Anything Jesus did, you can do better? Say What?

There’s an old song from 1946 with the line, “Anything you can do I can do better; I can do anything better than you.” Well, Jesus seems to turn that phrase around when he said:

“I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.” (John 14:12 NLT)

So, I was thinking about that the other day as I woke up. (Todays thought I woke up with was, “God is a rewarder of all those who diligently seek him”) .Then I thought, “Well, I wonder if anyone else besides Jesus ever walked on water?”

jesus_walks_on_water3

A quick google search led me to a testimony from Mel Tari about some “normal” Christians who were led by the Lord to travel to another village to share the Good News. They came to a river they suspected was very deep and 300 yards across. Encouraged by the Lord they stepped into the water and this very deep river only ever came to their knees. They crossed in waters that normally would have went over their head. Listen to the story yourself and be sure to pay attention to what Mel says is the “important thing to keep in mind”! When in the village they experienced their first resurrection and the village came to trust in Jesus for salvation.

I am firm believer that anything (and more) that you read in Scripture that anyone did in the way of miracles (and yes, of course including anything Jesus did – and more) is available to the believer (that’s the key word right there) as we go out and do what Jesus would have us do. Preaching the Good News and loving others.

As Mel says the “miracle” is to facilitate getting from point A to point B to preach the Gospel. Hmmm… teleportation sure seems to fit his description. There have been a few more stories I’ve come across recently of missionaries teleporting.

Of course, as I am writing this, I feel as impotent as ever. Perhaps I’m not doing something right (chances are high in that department). I have been SO distracted by other “believers” who are constantly attacking other ministries (like the wonderful work God is doing in Bethel church in Redding CA for instance).

“But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another.” (Galatians 5:15)

I am weary of observing this behavior in other “Christians”. I’d encourage you not to put up with it and defend those who are being attacked and reviled. Well, at least that’s what I am drawn to do. In reality this means you just join the accused under the bus. This hasn’t and doesn’t help me in the least because what happens then is that I then get rejected (and I have) and my ministry is shunned. Churches may refuse to have us come and share our worship music. But I have to follow my conscience no matter the cost.

As Bill Johnson has said, “I’d rather stand with the accused than with the accuser”. And remember, the devil is called “the accuser” of the family of God. The Bible tells us that all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Sadly, this persecution will also even come from other ‘believers’.

You are known in hell for all your sins, famous for the worst of them. Yet you, the believer, are known in heaven as “the spotless Bride of Christ without fault, blemish or any such thing”. They don’t remember any of your sins once the blood of Christ has touched your life and you have repented of those sins. As the Bible says,

“People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy.” Proverbs 28:13 NLT

I just read this from my study Bible:

Jesus offered the perfect purification offering, cleansing the heavenly sanctuary once for all time and ensuring that God can dwell in the midst of his people forever. His blood cleanses us from all sin and now all sinners are now free boldly to enter the heavenly Most Holy Place without fear of rejection. (NLT Study Bible)

So, let’s revel in that! Do you want to get to know God and make him known? I do too. Sometimes my “want to” is so weak its a “I know I should want to”. Let’s pray that God stirs up our affection for the Lord Jesus. Like the lyrics to the Jason Gray song says, It’s got to be:

“More like falling in love
Than something to believe in
More like losing my heart
Than giving my allegiance”

There is a real relationship to be had here! A “divine romance” with God! A mystical adventure of experiencing God for yourself awaits… But, I’m afraid perhaps there are some reading this that this idea doesn’t even stir your heart. Perhaps sin has so dulled your heart that you can’t recognize God’s goodness anymore. Some may even think that sin is more interesting than God?

Come, “Taste and see that the LORD is Good!”

He will never give up on you. His love never fails. He can and will rescue you. It’s not too late.

“Everyone who calls on the Name of the LORD will be saved!”

Call out to Jesus now and “boldly come before his throne of Grace and Mercy to receive help in your time of need”.

Categories: Evangelism, Exposing Self-Righteous Religion | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment

Come Lord Jesus, from Reflect Love

Come Lord Jesus from our new album Reflect Love. Now available at www.reflectworship.com:

The idea for this song, Come Lord Jesus, came as I was reading a book by C.S. Lewis called the “Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe” to my five year old daughter. C.S. Lewis wrote this book as an allegory for the Gospel. In this captivating story there is a white witch who had kept Narnia under her spell for a hundred long years. It was always winter and never Christmas. Everyone suffered under her rule and everyone who opposed her was turned to stone.

Lion Witch and the WardrobeThen Aslan, the Creator of Narnia and the Christ figure of the book, returns to Narnia. The white witch loses her power. Everything thaws and Spring comes in a single day. The birds are singing, trees and flowers are blooming. It is beautiful!

As I read that to my daughter, a thrill came to my heart. I thought about the day when Jesus will come back to this world he created. The devil will lose his power and my prayer is that our hearts, which the devil has kept frozen, untrusting, and suspicious of the true nature of Jesus, will thaw at his return!

love and beautyThis is also what happens to anyone who comes to the Lord. Spring enters our heart. All your life previous to knowing Christ was the longest, hardest, most brutal winter you’ll ever know and then you meet Jesus! Spring has come at long last!

The first century church had an Aramaic word they used to greet each other: “Maranatha”, which means, “Our Lord is coming” or “Come Oh Lord”.

Jesus is returning soon!

Lyrics:

Come Lord Jesus

The winters passing on and spring has
Come, come, come Lord Jesus
Our hearts are thawing ever drawing
Near to you Lord Jesus

Fill our hearts with love and beauty
Fill our lives now, Holy Sprit

The trees are reaching for Yeshua,
Come, come, come Lord Jesus
The birds are singing Hallelujah,
Come, come, come Lord Jesus

Fill our hearts with love and beauty
Fill our lives now Holy Sprit
Fill our hearts with love and beauty
Fill our lives now, Holy Sprit

Spring rain is falling down,
Spring rain is washing out,

All the filth, all the things we could do without
All the pain all the stains you are cleansing out
All the filth, all the things we could do without
All the shame all the stains you are cleansing out…

(Instrumental)

Come Lord Jesus, Come Lord Jesus
Come Lord Jesus, Come Lord Jesus

The winters passing on and spring has
Come, come, come Lord Jesus
Our hearts are thawing ever drawing
Near to you Lord Jesus

Come, come, come Lord Jesus
Come, come, come Lord Jesus

6PAN1TDGSLV

Click on Album Cover to Listen or Download

A few extra details about this song: I wrote the music for the song after a concert one day at a nursing home. The song was first recorded on a smart phone on the first day of Spring as I played it for Daniel Betters, a man of God who was on his way to be with Jesus. He passed on into the next life that day and I later played this very song at his funeral. They had called the memorial service a “celebration of life”. And it most certainly was! I was delighted to hear all the amazing stories of this man of profound faith and love for Jesus. I was so excited and glad to have been there to hear of his walk to remember!

Jesus would tell each one of us, “Love the person you are with in the moment.” This is how we will change the world!

Enjoy!

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This Man’s Story Changed My Life

hosea5

A little over two years ago I heard Howard Storm’s for the first time. It changed the course of my life forever and healed my heart. I remember telling Catherine his story and weeping. Why my reaction? Because his story is fairly similar to my own. Please take the time to listen. You won’t be sorry that you did.

 

So Howard died and was escorted by familiar spirits into darkness. Howard had failed at life and was flushed down the toilet bowl of the universe. He went to hell.

I was so moved when Howard speaks of how the glimmer of hope entered his heart, and describes the pin prick of light that appeared and grew more and more glorious when he called out to Jesus to save him.

This described my own experience so very well.

I remember well the glorious moment in 2006 when the spark of hope lit in my heart. The glorious Light of Jesus has been growing ever since!

Jesus saved me from a very dark and utterly hopeless place. The stark terror, the despair and deep depression I had experienced I would not wish upon anyone.

There was even times along this journey that I thought exactly what Howard thought, that Jesus made a mistake and that I don’t belong.

Jesus has personally assured me, “You’re going to be with me forever!”

You are too if you trust in him!

Love you all!

#savedbyJesus

The story continues:

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Wrestling with Demons

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Ephesians 6:12 NKJV

Last night my girl woke up very upset and I wondered if there wasn’t something going on in the spirit realm. So I prayed quite simply, “Go in Jesus Name”, to any evil spirits. I said it softly and I didn’t repeat it. I simply said, “You heard me. You must submit to his Name no matter how softly it is spoken”. My girl calmed down soon after that.

That night I had a “dream” that I was wrestling with a demon. It was so confident and experienced. It had both my wrists in a pressure point hold and had me kneeling before it. I truly realized I am just a ‘babie’ in the face of such experienced and crafty enemies such as these. This was a “samurai warrior” of a demon.

I said, “I submit myself to the Lord Jesus Christ” and felt the power of God come into me while I simultaneously woke up. Upon waking I knew it was still there and then this debate started to rage in my mind. All these arguments about why God was done with me or how I must be a false prophet or reasons why I really am separated from God barraged my mind. These arguments had previously overthrown me in years past. I can tell you from experience that when you let one of these lies take root in your mind – when you believe the enemy – such terror and despair can so flood your mind and leave you in a depressed sad state for years… such is my history.

But, I countered with the promises of God that had previously set me free, namely these:

“However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them. 38 For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. 39 And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. 40 For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day.” John 6:37-40 NLT

“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” James 4:7 NKJV

And:

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. John 17:1-3 NIV

I was reading those verses in John 17 tonight about how the Lord has authority over all mankind to give eternal life to as many as the Father has given him. Couple that idea with the above Scripture and think through the implications. Staggering isn’t it?

When you come to Jesus you cannot be rejected. He guarantees to give you eternal life… defined as a relationship with Life itself. When you believe in Jesus “there is no judgement that remains for anyone who believes in him” (Jn 3:18). Your “in” and he desperately wants for you to know it and have proof (based on the fact that God cannot lie). I know this will mean the world to someone who is reading this.

I guess I’m just amazed that God gives his babies like me authority even over the devil himself. That the devil has to flee from little ol me as I submit myself to the LORD Jesus Christ.

Becoming familiar with Scripture and the promises of God will be vital to our continued success in our wrestling match against all the kingdom of hell that surrounds us.

Saturate your mind in the Word (the Bible) and get to know the Word (Jesus).

I almost left out the best part. The next morning I talked with my girls about how there is power in the Name of Jesus and I taught them the song. It was delightful to hear my 2 year old sing it throughout the day:

 

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You Make All Things New

And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” (Revelation 21:5 ESV)

My wife had shared the above verse with me and it struck a chord with me. That idea, that he is making all things new is quite intriguing, isn’t it? It gives me hope.

I knew I wanted to write a song about it, so I did. Here it is:

One of the parts of the song goes like this:

Just like the wildflowers, springing from the desert
When the latter rains fall to the earth
You’re sons and your daughters, will rise with love’s power
When your Presence drenches your church…
With your love!

I had a vague recollection of the latter rain being from a Scripture passage somewhere so I looked it up and found this:

“Be glad, O children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God, for he has given the early rain for your vindication; he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain, as before.” (Joel 2:23 ESV)

This chapter in Joel 2 describes an army led by the LORD that most certainly bring ruin and destruction to any who maintain their rebellion against him. Listen to this:

“The LORD is at the head of the column.
He leads them with a shout.
This is his mighty army,
and they follow his orders.
The day of the LORD is an awesome, terrible thing.
Who can possibly survive?
12That is why the LORD says,
“Turn to me now, while there is time.
Give me your hearts.
Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning.
13Don’t tear your clothing in your grief,
but tear your hearts instead.”
Return to the LORD your God,
for he is merciful and compassionate,
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
He is eager to relent and not punish.
14Who knows? Perhaps he will give you a reprieve,
sending you a blessing instead of this curse.
Perhaps you will be able to offer grain and wine
to the LORD your God as before.” (Joel 2 NLT)

Please take the time to read the whole chapter!

So an interesting thing happened after I wrote the song. I had a dream in which someone was about to say something derogatory against the Latter Rain and Fresh Fire movement of God. I interrupted them by saying, “Isn’t it wonderful? I just want to receive everything that our loving heavenly Papa wants to pour out on his kids!” As I said this, I looked up and was filled with God’s Spirit.

I got curious about what this was all about. What is this Latter Rain and Fresh Fire? I looked it up and learned that there is an anointed man of God named Todd Bentley who is part of the Fresh Fire movement and draws heavily upon the inspiration of the Latter Rain Movement of God from the 1950’s. After a brief investigation I found this video.

I hope you find this video intriguing enough to do your own research and make some amazing discoveries!

“Seek the LORD while you can find him.
Call on him now while he is near.
Let the wicked change their ways
and banish the very thought of doing wrong.
Let them turn to the LORD that he may have mercy on them.
Yes, turn to our God, for he will forgive generously.” (Isaiah 55:6-7)

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