Manifesting the life of Jesus...today!

Taking the time to realize that Jesus sent us out to bring the kingdom of God to our sphere of influence is key to finding meaning in life. In John 20:21 Jesus said, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you. Wow! Then if you look at what John wrote in John 1:16, "and of His fullness we have all received, and Grace for Grace....You and I have the kingdom of God residing on the inside of us! In your own strength and power you are limited to the earthly realm. But we are all children of God by the blood shed on Calvary's cross. Manifesting the life of Jesus is a matter of believing what Jesus said we could do. Let's begin to simply believe and watch what He can do!

The One Who Matters Most-Cares the Most!

There are ways the world can offer solutions to help you be peaceful, calm, and not worry. Some can help, some are techniques and programs that lead into deeper stress issues. The one thing that always satisfies and brings lasting results is a focus on Gods' love for us and His desire to be our everything.
When you focus and expectantly gaze upon the One who knew you at your worst and still shed His blood on the cross for you, nothing can steal your peace. If you take a moment to realize (asking the Spirit of God to help you perceive) the level of love the father has always had for you and continually feed on that revelation, your life will radically change. In the book of Romans chapter 8:31-39 is showing you the measure of Father Gods' love for you-Jesus. If He did not withhold heavens best from us (knowing all the choices we would make for all time), how will He not freely help us in our time of need?
 Receiving the truth about how God sees you will be one of the greatest breakthroughs to your peace and joy in this life you will ever have. Knowing you are part of a heavenly kingdom where you are an adopted son or daughter with "Full" access to the King of Kings and The Lord of Lords begins to melt away your cares and worries. If you take 5 minutes right now or some time today to read and meditate on that section of Romans, I believe The Lord will speak to you in a way you may not have ever experienced before!
In 1 Peter 5:7 one of the keys to peace is revealed. Cast ALL your cares upon Him, for He cares for you. What a wonderful opportunity we have to release our stress, anxiety, worry, fear, and doubts. The creator of the heavens and the earth has called us sons, friends, co heirs and partners in the kingdom of God. There is no reason for us to let the lies of the enemy or the circumstances we are currently in to steal our peace, joy, and love! Cast those cares upon Him...He Cares For You!
If we allow God to father us in every area of our lives-He will. Are we humble enough to let Him help?
Blessings

"Where Real Life Is"

It never surprises me to take a look at daily news feeds and see the main underlying theme. Mankind is on a constant search for a "Real" connection with someone or something that satisfies the deep cry within. As much as the news/system of this world has a level of interest and appeal to our sense of right, wrong, and entertainment/excitement/flesh stimulation, it will never be as exciting as discovering your "Real" life. In my own life, I have started to change my focus over the years towards my "Real life" and found the results to be much more exciting than the alternative. In Colossians 3:2-4 gives you one example where this life is located. Let's quick see what it says: "Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory." So, the focus and receiving mode of making it our determined purpose to know the One who holds all things together (Colossians 1:17) will cause us to find our "Real life".
As eternal spirit beings, we are always going to exist. Our relationship with our creator does not have to wait for intimacy until we get to heaven someday. See, if you really want to influence the world to receive the free gift of salvation we may want to experience the reality of it as well. Your heavenly Daddy wants to pour out His love and favor on you now-today! He longs for you to find that motivation, propelling you to spent time learning about the nature, attributes, and infinite love He has to share with you now....not wait till this world passes away. Jesus prayed in John chapter 17 that we may know the Father and that is what eternal life really is (John 17: 3).
There is no end to the affection that He has for you. When you were at your worst, God saw it and sent His Son anyway to give you the opportunity to fellowship with Him immediately. He's not mad at you...your real life is hidden in the riches of Christ Jesus...find out all you can about this life birthed in the loving heart of God before eternity past. Blessings :-)

"Leave Your Waterpot Behind"

I am very intrigued by the significance of the conversation Jesus had with the Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob in John chapter 4. He is purposeful and intentionally going out of his way to have an encounter with someone culturally, spiritually, and morally shunned.


 In verse 4 of chapter 4 it says, "It was necessary (needful) for Him to go through Samaria." Well, the need was to set a person free who was bound. She was in the search for significance in the world and in this case, through relationships with men. See, she came to draw water at a time when you would not want to be walking with a heavy water pot on your head: the middle of the day in the desert. She was tired of the dirty looks, gossip, and self condemnation I'm sure as she had been married 5 times and now living with another man. Jesus spoke with her about many things without condemning her and pronouncing judgement upon her for her many sins. He gave her words of love and life that pointed to the solution to her every need. See, weather you are reading this as an unbeliever or a Christian, the solution to your daily needs and provisions are still Jesus and only Jesus. Not a prescribed formula that involves focus on self effort rather than a rest in His effort.
In verse 28 of the 4th chapter of John the Samaritan woman leaves her water pot behind and runs back to town. She begins verbally proclaiming the answer to her and everyone else's issues of daily emptiness that only an encounter with the living Jesus can cure. See, that encounter with the giver of life caused her to repent (to change the way she was thinking) of "self consciousness" to becoming " Jesus conscious". The result was that she left her "water pot" of her shame, guilt, condemnation, fear of man, and her old understanding of who God was behind. She moved forward and declared her past-her past! She turned from self focus to a new life and daily focus on the giver of living water.
If you take just 15 minutes and read John chapter 4:1-42, I promise God will reveal to you something you have been longing for all your life- daily intimacy and connection with your loving Savior. There is so much packed into these verses, we could talk for hours on it-LOL- but just for fun, take a gander at it this week and see what else He shows you.......


Jesus is interested in making an individual, personal connection with you every day no matter what you are going through or dealing with. Will you leave your "Water pot" behind?


Blessings :-) Feedback and comments welcome!

You are needed!

One of the ways the enemy tries to get us distracted from our purpose and destiny is to convince us that we are not valuable and uniquely needed. There is such an incredible need for what God has placed inside of you that the body of Christ is not complete without what you bring to the table. John 1:12-13 says, "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name; who were born, not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but Of God!" Listen to how the mirror translation puts it: "Everyone who realizes their association in Him, convinced that He is their original life and that His name defines them, in them He endorses the fact that they are indeed His offspring, begotten of Him; He sanctions the legitimacy of their son-ship. These who discover their genesis in God beyond their natural conception! Man began in God. We are not the invention of our parents!"
We are an intended, planned, thought out, and extremely valuable piece of a beautiful mosaic of the Fathers' love. If we are not intentional about connecting with the loving Father who has made a foolproof way to have intimacy with Him, our life on earth will be substandard at best. Jesus did not come and suffer on the cross and go through hell for you just to one day slip into heaven. No, He purposefully intended to put heaven back into you by what Jesus accomplished so you could fulfill your heavenly mandate here on earth. You ARE needed in the economy of the kingdom of God.
Ask the Lord this week to show you in the bible and through a revelation/understanding in your heart that He unconditionally loves you, accepts you (Ephesians 1:6) and has great purposes and plans for you. These are ( 2 Peter 1:2-4) waiting to be fulfilled by you simply believing His word and receiving His Grace and Mercy in your heart! Will you receive it starting today?

Its ALL about what He did, not what you do.

From time to time we all need a reminder that the issues we seem to be facing over and over again are a result of the wrong focus. There are times at our workplace or in family-personal relationships that we get in a rut of unfruitfulness as a direct result of our focus on problems and not solutions. We can apply this same line of thinking to our frustration with where we seem to be in relationship with the Lord.
In Romans 4:13, Paul is teaching about the principle of faith righteousness vs. works righteousness using Abraham as his example. It states, "For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed (us today) through the law, but through the righteousness of faith."
What we focus on and "Behold" will increase! You and me putting focus on our problems and issues and allowing our minds to be filled with doubt, fear and unbelief will only cause issues to be amplified and multiplied. We are put in right standing with the Father by putting our faith in and believing that the blood of Jesus has given us a position of sonship and not slavery (which is what an old testament, law based focus produces). In 2 Corinthians 3:18 Paul is encouraging the Corinthian church to behold the beauty and finished work of what Jesus did on the cross to produce transformation in their lives, not to behold and keep looking at their "ugly behavior". It states, "But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror, the glory of The Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of The Lord.
Focus on the "Person" of Jesus and keep looking to experience the reality of who you are because of what HE did and you will begin to see true breakthrough in your life. Yoke up with Him, he already broke through for you 2000 years ago. Agree with what He says about you in the word and by His precious promises and truths He will speak to your heart and change in circumstances and outward manifestations will follow!

The "Old Man" is Dead-Don't Resurrect him!


In the NIV translation of the bible, the sinful nature is used to describe the Greek word, "sarx". In actuality the literal translation of that word is the word "flesh". Flesh is described as human nature apart from Gods' influence and direction. So this idea that we still have a sin nature once we are a new creation is a man made idea. The phrase, "We need to die to self" is found nowhere in the bible from Genesis to revelation yet this line of thinking and teaching is common for a host of believers in reference to explaining their current fight with temptation. The old man of sin nature was co crucified with Christ at the cross (see Galatians 2:20, Colossians 3:3 and 9, Romans 6:6 and 14 for starters).
The biggest deception of the enemy is deception. There is nothing new under the sun as he tried the same thing on Jesus in the desert temptation going after His identity. As the first Adam lost his original identity to the deception of satan, don't be hoodwinked into believing you have an old self, "black dog" that spiritually exists. The enemy and his cohorts are simply but methodically trying to convince you that you still carry around that old man nature. The truth spiritually (which is who you really are eternally) is that you are ONE with Christ (Ephesians 2:6, 1 Corinthians 6:17)
You cannot crucify yourself! You were co-crucified with Christ, co buried, and therefore co- resurrected with Him and now seated with Him (I john 4:17, Ephesians 2:6).
The reality of the outward behavior of your physical actions is the result of what and how you believe. What you believe to be true will eventually manifest.
So, Romans 6:10-11 is critical: "For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life He lives, He lives to God. Likewise, you also reckon yourselves dead to sin (noun), but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Flesh is a way of thinking that produces self effort and dead works. This flesh is activated and increased by focusing on right behavior rather than right believing. If you begin to believe right, your behavior has no chance but to start manifesting the fruits of the Spirit instead of the works of the flesh.
Any type of religion including works based Christianity will "prod", "poke",  and activate the works of the flesh and not the fruit of the Spirit. Be led by the Spirit and you will see the kingdom of heaven manifest in the earth like never before.
Let that old man stay in the grave! The life of Christ Jesus is in you and He is the hope of manifesting the Glory of God in the earth......

Blessings.......Brad