I love to express what I feel called to say. Writing helps me to open up my heart and do that. I hope that what I write helps you in some way. I hope it makes you think, encourages you, or inspires you. If it challenges you or if you disagree, I hope you know that I respect your right to have a different point of view.
Every Christian is a Christ-called missionary sent to be a bright light who demonstrates the presence of Jesus to the world.To truly accept Christ is to embrace His calling to be His minister and missionary to those around you.
Churches are full of people who are Christ-called to be His missionaries but have been trained to ignore God’s Spirit. Let’s face it! As a Christian, you’re a Christ-called missionary, not just a passive sermon-hearer! It’s time to get out of religiosity and get going for Jesus!
Contemporary culture conspires to freeze your heart and make it as hard as ice. Let the warmth of the living Jesus melt the hardness in your heart until you overflow with inner rivers of living water. Train your heart to listen to and obey God’s Spirit, not the voice of temptation.
Instead of letting darkness distract, entangle, and deceive us we need to focus on setting hurt people free.Train your ears to hear the sound of the Spirit, moving like the wind within your heart and directing you with gentle nudges.
If you converse With tempting thoughts They will immerse And coerce You with Rebellious desires. Instead rebuke Resist and refute Until you boot Them out.
If you don’t learn To resist And refute The lies of temptation, They’ll lead you to live Like a brute.
Son of God have mercy on me. My identity Is Christ in me, Not what I feel Or what I want, Or what I see, But daily Letting Jesus Direct me From within, And living By His mercy.
“Christ in you,” the inner Jesus, is infinitely more than a church service or a sermon or a Christian concert. He’s the Creator of the Universe, waiting for you to lay down your ego and quit blocking His way, so that He can release the ongoing flow His glory within you, though you, and around you.
Secondhand Christianity creates religious spectators. Firsthand faith produces Spirit-led Christ-followers.God’s more concerned with what you do the remaining 167 hours per week than with what you do for one hour on Sunday morning.
Hand-me-down Christianity is never as powerful as firsthand interaction with Jesus. Sermon-hearing and church programs are forms of hand-me-down Christianity that don’t require any actual interaction with Jesus. Toss out your religious hand-me-downs and begin to seek God and read the Bible for yourself! Be taught and led by the Spirit.
Secondhand Christianity is taught from mind to mind. Firsthand faith is more caught by the heart than taught by the brain.Religious hand-me-downs often entrap us in casual Christianity and prevent us from having frequent firsthand experiences with Jesus.
Hand-me-down Christianity is propagated by religious institutions. Firsthand faith is birthed in a human heart by God’s Spirit. Secondhand religion is a sedative. Firsthand faith stirs up the fire of God. Religious hand-me-downs may be comfortable but many of them block God’s light from our heart.
What a preacher tells you is hand-me-down Christianity. What the living Jesus tells you is first-hand faith!Jesus says this about religious hand-me-downs. “You nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.”
Jesus wants to give you a living relationship with Him, not second-hand religion! Let Jesus make you a new creature in Christ, not a religious hand-me-down.
Beliefs about God are frequently religious hand-me-downs rather than resounding revelation. Which are your beliefs?If you’ve accepted all the religious beliefs you were taught by a church without questioning them and seeking God yourself, you have religious hand-me-downs.
How I lost my hand-me-down religion: I experienced a most unusual “if” thought once while sitting through a sermon as a teenager: “If you were born a Hindu what would you be today?” After pondering it I realized that I would have been a Hindu. Another thought rapidly followed: “Why do you think you’re a Christian?” In a flash I realized that my Christian beliefs were just hand-me-down cultural religion that I had blindly accepted. That revelation made me hungry for reality, so I asked God to show me the truth. About two years later I had a personal encounter with the risen Jesus that filled me with unrelenting passion to follow and obey Him.
The Jesus revolution is the daily fight to “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Colossians 3:2. Every believer who has been inwardly changed by Christ still lives in this physical world that is under the influence of invisible demonic principalities and powers. The Bible calls the devil “the god of this age.” 2 Corinthians 4:4. The Jesus revolution is the call to shift your obedience from the god, demons, and desires of this age to the living Jesus and the invisible kingdom of God.
The Jesus revolution is to engage in ongoing spiritual warfare in order to bring your every thought, imagination, and mental stronghold into full alignment with the living Jesus. The Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to fight the devil. When you’re enduring life’s wilderness, let the Spirit lead you to the Scriptures that you can use to resist and refute the invisible devil and his demons that are trying to discourage, defeat, and destroy you.
The Jesus revolution isn’t a religious institution. Continually spoon-feeding Christians with religious talks makes the more dependent on church attendance than on the risen Jesus.
The Jesus revolution is a lifetime battle to resist and overcome the invisible demonic desires that tempt and torment you and to unconditionally surrender to and obey the risen Jesus throughout each day. “Fight the good fight of faith.”
The Jesus revolution isn’t a religious band-aid or a superficial solution to life’s problems. It’s the risen Jesus working in and through ordinary people who are continually filled with and consumed by His presence and power. The Jesus revolution revives and empowers Christ-followers to consistently resist, refute, and repel the demonic thoughts, feelings, and desires that try to capture and control their mind and heart.
Never make choices To listen to or obey Demonic voices; Resist them And drive them out Of your mind and heart!
Demonic words Coerce and torment, Like birds Of prey. When they fly Into your mind Never let them stay. Always drive them away.
Demonic thoughts are dangerous. As long as I can remember I’ve had voices come to my mind that try to torment and coerce me. Even as a small child I realized that those voices weren’t mine and I gradually learned to continually resist them and to allow them no uncontested space in my mind. As I got older, I read self-help books to learn techniques to protect my mind from those voices. When at age 19 I encountered and began to follow the risen Jesus I started to devour the Bible and I learned many Spirit-empowered ways to protect my mind from demonic thoughts. Later, I found the Philokalia, a 5-volume collection of the writings of ancient Orthodox monks, and I was amazed to learn that the closer they got to Jesus, the more they had to fight and resist demons. Through the years, their writings and the writings of other Orthodox monks have helped me greatly in my walk with the living Jesus and in my fight to refute and drive out the voices of demons both in myself and in others.
Demonic voices want to identify you by your tormenting feelings and your compulsive desires. Don’t let them!
Biblical Christianity is a spiritual revolution, not an institution. The risen Jesus (not church attendance) is the foundation of true Christianity and a Spirit-led life. Continually surrender to Him! The Jesus Solution to self-focus is “Deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow Me.”
The invisible teacher (the risen Jesus) will speak clearly in the heart of the people who truly want to hear Him. Do you? When you’re being taught by God’s Spirit speaking within you, the words of the Bible will come alive in your heart. Just because you can’t see Jesus doesn’t mean He can’t teach you!
Trying to learn the Bible without daily doing what it says, is like trying to learn to play baseball while never picking up a glove, ball, or bat. Openly and humbly interacting heart-to-heart with other passionate Christ-followers while embracing the risen Jesus and staying aligned with the Bible will keep His fire ever burning in your heart.
Recipe for spiritual doldrums: 1) Hear a religious talk, 2) Walk away and forget it, 3) Come back each week and do it again.
Recipe for spiritual awakening: 1) Daily listen to Jesus in your heart, 2) Verify what you hear with the Bible, 3) Say and do what He tells you to.
Even after decades of sermon-hearing and 3 years of seminary, I’ve learned very little through religious lectures. Oh, I’ve obtained some dry theological information that way, but little of it has inspired me. I was taught the knowledge that keeps my heart ablaze with passion for Jesus by God’s Spirit speaking in my heart and making me hungry to continually devour the Bible, to bask in His presence, and to align my thoughts and behaviors to His will.
Christians can gather without organizing into a religious institution and instead let God’s Spirit lead and empower us. Will we?I don’t think the living Jesus likes being structured, systematized, and nationalized by religious organizations.Intuitional Christianity where Jesus speaks directly to human hearts is often abandoned for institutional Christianity that inserts a pastor between Christ and His people.
Jesus never said, “Wherever a big crowd of people is gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.” He said, “two or three.” It’s much more difficult to get a crowd of people to be led by God’s Spirit than it is to get two or three (or a few) to hear and obey the Spirit together.
A problem with man-led religious structures is that the person at the top who claims to hold others accountable, has no individual in the organization who is allowed to effectively challenge him and hold him accountable. When he’s out of alignment with God, the whole group feels coerced to follow.
2,000 years later we can still follow Jesus. He remains alive and continues to lead those who are willing to listen to and obey Him.The new wine of revival will quickly spill and lose its thrill if it’s pulled into and tamed by religious institutions.
Revival happens in individual hearts. It’s not confined to a particular place or building. “Stir up the gift that is in you!” Be dependent on the living Jesus, not on a church or preacher!
The profound simplicity of New Testament ekklesia: Gather with one or more Christ-followers and listen to Jesus together. Then let each person say and do what Jesus tells them to.
Revival happens when Jesus is allowed to take control. Search: Beyond Church Ekklesia.
God disrupted the apostles’ (sent ones) early efforts to institutionalize the body of Christ. After Pentecost there were thousands of new Christians. Jesus wanted them to go into all the world, but they stayed in Jerusalem as the apostles (sent ones) began to organize and direct the Christian movement as if it were a local megachurch. A man they had appointed to “wait tables” (Stephen) did more than they had authorized for him to do and was killed for openly proclaiming Jesus. Great persecution broke out and all the believers were scattered everywhere preaching the Good News about Jesus, except the apostles (sent ones). Their attempt at putting the move of the Spirit into religious wineskins left them empty handed. Surely there’s a lesson there for us contemporary Christians.
Many Christians Have been taught By religious talks But haven’t let Themselves be brought By God’s Spirit To stay at the foot Of the Cross.
Let the heartache Of human heartbreak Cause you to Hunger and thirst For more of Jesus.
Here’s a truth that our society is ignoring today: You can’t truly define who you are by the desires and appetites that torment, tightly control, and sometimes triumph over you. You’re much more than the things that you crave. You are a human being created in the image of God and you have been granted free will.
Let churches be filled with Jesus-thrilled people! Instead of stuffing God’s Spirit, let’s do Spirit-led stuff! If Jesus is the Head of a church, let Him literally run it! If not, quit pretending that He is!
To be ever enthralled by the living Jesus is to experience perpetual peace, joy, and love. If you ever think you have enough of Jesus in your life, you don’t! He always has more of His presence and power to give you. The more I follow Jesus the more I want more of His presence and power in my life.
Here’s Jesus! He’s everywhere and always the same. The emptiness you feel is hunger for a closer relationship with Him.
Heart-connection with the risen Jesus can’t be staged from a church pulpit or platform. A humanly choreographed program can inform people about Jesus, but it’s a poor substitute for actual demonstrations of His presence. Biblical Christianity is an ongoing intimate personal relationship with the risen Jesus, not a study or a lecture about Him.
Most every church has a few people who are intently aware of Jesus’ presence, but they’re usually kept off of the Sunday program. Perhaps the people who are most aware of and yielded to the presence of Jesus are the ones who need to speak in churches; not the ones who have studied the most theology.
Preachers, if you ask, “Who this morning is excited about Jesus?” and then say, “Please come to the mic ad tell us why,” God will show up!Stubbornly sticking with one-man control of a church service drastically limits what the living Jesus is allowed to do.
If the person in the pulpit isn’t visibly thrilled about Jesus, the congregation won’t be either.I’ve never seen anything in the Bible to convince me that a person in a pulpit should control a Christian gathering.
The desperate times today call for a Christianity that’s led by the living Jesus. Human-led churches aren’t up to the task! For example: the false, modern definition of healthy sexuality is: “Anything anybody wants to do with anybody they can manipulate to do it with them.”
Enthralled! Jesus facinates me, Holds all my attention And keeps me Immersed in His presence. My heart is Tangled up With Him And ever awed By my awareness Of His reality.
Come hear Jesus, Here, there, and Everywhere. Keep your ear In gear To clearly hear And obey The here Jesus.
Demonstrations of Jesus’ love are far more effective than sermons about it. People in alcohol and drug recovery learn to “Let go and let God.” Why don’t pastors let go and let Jesus peddle?
Revival happens when Jesus takes control of Christian gatherings. When people take it back, revival fades away. Too many pastors hold on and block God! It’s time to let go and let God.
When church meets like a chain of command under the control of a human leader there’s no room for the living Jesus to take charge. When Christians gather to worship like a bicycle wheel with each spoke (person) directly connected to the risen Jesus, He steers them into His presence and glory and God’s Spirit rolls on!
Churches are so addicted to human control that they almost never give Christ-control a chance. God’s Spirit is too often pushed away by human organization and religious control. Church seems to me to be like people playing “keep away” — keeping control of the meeting away from the risen Jesus. When someone other than the living Jesus has control of a church, the people will miss out on the glory of seeing Christ personally lead His body.
Church needs to be about releasing daily doers of the word, not about holding on to Sunday hearers.It’s time for sermon-hearing church attendees to become Jesus-obeying Christ-followers.Make the shift today!
Every true Christian has a direct relationship with the risen Jesus that no one should ever come between!No one has a right to control a meeting that’s been dedicated to Christ. Let’s take our hands off and let Jesus take charge.Any Christian leader who uses manipulation or coercion has stepped out of the will of God.
Pastors need to train and release people to go and freely follow the living Jesus, not hold on to and control them.Here’s great sermon idea!Read the Bible verses about the boy Samuel hearing God’s voice. Then have the congregation listen to God and share what He tells them.
Jesus calls us to submit to His authority and to turn away from the domination of our own desires. Every Christian can graduate from being a spectator and begin to experience the book of Acts stuff every day. Search: The Joy of Early Christianity book. Here’s an example:
I was a counselor and chaplain in an alcohol and drug rehab for 5 1/2 years. Men would tell me stories about the evil that they had done, and I would be shocked and appalled at the things I heard. Then I would be equally shocked by the kindness, mercy, and compassion that rose up in me and flowed out as I prayed for them and often wept with them. Afterwards, those same men treated me with such respect and kindness that I was in awe at how God changed their attitude.
Let Jesus lift Your heart on high Like a balloon Rising in the sky. You don’t have to try Or work hard to fly. Just nurture the gift Of Christ in you.
Standing, sitting, walking, or knelling, prayer for revival needs to be from the heart! Here’s my revival prayer:
Send me, Jesus! I don’t want to continually sit and be satisfied with Sunday sermons about You. I want to hear, to follow, and to obey You every day and be a light that helps make everyone I meet aware of the reality of Your presence and love.
Revival is the wake-up sound of God sending . . . Too many Christians Are content To conform To the culture Around them Without a hint That God’s intent Is that we’re all sent To show and tell People how To repent And be Set free By the Risen Jesus. Go into the world And make disciples.
When I first wake up in the morning, I sense Jesus’ voice while I’m still in bed. As I listen, His words focus me on what He wants to say and do throughout the day.
Hearing what the Spirit is saying, noticing His promptings within you, is the first step to being Spirit-led.If people were trained to daily hear what the Spirit is saying and verify it with the Bible, they would no longer be dependent on sermon-hearing.
The resurrected Jesus repeatedly told His followers to hear what the Spirit is saying to them when they gather as His body. It’s time to meet to hear and obey His inner promptings and then be sent by Jesus to change the world with His love. Jesus wants to send all His followers into the world to make disciples, not to have them forever sit and hear sermons about Christianity 101.
Be aware. Notice people’s pain. Dare to care And to share Some kindness Everywhere.
Christians are meant To be sent To spread good news, Not to stay In a church And waste away.
See a Jesus Revelation on the screen of your heart and you’ll never be the same. Revival needs new wineskins: Search: The Joy of Early Christianity book.
I meet with God here, there, and everywhere. Throughout the day I seek to stay in His presence and obey the inner promptings of the Spirit. I want to let the risen Jesus be my interior decorator and continually rearrange my heart to be like His.
If you will quit running and let Jesus get a firm hold on your heart, you’ll finally find your happy place! When your interior is morally inferior to your exterior, it’s time to listen to your conscience, confess what you’re hiding, and humbly repent.
Where the battles inside of us are being won, spiritual warfare is victorious because inner violence is driving out deceptive desires, feelings, and demons! First, we need to let the living Jesus help us defeat our inner enemies and establish His absolute Lordship and reign within us and among us. Then wherever we go we’ll be contagious carriers of His victory and His presence, and we’ll spread and revive His kingdom authority everywhere.
Many Christians have ears to hear the Spirit, but we have been trained to listen to a weekly sermon together instead of hearing and obeying God’s inner promptings as the body of Christ. As Christ-followers we need to frequently gather to hear the Spirit and to act on His inner promptings together. “Where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” Where the King rules, there is His kingdom! Let His reign be demonstrated through our ongoing surrender and obedience everywhere we go.
In the inner wilderness where we are alone in our own heart without outward distractions, the devil sends his thoughts to tempt and torment us. It is there, deep within us, that we can learn spiritual warfare: to resist the demons, to cast them out and to make them flee. It is also in our inner wilderness that angels come to minister to us, and we can learn to recognize and obey the voice of our Shepherd leading us to life, spiritual authority, and unspeakable joy. To avoid the inner wilderness is to avoid spiritual growth. “Be still and know that I am God.”
A church service should make it easier for Christians to be led by the Spirit, not control them and make it more difficult. Revival introduces us to heart proximity to the risen Jesus and the people who passionately love Him.
Free Gas for Your Think Tank -- Short Reflections, Lasting Encouragement 