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Living the Abundant Life

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“And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given” (Matthew 13:10-11).
 
Unbelievers cannot understand us, for they only have the knowledge of this world. They do not know where we are coming from or what is going on within us. All they see is the outer shell. They think we have lost our minds or just stupid.
 
We know we are peculiar in the name of Christ. We have a life that they could only hope for. It is only by the grace of God that we have what we have. It was by His choice that He chose us and we received Him as our Lord and Savior.
 
Understanding the Abundant Life
There are people who reject eternal life and chose to only live the way of the world. They rejected the conviction of the Holy Spirit and have found themselves miserable, though some have returned crying out to God to receive them. When that door opens, you better go through it right away. You do not choose when to be born-again; that choice is God’s. It is only when God opens the door for you that you can truly come in. But when God closes the door, no man can open it for you. When you feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit upon you, you cannot afford to reject His calling. Many have lived a lukewarm life for Christ, denying Him full control of their life thus losing in the exchange His gift of eternal life. “So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth” (Revelation 3:16).
 
“Then He said to them, ‘Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given. For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him’” (Mark 4:24-25).
 
This verse is talking about the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus said, when you pray, go to the Father in reverence, and when you receive the revelation from heaven and act upon it you will have the abundant life. Many people refer to the abundant life spoken of in the book of Acts, but they do not have an abundant life. They don’t understand why Satan has entered into their lives to steal, kill and destroy them. They question why these things happen to them but do not understand that there is a lack of obedience.
 
The Key is Obedience
………..if you will crucify the flesh and not reason it within your soul…you will have the abundance and God will continue to bless you over and over again.
 
Obedience requires self-humiliation, humbling yourself to Christ in order for the obedience to actually work in your life. When Christ asks you to do something, you may fight it within yourself. There is a warring between the flesh and the spirit. But if you will crucify the flesh and not reason it within your soul (mind, will and emotion), don’t weigh it out, just do it. You will have the abundance of God, and He will continue to bless you over and over again.
 
“Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear” (Matthew 13:13-16).
 
This is not about the physical eyes and physical ears. This is about visions and hearing in the realm of the spirit, for that is where Christ lives. That is why the Lord prayed so much, to receive what God the Father wanted Him to do next.
 
Jesus waited four days before he went to the tomb of Lazarus. He could not go on the second or the third day. It wouldn’t have worked. It had to be in God’s timing. It had to be when God the Father said, “Go.”
 
Abundance Comes by Living as Christ
The keys of heaven and earth have been given to Christ Jesus. He sits on the right hand of the all mighty, making intercession for you and me. What does this mean? Why is He praying for us now? Christ Jesus is making intercession for us so that we will know what to do.
 
What is miraculous about the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven is that He is omnipresent. God can deal with our problems all at the same time in totally different areas in each of our lives. People say that they do not hear from God. But God speaks to everybody! They are just dull of hearing. Remember when Jesus was talking about men who went into the synagogue daily and read from the scriptures. They knew the word given in the Old Testament. They knew the prophecy of Isaiah referred to the Messiah in the verse, but they did not know that Jesus was the Messiah. Why? Because He did not come to them in the manner in which they believed He was to come. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and shortly after His birth an angel came to Joseph and Mary to tell them to leave the country because King Herod wanted Him killed. After King Herod’s death the angel came back and told Joseph and Mary that it was safe to return. Thus they called Jesus a Nazarene and not a Jew; therefore, in their minds, He could not be the Messiah.
 
It is so easy to get so religious that you lose sight of who you are serving in this life. You can get so proud, so haughty that you start to look down on everyone else in the world who has not received salvation through the grace of Christ. You can become so callous and dull of hearing that you cannot interpret one thing God is doing because you are judging it with a physical eye and a carnal mind.
 
Do not judge everyone around you by what is happening in your life. For instance, when someone is delivered from smoking, don’t be tempted to point a finger and scold the smokers who have not received the grace from God so they too could be delivered from this bondage. Do not judge everyone around you by what is happening in your life. The quickest way to lose God’s gift of grace working in your life is to judge someone else who has not received an equal measure of grace. Judging another person can easily cause you to lose your God given grace.
 
Signs & Wonders
Be careful about being “religious.” Many Christians fall into the trap of condemning those who do not know or respect our Lord Jesus and miss the blessing that the Lord wanted to bring to that person.
 
All Jesus wants us to do is be obedient. If you are where Jesus wants you to be at the right time and the right place, you will see signs and wonders and the unbelievers will believe because of your obedience. People want to see the “stuff.” They want to experience the power of God, but they are not willing to yield to God. We want to see God move more in the church, but how are we going to do that?
 
Jesus Christ is not in the entertainment business. Don’t think that we are going to be entertained by the Holy Spirit. The gifts are not for that purpose. The signs and wonders are for those who need to see so that they too may believe.
 
Many times we are surrounded by those who need Jesus Christ but are not Christian. They need a miracle in their lives. That is the time to witness the signs and wonders, by putting God on the line. That is the time when God wants to show His best. You can say to them in faith, “My God will fix your problem if you give your life to Him. Do you think you can heal yourself? Then go your own way, but if you want God to heal you then give yourself to Jesus right away.” Then watch and see what God will do. This is what it is all about! Even prophecies, words of knowledge and wisdom are for those who need to hear His prophetic word so that they may believe.
 
Every prophetic word has a purpose: to reveal that if God can speak to me about you then you should believe that He will speak directly to you. Christ will reveal to you that the prophetic word given is the truth. “The gift and callings of God is irrevocable” (Romans 11:23). The reason the Holy Spirit gives us the gift of prophecy is to edify, exhort and build up the church, giving life to the members as well as spiritual gifts, healings, guidance, direction, confirmation and the list goes on.
 
There are many who have the gift of healings. (ref. First Corinthians 12:9,28 &30) “Healings” is plural. Each one of us has a gift for different healings. One might be able to pray and remove headaches. Another may have the gift for healing diabetes but not headaches. Each person needs to find out their particular healing gift. Many get frustrated because of ignorance. We do not understand all the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven; however, we can learn our part as we use the gifts God has trusted us with.
 
There is a “vein” that you need to flow from in the body of Christ so that your gift works 100% of the time. If you preach about hearing God, they will hear God. If you preach about healing, they will be healed. And if you preach about demons, guess what? They will receive demons. I preach so that people are encouraged and may be introduced to what God wants to do in His Kingdom. It does not matter how long they have been a Christian. They can be present in the natural but not yet arrived in the spiritual.
 
You do not need to be a biblical scholar to be able to move in the Holy Spirit. Some of the most anointed people are those who cannot read or write. God chooses the foolish. He does not choose the noble or the wise, but the willing, the yielded. This is what God wants. Many people are waiting for God to move in their lives after they finish reading all the books of the Bible. Don’t worship the book! Worship the one the book is about. It is so easy to fall into that trap. There is so much more to learn about Jesus and much more He wants to do through us.
 
We need to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit so that we will know what He is saying without laboring. The only way this happens is to turn off the world and turn up the voice of Christ. It is so easy to listen to the spirit of fear. But the word says do not entertain the devil and he will flee. That means not to entertain him in your thoughts. Resist the devil and he will flee. Do not listen to the voice of the devil when he brings fear into your life; turn quickly from him and put your thoughts upon what God has told you.
 
Seek God and ask Him what you are to do and you will receive the revelation on how to get out of a bad situation, but you must humble yourself to Him. This means not to think about it just believe it when He speaks to you. There is always hope and a lot more of it than you probably realize. Know who you are in Christ. Get out of your personal identity crisis and stop trying to be something you’re not. Rather, find out who God created you to be, and that alone will change your life. After all, that is the abundant life He has promised you. So be it. Amen!~
 

Written by Kent Simpson, Apostolic Prophet

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