Prosperity: Doing Good and Doing Well

He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,
  That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
  And whatever he does shall prosper.

(Psalm 1:3)

This is a man who is noted for what he does as much or more than for what he doesn’t do. What he doesn’t do is walk in the counsel of the ungodly, stand in the path of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.

(Notice that this is not about avoiding the ungodly, sinners and mockers, but about not walking in their counsel, not aligning with their path and not taking the position of a mocker. Choose your companions carefully because we tend to become like those with whom we associate.)

What he does do is delight in the law of the LORD and meditate on it at all times. It is his self-talk. It fills his thoughts. He considers everything in the light of it. He greatly honors it. He loves it because it reveals the heart of God, and it is the heart of God that he is after.

This man is established, that is, he is stable. He is fruitful — his life brings forth sustenance and sweetness. He remains fresh and flourishing, full of life and vitality. And everything he does prospers — moves forward, succeeds, advances, breaks out, comes mightily, goes over the top and is profitable.

As in everything, this is all about God, and God is good. So prosperity is about doing good. You cannot do evil and prosper. You may have a measure of success and gain by doing evil, but what you do cannot be called is prosperous. It simply will not last because it does not come from God.

The ungodly are not so,
  but are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,
  Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous,
For the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
  But the way of the ungodly shall perish.

(Psalm 1:4-6)

True prosperity is about doing good and doing well at it.

The Stargate Into the Courts of the LORD

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him and bless His name.
For the LORD is good;
His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth endures to all generations.

(Psalm 100:4-5)

See how powerful is the act of giving thanks and praise to the Lord. It brings you through His gates and into His courts.

No matter what kind of circumstance you may find yourself in, or how desparate your situation may be — immediately begin giving thanks and praise to God (there is always something to praise Him for).

It will be as if a stargate has materialized and opened up in front of you (sci-fi reference). It is the gateway of the Lord that leads you into His presence. There is no way you can enter without it, and it is impossible to give thanks and praise without at least some faith.

When you give thanks and praise, you will find that the heavens have opened up for you. You are standing in the courts of the LORD — Yahweh, the God of Covenant. Your heart cannot help but be changed in His presence. Your outlook will quickly change as well because now you are approaching your situation with faith and the goodness of God.

If you will learn to live in a state of thanksgiving and praise, you will find yourself continually dwelling in the courts of His presence — and it just keeps getting sweeter and sweeter. (See Psalm 91 for more detail).

The Cup of Salvation—Jesus!

What shall I render to the LORD
  For all His benefits to me?
I will take up the cup of salvation,
  And call upon the name of the LORD.
I will pay my vows to the LORD
  Now in the presence of all His people.

(Psalm 116:12-14)

The psalm writer finds himself in this wonderful relationship with God. His opening words are “I love the LORD” (v. 1). After enumerating specific kindnesses of the Lord, he asks himself, What shall I render, or turn back to the LORD? How shall I show Him my thanks and praise?

His answer is elegant, “I will take up the cup of salvation.” God has given me this cup of salvation — I will receive it, welcome it, take it up and drink heartily from it.

The Hebrew word for “salvation” is yeshua, and means to save, heal, keep, set free, and cause to prosper. More than that, it is the salvation that comes from God. You see, it is made up of two words: Yahweh, the personal name of God (rendered as LORD, all caps, in our English versions) and yasha, which means to save. Yeshua is the shortened form of this combination. This salvation is all God’s doing.

How shall I give thanks to the Lord? I will drink deeply from the cup He has provided for me. I will drink of the salvation, the healing, the deliverance, the security, the prosperity He has for me. I will gladly receive it. I will not refuse it. I will not forget it. I will not say, “I’m not worthy,” because it is not about me, it is about Him. Therefore, I will set it on my lips and receive it into my life.

Now, there’s another thing I want you to know about the word yeshua — it is rendered in the New Testament as the name Jesus! You see, Jesus is the salvation of God. So it is very fitting that the psalm writer says, “I will take up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the LORD,” because that name is Yahweh, and Yahweh saves (Yeshua, Jesus!)

“I will pay my vows to the LORD now in the presence of all His people.” I will commit myself to the Lord and take my place among His people. I will stand up in the midst and give Him all the praise and glory! I will open my mouth and declare the goodness of His salvation.

Don’t just sit there. Drink of that cup. Receive the salvation that comes from the Lord. Call on His name — Jesus! Do you need healing? Speak out healing in Jesus’ name. Do you need prosperity in some area of your life. Receive it from the Lord. Do you need to be set free from something? Call on the Lord and drink from His cup. Believe it all — it’s all for you in Jesus’ name. Then rise up in the midst of the people and declare the salvation of the LORD.

Don’t Hold Back—Bless the LORD!

Bless the LORD, O my soul;
  And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
  And forget not all His benefits.

(Psalm 103:1-2)

’The Hebrew word for “bless” is barak. Directed toward God, barak means to kneel, to adore. To bless the Lord is to bow before Him, giving Him thanks and praise. It is an act of love.

David is the psalm writer here, and he is instructing his soul to bless the Lord with every good thing he has going for him: body and soul, life and all his possessions. They were all created for the purpose of praising and loving on the Lord.

Now notice how he instructs his soul to praise the Lord. “Forget not all His benefits.” The Hebrew word for “forget” means to ignore, mislay, or wither. To remember something is to mark it well, to keep it in your thoughts, in your heart. To forget something is to ignore it, to let it wither inside you. There are some things we ought to forget, but the goodnesses and kindnesses of the Lord are not among them.

David’s counsel to himself is to actively take up the gracious dealings of the Lord and give thanks for them — by name. Here is his list:

Who forgives all your iniquities,
  Who heals all your diseases,
Who redeems your life from destruction,
  Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
Who satisfies your mouth [desires] with good things,
  So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

(Psalm 103: 3-5)

Notice the tense of these benefits. They are not past tense, they are ongoing. They are not just things God had done in the past, they are things David could always depend upon God to do. David was not simply thanking God for past faithfulness, he was praising God that it is His nature to be faithful, to forgive, to heal, to redeem, to bless, to renew. David was not just reciting his history with the Lord, he was laying hold of his future with the Lord. So there was an electricity to his thanksgiving which made it active and powerful. David was in a wonderful, ongoing covenant relationship with Yahweh, the Maker of heaven and earth.

So as you approach Thanksgiving, lift up your voice to the Lord and bless His name. It would certainly not be out of place for you to bow your knees before Him, even get down on your face before Him in adoration. Give yourself to Him with all your heart, all your life, all your possessions, all that is good within you (because it all came from Him in the first place).

Take the list of benefits David named and set them before your eyes. Establish them in your heart. They belong to all those who are in Christ Jesus. Bless God for them. Don’t hold back. Shout joyfully, dance exuberantly. Get loud and wild in your praise to God. As you do, the things of the Lord will certainly not wither inside you. They will thrive in your spirit, and His joy will strengthen and bless you.

Ministering Out of the Overflow of God's Abundance

Our God is a God of abundance. More than enough. His paths drip abundance. David said, “My cup runs over” (Psalm 23:5). Running over. Overflow.

Someone has said that Egypt was a land of “not enough,” the wilderness was a land of “just enough,” but the Promised Land was a land of “more than enough.” It was a land flowing (overflowing) with milk and honey.

Another psalm writer gave this musical notation: “Both the singers and the players on instruments say, ‘All my springs are in you.’” (Psalm 87:7). The “you” refers either to the Lord Himself, of else to His holy city, Zion. Either way, it refers to abundance that comes from God. For what is a spring if not an overflow?

Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Overflow.

Paul understood the overflow of God as the abundance of His grace. “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8). This is the abundance of God so that we may also have abundance.

This is not just spiritual abundance, as if the spiritual could be separated from the natural. This is spiritual abundance that flows forth into the natural. In fact, in the context of 2 Corinthians 9, this verse moves from the general truth of God’s abundance in our lives to the particular abundance of God in our finances — a.k.a. money.

Yes, God’s abundance is as much about our money as about anything else in our lives. God wants to bless us with an abundance of it — more than enough — so that we can overflow with financial blessing into the lives of others. He wants to give us more than enough so we can have abundance for every good work.

This has always been God’s way. In the covenant document of Israel, the Book of Deuteronomy, God says, “And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth that He may establish His covenant” (Deuteronomy 8:17). The power to get wealth comes from God so that He may establish His covenant on the earth. It is a covenant of blessing.

Psalm 112 talks about the blessing on the righteous, those who fear the LORD and delight greatly in His commandments. “Wealth and riches will be in his house” (v. 3). Why? Because he is “gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous. A good man deals graciously and lends” (vv. 4-5). God blesses the righteous with wealth so that they can overflow with blessing toward others.

Some Christians have a very stingy spirit. “I don’t need much, just enough to get by,” they say, imagining themselves to be very pious and humble. But in fact, they are grudging and miserly. They are withholding the blessing with which God wants them to bless others. They are stopping the abundance of God in their lives. They have no overflow, consequently they have no flow either. They become stagnant pools — a blessing to no one.

In the season of Thanksgiving, ought we not to give thanks for the bounty of the Lord by letting it flow through us to others? Ought we not to sow bountifully, so that we may reap bountifully, so that we may sow even more bountifully, and thus multiply blessing to many. We will not come up short if we do. Rather, we will experience the current of God’s compassion, the flow of His love into the lives of others. We will be ministering to others out of the overflow of His passion and power at work in us. Its all good.

Yada, Yada, Yada

Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.

(Psalm 106:1)

Fans of Seinfeld will, no doubt, recognize “yada, yada, yada” as one of the sitcom’s many buzz lines. It was used as a conversation filler, a vapid formulation along the lines of “blah, blah, blah.”

In the interest of redeeming the culture a little bit, I’d like to introduce a new understanding to that phrase. Or more precisely, I’d like to reach back to an ancient Hebrew word: yadah.

Yadah is built on the root word yad, the Hebrew word for “hand.” It literally means to hold out, or extend the hand. This gesture is characteristic of offering thanks or praise. Consequently, it is used in the Old Testament variously to express gratitude and worship. When we give our thanks to the Lord, we extend uplifted hands, stretching forth ourselves in worship.

We lift up our hands to give ourselves to the Lord, or to entrust something into His hands. We lift up our hands in surrender to Him, also an act of trust. We lift up our hands to receive blessing from the Lord. We lift up our hands for our Father to take us up into His arms. We lift up our hands to say, “Here I am, Lord. I see You, do You see me?” Lifting our hands to God is an act of thanks, an act of praise, an act of trust.

So, the next time you hear the phrase, “yada, yada, yada,” don’t think “blah, blah, blah.” Redeem the culture. Think “praise, praise, praise,” “thanks, thanks, thanks,” or “trust, trust, trust.”

Extend your hands to heaven and joyfully shout, “Yadah! Yadah! Yadah!”

Love and Submission

Wives, submit to our own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it. (Ephesians 5:22-25)

Here are a few observations about this passage on the relationship between husband and wife. First, notice that this is given in the context of mutual submission, as we see in verse 21: “Submitting to one another in the fear of God.”

Second, this is about the relationship between husbands and wives, not between men and women in general.

Third, notice that, in the context of mutual submission, no special burden is placed on the wives. Although there is added explanation about the significance of the husband/wife relationship, the command in general (“submit to one another”) is simply reiterated in particular (“wives, submit to your husbands”).

Finally, the command to husbands is to love their wives. Paul does not say, “Husbands, make your wives submit.” Nor does he say, “Husbands, be the boss of your wives,” or “Husbands, lord it over your wives.” No, there is nothing of the kind. The obligation of husbands is to love their wives — pure and simple. The example for husbands is the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved the church and gave Himself for it.

Husbands are to love their wives. Wives are to also love their husbands, since the Second Great Commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. The wife loves her husband and submits to him. The husband loves his wife, and in the command to “submit to one another,” he submits to her as well. That is paradoxical, and may seem hard to understand, but only outside the bounds of love.

When love is in view, submission is not a problem, not for husband to wife, not for wife to husband. It is the very nature of love to give and serve. So even if a wife is not submitting to her husband, the response of the husband is to love her and give himself for her. (A study of 1 Corinthians 13, the “Love Chapter” is more than appropriate here)

Is that not the way of God, who is love (1 John 4:8)? And will not love win the day?

The Testimony of Jesus—Where We Go From Here

And they overcame him [the accuser of the brethren] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. (Revelation 12:11)

Isn’t it good to be an overcomer? Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered. We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us so, and this is the victory that overcomes the world — our faith. Yes, it is good to overcome.

In this verse, we see three things by which we overcome, and they are all about Jesus:

• The blood of the Lamb
• The word of our testimony — Jesus in us
• We love Jesus more than our own lives.

The truth is simple: When we are centered and focused on Jesus, we overcome.

But now, let’s take a closer look at the word of our testimony. This is not about what we were before Christ. As Graham Cooke says, that’s our history. Our testimony is the life of Jesus at work in us now. Not just what He has done, but what He is doing in us. Our testimony is not static. It is dynamic and alive, advancing us in the things of God.

For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. (Revelation 19:10)

The testimony of Jesus is what He is doing in us and through us. It is not oriented toward the past, but toward the future. It goes forward. That is why it is called the spirit of prophecy. Prophecy is all about Jesus, what He is doing in us, and where this is all heading.

Let Jesus have His way in you. Let the Spirit of God bring forth the life, power and passion of Christ in your life. Let the word of your testimony, the testimony of Jesus in you, be fresh and vibrant. Its all headed in a very good direction (Revelation 21-22).

The Authority of Heaven and Earth

Did you know that Christians have authority in heaven and on earth? We have authority on earth because we were born here. In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, He created man. The Hebrew for “man” is, adam, from adamah, the Hebrew word for “earth.” Not only did God create man, but He gave him dominion, or authority, over the earth (Genesis 1:26).

We have the authority of heaven because, if we know the Lord Jesus Christ, we have been “born again” — literally, “born from above” (John 3:3) by the Spirit of God. Not only that, but Paul tells us that God has seated us in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:6). Jesus is seated on the throne of heaven, at the right hand of the Father, and we are seated there in Him, far above all principality, power, might and dominion (Ephesians 1:21).

In His earthly ministry, Jesus taught His disciples about how to exercise the authority of heaven on earth.

We have the authority of the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). These are not requests, by the way, because the mood is imperative: “Kingdom of God, come! Will of God, be done!” Jesus has given us the authority to look at how the will of God is done in heaven and call it forth to be likewise done upon the earth.

We have the authority to bind and loose. Jesus has given us the authority of heaven to bind and loose things upon the earth. “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 18:18).

As we bind and loose things upon the earth, we will see that they are also bound and loosed in heaven. The Greek tense actually means that what we bind and loose on earth will have already been bound and loosed in heaven. Here again is the authority to bring forth the realities of heaven upon the earth.

We have the authority of agreement. “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven” (Matthew 18:19).

This is earth and heaven coming together, like Jacob’s ladder, with angels ascending and descending. As we come into agreement with each other on earth, it will be done for us by our Father in heaven.

Have you ever applied for a grant before. Well, this is a heavenly grant from God that changes things on the earth.

Our agreement must be, not only with each other, but with the will of God as well, because God will not do anything for us that goes against His revealed will. Fortunately, we can discover the will of God by meditating on His Word, because His Word reveals His will.

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. (1 John 5:14-15)

We have the authority of Jesus’ name. Jesus said, “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matthew 18.20). In another place, Jesus said,

Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. (John 16.23-24)

You see, this is all about Jesus. We come together in His name, we bind and loose in His name, we ask in His name. That does not mean tacking on “In Jesus’ name” to everything we do. It means we have the authority to act on His behalf and according to His purposes. It means to do as He would do and ask as He would ask, because that is where our authority is — in Jesus.

We have the authority of the Great Commission. After the resurrection, and before Jesus ascended to heaven, He gathered the disciples and said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). This was not idle chatter, Jesus was going somewhere with this. He was preparing to extend this authority to His disciples. How else would they be able to fulfill this next command?

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28.19-20)

If you have received the Lord Jesus Christ, you have both the authority of heaven and earth. Are you learning how to walk in it?

Soaking in the Goodness of God

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. (2 Corinthians 13:14).

The grace of Jesus. The love of God. The communion (fellowship) of the Holy Spirit.

Pause and meditate on that for about ten minutes (longer if you can — but ten minutes is better than no minutes). Let the Lord unpack that in your spirit. Then soak in it for the rest of your life.

Is there any problem or circumstance that you or I could ever have that cannot be solved by the grace, love and fellowship of the Holy Trinity? I don’t think so.

Letting Out the Net

Last night in our life group, as we contemplated the love of God during our worship time, I had a vision of the ocean, enormous and deep. I looked and I saw a big fishing boat. God was at the stern and He was letting out a very lengthy net, and as long as I watched, He kept letting it out.

In the context of our worship, I believe the ocean is the love of God, infinite in all its dimensions — big enough to encompass the whole world. God is love and God is omnipresent, therefore His love must be omnipresent as well. And though the whole world is surrounded by His love, not all are ready or willing to receive it. But God is letting out His net for a big, big catch, to bring many into a restored relationship with Himself. It’s a divine “catch and release,” to capture the hearts of men and nations, and release them into the experience and deep awareness of the ocean of His love.

This is a coming harvest. I believe it is coming soon and that it will be like none we have ever experienced before. So vast is His love!

Seeing in the Spirit

Did you know that it is possible to look in the spirit and see? Consider Joshua and the children of Israel, as they stood before the mighty walled city of Jericho. The LORD appeared to Joshua and said, “See! I have given Jericho into your hand, its king and the mighty men of valor” (Joshua 6:2).

In the natural, the city of Jericho did not yet belong to Joshua and the army of Israel. Yet God was telling Joshua to see that this actually was so. The Lord was not directing Joshua to look in the natural, but to see in the spirit.

Anybody with eyeballs can see things in the natural. But to see in the spiritual realm, we need to draw upon the resources of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.

When we are born again, we have the right to see in the spirit, because we have the Holy Spirit inside us. We also have the right to hear in the spirit, because Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice.” God has also given us His Word, so we have the right to see everything He says to us in the Word. We should expect to see it in the spirit.

To see with our spiritual eyes, we must look past what our natural eyes reveal to us, because they to not show us the whole truth. Often, what we see with our natural eyes may not even reveal the truth to us at all. Our eyes can show us things that are facts, but not necessarily the truth.

There are facts and there are truths. Facts are of the natural realm, but the truth belongs to the spiritual. There may be a divergence between them for a time, but the facts must eventually line up with truth. (The realm of the spirit is greater than the natural realm, for the natural comes forth from the spiritual — God, who is spirit, is the creator of the natural, physical realm.)

The fact for Joshua was that Israel did not yet possess or defeat the city of Jericho. The truth, however, was that God had already given the city into Joshua’s hands. Joshua’s job was simply to see this and do what God showed him to do.

Learn how to see in the spirit: When God shows you something in His Word, immediately begin to agree with it. Speak it out with your mouth. The Bible says that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17). In other words, faith comes by a continual receptivity to the Word. As you speak in agreement with the Word, let it fill your heart and your thoughts. Expect pictures of it form in your mind, bubbling forth from your spirit into your imagination — you may even receive visions and dreams. The more you learn to see that thing which God has spoken, the more your expectation will grow that it will come to pass.

Remember, your job is not to try and figure out how to make it come to pass. Your job is to see it in the spirit and believe. Then let God show you what you need to do about it — He already has it all figured out. As you do, you will eventually see it come to pass in the natural, because the facts must eventually line up with the truth, and the natural must eventually line up with the spiritual.

Ignore, Deny or Confess: Dealing with Sin by Engaging the Word of Life

Reading in First John, chapter one.

John opens with a brief exposition of Jesus Christ, whom, “We have heard …we have seen with our own eyes … we have looked upon and our hands have handled.” He is the Word of Life made known in the flesh. Now John bears witness and declares that same Word of Life who was with the Father in heaven and manifested on the earth. But there is more, and it makes for fullness of joy—there is fellowship with the Father and with the Son.

Then John goes after some theological ideas which were incorrect, which do not line up with the fellowship we have in the Father and the Son. It has to do with sin, our teaching about it, our attitude toward it. What do we do? Ignore it, deny it, or confess it.

Ignoring sin. There was a teaching going around that said sin does not matter, that we can safely ignore it and live as we please — and still have fellowship with the Father. John responds clearly, “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.” Therefore, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” Our darkness has nothing in common with the God of light. There is no place where they can connect together, and so, by definition, there can be no fellowship. “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” We must acknowledge the light of God, and let it direct us, then the blood of Jesus can cleanse us from all our darkness.

Denying sin. There was a teaching going around that sin is not a reality at all, but a deception, and that this is the truth which sets us free. But that actually turns the truth on its head. John said, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” To say we have no sin, that it is not a reality, is a self-deception. It is a denial of God’s Word. “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us.

Confessing sin. Instead of ignoring sin, or denying it, take it to the Lord. He is bigger, greater, and much more powerful than our sin, and He has already provided the solution for it. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The Greek word for “confess” is homologeo, which means to “say the same thing.” To confess our sins means to say the same thing about it that God says. It is coming into agreement with God about our sin: that it is real, that it is wrong, that it is darkness, that it does not belong in our life. When we come into agreement about the nature of the problem, then we are ready to receive the solution that God has prepared. The Bible says that God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). That is why, when we confess our sins, God can rightfully forgive and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It is about Jesus Christ, God’s Son.

It is not faith to ignore or deny sin, because that is contrary to what God has said. Faith approaches God with repentance and confession, believing that He is full of faith to forgive and cleanse us in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the very Word of Life.

The Declaration of Wondrous Works

“We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks!
For Your wondrous works declare that Your name is near.” (Psalm 75:1)

As we enter the season of Thanksgiving, it seems quite appropriate to stop and consider the wondrous works of the Lord. The Bible has much to say about signs and wonders. The early Church cried out to God for boldness, and that He would grant signs and wonders in the name of His “holy servant Jesus” (Acts 4:29-30).

The nature of signs is that they direct our attention. The nature of wonders is that they cause us to stand in awe. In the Bible, signs and wonders point us to the same thing — the name of the LORD.

Names are very important. They reveal the nature and character of the one who is named. The Hebrew name for Jesus is yeshua, the word for “salvation.” It includes deliverance, healing, restoration, even prosperity. In other words, however you need to be saved, it can be found in the name of Jesus. When we know the name of Jesus, we are then in a position to receive who He is and what is contained in His name.

Names are very powerful. They carry authority. Jesus taught us, when we pray, to ask the Father in Jesus’ name. This is not about some little formality we go through, tacking “In Jesus’ name” on at the end of our prayers. That would be treating the name of Jesus as a matter of magic, not of faith.

Praying in Jesus’ name is a matter of authority, the authority of Jesus. When we pray in His name, which means to ask as He would ask, it is just as if Jesus Himself is praying to the Father. Jesus promised that such prayers will be answered, for the Father will not deny the Son.

Back to signs and wonders, then. Signs and wonders direct our attention to the name of the Lord. What is more, they reveal that He is present, for where His name is, there He is also. Signs and wonders show that He is close enough to touch, if we would simply reach out in faith, for the Bible says, “Whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).

No wonder the early Christians called for signs and wonders, not to be satiated with the sensational, but that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ be exalted, and that many would turn to Him and be saved.

We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks to You.
For Your wondrous works declare that Your name is near. Amen.

Faithful, Full of Faith

Reading in the book of Third John this morning, I was struck by this passage, where John commends Gaius, an elder in the church:

“Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers, who have borne witness of your love before the church” (3 John 5).

The word “faithfully” impresses itself upon me. We usually think of faithfulness as being loyal, dependable, consistent, and thus, trustworthy. But I believe that those are actually the by-products, or benefits of faithfulness, but not its essence.

In the Greek, the word is pistos, the word for “faith.” In the adjective form, we simply say “faithful.” Yet somehow we fail to see that the real meaning here has everything to do with having faith. The essence of faithfulness is faith. Turn the word “faithful” around and you can see that it is about being “full of faith.”

When we are full of faith, trusting God and His Word, our words and deeds will correspond with that faith. They will line up and be in agreement with that faith. Then we will find a consistency in our manner of life, because God never changes and His Word never fails. When we are full of faith in God, we ourselves will be seen as dependable, loyal, trustworthy.

The Bible says that faith expresses itself through love. Gaius was faithful. He believed God and was full of faith. His faith was full of love and his love was full of action. The church gave witness to his love, and John commended his faith-filledness.

Secrets of a Peaceful Heart

In You, O LORD, I put my trust;
  Let me never be put to shame.
Deliver me in Your righteousness, and cause me to escape.
  Be my strong refuge,
  To which I may resort continually;
You have given the commandment to save me,
For You are my rock and my fortress.

(Psalm 71:1-2)

The psalm writer has found the secret to a peaceful heart, and it has to do with the word “continually,” which is found three times in this joyful hymn of praise. It speaks of more than just habit. It has moved past being a discipline and has become a conditioning of the heart. It is a consistency, a constancy, a full dependency without reservation. It is a joyful abandonment of the self to God. There are three movements which arise continually in the heart of this worshipper:

• A continual habitation. “Be my strong refuge, to which I may resort continually.” The KJV renders it “habitation.” A habitation is a dwelling place, a place of residence — it’s where you live. When our habitation continually in God, as was the psalm writer’s, it is a strong refuge, a mighty fortress high upon a rock. It is an impregnable abode, the only place where we are truly secure.

• A continual praise. “By You I have been upheld from birth. You are He who took me out of my mother’s womb. My praise shall be continually of You” (v. 6). This man was brought to the wonderful realization that God continually sustained him, and so he lived in continual praise of God. “My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing to You, and my soul, which You have redeemed. My tongue also shall talk of Your righteousness all the day long” (vv. 23-24).

• A continual hope. “But I will hope continually, and will praise You yet more and more” (v. 14). This was his enduring response, especially when adversaries conspired against him. The biblical idea of hope is not about doubt and uncertainty. It is waiting in faith, patiently trusting in God. It is a positive expectation about the promise and power of God, a joyful anticipation of His grace and goodness. The psalmist goes on, “My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness and Your salvation all the day. For I do not know their limits” (v. 15). He knew no limits to God’s righteousness and salvation because there are no limits to be found. Though we spent eternity diving into the depths of God’s love and goodness, we will never touch bottom. There will always be further to go in Him.

A continual habitation in God, a continual life of praise and adoration, a continual expectation of His goodness — three secrets to a peaceful heart.

The Divine Balance of Power and Love

For the last couple of days, I have been considering the relationship between power and love, because that is what the prayer of the early Church in Acts 4 is about (see below).

God’s love and power always go together. David declared, “I will sing of Your power. Yes, I will sing aloud of Your mercy in the morning. For You have been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble” (Psalm 59:16). The mercy of God is the Hebrew hesed. It is the covenant love and faithfulness by which God has pledged Himself to His people. It is the Old Testament counterpart to the New Testament agape — divine love.

For David, the power and mercy of God are inseparable, even synonymous. It is impossible for God to be loving and yet remain powerless to help His loved ones. Just as impossible as it is for Him to be powerful and yet uncaring toward His own. No, God’s love and power go together. There is no schizophrenia in God. His love and power are in perfect harmony — a reciprocal relationship: God’s love expresses His power; God’s power expresses His love. It is the divine balance.

One day a leper came to Jesus and said, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Then Jesus put out His hand and touched Him saying, “I am willing; be cleansed” (Matthew 8:2-3). The ministry of Jesus continually shows us that God is both willing and able to cleanse, heal and set free.

The early Church asked for boldness and power, not for their own gain and glory, but for the glory and honor of God, and for the sake of the people to whom they were called to minister. They were not possessed by the love of power. They were crying out for the very real and tangible power of love to be to shed abroad through them. They took on the servant heart of Jesus, the very expression of God’s own heart, to love, give and serve.

In the remainder of the Book of Acts, we find that God did indeed stretch out His hand to heal. Signs, wonders and miracles followed to bless multitudes and focus their attention on the Lord Jesus Christ. Because God is both willing and able. Because His love and power go together and express each other.

The Servant Heart Connection

Take another look at Acts 4:29-30, the prayer of the first Christians as they cried out to God for boldness:

Grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your Word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy servant Jesus. (Acts 4:29-30)

There is a very important word that occurs twice in this passage, and it makes all the difference in the matter of boldness and the manifestation of God’s healing signs and wonders. Can you spot it? It is the word “servant.”

Grant to Your servants . . . through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.

This is about God through and through. His servants, His Word, His hand, His holy servant Jesus. And if it is about God, then it must be about love. It is the “algebra of love”: God is love, love gives and serves.

Even Jesus, who is fully divine as well as fully human, rejoiced to be the servant of God. He came to obey the Father’s will, and thereby reveal the Father’s heart. He did nothing of Himself, not of His own will, His own thoughts, His own emotions. It was all the Father. Jesus said,

Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. (John 5:19)

I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me. (John 5:30)

I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things. And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him. (John 8:28-29)

Jesus also became a servant toward us, for our sake. The Bible says that He “made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:7-8). Jesus Himself said, “For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

When those first Christians cried out to God for boldness, signs and wonders, they identified themselves with the servant heart of Jesus. They came asking as servants, just as Jesus their Master was a servant. And so they received.

If it is boldness you need, then tie into the love of God and become His servant for the sake of others. If you long for the healing miracles of God to be revealed in and around you, then go after the heart of the Father and His hand will follow.

Root out every thought of self-glory or of seeking a better position for yourself. The very best position is the servant position — it is the one Jesus chose. Let go of pride and bow down low, toward God and others. Then you will experience that great boldness which can only come from Love. Stretch our your hand to serve, and God will stretch our His hand to heal.

The Source of Boldness

Grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy servant Jesus. (Acts 4:29-30)

This is one of the powerful evangelistic prayers of the early Church. Peter and John had just been arrested for preaching the Gospel, admonished by the magistrates to cease, and released on their own recognizance. So they gathered with the Church and cried out to God for boldness. That is the prayer you see above.

We see the answer to this prayer in the next verse: “And whey they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the Word of God with boldness” (v. 31).Boldness comes from the Lord. It is the work of the Holy Spirit. As Paul would later remind Timothy, “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7).

Boldness is a matter of faith. That is why some translations render it “confidence” (con, “with”; fide, “faith”). Where there is boldness, there is no intimidation. God has not given us a spirit of fear or intimidation. His Spirit is a spirit of power, love and sound mind (sometimes rendered “self-control”).

Earlier, Jesus promised the disciples, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me” (Acts 1:8). This was fulfilled a short while later on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2). In the New Testament, power is the ability to operate in the supernatural, the divine working of miracles.

Now in Acts 4, the disciples were crying out for a greater experience of boldness, “all boldness”, and the power of the Holy Spirit. They desperately wanted, and needed, to walk in the fullness of it.

But notice how they asked God to increase their boldness — by stretching out His hand to heal, that signs and wonders may be done in the name of Jesus. They were not out to simply declare the Gospel by words, but also to demonstrate it by the power of God.

They had already seen the miraculous healing of a lame man at the temple gate — that’s what got Peter and John thrown into jail in the first place. Now they wanted to see the healing miracles multiplied. They wanted to keep on preaching the name of Jesus and doing the works of Jesus. Just as the Holy Spirit anointed Jesus with power, so that He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil (Acts 10:38), they wanted to operate in the same way with the same Holy Spirit anointing. For that is the commission Jesus gave them.

Is the Church today meant to walk in any less boldness, in any less manifestation of God’s power and might? I don’t think so. If anything, the need is greater today that it was back in the first century.

Does this stir up something inside you, as it does me? A desire for a more vibrant witness, a greater effectiveness in ministry and outreach? Then marinate in these Scriptures for a while. Paul said that faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the Word of God (Romans 10:17). Meditate on this Word until faith begins to arise in your heart to believe God for Holy Spirit boldness, and the working of signs, wonders and healing miracles. Then begin praying the prayer that those early Christians above prayed. And have an expectation for Holy Spirit boldness, for God’s healing hand, and for signs and wonders in the name of Jesus.

For more about the powerful prayers of the early Church, see Praying With Fire: Learning to Pray With Apostolic Power.

The Connection Between Spiritual and Natural

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. (Ephesians 1:3)

The Word of God says that we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing. Many Christians will say, “Yes, every spiritual blessing” and think that this has nothing to do with the physical or material blessing. But I tell you that spiritual blessing has everything to do with physical blessing.

The spiritual realm is not secondary to the physical realm. It is not some lesser reality than physical reality. It is not some side issue to be relegated to a more convenient time.

No, the spiritual is the primary reality out of which all other reality comes forth. It is the greater and higher reality from which the physical realm is derived. We can see this in the very first verse of the Bible, Genesis 1:1. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

Who is God? The Bible says that God is Spirit (John 4:24). He is the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God (1 Timothy 1:17). The author of Hebrews said, “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible” (Hebrews 11:3).

God is Spirit. The world is physical. We cannot see God, we can only see the world which He made. The spiritual did not come forth from the natural, but the natural came forth from the spiritual. Therefore, the spiritual realm is the greater reality.

The Word of God is spiritual, and by that Word, God calls forth things in the natural realm. That is why Jesus could calm the wind and the waves with a word, why He could rebuke a fever and cast out demons with a word. He also taught His disciples to speak to the mountain with faith-filled words, to affect change in the natural from the realm of the Spirit. For the physical comes forth from the Spirit.

So when Paul teaches that we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies, he is telling us of that greater reality out of which all other realities flow.

These blessings come to us through the Lord Jesus Christ, and are available to all those who trust in Him. Lay hold, therefore, of every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus and expect every aspect of your life to be powerfully changed according to the goodness of God and the passion of His love at work in you. Do this by declaring the promises of God over your life and circumstances and expecting to see them happen. The natural must eventually line up with the Word of God.