KOINONIA MAN

Our union with Christ is defined in the solitary fact that we share a common life (ZOE) with Him, NOW! Not in the future, but in the here and now. [Everything else springs out from that LIFE that we now have.]

God has always wanted nothing less than fellowship with His man. We were created for that purpose -- KOINONIA. God & sons! Question is what are YOU going to do about it. You have been called (1Cor 1:9). How are going to answer. The answering machine of life has many calls for you to answer & return. Who's call are you going to return first.

Christianity is a lifestyle of relationships...

Man is a product of his relationships. His life is built on those principles learned from his relationship with God, family and other people.

Prayer--The most vital aspect of our lives.

Gospel Ramblings

What is important to you is what you will spend your time at.
To change your desires, just change what you are looking at.What you constantly look at will motivate you, propel you in that direction.

Most important aspect in our lives as Christians is prayer (communion, 2way communication) with our God (Abba Father), through the Holy Spirit, based on the Lord Jesus’ sacrifice at Calvary.

Our union with the Lord is so complete, so perfect, so divine.
That communion maintains our relationship.

Life’s trials are God’s school of faith. –sign on church in Azle TX

At MCI, we believe that everyone can be a leader:
All of us influence other people in the course of our daily life in one way or another. Our decisions and our actions influence our family, our friends, and our colleagues at work, school or University for good or for bad. Influence is the basis of leadership. Those we influence are our followers. In the Great Commission Jesus commanded us first of all to be disciples and then to make disciples. He wants to influence us first, becoming his disciples, so that we can in turn influence others and make disciples.

As we walk closely with the Lord, two things happen - we reflect the glory of God like a mirror and we are transformed into His glorious likeness. This is the purpose of God for our lives. As we walk in His purpose, the glory of God is revealed through us to the world.

We each have a sphere of influence that God can use to reach those around us, through us.
It is up to us to be fit and ready, spiritually and mentally and physically.

Distractions are designed to keep your focus off of God to keep you from prayer and the presence of God. When we pray, we should be in the presence of God. (It is not some spiritual exercise or ritual we perform to get God to move in our behalf.) We must make every effort to get into His presence.

Each of us as a member of the body has a different aspect of God’s nature, ability, etc placed in us to use to reach humanity for God’s purpose and intent.

Christianity is impossible without a proper understanding of the Apostle Paul’s revelation: the believer’s relationship to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. -Mark Hankins

The vital key to your prosperity, et.al., is your obedience to God.
You cannot pick & choose what you want to hear & obey. That's a tickling ear.

I am not my own. I am bought with a price.
(This is part of your worldview –how you look at the world based on your belief system.)

The decision/choices you make affects everyone else on planet earth.
As long as it is OK in your mind to sin,
Then your worldview is wrong and your purpose is out of focus.

Stability In Christ
1—know who you are, where you came from, where you are going
2—being a participator (a doer)

Christianity is not a passive religion…it is active, participatory, inter-relational.

Anyone can pour chocolate syrup into a glass of milk, but it benefits no one until it is stirred up and drank.

Paula White says partnership allows you to partake of something bigger than yourself.

Healing and health has its basis in the promises of God for our life and well-being. Faith appropriates those promises into our lives and manifests the power and life of God in our mortal bodies. The key is finding 2 or 3 scriptures with which to anchors our souls. Then it is only a matter of faith and patience to inherit these promises.

All fruitfulness flows out of intimacy with Him. (John 14 and 15) –Heidi Baker

The pages are turning on God's prophetic calendar, approaching the mysterious day when He will step once again into the world of time and space. What is the key to this fulfillment? The answer is Israel. And the controversy over her destiny affects every nation on earth. -- from "Praying for Israel's Destiny" by James W. Goll

Awakenings--column by Henry Blackerby

Today there is a great moving of God for His people to be on mission with Him. Each church is facing a God-sized assignment because the assignment requires both the presence and the resources of God to accomplish it. This requires a significant new level of faith. Therefore, each believer and church that desires to be on mission with God must know and act on the promises of God. He has promised every resource necessary for His people to honor Him in their total mission involvement with Him.

Here are some of God’s promises on missions and promised provisions to accomplish His will:
• And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).
• All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore... and... I am with you always... (Matthew 28:18-20).
• Indeed I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it; I will also do it (Isaiah 46:11b).
• The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want (Psalm 23:1b).

Behind every assignment in missions (at home and around the world) God affirms to us what He said to His people through Jeremiah: For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:11-13).

The effective obedience to God in missions has a great effect on the church family. They experience great joy, and great expectation and faith for their own personal lives.

DISCIPLINE YOURSELF FOR THE RESTORATION

HOW TO PREPARE/DISCIPLINE OURSELVES FOR RESTORATION
Johnson relational paraphrase:
DISCIPLE...one who adheres to the doctrines of another, but to be a disciple in the Christian sense involves much more than accepting a doctrine. It involves experiencing Christ, alive in us, utilizing all the dimensions of our person to communicate His love and care for others. [Webster’s says to comprehend.]
UNDERSTUDY...one who is able to take on the role if the lead actor is not physically present. The understudy doesn’t simply mimic or imitate; he fulfills the role...

Luke 14:25-27
cross = [gr] stake or pole
--this is pre-crucifixion...it could mean to pull up your stakes--something that holds you down. Reminds me of Exodus when cloud/pillar moved & Israel broke camp & followed. Others were asked to follow, but...they didn’t
Oswald Chambers: Are we prepared to pay the cost of sanctification? The cost will be a deep restriction of all our earthly concerns, and an extreme cultivation of all our godly concerns. SANCTIFICATION means to be intensely focused on God’s point of view. It means to secure and to keep all the strength of our body, soul, and spirit for God’s purpose alone.

Most of us came into the kingdom of God with excess baggage.
Holy Spirit wants to clean us up.
James 1:27
2 Cor 7:1 TEV/Message (...things that distract us)
2 Cor 2:20-21 TEV/LB (vs 21)

God has a great work to be done through us who are COMMITTED, FAITHFUL, & OBEDIENT
COMMIT
Web = to give in charge or trust; deliver for safekeeping; entrust; to put officially in custody; to hand over or set apart to be disposed of or put to some purpose; the delivery of a person or thing into the charge or keeping of another...SOMEONE WHO HAS GIVEN UP EVERYTHING FOR THE SAKE OF ANOTHER.
Matt 6:21 Johnson C Wherever you place your highest values, you will be motivated to propel your life in that direction
Matt 15:18 Johnson C But a person=s behavior arises out of his basic motivation, and it is a person=s basic motivation which determines whether he is fulfilling God=s purpose and plan

what do we commit ourselves to?
--Word
--prayer & fellowship with God
--God's plan, purpose & work
--Holy Spirit & anointing & gifts
--body of Christ
--local body including ministry gifts (Eph 4)
--pastors
--elders
--helps
--others
--wife & family
--lost
Paul’s commitment
Phil 3:10-15 (Johnson's) I want to demonstrate Christ’s style of life-to experience the energy of His resurrection, to participate in human suffering, to die as He did to my old style of life. And I hope to experience resurrection from death as He did. This is my desire. And though I have not experienced Christ as completely as I can describe my vision of this life’s fulfillment, I keep on pursuing the vision so that I will eventually experience Christ as completely as He has experienced me. But I am under no illusions that I have reached this goal. I have however adopted on rule - I turn my back on the past & focus on my one clear objective@ the fulfillment of my calling by God through Jesus Christ. Every mature person should identify this same goal as the central purpose of his or her life.
vs 12-16 (Message)

FAITHFUL
web=full of faith; keeping faith; maintaining allegiance to someone or something; constant; loyal; continued steadfast adherence to a person or thing to which one is bound by an oath, duty, obligation...
without commitment, faithfulness will have nothing to grab onto
it is a by-product of commitment

OBEDIENT
web=submissive; giving in to orders or instructions of one in authority or control.
Submit [web]=to refer to others for decision; to yield to the action, control or power of another; to defer to another’s judgment or decision.
Jesus was obedient even to death
Obedience C the key to God’s blessings
Deut 28:1
Josh 1:8
Ps 1:1-3
Is 1:19
Ps 112
Matt 7:13-27 Message

KEEP THE LOVE WALK PRIMARY

Kenneth Hagin: When the Lord instructed me to teach the move of the Spirit, He said in the last days there will arise a company of believers who will walk in the Word & learn to walk in the Spirit. Through faith in the Word, and by the power of the Spirit, this company of believers will fulfill the will of God according to the plan of God, and bring in the harvest. The harvest will be brought about in 3 ways:
1--We must have prayer.
2--The seed has to be sown.
That is accomplished by teaching & preaching the Word.
3--The rain must fall. You can’t have a harvest without rain. The Holy Ghost is likened unto rain.
Now, we are the ones anointed to finish the works of the Master, because the work of the Lord is carried out through the body of Christ, which is the Church.
The whole body needs to be enlightened & know that we are already equipped to carry out His plan, or His will. That is how this last day's revival, this end-time harvest, will come about. Directions from the Head will be carried out through the body.
God’s plan is always carried out through the Body of Christ. So, He is equipping us today, praise God, to flow with the Spirit. It is by the power of the Spirit that we will carry out the will of God, the plan of God & the purpose of God to the praise, honor, & glory of God.
[Feb 98, Believers Voice of Victory]

Phil 1:6 Johnson

God Wants You Well!

I taught at our church on Thursday night, March 31st, 2005
*****************************************************
Rom 1:16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

Salvation is:
soteria and has its root in SOZO
rescue, safety, deliver, health, salvation, save, saving.
sozo
to save, that is, deliver or protect, heal, preserve, save (self), do well, be or make whole.

NT=SOZO, OT=SHALOM
Dakes
Both words include: salvation, deliverance, health, help, welfare, safety, victory, saviour, defend, avenge, rescue, preserve, freedom

Scofield
The Heb. and Greek: safety, preservation, healing, and soundness. Salvation is the great inclusive word of the Gospel, gathering into itself all the redemptive acts and processes: as justification, redemption, grace, propitiation, imputation, forgiveness, sanctification, and glorification.

IS 26:3 (literal)
You will guard him and conceal him in SHALOM whose purpose & imagination is propped up on, taken hold of, rests upon, established & sustained on You - because he trusts in You.

“Before you can get SOZO’d, you have to know some things…”

2 Peter 1: 2-4
Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge
of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power
hath given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness,
through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and
virtue: Whereby are given to us exceeding great and
precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the
divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the
world through lust.

Rom 5: 1-5 (LB)
So now, since we have been made right in God's sight by faith in His promises, we can have real peace with Him because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. For because of our faith, He has brought us into this place of highest privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to actually becoming all that God has had in mind for us to be. We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials for we know that they are good for us -- they help us learn to be patient. And patience develops strength of character in us and helps us trust God more each time we use it until finally our hope and faith are strong and steady. Then when that happens, we are able to hold our heads high no matter what happens and know that all is well, for we know how dearly God loves us, and we feel this warm love everywhere within us because God has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.

Rom 4:16-21 (LB)
So God's blessings are given to us by faith, as a free gift; we are certain to get them whether or not we follow Jewish customs if we have faith like Abraham's, for Abraham is the father of us all when it comes to these matters of faith. That is what the scriptures mean when they say that God made Abraham the father of many nations. God will accept all people in every nation who trust God as Abraham did. And this promise is from God Himself, who makes the dead live again and speaks of future events with as much certainty as though they were already past! So, when God told Abraham that He would give him a son who would have many descendants and become a great nation, Abraham believed God even though such a promise just couldn't come to pass! And because his faith was strong, he didn't worry about the fact that he was far too old to be a father, at the age of one hundred, and that Sarah his wife, at ninety, was also much too old to have a baby. But Abraham never doubted. He believed God, for his faith and trust grew ever stronger, and he praised God for this blessing even before it happened. He was completely sure that God was well able to do anything He promised.vs 20-21 (Amp) No unbelief or distrust made him waver or doubtingly question concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong and was empowered by faith as he gave praise and glory to God, fully satisfied and assured that God was able and mighty to keep His word and to do what He had promised.