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Showing posts with the label LIFE

Experiencing the I AM the Way, Truth and Life

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The I AM was how God introduced himself to the Israelites in the Old Testament. God told Moses to tell Pharaoh that His name was, "I AM who I AM."  Jesus did the same thing in the Gospel. He revealed that "Before Abraham was, I AM," to the chagrin of his hearers, prodding them to stone him. But he got away. Photo above by  JOHN TOWNER on Unsplash . In the Gospel, he did several I AM declarations: I am the Bread of Life I am the Light of this world I am the Resurrection and the Life I am the Gate I am the Door I am the Good Shepherd I am the True Vine I am He I am the Way, the Truth and the Life (you cannot separate these 3) However, these revelations are mere head knowledge until they're EXPERIENCED. I'm sure we all know Jesus as the Way, Truth and Life, aside from his other claims. I'd even dare say that probably most people out there in the streets know this. But knowing without experiencing is nothing. It's not that experience is the best teacher

New Normal in the Spirit

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This is NOT a time for usual things. Much less for church traditions. If in CIY Fellowship we've been doing things so unusual, it's time to leave these "elementary teachings" and go on to the next level of maturity. As there's a new normal in the world, so there is in the heavenlies. Actually, the new normal in the spirit realms has started long before the one in the world came to be. [Picture by TedwardQuinn, Unsplash]. Just as the Jesus' spiritual church started long before man's church in this world started. Least is the Greatest In these last days, God is introducing some brand new things to the Philadelphia church [Revelation 3]. This church is weak (it has "little strength") and probably belittled and despised. The least church by all earthly measures and standards. But in God's eyes it is a 5-star general in his army, being in possession of an "open door" from the Lord that no one can shut. To this church Jesus ha

The Lord's Resurrection Arm

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In a way, Resurrection's good news is also about the grace that enables us to stop drinking from the cup of God's wrath, and having the enemy drink from it instead. By Jesus' rising from death through God's supernatural power, true believers become children of God spared from his wrath and given supernatural power to live his life on earth and do his ministry. [Picture above by Damir Spanic, Unsplash]. “See, I have taken out of your hand the cup that made you stagger; from that cup, the goblet of my wrath, you will never drink again. 23 I will put it into the hands of your tormentors, who said to you, ‘Fall prostrate that we may walk on you.’ And you made your back like the ground, like a street to be walked on.” [Isaiah 51.22-23] But it doesn't end there. To a lot of church people, though, it does--escaping the wrath is the end--and all they have to do now is be active in  their church and in their ministries happily ever after. This is what they call church

How You Know If Your Ministry is in God's Will

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Pexels To a lot of people, a ministry favored by God is peopled, moneyed and garbed with impressive facilities. To them that's a growing church. If you're one of them, you'd always look for these things when searching for a church or when sizing up one because smart Alecks say it's how you know if your ministry is in God's will. But this standard is nowhere in the bible. It's man's invention. A church led by the Holy Spirit cannot be measured in the flesh or by any earthly measurement. God looks at it quite differently. To him, it's all spiritual because God is spirit. Going solely by spiritual merits is how you know if your ministry is in God's will or not. Here are 7 signs to watch out for: People deepen in the Word and make it always the priority. People live the Jesus LIFE and character. People give up everything. People don't care about programs. Church uses money on people, not buildings. Church operates in the 5-f

What Do Jesus' And John's Lifestyles Teach You?

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Jesus and John the baptizer led radically simple lifestyles to get across a powerful message. Unfortunately, though, the church seems never to get the point. We still want to attract the world on its terms. So we give it what it wants just to have the world come inside our churches and stay. Jesus could have come to earth as a materially impressive Messiah with strong connections and influence with the higher-ups in government. He could have built impressive religious buildings with state-of-the-art facilities. He could've displayed costly camels or chariots or started a big church with immense church membership to get a lot of church income from it---and further enlarge his ministry empire and make it more impressive to the world. He could've come as Ceasar's or Pilate's or Herod's son. But he didn't. Neither did John. John was the son of a priest, and priests were a privileged class in those times. They were amply provided quality provisions.

A False Prophet's Close Personal Relationship with GOD

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Each time I go over the story of Balaam in Numbers 22 to 24, I can't help but be amazed. The guy really had a close personal relationship  with God although he was a false prophet. In fact, he was a sorcerer or warlock. God personally came to him, talked with him, guided him and gave him powers. How can a sorcerer have close relationship with God? And I mean really close. He talked with God in the real sense of the term. And God really talked back to him and gave him specific, direct and accurate instructions, something a lot of Christians cannot claim to enjoy today. Often, what we claim that God told us is nothing but wild guess. We pray and guess what God's answer is and often find ourselves wrong. We talk to God but usually face a blank wall. And often we don't see or hear anything in the spirit realms so we depend on what we see and hear in the flesh. But Balaam heard God, and not just figuratively. He was "one whose eyes clearly see" and &qu

Why Jesus was Glad the Wise and Learned Didn't Get It

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It's one of Jesus' strange statements. He was glad the smart guys didn't get a hint of anything he said. And to think that the context was on repentance. He was glad that the scholarly failed to understand about repentance? Didn't he want everybody to repent of sins and be saved? Here's the passage: “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do. [Matthew 11] It's something similar to what he told Judas (not Iscariot) about not revealing himself to the world. Judas was confused. Didn't God so loved the world that he gave Jesus to save it? Then why would he not reveal himself to the world? Jesus said he'd only reveal himself to those who really loved him, and these were people who really kept his words.  Jesus reveals himself only to "little children" and he even warne

When We Misuse Grace and Mercy

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Image from Daily Mirror. Thank God he is full of grace and mercy. With the same, we should be gracious and merciful to others as well. But here's the problem---most believers misuse them. They think it's a dole out, a grace and mercy spree. And they fondly call it "giving a second chance." They lack wisdom on how God uses these divine helps. I often see pastors giving another leadership chance to their leaders who fell into willful sin. Like that church leader who left his wife and did adultery with another woman. He was suspended from ministry for a while but the pastor later simply put him back to leadership roles even without repentance. The pastor reasoned, repentance was between the sinner and God. So, there he was, this erring leader, doing ministry again even if he continued with an adulterous relationship. And the pastor thought what he did was in line with God's grace and mercy. Second Chance? Give guys like that "second chance"? God

How Well Do You Know God's Kingdom? [5]: SALT AND LIGHT

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Images above from Dreamstime and Flickr. Salt and Light Few things are important in the Kingdom---like being salt and light. On these two depends your effectiveness in the Kingdom. You may look so good and effective in ministry, but if you lose your saltiness and don't shine properly as light, you're nothing in the Kingdom. In fact, being salt and light of the world is more important than any church "ministry" or activity. Being salt and light is what keeps us from ending up like the Pharisees and religious law teachers---salt that had lost its saltiness and light that was kept under the bed or a bowl. They were experts when it came to the Word of God but they never lived it out. They lacked character results. They lacked fruit. If you live out the Word, you live the Beatitude Life. As long as the Beatitudes is seen in you, you are salt and light. You are effective in the Kingdom. Salt Salt is good as long as it keeps its saltiness. "Saltiness"

How Well Do You Know God's Kingdom [4] THE PHARISEE DEBACLE

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Image from Ray Downing. Pharisee Debacle Jesus said our righteousness should surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees and law teachers. If not, we will "certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." You see, this is a very serious thing. Make sure you do not fall into the Pharisee Debacle. What made them fail? Simple---their lives were outside the Beatitudes. Yes, they were experts of the law---very bible-based, as it were---and yet you couldn't see how their lives and characters fit into the standards of the Kingdom. The law should result to the Beatitudes, but didn't happen with them. It's so important it needs repeating---fulfillment of the law resulted into the Beatitude Life. Jesus clarified that he didn't come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. So, Christ is the model of someone who has fulfilled the law. In the bible, you see all the Beatitude qualities in him---poor in spirit, mourning, meek, seriously after righteousness, peacemaker, etc

How Well Do You Know God's Kingdom [3] LIFE and Character

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Image from American Magazine. LIFE and Character Right from the start of Jesus' ministry, he made clear what the Kingdom really is---it's producing fruit. And by "producing fruit," it's like how trees produce them. Trees do not work hard or use effort to bear fruit. They just stand there and wait for God to do everything for it. John 15 says we produce fruit by remaining connected to the Vine---by remaining in Christ. It's really all that easy. Remaining in Christ turns your life upside down and strangely different from the lives of other people, very different from the world, in fact. It's radically, eerily and even "frighteningly" so different that a lot of people get scared and turn away from it, even church people (or especially church people and their leaders). Jesus enumerated the Kingdom virtues on a mountainside one day. Beatitudes Kingdom is life. It's not a religious organization or a particular theology or belief or