Tag Archives: Christianity

What We Need To Be Saved From

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - What We Need To Be Saved From

“What exactly are we ‘saved’ from?” someone asked.

If we weren’t blind and “past feeling”, it would be obvious:

bad government

that leaves God’s creation, people and the land, desolate

which is the result of every government other than God’s.

Other kingdoms is what Jesus saves us from, including yours and mine, and the just, righteous, restorative wrath of God against them.

For those who can see and know their cruel oppression, this is mighty good news.

We worship God for it, eagerly await it, and hope to have any part in ushering people into the freedom and safety of the kingdom of God before that great and terrible Day.

Glorious Suffering

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Glorious Suffering

God is teaching me about suffering.

The message given to me was:

We can do more than know about God.
We can know God.
We can be with God, now.

Now, the Word burning on my heart is:

We can make God known.

As I pressed into this, and dug to unearth the marvelous treasure of this revelation, the first means of making God known that the Spirit began to tutor me in was suffering.

It has been put on my heart to dispel several prevalent yet errant notions about suffering.

One being that because I may be suffering, that something must be wrong, that I’ve done something wrong or that I must not be in the perfect will of God.

But “living right” or “being in the will of God” does not give us a pass on suffering.

Bad things have happened and will happen to even God’s most faithful elect.

In that sin has entered the world it made it so that everyone will suffer, even the best man, the perfect man, Jesus, was not excepted.

We do not have a choice whether we will suffer, but we can choose who our suffering will serve.

It may very well be that you are suffering not because you’re not in the will of God, but precisely because you are, and He has entrusted to you the honor and privilege of making Him known through the ministry of your suffering.

Consider Job.

Not only do I hope to share how to survive these inevitable seasons of suffering, but to thrive in the midst of them, by God’s grace being plump grapes in the desert —a fig tree producing in incompatible seasons, giving life and bearing fruit abundantly for the saving of souls to the glory of His name.

In the coming days and weeks, I hope to unpack that and share what God reveals about how to suffer in a series called Glorious Suffering.

#GloriousSuffering

A Quiet Mind: The Medium Of God’s Revelation

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - A Quiet Mind: The Medium Of God's Revelation

In silence, on the still waters of a quieted mind, is most often where the Seed of the Word of God unfurls, after it has been received, to bring forth life in the time and space of our hearts.

“The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep.

And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.”
—Genesis 1:2‭-‬3

“For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
—2 Corinthians 4:6

We need silence.

Jesus sought it.

“Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.”
—Mark 1:35

So, should we.

Silence is the time and space that we reserve and consecrate for God, where God is invited, that when He comes, His glory may fill the temple of our bodies.

God shouts before sinners, to whom His Word thunders, who perceive sound yet cannot discern its meaning, deafened by the futile busyness of life and the worthless affections of their hearts.

But, He whispers to His saints.

“‘Father, glorify Your name.’

Then a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.’

Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered.

Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to Him.'”
—John 12:28‭-‬29

“And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.”
—1 Kings 19:11‭-‬12

“Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen,

My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased!

I will put My Spirit upon Him, And He will declare justice to the Gentiles.

He will not quarrel nor cry out, Nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets.”
—Matthew 12:18‭-‬19

Some are going to a house of God today with a real and eager expectation to meet God and to hear from Him. I am too, if the Lord allows.

My encouragement to you is not to think this is fulfilled simply by attending a service.

Seek His Word, “take heed”, keep it securely, then go and take it with you to a sacred place just for you and God, to spend quality time, to ponder it and allow His Word to expand on the still waters of your mind that life may burst forth from your heart.

Not just an hour on Sunday, but as much quiet time as you can offer.

“But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.”
—2 Corinthians 9:6

“He who continually goes forth weeping, Bearing seed for sowing, Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, Bringing his sheaves with him.”
—Psalms 126:6

Be still, seek God, make room for Him, and hear the still small voice of God.

One Day

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - One Day

NOT:

One day, I will have:
that car,
that house,
or that body,
1 John 2:15-17

BUT:

One day, I will see God:
my Redeemer,
the Lover of my soul,
in the Great Assembly of His beloved,
Job 19:25-27, John 17:20-26

AND:

When I love:
I see Him now,
in the mirror of love,
now dimly but then, face to face.
1 Corinthians 13:12

“Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.” -1 Corinthians 13:12

I will not only know God but all those that are known by Him in Christ.

Oh, how wonderfully glorious!

I believe God made known and brought near through Jesus Christ.
My earnest hope and expectation is to be with Him and His.
I am assured through love. 1 John 3:14, 4:18

“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” -1 Corinthians 13:13

To know God, to dwell with the beloved in the unity of the Spirit through the fellowship of Christ, to see His kingdom come everywhere in my sphere is what I labor to attain in some measure now and to enjoy fully, unrestrained, without hindrance or opposition at His coming.

This is the desire of my heart that directs the work of my hands, not the things of this world.

This is my “One Day.”

#oneday

Jesus In The Midst

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Jesus In The Midst

“For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.””
—Matthew 18:20

Jesus made a promise with this condition:
If two are more gathered in My name, meaning for the purpose(s), and for the pleasure of His position / office / station (Messiah),

Then, we are granted His power.

And, He, Jesus, is in the midst.

Therefore:

1. I will seek out and connect with people who are operating according to His purpose(s).
2. And, I will expect Jesus.

He is there because He said He would be.

There, I will tune my heart to His presence, so that I may see Him, hear Him, feel Him and know Him.

To do that, I must not harden my heart by embracing this world, by accepting the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and instead become as a little child who knows nothing and look to my Father and learn of Him for everything.

“Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
—James 4:4

We can’t have both. We must chose where we will ultimately put our trust. A double-minded man gets nothing.

I must distrust this world -that is, divest, take my trust out of the identities the world tries to give you, out of the things the world treasures, and out of the meaning or meaninglessness the world proclaims.

“let God be true but every man a liar”
—Romans 3:4

Instead, I must, invest, put my whole trust in Christ and trust Him to define my identity, to treasure what He treasures, and to trust that His purposes are true, will not fail and is what life is all about (meaning).

Then, I will be able to see Him more clearly.

“For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.”
—1 Corinthians 13:12

On a related aside, in a Christian home with a husband and wife, those are two, so there should be three. Jesus should be in every such home.

Where two or more are gathered in His name, Jesus is there in the midst.

We can do more than “know about” God.
We can know God.
We can be sense, experience and be with God!

I can see Him if I want that more than anything. (Matthew 10:37-39)
#goals #KnowGod #KnowingGod

Seeing People Through Christ’s Eyes

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Seeing People Through Christ's Eyes

“I see whole people.”

With the heart and mind of Christ I should be able to better see people as they would be if they were in the Kingdom of God, apart from the corrupting influence of sin and their trauma from this world, and then deal with them with the patience, compassion, care and courage to love them where the Father would have them to be: whole in Him.

“But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.”
—Matthew 9:36

‘Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.”
—Matthew 9:35

Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
—Matthew 9:37-38

So, when we encounter people, we should pray and ask, “Lord, show me who they would be in Your Kingdom” and, “Help me to bear the fruit of Your Spirit and grant me Your manifold grace to love them there.

Make me a laborer in the harvest of my Lord, Your Son, Jesus Christ and I ask this request in His name. Amen.”

#perfectourlove

The Life Giving Spirit Mindset

“And so it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being.’

The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”
—1 Corinthians 15:45

Being a life giving spirit -connecting people to the Source of life, rather than being just another character in a dead, empty and cannibalizing culture, that’s the mindset.

I get to give life.

“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”
—John 7:38

Giving life through making the Father known in word and deed, as revealed through Jesus Christ, is everything. It is life itself.

#LifeGivingSpiritMindset

Dealing With Discontent And A Downcast Soul

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Dealing With Discontent And A Downcast Soul

I find that when I’m in a state of weariness, downcast or just in a general funk, not really motivated to do anything, it is usually because I’ve fallen into the world’s thinking.

I’ve taken up the world’s value system of competitive, comparative, relative worth which causes me to compare myself to others.

I’ve engaged in the world’s game where my value is derived from, and the objective is having more and being more than others.

It’s a grim, brutal, loveless way to operate that pierces you through with many sorrows.

It is the reality of this world, but God.

But, God makes it possible to operate in a way that completely defies the reality of this world and still THRIVE in it.

It looks more like a mighty, life giving tree planted by the waters than a nice car and a big house.

“He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.”
—Psalms 1:3

“And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.'”
—Luke 9:58

In God’s economy, a french fry cook, anyone, in their current position can lift up and give life to those around them.

To that person there is no higher pursuit than the Kingdom of God. That is the objective.

There is no greater joy than sharing it with others -inviting others out of the cruel world’s game into living safely in communion with brothers and sisters in Christ, bound by love in the unity of the Holy Spirit with the bond of peace. All the while, God supplies all of their NEEDS – not opulence (because that’s not our goal, after all these things the Gentiles seek -Matthew 6:32) (and, we obtain our needs through God’s means and mechanisms; the means being opportunity, the mechanism being the God ordained system to convert opportunity into provision: work).

So, I must lay aside the flesh, the thinking of this world that’s concerned about getting and what others have gotten.

I must walk again in the Spirit, putting on the mind of Christ where there’s great purpose and joy in giving what I’ve been given -life.

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
—John 10:10

Note: This is one something non-believers cannot cherry pick as they often do with principles gleaned from Scripture. A plucked branch from a fruit tree in a vase of water is not going to produce fruit. We cannot give life apart from God. We’ll quickly burn out in our efforts.

I must abandon my desire for the things of the world, despite what others around me seek and have, and trust God that He will provide all my needs through His means and mechanisms.

The things that make for our peace are often counterintuitive. Very often the remedy to malaise isn’t about what I’m getting but what I’m giving.

In everything and in every interaction, I’m looking to pass life along, which in the process, gives life to me, making my Savior all the more real to me. Jesus Christ is the Vine. I am the branch. That’s exciting.

“And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
—Acts 20:35

I believe we are most content and experience the greatest joy doing what we were created to do: that is, according to our gifting, ministering life, which is our unique vantage of God, working in conjunction with fellow believers of different giftings, to edify the body and give others a fuller picture of the knowledge of God. In short, to make the Father known.

Let us use everything at our disposal in service to making the Father known and doing His will. That’s where we’ll find our joy.

“Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me?

Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.”
—Psalms 42:11

Clarifying questions that I will ask myself when confronted with the trigger of apathy and lethargy:

What do you want most right now, praise from men or God? (John 12:43)

What is your chief concern right now, the things of men or the things of God? (Matthew 16:23)

Do you trust the Good Shepherd to lead, guide and provide for your every need as His sheep and as He has promised? Or, am I not satisfied with His level of sustenance? (Psalm 23, John 10:7-10, Psalm 106:13-15, 1 Corinthians 10:6)

Are you being a faithful servant? Are you living in the joy of serving the Lord? Or, have you been seduced again into false comforts and deceitful pleasures of this world? (Luke 12:42-48, Luke 21:34)

How We Can Know God’s Voice

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - How We Can Know God's Voice

Some while ago, I heard a new Jay-Z song, but it wasn’t by Jay-Z.

It was a song created by artificial intelligence (AI) that took the sound of Jay-Z’s voice and even his flow to rap words he never said on a song he had nothing to do with.

That got me thinking about how can anyone really know who they’re hearing?

Then I thought about my Mom.

I know my Mom’s voice better than I know any other. But, her “voice” is more than the form of the soundwave produced by her vocal cords. And, it’s more than her “flow” -the timing, pitch, volume or the natural patterns of her speech.

It’s also about content. There are things my mother would never say.

But it’s even much more than that.

I know it’s my Mom because I know my Mom’s spirit, her essence, who she is and what she’s about. These are the things that make up her “voice” and authenticate whether it is my Mom who’s really speaking.

The Word found in the Holy Scripture of the Bible is the “voice” of God.

God does not directly speak with vocal cords and soundwaves. He speaks directly to us by His Spirit that moves on the heart.

“knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”
—2 Peter 1:20-21

We are awash in spiritual suggestion all the time, including messaging from the principalities and powers of this age, many of which pretend to be God.

“For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.”
—2 Corinthians 11:14

God’s Spirit, His essence, who He is and what He’s about as revealed in Jesus Christ and to whom the Holy Scriptures attest, is the way we discern signal from noise, the way to know His voice from counterfeits.

“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;”
—Hebrews 1:1-2

These are the things that make up God’s voice and authenticate whether we’re talking to our heavenly Father.

God is not an idea but an actual person who you can know and interact with now.

You can hear from God, not with material sound, but by His Spirit.

“For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.”
—1 Corinthians 2:11

When I say or perceive that God is speaking to me, it’s like Someone blowing on an ember, the ember being the implanted Word of God.

He makes a theme, a thrust or a truth that can found in Scripture burn on our hearts.

Without the Word in our heart, the Spirit has little to blow on.

And, God is not going to say anything to you that contradicts what He has already said in His Word.

“And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.”
—1 Corinthians 14:32

The heart is our preceptory organ, where we sense: see, taste, feel and hear spiritual transmissions.

The Word is the sound of His voice. Jesus is the Word expressed in three dimensions, manifested materially in time and space.

Train your “ear”. Wash it in the Word. Read Scripture and open it through humbling yourself, looking to the real person of Christ and asking questions in pursuit of faith.

“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
—Romans 10:17

You can do more than know about God.

You can know God personally and talk with Him by knowing His voice.

#KnowGod #KnowingGod #Gospel

How We Can Know God

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - How We Can See God

One of the greatest travesties of modern-day Christianity and the church is we stop just short of knowing God.

We’ve created centers of learning about God that we call church.

We talk a lot about what we “think” God is like.

We strain out gnats and swallow camels.

It’s academic and not personal.

But unless God is real, we’re merely like every other religion -just another philosophy.

But God is an actual person who can be known and with whom a real relationship can be had!

My prayer of late has been how to truly know and experience God, and usher others into that.

Then, I saw something I’d not really seen before -something that I may have understood conceptually in my head but that’s now burning on my heart.

Consider 2 Corinthians 4:6:

“For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
—2 Corinthians 4:6

Now, juxtapose that against Matthew 6:23:

“But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”
—Matthew 6:23

The Apostle Paul did not just say, “God commanded light to shine out of darkness” else we would think of this “light” in terms of what we can see visually, but he continued “WHO HAS SHONE IN OUR HEARTS to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

My God.

Now, compare that to Matthew 6:22-23,

“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.

But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”
—Matthew 6:22-23

Now, consider the immediately preceding pericope of Scripture in Matthew 6:19-21,

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your HEART will be also.”
—Matthew 6:19-21

Ok. What am I getting at?

Those who have been born again do not “see” with their iris and pupils but with their hearts.

When Paul writes, “[God] has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” it should be apparent that we cannot perceive wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation (light) with the organ that pumps blood (heart).

So by “heart”, Paul is referring to a spiritual organ -the core of our spiritual being, and by “light”, he is referring to the life giving power that comes from God.

What Paul is essentially saying is the heart is the eye. It is the sensory organ by which we have any sensitivity to the spiritual dimension and that gives us the ability to perceive God.

The Matthew passages makes a contrast between a good eye and a bad eye -a good eye filling the body with “light” (life) and a bad eye filling the body with great darkness (not life).

I would argue that the “good eye” is a spiritual heart made alive in the new birth by faith through grace. And, the “bad eye” is the natural perception obtained through bodily sensory organs, experience and earthly ideation, which leaves the heart dead, hard and stony with no capacity to sense, know or experience God.

I believe Jesus provides a test in Matthew 6:19-21 so that we can know which “eye” we have: WHAT WE TREASURE.

The bad eye treasures “treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.” (e.g. things material and that are dependent of the material: money, possessions, status, etc.)

The good eye treasures “treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (e.g. spiritual things independent of material things: virtue, fruit of the spirit, Isaiah 58:5-8).

Because, what we treasure, as Matthew 6:21 concludes, “There your heart will be also.”

Everything God commands is good and for our good. So when Jesus says “whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple” in Luke 14:33, He is not merely putting forward the price of discipleship, Jesus is giving us the prescription for nurturing a heart that can sense, know and experience God.

We can do more than “know about” God.
We can know God.
We can sense and experience God!

I want that more than anything.

And, our “heart” -the one that God gives, is our “eye” which gives us the ability to perceive, know and experience (be with) God.

Get that heart (humble yourself, repent, seek diligently for it).
And, guard it.

Thank You, God, Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ for answering my prayer. Not that I have attained, but that You lead me in the paths of righteousness that I may fully attain it, and, above all, that You are with me.

Thank You for teaching me to close my eyes and see through the eye of the heart You gave me so I can perceive, know and experience You.

#KnowGod #KnowingGod #gospel