12-24-2016         NO GREATER LOVE

No greater love.  John 15:13 tells us that no man can express a greater love than he lay down his life for his friends.  Jesus came into this world over two thousand years ago to do just that – and more.  

While we were yet sinners (separated from God) God s showed His love towards us as Christ died for us (on the cross) (Romans 5:8).  And He showed us the relationship He wanted with us when He explained to His apostles and disciples (John 15:14-17) that He doesn’t want ‘just’ servants, but He wants friends (like David and Johnathan, 2 Sam.1:26), someone He can share His thoughts with and who will share our lives with Him. 

This is Jesus who was with the God and was God (John 1:1), who was made flesh and lived among us and the disciples saw His glory as the only begotten of the Father (John 1:14).  So Jesus became a ‘man’ under the law to redeem us from the law (Gal. 3:13) by being born a human (Gal. 4:4-6) to deliver us from the bondage of the law.  He had everything in heaven, yet He came to earth to bring us back into eternal fellowship with the Father (Romans 10:9).

He did this by going to the cross for without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin (Heb. 9:22), becoming cursed for us so that we might attain righteousness and have eternal fellowship with the Father (Gal. 3:13). 

But we know that Jesus not only died for us, but overcame death and the grave (1 Corinth. 15:55-57) and ascended to the right hand of the Father (Acts 7:55) and is patiently waiting to come back for all His brothers and sisters (the church) so we can be with Him forever and ever (1 Thess. 4:13-18). 

So how do we return this love to Jesus?

We read the bible to show ourselves approved (2 Tim. 2:15).   There are many voices in the world.  If we don’t learn something about the nature of God, how can we know what voice we are hearing?  Samuel had to learn to know that it was the voice he was hearing in the night (1 Sam. 3:1-11).  We learn how God interacts with us, comforts us and guides us through reading the bible.

There are three ways in which we can read the bible:

Content – From Genesis to Revelation, what’s in the bible?  We learn the stories of the bible, about creation, Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, King David, King Solomon, Jesus, the apostle Paul and etc.   We may not understand all that the stories mean or involve, but we do become familiar with them so we know what has happened in the bible and have an idea of how God has dealt with man in the situations.

Depth – What lessons can we learn, should we learn, from reading the bible?  How to speak, how to act, how to interact with other people and the world around us, who is God, who is Jesus (really), our relationship with HIm and so forth.  We begin to understand the meaning of the contents and truths of the bible, how they impact us and how we can apply them to our own lives.

Revelation – A much deeper insight into what God wants us to learn from His written Word.  Our relationship with the world around us.  Our relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.  Our relationship with our heavenly Father through Jesus Christ and the role of the Holy Ghost in this relationship.  How we can walk with the Father/Jesus through the Holy Ghost. The apostle John reminds us that Jesus said and did a whole lot more than what is recorded in the bible (John 21:25), so we know that there is more to learn that what is literally written in the bible.

As we learn about God, we need to become familiar with how to communicate with Him.  Communication is how we build relationships.  If we don’t talk with someone, we don’t learn anything about them, things they like, their interests or their basic nature. 

To develop our relationship with God, we need to learn about Him, not just in reading the bible (that’s just the beginning) but really to get to know Him and we call our communication with Him “prayer”.

Communication (prayer) is a two way street:

Us petitioning God – What’s on my mind?  What needs do I have?  We can bare our hearts, our thoughts, our needs: money, guidance, help, to God even though our heavenly Father already knows our needs are (Matt. 6:8) He still would like us to honestly, sincerely and plainly, verbally express (speak out loud) those needs to Him and ask.  

God speaking to us – God answering our prayers.  God answers prayer three ways: 

The bible:  We may not be able to ‘hear’ God’s voice so Father will speak to us through His written word (the bible), giving us the answer we need. We have a problem, the Holy Ghost will lead us into the bible showing us the answer we need.

The world around us:  He may provide circumstances, situations or people who will express the answer to our prayer request.  We just need to look and/or listen and to receive His response to our prayer through the things around us.

Personal Revelation:  As with Samuel (1 Sam. 3:7-10), God may speak to us directly, or put a thought in our heart or mind (the Holy Ghost lives within us (John 14:16-17), which is His response to our situation.  And this response WILL BE consistent with the truths of the bible, so we have the assurance we are hearing from God.

So we find that God can answer our prayer by sending us into His written word, things or people around us or by speaking directly to us through thoughts or ideas expressed using an audible or internal (thought or feeling) or external voice.  Now I personally have yet to experience an external voice from God, but I’ve talked with those who claim this experience.  I cannot divide yea or nay so I accept their testimony based on their relationship with the Lord.

            There are four aspects to our ‘prayer life”

                        Praise and worship

Our prayers life should always include praise and worship.  Acknowledging God for who He is, His characteristics, qualities, His love as expressed towards us (Psalms 34:1).  We enjoy others giving us praise for the good things we do for them or for our successes in life.  We get that from our heavenly Father – He too enjoys our acknowledging His works in our lives (Rev. 4:8).

                        Thanksgiving

We should continually thank Him for all that He has done and does do for us (Psalms 50:14).  How do we feel when our children (or anybody) thanks us for something we’ve done for them?  God relishes the fact that we appreciate what He has done for us, as well.

                        Our petitions

God wants us put our request before Him (Phil. 4:6).   As we’ve already said, He knows our request before we even ask Him, but there’s just something about speaking them out before Him.

                        Our listening to the Creator of heaven and earth

Once we’ve had our say, we need to ‘zip our lips’, sit back and listen for whatever revelation Father has for us (Job 37:14, Psalms 46:10).  What does He have to say that He wants us to know?

All of this is our following the lead of the Holy Ghost in building our relationship with our heavenly Father so we can walk with Him and talk with Him in the cool of the evening and hear what He has to say to us.  Having a true relationship with our Creator.

All of this is how we can show our love to God in appreciation for His giving us life and the promise (not just hope) of eternal fellowship with Him, through Jesus Christ (our Lord) and sealing us with His Holy Ghost – for ever.

God showed us His great love by giving us His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, on Christmas Day.  We can return our love to/for Him by living for Him in this world.  John chapters fourteen, fifteen, sixteen and seventeen give us a good start on how to live for Father through Jesus Christ.  We remember that God is love (1 John 4:7) and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24) so we can be a true beacons of his love to a lost world (Matt. 5:16). 

No greater love?  God, the Father, towards us and us returning that love to Him to the best of our ability and God helps us here too.  Apart from Jesus we can truly do nothing (John 15:5) but in Him we can do all things (Phil. 4:13).

Amen.

12/10/2916   Little Boy(Girl) Lost
                   

We are spiritual beings living in a physical body and the nature of our spirit is determined by our relationship with the Heavenly Father through His Son, Jesus Christ. 

Every living creature has a spirit of ‘life’ (Gen. 2:7), not eternal life but that which gives us breath and animation (being able to move about), but nonetheless what we call life.  One of two things can happen to us as we age, I didn’t say mature, I said ‘age’, get older.  We can ask the Spirit of the living God to enter our hearts and become a viable part of our lives or we can reject God’s Spirit and try to make it on our own where we live out our lives living in our own strength or a demonic entity may take up residence within.  In either case, the end will eventually lead to all sorts of havoc – promiscuity, violence, despair, or more.  Those who reject Jesus do become the devil’s playground.  When the devil dangles those temptations, we jump, to whatever enticement he has set before us – in our own strength, but when an evil entity enters into our hearts and takes up residence, our bodies become controlled by that spirit (John 8:42-45).

Even if we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, we need to start growing or we may become stagnant.  Stagnant means no Spiritual growth (1 Corinth 3:1-3).  We quench the Spirit by not allowing Him to function in our lives as God intended (1 Thess. 5:19).   Even though we are saved by faith we keep God’s laws (to truly love) we obey God’s laws, not because we ‘have to’ but because we ‘choose to’.  We have the hope of salvation, but when we become stagnant, we stay ‘spiritual babies’ until Christ’s return.  

When we don’t accept Jesus, we leave ourselves open to any outside influence, including uninvited entities coming into our hearts.   Look at the world around us.  It has gone totally bananas!  Aside from ‘terrorism’ people are killing people Irregardless of race), there is theft, sexual promiscuity and so on.  God does not force Himself upon us and when we reject Him, He leaves us to our own devices and that means being open to any influences the Evil One decides to inflict (on the unsaved).   If we’re honest, the world’s a mess – a big mess.  And at the bottom of that mess are demonic entities under the guidance of Satan himself (Rom. 1:22-25).

Read the following scripture, on your own, to get a little better understanding of what the bible says about spiritual warfare.  Now, there are more scriptures than these, but this should give you an idea and you can always research further, just remember to read the entire account.

Mark 5:1-13                 “Legion”

Mark 1:39                    “Casting out devils in a region”

Luke 11:14                   “The ‘dumb’ devil”

Acts 16:16-18              “Spirit of divination and Paul”

Matt. 12:25-29            “Who casts out devils, Satan or God?”

Matt. 8:16                   “Cast out spirits by His Word”

Luke 4:33-36               “Authority over unclean spirits”

Mark 7:25-30               “The Gentile woman’s daughter (scraps)”

Acts 19:13-16              “Sons of Sceva”

But spiritual warfare is just the foundation, not the meat, for what I really want to talk about at this time.  I want you to understand that there are opposing forces in this world.  Oriental philosophy may call it “ying and yang”, “light and dark (white and black) or some may even all It the ‘ever present’ battle of good versus evil (“may the force be with you”).  Many religions deny the existence of God or Satan but that doesn’t make it so.  In fact, Satan thrives in the lives of those who refuse to believe he exists.  But the battle goes on as Satan continues to try to undermine the things God does (Rev. 12:7-9).

But all of this is just the intro to what I really want to talk about –“the little boy (girl) lost”.  “Wait” you say. “Why did you put girl in parenthesis?”  God is always projected in the masculine (I know the arguments).  God created Adam (man) then took a rib from Adam’s ‘side’ making Eve (woman), thus making man and woman equal in position BUT not in responsibility (are you listening men?).  This is all I’ll say about this (Gen. 21-23).  If you challenge me or think I should talk about this later, send me an email for this is a topic all unto itself.  My email address is at the top of the blog if you want to contact me and my google has a ‘translator’.  I haven’t used it yet but I’m willing to give it a shot if necessary.

Now, “Little boy (girl) lost”.  If you follow me at all, you’ve seen that I liberally use scripture references to support what I say, but on this topic I haven’t seen any scripture, per se, so what I say here is by ‘permission’, God’s permission.  What I put in the blog may not always be all that there is to say on a subject, but it is factual (that’s why I use scripture).  However, this an area that doesn’t fit the mold, but, by the grace of God, this will give you something to think about. 

There is a spirit called an ‘orphan spirit’.  The first time I even heard the term was about five years ago at a conference I went to and there was a class on the ‘orphan spirit’ so I thought I’d take it.  I didn’t realize what Father would be opening me up to, as I continued to grow.  It was a good class and the instructor shared what he understood.  It was good and I received it but since that time Father has opened my eyes up tremendously to that area of our lives so what I share today, if you will, is not only by permission, but revelation and personal experience as well.  Don’t read just the two following verses I cite here but the surrounding ones as well.  John 20:30 “Truly, Jesus did many other signs and wonders in the presence of His disciples which are not written in this book” (John’s gospel) and in John 21:25 “And there are many other things that Jesus did that if every one should be written down, the world could not contain all the books in which they would be written,”  So we see that Jesus said and did a lot that we don’t have ‘immediate’ access to but according to John 20:31, we have enough information to gain access into eternity.

So, just what is the ‘orphan spirit”?  How do we come by it?  How do we know it when we see it?  How do we get rid of it?  That’s what I want to talk about this time.

How do we get an orphan spirit?

The orphan spirit enters a person’s life via some sort of traumatic experience.  It doesn’t matter how great or how small that experience may actually be but it is major to the individual.  It doesn’t matter how old or how young the individual is.  It is an event in one’s life that the individual cannot or will not cope with:  loss of a parent or dearly loved one, abuse – verbal or physical, rape, witnessing extreme violence. , maybe even ‘simply’ just being left alone (abandoned) – no support system.

Nature

The orphan might actually seem to be a help initially because what it does is set up defense barriers to help us cope with the situation.  This might seem good, but the defense mechanisms are all ‘internal’, God is not a part of this support system at all.   There is a dual nature inside the individual – introvert and extrovert.  Truly an introvert because of insecurities, there has been no foundation for building confidence.  There is ‘no’ or a ‘weak’ support system to foster self-confidence so the orphan helps the introverted person to create protective barriers – “I’m really OK”, “It’s not my fault” etc.  Yet, the individual seeks and desires acceptance, attention and love and seeks to fill that void in his heart.  Often, trying to fill that void results in ‘acting out in various ways, to get attention.  The gloves come off as the orphan helps the extrovert to fill the void in any way, acting out (class clown or the ‘bad boy’ always in trouble), becoming promiscuous thinking that ‘love’ (sex) is the answer.  Afraid to ask for and receive attention but doing almost anything to get that attention, even to being destructive. 

Yet this spirit is not an indwelling spirit.  If you will, it sits on your shoulder, whispering into your ear what it wants you to do and because these suggestions seem to ease the pain of the trauma and we listen and do. 

Recognition

How can we recognize the orphan spirit?  Because all the defense mechanisms are internal, one of the first things the orphan will do is affirm that the individual is really OK, within himself.  It soothes a shaken and/or shattered ego.  It needs reaffirmation – “Good boy!”  You can do it!”  And you may say but those are natural encouragements and you’re right but the orphan spirit HAS to have that reinforcement – for survival.  Though the orphan seeks these positive reinforcements, because of the introverted personality, they seldom really come.  Yes, it’s always nice to hear encouraging words, but for the orphan, they become a necessity in life. It HAS to have it so it seeks those reinforcements.  It will all but die without those reinforcements. 

The orphan will crave attention any way it can get it, whether blatant or subtle.  The orphan spirit says “Look at me!”, “Watch me!”, “Focus on me!”  It has to broadcast accomplishments (see, I really am somebody).  It has to be the center of attention, that’s part of the reaffirmation.  It may brag about accomplishments (real or perceived) especially when compliments don’t come from outside resources.  And in seeking reaffirmation and acceptance, the orphan becomes controlling.  If the orphan is ‘in control’, “nothing else can hurt me).

Influence

Because it is a controlling spirit, the orphan spirit drives to control the situation, any situation, so that nor more hurt comes to the individual.  This controlling nature can become ‘overbearing’ to those around the orphan for it (the orphan) NEEDS to take charge as part of its self-protection mode.  

Danger

The big danger with the orphan spirit is not the spirit itself, per se, but that it opens the door for other, truly evil, demonic sprits to enter the individual which, of course, will lead to more corrupt and perverse attitudes and actions and here, I’m implying outright possession of the individual and blatant promiscuity, violence and so forth.

Good riddance

I mentioned that the orphan is not an indwelling spirit.  This means it can’t be cast out, but rather it has to be loved out.  We need to fill our lives with God’s love to the point that there is “No room at the inn” for the orphan spirit in our lives.  We can’t continue to entertain it’s suggestions but ignore them and replace the elements of that spirit with God’s love in and through the indwelling of the Holy Ghost.

We need to identify those areas of our life which the orphan spirit influences.  Then we bring God’s love into our hearts by yielding those areas to Him (of course, through Jesus) and continue looking for more areas to yield even as we see victory in some areas, to assure all areas are clean.  We give those areas to God, through Jesus Christ and leave them with him.  Sort of like acknowledging, confessing, repenting and setting our sins behind us (Isaiah 38:17).  And when the enemy reminds us of what ‘used to be, we remind him that we have already given those areas to God and stand firm in what God has given us (Ephesians 6:13).

When the orphan has no more footholds, which is true with any spirit, we achieve victory.  Then we continue to fill our hearts with God’s love and word so to keep those doors closed.  We don’t want to fall into the trap of the swept and garnished house (Matt. 12:43-45) where the spirit returns.