Opening up our eyes to the nations

Hello again from the wonderful country of Canada. I want to bring to you a few things that the Lord has highlighted the last few weeks. A little update on things first. I have found a job in the oilfield of Canada once again where I never thought I would be going back to. God has an amazing way of tying things in when you least expect it. I have always had a real longing in my heart to help others financially and to be one who can provide and beyond for my family and myself. I believe that God has given me a grace on my life to be wealthy. I also believe business is a desire in my heart.

Discipling Nations

I want to look at Joseph in Genesis who brought the wealth of the nations to his doorstep. He knew the ways of God and he had the counsel of God to bring that country into prosperity when the world was in famine. Joseph was discipling a nation in the ways of God that brought prosperity and an abundance in the hardest of times. We are to disciple nations. The nations all have arts and entertainment, business, education, family, government, media and religion. We need to disciple the nations in all these aspects of culture. The one thing we strive to do is bring people into the realm of religion culture. This is one sphere where yes we have the truth we know that we are the ultimatum in this area. What about the others. Look at the bible we have Joseph who was in the government of Egypt. Solomon a King who all looked upon and could not imagine the wealth and the wisdom he had. David a King, Husband, Psalmist, Musician, and I could go on and on but you get the picture. Paul the Apostle and Jesus went out to the Tax collectors, went out into the world to bring the nations under the discipleship of Christ. God has called us to build his kingdom with us. God is a lover of our desires. So often I hear people praying about moving and praying about businesses and which job to take when God is saying "My Kingdom goes with you wherever you are establish it where your desire is." God wants us to have the desires of our heart what loving Father doesn't look down on his children and not want to give them what they want. When we pray and petition what are we praying? We are praying out of our heart, we are praying the things he has whispered to us in our sleep and in our minds and in our hearts. I have so many testimonies of God meeting my desires in my heart. I often think about something I want and lo and be hold someone brings by what I was desiring. When we understand this truth watch how God meets your desires in different ways. One way I realize what my desires really are is by asking him. Sure I can say I want a million dollars who doesn't but is it really in my heart. Perhaps you can say yes, perhaps I can say yes if that is it then I would ask the Holy Spirit to help me bring this desire to pass. God has so many different ways of doing it. I have desired this job that I got awhile back I thought of the exact things I would want and basically named them in my head. I never prayed about them or asked God about them but when I got the job I thanked God for it. Later that day the Holy Spirit brought to my remembrance that day I desired those things. I immediately realized that God had listened to the desires out of my heart that were going on in my mind and he answered them. He is a good father and he is always listening to the desires of our heart. I was thankful and joyful because he is faithful and loving like the Father he truly is. 

God is with us wherever we go.

 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit he takes away and every branch that bears fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit; for without me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered, and they gather them and throw them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you will as what you desire and it shall be done for you. By this My father is glorified that you bear much fruit so you will be my disciples." John 15:1-8 (NKJV)

We don't have to go and clean ourselves up, or make us sin free because we are sin free as believers. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. When you believed the word that went out and received him at your point of conception (Salvation) God made a binding covenant contract with you that he became one with you. It is not in his nature to break his covenant with someone he has become one with, meaning we can never lose our salvation and two we can not do anything without him. For without me you can do nothing is another misconception that people have regarding this verse, they think that we need to pray and invite God with us wherever were going for him to bless us. He made a temple out of us the holies of holies is within us. We can't do anything without God, because he is within us it was his good pleasure to do that ! The vine dresser, the Father continually dresses us fitting for fruit. We don't have to do anything but abide in his love. His love and his abiding presence is where our desires our born and birthed. We see the vision in heaven within our heart and we birth it by doing things according to his counsel. Faith requires action and when we move like Abraham did on account of his family and his promise we see Gods promises come into alignment with our lives. We cannot just stop abiding in him, God will never cut us off and throw us out. The ones who do not abide in him are the ones who never took the word which was spoken to them. God starts relationship by his word, just like we do when we start relationship we talk and get to know them. We have a choice to respond to the word which is Jesus. 

Often times our lives effect how well we can receive the love of God. We don't "feel" like this is possible, we feel we have to go and do this pray for so many hours a day read our Bible, we have to go to work how spiritual is that. Everything we do is spiritual because we are spiritual beings. We cannot just say I am going to stop sowing, we can't God sows where he pleases by using his vessels us. Even when we don't think he is he is always up to something! What greater love is this thought that we team up with our Father to understand and know his ways on how to do things. This is how we birth discipleship in these areas of life by breaking paradigms in our thinking and realize that our desires matter to him. Their is nothing wrong with prosperity or money. Money is a vehicle in which we interact with others in life. Abraham was using his resources at the start of time at one time Abraham had the wealth of 9 nations. It is the love of money that is the root of all evil not money itself lets not forget that. I pray that God would give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and understanding of his ways to bring prosperity in to every aspect of your life! God bless you!

a bit of my story

I wrote this today and I hope to continue in it somemore. I feel and I pray that my story and what I have here will lead others into freedom and being able to express themselves and to receive love. We are created to know and to be known. When our hearts are sick inside of us we make choices that fill our needs in an unhealthy way. This is part of my story and I pray that God would help you discover freedom and love. 

I want to tell you some of my story and some of how God revealed himself to me in an experiential way. I grew up as an adopted son, one who was born to parents who could not control their intake of drugs and alcohol. Hearts that were hurting and filling those needs with things that would numb the pain of past experiences. By the time I was 2 I had undergone surgery to extract gangrene from my small intestine. I was still alive by a miracle many doctors still exclaim what a miracle I am. I had a weak immune system and had a list a mile long of things I would never be able to eat in my life. I had high fevers and battled my body. My knees wouldn't allow me to walk properly and I was in a tough situation. My adoptive parents were loving and kind and my mothers stubbornness to see me well helped me persevere through many of my sicknesses. God continued to heal me from a weak immune system by the time I was 10 I was healthy and running like a normal child. However on the inside of me their was still separation and traumatic experiences that I would see years down the road.

Growing up in a Christian home and involved in church from the time I could remember helped my walk with God but their was still a heart disconnect from who God was and who he was in my mind. I read the bible and continued to grow hungry for the things of God. I often heard and read about Smith Wigglesworth. I asked for his books from my parents for Christmas and I received them. I read them and their was something that seemed to come on me when I read them. I would have chills and just something inside of me woke up when I read how an individual from Yorkshire England could lay his hands on the sick and they would be healed. I often read how he prayed, be eeealed with his accent and wondered if it was the prayer that made them well. I had no foundation for healing the small little church I went to would often invite those up to be prayed for but I never saw with my own eyes if they were healed. To this day I don't know if they were healed or not. I continued to read about Smith Wigglesworth and asked others about healing but their was nothing really said about it.

I often would be in my room alone and pray and ask God to come in power like that when I prayed for people a desire in my heart purged through me with great delight. Often times I would feel something inside of me or a tingly sensation when I thought about the things of God. I had no idea at that time that God was preparing for me to encounter me years down the road. I always listened to the preacher on Sundays and often was interested in what he was saying but somehow it didn't seem to always apply to my life in a way that provoke me to something. The same stories of Daniel and David continued to be heard and church just became a routine in some ways. My attitude towards it was if I missed it I wasn't doing very good spiritually that week. I was told to read my bible and to pray everyday and I would grow spiritually. Their was one thing that kept me coming back for more and more their were those feelings that I had that I couldn't express with my own words even to this day. It was his presence though. That is the one thing that I could remember ever since I was a boy was how sweet it felt when I prayed or often would be laying on the floor as a young boy asking God questions being overcome into tears of joy often doubting my experience in my mind. These times I would remember for years to come.

These things would set something up in my life even to this day. Their were other things that happened when I was a young boy around 11 years old I was abused sexually by a man who was a friend of the families. We would go on fishing trips and things would happen that I was so confused about. One part of me felt violated and another part felt that this was acceptable. It allowed myself to continue being involved in those situations for years to come. Shame crept in when I was older and it was a secret that I held onto for many years of my life. It opened a big wound where the enemy would push his lies into me further. I had a secret that I couldn't allow anyone in further than that. I distanced myself unknowingly or sub-consciously from those around me. My parents the ones who adopted me and loved me as their own became a victim to this event in my life. I couldn't tell anyone about it because to me it felt that I was allowing it to happen to me and I was ashamed at what others would think. The rejection that I faced as a young boy being taken away from his parents and placed in a foster home from time to time confused my heart and this added to the calamity even more. You see their were things I didn't understand as a young boy. Consciously I never knew any difference from how others treated me or acted towards me. It was a small community that I was apart of and people would often bring up the fact that I was adopted as a term of offence on the playground. Sub consciously and in my heart it bothered me, I would often feel the anguish of it when it was spoken but I never wanted to allow it to hurt me.

All of these things in my life never went away no matter how hard I tried. Rejection would rule my heart and push me into submissive encounters. I couldn't speak freely without thinking what others would think of me. My outward appearance I always found offensive and those around me often bugged me about my weight. I was always looking for acceptance much like Joseph in the Bible. Did you know that Josephs mother Rachel was living out what her son would have to endure for his life. Reproach (expressing disapproval or disappointment) governed her life when she could bear no child. In Genesis 30:22 God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb and she conceived and bore a son, and said, ``God has taken away my reproach``. So she called his name Joseph, and said, ``The lord shall add to me another son.`` We all know the story of Joseph, Joseph had an amazing dream and encounter with God he explained it to his brothers and father and they threw him in the well to die. He was sold into slavery and endured a famine filled with Gods wisdom and knowledge. I also believe that Joseph was using Potiphars wife to fill his needs. He had faced rejection his whole life and along comes a woman giving him attention. If he truly felt compelled to protect himself he would have never been alone with her. He was the Kings number one man and he was alone with his masters wife! Maybe that gives you a bit of a different view of the story and perhaps you see it differently but maybe you relate to it as well.

The bible is full of stories like these but when we get an understanding not just reading them to read them, but actually see underneath them we see a different picture of things. Joseph still triumphed, God still uses people who are led by wrong motives and still allows them to overcome obstacles. Along the way Joseph knew the promise that God had given him he never gave in despite his circumstances he saw the wealth of the world come to his disposal and he saw his father and those who rejected and outcast him come under his mercy.

Along the way I have found different places in my life where my heart would fill that void for acceptance and it led me into decisions that to this day make me think how could I get into those predicaments. I would allow people into my lives for my needs and to make me feel accepted. When they left I would find others for a time being. My commitment level was low because I could never commit to change or allowing others to completely know who I was on the inside. My heart inside of me was full of pain and despair. As I grew older and in my early twenties it came to a crashing halt. I couldn’t continue living in a life full of hopelessness. My memory faded back from time to time to his presence and how he nurtured me at his feet. The story of the prodigal son, the son who had gone off and partied and lived life and I was ready to come home. My heart had led me to places I didn’t know I could go and my life was a ball of hopelessness. I returned to school to find hope and to find the light once again.