December 04, 2005
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A Longing Fulfilled is a Tree of Life God’s People Hear His Voice – One of the delightful discoveries I had as a pastor was learning how well Christians can hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. Every Sunday or during every class I would try to share something fresh with an anointing. Sometimes I was successful, sometimes partially, and sometimes out of step. When my words came out I could tell whether God was speaking or whether is was just me. What surprised me was that I could also tell that everyone else knew just as quickly whether is was God or me as well. My words either resonated with what the Holy Spirit was saying or they did not. Everyone knew the difference. Years of Bible College and study were no substitute for “Ears that can hear.” Back to the Garden - I’m hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit in Proverbs 13:12 and its resonating with his people. Kings are sensing the permission of God to ask Him for their longings and they are receiving answers. Many have known the sickness of hope deferred. But now the Holy Spirit is wooing them back to the garden, to fellowship, to the tree of life (Jesus) and to the fulfillment of their heart’s desires.
When we reread Genesis 2:9, we are reminded that Adam and Eve were not restricted from the Tree of Life. They apparently had the opportunity to eat and live forever. In a very practical sense God is restoring that part of our relational vitality with Him. The process of Kings “overcoming” is returning to Jesus, the Tree of Life (see Jn 10:10).
Is there warfare around this process? Most certainly! The enemy does not want you to enjoy your relationship with God; you might start bearing fruit. Here’s how practical it gets. God wants you to experience the joy of asking for the desires of your heart and experiencing the joy and life that comes from His answer.
Breaking Poverty – A Poverty spirit is largely a belief that your heart’s desires are corrupt and that you’re unworthy of answered prayer. To break that spirit we have to go beyond asking for spiritual thing… and settling for needs. We have to ask for the level of abundance that goes with the perfect will of God. We have to ask at the level of God’s promise and contend for all of our inheritance. We have to ask for the desires of our heart to catch the fullness of what Jesus has done for us. The Ability to Produce Wealth – I want you to see the connection between finding “life” and wealth. You see, we used to think life was salvation (it is). Then we found life in worship (there is). Then we learned that Jesus had the meat of ministry in Jn 4:34 and we found the life that comes from ministry to others (it's true). I want to take you to another level. Life also includes the thrill pursuing our heart’s desire. In a real sense it’s being entrepreneurial – finding our way toward this amazing marriage of His will and our will. You not only get to pursue your desire, you get the time to do it, and you prosper financially doing it. It’s all part of his covenant. Here's a little secret. Your ability to minister to others really starts when you find your own heart's desire "and" the prosperity that goes with it. Then you'll produce Kings; before then you'll produce servants. We can only impart what we have.
Magic wealth transfer – I’m uncomfortable with the emphasis on “end time transfer of wealth.” God does judge sin in a way that transfers wealth from the wicked to people that are righteous. In fact, the parable of the talents and minas include stories of God transferring wealth away from disobedient Christians to the faithful.
Producing wealth to expand the Kingdom is like the will of God. If you don't want to do it, He will find someone else who is willing. I want to suggest this concept of transferring wealth is a minor component of the wealth that will be “produced” by healthy Christians who are willing to be entrepreneurial. We’re coming out of an era where the marketplace was considered sinful. Commerce, interest, and capital have all been tainted as evil somewhere back in our church tradition. The poverty mindset is still “too spiritual” to allow us to become entrepreneurs and actually make money and break out of the paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle. A poverty theology remains passive and believes God to move money from the pockets of sinners into our pockets. I wouldn’t recommend waiting for wealth transfers from the wicked to show up in your checking account or trying to exercise faith for it either. Make a plan and work toward your desire.
Producing Wealth – The “Keys to the Kingdom of God” are the power Christians are being given to appropriate the resources of heaven. God’s people are being given amazing favor for creativity, new inventions, new opportunities, new directions, new levels of influence, and new levels of power. It's not recycled wealth being transferred from sinners; it's brand new from the throne room. God’s people are trading in their passive poverty for initiative. We're learning to work smarter instead of harder.
We’re like teenagers asking Father for the keys to the car. The only thing wrong with that analogy is that we’re not 16; most of us way past 16 and the keys have been available for the asking for quite some time. Thank you Jesus. You didn't give up on me. You kept on knocking... asking me to give my poverty mentality. Life is an adventure. People are a blessing. God is amazing. We're winning.
Love, John & Harold (are dancing - Join us)
Conferences - The Last trip to the Netherlands was a real eye-opener! I greatly underestimated the value of our book, the impact of the message on individual lives, and the value of live conferences. I witnessed the power of God being unleashed in the hearts of men and women by simply explaining the theology and experience behind releasing their heart's desire to expand the Kingdom. Seeing the lights come up in the hearts of God's people feels like sponsoring a jailbreak. One of my goals is to equip others to help us share the message in conference formats before we get overwhelmed with the momentum of what God is about to do. If your church or organization is ready, we can help you start a fire... a big one! Send us your feedback! We get blessed by your emails at "You Wrote Back"
Past newsletters are now Indexed to Chapters in Releasing Kings! Newsletters associated with chapter 17 relate to this weeks theme _____________________________________________________________________ Interested in your own WEB? We've posted information on the software we use to create this web site. If you survive the learning curve without losing your sanctification (mine is barely intact), it really is easy to use and the cost is $299 a year - much less expensive than hiring someone. The primary benefit is the ease of making your own changes. Additional info is at: http://www.releasing-kings.com/releasing-websites.html
Progress - Kingly Bio's are Up We've completed the first round of interviews with Kings. These are real people that have been blessed by God in the Market Place and have hearts for ministry. Check it out at http://www.releasing-kings.com/Interviewing-Kings.html. If you have a success story, we'd like to post it by giving you a web page on our site.
Progress - A Teacher's Guide We've completed the first version of a study guide that targets those teaching the material in Releasing Kings. It includes a page of notes on each chapter, all the graphics suitable to make overheads, and a PDF file of the book with the key points highlighted that includes marginal notes, comments, and questions. This material is available for purchase on the teacher's guide page of the web. 509-308-6873
God has given us a great tool to communicate a message that sets people free in an amazing, contagious, life-changing way. If you haven't read it - get it. If you have read it - give it. http://www.releasing-kings.com/Ordernow.html
We've gotten a ton of positive feedback on the newsletter too... get it, give it. Reloading Seniors was powerful. Pass the link on. http://www.releasing-kings.com/Newsletter.html
PS: don't forget to look at the free reports - show your pastor the article on marketplace ministry from the pastor's perspective. You can simply email him this link or print a copy to give him. http://releasing-kings.com/pastors-perspective.html
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