Relationship with God

God’s tipping point

8 Comments / Relationship with God /

In 2006 “thought leader” Malcolm Gladwell published a book entitled “The Tipping Point.” His premise was that the viral spread of an idea, product or disease is the result of repeated behaviors that builds an accumulative effect to a critical mass. When that threshold or “tipping point” is reached, a breakthrough occurs not unlike the collapse of a dam, turning a persistent trickle turns into a flood.

This same principle is applicable in spiritual matters also. There are tipping points in the realm of the Spirit when God releases breakthroughs. Tipping points with God are always linked to prayer or the lack thereof. That is why God so earnestly looks for intercessors, those who will stand in the gap before Him for His purposes to be accomplished in the earth. (Ezekiel 22:30) Prayer and intercession move His hand to pour out blessings and stay His hand in holding back judgment. (Revelation 5:8 & 16:1)

One of the names ascribed to God by King David was Baal-perazim – the “Lord who breaks through.” The occasion was one of the times when the Philistines attacked Israel. As was David’s practice, he first sought the Lord in prayer. “Should I go out to fight the Philistines? Will you hand them over to me?” The LORD replied, “Yes, go ahead. I will hand them over to you.” (1 Chronicles 14:10) So when David’s troops defeated them he exclaimed “God did it! …He used me to burst through my enemies like a raging flood!” (1 Chronicles 14:11)

Jesus gave us very specific instructions about the Father’s tipping points and how to trigger breakthroughs in our lives. In His Sermon on the Mount Jesus encouraged three things that every believer must do to move the Father’s hand to tipping points of blessing. (Matthew 6:1-8) Those three things, all forms of intercession, are alms giving, prayer and fasting. Jesus promised that when we do these things in secret, exclusively for Him and not for show, He will reward us openly.

In both the Old and New Testaments prayer and fasting were often triggers for releasing amazing breakthroughs.

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Sports fanaticism & idolatry

2 Comments / Relationship with God, Uncategorized /

It’s been a tough past five days for Minnesota sports fans. The Gopher football team lost to Penn State on Saturday, the Vikings lost to Green Bay on Sunday, the Wild lost to the Capitals on Monday and the Timberwolves lost to Sacramento on Wednesday. Losses are bad enough, but every single one of them was a winnable game. That is frustrating! When I went to bed Wednesday night I was repenting. I had just spent two fruitless hours watching another defeat and wasting valuable time and energy on something I knew ultimately could never satisfy me.

When we read in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, about the worship of idols our eyes gloss over and we relegate such behavior to that of primitive cultures. After all we are far too advanced and sophisticated to fall prey to such foolishness. Right? – Wrong! Idol worship in our modern culture is more rampant than we realize and in all honesty rivals the idol worship of even Hinduism which boast millions of gods.

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Overcoming a spirit of rejection

13 Comments / More on that message..., Overcoming, Relationship with God /

“He has made us accepted in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:6 AKJV)

Why is it that we so readily give credence to the voice of rejection whispering in our ear? You know that voice. It says “I don’t belong here. No one listens to or cares about me. I have nothing to offer.” It’s always in the first person “I”, because that is the way the devil deceives us into thinking its coming from us rather than from him, the father of lies. (John 8:44)

Seeds of rejection sown into our lives through experiences of being disregarded, abandoned or betrayed are fueled by the devil’s lies and lead to self-rejection. We then become our own worst enemy. Henri Nouwen writes “Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that declares we are loved.”

The heart of the message of the Gospel is the very opposite of rejection. It is the promise of acceptance by our heavenly Father in the unconditional love of His son Jesus Christ.

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Making sense of prophetic timing

3 Comments / Growth & Development, Relationship with God /

The Lord isn’t slow to do what he promised, as some people think. 2 Peter 3:9 (God’s Word Translation)
The timing and means of prophetic pronouncements are often cloaked in mystery. And here is why. Prophecy lifts us into the realm of the Spirit which transcends time and space as we know it. Time for God is different than time for us. “But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day.” (2 Peter 3:8) Past, present and future for us is simply “now” for God.

There are two things that are often stumbling blocks when it comes to processing personal prophecies and promises from the Lord. They have to do with the timing of their fulfillment and the means by which they ultimately come to pass. Because we are working from a limited understanding, our script of when and how God intends to do something often leaves us scratching our heads. Invariably God’s timing and way of doing something do not match ours. (Isaiah 55:9)

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Testing a message from God

4 Comments / Growth & Development, Relationship with God /

How does a person who really wants be directed by the Holy Spirit test whether or not it is God’s voice they are hearing? God speaks in myriads of ways. He speaks primarily through the Bible, but also through inner impressions (thoughts and visions), dreams, circumstances and through other people. The problem is that the voice of the devil and self also use those same means to deceive us.

Consider the fact that the Devil used scripture to try to deceive Jesus. In fact Paul in writing to the Galatians warned that even messages from angels needed to be tested for deception. (Galatians 1:8)

And our own hearts can deceive us. The prophet Jeremiah tells us that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (17:9) In other words, it is easy for us to deceive ourselves and to be deceived when we are not crucifying the flesh or keeping strong selfish desires in check.

The simplest approach to determining whether the guidance we are seeking is from God or not is based on an old principle from celestial navigation. You might call it the three point alignment principle. A sailor desiring to determine his location needed three fixed points such as stars, planets or the sun and moon. GPS guidance works on the same principle requiring three satellites to determine latitude and longitude and a fourth to obtain altitude.

So how do we test messages purporting to be from God?

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