That is why marriage between a man and woman is a holy thing created and intended to produce the intimate fellowship and communication that Adam and the Father shared. Those walks in the garden were a courtship of love.

For Adam, it caused him to flow in Zoë, the very life and essence of who God is. The kind of life that flows abundant in quantity and excellent in quality. As for God, it only increased his intensity to “So loved, that he gave” It’s incomprehensible for the natural mind of man to understand how God can love us in spite of our abuse of his goodness and mercy. Yet His love is our only hope. It is through faith and obedience in that love and faith in which God is and what exactly that he is saying to us that opens the flow to walk in the pre-ordained life of the spirit. Man was created to live life from the inside out, not the outside in.

The Word declares in Proverbs, 4:23 “Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and ABOVE ALL THAT YOU GUARD for out of your heart flow the springs of life. It sounds like God is warning us to be cautious and aware that there is a thief in the hood somewhere close by. Sounds like a major priority to me. What do you think?

Let’s examine in His Word the differences between the two laws governing the Church and the World that causes those to live in survival mode outside the realm of the spirit of God and those who understand the realm of the Kingdom and ultimately thrive in the process. May the entrance of His Word bring the light of revelation in the knowledge of Him as well as encouragement and correction so; we can be all that he created us to be.

ARE YOU:

Survival is an art form. Did you know that? Yes, just like a painter paints, an actor acts or a dancer dances it takes quite a bit of creativity to carve out your own niche to survive in this life. Some of us survive better than others do. Our ability to be creative; combined with our ambition to succeed and be seen can all to often appear as if a man or woman is thriving when in reality as far as God is concerned they are living in survival mode. Too many people merely exist in this world and don’t really know what real living is all about.

Jesus said; “I am the Way the Truth and the LIFE.” That tells me that; there is no other way, no other truth and life found in nothing other than Him Period.

If what you are seeking in this life is not tied to him or the relationships you have with people, built around Him, you are wasting God purpose for giving you life and allowing Satan to steal your God given destiny. It is alarming to discover so many believers who have come to the saving knowledge of Christ, stagnate in their growth and are failing to mature in the principles of Kingdom living. There is no doubt as far as God is concerned that they have been saved, born again and translated into the Kingdom of His dear son. However, they haven’t got a clue spiritually as to what the Kingdom of God is or how to function in it.

Our western culture is so fast paced and performance oriented that we live in a dietary sound-bite mentality. After all, who has time to diligently seek God, make a buck, feed the kids, pay the bills, go to P.T.A. meetings attend the football, soccer, basketball games and booster meetings, plan for college and or find that perfect someone.

Oh’ but if we can just get to the early Sunday service that lets out just before kick-off, maybe we’ll get just enough of a word from God to get us through till next week or possibly Wednesday night. After all, you know it’s really the ones who attend Wednesday Service that are really the ones seeking God anyway.

I know it’s harsh to hear but it’s true. I may be stepping on some ones toes but it’s in the hope of possibly breaking a few so that maybe, we’ll slow down, stop running and fall at His feet and get our purpose back, our vision corrected and the light of revelation knowledge flowing in our life.

Too many of God’s people have become professional Christians. They have the lingo down pat (christianese) the clichés all memorized, the motions all rehearsed and come curtain call on Sunday and Wednesday the show goes on, business as usual. There are many believers that the Lord is training in the wilderness by the school of the Spirit. They are un-churched yet, they walk in an awareness and understanding of the Kingdom that the religious church world in bondage doesn’t understand or recognize. These un-churched will not compromise their liberty that was purchased with such a high price for the sake of general acceptance from the church or the world.

Most of these believers have developed a lifestyle that daily seeks the purpose of God outside of the corporate structure of the organized church and regularly experience the flow of the spirit and it has become for them, Supernaturally Natural. These believers are well on their way to thriving to maturity. God is about to release these righteous warriors back into the corporate church with a reproving word and you will see a shaking unlike any our generation has seen. The Father wants His whole family together and He is presently issuing marching orders around the globe! They are a generation of Joshua’s and Caleb’s and are battle tested to possess the land God has promised to His body.

That land or territorial possession is the Kingdom of God advancing in the earth. However, this message is to those who struggle with a false sense of guilt and shame before God and have been robbed of their confidence before him. They walk through this life and come before God like the one Adam did in the garden with his fig leaves tied on and feeling naked. Too many of God’s children have a mistaken tone of distrust concerning God’s faithfulness to them.

Their hearts have been sown with mingled seeds.

The symptoms of survival mode become obvious when we take on our own burden and yoke instead of Christ burden and yoke. Survival mode is when we hew out cisterns for ourselves to hold water that cannot hold living water. Survival mode is when we finish in the flesh what God began in the spirit. Survival mode is when the blessing of the Lord is no longer sweet but a toiling. Survival mode is being weary in well doing and being on the edge of fainting and in the process of appearing to lose it all, we privately grumble and complain. This happens when, we have our Joe Christian mask on and we hide our pain from those we associate with fore fear of rejection by those we think are more spiritually mature, when in reality, they are more skilled at survival mode then we are. We need to understand it’s our transparency before the Lord and those we are associated with that allows others to see God moving on our behalf in the mess of our circumstances. If I am o.k. and your o.k. then, where is the need to see the hand of God moving to restore and heal his vessels that are broken? How are we broken and dismantled? By laboring in vain, by doing our thing, and not the Lord’s thing. By doing good things but maybe not the right things.

We need to know that, As He is, so are we in the world and that, he that is joined to the Lord, is one spirit with Him. If God be for us, who can be against us? The Father’s whole desire above heaven and earth is that we prosper and be in health even as our souls prosper. Jeremiah was Gods prophet. He prophesied and performed great miracles. Even he succumbed to the struggle of survival mode. He said, “God, why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed. Will you be unto me like a deceitful brook? Like waters that fail and are uncertain.”

(I will paraphrase) Hey God, I’m out here doing your work, suffering for your name and nobody is patting me on my back! Matter of fact, everybody hates my guts and plans ways to persecute me and make me look like a fool! The heat is getting unbearable and I’m feeling pretty burned. Do you even care? No one understands me or what I’m going through. No one has an ointment for my pain and wounds. Are you just a mirage in the desert? I can’t even trust you to get a cool drink for my soul. Give me a reason God, to continue. I’m tired and I’m pretty lonely. I feel like I’m fighting for survival out here! Can I get a witness!

How many of us have felt this way? The Lords answer to us is the same as it was to Jeremiah. It’s just as powerful now as it was then. God said;

Is there anything more important than what God said to Jeremiah as it pertains to your life? The Word to Jeremiah is the Word to us today. It is a living Word to Christ’s Body the Church today. We have to trust Him and decide to put our priorities in order.

His Kingdom come, His will be done on earth as it already is in Heaven. That’s His Will. We all desire a settled place of quiet and safety. The world is just too loud and dangerous without God in it. If we do not know why we are here, our lives become an experiment of our own doing.

Adam and Jeremiah both doubted God’s love and His faithful friendship to them and we all at one time or another suffer the same deception. Let’s not wallow around in shame and self-pity because we’ve missed God at some point and allow defeat to rob us of our confidence in God. Let’s not suffer shame to separate us from fellowship with the Lord when it should only drive us closer to Him. Let’s not merely exist. Let’s live in the Light as He is in the Light.

What a waste! To go through this life with the Spirit and the Kingdom of God living on the inside of believers and not really knowing Him, loving Him, trusting Him, sharing Him, and being interested in Him. To be saved, born-again, a new creature in Christ and not walk in the revelation of His purposes, His power, His glory, His love, His Kingdom, His loving kindness towards us who profess to believe so that, we may be all that He created us to be.

That my friend is a miserable existence to endure.

We must turn around. We must return. I say to you return! To often the things we dream of possessing or possibly even possessed at one time, may now be possessing us and keeping us from the life of God flowing through us. We may have even thought we were in the will of God and we probably were, but the purpose of God is bigger than we can imagine and the purpose of God has moved on to a greater glory and we did not follow.

Another sign of survival mode is when we become content with a certain level of success that we deem acceptable and comfortable. Surely, the Lord wants us to enjoy our victories and successes. He just doesn’t want us to camp out and stay where we have them.

Resistance to change causes our ears to become dull of hearing and our vision to become clouded to where He is leading us. Walking with Jesus is not a destination. It is a journey and the manna of His revelation and His presence is not the kind to be stored for sporadic consumption.

Tell me what God did for you 20 years ago, 15 years ago, 5 years ago. However, if you cannot tell me what He did for you last month or last week or yesterday, you might be camped out in your past and not moving toward your future. If you cannot tell me of anything new and exciting that God is doing in your life, what are you here for! Is your attitude, the same old same old like the saints of old that wandered in the wilderness and died? Their attitude was; where is the sign of his coming? All things have continued as they have always been. If your attitude is like theirs, you’re being destroyed and you don’t even realize it my friend!

You have been lied to. Satan has robbed you of the expectation of a visitation from God in your life. The Holy Spirit has the solution for what ails the Body of Christ that is in survival mode. Just getting by, eking out an existence in an alien world. Hoping to make Heaven your home someday but not really sure or persuaded. Living in the world and not really wanting to be a part of it, but impotent and powerless to, “to be ye separate” says the Lord.

Having been given the ministry and word of reconciliation and not even knowing what that actually is or how it works. You see, God declares in his word that, “ He has given us all thing that pertain to Life and Godliness.” That’s God kind of Life and the way he operates.

Jesus said; “He, who loses his life for My sake, shall find it (thrive). He who seeks to save his life (survive) shall lose it.” God works and are revealed or He shows Himself through dead men. People who give themselves away to His plan and purpose.

Paul the Apostle said, “ I am crucified with Christ never the less I LIVE yet not I, it is Christ who Lives in me and the Zoë life of God I now Live, I Live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself to me. I do not set aside the Grace of God (Struggling on my own survival efforts. To establish my own right standing with the King)

For if:  Righteousness, (God’s standard of Kingdom living) could be gained through The Law (My attempt in the flesh to obey or produce God’s standard of Kingdom living)

gives us right standing with Him

We need to give up and yield ourselves wholeheartedly. As we realize that Christ’s Life, death and resurrection was sufficient to pay our sin debt, once and for all, we begin to walk guilt free, shame free and confident in our new relationship with God our Father in Christ.

Bold as lions before His throne and in the face of a crooked world as Kings and Priest’s. Holy people set apart as Son’s and Daughter’s. In worshipful gratitude, that Jesus paid it all and put His righteousness on Heavens bank ledgers with accounts in our name. We need to again wash our faces, comb our hair, brush our teeth and bathe out hearts and bodies in the water of His word.

Walk through this life with our robes of righteousness on, as the redeemed of the Lord say so. Tidy up the house, bring out the fine china and put a welcoming sign out on the lawn. Tell the family, friends and neighbors that company is coming to our house once again and that His name is Faithful and True!

You may be saying, it’s too hard. I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t even know how. A preacher was baptizing some of his congregation and new converts one Sunday down at the riverside. A man named Iman Lodi bar who had heard about God all his life was existing in survival mode because of his lack of commitment and he too was at the rivers edge along with everyone else. He enjoyed the company of some of the people that attended the church but he himself lived an undisciplined life and was accountable to no one. He only sought out God when his shame and condemnation became too unbearable to manage.

He usually hung out with the other Christians who were as broke, busted and disgusted as he was. They were just getting by on their dull senses. He was numb, hopeless, angry and disillusioned, as were his friends. He was finally coming to the end of himself due to all of the weight of his wasted life.

He ran toward the preacher and cried out, Preacher help me! I really want to Know God! The preacher was a man consumed with the word of God and the anointing was on him in an unusually strong way to the point of holy indignation. He had heard this before from other people as well as this man’s father and wasn’t sympathetic to the man. He had been to their house and tried everything he could to help motivate the family to seek God.

The preacher said, Iman, are you sure, you really want to find God? He said, yes sir. I want to experience what you have talked to my folks about but I can’t seem to find. Well, the preacher grabbed Iman by his dirty long hair and shoved his head under the water violently.

Iman was terrified and began to flail away trying to come up for air. The people around looked on in horror especially Iman's friends at what the preacher was doing and feared for their safety. Iman began to choke and gag on the water and was almost to the point of drowning.

The preacher pulled Iman up out of the water and said, Iman it’s one thing to talk about God or talk about wanting to know God or even appear to fit in with those who say they even really know him. If you really are sincere and want God to change your life and make it really meaningful and know Him in the power of his resurrection. You will have to want Him as desperately as you wanted the air I was preventing you from breathing. The solution is simple. We need to get desperate for God again. No other way will do.

Let’s determine to thrive in maturity toward the things of God and put away the days of survival on our own efforts. “Many are the plans in a man’s own mind” however, God’s own purposes will prevail.”

If we are honest with our selves and the Lord, there is no way you can deny that, we all have a tendency and are tempted to, give into this inept and watered down relationship with Jesus Christ. Let us now talk about a thriving relationship and how we need to identify if we are living in this mode.

The word thriving means, to prosper, be successful and flourish. In 111John, he states, “It is my prayer that, you prosper as your soul prospers.” The Greek definition of the word prosper means, God wants us to prosper in our everyday travels in everything we put our hand to. Of coarse, we are talking about following God’s decrees and directions and His way of prospering. Now we see here that John says that, if we are to prosper our soul plays the major role of this whole process. In the book of Genesis, it says that God breathed His spirit into mankind and he became a living soul. The soul makes up our intellect, will and emotions. Our soul is housed in our physical body.

Our intellect gives us the power to perceive, interpret and understand. Our will is the power to make deliberate choices and controls the purposes we decide to follow in life. Our emotions are feelings of love, joy fear etc. These are normal feelings that come into play every day as they are stimulated by our senses and they are controlled by our thinking process. Man is also in a constant mode of changing daily for better or for worse. There is no middle road in the maturing process. Unless man is being influenced by God’s written word, which is found in the bible, He is being influenced by the spirit of the world, which is demonically being driven. What we have is the Devil vying for God’s children and doing all he can to stop a relationship between God and His creation from having a thriving vibrant relationship.

In God’s plan of prospering, He first has to give us a true vision of the inheritance we received from Him, the day we asked Him to come into our heart and He became our savior. Unless we diligently seek Him by meditating on His word day and night as scripture tells us to do, there is no way for Him to show us from scripture what He has prepared for us. The bible is God’s last will and testament that He left for us. Without us knowing His word, there can be no thriving.

Once we see what a rich inheritance He has for us from scripture. We then have to make a choice whether we want to acquire the knowledge from Him how to apply it in our daily walk. I have found from observation, much serious meditating on the word day and night and many conversations with the Lord and people, different motivation for and against seeking the Lord. It absolutely blows my mind at times some of the feedback I get from different people. One young born again woman told me she could not seek the Lord because the Devil would get her and beat her up. Another told me, he didn’t have time and got actually arrogant and blasphemous to my face. Many others listened but walked away and decided that the cost was too great.

I taught in a private school for ten years. The people I met were from all over the country and a few were from over seas. Even though I was teaching insurance principles to people from eighteen to eighty, it was one of the most rewarding experiences I have had in talking and leading people to the Lord. Their was not one class in ten years where I didn’t share the message of salvation a time or two.

Now we are led to believe that we are living in a so-called Christian society. I took a survey one day and asked the whole class what they believed in and what their plans were to live an abundant life. The answers I got were laughable but extremely serious. I had roughly twenty in a class. Here are some of the testimonies I heard. One student said because, “He came from an ameba that was his God.” A few others said, “They were nature worshiper” a few others said, “There was no God. Others said, “what their denomination was and that was what they believed” Out of twenty students one fellow rose to his feet and declared, “he was a born again Christian and his faith was in Jesus Christ.” In the whole ten years at the school, in the thousands of students I trained, I ran into only six students that openly declared their stand for Jesus. This student that declared himself to be saved led one of the students to the Lord in his hotel room where they were staying.

In each class on the night before finals, I would go to the hotel to review the material and I would stay over and share with those who wanted to know what I believed in. On another occasion in class, I can remember getting into a conversation with the whole class on ghosts. One student during class asked me if I believed in ghosts.

My answer was, “I believed in demonic spirits and that a person could be oppressed or possessed by demons.” In my life, I have seen both and had the opportunity to pray for both. I had no idea what was going to take place for the next hour. It was the lunch bell that broke the tension, which had me escape from being backed into the blackboard by the whole class and gave me a chance to catch my breathe. I had one young man so panicking that he asked me if I thought he was demon possessed. It made me aware of how hungry people are to know the truth and want to have a reality in the Spirit World. During the lunch break the class across the hall must have heard the whole conversation because, one of the students approached me during lunch and asked me where I got the boldness to talk about Jesus so openly in a private school. Of course, this started another conversation with a born again brother in the Lord.

I could share hundreds of encounters, but here is my point. Scripture tells us that if we are really thriving, then we need to be operating in Rev.12:11, which states, “to be an over comer it can only be by the blood of the Lamb and by the words of our testimony.”

Scripture tells us that a person that has been born again by accepting Jesus into their heart has his sins washed away because, Jesus shed His blood on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins. We then receive a new nature and the Holy Spirit now lives inside of us.

Scripture tells us that a person that has been born again by accepting Jesus into their heart has his sins washed away because, Jesus shed His blood on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins. We then receive a new nature and the Holy Spirit now lives inside of us.

In Romans 14:17 it tells us that, “the kingdom of God in choice, thought and emotion is Righteous, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit.” I am saying that, we have to make a free will choice, focus our thought life on learning from God how our new nature operates and this will produce the impetus and emotional fulfillment to run our race in God’s power.

The simplest way I can define what our fruits or behavior in our Christian walk will be in our actions is, we will be talking about the Lord and testifying of our personal relationship with Him every opportunity we get. A born again believer will be constantly looking for every opportunity to share the love of Christ with every one that crosses his path in the market places of life that he finds himself. In my daily travels at the stores shopping with my wife and at places we go to eat etc. Other then the man who led me to Christ when I was in the bar and restaurant business some forty years ago. I can only recall one person in forty years that came across my path and asked me if I had made Jesus my Savior.

I have over the years not only ministered in church settings as a teacher and elder in a born again assembly and been in some anointed worship settings with many gifts and prophesies coming forth. I have also watched many Christian TV programs that have great worship and enthusiasm. When is the body of Christ going to understand that God does not live in our four wall assemblies? He lives in us. Where are all these born again believers having such a great time in church in the market places, speaking a word of wisdom for those who are weary of their life style? Something is seriously wrong here. Scripture tells us that we all need to be doing the work of an evangelist.

In the Our Father prayer it states, “Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” It is serious enough that there are churches that do not teach you must be born again to get into heaven and also don’t believe and teach that, we now live in God’s kingdom here on earth. However for born again churches to be teaching rules and regulations with all kinds of messages other than what our righteousness in Christ represents, the born again church will never operate as kingdom kids here on the earth and understand that Christianity is a vibrant, thriving, and exiting relationship in the Holy Spirit. How many people who come across your path weekly do you talk to about the Lord? It is our testimony that defines our thriving or surviving.

To live the abundant life and thrive we must be obeying Mathew 6:33. Jesus states “First of all aim and strive after His kingdom and His righteousness and all things taken together will be given to you besides.” I have stated this many times in other newsletters because, this is the main principle that the church needs to be focused on. Teaching righteousness is not pointing out our sinful ways and being told we have to change and line up with the word of God with a monotonous judgment of our character. We stated earlier that the soul is our intellect, will and emotions and it plays the vital role in us surviving or thriving.

We need to come to understand that, even in born again churches where legalistic rules of conduct are taught in any form, this only stimulates our souls to live even more un-righteously. Scripture tells us that when we teach the letter of the law, it kills. The bible and interpreting it through the grace of God is what stimulates our soul to thrive and do the works of Jesus in the earth.

At one time the fire and brimstone preaching was running ramped within the Christian community. It is still being preached in some circles with enthusiasm. Over the years, the Christian gospel has through TV and the media system been coated and refined from this type of preaching with innuendo and emotion that has no effect on our souls for change. I have seen on TV and in churches in the guise of the Holy Spirits influence through music and fear tactics of tyrannical preaching, that has no more anointing of God then the man and the moon. This does produce alter calls at the end of services, but with out permanent results. God is too real and available to have a hyped up gospel into the show must go on mentality. It is only us being influenced by the Righteous Spirit of the Holy Spirit, which will influence our soul for a Godly change influenced by the Righteous Spirit of the Holy Spirit, which will influence our soul for a Godly change.

Being righteous is a far more cry than only being obedient to scripture on a daily basis. We have to live in a symbiotic relationship with the Holy Spirit, which Adam and Eve had in the Garden of Eden before they were contaminated with a sin conscious mentality given to them by Satan. This is a curse spirited demonic influence, which the Devil can even put on born again believers. Where there is no Grace Spirit of God operating, there only comes judgment of our exterior behavior. When we are deceived by this spirit, we become idolatry worshipers. This happens by us being deceived to believe that, we in our own efforts can live the abundant life without God’s power and influence.

Before Adam and Eve were deceived, God and them had fellowship every day by God weaving His Spirit in them as a breathe and wind and the two of them lived in this symbiotic relationship with enthusiasm and a quick understanding by Adam and Eve of them knowing God’s thoughts. Most Christians because they have not been taught, have no clue as to what I am talking about.

How are we to be obedient to the word of God where it says, “We are to stir up the Spirit that is in us,” if, we cannot recognize the Holy Spirits voice and leadings in our lives? This is the main reason why the body of Christ is still babies in their diapers. Scripture tells us because we have a lack of knowledge, we will perish and miss God’s vibrant fellowship because, we are not participating, as we should with Him. I did not say backslide and go to hell here, as some believe. It is these teachers in the pulpits teaching, you can backslide and go to hell in open words or coated innuendo that, keeps the body of Christ in their diaper state.

A vibrant relationship can only function with a passion and a fellow feeling with the Holy Spirits heart and His purposes being fulfilled in our every day scenarios of life. The only way to rightly interpret the voice of the Spirit is through the grace of God. The word grace means, we have God’s favor with out doing a thing to earn it. It is a free gift given to us at the cross. We received it the day we became born again believers. When we live in this symbiotic relationship with the Holy Spirit, we are constantly being reminded that God looks at us as, blameless, free from evil and set apart from the world by belonging to Him. This means when we feel guilt or condemnation in any form, this is a demonic influence and we are to stand against it in God’s strength.

Guilt and condemnation is the curse that happened to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden when they listened to Satan’s lies. We need to recognize the difference between the chastisement of the Holy Spirit and the condemnation from the Devil. Once you discover the difference it is then that the vibrant and enthusiasm comes with joy and peace. When we do not live righteousness in our symbiotic relationship in the Holy Sprit there is no genuine joy and peace in God. God wants us to live in a constant state of peace and inner joy. It is supposed to become a way of life, not something we are inoculated with at a church service as a temporary fix on a Sunday morning service or whenever.

We as Christians have to realize that since we are born again believers we no longer need to be a slave to sinful practices. Our soul as we have stated has to be influenced by the Holy Spirit moment by moment. Our soul was not saved when we became born again. It has to be submitted to the Holy Spirit daily and be cleansed from un-god like thinking. The devil is relentless in his pursuits in destroying our relationship with Holy Spirit. This is not something the body of Christ should be taking for granted.

I have been in a spiritual warfare since the first day I met Jesus some forty years ago. It has been some ride and I have traveled roads that could only have happened because, God was directing my path. It is us as Christians and being God’s children that gives our life the spice and variety, that cause us to thrive. Thriving is not only the excitement of being God’s children but being about our Fathers business here on the earth. Most people think you have to be a minister of the gospel with some college degree.

There is much more I could say here but, walking in joy and the enthusiasm of the Lord is something we have to seek after with every thing we have in us. It is not as hard as every one thinks. We learn that God holds on to us and He is the one that gives us the want to and the power to live the life. If you find you’re not totally committed and you are missing your God given inheritance, become a God seeker.