Quotes from Chapter 2, so far:
The second dimension in the process of the making of a prince is the perception of God given dreams. The ability to perceive the perception of God given dreams – the ability to perceive what God deposits in your spirit.
The ability to perceive what God deposits on the inside of your hearts and how to decipher what is inside you, how to read what is inside of you and how to understand what God has deposited inside you in the spirit.
If you can discover that, you will be made a prince because you will not be doing what everyone else is doing – you will not be “chop suey.”
Doing everything that everybody else is doing is just what is called universal.
But when you do what the Holy Spirit lays within you it will be called the specific plans of God.
You have so many potentials, but if you pursue all your potentials it doesn’t mean you are fulfilling destiny.
Divide potential from destiny. Destiny is what God has planned for you… what God places in your heart… which you must discover. Potential is what you can do by yourself.
You will amount to something, you will become God’s choice instrument, you will become an instrument that will affect people around your life, and you will go ahead and preserve lives.
Don’t let the older generation try and keep you from where you ought to be, my friend take flight.
You receive the future in your heart by agreeing with what God has said so that you can go to where He has called you to go. It is so important.
We can allow the Holy Ghost to do something in our heart, we can turn our whole course around; its better now then never. It’s better to do it now than not to do it at all. If we turn now, then things can happen in the next few years, and God can establish us in the way that He wants us to go.
My Reaction Paper (lol)
I apologize in advance… because as I kept reading through Chapter 2, it just bothered me a bit. Discouraging dependency on ourselves? No problem there, but then not making things clear as to what God puts into our hearts?
Remember how we had perfect or nothing exams? I hated those. You make one mistake and it’s all over for you. That’s sort of what I’m seeing here. Sure, we’re told that we shouldn’t do it on our own – that we shouldn’t allow ourselves to be defined by the world, nor should we depend on ourselves to dream – because, apparently, we can only go as far as wish.
But on the other hand, you’re being told to depend on the Holy Spirit to define everything for you, but all of a sudden, if you allow just a little bit of yourself to be involved or to contribute, well, you ‘lose’ it. Perfect or nothing.
We like to tell people that what we’re following is a relationship, and not a religion. Where’s the relationship here, if what we’re insinuating is that we allow God and ONLY God to move in our lives? Saying stuff like ‘all of You, and none of me‘ sounds so noble, but Christ didn’t come down and do all that He did for domination and uniformity. Christ came to bear witness of the Truth: The Father’s desire and will, the Ministry of Reconciliation (John 18:37, 2 Corinthians 5:18-19). It was for relationship, partnership, coordination, cooperation, collaboration.
If we weren’t supposed to have a say in our own desires and wishes, then why even bother making us new creations? This whole, false, mystic yet ever so appealing ‘all of You and none of me’, ‘dying to self’, and all this – it must end.
It has to be said, because for too long we’ve been telling people of salvation by the grace of God, the finished work of Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit… BUT for you (1) to ‘keep’ your salvation and/or (in this case) (2) to ‘reign in life’, ‘be blessed’ (insert prosperity, healing, favor), to ‘have an edge over everyone else’, and even to ‘grow’, ‘mature’, etc… you’re either being given (1) a whole new set of laws to follow (church attendance, total ‘holiness’ according to God knows whose standard, etc) and/or (again, in this case) (2) a goal made vague enough that we would be left grasping for straws; praying, fasting, reading, ultimately conflicted between waiting and moving; decision anxiety.
Dr. Farley said it best, for me – It’s all of Christ, and all of me, in a perfect union.
Now, with all this being said, I am still agreeing – we ARE given dreams by the Lord. Prophesied by Joel, confirmed by Peter. But although there was a differentiation between dreams and wishes, and between dreams and desires, there were no differentiations between divine dreams and human dreams.
26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. John 15:26
3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:3
14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.John 16:14
So let me set the record straight for us. How do we know if what is placed in us comes from God? We have the greatest of Allies to help us with this: None other than the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit gives only what He has been given from God, and all that comes from Him: Messages, Words, Dreams, Songs, Thoughts, Inspirations, Motivations, and so on – ALL of it points to Jesus Christ and His finished work.
If a dream is from God, it is from the Holy Spirit – and it glorifies Jesus. It points to Jesus.
If a worship endeavor, a missions seminar, a movement, cause, or advocacy is from God, it is from the Holy Spirit – and it glorifies Jesus. It ALL points to Jesus.
Said it once, and I’ll say it again: That’s precisely why followers of Christ were called ‘Christians’, and as a derogatory term, because (by the Holy Spirit) they glorified Him. They pointed to Him.
The Gnostics were called Gnostics because they glorified Gnosis and pointed to Gnosis. Baptists? Methodists?
Pentecostals? I serve at a Pentecostal church, and sure as we give emphasis to the events at Pentecost, we give emphasis to the Holy Spirit – but I guess we have it made because EVENTUALLY this same Holy Spirit points back to Christ.
I suppose this is why Christ warned against the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit – why? Because of what it really is: Continuous, persistent, intentional refusal to listen to the Spirit glorifying Christ, or to refuse to believe in who He points us to – again, Christ. That’s the REAL root to all that we claim that this blasphemy is – backsliding, ‘living in sin’, ‘habitual sin’.
So here’s what I propose. Instead of waiting for dreams, can’t we live life knowing that every dream we have is dreamt with Jesus?
Can’t we live life, and real life, knowing that every thought we have is thought with Jesus?
Yes, I do mean the well-intentioned thoughts with all their underlying ‘selfish’ intentions, as much as I mean the evil ones that (thankfully) stay in our minds and never take form in word and/or deed – to know that we’re thinking our thoughts with Jesus means that we’re reminded of His goodness and mercy, and are therefore steered towards making more of a thought with the proper precautions and guidance, if not flat out reminding ourselves that He was born, died, rose again and ascended to make us better than that lustful, selfish, greedy, wrathful, otherwise deathly thought!
So I say again: Can’t we live life, and real life, knowing that every thought we have is thought with Jesus?
Can’t we feel our feelings, without suppressing them, knowing that every feeling we have is felt with Jesus?
In the Old Testament Ezekiel prophesied that God would pour out His Spirit on the people of Israel, that they would walk in His statutes and obey His rules. In the New Testament, Christ ascended for the Holy Spirit to be poured out upon the disciples, the same Spirit of Truth that convicts the world of righteousness for the sake of those who have not seen Christ – if only for them to know that we (believers, Jew and Gentile) have MORE than the privilege of walking in His commandments, but we have Christ, the living Word, living in us!
Christ fulfilled the Old Testament prophecy, so now we have hearts of flesh.
By the power of the Holy Spirit, Paul gives us a New Testament revelation: We have the mind of Christ.
Now, I’m thinking – is there something wrong with this way I’m thinking, here and now?
What if it was actually right, that I’m actually being more selfish, and I’m only rationalizing ‘partnership’? Then we were never really reconciled.
Much like every thing this world brings to our consideration, so we must also go through the litmus test question – What if I’m wrong?
Well, then I wouldn’t want to believe in a entity that wants to control and subjugate me, selfish and going far beyond dealing with my stubbornness.
‘Natatamaan ba ako?‘ (Was I ‘hit’ by this statement?) Sure. I’m not hiding anything. I have my desires. I have my goals. I ALSO have my shortcomings. My struggles. But, well, in all of it, I have peace.
I was with a younger friend of mine – you know the type, the one that talks about anything and everything under the sun, but you still stick around with him (1) because you know what he’s going through and (2) more importantly, he does have even the smallest of consideration to pause in between all he has to say to ask you, ‘What about you, kuya, how are you right now?’
Without hesitation, I told him I was happy. Obviously, could be better, could be worse. I have nothing, but everything. I’m, happy.
And, instead of immediately going back to his tirades he took just a few precious seconds to say, ‘I like that, kuya.’
The Pharisees were trying their darndest to convince the once blind man that he was healed by God – that he should give glory to Him, and not to this son of a carpenter who was, according to them, all sorts of evil.
To them, the once-blind man replied, ‘Whether He is a sinner or not, I do not know – One thing I DO know: I was once blind and that now I can see.‘
To the world trying desperately to please their notion of God… One thing I DO know: Through Christ, I’m happy. I HAVE the peace that goes beyond all human understanding.
And He deserves all the glory and praise.
It’s all of Christ, and all of us – as in everything comprising of our being – in a perfect union.
It’s all of Christ, and all of us – as in all of us in the body of Christ – in a perfect union.
It’s all of Christ, and all of all of us, in a perfect union.
The old ‘self’ has died on the cross – there’s nothing left there, no matter how hard we try to go back.
We’re the new creation – again, in perfect union; Alive and saved now and forever, as Christ lives forever.
Righteous and alive, together forever; Not by our works, but by blessings that are infinitely superior to any ‘blessing’ we dictate on earth:
The grace of God, the finished work of Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit reveals things, gives things, that point to Christ.
In all that happens to us, the Holy Spirit points it all to Christ.
In all we make happen, the Holy Spirit points it all to Christ.
Trust in the Lord.
Now, with all this in mind, I’d like to go through the rest of Chapter 2, and see how it all connects to our blood-bought freedom, our life with Christ – as He is in me, and in all of us.
Until then… God bless us all.
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