LONELY

Being alone is not being lonely
Being without God is being lonely
Without God in my life – I am a kite without a string – a bird that cannot sing – a bell that cannot ring
Come to think of it – without God in my life I am not much of anything
On the Judgment Day standing in the long Judgment Line – who’s in front or who’s behind will not be in my mind
Only my sins will occupy my lonely little mind
You see, without God in your life – you’re a kite without a string – a bird that cannot sing – a bell that cannot ring
Come to think of it – without God in your life you’re not much of anything
Being alone is not being lonely
Being without God is being lonely

WHO AM I

I do not want to over do it, yet, I do not want to underdo it either. I have to share how I saw my Sister and the upbringing she gave me.
She has to be the most praying individual I have ever known. I would fall asleep hearing her pray, I'd wake up in the morning she would be praying. I would go outside to play and come back in and she would be praying. Talking to God like He was standing right next to her. And, if she was not praying, she was singing; there was this one song she would sing over and over, and every
time she would sing it she would wind up crying as she sang it:


http://youtu.be/sFilnKaA8a4

She never got to the place that the song became boring or lifeless. Tears would always come. If she knew I was listening she would stop singing and say, "Brother, who am I that a King would bleed and die for."


Psalm 8:3-4 (KJV) ³  When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
⁴  What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

GENTLE WHISPER

(Hebrews 12:9 ESV)

Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?

There is an eternal ingredient in us all and stewardship in this life is important concerning this ingredient. We have the ability to acknowledge it or ignore it. We are all connected to a larger world; the eternal is calling us.  The Father of spirits and His whisper inside us will not over power us; if we can manage to acknowledge it, we receive inspiration to understand beyond the borders of this life.

“But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding” (Job 32:8 KJV).  Inspiration in this Scripture is the Hebrew word neshāmâ (נְשָׁמָה‎), it is the same Hebrew word used in Genesis for the breath of life. This word is used twenty four times in the Old Testament; it is used 17 times for breath, 3 times for blast, 2 times for spirit, 1 time for inspiration, and 1 time for souls.

The breath of life is spirit in us.  As infants when we are born taking our first breath determines life or death.  Our spirit being is in the balance as well; the Father of spirits is waiting for us to receive the breath of life; His inspiration, His Spirit can bring life to our spirit.

This is why the “fear of the Lord” is the source of wisdom, God wisdom. Respecting His gentle whisper of love teaches us His love, His language, and His great wisdom. Being subject to Him demands respect and honor. We must submit to His love and live.      

ENDURING TO THE END

 Daniel 12:13 (KJV)
"But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days."
Endurance stands in the end having taken all it has been dealt. Jesus said of those who endure to the end “…the same shall be saved” (Matthew 24:13). Who would think salvation had anything to do with endurance. Salvation is not as much about rescuing us from trouble as it is taking the troubles and working healing and wealth into us....
The rest we have now is in knowing the rest we will have when it is all over. Jesus is taking us through to the end. “And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:40).
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2).
The deliverance, the healing, the wealth and the wholeness salvation brings is worth all the endurance it takes to have it. The security we have in God’s love is that He is for us and not against us. Salvation is not something we keep in our pockets or wear on our sleeves. Salvation is enduring the storms of life knowing that God is with you through it all and you are His, and you are so convinced you are, it becomes the sustaining strength to carry on when it is all said and done.
“…go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.”

IT DOES NOT EXIST

The old is not the new and the new is not the old, together they are the same in completing in each other. They reflect each other; they agree with each other, the inspiration of the almighty gives us understanding. Enoch lived before the first book of the Bible was written (the canon as we know it). He prophesied of the ten thousand riding on white horses bringing judgment upon the ungodly. Wow! Here is a man, lived before the first book was written and prophecies something written in the last book of the canon. What’s up with that? I have heard it said, “Walking with God is walking in the right direction.”
Daniel encountered God on a level beyond comprehension to me, Enoch did too. John was caught up; Daniel did not go anywhere geographically yet saw the same things. In the same light my sister basically raised me. I slept with her till I was 12 years old. She was the oldest of five and I was the youngest we had to share beds.
She could not read when I was little. This did not hinder her from knowing or walking with God. I learned much from her on that level. Every night she would pray; none of this “now I lay me down to sleep I pray the Lord my soul to keep.” She prayed to God like He was standing in the room. Sometimes I would catch myself looking for Him because she spoke to Him in such a real way, it gave me the sense He was really there.
Enoch and Daniel in my mind was like sister in one sense. Daniel referred to Scripture much and even attributed much of his intercession for Israel as being framed by Scripture. Yet, beyond that he encountered God with his spirit. 
Why did God take Enoch? Wished He would take me sometimes. One time I thought He would and I begged Him not to. I was little then. Even though I am 56 I still feel little when it comes to God. Sister was on the floor weeping and praying in tongues about three in the morning once. I awoke in the middle of that. I was scared. God’s presence was so strong in the room I thought He was going to reach out and grab me or something.
She crawls back into bed and gave me a sense of safety when she did. As she laid there wiping tears and stuff from her face, I asked, “Sister how do you talk to God?” She said, “Just like you do Sister Brother.” I had never read the Bible (heard it taught and preached much) and somehow I longed to know God.
After a little bit of silence, I looked into the darkness in the room, not seeing anything; said, “God I do not know if You hear me or not, this is Bo.” About that time it felt like somebody stuck a vacuum cleaner to my mouth and was sucking the breath right out of me, chill bumps on me like alligator skin. My spirit bore a witness God had stepped into my heart; been talking to Him ever since then. Sometimes knowing God is so comforting, wished He was all I did know.
Is there anything out there any more real or richer? I am not looking for it; it does not exist.

WHEN CARE BECOMES A GOD THING

2 Corinthians 7:12 (KJV)
¹²  Wherefore, though I wrote unto you, I did it not for his cause that had done the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear unto you.

Our care for each other carries truth above our feelings. Our care becomes a God thing not a “whose side are we on.” Truth makes us free as individuals and truth makes us free pluralistically. 

Proverbs 27:5-6 (KJV)
⁵  Open rebuke is better than secret love.
⁶  Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

MUD SLAPPING HAPPY

MUD SLAPPING HAPPY

Psalm 118:24 (KJV)  “This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”

Happy is a choice. Visitors we had at The Fountain this weekend reported we were a happy church. Lord knows I have preached a lot on happy the nine years I have pastored here.  Happy is not something that falls out of the sky and lands on you because you were in the way that day.  Paul said to King Agrippa, “Get a Grip!” no, not really; he said, “‘I think myself happy,’ king Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before thee touching all the things whereof I am accused of the Jews” (Acts 26:2 KJV).

Once again, happy is a choice, we must think ourselves there.  Every day is a glad day with Jesus.

 “Joy in the morning, joy at noon up, joy in the evening too – serving Jesus is a joy not a chore

Joy when lay down, joy when wake, joy all the day through – serving Jesus is a joy not a chore”

As the house of God we are to be “mud slapping happy.” We are lively stones (not dead stones) in this house built up as a habitation for the Lord. Happy to serve Jesus, happy to serve each other, and happy to serve those around us; we are mud slapping happy. Happy is the mud holding these bricks together in this house. So happy we have no mind to be anywhere else than to be with Jesus.

Happy is being content, content with God and content with yourself. So we say to all the King Agrippa’s out there – “We think ourselves happy.”

KINGDOM CULTURE

KINGDOM CULTURE

2 Peter 1:10-11 (KJV)
"Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

Jesus said, “…many are called, but few are chosen.” It all boils down to being teachable. As Jesus said, few step into their election (chosen, elected) because they cannot or will not be taught. Jesus also said, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me.”

Kingdom culture begins with the wiliness to be taught, eagerness to be taught. If we already know what we want to know we cannot know any more than we do. Being a disciple of Christ begins with submission to Jesus and it continues with submission. Learning Jesus is inexhaustible; we can never learn all we need to know as believers individually or corporately.

Consequently, exploration in the kingdom of our God is not limited by institutional paradigms. This exist not to aggravate leaders of institutions or to even challenge authority afforded to them and their positions in the institutions. It exist to keep both leadership and those being led in check to the Cross and Kingdom culture.

We cannot negate the freedom afforded to us when the hinges swing open wide “into” the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It is a freedom afforded only to those willing to be taught, afforded to those with a holy violence of siding against themselves for  Jesus sake and the Kingdom’s sake; “…the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matthew 11:12 KJV). “Many are called, but few are chosen” (Jesus).

GOD'S LOVE LANGUAGE

Obedience is better than sacrifice - Obedience or Sacrifice the thin line between independence and dependence, trust or distrust, belief or unbelief. Obedience is God's love language, what will our life and our living say today?

ETERNAL LIFE OF GOD

THE ETERNAL LIFE OF GOD
Becoming like Jesus is not something that happens without effort; becoming like Jesus takes discipline and it takes having a passion for the task, and having a passion for the task, is simply having a passion for the relationship we have in Christ and with Christ.
The men and the women who walked with Jesus in His earthly ministry understood that discipline; they understood the passion and they understood the price it took for that passion.
This is what the writer of 1 John is saying to us, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life…”
What does he mean here “the Word of life…?” He is simply saying that Jesus is the divine expression of the eternal life of God. This word life here is the Greek word Zoe; Zoe was a word that was used to say God life or eternal life. This life is far from being carnal or limited as the human life is; this life is not measured by days as the earthy is, it is measured by the quality and strength of the eternal being of God.
John tells us that they heard Him with their ears; saw Him with their eyes as they looked upon Him. They experienced first hand this life of God sent from heaven; a life God intended for us to learn and to have as our own. He goes on to say, “For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew you unto that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us...”
Jesus, the eternal life of God has given us the power to become the sons of God. The eternal life of God is a person living inside us; it is not a life after death distantly waiting for us to encounter when we die. The eternal is as much before as it is after, before or after has no claim to eternal; the eternal gives us what we never had and what we could not have before it came. The life of God is God life being manifested in us in the present as we learn Jesus and become what we learn in and through Him.

GO FISH

GO FISH
Matthew 4:19 (KJV)
"And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."
Okay, we caught some fish; we laid our fishing equipment down and began to teach how to catch fish. We have proclaimed it is more important to teach how to catch fish than it is to catch fish. Well, now the fish seem to be less interested in being caught than ever before, and we are left with this great knowledge of how to catch fish and less folks are fishing.
I say it is ti...me for us to catch fish, what better way to teach how to catch than actually catching them. When I was a little boy I would go to the fishing hole to catch fish, there were times fish swam all around me without being hooked once. Then times I hit the hole at the right time and catch all kinds of fish. It has been my experience; one has to be there to catch them when it is the right time to catch them.
I guess at one time teaching someone how to catch fish was more important than catching fish. How we framed the idea then is not working with the context of our world today. Fish are swimming all around us and it is time to simply catch them. Go Fish, you will figure it out if you want to catch them bad enough. If you ever catch one, you will be hooked from then on to hook another one.
Listen, Jesus said He would make us to be fishers of men, not teach us, but rather make us to be. Fishing is just something you do because it is in you to do whether you know how or not.

COME AND SEE

COME AND SEE
John 1:37-39 (KJV)
"37 And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.
38 Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest thou?
39 He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day: for it was about the tenth hour." ...
Look at this mind, acute and aware of His surroundings; nothing in His space is unnoticed in detail. Jesus, Son of man, King of angels is not only aware, He is also available, approachable, and willing to engage and be engaged.
"What seek ye?" He brings their awareness into His space and invites their interest. They asked for more space when they asked where He was staying. Was He willing to open that space? He answers, "Come and see."
Wow! to spend the afternoon with Jesus in His private quarters seems almost unthinkable; yet, this is Him in the very core of His being. What stronger statement could He have made than to have become flesh and dwell among us. He truly is not to high that He cannot be touched by the feelings of our infirmities. "Not to high?" He sets in a heavenly place that is far beyond this world and He still calls unto us, "Come and see." Jesus, Son of man, King of angels has reserved a seat for us all. He has made the invitation for us to sit in this heavenly place with Him. "Come and see."

THE TURNING POINT

THE TURNING POINT
Jeremiah 31:18 (KJV)
“I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the LORD my God.”
Turn: To reverse the position or placement of: to turn a page, to turn a person around. Have you ever wished someone would turn the page already, let us see something different than what we have already seen, or, read us the rest of t...he story. Being stuck in the mud is not fun for anybody.
When “will I” meet the person I really want to meet, when “will I” change for the good, when “will I” get out of here, I am tired of this place etc… There are many reasons why we would want things to turn around. We must come to this realization, things must change in us first, and we must be turned before the different takes place.
There is usually something faulty in us as to why we cannot get any further than we have already been. We are not stuck in this mud because someone or something placed us here, it is simply because we step into this place ourselves.
It is not until we have come to the “bemoaning” point we come to our “turning point.” It has been said, “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.” Regret, disapproval, usually turns into grieving, this is bemoaning.
Regret and disapproval can cause anyone to be stuck in the mud. It usually takes great love to get us beyond ourselves, love greater than us, love that sees what we cannot see. Rescue us Oh God, Turn us and we shall be turned.

POWER TO OVER POWER

POWER TO OVER POWER
Psalm 147:5 (KJV)
"Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite."
Let us take note, understanding is deeply connected to power; Nothing is impossible with God, His understanding breaks through all limitations.
Job 32:8 declares this: "But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." The God of great power who's understanding is unlimited empowers us with understanding. The Scripture tel...ls us with all our getting get understanding (Proverbs 4:7); understanding is empowerment.
Jesus said, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you..." (Acts 1:8). Understanding how God sees things increases our advantage in fulfilling His heart to all generations.
Jesus breathed on them and said "...Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained" (John 20:22-23). It takes the inspiration of the Almighty for us to possess such understanding; to look into someone prophetically and determined when their sins need to be remitted or for accountability sake retained. To understand the broken or the arrogant, to care deeply for both with a understanding unlimited by the limitations of condemnation. Love never fails. Love understands. Love has the ability to see past the limitations presented. "Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins" (Proverbs 10:12). This Hebrew word for covereth is not used as to hide in in deceit and denial, it is used to overcome or destroy. The power to understand over powers the power of sin. "Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite." The power we receive from the Holy Ghost is the power to understand, the power to over power.

HOLY SPIRIT

HOLY SPIRIT
Holy Spirit, inside, outside, over and over, overflowing all that is
Indescribable, undeniable, Holy River rushing through me, into me, and out of me
Inspiration of the Almighty, inspiring me to know, to understand, to be owned and to own
Standing beside me, gentle whispering voice inside me, the breath I breathe as I inhale and as I exhale
Your sword brings both death and life, killin...g that which needs to die and giving life to that which needs to live
Holy Spirit, teach me the Father, teach me Jesus
Flames of fire keep burning so I can keep learning; abide in me as I abide in you
Comforter, counselor, one that walks beside me, one that leads me, and one that guides me
The oil of heaven smeared upon my mind, spirit, and soul, the anointing present in me, my ability
The Spirit of Wisdom, Judgment, Prophecy, Hospitality, Intercession, Faith, and Holiness ever burning in the midst
The seven eyes of the Lord roaming to and fro
Searching for hearts that are perfect towards God, holding all things accountable to God
Setting up, tearing down, turning things over and under, moving out oldness bringing in newness
Reforming, transforming, restoring,
Holy Spirit

LEADERS OR FOLLOWERS

LEADERS OR FOLLOWERS

Corinthians 11:1 (KJV)

Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.

                Leaders are followers also, in fact, how can one truly lead unless they are following after something themselves? A true leader is one so engrossed into their following, their objective become greater than leading itself.  For instance, a child in the corner is lost in worship unto God; so lost, the child becomes totally unaware of its surroundings.  At that point the child becomes the worship leader leading everyone into the space they have plundered into.

                JESUS, catch my heart, catch my whole being; I want to be completely, utterly, lost in YOU