Newness of Life

 These days we hear so much about God giving us "keys to the kingdom" and very often modern believers hear this as an understanding of our power and authority. Power and authority are imperative if we are to claim that we know God, for He came to overthrow Satan's lies, and to release us from the authority of Satan. The Kingdom of heaven is of power, or it is nothing at all! That said, the keys to walking in the kingdom of God are often at variance with our human understanding. Most modern churches would not consider humility to be a key to power and authority, and yet it is at the heart of the kingdom of God. First and foremost, all that we have in Christ, the riches of our inheritance, are experienced by faith, and faith comes from God. Faith is a fruit of the Spirit.  Hearts full of pride cannot see God because the ground of the heart is full of rocks and weeds and nothing can grow in it. For a season of my life my faith eyes grew dim, and I discovered that my heart ha...

Before I start this, I want to say that I believe strongly that we are in the midst of Revelation 6 where we read about the four horses riding forth into the earth. Consider these things by way of a tyranny refresher, lest we become numb to it all: (If you feel totally “woke” regarding the tyranny, feel free to jump down to the First Horse heading.) 1.      Global house arrest. 2.      Most or all international travel stopped and many places saw total restrictions on local travel. 3.      Global arrests for working, or keeping your business open. 4.      Global rules keeping people from gathering in groups. 5.      Global rules keeping humanity from sick, elderly, and dying loved ones. 6.      Global rules preventing humanity from holding weddings and funerals. 7.      Global rules dictating the wearing of masks. 8.   ...

While his disciples were plotting revenge, Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem. Peter saw tragedy; Jesus saw glory. The "sons of thunder" saw offense; Jesus saw God’s perfect plan unfolding.  Today while I was talking to the Lord about some difficult things, He whispered this: “I don’t just use what the enemy means for evil… I require it.” That really threw me for a loop and yet, when I considered all of the saints, from Abe to John on the island of Patmos-it rang true. I think that problems arise when we expect God's goodness to appear good to our human understanding. This problem is seen clearly in the way that Jesus had to rebuke his disciples for unknowingly interfering with God’s will. One of the most famous examples, of course, was when Jesus rebuked Peter for suggesting that Jesus shouldn't have to die.    “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Matthew 16:23 We ar...