Kingdom???

 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need (Matthew 6:33 NLT)

I regard myself as a Kingdom preacher. Inspired by the prayer of Jesus I pray for and long for the Kingdom of God here on earth, as it is in heaven, and not deferred to one day somewhere.

I am pleased to think that many who have sat under my preaching, both in church and on Television, have benefited from my teaching and regard themselves as Kingdom orientated believers. Both the scripture quoted here and the Lord’s prayer, along with a number of other passages teach us that the Kingdom of God on earth is something we can know and experience. Therefor it should be the passionate plea and desire of us all, that it would fully manifest.

If it is true for us then we live as Kingdom people.Kingdom desiring, Kingdom seeking, Kingdom proclaiming.This will also parade before the world the benefits that those who are in Christ have as citizens of the Kingdom.

So in the Kingdom of God we too are kings, ruling and reigning with Him.At the same time we are a royal priesthood and that royalty makes us stand out.So too  we are the sons of the King and so enjoy the special place a son has. So too we wear His seal and speak with His authority.

And so looking like, walking like, talking like what we think we should becomes all important. My clothes, my car, my jewelry, my attitude, my ………. . So that we can say “look at me! I am a Kingdom person”. Praying and seeking the Kingdom becomes secondary to proclaiming it and degenerates into “Kingdom Now” or this is the Kingdom.

True Kingdom is far removed from this self seeking life. Seeking the Kingdom is unrelated to seeking the lifestyle we desire. Kingdom is rather all about the King.Seeking this Kingdom is all about seeing Him enthroned in His rightful place.Desiring the Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven desires seeing Jesus Christ as Lord.

Seeking the Kingdom is not proclaiming the look at me stuff but proclaiming His Lordship. It is not pretending and calling in prosperity but by bowing our knee and urging all men to confess Him as Lord.

The Kingdom manifests we submit to His Lordship. Being and living and wearing the crown of righteousness. When I am who and what Jesus says I am, doing and being what He says I should do and be. When I show the world that He is certainly the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. When my life fades into the shadow of Him and yet brings His light into the world. When all the world can see His Lordship in me, the Kingdom has manifested, here and now.

“come Lord Jesus” and “come prosperity” are not the same thing. Having the world honor you is not the same as teaching them to honor Jesus. Bragging about what you can do is not the same as testifying of Him.Living like the spoiled son of an oil sheik more often brings shame than honor to the King.

Bow down before Him, proclaim Him as King. Let His Lordship be your song and dance.

Then all that goes together with being in His Kingdom won’t be so demanding on your mind as you will already have it.

It’s knowing who He is that makes you who you are.

 

 

 

Psalm 28- Out of the frying pan and into the fire???

Save your people and bless your heritage. Care for them; carry them like a good shepherd.

Saved. A way out? Circumstances changed by an external force? Interference bringing relief from danger?

Why did you call on the name of Jesus? Were you in trouble? Were you sick? In need? Lonely? Desperate? Trying your luck?

And now that He answered your call? Are you free? Does your life just go on as normal until the next time? Are you disappointed? Disillusioned? Have things actually gone from bad to worse? Despite momentary relief you continue to struggle?

That’s what happens when you don’t understand salvation. When you seek first the things and think you are getting the Kingdom. When you think salvation is relief from your perceived need.

I want as much as anyone to see the power of God moving in revival fire across the land. I want to see the signs and wonders of God silencing the world. I want that every sick person to be healed and every one in need be provided for. But true revival begins with salvation. God’s salvation. Not relief but rescue. Not out of the frying pan just to fall into the fire but out of the fire and into the Kingdom of God.

Yes God wants to save you from…… He does it by safely moving you from where you are into a place where you are safe. Into a place where He is. A place where He can express Himself and highlight the purpose of your salvation. Where He can shepherd you and care for you. Where the fire cannot reach you. Into a place where His blessing can find you and abound towards you.

Not just saved from but saved into. Out of the darkness into the light.

No one will dwell in the house of the Lord forever because they got healed from a sickness. No one will glorify God forever because they became wealthy. The Bible does not teach healing (nor any other sign and wonder) first so that people can know that they are saved. It teaches Kingdom, the Lordship of Christ, the finished work on the cross, the Gospel of Jesus Christ followed by signs. It teaches the Word, the One that sets free confirmed by signs.

There will come a moment when those who are in the Kingdom will see no more sickness, no more dying. When there will be no more corruption, no suffering, no crying, no darkness.

Our message is not a rock to stand on in an ever rising flood but a rock that is solid in the sinking sand of life. Our ministry must not be a way out of the frying pan of the day but a transference into the cool of the evening where God walks amongst us.

Whatever your circumstances today I pray God’s blessings over you. I pray that you would know His presence right where you are and find peace from it.

And if you are sick, be healed! If you are in need, receive!

Psalm 27 – One thing, everything.

I’m asking God for one thing,

only one thing:

To live with him in his house

my whole life long.

I suppose it is true that all religions have an offer to supply you with a god, or at least they offer you a way to access a form of god. The problem though is that behind most religions there is not a real god to be found. Some do claim it is the same god as God but seeing as they all have their foundation after God had rested from His creation work, they would unwittingly present a very confused god who changes its mind and ways as it goes along.

Then of course religion makes its laws and rules which have to be adhered to in order to gain access to its god. Cleverly it makes the laws too hard to fully keep so the reason you never actually meet this god is always your own fault. Therefor you can never see that it does not actually exist.

But God, the only true living God, has long before already made the offer to be our God and for us to be His people. He has shown Himself over and over. His power is well documented and so is His love and grace. There are no rules to access Him, only a way that He has made for us so that we can enter freely. That way says “come unto me. and I will give you’

We are needy. We need provision of food and shelter and security. We need health. We need comfort and strength. We need wisdom and guidance. We need and we need.

Generally man tries to meet all his own needs. Often this leads to sinful activities and or failure and disaster. The truth though is that no matter how tall you stand, how powerful you are in this world, how tough or how resiliant, there are times when you need and you don’t have. Times when you need and you ask a higher being for help.

God in His great grace has told us that as our God we can ask anything. Jesus has given us permission, not appointed us to make use of His name as we ask for anything. God has put His mark on us giving us authority and power. So we never need to need.

So we do our best as much as we can and when we get stuck we ask.

Oh dear reader you can have direct access to the almighty creator of the heavens and the earth. The one who has not the fruits of our best efforts but the perfect provision of the Kingdom in His hands. Should you not be asking for everything, every small and every large thing that you could always have only the best.

David goes the whole way and says he asks for only one thing.  To be permanently in God’s presence. Hanging out at God’s place. Having his being in God.

He responds to God’s offer and says ” I want to be your people”

In Christ you have the Kingdom in you. Have this and all things will be added to you

Psalm 25 – Promise of prosperity

They settle down in a promising place; Their kids inherit a prosperous farm.

Prosperity must be one of the most contentious issues in the Christian faith. Yet it is a very real Biblical promise.

On the one extreme we have those whose focus is almost purely on prospering. Most of their teaching and most of their testimonies are just on this one aspect. It is almost as though they believe prosperity to be the mark of a Christian. Sadly it soon just becomes a law. You must! Anybody who does not prosper is doing something wrong. Day after day they will hammer home the how to/ you must/ what is stopping the flow type of teachings. For many people this is really effective. Especially those who are properly able to convince others to give more in order to get and then draw that giving to themselves. Sometimes I don’t think it is the principals they are teaching that brings them prosperity but the rightly lining themselves up as the fertile ground into which to sow. Calling people to look at them to see the principal in action. In too many cases it becomes a ‘make me rich and you will be rich too’

On the other hand we have the deniers. The doubters. Those that live in lack and poverty and have resigned themselves to it. Their teaching sinks to simply attacking the prosperity teachers, trying to discredit them. They don’t know what to do with the scriptures containing the promise and make up stuff about how good it is to always be wanting, keeps you humble, keeps you always on your knees etc. To my mind it is simply an effort to reduce the faith of others to their own level of lack.

Of course along the way we find the deferrers, those who have slipped everything into a folder called ‘one day’. It will all happen in heaven so I need not bother with such difficult stuff today. It won’t challenge me.

Surely if it is a promise we find over and over in the Word then it is a promise for you and I? What will I need it for one day in the sweet by and by? Surely it is an issue for my life? The life I have received in Christ. Why would we find all the examples of prosperity being in the flesh, on earth? Was this only for the old testament believers and we no longer need it today as we have Christ?

Why do all the naysayers still pray everyday for more and more provision? If they don’t believe the promises, what do they want?

On the other hand why are there so many poor believers, even those who grab the teachings of prosperity with both hands?

God has promised me forgiveness, righteousness, eternal life. All unseen and with no method of proof. We believe these promises and mostly live with the peace and joy our faith brings us. However God has also made a number of promises, the manifestation of which can be seen and proved. Our choice is whether we live as if we believe them in the same way.

My Bible promises me that as one who is forgiven and righteous and who has eternal life, I will be prosperous in a very obvious way that will become a legacy for my children. That must mean it starts today.

Bring it on Lord. By faith in every word You speak I shall live in prosperity and my children will have an inheritance. You promise it – it then must be so.

Psalm 25 – Rags to riches

Forget that I sowed wild oats; Mark me with your sign of love. Plan only the best for me, GOD!

When God removes our sins from us and from His memory it is not a simple wiping the slate clean. If it were, it would mean we start over from nothing and work our way up – or not. A clean slate is really just being set up for more failure. In fact if you believe that by repenting your slate has been wiped clean then you are still missing the mark. You have not turned all the way to God.

When God takes your sin away He takes the slate they were recorded on, pins it on Jesus and there writes “paid in full”. For a fleeting moment you have no slate. In less than the blink of an eye a new slate appears, a banner in fact, a banner declaring His love for you. Even as the world looks on, the stone slate is gone and in its place His Spirit is a new mark on you declaring “righteous, Holy, son of God”

God does not take away your sin to give you a second chance. He takes it away so that you can be His son.

Sin keeps a man walking on a path to destruction. It makes Him a hobo, a homeless man, an outie. It dresses him in the filthy rags of failure. No money, no effort, no religion, in fact simply nothing at all can cover the stench of failure that sin inevitably brings. Rotten to the the core.

 When God removes your sin He immediately covers you so that the law can never find you again. He covers you with His own robe. He dresses you as a king. He presents you before all and sundry as His son who has returned. He puts His ring on your finger, the Holy Spirit as a deposit guaranteeing your future for eternity.

There is no turbo lag, no delay, no gradual build up. He turns your life from rags to riches in a single sweep of His hand.

You will reap what you did not sow. You sowed wild oats but you are not even able any more to see the field  where your seed fell. Instead you find yourself reaping the blessings that God has prepared for you in the fields of His Kingdom.

Thank you Lord that you did not give me a second chance but that you gave me a new life.

Psalm 25 – Trusting God

I’m looking to you, GOD; No hangdog skulking for me

The effect of salvation on man is the acquisition of a new hope. In fact it is the redefining of the word ‘hope’. Once your hope was based purely on your own desires, your own values and efforts. Now your hope is based on nothing less than Jesus Christ and His righteousness.

Nothing physical or tangible. Nothing seen. Rather something you believe in. Something you have put your faith in. Something you trust. There is no letter of acceptance, no certificate or membership card. No gate pass has been issued. But you believe non the less.

Although the Bible teaches us to have a certainty of our salvation, to know without a doubt that we have the gift of God, until it manifests it will remain a hope. Because we believe in the reality of the cross it is a sure and certain hope.

It is only on this basis that you can make any biblically correct “I am” statement. Not because you actually believe you are but because you believe God. You trust Him to be honest with you. You trust what He says He has done for you to be sufficient for you. You trust Him to carry and keep you until that glorious day. You trust Him to fulfil all His promises. You trust Him to appear again. You trust Him for your eternal life.

You can hope to be healed. You can hope to prosper. You can hope to have and do anything you please. You can hope you have eternal life, hope you will spend eternity in His presence. The problem with all that hope is that it is based on what you say. Take stuff out of the Bible, make it please you, declare it over yourself. Will your words add any power to hope or are you just encouraging yourself?

Rather put your hope in God Himself. Let it be His words that He declares over you. Let it be His power living in His words. Let it be Christ dwelling in you.

I think Christians today are too interested in what the Bible says about ‘me’ and don’t pay enough attention to what the Bible says about God. The onus becomes ‘me’, I am responsible to achieve and obtain by what I say and do. I control the flow of my blessings and hold the answers to my prayers. What part does God play? Was grace a one time giving of everything and now we must claim it to make it ours. Did God complete the work on the cross and now we must pick it up again to make it manifest.

I say put your trust in the living God. Settle the hope you have by trusting on one thing only. Him!

Psalm 25 – The chequered flag

A David psalm. My head is high, GOD, held high;

There are basically two ways you can get through life. You can put your head down and press ahead as hard as you can hoping only to do your best or you can lift your head up high with an overwhelming attitude of victory.

You can continue to fight and struggle through the daily challenges and burdens of life doing your best to come out on top or you can realise that you have already taken line honours, you have won.

You can try to live, buy, earn, reason your way into heaven or you can gain immediate citizenship and live your life as a lap of honour.

You can hope you have sown enough to reap what you need. You can hope you have “declared” enough to live forever, prophesied enough for God’s promises to be fulfilled. Ruled and reigned enough to live like a king. Manifested enough to be acknowledged as a son. Been obedient enough to be righteous. Spiritual enough to be holy.

Or you can give your life to Jesus.

My head is high. He has taken away my sin and washed away the stain they made on my heart and on my record. My head is high because God has declared me righteous. My head is high because I know that every good thing God has promised is mine by grace. My head is high because I have been a son of God since I believed in Jesus. My head is high because I know I am already seated in high places, ruling and reigning with Him. My head is high because I know who I am in Him. My head is high because I know that his grace is sufficient for me. He will bless me, heal me, prosper me without me doing a thing. My head is high because I know without a doubt that He has given me eternal life. My head is high because I have passed from death to life. I have taken the chequered flag. I have won in His mighty name.

My head is high because I gave my life to Jesus.

My head is high because when I asked for mercy I got grace.

So what will it be? Head down pressing in to get what you hope for or head held up high because you gave your life to Jesus and got what you couldn’t even imagine?

Psalm 24 – Stay blessed

GOD is at their side; with GOD’s help they make it.

What more can you want than to be blessed? God set blessings before us and we strive for them, long for them, claim them and whatever else we do because we want to be blessed. And why not? If that is what God purposes for us then it is what we shall have.

So the church preaches all sorts of encouragement to help you get blessed. Going to church is about getting a blessing. We must prosper in order to be blessed. We must be healed!. We must.. We must… then we will be blessed.

I love hearing testimony of people who are blessed. Have you noticed though that not everybody who appears blessed is even a Christian. How can that be? Do we have the wrong definition of “blessed”? Have you seen how “blessed” today sometimes turns into crash and burn tomorrow? What changed? We are blessed by grace not law. Why would our blessing disappear or turn to curse?

Is it because we miss the point? The context of God setting blessings and curses before us was actually about God wanting to have a right relationship with us. He didn’t want us to earn them or get points for keeping the law. He was calling us into right relationship and the relationship would automatically be the blessing. Only goodness would come out of the relationship. Everything that belongs to God would be ours.

The way I see it then, blessing is measured by the presence of God in your life. That is what we should be striving for. Always knowing, always being aware of His presence.

Then I can say I am blessed. Not because I have wealth but because He carries and sustains me as He is always by my side. My faith says that He shall supply all my needs and that is good enough for me. His presences helps me out of poverty without giving me a cent. Yet in wealth I can claim I am blessed as I know His presence will lead and guide me, give me wisdom to use the wealth to the glory of His Name.

Then I can can say I am blessed. Not because I have been supernaturally healed but because He has carried me through illness and dark days. My faith says He is my healer and that is good enough for me. Yet in perfect health I can say I am blessed because I am so aware from whence my help has come.

So too can you apply the question of blessing to any thing that can be measured and know this: it could have come from anywhere but what comes out of our relationship with God is unmeasurable. Unseen yet everlasting.

It’s not in what God can visibly do for you, its’s in who He is in your life that brings blessings.

May you prosper in comparison to the prospering of your soul. Your soul prospers in right relationship with God.

Be blessed even as His presence blesses you.

With Him by your side you will make it

Stay blessed

Psalm 23 – No room for curses

my cup brims with blessing.

Overflow! More than enough. Prosperity. Too often today the measure of this is great wealth. Everybody wants more and more. Pretty soon they are never to be satisfied as the more they have the more they want. How quickly it becomes about material things. Wanting specific things, specific models and colours.

The thing about not being satisfied is that it becomes personal and selfish. I want! I want!

When a Christian can say ‘my cup is brimming’ he is saying there is no more room in it. it has nothing to do with the measure of his wealth but rather his being satisfied with what he has. He is saying there is no more room for anything else to come in.

This does not mean he has settled for less than he needs. If he has there is still room for lack.Temptation. Sin.

David makes this statement in the context of what God has done for him. So what he has in his cup is the out poured blessings of God. As he ‘counts’ his blessings he finds them to be abundant, fulfilling. This is in contrast with the cup Jesus spoke about. That cup was also brimming. It was the full measure of the curses due to man. David however knew his cup was the full measure of the blessings of God.

What is in your cup today? Is there negativity? Is there hopelessness? Is there depression? Is there selfishness? Greed? Is there room for curses? Guilt? lack of faith? Have you chased after the lusts of the flesh, spilling your blessings and making room for curses?

Dip your cup in the river of life. Dip your cup in the presence of God. Dip your cup in His promises. See how it comes up full. See how even as you drink deeply from the cup it stays full. As you seek a measure of Christ in your life your cup will always overflow. The outflow of His grace will be sufficient for you.

I pray today for health. That perfect healing would be the portion of every one who is sick.

I pray today for finances. That more than enough to meet all your needs and desires would be your portion.

I pray today for success to be your portion.

I pray today for the desires of your heart to be your portion.

Friend note that they are but portions. If your cup only has portions there will will soon be room for other stuff.

I pray today for the full measure of Christ to cause your cup to overflow.

Just be blessed.

Psalm 23 – a bed of roses

You have bedded me down in lush meadows,

Where do people get off saying that life is not a bed of roses. If you are a Christian it most certainly is.

The Lord has embedded you. Not laid you out sick but had you lie down to sleep. Not as as easy as it sounds. A person willing to lie down must be in a position to do so. You need to know that it is safe. God has taken care of all that puts fear in you. What’s more His presence brings a sense of peace.lts OK. You can relax. Lie down. Fear not.

He has given you rest. It is no longer neccessary to work for your salvation. By faith you can rest in Him. No need to let your consience stop you from sleeping. For that matter no need to worry about anything.God has got your back. He is looking after your interests. Leave it up to Him

God has prepared a place so warm and comfortable you cannot resist. He has made a place for you in His arms, against His chest. A place of comfort. He has wrapped His own robe around you.

And He has done it in style. In a place of prosperity. Meditate on this.while the world is fighting and toiling just to exist, you prosper so much that you can lie down and rest. Your mind is satisfied. Your body is satisfied and your soul is satisfied.

Perfectly satisfied. Perfect peace. Perfect rest. Perfect provision

Enter into His perfection, into His rest. He will lay you down on a bed of roses