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!

Restoring the Natural Order of Man – Kingdom Study Series – Lesson 5

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May 042010

You were born for a purpose. You were created in the image and likeness of the Father in heaven for a reason. God created you with the intent on making you a ruler on earth. You were born to dominate the earth. So why are we letting life dominate us? Why do we continue to live in sin? We are out of order. It’s time to return to the natural order of things. The way God originally made it. The way He originally intended for things to be. Ruling under His authority. Carrying out His will. Return to the Creator’s natural order for your life!

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.

In His Image – Lesson 4 – Kingdom Study Series

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Apr 222010

Who are we? Why do we exist? What is our purpose?
We have all asked ourselves these questions or something similar. Sometimes we feel like nothing. We feel like we can’t be anything because of our background, family history, or what we were born into. But that is simply not true. Our lineage goes back to the beginning of time- when we were created- man (male and female) were created. We were made with a purpose in mind. In the mind of God we were designed. He thought it good to create us in His image and in His likeness. You were made for a divine purpose. It’s time to realize who you are, where you come from, and carryout your Father’s heavenly mandate!

Gospel

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Apr 152010

So what does the word “gospel” mean?

Religion would explain the gospel as this: “Jesus coming to die on the cross.” That’s what you have heard, yeah?

But, let’s quit listening to tradition and actually study the word.

Gospel comes from the Greek word “euaggelion” pronounced
‘yu-ahn-ge-le-on’ . It literally means ‘good tidings’ or ‘good news’. Please read the above again… make sure you understand this definition for gospel. It’s important to understand because if we use a word incorrectly then the message can be marred from it’s original meaning.

[Quick-Thought]
You ever had someone you knew, who used a word in a sentence where it didn’t belong? You knew what word or meaning they were trying to get across but they didn’t use the correct word.
Example: Someone is explaining to you how much money they have made in their stocks and they say “I’m making a lot of money because of this comparable interest thing.” Then you quickly add “…you mean compound interest?”
You would only know what they meant because you had previous ‘correct’ knowledge. But if you had no idea about stocks or investing- you would think they were right and ignorance would have been passed on to you. Now we have two people using an incorrect term. How dangerous a “well delivered error” can be. Think about it… many religions, with some having only slight differences in their beliefs; But even slight deviations can be absolutely wrong.

So, gospel means “good news”. What good news?… What is the good news?…

Can it be that religion has misunderstood, misrepresented, miscommunicated the “good news”? Well if gospel means good news- then there are a lot of things that can be good news. Right? Remember what the meaning of ‘gospel’ is, not what religion has taught. Jesus used this word when He was on earth based on our definition of the word. He would not have used a word for some brand new meaning that no one would understand. So let’s look at the scripture containing this word.

Matthew 4
23) And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

I have purposely emphasized what we usually read from this verse. And then everyone says “I go about preaching the GOSPEL!”.
Well… what is it? You have stated you preach the good news, so what is the good news? Come on, Come on- tell us the good news.

Can you imagine reading the newspaper and seeing these headlines.

“A TERRIBLE THING HAS HAPPENED”
“A NEW THING HAS HAPPENED”
“WE HAVE A GREAT STORY”

That would make no sense, because you have told us nothing in this headline. So the fix to these above would be this.

“TITANIC SINKS”
“HUBBLE TELESCOPE TAKES FIRST PICTURES”
“MAN RISKS OWN LIFE TO SAVE NEIGHBOR”

Now we have the headline defined and not just a declaration.

So, what is the good news? If we say, without the understanding, “I preach the gospel!” then we have left off the definition for our declaration of good news. So let’s look at what Christ says is the “good news”.

Matthew 4
23) And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

Ahhhhh! There it is! Jesus went about teaching and preaching the “good news”… of the kingdom! That was the good news he was preaching! If I got a job making twice as much as I make now- that would be gospel (good news). If my son was accepted for a full scholarship to any college in America paid in full; That would be gospel!

So the important thing to remember is to read the bible carefully. We have allowed some words to be defined for us by tradition. We have made the word ‘gospel’ mean all of these other things. Just because a word becomes synonymous by tradition, does not make it correct. Study the word, then get knowledge of the words. Make sure you understand the definition for a word. Check several reparable sources. An incorrect definition of a word can be detrimental to your understanding of the rest of the book, its meaning, and its message. So with all thy getting get understanding. (Proverbs 4:7)

So if you preach the gospel- preach the gospel Jesus Christ preached… the gospel of the kingdom.

Who We Are – Lesson 3 – Kingdom Study Series

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Apr 132010

Lesson 3 dives, just slightly, into Who We Are. Have you ever asked yourself “Who am I? – Why am I here? – Is there a reason for my existence?”

Well, there’s good news… The good news is the good news. The kingdom is the good news. God’s purpose, since the beginning, has been to establish a kingdom on earth with his children ruling under his headship. Through us God wants to impact the earth with his will. Remember the “Lord’s Prayer”?

…thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth just as it is in heaven…”

So you have a purpose, a reason to wake up excited to live! Your father is king and you are an heir. He’s just waiting for you to return to him, so you can begin to live out your purpose he predestined you for!

In this lesson we cover some of the exciting scriptures that satan does not want you to know about. Law that reveals God’s purpose for you, and can unlock your understanding that you were born to do something great! After all, you were made in his likeness and in his image… it’s time we start acting like it.

Setting Goals

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Apr 072010

Every year, around January 1st actually, we have this practice we usually do. We see a brand new start, a fresh outlook, a renewed zeal for doing something in our lives. You may have called this a “New Year Resolution”. It’s an amazing thing actually. We have many days we wish we could do again, and we could really just restart the next day-and let it be a brand new day- but many times we carry over yesterday’s hurts and failures over into the next day and continue to let them control our attitude and outlook.

But there is something different about a ‘new year’. I can’t explain it but, even those who usually drag each ‘let down’ with them day to day are able to get the feeling that they have a fresh start finally. There isn’t a difference from December 31st to January 1st in weather, circumstances, situations, length of days, or anything that is dramatic or observable. It’s just a change in our mindset. So we can actually control this mindset thing.

But, let’s talk about goals for a moment. It’s great to have a feeling of a new start or a new beginning, but what happened to the resolutions of the previous year? There must be something that triggered us to be so anxious for the new year to come so we could start over… right? If we fulfilled all of our resolutions from the previous year we would feel… AWESOME… yea? So somewhere during the year we must have lost our way to meeting our goal. And every year we wind up missing the goal and putting all of our hopes and aspirations into the next year. So we have to change something in our ways in order to get the desired result.

[Related Story]
Dave Ramsey on one of his radio shows was talking about a time when he had a new years resolution to workout. He hired a trainer and was excited to get started. But during his first day he and his trainer had to wait longer than normal wait times to get on a machine. It slowed the process down a lot. The trainer told him not to worry, they would all be gone by Valentine’s Day. And he was right.

So what caused them to give up? Well, I have a theory and I also have a truth.

[Theory]
We have something in mind we want to do- we fail early and spend the next 9-10 months waiting for the next year. So that’s 2 months of success and 10 months of procrastination. The next year comes and we are so unhappy with last year’s results that we try again but we try to go even bigger because we want to make up for lost time. This ends in failure most of the time again. I call this “resolution debt”. The feeling we owe for time missed or opportunities that have passed.

[Truth]
The most important thing we can do though is something very simple. It’s actually more important than working towards the resolution itself. When you have something you want to achieve you need to set a… goal for your… goal. Setting a number goal gives you something to work for. It makes you push harder, faster, and do whatever is necessary to get there when you can see you are closing in.

[Example]
You say “I want to read more books this year”. OK, good luck with that. But if you say “I want to read 2 books a month”. Well now you have something to work for. See if you don’t set a number to reach you will end up doing what the rest of the resolution imitat…, ummm setters,do- you will procrastinate. You will ‘feel’ behind the first month and decide to catch up the second month, but then it’s gone too until your “resolution debt” is so overwhelming you give up until the next year.

It’s time to set numbers to those desired results- after all that’s what will make it a result to be desired.

Now let’s see what the kingdom’s position is on this, shall we?

{Exodus 26}
Here is God’s instruction to Moses on the building of the tabernacle. Read it and look at the specific plan God has to see a ‘desired result’. This is very important, as you actually see this from God throughout the bible. He is very clear. You never see God say in this chapter “I want some curtains!” No no no- he is precise in his thinking. He says in verse 8:

⁸The length of one curtain shall be thirty cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits: and the eleven curtains shall be all of one measure.

Precise!

God also shows us how important it is for us to reach goals- and what to do to prevent from being stopped.

{Phillipians 3}¹³Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

So He says to forget the past, and keep your eye on the potential. You can never birth the potential inside of you if you are constantly looking to the past .

{Hebrews 3}
¹⁴For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end;

WOW! This is so important- you can’t lose momentum. Believe me, when you set a goal the devil is going to want to come and mess it up. It doesn’t matter what the goal is. He knows you were made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26) and he wants to see you fail- not achieve goals. Because when you do, you’re acting just like your father!

I have so many other scriptures I could reference (James 5:11, Hebrews 6:11) but I have two more I definitely want to get in your mind.

{2 Corinthians 11}
¹⁵Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

This is so true- sometimes we think it’s going to be easy getting results, but it is hard work but soooo worth it. You might just get more out of the journey to the result, then you do from the result itself…

…and one of the most important scriptures I believe to this is…

{Genesis 11}

⁴And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven;

Now this one is so good. These people set a goal with a specific desired result (heaven). They were working against God though- so let’s see what God says…

⁶And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

God even recognizes the power he has put in us when we set our mind to something. It’s just a kingdom law. God made it this way- and so the king had to put an end to the rebellion. So the mind is a powerful thing. The tongue is also a powerful thing. (James 3)

So think of some desired results you want in your life. (1 month goals, 6 month, 1 year, and 5 year) Then layout numbers to these goals. (Example: I want to lose 8 LBs within the next 30 days) Then go for it! Set sub-goals on the way there if it’s something big you are working to achieve. This may be how many calories to take in, or what you need to do in order to have your degree in 5 years. Just Do it!

Now write those goals down on paper so you have to look at them everyday and face the reality of how you are doing. Also speak the goals out loud. (Remember there is power in the tongue) Be so committed to what you want to achieve that it doesn’t matter what people think- you tell everyone what’s going to happen. That is exercising dominion over your life! That’s kingdom!

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