In Mark 6 there is an interesting statement that is made regarding the feeding of the five thousand. Immediately following that miracle Jesus walked on the water to the shock and horror of His disciples. The explanation of their shock is described in verses 51-52:

“And he went up unto them into the ship; and the wind ceased:  and they were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and wondered. For they CONSIDERED NOT the miracle of the loaves: FOR THEIR HEART WAS HARDENED.”

Notice that their hardness of heart was the thing that apparently prevented them from EXPECTING Jesus to do these things. The Scripture says they were “sore amazed” at the one miracle of walking on water because their hearts had already become hardened to the other miracle Jesus did.
Let me tell you why this story SO hits me… Yesterday morning I was praying with Kent Liles and Jay Grimwood when I came to an epiphany. I just started thinking about God’s great miracles in my life and how good He has been. I was thinking about how great He is and realized that it would be impossible for Him to be even greater.  Think about it… He has ALL power and ALL knowledge and is ALL present. He has poured out the life of His ONLY SON for us! Now, how could He be greater than that??? And then I started thinking just HOW FULL and HOW BLESSED I was. It would be impossible for me to be more full or more blessed. - IMPOSSIBLE! And then I started thinking differently about our prayer that God would bless our student ministry and church. All of a sudden, Him blessing our Body no longer had anything to do with me whatsoever. All of a sudden I started praying for God to bless His Body so that Christ could be the recipient of the blessing. In other words, I started understanding that God blessing our student ministry and KCBT in general did nothing for me personally. I am already blessed “with all heavenly blessings in Christ Jesus.” We need to see the Father bless this work because, in so doing, the Son of God will be magnified. I desire for God to SO bless the ministry that no one confuses us with the work God is doing. I desire that God SO blesses that everyone will look at it and say, “God had to do that because there is no way those people are capable of all of that. Praise the Lord!”

Do you realize that you already have everything? Until you do, you can’t experience the fullness God has for you.

“True activity is that which springs out of, and is ever accompanied by, rest. It is only as we know what it is to be ’still,’ that we are ready to ‘go forward.’ We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we  go.’” (E.H.)

“Let us take care lest we get out of soul-rest in seeking further blessing. God cannot work whilst we are anxious, even about our spiritual experience. Let us take Him at His Word, and leave the fulfillment of it to Him.”

These quotes from the Green Letters describe wonderfully my temptation at present, namely, to press into or onto further blessing with God. God, grant grace that I not pollute Your work and that I not prevent Your blessing by my pressing. I am dead. The ONLY life I know is YOUR LIFE.

Exo 15:20-26 And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances.And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah.And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them,And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

What impressed me from this passage in my daily reading this morning was that right after this great victory of triumph that Israel experiences in seeing God part the Red Sea and destroy her enemies, Israel worships. Miriam and the women give glory to God only three days later to be inundated with murmuring. They complain ONLY THREE DAYS AFTER THIS AMAZING MIRACLE because they don’t have water. They go immediately from praising to complaining. WOW!

The other thing that really hit me is the reason Israel was struck with this great need of water at the end of verse 25. “…and there he proved them” it says. God was all about doing a work in His people to make them more like Himself. He wants to teach them to be all-consumed by Him instead of being all enthralled with His blessings. Interesting, is it not, that at the end of verse 26 the Lord states: “…for I am the LORD that healeth thee.” He is pointing them back to Himself and putting the emphasis on Him.

There is a great lesson in all of this… God allows blessing in our lives and God allows difficulties and needs for a couple of reasons. One, He desires to make us more like Himself. And two, He is wanting us to engage with HIM! He needs to be our emphasis, not all of the things that surround Him.

So how do you know if this is you? How do you know if you are guilty of making the emphasis of your heart your circumstances? - Easy… Do your circumstances follow your worship or does your worship follow your circumstances?

God Himself desires to be the focus of our hearts.

2 Samuel 21:1-14 tells the story of a famine in the land that took place for three years under David’s reign. What intrigued me about this story is that David comes to God about the famine, asks why it was taking place, and finds out it is because of the sin of his predecessor Saul. He then goes to the ones Saul offended, namely the Gibeonites, and asks what he must do so that they may “BLESS THE INHERITANCE OF THE LORD.” After that conversation and David’s subsequent follow-through we read in verse 14, “… And after that God was intreated for the land.”

It was interesting in this passage to see the connection between our offenses toward others and God’s blessing on us. Further, it is interesting to see the lack of blessing on David’s reign, not because of what David had done, but because of his predecessor. David did whatever it took to enter once again into the place of blessing for his life. That included making things right with others with whom he personally had not offended.

Is there anything God would be withholding from your life because there is something “out there” left unresolved?

Love, joy, peace, long-suffering (patience), gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith, temperance (moderation). . . These are the natural outflow of our lives from the Spirit of God. When these are not our CONDITION, it is because we are off on our POSITION. In other words, something needs to be corrected in our hearts when the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 9) does not characterize our hearts. Ever heard someone say, “I just need to work on my patience”? The real issue is that that individual needs to yield that area to the life of Christ.

So I would just challenge all of us to take a look at our lives and ask if what is outflowing from our hearts matches the fruit of the Spirit of God. If not, we need to

1. Examine if there by any unconfessed sin
2. Re-die and re-submit ourselves completely.

“Submit yourselves unto the Lord…” YOU CAN HAVE THIS FRUIT TODAY! YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO! Don’t be satisfied with anything less.

Gal 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

Gal 2:21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

Verse 20 in particular is Nate’s memory verse for the week assigned to him by his Sunday school class.  It is exactly where we can find the life meant for each of us. How do you experience this life?- By believing…  You need to actively believe in your death with Christ and actively believe in Christ’s resurrected life IN YOU. In other words, depend upon His life in you. Verse 20 is the trap we often spiral down into, namely, beginning to equate our spirituality to what WE DO. It is at this point that God allows us to continue down this path to see that it is futile. There is no life on this path of self-buildup. As a result, in time, failure ensues and we are forced back to the place of believing only on Christ for our righteousness. I mean ACTIVELY believing on Christ’s death and resurrection. This is the only method of effectively living His life.

God has been teaching me some wonderful truths of late that have been revolutionary for me. A quote from Andrew Murray encapsulates it: “A superficial acquaintance with God’s plan leads to the view that while justification is God’s work, by faith in Christ, sanctification (growth) is our work, to be performed under the influence of a gratitude we feel for the deliverance we have experienced, and by the aid of the Holy Spirit. But the earnest Christian soon finds how little gratitude can supply the power. When he thinks that more prayer will supply it, he finds that, indispensable as prayer is, it is not enough. Often the believer struggles hopelessly for years, until he listens to the teaching of the Spirit, as He glorifies Christ again, and reveals Christ, our Sanctification to be appropriated by faith alone.”

This all goes back to the understanding that I CAN’T LIVE THE CHRISTIAN LIFE!  What a wonderful blessing to settle that question rather than continuing the course of trying to make it happen. I have to resign completely in death and reckon on Christ’s resurrected life to experience the life that God has for me. It is wonderful place to be, not worried about results, or the lack thereof, but rather enjoying Christ, moment by moment. He leads. He blesses. He touches. And He does so through HIS LIFE through me.

Oh God, I don’t want to live anywhere else but from You. Live Lord.

I am finally back to my blog after being out of it for a while. We got back Saturday from our European tour and I think I am finally recovered from the jet lag. Funny how fragile we are and how much our physical well-being feeds into our spiritual well-being. I found myself having to live-out what I was preaching on Sunday with regard to “living in reality.” When I woke up this morning, made my tea, and went upstairs to spend time with the Lord, I had to evaluate why my “condition” wasn’t so joyful.  I was just a little down and doubtful - about what I don’t know exactly. Ever felt like that?

Anyway, I had to make some choices based upon my “position” in Christ. Praise God for position! In God, all is well. So re-die and submit to Christ’s resurrected life! Depend upon His life this day. “The life that I now live I live by faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” It isn’t my life any longer. I no longer have to “do” the Christian life. I’ve learned that I can’t. I need only understand and recognize that when Jesus died on the cross, I died with Him. And when Jesus rose from the dead, I rose with Him!