Discipleship Training Camp

Tags

Character, Discipleship, Growth, life, maturity, Perserverance, spiritual growth, Training

Job 5:17 “Truly, that man is happy who has training from the hand of God: so do not let your heart be shut to the teaching of the Ruler of all. Blessed is the person God corrects. So don’t hate the Mighty One’s training.”

When I was a teenager, I watched a movie called The Karate Kid. This was the original version, with Ralph Macchio, 1984. During that movie, Mr. Miagi was an older man who was a master teacher of karate. And Ralph Macchio was this young kid who thought he knew more than he really did. In the movie, Mr. Miagi had Ralph doing some chores, but Ralph had signed up to be trained in karate, so his attitude was sour at times and his understanding was limited. Little did the Karate Kid know that painting the fence and waxing the car was training for being a national and international karate champion.

God is a lot like Mr. Miagi, He doesn’t always explain to you why He is training you the way He is, but when we are faced with a fight that is going to require specific skills, we are going to see that He trained us for such a time as this.

Maybe it is just me, but I have been in training for over 15 years now. The training has brought me into a church that taught me how to die to myself and have no opinion; into a country that advanced my training to the back side of the desert, where I learned that God alone is the one I can depend on; and it has brought me through the narrow gate by which I have experienced the reality of the kingdom of God and the love of the Father. But I am still in training and sometimes, I have no idea what all the training is for. Some of the things He has had me do, like write books that no publisher wants, or love people that don’t know how to love back, has been like painting the fence or waxing the car. What is it all for?

Proverbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.”

When you are in training and it takes longer than you thought, it can cause hope to be deferred, but the thing about hope is that it keeps rising up in your spirit, keeps pushing you to not give up, to never quit, for you know, that a longing fulfilled is coming. Training is never fun, sometimes it is painful and there are even times when you may ask, what is this all for anyway? But one thing I have learned through all this training, is that I have gotten stronger and stronger on the inside. Circumstances don’t move me, people can’t detour me, and the presence of God is more real to me than ever before.

I know there is a championship fight coming very soon and just like David who had to beat the lion and the bear so he had confidence to take on Goliath, we have been in God’s discipleship training camp. It has built confidence in us that God is a good Father; it has taught us self-control; it has trained our ear to hear His voice; and has taught us what is truly valuable. Wax on, wax off, because we are about to defeat the giant and liberate all the people of God. God is a master teacher and we are in discipleship training camp.

Abraham’s Understanding of Faith

Tags

Abraham, Believe, Christianity, faith, Growth, maturity, Sarah, Supernatural

 Romans 4:20-21 says, “He didn’t doubt God’s promise out of a lack of faith. Instead, giving honor to God [for the promise], he became strong because of faith 21 and was absolutely confident that God would do what he promised.”

Abraham is fondly known to many religions around the world as the Father of Faith. Preachers around the world have shared on the subject of faith, for it is the foundation stone on which the church is built. Many have presented impeccable theological understandings about faith; while others have used some of the most creative means to describe faith. So, with so many great teachings on the subject, it is somewhat intimidating to put out in print, yet another explanation of such a tried, tested and time rich topic. Yet, the depths of this subject are as deep and wide as God, Himself, so there may be no end to the talking points related to this subject, therefore, the decision to bring one more swing at the subject prevailed.

Two primary points jumped out of this text in Romans 4, which is what compelled me to write my perspective on Abraham’s understanding of faith. This is not an exhaustive list, it is just an addition to the wealth of information of the subject. Faith has 2 primary components to it, one faith believes and two faith produces.

1. Faith believes in the face of the facts.

   The fact is Abraham was 99 years old when the angel of the Lord told him, he was going to have a son. Now I know some people think 99 years old was not actually 99 years old back then since they lived so long, but the days of man’s life was cut to 70 after the flood and Abraham was born after the flood, so 99 years old then is the same as 99 years old now. 99 years old, my grandma is 99 years old, she can barely make it, with her walker from the couch to the kitchen table to eat lunch, the dude was 99 years old. This is the fact. Romans 4:19 says, He did not weaken in faith when he considered the impotence of this own body, which was as good as dead because he was about a hundred years old, or the barrenness of Sarah’s womb.” Not only was Abraham impotent, 99 years old, nearly dead, Sarah was 87 years old and had been barren all her life. The facts were almost comical, no wonder Sarah laughed!

When we look at the facts of our situation, whatever it may be, in light of the facts of Abraham and Sarah’s situation, it really puts in perspective, that if they could believe God for the miracle of a child who came from Sarah’s 87 year old body, how much more can we believe God for that job, that spouse, that baby, that breakthrough. It is an insult to talk to God about our problems without faith, when Abraham and Sarah had plenty of factual reasons to debate with God about this promise He was giving to them.

2. Faith produces.

    Faith produces everything we need in order to get the promise God has spoken to us. Faith produces strength, Abraham and Sarah needed supernatural strength to come together as husband and wife, so they could produce what they believed God was promising them. This was no an intellectual ascent they were making, this took some physical activity. They experienced the strength that faith produces.

     Faith produces empowerment for success. God released a supernatural empowerment that opened Sarah’s womb, he released the empowerment that both Abraham and Sarah needed in order to produce a child. God is in the empowerment business. We quit so easily we do not recognize or tap into God’s empowerment, because when our strength runs out we quit, but there is a whole other level of strength that comes if we don’t quit to early. God loves to empower us for success, but it takes faith to keep going, when you want to quit, in order to step into the empowerment that comes through faith.

Faith believes in the face of the facts, faith produces strength, faith produces empowerment and as we praise and glorify God, the result will be full satisfaction and assurance of God’s ability to do what He said He would do. Abraham and Sarah have experienced a faith that produces, because they believed. Abraham understands faith and he wants us to understand it as well, but it takes us doing something that we do not think we can do, until you step out, you will not see the power of God at work in your faith.

 

Comfortable with Contradictions

Tags

bible, Christianity, contradictions, Growth, Spiritual Maturity

Two weeks ago, I was invited to vote for some friends who are in a band competition and while I was watching the videos of the other bands in the competition, just out of curiosity of the talent, or lack thereof, that they were up against, I came across something that has been disturbing me for 2 weeks now. I have tried to shake what I saw and thought, but as I was reading my bible this morning, the same issue arose, and I just can’t seem to shake it, so decided to speak about it.

While watching those music videos, I came across a band that was singing about trusting in God for whatever comes their way, not living in fear or anxiety about the future. The message of the song, was really powerful, but I was distracted by the chickens running around the video and the band members that were trying to catch these chickens. I know I am of a completely different generation, so take this with a grain of salt, but what I see is that people have become comfortable with contradictions. We are saying, or in this case, singing about one thing, yet our actions, the videos people are seeing are not lining up with what we are saying. The message we are speaking is different than the life we are living and we are comfortable with this.

John 18:28-31 says, 28 Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium, and it was early morning. But they themselves did not go into the Praetorium, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover. 29 Pilate then went out to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this Man?” 30 They answered and said to him, “If He were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered Him up to you.” 31 Then Pilate said to them, “You take Him and judge Him according to your law.” Therefore the Jews said to him, “It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death.”

The Jews would not kill Jesus because it was not lawful for them to put anyone to death, but they were okay with someone else killing him, as long as they would not break the Mosaic law. Comfortable with contradictions.

This is very disturbing to me on many levels, because when we get comfortable with contradictions, 1)we are confusing those who are listening; 2)we are more powerless than we realize; and 3)we are deceived and we do not even realize it. The bible never affirmed the idea of being comfortable with contradictions, it actually warned against it. James 3:10-12 “10 Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? 12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.”

I realize generations come and generations go, I know culture changes, and that we live in a day and age where these things are accepted as normal, but the Bible does not change, Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever, and despite what the spirit of the world is saying, the spirit of God is saying that He is not comfortable with contradictions and neither should we be. If we do not speak, sing, shout, show the same thing in our lives, we are living with a contradiction. The problem is not that we have contradictions we have become comfortable with, the problem is that we don’t care. We like saying one thing on facebook and another in church; we like dating unbelievers and are looking for others to say it is okay, we want others to affirm our contradictions and if they don’t we declare they are judging us. I may be from the old school, but one thing I know, is that God is not comfortable with contradictions and neither should we be.

I heard someone say the other day, that he is not concerned with the sins that people struggle with in the church, what concerns him is the lack of alarms that are being sounded in the church about these sins. I guess you could say, I am sounding an alarm, it is time to wake up to the reality that we all live with contradictions, but if you have become comfortable with them and have become comfortable with other people’s contradictions who claim the same name you claim (Christian, disciple of Christ), then we have a problem. It is time to stand up to this spirit that has told us to be comfortable with contradictions.

Disappointment: A Destiny Battle

Tags

Christianity, Christians, Disappointment, grace, Growth, life, maturity, spiritual growth, Truth

Have you ever gotten your hopes up for something and then it didn’t happen the way you thought it would? Have you ever believed you heard God say something, but it ended not turning out the way you believed it would? Have you ever been fully convinced of something, promised something, confident about something, to only have it not happen? Yeah, me too.

Disappointment is a hard pill to swallow, because you hope, you believe, you are truly convinced of something good happening, then that very thing you were so sure of does not happen and disappointment sets in. I was living in Malaysia and working as a permanent substitute teacher at an International School. I was in good standing with the administration and other teachers, in addition, my relationship and effectiveness with the students was evident to all. Three positions in my department came open, this is unusual, since I am in Guidance and Counseling, but all three counseling positions in our school came open. My principal spoke to me and asked which position I wanted, so I told him and he said your name is penciled in, but we have to go to some job fairs and find the other two positions before we can give you a contract for your position. I was elated by this, now my son could attend this school, which was one of my hearts desires, I would have a full time job and this would add income to our family and help fulfill some of our dreams as a family. Everywhere I turned this looked the like blessing of the Lord and to say the least, I was very excited. I believed this was an answer to my prayers, I sensed the Lord say this job was for me, I mean I knew that I knew this was the job, I had went to school for.

Have you ever been in that place where everything lined up according to what you were praying for? Have you ever been fully convinced in your spirit, then it all was in agreement in the natural? Have you ever had so many confirmations about what you heard God say, that you were already spending the money and decorating your office, so to speak, in what you knew was going to happen? This is faith right, being confident of what we do not see and acting as though we already have it. Faith is what pleases God, so I was to say the least, fully engaged by faith in this answer to my prayer. Then one day, my principal comes into my office and says, I don’t  know how to say this, but while we were out on a job fair, we found a husband and wife team, whom of which both are school counselors and we needed the one position and her husband wanted your position, so we gave it to them. I am so sorry, this is such a rare thing that happened, but it is our policy to hire husband and wife teams. He then walked out of my office. Selah!

I sat there in my office, stunned. Really, is this really happening right now, I so convinced that this is what the Lord told me, how did I miss this one? You can only imagine the thoughts running through my head, the questions I had, the temptation to be mad at God. But, I heard a sermon by Bill Johnson on dealing with disappointment and he said how we handle disappointment determines our destiny. I did not understand the relevance of this message, until this very moment. I had to decide was God still good, even though I didn’t get what I want, or was I going to stop believing in God? It was a very real question and whether you hear it in your head or your heart, you are asking the same thing when you experience disappointment.

Bishop Raphael Green says, we go through destiny battles. I was in a destiny battle and did not even realize it. I was disappointed, to say the very least, but one thing I knew, is that God is good and that He works out all things for the good, for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. The disappointment did not go away, but the battle was won, because I decided that even though He slay me, still I would follow. I was not going to let the loss of a job destroy my destiny in God.

Every one of us faces disappointments, some are more hard to handle than others, but disappointment is no respecter of persons. However, it is a destiny battle and how you handle disappointment determines your destiny. The enemy will mock God, He will try and tell you God lied to you, God is not for you, God doesn’t want you blessed, and on and on the mocking goes. But, if you can push past the pain of disappointment, you will hear a whisper that says, it was for my glory. God does not break His promises, He does not lie, He is faithful, He is good, He is our Father, and what you believe about Him comes out when you are facing a destiny battle. Don’t doubt the goodness of God, for in due time, you will reap a harvest for all the seeds you have sown, whether financially or in tears. They are all seeds and He is faithful, even when we are going through disappointment. Win the destiny battle my friend! I did and I know you can and you will.