The Wall

Coming into the new year of 2015 the Holy Spirit began to speak to me about what The Father desired and purposes to do in His church. He was actually showing me a picture and saying just simple words in my spirit. He showed me a picture of a wall and began to speak the word, "shield".  There wasn't much more in terms of explanation, just simple images and simple words that were do be embedded into my place of prayer and obedience. 

In saying that, I want to insert that I believe that what the Holy Spirit will speak to His people in different ways for their specific assignments to see the fulfillment of His purposes on the earth.  It's important for each of us to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to the church in the hour that we live in so that we may obey.  It's not enough for us to have a minister, a pastor, or especially the culture give us a declarative word about the new year and us not know for ourselves what's in the heart of the Father. Not that those words aren't accurate, but there may be a word that He desires to give YOU that is necessary to understand the bigger picture around you.

Now back to the picture of the Wall and the word Shield that He was downloading into my spirit.  

I am a passionate believer that we need to see revival in our churches and in our nation.  But I don't want to add my amen to the idea that revival is a set of extended services or scheduled events on a calendar.  I want my amen to be added to the truth of needing to REPAIR and RESTORE the altars in the American church.  It's much more that having services or doing the works of righteousness.  It's living within the newness of life and with the burning heart of consecration unto the Lord.  I believe we are stepping into an age of revival that the world hasn't seen, but I also believe that the believer and the church has to prepare for the revival that is at hand.  

When we speak of Walls in biblical terms, many of you as I did, will go immediately to the text of Nehemiah in your thinking. The Lord began to speak to me that this year He desires His places of authentic worship to be launching pads for national awakening (as it was in the days of Nehemiah).  I believe its a call to live our lives from the most intimate place with the Lord to the most public squares for display.  To do away with a "Sunday Morning" mentality of morality, to a blazing heart of fire that couldn't be put out no matter the circumstances.  It's a heart of David being developed in the secret place that qualified him to trust the Lord in the public battle victory over Goliath.  We as believers are and will always be called to live from our intimacy and not for intimacy with the Lord. Our position of effectiveness isn't to earn righteousness, but to live from the place of righteousness. 

Nehemiah had it in his heart to rebuild the walls around Jerusalem, which was God's holy city.  It is the place that He chose for His presence to dwell.  There had to be one with the desire to see the place of worship restored and defended.  

"Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations; but if you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for My name". - Nehemiah 1:8-9

I believe that is STILL the desire of The Father, to see His people fully restored to the place of worship and revival for a nation. 

We are seeing a generation rise up with a true desire for truth and justice.First it is critical to restore the places of worship and see that they are places of prayer. Prayer is much more than an ask and receive format.  It is much more than our duty, it must become our desire. Prayer is a place long before it's an action. Finding the place of prayer will open up a realm of authority just like Jesus sending the disciples into the land. It's the same place where the 120 received power when the Holy Spirit came upon them. Prayer is communion with the Father, it's always attached to obedience and it's evidence is fruit.

"And He said to them, It is written, "My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves."  Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them."  Matthew 21:13-14

If the Holy Spirit is speaking like this to you, then the Holy Spirit is positioning you for a season of hiding IN HIM that will release a revival to a nation that doesn't know how to expect. Nehemiah had it in His heart to rebuild the place of worship.  Because of His heart, the people gathered the heart to work (Nehemiah 4:6).  

The result of building the place of true worship is that a nation was restored, but each persons home found their purpose.  The people were set according to their families, with swords and spears, and their bows (Nehemiah 4:13).  

Today, the place of prayer will position people for a national revival that turns the heart of the wicked to the only one who could make them righteous. His name is Jesus! 

Hear the heart of the Father calling you to rebuild the place of worship in your home and at your church. Social reform isn't possible until you have heard the call to personal reform.  But when your heart has heard the call of the Father, then you will be willing to use the shield of faith and dwell behind the wall of His presence. Then as a people we will see the fruit of revival in America.  A day of turning to Jesus is coming and it's here.  People of God, it's time to find the place of prayer and rebuild the place of worship! People are coming to Jesus! Get ready!

Awakening and Revival is here!

HEAR and OBEY

The day that we live in has created a church culture that has depended more upon the programs of the community instead of the communion with the Father.  The church has leaned on the plows of those who have preceded us in the places of prayer.  As a church culture we have allowed our place of prayer to be lined with the padding of convince. We have moved far away from any form of consistent, continual and fervent prayer that can and will shift the current culture. 

2 Timothy 3 tells us there is a time where people will have a "form of godliness, denying the power there of."  

This verse is about the choices of one generation and the harvest being reaped in the next.  When there is a form it means there is a format, a structure or a framework that can be built from.  But if we only have a form without filling, then you don't have whats truly available to you.  There is a power available to you that can and will shift your entire paradigm of living.  The true measure of what you have, isn't what you represent in public, but it's what you are willing to become in secret.  Most people are concerned with what people think about them instead of the the intimate relationship with the Father in the secret place. 

I believe the mandate of the hour is true Awakening and Revival. 

There is a need for people to have such a deeply personal encounter with God that there is no denying the change that's taken place in our lives.  Many churches and people boast the title, "pentecostal" or "charismatic", but the truth is that the Holy Spirit comes like a surge of power that changes the very condition of the believer.  So in other words, if nothing changes, it's not pentecost.  As a church culture we have to make the secret place a priority and have our ear so bent toward the voice of The Father that it's unavoidable to walk in the fulness of that relationship. 

I believe the picture is hidden in 1 Samuel, where Samuel was being called by the Lord to become the man to do all that was in the heart of God. Scripture says that Eli, who was a priest, responsible for the house of the Lord, began to fade from the urgency of tending to the flame on the altar.  His responsibility was to care for the place of worship, protect it's integrity and make a place for God to be glorified.  But when your worship, becomes your duty, it's easy to begin to fade in the arena of passion.  It's reflected in his sons. 1 Samuel 2:12 says, "now the sons of Eli were corrupt; they did not know the Lord." This shows us that mere association doesn't give you relationship.  The choice to consecrate yourself unto the Lord isn't based upon your church affiliation or the title on your door.  Consecration is a deeply intimate desire to be wholly surrendered to the heart of the Father.  His will, His wants, His desires.  Consecration will cause you to walk in power that is completely without reservation and hindrance.  

1 Samuel 3 is what I believe the mandate of revival is all about.  The text says that Samuel who was a young boy dedicated to God by his mother Hannah, continually ministered before the Lord.  Regardless of what others were doing, Samuel had a mandate on his life that was far beyond the grip of compromise.  His mother's prayer life ensured that.  She made the dedication long before his birth that if God would grant her a child, she would offer him back to the Lord! Now that's radical consecration. 

v 1. "In those days the word of the Lord was rare and that there was no widespread revelation."  I would insert here that we have to be so enamored and consumed by God's word so that we may have a deeper and more complete picture of His will.  It's impossible for us to know the will of God if we don't know the Word of God.  

The urgency of the hour is for THIS generation to be so consumed with the presence of God that there is a release of heaven that shakes and shifts the cultural climate that we are in.  We need for some Samuels to rise up in the house of God.  Who have no desire but to HEAR and OBEY the voice of The Father.  The passage in 1 Samuel 3 says, that just as the lamp on the altar began to go out, that the Lord called Samuel.  

I believe that RIGHT NOW God is calling to those who would have an ear to hear!  I believe He is calling YOU where ever you are, to hear His voice and have the courage to OBEY whatever He is calling you to do!  The season that we are stepping into will demand that radical obedience be the norm as much as faithful stewardship is our constant. Samuel was faithful and he was radical! A result of him being faithful is his ministry to the Lord was his willingness to hear and do what was in the heart of God.  

Samuel has one of the greatest credits attached to his life which is;  That not one word of Samuel's ever fell to the ground"

It's time that we as a people got back to the place of consecration!  A place of faithful stewardship and radical obedience.  Now is the time for people to discard what doesn't glorify God and cling to what is whispered from His heart.  Our place of power isn't in the programs we create or the communities we build.  Our place of power is in our surrender and urgency from the place of prayer!  Prayer that releases a desire for obedience.  Shockwaves of signs, wonders and miracles.  This should be the norm for the believer.  Like Samuel, this should be what follows us.  May it be said that this generation of Samuels had the courage to HEAR the call of the Lord and OBEY with a radical submission!  

AWAKENING AND REVIVAL IS RIDING ON THOSE WILLING TO HEAR AND OBEY!

12-12-14

A number of weeks ago, Chris, one of our prayer team, came to me saying that The Holy Spirit spoke to him about praying in our nations Capitol on December 12.  This word truly struck my spirit when he told me that day.  We began to pray into that word asking The Holy Spirit for His direction and leadership on this.  Since that time God has confirmed that word  and now we are calling people to pray with us for our nation on December 12!  

As I began to pray, asking the Father for His desire in this day of prayer He gave me direction on how to pray!  My hope is as you read this you hear the heart of  the Father and His desire for this nation.  I believe true prophetic unctions are meant to be acted upon to change the atmosphere.  When a prophetic word is given, it's up to us to be obedient to that word to see transformation at any level.  

We are looking for people who will answer the call to prayer on 12-12-14, with no agenda except the hope for our nation.  

Repairing the Breach & Rebuilding the Faith of America. 

Isaiah 58:12 / Jude 

The mandate for this time of prayer is to first, answer the call to hopeful intercession and asking the Lord to heal our land.  Jeremiah 33:3 / 2 Chronicles 7:14

We are ambassadors of the Kingdom.  Our assignment is to pray that the will of the Father be made manifest in the earth today.  2 Corinthians 5:20 / Matthew 6:9-15 

Here are the 5 areas that we are targeting for this time of prayer:

1.  Repentance  

personal purity, regional responsibility, and national awakening 

2.  Rebuild the Altars 

restoring the foundation of faith. accepting the assignments on our lives.

3.  Intercession 

We are asking for the watchmen to return to the walls in prayer.  

7 Mountains of influence:

Government 

Media 

Education

Religion 

Family

Arts and Entertainment 

Business 

4.  Future of America 

hope for our nation.  healing of the divides in our country.  maintaining a biblical world view

5.  Awakening & Revival 

Reformation begins with the church not in political institutions.  As the church turns back to righteousness, so will our nation.  The hope of America is Jesus Christ and Him glorified!  We are not praying for "extended services".  We are praying for personal, regional and national TRANSFORMATION!  

I want to encourage you to take time to pray with us on December 12, 2014 and believe God with us for healing our land.  As many as will, join your faith to ours as we believe God for an outpouring of The Holy Spirit in our nation!  Our hope IS Jesus Christ!  

Please spread the word and let us know that you are in prayer with us by going to the Prayer Culture section of bobbylemley.com and post that you are praying with us!  If you use social media sites use #prayerculture so we can link together in faith, believing that the best is possible for the people of America! 

Thank you in advance for answering the call to prayer!  

The Posture of Prayer

I recently had a woman come to me and say very gently, "I love what you are doing in the area of prayer, but it will be contended." 

For a moment I wasn't sure how to respond or even process that statement, but since that moment I have come to realize a little more of what that looks like.  It was most definitely an encouraging word within the context of our current cultural mentality about prayer.  As much as something may need to be reformed within the church, at the same time, our mentality about this reform must constantly stay on the altar so that we may see things from heavens perspective. 

To contend the culture of prayer within the church culture doesn't mean it will be opposed as saying, "we don't want this, or we don't like it", but it means there will be lack of understanding its movement.  

I believe prayer from the posture of humility and founded in love can be the most creative, powerful and shifting force that the believer has been given.  From this posture of prayer I believe the deepest places of faith can be activated.  

Being a student of revival cultures and places of awakening means you can not deny the moment that happens in the spirit through a praying people.  

Duncan Campbell of the Hebrides Revival said, "It is ridiculous to say that I brought revival to the Hebrides, the people in prayer long before I arrived brought the revival to the island"

Jonathan Edwards one of the pioneers of America's Great Awakening said, "You can't have revival without travail" 

Leonard Ravenhill said, "I have often prayed prayers, but have I ever really prayed?"

All of these quotes by men who experienced a measure of revival said it was only from the backs of a praying people that you can experience a "revival".  It's easy for me and others to say, "We want revival", but how many of us are willing to commit ourselves to the place of prayer, night and day, until we see a breakthrough in our communities?  This is the place that we must say, "YES," in our hearts in order to position ourselves for more than what we see right now.  I believe prayer should have two parts: We must encounter the heavenly perspective that John had in the book of Revelation and we must have a missional mindset toward the earth.  

Prayer isn't hiding from the world, but it's finding a secret place FOR the world.  Any true form of prayer will have an immediate obedience behind it.  Any form of intercession and prayer that doesn't demand our obedience to act on is limiting what is possible from our encounters with Heaven. 

I believe the last days outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Earth is based upon two things: the will of the Father and the obedience of His people.  We are called co-laborers with Christ Jesus, this means that we are now the mobile force of Heaven in the Earth.  Not so we can do what we want, but so we can activate the desires of Heaven for His people on the Earth.  You and I are called ambassadors, which means you are called to represent what the Kingdom says about a specific matter.

We must embrace what I like to call the posture of prayer - a place in His presence where we own no titles but we must have a posture before our King.  Our walk with God must be clothed in righteousness and rooted in humility.  Without either of those we can not experience the fullness of His Spirit in us as described in the book of Ephesians.

Jeremiah 33:3 "Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know."

I see this as an invitation into Heaven's vantage point about your situation.  There are three unavoidable things about this verse.

1. Call to Me - indicates that you must have an active pursuit to access what God wants to do through your life.  This is a word that invites us to engage Him.
2. I will answer you - gives you great assurance that He will meet you in the place of prayer, and that He not only hears you, but He desires to answer you..
3. I will show you great and mighty things - is the ability to exchange your vision for His vision.  Jesus alone is the Miracle Maker, but He promises that He will do great and mighty things with a surrendered vessel.  

"The Constitution of your community is more important than the passion of your prayers " - Lou Engle  

This means, passion and intention isn't enough to fulfill the posture of prayer.  We must position ourselves in communion and agreement with the standard of Heaven to activate His will on the earth.  I believe in a passionate prayer, but I also believe it is critical that we understand that the mandate of prayer should release a shock wave of obedience into the hearts of the people.  

One of the effects in the Hebrides Revival is that it was said, "It just seemed like God was everywhere." What a radical testimony of true revival.  That a praying people could somehow release such a presence in the community that there seemed to be no barriers between Heaven and Earth. 

Acts 5:12-16 is a place that we can see presence from a prayer life. The narrative says that miracles were done through the hands of the apostles and many wonders were done among the people.  It says in verse 15, "they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them." 

There was something so powerfully overshadowing the life of the apostles and especially Peter that the people anticipated that even the shadow of Peter could bring health to their body!  What if we would live in such a way that people knew the presence of The Holy Spirit resided upon us so much that it is possible they could get healed just by our shadows.  We must always understand that what overshadows us as believers will always fall on them who are in need.  We must be a people constantly living in the shadow of the Almighty. Peter wasn't "special", he had just been contending in the place of prayer and His life was filled with the Holy Spirit.  

It's important to see that there was even something so attached to the prayer life of Jesus, that the disciples asked Him to teach them to pray.  Not to do the miracles or to be a better speaker, but to teach them how to pray as He prayed.  So Jesus taught them the all familiar prayer in Matthew 6:9-13 

"Our Father in heaven, 
Hallowed be Your name.  
Your Kingdom come. 
Your will be done. 
On Earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, 
As we forgive our debtors. 
And do not lead us into temptation, 
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the 
power and the glory forever.
Amen." 

This prayer was more than the typical rabbi teaching a form of prayer, but it was an insight to the posture and promise in prayer. May we all take time today to understand, The Father desires daily communion with His children.  Learning to abide with Him will teach us to dwell in His presence all the days of our lives.  Psalm 91 is our secret place in Him, and from that secret place we find the secrets of heaven and release them to those in need. 

Deuteronomy 29:29 "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of the law."

May we be faithful in the place of prayer, not to hide from our reality, but to change our reality. 

The Frontier of Domesticated Christianity

What does it mean to be domesticated? 

To be domesticated means "to take from the wild and tame."  We train what we tame and most of the time we correlate taming with animals, but what does it mean for us to domesticate our Christian walk?

At times we have all been guilty of domesticating our Christian walk.  Whether it's the subtle complacencies stealing from the place of personal devotion to creating a system that governs our relationships.  We have all had things that we have allowed to steal the zeal of true and pure religion before the Lord.  

What happened to the wilderness?  What happened to forging faith that results from the place of pressing or the place less desired?

It seems that today we have gotten away from things that test our faith and we have turned to things that sooth our conscience.  We have taken comfort and made it mandatory to our version of faith.  Now don't get me wrong on this thought, I don't believe this is some form of "punishment holiness" where you don't think you are living right without suffering.  That's not what I'm talking about.  What I am talking about is the thinking that the promise doesn't come without the process or that transformation comes without transition.  We ALL love and want the transformation.  But how many of us are willing to embrace the transitions that carry us to the place of transformation?  Once again, I'm not talking about salvation.  That transformation occurs the moment we say, "YES," to the sacrifice for our sins.  What I'm talking about is living in the fullness of the Holy Spirit.  I'm talking about the pioneer spirit that was birthed in The Upper Room in Acts 2. These people didn't have a format or blueprint to how it was going to work out.  The only thing they had was the blueprint of prayer and repentance that positioned them to release revival.  There was no "church growth guru," and "no program coordinator" coaching them toward success.  There was only a desire to surrender and be filled with the paraclete (helper, advocate, intercessor, The Holy Spirit).  

Today, I believe we have leaned so heavily on the price paid by others, that we have neglected to advance beyond their sacrifice.  We have forgotten what a nation of revival looks like.  Revival indicates that there is "new life," not business as usual.  Revival means that you have a new expectation, a fresh outlook, a new joy toward what's in front of you.  The expectation of the upper room culture wasn't one where they knew what was going to happen, it was an anticipation of "what's possible?" When was the last time you as a believer asked The Father, "what's possible today?"  

I believe this is the mentality of the pioneer, the plowman, and the miner.  When you look at these as occupations, you may lose the wonder of the assignment.  But, when you look at what they represent then you realize how much they forge into new possibilities.  

The Pioneer presses into lands unfamiliar hoping to discover places of great value or influence.  This nation was built on the backs of pioneers.  These are those willing to press the boundaries of limitation and possibilities.  Today we need pioneers to go beyond what is expected and go to what's possible.  The pioneer goes into new territory with no thought of cost.

"With God all things are possible" - Matthew 19:26 

The Plowman prepares land gained or given. They are willing to dig up the surface to prepare for the seed being planted.  If you don't have a plowman, the harvest will be limited or hindered.  His/her job is to go out in the field and prepare the unseen. If we don't recognize the need for "the plow" in today's church, then we will have no right to complain about the lack of harvest in the pews. The plow is prayer.  Nothing in the kingdom is prepared or purposed without prayer.  Where are those willing to plow through the dirt of repentance, intercession and daily devotion?  

The Miner goes underground to dig in the darkness. There is nothing of value when looking from the surface, but when you go underground you are looking for the hidden value.  This should be the constant view we, as believers, have when we see a lost world.  We should see the value under the surface of every individual.  A miner does a dirty, thankless job.  From the underground search of the miner, so many benefits surface to the believer.  In fact, in the 1700-1800's there were a company of people called Circuit Riders that left the shores of convenience and refused domesticated christianity.  One of West Virginia's early Circuit Riders said;

"Circuit Riders are like miners and souls are our iron" - Kevin Keplinger 

I believe it's going to take a reevaluation of our current condition as a people, a willingness to reform what we have allowed to become apathetic, and to invest into what is unseen.  I believe it's a reestablishing of the modern day Nazarite.  A covenant people who have it in their heart to ask God what they should give verses asking God what they can keep. In today's streamlined, well defined, convenient, demanding society I believe we need to ask God for the undomesticated view.  We must be willing to go where no one has gone to do what few desire to do to bring in a harvest that is waiting.  There is a frontier within our domesticated view of christianity.  We must be willing to confront that which isn't baring lasting fruit and constantly prune what is.  We must be a people who embrace wilderness for the sake of obtaining victory through it.  I declare we must seek beyond seeking and press beyond pressing.  There is always more in the heart of the Father than what we see, so our yes must be our obedience.  

I challenge each and every reader to examine your walk with Jesus.  Ask yourself if there is an area that has become tame? Is there a daily newness and expectation?  If there are some places that you have stopped adventuring with God, you can turn that current reality by asking God, "where can I pioneer?, "what needs plowed?" and "what needs mined out?"

You are saved not just to go to Heaven, but to cause Heaven to be known on the Earth.  You are made from the wilderness!  You are made for more!  Have a "YES" in your heart, and "MOVE" in your mentality!

Use this verse to target your prayer;

"Turn away my eyes from looking at the worthless things, revive me in Your way."  
Psalm 119:37

Picture of Discipleship

Matthew 28:18-20 "And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen'"

Jesus is the perfect embodiment of the plan of the Father.  He not only came as the substitute and sacrifice for the sins of humanity, but He also came to establish the identity of the believer. As He sets the framework for identity, He also gives the church its missional mindset.  The body of Christ is meant to be a living organism and a mobile force, not a passive form without produce.  We, the believer, are called "The Body of Christ" which indicates all that is in Jesus is available to us today. 

What Jesus brought in the form of identity to the believing church can be activated by the seed and harvest concept of discipleship.  Jesus said, "Go and make disciples of all nations," which indicates that He has equipped us to do exactly that - make disciples.  God will never call you to something He won't equip you.  He is not only giving identity but He has partnered a mandate to come from that identity.  He has equipped us with every spiritual blessing to see Heaven create a partnership on the earth by planting Jesus as the seed for the harvest in humanity.  Our mandate is to take the identity that He has given us and multiply it in the earth.  Jesus said in John 4:35, "Open your eyes and look at the fields, they are ripe for harvest".  Recognizing our times from a heavenly perspective will initiate our hearts to see the harvest of souls that Jesus said was in front of us. Matthew 9:37-38 "Then He said to His disciples, 'The harvest is truly plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.'" We must accept both the identity and mandate of the harvest to understand biblical discipleship.  

The principle of discipleship has been lost in our modern, cultural view of today. I used to picture discipleship as simply making a duplication of the original, which doesn't sound so bad when you recognize our model is Jesus.  I though that if we were doing discipleship correctly, we would have raised a generation that looks and sounds like the model lived before them.  Obviously scripture tells us that an element of discipleship is to "imitate me, as I imitate Christ", but that's where most of us get off course thinking that the imitation is of me and not Christ.  If you imitate me, you will find an incomplete, sometimes off target effort from humanity that is based on human limitations. But if your imitation is that of what you see in Jesus through me, then you will find a strength to accomplish, beyond human limitations. What you see in me, you see in a fruit form.  This means you see it in it's full manifestation and not it's seed form.  I see my fruit in a seed form, meaning that I know the beginning stages and the power of the planted seed to produce fruit in your life.    

In Matthew 10, Jesus gave the disciples power. This power was to effectively change the condition of anything they came in contact with on earth.  If they encountered a demonically possessed person, they now had authority to cast it out.  If they encountered someone sick, they could release power to raise them out of their disease.  This is an amazing idea - that Jesus would give His authority to His disciples.  Many people say that we don't have that authority to do such things anymore, but if that were to be true, then the very heart of the kingdom would be missing.  John 14:12 "most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and GREATER works than these he will do, because I go to My Father." This is a radical Kingdom indicator for us from the Lord.  He said in Matthew 13:31, "that the Kingdom is like a seed." This means the Kingdom was never meant to be DUPLICATED but rather MULTIPLIED each time it's planted.  A seed goes into the ground and produces much more than a seed when it grows forth from the ground at harvest time.  It releases a multiplied reality because of the harvest held within the seed.  Jesus uses this seed and harvest reality to mirror the Kingdom reality.  The activating force in the seed of the Kingdom is The Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit filled the church in the upper room and gave life to everything Jesus deposited for the three and a half years that He walked the earth.  The Holy Spirit gave life to the believer and gave POWER to change the environment.  

The upper room will activate what discipleship initiates.  

Here is one quick illustration;

Mark 1 highlights an encounter that happened at Simon's house following an appearance in the synagogue.  Jesus comes to Simon's house where his mother-in-law was sick with fever.  Instead of it being business as usual, Jesus was told about her condition and decided it.  In verse 31 it says, "He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her."  Most people pass by this simple encounter and mark it as "another good thing" Jesus has done, but this Peter's story lays the a very distinct framework for discipleship. If you fast forward all the way through the earthly ministry of Jesus to the upper room, you see the conclusion to the Peter's story and the finished framework of biblical discipleship.  

Acts 3 gives a narrative of Peter and John on their way to prayer when they come across a lame man at the gate of the city.  The story says that the man looked upon them expecting to receive something.  Peter would go on to tell the man, "silver and gold have I not, but such as I HAVE, I GIVE TO YOU, in the Name of Jesus rise and walk". This is such a powerful statement because nothing in scripture is wasted, especially our experiences with Jesus.  This is the first recreative miracle mentioned following the upper room encounter. Acts 2 activated what Mark 1 initiated in Simon Peter.  The fruit is Acts 3, which is a perfect picture of discipleship.  That which Simon Peter received in his house with his mother-in-law, He was now positioned to give at the gate to the lame man.  Peter saw  Jesus reach down to lay hold of her, and therefore did the same to touch the man in need.  The first miracle that Peter walked in was the same kind of miracle that Jesus did in his own life. He saw the touch of Jesus effectively change the condition of someone in need,  and therefore, followed the Master is action at the gate of the city and received the same power from above with the same result - healing!

True discipleship is multiplying the seed that has been planted, not just being a duplicate of the seed.  What one generation invests in, the next is destined to multiply.  Jesus desired that we understand the price He paid on Calvary and the freedom that is truly in Him.  He has so much more to give to His believing church than a pass to Heaven.  He has power, authority and identity to release through us on the earth.  Focus today on being a living testimony of what God has done in your life to change both the environment and the people around you.

Let the upper room activate what discipleship has initiated. 

BLESSED ARE

In the eyes of God you are much more than you realize.  

This statement has never been more true than in Matthew 5 as Jesus speaks one the most powerful, identity defining messages of His earthly ministry - The Beatitudes.  I once heard Lou Engle tell an audience that every believer should read Matthew 5 at least once a week to allow the identity of the reader to be measured by what Jesus says.  Once I heard those words spoken, I began to spend time meditating on the truth that was in this message.  The way that The Holy Spirit illuminated this passage to me really began to shape the way I pursued God every day.  Matthew 5 is what I call the "Blessed Are" chapter of the Bible.  It's a little open ended in it's "title" because I see it having a partnership from us in it's message to cause it to have a fullness in our lifestyle.  Blessed are...tells me that there is certainly more to follow and I must constantly examine myself to find out who I am in Christ.  Many times as believers we are more BLESSED than what we see in our lives.  We are often too afraid of the examination process that is necessary by Heaven to see the release of that blessing in our everyday lives on earth.  My goal is to show you how the The Holy Spirit opened the BLESSED ARE... to my life.  

When you want to understand any chapter in Scripture it's important that you don't just read that one Scripture; we must understand the frame work going on around that text.  For example in Matthew 5 we could easily conclude that it stands by itself, but the truth is, everything Jesus does connects to the whole subject of the Kingdom and doesn't stand by itself. He is Alpha and Omega (and everything in the middle), which allows us to understand that from the beginning to the end, HE IS! 

It's important that we understand that in order to see the whole of the Scripture in Matthew 5, we must look at the earlier chapters for the set-up.  In Matthew 3 there was an earthly ministry transfer that was going on in the Earth.  Up to this point, John the Baptist was the "Voice" that people sought for direction. Jesus arrives and is baptized for righteousness sake.  He who is 100% God is also 100% Man and chose to walk in oder, because glory was getting ready to be released.  God's Word is eternal and His principles unlock the glory in every area of our lives. In the Old Testament the temple had to be set in "order" before the presence of God would reside there.  It's important here to embrace a vital Kingdom dynamic - Order precedes Glory!  So when Jesus stepped into the baptism with John, the TRANSFER OF HEAVEN'S VOICE was complete. 

In Matthew 4 Jesus steps into the next position of walking in the fullness of His purpose on the Earth.  He was LED BY THE SPIRIT INTO THE WILDERNESS!  We would love to skip over this chapter if we would ever assume that we would have to follow the steps of Jesus.  In today's society we have somehow come to the conclusion that we won't have any measure of wilderness if we say, "YES" to Jesus.  But the truth is, when we say, "YES" to Jesus, we say YES to being led by the same Spirit, that sometimes will walk you through a wilderness, to see what we truly stand upon.  Jesus in Matthew 4 does what Adam did not do, He defeated the temptation of the adversary by putting His position of righteousness and His dependency of the Word toward every accusation of the enemy.  When Jesus defeats Satan in the place of the wilderness, it was a battle that was necessary to win as the Son of Man, because it would pave the road of victory for all who will choose to follow.  The remarkable thing is that when Jesus comes out of the wilderness He is clearly walking in a highly recognizable authority.  Matthew 4:23-24 says that He preached, healed, and delivered all who were oppressed from various demonic attacks. As if that wasn't enough to get excited about, Jesus goes one step further in Matthew 5 by showing us that He never desires to give us "enough", but He truly wants us to know He is the God of MORE THAN ENOUGH.  Especially when it comes to the IDENTITY of His Children. 

In Matthew 5 He blows the defeated door of our identity wide open. You have to imagine that up to this point, the identity of Israel had nearly been lost as a "chosen people".  Jesus takes his followers the mountainside in order to speak into them all they would need in order for them to understand what it means to be His.  He opens up by saying, "BLESSED ARE the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of Heaven."  It doesn't sound so impressive or prosperous when you just read it from a Western culture perspective, but here is what this verse is saying.  First of all He opens by declaring BLESSING!  This word "blessed" is a greek word, "makarios" which indicates that it is something, LARGE in it's quantity and LONG in its duration.  It's a word indicating that a "congratulation and applause is in order".  WOW!  What God is saying to the hearer, is I don't have anything small or weak to give to My people.  I have something to give them that will last!  The second part is the qualification, "poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven". Poor in spirit is a statement of humility.  The Father requires humility to receive the Kingdom of Heaven. The proud and the "know- it-all" attitude cannot receive what is of the Kingdom of Heaven.  It's important that the BLESSING of Heaven requires our hearts and lives to be in the right position to receive the fullness.  One thing I want to reiterate is that ODER ALWAYS PRECEDES GLORY.  

Here is how this subject fits into the life of a believer;  One of the greatest questions, statement or situation in the life of most believer is, "What am I called to do or be?"  It's an important question to ask, but we have to understand that the same principle within Matthew 3, 4, and 5 apply to our purpose and identity within the Kingdom today.  God will not always lay it all in front of you to understand at the beginning.  He will have you stand in righteousness and walk through a wilderness to ultimately release a powerful IDENTITY on your life!  

God is more concerned with your POSITION BEFORE HIM than what you try to ACCOMPLISH FOR HIM.  He will always demand POSITION BEFORE DIRECTION.  If you are struggling in the area of direction for your life, family or ministry, I encourage you to go into Matthew 5 and see yourself from the context of this passage. The Father has nothing but good for you!  Position your heart and life before Him in humility and watch Him release a greater identity upon you than you could ever imagine.  This understanding is what gave the identity that we are a "CITY ON A HILL THAT CAN NOT BE HIDDEN".  What God desires to do for you and through you isn't small or even enough, but He wants to reveal Himself to you and through you as the God of MORE THAN ENOUGH!