Friday, March 23, 2012

Prosperity Gospel

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."




Jeremiah 29:11


God said it, not me...:)

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Bill Johnson on Christians tolerating suffering and sickness


"The sufferings of Jesus were realized in the persecution He endured and in the burden He carried for people. He did not suffer with disease. That must be removed from our idea of Christian suffering. It is vain to carry something under the guise of the will of God when it is something that He purchased that He might destroy its power over us. An additional concept to remember is that He suffered that we might not have to suffer. For example, He bore stripes on His body applied by a Roman soldier so that they could become His payment for our healing. 
If this suffering of His was insufficient, then what did it accomplish? This error, if carried through, brings the whole issue of conversion and forgiveness of sins into question. It's true that the sufferings of Jesus are not yet complete, but they have to do with our call to righteous living in an unrighteous world. This brings pressure upon our lives that range from the realm of persecution for living for Christ to the burdens we bear as intercessors before our heavenly Father where we plead the case of the lost. 
There are few prophetic declarations that are more appropriate for this hour than this word from Hosea: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." -Hosea 4:6 
Ignorance that exalts itself with a false sense of accomplishment for meeting religious requirements is one of our greatest enemiesFor ignorance creates tolerance. And what we tolerate dominates.
When we allow sickness, torment, and poverty to be thought of as the God-ordained tools He uses to make us more like Jesus, we have participated in a very shameful act. There is no doubt He can use them, as He is also known to be able to use the devil himself for His purposes. (He can win with a pair of twos.) But to think these things are released into our lives through His design, or that He approved such things, is to undermine the work at Calvary. To do so one must completely disregard the life of Christ and the purpose of the cross. None of us would say that He died for my sins but still intends that I should be bound by sin habits. Neither did He pay for my healing and deliverance so I could continue in torment and disease. His provision for such things is not figurative: it is actual. 
Furthermore, it dishonors the Lord to disregard His work in order to justify OUR difficulty to believe for the impossible. It is time to own up to the nature of the gospel and preach it for what it is. It is the answer for every dilemma, conflict, and affliction on the planet. Declare it with boldness, and watch Him invade Earth once again."
(scriptures referred to; Isaiah 53:4-5, Colossians 1:24-the word for affliction in this verse is not sickness. It means to put under pressure, as when grapes are crushed for wine or olives for olive oil. Righteous living put us under pressures that bring out the inward anointing and joy of the Holy Spirit., Acts 4:28-29)

This is an interesting article I found and wanted to share.  Think about it, take it to scripture, ask God what He thinks about this subject and take time to let Him speak to you.  If you're like me, you grew up under teaching that promotes God's allowance of suffering so this may be a hard concept to consider.  All I ask is that you do consider the FULL work of calvary and start reconsidering who's fault suffering is, not God's but ours.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

We have Destiny!!



If you normally skip over the song and just read my blogs please STOP reading now and hit play on this song.
Too long?
Don't STOP
Listen to the whole thing!
Please :)

Ok, now that you have listened to it you're probably feeling a little (or a lot) riled up.
I was listening to it while I was doing my make up this morning and had to put down the eyeliner so I could jump and shout along and get crazy.  These words definitely waken your spirit.

I want to encourage everyone to reawaken the dream God has put inside of you.
Those deep, almost lost dreams you had as a kid when you believed you could do anything.
Think on those things, remember them.
These days, your wildest dreams feel impossible don't they?
They feel that way because the enemy, the prince of darkness has broken you down over the years, little by little.
He's sent people into your life telling you that you'll never be able to do that
He's been whispering lies to you that you're really just a nobody and should just lay low and get through life as comfortably as possible.

Well today I want to dispel those lies and tell you the truth:
There is a purpose God has for your life that He has known about from the beginning of time, when the world wasn't even formed yet He was thinking about YOU and designing a destiny for YOU
not just Mother Theresa and Christopher Columbus,
YOU
He set a seed of destiny inside of you that only you can live out! Nobody else can live it out for you.
Now think bigger than yourself:
If you're not in position, doing what God has purposed for you to do, you might be holding somebody else back from their full destiny.
 God's not going to let you ruin someone else's destiny if they are active and living it, but you could be hindering others.

Some people that are reading this aren't Christians but they relate to what I am saying because it's within all of us, we are all created in the image of God and have a longing for more than this world.
You might be wondering what it means, I am royalty? I have been set free? Wha..?
Well Jesus has set you free from sin by paying the price of death for you
and when you believe that you become a co-heir with Christ and a royal priesthood, a son or daughter of the ultimate King of Kings, you are royalty!

Many times Christians forget these truths and live less than the abundant life Jesus came to give them, that's why we have to declare these words and get set free of our "poor me" poverty mindsets by shouting and praising God and getting our perspective back into alignment with His.

I've found a lot of non-Christians to believe in themselves extremely more than Christians do.
I think it's because the church hasn't had the chance to beat these people down telling them they're worthless because of their sin nature and depravity.
Non-Christians take responsibility for their destiny more than I've seen many Christians do, which is weird because it should be the other way around!
Many Christians will use the good ole cop out, "well, if it's God's will then maybe...."
How about you learn what God's will is and then do it!
It's in His Word, He's always speaking, but we rarely take the time out of our day to listen.
We can know God's perfect will for our lives if we transform our mind!*  Once we know His will for our lives we get excited and start living in the destiny He's created us for.

I never knew what I wanted to do with my life. In high school people would always ask me what I wanted to do and I knew I was called to more than just going to college and getting a job because that wasn't the dream in my heart.  The dream in my heart was to help people but I didn't know what that looked like until I started spending time with God and obeying His Word, that's when the vision came, when I was 23 years old!
Some peoples' dream is to go to college and work a job they know they would be talented at and I think that is great! But it wasn't my dream.

Take time to dream with God, open the tomb on your dead dreams and let God bring them back to life.  Ask Him to show you what His idea was when He made you.
Answers might not come instantly but keep pressing in!  The treasure is hidden for kings to seek it out!**
Take your place, rise up and start walking in your destiny, declare truths over your life everyday so you don't get distracted by the enemy and lead off course.

If you don't know God because you don't know Jesus know that there is always an open invitation for you.  He's loved you from before time and has already forgiven your sin so that you can have an awesome relationship with Him and live a life above the status quo of the world.  He wants to give you abundant, everlasting life, all you have to do is believe!  He made it so simple because He doesn't want anyone to die and be separated from Him.  Hell was only meant for demons, not for people, but he's given everyone a free will to chose life with Him or life without Him.  My life has changed for the better since I gave up my own way and accepted God's way for me.  He's never let me down, He's daily showing His love for me and its awesome!


*Romans 12:2
Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you].


**Proverbs 25:2
It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the glory of kings is to search out a thing.



Ephesians 2:10
10For we are God's [own] handiwork (His workmanship), [d]recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].