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It is impossible for the eye to see what the mind is not prepared to conceive. If we don't have the mind of Christ, we cannot see the things of God. If you are not looking for it, you are not going to see it. Without the mind engaged to see; the eye may very well look, but never recognize it. Ever blew right through a red light before you recognized what you did, and then afterwords in shock you thought ….OMG! Well you did see the red light, you just did not recognize it at the time you blew through it, because your mind was otherwise occupied. God says the eyes of man have not seen, nor ears heard, nor his heart understood the things that he has prepared for the ways, and the thoughts of the new man that we are supposed have, and to be in Christ because, that mind of Christ by which they are recognized had not yet given to men until the fullness of time came 2000 years ago.

THE SINGS THAT ARE TO FOLLOW BELIEVERS ARE NOT FOR BELIEVERS, BUT FOR UNBELIEVERS TO SEE THEM AS A WITNESS THAT GOD LIVES WHETHER OR NOT THEY BELIEVE THEM. IF WE SAY WE ARE SONS OF GOD, YET HAVE NO SINGS FOLLOWING WE DECEIVE OURSELVES.

Ever blew through a traffic light without seeing it? We've been doing something similar in ministry for almost 2000 years.

If you convinced yourself you’re already doing the works of God, even though such works of human efforts were so missing the mark, in spite of that, you are not going to give it a second thought cause you’re so sure you are already doing what you are supposed to be doing. How could you be so sure? Cause that’s what your were taught, and that’s what everyone else does who are supposed to be doing these things. That’s why you are so sure that you are right. THE POWER OF GOD CANNOT BE TAUGHT… ONLY DEMONSTRATED, SO YOU WOULD NOT HAVE LEARNED IT ALONG WITH OTHER THINGS LEARNED: FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS NOT IN WORD BUT IN HIS POWER DEMONSTRATED. THE WORKS OF GOD IS THE PERSON OF JESUS SHOWING UP AS MIRACLES. THEY ARE THE SIGNS THAT FOLLOW OUR PREPARING HIS WAY FOR HIS COMING AS SUCH MIRACLES BY OUR CONFESSION FOR HIM TO SHOW UP AS SUCH MIRACLES. BECAUSE WE HAVE KEPT SILENT ABOUT THESE SIGNS, WE SEE NO MORE OUR SIGNS. Before Herod executed John, Jesus said go tell John that the gospel is preached, and the dead are raised. We preach the gospel well enough, but forget all about the sings. No one speaks of raising the dead seriously. How many times throughout history have most of the people been wrong before? You just are not able to learn what you think you already know even if the demonstrable facts point to the contrary you are just going to keep going.

The horse is ideal in battle environments, he's not distracted by all the alarms around him, he just keeps going. Unfortunately we share this dubious distinction with the horse where we

All reason aside, the force of habit or tradition is doing the driving, holding your mind hostage and running through the red lights of God’s will; something more pressing, (like peer pressures in traditional ministry) is competing for your attention rather than the fact of the red light at the moment you ran it. It was there, but you still ran it. It is wrong, but you still ran it. What we do in ministry is done by bringing human efforts to bear, not by the faith of God which produce the works of God that Jesus demonstrated and gave instructions to preach the gospel and have the signs of God’s intervention by mighty works as signs following. We’ve come to somehow accept that such clear and unmistakable directions do not apply to us. It’s not that we don’t understand what is told us to do; we simple deny that God is talking to us when he said whosoever believes in him is to do it. We rationalize in our minds that God may be talking to us,….. but not me, it’s someone else, I’m just not important enough; or it’s simply an inaccurate translation of scripture: that was for people back then, not now. We are too civilized for that kind of old-fashioned life.

IN CHRIST, GOD’S WAYS & THOUGHTS BECOME OURS

THE WAYS OF GOD, AND THE THOUGHTS OF GOD HAVE BEEN PACKAGED TOGETHER AND PRESENTED FOR US TO HAVE AND BE IN CHRIST JESUS.

Where God points out the difference between his and our ways, it isn't to maintain that separation, but to indicate to us the need for us to be united in him and the solution presented in Christ.

God says his ways and his thoughts are different from our ways and our thoughts for the express purpose of pointing out the difference between God and man, while at the same time inviting us to cross over by way of a transformation from our ways and our thoughts to having his ways and his thoughts in Christ. It seems that forever we have seen only one side of that which is; God pinching his nose and telling us to keep our distance from him. Not true; the middle wall of partition has been torn down in Christ’s broken body on the cross. On the cross when Jesus said, “it is finished”, he was declaring that the new model for mankind was now complete and ready for mass market.

We see no more our sings because when the idea of walking on water, or any of Jesus

CONFESSION IS MADE INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD

THINGS THAT PEOPLE SPEAK ABOUT ARE THE THINGS THEY BELIEVE IN

We believe also, and therefore speak.

Jesus promised that if we have his words and keep them, he would come to us, and his Father also would come to us with the Holy Spirit who is already with us. He is the power of God that is to follow our declaration for miracles to happen according as it is written: I have believed and therefore spoken, we also believe and therefore speak. Jesus is the power of God.Isaiah 44:24-28 —I am the LORD that maketh all things; That confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers; (When God’s servant/messenger) …saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited ; and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built , and I (God) will raise up the decayed places thereof: 27 (When God’s servant/messenger) … saith to the deep, Be dry , and I (God) will dry up thy rivers: 28 That saith of Cyrus (as he told we also who believe in him to do all his mighty works), He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built ; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid, (and God does the works as signs following us).

Not that we don’t want to see; we have been looking alright, just looking with a scope that is of limited range; the mind of man. As a man you will never be able to see how to raise the dead; that is in the mind of Christ, and if you can’t see it; that means we haven’t yet appropriated to ourselves that mind of Christ for doing that. We need not be soft on ourselves, or make excuses for ourselves; we need only follow the truth instead of our sticking with our thoughts and our ways. God says my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways. They are both given to us in Christ for us to have as our thoughts and ways that are those of God. The thoughts of God and the ways of God are what is supposed to be new for us in Christ, but if we keep lying to ourselves we will never get there.

We have received the mind of Christ to know the things that are freely given for us to have the ways of God, and to know the thoughts of God. Those things that are in the mind of Christ, are those things that he has told us to do, and to be. When we look however with our eyes, we cannot see those things, and indeed haven’t seen them for almost 2000 years. They are just not possible with us because we have neither cultivated the mind of Christ nor are willing to admit to our failing to do so.

When the disciples saw this new kind of man at work the way God expects us to do his works, they asked themselves …..What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the waves obey him. Well that would be the ‘new man’.

If you are looking with the eyes of man you will look but cannot see the will of God. There are arguably 7 billion people on this planet. That assumes there are likewise as many mothers who gave birth to them, and fathers who gendered them. We all came into this world the same way; but at some point in our journey when the lights turn on in us, we are supposed to experience rebirth. Our first birth is just the raw materials that makes possible the our rebirth into something that has God’s thoughts and God’s ways of doing things for their lives.

The Kingdom of God comes from within us with signs following...we don't follow signs, they are to follow us. We are told to prepare that way of way of The Lord. What we believe in our hearts and speak with our mouths is the way that Jesus is manifested for our salvation and deliverances.

WE MAY HAVE BEEN BORN INTO A CULTURE OF BLINDNESS, BUT THAT DOESN’T HAVE TO REMAIN OUR HERITAGE

FORM OF GODLINESS DENYING THE POWER OF GOD

WESTERN CHRISTIANITY REDUCED TO A MERE FORM OF GODLINESS

Non-Christians can do development work, be competent counselors, and run successful service programs. If we claim to have the very Spirit of God within us, shouldn’t we be able to offer something distinct from altruistic atheists?

By denying the power of God in ministry Christianity is reduced to altruistic atheism

The following is an excerpt taken from a post called “The Denial of the Spiritual Realm in Western Christianity” I strongly urge you visit and read the entire presentation. The author outlines with rare brilliance and inspiring clarity the systemic undermining of the Christian faith by denying the intervention of the Spiritual realm.

Martin Luther said we are not only responsible for what we say, but for what we fail to say. For about 2000 years not the church has failed to insist on a ministry modeled after Jesus’ example in power. If people speak about what they believe, then our silence on these things speak volumes about our unbelief. Leaders deny it and omit it from their offerings of services to a needy world.

The Denial of the Spiritual Realm in Western Christianity

“Western Christians cannot help but be impacted by the culture around us. We have gone along with our culture’s dismissal of the supernatural realm out of the fear that we will offend other people, lose a seat at the table of public discourse or be written off as weird. We often read the Bible as if every passage dealing with demons, angels or supernatural healings has been blotted out. Blinded in this manner, we try to follow Jesus, help others and solve the world’s problems with only a partial picture of reality. Churches ignore, explain away or outright deny the spiritual realm beyond the Incarnation, the Resurrection and the mechanics of salvation. Miracles, angelic visitations and demons, if accepted at all, are reserved for the gullible, the “crazy” Charismatic or Pentecostal types, or missionaries serving in the deepest darkest parts of Some-Other-Country. Unable to heal the sick or deal with demons, we have often chosen to develop theology to explain away or justify our impotence instead of dealing with it.

As a result, many Western Churches that have chosen to deny the spiritual realm beyond salvation, and as a result have devolved into a powerless civil religion that can only give people hope after they die. Most of what is offered at many Western churches, across denominational lines and including the most progressive Emerging/Emergent churches, can be accomplished by human effort and willpower alone. We cannot offer the wider world, a world reeling from personal, systemic and global evils, anything that they cannot get elsewhere. Honestly, sometimes I feel we may as well just be the Boy Scouts or Rotary Club. Do we honestly believe that Jesus’ Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection and Glorification and our Baptism with the Holy Spirit all happened so that we could be one of many organizations that help people? To be one more source of morality and ethics?

I was raised in churches thoroughly compromised in this manner. They taught me to affirm some of what the Bible said about the spiritual realm but not all of it. Such a stance leads to an incoherent understanding of the spiritual realm. In that environment, I would have been branded as a heretic if I suggested we did not have to obey Jesus or that the Bible should not be read literally. But had I suggested we should obey Jesus’ commandment to “cleanse the leper, heal the sick, and cast out demons” (Matt 10:8), I would have been told that kind of stuff does not happen today. When I went to my pastors with a prophetic word, it was categorically rejected – even though prophecy is affirmed in countless scriptures (among them, Amos 2:28 and Acts 2:17)”. speakfaithfully.wordpress.com

Currently Christians are at the stage where blacks were when they’d remove their hats and crumple them in their hands as whites pass them by in the streets of South African apartheid society. Christians quiver in fear before death, disease, and the omnipresence of dangers instead of exercising the dominion of Jesus over them.

The same way blindness happened to Israel, blindness has happened to Christians, who cannot sees this, and so cannot resist this blindness. Blindness is both an optical and intellectual experience. Stephen Biko was killed by the apartheid forces in South Africa when he began to tell his black countrymen that they were prisoners of their own minds. He told them there were no laws saying blacks folks have to take off their hats from your heads and crumble them in your hands as white people pass them by in the streets. You do that he said, as a function of your social conditioning under an oppressive inhumane system of human rights violation, and it will never change until you stand up for your our right to be free from apartheid oppression.

It doesn’t get better than being a new creation in Christ Jesus. No one has any special boast on the other; there’s no one-upmanship. What really stinks is that not everyone is going to strive for that mark, and the one who do strive for it gets to stand out like a sore thumb; everyone else asking: what does he think he is anyway….something special?

Matthew 13:44-46—44 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found , he hideth , and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath , and buyeth that field. 45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: 46 Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had , and bought it.

Concerning the kingdom of heaven, that field in which the treasure is hidden; it in us, and it comes from within us, Job writes concerning that field: 9 He (man) putteth forth his hand upon the rock; he overturneth the mountains by the roots. 7 There is a path which no fowl knoweth , and which the vulture’s eye hath not seen : 8 The lion’s whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it.

The fabled golden city of “El Dorado” is what God has hidden in the heart of man; a treasure of great price hidden in earthen vessel. If we at least suspect that it is there, what are we prepared to do to obtain it. God has hidden a treasure within man….The kingdom of God is from within man…Dominon radiates from within him. God says without me you shall bow down to the omnipresence of danger, and the slaughter of all things having dominion over you as you go about with your crumpled hat in hand.

God says if you seek me with all your heart as for hidden treasure, you will find me. Job declares that there is a way hidden in this earth for the sons of God that no vulture’s eyes have seen, nothing unclean have gone there, but the pure in heart.

Men do their due diligence to obtain hidden treasure. They bring the tools of the trade to the quest. The kingdom of God is hidden in us. Just how deep are we prepared to reach down to bring it forth from within us.

At a depth of nearly 2,000 feet the Mirna Diamond Mine is the deepest open-pit diamond mine in the world, it is also one of the deepest open-pit ore mines in the world. It takes up to 1 1/2 — 2 hours for an ore truck to drive the distances from the bottom of the mine to the upper rim. The Mirna mine was opened in 1957, and has ceased operation since its exhaustion. During it’s productive days of operation the mine had an averaged yield of 2 million carats annually.

Prize for the deepest open-pit diamond mine in the world goes to the Mirna Diamond Mine. This is what it looks like when men go looking for treasures of diamonds and precious stones. The trip from the floor of the pit to the rim above takes ore rigs about 2 hours of driving up the great incline.

Job 28:4-14 — 4 The flood breaketh out from the inhabitant; even the waters forgotten of the foot: they are dried up , they are gone away from men. 5 As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire. 6 The stones of it are the place of sapphires: and it hath dust of gold.

The King's Highway flows from the kingdom of God that is within you and I, the new creature in Christ: And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it.

7 There is a path which no fowl knoweth , and which the vulture’s eye hath not seen : 8 The lion’s whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it. 9 He putteth forth his hand upon the rock; he overturneth the mountains by the roots. 10 He cutteth out rivers among the rocks; and his eye seeth every precious thing. 11 He bindeth the floods from overflowing; and the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light. 12 But where shall wisdom be found ? and where is the place of understanding? 13 Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living. 14 The depth saith , It is not in me: and the sea saith , It is not with me.

In light of what is required to bring forth the kingdom of heaven form within us the church is characterized as a sleeping giant. All the effort that is expended to secure the very thing that prevents that kingdom form coming forth; to preserve the peace and secure a risk-averse way of life that is a pale substitute for the kingdom of God.

As a Sleeping giant, our human efforts have brought forth wind, and worked no deliverances in the earth. God didn’t create us a brand new creation just so we could refer back to the old creature what we were for the context out of which we are to act. God is the context out of which our actions derive intelligence as new creatures. We are to do all that God does, according to Jesus; by believing, nothing is impossible with us. He said, you believe in God; believe in him also…as he is so are we, God’s finished workmanship.

MORE THAN JUST A MADE UP MIND; TO RAISE THE DEAD, THE MIND OF CHRIST IS WHAT IS REQUIRED ACTUALLY, BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT JESUS DOES, AND HE NEVER CHANGES BUT IS STILL THE SAME AS HE WAS WITH LAZARUS. THAT IS HIS INTENTION FOR US.

In the groundbreaking movie “The Matrix”, the people seem to enjoy a vibrant idyllic life which is merely an illusion that is meant to keep them in a paralytic stasis their entire life as their life energies are harnessed to fuel a system that depends on them never waking up to the truth that their lives are a lie and they never progress from an embryonic dreamlike stupor.

What is required to raise the dead? Nothing more than what is required to receive something that is given to you. The kingdom of God is taken by violence. When things are given to you; you receive them. It is said that the earlier Christians received their dead loved ones raised for the dead to live with them. There are so many circumstances today that cry for that to happen; but that is the unthinkable according to church leaders. Blind leaders may debate whether it is the will of God for that to happen, but the answer is academic; if it wasn’t the will of God for it to happen, it would not have been given to us. God says; I have given unto you all things: even things that are living, as well as things that are dead. We have power, and access on both sides of the ‘death divide’. You stand up and declare what you desire to have done about what God has given to you.
Currently Christians are at the stage where blacks were at when they’d remove their hats and crumple them in their hands as whites pass them by in the streets of South African’s apartheid society. Christians now wring their hands and quiver in consternation around their dead as though they are powerless. It just doesn’t occur to them that they are otherwise; and it wouldn’t occur in sufficient force of strength and conviction to allow them to exert the necessary violence and endure such discomfort that is required to bring forth the kingdom of God.

TAKEN BY VIOLENT FORCE: SPEAR OF THE NATION

The Kingdom is taken by violence & force of vehement desire.

We may well have the best clothes that money can buy, but we are still naked because we engage in no risk that requires God to cover you. Everything you do can be done by human effort; God need not apply or be seen as our cover.

The Kingdom of God is taken by deliberative vigorous assertion of forceful effort and steeled determination to advance against all manner of contradictions that oppose the things God has prepared for our heritage as a new creation in Christ.

In his famous speech, “I am prepared to die”, Nelson Mandela laid out some of the principles that drove them to assemble the SPEAR OF THE NATION (MK) movement.

“Firstly, we believed that as a result of Government policy, violence by the African people had become inevitable, and that unless responsible leadership was given to canalize and control the feelings of our people, there would be outbreaks of terrorism which would produce an intensity of bitterness and hostility between the various races of this country which is not produced even by war. Secondly, we felt that without violence there would be no way open to the African people to succeed in their struggle against the principle of white supremacy. All lawful modes of expressing opposition to this principle had been closed by legislation, and we were placed in a position in which we had either to accept a permanent state of inferiority, or to defy the Government. We chose to defy the law. We first broke the law in a way which avoided any recourse to violence; when this form was legislated against, and then the Government resorted to a show of force to crush opposition to its policies, only then did we decide to answer violence with violence.”

Western Christianity is a risk-averse culture that has basically signed on to the “American Dream” forgetting that they are engaged in active warfare from which there is no discharge. The comfort we seek does not include putting our lives on the line for the Kingdom of God, so we make ourselves unworthy of that kingdom.The apartheid policy led to friction with neighbouring states that resulted in African casualties during the war numbering about 18600 with over 12452 killed.

The parable of the kingdom of God is like a man who discovers a field in which there is hidden treasures. He then goes and sells ALL THAT HE HAS and then purchases that field. Christians have trouble committing all, with nothing to spare. This divided heart is a sore fly in the ointment of their faith, because all is what is required, and that they cannot give.

According to Douglas MacArthur, in war there is no substitute for victory. It is the very object of war— not prolonged indecision. Christians are engaged in a lifelong warfare from which there is no discharge before death. The key to victory rests in accessing the powers of the spiritual realm in the world to come. This is their Achilles heel of vulnerability, for they are stuck here in analysis paralysis; frozen in a state of indecision, or incremental decision where they creep their way bit by bit into a decision because they are too timid to commit with all their weight behind that decision. They make no bold move till slammed into ill-suited circumstances, they take no risk that require God to cover them, so they remain naked without the signs of God’s covering of the Lord from heaven, though they are well clothed in the finest garments of the day.

In order to inherit the strength of God, he weakens our strength so our strength can then be found in the strength he brings to replace what we thought was strength. In this process he makes no secret about the fact that we are going to be often afflicted, but with each affliction our strength being degraded in that area is to be replaced by his strength; but instead of looking for that strength we seek some kind of human patch and not wait for God to cover us.

VISIT HOME FOR MOST RECENT OF SEVERAL POSTS, FRESHLY PRESSED

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:

THE NEW BRAND of CHRISTIANITY
RELIGIOUS MALPRACTICE
FADED GLORY RETURNS
SOWING THE MEASURE OF GOD
INTELLIGENT FOOL
LIES IN THE FACE OF THE TRUTH
THE FAITH OF GOD
WANTED: Dead But Alive
THE HEAVENS DECLARE
THE PLANS I HAVE FOR YOU
THE POWER OF GOD: Jesus
CONFLAGRATION: Starting To Believe…Transformation cont’d
AGE OF INCREDULITY
GOD’S OFFSPRING: A New Creature
THE GIFT OF GOD: Just Say’N Sow It

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