Lesson Two: Welcoming the Kingdom of God

Main Points:
1) Welcoming the Kingdom of God (the process)
2) The gift of riches versus the blessing of relationship
3) Seeking God first
4) The limitless possibilities of God
5) The blessings of the way, the truth, and the life

Title: Who is the Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven

Text:  Matthew 18: 1 – 20

Main Points:

• Humility and the “born again” experience as gateways to the Kingdom of Heaven
• The role that Christian communities play as prototypes for the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth
• Sanctification and life “in Christ”
• Mercy as a gateway to answered prayer

The Spirit of Relationship (The Power of Prayer)

This week’s study will entail a vigil of prayer.  Therefore, please meditate on the following scriptures:

 

Psalm 91

Psalm 92

Psalm 119: 145 – 152

Psalm 128

Psalm 145

 

 

Know that we live, move, and have our being in Jesus

Know that God seeks to renew us with each breath

Know that God is life, health, and strength

He is peace, wisdom, and joy

He is the story of love that has no ending

He is all and we are His

 

Selah.

Humility (and the Way, the Truth, and the Life)

Humility before God allows His spirit to expand within us.  This expansion of God’s spirit within us enables us to exalt God.  When we exalt God, we praise and honor Him by walking in fullness as His children.  We reflect God’s character and compassion.  We become imitators of Him as we are conformed to His image and likeness. Our tendency to yield and bend towards the will of God amplifies as we find ourselves more deeply rooted in His love.  In essence, we realize more and more that we live, move, and have our being in God (Acts 17:28).

 

When we come to Jesus with the humility of a child, we receive the kingdom of God. Our minds are primed and renewed.  They become flexible and pliable and we become ready to explore life in God.  We become ready to learn.  Our soul yearns for the wisdom of God as a flower yearns for both sunlight and rain.  Our spirit willingly yields itself to be molded and shaped as a lump of clay.  Yet unlike lifeless sculptures that imitate life, we become vibrant expressions of life in God.  We become expressions of love, giving, and power.  We become expression of hope, faith, and truth.  We become expressions of the vital essence of the Creator of the Universe, His son, and the Spirit of Truth that exudes from Him.  We become the vision that God dreamed us being when He first thought of us as the concept that became the thought that became the word that became the being we are.

 

Humility helps us yield every moment of our existence to the divine purpose of God.  Through humility, we place others before ourselves and use the resources that God has given us to bless others.  We understand that a critical element of our role on Earth is that that of being a blessing.  And we dedicate our heart, mind, body, soul and possessions to being that blessing.  And we do this filled with the peace, power, and presence of God – all of which fill our being simply because we are humble and therefore the fullness of God dwells in and expresses from the depth of our being.

 

Jesus’ entire life and ministry exemplifies how humility helps us serve as both an inlet and outlet of God’s power.  Upon entering the Earth realm, Jesus was required to take on a human body.  Because he was in human body, he was subject to the challenges human beings face.  He felt the hunger, thirst, and sensations that all sentient human beings feel.  He was tempted, tested, and tried as all human beings are tried.  Jesus was fully human while at the same time fully divine.  Therefore, all of the glory of God had the potential for expression through his body, as well as, the lower essence of the human soul (see the temptations by Satan in Matthew 4: 1 – 11).  Yet Jesus was humble before God.  Because he was humble before God, he always remained centered in “being about His Father’s business.”  He maintained the necessary degree of humility needed to bend His will to the will of God in order to accomplish the task of bringing salvation to and being salvation for mankind.  In chapter 17 of the Gospel of John, Jesus reflects on this task.  He knew that the work of bringing salvation to and being salvation for mankind was His life’s work.  It was His life’s worship.  Only through completing this task could He glorify God and be returned to the glory He originally shared with God. Only through completing this task could He provide the disciples – and the believers who would follow them – the opportunity to choose to be a part of this unity.  Yet, he could only complete this task by remaining centered in God’s presence, love, wisdom, and provision and through giving His disciples what God had given Him – the love, wisdom, power, revelation, healing, and presence of God.  And He could only give these things through yielding His entire being humbly to God.

 

Because of Jesus’ humility before God, obedience to God, and unity with God, He became for us the way, the truth, and the life that leads to God.  He served as a portal through which the love of God entered not only the Earth but also the core of our being.  In doing so, He gave us not only the power of His name but also His essence and legacy.  His name signifies that He is salvation – wholeness and unity with God.  His essence exemplifies that He is truth – the wisdom, knowledge, and manifestation of God.  His legacy is life – the eternal essence of all that was, is, and is to come.  Because of His humility and willingness to walk in line with purpose and plan of God, we now have the chance to choose conscious union with God.  And through this conscious union, we can be one with Jesus and God in the experience of God’s glory.

 

We achieve conscious union with God and Jesus through our faith, belief, and actions.  When we have faith in Jesus and believe that He was sent by God, the doorway opens for Jesus to be revealed in us and thus, we give Him glory.  When Jesus is revealed in us, others see and know that He is from God and this gives God glory.  When this occurs, we walk in a renewed mind and become living sacrifices (Romans 12:1-2) reflecting God in thought, word, and deed.  This three fold manifestation of God in our lives makes us inlets and outlets of God’s love and wisdom.  As we humbly yield our lives to God and accept this love and wisdom as aspects of our God oriented lives, God’s glory continually pours into our lives.  We find that we are strengthened, empowered, and filled with the passion, vision, and creativity needed to be used as God’s instruments of love, peace, power, justice, truth, compassion, and giving.  And we know that we are growing as children of God and being uplifted by the fruits of life in His presence.

 

 

Title: Humility (the Way, the Truth, and the Life)

Text: John 17: 1 – 25                                                

Main Points:

• The humility of Jesus empowered him to complete work ordained by God
• The humility of Jesus allowed Him to return to His co-creative glory with God
• Jesus gave disciples and believers the commandment to love
• Jesus gave disciples and believers the gift of eternal life
• Through oneness with God and Christ, we are protected from evil and empowered to serve

Humility (The Gateway to God’s Presence)

In lieu of this week’s blog, I will list several questions to ponder.  They deal with the concept of humility and they are as follows:

 

1)     Have I truly surrendered my entire being (my mind, will, intentions, emotions, and body) to God?

 

2)     What would it be like to know that I live in God and feel God’s presence always?

 

3)     Have I let myself be the river seeking the ocean that is God?  And as I seek Him, am I sharing all that I am with others? Am I being the blessing God’s wants me to be for their lives?

 

4)     Have I let the love of God overtake my mind and cause me to seek to give and love and share the blessing of life?  Am I sharing the blessing of my life?

 

5)     Is God truly the head of my life or is He the head of my life only in moments of convenience or desperation?

 

6)     What must I give up to have more of God?

 

7)     What must I receive to be filled with God?

 

Ponder these questions as you ponder the love of God.  Ponder God’s intentions for your life as you ponder the presence of God.  Ponder the fact that in this moment, God is touching you, healing you, opening your entire being to the reality of Him.  Yield yourself.  Give more of your essence.  Know that His love has been written as the story of your life in Him. Live in Him.  Love in Him.  Grow in Him and you will know peace and blessings.  You will know strength and power.  You will know God as the source of your life.

 

 

Peace and Blessings,

 

Tavares

Lesson Sixteen: Humility (The Gateway to God)

Luke 18: 9 – 30

Main Points:

• Humility is the conduit of the divine presence
• When we come to Jesus eager to learn about God, we find God
• God will show us how to use “what we are stewards of” to serve others
• God makes the impossible possible
• God seeks to give us His provision and presence now and in Eternity

The Effectual, Fervent Prayers of the Righteous

Challenges have the propensity to lead believers on journeys into the center of God.  Through challenges, we learn to seek God and find God in the midst of trial and struggle.  Yet even more powerfully, through challenges, God also seeks and finds us.  It is God’s desire that we know His presence as provision, love, protection, peace, and freedom, and prosperity.  Whether we face challenges that are individual (such as overcoming the loss of a loved one, the desire of healing from illness, or the reorientation of our financial destiny) or collective (such as the enduring of the TransAtlantic slave trade and the Jim Crow South, Jewish pogroms, or the Rwandan genocide), God seeks us as much as we seek Him.  God seeks to redeem us from struggle and injustice.  He seeks to empower us to overcome individual and collective trials.  He seeks to free from tyranny that may exist around us and the self-inflicting struggles that go on within us.  He seeks to cleanse our hearts and minds of doubt and fear and bind them to the presence of His love.  He seeks to heal us and answer our prayers in ways that make His existence the concrete presence of an abstract reality.  In essence, He seeks to make a love that we can not see, touch, and feel become the experience that we can see, touch, and feel.  In this way, He expands our faith and imparts courage in our lives.  Yet because this faith and courage are the result of His presence dwelling in us and around us, He becomes the central figure and the enduring power that sustains our existence.  He shows us that He is real, that we live in Him, and He lives in us.  And the fact that He is real, that we live in Him, and He lives in us becomes even more evident in times of challenge where He makes His presence known.

 

The beautiful aspect of challenge is the fact that it evokes dependence on God through the power of prayer.  In James 5:13, the apostle James states, “Is anyone among you suffering?  Let him pray.”  James admonishes us to pray because prayer gives us directs access to the wisdom, love, and power of God.  Prayer is the conduit linking the Earth realm to the Heavenly realm.  The Earth realm can be seen as the material realm where all things are subject to wear, decay, and death while the Heavenly realm can be seen as the Spirit realm where the eternality of God rules.  In this realm, perfection, truth, light, love, and immortality exist as the ultimate reality.  This ultimate reality is an expression of the power of God.  When the power of God enters the Earth realm through prayer, love, insight, wisdom, act as agents of transformation.  All material things and situations are transformed.  Through prayer, the power of God heals our bodies.  It fills our minds with wisdom.  It bends all creation towards justice, provision, and balance.  Yet most importantly, the power of God in our life creates devotion in our heart.  It is through devotion, that moments of experiencing God become transformed into the life that is the God experience.

 

A life centered in prayer is a life of devotion.  Devotion is a state of worship founded in love.  Devotion indicates that we not only love God but that we are “in love” with God.  Devotion yields our hearts bound to God in fellowship.  It binds our mind to God in council.  It binds our bodies to God in service and in work.  Through devotion, we are bound to God in every aspect of our being.  Because we are bound to God, we are consumed by the thought of simply being His expression.  Yet true devotion can not be experienced without prayer.  Prayer cleanses the heart and mind in ways that make devotion possible.  Prayer can ensure the forgiveness of sins.  Prayer can open usher in the blessings of God.  Prayer can heal and remove burdens.  It can help us abide in the peace of God and know that God listens to us as we speak to Him, while simultaneously, helping us listen to Him as He speaks to us.

 

As we live life in God and experience the devotion that comes as an outgrowth of prayer, we also experience the fervency that comes as an outgrowth of devotion.  Fervency is a burning intensity that builds upon itself.  It is an inner fire that consumes indolence, apathy, and fear.  Fervency creates a sense of urgency and belief that God can and God will do that which He promised.  This sense of urgency and belief multiply and consume one’s thought.  Therefore, fervent prayers to God are filled with vivid and vital power.  When combined with the righteousness (right thought and right action) that comes from faith in God, fervency cleanses the pathway that links the mind of God to mind of man.   It generates synergy whereby man’s mind and God’s mind become the same mind.  This is putting on the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16).  When we “put on the mind of Christ,” we become drawn to the will of God and the will God becomes drawn to us.  We walk in unity with God.  We become yoked to God.  The covenant between God and us expresses as the fruit of Spirit.  This fruit yields effectual, power filled, and supernatural prayer that center our lives in the will of God.  

 

As we continue to grow in prayer (and study), an atmosphere of prayer fills our being.  We grow more and more in the fullness of the Holy Spirit.  As we grow in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, we find our selves thinking in line with the Word of God.  We begin to believe that we are children of God (Matt 5:9).  We begin to believe that we are the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:21).  We begin to believe that our faith can move mountains when we ask things of God in Jesus’ name (Matt 21:21).  And because we believe, we begin to witness God moving as presence, provision, healing, and power in our lives and the lives of those for whom we pray.  Life “in God” becomes an experience that was not only reserved from the believers of ancient times but it is also intended for the believers of modern times.  Through prayer, we see that God loves us and seeks to be in intimate relationship with us.  We see that He loves us and seeks to fulfill an eternal covenant with us.  We see that He loves us and simply asks that we receive His love and reciprocate that back love to Him and share it with one another (Matt 22: 37-39).  For when we open our selves to God’s love, He is able to dwell in our hearts uninhibited, unencumbered, and undeterred. And when we dwell in fully God as He dwells fully in us, prayer becomes our nature.  It becomes the doorway whereby God lives in our hearts and flows out into the world.

Freedom in Jesus Christ

Life lived in Jesus Christ frees believers from the power of sin.  As we “confess with our lips that Jesus is Lord [of our lives] and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead (Romans 10:9),” our lives are literally transformed.  Through this confession and belief, our sinful self becomes buried and fades from our consciousness while our new self – the one rejuvenated and resurrected with Christ – now takes seat over our spirit, mind, and body.  This new self grows stronger and stronger as we place our faith in God and yield to the manifestation of His will in our lives.  Through life in Jesus Christ – which is strengthened through study of the Word, prayer, fasting, and gifts of service – we walk in our inheritance as sons and daughters of God.  Our minds are transformed into temples of Christ consciousness.  Our bodies are transformed into temples of the Holy Spirit.  God surrounds us and protects us.  He makes His wealth and provision available to us as we dwell in Him.  Jesus becomes our example and friend.  The Holy Spirit becomes our teacher and guide.  God’s presence becomes our dwelling place and shelter from the wages of sin.

 

With Jesus as the cornerstone of our lives, our entire being becomes re-oriented to the indwelling presence of God.  In John 14: 4 -6, Jesus states, “Abide in me, and I in you.  As the branch can not bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches.  He who abides in Me bears much fruit; for without Me, you can do nothing.”  To abide means to “live in.”  Therefore, our relationship with Jesus lets us “live in Him.”  Our spiritual essence becomes surrounded by and dwells in the spiritual essence of Jesus Christ.  And as we live in Him, He, too, “lives in us.”  His spiritual essence suffuses and fills our spiritual essence.  Thus, He lives in us as word, thought, and presence.  His words become the vitalizing force and directing principles of our mind.  His thoughts become the philosophy that guides our relationship with those with whom we share this world.  His essence becomes one with our very own essence and we find our selves dwelling in the midst of His love and presence.  Because Jesus in God and we are in Jesus, we, too, are in God.  Thus both Jesus and God make their dwelling and there home among us (John 14:23).  We are empowered by this co-residence, this joining together of our lives to the life and essence of God and Christ Jesus.  Thus we walk free from sin and full of the ability to experience the love, blessings, and power of God.

 

Because of Jesus’ ascension back to the Father (God), we were given the gift of The Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is the very Spirit of God.  The Holy Spirit was sent to teach us and lead us into all of the wisdom and power of God.  It was sent here not only to be with us but to also dwell in us.  Because it is with us and dwells in us, it compels us to seek the things of the Spirit.  As we seek and find the things of the Spirit, we become imbued with the love of God and God directed power.  We, thus, become spiritually minded.  When we are spiritually minded, the peace of God multiplies in our life.  When the peace of God fills our life, we then bear the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22).  This fruit evolves as varying forms of God’s love and power and through His love and power our body is made dead to sin, the righteousness of God dwells in us, and our body is strengthened and made whole by the Holy Spirit living within us.  Additionally, the Holy Spirit bears witness that we are children of God.  In bearing witness that we are God’s children, our entire being continues to walk in the transformation that makes us vessels of God in every circumstance.  We then know what it means to “work out our salvation (Phillipians 2: 12)” as we grow in the grace of God in every aspect of our lives. 

 

Because we live in Jesus Christ and receive the freedom which God promised us, we have the peace of God.  This peace gives us serenity of spirit.  Through that serenity, our spirits attune to the voice of the Holy Spirit.  We can hear the His direction and become centered in God consciousness.  Our thoughts become fixed in God awareness.  We are filled with love, power, and might because we know that we are God’s children.   The Holy Spirit in us bears witness to the removal of falsehood, shame, and fear.  It bears witness to the presence of righteousness, faith, and godliness.  We become reflections of God’s glory in every aspect of our being.  The seeds of not good enough, not capable enough, not strong enough, and not holy enough are replaced with Christ who strengthens us, Christ who empowers us, and Christ whose truth makes us free.

 

A Prayer of Love

Dear Heavenly Father,

 

Thank you that there is therefore now no more condemnation in Christ Jesus.  And because I live in Him, there is therefore now no more condemnation in me.  I live free from sin.  It no longer controls my mind.  I live free from sin.  It no longer controls my body.  I am made new by my fellowship with Jesus.  I confessed that He is my Lord and Savior.  I believe that Your Spirit raised Him from the dead.  And I am empowered by the same indwelling of the Holy Spirit. I am protected because I dwell in Your secret place.  You shelter me.  You cover me.  You deliver me.  You make me whole and free.

 

Because the joy of the Lord is my strength, I am redeemed from depression.  Every thought that plagued my soul is now gone.  Every memory that cause me to doubt is now gone.  The seeds of not good enough, not capable enough, not strong enough have been replaced with Christ who strengthens me, Christ who empowers me, and Christ whose truth makes me free.

 

Because I live in Christ, in freedom, I now have peace – the peace that You have given me.  This peace has blessed me with serenity of spirit; and My spirit is now attuned to the voice of the Holy Spirit.  I can hear the His direction because my mind is centered in God consciousness.  I know His voice because my thoughts are fixed in God awareness.  I am filled with love, power, and might because I now know that I am Your child. The seed of truth and Holy Spirit in me have driven away falsehood, shame, and fear.  I am Yours and I will reflect Your glory in every aspect of my being.

 

Because of Your resurrection power, I am redeemed from sickness.  By the stripes of Jesus I am healed and my body exults in You in realms of perfect function.  I am the manifestation of all in You that is good.  I am living proof that You are truth and You are holy.  I am redeemed from the  negative forms of expression that once inflicted my mind, my home, my workplace, and my family because I have accepted the free gift of salvation and my mind is renewed.  My body is regenerated.  My soul prospers because I have the power to overcome and I overcome by honoring the commandment to love.

           

I love You, God, with all my heart, my mind, my soul, and my strength.

            I love my neighbor as I love myself

            I love mediating on the Word and it dwells in me.

            It abides in me and washes the inner sanctuary of my mind

And makes my thoughts holy

            The Word washes the inner temple of my body and makes me well.

            I now know that I am only because You are

            And because You are, I live a life of power in You

            And I will leave a legacy of godliness, peace, truth, and love.

           

Thank You God for being who You are.  For You are love.  Thank You for being who You are.  You are light.  You are strength.  You are power.  You are grace.  You are abundance.  You are kindness.  You are giving.  You are discipline.  You are correction.  You are wisdom.  You are compassion.  You are the essence that makes me who I am.  I yield my will to you.  I listen for Your direction.  Order my steps in Your truth.  Fill me with Your love….

In Jesus’ name

Amen…