A TIME OF OPEN DOORS

     This past Sunday, with many unprepared statements, 
we felt the Holy Spirit revealed our moment to us. With 
many prophetic statements, none of them bigger than 
“this is a time of Open Doors.” For me it was an 
indication of a powerful opportunity to advance into a 
new environment. A couple further considerations-

1. An open Door does not necessarily mean a geographic shift 
but an opportunity to take advantage right where you 
are. Paul writing to the church at Corinth makes this 
statement in I Corinthians 16:8-9 but I will tarry at 
Ephesus until Pentecost. 9 For a great door and effectual 
is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries. In 
essence Paul is saying I’m writing to you because I 
can’t be there in person due to the fact that a great 
big and powerful opportunity has presented itself in 
Ephesus and I’m going to milk it for all its worth. 
For some, in this season you are stepping into an 
opportunity to really make significant advancements 
right where you are. For Paul it was ministry of the 
gospel. For many it will mean the same. Where you 
have been struggling to get ministry moving, it’s 
about to start flying. For others, it will be where 
you’ve been hidden in the background, in some manner 
of speaking unseen in your contribution. The door is 
wide open and it will be undeniable in the level of 
influence and anointing you are steeping through to. 
Over all, this will show itself in church at 
gatherings, at work and even at home. That’s right 
a Great big powerful door has come to you.

2. The disclaimer:
this word really resonated last night at midweek service- The open door carries with it adversity. Your advancement will require you to remain focused; don’t let distractions detour you from the moment. Initially you may feel the tension at work, home or even church, but embrace opportunity that this controversy affords. Remember crisis will do 
for you what you could never do for yourself. So as you step through, quench all the 
fiery darts with your faith.

3. The Lord said to me that the door would bring uncertainty in strategy
and direction but faith would define the way. In John 3:8 The wind 
bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but 
canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every 
one that is born of the Spirit. For me it means we will see the 
effects of the wind and feel it, all the while being uncertainty of 
the destination of its movement. In this Open Door moment- 
simply trust the wind. We often speak about God abiding in us- 
but now the emphasis will be on abiding in Him. Lay back and 
enjoy the ride.

4. This word came to my sprit last night- In this Open Door moment many 
are going over the edge. It will feel like things are being turned upside down
but actually there turning right side up. It will be a season of much repentance
and turning to Christ for many. Jesus said, John 10:9 I am the door: by me if any
man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The
door is leading you to new nourishment and safety from the past threats. God is
fine tuning your ears to His voice. You’re about to sense the more for you than
those that are against you. Freedom is your open door, run, run, run!

5. Finally- The open Door is going to mean new experiences.
Most of us spend more time dreaming of what the Kingdom lifestyle is 
supposed to be, rather than experiencing it. In this season, many are 
stepping into prophetic fulfillment, power presentations and revelation. 
Your labor of love, your steadfastness, your determination not to faint is
being rewarded with a door no man can shut. Why? Because no man 
has opened it, our Father has and our Father is greater and stronger 
than any.

So let us get up from this ending and embrace the season of new beginning. As we pursue, we will overtake and recover all. This word means something different to everyone but has something for everyone your moment has arrived and it is in the form of an open door- step in.

Breaking An Old Mindset

In the gospel of Luke 5:37-39 And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. 38 But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved. 39 No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better” Today we use phrases like this to say the same thing “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” or “If it’s not broke don’t fix it”.  More or less “leave well enough alone”.

I was in church yesterday trying to meditate on the message I was about to share. As worship was taking place I stood in the back and looked around the building. I saw many hands raised, the sound system was projecting well, attendance was down but with school systems on fall break I knew many people were out of town.  The worship team was singing and exhorting. On the outside everything looked well enough. We were having church! Yesterday looked much like last Sunday and the Sunday before and the Sunday before that, wait a minute, it looked like the Sunday last year and the year before that.

In my spirit, I felt Holy Spirit was not active at all. It just felt like we were going through the motions. Now I don’t say that to discriminate against the people who came or wrongly judged what they were expressing or receiving.  After all, most are simply drinking the wine they’ve been served and being the wineskin they’ve been told to be. No, I don’t have anything negative to say about the people coming but I could say a lot about those of us who set the structure and definitions for Christianity. People’s spirituality is built upon the teachings and examples of others. So if we don’t like the spirituality we see in people, we may need to refer to the teaching, hence discovering the root to the problem. I say problem because Houston we have one.

I got up into the pulpit, gave an announcement or two and asked people to stand for the reading of the text. As we finished, I stepped to the side of the podium to say a prayer and could only utter the words “Lord awaken us” before falling silent. Silence sat over the church, in this setting it can be somewhat deafening. It only lasted a few minutes but it seemed like a very long time. In my mind I was feeling the need to move on; after all we’re taught to not have silent places in the service. It needs to move!

Finally feeling a release, we just began to bare our soul. Confessing the place we find ourselves as Christians seems so far removed from the description given in the scriptures. Erwin McManus in his book the Unstoppable Force says that when we take a previously defined word and use it to describe something else other than what the original definition intended, then we redefine the word and consequently it loses it power. I think this has happened.

Christianity is about putting your hands to the kingdom plow and not looking back. It is about losing your life for His sake, to gain the one He has for you. It’s about preferring others more than ourselves. It’s about living the scriptures, loving your enemies. IT’S ABOUT DYING WITH A CROSS ON YOUR BACK AS YOU FOLLOW HIM WHILE YOU EXPERIENCE HIS GRACE AND MERCY AND EXPOSE HIS LOVE AND POWER.

I realized many things yesterday- one in which I blurted out without reservation “I hate my Christianity”. I didn’t say Christianity, so don’t fall out with me, I said “my Christianity”. Because mine would be an embarrassment to many of our predecessors and I know it. They wanted to die but chose to live in order to share Christ. I want to live to enjoy my life not because I need another day to tell someone about Christ. They didn’t concern themselves with the adornments of life but were driven by the depravity they saw in man and the love they saw in Christ. I am motivated, well one only has to look at what gets our attention and effort each day to find that out.

How do you say to a people “we need to own instead of rent”, when they feel like they already own? How do we call people to living the real Christian life when they feel like they already do? I can say without reservation I don’t have all the answers but I can also say we need one.

May we all be willing to change our minds through an honest evaluation of what is being accomplished through our efforts, becoming new wineskins, skins that have elasticity. Allowing God to offer a new wine to transform us into the Christians He originally intended us to be. Lives are at stake and eternity will judge our present time. There is something more to this!

-Anthony Daley

GOD IS!

I’ve noticed that as time goes by, the more comfortable I get with God. A casual relationship has been building through what I perceive Him to be. This relationship construction carries with it an expectation within me, both of what I can receive from Him and what He desires of me. The problem, I’m now realizing from this approach, is my definition which inspires expectation has been limiting. Consequently, my life is impacted in some negative ways due to this narrow perspective of God.

When the writers of scripture make an attempt; even through the Holy Spirit, to give us a description of God, they rely on what they know to draw a comparison for you and I to understand. They will use words such as: He’s like, likened unto, and like as. I now realize they are not fully describing God but searching for words to describe what they have no words for.

We have reduced God to manageable terms.  A.W. Tozer said, “When we try and imagine what God is like we must of necessity use that which is not God as the raw materials for our minds to work on… We need the feeling of security of knowing what God Is like, and what He is like is of course a composite of all the religious pictures we have seen, all the best people we have know or heard about and all the sublime ideas we have entertained.”

Today, most people’s pictures of God or Jesus is drawn from the Left Behind books, Passion of Christ movies, pictures on grandma’s walls, sermons we’ve heard, testimonies that attributed some action to God. I want to challenge you to not allow any of them to define God, but merely use them to help push you on a continual search for Him. Allow Him to define Himself to you.

It’s pretty arrogant to think we can describe Him. God IS more than our words can describe.

In Isaiah 6:3, “And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.” The emphatic and unexplainable cry of the seraphim’s as to the King of Glory- is simply Holy, Holy, Holy!

In Hebrew the word for Holy is Qadosh (kaw·doshe)-  meaning different, separate, distinct! Think of it this way- there, they are hiding their faces from God as they shout one to another- He’s different, He’s separate, He’s distinct. In other words, they are saying there are no words to describe Him.  God is more than our words and is not confined by our perspective. God’s holiness means His complete “apartness” from anything that is sinful. He is different from that which is common; He is separate from that which is defiling.

Don’t allow yourself to become familiar with a God that is far more than any definition can ascribe. There is much to Him, do not trade a narrow perspective for the beauty of the multifaceted God that He is. Never let your life become satisfied in what you know- stay driven by what you have yet to explore and expose in Him. God’s direction to you today will always lead you to a greater discovery of who He is. 

-Anthony

God Is Holy Sermon

http://thetabtn.podomatic.com/entry/2011-09-28T16_16_22-07_00