Traits of Wholeness
Signs that you're emotionally, mentally and spiritually healthy
Authenticity
Honesty
Kindness
Not seeking external approval / validation
Living by values and principles
Setting Boundaries
Taking ownership of your responsibilities
Living with purpose and passion
Optimism
Confidence
Healthy relationships with others
Not losing control of your emotions
Free from addictions
Addressing Conflict with truth and love
Vulnerability
Not critical or Judgemental
Not jealous of others
Forgive those who have wronged you in the past
Know that you’re worthy of receiving love
Not afraid to fail
Able to manage irrational fear, worry, and anxiety
Selfless encounters with others
Not manipulating others trying to control their actions/reactions
You care about how others feel
Patient
Don’t give into peer/social pressure
Can communicate directly
Don’t take responsibility for other people's emotions
Take responsibility for your own emotions
Slow to anger
Ability to maturely express your wants, needs and desires
Being led by the Spirit
Did you ever pray for someone who didn’t get healed?
- Either: 1) you didn’t have enough faith, or 2) faith doesn’t always heal
- There are no other options.
This is the underlying problem with doctrines that teach you that faith always gives you what you want. They leave you with the conclusion that there's either something wrong with you or something wrong with God. When the problem lies in the doctrine itself.
- God can do anything.
- But that doesn’t mean that God will choose to do it
- God has a choice
- God has free will
- He’s not forced to do what we want just because we have faith
- We can't manipulate God with faith
True faith says I trust God whether I get what I want or even if I don't.
True faith is saying: "Lord if you don't do anything else for me...that's good enough."
Reasons We Go Through Trials
Walk By Faith Not By Sight
Judging The Law
The phrase, "Jude the law" is a modern legal term that is used in association with Jury Nullification. jurybox.org defines it as "Jury Nullification is the term given to the process where the jury of a criminal case acquits the defendant regardless if he has broken the law in question. The jury would do this in a case where they judge the law to be unjust, therefore the jury can vote to find the defendant innocent since the jury found the law itself to be immoral, unfair, unjustly applied, or unconstitutional. By voting to acquit, the jury therefore nullifies the law." When we become judges of the law, we judge the law to be wrong, immoral, and unfair. We set ourselves above the law and not subject to the law. We grant ourselves power to nullify the law while at the same time feel no obligation to keep the law ourselves.
Reasons We Go Through Trials
- Caused by Satan (or demons)
- You are tempted with an ungodly option
- Not initiated by God
- The goal is to make you sin or separate you from God
- Example: the Garden of Eden
- To bring you back to God
- For your protection
- God doesn't give you something you want because he sees that it won't be beneficial or will keep you from your destiny
- God gave you a blessing, but it took you away from God instead of bringing you closer to him
- You worshiped the blessing
- You were not mature enough to handle the blessing
- So it was taken from you for your own good
- You were abusing (abnormal use) it
- You interpret it as a trial
- Example: Job promotion that draws you away from God
- Sowing and Reaping
- The natural consequence of some action we commit
- You brought it on yourself
- There was no divine intervention
- Example. Leave $1,000 in the car seat with window down at the mall
- God is testing you
- “Revealing your heart”
- You're going through something to take you somewhere else
- It's part of the process of taking you from where you are to where you need to be
- It's meant to change you (e.g. faith, character)
- It's initiated by God
- Another person exercises their free will
Walk By Faith Not By Sight
Walking
by faith and not by sight doesn’t mean saying something that isn’t true
in hopes that it will eventually become true? It means saying
something that is already true in the spiritual world but not yet
manifested in the physical world. Faith is not denying what is
happening physically. Faith is the ability to trust beyond what's in
the physical world and holding to a belief in what God has promised is
true.
Most
Christians live based on their senses just like the world does. If we
can't feel it, taste it, or smell it, it doesn't exist. We need to
graduate from that. Most people assume every physical problem is
natural, and don’t recognize that the enemy has a hand in things.
Judging The Law
The phrase, "Jude the law" is a modern legal term that is used in association with Jury Nullification. jurybox.org defines it as "Jury Nullification is the term given to the process where the jury of a criminal case acquits the defendant regardless if he has broken the law in question. The jury would do this in a case where they judge the law to be unjust, therefore the jury can vote to find the defendant innocent since the jury found the law itself to be immoral, unfair, unjustly applied, or unconstitutional. By voting to acquit, the jury therefore nullifies the law." When we become judges of the law, we judge the law to be wrong, immoral, and unfair. We set ourselves above the law and not subject to the law. We grant ourselves power to nullify the law while at the same time feel no obligation to keep the law ourselves.
Judging the Law is:
- Deciding a law is not applicable in a certain situation is judging the law.
- Deciding one law is more important than another is judging the law - ML
- If we decide we can slander someone because they sinned then we have judged the law saying you can’t slander is not valid in this case
- You can’t break the law to enforce the law.
In the Name of Jesus
“In the name of” means to act by proxy, on the authority of something or someone greater than yourself.
- they used to read scroll and say “in the name of King Arthur I proclaim…”
- police would yell: “stop in the name of the law”
- I’m not just speaking as myself an individual, but with the authority of a higher power
The person reading the scroll was stating that they whatever they said had the full authority of the king because they were speaking as his representative.
The police officer is saying that he's not just commanding you to stop as a man in a suit but with the full authority of the legal system behind him.
“In the name of” Jesus means:
- as a representative of Jesus
- with the approval of Jesus
- with full authority from Jesus
- with the power of Jesus
- according to the commands of Jesus
- consistent with the desires of Jesus
It’s not merely saying the phrase “in the name of Jesus”
The policeman is saying that because he is standing in the place of the law and speaking on behalf of it. To the degree that he speaks for the law, then he can enforce the law and he has authority. When he steps outside of the law, he has lost his authority even though he still says, "Stop in the name of the law."
Worshipping In Spirit and Truth
Spirit and Truth
John 4:23-24
"But the hour is coming, and now is, when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth
In Spirit
1 Cor 14:14-16
14 For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful.
15 What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also; I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.
16 Else, when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say “Amen” at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest?
Worshiping in Spirit similar to praying in the Spirit means not singing from your mind. It’s being overcome and allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us. It is singing while having your emotions overtaken by the Holy Spirit.
The Greek word translated “worship in" Spirit can mean
- “by means of the Spirit”
- “with the help of the Spirit”
- “in the sphere of the Spirit”
- “in connection to the Spirit”
In Truth
John 14:6
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
We cannot enter into the presence of God unless we are completely free of sin. This can only be accomplished through the blood of Jesus. Sin separates us from God, so unless we have had all of our sins removed or forgiven by becoming a Christian we cannot come into the presence of God and worship "in Truth".
John 16:12-15
12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
In Truth = In Jesus = not an idol or false god
In Truth = In Jesus = not an idol or false god
T.H.I.N.K. Before You Speak
True: Is what I am saying true?
Helpful: Is what I am saying helpful? (Ephesians 4:29)
Inspirational: Will what I say inspire the person to be closer to God and give glory to Him? (1 Corinthians 10:31)
Necessary: Is what I am saying necessary? (Proverbs 4:19) Sometimes it is best to hold your tongue.
Kind: Is what I am saying kind, does it build up? (Colossians 4:6)
Dangers to the Church:
- Grace without conviction
- Legalism without love
- Religion without a relationship with Christ
Levels of our Relationship With God
1. Mail / Email
- you send your request to God
- you sometimes get response
- if you don’t get a letter back you wonder if your letter was received
- similar to sending your Christmas list to Santa Claus
- don't know what His voice sounds like
2. Phone call
- two way conversation - you speak He responds regularly
- know His voice
3. In Person
- in His presence
- spiritual encounter with God
Scripture Prayer
Our Father who art in heaven (Matthew 6:9)You are my God, and I will give you thanks; you are my God, and I will exalt you. Give thanks to the Lord, for You are good; Your love endures forever. (Psalm 118:28-29 NIV)I love you, oh Lord, my strength (Psalm 18:1 NIV)I will praise thee with uprightness of heart (Psalm 119:7 KJV)I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted (Job 42:2 NIV)Praise the Lord. I will extol the Lord with all my heart in the council of the upright and the assembly (Psalm 111:1 NIV)For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen (Matthew 6:13)
Death Row
Many of our brothers and sisters serve in our prison ministry and help minister to prisoners in jail. Some of the prisoners are in death row because they've been convicted of crimes for which the law says the penalty is death. I want to confess to you guys that I used to be on death row. Because of my crimes against God the law says that I deserve death. But luckily for you and for me Jesus came and took the punishment for me and my sins and I've been pardoned!!
Legalism
Legalism is about trying to conform to the image of Christ from the outside in. If you're filled with Christ within then it will reflect outside. You shouldn't be trying to achieve righteousness in your own strength.
I go into many churches and there is a time of worship. I hear them singing songs about increasing my territory, healing, moving mountains, and the fact that Can’t Nobody Do Me like Jesus. These are all God honoring songs and can be biblically based, but they aren't worship. Many people think that if it’s a slow tempo religious song then it’s a worship song.
Worship deals with exalting God as a higher being that is worthy of our praise. Worship deals with seeking the face of God. Worship involves strengthening our relationship with God. It’s not about asking God for anything other than Himself. It’s about seeking God. True worship songs praise God, uplift the name of God, and glorify Jesus.
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