Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
Matthew 16:24
What does Jesus mean when he says, “You must deny yourself?” Does he mean that we are to reach way down and run the extra mile when we do not feel it is possible, or perhaps deny ourselves an extra trip to the buffet bar? Maybe he is talking about rising early in the morning to pray, thus denying that extra hour of sleep we need. I believe all of these may be the end result of the interpretation of what it means to deny ourselves, but the truth is, men have done all of these things and never once done it with anything but natural strength.
If you really look at what is meant by taking up your cross, you will see that the invitation is to do the impossible. The cross meant absolute death—how is a dead man going to follow anyone? The answer is only by faith in the resurrection power of Jesus Christ: Jesus did not die alone, neither was he resurrected alone—He included us.
To deny ourselves therefore must mean that we have an attitude of complete dependency on the person of Jesus Christ; we must not lean on any supposed strength of our own. It means to recognize what we can and can not do. If I was to ask you to read Matthew 16:24, you would have no trouble doing so. However, if I was to ask you to tell and interpret the dream President Obama will have two years from now, you would “deny yourself” and claim it is impossible. If I was to ask you to float down a raging river, you could do that; if I asked you to make the raging river to flow UP a mountain, you would “deny yourself.”
When it comes to living a life pleasing to God, we must once and for all realize that it is ONLY in Christ living in us that this is possible! We must deny any self righteous attitude that allows us to think we can defy the scriptures that teach, that apart from him, we can do nothing. After all, it is much more possible to turn a raging river upstream than it is to live a spiritual life leaning on mere human strength. Jesus come live in me!!
Monday, July 27, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
MESSAGE OF THE CROSS
1 Corinthians 1:18 in the Amplified says, “ For the story and message of the cross is sheer absurdity and folly to those who are perishing and on their way to perdition, but to us who are being saved it is the [manifestation of] the power of God.
One of the messages of the cross is that an empty cross—He is no longer there—and an empty tomb, means that there can be no empty heart in a believer—He must be there in reality or it was all in vain.
The message of the cross is that the FATHER of Glory so loved the world—me—that he sent his ONLY begotten Son that I might truly experience his presence on a day to day, and hour by hour basis. I must experience the fact that God loves me greater than Jacob loved Benjamin, of which it is written, “His life is bound up in the lad’s life.” I must know that IN CHRIST, He loves me as He loved Jesus!!
The message of the cross is that of saving grace: God took things into his own hand. From its inception to its completion to its glorious outworking of resurrection life, it is all about God taking the first step toward man. After Jesus had risen from the dead, who approached whom? Did the disciples seek the Lord in great faith, or did the Lord seek the disciples knowing they had no faith?
He sought them. It must be the same with us or else, we to will demonstrate to the world that our God is dead. We must experience the same grace the apostles experienced if we are to walk in the power of the gospel. Jesus having made a way for us, must reveal himself to us by taking our hand and leading us every step of the way. This is how Peter, James, and Paul made it; it is the only way that we will make it.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
The Holy Ghost Landscaping Company
And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by. --Ezekiel 36:34
In the right season, there are great possibilities for change concerning gardening. It matters not how long a certain piece of ground has brought forth nothing but thistles, within three days their can be a total transformation. What has always been passes away and the unfruitful ground becomes a place of new life.
Given the right resources, an acre of land that is overgrown with kudzu, poison oak, thorn trees, and snake berries, can be utterly transformed into peach trees, apple trees, tomato plants, corn, and watermelons. All you need is a bull dozer, backhoe, front end loader, dump truck, and a John Deere tractor with all the implements and you will change the landscape:
I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water: “I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together: That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the LORD hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.-- Isaiah 41:18-20
We are the church of the Living God: We have the right resources. We have the precious Blood of Jesus for emptying of selves and cleansing, and we have the mighty baptism in the Holy Ghost for empowering and harvesting! It matters not how long Joe Smoke has been doping and Sister Delilah prostituting: The Almighty Blood of Jesus Christ immediately cleanses from all sin. He will transform all who repent and surrender all to Jesus, from selfishness to holiness. What are we waiting for?
For to long the church has been as a group of men hired to clear the forest of giant trees, that meets every day on a massive bull dozer. Every day they meet and form committees to search out the best way to move out the trees and clear the ground, all the while sitting on this dozer. There has even been a split within this group as they argued about the best way to sharpen their old single bit ax! What an outrage! What disobedience! What sin! Did I mention that multiple lives were depending on this land being cleared?
When it’s all said and done; it has already been said and done. Jesus has once and for all dealt with the deep rooted tree of sin in our life: “Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). By the planting of himself, he has uprooted sin in man and made it possible for him to be an altogether new creation: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). This Holy seed of Christ, when planted by the fire of the Holy Ghost in an awakened and repentant heart, is guaranteed to germinate!
It is time to change the countryside! The Lord is sending laborers to work in his business: " The Holy Ghost Landscaping Company." The pay is out of this world!
In the right season, there are great possibilities for change concerning gardening. It matters not how long a certain piece of ground has brought forth nothing but thistles, within three days their can be a total transformation. What has always been passes away and the unfruitful ground becomes a place of new life.
Given the right resources, an acre of land that is overgrown with kudzu, poison oak, thorn trees, and snake berries, can be utterly transformed into peach trees, apple trees, tomato plants, corn, and watermelons. All you need is a bull dozer, backhoe, front end loader, dump truck, and a John Deere tractor with all the implements and you will change the landscape:
I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water: “I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together: That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the LORD hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.-- Isaiah 41:18-20
We are the church of the Living God: We have the right resources. We have the precious Blood of Jesus for emptying of selves and cleansing, and we have the mighty baptism in the Holy Ghost for empowering and harvesting! It matters not how long Joe Smoke has been doping and Sister Delilah prostituting: The Almighty Blood of Jesus Christ immediately cleanses from all sin. He will transform all who repent and surrender all to Jesus, from selfishness to holiness. What are we waiting for?
For to long the church has been as a group of men hired to clear the forest of giant trees, that meets every day on a massive bull dozer. Every day they meet and form committees to search out the best way to move out the trees and clear the ground, all the while sitting on this dozer. There has even been a split within this group as they argued about the best way to sharpen their old single bit ax! What an outrage! What disobedience! What sin! Did I mention that multiple lives were depending on this land being cleared?
When it’s all said and done; it has already been said and done. Jesus has once and for all dealt with the deep rooted tree of sin in our life: “Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). By the planting of himself, he has uprooted sin in man and made it possible for him to be an altogether new creation: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). This Holy seed of Christ, when planted by the fire of the Holy Ghost in an awakened and repentant heart, is guaranteed to germinate!
It is time to change the countryside! The Lord is sending laborers to work in his business: " The Holy Ghost Landscaping Company." The pay is out of this world!
This Ain't No Baby Formula
I have a two step formula for true success: Hear the voice of the scriptures and obey the voice of the scriptures. In doing so you will truly embrace Jesus and all that is in his heart, because as Hugh Von Railey has said, “ From Genesis to Revelation you will find Christ in every page!
“And he (Jesus) saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:15-18).
When the Heavenly Father revealed to Peter this glorious truth of Jesus Christ, you can be sure that it was of the same Spirit that breathed the scriptures to men of old: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). You can not separate what God has said in the Word from who he is. He is the Word upon which the church is built, is being built, and will be built. The God that is revealed in scriptures is the Lord that will be revealed in the last hour to the church and through the church.
Thank God for the priceless treasure of his Word!! The written Word of God is one and the same with the voice of Truth that will bring the true church into unity and victory: “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:4-5). Just as a river flows continuously, bringing wetness to everything it touches, the Word of God flows from the mouth of the Lord and brings faith to everyone who hears and obeys.
There is no uncertainty about the course from which this river of life flows: It is the scriptures. Know them and according to 2 Timothy “The man of God becomes perfect.” The word perfect here means “to be completely qualified” and comes from a word that means “right now, at this moment.” It is closely related to a word that means, “One in which all the parts are complete or whole and what they are supposed to be, so that they might serve their destined purpose!” The church that truly divides the word of truth and makes it the basis of all that they do and DO NOT DO, will in this hour without fail serve their destined purpose—they will make disciples of all nations.
You will understand this when you see that opposite of the word perfect is “crippled and maimed.” There are multitudes as of this moment in the valley of decision that are crippled and maimed because they do not know the Living Word, Jesus Christ. To know God today is to know that his heart goes forth to such as these, and thus he equips us with the sword of the Lord, sending us into his harvest: “Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind” (Luke 14:21). These crippled will be made whole because of the God breathed scripture that will be flowing out of the mouth of his servants!! This will come through soldiers of the cross because this ain't no baby formula!
“And he (Jesus) saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:15-18).
When the Heavenly Father revealed to Peter this glorious truth of Jesus Christ, you can be sure that it was of the same Spirit that breathed the scriptures to men of old: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). You can not separate what God has said in the Word from who he is. He is the Word upon which the church is built, is being built, and will be built. The God that is revealed in scriptures is the Lord that will be revealed in the last hour to the church and through the church.
Thank God for the priceless treasure of his Word!! The written Word of God is one and the same with the voice of Truth that will bring the true church into unity and victory: “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:4-5). Just as a river flows continuously, bringing wetness to everything it touches, the Word of God flows from the mouth of the Lord and brings faith to everyone who hears and obeys.
There is no uncertainty about the course from which this river of life flows: It is the scriptures. Know them and according to 2 Timothy “The man of God becomes perfect.” The word perfect here means “to be completely qualified” and comes from a word that means “right now, at this moment.” It is closely related to a word that means, “One in which all the parts are complete or whole and what they are supposed to be, so that they might serve their destined purpose!” The church that truly divides the word of truth and makes it the basis of all that they do and DO NOT DO, will in this hour without fail serve their destined purpose—they will make disciples of all nations.
You will understand this when you see that opposite of the word perfect is “crippled and maimed.” There are multitudes as of this moment in the valley of decision that are crippled and maimed because they do not know the Living Word, Jesus Christ. To know God today is to know that his heart goes forth to such as these, and thus he equips us with the sword of the Lord, sending us into his harvest: “Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind” (Luke 14:21). These crippled will be made whole because of the God breathed scripture that will be flowing out of the mouth of his servants!! This will come through soldiers of the cross because this ain't no baby formula!
Monday, May 11, 2009
What Do You See Your Father Doing?
After Jesus healed an impotent man of a thirty-eight year infirmity he spoke the following:
Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. —John 5:19-21
We know that Jesus the eternal God has always been one with the Father. As the Son of God, he has always seen what his Father was doing, but this is not the position he took as he walked this earth—he took upon himself the form of a servant. Jesus as the Son of Man walked as our example: He did all that he did as a man full of the Holy Ghost and taught of the Holy Ghost. He did no work outside of that which was revealed to him by the Spirit through the scriptures. It was in Jeremiah and Isaiah and Daniel and David that he saw his Father do works that only God could do: “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law” (Psalms 119:18).
Jesus understood the absolute impossibility of circumstances changing the eternal truth of God’s Word. Circumstances said that this impotent man could not walk, The Word had declared in Isaiah 35:6, “Then shall the lame man leap as an hart.” The Word of God is as unchangeable and powerful as the Lord Almighty is!! You can not separate the two because they are One Spirit. What God has said is what God has done: His speaking and his action are one. When Jesus told the impotent man to “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk,” He was not quoting what God had said in Isaiah 35, he was revealing the truth of what God was saying and doing in him at that very moment:“The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works” (John 14:10). Jesus through his virgin birth had become the Word of God made flesh: Everything that he did was a revelation of that which had already been revealed to the Prophets. It was impossible for it not to come to pass!
Nothing of his power has been diminished in the church today. We are to walk as he walked in absolute assurance that faith in his living word brings. Jesus lives and continues his ministry of all that is written in and through his body, which is the church. We have been given the wonderful power and authority of his exalted Name. To go forth in the Name of Jesus is to walk in all that he is and all the he is doing right now! It is time to pray in the wonderful Name of Jesus all that we see him doing in the scriptures: It is truly all that he will bring to pass! To see it in the scriptures surly means that without fail, we will see it come to pass in Dadeville, Jackson Gap, Alex City, and wherever he sends us!! What do you see your Father doing?
Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. —John 5:19-21
We know that Jesus the eternal God has always been one with the Father. As the Son of God, he has always seen what his Father was doing, but this is not the position he took as he walked this earth—he took upon himself the form of a servant. Jesus as the Son of Man walked as our example: He did all that he did as a man full of the Holy Ghost and taught of the Holy Ghost. He did no work outside of that which was revealed to him by the Spirit through the scriptures. It was in Jeremiah and Isaiah and Daniel and David that he saw his Father do works that only God could do: “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law” (Psalms 119:18).
Jesus understood the absolute impossibility of circumstances changing the eternal truth of God’s Word. Circumstances said that this impotent man could not walk, The Word had declared in Isaiah 35:6, “Then shall the lame man leap as an hart.” The Word of God is as unchangeable and powerful as the Lord Almighty is!! You can not separate the two because they are One Spirit. What God has said is what God has done: His speaking and his action are one. When Jesus told the impotent man to “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk,” He was not quoting what God had said in Isaiah 35, he was revealing the truth of what God was saying and doing in him at that very moment:“The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works” (John 14:10). Jesus through his virgin birth had become the Word of God made flesh: Everything that he did was a revelation of that which had already been revealed to the Prophets. It was impossible for it not to come to pass!
Nothing of his power has been diminished in the church today. We are to walk as he walked in absolute assurance that faith in his living word brings. Jesus lives and continues his ministry of all that is written in and through his body, which is the church. We have been given the wonderful power and authority of his exalted Name. To go forth in the Name of Jesus is to walk in all that he is and all the he is doing right now! It is time to pray in the wonderful Name of Jesus all that we see him doing in the scriptures: It is truly all that he will bring to pass! To see it in the scriptures surly means that without fail, we will see it come to pass in Dadeville, Jackson Gap, Alex City, and wherever he sends us!! What do you see your Father doing?
Thursday, May 7, 2009
The God Of Abraham, Isaac, and Charles Greenaway
One of the greatest preachers to ever grace a pulpit was Charles Greenaway. It was my privilege to hear him in person some twenty-five years ago and two things he said then are still ringing true today. The first was in the form of a question, “How did the early church accomplish all the mighty works as written in the book of Act’s? As some answered faith and others love, Dr. Greenaway said, “They accomplished everything that they did by laying hold of a promise.” Jesus promised his disciples that he would never leave them or forsake them, and they took him at his word, and turned their world upside down!
This still holds true today. We must lay hold to the same promise of his presence: “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (John 14:21). This is the one great promise that contains all other promises! If we become the vessels through which Jesus Christ truly reveals himself, then we have embraced all, and will do all that is written.
Jesus is all in all. He was and is the promised power of Pentecost. Peter did not preach power; he preached Christ and the power fell. Peter did not preach divine healing; he revealed the heart of Jesus through the name of Jesus and the impotent man was healed!! Under the anointing, his name spoken is his presence—it is all he is and all he is doing. If we can once again reveal this same Jesus who was (and is) anointed of God and went about doing good and healed all who were oppressed of the devil, THERE IS NOTHING IMPOSSIBLE! There is nothing to be added because nothing else is needed!
The second thing Brother Greenaway said was, “Pentecostal power is for Pentecostal situations.” The anointing will be on our doing and becoming the will of God, not on our confessing something that we merely know. We must become obedient and lay everything aside in this last hour except the known will of God. This is the will of God for this hour: “Return to your first love which is equal to first works:“Thou hast left thy FIRST LOVE, Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the FIRST WORKS” (Revelation 2:4-5). The first love of the church was his presence encountered through prayer. From this union came forth many children: The word of God multiplied greatly through the great work of preaching accompanied by the confirming power of the Holy Ghost!
We must get into the Pentecostal position of prayer as a church. It is time to call off all “normal services” and pray till we become the gospel message we preach to a lost and dying world. God will not only meet us in this place, he is waiting on us there. We can change the eternal destiny of multitudes if we will obey his Word. We have an irresistible power! We have an undefeatable God! We are backed by limitless provision as we go forth accompanied by the very armies of the Lord. Let us meet on Holy ground: The Captain of the host is waiting with his sword drawn!!
This still holds true today. We must lay hold to the same promise of his presence: “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (John 14:21). This is the one great promise that contains all other promises! If we become the vessels through which Jesus Christ truly reveals himself, then we have embraced all, and will do all that is written.
Jesus is all in all. He was and is the promised power of Pentecost. Peter did not preach power; he preached Christ and the power fell. Peter did not preach divine healing; he revealed the heart of Jesus through the name of Jesus and the impotent man was healed!! Under the anointing, his name spoken is his presence—it is all he is and all he is doing. If we can once again reveal this same Jesus who was (and is) anointed of God and went about doing good and healed all who were oppressed of the devil, THERE IS NOTHING IMPOSSIBLE! There is nothing to be added because nothing else is needed!
The second thing Brother Greenaway said was, “Pentecostal power is for Pentecostal situations.” The anointing will be on our doing and becoming the will of God, not on our confessing something that we merely know. We must become obedient and lay everything aside in this last hour except the known will of God. This is the will of God for this hour: “Return to your first love which is equal to first works:“Thou hast left thy FIRST LOVE, Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the FIRST WORKS” (Revelation 2:4-5). The first love of the church was his presence encountered through prayer. From this union came forth many children: The word of God multiplied greatly through the great work of preaching accompanied by the confirming power of the Holy Ghost!
We must get into the Pentecostal position of prayer as a church. It is time to call off all “normal services” and pray till we become the gospel message we preach to a lost and dying world. God will not only meet us in this place, he is waiting on us there. We can change the eternal destiny of multitudes if we will obey his Word. We have an irresistible power! We have an undefeatable God! We are backed by limitless provision as we go forth accompanied by the very armies of the Lord. Let us meet on Holy ground: The Captain of the host is waiting with his sword drawn!!
THE ALMIGHTY BLOOD OF JESUS
B.H. Clendennen tells the following in his teaching “The Almighty Blood:”
"I believe Dr. Billy Graham told this story on one of his telecasts, how two medical doctors had been born again in his crusade. In interviewing these medical doctors, Dr. Graham asked, “Suppose a man has lost a hand. Do you believe that God can put that hand back on that arm?”
The answer those doctors gave was very unusual and brought home to me this great truth about the blood of Jesus. They said, the genetic code that put that hand on that arm in the first place is still in the bloodstream, and only awaits the command of a man or woman of faith, and it will put that hand back on the arm.
When we are born again, we receive the blood of Christ. That is the life of this spiritual body, the Holy Spirit, the life of God, the blood. There is no pollution in that blood. In it are the genes of God. As the blood is allowed to flow, as we walk in the light as He is in the light, it is restoring in us the image of Christ."
It is truly amazing to realize that since we are in the same church as the one started in the book of Act’s, we have the same exact genetic code flowing through our spiritual blood veins as they did. This being true, the genetic code that brought MULTITUDES OF TRUE CONVERSIONS IN THE EARLY CHURCH IS STILL IN THE BLOODSTREAM OF THE CHURCH TODAY!!! It was the Blood of Jesus that raised three thousand souls from the dead on the day of Pentecost. Spiritually speaking, blind eyes that had never saw was opened that day, ears that had never heard was unstopped that day, lame legs that had never walked in the truth started walking that day! The Almighty Blood of Jesus brought forth everlasting life throughout the book of Act’s and that same Blood cries out today, “The harvest is truly great, go forth and gather fruit unto life eternal!
God IS RESTORING the church today to the image of Christ and that image aligns perfectly with the one pictured in the gospel: “I came not to save the righteous, but to seek and save that which was lost.” That image is one and the same with the voice of Jesus’ Blood speaking and the cry of the Spirit saying, “Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that he would send laborer’s into HIS harvest.” The same Blood speaks in us his servants as we return an answer, “Here I am, send me!”
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