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May 15, 2008

<Read Online> Teaching E-mail 37. Are You Violating Our Holy God's Law? <Download>

Dear Friends,
Last Friday evening our faith family watched and discussed the movie, "Remember the Titans", together. Since we're learning how to cooperate as a "spiritual family", the movie proved invaluable in helping us overcome relational hindrances. We highly recommend it as an allegory to help you understand what you might need for your faith family to truly belong to each other and to serve the interests of our Lord.

Attached is our Teaching E-mail, Are You Violating Our Holy God's Law? This is the first in a series of prophetic lessons on making sure you don't have a foot straddling unrighteousness. Because sin and repentance are no longer emphasized in many segments of contemporary Christendom, people have a false sense that they must be okay with God no matter how they choose to live. But nothing could be further from the truth.

In this series of Teaching E-mails we'll be showing you how essential the Older Testament is for your journey in our Lord Jesus. It is the foundation to our understanding sin and for appreciating why Jesus died and rose again. Sadly, for several reasons we discuss in the Teaching E-mail, the Older Testament has been relegated by many to the status of an unnecessary (or even irrelevant) document.

We contend that the Hebrew Scriptures are absolutely necessary to your faith walk! There is no way that you can comprehend your responsibilities to our King without the Older Testament. We wrote in our Hebraic Article, The Gospel of the Covenant is the Pilgrimage to Salvation:

Trevor McIlwain of New Tribes Missions has gotten phenomenal response by teaching native peoples the Bible in chronological order, from Genesis to Revelation. When they complete the Older Testament, they grasp the depth of their own sin. Then, when they hear about Jesus, they are overwhelmed and grateful to respond in love for His sacrifice on the cross.

You may not have the joy of appreciating what our Lord Jesus did for you on the cross. Or, you may gloss over private sins in your life thinking, "No one is confronting me, I must be all right."

Please, use this series of Teaching E-mails to judge for yourself whether your life is pleasing to God. See if you might be living outside the boundaries of righteous living as prescribed in both the Older and Newer Testaments.

Serving Him in gladness,
Mike and Sue

 

May 12, 2008

Revised Article On Confronting Co-dependency

Dear Friends,
Please download a two-page article about repentance by Chuck Colson which Sue happened to discover yesterday. The timing of her finding this article is Divine...
Ever since we mailed out the co-dependent gears diagram last week, a whole lot of ministry has opened up for us. (The co-dependent gears handout is available on our website under Hebraic Articles.) If you've used and discussed the relational gears diagram with your relatives or faith family, then you know it can get awful messy before resolution comes. The best analogy we can offer is this: Helping a person with a non-co-dependent problem is like going into the hospital for a planned surgery. In contrast, helping people who are entangled in co-dependency is like being in an emergency room with multiple victims of a head-on-collision! It can be difficult to know where to start and who to help first.

A common hindrance for many of you who are confronting co-dependency is the years of unresolved bitterness by at least one person who is involved. That one sin, unresolved bitterness, is universal in co-dependency. That one gear, bitterness, along with its partner pride, keeps all the relational gears turning.

Remember, our Father will not consummate His Covenant with a person who refuses to forgive others because that individual is refusing to grasp just how heinous his own sins are from God's perspective. And, He will not forgive anyone who doesn't forgive everyone else from the heart (Matthew 6:15). And yet, our Father longs to enter Covenant union through His Son Jesus if only a person will meet His five biblical stipulations. [See The Gospel of the Covenant is the Pilgrimage to Salvation].
You'll see that Stipulation 5 is, Your Salvation Pilgrimage Both Begins and Continues with You Forgiving Others

This insight may be helpful to you:
A bitter person, no matter how "Christian" he or she appears, has either:
1). Never entered Covenant union with our Father through being born again in Spirit, or
2). After entering Covenant, has let him/herself fall into unresolved bitterness.

In either case, the bitter one may have all the trappings of looking "Christian", but the fruit of sanctification, that is, ever-increasing transformation into Christ's likeness by His Spirit, is absent. That is the telltale sign: over time they have failed to become Jesus-in-the-flesh through His Spirit. They lack His love, joy, peace, patience.....
As we've shared before:

Confession + Repentance = Sanctification (increasing Christ-likeness)

A bitter person has refused to gratefully own how much they've been forgiven by our Father, as addressed in Matthew 18:23-35. Lord Jesus ends His parable with this warning: "In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. This is how My heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart” (vv.34,35).
Or, the bitter/unforgiving individual has refused to come to grips with the biblical fact that our Sovereign Father uses suffering, betrayal, injustice, and whatever else He needs to in order to develop the character of Jesus in His people. What most don't realize is that our Father was using suffering, betrayal, injustice, and whatever He needed to early in their lives, long before that bitter person knew Him. That they're bitter indicates that they've failed to humbly accept His Sovereignty to do what He knows is best for them — "But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ Does not the Potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?" (Romans 9:20,21).

In your desire to help a co-dependent person who harbors bitterness, don't be surprised if you first have to help them enter Covenant with our Father and begin the pilgrimage to their salvation. This may be the only way you can stop all the relational gears of apprehension from turning. Remember, wherever apprehension exists the love of Jesus doesn't grow, but only cold love. As a follower of Jesus, filled with His love, you must do all you can to remove apprehension in your relationships.

If you've read Hinds' Feet On High Places, then you probably can recognize that helping someone own all the hurts and pains from their past is similar to Much Afraid embracing every stone of remembrance just before she jumped off the chasm into the mist. Each one of us who would follow Lord Jesus must do this! We must accept the Shepherd's Sovereignty to choose the path of life for each one of us, beginning with our conception. It's only by taking ownership of all past hurts that we can jump into the mist and lay them on His altar. This is His condition in order for us to be changed in His Spirit. The Shepherd is truly able to heal ALL past hurts and even the absence or abuse of human love, and give us His love that never fails. This is His way for us to become Grace & Glory in His Kingdom.

May these insights and Chuck's article help you be an effective tool in the Spirit to conquer co-dependency.
Mike & Sue

May 1, 2008

Lifebyte 57: To Be In The Kingdom Is To Expand It

Dear Friends,
Our Kingdom series concludes with Lifebyte 57. To Be In The Kingdom Is To Expand It. This teaching focuses upon your responsibility as a beloved servant of King Jesus to be actively involved in seeing the Kingdom expanded through the Spirit of Christ in you.

Don't Be Snared In Complacency

You probably remember the Israelite Gideon as the reluctant leader of a band of 300 who attacked and defeated the mighty Midianite army. However, do you recall that afterward, "Gideon made the gold into an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his town. ALL ISRAEL PROSTITUTED THEMSELVES THERE by worshiping it there, and IT BECAME A SNARE to Gideon and his family" (Judges 8:27). Spiritual adultery against God was the tragic legacy of Gideon after God had used him so powerfully to defeat Israel's enemies.

If you've taken the time to read Barna and Viola's recent book, "Pagan Christianity?", then you're well aware of the epidemic number of snares that Christendom adapted from pagans over the centuries. In fact, so many of the rituals and practices that people today consider "Christian" are actually pagan in origin.

One snare in particular has duped countless people into a false sense of eternal security. About three hundred years ago, a well-meaning group of Christians who failed to apperceive and esteem the Hebrew Scriptures developed their own "gospel". Devoid of its Hebraic underpinnings and foundations, this "gospel" discounted the examples and warnings that are so vividly recounted in the Older Testament text—the text to which Paul refers in 2 Timothy 3:16 as profitable for reproof, correction, teaching and training in righteousness. A "gospel" of passages plucked solely from the Newer Testament text discounts the firm foundation of the Law and the Prophets upon which our Lord Jesus taught, replete with its warnings of the consequences that lawlessness and spiritual adultery reap. Yet most evangelists peddle a man-centered, man-pleasing "gospel", and fewer than 10% of those who "go forward" to embrace a false gospel are found to be following Jesus later.

False gospels have another grievous facet in common: they claim that salvation occurs when a person "accepts Jesus into their hearts". As we wrote in our Hebraic Article, The Gospel of the Covenant is the Pilgrimage to Salvation:

Salvation was understood by the earliest Church to occur at the end of their life pilgrimage. For those who endure to the end our Lord promises, “He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before My Father and His angels” (Revelation 3:5). THIS is the moment of salvation!

Maintaining your name in the Lamb’s Book of Life calls for two essential elements:

Justification — placing your trust in, and continuing to trust in, the shed blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins.

Sanctification — the lifelong purifying process of the Holy Spirit that enables you to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ so that you can endure to the end.

Remember, to the earliest followers of Jesus the life journey with Him:
• Begins with Justification, your Spiritual Rebirth;
• Continues a lifelong process of Sanctification;
• Culminates ultimately in Salvation welcome before the Throne.

Only with this understanding of pressing on your whole life in the Spirit of Christ can you live free of religious snares and truly be a servant to the King. When you are confident that your salvation in your beloved and faithful Lord occurs at the end of your pilgrimage on earth, you'll readily and eagerly obey Paul's command: "continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12). HE is faithful to guide you; are you willing to stay the course and cling to Him in loving, obedient trust?

Please use this Lifebyte to judge yourself according to the Scriptures (see 1 Peter 4, especially vv. 17,18). Are you wholeheartedly living for the King of your salvation? Are you sure?

Trusting and serving our King,
Mike and Sue

 

April 28, 2008

Freeing People From Co-dependency

Every follower of Jesus who seeks to wholeheartedly serve our Lord becomes part of completing His ministry: "The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on us, because the LORD has anointed us to preach good news to the poor. He has sent us to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners" (Isaiah 61:1, paraphrased).
Everyone who would be true to Jesus through His Spirit in them has a part in seeing His ministry advanced. Our Lord's assignment of "freedom for the captives and release from darkness" has particular meaning for us as we continue to share the Hebraic foundations.
Download this two-page tool designed to help you and/or those you know be free from besetting apprehension. We continue to revisit this issue of apprehension because it hinders people from experiencing the love of Jesus. We encourage you to print out several copies of this handout and use them wherever you see habitual interpersonal apprehension. Be a "freedom fighter" and help release others from their dark prisons!

April 24, 2008

Lifebyte 56:
• Stand For The Truth But Avoid Fruitless Controversy
• Persecution — The Privilege Of Serving The King

Dear Friends,
Lifebyte 56 in our series on the Kingdom is attached to this e-mail. The focus of our discussion is persecution in the context of the negative response of others toward your faith. A direct result of the stance you’ve taken for your King, persecution runs the gamut from rejection and mistreatment to torture and martyrdom.

We also take a close look at dealing with controversy. We focus on facing controversy for the sake of standing for truth, while avoiding the controversy of vain discussion which only hurts the hearer. Keep in mind that if you're reluctant to stand up for spiritual truth in the face of controversy, you’ll certainly find it difficult to endure persecution!

When Everyone Around You Denies Jesus, Will You?

The United States has been a blessed and powerful nation for many decades. Sadly, it is now dying a slow death from which it can't recover. Historically, this has been the way of all democracies. Consider this: the impetus behind rebellion and democracy is the same. This nation started as a republic but deteriorated into a democracy in which evil has an equal voice with good. Thus we live in fulfillment of the times when "good is called evil, and evil is called good" since the standard text of good, the Bible, has been eliminated as written Truth. That being the case, many within Christendom have freely embraced the same moral decadence as unbelievers. Those who have misinterpreted biblical grace believe that God's good and righteous law has no hold on them; therefore they can choose any manner in which to live and any "gospel" which advocates their choices.

Here's a startling thought to ponder. It isn't the evil of unbelievers that's bringing about the coming judgment, but the moral decadence of those who call themselves "Christian" and thereby blaspheme the name of our God. Do you grieve as we do that Christians who entertain the same moral convictions as the world, who sit in pews and take part in the body and blood of Jesus with unconfessed sin — THESE have brought about the demise of this nation? God's Word reveals God's pattern when His people don't repent: the generation of children in this nation will face God's impending judgment because of the sin of their unrepentant parents and grandparents.

We've previously written about when our Lord will fully bring about fruit through the Hebraic Restoration:

“These truths will not bear fruit until the ‘Dark Days of Chastisement’ come upon the
United States...
The children of today will not become grandparents before I chastise the United States...
When a woman becomes President, it will be a sign that all this is about to happen...
When the chastisement is over, 50 million people will be dead....
Now, continue to share the Hebraic foundations. When these things take place, more hearts will be responsive.”

We often get asked, "Do you think the woman President referred to will be Hillary Clinton?" Who it is really doesn't matter. When a woman is elected president, that's only an indictment against all the men over the years who became "Ahabs". These men, like their namesake, have failed to stand up for righteousness.
We cited the following verse in Teaching E-mail 25. Out of the Rubble (June 28, 2006). Recently some folks e-mailed it to us again:

"As for My people, children are their oppressors,
And women rule over them.
O My people! Those who lead you cause you to err,
And destroy the way of your paths.” (Isaiah 3:12; see also 3:1-11)

A word of warning: Don't look for political answers! This is the time for God's prophetic voices to mercifully warn those who claim to belong to the One True God, "for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" (Revelation 19:10). Far more important than the elections this year is whether you grandfathers and fathers are leading your families into the biblical path of righteousness that our holy God requires. Who becomes President of this country isn’t nearly as important as whether the Spirit of Jesus is ruling the hearts of your family and extended spiritual family.

"Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds" (Isaiah 3:10). For your own edification, we encourage you to earnestly read the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Judge for yourself if this nation is any different than Jerusalem was before our Lord destroyed it. God does not change (Malachi 3:6). Our Lord first warns, then He executes His judgments. If you think our God doesn't execute judgment any longer, study the Dark Ages and the Black Death in European history. Take note of the evil that was going on within organized Christendom when these judgments were executed. Also notice those who were persecuted when they tried to stand up for truth and warn the religious establishment. Are you prepared to be that voice of the Spirit of Jesus as you and your family walk in His steps for His name's sake?

Walking gratefully with our King,
Mike and Sue

 

April 18, 2008

Lifebyte 55: Suffering — Developing The King's Character

Two very real elements of Kingdom living are often overlooked in today’s man-centered, self-gratifying Christendom: suffering and persecution. Yet the Word of God leaves no doubt that how we respond to suffering and persecution helps determine both our spiritual fruitfulness as well as our transformation into our King’s likeness by His indwelling Spirit.
Suffering is of course interconnected with persecution. But in this Lifebyte we’ll be dealing with suffering as it relates to your sanctification into the character of our Lord Jesus.
Suffering embodies the many “altar experiences” during which you respond to our Father’s grace and take part in a wonderful exchange: you re-place reliance on your sin nature-control-led soul with being ruled by the Spirit of Jesus through your spirit. Suffering is an internal mechanism that takes place in the unseen realm of your soul (mind, will, emotions) and spirit. It’s your response within to what’s going on around you.

April 11, 2008

Lifebyte 54: Our Lord's Purose For His Kingdom Parables

Dear Friends,
In this next Lifebyte in our series on the Kingdom of God, we discuss our Lord’s purpose for teaching in parables. The Lordship of Jesus and His parables about the Kingdom of God are inseparable. To fail to understand our Lord Jesus as King of a Kingdom is to fail to understand His parables.

Parables compare familiar facts with spiritual truths and were a common way of transmitting truths in the Middle Eastern culture of Jesus’ day. The familiarity of the situations were readily identifiable and helped the hearer retain a mental image of the story being told. However, the parables of our Lord Jesus were intended to do more than entertain or transmit information! His parables were aimed at distinguishing those who were truly His from those who weren’t. Only those who had “ears to hear” could perceive the spiritual truth behind the familiar life situation that was being presented.

 

Some Specific Issues Concerning "Cold Love"

In Lifebyte 40, Do You Confront For Jesus? Or, Placate For Satan?, we exposed the evil of cold love. Satan delights in using placaters, who are controlled by a spirit of cold love. These people persistently hide their fear and insecurity or resentment or especially their seething, begrudging bitterness. Some consider themselves "Christian" but operate under a veneer of extreme spirituality, their conversations filled with “Christianese”. Others busy themselves with "Christian good works" on behalf of others but have no love of Jesus for the people they're serving.

People who are plagued by a spirit of cold love are often filled with self-pity. Their self-inflicted martyrdom may make them feel more Christ-like but that's a false perception! Rather, their heart is burdened by a sense of obligation and duty heaped on them by cold love.

Since we wrote Lifebyte 40 we've had meaningful contact with two groups of people we particularly want to address in this e-mail: 1. The Begrudgingly Bitter; 2. The Unloved Wife.

1. The Begrudgingly Bitter: "Murderers"
In Matthew 5:21,22, Jesus connects the sin of murder to unloving attitudes you might have against another person. But every time you refuse to forgive someone who has hurt or offended you, your heart not only hardens toward that individual, it also hardens toward God. If you or someone you know has entertained the seething form of bitterness—the begrudging type—extra help is needed from others to forsake it and develop Christ-like love.

Have you ever considered the difference between "first degree murder" and other crimes in which a human life is wrongfully taken? "First degree" means it was premeditated, with malice beforehand—the murder was planned, not spur-of-the-moment. This is the way it is with the begrudgingly bitter. They are "first degree murderers" in God's sight because over a period of time they not only refused to love a person, but were filled with hatred toward them. At the same time, the begrudgingly bitter person was out of fellowship with the Father. And all the time they clung to their bitterness, they remained unforgiven by Him (see Matthew 6:15). Sadly, to many their unforgiveness didn't matter, they just went on playing "Christian" but hating in their heart.

The Apostle whom Jesus especially loved makes very clear the separation that comes to those who practice religion but hate someone: "If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And He has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:20-21). Jesus NEVER grants us an option to stop loving anyone He sacrificed Himself for. The love of Jesus for others, no matter what they've done, is your only heart option in His Kingdom.

If you or someone you know has confessed their begrudging bitterness and repented of it, they still need significant help to learn how to love as Jesus calls for. You need to realize that for the length of time a person held seething hatred toward anyone, they were a disciple of Satan, the hater of all mankind. Their bitter attitude was in fact demonic power over the one they were bitter against. After people have confessed their sin and turned from it, they still need guidance in how to "fill in the old ruts" with the love of Jesus—and this requires humility and grace.

Think about it: If a murderer was released from prison and was going to move in next to you, what would you want to know in advance? One of the first things is: Have they REALLY changed? They may have paid their debt to society by their incarceration, but have their hearts really changed? This is the same for anyone who has exercised begrudging bitterness over a period of time. They need your loving and conscientious assistance through role-modeling and accountability as they find healing through the Spirit of Christ.

2. The Unloved Wife
“Under three things the earth trembles...an unloved woman who is married" (Proverbs 30:21,23).
As we write this e-mail the news of young women in Texas who were enslaved in marriage to polygamist husbands is being widely broadcast. As the facts continue to be revealed, we're becoming aware of the extent of the brainwashing that kept these women imprisoned. Do you see, in life there are real prisons and virtual prisons. In many ways the latter can be more confining than actual cells with bars and guards. The power of the sin-nature controlled soul is impossible to measure.

Our observation of much of contemporary Christendom has shown that an epidemic number of women are "enslaved" in marriages where they fail to experience the love of Jesus through their husbands. The Hellenist influence throughout Nicolaitan Christendom is a difficult evil for men to turn from. Few flee the power of their soulish satisfaction so that they might acquire the love of Jesus, which is obtained through their spirit. Sadly, many clergy (a leading occupation for divorce in this nation) have convinced women that they shouldn't expect to experience the love of Jesus through their life partner. How is this sad counsel perpetrated? By observing how so many clergy themselves treat their own wives.

If you perceive you're an unloved married woman, especially if you're a grandmother, you need to avoid the trap Satan has set for you—that you are unlovable. Keep in mind that the Spirit of Jesus resides in you as evidence of His love if you are indeed His own. And if you can't receive our Lord's love through your husband, then look to Jesus Himself. But don't give in to Satan's trap!!!

In the absence of Jesus' love through your husband, some of you "unloved" grandmothers may be using your grandchildren or even your dog or cat as an idol. You give these an inordinate focus. You may be exercising extreme generosity to purchase favor from your grandchildren. This practice is manipulation, characteristic of the demonic spirit, Jezebel. (See our May 2001 Newsletter, Jesus versus the Queen of Heaven.) This too manifests cold love. You're acting with a selfish motive, to derive a response from others in order to compensate for your lack of experiencing love.

Also, many unloved women become "philosophical" about their faith. You engross yourself in more spiritual study, increasing your knowledge without letting your heart be transformed through the Spirit of Jesus. This activity only supports your cold love. And while you perhaps consider yourself more "spiritual" than your husband, your cold love prevails despite your knowledge and activities.

Please, we wouldn't be writing about these matters if they weren't plaguing so many. If they don't pertain to you, then someone you know is beset by them. Are you willing to be an instrument of loving confrontation and help through the Spirit of Jesus in you?

Mike & Sue

April 7, 2008

Lifebyte 53: Born Again — Guided By The Spirit Of Jesus

Dear Friends,
Attached is Lifebyte 53, Born Again—Guided By The Spirit Of Jesus. It is the third installment in our series on the Kingdom of God. Through this Lifebyte we hope that many of you who still believe you can "practice religion" will reconsider how greatly it hinders your ability to lovingly serve the King in His Kingdom. We hope you'll come to realize that religious practices and denominational creeds are made by man for man.

It's not that we're primarily concerned about religion, but rather your encounter with Lord Jesus at the Judgment Throne. Religion causes a person to look to externals to satisfy their soulish desires and needs. In contrast, our Lord calls for us to look inside ourselves for His Spirit to guide and empower us. His guidance is clear evidence that we are truly born again, that is, we've received His Spirit and are on the road to becoming more like Him. Along with our Lord's guidance comes His power to fulfill His will and purposes — another indicator that you're born from above. You experience spiritual "power encounters" with our Lord as He works in and through you to bless others for His glory.

If you aren't indwelled by the Spirit of Jesus, will He welcome you at the Judgment Throne? Or, will you hear those dreadful words, "I never knew you!" Please, judge for yourselves whether the King of the Kingdom rules and guides you as one of His subjects. Or, is your faith practice based on the creation of other men's minds. Assurance by faith that He's truly indwelling you is key to your serving Him as His beloved child! 

Also, if you're leading a faith community, are you guiding and serving your flock as a result of the Lord's Holy Spirit revelation and confirmation, or are you operating through techniques others have taught you? If you rely on the techniques of man, be warned! You defame the Spirit of Jesus, and are setting an example for your flock to do likewise. By looking toward what brings worldly success, your faith community will fail to experience the spiritual power they need to serve the King and to walk in confident joy in Him.

The mind and ways of man will never enable you to serve the King of the Kingdom.

Mike & Sue

 

March 29, 2008

Lifebyte 52: To Enter The Kingdom Of God You Must Be Born Again

The phrase “born again” has been used to refer to everything from refurbished cars to a byword of evangelical Christendom. Yet because of its familiarity, it seems that few have pursued what Jesus meant in His call to be “born again” or “born from above” or “born of the Spirit”. Being born from above is a whole different mechanism than relying on your sin nature-controlled soul! When your spirit is aligned in union with the Spirit of Christ, you’re changed from knowing about God through your mind to knowing Him intimately through your spirit.
To be born again in spirit as a Kingdom person is a shift from institutionalized religion and its obligatory practices to a life journey of personal intimacy with our Father in the Lordship of King Jesus.

 

March 23, 2008

Lifebyte 51: The Older Testament Foundations To the Kingdom Of God

Beginning with this Lifebyte and the next few, we want to share with you how both the Hebraic Restoration and the Older Testament support what our Lord Jesus came to inaugurate—the Kingdom of God on earth.
You may wonder why you haven’t heard much about the Kingdom, particularly since Jesus spends so much time describing what the Kingdom is like. In fact, the “Kingdom of Heaven” and “Kingdom of God” are specifically mentioned 98 times in the Newer Testament!
You’ve probably been taught all your life about “church”, and then equated that concept with God’s Kingdom. But as you’ll come to realize, the Kingdom and the organizational Church have nothing in common!
The Kingdom of God begins with the rule of the Spirit of Jesus in your spirit. Jesus makes clear the internalized nature of His Kingdom within His followers: “I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you” (John 14:20). The connectedness of your spirit with the indwelling Spirit of Jesus enables you to live in Covenant unity with our Father (see John 17:11,21,22).
The organized church system with its 23,000 differing denomination/sect expressions is based on external religious forms and practices. The systems will go on regardless of the spiritual state of those who participate. That’s because services and rituals appeal to men’s soulishness, that is, to their sin nature-controlled mind, will and emotions. Con-temporary westerners tend toward a candy-store mentality in their religious practices: they look for one that suits their particular tastes.
The underlying theme of these next few Lifebytes is this:
It’s impossible to serve both the Kingdom of God and religion. Religion will always be
a hindrance to Kingdom living.

This Lifebyte focuses on elements of God’s Kingdom that emanate from the Hebrew Scriptures. Understanding the foundational truths of the Older Testament that Jesus taught from and lived by helps us today to grasp the framework on which He was building. That way we won’t make unscriptural assumptions.

 

Are You Biblically Assertive?

March 12, 2008

Dear Friends,
We're grateful to our Lord that He's been prompting us to write a new series of Lifebytes concerning the Kingdom of God. We know that many today have been programmed to think of "church" as their weekly spiritual fix to face another busy, overscheduled 6-day workweek. But Jesus mentions the word church only twice. That's because He came to establish the Kingdom of God in the hearts of people. Significantly, the Kingdom of which He is King appears 98 times in the Newer Testament.

This forthcoming series will help you see that no one can serve religion and be a Kingdom follower of Jesus at the same time.
As we prepare this series we would appreciate your prayers that we'll hear clearly and only from the Spirit of Christ, and press through any assaults and challenges from the enemy. May the Name of Jesus be lifted up!

 

Are You Biblically Assertive?

Download the two-page questionnaire on assertiveness. The vast majority of Christians we've met over the years are under assertive, fearful that other people may be offended if they speak up about anything, never mind about the most important Person in their life. However, that fear keeps them from identifying themselves by word and deed as one of Jesus' own, and often leaves the under-assertive person harboring begrudging attitudes toward those they should have responded to.

If you've gone through Lifebyte 48, then you're aware that the majority of people in this nation, including Christians, are "low exchangers" when it comes to being actively involved or interconnected with other people. Under-assertive people may frequent larger congregations so that they feel they vicariously belong — as long as other people don’t intrude in their life! The under-assertive person's inner voice whispers, “You leave me alone, and I’ll leave you alone.”

A follower of Jesus we can't be under-assertive and still walk in love-grounded obedient trust. We are called by our King to be salt and light among those who need His truth and work through us as His messengers. His beloved servants can't hide, for silent non-involvement is in fact denial of our Lord and His reality in us. Being under-assertive may help us get along with others, but it gets us in trouble with our Father: "My righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him” (Hebrews 10:38; see also Matthew 18:15).

On the other hand, we've all run into over-assertive people in Christendom. Many of these use the Bible as a bludgeoning club rather than as a sharp, double-edged sword wielded by the Spirit. The over-assertive generally quote a lot more than they live, especially when it comes to loving others. The Good News of reconciliation and fellowship with our Father through Jesus is a gift that can't be forced down someone's throat (you never see Lord Jesus doing that, do you?). Neither can anyone be shoved from behind into the Kingdom if they haven't seen their own depravity and need for forgiveness through our Lord's sacrifice on their behalf.

Please, fill in the survey and discuss your answers with someone close to you. Greater effectiveness as His loving and empowered ambassador may come from it.
Mike & Sue

 

February 29, 2008

Lifebyte 50: Marriage As A Covenant Lifestyle (Part 4)

Dear Friends,
The need we discuss in this Lifebyte is a spiritual growth need. Your need for Christ-like love comes about after you’re born again. The indwelling presence of the Spirit of Jesus produces this need in your heart.

Love of Jesus and for Him is an internally empowered motivation indicating the indwelling Spirit of Jesus is accomplishing His work in you. The sign that you’re truly born again in a Covenant relationship with our Father is that you are conforming more and more to the love-based motivation of Jesus. By His loving grace He’s enabled you to do this by His Spirit at work in you! In fact, because of the Spirit of Jesus in you, your need to grow in Him is so powerful that you’re never complacently satisfied; you want more of His gracious transformation.

 

February 23, 2008

Lifebyte 49: Marriage As A Covenant Lifestyle (Part 3)

Dear Friends,
We've have combined the recent four e-mails below in to into Lifebyte 49:
Topic 1. So You Talked About It...
Topic 2. Are You Looking To Jesus Or Yourself?
Topic 3. Does Cold Love Have A Strong Hold On You?
Topic 4. You Cannot Serve Both God And Money

 

February 21, 2008

Dear Friends,
We want to continue our discussion of the various roots of cold love that may be hindering your ability to love your spouse as our Lord Jesus would have you. In our previous e-mail, Does Cold Love Have A Strong Hold On You?, we addressed the influence of lawlessness on love:
“Because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12). Law-lessness is defiance of God's ways, basically any motive or action that is contrary to His Word. Many Christians like to think that their lives are acceptable to the Father, but their self-gratifying and wicked goals and motives betray them."

A love that is lawless serves self as its god. If self-gratification is your god, then it is also your master, as Jesus warned: “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money" (Matthew 6:24).

Pursuit of wealth and its trappings is epidemic among so many Christians today. Have you ever paused long enough as a TV evangelist is speaking to realize that finances — whether yours or those of their ministry — are a neon focal point? And even a passing glance at the "church growth movement" witnesses to its ever-greater need for stadium-sized edifices to harbor the thronging masses. What prestige and worldly acclaim emanate from a system that parallels the corporate realm! Yet in the end, what message is sent forth from our Father's view? The love of money and what it represents rather than the love of God.

This wickedness of worldly compromise is why over 20 million people have left institutionalized Christendom. The mega-churches, the crown of a system in which financial resources represent evidence of success, have seen a 15% drop in attendance in recent years. The Spirit of Jesus in the people who have departed has convicted them penetratingly. They can't love Him and still sit complacently within religious institutions which are marked by a common quest for a larger share of the world's pie. The biblical principle of separating your goals and desires from those that are "unclean" in God's sight is a new wineskin into which your old worldly desires and goals just can't fit! (See Matthew 9:16,17; 2 Corinthians 6:17,18.)

Examine your inner person closely with these questions as a framework:
• Is the pursuit of money and/or prestige your current motivation? Was it ever?
• You may have once pursued money but now have the trappings (home, luxury vehicle, wall-sized TV, vacation cruises, "toys") that your earnings have achieved. But is your delight in your belongings fostering cold love in you? Do you find you'd rather spend any free time enjoying your belongings instead of attending to your relationships and purposes in God's Kingdom?
• Have you ever really considered the negative consequences of your pursuit of money, the security you feel you derive from it, and your delight in what your resources have provided you?

A sobering reality: A key reason given for the dissolution of marriages is the grim battle over money. Who earns what and who spends it on what is fertile ground for a harvest of discord and anger. Unwillingness to set aside wants or to reevaluate the nature of true needs often tears apart couples raised in a generation in which plastic easily overcomes self-control. The resultant tension over how to manage money can turn the most passionate marriage into a battleground dominated by cold love. How does this happen?

Both Testaments make clear that God will not entertain any form of competition with the loving devotion that's due Him. The "love of money" referred to in this verse is a word that means keeping what you have and pursuing more of it. You're driven by what money represents as a value in your life, and blind to the decline in your relationship with God that inevitably occurs when "things" take precedence. "For the LOVE of money is a root of ALL EVILS. Some people, hankering after money, have WANDERED FROM THE FAITH and pierced themselves with many griefs" (1 Timothy 6:10).

Why can't you serve God and money at the same time? Because mankind has been created to cling with zealous devotion to only one master at a time. If the things of this earth and your means of attaining them are your master, then you're going to despise God and all that He represents. He shares His place with no one and no thing. If you choose to adhere to the world system's goals and desires, your relationship with Jesus will shrivel. Is the pain of that self-piercing worth it to you?

On the other hand, if you served God according to His Word's parameters, the Spirit of Jesus would have been at work in you to develop His agape love. And, your spouse would be the delighted recipient of that love. Does this describe your marriage? When you served money and the pursuit of all that you wanted to please your flesh, you developed a heart of cold love. Please know this. If you refuse to repent and change your ways, your marriage will falter and crumble. Is this what you want?

Let's recap here. You may have wandered from the life of love-grounded, obedient trust that our Father called you to by His Spirit. There is such sober intensity in God's words through a faithful Hebrew servant's pen: "Let your character [or life] be free from the LOVE of money, being CONTENT with what you have" (Hebrews 13:5). Straying from our gracious Lord's path will only lead to the piercing grief Paul warns about—the grief of cold love in your heart as you go through relational motions but have no passion or sincerity in them.

You may find yourself quite pleased with the current state of your prosperity, relishing the comfort your money has purchased. (Actually, it doesn't take wealth for you to be consumed by things of the earth; just a drive for those things in your life compared to your hunger for Christ.) But the security of the accumulation you believe your hands have produced is a snare (Luke 8:14). Self-sufficiency and worldly security nurture a lethargic complacency about the commands of God, especially those that involve the call to love one another.

If you find yourself spending time daydreaming about how you can acquire that next promotion so you can add to your abundance, you've created your own version of God — a deity that benignly encourages you to "be all you can be" and "get while the getting's good". And you know in your heart that that's a false gospel that in no way relates to our Lord — the Lord Who contrasts the true riches of His Kingdom with what HE calls "unrighteous mammon" (Luke 16:11). Ask yourself if your good intentions and Christian phraseology are in fact a smokescreen for your fear of what walking in Jesus' steps will cost you.

Is Lord Jesus against money itself? Not at all. But He recognizes the powerful sin nature within each person who is tempted to pursue that which can easily become an idol and a trap. Let's take a closer look at His words:

•“How hard it is for those who have riches to ENTER the kingdom of God!” (Mark 10:23). The man to whom this was spoken yearned to inherit eternal life but just couldn't release the tentacles that his possessions had around him. Are you any stronger of spirit than this man was in dividing your loyalty between God and earthly security? Are you going through spiritual motions but really haven't even set foot in His Kingdom's love and purposes?

•“But WOE to you who are rich, for you have your comfort" (Luke 6:24; see also James 4:17-5:5). The James passage in particular is written for believers, since they're the only ones who will be reading (or hearing) it. Interestingly, there was no punctuation in the original epistle. The anguished warning of the misplaced focus on wealth is preceded by an encompassing declaration. If you blithely make plans for earthly enjoyment without seeking first our Lord's will, you've made your will superior to His. When you know what the good is that you're to do but fail to do it, you've sinned. And His Spirit as well as His Word make clear that pouring out your resources to bless yourself violates the heart of God. Heaping up wealth for self-indulgence reveals who your "god" is: you.

•“Do not store up FOR YOURSELVES treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up FOR YOURSELVES treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For WHERE your treasure is, there YOUR HEART will be also" (Matthew 6:19-21). Ask yourself what your HEART really cherishes most. Anyone who follows their Master as His adoring, obedient sheep has no doubt: to LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD with ALL your heart and soul leaves no room for depending on earthly security to sustain you. God graciously intends the resources of both those with much and those with little to be entrusted into His care for His dissemination. Love and obedience to His Spirit go together. You might want to pause here and check out Deuteronomy 30 for the intertwining of loving God and obeying His voice. Since all Scripture is given to us as an example, surely we who have been blessed with His Spirit have no excuse when we disregard His voice!

Nearly a century ago Oswald Chambers addressed the obedience factor of our relationship to a Lord Who is bent on readying all that we are and have to suit His loving purposes. Note that this relationship allows not one iota of space for self-indulgent worldly pursuit! "In the Christian life we are not being used for our own designs at all, but fot the fulfilment of the prayer of Jesus Christ. He has prayed that we might be "one with Him as He is one with the Father"; consequently, God is concerned about that one thing, and He never says, "By your leave." Whether we like it or not, God will burn us in His fire until we are as pure as He is. . . When a man is right with God, God puts His honor in that man's keeping."

Again, money itself is not inherently evil any more than food or recreation are evil. It's the emphasis that it has in our priorities that makes it evil for us! Our Lord speaks so forthrightly against the pursuit of wealth because of the dire outcome for those who neglect Him in favor of the chase:

1. Love of money compels you to wander from the faith. Your heart turns away from God and you no longer hear His voice. You forsake His command to put Him first, and instead lust after the idol of wealth. As your love for Him grows cold, you leave Him behind. The result? As He warned the spiritually adulterous Israelites, you perish. (See Deuteronomy 30:17,18.)
2. As you become increasingly consumed with satisfying the lust of your eyes and the pride of life that money fulfills, your life is filled with all kinds of grief. The wanton excess of the prodigal son in the parable is a sure depiction of what self-indulgence leads to. Is LOVE of money and the sense of gratification and/or security you derive from it really worth it?

Yet our God has not left us to wonder what His perspective — the one we're empowered by His Spirit to follow — is. Our Lord Jesus esteems a love for God that's backed up by devoted action:

•"As He looked up, Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. 'I tell you the truth,' He said, 'this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on'” (Luke 21:1-4)
Jesus praised the poverty-stricken widow who gave all she had out of her love for God. She could offer this sacrificial giving only if she trusted that the God of Israel would keep His promise to His beloved child and provide for her. Her example of loving trust bears witness that it's not what you have but what you do with it!

•“If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me” (Matthew 19:21). To store up treasure in heaven you must love God above all else. That's foundational for "being perfect" in His sight! The encompassing theme of the whole of Scripture is that love must be your heart motivation. Only your love for God and the love He infuses into you can impel you to divest yourself of the treasures you have on earth and sacrificially care for the poor He makes known to you.

Some of you reading this may be missing the point by thinking, "I'm not rich." (Actually, compared to 95% of the world's inhabitants, you are!) Again, you don't have to be wealthy to pursue money. God judges as evil a heart motive that places anything above devotion to Him. (See Matthew 10:37. If family devotion supersedes love for Jesus and is deemed unworthy, how much more will love of earthly things?)

Every so often we're asked about tithing. First, the tithe that supports the system of organized religion and man-made edifices was done away with when Jesus became a "Priest in the order of Melchizedek" (Hebrews 7:17). The New Covenant in Jesus brought with it a new priesthood of His followers which ended the need for a Temple and the Levitical priesthood (clergy). But the supply for the poor and needy was never done away with.

Father God had established as a command that reflected His love a tithe to help widows, the fatherless and the strangers in their midst who had no means of provision (Deuteronomy 26:12,13). His encompassing love was intended to be lived out "on the ground" by His people. Those blessed with more were to willingly allow the less fortunate to freely glean fields and vines. That's why Paul was so delighted when the Macedonian followers of Jesus gave so abundantly out of their meager means to provide for their needy brothers and sisters in Jerusalem (2 Corinthians 8:1-4). Consider this: Those who love their money more than they do people who are made in God's image have not the love of God in them. What we do at the impulse of His Spirit far outweighs what we say but don't put into action.

All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.' (Matthew 25:32-36).

When you know you're being nudged within, are you cheerfully willing to do whatever is necessary to help those in need, especially those who can never pay you back? Your obedience is a sign of the Spirit of Jesus in you, the Spirit Who is your guarantee that you'll be welcomed at the Final Judgment (Romans 8:9). Examine yourself now while there is yet time. An eternal kingdom is promised to those who have walked in His steps as sheep "blessed of His Father".

One last point: Ask yourself if you're among those who are suffering from cold love because you rob God of the money He entrusted to you to serve as His conduit:

“Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me. But you ask, ‘How do we rob You?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, the whole nation of you. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing that there will not be room enough for" (Malachi 3:8-10).

The chief blessing of our Lord is not money and wealth, but the blessing from above out of His storehouse of love. By His grace He yearns to replace your cold, passive love with His passionate, active love. Godly sacrificial love is the treasure above all treasures, the currency of heaven. The kind of love our Lord sheds abroad through His set-apart vessels, His Church, counters the inroads that cold love may have made in your own heart. Cry out in agreement as we do that our lives may discern true and everlasting riches, and extinguish from our hearts any desire for the riches of the world:

[We] pray that He would grant you, according to the RICHES OF HIS GLORY to be strengthened with power THROUGH HIS SPIRIT in the INNER MAN; so that CHRIST MAY DWELL in your hearts through faith; and that you, being ROOTED AND GROUNDED IN LOVE may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the LOVE OF CHRIST WHICH SURPASSES KNOWLEDGE that you may be FILLED UP to all the fulness of God.
¶ Now to Him who is able to do EXCEEDINGLY ABUNDANT BEYOND all that we ask or think, according to the POWER THAT WORKS WITHIN US,
to Him be the glory IN THE CHURCH and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:16-21).

Mike & Sue

 

February 19, 2008

Dear Friends,
In yesterday's e-mail we briefly discussed cold love. We sense we need to pursue this issue further. Why? Because so many under its control perceive themselves to be far more loving than others recognize them to be. Sadly, within much of Christendom, people who are beset by cold love can mask it over by doing "good works", believing that their actions are a suitable substitute for heart devotion.

In our workbook Demolishing Strongholds, cold love is one of the symptoms under the stronghold of Stupor & Prayerlessness. Any or all of the symptoms which manifest this stronghold are (but not limited to):
• Distanced From God
• “Cold” Love
• Hardened Heart
• Distracted
• Spiritual Blindness
• Laziness
• Deceived Self-appraisal
• Unresponsive to others

If you habitually guard yourself from emotional hurt in any form, you've either given in to the stronghold of Stupor & Prayerlessness, or have allowed the symptom of cold love itself to control your response to and interaction with others. How can you recognize if cold love dominates your relationships? You refrain from providing the affectionate support others need from you. You may indeed do many kind acts for others. But your actions only mask over your desire to protect yourself from emotional hurt. Through what you do you're able to conceal from others the fear that you'll be wounded.

Another very different indicator of cold love is a false self-appraisal. You may think you're walking in Jesus' steps. But while you openly welcome expressions of care and love toward you, you rarely initiate affectionate support toward others. Like a 'bull-in-a-china-shop' we wrote about in Lifebyte 48, you're totally unaware of how your reticence hurts others. You're so afraid that you'll be rejected if you reach out that you wait for others to make the first move toward you — even if they've repeatedly affirmed to you how dear you are to them!

 

Does Cold Love Have A Strong Hold On You?

Do you find that your love flows from an affectionate heart that's eager and willing to be poured out as a blessing? Is your life expression of love growing more daring and more evident to those who know you well? Or, do you find that you're emotionally protective of your heart, and judgmental toward others who don't meet your preconceived parameters of right behavior? This is a very important matter, for your Christianity is only as real as your love is. Your inability to develop Christ-like love is evidence that cold love may have a strong hold on your mind, will and emotions — your soul.

Jesus warns that the influence of evil around us and our own tolerance of sin in our lives will diminish our capacity to respond from the Spirit's fire of love: “Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many, and because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:11,12) Law-lessness is defiance of God's ways, basically any motive or action that is contrary to His Word. Many Christians like to think that their lives are acceptable to the Father, but their self-gratifying and wicked goals and motives betray them. The world has such a strong hold on their hearts that they don't even realize how far they've compromised their relationship with a holy and righteous God. "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world" (1 John 2:15,16).

Many of those who are tempted to stray from God's path are doing so because they're finding a camaraderie and sense of acceptance that's sorely lacking among fellow Christians. They're critically examined by others in the faith and found to be lacking in some area. Therefore, self-appointed spiritual watchdogs assault their emotions and drive them into "caves" in which they hide the pain and fear of further rejection.

Little wonder that those who are being hurt try to protect their emotions and eventually give way to cold love — going through the motions of "Christian" activity out of duty or obligation but experiencing none of the loving communion of the Spirit of Jesus in them or from others. NO emotionally guarded person can develop the love of Jesus for others because they're unable to accept the love of Jesus for themselves. What a grievous antithesis of Kingdom living! Whatever loving motivation of Jesus that could be manifested through you is stifled as you cut yourself off from being His conduit of agape love.

Please consider this in your spirit: If you're cutting yourself off from the possibility that you might be hurt by others in your family or faith family, you may be giving way to a root of bitterness nestled behind the pain. The Scriptures warn us that even a little root of bitterness in your life can sprout because we resist God's grace to forgive. And even more insidious, that root can infiltrate the lives of others as well: "[Look] carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled" (Hebrew 12:15).

Bitterness is really unfulfilled revenge. By hiding out in your emotional cave, you're not only exacting vengeance on the one(s) who hurt you, but also on everyone else who deserves your Christ-like affectionate support but isn't receiving it from you. You're choice to withhold love contaminates others as they're not experiencing God's love for them through you. They're being pained by your fear of vulnerability and your refusal to believe that the Spirit in you can both work through you and heal you.

It's very possible that someone's thoughtlessness or cruelty may have wounded you deeply. It's almost inevitable that in a world of increasing harshness and cruelty you'll at some time be hurt. You may indeed choose not to respond with the love and forgiveness that the Spirit of Christ in you empowers you to extend. But giving way to begrudging bitterness induced by that offense will rob your heart of its capacity to love. Gradually you'll join the majority of Christians today whose love is “growing cold.”

Let's look at your marriage, or that of someone you care about.  Marital love has been designed by our Father to be a passion for covenant union with each other. (Picture the Song of Solomon in regard to your spouse!) It is a commitment to your spouse that has no limitations. Love without this intense commitment is really NO love at all for your partner. Going through relational motions in no way reflects our God — and certainly doesn't describe the love our heavenly Bridegroom has for His Bride!

HE is the Source of the love you need for each other. Being yielded to the work He wants to do in you to extend this love is a choice on your part. HE has forgiven you as a sign of His love for you. Are you willing to respond in His Spirit to fully forgive your spouse? Many Christians attend services, read the Bible, tithe, sing and act like other Christians they know. But inside they have grown distant and aloof from both God and other people. In passive self-protection they have withdrawn from allowing the love of Jesus to be fruitful in and through them.

Every time you refuse to forgive another person who has hurt or offended you, your heart not only hardens toward them, it hardens toward God. “If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And He has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:20-21). You may be grieved by what someone has done, but you do not have a biblical option to stop loving them. Should you confront them and express how their action or attitude has hurt you? Absolutely! But the love of Jesus for others, no matter what they've done, is your only heart option. Otherwise, you become a prisoner of unforgiveness, unavailable to be Jesus in the flesh to them by His grace.

Each of us needs special people in our lives who are committed to us as individuals; people who know we are not perfect but love us anyway. The manifestation of God’s Kingdom will not come without people being committed to help each other reach the fullness of Jesus in their lives to bring Him glory.  Remember, the Kingdom of God is founded upon relationships — imperfect relationships of Spirit-indwelled brothers and sisters mutually extending the love of Jesus toward each other.

Focus on the Greatest Commandment

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these" (Mark 12:30,31)

When you love our Lord as He commands and empowers you to through His Spirit, your love for others will look like your love for Him. The second commandment is like the first — it's the same devoted, sacrificial agape love. The more you unconditionally love Jesus, the more you will unconditionally love others. The outgrowth of the Spirit of Christ in His followers is that His love for others becomes our love for them. Those who possess the Kingdom of God in its reality are people who refuse to guard their emotions. They resist the temptation to give way to cold love. Rather, they help each other become what our Lord has called them to be: the loving representatives of Jesus Christ to all they encounter.

Jesus calls each of us to carry out His mission: “As Thou did send Me into the world, I also have sent them...” (John 17:18). If we aren't bearing the same divine forgiveness and love that impelled Him, we will be deceived. Indeed, if we are not motivated by a love that can be extended to others, we will actually become a menace to the cause of Jesus. This love comes only by the grace He has given His own. Repentance is the removal of the “logs” within our own vision and acquiring God's view of people through the work of His Spirit in us. It is the true beginning of seeing clearly — of seeing light in His light (Psalm 36:9). This is the opposite of the judgmental, carnal sin nature in us which always projects the image of itself onto others. The way we help others for His glory is by “seeing clearly.” Calling out for His love and forgiveness make His perspective possible in us.

The Apostle Paul longed for his Philippian family with "the affection of Jesus". Thus he urges us to abundantly extend love to one another: “I pray that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment...” (Philippians 1:9) True discernment is rooted deeply in a love that is sincere and fruitful in righteousness, eager to bring praise to God (Philippians 1:10,11). But there is also a false discernment that is based on suspicion and fear caused by past hurts. You can recognize false discernment by the self-protective barrier around it that keeps a person from redemptively reaching out in affectionate love. 

Many of you reading this e-mail have for one reason or another allowed cold love to take control of you. You've lived with emotional guardedness for so long that it has become like bad breath. Please, let go of your cold love and cry out to Jesus for the cleansing and healing work He can do as you trust Him! Holding onto a "love" that's only a duty for you to fulfill will keep you from lovingly representing Jesus to others. And, tragically, your resistance to His love for and through you will defame Him to those who have yet to know Him in Spirit and in truth.

Passionate for Him,
Mike & Sue

 

February 18, 2008

Are You Looking To Jesus Or Yourself?

Dear Friends,
On January 13, in an e-mail entitled, Would You Like to Get Married? we mentioned an offer we'd made to a specific couple: to take part with them in a Covenant marriage ceremony to renew their vows as we ourselves had done in Jerusalem in 1994. Our Lord willing, this coming Thursday we'll be sharing in this Covenant commitment with Leo and Lillie Mann, who are in our extended spiritual family. Their hearts are overflowing with loving desire to do this. They're filled with grateful appreciation for all that our Lord Jesus has been doing to deepen and purify their love for each other.

This past Friday morning Mike asked them if they were prepared to commit themselves in a Covenant ceremony. We smiled as they looked at each other with the same loving expression the two of us had in Jerusalem 14 years ago, and replied emphatically, "We're ready!" As with any covenant, it isn't the ceremony itself that's as important as the purposeful determination of the heart toward our Lord Jesus and each other. And we can attest with joy that they have a heart for both!!!

If you remember, the covenant ceremony ratifies the condition of a couple's love for each other — they're in mutual committed agreement that this covenant will permanently stand. The daily pressing on ahead without looking back at the past is how that covenant is lived out. It's a deliberate choice of heartfelt obedient trust that the Spirit of Christ in them will work as they continue to see each other through their heavenly Father's eyes! If you'd like to write them an encouraging note, their e-mail address is: LeoLillie3@aol.com

 

"Now the Lord [Jesus] is the Spirit,
and where the Spirit of the Lord [Jesus] is, there is freedom.
And we, who with unveiled faces beholding as in a mirror [Jesus's] glory,
are being transformed into the same likeness with ever-increasing glory,
which comes from the Spirit of the Lord [Jesus]" (2 Corinthians 3:17,18)

Why is 2 Corinthians 3:17,18 so important?
This e-mail isn't intended just to bring you delight as you read about a joyful happening in the lives of some particular followers of Jesus! We are hoping that YOU will seriously put yourselves in their shoes and examine your own marriage (or encourage a couple dear to you) to prayerfully consider if it's time for your marriage to be renewed as an intentional covenant before our Father.

In preparation for this Thursday we gave Leo and Lillie the above Corinthians passage to reflect on together. Remember, in a Covenant marriage the partners are dedicating themselves to the purpose that their marriage will increasingly reflect the love of Jesus, our heavenly Bridegroom. Whatever the Spirit of Jesus within each marriage partner desires to change in order for them to be more like Him is to be the love-based motivation of their covenant together. A covenant means that there is "union". And, within a covenant union of marriage, the husband and wife are purposing to live in union together with the Jesus in them. Only with this understanding of covenant privilege and responsibility can our Lord be reflected and glorified in their mutual motivations and actions.

One of the references to the Holy Spirit is the "Spirit of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:19). Being indwelled by the Spirit of Jesus brings home this critical transformational truth:

Jesus in you enables you to be more like Him.

This ongoing work of willing yieldedness to His Spirit on your part paves the way for each opportunity for character transformation to take place! If you aren't becoming more like Jesus in some way, then please seriously consider these two possibilities: (1). He's not indwelling you. "You are not controlled by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, IF the Spirit of God lives in you. IF anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ" (Romans 8:9); or, (2). You'd rather give in to your old sin nature than become more like Jesus. "For IF you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but IF by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God" (Romans 8:13,14).

So what does this mean? Jesus in each of His followers enables us to be conformed into His likeness (see Romans 8:29)! How can a marriage ever reflect our Lord if both spouses don't look to the Spirit of Jesus in each of them to change them? This is where a humble heart that cries out to Lord Jesus in trusting reliance finds peace as He sets into motion an opportunity for this change to come about. And don't be surprised if this opportunity is painful! That pain may be the incentive that's needed to forsake your old nature's way and put on Christ in that part of your character.

A note of warning: Don't try to "improve" your life in your own strength as so much Christian literature proposes. "Self-improvement" takes place through your sin nature-controlled soul. If you follow this deceptive path rather than call upon Jesus to change you 'Spirit-to-spirit', you'll only find yourself returning to the same besetting sins again and again. You'll be inoculating yourself against hope that He can truly change your yielded life. Proverbs 26:11 speaks to the futility of trying in your own strength to change, and giving up in defeat when the hoped-for results don't transpire: "As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly." 

"I'm Tess and she's Monica."

When we came back from Jerusalem in 1994 a new show had just come on TV called Touched By An Angel. We'd returned with a thousand pages of research notes and a command from our Father to "Share this message" but we were clueless about how to do this. Now, we're well aware of certain "theological problems" presented in the show's concept. But as we watched the segments of Touched By An Angel, the Spirit of Jesus gave us increased understanding as to both the message our Father had given us and our role in sharing it.

The main characters in the show were two angels, Tess and Monica. Mike identified with "Tess", the older experienced one, and Sue with "Monica", the younger one eager to learn. In the series, God sends the two angels to bring about change in the lives of people. We knew from the Spirit's words we'd received in Israel that the Hebraic foundations were not to be informational. Rather, the restoration He was doing would be life-changing for those who would receive it.

We noticed that each segment was built on one of two themes:
1. A person was facing a situation so awful that they couldn't believe that anything good would ever come about for them. Their hopeless despair imprisoned them from any trust in God. In fact, most were often deeply bitter toward Him.

2. Someone was filled with angry bitterness toward a person who had wronged them in the past. Before the angels came into their life, they refused to even consider forgiving that person. Their only desire was for the perpetrator to suffer for the hurt that was caused.

As we began to share the Hebraic foundations, we recognized that many of the people God sent us to were plagued by one or both of these two themes. He was using us as messengers of the Hebraic truths He was restoring to show them the way of freedom. It all begins with their Covenant relationship with the Father and Jesus. (See the center of the Restoration Diagram; also, the Hebraic Article, The Gospel of the Covenant is the Pilgrimage to Salvation.)

Our Father didn't send us to get people out of their problems! He called us to help them deepen their relationship with Him as He freed them from their problem. Just as with the desperate Israelites standing on the shores of the Red Sea as the Egyptian army was about to attack, our Father uses difficult circumstances to cause us to turn to the Spirit of Jesus with all our hearts. In doing so we grow in the loving trust He cherishes. This is so life-giving, because Jesus still asks all His followers, "Do you LOVE (agape) Me?” ( John 21:17).

We've grieved over the years as we've watched so many who were freed from a problem neglect their Covenant union with our Lord and choose instead to fall away from Him. Like the Israelites in the Book of Judges, they returned to their old sinful ways. Many became imprisoned in the same hopeless, bitter pit from which they'd once been freed. In essence, they gave up on Jesus and embraced their sin nature again (see Hebrews 6:4-6).

Keep this in mind: If either spouse is making attempts to change themselves in their own strength, they're relying on their soul (their mind, will and emotions) rather than on the Spirit of Jesus. Over time, they'll give up and serve their sin nature all over again. You can recognize this by the way they continue to find fault in their spouse (see Matthew 7:4,5).

The love spoken of below is "agape" love. This type of love looks to the need of others and has power to be implemented. Only the Spirit of Jesus in you can empower you to have this love for one another (see Galatians 5:22).

• Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
• It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, IT KEEPS NO RECORD OF WRONGS.
• Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 
• It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).

Out of love for Jesus and for each other, you must press on into all the transformation our Lord wants to accomplish in you! Don't look back at what you've done wrong to each other in the past. Don't ever keep a record of those past hurts. When these painful memories arise, you must "take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). With HIS perspective and power to forgive, you can love your spouse like Jesus would!

If agape love is the heart motivation of both of you, you'll refrain from making a project out of improving your marriage. Some of you who have been successful in corporate America speak as if improving your marriage is some type of business plan. Just know that if you work at your marriage like a project or business plan, you'll keep returning to the same evil vomit. And what's worse, you'll develop a spirit of cold love toward each other.

Cold love develops when you guard your emotions so you won't be hurt again. It's a cave of emotional protection into which you can withdraw and hide. Once you're isolated in the cave, there's no way you can develop the interactive Christ-like love you need in your marriage.

We followers of Jesus can't allow cold love to freeze our hearts! How could we ever stand before Him having failed to share His affection with our spouse the way He wanted to through us? Our spouses need to not only hear us speak of the priority and work of Jesus in our lives, but experience the affection — the emotional side of His love for them — through us. (For more on the affectionate side of love, see Teaching E-mail 36. Are You Dancing Around Each Other?).

You'll never love each other as Jesus would without HIS LOVE empowering you.
Get on your knees as often and as long as you need to and look inside yourself
to the Spirit of Jesus for the love only He can give through you.
Anything less only defames Him, and leaves you hurting each other.

Yours in the ongoing journey in Him,
Mike & Sue

 

February 12, 2008

Shortened Demolishing Strongholds

Dear Friends,
We've just completed a condensed version (8 pages) of Demolishing Strongholds designed for use with young people, youth in detention centers, and convicts in prisons. We've done the best we can to this point and are asking for help before we offer this short version for mass use.

If you know someone who fits in one of the above groups, would you ask if they would review the attached document for us? We want to know if it's useful, makes sense, is easy to understand, and anything else that might make it more effective. Any suggestions or corrections can be directed back to Mikedowg@aol.com.

Thank you,

Mike & Sue

 

February 12, 2008

Teaching E-mail 36. Are You Dancing Around Each Other?

Dear Friends,
Do you ever find yourself dancing around other people? In other words, are you fearful that if you say something that needs to be said, conflict or hurt feelings may result? Unless you’re totally calloused, you find yourself in this apprehension every so often. Generally, your emotional tension in these situations is part of your concern for the feelings of others.
There’s nothing wrong with this concern unless it turns into fear of hurt feelings. Fear will inhibit you from saying what others need to hear from you as God’s conduit. Fear is a self-imposed prison that prevents the authentic love of Jesus from emanating out of you. In this psychologically-oriented culture, fear of hurting the feelings of others is keeping many families and extended spiritual families from blossoming with Christ-like love.