March 3, 2019
Podcast (new-day-church): Play in new window | Download
I believe this is one of the most Important messages I have shared In last 10 months.
Last week I laid a foundation and today I want to dive a bit deeper into the lens upgrades that God has for us.
When Jesus comes, He comes to RESTORE to us a new lens so that we might see things the way that He does. When you think about this term lens please don’t think “eyes” but think about the “heart”. It is through the heart that we SEE!
What happened to Saul now Paul, needs to happen to each of us. And I believe it will happen in many of your lives today!!!
Its a LENS UPGRADE.
Our lenses in life directly affects what we see, how we think, and what we speak. They can either inhibit or accelerate our growth in God, which is why it’s important to constantly be asking God for a lens adjustment or upgrade.
Over the course of our life and relationship with God our lenses are going to change multiple times, causing our minds to be renewed and giving us a new language. This is how the transformation process happens for us in God!
But why is the question… What is wrong (inherently) with the lens we view life through?
Lens we inherited from Adam = SELF (I’m hurt, I’m so mad, I’m unhappy, I need this to be happy, Why me God, What did you allow this to happen to me, When will you answer my prayer, Lord make me happy, Lord change my circumstances, lord bless me, Lord take this person out )
when you get a lens change (remember an upgrade in your heart). You see from a New place. A place of sonship and no longer an orphan mindset.
Jesus said it likes this, “if your eye (lens) is good, your whole body will be full of light”
If God can upgrade your lens (the way you see), He can change your whole life.
The Transformation process –
PERSPECTIVE upgrade.
MINDSET renewed.
LANGUAGE change.
You see… self, problems, others and most of all you see God differently.
I am never the victim but I always overcome! Therefore, I am free from you and now can Freely love you – JESUS said, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.”
In order for any upgrade from God we must first throw aside or cast aside our present lens = SELF
Self awareness
Self protection
Self preservation
Self promotion
Self provision
Think about Israel…
How do I know if I got a lens upgrade?
1. Initial reactions (emotions and language)
2. Complaining, grumbling and murmuring turn to praise thanksgiving and rejoicing.
Let read the 1st 7 verses to see 7 new lenses we are to put on as believers.
Eph. 1.1 (NKJV) Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus:
Eph. 1.2 (NKJV)Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Eph. 1.3 (NKJV) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
Eph. 1.4 (NKJV) just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,
Eph. 1.5 (NKJV) having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
Eph. 1.6 (NKJV) to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
Eph. 1.7 (NLT) He is so rich in kindness that he purchased our freedom through the blood of his Son, and our sins are forgiven.
1st Lens Upgrade – I am blessed!
Christianity is not a formula. It’s a relationship.
He blessed Us with a person Jesus Christ who allows us access to a new and perfect relationship with God.
Gal. 3.13 (NKJV) Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”),
Gal. 3.14 (NKJV) that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Remember the Transformation process –
PERSPECTIVE upgrade.
MINDSET renewed.
LANGUAGE change.
“I am blessed” lens therefore now I see…
• I am first and foremost blessed with His presence.
• Means I now have God’s bias toward me.
• My Account is full with all that Christ deserves.
• I am blessed so now I am free to be a blessing to both God and others.
• I am completely taken care of by a Father who dearly loves me and is always Good.
• The favor of God follows me wherever I go.
• I have been given a divine advantage in life.
On the flip side it means,
• I am not cursed.
• I am no longer a victim.
• I didn’t get the short end of life.
• I don’t have to be overcome by the challenges and difficulties of life.
2nd Lens Upgrade – I have been chosen!
He chose you – The kingdom of God is here and I’m looking at it (you guys). I’m looking at the roster of heaven. You’re the best that He’s got. And He’s not looking anywhere else. He called you out. Nobody comes to Him unless he’s drawn by Him. You wouldn’t have even a remote desire or hunger for God if grace wasn’t wooing your heart.
Why would He draw you? Because He wants you.
John 15.16 (NKJV) You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
Chose… means literally to select out, single out or choose out of. speaks of the sizable number from which the selection is made. It implies the taking of a smaller number out of a larger.
He knows you… He knows me… By name. Intimately.
Jer. 1.4 (NLT) The LORD gave me a message. He said,
Jer. 1.5 (NLT) “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my spokesman to the world.”
Psa. 139.13 (NLT) You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Psa. 139.14 (NLT) Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—and how well I know it.
Psa. 139.15 (NLT) You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
Psa. 139.16 (NLT) You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
Psa. 139.17 (NLT) How precious are your thoughts about me, O God! They are innumerable!
Psa. 139.18 (NLT) I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up in the morning, you are still with me!
3rd Lens Upgrade – I am Holy & without Blame!
Heb. 4.16 (NKJV) Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
• I can now approach God without any shame.
• I can now stand in His presence without and condemnation.
• I can now relate to the Father as Jesus did with no guilt.
2Cor. 7.2 (NKJV) Open your hearts to us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have cheated no one.
Col. 1:21-22 (TPT)
21–22 Even though you were once distant from him, living in the shadows of your evil thoughts and actions, he reconnected you back to himself. He released his supernatural peace to you through the sacrifice of his own body as the sin-payment on your behalf so that you would dwell in his presence. And now there is nothing between you and Father God, for he sees you as holy, flawless, and restored,[a]
4th Lens Upgrade – I am adopted!
1John 3.1 (NKJV) Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
1John 3.2 (NKJV) Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
• I am now His son or daughter.
• He has taken responsibility for caring for me and providing for me.
• My adoption is proof He wanted me.
• If He had to do it all over He would adopt you again.
• I am now an heir of all He has and a joint heir with Christ.
Adoption as sons speaks of being placed in a position of a son or daughter who now possesses the same rights as the parent’s natural children. It means to formally and legally declare that someone who is not one’s own child is henceforth to be treated and cared for as one’s own child, including complete rights of inheritance.
Often a wealthy, childless man would adopt a young slave, who would trade his slavery for sonship, with all its concomitant privileges. This adoption meant at least three things all of which have spiritual parallels for believers who are now sons and daughters of God…
Romans 8:15-17 (TPT)
15 And you did not receive the “spirit of religious duty,”[k] leading you back into the fear of never being good enough.[l] But you have received the “Spirit of full acceptance,”[m] 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!”[n] 16 For the Holy Spirit makes God’s fatherhood real to us as he whispers into our innermost being, “You are God’s 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.[o] We will experience being co-glorified with him provided that we accept his sufferings[p] as our own.[q]
5th Lens Upgrade – I am accepted!
A full-welcoming acceptance; an glad acknowledgment
• Open arms.
• Therefore He will NEVER reject me!
• Therefore I am not looking for the acceptance of man.
• He wanted me to be His.
• He welcomes me as He does Jesus.
6th Lens Upgrade – I am Redeemed!
Redemption loosen what is bound, is the payment of a price to ransom, to release (of someone from the power of someone else), to buy back or to deliver one from a situation from which one is powerless to liberate themselves from or for which the penalty was so costly that they could never hope to pay the ransom price.
Our Redemption - The Father planned it The Son paid for it The Spirit applied it
7th Lens Upgrade – I am Forgiven!
Eph. 4.32 (NKJV) And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
• Released.
• No more debt.
• No more remembrance.
• To now live for God and relate to God as though you never did it.
Acts 7.60 (NKJV) Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.