Jesus, I want to thank You for all the ways You continue to bless me, my family, and my friends, even when I don’t feel like I’m being as faithful to You as I am currently capable. Thank You, Jesus, for Your grace and mercy in my life, Lord. I ask that You help me to remember You each and every day. Teach me how to put You first in all that I do. Teach me how to walk throughout my day in prayer. I thank You for our time together already this morning. Thank You, Father! Praise You, Jesus! Bless Your Holy Spirit! Jesus, I ask that You continue to teach me that Heaven is all around, regardless of how I currently feel about the world. Please bless this day, and help our family today. I ask that You lead, guide, and direct us throughout this weekend. Please help us to get more accomplished over this 3-day weekend than we currently believe is possible. Bless this writing, Lord, help me to hear You clearly, to be an empty and willing vessel for You to pour Your Spirit into. All these things I ask in Your, mighty, holy, and precious Name, Jesus! Amen.
Well, it’s been a little while since I’ve shared any of my thoughts to a general audience. I’ve been reading, and reflecting on what I’m reading more. I have an insatiable desire for knowledge, unlike anything I had experienced over 3 years ago. It may look like I am pioneering my way through this life, but the reality of the matter is that I’m coming to Jesus as a little child would, asking Him to teach me. However, the difference is that I’ve had 40 years of programming from the world, from my parents, the education system, the commercial church, etc. I knew all the things I had been taught, and I had to surrender what it was that I thought I knew and ask Him to reprogram me with His teaching. I’ve read recently that it’s okay to see God in your life in ways that may relate better to your experience. I’ve come to call Him the Teacher with no name, and this has released me from the stigma of the god that I placed in a box. I would only take this god I had made out of his box when I thought I needed him. Now I ask the Living God to open my eyes, to open my ears, and for Him to teach me more about Him and to show me how to see the world through His eyes. I read through a devotional on Colossians this morning, and as I was reading through Colossians 1, I began to see another way to see this chapter. I’m not saying that my current understanding is 100% correct, this is just where He’s leading me. Paul mentions “the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.” I began to meditate on this sentence and continue to read “To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” And then it hit me all at once, right or wrong, the Kingdom of Heaven is here. My brain stopped me and said, no, the Kingdom of Heaven is near. What appears to be a minute difference could be everything. If the Kingdom of Heaven is here and I find out I missed it because I was waiting for it, thinking it was near, I would think I would be very disappointed with how I had been living my life, even recently. Sure, I’m sharing my faith with others more than I ever have in my entire life, but can I do more? I’m sure I can, I am capable of so much more than I’m currently aware, but now that I know this it is my job to become more aware of how He wants to use me. I started with a Google search to save time locating the address of “the Kindom of Heaven is at hand,” and found it to be from Matthew 3:2 “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” I don’t believe that everything I had learned before allowing Him to teach me was wrong, just a lot of it. I had learned at some point that the word “repent” means to simply turn around, for one to do a 180-degree flip from the direction he was heading in. Also, somewhere I learned that God likes a repenting heart and that He is always there but when one repents, when they turn around, then they can see that He was there the entire time. This has been my experience. Then I went back to Google to verify the definition of “at hand” and found 1. readily accessible when needed. 2. Close in time; about to happen. The ESV has chosen to leave “at hand” in their version, but others have chosen to use “near.” Again, what if the Kingdom of Heaven is readily accessible when needed? Who needs Heaven? I do, I just didn’t want to go yet, or at least I didn’t think I wanted to because it would require death. What if the death that is required to enter Heaven is not physical at all. Please do not misunderstand my message, there very well could be a Heaven in the afterlife, and I hope there is, but if there is even a small section of Heaven accessible to me right now, I want to go. I believe the really good news or the Gospel, is that Christ is within but I had so many idols in my temple that I couldn’t see Him. I had to empty myself and let Him fill me. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. What does this mean? Well, when I break it down I see that in Heaven it is His will that is done. So if I want to bring a portion of Heaven to earth, what do I need to do? I need to allow His will to be done. How do I know what His will is if I’m not spending time with Him? And therein was my problem, I’m not spending enough time with Him. What is enough? I can spend time with God? And I want to put a limit on the time I can spend with the Living God? He gives me full access to His Kingdom and I say okay, that is enough for today, thank You. And sometimes that is how my relationship with the Living God has been, a relationship on my terms, not His. He is so gracious and merciful that even when it is a relationship on my terms because I now have a relationship with my Father, He shows me good and wonderful things all around me. I can only imagine how much love I will be able to receive when I fully surrender my life to Him. I say I’m surrendered, and I have surrendered a lot, but it has been a process of giving Him control over one area of my life and watching what He does with whatever it is I give Him before I am willing to let go of the next thing in my life. Perhaps, I claim that I want to grow faster in my knowledge for Him, but at the same time, I like to watch one thing change before giving Him control of the next. It has been a walk-a-mile, see-a-mile journey for me. I am learning to trust Him more. The more I think about destroying the kingdom of satan, here on earth, the more I’m beginning to realize that a perspective change is a great start to having the Kingdom of Heaven invade earth. Will you join with me and share the Gospel, the good news, that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand? -A humble warrior in God’s army
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” -Matthew 3:2 ESV
“Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give me this day my daily bread and forgive me of my sins as I forgive those who sin against me. Lead me not into temptation, and deliver me from the evil one. For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen.” -The Lord’s prayer
Destroying the kingdom of satan with the Holy Spirit 