Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

I love this plea. “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world.” The world has a pattern. A way of thinking. A way of doing things. In the United States, that pattern looks busy. REALLY busy. Tv, blogs, news, podcasts, Twitter, Facebook, Hulu, YouTube, celebrity gossip, etc. The pattern in my Web circles is one of shameless self-promotion through the appearance of serving others. In other circles it’s about looking the hottest, making the most money, or having the most influence.

The world seeks to please itself. Its thoughts revolve around accomplishing this goal. But you, you are not to conform. Transform. Don’t conform! Renew your mind!

I like the New Living Translation of the promise:

Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

God’s will for your life is good and pleasing and PERFECT. Don’t you want to know what it is?!?! I do. But I’ve floundered. Even with outside prophetic words, I haven’t known how to get from point A to point B and actually see what was prophesied made real.

Without a renewed mind, we cannot learn to know God’s will for us. We can’t see with eyes of understanding. We are ignorant. Our attention spans are spent on more trivial matters that are all-engrossing.

There is a separation from the world that comes when we set aside the noise. A key to the Kingdom of God is that we release and empower what we agree with. And the more we fill our minds with the world, the more the world wears down our defenses and we find ourselves agreeing with more and more of what was once considered sin.

Focus and Agreement are two of the most powerful human actions. We’ll discuss these further in the days and weeks ahead.

If you were to go back five or ten years ago, especially as I was growing up, if you found a great promise in the Scripture, it almost always was reserved for the Millenium. If there was anything in the Prophets that was extraordinarily good, it was a verse that was supposed to be in that mysterious period of time called the Millenium.

Now, many of you don’t struggle with this, but there are leaders in this room who have been to schools, who have been trained, and we look at these kinds of verses to figure out what period of time they belong in. I want to encourage you NOT to do that.

Read the Scripture to find out how it can fit into your day. Read and ask the Lord, “God, do we have permission to get this one (truth) now?” Look for the application of Truth in YOUR day… in YOUR hour. Stop categorizing (i.e. this only applies to the millenium).

When we categorize people, it makes it legal for us to disassociate from them. When we categorize Scripture, we put them (passages of Scripture) off into periods of time for which we have no responsibility. And I believe that it is theologically immoral to take the extraordinary promises of God and put them off into a period of time for which I have no responsibility.

Paul said, “These things (and he was referring to the Old Testament) were written in earlier times for OUR instruction.” He didn’t say “some” of them were written for our instruction. He said these things were written for our instruction. So we must read these things no trying to figure out what’s going to happen in a thousand years.

- Bill Johnson

February 28, 2010

God is calling us, His sons and daughters, to a place of unconditional holiness. He is calling us to surrender our hearts 100%. As He told Sergio, “98% holiness is not enough!”

Let this passage from Job bring strength and comfort to your heart. If you fear complete and total surrender, listen to promise of the Lord.

“If only you would prepare your heart
and lift up your hands to him in prayer!
Get rid of your sins,
and leave all iniquity behind you.
Then your face will brighten with innocence.
You will be strong and free of fear.
You will forget your misery;
it will be like water flowing away.
Your life will be brighter than the noonday.
Even darkness will be as bright as morning.
Having hope will give you courage.
You will be protected and will rest in safety.
You will lie down unafraid,
and many will look to you for help. (Job 11:13-19)

The Source of Favor

I like how the NIV translation phrases the last verse:

“You will lie down, with no one to make you afraid, and many will court your favor.”

A pure heart and a clean conscience prepare the wineskin for the new wine of the Holy Spirit. And the automatic byproduct of the new wine filling the new wineskin is the favor of the Lord.

Many of you remain tortured in your hearts. Your conscience continually smites you for that which has remained unrepented. It turns into fear and mistrust of others, because you always fear being found out. Eventually you lose touch with the cause and you only suspect others because you yourself are not above reproach.

Now is the time to surrender your hearts and your sins to the Lord. Ask the Holy Spirit right now: “Holy Spirit, what are You saying to me about this?”

Do what He says. And may you know the unmitigated favor of the Lord in your pure heart.

A powerful combination of mentoring and personal experience have taught me that when I want to enact change in my life, I must focus on the good rather than the bad in order to be successful.

My experience with dieting

Prior to 2005, I spent too much time looking at what I had to give up in order to be healthier. What I needed to do was to fix my gaze on what I could enjoy and gain, and allow the anticipation of those things drive me. Shame is a terrible motivator. Oh, it works sometimes. It drives us. But we often fall into a cycle of failure because we learn to expect failure because we can’t stop doing something that is unhealthy for us.

I drank 6+ Dr. Peppers, ate 3 square fast food meals, and smoked a pack of cigarettes PER DAY. I only drank water when I played sports. Sometimes I took supplements. I was never healthy.

The Turning Point

But Whole Foods changed that. I found gourmet cheeses and breads and other items that were both healthy AND very tasty. Eating healthy slowly became a joy, rather than a dread. My historical understanding of DIETS flew out the window. I wasn’t suffering! I was adventurously experimenting! New delicious foods, that were actually giving my body nutrients it desperately needs!

I didn’t intend this to be a plug for Whole Foods Market, but we must give credit where credit is due. Whole Foods is the best analogy of the Kingdom of God that I know. I no longer looked at diets as giving up yummy foods. I looked at eating awesome organic foods as something earthy and more alive than mealtime had ever been before.

Pleasure in God’s Kingdom

Think about how that applies to the Kingdom. If I want to be a better Christian, do I tell myself about all the things I have to give up in order to be “good”, or do I look forward to time with Jesus and the excitement of personal revelation? Exactly. I allow the pleasure of the truly GOOD to transform my thoughts. I feed myself the anticipation and I savor the pleasures of knowing God. Then I know the result will be the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against these there is no law. Rather than try to “learn” the fruit, I let them grow as a result of getting proper nourishment from the written and spoken Word of God.

Would you rather live a life of pleasure or of sacrifice?

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus didn’t focus upon the sacrifice. He didn’t live a life of dread and constant defeat. Far opposite. He lived a life of eager anticipation, of victory, and of power.

If you have trouble seeing the pursuit of Jesus as a joy to anticipate, read carefully this post on Faith Comes by Hearing. It could be a matter as simple as choosing more deliberately the people you listen to. Anticipation and enjoyment are contagious. Listening to someone who is walking in the joy of what you desire is STEP #1. If you need help determining who that might be, please contact me and I will pray / share further ideas on how to transition your thoughts and expectations.

Unfortunately, most of the revelation and meditation I’m experiencing lately needs to remain private. Not all things are to be shared. I can explain the concept behind why later if I haven’t already.

So for now, let’s open this site up to our readers. If you’re reading this, and you have a question or a thought you’d like to see expounded upon, post them in the comment section below.

I’ll continue to share when I can as often as I can, but I’d like you’re help in making this site a place worth visiting more frequently.

My apologies to anyone who has submitted a comment through our contact form this past month. I know several of you have visited. I just realized that the email address intended to receive your contact form submissions was no longer in use. The error has been fixed. Please re-send any comments, questions, or greetings you may have sent (especially if you never received a reply).

My apologies. Thank you for understanding.

- Daniel

I don’t like the most common translations of this verse. You’ve heard it before: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” It’s so easy to pass over that one and move on to the rest because of the lack of clarity in the first half and the passive voice in the second.

I much prefer the New Living Translation which rephrases the statement into a much more meaningful whole:

“Blessed are those who are poor and realize their need for Him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.”

That’s something I can sink my teeth into. “Poor in spirit” can mean many things to me; either humble, lacking in spirit, lacking in spiritual gifts, spiritually destitute, etc.

I don’t think this means “blessed are the poor.” That’s a silly statement. I don’t think you’re blessed because you are poor. In fact, I’m fairly certain Christ admonishes believers to bless the poor because they are, in fact, poor.

But to realize our need for Him, that is something entirely. I am poor in that I do not have all that I need. I am poor in that apart from Him I can do nothing. I cannot heal. I cannot prophesy. I cannot bless. I cannot grow. I cannot restore. I need Him. I am so completely dependent on Him it’s not even funny. And the more I realize that truth, the more I am able to walk in possession of the Kingdom of Heaven.

I can’t think of anything I need more.

Why does God insist on involving His people in everything? I honestly don’t know. But He does. He insists on involving us in EVERY single act.

Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing
without revealing his plan
to his servants the prophets. (Amos 3:7)

And all believers may prophesy.

For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged. (1 Corinthians 14:31)

The Lord does nothing without revealing it prophetically. If we’ve been too distracted, we have probably missed opportunities to declare the word of the Lord in prayer so that it may come to pass.

Let us begin today practicing the art of declaring the word of the Lord. As the Holy Spirit declares something to us, let us exercise discernment and pray the Lord’s declaration back to Him and see what happens!

I found this on the Streams Ministries website. Pray this with me each week. Pick a day (possibly Sunday) when you will have time to remember. It will renew our minds and cleanse our hearts over time.

My Father in Heaven:

* I will bear Your light to change the world.
* I am the light of the world, because the Light of the World dwells in me.
* Your Kingdom will come; Your will will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.
* No one will meet me and not be changed, because no one can meet You and not be changed.
* I will become increasingly aware of the Light that I carry.
* I will grow in You and grow in this Light.
* I will become a change agent in this world.
* I will believe the unbelievable; what is not yet I will become.
* I will come to understand where I am in You, and I see my future more clearly than ever before.
* The gifts You have given me will begin to flourish as I understand Your ways.
* Nothing will prosper that comes against me, because I will live a repentant life before You; because I live a repentant life, You will answer my prayer.
* I will become what You have called me to become.
* I have been placed here for such a time as this.
* I live where I live because You placed me here.
* I am not here by accident; I am here by divine appointment.
* My neighbors will prosper because of You in me.
* Those I touch will prosper because of You in me.
* Everyone I pray for will be touched, because You flow through me; it makes no difference if others recognize the touch or not – You will touch them.
* You will touch others more some times than at other times; I will not judge my relationship with You based on what they feel.
* I relate to You because of who You are in me, not because of others, not because of my emotions, not because I feel saved, not because I’ve ascended to greatness through my intellect – but because of what You have done in me.
* I am re-procreated, regenerated and born anew.
* Your seed has entered me.
* My spirit is alive and quickened.
* I will become quickened to You, fine-tuned to Your Spirit, not doing what You’re not doing and doing what You are doing.
* I will become a witness for You.
* With Your help, when people see me, they will see You.
* Soon, there will be a clear distinction between those who don’t know God and me, because I know You.
* People will see me and they will know that I am a follower of Jesus and a bearer of His light.
* For Your glory this will happen, taking the foolish things to confound the wise.
* Thank You for finding me and choosing me to be a change agent on this earth for Your glory. In Jesus’ name, amen.