Wisdom, Along With Everything Else is God

Tags

Christianity, God, grace, healing, life, love, prosperity, wisdom

Job 28:23, 28 “God understands the way (to Wisdom) and He knows the

                             place of it (Wisdom is with God alone. …But to man He

                             said, behold the reverential and worshipful fear of the

                             Lord – that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is

                             Understanding.”

 

Preachers all over the world offer the character traits and attributes of God separate from God Himself. This is not intentional, but it is done weekly in churches all over the world. We promise people prosperity, wisdom, grace, healing, you name it, as something that God gives, rather than as something that God is. For whatever reason, we have taken who God is and made Him into something He does. To God, there is no separation between who He is and what He does. He is One through and through and he has made us as humans the same way.

We cannot give money away without being a person of generosity; we cannot say words of comfort without being a person of compassion. What we do is who we are, they are not two separate things. Just as we cannot show love to our spouse or child without being love ourselves, God cannot do anything without it being who He is, in His divine nature. So, when we tell people God wants to prosper them, many are looking for money to fall out of the sky, but God is looking for people that want to know Him as one that loves to see His people prosper.

To try and get something from God without wanting God, Himself, is a violation of design. In human language that is taking someone for granted. So, when Job declares Wisdom is with God alone, he is saying, God is wisdom, it is not something He does, it who He is and if you want wisdom you have to want God. Unfortunately, without realizing it, we have been offering people what God is without sharing with them who God is. So, we have perversions, like people that name it and claim it, thinking that is the key to prosperity. Or people who are walking away from God because they did not get the healing they were praying for. God is not a vending machine and our prayers are not the coins that activate it. He is God, He is good, He is healing, He is wisdom, He is truth, He is generous, when we want Him, not for what He has, but for who He is, we will eventually see in our lives all He is.

The reality is, God wants us to know Him, want Him, need Him, in our lives and if we were honest and stripped it all away, that is what we are longing for. Our spirits are crying out for an intimate, passionate, fervent relationship with God, His stuff is nice, but when you have Him, you are not even thinking about all those other things. When people know you want them, not what they have, they open up their hearts and their treasures to you, but if they perceive you are after their stuff, they will withhold themselves and their stuff. It is a law of the kingdom that cannot be broken, God is wisdom, they are one in the same person. May you desire God, not what God gives or has. Remember Matthew 6:33, seek first (as your only desire) the kingdom (the king’s domain) and all these things (whatever you think you need) will be added unto you.

I know from experience that when I get God, His presence, His power, His face, nothing else has any significance. He is truly All I want!

The Kingdom and Your Culture

Tags

bible, Christianity, culture, divorce, kingdom of God, marriage, win

Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you”.

Everyone has a culture they were raised in and that culture speaks to you, whether you realize it or not. Your culture taught you what to value, how to deal with conflict and what you see as normal. Take someone from another culture and put them in America for 6 months to a year. Once the honeymoon of being in America wears off, they will see how their culture conflicts with American culture, because they bring their culture with them everywhere they go and so do you. Your culture cannot be separated from who you are. I lived in Malaysia for 9 years and even though there are a lot of things about Malaysia I love and will cherish the rest of my life, it is not my culture and I could not live there for the rest of my life. They do things so differently then I do and it caused me conflict every time I parked the car or drove down the road, it was a culture war I was fighting and did not realize it until many years into it. The one thing I learned, is you cannot change anyone else’s culture, only they can change their culture inside of them and only I can change the culture inside of me.

In the natural this can be easy to see if you have lived in a cross cultural marriage; had cross cultural employees or bosses; or have lived for more than a vacations stay in another culture. But everyone of us that calls ourselves Christians is in a cultural battle as well. When we accept Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior, we agree to switch cultures. We declare in our profession of faith, that I am going to leave my culture and take on your culture, Jesus. The challenge is, we still have our culture inside of us, so for Americans, our culture says, divorce is an acceptable form of conflict resolution, but if you are a Christian, the Kingdom culture says, there are specific reasons to get divorced and “falling out of love” or “I can’t do this anymore” are not options given. So, what do you do, your marriage is in an intense battle, stalemate if you will, it seems as if nothing is going to change, and you feel like the only option is to get divorced. As an American this is an acceptable option, because our culture promotes this idea, but for an African from Africa, this is not an option. Their culture says, that divorce is never an option, it is actually a shameful thing. So, to an African, marriage can get hard, feel like they are at a stalemate in their communication or whatever, but the idea of divorce never crosses their mind, because their culture teaches this.

Therefore, when in a culture conflict what do you do? Christians run into culture conflicts all the time and many default to their culture of birth, meaning, if they are American they act like an American, if they are Chinese, they act like a Chinese, but the Bible says, when you are in a culture conflict, you choose the Kingdom culture. So, if you are an American and you are contemplating divorce, but you have no Biblical grounds for that decision, you can either be an American Christian or a Kingdom American. The difference is amazing. If you choose Kingdom culture over your culture of origin, you are choosing life, and the battle of your flesh begins. If you choose American culture, you take the easy way out and though it seems right in the short run, in the long run, it will be a decision that affects the rest of your life. It is time that Christians start putting Kingdom before their culture. We are to live the abundant life, and the way to do that is by being Kingdom first. If we can be Kingdom first people, we will see so many of our issues begin to fade away, yet, this will be a battle and unless you quit, you will win. We can do this, we have a King that is the head of this Kingdom and He has given us everything we need to win this war. Your sword is prayer; your attitude is humility; your shield is worship; and your goal is the advancing of the Kingdom of God in your marriage on earth. You did not marry the wrong person, your enemy is invisible, it is not your spouse, you got this, fight my friend and remember this is a battle over the Kingdom and your culture.

Two Are Always Better Than One

Tags

Christianity, covenant, divorce, God, marriage, men, spiritual growth, women

Genesis 18:1 “Now the Lord God said, It is not good (sufficient, satisfactory) that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper meet (suitable, adapted, complementary) for him.”

When God created man, it was just man and God in the beginning. They were hanging out in the garden together, talking about what to name the animals together, they did everything together, just the two of them. It was for many men a dream come true, me and Jesus out on the lake fishing; in a tree stand hunting; or on the open road driving. Yet, in that place of just Adam and God, the Lord said to the man, it is not good for you to be alone. Have you ever really stopped to think about this statement? Adam was with God, no sin, no separation, unadulterated communion just him and God, yet God said, it is not good for man to be alone. Pause for a minute and let that sink in, why, if you are a man, is not good for you to be alone, even just you and God, alone, why would God say it is not good for you to be alone? I am not a man, so I am not completely sure of this answer, but one thing I do know is that men tend to go deep into their heads when they are alone. From what I have learned, the head, the thoughts, is a safe place for men to reside. So, when they are alone, they are thinking, deep or shallow, depends on the situation, but men are thinking, they are in their heads. So, why is it not good for men to be alone? (Ladies, this might be a good question to ask your husband, guy friend, or Pastor, but give them sometime to answer, this is not something we ponder everyday).

God and man were one in that garden, when God came to him and said it is not good for you to be alone, I am going to bring you a help meet, someone that compliments you, someone that will help you be the best you can be in this life. And we know how the story goes, God creates woman out of the rib of the man and brings her to Adam. Adam then says in Genesis 2:23 “this (creature) is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of a man”. At first Adam was surprised by what God brought to him, so much so, he was like, wow she is flesh and blood like me, but she is built different than me, in modern language, I can picture him saying, this is cool God, thanks. Now, the Bible does not record time between verses, so we are unclear how long Adam and the Woman were together, but the very next verse in Genesis 3:1 says, “now the serpent was more subtle and crafty than any living creature of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the Woman, can it really be that God has said, You shall not eat from every tree of the garden?” This verse gives us a clue into some of the talks Adam and the Woman had before the serpent arrived. I picture Adam giving the Woman a garden tour, talking about the animals, rivers, mountains and trees. And during their talk about the trees, Adam told the Woman what God said about not eating of this one particular tree.

The whole story is so full of imagery, one can allow their imagination to run away with them as they consider what it would have been like for Adam and the Woman before the serpent came on the scene.

With all that said, here is my thought today, God said it is not good for man to be alone, women love to be together, (stereotypically speaking) we love hanging out, holding hands, talking, walking, sharing our hearts together and honestly, God made us that way and I wonder if it is because we are the perfect compliment for our man whom God says, it is not good for him to be alone. You see, what I have learned over the years is that men like to withdrawal, they like to be alone, but God says it is not good for them to be alone. So, the enemy gets in the middle of marriages, he interferes in conversations between men and women and pain enters our lives. Men go back to being alone and women suffer in silence because they can’t make him commune with her. So, both are destroyed because they have what the other needs but the enemy has divided them. Pride comes in and the man says, I don’t need any help, and his helpmate is right there fully equipped to do her job by nature, but he would rather be alone. Satan is subtle, he is cunning, he is deceptive, but he is very good at what he does. He knows it is not good for man to be alone, so he isolates men. He knows women love to help, so he removes the one she is to help.

When a man isolates himself, he is less productive, studies have proven that single men are not nearly as successful as married men, why, because it is not good for man to be alone. Then the woman, who longs to helps, loves to be close, has to hide those feelings in order to respect his “man cave” time and she suffers in silence, then turns to being controlling, nagging and manipulative, which pushes him more into a state of wanting to be alone. No matter how to cut it, men and women, especially in marriage are not meant to be alone. Men need a help meet and women need to be help meets. We need each other, we were created to compliment each other, neither party is doing well apart, yet our pride won’t allow us to humble ourselves, confess our sins to one another and move on, so we live alone and God says this is not good.

I am not sure who you are and where you are in your relationship today with the opposite sex, but one thing I do know is that the devil hates marriage. He seeks to separate men and women all the time, whether you still live in the same house together or not, you can be separated in your hearts. Choosing to stay close, no matter what the other person does is just that your choice. You can’t make anyone else do something, but you can choose to do something that will keep you together, for covenant keeping takes courage. You have to be strong to stay in a covenant with someone, you have be bold to stay married when everything around you says it is okay to get divorced. It takes courage to realize that the battles you and your spouse are fighting were intended to strengthen your bond, not separate you. And the truth is, unless you quit, you can win, together as a couple as husband and wife. A covenant relationship is the most powerful relationship on the face of the earth, and the picture of marriage is like Christ and the church, no wonder the enemy is out to destroy it. But, if we use humility and remember what Jesus said in Matthew 5, the meek (the teachable) shall inherit the earth, we can win this war, together. It is time to take back our covenant partner and never forget that TWO ARE ALWAYS BETTER THAN ONE!

Power to Escape

Tags

Christianity, church, escape, grace, kindgom of God, power, spiritual, world's system

2 Peter 1:3-4 “As his divine power has given to us all things which relate to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that has called us by glory  and virtue,  through which he has given to us the greatest and precious promises, that through these ye may become partakers of [the] divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust”.

My spirit is stirred with a strong warning again this morning, too many Christians are living in the world not realizing they are being programmed for destruction. People who are consumed with television, video games, all things internet, social media, etc. are taking in words, attitudes, ideas that are contrary to the word of God. Since being home, after spending 9 years in Malaysia, I cannot even watch television, the commercials promote demonic shows like Sleepy Hollow. The choice of shows that will not defile my spirit are so limited and even those that seem safe like The Biggest Loser or Wheel of Fortune are still saying things that are counter kingdom. The longer we consume these things, the more defiled we are becoming and we do not even realize it. The world is the world, they can say and do what they want, however, we are called to escape from the system of the world, but we cannot do this if we want to be entertained by them and think that we are not being corrupted by them. When we battle to turn off the television versus read our bible, listen to worship music, or watch sermons on You Tube, we are showing how hungry we are for the world’s entertainment and how engrossed we are in the world’s system.

Revelation 18:2-5 ” And he cried with a strong voice, saying, Great Babylon has fallen, has fallen, and has become the habitation of demons, and a hold of every unclean spirit, and a hold of every unclean and hated bird; because all the nations have drunk of the wine of the fury of her fornication; and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have been enriched through the might of her luxury. And I heard another voice out of the heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye have not fellowship in her sins, and that ye do not receive of her plagues: 5 for her sins have been heaped on one another up to the heaven, and God has remembered her unrighteousness’s”.

The Lord is calling us to come out of the world’s system, come out once and for all, leave behind all that you used to know, the kingdom of God is at hand. The Lord is about to pour out His spirit upon all flesh, there are those who are going to rise to glory, then there are those who are going to struggle to escape. We are called to come out, the exit door of grace is still open, but the time is drawing near when that door will close and it will be harder to escape. We need to be serious about the things of God, no more playing in our food, thinking we have time, time is running out, the power to escape is available, the door is still open, and the Lord is calling people to come out. Everyday we choose life or death, with what we put in our mouth, we are choosing either life or death, with what we watch with our eyes, we are choosing either life or death, with what we hear, we are choosing either life or death. No one can choose for you, this is a choice you have to make on your own. You are responsible to choose life!

My life has radically changed as of late in the area of my belief about who I am. The Lord has revealed to me, that I do not see myself worthy of deserving to succeed in every area of my life. Because I believed I was not worthy of this, I would wait for others to love me, encourage me, advise me, because I was not convinced I deserved to succeed. But this self-sabotaging belief has been exposed and I know that I deserve to be fit, fun and fabulous, I deserve to choose life, I deserve to live the abundant life, I deserve to prosper in health, body and soul. Once I changed the way I believed, it changed my attitude, my outlook, my actions, my everything. Now every choice I make is leading me either to life or death and it is no one else’s choice for me, I choose it. Joshua said, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord! He chose life, I choose life, what do you choose?

The power to escape, the power to choose life, the power to change the way you believe, the power to prepare for the next move of God is upon us right now. Today we have to decide what we want. The world is programming all of those in that system for the coming destruction and if we consume what they are serving we are choosing death and there will be no one to blame but ourselves. You have to believe the power to escape is available to you and you are worth more than consuming worldly teachings, ideas and attitudes, you were created to live and live abundantly. You deserve to succeed in body, soul and spirit, you deserve to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength and you deserve to love your neighbor as you love yourself. You have the power to escape.

Getting Closer

Tags

Christianity, keep going, maturity, spiritual growth

This weekend has been reading, writing, listening, praying and watching sermon after sermon, it has felt like a personal spiritual retreat and I am loving it, but I am shaking on the inside. People things are getting worst in the spirit world, there is a deception that is released that is lulling people to sleep and they are using the media, tv, etc. to set people up to believe what is coming. My heart is stirred, not with arrogance and a war cry, but with a soberness, a sense of intensity, a real hunger for more of the Lord. I have not felt like this in years, I mean I am hungry daily, but this is like a devouring of all things truth that is going on inside of me. I am still tired from Malaysia, I am still on cranberry water, 7 pounds in 7 days is a good start, but I am sensing that what is coming is going to take incredible strength and the Lord is affirming to me that we need to be a triple threat. Every believer needs to be strong, body soul and spirit. I know I need strength in my body, so those changes are in progress, but we need super strong walks with God, not wavering, and we need souls that are healed of all things that seek to hinder and destroy. I do not know where you are weak, but it is time to be strong. No one is going to come along and carry you, you have to decide to stand up, know you are worth winning and do whatever it takes to discipline yourself for success. It is so close, I can feel it in my spirit, I can hear it in my ears and I am beginning to see it with my eyes. Be strong and of good courage (Joshua 1:8).

 

This is just a thought I felt moved to share with all of you. I know God has in this discipleship training together now for a reason. We all have an area or two of weakness and we must strengthen ourselves in the Lord. I will walk with you, train you, encourage you, give you ways to get stronger, but you have to want to do it. Time is running out, the battle is closer than we realize, but it is not going to glory with some real guts, we will need to fight in or to wear the victors crown, so we have to be strong. Not in our personality, not in our opinions, not in our vain ambitions, but in the Lord. Close to Him, intimate with Him, aware of Him.

 

I love you all so much, I am honored to be in this with you and I know we will get there, but you have to make the time to train. What you do in secret when no one is watching will be seen in the public one day, whether for good or bad. I got your back, I am here if you need support, encouragement, words of life, but we must be self-motivated, self-disciplined, we must know WHY we are doing this. My future depends on me being physically strong. The Lord spoke to me that I need to be fit in order to finish. So, that is my challenge physically, but I believe this is true for every area of our lives. If we are going to finish, not quit, not be taken out early, but really finish, we have to be physically, spiritually and emotionally fit. Keep going, we will get there, TOGETHER.

 

Much love to you all.

 

Lisa

Dressed to Dine by Lisa Great

Demarkation is Coming

This week is Consecration Week for one of the churches I attend, so we are praying and fasting all week long as a congregation and are meeting nightly to pray together. Last night at 5:50pm while I was praying the Lord spoke to me these words: THERE IS GOING TO BE A DEMARKATION BETWEEN THOSE WHO KNOW GOD AND THOSE WHO GOD KNOWS. The scriptures that came to me are Matthew 7:21 which says, not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father that is in heaven. The second verse that came was Acts 19:15, Jesus I know, Paul I know, but who are? asked the demon. 

This word came with such a sense of warning in my spirit man that I immediately called a seasoned prophet by the name of Ron McGatlin to ask him to discern this word for me. He said, that others have called him with a similar word. With that being said, I was shaken on the inside thinking of how many people go to church and say they know God, but God has no knowledge of who they are. I then began to realize the need for Pastors to speak the truth to their church and to stop fearing people leaving the ministry. God is looking for those who are willing and ready to abide in Him; to reside in Him; to have an attitude that is willing and wanting to obey immediately. The urgency of this word caused shock waves to run through my spirit. For those of us that God knows, it is imperative, that we seek out those who hunger to be known by God. They may only be a remnant, but they are out there and it is time to disciple them into the truth about how to abide in the shadow of the Almighty. 

In the words of my prophet friend Ron McGatlin, it is time to worship in the beauty of His holiness. 

In His Service, 

Lisa 

Humanity Cloaked in Humility

Humanity without humility is why familiarity causes us to lose respect for those that we used to respect from a distance. The closer we get to someone, the more of their humanity we see in them, but if that humanity is coupled with humility, we are able to still respect them. Their humanity is not what ends up bothering us, it is their lack of humility that causes us to lose our respect for them and in turn they lose their influence over our lives. Everyone is human, but not everyone is humble.

Last night, Pastor Kathy Gray preached on the hooks that are in our lives and that if we do not get the hooks out, no matter how we cover them up, bury them, or try to ignore them, they will raise their ugly head and eventually pull us away from the body of Christ. She called out some very specific hooks that people have and she showed us biblical examples of those who have hooks. It was a powerful teaching and she did it so well, I will not even attempt to re-preach it on here, you will need to get the message from World Revival Church. However, what struck me is how she said, pride was Lucifer’s hook, based on Isaiah 14 and how this is his primary hook that he puts in our lives as people. As I was searching my heart to find the hook that has me, I realized that I have self-harm issues, self-protection problems and when I stripped it all away, it came down to having the hook of pride. Pride was the driving spirit behind these more obvious issues I struggle with. People that know me close or far away can see self-protection, or self-harm if they know what to look for. So, we got rid of the pride last night. Now this is not a one off situation, this is going to be a daily dying to self, which is the standing on pride so it cannot rise in my life and hook me again.

My humanity is real and people can see my humanity, but if I allow humility my humility to be as easy to notice as my humanity, it is easier for people to continue their respect of me, even when they see my humanity. The thing we love about Jesus is that he was one with us in His humanity, but His humility which produced His humanity makes us stand amazed at who He is. We can become more like Christ, not by acting like we are not human, but living in humility, admitting our mistakes, confessing our sins, and taking the first step toward reconciliation. When we do this, people will see our humanity cloaked in humility.

“There is something in humility which strangely exalts the heart.”
Saint Augustine