Philippians 3:10-11 – “…that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”  NKJV

There are two great truths presented in this passage and I focus on the second.  However we cannot have the second without first knowing Him.  Many Christians want the Power of God in their lives but few actually pray for the fellowship of His sufferings or to be conformed to His death.  I know the protests came out immediately but do we really seek to enter the fellowship of His sufferings or the conformity to His death?  I have visited and spoken in many churches that are crying out for the Power of God but almost none that are praying to enter into that relationship that is the foundation for that power.

Fellowship in the Greek is the word ‘koinonia’ and means partnership, participation and literally becoming one with.  Many churches call themselves ‘The Fellowship’ and are anything but a fellowship in the sense of sharing, partnership, participation and becoming one with the other members of that body.  If we are The Body of Christ then each member is connected to the other members in some way but if we are to become an effective local body we must develop ‘koinonia’ rather than being a group of people who identify with a particular brand, gather for a time of celebration and then go our separate ways.  There must become a joining and sharing if we are to present Christ to our communities with the effectiveness God desires.

But the ‘koinonia’ of His sufferings, do we really seek that?  Do we even understand that?  I would never suggest nor does the Bible that we are to engage in some type of self-flagellation spiritually or physically.  Suffering comes but it should always come as a result of righteousness not some misguided view that the more we can cause self to suffer the more spiritual we are.  Our objective should be Christ and as a result we will be hated by the world for the world hates and hated Him.  If we seek to know Him to the level and degree that we can identify with and through righteousness participate in His sufferings we will see the Power of God come dynamically.

Yes Jesus did suffer physically on the Cross but since the Bible declares in Hebrews 4:15 that Jesus was tempted in all points as we without sin we know that He died to the world and that I believe is the heart of this prayer of Paul.  When we receive Christ as our Savior the Bible identifies that as the New Birth and clearly indicates that we become New Creations.  We have a New Self and in a real sense our Spiritual DNA changes.  In that experience OLD THINGS pass away and NEWNESS OF LIFE comes into our person.  If we do not allow the Holy Spirit to identify the baggage we are bringing over from the old we will not ‘die to self’ or ‘die to the flesh’ and will find it raising its ugly head time and again.  If we are to be conformed to His death we must allow God to do the spiritual work that is involved in bringing us into “koinonia” with His sufferings and His death to sin.

Every time I talk to God about Power He always talks to me about Purity.  Preparation ALWAYS precedes blessing for if God were to give us His Power while our hearts were less than pure it would destroy us and do great damage in the Body of Christ.  We have seen people receive Power but fail to keep their hearts Pure and watched the destruction that followed.  It is no wonder that Paul spoke of a thorn in the flesh and the Bible continually instructs us to Guard our Hearts.  The disciples came back to Jesus raving about the Power that had been demonstrated in their ministries and He said, “Do not rejoice in this but that your names are in the Book of Life.”  The Heart is by far the most important part of your Christian walk, work or warfare.

Yes we want the Power but let us also desire the Purity that comes with learning the fellowship of His sufferings and allow the Holy Spirit to bring us in conformity with His death.

            God bless you as you go through this day!

Mark 4:35-38 – “On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.”  36 Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him. 37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. 38 But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”  NKJV

We have all heard the cliché, “Perception is Reality” and for many it is or becomes their reality.  The facts are inconsequential it is perception and perception is that which their beliefs and actions are based therefore PERCEPTION is REALITY, albeit falsely.  In American politics we had a very real example of that in 1960 when the first ever televised debate between two political candidates for president was presented.  John F. Kennedy appeared relaxed, at ease and in control whereas Richard M. Nixon came across as nervous and uncertain.  The perception and spin that resulted was that JFK was a much stronger and capable leader and therefore the choice of millions for President based on perception not actual fact.  That element entered and altered American politics to this day and much of our political climate is PERCEPTION and that becomes reality to many.

Here in our text we find the disciples in the midst of a storm and Jesus was sleeping in the boat.  They were terrified and presumed they were going to sink and die and Jesus was sleeping!  Their perception is heard in their question when they awakened Him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”  It was not LORD help us!  It was LORD, since you are sleeping through this storm it appears that you do not care what happens to us.  You are not doing what we expect, in the manner we expect and in the time frame or with the urgency we expect therefore YOU MUST NOT CARE!   Perception had become their reality.

Thankfully Jesus did not let the story end there but arose, calmed the storm then addressed the problem.  They were fearful because they did not trust Him or the Father.  They trusted what they could see and what they could see presented them with the choice to succumb to fear or rise up in faith and they opted for the easy way out and let fear grip their hearts and shape their perception.  That led them to accuse Jesus of being unconcerned about their welfare.

When we allow PERCEPTION to become our REALITY we dismiss faith and embrace circumstances, conditions, appearances, and even fear.  Another reason it is imperative that we get all the facts before rendering a judgment.  Oh, we will not be able to prevent the formation of an opinion but hopefully we will keep that opinion pliable and allow it to be shaped by REALITY not PERCEPTION. 

When God does not meet our timetables or our preconceived ideas of how He should handle any situation we allow the devil to advance His lie that GOD DOES NOT CARE or that GOD HAS FORSAKEN US.  We then forget the promises of Scripture that He will NEVER leave us or forsake us and the words of the apostle Peter in 1 Peter 5:7 that we are to CAST ALL our care upon Him, for HE CARES FOR US.  He cares!  That is reality!  Perception says, he has not responded yet or in the manner or time frame I expected or desired therefore He does not care.  Reality says, He is God and operates in His timing and according to His purposes.  Delay is not denial it is delay and even that may only be our perception not reality for in reality His timing is perfect.

Therefore resist the devil and his attempts to coerce you into the trap of Perception and making it your reality.  BELIEVE GOD not circumstances.  May God be with you and allow you to walk in Truth and True Reality as you embrace this new day in the Lord!

2 Corinthians 1:8 – “For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life.”  NKJV

             I have experienced some incredibly traumatic things in life including the loss of someone dear in tragedy, abandonment to the point I despaired of life and the pronouncement that I had a malignancy.  The experiences like those mentioned were incredibly painful and distressing but I know of no pain more debilitating than the feeling of helplessness. 

I have watched my children face struggles that I could not step in and resolve and for a man who was raised to fend for himself, face difficulties head on and handle whatever came your way HELPLESSNESS is murderous.  You see the problem and know that within yourself you can do nothing.  It is outside your ability, authority or power.  It is not dependent on what you do or do not do and may rest in the hands of others whom you cannot control.

Helplessness is as much a state of mind as anything and it finds its roots in FEAR and TRUST or the lack of trust.  In the state of mind that says, “Nothing I do will make a difference” is not only paralyzing it can be destructive.  It can and often does destroy relationships and faith.  It stems from the idea that we, as individuals, must be in control and are the captains of our own ship and masters of our own fate.  It, at its core, denies God although the person in that state of mind may be devout in their belief in God.  It views life through the prism of self and becomes incapable of looking beyond themselves.

Helplessness is a continual spiral downward into the abyss of hopelessness.  If we find ourselves in a state of feeling helpless and hopeless we have choices.  We can continue our focus on self and circumstances and revel in the helplessness and hopelessness of the situation or condition or we can look beyond ourselves.  I would contend that if we envision another can rectify our situation we are not in a state of helplessness.  It is when we see no solution from our own ability or any outside source that HELPLESSNESS reigns.  It is from that sense of helplessness that we become hopeless and despair of life.  NO HOPE!   NO HELP!  Total despair rules.

It is when we look beyond ourselves or others and realize that with God NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE that helplessness and hopelessness begins to melt away from our minds.  Our pathway to deliverance and victory may be tiny baby steps but the light at the end of the tunnel gradually transforms from a faint candle flicker to a brilliant flood light.  Hope begins to rise within and that hope dispels the sense of helplessness.

The Serenity Prayer is applicable especially when our confidence is directed to the LORD our God:

            “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I                can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Helplessness is a condition where we see ourselves as the final source of a solution.  Hopefulness is where we see God as the final source of a solution.  In a time of helplessness we can either become hopeless or hopeful depending on where our look is focused.  Psalm 121:1-2 gives the solution, “I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence comes my help?  My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.”

I pray that God HELP you to be free of HELPLESSNESS and walk in HOPEFULNESS the remainder of your days!    God bless you as you go through this day!

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 – “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”  NKJV

In the English we have a significant language problem and the word LOVE is no exception.  The word, in the English language, has evolved to mean a myriad of things and many not remotely connected to the Bible word for LOVE.

The chief word LOVE in the New Testament is AGAPE and has no real English translation.  The word we must most of the time is more akin to the Greek word “Eros” which is largely foreign to the New Testament directive.  In the writing of the New Testament the Holy Spirit drew a word out of obscurity a word that most Greeks barely knew what it meant.  The New Testament brings us the definition of AGAPE.

The definition is incredibly simple and is found in 1 John 4:8 – “God is AGAPE!”  Many believers like the word Agape but have little real knowledge of its meaning and impact.  Most of the time when we speak of love it is by the human definition.  This Love that Paul is referring to is the God kind of Love or the God quality of Love.  Remember Jesus said, “Love one another as I have loved you.”  

This chapter is more than amazing.  Most Christians know this and many know it by heart and can quote it readily but it has virtually no impact on multitudes.  It is nothing more than words to place a balm on our consciences rather than transform our lives.  In verse 3 the apostle declares, “…if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have AGAPE it profits nothing.”  Hear that please.  You can become a martyr for God or the Christian faith and if you do not have AGAPE it is nothing!

What is a martyr?  Someone who is willing, because of what they believe regarding God and the meaning of life, to die.  He or she is willing to die for that belief.  But let’s take it a step further, because AGAPE has to do with relationships with people.  In a very real sense, AGAPE has nothing to do with me loving God but me loving people.  Therefore the entire chapter is about you or me loving AGAPE People.  That screams to me, “It is not what a person does that counts it is the source from which it comes.” 

If we are going to find, experience and manifest REAL LOVE then we must understand what real love is.  God is Love!   God does not just have love HE IS LOVE.  This is not what God has but what God is.  Additionally, Love is of God.  It issues forth from God for there can be no AGAPE outside God for He is the source!  If man is severed from God, what is he left with?  The stuff he is mad of – Flesh!  There is a hole in his heart. There is an emptiness or lack in his makeup.  Man has a longing for love and to be loved.

            God bless you as you go through this day!

Ephesians 4:29-5:2 – “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. 32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. 

5:1 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.”  NKJV

I believe that one of the key sources or roots for a person developing a Victim Mentality is BITTERNESS.  Many harbor resentment do deeply that it dominates their lives.  The question is why do we replay the hurt over and over in our minds reliving the old wounds?  It is because we go back to The Lie, “you shall be as God.”

What does God do?  He is in control.  Therefore, if we believe that we are like God then we envision ourselves as being in control.  If we are in control then we are in charge of the punishment to be meted out to the ones who hurt us.  They can never be set free because we are determined to eventually make them hurt like they hurt us or maybe even more.

We lock the door to our lives and then attempt to influence as many others to lock the offender out as well.  In fact, it can escalate to the point that we want them eradicated from the human race declaring them that despicable.  WHY?  We have become a Victim.  If they had not said or done what they did I would not be an addict, alcoholic, abandoned, economically or socially deficient.  It was or is their fault!  Because of them I have been living in Hell and now I’m going to send them there as well.  The pain is real and incredible for the Victim.

If I could somehow get everyone to realize that no human being can make them do anything they could be free.  It is a choice.  He or she makes me so mad!  No, we choose to become angry.  But, you are a Victim because you were injured.  They did it to me so do not ask me to forgive them THEY ARE WRONG!  The victim chooses to remember and by holding on to it he/she believes they can guarantee it will never happen again.  The wall is erected and the list of offenders denied access grows almost daily.

Some never forgive because they do not understand forgiveness.  They think if they forgive the offender they will be hurt again and become a doormat.  But what is forgiveness?  It is not calling a truce, admitting defeat, letting evil win or saying let’s just forget it.  Have you ever had someone who hurt you come and apologize and you say, “Oh, it was nothing”?  That is not the truth and you know it!  IT HURT and was far more than nothing!  Some have the mistaken idea that if they do not admit it hurt it doesn’t exist but if you will not or cannot admit the pain you cannot forgive.

Forgiveness is never condoning.  We are often told we must forgive but rarely are we told how to forgive.  We are told the why behind forgiveness but not the how.  We hear that we must forgive because Christ has forgiven us and if we do not forgive we will not be forgiven.  True, but how do we forgive?  In a great sense we consciously and determined ‘release the offender.’

What does God do?  He takes the initiative and comes to us.  The one that we sinned against comes and takes our place.  He chooses to bear all our guilt, grief and sorrow.  He pays our debt with His own blood.  Then He rises from the dead and extends a full pardon to us.  We are Free!  Remember the workers hired at different times of the day?  As the owner of the vineyard began to hand out the pay he began with those who worked least and paid them but as he worked through to those who had worked all day he paid the same wage and they were irate.  Not fair was the cry!  Exactly, Life is not fair and we should be glad God is not focused on fairness but mercy, for if He were we would have something quite other than salvation and pardon.

What do we do?  We REPENT.  We surrender and receive His grace.  There is no discussion of the past.  The key is that we are to forgive “just as” God has forgiven us.  We must BE that which He has made us.  Be kind.  Be tenderhearted. Be forgiving.  Be someone who dishes out grace.  It changes the entire attitude and moves us from being victims to victors.  Therefore, you take BITTERNESS and get rid of it.  You banish it from your life.  You hold it up to the light of God’s Grace and begin learning a lifestyle of forgiveness.  You will repeat it over and over again for a long time, most likely.  It will become who you are and then your actions and attitude will reflect His Forgiveness and become Forgiveness.

Forgiveness is not divine amnesia and we forgive by faith!  We choose to not lay their sin to their charge and release them.   May the Lord be with you guarding and guiding you through this day!

Colossians 1:13-14 – “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”  NASU

We sing about being part of the REDEEMED and that we are SOJOURNERS just passing through and that is good.  However I want to highlight something for consideration regarding our status in this world and the one to come.

The work of Christ in His birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension affords something wonderful.  The King James Version says He “delivered” us from the devil’s power.  The Amplified refers to it as “delivered” from the devil’s control and the New American Standard identifies that we have been “rescued” from the Domain or Kingdom of Darkness.  All basically say the same thing but let’s take this idea or revelation and examine it briefly.

If we have been delivered or rescued from the devil’s kingdom (where we were citizens) and his power (where he manipulated us) and have been transferred into the Kingdom of God that is worthy of note.  In that single act of our LORD we have seen our status change from ‘refugee’ to ‘citizen’ of a different realm or kingdom.

In the natural, if our citizenship changes we are under the laws and governance of the new country of which we are citizens.  We have backing us the entire might of our new country and rather than holding refugee status we hold citizenship.  We may be sojourners in this present world but our citizenship is of that Eternal World of the Kingdom of God.  The title ‘god of this world’ the devil held has been rendered, null and void by the Finished Work of Jesus on the Cross and His Resurrection from the Dead.  We are here not as refugees fleeing the tyranny of the devil but as ambassadors of our new country or kingdom.

The authority through which Jesus operates is extended to us as citizens of that new kingdom and through His authority we have power and authority over all power and authority of the former ‘god of this world’.  Jesus redeemed or ‘bought back’ that which was lost and whether we accept His grace or reject it we no longer belong to the devil but to God.  Unless we accept His grace we will perish and by that act of rejection we ‘give place to the devil’ and in so doing place ourselves within his grasp.

Too many in the Body of Christ live as refugees in this present world trying to escape the devil and longing for the heavenly cavalry to arrive and rescue us.  That places us in a subordinate position rendering us powerless against the power of darkness for we fail to understand or appropriate the position afford us through Grace.  If we can understand that we have a LEGAL VICTORY in Jesus to exercise dominion and authority in this earth over all the power of the enemy we will find our lives transformed drastically.

We need to learn to enforce the Victory of Calvary and appropriate the Promises of God in this present world.  We are not refugees we are citizens of the Kingdom of God.  We are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus.  We have been given power over all the power of the enemy and our weapons are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.  We are more than conquerors through Jesus so let’s live like citizens not refugees.

            God bless as you go through this day!