Holiness

Grace and Peace in the Lord Jesus Christ,

"God wants us to walk in obedience, not victory. Obedience is oriented toward God; victory is oriented toward ourselves...victory comes as a by-product of obedience." The Chase by Jerry Bridges p 18

So I started reading this book on holiness and this quote just stood out to me. For me it's a reminder that we need to keep focused on what is most important. And above all else that is the condition of our relationship with God. As we pursue God we will become holy. If we pursue holiness then we're going to end up missing what God intended us to receive through becoming holy. Run without hesitation towards the goal; which is a strong and eternal relationship with Christ.
Blessings and Breakthroughs.

John 3:16-18 Lizified Version

For God so LOVES us, that while we completely screw up to the max His one and only perfect Son came and paid the pentalty for what WE did so that we could have relationship with Him. God did not want to condemn us, but wanted to set us free through Jesus. Whoever believes in Him can have relationship with Him, but those that don't believe can not have relationship with Him and are setting themselves up to be separated from Him forever.

Reflect on this

Grace and Peace in the Lord Jesus Christ,
Jesus loves YOU!!!!!
Blessings and Breakthroughs.
P.S. Feel free to ask questions. ;)

Blessings and Promises

Grace and Peace in the Lord Jesus Christ,
Ok, so we're trying to keep things short today. Let's see how well that works out. I was thinking of writing something on the difference between blessing and promise. I was thinking of this because of a conversation I had with a friend yesterday. Basically the point of that conversation was that healing is not a promise, but a blessing. A blessing is a gift that God chooses to give to us. It is something to help us and remind us of God's goodness. Promises are different. Promises are guaranteed while blessings are not. You may or may not receive a blessing, but if you have been promised something by God then you are assured to get it. Two promises (or at least I find them to be promises) that I can think of are Jer 29:11 and Rom 8:28 (checks verse. ya, that's the one). Both of these promises tell us that God is going to work things out for our benefit, in fact, that all things (even bad things) work together for the good of those who love God. These are things that we can count on. We may not see this in everything or all the time, but we can be confident in them because they are promises from God and God does not break any promises that He has made. Hope this was short enough for you. ;)
Blessings and Breakthroughs.

Bullets, Authority and Ownership

Grace and Peace in the Lord Jesus Christ,
Oh no! I'm quoting out of the Bible again! Duck for cover!

20All this energy issues from Christ: God raised him from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven, 21in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. 22He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. 23The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ's body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence. Ephesians 1:20-23

Christ has authority over everything. How sweet is that? Nothing can be done without His approval. No action, no temptation, no hardship, no blessing. Hang on a sec. No blessing? Hey! That means that God has approved every blessing and gift we've been given. And if God has approved that then that means that He wants us to have it. Now, a note of caution, if God gives you a blessing it is because He expects you to use it for His glory, if you don't eventually it's going to be taken away.
Now, back to the hardship stuff because we all know that is harder for us all to accept. We all (or hopefully all) know that God works all things for the benefit of those who love Him. Well, that includes hardships. Hardships are what refine us, they are what teach us, they are what make us the best that we can be. From what I understand we can be refined in two ways. The first more nice way is just polishing up on what we already have.
The second painful way is being torn apart and having an 'infection' removed. Some situations in our lives cause us to react in ways that aren't beneficial to us, like being bitter over being picked last all the time (or something). Well, when we let those things sit without dealing with them then it's like you've shot yourself (or perhaps forgot to hold up your bullet proof armour while being shot at) and you've just let that bullet sit there. Now maybe in the heat of things you don't notice that that bullet is sitting there and you just go on about your regular business. BUT WAIT! Something happens and you're attention is drawn to the wound (which your flesh has already covered over). Now, you've still got that bullet stuck inside you and it's causing an infection. You can do some things, but you can't do everything you should be doing. The bullet needs to come out so that you can heal properly. So, God uses something to cut the wound open again (ouch!). Then comes that thing (I don't know what it's called) that is used to go in and get the bullet out. Now the main bit (hopefully) gets pulled out, but what happens if all the pieces aren't gotten out? Well, eventually you'll notice another infection and the same thing will happen again. If you ignore it then it will get worse. Keep in mind though, that the bullet is going to be the hardest, most painful part of the process and once that is dealt with then it's going to be much easier to deal with the rest. And once the metal has been removed then you can go on and get healed and function properly. Isn't that wonderful! *realizes this is not at all what she was planning to talk about* Ok, so I'm going to wrap this up....hmmmm.....ummmm....Just keep in mind that infections are bad and God doesn't let us get more bullet wounds then we can handle and we are much pulling the bullet and any other bits out as soon as possible instead of letting it sit.
Ok, I'm going to write a brief (hopefully) paragraph about what I orginally intended to. Christ is the core of the church. He is what empowers it and what drives it. If you are not being driven by Christ then why are you in the church or trying to help it? Everything has been put under Christ's feet so that He has authority over it. Keep in mind what His body is, that's right, it's the church. Meaning that the church has authority over every power, principality, etc. No, I don't mean go to your government official and demand they listen your authority, but you can pray that they will submit to God's authority. Every spiritual power is under our authority, meaning that we can command demons and angels. Bind demons and loose angels. Now, keep in mind that you reap what you sow, so if you decide you want to do this backwards it's going to end up badly for you. God has already won the victory. We don't need to be intimidated by the spiritual. God has already won!
The church is how the world is able to know God's presence. It is through us that people are able to come to the knowledge of Christ. It is through us that they are able to know His love. It is through us that they are able to see the passion and joy of a life dedicated solely to Him. It is through us that people can see that they can only be truely fulfilled and truely at peace when we have died to ourselves and live as though nothing, not even ourselves is owned by us. We belong to Christ and we should live like it. Hope I have managed to keep your attention with this long post. Sorry about the length, I think I need to work on keeping things short. ;)
Blessings and Breakthroughs!

Random Thoughts

Grace and Peace in the Lord Jesus Christ,
One thing that I have specifically been doing is making notes of things that indicate good character. Two characteristics that I've been able to pick out are honesty and encouragement. These are two things that I've really been trying to work towards recently. Now I think it has been evidenced in my blog that I'm admitting to things that I really wouldn't have any reason to say unless they were true. Moments of weak faith are not something that I'm proud of because very often I'm really strong in my faith in addition to working in a church and wanting to become a leader in my church. Doubt doesn't seem to belong with those things. Unfortunately if I'm going to be honest with people that means admitting to having times of doubt. So, I'd like to say that I am committed to being honest to you, the blog reader. And anyone needing encouragement can feel free to come to me. I've been through some hard times so I know what it's like and if I can't think of anything encouraging to say then at the very least I can listen. And I don't know what else to add so I'm going to bring this to an abrupt end.
Blessings and Breakthroughs.

Todd Bentley at TACF

Grace and Peace in the Lord Jesus Christ,
So Todd Bentley was at our church today. Here are my notes on what he spoke about and some highlights.

Prophetic words are conditional and potential. Mt 16:19. The Holy Spirit can link scriptures together and give you a message. Grow in faith to take things out of the spiritual world and put them into the natural. Mt 16:13. Ownership brings authority. We have been given keys (ownership) to move in the supernatural. Prophetic words, dreams and visions are keys to call the things that aren't as though they are in this world. Do the first thing God has told you to do (Live the first call God gave you) so that God will give you other calls that you will be able to live out. Pray in order to clear the way for prophetic words to come to pass. Rev 19:11-16. Satan tries to kill prophetic words. If he can't then he will delay it. 2 peter 3:12. Satan will destroy the ground of your life so that the seed of God's word can't grow. A prophetic word requires a change in order for it to take place. God looks for a response from us. 2 Kings 13:14 Words are conditional upon our response. Victory in natural comes after victory in the supernatural. Words are like arrows. Your arrows can injure the enemy or injure people. Opening our mouths to speak God's will will injure the enemy. Gossip, slander, bitterness, etc. will injure that person. Do not give God a casual response, but get excited about what God says. Ask God what needs to change (in you) in order for God's word to come to pass. 1 Kings 18:1.

After he gave his message he asked everyone to stand up and fire arrows into the air to pierce the enemy. It was a powerful sight to see. Everyone in the church was excited and started firing arrows into the air. Angels came and ministered to people and demons fell from the sky. It was great. After this Todd prayed for healing and many people were healed. Praise be to God.
Blessings and Breakthroughs in Jesus Name.

Purpose of Storms

Grace and Peace in the Lord Jesus Christ,
So today I thought I'd take a Bible verse and write about some of my thoughts on it.
I know that the LORD is great, that our Lord is greater thanall gods. The LORD does whatever pleases him, in the heavensand on the earth, in the seas and all their depths. He makesclouds rise from the ends of the earth; he sends lightningwith the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.Psalms 135:5-7
I would definetly have to say God is great. Who else could put up with all my complaining and still love me? And He follows everyone of my thoughts. Poor guy.
He does whatever pleases Him...Well, that may seem kind of selfish, but lets take some time to think about what that is. What is pleasing to God? Well, love is pleasing to God. Now I don't mean passionate tear off each others clothes love (cuz ewwww. so NOT what I'm talking about). I mean love that is lasting. Love is patient, love is kind etc. Love is a CHOICE kind of love. Like when we choose to serve another person and forget ourselves sort of deal. So if God is doing what pleases Him and what pleases Him is serving others...well, I guess God is serving us, BUT not for what we want, but for our BENEFIT. ie. our best interest, what we want, not what we need. etc. And He's doing this kind of thing everywhere. Isn't that absolutely terrible? I mean who would want someone working for their best interest everywhere? From commets crashing (or not crashing) to earth to the fact that their pay check actually gets in the bank. I mean who would ever want that...*waits for people to confess*
Now, this last part with the clouds and rain and stuff, well first off the closest association would be to difficult times. And as hard as it may be to weather a storm while it's happening what positives can we see in it. Well, it tears away things that aren't necessary (like homes and trees and stuff like that) and allows you to start on a new foundation. The storm also provides much needed water so that plants and stuff like that can grow.
Now if I'm going to be realistic and fair then I'm going to have to admit that I can see this process happening in my life. God is tearing down the delapitated old house that I built with the help of so many other well meaning, but mistaken people. Now as painful as it is to see something that I've worked so hard to create, it wasn't working. I mean you have doorways leading into walls and stairs that go sideways. I mean it's a great artpiece, but it isn't really functional. So, we have the house completely blown away now and the setting of the new foundation that is being set for the wonderful mansion with the pretty flowers and the nice fences and all that other jazz. But, back to the foundation. Well, what's the foundation. As annoying as it is it's a really long book. A book that is hard to understand. So, in order to get a proper foundation set I have inlisted the help of HS to help me get a proper foundation so that my house will be built properly and not need to be torn down.
Ok, that's the end of the lesson for today.
Blessings and Breakthroughs.