Getting To Know God Better 1

""So you want to get to know God better. Why? You might as well comes to term with this question right now, because this question is always going to need to be answered in order for you to receive any instruction, gift, wisdom, power, authority, strength, inspiration, etc.

Spiritual thought requires a spiritual connection and the connection is made by your dependence on the Lord.

• Are you bothered by the fact that God requires that you go through Jesus to communicate with God?
• Does it bother you that in God's economy it is not in the amount of times a day that you pray, but who you are, in Christ?
• Does it bother you that next to a most unholy but saved person you are equal?
• Are you taken back by the fact that so-called sister religions have no access to the throne of God?
• Are you concerned that God is working with faulty guidelines and God will erroneously leave out certain groups because God is unaware of their intent?
• Are you bothered that all are lost to start with and without Christ remain lost?

Many Christians and non-Christians are sympathetic to all kinds of religious overtures. If only we were as sensitive to the Word of God... If you want to be all-inclusive you will be terribly disappointed. If you have decided to stray away from the design that God designed for mankind, that's fine, but it won't work very well. It's kind of like if your car needs a spark plug and you decide to make one and put it into the motor and expect it to run the same as a factory plug.

Get with the program. Stop creating your own religion. It amazes me at how many Christians think they know better than God. No wonder we have so many problems. That's they negative side. The positive side is that God loves you so much that God tolerates any and all of your rebellion. In your imperfections and weaknesses and disobedience God has made a way for you. No matter what you think or what you believe, God loves you and is willing to retrain you if you are willing to accept.

Note: If you plan to go through life with a "have God your own way" attitude, the wonderful protections, blessings, answers, intuitions, inspirations and gifts will not be available."

Priority 1 - 2

"Delegating time to be alone with God is so important and can be accomplished even in this extremely busy environment we are in. The one drawback is that you won't be able to visit or call God on one of your electronic devices. God still speaks with a small still voice into your inner man.

Since glorifying God is priority 1 then time alone is important, because that is where the instructions for priority 2,3 4,... are found. How did it happen? You know, where it became less and less important to include God in your everyday life/lifestyle?

I get asked this question all the time: If God is so great and sovereign, then why does God need me to do anything? Wow! It is kind of a good question. God doesn't need for us to do anything to be God. But part of creation is free-will, built into your being. It is kind of like having power at your house, but you never trip the breakers to turn it on. Access and intervention to and from God are available, but because of free will you do not have to use it.
If you want to live in the dark that's fine.
If you want to go without spiritual nutrition that's fine too.
If you want to own, drive and manage your own life, OK.
If you like always being the boss with no influence or solicitation from God, you have that power.
If you want to deny God His place in your life, you can.

That's the power of free will. The problem with not allowing God entrance in your life/lifestyle is like: Well let's use this analogy: It is like playing a card game that you really like and you are very good at and there are ten cards removed from the deck and you don't know which ones they are. You can still play the game, but the outcome is unknowable and the games rules won't work either.

Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Going to God provides you with everything you need to live an exciting, rewarding, fruitful and successful life. One more analogy. You have become accustomed to updates in your electronic devices, especially with your PC and phone. Without these updates your devices will usually work, but over time they will become useless, obsolete, archaic and not even perform the most simplest of tasks. It is that way with God too. You need the updates that only God has and to get those updates you need to go online with God, direct connect, live streaming, and get your upgrades. There are many upgrades and you can download them daily if you like and with each upgrade your device does more and more and more.

Priority 1 to glorify God in your body.  


 

Priority 1

"Among all the things we must do, we must prioritize our time to reflect our primary responsibilities in everyday living. I am certain that no two persons would set in order all the same priorities, however there is one priority that supercedes them all, and that is to glorify God above all things and in all things.

To glorify God in your life is the primary directive of all mankind. If this is not your highest priority which compels you to plan all other priorities, goals and directives, then you will not fulfill your tasks in this life, no matter how successful you become. Success is found in the honorable pursuit of a thing and has nothing to do with the acquisition or accumulation of things.

Divine inspiration comes from God and you can only measure your true accomplishments in the light of how your faith in God is revealed through your actions. Your actions reveal your true love for God, not your words. Your personal relationship with God is made priority 1 by you revealing your dependency on God's sovereignty, which sets in place all other priorities. Because God is the creator, He design the priority 1 concept to provide you easy access to all the components you need to utilize all of creation to bring to pass all of your goals and tasks at hand.

Try to keep in mind that all of creation was created with you as priority 1 in God's economy. Everything was created for you to use for your benefit and to benefit those around you. If God is priority 1, all of the other things you do in life will provide surplus, or positive results in your life and the lives of others.

One more thing: Alone time with God is the password to get into the presence of God and inner faith the password to get in. If you are thinking that your rabbi, priest or pastor can ever get into the presence of God for you, you have been taught wrong. It is not true and it will never be true. You rabbi, priest or pastor can intercede for you, but outside the gate. You can only get into the very presence of God on your own, by faith."

Draw Nigh 3

"God is Sovereign and can alter circumstances as pleases His purpose. God uses our faithful adherence to godly precepts to bring about His will. In essence this is co-creating with God. Our most usable attributes for accomplishing the will of God in our life are: Self-denial, selflessness, patience, meekness, humility, temperance, holiness, kindness and godliness, but of course other attributes such as boldness, courage, strength, honor, integrity, forthrightness come into play when co-creating with God.

Here's the rub. Self-denial, selflessness, patience, meekness, humility, temperance, holiness, kindness and godliness are godly attributes received by God through wisdom and can always be used for any purpose to accomplish the will of God. Whereas, boldness, courage, strength, honor, integrity, forthrightness are support temperaments that accentuate, accelerate or enhance the godly attributes given to us by God. In other words these temperaments are the delivery system by which we deliver/alter destinies that are God ordained.
God uses mankind in his frail and somewhat unsuitable condition to accomplish God''s perfect will with accuracy, timeliness and measurable substance.

To draw nigh to God creates the benefit of God weaving our temperaments with His attributes to bring about a desired result. These results cannot be reached while on our own using our temperaments without the aid of the indwelling Holy Spirit. That doesn't mean that people who have not been born again cannot do good things, because they can. What they can't do is to bring about a result that requires the hand of God to be accomplished because they are not co-creating with God, they are creating on their own. The God synergy is not there.

I think it time for you to stabilize your beliefs. The days of wandering to and fro and believing this and that should be set behind you. You cannot do tomorrow's tasks with yesterdays knowledge/wisdom. Tomorrow's tasks take whatever you receive from God today as the kindling to bring to pass the will of God. To draw nigh to God requires an everyday experience with God. Of course if you are willing to go behind the veil with God everyday, the information you will be working with will be fresh and useful.

Note: Most Christians hardly know God at all, much less desire the opportunity or the responsibility of co-creating with God. Don't be too hard on yourself if you don't want to take on added responsibilities. Just like in any trade their are all kinds of workers, managers, supervisors, etc. Just decide to give to God what portion of yourself you are able to part with and God will do the rest. 

2nd note: Sometimes people get their back up when discussing levels of commitment to God. They have been taught that only the priest, rabbi, pastor, apostle, minister are endowed with these special privileges. Of course there is no truth in it. You are just as qualified to be God's person for the day as anyone. 

Draw Nigh 2

"I truly believe that the reason people are so passively judgmental is because they spend so little time in the scriptures. I see, more than any other influence in the Church, conformity to traditional values and precepts which may not be doctrinally sound; religious tenets of faith, created to assure a business model of financial perpetual motion and not always biblically sound.

god will not motivate your heart toward spiritual wisdom if you are unwilling to get know and follow simple biblical truths (all of which trump religious tenets of faith). To draw nigh to God requires a little effort, such as; "Resist the devil and he will flee from you."  Jas. 4:7. Today, way too many Christians have a foggy view of the devil, some don't even believe the devil has any authority in the Christians life/lifestyle and even others don't know anything about the workings of evil in their life except that maybe there is a devil. That's not much to work with.

Your ability to draw nigh to God are subject to your obedience to God. In other words, because God is omniscient, if you come to God under false pretense or just for show, God knows your intent and the level of understanding that you receive from that meeting/session/summit will be based on your level of commitment to the things of God. You cannot receive from God what you cannot use/disperse for God. You will not receive anything from God that you cannot, (due to lack of understanding/wisdom/faithfulness) use for the purpose of advancing the kingdom of God. Most Christians are not in agreement that there is any relationship between receiving from God and obedience to God. They see God's assistance as the endless flow of goodies, a kind of spiritual lolly pop dispenser, without the need for chastisement or other behavioral corrections. Many Christians today want a genie kind of God, just rub the lamp when you need something and then have him get back in the bottle quickly so that no one else will ever know or be able to use the endless supply of magical spiritual candy.  Wow!

God gives no one anything that is not for the good of man/mankind.
every personal gift to you from God is weighted with add-ons that benefit those of your circle of influence and out to the world at large. There is no magical genie that gives one person what they want, but a real divine worker that benefits the individual while blessing the whole of mankind at the same time. That is one reason it is so hard for people to draw nigh to God, they haven't even gotten past the point of believing for something for others. People today don't come to God to meet with God, they come for some thing. Most people wait until the need is at the critical level before coming into the presence of God and then they come to God to arbitrate for them.  Don't get me wrong you should go to God to have God arbitrate for you, but if your only communication is through critical mass, it is not likely you will ever be able to see what God is doing in your life.

If you can't see what God is doing in your life, you are probably kicking against the goads. If you have never come to God for the sole purpose of coming to God, to commune, to receive, to ingest, to inhale, to absorb, accept just God, then you cannot be trusted with coming to God for things. It is through total submission to God that you receive understanding/wisdom to be able to discern what it is that you really need, and what to come to God for.

Just one more thing: There are those who have come to God just to be with God and to receive from God and what they received they didn't like, so they stop going to God to commune, to receive, to ingest, to inhale, to absorb, accept just God. Not everyone understands that in the presence of God you are thoroughly revealed, unmasked, debunked, unveiled, made known. Sometimes God deals with you and you don't like to be dealt with. Sometimes God speaks to your heart about necessary adjustments and you don't want to be adjusted. See, most people want to come to God to change God's mind about this or that, but few come to God in hopes of being exposed and revealed to their very depth and change their mind about this or that.

It is still true that most people would rather have a religious view of God so that they can deal with God in a more rational manner, a reserved manner, a measured manner, a predictable manner. That makes it easy to keep God at bay so that they can continue to play Church and play spiritual without having any responsibilities or ever have to face their own ungodly decision, indiscretions, sin. Here is the bottom line: They have allowed religion to be their mediator to God, not Jesus.

You can just skip the idea of drawing nigh to God if you are going to go to God with religion as your buffer. You will not grow and you will not change. You will only become more hardened and set in your ways, never free to reach up and receive new light from God, never free from the influence of this world's system or free from self."

Draw Nigh 1

"To be a Christian is not just receiving the name. Many people believe that once they have been saved they have really accomplished something. Salvation is a gift from God, not earned through Sunday School pins or saying the Rosary so many times a day or genuflecting or praying to the saints or becoming a Christian because your wife wants you to. God chooses you and you simply respond with a yes and then God does the saving.

"Draw nigh unto God and He will draw nigh unto you," James 4:8

It amazes me the direction that social thought/media has gone. On one side we still have Christians that are so judgmental that you can't tell they are Christians and on the other side we have Christians that are so liberal/loose with their thinking that they more resemble humanist than Christians. Of course God wants us to be accepting and tolerant, but not ignorant. Of course God wants us to be open-minded, but not without parameters. Why, today if Peter was to come back and become part of our society he wouldn't be able to tell who was with him or against him, because of the wishy-washy belief system that is now status-quo.

The people that say they are with him might be or might not be and the people that say they are against him might be against him or maybe not. The call for speaking with a straight tongue has morphed into speaking so as to impress others whether it is truth or not, whether it is verified or not, whether it hurts someone or not. Many things that people say are for the purpose of confusing others or starting a riot or issue that might not even exist. It reminds me of this last election where there was so much trash talk; building a case against someone for the sake of it without skin in the game. It makes me sick.

It is hard to draw nigh unto God while you are formulating a plan to disgrace someone else or tell lies about someone you don't even know or just gossiping to the point that you (you) cause someone to believe something that isn't true for the sake of hiding who you really are. Again, it amazes me that those who claim Christianity, a personal relationship with God, have no constraint when it comes to following the world, hurting others, lying, cheating, defrauding others, creating false situations to steer others from knowing the truth, and on and on.

I'm sorry, but I am looking for someone to step up to the plate and reveal just how far off track they have become and then make the necessary adjustments and move forward to draw nigh to God to become more like God."

 

Lukewarm 2

"Humanism, as described by divineless thought is far more dangerous than a cult. Cults consist mainly of those who have tendencies to follow after a personality, a spiritual leader. Cultist are enamored with the teachings, mannerisms of  an individual and are not invested in finding the truth of the scripture. The cult follower can be reached much easier than the humanist because the humanist has devised a system that has already denied God and the cultist is still open to God.

The most consequential mistake a person can make is that of humanism, because humanism is anti-God. Humanism is a work of satan and since the humanist do not give satan any place because satan is a spiritual being, they deny satan's existence also. Humanist do not recognize their mindset creator.

Those who elevate themselves above God, humanist, do so at great peril, not because God retaliates or does anything against them, but because they are working with only a portion of their ability/capacity. It is like they are in a fight with their hands tied behind their back. Those who elevate themselves above God shall surely reap the consequences of operating in a spiritual world only using the natural elements. It is like putting a model airplane together in the dark.

If you can honestly say, "the devil made me do it," you are far better off than if you say, "self made me do it," for without Christ self is the end of the lineage. I know you have heard the term lukewarm Christian, but this term is not biblical. Lukewarm refers to those who are dabbling with God, like a cat with a mouse. They are the decidedly undecided.  They do not recognize Christ as Savior. They have made no profession of faith. They have made the decision to exclude God because they believe God is an unnecessary thought, an avoidable influence, an unwarranted risk or that God does not exist at all. It is a decision and that is why it has so much influence in the life of the humanist/lukewarm.

That is the beauty and the beast of free will. The beauty is that you can come to God and receive all that God offers and with just an open mind and an open heart receive treasure troves of blessings. But you can also deny God and abandon the idea of receiving anything from God and live on and move forward without the influence of the Holy spirit. It is empty and vain, but many have chosen to become lukewarm.

What can you do for those who have chosen to deny God? Well this could take a while, but to make a long story short: Paul said, "For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as to under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law of Christ,) that I might gain them that are without the law. To the weak became I weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some." 1 Cor. 9:19-22

If you want a child to understand you, you get down real low and you smile and look them in the eyes and speak their language. You become like a child to reach a child. You become like a lukewarm person to reach a lukewarm person (not in absence from God but under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.)

  

Lukewarm 1

"Right off I already know that many people will be offended when discussing this subject. Whenever confronted with our own personal indiscretions we often get our back up. True growth is being able to be confronted with indiscretions and the possible cure without feeling attacked and of course without retaliation.

God made man/women so powerful that through the generations, by mankind's own volition, has created unto themselves a new authority to be reckoned with, self. Man, you and me, have designated self as the governing body by which good and evil is measured. We have departed from believing in what God has said. Now we believe a little of what God has said, but we also hold just as pure and just as sovereign, what we have created, our viewpoint, our morays, our rules. We have done this to lessen the effect that God has on our everyday lifestyle. We have begun to believe that if we can lessen God's influence that we can lessen the ramifications of our actions, and if we are really creative we can eliminate any consequences for our behavior.

This process has taken centuries and it also only takes one generation. The lessening of the effect of God among man is becoming a way of life and for many a religion. Slowly over the generations humanism has become the scapegoat from religious belief and generation to generation the mantra of those who hold tightly to an agnostic or atheist point of view. Lukewarm is the final stage of humanistic growth. If you are thinking that lukewarm is OK, just where did you derive that idea? Certainly not from scripture. Rev. 3:16 "So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth."  If John 3:16 is the salvation verse then Rev. 3:16 is the antithesis."

Why Does God Have Rules?

"God has set in order rules, precepts, ordinances and regulations for your growth and preservation. God, because of His foreknowledge of the many means by which we can live in peace with joy in this life, has made a way that you can have assurance of success.

All the rules, precepts, ordinances, regulations and laws from God are to serve mankind and in no way were ever designed to reflect the path to salvation. Salvation is a gift from God that you receive by faith. All the rules, precepts, ordinances, regulations and laws from God are in effect for the purpose of mankind being able to preserve their societies in peace and with purpose and prosperity.

Abiding in and following after the precepts of God are the result of salvation, not the way to salvation. Abiding by the precepts of God protect your inner man from failing. While in this world you will have unfortunate troubles and calamities which might be caused by others against you without your participation. The precepts of God protect the inner man, not the outer man. Your flesh is growing toward an end while you spirit is being renewed day by day. Loving the things of God will not keep ungodly people from doing harm, but it will keep you from participating in that harm.

The law of God is good and the wise person is one that seeks not only to find truths but to live them out, not to prove anything to God or anyone, but to nurture the relationship between yourself and the Holy Spirit within. The wise person seeks methods to find and abide by the truths of God while the fool is always looking for loopholes to get their own way."

On Politics

"Whatever your bent, in America, politics was always meant to be the will of the people through the eyes of the law that governs the people.  I hope you can move on past the division that political elections kindle. Many family members have Democrats, Independents and Republicans all living in the same household. 

From a Biblical perspective they are all under God and their political affiliation only serves their individual memes. Politics will never supply any internal assistance nor will politics ever govern ones heart toward God, but decisions made from the results of political views can steer the environment that we are in. 

Left, Right, Middle, Conservative, Liberal only define portions of what we have come to believe. None of these titles make us who we are. I mention that so that yo will not judge others based on their political affiliation. Yes they might differ with you on very important or delicate matters, but no their affiliation does not define the man or woman. Nor does ones political proclivity fully identify who they are as a person. 

Americans have found out that politics is a way for each individual to galvanize a particular position that they think will better themselves and others.  But politics does not define what we believe or what is our hearts intent. Politics might reflect some of what we are thinking, but only a skewed reflection at best. 

To clump a group of people together and says that they all believe the same things because they are all of a particular political affiliation is ignorance run amok. Love is the glue that holds people together and love overcomes political inclinations. If love is not the driving factor when looking at others trying to figure out why they believe differently than you, then you you will be making erroneous and untrue statements about others and believing things that do not exist. It would be like going to the voting booth to  vote and the ballot was blank except little circles that you fill in and you fill them in without having any corresponding name. 

If you want politics to drive your train, then vote party ticket. That will be proof that politics has become your religion. 

The fact that two people with diametrically opposed positions on social issues can work together and worship together and even live together is proof that politics is of little consequence when being pitted against the intangible things that make life worth living. 

The best politics of all is to jump in with both feet and invest yourself into your life and that of your family and community to make it a better place.    



      

On Work 2

"God has declared you righteous (those who believe) and that by the blood of Jesus, therefore your work should be an outward expression of your faith and belief in the Lord Jesus and as a genuine witness of your love toward others.

Learn to discipline yourself to do the jobs that you dislike the most with the same zeal you do toward the jobs you like most. Any day where you feel your very best is a good day to start this discipline. Affirm within yourself a reason for this or that discipline. This repeat this effort until you find joy in doing things that you dislike doing. Continue adding things until everything that you do you take on with the same zeal and effort because you have found for yourself the benefits and blessing that come with a disciplined mind.

You are not your work. You are not your job title. You are a child of God purposed and blessed with certain talents, skills, temperament to be used for the purpose of fulfilling your calling and providing for others a good and clean path to follow. When I rake the leaves, I rake as if it mattered."

On Work 1

"Work as if you work unto the Lord. This does not mean that we should work too many hours nor does it imply that we all have to be the best at what we do or that we should work harder than we are capable. We are all responsible to designate our time for work, to be as creative and productive as possible.

Among the many wonders of God's gifts and privileges to mankind is the ability to work.  AS we perform our tasks we come to understand that to create something from raw material and produce a finished product is quite rewarding and self-satisfying. At times we might even be full of joy or proud (in a good way) of what we do. God has given each of us our talents to be used for His glory and we should never allow our work to become a drudgery. god is concerned with the intent in our heart more than to what degree of perfection we reach.

I am not implying that you should not strive for perfection or high-quality or that any of us should be satisfied with less than our best. But to work as if you work unto the Lord has more to do with intent than attaining a specific goal of perfection. The system that God designed was to insure that as we work unto the Lord, our work on earth, whatever it might be, runs a parallel course. If you have the intent in your heart to do a good job and the skills to do it, you are blessed and should be pleased that you were chosen to do things the way God does things.

Even the most mundane of tasks becomes facile if your intentions are to honor God through your work.

OK, now the tough stuff. Not every work is capable of being done in a way as if we work unto the Lord. There are some things that people do that are outside of the parameter of a job that you can do as if you do unto the Lord. In our modern society mankind is drawing new lines of what is acceptable in the eyes of the Lord. Today almost anything goes. Yes there are parameters and no not everything is approved by God.

People that try to justify whatever they are doing that in their inner man know is wrong, but on the outside they justify; well I don't waste much time with that kind of thinking. And I surely wouldn't waste much time trying to convince someone that they should think differently. It is not that I don't care, it is that they have become hardened to the leading of the Holy Spirit and a person who has been hardened to the leading of the Holy Spirit is not easily reached and quite often any help from you is received as an affront and you will get the brunt of their rebellion. I prefer to wait them out. If you choose a different route, at least admit to yourself that you could be entangled in a web that you might not be qualified to get out of.

Fleeing Temporal Determinations

What!

All is this world is temporal, therefore spend little of your valuable time pacifying the perfection of worldly pursuits. Disregard them not, because even worldly pursuits need your attention, but don't exhaust yourself creating and sustaining things that fade away.  Strengthen yourself by reading the Word of God. Once you fully recognize that you are only a steward of the things on earth, it will affect your perception of things important.

God has already promised to give you all things necessary. Why the struggle? Make your deepest and most forethought that of gaining wisdom. Wisdom will provide the catalyst to move forward and better use your time for things that matter. Without wisdom it is a futile fight. Seek not only the things that bring pleasure. Seek not only the things that must be done (your daily routine). Seek outside of these things into the heavenlies for wisdom.

Let God be your All in All for a season.

Servanthood

One of the greatest fallacies deceiving Christians is that, once you are born again there is no need for service or servanthood, because now God watches over you and protects you anyway. It is partially true. God does watch over you and protect you, but service to mankind and servanthood are just as much a part of the born-again experience as being watched over and protected.

Salvation is a free gift from God and without contingencies, but servanthood is from man/woman and that according to our own free will. If you believe that God has given you eternal life, why wouldn't you want to bless others in whatever capacity you are able? If God gives freely to you, and you believe it, you will be motivated to do the same thing for others.

The concept of servanthood is far from popular in modernity. But Jesus isn't that popular either. Servanthood is a badge of honor for the Christian that believes that they have received from God. Think of it this way: When you plant a seed in the ground it is just a seed, but with water and soil and sunlight it becomes a plant and then goes on to become a tree or produce a fruit. Without you, nothing can grow. You are the water, the soil and the sun to the seeds of faith that have been planted. If you have ever had a garden you will fully understand the necessity of nurturing the seed, then the pant all the way through to maturity. without you the plants might come up but they would not produce anything because of the weeds and the elements.

God gives to you. You serve others.

Spiritual Growth 3

"Growth is usually some simple form of something to a more complex form. With spiritual growth comes greater joy, fulfillment and abundance but also more clarity and understanding and sometimes challenges. (The challenges were always there but you couldn't see them in your fledgling state of faith)

The reality of spiritual growth never meant that there would necessarily would be less sorrow in life or less, pain. trials, tribulations or temptations.With increased growth comes more complex tasks. God gives no one any tasks to do that He has not thoroughly prepared them for. Of course that doesn't mean that you can't bite off more than you can chew, but it wasn't God putting the spoon in your mouth. If a task is greater than your capabilities then it is not from God.

the Word of God is explicit in all matters concerning spiritual growth. As youi grow and successfully fulfill what grace you have obtained, more and more grace will be added unto you for the advancement of the kingdom of God and for your own personhood.