The High Road! -The Road less travelled…

The High Road

Let the mind of the Master be the master of your mind.

Source Unknown.

Pr 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

The mind of Christ, reveals, and thinks, the higher thoughts of God.

These often go radically different directions than all of our earthly learning, experience, and reasoning’s.

Gotta choose the high road, no matter what it looks like in the natural… Pr 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

This is the verse I have chosen to have inscribed upon my wedding band….

Trust and  faith, creates pathways in the Holy Ghost, creative pathways into deeper places, spaces, mysteries unfolded, to our situations, hearts, and answers to each and every generation.

Let’s read one of my favorite verses (for I find myself often thirsty for what only the living God of heaven can give!)

Is 55:1 ¶ Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

2 Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.

3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

4 Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.

5 Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the LORD thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee.

6 ¶ Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:

7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

So we see the higher thoughts of our God, found only in the mind of Christ, revealed through prayer, both in understanding, through seeking Him in His Word, and in mysteries prayed out in other tongues, in the Holy Spirit, words cried out before the throne of God that no known human language can express, as my First Nations brothers teach us in the wisdom of the elders, spoken only in sacred seeking in healing circles and the utterances of the Great Spirit, the language of God, given us to worship our Great Spirit, in spirit and truth, through Yeshua Homishea, his mysteries breathed into us, in sacred communion and intimacy. The language of God…Tongues to the white man….

10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:

11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

And so redemptive power is released through His voice uttered through His sons, daughters, servants, with signs, wonders, miracles, and great destruction to the constructs of worldly men, devils, and carnal desires, as mercy triumphs over judgement, and holiness is exhibited once again through the blood of Jesus, and He, and He alone is glorified in it.
Read this little devotion by a man named John Oxenham:

Take the High Road:

Deuteronomy 32:13
He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;

To every man there openeth
A way, and ways, and a way.
And some men climb the high way,
And some men grope below,
And in between on the misty flats
The rest drift to and fro.
And to every man there openeth
A high way and a low;
And every man decideth
Which way his soul shall go.

John Oxenham

Let’s Pray:
‘Father, lead me on the highway of holiness today, may I ever take the high road, walking with you, glorifying Jesus, no compromise. Amen

https://chrisaomministries.com/2017/01/20/the-purpose-of-this-blog-2/

Set Yearly Goals and work them!

Set Yearly Goals and work them!

I am a disciple of Jesus Christ! The word disciple, means: ‘disciplined one’. My aim, my passion, my destiny, my calling, is to fully obey Him, and make a radical, eternal impact upon this world, through my obedience and love….

I read this quote, and it encourages me today:

“Time is the inexplicable raw material of everything. With it, all is possible; without it, nothing. The supply of time is truly a daily miracle, an affair genuinely astonishing when one examines it. You wake up in the morning, and lo! your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours of the unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life! It is yours. It is the most precious of possessions… No one can take it from you. It is not something that can be stolen. And no one receives either more or less than you receive. Moreover, you cannot draw on its future. Impossible to get into debt! You can only waste the passing moment. You cannot waste tomorrow; it is kept for you. You cannot waste the next hour; it is kept for you.

You have to live on this twenty-four hours of daily time. Out of it you have to spin health, pleasure, money, content, respect, and the evolution of your immortal soul. Its right use, its most effective use, is a matter of the highest urgency and of the most thrilling actuality. All depends on that. Your happiness — the elusive prize that you are all clutching for, my friends — depends on that.

If one cannot arrange that an income of twenty-four hours a day shall exactly cover all proper items of expenditure, one does muddle one’s whole life indefinitely. We shall never have any more time. We have, and we have always had, all the time there is.”

Arnold Bennett, Bits & Pieces, March 4, 1993, p. 18-20

We are now beginning 2017! New years resolutions, or many of us actually put together a battle plan to get where we need to be. Thought today might be a great day to reflect on where we are at, and to perhaps rethink if we are spending time doing the critical, or have we allowed ourselves to become so busy, that we have drifted off course from our dreams and God given vision?

I see this here in Pauls letter to the Corinthian church:

1 Cor 16: 6 And it may be that I will abide, yea, and winter with you, that ye may bring me on my journey whithersoever I go.
7 For I will not see you now by the way; but I trust to tarry a while with you, if the Lord permit.
8 But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost..

Notice here Paul was planning out his year, scheduling what he would do, and what he would not…

Proverbs 16:9

A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps.

Jer 10:23 O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.
Carl Sandburg.

In Jan, I pray, fast, and set yearly goals for the next 12 months. So far, so good, the Lord has honored my faith, and I am on track pretty much for what I set out to accomplish in 2016. Truthfully, I missed a couple fitness goals, because I did not rest enough…and so we learn, adjust, implement, and move forward.

Jesus is welcome to change any of my plans or schedule at any point, but for now, I am walking out, and working towards my goals, trusting Him to do the impossible, daily. It has been said, that it is better to shoot for the stars, and only hit the moon, than to aim at nothing, and hit nothing.

Or, you can shoot for the moon, overshoot, and land among the stars…

Set measurable concrete goals, now. Plan your work, and work your plan, daily reviewing your plan, to keep yourself on track.

https://chrisaomministries.wordpress.com/2013/10/31/thoughts-words-and-deliberate-deeds/

Then, each time I complete a project, or portion, I can go back to the blueprint for the year, and begin focusing on the next level of excellence I need to achieve.

Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
Susan Ertz.

As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.

 Henry David Thoreau

How well I have learned the truth of these verses:

James 4:

¹³ Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:

¹⁴ Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

¹⁵ For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.

When we began our company, we produced a 400 page business plan, on what we thought we would do with our business. For grins and giggles, 2-3 years into it, we would read it for humor. What we actually HAD to do, to feed our families daily, was a far cry from our fantasy dream. Then, we produced a 60 page business plan birthed in prayer and real life experience. It worked, and our company grew from doing 150K a year, to 550K in a couple years.

Then we studied, my business partner took his business degree, and we had a team of MBA students do a competitive business analysis on our company, and they produced a 300 page booklet for us, that was awesome, setting a realistic path to grow us to 5 million/year over the next 5 years. We grew it to 1.1 million over the next two years, (that took us almost 8 years to accomplish)  then at my office one night, I had an ‘open-heaven’ experience, where Jesus clearly called me to walk away from the company to do this full-time, and I have obeyed. Yet, I am convinced, that had we continued on the business plan we set out, we would have made it to the 5 million/year mark, as long as we, the leaders, were willing to continue to grow and learn how to survive and effectively manage the growth.

Yet the principal remains: In order for our organizations to grow, we must grow! We must always be bigger on the inside than whatever challenges life throws at us, and this takes faith!

I would love to say this was my idea, but I heard it taught both at Victory, and again in Tom Leding’s meetings.

Faith, without works, is dead.

Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Psalm 90:12

Let’s Pray:
‘Father, you have a perfect plan for each of us this year. Please show us clearly what that is, and help us to align ourselves with what you desire for us, then stay the course, and faithfully work at what you have shown us to do, in your name I pray Lord Jesus, Amen’

https://chrisaomministries.com/2016/02/09/timing/

If you do not yet know Jesus, then here is how to begin your journey with Him:https://chrisaomministries.wordpress.com/2014/11/10/the-gospel-the-power-of-god/

Bible 101

Bible 101

Was reading this verse and thought about how easy it is to quietly get busy, and to stop seeking Jesus.

Judges 4: 1 ¶ And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD, when Ehud was dead.
2 And the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose host was Sisera, which dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles.

Mt 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Actually putting God, first, and getting up ½ hour or so earlier, to seek Jesus, in prayer and His Word, should be Christianity 101. Deliberately making Jesus the Lord of not only our life, but each and every day.

Continually determined to progressively know Him more, to align our lives more and more with His Word, and to become more like him, day by day, week by week, month by month, and year by year, should be normal Christian living. Yet, we wonder why our nation is in trouble, with huge problems, that government cannot solve, nor is designed to.

Ps 33:12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.

Question is always an individual and personal one: Are you seeking first the kingdom of God, today? Are you willing to commit to doing it today, tomorrow, and for the rest of your life?

If you do, your nation will be blessed, prospered, and your life will be good, for God is love.

If not, the devil eventually is no longer your problem as God Himself allows you be sold into more and more bondage, until you hate it enough to cry out to Him, and to do what we all should be doing, every day.

It’s your choice. You are either part of the problem, or part of the solution.

I have so much to do today that I shall spend the first 3 hours in prayer.
Martin Luther.

Let’s pray:
‘Father, help me to more in and with you today. Help me to discipline and reschedule my life, to spend the time I need with you, to become a solution to this world’s pain today, in your name I pray Lord Jesus, Amen’

Trust, but Verify!

Trust but verify!

Trust, but verify is a form of advice given which recommends that while a source of information might be considered reliable, one should perform additional research to verify that such information is accurate, or trustworthy. The term was a signature phrase adopted and made famous by U.S. president Ronald Reagan. Reagan frequently used it when discussing U.S. relations with the Soviet Union. The phrase was originated by Russian leader Vladimir Lenin.[citation needed] The phrase was learned by Reagan from Suzanne Massie, a writer on Russia. She told Reagan, “The Russians like to talk in proverbs. It would be nice of you to know a few. You are an actor – you can learn them very quickly”.[1] The original Russian proverb is a short rhyme which states, Доверяй, но проверяй (doveryai, no proveryai).
After Reagan used the phrase at the signing of the INF Treaty, his counterpart Mikhail Gorbachev responded: “You repeat that at every meeting,” to which Reagan answered “I like it.”

Sure, this is a trendly business quote, but there is a Bible reading makes it the topic of today’s teaching.

In Joshua chapter 9, we read the account of how the Gibeonites, disguised themselves, in order to avoid being conquered and killed. Can’t say that I really blame them, but Joshua missed it. He forgot to seek the Lord, and gave his word to these people. When their deception was discovered, he employed them as laborers in the camp of Israel, but ‘He should have sought the LORD!’.

Would have been nice had they had a New Testament:

Ephesians 4:14

That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

Clever people are great at presenting facts that look wonderful, but as we proceed forward, we can find ourselves caught in their web of iniquity if we rely on mere sense knowledge alone in our decision making abilities.

We are a covenant people, supernatural, led by Holy Spirit. We are not orphans, but sons and daughters of the most High God, who hear His voice.

Facing a decision today leader, that looks too good to be true?

It probably is not true. Easy to check it out. Check references. Check financial statements, but above all else, PRAY!

Heard a story, that made me chuckle, along these lines:
A couple of hunters chartered a plane to fly into the Canadian wilderness. Two weeks later when the pilot came to pick them up, he saw the two animals they had bagged and said, “I told you fellows I could only take you and one moose. You’ll have to leave the other behind.”
“But we did it last year in a plane this size,” protested one of the hunters, “and the other pilot let us take two moose.”
“Well, okay,” said the pilot. “If you did it before I guess we can do it again.”
So the two moose and the hunters were loaded in and the plane took off. Because of the heavy weight, it rose with difficulty and was unable to clear an obstructing hill. After the crash, the men climbed out and looked around.
One hunter said to the other, “Where are we, anyway?”
His companion surveyed the scene. “I think we got about half a mile farther than we got last year.”
Source Unknown.

There are countless promises in the Word of God, where He promises to speak to you, lead you, direct you, give you wisdom, bear witness to truth. All comes down to the same thing, in every decision: Am I doing it my way, or His?

Let’s Pray
“Father God, I come to you right now, asking you for clarity, strength and direction in every decision of life. Speak to me, and give me wisdom on all my business dealings, in your name I pray Lord Jesus, Amen.”

Your Heavenly Calling!

Take your place and lead!

Ps 20:6 ¶ Now know I that the LORD saveth his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand.

There comes a time and season in the life of a Christian, that one can no longer sit back and watch others lead, preach, teach, serve, and do exploits for the kingdom of God. You can no longer be a fan, nor a bench-warmer on God’s team, it’s time to enter the game!

Birth can be a bloody, painful, messy, almost traumatic event, but after the baby is born, it cries, smiles, and begins to nurse, all the pain is forgotten.

Like a sport event, you may train, exercise, practice, strategies, think through your competitions, but finally, there you are, about to step onto the field of play, with adrenaline pumping, butterflies in your gut, but ready to play, and determined to win!

As you begin to step up to the battle, you may well discover that folks you thought were your friends, have become enemies, people a little too familiar with who they think you are. They haven’t been up in the night in anguished prayer, they have not heard the things God has spoken to you, and they want to pigeon hole you, into a nice little compartment in their mind.

Your heavenly calling and destiny has spoken, and you embrace the life you were born to live!

Suddenly, people you thought you knew, oppose you!

Jesus faced it: Joh 6:42 And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?

It was okay for Jesus to be a carpenter, son of Joseph, but Messiah, Son of God? NO WAY they say!

You too, have come down from heaven, into the kingdom for such a time of this. You were anointed, and now it is time to step out in obedience to Holy Spirit, for you are being appointed, by God for position, rank, privilege, and power in the kingdom, for such a time as this.

And your enemies rage, rail, insinuate, assassinate your character, and seek to undermine your heart, your message, your motive, and your mission, simply because they do not understand you.

People are generally creatures of comfort, determined to destroy anything they find threatening, or that threatens their understanding. In this case, that is you!

Yet, you pray, and the call is sure, and you tentatively begin to more forward, and it seems like all hell breaks loose! Allegations, accusations, innuendo’s, misunderstandings, from others, simply because they have not heard God with respect to you.

They need to be spending as much time praying for you, as talking about you! So, what are you going to do?

Lash back in anger, and blast them with the Word?

Doesn’t work, been there, done that…

James 1:20

For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness ofGod.

Here is what you must do:
1. Guard your heart, and be careful who you disclose precious secrets from heaven to.
2. Determine to stay out of strife, gossip, offence, or bitterness.
3. Pray, often and fervently for the perfect will of God, and let God deal with them.
4. Move forward in the call of God, hear Holy Spirit, and simply go for it!

Isaiah 49:2

And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me;

If you do these things, misunderstanding and persecution will drive you to your knees in prayer, and deeper into the word of God. It will sharpen you, not stop you!

 Here a couple of verses I have found comfort in:

Pr 16:7 When a man’s ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. Eventually, people will get it, but not today.

Ro 12:21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

Mt 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

Ps 5;12 For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield.

Ro 12:17 Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.

2Th 1:6 Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;

Psalm 31:20

Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.

Heb 10:30 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.

Is 54:17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.

I heard Kenneth E Hagin say, regarding persecution: No attack, no defense.

When persecuted, he determined to walk in love, and refuse to attack his persecutors back, and when he moved in God, and preached cutting edge sermons straight from the heart of God, and folks got upset over them, he refused to defend himself,but simply kept on obeying God, no matter what they said or did.

Heard another minister say this about Is 54:17, how the Lord showed him that as he prayed this very verse,that in the realm of the Spirit, it was a two edged sword. On one side, the folks that loved him, and prayed for him, received blessing, anointing, grace, prosperity, healing and every good thing the anointing of God upon his life was created to produce. Yet the other side of the sword brought the judgement of God upon devils, and people that tried to stop him. He said it this way: Fear God folks, you may not like me, but do not get in my way. If you don’t like me, pray for me, and God will bless you, for if you don’t, you will discover that the other side of this sword will cut you and deliver me, and you can simply join the rest of the pile of bodies at my feet.

Let’s Pray:
‘Father, as I step out in your calling, I see enemies arrayed against me. I honestly love them, and want to help them with your Word, and the anointing you have placed upon me. Father, I forgive them their wickedness and opposition to me, and more importantly, to Your calling upon my life. I pray that your goodness and love might lead them to repentance. I lift up your Word, and believe that your surround me with favor as with a shield, and that no weapon formed against me shall prosper, and every tongue risen up against me, might be silenced, in your name I pray Lord Jesus, Amen>”

Timing…

Again, I find myself awake in the night…

Ps 17:2 Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; let thine eyes behold the things that are equal.
3 Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.
4 Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer.
15 As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

Great passage of encouragement for those of us recognizing the call of God upon our lives.

Recognizing that certain things will only occur in His timing, no matter how much we long for it, our commission will come only at the sentence issued from His lips. In the meantime, we call forth those things that be not, as though they were, believing we receive the things we have been shown, walking it out by faith, recognizing that in the journey, the struggle, He is protecting, delivering us, and refining us, and qualifying us for His commission and the responsibility of it.

He is determined to make us into the character and likeness of Jesus in this generation:

Rom 8:29 ¶ For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestine to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Purity of heart and holiness are His aim, people may see our outward actions and consequences, but God views not only our what’s, but our why’s:

Heart is used in Scripture as the most comprehensive term for the authentic person. It is the part of our being where we desire, deliberate, and decide. It has been described as “the place of conscious and decisive spiritual activity,” “the comprehensive term for a person as a whole; his feelings, desires, passions, thought, understanding and will,” and “the center of a person. The place to which God turns.”
J. Stowell, Fan The Flame, Moody, 1986, p. 13

Let us rest tonight, in the faith of the psalmist: 15 As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

He can change us in the night…He still speaks..

Let’s pray:
‘Father, I thank you for the call you have placed upon my life, to bring your change and grace to the earth, in this, my generation. Keep forming the character of Jesus in me, I will not fight you in it. May my faith remain unfeigned, unleashed, and undefeated, as your unconquerable kingdom comes to me, and through me in the earth, in your name I pray Lord Jesus, Amen’

Leadership Lonliness

Leadership Loneliness…

To Whom much is given, much is required…

Ex 34:3 No one else may come with you. In fact, no one is to appear anywhere on the mountain.

Here we see Moses, called to come apart unto God, to receive the 10 Commandments. Very similar to a CEO, business owner, senior pastor, or President set apart to lead their people and organizations. Need corporate guidelines, principals, policies, and governments that will effectively, fairly empower and prosper the people we are called to lead.

These come from God….

For those of us called to leadership, there are seasons, where, though surrounded by people, God speaks to us, alone.

In this account of Moses, God called him up the mountain, without even man’s best friend. If he had a dog, it stayed home.

Ex 34: Do not even let the flocks or herds graze near the mountain.”

Places and spaces, where only His voice, and obedience to it, will do.
For those in that place today, I know, I’ve been there. I understand, and I’m praying for you.

There is a straight and narrow way through this, that brings great glory to God, and that will make both eternal and temporal impact, only as you obey.

1 Corinthians 10:13 (PHILLIPS)

God still governs human experience

13 No temptation has come your way that is too hard for flesh and blood to bear. But God can be trusted not to allow you to suffer any temptation beyond your powers of endurance. He will see to it that every temptation has a way out, so that it will never be impossible for you to bear it.

Let’s pray:
“Father, show me what to do, and give me courage to do it, to obey you, and not become pulled by the temptations and counsels of people. I need you Lord Jesus, to strengthen me, now, Amen’