A Powerful Posture is a humble one!

As a young man reading the Bible I always wanted to be like the men in the Bible. I've always aspired to be someone that is worth recognition in scripture. I thought to myself; if God is going to write another Bible I want to be one of the people that has their own chapter like Samuel, Joshua and so on and so forth. Well, after my desire I began to say myself "well whats so special about the men that have their own chapter's: why are they worth mentioning?" After reading about strong men in scripture there is a certain attribute that they all have in common. They all know how to bow before the Lord, they are no strangers to the Lord, they all inquire of God in every situation, good and bad and spend lots of time "facedown". Facedown meaning reading and fasting, seeking God for an answer. In their persuit of Christ came another attribute; the love of Christ, a strong love. For at first how can you really love Christ if you don't persue Him. Let's be real, without the persuit of Christ how can one say they love Christ when we can't even see or touch Him. These two characteristics; a strong hunger for Christ and a strong love for the Lord are what the great men in scripture have in common. These two attributes have brought plenty out from a dark and gloomy past or one with a faint chance for success. Take David and Moses for example. If you recall in the story of David, when Samuel came to anoint a king, David never came into the mind of his father and when David was sent for he was out tending to sheep. A person tending to sheep doesn't sound like one that is going to be a king, does he? But because of God's favor, David's persuit of Christ and his Love for the Lord, he was able to excel far beyond what his beginning would suggest he was capable of achieving. In other words, normally sheep tenders led a life of mediocrity but David persued and loved the Lord so he prospered far beyond the life of a normal sheep tender. Now Moses was a murderer, he had killed a man. Furthermore, he was once apart of the family of people that kept the hebrews captive. But God favored Moses, and Moses was a man who persued God and Loved the Lord very much. The Bible even states of the two men that David was a man after God's own heart who would do anything the Lord told him to do and Moses was a man who was the most humblest on the face of the Earth. Although, these men had a past life that was not very promising their persuit and love for God enabled them to do great things worth mentioning in scripture. In the book of Numbers, I must admit I was very impressed with the posture of Moses, he really blew my mind. His behavior and conduct was just admirable. Moses was a man who set the people free from captivitiy and led them throughtout the desert for forty years. Now "these people" Moses led were impatient, disrespectful, irreverent and selfish to say the least. Words can not describe how disobedient "these people" were to Moses, a prophet of the Lord. On many many occasions "these people" rose up against Moses to take away his authority and kill him. Yet inspite of their foolishness everytime "these people" came against him the Bible says Moses went "facedown", seeking God for forgiveness on behalf of the people that rose up against him. Now put yourself in Moses' shoes for one second; You are the leader of a people you rescued from hundreds of years, 400 to be exact, of slavery. "These people" have seen miracles performed by God that no other person in the history of mankind have seen, from the splitting of the Red Sea, to the curses of Pharoah, to the manna falling from the sky to many other things. But still when things went wrong they had the nerve to want to kill you. Knowing yourself, you probably would of told more then one person off- but Moses stayed faithful. Look at Numbers 16:1-4. In the scripture, Levite people, a people who were set aside for Kingdom Ministry people who dealt with setting up the Tent of Meeting, in today's time these people would be similar to people with some type of authority in the church, rose up against Moses. Verse 4 says "When Moses heard this, he fell facedown". Wow. Moses didn't even see it happen with his own eyes, he just heard someone was talking smack and he began to pray for the person. Now look at Numbers 16: 20-22, when the Lord arrived to deal with the people who had rose against him, Moses and Aaron both fell facedown on behalf of the people. Furthermore, "these people" grumbled against Moses again right after God had dealt with the last group of people that rose against Moses. As soon as the people rebelled against Moses he again fell facedown for the people. Now look at verses 48-50. The Bible says "he stood between the living and the dead". That phrase is exactly what Moses did in prayer, had it not been for Moses' prayer the rebellious people would have been slayed and judged by the Lord. Isn't that amazing, that we as people from a disgusting background, who deserved death because of our own deeds, through Christ can save others from death. There are people in my family who are sinful in every way form and fashion but because of my prayers will not die. The Lord loves me that much that he will pardon rebellious people simply because I asked him. Getting back to Moses, if you were to read the whole 16th chapter of Numbers you will see that everytime the people came against Moses before Moses could get his facedown God was ready to send the plague upon the sinful people. Time and time again when the people came against Moses, God was right there appearing before the people to destroy them. But Moses never failed to get facedown when being confronted. I've asked myself why, after coming to that revealation. Why did Moses pray for the people that wanted to kill him? Well if you look at Numbers 17:5 there you'll find the answer. It reads " And I will rid Myself of this constant grumbling against you by the Isrealites". In review of the scriptures you'll see that the people came against Moses but God said "I will rid myself of the constant grumbling against you", as if the people were grumbling against Him and not Moses. That passage is very powerful. God got upset when the people came against Moses, when Moses was opposed God was opposed. Now opposing God is sinful and God detest sin, so he moved to do away with the sinners. Whenever God's people are hurting God hurts, when someone offends God's chosen they offend God. To know that the Lord loves us that much that he would suffer with us to the extent where He can literally feel our pain and take justice against the ones who caused it is very powerful. Moses knew the Lord very well, the Bible says in Numbers 12:8 "Moses sees the form of the Lord" and that is why Moses fell facedown when being confronted. Moses knew the Lord would take offense to their sinfulness so he prayed that God have Mercy upon them. That is why believers are to pray for their enemies even when our enemies do wrong against us because if they really knew who they were upsetting they wouldn't attack Godly people.
God Bless, tell a friend and come back next week.

A Love For Slavery?

God's people have to know that knowledge of Christ leads to God because knowing the Lord leads to a stronger hunger for Christ. The more you know about the Lord the stronger your passion for Christ and your love for God will become. The reverse is true for a child of God that is ignorant of the Father. So to briefly reiterate the prior point, knowledge of Christ leads to God, who is the one that will set you free, but ignorance of the Word of God will lead back to sin, which is bondage, captitivity, slavery. To know the Lord you must give more of yourself, through prayer and reading your Bible. For the scripture reads Joshua 1: 7-8 " Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not trun from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night.." This is your mandate as a believer of the Gospel. Knowledge of God is Needed for sustaining your Salvation. However, there are many ignorant people in the body of Christ. Many slaves that proclaim Christ! An ignorant man/woman of God will ultimatley fall to slavery, a slave to a carnal nature. Have you not seen the slaves? They are there every Sunday pleading for a Miracle! God pay my bills! God give me a man! God give me a house! God give me a job! Meanwhile, the Bible declares:
Matthew 6: 31-34 "So do not worry, saying 'What shall we eat? or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself." A sad sight indeed, to see God's people love a life of complacency, unnecessary struggle and unfulfilled prophecy, but this should not be. For the Bible declares that God's people are peculiar, we are instruments of Praise! Our only mandate is to stay connected to the Father who is our source, for our Salvation comes from the Lord. We who are God's people are to use everything we have for the Glorification and the Building up of God's temple, His Holy Name, the Kingdome of the most High God!! That is all we have to do!! Do you have hands? Well lift them up! Do you have a mouth? Well shout out his name! In prayer don't ask for things the Lord has already promised you, it's insulting. Don't seek God for things! Seek God for more God! His will! His Love!! The Bible declares Isaiah 65:24 "Before they call I will answer: while they are still speaking I will hear!" Don't we worship an Awesome God!! Isn't He Awesome!! Before you had the need He had the answer, before you had the problem He had the solution! So if God has already solved the problem why beg and cry out for it? Just seek Him and know that He has already worked it out!! You must know this!! Not feel it or say it 1000 times to yourself! Just know it and when you know something you don't talk about it, do you? When you are truly confident about something you keep it to yourself. There is no confirmation needed for something you know. For instance, what is 2 multiplied by 2? For those of you that don't know it's 4. But for those of you who did know the answer, did you need any emotional confirmation? No. You simply knew. If you were sick, would the answer have changed? If you were sad? Happy? Mad? No the answer is still 4. Well, when you Know the Word of God you simply Know it and don't need any worldly/flesh confirmation. You don't need to ask the opinion of one million people because you Know it. Regardless of how you feel Know His Word, Trust and Have Faith in His Word!! When you understand and walk in this you shall be kept in what the Bible describes as "perfect peace". A peace that is so divine, free from worry, free from stress and free from a life of horror. Unfortunately many do not know the Lord and his Word. Many meaning, saved and unsaved! Therefore, they walk as slaves, they submit to a life of toil without reward, a life of horror, a life of unfulfillment, a life without hope and a life without a Love that can not be described in any language. A Heavenly Love a Godly Love! For it is possible to share the same Love that Jesus had when He went to the cross. I am just beginning to tap into This Love and I can not describe it in words. It's truly unimaginable!! So why do they give up this Love? Why choose Slavery over Life? The answer differs for some. Some are just ignorant and do not read their Bibles and do not give God time to be God in their lives. On the other hand, there are some who simply love slavery! As awkward as it sounds it is very true. Open your Bible and read Exodus 21: 1-6. "Buf if the servant declares, I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free, then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life!" A Love for Slavery? By staying Ignorant for so long, people may become so comfortable in their present enviornment untill they come to a point where they don't want to leave. In the book UP From Slavery (written by Booker T. Washington), there is a passage in which he describes the scene when the slaves became free. He describes the scene as being one in which "there is great rejoicing and thanksgiving and wild ecstasy" he continues to say "the wild rejoicing on the part of the emancipated coloured people lasted but for a brief period.....the great responsibility of being free, of having charge of themselves, of having to think and plan for themselves and their children seemed to take possession of them....within a few hours the wild rejoicing ceased and a feeling of deep gloom seemed to pervade the slave quarters.....deep down in their hearts there was a strange and peculiar attachment to "old Marster and "old Missus," and to their children, which they found it hard to think of breaking off.....one by one, stealthily at first, the older slaves began to wander from the slave quarters back to the "big house"!"
To all those who worship the Lord, don't love slavery don't look back to when you served the enemy, what God has in store for you is greater then what you had before!!
God Bless and as always, come back next week and tell a friend.

God Is not a God of Tradion, whatever God put in your Heart to do, DO.

Throughout my young life I have put up with CHURCH FOLK=Tradition, for so long. Tradition at times has made me so angry and confused. But God is not a God of confusion. "Church Folk" would tell me "why are you listening to that Hip Hop Gospel and all that Gospel Rap, that's the Church mimicking the world, and that ain't right", and I'd reply "I'm a young man who loves God, I love hymns and all that older southern traditional Gospel music but sometimes I just want to bounce and bop to some Godly music". "Well that ain't Holy" would be their response. And for a young man who loves God and is limited in his knowledge of Christ, statements such as these can deter and possibly cause the fire/passion for God stirred up in the young man to die out. And it is situations such as these that have led many astray, PEOPLE PREACHING TRADITION RATHER THEN THE LOVE OF GOD. Thank God, that at a young age I did not take to any of the foolishness I was fed by "Church Folk", ignoring what I had heard I continued to persue God and as I persued he answered he revealed answers to me, that quieted the nonsense being spread by the "Church Folk". God had shown me that he is not a God of Tradition through his word. My concern about the Gospel Music that had been questioned, God showed me in scrpiture that the only music He is concerned with is Holy music. You see the reason my "hip Hop Gospel" or "Gospel Rap" music was questioned, was due to the beat of the music. Well God told me He doesn't care about the beat as long of the author of the beat and song is an Anointed man/woman of God. Open your Bible and turn to 1 Sam 16:14-23. Read thoroughly. Now read verse 18 aloud. The description of David is that he is "a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine looking man. And the Lord is with him." The phrase " and the Lord is with him" is a sign of God's Glory and Anointing over David's Life. Because of God's Anointing on David's life whatever David did God was with him, therefore everything David did had a "Holy Effect" on it. When David went to war he fought with God's Anointing and when he played the harp, it was Anointed, the music was Holy. God loves Holy music!! It didn't matter what strings David played whether it had been Hip Hoppish or Classical Soundish, regardless of what sounds came from that harp God's Anointing lay on the sounds and therefore the music was Holy. That is what God cares for....Holiness...Purification. Note verse23, when the evil spirits came from God the Anointed music from David would cast them out. What does this mean, ANOINTED/HOLY MUSIC CAST OUT EVIL SPIRITS AND MUSIC THAT IS NOT HOLY USHERS IN EVIL SPIRITS. NO MATTER THE AUTHOR OF THE SONG NOR THE GENRE OF MUSIC, IF THE SONG WRITER IS NOT OF THE LORD, THE MUSIC WILL USHER IN EVIL SPIRITS!! Now targeting the tradition nonsense, turn your bibles to 1 Sam 10:1-7. Read the verses thoroughly. If you read the first verse again, you will see that Saul had been Anointed, therefore God was with him. Now look at verse 7 and it reads "do whatever your hands finds to do, for God is with you". You see Saul had been Anointed and he was sent from Samuel to do some tasks. Saul was obedient and he did what he was told. Then when he met the prophets, the Spirit of the Lord rested upon him and he began to prophesy and the Bible declares that he was Changed! Then the Lord says "do whatever your hands finds to do". God did not give a set structure for ministry. If God placed it on your hearts to Rap Gospel, then Rap. Whenever the Spirit of the Lord rest on you, there is not set way for Ministry, Your Ministry is not someone else's so don't rely on others to guide you in a Ministry that is not theirs. Whether your Ministry is playing a harp, tap dancing, basketball, you must do it. God just wants the Glory and the Praise, He is creativity and He can use you if you only allow Him and nobody else to guide your Ministry. People will talk harshly about you, but did they not talk the same way about Jesus. Jesus was talked about and lied on. You walk in his name so you should expect people to disagree with and bash your calling, but DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED!! For the Lord HAS ALREADY GIVEN YOU THE VICTORY!!!!. For Levicus 26:13 says "I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high"!!! Rejoice in the Lord. God Bless. Come back next week and tell a friend!!