Every Nation Under Heaven?

Tony and I were talking today about some interesting Bible verses.

Here's one that nabbed my attention a while ago:

Acts 2: 5 "Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven."

What do you make of the statement, "devout men from every nation under heaven?"

Gives me the impression there were Jews in every nation and on this day, they were in Jerusalem.

Um...

Then Tony read this to me this morinng:

Colossians 1: 23 "if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister."

Paul is saying the Gospel WAS proclaimed in a creation. The New King James says "to every creature."

Fascinating, uh? We don't proclaim to have answers to this, but it draws us deeper to ask God, what is it you are wanting from us 2000 years since Acts and Colossians were written?

If the Gospel was preached, then why didn't Jesus return?

Maybe it's about something even greater, something deeper, maybe about establishing God's Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

I don't know. Do we continue to preach the Gospel? Absolutely! But is also about raising the dead, seeing blind eyes open, the deaf hearing, the lame walking, and demons fleeing?

Yeah, I think so. Am I walking in those things? Sadly, no, though I pray for healing and freedom.

Paul writes in Ephesians 1 that God has a plan. He has kind intentions with a view to administration. Here, read this:

verse 9 "... according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him."

verse 10 "...with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth."

There is a fullness of time coming. He's in complete control. Not like a control freak, but like one who knows what He's doing. "Got it under control."

I can't wait to see what He has planned for us. Though, the End of the Age may not be a fun ride . . . the Glory to be revealed will blow us away.

Look, we're not leaving earth, (sorry Left Behind books) He's coming! To establish His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

Be ready. Watchful and waiting. Be in prayer. We don't want to be offended when God draws in the prodigals or judgement comes. Some judgements are good, now. Like healing is the judgement against sickness. Right? V. cool.

Righteousness is the judgement against lawlessness and sin.

Be advised, He will judge the earth. Scriputre is clear. Rain will fall on the just and the unjust alike.

But we know Him. We are safe with Him. We will reign with Him. Don't grow weary.

A Flowing Heart

Once again, I'm listening to Mike Bickle's CD series, "The Power of a Focused Life."

He inspires me to go deeper in God, deeper in the Word each time I listen to it. This is my third time to listen to it and I glean little nuggets each time that make me go, "Wow, that's so true."

And, I feel inspired to wait on God, to dialog with Him using His Word.

Mike demystifies the whole quiet time, displined life thing. He reminds us we can ALL understand the Bible. We can all be scholars.

He kicks at a few sacred cows, too. Like only allowing ourselves to believe what our denomination or leaders tell us.

Sure, we need leaders, we must submit to authority.

But Jesus challenged the religious leader of his day in John 5 saying, "You search the scriptures because in them you think you have life, but you don't. I'm the life, but you won't come to Me. The scriptures point to Me."

How true that we doing our daily devos, read a scripture, pray a pat prayer or two, all out of sincere hearts, but our hearts are cold. NOT flowing with the life of God.

Even if they are, is there more? Yes.

I don't want a cold heart. I don't want to do religious duty. I want a flowing heart. Jesus says in John 7 that if we come to Him, as the scriptures say, out of us will flow rivers of living water. R-I-V-E-R-S!

Here's what Mike teaches. It's so simple.

Get your Bible. Start in the New Testament. Get a pen and a notebook - a journal. Read a scripture. Write it down. Write it in your own words. Repeat it back to God in prayer. Ask Him to give you revelation about something that stands out to you. Or, help you to obey what is said in scripture. Thank Him for it, pray a second or two and go on to the next verse.

I've been doing this. It works.

I don't mean to present this as some sort of quick-fix to your dry prayer life. But, it will change your dry prayer life.

Anyway, there's way more that Mike shares. What I like about him is he's been doing in his own life for thirty years and he's leading an alive, growing, on fire international prayer movement. He walk in authority in this area.

Off to work on Sweet Caroline.