Kingdom Considerations

God has placed it on Greg's heart to write about the Kingdom of God. These articles, entitled Kingdom Considerations, are periodically sent to those on his mailing list. To read these articles, click HERE.

Revival Messages and Other Resources

There has never been a time when we are in more need of a great and powerful life-changing revival. The church is in desperate need for a revival and the world is in desperate need for the church to have one. A true revival is the only solution to raise the Church to normal Kingdom living, produce massive salvations, and determine the destiny of nations. A revival of the Kingdom is first a personal revival. It then becomes corporate. It is the sum of all individuals being touched anew that makes revivals so powerful. Then it touches and changes the world.

Nothing has become clearer to me than that revival is of God. It is something first revealed to those in need of it in order that they may begin seeking Him for it. The irony is that it was in His heart first. So our call to Him is a Spirit birthed call and the answer is prepared as is all his works which are know to Him from the beginning of the world. So we can safely say that once we begin to cry out we can have concrete faith that revival will come. And that crying out is through regular personal and corporate prayer.

If there is one outstanding feature and the primary one about a revival it is that the life of Christ in the body is manifested more and more. Even when the doctrine of the indwelling Christ is not clearly understood, His life is still expressed in the body. However, the truth should be revisited so as to bring the children of God to a desire for an ever increasing life of Christ. It is easy to live a religious life without the real power of that life. It is done all too much. Now is the time for change. We must come to say “for me to live is Christ.”

Revival
Messages

A selection of Pastor Greg's latest Sunday teaching messages are available below for FREE download. They are in MP3 format and the average file size is 46mb. Listen to the teachings below on your iPod or MP3 player. The audio files can be downloaded to your computer hard drive and, and then with your iPod iTunes software you can load them to your iPod device for listening on the go. The free iTunes software is available from Apple's website. Then click on the Help button on the iTunes toolbar for more information and instructions, including tutorials.

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Please check weekly for new messages. Sunday messages are usually added to our website by Wednesday of each week. Occasionally a Sunday message will not be made available on our website.

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	Message Title - Becoming the Most Powerful People In The World (Part 8) Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread - Matthew 6 Message Date: 1/22/2012 When we pray the Lord's Prayer "give us this day our daily bread", we are not only praying for our own daily needs, we're praying for the needs of everyone in the Body of Christ. We need to know what it means behind the word "bread". Our loving Father knows exactly what we need. He wants us to ask Him, daily, to meet all of our real needs. And He is faithful to meet those needs. Our part is to keep doing the things that we are responsible to do (daily), because as we do the responsible things God puts us in places and situations (daily) where the Kingdom of God will be manifested through us.
	Message Title - Becoming the Most Powerful People In The World (Part 7) Knowing the Will of God - Matthew 6 Message Date: 1/15/2012 In this teaching we are given some practical things that we can both understand and incorporate into our daily lives to help us know God's will. Our lives will be more fruitful (John 15:7,8) as we learn to discern God's will for us and for those people/issues/situations we pray for, and therefore our prayers will be more effectively and our joy will be full (John 15:11). Most important, our God will receive greater glory. The goal of our praying is not just us receiving from God, but that God get glory.
	Message Title - Becoming the Most Powerful People In The World (Part 6) The Lord's Prayer - Matthew 6 Message Date: 1/8/2012 The truth of what Jesus taught in Matthew 6 (the Lord's Prayer) is so deep and profound that you have to go underneath and beyond the surface of the actual words. Our end is always to bring glory to God.
	Message Title - Becoming the Most Powerful People In The World (Part 5) The Highest Purpose of Prayer - Matthew 6 Message Date: 1/1/2012 God really wants prayer to work in our lives. Prayer is His invention, not ours. His desire is that we receive the answers to the things that we pray. Jesus says in John 16:24 that He wants us to ask things of God the Father in His Name so that we can receive and so that our joy may be full (or made perfect). The end of our prayers should be that we experience joy. God gets glorified and we receive joy. It is important that we develop a life of regular, dedicated prayer. You can start with a simple 5 minutes of prayer, and as we delve into the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) we will see our time devoted to prayer, and the depth of our prayers, increase.
	Message Title - Becoming the Most Powerful People In The World (Part 4) The Highest Purpose of Prayer Message Date: 12/18/2011 If we understand the highest purpose of prayer, then the solutions and the answers to many prayers will come more quickly. If you can come to the place where you understand the highest purpose of God's heart in prayer, it will absolutely change your life!
	Message Title - Becoming the Most Powerful People In The World (Part 3) Persistence In Intercession For Others And Justice For Yourself Message Date: 12/11/2011 The intercessor has a selfless heart of persistence and desires to bear the burdens of others and fulfill Christ's law of love.
	Message Title - Becoming the Most Powerful People In The World (Part 2) Thy Will Be Done Message Date: 12/4/2011 Our Father is supremely interested in helping us know His will. The Father, Son and Holy Ghost all are willing to reveal this Divine will. Most of our prayers are from our side, in which we are seeking something be done for us. God does want to bless us and His thoughts towards us are good (Psalm 139:17). But it is better to see it from the Father's side. That means knowing His will not just for our sake, but for His sake. God doesn't act against our wills. He wants our agreement and participation. He wants His will to be done, to bring His Kingdom here with a government of peace in us, and to see Satan's rule destroyed and us delivered from all evil purposes. This is why we need to learn to pray more effectively. To learn to make time to pray. To learn to humble ourselves, submitting our wills to Him, asking God to bring all of our motives into agreement with His, and to deliver us from any and all darkness, deception and carnal thinking so that we can see our Father's will done. Father, Thy Kingdom Come. Amen and amen!
	Message Title - Becoming the Most Powerful People In the World (Part 1) Message Date: 11/27/2011 This is not a question we can give an immediate answer to. But it's a question that we can deeply consider and wrestle with the effectiveness of our lives, and how powerful and influential we want to be for Jesus Christ and His Kingdom. The question is what makes Christians powerful. Is it knowledge of the Word? To some degree, yes. Is it the power of the Holy Spirit? To some degree, yes. Is it gifts of the Holy Spirit or gift ministries? To some degree, yes. To some degree it is all of those things, but it isn't only those things. There is something even more powerful. Who then, is powerful in God? Jesus said, "My house will be called a house of prayer" (Matt. 21:13 - NIV). That is a powerful declaration. It was a declaration of what He wanted the Church to be. And that declaration is as much true today. Of all the instructions that Jesus gave about the Kingdom, the only way the Kingdom will come IS.....THROUGH.....PRAYER. So what is the Kingdom? It is all the purposes of God in this earth. All the power of God in this earth. And Jesus Himself present in His people. Prayer makes people powerful. In order to learn how to effectively pray, there are two things that you must do. 1. You must make time to pray -- it's a decision of your will. 2. You must take time from something else -- something else that seems more important, in order to do what is truly more important in the eyes of God. If the Kingdom of God and all of its power in the Holy Ghost and all of the glory that will come to God will come by prayer, then it MUST come by prayer and it must not come any other way. It's time to pray more effectively, to give our lives over to God so that He can use us and to bring His will to pass and His Kingdom to come in our corners of the world. We can, we must, we will become more effective in prayer!
	Message Title - The Fifth Column - Stopping The Civil War Message Date: 9/18/2011 We often quote Isaiah 54:17 that no weapon formed against us will prosper. This is true. But we should know the weapons against us in order to defeat them. One such weapon of the enemy is revealed in this teaching. It is so very important that we know this work and defeat it, or it will produce havoc in our lives and in the church. This teaching takes an illustration from the Spanish Civil War in regards to a "Fifth Column". This strategy of the enemy is an assault not only against you and me personally, but also against us as a church. I hope you find the revelations a means of personal victory as well as corporate victory. Praise our wonderful Redeemer!
	Message Title - Revival Preparations (Hosea 10:12 & 2 Chron. 7:14) Message Date: 7/31/2011 There is a promise of Revival in 2 Chron. 7:13-14. First the healing of the spiritual state and then the effect on the natural state; souls are saved and society changed. All Revivals begin in prayer and all prayer has its origin in humility. God may stimulate our hearts to pray but humility of our souls is the condition of our souls for effective prayer. Humility is the realm in which we best respond to the revelations of our sins. When we are brokenhearted and desperate for God, we pray. Also, in prayer God reveals hidden issues of our hearts whereby we repent. According to Hosea 10:12, we need to break up our fallow ground which lays unproductive and unresponsive until we do. This hard packed ground comes from sin and/or hardness of heart. It is time to break up our fallow ground. This is our responsibility and decision. The Word of God says in 2 Cor. 7:1, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Read again 2 Kings 3 about digging ditches (like breaking fallow ground) and how these trenches that filled with water overnight looked like blood to the enemy. When we break up our fallow ground we let the water of Holy Spirit and the blood of the Lamb enter and cleanse us, thus defeating our hardness to the will of God. This breaking up brings God into the picture. He is in there revealing all the sin, mainly pride that has hardened us. Pride is the greatest enemy to Revival.
	Message Title - Psalm 138 - Strength Into Our Souls Message Date: 7/3/2011 Psalm 138 proclaims the Lord's goodness to the faithful. Our God hears us and brings strength first to our souls (vs. 3). In a trial we need God's solution, not our own. God will help us see the end of the matter. Instead of focusing on the issues, we must look to God for the solutions. God's work will be.... * completing * finishing * perfecting God will perfect our character as we yield to Him. And as God does this we will embrace more quickly the coming revival. There is a work of God in all of us!
	Message Title - Discerning Ourselves Message Date: 6/19/2011 This teaching centers around a dream from the Lord that Pastor Greg received, relating to Luke 11:34-36. In the dream he was in an 8 story brick building which had filthy glass that hindered the view to the outside, and a rotting frame. Ultimately the entire glass and frame broke and fell to the ground below, and then the frame & glass were rebuilt. All of this has to do with the frames of our mind, how we see and determine with our eyes, and how we can think in snapshots or moving pictures. As an example, two men looked out through prison bars; one saw mud and the other saw stars. We receive the ability to see differently when we are born again, but we must exercise it. There are four prominent frames of mind. 1. A carnal frame of mind 2. A merely human mind 3. A lusty Mind 4. A proud mind There are three practical steps so that Jesus, the Light of our lives, will flood us on our insides according to Phil. 3:8-14. 1. Decide to give up all that causes darkness, and "win" Christ 2. Long to know Him 3. Consider knowing and loving the Lord to be a life pursuit
	Message Title - He Must Increase, But I Must Decrease Message Date: 5/22/2011 In John 3:28-29 John said he had a ministry of being sent to reveal Jesus Christ, announcing the things that Jesus Christ wanted the people to hear. John makes an emphatic statement in verse 30, when he says that Jesus must increase, but he (John) must decrease. That word "must" is a very strong and emphatic word. In our lives there is this constant battle that we engage in as to whether or not our lives reflect Jesus Christ. There are two options that we have. Option 1 - The first step is to take myself and my issues, and what I'm doing wrong, or what has happened to me, or what I must overcome, and pack them up in a suitcase and set them aside, so that the first thing I can do is to let Jesus become the increase of my life. We cannot decrease ourselves while trying to increase Jesus. This means that I cannot strive to constantly work on all of my issues and try to eliminate this and that. The only thing I can do is to think on Jesus Christ and His life in me, so that HIS life displaces the junk of my old life. Option 2 - THERE IS NO SECOND OPTION OR SECOND STEP. We are sent people to reveal Jesus on this earth. He must increase in us in order for Him to be revealed. I'm still at a place where there are places where I go, with people who don't know me (especially unbelievers), where I am wondering and asking the Lord in me "am I allowing You to have preeminence in me sufficient enough to register on those people". Our heart desire must be that where we go, Jesus is revealed and known, a sweet fragrance and offering unto the Lord. Words don't have to be spoken. We will want Jesus Christ to be smelled and sensed where His presence changes the atmosphere around us. Let's pray and long for this.
	Message Title - Exalted Jesus Message Date: 3/27/2011 The Cross is the meeting place of humiliation and exaltation. Jesus took not just our sins but us to the cross. He died for us but we reckon ourselves dead with Him, buried with Him in Baptism and the old man crucified with Him. Paul taught in 2Cor. 5:17 if any man is in Christ he is a new creature. We are crucified with Him yet live in the flesh by faith in the Son of God. Not only are we dead to sin, but the body having been used for sin is no longer the same but new in Christ, Rom. 6:6-11, and now lives, Gal. 2:20, unto God. Phil. 2:5-15 says, Jesus was found in the fashion of man whom He created to taste death, to defeat sin and to destroy the works of satan. Now we must be found in Christ to live life. As we first find ourselves in Christ, others will find Christ in you, Phil 3:9-14. It is a search, discovery, learning a pursuit. We lose our identity and gain Christ’s identity in us. We reflect what we behold.
	Message Title - The Revival of Christ In The Church - #2 The Preeminence and Presence of God Message Date: 3/20/2011 The most outstanding feature in past revivals has not been the salvations, nor the healings, nor the repentances, nor the joy, nor the deliverances, nor the changes in society. The most outstanding feature in past revivals has been the presence of God. Without the presence of God none of these things just mentioned would take place to the extent that they take place in a revival.
	Message Title - The Revival of Christ In The Church- #1 The Preeminence of Christ Message Date: 3/13/2011 We need a revival so that Jesus Christ can again be preeminent in us. So that He can come back and take His rightful place. So that He can be the focus and the head of everything. Truthfully, our focus is not always on Jesus, but on a lot of other things. There are three areas where the preeminence of Jesus Christ will exist . 1. In creation 2. In the Church 3. In the believer
	Message Title - Truths About Our Salvation Message Date: 3/6/2011 We are not saved merely by a set of beliefs, or by prayers, by confessions or repentances. Nor are we saved by membership, attendance, or ministries, or by gifts of the Spirit. These are all good, but we are saved by receiving Jesus Christ, His Person, and by believing on His Name whereby we agree to all the Gospel truths about Jesus for us, to us and through us. We are, at the moment we receive and believe, born again. Not of bloodline genealogy, not of the will of man (as if man could really begin again a completely new life by his own will), but of God by His will and power, and for His purpose which is for us to become the sons of God. This implies relationship (family/Father), fellowship (communion of the Spirit/Gospel), unity and love within the family, obedience to the will of the Father, and hearing/being guided by/being taught by Holy Spirit. The common purpose of the sons is in Ephesians 4:13, "til we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ". (NIV) Thank you Father for Jesus and for Your saving grace.
	Message Title - The Kingdom of God-Already And Not Yet The Mountains Low and The Valleys High Message Date: 2/20/2011 God is at work preparing something wonderful for us, and He is wonderfully preparing us for that something. We are all important to God and to one another. Mountains can be built by spirit strongholds. For us they are thoughts, reasonings, judgments, high thinking, imaginations and opinions. The mountain of pride is the biggest mountain. Pride compares, manipulates, fights for position, deceives and hinders intimacy out of a fear of exposure. We need to be humble, giving more esteem to others in areas where they excel and are spiritually gifted (Phil. 1:27 and 2:1-4). As God is coming into the world, His presence will be tangible. The mountains of our lives that exalt themselves against Him will be made low, dismantled thought by thought. The valleys shall be filled, mountains of pride conquered and valleys of humility filled up. The crooked paths of our lives will be made straight. The rough, hard ways we have endured will be replaced by level, smooth going and less ups and downs. And we shall enjoy our salvation and our God. Praise Him forever!
	Message Title - The Kingdom of God-Already And Not Yet The Anatomy of Revival Message Date: 2/13/2011 This is a holy time that we're entering into, a time when the dealings of God are both profound and intense . The main thing is that God is getting into our hearts. And when everything around us is failing and we can't find answers on our own, then the only thing that happens is that humility comes upon us and we surrender ourselves before God. Prayer is the starting point. We talk to God about these things, and our prayer brings us to a place where we can HEAR God. Prayer is humility in its deepest expression. Humility therefore follows our diligent prayers. Humility is the opposite of pride. Humility begins to settle us and bring peace to us. The next stage is truth. Truth is a fact and a person (John 1:14). Jesus Christ comes to us through truth. The process works like this. Humility gets us to praying, as we are praying God begins to reveal things to us that He wants to deal with in our lives. He reveals truth about us, and we can do one of two things. We can say "truth Lord", or we can dismiss the Voice of Truth as a message from the enemy. God forbid! Truth will heal you! God reveals truth not to hurt us, but to heal us. Whatever He reveals, he heals. Thanks You Lord!
	Message Title - The Kingdom of God-Already And Not Yet Prisoners of Hope Message Date: 2/6/2011 Revivals are cleansing experiences. They scour out sin with all of its lies and hypocrisy and bring in truth and honesty. Our Lord came into the world full of grace and truth (John 1:14), even defining Himself as the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). Holy Spirit is declared to be the Spirit of Truth (John 14:17), guiding us into all truth (John 16:13). Then the end of this is that we, the house of God, become the pillar and ground of truth in the world (1 Timothy 3:15. The pillar is a support and the ground is the foundation of this truth. Truth is more than correct doctrine. It must translate into righteous living. If truth is desired in the inward parts (Psalm 51:6), it is there to bring change to the believer. Truth sets us free not just mentally, but behaviorally. We can be free to live as Christ and not as the old man. In this day, people are asking like Pilate did of Jesus, "What is truth?" We must never be ashamed to give an answer according to the hope that is in us (1 Peter 3:15). But first we must be people of truth, filled with truth and grace just as our Lord.
	Message Title - The Kingdom of God-Already And Not Yet Holy Spirit Working On Our Souls Message Date: 1/23/2011 Everything we do must lead us to total dependency on the Holy Spirit, casting ourselves utterly upon Him and expressing our need for revival. We must better understand the depth of sacrifice of Jesus when He bore all of our past, present and future sins at the cross. Understanding the depth of this sacrifice will bring us to truly understand the magnificent love God has for us. Your soul will know the love of God when you see that you have been the most incredible of miserable sinners, and that God in His great love saved you and will continue to save you if you desire to be so saved. Excerpts from Jonathan Edwards' life and his ministry are shared as they relate to revival.
	Message Title - The Kingdom of God-Already And Not Yet Revival Prayers of Agreement Message Date: 1/16/2011 We are in a season of preparedness. Part of this preparedness is learning the power of coming into agreement. Also in this time of preparedness Holy Spirit is revealing our need to repent of sin that dishonors God's life in us, and that resists the giving of all glory to Him.
	Message Title - The Kingdom of God-Already And Not Yet Burden of the Word of the Lord Message Date: 11/28/2010 It's been long said that people, including Christians, will never desire something they have never experienced nor know nothing about. Most of us have never experienced a real revival. But even though we might never have experienced a revival, we can still hear and learn about it, and know what it can do. Then we can begin to long for revival so that we can experience it. We all have challenges and issues. This nation has challenges and issues. This world has challenges and issues. There is only one thing that will encompass and heal all of these issues and problems, and that is revival. We all need to pray more for it. Just as important, we need a bigger burden to carry. We need to have God's vision for revival. We need to see what God sees. When we see what God sees about us, about the church, and about the world, we will carry the burden of the Lord for it. Are you ready to carry this most holy burden?
	Message Title - The Kingdom of God-Already And Not Yet Vision For Revival Message Date: 11/21/2010 We have to embrace a vision for revival. A vision is as much seeing what God sees and to know what He is doing at the present time, and what He plans for the future. Our future. The future of our children and their children. God wants us to have His heart for the church and for the world. It starts with us. He reveals those sins and flaws in our lives that hinder us, and hinder our testimony. Our hearts then cry out for revival. Revival for us. Revival for the church. And revival for the world.
	Message Title - The Kingdom of God-Already And Not Yet In This Time, God Is Preparing Our Hearts Message Date: 11/7/2010 In this time God is preparing our hearts because we are moving closer and closer to a genuine revival. In this message Pastor Greg gives five reasons why we Christians are the hardest people to bring to a place for revival. He also gives three necessary steps in the process of repentance and revival. This will help to get us back on track to where God wants us to be.
	Message Title - The Kingdom of God-Already And Not Yet The Presence of God Message Date: 10/24/2010 We are feeling a clash between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. If we are seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, we will feel resistance. There is a great need for revival, and we must know this is true and pray for that revival. Revival that will touch us, the local churches, the Church throughout this nation, and then the nation. We are the only people who can offer hope and power of Christ to a dying world. But the church is living in deep intimidation and insecurity, and this has driven the Church inward. We all have the same mission to relieve the world of the weight of hit darkness and sin through the presence of Christ in us.
	Message Title - Hearts For The King and His Kingdom (Luke 6:46-49 and Matthew 13:51) - Part 2 Message Date: 7/11/2010 This message is a continuation of last week's message entitled 'Hearts For The King And His Kingdom'. The Holy Spirit spokes that we would be raised from inactivity where we have felt paralyzed and unable to move and flow with the Lord. He also said that some would get raised up from sickness, disease and mental harassment. We are learning how to hear God. We listen selectively, we see selectively, and we hear selectively. We have paradigms that control how we perceive. The point is that we don't always see what we think we are looking at, and we don't always hear what we think God is saying. He wants us to see and hear accurately. We live by the power of God, not by our own strength. Near the end of our meeting we took steps of faith to move with Holy Spirit and arise in our walks and ministry. One of our dear members had one leg that was shorter than the other. As she received prayer and ministry, her leg grew out. She immediately saw her ankles even out and she felt something in her leg happen. She was overcome with joy over experiencing this miracle. A week later she continues to be filled with joy over what the Lord did in her and for her. We are all going to experience rising, awakening and being lifted up out of paralyzing conditions as well as an awakening to righteousness (1 Cor. 15:4) as we continue to seek Him and pursue righteousness. Praise Him forevermore!
	Message Title - Hearts For The King and His Kingdom (Treasures of the Heart) - Part 1 Message Date: 7/4/2010 This Kingdom message touches on how to develop a hearing heart, and the value of a hearing heart. When the love of God (and love for His Kingdom), His ways, His Word, His purposes, His instructions become a treasure to you, it will come forth from your heart. This is the treasure that Jesus talks about. Jesus is always trying to get to our hearts, where our treasures lie.
	Message Title - The Reign and the Realm of the Kingdom Message Date: 6/27/2010 We are not moving toward the Kingdom, it is coming to us. It comes into people. The Kingdom comes in the dynamic presence of Jesus who overturned the Pharisees' burdens of righteousness, a righteousness which was accomplished in Jesus and which we experience as He lives in and through us. We fulfill our duty to all men to present to them the reality of a present and future Kingdom into which all are called and only a few respond. We are the presence of the future.
	Message Title - Kingdom Reign and Kingdom Realm Message Date: 5/23/2010 Jesus made it abundantly clear that the Kingdom of Heaven had come to the earth. Mat.4:17. However the full realm of the Kingdom of Heaven remains to a date when our Lord returns and the consummation of the Kingdom occurs. In the meantime, we have the reign of the Kingdom of Heaven on the earth within believers. The reign of the Kingdom has its first expression in the believer. Righteousness is the best example of this reign. It is how we live in relation to our Lord and to His saints. Everything we do can have an effect on others. The considerations we show in how we honor this reality is a mark of a mature believer. In contrast, the society of today is disrespectful of the neighbor next door when it comes to one’s personal comforts. The world is a “me first” society and it is getting worse. People want all the benefits of living in a great nation, but don’t think keeping the laws and covenants of the government, and business in general are for them. God’s people are different. The Kingdom of Heaven is a Kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. It breaks in on the present day. It is the future coming to town. Even though the full realm of the Kingdom isn’t here, the rule and reign of the Kingdom can be. It is up to the church, the society of Heaven on earth to demonstrate it.
	Message Title - The Kingdom of God - Already And Not Yet - #13 Forgiveness, Part 2 (Asking For Forgiveness) Message Date: 5/16/2010 Forgiving others and asking for forgiveness go hand in hand. We can feel unforgiveness. And we can feel forgiveness. When you grant forgiveness you are ministering to the person mercy and compassion. But for some it is easier to receive forgiveness than it is to ask for forgiveness. If giving forgiveness releases mercy and compassion, then asking for forgiveness brings you humility. We must pray that we all come to this Kingdom humility that allows to admit that we've hurt someone and that we were wrong. We don't want to be just right. We want to be righteous. We want there to be a yieldedness to the Holy Spirit in this area. And in so doing our homes, our families, our marriages, our churches, will be healed.
	Message Title - The Kingdom of God - Already And Not Yet - # 11 Forgiveness, Part 1 (Giving Forgiveness) Message Date: 5/2/2010 The power to forgive is in our spiritual DNA. Forgiveness is how we got into the Kingdom. The Kingdom of Heaven runs on forgiveness. This means a loving fellowship with no animosity and no ill will. In Matt. 18:21-35 we read the parable of the unforgiving servant. After having been granted an incomparable forgiveness he then showed unforgiveness towards a fellow servant. The debt the first servant was forgiven was huge in comparison to the debt of the fellow servant. Within his unforgiveness lay a lack of respect, a lack of honor and appreciation, and a complete lack of love. The same respect, honor, appreciation and love he had received from his master. Don't make the mistake of keeping others, and even yourself, locked in the chains of unforgiveness. Take that debt of unforgiveness, put it in your hand like a feather, blow it away, and forget the thing. As long as you hold onto it you'll never be able to forgive that person and let them go. Forgiveness is love! Love is forgiveness! Praise Him forevermore!
	Message Title - The Kingdom of God - Already And Not Yet - # 9 Parables From Matthew 13 Message Date: 4/18/2010 As we continue to learn about the Kingdom of God, we know that there is good and evil sowing. Good seed sown by the children of God into the world and bad seed sown by the children of satan into the world. They both bear some similarities. They grow side by side and they grow to the end of the age at which time Jesus says to the reapers gather them out so the tares do not enter the Kingdom. Only the children of God enter. Jesus also taught to the crowds about the mustard seed and leaven. They both show the effect of kingdoms in the world from small to big. The Kingdom has a tiny beginning by comparison, but eventually the tree will be the extensive nature of the Kingdom. The leaven is an agent of growth. It affects and influences all common life. As shared last week, the first 4 parables were to the crowds, and the next 4 (the treasure, the pearl of great price, the dragnet, and the householders) were taught to the disciples. The treasure is a picture of us/man who encounter the Kingdom realities in the course of life. The pearl of great price is an illustration of a seeker of fine pearls. When one is looking for the best and finds it, he sells all to have it. The process of the net/kingdom catching many is an end of the age picture. And lastly, the householder is one who brings forth out of his treasure things new and old. Eternal Kingdom truths that are unchanging. As we continue to study from these teachings and ask Holy Spirit to bring great understanding and revelation to us, we will have greater insight into the Kingdom of God within us and how to live here on this earth as sons and daughters of the King.
	Message Title - The Kingdom of God - Already And Not Yet - # 8 Deut. 18:15 and Matt. 13:1ff Message Date: 4/11/2010 Jesus uses parables to teach the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God was His message. Parables illustrate common life set as example of the Kingdom. It is important to get to the point of what Jesus was teaching and not get lost in the details. He taught the disciples in parables so that they could know the mysteries of the Kingdom. Jesus teaches eight parables in Matthew 13. Four were to the whole crowd and four were to His disciples. The eight clustered parables establish the "spiritual geography" of the Kingdom; its beginning, its action and its consummation. The first four Parables Jesus taught to the crowds. Most had a preconception of how the Kingdom would manifest, not unlike us. In short, a King restoring Israel, judging, separating evil and ruling over all. Jesus did not fulfill anyone's expectations but instead revealed the Father's Plan. In the parable of the sower in Matt. 13:3-9; 18-23, the sower is the Son of man -- Jesus. The seed sown is the Kingdom of God in the hearts of men in the world. As we continue to learn more and more about the parables we will have a greater understanding of the Kingdom of God, and His message to us to live as Kingdom sons and daughters here in the earth.
	Message Title - Easter/Resurrection Sunday Seamless Work of the Incarnation, Resurrection, and Holy Spirit Message Date: 4/4/2010 The interesting thing about Christmas (the celebration of the Incarnation Christ) and Easter (the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ) is that they are both supernatural events. Jesus participated in many miracles that He performed, but these two were miracles that involved HIM and His life. Whereby He WAS the miracle. The first one, which we call Christmas, was actually the celebration of the Incarnation. The miracle is that God came into man, and we had the first God-man. That's a miraculous event. A fusing of the natural and the supernatural, the earthly with the heavenly. It was part of a supernatural plan for us. You cannot just celebrate Christmas without it being connected with the second supernatural event that we celebrate, Easter (or Resurrection Sunday), the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Many came out of their graves after His Resurrection. Jesus tasted death for us all. We can rejoice in that He rose from the dead because had He stayed dead, our faith would be in vain, our sins would still be on us, we couldn't be healed by God, and we would have no hope. Instead, our sins have been born away, we're forgiven, we can be healed, we live in the Kingdom of our Lord, and we have hope! Go tell the world what the Lord has done for you. Celebrate His Resurrection! Praise Him forevermore!
	Message Title - The Kingdom of God - Already And Not Yet - # 7 Message Date: 3/28/2010 Jesus often spoke in parables. A parable is a story/illustration from common life known to the hearer. Their purpose is to get the point across while not getting lost in the detail. We need these parables to align our lives and our personal destiny with God and His Kingdom. Seven reasons to know what parables say about the Kingdom. 1. Matt. 11:3. The Kingdom as revealed by Jesus contains His nature as well as His knowledge. 2. Matt: 6:33. If we seek it, as revealed in His teachings, there is a promise of our needs being met. 3. Matt. 13:11-17. There is healing in knowing the Kingdom. 4. Matt. 25:14, Luke 19:12, Matt. 13:52. So that we can live out our mission as God reveals, between now and the return of Christ. 5. Matt. 13:24-29 and Matt. 13:47-49. So that we can understand the present Kingdom existence between the 1st and 2nd coming. 6. John 18:36. So that we can understand something of heaven. 7. Matt. 13:44-45. So that we can live in joy.
	Message Title - The Kingdom of God - Already And Not Yet - # 6 The Presence of Evil Message Date: 3/7/2010 The mystery of the Kingdom is that it exists and grows in the midst of evil. In the parable of the wheat and tares, the tares have a similar appearance to the good wheat. The tares entangle with the wheat's roots and cannot be separated until the harvest time so as not to destroy some of the wheat. We live, therefore, in a Kingdom that itself exists in the midst of evil. The god of this world (satan) and the sons of darkness are still at work blinding men (2 Cor. 4:4) but we are still involved in delivering mankind out of darkness into the Kingdom of God. The way we function in God's Kingdom is not to be overcome with evil, but to overcome evil with good (Rom. 12:21). Evil has a wide spectrum which includes crimes and personal wrongs inflicted on others. These behaviors come from both the redeemed (saved) and the unredeemed. This all belongs to the fall and the work of satan. Good (benevolent , morally right, profitable) on the other hand belongs to the Kingdom of God, where the emphasis is on God and His nature. God's rule in us is a reflection of His nature, which issues out of us. God's Kingdom cannot be shaken. It does the shaking (Heb. 12:28). We conquer evil by presenting ourselves as living sacrifices to God for others (Rom. 12:1-8). We are to be honest and honorable in all things, and with all people. We are to develop a peaceful spirit which never seeks to get even. Instead, when it is right we are to do good by recognizing a need and ministering to it. So determine to have the Kingdom rule in you as a conqueror of evil, not as a conqueror of people. Through it all we are training for reigning.
	Message Title - The Kingdom of God - Already And Not Yet - # 5 The King, The Kingdom And Revival; More Than A Revival, A Restoration Of Kingdom Message Date: 2/21/2010 We can reign in and within the world now. Ultimately Jesus will reign over all the world. Its blessing, power and provision can be received now through Holy Spirit. The same way it worked in Jesus is how it is to work in us. When it does, the Kingdom manifests (Matthew 12:28). But the Kingdom is God's and not man's and thus it has a superior motive derived from the character of God. He acts lovingly and redemptively. We enter the Kingdom experientially and it enters us spiritually. In both cases the Kingdom rules.
	Message Title - Trust, Belief, Faith - # 2 Message Date: 12/13/2009 God guards, covenants and preserves our inheritance but we must remain in faith. His promises to us are unconditional and conditional in that we remain in faith. Both are necessary. Exercising our faith is always a choice. We are tested in our faith (Rom. 5:2-5). There is joy in this testing (James 1:2). There is proof in this testing (1 Peter 1:4-7). The testing of our faith results in spiritual growth.
	Message Title - Trust, Belief, Faith - # 1 Message Date: 12/6/2009 Many people are experiencing above average challenges in life. Stress abounds, caused in part by the world's economy, health issues, terrorism and strife. Up until a few years ago conditions were such that most of us didn't have a great need to exercise our faith. There was relative prosperity, for example, but that had more to do with the conditions in the world or our own natural strengths. It is different now and our faith is being dragged out of the storage chest and dusted off. God entrusted us with faith - Jude 3. None of us is born with inherent faith. It is given to us (Eph. 2:8). Our salvation by faith is of God. We have a free will to exercise it. Our faith is stimulated by hearing the Word, reading Scripture, prophecies, and God speaking to us internally. Exercising our faith is always a choice. The faith we have is entrusted to us by God which when used puts us all in the honor roll of faith.
	Message Title - A Second Wind - Part 7 Love Is - 1 Corinthians 13 Message Date: 11/29/2009 Love is directly connected to the spiritual gifts. 1 Cor. 13 actually begins in 1 Cor. 12:31. We can divide the first 13 chapters as.... * Chapters 1-3 -- The need for love with gifts * Chapters 4-7 -- Love defined as to character and relations * Chapters 8-13 -- The eternal state of our being expressed as love enduring when all else passes away Without love we end up using the gifts as noisy cymbals which do not benefit us Love is patient with people and doesn't retaliate when unjustly dealt with. Love is kind and is focused on people, is gentle and benevolent. Love is not jealous nor does it desire the possessions of others. It doesn't seek to control others. Love doesn't brag or boast in anything. Love is not arrogant or proud. Love is not rude, nor does it ignore others. It doesn't act indifferent/discourteous towards others. Love doesn't seek for its own satisfaction. Love isn't easily provoked. It isn't easily irritated or angered. Love doesn't account for wrong suffered. It doesn't hold records of wrongs nor does it store up grievances to be used at a later date. Love doesn't delight in evil or unrighteousness. It does, however, rejoice in truth. Love bears all things and provides an environment to put up with until healing comes. Love believes and sees the best in others, and to believe the best for others. Love hopes. It holds out a favorable expectancy for all believers. Love endures and provides a steadfastness to endure temptation and trials without retaliating or rejecting another person. God knows us perfectly and in time we will know Him intimately. Love is the means to this end. The spiritual gifts and ministries heal, prepare and perfect. Love finishes the work.
	Message Title - A Second Wind - Part 6 How Love Works In Us To Make Us Whole Love Never Runs Dry - Wonders Of His Mighty Love Message Date: 11/15/2009 The love of God (salvation love we see in John 3:16-17) is a guiding love that flows like the river Jordan. We must first identify God's love further by contrasting it to human love which by comparison is weak and frail. Human love has controls and regulators on it. Without the life of Christ indwelling us, it is like a glove without a hand....limp. When the hand fills the glove and directs it, it becomes the hand of God's love reaching out. We, as Christians, learn the difference as we travel along the Christian path. Idolatrous love has no place in us. Things that keep us from coming after God will reveal that we love God too little, not others too much. Idolatrous love compromises and competes for our heart. We must know (1 John 4:10) that God loved us before creation. We cannot earn His love. He freely gives it. We must freely receive it, and then freely give it to others. The mix of need-love and give-love makes for healthy Christians.
	Message Title - Blessings In The Heavenlies Spiritual Warfare Message Date: 11/8/2009 The word 'blessing' in Ephesians 1:3 comes from the Greek word eulogian from which our word eulogy comes. It is God's action upon someone who is spoken well of. We are well spoken of because of our position in Christ and our endowments. There are three major areas of struggle. Our fallen nature. The fallen world. And satan and his evil spirits. Satan seeks to control the world through governments, nations or religion. But we are higher in position and rank, stronger in God's strength, and equipped with the Lord's armor.
	Message Title - A Second Wind - Part 5 Fulfilling the Royal Law of Love Message Date: 10/25/2009 Many Christians practice some love and some hatred, and live in a mixture which they have come to think is the norm. The tongue reveals this mixture, James 3:10. Hatred is an extreme opposite of Love. It is malicious, is often unjustified and causes darkness, unhappiness, offences, and stirs up and drives away others. God's love is from above and is pure, peaceable, gentle, merciful. It produces high quality character that generates the grace of God, without partiality, not wavering, without hypocrisy, and has no double standard. Peace reigns. We must decide what environment and what identity we wish to live in and have. James 2:8 says we are to live fulfilling the royal law of love. So, it should/must be our decision to have no mixture. * Owe no many anything but love -- Romans 13:8 * Love enough to correct -- Hebrews 12:5 * Love overwhelms the sins of others, but hatred stirs up strife -- Proverbs 10:12 * Live by the life of the Loving One in us. For us to live is Christ, Phil. 1:21 * Desire to create an identity and atmosphere of love.
	Message Title - A Second Wind - Part 4 Knowing God And His Love Message Date: 10/18/2009 While we might have a traditional understanding of God's love through His healing, providing, protecting, and answering of prayers, there is a longing to know the Father more, and to receive and understand His love more. Knowing God's love is not just getting your way and getting things that you ask Him for. It is not just goose bumps and excitement. It can include those, but there is more to the God kind of love and knowing Him. This love has "another" as its objective. We learn and know God's manifest presence by practicing His love towards others. In doing so, all become givers, and all become receivers. God is always present, but manifests Himself in, by and through love (agape love). As our hunger to know God and His love more is satisfied, we become vessels of that love to those around us and in the world.
	Message Title - God Sending His Word Message Date: 9/6/2009 Psalm 107:19-20 (NIV) - "Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress. He sent forth His word and healed them...." Summary: God is speaking in response to our prayers for revival (Psalm 107:20). We cry out, and God hears our prayers. He sends His Word to heal and deliver. We must learn to listen in order to hear and receive. And, of course, we must learn to obey what He says.
	Message Title - The Course of This World - Part 2 Message Date: 7/19/2009 Summary: This is the second part of last week's message.
	Message Title - The Course of This World - Part 1 The Course of the Kingdom Message Date: 7/12/2009 Summary: There is a truth about the course of this world. It has a path of destruction to it. The course of the world is like a raging river that takes everything caught up in it and sweeps it along. As an illustration, when I was a child I used to spend time at the local river banks. There was a kid there fishing and his line got caught in some reeds. He proceeded to pull up his pant legs to go into the river to free it. We warned him that there were leeches in the river but he paid us no attention. Well, sure enough, when he came out of the river he had leeches stuck to his legs. Leeches that such your blood. That's what happens when you get into the course of the river of this world. Nobody can get into it without getting contaminated through its disobedience, self satisfaction (of the flesh/mind), unbelief, etc. The world can look good and might be doing some "good", but at its root is contamination of various sorts. In this teaching we look at the course of this world and the course of the Kingdom. Part 2 will be covered next week.
	Message Title - The Rising of One Stepping Into Corporate Anointing Message Date: 7/5/2009 Summary: As the Father, Holy Spirit and Jesus were committed to each other, we are to be equally committed to the Lord and to one another as in seeking first the Kingdom of God. The rich, precious, right anointing of Holy Spirit (Psalm 133:2) on the head of Aaron is a picture of us as the one body functioning in our ministry to God on behalf of men and on behalf of God to men.
	Message Title - The Power of the Word "IN" Christ IN Me Coming & Abiding (The Grace For Both Comes From Christ) Message Date: 6/7/2009 Summary: This is the third part of the message about the power of the word IN, and the important truths that as Christians we are IN Christ and that Christ is IN us. The Holy Spirit may give us power, but the end of the whole thing is not to have power, but power for life. We can get so caught up in the excitement of people and activities (and even sometimes ministry) and end up getting off course. This happens because we never learned how to abide. Grace enables us. The same grace that called us enables us once we respond and abide in Him. Our call is to come to Him and stay/abide with Him.
	Message Title - The Power of the Word "IN" IN Christ and Christ IN Us - Part 2 (Salvation Is A Person) Message Date: 5/24/2009 Summary: This is the second part of the message about the power of the word IN, and the important truths that as Christians we are IN Christ and that Christ is IN us. Do you know that the devil is not threatened by our knowledge of the Scriptures? Rather, he IS threatened by the character of Christ being formed within us. There can be a lessening of our expectations of what it is to live as a real Christian, because we're doing so much in our own power and think that we're calling upon the Holy Spirit for a little help when in reality He is just along for the ride. And He is not going to step into action until we finally say "that's it, I'm done", and then He can and act in our lives. Because we are IN Him, we are saved. Our salvation is in Christ Jesus. When He died, we died. When He rose, we rose. When He stood before the Father (Eph 1:6), we were blessed in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. When the Father looks at you and I He looks at Christ and we are counted clean, pure, justified, and blessed in all of the promises of God. And so there we are IN Christ receiving everything. And while it is true that because we are IN Him we are saved, because He is IN us we are being saved. There is an exact ultimate application to our lives that eternity is ours with God because of the work of Christ and our faith in Him and that we are IN Him. But day to day salvation occurs because He is IN us. The overcoming of our lives occurs through Christ IN us, by Christ IN us, and by no other means.
	Message Title - The Power of the Word "IN" IN Christ and Christ IN Us Message Date: 5/17/2009 Summary: We have previously looked at the power of the word OF. Now we look at the power of the word IN. This word is used in connection with two of the most important realities of our life as Christians. The first is that we are IN Christ and the second is that Christ is IN us. When we come to realize the immense significance of these truths and then put them into practice, our lives will change beyond anything we have ever experienced. In order for this to happen we do need a change in our paradigm of how we think as Christians, which affects our behavior. It is repentance at the core of our faith. It will place our faith on the indwelling Christ, and not ourselves, and our energy to function as Christians.
	Message Title - The Power of a Resurrected Life - Part 3 Forgiveness of Sins on Earth--Our Ministry Message Date: 5/3/2009 Summary: Within a short time before Jesus was to leave this earth, He appeared to His disciples and symbolically blew on them the Holy Spirit. he then commissioned them to the same ministry He had. He said as the Father has sent Me so send I you, told them to receive the Holy Spirit, and then declared that whosoever sins they would remit (forgive) they would be forgiven, and whosoever sins they retained (didn't forgive) would not be forgiven. In this teaching we look at the categories of sin, the character in Christ that made Him so compassionate in forgiveness, and then 4 illustrations of Him forgiving. All of this provides us with examples of how we are to function in forgiveness as a ministry to the church and to the lost. It is truly an "everybody" ministry.
	Message Title - Resurrection Sunday (Principle of Death and Life) Message Date: 4/12/2009 Summary: The concept of resurrection existed before there was a human death. God placed it in creation first as a sign of what He would do with Jesus and then mankind. Throughout the Bible evidence of resurrection exists. It exists in the three major feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles, and then in the raising of the dead in both old and new dispensations. Jesus taught of the corn of wheat dying to bring life, of the need to take up our crosses and die, and of the kingdom as a seed sown that dies and brings forth fruit, some 30, 60, and 100 fold. Both Satan and God use death as a primary weapon either of destruction or of life. The one holds men in bondage to sin, sickness and fear of death, and the other to freedom from sin, sickness and self.
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