What happens when God looks at East Saint John?

SJ Baptism in Kings Square

What do you believe happens when God looks at East Saint John? What does He see? KV East Saint John is a church community bringing glory to God and making disciples of Jesus. We know that we can’t do either of those things without God being with us through the Holy Spirit. In all of our relationships, strategic planning, teaching, initiatives, all of it, we know it is about His vision not ours.

God has called us into being as a church community. I am in awe of the way The Father has blessed us in our first year of existence! But it’s not just for us to enjoy. He has called us to partner with Him in blessing the Saint John region for the glory of Jesus Christ. There is no doubt in my mind that God’s burning passion is for us to make Jesus Name bigger than anything else in the life of our city. What does that mean for us? Here is the link to my message from Vision Sunday : click on this title to listen to:

Letting God’s Vision Shape KV East .

In this teaching time, I share what I believe God wants to  do through us.

As we grow as a family partnering with God in East Saint John our hearts will burn to see:

directionless families & individuals become followers of Jesus 

people running free from darkness into the light of God’s kingdom family

a growing church family receiving and living a fresh expression of God’s kingdom here where we live

Stoked for the future! Visit kingsvalley.ca/east to discover more about us.

 

A “breakthrough” in your mind

As I sat and listened to the sermon in our worship gathering yesterday, a light really came on for me on the inside. This was the latest message in the sermon series called “Hidden Treasure”. The focus of the truth being delivered was that we all have walls of limitation that we run into when it comes to fulfilling life goals and/or running after the dreams we believe in for ourselves. Our pastor was challenging the powerful mantra of our culture which says; “If you can dream it then you can do it!”. He was provoking us to face reality. It’s just not true… we can’t accomplish everything we set our mind to and our dreams don’t all come true. We run into walls of limitation.

Somewhere in the middle of his talk a bolt of spiritual wisdom from the Lord nailed me. He was talking about our need not only to believe in Jesus and be baptized with water but to also to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and power. My heart was already stirred up when he got me right in his sites and said: “You need a breakthrough in your mind to change your life”!

That was a good 24 hours ago and yet the Holy Spirit is continuing to work away on me. It dawned on me that many years ago I came to the end of myself in what I was able to conceive of and piece together philosophically about my beliefs, my life, my worldview. I am so grateful for that season in my life when I surrendered (even daily for a few years) to the Lord in prayer turning away from my self sufficiency and asking the Holy Spirit to come fill me with His love, power and gifts so that I could flow with what He is doing in the world. I can testify that over the years He has empowered me over and over again  to break through and tear down stubborn walls of limitation in my mind based on human thinking that is completely preoccupied  with the earthly realm. He has changed my life by renewing my mind with the realm of his kingdom which by the way has come and is all around us. I am convinced that His will for your life and mine is to be a place where the realm of heaven and earth meet and He is allowed to shine freely through our ordinary lives that Jesus truly is Lord. He wants His kingdom to come and His will to be done in and around us in our sometimes nasty earthly challenges as it is in heaven.

In one of Paul’s letters to his friends who were learning to follow Jesus in their very earthly lives, he coached them this way: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Colossians 3:1-2

It matters that you ask the Holy Spirit to bring a breakthrough in your mind so that the walls of limitation that keep you imprisoned can be demolished! He is faithful and if we will surrender our mind to him, meditate on His word as greater than our thoughts and emotions, He will set us free and we will experience His glory in increasingly practical and tangible ways. Baptize us Lord!!

 

Jesus prays for us…

In John 17:20 Jesus says, “I am praying… for all who will ever believe in me through their message.” If you are believing in Jesus today, it is a result of the message that has been passed down to you through many generations from the original apostles. Therefore, this prayer request is for you.

Jesus prayer for you didn’t end that day in the Garden of Gethsemane. The early church taught that Jesus rose from the dead, ascended to the right hand of the Father, was given the name that is above every name & that he poured out the Spirit on all people.  Anyone who will receive Jesus and believe in Him has the right to declare that they are a son or daughter of God. The living presence of Jesus comes to live with us and in us.

He isn’t confined to the past, to a set of beliefs or doctrines. We benefit greatly from studying the historical Jesus and we are nurtured and anchored through our beliefs and doctrines. But, Jesus is more than that! He is alive. To this very day, Jesus is fulfilling His plan in building His Church.

When we talk about “knowing” Jesus, we are talking about having a living relationship with the ascended Jesus. His Spirit is with us and even in us as we are united with Him and each other through Jesus life.

What about Jesus prayers for you? Does he still remember you to the Father? A vital teaching from the New Testament is that Jesus is continually interceding for us. Romans 8 is stuffed full of powerful affirmations of the reality that the Spirit of Jesus himself has entered our lives and dwells in us as children of God through faith in Him. In v. 34 we are taught that Jesus pleads our case to the Father and in vv. 26-27 Paul writes about the Holy Spirit helping us by interceding for us.

As we grow as friends of Jesus & co-workers with him, it is crucial that we remember that His agenda and the desires of His heart are what shape and form us into the Church. It is true that our response is required in order to “flesh out” the church on the earth. But, it is still at His initiative!

Have you surrendered your will, your heart and your daily agenda to Jesus? Have you had the eyes of your heart opened to understand that He is praying for you continually? In order to have our lives shaped and conformed to his prayer in John 17:20-26, there is no other way we can begin other than surrendering each day to His active will and mission in our world and in our lives.