Meditation Chip Brogden

February 10
The Eyes Must Be Opened

"There was an army, surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, ‘Alas, my master! What shall we do?’ So he answered, ‘Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’ And Elisha prayed, and said, ‘Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.’ Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw."
2 KINGS 6:15-17

When the servant’s eyes were opened, he saw what Elisha saw. When Elisha said, “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them” it must have sounded like lunacy. It cannot be understood with words alone: the eyes must be opened. If words were enough then Elisha would not have prayed for the eyes to be opened.
We should spend less time trying to understand “words” and more time praying for God to open our eyes. When our eyes are opened, then the words will make sense. Until then, words are like hieroglyphics – we know there is something significant there, but we cannot understand what it means.
Source: The Strength of Seeing by Chip Brogden
http://theschoolofchrist.org/articles/the-strength-of-seeing.html
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February 9
Don't Instruct the Master
"“Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!"
MATTHEW 16:22

See how many times the disciples tried to correct the Lord. See how many times they argued with the Lord. See how many times their thoughts contradicted the Master. See how many times they urged Him to take action. And the Lord, ever patient, would correct them.
In every case we see that He is the Lord, and they are the disciples. The roles must never be confused. He is the Master, and we are His servants. We do not command Him, but He commands us. We do not lead Him, but He leads us. He was not created for us, but we were created for Him. He does not serve us according to our pleasure, but we serve Him according to His pleasure. So we must be adjusted to Him, and not the other way around. The Lord will never apologize to us and say, “I’m sorry, I was wrong. We’ll do it your way.” How laughable! How absurd! But we often live as if we expect Him to do that very thing. We have not humbled ourselves.
Source: Embrace the Cross by Chip Brogden
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February 8
God's Simple Solution
"Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.”
ROMANS 13:14

God’s Solution to the problem of sin, self, and satan is to have us put on the Lord Jesus. Only through Him can we “make no provision for the flesh,” and only through Him can we “stand against the wiles of the devil.” We dare not make it more complicated when the Lord has made it simple.
To focus on our flesh and on our enemy is a huge waste of time. Instead, we must perceive just how glorious the Son of God is, and press deeply into Him. Do you have a method, or a Man? It is not about me, my flesh, or the devil – it is all about Christ, and as He is increased, none of these other things can do anything but be decreased.
Source: Lord of All by Chip Brogden
©1997-2013 TheSchoolOfChrist.Org. Permission is granted for non-commercial (free) distribution provided this notice appears. Share this message with your friends!

February 7
Deliver Us From Distractions
"I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."
2 CORINTHIANS 11:3

I have said many times that we do not need more of the Lord, since we are already complete in Christ – we just need less of everything else. There are many things that spoil, hinder, distract, and lead us away from the simplicity of an abiding relationship with Jesus. Many of them are spiritual and religious. The spirit of Antichrist is not necessarily seen in something that is obviously satanic or demonic. Instead, the spirit of Antichrist is revealed in anything that seeks to spoil us by taking our eyes off of Christ – it is anti-Christ, against Christ, antithetical to the great Purpose of God.
How easy it is for us to become distracted into something less than Christ! Are you centered on Christ? Is Jesus your obsession? Is He your focus? Or have you set your sights on something beneath Him?
Source: The Church in the Wilderness by Chip Brogden
©1997-2013 TheSchoolOfChrist.Org. Permission is granted for non-commercial (free) distribution provided this notice appears. Share this message with your friends!

February 6
"Wasting" Yourself on Him

"A woman came to Him having an alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on His head as He sat at the table. But when His disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, ‘Why this waste? For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to the poor.’"
MATTHEW 26:7-9

We want to appear to be busy doing for God, busy at our “ministry.” But there is a place where we simply “waste” ourselves on Him, and outwardly we appear to be doing nothing.
Would that more believers would “waste” themselves more often, ministering to the Lord, sitting at His feet, hearing His word, ministering to Him in secret prayer and fasting! Then when they do rise up to work, how much more fruitful they will be!
Source: Lord of All by Chip Brogden
©1997-2013 TheSchoolOfChrist.Org. Permission is granted for non-commercial (free) distribution provided this notice appears. Share this message with your friends!

February 5
Receiving Christ As All

"Because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption."
1 CORINTHIANS 1:30 ESV

Have you ever seen a brother or a sister try to act sanctified? They wear themselves and everyone else out. It is a burden to be around such a person. That is not Christianity.
Christianity is this: not that I am trying to be wise, but that I receive the Lord Jesus as my Wisdom; not that I am trying to be righteous, but that I receive the Lord Jesus as my Righteousness; not that I am trying to be sanctified, but that I receive the Lord Jesus as my Sanctification; not that I am trying to be redeemed, but that I accept the Lord Jesus as my Redemption. Henceforth I cease trying to be anything, and I allow Him to be Who He is through me.
Source: Embrace the Cross by Chip Brogden
©1997-2013 TheSchoolOfChrist.Org. Permission is granted for non-commercial (free) distribution provided this notice appears. Share this message with your friends!
February 4
Manifesting Christ

"What things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ."
PHILIPPIANS 3:7,8

The ones who have been sufficiently broken eventually manifest very little of their self, and very much of Christ. God must work long and hard with us to bring us to this place, but what a glorious day it is when we are able to bow our heads and finally surrender everything.
What joy it is to look back over all that the Lord has led us through and realize His purpose in both the good times and the bad times, to behold the goodness and the severity of God in His dealings with us.
Source: Embrace the Cross by Chip Brogden
©1997-2013 TheSchoolOfChrist.Org. Permission is granted for non-commercial (free) distribution provided this notice appears. Share this message with your friends!

February 2
A Fresh Start
"That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'"
JOHN 3:6,7

Jesus said that to see His Kingdom “you must be born-again.” To enter His Kingdom, He requires us to “become as little children” (Matthew 18:3).
That is another way of saying, “You have to start all over again. You cannot make any progress with Me so long as you cling to the old way of thinking, perceiving, understanding, and interacting. I cannot pour new wine into old wineskins because it would ruin both. You need a new wineskin – a new heart, a new mind, a new understanding of things in order to receive what I wish to give you.”
Source: The Irresistible Kingdom by Chip Brogden
©1997-2013 TheSchoolOfChrist.Org. Permission is granted for non-commercial (free) distribution provided this notice appears. Share this message with your friends!
February 3
Two Become One
"He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him."
1 CORINTHIANS 6:17

To the Ephesians, Paul compares this spiritual union to the union that exists between a man and a woman when they are married: “And the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the [Ekklesia]” (Ephesians 5:31,32). Certainly this is a great mystery.
How God is able to make us one spirit with Jesus is beyond human knowledge. But this we know: however it is accomplished, it has its beginning in the Cross. The Cross is the starting point of our union with Christ. In the Cross, God sees us in the place of Christ and sees Christ in the place of us. That is to say, in the Cross, all our sinfulness is attributed to Christ, and all His righteousness is attributed to us. How wonderful for us – but how terrible for Him!
Source: Embrace the Cross by Chip Brogden
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February 1
The Heavens Do Rule
Yours is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory forever. Amen."
MATTHEW 6:13

What assurance are we given? It is this: that in spite of nation rising up against nation, kingdom rising up against kingdom, political tumults and global confusion, “YOURS IS THE KINGDOM” – Your Throne is everlasting, Your Kingdom is established, and of the increase of Your Government there shall be no end (Isaiah 9:6,7).
In other words, as Daniel would say, the Heavens DO rule, and it is the Most High God Who governs the affairs of men. THAT is the heart of the matter. THAT is what we are moving towards, from our day-to-day affairs as followers of Jesus, to the course and direction of this entire age.
Source: The Irresistible Kingdom by Chip Brogden
©1997-2013 TheSchoolOfChrist.Org. Permission is granted for non-commercial (free) distribution provided this notice appears. Share this message with your friends!
January 31
Receiving His Fullness
"Of His fullness we have all received."
JOHN 1:16

If there is a seeming difference in the “level” of anointing or power or spirituality among believers it is definitely not because some have more of the Lord than others. Let this be an encouragement to you. Indeed, Christ is not divided, and of His fullness we all share. We are all baptized into the same Spirit.
The difference is some saints are more broken than others. Some have passed through many seasons of tearing down and building up, while some after many years of experience are still resisting the Lord and refusing to lay down their lives. Some have recognized God’s dealings and have submitted to them, while others have misunderstood or been totally ignorant of God’s dealings with them.
Source: Embrace the Cross by Chip Brogden
©1997-2013 TheSchoolOfChrist.Org. Permission is granted for non-commercial (free) distribution provided this notice appears. Share this message with your friends!

January 30
All or Nothing

"Little children, keep yourselves from idols (false gods)— [from anything and everything that would occupy the place in your heart due to God, from any sort of substitute for Him that would take first place in your life]."
1 JOHN 5:21 (AMP)

That is the sort of radical, uncompromising attitude he says we must exercise over our own hearts, for as the members go, so goes the whole Body. Just look at the gravity of his words! “Keep yourself from ANYTHING and EVERYTHING that would occupy the place in your heart due to God, from ANY SORT of substitute for Him that would take first place in your life.” Fanatical, impossible directions! Do you really mean to say that there can be NOTHING that takes first place in my life but Christ? Is that what it comes down to?
Absolutely, that is precisely what is at stake, and that is precisely where the battle rages, and that is precisely why we are being tempted on a daily basis. All we have to do to be defeated is to put Him some place other than first. Either He is Lord OF all, or He is not Lord AT all.
Source: The Prophetic Mandate by Chip Brogden
©1997-2013 TheSchoolOfChrist.Org. Permission is granted for non-commercial (free) distribution provided this notice appears. Share this message with your friends!

January 28
My Cup Overflows

"If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you Living Water."
JOHN 4:10

We must know the Gift of God. The one who knows will not only be satisfied, but will have an abundance of Life springing up from within. If we are mainly interested in being filled for ourselves then we will have little to offer anyone else. Yet when we know the Gift of God the Life will overflow. “You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over” (Psalm 23:5).
Are you an overflowing Christian, with all of God you can hold, and much left over? Sadly, this does not describe many of us. To drink is a beginning, but God’s goal is an overflow. How we need clear revelation into the Son! How we need to see just how precious and worthy He is!
Source: Lord of All by Chip Brogden
©1997-2013 TheSchoolOfChrist.Org. Permission is granted for non-commercial (free) distribution provided this notice appears. Share this message with your friends!
January 29
Authority Over the Nations

"He who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations - 'He shall rule them with a rod of iron; they shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels'- as I also have received from My Father; and I will give him the morning star."
REVELATION 2:26-28

Just as Jeremiah was set over nations and kingdoms, so we have received this authority also. We do not serve in a governmental capacity, but in a spiritual capacity, praying for the Kingdom and Will of God to come forth. Such prayer is very weighty and universal. It is beyond the earth, and so it moves the earth.
In addition to authority over the nations, we are given “the morning star.” Christ is the Morning Star, the Heavenly Man, Who is higher than the nations and kingdoms of this world. The Morning Star gives Overcomers the heavenly authority which is beyond the influence of the earthly realm in which they must live.
Source: The Irresistible Kingdom by Chip Brogden
©1997-2013 TheSchoolOfChrist.Org. Permission is granted for non-commercial (free) distribution provided this notice appears. Share this message with your friends!
The Battle of the Ages
by Chip Brogden

We are rapidly heading toward a time when the governments of this world will be forced to regulate and censor “religious speech” as the only solution to world peace. They will (correctly) determine that religion is the source of most of the world’s wars and deaths from war. They will then move decisively to silence, punish, and eliminate anyone who disturbs the peace with “hate speech,” which they will define as anything that appears to offend someone else’s beliefs or religious practices.
For the ones who bear the Testimony of Jesus this will lead to widespread, universal persecution and death.
To learn more, click below:
http://theschoolofchrist.org/blog/the-battle-of-the-ages.html
I am your brother,
Chip Brogden
http://TheSchoolOfChrist.Org
P.S. This excerpt is taken from my new book, The Prophetic Mandate. If you already pre-ordered the book, we'll let you know as soon as it ships (sometime in early February).
To pre-order your copy, go to:
http://theschoolofchrist.org/books/the-prophetic-mandate.html
©1997-2013 TheSchoolOfChrist.Org. Permission is granted for non-commercial (free) distribution provided this notice appears. Share this message with your friends!

January 27
Reformation, or Crucifixion?
"For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified."
1 CORINTHIANS 2:2
Religion seeks to reform a man; the Cross seeks to crucify him. Religion may fail to bring about the desired result, but the Cross never fails to achieve its end.

Mankind will pursue morality, virtue, spirituality, even perform religious works and good deeds, in order to avoid death on a Cross. But there are no wounds, no scars, no evidence of having ever died and been made alive unto God. Either a man has never died, or he has died and been raised again. You cannot fake a resurrection.

Source: Embrace the Cross by Chip Brogden
©1997-2013 TheSchoolOfChrist.Org. Permission is granted for non-commercial (free) distribution provided this notice appears. Share this message with your friends!

January 26
The Heart of a Father
"And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved."
2 CORINTHIANS 12:15
aul gave us an example to follow. Don’t just look at his calling and his gifting and his revelation. Look at his heart of love. He gave all – not just for the Lord, but for the Lord’s people. And they were a most carnal, unappreciative bunch of people. Even so, the heart of a father is demonstrated. That is the reason he had authority. I tell you his authority was not in his title, his position, or his status as having taught the believers there. His authority was not in his calling, gift, or revelation. His authority was in the abundant love he showed.

Make no mistake: I am not there yet. I still struggle with how to be a good brother, much less a spiritual father with abundant love for everyone. I obviously have a long way to go, but now I see the missing ingredient and I am following after Love. How about you?

Source: The Church in the Wilderness by Chip Brogden
©1997-2013 TheSchoolOfChrist.Org. Permission is granted for non-commercial (free) distribution provided this notice appears. Share this message with your friends!

January 25
What Lies Beyond
"God… Who desires all mento be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."
1 TIMOTHY 2:4

Here we see one will of God with two expressions – a gate and a path. We enter the gate in a moment, but we walk the path over time. We are saved in a moment, but we come to the full-knowledge (Greek: epignosis) of Christ over time. So John 3:3 is not telling us about our ending, but our beginning. Birth is the beginning of Life, not the goal of Life. The goal in view here is not being born-again, but entering the Kingdom.
Jesus does not just say, “You must be born again.” If He did then we might be correct in saying that is all there is to it. But Jesus says, “Unless you are born again, you cannot see or enter into the Kingdom of God.” It is clear that the Kingdom is what we are trying to gain entrance into, and while being born again is the gate, the ultimate destination of the Kingdom of God is at the end of the path.
Source: Embrace the Cross by Chip Brogden

©1997-2013 TheSchoolOfChrist.Org. Permission is granted for non-commercial (free) distribution provided this notice appears. Share this message with your friends!

January 24
One Body, Many Members
"Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually."
1 CORINTHIANS 12:27

There are different members in different places with different purposes: each distinctive but each working together, united beneath the same great Purpose and Intention of God, working under the direction of the Head like a great spiritual symphony.
“God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.” (1 Corinthians 12:18). This results in a spiritual oneness and unity (for better or worse) so that “if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it” (1 Corinthians 12:26). Everything you do (or do not do) as a member of the Body of Christ affects all the other members. No one is an island. The Difficult Path may be lonely at times, but we are never truly alone.
Source: The Irresistible Kingdom by Chip Brogden
©1997-2013 TheSchoolOfChrist.Org. Permission is granted for non-commercial (free) distribution provided this notice appears. Share this message with your friends!

January 23
One With Him
"As the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ"
1 CORINTHIANS 12:12
The Bible says that there is an invisible but very powerful union that exists between Jesus and all His disciples; they are one Body. It is a spiritual union. This spiritual union forms the basis of our relationship and fellowship with Christ.

Jesus says, “I am the True Vine… Abide in Me, and I in you” (John 15:1,4). Jesus compares this union to a vine that has many branches. Each branch lives in union with the vine. The same life flowing in the vine is also flowing in the branches. Jesus says He is the True Vine, and we are His branches. This is spiritual union. As branches, we can only grow and produce spiritual fruit so long as we continue to live, dwell in, abide, and be part of the Vine. So then, union with God is not the reward for spirituality; it is the basis of spirituality.

Source: Embrace the Cross by Chip Brogden

©1997-2013 TheSchoolOfChrist.Org. Permission is granted for non-commercial (free) distribution provided this notice appears. Share this message with your friends!

January 22
The Pure Gospel
"The gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ."
GALATIANS 1:11,12
With the Biblical record before us, compare what those early disciples believed and preached to what we see and hear being taught and demonstrated in the name of Jesus today. If someone from the apostolic age were to visit our generation, take an account of our lives, document what we preach, and survey what we listen to and currently accept as “The Gospel,” how would they respond? Would they be able to say that we preach the Gospel of the Kingdom? Could they report back to their first century friends that we teach the same things they taught concerning the Lord Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God? Or would they weep and lament at how the Church has distorted the original message of the Ekklesia?

Source: The Irresistible Kingdom by Chip Brogden
©1997-2013 TheSchoolOfChrist.Org. Permission is granted for non-commercial (free) distribution provided this notice appears. Share this message with your friends!

January 21
To Be With Him
"He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach…"
Mark 3:14
I like the way Jesus selected His disciples, and the explanation as to why they were selected: "That they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach." Their being sent forth was contingent upon their having been with the Lord. Preaching was only optional, but being with Him was the primary objective. If they will only be with the Lord then they will have something to say when they do go forth.

Source: The Church in the Wilderness by Chip Brogden
http://theschoolofchrist.org/books/the-church-in-the-wilderness.html
January 20
When Things Go Wrong
"We wanted to come to you – even I, Paul, time and again - but Satan hindered us."
1 THESSALONIANS 2:18
We should not expect things to always go as planned, even when we are indeed following the will of God, and especially when we are trying to do what we feel led to do. Sometimes it seems as if everything is rising up against us. Cars break down, people get sick, misunderstandings arise, businesses fail, things happen.

We do not want to give the devil any glory and attribute everything to him. But we do want to discern the true operation of the enemy so we may dispose of him. We must exercise discernment and wisdom to know the difference between the hand of the Lord, the work of the enemy, and the natural environment. Otherwise we will suffer unnecessarily.

Source: Dealing With Difficulty by Chip Brogden
http://theschoolofchrist.org/articles/dealing-with-difficulty.html
©1997-2013 TheSchoolOfChrist.Org. Permission is granted for non-commercial (free) distribution provided this notice appears. Share this message with your friends!

January 19
Feet Like Bronze
"His feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace...When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead."
REVELATION 1:15,17
When this other side of Christ was revealed to John, he “fell at His feet as though dead.” At the Last Supper, John had leaned on the Lord’s breast and eaten dinner with Him. In this context, however, he can do nothing but collapse at His feet.

There at His feet we discover there is a difference between the Holy and the Human; the One Who comes from Above, and the ones who come from Below; the One Who is Spirit and Truth, and those of us who are merely flesh and blood. His feet are burnished bronze. This is His majesty, and His righteousness. It immediately identifies Him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Righteous Judge, the Living Word Who discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Source: The Irresistible Kingdom by Chip Brogden
http://theschoolofchrist.org/books/the-irresistible-kingdom.html
©1997-2013 TheSchoolOfChrist.Org. Permission is granted for non-commercial (free) distribution provided this notice appears. Share this message with your friends!

January 18
The Lion and the Lamb
"Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals."
REVELATION 5:5
When John was given a revelation of Christ in the Isle of Patmos he described the feet of Jesus as “fine brass as if refined in a furnace.” Brass is a symbol of judgment, and the furnace is a symbol of wrath, purification, and refinement. This dimension of the Lord Jesus was something quite new to John.

Because Jesus did not come to judge the world right away, but to save it, we tend to think of Jesus only in terms of the “Lamb” – meek, silent, longsuffering, and turning the other cheek. He certainly is all that. Yet here we get a glimpse of Jesus as the “Lion.” He said He was indeed a King, but that His Kingdom was not of this world. Up until now the kingly aspect of Christ and the majestic glory of His Kingdom had remained hidden.

Source: The Irresistible Kingdom by Chip Brogden
©1997-2013 TheSchoolOfChrist.Org. Permission is granted for non-commercial (free) distribution provided this notice appears. Share this message with your friends!
January 17
An Ascendant Spirit
"And [Jesus] led them out as far as Bethany,and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven."
LUKE 24:50,51
Bethany has a heavenly savor. There is an ascendant spirit there which lifts us up to the heavenlies. I believe that as we prepare a place for the Lord this ascendant spirit will break forth upon us spontaneously. It is one thing for us to try to act heavenly, and it is quite another thing for us to enter into such communion and fellowship with the Heavenly Man that we simply begin to exude His heavenliness, as the priest in the Holy Place exuded the fragrance of the sweet incense.

The Kingdom of Heaven is where Christ has the preeminence and fills all things: and if this is the case with us individually, or corporately, then it can be said of us that the Kingdom of Heaven has arrived.

Source: Lord of All by Chip Brogden
©1997-2013 TheSchoolOfChrist.Org. Permission is granted for non-commercial (free) distribution provided this notice appears. Share this message with your friends!

January 16
The Head of the Body

"Vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head."
COLOSSIANS 2:18,190

Even in the natural realm we know that a healthy physical body does not make decisions or take any action apart from the head. It is the head (i.e., the mind) that determines what the body will do. Indeed, the body cannot properly function apart from the head. When the body is disabled due to injury or disease it means either the body is unable to carry out the instructions of the head or the head is unable to give instructions to the body. We rightly observe this as something that needs medical attention.
Were the head to be separated from the body the result is immediate death. Equally obvious is the fact that the head can take no action without involving the body.
We must not force this metaphor to an extreme and suggest that Jesus is unable to do anything without us; but we can certainly say that Jesus, as the Head of the Ekklesia, will not do anything without involving His Body.
Source: The Irresistible Kingdom by Chip Brogden
©1997-2013 TheSchoolOfChrist.Org. Permission is granted for non-commercial (free) distribution provided this notice appears. Share this message with your friends!

January 15
Abundant Life

"The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."
JOHN 10:10

Those who hunger and thirst after Righteousness – Christ – will be filled. Thus, the one who is filled is never hungry or thirsty. So on the one hand I want to know the Lord and my desire for Him increases day by day; but it is not the desperate search of a hungry or thirsty man who is fainting and wasting away.
I am full of Him because He fills me. There is my “Life, and Life more abundantly.” My Life is not in what He gives me, but in Who He is.
Source: Lord of All by Chip Brogden
©1997-2013 TheSchoolOfChrist.Org. Permission is granted for non-commercial (free) distribution provided this notice appears. Share this message with your friends!

The Privilege of Patmos
"I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ."
REVELATION 1:9
Since John is an Overcomer, God sends out the call for Overcomers through John. John is symbolic of all Overcomers, and he is the instrument through which God raises up Overcomers.

I can relate to John. I know many of us feel as if we are alone, in exile, in a wilderness. Gradually we feel we are being shut up and shut out by others who have not seen what we have seen. It is right THERE, in the desert place, in the place of exile, in the place of banishment, in the place of dryness, in the place of darkness, that Christ is revealed to us. This ought to encourage us no matter what our situation.

Source: The Prophetic Mandate by Chip Brogden

©1997-2013 TheSchoolOfChrist.Org. Permission is granted for non-commercial (free) distribution provided this notice appears. Share this message with your friends!

January 13, 2013
Crucified With Christ
"I have been crucified with Christ;it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”
GALATIANS 2:20
Paul says that even though he was crucified, he lives. Does Paul mean to say that he was raised from the dead with Jesus also? If so, why have we not heard about this before now? Finally he says he is not really living at all, but Christ lives in him. To the natural mind, of course, this all sounds very strange. This is why we must discern spiritual things spiritually.

It should be obvious that Paul is talking about something other than a physical crucifixion and a physical death, burial, and resurrection. Although he says, “I was crucified with Christ” he does not mean that he was present with Christ in the flesh at the moment of crucifixion; instead, he intends to show us something much more profound.

We will soon discover that this experience of being crucified with Christ is not unique to the apostle Paul, but is true of every born-again child of God. Not only Paul, but all disciples of Jesus have been crucified with Christ.

Source: Embrace the Cross by Chip Brogden
January 12, 2013
What to Expect
"Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.”
MATTHEW 5:11
Expect misunderstanding. Expect persecution. Expect ridicule. Expect mistreatment. Expect suffering. Expect rejection. Then, you won’t be surprised when it comes. And when it comes, shut your mouth, go to the Cross, and die so you can live. Learn to kiss the hands that nail you to the Cross, for as you are decreased, He is increased.

It is not a better living we need, but a better dying. We cannot reach Pentecost but by way of Passover. There can be no resurrection without a crucifixion. There is no crown without a Cross. To live, is Christ: to die is gain.

Source: The Prophetic Mandate by Chip Brogden
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January 11, 2013
The Kingdom Gospel
"Go into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature."
MARK 16:15
From beginning to end, right up until His ascension, the passionate subject of Jesus Christ was the Kingdom of God. When Jesus finally did send them forth to “go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature” this was not a strange new thing for which they were unprepared. They understood (better than ever before) what the Gospel was because Jesus had already given them their mission long before He sent them forth.

It was not just preaching something in a general sort of way and calling it the “Gospel.” It was a Kingdom Gospel: “this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14).

Source: The Irresisible Kingdom by Chip Brogden

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January 10, 2013
True Bread
"My Father gives you
the True Bread from Heaven."
John 6:32
Why are we following the Lord? Is it for what He can do for us? Is it so we can enjoy His blessing? Is it because He supplies our needs? Do we want the gifts or the Gift? If our motivation is for blessings then we will soon be disappointed. Indeed, from this time forward, many of His disciples turned back and stopped following Him. How many of us will continue to follow when the Lord fails to respond to us in the way we have grown accustomed?

The Lord may provide you with bread for a season, but there is a difference between looking to the Lord for bread and looking to the Lord as bread. May God show us the difference. The Gift of God is not what Christ can do for you, but Who He Himself is.

Source: Lord of All by Chip Brogden
http://theschoolofchrist.org/books/lord-of-all.html
©1997-2013 TheSchoolOfChrist.Org. Permission is granted for non-commercial (free) distribution provided this notice appears. Share this message with your friends!