Aroma and Bouquet

I used to be a sales manager for the Olive Garden. One of my primary responsibilities in that job was to help educate the waitstaff to know our wine list, to be able to describe our base wines in great detail and consequently to be able to sell those wines to our customers. One of the things I would teach my waiters and bartenders was the differences between a wine's aroma and bouquet. Aromas, simply put, are flavors that the grapes absorb during the growth and fermentation process.

An example of this would be the following: If a wine orchard sits next to an apple orchard, the grapes will naturally absorb the flavor of the apples in the adjoining orchard. Another example of this could be grapes absorbing the flavor and smell of flowers as rainwater runs into the grape orchard from the surrounding countryside. Aromas are absorbed by grapes simply by being in proximity to something else. Aromas can be floral, apple, pear, pepper, ......anything that is naturally occurring in the environment.

Bouquets in wines are a little different. Bouquets are simply the flavors that are infused by man-made intervention in the barreling and bottling process. Examples of these are cedar, oak, smoke, leather, caramel, coffee.......These flavors are purposefully built into the wines by the winemaker to give their product distinct flavors and appeal. This is usually done by determining the type of wood used in the barrels, smoking the barrels, .....the list goes on.

So in summary, aromas are flavors that are absorbed from the natural world while bouquets are flavors that are man-made and infused by the wine-maker himself. With that said, this morning I found myself reading the following verse:

"Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope (wait) in the Lord shall renew their strength......" Isaiah 40:28-31

All Christians are familiar with this verse. It is probably one of the most quoted passages in all of scripture. Yet when I read it I keep finding revelation pouring out of it. In verse 28 it says that the Lord never grows tired or weary and the understanding that flows from his heart and mind is unfathomable. It goes onto say that the Lord gives out strength and increases our power when we are weak. Yet it also lays down a condition. It says that only those who "hope" (NIV) or "wait" (KJV) on the Lord receive His strength, his power and his understanding in given situations.

The Hebrew word for "wait" in the King James Version is Qavah. Qavah is defined as gathering together, or to bind together by twisting. This would be like taking to pieces of twine and twisting them together to make a rope. I have also heard it described as a vine that grows up and wraps its way around a tree.

You may already know this but human skin is extremely porous. Our skin is like a sponge in a sense. When you press something up against your skin your body begins to naturally absorb components of whatever is applied to it. If you take a clove of fresh cut garlic and put it against the bottom of your foot you will start to taste garlic in your mouth within a short period of time.

Our spirits and our souls function in the same way. As we wait (Qavah) on the Lord and the presence of the Lord, as we wrap ourselves around him, as we gather with him, we absorb his nature. We absorb his wisdom, his understanding, his knowledge and his power within ourselves. Just like grapes growing on the vine absorb the aromas and flavors of that which naturally occurs in and around the vineyard, so we naturally absorb the nature of Christ as we consistently entwine with him. And as we do so we take on a divine flavor and aroma that distinguishes us from the rest of fallen humanity.

"But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other the fragrance of life." 2 Cor 2:14-16

Be Blessed

JEB

Talitha Koum!

Last week I flew up to Houston to make the three day drive back down to Merida with someone who is moving his family here from Florida. While the trip was an adventure in and of itself, warranting it's own post on this blog, I feel compelled to share a story pertaining to a family in Nashville, TN that Christine and I know personally. The family I am speaking of is the daughter and the son-in-law of my former pastor and still close friend and spiritual father Ron Crosby. Ron performed mine and Christine's wedding ceremony thirteen years ago and the family I am speaking of was also in attendance at our wedding. 

As the story goes.....I was on my first day's driving between Corpus Christi, TX and Tampico, Mexico last Saturday when I got a phone call from my wife. She explained to me that she had talked with Ron and that Ron's youngest granddaughter Elizabeth had drowned in the swimming pool at home. Elizabeth is two years old and the youngest of 9 children. Michael and Tammy are her parents. Tammy is Ron's daughter.

Apparently the gate to the pool at Michael and Tammy's house had been accidentally left open and Elizabeth had wandered away and slipped in through the gate and had fallen into the pool and drowned. When they found her they pulled her out of the pool, and as Ron relayed the story to me, she had turned blue and swollen and was completely dead. Tammy told Ron that when she looked into Elizabeth's eyes she could see that she was completely dead. She wasn't there anymore. She had no vitals, her heart was not beating and her body had completely shut down.

Michael, Elizabeth's dad and Ron's son-in-law, began to pray over her and rebuke the spirit of death and speak life back into his daughter. In that time Tammy had called her dad and asked him to pray for them. While doing so they asked the Lord to remove all water from her lungs, restart her heart, put oxygen back into her blood and cause her blood to recirculate. All of this happened exactly as they had prayed and Elizabeth came back to life. In all she was apparently dead for about 20 minutes.  

"For the kingdom of God is not about talk, it's about power." 1 Corinthians 4:20

Why do I share this with you? In February we had a several of our Mexican friends from church over for a dinner party and I shared with them testimony of the power of God and how God can even raise men from the dead, even today. I told them I knew of an American businessman whom God told to move to Guadalajara, Mexico many years ago. This man had shared with Ron and I how he had seen God move powerfully amongst the Mexican people, even in ways he had never seen in America. His stories of power and faith in the church in Mexico always intrigued me.

As I shared these things with these brethren in our home I could see openness in several of them. The Lord's desire is that our faith rest not in the wisdom of man but in God's power.

"My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power." 1 Corinthians 2:4,5

Michael and Tammy's faith rest in the power of God. When tested, they turned to the Lord. Yes, they called 911 and the EMT's eventually showed up. But they exercised their faith, prayed and wielded the sword of the Spirit as the first option. They prayed and they moved in faith.

"You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did." James 2:22

Their faith was in God. And he did not fail them. By the time the ambulance showed up Elizabeth had come back to life.

"Talitha koum!" Mark 5:41

As we all move forward in the realm of time we need mountain-moving faith in context of our relational faith. We have a relationship with the Lord and within that relational faith the Lord gives us mountain-moving faith from time to time. In Relational Faith God says, "Go here. Take this job. Do this. Do that. Marry this person. Start this business. Take this vacation. Raise your kids like this. Buy this car. Prepare for this trial. Sell this item or give money to that person." Those are relational commands. That is relational faith. That is hearing God on a relational basis and doing what we are told to do.

"We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says 'I know him,' but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in God must walk as Jesus did." 1 John 2:3-6

And how did Jesus walk? Simply put....he walked in relational faith with God the Father.

"I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does." John 5:19 

"For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know what his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say." John 12:49,50

"I and the Father are one." John 10:30

Jesus and the Father are one through relational faith. And as we walk as Jesus did we become one with both he and the Father. In our oneness with him we have the embodiment of relational faith. We hear God and act relationally. Faith is hearing God and acting (Romans 10:17). And within that relationship we need to believe in the Power of God. We need to have mountain-moving faith within that relational-faith.

"I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. he will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father." John 14:12

"And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well." Mark 16:17,18

We move in miracles, signs and wonders within the relational faith that we have in him. Relationship encompasses miracles. Relationship breeds power. And the power of God validates the depth of our relationship with him.

There are two types of faith. First relational faith, then mountain-moving faith. First relationship. Then power.
Be Blessed,

JEB

www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com.

Rations

I'll just get right to the point......Yesterday morning the Lord put the following verse in my heart.

"Son of man, I will cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. The people will eat rationed food in anxiety and drink rationed water in despair, for food and water will be scarce." Eze 4:16,17

I did not know where it was in scripture yet the Lord caused me to turn right to it. Then my son Joel came and sat his breakfast down on the coffee table right in front of me and walked out of the room leaving me staring at it.

A half of a bowl of dry cheerios and a half glass of water. Looks like rations. I "noticed it". 

Ezekiel 14 outlines the manner in which God judges nations. First the staff of bread which is the economy and subsequent food supply. Secondly, wild beasts which symbolizes martial law and the coming police state. Thirdly and fourthly, the sword and plagues.

The staff of bread is being broken in America and subsequently other parts of the world right now. I'll pray about sharing more about this later.

Take these things to heart brethren. Judgment on America and subsequently the world has already started. Some people just aren't "feeling it yet."

JEB
http://www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com/.

Song

This morning I awoke with the following song in my heart. Take a look.

Song is a powerful thing in the Lord isn't it? It almost feels like you are there. I guess that is the purpose isn't it? When the Lord gives us a song in our hearts, He is in effect trying to take us to another place. He is bringing us into His Presence where His Voice can be heard more clearly. When you hear the music, move towards it. Song is a powerful thing in the Lord.

I once heard Henry Gruver with Joyful Sound Ministries tell a story about how God taught him this principle. As a very young man at the age of 18, he began spending one night a week passing out Bible tracts on the Skid Row streets of Phoenix in 1961. He would walk around after dark and pass out his material to whomever would take one. After many weeks of doing this he started noticing most of his tracts were blowing around in the wind on the ground, having been continually discarded by the people he was handing them to.

In frustration he went to the Lord and asked him how to more effectively minister to the people. The Lord's response to him was simple: "When you walk, I will put a song in your heart and I will give you peace. Only walk where you continually have that song and have that peace. If ever at anytime you lose that song and that peace, stop and go back to the last place you had it and either stay there or continue walking in another direction. Wherever you go, maintain that peace and that song. Now start walking!" (I am trying to repeat the words as best as I remember Henry tell them).

So Henry re-engages the streets of Phoenix. He goes back out one night and the Lord gives him a song in his heart and gives him peace. He continues to walk only when and where he has them. If he stepped onto a sidewalk or in a direction where he lost that song and that peace, he would back up, go to the last place that he remembered having it, and go in another direction. On this night, he eventually finds himself standing still outside of the front door of a tavern in one particular area of downtown. That is where the Lord led him. Everytime he would try to move from that spot he would lose his song and his peace. So he finally just committs to standing still on the sidewalk where the Lord placed him.

All of the sudden, out of nowhere, a drunk man comes flying out of the door of the tavern and charges directly at Henry. The man ran right up to him, got right in his face and started screaming at him. The man was demon possessed. Suddely the man rears back and tries to punch Henry in the face. When he did he completely missed Henry who is just standing there with his feet glued to the ground. Henry can't move. He's just standing there and everytime the man tries to punch him he "miraculously" misses. The Lord was causing him to miss and protecting his servant, who was abiding in God's song and God's peace.

At that point Henry began to pray and ask the Lord to make this man go away. While all of this was happening people were just pouring out of the tavern because a fight was breaking out. So here is Henry, just standing there with his pockets bulging with tracts and people standing everywhere around him. Suddenly the demoniac turns around and goes back into the tavern. At that point God focused Henry's attention on a man standing in the crowd watching what was going on. The Lord told him to go tell the man that Jesus loved him. So Henry walks over, tells this guy that Jesus loves him, and the man just breaks down and starts crying and confessing that he knows that what Henry is telling him is true. Then the Lord speaks to Henry to minister to another man in the crowd who is just standing their crying as he is watching all of this unfold. The presence of the Lord just broke forth in the moment and started dealing with the hearts of the people, and all because an 18 year old kid started walking with a song in his heart. Suddenly people in the crowd are asking him for tracts. He completely emptied his pockets of tracts before the police showed up.  

The point I believe we need to make is this. When we get up in the morning and engage life itself, we need to be listening for a song. Jesus will give us a song if we will listen for it. One of the key ways that his voice manifests is in SONG. It is a powerful manifestation of the voice of the Lord. Look at the following verse:

"For God does speak - now one way, now another - though man may not perceive it." Job 33:14

The word "perceive" in this verse is the Hebrew word Shoor. Shoor is defined two ways in Hebrew. One, it means to be perceptive or discerning. Secondly, it means to stroll about with a song in your heart. So according to the Hebrew language, a person who is discerning and perceiving what God is saying in his heart is a person that also continually has a song in the heart......Do you remember the prophet Elisha? In 2 Kings 3 we find him ministering prophetically to the kings of Israel, Edom and Judah...but not before the music starts playing.

"But now bring me a harpist. While the harpist was playing, the hand of the Lord came upon Elisha and he said......" 2 Kings 3:15

Elisha prophesied as the harpist was playing. Elisha could perceive and discern the mind of Christ because he could hear the song, the joyful sound.

"Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance." Psalm 89: 15.

Worship helps facilitate a flow of the voice of the Lord. Actually, spiritual worship in the form of a song is  the beginnings of the voice of the Lord. He gives a song to us. He speaks to us in song.

"He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God." Psalm 40:3

It serves two purposes in our walks with the Lord. One, we hear God in song as we are fellowshipping with him in prayer. Two, we hear God in song as we go about God's business on the streets of our cities and communities, our jobs and our homes, among our families and friends and among people we do not yet know. The Lord speaks to us in song continually if we will just listen to our hearts. Song is a manifestation of the voice of the Lord. When you are hearing a psalm, hymn or spiritual song you are, in effect, hearing God's voice. Consider the following two verses.

"...be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, ....." Ephesians 5:18,19

"Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God." Colossians 3:15,16

Our hearts should be an atmosphere where both peace and the word of God (the voice of God) dwells in us in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Peace and Song go together as we are "in Christ."

"If any man be in Christ he is a new creation."  2 Corinthians 5:17

The voice of the Lord will carry with us throughout the day, from the time we get up in the morning until the time we go to bed, and even throughout the night at times, in Song. When we go before the Lord in prayer we reach for him, exam ourselves, respond to conviction if he brings it, and then we move in Song. As we leave the closet and go forth in His Work we can expect a continaution of the peace of God that accompanies Song. Song is a powerful thing in the Lord because Song is in fact the manifestation of his voice in one of its various forms.

Can you hear the joyful sound? Can you hear the Song the Lord is giving to you today? Ask for a song and go forth in peace. Ask him for it. It's a part of our inheritance in Him. Be Blessed.

JEB

http://www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com/

jayblackshear@yahoo.com

Rice Cake Prayer and Skirt Steak Hearts

I don't know if you have every taken a bite out of a piece of rice cake before but it's about as pleasant of an experience as eating card-board. No flavor, hard crusty texture, difficult to chew and mostly uninviting. Truth be told, I think some born-again Christians feel this way about praying. To them it's an uninviting process that yields little or no results. I know. I once very much felt this way about spending time with the Lord. Yes, I loved God and even feared him. But I needed to experience Him, learn His voice, become familiar with the manifestation of HIS presence and all of the blessings that flow from it. And all of this really begins for us in our time with him.....In Spiritual Prayer.

Their is a saying in the business world when it comes to "Salesmanship": Facts Tell but Stories Sell. Let's tell some Stories.

In the late spring of 1996 I was renting a room from a friend of mine who owned a home in Frisco, TX. One day before going to work I sat down on the edge of my bed to pray for about 30 minutes. When I started to pray, I began to speak and pray in a foreign language that was unfamiliar to me. It seemed of Slavic origin like Russian or Polish, possibly some type of Easter European language. This lasted for about 2 minutes. I was literally praying in a foreign language.

"All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages (tongues) as the Spirit enabled them." Acts 2:4

When the words stopped coming out of my mouth I just sat their in awe wondering what was going on. I finished my prayer time, went to work and slowly but surely, throughout the day, I began to get very sick. I got so sick that I had to miss work for 2 weeks. I was completely bed-ridden from that day forward for about 10 days. I could barely stand up and move around more than 15 minutes at a time. I was very sick.

"Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin." 1 Peter 4:1

Something interesting was happening to me through that whole experience. Over those 2 weeks I began to posses an insatiable hunger to read scripture. You see, I was still young in the Lord and really had no desire to read my Bible very much. The Lord saw this deficiency in me and addressed it, both through a time of intense spiritual prayer and through the subsequent sickness and transformation of my heart that I experienced through it. While I was on my back for those 10 days, I was in effect actually laying on an operating table of sorts.

God was cutting a measure of the flesh out of my heart. It was a measure of flesh that was keeping me from getting closer to the Lord. Have you ever prepared and cooked Skirt Steak (Fajita Meat)? This cut of meat comes from the belly of the cow. It is a tough cut of meat and has its share of fat and a silver skin attached to it. This skin is an unchewable plastic like membrane that must be removed before cooking and eating.

This was what was happening in my heart through all of this. The Lord was circumcising an unyielded, fleshly, unusable portion of my heart through this infirmity. And in the process I began to have an insatiable appetite for both scriptures and more time in prayer. You don't believe that? Judge it by the fruit. Nothing but righteousness came out of that whole experience. And who was I praying for or what was I praying for in that unknown spiritual tongue? I am not really sure. But I do know that things changed from that day forward with my relationship with the Lord. I was experiencing Spiritual Prayer....in one if its many facets.

During the entire year of 2003 and part of 2004 my family and I attended a church in Richardson, TX. Because our oldest son Kevin was 15 at the time we were subsequently involved in the youth program. This church did not have a youth pastor for most of 03' so we were graciously invited by the senior pastor to help out at times until they brought someone in. When they finally did hire a youth pastor my wife and I were asked by the new YP to continue in the roll we had been playing. We agreed and formed a good relationship with the man that took the job. Sometime around November of that year, on a Sunday morning, I had been in prayer before the Sunday service and during my time of prayer the Lord spoke to me and told me to tell the youth and the youth leadership to fast one day a week through December. He told me he wanted us to devote that month praying that the Lord would move on this group of kids.

So on this Sunday, I went to the YP (youth pastor) and told him what the Lord had spoken to me while praying that morning. He looked at me and said, "Jay, the Lord told me the same thing." So we held a meeting with about 30 or 40,the seminary interns from Christ for the Nations Seminary, and some of the parents that were active in helping and ministering with the youth. During this meeting I stood up and shared with everyone, about 50 people in all, what the Lord had spoken to me and asked everyone to fast one day a week and pray throughout the entire month of December for the youth program. Many people made a commitment on some level for the entire month and we subsequenty went about doing what God had told us to do. We dismissed everyone and stopped holding meetings for the month of December because of the holidays.

We re-convened in January, 2004. All of the adult leadership, the YP, the seminary interns from CFNI and some (not all) of the youth came back together for a leadership meeting around the first week of the new year. When we did it was amazing to see what God had been doing in response to our obedience to pray and fast. The meeting in and of itself took on a level of power and anointing. Prophecy began to flow, people were being convicted of their sins and one lady was baptized in the Holy Spirit. While I was standing in the front of the room I looked at the back row where three of our youth were standing and the Lord spoke to me and gave me an individual prophetic word for all three of them. The Lord spoke to me by the word of knowledge (1 Cor 12:8) and told me what primary spiritual gifts he had put in each one of them. Things just started to move in God.

Two more key things happened because of all of our fasting and praying. One, the Lord began to expose some hidden sins and heart issues in our young adult interns from CFNI. We ended up having to take all of them aside and minister to them one night a week in seperate meetings designed just for them. And through all of that you could see real growth and foundation emerging in them because God was dealing with their hearts. The second thing the Lord did was to change the spiritual and physical atmosphere in our youth meetings. When we officially re-convened in January,  on our first Wednesday night meeting with ALL of the youth, as soon as we walked into the sanctuary, you could literally sense a change in the atmosphere of the entire building. My wife and I weren't the only ones that sensed it. You could literally feel the peace of God in the sanctuary. The air felt lighter, cleaner, brighter, holier. It had a heavenly feel to it. It was more peaceful and orderly. The Lord had literally changed the atmosphere of the room.....and it was in response to our prayer and fasting. God was responding to Spiritual Prayer.

Spiritual Prayer has facets. It has more than one characteristic, phase or aspect to it. In my understanding, real Spiritual Prayer has roughly about 8 or 9 aspects. They are very simple, easy to understand and easy to walk in. It's not hard , not complicated and it GETS RESULTS. Let's talk about the first four.

First, we need to step towards the Lord. Just move towards Him. Reach for the hem of his Robe.

"Come near to God..." James 4:8
"Then Joseph said to his brothers, 'Come close to me.'" Genesis 45:4

Move towards the Lord. Just talk. Sit down and talk. Open up. Move towards the Lord. He's not going to bite. Just move towards him. He's going to respond to our movement. Move towards him.

Step #2. Examine your self.

"Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you- unless, of course, you fail the test?" 2 Corinthians 13:5

Romans 12:3, 1 Corinthians 11:28-32 and 1 Timothy 4:16 all refer to our need to regularly take a good, long and hard look in the mirror. Why?.......

Step #3. Respond to Conviction. I hope this doesn't quickly come across as me being negative. But the bottom line is that sin gets in the way of our moving on to other things with God. Remember my analogy of the flank steak? The Lord wants to cut on us on a regular basis to release us into freedom and peace. Some people say God doesn't see our sin anymore. That's hogwash. Yes, we may approach God with freedom and confidence in Christ (Hebrews 4) but that doesn't mean when we do that he won't point out things to us that need changing. Consider the following verse:

"Your iniquities have separated you from God." Isaiah 59:2

Sin separates us from God. The more we sin the farther we move away from him and the more faint his voice gets. Repentance is the process of moving towards the Lord, responding to his conviction by confessing our sins, experiencing his forgiveness and moving on towards better things with our Father.

"If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives." 1 John 1:8-10

The apostle John wrote this too believers. The circumcision of our hearts is a process. And we deceive ourselves if we ignore that fact. If the Lord shows me something that is not right about my heart (i.e. sin) then I just need to confess it to the Lord and ask him to bring me into the purification process and circumcise my heart. He brings us into the fire and takes the dross out. Read the previous post on Seasons of Fire. This isn't complicated. Man-made theology has brought confusion to so many in our time. It's time to get clear on what amounts to a very simple process.

Move towards the Lord. Just talk to him. Open your heart to him. That is step #1. Step #2, Exam yourself. Ask the Lord to give you revelation about your heart. Talk to the Lord and ask him to help you self-examine. Step #3, Respond to conviction "if" he brings it."

"This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear Friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him." 1 John 3:19-22

If and when we get before him, if your heart is condemning/convicting you, then set your heart to rest by confessing your sin. Look, God is greater than our hearts. He knows everything. If your heart condemns you, confess your sin. If the Lord shows you that you need to carry out some action to make things right then go do the thing God is telling you to do. Make things right with God and with men. And if your heart is right at the moment, if their is no condemnation, then let us enjoy the presence of our Father. Have confidence before him and receive from him in your stance and position of obedience.

Step #4, Prayer is continuous. It is something we "learn" to do continually.

"Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed." Luke 5:16

Read Luke 5:16, Romans 12:12, Ephesians 1:17, Eph 6:18, Colossians 1:9, Col 4:2,12, 1 Thessalonians 3:10, 1 Thess 5:17. The scriptures are replete with passages that admonishes us to be continuous in prayer. Be consistent. Prayer is continuous. Before the day is over, hopefully we will have moved towards the Lord several times. The process we are describing is a repetetive one. It's normal. I correct my kids all the time. But I also praise, hug, kiss and encourage them all the time. Enjoy the process.

This stuff is so simple and fundamental yet the nature of man, the sinful nature, the Adamic nature causes us to drift from fundamental truth. Then we want to know why the Peace of God is no longer there in our lives. It's because we have moved away from simple things that make us powerful and peaceful in Christ. Be fundamentally strong. Be foundationally strong. Put your Fundare to use and be close to God, peaceful in God, powerful in God. This game we play is fundamental. The Kingdom of God, our relationship with the Father, is about fundamentals.

Get some results!!!! You have to be foundationally, fundamentally strong in prayer if you want to hear God's voice. I heard someone say one time that "If you want to hear God talk, just ask him about money." That's semi-ridiculous. That statement may be true on some levels. God does talk to us about money. But if you want to hear God talk to you, ask him if there is any area of your life where he has given you the capacity to walk in HOLINESS and instead you are resisting him. Look, God is trying to get as much of his peace into us as he can. But if we resist him by refusing to acknowledge his voice in conviction when he is trying to trim the fat off of our SKIRT STEAK HEARTS then we will never posses that measure of inheritance.

Posses your inheritance. God has good plans for all of us. He just wants to get the nonsense out of the way so we can move onto more peaceful and joyful things in HIM. Move towards the Lord. He's not going to cook you and eat you. As long as we are sincere, He's going to put his arm around us and remind us of what is not right. We are going to confess it. He is going to forgive, he is going to light a fire and start purifying.....and we are all going to move on with HIM.

We do this everyday. This is an everyday process that ultimately, hopefully, culminates in hearts that are fully dealt with in the fullness of time. The Lord teaches us how to engage with him in real Spiritual Prayer and through the process he trims off the fat and unusable portions of our hearts so we can get on to bigger and better things in HIM. Amen?

JEB
http://www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com/
jayblackshear@yahoo.com

Fundare

I have some friends back in Dallas that have a picture frame hanging in one of the bathrooms of their house with the following words on it:

"This game is about running, throwing, catching and hitting. What is so difficult about that?"....Paul Richards, Baltimore Orioles Manager, 1955-1961. 

Pretty basic statement. I have always appreciated it. It stuck with me over the years. Running, throwing, catching and hitting. So if I want to play baseball I need to learn four basic skills to get started. This same rule applies to all sports in varying ways. In football you have throwing, catching, running, tackling and blocking. In soccer you have running (lots of it), passing, trapping, shooting and saving. You get my point. In all sports you have basic fundamentals that have to be taken on and exercised in the course of a game to gain superiority over your opponent. I think we can all agree on that. With that said, here is our spiritual application....

In our walks with the Lord we also have fundamentals, basic practices or skills that the Lord wants us to learn and exercise over and over. He wants us to continually put certain things into practice so that we can continually discern and operate in His will for our lives:

"Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me - put into practice. And the God of peace will be with you." Philippians 4:9

Paul's admonition to the believers in Philippi was to take the things they were learning, receiving, hearing from and/or seeing in Paul and put them into practice. What were these things he was referring to? When Paul stayed up through the night with the believers in Troas, what was he talking about (Acts 20:7-12)? Why did Paul stay in Corinth for two whole years (Acts 19:9,10) and have daily discussions in the lecture hall of Tyrannus? What was he sharing with all of these people? Was he just evangelizing non-believers, healing the sick and casting out demons? Or was there more?.....

Is it possible that in all of these times we just referred to, that Paul taught fundamental spiritual skills? Was he teaching them how to run, throw, catch and hit...spiritually speaking? I believe he was. In 1 Corinthians 3:10 it says the following:

"By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder...."

The word foundation comes from the Latin root fundare. Fundare is also the Latin root of the word fundament from whence we get the word fundamental. So out of of the word fundare we get both the word foundation and the word fundamental. They both mean the same thing in Latin. The Romance languages (English, French, Spanish and Portuguese) are rooted in Latin..... Spiritually speaking, what do we understand from this? What was Paul doing over the course of time in all of these churches?.........It's simple really. He was giving them spiritual foundation. He was teaching them how to operate in spiritual fundamentals. Once he evangelized them he was showing them how to run, throw, catch, hit, block, tackle, kick, shoot, pass, trap........He was giving them fundamental skills. What fundamentals do you ask? Let's take a look.

In Hebrews 6:1-3 we get a partial glimpse of spiritual fundamentals......

"Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so."

Here we have an almost complete list of spiritual fundamentals. I say almost complete for this reason......I believe, when we look at the totality of the scriptures, especially in the New Testament, we find a few more things that are foundational that make this list complete: Prayer, Spiritual Warfare, and The Heart. The psalmist said "The sum of thy word is truth. (Psalm 119:160). Paul stated that he had been commissioned to preach the word of God in all it's fullness (Colossians 1:25). I am not downplaying the passage in Hebrews 6. What the writer stated is true. However, in looking at the totality of scripture, from a foundational, fundamental perspective, I believe the writer of Hebrews would agree that what I am about to say is true. I believe with all of my heart that the things that make for sound fundamentals fall into the following areas: Baptisms, Prayer, Faith, Works, The Heart, Spiritual Warfare, Laying on of Hands, The Resurrection of the Dead and Eternal Judgment.

Baptisms. There are three of them: Water, Spirit and Fire. Water is a one time of occurrence that has spiritual symbolism. The Spirit baptism is distinct from the water baptism, most often evidenced by tongues, prophecy and various manifestations of power. The Fire baptism is progressive and seasonal as we abide on the narrow path.

Faith. Simply put, Faith is God talking to us and us acting on what we hear (Romans 10:17). It's that simple. And within God talking to us, we come to grow in our understanding that the Lord speaks to us in a variety of ways: Song, Wisdom & Understanding and words of Knowledge, Remembering, Prophetically, dreams and visions. We come to understand that within the realm of faith, of God talking to us, that God ultimately speaks to the heart and that there is a unique relationship between the voice of our hearts and our conscience within us. God speaks to our consciences by way of our heart. We learn that in God there is a formula to faith. Simply Put....The Fear of the Lord leads to Faith > Faith leads to Works > In God's work we find discipline, discipleship and deliverance (DDD) > Through DDD we mature in the way's of love which ultimately is the character of God. So in summary we have Fear>Faith>Works (DDD)>Love........We learn that Pursuit is an element of faith. We learn that the Gospel is simply put.....hearing God which is walking by faith. We learn that the gospel of salvation and the Gospel of the kingdom are different...one composed of the other. We learn that Endurance is an element of faith. We learn that forgiveness is a vital component of keeping the "Faith engine" running like oil in the engine of your car. We learn what "The Faith" really means.

Prayer. It has 4 Levels. The first level is the driver of the other three. The first level is composed of facets. I call the first level "Spiritual Prayer." It is composed of the following facets: It's Continuous. Self Examination and responding to conviction. Repenting from anxiety caused by past memories, current distractions and vain imaginations. Worship in Song. Thankfulness and Praise. Listening. Praying according to God's will with your mind and with your spirit in Tongues........All of these are facets of the first level of spiritual prayer. As we become efficient in this first level the Lord takes us into the second Level while still operating in all things on the first Level. I call the second Level.....Waiting on God. The second level is about the way of the Eagle, about pressing in and waiting for your spiritual updraft to take you to new spiritual heights. The second level has 3 facets.....Effectual Fervent Prayer, accosting God and Persistence.......The Third Level is simple. It is about Awakening the Dawn. It is about grazing on the grass that is drenched with the early morning dew. It is a level in and of itself and it comes and goes in seasons......The fourth level is called The Night Watch. It's about the all-night wrestling match at the Red Sea and by the brook in the hill country of Gilead. It is about Gregoureuo, about pressing through the wall and breaking forth into another level and season of God's destiny for us and the lives of those close to us.

Works. Let's talk about works. Are they optional? What do the scriptures say? What was Paul telling the church in Troas? What did he explain to the churches in the regions of Galatia? What did the apostle James explain about works to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations? What did he say? What did the Lord Jesus say about works to the church in Sardis? What was he expecting from them in this area?........ It's about God having detailed plans for our lives and for the Body of Christ corporately. We are created for specific works and in turn God gifts us and prepares us for specific works. Faith leads to works. We need to show a pattern of God's work. We are to maintain his Work and be zealous for them. What scriptures talk of this? We are to complete the work God gives us to do both seasonally and in the fullness of our lives. Where does it speak of this? Are we judged for our work? Does the gospel of Matthew, Romans, James, 1 Peter and the book of Revelation speak of it? What about Trust in the process? What about morality without works? Do we see "Morality" and "Good Morals" being taught without Faith and Works? What happened to the Israelites in the desert while they had the ten commandments but nothing to do while Moses was on the mountain for forty days? Did Morality without works lead to wicked acts? What about the deliverance of the soul and works? Do we change while we do the work God calls us to do? Is this an optional process?.....Paul discussed these things will all of the churches.

The Heart. It's where we hear God. Their is a relationship between the heart and the conscience that needs to be understood and explained. It is where our "wills" reside.  The sinful nature starts in the heart. A hard heart = a seared conscience. Sin ripens when grace is rejected. Be circumcised. Purify your hearts. Subtle/Hidden motives lie within the heart. From Stone to Flesh. Did man have a conscience in the days before Christ was a man on the earth? What was the status of the conscience in B.C. days?

Have any of you hit a saturation point yet? Good. I think I have. We are supposed to get to a saturation point and then come back for more later. We have not even explored Spirit/Soul/Body, the Laying on of Hands, the Resurrection of the Dead and Eternal Judgment, The Millennial Rule of Christ and vital facets of Spiritual Warfare. They are all foundational, fundamental areas that HAVE to be covered if we are going to play the Spiritual Game correctly. They are foundational. They are fundamental.

Why do you think Paul stayed in Corinth for two years? For what reason was Paul constantly dispatching Timothy, Silas and Titus to churches they had ministered in? Why? What areas where they covering? What was the topic of conversation, the doctrine, the teaching and the counsel all centered around? I submit to you that they were building foundations. They were covering fundamentals. Folks, when we operate in sound fundamentals, nothing can stop God in and through us. That is when we move mountains, when waters part, the dead are raised, the sick healed, the demon possessed are set free, the blind see, the lame walk. When we are foundationally, fundamentally sound in all of these basic areas then the indivudual believer and the body as a whole becomes a force that no demonic principality, no power, no spiritual force of evil in high places can resist.

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. (1 John 3:8)

Do you have fundamentals? Is your foundation strong? Do you abide in the foundation as it was set in your life? Is the work complete or are you still needing areas shored up in your life? Let's talk about the night watch....Or how about Awakening the Dawn? Do we know what it's like to Awaken the Dawn for months at a time? What happens? Are you baptized in the Spirit? Have you ever prayed in another language that was either a human language or a tongue of angels? What does God's voice sound like? In what way's does He speak? Are we being faithful in the work God has called us to? Are we even doing what He has called us to do? Are we delighting in the Fear of the Lord so that we maintain wisdom in our hearts on a daily basis? Do we still Fear him? Or has that fear slackened or been snuffed out all together? Do we have fundamentals? Are we foundationally strong? Do we have the essence of Fundare abiding within us? And are we teaching others to do the same? Are we operating in our Fundare?

Many questions to be answered. Many things to discuss as we go forward with God. Our passions, our desires, the things that drive us, who we are in Christ and our callings in him need to have its roots ultimately finding it's way back to our foundation......Our developing prayer life, hearing his Voice, .....all of the facets of foundation. It all comes back to our foundation. Foundation. Do we have and are we abiding in the fullness of foundational fundamentals? This is the question I feel confronted with personally, in my own walk, in my own journey. Am I abiding in my foundation as it has been given to me?

JEB
jayblackshear@yahoo.com