Lord Change Me

Lord Change Me

by David Munn

I was at the Apostolic Man Conference in New Stanton, PA this weekend, and before the first service there was a time of prayer.
It was during this time of prayer, that I received what I am going to post here in this blog.
Many times when I pray, I pray out of my spirit, not really premeditated thought. Not weighing each word carefully, just speaking from the heart, as if it somehow bypasses my brain.
During this time of prayer, I heard myself praying, "Lord change me."
It was almost as if God made me hear it,
the way He heard it, and I had to stop.
And repeat it. And think about it.

Wait a minute, I said to myself. Do I really mean that?

What if the Lord asked me to change some things?
To give up some things?
To add some things?

Is this a prayer that I recognize the consequences of?
Do I really want to be changed?
What will change look like?

Lord change me, but not in any ways that will require anything of me.
 Is that what I mean?
Or is it just vain rambling words that have no weight or meaning?
Change me how?

Change requires sacrifice, and who wants to do that?
UNLESS, your desperate, and hungry enough to do ANYTHING, to be more like Him, to feel His presence, to be used, to go to a deeper level.
Are you at that place?
Am I?
Or am I just saying things that I think He wants to hear, and that makes me feel good.
Like I'm saying/doing what He wants me too.
Lip service.
So many words.
But where is my heart?

Would I be ready to lay it down, sacrifice and obey.....or am I really just kind of comfortable with where I'm at?

I'm reminded of James and John, who wanted to sit, one on the right and one on the left of Jesus.......
and Jesus' answer to them wasn't a yes or no answer.
His response was....."Are you able?" "Can you?"
I'd like to think that what He was really asking them was "Are you willing?"
Are we?
Am I?
There is no telling how close we could get to God, and how much God could use us.....if we were truely willing.

If you want to draw close, you have to pay the price.
Front row seats always cost more
than the nose-bleed sections.
Some of us are here for the show, to watch,
and others want back-stage passes.
Access to the band.
Access to the Man.
But it comes at a price.

If any man wants to follow me..... let him first (not somewhere along the journey) deny himself. Ouch!
Take up his cross. Ow!
And follow Me.
How good are we at following?
It requires keeping Him in sight at ALL times.
(Like the Elijah and Elisha story)

Lord change me.
We expect God to do for us, what we are not willing to do for ourselves.....or Him.

We really do need to change.
Don't we?
Don't you?

What are we not willing to change?
If anything comes to mind.....your not ready.

What are we willing to change?
If your answer is anything...if your answer is everything....
Get ready.
Change is coming.

So you think we're a cult?

It's not really big news that people consider us a cult....lots of people have...

Bro. Bernard addresses that issue here in this youtube clip:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVQIx_gOLUA&feature=related 

You see when you say that JESUS is THE way, THE truth, THE life, and that NO man can get to heaven except through Him, because He is THE door, and anyone who even tries to come another way is a thief and a robber..in other words not legitiment and trying to break in...when you say that, that messes with ALOT of people that don't believe that.

Contrary to popular belief you cant just believe anything you want to , and live anyway you want to, and do any old thing you want to, and still get into heaven.

 Narrow is the path and strait is the gate and few there be that find it.

 So in order for "others" who aren't willing to believe the truth, not willing to pay the price, to feel better about themselves for not obeying THE truth, they have to discredit you .

Did the world love Jesus? NO, and it still doesn't.

 The Bible says it you refuse THE truth..God will send you a strong delusion so that you'll believe a lie.
 I would never take a backsliders (someone who knew the truth and walked away) advise about the state of our church.

 The world HATED Jesus and his disciples and followers. They tortured them, killed them, persecuted them, fed them to lions, burned them at the stake....and believe it or not ...they still do.
 just look at ( www.persecution.com ).

Jesus went so far as to say "blessed are you when men shall revile and spit on you"......KNOW what you believe and in WHO you believe and dont back down because Satan has his imps "in people shape" trying to bring you down.
 
 Jesus always had his haters, and so will you.

COFFEE & DONUTS

Coffee & Donuts

by David Munn 

I like my coffee hot, bold, and strong.

I put one heaping scoop of bold coffee

 for every cup I'm making.

8 cups, 8 scoops.

I work with guys that will fill the coffee pot

 with 12 cups of water,

and put 4 scoops of weak grounds in the filter.

 To me, thats disgusting! 

They say my coffee is like motor oil.

 They put creamer in the coffee I make

 and watch as it doesn't change color

 (until they stir it up). 

Thats how I like my coffee.

Piping hot and extra strong.

Thats also how I like my gospel.

Don't even bother to pass off some watered down,

 sickingly sweet swill.

If what I like is to strong for you, then so be it.

If it isn't bold, I don't buy it.

If the gospel you prefer doesnt make you sweat a little,

I'd suggest getting a little hotter and bolder kind.

I'm convinced that Jesus was bold.

I'm convinced that He made some people sweat.

 I'm sure some people got a little nervous around Him.

He was all about love,

but that love wasn't the "wishy washy mamby pamby"

 kind of love that is being passed around in churches today.

He was bold. He was strong.

He did not water down His message

 to make it more pallatable to the masses.

He was not afraid to speak the truth,

 even if it did make some people uncomfortable.

Take a look at the Bible,

 some people hate it,

 it's to bold, to confronting, to judgemental,

 not all inclusive....but it's also the truth.

 It also changes lives.

 And to those who love their gospel bold and strong,

 they would and have given their lives for it.

I like my donuts fresh, sweet and loaded with filling.

Stale donuts are the worst.

Pay the full price and get the fresh ones.

Few things are better

than getting a mouth full of delicious creamy donut filling.

Few things are worse

than expecting a mouth full of satisfyingly sweet filling,

 and all you get is air.

Dont you just hate it when you don't get

what you expected?

Have you ever been anticipating

 bavarian cream, or boston cream

and you bite into lemon cream?

Your lips and taste buds are awaiting sweet,

but what they get is sour.

Thats how some Christians are.

They give you the promise and expectation of sweet,

 but leave in your mouth the taste of bitter and sour.

You go to church wanting something fresh,

 something savory,

 something that has just gotten out of the oven.

 And in a lot of churches you get stale at best,

services and sermons.

You expect the service and the people to be full of the goodness of God.

And what you get is emptiness.

Where's the filling?

Where's the Spirit of God?

Where's the infilling of the Spirit?

Where is His sweet presence?

I like my donuts fresh, full, and sweet.

Thats also how I like my spirit.

Give me something bold, and give me something sweet.

That's how I like it.

The boldness of the gospel, and the sweetness of the Spirit.

"speak the truth....in love"

Why Are We Not Moving?

It doesnt matter what kind of car you have.

 If its a Ford or a Ferrari.

 We all depend on one thing when we get in the car

 and turn the ignition. 

A spark.

 If theres no spark,

you may look nice sitting there,

 but your not going anywhere.

Your car may have the best coverage insurance can buy,

 it may be the cleanest car in your neighborhood,

 it may be in wonderful condition,

 people going by may wish they had as nice a car as you....

but it needs a spark to start it.

 If you want to go places in God....you need a spark.

You need some passion.

 You need the fire of the Holy Ghost. 

A lot of us may

 look good, smell good, dress good,

 and many people may think we have it all together.

 But if theres not that passion for God,

if theres not that..spark...

chances are we are gonna be sitting in the exact same spot as we are right now,

5 years from now. 

Continuing on using the car analogy,

suppose everything is in working order on your vehicle. You get in confidently as you do every morning,

 as you did yesterday,

 and turn the ignition,

 there's a spark, you can hear it, but it doesn't start.

 It tries too, but it just sputters out.

Why? 

Your out of gas.

 Theres no gas for the spark to ignite.

 Again your stuck just sitting there.

 Not only do you need a spark, but you need to be combustible!

 Theres a proverb that says

 "where there's no wood, there the fire goeth out".

 Its not enough just to be on fire for God,

  you need to have something in you

 for the Holy Spirit to ignite.

 Many times we put things into our spirit man,

that we would never dream of putting into our gas tanks.
We figuratively pull into the  garbage dumps of life

and say "fill 'er up".

Then we wonder why

we arent performing at optimal levels.

We wonder why

 we're so often left stranded.

 If we want to go places in God,

 and we want to get there faster than we are now, 

we need to fill up on high octane spiritual stuff.

 So when the Spirit sets off a spark,

we'll ignite

 and be well on the road

 to where we ultimately want to be.

David Munn

Spitting In The Face Of Love

Spitting in the Face of Love
By: David Munn

God is love.
Jesus is God.
God loves us.
He told us so.
He put it in writing.
He doesn’t care who you are, where you’ve been, where you were born, how much money you make, or what you can do for Him.
He doesn’t care. None of that matters to Him. He loves you. Just as you are.
In his book, “Just Like Jesus”, Max Lucado wrote, “He loves you just as you are, but too much to let you stay that way.”
It’s true. No matter your station in life, Jesus is there for you.
All He wants, is to love you and make your life better.
All He requires is for you to love Him back.
Is that too much to ask?
He’ll know how much you love Him by how you respond to Him.
Will you submit yourself to Him,...to His will?
Will you live for Him?
Would you die for Him?
Would you do whatever it took to show Him how much you love Him?
He did all those things and more, for us.
And what did we do?
We rejected Him. We mocked Him. We spit in His face.
Yet looking through the spit and the tears, He sees us not as who we are now, and what we are doing now.
Instead He sees who we can become if we would just accept His love and love Him in return.
But even if we don’t, even if we never return the love He has already shown to us, even if we spit in His face, that doesn’t change who He is or how much He loves you.
You know He loves you. He’s made that perfectly clear.
The response is up to you. Will you show Him you love Him, or will you…………?

ARE YOU HOT?

I actually posted this as a response to a holiness blog, and thought it was a good enough little read/word to pass it on as its own.

God means business about this seperation thing.
In the OT He didn't even want two different kind of fabrics in your clothing.
what fellowship hath light with darkness?
be not unequally yoked?
what part does Christ have with belial ?
if we aren't going to be "on fire" for God, He'd rather have us stone cold dead in sin, than a little of this and a little of that.
i wish that you were either hot or cold, because if your lukewarm, I'll spew you out of my mouth. lukewarmness actually makes God sick.
I heard a preacher say,"God's thermometer only reads 2 temperatures. Hot or Cold."
Come out from among them and be ye seperate.
i wish we could all look in God's mirror of truth and say "I'm hot!"
Can you?

"How To Touch Jesus"

"How To Touch Jesus"
Luke 8:40-54

If you want to learn how to touch Jesus, it’s a good idea to study those who did. Just like the disciples asked Jesus to "teach us to pray", it’s okay for us to ask Jesus to "teach us how to touch you."
VS 40
People gladly received Him,(welcomed Him gladly),
they were all waiting,(and looking for Him).
RECEIVED HIM WITH JOY
SPIRIT OF EXPECTATION
2 Tim.4:8 "He will come to those who long for His appearing."
VS 41
Jairus- A ruler,(man of importance and power).
A ruler of the synagogue,(the church who was trying to discredit Jesus).
HE FELL DOWN AT JESUS’ FEET. Though a ruler, he humbled himself, falling at the feet of Jesus.
HE BESOUGHT HIM/BEGGED HIM. That He would come into his house.
Jairus, is putting himself, his reputation and his job in jeopardy here. He is going to be criticized and ridiculed by the people he associates with, the religious people, for coming to Jesus.
What is so important to Jairus, that he is willing to risk it all ? What makes this religious leader fall down and beg at the feet of Jesus?
What makes a person not care about their status, or what others might say?
What is making Jairus forget everything else and focus on Jesus?
Nothing meant a thing to him. All he knew was, that he had heard about this man named Jesus. He had heard that Jesus could do the miraculous. Jairus had heard that Jesus had healed the sick.
Jairus didn’t care who saw him and he didn’t care who heard him. He was at the feet of Jesus begging Him to come into his house, and heal his dying daughter.
If we could step back in time, and be right there looking at and listening to Jairus, I wonder how he sounded?
Do you think he sounded non-chalant?
Jesus, if you want to do this, you can do this, whatever. Just do what you want to do. No biggie.
NO, I tell you i can hear desperation in his voice.
I can feel pain in his cries. I can see his chest and back heaving as he lay at Jesus’ feet, begging Him to come to his house. HIS DAUGHTERS LIFE IS ON THE LINE! HE IS IN DESPERATION MODE! THIS IS HIS LAST AND ONLY HOPE TO SAVE HER!
VS 42
He had one, only daughter.
Notice how the scripture seemingly repeats the same fact about Jairus’ daughter. Naturally if you had one daughter, it would be your only daughter. But I believe it’s written that way to show Jairus’ love for his one and only baby girl. Jairus’ daughter was young, around 12 years old, still living at home. She had been living a wonderful life, for the past 12 years.
Jairus’ one and only 12 year old daughter was lying at home....dying.
Now we know why Jairus is coming to Jesus.
Now we know why he is willing to risk it all.
Now we know why nothing else in Jairus’ world mattered to him at this moment.
No one could help him, his friends, his religion, his status, his job, his money or his possessions could help.
AS JESUS WENT
Jesus was on His way with Jairus to his house. I can picture them trying to speedily get there, with Jairus tugging at Jesus to get Him to go faster. But as Jesus went, the bible tells us that something was keeping them from going as fast as Jairus would like. The people began to throng Him. The people pressed together around Him, and according to the Amplified Bible, was almost suffocating Him.
Can’t you almost feel the panic in Jairus’ heart and mind. Here he had come to Jesus, and Jesus was going with him, they were both trying to get to his place, but they were stuck. They could hardly move. I’m sure Jairus was starting to feel frantic at this point.
And then for some strange reason we just leave Jairus for the next six verses. His story gets put on the back burner to simmer as another story starts to unfold.
VS 43
And a woman, (not a girl), having an issue of blood, (unclean, couldn’t even go to the synagogue), 12 years.
I find it interesting that 12 years is mentioned twice in these two verses. Jairus’ daughter had been living the exact amount of time, that this woman had been dying.
This woman has been slowly dying, bleeding to death, over the past 12 years. She had spent everything she had, she had gone to the best doctors, and nobody could help her.
If you look into it, it’s amazing all that this lady could not do in her state of uncleanness. You may remember when i spoke on "The Filthy Rag Syndrome", some of the things she wasn’t permitted to do.
After verse 43 gives us a brief glimpse into this womans life and her condition, verse 44 tells us what she does.
Now remember the scene. Jesus and Jairus was thronged and packed in by the multitude of people surrounding them.
VS 44
And in verse 44 we read that this sick, bleeding, unclean woman, pressed through the crowd. Remember she is not allowed to touch anyone. Like a leper, she should be saying "unclean, unclean".
But this little lady, pressed through the packed crowd, came up behind Jesus, and touched the border, or fringe, of His garment, and immediately her flow of blood ceased.
As we read this story, remember, no one knows whats going on with this woman. Jesus, Jairus, the disciples, the crowd, no one knows what this little lady is up to. As she fights her way closer to Jesus, as she pressed her way between the people, there is a faith building up, there is a desire just to touch the hem of his garment.
I don’t have any money left, the doctors took it all, and i’m no better.
But i’ve heard about a man. This man named Jesus.
I’ve heard that He can heal.
I’ve heard that He can do the impossible,
that He can work miracles.
I know i’m unclean, and not worthy to touch Him, but if I can just get close enough to fall at His feet and touch his garment.....
I’ve got to do it! It’s my only hope! It’s my last chance!
I may have nothing to offer, but i’m not giving up!
I may be weak , but i’m still pressing.
The border, hem or fringe of the garment was blue.
Border of blue symbolizes Heaven.
The pharisees made their borders wide to appear to be more spiritual than others.
How many of you know, that when you touch heaven, when you plug into the power of God, SOMETHING HAPPENS !
VS 45
Jesus does something peculiar here. He and Jairus, are on their way to Jairus’ house, but they are slowed down by the crowding people pressing them, and all of a sudden
Jesus said "WHO touched me ?"
All denied.
Isn’t me, Isn’t me, Isn’t me, I didn’t touch you, Not me, Nope, Don’t look at me, Wasn’t me.
Finally, Peter, and all those with him, said "Master, you gotta be kidding, the multitudes surround you, and throng you, and press you on every side, and you’re saying "Who touched me?" C’mon now.
VS 46
Jesus said "SOMEBODY TOUCHED ME, somebody did touch me, for i perceive that virtue/power is gone out of me, has gone forth from me."
Virtue=Power
WHOEVER TOUCHED ME, RECEIVED IT !
You know it and He knows it, when contact is made.
The Lord likes to touch and be touched.
VS 47
When the woman saw that she had not escaped notice, she came up trembling, and falling down before Him, she declared in the presence of all the people, for what reason she had touched Him, and how she had been immediately, instantly healed.
VS 48
And Jesus said to her,"Daughter, be of good comfort,
YOUR FAITH, (your confidence and your trust in Me),
hath made thee whole, go in peace."
And just like that, the story shifts from her, back to Jairus.
VS 49
While Jesus was still speaking to the lady, someone from Jairus’ house , came and whispered to Jairus, "Your daughter is dead."
"Don’t weary and trouble Jesus anymore."
Can you imagine Jairus? His heart sank. He was without hope. He had lost his one and only daughter, while Jesus was on His way to his house. You can feel the sadness and hopelessness rising within Jairus. He had just seen Jesus heal a dying lady, just when he had been given hope, it was taken away. His daughter was dead. Then he was told to stop troubling Jesus, your wearying Him, your just being a bother.
VS 50
But when Jesus heard the sad news that was told to Jairus, he turned to him, looked him in he eye, and said "FEAR NOT, BELIEVE ONLY, and she shall be made whole."
Jesus had just told the lady with the issue, that her faith had made her whole. Now He’s telling Jairus to believe only, not to be afraid, and his dead daughter would be whole also. I’m sure Jairus at this point is going out of his mind, he is so conflicted, and Jesus calmly and compassionately tries to get Jairus to focus. I don’t know if Jairus felt like, what else do I have to lose, but he and Jesus keep walking.
The amplified reads "Do not be seized with alarm or struck with fear, simply believe, (in me as able to do this), and she shall be made well."
And when Jesus came to the house, everyone was weeping, and bewailing her.
Which is normal, she had just died. That’s the proper response.
VS 52
But Jesus had no time for explaining, He just told them all to "Stop weeping, stop your crying, she’s not dead, shes’s just sleeping."
VS 53
Do what? Is this man insane?
They began to laugh Jesus to scorn,
because they knew that she was dead.
VS 54
Jesus put them all out. Jesus has no use for doubt.
GET THE DOUBT, OUTTA THE HOUSE!
GET THE DOUBT OUT!
Jesus grasped her by the hand, and called, saying,
"Child, Arise."
How do you touch Jesus?
With faith and feeling .
We have not a high priest that cannot be touched by the feelings of our infirmity. Heb 4:15
(Blind Bartimaeus)
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. James 5:16
.....if haply they might feel after Him.... Acts 17:27
Not praising and praying and worshipping with our heads and throats, but with our inner-most being, our guts, our hearts and souls.
(Hannah)
If you can’t feel it, you aren’t doing it right.
You should feel it in the pit of your stomach, and you should feel it in your heart.


David Munn