to be or not to be

Mat 5:33 "You have also heard that people were told in the past, 'Do not break your promise, but do what you have vowed to the Lord to do.' 34 But now I tell you: do not use any vow when you make a promise. Do not swear by heaven, for it is God's throne; 35 nor by earth, for it is the resting place for his feet; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 Do not even swear by your head, because you cannot make a single hair white or black. 37 Just say 'Yes' or 'No'---anything else you say comes from the Evil One.

With God’s anointing comes God's power and presence.

There is a special blessing bestowed on God’s anointed.

• It is the blessing of God’s power manifest in ways only seen through the work of God’s chosen.

• God’s anointed shout and walls fall.

• They lift their feeble staff and seas part.

• They speak God’s word boldly and movements are begun that free men’s souls.

God’s anointed do the miraculous because they are the servant of the Almighty.

There is a unique presence of God in the lives of those God anoints and calls to leadership through that anointing.

For this reason, God’s anointed are incredibly unique people.

• God’s anointed will do anything God asks… anything.

• God’s anointed will seek God’s will with a passion. They will not move without it and they will not be diverted from their course once they have it.

• God’s anointed will love what God loves and hate what God hates. That means loving God’s people, God’s church, God’s environment, God’s resources, and God’s plan.

• It also means hating sin in every form and coming against anything that stands between God’s loving plan and its accomplishment.

• God’s anointed are people of keen discernment, they are branches who are solidly engrafted into the true vine.

• God’s anointed are servants first, last and always. And God’s anointed have only one passion, to know and do God’s will that He might have the glory.

• In this way, God’s anointed are people of no reputation.

However:

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Anointing has NOTHING to do with how you live.

Anointing rises and falls based on God.

Integrity is how you live the rest of your life when the anointing is not “on you”.

I think a lot of times people confuse gift with anointing.

You could be anointed to be creative, to be a mechanic, to preach, to wash cars, to make records, whatever, but you do not “live the anointing”.

• You may minister/serve/sit under it for an hour, but what do you do with the other 23 hours? That is what makes or breaks someone.

Jdg 14:6 Suddenly the power of the LORD made Samson strong, and he tore the lion apart with his bare hands, as if it were a young goat. But he did not tell his parents what he had done. 7 Then he went and talked to the young woman, and he liked her.

• He did not tell his parents.

• His thing for woman started.

Jdg 14:12 Samson said to them, "Let me tell you a riddle. I'll bet each one of you a piece of fine linen and a change of fine clothes that you can't tell me its meaning before the seven days of the wedding feast are over." "Tell us your riddle," they said. "Let's hear it."

· He became arrogant

· He became aggressive.

Gen 39:6 Potiphar turned over everything he had to the care of Joseph and did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Joseph was well-built and good-looking, 7 and after a while his master's wife began to desire Joseph and asked him to go to bed with her. 8 He refused and said to her, "Look, my master does not have to concern himself with anything in the house, because I am here. He has put me in charge of everything he has. 9 I have as much authority in this house as he has, and he has not kept back anything from me except you. How then could I do such an immoral thing and sin against God?" 10 Although she asked Joseph day after day, he would not go to bed with her.

• He was given man made power and recognition

• He had the looks

• He was tempted

• He stuck to His values.

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Fighting the Need to Increase

When John the Baptist saw Jesus walking in his presence, he made the declaration, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

Most Christian leaders would say that in their hearts they would wish that Jesus would increase and they would decrease.

But it is hard to decrease in a leadership position.

There are natural trappings that distinguish those in leadership such as salary, title, prestige, priority, power, influence, honor and advancement.

And in each area there are tempting opportunities for increase.

There are also pressures to increase and motivations to build a kingdom in which we house our growing collection of leadership trappings.

This desire for the fame and fortune of leadership must be met not only by resistance, but, according to John Adams, we must have "a habitual contempt of them.

By overestimating our own worth, we help our people depend on us for everything.

· And that dependence feeds into our need to be needed, to be the “idea person” and visionary, and to be in control.

· We tell ourselves that the more we lead in this way, the more our leadership is valued and our presence desired.

For this reason, leadership bent on increasing the leader lacks integrity. Integrity is the attribute of honesty, moral behaviour and a value-cantered life.

Unless God has taken our hearts captive, all of our good ‘doing’ will lack spiritual integrity and authority.

Our work will expose the absence of God’s anointing.

And it is at the exact moment that we think we ‘have it all together’ that we cease to be useable in the work of the kingdom.

We are all chosen by God and are called. I do not believe you can be anointed without any character or integrity. Light and darkness cannot abide in the same vessel.

That doesn’t mean that God cannot use you despite your shortcomings.

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The Attributes of Integrity:

2 Cor. 13:5 “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Prove yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? unless indeed you are disqualified.:

We are instructed to take a good hard look at ourselves to determine if we are obedient to the commands of God or not.

As it applies to the concept of integrity, it is eminently possible for us to determine if we are walking in perfection or not.

1. Honesty: Is your testimony above reproach, and can you be relied upon to be truthful in all circumstances, even if it causes you harm? For you see , anybody can tell the truth if it’s in your best interest.

b. Reliability: Can you complete the task at hand, even without supervision, or do you only put forth effort when you are being watched? Can you be trusted? Is your word any good? In other words, as Jesus said, Is your “yes, yes and your no no”?

c. Maturity: This is of course one of the most important aspects of perfection. Mature Christians are confident in their relationship with God so they are rarely moved or shaken by things external. Maturity is not easily offended, in other words the mature person does not wear his heart on his sleeve. The person who is mature is able to receive correction, and stand up under rebuke.

d. Self Control: Those who walk in perfection are not easily provoked, and are not given to wrath, preferring to suffer the insult rather than to respond in the flesh..

e. Pettiness: The mature Christian does not involve himself in small minded antics, such as jealousies, gossip, backbiting and the like.

f. Esteem of the body: The perfect Christian esteems his brethren higher than himself, and is always ready to be of service. He is ready to defend the cause of the weak, and to side in with righteousness in everything. He is careful not to sow division within the body.

g. Envy: This is a particularly dangerous fault since it betrays a host of character flaws, such as discontentment, selfish ambition, and low self esteem.

Jdg 16:16 She kept on asking him, day after day. He got so sick and tired of her bothering him about it 17 that he finally told her the truth. "My hair has never been cut," he said. "I have been dedicated to God as a nazirite from the time I was born. If my hair were cut, I would lose my strength and be as weak as anybody else."

He finally compromised everything he had.

He lived a life of compromise and that created the habit of surrender.

But:

Jdg 16:28 Then Samson prayed, "Sovereign LORD, please remember me; please, God, give me my strength just this one time more, so that with this one blow I can get even with the Philistines for putting out my two eyes."

Repentance brought restoration.

Mic 7:8 Our enemies have no reason to gloat over us. We have fallen, but we will rise again. We are in darkness now, but the LORD will give us light. 9 We have sinned against the LORD, so now we must endure his anger for a while. But in the end he will defend us and right the wrongs that have been done to us. He will bring us out to the light; we will live to see him save us.

A Great price

1 Corinthians 6:20 For God has bought you with a great price. So use every part of your body to give glory back to God.

- God has paid a great price for each one of us.
- This should affect the way we live our lives.
- The way in which we live should bring glory to God.
- Let everything you do bring glory to God!

ROMANS 8:29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn, with many brothers and sisters.

Don't despair over your current condition -- you have an amazing destiny!

God's plan is to make you like Jesus Christ. Don't laugh! Remember that nothing is impossible with God.

You can become ‘like’ Jesus!

Always remember that this tops God's agenda for you. You may be concentrating on some temporal project or need in your life. But God's focus is always on transforming you into the likeness of Jesus Christ.

We can't expect becoming like Jesus to always be painless or without difficulty. After all, most of us have quite a few rough edges. But, if we understand what is going on in life, and we keep our eyes on God's goal, it will be easier.

2 CORINTHIANS 4:17 For our present troubles are quite small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us an immeasurably great glory that will last forever! 18 So we don't look at the troubles we can see right now; rather, we look forward to what we have not yet seen. For the troubles we see will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever.

SAY THIS: I look forward to God finishing His work in me -- making me like Jesus. I will live my life in such a way, so as to bring glory to God in all I do!

Deuteronomy 20:4 The Lord your God is the one who goes WITH YOU to fight FOR YOU against your enemies to give you victory.

- This is an incredible scripture. Think about it.
- God goes WITH YOU to fight FOR YOU!
- When facing a battle it is always more difficult alone.
- With God you are not alone and He will bring you to a place of victory!

Promise lost?

Heb 11:13 These all died by way of faith, not having
received the promises, but having seen them afar off. And they were persuaded of
them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on
the earth. 14 For they who say such
things declare plainly that they seek a fatherland. 15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that
country from which they came out, they might have had opportunity to have
returned. 16 But now they stretch forth
to a better fatherland, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to
be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. 17 By faith Abraham, being tested, offered up Isaac. And he who had received the promises offered up his only-begotten son,

Life is tough; it’s not an easy journey. Things happen, we make “not so bright” decisions, we get involved in things we should not.

Sometimes we believe that we have received a ‘promise’ and we begin to build our lives on that promise. We move towards a better life based on the promise, yet, for some of us, the promise will not materialize and that is just the plain old truth.

Heb 11:13 These all died by way of faith, not having
received the promises,:

There it is. Some of the greatest `fathers of faith`, whose names have been captured in the “Faith Hall of Fame”, died without living or receiving the fullness of the promise they believed in and hoped for.

Yet, they never, never, never gave up on the promise. They continued to walk and live by and in faith.

Why did they not let go and turn into a different direction? Why did they not say: “enough of this faith stuff, God will never come through for me, it’s all a waste of time”

“Heb 11:13 These all died by way of faith, not having
received the promises, but having seen them afar off. And they were persuaded of
them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on
the earth”

They were persuaded. They were convinced and they embraced it. They believed that something better, something greater than the existence of `struggle` awaits them. They confessed it and believed that this all is just a temporary situation, that a better place and time has been promised and that they will walk in it. They realized that not everything starts and ends on this earth and in this earthly existence.

Even if I live to be ninety years old and even if I have to endure challenges and struggles, so what?

I am a pilgrim, a traveler through this time and space. What is ninety years compared to eternity?

The faith I apply now, will determine how and where I will spend eternity. That is the best ‘long term’ investment ever.

“Heb11: 16 But now they stretch forth to a better
fatherland, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called
their God, for He has prepared a city for
them.”

Because I trust and stretch my faith, hoping and believing in a promised heaven, God, the Creator is not ashamed to be associated with me and neither am I ashamed to be associated with Him. He is, was and always will be my God.

Abraham was tested and he passed and because he passed, God gave us a promise, an acceptance and salvation through the sacrifice of Christ.

What hope and glory and promises still await us, when we endure the tests, pass them and continue in hope against hope?

Mat 25:21 His lord said to him, Well done, good and
faithful servant! You have been faithful over a few things; I will make you
ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your
lord.

The eternal reward awaits us.

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For a lot of people, freedom means that they are physically free – from imprisonment and restraint - but the ultimate and most exquisite form of freedom is making your own decisions and choices – having total control of your own life. Recognizing and exercising this freedom means that you accept responsibility for your life in every respect - your thoughts, words, actions, choices, decisions and creations.

The quality of your choices and decisions can be determined by the quality of life you experience as a result of those choices and decisions.

Joh 8:31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who believed on Him, If you continue in My Word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

The fact is that we don’t always believe that we have choices.

We often believe that others have power over us – and that’s why they make our choices and decisions for us.

• The fact is that we give them the power to make our choices and decisions for us. Not choosing something is in fact also a choice – because you choose not to choose.

• Just because you feel helpless or powerless in a situation doesn’t mean that you are not choosing or making decisions.

• When you sit by and watch others control you are ultimately responsible for it because you decided to allow the control.

• You choose the event by allowing it.

In order to make really good choices and decisions you need to have a very good understanding of your own needs, fears, emotions, moods, desires, pain, strengths and weaknesses.

• This is called self-awareness.

Phi 4:8 Finally, my brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are right, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there is any virtue and if there is any praise, think on these things. 9 Do those things which you have also learned and received and heard and seen in me. And the God of peace shall be with you. 10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me has flourished again. Although you indeed did think, but you lacked opportunity. 11 Not that I speak according to need, for I have learned to be content in whatever state I am.

• It is not events or circumstances in our lives that lead to unhappiness and associated unhealthy emotional consequences, but rather our reaction to these events or circumstances.

• It is our irrational beliefs about and reactions to these events and circumstances that lead to unhealthy consequences.

Acknowledge that neither another person, nor an adverse circumstance, can ever disturb you - only you can. Others can cause you physical pain or prevent you from achieving your goals, but you create your own emotional suffering, or self-defeating behavioral patterns, about what others do or say.

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Deu 30:19 I call Heaven and earth to record today against you. I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life, so that both you and your seed may live, 20 so that you may love Jehovah your God, and that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him. For He is your life and the length of your days, so that you may dwell in the land which Jehovah swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give it to them.

Luk 14:28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he may have enough to finish it; 29 lest perhaps, after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all those seeing begin to mock him, 30 saying, This man began to build and was not able to finish.

Some people make decisions based purely on the need for survival or for security. Others will take their emotions into account. How you feel about your decisions is extremely important, because ultimately you have to live with your choices. Feeling good about a decision or a choice is probably a good start, but there is a pitfall.

Pro 11:14 Where there is no wisdom, the people fall; but in the multitude of wise men there is safety.

Emotion-based intuitive decision-making can also be seriously defective if it’s based on inaccurate or irrelevant information.

Your intuition may tell you not to hire a person because of your prejudice against people of a different race or sex, even though they may be much better qualified for the job.

Making a decision based on your intuition alone may also be a problem in a group situation where you have to consider other people’s opinions.

Trying to convince them to go along with your choice simply because of your intuition alone clearly would not sway them.

People’s gut feelings about what to do may sometimes emerge from integrated unconscious judgments about the actions or activities needed to accomplish the goal.

Making decisions are not always easy.

We are influenced by our environment and others’ opinions. Gather as much information as possible.

Ask the opinion of the other people involved. An educated intuitive decision is a lot better than making a decision purely because it ‘sounded’ or ‘felt’ right.

Once you know all the facts, take a “litmus logic test”. Write all your thoughts and all the facts down on a piece of paper and ask yourself these questions:

1.	Is this factual?
2.	Is it in your best interest?
3.	Does it protect and prolong your life?
4.	Does it get you what you want?

If the answer is no to any of these questions, then you should consider an alternative.

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The Choices we Make

Rom 7:15 What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. 16 So if I can't be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God's command is necessary. 17 But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! 18 I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. 19 I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway.

How often do we perhaps feel the same, as does Paul when he writes this to the church in Rome?

How often do we stand before choices and we know that we know that we should not be doing this and yet we go ahead and do it. Simple example: I decide to go on a diet, I need to, I have to, and the doctor told me to. Then I face the chocolate cake, I know I have to walk away, but I just can’t. I have to have the piece of cake. I eat it, I enjoy it and walk away later feeling as guilty as sin. Get my drift?

What about the more serious stuff in life? Serious decisions, life-altering decisions that we need to make and then we go ahead and do the wrong thing. As if we are, `out of control`.

Paul writes, what I consider to be one of the most important confessions or admissions we can make, ever:

“I obviously need help! 18 I realize that I don't have what it takes.” Rom 7: 17(b) – 18(a)

I believe that so often, in our own arrogance, we believe that we can `handle` the challenges of life on our own. I often deal with substance addicted people, and always, almost without fail, their words are:

· “I can deal with this on my own” and they actually do say it with conviction and the best intention in the world.

· People struggling with compulsive behavior problems. “Ill learn on my own how to manage my problem”

I have found myself on occasion to think I know how to deal with a challenge on my own.

But, I am beginning to realize like Paul, I need help. We all need help.

Psa 121:1 A Song of the going up. My eyes are lifted up to the hills: O where will my help come from? 2 Your help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 3 May he not let your foot be moved: no need of sleep has he who keeps you. 4 See, the eyes of Israel's keeper will not be shut in sleep. 5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand.

This Psalm starts of with a desperate cry for help and then an answer comes:

2 Your help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

We need to turn to the Redeemer, the Savior, the One who overcame and has given us the victory. In Him and through Him we can overcome, we can make and live, by the right choices.

Rom 8:10 And if Christ is in you, indeed the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of the One who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the One who raised up Christ from the dead shall also make your mortal bodies alive by His Spirit who dwells in you.