The apostle Paul once prayed that the Ephesians would know God in a way that goes beyond knowledge. What transcends knowledge? EXPERIENCE! Read and listen with intent to the way Paul prayed: “…to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Eph 3:19-21.

Why then do we settle for anything less? Why do we choose not to go to this place of fullness and exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think? Why do we choose the ordinary above the extraordinary? Because the ordinary doesn’t require faith and the ordinary doesn’t require obedience to God. At the end of the day it boils down to mediocre Christianity.

You can choose to go where most choose not to go. You can choose to live a life led by the Holy Spirit. You can choose to seek His guidance and then in faith obey Him in everything. To your mind this will be foolishness but to your spirit this will be food. How will we know we are filled with the fullness of God? Fullness is measured in overflow. When the fullness of GOD overflows, the Kingdom of God will be visible. Jesus and the early church showed us something of what this might look like. The dead were raised, the sick were healed, the demon possessed was freed, the poor were fed and the good news was accepted by many. Can we afford not to live this normal Christian life?

You choose.

“But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Matt 12:28

The Holy Spirit encompasses the Kingdom. While they are not the same, they are inseparable. The Holy Spirit enforces the lordship of Jesus. The King’s domain becomes evident through His work. When the Kingdom of God comes upon someone, powers of darkness are forced to leave.

By far the greatest gift ever received by us is the Holy Spirit Himself. Those who discover the value of His presence enter realms of intimacy with God never previously considered possible. Out of this vital relationship arises a ministry of power that formerly was only a dream. I will be with you is a promise made by God to all His servants. In the New Testament, this promise came to all believers through the Great Commission. It comes when God has required something of us that is humanly impossible. It’s the presence of God that links us to the impossible. His presence makes anything possible. God doesn’t have to try to do supernatural things. He is supernatural. He would have to try not to be. If He is invited to a situation, we should expect nothing but supernatural invasion.

A bottle is not completely full until it overflows. So is it with the Holy Spirit. Fullness is measured in overflow. I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I will know I’m filled when I’m overflowing. I will know you are filled when you are overflowing. And when enough of us overflow God will flood our communities and the Kingdom of God will be upon us. Demons will recognize normal Christians and run. People will be set free. The rule of God will be restored.

Inspired by When Heaven Invades Earth, Bill Johnson – a must read!

18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matt 28:18-20 (NIV)

The original plan was never aborted.

Something is happening in me. The normal Christian life appear more and more detached from the God of the Bible. The God who showed Himself to His people as loving, just, mighty and powerful. The God who in Jesus Christ showed us what it’s like when His sphere of influence invades a broken world. The God who appointed us to continue showing this world what it’s like when He is allowed to establish His Influence (or His Kingdom as He calls it).

10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Matt 6:10 (NIV)

Imagine what the normal Christian life should look like – as it is in heaven!

Something is happening in me. I hunger for a greater understanding of God. I want “as it is in heaven” right here right now. The Bible teaches me that this understanding will come through experience that will go beyond knowledge. This experience will always take people to Him. Although the experience in itself is not what I hunger for, it is inevitably part of it. When it’s not, I believe we are missing out on who He is. I hate missing out on what belongs to me.

Something is happening in me. What’s happening in you?

In the Bible Jesus instructs His followers to be a blessing, heal the sick, raise the dead and cast out demons while they bring the Good News to the people. Normal New Testament Christianity was an expression of love and power.

We should be giving birth to …

Dying to ourselves…

Getting amputated…

Getting brainwashed..

Heart surgery should be a common pratice….

Loud New born babies cries …

Brain replacement…..

………….

From Jim Cymbala

As a minister there is a great danger of compromising.Nowedays ,one of the great compromise is to talk about God ,his goodness which is not too in your face but to leave out the name of Jesus. If you say God,the Creator,The Lord its ok,once you you start talking about Jesus its something else!

But we know better,we know that we cannot have God without Jesus,because Jesus is the Way,the Truth and the Life.

Another great compromise is found in the Church :

There is always a temptation give some parts of the Gospel,But We have an obligation to give ‘The whole Counsel of God’.Even though the Church doesnt like warnings!

The slippery Slope,The descent

Jude 1-5

• The first step on the slippery slope is to lose trust in Gods goodness:

So I want to remind you, though you already know these things, that Jesus first rescued the nation of Israel from Egypt, but later he destroyed those who did not remain faithful……

Out of all the people who started the Journey coming out of the Red Sea,only 2 people made it to the promise land ,only 2 believed!

• The second step is Pride:

Jude 1-6

And I remind you of the angels who did not stay within the limits of authority God gave them but left the place where they belonged. God has kept them securely chained in prisons of darkness, waiting for the great day of judgment.

When we don’t stay in the limit of authority,we go from unbelief to pride.A pride heart that doesn’t need God is anyone that wants to be his own God.

• Third step is ,Everything goes!
  

Jude 1-7

And don’t forget Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns, which were filled with immorality and every kind of sexual perversion. Those cities were destroyed by fire and serve as a warning of the eternal fire of God’s judgment.

That is when we let it all hang out,feeling justified like Sodom & Gomorrah

JUDE , is an interesting book with a strong rebuke found in the bible ,there must be a reason why it is in there! Those warnings to the Church must be in there for a reason!

Philipians 2: 12-13

Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear

Remenber :

-A RACE = A START LINE = A FINISH LINE = A TROPHY

Christians be aware that the Trophy doesn’t go to the one who starts the race but to the one who finishes the race!

But all of these warnings end with a great promise:

Jude 26

To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise

and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.”[e]

20 So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. 21 Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. 22 It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. 23 So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.

24 But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles,[f] Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.

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

James warns the people not to be too anxious to become teachers as there is a heavy responsibility associated with the position. He also understands that teachers cannot tell their students to “do as I say, not as I do.” For students will naturally wish to emulate their teacher. Because of this great responsibility and the example set, a person who becomes a teacher will be more heavily judged for his words and actions

“There is no more lovely, friendly, and charming relationship, communion, or company than a good marriage.”

Martin Luther

Even our own folk sayings reflect the wisdom of James. It is often said that “A person learns very little when his mouth is moving.” Indeed, this is true. We must be careful to hear all the facts of a matter before we speak on it.

Oliver Cromwell, once the Protector of England, was noted for his rigid self-control in speaking in Parliament. He always waited until everyone else had had their say and then he made his pronouncement. He was thought a very wise man. This also applies in our daily life when making decisions regarding our moral actions. Listen to all the facts, do not be hasty, do not speak out of turn. Most of all, be slow to anger, for anger clouds the mind, and as James points out, “does not produce the righteousness which God desires.”

Taken from here

TAKEN FROM HERE

So I just wanted to let you peer into my life and mind a little by sharing what I’m reading at the moment.  I frustrate my wife in how I read.  One, I read slowly or at least much slower than her.  Two, I always have 4 - 6 books on the hook and 3 – 4 waiting in the wings.  Here’s what I’m chewing on:

ON THE HOOK

The Normal Christian Life – Watchman Nee

The Watchers – Mark Andrew Olsen

Finding Organic Church – Frank Viola

The Rabbit and The Elephant – Tony & Felicity Dale, George Barna

Organic Leadership – Neil Cole

 IN THE WINGS

So Beautiful - Leonard Sweet

From Eternity to Here - Frank Viola

Organic Community - Joseph R. Myers

Atlantis- David Gibbins

What are you reading?

One of my many heroes was on campus this summer to share God’s WORD. Dr. Robertson McQuilken was the president of Columbia International University for a number of years, and if you remember his story, he stepped down from his position to care for his wife, Muriel, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

Dr. McQuilken’s father, Robert C. McQuilken, was a part of the Victorious Christian Life movement that was the beginning of the conference ministry at America’s KESWICK. Both men have grasped and taught the message that is so dear to our ministry.

The victorious Christian life IS the normal Christian life. Dr. Robertson explains it so clearly in the introduction to his book, FREE AND FULFILLED:

Average is not necessarily normal. For example, the average temperature of patients in a hospital may be 100 degrees, but such a temperature is not normal. So it is with the Christian life. The average church experience of church members is far different from New Testament norms for the Christian life.

The normal Christian is characterized by loving responses to ingratitude and indifference, even hostility, and is fill with joy in the midst of unhappy circumstances and with peace when everything goes wrong.

The normal Christian overcomes in the battle with temptation, consistently obeys the laws of God, and grows in self-control, contentment, humility, and courage. Thought processes are so under the control of the Holy Spirit and instructed by Scripture that the normal Christian authentically reflects the attitudes and behavior of Jesus Christ. God has first place in life, and the welfare of others takes precedence over personal desires.

The normal Christian life has power not only for godly living but for effective service in the church. Above all, he or she has the joy of constant companionship with the Lord.

But what is the average Christian experience? Many church members typically think and behave very much like morally upright non-Christians. They are decent enough, but there is nothing supernatural about them. Their behavior is quite explainable in terms of heredity, early environment, and present circumstances. They yield to temptation more often than not, lusting when their body demands it, coveting what they do not have, and taking credit for their accomplishments.

The touchstone for their choices is self-interest, and though they have a love for God and others, it does not control their life. There is little change for the better; in fact, most church members do not expect much improvement and are little concerned by that prospect.

Scripture is not exciting, prayer is perfunctory, and service in the church demonstrates little touch of the supernatural. Above all, their life seems to have an empty core, for it does not center around constant, personal companionship with the Lord.

Well, my brother — as you read the above, the question is this: Are you living life as God intended to be? Freed and fulfilled? Are you living the NORMAL CHRISTIAN life? — Bill Welte is President and CEO of America’s KESWICK

God’s WORD for YOU: Proverbs 8-9; 2 Corinthians 3

Great Quote: A saint is never consciously a saint; a saint is consciously dependent on God — Oswald Chambers

-We need the Blood for Forgiveness; we need the Cross for Deliverance!

-TWO ASPECTS OF THE RESURRECTION:

-In Romans 4:25 the resurrection of the Lord Jesus is mentioned in relation to our justification, reconciliation.

-In Romans 6:4 the resurrection is spoken of as imparting to us new life with a view to a holy ,pleasing walk.

-PEACE is spoken of in both sections

-Peace with God As an Ex-Enemy of God ,I have been now reconciled through the Blood. ( RMS 5:1) Meaning that now that I have forgiveness of sins, NO More Fear of God’s judgment.

- I very soon find, however, that I am going to be a great cause of trouble to myself. There is still unrest within, for within me there is something that draws me to sin. There is peace with God, but there is no peace with myself. There is in fact civil war in my own heart. This condition is well depicted in Romans 7 where the flesh and the spirit are seen to be in deadly conflict within me.

-As we go on in our Journey, we realized that God has something more to offer us, namely, the solution of the problem of our conduct.

In each case the second step follows from the first, and if we know only the first then we are still leading a sub-normal Christian life.

How then can we live a normal Christian life? How do we enter in?

Ok we ve got the indispensable foundation: forgiveness of sins,  justification,  peace with God: that’s our basics, our first act of faith in Christ, it is yet clear from the above that we must move on to something more.

So we see that objectively the Blood deals with our sins. The Lord Jesus has borne them on the Cross for us as our Substitute and has thereby obtained for us forgiveness, justification and reconciliation. But we must now go a step further in the plan of God to understand how He deals with THE SIN PRINCIPLE IN US.

The Blood can wash away my sins, but it cannot wash away my ‘old man’. It needs the Cross to crucify me. The Blood deals with the sins, but the Cross must deal with the sinner.

For the teaching of Romans is not that we are sinners because we commit sins, but that WE SIN BECAUSE WE ARE SINNERS. We are sinners by constitution rather than by action. As Romans 5:19 expresses it: “Through the one man’s disobedience the men were made (or ‘constituted’) sinners”.

How were we constituted sinners? By Adam’s disobedience. We do not become sinners by what we have done but because of what Adam has done and has become.

Yes, one who sins is a sinner, but the fact that he sins is merely the evidence that he is already a sinner; it is not the cause.

One who sins is a sinner, but it is equally true that one who does not sin, if he is of Adam’s race, is a sinner too, and in need of redemption. Do you follow me?

There are bad sinners and there are good sinners, there are moral sinners and there are corrupt sinners, but they are all alike sinners. We sometimes think that if only we had not done certain things all would be well; but the trouble lies far deeper than in what we do: it lies in what we are.

It is birth that counts. So I am a sinner not of my behaviour but of my heredity, my parentage. I am not a sinner because I sin, but I sin because I come of the wrong stock. I sin because I am a sinner.

We are apt to think that what we have done is very bad, but that we ourselves are not so bad. God is taking pains to show us that we ourselves are wrong, fundamentally wrong. The root trouble is the sinner; he must be dealt with. Our sins are dealt with by the Blood, but we ourselves are dealt with by the Cross.

The Blood procures our pardon for what we have done; the Cross procures our deliverance from what we are.

The Normal Christian Life -by Watchman Nee

How then does the Blood operate against Satan? It does so by putting God on the side of man against him. The Fall brought something into man which gave Satan a footing within him, with the result that God was compelled to withdraw Himself. Man is now outside the garden—beyond reach of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)—because he is inwardly estranged from God. Because of what man has done, there is something in him which, until it is removed, renders God morally unable to defend him. But the Blood removes that barrier and restores man to God and God to man. Man is in favour now, and because God is on his side he can face Satan without fear.

John’s first Epistle— “The blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from every sin” It is not exactly “all sin” in the general sense, but every sin, every item.

Satan may accuse us before Him, but, “If God is for us, who is against us?” (Romans 8:31). God points him to the Blood of His dear Son. It is the sufficient answer against which Satan has no appeal. “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies; Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” (Romans 8:33, 34). So here again our need is to recognize the absolute sufficiency of the precious Blood

Now the reason why we so readily accept his accusations is that we are still hoping to have some righteousness of our own. The ground of our expectation is wrong. It is because we have not come to appreciate our true nature and to see how helpless we are that we still have some expectation in ourselves, with the result that, when Satan comes along and accuses us, we go down under it.

God alone that can answer the accuser, and that in the precious Blood He has already done so.

Our salvation lies in looking away to the Lord Jesus and in seeing that the Blood of the Lamb has met the whole situation created by our sins and has answered it. That is the sure foundation on which we stand. Never should we try to answer Satan with our good conduct but always with the Blood.

Wacthman Nee.The Normal Christian Life

There is life in the Blood, and that Blood has to be poured out for me, for my sins.

God is the One who requires it to be so. God is the One who demands that the Blood be presented, in order to satisfy His own righteousness, and it is He who says: ‘When I see the blood’, I will pass over you.’ The Blood of Christ wholly satisfies God.

Now the whole trouble with us is that we are trying to sense it; we are trying to feel its value and to estimate subjectively what the Blood is for us. We cannot do it; it does not work that way. The Blood is first for God to see. We then have to accept God’s valuation of it. In doing so we shall find our valuation. If instead we try to come to a valuation by way of our feelings we get nothing; we remain in darkness. No, it is a matter of faith in God’s Word. We have to believe that the Blood is precious to God because He says it is so (1 Peter 1:18, 19). If God can accept the Blood as a payment for our sins and as the price of our redemption, then we can rest assured that the debt has been paid. If God is satisfied with the Blood, then the Blood must be acceptable. Our valuation of it is only according to His valuation—neither more nor less. It cannot, of course, be more, but it must not be less. Let us remember that He is holy and He is righteous, and that a holy and righteous God has the right to say that the Blood is acceptable in His eyes and has fully satisfied Him.

The Normal Christian Life

W Nee

My 2Cents:

So as Christians we should relax,accept & receive and believe that truth and stop falling into the trap of thinking that we might have to add our own effort ,sweat,for  what is already a perfect sacrifice-as if  It wasn’t good enough because we ‘feel’ otherwise!!!

Then, secondly, that sin in man, which henceforth constitutes a barrier to his fellowship with God, gives rise in him to a sense of guilt—of estrangement from God. Here it is man himself who, with the help of his awakened conscience, says, “I have sinned” (Luke 15:18).

Nor is this all, for sin also provides Satan with his ground of accusation before God, while our sense of guilt gives him his ground of accusation in our hearts; so that, thirdly, it is ‘the accuser of the brethren’ (Rev. 12:10) who now says, ‘You have sinned’.

To redeem us, therefore, and to bring us back to the purpose of God, the Lord Jesus had to do something about these three questions of sin and of guilt and of Satan’s charge against us.

Our sins had first to be dealt with, and this was effected by the precious Blood of Christ. Our guilt has to be dealt with and our guilty conscience set at rest by showing us the value of that Blood. And finally the attack of the enemy has to be met and his accusations answered.

In the Scriptures the Blood of Christ is shown to operate effectually in these three ways, Godward, manward and Satanward

Watchman Nee -The Normal Christian Life

2- There is a question of ‘sin’ as a principle working in me.

No matter how many sins I commit, it is always the one ‘sin’ principle that leads to them.

I need forgiveness for my sins, but I need also deliverance from the power of sin. The former touches my conscience, the latter my life. I may receive forgiveness for all my sins, but because of my sin I have, even then, no abiding peace of mind.

When God’s light first shines into my heart my one cry is for forgiveness, for I realize I have committed sins before Him; but when once I have received forgiveness of sins I make a new discovery, namely, the discovery of sin, and I realize not only that I have committed sins before God but that there is something wrong within. I discover that I have the nature of a sinner. There is an inward inclination to sin, a power within that draws to sin. When that power breaks out I commit sins. I may seek and receive forgiveness, but then I sin once more. So life goes on in a vicious circle of sinning and being forgiven and then sinning again. I appreciate the blessed fact of God’s forgiveness, but I want something more than that: I want deliverance.

I need forgiveness for what I have done, but I need also deliverance from what I am.

Wacthman nee The Normal Christian Life

CLICK HERE

Most of us surround words like “godly” and “holy” with whatever connotations our past associations with them hold.  When we use the word godly, it usually gives us pious mental image of someone removed from society and puritanical in religious execution.  The same with holy, for it becomes the picture of a church where we whisper, don’t run or laugh and where we can’t be ourselves but must put on a face for the brethren.

Holy simply means “set aside for God’s use” nothing more.  The modern view of it has morphed into what we now consider to be holy but the word doesn’t mean monastic living nor mountaintop experiences, rather it signifies one who’s life has been dedicated for God’s use.  We can be holy in our eating habits, i.e. not gluttons or alcoholics, our daily routines, businesses and family.  If we remain true to the purpose for which God made us, we are practicing godliness for the word itself points to imitating God’s attributes in Jesus.

The confusion on these terms grows out of Victorian and monastic teachings dealing mostly with separation from worldly affairs.  The most quoted verses on this issue comes from Isaiah 52:11, 12 Corinthians 6: 17, and lastly Revelation 18:4.  Yet God’s instruction here is not that we stop living but that we live without sinning.  For example, the greatest sin Isaiah preached against was worshiping idols.  This one was considered an “unclean” thing to God and therefore should be eradicated from worship.  Paul’s instructions to the Corinthians held some of the same sentiment but added to it a life that cleaned up our sexual habits (not to be confused with celibacy), did not go into business or marriage with someone who didn’t share our morals (like faithfulness, honesty, fairness and no greed), and keeping one’s religion from combining the mores of other religions and the society within which one lived.

These are simply commonsense ideals not weird or wacked religious notions.  If we claim to follow Jesus, that means we will be like Him in conduct and attitude, which points to learning how Jesus treated others, what He taught and how He served God.

Being godly is tough because we are sinful.  Yet if we remember that being like Jesus comes with a full measure of grace growing out of His boundless love for us, we will understand that as part of our godliness, repentance and confession go hand in hand with a change of heart.  So as often as we fail to be like Him, we can turn to Him and call Him “Lord”, which is in itself a godly act, for turning to Jesus as the only one with the ability to forgive sin by sheer inference calls Him Lord.

I think John said it the best,  Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.  1 John 2: 6.

This simple truth tells us exactly how we should live and suggests, by referencing Jesus, where we need to go to find out who He was and what He did.