Some Kingdom Principles

In the last post we started our journey toward becoming more observant to what God is attempting to communicate to us through the circumstances of life. Before we go too deep into specifics we should take a minute and consider a few foundational principles of how God goes about bringing understanding and growth into our lives.

You might ask; why is this so important?  The point is, so many of us have become totally dependent upon the teachings and "words" of pastors, teachers, and prophets.  I am absolutely convinced that this is one of the biggest problems in our modern churches.  As teachers we should be helping others learn how to communicate  with God on their own.  Isn't this the principle that parents apply to their own children?  How many parents would be happy feeding and taking care of their children for life?  Why is it then that we have created a system where spiritual parents are content feeding and "parenting" their spiritual children for life?

As we move toward becoming spiritually mature adults, we must remember that Kingdom Principles are usually 180 degrees opposite our typical human perspective. I am sure we could all list some examples but lets name a few.

• The world tells us that if we are selfish and "take care of number one" we will have the greatest satisfaction in life. On the other hand, God tells us that when we lay down our lives for others we experience the greatest sense of love. Since nothing could give us greater pleasure than being filled with love, we come to understand selfless is fulfilling while selfish is empty. 
• Some of us have been told that it is the man's responsibility to provide for and protect his wife and family. This puts a huge burden on men and actually puts them into the position of being "God" to their wife and children. Isn't it true that in the big picture of things, the man can never be held fully responsible for providing for or protecting his loved ones. Instead, our greatest role in the lives of our family is to lead them to trusting God for their provision and protection. As men move toward this understanding we become free to work hard, do the best we can, and trust God to be God. If our wives and children come into this same understanding, we work together through the circumstances of life understanding that ultimately God is in control and has us right where He wants us in our journey toward unity with Him and others. 

With a few examples behind us let's look at the form of teaching and learning that we have all come to know and understand. According to the worlds systems teaching is brought about as the one with the greater knowledge shares the knowledge, understanding, and skills with the student. In this process the student learns and grows. Since we know that Kingdom Principles are almost always 180 degrees opposite worldly principles, we have to ask; how would we expect God to grow people toward greater knowledge? Would it make sense that God would design a system where the student would teach the teacher? Just the thought of that makes no sense at all. Since it makes no sense to our logical minds we must be onto something. I know that sounds crazy, but it really is true.  If we want to discover the mystery of these things we must step out of the box created by the world's systems and our flesh based logic.

Here are the biblical principles that help us come into an understanding of exactly how God's system of learning works. First of all, the entire foundation of the New Testament is that revelation is given by God, in His timing, and to whom He chooses. As such, we are incapable of "teaching" anyone anything.  All we can do is present information.  If their eyes are to be opened and understanding granted, it comes through the work of the Holy Spirit.  Secondly, in the scriptures shared in the last blog, we see that God brings hardship upon the student as the result of the transgressions of the teacher. Because we know that God loves us, we must ask Him why He would do such a thing. The truth is, true teachers care deeply for their students. When a student goes astray a true teacher will search their heart and soul in a desire to see what they did wrong, what they would do different, and how they could go about helping the student get back on track. In the teacher's time of prayer over these things the Holy Spirit will grow the teacher, the teacher will be refined, and the teacher will become more Christ like. As the teacher grows God releases revelation to the student and both teacher and student grow. As Christ's ambassadors to the world we must accept that we were chosen by God to be the "teachers" for the world, and all those hurt and lost people, well, they are our "students".

With this understanding we start looking at all their dysfunction a little different.  How many of us are willing to look at what they are doing, how are they acting, and where is God attempting to grow us closer toward Him as we look at the pain of their lives? I encourage you to take a minute and share some of what you see going on in the world around us and ask what God might be trying to tell us through it.

Let's challenge each other to come together in unity and explore your questions together.  As the Body of Christ this is what we should be doing; this is what we need to be doing.  Are you willing to post a simple statement back?  To challenge other Christians to throw in on what God might be trying to tell us?  Here are some examples we could start with:  Abortion, Gay rights, war, persecution, removing prayer from the schools,......  Let's challenge each other and see what we can find.  Remember, we are looking inward, not outward.  This isn't about them.  This is about us.

Didn't God tell us that when "His people repent and return to His ways, He will heal their land".  If we want God to heal our land we need to start thinking like He thinks.  It starts with asking, "Dear God, what are you asking us to repent of?"

God bless and I look forward to some great discussions.

Is this really how God works?

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself, How does God communicate with mankind?  Sure, sometimes He uses words as He talks to us in our prayers or through others.  But does He talk to us in other ways?  The answer is yes.  God is always speaking to us through the circumstances of life.  The Old and New Testaments are filled with stories of how God has communicated to people through circumstance.  Jesus taught in parables to help us grow in understanding this form of communication so that we can learn how to better understand Him as He interacts in life around us.  Have you ever thought about that before?  Have you ever thought about how He might be talking to you through the circumstances of your life?

When we come to understand how God is talking to us through the circumstances of life we are free to start seeing Him in everything.  When we start seeing Him in everything we can truly be delivered into the fullness of the Fruit of the Spirit as promised in Galatians 5.  At the end of the day, isn't this what God really wants for us; to be so one with the Spirit that we understand what God is doing in, through, and around us all the time?

Let's take a look at two scriptures and see if they will help us understand this fundamental mode of communication.  The challenge to these scriptures is to find "God's Love" contained within what He is telling us.  Once we find His love, we are free to understand who  He is attempting to communicate with, and what He is attempting to say.


 [Deuteronomy 5:9 NASB] 9 'You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,

[Isaiah 3:1-5, 13-14 NASB]  For behold, the Lord GOD of hosts is going to remove from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support, the whole supply of bread and the whole supply of water;  The mighty man and the warrior,the judge and the prophet,the diviner and the elder, the captain of fifty and the honorable man,the counselor and the expert artisan, and the skillful enchanter. And I will make mere lads their princes, and capricious children will rule over them, and the people will be oppressed, each one by another, and each one by his neighbor; The youth will storm against the elder and the inferior against the honorable............ The LORD arises to contend, and stands to judge the people. The LORD enters into judgment with the elders and princes of His people,"It is you who have devoured the vineyard; the plunder of the poor is in your houses.

In the first scripture it is hard for us to reconcile that God would visit the iniquity of the fathers onto the children to the third or fourth generations?  In the second scripture, is it hard to reconcile that God would "remove" all the mighty men, warriors, judges, prophets, diviners, elders,  honorable men, counselors, artisans, and skillful enchanters? If this were not enough, He even says He will make mere lads their princes, and put children ruling over them.

From a human flesh perspective this tends to make no sense.  If God loves us, and wants us to love Him wouldn't you think that He would do just the opposite?  If a father or mother were going astray wouldn't it make sense to lead their children back to Him so that He could use the children to lead the parents back?  If a country were going astray wouldn't it make sense to raise up a generation of prophets, judges, and youths of great wisdom to lead the country back into a positive direction?

The thing is, God wants us to choose Him on our own free will.  He wants us to love Him, but just as importantly, He wants us to embrace His ways.

2 Chronicles 7:14 gives us the key; If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

You see, what God gives, God can take away.  We tend to see this only in the sense of what good things He gives He can take away.  Have you ever stopped to consider that maybe He brings challenges into our lives for the point of leading us into humility?  And that just as quickly as He brought them, He can take them away?  When we focus on what God is using we tend to miss what He is saying.  When we see what He is doing and ask Him to show us what He is trying to tell us everything changes.  It is form this position that we can hear His voice, grow into what He is asking us to be, and do the very thing that He is asking us to do.  I wonder how many of our prayers are being held up because we are not willing to hear what He is telling us as we try to get Him to remove the very thing He brought into our lives.

Over the next few posts we will go a bit deeper into some of the things that are going on around us, what is happening in the world, and look to God for the answers as to what He might be trying to tell us.  I pray that this blog has been thought provoking and drawn you into a deeper relationship with God.  If you find this to be a positive influence in your life please comment, share, and re-post.  Thank you and God bless.

What is God doing?

The journey of the past several years has been totally amazing.  We are blessed to have such an amazing God.  There is no doubt that God is bringing about some changes in our world, our churches, and in people.  Being a Jewish believer in Jesus is such a gift.  To see God moving the hearts of others with my same heritage brings such warmth to my heart.  At the same time, something is happening in the church.  God is on another one of His "every 500 year" campaigns.  Even more interesting is to note that He is on another one of His "every 2,000 year" campaigns.  The church has some really big challenges ahead of her and my heart has compassion toward the struggles that she will face.

What is this going to look like for the Church?  Where is God leading us?  What kind of changes are going to take place?  And, what new understandings is He going to show us?


Protestants understand and embrace that 2,000 years ago, under the influence of a hedonistic society, the Catholic Church went astray in several key areas.  Five hundred years ago Martin Luther and several others led a revolt against the church and brought the reformation movement into being.  This was a wonderful move of God that has presented us with a way of life, and an ability to have freedom of religion that was not possible at that time.  At the same time, is it possible that this movement was tainted by the theologies of man?  Is it possible that the religious preferences, desires, and attitudes of those that led the campaign tainted the full degree of the revelation that was necessary?  Is it possible that we are moving into a time period where God is about to finish what He started 500 years ago?  I believe the answers to these questions is YES.

We need only to look as far as this quote from Rev. Mark J. Gantley, JCL as found on WETN.com on 5/1/2005.  "In the 16th century, Martin Luther adopted the  modern Jewish list, putting the Deuterocanonical books in an appendix. He also put the letter of James, the letter to the Hebrews, the letters of John, and the book of Revelation from the New Testament in an appendix. He did this for doctrinal reasons" Italic added


Today, if anyone would attempt to remove any books from the bible because of "doctrinal reasons", or any other reasons for that matter, wouldn't it cause us to really question where this person is getting their "doctrine" from?  Fortunately most of what Martin Luther wanted removed was protected and the integrity of our bibles were mostly maintained.  But this is not the point.  The fact is that this was a major turning point in church history, a turning point that ushered in new understandings, and new theology.  In light of the evidence, how can we deny that Martin Luther's theologies were not tainted by his own personal beliefs, beliefs that did not stem from God, and as such were intended to battle against the Kingdom of God?

Shouldn't we be searching out Martin Luther's personal attitudes and opinions?  Wouldn't a greater understanding of the man help us to understand where a door may have been left open for the enemy to attack?  Wouldn't this help us understand where God might be leading us as He prepares for His next big move?

I pray that this blog has inspired thought for you this morning.  I pray that it has been a blessing.  In Jesus name, Amen.