Being Balanced in the Kingdom

 

 Normally my writing is geared towards encouraging people that there is hope beyond where they are. That God has plan for them and wants them to take steps to move forward in freedom and deliverance. However, lately I've been thinking a lot about the need for balance of grace and truth as we minister to others. In some cases, people need the gentle touch of grace, in other cases they need to hear the truth. Both can help people transition to growth and freedom in their lives. As I thought about these two principles, I also was reminded of a sermon I once heard.

In this sermon the preacher spoke about two different kinds of people in a church congregation. One group was called the “Thinker Group”, and the other was the “Feeler Group.”  The “Thinker” group are the ones who would say something like” I really don't care about the worship I would just rather sit and listen to sermons or talk theology/revelation all day.”    The” feelers” would say I would rather experience a longer worship time and less preaching. Again, balance is needed between these two groups.

The balance is this, whether you’re a truth or grace person, a thinker or feeler the concern is that the enemy comes in and tries to cause these people to be at odds with each other. Remember scripture says we are all different parts of the body. No one is more important than the other.  “But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.” (1 Cor. 12:20 NKJV)

The bottom line to all giftings, whether they be the Motivational gifts, Ministry gifts or Manifestation gifts. … The common denominator for each of them is this verse - “But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.” (1 Cor. 12:11 NASB) In other words, we don’t decide when to activate them, He does.

Here is a very brief overview of each gift group:

Motivational gifts - (Rom. 12:6-8 NKJ) These gifts are the intrinsic driving forces of a believer’s life, directing them towards specific acts of service and expression of God’s love.

Ministry gifts - (Eph. 4:11,12 NKJ) These gifts are the talents and abilities given by God to enable believers to serve effectively in specific roles within the Church.

Manifestation gifts - (1 Cor. 12:4-11 NKJ) These are supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit that are given to believers to edify and build up the church.

It is important that we know our gift. Even more important is that we ask the Holy Spirit to help us remain humble when He flows through us with various gifts.

Why is this important? If we really want to be ready and involved with the next big move of the Holy Spirit, we are going to need be balance in these areas. As wonderful as revival is, it can also be messy. The enemy often comes in to work excesses and distortions among the people of God. We need to be prepared.

Lastly, speaking of things getting messy, unless the Lord directs otherwise, I think the next blog will discuss “messy” as mentioned in Proverbs 14:4. It has some interesting renderings in various bible translations.

If you would like to learn more about spiritual gifts, I would like to recommend the two links below for you to check out. Of course, I would be glad to sit down with you to help you discover what God is calling you to.

Sam Storms Blog - https://www.samstorms.org/enjoying-god-blog

Three Categories of Spiritual Gifts - https://spiritualask.com/what-are-the-3-categories-of-spiritual-gifts/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are We Ready for a Move?

Last night I attended a Night of Worship hosted by the young adult group at my church. They did an excellent job! To be honest, they sang songs that I really love but I wouldn’t have expected them to sing. I want to share with you the lyrics from the choruses of a couple of songs they sang, and the message, including scripture God stirred in me about each one.

Our society is full of chaos, uncertainty, fear, not sure who to trust, the list goes on. People are simply broken. They need something different than what's being offered. Last night one of the songs we sang was “This is a Move” by Tasha Cobbs Leonard. Here’s the chorus:

“We are here for You, come and do what You do/We are here for You, come and do what You do/We set our hearts on You, come and do what You do/ 'Cause we need a move/We need a move.”

 Some questions…How much do we really want a move of God? How ready are we to lay aside our agenda? Or lay aside what worked “back in the day?” When the people of Israel were in the desert God gave them fresh manna every day.

 We need a fresh move of God! I believe it began earlier this year at some of the college campuses where revival broke out. As happy as I am for those colleges, I don't want to settle for it happening just for them. I want it to happen here in my town, in my church. I desire to be right in the middle of it watching God move. Ok, the next chorus…

 “There's no shadow You won't light up/Mountain You won't climb up/Coming after me/Lie You won't tear down/Coming after me.” (Reckless Love by Corey Asbury)

 “The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zeph. 3:17 NKJ)

 When God is ready to move. We might be resistant, whether it be out of rebellion, fear or past woundedness. But He will come after us. He loves us too much to allow us to remain as we are. As mush as he wanted to Jonah could not run from the call of God. Neither can we.

 Maybe some of us aren't ready because we are simply broken and wounded, not sure how to heal. Here’s a few lyrics from “Defender” by Rita Springer.

 “When I thought I lost me/You knew where I left me/You reintroduced me to Your love/You picked up all my pieces/Put me back together/You are the defender of my heart.”

 “Hallelujah, You have saved me/So much better this way/Hallelujah, great Defender/So much better Your way/Hallelujah, You have saved me/So much better this way”

“All I did was praise/All I did was worship/All I did was bow down/All I did was stay still”

 Allow God to heal you as you worship before Him allowing Him to do as He pleases with your life.

But I will sing of Your power; Yes, I will sing aloud of Your mercy in the morning; For You have been my defense And refuge in the day of my trouble. (Psalm 59:16 NKJ)

 “But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.” (1 Peter 5:10 NKJ) This is one of my favorite scriptures to teach from. I have a full teaching on it breaking down significant key words in the original language.

 Lastly, as I mentioned at the beginning of this article, people are desperate for change. They're wondering how they can truly be free from the bondage(s) in their lives. They’re turning to ungodly sources looking for help such as new age philosophy, hanging charms in their cars, reading tarot cards, and many other things hoping to find hope and freedom.

 Church, we have the answer! As born-again believers we have the Holy Spirit of God living in us. He wants to do some amazing things in and through us to bring hope to our community. I close with the chorus lyrics from one more song that the group did not sing last night but it's one of my favorites.

 “Go tell the world about me/I was dead but now I live/I've gotta go now for a little while/But goodbye is not the end.” (The Commission” by Cain)

 As I sit here, I think there will be a Part two to this article to share more about how it's time to embrace more than God's omnipresence - which means He is present everywhere. Let's prepare to experience more of His “manifest presence.” Recently I wrote about the “shift” that is coming. I'm not talking about goofy and weird but a genuine move of God where people's lives are being transformed. Yes, the miraculous is part of ministry, but the primary focus is the hope, the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That is what sets people free.

 Until then, let's go tell the world. Better yet let's start right here in our community.

 ¹⁹ Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. ²⁰ Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:19,20)

 

SNEAKY DECEPTION

 DISCLAIMER: This is one of those blog posts that might step on your toes. I would encourage you before you even begin reading to put your steel toed shoes on.

Do you ever wonder why you can't figure out an answer to something you're experiencing in your life? Sometimes the answer is right in front of us, but the devil blinds us. (2 Corinthians 11:14) Recently I was remembering an encounter I had with a friend several years ago. I’ll call her Barb.

Barb was sharing that she was constantly having horrible nightmares. So, we kind of processed some of the typical questions. Then I went over for dinner one night. It was my first time at her home. As I looked around, I saw an obvious cause of her nightmares. She had a great big bookshelf FULL of all kinds of horror movies, heavy metal music and some new age type of mix stuff.

Seeing this, I mentioned to her that she should get rid of them or burn them. Her first response to me was, “I'll just sell them or take to Goodwill.” I said, “No you can't go dump that into somebody else's life who doesn't know any better.” Her response to me was, “Do you know how much money I have tied up in that?” I said, “Is it really worth what it would cost you or another person’s soul?”

You see, that's how deception works. There’s always an element of truth mixed in deception that captures us. It will usually be something we think will meet a need that we have in our life. Here is the challenge for today ask the Holy Spirit to help you do a “spiritual house cleaning”. Walk through your house asking the Holy Spirit if there's anything there that is causing an open door to evil spirits. And not just physical things in your home. Ask him to show you things in your mind that leave a door open to the enemy.

Believe me, nothing or no one is worth for or missing the complete freedom we could have in Jesus. Here are some scriptures to consider.

 ^“See to it that there is no one who takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception in accordance with human tradition, in accordance with the elementary principles of the world, rather than in accordance with Christ.” (Col. 2:8 NKJV)

“O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth…? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:1, 3 NKJV).

When we allow a major area of deception to remain in our lives it causes us to be easily deceived in other areas and causes us to not have the discernment that we could have. Consider the following two quotes.

+Followers of Jesus Christ must continually keep their balance by keeping their eyes on Him. The moment we turn our attention to the side, our steps weave and waver. If we try to follow anything or anybody but God, we can get off the narrow track altogether and it takes a lot of effort to get back where we belong.” (J.W. Goll)

On a website called another author says, “God warned His people of spiritual scams. “Let no one cheat you of your reward.” “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men” (Col. 2:8,18). “In their greed they will exploit you with false words” (2Pet. 2:3). Watching others being spiritually exploited is even more agonizing for the godly than a financial scam.” (https://www.biblequestions.org/bqar669.html)

Lastly, deception doesn't just come through people being deceptive spiritually with scripture. It's amazing how many people, Christians and non-Christians are deceived by get rich scams, false loan companies, meeting people online who they never get to meet in person, people giving sob stories telling you they need money, making excuses for why they can never follow through with things they say they're going to do because they don't intend to.

I close with this, as mentioned above walk through your home and do a “spiritual house cleansing” and in your prayer ask you if there is any other area of your life that you're being deceived. This is important because unchecked deception will make you easily susceptible to deception/scams in other areas of your life. We are in the last days. We need the gift of discernment to be strong in us more than ever.

Gleaning from Jude 1:20-23 below is a list of 7 Ways Christians Can Avoid Deception as explained at the following website. https://rosilindjukic.com/christians-avoid-deception/

1. Build yourself up in your most holy faith

2. Pray in the Holy Spirit

3. Keep yourself in the love of God

4. Look for mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads unto eternal life

5. Have compassion….but with discernment

6. Rescue others with fear, pulling them out of the fire

7. Hate sin

 Here is the list of traits to guard against from https://fightcybercrime.org/scams/imposter

• Their messages are poorly written, inconsistent, or vague.
• They ask you to start communicating by text or personal email, away from the original site you met on.
• After just a short amount of time, they profess their love or strong feelings for you.
• After gaining your trust, they start telling you stories of bad luck or illnesses.
• They indirectly or directly ask for money, especially in the form of gift cards or wire transfer, for things like medical bills, emergencies, car troubles or travel expenses to come visit you.
• They offer various excuses trying to explain why they can’t show you more photos of themselves or speak with you on video chat.
• They always make excuses as to why they can’t meet in person.
• When you do agree to meet, they cancel or postpone.