Seek First The Kingdom of God and His Righteousness

  Pentecost This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday. This is important to many of us because it was on this day almost 2 thousand years ago that the promise of the Father began to be poured out. I encourage everyone reading this to go to Acts 2 and read the account of all that happened.  I would like to draw attention to a couple of things.  The first is that the Father hasn’t stopped the pour.  Acts 2 was the beginning not the end. Second the most important result was not the 120 speaking in tongues (Acts 2:4) but that 3,000 souls were not only saved but added and continued steadfastly in the apostle’s doctrine and fellowship (Acts 2:40-42).  The promise of the Father was never meant to be kept in the house (Acts 1:80). 

  The Ascension Today is celebrated as Ascension Day.  The book of Acts in chapter 1 verse 8 records the last words spoken by Jesus to His disciples as such: “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”  We Pentecostals/Charismatics/Full Gospel people love to focus on the “shall receive power” part of the coming of the Holy Spirit upon a believer.  What we overlook or even misunderstand is the purpose for that power.  It is for being WITNESSES to the world around us.  Our purpose is not to hold up in our church buildings to impress one another with our Spiritual gifts.  It is to GO into all the world and make disciples of ALL nations.  The police don’t sit around the police stations waiting on the criminals to turn themselves in, the firemen don’t wait around the fireho...

  I had the great privilege of meeting with John Abbe this morning before work.  (Even though I got myself messed up and was about 30 minutes late John gave me much grace and waited for me. Thank you again John) We had a very interesting conversation about unity in the body of Christ.  As I have been meditating over this conversation  Ephesians 4:13 came to mind specifically the first part.   “ till we all  come to the unity  of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;”   There are several things that jump out to me now.  We come to unity.  Unity doesn’t just happen it is something that we come to.  It seems to me that this has the implication that unity has an aspect that is dependent upon us to choose.  I would say that many times where there isn’t unity it is because we haven’t made the choice...

  Conversation   Have you ever just had a conversation with the Lord?  I mean a real two-sided conversation, one in which you and He both got to speak?  How about one of those two-way conversations that isn’t about anything deep but just a simple conversation like you would have with your spouse, or a friend?  I wonder if we understand that frequency of conversation tells a lot about the quality and depth of relationship that we have not just with people but with the Lord? The slogan that I have heard in the church most of my life is that it is not a religion it is a relationship. While this is the truth of how things are supposed to be, I wonder how many of us really have quality in that relationship. Sadly, I think that we don’t spend the time developing the relationship we have in Christ through genuine conversation.  We have settled for a acquaintance level relationship instead of the intimate one that is made available to us.  ...

  The Price and Cost for more of God and His Presence I was reading an account of a preacher’s experience that I had previous heard him describe before in a sermon. Thought the account was familiar to me this time though it hit different.   The experience was during a time he had spent months desiring and seeking more of God and His Presence.  There were two statements that the preacher made from this account that the Lord highlighted for me.  The first was “My request for more of God carried a price” and the second was from his cry to the Lord “I must have more of You at any cost!”. These statements when I had heard them before sounded very true and I totally had agreed with them.  In fact, they had inspired me.  This time, though, was different.  This time there was at first, for a moment fear and not a Godly fear.  No, it was a fear that the price I would have to pay would be the cost of the life of one or mor...

  Fragrance   2 Corinthians 2:14-15   Now thanks  be  to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.  15  For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.   Today in a prayer meeting someone mentioned the word fragrance as they were praying. The first thing that popped into my head was of a college student who had come into my store yesterday.  This young man had gone a little overboard, in my opinion, with his cologne.  It was so strong that I could smell him coming.  I also have customers who come in to the store with a different type of fragrance, one that isn’t pleasant.  In both cases you can smell them before you even see them and also the fragrance sticks around for a while after they leave.  The point of this being that fragrance influences and ...

  Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Couple of thoughts on this verse.  Many if not all of us live this in reverse. In our time of need we come boldly to the throne looking to obtain mercy and grace to help us.  There is no mention of coming and going. The invitation is to come and stay. Then from this place of abiding in His presence when the trouble comes we’ll have the mercy and grace to deal with it.  Being saved doesn’t put us in the intimate place automatically. If it did this verse wouldn’t have been written nor James 4:8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Salvation gives us access to come to the throne and to draw as close as we desire.  We often seek God’s Presence as away of obtaining things we have made goals of. Grace, mercy, anointing, healing, power, prosperit...

  The Presence, glory, face and ways of God For the last 5 or 6 weeks I have been on a journey that has become a quest that is transforming into this overwhelming desire to dwell/abide in the presence of the Father.  To live in His Presence and glory, to seek His face and to know His ways. I feel it in the depths of my being that there is a level of closeness, of intimacy with the Lord that I have yet not experienced but that I must not only experience but abide/dwell/inhabit/live in.   I begin, I think, to understand the depths of what Moses was expressing in Exodus 33:12-18.  These words are not just religious words but they are words that I believe come from the very depths of Moses soul. I believe that he is crying this out to the Lord because he knows that there is no other way for him to go on.  Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people.’ But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You...

 I recently listened to a mom speak about her teenage child who is in active addiction. This child goes missing often and wherever they go it is a rough place because when they come back they are all cut up. As this mother was speaking about this Mark 16:17a came to mind. “And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons;. “ I don’t believe that casting out demons is listed first by mistake. Deliverance is supposed to be a normal part of every believer’s life.  Did you know that 12 step groups are only about 1 percent effective in getting people out of addiction? How effective has anti poverty programs been?  What if we started seeing things that are going on around us differently? What if we saw addiction as a need for deliverance? What if we saw poverty as a need for deliverance? What if we started seeing the demonic strongholds for what they are started casting them out?  Hosea 4:6 mentions that God’s people are destroyed because...

  Acts 4:13   Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.   I saw a clip from an interview with R.T. Kendall where he was asked this question, “After 70 years in ministry what would be your advice to a young R.T. Kendall?”  His answer was that though he himself has many degrees he would not recommend to young ministers to go to seminary.  He mentioned Acts 4:13. His recommendation was to do 2 things.  Pray a lot and know your Bible. He said that God wants us to know 2 things, His Word and His ways. He pointed out that how we know His ways or anyone’s ways is to spend time with them. This is not the first time that Acts 4:13 has jumped out to me. This time I ask myself the question do unbelievers know that I have been with Jesus?  The they that realized in Acts 4:13 wasn’t the church but unbelievers....

Psalm 91:1  He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High  Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.   Psalm 91 is a beautiful psalm. So many blessings and promises are contained in its 16 verses. My grandparents for years before they passed would read this psalm together. It is probably one of the most encouraging portions of scripture in the Bible.  Today the Holy Spirit brought my focus to the 1st verse and showed me that all the rest flows out from this. Without verse 1 you don’t have the rest. When we dwell in the secret place of the most High and abide in the shadow of the almighty how can we not be blessed? How can we not be protected? How can we not be victorious and healthy?  I saw several castles and towers in Ireland and have seen several forts here in the states that were built for the protection of the people. Thing is that they didn’t always work. Some of those I saw were also in ruins.  What are the things that people put their trust...

  Peace and Stillness Mark 4:36-40 Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” Notice exactly what Jesus did. First He is sleeping in the middle of a storm. A storm that has experienced fishermen who probably had experienced a storm or two in the life to become afraid. In the middle of this very bad storm what awakens Jesus isn’t the storm but the disciples. Next let us focus on what Jesus said to the sea. “Peace, be still” He spoke what He had and was living in. Think about it. I...

  Matt 7:3-5 And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. Notice that Jesus doesn’t say to not notice the speck or to ignore the speck in your brother’s eye. What He says is to first get rid of the plank in your own eye and then you can see clearly to remove the speck in your brother’s eye. If we think of sin as being something in our eye we would understand that none of us want that. I don’t want a speck let alone a plank in my eye. It hurts. I want it out. Of course I don’t want someone to help me who has a plank in their eye because they can’t see clearly to get my speck out PLUS they are going to cause more damage by hitting me in the head with their plank. On the other hand I do wa...

  Who is Like You Lord?   Micah 7:18-20  18  Who  is  a God like You, Pardoning iniquity And passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights  in  mercy.  19  He will again have compassion on us, And will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins Into the depths of the sea. 20  You will give truth to Jacob  And  mercy to Abraham, Which You have sworn to our fathers From days of old.   Exodus 15:11-19  11  “Who  is  like You, O Lord, among the gods? Who  is  like You, glorious in holiness, Fearful in praises, doing wonders?  12  You stretched out Your right hand; The earth swallowed them.  13  You in Your mercy have led forth The people whom You have redeemed; You have guided  them  in Your strength To Your holy habitation.  14...