Third Day Ministries

A message for the New Year - or at least New Beginnings

Some time ago I "resolved" to not make any New Year's resolutions and I have enjoyed great success at keeping that one resolution

Until now....

The past year was quite a ride for my Faith and my hopes and my relationship with the LORD.

Not surprising to many of you, the LORD proved Himself more than faithful and rich in mercy towards me and my wife, Kathie than my behavior and thoughts deserved.  Our successes were NOT the results of my great faith, or stamina or fortitude in prayer or any strength or virtue on my part.

Simply put, we were in overwhelming debt for a number of reasons and now we are not.  The Bible says that a debtor is a servant to the lender. This is truth and you can shake and spin your story however you like, you can live in the delusion of your choice, but if you are in debt, you are indeed a servant to your lender in one way or another. Your servitude may not be as crippling as our experience but you are bound to them nevertheless.

Shortly after our debts were settled, I had to remind myself repeatedly that we were NOT in debt any more, just to let that truth become the reality of my day to day consciousness. I found that a distinct "before" and "after" world view.  I was actually surprised at the magnitude of the difference.

It was during this time (October/November of 2009) that the voice of the Spirit began to speak to me.

Not in thunder, not in lightning, or great open visions, but in a still, small, and very distinct voice. Unwavering and with authority.... He was asking...

Now that you are free, and you have the choice, Who will you Serve Now?

I knew that this was the voice of God.

I have been "born again" again for some 17 years. I was raised in a Christian home through High School, I have been involved on some good to great worship teams for 18 years or so, and have been an ordained co-pastor for 9 years. I have some "credentials", I consider myself a "born again believer" - so I was surprised at my initial hesitation to answer this question.

But you see this time it was not like any other time.

This time He was asking the question in a new and higher way. It was like He never asked this question to me before. This was and is not about getting my acts of sin absolved so I get my 1^st class seat on the train to heaven. It is about who and what is going to RULE my life. Who will sit on the Throne of my heart. There is only room for one. Our God is a jealous God, He has his own reasons.   It is about who will sit in AUTHORITY over my decisions, and actions, and the condition of my Heart. You see anyone can respond to the invitation to get forgiveness, that's a pretty easy thing to accept, but YIELDING to Authority is another issue altogether. We are the ones who divide these issues thinking that 25 cents of God might be good enough, and if we add our own 2 cents to the deal, God will probably give us some bonus points and a special "rewards" package just because we are suddenly sooo good to Him and for Him.

But God is jealous for us and He does not hesitate to take us through hell and high water just to get us to the place where He can ask this question and we take Him seriously.

I knew that the only response could be complete surrender.

This is the one thing.

Over the years I have developed some crutches and coping systems. These are the places where I have no Faith, where I do not trust God, or intent to. I had my reasons, they were good ones, some of them were the places I held on to selected "offences" that I have certainly "forgiven" yet still left the folders open on some of those cases. These could then be revisited at anytime and reviewed - reserving the right for my own judgments to actually close the offense once and for all. They were the places where I stood with the Father of Lies and said, "Yea has God said...", "but I say..." They were the places where the Abomination of Desolations stood on the throne and challenged YAHWEH, in my heart, in His temple.

There was poison, death, mixture, compromise, pride, weariness and every evil work in my Temple during the past seasons while the LORD faithfully delivered our house from the bondage of debt. Jesus taught and ministered healings in the outer courts of the Temple in Jerusalem where the High priest position was determined by corrupted politics, there was no real presence of the LORD in the Holy of holies, and the ministry of the Temple was corrupted by many empty traditions and the priests were divided and in constant argument about their personal ambitions and authority.  Much as it is today.

This is a common disorder. Nevertheless The LORD taught the Truth and many were healed. Again, much as it is today.

Jesus even said to his disciples "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me..,? John 14:9 - NKJV

The Disciples had already witnessed many miracles and they were thoroughly convinced that Jesus was the promised Messiah from God, the Father, yet they still did not perceive that Jesus and the Father were one. They did not get the fullness of the LORD in their life. They were still thinking out of their own understanding and not out of the revelation of Christ. A carnally minded believer is no believer at all. If you are carnally minded you do not know Him either.

It was much like Israel, his covenant people who after suffering over three hundred years in the bondage of slavery to Egypt were delivered in one night by the blood of the Lamb.

A short time after that great deliverance YAHWEH met with Israel at Sinai and asked them - Will you come into covenant with me now?

Now that you are free, and you have the choice, Who will You serve now?

The deal that God proposed required the people to agree to the terms of His covenant BEFORE they even heard the specific terms.

Without Faith, it is impossible to please God.

All of the "LAW", the Torah, and the "Ten Commandments" came AFTER they agreed to come into Covenant with YAHWEH, the God who had ALREADY delivered them and defeated the whole army of Pharaoh, their former master. They came out of Egypt, they were delivered (actually "baptized") through the Red  Sea, they experienced bitterness at Marah, and they even experienced a degree of victory before their enemies with the Amalekites.

It was only after all these things that the LORD brought them to Sinai to essentially ask the question He recently asked me.

Now that you are free, and you have the choice, who will you serve?

This is not the first thing God asks us. First you will see some deliverance, some miracles, and some hard times and even some great victories, But don't think this is strange. He says, "Taste and see, that the Lord is good." He invades our life with some proof and some substance of Himself, and then He asks, according to the Faith given us, "Will you take Me now, or do you insist on your own way?"

This leads me today. While it is still called "Today"

Heb 3:12-15

12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said,

"Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion." ESV

Psalm 95:7-11

Today, if you will hear His voice:

8 "Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion,

As in the day of trial in the wilderness,

9 When your fathers tested Me;

They tried Me, though they saw My work.

10 For forty years I was grieved with that generation,

And said, 'It is a people who go astray in their hearts,

And they do not know My ways.'

11 So I swore in My wrath,

'They shall not enter My rest.'"   NKJV

Now instead of the laundry list of goals and projects, I have decided to break the resolution to "not resolute" or resolve any thing, but I have decided to pursue one or two things.

This is the FOUNDATION upon which every other thing rests.

ONE THING - RETURN TO ME

Rev 2:1-7   The Loveless Church

2 "To the angel of the church of Ephesus write,e things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands:  2 "I know your works, you'Thesr labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars;  3 and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary.  4 Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.  5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place - unless you repent.  6 But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

7 "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God."'   NKJV

Psalm 27   ONE DESIRE

An Exuberant Declaration of Faith       A Psalm of David.

27 The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid? 2 When the wicked came against me To eat up my flesh, My enemies and foes, They stumbled and fell. 3 Though an army may encamp against me, My heart shall not fear; Though war may rise against me, In this I will be confident.

4 One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek:

That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, And to inquire in His temple. 5 For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock.

6 And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me; Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.

7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice! Have mercy also upon me, and answer me. 8 When You said, "Seek My face, "My heart said to You, "Your face, Lord, I will seek." 9 Do not hide Your face from me; Do not turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; Do not leave me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation. 10 When my father and my mother forsake me, Then the Lord will take care of me.

11 Teach me Your way, O Lord, And lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies. 12 Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries; For false witnesses have risen against me, And such as breathe out violence. 13 I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living.

14 Wait on the Lord;  Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!

NKJV

TWO THINGS

Francis Frangipane seeks two things and two things alone these two things are the basis for his whole ministry and life they are:

1.To know God's heart

2.To know his own heart

Two Great Commandments

Matt 22:34-40

The Scribes: Which Is the First Commandment of All?

34 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, 36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"

37 Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' (Deut 6:5 ) 38 This is the first and great commandment.  39 And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' (Lev 19:18 ) 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." NKJV

SO Where do you start?    ONE THING - The Foundation

The Longest journey begins with the first step.

If you want to win the war - surrender to the most powerful leader.

You have nothing to give and everything to lose, or you can surrender and you gain the Kingdom of God.

It is a Kingdom, not a committee or a democracy, and it has a definite King. He is YAWWEH, the magnificent one; there is no one like Him!

Surrender now and beat the rush. (Philippians 2:10 )

It all starts here, at Sinai, (See Exodus 19 ) before we know for sure, it requires all the mustered up faith and experience you have so far. You get to hold nothing back, but He will never leave you nor forsake you.

Matt 6:32-34
or your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
NKJV

Matt 10:37-39
37 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.  38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.  39 He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.
NKJV

Luke 11:9-11
Keep Asking, Seeking, Knocking (see also Matt 7:7-11 )

9 "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  10 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
NKJV

Rev 3:19-22
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.  20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. 21 To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
22 "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."'"
NKJV

And His Mercy Endures forever

And His Mercy Endures forever

And His Mercy Endures forever

And His Mercy Endures forever

And His Mercy Endures forever

And His Mercy Endures forever

And His Mercy Endures forever

Amen.

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