Resurrection - Solidifying Humility

Our flesh is easily distracted by the perversions of this fallen world. Traps are set up everywhere to claw us in surprise, especially if we are ill-equipped of the scripture. Since we have not yet grasped the fullness of our potential (true sonship with God), we fall during our walk with the Lord. However, by the grace of God, we come to the realization of our short comings. From this revelation, we rid our stubborn ways and repent before God - trying our best to be "humble" by attempting to grasp the depth of our sin. I believe there are a couple things that can go wrong even from this point of revelation.

If we are drowning in the guilt of our sin, we are not practicing true humility. This probably offends God, as He has came down from heaven to die for us, and we are not allowing his blood to instantly cleanse us. His power should not take time, it is instant - as Jesus healed all the sick with a snap of His fingers when they begged for healing. We need to swim out of the pool of guilt that the demons have thrown us in. After we come to His presence, humbled, and we repent to our ways, we must resurrect to a new creation and push to do His will. This latter portion if what really solidifies humility!

False humility will hold us back from reaching our destination. True humility will ever hold us back from getting closer to His heart - Bill Johnson

I believe accepting (by repenting and realigning ourselves to God) and living out His will is true humility - this process makes us die to ourself and glorify God. If we do not perform the latter part of this process I believe we may be victims of false humility. What is the point of repenting if we are holding on to our desires to continue to live out in our subjective ways? If we are hit with the revelation to repent, we need to take action and start moving towards His heart. When our humility stops at repentance (by prayer) and we do not carry out the will of God, we are missing the mark.

It is still about us - still self absorbed - and we are simply attempting to satisfy our desire to feel cleansed - It's not yet about God.

My Romance - Rick Pino

Look at the way the flowers bloom for you

They want to show you their beauty, Lord

Running waters dance,

You and I romance

Unto you, be all the glory

Unto you, be all the glory

Angels dance around you

The earth it sings about you

Open up the heavens, Lord

Let your kingdom come to earth

My praises all surround you

My soul can't dance without you

Open up the heavens Lord

Let your kingdom come to earth

Kingdom Mindset

Living with a compass of objective morality is only the byproduct of Christianity. This is the minimum, most basic requirement of a Christian's life. When we experience His grace we cannot help but to desire to live according to His will, which is perfect objective morality. God is relentless in His love, and pushes us to perfection. This then sets the stage for humility. Not only does His grace burn our hearts to to live righteous, but also to be humble - as it is His grace that started it all. Humility should reign over all actions and thoughts, but we sometimes confuse mere repenting as humility. I'm not trying to understate the process that the heart presses through to soften and understand its illness. However, this repentance phase must be quick - as we have much more work to do. Mulling over our immoral ways has got to stop - it only allows demons to discourage us from walking towards God. We need to get up and start working for His harvest. We repent to be forgiven, but we do not repent enough to walk towards God's kingdom. As we move closer to God, our vision fades, and His eyes take over, transforming our reality. One of the biggest portion of Christianity, I believe, is living in His Kingdom mindset (God's perspective) - knowing that we were meant to live in Eden, and sharing (by producing action led by faith) the secret to do so, through Christ sacrificed. As we realize our original form - a masterpiece God created IN HIS IMAGE - we understand that God sent Jesus as a reminder of who we are.

"For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. " Romans 8:29.

In this verse, we see clearly that we are not created to be merely "humans", but of God, like Christ. When we realize this authority that God gives/shows us, we no longer live by reacting to the world (fashion, culture, diseases, etc.), but we invade the system and break the powers of darkness. Instead of praying for an open heaven, why aren't we living as if it is already open for us? Hasn't Jesus already died for us to open up the gates of heaven? Do we know what this really mean? I'm convicted that we are to live as if we are back in Eden. Even though we are in our human bodies, and in a world that desperately needs restoration, we need God's revelations to lead to personal transformation - to open up and expand realms where our faith can be exercised. Just because we are living in a fallen world, it does not have to dictate our minds - the power of God leaving impressions on our minds should rid our humanistic thoughts so that we may live in His kingdom NOW. Jesus died to restore our sonship (Godliness) - as we were created in His image - so that we may have the same authority, like Christ, over the world.

"I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it." John 14:12-14

If we are not representing Jesus, in the ways of serving and performing miracles like Him, we should feel uncomfortable. Especially, because we pray "Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven". Replicating Jesus in every way is an obligation It is not an option. We offend God when we sit there and pray for an open heaven, when it is already opened for us. We are not guests of His kingdom! Jesus gave us keys to God's house - to open and visit God whenever we wish.

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Jesus, help us to grow our faith. You've given us authority, through your blood, to work the will of our Father. We wish to continuously move towards God's perspective, so that christianity does not become living a "moral life", but to expand Your kingdom the way the Jesus, the perfect example, had done. Align us to your will and your heart God. Amen!

Perspective Please...

"I was standing today in the dark toolshed. The sun was shining outside and through the crack at the top of the door there came a sunbeam. From where I stood that beam of light, with the specks of dust floating in it, was the most striking thing in the place. Everything else was almost pitch-black. I was seeing the beam, not seeing things by it. Then I moved, so that the beam fell on my eyes. Instantly the whole previous picture vanished, I saw no toolshed, and (above all) no beam. Instead I saw, framed in the irregular cranny at the top of the door, green leaves moving on the branches of a tree outside and beyond that, 90 odd million miles away, the sun. Looking along the beam, and looking at the beam are very different experiences." - CS Lewis

As I was reading this, I was first reminded by how, as a non-christian, I had looked at the beam of light (Christianity) and packaged away many assumptions of the so-called "lovesick" life, but actually had no idea what it would be to be IN the beam of light. I had mentally and verbally persecuted christians for living such a straight-jacketed life - a life style that didn't "enjoy" life." "It's too radical," I would say. "It's not balanced. It's not meant for me. It's too ridiculous." I was really an arrogant hater without any perspective before truly experiencing the love of God. But as God unveiled the truth and I moved closer to the beam of light until the beam fell on my eyes, my perspective of the world changed. I was no longer looking at the sunbeam, but looking along the beam. I realized the "balanced" life I had in mind was incredibly skewed, as I needed to know the whole picture before knowing where the middle lies. I only knew a little of what is "good behavior," so my balance was definitely leaning more towards the wrong side in the holistic picture. I started to receive revelations and amazing epiphanies as I started to experience His love. The key to this was humility - giving the benefit of the doubt that my perspective had been wrong my entire life.

"If he had never looked along pain he simply wouldn't know what he was looking at. The very subject for his inquiries from outside exists for him only because he has, at least once, been inside. This case is not likely to occur, because every man has felt pain. But it is perfectly easy to go on all your life giving explanations of relation, love, morality, honor, and the like without having been inside any of them. And if you do that, you are simply playing with counters. You go on explaining a thing without knowing what it is. That is why a great deal of contemporary thought is, strictly speaking, thought about nothing - all the apparatus of thought busily working in a vacuum." - CS Lewis

I was secondly reminded by how, even as a christian, I continued to look at the beam of light (Christianity) and judged others by the way they sang praise, fasted, prayed, and even questioned their kingdom mindset. When people sang praise "spiritually" I questioned their motive, as from my outside perspective, it seemed like people were doing too much that it looked fake. From looking at the beam, repetitively fasting and going out of my way for intercessory prayers didn't appear powerful. And it definitely sounded silly to desire the end times, as I felt the compassion in my heart to spread His love to as many as possible before His return. But as I moved closer to the beam of light until the beam fell on my eyes, my perspective of christianity began to change. I no longer feared man, as Jesus says (in Matthew 10:27-28), "What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight: what is whispered in your ear proclaim from the roofs. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell." When I worship, I close my eyes, so that the world and the eyes of man fade, and I am alone with God. When I started to fast and pray, not only did I begin to see His powerful movement, but also began to understand His will more clearly - as repetitive fasting stirred constant humility to die more to myself. When I dropped my prejudice thoughts of christian eschatology (study of the end times), my kingdom mindset was changed - as a carpenter needs to have a clear picture of the final product as he works to accomplish his goal (which should also be used as a motivation). I became more motivated to serve His kingdom and to partake in the great harvest of the Lord. I'm now working with a goal in mind and I believe I am getting closer to His heart. I wonder what other beams of lights I am looking at, instead of looking along it.

I pray that we start with no prejudice against either kind of looking. "We do not know in advance whether the lover or the psychologist is giving the more correct account of love, or whether both accounts are equally correct in different ways, or whether both are equally wrong. We just have to find out. But the period of brow-beating has got to end." - CS Lewis