It costs us our life

Now we pray for the kingdom to come, we want more: Getting more does not come without cost, John Wimber has said,
"The economy of the kingdom of God is quite simple. Every new step in the kingdom costs us everything we have gained to date,” Every time we cross a new threshold, it costs us everything we now have. Every new step may cost us all the reputation and security we have accumulated up to that point. It costs us our life.” "A disciple is always ready to take the next step. If there is anything that characterizes Christian maturity, it is the willingness to become a beginner again for Jesus Christ. It is the willingness to put your hand in his hand and say, ‘I’m scared to death, but I’ll go with you. You’re the Pearl of great price. "

This is the good news, The Kingdom of God, where this message is preached, there is where you will find the kingdom, preaching is a sign that the Kingdom is here.
"The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it."

Mobile Blogging from here.

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The Poor in God's Kingdom

Jesus said the poor will always be with us. My early thinking on this statement was, we will always need the poor to practice being His followers. More recently I think Jesus could have been referring to the fact that there would always be greed and oppression, therefore always the poor.  You would think that oppression and greed would not come from those who go to church, or have some sort of spiritual life. The truth is we are all on this journey and there is oppression and greed in our ranks, something we should at least pray about.

When Jesus said things like follow me, or sell everything you own and give it to the poor, He did not mean to sell all and be poor. What He may have meant is when you follow me your stuff is every body's stuff, Redistribution of the wealth. If you read the first few chapters of acts, you will see them considering nothing of their own, but holding all things in common, so that there were no needs among them.

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Jesus from the begining

If you look at the life of Jesus from the biblical account you will see a parallel with your own story, let me explain.

• Jesus is born In humility. Although equal with God, while on earth, Jesus gave up, or considered being God as something left behind, not to be used. Jesus' life was one of complete dependency on our Father. His life should be our life on earth.
• Jesus is baptized and given the approval of the Father .
• Jesus spends time alone after the Spirit drives Him to the wilderness.
• Jesus now begins ministry.

In general Jesus preparation for life is very similar to ours. What Jesus then showed Hs students, disciples, should be what we learn, and teach, and do, today.

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No-Fault Conviction

If you listen carefully at church meetings at some point you are going to be told it is right to do certain things, things that are more than suggestions. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, take in the homeless, and heal the sick, are just a few. The no-fault comes in when we wonder why we aren't doing these things. The quick answer is we don't know where to do it, or how to do it.

The Gavilan Group has purposed to help you understand the need, find places to minister, and learn how to minister. We are not here to teach "soul Winning". Commitments can be made to go with Jesus where ever He goes. I figure if you know the lord you can help others know Him as well.

Convinced that God will show us what He is up to, we simply do what we see Him doing. The important thing to remember is God will give more after we use what He has already given. Any attempts to get ahead or save for a rainy day end up like manna and cannot be used. The way to do the work of Jesus is total trust in our Father and obedience to his word.

Everyone who follows Jesus is given a measure of faith that allows him to move in the power and authority of God. The same way Jesus is on earth so are those who follow Him. So who is at fault, no one yet we are just learning.

Mobile Blogging from here.

[your friend, bill]

ministry with no money

I am bill and have been lurking around here for around 5 years, I am not an author or anyone much at all. I found myself with a group of people committed to the person and work of Jesus. So take these thoughts, they are my testimony of the awesome God we sing of, the father of our Lord, brother, and example for this life, Jesus.

Shortly after being asked to serve the First Southern Baptist Church in Hollister as their pastor, God began unfolding His plan for my life. Like it or not, He was sending me to the poor. It was for the sake of the rich as well. We saw rich and poor side by side in our little fellowship in central California. Ministry With No Budget: In around 1987 I was asked to pastor a small Church in Hollister California. We sat in on Hollister's ministers meetings once a month and got to know the other pastors. At one of these meetings the concern for the homeless people was being addressed. The ministers association had found a house that could be rented and would hold the people necessary for the time being. After considering the rental everyone decided that the liability was too great, the idea got tabled. One morning we felt the Lord was telling us to open the doors to our “church” buildings and share them with the less fortunate. We did that, and before you know it we had two hundred people staying at the property, they would sleep on the pews and in their cars on the parking lot. Because of what we sensed the Father was doing we launched out and began to serve the poor. Soon we were meeting every night before bed for a time of worship and a brief devotional, it was at this time that I learned Spanish, the Lord, I believe was responsible for that. Homeless people would come,, and some were healed, some were delivered from demonization, and others received the love of Jesus which He had given us for them all. With no budget, over two hundred people would eat each night and many would have breakfast before they went to the fields or the streets. On several occasions we ran out of food, the question I would always ask our helpers was, “well, do you want to sit around and complain or should we ask the Lord for help?” On more than one occasion we would enter into a time of prayer explaining our needs to the Lord (He already knew them). When we said amen, and I am not stretching the truth here, the phone would ring and the person on the other

end would say something like, I have a pickup load of food with your name on it. In 1989 after the big quake here, we gave away all our food to the people who were in need, leaving nothing for the residents of the church to eat. Again, we prayed and at the amen some one knocked on the door and told us they were sent with a big truck loaded with food and other supplies for the residents.

A few years later a man gave us two homes to use for the parolees we were ministering to. Most of these men and a few women had just gotten out of prison and had no where to go. Again with no budget or money we filled the homes with forty two parolees, and we would teach there about three times a day and have group meetings the rest of the time. Every now and then when we were just about out of everything, Sherman Overman would call me up and ask me to go to breakfast with him. During breakfast more than once he handed me a roll of cash and

said, “take care of the Lord’s lambs with this. All the parolees in the county eventually ended up at the church on Tuesday or Thursday nights for drug testing. It was not unusual to cast out demons once or twice a week, as the Lord would lead us. There was a time when a Lady came in to explain to us how she could raise funds for us to help out. Not many understood that we trusted the Lord alone and had no reason to raise funds. While she was there my friend began to tell her about her past life and how she needed Jesus. He did not know this lady and I was blown away by the way he knew all about her. She began to cry and explain that he was right. I am going to stop here and just say what one man told me, “more ministry happens here by accident than most people plan for We saw miracles, food multiplied as we were serving it. Demons cast out, the sick and addicted healed. Everything the Lord did through us seemed to be called into question by someone, but we always managed to work things out. We had a little white box in the back of our meeting place that we would put any money we wanted to give. But the Lord almost always supplied by some answer to prayer, or someone passing by would stop in and give. We did not know most of these people.

With almost four hundred homeless people forty two parolees and thirteen people at my house detoxing etc. God supplied all we needed plus gave us His love for these people. We had a little place in the alley behind my house that we called “church in the alley”. Many street people would come. All this was done with no budget, God chose to do his work through us and we all stood amazed at what he was doing. We cannot say it was our prayer even though we prayed; it was not our effort even though we worked at it, and it was not our ability to figure things out even though we used our brains. It was the glorious work of God and many in the city of Hollister knew it.

How much could you do if you heard the voice of Jesus and He captured your heart, where nothing mattered as much as knowing Him? Over the years I have learned to do even what I think I might have heard Him say as to chance missing something. Today I am glad to report it gets easier, as we walk with the Lord we gain more freedom, understanding, and ability to discern. When you do what God is doing there is no need to concern yourself with anything more than taking care of those you are sent to. In the example above, the job was so enormous that we had no time to, fund raise, or make budgets, budgets are based on income, income we had little of. The work of God can be done without 5013c, accountants, or offering baskets.

It was because we intentionally did everything that we felt was important to the Lord, we were able to trust Him for everything He promised. When asked we gave, when spit upon, we turned the other cheek. One of my children's favorite stories is how, when their bikes would get taken, we would not ask for them back, the fun part was that they had eight bikes.

Because of unconditional love we knew what it was like to be called enablers. There was a sense of oneness with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that led us to be one with each other. Most of us had a sense that nothing we had was ours. This is by far the greatest experience I have ever known. There was so much to do that we asked the LDS to help us one night a week teach about Jesus from the bible. We agreed that the bible would be our source for material, we were all better for this experience.

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Seeds just grow

He also said, "This is what the kingdom of God is like". A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come."

The Kingdom of God is like a planted seed that grows. I live in beautiful Santa Clara County, where farming used to be a good size industry. Although we spent many nights trying to stir up some "action", one could say that after 2100 hours things were quiet except for a few cars passing by, and the all familiar sound of farmers trying to coax seeds to grow. Breaking through the silence, one could hear, "come on you can do it, please grow, I will be sure to pull weeds tomorrow if you could just grow a little bit now." We will never plant another seed in you if you don't hurry and grow. a tractor comes by spreading chemicals to support the growth.

The truth is we don't have to coax, plead with, or beg seeds to grow. Seeds grow because that is what they do. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. Plant seeds of the Kingdom and it will grow.

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A friend said....

A friend of mine named Kevin was about twenty years old when he wrote the following in 2005:America has always been the antithesis of the Kingdom of God. I have been studying the book of Daniel lately with some friends at the workplace (don't worry, I'm not in a church service, LOL). In Daniel chapter 2 we read about a dream that King Nebuchadnezzar had, of an image with a head of gold, shoulders of silver, loins of bronze, and legs of iron, feet of iron mixed with clay. These, according to Daniel, represented the coming world empires, of which King Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon was the first. The empires that have followed have all been part and parcel of that original Babylonian structure. America is Babylon. Just as Rome was Babylon, Christendom was Babylon, etc. Babylon has dominated world history since the time of Daniel and will until Allah sends his son, Jesus, to destroy the kingdoms of the this world and set up his kingdom.

The Kingdom of God is not a re-structured human government. It is human anarchy, divine rule. Trying to reform human governments does not give us something "closer" to the Kingdom of God. The only "closer" there is is the "closer" contained in our own spirits, for, in this time when Babylon still reigns on the slaves and feasts on the martyrs, Jesus' words are truer than ever before. Luke 17:21 - the kingdom of God is within us. We can release this kingdom in our own personal sphere of influence, by thanking God for every moment that we live in, by accepting each breath as a gift. Then our inner peace will flow out and transform our own lives and our own spheres of influence.

I have been amazed to see this happen in my own home. Since my wife and I have lived on our own in our own house, we have become "Crazy Pet People." We have a dog, three cats, and three fish. And you would have to see it to believe it, but the literal Kingdom of God rules the interactions of these animals. They are full of peace towards us and towards each other. In our backyard the wild animals want to be near us, and especially near the altar I have set up where I observe the nature of the God I love and the signs of the stars and the moon which He made for us. I work at a youth center, where I just had a co-worker tell me that I "create heaven on earth" for our patients, and that the way my own personal atmosphere is, is "the way the whole world is supposed to be." I don't say these things to lift myself up, merely to encourage anyone who doesn't know to get a hold of the Kingdom of God that Jesus imparted to us, separate yourself from anything anti-Kingdom, and watch peace on earth become reality, if not in the rest of the world, at least in your backyard.

And as for the rest of the world: support the human rights of all, the rights of workers, and peace, justice, life, and health. Don't put any hope in any individual nation or party. But I do believe in using this current order against its own self to liberate as many as possible from the bondage of wealth, politics, and religion which emanate from the same statue that Nebuchadnezzar erected in Daniel 3. Ever asked yourself if the statue in Daniel 3 was modelled after the image in Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel 2?
-Kevin X