The body of Christ! Us! We! Me!

Matthew 16:17-19 NKJV

 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. ¹⁸ And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. ¹⁹ And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed^[d]in heaven.”

In the earlier verse Jesus asks His disciples who the people say that He is. My mans Simon Bar-Jonah has a revelation by the Holy Spirit that Jesus was “The Christ, the Son of the living God.”

• To believe Jesus Christ was the Son of God (Which was no revelation by man but by the Holy Spirit!).
• By that revelation, the church is built.
• The workings and powers and principalities and authorities of darkness will not succeed against it. 
• To realize the power involved in prayer as a body. That when we declare GOD’S WORD, then it will be on earth AS it ALREADY is in heaven.  (Christ is the head and we are the body!!! Think of how the brain works in the body in  a positive feedback mechanism! [umbc moment])

(Tangent: Its is amazing. Jesus is the Word. And the disciples spent a looonnnggggggg time with Jesus. Learning, being discipled, just being in His presence alone. Of course this revelation came to Peter! So yeah…let’s spend time in the Word! This is Jesus!)

Isaiah 6

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne;and the train of his robe filled the temple. ² Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. ³ And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy , holy is the Lord Almighty; 
    the whole earth is full of his glory.”

⁴ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

⁵ “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷ With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. ”

⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? ”

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

So often when we as Christians are in “not my will but yours be done” type situations we tend to panic. (Well, I can testify if no one else will, lol.) When you surge after God with the fullness is seems that when trouble comes it comes 7-fold. I’m coming out of a season where guilt and condemnation, and lack of confidence of who I am in Christ have hindered me from doing a lot…like a lot. And it’d be over stupid stuff too. I found myself getting angry at the pettiest things. Like, dumb stuff. (I got overly angry at my 1 year old cousin whose crying woke me up. SMH.) Then a random condemnation attack would happen. Bad cycle. It seems as if we get so caught up in our faults and insecurities, that we become blind sided to the truth. And we get ourselves into a process that seems to be inescapable.

A few weeks ago when I felt like bursting into flames my friend Angela called me and gave a testimony of the same experience. She gave me 1 John 3:19-22. It basically sums up how our hearts tend to condemn us, but GOD is greater than our hearts. I instantly felt better. And I mediated on those verses and learned that if my heart is condemning me, there is some work to be done on my heart. Because out of the abundance of the heart (mind) the mouth speaks (and actions come forth). It gave me confidence that God is truly able to change my heart. It’s possible!

He is able to save COMPLETELY those who come to God through Him because He (Jesus) always live to intercede for them. (Heb 7:25) I have confidence in the fact that I am now called a child of God. And as a child, though I may not deserve it, it is my right in this sonship (daughter-ship lol) to come boldly before my Father and speak whatever it is that is on my mind. We sometimes have to much confidence in the flesh. Like Paul says, if you started by means of the spirit, how can you continue by means of the flesh. Sometimes, honestly I don’t feel like praying, or feel like worshiping, fellowshiping (not a word haha), etc. But too bad. Emotions and things of the flesh add no value to our relationship with God. The same spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is the SAME spirit that gives life to our mortal bodies (Rom 8), not the other way around. By NO MEANS shall we depend on the flesh as our stance with God. My flesh didn’t save me, the Spirit of God did.

But anyways, back to Isaiah. Isiah saw (had an encounter) with God by means of the spirit. And when he saw God he instantly beat himself up, saying “I am a man of unclean lips…” *raises hand*

And then the seraphim got a coal and touched his lips signifying the forgiveness of his sin. His guilt was taken away and his sin atoned for. Amen. I see this as being saved. Redeemed. Alla that. YES! And he was able to hear God’s voice pertaining to his own life. God’s voice got personal. *raises other hand*

And INSTANTLY when the Father and Son asked “whom shall I send?” Isaiah’s whole attitude changed. Knowing that his sin was forgiven, and was acceptable to the Lord, he had the confidence to do God’s will. There is something about knowing you are accepted by God through His son that makes you act differently. You feel like Rocky! When you are working with God, and letting Him work on you, you have confidence in the fact that He owns your heart and is working on it to become a better you. Isaiah, I’m sure, was older than I, and probably wasn’t living the most holy life, however, when he knew that his sin was atoned for, he was able to move on through confidence of the spirit. Like Paul says, he is forgetting what is behind and is straining toward what is ahead (Phil 3:13). Hallelujah. 

My friends, though there is a lot of work to be done on our hearts, please do not get caught up in “Oh God can’t use me, woe is my sinful life!” If God has your heart, don’t worry. Think about it, every time we sin, who do we sin against? Who is it that we always run to? Like really. That’s how you know. Look at King David’s life. He ALWAYS went to God with his heart. 

This is the same God who save us!! Think back to the day you gave your life to Christ. The humility that came on you. Isaiah admitted he was a sinner. What if he said “Yes, God, your holy servant who knows all things, USE ME!” We’d never say that but we act like it *raises hands higher* When you are humble there is room for God to work (Psalm 10:4). And if God could bring you to where you are today (Warning! Never say “I have arrived!”) by that 1st act of humility, think of how much more He can do! 

And let patience have its perfect work…

triplee:

What Is the Gospel? from Desiring God on Vimeo.

Another clip from my interview with Desiring God. They asked me if I could rap the Gospel in 2 minutes. This was my attempt

What else can you do to harm me? (Galatians 6:17)

I was walking around in a supermarket when i saw a cashier hand this little boy his money back, the boy couldn’t have been more than 5 or 6 years old. The Cashier said, ‘I’m sorry, but you don’t have enough money to buy this doll.” The little boy turned to the old woman next to him, ”Granny, are you sure I don’t have enough money?” She replied, ”You know that you don’t have enough money to buy…………… this doll, my dear.” Then she asked him to stay there for just 5 minutes while she went to look around. She left quickly. The little boy was still holding the doll in his hand. Finally, I walked toward him and I asked him who he wished to give this doll to. ‘It’s the doll that my sister loved most and wanted so much for Christmas. She was sure that Santa Claus would bring it to her.’ I replied to him that maybe Santa Claus would bring it to her after all, and not to worry. But he replied to me sadly. ‘No, Santa Claus can’t bring it to her where she is now. I have to give the doll to my mommy so that she can give it to my sister when she goes there.’ His eyes were so sad while saying this, ‘My Sister has gone to be with God. Daddy says that Mommy is going to see God very soon too, so I thought that she could take the doll with her to give it to my sister.” My heart nearly stopped. The little boy looked up at me and said, ‘I told daddy to tell mommy not to go yet. I need her to wait until I come back from the mall.’ Then he showed me a very nice photo of himself. He was laughing. He then told me ‘I want mommy to take my picture with her so she won’t forget me.’ ‘I love my mommy and I wish she didn’t have to leave me, but daddy says that she has to go to be with my little sister.’ Then he looked again at the doll with sad eyes, very quietly. I quickly reached for my wallet and said to the boy. ‘Suppose we check again, just in case you do have enough money for the doll!” OK’ he said, ‘I hope I do have enough.’ I added some of my money to his without him seeing and we started to count it. There was enough for the doll and even some spare money. The little boy said, ‘Thank you God for giving me enough money!’ Then he looked at me and added, ‘I asked last night before I went to sleep for God to make sure I had enough money to buy this doll, so that mommy could give it to my sister. He heard me!” ‘I also wanted to have enough money to buy a white rose for my mommy, but I didn’t dare to ask God for too much. But He gave me enough to buy the doll and a white rose.” ‘My mommy loves white roses.’ A few minutes later, the old lady returned and I left with my basket. I finished my shopping in a totally different state of mind from when I started. I couldn’t get the little boy out of my mind. Then I remembered a local newspaper article two days ago, which mentioned a drunk man in a truck, who hit a car occupied by a young woman and a little girl. The little girl died right away and the mother was left in a critical state. The family had to decide whether to pull the plug on the life-sustaining machine because the young woman would not be able to recover from the coma. Was this the family of the little boy? Two days after this encounter with the little boy I read in the newspaper that the young woman had passed away. I couldn’t stop myself as I bought a bunch of white roses and I went to the funeral home where the body of the young woman was for people to see and make last wishes before her burial. She was there, in her coffin, holding a beautiful white rose in her hand with the photo of the little boy and the doll placed over her chest. I left the place, teary-eyed, feeling that my life had been changed forever. The love that the little boy had for his mother and his sister is still, to this day, hard to imagine, and in a fraction of a second, a drunk driver had taken all this away from him. Now you have 2 choices: (1) Copy & Paste this on your wall (2) Ignore it as if it never touched your heart.

You ever put your all into something yet don’t get the results or appreciation you expected?

You ever bought your loved one flowers and they threw it in the trash?

You ever save your brother from a bullet and all he does is say “thanks?”

You ever did CPR on an unconscious person and then they wake up and walk away?

You ever promise them that everything will be okay but then they break their promises to you?

You ever push your friend out of the way from a speeding car? Yet they walk away from the scene as if nothing happened?

You ever had them promise to change their cheating ways for you yet they remain unfaithful?

You ever got a call from them only because they needed something? No “how are you” or “can we spend time together?”

You ever give them the world and more yet they don’t even care that you exist?

You ever forgive them time and time and time and time again, even after they blatantly disrespect you?

You ever say “I love you” to the one you love yet the person remains silent?

You ever send your son down from his throne to earth to die for all mankind? Yet have mankind, not…even…care?