Discipleship is Jesus's plan to change to world. He created Adam and Eve and said "be fruitful and multiply". Its astonishing that Jesus could have easily created every single human being from the dust, however he decided to give us the opportunity to come together and literally create new life just as he did. And I feel that's what d ship is all about. Creating new life that reflects who Jesus is and in that, filling the world with the glory and presence of the Lord. The fact is that were were created for dominion on the earth and the earth to be filled with his glory!
For the last 3 years I have been intentionally disciplining my little brother Joel and I have been able to see life created in his life and mine due to the goodness of the Lord! And now we are living together! This next season is going to be the greatest experience of our lives. Its amazing to see how the reward Abraham sought after his obedience was countless descendants, sons and daughters! And after investing into Joel over the last few years I can agree 100% that having sons and daughters who radically love Jesus is the best reward out there and is what were were meant to do! I say this a lot, but if I were to take everything I have every done in my life (from evangelism, to healing, to all these incredible things) the one thing I could say I have accomplished and am so blessed by is my relationship with Joel and seeing him become the man he is today!
So I wanted to give some advice on things we have learned over the years that have worked in making our relationship blossom and brag on Joel a little bit for how he has been so easy to teach and walk with!
5. Always listen
So many times I would get phone calls from Joel because he wanted to tell me the amazing revelation he was having. At first, being kinda prideful, I would listen but not take anything away from it because it was stuff I had already heard before. Then I got the revelation that he wasn't telling this to teach me, but so he can process it himself. I told the Lord I'm sorry and ever since then it has been incredible! Regardless of what someone is saying in any situation, people want to be listened to and when we come in with the mentality of asking "how is this benefiting me?" we are not loving people, but focusing on our own selfish desires. Also listening without thinking what you are going to say next is so important. Listen, process, then respond. When we listen and think of what we are saying next at the same, we actually are trying to obtain attention in a situation in which we are meant to be there for support.
4. Always be available
Once again, being available at anytime, even if that means not going to be until 2 when having a 8 o'clock class the next morning, is so important in d ship. Obviously we need to be responsible, but being available for someone who needs you is essential in d ship. Allowing your disciple to invade your life brings freedom and trust to them. As I told Joel he can come to Norman anytime, call me anytime, text me anytime, I took responsibility for making sure he is going through everything in life as a follower of Jesus. Yes, Joel's made mistakes and so have I over this time, but as I opened my life to him, he opened it to me, and now those mistakes are now issues of the past due to the openness of our relationship.
3. Be real
I love how me and Joel can be real with each other! If he is out of line, I tell him and the best part about that is he is so quick to repent and move forward! Joel is the most obedient person I know. If I tell him to do something, he does it. I am so thankful the Lord has entrusted me with his life, so that he can become more like Jesus everyday!
2. No Expectations
This is something I'm still learning, but if I put expectation on our relationship, I am robbing Joel of the freedom he deserves. If I expect Joel to complete a through e every week, I am trying to bound him to my own law, and that's not love. Everyday I expect Joel to walk out in who he is, but if I get disappointed, or angry if he doesn't do something, I am not loving him like Jesus would. I've learned as I put less expectation on him, he actually walks in more freedom and
1. Phileo
Phileo means "brotherly love". Life is so easy when two people love each other with the love of Jesus and from that grow more like him. If it was not for the love of Jesus inside of us, our relationship would be nothing. I wouldn't know who I was, he wouldn't know who he was, and combining that would be a big problem. Jesus wants us to love people like he loves people and that's why we are placed into families, so we can be close and express that love toward each other. The church is the hope of the world because we have an opportunity to love each other like Jesus did and through that transform any environment we are in. I have had people come up to me and Joel and be blown away just by looking at us, how much we love each other. When love isn't contained, it cant help but be seen in any type of relationship.
I hope this gave you all revelation on what d ship means and how when it is ground solely in the love of Jesus, discipleship becomes the best thing we can do with our lives!
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Thursday, August 8, 2013
In the Middle of the Process
Hey friends! So I haven’t blogged in a long long time, but I
felt the Lord wanting me to get out my thoughts and invite everyone into the
amazing journey he has taking me on this past year! This is a long process haha.
So about 3 years ago I started to fall in love with Jesus
and my life began to radically change. I was shy, insure, and lonely, but the
lord came and brought me life to the fullest and gave me hope and a destiny. I
felt the Lord leading me to something huge; I just didn’t know what it was. One
day I went to a prayer meeting and received the first prophetic word I can ever
remember receiving in my life. I don’t remember the exact word to the fullest,
but one phrase seemed to stick out because the Lord really intended it to. The
guy giving the word to me said, “Jarred you are going to see millions of people
come to know Jesus, yes you heard me right, millions.” I was blown
away. He was speaking to a kid who had never even shared the gospel before. As
time went on, as with all prophetic words, I made sure to test this word to
prove it true. Through countless encounters and other people speaking the same
word over my live, as well as hearing the voice of the Lord about it, I
accepted this role for my life that Jesus wanted to fulfill. As my college career continued, I was
enchanted by the idea of bringing Jesus to people. Evangelism became a
lifestyle and my chemical engineering future started to seem a little less
appealing as I continued to hold on to this word. As I began going to Antioch
Community Church (probably the best thing that’s happened to me in my walk with the
lord), my heart began to stir for the nations. I felt like Jesus was saying that he has millions of people
out there for me to find overseas! As time went on, Asia became the focus of my
heart. Seeing pictures of China and India and hearing stories of the miraculous
things Jesus is doing there has gotten me so stirred up to be a part of a
continental revival that the lord doing!
So now that the vision in my life has been planted, I can
tell you about the now. Two months ago I graduated The University of Oklahoma
with a bachelors of science in Chemical Engineering. Praise the Lord he got me
through it! Once you graduate college, you are old. It’s a fact. Anyways, the obvious question that arose was,
what’s next? (I have loans I need to pay off so I couldn’t just jump overseas).
As I began to meet with Jesus about my ever arriving future, I felt like the
Lord was telling me not to do chemical engineering, at least for this year. This
was a hard choice, a chemical engineering job could pay off my student loans in
a year and I’d be free to do whatever I want. So after a long summer of waiting
on the lord and trusting in his plan, I received a job opportunity from a
construction company doing physical labor and not making as much money as I
would doing a chem e job. As a prayed about this and received words from the
lord, it was evident that this is what he wanted me to do this next year. Along
with working, he also highlighted doing the Antioch training school at nights
as well as leading in college life group even though I just graduated.
With all this on my plate, I am about to begin the most
humbling exhausting season of my life. At times it has been hard thinking about
the “what could have beens” when it comes to the decisions I’ve made, but I
know one thing. I do not regret anything that I am going through nor can I see
myself doing anything else besides what I am doing now. This is simple because
Jesus resides in every realm I have been appointed to be at with him. I would rather make 2 dollars an hour and have Jesus’
blessing on our jobs than 10000 dollars an hour and not have his blessing to be straight forward.
The lord so lovingly spoke to me one day as I was
working and it’s something I am holding on to for this season. He said “are you willing
to not live, so that your dreams can become a reality?” Dying to ourselves is
difficult, but the dreams Jesus has put into our lives cannot come to past if we do not take this necessary step. This next season of my life is dying to myself, putting everything aside
so that one day I will be overseas in Asia sharing the love of Jesus to those
millions of people Jesus has planned me to reach through him.
So with 90% of my days planned out with work, events, meetings, discipleship for this next year, I am planning on dying so hardcore. And as I am pushed to my limits, I am fully expectant Jesus to be there so ready to break the outer man so that the Holy Spirit inside me can be released to its fullest potential. Just as Jesus saw the joy set before him at the cross, we as the church need to have the same mentality when it comes to the process. Being in the wilderness for 40 days is never fun, but that is exactly where the lord comes to us. In hosea 2: 14 it says that he leads us to the wilderness to speak tenderly to us (metaphorically as the church). The wilderness is the best place to hear his voice! When we let go of everything that allows him to come in and bring all the amazing qualities we desire of him to the surface.
So with 90% of my days planned out with work, events, meetings, discipleship for this next year, I am planning on dying so hardcore. And as I am pushed to my limits, I am fully expectant Jesus to be there so ready to break the outer man so that the Holy Spirit inside me can be released to its fullest potential. Just as Jesus saw the joy set before him at the cross, we as the church need to have the same mentality when it comes to the process. Being in the wilderness for 40 days is never fun, but that is exactly where the lord comes to us. In hosea 2: 14 it says that he leads us to the wilderness to speak tenderly to us (metaphorically as the church). The wilderness is the best place to hear his voice! When we let go of everything that allows him to come in and bring all the amazing qualities we desire of him to the surface.
Though there are millions of people over in Asia the Lord
will send me to bring them into the kingdom, there are people in the process
too, here in America! Over the last year I’ve been able to see crutches being
thrown away and not needed after the healing power of Jesus came, back pain
gone, shoulders healed, limps restored into regular walks, and all sorts of
incredible things Jesus has done while I am still trying to figure out how to
get to my destiny. The best part about waiting is practicing for what you are
waiting for. Just like watching playoff games before the super bowl or the 1st
2nd 3rd and 4th movie in a series before the
next movie comes to theatre, the process is meant to be enjoyed and necessary
in order to receive the full effect of the final piece of the puzzle. The Super Bowl would be meaningless if it wasn't for the season which developed the teams into the best they can be.
I hope this has encouraged you to embrace where you are
planted at now, but never lose sight of the incredible dreams you have in your
hearts! Jesus wants to do huge things with each and everyone of us, and its our job to discover what those things are and run into his plan!
If all of you reading this could join me in prayer for this next year and continually seeking what Jesus has for me in this incredible season I would appreciate it! Also the Lord has really been stirring in my heart for me to write out a lot of the revelation he has given me lately. So I am gonna try to blog more often!
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
A Living Sacrifice
So the Lord has been just wrecking me with understanding why obedient
sacrifices are so important to him, so I am going to share what he has been
doing. Shout out to Jonathan David Hesler for inspiring this revelation.
Sacrifice is so pleasing to Jesus. When we let go of things that have a cost to us, the Lord gets to see what are hearts truly are. The bible says that offerings are a sweet aroma to him. How great it is that we can do small things in order to make our Dad even more joyful if that is even possible!
I feel sacrifice on earth is so important because we have an opportunity to do something that we won't be able to do in heaven. When we get to eternity, (I assume) we won't have to tithe, fast, pray, evangelize, walk out in boldness, wake up early to pray, or even lay down our lives for other people. One reason we do these things is that others and us will draw closer to Jesus. All of these things that require sacrifice won't be needed as we get to live with Jesus in perfection, we will get to be with our great reward. So how important is it that we do these things now while we have a chance. I feel the worship and sacrifice that we put out on earth is so so so so special to Jesus, in a way that is so different from all the angels and creatures and creation praising him. I can see Jesus sitting on the throne watching us saying, "Wow, the worship down there is incredible!" I see him getting so happy and excited that we do things like fasting and tithing because the sacrifice we can make while we live on the earth is so unique. The Lord has given us such an opportunity right now to lay down our lives for him so that eternity can be impacted by the sacrifices we make today! What an honor it is to have a chance to give everything to him, so when we reach heaven we can look back and talk to Jesus about how those sacrifices impacted heaven with a worship that is so special and dear to him.
Sacrifice is so pleasing to Jesus. When we let go of things that have a cost to us, the Lord gets to see what are hearts truly are. The bible says that offerings are a sweet aroma to him. How great it is that we can do small things in order to make our Dad even more joyful if that is even possible!
I feel sacrifice on earth is so important because we have an opportunity to do something that we won't be able to do in heaven. When we get to eternity, (I assume) we won't have to tithe, fast, pray, evangelize, walk out in boldness, wake up early to pray, or even lay down our lives for other people. One reason we do these things is that others and us will draw closer to Jesus. All of these things that require sacrifice won't be needed as we get to live with Jesus in perfection, we will get to be with our great reward. So how important is it that we do these things now while we have a chance. I feel the worship and sacrifice that we put out on earth is so so so so special to Jesus, in a way that is so different from all the angels and creatures and creation praising him. I can see Jesus sitting on the throne watching us saying, "Wow, the worship down there is incredible!" I see him getting so happy and excited that we do things like fasting and tithing because the sacrifice we can make while we live on the earth is so unique. The Lord has given us such an opportunity right now to lay down our lives for him so that eternity can be impacted by the sacrifices we make today! What an honor it is to have a chance to give everything to him, so when we reach heaven we can look back and talk to Jesus about how those sacrifices impacted heaven with a worship that is so special and dear to him.
Friday, September 14, 2012
Hakuna Matata
I feel Jesus was the one who came up with this wonderful phrase. A life with
Jesus is supposed to be carefree! I feel there are so many times in my life
that i forget that when the lord says he has plans for us, he really means it!
This last week worry overcame me. With the engineering career fair coming up, every chemical engineer was looking for job, but as of late i am feeling call to be a church planter. With this mindset, it was very hard to listen to companies talk about getting jobs and planning your life because honestly, I don't have any personal plans for my life outside of being a missionary. As the companies were talking, fear overcame me. I was afraid that i would end up forsaking the calling Jesus put on my life and caving in and getting a cooperate job here in America. Not to say that there is anything wrong with cooperate America, but I just want what Jesus has for me. So this worry was carried with me throughout the day as i was studying and thinking about my future. I needed a renewal of my mind, and that’s what Jesus gave me. I went to life group and the Lord showed up. Through a long list of prophetic words and the Holy Spirit working, all fear and worry disappeared. It was like Jesus was the only thing on my mind and what mattered. Love It! The Lord so desired to renew my mind by giving me a perspective shift, he is the only thing we need to focus on.
The Lord then reminded me of this story from Africa that was just like this worry issue i faced. So i was in the middle of a village going from house to house praying for healing. We saw a couple of awesome healing of sickness and we felt the holy spirit moving! During this time I and my friend Aaron ran into a man who was drunk out of his mind. We began to talk to him and boy was he a complainer. He started to complain about all the problems in Uganda, probably because he knew we were American. He was saying Uganda was so poor, he didn't have any food, he didn't have any money, and everything in his life was bad, including some chest pain. He was angry and worried about so much. So at one point i just stopped him and asked if we could pray for all of that stuff and he said it was okay. So I and Aaron started to declare everything over his life. Healing, blessing, peace, you name it. And after we were done praying, he look up and said, "The lord is good." The Lord sobered him up and accepted Jesus right there! All pain in his body was gone and all the problems of the world vanished! Sound familiar?
We become so focused on problems that we dig ourselves into huge holes of
worry and fear. And the lord wants to solve that problem by letting us
encounter what life is really about, him. The world seems so big whenever we
take our eyes away from the Lord. Jesus doesn't want us to live a life full of
worrying or a live where we plan every single detail out because he when
we rely on our own strength in our future, we end up a hot mess. What it comes
down to is being dependent on who Jesus is. If we truly realized the power he
has given us and the promises he is keeping, worry wouldn't exist. It is hard
not to worry, but it is so worth it. I am still in a process of removing all
worry and fear from my life and that process begins by giving everything to the
Lord. Graham Cooke always talks about how he hasn't had a worried thought in
like 20 years because he has learned to completely renew his mind. That
perspective change is something the Lord desires for all of us. Hakuna Matata.
This last week worry overcame me. With the engineering career fair coming up, every chemical engineer was looking for job, but as of late i am feeling call to be a church planter. With this mindset, it was very hard to listen to companies talk about getting jobs and planning your life because honestly, I don't have any personal plans for my life outside of being a missionary. As the companies were talking, fear overcame me. I was afraid that i would end up forsaking the calling Jesus put on my life and caving in and getting a cooperate job here in America. Not to say that there is anything wrong with cooperate America, but I just want what Jesus has for me. So this worry was carried with me throughout the day as i was studying and thinking about my future. I needed a renewal of my mind, and that’s what Jesus gave me. I went to life group and the Lord showed up. Through a long list of prophetic words and the Holy Spirit working, all fear and worry disappeared. It was like Jesus was the only thing on my mind and what mattered. Love It! The Lord so desired to renew my mind by giving me a perspective shift, he is the only thing we need to focus on.
The Lord then reminded me of this story from Africa that was just like this worry issue i faced. So i was in the middle of a village going from house to house praying for healing. We saw a couple of awesome healing of sickness and we felt the holy spirit moving! During this time I and my friend Aaron ran into a man who was drunk out of his mind. We began to talk to him and boy was he a complainer. He started to complain about all the problems in Uganda, probably because he knew we were American. He was saying Uganda was so poor, he didn't have any food, he didn't have any money, and everything in his life was bad, including some chest pain. He was angry and worried about so much. So at one point i just stopped him and asked if we could pray for all of that stuff and he said it was okay. So I and Aaron started to declare everything over his life. Healing, blessing, peace, you name it. And after we were done praying, he look up and said, "The lord is good." The Lord sobered him up and accepted Jesus right there! All pain in his body was gone and all the problems of the world vanished! Sound familiar?
 |
| Ps. I love the Lion King |
Saturday, August 18, 2012
The Book of Jarred
"Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have come the salvation and
the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ.
For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and
night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their
testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from
death."
Since I have been home from Africa almost every time I talk to someone about the Lord, I am always reminded of different things that happened in Uganda. I mean the trip was absolutely life changing. The amount of healing and salvations we saw was absolutely incredible. I can't help but think about the testimony that Jesus has had for my life every time I spend time with him.
I love these verses in the book of Revelations about how the enemy will be overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimonies. Sometimes we don't realize the power that we have with what Jesus has done in our lives. If the church is called to defeat the enemy by 1. Jesus's blood and then 2. the power of our testimonies, I think sharing what Jesus has done is so stinking important.
The fact of the matter is that no matter what your testimony looks like, there is power there! You don't have to have gone on an insane mission trip to have a powerful testimony. Here is every single Christian's testimony in a nutshell. I was dead....and Jesus brought me to life. It's that simple. My testimony is that i was alone and lost in the world, and Jesus picked me up and said i was his. I wasn't miraculously healed, or wasn't addicted to drugs or anything. I was just lost, like everyone who needs Jesus. He took me from darkness and turned my life around entirely! And when i tell my story i can be 100% confident that with every word about the Lord's goodness in my life, the enemy is trembling. I can imagine Satan waking up in complete fear because Jarred is going to tell someone his story today. Jesus entrust us to use our testimonies to destroy the strong holds of the enemy in peoples lives.
Regardless of what your story is, if you walk out in confidence that your testimony is going to change lives, it will! And when you walk out in that confidence, then your testimony begins to grow even more! Confidence and a desire to see more of Jesus go hand and hand. When you walk out in confidence in who Jesus is, your desire for him increases, and you begin let him take control of every step you take. And when he takes control of your life, unbelievable things happen. You will find yourself in the middle of Africa praying for the dead to be resurrected. All because of your desire to see him trumps anything else.
So i encourage you to share what Jesus has done in your life to people! You build confidence in who you are and what he has done, which leads to a desire for more of him! This idea came to me a couple of years ago that said "I wonder if there was a book of the bible called the book of Jarred, would anyone read it?" And for so long that answer was probably no. But it wasn't til i realized that it wasn't about Jarred at all, it was about what he can do in my life, that the Book of Jarred began to seem like something someone would read. Give everything to him, and see your book develop!
Since I have been home from Africa almost every time I talk to someone about the Lord, I am always reminded of different things that happened in Uganda. I mean the trip was absolutely life changing. The amount of healing and salvations we saw was absolutely incredible. I can't help but think about the testimony that Jesus has had for my life every time I spend time with him.
I love these verses in the book of Revelations about how the enemy will be overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimonies. Sometimes we don't realize the power that we have with what Jesus has done in our lives. If the church is called to defeat the enemy by 1. Jesus's blood and then 2. the power of our testimonies, I think sharing what Jesus has done is so stinking important.
The fact of the matter is that no matter what your testimony looks like, there is power there! You don't have to have gone on an insane mission trip to have a powerful testimony. Here is every single Christian's testimony in a nutshell. I was dead....and Jesus brought me to life. It's that simple. My testimony is that i was alone and lost in the world, and Jesus picked me up and said i was his. I wasn't miraculously healed, or wasn't addicted to drugs or anything. I was just lost, like everyone who needs Jesus. He took me from darkness and turned my life around entirely! And when i tell my story i can be 100% confident that with every word about the Lord's goodness in my life, the enemy is trembling. I can imagine Satan waking up in complete fear because Jarred is going to tell someone his story today. Jesus entrust us to use our testimonies to destroy the strong holds of the enemy in peoples lives.
Regardless of what your story is, if you walk out in confidence that your testimony is going to change lives, it will! And when you walk out in that confidence, then your testimony begins to grow even more! Confidence and a desire to see more of Jesus go hand and hand. When you walk out in confidence in who Jesus is, your desire for him increases, and you begin let him take control of every step you take. And when he takes control of your life, unbelievable things happen. You will find yourself in the middle of Africa praying for the dead to be resurrected. All because of your desire to see him trumps anything else.
So i encourage you to share what Jesus has done in your life to people! You build confidence in who you are and what he has done, which leads to a desire for more of him! This idea came to me a couple of years ago that said "I wonder if there was a book of the bible called the book of Jarred, would anyone read it?" And for so long that answer was probably no. But it wasn't til i realized that it wasn't about Jarred at all, it was about what he can do in my life, that the Book of Jarred began to seem like something someone would read. Give everything to him, and see your book develop!
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Being the Bride
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.
I love being the Bride of Christ. We as the church are his bride. In our culture we get misconceived view of what that means, especially being a guy. When many people think about being the bride of Christ, the idea of being in a wedding dress and looking absolutely ridiculous and weak comes to mind. People see it as a loss of masculinity and confidence. But that couldn't be farther from the truth. Being the bride of Christ means walking fully into who Jesus has called you to be. Both men and women alike. When i think about being the bride, I picture myself completely covered in the golden armor of Christ, walking out in complete confidence that I am going to conqueror any situation i come up against because i am completely protected by the King. And all of that confidence comes from a place of intimacy with Jesus.
I feel we as the church are compared to the bride of Christ because it's the only humanly possible way to show how deep of a love the lord has for us. Obviously his love is sooo much deeper than a husband can love a wife, but he uses this example to show what our relationship should look like with him. Husbands protect their wives, care for them, and will do absolutely everything in their power to make sure the wife knows that she is loved. A husband would sacrifice himself for the life of his wife, and that is exactly what he did.
"God SO loved the world that he gave his only son, and whosoever believe in him shall not parish but have everlasting life."
God doesn't just love us, he SO loves us. When we are SO in love with someone, we will do absolutely anything for them. We will drive 24 hours across the nation just to see their face for 5 minutes. It's written in every love song of this world. We'd catch a grenade for someone etc. You get the idea. Our whole entire world will stop and we will put our lives on hold, just out of a completely surrendered heart for that person. Sound familiar? That's exactly what Jesus did. He said, I am gonna going to leave my perfect home in heaven, lose all my powers as God and become a man, and die for all the bad things you have ever done just because I soooooo love you. He put everything on hold to give us an opportunity to be with him. So when he calls us a bride, I think he means it.
And as the bride, what can we do to show Jesus our appreciation? Love him. Love him just as he loved us. As we learn to love Jesus and spend time with him, we start to become more like him. And when you become more like Jesus, things of this world won't get in your way because you are only focused on your love for him. All sin disappears in his love. I struggled with so much sin all the time because I didn't have a deep revelation of how much he loves us. I didn't realize that being the bride was my identity. But when I learned to set a goal of loving Jesus 100%, sin disappeared. Yes I still sin everyday in some way, but it's weight gets less and less as I learn to love Jesus and become more like him. So lets not focus on containing sin, but focus on our love for Jesus and all problems of the world will fade away. When we hangout with our friends, we start to become more and more like them. I can anticipate almost everything my friend Daniel says and does and he the same with me because we know each other and have so much in common as we spend more time together. It's the same with Jesus. Spend more time with him and you'll only be interested in what he is doing!
To conclude, The book of Hosea shows such a great depiction of our relationship with the Lord. Hosea was a king and God ordered him to marry basically an adulterous woman . Why would a King marry this woman? Why would someone who rules everything and can have whatever he wants want anything to do with someone who is unfaithful and turns her back to him? Sound familiar again? God wants to win our hearts, regardless of where are hearts are at. It's his love
In Hosea 2:14 it says
"therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the wilderness
and speak tenderly to her.
15 There I will give her back her vineyards,
and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
There she will respond as in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
I love being the Bride of Christ. We as the church are his bride. In our culture we get misconceived view of what that means, especially being a guy. When many people think about being the bride of Christ, the idea of being in a wedding dress and looking absolutely ridiculous and weak comes to mind. People see it as a loss of masculinity and confidence. But that couldn't be farther from the truth. Being the bride of Christ means walking fully into who Jesus has called you to be. Both men and women alike. When i think about being the bride, I picture myself completely covered in the golden armor of Christ, walking out in complete confidence that I am going to conqueror any situation i come up against because i am completely protected by the King. And all of that confidence comes from a place of intimacy with Jesus.
I feel we as the church are compared to the bride of Christ because it's the only humanly possible way to show how deep of a love the lord has for us. Obviously his love is sooo much deeper than a husband can love a wife, but he uses this example to show what our relationship should look like with him. Husbands protect their wives, care for them, and will do absolutely everything in their power to make sure the wife knows that she is loved. A husband would sacrifice himself for the life of his wife, and that is exactly what he did.
"God SO loved the world that he gave his only son, and whosoever believe in him shall not parish but have everlasting life."
God doesn't just love us, he SO loves us. When we are SO in love with someone, we will do absolutely anything for them. We will drive 24 hours across the nation just to see their face for 5 minutes. It's written in every love song of this world. We'd catch a grenade for someone etc. You get the idea. Our whole entire world will stop and we will put our lives on hold, just out of a completely surrendered heart for that person. Sound familiar? That's exactly what Jesus did. He said, I am gonna going to leave my perfect home in heaven, lose all my powers as God and become a man, and die for all the bad things you have ever done just because I soooooo love you. He put everything on hold to give us an opportunity to be with him. So when he calls us a bride, I think he means it.
And as the bride, what can we do to show Jesus our appreciation? Love him. Love him just as he loved us. As we learn to love Jesus and spend time with him, we start to become more like him. And when you become more like Jesus, things of this world won't get in your way because you are only focused on your love for him. All sin disappears in his love. I struggled with so much sin all the time because I didn't have a deep revelation of how much he loves us. I didn't realize that being the bride was my identity. But when I learned to set a goal of loving Jesus 100%, sin disappeared. Yes I still sin everyday in some way, but it's weight gets less and less as I learn to love Jesus and become more like him. So lets not focus on containing sin, but focus on our love for Jesus and all problems of the world will fade away. When we hangout with our friends, we start to become more and more like them. I can anticipate almost everything my friend Daniel says and does and he the same with me because we know each other and have so much in common as we spend more time together. It's the same with Jesus. Spend more time with him and you'll only be interested in what he is doing!
To conclude, The book of Hosea shows such a great depiction of our relationship with the Lord. Hosea was a king and God ordered him to marry basically an adulterous woman . Why would a King marry this woman? Why would someone who rules everything and can have whatever he wants want anything to do with someone who is unfaithful and turns her back to him? Sound familiar again? God wants to win our hearts, regardless of where are hearts are at. It's his love
In Hosea 2:14 it says
"therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the wilderness
and speak tenderly to her.
15 There I will give her back her vineyards,
and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
There she will respond as in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
16 “In that day,” declares the Lord,
“you will call me ‘my husband’;
you will no longer call me ‘my master."
“you will call me ‘my husband’;
you will no longer call me ‘my master."
God is going to do what it takes to get our hearts. We might have to be in a desert place in our lives for God to speak to us. We dig ourselves in holes and Jesus comes right there and picks us up. Then he brings restoration to us and we realize a life with him is so much better than what we were living. And my favorite part. He isn't our master, he is our husband. Jesus isn't a demanding boss who tells you to do things and out of obligation we do those things. He is someone who we love and would do anything for because our hearts burn to see him delighted. He SO loves us, so I wanna live a life where I daily SO love him.
African Elephants in the Nile in Uganda. ( doesn't have anything to do with the post, but i really like this picture haha)
Monday, August 6, 2012
Not so Doubting Thomas...
So the Lord has put the story of Thomas on my heart and has given me huge revelation about him, so I am about to spit dat truf!
So for those that don't know after Jesus was resurrected and walking the earth, a bunch of his disciples had seen him and where telling stories about how they had seen Jesus and he was alive and how stinkin excited they were. (read John 20:24-31 for the whole story). Some disciples came to one of Jesus's disciples named Thomas and told him Jesus was alive, but Thomas said "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my fingers where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe". and forever he got the nickname "Doubting Thomas". Then I started thinking how much each and everyone of us is just like him. So hello, my name is Doubting Jarred and I am going to explain what I think Thomas was saying.
So growing up, I would always hear Jesus stories. I had friends who would tell me about casting out demons and healing the sick and the power of Jesus all the time. My response to those stories was okay that's cool, but what about me? How come I haven't experienced these things with Jesus? I mean good for you and the relationship you have with him, but why hasn't that happened to me? And now I know I was not experiencing Jesus because I wasn't seeking him and I wasn't letting him work through me. I was super doubtful. It wasn't til I hit a breaking point in my life that I cried out to the Lord and his presence dropped on me. At that moment I didn't doubt anymore. I had experienced Jesus's power, his voice, and his peace. And then my life was forever changed!
So when Thomas said what he said, I think the Bible uses him as a comparison of religion and relationship. Was Jesus just a story his friends talked about? Or was he someone real. I can see Thomas saying "I need to experience Jesus so he is real to me" And that is the difference between a religious idea of God and walking in relationship with him. Jesus wants us to have experiences with him! he doesn't want to be a God of the past. He is living in us through the Holy Spirit and wants to walk with us every second of every day!
And what does Jesus do with the doubts of Thomas? He answers them. He walks right up to Thomas and says "wanna know how I got these scars?" okay not really that was the Joker from The Dark Knight, but you get the idea. Jesus revealed himself to Thomas to show that he was there for him. Yes Thomas needed some convincing and Jesus says that blessed is the man who hasn't seen and still believes, but the Lord showed himself to Thomas anyways because he loved him and wanted to give him an encounter. Religion is man trying to do what he can to make it to God, relationship is Jesus coming to us and walking with us every single day and showing us that he truly loves us!
So if you feel like Jesus is just a story and you haven't experienced him fully and you have doubts, ask Jesus to show up in your life. Not out of an arrogant or demanding heart, but humble yourself and the Lord will raise you up! (James 4-10). Lean on the promises of this beautiful love letter Jesus left us (the Bible) and see him show up in your life!
One last story. When I was in Uganda I was in the middle or some random village 5 miles away from town and I ran into 3 ladies who had never heard of Jesus before. So I went through the whole gospel with them and told them all about the love of Jesus and I asked if that was something they would be interested in. They responded "Perhaps". I realized they needed a demonstration of the kingdom so Jesus could be real to them, just like I needed. They knew the story but Jesus wasn't real to them just yet. So I asked if they had any pain I could pray for because Jesus loves to heal his kids and show up. One lady said she had ulcers, one lady had a massive headache, and i think the other lady had something wrong with her stomach, but they didn't speak English and my friend Ben wasn't giving me all the details on what exactly she said. So we prayed.....and all of their sickness went away!!!! So then I asked them again if Jesus was something they would be interested in, and they were like yes yes yes! It wasn't until they experienced the power of God that the story of Jesus became real. And that is why we have the holy spirit, to demonstrated and bring the kingdom of heaven to earth so lives can be changed and Jesus can give people an opportunity to live a life for him. The best life anyone can ever live.
And if you believe in Jesus, and have never experienced him, that's awesome! But I feel the Lord wants to show you what a relationship with him truly looks like and the amazing places he can take you with the power of the Holy Spirit! It's incredible walking out fully into what Jesus has for you! Amazing things happen and his love can change everything in your life!
So when doubts about anything cloud your mind, ask Jesus to show up in those situations and he will! The bible has sooooo many promises in it, and when you speak those promises out and activate your faith, then the Lord will reveal himself. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be open. Laters!
So for those that don't know after Jesus was resurrected and walking the earth, a bunch of his disciples had seen him and where telling stories about how they had seen Jesus and he was alive and how stinkin excited they were. (read John 20:24-31 for the whole story). Some disciples came to one of Jesus's disciples named Thomas and told him Jesus was alive, but Thomas said "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my fingers where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe". and forever he got the nickname "Doubting Thomas". Then I started thinking how much each and everyone of us is just like him. So hello, my name is Doubting Jarred and I am going to explain what I think Thomas was saying.
So growing up, I would always hear Jesus stories. I had friends who would tell me about casting out demons and healing the sick and the power of Jesus all the time. My response to those stories was okay that's cool, but what about me? How come I haven't experienced these things with Jesus? I mean good for you and the relationship you have with him, but why hasn't that happened to me? And now I know I was not experiencing Jesus because I wasn't seeking him and I wasn't letting him work through me. I was super doubtful. It wasn't til I hit a breaking point in my life that I cried out to the Lord and his presence dropped on me. At that moment I didn't doubt anymore. I had experienced Jesus's power, his voice, and his peace. And then my life was forever changed!
So when Thomas said what he said, I think the Bible uses him as a comparison of religion and relationship. Was Jesus just a story his friends talked about? Or was he someone real. I can see Thomas saying "I need to experience Jesus so he is real to me" And that is the difference between a religious idea of God and walking in relationship with him. Jesus wants us to have experiences with him! he doesn't want to be a God of the past. He is living in us through the Holy Spirit and wants to walk with us every second of every day!
And what does Jesus do with the doubts of Thomas? He answers them. He walks right up to Thomas and says "wanna know how I got these scars?" okay not really that was the Joker from The Dark Knight, but you get the idea. Jesus revealed himself to Thomas to show that he was there for him. Yes Thomas needed some convincing and Jesus says that blessed is the man who hasn't seen and still believes, but the Lord showed himself to Thomas anyways because he loved him and wanted to give him an encounter. Religion is man trying to do what he can to make it to God, relationship is Jesus coming to us and walking with us every single day and showing us that he truly loves us!
So if you feel like Jesus is just a story and you haven't experienced him fully and you have doubts, ask Jesus to show up in your life. Not out of an arrogant or demanding heart, but humble yourself and the Lord will raise you up! (James 4-10). Lean on the promises of this beautiful love letter Jesus left us (the Bible) and see him show up in your life!
One last story. When I was in Uganda I was in the middle or some random village 5 miles away from town and I ran into 3 ladies who had never heard of Jesus before. So I went through the whole gospel with them and told them all about the love of Jesus and I asked if that was something they would be interested in. They responded "Perhaps". I realized they needed a demonstration of the kingdom so Jesus could be real to them, just like I needed. They knew the story but Jesus wasn't real to them just yet. So I asked if they had any pain I could pray for because Jesus loves to heal his kids and show up. One lady said she had ulcers, one lady had a massive headache, and i think the other lady had something wrong with her stomach, but they didn't speak English and my friend Ben wasn't giving me all the details on what exactly she said. So we prayed.....and all of their sickness went away!!!! So then I asked them again if Jesus was something they would be interested in, and they were like yes yes yes! It wasn't until they experienced the power of God that the story of Jesus became real. And that is why we have the holy spirit, to demonstrated and bring the kingdom of heaven to earth so lives can be changed and Jesus can give people an opportunity to live a life for him. The best life anyone can ever live.
And if you believe in Jesus, and have never experienced him, that's awesome! But I feel the Lord wants to show you what a relationship with him truly looks like and the amazing places he can take you with the power of the Holy Spirit! It's incredible walking out fully into what Jesus has for you! Amazing things happen and his love can change everything in your life!
So when doubts about anything cloud your mind, ask Jesus to show up in those situations and he will! The bible has sooooo many promises in it, and when you speak those promises out and activate your faith, then the Lord will reveal himself. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be open. Laters!
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