Merimnao

I highly recommend that you buy a copy of the book A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 by Phillip Keller.

Having been born to Christian Missionary parents in Kenya and subsequently raised in the rough, tough frontier world of his parents ranch estate, Mr. Keller grew to become a man who was keenly familiar with the life of a shepherdsman. As a young man he eventually became a sheep rancher for 8 years. Through that time he experienced first hand every phase of sheep management and subsequently gleaned many insights from the Lord on what David was seeking to communicate in the 23rd Psalm.

On page 7 of his book Mr. Keller says the following: "Sheep do not just take care of themselves as some might suppose. They require more than any other class of livestock, endless attention and meticulous care......It is no accident that God has chosen to call us sheep. The behavior of sheep and human beings is similar in many ways. Our mass mind (our mob instincts), our fears and timidity, our stubbornness and stupidity, our perverse habits are all parallels of profound importance."

What Phillip Keller is basically saying is that when Jesus chose to call us sheep, it wasn't just a random comment that he pulled out of the air. He had his reasons for saying it. The gospels are replete with passages that define our relationship with the Lord as a shepherd with his sheep. Most of John 10 is centered around this dynamic. Hebrews 13:20, 1 Peter 2:25, .....There are many verses that refer to this principle and define our relationship with the Lord as such. Now let's take a look at the first two verses of Psalm 23:

"The Lord  is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me besides still waters, he restores my soul." Psalm 23:1,2

Consider the words, "He makes me lie down..." There is more to be understood here than meets the eye. In the third chapter of his book, PK writes the following:

"The strange thing about sheep is that because of their very make-up it is almost impossible for them to be made to lie down unless four requirements are met. One, owing to their timidity they refuse to lie down unless they are free of all fear. Two, Because of their social behavior within a flock sheep will not lie down unless they are free from friction with others of their kind. Three, if tormented by flies or parasites, sheep will not lie down. Only when free of these pests can they relax. Lastly, sheep will not lie down as long as they feel in need of finding food. They must be free from hunger."

Are you already sensing the spiritual parallels? Some of them are pretty obvious. The Lord wants us to learn to rest. He wants our souls to be at rest, to be at peace. I believe peace and joy are the ultimate markers of true righteousness in the believers life.

"For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, ...." Romans 14:17.

Consider also the following verse:

"....Seek peace and pursue it." 1 Peter 3:11

The Lord wants us to be at peace. But it is something that must be pursued, something that must be sought out. In the previous two posts we have discussed some of the beginnings facets of prayer: Submission, self examination, confession of sin and hearing a Song. These are all vital and consistent components of our time with the Lord. And also, in conjunction with them, I think we need to understand that the Lord wants us to be free. Free of fear, fear of strife, free of demonic torment and free of worrying about food, clothing and shelter.

In prayer, as we self examine ourselves, we need to take a look and see where our thoughts are. Do we still wrestle with past regrets, present worries, worries about tomorrow and selfish ambition in regards to the future? Consider the following three verses:

"But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead,..." Philippians 3:13
"I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have stilled and quieted my soul;...." Psalm 131: 1,2
"Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:5

These three verses speak of past, present and future. Past stuff. Things you can't control anymore. Decisions that were made that can't be remade. Not to say we can't repent, confess, renounce and cast out the enemy. We can and do. We should. But the past is past. Let it go and ask the Lord to heal you in the areas where you need healing and move forward. Move forward.

Present tense worries. Are you worried about something? What? Be honest. What are you worried about? We all worry at times. It's natural. Sheep are worriers. They worry. Are you worried? The Lord wants to take those fears and worries from us and instill faith in us so that we can rest. The Lord wants us to rest so that he would be magnified in us, so that when we testify about him our words have weight. People will see our peace and be drawn to us, not solely because of the words we speak but because of what they see in us. Trust me, non-believers can at times be just as discerning as believers. Some things are just obvious to everyone, regardless of whether you have God's Spirit on the inside of you or not. Are you worried about something? Go before the Lord and, as the Psalmist says, find stillness of soul. Be still my soul. Be still.

In August of 1997 I was a groomsman in a wedding in Austin, TX. One of my best friends from college got married so I drove down and participated in the ceremony along with all of the functions that surrounded it, pre and post. At the wedding reception my friend's mother walked up to me and said "You look different. You seem different. You seem very content. You seem to have peace." I had known this woman for almost 6 years at the time and she had known me before I had come to the Lord. When she said that to me I had only been in Christ for 3 years. You see, she was starting to see a difference in me. She was seeing rest, peace, contentment, someone that was under the shepherding hand of Christ. She saw some of the beginning stages of fruit and so it gave me a liberty to testify with words what she could see in my actions. The peaceable fruits of righteousness. Hebrews 12. I wasn't perfect, but she could see change.

The future. What worries you? Be honest. We all struggle at times. What worries you? I have them. Money, opportunity, housing, the economy, work, ......The list never ends. Questions. Concerns. Worries. Ambitions. Let's do this. Let's do that. Vain ambition. Pride. Envy, Strife. It all stems from having a mind that is set on the unknown variables that surround our future. What about the future? What do we do about tomorrow? The questions sometimes seem to never end. Past, present, future. What about this and that?

So where do we get the title Merminao? Very simple. In Matthew 6 Jesus said the following:

"Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear..........Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes?.....So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or ......Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." 

The Greek word Jesus uses each time for 'worry' is Merimnao. It means "to give thought to" or "to give a share of your thoughts to something." It means to have a mind that is divided. The Lord doesn't want us to have a mind that is divided among worries. In Proverbs it says that a heart a peace gives life to the body but envy rots the bones (Proverbs 14:30). A peaceful heart generates a peaceful mind. But a house divided will not stand.

My wife and I knew a woman in Dallas some years back. One day my wife had a vision of this woman. In the vision Christine saw this lady eaten up with bitterness on the inside, specifically towards her dad who had previously tried to kill her mother. This lady had allowed bitterness to settle into her heart and it brought infirmity to her body. This woman died of cancer last year, most likely way before her time. She allowed the evil one to snuff her life out prematurely because she couldn't forgive. Her house was divided. And it didn't stand.

The Lord wants us to be a rest, at peace, forgiving, loving, self-examining for any fleshly intrusions, examining everything that passes through our hearts and minds, holding onto that which is good and avoiding that which is evil.

"Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil." 1 Thess 5:21,22

Folks, we need to take out the trash every day. Take out the trash. Have you seen the news over the past two weeks relating to the strikes in France? Government workers have been protesting because the French government is considering legislation to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62. The garbage collection workers in Marseilles, France are on strike. There are over 9,000 tons, that's tons of garbage to be collected right now. It's just sitting in the streets. The entire city stinks right now.

Truth be told, this is how we get internally at times. Trash just sits around, untouched. We worry about the same thing for weeks, months, even years. Some of us don't know life apart from Merimnao. Our thoughts are divided among so many things (past, present, future) it's unbelievable. It's ok to think about the past. Sometimes the Lord directs our thoughts to past experiences and speaks to us in context of them. But it should always be in context of what the Lord is doing in us. It's ok to think about today, just not with a sense of exasperation and worry, responding with fleshly control. Look, there will be things that come up in our days that are unplanned. If we are walking in the shadow of the Almighty then we understand that these things are directed of him so we don't have to worry about it. It's ok to think about the future. We just need to peer forward through His eyes. We need to see prophetically as we look forward.

"Cast all of your anxiety (Merimnao) on him because he cares for you." 1 Peter 5:7
"Do not be anxious (Merimna) about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Philippians 4:6

Cast your Merimnao on the Shepherd. Don't be in a state of Merimnao. Rather, through prayer, with a thankful heart, trust that you can put it all before Him, the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls. He cares for us. He wants us to lie down and rest. Be at peace. In this world we will have Thlipsis. But take heart. Our shepherd has overcome that which is in front of us. It is HIS to will and to do. Be at peace. Rest. Lie down and rest.

"...He giveth his beloved sleep." Psalm 127:2

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

A Holy Balance............Exceeding Expectations

Last Sunday morning I was up praying and found myself bouncing around in the scriptures until I finally wound up in Jeremiah 1:9,10.

"Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, 'Now, I have put my words in your mouth. See today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.'"

After I finished spending time with the Lord we went to a church service at Iglesia Bautista Norte. When we walked in the door the usher handed us the program for the day. We went and sat down and lo and behold guess what the La Leccion was for the day? Jeremiah 1:1-10. The thing that stands out to me is this.....When we think of old-testament prophetic ministry like Jeremiah's we often think of God's Judgement. And rightfully so. Much of the OT prophetic ministry centers around God's call to repentance, discipline and judgment for the stubborn refusal to believe. These principles can still be in play today through prophetic ministry. They are. But there is something else here that we need to consider. God appointed Jeremiah to minister for two reasons: One to tear down, destroy and overthrow.......and two, to build and to plant.

In the previous post we discussed "Seasons of Fire." The Lord brings us into a progressive baptism of Fire.  He has every intention of taking things out of us so that He has room to put things into us. He can only do this through his discipline and our willingness to embrace the changes that come through it. Discipline is seasonal and unpleasant.

"Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are not true sons.....No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." Hebrews 12:7,8,11


The Lord has taken my family and I through many seasons of hardship and discipline. Christine and I were married on June 27th, 1998.  To the right is a picture of a car that I had when Christine and I got married. This is not what the car looked like the day we got married. This is what the car looked like the day after we got married. On the night of our wedding someone (the devil) came by our house and put a brick through my back windshield. I am assuming this was a wedding gift. In many ways this event was a marker of sorts. It was a defining moment. It was a retro-active starting point to God fulfilling a word that he would speak to my wife less than three weeks after our wedding night.  

Five months before we were married, starting on January 23rd, 1998, going all the way through April, 2000, my wife Christine heard the audible voice of the Lord well over 25 or 30 times. It may be more than that. I would have to go back and read through her prayer journals and count. During that heightened prophetic season, on July 19th, 1998, 22 days after we were married, Jesus spoke audibly to Christine and told her the following: ".....your trials will feel difficult and more frequent. You feel pressure like a hot fire bringing the dross to the surface and then it must be dealt with. Trust that I will help you. Stay close. Remain in me. You are my children. I discipline in love. I am taking many things out of you to prepare you. Time is short and I have much work to do through you both."

On September 1st, 1998, 34 days after that word, the Lord audibly spoke the following to Christine: "Child, do not feel apprehensive about the happenings of the world. Nations must fall. They must reap for their behavior. All nations will bow down to the Lord....You have nothing to fear except the fear of the Lord God Almighty. You continue to walk in faith and I will continue to guide your family. This will be a difficult time for you. You feel that your limits are stretched but I know how much you can handle. Remember child, I only prepare you for the time to come.....This sometimes means greater hardships and greater blessings."

On September 17th, 1998 the Lord spoke again to Christine the following: "Endure hardship like a good soldier. Your days of hardship are numbered." The Lord then told Christine that he loved both of us.

These are personal words that the Lord spoke to us as a family. Yet I share them with you for a reason. Folks, The Lord has exceeded my expectations thus far in this life in two areas. First and foremost he has exceeded my expectations on how much he has been willing to discipline us. The Lord anointed Jeremiah to do alot of tearing down, destroying and overthrowing. And I can tell you he has done the same in our lives as well. The last 12 years for us as a family has been mostly centered around God's discipline in our lives. James 1:2 says that we go through "trials of many kinds." 1 Peter 1:6 says we go through "all kinds of trials." I think the trials in our lives can be broken down into three areas: Financial, Social and Physical. I  believe these are the three areas that we can experience seasons of fire in.

Christine has had 3 miscarriages. We lost our daughter Elizabeth to Down's Syndrome and a heart defect 21 days after she was born. Christine has had the trial of lingering back problems stemming from a car wreck where she was hit by a drunk driver. She has had some days where she has barely been able to walk. We have been foster parents and have endured the trials and burdens that comes with it. Our youngest son has been diagnosed with a minor form of autism. (We are expecting him to be delivered from this.) We have been shown the door in two different churches for not conforming when the leadership was in error. We have experienced on-going seasons of isolation between very few seasons of fellowship. We have experienced rejection by family members. We have experienced betrayal from false brothers.

We have lived in 5 different cities in 12 years, not by our own choosing. We have lost two houses to foreclosure, one an investment property, one our principle residence. We have had our share of seasons of living paycheck to paycheck. We've had a season where we had no established income because of unemployment and layoffs (OTR). We have been passed over for promotions and mistreated by bosses at work (Olive Garden, Sam's Club) who despised our witness for the Lord. Seasons of 70-hour work weeks at two different jobs just to keep food on the table, enduring on-going physical exhaustion while at it. I have been a night manager in retail with a season of very little sleep (Sam's Club). We have been constantly on the move both physically and in our work, not by our own choosing. We have known constant changes.

Our testimony may never make the Foxes Book of Martyrs. Our testimony doesn't compare with Brother Yun's in The Heavenly Man. Others have had much worse and still do today. Many of you have similar testimonies. We are not trying to set ourselves above others by sharing this with you. My point is that the Lord has fulfilled his word and exceeded my shallow expectations in just how far he has been willing to go to deal with our carnality and flesh through circumstances and events. He has disciplined us and exceeded our expectations in the process. Remember, I told you that the Lord has exceeded my expectations in two areas. This is the first one.....that being the disciplining of our souls. It has been a hard 12 years in the Lord. And before Christine and I got married I had 3 years of this on my own. For me personally it has been 15 years of distress, development, humility and transformation on some level. And with that, there is another area the Lord has been exceeding my expectations in.......His Blessings and its many forms. I will give you one example.

Back in 1996 I had a pastor who shared a story with me about the Lord's provision in his life. This man was praying about buying a new car for his wife and wanted to make the best decision for his family. After awhile he narrowed down his search to four cars. At that point he just prayed and asked the Lord which car he should buy. He asked the Lord about Car #1. The Lord said that he could buy it. He then asked the Lord about car #2. The Lord said that he could buy that one as well. He asked the Lord about car #3 and the Lord said "Yes." He asked the Lord about Car #4 and the Lord said, "No, don't buy that one." He then said, "Lord, I don't understand. You said 'yes' to three cars and 'no" to one. I don't understand. I am confused. Tell me which car to buy."

The Lord replied to this man, "You are my son. You can pick any of these three that you want. Don't buy that fourth one. It's a lemon." ...............From what I can remember he said the Lord called it "a lemon." Do you get the point? The Lord was trying to show him that he was giving him a choice among three vehicles, but the other one was a bad choice. Just pick one. Do you see sonship in that? Don't you see fatherhood in it? I see a father loving his son and letting him pick which bike he wants to buy, obviously within a budget......This story had an impact on me. Most of my time walking in God up to that point had been about discipline, cleansing and repentance. Love was still a foreign concept to me. The nurturing side of the Father's heart was foreign to me at that time even though, looking back, I know I was being Fathered by Him in small ways. I just didn't discern it.

Fast forward a couple of years from the time when my pastor told me this story in 1996. It is now April 16, 1998. The Lord spoke to my wife during her season of prophetic insight. He told her, "Jay has great understanding and knowledge but love is still foreign to him. In his season to come he will learn much about the ways of love." In my early seasons of development I was taking on the fear of the Lord, the wisdom, understanding and knowledge that flows out of that fear.....and some measures of character from it as well. But the ways of Love, relational love in many ways was still very foreign to me. I was still like a young man who was strong in revelation but didn't understand the heart of the Father towards me. A holy balance between discipline and his nurturing nature was still very foreign to me. In order for me to understand and grow in it I needed to take on not only the discipline of the Lord but I needed to discern and experience his Fatherhood in rest, enjoyment, expansion, growth.......

As God told Jeremiah, it's not just about tearing down, uprooting and destroying.........It's also about planting and building. We need to experience both. We need to experience both sides......A Holy Balance between both the taking out and the putting back in. We need to know lack and we need to know abundance.

"I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength." Philippians 4:12,13

Paul knew both sides to the Lord. We should learn them as well.

Fast forward to January, 2001. The Father had put a bit of money in my lap in that season in my life. My wife and I were in a season where we were prospering financially for a time. We had a friend of the family that had a car that was absolutely falling apart. One day while praying the Lord spoke to me and told me to give this woman my car. Now I have to tell you I didn't want to give this car away because I had just received it as a gift from my sister and brother-in-law. I liked the car that they had blessed us with and I had every intention of driving it for many years and saving it for our oldest son Kevin. I finally had a car with a back-windshield. I had been driving that white Honda in it's wretched condition for over two years. God had humbled me and I didn't expect much more than what I had been given by others. But what I was about to learn was that the Father had a side of his heart that he wanted to show me. It was a side that, like my pastor from some years before, was going to exceed my expectations. The Lord had more in store for me than what I had for myself.

So I get this word from the Lord that I am supposed to give my car away. I don't say anything to my wife. Within a brief period of time Christine says to me, "Honey, I think we should give **** our car." At this point I knew God was confirming it so I began to pray about a replacement vehicle for ourselves. And I have to tell you, in my logical self I was looking at another inexpensive Honda. But the more I prayed the more I kept feeling drawn to Ford F-150 trucks. Honestly, and I know some of you are shaking your heads, my main priority was to stay frugal and spend as little money as possible. But the more I kept searching for vehicles and praying about it the more I kept feeling drawn to Fords. I shared this with Christine and she kept going back to the Hondas. So we went and test drove a Honda one night at the local dealership and the strangest thing happened. You would have had to have been there. The salesman acted like he didn't even want to sell us a car. It was odd. Very odd. You had to have been there to fully understand what I am saying. They acted like they didn't want us in the dealership. So I went home somewhat confused. A few days later Christine and I were eating at Jason's Deli on Hulen road, discussing the whole matter. I looked at Christine and told her that maybe I should just buy this other lady a new car and keep the one I had. But when I tried to reason that out I just couldn't get peace on the whole matter.

Christine finally looks at me and says, "Honey, I think the Lord has told you to buy a truck. Let's go buy a truck." When she said that I just felt a peace come over me, literally. So I asked the Lord for a budget and he told me $17,000.00. We started looking for Ford F-150's the next day. We found a dealership on South Loop 820 in Ft. Worth that was advertising Ford's for $16,888.00. Christine called them while I was at work. She told them I would be there around 5PM that day to see what they had in inventory and test-drive one. They told her they had them in various colors. I show up at the dealership and lo and behold they only have one truck left and it is the color "TEAL". Now don't get me wrong. Teal is nice color in it's own right but not for a new vehicle.... IMHO. I have 3 color preferences for cars: Black, White or silver.........So I ask to test drive the teal truck but they won't let me because an ice storm was blowing through the metroplex.  They ask me to come back the next morning. So I leave and go home not feeling real good about this even though I feel obligated to be grateful. I just said to the Lord, "Lord, forgive me for being vain. I don't mean to make this a big deal but that color just doesn't sit with me. Help me to get over this and accept it."

We show back up the next morning with the family friend that we were giving our car to along with her car that we were going to use as a trade-in for the truck. We walk in the door at 7AM. I am prepared to go "teal." We walk in the door and stand in the lobby. The Salesman that was helping me the day before walks right up to me and says, "Hey! Guess what? We have one other Ford-150 supercab for sale. It's WHITE. The guy that was buying it failed his credit check. It is sitting right outside ready to go. It has already been detailed and you don't have to wait for it." I was just standing there, somewhat awe-struck. My wife is jumping up and down yelling, "Praise-God! Praise-God!" (This was before she had a big tummy). I honestly didn't know what to say. The Lord actually cared about how I felt about the color of a vehicle. It was sort of a new revelation to me. As I took it all in I began to understand a little more of this side of God's heart towards me as a son. I had not experienced this on a regular basis before and so it sort of took some getting used to.

Through that whole experience the Lord exceeded my expectations in bringing more balance into my life. Brethren, I have to be completely honest with you. The Lord has exceeded my expectations on both sides. He has exceeded my expectations in how far he will go to work righteousness in us. And he has exceeded my expectations in how far he will go to Shepherd us in not only our daily needs but in the desires HE places within our hearts. The desire I had in my heart for a truck was placed there by the Lord. And he fulfilled his desire in me and exceeded my expectations in the process. I could give more examples in our finances, relationships and in our health. We just don't have time.

I don't know everything and I don't completely understand the Father's heart in all aspects. I am still learning. I want to learn more. But as we go forward we need to be prepared for the Lord to take us beyond what we might expect for ourselves in both tearing down and building back up. I once heard Graham Cooke say, "God always wants to go farther than we do." I think this applies for both sides. We need to have an expectation for both sides of God's heart towards us. He brings us comfort and He brings us painful discipline. He brings both....a Holy Balance in our lives that can Exceed Expectations.

Be Blessed,
JEB

Seasons of Fire

On August 22, 2005 I went with my son Joseph to get haircuts at Great Clips on El Dorado Pkwy in McKinney, TX. This was where we usually went for two reasons: One, we can use coupons and ....Two, a good selection of "clean" magazines to read while waiting. When we got there I let Joseph go first. As I was seated in the waiting area I looked towards the magazine rack and I found myself staring at the cover of a well known magazine publication. On the cover was a picture of the pastor of the largest church in America.  I walked over and picked up the magazine and read the article inside that was written about this man. I have been counseled against naming names and so for the sake of not risking it, I will leave his name out. But let's just say that the majority of this man's ministry centers around very positive, uplifting, encouraging messages. He has built the largest congregation of people in America on positive and uplifting sermons. I will leave it at that for now.

After I finished the article I just began to talk to the Lord. I remember praying silently, "Lord, I don't get it. What's missing here? When I listen to this man I don't consistently hear the sound of your voice. I don't hear the thunder (John 12:28,29 ) and I don't hear the gentle whisper (1 Kings 19:12). I don't hear either. What is missing?" I specifically asked the Lord: "What is missing?"............The Lord did not say anything to me right away. My name gets called, I get my haircut and Joseph and I go outside and get into our truck to leave. Right as we were driving out of the parking lot I hear the Lord speak the following 4 verses to me: Colossians 1:25, 1 Peter 1:6, James 1:2, Acts 14:22. Let's take a look at them.

"I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness-..." Colossians 1:25

"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials." 1 Peter 1:6

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,....." James 1:2

"...Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. 'We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,' they said." Acts 14:21,22

What do all of these scriptures say together? Very simply put.....there is a fullness to the word of God. Paul's ambition was not to preach it in parts and leave other parts out. It was his ambition to set the full counsel of God, the full measure of the word of God, the fullness of the word of God....before the church. It was his ambition to preach the fullness of the word of the Lord. Very simple. And a major, major, major component of the fullness of the gospel was the reality that as believers we will go through seasons of many and differing trials. Seasons of Many trials. James spoke of it. Peter spoke of it. They all understood it's living reality. They watched it in Jesus' life first hand as a man on this earth. They were now personally living out that type of existence. Varying seasons of trial after trial. Hardship after hardship. And with it....blessing after blessing. Joy, peace, provision...everything we desire from Christ and need in Christ comes while immersed in an atmosphere and a lifestyle of seasonal trials and hardship. It just does. You want more peace? Obey his voice and enter into his trials. You want more joy? Obey his voice and enter into the fellowship of his sufferings. You want to know the provision of the Lord? Obey his voice, get onto the narrow path and experience his unending provision. You want his power? Get on the narrow path and see the salvation of the Lord for as the scriptures say...."The Egyptians you see today you will never see again."

God moves mountains. And he does it on the narrow path of affliction. It is interesting to note that throughout the churches in the regions of Galatia (Lystra, Iconium and Antioch) that the Spirit of Christ, through Paul, chose to warn the churches of one principle thing......."Through many hardships we enter the kingdom of God." The word "hardship" in this verse is the Greek word Thlipsis. The word means pressure, affliction, burden, tribulation, hardship. Thlipsis is the same word used in the following verse:

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble (thlipsis). But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33

Thlipsis. Thlipsis. Pressure, affliction, burdens, tribulations, hardships......and yes.....in the midst of it all......his peace that supraseth all understanding. Thlipsis. Thlipsis. The word comes from the Greek word Thlibo. The word Thlibo means to crowd, narrow, afflict. Thlibo was the Greek word that Jesus used when he spoke the following words:

"Enter through the narrow (Thlibo) gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow (Thlibo) the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."  Matthew 7:13,14

So as Christians we are on a narrow path. It is a Thlibo path. And on that thlibo path we have troubles. We have Thlipsis (John 16:33). It is on this Thlibo path, enduring through Thlipsis, that we progressively enter the Kingdom of God. Thlipsis, which is hardship and suffering, comes as we continually stay on the Thibo path, which is a narrow path. John 16:33 and Acts 14:22 both stem from Matthew 7:13,14. The narrow path that the Lord calls us to is one of seasonal trials and hardship. I say "seasonal" for the following reason: It is important to understand that there will be seasons of restoration and rest mixed in with our difficulties, trials and discipline from the Lord. Consider the following two scriptures:

"On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria." Acts 8:1

"Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord." Acts 9:31

Do you see the contrast? Do you see the balance between the two? God brings balance in our lives. There are seasons of affliction and discipline (Acts 8:1) and there are seasons of rest, peace, inactivity, settling down, growth and restoration (Acts 9:31). There is a holy balance. Balance.

In ministry you have to EMPHASIZE both. You PREACH both. You ACCENTUATE both. You GIVE both. You LIVE both if you are in Christ, on the narrow path, progressively entering the Kingdom of God. You have BOTH. BOTH. Seasons of Hardship. Seasons of Blessing and Rest. Seasons of Both.

In early 1997 I was living in Frisco, TX. The Lord spoke to me one night while I was driving home from work during February of that year and told me to move to Midland, TX. I packed up and moved two weeks after I was given instruction to do so. Shortly after I made this move I found myself attending a ministry conference in Midland. It was a gathering of some local ministries in the Permian Basin and various parts of New Mexico. These men came together to seek the Lord in prayer for a few days to see what the Lord might be doing in that region of the country. On one particular night at this series of meetings I found myself standing outside with two men whom God had appointed in my life to give me oversight and direction in my relationship with the Lord. We started to pray and began to specifically ask God what kind of season we were in. One of the men stopped and looked at me and said the following: "Jay, I am seeing a tree. And a tree has two types of rings in it. Some of a trees rings are flexible while other rings are hard and rigid. One type of ring is developed in rough weather seasons to keep it flexible while the other type of ring is developed in calm seasons so as to make it somewhat rigid....."

He continued..."The tree has to have a balance of both types of rings. If a tree has too many rigid rings in its trunk then when a major storm comes through it can break its trunk and die. If it has too many flexible rings then it will never be able to grow and support it's own weight, eventually falling over, uprooting and dieing. It has to have balance between both." He then looked at me and said, "Jay, this will be a rough weather season for you. You will learn to be more flexible because this will be a hard season on you."

Gee, Thanks. Don't we all love those words of prophecy. But seriously, what this man told me came to pass. My time in Midland, although short-lived (six months to be exact), was rough. It was tough. I didn't enjoy most of it. But the Lord did do some digging around my soul and lifting out of the dross. I got exposed and sifted and I am grateful for it, although it was tough. And it was for a season.

Folks, even as we emphasize trials and hardship.....please understand that there is balance. God does restore us. He broke Job but he also restored him. He sifted Joseph but he promoted him. He tried David but he established him. He afflicted the church in the book of Acts but he restored them to his peace. Do you see the balance? The spirit of Christ leads us down a narrow path where there is balance in seasons. There is a holy balance.


Here we have a scale. A scale denotes balance, weights and measures. It is a symbol of agreement, honesty and justice. It is a symbol of law, of rendering fair decisions, of speaking forth that which is right. When our speech is lacking in one area or another then we become unbalanced and it can hurt others. In Daniel 5 we see the prophet interpret the following words: Mene, Mene, Tekel, Peres. The words meant, "numbered, numbered, weighed, divided." Daniel told King Belshazzar that he had been "weighed on the scales and found wanting." He told him that there were things that were void in his life and because of that he would be judged for it. As the story goes, Belshazzar was killed that very night and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom.

I used to be a manager for the Olive Garden. In the restaurant business there are certain rules that you never break. All restaurant managers are aware of them. One of the main ones is that, if you want to keep your job then you don't ever, ever, ever mess with the ingredients of a dish. Ever. Ever. In my time with the OG I had seen and/or heard of managers intentionally watering down the meat sauce, using cheap "well" tequila in the Topshelf Margaritas instead of the more expensive Cuervo 1800, recycling old meatballs and leftover lasagna from the night before..........I have seen some of these things first hand by other managers. Do you know what these managers are doing? They are cheating on their COGS. COGS is an acronym. It stands for Cost of Goods Sold. In layman's terms it means that everything that you put in a dish, every ingredient, has a certain cost. Four ounces of spaghetti and two ounces of meat sauce each has a certain cost. If I change the consistency and quantity of any ingredient in a dish without approval from the Corporate Office then I have just cheated on my COGS by lowering my food cost. Restaurant managers do it to save money, positively impact their bottom line and ultimately earn better bonuses at the end of every fiscal quarter. In the process what these restaurant managers are really doing is cheating their customers by giving them an inferior product. Are you hearing me on this? They are serving an giving out an inferior product without the authorization and approval of their corporate offices (Heaven). They do it for money (book sales, offerings)...... Does any of this make sense? Are you seeing the spiritual parallel.

Folks, if we change the ingredients then we are cheating. Bad restaurant managers cheat on their ingredients. If I leave an ingredient out of a dish then I am cheating on my COGS. In every restaurant in the country there are "balance-scales" in the kitchen. At every Olive Garden, Macaroni Grille, Chili's, ......at every restaurant in the US there are sets of balance scales in the kitchen that are used on a regular basis by the kitchen staff. The purpose is to weigh out exact portions for each dish. Every dish gets an exact amount of set ingredients. If you willingly and knowingly mess with those ingredients and their portion requirements you are subject to "discipline up to and including termination." Period. End of story. Every restaurant manager knows this. Every bartender, every line cook, ever prep-cook knows this. Everyone. Everyone.

In the kingdom of God, as things stand today, many things are out of balance. Many ministers and many ministries that are in operation today are out of balance. They are leaving out key ingredients as they present the supposed "Gospel" to their adherents. My wife and I have seen it everywhere we have been: Albuquerque, Ft. Worth, Dallas, San Antonio......We saw it for over 15 years in America. Much of what is being served up to the church today is not the Gospel in all its fullness. Do you remember the verses that the Lord spoke to me as I was driving out of the parking lot? One was Colossians 1:25. Paul said that he endeavored to preach the word of God in all its fullness. He was trying to serve up a dish that had all of its ingredients AND every ingredient properly portioned out. Every ingredient. Properly portioned. He didn't want to leave anything out. And every ingredient had been weighed out to the full measure. God's grace is sufficient for us in times of ministry to say exactly what we are supposed to say and how we are supposed to say it.

"...For the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say." John 12:49,50

"Whoever claims to live in God must walk as Jesus did." 1 John 2:6

Jesus said that he spoke what the Father told him to speak and he said things in the way the Father told him to say it. And the apostle John said that we must learn to walk as Christ did. And we who teach will be held to a higher standard of judgment.

"Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly." James 3:1

Ministering is a serious matter. We will all be called to minister at various times in our lives. And when we do we need to aim for balance and fullness of the word as it is given to us. It doesn't mean that we can't make mistakes along the way. I am not saying that. The Lord knows we will stumble along the way. It is just that if we are going to take a position before thousands upon thousands of people, millions upon millions of people, we had better get things right because our words have the capacity to empower or dis-empower multitudes of people over the course of time.

Now for the rest of the story...........It's August 22, 2005. Joseph and I drive home. As a family we finish out our day. The next morning I get up somewhere around 5AM. It is August 23rd, 2005. I go to the dining room table to pray and study. I take out my Bible, Strong's Concordance and my study journal from 2004. I open up my study journal right to my notes from almost a year and a half prior. I looked right at my March 17th, 2004 notes. They said the following:

March 17,2004 - Fire = Testing through Trials. Matthew 3:11, Mark 9:49,50, Luke 12:49, 1 Cor 3:13, Revelations 3:18, Zechariah 13:8, Malachi 3:2. ..........Conclusion: When we don't preach salting, trials, testing we preach another gospel. See Galatians 1. See Acts 14:22.

Folks, Jesus baptizes us with fire over the course of time through testing and trials. Every Christian is to be progressively salted with fire. Jesus himself was baptized with Fire. Fire will test the quality of the work of our lives and our obedience in him. We are commanded to clothe ourselves with Fire. The Lord's intention is to bring us into the Fire periodically and refine us like silver and test us like gold. The Lord himself sits as a refiner and purifier of our souls. Read the passages from my study notes. I just paraphrased each one of them in the exact order in which they are written down above.

Folks, the scriptures give emphasis to this over and over and over and over again. Their is an incredible emphasis given to the baptism of Fire, salting, testing, trials, hardship, the narrow path and suffering over and over and over again in scripture. A teachers voice is to simply be an instrument that sounds off on what is already written down in scripture. We are to say what many teachers and righteous saints before us have said. We are to say what the Lord is saying by his Spirit in the present tense moment. We say what we are told to say. We speak what we are told to speak. We minister what we are given to minister. When we don't we are in disobedience. And when we present something else in its place we are teaching falsely. If God wants to emphasize something and we instead change the ingredients and give emphasis to other things, regardless of what God wants to say and do.....we are cheating on our COGS. We are changing the ingredients around.

The Baptism of Fire is a key ingredient in the overall presentation of the fullness of the word of God. To de-emphasize it or ignore it altogether is to dis-empower the Body of Christ. It creates a false expectation in the hearts and minds of believers about how their lives are to unfold in the Lord. The Lord does not want us to be caught off guard. His speaks to us by his voice. And he speaks to us of things to come, both in general terms and in specific details. Jesus knew about his cruxificion in advance. Paul and Peter knew about their deaths in advance. The book of Revelation speaks of the suffering of the church in advance of it happening. So does 1 Peter. The apostle Paul warned all who heard his message of the price to be paid...in advance. It's called the cross. The cross. Fire. The cross. Fire. The cross. We pick up our cross and follow him. We receive his baptism of fire as we walk forward with a cross on one shoulder.

When we change the ingredients we are on the verge of preaching another gospel, if in fact we are not already doing so. I hope, for any man's sake, that they correct that which needs correcting and make things right. The Lord is long suffering and I am grateful for that. We all need correction. God's Spirit is gracious to continue to work with us to change us. But the time has come for the church to be aware of it's call to transformation through FIRE. The FIRE lifts the dross and make us holy, pure, peace-loving and joyful. God's intent is to make us righteous, peaceful and joyful in his Spirit (Romans 14:17). And it only comes through the Fire. As he leads us there we find a peaceful existence with the fourth man in the furnace. He is always with us to give us peace in the FIRE.

    "Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, 'Weren't there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?' They replied, 'Certainly, O King.' He said, 'Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.' Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, 'Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come Here!'
    So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire, and the satraps, prefects, governor's and royal advisors crowded around them. They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them.".......They trusted in him.........Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the province of Babylon."  - Daniel 3: 24-30.

The Lord not only wants us to be baptized with water but with Fire. And he wants us to have an expectation of it. Their will be seasons of Fire. Seasons of Fire. As we are fire tested we enter into greater measure of his peace. Peace and joy are had through righteousness. And righteousness is had through the fire of discipline. We need to expect seasons of Fire. Expect it.

Be Blessed

JEB