Charlie Lewis Blog

² John the Baptist, who was in prison, heard about all the things the Messiah was doing. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, ³ “Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?”

⁴ Jesus told them, “Go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen— ⁵ the blind see, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.” ⁶ And he added, “God blesses those who do not fall away because of me.”

⁷ As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began talking about him to the crowds. “What kind of man did you go into the wilderness to see? Was he a weak reed, swayed by every breath of wind? ⁸ Or were you expecting to see a man dressed in expensive clothes? No, people with expensive clothes live in palaces. ⁹ Were you looking for a prophet? Yes, and he is more than a prophet. ¹⁰ John is the man to whom the Scriptures refer when they say,

‘Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
    and he will prepare your way before you.’

¹¹ “I tell you the truth, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John the Baptist. Yet even the least person in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he is! ¹² And from the time John the Baptist began preaching until now, the Kingdom of Heaven has been forcefully advancing, and violent people are attacking it. ¹³ For before John came, all the prophets and the law of Moses looked forward to this present time. ¹⁴ And if you are willing to accept what I say, he is Elijah, the one the prophets said would come. ¹⁵ Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!

¹⁶ “To what can I compare this generation? It is like children playing a game in the public square. They complain to their friends,

¹⁷ ‘We played wedding songs,
    and you didn’t dance,
so we played funeral songs,
    and you didn’t mourn.’

¹⁸ For John didn’t spend his time eating and drinking, and you say, ‘He’s possessed by a demon.’ ¹⁹ The Son of Man,^[f] on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, ‘He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’ But wisdom is shown to be right by its results.”

Matthew 11:2-18, NLT

The futility of chasing acceptance is demonstrated by this parable. Could this be the reason for the Church becoming more like the Kingdom of Darkness rather than the Kingdom of Darkness becoming like the Church? Our culture has become so dominated by the doctrine of “Political Correctness” the doctrine of the Kingdom of God is completely left out. Never mentioned or discussed. The laws, values and principles of the Kingdom of God have been consistently attacked and the Citizens of the Kingdom have for the most part stood by and watched as these eternal, everlasting standards have been removed from consideration. Believers have congregated on the Mountain of Religion and abdicated their rightful positions of Leadership and influence on all of the other Centers of Influence in our society.  Government, Economy, Media, Family, Arts and Entertainment, Education and Religion have been invaded by the Kingdom of Darkness and they are now ruled by the Jezebel and Witchcraft spirits of this Kingdom.

But new understanding is coming to the Citizens of the Kingdom of our God. The Kingdoms of this world have failed in every area. There is not a single plan in any of the Centers of Influence of society that is successful. And they know it.  That does not mean they will surrender.  They will always fight for power and control. But our God reigns, and His Kingdom rules over all.

The Prophet Micah told Israel to “Do what is Right, Love Mercy and walk humbly before your God.” I believe this is good advice today for the Citizens of the Kingdom of our God.  There was a time in the world and especially in the United States of America, when “Doing what is Right” was important and was the focus of Government and Law.  That has changed.  If the Citizens of the Kingdom of our God do not know this, they will be eaten alive by the hypocrisy and deception of the Government and Law of the Governments of this world.

 Doing what is “right” is and will always be based on how the action aligns with the instructions from the Word of God. Right is no longer the standard in the Kingdoms of this world.  What is “legal” is now the standard of the Kingdom of Darkness.  Legal and right are two different things.  Legal is determined by the laws, values and principles of another Kingdom that is not the Kingdom of our God. The laws of the Government of the United States are not the same as the laws of the Government of our God.  I do believe that was the intention originally by our Founding Fathers, but we have departed greatly from that goal. Today those who operate and believe in the laws, values and principles of the Kingdom of our God are a threat to those who operate and believe in the laws of the Government of the United States.  The defeated Satan controls all that is done in the Kingdom of Darkness and he has perverted the law of our land for his cause.  There are many laws already that attack Believers.  And daily he is directing his followers to pass new laws that restrict, inhibit, deny and destroy for all Believers the rights to worship and to live their lives freely according to their beliefs based on the Words of our God.  The posting the Ten Commandments, displaying Nativity scenes, using the word “Christmas”, declaring homosexuality immoral and a sin before God, prayer in schools and many more.  The Government is now requiring Chaplains in the Armed Services to perform homosexual marriages. When Believers stand firm on their convictions, the Media and others label them bigots, racist and evil. 

Government was created to be a servant of the people and to provide benefits and services that require the participation of many to fund. The law of large numbers. Government was to be a giver.  Government has become a taker.  I recently told my wife that when I gladly gave over four years of my life in the service of my government including a year as a pilot in Vietnam, I would never have believed at this stage of my life I would now spend such a large portion of my time and our money personally and from our business, protecting us from our government.  It is a sad time in our government.  Government is a monster that seemingly cannot be satisfied. Government, Economy, Media, Education, and all other influences must be conquered and brought back into right relationship with the laws, values and principles of the Government, the Plan and the System of our God.  There is a Plan.  It is working and the “Joseph’s” of our day are in Place. Many more will follow them as the knowledge of the Kingdom, the ways of our God and His Plan for “occupying” become more evident to all Believers. Important – Do you know, and are you preparing?

The Kingdom principle for this parable: Do what is right, love mercy and walk humbly before our God.  Compromise is denial.  We can never be so right we have license to do wrong.  Someone should have told the Crusaders, or should tell the Muslims.  We can disagree without being disagreeable. We are called to carry the banner, to lift the standard.  The battle is the Lord’s.  Stand and see His salvation and restoration.

Jesus traveled through all the cities and villages of that area, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom.  And wherever He went, he healed people of every sort of disease and illness, He felt great pity for the crowds that came, because their problems were so great and they did not know where to go for help. They were like sheep without a shepherd.

He said to his disciples, “The harvest is so great, but the workers are so few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send out more workers for his fields.”

Matthew 9:35-38

The great call for field workers has been declared throughout the ages.  Some have answered, but so very few.  I would guess less than one per cent of Believers. Why?  Could it be we have allowed the culture of the Kingdom of Darkness to invade the Church (the Body of Christ, Believers, not a denomination, nor the building where we gather) to the point that the culture of the Church no longer shares the heart of Jesus Christ, God Himself? 

Our culture is what we believe.  What we believe is a result of what or the way we think.  For quite a while now, verse 36 has leapt off of the page for me. I believe this verse presents the heart, even the mind, the emotions, and the feelings of the God man, Jesus Christ.

“He felt great pity for them.” Why? “Because their problems were so great and they did not know where to go for help.

Amazing isn’t it?  Not much has changed.  My spirit within me grieves when I look at humanity and much of the Church, Believers. Why? “Because their problems are so many, and they do not know where to go for help.” Lord help us to shout from the housetops and to declare with everything that is within us that the Kingdom of God is here and to explain what it is and how it works. 

The Kingdom of God is the government, the plan, the system that God Himself as Jesus Christ delivered to the Earth so that humanity could live in relationship with Him and have the ability to call all of Heaven to Earth to impact the outcomes of our lives.  The Kingdom of God rules over everything.  No situation, no circumstance, no relationship nor the defeated Satan nor any of his forces in the Kingdom of Darkness can overrule or conquer this Kingdom, nor its Citizens. It is an eternal, everlasting Kingdom that smashes all other Kingdoms into pieces. It works when we are engaged in its laws, values, and principles. And, when we engage and dispatch the Angel Armies of God, the Heavenly Hosts, those who do battle for our King and His Kingdom and its Citizens. They are ministering spirits who are sent to perform the Word of our God in our lives. “How shall we escape if we neglect or do not engage the wonderful Armies of Heaven who are waiting for our instructions based on His Word?” I would hasten to say it is impossible to live victoriously on Earth as Jesus Himself described we should live, without our calling on and engaging all of Heaven that has been provided for us, and that we have access to everyday, every second of our lives.

The Kingdom principle for today from this parable:

Be different, be salt and be light.  Paul told the Roman believers to not think like the world thinks, but to allow God to change the way they thought to be like He (God) thinks. He told them to renew their minds by the Words of our God, and to do so however often it took to accomplish thinking like He thinks. Interestingly, Paul said that would make knowing His will simple and easy to understand. That is a huge part of the “restoration” message and experience provided by the resurrection of Christ. The blood provides “redemption,” but the resurrection provides “restoration.”  We as the Church must become better at preaching and teaching and living in the restoration we have in Christ, so they may see and know He is alive. Glory to His Name.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post called Upon Closer Look, where I dispelled some common mistaken assumptions people make about who they are and how to find success in this life. My gears have continued turning on this subject, so today I’m sharing two more incorrect suppositions to add to the three I have previously written about. I would love for you to leave me a comment and let me know your thoughts.

---

4. Most of humanity incorrectly believe that the scriptures are a religious book of regulations and compliance full of overbearing, onerous rules and requirements that no one can actually live by on the Earth today. In reality, the scriptures are the values, the principles, and the established precedents by which we agree to govern ourselves. The scriptures are our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, our Magna Carta and our Operating Agreement all rolled into one. The scriptures are steadfast, they are sure, and they are eternal. They point us to our eternity and to our eternalness. We can and we must trust our lives to their provisions. The scriptures are not lifeless words written by ancient men that are not relevant to our lives today. They are full of power and they are alive. The Holy Spirit God inspired and prompted men to record His Words, not theirs, so that those of us who came after them would have access to His revelation through them, and everyone would know of His amazing plans for each of humanity. The scriptures provide each of us with the knowledge and the facts about everything. We learn how to apply this knowledge to our lives personally and they become wisdom for us. From them we gain understanding of how all of humanity is to be impacted by the wisdom that we personally gain from their knowledge.

¹² For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the ^[a]breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart.

Hebrews 4:12, Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

¹² For we have the living Word of God, which is full of energy,^[a] and it pierces more sharply than a two-edged sword.^[b] It will even penetrate to the very core of our being where soul and spirit, bone^[c] and marrow meet!^[d] It interprets and reveals the true thoughts and secret motives of our hearts.

Hebrews 4:12, The Passion Translation

5. Our life on the Earth and in time is not all there is to us. We, the real us, are eternal and we must function and operate from the position of our eternalness. We have no beginning and we have no ending. Because He is, we are. Our body, our Earth suit, who we appear to be while we are on this planet and in time, does have a beginning date, and an ending date. Our body is temporary. We, the real us, the eternal us, did not begin here on this planet, and we will not end here.

It is not possible for humanity to understand what real success is for them personally and for humanity collectively, now and forever, without their knowing who they are, where they came from, why they are here,  how we are to live while we are in time (moral law). It is also important and very necessary for us to know and for us to understand what happens to our spirit, the eternal us, when our body dies and our spirit departs time and the earth. Without this awareness and without this understanding, and without our operating with this knowledge and from this perspective, real success is not possible. Our forever success is designed and developed by our choices and by our actions while we are in time. 

The importance of understanding the three components of our eternity and correctly engaging each one effectively is immeasurable and inescapable.  We cannot live and we cannot operate successfully in any of the components of our eternity without understanding the impact that each component has on our living and on our outcomes. In the here and the now component of our eternity, we receive our guidance for being successful in everything that we are and in everything that we do, from the directions, the purpose and from the understanding and the application of our giftings, our talents and our abilities that we are given in our before-here. In this life, our here and our now, there will be no peace, no contentment and no fulfilling sense of accomplishment without our following the directions and the inspiration that we have received in the before-here component of our eternity.

It is not our mission on the Earth to manufacture or to fabricate the reason for our being and the why we are here. We are to lean into our relationship with our Creator and our God, and to follow the plan that He has prepared ahead of time for us in our before here, before we were born.

¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He also has planted eternity in men’s hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy],

Ecclesiastes 3:11 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

¹⁰ For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), ^[a]recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].

Ephesians 2:10 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

¹⁶ You saw who you created me to be before I became me!^[a]

Psalm 139:16, The Passion Translation

We must take the time to examine, to review and to research our beliefs. We cannot just embrace what we are told, believe what we hear and accept what someone says, no matter who they are. We are designed with the ability to look beyond the rhetoric and to examine and to determine the accurate premise for our beliefs. We are provided with a living, breathing Constitution — the scriptures which are steadfast, they are sure, and they are eternal. We can and we must build our beliefs on their foundations. We can trust our life in all of the components of our eternity to their provisions. They do not change.

The creative power of words is amazing.  It has been said that our words are “a self-fulfilling prophecy.”  What we say – the words that come out of our mouth – are powerful and they are important. What we allow in our spirit and in our mind determines the words that we speak.  We recite from the data that we place or allow into our spirit and into our mind. What we say must be intentional, calculated, and predetermined.  To speak what the world, the kingdom of darkness, says around us can be devastating. We are told to program (renew) our mind by washing it with the water of our God’s Word.  We are to declare the reality of His Kingdom by repeating what His Word says about us and about Him, and to do so out loud. The power is not in reading, but in declaring out loud. There is great power in doing this.

We repeat out loud His Word until our mind remembers what He has said, completely through our memorization. We do not stop there. We continue to repeat His Words out loud until they become internalized in our spirit and they become who we are. His Words remind us in our situations, in our circumstances, and in our relationships that we are who He says that we are, and He is who He says that He is.

What you see below is a daily confession/declaration that I wrote years ago, and still use today. It is my hope that you will take this confession and personalize it, and declare it out loud each and every day, until you can recite it from memory.

I have a whole ebook of declarations called Kingdom Activating Declarations that you can download for free right here.

---

My Personal Daily Confession of My Relationship with my God, My Father, and My King

Father God, You as the Lord Jesus Christ are Lord over my spirit, my mind and my body. (Phil 2:9-11) Jesus, You have been made unto me to be wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption and full restoration of the Kingdom in my life, both in relationship and in benefit. I can do all things through You, Lord Jesus, because You strengthen me. (1 Cor.1:30, Phil 4:13) Lord, You are my shepherd, I do not want. You Father God supply all of my need according to Your riches in glory, in Christ Jesus. Your glory is all around me and I reach out pull into me all that I need. (Ps. 23, Phil. 4:19). I do not fret or have anxiety about anything. I do not have a care. (Phil. 4:6, 1 Peter 5: 6, 7)

I am the Body of Christ. I am redeemed from the curse because You Lord Jesus bore my sickness and carried my diseases in Your own body. By Your stripes I am healed. I forbid any sickness or any disease to operate in my body. Every organ, every tissue, every fiber and cell of my being functions in the perfection in which You, Father God created it to function. I honor You God and bring glory to You in my body. (Gal. 3:13, Matt. 8:17, 1 Peter 2:24, 1 Cor. 2:16)

I have Your mind Lord Jesus, and I hold the thoughts, the feelings and the purposes of Your heart. (1 Cor. 2:16) I am a believer and not a doubter. I hold fast to my confession of faith. I decide to walk by faith and to practice faith. My faith comes from hearing and from hearing Your Words Lord Jesus . Jesus You are the Author and the Developer of my faith. (Heb. 4: 14, 11:6, Romans 10:17, Heb. 12:2)

Your love Father God has been poured out in my heart by the Holy Spirit God and Your love dwells in me continually and richly. I keep myself in the Kingdom of Light, in love and in the Word and the wicked one touches me not. (Romans 5:5, 1 John 4:6, 5:18)

I tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. I take my shield of faith and quench every fiery dart of the defeated Satan. Greater are You that lives in and works through me than he that is in the world. (Ps. 91:13, Eph. 6:16, 1 John 4: 4) I am delivered from this present evil world. I am seated with Christ Jesus in heavenly places. I reside in the Kingdom of God’s dear Son. The law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the Law of Sin and Death. (Gal. 1:4, Eph. 2:6, Col 1:13, Rom. 8:2)

I do not fear, because you Father God have given me a spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind. God, You are on my side. (2 Tim. 1, 7, Rom. 8:31)

I hear the voice of the Good Shepherd. I hear my Father’s voice and the voice of a stranger I will not follow. I roll my works upon you Lord Jesus. I commit and trust them completely to you. You cause my thoughts to become agreeable with Your will, and so shall my plans be established and succeed. (John 10:27, Prov. 16:3)

I am a world overcomer because I am born of you Father God. I represent the Father and Jesus’ will. I am a useful member of the Body of Christ. I am Your workmanship Father God, recreated in Christ Jesus. You Father God are continually and effectively at work in me to lead me to both want to do and then to do Your good pleasure. (1 John 5: 4, 5, Eph 2:10, Phil. 2:13)

I let Your Word live in me richly. You who began a good work in me will continue until the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Col. 3:16, Phil 1:6)

Praises be to Your Name my Father. You are always faithful.

Last week I wrote about the way humanity tends to assume that this earthly life is all there is. Many people place all of their eggs in this temporal basket and only pursue things that are confined to our present time and our experience on this planet and leave out and miss the most important part of who we are. What a tragedy.

We must now consider our awareness of the components of our eternal reality (before-here, here, and the here-after) because we have been exposed to and we correctly understand the implications of all of the components of our eternalness. Now we can correctly identify what defines our success (achieving the why we are here) and what subsequently determines the correct and the true definition of our success, now as well as forever.

How then do we accurately and correctly define our success (the why we are here) based on things that are eternal? This is a very important question that we must know and that we understand the correct answer.

Often, when we are examining what we must determine and what we must know in order to understand correctly what our success is on this planet and forever, we must learn to hear what is not being said in the narrative that we read or what we hear. What about this unspoken information pertains to and is important knowledge for the correct understanding of what is being said, instead of our just focusing on what is actually being said. Watchman Nee stated that in any conversation, for correct understanding one must understand what is being said and what is not being said. Both are important and foundational.

In life there are suppositions that we assume to be correct, that in reality may not be valid beliefs. At first glance, they appear to be correct, but a deeper examination reveals that they are just a little off base, and that error can have great impact on the living of our lives. There are many examples of this in scripture. We will examine a few common assumptions:

1. We can assume that our Creator God is religious and that our relationship with Him is to be a religious experience. Our Creator God does not want us to have or for us to be in a religious experience with Him. That is not His plan. It never has been. Everywhere He talks about our being together, it is always about our being in relationship with Him. An intimate, living, breathing, Spirit to spirit, and breath to breath relationship of fellowship that flows naturally and continually, and where we spend time together in constant communication. Experientially, there is a huge difference between a religious experience and a living, breathing, free-flowing relationship of communion and fellowship.

^28-30 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

Matthew 11; 28-30 The Message

2. Often, we believe that it is our God’s plan for us to be Christians and that is all there is to it. In reality, His plans for us are for us to be His Sons and His Daughters. There is a huge difference here that is worthy of our time for research and understanding.  One is relational while the other is a task we must continually work/strive to achieve and to maintain. We are heirs and joint heirs with Jesus. We are royalty. We are a part of the ruling Family. We do not have to work at being Family. We are “in the Family.” We carry the power and the authority of the Family and the Family name. Our challenge is learning to believe, to accept and to act/behave as Family. We have authority in Heaven and on the Earth to transact business in our Family name. We bind and we loose His will into being at our direction. We are not trying to be like Christ, we were created/made in His image, we bear His likeness and as Believers and Followers of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, we are included in His Family.

       ¹⁵ And you did not receive the “spirit of religious duty,”^[a] leading you back into the fear of never being good enough.^[b] But you have received the “Spirit of full acceptance,”^[c] enfolding you into the family of God. And you will never feel orphaned, for as he rises up within us, our spirits join him in saying the words of tender affection, “Beloved Father!”^[d] 16 For the Holy Spirit makes God’s fatherhood real to us as he whispers into our innermost being, “You are God’s/My beloved child!”

¹⁷ And since we are his true children, we qualify to share all his treasures, for indeed, we are heirs of God himself. And since we are joined to Christ, we also inherit all that he is and all that he has.^[e] We will experience being co-glorified with him provided that we accept his sufferings^[f] as our own.^[g]

Romans 8;15-17 The Passion Translation

3.  Often, we believe that we are on our own. We have to figure out how to make it all work. We spend our life just trying to make it happen. In reality, we are deployed to the Earth on assignment. We are not here trying to fabricate or to manufacture a plan and a purpose for our lives. There is a very specific purpose/plan for our being here. This plan was given to us before we were born, before we took our first breath. All of the arrangements and all of the provisions necessary for us to accomplish our purpose/mission/task on the Earth have been prepared ahead of our arrival/time for us, and they are provided for us. We are Ambassadors and we represent our King and His Kingdom on the Earth.  We spend the first fifteen plus years of our life preparing for employment and an income. Would our time be more wisely spent preparing for refining our deployment for our outcome?

¹⁰ For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), ^[a]recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live]

Ephesians 2:10 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

¹¹ Through our union with Christ we too have been claimed by God as his own inheritance.^[n] Before we were even born, he gave us our destiny;^[o] that we would fulfill the plan of God who always accomplishes every purpose and plan in his heart.

Ephesians 1;11 The Passion Translation