“This is a Year to Proclaim Christ”

Here we are in the year 2011.  It seems like a science fiction movie.  We have arrived in our future only to find that it is really the present.  It isn’t the future at all.  It is always the present.  You can never remain in the past and you can never arrive at the future.  The future is always future.  It is always just ahead.  I think I know what it looks like until I arrive only to find the present and the future is pushed further only to remain an imagination of something that is usually different than reality.  Now if all that makes sense, I have to truly wonder about you.  But this is the way I think!  Strange I know.

Despite the clever way of looking at time, another year is here and the key is to discover what we will do with another 12 months.  I have spent a lot of time with God asking Him about the days ahead and what does He want me to focus on.  What does He want for His people in these times?  

I am certain that in 2011, God desires for us to come up higher by lowering ourselves before Him.  The Kingdom of God is quite different that the kingdoms of this world.  It works opposite of our natural inclinations.  I have taught you that the Kingdom of God is about … teach-ability, responsibility and accountability.

Teach-ability

Jesus spent three and a half years teaching about the Kingdom of God.  He did so through mentoring, modeling and miracles.  Those that had a teachable spirit received from Him and experienced true transformation.

Responsibility

With knowledge comes responsibility!  The Kingdom of God becomes a tangible reality when those who have been taught by Christ from His Word respond to it by allowing the living Word to shine through in a dark and dreadful world.

Accountability

Being responsible with what one has been taught bring one into an accountable place under God.  This accountability with what has been put in one’s heart actually releases the authority of Christ through a surrendered life.  The authority of Christ provides anointing and confidence in God that enables one to stand in the most trying times of life and give glory to God!  THIS IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD!

It is also about … simplicity, suffering and poverty!  Now, don’t be afraid of those concepts.  Initially, those who have spent a lot of time around the Pentecostals and Charismatics, especially if you pay attention to religious TV will automatically tense up when you hear the words suffering and poverty.  It is because health and wealth are significant topics in the prosperity gospel.  How dare we speak of suffering and poverty in the Church.  We should be about blessings and miracles; healings and prosperity.

This year of 2011 is about preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in it’s purity without any adjectives attached before it.  It isn’t about the Full-Gospel, the Prosperity Gospel, the Poverty Gospel, or any other.  If the gospel has to have an adjective before it, beware of it.  It more than likely is not the gospel of Christ!  We need to return to …

Simplicity

Our lives have become so complicated because even in the church there tends to be a performance emphasis.  When we don’t perform to meet up with the imagined expectations, we are disillusioned.  When we are not blessed because of doing the right thing we are crushed and blame God and His Word.

Suffering

We equate suffering with punishment instead of seeing it as a natural consequence of becoming associated with another world.  This physical life is not supposed to be good to you.  It is in opposition to everything you are becoming.   When we suffer, we think evil of it instead of embracing it as a means by which to release glory to God!

Poverty

When I speak of poverty, I do not necessarily mean that we are financially wretched and in despair.  We may have what we need and even enjoy comfort.  But having things is not the measuring stick for spirituality.  Being poor in spirit is a humility that exists whereby what you have belongs to God entirely to such a degree that you have nothing.  Thus, you are impoverished in Christ and He delight in your surrendered existence.

This is the KINGDOM OF GOD!  This is the year that God wants to bring us to a deeper understanding of how to serve Him in simplicity, suffering and poverty while being teachable, responsible and accountable. 

Will you take the step toward this Kingdom and it’s characteristics through a full surrender of your will and ways to His?  Decide today to be teachable, responsible and accountable!  Decide to walk in simplicity, suffering and poverty and you will find the favor, grace and blessing of the Lord abundant in your life.