The With of His Love

Greetings! Bishop Brian C. Greene Haggai 1: 13 Then Haggai, the messenger of the LORD, spoke by the commission of the LORD to the people saying, ” I am with you, declares the LORD.” (NASB Version) One of the greatest things about the Book of Matthew is that it both begins and ends with one of the greatest promises written in the Bible to us as believers. It begins in Matthew 1:23. “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). And it ends with Jesus giving his followers one last promise found in the last verse Matthew 28:20 “… And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Down through the ages, God has promised that He would be with His people. From Joseph (Genesis 39: 2-4 & 23) to Joshua (Joshua 1: 5) to the Apostle Paul (Acts 23: 10-16). Whenever God’s people find themselves in dire and impossible circumstances, those words I am with you! can become the fuel that helps us to simply make it through another day. To have God with you means to know that He is along your side, accompanying you, near you, beside you, supporting you. It’s knowing that He will not allow Himself to be separated from you. Today, if you could only understand the with of His love, what would that do to your perspective (seeing) and perception (understanding) of life? Ephesians 3: 17-19 says ” Then Christ will live in your hearts because you believe in him. And I pray that your love will have deep roots. I pray that it will have a strong foundation. May you have power with all God’s people to understand Christ’s love. May you know how wide and long and high and deep it is. And may you know his love, even though it can’t be known completely. Then you will be filled with everything God has for you. (New International Reader’s...
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Induce Labor

Greetings! Haggai 1: 12 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of God’s people began to obey the message from the Lord their God. When they heard the words of the prophet Haggai, whom the Lord their God had sent, the people feared the Lord.  (New Living Translation) When my wife was in labor with one of our daughters, the doctor decided to induce labor.  In her case, this simply meant that the time it was going to take for her to give birth to our child was going to be drastically reduced. The doctor received a big “amen” from the Greene family. Why? Because a process that was already going to be painful anyways would be made shorter through medicine. When the nation of Judah heard the corrective word (strong medicine) given through the Prophet Haggai, they “began” to obey the message from the Lord. Now one of the definitions for the word “begin” is to induce. Induce means to “influence” or to “move into action”. When our doctor induced my wife’s labor, he influenced or moved into action the birthing process. This was not a plan for birth. This was not shopping or a shower given in preparation for birth. This was not the Lamaze Classes taken to prepare us for the process of birth. This was the actual birth itself! One of the purposes of this consecration is to accelerate the onset of the process involved with giving birth (labor) to the vision God has placed within the womb of our hearts. God gets glory when people actually see come out of us what He Himself has placed within us. However, we must understand that how long it takes God to accomplish this will be determined by our obedience. So let the obeying begin! (1 Samuel...
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Waste Management

Greetings! Haggai 1:9Ye looked for much, and behold…I blew upon it. Wherefore? Saith Jehovah of hosts. Because of my house that lieth waste… 10Therefore over you the heavens withhold their dew… 11And I called for a drought…upon all the labour of the hands. (Darby Translation) Our vision, that is our picture of what a restored broken life looks like, is what we call The S.P.I.C.E. Life. And the “P” represents the fact that a broken life, one that is not functioning in the manner God intended, must be restored physically if it is going to bring God glory (credit). I wonder if during this consecration and fast, God desires that we not simply look at His temple or church building called Pentecostal Tabernacle. Maybe He is also referring to how we use His temple, that is, our physical bodies. Paul reminds us in the letter he wrote to the Church located in the city of Corinth that our bodies do not belong to us. Our bodies belong to the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16 and 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16) In fact, Paul is almost shocked that believers were unaware of this. Thus they were wasting their bodies. Waste is defined as: 1Using our bodies thoughtlessly. 2Causing our bodies to lose energy or strength. 3 Failing to take advantage of the bodies God has given us. Latin: coming up empty (See verse 11). We must manage, that is get a handle on taking advantage of these bodies in which the Holy Spirit lives and through which He performs our Kingdom assignments. God expects us to come out of this consecration with a change in lifestyle, that is, eating better and exercising more. And the Glory (credit) God will get from this new house (our after consecration body) will be greater than the glory God got from the bodies we had prior to the consecration (Haggai...
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Mi Casa, Tu Casa

  Greetings! Haggai 1: 3 Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin? (NIV Bible) While growing up, I spent alot of time with my grandmother. Her house was amazing! She had the finest china and exquisite dining room furniture. She was the first person I knew who had wood paneled walls when paneling first was in style. My grandmother was also the first person I knew to have a color television. I remember seeing her turning the corner of our street with shopping bags from Lord & Taylor in her hand. I remember her mink stole with the actual heads of the minks on it. I know, yuck! But remember this was forty five years ago. No PETA back then. And when Christmas came? My grandmother gave such gracious gifts to all of her grandchildren that I was convinced that Grandma was rich. That was until one day while I was a teenager. Grandma had retired by then and we used to spend many more days in conversation. She no longer spoke to me like I was a little boy. She spoke to me like the man I was growing into. For some reason, grandma told me how much she earned in her weekly pay check. To say I was shocked was an understatement. How in this world could she have so much but earn so little? That’s the moment when I learned one of the most valuable lessons in my entire life. I’ve seen it in my grandmother’s life and many other seniors whose lives I’ve been privileged to observe over many decades (not years). And here’s the lesson: The Lord basically says, “You take care of My House, I’ll take care of Your House!” It’s as simple as...
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Procrastination

Greetings! Haggai 1: 2 A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies: “The people procrastinate. They say this isn’t the right time to rebuild my Temple, the Temple of God.” (Message Bible) One of the most damaging phrases we can live by is “I’ll do it tomorrow.” In other words, we procrastinate. Procrastination is derived from two Latin words: pro = for the benefit of and crastinus = of tomorrow. It also means to defer, put off doing, drag one’s feet, hesitate, let slide, retard, stall, pause, suspend, and make take longer. Far too often we put off into the future that which we should do today. The Scriptures seem to weigh heavily on the present: NOW is the accepted time for Salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2); NOW faith is … (Hebrews 11:1); TODAY if you would hear God’s voice don’t harden your heart (Psalm 95:7-8). And yet, we procrastinate by putting off on tomorrow that which should be done on the day that the Lord has made (Psalm 118:24). Along with the Scriptures, I would like to encourage you with a few quotes from individuals who accomplished much with their lives: “Putting off an easy thing makes it hard. Putting off a hard thing makes it impossible.” ~ George Claude Lorimer “Tomorrow is the day when idlers work, and fools reform.” ~ Edward Young “The greatest amount of wasted time is the time not getting started.” ~ Dawson Trotman “You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. “Even if you’re on the right track – you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” ~ Will Rogers “A year from now you may wish you had started today.” ~ Karen Lamb “Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried.” ~ Author Unknown Let’s allow this consecration to become the resurrection of missed opportunities. (Joel...
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