Spiritual Appetite

Spiritual appetite: if we spend the majority of our week neglecting our daily bread (Word, prayer, fellowship with the Lord, fellowship with a community of believers, etc.) it's inevitable that our hunger for His presence will diminish. We will begin to no longer crave the things of the Spirit but rather crave the things of this world. We will make excuses why we're not running after God. 

Hunger MUST be cultivated! It doesn't grow on trees lol. We must crucify our flesh daily and do those things that are spiritually profitable if we are serious about maturing in Christ and walking in all He has for us!

Where is your hunger at?

Do you long for G.O.D. or for H.B.O.?

Like the great preacher once said, "Worldliness dulls your affections for God." - Smith Wigglesworth

Colossians 3:1-3 NKJV

If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 

Love you all!

Faith Goggles

To psychoanalyze another human being, to believe that we know what they're thinking and how they're feeling and why they make the decisions that they make based on what we think their experiences have been, is human nature.  

The problem with this is that no human being really knows how to psychoanalyze another. Outside of the word of knowledge we are clueless lol.  

***The challenge, and simultaneously the mandate from the Lord, is to see our fellow believers in the finished work of the Cross. To see them fully matured and walking in the full anointing that God has planned and purposed for their life.  

To see life through this perspective makes everything easier: forgiving is easy when you look through the eyes of love. Mercy to those who seemingly don't deserve mercy becomes easy when you look through the eyes of love.  

Exercise this, I guarantee it will change your life.  

***Ephesians 1:3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath (past tense) blessed us with ALL spiritual blessings in heavenly blessings in spiritual places.

No One Ever Hears the Back Door

I am absolutely convinced that there is a massive group of hungry believers that crave the holiness, live free from sin message. I refuse to believe that people leave churches because the message is too raw.  

***People leave churches because of the disconnect, because of no personal relationships. Because they are neglected and not brought into "the family". PERIOD!  
God designed human beings to be on fire in the fire of his presence. So the notion that people leave churches because they can't handle the message does not work for me. If there were relationships with the members of that church going on then people would remain there and adjust to the message!  

Take a moment and perform this exercise: Think of the members within your church whom you have watched change and grow from glory to glory throughout the years. Think of how they have matured year-over-year. Now with these specific members in your mind think of if they are a part of an actual family of friends within that church or are they pretty much loners? I would be willing to bet anything that the members that stay throughout the years stay because they are a part of that body on a practical level, and thus being in the meetings throughout the years has caused them to grow.  

Saints, it's time for "the family" to start acting like one!  

***The approach of "Everyone else's problems are everyone else's problems" & "Im living in this place of glory. You can come join me here if you want to but I'm not coming to you" is a cancer in the growth of the local church.  

Galatians 6:1-2 KJV Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.  

Love you all,
Joel

Seclusion is Delusion

There exists a spectrum of pride. On one end of this spectrum there is the proud, haughty, arrogant and conceaded manifestation of pride. It boasts in how much better it is than everyone else. It's only agenda is to proclaim how it stands alone, so much better than others.

On the opposite end of this spectrum there is the sorrowful, fearful, pouty, insecure, the "oh poor me" manifestation of pride. It wallows in demonic thoughts that insists that it is so much worse off than everyone else. It craves that everyone feel sorrow for it as it mopes about feeling as if no one else in the world knows how they feel. It's only agenda is to proclaim how it stands alone, so much worse than others.

No matter what form pride manifests in a person it's common characteristic remains the same: seclusion. This central characteristic to this demonic spirit is completely opposite of heavens counterpart, humility. Humility always seeks to be numbered among the congregation. Humility always seeks to give recognition and praise to the Lord rather than itself; it desires that He alone gets the glory. Humility's only agenda is to proclaim how Jesus Christ stands alone, the only one truly worthy of honor and recognition.

Remembering this simple truth will revolutionize the way we deal with pride in our own lives when it tries to propogate it's demonic influence on us. Seclusion is demonic, but humility, love and the mind of Christ seek to be continually surrounded by a company of saints who all give the glory and honor to Christ Jesus.

Be Blessed,
Joel David Beauchamp

Christ's Model of Mercy

Isaiah 53:6-7 KJV

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
In these two verses, and so many others like them, we see the worlds most amazing display of love and mercy. We see a merciful high preist (Heb. 2:14-18) who was not inclined to defend himself or bring up a justifiable aaccusation against his persecutors, but rather he displayed the true model of mercy: laying down ones own life to see a miracle take place for another.
This is what the entire gospel was built on; laying down your life. Brothers laying down our lives for brothers, husbands laying down their lives for their wives, wives laying down their lives for their husbands, parents laying down their lives for their children, ministers laying down their lives for their congregations, Christ Jesus laying down his life for a sinful mankind, and sinners laying down their lives for the life Christ purchase for them.

We must come to realize that the act of abandoning our own will and our own personal agenda is essential to demonstrating mercy, the mercy that Christ modeled for us. We must realize this simple truth: if we in any way defend ourselves then we have not yet truly laid down our lives.
Oh that our love would be a real thing and not just poetic words! Oh that our lives would be living epistles of true Christ like mercy! What miracles would take place in our relationships and in our families, for this is the will of the Lord!
Romans 12:9 AMP
[Let your] love be sincere (a real thing); hate what is evil [loathe all ungodliness, turn in horror from wickedness], but hold fast to that which is good.
James 2:15-17 NKJV
If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.


Be blessed,
Joel David Beauchamp

Eat Your Wheaties!

I have seen it time and time again, over and over in God's people. So many attempt to be spiritual powerlifters but they never actually step foot in the gym. So many try to face the trials of life that the enemy throws our way and they aren't strong in spirit to shrug them off, cast them down, and move on in this blessed relationship with Jesus.

God's word is to be the spiritual sustenance that our inner man feeds on in order to grow strong, mature, and grow thereby. Prayer is to be the well spring springing up from our inner most being that flows through our passions and emotions and pours out blessings and prophecies by the Spirit and simultaneously refreshes and strengthens our inner man like a tall glass of water after a long run. Worship is to be a daily, lifelong expression of praise and adoration for a heavenly Father whom we love and whom we are cultivating a most holy intimate relationship with. Sadly, just like Jesus said in Mark 4:18-19, far too often the business of life, the cares of this world, choke and suffocate our time and attention from participating in these vital ordinances that are to be the source of peace and life for us.

I have found that for many the hardest thing for them to grasp is that it's the simplest things in God that cultivate the greatest miracles, the greatest bounds of growth, and become the loudest acts of worship to our God. People subconsciously believe that because the subject is "GOD" that therefore the answers must be complex and difficult to understand. On the contrary. It is the small decisions we make in daily life that dig the deepest wells.

This life in Christ is a marathon, not a 100m dash. We must give ourselves to daily study of the word and prayer and a lifestyle of worship. Not out of a religious ritual but rather out of a pure relationship and sincere desire to know Him. Then and only then can we stand fast in the faith when the trials come, when the enemy comes in like a flood.

Be blessed!

Baptism of the Holy Ghost for Christian Believers

They that believe shall receive a river.
John 7:37-39 → In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 
He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. 
(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

He told the disciples to go and wait for the Holy Spirit to be poured out.
Luke 24:49 → And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.

This is what the Holy Ghost baptism looks like. Tongues of fire.
Acts 2:1-4 → And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

The baptism in the Holy Ghost is a gift for all who believe.
Acts 2:38-39 → Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

The baptism in the Holy Ghost is the power of God in the life of the believer.
Acts 1:8 → But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

The apostles laid hands on the new believers and they received the Holy Ghost.
Acts 8:14-17 → Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John:
Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.