MORE THEN I CAN BE

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MORE THEN I CAN BE

Rolf U. Lovland wrote: “You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains; you raise me up, to walk on stormy seas; I am strong, when I am on your shoulders; you raise me up… to more then I can be.”

WHO can raise us to more then I can be?  GOD of course but how often do we fail to grasp this?

WHO builds you up?   ARE they the temporary things in life or GOD?     

The wick of “this” life is only so long… and what footprint will last in a world that will one day come to nothing?  Can you build upon something that will become nothing?

“Look! I am creating new heavens and a new earth, and no one will even think about the old ones anymore.” ISAIAH 65:17

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone.” REVELATION 21:1

God wants to raise us up to more then we thought possible… in HIM!

Ever felt anxiety, depressed, oppressed, worried, fearful, inadequate, spiritually hungry and thirsty?  

WHERE was your focus? Was it on the temporary?  What mental theme “music” was playing in your day?  Who’s shoulders did you place that enormous weight or burden?  

Was the day being “colored in” by what you understand, perceived, judged, and even felt?  Where was the emphasis on?  Why the bias?  What tainted and grayed your skies?

WHO is the BUILDER?

“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.
It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep. Psalm 127:1-2

Ever ask, “Where is that enormous immoveable foundation that my life is suppose to be standing on?”  Nothing has changed- God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow so why do I feel the way I do?  You look at the structure that surrounds you.  You have stacked every bail of hay and nailed every board and put stucco on the outside.   You even thatched the roof.   You did this!  But…. but why isn’t there more of this sense of accomplishment and pride in your work?  Why isn’t this any encouragement to you? Shouldn’t this boost your esteem?   It is then when your eyes fall to the trim along the floor you remember.  The trim is made of the purest gold.  It was the finest work in the entire the house.  It wasn’t you doing the work there but GOD doing this work through you.  It was a relationship and partnership with GOD that did this…   You stand and look a bit at all you have built.  A glowing smile then emerges on your face as you utter these words, “Yes, indeed it is time for some changes.  GOD will you help me?” 

Then as if there was no time to waste a curious wind comes…. It carries away the thatched roof and then simultaneously all four walls are taken away as well.  The only two things that are left is the foundation that he stood you upon when you came to Christ and the fine golden trim. 

Jesus, the architect of heaven and earth then comes.  He smiles and says, “Come let’s continue to build something lasting together.”

Is it a fortress? Is it a villa?  Is it high tower?  You never know unless you build with him….  But the more important question that needs to be seated firmly in our soul and consciousness is, “Is our life ours or HIS?”  Do we labor in vain thinking it’s ours?”

Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value.  If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.  1 Corinthians 3:12-15

God the Creator does not grow tired and weary but we do.

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.” ISAIAH 40:28

Jesus said,  “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

REST FOR OUR SOULS IN THE EVERLASTING

Nothing is more “stabilizing” to our soul then our relationship with our everlasting GOD, JESUS CHRIST.  For the “things” of this life are only temporary but GOD is CONSTANT and FOREVER!

Rest for our soul comes when we “switch” yokes or understandings -realizing in whom we truly belong.  We stop yielding to our own understandings and what the world wants to oppress and impress upon us to yield to God’s Holy Spirit who wants us to realize and come to the “satisfying” reality in HIM. 

Our limited understanding and the world’s corruption constantly yanks us this way and that way by whatever comes and goes but by submitting to God there is no tide of in and out just peace.    

Temptations are those tides in the sea of understanding.  They are not just lusts of the flesh but also things that tempt us to fear, have anxiety, doubt, and give into oppression and peer pressure.  They are things that want to take God’s rightful seat in our hearts, minds, and souls.

James 1:6 speaks of this “... Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.”   

But I believe these things meant for evil also help us- they secure what was weak -building a stronger taller wall.  They dig a deeper divide.  They cause us to put less emphasis on the things of this life and more on GOD.  They give us a stronger deeper confident resolve in GOD.      

So knowing this, we strive to let go and let God, we strive to put our trust in God over our own understandings and what is happening around us in the great hope of becoming all that God wants us to become…

I don’t know about you but I can be hard on myself.  I don’t know if it is deserved or undeserved but I do know this one thing…. free from me is good for me. 

The Spirit of GOD allows us to be free from our worst critic, our most harsh observer, and overbearing judge- ourselves.  He allows us to see how great God’s grace is and allows us to be empowered by that grace realizing where life is meant to be lived.              

People are constantly looking for the way, the truth and a life to be satisfied, to be fulfilled, to be free, to be healed, to be content, to be more then just a stuffed suitcase with no where to go.  They are looking to be more then they can be.

JESUS says point blank:  “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me.” JOHN 14:6

JESUS was the one who created you and I.  So being made by HIM, how could we ever be satisfied without HIM?  How could we ever feel comforted and encouraged without HIM?  How could we ever feel secure without Him?  How could we be something more then we think of ourselves without Him?

I have asked this question (probably more then once), “What is the purpose of this life?”  And the answer I receive is, “To know God.”   I believe and know that without God we are just a bunch of souls wandering around in the dark and there is no point.  

BUT seeing that JESUS holds LIFE and IS LIFE itself really changes our perceptive on life.

LIFE was always supposed to be a RELATIONSHIP with GOD.   Life is a relationship with JESUS, the EVERLASTING God.

HOW DEAR TO YOU HOLD YOUR LIFE?

“But I do not consider my life in any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.” ACTS 20:24

Sometimes we can hold our life with such a tight grip…  But if we realized whom really holds our life we might just find life more abundantly.

“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” John 10:10

The thief wants to convince us of what exactly?  Why doesn’t he want us to let go and let God?  Why doesn’t he want us pry our fingers loose from our life?  What does the thief, Satan, have to lose?  What greater confidence can we find in GOD if we do this? What ministry do we have to gain?    

Everyday it is a decision to let the SPIRIT have control or the FLESH.  It’s as if within ourselves we have a green meadow and before us a great horse.   The SPIRIT represents the great horse.  The SPIRIT is wild compared to our understanding but he was meant for us to ride.   It is our decision to either walk away or get on.  Hopefully everyday is a “ride” day for you.  But it seems that before we ride the wild stallion we sit and wait in the green lush grass.  The wild horse with no bridle or reigns then comes seeing our submitted way and we respectfully get on.  

Sometimes it’s a casual ride seeing and noticing things we had never seen/thought before, sometimes it’s experiencing to new heights, sometimes it’s riding behind a veil of deeper truths and sometimes it’s a ride in total abandonment.

“This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the Lord of hosts.”  Zachariah 4:6

IS GOD OUR INFLUENCER? 

Is life only good depending on what day it is, when the sun is shining, your health is good and you have money in your pockets to spend?   OR is life good because you know GOD is with you?  

2 Corinthians 12:10 says “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

The Apostle Paul was physically a prisoner because of his faith in Christ Jesus yet prison life and punishment and torture were just “symptoms” or “conditions of this life.  They weren’t who he was for he was a Child of GOD. 

What earthly temporary things do you allow to be influencers over your life focus- stopping you from being all that GOD wants to help you to be?  God wants us to realize the FULLNESS of life in HIM regardless of the circumstances.

What things do you allow to manipulate you?     

I had a friend die of an incurable form of cancer that slowly shut down her body yet while she was here she said, “life was good” not because of her circumstances but because she continually felt the reassuring presence of God despite all the painful difficulties.

We think life is in our circumstances or conditions but is it? 

May GOD help us abide in a trusting confident relationship in HIM that we may sail over crippling and debilitating understandings that make us feel less then how GOD sees us and created us to be.  

Psalm 18:18 says “They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the LORD was my support.”

WE are GOD’s children if we have given our life to JESUS CHRIST.  The world loves to label people but as a child of GOD- circumstances, troubles and calamities can have no ownership over us.  Remember where your names are written and are registered. 

“But don't rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in heaven." LUKE 10:20

REVELATION 3:5 ”The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels.

Our names may mean nothing in this world but they mean something where it matters most.

How about a Song....

How about a song...

GOD- THE LIFE CHANGER. Pt 3

THE GATEWAY TO LIFE

So knowing this about God’s thoughts and ways… we must also understand the way in which we enter heaven is not the same open ended views as man foolishly and dangerously assures himself in.

JESUS said, “I am the way, and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.” JOHN 14:6

JESUS said, "But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it." MATTHEW 7:14

It is difficult because people want to make their own way into heaven but there is no other way to be saved except through JESUS CHRIST – the SON of GOD.   The blood of GOD was GIVEN for all humanity but not all humanity want to accept this FACT. 

JESUS speaking of Himself said: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life,”  JOHN 3:16

The corrupt understanding keeps people from knowing GOD like a loaded down camel trying to pass through a narrow gate.  The man must be relieved of his sinful understanding just as the camel must be unloaded of his baggage to pass through the gate.  GOD IS the ONLY one who can GIVE one NEW UNDERSTANDING.

I remember there were times I didn’t want to surrender to God afraid God would take something from me or turn me into something I didn’t want to be but what I wasn’t aware of was GOD HAD PLANS for me and had I realized GOD had plans for me I might had not wasted so much energy, time and money being something was not meant to be.  

It is just as JEREMIAH 29:11 says: "'For I know the plans for you,' says the the LORD.  'They are plans for good not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.'"

God made you and if HE made you then HE made you for a reason and purpose but in order to find the plans God has for us we must GIVE YOURSELF to YOUR rightful MAKER and trust HIM.

FAITH and TRUST

ISAIAH wrote:  "Where once there were thorns, cypress trees will grow. Where nettles grew, myrtles will sprout up.  These events will bring great honor to the Lord’s name; they will be an everlasting sign of his power and love.”

Have you seen cypress trees?  Not far from my house is a park that has a river. Along the river's edge are these enormous cypress trees.   Where the water gets high at times, the water has exposed it's large roots and you can see them reaching deep into the water.  It is like JEREMIAH 17:7-8

"But blessed are those who trust in the LORD and have made the LORD their hope and confidence.  They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water.  Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried about long months of drought.  Their leaves stay green, and they go right on producing delicious fruit."  JEREMIAH 17:7-8

That is FAITH.  Sometimes we see a person’s faith, the “roots” of their faith when exposed by different situations and we see them reaching and trusting in GOD which gives them an anchoring peace in those trying and difficult times.  A person’s faith is like a canopy of shade on those hot dry days as they stick their roots in the cool refreshing waters of God’s love and faithfulness.   Is not a trusting faith a sign of God’s power and love?

REMEMBER IT IS GOD WHO DOES THE TRANSFORMING IN PEOPLE- IT IS NOT FOUND IN THE UNDERSTANDINGS OF MAN OR THE DEVICES OF MAN. 

Come to HIM.  Be SAVED.  Be TRANSFORMED.  Become and live the DESTINY GOD planned for you long ago as you EXPERIENCE and come to KNOW HIM.

MercyMe - Shake (Official Music Video)
  

GOD - THE LIFE CHANGER. Pt 2

The SPIRITUAL CREATION in CHRIST

Religion is of man BUT faith in Jesus Christ has to be birthed by GOD.

JESUS said “The truth is, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.  Humans can reproduce only human life but the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven.  So don’t be surprised at my statement that you must be born again.  Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.” John 3:5-8

“And I will give you a new heart with new and right desires, and I will put a new spirit in you.  I will take out your stony heart of sin and give you a new obedient heart.” Ezekiel 36:26

For no born-again Christian, really understood what faith in Jesus Christ meant until the Spirit of God transformed them.  For once we lived and understood as the world lives and understands but when God touched us a new WAY of understanding was birthed.  It is an understanding that is hidden to all men until they submit their lives to God/ Jesus Christ. 

Birthed by the Spirit of God, we no longer find encouragement and nourishment in the world as we once did.   Those things died to us and became strangely dim to us when Christ came into our life and we began to abide in HIM.  

In fact when we put our eyes on the world and try to find encouragement and worth or meaning in the world we quickly lose peace become disillusioned and discouraged because our soul’s can no longer "feed" on what the “worldly system” provides.

JESUS said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4

A man does not truly live until the words of GOD come alive in HIM.   God gives power to His words.   A man may use God's words but no power is given to them unless the Spirit fills them.  God speaks and encourages His people through HIS Spirit.   He gives understanding where there was no understanding before and deeper understanding to build upon understanding he has already given.

GENESIS 1 said GOD made the heavens and the earth.  He spoke them into exist.  From out of nothing he made them.  This is no different then our FAITH.  It is a mystery is it not… “Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”   

God formed us in our mother's womb.  Doctors still find this a wonder of how this takes place- how this choreography of cells divide and come together.  Oddly some doctors kill what they find a wonder in a woman’s womb when it's LIFE made in the image of GOD. 

ROMANS 1:20-21 states.  GOD is our CREATOR.   Without God none of us would be here today.  WHO do people instinctively pray to when they are in trouble?  Is it not GOD?  Why do those who don't even praise Him or worship Him do this?  God gave us a measure of knowing “of” God – that we might perhaps come to HIM to be saved and the "knowing of" would become FAITH of “knowing” HIM.    

A FAITH that we did not even know existed or could possess came into us.  Where we are filled with the fullness of God. (EPHESIANS 3:19)  Our faith was not birthed by any know how or understanding of man- all we did was give GOD our life and GOD awesomely and mercifully answered back.

Our soul has been awakened to the truth of God   A DOOR out of the darkness was graciously OPENED to US.  It was like HE was always there… we could see traces of the things he had done in our life but do to PRIDEFUL ignorance and understandings and worldly desires we always separated ourselves from HIM. 

In a sense we have been made aware of the "matrix" that holds people captive to the lusts and empty cares of this life.   Satan and his demons (who I have already told are real), hate ALL humanity.  It doesn't matter if you are Christian and not....  If God created you then he hates you for you are the likeness of GOD.

“So God created people in his own image; God patterned them after himself; male and female he created them.  God blessed them and told them, ‘Multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.  Be masters over the fish and birds and all the animals.’” GENESIS 1:27-28

Satan, the poor loser, defeated by GOD now goes after the GOD’s chosen creation to get back at GOD.   He subtly and shrewdly went after Adam and Eve.  And since he has blinded people of this world with the corrupt understanding that has been passed down from Adam and Eve.  Satan and his minion puppet, manipulate and entice the human race.  

Ever see someone use the exact right words to figuratively rip someone's heart out or hinder them?  Who do you think gave them those precise words? That is why the scriptures say, "For we do not fight flesh and blood but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms?" EPHESIANS 6:12.

Satan doesn't just want to keep his existence secretive but wants to keep his schemes as well.   Satan, knowing his DOOMED fate wants to take as many souls with him to hell.  He doesn't want people to come out of the dark cloud of haze or wake up and hear about JESUS!

EPHESIANS 5:13 says: “But when the light shines on them, it becomes clear how evil these things are.  And where your light shines, it will expose their evil deeds.  This is why it is said, ‘Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.’”

People of this world are feed death not knowing it is death in which they drink and enjoy.

But those who have been awakened and changed by the Spirit of God can now only spiritually feed on the things of God.  Our spiritual make up has changed and can no longer serve this fallen and perverse world without doing harm to our souls.

Some may say we have become narrow minded in our conservative views but if our narrow mindedness comes from God what does that say about the rest of the world?  If we are submitted to will of God where does that leave the rest of the world?

Remember Noah and his family?  They seemed to be the minority in how they lived and believed until God flooded the earth with his judgment.  Who was being narrow minded then? 

“It was by faith that Noah built an ark to save his family from the flood.  He obeyed God, who warned him about something that had never happened before.  By his faith he condemned the rest of the world and was made right in the sight of God.” HEBREWS 11:7

The circumstances that were to happen seemed impossible yet Noah built an ark by FAITH.

We are told in Matthew 24:37-42 that our faith will have the same affect as Noah's faith when the impossible happens and JESUS comes to take us HOME.

"As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.  For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away.   That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man,  Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.  Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.  Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come."

God’s ways are not the world’s ways.   God does not share the same lens as the liberal, compromising, perverse world wears in fact GOD has PERFECT vision.

GOD says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.:  ISAIAH 55:8-9

GOD- THE LIFE CHANGER. Pt. 1

FAITH

While reading Deuteronomy 6... I could not help but see what FAITH does in GOD.  It is a very different landscape and new world with God.   It is an indeed a very “unexpected” journey.  Though once part of "this" world we now become like foreigners and nomads living and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with our fellow man while we look forward to the time when we can finally fall asleep and the angels lift us out of these bodies and we go to our rightful HOME... that is if we are not taken up or ruptured first.

 

TO SEE JESUS... the one when we think about -brings all good things to our soul.   Though HIS smile, I have only seen in visions and dreams , it instantly lifts and lights my burden soul.  How wonderful this affect is on the soul - I do wonder how much more wonderful it will be when there is nothing separating us from HIM.  

Like a child who loves the embrace of a parent or relative, I look forward to JESUS' embrace.    To hear his laugh and hear the voice that called everything into being.  Can you imagine? We will hold the very hands that made and formed us and even took the punishment for us.    

John 1:3 says: “God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him.”

GOD the FATHER thought it, JESUS spoke it, and the Spirit created it.

 

Can you imagine the hands lifted in such JOY and PRAISE!  Hands raised in golden rain that soaks and saturates our smiling faces (I do not how this will be because I have only seen glimpses of this in vision.) I look forward to be without fail in his continual presence where no fleshly hindrances interrupt - for full surrender is that what will be lived in heaven of every moment of eternity.   The peace and energy that will encompass us.  It will be beyond comprehension.  

We gave nothing compared to GOD who gave everything to become personal with us.  We gave ourselves and GOD gave us HIMSELF which is everything!   

Now we draw water from cisterns we did not dig and eat from vineyards and olive trees we did not plant.   The Spirit gives us living water and we are anointed and baptized in HIS Spirit.  The LORD has broken the chains of our slavery and rescued us from Hell.  We have opportunities everyday to stop from our basic cluttered thinking and start afresh- abiding in His SPIRIT of GOD who is richly stocks us with unlimited goods and resources to encourage and relieve us from our load.   Where we receive understandings and spiritual food we did not produce or thinking up on our own.  He is the one who becomes our guide of the day- organizing the tasks at hand and we often don’t thank GOD for doing such thing- and for this I am sorry for not recognizing the efforts you have put forth for me. 

By GOD’s patient teaching, we realize LIFE is about trusting GOD with holy surrender and reverence knowing in doing so he blesses and preserves our soul.

Religion does not do this for how could it if GOD is absent and it only preserves the traditions of man.  Religion is acting.  Religion is left to it's own unsatisfying devices; it is absent of the assurances, hopes and leadership of GOD. 

GOD is the GOD of FAITH not RELIGION.

Faith is finding GOD is GOOD and FULL OF MERCY.   FAITH is KNOWING GOD is SPIRIT and HE ALONE renews the SOUL and makes us RIGHT with HIMSELF.       

RELIGION can use God’s name or not use God’s name and even those who claim to have no religion have the religion of their own understanding.  Religious people like to crawl into the seat, which is rightfully GOD’s.  They are like kings and rulers who kill their predecessor so they can be ruler but GOD cannot be killed and no one can sit on HIS throne but HIM. 

    

RELIGION is dependent upon all the accomplishments and deeds of the USER and excludes GOD from being SOLE SAVIOR.   

JESUS said: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.  The words I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” JOHN 6:63

JESUS speaking of himself said: “There is no judgment awaiting those who trust him.  But those who do not trust him have already been judged for not believing in the only Son of God.  Their judgment is based on this fact: The light from heaven came into the world, but they loved the darkness more than light, for their actions were evil.  They hate the light because they want to sin in the darkness.  They stay away from the light for fear their sins will be exposed and they will be punished.  But those who do what is right come to the light gladly, so everyone can see they are doing what God wants.” JOHN 3:18-21

  

Religions may seem wise in appearance because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial and even serve bodily discipline but they provide no help in godly maturity and conquering a person's evil desires. (Note Colossians 2:23).  Religion is blind to the path of GOD's grace and prevents others from experiencing the transforming power of JESUS CHRIST.  

ASK any Christian; if they were not saved by some religious rule of man.  Did they break free of some stronghold on their own?  Of course not....  They were saved by GOD who birthed them into the realization of Himself/ JESUS CHRIST.