The Year 2011
Things I believe will happen this year.
1. The Father showing His love to the world, like it was in the early 70"s. Heb.1:1-3, Eph 3
2. It will be a year that the sons will see the faithfulness of the Father. 1 Cor 2:9
3. We are to be the expression of the Father on the earth just like Jesus was. John 14
4. Their will be many problems and lost in the world, but in the Kingdom it will be a year of much increase. 2 Pet 1
5. Will be a year to be a doer of the word, not just a hearer. James 1:22
6. It will be a year of recoverer. 1 Pet 5
Those that have ears let them hear what the spirit of the Lord is saying.
Blessings and Grace
Doug
Thinking Out Loud
Sitting in a hotel room in Alicante, Spain, I am thinking about the family of God. I can't go any further than first knowing that He is my Father, because He chose me to be His son. It gives me great joy in knowing that He loves me. Everything that the Father has for me to do has already been done for me in Christ. That is great news. I can enter Christ's rest, and rest from my labors and watch what He does though me. It is not I but Christ working though me to accomplish the Father's will. So as He is, so now am I on the earth. I am the radiance of Him who has called me and appointed me to bear fruit on the earth, and to establish His kingdom everywhere I go.
I am laying hold of that which Christ Jesus laid hold of me for in each place that I find myself. If I will only trust in His faithfulness, I will see the land which He has promised to the heirs of Abraham. I am thinking how blessed I am, because of what the Father has predestined me to do in Christ my Lord. Walking in faith in the finished work of the cross--what joy it brings to my soul. Even as I must decrease He will increase. I am longing to see every person fully complete in Christ the Lord and walking in the full understanding of the kingdom of God and the grace in which they have been called.
Grace on your journey my friends.
Love,
Doug
Walking in a manner worthy of your calling.
Paul encourages us in Ephesians 4 on how to walk worthy of our callings. I think that most believers miss the understanding of what Paul is telling us. We try to make everything religious and miss the simple truths of what the Holy Spirit is trying to teach us. Here are a few truths that we need to walk worthy of our callings:
1. The Father chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. He predestined us to adoption as sons. Eph 1:1-5; John 15:16
2. We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which the Father prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Eph 2:10
3. Grace has been given us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Eph 4:7
4. The Holy Spirit will guide us into all the truth. John 16:12-15
We think that we have to be in the ministry to really please the Father and do His will. I believe that is true. But what we think the ministry is has been the problem.
If you are a farmer, lawyer, plumber, teacher, doctor or whatever, that is your ministry. You have been called to walk in the fullness of what the Father has for you in whatever field you find yourself in. Bring honor to the Father and draw from the resources the Father has given us in Christ and walk with the Holy Spirit. Then you will see the Father build His kingdom on the earth. Do what you can, where you are at, with what you have and see what will happen.
You can pastor people without having to be a "pastor" as the world thinks. We all have been called to make disciples; our lives are the teachings that the people around us are watching. That is why Paul is encouraging us to walk worthy.
Food for thought.
Grace on your journey.
Doug
Abide in Christ’s Love
John 15:10
If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.
Jesus seems to be making a differences between His Father's commandments that Jesus kept and His commandments He wants us to keep.
I don't believe that Jesus is talking about us keeping the 10 commandments that the Father gave under the law, but His commandments that are under grace.
Jesus fulfilled the law by keeping the commandments that man could not but that Jesus did.
We are not children of the bond woman, but the free woman. We are not orphans, but sons.
I think that there are basically 5 commandments that Jesus gave us.
1. To believe on Him who was sent. (Jesus)
2. To love one another the way we have been loved. (not love your neighbor as you love yourself, but love the way Jesus and Father has loved you.)
3. To be baptized in the Holy Spirit.
4. To preach the Kingdom.
5 To make disciples.
Think about it, what is the devil fighting against?
Believing, loving, Holy Spirit, Kingdom of God and making disciples (bringing people into Christ).
Food for thought.
Grace on your journey.
Doug
Parts from my book, Back to the Basics
My book is finished and will be in print in December, pray the book will be a blessing and a help to you on your journey.
Pg 229
" When a Kingdom man speaks of ruling, he really only has authority to establish what the King has already put in place. So when we speak of ruling our soul, we are only establishing the fact that the Father has redeemed our soul (bought it back) from death. Ben, I think you sing a song about that redemption from the pit of emptiness. The Father is the only One that has the original blueprint of how our soul was created. And I think it says in Gen. 2 that he created a living soul. So when we feel the pull of death on our soul, we just have to trust (like the psalmist says) that He will restore it, for that is one of the things that the blood of Christ has purchased for us - a "redeemed" soul. And that is truly a firm foundation for us to stand on. We can say (along with the psalmist) "Return unto your rest, oh my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. We can say "Bless the Lord, oh my soul" for that is truly what you were made for."
"As we begin to trust the Father in the restoration of our soul, we will begin to feel the freedom that the psalmist talked about when he said "My soul has escaped, as a bird, out of the snare of the fowler." What freedom! And we can trust that He who began this good work is faithful to complete it. The invitation to "Come unto Me, all you who are weary …….. and you will find rest for your souls" can be an anchor for your soul - a sure foundation.
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Page 177
"Is that what Paul was talking about when he said to come and follow him and imitate him?" asked Doug. "There again, that is why you need foundation in your life. If you don't know the Father's love, His forgiveness, and your identity in Christ, then what are you going to produce? One of the reasons why we need to practice righteousness and know what God has called us to do is that there are people that might be watching us and want to press into a relationship with us and draw from the resources of our experiences."
"It was Paul's goal to bring every man complete into Christ - not to bring him into his teaching or doctrine or ministry. Who we are in Christ and who someone else is in Christ will have some similarities, but it has some uniqueness also.
I have walked with Ben for fifteen or sixteen years now. However, I still don't play a guitar and sing. Ben doesn't ride a horse and rope a cow. But I can call him into his destiny and bring him into the fullness of who he is in Christ because of the grace given me. That is discipleship. That is making disciples by bringing people into who they are in Christ."
Doug settled back into his chair again. and glanced out the window, which looked like it was covered with a black sheet. There was no moon at all that night.
"It is important that we don't present ourselves as vessels of unrighteousness because it not only affects us but it can affect generations beyond us. I don't say that to put pressure on us to perform, just to call forth our destiny. I don't practice righteousness because I am trying to put forth an image. I do it because I behold the Lord, and because I behold the Lord, I see who He is and I am changed."
''In speaking about what we practice, I want to return to this word addiction," said Ben. "Is addiction always demonic or not? If someone feels like they can't overcome an addiction, what are some tools they can use to overcome it? How do we need to understand that for each other and for ourselves?"
"You can try in your flesh time and time again to overcome patterns, but your flesh is weak. However, if you deal with the issue that caused the door to be opened to the enemy and you close that door, then the outward expression or habit is going to take care of itself." Doug leaned forward and looked up and out the window this time, so he could see the stars twinkling through the trees.
"If you take a man who is addicted to some type of pornography, you can almost always go back to something happening in his childhood. Some perversion most likely happened and he made a judgment about who he was because of what happened to him. As a result, he gets stuck in this need to continually satisfy the judgment he made, which results in an addiction. If you show him that he was a victim in his past and it wasn't his fault, he was a child and the situation was perverted, and help him break the victim mentality off, then he wakes up and realizes that he is not a bad person, he just had a bad thing happen to him. He realizes that the bad thing that happened to him caused him to make a judgment, and then he can deal with that issue. His mind can be renewed in Christ as to who he is and what will fulfill him. The judgment he was believing has been exposed as an unrighteous judgement. He then can begin to believe God's judgements about him that are true and righteous.
"You mentioned the demonic earlier," said Ben. "Some of us grew up with that being common to our talk, and some of us didn't. How does that enter in? Does it enter in every time?
" I believe if we are to practice righteousness, we need to receive every benefit given from the Father." Doug said with a slight smile. " He wants a people that are completely His. So Christ came to destroy the work of the devil. "
"There are many accounts in Scripture where Jesus ministered to people who were demon possessed. Jesus discerned what spirit was controlling that person - he addressed it - and cast it out. So I believe we need to walk in the gift of discernment also. This is just one of the nine gifts that are given to us from the Holy Spirit to love people well. We have been given authority to cast out demons, heal the sick, and even raise the dead."
"I think it is interesting that the disciples were so filled with faith in what Jesus said they would do as believers, that they came running back to the Lord and said "Jesus, WHY couldn't we cast out the demons?". Oh, that the church today, would have that mind-set and would not be fearful to ask the Father "WHY". Are we ready to hear from the Father that we are not prepared? Are we ready to repent from our unbelief and truly receive and walk in full authority as Sons? Are we willing to sacrifice (fast and pray) to see people be set free."
"But I also believe that if we walk in the Spirit we will crucify our flesh, and not give in to the deeds that come from walking in the flesh."
"I had a man tell me one time that he needed deliverance. I asked him why he thought that. He said he was really struggling with his thoughts. I realized that his struggle wasn't demonic. It was just his flesh, and he needed to learn how to crucify his flesh, by learning how to appropriate what God has accomplished through Christ."
Knowing the Inner Man
Eph 3:14-20
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breath and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations.
2 Cor 4: 16-18
Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things seen; for what is seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
I think so many time we worry about the needs of our outer man, that we miss the provision of the Father. It is important for us to know who we our in the inner man, because that is who we really are, that is where we can come into the eternal purposes of our Father. That is where we can fulfill the good works that the Father has called us to do in Christ. The inner man is the man we are becoming, so we can do the works Jesus did and yet greater, you are never going to do great works for the Father by your flesh, it is only by the spirit. The outer man has to die, so the inner man can come into his purpose.
I believe you will never come into the understanding of the Kingdom and the purpose of our Father, until we come into the knowing of who we are in Christ by the spirit man. We are to know one another after the inner man not the outer man.
Grace on your journey.
Doug
End of the World
I am with Lee Williams in Ushuaia, Argentina which is also called the end of the world. Lee and Dori are thinking about moving here from Arequipa, Peru. I am reminded of Acts 1:8 and now we are here preaching the Kingdom of God at the end of the earth.
We have meet people here that have got excited when they heard about being part of the family of God instead of just being members of a religious group.
Remember Lee and Dori in your prayer as they walk on the path laid before them.
Blessings and grace on your journey.
Agreeing with the Father
I am in Brazil with Mitch doing some meetings with some bible college students. Last night Mitch was talking about the story of Jesus, when he was baptize by John. When he came out of the water they heard a voice saying, this is my son in whom I am well pleased. Then the next thing that happen was that the Spirit lead Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil and to fast for forty days.
I was thinking that so many times when we hear a word from the Lord, we get so excited that God has spoken to us about our purpose and destiny, Then we are lead into the wilderness to be tempted, to see if we really believe what the Lord has spoken.
Notice that when the devil came against what God had spoken about Jesus, that Jesus didn't feel the need to prove himself to the devil, but just spoke to the devil what the Father had spoken. If Jesus had fallen into the trap of trying to prove to the devil what God had spoken, then the devil would have been the judge to rule on what God had spoken. Jesus just agree with what the Father had said.
I think that it is good to just agree with what the Father has spoken and let the devil see that he is the liar and the truth is not in him.
We don't have to prove anything to him and we don't have to perform for him.
Let us be the people that takes the Father at His word and see His Kingdom established in us and around us.
Food for your thoughts.
Blessings on your journey.
Doug