He said to them, Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.

Mark 16:15-18

In my lifetime, I have been to many prophetic conferences.  I have been equipped, taught, and otherwise prepared and shaped through them.  As the late Jill Austin put it, she felt that conference were becoming the new Seminary for much of the Body of Christ.

Looking over the vast array of conferences, there are only a certain segment of them that interest me today.  The ones with a prophetic bent, the ones open to the manifestations of the Spirit, gifts, healing, prayer, and the like are what I generally go for, without another specific leading.  Certainly, my selection has been biased, I believe for the better, but God is the ultimate judge.

Yet, in the course of my attending many such meetings, it has come to my attention that there is a greater plan, the overall calling, or charter, if you will of many of these conferences.

Read more…

[W]e know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies. If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.

1 Corinthians 8:1-3 (portion)

Love builds up.  It edifies.  It substantiates.  Love is the substance of the Gospel.  The man without love is without God, for God is love.

The Kingdom of God requires diligence, patience, long-suffering, peace, and trust, because these are what love are.  Perhaps one of the greatest equalizers in the universe is the power of love.  Both kings and those who the world regards as “nobody”s can have it, and it can make either of their hearts warm, and soft, and alive.  Both can possess everything that matters in this life, and never lack, because love is enough.

Read more…

I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

John 10:10 (portion)

The beginning portion of this verse says that the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.  Jesus said that He came not only that we might have life, but have it to the full!  The moment we begin to think that in some way, that this fullness of life has anything to do with this life, let us remember the apostle John’s words.

Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

1 John 2:15

Read more…

But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.

1 Corinthians 2:15

The world has not seen, within the space of several generations anyway, a host of spiritual men.  There were of course plenty through history, and there have been great pockets of notable names even in the darkest hours (Revelation 3:4).

Today, the world has had it plenty of people afraid to judge, afraid to speak, and afraid to have any bold opinions, but this is not how it was at the beginning.

Read more…

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

Genesis 1:31

Man was born on a sixth day.  It was the very first sixth day, and we tell time by it as the second to last of our week, Friday.  After God created man, his day was done.  There was evening, and morning–the sixth day.  The first thing man got to do was to sleep.

Second, after this, God had has his full ‘work week’, the full six-days.  God chose to take a break, to call it the Sabbath, the seventh day.  He blessed and hallowed this day, calling it holy, as a day set apart for no work, for rest for man.  This was the seventh, the end of our week, Saturday.  The very second thing that man, newly created, got to do, was to take a day off.

Read more…

God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.

Genesis 1:28

This is the first command of the Bible.  God told man to fill the Earth, and rule over it.  Man was created to be a servant, to serve the will of God under His authority, and to have sovereignty over all the Earth.

In the fall, this image got corrupted.  Man’s image became broken, corrupted, and he could only rule with what was in his heart.  What originally was designed to be a ruler ship out of a pure and upright heart has turned, over the centuries has time and again demonstrated man’s corruption.

Read more…

Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

Exodus 3:1

Moses, a man of forty years old, found pasture in a far away land, on the “back side of the desert”.  He had lived his entire life in the palace.  After murdering a man, he fled to a far away place, and found favor with a man named Jethro, a priest of Midian.  For the next forty years, until he was a man of eighty years old, are scarcely mentioned.  He married Jethro’s daughter, had children.  And, his greatest achievement to show the world up to that point, as a murder, was tending someone else’s sheep.  For forty years.

Read more…

By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Romans 5:2 KJV

When all around us, every where we look, the Kingdom realm is shining, what else need we to stand?  When our eyes are solely fixed, what other can entice?

For the entrance of His word brings light, and in His light, we see light!

The Kingdom is now, and it is here, and it is in me, at hand.  For His power lies within me, for His promise lives within.

His Spirit and His life, His very words He spoke, have sprouted and grown leaves, unto the budding grain.

Read more…

Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

2 Peter 1:5-11

We are told by Peter how to be be sure we remain productive, or fruitful, in Christ.  Whereas one aspect of Sermon on the Mount could be loosely termed ‘how to keep from falling in ministry’ (Matthew 7:26-27), this passage could be likewise be termed ‘how to remain productive in the Kingdom’.  Peter goes on to say that by practicing these things, we will never stumble.  This is a great promise!  What great freedom is ours in Christ, to never again stumble after the flesh, but to be pleasing to Lord, body, soul, and Spirit, so long as we live.  What a great gift and availability before us, if we choose to walk after His Spirit.

Jesus said that the good soil produced a harvest, some thirty, some sixty, and some one hundred fold.  Faithfulness, the good heart, produces something, where the others, even if the plant grows, produces nothing.  In this way, the true heart after His produces fruit in keeping with His.  As faith without works is dead, so a heart living out of His heart must produce the fruits of repentance, of righteousness, and of the Kingdom. Read more…

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Matthew 5:8

All of my desire is in this one thing, to see His Face (Psalm 27:4).  If we truly have this hope in ourselves, we will purify ourselves (1 John 3:3).

The New Testament is replete with examples that underscore the fact that the God of the Old Testament hasn’t changed His desire for purity and holiness as a lifestyle for those who are of His house.

Hebrews 12:14 says without holiness no one will see Him.  2 Corinthians 7:1 indicates that we should do it out of reverence.  It was because of His reverence that Jesus was heard of His Father when He prayed (Hebrews 5:7).  Ephesians 5:6 indicates strongly, lest we give way to being deceived with empty words, that God’s wrath is coming upon the disobedient.  Even Jesus Himself, in Matthew 5:48, commanded us to be perfect, even as the Father is perfect.

Read more…