What Kind Of Disciples Are You Making?

          Our identity is not found in our gifting, our calling, or our vocation, but in our relationship with the Father. An apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, or teacher is not who we are, it is how we were created to serve. We find our identity in our loving relationship with the Father, not our gifting. If we don’t first find our identity in Him, we cannot effectively make disciples of Jesus.

          Disciples are made when people willingly follow you and your living example. What kind of example are you setting? What are you reproducing if you make disciples apart from intimacy with the Lord? Are you making disciples of Jesus, or disciples of a denomination? What are you trying to reproduce? Do we really need two or more like you?

Our priority should be a growing relationship with the Father. We should be cautious of having followers if there are any other priorities above that.

          A leader can easily get distracted from spending intimate time with the Lord. A common trap is to replace being alone with God and pursuing intimacy with the busyness of religious activity. Another pitfall is to allow our “quiet time” or “devotion time” with the Lord to become lifeless, where we go through the motions and never connect with God on an intimate level. We can read a daily chapter or two in our Bible, run through our laundry list of prayer requests, and never take time to be quiet and listen to the one we are talking to. I have been guilty of this myself. It is tragic to become religious in our devotion to God and call it a relationship.

            We can learn about God from reading and studying the Bible, but to honestly know Him, we must spend time with Him, commune with Him, and listen to Him.

          Jesus set a remarkable example. He only did what He saw the Father do. This mindset demands a lifestyle of watching and praying. It’s not always convenient or comfortable, but it is always necessary.

          If you read my biography, you can learn a lot about me, but you can’t honestly say that you know me. You may “feel like you know me,” but to honestly know me, you must spend time with me, ask me questions, listen to my responses, and spend time with me. It is the same with God.

          Reading the Bible takes on new dimensions when intimacy becomes a lifestyle. The word of God bears much more fruit in our lives. We begin to view His written word through the lens of His divine nature; we see it with an unveiled face and a heart of love that makes us more sensitive to His spoken word.

Quoted from the book, The Spiritual Warfare Manifesto

Thank you for visiting truthpressure.com. I hope this has been a blessing to you.

Exposing Religious Spirits

Matthew 16:6 (ESV) Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

Jesus called their teaching “leaven” because it added no substance, life, or value to the church. Instead, it was puffed up with religious pride, promoting the traditions of men and focusing on works and religious activity. It holds to a form of godliness but denies the power of the Holy Spirit. (2 Timothy 3:1-7)

Many times, a religious spirit will attach itself to us even though we love God and are zealous for God and His kingdom. Look at what Paul said about his Jewish brothers.

Romans 10:2-4 (ESV) For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. ³ For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. ⁴ For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Just because someone has a religious spirit does not mean they don’t love God. The Jewish people prayed, fasted, and read the scriptures more than anyone. They were zealous for God and the coming Messiah but were bound by religious spirits and did not recognize Jesus when He came. They opposed Him in His ministry and eventually killed him. This gives us an idea of how blinding and deceptive religious spirits can be.

Notice in the above passage that their “zeal was not according to knowledge,” and they were ignorant (no knowledge) of the righteousness of God. Ignorance is easily fixed in most cases, but religious spirits resist any doctrine that challenges them and calls for change and repentance. Those bound by religious spirits are easily offended and quick to defend their theological positions.

Our imputed righteousness is one of the foundational truths that solidify our identity in Christ. Without an understanding of righteousness, we will not submit to it. Without submission to righteousness, our identity as sons and daughters will never become clear. Satan fights desperately to keep us from this particular truth because it is the foundational message of the gospel. He knows that if we ever find out who we are, we will destroy his works just like Jesus did. (1 John 3:8)

Here are some of the tell-tale signs of a religious spirit:

1. A belief that our ministry is to expose others and their “false doctrines.”
2. Pride in our spiritual maturity or our giftings.
3. Living in condemnation and shame, believing we will never measure up to God’s standards.
4. A mechanical prayer life that goes through the motions without being intimate with the Father.
5. Glorying in what God has done in the past more than what He is doing now.
6. Doing things so people will notice.
7. Overreacting to those who are immature in the Lord.
8. Overreacting to carnality in the church.
9. Engaging in emotionalism and calling it the Holy Spirit.
10.  Inability to take correction from peers or leaders.
11.  A tendency to reject any manifestation of the Holy Spirit we don’t understand.
12.  Knowing a lot about God but not knowing Him intimately.

I must confess that I have been guilty of all 12 items on this list, and I am sure there are other indicators of which I am unaware. I am grateful the Lord has been patient with me, giving me time to repent. It was not until I humbled myself and sought intimacy with the Lord that freedom came. Intimacy with the Lord will transform us quicker than anything.

Without intimacy with God, breaking free from a religious spirit can be challenging and virtually impossible to stay free. A lifestyle of intimacy with Him is the best first step toward freedom in any area.

We don’t reproduce without intimacy. If we are not intimate with our Lord, we won’t produce the fruit of who He is in our lives. Let us ensure we cultivate a close relationship with God first, so we can lead others to do the same.

Intimacy with the Father is a motive purifier and an identity clarifier, our best protection against the deceptions of religious spirits.

Quoted from the book, The Spiritual Warfare Manifesto

Thank you for visiting truthpressure.com. I hope this has been a blessing to you.

The Pruning of the Lord

If it isn’t producing Life it needs to be pruned, and pruning hurts! God prunes us as we incline our hearts toward Him, but HOW does He prune us?

Hebrews 4:12  For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

        God is the great Vinedresser and His Word is used to help prune us and shape us into His image.

His Word is sharp, cutting clean and deep when we incline our heart to it. It is a discerner of our thoughts and intentions, separating light from darkness, exposing things in us that need change. The Word challenges what we think and believe as it exposes us to God’s will for our lives.

The carnal man’s response is to run from the Vine Dresser and try to heal himself from the cutting…. Because pruning hurts! The New Man’s response is to run to the Father and hide under His wings. We can’t consummate our marriage to Christ while our “old man” is still alive.

 In Exodus 33:20 God said to Moses, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.”

        Our carnal, fallen nature (“old man”) cannot look into the face of God and live.

          Spending time with our Father and His Word is our Old Man’s face to face encounter with Him. It is the surest way for dead things to get pruned out of our life. 

          If we are constantly in His Word and don’t practice intimacy, we will try to DO the Word in our own strength instead of becoming the Word by His grace.

           Embracing intimacy will always lead to a healthy dose of the Word, and develop a Father consciousness. The more we see Him as a Father, the more we see ourselves as sons. When we have intimacy, coupled with the Word, our perspective changes about everything and everyone, including ourselves. Our identity is formed in intimacy. Without intimacy we will never bear the fruit of who He is.

          Our perspective of the Word will change as we pursue intimacy with God. We will find ourselves “reading” the Word less but digesting it more. The Word will become so alive it will be as if one phrase is speaking volumes and we will naturally, purposely slow down to thoroughly digest it, letting it cut us deep and clean, knowing that His embrace causes it to be less painful. The cutting is for our good, the pruning is needed for growth and health.

          Long-term exposure to only the Word without an intimate relationship will produce self-consciousness and self-righteousness. Exposure to only the Word cuts us and cuts us and cuts us, with no relief in sight. The cutting exposes darkness, weakness, and sin. Intimacy is one way God becomes strong in our weakness.

           Cutting off those things in our life that aren’t producing good fruit is HIS responsibility in this relationship, not ours. He is the Vinedresser, we are the vine. Vines NEVER prune themselves. He is the great potter and we are the clay. Clay NEVER shaped itself into anything, but that is exactly what we will gravitate to if we have only God’s Word in our life with little or no intimacy.

           Knowledge of the Father without intimacy will puff us up and make us think we know what to do and try to please Him with our own human efforts to “do better.” Without intimacy we become legalistic, frustrated, and sin conscious.

Sin consciousness is the fruit of being exposed to the Word of God and not pursuing intimacy with God. Sin consciousness is easy to identify. If we are constantly seeing sin in others and judging them, thinking about what they need to change, what they should do, and how they should behave, this indicates knowledge of God’s Word but ignorance of who we are. We must not try to do what we learn without learning who He is. Our identity is formed in intimacy. Without intimacy we will gravitate toward Old Testament law and never fully understand or embrace New Testament grace.

We are in the last days and we we all need to aspire to become everything Jesus paid for. We must embrace the pruning and the correction of the Lord in this season.

Thank you for visiting truthpressure.com. I hope this has been a blessing to you.

JC