Passionate Pursuit - 10 Kingdom Passions Which Empower You to LIVE as Jesus Did!

You can live like Jesus did! You can experience all the spiritual encounters we see recorded in Scripture. By affirming the 10 Kingdom Passions below, you are stating your willingness, readiness and ability to pursue the Christian lifestyle of walking and living in the Spirit (Gal. 5:25). 

First Kingdom Passion - I Can Live as Jesus Lived

In the past I believed the lie that I could not live as Jesus did since He was God. I eventually noticed that Jesus emptied Himself (Phil. 2:7) of His Godlike abilities, and instead chose to live naturally and continuously from the Spirit (Jn. 5:19, 20, 30). He came to show me how God intended me to live. My passionate goal is: I don’t plan to stop growing until I replicate Jesus’ experience, which is that all who come are healed.

In a recent healing service where I ministered, we saw a lot of people experience healing! Yay God! Since we want healing to be normative and easy for you and your home group, we will be posting this entire service online for free downloading so you too can experience an immersion into the Spirit’s healing stream! I will announce that it's available in my blog next week, so be looking for it. You will definitely want to try it for yourself!

During October of 2018 we will make available a free streaming video series on Unleashing Healing Power Through Spirit-Born Emotions. Receive access to this no cost online event by registering here.

Jesus lived out of the Father’s initiative. We can do that! I use these 4 keys to hearing God’s voice. They are: a) quiet myself down, b) fix my eyes on Jesus (see Him at my right side), c) tune to spontaneity (His voice is sensed as flowing spontaneous thoughts), and d) write out the flow of thoughts that are coming to me. We guarantee success if you use all four keys as Habakkuk and John did (Hab. 2:1, 2; Rev. 1:9-11)!

Second Kingdom Passion - I Do NOT Live in a Religious Box 

Photo Credit: FreeImages.com / eliteds3

I, along with many Christians, was told that if I left my denomination, I would go to hell. I used to believe that lie and lived in a prison of fear. However, Jesus broke out of religious norms by saying, “You have heard it said…but I say unto you.” So now I am no longer in bondage to a dusty theology which is 500 or 2000 years old. God continues to reveal Himself fresh in every generation. We press into His ongoing revelation (2 Pet. 1:19). His revelation allows us to see the heart of the matter. Paul came out of the wilderness talking about “true knowledge” (Col. 2:2; 3:10), which was knowledge he gained from revelation of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:17, 18). (Now before anyone gets worried about my theology, I do hold to the Apostles’ Creed.)

Another area where I am completely out of the box is my morning devotional practice. I have not had what is considered a typical morning devotional practice for 35 years.

Third Kingdom Passion - I Pursue the Bible AND the Spirit 

   Photo Credit: FreeImages.com / Gerson Robles

The disciples on the Emmaus Road declared, “Were not our hearts burning within us as He was opening Scriptures to us?” (Lk. 24:32). I was saved in a church which focused exclusively on the Bible. Other churches focus almost exclusively on spiritual phenomena. I decided NOT to choose the Word or the Spirit. I choose the Word AND the Spirit. I choose to both eat and drink! My food is the Word (Ps. 1:2, 3) and my drink is the Living Water of the Holy Spirit (Jn. 4:10). How far will we get if we neglect either food or water for three months? YET HOW MANY DO this spiritually and then experience wreckage in their lives.

What blessings do we get by following the Spirit? When believers live out of the voice of God (Deut. 28:1 KJV and NKJV) the resulting anointing will cause them to lend and not borrow, be the head and not the tail, and be above and not underneath (Deut. 28:12,13). Then the world will look at us and stand in awe (Deut. 28:10).  

Is your heart on fire when you meditate? We choose the experience of our hearts burning as He opens up Scripture to us! We are to prayerfully meditate upon Scripture, asking for and receiving revelation from the Spirit. We tune to flow. God speaks. We hear and our hearts are aflame.

Fourth Kingdom Passion - I ONLY Reason TOGETHER with God

Photo Credit: FreeImages.com / artM

Every school and Bible College I ever attended trained me to reason on my own. The lie was, “God gave me a brain; I am supposed to use it.” Well, not really! God has wired us to receive revelation and science now proves this is true. Jesus rebuked the disciples for reasoning without divine revelation (Matt. 16:5-12; Mk. 8:15-18). The ONLY biblical command to reason is to reason together with God (Isa. 1:18). That is what we choose to do. My practical working definition of reasoning together with God is: I picture Jesus at my right hand (Acts 2:25), ask for His input, tune to flowing thoughts, pictures and emotions, and I receive revelation. I now have the mind of Christ on the matter (Eph. 1:17; 1 Cor. 2:16; Isa. 55:9).

It’s time we train others how to reason properly, or they will NEVER experience the mind of Christ and their lives will always be a mess! Reason guided by the flow of the Holy Spirit is the ONLY kind of reasoning allowed! Revelation knowledge made Abraham the Father of Faith (Gen. 12:1-3) and reasoned knowledge caused Abraham to create an Ishmael (Gen. 16), which started a 3000-year war.

Fifth Kingdom Passion - I HONOR the Spirit by Choosing to Live and Walk in the Spirit

Photo Credit: FreeImages.com / Simona Balint

Peter’s altar call in the first sermon ever preached in the Church age was, “Repent and be baptized and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). Well, well! When I was saved, the Holy Spirit wasn’t even mentioned. It took me ten years before I could identify the voice of the Holy Spirit within and another 35 to learn to walk in the 9-fold manifestation of the Spirit. Wow! 50 years? You’ve got to be kidding! Obedience to the command to live and walk by the Spirit was delayed by 50 years (Gal. 5:25)!!!! Fine, since I choose to believe the Bible is meant to be lived, I teach all believers HOW to experience the nine-fold manifestation of the Spirit. In sharing this concept with one founder and overseer of a network of charismatic churches, his comment was, “We need to teach them the basics first, before introducing them to the Spirit.”

Wow! Really? A charismatic church network that doesn’t believe the Spirit is “the basics”? Well, the first of six foundational doctrines is “repentance from dead works” (Heb. 6:1, 2). A dead work is a work done outside the energizing and guidance of the Holy Spirit! Can the Spirit be any more basic than that? Actually all six foundational experiences deal with the release of the Spirit and we'll be exploring that thoroughly in my next blog.

Jesus said, "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing” (Jn. 6:63)! "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” (Jn. 15:5). So what exactly outside of the Spirit is it that I need to teach them? Seems to me like once you learn to operate out of the law of “the spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:2) you release the fruits and gifts of the Spirit. I would say this sets you up quite well to accomplish all that you need to accomplish (Gal. 5:22-25; 1 Cor. 12:7-11).

The basics ARE “life in the Spirit!” Come on, Church! Let’s actually focus on what the New Testament instructs us to focus on. Let our altar calls be like Peter’s (Acts 2:38). Let’s know what the basics really are. All four Gospel writers introduced Jesus as the One who came to baptize us with the Holy Spirit (Matt. 3:11; Mk. 1:8; Lk. 3:16; Jn. 1:33). What could possibly give us the right to decide that Jesus’ primary mission is secondary! Jesus sent the Comforter (Jn. 16:7). Let’s introduce new believers to the Holy Spirit immediately!

Sixth Kingdom Passion - I Demand Practical, Definable Truth Concerning the Spirit 

Photo Credit: FreeImages.com / B S K

I hate non-answer answers. For example, “How do you hear God’s voice?” Answer: “You just know that you know.” “How do you see vision?” “You just see.” “How do you speak in tongues?” “You seek the Lord and wait on Him.” “What is the baptism in the Holy Spirit?” “Tears.” “What is soaking?” “You’ll know it when it happens."

Some have waited 20 years and still are not speaking in tongues. This lady who waited 20 years was speaking in tongues within two days of hearing me teach on it. I waited 10 years before I learned that God’s voice is sensed as flowing thoughts, and His visions as flowing pictures. It is TIME for the Church to offer clear definitions of spiritual realities, so people hungry for spiritual experiences can be satisfied within the Church and not forced out to the New Age Movement in their search for supernatural encounter. Counterfeits are the unpaid bills of the Church! In my effort to clearly define my spirit, I looked up all 1200 verses on heart and spirit, which we put into a training module on How to Walk by the Spirit. We’ve had enough preaching about what we are supposed to be doing. We need specific instruction on HOW to do it.   

How about this precise definition for how to speak in tongues: To speak in tongues YOU must SPEAK (Acts 2:4). It says, “They spoke.” Next, it says, “The Spirit gave the utterance.” Therefore you choose not to form the syllables with your conscious mind. Instead you tune to flow, allowing the River of the Holy Spirit within you to form the syllables through “flow.” You choose to believe this flow of syllables is tongues, because you know that those who come to God must believe. So you step out on the water (i.e. speak syllables you didn’t intentionally form with your mind). With your eyes fixed on Jesus you worship him, first in your native language, and then switch to tongues (Acts 2:11), utilizing any syllables which flow forth. Childlike faith allows you to enter His Kingdom. So drop doubt, analysis and fear. Simply believe the babbling sounds are from the Holy Spirit.

Personally, when I stepped out in faith and I spoke from flow, my mind had a fit, saying this is baby talk and worthless. I took the unbelieving thoughts in my mind captive, telling them to shut up (2 Cor. 10:5). I told my mind that it was my spirit speaking mysteries to God, and building itself up (1 Cor. 14:2, 4). My mind quit attacking and I found myself speaking in tongues. Months later someone even translated what I was saying and told me that in Portuguese I was saying, “Hooray, long live Jesus!” Hallelujah! This manifestation of the Spirit is available to all who ask, believe and yield their tongue to Spirit control. Try it. You’ll like it.

Seventh Kingdom Passion - I Do NOT Camp Out!

Photo Credit: FreeImages.com / ali halit diker

Denominations are formed when God restores a truth, and a group of believers decide to camp out around this restored truth! I’ve been part of Baptist, Methodist, Charismatic and Word of Faith churches, and each one has camped out around a specialized truth God gave to them. I am NEVER camping out! At 66, I am LOVING learning new stuff all the time. Why, recently the Lord told me, “Mark, you need to learn to LOVE marketing. The reason you are no good at marketing is because you hate it. My anointing does not ride on the carrier wave of hatred. It rides on the carrier wave of love. Anything you do not have a passion and love for, you will not have an anointing for.” 

My response back was: “Lord, cut out my anger and hatred and give me a love and anointing for all things.”

Doesn’t this one simple journal entry keep one moving forward in mastering area after area of growth? This growth is constantly being directed and empowered by the Spirit.

Eighth Kingdom Passion - I Am a Continuous Overcomer

I joyfully celebrate the continual increase of His government (Isa. 9:7), and the corresponding shrinking of satan’s government. I speak ONLY words of life! God reigns. God rules, I win! I never speak words of death. I always win because I know how to draw upon the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit! By the power of the Spirit I overcome (Rom. 8:1-14). Demons, darkness and evil are defeated. Kingdom emotions of peace and joy flood me (Rom. 14:17). I LOVE being an overcomer. Depression is gone! I never say, “I can’t” because I CAN do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13).

Ninth Kingdom Passion - I Live Fearlessly

I was taught to fear the antichrist, evil men, evil governments, the New Age and fate. Thank God, I am free of all these fears. We NEVER move in fear, only in faith. We never build our theology out of fear or reaction to the New Age Movement or any other cult group. We ALWAYS explore the Bible intently and determine through revelation knowledge if an idea is either specifically taught in the Bible or is compatible with biblical principles. If an idea is compatible and it bears good fruit, we embrace it, regardless of who offered it to us. Even Pharaoh received divine revelation from God (Gen. 41). Any book which says I cannot learn from a New Ager or a heathen I throw away, as it is obviously unbiblical! We can learn from anyone. We EXPLORE new territories with no fear!

Tenth Kingdom Passion - I Equip, Encourage and Empower Others

I share revelation that is replicable, truth that is transferable, training that is experiential. I teach you how to do things yourself (Eph. 4:11,12). We all can be Spiritual Giants if we know how to fully engage the biblical, practical and supernatural aspects of Spirit-anointed living. I can show you how. My training is to equip you to “do yourself” and not be dependent on me or any intermediary between you and God. I’m just a temporary tutorial bridge connecting you to God and then getting out of the way.