Pride - To whom belongs the glory?

In light of a recent gift, I have decided to add a new feature to the I Am A Disciple web site. Going forward, from time to time, I will be now making some short video devotional thoughts available through YouTube. All future video's will be available on the "apostolicXitianity" channel on YouTube.com

The above video I did at the request of a friend, who thought I should preach a message on pride. Such was used by the Lord to spark some inspiration in me on the topic of pride. In the above message, I examine the judgment on King Herod in Acts 12, and the humility of Christ in Philippians 2. I show that pride is about the glorification of self, and that humility is about the glorification of Christ.

Be blessed.

Thoughts on Personal Words of Prophecy

Recently I found myself in a discussion through e-mail concerning personal words of prophecy. I simply thought I would share with you some practical considerations I made for handling such words. Be blessed.

If I might, I would like to contribute some to this discussion. First I would like to share a "cute" story from my own personal experience. In the last days of Bible college, I was starting to seek direction from the Lord as to "what's next" in my life. After all, I had gone to Bible college as I believe the Lord had led me to do. Now I needed to know what came next. As I walked across the stage and received my degree, I expected some great prophetic word from the Lord as to what direction I was to take. No such thing happened. All that happened was I walked across stage, received a handshake, my degree, and a Bible. I felt very disappointed. No word! This deeply bothered me! I sought the Lord over the matter, and a few months later he finally spoke to me on this issue, rather playfully the Lord said to me one day, "Jimmy you idiot, I gave you a Bible!"

Not to by any means sound like a cessationist-- As you know, I fully believe in the prophetic gifts being for today, and believe myself to stand in the prophetic tradition-- but I believe we as Pentecostals/Charismatics put way too much stock on "personal prophecy." Whether it be a word given through another person, or a direct revelation through the Spirit. The fact of the matter is that we have been given God's word, which is more than sufficient for all that we need pertaining to life. Indeed, while personal prophecy and revelation has it's definite God ordained place and function within the body, I believe it to be much more rare than many so-called prophetical schools would have us to believe. I've been a Christian for about ten years, and called by the Lord into a prophetic ministry for about 7 or 8 of those years. Personally speaking, in these years as a Christian and as a minister of the word, I could probably count on one hand all the direct words the Lord has given me through the Holy Spirit about things getting ready to happen in my life. Likewise, I could probably count on my other hand all the personal words of prophecy I have given to specific individuals. And even then, those words were usually just a citation of a passage of Scripture.

Not to by any means hold myself up as the perfect model for this, as I have been weak in my faith at times these ten years, and each believer has a unique gift of grace and measure of faith given to them that differs from my own, but, generally speaking, I think my experience is meant to be normative. Proverbs 3:4-6 comes to mind:

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight."

When this is the case, I have found that I really seldom am in need of a personal word from the Lord in my own life. When I simply seek the Lord with all my heart, and seek to walk according to what is already written in the word, I have found that He simply works things out in my life without needing to tell me anything that is not already contained within the Scriptures themselves. No doubt, sometimes He will actually tell me something that is getting ready to happen, or will give a word to another brother or sister for me. But what I have personally experienced, especially in regard to a word from another brother or sister, is that such a spoken word is usually (though not always) something in regard to what the Lord has already been dealing with me about.

Ultimately God wants us to put our trust in Him through a heart that has abandoned itself to Him. And sometimes I have found that the only way He can do that is to remain utterly silent on many issues. He simply wants us to get out there and walk. When we walk in the reality of Psalm 23, with the Lord being our shepherd, we will find that He rarely has to speak to us. Indeed, He really doesn't have to, as we are walking in the reality of Christ and life in Him, and trusting in Him to guide us to the still waters. What more need He to say to us other than what has already been said in the faith once and for all handed down to the saints?

Many blessings,

Jimmy Humphrey

What Are The Odds?

We live in a world that is convinced that life is simply a random series of events. Much of this thought can be tied to the theory of evolution, which states that life itself spontaneously and randomly generated quite on accident. And sense its generation, life has randomly mutated and evolved into the world we live in today. This seemingly random nature of life is enforced by man's own observations, as he sets goals and looks to accomplish them, only to have them radically altered (for better or for worse) along the way.

How many people can honestly testify that the goals and plans they had in life have always worked out exactly as planned? Who has not had a curve ball thrown their way? Who has not set out to accomplish one thing, only to have something else entirely "random" happen, which forced them to adjust their goals?

Think of the high-school or college athlete, who has an amazing talent and ability, one that may make a champion out of them one day. Yet while driving down the road one day, they suddenly get into a car accident that renders them disabled, and smashes all the hopes and dreams they have of stardom and making it big in the pros. Or, in a more positive light, think of the man in the 1800's, while traveling through California, simply was digging in the dirt and struck gold. Such a random thing was something he probably never set out to do, yet this random "luck" came his way.

Recently, God has reminded me, however, that to look at life in such a random way is contrary to the Biblical perspective. Such a secular outlook is contrary to the Divine outlook. Indeed, by assigning "randomness" to life, we attempt to rob God of His sovereign power and rule of creation. Our God is the Alpha and Omega, who declares the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). There is absolutely nothing that happens in this world by chance, and there is absolutely nothing in this world that happens without God being intimately involved, and as a result, there is absolutely nothing that happens in this world that is somehow devoid of purpose.

The apostle Paul says, "And we know that God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love God." (Romans 8:28) We should be encouraged by this. Far from life being a random series of disconnected accidents, God causes all events "to work together." There is a "together" quality about seemingly random events, that God ties together, ultimately for our own good. Life may be beyond our own control, but because God is sovereign, we can be assured that it is within His own control.

Such is ultimately what we learn from the life of Joseph. In Genesis we read how God gave Joseph a dream about his own destiny. Yet, life happened, and everything seemed to move Joseph away from fulfilling his reason for being. Life was not easy on Joseph in his path to greatness. Indeed, immediately after his dream, his own brothers in jealously trapped him and sold him into slavery. When things were starting to look better for him, Joseph ended up in jail. Only after rotting in jail for a long time was Joseph released and moved into the place where he could fulfill his purpose. Finally, as we all know, Joseph and his brothers met up again. And instead of being hateful and bitter towards his brothers, Joseph was able to deal kindly and gently with them. For in all the tragedies of his life, Joseph declared that what was meant for evil by others, God meant for good.

Joseph knew through all his seemingly "bad luck", God was with Him through it all. Oh, such might cause many to reason about the philosophical ramifications of such things. Was God the author of all these bad things? Or was it the devil? How does free will play into all this? Interestingly enough, while we might attempt to abstractly answer such great questions, and do so reasonably based on other verses in the Bible, I don't believe the Scriptures ever set out to give us a definitive answer to such idle speculation.

Rather, far from seeking to give clear cut answers to these questions, I believe the Scriptures want to create faith in us, so that we might see that whatever situation we might find ourselves in, and no matter what surprises may come our way, that God is in control through it all. Nothing happens by chance. There are no odds. Rather, all things are the working out of God's predetermined will, which He purposed before the foundations of the world.

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ

Central to the claim of the gospel is the belief that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. Without this event, our faith is worthless. It's such an amazing fact in the history of the world: a dead man came back to life, and lives forever more. Yet for many today, on Easter Sunday, more thought will be given to egg hunts on Church lawns than this most wonderful news. While there is certainly nothing wrong in and of itself in participating in Easter Egg hunts, I think such is often symptomatic of the numbness we have towards the heart of the gospel message itself.

Indeed, the "good news" of Jesus Christ is that though the King of kings was crucified and murdered at the hands of His own people, that this dead man literally and physically came back to life. It is the message that the prophesied kingdom of God which He established through His ministry did not disappear with His death, but was victoriously established by His resurrection, and continues on to this very day. Indeed, His resurrection demonstrates that because He lives, we will also. Thus, though we suffer death one day, the power of His kingdom will triumph even over death, putting an end even to it, by means of our literal and physical resurrection one day.

The heart of the gospel message is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Yet so often, we neglect this fact, and preach a crippled gospel as a result of it. For many, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is a mere doctrine that is stapled on to the end of a sinners prayer. It is merely part of a magical formula that one is prompted to recite so as to secure their salvation. Yet, unless an individual realizes that this is the heart claim of the gospel message itself, and absolutely unequivocally the central message they are to believe so as to be saved, then indeed, a person cannot be saved.

For Romans 10 teaches us that salvation comes through confessing that Jesus is Lord, and believing in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. Yet we waste so much energy going around trying to convince men that they are sinners in the hands of an angry God, or the other extreme, that God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their life. Indeed, both these doctrines are true, and firmly taught in Scripture as being part of the gospel message. But they are not the essence of the gospel message, and have made false prophets out of us all. Indeed, if you were to closely examine the book of Acts, and the messages that the apostles preached, you will find that though those these elements were present in their preaching, the thing that made the gospel message unique was their persistent claim that they were eyewitnesses to a dead man who came back to life by the name of Jesus.

Such is the message, that turned the world upside down. The question is, has it turned your world upside down? Has it truly sunk into your head? Have you truly had a revelation of it? We as Christians claim to have Jesus living inside of us. And we think about it in very mystical ghostly terms, as if Jesus were some mere force in the cosmos, or some deep inner strength rooted in our humanity. But the Scriptures think about this much more concretely than we often do. Our minds are far too "spiritual." Have we failed to realize that the inward spiritual experience we have as born again believers is reflective of an actual physical and historical reality? A dead man lives!!!

My life is different today because this dead man named Jesus came back to life after three days. Indeed, to believe such a radical claim must challenge, change, and transform one. To be unchallenged, unchanged, and be just the same as you were yesterday is only proof that you have not truly believed this message. You mentally agree with the claim, and don't disagree with it as you are in some sense a "Christian."

But has this claim revolutionized your life? How is it that you continue on in the same old sins day after day if you believe this very thing? Why are you not transformed? Why do you not abound with zeal for the Lord? Why is it that you lack joy? Why is it that you lack peace? Why is it that you lack love? If you truly believe Jesus is alive forever more, this claim should touch every aspect of your life.

A dead man lives. Such news is merely old to many, and fails to grab the attention of the masses. But for those who truly believe it, then they realize that though today is yet another day, it is yet another day that Jesus Christ is still alive. Such news is just as good, just as sweet, and just as fresh as when it was first proclaimed 2,000 years ago today.

Don't Make the Cross an Inch Shorter

Recently I was told by one well read and informed saint that in the best-selling Christian novel, "The Shack," teaches that Christ wasn't really forsaken by God on the cross, he only mistakenly thought He was. I did not know that "The Shack" taught that about Christ's being forsaken on the cross. I think such reveals the sentimental attitudes we as evangelicals often have towards God. We do whatever we can to soften our views of the cross, and refuse to see it for the horrible event that it really was. And anytime we soften our view of the cross, we become more crippled as Christians. For in the ways of God, death must always precede resurrection, as Passover must always precede Pentecost.

Every time we make the cross an inch shorter, we decrease in our ability to partake in resurrection living and power that Christ wants us to walk in. We substitute goosebumps for power. But I promise, Christ experienced no goosebumps on the cross. It was "for the joy set before Him" Hebrews reminds us, that Christ despised the shame and embraced the cross. In other words, Christ experienced no joy while hanging on that cross, he only hoped for it. There were no goosebumps. There was only death, and death in its ultimate sense: being forsaken by God-- having no consciousness whatsoever of His presence.

Indeed, the saint who truly knows the Lord and what it is to suffer and die to self understands this very thing. He understands that even when he is doing something very spiritual, as our Lord was doing on the cross, that even though he be a son of God, he may have no awareness of God's presence whatsoever. Indeed, trials are a suffering, not because of the physical or emotional stresses it may put on a man, but they are a suffering because in them one has no consciousness of the divine presence. It's a suffering "of the ultimate sort." But this is designed by God, to make us sons in the fullest sense.