Focus

​   When you choose to praise God in the midst of a storm, the storm loses its power and authority over you. When you focus on the storm you become part of it. It is obvious that this nation is in a storm right now, and our tenancy as humans is to try to identify and focus on all the problems. Like the disciples, we are very good at identifying the wind and the waves and all the reasons why things are bad, but there is so little focus on the one who is always good. 

   It amazes me that any one of the twelve disciples would have been trying to kill each other any given day before their encounter with Jesus because of the enormous differences in their backgrounds. Yet when Jesus, the REAL presence of God stepped on the scene, something became more important than their differences. When true prospect comes, we realize we were all made in his imagine, and we stop trying to make others in our image.

   There is aligning force that takes place when you get your focus right. This is why Jesus was able to calm the storm. He was able to release peace from the abundance of peace that came from his relationship with his Father. Many of us see parts of our world seemingly spinning out of control around us, and yet, all we can release is more fear and anxiety because that is all we have in our hearts. Ultimately, this is because our focus is on the problems and not the answer. You can only release what you have. This is what Jesus meant when he said “If your eye is single, your whole body will be filled with light.”

   I will not be impressed with the Devil’s work, because I have a book that says that he and his works were defeated 2000 years ago on a tree. He can’t undo that. The devil can make a lot of noise, and trick us into co-laboring with him by getting us to focus on him and the problems he is causing, but he can’t undo the Cross. Hate might be basking in the spot light we are currently giving it, but that doesn’t mean that it has defeated us or the blood of Christ. It just means it is a good lier, and we as a people are still falling for it.

   Jesus said before he left that all authority had been handed back to him, but then he passed it on to us. When Jesus was here, he said he was the light of the world, but when he left he said you are the light of the world. The question is are you acting as light, or acting as darkness? We can only release what we are aware of, and we will become like what we behold. The enemy would like us to become more aware and focused on darkness rather than light so we will reproduce more darkness. I am not talking about being in denial about the problem, I am talking about becoming consumed by the answer. It is the love and presence of our daddy in heaven that is the answer.

   I am not saying there are not things that need to change. What I am saying is when you try to change yourself and those around you in response to darkness, you usually end up with more darkness. When we respond to darkness with our own reasoning, it usually ends up in finger pointing. We become “experts” in knowing what is wrong with the world and how to fix it. The best the the flesh can produce is more flesh, and flesh is always carnal. Our response needs to be based off of his greatness and light. The only way we are going to produce the fruits of the spirit is by abiding in him.  Jesus said apart from me you will produce nothing.

   True peace and love grows from surrender to God and his goodness. Anyone with this surrender won’t be beating others down with their expertise, because surrender doesn’t produce pride or a know-it-all attitude. Surrender to God produces a humble attitude that washes the feet of those who are cursing you. Jeaus said bless those who curse you! Could you image what it would look like if that attitude caught on in the political realm of this country? Even if just the Christians would begin to live this way, the results would be unmeasurable.

   My prayer is as that the people of God, we would learn to know who God really is. We show so often by the fruit of our lives that we don’t know Him or his ways, or the Covenant that we now live in. When we begin to be light, it will pave the way for our nation to come into light.

God is NOW!

I have a friend at my Bible school that was born with one leg shorter than the other. One of my other classmates prayed for her, and while he prayed, her leg grew out instantly.

There is a word that has been in my heart for a while now, and it is God is NOW! There are many of you who have turned sour on God because of your past experiences with religion. You were shown an imperfect view of him, and you have judged him because some actions and teachings of those who claim to be his followers, and have not given him a second chance.

I discovered these three categories that people in the church sometimes fall into that hurts the image of God. (As a disclaimer, I know that some are going to miss understand at first, don’t worry, I know about Rev 1:4,8, just hang with me..) Do not feel condemned by these! Just about all of us, including myself, have spent time in each one of these areas. My point is not to make anyone feel bad, but to point out some traps that we can fall into that will cause us to miss God when he is right in front of us.

The first is a group that worships God in the past. They take a move of God from the past, and use it to create a formula, so they can try to continually replicate the good ol days. They think that all change is of the devil, and God couldn’t possible do things in a new way.

Understand that God will never change the Bible or its message, which would be wrong change. But there is a right kind of change that God uses to reach different people groups.

The problem is this first group creates man-made traditions, boundaries and doctrines that are meant to “protect” the anointing, but actually end up replacing the Holy Spirits leadership. There are many denominations today that began as Spirit led/filled groups, but because they tried to put God in the small box of their understanding, they are now dry and dying.

The second group worships God of the future. This group is always putting God in a far off, unrelatable place that will happen someday. They think that all we are trying to do now is survive. We have to suffer, grope for hope, be miserable and fearful, but one day it will all be okay. We will all understand in the great by and by!

This group keeps praying that God would hurry up and return because they are convinced that the evil present in the world is overpowering the church. They feel hopeless and fearful when they see the world events because they don’t understand who lives on the inside of them.

The third group is kind of a counterfeit, but they don’t know it. They claim to believe that God is not only in the past and future, but he is present now, but the fruit of their lives and thoughts do not show it. They will pray for you to be healed, but there is no shock or disappointment when nothing happens.

This third group is like a vacuum cleaner salesmen who comes and throws dirt on your floor, and says “this vacuum will sweep that up perfectly” but then walks away and doesn’t demonstrate it. When sickness, financial problems, or any other hardship comes against them they react exactly how the rest of the world reacts, with fear, stress and worry.

This may be the most harmful group. While the people who look to the past, and the people who look to the future do not do much to prove that God exists, they also don’t do much to disprove it. This third group that claims God does still do miracles now, but they cannot demonstrate it, confirming the doubts of the world that Christians are just crazy people hoping in fantasies. I have to confess this has been my story for much of my life, but I am no longer satisfied with it.

God is God of the now! Yes, he existed and did great things in the past, and there is much value in reviewing those things. Yes, he is in the future, and he is preparing a glorious dwelling for those who will accept him. But you can’t have a relationship with a memory from your past, or a story about what is going to happen in the future.

Those things are important, but they are abstract, and you cannot connect with them on a daily level. If you were lost and dying of thirst in a desert, would the water someone gave you two years ago, or the water someone would have given you two years in the future help you now? 

Jesus set the example of what the Christian life is suppose to look like. He, as the express image of the Father (Heb 1:3), took great concern for people’s needs, not just in the future, but in the present. He calmed their storms, healed all their diseases, fed them, and embraced them. Those who walked with him he instructed daily, giving insight into the heart of the father.

His example was always meant to be the “normal Christian life.” It is a life of demonstrating the power and love of God, setting people free of bondage, sickness, and oppression. He reminded of the past. He spoke about the future. But he brought the (present) presence of God where ever he went. In fact, he said the works he did in the present confirmed what he said about the future was true (John 10:37,38).

Jesus said in John 14 that he would not leave us as orphans. An orphan belonged to someone in the past, and may belong to someone in the future, but they are currently called orphans because they have no one to care for them now. The word orphan in the Greek means: parentless, comfortless, fatherless. Jesus said that he would pray to the father and he would send a helper (his Holy Spirit) to abide with us. The word “abide” means: not to depart, to continue to be present, to be held, kept, continually.

This is God the Fathers heart for all mankind. He desires to be with you right now where you are. Psalms 46 says, God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.

I thought it was funny it said a “very” present help, so I looked up the word very in Hebrew, and it means: exceedingly, abundantly, much, force. He is exceedingly, abundantly present for you. He isn’t hiding in the past and he isn’t just waiting for you in the future. He is present with you now.

There was a survey I heard recently that said that around eighty percent of people under around twenty five have never seen anything real in the church. (And we wonder why they are leaving so fast!) This is a terrible tragedy! For a long time I believed that it was better, and took more faith to believe in God without seeing any proof of his existence. Now I see that this mindset has become a wall that has kept people from seeking God they way he desires.

Aimee Semple McPherson, an amazing revivalist, grew up in a Christian home. But when she got older and realized that the miracles talked about in the Bible were not being demonstrated in the church in her day, she decided to become an atheist. She believed, either the entire Bible was true, or none of it was true.

Finally one night she said God, if there even is a God, reveal yourself to me. Do you know it takes more faith to pray a prayer like that than most churches demonstrate?

It takes much less faith to live with form without power (2 Tim 3:5) and just sweep every question about why God doesn’t heal or speak today under a rug of a man-made doctrine. It takes great faith to pursue something real from God that is more than just a story or an argument! I think God delighted in Aimee’s honest request. Not only did he revealed himself to her when she perused him, but he made her one of the greatest evangelist of all time.

So why do most churches not see manifestations of God’s presence? Why isn’t God confirming his word in churches they way he did in Mark 16:20? There are many reasons. But these three traps play a big part in occupying the church to keep them from asking the questions they need to be asking. I will give you hope that miracles are still happening in the world today. Since I have been at Bible school, there have been some amazing miracles here. God is rising up a generation that is no longer satisfied with the stories of past revivals.

Many of you have never really know God as God of the now. The good news is he is looking for people who will ask the honest question, “Where is God?” and then genuinely pursue the answer. One other thing to consider is that this cannot be a half hearted pursuit. Jeremiah 29:13 says, And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. You cannot add God to your list of god’s and expect him to benefit you. He wants your all of your heart, not just the scraps that are left over.

If you are tired of settling for just stories of God’s greatness, begin to study the life of Jesus and the apostles in Acts, who were the Biblical examples of what life should look like in the Kingdom that Jesus brought. Read books about past revivalist like God’s Generals by Robert Liardon, and study what revelations they received that led them into the miraculous.

Find people who are experiencing miracles and listen to what they have to say. Above all, don’t let your past experiences, and those of others, to become more authoritative to you than what God’s Word says.

FEAR NOT!

  On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.”  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. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. 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?”
Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?”  And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!” (Mark 4:35-41 NKJV).

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Jesus wanted the disciples to calm the storm, but they were still more mindful of the natural than of the power of God. Jesus had given them a word to cross over to the other side. He did not tell them to attempt to cross over and drown halfway. I don’t believe Jesus was unaware of the storm; he simply was giving them a chance to stand on the word he had given to them. How many times do we cry out for God to take some problem away when he has empowered us to take authority over it ourselves?

Notice the difference between the one who calmed the storm from the ones who feared the storm. Jesus had total peace, enough to sleep through a raging storm, while the disciples had only fear. True faith will always be accompanied by the peace of heaven.

Jesus said in Luke 6:45, “…For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” When Jesus said, “Peace, be still“, He was speaking out of the abundance of his heart. The disciples, out of the abundance of their heart, said, “…we are perishing.” The disciples could not release peace, because they did not have peace. You can’t give what you don’t have.

What the disciples did have was fear; fear is faith in the enemy. (Note: When I talk about fear in this lesson, I am talking about fear that we cling to. It is natural to be afraid, but it is what you do with it that matters. Any fear that does not draw you towards God is empowering the enemy.) When you release fear into a bad situation you are empowering it to continue. You are in a sense coming into agreement with the enemy that “this” circumstance is going to cause real damage, and there is nothing that can be done about it. The only authority Satan has over a born again believer is the authority they surrender to him. The disciples had more faith in the storm to kill them than they had in the one who kept them.

Bill Johnson once said, “You only have authority over the storm you can sleep through.” Fear is the by-product of faith in the destroyer. Peace is the by-product of faith in your savior.
You can find out really quick where your faith is by measuring your peace.

Another thing Bill Johnson likes to say is, on earth, peace is always the absence of something: war, sound, movement. In the kingdom, peace is the presences of someone. Jesus is the “Prince of Peace”. He carries peace in his nature.

Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way (II Thessalonians 3:16 NKJV).

The more aware we become of the presence of God in our lives, the more our peace is multiplied.

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord (II Peter 1:2 NKJV).

The disciples failed to be aware of the presence of the one who is “Peace.”

Becoming more aware of the presence of the one you carry will increase your faith. Mark says,

And he went up unto them into the ship; and the wind ceased: and they were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and wondered.  For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened (Mark 6:51-52 NKJV).

What you consider (what you meditate on), will determine what you are sensitive to. In Mark 6, we see the disciples still struggling with the same fear as two chapters prior because they considered not the miracle of the loaves. They failed to meditate on the supernatural miracles of they had witnessed, and because of that, they still considered the wind and waves more powerful than the one who made the wind and the waves.

The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you… (Romans 8:11 NLT).

As temples of the Spirit of God, we must not make the same mistake as the disciples. The truth that you know and are consciously aware of will set you free, but it is possible to carry truth and not reap the benefits. The key is your focus. Your focus, what you meditate on, will determine what you are aware of. If you wait until you are in the storm to try to prepare your mind, you will fail. Just as a soldier must prepare at training camp to be aware of the plan, aware of his ability, and aware of his allies before he ever goes to battle, we must know what we have before we get there. The courage of the unprepared soldier will melt in the heat of battle because he is unaware of the tools around him that can bring victory, because the battle will seem hopeless. Hope is the driving force for victory and we have the greatest hope of all; but the hope we are not aware of will not do us any good. We must be aware of great hope we have living inside of us before we step out onto the battle field.

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil (Hebrews 6:19 NKJV).

Ask Holy Spirit today to reveal his prospective to you. If you are lacking peace, what is your faith in: the enemy’s power to destroy, or your savior’s power to save? If your faith is lacking, what are you most aware of: on the wind and waves, or the one who created the wind and waves and lives in you? If you find yourself more aware of the enemy’s threats than you are of your savior’s presence, what have you been thinking/meditating on: the miraculous power of the one who calls you his own, or the natural world that is here today and gone tomorrow? Let Holy Spirit lead you as you learn to carry his presences and release his peace into the earth!