If They Only Knew

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May 212010

Who are you supposed to be?

What’s keeping you from becoming?

What’s stopping you from being?

Sometimes we think people decide who we are, or at least we act that way. We don’t take risk because of the fear of criticism. Because if we fail at trying, then maybe it would mean we are not who we thought we were. But that’s not true.

The enemy doesn’t want you to realize who you are. If you realize then you might discover something that would save millions of lives and that would be more purposes that could be fulfilled. You might discover some new way to grow crops that is healthy and causes people to live longer lives and the devil would have to deal with them on the earth that much longer. But being successful is the product of many failures. It’s diligence and perseverance that brings the fruit. Look at this scripture the Lord brought to me this morning.

1 Corinthians 2:8
Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

If they had known who He was they would not have treated Him the way they did.

So don’t worry about those around you- what they say, or how they treat you. If they knew what you were going to become they wouldn’t do it. If they knew who you were they’d follow you for the leader that you are going to become. Jesus didn’t let them persuade Him. He knew who He was and what He was here to do. Find out your purpose- you have one! We all do.

So I challenge you- seek purpose everyday until you find it. Then once you have vision, TAKE IT! You might have to hear some things you don’t want to hear, you may have to push on even though the balance is tipped against you- but be diligent.

When the odds seems against you, your coworkers are negative, or even if family and friends seem doubtful, just remind yourself with this saying-

“It’s OK, If they only knew who I was… -But they’ll find out”

Study

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May 202010

I know it’s a simple title, but it is something we really need to realize whether we give enough attention to or not. Let’s look at some definitions.

application of the mind to the acquisition of knowledge, as by reading, investigation, or reflection: long hours of study.
the cultivation of a particular branch of learning, science, or art: the study of law.
Often, studies. a personal effort to gain knowledge: to pursue one’s studies.
research or a detailed examination and analysis of a subject, phenomenon, etc.
a written account of such research, examination, or analysis
a well-defined, organized branch of learning or knowledge.
zealous endeavor or assiduous effort.
the object of such endeavor or effort.
deep thought, reverie, or a state of abstraction

These definitions come from Dictionary.Com

I really love the second one- “the cultivation of a particular branch of learning.”

A farmer will cultivate his crops in order to promote growth in them. He will give much labor and attention to them in order to get the best result. Can you say you cultivate your self for the kingdom? Do you give much attention to who you are supposed to become?

You know I’ve never met a wealthy person who got rich by being lazy.

Proverbs 10:4
Lazy hands make a man poor,
but diligent hands bring wealth.

Do you think “Being wealthy is ungodly!”. That’s not what God says. It’s in the bible! So this scripture needs to be looked at two ways: Physical wealth (money, property, assets)- and most importantly mental wealth (knowledge, wisdom, understanding).

Remember lazy hands make you poor -in every area- but diligent hands bring wealth -in every area-. If you are diligent in your studying you are GUARANTEED to be wealthy, and not because God likes you… Think about that. You are guaranteed to be wealthy because it’s God’s word and remember a king is bound by his decrees.

God spoke these things for our benefit, but so many times we choose to let them work against us. How? By being lazy. Waiting for God to do a miracle. Expecting God just to MAKE you smart, make you intelligent, make you rich. That’s not what God said in his word. Where do we get these concepts?

Read God’s word, study it, and make it work for you. Citizens know the laws and benefits their country provides- yet we choose to ignore the laws of the kingdom of God which are the most rewarding benefits any country has ever provided for any citizen ever! So study-study-study! Cultivate your mind with knowledge of God’s word.

God will reward those that diligently seek Him. He will reward your efforts of diligence in every area of life if you understand this concept and put it into practice. You will ‘do a little thing for a long time’ and then BOOM! God comes gives you a supernatural increase in that area of study. We’ve all had it happen. We’ve worked hard at something and then all of a sudden we get a boost in a short period of time that reaps more results then all the work we had done up to that point. That’s called a Breakthrough! Remember- one plants, one waters, and God gives the increase. He’ll give you an increase in your job knowledge, your skill of expertise, your business, your relationships- everything! You just have to show you mean business and put forth effort. God will give you such an abundant increase because He wants people to see you and see what it’s like to be in His kingdom. God wants His citizens to represent what it’s like to be in the kingdom of God.

Study – Study – Study – Cultivate – Cultivate – Cultivate and watch the Lord work!

The Courtroom

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May 192010

I was speaking to a friend the other day. He asked me, “How can I increase my faith?”

This is a common question we have all asked ourselves. I started with the scripture I think most know ‘Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” But then we delved into this a little bit deeper.

See we sometimes get this idea of faith being like God’s ‘fairie dust’ that He sprinkles on us when we’ve been really good, or read a lot of the bible, or prayed a lot or something. So our concepts are wrong because we have associated faith with something we’ve seen in movies, or read in books. Therefore we have setup a road block on the way to our understanding faith, and that sets us up for failure and feeling inadequate as a believer.

Faith is simply this- ‘Believing in or for something, based on God’s word, regardless of circumstances or opposing information or views, knowing that God’s word is the only evidence you need to substantiate your claim while continuing to trust in Him until it comes to pass.’

See what happens is we believe for a little while. Then when nothing seems to happen or change, we put worry and doubt into the equation. Then we say things like ‘Things like this always happen to me’.

Be careful- remember your words are powerful. You speak and then you end up what you spoke. See faith is powerful and it works both ways. Now I know some who would say “Ohhhh, God’s going to take care of you- we all say negative things sometimes.” -THAT’S NOT BIBLICAL!- That’s not kingdom. The bible say’s ‘without FAITH it’s impossible to please God.’

Did you read that? I-M-P-O-S-S-I-B-L-E! That means you cannot obtain the favor of the one who has the answers – the very One you are asking to intercede and move! We have got to get this! God is Holy. That means He cannot violate His own word, He does not lie, cannot lie, and never will lie. So when we doubt His word, we are doubting Him. And because of His word, the laws of the kingdom, He cannot act without violating His word if He moves in your situation and brings an answer to which you didn’t believe would happen. Now He may cause some things to happen to get you back in line with the kingdom, but He will not intervene until you are in line with His word. He’s just that holy.
He couldn’t make Jonah go to Ninevah- but He could influence Him with a whale. He couldn’t make Paul serve Him- but He could influence Him with blindness. God has His ways to get his children in line with His word so He can act in the earth. But who wants to have to get struck with blindness, or swallowed by a whale before saying “OK God, I’ll listen.”?

When you pray- you need to come to the court room of God prepared with His word. *Remember it’s the law of the kingdom. Ask Him according to His word.

“Lord you said this in YOUR word… , Lord here it is right here in YOUR word God… , Lord I didn’t say this, YOU did.”

See it’s about trusting His word regardless of the story your life is currently telling you.

1 John 3:22
22) And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

He’s a king. We remind Him of His word. God said ‘prove me’ (Malachi 3:10). He’s not a God that lies. We must continually believe for what it is He has promised- based solely on the fact that He said and so it’s just because He says so.

I laid it out to my friend like this. If you had a video camera in the front of your car and you were at a red light. The light goes green you accelerate and a cop then pulls you over for running a red light. You explain to him you accelerated after the light went green, but he refuses to change his decision. So you look at the tape from the camera (which is the evidence) and you decide to challenge the decision in court. From the tape you can see beyond a shadow of a doubt you’re at the light, it goes green and then you can the see the car is accelerating. You see clear evidence and know you are going to win. People tell you to just ‘pay the fine’ but you continue to wait until the court date. Friends and family may say ‘nothing will be changed in their decision’, but they don’t know about your evidence. If they knew about your evidence they would believe too. So you go through all of the constant advice ‘to just forget about it and pay for the ticket’, but you KNOW you’re going to win because of the evidence. You are going to court knowing the verdict because your evidence is completely solid. There is no way you can lose. Court time comes, the situation is laid out in the courtroom and then it comes time for you to state your defense. You play the tape and it is conclusive you are innocent and the ticket is dropped. The jury, the officer, the people in the courtroom may have had a made up mind before you even came in but the evidence changes everything. You win!

Hebrews 11:1
1) Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

God’s word is the evidence. In fact, it is all the evidence you need. When God’s word enters the courtroom and is presented as evidence all other evidence is THROWN OUT! And to quote Dr. Munroe “and with the Father being the Judge, the Witness being your elder brother Jesus, and the Holy Ghost as your counsel- How can you lose?”

It’s fixed! How awesome is it to be in the kingdom. We just have to get our mentality changed from being of this world- and realize we’re from that world. Get in the book, understand the laws and promises and then show up to the court (prayer) and state your case.

My God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in glory! – He’s able to keep that which I have committed unto Him! – He’s able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that I may ask or even imagine! YOU said it Lord! I’m just trusting in You! My Owner, My Provider!

I love the kingdom!

Get Rid of Normal

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May 142010

I’ve been reading one of Seth Godin’s books titled “Tribes“. What an awesome book! Something that I read I wanted to share with you guys here. It’s about breaking the status quo. Breaking the boundaries of normal.

Seth used the double quoted phrase “Everyone Knows”. You don’t always want to have your life, career, characteristics, or business model summed up with these two words. Example: ‘Everyone knows’ you will have a sale at the end of each month, or ‘Everyone knows’ you will be done with an assigned project in so many days- You are in school for a degree and doing a project and ‘everyone knows’ what to expect in your presentation- In a manager’s meeting it’s your turn to speak and you will give a good speech as… yep ‘everyone knows’. How boring for everyone to know what to expect. Change it up! Be bold, be different!

Have a random sale in the middle of the month unannounced until one Friday at noon you hit the intercom system with enthusiasm letting the customers know you will be having a sale for the next 24 hours. (Planned sales are normal, be different, cause ‘sale hysteria’ and the customers will be contacting all the people they know about it because they feel they are playing beat the clock to buy whatever they can within the next 24 hours.)

Finish an assigned project in half the time. If doing that project at school, don’t do the run of the mill ‘good’ project- do a Great project. Spend time actually thinking of what people would NOT expect.

In that manager’s meeting- do something totally crazy that keeps your staff watching and wondering what’s next. People hold on to so much more knowledge when it is engaging!

So break the status quo. Don’t do what people expect- do something that will really break boundaries. Break the norm- get rid of it- it’s boring!

It’s Seasonal

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May 112010

It can be easy sometimes to let the fluctuations of life’s events and circumstances determine our mood. But you need to make up your mind to stop that today. It’s your mind.

Do you know how powerful your mind is? You were made in the image of God. (Genesis 1:26)

Let’s look at something interesting- Mass Hysteria. Mass Hysteria is a very interesting phenomenon. It is a display of the power of the mind. It happens when a group of people form similar symptoms of another individual because they believe it is contagious. It occurs mostly with disease or sickness but has occurred with other triggering events. There have been times when a mysterious substance has been found (chemical, or powder) and one person thought they were getting sick from it and then an entire staff was hospitalized because they all thought they had exposure to what was later found out to be non-toxic. People suffering from mass hysteria have formed all symptoms up to strange spots on their body of similar nature and even loss of consciousness. The mind is a powerful thing. You are what you believe!

What does the bible say about this?

Proverbs 23:7
“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…”

So if you believe you’re supposed to be poor, you will be poor. If you believe you are supposed to be an employee, you will never run a business. If you believe you are to follow, you will never be a leader. If you believe you are where you deserve, you will never have better.

If you believe how others define you, you will never discover who you are!

So as a man thinks… so he is. It’s time to change- but you first have to convince someone, yourself. You can make up your ‘mind’. You can decide to be different. You can decide to change your family tree. You can decide to do the opposite of what you normally would do. You just have to change your mind. Once you get your mind set to something, nothing can stop you. People can define you all they want to- but they will not be able to stop you from becoming who you were born to be unless you allow them to. It’s your mind, make it up. Don’t look at your surroundings, or current position in life, or on a job- that’s temporary.

I was listening to Myles Munroe speak recently about President Abraham Lincoln. Before he became president he was in an insane asylum. Who knew? The next president of the United States of America would come out of the insane asylum, and he was a good one! Paul was a murderer, David was a sheppard boy- but one would write virtually the entire new testament and the other would become king of Israel. What if they had let their positions in life define them. Joshua arose from the prisons of Egypt to become the second in command of the superpower of his day. What a difference when we don’t believe our circumstances but have a vision of something greater.

Remember your current place in life may not be what you want it to be, but it’s only seasonal. Seasons come and seasons go. Nothing stays the same. The only thing that is constant is God and His word.

Mondays Are Awesome

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May 102010

Do you ever hear anyone say this?
Rarely. In today’s society it’s a badge of honor to hate your boss, hate your job, get aggravated in traffic, complain about your wages, and to “just get by” in life. It means your ‘normal’. You fit in with everyone else- well most people. Since elementary school you were reformed into believing if you could be like everyone else you would be alright.

But the truth is being like everyone else is horrible. Being like everyone else is easy. It’s the path of least resistance. It means you’ve settled. Settling is boring and gives nothing in life. What really stands out are the ones who challenge. Challenge themselves, the system, the normal ways, and standard convention. These are the ones who do something worth remembering, who make things exciting, who improve the standard, and who get the most attacks. That’s right… attacks. After all you’re not in line with the rest of the lemmings.

What would life be without these kinds of people. If it wasn’t for these kinds of thinkers, America would still be a colony of Britain. Anyone can fit in- it takes risk to achieve great results.

I like to start off any project or implementation of an idea with the thought of “What is the absolute worst thing that could happen?” When I face these realities, it doesn’t sound as bad as if I didn’t say it out loud and I let it loom in my mind as ‘the end of the world’. It’s not. It can’t be.

I love Mondays! See for me, it’s just another day in the kingdom, and everyday in the kingdom is a good day. So what can I change today, who can I encourage, what can I influence, what area can I impact? Ask yourself these questions. Do you like your life? If not, then change it! Change it all up. You are in control of your life and where you are. Think about this statement…

You are in the position you thought you were worth.

You either need to be where you think you should be in life, moving towards the place you should be in life, or making a change of your direction to go where your purpose is. That’s where true self worth is- fulfilling your calling, exercising your gift, and loving every minute of it.

That’s Kingdom!

What’s Your Plan

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May 072010

Did you hear the weather this morning? If you hear them say it’s going to rain- do you get an umbrella or a coat?

Have you been praying for something for your ministry, or in your life that you need finances for? What’s your plan? God got my attention on this the other day. He asked me “If I gave you $100,000 dollars what would you do with it?”
I couldn’t answer. I didn’t know. I had not got that far. I was waiting for the funds then I would think what to do. But, this is out of order. God is a God of order. You have to have a plan if you go to a bank for a loan for a business venture. You have to have a business plan. God ‘is’ order- so why would He give funds to someone who doesn’t have enough faith to plan what to do with the funds. “We ask God for things but we don’t have enough faith to plan what to do with the answer.”

What great faith to show, by planning your operation, ministry, or business before you have the resources to implement. Without faith it’s impossible to please God. (Hebrews 11:6)

Show God how much you believe that He is Provider. If you have prayed, and you ask according to His will and not your own- then ‘Act’! Do something! Put some actions to your faith. Show you know Him as Abba! Source and Sustainer! Get a strategy! Start a plan! Do something visible for the invisible that’s coming!

It’s Textbook

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May 052010

You ever heard that phrase?
I’ll give you an example. A psychiatrist is working with an individual trying to figure out why someone is depressed a lot. The patient gives them a background of their child life and from this story the psychiatrist draws the conclusion, based on his education, the root of their depression. When the patient says how did you figure this out? The psychiatrist says “It’s textbook.”

What he means is that the persons life, stress, job, family history, or other determining factor is a very common scenario that causes these feelings. It is so common that it was put in a textbook to teach other aspiring counselors so they would be able to recognize this pattern.

I was recently talking with a friend and they were sharing with me how sometimes people make them feel when they act a certain way towards them, or say certain things. It bothered them and they would catch themselves thinking “Why is God letting me be treated like this?”

I told them one of the reasons they feel the way they do- is because they are caught unaware by other people’s actions or behaviors. And this goes back to their preparation for the day. How did you start your day today? It is so important to start off our day with prayer. Communicating with the Father in heaven over the day. The days events, happenings, and works. Who knows what the day has to offer better than the one who made the day. Yet we go into our day blindly- ‘hoping’ for the best. Look at the “Lord’s Prayer”.

“Our Father, who art in heaven- hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done- on earth- just as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread…”

This is a model prayer. Jesus was teaching the disciples how to pray. He told them to call on the Source. Where is the Source? In heaven. Then pray for His will to be done in the earth- JUST AS IT IS IN HEAVEN. Then He says to pray for daily bread. This is not talking about food- but everything you will need for the day. It is so important to prepare for the day and ask God to give everything we will need to do His will and carry out His purpose and work in that day.

Why do companies have meetings? To make sure everyone is on the same page and carrying out the same vision for the business. I’ve never seen an “effective” business hire a manager and say “Just go out their and see what you can do to make us some money.” They train them, give them instruction, teach them the vision of the company- so they can carry out the companies will.

So why do we go about our day and never get in touch with our… can I use the term “Heavenly CEO”? The one who has the vision, the plan, the purpose. We need the ‘daily memo’ so we are not caught unaware. When an employee acts irrational- a good manager is not lost for what to do next? He doesn’t say “Why is my company letting this happen to me?” No, he’s been trained. He’s been made aware that this can happen. He’s been made aware of employee issues. He’s not surprised when these occurrences happen.

It’s the same way with God. Many times we have those people that come up and act in a disrespectful way to us. Our initial response would be “What did you say to me BOY?!?” Because we were caught unaware.
But God is saying “If you had come to the meeting this morning, you would have got the memo.”

See if you are in daily communication -(prayer)- with the King- then you are able to go about the day being about the business of the Father. (Sound familiar? -Luke 2:49)

Pride is then not a factor- because you are ‘working’. And a threat made towards you is really towards the kingdom. You were ready, trained, prepared for that day’s agenda. So now you don’t take offense and are able to be effective because you were looking for it. You’re not caught by surprise because you were prepared in the meeting this morning…prayer. You were trained, instructed, and prepared- so you were able to recognize the situation when it come up. It’s no longer a “What am I going to do” moment; It’s textbook!

Start your day off with God. He will prepare you for the day. He will even tell you what to say.

Luke 12:12
For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.

Try it. You can always go back to your old ways, which are working so well…

Starting each day with communication (prayer) with the home government (heaven).

Now that’s kingdom!

What If

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May 042010

What if we were concerned more about our relationship with God than our relationship with people? We seem to have this backward most of the time. We spend hours with people and very little with God.

If we looked at the kingdom for what it is, the government of Heaven, than we would want to stay in right standing with our home government. We would want to keep our relationship with the government healthy. After all if you are not getting your intelligence daily from the government- what do you know?

We are after all ambassadors for Christ…

First Things First

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Apr 262010

Priority

(Definition from Dictionary.com)

1.) the state or quality of being earlier in time, occurrence, etc.
2.) the right to precede others in order, rank, privilege, etc.; precedence.
3.) the right to take precedence in obtaining certain supplies, services, facilities, etc., esp. during a shortage.
4.) something given special attention.

–adjective
5.) highest or higher in importance, rank, privilege, etc.: a priority task.

Take a look at these definitions for the word priority. Now ask yourself…

Is God your priority, first thing, every day or do you put everything else ahead of spending time with him because “you’re just too busy”?

Well with our refreshed understanding of the word “priority” let’s take a test and see.

Is the occurrence of prayer the first thing on your agenda?

Does God precede all other people, events, and order in your life or do you ever say “I will pray later”…?

Would the Lord say you rank him first in your life? (*Remember- not because you ‘say so’ but by your actions, attitude, and by example)

Does God take precedence in your giving, thoughts, and ways? (*Basically do you discuss with God the plan for distribution and use of resources He has provided you? [money, house, land, personal property])

I love this one
Does God receive special attention each day from you? (Do you carefully strive to be in his will and favor even if it goes against your own?)

Is God of the highest importance each day of your life?

Well how did you do?
I’m looking at these myself and saying ‘Ouch!’ on a few.

If you run a business there are things you do to make sure you are running it well.

-You arrive early in order to make sure everything is clean and in order.
-You make sure the business is ready for production of goods or services as soon as the customer shows up.
-You make sure you are present when the customer walks in the door and ready to serve.
-You make sure to keep good accounting of the business financial records.
-You make sure to keep good inventory of your resources to run the business efficiently and effectively.

After all, if the customer is not pleased with your service, there is no reason for you bothering even to come in. Why would they want to use you as a vendor if your business is dirty, you do terrible upkeep, your goods or services are mediocre, you never open the door on time, you treat them like a bother, and you don’t keep anything in stock they can use? And you want them to reward you with their money?

Let’s look at another perspective…

Jesus is a king. Get religion out of your ahead. Religion let’s you fluctuate your level of service based on your emotions, how you feel, or what kind of day you have had. If He is king- then what gift are you bringing Him each day? Are you bringing Him an offering first, or a basketful of complaints? Sometimes we treat God like that only, a complaint department. A complaint department is a place we really dislike going, we feel we should not have to be there because the product -(life)- should have worked the way we thought it should, and we only finally go there out of last resort because we can’t deal with the problem any longer.

So here we are. Coming to God to pray -(complain)- about your life and God is thinking “I did not know they even came to this place.”

You ever lost a receipt and ‘thought’ you bought something from a store but after going to that business they scan the tag and tell you it did not come from there? Many times we blame God for our product… life.
But God says “I didn’t produce this. This has your brand on it- not mine. Oh and by the way I see the evidence of some horrible material in your design of the product” Who do you get your material from?” Hmmmm…

When we realize that Jesus is a king, and he is from a country (heaven), and heaven is a government -(kingdom)- then we will finally understand you cannot come to God and blame Him for a product He had no business with. It’s time to make a change in your day. It’s time for a reconfiguration of priorities. It’s time to put first things first. After all we plan then design, we discuss then implement, we get the blue prints then follow them.

God wants to put you at the head of everything you are involved with. He wants to establish you at the top of every field in life. He wants to assign you as the leader in each profession on the earth. But He only uses those that are good representatives of the kingdom. After all it’s His kingdom that is being represented through you. Are you a good representative of the kingdom? If you are taking on the role as an ambassador for Christ – are you fulfilling your reasonable duty and service with the up most standards and quality? or are you an example of an official who should be recalled?

I want to stay in right standing with my government.-(heaven)- I want to keep the lines of communication clear.-(prayer)- I want the government to be happy with my work.-(favor)- I want to have access to all of the benefits my government provides.-(covenant)-

I’ve got to keep first things first.

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