Friday, March 16, 2007

Stuck Between “The Old Days” And “The Next Level”

It’s funny how believers who have been at church a long time, maybe all their lives, become dissatisfied with the way things are and find themselves desiring more. They either want to move up to the “Next Level” or long for the “Old Days.”

When we look at others around us, the services at church, etc., we tend to scrutinize and analyze everything except a mirror. Let’s face it, everything is changing in the church and the world in general, so we must hold fast to the faith and the fundamentals that we were brought up with as long as it is locked steadfastly into the Word which never changes.

However, we must realize that God is always doing something new in the earth. The world may be spinning too fast for some people and too slow for others but God has the perspective from being the same yesterday, today and forever because He actually lives and exists right now in the past, present, and future, all at the same time.

So. What do we do to become satisfied? How do we escape from being stuck between the “Old Days” and the “Next Level?” It’s simple. Plug into the eternity of God. Delve into Him. Eat, sleep, and drink Him. Face the mirror and become so filled with Him that as you gaze into the mirror, you behold more of Him than you. Look into the mirror and see Him. Then you will have achieved all that is!

Monday, March 12, 2007

Money Is Killing Our Relationship

Dear Friends,

This word from the Lord is complete, unedited, and presented exactly as I received. I share it for your benefit.

Yours In Christ,
Gene


"Son, Do you think the message I have for you to give is an easy one? Men have been ridiculed, harrassed, belittled, persecuted, and killed for giving my message. I have tried to give it at every step of it's development. You are right, the New Testament church of the first three generations was the model. However, as with every revelation and gift, as you know, I give it in seed form first. Then I let it grow.

The entire plan for the church is designed, and blueprinted in my Son Jesus. Remember, He is the vine. Then, my first three generation church was the fleshing out, in seed form, of my kingdom, church, family, it's government, policies, techniques, growth and service strategies, and operational design.

Now, have my servants always followed my plans? Of course not. You know that. However, a measure of my plan has always been carried out.

The enemy has beat down my church but I have never, even in it's darkest days, forsaken my church nor allowed it to be destroyed. In the early days, the enemy used persecution to destroy my church family. It didn't work. My people survived and their resolve became even stronger.

In the middle days, the enemy used church government and political control to destroy my relationship with my church family. It didn't work. My people's faith survived, they protested, and my church was restored.

In these last days, the enemy is prospering my church and trying to destroy our relationship with financial gain for the leaders, and the hope of financial gain for the congregation.

Money is killing our relationship! Those who have it, trust in it, not me. Those who don't have it, resent me for not blessing them. Money gives power and prestige to the leaders and an excuse to sin to the congregation. What leader will offend someone who has and gives money? They have become giants of justification-justifying why they can't offend givers.

Meanwhile, they have become rich and increased with goods, not knowing or even considering that they are really poor, naked and facing judgement. Haven't I said that before?

What really hurts me son, what really hurts me, is the fact that my chosen leaders... they have lost their first love...Me. And so many never had me to begin with. And my church, my family has a distorted view of me and a complete lack of knowledge of the relationship that they could have. The enemy knows how to hurt me. The only way is to separate us and hurt my church, my family.

Son, I have given you my heart. Please...tell them what I am really like. Tell them of the times we have spent together and what I really think of them. Let them know of my complete unshakable love for them. What more can I do? What more can I give? The enemy knows his time is short. Fight him! Fight!"

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Sharing In The Solitude OF Christ

Have you ever felt alone? How is it possible to be lonely in a world with the most technological advances, and various methods of communications in the history of the world? We walk down a crowded street, and yet we might as well be in a desert. We sit in a church with dozens of smiling faces all around worshiping and serving the same Lord, yet we might as well be floating in a raft adrift in the vast atlantic ocean. This doesn't seem right! It makes you want to scream, HEY!!!!! I'm here! It's me!

What is going on? How can God allow this? Well, did you ever think that just possibly God could be causing your solitude? God gave Adam a woman, a help mate, because it was not good that he be alone. And yet, there was a place in Adam that couldn't be filled by Eve. There is a place in us, once discovered, that can only be filled by the presence of the Lord.

Once you've known God's presence, nothing, no nothing can satisfy. Nothing else fulfills the longing and desire deep down in our spirits for Him. While in His earth walk, Lord Jesus suffered loneliness unmatched by the lonliness of anyone else. Imagine the shock to His system being on the earth in a human body restrained by the limitations of the gravity of mankind. We couldn't understand His lonliness, yet as we become more aware of Christ in us, we become more aware of every feeling, every experience, every thought, and everything that is Christ.

Homesick? Sure He was homesick for the glory and fellowship He shared with Father and the Holy Spirit in heaven. Yet He loved us so much He suffered that lonliness for our sakes.

So, what is it for us to suffer a measure of that lonliness? It is a small price to pay, to know Him in the fellowship of loneliness. To really know Him, it is a blessing to share in His surffering loneliness. This, and all suffering is earthly and one day, we will shed it like a cocoon forever. But until then, we have the Holy Spirit to comfort us in our suffering. Loneliness in a crowded world seems incredulous, but it happens to most people including believers.

So don't resent God, no, embrace loneliness as a gift of God used as a tool to draw us even closer to Him. And the best thing is, that He is acutely aware of every fiber of our being in our entire spirit, soul, and body. So loneliness in the world is nothing as compared to the glory of walking in the Spirit in fellowship with Them, the Three.