We Are Ambassadors

Paul wrote a letter to the Corinthian church and tried to capture the idea of what God has done for them.  He was grasping for the best idea to convey how God saw them in the earth today, and of all the ways he examined, he decided that the best description of a Christian would be that of an Ambassador (2 Corinthians 5:20).

Wouldn’t it be strange if the American ambassador to another country was afraid to stand up and say, “I represent America”?  What would the American government do if the ambassador was afraid to state its point of view?

An ambassador is the sent one of the U.S.A.  Do we think he or she is being arrogant if they declare that they are sent to a certain country on behalf of the U.S.A.? No!  That’s a good thing and we expect them to do that! So why do people in Christian circles accuse others of being proud or arrogant when they do the same thing acting as an ambassador of heaven?

As an ambassador I have a right to speak for the Kingdom as long as I am speaking the message of the Kingdom, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  These are the words of my country.

The devil knows you are an ambassador, and God knows you are an ambassador. When are you going to realize that you are an ambassador?  In Acts 19:15 the demon spoke to the seven sons of Sceva, “Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you?” The devil will know you if you take a stand.

An Ambassador does not have to pray to act as an ambassador.  He does not need to pray to exercise his or her authority.  All they need to do is act like who their government says they are.  They don’t need to pray to get their passports stamped or have their visits approved.  No, an ambassador has the power to act and they don’t wait around to do their job.  Don’t wait on heaven anymore.  Act today!

 

Looking For Love

When your motive is love the world will listen to you. Love is the most talked about subject on TV.  Love is the theme of most movies in Hollywood.  Love is what the world is drawn to, yet they are looking in the wrong places. Jesus laid a foundation for our faith by saying it requires the right motive to get the right results.  Faith works by love.  Jesus said that if we love as He loved then all the world would be drawn to him.

He also said, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all people know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:34).

This type of love is not understood by the world, but the world is drawn to it because it comes full of forgiveness and acceptance.  This love believes in you and wants the best for you.

The world has forgotten what God is like, so God became flesh and dwelt among us and showed us what He is really like.  God needed flesh to show off His love.

Let’s give our flesh to God’s purpose—being examples of love.

Find Yourself in the Word

There is a debate as to whether Jesus always knew who He was. Some think that Jesus was all knowing in the flesh, but think for a moment.  He was born a baby and had all the limitations of a baby.  For 30 years you only hear of Him once and that was in the synagogue talking about scripture.

Jesus was born a man and had to grow in wisdom like any person.  Did God have to give the revelation to Jesus, or did He already know it?  Scripture says, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which GOD GAVE UNTO HIM, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John” (Revelation 1:1 author’s emphasis).

I believe that God had to give the revelation to Jesus of who He was, just like He has to give it to us.  He had to discover it in scripture, and He challenged the religious people to search the scriptures for they speak of Him.

Jesus found Himself in the Word, and you can find yourself in the Word.  Accept the letters to the church as personal letters to you.  Examine the lifestyle of Jesus in the Gospels as an example of your own lifestyle.  Read the commission to Jesus as God’s commission to you, because the world is waiting for the sons of God to be revealed.

Peace and Healing

We have received many testimonies of people who received their healing as they discovered the reality that Christ died for them.

How does this happen? When they call on the name of the Lord for salvation from their sins, they are united with their heavenly Father and peace enters into their hearts. This peace replaces the turmoil and stress that has plagued their lives, and when that peace enters in something happens…their bodies are instantly healed!

Many times they don’t even know when the healing happened. They only realize that the Prince of Peace now lives in them, their sins are forgiven, and peace is now reigning in their physical bodies!

“I Can See!”

Many people don’t receive their healing because they do not understand the continuum of time.

I can think of many instances of this in our meetings from around the world, one particular woman in Kazakhstan comes to mind. She was a worker at the Italian embassy and had a vision problem, needing glasses in order to read properly. She had been attending the healing meetings during the week and was hopeful that something would happen, but so far had not noticed any changes.

We would serve tea on the breaks, and this woman came up in the line behind my husband to get her cup of tea. I remember this very specifically, she picked up the tea bag and when she did, she began to shout, “I can see! I can see! I can see!”

She had prayed for the healing for her eyes and though it did not happen instantaneously, later in the week she picked up the teabag and could read the fine print on that teabag.

When did her healing begin? Her healing began on the day that healing was ministered to her—on the day that she believed she received!

 

We Are Like Him

Jesus came to reveal not only Who God is, but who we are! Here are a few revelations that the Scriptures give us about Who Jesus is and how much we—all of us—are like Him:

[Now] He [Christ] is the exact likeness of the unseen God [the visible representation of the invisible]; He is the Firstborn of all creation” (Col. 1:15 Amplified).

Jesus began a new species of god-men. He is the first-born so we are born of His family and likeness in the image of His Father who is now our Father.

“For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection” (Romans 6:5). And when did our resurrection occur? The moment we were born again from death to life!

“…Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him” (2 Cor. 3:18 The Message).

We go from faith to faith, from love to love, from adventure to adventure!

You Are God’s Voice

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John yesterday, have now become the Gospel of you today. Christ in human flesh in the Gospels has become Jesus in your flesh today!

Much of the modern church would think this is an extreme goal that is too lofty for humans, but how does the unseen God reveal Himself to humanity? God is revealed in flesh.

There is too much wasted prayer for God to come down and reveal Himself. He will not. He is in heaven with many wonderful ideas, but He needs flesh to reveal those ideas. He needs a voice. Christ in you is what He needs.

As I travel the world and speak to multitudes who do not speak English, I need an interpreter. My ideas are without power until they are heard, received, and acted on. In that way I am like God. He needs a voice. This is an awesome responsibility that God has entrusted us with; the message that saves humanity! If we don’t do it, God can’t do it!

You are a Miracle

Matthew 18:20 promises that where two or three are gathered together in the name of Jesus —He is there in our midst. When the Word is preached, His presence is preached, and His presence fills the atmosphere around us.

In Luke chapter 4 Jesus says, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, to declare freedom for the prisoners…” Mark 16 says that He sends us to do the same thing!

Declare with me today, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me for He has anointed me; His Holy Spirit is upon me.” When we speak His Word, His power and His incorruptible presence is in that Word.

When we are born again He dwells in us, His presence is in us, and we have the mind of Christ. He is there wherever two of us gather together. His presence is here in our midst and upon us, dwelling in us and surrounding us.

Now what does this mean to Christians? It simply means that we are not seeking to find a manifestation of God; we are living in the manifestation of His grace and His presence.

I no longer have to beg God for a miracle, because I am a miracle; He’s come to dwell in me! I no longer have to beg God to show up and present Himself, for I know the miracle of His presence exists in His Word!

Where’s the Works?

The church has settled for a knowledge of the miracle worker without the miracles.

Years ago there was a Wendy’s Hamburgers commercial where a little white haired lady famously demanded: “WHERE’S THE BEEF??”  Where are the works?  Have we settled for a meatless hamburger?

If Jesus needed miracles to validate His ministry, how much more do you need miracles to validate your ministry?  Why should someone of another religion leave their religion and accept your Jesus as the way and the truth?  They have a black book and you have a black book.  They have morals and you have morals.  They have a history and you have a history. What do you have that they don’t have?

The answer is a living Jesus and the proof of that is miracles.  Christianity is the only form of worship in the world that can be validated by miracles that no witchdoctor or psychologist can duplicate.  The whole history of God’s intervention in the affairs of mankind as recorded in Hebrew scripture is that of miraculous intervention.

Jesus continued the tradition of miracles and we as His followers after Him continue in this same fashion!

Who Are You?

If you don’t believe in yourself, you can’t do what God tells you to do.

In Matthew 16:18-19 Jesus told Peter, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will create the Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it; And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (author’s paraphrase).

Poverty comes from hell, not from heaven. Sickness comes out of hell, not from heaven. Fear comes from hell, not from heaven. All liars, deceivers and angry things come from hell, not from heaven. Nothing that comes from the gates of hell will prevail against you! Hallelujah! The gates of hell will not prevail against you! I don’t care what has been coming at you, it will not prevail. It will not persist. It will not continue.

Why? Because you have a revelation from heaven, Christ has told you who you are. And when you know who you are, everything that you bind on earth will be bound and everything that you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Because you know who you are!