Brushstrokes…

The mind is a canvas. And it takes discernment (and patient practice) to know who is painting on it… us, or the culture or the enemy or God. Not all thoughts we have are from us (and many of our own thoughts are…uh..not that helpful). We cannot afford to be passive as we meander through our brains. We have to be aware and disciplined, and to know the difference between the stuff in our heads and the Word of God:

“…we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
(2 Corinthians 10:5)

Never give up!

I was driving the other day and really wanted to hear from God.  I said to Him “God please speak to me!”  And immediately my eyes landed on this mural and I felt the Presence of God.

My dear brothers and sisters, don’t step back from the good PROMISES God has given you.  If you never quit, you never will lose!  Because in the fullness of time, He will fulfill what He has promised you!

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.” (Hebrews 10:23)

The New Testament Reality

When John, Peter, Paul and others continuously called people up higher in their epistles, they were assuming that the people reading their letters were baptized in the Holy Spirit. The New Testament reality cannot be truly lived victoriously without it.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

Putting the pieces together…

“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter,
But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.”
(Proverbs 25:2)

Do you keep a record of the various things God has spoken to you?  If you’re serious about following God, you need to.  Often, dreams, visions, highlighted scriptures (verses Holy Spirit highlights) and prophetic words are like EASTER EGGS — and the meaning seems to be somewhat hidden at first glance, but as we continue to search and dig, we begin to put the puzzle pieces together and see what God wants us to see.  These things are not hidden FROM us — they are hidden FOR us.  Hidden FOR the hungry, “kingly” ones who are willing to continue looking until the big picture begins to appear.  It’s a sometimes frustrating, but always glorious process.

His image, not ours.

“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see Him as He is.” (1 John 3:2)

“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.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

The goal is not to know ourselves better, but to know Him better.  Because as we know Him better, and see Him more clearly, we will begin to see who we truly are as well. And in the same way, delving and spelunking in the inner recesses of our psyches will not help us — instead we need to perceive and receive the Mind of Christ.

In His LIGHT we see light…

“We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it, the process is not yet finished, but it is going on, this is not the end, but it is the road.” (Martin Luther)

“What we will be has not yet been made known.” (1 John 3:2)

There is a war going on.  A war between LIGHT and DARKNESS.  Darkness seeks to hide things.  It especially seeks to hide our destiny in God – the IDENTITY that we are called to be, in Him, in eternity. Some people say that because they were born a certain way, that that is who they are.  But we are all born into darkness, and this darkness obscures and confuses many things, including such things as our true value, our life and/or sexual orientation, our view of reality, etc.  That is why the past is such a bad gauge of REALITY.  Only when we allow God and His LIGHT/TRUTH REVELATION to define us do we start to get a glimpse of what our true identity and destiny will be.

“To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.” (Revelation 2:17)

Real Eyes…

re·al·ize (ˈrē(ə)ˌlīz): become fully aware of something.

Much of our time in this current age is spent remembering previous things rather than REALIZING Present things. Or, all too often, if we are engaged in the moment, it is in bondage to the unfolding, temporal, finite path of least resistance, as we move from one distraction to another, avoiding pain and embracing little pleasures.

But the more we let Holy Spirit have His way in the moment, the clearer we see Jesus — and the clearer we see Jesus, the more we fully, gloriously ARE (because the distorted regrets of the past and the phantom fears of the future have no room to exist in that REALity).

And I believe the age to come will be MARVELOUSLY like this. We won’t have to remember Jesus, or remind ourselves of His attributes — instead, we will truly, continuously REALIZE Him — seeing Him in His unfiltered Glory (We Realize with Real Eyes), as we are enabled by and saturated with the brilliant, penetrating, uncreated Light of LOVE.

“But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as he IS.” (1 John 3:2-3)

How to know really important stuff.

“The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him — the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD — and He will delight in the fear of the LORD.” (Isaiah 11:2-3)

One of the many amazing things about Jesus (when He walked this earth, back in the day), was that, in any given situation, He knew what the true PRIZE really was. He seldom responded to any situation the same. He was always listening to the Spirit, never allowing the external things to mislead Him. He never relied on a FORMULA, because He had true discernment which in turn came from the fear of the Lord.

“…if you CALL OUT for insight and CRY ALOUD for understanding, and if you look for it as for SILVER and search for it as for HIDDEN TREASURE, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom, and from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.” (Proverbs 2:3-6)

Acquiring true DISCERNMENT requires the Fear of the Lord…and, like anything of real, lasting value and importance, takes a lot of effort (passionate pursuit!). But it’s so worth it.

Without REVELATION, your BRAIN will always become your enemy.

Without revelation, your brain will always become your enemy.  What I mean by that is that our natural minds cannot totally understand God and that left to our own devices and natural abilities and insights, our spirituality always becomes merely the traditions and ideas of men, which, ultimately, will always war against the truth and reality of God.  I am not saying that we should ignore our brains or that we should not be thinking people.  But the human mind was never meant to be the center of our reality.  God is.  And even though He gave us our brains (wonderful and amazing and useful as they are), they will never be enough to walk in the fullness of our callings as spiritual beings.

“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.” (Ephesians 1:17-18)

“to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge;” (Ephesians 3:19)

“lean not on your own understanding;” (Proverbs 3:5)

“No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’ — but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 2:7-10)

A perfect example of this is in Matthew 16, where Peter receives a revelation of who Jesus really is, and Jesus says, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.” But just a few moments later, Peter stops relying on revelation and starts using his mind to figure things out, and he is rebuked by Jesus as one who opposes God: “Get behind me, Satan! [ie – opposer] You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

So…spend time with God, getting to know Him. This is ABSOLUTELY important to your eternal destiny. You need Him to tell you stuff — important stuff that you can know no other way than that He reveals it to you:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.  “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” (Jeremiah 33:3-4)

Spend more time in His Word, yes. But also spend time listening for His voice. And as you begin to hear, respond to Him. Because then the real adventure begins — the adventure of the Spirit-led life.

“Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” (Romans 8:14-15)

Whose rules are you playing by?

A number of years ago, I was at the end of a 5-year media fast (well, specifically, no TV, movies, radio) and the Holy Spirit clearly told me to watch a movie. That movie was The Matrix. I found it profound for a number of reasons. I asked God why He wanted me to see it. He said that the Unseen Realm will always rule the seen realm and that I must always play by the rules of the Unseen Realm, not the rules of the seen realm, or I would pay a great price.