Design Not Delay

Have you ever said a prayer and felt like the answer was being delayed? Has anyone ever said to you, “The delay is over!” If you have been in church or around Christians for any length of time, one or both of these things you have experienced. When something does not happen in the time frame that we believe it should happen, we see it as delay. There are scripture verses to back this theory up, in Daniel 10:12-14 we see that the Prince of Persia withstood Michael for 21 days. But is this verse one we can hang our hat on when we pray and it feels like there is a delay?

What if it was not delay, but design?

When we first get saved, God answers our prayers quickly, because we are babies, newborns. A baby when it is hungry, they cry and we feed them, change them or lay them down for a nap. As earthly parents we are quick to respond to the needs of our baby, for they are just a baby. God, is the same way, when we were newborn Christians, if we tithed, we got a quick return, if we prayed, we usually got a quick answer, we were babies, so He came to our rescue immediately. But, He like, any parent, does not want us to stay a baby, His desire for us is to grow up. I believe that what we perceive as delay is actually design.

While we are waiting for an answer to our prayer, a door of opportunity to open (that was prophesied to us), or a financial breakthrough we know God told us was coming, we go through a season of waiting, but when the wait goes beyond our ability to wait, we cry out, delay, no more delay. We start declaring, commanding and even demanding an answer from heaven. We think it is something we are not confessing, something we are not doing, or something we should have done. But, actually it is all part of the design.

God designed what we perceive as delay as an opportunity to not only answer our prayer, but to give us more than we asked for. James 1:4 says, “Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” What we see as delay God calls perseverance and perseverance must finish its work, so we can not only get our prayer answered, our breakthrough that He promised or our prophecy fulfilled, but He also gives us maturity, completeness and a not lacking of anything.

Our God is so generous, that He takes our prayers that we think are going unanswered and He uses that as an opportunity to give us more than we ask for. So, it is not delay, it is design, for He knows the exact time when perseverance has finished its work. Your prayer is producing more in you than just an answer, it is design not delay!

The Bride Price

Tags

bride, church, Kingdom

One of the greatest things about other cultures is it gives us insight into things that we could not know because of the limitations of our own culture. As American Christians, we are limited to our culture in our understanding of the word of God, so we miss many of the jewels that are locked within, because Jesus was Jewish and the Bible was written in another culture. As we make the time to seek understanding, we gain wisdom into the wonder of the word of God.

While taking communion the Lord began to share with me about the price He paid for our lives. I Corinthians 6:20 and 7:23 says, “For you were bought with a price…”. Many of us acknowledge that Jesus death on the cross bought our lives, but do we realize the significance of this statement? Living in a culture that does not pay a dowry or bride price, it can be easy to miss the security that is given in the bride price being paid.
In the Jewish tradition, the rabbis in ancient times insisted on the marriage couple’s entering into a marriage contract, called a ketubah. The ketubah provided for an amount to be paid by the husband in the event of a divorce or by his estate in the event of his death. This amount was a replacement of the biblical dower or bride price, which was payable at the time of the marriage by the groom. It may also be noted that both the dower and the ketubah amounts served the same purpose: the protection for the wife should her support (either by death or divorce) cease (www.wikipedia.com).

Jesus’ death on the cross was the bride price He paid to be in a covenant with me, with you, with the church. We are the bride of Christ and He, our bridegroom, paid the bride price which was His life. His death on the cross not only brought us into relationship with Him as our husband/bridegroom, it is a protection of our ever ceasing to be supported. Do you realize what this is saying? Jesus’ death, which was the bride price for our life, takes away all reason to fear!

When He says, in Matthew 6:25, “I tell you, stop being perpetually uneasy (anxious and worried) about your life…” or in Matthew 6:34 where He says, “So, do not worry or be anxious about tomorrow…” The bride price paid for our continual protection and provision. He bought us with a price, we are protected by the bride price. This is so liberating, communion is a reminder, that He paid a high price for us, He is not going to forget us, leave us, or neglect us. How do we know with such certainty, the bride price!

One Thing You Can Only Find at Church

Tags

church, leadership, pastor, worship

There is a lot of debate and discussion going on about whether you should be in church or not. Many have undertaken the reasons why you should be church, others have countered with why you don’t need to be in church. Most use the same verses from Paul which say not to neglect meeting together or that they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching in the early church (Acts 2:42). And people go back and forth in a tennis match style discussion, which can turn into in an argument for or against the side you are on.

The debate as to what is church, is it a building or a body of believers is another log people throw on the church fire. But from what I have read, I have never heard any convincing argument for or against church, because it is mostly tit for tat, based on people’s preferences rather than production. One thing I have been taught, yes by my Pastor, Steve Gray, is that there are consumers and producers. People that produce are always looking for things that produce. No business owner wants to be a part of something that does not produce. And honestly, many Christians are tired of church, because they are not producing anything.

I hear both sides, and I am not hear to add my two cents one way or the other, however, I am here to say, there is one thing you will only find in church and that is what I want to add to the discussion, debate or down right brawl as it pertains to the subject. You can listen to sermons from many and varied preachers online; you can give money to a variety of organizations or ministries; you can pray alone or with others on a multitude of venues; you can even find community in an array of places. So, what is the one thing that you can only find in church?

Corporate worship is the one thing you can only find at church. There is nowhere else on the planet that people come together consistently, weekly or more than once a week even and sing together. You can’t find it at rock concerts or baby showers, you can sing alone in your car to the radio or join a worship service online, but there is no substitute for corporate worship. Everybody singing the same song, to the same God and the same time, this only happens at church. Pastor Dustin Smith of Dustin Smith Ministries teaches on worship and he says, “worship is ascribing worth to God!”

As we come together as a group of believers in church and begin to worship, to ascribe worth to God, there is something that takes place in us as a group that does not happen anywhere else on the face of the earth. In my church we call it the Power of All, we all sing, we all lift our hands, we all bow, we all ascribe worth and we all experience something together that we cannot experience a part. Our God is a God of the group more so than we realize and He produces something in our lives as we come together and worship, that can only happen in that setting.

With the various challenges our world is facing, with the rise of organizations that are bent on annihilating people at any cost, more than ever, we need each other and we need God to do what only He can do in us as we enter into corporate worship.

So, you don’t have to go to church if you don’t want to, but there is one thing you will be missing in your life, because there is one thing you can only find at church.

The Choice is Yours

The greatest gift humanity has been given is the ability to choose. America saw choice as the most powerful expression of freedom, so they wanted to spread democracy to every nation in the world. Unfortunately, many nations have chosen oppression and control over freedom, so have rejected the western value of democracy.

I was not old enough to be a part of the holiness movement that swept the church, but what I heard is that it was a time of external changes that made one look holy. Women were told to be holy they could not wear pants or jewelry, men were told not to play cards or dance, and those who did not do these things were considered holy. Fortunately, this “movement” did not last long, for they learned that external changes do not change a heart.

Choice originated with God Himself, for He knows that without a choice, there is no real love. When people are forced, coerced or commanded to do something, they do it out of fear of punishment, not out of a heart that wants to obey. Jesus quoted Isaiah saying, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me…” (Matthew 15:8 and Isaiah 29:15).

If we try to take away people’s ability to choose, we are actually taking away their freedom. I believe the ability to choose is going to be what brings about the demarcation between those who love the Lord and those who don’t. Choices reveal who we are, what we love and what we value. God has always valued the ability to choose. He allowed Adam and Eve the choice to eat or not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden (Genesis 3); He allowed Jesus the choice of dying on the cross or not in the garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22); and He allows us the choice of life or death, blessings or curses (Deuteronomy 28).

Choice is the most powerful gift we have been given. For choices have rewards and consequences. We cannot blame anyone else for our choices, for no one has the ability to take away your power to choose. Love is a choice, life is a choice, and every choice we make comes from our heart. If you don’t like what you see in your life, choose to do something different, make a different choice. He lays before you blessings and curses, life and death, but the choice is yours.

Tattoo Removal

Tags

healing, life, Redemption, Tattoo

I was with a small group of ladies the other day and while we were sharing our hearts with one another, I heard the Lord say, “I want to remove tattoos.” Now I realize the title of this blog is going to cause some to think I am about to pull some random verse out of Leviticus and talk about how we are not to mark our body with ink. Or others may be thinking I am going to say, having a tattoo is wrong. Actually, that is not at all what I believe the Lord is talking about. So, if you will follow me for a few minutes, I believe you will hear a word of life and redemption.

As people we have all experienced things in our life that has brought us pain. I tell people, everyone has a bruised soul, it is part of being human. So, there is no shame, because we all have things that have bruised our souls, and we all have the opportunity to be healed by the Lord in this area, if we are willing to open our heart to Him and let Him heal us. Jesus says in Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

The challenge most of us face is the reality that the pain, the sin, the situation has become a tattoo on our soul. A tattoo is a constant reminder of what happened to us. For each person that tattoo may look different, but every person knows what that tattoo reminds them of. In the natural people have tattoos on their bodies to remind them of some event or experience in their lives, whether positive or negative. Tattoos are a reminder, they are a statement. I believe the Lord is wanting us to give him permission to remove the tattoos on our souls that remind us of the pain that was inflicted on us.

One of the things hidden in the tattoo is unforgiveness. It is not obvious, because it is a scheme of the enemy to keep you in pain. 2 Corinthians 2:10-11 says, “If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven–if there was anything to forgive–I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes”. When the Lord removes the tattoo of that memory, the unforgiveness will be revealed and healed.

Another thing hidden behind the tattoo is pride. The tattoo reminds us of an experience that happened to us, so we do not let anyone ever do that to us again. Anger is the anesthesia that numbs the pain, and becomes a breeding ground for pride. Pride in one of its forms, is self-protection, and once the tattoo is removed, the Lord will become your Psalm 46:1, “The Lord is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in time of trouble”.

The Lord is inviting us to let Him remove the tattoos on our souls, not to expose us, but to heal us. Kris Vallaton of Bethel Church in Redding, CA said, “There is nothing God cannot redeem, no matter how messy!” I believe, along with many other leaders in the body of Christ, that this is the year of restoration and wholeness. To be restored, to become whole, God needs to remove some tattoos in your life. Are you willing to accept the invitation of God for tattoo removal?