Leaving our tools behind

I left the church last night after prayer and left my laptop in the office. This is why my Blog is going out so late today. When I got home from getting it I had to go to the dump. I have felt like a fish out of water because I didn't have what I needed to start my day. My Logos for bible reading and devotionals and my blog. I haven't gotten any school work done this morning or last night.So I wonder how many of us go out into the mission field unprepared for the day because we left our tools behind. I feel that we need to be more diligent in our preparation for the day and make sure we have everything we need. Don't leave your tools behind because you will need them.

Who are you!!!

The greatest confusion these last few years for me is the question of who am I. Many men have come along and told me that because of the gifting I have this is who I am. So I tried to get those things into my heart and be joyful. I have found that the last few months every time I try to go in a direction for anything that men say is the road God has shut me right down. I am not a Senior Pastor, Church planter, or Youth Pastor. I am a Prophet and I am called to stir up the church in New England. I may be on staff somewhere under someone who loves me and can help me to develop the tools for what I am called to be. I may be there for weeks or months at a time just doing the work to help them and then a suddenly will come and I will go and be who I am. A plower. I may go help with a church plant by praying over the area and have evangelistic meetings for them. But I will be helping them do what is in their heart to do. I have been running after things that just are not me and I am so glad the Lord did not give them to me.

Different types of soil- A key to self revelation

It is interesting that the parable of the sower is in three of the gospels Matthew, Mark and Luke. As I was praying and thinking about what to blog today the Lord gave me this. We as Christians have different types of soil in our lives. The sower is the same the Holy Spirit. He spreads the seeds of self revelation of where our true motives are at so that we can know God better and be more like Jesus. Just like the parable though sometimes it takes and yields a harvest and sometimes depending on our heart condition it bears little or no fruit. Then the Holy Spirit becomes the plower preparing the places of our hearts that are not ready for this revelation to be ready for seed. God uses many things to plow us because I think God cares more about us knowing Him than we think. I believe that the word is the barometer of how well we are walking with Christ. The moment we are no longer being changed is the moment we are becoming a fallow field. Maturity must come to the church and it will only come as we face these hard places in our lives. We can no longer be monolithic in our thinking. We cannot say that I have this ONE great revelation and so I have the right to speak into all areas. I am profitable in ONE area so I have achieved all that is necessary. Then we start to compare ourselves to others and get a air of superiority over them. A little aside I am tired of people misusing the word judging. Judging is done in pride comparing one mans work to another s and feeling it is superior. Knowing someone by their personal fruit because their fruit shows us the attitude of their heart is really different. If someone is talking about others than they are a gossiper, this is not a judgment of them it is a fact that they gossip so they are a gossiper. By their fruit we will know them. Just like I am a sinner because I sin, it is not a judgment it is a fact. I am FAT because I do not exercise or take care of my body, so someone that says Rusty is fat is not judging me they are saying out loud what they see, FAT. Now I am not condoning going around telling people their fruit because the law of love says to pray for them and protect them by not exposing their faults. the Holy Spirit can do that just fine and sometimes He chooses to use us. But we as a culture need to quit playing games with each other and realize that by their fruit you will know them.  So what is your personal fruit what is the real condition of your heart soil. What words are coming from your mouth (Facebook) that is a powerful barometer of your heart. I am attacking the hard soil of my heart because I do not want to have any hardness I want a revelation of Jesus that transforms me. Therefore pride, laziness, hurtful speech, anger, control, luster, temple defiler, and bully have to go from my harvest field more and more so that the good fruit can come in Love, peace, joy, kindness, self control, and honriness.
Galatians 5:13-26 back this up.

Life by the Spirit
13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free.h But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesha;i rather, serve one anotherj humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”b k 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit,l and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.m 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.n They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whateverc you want.o 18 But if you are led by the Spirit,p you are not under the law.q
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality,r impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.s I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.t
22 But the fruitu of the Spirit is love,v joy, peace,w forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.x Against such things there is no law.y 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the fleshz with its passions and desires.a 25 Since we live by the Spirit,b let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited,c provoking and envying each other.
The New International Version. 2011 (Ga 5:13–26). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.  

So where is your heart today and fruit are you really bearing? If you want to live by the Spirit of God than lets make producing good fruit a priority this year.

Holiness- A Key to Character Development

Holiness is a requirement for the Christian today. I don't care what the new fad of the church is, God has always asked the church to be separated unto Himself. We do not live unto ourselves, we have given up our rights to Him. I have found some things that are unholy in my thought life and in my physical life. I am hitting my thought life with prayer and reprogramming it to think differently. My body is a temple unto the Lord and I am going to work very hard to loose my weight and have a strong temple. This body doesn't belong to me anymore and I cannot do what I need to accomplish if I am tired and weary because my flesh can not keep up with all I need to do. Just like my body there are a lot of bad things stealing energy and progress in the church body. We have had awesome moves of God only to have them discredited by the leader falling away because they fell into sin. Their private temple did not maintain the separated life of holiness the Lord requires and the enemy got in there and destroyed all God had done. I believe in this day God is calling us to new positions of holiness and humility so that we can be ready for when He does pour out His Spirit. I believe what we have seen from the Lord is a warning and a raising of the bar, He allows men and women to be raised as grace and those who cant maintain it are examples of why it is so important to develop our character and holiness along with the supernatural gifts. Church leadership has got to quit just looking at the giftedness of the person we must look at their character and hold them accountable. We cannot afford anymore black eyes because we didn't look globally at the whole picture.

Obedience- A Key to Relationship

 And Aram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.
 —Genesis 17:3–4
In today's culture the idea of obedience has two understandings of what that means. This is also in the church culture. Some obey God only in His written word and others obey God in His spoken word. The first group hold up the Word of God as their standard and know it. The other group can hear the Lord and move as they see Him move. We have got to bring this together or we only have one part of who God is. Our relationship and understanding of Him will be one sided. I have seen this many times in my own life. I will move and do crazy things the Lord has spoken to me but to do the mundane written things that also make me who I am in Him not so much. I am working in this new year to put the two together. Jesus knew the written word and obeyed it but He also heard His Father and did the spoken things God had for Him. Let us develop both of these two aspects of relationship. It is not religiosity or bondage it is simple living like Jesus did in the wholeness of RELATIONSHIP.

Consecration a key to finishing the race

In today's christian culture the idea of consecration is dead. No one wants to give anything from their old life up anymore. We still want our diversions from life and we don't bring Christ even into that part of our routine. I feel a strong urge from the Holy Spirit to consecrate my life a new to Him for the next seven days. I wonder what would happen if it became a lifetime consecration. If we understood that we do not live for this world but are living for the world to come. I wonder how much confusion, doubt, and tiredness come from where we spend our down time. I know for me I cannot live in the realm of TV, Secular Fantasy Books and Games anymore. These things have caused a divided Rusty and I am so tired sometimes I do not do the things I need to do. So my question is how much do you believe this is a year of Jubilee are you willing to let go of some things so you can have some things. How deep in the Lord Jesus Christ do you want to go? I don't care how much of the Spirit of God you have and how much HE uses you, if your personal devotion is divided you to will never accomplish all the Lord has for you. The gifts work without repentance and many times God uses us because the person we are ministering to needs it so desperately. So don't think that because God uses you powerfully that you have it all, no it should humble you to dig deeper in Him and deal with your personal stuff. I don't know about you but I want to finish the race and win, not just wow some people because I have a fast sprint and then fade away. Are you doing the things to make it to the end of the race?

The New Year

Happy New Year we say and then we try and think of things that we should establish in our lives. For some it feels like a butterfly coming from their cocoon stepping into a new world. As a Christian who has God's mercies new every morning and His Spirit residing within us everyday should be a day of starting something new. Everyday we should be closer to Jesus than ever before because our hearts are filled with more of His love than the day before. I wonder what would happen if we told people who do not know Jesus that the new thing they are looking for is a relationship that will fulfill all their emptiness if they want it. I wonder what would happen if we Christians really lived the gospel we say we live by. I was reading about Elijah today and I want each new day this year be such that I can say I who stand in the presence of God lives.