Your Truest Ministry (Part 1)

As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the children on of God.  The Apostle Paul 

What do you as a follower of Christ need to be doing, all day, everyday?

The answer to this question determines your effectiveness, or ineffectiveness, in God's purposes.

Look at the question again.

What key words do you see?
There should be two:

• Follower
• Doing

Followers follows. 
They do what their leaders command and empower them to do.

As a follower of Christ Jesus, you should follow the His Spirit

in using the spiritual gift He's given you. 

This is your truest ministry. 

 

These are the steps in fulfilling your ministry:

1. Know how the Spirit leads you.
2. Know how to use your spiritual gift.
3. Follow the Spirit's leading.
4. Use your spiritual gift.


Let's focus on number one.

KNOW HOW THE SPIRIT LEADS YOU.
The first level of the Spirit's leading is Spirit led conscience, or a sense of the peace of God as you are about to make a decision.  It's like a "red, yellow, or green light" that you sense when you think through what to do.  For example, you pray and ask God if you should or should not take a job offer.  You express your thoughts, feelings, and desires about the job offer.  You then wait to sense the Spirit's leading.  You feel a "red light," a sense that you should not take the job, even though it "makes sense for you to do so."  Or you sense a "green light" to take the job, even though it does not make sense to do so.  Or maybe you feel a "yellow light" to wait and pray more. 

In the beginning of following the Spirit, He will lead you with the peace of God, which is incomprehensible and perfect. It "surpasses all understanding," and it is a complete deep down sense of peace.  This is how the Spirit leads you in the beginning, and is a basic way to sense and know His direction in your life.  As you mature, the red/yellow/green lights will become more specific--you'll receive more specific intuitive revelations. You won't simply present things to the Spirit for Him to approve or disapprove through peace, or a lack of peace.  As you grow in your faithfulness in following your Spirit led conscience, He will initiate revelations and directions through your Spirit led intuition.  And the more faithful you are to Spirit lead intuition, the more specific the revelation, until it become a conversation--spiritual communion.  In other words, you will come to know the very voice of God. 

Know how the Spirit leads you by being faithful to your Spirit led conscience, to peace of God, to the red light/yellow light/green light.

(To be continued.)

Has God Ever Failed You?

Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.  Joshua 21:45

 

When? 

 

When has God failed you?

 

Make your case against God, and make your case for yourself.

 

After all, to make a case against the trustworthiness of God assumes that you have never failed Him, or anyone else.

 

When has God promised you something and then broke His promise?
Make your case.  Accuse the Almighty.  And show yourself trustworthy, one who has kept every promise, to God, and to people.

 

When has God told you He would do something, and then failed to do what He said?
Make your case.  Give evidence of God lying to you.  And show that you've never lied since you learned to talk.

 

The trustworthiness of God has been questioned since The Garden of Eden:

• “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
• "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

According to Satan, you can't REALLY know what God means. 
According to Satan, you can't trust God's words at all. 
He said, "You will surely die."  But Satan said, "You will not surely die."


Who do you believe?
Who can be trusted?


Has God ever lied to you?
Have you ever lied to God, or anyone else?


I look on my life and see God taking care of me faithfully.
He's never lied to me or deceived me.
He's always been straightforward with me, and with you.


I know this because it is impossible for God to lie.
When He speaks, He acts.
When He promises, He fulfills.


God has never failed you, and He never will.
Wherever you are in your life, and whatever you need from God right now, He will provide it.


If you agree, pray this prayer with me:


"Our Father in heaven, You are perfectly trustworthy.  I place my complete confidence in You to be who You claim to be, and to do what you promise to do.  In the name of Jesus, my life is yours. I will follow Your Spirit wherever He leads me to day, and every day.  Amen."

Your Only Goal. Your Single Purpose.

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;  you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

If you believe in Jesus, you have one goal:  Obey the Holy Spirit.
If you believe in Jesus, you have one purpose:  Honor the Holy Spirit.

Nothing else matters.
Everything is encompassed in this.

If each of us who believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Lord and Savior, obeyed His Spirit to honor His Spirit, we would have everything God intended us to have on earth:

1. We would have The Perfect Unity Christ prayed for in John 17.
2. Non-Believers would experience conviction leading to salvation.
3. Believers would experience edification leading to sanctification.
4. Believers, individually and collectively, would understand the Bible as each read it alone, and through Spirit led Bible teachers and pastors.  The Spirit inspired the scriptures, so He, the author, would give us true and unifying revelation.
5.  We would bear the fruit of the Spirit and use the gifts of the Spirit, manifesting the Spirit to believers and non believers.
6. The gospel, empowered by the Spirit, would reach the entire world, and then the end would come.

If we would only obey the Spirit as our only goal, and honor the Spirit as our only purpose, the Name of Jesus would be glorified on earth, and the Father would send His Son for His church.

The Spirit and the Bride say, "Come."

What about you?

What is your only goal and purpose as a follower of Jesus?

Right now, commit to one goal:  Obeying the Spirit of Christ.
Right now commit to one purpose:  Honoring the Spirit of Christ.

Jesus is alive.  Risen.  Ascended.
He is on earth by His Spirit.  Alive.  In you.

Obey Him.
Honor Him.

Read the prayer below, and if you agree, pray it with me.

"Our Father in Heaven, In the name of Jesus, I ask you to lead me by Your Spirit that I may honor the Presence of Your Spirit on earth.  From now on I have one goal:  To obey your Spirit.  From now on I have one purpose: To honor your Spirit.  In the name of Jesus, Amen."

How To Discover and Use Your Supernatural Power Today (Part 3)

DAVID'S SUCCESSES
Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.  1 Samuel 17:36

Compare a lion and a bear with Goliath.  As strong, big, and powerful as Goliath was, it's hard to believe that even he was a match for a lion or a bear.  So David knew that if God give him success, as a shepherd, to kill a lion and a bear, God could give him success in killing Goliath. 

Again, David was a shepherd, like Moses was.  But what was in David's hand was a slingshot.  A weapon he'd used before.  A weapon he was "used to."  Remember?  King Saul tried to give David his armor, but David refused Saul's armor because David wasn't "used to them."  David did what he was used to, using the weapons of his past successes from God.

Where have you been successful in the past?  What do you KNOW you are good at because you've succeeded in the past in doing it?  What are you "used to" in finding success or victory? 

This is the staff in your hand, like Moses' staff.
This is the strength that you have, like Gideon's strength.
This is your slingshot, what you are used to, like David's sling.

If you do what you KNOW has brought you success in the past, but do it now, in the present, for the glory of God, He will take your natural success and make it His supernatural success in your situation.

Learn from Moses.
Learn from Gideon.
Learn from David.

Click HERE for part 4.

How To Discover and Use Your Supernatural Power Today (Part 2)

GIDEON'S STRENGTH
The LORD turned to him and said, "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?"  Judges 6:14

God called Gideon a "mighty warrior."  God said that He was with Gideon, and was sending Gideon to save Israel from Midian, Israel's idol worshiping enemies.  But Gideon felt insecure, and was uncertain that he could defeat Midian.  So what did God say to Gideon?

"Go in the strength you have."

Not in the strength you WILL have.
Not in the strength God WILL give you.

Gideon was to go in the strength he already had at that moment. 

God assumed Gideon knew what that strength was and how to use it.
He assumes the same with you.

What is your strength right now? Your talent or skill?  Your sure and true ability?

The natural strength that you have, right now, will become supernatural ability from God, in whatever context you are in.

At your job, whatever your "staff" is, whatever your strength is, use it go honor God.  If you do this, the natural will become supernatural, the simple will become a miracle, the physical will become physical.  For example.

Lets say you're good at organizing things.  Bringing order.  That is your strength.  Your "instrument" is a planner.  Now the Apostle Paul said these words to the church in Corinth, "God is not the author of disorder, but of peace."  So you have an ability that resembles the ability of God:  The ability to bring order.  When you use this ability "naturally," the Spirit of God will manifest it supernaturally, so that His order and your order become one.  People will feel the order that is present in the kingdom of God, a spiritual and supernatural order in the atmosphere where you work, or even in your home.  They will comment on it. "It always feels so peaceful in your home/your office."  I know this because I've experienced it first hand.  I've brought order in my home or job, in the name of the Spirit of Christ, and people consistently comment on how it feels in my home or in my work space.

Whatever your strength is, that is all God requires you to use to do miracles, to perform the supernatural. 

Learn from Moses to use what is in your hand to do miracles.
Learn from Gideon to use the strength that you have to do miracles.
Learn from David use your past successes for present power to do miracles.
Click HERE for part 3.

How To Discover and Use Your Supernatural Power Today (Part 1)

You have supernatural power if you believe in the Lord Jesus.  He said it.  "You will receive (supernatural/miraculous) power when the Spirit comes upon you."  Now the question is, how do you discover and use your supernatural power?  By learning from Moses, Gideon, and David.

MOSES' STAFF
Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”  Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”  “A staff,” he replied.  The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.”  Exodus 4:1-3

When God called Moses as the deliverer of Israel, Moses was a shepherd.  A shepherd uses a staff to lead his sheep and protect them from predators.  There is nothing supernatural about a staff.  Every shepherd had and used them.  It was no different for Moses.  When Moses wanted assurance of God's presence and power with him, what did God say?  God focused Moses on what he already had and what he already knew:  his shepherd's staff.  He focused Moses on an ability that Moses already had: the ability to simply throw his staff on the ground.  Moses knew his staff, and he knew how to throw it down.  That was it. That was all it took to see a miracle, the supernatural connected to the natural, the spiritual united the physical--a staff becoming a snake.

The question I ask you with God's Spirit is this:  What is that in YOUR hand?

What is your job right now, and what instrument do you use to do your job?

A pencil or pen?
A hammer or wrench?

Right now a keyboard is under my finger tips as I type words from the Spirit of God.  But I learned how to type in high school.  Typing is natural.  But the words from the Spirit that I type are supernatural.  What is in my hand is a keyboard. Typing is easy.  Using the keyboard is something I know how to do.

Throwing down a staff was easy for Moses.  He'd been using his shepherd's staff for 40 years.  In the same way, whatever your job is right now, as you read, and whatever instrument you use to do your job, the job you know how to do, that is the very instrument of supernatural power that God has given you. 

Learn from Moses to use what is in your hand right now. And learn from Gideon to use the strength that you have.

CLICK HERE FOR PART 2.

How To Discover and Use Your Supernatural Power Today (Part 4)

"I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”  Luke 24:49


Jesus was talking to His 11 followers, those who were with Him for three years, who saw Him perform miracles, who performed miracles with Him.  They knew their mission:  Preach the gospel and make disciples.  They were to simply bear witness to what they had seen and heard for three years.  Who was more qualified to be a witness than the 11 apostles of Jesus Christ, the risen Savior, standing in front of them?


And yet, He told them to stay in in the city until they had been "clothed with power from on high."  Until they received power from the Spirit, they were not to go out and bear witness to what they had seen and heard.  The same principle is true for you and me.  We dare not attempt to be witnesses of Christ without the supernatural power of the Spirit. 


This supernatural power is not hard to experience or use.  You already know what is in your hand, the instrument of your natural or physical job. You already know the strength that you have, your talent or skill that you've already been using.  You already know where you have succeeded in the past, and how you are used to achieving success.


God will give you supernatural power by His Spirit when you use your natural gifts for His glory.  You will discover and use your supernatural power today when you present to him your "staff, when you "go in the strength that you have," and when you do "what you're used to" to succeed.


Please read the prayer below.  After you read it, if you agree with it, pray it with me.


"Our Father in heaven, You gave me abilities, strengths, talents, and past successes.  Now I offer these to You for Your glory.  I will use these today to honor you.  What I do in the natural, give me power in the supernatural, so that people will know that there is no way I could have done these things except by your Spirit and His power.  By faith, I expect supernatural power in my life today.  In the name of Jesus, amen."


Now, at your job, or in your home, focus on using what you know, what you have, what you are used to, and what you are good at, but this time, before you do, say, "Holy Spirit, I give this ability to you, in Jesus name, for the glory of God."  Then just do what you know how to do, doing whatever comes easiest for you.


Remember, it was easy for Moses to simply throw down his staff.  This power from God gives Him glory because you will know it doesn't come by you straining and struggling.  Moses just threw down the staff, but God made it a snake.  Gideon did what he knew how to do, going in the strength he had, and God gave Gideon victory. David used the sling shot he had been used to, and God gave Him victory over Goliath.


In the same way, use the ability that comes easy for God's glory, and you will perform a miracle today where you are.