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Post 51 – Contending for the Abundant Life Part II
YOU MAY ASK, HOW DO I ENTER INTO THE ABUNDANT LIFE…
Entering the abundant life is a faith venture. It’s putting your faith in the one who gave His life so that you would be free from guilt, shame, and condemnation. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new”. You must, by faith, believe that you are brand new and begin to do things differently. You have an opportunity to re-evaluate your past decisions and perhaps make some changes in how you approach life. Those thoughts and habits that have been destructive or holding you back in the past are now broken.
PRIORITIES, SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM…
It is important to take the time to re-evaluate your priorities in life, and you have to do this often. It is so easy to lose sight of what is important and miss out on God’s best for you.
Matthew 6:33 makes it clear what our priority should be, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you”.
THE KINGDOM OF GOD
“But seek first the kingdom of God…”. The kingdom of God is the spiritual kingdom which is in heaven AND earth. Accepting Jesus as Lord simply means that you recognize Him as King in your life and if He is your king, where you are that is where the Kingdom is. Everything that is available in Heaven is also available to the Believer on earth!
In everyday life, our focus should be on God, spouse, children, work. Some may ask, where is ministry in the list of priorities. Your ministry is to God, your spouse, your children, and your workplace. Ministry should not be something separate from who you are. Your ministry is to represent Jesus to everyone.
If your main focus is on God, He will show you how to minister to your spouse. Next, if you include your spouse as a focus, then you will be able to minister to your children. This will help you have a healthy home-front, which then will allow you to focus on the workplace and to be effective there.
HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS
“and His righteousness”, means thinking and doing what is right or proper from God’s point of view. You learn what God expects from the Bible and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Remember you are spiritual therefore you can communicate with God through the Holy Spirit.
A simple question you can ask yourself when making decisions is, “What would Jesus Do”?
This is what Jesus said when the Pharisees, the religious Jews, asked about the Greatest Commandment of the Law. Matthew 22:37-40, Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” In other words, there are only two Laws- love God and Love others. The kind of love God wants you to express is Agape love, which is unconditional love. Love with no strings attached. This is the love that God has shown you.
THINGS SHALL BE ADDED TO YOU
“and all these things shall be added to you”. The things that shall be added are the things that you need for life; food, shelter, and clothing. Father God is a giver of good gifts.
DON’T GIVE UP!
In the last episode, I said that you will have to contend for or struggle for the abundant life. A popular saying is that “the battlefield is in the mind”! That is really a true statement. The Holy Spirit of God is in a battle with the old ways of thinking and behaving. It is not easy to break habits of a lifetime and start anew. However, as you surrender to Jesus and His teachings you will experience love, peace, and joy. Your mind will be renewed and embark on a journey that has meaning and purpose.
There are times I’ve had to grit my teeth, clench my fists, and keep my eyes on the prize… the abundant life. Pursuing God is not about acquiring things as the goal but being in a relationship with Jesus and living a life style that will release Gods abundant blessings upon your life.
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Post 50 – The Abundant Life Part 1
Contending for the Abundant Life
Every Christian should be aware of the phrase “the abundant life”, which is promised to us, by Jesus, 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”. The abundant life means to have more than enough in this life and in the next life.
You may ask, “why is salvation, which by the way, is the most important part of the abundant life, so easy to receive, but the abundant life on earth seems to be so difficult to receive”? There are two parts to the answer.
One, salvation or being saved is a gift of grace. Jesus says clearly that all one has to do is repent and believe in Him. Salvation is not earned or deserved. Think about it! What could you do to earn or deserve His gift of eternal life in Heaven? The answer is, of course, you can’t! It is a gift. That’s what grace means in this context.
The second part of the answer is found in the word thief in John 10:10a “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy”. The thief is, of course, the Devil or Satan. In other words, you have an enemy that wants to steal, kill, and destroy the abundant life which has been promised to you! The only tool that Satan has to steal, kill, and destroy the abundant life God has promised is to tempt you to disbelieve or disobey what God has said.
Here is the rub, so to speak, God has created you and has plans for your life so, He knows what is best for you (Jeremiah 1:5a, 29:11; Philippians 2:13). You, on the other hand, have been used to doing things your own way. By the way, how has that been going for you?
So, the challenge is to let go of your ways of doing things and align yourself with Jesus who loves you, forgiven you, and accepted you into the family of God. Jesus’ promise is an abundant life filled with every good thing.
CONTENDING
It is clear in the scriptures that if you want the abundant life you will have to contend for it or in other words it will be difficult. Contending for the abundant life is hard because it means to deny yourself of doing what you want and beginning to do things the way God wants you to. Remember, He knows what you need. What you need is health in your body and mind, healthy relationships, and financial peace just to name a few important areas. All of these things come about as you become more and more like Jesus in your character. Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you”.
Most of the time learning new things is hard. Driving a car, learning a musical instrument, becoming proficient at a sport or job. But, you know that with a little practice and time that which is difficult becomes easy, as a matter of fact there comes a time that you don’t even have to think about it… you just do it!
EXAMPLES OF CONTENDING
The Apostle Paul uses a number of analogies for the struggle of contending, I want you to notice the emphasis on self-control or discipline.
- In 2 Timothy: 3-7 Paul uses the illustration of a soldier. Having been in the Military, a Marine, I know that the keys to be a soldier are discipline, training, following directions, or orders. The same can be said of a Christian experiencing the abundant life. Nothing on this earth comes easily, but Jesus’ sacrifice was so that you could live as “more than a conqueror! Paul says in Romans 8:37, “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us”.
- In Hebrews 12:1 Paul uses the illustration of being in a race. The illustration here speaks of the Olympic Games in those days. Regardless of the race, it was always a question of endurance. Personally, I was a Jogger for many years, not a runner but a jogger. Slow and easy but always finishing. I would jog a three-mile course and I can’t count the number of times I felt like quitting before my imaginary finish line. Usually, about ¾ of the way, I would start thinking of why I should just walk the rest of the way. Whether you were a runner or a jogger, like me, I am sure you know what I am talking about. Here is the truth by not quitting you were building up discipline and endurance. The required character traits of a Conqueror!
- In three of the Gospels, Jesus tells his followers to deny themselves and pick up their cross and follow Him, Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23. I like to think of the cross in these cases as the cross that intersects your will and His will. The only weapon the devil has is the weapon of temptation. He will tempt you to do what you want instead of what God wants for you. When the enemy of your soul comes to steal, kill, and destroy what he wants to impact is your relationship with Jesus Christ.
While we are contending for the abundant life, keep in mind that our “warfare” is not against flesh and blood people but against the spiritual powers of evil. Ephesians 6:12 states, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places”.
THE ABUNDANT LIFE IS A BY-PRODUCT OF SERVING JESUS!
Don’t make the mistake of putting your focus on the “abundance” and missing Jesus! The bible is clear, whom you obey becomes the Master of your life! “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness?” Romans 6:16. Many have enslaved themselves to seeking riches and wealth only to be empty in their souls.
Here is a curious truth about the abundant life promised by God. God has made the promise, He has all the power and authority to make it come to pass. He doesn’t need your help to make it happen. All He requires of you is to trust and obey Him. The abundant life is a byproduct of following Him. In other words, if you are in it for the abundant life only, you will miss it.
The “prosperity message” which is so prevalent today tends to focus on the riches or wealth. The focus is all wrong because it appeals to the natural desires or the flesh. Thinking this way opens you up to the temptations of the devil. Jesus says that you cannot serve God and riches, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon [riches]” Matthew 6:24.
You might be thinking, “well how do I enter into the abundant life properly…” check-in for my next post for some thoughts on that.
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Post 49 – Plug into Jesus!
Making the connection.
I’ve had the opportunity to travel in some of the poorest people groups in the world, and what I see among those Christian communities is that signs, wonders, and miracles have not vanished. Perhaps it’s because when you are poor in countries that do not provide any help such as health care, unemployment benefits, or welfare, you have to trust in God because there are no other options.
Jesus says in Matthew 6:33 that if you seek Him and His righteousness the answers to all of the issues of life will be given to you… the Bible teaches us how to live rightly, but sometimes life throws a “curve ball” and your situation may seem hopeless. It is especially during those times that we need to turn to Jesus.
What are you focused on?
Perhaps you have noticed that what you’re not focused on you tend to miss. I’ve missed things because I was distracted from what I should have seen. That which we don’t expect or are unaware of we often overlook. Sometimes it is the thing right in front of us that we can’t see! We become so conditioned to it being there we become blinded to it.
This also can apply to smells. We become “nose blind”, a new term, that means the body has the capacity to shut-off awareness of a constant smell or odor. Ever notice that when you first put on perfume or cologne you can smell it on you, but after a while, you don’t notice it. That’s what I am talking about.
The same is true of words. I remember learning the word “ubiquitous”, which means to appear or be found everywhere, in other words – to be common. I had one of those 365-day calendars and on each day, there was a new word to learn. The word ubiquitous was a word I never heard or read before. Yet once I learned the word, I saw that word popping up in conversation and especially in my readings. What that showed me is that my mind would skip over a word that I didn’t know. It was there but I didn’t notice it.
Have you ever purchased something that you thought was unique or not common only to find that afterward everyone had one!
We can be oblivious to that which we are overly familiar with or overlook those things we don’t know. The apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12, that he wanted to make us aware of spiritual things, in particular spiritual gifts. His words were “I don’t want you to be ignorant of…”. Ignorant in this sense simply means “to not know”.
Missing the Supernatural
Miracles, signs, and wonders are important events in the life of a Christian, but they can be completely missed or overlooked because:
- We are ignorant of the fact that we are spiritual. I’ve said this before, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience”. How you see yourself determines how you see life and how you see your relationship with God!
- We are not focused on spiritual things. It is as I said earlier if you are not seeking the spiritual realm you will miss it.
- The opposite can also be true. We become casual about spiritual things. What I mean is we simply take it for granted. It becomes more of a ritual or religious thing than a dynamic relationship with Jesus.
You must be plugged into the source.
Jesus makes it quite clear in John 15:1-7, we must be plugged into Him. You can’t run a power tool unless you plug it in or charge up the battery first. Jesus/Holy Spirit is the power source for the supernatural.
Jesus speaking to people who lived off of the land spoke in agricultural terms and uses the vineyard as an example. He says in John 15, 1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5 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. 6 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. 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you”. John 15:1-7
Remember you have already received the first miracle in your life. When you accepted Jesus into your life. You are loved by God, forgiven of your sins, and accepted into the family of God! Don’t ever overlook how great your salvation is! However, we are expected to grow and mature and as mature individuals we are expected to be fruitful.
Fruitfulness
What does a fruitful Christian look like?
- He or she is not ashamed or embarrassed about telling others about Jesus- that’s evangelism. Just do it!
- He or she is manifesting or showing the Fruit of the Spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22)
By the way, showing the fruit of the spirit begins at home and then grows outwards. It is always more difficult to demonstrate the fruit of salvation at home, where everyone knows you!
Finally, remember you can’t be truly fruitful through your own efforts alone. Jesus makes it clear, “you need to plug into Him, for without Him you can do nothing”.
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Post 48 – God still moves today!
Miracles, signs, and wonders are always initiated by God. God is omniscient (all-knowing), omnipotent (all-powerful), and omnipresent (everywhere at once). All of these are attributes true because God doesn’t live in time and space as we do. Since God is supernatural it stands to reason that God is the author of the supernatural, that is miracles, signs, and wonders.
We’ve already discussed miracles, signs, and, wonders in the private arena, the private arena of your personal relationship with Jesus. Now it is time to recognize that God wants to demonstrate miracles, signs, and wonder in the public arena through you! The public arena could be in your family, neighborhood, school, workplace, or around the world.
The Anointing
God chooses to use His power and authority through ordinary people like you and me so that the focus would be on Him. As a Christian, you are “anointed”. Let’s take a moment to explain that term because it has been so over-used. The term, anointed, means that you have at your disposal the authority and power of the Holy Spirit residing in you.
The anointing is not your personality or style. While it’s true that some people have very “charismatic” personalities and engaging ways of speaking and acting. They are able to attract attention to themselves. The anointing on the other hand causes people to be attracted to Jesus. There is nothing wrong with being charismatic, flashy, or engaging, as a matter of fact, it can be very helpful. But if it causes you to focus on the talent of the individual and not on the Holy Spirit it is a form of deception.
The anointing is very real, and we see this in the life of Jesus. Jesus promised in John 14:8-31 that the Holy Spirit would live in us. Why is it then that we see so few miracles, signs, and wonders today? Is it because God has become powerless or suspended the supernatural in this modern age? The answer is an emphatic no! There is no reluctance or weakness on God’s part. Therefore, the reluctance or weakness must be on our part!
Jesus’ Anointing
Look at the life of Jesus, He did no ministry until He was anointed. In the third chapter of Matthew and Luke, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in order to fulfill all righteousness. As a side note, this was because in the Jewish tradition one could not become a priest until 30 years old, Jesus was about 30 at that time. Then the scriptures say,” When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him”. The symbol of the Holy Spirit has always been the dove. Even Jesus needed the anointing of the Holy Spirit!
Then in Luke chapter four it says that Jesus, “filled” with the Holy Spirit was led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. The temptations of Jesus by the devil is a message for another time, but the long story short- Jesus resists the devil. Then following the temptations scriptures then say in, “Luke 4:14 “Then Jesus returned in the “power of the Spirit” to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region”. Then finally in Luke 4, Jesus is quoted as saying, “The “Spirit of the Lord” is upon Me, Because He has “anointed” Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord”. This statement was Jesus’ mission statement the reason He came to earth.
As followers of Jesus, this should be our mission statement too, but we were never intended to do this in our own natural ability… Jesus says in John 14:12-14, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it”.
You are anointed
Now, this is really important to understand because you have the Holy Spirit you have authority and power to fulfill whatever it is that God calls you to do. God would not ask you to do something that he would not empower you to do. To be sure, the anointing is not at your disposal for your benefit, but it will benefit you as you carry out God’s plan for your life. Yes, that’s another thing, God has a plan for your life! That truth is made clear throughout the Bible.
Deceptions about the anointing of the Holy Spirit
Why is it that there is so little faith today by Believers in miracles, signs and, wonders? Have we become so conditioned to believe only that which we can see, the physical or natural world? How can we believe in a God whom we cannot see and yet disbelieve that He is all-powerful! Here are some thoughts on that:
- Is the problem that we believed God for a supernatural event in the past and it didn’t happen the way we expected so, we wrote off the supernatural. I’ve heard people say, “God doesn’t heal today because so and so died and we prayed”! How can this type of thinking glorify God?
- Is the problem that we are taught that God does not move in the miraculous today? We think, well those who taught us must know, “they are the professionals”? Well, perhaps they are wrong. How sad it would be to miss out on all that God has because we have been misinformed. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:1, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant”. Ignorant means to not know!
- Is it because we have been taught that these things were true of Jesus and the Apostles but have passed away? Or in other words, the “supernatural petered out when the Apostle Peter petered out”. Please don’t fall for that idea or teaching because, Hebrews 13:8 says that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever”.
- Is it because we don’t take the time to search out the scriptures for ourselves? We say it is too hard. Well, everything is hard when you are first learning about something, but with time and effort, you learn. The key to the abundant life that we are all searching for is found in the supernatural Jesus or the Holy Spirit.
Jesus says in John 16:12-14, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you”.
If you seek Him and His righteousness the answers to all of the issues of life will, to you… The world says, “see and then believe; Jesus says believe and then you will see! Of course, the decision is yours, but trust or faith is the key to the supernatural life.
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Post 47 – You are the Church!
Miracles, signs, and wonders are intended to be part of the Christian life in the spiritual church. These events are first private in the life of the Believer, then public to the world demonstrating that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life to Father God.
Over the last three
weeks we’ve focused our attention on private miracles, signs, and wonders. Those events occurred in your decision to follow Jesus Christ.- As a Believer in Jesus Christ, you are a miracle because when you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior you were Born-again. You were changed on the inside as 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new”. How awesome is that? You get a do-over in life!
- As a Believer in Jesus Christ, you are a sign because the Holy Spirit of God came to live in you. You now have available to you the Holy Spirit’s comfort, help, guidance, power, and authority. These attributes are visible to everyone and all will know that something wonderful has happened in your life. You will now be able to point them in the direction of Jesus.
- As a Believer in Jesus Christ, you are a wonder because you have “eyes to see, ears to hear and a heart to comprehend” spiritual things given to you by God. As a result, you are walking by spiritual faith and not only by physical sight and understanding.
Miracles, Signs and Wonders in the public arena.
Before we can look at miracles, signs, and wonders in the public arena we must lay a little foundational groundwork in regard to what the term “church” means.
What is the Church?
The word “church” is a word that has a variety of meanings. The word “church” is used to describe, a building, a denomination, a profession, or a group of people. Because there are several definitions of the word church it is very important to understand what the inspired writers of the New Testament meant by the word church!
The Natural Chruch and the Spiritual Church.
Today we understand that there is a natural church and a spiritual church. The natural church is composed of people who call themselves Christians because they identify with a religion- Christianity. On the other hand, the spiritual church is made up of people who have been “born-again” a spiritual event, and identify with a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
The natural church is made up of people who don’t necessarily look or act any differently from the people of the world. The spiritual church is made up of people who are different from the world. As a matter of fact, the Bible uses the phrase that Christians are a peculiar people! We are meant to be different. Not different for the sake of being different! But different because we see life in a spiritual light.
The word church in the New Testament comes from the Greek word, “Ekklesia”, and is translated as the “called out ones”. The obvious question is, what are we called out of? Look at what Peter had to say in 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light”.
Now, what does this verse of scripture mean? Let’s look at the key phrases to see if we can understand what Peter meant.
- Chosen generation – just as the Jews were the chosen people of the Old Testament (or the Law) the Born-again believers in Jesus Christ are a “chosen people” of the New Testament. This means you, as a disciple of Christ, have a special status with God! You really are special in God’s eyes.
- Royal priesthood – royal means that you represent the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. In the Old Testament Priest were those who went before God representing the people. Now you don’t need a priest to represent you because you can come before God on your own.
- A holy nation – as a group of believers, His Church, we are called to fulfill His purpose of Sanctification and Holiness. As the Body of Christ, we are called to live our lives for the good of others. That is what true love is. This also means that we don’t act like those who are not Believers of Jesus Christ. Now this is a hard one because there are many who are hypocritical in their relationship with God. They want Jesus as Savior, but not as Lord. That is to say they want the assurance of Salvation and God’s blessings but are unwilling to accept that they must obey Him to receive His blessings. They may look like Christians on Sunday morning, but act no differently from the world the rest of the week.
- His own special people – A true Christian is one who accepts and lives by the teachings of Jesus Christ. We are special in that we are God’s children, Brothers, and Sisters of Jesus and that Jesus calls us friends.
- Proclaiming the praises of Him – by our words and our deeds we are not ashamed of Jesus and desire to share the “Good News” or Gospel of the goodness of God and the free gift, or grace, His salvation, and deliverance.
- Called out of darkness into His marvelous light – before accepting Christ we were “blinded to the truth” that Jesus is the way, the truth, the life and there are no other way to God the Father except through Him. At some point, you had an encounter with Jesus and came to “see” this fundamental truth.
The early church of the New Testament was a dynamic spiritual group of born-again believers who saw miracles, signs, and wonders as everyday experiences.
For over 2000 years the church has experienced the move of God in the form of revival. When the church would lose its direction God would show up in the power of His Holy Spirit to put them on the right track again. This is called “revival” literally to make alive again. God is in the business of producing individual revival in His people as well as corporate revival in His church at large.
In our next post we will look at
- The progression of a revival. First there is. A Move of God, then a Movement of God’s people then the movement becomes a Monument to God!
- What the church looks like today… Has the glory of the Lord passed in the church?
