Available, But Not Automatic, Part 4

This is Part 4 of “Available, But Not Automatic,” a blog series based upon a message I shared a couple of months ago regarding the blessings of God. We’re going to pick up right where we left off. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at pastorgoodman@cliffdalealive.com.

Oftentimes I believe that we neglect the gifts of God, the inheritance that is ours, and what God has put in us for HIS glory. So often we want the glory, and we’re afraid to take the risk because we won’t look good if things don’t go the way that we think they should.

One of the things we’re going to be doing here at CCC is something called “Firestarters.” We’ve invited the church to come and take classes. It’s really less about the teaching, although there is an element of that, it’s a class designed to impart into and release believers to do the work of the ministry, which is not simply feeding the hungry or clothing the naked. Those certainly are important and valid ministries, but the main focus will be to impart and release. Why? Because God wants to speak to people at your workplace, and He wants to use you as a prophetic voice. My friend, do not be so afraid.

It doesn’t mean that you have to stand in the office hallway and say, “Thus saith the Lord!” My goodness. I can walk into a place of business and there might be some young person there; I don’t have to make a big scene, I don’t even have to say, “The Lawd.” I’ve walked up to people and very quietly and gently and said, “You know, I feel like God has spoken to me about you and that He loves you very much, and He wants you to come back to Him.” I’ve seen people just fall apart and start confessing, “Ooohhh, I’ve walked away from Him; my life’s a mess.”  And I’m like, “I don’t want you to get fired here; I’m just giving you a word that God spoke to me.”

Is that less prophetic than someone standing up here and saying, “The Lord says,” and going into our whole religious thing? God wants to use you to speak prophetically, to heal the sick, and to set people free. Now, you may or may not do it the way that I do it. You don’t have to blow on people for them to be healed. I only do that once in a while and as the Lord leads. I don’t know why. Don’t ask. Why did Jesus rub spit into a blind man’s eye? I don’t know. That makes absolutely no sense to me. I’m pretty sure He was hearing from the Spirit. The point is though that serving God doesn’t always have to mean creating a scene.

Yes, it does mean that there’s going to be some tension regarding what we consider to be risks and being obedient. Isn’t it amazing that serving God involves the element of risk? You say, “Is that a valid point?” I want you to think about the issue of risk. We could go down through the Bible from Father Abraham to Joshua and beyond.

God speaks to Abraham. Get up and leave the place where you are to the place where I’ll show you. Was there a risk involved? Abraham was settled, established, and rich. How about Joshua going into Jericho and getting the armies ready? God said, “I want you to circle around it for a week and at the end of the week I want you to circle it seven times, and then I want you to shout.” The enemy was up on the walls of the city. Do you think that Joshua thought that there was risk involved? Come on, these people were human. But obeying God overpowered the element of risk that was in their hearts or minds. They were willing to go out on a limb to serve the Lord. I could go on and on with Jehoshaphat, David, Daniel, Esther, Ruth, etc. Think of Peter and the one-word command he received, “Come.”

See, we don’t like those; we like explanations. And we think that we are worthy of explanations. Sometimes God will give us a one-word command, and we get upset because He doesn’t explain it to us. When He spoke to Peter to get out of the boat, He didn’t explain. He gave him one word: COME! And He didn’t say it again. We want Him to say it again and again and again and then we get really agitated when He quits speaking to us. And God’s attitude must be, “I’ve told you what to do.” 

Have you ever walked around with that thing on the inside of you knowing what you were supposed to do but didn’t do it because you were afraid? I have! And then it’s like, “Oh God, just give me a word.” And He says, “I already did.” “But God if you could just show me, just tell me.” He gave Peter a one-word command, “Come.” Peter sometimes takes a lot of flack for sinking, but at least he got out of the boat unlike a lot of us today.

I think sometimes it’s foolish for us to think that God owes us an explanation when He’s already given us a command. “Do something.” He’s told us to do something, and we’re not doing it, and we want to play multiple choice; we want options. There are options with God. It goes like this: obey or disobey. Choose this day whom you will serve. Will you serve God, or will you serve your own interests? Will you heed the voice of God, or will you heed the voice of fear?

Listen to me. It is not up to you to heal anybody. Stop worrying about your reputation, and you definitely need not worry about God’s. He’s very secure in who He is. If we’re going to get really serious about revival—whatever that looks like in your mind—we’re going to have to lay aside our own reputations and simply follow God’s command. I believe that this common struggle is one of the reasons why revival tarries in the land.

I’ll pick up with the end of this series in our next blog. Be sure to join us next Wednesday night, March 14^th, at 6:30 PM for “The Starting Line” classes. In addition to featuring “Firestarters,” we will also be offering exciting classes on “Family and Marriage” and “Apologetics.”

Get ready to be fired up!

~ pg

Available, But Not Automatic, Part 2

This is a continuation of the previous blog wherein we are looking at the blessings and promises of God and how they are available, but not automatic.

"For if the words spoken through angels proved steadfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, ³ how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him" (Hebrews 2:2-3).

How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? I want to remind you that the word "neglect" here means to be "careless with; to treat lightly; to make light of, to not regard as being as valuable as it is." I've had to receive the Lord's rebuke and my own as well as I think that sometimes I'm simply careless with this salvation and life that God has given me. I don't always value, or treat them as priceless, as I should. And how do I do that? By giving greater importance to other things.

That can oftentimes be seen in my day-to-day decisions. Every day we are faced with a multitude of choices and decisions. So many times people ask: "Pastor, how can I know what God wants me to do? I'm trying to make a decision in my life." It's amazing to me how many people go to their pastor looking for direction. And I'm not advising against that, there is a place for it. Usually most people who come to me for counsel already have their minds made up, or they have not really sought the Lord on their own. Many times they want me to confirm something that they're suspicious of, but most of the time they're going to do it how they've predetermined anyway. Hopefully, throughout the course of this series, we'll all be better equipped in the decision-making process that God would want us to follow.

Here are the criteria for every decision you make. I want to remind you that when Adam and Eve were in the Garden, they had to make a choice between two, and they made the wrong decision. Don't ever think that you're somehow smarter than Adam. He's the guy who named all the animals. But when he was faced with "two," he made a wrong decision. And I know why he made the wrong decision; it's because he didn't follow this little piece of advice I'm gonna give you. This isn't because I think I'm so smart. It's just that it comes from a very familiar passage of the Bible. You all know Joshua 24:15, right? There's a little nugget tucked right in the middle of it, "As for me and my house we will choose to serve the Lord." He said to the people of Israel, "Choose ye this day whom you will serve." Choose. You have a choice to make. Will you choose the gods of your fathers, the pagan gods that they decided to go after? When I say, "The gods of their fathers," I'm not referring to "Jehovah," as their fathers served strange gods.

Are you going to follow that example, or will you follow the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the one true God? Choose this day. You know, in every choice that we make, it can come down to something this simple, and it will help clarify our decision-making. This is what drives us nuts sometimes, causes us to walk in so much confusion, and why oftentimes Christians have to pay a terrible price. We can't figure out why we're not blessed. Well, we would be if we made the right choices!

No, you wouldn't live a problem-free life, but even in the midst of your struggles, you'd know what to do to overcome, to get to the other side, and to walk in the blessings of the Lord. You can make right choices, and every choice by definition involves choosing. So Joshua says, "Choose whom you will serve." Every decision is going to serve somebody or some cause and bring about some result. Every choice you make has ramifications.

We must choose what God desires for us even though we don't always understand why He would want us to make that choice at that specific moment. We may not understand. It's called, "being led by the Spirit." Oftentimes there's contention between being led by the Spirit in obedience to God and doing what we think is best. Eve saw the fruit and that it looked good, to be desired, and that it would taste good. She took it, bit it, gave it to her husband, and he ate it, too. Don't you know that they thought that they were making the right choice at that moment? Why? What could have caused them to think that they were making the right choice? They did not give heed to the things they had heard, so they drifted away and made the wrong choices. They didn't make the decision that would serve the Lord.

So we have to ask: what god are we serving? Are we serving some strange god of the world, the god of flesh, of greed, of selfishness, the god of self? He says, "How shall we escape if we neglect or treat carelessly so great a salvation?" Our choices in life are a direct reflection of the god/God we serve. Let us choose carefully this day whom we shall serve.

~ pg   

Opportunity Knocks, Part 4

Why is there such discontentment in the Body of Christ? It seems that so many are not content. Let’s look at Philippians 4:10-13:

¹⁰ But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again; though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity. ¹¹ Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: ¹² I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. ¹³ I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Now there is something to be said for wanting to pursue success and not stagnate; I’m not necessarily talking about that. I believe we are to progress in life, and we are to go forward with a high level of gusto. We’re to live life to the fullest. But I have also learned that there is something to be said about learning to be content no matter what state we’re in, knowing that it’s only a season, and seasons come and go. Part of our success is learning to be content no matter what state we’re in. Sometimes I think that we put ourselves in a state of misery. And we sentence ourselves to that state because we fail to be content no matter what situation we’re in. Thus our life becomes a hotbed of misery, frustration, and malcontent.

And if we’re not careful, it affects everyone around us: not only ourselves. Paul says in Philippians 4:11, “Not that I speak in regard to need for I’ve learned in whatever state I am to be content.” He’s not saying that it doesn’t matter to him if he has food to eat or a place to sleep, but he’s learned to be content, understanding that God is with him no matter what situation he finds himself in.

I can say this regarding my own life: I’ve lived in tin shacks in Haiti where it’s 110º; I’ve lived with no electricity or indoor plumbing, and I was just as content in that situation as I am now that I live in a beautiful home. Contentment ought not be based upon what we have. That is the world’s way of thinking, and it’s become pervasive in the Church as well. Christians often base their contentment on what they have. “If I could only have this, or only have that. If I could have enough money to do this, if I had enough money to pay my bills, I’d be content.” No, you wouldn’t!

I used to think the same thing. Now I’d be happy to give away a million dollars. Bill Gates committed to give a billion dollars to charity. Guess what? He is not worried about whether his mortgage is going to be made this month. God doesn’t want us concerned with whether or not we’re going to be able to pay our bills. That is a state of frustration and discontentment. Chill. You need to chill. You need to trust and obey. Look around you. Hear the voice of the Lord. God may be saying, “What do you have”? We keep telling God what we don’t have. We tell Him our perceived need. The problem is that when we do get it, we’re still not content. Why? Because our need is much greater than things. Our need is greater than stuff. Our need is Him, and when we find Him and grow in His knowledge, we come to understand He’s already provided all that we need.

This leads to a greater sense of contentment. We are discontent because we have our eyes on things. Paul says in Philippians 4:12, “I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. And in everywhere and in all things I’ve learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” It makes no difference. And then he says the now infamous Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Here’s the point, and I believe that it is at least part of the essence of that passage. When Paul says he can do all things, it doesn’t mean that he could physically do every single thing. What it does mean is that he could do everything that God had created him to do. Why? Because Paul understood that everything he needed in order to do what God created him to do was already his. It had already been made available to him. He simply needed to know how to turn on the tap.

And that’s where many of God’s people are missing it today. They’re not walking in the overflow because they don’t think they can do all things. Christ enables us to do all things. You are able to do everything that God has called you to do. He has already seen to it when He made available to us all things pertaining to life and godliness. Now it’s either true, or it’s not! He’s either given us all things, or He’s a liar. If He says he has given us all things pertaining to life, then it’s there. It’s mine. It’s available to me. I just need to be able to get it from the unseen realm into the seen realm. And I don’t do that by fear and discontent; I do it by faith, through trusting and obeying Him.

~PG

Opportunity Knocks, Part 3

How many want grace and peace multiplied to you? Hey, I like that kind of multiplication! Let's look at 2 Peter 1.

² Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, ³ as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, ⁴ by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (2 Peter 1:1-3).

Of course, we've always heard it said that grace precedes peace. No grace, no peace; know grace, know peace. Peace is the fruit of grace. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Grace and peace will be multiplied to us as we grow in the knowledge of the Lord. "His divine power," this is what we really want to focus on in verse 3, "has given." "Has given" is past tense, and His divine power has given to us "all things." I'm not going to focus too much on that because you know we talk a lot about "all things." All things include what? All things! If God has given you all things, is there anything that He's not given you?

Let that get in your spirit because there are those are waiting to get some things in order to do some things. And the Bible says that you already have the things you need in order to do the things. But you don't know that you have the things because you can't see the things. But that does not mean that they don't exist; they just exist in a realm that you don't see. Everything that you need, you already have.

Has He or has He not given us all things? This is the question that you have to settle in your heart. All things pertaining to what? Pertaining to life. Has God given us all things pertaining to life? Yes!

In other words, God has already made provision. The reason we walk in fear rather than faith is because we don't yet see it. And oftentimes, because we can't see it, we don't believe we have it. But the truth is that very few of us have ever seen Jesus. I haven't had a face-to-face encounter with Jesus. I've gotten close, and it has alarmed me. See, that's unbiblical; it shouldn't, but I start shaking and I begin to become undone (Isaiah 6). "Forget it, Lord, don't come any closer, that's as close as I can take. Stop." But I know He exists. How do you know?

We know that He is. We know that He exists. We know that He is who He says He is. How do we know that? By faith. Well, just as God has made Jesus available to us, His Son, He has also made available to us all things pertaining to life through Jesus His Son. And not only has He made available all things pertaining to life, but to godliness as well. You have everything you need to be godly.

There is something to be said for the writings of Paul. "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." We're in the process of being sanctified. But everything that we need for our sanctification is available to us. We just have to seize the opportunity to be sanctified, to be consecrated holy unto God. Question: how does this happen? Answer: through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue. So if I may take the liberty: by the knowledge of Him who called us by the glory and virtue we understand that all things that pertain to life and godliness have been given to us by His divine power.

But if we don't have "a knowledge" of Him, we don't realize that all things pertaining to life and godliness have been given to us. And the more our knowledge of Him increases, the more we understand that He has made available to us all things pertaining to life and godliness. The more real He becomes to us, the more our knowledge increases. The more knowledge we have of Him, the less we worry. Have you ever noticed that people who have an intimate relationship with God tend to worry less than people who are kind of mediocre or lukewarm in their faith? Why is that? Because the more you learn of Him, the more you understand He's made all things available to you.

God's been dealing with me about coming to Him as a child. And the Scripture that keeps coming to my mind is when Jesus said, "Up until now you haven't asked, but if you ask your heavenly father, He'll do anything that you ask." He didn't say, "tell." He said, "ask." He didn't say, "command," He said, "ask." He didn't say, "spit and stomp." He said, "ask." Ask and come as a child.

I was going to Wal-Mart yesterday, and my little boy said, "Daddy, can I go with you? I want to buy a toy." You're probably thinking that he wants Daddy to buy him a toy. I said, "Do you have any money?" He said, "Yes, I have my own money. Can I just go to Wal-Mart with you?" He loves Wal-Mart. Terrible, dangerous place. The point is that he asked me. He didn't say, "I'm going to Wal-Mart with you." He didn't beg me, he said, "Daddy, can I go with you?" I said, "Sure, come on, son." I like to hang with my boys. I like it when my boys like to hang with me. "Come on, let's go to Wal-Mart and look at man stuff." So he has his own money.

I proceed to make the purchase, and when we went home, I put the money back in his drawer. He hasn't found it yet, but he will, and he's going to wonder where it came from. He'll ask mommy or I where it came from, and I'll tell him that I put it back in your drawer because, "I just wanted to bless you, son." Now, here's the thing. He didn't have to beg. He just asked, "Can I go do this thing because there's something I'd like to have." When he was picking out the toy he asked, "Can I have this one, Daddy?" He wasn't saying, "Is this the one you'll buy for me?" He was so proud of having his own money. I had to tell him that he had to hide his money. You don't walk around Wal-Mart with your money in a plastic Ziploc bag where everyone can see your dollar bills. Gotta teach the boy about life at Wal-Mart.

All things have been provided. Here's the essence. Everything we need to live and succeed has already been made available to us. What we must do is grow in our knowledge of Him because that's where the revelation comes. God has certainly not called us to fail. He has called us to succeed. He has called us to prosper. And it is He who provides and enables, and who strengthens us to succeed. So what we have to do is learn to rest in Him and in the power of His might. This also requires the ability to trust and obey.

~ PG