Unity

Unity does not equal uniformity. There is no purpose in the Word of God encouraging us to have unity if we are all the same. Your faith and my faith may not look the same or feel the same.

Side note… God created emotions. He made us emotional creatures. Stop villainizing emotions.

Unity in the body (not only your local church but the whole body) has never been more important. We must begin to align with God in such a way that we demonstrate the goodness of God in the world. Bickering and fight among ourselves is not lovely or good or kind. It simply does not reflect the goodness of God.

This topic has been swirling around in my head for some time. Today I was listening to III John. In verse 9, John writes about a church leader who is not receiving him and who is “prating” against them with malicious words. Oh how we “prate” sometimes…which means we speak foolishly or at tedious length (likely both) about something.

How can you know if you doing this….here are some questions to ask yourself…

1. How much time and I spending posting on social media or responding to posts?
2. Are said post offensive to many people?
3. Are the topics that I post about salvation issues? Is someone going to go to hell because they do not believe exactly the same way about a topic that I believe?
4. Do people have to agree with me to be my friend?
5. Can someone disagree with me and it’s okay? If someone disagrees with me, do I feel the need to blast their belief?
6. Do I use the Word of God (the Bible) as a weapon against people? (We do not war against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness in high places).
7. Do I constantly rub people the wrong way?
8. Do I believe God only speaks to or only leads me?
9. Do I think I have a special understanding or better understanding of God’s Word than other believers?
10. Am I better than other people because of my “better” understanding of God’s Word?
11. Do I have all the answers?
12. Am I ever or rarely wrong?
13. When things go wrong in my life, or when I do the wrong thing, do I hide it or am I transparent?
14. Does unity or disunity follow me where ever I go?

Maybe I need to turn this into one of those quizzes that gives results in levels

Top Level: You are arrogant. Repent immediately. Delete Facebook from your phone and visit 4 churches that you have spoken against.

Mid Level: You may be arrogant. Repent immediately. 30 day break from social media. Visit top 2 churches you have spoken against.

Bottom Level: Pray about it. You may be arrogant in some areas. Limit how many times you check Facebook. Everyone does not need to know what you think about every topic.

No one is perfect. We all speak out of turn sometimes. John was an apostle who was spoken against. No one is speaking out against the non-effective pastor around the corner. No one cares. When anyone doing anything for the Kingdom of God, people crawl out of the woodwork to criticize the person or the work. There is nothing wrong with a small church community. Just because your church runs a thousand people, that doesn’t mean you are right or successful. God looks at the heard, not your success.

Can you imagine being the guy who didn’t welcome the Apostle John?

Psalm 133 describes how lovely it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is sweet to God, it is sweet smelling to God (the anointing oil was very fragrant). When we dwell together in unity, God commands a blessing. It is a promised blessing that if we love each other and live in unity that God will bless us.

How do we do it?

Philippians 2:3 says it like this:

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interest but for the interest of others.

It is time for the church to start reflecting the love of Jesus Christ.

Most of the criticisms I read or watch (so much easier to ramble on about a topic) are about things the writer or speaker has not experienced or does not have faith for. If you do not have faith for revival, do not talk about revival. If you do not have faith for speaking in tongues, do not write about it (Paul thought it was pretty important in the book of Romans but whatever). If you do not have faith to believe in the gift of the Holy Spirit, then don’t worry about it…no one is going to come prophecy to you…probably. If your faith is only unto salvation then talk about about salvation. If your faith is only about the word of God then speak only about the Word of God (of course….most of these other topics are in there…I’m not going to worry about stretching your faith, that’s not my place.).

Give it over to the Holy Spirit. If you sincerely believe someone is wrong pray for them. If it is a salvation issue, then confront them TO THIER FACE. Stop airing dirty laundry on social media. If you are a pastor, then start trusting your people that God leads them too. You do not have to warn them about every ministry out there. God placed the Holy Spirit in them too…it’s called discernment. Posting on social media to put someone down or put down a ministry is passive aggressive and doesn’t look good on anyone especially a man or woman of God. Don’t be a Diotrephes (hint…look it up, he’s in the Bible).

Prayer; The Root System of REVIVAL

Lots of talk about revival going on these days. I’m not here to ride the wave and get lots of people visiting my page. I make no money off my writing…at least at the time of this writing. I would love to read your thought and comments, so chime in. Everyone seems to have an opinion.

Whether you believe in the current moves of God being reported or not, I hope that you desire more of God. Experiencing more God is really the most simple definition of REVIVAL. It is dead areas coming to life. No matter what your opinions some people are waking up to more of God.

Personal belief is that more of God can happen any where. We do no have to travel across the country to experience more of God. There is a song, The song of Ascent, that has a line in it that echoes with me. The lyric is “In the highlands and the heartache, You’re neither more or less inclined. I would search and stop at nothing, You’re just not that hard to find.” That is the whole thing….Jeremiah told us how to find God. In Jeremiah 29:13 it says, “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the LORD…”

There are times when God has purpose in the journey of traveling somewhere with expectation of hearing from Him.

Prepare your heart. Get back to prayer. REFOCUS. Have a personal REVIVAL. Get back to the places where you first found Jesus. God isn’t that hard to find because He wants to be found.

You cannot find Jesus on your phone. Prayer is not interactive with your phone. TURN IT OFF.

If you have gotten away from praying, then start with 5 minutes or 10 minutes. Start somewhere. Pray for what God brings to your mind to pray for. If you think of someone during the day, stop, say a prayer for them. Pray without ceasing means pray throughout your day. PRAY! Take a first step!

I promise (because God’s Word says it) if you pray you will be REVIVED.

A Little Preaching going on….

Here is a little preaching, some advise about choosing a church and a good word for moms and dads.

Guard Your Anointing

Here are some of my free-flowing thoughts on guarding your anointing. Any questions?? Please comment, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Freedom Series: BEFORE

The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness,
The world and those who dwell therein.
² For He has founded it upon the seas,
And established it upon the ^[a]waters.

³ Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?
Or who may stand in His holy place?
⁴ He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol,
Nor sworn deceitfully.
⁵ He shall receive blessing from the Lord,
And righteousness from the God of his salvation.
⁶ This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him,
Who seek Your face. Selah

⁷ Lift up your heads, O you gates!
And be lifted up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in.
⁸ Who is this King of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty,
The Lord mighty in battle.
⁹ Lift up your heads, O you gates!
Lift up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in.
¹⁰ Who is this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts,
He is the King of glory. Selah -Psalm 24

This weeks we have been spending with family as we had a family member pass away. Many of you may be spending time with family in this season as well.

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together in unity!

² It is like the precious oil upon the head,
Running down on the beard,
The beard of Aaron,
Running down on the edge of his garments.
³ It is like the dew of Hermon,
Descending upon the mountains of Zion;
For there the Lord commanded the blessing—
Life forevermore – Psalm 133

During this season remember, where there is unity among brethren, God commands a blessing. Unity is beautiful to the Lord. Unity does NOT mean uniformity. We do not all have to be the same. We do not have to believe the same. We do not have to hold the same opinions. We should celebrate each other’s uniqueness.

So why the first passage, Psalm 24?

I was contemplating this the other day. How so often we believe we are in the blessing. Especially here in America, we gauge where we are spiritually by our success, our bank account, and our abundance. We think or we believe we are good with God because of our material blessings. We believe we are in good standing with our Father even though we are NOT in good standing with each other.

Are your relationships flourishing? How healthy is your marriage? How healthy is the relationship between you and your children? Your parents? Your co-workers? The tribe you church with?

As I was reading Psalm 24 the other day, God impressed upon me that we often believe we “in the blessing” when really we are in God’s grace. We are in His grace not in the portion or favor; the promise He has for us.

There is a spiritual law of sowing and reaping…. Galatians 6:7 says, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” When we invest in relationships and people, we reap good relationships. If we sow financially, we will reap financially.

We can be right in one area and “off” in another area of our lives. Proverbs says it like this, “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, But the Lord weighs the hearts.” I learned it this way as well…you can be right in your facts and wrong in your spirit. It doesn’t matter if you are right in what you are saying if you are wrong in the spirit in which you are saying it.

Ephesians describes it as “speaking the truth in love…” So often with family especially we speak the truth without the love. The truth spoken in love brings healing. The truth spoken in spite, cuts. So many times we speak the truth in the wrong way and it causes pain.

Just because some things are going well do not assume you’re good.

These six things the Lord hates,
Yes, seven are an abomination to^]Him:
¹⁷ A proud look,
A lying tongue,
Hands that shed innocent blood,
¹⁸ A heart that devises wicked plans,
Feet that are swift in running to evil,
¹⁹ A false witness who speaks lies,
And one who sows discord among brethren. – Proverbs 6:16-19

One of the things the Lord hates is one who sows discord among the brethren. If our words are truth but the spirit behind the words cause discord and division….does God hate it?

I recently explained to my 13 year old, we all have opinions but it’s not always helpful to say those opinions out loud. We have to filter. Our filter is Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.” Even if it is true, even if you are right, even if you have all the facts….FILTER through LOVE (hint…God is Love).

I have to ask myself…do I want to ascend to the hill of the Lord? Do I want to stand in His holy place? My answer is “Yes”, it is always “YES!!” In order to do this, I must approach with clean hands and pure heart. So do you. If you want to move forward; if you want to step into blessings (not just the grace of God but the favor of God) you have to approach God in the way He requires. Yes, we come to Him in our sin and He cleanses us. Yes, we come to Him in our mess and He heals and changes and makes us. The first step is coming to Him. This applies to all…applies to individuals, families, churches, even businesses. Come to Him, repent, stop bowing to the idols of this world. Turn back to Jesus. Turn your eyes upon Him.

During this season that can be challenging….turn to Him first, BEFORE.

Freedom Series – Soul Ties

Some of this series will include in depth teachings and all will involve testimonies. As I have said before, God leads us in a journey of freedom. Everyone’s journey looks different. May God speak to you as you read this and may you identify the unhealthy soul ties you have formed in your life.

2 Corinthians 6:14 says “Do not yoke yoursef together ina team with unbelievers. For how can rightousness and lawlessness be partners? What fellowship does light have with darkness?” (CJB).

When we form relationships, any kind of relationship, there is a spiritual aspect to the relationship.

Soul ties between a mother and a child are meant to be…ordained by God. That soul tie can become corrupted and out of balance. Once a child is an adult, the relationship must change and grow.

There are also evil soul ties that we form through sin than can cause us to keep returning to sin. The best example of this is sexual relations outside the bond of marriage. When you have sex outside of marriage, a soul tie is formed. The soul tie can pop up at any time. I heard it described as suddenly, you think of someone you haven’t thought about in years, then a day or two later, they contact you or you run into them. The soul tie leads you back to one another.

We fostered for about 5 years. We fostered a set of twins that we were told were “adoptable”. We brought them home from the hospital and we loved them. We wanted to adopt them and felt they were a part of our family. After 7 months or so, a family member agreed to take on the twins and they were transferred. We were heart broken. We loved them and had given our hearts to them. A few months later, I agreed to take on a foster that was going to be temporary. That foster didn’t turn out very well for other reasons. My husband, grieved the twins. We held a spot open in case they could be placed back with us. In my heart, I knew our family wasn’t “complete”. I talked to our agency about placing a baby with us. They offered me two different baby boys, both sweet white boys with blond hair that they said looked like my son. The problem with this is, my husband is Hispanic and we aren’t a “white” family. I asked them for a “brown” baby…any shade of brown. That may sound strange to some but I’ve always wanted a diverse family…kind of “all the colors of the rainbow” (we still haven’t achieved this). In the meantime, we embarked upon our freedom journey. We were leading freedom small groups at our church (we eventually became the freedom pastors). We took a group to Gateway church in Southlake Texas to attend a conference called Kairos. During one of the sessions the speaker talked about soul ties and how sometimes we have to break good soul ties (soul ties we view as good) in order to be open to what God has for our future. This doesn’t mean we cut people off or eliminate them from our lives. As she spoke, God spoke to me about the soul ties we had with the twins. As long as we had that soul tie, no other baby would be good enough; we would always compare that baby to the twins. I spoke with my husband and we cried. I prayed. He said I had heard from God but he didn’t want to do it. I prayed about it and broke the soul ties. The next day (about 24 hours later), we were still at the conference. I got a call from our agency that they had a “brown baby” for us and could we go to the hospital (about 10 minutes from our house) and pick her up. We were in the Dallas metroplex about 4 hours from home. We were the leaders of the group. We said we could not pick her up that day. To be clear, no one holds a foster child for a family….not until now. Thankfully, she had some siblings also in care. That family did not want a newborn but agreed to take her for the night. We picked her up at the ballpark the next day. This was all God. That baby is our daughter.

This whole topic was on my mind this week as we visited family for Thanksgiving. Even in our families we form soul ties that are unhealthy. Sometimes God wants us to sever the soul tie so He can re-establish it in a healthy way. As we grow and mature as people, family members have to begin to see us differently. Due to strange soul ties (and sometimes generational curses – which is my next topic of discussion), we maintain the same relationships we had with parents or siblings that we had as children.

Any time one party is being manipulative in the relationship for any reason (even “noble” reasons or so they think), it is a sign of an unhealthy soul tie.

Another area that is is easy to develop an ungodly soul tie is with spiritual leaders. If there is anyone in your life who has become the “voice of God” for you; thus replacing God in your life, you have formed an unhealthy soul tie. Yes, there is wisdom in counsel. Yes, there are times God speaks through other people. No one person should be voice of God in your life. It is not healthy for you or them. Stop putting pastors and spiritual leaders on a pedestal. We are not to worship anyone but God.

Dear Jesus, I ask You today to bring to mind any soul tie in my life that is not Your will for me.  Right now, I break my soul tie with _______________.  I ask that You would heal my heart and guide me to the soul ties that are Your will for me.  God, I ask that You would grant me healthy, godly relationships and that You would change and renew my mind to think how You think.  Your Word says that I have the mind of Christ.  I ask that the “mind of Christ ”  would be manifest in me.  I ask that You would give me a hesitation or a “check in my spirit” if I attempt to form any soul tie that is not Your will for me.  Please help me to equally yoked with the people You place in my life.    In Jesus mighty name, Amen.

Freedom Series – The Voice of God

This cannot be emphasized enough, we must learn to hear and obey the voice of God.

Our entire God-journey is about exercising ourselves unto righteousness. Our whole God-journey is about following God closely. The journey is NOT about allowing God into our world but more about us entering into His world.

Paul wrote in I Timothy 4 and in Hebrews 5 about exercising ourselves (self-discipline) spiritually. Exercise to godliness and exercise to discern good and evil. Both of those require action on our part. We can (are able) to exercise (stretch ourselves) to hear the voice of God.

How?

Start by paying attention.

 Read I Kings 19

Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake;  and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Most of the time, in order to hear from God we must get still and quiet. I know people who are able to read a book in a busy and crowded room. Or listen to music (with lyrics) while doing homework…studies show, that our minds do not transition that or focus well with other stimulus going on. Basically, I doubt you are absorbing much if your Bible study time or prayer time is always with other people. In order to hear God’s voice, other voices need to be still and quiet.

There are ways to tap in and hone in on God’s voice. This is the “exercise part”. It starts with LISTEN! As I write this I hear God’s voice echoing in my mind, “LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN.” You have to identify how God speaks to you. There are some great resources out there about hearing from God. One that I recommend is “The Voice of God” by Cindy Jacobs.

Jesus explained in like this in John 10, “ But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers”. Jesus is the shepherd. We are the sheep. When He speaks, we recognize His voice, or we should. This chapter explains the relationship between shepherds and sheep. They only follow their shepherds voice. They will not follow another. If sheep can recognize the voice of their protector; we can too.

How do we recognize the voice of God from all the other voices?

1. God’s voice always aligns with His Word (the Bible). He isn’t going to tell you to sin.

2. God is kind. He isn’t beating us up. His correction is gentle. He doesn’t call us name or berate us.

3. The spirit of what He is saying also align’s with His Word. In other words, His voice has the fruit of the Spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and long suffering.

Learning to LISTEN for and to the voice of God does not subtract from or take away from reading and knowing your Bible. Your Bible is the filter that the Word must go through, it’s the checking system; if you hear something that does not line up with the Bible, it’s likely not God. For example, God isn’t going to tell you to be a serial killer or rob people. God isn’t going to lead you to be disrespectful or function out of hate, those are not attributes of God. In fact, God often speaks to us directly through His word. READ your Bible.

Once you have started listening, you also have to take action.

I was recently reading in the book of Acts.

There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment,  a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always.  About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, “Cornelius!” And when he observed him, he was afraid, and said, “What is it, lord?” So he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God.  Now send men to Joppa, and send for Simon whose surname is Peter.  He is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea. He^[d] will tell you what you must do.” And when the angel who spoke to him had departed, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a devout soldier from among those who waited on him continually.  So when he had explained all these things to them, he sent them to Joppa. Act 10:1-8

I have spoken out of this text before. It is powerful. This man, who was not Jewish, believed in God. He prayed and he gave (generosity is an attribute of God). He was faithful. All of these, God favors and rewards. This time as I read God showed me something new.

God sent an angel in a vision to speak to Cornelius. The angel delivered a very specific word. Send for a man named Peter (the message was not for him to go himself but to send someone), this is where Peter is…. (again, very specific details). Cornelius shares these specific details with his men and they FOLLOWED DIRECTIONS.

When God gives specifics, the specifics are important.

How many times has God given us a word and we have not done anything with it? We might write it down and then expect everything to work out for us.

But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? John 2:20

You can be the best listener and nothing will happen. You must couple your listening to your faith and your faith to your doing.

Many years ago I hear a preacher say, “What you do is what you believe and everything else is just religious talk.” If God speaks and you do not follow His direction, you do not believe.

This all circles back to a prayer I pray for my kids and even for myself:

God, Please give us ears to hear you, a mind to understand all that You are saying and heart to obey You. Help us to put action to Your instructions.

When it comes to your freedom journey, you must listen and follow what God is saying. God doesn’t always address the elephant in the room. As we journeyed through freedom, my husband was very angry (mostly with me). I told him (likely repeatedly) that he needed to work on his anger. God addressed the whole issue through a back door….the back door was the root of the anger. What looked like an anger issue to me was a much deeper issue. God deals in roots not fruits. If the fruit is bad, so is the root. God deals in specifics. He addresses specific situations and events from the past. If you feel God leading you to specific events or at times people, be open to it. Allow God to lead your freedom journey.

Freedom Series – First things First

Freedom is not a one time encounter. Deliverance doesn’t happen once and done. Freedom is a journey that is ongoing. I liken it to peeling an onion; it has layers.

The first steps are three things…

1. Change the way you think about it. As I said, it is a a journey. You have to be open to the process. At times it can feel raw and painful. In my experience, God has at times taken me back to when the pain occurred and changed my view on it. Which leads me to…
2. You have to participate in the process. This journey is not a hands-off thing that happens to you. It is you actively seeking your own healing/freedom/deliverance. You have to want it.
3. You have to listen for and to the voice of God. This journey is in no way fast or easy but if you will actively seek God it is faster and easier than it could have been. The way I see it is, there are two paths you can take, you can either seek God and listen which is like going to God’s Gym and He is your personal trainer; this path requires discipline. Or you can not go to God’s Gym and you will travel down a rocky path in life that teaches you the same principals but it is much sweater/dirty path.

Consider these things as we embark. And Let’s pray together:

Father, God,

Please change my thinking about healing. Help me to be open and pursuing the processes of healing, deliverance, and ultimately freedom in my life. God, please help me to be an active participant in the process and journey. I know that You have a life for me that is rich, full, and abundant in all areas. Please help me to hear Your voice and LISTEN and follow You. Give me ears to hear, a mind to understand, and a heart to obey YOU. Please help me to hear Your still, small voice. If You need to, please get my attention. Your ways are higher than my ways. Your plans are better than my plans. I trust YOU. I believe that You are good and You have the best life in mind for me. Please help me to align with You and Your plans.

In Jesus’ name, amen.

Freedom Series

One of the major notes in our ministry (that would be my husband, Dennis and myself) is FREEDOM. We served as the Freedom Pastors at our last church and freedom is one of the foundations of our current church. In the past, we hosted KAIROS events that are focused times of freedom. We believe in this so much that we want to begin doing these in-person events again. We have a team who works with us to facilitate freedom…this isn’t a two person job.

Freedom looks different for different people.

Sometimes freedom is letting go of hurt, regret, shame, etc. Sometimes freedom is deliverance. Sometimes freedom is being self-aware (not that we focus on ourselves). Many times freedom is overcoming generational strongholds and curses. Often freedom is changing some definitions in our lives. It is almost always a process.

Recently, I found myself coming up and complaining. I would walk in the door and the people who live with me (my family) were sitting around watching shows and livin’ their best life. While I was out working. My husband works full-time as well but our hours are different so sometimes I work while he is at home. I was frustrated. I was complaining (a trait I do not like nor do I want). I prayed about it and God revealed to me that I complain when I need help. In fact, complaining has become how I ask for help. It’s become a habit (stronghold). This may seem like a small thing but it has become big. The whole idea is to allow God to speak to us about the big and the small things going on in our lives.

Would anyone want to join me on this journey?

Be Encouraged!

I have been trying to upload this video all day. I made a video a week or so ago and it was taken down by YouTube…we will see if this one is flagged.

God Bless you all. Keep praying and listening for the voice of God.