Mark 5:28 (ESV)

I found myself deeply concerned this week about an incident that occurred between me and certain individuals that I do business with.  I felt that I had let my guard down and afforded the individuals the opportunity to gain an upper hand.  If you are like me, you are typically hard on yourself and your own worst critic.  Here I was, concerned and almost beginning to lose confidence in myself.  Yes, I know, my challenges may differ from yours but the truth is that at some stage, we all feel inadequate and unable to prevail in particular circumstances.

What is noteworthy is the fact that we can always study or even talk about the LORD Jesus, His doctrine and principles without getting to effectively apply the proceeds to our lives.  This is why we have such a sharp contrast between what believers say and do in our society today.  Many implicitly believe participation in worship services equals being good Christians.  This is not so. What we believe must also be worked out in our lives.  Whatever we cannot leverage does not really matter.

I too had to practice what I was preaching.  I was teaching about covenant but realized that I myself was not in covenant position.

So what is “Covenant Position”, you ask?  Well, this is a place where you and I get to remain (Stand) In Him as He also remains in us.   In that place, nothing matters but God.  Anyone seeking to reach us will have to first go through God!  By default, our enemies also become enemies of God.  Well, I was exposed to the subject of “covenant position” in the past but now had to go deeper and rebuild my comprehension and ability to execute from the bottom-up.  So let us gain some understanding:

Covenant

Covenant is an oath-bound promise whereby one party solemnly pledges to bless or serve another party in some specified way.  This oath bound promise involves mutual obligations with a commitment to responsibility and action.

We can safely say that the foundation for our Christian faith is based on covenant. Unfortunately, we have lost the real meaning of covenant in the West.

A covenant can either be established between people or between people and God. You can either have two people that love each other like a husband and wife, Ruth and Naomi or David and Jonathan.  One can also have covenant between two people groups.  The other dimension is covenant between people and God.

Here are some key characteristics of Covenant:

Not bounded by time.
Unlike a contract, a covenant is not bounded by time. A covenant typically lasts from generation to generation.  A covenant is in force as long as all parties are alive.

This is why a marriage between a man and a woman is really a covenant and not a contract.

Sadly, many people today say their marriage vows only to divorce shortly afterwards.  As a matter of fact, the institution of marriage has come under severe enemy attack lately and we all have to rise up and fight to preserve it.

Malachi 2:14 (ESV)
14 But you say, “Why does he not?” Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.

Covenant involves life
A covenant is in force until one or both of the parties involved become unable to fulfill their part of the covenant.  This is typically because of death.  The initiation of covenant involves some form of life to indicate: “till death do us part”.

Covenant is complete trust!
When Jonathan made a covenant with David, he gave David his weapons, shields and belt and joined his soul to David’s in complete trust!  1 Sam 18.  Ruth clung to her mother in law, Naomi in absolute trust and abandon saying: “Where you go I go; where you stay I stay only death will separate us” Ruth 1:16

Covenant is complete sharing
Covenant produces common union where all the parties involved become one!   A married couple become one!  Gen 2:24. The early church shared all things together: food, clothing, and other possessions.  Those who lacked had their needs met.  They had complete unity – Koinonia.  Acts 2:42-46.  Parties in covenant have common friends and common enemies.  Everything is shared!  This is why God forbids us to yoke with those of darkness.  Friendship with the world is enmity with God.  Israel was warned not to covenant with other nations.  That included inter-marriage.  Marriage is covenant and sex is the consummation – the act of covenant.

A vow or oath initiates the covenant.  The corresponding act is what brings implementation or fulfillment. This is why illicit sex (outside marriage) is so sinful.  Sex is an act of covenant.

Covenant is the basis for moving forward in the early church!

The stronger the covenant the greater the negotiations – with families binding through generations

The Exchange
Jonathan and David exchanged and gained common strength, favor, and authority.

When God covenants with us, He gives us His name, authority and might in exchange for our very souls.

He gave Abram a new name – Abraham and He became the God of Abraham!  When we give Him our old lives (condemned to death), He gives us His life which is eternal!

Christ came to cut covenant on our behalf!  He paid the penalties for separating from the Old Covenant and initiated a new covenant through His same death.  He became the propitiator (mercy  seat), then broker (mediator) through which the Father God now sees us:  redeemed and righteous!

When we position ourselves in Christ, we also gain Covenant Position.  This is a worry free place in the presence of God, where righteousness, peace and joy prevails.  So why should I worry? Why should I be afraid?  If God is for me, who can be against me?

It is God’s covenant with us that allows Him to fight for us. Just as He fought for Judah against Ammon, Mt. Seir and Moab in the valley of Jehoshaphat 2 Chr. 20.  So whatever you are facing today, please see that the battle is not yours but the LORD’s!

God will ALWAYS fight for you as long as you remain in covenant in Him.  Time to stop willful sinning!  Why be like a senseless mule that has to be forced everywhere? Psalm 32:9

Get into covenant position!

Really give Him your life and stop trying to manage on our own and then blaming others for the consequences.

You cannot keep trying to claim the benefits of the covenant with God if you fail to fulfill your obligations.  You know God WILL ALWAYS fulfill His side.  What about you?

Give up your weapons – lose the weapon
Give up your anger, self defense mechanisms, woundedness,

Give up your Identity
Give up your mission for His mission

Remember all the people that walked uprightly in God were in Covenant Position.

Say a prayer right now!

We will discuss mechanisms around the cutting of covenant next time and also more techniques for maintaining Covenant Position.

God Bless!

“And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while and in time of testing fall away”. Luke 8:13

No doubt, so many believers are now filled with promises and prophetic words

for 2012.  “This is definitely going to be much better than the last year”, we typically say.  With varying degrees of optimism, we set on our way starting to expect good changes to occur in our lives.  The seed of the word has been sown with hopefully a corresponding harvest that will manifest all the good things we expect.

This year, the LORD drew me closer through my time with Him and fellowship meetings with other believers that we need a deeper dimension of diligence in our approach to His teachings and transition away from shallow expectations that lead to disillusionment, which ends up hurting our faith and trust in Him.

In the parable of the sower and meaning (Luke 8:4-21), the LORD exhorts us to realize that we can only indeed inherit His promises through faith and patient continuance.  This realization results in a corresponding action which gives life to our faithful disposition.  The corresponding action is the act of doing (obeying and taking heed to) His word.  The parable of the sower focuses on the seed, which is the word of God and the soil, which is the human heart.

We have four patterns showing the state of the heart after the word is released by the Holy Spirit.

Pattern 1: The word falls on deaf ears.  The enemy (Satan and evil forces) steals the word before any type of faith can develop.

-          This is very prevalent in cases where there is a stronghold against the would-be recipient.  Things like fear, pain, wounds, disappointments, intellectualism with wrong philosophies make this a clear miss.  The word is simply not received!  In fact, it many cases, it is trampled upon!

Pattern 2: The word is heard and gladly received with joy! On the surface, this looks like success.  There is some outward evidence as the seed of the word produces some growth.  Sadly, the growth ends abruptly as it becomes evident that all the growth was above the surface, without any supporting root structure.

-          The seed of the word could only germinate on the surface as the ground underneath (heart) was not ploughed, was hard and lacked moisture.

-          Many of the teachings today that do not provoke a prerequisite brokenness and repentance from sin, facilitate this pattern.  All it takes is some testing, and what is really lacking underneath is unveiled.  This happens at all levels in the church; including to the minister, who appears to shine for a while and fizzles away, the next.   The truth is that we must allow the word to penetrate deeply into our hearts and then allow upward growth to also occur.

Pattern 3: The word is planted into a wild garden – with thorns and thistles.  This is almost like planting wheat in the midst of tares.  The tares may seem complementary at first but will overwhelm the wheat as time progresses.

-          It seems we live in a continent (North America) that is like an environment filled with thorns and thistles ready to choke any true and sustained growth leading to the harvest.  There are so many cares, pleasures and riches – Just enough to distract and get even the best of us off-track!   This pattern also showed up during the time of the Apostle Paul.  Remember Demas, who loved the world so much and backslid. 2 Tim. 4:10? This happens over and over today.  Many people are so comfortable that they only show up in church to sooth their consciences every now and again.  They participate in some philanthropy and give themselves really good scores for good behavior.  Unfortunately, these also make up the class of individuals that do not know the LORD and have virtually become apostate in ignorance.   

-          In our part of the world, people work endless hours in order to have the finer things in life and fulfill the “American Dream”.  What’s wrong with that?  Nothing, except we could end up gaining the world and losing our souls.  Many have compromised the principles of God for gain.  The righteous have so much aligned with the world that both sides are almost beginning to possess similar characteristics.  Majority simply do not have enough time to worship the LORD with the level of diligence required.

-          Some fruit is produced but the fruit does not ever mature because of all the distractions.

Pattern 4:  The word is received and adhered to by a good, humble sincere heart. A sustained harvest is produced through faith and patient continuance.

-          The state of the heart (good, humble, sincere) with strong adherence (obedience) and endurance (patience) are the keys to the multifold (30, 60, 90) harvest!

-          The first three patterns (anti-patterns really) were lacking in one or more of the components described above.

It is my sincere prayer that we do not do business as usual this year.  The word of the LORD commands us to come out from among the world and be separate. 2 Cor. 6:17.

Bottom line:  Ensure to first perform all the prerequisites needed for receiving the harvest God has for you this year:

1. Have to break the fallow ground of our hearts in repentance! We can no longer practice sin, make excuses and then expect the blessings of the LORD.
2. Have to detach ourselves from the world system by simplifying our lives and ensuring we are no longer distracted from worshiping the LORD with ALL our hearts.
3. Ensure we stay the course, no matter what and believe that He who has promised is faithful.  We must remain obedient and prepared to endure to the end. We will reap if we do not faint (lose heart).

Father, please help me to align with your plans for my life and others whose destinies are connected with mine. I surrender myself to you for deeper consecration and holiness as I prepare for your supernatural release in and around me this year!

with your work of faith, labor of love and enduring hope

It is so refreshing to see that the Word of God is truly alive and active (Heb. 6:12) and always relevant to whatever context we experience as we journey through life! Many times, I find the call and thrust to reach the world for Christ so over whelming and hard. Yes, we are supposed to keep speaking the language of faith – In God. But in all honesty it sometimes feels as if there is way too much missing for us to obtain proper traction especially in this part of the world – the US.

Just recently, I was looking through the first letter of Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians and my face lit up as hope began to flood my heart again! The very young church in Thessalonica, Macedonia was greatly commended for their work of faith, labor of love and steadfastness of hope! They took the word of God to heart so much that they became imitators of the missionaries (Paul, Silas and Timothy) and began to spread the gospel through all of Macedonia (Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea..) , Achaia and all over! 1 Thess. 1:2-8

I then began to wonder what made this church of relatively new believers so effective so quickly. The missionaries were no longer needed for spreading the gospel. All the church needed was to be undergirded and encouraged as they went forth!

Well, here are really important things I found. I truly now believe that if we all adhered to these things that we too will begin to see the saving gospel of Christ effectively propagate through our live, our families, communities, cities and nations. Here they are:

1. The Word of the gospel of Christ was preached – Not fables, or doctrines of man but the living word of God!
2. The gospel was proclaimed with power! 1 Cor. 4:20, Rom 1:16, 1 Cor. 2:1-4
3. The gospel was proclaimed in the presence of the Holy Spirit. Darkness can only be dispelled in the presence of God! Gen. 1:2-3, 2 Cor.3:17
4. The gospel was proclaimed with conviction! Truth faith was released as the word came forth. Rom 10:17
5. The gospel was received with Joy despite the afflictions and difficulties. They dealt with sorrow from the death of loved ones, Greek opposition and false teachings and also saw the challenges the missionaries faced. James 1:2-4
6. The gospel was manifested in the lives of those proclaiming the gospel. There was proof of the gospel in the lives of the people. 1 Thess 1:5
7. The gospel was contagious and there was replication as people became imitators of those manifesting the effects of the gospel. They were examples to believers everywhere. 1 Thess 1:6-8

How much of an example am I? How much of an example are you?

We do need to first personally align ourselves to what we have seen in the young Macedonia church and quit the things that hinder the propagation of the gospel of Christ.

There is no other way mankind can be saved without really coming to the saving liberation of the knowledge of truth – that Christ (Son of God) died for our sin(s) so that we can join with Him in his death – through faith and also live with Him eternally through His resurrection from the dead.

Spread the Word!

No more fear – No more defeat cycles!

One question I have is: why is it so difficult to make the necessary adjustments required to help us improve in life? We spend some time hearing the word of the LORD, promises are made and we almost feel better only to realize that the very things we are trying to shake-off are still there. After going through a number of gyrations, we become conditioned and settle in our minds that perhaps this is our lot in life. We lose faith when we stop expecting divine change. There is no middle ground! The absence of faith is fear! Sure, you can see this is what immobilizes us. Imagine why people endure domestic violence when they have safer alternatives. Unfortunately, for so many, all hope seems lost!

Well, I want to say that GOD is asking us to NOT be fearful! GOD has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind. Barbara Kingsolver once said: “The changes we dread most may contain our salvation.” We must see that God has placed the potential for freedom and lasting victory within us!

So, let us take some time to open our minds and go back to see what provisions GOD made for us in His word. I pray you begin to see how so enriching and humbling it is to gain comprehension of what GOD has procured for us through His word. I have to mention that it is often so overwhelming and difficult to contain when one receives divine insight concerning GOD’s plan of salvation in Christ as revealed in both Testaments.

Just take a look at how GOD leveraged Israel. His dealings with Israel provided many types and shadows of what was to come. You see, it was crucial for mankind to be disqualified from salvation by his merit (works). The resulting back drop is what helps to shape our minds as we become properly prepared to receive the in-grafted word which through the Holy Spirit yields life in us!

Just imagine how GOD leveraged the difficulties of the Israelites during the time of the Judges to teach us that man cannot self-govern and really needed consistent divine rule.  Can I say that this also applies to us today? The Israelites seemed independent and everyone did what was right in his own eyes which caused Israel to sin and their enemies to oppress them. Today, in many parts of the world, mankind is
again tending towards independence with lack of divine guidance.

In the case of Israel at that time, the predominant act that ended the oppression of the enemy was repentance from sin (mostly idolatry). Just like Israel, we also have the power to break any wrong conditioning and enemy oppression through repentance, mind renewal and the expectancy for GOD to fight for us and prevail. As new covenant believers, we also have the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to transform us and unleash even the impossible through us.

The same GOD who delivered the Israelites (during the reign of Jehoshaphat) from the great horde from Moab, Ammon and Mt. Seir will also deliver you. The word of the LORD is for you to have no fear! God will bring you out of ALL your troubles Repent, cry out to Him and He will deliver you. GOD has given us the power to change. Let’s leverage it. Your best years are ahead of you. Arise and shine for your light has come; the glory of the LORD is risen upon you! Isa. 60:1.

God is well able and willing!