The High Priest was responsible for many things, but it all boiled down to one main thing: he alone spoke to God for the people, and He alone heard from God for the people; now fast forward to 2012. Some Christians and churches still believe the pastor or priest talks to, and listens to God for them. Hebrews 5 says that’s a problem, we should be doing our own hearing and speaking. Jesus came to be the final High Priest, but when Jesus left the earth, He appointed a new priest – me and you. When Jesus left the Holy Spirit came to help us hear God’s voice so now we can go to God, one-on-one. We speak to Him in prayer, and He speaks to us through His Word, the Bible. That only works if we pray, and we read, but do we?

Most of us now, and most of the Hebrews then understood that, so why is the message repeated for all of us to hear? The answer is, because we know it, but we run from it. We prayed, and trusted God for something – something big, or something small, it doesn’t matter – we trusted Him, and it all fell through. We may never know why, but at that moment, the fear, and doubt, and hurt crept in; and we stopped speaking, and we stopped hearing, and we stopped growing – or worse, we started sliding backward. Do we know we can still pray, of course. Do we know God is still there, yes, but we stop trusting Him with our lives and our futures.

Read Hebrews five; actually read chapters one through five, none of them are long so it will only take you a few minutes, but it’s a few minutes that can restore your hope, and trust, and confidence in God’s Word for your life; not the preacher, or the priest, or the reverend – you.

God’s Word is ALIVE – it can give you life. His Word is ACTIVE – it works today, and every day. The Word is POWERFUL – it is stronger than your worst problem. God’s Word is a SWORD – the sword cuts, and penetrates all the way to our heart. The Word is our JUDGE, and here it is critical to understand that John chapter one says, Jesus is the Word, which means He is the judge. But this Judge faced pain like we face, and has encountered sin like we do, but He won! So when we come before Jesus as Judge, we face a Judge Who has already been where we are – He was the priest, now we are the priest. So He offers mercy when we’ve done wrong, and He gives grace when we need help doing right. Talk to Him again and don’t be afraid; read the Word, and listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit’s voice.

You are the priest. Lay your wrongs on the altar, then receive God’s forgiveness and blessing at the altar, and let them begin a Hebrews 5 change in you.

Verses Used:
*Hebrew 5:5-14

Christ gave the church “gifts” mentioned in Ephesians 4:11 including “the apostles, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers” to equip God’s people to build up the Church, the body of Christ. Apostles are culture changers; people involved in governmental oversight, overseeing new works and new territory. Prophets are given to the Church to provide insight. All of these gifts work together in subjection to order to cause growth in God’s people. Pastors are the gateway into the Church. Pastors have a heart for God’s people and are there to take you on your Christian journey. However, pastors can’t do all the work to facilitate your growth. Growth is facilitated by commitment to the Bible and prayer. Merely coming to church is equivalent to barely making it in your Christian walk.

What does maturity mean? The road to maturity begins with service. There is a point in your Christian walk where you should go from taking to giving; from consuming to creating. Be mature and start to serve in God’s house. Don’t let the little things that trip you up this year, trip you up next year. As in marriage, working through issues now prevents encountering the same problems later.

When you are a baby, someone feeds you. Most Christians stay in the “feed me” stage and don’t experience the growth and journey God wants to take them on. Growth is painful and difficult; it stresses our faith. When you ride on the coattails of someone else’s faith you won’t have what you need on the inside of you when your storm comes. Our faith in what God says is the only thing that can get us through.

Ephesians 4:16 says “He makes the whole body fit together perfectly.” Not only are there functional body parts, there are joints and ligaments that are essential for perfect health. Joints supply movement; ligaments supply the connection between bones. Ligaments are the real-deal relationships that hold the body together. Our goal is to build a local body that will work; that can reach our community; that can make a difference. The power of the local body is that in one’s weakness the other is strengthened.

Many think “I don’t know where I fit” and use that as a reason to not commit or grow in the body of Christ. The appendix is a useless part of the body. It only gets infected and causes you pain. There is no such thing as an appendix in the body of Christ. Some folks live to be that pain by lashing out when hurting and God can remove that as one has an appendix removed. When an infected appendix is not removed, it infects the whole body ultimately causing death. You can decide to be a part of the functioning body of Christ. When you make that decision you move from immaturity to maturity.

Verses Used:
*Ephesians 4:11-16
*Colossians 2:19

First we must truly understand what Jesus is asking us to do. Obviously, we want to lead people to Christ, but making disciples requires more. Christians are born (again), but disciples are made. Disciples want to move forward in their walk with God, continuing to allow the Spirit to change them into the image of the One who saved them. Discipleship is a passion that makes things happen. Disciples produce abundant fruit for the Kingdom. Being born again doesn’t guarantee that we will become disciples. Far too many people sit too long, not using their God-given gift, content to be fed by the Pastor. When this happens, the gift will die. Church is not a place to just sit and be fed. If the gift dies, you dry up and find yourself living life by going through the motions. Our vision should be to have people challenged to use their gift in order that they be encouraged and produce fruit.

Jesus charges the disciples to go, but many who heard Him speak never left the borders of their own communities. To “go” simply means to move within your borders. We should never think that because we haven’t been called to sell everything we have and move to another country, we haven’t been called to “Go.”

When Jesus said, “Go into all the world…,” He used the Greek word cosmos. We translate it “world,” but in the original language it means to go into all the cultures of the world and bring the Kingdom culture. Historically, we know that when Greeks armies went into a territory to conquer it, they didn’t just go with soldiers. They went with artists, merchants, architects, and business people and would literally transform the culture into Greek culture by introducing Greek ideas and practices. Similarly, Jesus asks us to go into the cultures of the world and bring the transformation of Kingdom culture. We are to overlay the world’s system with a Kingdom system. That’s what the Great Commission is all about and each of us is called to undertake it.

Because the Kingdom is bigger than any one gift or ministry – it transcends those who carry it. The Kingdom spreads and replicates itself. Once the Kingdom is released by those who are sent (Apostles) it keeps going in the lives of those who are transformed by its coming. The Kingdom is not ours to keep. The Great Commission tells us that there are things that distinguish one who carries the Kingdom (vs. 17-18). These are things God wants to develop in each of us.

Those who carry the Kingdom will dominate demonic activity in the world – whether by casting out actual demons or by the act of bringing light into dark places. Satan works through deception and division, both of which leave people in darkness. We are called to bring the Light of the World into the darkness and bring people back into Truth.

Jesus also said that those who carry the Kingdom will speak in new tongues. 25 times in the New Testament the gift of speaking in tongues is mentioned as both prophetic language and prayer language. When believers run out of words, they can pray in their prayer language – a language not understood by man, but understood by the Spirit that transcends the human mind and human thinking. Praying in the Spirit connects us to God spirit-to-Spirit. Only through that spirit-to-Spirit relationship can we bring the Kingdom to others.

Then Jesus mentions two signs that have been greatly misinterpreted. First, He said those who bring the Kingdom will be able to “handle snakes with safety.” Who was the original serpent? Satan. If we are going to bring the Kingdom, we will need to use the spiritual gift of discernment to dismantle the deception of the serpent who has put scales over the eyes of those who do not yet believe.

Jesus also says those who bring the Kingdom will not be harmed by poisons, meaning that the poisonous deceptions of the world will not affect the true believer. The poison that sits in the heart of man will be challenged and extinguished by the power of God. Millions daily drink the poison of the deceive and the only answer for that poison is the Love of God expressed through those who will are willing to allow that love to flow in them and through them.

Finally, Jesus says that those who carry the Kingdom will “place their hands on the sick and heal them.” Today the world is full of people in need of not only physical, but also spiritual, mental, and emotional healing. As God sent others to meet us in our place of need, so are we to meet others in their place of need and trust that God can and will use us in their lives.

The call of the Great Commission is a great privilege. Answering it will not only insure that we each find our own best life, but that we naturally help others find theirs as well.

Joseph and Mary were betrothed in the Hebrew tradition. This is rather difficult for us to understand for it was not just a joining of two people in marriage but a merging of families, fortunes, and futures. A betrothal period could last up to seven years. During that time the expectations of both families looked and worked toward the union in a way foreign to us today. In addition, the entire community knew of and anticipated the union.

The Spirit and will of God interrupt this proceeding with the purpose of changing mankind’s destiny. From a heavenly perspective, it made perfect sense. From an earthly perspective, it made no sense. Fortunately, Joseph was not a man given to emotional reaction. Here we find his first quality of merit. Matthew 1: 19 tells us that Joseph “considered these things.” He didn’t react in a reality TV/Jerry Springer kind of way. He thought carefully and took the issue before God. He opened the door of his heart to hear what God had to say about the matter before he made any decision. Though his personal reputation was on the line, his first consideration was finding out what was the right thing to do.

A second quality to notice is that Joseph chose not to seek retribution, but to cover Mary and “break the engagement quietly.” (vs 18) If Mary’s pregnancy were to be discovered she would, at the least, be exiled or, at worst, stoned to death. Imagine Jesus’ life being ended before He had a chance to be born. But Joseph chose grace. He chose to cover her rather than expose her. In this day of “investigative reporting” when no secret is safe, and when many delight in the downfall of others, we could learn a great deal from this type of grace. Joseph took Mary as his wife but did not sleep with her as his wife until Jesus was born. Pretty amazing, right? Imagine walking in that kind of obedience.

Most importantly, Joseph’s willingness to set his own feelings and opinions aside and be open to God brought the will of God to pass. God sent an angel to Joseph in a dream to confirm the truth of the story Mary had told him. Joseph protected them and provided for them as Jesus grew. Once the story of Jesus’ birth, the flight to Egypt, and the return to Nazareth is done, we don’t hear any more about Joseph. He fades into the background. But without his obedience, the story would never have taken place. Imagine the multitude of lives that have been changed because Joseph chose to consider God in his actions. How many of us are living our best life because of his choice and how many others might find their best life if we choose to live by his example?

Verses Used:
*Matthew 1:18-24

The River Gihon, as stated last week, is the River of the Anointing. It means “to burst forth.” When something bursts up, it flows out. God began with the River Pishon (increase) and the moved on to Gihon (anointing or flow). You first receive increase and then you let it go somewhere. There is no use having seed if it is not going to go anywhere. You can have it all–fame, fortune, the praise and accord of others–but it means nothing without the anointing that flows out into the world.

John 9 tells the tale of Jesus healing a blind man by placing mud on his eyes and telling him to “Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam.” Siloam means “sent.” Siloam is also the spring of the River Gihon. Jesus sent the blind man on a mission to receive his healing. The blind man had to grope about, asking for help to find the spring of the sent. And it was there that he was healed. Gihon and Siloam are the River of the sent: those who are sent out on missions; those who are a part of other people’s miracles. Do you want to be a apart of someone’s miracle? Then GO! You don’t have to (and we strongly advise against this) put mud in people’s eyes. But speak well of them. Tell those in authority that their employees are the best! Help with your words and actions! And through that, people will receive their miracle.

Verses Used:
*Genesis 2: 13
*John 9:6 & 7
*I Kings 1: 32-35