Redemption To The Nations Church

In Matthew chapter 16, Jesus begins a conversation about identity by asking his disciples who they think he is. In establishing our identities, God does not first ask us who we are, but who God is. It is first in knowing who the King of the Kingdom is, that we began to know who we, the citizens of the Kingdom are. Peter responds with “you are Messiah, Son of a living God.” This, Jesus declares to Peter, is not a revelation of flesh and blood, but the Spirit. Jesus finishes the conversation by revealing Peter’s identity as one that the “gates of hell cannot overcome.” In knowing who our King is, we know who we, the citizens are. We are the “ecclesia,” people appointed to go throughout the city importing the Kingdom into its streets.

During the Roman occupation the emperor played god to the oppressed Jewish nation. Religious traditions replaced spirituality and spiritual leaders became appointed by political connections. It was in this atmosphere that John the Baptist stormed through the scene, preaching “repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand!” God was not intimidated. He established his Kingdom right beside the gates of hell as Jesus died to rise as the King no king can stand against. The kingdom of God is built on vast territory, for “all the earth is the Lord’s” proclaims the psalmist. In this Kingdom the citizens are not identified by inferior identifications. They have no inferior ethnicity, race, or status, for they are all called children.

Walking in marriage without the one who created it is walking in chaos. Unlike what religion has dictated since its infancy about marriage--that a woman must live in the shadow of a man--marriage is actually a partnership. It is a dance in which both learn to lead and both learn to follow. The heartbeat of marriage is rhythm. Marital rhythm is found when emotional, spiritual, and financial rhythm find their places inside a marriage. Marriage is compromise and a union between two parts. Marriage was created at the same time as humankind, for the essence of marriage is love.

Marriage is not a construct of society, but of God. Marriage brings us companionship, is a spiritual revelation of Christ, and grants us co-dominion in the heavenly kingdom. There comes a time when it becomes impossible to complete our destinies alone. When it does, we are not called to change our spouse, but to accept him or her as a gift given to us by God. Attacks on marriage are bound to come for the enemy hates when couples operate in unity and love. Strife is the foothold that keeps the door open for the enemy to freely enter marriage. We must evict it. Boundaries are intended to bring freedom, not limitations to marriage. We must set them. There must be no hint of sexual immorality in marriage, and we must always practice accountability, for although respect is free, trust is earned.

In the Hebrew Bible, sacrifice always involved transformation. Sacrifices burned. The Levitical instructions for burnt offerings forbade separating the offering into parts, but required the whole animal to burn on the altar. In our complacent, lukewarm society, there are some things that are not optional. We cannot serve God without fire, and fire requires constant tending. The fire of God will never come down on our lives until every dream and every ambition is put on the altar to burn. One either dies to oneself or in oneself. To walk with God is to die to oneself; to be transformed by fire and brought into a new life. To keep the fire burning we must tend what God sends. This will cost us everything. But in the end it is worth everything.

God is no respecter of persons, but a respecter of pursuit. Many times we miss out on revelation of God’s mysteries because we are unwilling to bend down and lean in. We are unwilling to tap into God’s heart. Like Israelites we know God by his acts. But it takes the pursuit of Moses to know God’s heart. Revelation comes through speaking in tongues of the Holy Ghost. Speaking in tongues edifies us by building our faith. It glorifies God in languages not always known to us. Clarifying tongues help us see ahead and declassifying tongues reveal the secrets of God by giving directions to questions the flesh cannot answer. The Holy Ghost is not a tormentor but a helper, a revealer. It reveals God’s mysteries to those who tap into the Father’s heart.

“Remember me,” prayed the thief on the cross. Prayer is legality. It is access to the threefold God. In Matthew chapter 6, Jesus instructs the crowds with “when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites,” and “when you pray, go into your room and shut the door,” and also “when you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases.” Prayer is not for the applause of an audience. Prayer is wrestling with a bear and a lion with only a flock of sheep for an audience. Likewise, it is prayer that kills giants. Prayer is a pathway to blessing, for heaven, remembering a prayer, moves.

Ephesians 1:3 is the only place in the scripture to use a single word in three different grammatical functions: blessing as a verb over us, blessing as a noun for us and blessing as an adjective to describe us. Like a crown on a king’s head, may January through December of the new 2019th year be encircled with the goodness of God. Do not despair if the old year passed with storm winds still blowing. Perhaps there is blessing in the rain that destroys our houses built on sand. When we bless God by praising him not because of what he will do for us, but because he is good, God cannot pass without ‘crowning the year with the favor of the Lord’.

Let us sing a new song at the end of the old year because God has helped many of us face and conquer new trials this year. Let us sing a new song because God’s promises cannot come back void. May we remember what God has done for us this last year and praise him for what he will do in the upcoming one. Let us sing a new song at the end just as we do in the beginning.

For four hundred years heavens remained silent. Complacency, religion and spiritual silence descended over pre-nativity Judea. Like Zechariah and Elizabeth of Luke 1, we often find ourselves in a dichotomy. Being faithful, we often feel like flounders, while holy we live with hopeless hearts and although committed we are convinced we are conquered. Like Elizabeth, we call ourselves barren, mistaking God’s silence for a negative verdict, not realizing that sometimes silence simply means not yet. Our prayers don’t evaporate when our faith for them does. Like a bowl of incense they withstand years before the throne of God, waiting for the day when faithfulness transforms into favor.

There was great joy was in Samaria, a city once paralyzed with demonic spirits, when the scattered children of God began preaching deliverance under the anointing of the Holy Ghost. Pastor Kevin Wallace finishes the Revival Apologetics series by describing a scene of deliverance in Acts 8:3-8 where demons came out of people with loud shrieks. When God moves, chains began breaking and their clash sometimes creates temporary chaos. Evicted, the devil often manifests in screaming. There is no need to fear, however. When Jesus Christ delivers he brings freedom. And suddenly great joy breaks throughout the city.

Saved to call heaven our home, often like Lazarus summoned from the grave, we are not free from the grave clothes to feel it. Continuing with the Revival Apologetics series pastor Kevin Wallace explains freedom and deliverance in Jesus Christ. Like the people “vexed” in Luke 6:18, God’s precious sons and daughters are attacked, tormented, and stolen from. All the while they are taught by religion to “take it in the chin” for we all suffer. But Christ the Deliverer is here! We don’t have to wait until heaven to feel joy.

What does it mean to fall out in the spirit or what is actually happening when we speak in tongues? To some this is a foreign concept, but we must put aside the basic fundamentals of the gospel and begin to experience and learn the many baptisms of God.

There's a war going on over your house. There are also wars going on over houses of worship. What kind of house are you going to live in? Are you going to be like the house of Saul or the house of David?

God came down and divided the Earth in an act of confusion to keep them from building an illegal kingdom. God will keep people who want to advance their own agendas and create confusion.

God is love. His goodness is often shown to those that don't have it all in order. Favor is coming on your life. We don't deserve any goodness or favor, but it's because God sent his son, Jesus, to rescue and save us that those who claim Him as savior will be shown his love and favor.

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