But here’s the thing…

• Because of the New Birth, you are NOT apart from Christ, therefore you ARE worthy.
• Because of the New Birth, you are no longer without Him.  Therefore, you clearly HAVE great worth.  You truly are something!
  
• It’s very important we get our value statements lined up with the reality of the Cross.

If we keep making statements that sound spiritual but actually aren’t, we can expect very little new life manifestation in our Christian experience.  Be humble…

Based on New Life Truth!

Gary

Then {squish} eewwww…what was that I just stepped in?

Here’s a factoid…

Even the most powerful positive people have pukey periods in life.

I’ve been there, done that, and bought the silly T-shirt.  It’s common to life for everyone….absolutely everyone.

However, I’ve found one of the simplest responses with the most sure effect was discovered by King David a long time ago.

Psalm 42…especially read in “The Message” (in my opinion anyway) we discover, yet again, David’s roller coaster journey through life.

(Side Note):  Have you ever wondered why God chose the inspired Psalm writings of David to be a great song and prayer book?  Perhaps because David is so human…which encourages people like us in an understanding of real spiritual life?  Hmmm?

You know from the outset of this Psalm, David is clinging to the under belly of his emotions.  At one point early on he exclaims that he was on top of the mountain.

Then the dark side of life happens and David is on his back looking up.

But (and this is what I admire about David) he includes the solution.  In the middle of the emotional swamp, David says

vs. 5:  “Fix my eyes on God.  Soon I will be praising Him again.”

vs. 6: “I rehearse everything I know of You…”

Fix…fasten…superglue my eyes on God.  The truth of His life begins to replace the lies in mine.  But how do I do this “fixing of my eyes?”

Answer:  Verse 6:  “I rehearse everything I know of You.”   That’s how David learned to encourage himself in the Lord.  That’s the literal idea of what it means to rejoice in the Lord and again I say rejoice.

To rejoice isn’t simply another word for praise.  It means to re-joy oneself by rehearsing God’s previous acts of love, power, and kindness in one’s personal history.

Temptation and trial is common to life on planet earth.  Life will be very good (because of God’s goodness).  But, it will also occasionally suck BIG rocks.  In those time take David’s prescription (rewind to verses 5, 6)

Gary

It really shouldn’t come as a surprise.  But, to many folks it does.  They want better things in life.  They’re hoping for a change in their circumstances.  The solution is as clear as the surprised nose on their faces.  It’s as common as common sense (that is…before common sense stopped being common).

Here’s the miracle working bit of wit and wisdom…

Doing more of the same produces more of the same.  

That little piece of sagacity (oh, sorry.  I’m trying to increase my vocabulary by learning new words and sagacity just slipped out of my brain and onto this post)  Let’s try it again…

That little piece of smartness has the ability to open the gates of new experiences.  Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as it is to quip.  It takes a kind of resolve to start a new habit.

We’re creatures of habit and once a habit pattern is well entrenched through months or years of usage, a person has a “holy war” on their hands to make adjustments.  Not to mention the fact that we’re “comfortable” with the habitual road we’re traveling.  Even if it isn’t taking us anywhere more satisfying and productive.  But, there’s hope…

It’s not about changing everything about your daily life actions all at the same time.  The simple act of changing one habit has the inertia to domino effect into more of the needed changes.

The other important reality is that the Lord isn’t so interested in you taking on your own behavior modification by yourself without His involvement.  But, He also knows “we are but dust.”  The treasure we have, in Him, is located in an earthen vessel.

Therefore, the first thing is this:  You need to be CONVINCED that “more of the same produces more of the same.”  I suppose you could be sorta convinced.  It would just take longer.

Next you must engage the Lord in this quest.  (That one bears repeating…you must engage the Lord in this quest.)  Don’t fool yourself, the flesh and the devil are not going to assist you in a journey of doing anything that’s going better you in things that really matter.  Behavior modification as a solo act is self effort.  Self effort is flesh.  In fact, the flesh (especially flesh energized by the devil) may let you think it’s going pretty well…at first.  Then the flesh yanks on your chain…your weak spot, and {whip lash sound effect} you’re back where you started.  Except now you have a sore neck and are blaming God for it when you never got Him involved in the first place.

The third thing.  As you’ve committed all of this to the Lord.  Follow His lead.  Begin with the first thing that comes to mind…no matter how seemingly small.  And keep at it until you have a new habit in that area or action.  Habits literally only take three weeks to change.  The Lord may have you sticking with the one for the whole time, or add more little things along the way.  Literally, before you know it, you are experience a life that’s beginning to glow with different results.

One more quick word about prayer in the process.  I believe that the prayer of others…especially if you have a lot of confidence in them…can produce helpful results.  In fact, it’s really not a bad idea to have accountability partners on the journey.  Not to keep pointing out your failures, but to encourage you to keep moving forward toward the goal.

I also believe that there are cases in peoples lives where the issue is something more than an unproductive habit.  In fact it’s very possible there is a strong demonic bondage.  When that’s the case, I also believe that it’s very important to have people with a belief in power anointing to break yokes to pray into your situation.

However, in my 40+ years of ministry, I’ve seen far too many people looking to “a specialist” to set them free without the person, themselves, engaging with the Lord in the sometimes painful choices of the journey.  Their freedom lasts about as long as the emotion is present.  Then…back to ground zero.

More than likely, this is your thang to walk out and through with the Lord.  The advantage is that you’ll come out the other side knowing Jesus a whole lot better.

Blessings on your journey,

Gary

If you look into the words salvation, save, or saved in the New Testament, you’ll discover those all come from the Greek word, “sozo.”   You’ll also find that the word prosper is one of the primary defining words.  That’s why I can start off today’s post with such a radical statement.  But, there’s more…

First of all, I am definitely pro prosperity.  There’s just too much scriptural evidence that it’s a quality of the Kingdom of God.  But now…here’s the rub…and a question.

Is Kingdom of God prosperity a mirror image of the so called American Dream?  To be clear, I’m speaking of God’s government or rule in the Earth today…not an after the last heartbeat afterlife.

Truth be told, we are heavily influenced by the conscious and subconscious message or indoctrination of our culture.  More often than not it is easiest and most logical to define the word prosperity with what our culture has told us it looks like.  What that often means for a Christian (or Christ follower) is a “churched-up” version of the same.

Challenging our own thinking.  Probing our own priorities.  Those are good and healthy things to be engaged in.  That’s what I’ve been doing to myself again of late.  That’s also what I’m proposing in this brief article.

Prosperity is a core value of God’s Kingdom.  What does it look like for you?  The best Kingdom answer and action will bring the greatest good and satisfaction in life.

Gary

Not really.  Although “self denial” can be a part of sacrifice, the Old Testament root or “parent” word means…

“To draw near”

Unfortunately, our understandings, or misunderstandings – of even spiritual issues – are heavily laced with a “man centered” focus.  We think about sacrifice in terms of how much we are giving up, or how much we perform out of obedience no matter how we feel about it at the time.

Bringing sacrifices of praise has more to do with ways and methods of drawing near to God rather than self denial.  To look at it that way…the accurate way…is helpful to me as I grow in my personal relationship with the Lord.

Gary

Depression is no light matter.  However, whether it’s experienced occasionally or chronically, the emotional weight can be lifted.

Even though emotional bondages can be complex issues, there are a couple of practical tools I’d like to share with you that work!  How do I know?  I and many other people I know successfully “work” them.  Here they are:

• Don’t Think
• Thank

“What I still need and God has taken care of for me”

I heard Bill Johnson, the Senior Leader at Bethel Church, Redding, CA, first say several years ago, “I’m only about 10 minutes from depression any given day of my life.”  It was in context of Bill also saying, “I’ve discovered the key to never living life depressed.”

This was the key:  Only allow yourself to think on these two areas…

1. What God has done
2. What God is doing

Never allow your brain to walk the “what God has not yet done” path.

It’s an acquired mental taste.  It won’t come easily or naturally at first if you’re used to eating mental spoiled bologna.  However, just like taste buds literally change every 10 days, so can the flavor of one’s thoughts.

Here’s where the “Thank” part comes in.  It’s much easier to develop a new mental palette if you add the component of thanking God for what He has done and what He is doing.  Thanksgiving is like adding a super vitamin to your diet.

As I said earlier, I’ve “worked” it.  Others I know have done the same.  And…IT WORKS!  Up to you, but I highly recommend it!

Gary

The key to “doing the stuff” or truly re-presenting Jesus in our earth walk is courage or boldness.  

“Easy for you to say,” you respond.

“How’s that?”

“You’re extroverted…with a bold risk taking personality.”

That may be true…the personality part.  But, let me share a key to courage I bet you didn’t realize…

True courage or boldness comes in bite sized pieces of time.  It really doesn’t depend on personality type.  Courage comes when you realize it only has to be about 10 seconds long.

That’s right…10 seconds long.  Within that 10 seconds is the spontaneous decision to “take a leap” into the deep end without thinking about it.  Once the “leap of faith” has been initiated, it’s too late.  You can’t back out.  You’re now on the roll.  And, the good news…that’s where you discover the power of God backing up your “leap.”

Many people think that courage or being bold is the result of genetic wiring.  But, it’s really not.  It’s actually “flashes of unpondered risk.”  Boldness is a quickening of the Holy Spirit quickly acted upon.

Realize – today – that any old coward can ask the Holy Spirit for short moments of “quickening.”  Then respond without thinking.  Once the 10 seconds is over you can feel as timid as you like.  You only need 10 seconds of boldness.  After that you’ve already put yourself in the land of no return.  And, THAT…is where the cool Holy Spirit empowered stuff blossoms.

Gary

Growing up, I often heard – and also asked the question – “Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus?”  What was normally meant by the question was this:

“Have you asked Jesus to forgive you for your sins so that when you die will will have the right to go to heaven?”

Of course, there were shades of different meanings to the question, but it boiled down to a “forgiveness of sins” issue.  I don’t make light of that at all, but I discovered – to my great joy – a personal relationship with Jesus meant just that.  A one-on-one daily interaction (RELATIONSHIP) with Jesus – not unlike a person has with another person.

In the process of the growth of our relationship, I’ve discovered that God speaks in an infinite variety of ways.  The “language” I am learning to understand more and more clearly is His counsel through dreams.  To be honest, I really struggled with this at first.  Not so much that it’s a valid and current way He talks to me; But instead, understanding what He is saying.

Having the dreams is the easy part.  Everyone dreams every night whether you remember them or not.  Simply realizing that increased my recall quite a bit.  Today, I probably remember and interpret my dreaming in blocks of two or three nights.  Then, I will not recall anything for a few days…then another two or three nights in a row I do.

The thing is…as I am getting more proficient at understanding how dreams work – along with the assistance of the Holy Spirit – they are becoming a great, great blessing.  He is counseling me in the night seasons in a way that impacts me more deeply than just an academic approach (only using my thinking process to learn information ABOUT Him).

If you are at least a bit curious about how God may be counseling you in your dreams, here is a link to a site by a man that has been more helpful to me than any other.  There’s a lot of good information there for free.  Although my purpose isn’t to “advertise” Mark Virkler’s purchased material, you may want to consider it.  Go here now for free dreams information.

Gary

I’d like to share with you a spiritual prophetic forecast that a man named Bob Jones had in 2009.  Let me start by saying that if you are unfamiliar with Bob Jones, he’s been one of the more “right on accurate” Christ centered contemporary voices.  Here is Bob’s experience:

“In September 2009, Bob Jones had a revelatory encounter where he was sitting on a train. He asked the conductor, “What is this train?” The conductor said it was the “Glory Train” and he gave Bob a capsule that was shaped like an egg.

The egg had new life in it. It had the beginning and end of time in it. He asked the conductor, “When can I open this egg and when will this train arrive?” He said the time was within the egg and the egg will be opened in 2012! The time capsule had the wisdom of the ages in it; from the beginning to the new beginning.

Bob said that we’ve come to the end of the old and the birthing of the new in 2012, and the glory of God will fall upon the churches.”

I’ve personally had the inner anticipation that 2012 is going to be a pivotal year on a grand scale.  I don’t have any meaty words of wisdom to followup with.  It wasn’t my purpose for posting this article.  I think we need to be cautious about forming rigid opinions on how the specifics of change are going to play out. 

Spiritually speaking, I don’t believe it’s going to favor any denomination, doctrine, or mindset.  Instead, the reviving of righteousness, peace, joy, and power is going to be experienced by those whose hearts are looking to Jesus (not religious systems and opinions) the Author and Finisher of their faith.

Just a ponderable…

Gary

When we listen at all…most of us are good at doing it with the flaps of skin on the side of our heads.  And, we filter and measure the information we are hearing through our own set of predetermined standards of truth…our own bedrock of opinions.

In so doing, what an adventure of learning and journey of relationship we are forfeiting.  In other words – how shallow and anemic we are sentencing our lives to becoming.

Although it’s a solution with risk…there is an answer:

To develop the art of listening to others with the ears of our hearts.  Proverbs 18:15 in the message states this:

“Wise men and women are always learning, always listening for fresh insights.”

In moving forward in – what is to many – a fresh new art form, at least four things are required in my attitude:

1. I don’t know everything about anything (even though I often think I do…if I’m being honest with myself)
2. He/she may likely know more than I do about any given idea…(even when it contradicts my pet doctrine)
3. It’s okay.  In fact it’s a virtue to truly believe I have things to learn…(that are even radically different than what I’ve previously thought was true).
4. God did not appoint me guardian of correct wisdom and doctrine.

Mix with those four realities a whoppin’ measure of desire to truly know what my fellow man thinks and why they think it.

If we listen with our hearts, we often discover a commonality with our brother/sister.  We begin to discern that they want what we want and they (normally) are on a quest to find a life that fulfills and fills full.

I’ve made it my 2012 quest to listen – more than ever – with the ears of my heart.  I botch it more often than I’d like, but I am improving.  And, my relationships are improving.  In fact, I’m finding others more and more willing to listen to what I have to say…to respect my opinion.  Because…they sense I’m respecting theirs.

Gary