At the heart of every conversation with God is the opportunity to know His will.
And at the heart of God’s will is infinite love for you, and a passionate, persistent, dedicated, and instense drive to bless you.
When God’s will is accomplished, its results are amazing. This is because God knows you and everyone else so well that He can provide for the best outcomes in every situation. And that is what He wants to do. He is the giver. He is the provider. He is the creator. His will has no limits and His vision sees every possibility. His willingness to invest in you is unlimited and His readiness to commit to your success is always immediate. But for all the omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, and everything that God brings to His side of your relationship with Him, there are still limits you can place on God’s will being done. Your willingness to believe and readiness to receive the blessings He is so urgently working to give you and the answers He provides for you — can open the door to radical blessings, or can stand in the way of achieving success and fulfillment.
The choice is yours.
And don’t forget. This is not a one time offer. This is not a limited time deal. This is not a use it or lose it proposition. This is forever and always. This is the will of the creator and sustainer of the universe. This is the opportunity of a lifetime for a lifetime — it never expires. His offer is perpetual. His patience is infinite. And you can say no every day, every time you think of it and still He won’t withdraw His offer. You can buy the competitor’s product. You can even sell the competitor’s product. You can do every contrary, dysfunctional, twisted, and evil thing you can think of and still God will be looking for the next opportunity to work with you and accomplish His will for your life. Because God is playing for keeps. His purposes are eternal and He always goes the distance with every person He creates. God never gives up. And while He consistently respects your boundaries, and refuses to invade your space, His blessings will chase you down and overtake you when you aren’t expecting it. He will surprise and delight you even if you only give Him the smallest opening. And once you open the door, even ever so slightly, God is going to start bringing everything He has and handing it over to you. The blessings may come faster than you notice them or more subtly than you can resist them at first. But open your eyes and you will see that every time you listen, every time you look, every time you step out in faith — God is right there ready to hand you the victory, bring you the success, give you the answers, and fulfill the dreams of your heart that you never believed possible before.
God is not going to give up. God is a very persistent giver. He is going to take every opportunity to show you the value of His will, to demonstrate the quality of His blessings, and to send His gifts in such abundance that sooner or later you will take notice. Don’t let this opportunity keep passing you by. God’s will is perfect, and its perfect for you. Take the time to talk to Him about it. Open yourself up to the fact that His will is worth pursuing not because its His, but because its the best possible outcome in every situation. And then get ready to receive, because when you give God the permission He will fill your life up to full and overflowing with good things. He will give you the desires of your heart, and bless you in ways that you haven’t even imagined. God’s will, will be done. And that’s the best possible outcome for every situation.
Jesus is ready to empower you with a full and unmediated relationship with Him. In fact, the only limiting factor in your relationship with Him is your willingness to change, your ability to love, your openess to seeing things from His perspective, and your dedication to knowing and accomplishing His will. His blessings will chase you down and overcome you if you choose to engage your friendship – your closely held personal, unique, irreplaceable, mutual, and direct relationship with the God of the Universe. This is what it means to be a priest. A priest is anyone who commits to the rights and the responsibilities of being a person who knows God.
There was a time when only a few could or did know God. But when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea all that changed. God Himself became universally visible for the first time, not just to a select few prophets or wise men, not just to the priests and levites serving in the temple, and more importantly, not just to the few who actually met Jesus in those few years He spent building His ministry, developing a following, and initiating His kingdom on earth to coordinate in harmony with His kingdom in heaven.
“Because you have seen me you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed” – John 20
The key to becoming a priest is establishing an unmediated relationship with Jesus Christ as your only God. Don’t hide. Don’t try to enlist someone else to take care of it for you. Its about you and God. Its between you and God. And only you and God can sort it out.
So, to become a priest, here are the basic steps that God has provided, for anyone who desires to find Him:
- Take ownership of your life. Every decision you have made. Every experience you have lived. Every thing that has been done to you. Everything that you have done. And all of the results both good and bad. Accept where you are and who you are with complete openness, honesty, and the willingness to see it for what it is.
- Evaluate your decision making based on the results you acheive. God’s answers always work. So if the decisions you are making aren’t working, they aren’t God’s will for your life. Identify where God is already blessing your life and areas where you are still in need of blessing.
- Commit your life, your decisions, your property, and your personal identity to Jesus Christ as your only God. Jesus is God. Embracing this reality will take your perspectives, your decision making ability, and the results you achieve to places you have not even thought possible before. And commiting your life to Him changes the way you interact with other people, what you choose to do with the time and resources He provides for you, and at the heart of it all your commitment changes who you are – because by choosing a relationship with Jesus as your only God, you are born again.
- Get baptized by full immersion in water in the name of “Jesus Christ”. Baptism is the physical act of commitment indicating your ordination into the priesthood. No other names, titles, or aspects of God should be used in the baptism of new believers than “Jesus Christ”. Although only your own commitment to walk with Christ can make your baptism effective, and so who physically helps you into the water and makes the statement “I baptize you in the name of Jesus Christ” is of little consequence, the best practice is to be baptized by the believer who introduced you to Jesus as your only God. This connection through shared experience will provide you with a mentor in the faith, and a fellow disciple to walk with on the path to eternal life.
- Take your baptism to the next level. The baptism in water is your ordination, but your calling is to receive full immersion in the holy spirit and fire. God’s spirit comes on those who pursue, study, pray for, and accomplish His will. And as you discover His will, come to understand the actual gospel, and persist in your commitment to staying right in your relationship with Him, exercising your rights as a believer and facing your responsibilities as well — the passion for the salvation of souls, for making the world a better place because you have lived in it, your ability to see God’s will in the present, and receive the persistent blessings God showers on you will rise up like a flame and the power of God’s love will come into you, over you and around you — and through you into all those you reach.
- Make disciples. It is the first and most important responsibility of every believer to introduce others to God. As a priest you are a disciple, a follower and servant of Jesus Christ. It is your job to make more disciples, not for yourself, but for God. You may not be the first or the last person to introduce them. They may not be ready to hear, or they may have deep seated rejection of God in their hearts. But you make sure the witness of your life, and the testimony of your words accurately reflect, embody, and convey your relationship with Jesus Christ as your only God.
- Live with integrity. One of the best measures of your own faith, is observing how consistent you are. God is completely consistent and so has perfect integrity. Evil, on the other hand is completely inconsistent and lacks all integrity. God’s vision for your life is to bless every single thing you think, say, and do. Every word you speak. Every decision you make. Every task you take on. Everything. Everything you choose to do either empowers the presence of God on earth, or limits His ability to bless you and those around you.
- Engage reality and so change it. Don’t get bogged down in your mistakes, overcome them. The only unforgiveable sin is one that you won’t face or for which you don’t want forgiveness. God doesn’t hold mistakes against you, but there is nothing He can do if you don’t accept reality and choose to change it. Our God is bigger than every challenge you face today. And there is nothing you can do that will turn Him off of His desire to work with you. God is a very persistent giver. Accept the goodness of God, not because you believe you deserve it, but because you know that He wants to give it to you. Every time you fall, get up. Every time you stumble, take one more step. Focus your life on discovering and accomplishing God’s will, not on reliving the past. Every moment is a new opportunity to engage reality and so to change it. Take that opporunity.
God isn’t holding anything back in His relationship with you. His will always provides the best possible outcome in every situation. And so as you embrace the reality of His will for you, you will be perfected not just individually in your relationship with Him, but also collectively with all other believers as we all work together in becoming the living body of Christ.
Are you ready? Then pray this prayer, “Lord Jesus, I accept who I am, I understand where I have been, and I repent of my sins. Right here, right now, I commit the rest of my life to you. Come into my heart. I make you my one and only God. Save me. Amen.”
If you prayed that prayer, I believe you were born again. Get baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, pursue and accomplish His will, and get ready to accept the blessings and the promises of God that will chase you down and overcome you now that you are a priest and a believer, a disciple of the one true God and eternal life, Jesus Christ.
God is a very persistent giver. He is so persistent, in fact, that He wants to give you everything that He has. This list is limitless and reaches beyond our biggest dreams and most expansive thoughts because God is both infinite and eternal. So when He promises to give us everything that He has, only limited by how much we want, that doesn’t just mean some goodness or some mercy — it means He wants to give us everything.
God’s promises make clear that He works everyday to give us things like,
Happiness. Joy. Peace. Abundance. Wisdom. Increase. Love. Vitality. Effectiveness. Influence. Insight. Creativity. Empowerment. Opportunity. Justice. Relationships. Friendship.
And — Eternal Life.
When faced with our own mortality, we can feel small in comparison to God’s immortality, until we realize that His immortality is on the list. Not only does God want to give us all the good things this temporary life has to offer, God wants to give us His immortality as well.
You were not created to live for just a short time. You were not created to exist and then pass away. God created you to live forever.
That is why, when He explained His personal investment strategy to His disciples, He advised them,
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth…store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. - Matthew 6:19-21
God wants to work with you to provide you with lasting health, lasting wealth, and lasting life. God wants to invest in you in ways that will provide permanent, eternal returns. God is not in it just for the short term. God’s perspective is eternity. God’s will for you is to continue providing His blessings in ever increasing abundance for the rest of your life, which is the rest of eternity.
When we die, we rise.
Perhaps the single greatest witness of Jesus’ life, was His death. It wasn’t a matter of opinion. It wasn’t a theological argument or a healing miracle like He had done during His life. It wasn’t just a conflict between men and God over religion and government and the matters of this life. It wasn’t a philosophical point of contention over the nature of His kingdom, whether it was of this world or not. At the end of the day, everyone observing the execution was sure of one thing, Jesus Christ was finished. His followers fled to their own homes and returned to their lives as best they could. The leadership and those who had worked so hard to kill him, had some remaining worries about what might happen if stories started circulating that might make His influence after His death greater than it had been before. But no one doubted the fact that Jesus was dead.
Jesus’ death was His final testimony to who He actually is. It was the living witness of His power and identity. Because on that third day following His death, the lifeless, bloodied, and pierced body of Christ rose under His own power, walked out of the tomb, and ascended to heaven — showing us the way.
This was not just a man. Jesus Christ rose because He is the one true God and eternal life.
When we embrace Jesus Christ as our one and only God, when we choose to walk in His footsteps and embrace His will for our lives, when we first obey His commands and so become His friends. Then when our lifeless bodies are laid to rest in the tomb, we too will rise under His power, walk out of our tombs, and ascend to live forever in heaven just like He showed us we could.
We do not worship a God of the dead, but of the living. You were created to live forever — its just a matter of you wanting to.
When soldiers return from a mission it is standard practice for them to be debriefed on the events and accomplishments of their time in the field. This is not just for the sake of intelligence gathering, it is also a tool to bring something of resolution to the soldiers for what they faced in battle. The same is true for soldiers returning from war with emotional damage and psychological scars, the standard treatment for post traumatic stress disorder includes providing a rational context to find handles for the emotions, memories, and life experiences of that soldier at war so that they can achieve some resolution and to some degree put it behind them and so better reintegrate into civilian life and reconnect with the people they love.
Re-engaging the past, re-evaluating our memories, and awakening the emotions, images, and experiences of situations that were left unresolved for us, is a requirement for finding peace not just in the case of soldiers returning from war, but in all of our lives when we face things that are beyond our ability to process in the moment we experience them. Things that are beyond our emotional depth and outside of our rational comprehension. Its what some people call baggage. Everything that we have pushed off or stuffed down for some other day. All that we have left to be dealt with eventually, but we just don’t want to face yet. For all this unresolved, incomplete, unprocessed junk – God promises us resolution.
When we really engage reality it is both challenging and encouraging. It means that we will have conflict, discomfort, and personal change. But it also means that we can achieve real results. We can make lasting improvements to our relationships, we can turn past failures into future successes, and we can receive blessings and restoration in areas of our lives where we have learned to expect curses and damage.
Like soldiers facing life and death on the battle field, we face our successes and failures every day and deal with them in the moment as best we can. But we need to know that nothing has to be left for the someday, somewhere bucket when it comes to towing around our baggage. God’s promises are clear. God gives us the opportunity to put down our baggage. And that opportunity starts with prayer.
Prayer is our opportunity to debrief with God. Tell Him what you know about the situation that left you holding the bag, what you did, what others did, what results you achieved, and why you feel like something was left undone or done wrong. Be specific. Be honest. Be completely open. Don’t try to be politically correct. Don’t try to sound holy or right. Don’t take sides or try to sound like the hero. Don’t beat around the bush. And most of all, don’t you be the judge. Put it squarely on His shoulders to show you the right and the wrong. Let God provide you with the solution.
God answers all prayers. Often even as we are speaking we know deep down in our soul what He is telling us. Sometimes, like Samuel in the Bible, we don’t really hear God the first time and so He has to repeat Himself several times until we realize who it is that’s talking. And like any relationship, as we get to know God better, we get to understand how He talks and what He says better as well. At first we may project a lot of our own thinking on God, or our expectations might color our understanding of what He says. But as we become friends and we start to see more and more of who God is, our expectations change, and our willingness to accept Him for who He is takes our conversations to a whole new level. Because it is when we talk to God, and hear His Word for our lives, that we are able to find the resolution that He promises for every moment of our lives from now to eternity.
God has promised us resolution and restoration. God knows every moment of your life and the lives of all the people around you. And although I cannot tell you the specific solutions to each bag on your luggage cart, I know the one who can. Talk to God, to Jesus Christ Himself, and He will take your baggage piece by piece and show you what you can do with it.
“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” – Matthew 11:28-30
God’s answers are always simple. God’s answers always work.
So, if the answers you are using don’t work, they aren’t God’s.
That’s what Jesus was saying when He said,
“I am the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE” - John 14:6
He could have said, “I am the Lord, the Master, and the Teacher” or “I am the Highest Priest, the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords.” All of which certainly is true, but it wasn’t what mattered to Him. What mattered to Jesus was letting us know that He always has the answers for us, He always wants to give us those answers, and His answers always work. He is right here, right now, ready to save.
Salvation is not about someday, somewhere. God’s answers aren’t for tomorrow and they weren’t intended for someone else. God has answers for you right now. He has been with you since He created you, and He knows you better than you even know yourself. If you feel bad about stuff that you have done, if you have seen the damage that you caused to yourself or others, or problems that really are your fault — or worse, if you have been abused, repressed, or hurt by the people or circumstances of your life, do not be afraid. God knows you. 
He knows your history. And He has been working behind the scenes to take care of you, to bless you, and to lift you up. He has been spending every moment of every day of your entire life to save you. That’s what matters to God. Results are what matter to God. And when He hasn’t been able to achieve His will for your life, when things haven’t turned out well for you and His blessings have been made of no effect in your life, He is frustrated, He is hurt, He is sad because He loves you — deeply, passionately, and completely. He wants what is best for you in every situation and He will use everything He has to bless you. That is His will.
An amazing fact about God being infinite is that infinite is infinitely divisible. That means that God can give everything that He has to every person in creation, every moment of every day forever. What God wants to do for us is beyond what we can even imagine. He wants to give us everything that He is, and all that He has. That’s what salvation is — receiving the free gifts that God wants to give us because He loves us. So don’t get hung up on trying to deserve it. Don’t think that you have to do anything to be worth God’s time. Because you already matter completely 100% to God. Asking God to think of you, spend time with you, or take care of you, is asking for something that God already promised to give you, has already been doing His best to give you, and is at the moment you ask already offering once again to give you.
God is a very persistent giver. We may turn Him down. We might not notice Him. We might be prevented from accepting what He offers. It doesn’t matter why we haven’t received His will for our lives. God is ready right now for you to reach out and take what He has prepared for you, what He wants to give you — His blessings, His success, His health, His strength, His victory, His answers. It’s all yours if you want it, because you are a child of God, a unique and priceless original creation – and God is trying to give you everything that He has, and that’s everything.
God is ready to give you the answers you need. He wants to show you the way to receive His blessings. He is ready to discuss your history and set a new course that will bring your life to a whole new level. God is not afraid of the dark side of your life because He is the light of life. There is no challenge to hard and no obstacle too big for God. And no matter where you are coming from or what has happened in your life, He is working to bless you.
There is a story of a man who asked God why so many bad things happen in the world. And God took him up into heaven and showed him a great warehouse, far larger than any we have here on earth. God took him inside and showed him aisle upon aisle, row upon row, rack upon rack, miles and miles of every good thing the man had ever dreamed of. The man was amazed and asked God why He hadn’t given this stuff when it was needed most. At this God was saddened and pointed out to the man that every container had the same tag on it. The man, who hadn’t noticed this, took a closer look and sure enough every box, bag, and jar had the same card dangling from a string, that simply read, “Not asked for.”
What are you asking God for today? Could you be asking for more? If you are asking for enough food to feed your family, its time to start believing for enough not just for your family but for another family as well. If you are asking for a job, its time to start believing for a career. If you are asking for the ability to put up with a health problem, its time to start believing for restoration to a healthy body. If you are asking for the ability to pay back your debts, its time to start believing that God wants to pay you back double for everything that you have lost. God is a very persistent giver. No matter what you are asking, it’s time to take the limits off cooperating with God. He is ready to give you the answers you need. He is ready to take His relationship with you to the next level. He is ready to be a part of the conversation of your life. He is ready to provide not just everything you need, not just everything your heart desires, but more than you have ever dreamed of. God is ready to give you everything that He has to give, and that is everything.
So ask yourself, “how well do my answers work?” Because God’s answers always work.
The word “Ordain” means to officially “select” or “choose”.
By this logic, business owners and managers ordain employees every day. Every four years the United States ordains a President. And many communities, from local churches, to neighborhood associations, to non-profits, and businesses ordain leaders to support and direct their purposes.
But more importantly, today and every day, Jesus ordains you. He has officially chosen you. You were hand picked. He didn’t just ask for anybody. He is asking for you. In fact, He asked me to find you. And now I have.
It’s amazing to me that He would ask ME to find you. Who am I? Why would He choose ME? Simple. He chose me because I could reach you and He needs the specific gifts, abilities, and skill sets that you bring to the table. Your resume matches a job description He is looking to fill in His kingdom. So if you are available, He chooses you. Let Him know your interest in the position as soon as possible and He’ll set up a meeting to go over what you can do for His kingdom. And just so you know, there really isn’t much competition for your position in His kingdom, because you are indispensibly unique and valuable to His mission and purpose. So please consider accepting this ordination. Jesus wants you.
Jesus left more than a few keys of the kingdom in the hands of his followers. He never intended that anyone would horde them, or intentionally deprive others of them for their own selfish gain. But starting with the first apostles, and then bishops, and then popes that is exactly what happened — people used the keys to keep others out instead of letting themselves in. Strange isn’t it that Peter and the others thought that the holy spirit Jesus had given them was of a better quality or granted them more power or authority than the holy spirit that came upon the thousands present who were converted by it at the feast of Pentacost?
There is only one teacher — Jesus Himself.
He is the holder of the keys, and He freely gives them to all who are willing to accept them. It is His will that whenever we discover one, we share it. And so, here are just a few of His keys to His kingdom that I have discovered in my walk with Him.
Jesus Christ is God
- Jehovah God Created Heaven and Earth (Gen 1:1)
- Jehovah God Himself is and Always Has Been the Savior of the World (Isa 43:11; Hos 13:4; Isa 47:4; Isa 63:16)
- Jesus Christ is Jehovah God (Isa 9:6-7; Isa 7:14; Mt 1:23; Isa 25:9; Isa 40:3-5; Jn 1:1-14; Ps 33:6; 1 John 5:20)
- Jesus was Born of the Virgin Mary – the Divine Soul in a Mortal Body and Mind (Lk 1:35)
- By His Own Power Jesus Made Himself Fully Divine, Completely One with His Soul, so that After Resurrection and Ascension He Was and Always Will be Jehovah God All the Way Down Even to His Body, whose name we now know “Jesus Christ” (Jn 14:6; Lk 24:39; Jn 14:9; Jn 3:25; Mt 11:27; Mt 28:18; Rev 1:8-11)
- Jesus Christ is the Archetypal Human, in whose image and likeness we were made — and so to be human is to be Christlike(Gen 1:26-27)
- Saving Faith is Believing and Following the Life of Jesus Christ (Jn 3:36; Jn 15:4-5)
- Every Believer is a Priest (Exod 19:6; Jer 31)
- Every Person has an Individual, Direct, Unmediated Relationship with Jesus (Jn 15:15)
- Jesus Christ Made His Second Advent (1745 - 1770) when He appeared in Person to Emanuel Swedenborg and Commissioned Him as a Revelator (Jn 16:12-15; Mt 24; Rev 1-22) as the prophets had foretold
Only God Explains Truth With Authority
- The Written Revelations Given By God contain Divine Truth Itself (Jn 6:63; Mk 13:31; Lk 16:17)
- The Written Text of these Revelations Describes the Truth, but it is a Believer’s Living and Present Relationship with God that Prescribes Answers for Life (Jn 16:12; Mt 5:17)
- Every Believer Can and Should Search the Scriptures for God’s Eternal Message (Mt 7:7-8; Mt 21:21-22; Mt 23:25-26)
- The Ten Commandments (Exod 20:1-17) Summarize Civil, Moral, and Spiritual Law(Mt 22:35-40; Lev 22:31; Jn 14:15; Jn 15:10)
Every Person’s Life is Their Faith, and Salvation is God’s Ability to Bless, Correct, Improve, Restore, and Resurrect
- There is Only One True Faith that can save no matter what (Mt 16:16-18; Ephesians 4:4-13)
- Saving Faith is Complete Confidence in Jesus Christ and Trust that Everyone who Lives a Good Life and Holds a Proper Belief is Saved by Him (Jn 11:25; Jn 3:16)
- Doing God’s Will and Obeying God’s Commands are Required to Facilitate the Gifts of Faith and Salvation Even Though These Actions Do Not Cause a Believer to Deserve or Merit Heaven (Jn 3:27; Jn 15:4-8; Jn 13:17; Mt 13:23; Mt 7:24-26; Lk 10:27)
Salvation is God’s Purpose for Every Life, Because He Wants You to Succeed and Be Blessed like Everyone Else
- Heaven Isn’t Just a Destination After Death, it is a Quality of Life, Right Here, Right Now (Lk 17:21)
- In terms of Physics (position, velocity, and acceleration) – Heaven is a Velocity, not a position.
- Everyone Lives Forever One Way or The Other (Jn 14:19; Jn 11:25)
- Heaven is Full of People Who Love God and Love People Like God Loves Them (Mic 6:8; Lk 10:27)
- Hell is Full of People Who Love Themselves and the stuff they can own, control, and manipulate (Ps 9:17; Lk 12:5)
- Heaven and Hell are Both Eternal (Lk 16:26)
- Every Human Being is Created for Heaven but is Free to Reject it (Lk 17:21)
- People in Heaven are Married, One Man with One Woman, to Eternity (Mt 19:4-6)
Every Moment of Every Day, Jesus Christ is Using Everything that He has to Bless You
- All Humans Have Free Will in Spiritual Matters and so Determine The Network and Context of their Own Eternal Life by Their Lifestyle Decision For or Against Jesus Christ (Ps 54:6; Isa 1:16-17; Jn 8:31-36; Jn 15:14-16)
- Confessing Sins to Jesus Christ alone without another mediator, changing the decision for sin, giving back for the Damage Caused, and being Born Again to New Life in His Name is how we accept restoration, blessing, peace, and success (Jn 3:3; Jn 3:5; Lk 3:3-8; Mk 1:4; Mk 1:15; Lk 13:5; Lk 15:7; Mt 10:39; Ps 51:10)
Two Processes that Can Change You: Baptism and Holy Supper
- Christian Baptism Replaces Circumcision (Deut 10:16; Galatians 5:6; 6:15)
- Baptism is an Introduction to a Network and Context of Believers on Earth and in Heaven (Mt 3:13)
- Baptism is Full Immersion in Water in the Name of Jesus Christ (Mt 28:18-19)
- Baptism of Water is only a stepping stone so that a Person will be Born Again by the Spirit of Jesus Christ the living and only God (Jn 3:5; Mk 16:16)
- Jesus Christ is Present With, Redeems, and Opens Heaven to Those who want to walk with Him when they Take the Bread and Fruit of the Vine in His Name (Jn 6:51-56)
- Eating and Drinking with Jesus Connects the Believer’s Life with Jesus Christ and so renews their Freedom in Him (Deut 8:3; Jn 6:27)
- Grace is the immediate willingness of God to work with us no matter what
- Mercy is the empowered love of God that restores what was broken as we walk with Him in new life.
There are so many keys, these are just a few that have turned my life around. Take them, try them, and when God reaches into your life, like He has so many time in mine and takes these thoughts or others and makes them keys for you, keep a copy for yourself, but pass the original along to someone else in your life. Because it is only when we bring someone with us that any of God’s keys will open the door to eternal life.
The time of waiting is completed. The Kingdom of Jesus Christ is now at hand.
So change your life, and believe this Good News.
Jesus Christ returned centuries ago and nobody paid attention, nobody gave Him notice. Just as there were many who tried to personally gain from His ministry in Galilea only to turn on Him when they discovered He would not fight to restore the throne of His ancestor David – there have been many who have tried to turn what Jesus taught at His second coming to their own advantage. There have been false prophets who claimed His words as their own, but twisted them so as to corrupt them for their own ends. There have been so called intellectuals who have made a distinction between Jesus and the teaching He completed during His second coming on the grounds that His return is all about “the truth” and “enlightenment”, but once again these are just looking for an angle to personally gain from what they have discovered, so that they can sound smart, win in the petty economic struggles of earthly existence, and delight in the ignorance of those who have not read what Jesus taught. All in all, Jesus has been surrounded by unbelieving, self-absorbed, power hungry, wealth and position seeking people ever since He returned in person to finish what He started over 2000 years ago. Just like His 12 disciples arguments over position, power, and influence – those who have come across the news of the second coming have completely missed its primary point. And so, over 200 years later, the world is still waiting for the kingdom that God is already setting up!
So, repent! Hear the Good News and change your life! For the kingdom of God is here, right now, and you can be a part of it. And come, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and spread the Word that He is alive, He is God, He has come again, and He is and will always be right here, right now, ready to save.
You can’t compel love. A person held in a relationship against their will would never be said to be in love with the one holding them there. However, when Jesus was asked, ”Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?”
Jesus answered, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:36-40)
The American Heritage Dictionary says that a commandment is “n. A command; an edict.” However, in the Bible commandments are less like commands and more like the negotiated terms of a commitment or contract. Just as a marriage is a commitment between one man and one woman that has specific terms of faithfulness, support, and care — our relationship with God can be a committed relationship that will be successful according to the terms that we expect, maintain, and dedicate our lives to.
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just like I have loved you; that you also love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)
Jesus is not compelling our love. He is actually not even commanding our love. He is providing, sustaining, and empowering our love by consistently being there for us, blessing us, and providing for our happiness and success. He is keeping up his part of our relationship with Him — meeting us where we are and loving us with everything that He is.
However, just knowing Jesus loves every human being isn’t enough, because when we don’t love Him in return even His infinite love and omnipotent presence is ineffective in its attempt at blessing us. This is why He so passionately wants people to love Him — because love is always a two way street. One way love is ineffective until it is received and reciprocated. And so the all powerful creator of the universe says, “Love me so that I can bless you! Give me the opportunity to show you what I can do for you!”
It is God’s passionate joy to give you every good thing from success in business to good health and fulfilling relationships. He wants to bless your life with intimacy, peace, and contentment. He wants the best results possible in every situation that is facing you today, because He already loves you with everything that He is and everything that He has — and that’s everything.
The entirety of creation was designed to bless you, because God loves you. He created you so that He could bless you, and now He is telling you these two keys to success in life – Love God and Love Other People Just Like God Loves Them.
Intimacy. Real, lasting, deep, and passionate connections between human beings. Intimacy is what matters the most to God. Intimacy can heal the body. Intimacy can heal the spirit. Intimacy can solve the hatred, anger, depression, anxiety, and every other sin facing you today. Because intimacy is the presence of God. Intimacy is the result of love received and returned. Intimacy is the connection that God is looking for that enables His blessings, and His awesome will to be done.
Setting apart “Holy Men” is not Biblical. God’s vision for the human race is that every human being will know Him, feel His love, understand His priorities, see His vision for their lives, and study His Word prayerfully for answers to their life’s questions. The Christian priesthood, in copying the Aaronic priesthood of the Old Testament, set itself up as a class of mediators set apart to keep their view of the Divine before the eyes of people. But this feature of religion is now outdated. Today we have the opportunity to embrace God’s vision for the future as it was declared in Jeremiah 31:
Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their ancestors in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; my covenant that they broke, although I was a husband to them, says Yahweh. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yahweh: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people: and they shall teach no more everyone their neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Yahweh; for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says Yahweh: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.
God calls every individual to walk side by side along the road of life with others, to give counsel and encouragement, to study and teach His Word for those less educated in its message, to worship and praise Him together in communities, to witness important life events such as marriage and death and teach the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s supper, and to lead others by means of the gifts of vision, perception, and wisdom to discover more of the blessings that God has in store for all people. These gifts are what set apart the pastors, the preachers, the ministers, and the priests – and these are all roles that any believer can take if that is where they are called by God and gifted to serve.
Man or woman, young or old, every believer is a priest following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ who is the only teacher, the only priest, the only mediator, the only God.
“And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.” (Joel 2:28-29)
