A Word on Flesh and Blood

Every time I go to the grocery store, I am struck by the content near the check out counters. All the magazines seem to be focused on one thing - flesh. I experience the same thing when I flip through the channels on television. There is a tremendous focus on flesh. Hollywood is all about the flesh. So, sadly, is the music business. Wherever I look and wherever I go, people seem to be consumed with flesh.

Since my revelation, I have become increasingly disinterested in flesh. Over the past five years, the Spirit has led me to understand that all the focus people put on flesh is completely misguided and misplaced. Let me share some Scripture with you that supports what I am saying:

I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. ( 1 Corinthians 15:50)

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12)

It is extremely clear from Scripture that flesh and blood should not be the focus at all. As Paul told the Corinthians, Christ is not interested in flesh and blood. Flesh and blood have no place in the kingdom of God.

People seem to love to gawk at beautiful flesh. The Lord is very different. He sees right through the flesh and focuses like a laser on the condition of the heart. The heart is central to the Lord, not flesh and blood.

For as the Lord said:

"First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean." (Matthew 23:26)

The "inside of the cup and dish" is a metaphor for our hearts. Purify your heart first, said Jesus, and then the outside will also be clean.

Why purify our hearts? Because pure hearts see God.

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
(Matthew 5:8)

Seeing God through revelation is the gateway to Christ. Becoming One with Christ and walking in love requires a pure heart.

Another important thing to understand is that contrary to what many people think, our struggle is not against flesh and blood - that is, it is not about "keeping up with the Joneses" - but rather against the spiritual forces of darkness that are very real but that are not detectable with human eyes.

When you sit back and think about it, you realize that many people waste a tremendous amount of time, energy and resources focusing on flesh and blood. People are consumed with flesh, when instead they should be led by the Spirit and walking in love. As the Spirit said through Paul:

For those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:5-8)

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

That's the bottom line.

One could make a strong argument that the misplaced and misguided focus on flesh is one of the principal factors behind all the darkness and problems we see in the world today. The Spiritual realm - the realm that connects our hearts with Christ - has been tossed aside and ignored. This is problematic, to say the least.

How much darkness are you battling right now? Chances are the amount of darkness in your life is closely related to how intensely focused on flesh you are today.

May your eyes be focused on the Lord and His Spiritual fruit and not flesh and blood.

Agape,

Steve

Rivers of Living Water

I've been meditating on the concept of "Rivers of Living Water." During my revelation of Christ back in 2002, the Lord said:

"I can make the rivers flow."

For years, I had no idea what this seemingly simple sentence meant. I knew it was powerful. It became a part of the chorus of the song "I Am Love" - the incredible song the Lord gave me during my revelation that appeared on Sweetbird's first record "Free Spirit Reflection." Every time Sweetbird performed "I Am Love," I would marvel at that particular line. For years I have prayed for the Lord to give me the light to understand what it meant.

Recently, after years of praying, the Lord answered my prayer. I learned the meaning of "I can make the rivers flow." The rivers refer to the Holy Spirit. He is the source of the Spirit. He makes the Spirit flow. He makes the rivers flow. How beautiful and powerful!

This topic is discussed at length in a wonderful book by T. Austin-Sparks titled, "Rivers of Living Water." As I was reading this morning, I came across this passage, which I found illuminating. In his book, TAS says:

"Our flesh wants to get. I suppose the deepest-rooted thing in human nature, the very thing that brought about the Fall and all its lamentable consequences, is acquisitiveness or possessiveness. It does not matter who the person is: whether on the positive side--the aggressive, determined type; or on the negative side-- the very, very meek nobody, with the 'inferiority complex,' as it is called, which is only another way of looking at this possessiveness. Oh, the self-pity which is born of this wanting to have! Self-pity is a reaction; it is only, after all, another way of trying to draw to ourselves.Yes, possessiveness is there; it is universal--it is in us all. It is the deepest thing in our being.

But God, who has all, is just the opposite; His whole disposition is to give, to let go. We want to have the Lord, to have His blessing, to have the Holy Spirit, to have power--to have Divine things. What for? We might repudiate the suggestions that we wanted them for ourselves: but who knows the human heart? only God. And that is why so often, in giving us what He wants to give us, He first of all takes us through an awful time before He does give. He deals with that personal possessiveness until we come to the pace where we say, 'Lord, if you do not want me to have it, I don't want it." That is a good place to be! It is not that we become sulky or recalcitrant; far from it. It is simply this: 'Lord--only if You want it, only if You want it. Not for me--for You.' And then the Lord responds. "To this person will I look, even to those that are poor and of a contrite spirit." The Holy Spirit gives all that He has come to give by way of the Cross."

****************

The message here is clear: We get all that we need through the Spirit by way of the Cross. The Cross is central to our love walk. It is the place where all we desire to possess - all those things we think we need and want for ourselves, is crucified - it is destroyed. We let go of all things and let God.

Let go and Let God. That is The Way!

We let go, having great faith and trust that whatever the Lord gives us today, tomorrow, and at all points in the future, is what He wants us to have. All we should desire is more of Him and less of us. More of Christ through the Cross. This is the path to Love, Light and Life.

May the Lord empty us fully through the Cross and fill our hearts with His never-failing love and Spiritual fruit.

Agape,
Steve

Faith and Love

"... and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing." (1 Corinthians 13:2)

I know a great many people that call themselves "Christians" who have great faith, but have not love in their hearts. I know other people that don't refer to themselves as Christian that have love in their heart, but lack faith in the Lord.

It is very important we realize and understand that faith without love and love without faith both fall short of the mark. Put simply, we must have faith and express that faith through love if we are to walk in love.

Expressing faith through love is what Christianity is all about. It is the essence of Christianity. It is the only thing that counts. (Galatians 5:6)

May the Lord increase your faith and love.

Agape,
Steve

The Result of Faith

Since I have been blogging on faith, I thought I would post something T. Austin-Sparks wrote on the subject from his essay "The Most Difficult Thing in the World." It is wonderful and I hope it brings much light to you:

The Result of Faith

(a) Rest
So, just finally, a little word on the result of faith. First of all, of course, it is rest. We are not now thinking of some future rest, some future land, whatever our hymn writers have to say about it. You read again this fourth chapter of the letter to the Hebrews, and you see "We who have believed do enter into that rest". Some of us have already entered in, says the Apostle. God defines a day - it is not the future - and some of us do enter in. This rest is not a time period, it is a state, and the Apostle says here so clearly that entering into rest is simply a matter of entering into a settled faith in God. You know quite well that however doctrinal and technical this may seem, it is very true. We can prove it almost any day of our lives. When we get to the place where we put ourselves and what we would like on one side and accept the Lord's will - not just resignedly saying Well, if that is what the Lord wants, I capitulate; if I could have it otherwise, I would, but this is evidently what the Lord wants: but if with all our heart we accept it and enter into this with the Lord to co-operate with Him, when we come there, rest enters into our souls, our souls come to rest, on all sorts of things, small and great.

(b) Power with God
Then victory comes because faith is power. If the Word of God is strong and clear about one thing, it is about this. Oh, faith is power. First of all, it is power with God. What is more powerful with God than to be well-pleasing to Him, and that is why I read about Enoch. "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and he was not found because God translated him: for he hath had witness borne to him that before his translation he had been well-pleasing unto God". That is all centred in, and made to rest upon, faith. "Without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing unto him". Surely that is our ambition above all - to be well-pleasing unto Him. How? - to believe Him, to trust Him, to repose faith in Him, to be well-pleasing unto Him. It is power with God. We can consider that along the other line, that our weakness with the Lord is always found in our reservation, our question, our doubt, our uncertainty. That is our weakness with God, and the Lord waits.

(c) Power over Satan
It is victory over the Devil because, if there is one thing that is the playground of the Devil, it is unbelief, and if there is one thing that the Devil is always seeking to promote and maintain, it is unfaith. The hallmark of the Devil's work from the Garden to the end is unbelief, doubt of God, to question about God and God's ways - and God's motives. That is where the Devil is coming all the time - with an 'if'. If this and if that. If God were what He says He is, then this would not be. You know the thousands of 'ifs' and 'buts' of the Devil. The only power of victory over the Devil is faith in God. We can use the language of victory and power over Satan and it counts for nothing. We must have a new position of power over the enemy. The key is faith; it may be faith in the Blood, or in the Name, or in the Lord, but it is faith.

(d) Power over the World
It is power over the world. "This is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith" (1 John 5:4). The world in this sense is that whole system and order and atmosphere and attitude of things which must have the seen, and the present. What is the mark of the world? It must see, it must have now. Anything that is unseen and not present is utterly outside of the mentality of the world, and we know how much of the world there is in our nature and the battle is there. Faith overcomes that world that is in our own natures and around us. "The things which are seen are temporal: but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Cor. 4:18). Faith has to do with those things.

May the Lord increase our faith.

Agape,
Steve

On Having Faith

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
(Hebrews 11:1)

I've been meditating a great deal lately on the importance of faith in our love walk. We know from the Scriptures that faith is critical to walking in the Lord's love. We know that the Lord will not be able to work miracles in our surrendered lives if we lack faith in Him. Put simply, faith and miracles go hand in hand.

Now, you may ask, how does one have faith in the Lord? I believe there are four things that are critical to faith:

1. Put God first

2. Believe Christ Jesus is who He says He is - He is Lord of Lords - He is the Alpha and Omega - the beginning and the end. Through Him all things are possible

3. Trust God with all of your heart, mind and soul

4. Be content with what the Lord provides. Accept graciously whatever the Lord provides you on a daily basis. Consider whatever He gives you each day as good enough

These four things are not easy to do - especially for those who are just beginning their love walk with the Lord. But they are absolutely essential to walking in love and having His miracles bless your surrendered life.

There are no problems that the Lord cannot solve in His time. There are no miracles He cannot perform. All that is required is that we have great faith in Him and express that faith through love.

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Galatians 5:6)

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)

May you learn to have great faith in the Lord and may you always express that faith through love.

Agape,
Steve

No Faith - No Miracles

And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.
(Matthew 13:58)

Without faith in the Lord, there are no miracles. Faith and miracles go hand in hand.

May you have great faith in the Lord and always express that faith through love.

Agape,
Steve

Have Faith

"Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him." (Hebrews 11:6)

We can easily say we have faith in the Lord, when the truth, as reflected by the darkness that still exists in our hearts, says that we really do not have much faith at all.

Talk is cheap.

The Lord will constantly test our faith in Him through trials with darkness. It is our faith in Him as we wrestle with the darkness that pulls us through and into the light.

May you have great faith - GREAT FAITH! - in the Lord and may you love, trust and believe Him with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.

"The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love."
(Galatians 5:6)

Agape,

Steve

Believing in God's Love

I have been reading some of Paramahansa Yogananda's books over the past several months. Yogananda has written (he would say more correctly, "received") several deeply spiritual books on Christ, having seen the Lord in revelation on several different occasions.

Recently, I came across a passage from Yogananda's autobiography "Autobiography of a Yogi," that highlighted the importance of the link between believing in the Lord, health, and healing. In his book, Yogananda's guru tells him:

"Medicines have limitations; the divine creative life force has none. Believe that: you shall be well and strong."

The "divine creative life force" is God. The key word in this message is "believe." I have found that many people - including those that call themselves Christians - say they believe in God, but in reality, they have little faith or trust in the Lord. This is problematic. Disease, stress, anger, worry, and many other maladies are all byproducts of having little faith and trust in the Lord and His never-failing love.

The three words, believe, faith and trust go hand in hand. The last Sweetbird CD ("Shine") had much to say about the importance of believing, having faith, and trusting the Lord. Here are a few examples:

On the title track, Christine sings: "Believe and Shine."
On "Trust in Me," Christine sings: "Trust in Me, put Me first."
On "Live to Love," Christine sings: "It's all about faith, it's all about trust."

These are simple phrases, to be sure, but their importance cannot be overemphasized. If you have little or no faith you cannot walk in love. If you have little or no trust in the Lord, you cannot walk in love. If you have little or no faith or trust in the Lord, you don't believe in His love.

May you believe with all your heart, mind and soul in His never-failing love.

Agape,
Steve

An Act of God

It's been over 5 years since my revelation of Christ, and believe it or not, I'm still struggling to understand the profound nature of what happened to me on December 7, 2002 at 3:45 am. I've written about my experience on several occasions over the past year. Anybody that has read my blogs can easily see my struggle to understand the truth.

Today, the truth came into clearer focus as I was reading an essay by T. Austin-Sparks written back in 1953. Sparks had a revelation of Christ when he was in his mid-20s. Not surprisingly, it transformed his life. In his essay, "Keeping Christ in View," Sparks says:

When all has been said, the fundamental fact has to be borne in mind that the real seeing of Jesus is a Divine fiat, an act of God: the granting of a "spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him."

I have to admit I was momentarily stunned when I read that passage. Seeing Christ is an act of God. An act of God! I immediately thought of Paul telling the Galatians:

"God... was pleased to reveal His son in me." (Galatians 1:16)

Why is God pleased to reveal His son in certain people? This is still a mystery to me. I am certainly not going to argue with God about what he did with me on December 7, 2002. I trust that He knows exactly what He is doing.

I do know one thing: since my revelation, my life has been turned upside down and inside out. Steve Waite is history. He doesn't exist any longer. I am a new creation. The hardest part of this new new life has been dealing with my family and people that knew me before my revelation. They see my flesh, which looks pretty much the same, but they don't recognize my new heart. As a result, they don't really know who I am. I think this scares some of them. Many people are frightened by things they don't understand. All I can tell them is that I'm in the process of being reduced to love through a close, personal relationship with Christ.

God revealed His son to me on December 7, 2002. It was an act of God. I didn't ask God to do this to me. I was merely on a quest to know what true love is. He said "I Am Love." Since that day, my heart has been irreversibly and fundamentally transformed forever. I am eternally grateful for the knowledge the Lord has bestowed upon me. I couldn't ask for a more precious gift.

May God reveal His son to you and may you know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Agape,

Steve