Wordless

There isn’t any fear here

There isn’t any fear in love

When You come, when You come

There isn’t any hurt here

That you don’t overwhelm

When You come, when You come,oh

I am speechless, but I can’t keep quiet

And I am wordless, but I can’t stay silent

Ooh, ooh

There isn’t any rush here

So I’m just gonna wait on You

And linger longer oh

‘Cause every time I find You

I’m a little more undone

When You come, when You come

I am speechless, but I can’t keep quite

And I am wordless, but I can’t stay silent

Ooh, I’m lost for words to say

Ooh, You take my breath away

Oh you move me, and I can’t defy it

You consume me, and I can’t describe

I am speechless, but I can’t keep quiet

And I am wordless, but I can’t stay silent, silent,

whoa Whoa, I’m lost for words to say

Whoa, You take my breath away

There isn’t any fear here

There isn’t any fear in love

Read more at: https://www.thelyricsof.com/lauren-daigle/wordless/

Numbers 11:4-9

The rabble who were among them had greedy desires; and also the sons of Israel wept again and said, “Who will give us meat to eat? “We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic, but now our appetite is gone. There is nothing at all to look at except this manna.”

Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like that of bdellium. The people would go about and gather it and grind it between two millstones or beat it in the mortar, and boil it in the pot and make cakes with it; and its taste was as the taste of cakes baked with oil. When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna would fall with it.

The Israelites had just been delivered from a cruel slavemaster by the Might and Power of the Living God. These people had witnessed the parting of the Red Sea, the drowning of Pharoah’s army and the plagues in Egypt. They had gone through the waters, a symbol of baptism- to leave the past behind and to move into a new life serving the One and True God.

After their baptism, they began to complain. Their complaints were rooted in greed. Like many of us today, they knew about the Power of God; in fact, they saw it. Yet they were so rooted in the culture of Egypt, that they could not see God. The scales were on their eyes and blinded them to the provision and beauty of God.

In other words, their complaints were rooted in their attempt to overthrow the will of God in providing manna, and replacing it with the gods of their own heart. Instead of serving God as He commanded, they wanted to serve God the way they knew- according to Egyptian culture, religious ideas and thoughts.

Many of our complaints today are rooted in our cultural deceptions. Deceptions about self, wealth, belonging. Seldom do we fast and prayer for the will of God in our lives.  Like the Israelites, we have been deceived by the god of the age. Having walked through Baptism, we do not walk in gratitude but rather in greed- seeking to fill our bellies and our pockets. Rather than seeking the Kingdom first and the promises of God for the salvation of others, we seek the promises of God for ME.

WHAT CAN GOD DO FOR ME?

WHY AM I NOT WEALTHY- I GIVE MY OFFERINGS?

WHY AM I STILL SICK?

WHY AM I GOING THROUGH SO MUCH TROUBLE AND ADVERSITY?

To serve God, we begin with a spirit of gratitude- Giving Thanks and remembering the place, the position, and the damnation from where God has delivered us. We REMEMBER. And we wholeheartedly GIVE THANKS.

Lay aside the “Leek and Onion” attitudes and simply give thanks for God’s provision, His protection, His deliverance daily….. just give thanks for GOD. Where would we be without the salvation and the deliverance of our God? Gratitude is the key to entering into the presence of God. Psalm 100:4: Enter His gates with thanksgiving And His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name.

Be Grateful

Let us dare to unbox the power of the Risen Christ. The power that has been boxed up neatly and tied with the bow of religion and the label of CHRISTIANITY. 

This is not to criticize the brethren, some of whom are sincere in their faith in Christ. Rather, it is an attempt to expose the lies of the enemy under the disguise of religion. There has been a disinformation campaign from the beginning…..from the Garden of Eden to now. It has been Satan’s mission to block our view of God and insert himself as the intermediary… the one who receives the praise and worship that he craves. A position he will take and has taken by force.

Foundation Rule #2- GOD IS A SPIRIT AND THOSE WHO WORSHIP HIM MUST WORSHIP IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH.

John 4: 21- 26 (NASB) Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. “You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

ROOT – RULE #2- WHO, WHY And HOW DO WE WORSHIP?

WHO- The ultimate focus of our worship must be GOD- as revealed by Yeshua the MASHIACH (JESUS CHRIST)

WHY- We were created to worship GOD! Our VOICES, OUR HEARTS, OUR EYES and EARS, OUR HANDS and FEET, our bodies move in rhythm and motion meant to glorify the ONE TRUE GOD. Losing our purpose and our ultimate calling has meant that we have descended into a meaningless existence, filled with things and people who are mere reflections of a living GOD. We chase a shadow and die without knowing the true beauty of the LIVING GOD.

If we read the context of the scripture in John, we must begin to understand Jesus’s ultimate battle. “You worship what you do not know” implies that RELIGION has superimposed itself to pretend to show us the way but instead points us in a direction of serving idols, serving ourselves and serving our own way rather than serving the true and living GOD. IDOLS are not only images, but it can also be anything becomes the focal point of our being and our existence. Why do we live? What is the first thing that comes to our mind when we awake? Do we live inside a bubble of rituals?

He exposes the lie- RELIGION is not the way. JESUS Himself is the WAY, THE TRUTH, and the LIFE. (John 14:6) 

HOW- God wants us to worship in SPIRIT AND TRUTH or TRUTH AND SPIRIT. 

First- Let us unmask the spirit of religion. The demon that impersonates the TRUE and LIVING God to whisper that we can somehow buy our way back into GOD’s presence by our purification rituals and by observances. RELIGION presents a form of godliness but denies the true and LIVING GOD.

If we dig up the roots of religion, we will find that we need washing with the blood of Jesus… our roots are filled with the carnal nature..THE FLESH.

Gal 5:16-25 (NASB) summarizes it well

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 

Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.

CHALLENGE- WHO ARE WE WORSHIPING?

If our fruit, that is the end product of our daily life is not of the Spirit..love, joy, peace, etc, then we need to look closer at our roots to determine who we are serving. Are we worshiping the true and living GOD in Spirit and Truth or are we being deceived by religion?

Was Christianity initially a religion?

The followers of the Messiah…(Jesus was a JEW- this is a HISTORICAL FACT) first called themselves ” the WAY”. It was a path initiated by the Rabbi who taught them that He “was the WAY, the Truth and the LIFE”.

If we think about this, we realize that the Messiah was not sent to create another religion in the world. He was sent to make a way to escape from religion. RELIGION seeks to bind people like the cloth that bound Lazarus as he lay dead in the tomb. But Jesus awoke him from the sleep of death and commanded that the cloth that bound him to be removed.

Why do we seek the “Living among the dead” were the words spoken to Mary, Jesus’s disciple. Today why have we incorporated the Lord in the dead clothing of religion.

Denominations and demon-nations are meant to bind us to rituals and sacrifices. God is seeking a people who will worship in “Spirit and in truth”. Come out from among them and be a Holy People.

Those who hear God are not themselves slaves of a religion. They are the slaves of Almighty God.

RESTORE THE FOUNDATIONS

RULE #1: Love the Lord GOD with all your heart and your soul and might

This is not LOVE Religion but GOD. GOD IS NOT RELIGION.

GOD does NOT EQUAL RELIGION. GOD IS the SUPREME CREATOR OVER HEAVEN AND EARTH.

SHAKE THE ROOT

RULE #1: FORSAKE RELIGION

Forsake the love of fame, the love of self, money, the adulation of people and the things that separate you from the reality of LOVING the LORD GOD with all that is within.

ROOTS ARE HIDDEN BENEATH A SURFACE- HOWEVER POLISHED THAT SURFACE MAY BE.

The majority of us define ourselves initially by our traditions and our culture. Who, where and in what religion we are born into. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindu, Buddhist….. many of us define ourselves as one of this. This is who we are and many times it is the focal point and the well from which we draw inspiration and direction.

Religion is one of the keys that define us. We pledge ourselves and our allegiance to a religion because it defines us … it is who we are. We are born into it and we are ready to die for it. This has been the mindset for ages- from creation until now.

When Cain killed Abel.. it was over an offering aka RELIGION. Cain lost sight of who he was and instead took upon himself the label of religion. 

The question of our identity is not in the family we were born into, the culture, the country nor the religion we were born into. Our identity is first HUMAN. This is our root. We were created… not evolved. We were created with a spirit, soul and a body. And we turned away from God to our own knowledge.

As we come to realize our humanity, we understand that as humans, we are not gods or GOD. And as such, we cannot save ourselves from the justice of our rebellion against our Creator. We need someone to save us…. a divine SAVIOR. 

When we can peel away the covering of religion from our eyes and understand that we were born for destiny in GOD rather than religion, we will know our purpose.

It is difficult many times because we tend to group GOD and religion in the same basket. But they are two ends of a spectrum. Religion binds us to many things and chains us to a destiny of death. God sets us free and enables us to choose to follow Him to Life. He is Life. It is religion that crucified Jesus but by His Love, he made a way of escape for us.

John 8: 31 47 (NASB) says

So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You will become free’?”

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. “The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants; yet you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. “I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.”

They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham. “But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do. “You are doing the deeds of your father.” They said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God.” Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me. “Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. “But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me. “Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? “He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God.”

Religion is not from God but it is a lie of the enemy with the intention to bind us so that we can never see God even if we profess to know HIM. 

Shake this lie from our root and seek to know God.. not from religion but from His revelation of Himself. 

Luke 11:9-14 (NASB)  Jesus says:

So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.“For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened. “Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? “Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

Jesus declares He is the door John 10:9 (NASB) “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”

RELIGION TELLS US THAT WE DESERVE OUR SUFFERING, THAT THERE IS NO HELP FOR US AND THAT WE SHOULD DIE. GOD THROUGH JESUS TELLS US WE ARE MEANT TO BE ALL THAT WE CAN BE, WE HAVE DESTINY AND PURPOSE AND WE HAVE LIFE.

John 10:10- The thief (Satan) comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I (JESUS) came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

If we seek truth, He will find us. Jesus Christ is this truth. John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

Amen

This day- Choose whom you will serve. 

I Kings 18:21

Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” 

If we deal with our roots- the things that go deep- within our souls and the things that entangle our souls from our conception, things that shape our views, our perceptions, our beliefs- the foundations of our lives…

If we plow that thing and untangle the foreign things that insert themselves as if they belong there, if we salt our roots with discipline and water it with the word, surely we will bear good fruit for our Master- the Living God.

Scripture makes an interesting analogy in 1 Samuel 15:23 (KJV 2000)– “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king.”

Witchcraft- or a better translation of the Hebrew word Qesem is divination. In this scripture, “rebellion” is equated to divination. Divination is defined as “Communication with a deity for the purpose of determining the deity’s knowledge, resulting in clarification of a decision or discernment of the future. Two forms of divination developed in the ancient Near East, one using inductive manipulation of natural or human phenomena and the other taking intuitive forms of inner revelation.” (biblestudytools.com/dictionary)

In other words, this is a direct breaking of the command of the LORD ” Thou shalt have no other gods before me”. 

There are those who follow everything spiritual for answers. As believers, we are warned not to do this. But there are the subtle temptations that have embedded themselves in our culture- things like astrology in our daily news,  mediums on television shows, magic, and sorcery in blockbuster movies.

In our daily lives as believers in the MOST HIGH GOD, there must be a housecleaning.

In addition, when we harbor grudges and hate for our brethren, when we play the game of comparing ourselves to others, when we wish on others harm and ourselves prosperity- we are engaging in rebellion of GOD’s word and are aligning ourselves with the gods of this world. We are also practicing witchcraft …..

As believers, we need to ask God daily to cleanse us… our minds, motives, our hearts, and our souls. So that we can be filled with the LOVE of GOD, the Hope and Promise of His return, the FAITH to fight the war of temptation that taunts us daily.

Ps 51: 9-10 (NASB):  

Hide Your face from my sins
            And blot out all my iniquities.

      Create in me a clean heart, O God,
            And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Let us ask God to wash us in the water of HIS WORD and to renew our hearts and minds in HIS SPIRIT, that we may see, hear and know even as HE desires us to see, hear and know. Let us truly make the LIVING GOD the LORD of our Lives.

Amen

John 10: 7-10 “ So Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. “All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

It is hard to turn the other cheek when other humans do you wrong. Many times, our first reaction is we want to get even, we want justice, we want them to pay us back for what they have stolen. It is human to be like this.

But God is calling us to higher things. So while the enemy uses folks to do us harm and to taunt us by stealing, killing and destroying, we instead grab hold onto the eternal things. The promise of GOD for HIS life which is worth more than any earthly thing. Once we recognize this reality… nothing else matters.

Who can steal from you when the KING OF GLORY supplies all your needs. Who can kill you when the KING OF GLORY gives you life and that ETERNAL LIFE permeates your entire being? Who can destroy you when the KING OF GLORY is your salvation?

Look on HIM – the author and the Finisher of our faith, our life, our existence…our everything. Let us give Him his rightful place in our lives and keep our eyes FIRMLY FIXED on Him.

PS 118:1 (NASB) Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting

Ps 118: 5, 6: From my distress I called upon the LORD,;  The LORD answered me and set me in a large place.  The LORD is for me; I will not fear; What can man do to me?

PS118: 14- 17: The LORD is my strength and song,  And He has become my salvation. The sound of joyful shouting and salvation is in the tents of the righteous; The right hand of the LORD does valiantly. The right hand of the LORD is exalted; The right hand of the LORD does valiantly. I will not die, but live,  And tell of the works of the LORD.

Ps 118:28, 29– You (Yahweh) are my God, and I give thanks to You;  You are my God, I extol You. Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;  For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

Amen