Why Raymond refuses to go to church.

This is what Raymond is thinking as he sits outside of the church.  "I want to be perfect, but I keep being told this is impossible by the church.  I can't stand this.  I can't stand that I must be sinful but that at the same time I can't commit adultery.  I want to commit adultery, but I can't, yet I can't keep from committing adultery because I can't be sinless.  I see how this is a contradiction and it makes me sick.  Why are we so stupid in the church?  Why can't we see that we have to be sinless or we are going to die or commit adultery or worse.  Jesus was perfect but I can't be; at least that's what I'm told.  So I might as well commit adultery.  Why not?  I'm going to heaven anyway and I can't be perfect.  But if I commit adultery my wife will leave me and the church will back her up.  Hypocrites.  They want me to be a perfectly faithful husband, to not sin, to not commit adultery, but they tell me that this is impossible because we are gong to sin everyday in word and thought.  Hypocrites.  This is why I don't go to church."

God...G-D...GOD

God is good.

God knows.

God...knows what...is good.

God Does.

Loves.

Hates.

God gives.

takes.

makes.

God is

was

will

GOD

God

God

God is 

who 

God is

God does not ask.

God tells.

Commands.

God does not need.

God fulfills

Creation. 

God is

was

will

God.

God.

God.

God is

who?

God is. 

God lives

wants

writes. 

God speaks

sings

recites.

God is

was

will

God.

Who is?

God 

HE IS

"I AM"

YOU ARE

Father Thank You (A song to God)

God my Father, Provider, Protector,

You are my reality.

Always with me, Counselor, Listener, 

Through Your Eyes alone I see.

God my Father, Teacher, Companion,

You are my energy.

Always in me, my deepest Connection,

You're always in me and with me. 

Father,

Thank you.

My Father,

Thank you.

Dear Father,

Thank you.

Thank you,

For being there for me. 

 

Father,

Thank you.

My Father,

Thank you.

Dear Father,

Thank you.

Thank you.

I love you eternally.

 

 

Your truth

Jesus said to Pilate, "For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. All who are of the truth hear my voice." "What is truth?" Pilate responds.

It's popular these days to hear the words "your truth." 

"That's 'your truth.'"
"Speak 'your truth'."
"Live 'your truth'."

But as Pilate asked Jesus, what is truth, yours or anyone else's?  And is "your truth" the truth Jesus was born to bear witness to?  Not from his words to Pilate.  Jesus said he came to bear witness to the truth, not your truth, not my truth.

Again, as Pilate asked, "What is truth?"

Pilate's question is his answer and ours.  To ask a question assumes meaning.  It assume a hearer and a speaker, and a common understanding between the two.  That common understanding, that common assumption, is the truth.  The reality.  Speech betrays us.  We can't hide behind our words.  When we open our mouths, we expose what we all know:  The truth.

What your church should be like

Where two or more are gathered in my name, I am in their midst.~The Lord Jesus
As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the children of God.~The Apostle Paul

The minister bowed his head and prayed.  "God, please lead me by your Spirit in Jesus name.  What do you want us to focus on today when we meet?"  The Spirit responded, "I have given Sean a song to sing that will comfort all of you because of your hard week.  Tamara has an encouraging message to share from her Bible studies this week. Let your wife close in prayer; her intercession will strengthen all of you and touch you all where you feel deep need.  When you open up the meeting, invite Sean, Tamara, and your wife to share whatever I've given them.  They will share in order everything I'm revealing to you."  Darren thanked God for guiding him.  As he got up from prayer, the doorbell rang.  It was Sean and Tamara, a young couple who lived in the neighborhood.  Amanda, Darren's wife, came from the bedroom to join the meeting.

After everyone greeted and hugged each other, Darren spoke.  "Please share whatever the Spirit is leading you to share."

Sean spoke first.  "I have a song the Lord is giving me to share with everyone."  Darren nodded.  So did everyone else.  After Darren's song there was a holy hush.  Everyone wiped tears from their eyes, thanking God for easing their pain from the week.  "That song fits perfectly with what I've been studying in scripture this week."  Tamara shared with everyone what God showed her all week long from the Psalms.  Darren and Amanda smiled at each other.  They had just talked at breakfast about the very same scriptures Tamara shared.  "Can I pray for everyone?  I feel deeply burdened to pray for each of you."  Everyone agreed.  Amanda prayed with conviction.  After she finished, they all felt God's presence, filling them individually and collectively.  They felt the Lord Jesus in the room

The Spiritual Realm (Part 2)

The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
~Paul, the Apostle

You are either natural, carnal, or spiritual.  You.  The one reading.  Right now.  How can you know what you are?  First, you have to know the difference between the three categories of humanity.

THE NATURAL PERSON
Those who are natural live according to the physical and temporal.  They judge all things by and through the five senses, according to their own individual souls--their minds, emotions, and wills.  They perceive all things and everything and everyone independent of God.  They neither acknowledge God, nor serve Him.  They are their own gods, but are subject to the false gods, knowingly or unknowingly.  They do not have God's Spirit in them.  There are some who have but do not follow the Spirit within.  These are the carnal men and women.

THE CARNAL PERSON
Some have the Spirit of God in them through faith in Jesus Christ, but they don't acknowledge or follow the Spirit.  They, like the natural person, judge all things and everything by their physical and soulical faculties.  These are miserable, because the Spirit in them convicts them of their self-centered perspective. They have more in common with the natural person than with the spiritual person.

The natural and carnal person cannot understand spiritual things, the thoughts of the Spirit.  How can they?  To you, the one who is reading, who can know your thoughts unless you reveal them?  In the same way, the natural and carnal person live a life of separation from the Spirit.  They reject His mind, exalting their own minds above the mind of God.  They will not receive His thoughts.  But the spiritual man and woman can.  They alone are truly spiritual. They alone know the mind of God.

(Click here for part 3.)

The Spiritual Realm (Part 1)

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.  For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
~Paul, the Apostle

What is the spiritual realm?

First, we have to understand what it truly means to be "spiritual."  It means one thing:  to follow the Spirit of God from within.  Only those who accept Jesus as Lord have the Spirit in them.  Only they can know and follow Him.  Only they are truly spiritual.

The falsely spiritual follow evil spirits.  Their spirits yield in passivity to demonic spirits.  They are, in a sense, "spiritual," but not in the truest and ultimate sense.  They live in a spiritual realm, a realm of darkness, a realm without God.  But the truly spiritual live in union with the Spirit.  These two realms are at war:  the realm of God's Spirit vs the realm of Satan's spirits.

But what is the spiritual realm, for those who follow God's Spirit or Satan's spirit?

The spiritual realm is the state of existence in which we perceive with our intuitions 

the presence and power of God, or the presence and power of Satan.  

It is the state where we know intuitively the thoughts of God or the thoughts of Satan.   

As it is written, "Those who live in accordance with the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.  Those who live in accordance with the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh." 

This is how you distinguish the natural person and carnal person from the Spiritual person:  listen to their words.  As Jesus said, "From the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks." As it is written in the book of Hebrews, the heart is composed of our thoughts and intentions.  And what is in our hearts, or on our minds, inevitably comes out of our mouths.

• The natural person's mindset is physical, and thus he or she focuses on and talks about physical things.
• The carnal person's mindset should be spiritual, but it is instead natural, and like the natural person.
• The spiritual person's mindset is on the Spirit, focused on spiritual things, or the thoughts of the Spirit.

Which are you?  Natural, carnal, or spiritual?
What is your mindset, your habitual focus?
What are you thinking and talking about most of the time?
(Click here for part 2)

The Spiritual Realm (Part 3)

The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for,“Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?”  But we have the mind of Christ.~Paul the Apostle

THE SPIRITUAL PERSON

If you trust and obey the Lord Jesus, the Spirit of God is in you, leading you.  You are a spiritual person, existing in the spiritual realm.  Your spirit, in union with the Holy Spirit, perceives intuitively the spiritual atmosphere, wherever you go.  You sense God's leading, and you sense Satan opposing God's leading. You perceive what is going on with the natural and carnal person, but you are not subject to the judgment of those who are natural and carnal.  As God Himself cannot be known by them, neither can you, as Jesus said,

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.

You are Spirit born, beyond the comprehension of natural men and women.

Understand this.  Understand that you can only deeply connect to others in the Spirit.  This is your cross.  You must take it up daily.  If you follow the Spirit of Christ, you will be rejected by the natural and carnal person, just as Christ was rejected by natural and carnal people.  Listen to what Jesus said in a situation that took place in His life while on earth:

 
While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.”

He replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”  Matthew 12:46-50 NIV

Jesus knew that only those who had the same allegiance to God the Father as He did were truly connected and related to Him.  This is true for you, if you are a spiritual person.

If you are not, you can become spiritual right now.  This is how.

• Turn from following yourself to following the Spirit.
• Realize that only those who follow the Spirit are your true friends and companions.

You follow the Spirit by following your renewed conscience.  When you were born again, you received a new spirit, who testifies with God's Spirit that you are a child of God, as Paul said.  Your conscience resides in your spirit.  Before you were born again, your conscience had only one trustworthy function:  conviction.  The Spirit's conviction led you to salvation.  Now that you are saved, your conscience is connected to the Spirit;  the law of God is in you, in agreement with the scriptures.  Paul said these words about the conscience:

I have hope in God that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense towards God and man.  Acts 24:15-16 

As you grow in maintaining a clear conscience, you will receive greater and deeper revelations in your intuition.  Your conscience only gives you a "red light/green light" kind of experience with God.  In the earlier stages of being spiritual, you present situations to God in prayer, and you either feel peace or you don't feel peace about whatever you are asking Him to do.  You learn to follow the peace of God, and thus grow in maturity.  What will begin to happen in your intuition is that God's Spirit will initiate revelation.  It won't be simply you bringing things to God for His approval or disapproval.  God's Spirit will lead you to do something very clear and specific.  If you choose to follow Him, you will experience Him leading you, and the revelations will grow.  You will go from revelation to conversation, from intuition to communion.

So the three stages of the spiritual realm for the spiritual person are:

1.Conscience

2. Intuition

3. Communion

If you are a spiritual person, the Spirit longs to lead you.  Follow Him.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Until then,

May you follow the Spirit of Christ in all things.

 

Here I am, writing...to you.  I don't have anything specific on my mind.  But I want to write.  I want to express myself as I am right now...to you.  Maybe we'll connect if I do this.  I hope so.

So, I'm alone, writing, in silence.  I like the silence.  Love it.  It's rare to have stillness and quietness.  I can hear myself think, feel myself feel.  Sometimes being alone is good.  But I'm with God and you, so am I really alone?  In my house, right now, I am.  No other physical presence, human presence, is with me.  I'm breathing deeply and feeling peace and quiet and good.  And in a way you're here with me, but not really, so I'm not completely alone, as I've said. 

What's the point of what I'm writing?  Does there need to be a point?  If you've read this far, then some how we're connecting, even though I don't have a subject or topic.  I do like just being sometimes...with you...with God...with me.  Quietness surrounds us...or me and God...and you...

How to Experience God's Peace

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 NIV

What does the peace of God feel like?  I used to think it was overwhelming tranquility, like being high on marijuana or the buzz of alcohol, but supernatural.  Now I know what the peace of God feels like.  

Earlier this week I felt anxious about a situation on my job.  I remembered what Paul said about praying when we feel anxious, so I did, expecting the transcendent peace of God.  After praying, I did experience God's peace.  It was subtle, yet real and powerful.  I realized that anxiety was more than just a feeling; it is a mindset that brings about a feeling. It's when I can't stop thinking about something that concerns me, something in the future.  What I felt after praying was that I no longer felt compelled to think about the situation, even though the situation hadn't changed, nor had my concerns about the future changed.  This is the peace of god, and it really does transcend understanding.  There was no logical reason for me to not worry, or think about the future.  It was simply an answer to prayer.  God did this for me and He will do it for you.

If you agree, pray with me:

Our Father in heaven,
You know what I'm worried about right now, the even in my future that I have no control over.  Please take care of this event for me, and until you do, give me your perfect incomprehensible peace.  In Jesus name.
Amen.

The Answer to Your Most Urgent Prayer (Part 1)

To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.  King Solomon.

What do you need, and when do you need it?  This will determine the answer to your most urgent prayer.  I know.  I've experienced this over and over again.

Once I needed money urgently to pay my rent, urgently.  But when I sought help from government agencies, they consistently said the same thing:  To receive their aid, I had to be in "crisis."  They defined "crisis" as being on the verge of eviction, with eviction notice in hand.  This seemed backwards to me.  I didn't want to wait until  my landlord gave me an eviction notice to get aid.  Even if I got the rent money from the agency, what precedent would be set in this situation...even if I got a good paying job after the crisis?  Perhaps my landlord would be merciful if this was a one time event.  At any rate, the government would not help me until I needed the help, right then and there.  This somewhat encouraged me, even before I learned God's lesson of seasons.

I felt encouraged by the implication that I wasn't really in crisis at that moment.  I was trying to get my rent money before the rent was due, which would be in about three days.  I didn't foresee that my situation would be any different three days from the time I sought government assistance.  But they did.  Somehow, they thought that a money miracle could happen in those three days.  Somehow they thought that right up until I got an eviction notice, there was hope.  Perhaps they weren't thinking this way at all.  But it was implied.  And with this implication I saw God teach me a lesson.

In fact I did get the money before I even came close to eviction.  In fact, every time I've been in this situation, the same thing happens:

Right when I need something, God always provides it...not before, but also not after.

(Click here for part 2.)

The Answer to Your Most Urgent Prayer (Part 2)

When I say your most urgent prayer,  I don't mean you have to be desperate, or in a state of crisis, or in an emergency.  By your most urgent prayer, I simply mean a real and present tense need.  I've seen that God answers every need when we need it...not before, but definitely not after.  Whether the need is financial or relational, this is a divine principle.

For example, a young man asked me for advice about getting engaged.  He thought about whether he was ready emotionally and financially.  I told him what I'm telling you:  God will not meet his emotional or financial need to get engaged until he was in fact engaged.  I told him that he had God's "boyfriend provisions," and would not have God's  "fiancee provisions" until he was in fact a fiancee.  Put this another way.  I couldn't get help from God as a father until I in fact became a father.  What I found was that with each child I had, I would receive financial provision for that child by the time the child was born. 

God meets the need we have right now, even if that need is a peaceful assurance of future provision.

What do you need right now?  If you really need it right now, then thank God in advance, because today, before midnight, you'll have what you need. But if you don't get it before midnight, then like the government agency told me, you are not yet "in crisis."  In fact, just the fact that you have time to stop and read this blog proves it.  Those in crisis, believe me, aren't reading blogs right now.  But God sees them, and is providing for them, right now.

He'll do the same for you.
He is doing the same for you.

If you don't need something right now, but you definitely feel you will need it in the future, there is one thing that God will always give you right now:  His perfect incomprehensible peace.  The way to receive this peace is to pray instead of worry, as it is written,

"Do not worry about anything, but in all things, by supplication with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and mind in union with Christ Jesus."

If you agree, pray with me:

Dear God, 
You know each and every need I have right now, and in the near future.  Thank you that I can come to you instead of worrying.  Please provide every need I have, and until you do, please give me perfect incomprehensible peace.  In Jesus name.  Amen.