If we just understand one fact and then move out on it, we would be carried into a bold new Christian life? What truth? It is connected to the one most powerful truth we ever encountered: Believe in your heart that Jesus is the Messiah and that God raised Him from the dead, and you will be given life that goes on forever. Yes, every believer has heard this truth and has acted on it. Otherwise he or she would not be a believer. Believing God's truth get's you in the door to the Kingdom of God. But the problem is that millions just stay right there just inside the door and don't move from there.
Why is it that so many of us do not have extremely powerful Christian lives? Because we are missing understanding the very truth that brought us into the Kingdom in the first place: Hear, Believe, Act on God's communication to us. See, you came into the Kingdom because you had a living encounter with Jesus. It was a heart and a head encounter. Jesus showed you in the Spirit and He is the Son of God and you believed His communication. At the time of your encounter with Jesus (whether emotional or not), you believed in your heart and spoke with your mouth what you believed (Romans 10).
What we needed to understand next was that LIVING OUT THE ENTIRE CHRISTIAN LIFE IS ABOUT CONTINUING THIS PATTERN. What pattern? The pattern an encounter with God in which we believe what God gets over to us and then act on it. When we do this his power explodes in our lives, over and over and over, and this power will help us and/or other people.
But what we did in many cases was this: We had a true encounter with Jesus and were born again, but then stayed right where we were just inside the door to the Kingdom, not realizing that being a believer is about a close living friendship with God in which we continue to receive communication and act upon it. Some of us were even told that God didn't do much these days in the field of manifesting His power on earth through believers. But the fact is that this is the acdtual job of the Church on earth. Our job is not to smooze on another about how great it is that we are saved and going to heaven. No, we are here to bring God's power and love to the world. But how?????
We all know, really. Deep in our hearts we know. We know because we have already had an encounter with Jesus that brought a real relationship with Him to us, right into our hearts. But we must keep having encounters (that need not be spectacular) and keep receiving communication, and keep believing that communication, and keep acting upon it. It is all about MOVING. Moving in our Christian lives.
Abraham showed us the pattern. God told him to go and he went. AND HE KEPT HEARING AND HE KEPT GOING. His faith got deeper and deeper. God gave him a ticket to a great new life. And he used it to go somewhere.
But Abraham could have built a museum right there over the spot. He could have put velvet museum ropes all around the exact place where God spoke to him. He could have had a room for the clothes he had been wearing when God spoke to Him. But instead, we just went.
Once God called me to go be a missionary to Hong Kong. After training, etc., one day the mission board gave me a plane ticket to Hong Kong. But I still wasn't there. When I sat in the airport with my ticket in my hand prior to boarding, I still wasn't there. No. To get there I had to cross the threshold into the plane when it was time to board. I could have just stayed in the airport. I didn't, but I could have.
So many believers are still in the airport, so to speak. What we need to do is act upon God's ongoing communication to us and act upon it. We need to cross over the threshold into active life in the Kingdom of God. We have come through the door and are now in the Kingdom. It's the greatest thing that can ever happen to a person on earth. But now we need to deepen our relationship with God, moving out into a living, totally dynamic life as a believer. This is what heppened in the Book of Acts. It is what is happening now. It never stopped.
For when those who keep moving deeper and deeper in their friendship with God keep taking steps in the Spirit as He leads, something amazing happens: With each step, with each "move," His power is released intotheirr lives and into the world. There is a video explaining this pretty plainly at ustream.tv/channel/all-nations-radiotv. Blessings.
Why is it that so many of us do not have extremely powerful Christian lives? Because we are missing understanding the very truth that brought us into the Kingdom in the first place: Hear, Believe, Act on God's communication to us. See, you came into the Kingdom because you had a living encounter with Jesus. It was a heart and a head encounter. Jesus showed you in the Spirit and He is the Son of God and you believed His communication. At the time of your encounter with Jesus (whether emotional or not), you believed in your heart and spoke with your mouth what you believed (Romans 10).
What we needed to understand next was that LIVING OUT THE ENTIRE CHRISTIAN LIFE IS ABOUT CONTINUING THIS PATTERN. What pattern? The pattern an encounter with God in which we believe what God gets over to us and then act on it. When we do this his power explodes in our lives, over and over and over, and this power will help us and/or other people.
But what we did in many cases was this: We had a true encounter with Jesus and were born again, but then stayed right where we were just inside the door to the Kingdom, not realizing that being a believer is about a close living friendship with God in which we continue to receive communication and act upon it. Some of us were even told that God didn't do much these days in the field of manifesting His power on earth through believers. But the fact is that this is the acdtual job of the Church on earth. Our job is not to smooze on another about how great it is that we are saved and going to heaven. No, we are here to bring God's power and love to the world. But how?????
We all know, really. Deep in our hearts we know. We know because we have already had an encounter with Jesus that brought a real relationship with Him to us, right into our hearts. But we must keep having encounters (that need not be spectacular) and keep receiving communication, and keep believing that communication, and keep acting upon it. It is all about MOVING. Moving in our Christian lives.
Abraham showed us the pattern. God told him to go and he went. AND HE KEPT HEARING AND HE KEPT GOING. His faith got deeper and deeper. God gave him a ticket to a great new life. And he used it to go somewhere.
But Abraham could have built a museum right there over the spot. He could have put velvet museum ropes all around the exact place where God spoke to him. He could have had a room for the clothes he had been wearing when God spoke to Him. But instead, we just went.
Once God called me to go be a missionary to Hong Kong. After training, etc., one day the mission board gave me a plane ticket to Hong Kong. But I still wasn't there. When I sat in the airport with my ticket in my hand prior to boarding, I still wasn't there. No. To get there I had to cross the threshold into the plane when it was time to board. I could have just stayed in the airport. I didn't, but I could have.
So many believers are still in the airport, so to speak. What we need to do is act upon God's ongoing communication to us and act upon it. We need to cross over the threshold into active life in the Kingdom of God. We have come through the door and are now in the Kingdom. It's the greatest thing that can ever happen to a person on earth. But now we need to deepen our relationship with God, moving out into a living, totally dynamic life as a believer. This is what heppened in the Book of Acts. It is what is happening now. It never stopped.
For when those who keep moving deeper and deeper in their friendship with God keep taking steps in the Spirit as He leads, something amazing happens: With each step, with each "move," His power is released intotheirr lives and into the world. There is a video explaining this pretty plainly at ustream.tv/channel/all-nations-radiotv. Blessings.
