Slightly Random Rant About Persecution and Growth

“Concluding Thoughts: Martyrdom and mistreatment are a reality for the body of Christ, especially in those places that are longstanding strongholds of the enemy. With that said, it is foolish for us to expect poor relationships with people. Often our “persecution” is just the result of poor people skills” and a lack of wisdom. It is important to understand that the expectation of favor or the expectation of “persecution” can attract either to our lives. We would do well to expect the force of favor to open many doors to us for the kingdom’s sake.”

amen and amen!

most of what we call persecution is just the result of bad choices.  putting jesus over a character flaw doesn’t make it okay.  if anything, it leaves no excuse for you to be the same!  stop being rude!  learn from your mistakes!  sometimes we care more about being right then representing Christ…

and you know what else?  sometimes we overcompensate to maks our lack.  for example, let’s say that someone is corrected in public.  They have to “remind” everyone that they are man, and how they should be free to “be themselves.”  in reality, they feel insignificant cannot take cricisim because it threatens there already shaky sense of sense.  

if that’s the case, it’s time to go to jesus.  that’s what i had to do.  get some emotional fortitude and realize that it’s time to grow.  critisicm, can help you grow, when done correctly.  don’t let your personal issues shield you from the growth and wonder that’s in christ. 

did you know that out of the 15 works of the flesh that are listed in Galatians 5:19-20, eight of them have to do with how you treat people?

Tips from Dell

Hello world,

i always like to share some of the tips and tricks that still help me out to this day.  i hope some of them help you.

Tip #3:  When it’s all said and done, He loves me.

Kingdom principles work (even for people that aren’t in the kingdom).  However, sometimes the tides of life rage so strongly you can barely think straight.  When those times come, it’s difficult to draft an intercession plan or a weekly fast.  When things get too confusing,  I jsimply rest in the fact that God loves me, and He’s going to take care of me.  End of story.  If I get some cool third-heaven revelation in the midst of that, fine.  If angels appear, awesome.  But if none of that happens, just knowing that He’s faithful is enough. 

Tip #3:  Obey Quickly

Conviction is a good thing, but people usually get it backwards.  When someone stands firm on a topic, they are noted as having strong convictions.  Usually, believers equate conviction with feeling bad.  Don’t forget that believers have a new nature.  Did you know that if you are a believer, you have convictions that you don’t know about?  Your spirit believes things that your mind doesn’t.  That may sound crazy, but 1 Peter tells us that we’ve been giving a godly nature.  Your spirit man agrees with God totally.  Your mind, however, needs a tune up.  That’s why Paul tells us to renew our minds in Romans 12:1-2. 

When we do things that conflict with our godly nature, our born again spirits recongize it and we feel bad.  At times we allow this to take us into shame, but that’s not the point.  Believers are convicted of what’s right in God’s eyes; the conflict we feel when we step outside of His will can be equated to pain in the natural.  It lets us know that something is wrong so that something can be done to fix it.  God always convicts us with what we can do right; he doesn’t shame us with what we’ve done wrong.

As soon as you feel convicted about something, seek it out.  Find out what it is.  Obey quickly.  Do whatever you can to get on the right side of the fence.  The more you resist those pangings, the harder it will be to respond to them.  You may stop feeling them all together.  Instant obedience makes our heart soft and ready to move for Him.

Tip #3:  Learn how God speaks

God loves to talk!  he wants to talk more than you want to listen.  however, most of us approach hearing God as if it were a telephone call.  and then, even more of us expect him to speak in english.  clearly, he does; butenglish isn’t god’s first language. hebrew isn’t either. god’s slightly stubborn (in a good way of course); he actually wants you to adjust to how He does things.  usually when we can’t hear him talking, it’s not because he isn’t saying anything, it’s because we aren’t listening.

i was asking the lord about some trying situations that i’ve recently been involved in.  i wondered if i should back out, but i asked god for his permission.  he didn’t speak to me directly, but in a series of three days i’ve never heard so many “stay in the race” sermons in my life.  everything i saw was about endurance or perserverance.  god spoke to me, but it wasn’t a voice.  sometimes you have to “look” for his word. i’ll get into that on another post.

Failure? Or the Father’s Love…

WARNING…

THIS BLOG CONTAINS GRAPHIC (BUT NOT CRUDE) DESCRIPTIONS OF A SEXUAL NATURE.  IT’S ALL WITH THE INTENTION TO HELP PEOPLE…CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED.

 

 

if you hadn’t figured it out by now, one of my goals is to raise up men to walk in the sexual purity that god’s made available.  hope this personal anecdote helps someone…

 

 

 

as i slept in my bed, the dreams started to nag me.  the graphic thoughts ran through my mind.  images of things that i used to watch, thoughts that i used to dwell on.  all of the mess that i worked so hard to distance myself from came rushing back. 

and then i was welcomed by another…ahem…rush.

now, i was totally awake.  i was scared, annoyed, and angry at the same time.  it’s been so long!  could i possibly have been so stupid to drop my guard?  what did i do to trigger this?  am i caught in another rut again?  is my freedom real, or was i just holding off the inevitable?

i’ve felt this many times before.  it was the stain of defeat, literally and figuratively.  pornography that leads to masturbation…a way for me to get a release or to comfort myself.  to deal with issues that were stressing me out.  i’ve given all that up, though.  god is my source of comfort, strength, and peace.  the guilt and shame you feel from sin far outweighs the short amount of time it feels good.

fortunately, this recent occurance wasn’t the case.  it’s been a long time since i’ve been involved in any of that.  however, it’s natural for men to have a release…a nocturnal emission, a wet dream.  it’s our body’s way of getting rid of extra semen.  if you regularly masturbate or have sex, you don’t have extra.  if you don’t, you will.  usually, the emissions are accompanied by dreams and/or erotic thoughts.

note:  still be mindful of those thoughts.  pay attention to what you’re taking in media wise, b/c what you’ve placed in your spirit could be surfacing.  i used to watch A LOT of stuff.  i haven’t found the prayer that erases all the images just yet.  when i do, i’ll sell it…i mean, i’ll you all know

there’s a natural way that god’s built into men to receive that sexual release that we need.  just enough to stop us from going crazy.  we don’t have to take the matter into our own hands (pun intented).  knowing how good He is makes me continue the fight to stay pure even more.  He loves me…and He understands and wants to fulfill ALL (yes, even the sexual) needs in His pure and good way.

with clean hands,

dell

Magazine…

i couldn’t resist.

dang.

as i walked through the asile of the store waiting for my friend to arrive, my eyes began to roll throught the magazine section.  i always liked books; reading was never a struggle for me. 

unfortunately, sexual sin in the past was a struggle for me.  sorry, not a struggle, a failure.  struggle means that some sort of resistance was a work…for years there was none.  just loss after loss.  the cycle’s finally been broken though, and it’s been broken for a while.  praise god for that.

i picked up a magazine and began to read it.  i skirted through the articles and came across one of those “how to make your woman happy in bed articles.”  i read a few paragraphs.  it was a few paragraphs too many. 

despite all the growth, all the changes, it was still a little too much.  i felt like a total failure after i read it.  i was tired, and had been for a couple of weeks.  i’m always the most vulnerable when i’m exhausted or angry.  i’m not married.  i don’t need to know how to have better sex. 

i repented, and suddenly the Lord showed me that I shouldn’t look at it as a failure.  i saw the growth that was evident in me.  if it were a while ago, i would’ve never put that book down.  then, i would’ve been fighting temptations until i fell…sorry, until i gave in.

as far as i’ve come, there’s farther to go.  sexual purity is a reality in my life…and it must become one in the lives of those around me.  my personal breakthrough will become the breakthrough of those around me…my purity isn’t for me…it’s for Jesus and for you.

again, if you see those tags down there, dont’ be upset.  hopefully someone that looking for those things will find this instead.

Dell’s Theology…

i was talking to my old friend kimo yesterday.  it was nice.  haven’t talked to him in a while.  he’s currently in seminary, and i want to go to divinity school, so we started talking about that.  i stated that i tend to convulse when i consider the thought of becoming a theologian.  kimo said that in one of his classes, he learned that we are all theologians.  we either actively demonstrate what we believe about god, or we demonstrate our believes based on our inactivity. 

the thought was intriguing.  so i thought, “what is my personal theology?”  more importantly, what is my theology about Jesus.  many people believe in Jesus, but what you believe and actively walk out is the most important thing.  so, this entry will be devoted to a piece of what i’d like to call, “Dell’s Theology.”  as you’ll see, it’s vital that my theology, to the best of my ability, revolve around scripture.

Bedrock #3:  God is Good

this is really the corner stone of everything for me.  god is good…all the time.  scripture affirms it very openly in Naham 1:7 by stating that “god is good.”  very few would disagree.  i mean, he did create grass, starbucks, and all the other things we (i) treasure.  but i believe that you have to get specific about the goodness of god.  how do i see His goodness in every day life?

in my personal study of the word and experience w/god, here’s my specific view of the goodness of god.  god=good; devil=bad.  if it’s good…god did it.  if it’s bad, it’s not Him.  now, i understand how simple minded that sounds, and my words may not have done it justice, so let me further explain.  in john 14, Jesus fussed thomas out for asking to see the Father because Jesus Himself was showing them the Father.  hebrews 1:3 states that Jesus is “the exact representation” of the Father’s glory.  so, i base my actions on what i see in Jesus’ life in the gospels.  since jesus only did what He saw the Father doing (John 5:19), all the good stuff that Jesus did wasn’t even His idea, it was the Father’s.

So, riddle me this…

Would Jesus give you Cancer?

Does Jesus kill people to get there attention?

Nope.  I don’t believe so.  jesus never did that.  does Jesus discipline? absolutely.  the same Christ that healed all those sick people is the same one that made a whip and cleared the temple.  however, i believe because of our lack of understanding, we confuse discipline with the effects of living in a fallen world that’s begging for the touch of God. 

that point of view poses a challenge.  if god is good, then why does He just take all the bad stuff away?  why doesn’t every person i pray for receive healing?  i’ve learned that i don’t need to have an answer for everything.  if i get it in the process of submission to his will, then so be it.  all i can say is that god’s good, the world’s a mess…i suffered a loss.  jesus suffered a loss.  john, his cousin, was murdered.  how ironic that jesus was the one that came to set people free, to die for people’s sins, and the one that preached about him first was thrown in prision and died on account of Him.  pretty contractory.

yeah, i think i rambled some.   but the goodness of god is a vital thing to understand.  it makes the love of god a personal thing instead of some abstract concept. 

questions?  ask away.

Lakeland

So…have you heard about what’s going on in Lakeland?

There’s been an outpouring in Lakeland, Florida for over three months now.  It’s being led by Todd Bentley, an evangelist from Canada. 

Now, if you look at a picture of him, clearly he doesn’t match your normal thought of a preacher.  He has tatoos and piercings.   When he prays for people, he sometimes yells “BAM!”  Sometimes the things that he talks about sound more like a Final Fantasy side quest than biblical truth.

But guest what?

Look at the fruit.  People are being healing.  Most importantly, people are being saved.  I would provide the stats here, but leave that to you all to do.  There’s documented facts on all of this.

I’m interested in things like this because my ministry could come under the same scrutiny.  I make it my business to allow the Lord to do exactly what He wants when I minister.  God actually likes restoring things.  He makes all things new.

But what do you think?  I encourage you to read and learn about the cool things that God is doing all over the earth.