We Must Have The Mind Of Christ

Let's give God praise. Why don't we, everybody — let's give God praise. Bless Your name, Jesus. Bless Your name, Jesus. Thank you so much.

I thank God for what we felt already in this conference. God's been good, hasn't He? Has God already given anyone a specific word? I know we've all felt the presence of God — unless we're dead. But a specific word of God — has anybody already received one? I thank God for that. Anytime God speaks to us directly and individually, we can never take that for granted, or just think, you know, "Great, boy, that's good." But we have to remember: if God speaks to us, we have to remember who it is that is speaking to us. And if God speaks to us, He'll empower us to do what He has spoken for us to do.

I give honor to Melanie and my family. I give honor to the Mangun family. Give honor to this church, all of you that have come. Give honor to a special group: I'm a part of a monthly small group, and they're very, very close people to me, and I give honor to them today.

The way this message came was quite different. I'm not a yearly speaker at Because of the Times. And about three weeks before the committee met, I was driving down the road, and God spoke a verse to me, and it was a strong verse. It was very, very strong. And so I knew that it wasn't a Because of the Times verse — but I didn't — you know, you just don't get a word and go tell the Because of the Times committee, "Hey, I got it. I got it." So I waited. And they asked me again. And I did not assume that I would be speaking this year. And I do feel definite that I do have a message for today, at this particular time in this conference.

Philippians 2:5 and 8. Philippians 2:5 and 8. This is not a message to our organization. This is not a message to your churches. This is an individual message to every one of us that are in this building. If you're involved in ministry, it is a message to you and to me. Philippians 2:5 through 8: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

I want to preach to you for a little bit today on: We Must Have the Mind of Christ. We must have the mind of Christ. Having the mind of Christ is not optional. It's not optional. We'll kill ourselves and kill people around us if we're trying to do His business with our minds. We have to have the mind of Christ. Would you just lift your hands right now and ask that your mind would be open to the mind of Christ? To the mind of Christ. Let it be done, Jesus. Let it be done, Jesus. Lord, it's hard for us to have Your mind. So many things are coming into our minds, and I pray that You'll help us. I pray that a spirit of revelation would rest on how we can open up and have Your mind. And we'll give You praise. Can you give Him praise one more time as you're seated? Praise God, praise God, praise God. God bless you. You may be seated.

I'm blessed to have people in my life that are very close to me, who truly know God, and they speak into my life. And I received an email from one of those people a few days ago, and it goes like this:

"As I was praying for you today, I had some thoughts about Because of the Times. Many of the people that are going to be there are greatly confused. They know what they believe, or think they believe, but they do not understand why their lives, their churches, their situations are not working. They doubt, and they even fear. They want truth in the inward person, but do not know how to bridge the gap from the written word to the innermost parts of who they really are. Sometimes, maybe even often, they feel like hypocrites. They're grasping outward and failing to look inward. They're waiting for the miracles, not realizing that the true miracle, the true kingdom of heaven, rests within them, if they would only look inside to find it. They're afraid — afraid people will find out who they aren't, not who they are. They are afraid that they have failed. They are afraid that someone else will see. They speak words of goodness of God and want desperately to believe it, and even believe that He's capable, but they don't believe it's working for them. They're afraid they're missing something — and they are. They're looking for a parting-of-the-Red-Sea miracle instead of the more steady and pure work of the transforming of their minds. They constantly look for an external sign, but the internal work is not being done. They're afraid to do it, and don't know how. They can jump and shout — and should — but when the jumping and shouting ends, they're afraid. And honestly, their greatest fear is to admit that they are afraid."

I say to that today: we must have the mind of Christ. We must have the mind of Christ.

Now, I don't know about you, but I've decided, at the first of this year, that I need a new transformer. I need a new processor. I need some work on my mind. And when you look at Romans 12:2: "Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind" — the renewing, a process, a process — "that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." I don't want to repeat a lot of what I've said before, but remember this: that in Jesus's mighty miracle ministry, He could have — but He never did — lay His hand on a baby and pray for it, and it become an adult. There is a process. There are some things that are just processes. And our minds are the issue, because our minds are the control center of our being. You never doubt — those of you that are saying, "I'm struggling in my mind" — I guess we're struggling in our mind, for that is the control center of our life. That's why we need a Christ mind. We need the Christ mind, which is a kingdom mind. We need a Christ mind, which is a kingdom mindset. A kingdom mindset.

If you would go and you would read my text again, you could see what Jesus Christ did, and you could see the unfolding and the positioning for the equipping of His kingdom. Kingdom is a very, very powerful topic in the Word of God. You see in Matthew 3:1 and 2 that John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness, and saying, "Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." You see that Jesus came in Matthew 4, and He was preaching, "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." The call is for repentance. It is for repentance. But it's also for us to fit into and understand the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God. God wants to change our minds. God wants to change our minds. God wants to change our thought processes to where we think kingdom. It's about the kingdom. Now, we know this will not happen unless first there is repentance. But we also must understand — now, those of you that were raised in a non-democratic nation, excuse me for a moment — because as Americans, or as those that have been raised in a democratic society, we struggle to comprehend kingdom. We're a long way from—

—understanding kingdom, because democracy is far from — it's good, but it's far from great. Because democracy is this: it's the rule of people, by the people, for the people. And it sounds good. But look what it's becoming. While it sounds good — and I thank God that I've been raised in the United States of America; don't get me wrong. But if you can applaud, that's fine. I thank God for that. I love America. But we don't need to worship democracy, because I can tell you what democracy's given us. It's given us something where dogs are valued more than people. That's what democracy's given us. I don't agree with what Michael Vick did. I don't agree with it at all. But it sure is hard to see him go to prison for several dogs, when the abortionists are slaughtering humans by the millions. But our democracy allows us to kill babies, but not dogs. Our democracy allows for many other ungodly things, like same-sex marriages, and the list goes on. We've been raised in a democracy. We're in a democracy where we can paint some signs and raise a fuss. We're in a democracy where we can speak our mind. We're in a democracy where we have freedom of speech. And a democracy can easily abandon the fact that Christianity supersedes culture and government and system.

We all must understand that God is not in heaven looking at His angel, saying, "Hold on just a second — we have to deal with these people just a little bit different. They're in a democracy. What did they vote?" What we have to understand is this: God is not American. God is not American. God is about the kingdom, and the kingdom is about the role of God and the realm of God, and the rule and the realm of God means this: He's boss. He's boss. Kingship means total control. If you want a quick understanding of kingship, and how we're supposed to be relating to that, then just go read the red [letters]. It will mess with your head, if it's been a long time since you've just gone through the Bible reading the red. That'd be a great little study for the first of the new year, because that King is serious.

We who think in our minds that God must be fair better adjust our minds. God is right, not fair. God is right. He's not fair. And I can say something else: we in America don't want fair, because if this thing goes fair, we all lose. We don't want fair. We want more. That's what we want. The Western concept of fair is not in the Word of God. The Western concept of fair is not a promise from God. And it doesn't matter how many promise books you read — it doesn't matter how many promise books — we're a — light promise book. I'm not against promise books, but we've got to grow up. We can't take one verse out of the Word of God. It'd be a good idea to take that promise, and before you start rubbing it in God's face and getting bitter at God because it's not coming through, it'd be a good idea to read about ten or fifteen verses above that promise and about ten or fifteen below that promise, and then you may understand about that promise.

God will never, never, never be our Santa Claus or genie in a bottle. God will never do that. And sometimes we consciously or unconsciously drag this mentality into our God world. This never has worked; it never will work. And the call for today is that we must have the mind of Christ, and it is a kingdom mind. And we must dethrone ourselves to enthrone Him, because there's no such thing as dual thrones. There's no such thing. God's not going to be the King of a lot of sub-kingdoms. He will not do it. I know we're kings and priests — I'm not talking about that. I'm— God's not going to be the King over Terry, as Terry runs his little kingdom. And what I have come to grips with is this: we are, every one of us, kingdom-minded. It's just a question of whose. Every one of us are kingdom-minded. There's not one of us in here not kingdom-minded. It's just a matter of whose kingdom are we minded about?

Our text Scripture gives us great insight. Philippians 2:5: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." In other words: let it, allow it, choose it. Choose the mind of Christ. Choose to see His thought patterns above ours, and by so doing we will enable the process of the renewal of the mind. We must let it. He will not force it on us.

Philippians 2:6: "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." Jesus is God. We know this. Someone else can preach on one God. I believe one God. "I and my Father are one." "When you've seen Me, you've seen the Father." We get very, very excited about that. Let me move on.

Philippians 2:7: "But made himself of no reputation." He made Himself of no reputation. He had a reputation, but He made Himself of no reputation. He had a reputation. To some He was the Messiah; to others He was a lunatic. He had a reputation, but He made Himself of no reputation. In other words, what Jesus did: He emptied Himself out. He was not full of Himself. He showed us the power of selflessness. Selflessness runs directly contrary to our thinking. Jesus showed us how to avoid the trap of reputation by emptying Himself out.

I have to ask a question, and it's a doozy, even if I say so myself: Where did we get this model for this preacher reputation, where we feel pressured to outdo [track garbled at this point]? He says in His Word that He won't put more on us than we can bear. But I guarantee you, we can. I guarantee you we can. God won't — everything that's put on me has already been tested, pre-tested. He's not going to crush me. He may make me, may break me — He's not going to kill me. But I guarantee you I can put things on me that will. Our quest for reputation is pressuring us to become something we abhorred when we first entered the ministry. It's possible to become what we once despised.

Our self-decided reputations are costing too much to keep propped up. Our self-decided reputations support our shaky self-esteem, because we don't trust who we are, and we don't trust what God called us to be. We have two recommended books this year, and I made sure they got on the list, with the help of Sharon Turner: Safe People, and The Emotionally Healthy Church. Those are two books that will get past your outer system and will pierce your heart. There's too much focus on the reputation or image that we're upholding, and it's costing us incredibly in our personal lives. Propping up our reputation can take a heavy toll on our marriages and families. Propping up our reputation is also causing drastic damage. Ministry's reputation can call us to accept opportunities to preach primarily for exposure. It sickens me when I hear somebody say, "Yeah, you need to do that — that's good exposure." I've accepted speaking opportunities before and never even prayed about them. Never. Never asked God. Just: "Is it open? Sure." Spirit of God— that I'm preaching excellence to preach now — totally understand, get me straight: I'm saying that we must not preach primarily to preach again. I'm not talking about fire shut up in my bones. I'm talking about my personality and my self-decided reputation shut up in my bones. That's what I'm speaking of.

I want to speak a word from my heart to those of you that are asked to preach at any youth function — from local church revivals, to youth camps, to youth Congress. I spent over sixteen years in the trenches of youth ministry, thirteen at this church, so I feel like I'm qualified to say this: our youth need preaching that connects to their world and challenges them to be sold-out disciples of Jesus Christ. We do not need you preaching to the platform. If you're standing in front of a group of our young people, for heaven's sake, don't worry about preaching in a way that will impress people to get your "books" [track: 'print press people to get your books']. It's not about getting you booked; it's about getting this generation and the next generation equipped for the kingdom of God. Equipped for the kingdom of God.

Propping up our reputation is driving us into the red zone. He made Himself of no reputation. And if we're not careful, we'll be so full of ourselves and what we want that we will not empty ourselves out and be filled with Him. For when I am full of myself, God can't fill me. But when I empty myself, God has a useful vessel. He made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant.

Matthew 20:28: "Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." There's been a lot said about serving. I'm not going to work all of that over and over today. Let me just say this: I do not find "servant spirit" in the Word of God. If it is, you can share it with me; I didn't find it. Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough for it. I just see a Holy Spirit, and then I see a man called Jesus who went about His ministry serving. That's what I see. I think a lot of times it's a whole lot easier to point to somebody and say, "Oh, well, they have — you know, I don't have that spirit, so I don't have to serve." If you have the Holy Ghost, you better be serving. If you have the Holy Ghost, you better be serving. Because never forget that the world measures a man by how many serve him, but heaven measures a man by how many are served by him.

And we look in the Word of God: it says He "was made in the likeness of men." He was made in the likeness of men. It's one thing for us to say that we're made in the image of God — that's great. But it's another thing for Him to say, "I became like them." He stooped way down. The question is: what are we too good to do?

Philippians 2: "And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself." Never forget that true humility brings power, and false humility can be smelled a mile away. Pride is wreaking havoc in the church world today. Obviously, there are people that have forgotten that God resists the proud. When you look at First Peter 5:5: "Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble." I don't know about you: I need grace. I need piles of grace. But what I see in the Word of God: I'll never get it unless I'm getting it on the road of humility. And I need grace. Therefore, I must deal with the pride in my life. Pride blocks the grace of God in our lives.

"And became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." The death of the cross represents, in vivid detail, the ultimate death to flesh. We have three major enemies in our lives, and it's the flesh, the world, and the devil. I have found that it's not a shortage of God that's my problem; it's an overabundance of flesh. It's not a God problem. It's not a God problem. I don't have a God problem. I have a flesh problem. But I do not have a God problem. Flesh is why ministry success is determined by some by brands and toys and trips and speaking engagements. Flesh is why we make ministry changes based primarily on church size, city size, and ultimately cheque size.

A side note to that is this: never make a life change or a ministry change until you've spent three days, seven days, ten days, twenty days, forty days fasting. What? How? There is no certain day count. You just make sure you've heard from God before you make a change, because the leading of the Spirit isn't always immediate advancement. Luke 4:1 shows us: "And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness."

Flesh is why we can read a list of conference speakers on mail-outs, or that Herald issue that lists all of the camps and the speakers, with disdain and envy. Flesh is why we use the word "accountability" without ever really being accountable. Flesh is why we accept good words from God through other people, but will be [offended] if somebody gives us a corrective word. Flesh is why we won't lovingly confront a brother or sister one on one, like the Bible clearly states in Matthew 18:15: "Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone." Alone. Alone. Flesh is why we build our teams on [gossip about] issues. Flesh is why I'll have a problem with Jeff, but Russ and Jeff and Brian, and on and on I could go, will know it before Jeff will know it. It's about flesh. Flesh is why we can launch character-assassinating emails. Flesh is why somebody can look at somebody and say, "I'm going to tell you this, but if you tell it, I'll call you a liar." Flesh is why we can tell people in our church teams that their role is to make us look good. Flesh is why we operate from that sly philosophy that it's easier to get forgiveness than permission. Flesh is why we live in our houses with our families as familiar strangers. It's nothing but flesh. It's flesh. It's flesh. That's what it is.

My problem is my flesh. My problem is not you. My problem's not my family. That's not my problem. My problem is my flesh. That is my problem. I understood this year — it just came to me so clear — that no one else can affect me. Not ultimately. Not ultimately, no one else. God became flesh. God allowed the power, the system for salvation. He touched my life. He gives me an opportunity to connect with Him. He will not allow my life to ultimately be placed in the hand of another human. There's so many times we want to blame this and that and the other, and we must deal with issues.

I appreciate what Sister Mickey said on the forum about professional counselors. And if you missed that forum, you need to get that forum this morning. I'm so thankful for Sharon Turner. She comes to our church every so often. We have a great— realize, thank God for that. She's helping me understand some of this layering business: inside layers, inside, like never — like I've never understood until I started talking to her. But let me say this: my issue is my flesh. It's ego, and it's flesh. And we need to get big enough to stand up, look in the mirror, and call it what it is. Call it what it is. Call it what it is. It's flesh.

A couple of years ago, in a Heart of Worship conference here at the POA, a Sister Bobbie [Shumake] made a comment that got my attention. She said this: "Anointing flows when ego goes." Anointing flows when ego goes.

Jesus made it clear in Matthew 16:24: "Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." When those words came out of His mouth — now, His disciples gasped. And if we would hear them, we would gasp also, because they knew that He wasn't talking about something hanging on somebody's neck or a tattoo. What we must understand is this: there is a need to die to our flesh. There is a modern-day need for a personal cross. Now, I know that this is hard to grasp, in a land of self-indulgence, and the task of dragging a cross up into anyone's lives these days is monumental. But the cross is needed, even though it's shunned. It's needed because the flesh is a major enemy of the Spirit. Therefore it must die. Therefore it must die. That's why Jesus said, "Take up your cross," because flesh only responds to denial and crucifixion. If you don't believe that, miss a few days of eating, and see what your flesh starts doing to you.

Jesus speaks to our instinctive selfishness. Our selfish ambitions to rise above others. Our selfish behavior to get what we want, when we want it. Our selfish attitudes of caring only for our own interest. What does it mean to deny ourselves? First, we need to see ourselves in our flesh for what it really is. It's a wolf that wants to devour everything. And to deny it means: don't feed it. To deny that flesh means don't feed it. It's a fight to die. And we fight as we deny, and we crucify.

There are basically two predominant enemies of the cross in my life: it's me, and then it's others. So, as I look at my own life — how will I deny, in my own life? I must — you know, and I realize I'm talking to pastors who've been pastoring longer than I've been born. And we have officials; we have great men. But I've just got to go with what I felt. It's basic. It's practical. It's just day in, day out. So what must we do? We must deny reading books or magazines that stimulate thoughts that are opposed to the things of God. We must deny daydreaming about having more things, or controlling people. We must not put anything in front of our eyes that feeds lustful impulses. We must not hang out with people who drag us down and offer us selfish meat. We must not talk about people and things, and ourselves, in a downward way. We must deny gossiping and criticizing and cursing and lying and stealing, and acting selfishly in any way or form. We must deny — or crucify. I'm telling you, that is not easy to do. That is not easy to do.

Then there's the predominant enemy of others. Many times the greatest obstacles to self-crucifixion will come from those closest to us. You see, when one person in a group, or one person in a house, starts to die, it affects everybody else in the house. We understand that. My father passed away; it affected us all, made us all very uncomfortable. My father-in-law passed away; it affected us all. When someone starts to die in the natural, we know — we've experienced it; many have experienced it. But in the spiritual, it's the same way. There are many that have been cast out or jeered because of their death choice. Death makes it uneasy on those who are not dying. It's real uneasy, whenever somebody decides, "I'm going to die. I'm going to die." It makes it very uneasy on everybody else that's close, because you just can't go through life normal with someone dying by your side.

Matthew 16:24: "Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." But if you're going to get the point there, you've got to back it up to verse 21: "From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed." Verse 22: "Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee." Peter loved Him. He didn't want Him to die. And then Jesus looked—

—at him and said, "Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." Jesus' harshest words were to call Simon "Satan," and the reason He did it was because he was trying to keep Him from His cross. What we must understand: our harshest reaction need not be to people who cut us off in traffic, or are not as committed at church as we want them to be, or people that bug us, or people that don't go about our style, our way. Our harshest reaction should be to those that are trying to keep us from our personal cross. Because flesh must die. Flesh must die. As a matter of fact, the first thing on our agenda every morning should simply be: die.

Jesus was very serious about dying. John 10:10: "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." I can't get off on abundance, because what people have in their mind right now, in this day and time, about abundance is sickening. We're clueless. I mean: yeah, toys, stuff — bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, more, more, MORE. That's not what Jesus — when Jesus is talking about abundant life, He's not talking about four cars. Now, if you've got four cars, if you have ten, that's not my point. I'm not here to get on your lifestyle. That's not my point. That's not my place. I'm just saying, when He's saying abundant life, He's not talking about abundance the way we tend to look at abundance. I submit this: that abundant life is only possible through abundant death. We can have an abundance of things without abundant death, but we can't have abundant life without abundant death. Abundant life is only possible by abundant death.

In the first part of this year, I spent a lot of time preaching about the kingdom of God. I was preaching on Wednesday night. I was teaching, I was teaching, preaching — whatever I do, I don't even know what I do. And I was going to speak about the kingdom and persecution. And so that morning, as I was awakening — this is one way God speaks to me, and I love it when He does; I wish He'd do it more often — what will happen is, about the time that I'm waking up, I'll start dreaming. Sometimes I'll see myself standing here, and I'm preaching. Or I'll see myself teaching in my class, and I literally hear what I'm saying. And I kind of wake up like that. I wish that would happen more often. I wish every morning it would be like that. It's not like that every morning. Well, the morning I was going to preach on kingdom and persecution, I was awakened by this Scripture: Acts 1:8. Now, you know the setting for Acts 1:8 — Acts 1:4 and 7 [track: 'acts 4 and 7'] — Jesus assembled with them. He's about to ascend. These are some of the last words Jesus said. Right — Acts 1:8, on the same page, some of the last words. And so I was going to preach kingdom and persecution, and I was awakened with this Scripture: "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." "And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight."

So I'm thinking, "Whoa — either I've got the wrong message for tonight, or something." And so, when I couldn't figure anything out, I went to the Word of God and just started doing a word study on each word, to try to figure it out. When I hit "witnesses," all the lights started going off, because I didn't know this. Now, I asked a lot of people — "Did you know this, Memphis? Did you know this?" [the track twice renders the addressee as 'Memphis'; unverified] — and the only three people that I talked to that said yeah was Sister Maggie, and Royce Wilson, and [another]. And I'm sure if I talked to a lot of you — I didn't know it. I didn't know that "witnesses" there means martyr. Didn't know that. So when I went back to this, I said: "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: ye shall be martyrs unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in Judaea, and in Samaria." The Holy Ghost was given to us for more than an initial euphoric experience. That's right. The Holy Ghost desires to work in our lives to where we arrive at a level where it is all about kingdom advancement and not personal survival. You see, that network that started when we were born again — if you lock it there, then that's like celebrating Christmas all the time. Just, you know, Jesus — cute Jesus in a manger. People are very comfortable with cute Jesus. Now, throne Jesus? No, no — they don't want any of that. Well, that's the way we do the Holy Ghost. But if the Holy Ghost — apostolics, we scream about the Holy Ghost: "Got to have the Holy Ghost!" Go ahead — and the Spirit will shut it down. Well, why don't we allow the Spirit to continually do in our life — because the Word says that if the Holy Ghost has — you go back — if you'll allow it to have its full work in you, you won't have to survive. You won't have to survive. I'm seeking to live on a level that is not dominated by self-preservation — where it doesn't bother me what someone said. I'm not there yet. I'm working on it. Where it doesn't bother me what someone says about me, or does to me, or my system, or my dream, or my way of thinking, or my preference. You see, I don't have time. Time's running out. I'm bringing in for a landing.

But we talked about this: knowing God, and being intimate with God. And we must know God, and we must be intimate with God. But it's against the law for an adult to get intimate with a child. And I believe that what the Spirit of God is trying to say to us is: grow up. Grow up. Grow up. Live on a level where it doesn't throw me, nor does it provide me with my needed topic or cause for the week, month, year, a decade — whenever someone says something about me — where I can be a witness and martyr for Him. And I know this: I have a long way to go.

I'd like to close with this. Revelation 5:11 and 12: "And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing." If you really want to get the power of that, you need to slow down verse 12: "Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive." Slain to receive. Slain to receive. The big question is this: what in our lives are we willing to have slain, to receive what God wants to give us?

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." We must have the mind of Christ.