Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Who is After You

Isaiah 14 is typically seen as prophetic and speaking to the king of Babylon, which represents Satan.
11 All your pomp has been brought down to the grave, along with the noise of your harps; maggots are spread out beneath you and worms cover you.
12 How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!
13 You said in your heart, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.[b]
14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”
15 But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit.

Ezekiel 28 is also seen as a similar passage, against the king of Tyre, who also represents Satan.
12 “Son of man, take up a lament concerning the king of Tyre and say to him: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: “‘You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you:
carnelian, chrysolite and emerald, topaz, onyx and jasper, lapis lazuli, turquoise and beryl.[b] Your settings and mountings[c] were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared.
14 You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones.
15 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you.
16 Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, guardian cherub,
from among the fiery stones.
17 Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.

In Luke 10:18 Jesus says, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”

It’s clear here that Satan was created to be the worship leader in Heaven. One day, he kept some of that glory for himself and was kicked out of heaven. He lost his job.

Who took his job? You and I did. He is after the worship leaders to try to stop worship to God.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

The Touch of Faith

Have you ever lost something of value? If so, then you probably searched for that item with great intent on finding it. In Luke chapter 8 we see two people who have lost something of value; one was his daughter, the other was her health.

Jairus was an important man in the community, a synagogue leader. We find him bowing down at the feet of Jesus asking for a life-saving miracle. Even after hearing that his daughter was dead he did not give up his faith.

We will never know the name of the other person in this story. She was an outcast because of her continuous bleeding. Yet her faith will always be remembered. She revealed the power of Christ like no other person.

Both of these stories involved faith that had the end result solved before Jesus even spoke a word. Jairus believed his twelve-year old daughter would be healed and raised from the dead before Jesus took a step toward his house. The woman believed her twelve-year old illness would be healed without Jesus touching her or looking at her.

There were many people touching Jesus that day. But these two people touched the heart and the garment of Jesus with an intent of finding something they had lost. They were desperate. In return, Jesus revealed God’s power in their lives.

If we want to see God’s power revealed we must ask, touch, worship and seek with the expectation of the end result.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Time | Talent | Treasure

In our Reveal series we have discussed that God reveals himself to our church through us a worship team. God also reveals himself directly to our church while His people lift up His name. And last, God reveals himself as we walk with him daily.

Today I want to bring our attention to God’s revelation of His will. We often get caught up in seeking God’s will for our lives. When actually our focus should be to just seek God’s will. Once we see His will then we line up our lives in accordance to His will.

The looming question is how does God reveal His will. He is always revealing His will. We’re just not always looking for it. So we need to place ourselves in an environment where we can see God revealing His will and where He is working. Once we see that we join Him.

There are three environments in which if we settle we can see God working. Those areas involve serving God with our time, talent and treasure.

Have you ever heard the phrase? “Time is more important than money.” There have been many situations in which I believed this statement. Because of the value placed on time I believe God chooses to reveal his ways while we spend our precious time serving Him. If you want to see God revealing His will then spend some time serving Him.

God has created each of us with gifts and abilities in which to bring Him glory and to serve and grow the body of Christ. Some of us wait on God to show us how to use our talents when God is actually waiting on us to use their talent. As we use our talents God shows where He is working. God has a vision for the use of our talents. We can’t bury them and wait for God. He wants us to experience God working while we are using our talents.

God’s word states, “Where your treasure is there your heart also will be.” (Matt. 6:21) If we have a heart to know God’s will and where His is working then we need to put our money where are heart is. If we don’t serve God with our treasure then we truly don’t care to know where God is working. The more we understand that our money belongs to Him the more God will choose to reveal His will.

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