Crackdown 2

note to self:
-thanksgiving
-make it your own
-elementaries
-prayer

Responsibility

Going off from the last post.. about sharing. I remember realizing that this was the call to our 'fellowshipping' with the body, that our fellowship should result in a mutual blessing, as we share testimonies or what God is teaching us (hence, a GOD-centered fellowship), then as a result, everyone who hears and the one speaking is blessed. This is why we rejoice together as one body, why we mourn as one body and receive healing as one body. Going back to the point... our call as a body in fellowship is to sharpen each other and build each other up, and when you have the typical kind of 'fellowship' you see in so many Christian clubs and youth groups you end up with frustrated and empty Christ-followers. This first frustrated me a few years ago, and now I realize that it's very difficult to see fruitful fellowship in any gathering of believers if none have fellowshipped with the Living God. If we are born again in the spirit, then there is no fruit in fellowshipping by the flesh. If we are born again in the spirit we must be walking in the spirit, led by the spirit, and in this case, fellowship in the spirit. How can we expect to fulfill God's call to fellowship when we have not first fulfilled the call of the cross?

The reason why I enjoy going to Freedom rather than my 'home' church is because I know that the people at freedom seek God. You can see the supernatural peace of God --that rests on those who cast their worries on Him and who enter His gates with thanksgiving-- resting in their lives by the way they speak and by their joy. The love of God has encountered each of them in a way that it overflows and it becomes the joy of the Lord that is their strength. Every single time I open the door and step inside, I literally feel the peace of God in that room... may it be like that everywhere I go.

So what does this have to do with responsibility? Everything. When you realize everyone on this planet is here for 'such a time as this', then you will start taking responsibility. It's realizing that everyone in the world is so connected to the effect of 'six-degrees-of-separation'. It's realizing that one blessing can be multiplied. It's realizing that the loaves of bread and the two fish that little boy gave(the blessing), by the power of God can be multiplied into food enough to feed 5000+ (more blessings), including the boy himself. <-- (yea see that part about the loaves, God just showed me a truth about the parable of the feeding of the 5000. ZOMG.) See, all the little boy did was share, when God invades the equation, anything can happen. "God can win with any hand. Even if it's a pair of twos" -Bill Johnson. Here, I'll illustrate the little boy's loaves in another way.

Quoc is my old pastor. Keep that in mind. I don't know the extent of what my sharing has done, but i know people have been blessed because of what God has done in my life. Starting small. If I had never been to the retreat where Quoc spoke and first convicted me of my lukewarmness, none of those people God has touched through me, would have been touched. Now Quoc. He's spoken at so many retreats and places, the number of people touched by God because of him.. is countless. If he had never attended freedom, taught by pastor Hoa or had never been blessed by his church, then he would not have effected all those people including me. Now Freedom. Freedom is now an international network of 20+ churches in i think... 3 or 4 nations. If Pastor Hoa never got saved, answered God's call, took up the pastoring position there, followed God's plan, the church would not be where it is today, Quoc would not be the way he is today, nor would I, nor would any of the people God has touched through them. I am 100% sure the list goes further than just Pastor Hoa, but that was just 3 links, you already see the massive fruit just from Pastor Hoa's obedience and diligence from the moment he got saved, to this moment as a pastor, father, and most of all a lover of God. His decision for Christ has indirectly impacted countless people, more than I can try to imagine. Back to responsibility.

God has placed every believer where they are for a reason. The people that only you know, the people you hang out with that no one else does, the people you work with, the people that you see that I don't see. You were meant to minister to their life in a certain way. We must realize that how much we pray directly impacts the lives of the people we pray for, and in return, people may bless us back (like a testimony, or they start praying for you) as a result of our prayers. When I think about this, I realize that in any spiritual lack in my life, there is an element of my own failure, to pray for my own heart or to build someone else up. If there is no one at my school for me to fellowship with, it is because I have not interceded for someone's heart to be reconciled to God, or I have not asked God and sought for one who believes. If I am struggling with temptation, it is because I have not followed the word of God and resist temptation, or I have not followed God when He was trying to lead me to still waters and green pastures, or I have not realized my weakness and called a fellow brother to keep me accountable. And because of all my struggle in my own self, I have been disabled, unable to pour out love on an unbelieving friend, to pray for the broken-hearted, to lay hands on the sick, to teach deliverance, and even to worship with a pure heart. As I think about it more and more I realize that my decisions today directly effect other people today, and myself tomorrow. Had I been cultivating a sensitivity to the voice of God instead of spending time on youtube, then I wouldn't be missing as many of God's urgings for me to call an old friend and speak prophetically into their life or give an encouragement or give a word of knowledge. Had I known earlier that all believers in Christ have authority over all principality and powers in this earth including the devil himself and the power of death, then many people would no longer think that crutches and casts are part of a normal healing process.

Ah... just thinking about all this makes me think about the greatness of God's kingdom.

I'm missing so much stuff..

-brandon.