Bathroom Breakthrough: Puppets Can't Subdue Tyranny... You Can

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKyU17b4DbQ&w=640&h=360] There is a term that is used loosely and innocently by many in the church.  The intentions of this phrase is good but it slightly misrepresents the truth of who God is, who we are, and the state of the world.  In fact, most believers, at some point in their life are guilty of saying it at some point or another.  It is a phrase used to bring comfort and assists in the justification of why bad things happen.  However, one must understand that God's will is not everything that happens and everything that happens is not God's will.  The phrase I am referring to is: God is in control.

When God made Adam and Eve, He did not create puppets.  God is not a puppet on a string.  Therefore, He could not truly create anyone in His image if they were under control.  Instead, He gave dominion to mankind (Genesis 1:26-28).  Psalms 115:16 states that the heavens belong to the Lord but the earth He has given to man.  But we do not have control over the earth.  We simply have what Jesus gave: authority.

There is a major difference between authority and control.  If God is in control, why is there racism?  Why is there war or terror?  Why is there murder and rape?  Why is there human trafficking?  Why are there natural disasters wiping out entire cities?  Why is anybody sick?  God is either in control and mad, or we are co-heirs and seated in heavenly realms with Him operating in His authority, and He is madly in love with the entire world.

I Timothy 2:4 and II Peter 3:9 tell us that it is God's will that all be saved and come to the knowledge of salvation.  The entire world was chosen, elected, and predestined to be in Christ.  However, we know that many reject His love and the knowledge of His salvation.  It still does not remove their inclusion in the finished work of the cross or mean that they were chosen by God not to be saved.  It just means they simply choose to reject.

When we walk in the authority of Christ, sickness becomes extinct, solutions come easy, divine inspiration and creativity change nations for good, poverty becomes a thing of the past, the hungry are fed, the lonely are loved, and the orphans and widows are taken good care of.  Heaven on earth is a utopia.  We can know God's will when we look at Jesus.  We can see what isn't God's will when we look at the absence of His authority.  But now, there is no absence of authority for the believer whose goal is God's kingdom on earth.

Jonathan Fawcett

Bathroom Breakthrough: I Like Big Buts

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY3ZGckmtt8]That's right!  Big buts!  When millions stop short with I Corinthians 2:9, Paul was bold enough in verse 10 to say, "But God".  That is a very big but and utterly destroys every excuse for not understanding the mysteries of God.  Jesus has revealed the mysteries of the universe by His Holy Spirit.  The beauty in hearing God's voice is that it requires us to be teachable.  It took time for me to arrive to the realization that Christ already accomplished what I was trying to in my own efforts.  To quote two statuses from this past week's Facebook activity:

"Who is guilty of using the phrase "standing in the gap"? I'm raising my hand. NEWSFLASH: There is no gap! Jesus is closer to you than you are to you. Gap: closed. Old Covenant vernacular: over. When we remain teachable, the Good News continues to get better and better because we can look back on the silly things we once believed and be glad that Jesus didn't keep a secret. Only people can take the upfront truth of God's grace and twist it to require more of our effort. With that said, if we continue to believe in our striving, the only gap remaining is the one between our ears and the one where our teeth get knocked out by the self-inflicted beating that accompanies religion."

And...

"Repent of your constant repentance! Even though the platform of some ministries is to get people to repent, the question is- of what?! The word "repent" means to change your mind. When you received the mind of Christ, your days of crying out in repentance were over!"

In other words, because of your union with Christ, you now have the mind of Christ.  His thoughts have become your thoughts and His ways have become your ways.  The mind of Christ does not need to be changed.  We are continually being made in the image of God.  We already are!  Your moments of denial are just the nature of the old, dead, zombie - the person you once were who was co-crucified, co-buried, and c0-raised.  You deserved hell and death.  But God... He made you a new creature - one that can never be separated from Him.  That old, sick, crippled zombie stayed buried.  The new you was raised in perfect union with Christ.

Don't let repentance and ritualistic religion (no matter how charismatic it might seem) keep you from experiencing the freedom of the rest that accompanies His grace.

Jonathan Fawcett

Bathroom Breakthrough: Jesus the... Adulterer?

We are in perfect union with Jesus, as a wife is in union with her husband.  Jesus set very high standards for His bride.  In John 14:12, Jesus said that whoever has faith in Him will do the works He has done and even greater.  Translation: All things are possible.  Reality bends its knee to the name and authority of Jesus.  As a believer, you carry His authority and have taken on the name of Christ, just as a bride takes on the name of her groom.  It was Jesus’ will for His bride to have dominion on the earth and subdue evil.  Then why is the church quick to blame God for something bad?  Matthew 12 is a beautiful picture of Jesus clearly telling the religious folks that He is not operating with or under the influence of the devil.  In retrospect, the devil is also not under the influence of Jesus. The devil is in an nonredeemable rebellion against God.  When we are under the influence, we are full of life, love, joy and the fruit of the Spirit.  The devil has no life, love, joy, or any fruit of the Spirit.  The enemy came to kill, steal, and destroy.  He is a defeated foe.  We have Christ in us… the hope of glory!  Heaven would be bankrupt of glory if we needed anymore.  We have the fullness of God within us.  We do not have a portion of the Holy Spirit.  Even Jesus said that God gives the Spirit without limit.  His goodness and glory fills us.  There is none to spare for the devil.

With that being said, Jesus does not use the devil to accomplish something intended for His bride.  A husband seeking sex apart from his wife with a prostitute is still fulfilling his desire for sex but it makes him an adulterer.  That husband’s desire, as pure as it may have been, becomes tainted in its satisfaction outside of marriage.  Jesus doesn’t seek to fulfill His will and desires through someone outside of His bride.  Jesus and the devil are not having a secret love affair behind our backs.  When the church awakens to this, we will stop blaming God for “using” sickness, pain, disease, poverty, natural disasters, and a life of hard knocks to bring Himself glory.  Remember, in John 9, Jesus said the man was born blind to bring glory to God.  If the glory was in the man’s blindness, then Jesus brought an abrupt and swift end to God’s glory.  But He didn’t!  Glory was not in the handicap but in the healing.  Jesus heals the man of blindness.  He works all things together for good.  All things include some bad things.  He turns bad situations around in confident triumph over our defeated foe.

In conclusion, God doesn’t bring storms, make people sick, or humble you through bad situations. He loves you faithfully.

“If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is.” –2 Timothy 2:13, NLT

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzX0jIS-zro?rel=0]

Jonathan Fawcett

Bathroom Breakthrough: Dismounting the High Horse of Religion

Bathroom Breakthrough is a detox and Body cleanse from religion and spiritual hygiene while viewers take a few moments to take care of business in the throne room where physical hygiene is performed.  In a culture where cell phone carriers pack their mobile devices for latrine duty, these short videos give an opportunity to alleviate themselves from nasty ole religion and the spicy food from the night before.  Use the john and wash up under the faucet while Jonathan Fawcett debunks the myths and unhealthy thinking brought on by that old time religion.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/somethingmoreinc. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DidN4CWTXiU?rel=0]