LanceCB

January 15, 2019January 22, 2019

Harmony of the Body of Christ

The Ecclesia is collectively the Body of Christ. This is undisputed in its apostolic doctrine. With that said, I want to say, what we have come to know as the “Church’ and what the scriptures declare to be the “Ecclesia’ are NOT the same thing. The “Church’ as we know it will never be united and the Ecclesia will make an exodus from the Church before she, the Ecclesia, can be united.

One of the mandates of Holy Spirit, through the 5-fold gifts & anointings, is to bring unity to the Ecclesia. For that unity to manifest, Holy Spirit has begun to lead each member of the body to a place of complete submission to His voice. To avoid any confusion in what I am speaking of; let me be clear; we will NEVER achieve maturity in the body of Christ simply reading the scriptures. We will NEVER achieve maturity in the body of Christ through preaching sermons. We will NEVER achieve maturity in the body of Christ through self-improvement. There is only one avenue by which unity and maturity will be achieved in the Ecclesia, and that is through divine intervention of Holy Spirit.

Consider this analogy; before a child learns to walk, the child lacks the maturity in its body parts (members) to command them to facilitate the act of walking. At a certain time in their development, their maturity produces the harmony within its members to walk. Though each of its members is not doing the same thing or serving the same function, the agreement between each member to fulfill the objectives of walking is evident.

The ultimate objective of the natural body, at any given moment, is determined by the soul that occupies that body. Once a decision is made, each member of the body instantly understands what is expected of it. Communication within the body is systemically recognized by each member concerning what is expected of it to execute the decision. For example, when the decision is made to run, every member in the body is simultaneously engaged to produce the activity of running.

Likewise, each individual member of the Body of Christ may not be doing the same thing, neither are they necessarily serving the same function; but each member is systemically connected through Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit has been given the mandate to ensure that each member of the body knows what is expected from them concerning our Father’s will. In this season, Holy Spirit has begun to do two unique things that, heretofore, has not been done in the kingdom or the Body of Christ. First, He has begun to bring about a level of maturity, that is necessary for the manifestation of the sons of God. This manifestation will bring about an authority to command the kingdom that has not been manifested since our Lord’s earthly dwelling. The sons are being positioned to implement the will of our Father with authority, accuracy, independence, and without apology. Second, He is declaring truths that have never been heard by the Ecclesia.

Authority

The maturity Holy Spirit is delivering to the Ecclesia will manifest the authority our Father has always intended us to have but has determined this season to hand it over to us. Holy Spirit has begun to instruct us in the responsibility and accountability that comes with this authority. The Ecclesia is beginning to hear Holy Spirit say things to them that are causing questions they have never asked before. They are beginning to reject the old wine represented by the message of grace and are beginning to inquire of the Lord concerning taking possession of their inheritance.

Accuracy

The Ecclesia is understanding the distinction of the Father’s voice clearly and accurately. We are hearing exactly what our Father is saying when He says it, and with the sense of urgency, He is saying it. This is necessary for this season because we have lost the luxury of a hit and miss attitude. The urgency of the season mandates that we get it right the first time. We have entered the season excessively wicked men and the kingdom must be defended with the power of the “proceeding Word’ not the written Word of scripture.

Independence

Our Father has called us to a place of independence. A place that requires that we understand his perfect will. A place that we understand that we are being asked to do His will in the earth and not Him doing his will in the earth. A place that we will not be allowed to ask his permission for every step we take. We have been led to a place that we are being asked to take full responsibility for what we say in his name and what we do in his name.

Without Apology

Finally, these things must be done without apology. We are being asked to operate in the spirit of the lion, not the lamb. The season of the lamb has been fulfilled and the season of the lion has emerged. The offense of others has taken a secondary concern with respect to our Father’s will for the occasion. We no longer have the mandate, neither should we feel the necessity to give concern about our confidence, arrogance, or audaciousness. Because the clarity and accuracy of our Father’s Word has become available to us at every turn, we can speak with authority, accuracy, independence and without apology.

Those who are unwilling or have become too fearful to wholly submit to the guidance of Holy Spirit, will not enter this place of harmony and unity in our Father (Yahweh). These will continue to hope in this religious system we have come to know as the church. These will become the foolish virgins, the goat, the bad fish, the chaff. Those who will wholly submit will become the wise virgins, the sheep, the good fish, the wheat.

Let him that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the Ecclesia.

December 1, 2018December 2, 2018

Where did the word “Church” come from?

At the risk of sounding like one of those zealots, it is time that we begin to openly draw a distinction between our Lord’s Ecclesia and Constantine’s Church. All of us that are serious about our relationship with our Father and our walk of faith have recited, or at the very least heard it recited, the statement Jesus spoke to Simon Peter: “And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”. When we read the word “church” in this passage, we immediately begin to visualize a building or a group of buildings—because that is how we’ve come to understand “church” as we know it—and equate that to what Jesus said as written in the quoted passage. Or perhaps we envision a group of people that congregate in a building on Sundays or some other day during the week.

For the last 406 years, most of the Christian world has been conditioned by the teachings of the King James Version (KJV) of the Holy Bible. For the most part, this translation has served a very important role in shaping the ideals and beliefs of people and nations around the world. For the purposes of this article, I want to address a specific point of conflict with the way the KJV text translated a particular word from its original use. That point is this: “how did the word ‘ecclesia’ get replaced with the word ‘church’”? The answer to this question will no doubt offend some and open the eyes of others. Nonetheless, it is a question that anyone who is serious about their walk of faith should consider.

One of the other agendas of the KJV translators was the change of the word “ecclesia” to the word “church”.

During the creation of the KJV one of the mandates of King James I of England to his team of translators was that they were to ensure that the new version would conform to the ecclesiology (that is, simply put, the doctrinal beliefs, architecture, and adornment) and reflect the Episcopal (Bishop’s oversight) structure of the Church of England and its belief in an ordained clergy. If this was the only instruction to the translators, it alone would have been enough to call into question the purity of their finished work, or at the very least, it would lead to the inevitable concern about a hidden agenda regarding the final work. But this was not the only coercion. One of the other agendas of the translators was the change of the word “ecclesia” to the word “church”. I’ll deal with “ecclesia” later in this article. For now, let’s focus our attention on the word substituted in the place of “ecclesia”.

“Church” was originally used by Emperor Constantine when he made Christianity the state religion of Rome around 310 A.D. Thus the word “church” became the standard of assembly for the Christian religion, and has continued to be used this way ever since. By the time of the creation of the KJV, the word church presented itself as a satisfactory pawn for King James to perpetuate the superiority of the English monarchy over the Kingdom government of the Body of Christ.

Throughout the KJV translation, the word “church” was substituted for the Latin word “ecclesia”. These two words do not mean the same thing, neither do they derive from a common word; in fact, they convey two significantly different understandings. In short, the translators of the KJV deliberately altered the meaning of critical passages of scripture to divert the reader’s and believer’s understanding as it pertains to who Jesus declared them to be, and what our position in the Kingdom of Heaven truly is.

The word “church” was substituted 112 times for the word “ecclesia”

The word “church” was substituted 112 times for the word “ecclesia”. There are three other translations of the same word into the word “assembly”. One could easily become suspicious as to why these three instances were not also translated “church”. Given that the words do not mean the same thing, why would the translators make such an obvious alteration to the “Holy Scriptures”? The exact answer cannot be definitively concluded, but it is not hard to arrive at a reasonable conjecture of a deliberate agenda to alter our understanding of our Kingdom position relative to the state’s desire to maintain control of the Christian religion.

So what does the word “church” really mean? In the earlier Greek, it was pronounced “kuriakos” or “kuriakon.” The meaning of ” kuriakos ” is understood by its root, ” kuriakos,” which means “lord.” Thus, “kuriakos” (i.e.,”church”) means “pertaining to the lord.” It refers to something that pertains to or belongs to, a lord. (Note the usage of the lowercase letter “L” here”¦this particular usage refers to someone having power, authority, or influence over someone, and generally refers to someone in the position of a master or ruler in an established monarchy.) The Greek “kuriakos” eventually came to be used in Old English form as “cirice” (kee-ree-ke), then “churche” (kerke), and eventually “church” in its traditional pronunciation. Church from its original Old English meaning referred to a public place of worship.

Paul and Silas was not building churches they were establishing the Ecclesia!

Now let’s look at the word “ecclesia”. Ecclesia [from medieval Latin and Greek, meaning “summoned” or “called out”] means “a regularly convoked assembly”, especially the general assembly of Athenians. It was the name given to the governmental assembly of the city of Athens, duly convoked by proper officers and possessing all political power including even juridical functions. Consider Acts 17:1-7, and in particular verse 7: “Whom Jason hath received: and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus”. We can see here that what Paul and Silas were doing was inciting insurrection among all those that would hear and believe their preaching. They were not trying to change Judaism, they were establishing the ecclesia.

The Ecclesia is NOT the “church”. This is something that believers have been told since the days of Constantine, in order to exercise control over us and to keep us from understanding the true identity of our dominion. We, the Ecclesia, are the governing body of our Lord in the Kingdom of Heaven. Now, in this season, Holy Spirit is once again raising up voices to give understanding to the Ecclesia”¦that we are not “the church” as we have been told. He is revealing to us that we must come out of this Constantinian religious system and begin to embrace our true sonship, our inheritance, and our authority as heirs of righteousness and heirs of promise.

In this season, those who are hungry for the truth of our identity will begin to hear the sound of the call to the Ecclesia. I encourage you to pursue that sound as it will lead you to its source: Holy Spirit! There you will find the truth of who you were created to be. There you will find true worship of your Father in heaven. There you will find your place in the Godhead. Don’t be afraid of what you begin to hear. Holy Spirit will not allow you to be misled or seduced. He will guide you into ALL Truth.

BLESSINGS!

November 29, 2018

Why the Church Needs to Refocus on the Concept of Sanctification

Sanctification belongs to our Father in Heaven. Being sanctification is freely offered to the heirs of righteousness. It is given to us as part of our inheritance, which comes by salvation. It is our Father’s perfect will for us, that we are sanctified. By the proclamation of our Lord, who is the pillar of all that is our inheritance, we are sanctified through the truth of our Father in heaven. We are set apart from all that is in the world; from all that is not of faith; and from all that is unbelief. Heaven sent sanctification is not with rituals of behavior or customs of tradition; neither is it self-imposed separation from the world. While separation from the world is commanded by our Lord and is a result of sanctification, it is important for us to understand how this separation is accomplished. Sanctification comes when we hear the truth and we obey that truth. Truth is living and it is universal. Self-imposed sanctification only leads to dead works. Our Father’s truth is alive. It is as alive as the life we live. His truth is subject only to his perfect will. Our Lord admonished us that our Father’s Word is truth when he said: “Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth”. We are set apart from the world not by self-imposed, artificial rituals and practices; but rather by the truth that makes us free.

Church leaders throughout the ages have received truth from Holy Spirit, only to fall victim to holding on to what was received so passionately, they become unwilling, or even unable, to embrace the followup enlightenment when it arrived. Consider the Word of God concerning circumcision! Circumcision was once the primary distinction whereby a Hebrew identified their relationship with God. Circumcision was believed, and it was followed. Circumcision was mandated as a sign of the covenant God made with Abraham. It was later ritualized under the Levitical Laws. However, once grace arrived, and faith by grace, circumcision became a symbol of not having faith. Apostle Paul wrote; “for in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love”. So, if that which was once the standard of a relationship with God, has now become that which hinders what God is doing, how much more is that which He is doing now, greater than that which has been replaced?

If we say we have all the truth that our Father has, or that there is no more truth that He will give, then we make Him a liar. If that which we have is the conclusion of God’s revelation, then of necessity Holy Spirit did not need to be sent. For what do the scriptures say? “When the spirit of truth is come he will lead us into all truth; and show us things to come”. Now the things to come are not limited to the writing of the apostles of old, but every generation is beset with the mandate to understand the things set before them and to peer into the things to be. Each generation must be willing to embrace things that have been hidden until now. If they have been hidden from generations past and have been reserved for the present generation, then of necessity Holy Spirit must expose what has been hidden in days past. It is incumbent upon present apostolic leaders, to avail themselves to the unction of Holy Spirit to speak those things She is revealing to the generation at hand.

I further make the case, which even now, we do not have all the truth that was spoken through the apostles of old. Even our own canon speaks of truths that have been lost to antiquity. If in fact, we accept Apostle Paul as a vessel of truth through which Holy Spirit has spoken; where he makes mention of an epistle he wrote to the Corinthian church, that to this present day has been hidden from the Ecclesia even our present generation. If then, the truth that was scribed in this lost epistle was inspired by Holy Spirit, and I believe it was, then it is clear we do not have all that was given by Holy Spirit. Further, the epistle written to the Colossians makes reference to an epistle Apostle Paul wrote to the Laodiceans. This epistle to has been hidden from generations that followed.

Beloved let us not stifle the ministry of Holy Spirit because we are unwilling to allow Her to freely give us the things She has received from our Father and our Christ. She is our comforter. Lest you mistake my boldness as skepticism of the scriptures; I say boldly, the scriptures are the Word of our Father, but all of our Father’s Word is not in the scriptures we have. Therefore, I submit my spirit to Holy Spirit who delivered the Word that admonishes us that lack wisdom, to ask God for wisdom and God will give it liberally to all who ask because we ask in faith and don’t waiver.

Contemporary leaders are always charged with “Who hath ears to hear let him hear”. We must never become so beholden to what has been done that we are unable or unwilling to receive what is being done now. Some have concluded there is nothing new, and all things that will be has already been. We embrace this understanding because Solomon said it in the writings of Ecclesiastes. We’ve been told from the writings of Solomon; there is no new thing under the sun. Even as Solomon has declared nothing new under the sun, Isaiah admonished us to forget about the former things and do not consider the things of old because Jehovah was doing a new thing. Is this a contradiction? On the contrary, it’s actually moving on from truth in a previous generation to truth in the contemporary generation. Isaiah wrote after Solomon and declared what

Jehovah was speaking in his generation. Even so, must we be bold to break free from the captivity of what was written aforetime to declare the wonderful truth that is being spoken in our generation? The things that were written aforetime were written for our learning, they were not written to incarcerate in a time before us. All truth begins with the Son, who gives it to Holy Spirit, who gives it to us. Thus, by authority given to me as a good steward of this gospel, I declare to you, Yeshua is Lord of Lords and King of Kings and in Him, we are transformed into the sons of the kingdom and heirs of righteousness. Amen!

November 9, 2018

Living H2O

Water is an essential for the Acholi tribe. They line up at the well, they walk for a day to fill jugs then carry them home, they use the Nile for commerce and transportation via canoe. Water is a necessity for all tribes of the world. Our bodies were made to need water. In the Western culture, some people live on sugary drinks like iced tea, flavored coffee drinks, coca cola, even juices.

If I bathe in Coca Cola, I will be sticky and I’ll need another bath. If I wash my hands in fruit juice, my hands will taste good but they will need to be re-washed. And yet we spend oodles of money on liquids that do not give us the refreshment we need. People can even become addicted to some of these things mentioned.

That is also true in our walk as a Christian. We can pick and choose things to live by. We can choose things that aren’t the best; they can distract us from God’s Word. Those not so “good things” can cause us to sin.

In John 4: 13-15, Jesus met a woman who was coming to get water from a well much like the wells we have in Uganda. The woman knew Jesus was thirsty but Jesus knew the woman needed a water that did not come from a well.

“Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

The Living Water of Jesus never dries up, it never gets polluted, it cleans us from sin, and it’s Eternal. Let’s drink Jesus’ water and be like a water fountain that overflows with love each day.

November 9, 2018January 14, 2019

Goodlife Magazine Receives 2018 Best of Marietta Award

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Goodlife Magazine Receives 2018 Best of Marietta Award

Marietta Award Program Honors the Achievement

MARIETTA October 18, 2018 — Goodlife Magazine has been selected for the 2018 Best of Marietta Award in the Publisher category by the Marietta Award Program.

Each year, the Marietta Award Program identifies companies that we believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and our community. These exceptional companies help make the Marietta area a great place to live, work and play.

Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2018 Marietta Award Program focuses on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the Marietta Award Program and data provided by third parties.

About Marietta Award Program

The Marietta Award Program is an annual awards program honoring the achievements and accomplishments of local businesses throughout the Marietta area. Recognition is given to those companies that have shown the ability to use their best practices and implemented programs to generate competitive advantages and long-term value.

The Marietta Award Program was established to recognize the best of local businesses in our community. Our organization works exclusively with local business owners, trade groups, professional associations and other business advertising and marketing groups. Our mission is to recognize the small business community’s contributions to the U.S. economy.

SOURCE: Marietta Award ProgramCONTACT:GOODlife MagazineEmail: info@goodlifemagazine.orgURL: www.goodlifemagazine.org

Facebook: www.facebook.com/goodlifechristian

July 1, 2017January 1, 2018

Isolation

So, I started going to a new gym recently. It has locks on the lockers already, pretty cool huh, one less thing you have to remember to bring. The only thing is, the other day, I locked myself out. I didn’t lock myself out when I was in my workout clothes, no, that would be too easy. I locked myself out after that after I came back from the showers in nothing but a towel.

Yeah. So, I was pretty embarrassed I’m standing there in a towel that barely covers all of my important parts, trying to see if I could jimmy my way into the locker. I mean in the movies you can break into anything with only a towel on so why couldn’t I?

Yeah, so after my towel nearly fell off I walked around the locker room looking for someone who worked there. I went to the bathroom. I tried to look like I knew what I was doing because I was so embarrassed to be stuck in a towel in this stupid locker room! Finally, I decided to try to call the front desk because no way in heck was I leaving this locker room in a towel.

The phone didn’t connect. I could feel my face getting red. I was alone. I was in the midst of perfectly fit women, and my hot mess self couldn’t figure out how to even work the flippin locker. I was calling myself all sorts of names in my head. Finally, I broke down; I asked another woman if she could get someone to let me into my locker.

She did, she didn’t even laugh at me. Instead, she told me she did the same thing earlier. Then another woman around the corner said that she had just done the same thing the day before.

I still felt embarrassed, but ya know what, it helped to know that I wasn’t alone.

See, that’s where the devil wants us, especially us Mama’s who are raising the next generation. He wants us thinking that we are alone, that we are isolated, and that we carry shame all on our own.

That’s not what God wants from us though. God calls us for fellowship, hospitality, and to love one another. We need people around us to not only keep us on the path of righteousness but to keep us from thinking that we are alone on this journey.

Isolation is one of the best tools the devil uses to try to devour his prey.

Let’s be really real here; this Motherhood stuff can be hard. We love with all our hearts these little humans that also drive us so crazy we are ready to pull our hair out. I’ve heard it said that “Motherhood isn’t for the faint of heart.” I feel like that statement is the understatement of the year.

Every kid, typical or special needs have their own challenges. Every mother no matter what her circumstances have her own set of challenges. I feel like some of us get lost there though. We realize that we have it hard, we realize that our life is difficult, and we think no one else can understand. We don’t want anyone else to think that we don’t love our kids as much as we do. Maybe we don’t want people to know that our children aren’t perfect.

So we don’t share our struggle. So we keep it all inside. So we put on a front for the whole world and let no one in. I’ve got news for you, no one’s kid is perfect. Even the family that seems so put together, even that family has struggled. One of their struggles may be is that no one takes them seriously when they are trying to share their struggle.

Isolation is so easy to fall into when you enter Motherhood.

You can be a mother who thinks she has it all together or at least one who wants everyone else to think she has it all together, so you get your info from the internet instead of asking a friend that has maybe already walked down a similar path. You may be the mother who feels like she’s never good enough and is just ashamed of how much she feels she’s messing up, so you won’t dare ask anyone for help, for fear of judgment. You could be a mother anywhere in between those two, just afraid of someone thinking less, so you isolate yourself.

I wrote about my struggle for asking for help in my book “They Call Me Mom” in a chapter about never asking for help.It’s important that every single one of you reading this know that you are not meant to do this alone. No matter how much you think your life is hard or that no one will understand, God meant us for fellowship. We all must find someone who we can trust.

Don’t fall into the lie that you are the only one in this circumstance.

Read Ecclesiastes 4:9-10