might be in a place where you just got arrested, beaten and locked in the back of the prison. Worry, fear, doubt, anger might be right at the door of your heart. But you “hear His voice” telling you “it is finished” and so you yield with a song of thanksgiving. And you enter the REST. Rest is far more than calm; it is the now availability of the full power of the Kingdom. It’s that place where chains suddenly fall off and locked doors open.

Today, you will hear His voice. In fact, you are hearing is right now. The issue is not “His voice” but rather the condition of your heart. If worry, fear and doubt have already “harden your heart” then He is still speaking but you are not hearing. Instead of being in the REST, you will be “trying” to get there. But if you hear even the quietest Voice telling you it is finished and you yield with “psalms, hymns, or spiritual songs, giving thanks in your heart”… then you be (not try to be) in REST.

{ 0 comments }