Behold I Make All Things New

Revelation 21:5
5And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

When it says, “he that sat upon the thrown” it is talking about our savior king, our Sheppard, our redeemer, and our Lord, Jesus Christ himself! After he was crucified and gave his life for us, redeemed us with is blood and gave us access to all the blessings and fullness of joy that is in heaven he was resurrected by the power of the God’s Holy Spirit. He came back from the dead and went to heaven in full glory and splendor and sat down on the thrown as King of Kings once and for all. These words were spoken to Saint John the beloved of Christ through a vision he was having. God gave him a vision of the end days and allowed him to see things no one has ever seen. John was able to see everything that was going to happen when Christ returned for us. John was allowed to see secret things and was given a glimpse of things to come.
In this part of the Vision Jesus Christ speaks to John and gives him this ultimate truth, he says something to him that goes against our very human nature. Jesus says, ‘Behold I make all things new!” For our entire lives, and by the way I’m sure it was the same back in his time, in fact in John’s time there were far more philosophers and speakers and basically people that like today thought they had things figured out, they thought they knew how to dissect human nature and our behavior and believed they could explain why we do what we do and act like we act and live how we live. Key word there is “thought.” Then and now the world wants us to think that we are who we are and we simply stay that way. They cram down our throats that if we are born a certain way, well then no matter what, even if we have a propensity to steal or have an over anxious libido (in other words nymphomaniac) or just any tendency that begins to be evident in our growing up and general way of living even if it takes us places we don’t want to go, or makes us do things we don’t want to do we just have to deal with it because that’s who we are.

We are taught that instead of changing the situation (because in the world’s mind people don’t change) we are to adapt to our short coming and figure out ways to “deal with it!” The world gives countless strategies on self help, replacements for our addictions like nicotine gum or hobbies to distract us from what we really want to do, conditioning of the mind which is a way to almost trick yourself into doing something or not doing something unconsciously. We are bombarded with diet plans and surgeries we can have, medications we can take to bring us down if we are to high and bring us up if we are too low. The world spends more effort and money on treating erectile dysfunction then supporting churches or world hunger and things of that nature. Basically the world is in a constant search for ways to deal with our issues and problems and psychological hang ups, expending countless hours of manpower and effort and not to mention millions upon millions of dollars.
The world does all this and Jesus said one phrase, “behold I make all things new!” It is one of the single most important statements Jesus ever made and at the same time it is the single most difficult statement for people to take hold of and believe. My brothers and sisters from the bottom of my heart, I honestly challenge you today to take God’s word and run with, take to the bank and cash it, bet on red (no pun intended) just believe it for you and your life. When Jesus said all things he meant ALL things. He didn’t say I make some things new or I only make what annoys you the most new, he said ALL THINGS! The world tells us we can’t change; Jesus says I make all things new. The world tells you to deal with your problem and Jesus says give it to me I will make it disappear. The world says you are bound to your addictions and you are shackled to the bad habits that keep you down but Jesus says give me all your burdens, let me take all your issues, give me your life and take off your heavy yoke of bondage and take up my yoke for it is light easy. Jesus is God, he created you, and he formed you in your mother’s womb. He is the only on that can fix you or re create you.
This morning God is telling you to allow him control, hand over the wheel of your car, put down the remote of your life and let him take control. He wants to renew you, reconstruct you and redesign you. He wants to make all things new in your life and make you the exceptional person he meant you to be not who the world wants you to be or who society thinks you should be. Remember God’s design is perfect but the situations that we are born in or the environment that we are raised in is something we can’t control. If the people before us, our parents, family and friends made the wrong decisions and chose not to follow Jesus or allow him to come into their lives to change all things, then these things affect us, there actions take their tole on us and we become victims to situations that we never even asked for.

This is what generational curses are all about. The sins or actions of our fore fathers carry on to us and dictate the lives we live. If we don’t take a stand and allow God to change things, allow him to make all things new then these life styles, burdens, addictions, bad choices, mental issues, will continue in our lives and carry on to our children and their children’s children. We must break these chains of bondage, we must free ourselves from the circumstances we are in because of our own actions and the ones we are in because of other’s actions. The only way is to allow Jesus to make the change and only he can break those change and only he can make you free and “Whom the son sets free, is free indeed!” Remember that what happens in your life not only affects you but also others. People are watching you, looking up to you, expecting things from you and even hating you and whatever happens in your life can either serve as a blessing for others or condemn them. If people see a change in your life then they see that Jesus is real and what he says does happen. We cannot go around representing something that we are not fully a member of. If I say I’m a believe in Christ and my life continues in bondage I am always struggling and never prosper because I don’t allow God to make the change in my life then not only am I lost but others are seeing a bad representation of a member of the body of Christ and can make the wrong decision based on a wrong example. Your bad example can lead people the wrong way.
If you allow yourself to be changed then of course you will be blessed because God will make all things new in your life and allow you to live a life of prosperity and Joy and the understanding that you are saved and redeemed to live a free life and expect and hope for the day you go to heaven but the ultimate blessing is that your life will serve as a testimony and blessing for others who are stuck in places that you used to be.
When God blesses his blessings always overflow on to others and not just the person being blessed. God’s blessings are not self centered they are everyone centered. And the same holds true to the negative, the devil makes sure certain people are watching and waiting to see what happens in your life because he knows if they see the wrong thing in your life they will be lead astray also. I challenge you this morning to take up God word and believe! God is the God of today, today is the day the Lord has made! Today is just as good a day to make the decision to Give Jesus your entire life and full control, today put him to the test, let Jesus prove to you how much he wants you to live of complete and total “SHALOM” witch means peace, the peace that surpasses all understanding. The literal meaning of this is nothing missing, nothing broken, a total completeness of body, mind and spirit. Real prosperity, not just monetary wealth but wealth in all aspects of life, mental health, physical health, material possessions and most importantly the spiritual enlightenment of who Jesus is and what he can do in your life. I didn’t say let him prove to you how much he loves you because he already did when he gave his life on the cross for you! Now he wants to take the life he redeemed and make it all it was meant to be.

Go and Sin No More

John 8:3-11

And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

So this woman is caught in adultery I know we all know what that is right. The scribes and Pharisees bring her to Jesus. These scribes and Pharisees although claim to know all the law and the bible and are very religious still bring her to Jesus. On one count they want to test him and see what he does, because they are looking for any excuse to defame him or prove him wrong. Remember Jesus is gaining a following and they want to bring him down whenever they can. They bring her to him and ask him what they should do. First they recite to him the Law that came through Moses.

Now the first thing Jesus does is kneel down and write on the ground. We know that Jesus is God and the only other instance when we see the finger of God writing is with the 10 commandments. God wrote them in stone with his finger. Jesus stoops down and writes on stone. How do you know he writes on stone you ask, well they were in a temple and in those days the temple floor was made of stone. The first time he stoops down it is a picture of Jesus saying “I wrote the law” and when he stands up he says “he that is without sin cast the first stone” It is so wonderful that he stoops down again. In the Hebrew the word stoop means to lower in rank to make one self lower than another. When Jesus said that who ever is without sin through the first stone, he would have had to have thrown the first stone because he was the only one there without sin, but he loved her so much he “stooped” lowered his rank made himself lower then her and stepped down from a perfect God for an instant in order to save her. He wrote on the stone or floor a second time, this is a picture of him re-writing the law under grace. Jesus fulfills the law for us and we no longer are bound to the law but we are saved by his mercy and grace. In Jeremiah God says he will make a new covenant and write it in our hearts. So Jesus wrote the law the first time under the old covenant of the Law and then when he stooped down wrote the law again under the new covenant of Grace.

By the time Jesus finished writing he looked up and there was no one left. They all left. You see they failed to believe in him and failed to accept grace, they chose to still live under the law and were condemned by their law and were convicted of their sins and were forces to leave. The women on the other hand fell under to God’s grace. Jesus looks up at her and asks her where her accusers are? There is no one left and Jesus says these most wonderful words to here; “neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.” The key here is that he did not say if you go and sin no more then I won’t condemn you. No he gave his grace first and then commanded her. With those few words he let her know that he did not care about what she had done, he let her know that he did not care what she was doing or even what she was going to do. He confirmed the fact that even while she was still a sinner the plan of his death for her life was already in place. It was through this face to face encounter, through this one on one revelation that she was able to finally understand that God, Jesus, did not care about anything she had done or is doing or will do in her life, she realized that he loved her no matter what. She realized that his love for her was unfailing and that there was nothing she could to do make him stop loving her.

It was only when she realized that no matter what she did or what she had done Jesus would never condemn her and always lover, her that she was able to be truly free and truly be liberated from her life and “go and sin no more” in other words live a life without sin. It is impossible to live a life without sin for we sin the moment we wake up, our flesh is sinful so we can’t help it but if we have Jesus in our hearts we die to the flesh and live in the spirit. Our whole life we are on the quest of trying to better ourselves so we can come to Jesus. Or we figure that what we have done or thought or said is too terrible for him to still love you. Jesus says “come as you are” he says “take my burden for it is light” he says “I am the bread of life, eat me and you shall never be hungry” “I am the truth the way and the life!”

Many of us are Christians and we have been born again and even go to church every Sunday but still cannot breakthrough. Many of us want to live with Jesus and want to live a good life but our sin does not let us. The problem is not sin. Some people think that God is this God who sits on his thrown waiting for you to fail or sin or do something wrong just so he can punish you or come down on you, nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus doesn’t have to wait for you to commit a sin; he knows what you will do before you do it, and he knows what you did even the things that you didn’t even realize you did. This means that he has the ability to pre judge you for your entire life before you even live it. Jesus does not do that though. He loves you so much he gave you forgiveness before you even make a single change in your life. Before this woman left his presence and continued on with her life he forgave her and gave her grace. He told her she was not condemned. Once she realized that sin was not the problem, once she realized that she was forgiven for everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, she realized that it was herself that was the problem.

We must learn to accept God’s forgiveness, we must learn to believe it and realize it to be true for our lives and not just a teaching in the bible. Until you know in your heart that you are free from guilt and condemnation, you will not be able to live the life God wants you to live. How do I do that you ask. Well in order to know the truth in your heart then you must have the truth in your heart. Who is the truth? Jesus! You also must have the way to follow the truth in your heart, who is the way? Jesus! And you also must have a new life to be free, who is the life? Jesus! The bible says that the mouth speaks from what the heart is filled with. If your heart is filled with Jesus that that’s what you will produce and it will be evident. If your heart is filled with anything else then that’s what you will bare fruit of. You might say well I’m born again or I go to church, or my family is Christian but that’s not what saves you. Jesus Christ must be first and foremost in your life. He must take precedence before anything and anyone else. You have to have a one on one face to face encounter with Jesus and allow him full control of your life and He will do all the hard stuff. I can safely say that no one who has truly had a real encounter with Jesus and come face to face with his love and grace like the adulteress women has ever been the same again.

I once told some people that there are only two directions that we are even going in life. We are either going towards God or away from God. We are never going up or down or to the right or left or anywhere else, it’s only towards him or away from him. That’s why Jesus says you must repent because repent literally means to turn. He wants you to turn around, to change your focus, to leave what you are doing to face him and start moving towards him. The truth is that moving towards God is impossible! WHAT? Yup it’s impossible, by yourself you will never get there, you will always get turned around but with Jesus in your heart and in your life you can go towards the father. In fact when you let Jesus take over he picks you up and carries you there, because the path is humanly impossible only he can take you there. You begin to see just how important Jesus is. It’s not about religion, or churches or temples or life styles or anything, it’s about Jesus. I know it’s hard to leave a life of sin, like I said it’s impossible without Jesus. It’s not about what your friends might think or what your family might say or what religion you have been or anything like that. Remember that we are talking about your eternity here, would you really be willing to give up eternal life with God because of someone’s opinion or because of tradition, or religion? I wouldn’t! If you truly allow him control, authentically put him first and whole heartedly turn and meet him face to face, your life will change in an instant. He will do everything for you and he will make all things new.

Remember that Jesus loves you, he yerns to be with you, he literally is waiting for you to return to him like the father waited for the prodigal son. He is not waiting to punish you for where you have been or what you have done. He is waiting for you to give you his most warm embrace, to kiss you on the cheek and rub your head and say “welcome home my daughter, welcome home my son, I know it’s been hard, I know your hurt and bruised and I know that your heart is broken but you’re here now, I will fix everything I will cloth you and feed you and love you and give you everything in my kingdom. Just put me first and everything else will fall into place.”

The move has begun

Good morning everyone!  As always I pray that you are walking in God’s favor and blessings always and that your spirit is being renewed from glory to glory through striving for the goal that is Christ.  God spoke to me again about the coming times and season that we are entering.  Do you guys remember in the “Lord of the Rings” the third movie, when Gandalf says, “the final battle for middle earth has begun!”  Well my brothers and sisters I believe in my spirit and according to what God is showing me and what the word says about these days, that the final battle for the salvation of mankind has begun!  As we know the number 7 is the number of completion and I believe this year will complete the transition process from the wilderness and leadership by Moses or the law, in other words traditional or conservative ways of preaching the gospel to walking into the Promised Land with Joshua by following the Ark of the Covenant.  Stay with me I will explain.

If you remember that in my previous writing about the message in Ezekiel 9, God spoke about how he has begun the purification process.  Now of course God has a reason for purification.  The reason for this process is so that nothing from the old way of thinking and old doctrines and even false doctrines and sin will pass over to this new movement.  Only the righteous and pure in heart that truly “lament and cry about the abominations of the children of Israel” will have the honor of carrying the Ark and leading us towards the Promised Land.  We are being called to sanctify ourselves and keep our eye on the ark which is Jesus.  The reason this is such an important time is because the move that is beginning is completely brand new.  We are entering a phase that has never been seen before.  If we do not keep our eyes on Jesus and our focus on him we can get easily lost because no one knows this new way.  So if no one knows this new way, then if someone gets lost and you are following them, you will be lost also.  The only way to stay with this coming move and not get lost in false doctrines, antichrist spirits, false prophets, and all sorts of things that are going to be dressed like a sheep but are truly wolfs, is to keep your eyes on the ark and those carrying it.  The ark as we all know is a representation of Jesus.  In him is the law (the Ten Commandments), in him is the bread of life (the mana from heaven) and in him is the resurrection of life (Aaron’s rod that bud again)!

So I know your wondering where all this is in the scriptures, well here it is.  Turn with me to Joshua Chapter 3.  First off I need to explain something else.  Moses or “Mosheh” means to draw out or pull out in Hebrew.  During our time in the wilderness with Moses, we had to go through a process of drawing out.  Not only literally being drawn out of Egypt or “the world” but spiritually having everything that is not pleasing to God’s eyes pulled out and drawn out from us.  He also needed to show us examples of faith and miracles and feed us and keep us and guide us.  Through this he drew out our faith and drew out anointing that was in us to begin with but we never knew was there.  Through this period we have had our faith strengthened and the anointing on our lives expanded.  Through our walk in the wilderness God had to kill certain things in us, he had to rid you of things that he knew would hinder your walk with him.  Like all the people that God punished and/or killed during the exodus for different sins.  The Golden Calf , the sin of Nadab and Abihu, the murmuring of Merium, the evil report, the plagues, the gainsaying of Korah, even the sin of Moses and Aaron all these things were certain issues God had to rid the people of Israel. 

He does the same thing in us.  He pulls out everything he does not want in you and kills it.  It may not feel good at the time, we may not like the trials he puts us through but they are working a far greater weight of glory in us.  Ok so Moses is also the mediator of the Law.  He was the mediator between God and his people.  Law or God’s word (the bible) is our guide and mediator between God and us during these periods of drawing out and purifying.  We depend on the law because the law reveals sin and shows us what we need to change in our lives.  These are just the steps that one must go through in our spiritual growth.  We are entering another time where we no longer need a mediator between us and God but we have a direct link to Jesus and only Jesus.  I am in no way saying that we do not need the word in our lives, that would be crazy!  I am saying that the word stops being a revealer of sin and stops being the only thing that guards us and guides but now it switches to be our weapon and our instrument of faith and our source of salvation.  Joshua means “YAHWEH is salvation.”  So the law has done its work in our life it has shown us our sins, it has shown us our shortcomings, it has shown us that without Jesus we are doomed.  It now begins to be a source of grace; it transforms into Jesus and through him comes grace and truth.  The law (Moses) has brought us far enough and now (Joshua) God’s Salvation or “JESUS” will guide us the rest of the way.  I know this is a lot but, I’m trying to do my best in putting it in order. 

In Joshua 1:2 God tells Joshua that Moses is dead.  The Moses phase in our lives is over and it is time for Joshua’s phase.  Not just in our lives but for the whole body of Christ.  Now I will tie in what I was saying in the beginning.  In Joshua 3:2-5;

 So it was, after three days, that the officers went through the camp; and they commanded the people, saying, “When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it.  Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before.”  And Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.”

It says the officers commanded the people.  The officers are all the preachers and teachers and leaders.  They were commended that when they saw the Ark of the Covenant and the Priests and Levites and all of them carrying it, they were to follow it.  This means that when you see Jesus moving, you are to follow him.  The Ark being carried by priests and Levites is the Gospel being preached by our leaders.  It’s the message that is coming to the body of Christ, it’s the move in the new direction that we are about to take.  It says that they should leave a space between them and the Ark, why is this?  You have to realize that it was roughly about 2 million Israelites that where traveling together.  If they where close to the ark it would be easy to drift off because you cant see it in front of you and many would be lost, but if they kept it a good distance before them and focused on it then they would never lose sight.  It says do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before.  The way we are going is brand new completely different to anything we have seen or experienced before in our lives.  Not just us but the priests and leaders also.  The key is to follow the Ark, Jesus!  This path or this new generation is so new and so different that it will be easy to get lost in many different things that the devil will put out there to confuse and to disrupt.  If you are focused on Jesus and only Jesus then you cannot get lost.  There are so many of us and if we put our eyes on a person or a ministry and lose focus on Jesus, we can be lead astray.  It’s a hole new generation, a hole new move with a whole new anointing.  It is imperative that you keep your focus on Jesus and not just on a person or leader or ministry because these coming days are brand new for everyone and I mean everyone.  Even those who are in high positions and are in charge of many souls have never seen this before and if they do not stay focused on Jesus they will lead many the wrong way and not even know it. 

The following thing that Joshua says is “sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you!”  Hallelujah the Lord is going to do things that will amaze the world.  We are going to witness a move of the Holy Spirit like never before.  With so much power and so much influence it will be tremendous.  We must prepare ourselves, we must sanctify, we must focus on Jesus, we must train our spiritual muscles and sharpen our sword (our knowledge of the word) and yield our shield of faith, put on your helmet of salvation, dawn your breast plate of righteousness and gird yourself with the belt buckle of truth and the boots of peace.  Prepare for war my brothers and sisters.  You have to understand that when two apposing armies are under the understanding that this is the final battle, that this is their last chance for control, that there will be one winner and one loser at the end of this, they will come at each other will full force.  They will bring out all the weapons and all the tactics and everything in their arsenal to win.  How many know that Stronger is he who is in us then he who is in the world!  Praise the Lord!  I’m not worried about who is going to win the war, we know that the battle has already been won but I am worried for all the casualties of war.  It is our job to fight in the front lines, we are to protect and rescue the weak and lost, it is our job to set up Emergency clinics and to care for the wounded, it is our commandment to love one and other as Jesus loved us but more importantly to love Jesus first before anything or anyone else.

Brothers and sisters we are in the front lines and we have the knowledge and understanding that we have nothing to fear and nothing that can stop us but we have to train others in the same understanding and knowledge.  We have to rescue the lost help them get clean and turn their faces towards Jesus.  He is our strength he is our source of life and he will never leave us nor forsake us.  Rejoice my brothers, praise the Lord my sisters for our King is coming, our King is returning for us and we shall soon be eating together with Him at the biggest feast you have ever imagined.  Stay focused on the Ark do not lose faith, be strong and of good courage, do not be afraid nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.  I am trembling with Excitement as I imagine the things that God has in store for us. 

 God bless you and keep you!

Real Wealth

Hello everyone, I hope you are having a great day!  I just wanted to share with you something that happened this morning in my car.  I feel like my car is a church on wheels LOL.  First I’ll share some background so you have a good perspective.  This is going to be long so if you don’t have the time now, wait until you do.  Over the weekend I had the pleasure of hanging out with a very dear friend to me.  He is practically like my brother.  He got married last year so his life has been very busy and so has mine, we very rarely get a chance to just hang out you know.  Just relax and watch the game or something and talk about life and you know, the usual.  Since I decided (well Jesus really made the decision) to make God number 1 in my life, He has asked me to let go of a lot of things.  The first thing I had to do was leave the relationship I was in.  Some of you might be thinking “well, why would he do that?”  Let me flip your lid even more, I was with that person for 8 years!  I was never truly happy though and to be totally honest I was living in sin and the devil had me right were he wanted me.  I was getting ready to just give up and get married and just live a mediocre life and never achieve what Jesus had for my life.  She wasn’t Christian and although I felt at one point I loved her, I really didn’t and I was bound by sex and conformity.  So it is safe to say that God rescued me and I see now that he did what he did because he had something else for me.  He has a woman who not only truly loves me but also loves him first and I know that is the person that I am meant to be with.  Not only does she have to love the Lord but she has to make a commitment (just like I do) to the Lord to serve him and help me serve him to the best of our abilities.  This my friends cannot be taught, it cannot be forced and it certainly won’t happen by my efforts.  God has to make this person and bring her to me.  I believe the Lord already has this person prepared and just like I am waiting for her, she is waiting for me!  That’s not even what I’m writing about, I don’t know why I wrote all that but I’m sure it will help someone out there. 

 

Ok so where I was going was here!  The Lord has changed a lot of things in my life since I gave myself 100% to him.  He took almost everyone out of my life and also made me give up my construction business I was trying to build.  We don’t see why sometimes but his purpose is far greater than anything we can imagine.  Basically God put me in a position where I have to start from scratch in all aspects of my life but this time he will provide all and everything will be under his will and every connection will be a divine connection.  There are only two friends from my past in my life.  I am beginning to see the reasons why and I understand that God has a plan for their lives too.  One of which is my best friend I was talking about in the beginning.  He is Jewish and was born in Israel.  He is a blood born descendant of Israel.  I know the Lord will work tremendously through him once the veil is lifted.  Anyway He married into a very very wealthy family.  Many will say that he did it for the money but I know that he truly fell deeply in love with his wife and it was never about that.  When I say insanely I mean INSANELY rich.  His father in law is building a house for his family in the richest part of Long Island that would put any house on MTV cribs to shame. 

 

Now the Lord has made sure to remove me from all that lust of the flesh.  My group of friends were very well off.  Most owned their own business or their family’s did and they reaped the benefits.  My whole life I would struggle to keep up with the life style.  I see now how much of a trap that was from the devil because I was constantly broke.  I had a good job but I was always competing with people who made much more money then I did.  I was always comparing myself and I always felt not good enough.  When you are surrounded by wealth you start to think like they do and your ambitions are purely money and materialistic things.  Big houses, nice cars, expensive nights out and that kind of life style.  For a long time all I thought about was making money, and a lot of it.  I wanted a huge mansion a Ferrari and, well I wanted to live like Daddy Yankee ok.  I thank God for taking me out of that life style and showing me what is really worth something.  He has shown me what real wealth is and I understand now.  Ok I know this getting long but bare with me here.   We hung out over the weekend and he took me over to his father in-law’s house to show me the progress.  I can’t even tell you how amazing this house is.  Ok just imagine he has a pool in the back with a grado, a hot tub and a wet bar.  Enough said right.  My eyes lit up and I felt something in me that I haven’t felt in a long time.  My ambition for the material was switched on and for the rest of the day my mind began to think and second guess myself about everything that I have been feeling and thinking.  All the plans that God has for me are not plans that make sense to the flesh.  And my flesh began to attack those plans and try to make them seem wrong.  We all know that the flesh will take any chance it has to war against you and do as much damage as it can.  I left his house and the whole way home I’m thinking about how maybe I should start my company back up again and I too could have a house like that if I build up my company.  I could have things like that if I truly put all my efforts in my dream of being a developer and so on and so forth.  Did you notice something about my train of thought?  It was all about me! I can do, I can get, and I can build.  All of a sudden my flesh takes over and becomes self centered and materialistic again.  All of this from five minutes in an extravagant house.  I am reminded how without Christ we fall victim to the flesh and have no power against it.

 

Finally after hours of wasted time, I snapped out of it.  I’m sure it was God who helped me and just smacked my spirit in the face and said “WAKE UP!”  Sunday night I was praying and I was able to give all those feeling up to the Lord.  I love the fact that he comforts us when we need it most.  He shows us the true meaning of prosperity and allows us to make mistakes without condemning us.  Today I’m driving to work.  I’m worshiping God but for some reason I just don’t feel “spiritual” like I do in the morning when I sing to the Lord.  How many know that’s it’s not about what you feel?  It’s about what we believe!  I thought all these feelings were gone but I was wrong.  On my way to work I have to drive through a very rich neighborhood.  I never really notice the houses but of course now I notice the biggest one on the block right.  Before my mind can start to drift again I hear the still small voice of the Lord.  “Yes they do have big houses and money, but they don’t have me!  My son you may not have certain things right now but you have me!”  Instantly my heart was broken and I began to cry.  I felt the presence of the Lord so strong I just plain broke down.  I felt his love and I felt like nothing was missing.  I felt 100% complete and everything I was thinking about vanished.

 

I’m not sure why God has lead me to write this, or even why I wrote so much to get to this point but I know Jesus always has a plan.  God asks a lot from us.  When we make up our mind to put him first in our life and make the decision to obey him and serve him, we have to go through a process where God has to strip us naked.  He has to take away everything that we have attained from the world or through the world.  He does this so he can make our live brand new and start us from scratch but fully dependant on him.  He does this so that no matter what, there is no way that you will not give him the glory.  IF you feel that your work got you your car, you will not glorify him for your car and he does not want that.  He wants to make sure that you know and I mean KNOW that everything you have came from Him and only HIM!  The devil does a great Job of showing us how successful other people are or how other people’s lives are so full of what we want.  What we don’t see is just how empty they are inside, just how lost their spirit is and just how much more they need what we have inside then how much we need what they have outside.  Believe me what you are going through right now is only for a moment.  Even though it seems like everyone else is better off then you, it’s a lie.  As long as you have Christ in your heart then you are better off then any person that doesn’t.  It doesn’t matter what they may have in the bank, or what women or man they have by their side, or even what car they are driving.  Ask yourself one question, “how is their soul?” 

 

Even though you feel vulnerable and awkward, this process is for your own good.  This is the faith building process.  Keep pushing towards the goal; we are in a season where we know that Jesus is a few moments away from coming back to get us.  Even if you don’t achieve things here on earth, it is very close to the moment we go up to heaven and dwell with the king.  We will live in mansions with foundations of diamonds and streets of gold.  There is wealth and prosperity there beyond your imagination.  There is no need, no lack, nothing missing, nothing broken.  There is no death, no pain, no sorrow, and no sadness.  We will be in God’s presence forever.  We will be able to walk with Jesus in the cool of the day and just love him and fellowship with him.  That is what we need to strive for.  Everything here on earth is temporary but in the kingdom of God everything is eternal.  I’m not saying we should not have nice things or live in nice houses, but we should not make those things our gods.  With or without those things, if we do not have Jesus all we have is eternal damnation.  Jesus is the answer, Jesus is the key!  Today lets reflect on what we do have, Jesus Christ!  That is more then enough.  Through him we will attain everything else.  Stay faithful, stay loyal and stay grounded in the Holy spirit.  If you are anchored on the rock, no storm can move you. 

 

God Bless You!

 

Walk in Victory Today!  Jesus Loves you!