My Rights

In such an individualistic society, we often think it “wrong” or “evil” to believe that Christians have rights. After all, we are “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20), taking up our cross daily to follow Him (Luke 9:23), with our life being no longer our own (1Corinthians 6:19). These are all true statements; however, we have been led to believe that these passages indicate that we have no right to anything from the Lord. Growing up in the church my whole life, I have heard countless teachings and phrases at go something like this: “How dare we think we can demand anything from God? How dare we think we are indispensable to God? God owes us nothing…”

            

 To be honest, years of being involved in and around the church and the people of God has left me rather depressed. How is it possible to be full of joy when serving a God that you believe doesn’t actually care that much about your life? How can we be excited about a God that is portrayed as egotistical and self-centered? This God tells us to pay in faith (James 1:6), and yet a vast majority of His people believe ‘sometimes He does; sometimes He doesn’t. It all depends on Hs will.” Ladies and gentlemen, this line of thinking makes no sense. We have been so trained to believe that God’s sovereignty means he can do whatever He wants, whenever he wants, no questions asked, that we openly contradict ourselves in the way we think and speak about Him.

             

God says that anything is possible to anyone who believes (Mark 9:23). We say that God does what He wants. Jesus told us that when we ask anything in His name, we will receive it (John 14:14). We say that only applies to situations that are under His will (which we don’t know). The Holy Spirit speaks through the apostle James that when we pray in faith, the sick will be healed (James 5:15). We preach that sometimes God heals, sometimes He doesn’t. The Scripture tells us that Jesus took sickness and disease upon Himself on the Cross (Isaiah 53:4-5). We teach that He uses it as a means of gaining glory. The Scripture tells us we are Blessed (Galatians 3:13-14) with a Blessing that causes financial prosperity (Proverbs 10:22). The church often teaches that anyone who preaches that Blessing is a heretic. Jesus told us to take up our cross (Mark 8:34). Religion dictates that we should be taking His.

             

Get the picture?

             

Our God separated Himself, suffered and died, went to the furthest depths of Hades, itself – all so that we could have our lives put back right, to the state that it was designed to be at before the Fall. Yet, because we cannot help but look at the circumstances of life around us, we are not living that way. Rather than look to the Holy Word of God Almighty, we look to our lives, our friends and loved ones, the economy, politics, and all the mess that is going on globally, in order to ascertain the will of God. My friend, that ought not to be. It violates the very nature of faith.

             

Let’s settle this in our minds, once-and-for-all: God will always do what He promised us.

God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

~Numbers 23:19

My covenant I will not break, nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips.

~Psalm 89:34

 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

~John 15:7

God said He will do what He said he will do. He said that if we remain in Him and we go to Him, He will answer us and grant us the prayers that we ask of Him. He instructed us to approach Him with boldness (Hebrews 4:16) and great confidence. I have, through the work of my God and his great love for me, a right to his promises.

Correct. I said I have a right to the plans and purposes of God being accomplished in my life.  I have a right to healing and abundant provision (it is part of salvation, look up the Greek word and see for yourself). I have a right to the mind of Christ (1Corinthians 2:16). I have a right to His wisdom (James 1:5). I have a right to know His will (Ephesians 5:17). Through the work of the Cross, through the work of salvation, itself, I have a right to live the highest life there is. That runs contrary to the world’s ways of thinking.

Unfortunately, the world’s way of thinking has infiltrated the church. We contradict ourselves and our God without even realizing our error. We are painting our God to be double-minded and inconsistent. If we believe the words He has handed down to us, then we must put an end to this idea that God will do whatever He wants at His Own discretion, and that we have no right to question Him. We don’t have the right to tell Him how to be God, but we do have the right to expect Him (reverently expect Him) to do what he promised He would do. Otherwise, we unknowingly and unintentionally call Him a liar.

God has given us all the information we need in His Word as to why we do not yet see all the manifestations of His promises in our lives. Go find them. Believe them. Implement them. They are yours by right as a born-again child of God, co-heir with Jesus Himself (Romans 8:17)

Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul, and forget not [one of] all His benefits – Who forgives [every one of] all your iniquities, Who heals [each one of] all your diseases, Who redeems your life from the pit and corruption, Who beautifies, dignifies, and crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercy; Who satisfies your mouth [your necessity and desire at your personal age and situation] with good so that your youth, renewed, is like the eagle’s [strong, overcoming, soaring]!

~Psalm 103:2-5, Amplified

The "Wisdom" of Men

Anointing. That is what the Lord is pressing upon each and every one of us. There is a season of change , a time of fulfillment, that the Lord is endeavoring to accomplish in all those who will listen and follow Him. And that is the key to it all right there: listen and obey.

In order to walk in all that Jesus afforded us, we must be Kingdom-minded. We know this. We have had it preached to us for the majority of our Christian lives. We know it, because Jesus said it very pointedly: "seek first the kingdom of God" (Matthew 6:33). However, our actions outside of the church prove that we do not take the commands of our Lord very seriously.

Therefore do not worry and be anxious, saying, What are we going to have to eat? or, What are we going to have to drink? or, What are we going to have to wear? For the Gentiles (heathen) wish for and crave and diligently seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows well that you need them all. But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides.

~Matthew 6:31-33, Amplified

Does that really mark our lives when we walk outside the doors of our churches? Do we really trust that by putting the plans and purposes of God as our top priority, that He will handle all the other issues of our lives? Our pulpits say that we do. How often do we here messages on topics like Matthew 6:24

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon

And yet, how often do the messages stop there? When Jesus goes on to say that we are not to worry about our own provision, because that will take away from our ability to be Kingdom-minded? 

Being a Christian does not make you a person who is Kingdom-minded. James 1:22 tells us that simply listening to the Bible  doing other "religious" things is not enough. In fact, it is delusional to think that way. Doing that which our Lord tells us to do is what is required. Without the doing, we cannot walk Blessed, Anointed lives.

Kingdom ways of thinking do not line-up with earthly ways of living. Unfortunately, earthly mindsets have infiltrated their way into many churches. Think about it: we talk about our jobs, needing to work more in order to "earn" more money. We teach our children to follow the same earthly model as those outside the church: "go to school, get good grades, go to good college, get good job, make good money and have a good retirement." What Scripture is that on, again?

This is a broken model. I have lived it, and it didn't get me anywhere. Conventional wisdom has no place in the Christian life. Proverbs 14:12 tells us that it leads to death. 1Corinthians 2:14 tells us that these natural ways of thinking and living hinder us from receiving revelation from God.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't have jobs or do well in schools. What it means is that it is our responsibility to find out from God what He wants us to be doing. His plan is the plan that is Blessed - not whatever we come up with. What happened to Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (NIV)? God's plans are the ones that are already Blessed and Anointed. They are the ones that work. Why are we making our own, based upon the world's system around us?

James 4:13-17 shows us that making our own plans without God is both arrogant and sinful:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin

This passage is telling us not to simply up and make our own plans for life, assuming that since we are men and women of God He will Bless them. Our earthly lives, in the scope of eternity, are too brief for that kind of living and thinking. In fact, to assume that since we said a few prayers, read the Bible on occasion, and remember to add "Your will be done" to the end of our prayers at church, that God will Bless our endeavors is arrogant presumption. You know you are to listen to Him regarding what to do with your life. And when you know what to do and you decide not to do it, for you, it is sin. God cannot Bless and Anoint sin.

Just because you say, "Your will be done" at the end of a prayer does not mean that His will actually will happen, either. Jesus didn't teach us to pray that way. On the contrary, Jesus said to pray that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven. God's will is heaven on earth. Contrary to religious opinion, that which does not match heaven is not the will of God. 

Just because we see it happen in our lives, or in the lives of others, does not mean God ordained it. The "God is Sovereign" excuse is nothing more than spiritual laziness. There are people who hate God, because Christian people have led them to believe God is responsible for poverty, sickness, disease, third-world nations, terrorism, genocide, and every other atrocity this world has. The Bible says otherwise. The Bible says in 1John 3:5 that Jesus came to destroy these things. And that is all that matters.


In order to walk in the fullness of the Anointing and Blessing of God, we must put aside all that we think we know, and get on our knees before Him. Let God tell you exactly what to do - even if it defies "conventional wisdom." Only then will we walk in all that Jesus bought us: the good life.

For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].

 ~Ephesians 2:10, Amplified 

Doubting Doubt

I picked up a book the other at Barnes and Noble and discovered something that made my stomach turn and my skin crawl. As I sit here in my office the thought of it still irks me. I do not remember the title of the book, which is probably a good thing, because you do not need to know. It was written by one of my favorite Christian authors - and that, of course, makes it worse. While browsing the pages I discovered a chapter on doubt. To my astonishment, this writer claims that it is OK for Christians to doubt God.

Let that sink in for a moment. Sadly, this is not the first time I have heard Christian leaders say something along these lines. In the case of this author, the premise was that doubt is not a form of unbelief, but rather a temptation to think more than one way. By definition, doubt is being double-minded. It is having more than one thought about a situation or circumstance. To this writer, doubting God is an occasion to grow in one's faith. How that works in this person's mind is beyond me. Doubt is the exact opposite of faith. And it is not something to be condoned.

The Scripture tells us the same thing about doubt as this author did. However, unlike what I read at Barnes and Noble, the Bible is adamant that we refrain from all traces of doubt 

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

~James 1:5-8

How do we condone doubt as Christians? For those of you immediately wanting to play "devil's advocate" (why do people advocate for the devil?! Find a better expression!), no, this author did not mean that doubt is not something wrong. They were laying claim to the idea that doubting God can and at times is a good thing. Clearly, from the Bible itself, that is not true. 

We have all had times where we have been tempted to doubt. It is not something to feel guilty over or to condemn one's self about. However, it is also not something to be tolerated, either. There is no stability in a doubtful person. Faith remains; doubt wavers. Doubt is a tool of the devil to break our confidence in God and His Word. When tempted to doubt, doubt the doubt. What? When you feel doubt in God and His Word rising within you, doubt it. Know that God is not the Author of doubt or confusion, so anything that falls into those categories are not from Him. When feeling doubt about health, healing, provision, direction or any other promises of God, doubt those doubts.

It is insulting to God when we do not trust Him. How much more does He have to do for us? Many will say, "I do so trust God!" Feelings of doubt prove otherwise. While those moments can, and often will, be turned around by God, it is always better that we acknowledge what they are and begin to resist them from here on out. Perhaps the reason many of us are not seeing manifestations of God's promises in our lives is because we have fallen pray to the idea that doubt in a tool in the Hand of God. One pastor says otherwise, "Doubt is a cancer growth in the spirit. It must be removed using the scalpel of faith."