Reading Between the Lines

Mentor’s Tip # 6

The Power of Biblical Order

by Michael K. Lake, Th.D., D.R.E.

 Genesis 1:1-3 (NKJV)
¹ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ² 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. ³ Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

 There is so much in the first chapter of Genesis. I have been told by many scholars, both Evangelical and Rabbinical, that one could spend their entire lives in study just to properly understand the first three chapters of this powerful book. To properly understand what God is revealing here, we will need to take a look at the Hebrew in verse two.

Most of us would overlook the word “was” in verse two. Yet the Hebrew reveals so much more:

Was: Strongs # H961 hy”h’ hayah {haw-yaw}

Meaning: 1) to be, become, come to pass, exist, happen, fall out 1a) (Qal) 1a1) —– 1a1a) to happen, fall out, occur, take place, come about, come to pass 1a1b) to come about, come to pass 1a2) to come into being, become 1a2a) to arise, appear, come 1a2b) to become 1a2b1) to become 1a2b2) to become like 1a2b3) to be instituted, be established 1a3) to be 1a3a) to exist, be in existence 1a3b) to abide, remain, continue (with word of place or time) 1a3c) to stand, lie, be in, be at, be situated (with word of locality) 1a3d) to accompany, be with 1b) (Niphal) 1b1) to occur, come to pass, be done, be brought about 1b2) to be done, be finished, be gone

Origin: a primitive root [compare 01933]; TWOT – 491; v

Usage: AV – was, come to pass, came, has been, were happened, become, pertained, better for thee; 74

Verse 2 could easily read “And the earth BECAME void.” When God creates something, He does not create something imperfect. Many Evangelical scholars believe that the fall of Lucifer occurred between verses 1 and 2 of Genesis Chapter 1. Sin and darkness bring chaos. The Word also tells us:

1 Corinthians 14:40 (NKJV)
⁴⁰ Let all things be done decently and in order.

James 3:16 (NKJV)
¹⁶ For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.

When sin takes a hold of the things of the earth, it produces confusion. Let’s look at the Greek word here that James used to properly understand what he was saying.

Confusion: Strongly # G81 avkatastasi,a akatastasia {ak-at-as-tah-see’-ah}

Meaning: 1) instability, a state of disorder, disturbance, confusion

Origin: from 182; TDNT – 3:446,387; n f

Usage: AV – confusion 2, tumult 2, commotion 1; 5

Chaos, instability and a state of disorder are places that darkness can easily operate and manipulate people and circumstances. No wonder those in the occult promote anarchy. Biblical law and biblical principles bring stability and order to God’s creation. Stability and order always live within light, thus darkness finds it extremely difficult to operate.

In tip # 5, we touched on “redeeming time.” It takes two elements to redeem time in your life:

1.    You must be living life awake.

2.    As a person that is sanctified and has a sanctified place in sanctified time, you can take control of your time and bring order to it.

Bringing Biblical Order to Creation

 Whenever God begins to speak, light always comes. As God begins to bring light to your life, biblical order will always result. Our old nature will fight against biblical order, accountability, Holy Spirit breathed priorities and structure. Our old man prefers disorder. This way he can hide what he is really doing from your new man (i.e. new nature in Christ).

Everyone seems to be interested in bringing biblical order to the Church, to the home or even to society. We have not understood the fact that it must first start with us. As I taught in the Leader of One, you cannot properly lead in your home or ministry until you properly lead yourself! I believe one of the reasons the Church is no longer bringing order to homes or society in general is that believers are not walking in biblical order in their personal lives! We have made everything external, instead of internal. Remember, Jesus taught us:

Luke 17:20-21 (NKJV)
²⁰ Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; ²¹ nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”

What we are teaching in these Mentor’s Tips is bigger than just you getting organized in your life, to completing your education and starting ministry. Once you bring biblical order to your personal life, you can bring it to your home. Once it is established in your home, you can bring it to your ministry. Once it is established in your ministry, you can begin bringing it to your community.

I am going to recommend two secular books that will help you clear away the clutter. Once the clutter has been taken care of, we can work more on biblical order in your life. As long as the clutter is in the way, it will fight any type of order you need to establish.

• “Getting Things Done” by David Allen
• “Time Management from the Inside Out” by Julie Morgenstern

You can get them both from Amazon.Com for $19.20 or you can purchase them in audio format from Audible.Com. (I enjoy listening to books while I do other busy work or workout.)

When you decide to bring order to your personal life, God will begin speaking light into your life and aid you with setting things in order. Here is the important part to remember, as you mature, God wants to do things with you (not for you). Bringing order to your life is what happens when you grow up, so this is something God will not do for you; He will only do it with you.

Are you ready to roll up your sleeves and work with the Holy Spirit? Let’s begin bringing order to our lives and see God work!

© Copyright 2008 by Michael K. Lake, Th.D., D.R.E. All Rights Reserved.

 

Biblical Life College & Seminary
P.O. Box 588 | Marshfield, MO 65706-0588 Phone: 417-859-0881 | Fax: 417-468-2037

Website: http://www.biblical-life.com

E-Mail: biblicallife@centurytel.net

Mentor’s Tips # 5:

Living Life Awake – Redeeming the Time

by Michael K. Lake, Th.D., D.R.E.

  This past week as I was preparing my weekend message for our local body, the Holy Spirit had me write the phrase “Live Life Awake” in the side margin of my notes. I was dealing with the concept of learning to activate and daily walk in our new nature in Messiah. Although I did work it into my message, the Holy Spirit continued to deal with me about being awake and how everything in our secular society is designed to put us spiritually and intellectually asleep.

 As I pondered these things, I remembered a sermon series by Pastor Rod Parsley. He taught this powerful series in the early 90’s, and it was based on a prophetic vision of Prophet Tommy Hicks. This series as called “The Final Awakening: A Vision of the Endtime.” (I do not know if Pastor Parsley’s ministry still sells this series, but I would recommend it to anyone.) In Tommy’s vision, he saw a giant covered with rubble and small demons. These were not the things holding it down. This giant was asleep. Every once in a while this giant would try to wake up. As he did, the demons would flee into the darkness in stark terror. He would not be able to sit up fully and would finally fall back to sleep. As soon as he did, the demons would come rushing back in believing they had achieved some great victory. My friends, the Church in America looks more like that giant now than when Tommy spoke forth this vision in the 1950’s or even in Pastor Parsley’s sermon in the 1990’s!

 With this in mind, I want to take a look at Paul’s exhortation to the Church in Ephesus in Ephesians 5:11-16:

¹¹ And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.
¹² For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. ¹³ But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. ¹⁴ Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.” ¹⁵ See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, ¹⁶ redeeming the time, because the days are evil. (NKJV)

Those of you who have known me for a while know that I like to dig a little deeper and see things in the scripture that many are prone to overlook. That’s just the way the LORD wired me. So we are going take a deeper look at Paul’s warning to the Church.

 The first part of our hermeneutical journey will be to understand Ephesus. Ephesus was a hot spot for paganism and the occult. As Paul’s ministry began to take hold in the area, we find in Acts 19:19 that many of the people brought all of their occultic objects and books to be burned and destroyed. So the influence in Ephesus was not only basic paganism but a powerfully established structure of the mystery religions. This influence within that society caused Paul to warn these believers of several things:

 1.    There are many things birthed within darkness that we should have no fellowship with.

 The Greek word here for “fellowship” is sugkoinoneo {soong-koy-no-neh’-o}. It means to become a partaker together with others, or to have fellowship with a thing. (Strongs #G4790) It is important that we do not allow ourselves to partake of something that is birthed in darkness. That may be easier said than done.

 2.    Things done by them in secret.

 There are many today that discredit a “conspiratorial” view of history. Such individuals are usually liberal in their thinking; few of them would be considered having a biblical worldview. One does not have to go past Genesis Chapter Three to find conspiracy. Darkness is constantly planning in clandestine fashion its desires upon mankind.

 There are secret societies that permeate much of western civilization. They touch finance, politics, the entertainment industry and education: just about every aspect of our lives. They have slowly and methodically altered what we are taught, what we see, what laws are passed and even what we eat. A great portion of what they do must be done outside of public observation, truth or even daylight. To accomplish their work, they must either distract the public or place them into some type of spiritual and/or cerebral fog. They have learned throughout the centuries on how to either distract the Church by getting it to fight within other sections itself or to place Christians in a spiritual stupor.

 3.    Paul calls us to awake out of sleep.

 Paul is trying to get the Church to realize that the very culture around them will put them to sleep spiritually. For those that walk with God, too much worldliness always leads to lukewarmness! This was the problem with the Laodicean Church in the Book of Revelation. They thought that had everything and really they had nothing!

 We need to learn to maintain a balance: unplug from the world while being able to reach out to the world.

 4.    Walk circumspectly.

 Here again the Greek word “circumspectly” is akribos {ak-ree-boce’} , which means exactly, accurately, and diligently. (Strongs #G199).

 I believe Paul was admonishing us to be aware of this tendency. If we know that it is there, we can guard ourselves again it.

 5.    Redeeming the time, for the days are evil.

 The definition for the Greek word “redeem” is a long one, but I want to make it fully available to you in this article:

 Redeem: Strongs # G1805 exagorazo {ex-ag-or-ad’-zo}

Meaning: 1) to redeem 1a) by payment of a price to recover from the power of another, to ransom, buy off 1b) metaph. of Christ freeing the elect from the dominion of the Mosaic Law at the price of his vicarious death 2) to buy up, to buy up for one’s self, for one’s use 2a) to make wise and sacred use of every opportunity for doing good, so that zeal and well doing are as it were the purchase money by which we make the time our own.

 Notice that I have underlined two sections of the definition. Let’s look at both of them in the light of this teaching:

 1.    Only when you are awake spiritually can you take back the power of your time from the enemy. I don’t know about you, but I am tired of the devil controlling my time, energy and creativity in the Kingdom. The only way to get his hands off of them is to wake up, walk properly before the LORD and to unplug from his influence.

 2.    Time is like money, you need to invest it wisely. Time is not like money in that you cannot make more. This tells us that God is requiring us to use our time here on earth wisely. So much of the world wants to waste our time with things that dumb us down and rob us of time we could spend with friends and loved ones or to accomplish something great for the Kingdom.

 Application

 1.    We need to know this is real and happening to the Body of Christ.

 Knowing the tactics of an enemy is the first step to overcoming him. In this case, it is the first step to waking back up. Are you on fire for God as much as you could be? Are you hearing from the LORD every day? Is His Word a living thing to you? Is prayer a routine that is boring or more like a contact sport (emphasis on “contact”)? If not, you are someplace between getting sleepy and being completely out!

 2.    Moderate the spiritual and intellectual junk food.

 Before I even touch this one, I need to let you know who is writing this. Nobody could down a large sack of chips and jumbo tub of dip like I could. I also love action and sci-fi movies and could easily go into a marathon of snacking and watching. So as I approach this, I know my own weaknesses.

 We have got to moderate how much and of what we read and watch that is influenced by the spirit of this world. Much of it is just like junk food; the more you eat, the more you want. Know yourself and where you are at. It is one thing to watch a movie and chill out after a hard week of ministry. It is another thing to get so lost in TV shows and movies that you cannot find the time to pray, read the Bible or feed your spirit!

 More than 100 years ago, an Italian economist named Vilfredo Pareto discovered the 80/20 Principle (sometimes called Pareto Principle or Pareto Law). This principle can be seen in finance, in productivity, in church work, well; in just about everything. Let me give you an example: at Church, 20% of the congregation will do 80% of the work. Twenty percent of the people can also take up 80% of the pastor’s time. In your personal productivity, 20% of what you are doing will produce 80% of your results. Unfortunately, 80% of what you do only produces 20% of your accomplishments. Since this is a principle, it is pretty well universal. Here is another formula for you:

 Eighty percent World and 20% Kingdom will make you lukewarm and a citizen of Laodicea!

 Eighty percent Kingdom and 20% World will set you on the right track, wake you up spiritually, set you on fire of the Holy Spirit and keep you balanced. In other words, you will find the balance between “unplugging” from the world while still reaching out to it.

 3.    Feed the Fire.

 Listen to praise and worship, listen and watch anointed teaching, and read. In fact, HEAVY ON THE READ. It activates different parts of your brain that viewing something doesn’t. Read the Word. Read solid books written by Christian authors. (I am not speaking of Christianized soap opera books either). Find those things that “stir you up” spiritually and intellectually (with a biblical emphasis). Learn to incorporate those into your life. You may have to schedule them into your day and week. It will take learning new habits and looking for new solutions. In fact, right here would be a great time to ask you how well your habits and the things you are doing now are working for you. If you are near perfection and folks need to cover their eyes from the glory of God shining from your face, then this article is not for you. The rest of us need to take a serious inventory. We have some time to redeem back and things to accomplish for God.

 On the other side, find those things that dumb you down and make you spiritually and intellectually drowsy. Make note of them and limit their use. The really addictive ones for you may need to be avoided all together! Your life is too precious to waste it in a spiritual fog!

 4.    Keep Going!

 Once you get the ball rolling, don’t fall back into the old mold the devil made for you. Those old habits are like a comfortable bed the enemy wants you to snuggle down into. He wants you to sleep, miss your divine appointments and just be spiritual enough to think you are OK just where you are.

 God is calling us to live life “awake.” When we are awake, the enemy runs in fear and the Kingdom of God starts advancing once again!

 

© Copyright 2008 by Michael K. Lake, Th.D., D.R.E. All Rights Reserved.

 

Biblical Life College & Seminary

P.O. Box 588 | Marshfield, MO 65706-0588

Phone: 417-859-0881 | Fax: 417-468-2037

Website: http://www.biblical-life.com

E-Mail: biblicallife@centurytel.net

Mentor’s Tip # 4

The Power of Discipline

By Michael K. Lake, Th.D., D.R.E.

Chancellor, Educational Consultant & Biblical Life Mentor

 

This week we are going to be dealing with the power of discipline. I also want to deal with the conundrum that many believers find themselves in when trying to balance discipline and spontaneity. This will take a little bit of time, but if you will bear with me, you will understand where we are headed.

Foundational Scripture:

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (NKJV)
²⁴ Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
²⁵ And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.
²⁶ Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. ²⁷ But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

In many of Paul’s epistles, he uses both soldiers and athletes to teach on the necessity of discipline. In a society with Greek influence in athletics and Roman soldiers everywhere enforcing Rome’s peace, there were strong visual illustrations for this apostle of God to use.

Today’s Athlete

What does the daily life of a professional, cutting edge athlete look like here in the U.S.? Do they sit around all day watching TV and eating junk food? Do they skip all of the practices and strategy sessions and only show up for the games? That may be the way the average American prepares for playing on the Church softball team, but not professional sports where millions of dollars are on the line!

The professional athlete will invest countless hours into practice and training. He will stretch his abilities farther each year, learn new plays and tactics and will only allow foods into his body that build, cleanse and strengthen. He will condition his mind to know every play until he can do them in his sleep. He will condition his body so that he executes each play with effortless grace. When he reaches this level, the opposing team finds it almost impossible to stop him!

This is the paradigm that the Apostle Paul speaks from when he relates to ministry! So let’s run with that paradigm in this article!

Three Levels of Discipline and Four Areas of Execution

Three Levels of Discipline:

• The Drill
  
• The Practice
  
• The Game
  

 

Four Areas of Execution:

• Prayer
  
• Study
  
• Application
  
• Articulation
  

 

[Side Note: Why is discipline so important? The word "Christian" is only used three times in the New Testament. The word "disciple" is used 270 times. The word "disciple" means "one that disciplines his life after someone's teaching." In this case, it is the teaching of Messiah (God come in the flesh).]

The Three Levels of Discipline

Personally, I have never served on a professional sports team. I have served in the military, so I am prone to use some examples from my time in the military to bring certain points across.

The Drill

Whether you are learning moves in a contact sport, or you are learning how to take apart and reassemble your weapon, the drill is the time that you do it over and over again until you can do it without thinking. No immediate fruit is seen during “the drill” time: just doing the same thing over and over again.

When I was going through basic training in the military, I remember one day we spent the entire afternoon taking our M-16s apart and putting them back together. I felt like I took my weapon apart a thousand times that day, only to put it back together and then start all over again. To this day, I think I could assemble one without even looking at it.

At the end of boot camp, our drill sergeant had us perform a demonstration. We were under enemy fire and our weapons had been taken apart for cleaning. How long do you think it took me to assemble my weapon, load it and prepare to fire? Under a minute! I remember him smiling while he said “Congratulations Lake, you get to live today!”

Many times God takes us through the paces to learn a new spiritual habit. We are in “drill” mode, whether in learning to pray, study, apply certain biblical principles or articulate it to the universe. We see no immediate fruit; we just do it over and over again. This is where discipline is so important. Do it just like God told you to do it. Do not deviate from the example. Do it until it becomes second nature to you. You are building a foundation from which to live your life and to minister from.

The Practice

Once you have the basic foundation laid in some areas, God will require you not to be so rigid in the implementation of a thing. In practice, you take the basics of what you have learned and practice flexibility, spontaneity and innovation in your implementation. The discipline is still there, but you have matured to the point where you can join two or three concepts together “on the fly” to counter what an opponent is doing.

I remember an episode from The Unit that I really enjoyed. This episode gave more background on the unit’s newest member (Bob) and how he qualified to become part of this elite team. They had placed a large pile of parts to various handguns in front of these soldiers. They were instructed to put them together blindfolded; they had to use all the parts and there were five weapons there to be assembled. When the first soldier finished, he had five handguns that appeared to be assembled correctly, but he had extra parts. The instructor asked him “Why? Could he guarantee that the five he had assembled would fire, since he had extra parts?” Needless to say, he failed the exercise and never made it to the unit. Then there was Bob. He set there with a big smile on his face. He did not have five weapons, he had seven. Five of them were standard issue and two were smaller weapons. When he was asked how he came up with seven weapons, he responded: “Easy! Start with five and add two!” He demonstrated that he was able to assess the situation, recognize the parts from the standard issue handguns, assemble them and managed to assemble two others that were thrown into the mix. Because of his dedication to discipline, he was able to think creatively and had tipped the odds in his favor. (When you are in a gun fight, seven is better than five.)

After we have submitted to the preparation time of the drills, God will take us through practice rounds in our lives. These times are more “supervised,” but ample opportunity is given to us to improvise what we have learned in the basics.

The sad part is that many of us never really get to this level because we will not submit to the drills. We pray and hear nothing. We study and nothing is exciting or life changing. Then we are told to do it all over again. Why? So that when we enter into a situation we know nothing about, we will pray and study our way out of it! If the basics are not in place, you have nothing to stand on to help you overcome. Maybe this is why so many Christians run from meeting to meeting trying to find what they never received in the drills – they are looking for someplace to give them a footing in the game of life!

The Game

You know the basic moves. You could do them in your sleep. You have shown the ability to be creative in their application and execution. Now you are facing the giants. You rely on two things: your knowledge of the basics and your ability to hear your coach from the sidelines giving commands. You see, in the game, the coach is the Holy Spirit. You finely tuned your spirit man to Him all of those times you were in prayer. You filled your mind with His game plans when you were in study. Now it is time for the real thing – welcome to ministry.

The Holy Spirit (your coach) is counting on you knowing what He is talking about when He tells you how to handle the enemy and to bring victory to the situation.

“Take this concept! Implement it before the enemy realizes what you are doing. Good. Now use the name of Jesus. Quick, plead the Blood. Now cast it out! That a boy. You did that with grace!”

A fellow that has not done his homework will not recognize these commands: he will pause, stumble and fall.

As we mature, we will be in various places in this cycle. You may be able to play the game with certain moves, but when you are learning something new, you go back to the drills!

The Four Areas of Execution

1. Prayer

Prayer is a routine, a discipline, a source of life and a conversation. It takes on all of these forms at various times in our lives.

There are many times I have prayed and heard nothing, felt nothing and thought it was a waste of time. So I pushed in harder, stretched further and disciplined myself to keep going no matter what. Then all of a sudden it is like God is right there and drops so much into my spirit man that it takes months to work through it all.

I have asked God about the quiet times. He always refers me back to this scripture:

Hebrews 11:6 (NKJV)
⁶ But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

God wanted to reward me with new revelation; before He could, I had to diligently seek Him. The discipline of diligence in seeking Him opened the door to the reward of revelation.

I can also add that it helped develop a greater sensitivity to His voice and presence. The more I seek Him, the more I become aware of Him and am able to hear His voice in the den of life’s circumstances.

2. Study

Study is not something you do to make it through Seminary. It is what you do to make it through life! Seminary is the place where you learn the art of study (drill time). We have you study and study and study and study and study and study. It becomes second nature to you. When the enemy throws something at you that is unfamiliar, you instinctively do two things: (1) You seek the face of God about it and (2) you go to your library and search out answers to what is going on.

Proverbs 25:2 (NKJV)
² It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter. You are never going to get to the deep things of God until you instinctively respond through diligent prayer and study!

3. Application

What good is all that prayer and study without application? How can application be executed correctly without prayer and study?

God wants you to be victorious and prosper in every situation. But He is limited. God is limited by you. 3 John 2 tells us that God wants us to be in health and prosper, but the limitation is “as your soul prospers.” If you have only learned mole hill moving faith, how are you going to move mountains?

Everything in the Word of God falls into two categories: relationship or application. If my relationship is right with God and His Word, I am in a powerful position for application. Do it just like in the drills: observe what the enemy is trying to do and adjust your strategy. Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit as He gives you insights on new ways to apply the basics. Remember, Jesus always moved in authority and power, but He seldom ministered the same way twice. (He always kept the enemy confused and off guard.)

4. Articulation

There are four places that we speak and move in authority. We speak to: (1) God, (2) man, (3) the spirit world and (4) to physical circumstances. This is where discipline will pay off. You will know where to speak, how to speak and what to say. Through discipline in the drills and practice, you will understand basic and now advanced warfare. You can sense where the Holy Spirit is leading you before He tells you. You have studied the enemy enough to know his moves and already have several counter punches in mind to block his advances.

Many believers and many ministers never get to application and articulation because they have no discipline in prayer and study! It is time to stop flying by the seat of your pants and to become a disciplined, matured soldier of Christ!

© Copyright 2008 by Michael K. Lake, Th.D., D.R.E. All Rights Reserved.

 

Biblical Life College & Seminary

P.O. Box 588 | Marshfield, MO 65706-0588

Phone: 417-859-0881 | Fax: 417-468-2037

Website: http://www.biblical-life.com

E-Mail: biblicallife@centurytel.net

 

Mentor’s Tip # 3

The Power of a Sanctified Place

By Michael K. Lake, Th.D., D.R.E.

Chancellor, Educational Consultant & Biblical Life Mentor

 

Genesis 3:8a (NKJV)
“8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day . . .”

There are many powerful things that we can bring to light in this small portion of scripture:
 
1.     God has a cycle of coming to fellowship with you.  There are seasons of powerful visitation in the life of a minister.   We look forward to that seasonal visitation, but we can so easily overlook the daily visitation that He wants to have in our lives.  This scripture teaches us the importance of daily consistency in our meeting with the LORD.
 
2.     The second powerful truth that is alluded to here is that there was a certain place within the Garden that God would come to walk and fellowship with His children. 
 
This is the third in a series of teachings that I have been writing that can produce a powerful threefold cord of sanctification in your life.   As you place this final block into place, you will feel resistance by the enemy.  He does not want to you get all three into place!  He knows that you will be so much harder to get stopped or even devoured from what God wants for your life.
 
David, Jerusalem and a Sanctified Place
 
As we read through the Bible, we see God coming down and visiting with His people.  We have Adam and Eve in the Garden.  We see God coming to visit with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  In fact, these three men would make altars or stones of remembrance at places where God visited them to mark the spots.  I am sure they visited those places often to build their faith.
 
Then we come to a very special place to be sanctified.  Israel had been in the land for a long time, in fact many generations.  Yet we find that the land that became Jerusalem was never taken.  By the time that David came around, folks pretty much had settled on the fact that it would never come under Israel’s control (kind of like today).  But David sensed in his spirit that the LORD had placed His name on that series of three mountains.  He was willing to go to war to gain the place where for centuries all men of Israel would be required of God to meet Him there three times a year (during the Feasts.)  Not only did David have to win it through warfare, he then had to purchase a threshing floor to build the temple on.  (One day I will teach you about the significance of the threshing floor.)
 
Here is my point:  We had a people that understood the power of sanctified time.  They also knew they were a sanctified people that had an anointing to empower them to study, worship and pray.  The final piece of the puzzle Satan could not allow them to have – a sanctified place.
 
Look at the power of what happened when all three came together.  The reign of David and Solomon were powerful and Israel had a golden age.  This age will only be surpassed when Jesus comes to rule and reign in Jerusalem for a thousand years.  We call this time period the “Messianic Age.”  What a glorious time it will be!
 
For many that answer the call to ministry, right here is where you get some real resistance from the enemy.  You realize God is calling you to a time of prayer and study.  You also realize that you are called to ministry and begin separating yourself for both.  Satan will fight you tooth and nail from getting all three into place.  Since most students (or even ministers) do not know how important all three are when they are placed together, are not prepared for the warfare that is launched by the enemy at them.  The enemy is scared that you will place all three together and establish your own mini-Jerusalem within your home and ministry!
 
Here are some steps to help you fight:
 
Step One:
 
Sanctify time.  Schedule time to get into the Word, to pray, worship and have fellowship with the LORD.  Be consistent and MAKE THE TIME! 
 
Step Two:
 
Sanctify yourself.  Realize that God has separated you from everyone else in the world to use for His purposes.  You have an anointing to ministry.  You also have an anointing to pray and to get deep into study.  Dedicate yourself to discovering and developing proficiency in all of your anointing!
 
Step Three:
 
Sanctify a place.  Set apart a room or somewhere that can be clean, quiet and productive for prayer and study.  If you have an office at home, make sure that it you have good lighting, comfortable chair, shelves for books, etc.  Take anything out that would be distracting.  That’s right, that TV has to go!  Unless you are watching videos as a part of your instruction, get that temptation out of there that would take away from prayer and study.  If you have problems with habitually surfing the web, turn it off unless you are researching something needed for your studies.  Keep the place holy.  If it does not facilitate study, prayer, worship, revelation, etc., get it out of there. 
 
If you get into the habit of always meeting God in this sanctified place, always getting into the Word and hearing from Heaven, you will find over time that it becomes almost automatic.  All you have to do is enter the room and you can feel your spirit rise up to pray, worship and study.  This is why the devil is fighting you so hard.  When you get to that place, the devil will have hell to pay.  All you have to do is to walk into your sanctified place and you will hear from Heaven, the Word will begin to come alive and he can’t get anything in there to stop it!
 
So sanctify a place, a time and become that sanctified person who God can use to change a generation!

 

© Copyright 2008 by Michael K. Lake, Th.D., D.R.E. All Rights Reserved.

 

Biblical Life College & Seminary

P.O. Box 588 | Marshfield, MO 65706-0588

Phone: 417-859-0881 | Fax: 417-468-2037

Website: http://www.biblical-life.com

E-Mail: biblicallife@centurytel.net

The Power of a Sanctified Time

By Michael K. Lake, Th.D., D.R.E.

Chancellor, Educational Consultant & Biblical Life Mentor

 

NKJ Genesis 2:3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
 

The more I study the Word of God, the more I am blown away by His wisdom.  It could be said that God is the ultimate authority on time management and productivity.  Only He could create and organize a universe in six days!
 
What I find interesting is that before God ever sanctified a place or a people, He sanctified a time.  God pulled out His calendar and said to man: “You get the first six days in a week, but the seventh day I want you to spend it with Me.”   I guess the Lord knew how we can get sometimes.  We get so busy in the mundane things of life that we easily forget the most important ones!  Later on, after He redeemed His people from Egypt, He expanded His appointed times (divine appointments) to include His Feasts in which all males had to appear before Him in Jerusalem.
 
The point of all this is: God placed within our DNA the need to sanctify times for prayer, study and a host of other important things in our lives.  What we do not schedule time for; we will never find time for.  This is a Genesis Principle that seems to always work.   We all have violated this principle to our own hurt.  Now it is time to put this biblical Genesis Principle to work for you, instead of against you.
 
Step 1:  Get a Daytimer or other type of scheduling system.  You will find them at Wal-Mart, Staples or even many Drug Stores.
 
Step 2:  Begin sanctifying time at the beginning of each week.  Pull out your Daytimer and block out times for prayer and study.  Consider these as “holy” times for you.  These are times that you have appointments with God to either fellowship with Him or to learn from His Word.
 
Step 3:  Be protective of those times.  The enemy will do everything in his power to frustrate you and to keep you from your appointments.  Refuse the tactics of the enemy and ask the Holy Spirit to give you the grace to keep and to use those times efficiently for the Kingdom of God.  By the way, did you know that part of the anointing from the Holy Spirit is all about efficiency?  Let’s end this tip with looking at Acts 1:8 from the Amplified Bible:
 

AMP Acts 1:8 But you shall receive power [ability, efficiency, and might] when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends [the very bounds] of the earth.

 

Go forth and be efficient by the power of the Holy Spirit!

 

© Copyright 2008 by Michael K. Lake, Th.D., D.R.E. All Rights Reserved.

 

Biblical Life College & Seminary

P.O. Box 588 | Marshfield, MO 65706-0588

Phone: 417-859-0881 | Fax: 417-468-2037

Website: http://www.biblical-life.com

E-Mail: biblicallife@centurytel.net

The Power of a Sanctified Person

By Michael K. Lake, Th.D., D.R.E.

Chancellor, Educational Consultant & Biblical Life Mentor

 

In our last tip, we dealt with the concept and the need for sanctified time in your life.  Have you taken the lesson seriously?  Have you been creating blocks of sanctified time in your life that belongs only to the Lord?  Remember, this needs to be a part of your spiritual DNA.  Place it into your foundation and never allow anyone or anything to remove it!
 
The second Genesis principle I want to deal with is the next thing God sanctified in His Word: a person (which later became a people.)  The individual that I am speaking of is Abraham, the father of us all (Rom. 4:16).  God called Abraham to walk with Him and He separated Abraham out for His use in the earth.  There are some interesting characteristics about Abraham that parallel our lives:
 
1.            He answered the call of God. 
 
God called him by name and he responded.  We all have done the same thing – twice.  First God called us by name to salvation.  We asked that call and made Jesus our Lord and Savior.  Second God called us by name into the ministry.  If you are looking at BLCS as a school or are already a student, you have answered that call.
 
2.            He believed God.
 
Not only did he believe God and entered into covenant with Him (i.e. salvation), he believed God about his calling: to become a father of many nations, to be blessed and to be a blessing.
 
In the same way, you must believe God that He has called you to accomplish something in the Kingdom.  This is the call to ministry.  Here is an important fact that also applies to you:  Abraham could not become the father of many nations without the help of God.  He could not do it by himself.  Needless to say, he and Sarah had tried for many years to have children, but it proved impossible.  If you can do what you think God has called you to do in ministry without the divine help, you don’t know what your calling is!  God will never call you to do something that you can do without Him.  We must daily learn to rely on His power, His leading and His provision.
 
3.            Abraham had a call to learn and to teach.
 
 One of the reasons God chose Abraham was that he would diligently teach the ways of God to his children (Gen 18:19).  How can you teach something you have never been taught yourself?  Abraham did not come prepackaged out of the womb with the knowledge of God.  He was a citizen of Babylon, had lived there all his life and was involved in the family business.  What was the family business?  It was professionally making idols for the citizens of Babylon!  Abraham was thoroughly versed in how to be an idol worshiping Babylonian, yet God saw in his heart that he would be diligent about learning the ways of the one and only true God.  Are you willing to unlearn everything in your life that does not line up with the Word and to diligently learn new ways of living in the Kingdom?  If you are, then you are following the faith of our father Abraham.
 
3.            Abraham loved justice!
 
In the world of greasy grace and anything goes, Abraham in a stark contrast.  God chose him because he loved justice.  Abraham had a balanced concept of justice and grace in his life.  This is an important concept to that we must grasp.  In this area, much of the Church is completely out of balance.  The rabbis teach that when God created the heavens and the earth, He called Himself “Yahweh Elohim.”  “Yahweh” refers to the grace of God and “Elohim” refers to His justice.  In the creation of all things, God balanced out grace and justice together.  If He hadn’t and it was all justice, Adam and Eve would have died in the Garden.  If it was all grace, man would have forever stayed in his sinful state.  (Cohen, Abraham, Everyman’s Talmud: The Major Teachings of the Rabbinic Sages.  Schocken Books, New York, NY.  © 1995.  Page 17).  Yet God extended grace to man by creating a plan of salvation.  His justice required Him to give His own life on the cross to redeem us.
 
Back to Sanctification and Getting into Your Studies
 
Sanctification is both instantaneous and progressive.  The moment we make Jesus the Lord and Savior of our lives, we are separated unto the Lord.  At the same time, as we progressively bring each part of our lives in line with the Word, it becomes separated to Him as well.
 
So I am sanctified by the grace of God, but I am also sanctified by what I do (2 Tim 2:20-21).  As I give myself fully to the study of God’s Word, I am working with the Holy Spirit to sanctify my life for use in the Kingdom.  The level of diligence you develop in your study habits will manifest in equal levels of outward ministry!  More study, more effectiveness.  Little study, little effectiveness.
 
Using Your Anointing
 
Anything God sanctifies (or separates) for His use, He also anoints.  Anyone called to the ministry has experienced the wonderful anointing of the Holy Spirit as you are ministering: whether in the pulpit or one on one.  We love that anointing, we strive to see it increase every time we minister and we are so undone when it is not there.  In ministry, we rely so heavily on the anointing that is on our lives.
 
But did you know that there is an anointing available that few ministers every draw upon or become proficient in flowing with?  If you are called to God to be a minister, you are called of God to become a master learner as well (There are no exceptions, just different levels!).  To the Hebrews, a master learner was the most honored position within their society.  (Another word for master learner is a sage.)  The Sages of Israel are respected more than anyone else.  Why, you may ask?  Hebraically, the highest form of worship is study!  One is honored when they dedicate their lives for the purpose of learning how to walking with God.  This is a part of your calling.  You have an anointing from God to become a master learner.  (1 John 2:27)
 
You need to strive to flow in the anointing you have from the Holy Spirit to become a master learner.  It must be as important as flowing in the anointing to minister to people!  If you don’t, it will forever restrict the level you can achieve in ministry.  Paul told the young minister Timothy:
 

2 Timothy 2:15 (AMP)

15 Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing [rightly handling and skillfully teaching] the Word of Truth.

Why do you think Satan has fought you so hard in either enrolling or getting into your studies?  Learning to flow in the anointing to learn will increase your anointing to teach and preach.  You need zeal and knowledge.  There are times that your zeal will dwindle and seem to dry up.  It is your understanding and knowledge of the Word that will bring you through and reignite the zeal within your soul.  This is why the writer of Proverbs tells us:
 

Proverbs 3:13-18 (NKJV)

13 Happy is the man who finds wisdom, And the man who gains understanding; 14 For her proceeds are better than the profits of silver, And her gain than fine gold. 15 She is more precious than rubies, And all the things you may desire cannot compare with her. 16 Length of days is in her right hand, In her left hand riches and honor. 17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness, And all her paths are peace. 18 She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her, And happy are all who retain her.

Start seeking the face of God about flowing in your anointing to learn!  It is real, it is powerful and it will take you to the next level of effectiveness in ministry!
 
My Prayer for You
 
“Father, I lift before you every Biblical Life student.  I come against every wall or restraint the enemy has placed in their lives to hold back the anointing to become a master learner.  I ask that You would tear down everything the enemy has built!  I ask that You would loose the anointing of a Bible student upon them and that Your Holy Spirit would make them master learners so they can fulfill Your calling and purposes in the earth.  In Jesus name!”

 

© Copyright 2008 by Michael K. Lake, Th.D., D.R.E. All Rights Reserved.

 

Biblical Life College & Seminary

P.O. Box 588 | Marshfield, MO 65706-0588

Phone: 417-859-0881 | Fax: 417-468-2037

Website: http://www.biblical-life.com

E-Mail: biblicallife@centurytel.net