Divine Natured

I know this blog isn’t a regular as it once was, but I think God is always still moving. I was thinking the other day how I wanted this blog to get done by Tuesday, but I’m always glad when this happens. I had an awesome talk with a fellow brother in the Lord and he had an awesome insight on a passage that I was simply going to write as a status update on facebook, but decided it’d be better to elaborate on here. I’m in a season of my walk where I have found that I try to “live” to much and I’m not dying to my flesh enough. I told my buddy this and he brought this scripture to mind.

“20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” GALATIONS 2:20

See I know this verse, but I overlooked something very important. See when we are born again, that means our nature is born again too. This verse is a prime example. Paul says that since has been crucified with Christ, that Paul no longer lives, but Jesus does in him. This means that “our” nature is deceased, dead. Think about it this way. Jesus lives in us, by the way of the Holy Spirit, and we walk by that Spirit. See at this point I totally got what he was saying, or so I thought.

He looked at me and said, “Bryan I’ve found that when I walk in the desires of my flesh, that I’m not walking according to my nature anymore. I’m born again, and by walking in those desires, I’m choosing to walk in something that’s not of me anymore as a born again believer!” Catch that. When we are born again, by walking in the flesh we are walking in something that is already dead in our lives! It’s truly no longer us.

The problem we have as modern Christians, is we haven’t taken the time yet to learn how to:

Take full authority

Over our flesh!

So come on family, it’s time to wake up and look in the mirror and tell ourselves you we truly are! It is a journey to get to the fullness, but it is already inside of us! YOU ARE NO LONGER DEFINED BY YOUR PAST. YOU’RE DEFINED BY WHO JESUS IS IN YOU!

I love you dearly Beloved

The Vivid Child

So can I just say how awesome it is again to be able to share with you a small glimpse into how God moves? I was at my usual Tuesday night church service, Ember, when I  witnessed something that just put me right in my place. 

It was the end of the service, and the worship band was playing their last song before the main servant of the service came forth and prayed over the assembly.  His little niece was there last night and she wanted to be by him as he led that night. Her parents were worried she was going to be a distraction to some, but nobody was prepared for what happened next. Our humble servant walked to the front of the stage, placed his foot on the stairs and raised his hands to worship just briefly before he prayed over everyone. This little 2-3 year old girl followed him up to the stage, without him knowing, and watched him for a moment. She then walked back to her parents and stood by them, however she managed to keep her humble uncle in focus. She then did something I never expected. She left the side of her parents, and walked right to her uncle’s side. She then vividly looked at him from his feet all the way to his head as if to study him. She then placed her foot on the stair next to her uncle, an without hesitation….

raised both hands!

I was blown away but what I just saw. This little girl, who can’t even speak very well, who can’t even sing the songs we were singing, did everything she knew to do when it came to following her uncle’s example. She trusted that what he was doing was exactly what she needed to be doing, without fear of what anyone else thought. Think about it! Jesus speaks about this to His disciples in Luke 18:15-17.

“15 People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 17 Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

Take a deep look at this passage. Jesus knows that a child is very trusting. Furthermore, most children don’t have any care or concern for what people think about what it is they are doing. They could be singing in gibberish, they could be playing with imaginary figures, or they could be doing summersaults. The story on this little girl I told you is a shining example of what Jesus means. See we need to trust our Father in Heaven, and we need to worship Him with our lives with everything we know how to or we could be missing the whole point of Jesus’ coming. We could be missing our entrance to the Kingdom. I know it’s not about what we do, but what He did. What I’m saying here is that as American Christians, living our wealthy and blessed lives compared to the rest of the world, we can’t even get a grip on what it means to vividly study Jesus, let alone mimic him in our worship.

I think it’s time, Church, we let this lesson sink in deep. It’s time we ask the Lord to bring us to the point of child-like faith. 

Love you Beloved

Devoted To Open Doors

Again, God moved in a real fun way and I feel so blessed to be a part of it. My Amazing girlfriend and I were reading through Colossians 4 and something just struck a chord with me. The fun in the whole situation was seeing something in the passage that I normally overlook. See Colossians 4 is the part of the chapter where Paul is closing the letter, and he normally has his own prayer requests, repeated exhortations, and a small list of names of people and their qualities. Who want to read that? Well God showed me how alive his word really is and how everything is there for a reason.

“2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.” COLOSSIANS 4:2-4

Now there is a lot more to this chapter, but this is what God blew my mind with. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul reminds the Colossian Church to be devoted to prayer.  In doing so, we are reminded to be watchful and thankful.  The ESV puts verse 2 like this, “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”  This passage poses some questions. Are you steadfast in prayer? Are you devoted to watchful and thankful prayer? I know that this is an area where I could step up. It’s time for us to remember that we are called to pray. Jesus implies in the Sermon on the Mount that prayer is not something we can do when we feel like, it’s something we should do a lot (MATTHEW 6:5-14). Are you devoted to prayer?

Check this next part out! Paul asks, “pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.” This is something I really would just read past and not think twice, but read it again and see if something hits you like it did for me. God showed me that this should be a regular prayer that I pray in my life. Be honest with yourself, when is the last time you said a prayer like this before you went into work? How about before you went to the grocery store? How about when you hang out with your friends? Further, Paul reminds them that it’s because of sharing the “message” that he is in jail. What’s that all about? I know Paul was in jail, but what does that have to do with me. This passage was so convicting to me because here Paul has put his life on the line to share his faith and to help people rise to new life in Jesus, and here I am not even asking for God to open the door for me to share the truth with people who really aren’t even threatened by it! I feel like a lot of the time that there a bunch of us, me included, that just don’t get it! I have heard story after story as of late of people that are in other countries around the world that are doing exactly what Paul did, and we are too worried about why God isn’t fixing our little insignificant problems.

I’m not here to try and say that people’s problems aren’t hard or aren’t a big deal. What I am saying though is that the reason our walks feel mediocre is because we aren’t taking time to seek the heart of God in prayer. If we are making time to pray, we spend so much time talking and not enough time listening to God speak his heart. I think it’s time we get a little more DEVOTED to Prayer and listening to the heart and will of God. Paul gets it right, it is the will of God for us to share the “Mystery of Christ” to all. We can’t do this properly without Gods help (v. 4). 

Will today be the day you start asking Jesus to teach you how to pray?

Will today be the start of your journey to sharing the “Mystery of Christ” to everyone?

I know that today is the day for me, and Lord Jesus I pray that you remind me of this every single breath!

God bless you Beloved