Change is the essential process of all existence.

Lose Your Soul?

Let us look at this question beyond the traditional Evangelical viewpoint. Let us see a fuller picture from a God perspective that is not limited to time or space. Let us look at this question beyond the after life and into the Now of God. Remember that the Kingdom of God is here now both among us and in us and to God everything is in the now.

Mark 8:31-37

Mark 8:36 “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?
(ASV) For what doth it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life?
(CEV) What will you gain, if you own the whole world but destroy yourself?
(Darby) For what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul?
(GW) What good does it do for people to win the whole world yet lose their lives?
(MSG) What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you?

What is a man gaining and what is he losing? To answer this we need a more precise biblical definition to the words “world” and “soul”.

World: G2889 kosmos
Thayer Definition: 6) the ungodly multitude; the whole mass of men alienated from God, and therefore hostile to the cause of Christ
7) world affairs, the aggregate of things earthly
7a) the whole circle of earthly goods, endowments riches, advantages, pleasures, etc, which although hollow and frail and fleeting, stir desire, seduce from God and are obstacles to the cause of Christ

Ephesians 2:1-3 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

In this verse we see that walking according to the course of the world is walking according to the prince of the power of the air. This we know to be the devil, but it is also the spirit of the anti-Christ (remember that there are only two spirits, that which is for Christ and that which is against or anti-Christ). The world or kosmos represents the self life and all of its wants. This is the lifestyle where I put me first, think about me first, look at life from the perspective of how does this affect me and what will this do for me! Making decisions without considering how it will affect others!

Soul:
Genesis 2:7 Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
(BBE) And the Lord God made man from the dust of the earth, breathing into him the breath of life: and man became a living soul.
(MSG) GOD formed Man out of dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. The Man came alive–a living soul!

The word “soul” and “being” are synonymous words, that is to say that they mean the same thing and are able to be exchanged in a sentence. The word “being” comes from the verb “to be” which when expressed in the first person is “I am”.
To lose your soul is to lose the “I AM”, the God potential, the God identity, the God awareness and the God relationship or oneness. It is the loss of purpose and destiny in the Christ; it is the loss of discovery of why you were born and how you fit in the larger picture of God’s marvelous plan in Christ Jesus.

The good news is that this lifestyle is a daily decision. Each day we are tempted to choose what we want without considering how it might affect others but we don’t have to answer that temptation. Instead we can ask ourselves before any decision is made “How will this decision affect others and my ability to serve them?” This is the Christ Life!

To hear the message click here.

His Works or His Ways?

Do you want to see the works of God manifest or would you rather know the ways of God? This is quite the question for some. There are many out there in the body of Christ that are seeking after a sign, seeking to see His works and displays manifest on the earth. Although at first glance this may seen righteous but when we look a little deeper into the issue we find a conflict. This conflict is between man and God and the conflict is over whose way is the better way or whose way will lead to the Tree of Life. Let us look firstly into the Old Testament.

Psalms 103:7 He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel.

The children of Israel saw the works of God (the external manifestations) but Moses knew the ways of God (understood God through relationship). The children of Israel had no personal relationship with God; in fact the only way they could relate to God was through Moses. The result of this lack of personal relationship was that the only way the Israelites knew that God was on the scene was by way of external works or a sign.
The problem here lies in the fact that you can have the works of God manifest in your midst and still have your life unchanged and even uneffected. God is not after a show or display of who He is on the external rather He is after an intimate relationship through the workings of His Spirit within you. This journey with God is the only way we can even begin to understand Him and His ways. Now let us look into the New Testament to shed even further light on this issue.

Mattew 12:38-39 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet;

Matthew 16:1-4 The Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing Jesus, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. But He replied to them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ “And in the morning, ‘There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times? “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah.” And He left them and went away.

Jesus called these sign seekers “evil and adulterous” because all they wanted was the external things to stimulate their senses and they were not willing to invest in the time and effort it takes to build a relationship. Their “god belief system” was about living a spiritual life in the confines of their own understanding and they were not willing to step into that which they did not understand.

1Corinthians 2:14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

The more we try to control our own spiritual journey, the more we try to live in our own understanding, the more we try to base our lives by what we see with our eyes, the further away we find ourselves from a relationship with God.

Mark 16:17a And these signs shall follow them that believe;

We do not seek or chase after signs; signs will seek and chase after us as we seek and chase after God and His ways.

Remember that our job as a believer is to live a life of journey and discovery with Father God through Jesus Christ; getting to know Him better each day thus finding ourselves understanding God and His ways. The result of this journey is God living His life through us and then and only then will we see the purpose of God manifest in the earth and His signs will then be seen in a miraculous way.

To listen to the audio message click here.

Holiness

Exodus 3:5 Then He said, “Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”

Sandals would collect dirt and dust from the world, so that in removing them, one was removing the dirt and dust from their life to stand before God. The word standing had more to do with a positional relationship; so the idea of the verse was that as the heart was cleansed from contaminants, the individual would find themselves in a positional relationship with God.

Read Ephesians 4:17-27

Ephesians 4:23,24 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

Holiness is about a progressive change that takes place on the inside of us and as this change continues we find ourselves living differently on the outside. This change affects how we relate to people, how we speak, how we present ourselves and even the life choices we make. Holiness is about living a lifestyle that has a positive Christ effect on others and having removed anything from our life that could cause others to stay away from God.

Here is a measuring stick: in every situation of my life, whether it be what I say, what I do, how I dress, what I drive, how I drive, where I go, what I eat and what I drink, I ask myself this question “Am I drawing attention to myself or am I drawing attention to Christ Jesus?”…..…..Eph 4:27 and do not give the devil an opportunity.

Holiness is living a selfless life and living a Christ centered life, in other words in all the decisions I make I will ask myself “How does this effect others? Does this decision draw people closer to God or cause them to move away from God?”

Here is a personal example: In my life I choose not to drink any alcohol, not because it is good or evil, I just simply ask myself whether drinking can help me have a better Christ effect in the lives of others or would it hinder that effect? I have decided that drinking would limit my ability to serve and empower others therefore I do not drink alcohol.

Genesis 2:9 Out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Holiness is all about the Tree of Life (Christ) and not the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil (self).

To hear the audio message click here.

Who Am I?

Exodus 3:

Moses had no problem with God’s plan to deliver the children of Israel until he finds out that something is required of him. It is fear and insecurity brought about by a lack of identity that causes this response.

Exodus 3:11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?”

Exodus 4:

In this chapter we see how self centered Moses was; all he could think about was who he was not instead of whom God is. All he could see was his inability to perform the task at hand when all God was looking for was someone to perform through.

Exodus 5:

Exodus 5:2 But Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and besides, I will not let Israel go.”

Pharaoh represents the self willed mind or intellect; he who trusts in his own ability. Everyone has a Pharaoh in them that only believes in the solid evidence of logic and fights against any thought or idea that would bring challenge to his thinking.

Note in verse two what Pharaoh (the mind) says. “I do not know the LORD”. Obedience to the voice of God is dependent on an intimate relationship or knowing Him.

Exodus 14:11 Then they said to Moses, “Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt?
Exo 14:12 “Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”
Exo 14:13 But Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the LORD which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever.
Exo 14:14 “The LORD will fight for you while you keep silent.”

Verse 14: If you cannot speak the answer, than it would be better to remain silent until you can!

Here we see a different Moses, we see a man who is starting to know God and to trust Him; a man who is now starting to speak the answer and not the problem; a man who is starting to think and speak like God; a man who is starting to discover who he is!

Remember: God does not call the qualified; He qualifies the called!

Who is God?

G – giving
O – oneness
D – destiny

It is in the discovery of who God is that we discover our own identity.

Giving:

Genesis 1:3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

John 8:12 Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

Matthew 5:14a “You are the light of the world.

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

In creating light God gave of Himself, in fact everything that was created was created by God and made up of God. God gave everything into existence. The first part of our God life that we must embrace is giving. We give our life into existence because giving is creating and without giving there can be no creating.

Oneness:

Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!
One is the Hebrew word ‘echâd meaning unity!

John 17:22 “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one;
Joh 17:23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.

Colossians 1:16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities–all things have been created through Him and for Him.
Col 1:17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

We must realize that we are created for unity and are created in unity with God and with each other. Furthermore we are created in unity with all things because Christ is all things and we are one in the Christ.

Destiny:

Exodus 3:10 “Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.”

Destiny is discovered or is the fruit of the God relationship through the Christ in the life of giving and oneness. Remember that the Christian journey is one of discovery of who we already are and what we already have.

Go to the sermon here.

Welcome to the blog of The Rainbow Centre. We invite you to listen to our messages and give your thoughts and insights. We would love to hear from you!