The Little Things

'A Glass of Water' by Mr.Beaver (flickr)'

I read an e-mail recently about "annoying" things that happens to us. We face them all the time. But maybe, just maybe, we're there for a specific purpose or reason. Here's how the e-mail goes, hope you're encouraged and blessed.

As you might remember, the head of a company survived 9/11
Because his son started kindergarten.

Another fellow was alive because it was

His turn to bring the donuts.

One woman was late because her

Alarm clock didn't go off in time.

One of them

Misses his bus.

One spilled food on her clothes and had to take

Time to change.

One's

Car wouldn't start.

One couldn't

Get a taxi.

The one that amazed me was the man

Who put on a new pair of shoes that morning,

Took the various means to get to work

But before he got there, he developed

A blister on his foot.

He stopped at a drugstore to buy a Band-Aid.

That's why he is alive today...

Now when we're

Stuck in traffic,

Miss an elevator

Turn back to answer a ringing phone call...

All the little things that annoy me.

I think to myself,

This is exactly where

God wants me to be

At this very moment...

Next time your morning seems to be going wrong,

The children are slow getting dressed,

You can't seem to find the car keys,

You hit every traffic light,

Don't get mad or frustrated;

It may be just that

God is at work watching over you.

I know some of you reading this might get it the wrong way. If you think that every problem that happens to you is from God, dude, God is not giving problems to you, you're just in a stroke of bad luck. So raise up and resist the devil and he will flee (run in terror) from you [James 4:7].

'WORDS OF FAITH'

So be subject to God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him], and he will flee from you. (James 4:7 Amplified Bible)

Digesting Jesus

When Jesus said we must eat His flesh and drink his blood, he wasn’t talking about cannibalism, but he was referring to ingestion that leads to incarnation. Christ was the Word that became flesh. It is important that we ingest the Word of God in a way that causes us to digest His life until Christ is literally formed in us. Ingestion without digestion will lead to feeling full but not being transformed. Digestion is more than just a taste test, it is the full meal of His presence that conforms us to His image. There is an old saying that is true in this case, “You are what you eat!”

Many people ingest the Bible but they don’t digest the living, active Word of God. Religion fills their souls but never satisfies their longing for real life. Digestion requires assimilation, not just consumption. Truth was never meant to just be recounted, it was intended to be experienced. When we exchange the communion meal for a dinner commentary or a cookbook, we deprive ourselves of the privilege of abundant life, and relegate ourselves to a meager existence in the Kingdom.

Jesus never intended for us to be full of religion, but He desired us to be filled with His Spirit. Christ is the ultimate happy meal, and as we digest Him, we become one flesh with him. That is why Jesus prayed that,

“We may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me…The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me."

Christ is not talking about His disciples getting along with each other here. He was describing the unity between the babe and the Bridegroom, where the intimacy of intercourse assimilates us into one flesh. When we come to the communion table and eat the flesh of our King, we become an inseparable unity that causes the world to experience His presence every time they encounter us. In other words, when they see us, they have seen the Father.

We are Christ to the world. I don’t mean that we just preach Christ to the world. I mean people should experience Christ when they meet us because it is Jesus who is being formed in us. As a matter of fact, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

When people experience us preaching the Word without us becoming the Word, the gospel gets reduced to a mere philosophy-- principles to be argued and words that can be wrangled over. But when the Word becomes flesh and dwells among them, they find themselves pierced to the heart and convicted in the depths of their very souls. It is incumbent upon us as the people of God to preach Christ wherever we go and, only if necessary, use words!

by Kris Vallotton, author of best-selling 'The Supernatural Ways of Royalty'

Attack Of The Clones

poster of movie 'Surrogates'

Religious people, like the Pharisees of old, have the hardest time reaching out to folks who think “outside of the box” and don’t behave inside their hopeless shackles. Part of the struggle comes from what they have done to the Savior of the world. They have sterilized the gospel. Jesus took water and turned it to wine, but 2,000 years later, today’s Pharisees have diluted it to grape juice. Religion has reduced the supernatural power of God to a history lesson about serving the dead body of a helpless Christ who, still nailed to the Cross, is incapable of rocking their sacred boat. They emphasize the drowning of baptism, arguing over how people should get wet and what should be said over them during their dipping. Religious people have lost touch with the fact that the bold print of baptism is not on the descent but on the ascension. The death of Christ paid for our sins, but it was His resurrection that gave life to our mortal bodies. Religion embraces death sadistically and moves the risen Christ out of the garden and back to the tomb. Religious people pray things like “God, kill me,” not realizing that even the One who came to give His life as a ransom for us all prayed, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup (of death) from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42). Jesus did not want to die; He wanted to do His Father’s will. If religion had its way, it would rewrite Mary’s proclamation to read, “He is in the tomb just where we laid Him!” We have lost sight of the fact that the Cross was for the old man not the new man, and that the true Christian life is not about dying for Christ, but living in the life He purchased for us to establish His Kingdom on earth! The Church must shake off the shackles of religion and embrace our supernatural destiny.

by Kris Vallotton, author of best-selling 'The Supernatural Ways of Royalty'

'FUN FACT'

We are not allowed to apologize for something that has been given to us for free.
Anonymous

S.O.S?

picture taken by me on pangkor beach

Hey there readers. The recent few days has been real "shaky" for our planet earth don't you agree? At times we may wonder what's going wrong or why are these things happening. This next post is here to cheer you up and settle your mind. This post isn't only gonna pacify your situation or issue (if you do have one), its gonna set you free and heal your soul totally! Believe it or not, just by reading a simple blog and an O-level graduate student's writing, your life can be changed :)

In the New Testament (a part of the Bible if you didn't know), Jesus and many other writers reminds us time and time again of our identity and purpose for our creation. Here are some verses you can check out - [Romans 6:4, 7:6, 8:16-17, 2 Corinthians 5:17].

We know that all these things said about us are true. After these things we are then faced with our o so real life. This is when we have issues and we are challenged in our faith and what we've been taught or even what we preach and teach. Sadly many fail and interestingly, fail not due to the giant problems but fail because they do not apply stuff that has been learnt and therefore succumb to the issue. We've got to began to change things around. We've got to match up verses that have been said about us with the issues we face. But at times, this is not the case. Many times we know what we're suppose to do but we don't do it. Why?

The reason is this. Fear binds us and makes us blur in our focus on Christ. The devil is here to steal, kill and destroy and he does not do anything else but that. If he blesses you, he'll bless you for the reason to steal it away again. He heals you with a price when actually God gives healing free of charge, no strings attached (hey if you're reading this and think that Jesus will heal you but then you gotta be a committed Christian after that and you can't enjoy life no more, dude you've been taught wrongly). The devil gives you a future, but with the intention to one day not only take you down, but your whole family (which you probably don't even have yet). No matter what the devil does, even the good things that he does and gives you, it will probably be a disguise of his stealing, killing and destroying.

Do not fear because He that is in you is greater than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4). In anything we do, fear is the cause for us to succumb to the devil and hand over our authority, which is actually higher than his, to him. The only way to defeat him is by having peace. I'm talking about the peace that only Jesus gives (eh by the way, when you hear or read the word 'give' right, means its free right? Well just a thought). We see an account in the Bible of Jesus sleeping in the boat while there was a great storm (Matthew 8:23-27). We also see in the account that the disciples panicked and were afraid of dying. The only way to beat the "storm" is having peace. Jesus destroyed 3 things in the process of dying on the cross and resurrecting Himself (wooohh how cool is that heh?). He destroyed sin, death and Satan himself. Thus meaning, He destroyed the fear over sin, the fear of dying and the fear of whatever Satan throws at you. Some of us might be addicted in a certain sin and we fear that we can never get out of that sin. Good news for you, Jesus has destroyed that fear. And the sooner you understand that the sooner you'll get peace from Jesus and the sooner you'll not sin anymore. In other words, you'll be TOTALLY set free!
Some of you might have heard God telling you to preach to a 'samseng' or a thug (same meaning actually) in school or something. But because you fear getting beaten up (fear of dying), you back off. Let me tell you that Jesus has defeated death and not only that but substituted that place of fear of dying with ETERNAL LIFE! You don't even have to fear the punk himself, coz' he's been ripped apart, humiliated, dragged around the whole of heaven and hell naked when Jesus died for us.

So come on people, don't be a slave any longer to that 'little pathetic excuse for an alternative' (the devil), for you are a son of God. And if God has punk'ed the devil, so shall we. He's just a dog that barks loud but I think the more you beat a dog up, he'll bark softer (sorry that I've equated the devil to a dog. To all you dog lovin' people out there, sorry). Time to go, divide and conquer.

So what say you? Slave? or Son!?

'WORDS OF FAITH'

Moreover the law entered the the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 5:20-21 NKJV)

'FUN FACT'

When you get saved, you're in the full time ministry. You may suck at it, but you're in it.
Kris Vallotton, author of best-selling 'The Supernatural Ways of Royalty'