My big brother can whup your big brother...

I remember when I was a kid, that I always depended on my big brother to
keep me out of harm’s way. I also counted on him to pull me out of big trouble
when I stepped out of line. But most importantly, I could also count on him
as a strong role model to follow during my formative dry years as a
bonehead, a drifter, and an immature and taco-breath dummy. This was extremely
important because we were raised in a “barrio” where anything and everything
could happen in a Tijuana minute. And it usually did.
I’ll never forget that one evening when one of my close friends came
over to show me a loaded 4-10/Shotgun that was passed along to him to hide. It
seems that it had just been used to blast another guy in the face a couple
of blocks away. The cops were all over the place. This kind of stuff was not
ever uncommon in that environment.
On another occasion, I was standing on the side of the street at 4
o’clock one dark morning, waiting for a huge truck that was picking up a whole
bunch of us Mexicanos to transport us to the cotton fields in Taylor, Texas
for a day’s work of picking cotton. If you haven’t ridden in the back of a
rusty transport truck with 75 other brown-skinned folks in the middle of the
night, you haven’t lived. Trust me.
But picking cotton in a terrible heat and 70 miles from home was the
least of my problems. Although most of the people going were honest and
hard-working folks, there were always four or five that were very serious trouble
going somewhere to happen. Listen, I was just glad to go to the fields and
come back in one piece (this was as close to the Cotton Bowl as I would ever
get as a kid).
Let me say just one more thing: the high school that I had to go to was
so bad and so violent that most of the diploma’s at graduation were given
posthumously (just kidding).
I managed to stay alive and healthy in my teens, but had it not been for
my dad and my brothers, I would probably be writing this article from a
jail cell, utilizing a roll of Charmin and a smuggled ballpoint pen.

Many years later, I was rescued yet again by another big brother: Jesus
Christ of Nazareth. He brought me from darkness to the light. I had just
committed my life to the kingdom of God when my Savior took me by the hand and
promised me that He would walk with me in this world, and He pointed out to
me that it was all mine to take for the kingdom of God. I’ve been going at
it ever since and lovin’ every minute of it.
I’ve also learned a lot. And that’s what I want to talk about today.
The Bad News
Thank God for all the churches, ministries and enlightened individuals
out there who are seriously beginning to comprehend what the kingdom of God
is and how it functions. The same radical GRACE that exploded the growth of
the early Church right after Pentecost...is exploding the growth of Christ’s
Church today. But c’mon, this should have happened a long time ago. I am
sensing that “Eternity Is Invading Time” (Renny McClean).
Throughout hundreds of years, the Church of Jesus Christ has become
watered down and politicized, legalized, and contaminated by the “evil
one”...as well as by many well-meaning but ignorant theologians and teachers
throughout the ages. Tradition and widespread “bogus religion” has been passed
down for so long that for the most part, the body of Christ in America is
weak, splintered, compromised, competitive, and easily deceived. We are
without much success in a world that is on a super fast track to destruction.
The Good News
But all is not lost. Not by a long shot. Christianity is now beginning
to understand how to take hold of and receive the uncompromised GRACE (the
unmerited favor) of God...much like the early Church, with tremendous impact
and success. We’ve come full-circle just in time, as we approach what I
personally believe to be the “end times.”
“People will flock to where the true Gospel of Jesus Christ is being
preached and taught--the Gospel that the apostle Paul preached--the Gospel of
GRACE, peace, forgiveness and no condemnation.”--(Joseph Prince)
My big brother Jesus tells me that God’s blessings and His
miracle-working power are already ours when we believe in Christ’s finished work at the
Cross. So is forgiveness of our sins: yesterday, today and forever! All we
need to do is receive what Jesus died to give us!
This doesn’t mean we will never see setbacks and difficult times. But with
Jesus holding our hand, He has promised to walk us through all of them.
My big brother Jesus also tells me that we were created in God’s
likeness and have His DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). I prefer to call it Divine
Nature Access. God’s GRACE is a gift and we cannot earn it. He wants His
absolute best for all His children so that we may live blessed lives...and in
turn, we can bless others. It’s hard to bless someone who needs money...when
you are broke!
Oh, and He doesn’t bless us because of our performance, but because of
Christ’s performance that day at Calvary.We’ve got to quit begging God for
what He gave us 2,000 years ago!
We’ve got two choices: (1) We will live by performing our own good
works in order to get God to forgive our sins and to bless us (the Old Testament
Law); (2) Or, we will live by the abundance of GRACE and the gift of
righteousness that is available to us through the benefits of the finished work of
the Cross. (New Testament GRACE). FatherGod wants us to enter His REST.
It’s not a request, it is a command (Hebrews 3:11).
My big brother Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, reminds me that the vast
majority of the body of Christ still lives by the Law or by a combination of
the Law and GRACE, but that you can’t mix the two--it simply won’t work
(see Galatians 5). In fact, the apostle Paul is quick to point out that by
trying to mix the two, we will fall from GRACE and its benefits!
By the way, if you think living in uncompromised GRACE means you sit
around and do nothing...think again. GRACE is not lack of activity...it is
highly directed activity! The Holy Spirit will lead you and guide you and you
will be busier than ever. But you’ll love every minute of ministering with a
high rate of success, because you are no longer calling the shots.
Christ’s death on the cross paid the price for Adam and Eve’s downfall
in the Garden of Eden, and now we have been reinstated to total access to
FatherGod:
“The reason the Son of God
was made manifest (visible)
was to undo (destroy, lossen
and dissolve) the works the
Devil has done.” 1 John 3:8 AMP
The blood of Jesus on the Cross made everything alright again between
God and man, and the veil that kept us out of God’s throneroom was torn in
half. That’s why Christ is often referred to as “the Second Adam”...or “the
Last Adam” in the Bible. But very few know about it because very few preach
it or teach it.
The Scripture says that FatherGod now loves us so much that it is
impossible to measure that love. In fact, 1 John 4:19 says: “We love Him because
He first loved us.” I recently heard a great evangelist say: “Great things
just happen to those who know God loves them bigtime.” I know from experience
that this is true because my faith rises dramatically when I am aware of
His caring for me. His love for us opens the door to everything!
The Key is to Get Close
and Stay Close to Jesus
(our Big Brother)
If I may, I need to speak bluntly. Brothers and sisters, we have got to
get over the hump of not knowing who we really are in Christ! We live our
life mostly “on the ground,” dealing with daily carnal issues in the natural
realm. And because of widespread and deficient teaching, too many of us
think that that’s as far as it’s going to go. Not so.
We do not understand that when we were born again, we became highly
privileged sons and daughters of God and heirs of His kingdom. We became
partakers of Jesus’ divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). According to Ephesians 1:20, God
raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in Heavenly
places. Don’t you just wish we could go, too? We can and we did.
Ephesians 2:4 says that God made us alive together with Christ...and
raised us up with Him so we could also sit at His feet in high places (in the
Spirit) and become one with Him (it’s an imperative and our seats are
reserved)!
My big brother Jesus is calling us to get super-close to Him and enter
God’s rest as we are transformed into Christ’s image from glory to glory.
(2 Corinthians 3:18). “As Jesus is, so are we in this world today.”!
When I cast all my cares upon Jesus Christ I truly begin to understand
that whatever breakthrough that I am seeking will not come as a result of my
struggling to get it...but by my total trust in His finished work at the
Cross! What we need, He has already provided. We simply need to receive it and
live by the faith of Christ.
When I enter God’s presence, I step into the unforced rhythm of GRACE
(Matthew 11:28), and my Father and I become tight. I always know when He’s
beckoning me to drop what I’m doing and concentrate totally on Him. By way of
the Holy Spirit, He reaches out into the natural world and actually touches
me on my upper back, between my shoulders. Sometimes it’s a gentle contact
and other times it ‘s like a heavy weight upon me. It’s as real as if Linda
had stretched out her hands and touched me.
At other times when He wants to get my attention, an anointing will drop
softly on the left side of my head and trickle down to my neck. It feels
like tingling warm honey and I love it.
I’m being graphic about all this because I want you to understand that
this kind of thing is no fairy tale. It’s very real and commonplace with
those who hunger for God’s presence. If He does it for me, He will most
assuredly do it for you.
I could also tell you about many other strange and awesome things that
happen to me when I sit at Jesus’ feet and continually “drink” from His
presence (sometimes for hours). But I won’t because you’ll probably think that
I’ve dropped my cookies and need psychiatric help or somethin’. Hey, I am
who I am.
Listen, way too many of us are too afraid of the supernatural. DON’T BE!
The supernatural realm is where we come from in the first place! The
“Salvation” you received is about as supernatural as you’re going to get, yet you
would not have received it if you hadn’t reached out into a higher realm in
faith to get it.
The Word of God will pull us up into a higher dimension, and into
another environment in which we were destined to live. We were destined to operate
in the supernatural, yet we remain living in poverty of the spiritual
things of God. We serve an unlimited supernatural God...and we are His children.
He wants us to spend a lot more time in our real home with Him in a realm
where there is no time.
I’ve spent most of my Christian life getting stuck in the mud of the
natural realm here on Earth. Now I am learning to step up higher and live from
a position of victory over circumstances and the evil realm, sitting in high
places with my big bother Jesus.
We were all given a measure of faith (Romans 12:3) with which to hook up
to and live by the faith of Christ. It’s my faith in Christ’s faith that
gets things done. My own faith is not strong enough and never will be. The
apostle Paul flatly stated that, “...my life I live by the faith of Christ.”
Thanks for reading this with an open heart. Yet there will be many who
prefer to keep doing their own thing. I still love you and I hope you love me
back.
I hate to be the one to have to tell you this, but when the Rapture
happens you will not have enough time to hire a flight instructor to take you up
to the clouds to meet Jesus. You are simply going to have to switch realms
and zoom it up! You may as well switch your mindset now. But if you insist
on learning to fly and doing it your way by jumping off the front porch and
flapping your arms...do it on the back porch so no one will see you (and
don’t tell them that you know me...)
In our big brother Jesus we live, we move and we have our being! (Acts
17:28)