Kingdom Mindset

Focusing on the Kingdom also means focusing on what it means to experience authentic character
transformation. A Kingdom mindset does not seek merely information which is false knowledge, but rather craves His Word that has the power of transformation. Cultivating a Kingdom mindset requires continual awareness of God's indwelling presence.  Diving deeply into spiritual formation requires an integrated way of living rather than a compartmentalized one. Everything I do with every aspect of my life is connected to my spiritual formation as an effective Kingdom Ambassador. Everything I do with every aspect of my life is held together by Christ my cornerstone. This is a Kingdom mindset.

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” - Matthew 6:33

This Kingdom mindset differs from merely a Church mindset. This is the intentional seeking and pursuit to transform entire communities, rather than the motivation towards mere church programs and church living contained within the church walls. As my pastor says, "Go and BE the Church" "For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ." 2 Corinthians 2:15-17  The power of this love and light can not be contained and spills over to surrounding unchurched communities, transforms the hardened of hearts and overcomes darkness. This Ambassador does not live within the confines of a self-constructed Christianity with conveniently built white picket fences that only go as far as one's own life.

The dimensions of Kingdom living was a focus in Jesus's teachings. He spent time in dialogue about what the Kingdom really is, and how we can participate in cultivating Kingdom cultures in and through our lives. This Kingdom mindset must permeate our lives, fueling us to share and teach the news of the King and His Kingdom with others. "You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." 2 Timothy 2:1-2 

"Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him." 2 Timothy 2:3-6 This Christ soldier is obedient, disciplined and unshaken. Their feet stay firm on shaking ground, while others run in every direction. This soldier is not distracted, swayed or impressed by things of this world because he or she can already see them fading away....... Those who possess a Kingdom mindset are dangerous to Satan's efforts.

The Fullness of Blessings

Reconciling some old thoughts.......


I wrote a blog post a few months back entitled, "My heart in His hands" Below is the post:

I will be the first to admit that I have always been foolish in the heart. In the past, the desires of my heart have led me astray. My passions have chased the heart of Man and not the heart of God. Yet, the amazing truth and power that I now recognize is that God needed to break my heart into pieces in order to draw me to Him. He took away the world's version of love in order to include me into the greatest love story to ever unfold. 

When my heart was broken, wounded and in agony, I received a heavenly visual. I was sitting at a coffee shop in Mexico writing out the bitterness in my heart.  As I closed my eyes, He was standing before me with His hands reached out. Without words, He spoke to my heart saying, "do you trust me?" If you do, place  your broken, wounded and darkened heart in my hands." I did. I remember saying, "...And don't you give it back to me until it is healed, strong, and bright" He promised.

To give Jesus everything does not mean what I choose to give Him. It is not a compromise. Everything means everything. Everything means my mind, my heart, my family, my hopes, my dreams, my pains, my joys.... everything is His. He is in control of everything. I trust Him with everything. Therefore, I walk in peace and assurance. This is faith at its best.

I look forward to the day when I close my eyes and revisit Jesus as He stands before me with my heart in His hands. This time, He will give my heart back as He had promised- healed, strong and bright. Yet, even when my heart dwells brightly within me, I will continue to passionately seek and chase after the heart of Christ - the lover of my soul for a love eternal.

"Do you trust me?" He said. 

I sure do. I trust you with my whole heart.

Much has happened since that post...... The journey of my heart has brought me to a place of new love. I have discovered and have been lavished by a love unimaginable. The pursuit of God's heart and Man's heart are no longer separate. You see, I have come to understand that I only pursue God's heart- and it is only THERE that I will also find the heart of the Man I love. This ensures that both our hearts walk side by side only towards His direction.

The Lord gave my heart back to me as He promised- healed, strong and bright. He blessed me with this. We remember that we are blessed to be a blessing, so this blessing can not stop here. I am drowning in the joy of this blessing, but I also understand that I now have a responsibility to it. The true obedience to this blessing, is ultimately an act of giving glory back to God- where the blessing came from. Everything goes back to Him. A blessing truly magnified which captures its true fullness is when it:

1. Blesses us
2. Used to Bless others
3. Blessing is returned to God in the form of praise for His ultimate glory.

So, now that God has been faithful in His promise to me, what is my obligation? My obligation is the responsibility of my Man's heart. Just as Christ held my heart in His hands- healing it. Making it stronger. Protecting it. And making it bright. I now must do the same with my Man's heart that He has entrusted me with. This is my responsibility and obedience to the blessing He faithfully bestowed upon me.

Just as Christ held my heart in His hands as if it were His own..... I now carry my Man's heart in my hands..... as if it is my own. This is my demonstration of obedience and praise to my faithful God - returning the blessing back to Him for His splendid glory.

Proof and Trust

This blog post is a collection of thoughts during my last couple weeks of teaching and reflecting.

The Messenger is the proof of the Message.

 I have been relating this tag line for much of my teachings this past month. "Who we are" comes before "What we do." Often times in our sincere heartfelt passion to bring the light and love of Christ to the unsaved, we jump to strategies and "how to" methods without fully establishing a firm foundation and understanding of what it means to be the humble servant- adopting the incarnation model illustrated by Jesus Christ Himself.

Each culture and people we reach are unique. Therefore, the bridge we build to these cultures and people must be unique and look differently to one another. However, it must be understood that although each bridge may look different, "who we are"- the identities we carry over the bridge AND the message we carry must remain the same. The result: Authenticity of the servant, therefore, authenticity of the message. The result: Integrity of one's own identity and integrity for the culture and people we reach.

Here is the danger and hardship. Often times, when the "who we are" / identity that we carry over is tainted or compromised, so to is the message. The messenger IS the proof of the message. When the messenger is received, so is the message. "The one who receives you receives Me" It is more critical that Christ's messengers are "received" than "believed"

Here goes my frustration.....  how often do churches and sending agencies train the minds of missionaries  on the "how's" and "strategies" of missions, without genuinely preparing the messenger's heart in regards to ensuring that he or she stands on a solid foundation in the identity of Christ. Without the patience and proper molding of the servant attitude, the "doing" and "action" is compromised. In essence, the message of Christ is compromised. Ultimately, the salvation of the unreached people is compromised.

In my personal walk with the Lord and in my ministry efforts, I ask myself two questions and two questions only: Who is He? and Do I proclaim Him? These are simple, yet profound questions. By holding on to these two questions, I remain found IN Christ – and not lost in Christianity.

I     "Who is He?" is the seeking and attitude - the "Do we proclaim Him?" is the action and doing. We must possess both- they are extensions of one another. We are ineffective if we are one without the other. "Who is He?".... does not merely mean Lord or Savior... or the understanding of merely the cost of eternal salvation, grace, His love, freedom in Christ etc. We all can comprehend the cost, because we know the cross. The cost was Jesus Christ on the cross, crucified and killed for our sake. No, rather I mean, the value. Most of us do not comprehend the value. It is then when we truly know "Who He is."  If you know Him... I mean if you truly know Him, then "You would proclaim Him." Proclaiming Him then becomes not a "choice" but an automatic, authentic, passionate outpouring of our love for Him because we truly know who He is and the value of what He has given us.  If you truly know Him - you LISTEN. As my pastor says: If you listen, therefore, you do. This is the parable of the sower.

Hey Humble Servant! Can you crystalize a deliberate impact for the Kingdom? I am talking about strategic missions versus aimless missionaries. "Be pure as a dove and sharp as a serpent" When I read that verse, I am reminded that the Lord has given us a heart and a mind to be utilized for His Kingdom cause. We must also remember that we now have a "Mind in Christ." Most of our missions efforts is propelled and fueled by a passionate heart to reach the lost. The heart leads, but the mind gives us wisdom to prepare, be aware, become listeners etc. The heart and mind of Christ within us must partner and go hand in hand in strategic missions. We are not to be aimless missionaries lost in a la la land by a naive heart. The early church in Acts was strategic. Why are we not?  "And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them" Acts 16:6-7 We have a strategic God. We possess a strategic Holy Spirit that dwells within us.

·      My assessment to why we have become aimless is that in our self righteous arrogant selves, we still believe that we are in control. We forget that the Spirit must lead. The hardest thing in the humble approach in cross cultural communication or even in our daily walk is to TRUST THE SPIRIT. This is especially difficult for Western missionaries who have become hardened by the belief that they are teachers and not learners. Avoid do's and dont's in ministry approach. Of course we have the wisdom not to be idiots in new cultural settings, disregarding their values, beliefs and behaviors, but trusting that the Spirit can do what we can not! We assume that the success of our mission efforts depends solely on the effectiveness of our approach. Who do we think we are? That clearly means that we are in control and not the Spirit. The Spirit is the Chief communicator! The Spirit has the ultimate power to penetrate the message in the most restrictive cultures, circumstances and hearts. Even when we stumble and mess up, the Spirit is still in control. Don't we see that the Spirit can do more through our mistakes than through our success. I often say, even the enemies evils, God can use for our good. A pure heart and a humble mind require us to relinquish oneself to the awesome power of the Holy Spirit. I would rather partner and collaborate with the Holy Spirit than with man or even my own intentions.

These are the understandings that a humble servant must posses before attempting to build a bridge to the hearts of unreached people and cultures. This is all part of the molding, shaping and preparing of a servant attitude. The Lord does not send an untrained calf out for His cause, so why do we? I am speaking of the internal preparation of the messenger. The messenger is the proof of the message.

When I reflect on my journey, I remember that my heart broke open to the saving power and grace of Jesus, but I still could not allow Him to enter. I was almost there... but I just could not surrender. I now understand what happened. Christians did not trust the Spirit enough to back off. What was in the way and in between me and Christ - were Christians. True servant attitude and humility gives us wisdom to say, "Holy Spirit, I need you. Holy Spirit, I have been obedient. Holy Spirit, I have done my part. But I trust your power. It is time for me to move out of the way, so that you can unleash your power into the heart of your child."

We must not only understand, but trust and believe that the Holy Spirit has the ultimate transforming power to direct the hearts of people, cultures and even an entire generation to Kingdom principles and values. The only thing that stands in the way of God's movement... is you and I.

The Foundation

No ministry objective, plan or strategy should be implemented before the vision (as a seed) is planted in a strong Christ centered foundation (the soil). To comprehend the critical nature of first setting a solid ministry foundation, one must visualize monuments being built upon a foundation that is not Christ. Regardless of how high, strong, fantastic, productive and alluring the monuments are, if the foundation is not solid and firm, the monuments WILL crumble and fall when shaken. “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” Luke 6:46-49  

Many times, even with Godly intentions, when our ministry monuments rise higher and higher, we seek to look up as we rise with our structures. In the process of looking up, we lose sight of the foundation (who is Christ) in whom all things hold together. In essence, our ministry monuments become our idols as we rely on the effectiveness and efficiency of Man rather than the desperate reliance on God who is the source and power of the growth. Even with the knowledge of the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our spiritual walk and ministry objectives, we must face the detrimental reality that although the foundation that we stand on is often Christ inspired, but not Christ built. Christ is our foundation. We have placed “other” foundations over the foundation of Christ. 

Christ as the foundation:
1. Personal walk
2. In a ministry

“According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. 11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 3:10-11 

Paul was an architect of our faith. We must also be architects building on top of this foundation which is Christ. This foundation is more than just merely ethics, codes and culture. Rather, through a process of Christification, we “absorb” Jesus and not merely agree with doctrine. 

If Jesus is the foundation, what does that mean for our lives and for our ministry objectives? –IT ALL COMES BACK TO THE “IDENTITY” OF CHRIST. WHO IS HE? “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” Colossians 1:15-20

The entire Christian walk serves to answer, WHO IS HE? I do not merely mean Lord, redeemer, savior, messiah and the other adjectives that proclaim Him, but rather, this question is one that digs so deep into His power that consumes and fuels our Christian walk. We will not grasp the incomprehensibility of who He is in His everlasting glory until we each stand before Him. 

In laying the foundation, what would happen if we cultivate a fascination with Jesus that precedes ethics or dogma? Colossians 1:24-2:5 – What is Paul doing here?

• Lays the foundation of understanding of discipleship 
• Establishing “identity” in Christ
• “Apostolic” ministry

The most important ministry objective question is: Ask, DO WE PROCLAIM HIM?

Unimaginable Love Behind the Incomprehensible Grace

Love. Grace. Two concepts that serve as the foundation of our faith. Grace extends from deep love. The understanding of grace can not be comprehended without the knowledge of love. And that was my spiritual epiphany moment! It may sound logical, but a deeper examination and how it relates to freeing Muslim's to Christ, reveals a profound understanding of the barriers to the Muslim heart.

Until recently, I approached grace as the biggest obstacle for a Muslim person to accept Christ as Savior. Grace is an incomprehensible notion for a Muslim, but why? I looked at ever angle, but failed to see the most obvious reason that truly encompasses why God saved us back to Him from the pangs and death of sin - Love. God is love. 

For the longest time, I was fixated on the issue of rejection. I walked with the understanding that grace was incomprehensible for a Muslim heart because of a deep rooted rejection they carry which is passed down through generations within religion, culture, identity and worldview. The rejection of Ishmael over Isaac. The rejection of Mohammad from Medina. And even today by the modern rejection of a post September 11th society that points its fingers at Muslims as our enemies. 

I failed to see the deeper, more powerful, and ultimately, the more heartbreaking reason: The Unimaginable Love. A love from an Almighty God that passionately loves His creation enough to sacrifice His own son so that none shall perish, but have eternal life. This is a love unimaginable. I now understand that when God unites me with my future husband, I will know, feel and act upon a love that comes from my love for the Lord. His love spills over as an outpouring into my union with a man. How does this relate to Muslims coming to know Christ? It is not merely because of rejection that a Muslim person can not spiritually grasp grace, but because of their inability to comprehend true Godly love. Worldly love, especially within the union of a man and women lacks the nourishment provided by living in the center of God's love.

I have seen love in the Muslim context. I can say this because I lived it and felt it. I witnessed it within the dynamics of my Muslim family and home. It truly is a love that I sometimes do not even see within Christian families and communities that I have engaged in. Really. However, this type of love is one that is in the confines of the flesh and human understanding. You see, the abounding love that Christians are given a glimpse of is a reflection of an extraordinary bigger, unimaginable, unsearchable and immeasurable love that shines down from the creator of the universe. If the love that brings me down to my knees in tears and submission is merely a ray of light that shines down on me, then I can not fathom the entirety of that love in its fullness. Maybe that is why we must die in our fleshly states before we can come fully face to face with the glory of this love in the Kingdom of God. This is the unimaginable love that I am talking about. This is the unimaginable love that we are lavished with as children of God when we give our lives to Jesus. This is the unimaginable love being held captive from the Muslim heart, therefore, making it incomprehensible to spiritually grasp grace.

A Muslim person will not truly grasp grace when they are first saved. Grace is revealed through the process of transformation. They will understand sin and separation from God. They will understand salvation and the need to reconcile with God. However, it will only be through the process of transformation with the power of the Holy Spirit and the experience of a Godly love through a personal relationship with Jesus and through the fellowship of the Body of Christ and community, that a new Muslim believer will finally be given a spiritual revelation and comprehension of grace. I truly grasped grace only a few months ago. 

It is not only about understanding grace, but growing into the knowledge of the VALUE of grace - What that grace COST. I have to be honest, most Christians today want and accept the grace of God without a true conviction of the value of grace. We live in a society where we know the price or cost of everything, but the value of nothing.  If we truly understood the value of grace given freely through the ultimate sacrifice, Christians would be responding to this spectacular grace through the act of obedience to our Christian obligations. Truly understanding the value of grace brings forth a natural spiritual outpouring of listening and doing. 

Here is another thought. It blows my mind that although Muslims can not grasp with their hearts the true understanding of Grace because of their inability to embrace an intimate Godly love through a personal relationship with God, how is it that many Muslims are able to "act out" this love more than Christians.....?? Let me explain. In America, our idea of love thy neighbour or reflecting God's love by helping someone in need is usually equated to the notion of "giving" and not "doing." We love to "give" people things they lack or need, but how often do we in Christian communities actually go into the homes to spend time and reflect the love of Christ through the intentionality of spending relational time with those who need us? We are willing to give our money and things, but not our time.

Jesus spent time with people. Jesus walked, ate and spent time with His disciples. We have weakened relationships and time out of discipleship and made it into a program. 

How is it that Muslims who are separated by the love of the Almighty loving God act more appropriately on this love? Muslims understand the value and power of spending time together in relationships. It is central to their faith, culture, communities and families... and even survival. This is another example that proves my belief that when a Muslim person comes to know the Lord, they become a passionate and powerful embodiment of a true follower of Christ. Hospitality, loyalty, brotherhood, family, community, service etc are already natural attributes of their identity and who they are, an outpouring from the inside out. Whereas, for many Western believers, they are not natural attributes, but rather expected attachments to their faith. 

Things to ponder.......

Responsible Love

A person who thinks himself unlovable cannot be in a relationship with God because he or she can't accept who God is: Love. We learn that we are lovable or unlovable from other people. That is why God tells us time after time to love each other.  I am responsible for the way I interact with others. I am responsible for the way I love others. With love comes accountability.  We are required not only to talk about love, read about love, or discuss about love; our need is to experience the love of God. To experience this love of God is meant to be an outpouring and not merely a receiving. But we cannot give to others what we have not received ourselves. We must understand how much God loves us, so that His love can flow freely through us and between us.

It's impossible to love others until we truly feel loved ourselves.  I was confident in myself, but that does not mean that I loved myself. My confidence told me what I could do, but love tells me what I can be. There is an essence of grace that comes with the latter. Confidence demands, but love accepts. This is an accepting of oneself that comes with the understanding that we all fall short of the glory of God. This is an accepting of oneself that comes with the seeking of God's strength over strength of oneself. This is an accepting of oneself that comes with the peace of knowing that I am enough for my savior. When I was genuinely loved by Christians that God brought into my life, when I fell madly in love with Christ, and when I came to the knowledge of His immeasurable love, I finally came to love myself. Not a self righteous kind of love, but I loved myself because He loved me enough to sacrifice Himself for me. I am still confident in myself, but my confidence is now found in Him. I am a child of God, worthy to know love, be loved and to love. 

Just as it is not merely about the knowledge of faith, but the obedience of faith- the same applies to love. We know about God's love for us because He has showed it to us through the sacrifice of His son, but the obedience to His love requires action. Love is something we do. The crucifixion was the ultimate action and expression of love. He is not asking His children to be nailed to the cross as a sacrifice, He is merely asking us to step outside of the love of oneself by loving others authentically, passionately and without any expectation to receive anything in return. Ultimately, He is asking us to be a reflection of Him.

Ultimately, love is a choice, commitment and a responsibility. Although God's love, grace, salvation and our place in eternity is a free gift through faith, it comes with a responsibility. The nation of Israel - God's chosen people wanted the blessings without the responsibilities. We have received God's ultimate and incorruptible love, but we do not want the responsibilities that come with it. The nation of Israel was to be an attractive "light" or a royal priesthood of the glory and blessings of the Lord in order to attract all people and nations to Him. This outpouring of love by loving one another serves the same by becoming the greatest attractive force to exemplify God's saving power and glory to the lost world. What a spectacular expression of God's love if we all took on this responsibility and became a collective example of His love.

The world does not see His love in us, but through us. The love of God dwells in me, but when we love one another, what brings glory and demonstrates His love to others is the love unified.  When we love each other, there is a flash of love- the love between us is what we show to the world. God is love, so God is present in that space. That is the moment when the veil is torn and the light soaks through. We must love each other right- it is missiologically crucial. We can create a community, but if love is not there and nourished and intentional, the presence of God is not there. The community of Christ followers must be shaped to contain love. There can be fellowship, but that is not Church. Church is when we are all sitting at the table. It is where we all “contain” ourselves and contain the love of God. The world see’s this unity that contains God's love. This is our greatest collective testimony of Him.

Love always involves responsibility, and love always involves sacrifice. And we do not really love Christ unless we are prepared to face His task and to take up His Cross.- William Barclay

My thoughts go as far as me.

A few random and unrelated thoughts this week............

"I believe that the greatest trick of the devil is not to get us into some sort of evil but rather have us wasting time. This is why the devil tries so hard to get Christians to be religious. If he can sink a man's mind into habit, he will prevent his heart from engaging God." (Blue Like Jazz - Donald Miller) As I pondered this quote by Donald Miller, I connected it to the notion of blessings. Let me rephrase: "I believe that the greatest trick of the devil is not to plunder us with the struggles of life, but to lavish us with misguided fancy blessings that paralyze us into a state of comfortable Christianity surrounded by white picket fences. Our spiritual ignorance misguides us with the false belief that to be blessed with money, a happy family, well educated kids and a beautiful home means that we are in God's good books. If the devil can sink man's mind into the desire of comfortable and alluring blessings, he will prevent and distract his heart from engaging God. You see, this "engaging" requires sacrifice and to get outside of the comfortable boundaries of our self envisioned Christianity that is often habit filled rather than spirit led. Our spirituality should never become a matter of habit, but rather a source of being.

I am the problem. I often catch myself addressing the many man made add on's to our faith- the many layers of Christianity that make us lose sight of Jesus- our cornerstone. I blame authority, humanity, America, the modern Church...... Ultimately, I am the problem. I am a person who is awake to the functioning principles within my faith, therefore, I must stop looking outwards to people and problems of the world, and start to face myself. "The problem is the needy beast of a thing that lives in my chest......I wondered what it would be like not to live in a house of mirrors, everywhere I go being reminded of myself" Here is a question that demands desperate honesty: "Do I believe in the urgency of the gospel and the Kingdom cause, or do I just want to be known as a spiritually active person.?" Am I a servant or am I a self-seeker? Am I trying to get people to agree with me rather than to meet God? C.S Lewis stated: "I can not crawl one inch outside my proper skin...." My thoughts go as far as me. It starts to become about the Kingdom the moment it stops being about me. What I believe becomes not what I say, but what I do.

Now comes the dilemma. With the intentional pursuit to live outside of myself and to seek to be better for God, I actually continue to focus on "who I am" than on "who He is." It is still about me and how good I look before Him. "Being better" must be a natural spiritual process within our pursuit of "who God is" rather than the goal. Not sure if that makes sense outside of my head. I do not want my relationship with the Lord to be one in which I want to impress Him. I do not have daddy issues with Him. Rather, I want to talk about God as if I talked to Him on the phone that day.