Just checking in...

Hey cyber-world,

Thought I should stop back by and check in for a bit. It's a little after 2 on a Sunday morning and I have to be at church at 8 but I can't really sleep so I thought I'd post something up. I'm working on the rest of the "On" series but I'm not going to post them here for a while. Instead I'm going to leave the first ones up (you will still be able to and are in fact encouraged to comment on both of them) and let those float out there and minister to the masses. I'll check in periodically here and if God does put something in my spirit then I'll blog it. But for now....

I pray that you are blessed. I pray that your businesses, your future, your family, finances, mind, body, and soul are all blessed. Wherever you need healing I plead Christ's blood over you and say that by His stripes you are healed. There is super-natural favor far beyond what you can fathom. There is an increase of Spiritual flow over your life. If you are seeking the Lord I know He will make himself more than known in your life. Everyone that you meet and greet this week will be blessed by something that you say and/or do. Doing/saying things that are contrary to His nature and Spirit aren't in your realm of possibility or vocabulary because He completely overshadows you. When people see you they will only see the Father's glory because he has wrapped you in it. You are wrapped up in, bound by, tied down to, and completely consumed and cleansed by his fire.

THIS IS THE DAY/WEEK/MONTH/YEAR THAT THE LORD HAS MADE!!

On the Word of God

Now, being that we are more educated than our ancestors and we have an ear to the Holy Spirit we need to understand that the Bible is indeed NOT the infallible word of God. Traditionally it has been taught to us that the Bible is our only way of seeing into and through the eyes of God. If that was really the case then there wouldn’t be over 3000 Protestant denominations today because the “Word” would be equal among all men. Only thing the Bible really is to be used for is as a tool to find His word and to reflect on what God did in past situations. So, that brings us to the question of what is the actual word of God. One thing that God has graced me with in seeing things in the now and in present tense is that his word is and can only be present tense. Deuteronomy 8:3 taught us “…do not live on bread alone but on every word that COMES from the mouth of the Lord.” Notice how it didn’t say came or will come but comes (present tense). The only way we can get a real word from God is by listening to him and hearing his voice. Not always does this require us to read our Bibles for EVERY situation that we come across. Now does that mean that we should totally ditch our Bibles? No it doesn’t for scripture also teaches us in II Timothy 2:15(KJV) to “STUDY to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” What else can we study but the main tool that God has given us which is the Bible. The Bible and every translation, concordance, and dictionary in the Hebrew, Greek, or any other language are only tools to find his Word when he doesn’t speak to us directly. They were never meant to be taken as the final authority. They were meant to help us find his voice. When it comes to studying we need to understand that there were 40 different original authors to the Bible with different mentalities, paradigms, and writing styles. We also need to understand that each book is different from the others. While we group books like the Pentateuch (Hebrew Torah, first five books of creation and law) and the Gospels together we need to treat the rest as individual books. Unless a New Testament scripture is quoting Old Testament prophecy or scripture then there is never a time where two books should be placed side by side and connected. We have to rightly DIVDE the word of truth not wrongly CONNECT scripture that have nothing to do with each other.

"On" Series-On Prayer

Prayer as we know it in the 21st century has changed from where it was during the time of our ancestors. Not only have we changed the way we pray but we have also changed what we pray about. For example prior to the Azusa street revival of the 20th century most Protestant denominations prayed according to a strict outline. Enter with thanksgiving and praise, acknowledge that you are a sinner and ask for forgiveness, pray for others’ needs, then your needs, and then close with more praise and Amen was the typical outline. For the Catholic and Orthodox churches prayer was a repeated chant, song, or mass that went from 5 minutes and could last for hours. During and after the revival with the aid and gifting of the Holy Spirit people’s eyes were opened and they became more aware and more educated about prayer. With people praying in the Spirit (in unknown tongues) people began to stand on such scripture as Jude 1:20 “But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit” We began to realize that God had been telling us through his servant Jude that prayer isn’t always to be used in such a manner where it becomes a ritual but it should be used to encourage yourself and others around you. Today, for those of us who do have a close and personal relationship with God and have accepted Christ as our savior and especially those who are walking under the gifts of the Spirit prayer has become more informal as our lives become more and more informal. In yesteryear there were certain formalities in life that a person would go through. For example in the church atmosphere generally everyone would attend church on a regular basis and prepared for church the night before. There wasn’t much of a “come as you are” policy as there is today simply because people thought that God would not accept certain people because of their lifestyle or they way they looked or even the color of their skin so if you wanted to come to church and be accepted you had to dress a certain way and depending on your denomination you even had to act and believe a certain way. If you were Baptist, you carried your Bible at ALL times to church. If you were sanctified, women were not allowed to wear pants or makeup to church. If you were a Jehovah’s Witness your entire family had to be a JW and you weren’t allowed to celebrate any holiday or set foot in any other church except the Kingdom Hall. However in today society a lot of those formalities are gone because we are more educated than our grandparents and our ancestors were. So with formalities gone we learned to see God in a formal yet informal way just like he intended us to see Him. While we have a fear and awe of Him we aren’t ritualistic with him when we pray simply because we have a greater understanding of His loving nature and his willingness to meet us where we are. So, is there still a set formula to prayer? Yes there is. All you have to do is to talk to Him…no fancy fill-ins, no extra drama, just conversation with God.

Speaking of the “extra drama” I understand that there is a time and place for everything. Sometimes intercession does call for a long prayer especially when you are trying to pray for people in a corporate setting and people have made specific requests, sometimes the Spirit really does move in such a way where to anyone on the outside looking in it may look like real travail in prayer. However, there are also times where the extra add-ins isn’t needed. The old church had a mentality of if we wanted something we had to call on the name of Jesus in such a way to get Him off the throne. In reality God is already concerned about your needs even before you pray. If prayer is supposed to be a faith builder then you should enter into it thanking God for things that he has yet to do. Romans 4:17 told us to “….call into being things that were not” When you do that you begin to realize a peace that comes over you to the point where there is no drama involved and you just begin to flow into his manifested presence in your life!!