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Saturday, August 30, 2014

Forgiveness – Set Us Free like waterfalls flowing from the Father’s Heart - Testimony of Restoration


Forgiveness – Set Us Free like waterfalls flowing from the Father’s Heart


I grew up a kid of divorce.  When I was nine my parents met with my brother and me separately and told us they were not going to be living together any more. They were speaking a foreign language; some kind of gibberish.  I remember lots of words but none of them made any sense. My parents did split up.  So my brother and I moved across the U. S. to California back to Oceanside and grandma’s house. 

Years later I was on a spiritual retreat at a Dominican Monastery.  Alone in my cell I decided to “dedicate” all the relationships of my life to the Lord.  One at a time, I went through the list.   Soon I came to my mom.   At that point in time I was living in Southern California.  I was a half-hour from my mom’s home in Orange. Yet I had not seen her in years.  

I was 29 and carrying 19 years of emptiness like it was part of my body.  Oblivious yet completely aware, I avoided the pain associated with seeing my mom by not seeing her.  Later I learned that the “cut off” was part of my family story.  It never left me, the pain.  It kept taking me over with the passing days.  Creeping inside and building I pushed it down deeper believing it could be buried and lost forever.   This was my own personal lie and coping mechanism.  I was not really dealing with it.   Pushing it down was getting ride of it.   The reality was as I pushed it down it spread into other parts of me. 

So, the Holy Spirit literally jumped me in the Dominican Cell.  About 60 days before my wife and I would most likely leave town, he required my participation.   When I started to dedicate my relationship with my mom he spoke clearly.  It was not a literal voice in the air but a clear sense inside me.   He said, “There is no going forward without addressing this.”  

The next few hours were an intense blur of tears, soul confessions, and honest encounter with Jesus’ healing power.  I wrote her a letter.  It started with some serious asking.  Asking for forgiveness.  I wrote her a letter from each of the significant perspective places of my young life.  From the kid who did not understand anything about “breaking up” and “not living together anymore”, I wrote from within the confusion.  From the twelve year old who loved meeting her for a day of dawn patrol surfing along California’s coast line, I wrote about the happiness of being with her.   From the older high school student who missed her and started entertaining anger as uncertainty, I wrote of a mixed up empty place only she could fill.   I recognized the growing anger about how life was turning out.  How more and more it gave way to frustration, escape, drugs, drinking and sexual encounters.  Vain attempts to silence the pain or fill the void.   I wrote from the college student who felt the absence of her friendship as a soul ache.  That’s when the deep pain inched its way up into my heart.  There were no answers for the voice that called out to me.  The inner voice demanded an answer.    It appeared I had to provide it.   I never understood what to say.   Then from the young man of 23 who loved seeing her at my wedding.   Brief but happy, old thoughts and buried memories awoke again.   Nothing came out that connected us from the thousand words that brewed for years.  That brief moment lead into deeper isolation and the desire to simply “cut off” the whole thing.  All the hopes were boiling up into a labyrinth of no escape. 

Then the Spirit grabbed me and isolated me in a cell at a Dominican Monastery for a confrontation.   Captured in the day of reckoning with God.  Twenty nine years, alone in the quiet place, God took hold of me and lead me to a way out.   I wrote.  I confessed.  I recognized the seasons and all the pain.  The Spirit walked me through it all.  Step by step he showed me what I had held deep inside.  He led me to repent.  He led me to the Father’s heart.   He led me to peal back the pain, to take it apart, to see it all.  He walked with me through it all both then and now.   I wrote the letter with many tears.  It spanned years of different perspectives and reactions. 

I finished sometime in the afternoon. 
The Lord said, “Now send it to her”. 

The monastery was in the high desert east of L.A.  I took my beach guitar and headed out to celebrate.  Somewhere in the evening hues of the L.A. desert, I danced and sang and wrote new songs.  The freedom of forgiveness flooded me with celebration!   I could taste the forgiveness and love flowing into those pain-ridden dungeons wave after wave after wave.    Worship erupted from my body, soul, mind and spirit.  The Spirit marked me deeply with a new worship and connection.  


My mom received the letter a few days later.  I was speaking out of town.  She called my wife and together they cried away years of emptiness.  

The Spirit wrote on me that day.   He showed me the power of forgiveness.   Like an earthquake in the soul, when it shakes everything cracks open and spills out.  Love spills in. 

Forgiveness is like a waterfall on the soul, mind, heart and spirit.  Rooted in the perfect work of Jesus.  

Ideas?  Comments?   Thoughts?
Please share what the Spirit has done in you. 



Thank you for reading
Brother Jeff
Jeff Reynolds. Sr. Leader
Capstone Christian Fellowship

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

God is our Friend - Sometimes We are Our Worst Enemy

There are three enemies identified to us clearly in Scripture - the World, the Flesh and the Devil.

The World and it's desires are passing away The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever. (I John 2:17)
What if all our focus and desires are on things in the world? 

Love is the Canvas - On the Way to the Mtns (Artist - Sonya Day)


The Flesh cannot please God in fact it is at war with God - (Rom 8:7-8)
What ever that is inside that drives us from Him comes from this mind.  It is dead.

 
The Devil is roaming around like a lion looking for people to devour  - (I Peter 5:8)
Are we devouring people ourselves?  Those who love God and are called to his purpose? 




With all these enemies trying to pull us down, trying to make 
 our faith ineffective and roaring at us each day......


  • We don't need to make it all that much harder by beating ourselves up!
  • I've noticed the part I can play in agreeing with one of the three enemies and then....
  • I pick up their battle cry against me.  Repeating and adding to their condemnation. 

Can we be free from ruling ourselves with condemnation and shame?   YES 

Jesus died for the sins of the whole world....even my sin.  (I John 2:2)
Jesus' work was perfect and contains all that is needed to succeed by faith (Rom 3:25)
Jesus forgives all those who ask and confess their sins.  (I John 1:9)

One of the key things we need to do is...   
1) Agree with what Jesus did - for US.   For YOU. 
We get disappointed in ourselves.  We want to pay Jesus back with living right.  We want to succeed at being righteous and walking strong in him.   And we fail and fall.  But Saints, we fall back into the grace and mercy that saves us!  It never changes.  Grace by faith saves us in his perfect work of love.   Forgive yourself.  Get over yourself.  Rejoice in Jesus. Worship again.  Celebrate.  Your sins are forgiven in the blood of the Lamb.   
You were lost.  Now you are a live in Him.   You are more alive than you were the day before.  You belong more to Jesus today than yesterday.  And he is leading you along his path of righteousness.   Repent.  Agree.  This never changes.   You will always be dependent on the grace and love of God.   We are being saved by grace.   Everyday it is grace by faith.  Trust him.  Agree with him.   Let your old man or woman die.  

2) Confess your sin.  Be honest with the Lord about how it feels to let him down.  He understands.  Peter denied Jesus at his trial.   Never allow anything you say to yourself or others say to you or the world says to you to "separate you from his love". (Rom 8:38)  Nothing can separate you.  So why do we let things do just that.   Get closer to Jesus and all he has done for you.  Take shame and condemnation captive unto Jesus.  Literally give them over to him as thoughts that are not of his Kingdom.  Then ask for love to fill up the place that they leave in you.  

3) Put on the right love.  Love Jesus first.  Not yourself.  
Connect with the Lord as your fist priority.  Spend time with him.  Seek his face.  Go to him as you are and ask for what you need.   


Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.
I John 2:15

Revelation 2:4-5New International Version (NIV)

Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place.



The best way to defeat the enemy that condemns from within is to take him or her directly to Jesus.  
Ask the Holy Spirit to show you the questions you are asking that are not from him.
Ask him to show you what to crucify and take captive. 
Amazingly.  He will.   Just take a moment and listen.   Get into some quiet place and give the Lord some time to speak to you.  He will.  

I know this stuff.  Because I live this stuff.  I've wrestled my own voice into submission to Jesus.  It is a wonderful thing to let him rule and reign in us.  Peace can flood you again.  

Isaiah 26:3  

 Send your comments or testimonies about being victorious over the negative voice inside!


With Love in Christ Jesus,

Your Brother Jeff
Jeff Reynolds Sr. Leader 
Capstone Christian Fellowship 
www.jeffreynoldsministries.com  
jeff@jeffreynoldsministries.com 

Saturday, August 23, 2014

By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another - Is Love Missing?

It's hard to restore the Body of Christ to something they hardly know is missing.  Love is missing.  
The Poor Woman, 1857 Oil Painting - Alexandre Antigna.

Side story: 
A few weeks ago something happened in worship that will remain with me forever.  As we were getting ready for celebration, I was sitting up front as usual and settling in for the worship to start.   A wonderful person came up and sat right next to me.  Her name is Donna. She has a deep and sweet heart and loves with no pretense.   She has been homeless.  She is often disheveled and has struggled with the troubles of life.  She came to us when we offered a meal on Easter to the homeless populations of our city.  She continues to prosper in the Kingdom and as a member of the Body and her countenance shines brighter and brighter with the presence and love of the Lord each day.  She came and sat right next to me on that front row.  In my life,  I have never  been more honored.   If you don't understand why, I don't think I can explain it to you.  Donna worshiped Jesus with me.  

"Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."  Matt 5

 

Of course, love is Not completely missing.  It never could be.  We are created in the image of God.  God is love.  Love is woven into the fabric of humanity.   It finds expression in every culture and across all spectrum's of values and hopes.  

Sad to say, but in many parts of the church it just appears to be low on the list of priorities.  
That may sound absurd but humor me a moment.  Can you name a deliberate attempt to foster love for Jesus first, love for the Kingdom first and his righteousness and love for the family of God first that is ongoing, daily, highest priority action?   A love that has such a place in the overall sense of value in what is happening through a church and through us that we measure our Kingdom viability by it?   That we measure our success by it?  That we measure our ministries by it?  Please, if you can tell me about it.  How is love the driving feature of your church.  Not by default or by some older church grandmothers that help us feel more environments of love, but by the whole gathering of people.  Focused on the love of God filling up the identity and expression of what people recognize your church by?  

  "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, 
even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35"By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:35)

 
Detail from Poverty, by Picasso
















by this all men will know.......
By our powerful grasp of technology and media as communication tools?   NO
By the weight of our amazing teaching and pristine grasp of the truths of God's House?   NO
By the perfected craft of music in worship and outstanding performance?  NO
By the beauty and size of our auditoriums and sanctuaries?  NO
By our amazing success in this world as business people, athletes, politicians?  NO
By our personality and beauty as people?  NO

You get the point.  
There is one mark that stands out above them all.  
One sign to the world that what we are saying, doing, and preaching is true.  
That we have love for one another.  Without it everything else is empty, void and powerless. 

Today we have love.  But it may be for ourselves first.  
Are we the idol of the times?  US?  Ourselves? 
Our culture calls us to focus everything in and through and upon ourselves.  
  
Our churches focus everything on "meeting us instead of helping us meet God in a culture of Love that speaks his name and magnifies his ability to save."
 

Citizenship in the Kingdom of God requires us to move and breathe in the Love of God.  We have yet to explore this in any mind blowing depth or width here in the US.  The Kingdom of God is a culture of love.   The worship of the Kingdom is about laying down our lives for love and connecting with the Father's heart in complete freedom and joy.   



Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, 
to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, 
acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.  
2And do not be conformed to this world, 
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, 
so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.…(Romans 12:1-2)

This is the way of the Lord Jesus in our world.  He laid down his life for his friends.  Then said, "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. 14"You are My friends if you do what I command you. 15"No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.… (John 15:4)

Jesus measures love this way....
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."  (Gal 5:22)   
Love is the first and greatest fruit grown in the Kingdom of God.  It is the supreme expression and fulfillment of what begins with the Alpha and ends with the Omega - Jesus our Lord.  

Reminder:
We will not need faith in heaven.  -  We will have run our race
We will not need hope in heaven.  - We will see it all before us
We will see as we are seen and known as we are known.  Perfect communion. 

LOVE is what remains in heaven.   


Everything in the Father, Son and Spirit flows from love and produces a crop of love as its fulfillment.  Heaven runs on a vastly different economy than our world.   It originates assignments in love and love flows through and is grown by all that the Trinity puts energy to. 


"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35"By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:35)

A whole Body of believers that is organized for Love.    
Is that possible?  To start a church and build an ekklesia that is focused on establishing and rooting the Saints in love as the primary goal?   

If we do this we will....
Place Jesus at the Center of everything because we are totally in love with him. 
If we do this we will 
Place our focus on people and grass roots living and allowing the Love of God to touch and change and heal and renew.  

Is it possible to co-labor with Jesus for a body of believers that is not satisfied without the fruit of the Spirit present in all they do?   A body of believers that looks more like family and carries the peace of Christ at the core of relationships?  A body that does not require explanation for it's most compelling quality, LOVE.   Because it is self evident, experienced by all and the main ingredient of the Church? 


We love because he first loved us.  1Jo 4:19

My answer is YES.  Jesus Christ in his perfect work fully provisioned us to shine with the greatest truth the world can grasp.  God is in love with them and in Jesus has made a way for every person to know and love God in unbounded freedom and joy.   His Kingdom is different.  

 
Thank you for reading.  Comment below.  
Do you have a story of love that touched you to the core and helped you see the Lord clearly?   Share it. 






Brother Jeff
Jeff Reynolds Sr. Leader
Capstone Christian Fellowship
jeff@jeffreynoldsministries.com
www.jeffreynoldsministries.com 



Tuesday, August 19, 2014

You are the Real Prized Possession in God's Heart - God is Our Friend

 In all the mystery and wonder of the Kingdom that God is building, one thing stands out supreme and true:  God the Father is longing and looking to connect deeply and set us into his presence and love permanently.  
 
Summer sky Redmond OR
 Jesus was victorious.  He perfectly completed the Father's desires fulfilling them with power and love and sacrifice.  The desire of the Father's heart is US.  YOU.  ME.  Humanity.  People.  

A Kingdom, a Bride for the Son, that as Iain Bradbeer says, "the Father's gift to say to the Son that he did well and his work was perfectly pleasing and good."  (EPIC Center Bend OR speaker)

God has no need of anything that is physical in the universe. But his heart is completely focused on bringing us into his Kingdom.  He wants to present a Bride to Jesus.  Jesus walked out his Father's desire and now the Spirit moves every day in that perfect work to bring people into the dwelling places of the Father.   

God is our friend.  
He truly is.  
In the work of Jesus every doorway in heaven stands open.  
In the power of his righteousness all will be made new.  
You and I are invited in....but it is so much more that that.

We are swept up in his grace and mercy when we say yes.  He has provided in Jesus for everything needed to perfectly abide in his presence and love.   Nothing is lacking. 
As we activate the Blood of Christ in faith our sins melt away into righteousness and peace and joy. As we arouse the works of Christ on our behalf with faith, trust and hope, all the energies of heaven's new and coming Kingdom begin moving in and through us.  

Power coalesces with his presence and the result are waves of abiding peace.  


You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. 

Believers can miss this critical point of activation.   The Kingdom of God is perfect in provision.  Everything Jesus welcomed into our fallen world came with the fullness of his presence, power and peace.   Every true teaching of Christ explodes into life giving action just like the resurrected Lord as we dwell in the presence and abide in His perfect peace.  Faith moves us from the barren places and dry bones and hope sustains us in grace that will always be sufficient for everything he calls forth. 



The secret place is the doorway to the unbounded wide open country of the Father's Heart and LOVE. 

It is a wonder to me that the Father says,


"But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you".  Mat 6:6

Typically for us, when we go into some kind of secret place we do things we don't want anyone to know.  But for the Father the secret place holds the deep wells of change for a thirsty and hungry world.  His presence is a palace of freedom and righteousness that never ends. He is LOVE.  And there is no law in all the universe against the love that flows from the Father of heart.

The Father loves to call us into the secret places.  Deep into his heart.   It is from these places that we learn to abide and overcome the world.  When we are victorious from these places of the deep we receive things like....



"To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it."  Rev 2:17
The Father Loves to dwell in and reveal mysteries
He leads us on a treasure hunt both to find our own lives which are hidden in Christ and to see Christ is us revealed as the Father's mystery.   The deep things keep crying out for deeper things!  (Col 1:27; 2:3)
He Counts Hair


In all the mystery and wonder of the Kingdom God is building one thing stands out supreme and true:  God the Father is longing and looking to connect deeply and set us into his presence and love permanently.   

The Amazing things is he has perfectly completed this in Christ our Lord.   
He opened a "new and living way" (Hebrews 10:19-20) that allows us total access to the Father's house.   Jesus ushered in a Kingdom that is ever expanding and from which we draw upon the riches of his grace and love forever. 


Isaiah says, 


"Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near." Isa 55:6 

The Father is near and calling.  What does your heart say?  
Run with the grace you have!   Give yourself to the lover of our souls.  
Summer Sky Redmond OR

Now is the time.  Today is the DAY to surrender to the deepest cries in your heart and go to him.   


Comments?  Ideas?  Testimonies? 
Stories of the Secret place?  

Let me know what you think.  We can learn much from each other in love.  





Brother Jeff
Jeff Reynolds. Sr. Leader
Capstone Christian Fellowship 
jeffreynoldsministries.com
jeff@jeffreynoldsministries.com
www.mycapstone.org

 

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Knowing God: Learning the Ways of Patient Endurance PII

Abiding in hope is the natural state of the Kingdom coming and opposition and conflict should not dislodge us from the presence of the Lord and a deep abiding heart. 
Road to Emmaus by Eikonik
Endurance
en·dur·ance[ in dóorənss ]
1.ability to bear prolonged hardship: the ability or power to bear prolonged exertion, pain, or hardship
2.toleration of hardship: toleration of prolonged suffering or hardship
3.persistence over time: the survival or persistence of something despite the ravages of time.
Imagine a heart filled with freedom, love, and joy.   A childlike heart at rest in the Masters presence.    Now imagine that heart sitting down for lunch at a table with endurance?   What would be the common ground?  What would they talk about?  Would they naturally be close and feel a kindred spirit and "easy fellowship"? 

Endurance has been abiding in long suffering with hope for a while.   Endurance has been kneeling so long over prayers deposited by God they have physical issues.   Endurance can be gruff and resolute and present a hard exterior.   This is not the fullness or the true expression.  Love is the ultimate witness of anything originated in the Father's heart. 

My favorite apostle is John.  He was part of the inner circle with Jesus and he was there to see with his own eyes people rising from the dead.  He saw Jesus on the mount of transfiguration.  He was at the cross.  He was at the tomb with Peter.   He described his life in the Lord this way.....


I, John, 
your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom 
and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, 
was on the island of Patmos 
because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Rev 1:9

Our Brother.  Our brother of the heart after Jesus.  The one who rested on the breast of Jesus at the Last Supper.   The one who received the revelation of Jesus and the encouragement of the book we love, Revelation. 

John is the childlike heart and the endurance of the Kingdom in one person.  And so would all the apostles of Christ be as this is the normal way of following Jesus.  Jesus was completely one with the Father's heart and will and moved about the world in love.  Certainly Jesus was one with the Father in his heart and worshiped in all that he did freely and with the very childlike freedom.  He called the disciples to it.  Yet, we marvel at the work of the Cross.  Jesus patiently endured the suffering that brought down the sins of the whole world.  Jesus paid for our shortcomings with his own blood.  He opened the new and living way to the presence of God forever.   He felt what a forsaken heart can feel.  But he remained with the Father, walked through hope and fulfilled his mission in love. 


John "sees" prophetically and he sees Jesus in so many circumstances and revealed ways throughout his life.   John sits down in the Kingdom with a childlike heart and patient endurance.   He knows the deepest abiding love of the Lord Jesus in a wide vision and revelation and he has linked this with hope and patience.  He saw the rule and reign of Jesus coming into the earth through his life. 

John, the apostle, sits down at a table with a childlike heart that sees and patient endurance that abides in hope.  

  • This world's fallen reality did not ruin him or his heart.   Why does it take our so easily?  (Our modern mindset is that all troubles are somehow direct results of the Lord. So we take offense at God and our hearts cannot abide in his presence.) 
  • His life reality did not take away his ability to see the Kingdom of the King.  From Jesus' words we know that that requires a child like heart....to see the kingdom.   John the Apostle saw some of the most amazing things in the Kingdom of God.  He also suffered persecution and boiling in oil as well as banishment.
    And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Mat 18:3
  • John has something squared away that modern Christ followers have all but lost.   
  • Abiding in hope is the natural state of the Kingdom coming and opposition and conflict should not dislodge us from the presence of the Lord and a deep abiding heart. 

The Kingdom Jesus is bringing is kind to the childlike heart.  In fact it calls out love for God and experiencing the Love of God as the core focus.   We love with the heart.  We love first as we are first loved.   Loving God with all our heart is a permanent abide for believers. 

Endurance is a key quality in those who would accomplish great things with the Father.  Yet our understanding of how life works has clouded our ability to love God with all our hearts, to run free in the vast resources of his presence.  We are called to patient endurance in hope for all that we are assigned in the Kingdom to accomplish, while abiding in perfect grace and love with the Lord Jesus.

Hope is the fuel for patient endurance.    

So why do we stumble?  Why do our hearts loose confidence in his presence?
Here are a couple ideas.

  1. We fellowship with the mind of the flesh  (Rom 8:1-11)  We sit down with a dead man or woman and seek life.   Not gonna happen.
  • The mind of the flesh is death 
  • The mind of the flesh cannot please God
  • The mind of the flesh cannot fulfill the law of God
  • The mind of the flesh is by nature at war with God
  • The mind of the flesh is equal to all the plans, ideas and pathways we conceive of to advance us in this life that do not originate in Christ Jesus.  
2. We translate opposition as personal punishment - We are presence carriers - empowered ambassadors of a heavenly Kingdom.  We carry life change all over the world everywhere we go.   It is not always or possibly even mainly about us and our personal world.  
  • We have the Mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16)
  • Christ Dwells in us  (Col 1:27)
  • We are Temples of the living God (I Cor 3:17)
  • We are living stones (I Peter 2:5)
Opposition is natural as the Kingdom of God comes into a life, a household, a city, a region.  It takes patience and endurance to wait on the Lord with a living hope.  

3. We know we are in Him if we walk as Jesus walked.  Jesus walked in a heart of Love with the Father.  We can also.  Jesus fulfilled the calling on his life in perfect worship while confronted with immense opposition and struggle.   He overcame the world.  We can as well.

Overcoming is what Jesus calls us into.  Revelation 1-3.  Each city church was called to overcome in a particular way.  Reward awaited them for each type of overcoming grace.  


Patient Endurance is not a pathway to a wounded heart.  No in the Kingdom of God.
We can love God forever with all our hearts and be tough overcoming Saints who see the world change through his power everyday.


Thoughts?  Comments?  I love hearing from you.

Brother Jeff
Jeff Reynolds. Sr. Leader
Capstone Christian Fellowship
www.mycapstone.org
jeffreynoldsministries.com
jeff@jeffreynoldsministries.com





Saturday, August 9, 2014

Knowing God - Learning the Ways of Patient Endurance Part I


The Pathway of Patient Endurance:  Learning to Contend.   Understanding the Father's love in Jesus is the foundation.



In this life of following Jesus there are different seasons .   By that I mean times of emphasis.   Often insights and clearly encouraging teachings that emerge to advance us in one season do not adequately provide for us in the next.   Why?  


 I believe it is woven into the ways of God.   That we would find dependence, trust, hope, love and grace in his presence and in relationship with him ONLY.   He is our peace who has broken down every wall.  Jesus is our righteousness and rest.  Everything in the Kingdom of Heaven flows from the perfect provision and love of Jesus Christ.  



We see this in the Father’s language to Israel.    


 “for I am your husband. I will choose you—one from a town and two from a clan—and bring you to Zion.



There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will respond as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.


“In that day,” declares the LORD, “you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master.’



For your Maker is your husband— the LORD Almighty is his name— the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth.Isa 54:5



and in the language of Jesus for us....

No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.  John 15:15


"Cristo, nostra Pasqua, si è immolato"


 Many of our trials and challenges are really about “understanding” and gaining wisdom.   Wisdom and understanding are found in Him, Yahweh.  Creator God.    It seems that we spend so much of our time and energy re-discovering what we inherently know.   God, our Father is the source of all things and he as a trinity God is in love with us. He knows us intimately and wants us to learn his ways and abide with him forever. 



At the core of our faith is a relationship.   Not an ever widening set of prescriptions, doctrines and outlines of secondary and seasonal truths.   So much teaching these days focuses on situational understanding.   Ex. Take these 10 truths for these 3 situations and you will do just fine if you run into them.   In the middle of this kind of "situation" I stumble for the 10 points and how to apply the principles.  We really should be looking into the face of the Lord Jesus or reaching out and touching him.  The life lived following Christ keep us close enough to touch him in all the situations we encounter in this life.  



There is really one thing the Church should strive to encounter and to teach.   The love of Jesus Christ and him crucified.    (I Cor 2:1-4)  The Kingdom of Heaven is speaking through Jesus to the world until His return. (Hebrews 1) 



2that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery, that is, Christ Himself, 3in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 4I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument.… Col 2:2-4



At the core of our relationship with God is surrender and ever increasing knowledge of the Holy One. 



Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul and with all your strength and love your neighbor as yourself.    The law and the prophets hinge on these.  



Everything in the Kingdom of God hinge’s on, passes through, comes through the understanding of us loving God and God loving us first.    


God in his infinite love and wisdom is always leading us into greater abundance and knowledge of him and his ways.   Teaching, insights, moments when things just make sense and we see clearly are not intended to be a stopping point or some point where we settle in to the ideas and truths themselves.  Rather, these moments are an invitation to settle into our Father’s heart more deeply.  



The Transfiguration…..




Pre-cross explosion of glory and truth.   Jesus, the Son of God, is revealed in his glory to the disciples pre-crucifixion. Peter, James and John saw this together on the mountain.  They also saw Moses and Elijah.  The revelation of Jesus overwhelmed them with the glory of heaven.   Peter wanted to set up a “Jesus revealed memorial”.   (Matt 17:1-9)  The experience was completely overwhelming for the disciples who, after hearing the voice from heaven, seem to loose touch with Jesus and cower in fear.   Until he touches them and speaks to them. 



It is always foundational as we contending for the coming Kingdom to root ourselves in revelation and understanding of Jesus.  To find our mindset and heart and whole way of thinking flowing out of who we understand him to be.   The disciples encountered Jesus in profound ways.  The three on the mountain certainly saw something that completely altered their understanding of reality.   That is always what the Kingdom of God does when it comes.  Alter our understanding of reality.   

When the Kingdom displaces our understanding of the world with the revelation of Jesus...

Everything changes.   
The disciples of Jesus, followers of Jesus, carry around in us and everything has changed perspective, mindset and reality.  


 Jesus opened every doorway with his work on the Cross.  But there is certainly more to grow up in as far as embracing the kingdom of God.   He proved the new life in the resurrection and he sealed it all ascending from the earth into Heaven to sit at the Father's right hand.  


How do we patiently endure? 

  • When we understand the Kingdom we are part of, it's role in the world and it's power to make the whole thing different. 
  • When we understand who Jesus really is and embrace him in faith and his perfect work as the Christ, The Son of the Living God, the Savior of the world, the ONE who lives in us.
  • When we realize who we are in the world.  Salt and Light ambassadors of freedom for a bound up and distorted world.
  • When we realize the Kingdom of God was witnessed in glory on the Mountain transfiguration.  We are those people.  Hearing his voice and coming down from the mountain with life and peace.  
We can patiently endure because the coming Kingdom of Christ is beautiful, amazing and full of life and power.  

We can patiently endure because we are believing for a new city, a new family a new nation founded in the plans and desires of God our Father.  






 When we stand.  When we call down inheritance, power, authority and Kingdom revelation.   We start moving in the power of transfiguration.  



Comments?  Ideas?  Does this encourage you?  
Pass it on.  Share it.   Forward your testimonies or comments.  

These are voices of the tribe who believes that God will overcome, bring his amazing Kingdom in all his generosity and win captives and prisoners out of the fallen and broken world we are here to sow his love in....   

The story goes on and on in us!    


With Love in the Lord Jesus,

Brother Jeff
Jeff Reynolds. 5 Fold / Capstone CF / Restoring First Love
Capstone Christian Fellowship
jeffreynoldsministries.com 
jeff@jeffreynoldsministries.com