Abundance in Christ and in the Body

As I was a part of our "Staff Soaking" time where we gather to receive from God and share what He is revealing, I was struck by the Holy Spirit again speaking to me about breaking the poverty mindset.  When you have a lack mindset you are striving to earn or get it is what you want, while often times not handling the resources you have been given.  I have been meditating on 2 Corinthians 8:9, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich."  What does it mean to be rich and live from a place of internal abundance because Christ dwells in us.

The Lord began to reveal a dimension of what it means to be "rich in Christ", when He spoke to me that we often in our culture think of being rich individually.  We look at people like Bill Gates or Warren Buffet who have amassed huge personal fortunes as the pinnacle of success.  Most believers reject this as their standard but somehow what does creep into our thinking is that it is all about us individually being somebody.  The Holy Spirit began to show me that the abundance is really in people and specifically the Body, which is those around me.  So where I lack in an area there is someone in the Body who is "rich" in this area.  I have often found myself either trying to make up for my personal weaknesses or least hide them well.

I am personally in a season where I feel a lack of vision, though I know there is so much "in Christ".  I have often been frustrated with myself and even frustrated with God for not giving me more vision.  Yet what if part of "richness in Christ" is in partnering with others in the Body to stir up vision that is in each of us but there are some that are better at calling that out and building it.  So I decided to call a friend who has a ministry in helping people vision, strategize, and refine there focus.  I also reached out to our Board and asked for help in strategizing and envisioning for our ministry.  There truly are no "Lone Rangers" in the Body of Christ.

One of the greatest joys in being part of the Body of Christ is loving one another.  We love one another well through the unique gifts God has given us.  It is in the area of our gift (constituted gift) that the grace and love of God flow best.  If we have a God-sized vision we will need others to see it come to fruition.  When we have learned to live as an orphan, focused on fulfilling our dream alone then we miss out on the richness of Christ.

Rich in Him,
Bret

Becoming Rich in Him

I have discovered at the root of most of the brokenness in the world is some form of poverty or lack.  This poverty takes many forms beyond simple financial poverty, there is relational poverty, lack of peace, lack of joy, lack of acceptance, poverty of dreams or vision, loss a father, poverty of solutions for problems in life, lack of healing, and of course physical poverty (lack of food, shelter, clothing).  In America while poverty is much more hidden by behind our financial and material abundance, there is still a place of poverty.  As one author said, "Sin hurts people" and it is the presence of sin that often interrupts the flow of resources from one person to another.

It is in this backdrop of a world full of poverty and need where the religious of the day were putting more rules on people but not addressing the root issues, that Jesus enters in.  Specifically, Jesus enters in through His first message known as the "Beatitudes", He begins with "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs in the kingdom of heaven."  This is so radical that I think we often miss it, this was a revolution because according to the religious of the day God preferred those who can measure up, handle it, and please Him by keeping over 600 laws and rules.  Jesus opened the floodgates to the poor and invited them into receive extravagant riches of the kingdom of heaven.  This would have been such an offense to the religious leaders of the day that there hatred and resentment for Jesus would have erupted like a volcano out of their souls.  This man was throwing up the doors of heaven for those who absolutely did not deserve to come in and should have been far from God.

The passage that has arrested my heart is in 2 Corinthians 8:9 when Paul says of Jesus, "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich."  There have been many times where I have experienced a deep sense of poverty, poverty of peace, joy, encouragement/hope, acceptance, rest, missing a father, lack of wisdom, lack of confidence, and lack of love.  Jesus entered into the poverty of humanity with it's orphan way of thinking and living but He did not look to the resources on the earth but to His Father and heaven's resources.  Jesus as the Son and member of the Holy Trinity knew the abundance of the riches of His Father in heaven.  In heaven there is no lack, only a continual stream of resources of kindness, love, provision, security, healing, life, and joy.  We are rich in Him, learning how to access the resources of heaven "in Christ" to generously manifest Father's love to an orphan planet.

Rich in Him,

Bret

Coming Revival

Sitting in the rain in the Los Angeles Coliseum with 65,000 people we started to get a picture of Revival.  The Body of Christ coming together at Azusa Now to pray for revival, unite, and heal together across denominational lines, racial lines, socio-economic lines, and theological lines.  Holy Spirit began to speak to me about the importance of honoring and loving people who are radically different than myself.  He showed me that judgments, unforgiveness, offense, and fear kept us from valuing different dimensions of the Body of Christ and thus from drawing from the revelation of Jesus Christ that the group of people carry.  Like during the Azusa Street Revival in 1906 the color lines, the denominational lines, and many other lines were wiped away as people experienced wave after wave of the Presence of God.

Since judgments, unforgiveness, offense, and self-protective fears towards those who are different from us are not a creation of God, then by His Spirit we can partner with Him to see the walls come down.  During the Azusa Now there were Jewish believers and Gentile believers coming together, Black believers, Latino believers, Korean believers, Native American believers all reconciling, asking forgiveness, and serving one another.  Father's love flowing through different dimensions of the Body is so powerful to open our spiritual eyes to the depths, heights, lengths, and widths of His love "in Christ" (Ephesians 3:18).  In this passage the phrase "to comprehend with all the saints" reveals that there are dimensions of the love of Christ that we cannot experience if we are not in unity with other believers.  Yet when believers focus on unity, it seems that what comes up is all the divisions, strife's, and unforgivenss.  We need to focus on Christ because "in Him" we are already One, aligning our view with His means letting go of the judgments, divisions, and fears to see heaven manifest on earth.

The cross is the great equalizer, every person needs grace to come into wholeness.  Romans 3:23 tells us, "...all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."  Amazing that God announces through Paul in Colossians 1:27 that "...Christ in us the hope of glory."  Christ in us corporately is the hope of glory, yet in our rugged individualism, independence, and need to build our own kingdom (the American Dream) we have lost the experience of being a true community of interdependent believers.  In this coming Revival I believe there will be those who work to come together as One in Christ and there will be an increase in the anointing and power in these ministries.  Also, there will be those who tend to separate through criticism, judgment, legalism, control, and fear the anointing of the Spirit will not function over these ministries.

Father has done the work through Jesus Christ for us to be One with Him and One together.  We cannot accomplish by our self-effort what God has already purchased through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.  We must receive through humility, dependence, trust, and grace just like how we receive all benefits from God under the New Covenant.

One in Christ,
Bret