Lordship

This week we had the topic of Lordship with Mark Parker.  Mark is a guy who is very passionate about God and what it means to give Him Lordship of our lives.  Mark could be seen throughout the week shouting and losing his voice about one time each lectures session, it is this passion for God that allows his message to carry a lot of weight in your memory.  Mark is from New Zealand and comes from a background that wasn’t the best, he rebelled as a teenager as his older brother tried to bring him into the kingdom of God.  He had refused several times and then when he saw himself at the end of the road and not knowing what to do as he was in misery, God showed him His grace and mercy.  Mark claims this was the closest thing to an audible voice of God he has ever heard and it brought him to realizing how his life was taking a turn and it was a choice of life or death.  At this point Mark was about 20 and most of our world decides what we will follow between the ages of 18-24 and it drastically changed his life in being able to talk to us about how Lordship is a part of his daily life now at the age of 55.

During the first lecture we had Mark told us about a word that he had gotten for our DTS group, the word was overcome.  Overcome is so much bigger in this season, season of change, when we apply it to the year of 2011.  The number 11 is a number of incompleteness, destruction, shuffling, and uncertainty.  So then if we look forward to 2012 we know that is a solid number it is a solid foundation as there were 12 disciples.  Most of us are aware of the earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan and the possibility of more and that is no coincidence, as the body of Christ we need to reach out and overcome these circumstances.  When we think about the earth and how it is being shaken we need to realize it is our time to bring the people into the Kingdom of God.  We don’t need to take God to these places because God is already there what we need to do is to go there and find God that lives in each and every one of them.  The enemy, Satan, is out there trying to kill and destroy everything and what are we doing?  Are we going to let the enemy overtake these people, our neighbors, or will be overcome and persevere in the midst of all the catastrophes. 

Matthew 7: 20-21 basically tells us that we need to know God to declare Him Lord.  It isn’t that we are asking God into our lives He is already there as He has invited us into His life.  Where we fix our eyes will tell us what kingdom we will glorify.  When we come to Christ and repent for our sins and are forgiven we are cleansed of all our transgressions.  Yet, so many of us try to live a Christian life where we try not to sin and if we have our eyes on sin then we will always fall to sin, however if we have our eyes on God we won’t sin.  What we have our eyes on will control us and of course we may fall and sin, but we will know right away as our conscience will be convicted.  So the Kingdom of God is filled with day by day choices and to give God that Lordship is the decision we make and can align with these three questions.  Who is your Master?  What is your Mission?  Who will be your Mate?  These all are some of the greatest questions people have in their faith and they need to align those with what God is speaking into their life and what He has given them.  We need to obey, love, produce fruit, be disciples, carry the cross, give up all possessions that rule your life, and be reliable when God moves.  If we are doing all of these things, which are fruits of the spirit, then we will honor God and His kingdom because He has created us as image bearers of Christ as we were born to rule Gods creation.  What we fix our eyes on will control us.

In the Old Testament the Tent of Meeting was a place in which the people sacrificed animals on the alter before God.  Today in the New Testament we don’t have a place that we come to and sacrifice such things.  Today we the body of Christ are the Tent of meeting and we give a living sacrifice, which is ourselves to God so we may die to our flesh and let Him work through us.  So our body becomes a temple and it contains a body, soul, and spirit.   To get do the perfect will of God we have to have Him fill us in all of these areas and the biggest way the enemy will try to deceive us is by doubting the character of God.  God said, “I AM” so when we think about that we get a glimpse of the glory of God as He is the beginning and the end and the holiest of holies.  So we need to live for the I am rather than for the I am not and we will see great things happen through God.   This means that we are to sacrifice ourselves before the Lord each and every day and ask Him what He has for us in what we do rather than us trying to make what we do fit into Him.

So how do we go about putting ourselves on the alter each and every day before we start our day?  We have to start by giving Jesus thanksgiving as He was the one who paid the ultimate price for us so we may live.  Then we have to praise God and thank Him for the great things He has done in regards to His character that the enemy wants to make us doubt.  We need to come before the cross that Jesus died on for us and confess any sins that we may have so we can be cleansed to hearing the voice of God.  With hearing Gods voice we need to surrender things before the cross so our flesh doesn’t get in the way of God’s plan.  This means giving up any material possessions that hinder you from doing God’s will and giving up anything from school, mission, and/or relationships that He hasn’t yet spoken into.  God has greater goals and plans for us than we could ever imagine so when we give ourselves over to Him, He will give us greater things than we could ever imagine in the right timing.  If we humble ourselves and resubmit each and every day to God we are going to see amazing things and He is going to work miracles through us and supply us with more than we need.  If we do this we will have a greater foothold on the enemy as we will always see the good no matter the circumstances because God is good.  So this is the message we need to take to these nations in the midst of catastrophes as we can love our neighbors from half way across the world into the kingdom of God and fill that emptiness they are all suffering from.

So I experienced the abundance of God’s love this week as I was given more than I can imagine possible. I came to Australia with an 8GB iPod that I used to listen to music and hear God, as it was a way for me to feel his love through worship.  Well in about the second or third week I heard God tell me that I was to surrender my iPod to someone here on base.  It wasn’t that the music on there was bad or that I made it an idol it was just something I valued and limited me from hearing God’s voice.  So I gave it up and it was very difficult as it was expensive and something that I valued as it was the only worship music I could listen to as I can’t play any instruments.  Before the cross I surrendered my education, my relationship with Rachel, and my passport as I had no other things to surrender as I already surrendered my iPod earlier in DTS. During the time of surrendering things at the cross that hinder us from hearing God I was given and 32GB iPod, which is four times the size of my old one and I was in awe of how God was giving me an abundance of His love.  I was thinking that it was amazing how He had given me an iPod that is greater than the one that I had from me being obedient.  Then I received and overflowing abundance as I was given another 8GB iPod and now I have two iPods due to surrendering things to God.  I learned a very valuable lesson about surrendering things to God this week and through that also I realized that by being obedient He is going to bless us and not always take away everything we surrender to Him, thank goodness.  So each and every day when wee surrender ourselves to God as a living sacrifice we will be able to be used in a way that glorifies Him and maybe even see amazing miracles or changes in people.