The Path to Fulfillment

As we studied yesterday, the "Great Commission is not just making converts, but making disciples. The word disciple means "student." It also means "disciplined one." Both apply to our lives in Christ.

When we come to the Lord we become a lifelong student. As we read in I Corinthians 2:10, "... for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God." Because this is the Spirit's nature, if the Holy Spirit is leading us we too will always be searching to know the Lord deeper. We will be compelled to know His ways, not just His acts. True Christianity and shallowness are contradictory to each other.

Because the word "disciple" also means "a disciplined one," II Timothy 1:7 declares, "For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline." Few think of discipline as a fruit or gift of the Spirit, but it is very basic to the nature of the Spirit that we have been given. If we live by the Spirit we will be a disciplined people. This denotes controlling ourselves with focus and purpose. That is why "self-control" is listed as a fruit of the Spirit (see Galatians 5:22-24).

In I Timothy 4:7-8 we are told to "discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come." Nothing of significance has most likely ever been accomplished without discipline. If we will discipline ourselves in Christ we will accomplish things that will bear eternal fruit. If we want to do anything of significance we must seize and apply the great power that is released through discipline.

I have been told a few times by friends who have known me from childhood that they cannot understand how I ever accomplished the things that I have. I understand their perplexity. Many of them are smarter than I am, and much more gifted, yet they languish in jobs they hate while I am doing the kind of things they dream about. Why? Though I was a failure in school, and seemed destined to a life of failure, when I was born again I was given the gift of discipline. Something gripped me so that I knew there was nothing more important or more fulfilling than getting to know the Lord. While others were out having fun, I stayed home and studied for years. To them it looked like I was wasting my life, but now it looks like they are the ones who were wasting their opportunity to do something significant.

It does not matter how old you are, or how many years you may have wasted, it is not too late to change. All discipline will pay off. Our discipline in the Lord will bear eternal fruit. Many would begin to live lives of great fruitfulness and fulfillment if they took just the time they now spend in front of the television and instead spent it in front of the throne of God, seeking to know Him, giving themselves to His service. The following verses can change lives from one of defeat and discouragement into powerful demonstrations of the kingdom of God. Read them. Ponder them. Pray over them. Obey them.

and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him;For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives."It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness.All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness (Hebrews 12:5-11).

Do not waste your trials. They are more precious than gold. As the Lord said in Revelation 3:19: "Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; be zealous therefore, and repent."

The Great Commission

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given 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 the Son and the Holy Spirit,teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:18-20).

We have often confused the good news of our salvation through the cross with the message of the Great Commission. Of course this is included in the gospel, but the gospel is much more than personal salvation. The foundation of The Great Commission is that all authority has been given to Jesus, in both heaven and earth. The Great Commission is not just a proclamation of our salvation, but of His authority.

Of course, our redemption is so wonderful, and the message of the love of God that is established by it is so profound, that it is easy to understand why many have a difficult time seeing beyond it. However, if we are to fulfill The Great Commission we must see beyond it. We were not commanded to go into all of the world with the gospel of salvation, but with the gospel of the kingdom, as we read in Matthew 24:14:

"And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come."

The gospel of the kingdom is the good news that Jesus is the King who sits above all rule and authority and power. He can at anytime reveal to the whole world that He is the King by peeling back the heavens. However, until the time of His return, He is seeking to call those who so love God and His truth that they will live in His kingdom now, even though they are opposed by the whole world that still lies in the power of the evil one.

We first proclaim Him as our own King by submitting our lives to His leadership and dominion. Then we seek to proclaim the good news of how much more wonderful it is to live under His dominion rather than under the domain of this present evil age. However, our message will be hollow and empty unless we are in fact living under His dominion.That is why the Great Commission was not just to make converts, but to make disciples, teaching them to observe "all" that He has commanded. The most important step in any journey is usually the first, but we must acknowledge that the first step is just the beginning. As wonderful as it is to be born again, when one is born again they are as far from their ultimate purpose as an infant is from being the President of the United States. I use this example of the President because a Christian is called to something much higher than that—which is ruling and reigning with Christ.

The author of the Book of Hebrews laments that he cannot give his readers solid food, but can only give them milk because of their immaturity. Hebrews is one of the deepest theological books in the Bible, with few Christians even comprehending many of its teachings such as that about the Melchezedek priesthood, yet the author says that this book is only milk! (see Hebrews 5:11-14) Where does this leave us? How do we go on to maturity so that we can partake of solid food spiritually?

The Lord spoke something to me nearly twenty years ago that so jolted me that I have since been on a quest trying to understand it. What the Lord said was that many multi-level marketers understand kingdom principles better than the present leaders of the church. An important insight about this statement came to me recently from a friend of mine, who has been one of the most successful multi-level marketers. I asked him what he considered to be the secret of his success. He replied quickly that it was the fact that when someone entered their business they were immediately shown how far they could go, and that each step toward their goal was clearly defined so that they always knew where they were in relation to their goal, and what they needed to do next to go higher.

How many Christians can say that in relation to their purposes in Christ? How many even know the next step toward pressing on to maturity? In poles I have taken in our conferences it seems that less than 5 percent of Christians even know what their own purpose in Christ is. This must be one of the great and tragic failures of the modern church.

When I had the prophetic experience that I wrote about in The Final Quest, I had to climb a mountain. Each level on that mountain represented a biblical truth. As I climbed higher, I received more authority to defeat the enemies who were attacking us, and I also began to see more of the glory of the Lord. Since that time I have sought the wisdom of the Lord as to how to best implement the climbing of that mountain into our ministry and our message.

It is for the reason of trying to impart this systematic spiritual progression that I am writing this kind of book. Even though it is a daily devotional, I think that you can see a systematic progression in it. I am already writing the next one, which I believe can help show the way to an even higher realm on the mountain of the Lord. As Proverbs 4:18 declares, "But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day." The light that we walk in should be getting continually brighter.

MorningStar Ministries

The Place of Miracles

For the kingdom of God does not consist in words, but in power (I Corinthians 4:20).

When the Lord fed the thousands with just a few fish and loaves, what made this miracle so great was that so much was done with so little. The Lord gets more glory when we have less in our hands to do His works with. One of the greatest hindrances to our seeing the miracles of God is when we have too much.

When the Lord calls us to do a task, we must resist looking to our resources for the ability to carry it out, but rather look to God's resources. Having much may actually hinder us from doing great things for Him. When the Lord set about to change the world He did not start accumulating a large treasury for the task. He just looked for twelve men that He could anoint. Even the men that He chose were lacking in the natural gifts and abilities to carry out such a purpose. However, the Lord did not need their abilities. He only needed a few who would be willing vessels for the Holy Spirit.

Years ago the Lord said to me that money was my least valuable resource. It is a resource, and has some value, but it is the least of what we need to carry out His purposes. We need the Holy Spirit. There are a couple of crucial factors about the Holy Spirit that we need to understand if we are going to be used by Him. These are highlighted in the very first mention of the Spirit in Genesis 1:2:

And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.

Here we see that in the first mention of the Holy Spirit, He is moving. In almost every mention of Him in Scripture He is moving. In John 3:8 we are told, "The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit." Those who are born of the Spirit will also be moving. The Christian life is not static—it is always moving, flowing, going somewhere. This is the nature of those who are born of the Spirit.

The second major factor we notice about the Spirit in Genesis is that He brought forth this glorious creation out of that which was formless and void. He still loves to do this. We do not have to be perfect for Him to use us. We can actually be over-organized and over-prepared for Him to be able to use us. The Lord is not against organization, but in our pitiful little human perspectives our organization is often the result of majoring on minors. We want to get things ready, but He wants to get us ready. Our readiness is not dependent on the material realm, but on a heart that loves, trusts, and obeys Him.

It was for this reason that the Lord of the universe was born in a stable, the most humble, unlikely place He could have chosen. The only way that He could be found was by revelation. The same is still true of those things that are truly born of God. The Lord is not waiting until our building is big enough, for us to have enough money in the bank, or even for us to get a certain degree. He is waiting for us to have faith in Him, not in ourselves, and not in our stuff, but in Him.

A Time for Miracles

And when it was evening, the disciples came to Him, saying, "The place is desolate, and the time is already past; so send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves."But Jesus said to them, "They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!" (Matthew 14:15-16)

I was told that this coming year was going to be a year of miracles for us, and that we were going to see some of the greatest miracles we have ever witnessed because we are going to need them!

Many want to see miracles, but how many are willing to be put in a place where they need one? Miracles are not given for our entertainment, neither are they given to build our faith. They are the result of our having faith. Almost every miracle was the result of a desperate need. The greater the need, the greater the miracle.

How great would the miracle have been to feed the five thousand if the disciples had hundreds of fishes and loaves, and just needed a little more? It was a great miracle because they had so little in their own hands with which to do what they were asked by God to do.

When we are called by God to do a task, we often begin to look at what resources we have to perform it. This can be the beginning of our fall from the faith that will be required to do the true works of God. It is at the point that we see our resources running out that we will experience the power of God. What we need to do the true works of God will not be found in our own resources, or our own wisdom, but in the limitless resources of God.

We know that "God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble" (see James 4:6). However, there is a false humility that is an offense to God, and can keep us from being useful to Him. It was this kind of false humility that Moses displayed when God first called him at the burning bush.

When the Lord told Moses that He was sending him back to release His people from bondage, Moses responded by saying that he was not adequate for this great task. This seemed humble, but it caused the anger of the Lord to burn against Moses. The Lord was angry because this seeming humility was actually an ultimate form of pride, and an affront to God. Moses was saying that his inadequacy was greater than God's adequacy. He was focusing on himself instead of the Lord. This is the one thing that may have caused more people to fail to fulfill their calling than any other single factor.

We will never be adequate within ourselves for what the Lord calls us to do. In our flesh, which is our natural strength, we cannot accomplish one thing for the Lord. That is why Paul the Apostle told the men of Athens that the Lord is not served by human hands. Only the Spirit can begat that which is spirit. We are utterly dependent on the Lord to do His work. We will never be adequate within ourselves for His work, and if we ever start to feel adequate we will almost certainly be in the midst of a fall from grace.

True faith is not a feeling of adequacy in ourselves, but rather of our focus on the adequacy of God. True faith is not a faith in our faith, but a faith in Him. The greatest faith is that which can see and believe in His provision in the time of the most pressing need. We need to see every circumstance that is beyond ourselves as an opportunity to see a miracle. If we are faithful in the little opportunities, He will bless us with greater ones. And yes, those blessings are trials.

We are about to see great miracles, because He is going to allow us to come into places where we are going to need them. Let us determine now that we are not going to focus on the need, or ourselves, but on Him. Let us prepare for these opportunities by focusing on Him today.
Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God.But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called

"Today," lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end;while it is said, "Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me" (Hebrews 3:12-15).

The Zone

"The steadfast of mind Thou wilt keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in Thee (Isaiah 26:3).

A few months ago I was on a retreat with several dozen NFL and NBA players. Many of them were All-Stars or All-Pros. For years I have studied leadership and tried to understand what enables some to excel while others with seemingly more talent do not do as well. Just sitting around talking with some of these players led to some of the best answers I have received yet to this question.

One term that you will often hear around sports is "the zone." It is a state when mind and body seem to be in perfect harmony, and it allows a player to rise to a level of performance that is beyond his or her usual level. When a player is in "the zone" they seem unstoppable. I started questioning some of these players about "the zone" and they all used the same terms to describe it. To them it was basically a state of mind where they were able to tune out all of the usual distractions and focus completely on their task. When they could maintain this focus, they would have the feeling that no one could stop them, and usually they were right.

I then happened upon a magazine article written by a psychologist who had spent his professional life studying sports, and he too was especially interested in "the zone." He described it as basically "the ability to focus under pressure." The factors that he felt most affected players negatively were interestingly anger and fear. As stated previously, studies have shown how just a moment of rage could sap the same amount of strength as many hours of hard labor. Likewise, just a moment of terror or even thirty minutes of a subtler anger, or general worry, can sap us of the same amount of strength as many hours of hard labor. Therefore, for athletes to enter "the zone" they must stay completely focused on their task without giving way to either anger or fear. To the degree that they can do this is the degree they will be able to rise to greater heights of performance.

This is not just true for athletes. Anger and fear are two of the deadliest enemies of any purpose or task. How much of our energy is being sapped by anger or anxiety? How many potentially great accomplishments were derailed by unforgiveness or bitterness? How many great works of faith were derailed by fear?

Just as an athlete becomes a "superstar" when they perform their best in the biggest games, the greatest acts of faith are the result of being able to focus on the Lord in times of the greatest pressure. This is the result of learning to focus on Him more and more each day. If we do not see Him in the little things we will not be able to see Him in the great ones.

Our goal should be not only to do everything that we do for Him, but with Him. When we live by beholding the One who is above all rule and authority and dominion, when we live our lives focused on the One who is so all-powerful that He upholds the universe with the word of His power, we too will rise above the usual to live in the realm of miracles.

Today while you are on the job, or with your family or friends, and something comes up that could anger or discourage you, look to the Lord immediately. Determine that you are not going to have your life sapped by anger or fear, but that you are going to use every opportunity to grow in faith and the peace of God. Determine that you are going to be a vessel for the Lord to use in those circumstances to impart faith and peace to others. Your life will change. Your performance will rise to previously unknown heights, not because you are staying in "the zone," but because you are abiding in the Spirit.

MorningStar Ministries

Anxiety Versus the Kingdom

"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you. "Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own" (Matthew 6:33-34).

This passage states that if we are seeking His kingdom we will not be anxious for tomorrow. If we are anxious it is because we have been distracted from seeking His kingdom.

Anxiety is not a fruit of the Spirit, and if we allow anxiety to lead us, the Spirit will not lead us. Anxiety is a deadly enemy. It is one of the primary ways that we are led astray from our purposes. We are therefore exhorted in Philippians 4:6-7:

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

The peace of God is the counter to anxiety. His peace will guard our hearts and minds so that we abide in Christ Jesus. As we see in this text, His peace is the result of taking our cares to Him in prayer. How would our lives be changed if all of the time that is now consumed by worry wasinstead used for prayer? Most of our lives would be radically different because God answers prayer, not worry. When we pray He changes things. He also changes us. We would see the world very differently if we saw it through the eyes of faith instead of fear.

Isaiah 6:1-3 is now one of the most important Scriptures to me, but when I was a new believer I could not understand these verses. It reads:

In the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.And one called out to another and said, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory."

Of course, I did not have a problem believing that the Lord was holy, but with all of the wars, poverty, oppression, child abuse, sickness, and death, I could not understand how these seraphim could say that the whole earth was filled with His glory. Then one day the Lord spoke to me and said, "The reason that these seraphim see the whole earth filled with My glory is because they dwell in My presence. If you will dwell in My presence you too will see My glory in everything."

Dwelling in the presence of the Lord helps us to see beyond the temporary circumstances to His eternal purposes in His kingdom. This will change the way we see, the way we live, and the way we are.

MorningStar Ministries

Out of Control and Into Faith

Each morning as I pray over the different ministries in MorningStar, I am confronted by the truth that what we are doing is far beyond my ability to control. I could spend all of my time with any one of the eight major ministry divisions and it would not be enough, yet I can only give each one a tiny fraction of my time. I am also challenged by the fact that each of these ministries can have an impact on Christians around the world because of the influence that we have. As I was pondering the weight of this responsibility, I began to think of my family, and how I can only give a fraction of my time to them. The burden and guilt of this was getting heavy on me until I felt the presence of the Lord. It was as if He was putting a hand on my shoulder. He then reminded me that He upholds the universe with His power; this little ministry and my little family are no problem! I have come to believe that all human responsibilities are beyond human ability. That means that there is nothing that we can do right without God. It is because I cannot micro-manage our ministry that it leaves plenty of room for Him to move. It also leaves room for others to grow in the ministry. This is not to promote irresponsibility on my part, such as not spending the right amount of time with the ministry or with my family, but the right amount is found in each of these areas by following the Lord and being obedient day by day. I will not get anything right if I do not get this part right. The Lord said in Matthew 11:29-30:
"Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls."For My yoke is easy, and My load is light."When I first read how the Lord will reward His faithful servants by giving them cities to rule over in the kingdom, I was shocked. That did not sound like a reward to me, but punishment! I did not even want to oversee a neighborhood, much less a city. If I could do just what I wanted to do, it would be to spend all of my time in prayer, study, and with my family. I love the fellowship of the church, but overseeing even a small church is beyond any desire that I have, much less a large ministry with a growing number of churches. However, I have found that it is in the place of responsibility that we can have very close fellowship with the Lord. He is the King of kings, so responsibility is what He does. We are in training for reigning with Him. The reigning may not be the reward, but the fellowship with Him in reigning will be our reward. If we want to abide with Him we must learn to find fellowship with Him in all responsibility, and in all authority. The year of 2000 was a sabbatical year for our ministry. Although we greatly reduced our activities to honor it, I do not ever remember being busier. However, the true issue of a sabbatical is not just resting from work, but it is learning to abide in the Lord and His rest. The Lord helped us to enter His rest by giving us so much to do that we could not possibly do it without Him. I was reading an article on what separates people like Tiger Woods and other star athletes from their peers who sometimes have more talent. The conclusion was that it was their ability to stay focused and to stay calm under pressure. This is also probably a key issue that separates those who bear much fruit from those who are bearing little or none. However, our focus is not just on our tasks, but also on something infinitely greater—the Lord Himself. We are not just trying to stay calm, but abide in the peace of the Lord. Studies have shown that one minute of rage can sap the strength of a normal eight hour period. Just being angry for a few minutes can do the same thing. Worry also drains our energy at an amazing rate, even much faster than hard labor. How much more effective could we be, and how much more energy would we have, if we would abide in the peace of the Lord? Could this be why Paul wrote that "...the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet" (see Romans 16:20)?This is also a reason why elders in the church cannot be "quick tempered" (see Titus 1:7), or given to outbursts of anger. There are few things that can sap our effectiveness like anger, or fear. In contrast, faith releases the power that created the universe. We often think of great faith as something that happens spontaneously so that we can be used for a miracle or healing. However, the greatest faith of all, and the most effective, is to live day by day trusting Him. It is by trusting Him so much that we look at every problem as an opportunity to see His work in our lives. It is not worrying, but rather trusting and abiding in the peace of God that will crush anything that Satan tries to do to us. If the Lord created the world out of chaos, He can easily deal with any problem that we have. I have heard many Christians say that they know the Lord can do miracles, but they just do not know if He will. However, He has said that He always will do miracles if we believe Him. Therefore, as we read in John 6:28-29:
They said therefore to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?"Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent."Our main job is not to build a church, or a ministry, but to grow in the Lord and to grow in faith. As a ministry we are just now being moved into position to begin our ultimate mission. When we look at the task we will always be overwhelmed because it will always be much bigger than we are. It is at the point where we cannot do it that He takes over. Our goal is not the work itself, but to grow in faith in the One who alone can accomplish it. We have been promised that we are entering a time when we will see great miracles. We need to also understand that this is probably because we are being thrust into a place where we are going to need them. Even so, that is what most of us have signed up for. We want to be a part of what God is building, not men. Let us continue to prepare for our purpose by seeing every problem, every obstacle, as an opportunity to see a miracle. Let us determine to abide in the peace of God so that we can see the God of peace crush Satan under our feet (see Romans 16:20). We must also recognize anger and wrath as the great enemies of our purposes. We cannot allow them to gain entry into the fortress of faith that we are called to build. They are the primary enemies who will seek to drain us of our faith, our focus, and even the physical energy that we have been given.

MorningStar Ministries