Isaiah says Jesus will be called four things. ‘Wonderful Counselor’ speaks to us of the wisdom of Christ. You can’t look to other sources for the answers we need in our human lives. All the answers come from Jesus. You will be baffled by things, and you may look everywhere else for answers instead of the words in red. There is only one source that will get you through 2012 better than 2011. You should not try to live your life by other any other direction, than by the wisdom of Christ. Get closer to Jesus in 2012. The closer you get to someone, the more you get from them, the better communication flows. The wisdom of Christ is going to come by the people He puts in your life sometimes, and is going to come by revelation through His Word. You will read the Bible, and Jesus and the Holy Spirit will take the words on that page and give you just what you need.

Jesus is called ‘Mighty God.’ He is God in the flesh. Why? So when you read about Jesus, you can relate to Him. He came to earth to show His character. He came to help people. He was all God and all man. Jesus was the perfect visual image of God. People put their faith into things that are here today and gone tomorrow. We lose every time, unless we listen to Jesus. Jesus has the answers we need.

Jesus is called ‘Eternal Father.’ He is the son, but he has father-like qualities. He comes into our life like a friend sometimes. But, He also brings security, provision, authority, vision and discipline like a father. Fathers are involved on the lives of their children. Fathers are concerned with how their children are going to turn out. A father can bring guidance and vision to their children. Jesus will bring vision into your lives this year.

Jesus is called Prince of peace. He wants to be lord of your emotional life. Jesus is the One who will settle your soul. 2012 is going to be about dreams and visions in your life that you have asked God to help you with for years. Some of these things are going to come to pass in your life this year.

Verses Used:
*Isaiah 9:6-7

Branches that disconnect from the vine change color and become lifeless. (vs 6) Living as if we don’t need Jesus is futile, as EVERY other “life source” we attempt to follow to find peace of mind will have to bow before Christ at the end of time. When we choose to abide, remain and stay in Christ and His Word, God then desires to give us the things that we want, need, hope for. This is a relationship where we love Him, He loves us, and we do awesome things for one another – ours is to obey, His is giving us great joy and an abundant life here on earth. All that Jesus received from the Father He passed down to us. (vs 10-11) God is as interested in our carnal lives as much as our spiritual lives. We don’t need to do “goofy things” to feel spiritual, which is why we don’t prophesy over the cashier at Walmart, but when we become so connected to God that everday life becomes extraordinary, we become one with Him. Normal, joyful, blessed – we have every answer to every problem when we’re connected to the Vine.

This is My commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Lay down your lives for your friends. We are no longer called servants, God wants to call us friends! (vs 12-15) Jesus is declaring His love for His disciples, explaining that He is more than their teacher, He is their friend and loves them like a brother. It is an emotional moment, He wants them to see that everything they have comes by obeying His Father. Anything that doesn’t come from Christ is nothing in our lives as well. The family you want, the children you desire, these only come through Christ. If you will discipline your children at a young age, they won’t be big trouble as teenagers – you take care of what needs to be done, don’t bring them to me in 10 years and ask me to fix your teens if you didn’t follow through on our childcare worker’s helpful advice to deal with temper tantrums at age 5! You don’t want to become the branches that are cut off and burned, and neither do they – there are choices involved all through our lives that keep us connected.

You did not choose me; I chose you…go and produce fruit that will last. (vs 16-17). Everyone has a God-purpose – He chose you and needs you to help those who are in your world. Stay in Christ, produce good fruit, remain in His love, His teaching, His word. Every pain, every disappointment, every temptation Jesus knew and carried to the cross to be taken away. Even going to His death, He spoke positive, encouraging, life-giving words so that we could have joy in this life on earth. Through horrific times, joy comes by being connected to Jesus and staying in His Word, allowing the Father, the Master Gardener, to prune us which actually gives us more strength to keep bearing great fruit. These words gave Steven the ability in Acts to be martyred for his faith and helped the early church in the first 40 years overcome extreme persecution by the Romans. When we stay connected to the Father’s House and keep that a priority, we will find all the help we need to have an abundant, joyful life in the Vine!

Verses Used:
*John 15:1-17

First, it is essential to understand that people come into a marriage with their own subconscious ideas of what it will be like. When these two worlds collide, major problems can occur, which is evident in the number of marriages that are ended over “irreconcilable differences.” We must decide that rather than “my way,” we will commit to finding “our way.” Commonality of goal, the ability to communicate about everything openly, and understanding the need to compromise will help us craft a vision for where we are going as a couple…together.

Secondly, if we want to have commonality of goal, we must shift our mindset away from what society and tradition have said marriage should be. The old mindset of the 50’s and 60’s that sees mom at home all day vacuuming in a dress and pearls is still around and it’s completely unreasonable. In fact, it’s not even Biblical. True marriage is not about roles, it about sharing dreams together. It’s about submitting to each other in the knowledge of God. And it’s about putting the other first and making all decisions with the other in mind.

Finally, we must make the decision to commit to the commitment of marriage. No husband or wife is perfect. We all have faults and will all make mistakes. We cannot hold unforgiveness toward our spouse or shut them out. If we refuse to hear the other, we cause our marriage to begin to disintegrate. All marriages go through shifting seasons when one spouse’s needs overshadow the other. We must be willing to make whatever adjustments are necessary for the best interest of the marriage and the family – not simply decide based on our own self-interest.

As time goes on, life seems to be more and more hectic. We cannot forget that a marriage must be tended if it is to survive and grow. Resist taking the other for granted and be sure to make time for the wooing to go on. In marriage, we must offer affection and love that expects nothing more. Marriage is the most important relationship ever created. Children draw security from a strong marriage, and communities benefit from the foundation they provide. There is no condemnation in Christ. Perhaps you have gone through a divorce or are struggling in your marriage right now. The good news is, with God’s help, any married couple can decide today, to commit, or re-commit, to taking the steps that lead them to their best life.

There is only a 1/2 inch difference between cutting off a useless branch that is producing nothing, and pruning back a healthy, fruit-laden branch that just needs to bear more fruit next season. When things are removed from our life it hurts but there is greater good to come! God will prune us to teach us to grow even larger in our capacity, giftings, and fruitfulness. This makes us turn to the nurtrients of Jesus to grow, multiply, become stronger & healthier! When we make poor choices continually, sometimes we get cut off – however, unlike the churches who want to frighten us by saying “that’s it, once you are cut off you are gonna burn!”, the Father who grafts seemingly useless branches will carefully cut into Christ, the Vine, and attach us to the main, life-giving artery. This is when God gets us to where we must trust in Jesus, when we are grafted in and bound to the vine – literally, the vinedresser tapes the branches so they stay put. We don’t have to give up, God will graciously make a way to reconnect us to Him! Choose to contribute to your church, to get involved when you don’t feel like it, that is called “trying again”. God’s NOT trying to kill us!!

God wants fruitfulness and He will do whatever it takes to get fruit from the ones He owns – “You are Mine, I bought you with a price and I require something of you!” There is a calling on our lives to produce something good for God! He will always pick us up and graft us back in – choose to stay in Jesus and in the Word “for apart from Me you can do nothing.” (vs 5) It may seem unjust to the fruitful but God is always going to prune us to cause an area of our life to grow. It’s the only way to get to the next level! The branch (us) grows again and bears even more fruit – and it’s not hard because He has prepared us for the next season. When the harvest comes and the grapes are put into the winepress – which is the Church – that new wine is the Holy Spirit, pouring out the wine of revival into all the people. The move of the Spirit in the last days will come from the fruit of the saints who are willing to be cut back in order to grow the church. This new wine means miracles, power, outpouring, and a flowing of the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ.! “I have poured out My Spirit upon you”, Jesus said. We have to allow ourselves to be pruned and grafted or else the church will die. Look to Europe as an example, all the beautiful cathedrals and churches built hundreds of years ago are boarded up or have only elderly people attending – no fruit. In England, some Arab nations are buying up old churches and turning them into mosques, which then can only be used for that purpose according to Islamic laws and can never revert back to what they were intended to be – places where GOD shows up! This has happened because the church there decided to lay on the ground, wither and die. In Cambodia, they killed all pastors and Christians in the Khmer Rouge regime of the 70’s and now that nation is in desperate poverty. Even here in America, where we believe nothing bad can happen to us, we need to see that we are content to be a rich nation and have to open our eyes to the truth – we have to stay in Christ to survive!

Don’t run when you feel God’s hand pruning, we must ABIDE in Christ no matter what, that is the key. If we allow bitterness to fester in our minds during the times when we don’t understand what the Gardener is doing, it will wither us and we will die – but it will have been our choice. Instead, rejoice when you feel God is pruning you, cutting off something that you probably don’t need anyway, wanting to take you to the next level of joy and revelation He has for you! He is always getting the wine out of His fruitful ones, then asking us to grow more good grapes. Everything from Jesus feeds us and fuels us to start again. When things are really going terribly, you are probably getting cut – so get off the ground. Your attitude determines whether God regrafts you or not. Do not give in to the temptation to lay there, moan and groan about how sorry your life is and how mean God is – He always wants to give you a second, third, tenth, hundredth chance! He is patient with us and will always take us back again as we choose to put aside our pride and allow Him to heal us, to bind us to Christ and intertwine again with the other branches. Let the healthy ones around you help you grow.

Disciples, it’s time to GROW! Be fruitful, God wants your fruit to press out new wine for the church to stay alive and strong. Our focus now is on the 2020 mission to go into ALL the world and make disciples. A strong church keeps the Spirit moving and life flowing.

Verses Used:
*John 15: 1-6

Matthew 25 tells the tale of three servants entrusted with their master’s money while he is away on a long journey. It is an accepted fact that the man on the journey is Jesus. He is leaving for a time, and He entrusts His servants with His property. Jesus came to earth to save us and to establish the Kingdom. He got the work started through His death and resurrection. Then, He said, “The rest is up to you.” He gave us the Holy Spirit to help us in our charge to change the world. He trusted us with His resources (money,abilities, etc…) like the man in the parable entrusted his servants.

What happens next is the real gem. The man gives to his servants according to their abilities. Wait a second. That’s not very fair. Why don’t all the servants get an equal share? That’s because “fairness” is no Biblical. God wants us to have more then other people. He wants us to prosper and be fruitful. There is no ceiling or cap to that. It is ongoing. Those who cry over how unfair it is are the ones trapped in the small-mindedness of the world. Very simple. Two servants prospered because they used their resources; one did not. When the master returned, he rewarded those who increased and cursed the one who did not.

So use what God has given you! Sow it! Invest it! And watch the blessing of increase come into your world.

Verses Used:
*Matthew 25: 14-30
*Psalms 1

Isaiah 66 says the oil of joy replaces mourning,that praise relieves heaviness. Peace comes out of His presence, it changes our hearts and minds as the Holy Spirit goes to work, making us different. Joshua gave us the greatest example of how going into the Temple, into the presence of God, set him apart from the rest of Israel, who stood outside their tent doors and watched the one man brave enough and wise enough to get literally into the presence of God. Because of Christ’s anointing to die on the Cross, we can now freely go into the House – the Presence – of the Lord, worship, serve and fulfill His call that is unique to each one of us. We don’t naturally know how to get into God’s presence, we have to choose like Joshua to get ourselves to church and connect in worship and the Word.

In Revelation 22:1-5 the apostle John writes about what he saw there in Heaven. He speaks of an angel showing him a pure, clear river running thru the main street, which had trees growing on either side. These trees were for the healing of the nations, and bore a different fruit once a month every twelve months. There is so much here – the river begins at the Throne of God, runs where everyone has access to it, and the fruit of it’s trees is not for us, it is for others, since God wants everyone to come into His Kingdom! He is a river without limit or end, He does not want us to segment off our lives into “Sunday I go to church, Monday through Saturday I live my life”, He truly wants to give us unlimited blessings – a different one every month if we are ready for it! Jesus follows up that thought when he said, “He who believes in Me, out of your belly will flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:38) Meaning that LIFE comes from knowing and believing in all the blessing, favor, anointing and presence that God is freely offering us. Why would we not want to follow Him to the ends of the earth – He has everything we need to LIVE! His blessings are unlimited, His presence pulls us in and brings change to our lives. We can come out of that dry, dusty riverbed we have been living in and experience the full-on wetness of journeying with the Lord in the Four Rivers. Changes are instant and imminent – are you ready to move forward?
Verses Used:
*Genesis 2:13
*Exodus 33
*Isaiah 66
*John 7:38

While we believe that Eden was a real place, it is also representative of the human heart. Each of us has the responsibility to tend the garden of our heart – the garden of who we are. The four rivers represent principles that God has given to help us cultivate good fruit in the garden of our lives. The first river, Pishon, represents increase and expansion, a principal that Jesus taught repeatedly. To experience increase in our own lives we must believe that God is our source of all things, learn how to get into God’s flow, and avoid the things that cause us to get out of the flow.

Today we live in a society filled with self-help gurus. As a result, we often think we can will ourselves to success if we just find the right book to read. But the river comes from God and we can’t will or self-help ourselves into the life He brings. If we try to make it in our own strength, there will come a point when our human strength will fail us. When difficulties come, when we can’t take one more step, we must look to the God of the River of Increase to be the source of whatever it is we need. Whether it’s strength, peace, joy, forgiveness, grace, patience, wisdom….whatever it is you think you’re out of, God has it and wants to give it to you. We only need to plant our lives by His river and let Him be our source.

We all know that water is an incredibly powerful thing. Rowing against a strong current will quickly tire you out and make it virtually impossible to reach your destination. But, as humans, we often seem bent on rowing against God’s flow – trying to get to our destiny under our own power. The Holy Spirit is God’s river. He flows into our hearts and wants to branch out into every area of our lives and spill over onto others. But we have to get into the flow.

You don’t need to look hard to find examples of people who have fought their way to the top but have not found happiness. Rowing against the river of God will never get you to a place of contentment. We each must decide to turn our boat and stop fighting God’s flow. The river may take us to places we don’t understand, but we will find ourselves in a place of unending increase that will spill over and grow the Kingdom of God. So come on and jump in, the water’s fine.

Over the next few weeks, we will be discussing the four rivers that flowed from the heart of the Garden of Eden. But before we can, we must understand the importance of the Garden. We need to go back to the beginning. Genesis tells the story– “In the Beginning…” In the beginning, God planted a garden. He didn’t make the garden magically appear; He planted! He put seed in the soil! Soil is a second part of this already mind altering concept! God created soil to be worked. Let that sink in. God purposefully designed soil to be worked so that it could produce. Growth requires work. Soil must be prepared; seed must be planted; work must be put into it; and then there is growth! God set everything up from the beginning. He planted the seeds to grow the Garden in rich, worked soil, producing Paradise. Eden is the image of what the earth was supposed to be and can be again.

Referencing back to Matthew 13, the human heart is the soil where all seeds are planted. The human heart is designed to have things planted within. It craves seed. It does not care which seed is planted as long as something is planted and something grows. The heart is the battlefield; you are responsible for the outcome. You are responsible for the condition of the soil; you are responsible for what goes in; you are responsible for what grows. You and you alone are responsible for the garden of your heart.

And whatever you let into your heart flows out of your life. Jeremiah 17 talks about what happens when a person allows the knowledge of the world to be planted in their hearts. They become a shrub. That is what it says: shrub. The very word is unpleasant. Have you ever met a person who is a shrub? I have. You can see it all over their lives. They are dry and barren and salty. They are a shrub barely scraping by in the desert of their life. However, in contrast, Jeremiah calls those who place their hope and trust in God and who willingly submit to His covering tree planted by the river.

So choose now:]Will you allow your heart to get dry and shrub-like? Or will you work to till the soil of your heart, allowing God to work along side you in breaking up the hard ground of attitude and bitterness and pain to create a soft field that yields to the seed and produces good fruit? What will it be?

Verses Used:
Genesis 2:4-14
Jeremiah 17:5-10
Matthew 13: 11-17

After dinner, however, the mood shifts. Jesus took another cup, symbolic of the new covenant they were about to enter into between God and man. “This cup is the new covenant written in my blood, blood poured out for you…I will not drink wine again until the Kingdom comes to earth.” Last week we learned the depth of what those words meant, now we know that 50 days later at Pentecost, the Kingdom of God came to earth in the form of the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist had told his followers, “There is one coming after me…who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” In the upper room of Acts 2, 120 faithful followers were filled with the Spirit of Jesus and begin to proclaim in other tongues the glory of God’s kingdom. Thus, the Kingdom is within us when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, and we are building His kingdom here on earth! It is now within our grasp, as we pray His will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven.

In Luke 5, we read these words of Christ: “You don’t put wine in old wineskins; you get new wineskins for your fresh vintage wine. And no one who has ever tasted fine aged wine prefers unaged wine.” A wineskin was the scraped-out hide of a sheep or goat. The reason new wine needed to go into new skins was that the fermentation process was so strong, the skins had to be able to expand to hold it all in. New skins were pliable, soft, like our hearts need to be. We can always stretch out some more when we are being filled anew every day with the Holy Spirit! The symbolism of the Cup of the Covenant is a fresh touch from Jesus on our lives and hearts, the fermenting of our dreams & visions swirling around and being made reality. “I have to go so my Spirit can come live in you”, He said to those who begged Him to stay. We are the vessels that the wine is being poured into. It’s so easy to get stuck in the “once upon a time” experience. Old wineskins could be made pliable again by being immersed in oil – God doesn’t want the vessel (us) to burst or break from His new; wine of dreams & visions for our lives! Make it a priority to empty ourselves of what the Lord has given us so we can be filled with the next new thing He has for us. Be ready to live new experiences; God is going to challenge our mindsets and wants to change us to become bigger in all areas of our lives. Being filled with the Spirit means getting fresh vision, dreams that bring us joy, and not allowing our hearts to harden for any reason. When we keep our vessel full of the new wine of what the Spirit is calling us onward to do, we will find our dreams fulfilled, as Christ’s were after he drank from the Cup of the Covenant and did what His Father had called Him to do for the coming of the Kingdom. Come unafraid to the altar for a fresh touch, fresh oil and new wine!

Verses Used:
*Luke 22:17-20
*Matthew 3:11
*Acts 2:1-41
*Luke 5:33-39
*John 14:16-17

After dinner, however, the mood shifts. Jesus took another cup, symbolic of the new covenant they were about to enter into between God and man. “This cup is the new covenant written in my blood, blood poured out for you…I will not drink wine again until the Kingdom comes to earth.” Last week we learned the depth of what those words meant, now we know that 50 days later at Pentecost, the Kingdom of God came to earth in the form of the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist had told his followers, “There is one coming after me…who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” In the upper room of Acts 2, 120 faithful followers were filled with the Spirit of Jesus and begin to proclaim in other tongues the glory of God’s kingdom. Thus, the Kingdom is within us when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, and we are building His kingdom here on earth! It is now within our grasp, as we pray His will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven.

In Luke 5, we read these words of Christ: “You don’t put wine in old wineskins; you get new wineskins for your fresh vintage wine. And no one who has ever tasted fine aged wine prefers unaged wine.” A wineskin was the scraped-out hide of a sheep or goat. The reason new wine needed to go into new skins was that the fermentation process was so strong, the skins had to be able to expand to hold it all in. New skins were pliable, soft, like our hearts need to be. We can always stretch out some more when we are being filled anew every day with the Holy Spirit! The symbolism of the Cup of the Covenant is a fresh touch from Jesus on our lives and hearts, the fermenting of our dreams & visions swirling around and being made reality. “I have to go so my Spirit can come live in you”, He said to those who begged Him to stay. We are the vessels that the wine is being poured into. It’s so easy to get stuck in the “once upon a time” experience. Old wineskins could be made pliable again by being immersed in oil – God doesn’t want the vessel (us) to burst or break from His new; wine of dreams & visions for our lives! Make it a priority to empty ourselves of what the Lord has given us so we can be filled with the next new thing He has for us. Be ready to live new experiences; God is going to challenge our mindsets and wants to change us to become bigger in all areas of our lives. Being filled with the Spirit means getting fresh vision, dreams that bring us joy, and not allowing our hearts to harden for any reason. When we keep our vessel full of the new wine of what the Spirit is calling us onward to do, we will find our dreams fulfilled, as Christ’s were after he drank from the Cup of the Covenant and did what His Father had called Him to do for the coming of the Kingdom. Come unafraid to the altar for a fresh touch, fresh oil and new wine!

Verses Used:
*Luke 22:17-20
*Matthew 3:11
*Acts 2:1-41
*Luke 5:33-39
*John 14:16-17