SP True Stories: Just getting started

True stories of Supernatural Provision…

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Just getting started on his provision journey…

Great week. Got 41 hours of payable hours in 4 days.  I’ve got a second job starting out tomorrow that’s going to pay in cash… $40 for a couple hours of work.  Muchly needed because won’t be getting paid from the full-time job until the end of the month.  Also, my wife’s mom just told us she’s sent us $200 in the mail.  We’ll be getting it this week.  Need to keep my journal of God’s great faithfulness in provision.  Peace brother.  🙂 

Follow-up… I worked 88 hours this last week. 141 hours so far this month.  I’m tired but I’m anointed to work. So I’m doing it.  I was able to call the landlord today and tell him I’m able to get rent to him this month.  That felt good to say.  I’m keeping my head down and will keep focusing on working hard.

Follow-up… The Lord provided a job that encourages overtime and He’s giving me the grace to labor more abundantly than I ever have in the past.  Not only that, but power to go and do things with my family when I am off of work.  I see Him blessing the short amount of time I have with my wife and making it richer than ever before!  Now, we are all caught up in all our utilities, rent (for four months! ), insurance, and car loans!  We’ve got only the credit card bills to get caught up in.  That will happen next week!  Peace

AP/MN
5/15

Andrew is a good brother, newly married and now a family man, who used to be stuck in a poor mindset.  But he ‘metanoia-ed’ (Greek word for repent, which literally means to ‘have a change of mind’).  Can you hear the relief, confidence… and even, joy… in his voice as he gives each successive follow-up.  Now that a glitch in his thinking got adjusted, I’m confident that supernatural provision will be a more common experience in their lives.  I’m happy to say that he is still in the process of creating a great legacy to hand off to his next generation.

For more context on the values of work, read ‘Supernatual Provision – Where God Guides, He Provides’ : Chapter 7 ‘Does Manual Labor Have Any Value?’ (pg 119) and Chapter 9 ‘If a Man Doesn’t Work He Doesn’t Eat (pg 151) To get a copy of Supernatural Provision, click here or here

– MLH

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Choices…

“Working out our salvation” requires choices… here are two options, walking under law or grace:

1. The law actually incites us to sin

“For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death.” – Romans 7:5

2. Grace teaches us to not sin

“For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people.  It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age,“ – Titus 2:11-12

I wonder which one we should choose, if indeed we want to walk out our righteousness?  This should be easy.  It’s an open-book test… a no-brainer.

Hmmm… so, trying harder to keep the law actually has counterproductive results.  But when we metanoia (change our minds about God) the grace of God leads us into righteous living.

I know which one I’m choosing.

— MLH

Forgiveness Precedes Repentance

Wow! Can this really be true?

Repentance: Greek – Metanoia – Change your way of thinking

Forgiveness happened at the cross… (actually, before the foundation of the world)

“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” – Lk 23:34

Jesus’ actual words were “forgive them” even BEFORE we knew we sinned!

It works like this: When I ‘stub my toe’… and then realize that I have ALREADY been forgiven at the cross!… my response is to repent (change my way of thinking about God’s thoughts and love for me) so that I can experience His full benefits already afforded to me.  What kind of God forgives me BEFORE I sin?  Realizing this, I begin to get transformed by the renewing (changing) of my mind about God’s heart of love for me.  And experiencing this hard-to-believe-because-it’s-so-good Grace, teaches my heart to not sin.

“For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people.  It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age,“ – Titus 2:11-12

— MLH

Inclusionism and Universalism… Better Definitions

Man! When those big words inclusionism and universalism began to be bantered around, I didn’t even know what they meant, not to mention whether I believed in them.  But after some education, Steve McVey’s quote distills it to as briefly and as concisely as I believe it at this time.

Quote from Steve McVey  –  Jun 19

“Mankind’s inclusion in the finished work of Christ doesn’t mean that everybody has received it or is experiencing the benefits of it now or will necessarily experience the benefits of it when they die.  The gospel message, however, is that we all are included in Him and what He has done on our behalf.  Accept it and be blessed.  Reject it to your own peril.  The work of God in Jesus through the Spirit is what it is.  This gospel we proclaim isn’t a message of what can be but is the good news of what already is in Jesus Christ.  We don’t bring a sales pitch to the unbelieving world.  We are ambassadors for Christ, and we tell everybody, “God was in Christ reconciling you to Himself.  He does not count your sins against you.  You are forgiven, and He has received you.  Now, receive Him.”  These are the two sides to one coin.  One side has been settled in eternity, and the other side settles it experientially.  One side shows what has happened, and the other side shows what does happen as a person believes on Him.  Some Universalists will tell you that faith is a work, but that is nonsense.  Faith is the joyful acceptance of what is already true.  Faith isn’t something we do but is the spontaneous explosion of an enthusiastic embracing of Jesus and what He has given us in Himself.  Do I believe in the ultimate reconciliation of humanity to God?  Oh, no.  It’s better than that.  I believe in the historical reconciliation of humanity to our loving Creator, who is also our Father.  Without asking for so much as a nod of approval from us, before we were even born or could have an opinion on the matter, while we were yet helpless, sinners, enemies of God—He went and did it all.”  – by Steve McVey – from ‘Beyond An Angry God’

In short: we’re looking at better definitions of inclusionism and universalism… and our need to respond/receive… and realizing that there are consequences if we don’t receive.

The good news: everyone is/was forgiven at the cross (actually it was before the foundation of the world – Eph 1:4; Heb 4:3; Rev 13:8).  And it’s available to everyone… all we need to do is receive it.  That’s the Good News.

The part that is so good, is that if we can believe and receive it, not only are all the sins we ever committed forgiven… but the ones we will ever commit are/were already forgiven… AT THE CROSS.  WOW!  What about that declaration of freedom!!!  What about that liberty!!!   That is truly an ’emancipation proclamation’.  No wonder Heb 4:16 says to “come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”  It’s already a done deal.  Of course, that doesn’t mean we take forgiveness lightly… and trample upon the goodness of God.  Rather because our hearts are so amazed at the Grace of God, His leading love for me eradicates fear (I Jn 4:18) and then His ongoing grace teaches my heart to not sin (Titus 2:12).

We must start at repenting (Greek word for repent – metanoia, which means “change your mind”) of wrong thinking.  We’ve had wrong thinking about God.  We thought He was hard, distant and resistant in love and forgiveness which made us unable to have confidence with God.  But we’re coming to know Him as the better-than-we-thought-God.  And His loving kindness is leading me to repentance (a change of mind about who He is) so that my heart is instructed into right living.  You see, right believing leads to right living.

All this better understanding of who God is and His heart for us, will automatically lead us to a better understanding of who we are.  And who we are in God is staggering!  When we really see this, it will radically revolutionize our relationship with God and our relationship to our fellowman – saved and unsaved.  

From my perspective and from the signs already visible, I believe this revelation could radically change the face of Christianity in a single generation. 

— MLH