10,500 Global Prayer Connect

Please note, because we are traveling, there will not be a live prayer and message sharing this week.  We will resume our Skype gathering next week.

As we rapidly approach the U.S. Thanksgiving holidays, I would like to once again encourage you to participate in the 18^th annual Midwest Thanksgiving Conference (MTC) – “The Joy Set Before Jesus”.  Please click here for the Week 5 Prayer Guide.

Pastor Joseph Tai established MTC 18 years ago as one of his first acts of obedience to the 10,500 call.  Since then, the Lord’s powerful work of restoration, reconciliation, renewal, and regeneration among His children has continually sustained this gathering.

Because MTC has been founded on a Kingdom call, the conference program and atmosphere correspondingly reflect all facets of Kingdom life – the home, workplace, and church.  The conference agenda is lined up with an incredible group of pastors, business leaders, counselors, intercessors, prophets, and teachers that speak to all age levels and to all walks of life.  Through the years of “digging this well”, the Lord has given us a unique wellspring that has brought about transformation in families, connections in market place partnerships, and confirmation of destinies.

We expect that for this year, God will visibly increase the “flow” of the MTC wellspring – to serve His people like Solomon served the world through wisdom.  We believe that through this wellspring, the Lord will reveal his knowledge and understanding to address some of the toughest problems facing the family, the economy, and the church, preparing us to become His awesome witnesses to the end of the earth.

Join us for MTC 2012 – “The Joy Set Before Jesus”!!

Please click the following links for more details on the conference:

General Information

Registration

Hotel Reservation

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MTC 2012 will be a time of revelation, connection, and promotion in the Kingdom.  Please register by clicking here.  Please also click here for the 4th week MTC prasyer guide as we continue to intercede for this yearly gathering of Kingdom laborers.

Audio Message

Search me, O God, and know my heart;

test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.

– Psalm 139:23-24

Last week, we saw how the Lord will call us to offer up our “Isaacs” to clear us of our selfish ambitions.   As we see from the case of Lucifer, selfish ambition leads to “disorder and every evil practice” (James 3:16) and can corrupt even the highest angel vested with the greatest access to God and incredible kingdom authority.  So as we strive to come closer to God’s throne and become stewards of greater kingdom authority, we must expect to go through a process of overcoming the contradictions of giving up the very promises of God, to cleanse our Kingdom call of selfish ambitions.

In Psalm 139, King David revealed a powerful principle for processing the contradictions.  It is to turn our focus away from trying to make sense of the external circumstances to an inward focus of honestly examining our hearts.

God is taking me through that very process today.  In this 10,500 Kingdom pursuit, I constantly find myself working through the tensions of reconciling the contradictions – where God provides clear confirmation for an opportunity or partnership, only to ask me to give it up later.  To try to figure out the all complexities of God’s ways is beyond any of us.  God did not design our minds with that capacity nor does He expect us to achieve success by always making sound decisions.  God’s capacity for covering our mistakes is as great as His Fatherly love.  I know that as a father, I would do everything to help my three daughters to succeed if they tried their best to please me, even if they fall short in their abilities.  How much more for our Father in Heaven?  God’s favor ultimately lies with our hearts and turning towards that inwardly focus is the only way we can use contradictions to help us defeat selfish ambition.

The process of overcoming the contradictions is confusing and has caused many gifted people to fall short of their destiny potential.  By exercising King David’s principle to cleanse our conscience to the “way everlasting”, we can be liberated from the fear of failure that often arises when God asks us to offer up our “Isaacs”.  It elevates us out of the burden to reconcile contradictions by making our hearts, not circumstances, the central issue.

Seeing the cross in the contradictions is not about resolving the seeming inconsistencies.  But it is all about examining our hearts – to let go of that selfish ambition from a place well within our reach.

Market Place Reflection and Prayer

As I am called to offer up my “Isaac”…search me, O God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts.  See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

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The 18th MTC gathering is only six weeks away.  Please register today for MTC 2012.  Please also join us for the 3rd week of intercession for MTC by clicking here for the prayer guide.  This week’s prayer theme is: Jesus, the Author and Perfecter.

Please note, because we are traveling, there will not be a live prayer and message sharing this week.  We will resume our Skype gathering next week.

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless.  I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”

Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.” – Genesis 17:1-8

As we ponder deeper into Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac, we see God work in astounding ways to prepare His vessels for increasing kingdom authority*.  In qualifying Abraham’s heart through an offering, God revealed His great passion for setting our hearts in the right place.  This passion is so great that He will even turn His desires “upside down” just to get our attention.

With Abraham, God demanded an offering that defied all conventional understanding of sacrifice.  For many people today, to abstain from a sinful lifestyle may be deemed as a tremendous sacrifice.  For most Christians, the giving of our time, finances, and talents are seen as honorable acts of offering.  For those who give up financial opportunities and lifestyles to do God’s work, we commend them for their sacrificial faith.  But these acts of offering do not come anywhere near the realm of Abraham’s test for kingdom authority.  What God demanded from Abraham was not just the sacrifice of his son, but also the very Kingdom call God gave him as the father of many nations.

In God’s interchange with Abraham from Genesis 17:1-8, He left absolutely no room for doubt.  God’s desire to raise up Abraham as the father of many nations is so strong that He tied its fulfillment to the confirmation of His covenant.  And to seal His desire into Abraham’s destiny, God even threw in a name change.  As an affirmation of God’s heart and desire, this ranks right near the top!  Abraham thought that he can never go wrong.  Right?  Wrong!

In the course of confronting our personal ambition, God’s operating principle may take us through shock, confusion, disappointment, and even circumstances that seem completely contrary to His promises.  It seems that God’s greatest test for kingdom authority lies in our ability to see the “road of the cross” through the contradictions – to walk, in faith and humility, the only path that leads to true kingdom authority.

For many of us today who are going through the process of offering up our “Isaacs” and working through confusion, disappointment, and even anger, please take comfort…for the greater the call, the greater the contradiction.  And when we have finally settle our hearts to the test, look for the “ram”!

Market Place Reflection and Prayer

1. Has God ever spoken to you promises similar to those in Genesis 17:1-8?
2. How has God led you to places of blessing in relationships, finances, career, education, company strategy, ministry, investments, or partnerships – only to see them taken back, leaving you confused, disappointed, and angry?

Lord, we ask for eyes to see, ears to hear, minds to understand the principles of your contradictions – in gaining the world.

* “Kingdom authority” is defined as:  capability, influence, and wealth in places where we work, live, learn, and govern (from message on Sept 20^th).

Please continue to intercede for the upcoming MTC 2012 gathering in Chicago over November 21^st-25^th.  Please click here for the Week 2 Prayer Guide.  You can also find the Prayer Guides for all seven weeks leading up to MTC 2012 here.

This Week’s Audio Message

When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.  Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.  But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

Genesis 22:9-12

Last week, we said that one of the most precarious (not precious) places to stand is where our ambitions seem to “line up” with Christ’s Kingdom agenda.  In such a place, we can easily find ourselves riding on God’s agenda to forward our own ambition, justifying as “doing God’s work”, the neglect of family, the circumventing of leadership cover, the abuse of relationships, and even the breaking of rules.  Striving after “kingdom authority” with such a heart condition will not only cause us to “forfeit ourselves” as we gain the world, but we will do so fooling ourselves thinking that we are “serving” God’s Kingdom purpose.

The death of our ambition is the key to kingdom authority.  God showed His heart concerning this principle through that famous test of Abraham.  Isaac came about with the full fanfare of a miraculous pregnancy and the fulfillment of God’s Kingdom passion.  When God asked for the sacrifice of Isaac, His intent was to take Abraham out of that precarious place of “ambition lining up with Kingdom agenda”.  With the great call of becoming the seed that will produce the fruits like the sand of the seashore, God must impart to Abraham a heart that “runs after God, and not just after God’s blessings”.  God would rather forgo His Kingdom agenda than to see us “gain the whole world but forfeit ourselves”.

For many of us going through the stripping away of everything that God has promised – the capability, influence, and resources that we need to fulfill our call, the contradiction can be confusing and can cause us to fight against the very test intended to elevate us.  Let’s examine our hearts, take up self-denial, and sacrifice that ambition.  It may mean giving up a promotion or a market opportunity for more family time or slowing down a project to honor the inputs of colleagues or being teachable to get the blessings of elders and leaders.

Ultimately, God’s greatest concern lies with our hearts.  As Abraham’s testimony has shown, when we “pass the test”, He will not only provide the sacrifice, but He will bless, beyond our imagination, the very things we are willing to give up.

Market Place Reflection and Prayer

What is the test of Isaac in your life today?  How has Abraham’s testimony lifted your faith to “give up your ambition”?