The Nature of a Gift

Salvation is not mine, it is the Lord’s. If I truly treasure His gift of renewal, salvation, new birth, and revelation, I must loose my hold on them. Once I can unlearn the habit of holding on to things and ideas I can grasp, God will be able to reveal to me their value, and I'll really see the need to invest these treasures in Heaven’s 'Treasury. It seems that stewardship is more about adopting your value system to God's, and trusting what He says He can do.

Generosity is not just about giving compassionately (in sympathy or empathy), or worse, only in and out of excess, but learning that gifts and blessings are not for my personal use but if I really have seen and discerned the heart of a generous God, it will be evident, and I will be compelled to give those same gifts away, and with heavens best interest (and supernatural increase) in mind.

(Disclaimer: This doesn’t mean that I won’t find benefit in the gifts I’m given or treasures I find. It means that Heaven and Earth are two different paradigms if you will, and Jesus tells us to ask the Father for Heaven, which would signify that Jehovah has given us access to those treasures we are taught to lay there.

One way to picture this is to say your bank account or love language for receiving gifts is a square hole, and only God’s gifts that are square are really going to fit there. So if God is pouring out another shape of gift into your life right now – say a star shaped peg, pay attention to the places where there is a star shaped hole around you. If you have to make an effort to get there, make sure you do it, and pour that blessing into it’s rightful place.)

I think it’s safe to say that Heaven’s economy is an endowment. Heaven’s treasurer is Generous (aka Jehovah - Jesus), Heaven’s government is not a regulatory system based on manipulating and trading the value of its gifts or its ambassador’s strengths to deliver the goods – nor is it a holdings company expecting unreasonable and lucrative earnings and results from its ventures. The responsibility of growth and increase in the Kingdom is up to Jesus, and always consistent according to the Father’s plan. The trends show favorable for all of us.

I believe the problem is not what anyone lacks, or what excess they have and how the stuff ought to be stewarded, but what can be stewarded with what one has, what one can give, what one can teach or express. God and His Kingdom has never known lack, never known sin, dishonor, death, nor has the Kingdom known excess. Nor does it’s Treasurer withhold the dispensation of good things that He promised, and is promising. Amen.

Common Sense – Synergy or Catastrophe?

I want to express some extreme frustration in my heart that I have for the situation of the world in which we live. First, it is NOT my intention place any blame, deny responsibility, or claim to have intrinsic wisdom on the matter; however, I am not holding back in my statements to keep from offending. It’s time for us to grow up.

Second, early morning coffee is a crutch for those that want an excuse to not have to hit the grind hard, on purpose, first thing every morning. I am not against early morning coffee. I enjoy it. Just get over yourself and your self-made addiction that contributes to and enables your small talk reservoir – that’s right, I said it.

Third, if we are children of God and are instructed to be about the King, and the King’s work – why would we do ANYTHING ELSE!?!?

Okay, let’s get a couple things ironed out: 1) I am not angry, 2) I am not manic, and 3) I often think and do things that do not relate to the Kingdom – but my core values and actions representing those convictions about them should continue to increase, show themselves as a solid pretense to all my doings, become more frequently repetitious and synonymous with the purposes of the Kingdom already at work near or around us.

There are tons of references that we use to explain away our actions in Kingdom ‘Living’ or ‘Work’, and we talk about Jesus, and we talk about Paul and the Apostles and we regurgitate their words as though we have a clear and strong grasp on what it is they were REALLY trying to communicate. Realistically, most haven’t, and it’s why we have to have ‘draw people to church’ conferences, and publishers that cater to church leadership, and sexy names and formats for everything we do as ‘Christ-like’s’. Let’s just get this one fact straight, there were a bunch of men led by the Holy Spirit to collect many teachings and letters now called ‘The New Testament’, and they picked the cream of the crop to pass on through the generations for the generations (canonization). Within these teachings that they incorporated into one abridged explanation of the Gospel (and I’m not implying that it is in any way incomplete, but the contrary), and it’s application to a constantly changing and evolving world. The Jesus centered worldview has not changed (contrary to popular thought), nor will it ever change from being the unequivocal, infallible, and absolute truth. NEVER. You cannot win a community, a city, a state or a nation over with seasonal concepts of charity – you’ll only create a sense of hyped up Easter eggs and Halloween candy (Harvest Festival alternative? BULL!).

So back to the word ‘common’. Basically, I’m vexed in how so many streams can converge and turn the Word sour with a single experience. I’ve also got so much concern in my heart for the apparent need to create rules to accompany our ‘religious convictions’. This is NOT freedom, and I am gaining a sense that freedom was never about incorporation of rules, and that religion has never been about freedom. You cannot love both God and yourself. You cannot have both freedom and regulation. They are polar opposites, and your heart must serve the system of the world, or the freedoms of Heaven.

If I’m not mistaken, it seems that the first church was birthed as an expression of faith by people with a common experience, and had no intention of copying, or operating within the confines of the direction of the Sanhedrin (Pharisees & Sadducees). They were finally free, finally given the chance by Jesus himself to enter into an intimate relationship with God in Jesus, and be empowered by the Holy Spirit to not only share this message, but to actually share love in faith with fellow believers (also known as receivers) and to all those in bondage in any way. VERY SIMPLE. First two, and only two commandments that Jesus offered to those that would accept His hand in salvation.

The way that I see it, if you are waiting to do ministry until people can give with a tax write off (501©3 in America), trying to raise enough support to do your thing full-time, or if you are selling shirts to end poverty in Haiti, or if you are buying ‘Tom’s’ to help kids in Argentina, you are participating in a massive lie that the Message of God, and the offering of Jesus isn’t enough – and that we must join the humanitarian and religious efforts of the world’s way of doing things. Jesus didn’t have to do ANY OF THOSE THINGS and saw EVERYONE He touched and prayed for healed. No exceptions.

If God has given you an impossible dream, go chase it. Also, It is my opinion that He will make a way. It is also my conviction that you better take that dream to the prayer closet and ask God to clean up (perfect) your identity in and your perception of His plan, so that there is no way that you could mess it up, because you hear directly from Him. If He does good things, and He is 100% good, and he makes 100% Florida Orange Juice good, I’ll let Him make the plan to grow, pick, and squeeze the oranges. I’m certainly not going to tell him how to deliver the juice to the market either. Now, just insert revival for oj, and you’ll get where I’m going with this.

SO, in a nutshell kind of way – I desire to open a ‘can-o-worms’, and challenge you, the reader, to open your heart up, and ask yourself which system you serve. Do you serve the purposes of man? Or do you serve the purposes of Jesus for the sake of His Kingdom? God won’t be mocked. Let’s just say this – until you are fully willing to serve the purposes of God as His son/daughter, because of His Son, He will never be willing to serve your purposes as a priest on the earth. God will not pour out His love, revelation, resources, or favor into a lukewarm vision. He cannot. God is interested in people that have given themselves into the wholeness of goodness, and His nature. He doesn’t overlook anyone, but is looking for those that are willing.

PLEASE, please, hear my heart, in that I hope that we can begin to find some synergy, operating as the body, in unity because of God’s agenda.

Jesus prayed that we would be one (John 17), as He was one with the Father. Jesus was so absolutely reliant on God’s spirit, so addicted, that the moment the Spirit was removed from Jesus, He perished. He should have had a long painful death as were common to a crucifixion, or perhaps Jesus should have even come off the cross were it up to Himself. But it was the will of God, removing Himself from the sin of the world, putting it away forever that killed Jesus, drawing yet another line in the sand. And then we must associate most directly with this – that we MUST identify with the resurrection of Jesus, which proves the nature of sin and death powerless, giving us hope, giving us freedom, and an opportunity to move with the same reliance on the Holy Spirit Jesus had! I want MORE! I’M NEEDY GOD! I WANT MORE OF YOUR HOLY SPIRIT!

PLEASE DO NOT continue to walk out a vision in your heart without taking the thoughts, concepts and visions to the prayer closet for years, allowing Papa to sift it, refine it, and mold it to be of the highest impact possible. We have Papa behind us, and we have forever, so we must be considerate of His calendar. We must be honoring of the culture that HE wants to build. Please be sure to write down your visions, but allow the Lord to describe it, give it wings, and establish it as an extension of His Kingdom in the earth. 

Jesus, it is my desire that you would establish the most firm foundations of freedom in my heart. And I love you, Jesus, for coming alive, so I could come alive.