Life In Your Way
Kingdoms: Kingdom of God
Induction and Who I Am
Lyrics for these tracks can be found below:
These are a couple of tracks off of what is easily my favorite album, Kingdoms, by Life In Your Way. It is excellent musically and lyrically and definitely worth a listen. The entire album is available free at:
http://comeandlive.com/albums/kingdoms
My take from the Scripture:
The Kingdom of God can be joined freely no matter our past. There is no condemnation in Christ. Christ works through us to be able to do things we never thought possible and receive freedom from the things that hinder us and we thought we could never get past. There is always a cost to following the Lord, pursuits to give up and things of this world lost, but the Lord is faithful through it all. What can be gained is far more fulfilling than the things of this world. There will be trouble in this world, it’s guaranteed, but good fruit results when the trials are endured faithfully. Peaceful fruit of righteousness is found, throughout the training and trials, as we follow the path the Lord directs on our hearts in His peace. Not necessarily the fruit we want, but it always results in good for those who live according to His purpose. We can be refined like silver, sometimes a fire has to be lit under us to bring the impurities out. As we submit our desires to the Lord and trust in Him, he grants us the desires of our hearts, maybe not in the way we want or at the time we want, but He does. I have read of some referring to the Holy Spirit as a wild goose to illustrate many parallels. You may have some wild goose chases to walk through in the mysterious ways of the Lord even when you follow Him faithfully. I’ve had several, but whenever I was faithful they all resulted in growth and overcoming stagnant thought, lack of knowledge, doubt, and unwillingness to change. Good fruit was manifested in various forms, not necessarily where I was hoping for it, but it was definitely there. The trials refine us, give us the impetus for growth and greater fulfillment in Christ. Trials should not be feared by the overcomer, but endured and overcome through Christ in us.
As we freely receive we must freely give as the Lord leads, it’s a command. Not to do just to do, but in submission to God’s calling. Not just because it makes sense in our minds, but by The Holy Spirit. We can be destroyed by lack of knowledge. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are to be desired, sought, practiced, and walked in according to each’s calling. We are each called according to His purpose, walking in submission to the Lord’s leading results in great peace and fulfillment when we trust and obey, no matter the situation. Having the peace of the Lord whether you’re in the middle of a storm or in worldly comfort cannot be beat by anything in this world. We are heirs, sons and daughters of the Most High in a position of royal priesthood with the authority to declare who we are in Christ no matter what we or anyone else see of us. To whom much is entrusted, much is required. We are to mortify sinful nature through Christ who strengthens us. We are free and chosen for a greater purpose. No kingdom of man or darkness can stand in our way and prevail. Some of these things I have had a hard time trusting the Lord to do, but when I have He has erased my doubt.
-Greg
References:
Matthew 10:8: “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.”
Romans 8:1: “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Revelation 12:11: “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.”
Luke 14:27-28: “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?”
John 16:33: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Matthew 7:17: “So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.”
Hebrews 12:11: “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
Psalm 66:10: “For you, God, tested us; you refined us like silver.”
Isaiah 48:10: “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
1 Peter 1:6-7: “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ”
Hosea 4:6: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest.”
1 Corinthians 14:1-3: “Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God; for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries. But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation.”
Proverbs 3:3-6: “Do not let kindness and truth leave you; Bind them around your neck, Write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good repute In the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.”
Romans 8:28: “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
Luke 12:48: “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.”
Romans 8:17: “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”
1 John 5:14-15: “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.”
Psalm 138:8: “The Lord will accomplish what concerns me;”
Proverbs 18:20-21: “With the fruit of a man’s mouth his stomach will be satisfied; He will be satisfied with the product of his lips. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.”
1 Peter 2:9: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light”
Romans 8:12-14: “So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”
Philippians 4:12-14: “I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my affliction.”
Matthew 16:18-19: “upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.””
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