Spirit Savvy Business

Great by Choice ... What is Prayer?

2012-01-27T11:09:00.000-08:00

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

Great by Choice by Jim Collins (author of Good to Great) answers the question,
"Why do some companies thrive in uncertainty, even chaos,
and others do not?"
His study included companies over a 15-plus year span who exceeded stock market results, even through turbulent times, uncontrollable events, beginning their rise to greatness from positions of vulnerability, being young and/or small at the start. These were 10X companies, companies who thrived while others like them with similar circumstances and industries did not. Their distinction was leading their industry index by 10 times.

They had some initial surprises, thinking they may be more risk takers although they were actually more disciplined, more empirical, and more paranoid. They were not distinctively innovated, but the 10Xers scaled innovations by blending creativity with discipline. At first they thought, they would find speedy, fast companies to keep pace with a fast world. Instead, it was a good way to get killed. 10Xers would figure out when to go fast and when not to. Radical change was not there either. 10Xers changed less in reaction to their changing world. To succeed you need a lot of good luck they thought initially, where the 10xers didn't generally have more luck in comparison to others.

What they did find with the 10Xers compared to their less successful companies.... the 10Xers were not more creative, visionary, charismatic, ambitious, blessed by luck, risk seeking, heroic, making big bold moves. They did have this triad of core behaviors:
fanatic discipline,
empirical creativity,
and productive paranoia.

Fanatic Discipline: displaying extreme consistency of action they were 20 mile marchers. Based on John Brown's 20 Mile March, they kept pace, 20 miles a day... not more, but on tough days relentless to make it the 20 miles. Performance was a discipline, keeping each day in a band of activity... not above the high bar, not below the low bar... but always in the band between bars. A good 20 Mile March uses performance markers along the way, self-imposed restraints, tailored to the enterprise and its environments, within your control to succeed, a Goldilocks time frame that is not too short or too long, designed and self imposed by the enterprise, that must be achieved with great consistency. A 20 Mile March wins because it builds confidence to win in adverse circumstances, reduces the risk of catastrophe when hit by turbulent times, and helps you exert self-control in an out-of-control environment.

Empirical creativity. Fire bullets then cannonballs. Discipline alone does not make greatness, but the combination of discipline with creativity. Blend creative intensity with relentless discipline so to amplify the creativity and not destroy it. When marrying operations excellence with innovation, you multiply the value of your creativity... that's what the 10Xers do. Don't use up all your gunpowder on a big cannonball at your target at first. If it misses you are out of ammunition. Shoot bullets, if you miss, recalibrate and shoot again until you know you are on target. Then make your cannonball. In other words don't use up your resources too early. Methodically, adjust until you know your are hitting the target you want. A bullet is low cost, low risk, and low distraction. When you know you can hit the target, make the cannonball acquisition, the big market move. So you follow a combination of activities. Fire bullets, assess if your bullet hit anything, do any bullets merit conversion to a cannonball, convert resources to fire a cannonball, don't fire uncalibrated cannonballs, terminate bullets that show no evidence of eventual success.

Productive paranoia: A business curve has good events and bad events, but never hit the death line. That's the line you hit where you can't return. Productive paranoia prepares for the unexpected( i.e., cash reserves) and bad luck before it happens, asymmetric risk and uncontrollable risk (manage time risk), and being hyper vigilant to sense changing conditions and respond effectively. It's being paranoid in good times and bad times, considering worst case scenarios and being ready for them if they happen. The 10Xers build buffers and shock absorbers to deal with unexpected events. Have the oxygen canisters ready. The 10Xers think first, even when they need to think fast. It's what you do before the storm hits that matters. They are extremely prudent in handling risk: death line risk that will terminate the business, asymmetric risk where the downside dwarfs the upside, uncontrollable risk which cannot be controlled or manage. Always be aware of the time you have and resources available.

The 10Xers followed the SMaC recipe... Specific, Methodical, and Consistent. SMaC is a set of practices more enduring than mere tactics. SMaC practices can last for decades across a wide range of circumstances. The signature of mediocrity is chronic inconsistency. Define specific, methodical and consistent practices for all areas of the business. These give clear guidance on what to do and what not to do. What should you do in all areas, with SMaC for each area, is a specific, methodical, and consistent list of practices. Managing the tension between consistency and change is one of the great challenges for any human enterprise. When you evaluate your SMaC for an area exercise empirical creativity (firing bullets not cannon balls), and exercise productive paranoia(zoom out, then zoom in). A detailed chapter worth reading in its entirety.

Where does luck come in the picture. The 10Xers, compared to similar businesses, did not get more good luck, less bad luck, good luck earlier on, or be defined by a giant spike. The difference that the 10Xers got was a high return on good luck. And the bad luck was not catastrophic, it didn't end the game. Many 10Xers credited much of their success to good luck, but they managed it well, and they made sure bad luck never set them back.

The greatest leaders they studied cared as much about values as victory, purpose as profit, and being useful as successful. We are not imprisoned by circumstances, luck, fairness, crushing setbacks, mistakes or our past success. We can only control a small sliver of what happens to us, but we are always free to choose.
More on Great by Choice at
http://www.jimcollins.com/

In any business venture, the power of prayer by two or more uniting in Spirit, brings results beyond natural events. It provides power to overcome challenges, and it keeps us humble when we have overwhelming victories. Prayer keeps us level and with God's Spirit in control.

The Biz Prayer Network, Facebook, features views and instructions on making prayer work, and understanding on what prayer is.
Here are some excerpts from the Biz Prayer Network.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Biz-Prayer-Network/26330243509

Prayer is entering His Inner Chamber. We, through Jesus the Christ, have the privilege to come directly into His most Holy Place and be with God, talk personally to Him, and have intimacy with Him. This is a heart-throbbing opportunity, a wonder, a joy of Living in constant relationship with God, The Spirit, and Jesus our Lord ( Andrew Murray).

"The word “prayer” really means “a wish directed towards,” that is, towards God. All that true prayer seeks is God Himself, for with Him we get all we need. Prayer is simply “the turning of the soul to God.” David describes it as the lifting up of the living soul to the living God. “Unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.”( Psalm 25:1) (Unknown Christian)

In prayer God gives us His Inspired ideas; in prayer the Spirit directs us on strategies on how to carry out the ideas; in prayer we acquire the boldness, power, gifts to act on the ideas. When we move in faith, favor precedes us and the battle is carried out before us, and victory is being won before we walk in the door. Our faith is expressed in action, our victory won with the Spirit going before us. This is what God was saying to Joshua... be bold, be strong, for the Lord your God is with you. It all originates in prayer.

God deploys us to ask...."“Verily, verily I say unto you, he that believes on Me, the works that I do shall he also do; and greater works than these shall he do, ask in My name, that will I do ask whatsoever ye will, so shall ye be My disciples." These words are of such grave importance, and so momentous. He urges His disciples to obey His command “to ask.” In fact, He tells us that one sign of us being His “friends” will be the obedience to His commands in all things. (The Unknown Christian)

In your prayer time, and schedule a prayer time, take time to linger in His Presence. Praise, worship, worshipful music is good to have in the background. Speak affectionately to God, telling Jesus you love Him. Speak softly and slowly (this is an intimate time, so you don't need to be shouting to the Lord, now, i must admit that may have its time and place). Be brief and use short phrases to communicate as well as long speeches, speak minimally which is to listen more than talk.

Long speeches may do more for you than your prayer, but God understands. He is not into evaluating your technique in prayer. It's the sincerity of the heart that matters.

At times just be silent and rest in His Presence, with pauses between what you say. What pops in your brain at these times, may very well be the Lord speaking to you. Act on these impressions. Waiting on God has its value in this: it makes us strong in work for God. The second reveals the secret of this strength. ‘God works for Him who waits for Him.’ The waiting on God secures the working of God for us and in us, out of which our work must spring. The two passages teach the great lesson, that as waiting on God lies at the root of all true working for God, so working for God must be the fruit of all true waiting on Him (Andrew Murray).

How to Click with People ... creating power in relationships

2011-12-30T06:32:00.000-08:00

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

How to Click with People by Rick Kirschner teaches communications for the 21st Century mind... our ways of thinking, and styles of communication. Clicking starts with resonating. With some the vibes just line up. When we meet, the first thing we consider is are we blending... naturally copying the other person. We notice it in our gestures, stories, body language, space, rate of speech, tone and volume. When we see similarities, we begin to blend.

How do we become great at clicking?

Curiosity and appreciation of differences stir blending, and click-ability grows. Clean up your past and keep in the present. Treat everyone equally. People are drawn to a person who reflects fairness. Be attentive to what's important to the person, such as family, hobbies, culture, work. Exude personal warmth by welcoming people into your space, note their space preferences. Look at people and let them see warmth in your eyes, your voice. Hold the other person at the center of attention. Let them know that you care about them and why, and show that in your relationships with warmth.

Listen before you talk. Back track and repeat what they shared, ask the right questions. Dumb questions assume too much, ask too little, give advice too soon. Seek relevancy of a person's thoughts. Ask why something is important to the person, and reason for sharing it. Even if you know the answer, ask, and let them tell you.

Observe the personality style of the person and match it. Four major types of people include action-based people...they talk about doing; accuracy-based people... they relate specifics; approval-based people.. caring and consideration is part of their tone; appreciation-based people... it's about their value. Match the style and you will click.

Kirschner goes on to explain how we click with people of different motivations...he reveals six kinds of motivations which include values, rewards, challenge, esteem, purpose and feelings.

One area of most current relevance is how to click when using the phone, email, social media. When on the phone make sure it is the right timing, use the person's name, match voice volume, talking speed, speaking rhythm, and energy. When using email, remember that everyone gets a lot of them. And because it's so easy to respond quickly, to take care of it, we may respond in haste, not thinking through what we say. Also, a weakness of email is tone, voice texture, facial expressions are not evident which hinders expressing true meaning. On email, be polite, use the subject line, keep it as brief as possible, frame your message(clear and concise information), put out flames, never send to a group without permission and when you do keep email addresses private. Watch the funny stuff... some attempts at humor can easily backfire on email.

On to social media, some ways to increase chances of connecting include: ask for recommendations, ask for a referral, recommend someone else, make a referral, make a connections. Keep in mind these five rules for networking on social media: Don't spam your network, don't be a stranger, you get out what you put in, instead of asking for something offer something, take it slow.

Look for the emotional click signals. When someone shows appreciation, offers an opportunity, or gives us some much needed attention, we know she likes us and we generally return the favor. We click with people we find attractive, charismatic people, those who we treat with respect, with people we like. Send signals of affinity (I like you) by leading with similarities, treating a person with respect, letting the other person know you like them, being charming naturally, and holding good eye contact. We size people up by comparing them to people we already know. People respond to authority, that's having confidence in yourself and ideas.

When we know we are clicking with someone then is the time to share your ideas. Keep it short and simple, put the most important information upfront, be specific, don't tell them everything, focus on goals(not process), choose familiar words. Use examples and back what you say with numbers. When you make your point, then point forward by focusing attention on what to do and why to do it. Repetition with conviction empowers your idea. People don't get it when they hear it once. But hearing it again, but in different ways, enforces the clicking process.

More on how to click with people, overcoming stumbling blocks, group click, and to sharpen up doing what you do to click, click to Rick Kirschner's website, the art of change.
http://theartofchange.com/

In Ephesians 4, The Apostle Paul outlines principles for creating powerful relationships. When these are applied to how we do all things, we see powerful results. So powerful that we see it is the very Power of God at work.

2. "Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love." Some things about others irritate us. When we show tolerance to the quirky behavior of others, it strengthens us as a unit.

3. "Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace." Jesus also emphasized that the peace makers will be recognized as God's Children. Our true relationship with God is revealed by this characteristic. People who can forge peace are moved up to positions of leadership.

15. "We will speak the truth in love." This relates to being gentle and humble in how we say things.

25. "So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth." It is popular to put a spin on what we say, to divert people from the truth. To speak to deceive is a greatly disliked by God. "You will destroy those who tell lies. The Lord detests murderers and deceivers." (Psalm 5:6) We are not to be misleading, but we are to be genuine and honest. 26. “Don’t sin by letting anger control you. Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil." When we lose control of speaking kindly, we can do great damage. This principle is critically important to click with anyone, and foster strong relationships.

29. "Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them." In some environments, abusive, coarse language is acceptable and even admired. It's ultimate impact is destruction of relationships and the diminishes the power of the group. The most life changing practice is to encourage everyone, everywhere, all the time. This builds strength and productive results... while increasing a spirit of unity, team identity.

31."Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. 32. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you."

So The Apostle Paul concludes his comments to remind us that having bitterness in our attitudes, rage, anger and harsh words, telling lies about others and spreading rumors, brings destruction. It can ruin our work relationships, friendships, home, the community where it happens...in the office, small business, or at the home.

If you do these three things, you will have harmony, power, productive relationships... be kind, be tenderhearted in all circumstances, and forgive people when they do error.

Follow this and you will not only click and find favor with people, you will build strong teams and partnerships that will make your efforts succeed. Our Power rests within our unity, the strength of the bond between us. When it's cemented in Spirit, we are mighty in our efforts.

18 Minutes... a Glimpse of Heaven

2011-11-27T11:33:00.000-08:00

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

18 Minutes by Peter Bregman is about reclaiming your life, creating a focus and mastering his 18 minute daily plan... getting the right things done. His plan will help you strategically structure your day so it's productive, satisfying, and a measurable step for fulfilling your focus for a year.

What's limiting you? The first step is to reduce forward momentum, slow down and start over. Pause and figure your next move. Regular rest steps are needed. We need to interrupt ourselves to create time and space to aim our efforts more accurately. Don't settle for being less than you are. It won't serve others and won't serve yourself.

Find your focus. It includes four elements... leverage your strengths, embrace your weaknesses, assert your differences, and pursue your passions. Consider the conditions of what you want to achieve, what you believe you can achieve, and what you will enjoy the most achieving. Focus the year on the things that matter to you. On the things that have specific meaning for you. Create a tunnel vision in the right direction. Failure will happen. Stay focused, learn, don't give up... it will pay off. The future is uncertain... keep moving.

Focus your year on five areas most important to you within business and your person life. Set up daily actions in each of the five areas. To get something done, decide when and where you are going to do it. Practice the three-day rule. Nothing stays on your list for more than three days. Continually clean up your list and do one of four things, do it immediately, schedule it, let it go, push it out to a someday/maybe list. Spend a few minutes at the end of each day thinking about what you learned and with whom you should connect to next.

And now, the featured section for why 18 Minutes was written.. 18-minute plan for managing your day. We start everyday, feeling we are not going to get everything done we would like to. It's good to plan ahead, create to-do lists, ignore lists, use our calendars. The hard part is execution. Everyday something gets in the road. The secret is... create a ritual. Bregman recommends we follow his ritual for managing our day. It will take 18 minutes a day.

Step 1 (5 minutes). Morning minutes. Go to your to-do list, and decide what will make this day highly successful. What can you realistically accomplish that at the end of the day you will feel productive and successful? Take the other things off your list and reschedule. Follow the three-day rule.

Step 2 (1 minute every hour). Refocus. Take one minute every hour and refocus. Set your watch or your phone to beep on the hour. This is your warning to stop, and ask yourself if you spent the last hour productively. Look at your calendar and recommit how you will use the next hour. Manage your day hour by hour. Don't let the day manage you.

Step 3 (5 minutes). Your evening minutes. Ask yourself how the day went, what you learned, who do I need to interact with? Who should I update, send an email, text... to make sure you are communicating with people.

This ritual is about getting the right things done. Done as a ritual it will increase your effectiveness in all you do... business and personal. The best skill is managing distractions. Control them and place them in proper place related to the most important activity. Resist the temptation to say yes too often, and when you say no mean it. Shorten transition times. We don't really multitask, we actually switch tasks. Some transitions take longer than others. Pick them wisely.

More from Peter Bregman at:
http://peterbregman.com/

Catching a Glimpse of Heaven by E. M. Bounds gives a thorough portrayal of the Biblical context of Heaven. Heaven will release us of all the troubles of this life. All the struggles, trials, pain, sorrow of earth will be gone. Jesus said He would go and prepare a place for us. And where He come, take us to that place, and He will be with us forever. What Jesus has done for us here, He will do for us in the other world. This rich food of Heaven has living foundations of bliss, knowledge, and light.

Life in its fullest will be there. It is an eternal life of the untold, unimagined, and brilliant glories of what is only in Heaven.

What is eternal life? Who can dream or imagine this life? Heaven has it! It will be the greatest surprise as we pass through the gates to this celestial city. We will be led to fountains of living water... a life that refreshes, blesses and satisfies the soul as water refreshes, blesses, and satisfies the body. Here is a constant unfolding of life, a life so full we are in constant state of deep joy.

Heaven will be the joy, pursuit, enjoyment and increase in life. Life in Heaven will be ecstatic delight... Mind, soul, and spirit will be widened, elevated, deepened, refined, and beautified.
And we all will be beautify... ageless, looking our best always. Christ will feed that life on the richest pastures and lead the way to the fountains of living water. "God will wipe away all tears." (Rev. 7:17)

The Power of the Spirit puts us in a thirst for Heaven. Paul longed to be there, and relented that he had work to do on earth. The Holy Spirit gives us constant tastes and visions of Heaven, until all other tastes become pall and other visions are heavy and dull. Heaven plays notes of harmony and the earth plays songs of discord.

The Power of the Spirit binds us to Heaven because Jesus is the center and glory. The Holy Spirit implants Heaven in us.The Holy Spirit in us is God's mark of ownership and security. His authority is put on us. God gives us a part of Heaven as a pledge to the full heaven when the time is ripe.

The Apostle Paul reminds us to keep pressing on to the prize waiting for us as we press on to fulfill our calling on earth to receive the great reward of Heaven... the High Calling of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is always keeping the body under control, subjection to the Spirit, so that he would not lose the incorruptible crown. Heaven is a reward. Great is your reward in Heaven. (Matt. 5:12)

Be ready for Heaven. Jesus said He will come quickly, and the reward is great according to the work we have done. (Rev. 22:12) The reward is dues paid for what we did on earth in accordance to God's will for us, and our obedience to His voice and Word. For Jesus will come with many angels, in the glory of our Heavenly Father and He will reward every man according to his works. (Matt. 18:27)

We can't imagine heaven, feel what it is really like. But it will so outclass our earthly life, we will question why we didn't focus more on our Heaven life while on earth. Things of earth are dull, compared to Heaven. Work for Heaven, invest your life assets that will convert to Heavenly assets.

Spirit Savvy Business on a Mission

2011-11-26T14:03:00.000-08:00

The Spirit Savvy Business
... advancing Spirit-Directed Entrepreneurs

The Mission
Develop the skills of people to be Spirit-empowered entrepreneurs. So that they operate with the Holy Spirit as their core operating system. The result is integrating into society and the marketplace the Power of God while building the Kingdom of Heaven in the marketplace.

What we do is empower personal skills for business with the power of the Holy Spirit.

In entrepreneur skills...
Dreaming, planning, developing your Gifts, marketing, networking, relationships, communicating, influencing, personal organization.

Through the Spiritual empowerment process...
Spiritually empowered, prayer(actually hearing from God), Scripture application and mind renewal, partnering in mission, 2 or 3 agreement power, covenant relationship, living in the Power of the Gifts of the Spirit.

How
By posting summaries of outstanding principles from best-selling business books and adding a Spiritual Dynamic to each summary... Using the New Testament model of the Body of Christ. Implanting the Body of Christ into a business as the Spiritual empowered for a business as its operating system.

The summaries, which include principles of Spirit-empowered living, are an inventory to customize curriculum of the best biz info applied to you.
--meet to find needs, desires, and interests; determine mission and calling
--develop a process: using your strengths, focus on your vision and mission
--enlarge personal skills; natural strengths
--activate the Gifts of the Spirit
--create a Spirit-Powered system for your mission in the marketplace customized for you by meeting weekly, twice a month, or monthly; in person, phone, or email which ever best fits you.

Benefit
With relevant business information at your disposal, the power of two minds working together, living in Spirit, we as a unit then live in the same Spiritual Power as the Acts of Jesus and His Disciples recorded in the Bible.

One Request
Could you introduce me to business leaders of clubs, groups, associations, etc... in the business community and churches?

Seeking the willing and open minded!
People open to the significance of God's Spirit with us in all we do.

Contact: Dale Shumaker
417-224-3517
4spirit@gmail.com

Personal Profile:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/daleshumaker

Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain... Power Through Prayer

2011-10-26T16:02:00.000-07:00

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain, by Ryan Blair, is about someone who spent a lot of his juvenile life being arrested and in and out of jail. With his experience on the street, he developed a "nothing to lose" mindset. This mindset then became the critical factor for later developing several multimillion dollar businesses. He changed of course to find what honor and keeping our word meant when applying it to business. He kept his word to God to not go back to how he lived in his youth.

When going into business, he attended numerous personal development seminars. Many reminded him of his old gang life... a lot of hustlers, charlatans and people out to bilk others out of money. From this he created his credo... work your tail off, don't ever give up, when defeated get back up, keep angling to find your angle, sacrifice, you will survive no matter how bad it is, shake off mistakes, be grateful, go big and have fun... if you don't you will either quit, die unhappy, or blow your success.

In the chapter "Philosophies from the Jail to the Boardroom," Blair draws some interesting analogies and principles that make business work in the trenches. Some of Blair's Golden Rules:

Communication and management rules.
Life is a theater. everyone is an actor, some with the lead and some with a supporting role. Never ask a question you don't already know what your answer will be.
If you don't have an answer say "I don't know," but I will get an answer for you.
If you feel you have failed, ask yourself a series of questions. Why did this happen, what could I have done differently, how can I do it better next time, what changes should I make in my strategies, what can I do to improve my planning and preparation?
Master taking action.
Never express negative emotion in an email or text message.
Praise in public and reprimand in private.

Business-model rules
Marketing exists to create sales.
The ones most responsive to change will survive.

Customer rules
Service is the greatest opportunity to differentiate; being people oriented is not an acquired skill. Fear your customer.

Strategy rules.
An army everywhere is an army nowhere.
One thing at a time, and all things in succession... slow growth will endure.
Draw your customer to you with compelling offers to take action.

Personal rules
Keep your distance from people who belittle your ambition.
When you look for the bad in people you will always find it.
There is no finish line.
You are not a businessman, but in business, man.
Don't buy stocks, make stocks.
Honor your deals with God.
Efforts don't pay the rent, your results do; be a person who makes money, it doesn't make you.
The difference between now and a year from now will be the people you know and what you have learned.

Seize the day... you only get them one at a time. Life is a summary of actions taken. Blair declares that if he can come from the life he had, and build several multimillion dollar ventures, so can you.

Two of Blair's prized books are Think and Grow Rich and How to Win Friends and Influence People. Watch your wallet and be as proud of things you do as you don't do. Sometimes you must say no, or scrap a project. Listen to yourself. Know your motivation. Choose a business you would do without pay, and it wakes you up in the middle of the night. Even if you have the money, use other peoples money too. Spread your risks. Hold on to as many assets as possible.

Blair declares that the principles in his book, from his business, street knowledge, is essential. If you are not willing to make sacrifices in business you will not succeed. Keep your business plan simple. Summarize it on one page, and no more than 3 pages long... three pages of clear, concise business objectives, expected results, and the strategy to get there. Situations are constantly changing and you are constantly re-creating.

More on Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain...
http://nothingtolose.com/

Why is prayer so vital?
Prayer is about entering the very presence of God and hearing what He has to say on a matter. When we sense the plans He has for us and we follow them, we are assured of Him being there. Add to that sharing those plans with someone else, we put a real punch behind it. Here's what the great Christians of old say about prayer.

E. M. Bounds in Power through Prayer, a widely read classic by those seeking the great value of prayer, made these points.

There's just so much Power in Spirit that God Wants to release on us. It's about going into a greater depth of His Presence, His Essence, we can live in it. These saints of old had insight. But there is so much more if we would just dig deeper.

The power within prayer is becoming co-dependent of God's Spirit to do all things through us. "His inner being has never felt its thorough spiritual bankruptcy, its utter powerlessness; he has never learned to cry out with an ineffable cry of self-despair and self-helplessness till God’s power and God’s fire comes in and fills, purifies, empowers. Self-esteem, self-ability in some pernicious shape has defamed and violated the temple which should be held sacred for God."

The Olympian practices 4 hours plus per day. Do we want to see miracles in our lives, in our relationships, health, happiness. The Apostle Paul suggests we train as the Olympian. Prayer is our preparation to run to win.

"All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us." (! Corinthians 9:25, Philippians 3:14, NLT)

"Prayer is so much about taking time. When we take the time to allow God's Presence to saturate us, we see His Power when we call out to him in the short bursts of the day."

"Much with God alone is the secret of knowing Him and of influence with Him. He yields to the persistency of a faith that knows him. He bestows his richest gifts upon those who declare their desire for and appreciation of those gifts by the constancy as well as earnestness of their persistence. Christ spent many whole nights in prayer. His custom was to pray much."

Brainerd lived the life of holiness and prayer. His diary is full and monotonous with the record of his seasons of fasting, meditation, and retirement. The time he spent in private prayer amounted to many hours daily. “When I return home,” he said, “and give myself to meditation, prayer, and fasting, my soul longs for mortification, self-denial, humility, and divorcement from all things of the world.”

“I have nothing to do,” he said, “with earth but only to labor in it honestly for God. I do not desire to live one minute for anything which earth can afford.” The men of mighty prayer are men of Spiritual might. Prayers never die. Brainerd’s whole life was a life of prayer. By day and by night he prayed."

In Isaiah 43, God says He has called us by name. Each person is uniquely special in His eyes. He begins by saying His Spirit will be with us through every thing and then later on re-enforce us by making "rivers in a dry wasteland." Conversing with God is essential. Even if the economy worsens again, the Spirit will provide you/us rivers (ideas, people, ways) to accomplish His will. Meditate on Isaiah 43... What's His Spirit saying to you?

Body of Christ content outline, small group dynamics

2011-09-08T08:12:00.000-07:00

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

The series on the Body of Christ... or where is the Power in the Church, and how can we experience it, live it, and see it again.
This series is based on my discussions with a man of God who founded a college for the purpose to see this fulfilled. It's a word for the future. We are coming into that future. My job was to keep it alive until its time. As Jesus said in John 7, "my time has not yet come." It will be here soon. Dr. J. Robert Ashcroft had a vision for a time in the future. It is close to being here.

Please consider the meaning between the lines if you choose to read the chapters of the Body of Christ. Dr. Ashcroft was a prophetic voice. Those of us in range of the voice would be served well to take heed.

Be blessed!

All the chapters below are archived August, 2011. Click on that archive month and the whole series will come up. Included are the dates when a particular chapter was posted. A teacher, mentor, discussion leader could take this content and using the team building dynamic process included to effectively empower a group.

Content Outline
The Body of Christ by Dr. J. Robert Ashcroft
(a summary with emphasis added by this writer)

Tuesday, August 09, 2011
1. The Body of Christ ... The Power of Christ as a Body of Believers
Be Humble as a child, be Teachable and Forgiving.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011
2.The Body of Christ ... In Mystery
Knowing that He Finds Us where we are.

Thursday, August 11, 2011
3. The Body of Christ ... In Revelation
Realizing the Power in Agreement and what it means.

Friday, August 12, 2011
4. The Body of Christ ... In Baptism
Allowing the Spirit to Baptize, Saturate your Being.

Saturday, August 13, 2011
5. The Body of Christ ... The Practical
Developing our lives Spiritually in Word transformation and Prayer.

Sunday, August 14, 2011
6. The Body of Christ ... In Intercession
Interceding in Prayer for each other.

Monday, August 15, 2011
7. The Body of Christ ... Covenant Connection
Covenant Connections... the importance of Intimacy in Relationships.

Thursday, August 18, 2011
8. The Body of Christ ... Equipped for Greater Things
Formation of becoming One as a unit in Spirit. Gifts of Spirit emerge.

Friday, August 19, 2011
9. The Body of Christ ... In Action
Advancing the Gifts of Spirit.

Saturday, August 20, 2011
10. The Body of Christ ... Ministering to the Lord
The Power of Ministry to the Lord.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011
11. The Body of Christ ... It's Here, so Now What?
Ministry to Mankind and Keeping it Going.

Purpose, mission with power is established.

A Process for developing a Group in the Dynamics of the Body of Christ.

An emerging group has these phases of development.
1. History giving. What is your story and what has brought you to where you are?
2. Confessing. Share both successes and failures, in a absence of judging.
3. Gift spotting. What are we specifically good at that God uses.
4. Gift enhancing. Confirming what we see in others, spurring to action.
5. Teaming. Bringing what we have into a unit to aid each other, accomplish an objective.
6. Mission. What God is using us for, as a unit.
7. Supportive. Helping each other and keeping each other going as we do it.
8. Perseverant. Lifting each other up as we must press through things.
9. Establishing Faith. Belief in God, loving each other, becoming strong in Him.
10. Living in Power. Seeing the manifestation of God's Power as we complete His mission in our lives.

(Please contact this writer for suggestions and guidance on how to train others in the above.)

The Body of Christ ... It's Here, so Now What? (11)

2011-08-23T07:31:00.000-07:00

summarized by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

The Body of Christ by Dr. J. Robert Ashcroft concludes with Here, Now and How!. It is not good for man to be alone. Bird watchers note that birds find a mate, court, nest and raise offspring. The son of Man, Jesus, said that even birds had a place to nest but the Son of Man had no place to lay His head. He was building a family connection so large that no one would be alone without close significant relationships.

The Spirit unites, while Satan comes to divide. The Spirit bonds us to many believers. This bonding is more intense and secure than the bond of family relationships. Jesus himself indicated that man would leave father and mother and become followers of Christ. Jesus said, "Who is my mother and brothers. Whomever does the will of the Father is my brother, my sister, my mother." (Mark 3:33,35)

Being united to Christ we become united to each other.

Everyone needs companionship. Each of us needs a support system. It is more than a need. It is a Divine challenge to creativity and productivity. Do we try to reach our full potential alone? When we do we limit our success. God has ordained that the greatest power available to His Children will be manifested when they have the spiritual unity of which He spoke in Matthew (18:19) that when touching anything, the two or three in agreement, will be done by all the powers of our Father in Heaven. Note that earth and Heaven are linked together when we are united. This unity is a Spiritual law. This law is equally binding in the Spirit as natural laws are binding in nature... physics, biology, etc.

In knowing this, we know we can feed ourselves by sowing and reaping. When we sow Spirit, we reap Spirit. So unity in our relationships work the same way. When family units of husband-wife, parent-child, brothers-sisters are united it creates a family power.

The union of husband and wife is such a meaningful life that Paul uses the relationship to explain the union between Christ and the Body of Christ. Just marriage is not enough. There is social marriage, legal marriage, biological marriage. Then there is Spiritual marriage. The oneness of this kind of relationship goes beyond procreation. It deals with matters of the Spirit. Here, with this close intimate relationship, we win against all forces. The Holy Spirit becomes our ally in spiritual warfare.

The most practical place for this unity of an intense level is with husband and wife. When two become one, all the powers of God's universe beckon to our commands. With the potential to change our universe through this relationship so strong, Satan's focus has been very much to divide families, put husband against wife, and children against parents. This takes the power right out of the home. Although, a husband and wife and family who prays together and forms close bonding relationships has exceptional power of Spirit at work in their times together.

If married, your spouse is your greatest potential for a prayer partner. Some things to keep in mind to take advantage of this potential is to agree on a time to come together for devotions, and establish a pattern of worship. This may include reading the Scriptures or a devotional together, singing praise songs, including your children to read or sing, pray for each other, share what God is impressing on you for each other, do as you felt led as one unit. All major decisions would be better served after this experience to reassure it is God's guidance with you within the decision.

Once Jesus took three of His disciples with Him when He prayed. Establish prayer partnerships in addition to your family. Or if we don't have this potential in your family, find two or three as prayer partners. We can see great power coming in our lives. Jesus sent his disciples out in pairs. In a business or an individual finding someone like minded in Spirit to become partners in prayer and in mission support, will highly affect all your efforts. (Dr. Ashcroft suggests everyone in the Body of Christ is called to minister or be a ministry of some kind.) What we are called to do in God's will is a ministry for the Kingdom of God. So prayer partners and prayer groups will enlarge your function of life in Spirit. This is the key to true Spiritual empowerment. It is critical to form these relationships and allow the Holy Spirit to bond them for His power.

From this we will see new ministries birthed, a compelling Spiritual Vision. We are empowered in what we do for others as directed by the Holy Spirit.

Note that as the number of people increases it increases the difficulty of having the quality of agreement. Agreement diminishes. The critical factor is unity. So being small with greater unity is better than large and lesser unity. When we look at the phrase "agree together" it comes from the same root word that means harmony. Like a piano that strikes one string, all the strings that are sympathetic to that note will vibrate also. They are in synchronization with one another. Where there is agape love of God, and we are in love with Jesus and man, it is possible that we function in synchronization with one another.

This unity is not possible by human means. Each person involved must be totally in love with Jesus Christ. When He is Lord of the lives of each person in the group, such love is possible. And where there is love, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are manifest. Obviously, where His love is there is healing of every kind.

What is needed for prayer groups to be highly successful, with all the Creative Powers of God's Spirit to be at work, is compassionate and sharing love. That's agape love, the love of Christ at the cross. This is a sacrificial sharing love. It is the true meaning of fellowship. It carries the true meaning of the Early Church and intentions of our relationships as One in Spirit. It is so close in relationship that they shared their possessions as their needs became known. It takes a Special grace for this ministry, for the actual manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit to meet the needs of the Body of Christ.

Bible study groups conducted formally and informally are great places for group prayer to be part of it. Leadership and training are most important forces in sustaining the effectiveness of prayer groups. It is important to remember that the unity of the believers, the flow of compassion as we serve one another in love makes the Body of Christ a conquering force.

Teaching is not learning. Something can be taught but not learned. It needs to be part of our behavior. Change must take place that is self evident and motivates a new desire. To achieve the highest level of discipleship it is necessary to train. This includes teaching, getting information, and training, making it work effectively in daily applications.

Intercessory prayer, the kind that gets individuals involved with the subject of one's prayers is a most critical factor in successful praying. Prayer includes that we obey the directions we get from prayer.

Too many times we only take time to tell God what is needed and fail to get His strategies for getting the answer. He gives Spiritual intelligence... Divine Strategies for accomplishing things Supernaturally. The ability and comfort to pray with others out loud is a valuable part of prayer training. Each of us must find a way to join with another believer (or other believers) to touch the lives of those around us.

Missions are as much across the street as they are around the world. The hurting or hungry family may be your next door neighbor, or the business just next to you. Take note, and always be available to pray for and help where you can.

The reality of the Body of Christ is that it reaches out to a perplexed and wandering world. Our groups should welcome as many as we can into the fellowship, koinonia, and experience as a group the love and practical caring we give to each other. That people find a place to find gifts and abilities, cultivate Spiritual gifts, and become empowered so strongly that others notice and want to be part of it too.

This is our challenge in becoming one with God and One with each other.

The Body of Christ ... Ministering to the Lord (10)

2011-08-20T08:25:00.000-07:00

summarized by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

"He who is faithful in the smallest of things will be made ruler over many."
Jesus

In Ministering to the Lord, The Body of Christ by Dr. J. Robert Ashcroft, the church was vibrant where ever it met. To remind us, a church meeting is when two or three come together in Jesus Name. In Acts in the Bible, the early days of ministry were by laymen.

The power in the church is more in the dynamics of small, in close-bonded relationships, than in big groups. It is a network, a web of small cells, linking to others and the assistance each freely gives the other.

When reading Acts 11 and 13 we see in Antioch, the establishing of what is called today Christian. All the followers were unnamed laymen. Just men collaborating in concert with the teachings and ideals of Jesus, groups who united as followers of Jesus. This Gospel was being spread by new believers. Missions were established as they went everywhere to tell people about the marvelous possibilities of us being united with Christ.

Antioch is important as it illustrates the power there is in the unity of the Body of Christ... as the Believers connecting in Spirit as One. Another observation is that it came from such an unlikely place. The theme line keeps shouting out loud the power of unity and where there is unity God manifests Himself.

Each individual within the Body of Christ is important. It's not just a gathering of people or not just a crowd. We are all very special people. We may be likened to cells in a body. Each one is different, but each one is important to the whole. Gifts, special ministries, were given to each member. It is possible for everyone to have a ministry to help meet the needs of other individuals of the body. (Note 1 Corinthians 12:27)

We must, as cells, be in the Body to be alive, but we must also function as unique individuals. In the human body no cell can survive very long by itself. It needs to be joined by other cells. Cancer, it is said, are cells out of sync with the body. Cancer destroys itself and the body it invades. Cells out of sync in Spirit in the Body of Believers cause this same disaster to happen there too. These cells contaminate healthy cells.

This new lay church was made up of regular people, not specifically called to a particular position in ministry. They had gifts of the Spirit and began to minister to each other. The church is not the Body of Christ if it is a place where each member is not ministering in some way to other members of the Body. The differences in the Body is a paradox. It actually enhances the Body to function at peak levels when unity exists. As the body, or gathering, submits to the Holy Spirit, in humility, every reason for conflict will be subordinated to God. Some groups allow their differences to separate them from others who do not share their views. Paul, the Apostle, had to deal with this kind of discrimination as it diluted the group of its Power in Spirit. Antioch was not like this, and Paul noted that great grace was there. Great grace implies great giving and forgiving.

One of the chief purposes of the leader of a group is to strive for unity as given by the Holy Spirit. What is the basis for a great Spiritual life in a gathering...
"They ministered to the Lord, and fasted." (Acts 13:1)
The two points are revealed:
1. Ministry to the Lord
2. Fasting (discipline of the self)

Ministry to the Lord is significant, and exercised in choice of primary importance. It is adoration, surrender, commitment and obedience in service.

Adoration is the concentration of the heart. Plus it is a longing for more of knowing Him, praising Him for who He is. Such a pre-occupation with the Lord drives us away from all of the detrimental influences of the world.

Adoration is the key to our unity.
When each of us is making Christ the Lord of our lives, it is no problem finding unity among us as believers. When we are oriented to self, unity becomes impossible.

On the Mount of Transfiguration (Matt. 17:8) they saw no man but Jesus. The vision of Jesus was compelling and their concentration was only on the brightness of Jesus. In our gatherings no expression of the Lord is left out... art, music, vocal or physical demonstration.

There is more... fasting. It goes beyond abstinence from food, this fasting is abstinence from any dependency on physical gratification. This may include abstinence of mind and body. Such fasting makes us break from being co-dependent to the physical demands and desires of the human body. It makes us forget our own program of interests. It makes us forget our criteria for social relationships. All demands of our person or place are submerged in the total denial of self and absence of self-awareness. Can we achieve this same depth of communion with the Lord? Yes, but it won't be easy. It takes decision, training, discipline and often spiritual leadership to bring us in such communion with the Lord.

With such worship to God and denial of self, there is a readiness to do whatever the Lord commands. True worship encompasses full submission, and obedience. It is service to others in need. Obedience is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22). It is easier to write and talk about this than to bring it about. The Holy Spirit gives directions to the believers... as individuals and as a group.

When those who meet in Jesus Name center their lives around the Holy Spirit, a common mission and purpose emerges from the group. This mission uses the talents, Spiritual Gifts, of the group as One orchestrated concert in action to complete the mission and vision set before them.

Know your target and how to move in the direction of such High Achievement. We need to keep reminding ourselves that visions from God may seem impossible in the natural but we are super-charged by the Supernatural to accomplish what God puts on our hearts. We can then as One Body, as a group, do all things through the Powers of Jesus Christ being manifested through us. It requires a discipline in lifestyle for the cause we are in. It will take hours of meditation, completely concentrating in the Spirit, and prayer to the Lord to bring us on the journey to achieve such Lofty Goals.

Like Barnabas and Saul were separated to go into new territory. We may be separated by the Holy Spirit to go into new territory. This direction will come after much fasting and prayer. That's taking time to be completely focused on the Holy Spirit's direction for us... and leaving normal activity that is part of our lives for a while to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying...and allowing time for The Spirit to assist us in crafting the strategy He has in mind for it to be carried out.

After fasting, after denial of self, there comes consideration for others. It naturally follows. This is the climate of obedience. Worship is not worship if it does not culminate in obedient action in the interest of those less fortunate than ourselves. When sent by the Holy Spirit you can be assured of the Spirit paving the way for your ministry (and this includes all laymen in the church... everyone has a ministry).

When faced with opposition, the opposition is immobilized as in the case of Elymas (Acts 13:6-12), the sorcerer. He was made blind by the Spirit so Barnabas and Saul could not be deterred.

In a mission that is directed by the Holy Spirit we will be directed by the Spirit along the way. If it is made up by men and organizations outside the Spirit, we may not be assured the Power of God with us. But if we go in obedience to the clear direction of the Holy Spirit and with the covenant community, we are assured of the results.

Our relationships, covenant relationships, in Spirit are essential for all that God sends us to. As One in Spirit we are very powerful and nothing can stop these advances.
All Things Are Possible!

(Scripture references, Acts 11:19-30, 13:1-3)

The Body of Christ ... In Action (9)

2011-08-19T05:40:00.000-07:00

summarized by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

In the second part of the Body of Christ in Action, Dr. J. Robert Ashcroft spends most of his time in 1 Corinthians 13 and 14.

The fulfillment of all the functions of the gifts rests on the power of the love the Holy Spirit gives us. To be in one accord and have pure unity is the central nerve of the best of everything. John expresses this in 1 John 4: 8-13:

"But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us." (NLT)

Paul refers to love as the most excellent way. We should follow the path of love, especially in the Body of Christ. It is a sacrificial love as every one considers others more important than themselves. This is the cement that holds, creates a bonding unity, in the relationship of the Believers. Then in this Agape love of God all the Supernatural power of God can be manifested. God is there in all of His Supernatural power, if we are in His love.

All the eloquence we possess is nothing without love. Without a demonstration of love in all we do, all we do amounts to nothing.

As we consider the Supernatural gifts of the Spirit of eloquence, prophecy, understanding mysteries, all knowledge, faith, meeting needs of the poor, even becoming a martyr, if we do not have love it amounts to nothing and we profit nothing by it. Within the Body of Christ it accomplishes nothing. Our highest priority is to be completely yielded to the Holy Spirit.

In our own humanity it is impossible to achieve this quality of love. So we are locked into a total dependence upon the Holy Spirit. The emphasis and practice of waiting on the Holy Spirit must be our first consideration. Such a challenge must be kept ever before us in our present environment.

These rudiments of love must never leave our conscious and functional times...love is patient, always kind, not envying others, or boasting about ourselves, being constantly unselfish, mild and even tempered, not being suspicious of others, unhappy with evil, rejoicing in truth, surviving in pressure, full of stubborn faith, with an unwavering confidence in God's power, enduring to the end in all challenges and goals, and refusing to relent in love, love never fails.

To attain love is to grow up in our faith, have a clear vision of Jesus and what He has done for us, holding an honest knowledge of ourselves, practice this highest and greatest virtue throughout all we do, making love supreme. To have unity in and among believers is the key to our power as the Body of Christ in Spirit. Love must be practiced first, last and always by those in the Body of Christ in their actions and attitudes to each other.

To further the unity of the Body of Christ, these mandates will preserve the unity... to be informed, be unselfish and be courteous.

Be Informed
Follow after love. With love we have no divisions between those who put love up front in all they do. The Supernatural is free to work as it expands to the levels only it can. Desire Spiritual Gifts. So it requires to wait for them, wait in God's presence. Tarry until they come. It is important to give time to tarry, or wait for, the leading of the Holy Spirit to show itself. Of all the Spiritual Gifts desire to prophesy. Make this a top priority in order to communicate the Word of the Lord to the Believers.

Be Unselfish
In 1 Corinthians 14 Paul suggests that if someone has a message in a tongue not known to the group, to share it... only if there is an interpreter. Otherwise keep it in private and not for public expression. Although, if more than one has a message as such, it should be kept to two or three at the most. Paul goes on to say that we should not forbid people to speak who have a gift of tongues. The point being made is that we should be considerate of others and cooperation should rule the operation of the Gifts of the Spirit in a group.

Above all prophesy... then everyone can understand you. Again, if you have a Word from Spirit it should be limited by two or three as well. The Spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophets. What this implies is all things are in control and there is not a spirit of things being out of control. All things should carry with them a sense of agreement among the group and the unity then brings the manifest presence of God's Spirit. As we agree together in His Name we can expect all kinds of unexpected workings of the Spirit among us.

Be Courteous
The Spirit is gentle. The Spirit came on Jesus like a dove. A dove can be easily frightened away. We are to be building up the community of believers. We will see this accomplished if we find the grace from the Holy Spirit to treat one another with respect, neither grieving the Holy Spirit or our fellow believers.

When we apply the love in 1 Corinthians 13 and the etiquette expressed in 1 Corinthians 14, we will go a long way to insure the unity of the Body of Christ. Thus we make ourselves candidates for the manifest presence of the Lord. Where He is, the Power of Jesus looms in all His mighty power.

(Scripture references are from I Corinthians 13, 14; Colossians 1, 2; Ephesians 1.)

The Body of Christ ... Equipped for Greater Things (8)

2011-08-18T07:05:00.000-07:00

summarized by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

God manifests Himself today through the Body of Christ.
This is the theme for Chapter 8, In Action, from The Body of Christ by Dr. J. Robert Ashcroft. We see as we move through 1 Corinthians 12, 13, 14 that the Body of Believers is being equipped for Greater Things.

Jesus was the ultimate witness to all mankind.
"He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God. So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son." (John 1:10-14, NLT)

"God wrapped all of Himself in the womb of Mary. 'We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. '" (1 John 1:1, NLT)

Then Jesus said it was expedient that He go away so that greater things will be done which may not be done while He was still present on earth. It was God's plan from all this is that the Spirit we saw with Christ is now with us as the Body of Christ as One in Christ.

What was expected of the physical Body of Jesus while on earth is also now expected from the Spiritual formation of the Body of Christ of Believers which is now presently manifested on earth.

"‘There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.’ You are witnesses of all these things."
(Luke 24:47, 48, NLT)
The forgiveness factor, individually, uniting us in Spirit with others who have chosen to ask God to forgive them. They merge to one in Spirit, those who share in this experience. This is the critical step each must take before bonding can begin, which is where the power is.

For this reason, the forming of believers into the Body of Christ, the bonding, yes Bonding of Believers, is absolutely necessary for the fulfillment of God's purposes... to see the Power of Spirit manifested on earth.

Water Baptism suggests burial, death to the control of the physical nature in our lives. When we come to Christ, surrender our lives to Him, we end the rule of the natural man over us and come under the sovereign rule of the Holy Spirit. Just as Jesus did. We are to be completely oriented to the Holy Spirit and dedicate ourselves to service to the needs of others. We die to a life of selfishness and come into a life of sharing. When we die to self, we minister to others. All this is contingent to our sensitivity to the needs of the believers or of humanity at large.

The manifestations of the Holy Spirit are not possessions by a certain person, but are functions of the Holy Spirit. It is for the good of all and are not given as an exclusive possession for the use of one individual. There is mutual sharing of need and supply. When Believers as the Body of Christ are in unity there is opportunity to communicate a specific need, and receive an answer to any specific need.

The Body of Christ is the instrument through which God has chosen to reveal Himself and to accomplish His work in the world. All of it is under the administration of Christ Himself, as the Head of the Body. Jesus is The Body's chief administrating officer, our CEO, as the Body of Christ. Note that a gathering or congregation may not be the Body of Christ. It takes being knit together. Where this exists, this is a true, or the true Body of Christ. Where there is love, mutual sharing, a heart of agreement, Jesus as we know Him manifests Himself not just to the level for while He was on earth, but now to even greater levels... through His Body of those of us on earth.

What we must watch are things that Divide. If it be doctrine, loyalties, sacraments, spiritual gifts, these are faults to power when they become issues of conflict and separation. We are to be reconciled to one Body (Ephesians 2:16). What brings a group to total unity from their hearts and the love of Christ in action in them... only the Holy Spirit can do it. Talk and negotiations may get minds to agree, but hearts can be distant, and the close knit fellowship not present. Only as we pray together, and the Holy Spirit welds our hearts together as one can divisions be dissolved.

It's equally important that we be not be led away with sensuality in our meetings. That's emotions that make us feel good, but not motivated by the Holy Spirit. We can be drawn under the spell of the self-life and pleasing one's own sensual desires. Spirit induces a spirit of love and self-sacrifice for the good of others. We are not to be carried away by sense-related experiences. They worshiped dumb idols, but were not aware of the Holy Spirit in some meetings in the New Testament. We must guard against that too. Their objects of worship were material things, or oriented to physical pleasure.

It is so important we become Spirit-led, Spirit-controlled, and that Christ be our consciousness, our life as directed by His Holy Spirit. Simply, Christ lives in us and He must be allowed to run us, to navigate life through us. He is the boss, we are the employee to carry out His orders. Just because we can say the word spirituality and relate it to our ideas, we may not be Spiritual. Only when we are controlled and run by Spirit are we then genuinely Spiritual.

Diversity is allowed to flow in Spirit. We have the same spirit but diverse and different gifts. There are differences, but not divisions. As orchestrated by the Spirit and we allow our diversities to blend, we create an orchestra of great music, precision in how we do things. We become refined in being efficient in Spirit.

Spiritual Intelligence, communications, physical needs, material necessities are provided under the leadership of the Holy Spirit to the believers in the community: the Christian community. As believers come together in worship they must be sensitive to the Holy Spirit to learn from whom and to whom ministry is to be given. The Holy Spirit is the administrator of all the manifestations which meet the needs of the members of the Body of Christ.

Each time the believers gather in the spirit of unity and koinonia (that's a spirit of sharing), each believer looks about to see whom he may minister to in the Body of Christ. It will be obvious at once that humility and meekness are an absolute necessity for such a fellowship to have God's blessing and approval. There is no room for any self aggrandizement or self exaltation at all.

The human body is what Paul used to impress upon the Corinthians how the Holy Spirit will fulfill the ministry. As we look at 1 Corinthians 12, we see these patterns for us to follow:

1. The believers are intricately woven together. Any action or inaction inevitably affects every other believer.
2. Each part of the body has a unique role to play.
3. The default of any part of the Body to perform his or her role limits the Body in its ministry.
4. To suffer is the degree to which each member must be prepared to participate.

We should have the same care for one another. The manifestation of the supernatural for the benefit of the Body of Christ is a priority. The world outside becomes a beneficiary of the powers of the Holy Spirit. So much hinges upon the practice of caring for one another. "If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad."
(1 Corinthians 12:26, NLT)

This implies the degree to which each member participates in the need of other members of the Body of Christ... the entire Body. This is also the price of discipleship. So much depends upon the application of this practice.

“If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me." (Luke 9:23, NLT)

To implement these marvelous miracles, we have the ministries and gifts within the Body of Christ for that purpose.

Each of us has a distinct ministry to each believer. The Body of Christ has been given these glorious provisions for the meeting of needs of each member. To be used by God in His Supernatural provision should be the desire, the higher goal of every believer. Once this spirit of ministry prevails within the Body of Christ, it creates the basis for successfully reaching those outside the Body of Christ.

(Scripture references are from 1 Corinthians 12.)

The Body of Christ ... Covenant Connection (7)

2011-08-15T07:16:00.001-07:00

summarized by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

Every group that meets, a purpose evolves from it. The Spiritual pattern is it starts in prayer, seeking God's ways, getting His Divine insights. As love abounds in the group and covenant connections are cemented and grow, the power for Divine revelation and Divine Purpose increase.

The crucial thing to know is Covenant Connections increase the Power that goes with Divine Purpose... as we discover it and execute it.

We can hold on to The Apostle Paul's thoughts in Ephesians:
"In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory." (Ephesians 1:11-14, TNIV)

All this has been created for us long ago. We tap it in Spirit.

The promise continues for the Power to accompany it, as is continued in Ephesians "I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that can be invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way." (Ephesians 1:17-23, TNIV)

In Chapter 7, The Body of Christ , Dr. J. Robert Ashcroft expounds on this more. It is the Body, The New Body of Christ, now as a corporate unity of all the Believers as one, that this is fulfilled through. Thus, Covenant Connection takes on a very important characteristic to make it all work to the level the Scriptures exhort it will.

Jesus' teachings applies to this New Body, which is now His Body reformed or could we say morphed into another kind of Body of people in a covenant connection with each other. As we look at how this New Body functions in the Early Church a lot can be learned from this. They had problems in almost every conceivable form of fellowship... messages, ministers, morals, marriage, money.

One of greatest sections in the New Testament which deals with corporate operation comes from 1 Corinthians 11, 12, 13, and 14. The chief concern of this section is the Covenant connection. References to the theme here are from Luke 22:14-27 and John 6:53-63.

When He told His disciples that this is "my body given to you" Jesus had something more "world changing" in His mind. They would literally turn the world upside down. It is a proclamation relevant for us today.The synagogue needed 10 men to function. But Jesus said that that there can be just two or three. Again the issue is the unity of the believers is what is most important versus the number.

The early Church had four main elements. Reading the Scriptures; expounding on the Scriptures; singing of hymns and Psalms; prayers and intercession. They had a mandate to celebrate the Lord's Supper. What was the significance of the Lord's Supper?

Paul in the Corinthians letter was attempting to correct the loss of unity and oneness that belonged to the Body of Christ. One of the differences was how they celebrated the Lord's Supper. This sharing had to do with the Covenant Connection they shared.

Covenant is a powerful word. A covenant is the binding of two parties. The Bible has many covenants it refers to... covenant of circumcision, covenant of promise, everlasting covenant, first covenant, old covenant, covenant of blood. The covenant of blood suggests the binding relationship of the Body of Believers in the Body of Christ.... Christ's New Body now representing Him on earth.

David and Jonathan had a covenant relationship. Jonathan gave up his robe and sword giving up his rights. This is a love covenant and prime example of how the Body of Christ is to be. They would cut their wrists and rub their wounds together to form a blood covenant or bond between them. They were known to squeeze their blood into glass of wine and drink it jointly. Today we may use a written contract, but then these actions became binding covenants between them.... to the point of being willing to give their life for each other.

Many times the Blood Covenant was accompanied by a meal to celebrate the binding agreement. So the Passover meal that Jesus asked to be prepared as His final statement of his relationship to them would continue in Spirit. It is the relationship we are to continue with each other on earth. This is referred to as the New Covenant in the Bible.... the true meaning of the Communion service... a reminder of our binding in Spirit to Christ and our binding in relationship to each other.

When Jesus talked about eating His flesh could very well be His reference to the truth of His miraculous birth, sinless life, teaching and message, and the Power of His redemptive and healing ministry. The drinking of His blood appears to be about His death. We participate in Christ to bring His vicarious blessings to us. Intercessory prayer is a place of where we sweat drops of blood in our spirit for others. We shed our blood when we serve at the expense of self. We don't bless until we bleed. This is drinking His blood.

He washed the disciple's feet to demonstrate His humility in service. We should demonstrate the same humility in how we serve each other. Jesus said to serve one another. This is His love in action. His act is an act of service in the time of need. As we take the role of a servant and serve each other we practice the spirit of foot washing Jesus illustrated. We should practice acts of serving members of the New Body of Christ and others when they are in need. If we do not have a serving attitude toward those in need, we suffer the loss of the manifestation of His Presence. Only as we share with others do we have Part with Him.

In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul points out the infections coming into their times of communion. He said when they came together, they came together not for the better, there were divisions. It was not for the Lord's supper but to eat and feast. He told them they were to tarry one for another and minister to each other. Instead they lost value of their covenant connection and need for unity. Satan's goal is to divide. The Holy Spirit can't work when there is not unity.

When there is absolute unity, the windows of Heaven open for us and all of God's blessings fall on us. That's why Jesus pronounced heavy judgment on those who cause divisions. When people do that, they kill the Spirit and it doesn't manifest in the group. So we can't overemphasize the significance and value of the unity among the Believers.

We could say there is malpractice in communion when there are divisions, intoxication in other things than Spirit. When the lesser fortunate are not taken care of, and there is a glutton spirit among the ones there who indulge in overeating, then the sense of koinonia is lost.

Communion is an incarnation. It is when the Body of Believers are in Spiritual relationship to one another and in Christ. The relationship of believers is the residency for the presence of Christ. It is the Spirit affinity of the believers that Christ wishes to be present. To eat His flesh is the when we are feeding on His Spirit. We eat off of each other's personality. In that we are becoming like those with whom we associate. When we are asked to examine ourselves, we are asked to examine our relationship with each other. We are to correct wrong attitudes and adjust our attitudes to be loving and tolerant, understanding and accepting to each other.

Love heals. Love heals the loneliness away, it heals the negative emotions away, it heals blood pressure, ulcers, it heals all there is that surrounds us and in us both emotionally and physically. Our covenant connection between believers provides a way for healing love that heals the sick.

The covenant connection also brings to our attention our relationship with other believers. What comes into play are our relationships of servanthood. Are we willing to serve our associates, our fellow believers, even our enemies? When we unite, it connects us to heaven. Believer plus Believer equals unity with the Father. The Power of the Spirit is again present when we do this.

As Jesus said in John 13, a New Commandment I give to you. As I have loved you, you love each other. This is a lofty goal that is out of possibility of man. But not with God. Through God all things are possible. God knows our limitations and He has provided the Holy Spirit as One who we can make this possible. With men many things are impossible; with God All Things are Possible.

(Scripture references are Luke 22:14-27 and John 6:53-63, 1 Corinthians 11.)

The Body of Christ ... In Intercession (6)

2011-08-14T13:49:00.000-07:00

summarized by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

In The Body of Christ, Dr. J. Robert Ashcroft discusses the church in intercession in chapter 6. Historically, Spiritual movements have been more powerful with loose organization and strong commitment to each other... those centered around gathering daily in a routine environment. The main activity was prayer. Those proactive in prayer, when meeting continually, would find a mission begin to surface from their praying. God then equipped them with power as their cohesiveness grew. The more they met, the more they were led to creative solutions to problems they faced, saturated with the Power of the Holy Spirit creating a miraculous path.

The main references for this chapter are from the Scriptures in Acts 3 and 4. It would be beneficial to read these chapters first or after you read this summary.

By going away, Jesus promised the Holy Spirit to come and be in our meetings where prayer and the center of attention is Jesus-based issues. In John 16, Jesus promised that when the Holy Spirit is at work in and among us. The Holy Spirit will convict the world, guide us, show us things to come, glorify Jesus, and take what Jesus knows and tells us. Jesus among us secures the Power of His Spirit at work through us and God's Spirit making Himself known to the world... in tangible ways.

In Acts 3 it says Peter went up at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour or middle of the afternoon. Prayer is the priority of all believers and even after great events like Pentecost, the Disciples always went back to prayer. Prayer is the priority of the believers all the time. Prayer includes all kinds of personalities with all kinds of customs. Tolerance was the rule of the day, most did not have a clear understanding of why each other did things a certain way. Love abounded and was the number one rule of the day.

When we pray, we can relate and find cohesiveness among many. When love and prayer are at the forefront, we accept each other and don't spend time talking about our different views on things. Prayer will foster unity in a group faster than anything else, as our focus is on God and not us. As we humble ourselves before God and others, the Power of the Spirit manifests in power to the level we will humble ourselves before God and to men.

Sin and unbelief blind us. They deaden our sensitivities. Our desires maybe misdirected for the wrong things. With Jesus Christ, as our mediator, we put our sins on the altar of God, forgiven, and our faith rises in belief because we depend on God's power and not ours. Prayer then becomes very powerful.

In agreement (centered around Jesus) being in harmony with each other, the Power of the Holy Spirit thrives under theses conditions.

In Matthew 18:19, the significance of In My Name stands out... "Where two or three are gathered In My Name there I am."

What is the significance of using His Name?
First, we are in harmony with the instructions of Jesus. There is perfect unity between Jesus and the Father. All the authority of God is transferred to the Son of God, Jesus. What importance did Jesus place in using His Name? There is reverence in the Name of God. Blessings and cures were attached to the Name of God. Not using the name of God in vain is a commandment. Jesus started His prayer with "hallowed be thy Name." We are standing on Holy Ground when addressing God, with the authority of Jesus with us.

In His Name, is saying we respect the agenda of Jesus and are praying in light of His Will. Jesus said what we ask according to His will, we can be confident He will answer us. Jesus did what He did in the authority of the God. God, the All Powerful Creator, responds to the requests of Jesus. We now share in Jesus' authority. What a powerful thought. When we walk as Jesus directs us to walk, and fulfill the Father in Heaven's will as Jesus did, we can expect miraculous results along the way.

Jesus said He would do nothing outside what the Father told Him to do. Jesus was so tuned into His Father's will that what He did was identical to the Father. Here's another outstanding revelation.... What we see in Jesus is God!

Jesus now commissions His disciples to do the same.
So in using the name of Jesus is using His authority, we now have in God as He had with God. Using His name demands we be in Christ as He is in us and in the same way the Father was in Him and He was in the Father. God is trinity. Trinity is Relationship. This reveals to us the value of relationship and effectiveness of relationship. That's why Jesus emphasized..."that they may be one, even as we are one." (John 17:22)

This is a very high calling. Anything less than this is religion without power, form without substance. The power they had did not come from themselves or what they had. Their lives were totally on the side of the Spirit... not material goods. When Spirit guides us we stretch out our hands to the needy, we share our bread in fellowship. Spirit turns loose the material. His blessing multiplies the bread.

All we need is the Spirit to move us, and we will experience His promise that if we agree together as touching anything that we shall ask, it shall be done.

The Spirit is manifested into the temporal, creating the tangible. This is in contrast to those who try through the material world to accomplish Spiritual ends. Our lesson from Jesus is that we should never attempt anything in our natural selves, but always begin with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit then creates the material, changes the emotions, mends broken hearts.

We see the Church as it formed, that is the Body of Christ which emerged after Pentecost, does the same things as Jesus. Corporately, we are the same as Jesus, so unity as One is essential to see the release and manifestations of Power Jesus demonstrated on earth. His plan is to do it now through a Body of Believers... versus just one person. So we all need the interconnections and relationships.

The place for prayer is not geographic. It is wherever God's people assemble together. But, it is always where believers (two or three or more) are gathered together in the Name of Jesus.

The Prayer of Intercession begins in God. It is not in us to shape prayer. It begins in God and is God. Its focus is on what He wills and what He plans to do. The action of the enemy is not against men, but against the plans of God. We rely on God's power for continued power, miracles and victory.

We know God is available, when we are in one accord, one mind and in the Spirit of God. The results...the place is shaken when people intercede and everyone gets excited about what is happening. They were filled with the Holy Spirit. One filling is not enough. They went back to prayer for a continuous flow of Spirit in Power in their lives. Jesus, when going to the mountain to pray, was transfigured anew by God. We can have this too.

They spoke the Word of God with boldness, a result of their times in prayer and through the inner presence and power of the Holy Spirit. As they shared bread and fellowship, there was no difficulty in having success when God is working in the hearts of people. Sharing all things in common, this loving fellowship and communion with each other ripped open the gates of Heaven for all the Mighty and Power of God to be seen at work all around them.
Spirit manifested in everything, in every way.

(Scripture references are Acts 3 and 4, and John 17:22, 23.)

The Body of Christ ... The Practical (5)

2011-08-13T11:44:00.000-07:00

summarized by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

In The Practical (chapter 5), The Body of Christ by Dr. J. Robert Ashcroft, he says that everyone hungers for reality. We must go beyond theory. The program for practical ministry in the Scriptures is expressed in Acts 2:41-47. When Jesus' disciples gathered, they were centered in the Scriptures. They continued steadfastly. It means they devoted themselves to the study of God's Word.

We are to be doers of the Word, James 2:22 , and not just hearers. To accomplish this daily devotion is necessary. A personal discipline is required with specific times set aside just for this... every day. A personal Bible reflection time done daily is just as important as group discussions of the Scriptures. Their goal was to learn and obey the Scriptures. Deuteronomy 6 says we were to do this all day long, and then all would be well with you.

The early church learned the apostles doctrine through kerygma.. the proclamation of Jesus. We learn it, become the Word and the proclamation is natural when it's naturally part of us.

Deuteronomy 6:7-9. Instruction is vitally important to make the Scriptures a walking, living, breathing part of us. "Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." It is vital to be a powerful proclaiming group. We proclaim it to each other and all we come in contact with.

Staying continually in God's word and God's presence yields great power. It transforms our minds to be Minds of Christ. The apostles spent 10 days in prayer. Peter gave a 3-minute sermon and 3000 people were converted that day. In the modern day we may give a 3-minute prayer, have ten days of preaching and not have one convert. We may very well be doing things backwards. Prayer must precede and exceed our proclamation times.

Then in addition to being centered in God's Word, they continued in fellowship. Their fellowship was immersed in the power of Spirit. It was an unconditional sharing, sacrificial love. They were gathered together in His Name. Jesus promised when we do that, He will be among us, in person, right there with us. It made koinonia possible... the intimate sharing of fellowship.

People were more important than property or policies. Needs were common. Communion is more than a ceremony to acknowledge Jesus as part of our lives. The sharing of bread with those who are in need is the spirit of communion. The bread the world wants, is hungry for, is both physical and spiritual. When it was necessary to meet the needs of others they sold their possessions. It's not as important to know how they met needs but that they did it. Their willingness to do it is what stands out. Such willingness proved the unselfishness of those members of the Body of Christ.

The role of Koinonia is found in Ephesians 4:2,3 and 1 Cor 1:9,10. "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful. I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought." (NLT)

Some think just having a place to meet fosters koinonia. The assembly is just ecclesia. The Church centers around koinonia... a close knit sharing of all things in common, and looking out for the well being of everyone there. It's not a legislated thing. But it comes from Spirit in and among each other as expressed in Love they have for each other. They are gathered together in His Name.

It is important again to remind us that unity is what is important; not the specific number.

In Acts, there were a number of homes mentioned where they met. The home was their central meeting place. They met together in the Word and in the Name of Jesus. He was there. They were internally and externally blessed. They faithfully went from house to house, breaking bread, and eating with gladness and with singleness of heart. It is most dramatic to see the sacrificial love they had.

Paul found such sharing in as well with the Macedonian Christians. They were people persecuted and disenfranchised. With no source of income, they had to find ways to feed themselves. In the midst of this abject poverty they were willing to share with other saints. When they needed to, they would liquidate a portion or all of their assets for the benefit of the dependent members of the fellowship. They did not consider what they had as too valuable to sacrifice for those in need. The real truth that should shine through all this is the spirit of sacrificial sharing, the willingness to give up our self-interests was the top priority.

"If anyone should come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me." (Luke 9:23)

An expression in the early days of the Pentecostal movement was "being sold out." Being sold out was that you held nothing back. To hold something back illustrated our selfish priority. It meant physical death to Ananias. It means Spiritual death to us. These people recognizing their desperate need, sold their possessions as they saw the desperate need of the community to know Christ in a living, vital relationship. Is it any wonder they had such a response from the people?

In the midst of sharing they were praising God and enjoying their food with gladness. This puts into perspective the unity of the mind of each and all. They were not split between the sacred and secular. The supernatural result of people who are sold out, committing all that they are to Him, is that many come into the Kingdom of God. This is the supernatural result of koinonia. Such love was a magnet that drew people to Christ. Power exuded all around them. With great power they gave witness of the resurrection.

The unity of the believers in koinonia caused the presence of the Lord to draw near. As they acted in unity, they became the manifestation of the presence of the Lord. The early life of Jesus was the bodily form of God on earth.The unity of the believers becomes a new body of flesh where God manifests himself in the world, now in the place of the physical presence of Jesus. We, as a unit, now walk the earth as the physical presence of Jesus. That's why unity is essential to see the power of Jesus, when on earth, to be manifested now.

"The works that I do, you will do even greater works than these." (Jesus)

This new man of Jesus, the believers unified in the Body of Christ, will do the works even greater than Jesus when He was on earth.

(Scripture references are Acts 2:41-47, James 2:22, Ephesians 4:2, 3 and 1 Cor. 1:9,10, Acts 4: 31-33, John 14:12.)

The Body of Christ ... In Baptism (4)

2011-08-12T07:44:00.000-07:00

summarized by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

The banning together of Believers after the Acts explosion (Acts 2:1-4), brings us into a new understanding of this dynamic element which now exists called the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Dr. J. Robert Ashcroft elaborates on what this all means in his chapter, In Baptism, The Body of Christ, chapter 4.

If anything is to be accomplished for God's Glory and the overall well being of mankind, it must be done through the direction and orchestration provided by the Holy Spirit. It will require the collaborate cooperation of the Believers called the Body of Christ... where Christ's Spirit now exists on earth through man. This union when unified, is so powerful and magnificent, that this is truly another incarnation of God manifesting himself through men and women.

Exploding into civilization, coming and never leaving, the Body of Christ (Believers as one group) is now referred to as The Church. It's all who believe in Jesus as their Lord and ban as one with each other.

God's presence then moves within us rather than something on the outside like ceremonies, temples, altars. We, now as connected Believers are the new Temple where God exists in all the Power just as Jesus had when on the earth. That's why being in unity in heart and Spirit is absolutely necessary. This is where all power is now.

The Scriptures say we are built together as the place of habitation of God's Spirit. (Ephesians 2:21-22)

So the believers in unity is the power and significance for seeing the manifest presence of Jesus in our lives today. In the Bible the word manifest means to open to sight. The Holy Spirit has people through whom He can show himself. When the Body of Christ is in proper relationship to God and to one another, The Holy Spirit works through it.

This is no secret of what happened. God forecast it through all His prophets in the Old Testament. Jesus is not a stand alone person. We as a unit, united, cooperating, loving each other as One, are Now Jesus. Jesus went from one person to now a Corporate Unit of many who believe in Him connected by God's Very Own Spirit. God's plan could not be aborted by anyone. His people were ready to receive His plan.

They met in one room and waited for this baptism or explosion of Spirit to deluge over them. Those in this room were different nationalities, sexes, religious backgrounds. Yet they came together and waited as One. They were in one accord, in harmony, one mind. The reason it took ten days for all this to happen was maybe it took that long for them to work out the differences, put them aside, and become one. They probably spent much time in self examination.

The power became internal, but manifested itself externally. The word incarnation is an appropriate word here. Its meaning is to embody in Spirit as an earthly form. It is God, Himself, now dwelling in those who received the Holy Spirit.

Then the explosion of the Holy Spirit came.
1. There was sound. It came as a strong wind going through the place.
2. There was something to see. It looked like fire on top of their heads.
3. There was compound reaction: They spoke in languages unknown, but each person hearing His own language. This noise went abroad. Everyone was amazed and marveled at what was happening. All the17 dialects represented heard people praising God in their own language.That very day 3000 more people became Believers and were added to the Body of Christ.

Koinonia emerged. They were no longer just a group meeting together, but an intimacy among them became obviously apparent. It was an intimate sharing fellowship as all things were considered to be in common and shared by all. This was done to such an extent, no one person in the group was without. All needs were met. Individuals seemed to lose individual identities in the group. There was a vicarious unselfishness to share all blessings with each other.

Unity in all things was the word of the day.
1. They were in unity as One with God.
2. They were one in themselves, one with the Holy Spirit now working vigorously through them. They turned over selfish ambitions for God's directives speaking unceasingly through them.
3. They were one with each other. As Peter spoke to the crowd afterward... He was speaking as the whole group of 11 disciples. A unique occurrence.
4. They were in unity with all Believers. Togetherness was the characteristic of the group, as well as the condition behind why they all had so much power now.
5. They were in communication. The Spirit was communicating through them from the Spirit within them. They had God's voice in them speaking to them.
6. They were in unity in material things. They shared things of value with each other... food, clothing, shelter, houses, transportation. Even though most were in poverty, in their sharing they all become a group without any lack among them. Prosperity seems to promote individualism... individualism weakens Spiritual power. Their power came from their sharing... a new concept of power's origins.
7. They were in unity in witnessing. They had favor with all people and people listened to them. They were amazed that they seemed to know so much, and were bold as an authority in their field even though not educated. The warmth and love they had among each other, attracted many to them.

All this centered around the unity of Spirit as One Group they had. When there is disunity, the power is zapped. We should avoid disunity at all costs. Satan's premiere tool to make the Church powerless is to create disunity. When that happens, Power is diluted, exponentially, from the group. To the same degree, when their is unity, power is added exponentially to the group.

The Unity of Believers Brought the manifestation of God's Presence. A common ministry emerges when we are in unity in any group. As one in Spirit, the specific directives of Spirit become apparent for that particular group. Again, that's why Satan attacks to create disunity. Then power wanes.

From this outpouring of Spirit, all forms of power ministry became evident. The Word of God was preached. The prophetic words of God were expressed through common men. As a group they guarded doctrine so it was stable, and there was fellowship.They ate together and shared together.

Believers were without livelihood due to persecution and ostracism. Those were times of deprivation of family and food. They shared the basics of life with each other.

During all this, they were in constant prayer and worship. As one in worship the powers of the Supernatural presence of God created all forms of Supernatural gifts, healings and miracles of immediate manifestations.

The Very World-Creating Spirit of God was at work... regularly. This is our challenge today.To find ourselves completely lost in our Lord Jesus Christ so that we lose sight of all that brings individualism, division, unfeeling relationships within the fellowship. With the Baptism of Spirit in our whole group, many will come running to us.

(Scripture reference is Acts 2.)

The Body of Christ ... In Revelation (3)

2011-08-11T06:37:00.000-07:00

summarized by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

In chapter three, In Revelation, The Body of Christ by Dr. J. Robert Ashcroft, he leads us to the realization that as a body we are Christ, the same as Christ with all of Jesus' power on earth plus more. John the Baptist said this of Jesus, "He speaks God's words, for God gives him the Spirit without limit."( John 3:34, NLT)

So we have, as a Body, One, united, sharing in the Same Spirit, we have all of Spirit that was freely Given to Jesus on earth. We, still on earth, have all of this too... as a Body. Separated from each other we are powerless.

What is so astounding is that Jesus comes to us, even when we lock Him out. The doors where shut and Jesus was locked out. "That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them!" (note John 20:19-23)

In the middle of our turmoil, disheartening experiences, grief, Jesus is there. He comes through all the things that may block Him. He loves us so much, He comes even when we are blocking Him out. They had closed the doors for fear. Their leader was assassinated. Because of their association to him, they may be in jeopardy. Their fear could very likely be, "Am I next?" They just witnessed one of the most horrible deaths, or executions, one could go through. Fear overwhelmed them.

Fear always closes the doors. Fear kept them from seeing the resurrection. Our negative emotions trips our minds up. We need to be aware of what strong negative emotions can do to us. Jesus healed the blind more than likely to heal us out of our own blindness, both physical and spiritual. We can easily be led astray by depending on our limited resources when making decisions. When we lean on our own "flesh," the makeup of our mind and emotions, we limit the very power of God that wants to work in our lives then.

The principle to see is that Jesus came to them when they were gathered together. The secret to Spiritual Power is here: get with other believers when things get really bad, in every crisis and disturbing situation. It is the sure way to take advantage of the law of manifestation... He Will Be There.

When things get bad, we go back to what we have been doing before... Peter went fishing. Being fearful, the thoughts of God had gone out of their mind.They could not sense His Presence. Nothing could stop His coming to them, even walls and locked doors. He breaks through our fears, our flimsy plans to protect us. He will break through our locked up emotions and give the peace of His Presence.

The Manifest Presence of Jesus the Christ with us has these components active and intertwined.
1. Two or more
2. Gathered together
3. In Jesus' Name

That includes the Spiritual interaction of loving each other as Jesus loved us, sharing with each other in thoughts and goods, and serving each other with the attitude of considering others more important than ourselves. When you have all these components in the mix, you can expect the manifest presence of the Lord, that's all the creative powers of God's Spirit at work. (note Matthew 18:18-20, Acts 1-4)

With this, Jesus personal presence is there. Jesus came to His disciples with door's locked and afraid. He addressed their fears first and said, "Peace to you." When clouds of grief surround us we close our eyes to the reality of His closeness. At the Mount of Transfiguration, a cloud kept Jesus' out of sight. Clouds often obscure our vision, although, God is in the clouds. God was in the cloud at the Tabernacle in the wilderness. When clouds of grief or fear surround us, we can know God is in this phenomenon.

In this Manifest Presence we encourage one another and are in intimate fellowship with each other. We, from our hearts, easily enjoy the laws of His manifest presence. He is God and nothing is so comforting as His Presence. In our deepest of hearts, we just want to know He is there. Knowing this we are comforted, we have peace, and His Power comes over us.

The Manifest Presence provides peace. Jesus rebuked the winds when He was in the boat with His disciples and a storm raged around them. He simply said, "Peace, be still." Jesus, now through the Holy Spirit in our lives, says this to the storm that ranges around us, just like when He was there in the same boat. He says to our hearts and emotions, "Peace be Still."

The Manifest Presence provides pleasure and a deep gladness. When the disciples saw the Lord they were elated, ecstatic, spiritually wrapped in intense pleasure. Nothing that man can do can hinder God's purposes from being fulfilled. Healing is ours, eternal life is ours.

The Manifest Presence provides purpose. It seems selfish to be so concerned about our own happiness when the world is in grave misery. God wants us to be glad for a purpose. He sends us to share in His Purposes.... to bring peace, joy, and power to all around us... to bring hope, life and a future to every one we come in contact with. What a tremendous purpose... to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to earth! To accomplish this, God used and uses ordinary people. It can be farmers, janitors, factory line workers, waiters, nurses, tax accountants, carpenters, mechanics, salespeople, a handyman, check out attendants, lawyers... all play a part in this purpose of being the Kingdom of God on earth. He has something special for all of us. When we think of what God sent Jesus to do, and its meaning and impartation to us, the magnitude of this assignment is staggering. As we follow in the life pattern of Jesus, we share in the great mission Jesus was on... to bring hope, salvation, love, power, and eternal wonder to mankind.

We have the assurance that as united believers we have His presence, and if we have His presence all things are, in a true reality, possible. God's callings are His enablements. He enables us to the assignments He gives us. We can expect supernatural signs to follow. As the Scriptures say, "These signs shall follow them who believe in Him." It's up to us.

We have a choice, to use His Presence or lose it for sake of inactivity in Him. If we think we can just take Him, to soak in His Presence in prayer and worship and not share, we fail in the task God has commanded each of us to perform. We are to share all the love, joy, power that is coming into our lives. Those who hoard the gifts God gives them will lose them. The faithful servants who invest His Gifts in others will have even more and those who don't use them will have them handed over to those using them.

Our lives are about finding needs and filling them. As we attempt Great things for God, He is there backing us up and filling us with His Power. We are being filled with a Divine supply. As we unite with another believer we see this being true. Then we become the manifestation of Jesus, as the Body of Christ.

The Manifest Presence provides power. We are not called to do the impossible, but to know that Jesus will provide the power to be and to do His will. Jesus breathed on them and said "Receive the Holy Spirit," which is Creative, Energizing, Exciting. This is the same Spirit responsible for the original creation of man that was breathed into us. We are to participate in redeeming action which takes personal sacrifice and transforms it with ability and power to share and serve our generation. His Spirit makes it all possible. His Spirit with us is His Presence with us. Thus we have the power to be and do. (Acts 1:8)

Hopefully, the awareness this brings is finding a newer and greater significance to our meeting together as believers. Greater awareness may result in our recognizing the presence of the Lord with us. The Body of Christ manifests in these times of fellowship. Whenever two or more believers meet in the name of Jesus in Prayer, the potential is immeasurable.

The importance that lies in how we relate to each other cannot be stressed enough. It must be a sacrificial love, a compassionate love. Love implies a giver and a receiver. The Body of Christ gathered together, one in Spirit, manifests the presence of the Lord. When His Presence manifests, the Body of Christ increases in love, power and size.

(Scripture reference is John 20.)

The Body of Christ ... In Mystery (2)

2011-08-10T06:51:00.000-07:00

summarized by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

In Mystery, chapter two of the Body of Christ, Dr. J. Robert Ashcroft takes us down the road to Emmaus. It is a lonely road thinking the most important person in our lives is gone. As they communed together on this road these two followers of Jesus didn't even recognize it was Jesus with them. (Note Luke 24:13-18).

They were intense in their conversation. They were so intense that the one they loved appeared and they didn't even recognize Him. The point here is Jesus pays particular attention to believers in Harmony and meeting in His name. They were so in the natural, that the Supernatural was apparent but not obvious to them. We fail to identify the presence of Christ in our daily lives and activities. We have not suffered the cross, thus we are not able to fully appreciate the Spirit and identify it at work in our lives. So, the presence of the Lord escapes us as it normally would seem present.

What the cross means for us is death to the self-life.
As we are able to disconnect the sovereignty of self, we are able to enthrone the sovereignty of the Spirit. The New Testament and the Body of Christ helps us to become sensitive to the Holy Spirit.

On the road to Emmaus, the two were preoccupied with their thoughts... of the temporal, the natural, and were blinded to the presence of Jesus, the Spirit of God. In so many instances, the Lord is with us and we don't even know it.

Can anything separate us from the Lord? We are promised of His presence when two or more meet and Jesus is the center of our interests. We can be blinded by grief like these two and fail to see Jesus being with us in our human circumstances.

If Christ came to them in the midst of their doubt, he will come to us in our time of anxiety. As we understand the powers of Spiritual relationship among believers, our anxieties in the face of loss will be calmed.

Jesus after His death, resurrection and even appearance to the disciples stood on the shores and they again didn't recognize Him. (John 21:1)

This Spiritual blindness that afflicts us from time to time is caused by inattention, panic, grief, even ecstasy. It keeps us from seeing Jesus who is with us. We must allow Him to teach us to "see" Him in all the ways He may manifest himself to us. We can become so self-absorbed we are indeed blind to Him being beside us.

The point is that Jesus was with them. He has promised to be with those who meet in His Spirit and in His name. He keeps His promises even though we don't recognize it. When we don't recognize Him we become people of despair and a sad countenance. Like us, they were trying so hard to figure things out, in their own human thoughts, they totally missed Him.

We cannot see God when we limit seeing Him to our own intelligence. Our own intelligence, in absence of Spiritual intelligence, makes us sluggish, and dull-witted simpletons. God said His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8)

We have one solution: the Holy Spirit must totally over take our lives so we can be responsive to each occasion of His Presence with us. We must turn our eyes from the temporal, natural, and be fixed on the Heavenly, the Supernatural. "I will teach you all things," Jesus. (John 14:26)

Our part is to desire Him, seek Him diligently with all of our hearts. He has told us that in the day we seek him diligently with our hearts we will be found by Him. (Hebrews 11:6)

Once you have felt the presence of the Lord you hunger for more, continually. Once you have recognized Him you long for His communication. It is in the time of the evening shadows when we may feel that Jesus is not with us. We want His presence in the dark times of our lives... times of uncertainty...times of loneliness...times that are threatening.

His promise: "where two or three are gathered in My Name.... there I am." (Matthew 18:20) If we desire Him, He will not disappoint us. It is comforting to know that if we call on another believer friend, meet in Jesus' Name, the promise of the Holy Spirit, creative power of everything, is guaranteed.

When does He meet us? He meets us in the common activities of our lives. He is the center of our focus. He blesses our bread. It is in our sharing that He is revealed to us. When did they recognize Him... during the breaking and sharing of bread. When we are broken, and then share, His power erupts.

Additional emphasis should be placed on that it is in the sharing that He becomes known to us. We cannot keep Jesus to ourselves as our own little treasure. Jesus must be shared to be ours.

Just remember. Jesus' appearance may be a mystery. He appears in ways we least expect. He will come to us, but not as we may naturally think. He delights to surprise us, so be attentive to Him as He appears in surprising ways.

Live expectantly and Jesus will appear in the most unexpected ways...He truly delights to surprise you.

(Scripture reference is Luke 24.)

The Body of Christ ... The Power of Christ as a Body of Believers (1)

2011-08-09T09:14:00.000-07:00

summarized by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

(The Body of Christ was self-published in 1990 by Dr. J. Robert Ashcroft, a founder of Evangel University. After his first printing, Dr. Ashcroft died, and without it being with a publisher, the works have not been reprinted. Because of its timely value to our society today, this summary was made by one who spent a great amount of time with him during the last years of his life. When a person of importance, gives special time to a person not of great importance, that leaves an imprint burned into your heart forever.)

The Living Power of the Body of Christ (1)

The Body of Christ by Dr. J. Robert Ashcroft was the life work of Dr. Ashcroft. He wanted the Church, the Body of Christ, the living organism of Jesus alive and well among us so we know what we really have. As an Inspired visionary, his hope was to help us all realize and live in the same power as recorded in the Acts Church of the New Testament. Here's a beginning of a summary of the Body of Christ, a devotional study by Dr. Ashcroft... (introduction and chapter 1).

Jesus establishes a new body.

Dr. Ashcroft had a theme line which came out of the forward to his book. "How can we love God whom we have not seen if we do not love man who we do see." (1 John 4:20) "Inasmuch as you have done it to the least of these you have done it to me." (Matthew 24:40)

I recall the initial words in the beginning of what became a 7-year relationship... the last 7 years of his life. "The Power of the 21st Century Church will be in the home." At the time he didn't have the cultural research we have today. He was a man of Spirit and Spirit informed him that by 2000 with the Internet and new cultures emerging we long for connection and intimacy among each other. We connect in our homes via the Internet and smart phones keep us in touch in all places we go.

Dr. Ashcroft goes on to say in the forward, "It is my conviction that our churches will never enjoy the fuller measures of grace and gifts of the Spirit until there is Spiritual Affinity among the believers of our congregations." Today people prefer to relate in smaller environments like homes and offices. "Affinity" means to merge or progressively grow as one. "May they also be one as we are One."(John 17:21)

And Jesus said if we become One as He and our Father in Heaven are One, there will be greater things than ever in our lives. Jesus promised this. (John 14:12) This study is about the conditions we must meet to see this manifest presence of Jesus in the world around us, how we must prepare for this manifest presence. Our mandate is to seek out those who have strayed from the flock of Christ, and rekindle the fire that agreement sparks in our activities. "Where two agree as touching anything that they shall ask, we are guaranteed it will be done." (Matthew 18:18) The key word is what "agree" is. Ashcroft takes great care to define that.

Where does the Body of Christ begin? It begins with a child. "Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?" The child. (Matthew 18:1) Jesus saw the individual. He was aware of crowds, but it was the individual that was important to Him. We must see individuals, persons, not just audiences. Why a child? A child is most teachable. A person's best time for learning is as a child, in both speed and quality. A child is the Biblical quality of meekness. To be meek is to put oneself at the disposal of the Lord. It is this character that marks the leader that is put in charge. The seat of authority, the transfer of power is to the meek and teachable as a child; to those who receive these little ones in the Name of Jesus.

This means that a person must have an appropriate attitude about oneself, that is humble and teachable. And one must have an attitude of concern and acceptance toward others, especially the little ones. To offend a little one, the least of these, is a serious matter in the Kingdom of God. So the power to fulfill the ministry of the Kingdom of God is in the Relationship between the disciples in this way. The attitude is to be servant of all. "You cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless you become like (the meekness of) a little child." (Matthew 18:3)

What should be noted is the significance of receiving a little child. If we receive a little child in His name, it is as though we are receiving Jesus. How we act and receive the humblest person or the most unlovable in the body of Christ may determine how we are able to "receive" Christ Himself. It goes back to our relationship, and including even the least of those around us. Each person is important to Jesus. Too often the abjectly poor, the unschooled, different classes and races are ignored. Those who ignore these, the least, may not be in the Body of Christ. So this first part is foundationally critical to establish as a base....the importance of the individual, relating to individuals in the Name of Jesus, what Jesus stands for.

Everything depends upon our relationship to each other. Where harmony prevails we know that God commands a blessing. "Where brothers dwell in unity, the Lord commanded the blessing..." (Psalm 133:1,3) We should be careful not to offend anyone, even the least or the most insignificant, and in the smallest matters. So we do not allow the smallest of offense to hinder the harmony we should hold up to maintain. All matters that create disharmony should be resolved quickly. When disharmony prevails, it prevents the power of Spirit to function fluidly. Condemnation is not a prerequisite of an individual. Every effort at reconciliation is to be made by the individual.

Too often we focus on the numbers (two or three) as the reason for the manifest presence of Christ. The critical issue is not the number, but the relationship between the two or three. It is easier to get harmony, too, between two or three than a mass of people. The real issue is: are we relating to each other? If not, the number means nothing. Most groups are really crowds. Most are there for individual interests. These groups are ineffective when relationship qualities are weak or don't exist. Spirit is neutralized and we do not see the benefits realized.

Note that action on earth is validated by action in heaven. This is the germ of truth for this principle. The key phrase to remember is when two or three are gathered together in my name. We involve heaven when we meet in His Name. (Matthew 18:20)

This truth is supported then by the promise in Matthew 18:20. This brings us to the universal principle in Spirit which opens the door for its Supernatural power. Our relationship to others On Earth Releases God's power in Heaven.

Why? Jesus also promises to be in our midst, In Spirit in our presence, when two or three agree. With Jesus right here with us, all the creative, healing, relational powers of God are in full operation, at work with and around us. This is A Super WOW, when we take a minute to contemplate the implications of this.

We can be sure when Jesus is in our midst, present with us, all of His wisdom for guidance is with us, loving forgiveness prevails, revelation is present, knowledge beyond our understanding comes to mind, and everything about God's literal creative powers is manifested. When Jesus, the Christ, is the center of our lives and in our efforts, we have all the potential of His manifested presence.

What builds relationships more than anything else... Forgiveness.
We are to forgive without limits (Matthew 18:21, 22) This is to be a permanent attitude. When in doubt ask for forgiveness. It takes a humble person to ask for forgiveness. It takes a person confident in the resilient power of the Spirit to seek forgiveness... even when it may be someone else's fault. We ask forgiveness, and relationships built around this one principle will then manifest Spiritual Power.

The spirit of forgiveness is permanent. No individual condemnation. No grudges. No personal recrimination. This spirit of forgiveness is of staggering magnitude for creating great and invincible strength in the Body of Christ.
The foundation for power then is ...
do the Father's will,
love vicariously and sacrificially,
and be humble and forgiving.

When we are attentive to the Name of the Lord and are honest in our good attitude toward and sharing with one another, we can expect God to be joined with us in our purposes. Private or selfish interest cannot play a part in our enjoying the privilege of being a part of the Body of Christ. The private interests of any one must be sacrificed to the community. We need each other.

The word "agree" originates from the word symphony. The word "symphony" implies a harmony being heard as in a great symphonic orchestra where every instrument is in perfect harmony. They are under the synchronized directions of the conductor, being subject to the refined signs of the conductor. The conductor keeps everyone in tune, at the right volume, and with the right emotional quality to get the message across.

This is what agreement is about. A depth of spiritual agreement is much like an orchestra. When meeting in His name and this level of spiritual affinity exists, we create the power of harmony where we then see the manifest presence of Jesus among us. This takes humility and forgiveness. Thus forgiveness is the essential component of harmony among believers.

To summarize chapter one of the Body of Christ, the fundamental Spirit that guides us manifests itself in the humility of a child, a willingness to learn, and forgiveness of Jesus Spirit that is at work in us.

(Scripture reference for review, Matthew 18.)

Outliers... the common becoming exceptional

2011-07-28T09:10:00.000-07:00

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Outliers means that something is situated away from or classified different from a main or related body. What has brought success to some may be due to outlier conditions as much as anything. Gladwell brings this to light. The story of success is more a story than some great secret weapon someone had in his business quiver. We must look beyond the individual. They had to understand the culture he or she was part of, and who their friends were, and what town their families came from. The values of the world we inhabit and the people we surround ourselves with have a profound effect on who we are.

Society plays a big role in who succeeds and doesn't. When a person is born, where a person is born, and starts school has a big impact in sports and many other areas. Just a three-month age difference as a child can put one child ahead of his peers.

Practice can be a defining factor. Those who excel at something put in at least 10,000 hours in that field, it seems 10,000 was the number that separated those ahead of others. People don't work harder, they work much harder to be out front, at the top, recognized the most. No one has come up with a case where world class expertise was accomplished in less time. Achievement is less about talent and more about opportunity.

Intelligence and achievement are far from perfectly being correlated. The reason many very intelligent people may by pass a lucrative job in private industry and take a professorship at a university is the university gives them more freedom to do what they want to do and what they feel is right. Practical intelligence is knowing what to say to whom, knowing when to say it, and knowing how to say it with the maximum effect. It's procedural: it is about knowing how to do something without necessarily knowing why you know it or being able to explain it, it's knowledge that helps you read a situation correctly. The presence of analytical intelligence doesn't assure the presence of practical intelligence. Social knowledge is a set of skills that have to be learned. And many times ti comes from their families. For example some working class or poor children didn't know how
to get their way, or how to customize the environment they were in for the best purposes. It comes from a cultural advantage, painstakingly taught from the nudging, prodding, encouragement and showing them the rules of the game from mother, father, his family.

Intelligence is rated more on what we think others want us to think, how to think, rather than thinking fluidly itself.
Successful people don't do it alone. Where they come from matters. They're products of particular places and environments. It's about a skill they have been working on for years and suddenly it becomes valuable.

For work to be satisfying, three things are present... autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward. It's not how much money we make, but what makes us happy between nine to five. When these criteria are present, it is meaningful.

There's a culture of honor. Some people fight, not for money or achievement, but for their honor. The culture of honor means a man's reputation is at the center of his livelihood and self worth. For instance in the south, when you can avoid arguments and adultery you are as safe as anyone. In the back country, violence wasn't for economic gain. It was personal. You fought over your honor.

Up to this point, success rises out of a steady accumulation of advantages, when and where you were born, what your parents did for a living, your upbringing. Taking legacy seriously rates as well.

Planes are safer when two people fly a plane. One to check the other and both are willing to participate. When one ranks over the other, planes aren't as safe when the lesser ranking person is not flying. He is less likely to be direct in telling his superior when he sees a problem, and give direct orders in an emergency. In serious situations, politeness can mean disaster.

Rice patty farming is more productive than raising crops in America. Small areas of productivity and constant attention keep the rice growing. Chinese learn math faster because it is more systematic in its process. it all relates as it expands. Pattern learning makes sense and can be processed faster in the brain. Whereas, rote learning, common in America, takes more time and makes less sense to the normal brain in how its processed. Chinese math has patterns, with a system, English math is not.

.In rice paddies you work hard. Working hard is what really successful people do. The students in a south Bronx school learn to work hard and steady in a very poor environment. Shorter summer vacations and staying in the education flow, positively affect their cultures learning retention and growth. The result is higher achievement even in a recessed area, among poor families. They learn the miracle of meaningful work.

This interview with Gladwell gives more insight to Outliers:
http://www.gladwell.com/outliers/index.html

What David and Jesus had in common was that their best men were the outsiders, or should we say outliers.

What made the difference? They weren't the society cream of the crop. They were actually considered not real significant. They didn't have cultural connections except in their somewhat deprived communities. They were not educated, or considered worthy of attention by their peers. Actually David's men were a bunch of bandits, and Jesus had some despicable followers known to extort money from people.

Although, they were the ones used to be world changers. How did they do it? The answer is in the end of Matthew, the first of Mark, the end of Luke and first of Acts in the Bible.

In Matthew 28 Jesus instructed his motley crew to "Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

And then Mark in his Gospel, John the Baptist said he would baptize in water, but Jesus would baptize in the Holy Spirit.
"He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit!" (Mark 1)

In Luke, Jesus said they will be flooded with power from on High, the High order of Spirit, God's Power over all the universe, that all this power would fall on them.
"And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven." (Luke 24)

They hung around for a few days after Jesus said this and whoom... it came. They were all inundated with this power and everyone was so impressed with the transformation that came over them. “Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised, as I told you before. John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit." (Acts 1, 2)

Well, they are not educated, so how do they know so much many wondered. People are getting healed, even by their shadows following on them. Everyone was in awe of them. They knew something special come over them. They naturally loved everyone among themselves. They loved everyone so much, they didn't think twice to assist those in need. They seemed like one group, and how could this happen, when they were all so different.

It boiled down to the unexplainable. When the Spirit of God comes on you, you are totally different. The shy become bold, the quiet are articulate, the poor act rich, and the rich are humble. They all become the very character of God. They had the power of God on them. No one could keep them in jail as when they all prayed and worshiped God, the cell doors opened to release them to continue sharing this wonderful new power, love that is now among us.

Was it just for then. Some of faith say it was. But, what if it can be, is, and is available to us now. Wouldn't it be fun to check out if this could happen again.To investigate the Scriptures about this possibility being available to us now.

It's all in our faith, and investigation of God's word from the perspective it could happen again. Why don't we give it another run, and see if it just won't show up, like in the Acts, and rest of New Testament.

If God could make it flood in the old days, and archaeologist point out that this is verifiable, why couldn't the same happen again, and maybe even better than before.

The answer is... our time and relationship to become One with God and our time and relationship to become One with each other, releases the power. Let's give it another run, and see what God comes up with this time.

God's Spirit Power is released in us and our circumstances around us when we worship Him. Read the Psalms... try 20 to 30... God's power is released when we worship Him. Knowledge is given, locked doors are opened, demons flee, bodies are healed, relationships restored. It all happens in worship with our prayers.

Jesus said to go, pray, and great power, the Power of Spirit will come pouring down on you, springing up from within you and you will be transformed examples of "who I am." It will be self evident as power will be oozing out from all parts of you.

The 10,000 hour rule to excellence, when applied to our Spiritual strength, will show even greater results than for anything else we attempt to master. Over 10 years, that's about 2.7 hours a day. Start at 12 and by 22, wow, or at 35 and by 45, wow. By 60, you probably have many hours already under your belt so in a years time, doing double time, you will be flying again. And if retired, make it your regular job and in a short time you will be a world changer.

It is not restrictive to a certain age, culture background, but the time you spend in His Spirit will be released proportionately in demonstrations of exceptional power, boldness, influence, love and kindness through you.

The Now Revolution ... Angels Watching Over You

2011-07-06T08:17:00.000-07:00

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

The Now Revolution by Jay Baer and Amber Haslund, is about the shifts in business that are making it a real-time event. The real-time shifts include engineering a new bedrock, finding talent you can trust, organizing your armies, answering the new telephone, sharpening response-ability, building fire extinguishers, and setting up your calculator.

In each section Baer/Haslund included "Now Hear This" features of ideas you can put to work. In this summary, those ideas will be featured too.

The adoption of the social web opens the way for the whole culture to participate. Inside and out side the glass bubble in which your business now exists. Along with the business of making money, how you balance your goals with the human and emotional sides of business becomes critically important. A healthy real-time culture has solidarity (reflections of one voice), demonstrated trust, curiosity to try things and see what works along extensive feedback lines, diversity of individuals and their ideas and rewards systems that fit their being-appreciated language. Now Hear This: If you suspect your employees would like to give feedback but are intimidated, set up an anonymous email account with a public password that anyone can log into and send an email to management with their thoughts. Know what you stand for as an organization beyond your product or service.

The second shift is finding talent you can trust. Every person is a spokes person for the company.
The best way to build this is hire the right ones. Before you bring then in, observe their LinkedIn profiles, blogs, Facebook activity, twitter and where they show up on search engines. Now Hear This: When possible, try to pair self-starters on teams with more reluctant, skeptical, or less confident employees to see if the motivated members can help instill and nurture this quality in others.

Communicate your cultural manifesto, values and guiding principles for your business in video, a public page on your website. Like Martin Luther nailing his 95 thesis to a church door, both your team and customers will have a visible, tangible picture of your values.

The third shift is organizing your armies. We all need to communicate faster without and within, with more fluidity and less friction. Crushing the things that have given us a false sense of security and bottle-necking consistency, real-time communication makes skills of social media a necessity. Stay flexible and build integrated social media teams. Each base of social media should follow this path... authenticity, listening, going where they are, personal voice, learning through action, sharing and open source.

Use your internal social networks or collaboration tools to centralize meeting notes, highlights, and let others in your organization/associate network read about what everyone is doing. Keeping everyone informed in real time. You can conduct quick, free online polls in just minutes using software programs like Polldaddy.com. Routinely share stories of triumphs, mishaps... both successes and failures teach us important lessons about speed and inter-connectivity. Everyone needs training from each other on this.

Shift four is answer the telephone. Everyone's talking online... tweets, social forums, Facebook, blogs, so we need to be listening and respond when it affects us. They may not call you to complain about your service directly, but post a comment on their Facebook wall. This is our phone ringing and we need to answer where they are talking. look for key words like "I wish they had" or "really needs". A few tweets could turn it around. Create technology tools to listen for when your name comes up. Collect, report, respond. It's a listen, respond, then talk to your group. It's real time and the committee method is too slow to get opinions and respond. In real time business, everyone on deck is the voice of the business.

Shift five emphasizes response-ability. The communication highway starts with listening, responding, participating (in a corporate blog, category blog, topic blog), and storytelling. Email is commonly use as a dissemination vehicle, but it can be used to implement stories collected. Create a story dedicated email (story@...) and ask your team, associates, fans, customers to send in all interesting tidbits to share experiences. Re-share through email, blog, your intranet page. Wiki's, LinkedIn groups are sources to consider. Add alerts at the top for "message of the day."

Shift six is to build a fire extinguisher. Real time business has it dangers. The more who know you and know what you do the greater the chances of someone lighting fires of discord, within and without. It's easy to complain and discredit someone on the social social web. If it happens, you need to be ready and have your fire extinguisher near by. People can make a mountain out of a mole hill, set a forest on fire with one match. Fires grow with wind, fuel and direction of the wind. A person or company can be hurt greatly in a short period of time. This fear was demonstrated in the financial meltdown that launched the great recession of 2009. In hours, days, within a week a country could have been ruined.

If your fire extinguisher is set up, and near by, an incident can be warded off quickly. Keep binoculars close by so you can see the smoke. Create systems to sound the alarm so the fire trucks can be dispersed quickly.

Social media crisis has eight components. Acknowledge the crisis. Fight social media fire with social water. (Make sure your CEO has a small camera with him at all times to respond quickly where ever he may be.) Be sorry, say it and mean it. Create an FAQ. Have a "communication alert" built into your social connection network so they hear your side of the story quickly, and you build your base of support quickly. Build a pressure relief valve. Create a mechanism that enables interested persons to subscribe to crisis related notifications via email or text message. Know when to take it offline. Arm your army. So they know what's going on and how to respond. Their social network will ask them. Learn your lessons. Evaluate what just happened and if your response system worked as you liked. Then rebuild your fire extinguisher for the next fire.

Shift seven is to make a calculator. Use social media to measure your culture. Create a mechanism for collecting stories and anecdotes that don't show up on graphs.

We are in a new era of democracy. The influence of size, budgets, location, product mix is waning. In their place are speed, smarts, humanization, and an embrace of social media.

The Now Revolution:
http://nowrevolutionbook.com/

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus said that everything covered up will be revealed, and all that is secret will be known to all. (Luke 12:12)

In the Revelation, it says we will be judged by all we have done on earth, in the open or in private. What we do in the dark will be brought to light, and made known to all. (Luke 8:17) We will be given at the end of our lives all that we deserve... if good, eternal reward, if bad eternal devastation. (Revelation 2:2)

It says in Hebrews(1) that we each have angels assigned to us. They exist to care for us and watch over us.

When you think about it, when you are alone, they (angels) are there. Everything you are doing is being monitored and recorded. It will eventually be brought to light. What we are dong will be either rewarded or exposed to our demise. We really can't get away with anything if it is not a good thing. It eventually comes out in the open. First by our behavior as it will change and then the acts themselves may be revealed. What is done in the dark and brought to light is made evident with our technology age.

It is said a computer's hard drive contains information, even if stripped manually, that skilled technicians can recover whatever was ever on the hard drive. When we inadvertently have a hard drive crash, skilled technicians can recover what was on it. So what was done is there forever. What we have tried to hide can be found out. We have seen the quick devastation to lives who use text, email with inappropriate communication. When discovered, it can in an instant be shared with the whole world. Those who tried to conceal things, will have it brought to light and the whole world will know. Nothing can be concealed today securely so no one knows.

God said he would remember our sins no more, if we confess them. It is better to come clean, admit indiscretions and seek His forgiveness as soon as possible. He said He will forgive and, even more so, forget them, and we are to continue on a better path. If we have a weakness, the more we do this(sincerely ask forgiveness), the stronger we will get to eventually overcome it. God's love is enduring and will work with the sincere broken heart over a matter.

If we become arrogant and don't ask God for His help, and try to act like all is great and fine, it will be found out, and exposed to all. Some may continue in pride to do wrong in secret but act like a wonderful saint in public. Those sins will be found out, and this person will be judged on the last days. If the person does not repent and beg God's forgiveness, he will be lost forever.

So it's better to stay humble, recognize our shortcomings, admit them to God, ask for help, and not act so great around others. "Those with a humble and contrite heart are close to the Lord."

What is hidden will be brought to light. So may what is hidden be good deeds, fair actions, kind gestures to others... that the good you do is brought to light. As Angels watch over us, may they be our assistants in doing good, and not our record keepers of what we are doing wrong. Be true to God in private and in public. What you do in secret is expressed in public. May the good you do, be matured in public that helps mankind, spreads love and shows the Love of God in the universe.

Our choices then.
Know that God knows. Admit mistakes and seek His forgiveness. He will forgive and forget.
What we do that's good, that no one knows, God knows. He will note and reward us according to the good we do on earth. It encourages us to know that the good we do, even if no one knows, that God knows and He is faithful to reward us.

If we do wrong, in secret, and we try to hide it, and show arrogance in acting like we are such a wonderful person, the truth of our hypocrisy will be found out. It will come to light.

Angels are watching over all things. Think again, do what is good, commendable and worthy of praise. Angels are around us to help us do good for people. "... servants to care for people who will inherit salvation from the coming destruction." Through Jesus we escape horrors. With Jesus, all things are possible to be victorious in all we face.

Two choices... pick doing good in secret. The rewards are greater.

Spirit Savvy Business ... the heart and principles behind it

2011-06-29T05:44:00.000-07:00

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

People on a mission, whether it's a great cause or a business venture, live by five power principles. They refine them and execute them well on a regular basis.

In investigating what works for building a vision, I found these underlying principles in all of them. Going back to the best-selling business books of the post depression era, these principles rebuilt America then, and they can rebuild American enterprise again today.

These strategies are also the foundation for how the Spirit Savvy Business goes about building noble business ventures, and worthy causes.

A consistent thread became clear when reviewing Napoleon Hill's findings, commissioned by Andrew Carnegie in the early 1900's to find what creates wealth; W. Clement Stone, who built a magnificent company in the ghettos of America; Og Mandino, the philosopher of riches in life and happiness; Dale Carnegie, the guru of personal relationship power... all of which are post-depression business thought leaders. They led us out of the Great Depression, and they remain the foundation for advanced thinking today. What are the threads that when woven together form invincible strength in a business vision or mission?

1. Faith. They all had faith, believing in something much better than themselves can happen. Their faith was enlarged by their faith in God. Everything was believed to be possible, because they saw God as an active part of the process, since His Spirit creates through those who believe in His Power at work. This bred enthusiasm... (enthusiasm means God is within). So all things are possible outside of them. Vision faith then becomes a powerful force in their lives... a creative vision of new potential.

2. Transformation of the mind. The mind had to be reprogrammed to a new way of thinking, continuous learning and learning from others. It takes deliberate mental rehearsal to accomplish this.
Moving the mind from negative to Positive,
from critical to the Possible,
from what's wrong to "How I can fix it!" way of thinking.
We do this by inundating our mind with Spiritual Thought, continually; by listening, thinking, speaking, reading, interacting... constantly cultivating a frame of mind of positive potential.

3. Form Dreaming Teams. A Dreaming Team includes those who dream with you for positive solutions. Those who collaborate to find ways to carry them out, to create new results. Napoleon Hill called them mastermind groups. Jesus said where two or three agree it will be done. When minds are in harmony great power is released... ideas which engage the powers of God's Spirit.

4. Strategic Action
Hill, Stone, Mandino all had Strategic Action in their plans. The strategic actions included Divine Guidance as part of them. In other words, they relied on God-Inspired ideas and sought God-orchestrated direction. They believed everyone can hear from God and have His High level of intelligence at work with them.

They combined knowledge with Divine Strategy and added collaborating, cooperative action.

5. Making Noble contributions to a society is what motivated them.
They become cause based and labored in a strong sense of mission. All problems that they solved had a Higher purpose. The opportunities which become evident were an important contribution to society and met the needs people were struggling with.

Today's statistics verify how inept business is today.
Two skills are essential.
Having personal skills of business, and mission,
and effectively using Spiritual skills.
Stephen Covey, author of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, says the one critical intelligence lacking in America is the use of Spiritual Intelligence. We don't understand it or know how to use it. We get hung up on religious themes and over look the fundamentals of its power.
Unity of minds and spirit is where the power is. We must unite.

To develop people in using the skills of business and Spiritual skill enhancement, two hurdles needed to be crossed. Business people are busy and they have little time to attend meetings, or take time from the rush of a day to learn, refine and execute these skills in an accomplished way.
The business owner is task based, so taking time for Spiritual preparations is many times rushed by. Many even believe in its value, but the pressures of the day cause him/her to be on the go without getting that in focus during the day.

To solve this problem, to efficiently develop these skills and help business create the foundations essential pointed out by our great business thinkers, I streamlined a development service, and use technology to assist in delivering information.

I email links on the internet of the best info from the best business minds in America to business/mission based people. From their best-selling business books I summarize their key business principles and post them on my blog. I add a study of Spiritual principles vital to business vitality at the end of each. Using the teachings the Bible (with an emphasis on the New Testament community), I share the powerful principles of Scripture showing how to use these in the every day goals, objectives, tasks of a business/mission effort.

Over a year, principles from 30 great best-selling business books are revealed. It's a year long "in the trenches" development program. I have used insights from the late J. Robert Ashcroft, visionary founder of Evangel University, on how Biblical power is available for us in the marketplace and how to be Spiritually empowered within your business skills each month. (Contact me and I would be glad send you the titles of business books featured.)

The power of dream teaming is added to the formula. Small cells of mind and Spirit power groups are formed to bring creative thinking, idea sharing, problem solving fulfillment into the mix. The group size is deliberately kept small from three to ten, of like-minded, compatible people. Meeting once or twice a month as needed, (in person, phone, email, video). The Special Forces in the military find that small, tightly-knit, well-trained groups, of 6 to 8 people, are quite powerful in executing important assignments.

The nucleus is Spiritual development from prayer and the Power of the Scriptures, integrated as part of the business operating philosophy. Prayer is learning the skill to tap into God's Great Power of Spirit, who empowers great things to happen.

The business transformation process is then in place.
Faith, belief in God's power in Spirit;
mental renewal, disciplined thinking and focus;
dreaming teams, of diversity but like-minded in heart and Spirit;
strategic action, from ideas which come from this Master mind of power;
a cause/mission emerges that transform society for a greater good of humanity.

(Dale Shumaker, founder of the Spirit Savvy Business, M.S.,Educational Communications and Technology, researcher of entrepreneur skills, and student of the Bible and Spiritual applications in lifestyle. 417-224-3517, and I would be elated to show you ways to become one in business and Spirit and fulfill God's mission in your life through your mission and within commerce.)

Social Boom! ...the power of small communicating

2011-06-16T07:29:00.000-07:00

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

Social Boom! by Jeffrey Gitomer is about how to attract, engage, and connect on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube. Gitomer simply outlines what to use each for(the unwritten internet protocol), and how to go about it. It's one of those books that really needs to be on your business bookshelf as a reference guide to follow. Here are a few areas that are emphasized in the book.

The social media mentioned above are growing quickly. Social media is instant and you have to be ready to participate consistently, if you want to win. They need to be used interchangeably, and a business strategy for you is necessary. It's not like the old mass media that is constantly pushing their product on us. Value must be created, so people want to visit you, listen to what you have to say. From that the relationships formed produce business relationships that are solid and enduring. What you build in social media will last longer n business because you formed a relationship of value first that creates a connection. It's giving people a clear picture of who you are and who you aren't. So before they ever meet you, they know you.

What you should do?
Observe what your competition is doing on line.
Talk to your customers and ask what they want.
Communicate value messages, not product offerings.

To build influential messages...
be the one most fascinating on line; message first, media second, identify what makes you fascinating, start with information and then add insight, think in verbs, hit hot buttons, don't moan, stand out and don't be a bother... be fascinating. Social media is your personal brand, it's like a river, and you are in a fish bowl.

Eight steps for using social media are:
Find your prospects, follow them, read their posts, collect information, listen, connect (or share their ideas with others), reach out to them, align yourself with people that you know they follow and pay attention to.

Facebook
Create value. The more you give, the more attractive you become. Become a community. As you build a Facebook, keep in mind...
All social media is interconnected. You have to do ALL of them consistently to gain effective results. And you have to do them well if you expect to monetize your efforts.(Gitomer)
When starting your own business Facebook page, the five step formula is:
Gather the email addresses of each of your customers.
Begin gathering valuable content that your customers would perceive as usable and profitable. Have your business page designed graphically and strategically. Your Facebook page has to be a door that swings both ways. Use Gitomer's page as an example. (Search Jeffrey Gitomer on Facebook.)
Invite your customers to your page, and ask them to press "like".
Promise to be sending them information of value to them.

LinkedIn
Go to your LinkedIn page and look at three things.
How many connections do you have?
How many recommendations do you have?
What is your summary statement?

The imperatives of LinkedIn are: Complete your profile. Update and engage frequently with your connections. Recommend others. Solve other people's problems. Join and participate in groups. Start your own group. Search companies and harvest new leads. Respond to everyone who communicates with you. Set up the SlideShare application and add value. Change your status regularly. Put a video on your profile. Promote your blog. Add a portfolio. Integrate Twitter. Leverage LinkedIn's search power and be found.

To build rank on your LinkedIn:
Make the most of your headline. Make your current and past work experience keyword rich.
Make the most of the summary section. Specialties should equal keywords. Add key-word rich website links.

Create, promote, moderate, and leverage your own LinkedIn group. Be a group owner. This is a power feature of LinkedIn. Go to the Group tab and begin. Invite others to your group. Control undesirable comments. (Block out chronic toxic contributors, or make it by invitation only.)

Personalize your invitations to your LinkedIn and let them know why you would like to connect.

Twitter
Twitter is not about meaningless chit chat. It's about sharing of meaningful information, ideas, events, that others will want to retweet... something of great interest or value. The goal is tweeting something others will retweet as a result of a compelling interest. Include original thoughts or ideas and add your name at the end. This re-enforces your personal brand.

The power of Twitter is staying in touch every day with your network with information that is interesting, of value. It's simply about informing and sharing. A tweet of value is something new, let's your personality shine, asks questions, original in thought or observation, and shows you listen. You don't need 10,000 tweets to get 20,000 followers. You need 200 quality, relevant, valuable messages that are retweetable. (Gitomer)
People are sick and tired of being sold to. They are sick of being marketed to. They come to social networks for fun, information, connection, and entertainment.
A tweet of value a day will keep your business in the main stay. (dale)

Target connections with meaningful content is the goal. Content can come in many forms... link to your blog, a retweet, comments on your LinkedIn, anecdote of the day, a special event, content of value from your business or industry.

Twelve things to know about Twitter.
You have to be on Twitter regularly. A great source to traffic people to your website. Sharing information. Respond to people who contact you. Get your message across in few words. All tweets should be 20 characters short of the 140 limit to make it retweetable. Use hashtags to categorize. Tweets have a short lifespan. Great for finding new information or look for opportunities. Use Hootesuite to schedule tweets. Best tweet times are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m Eastern Standard Time. Twitter followers are great people.
The world is not just small, it's instant. (Gitomer)

YouTube
YouTube provides the biggest opportunity to promote your name, brand, anyone in the world can watch and its free.
YouTube opportunities include a place to share client testimonials, share your business philosophy and best ideas, record your favorite customer, and anything else your imagination can conjure up. It's an entertainment, informational marketplace so others see your heart, spirit, with your ideas. Start with what you have, don't create videos, create a series of videos(brief and to the point), use videos of you speaking to others, build yourself an audience(invite, invite, constantly invite others to watch), change your business model to include YouTube and work from a strategic plan. Instead of taking 20 minutes to get your 4 points across, create a series of 4 videos, five minutes for each point.

Use a blog to glue everything together... Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.
Your blog should have current photos and updated biography, value in why you're blogging, news, fun, insight, information, humor, and pass-it-on information.

The glue process is your personal website, your weekly e-zine, and your blog. Ask for email addresses, and email your email magazine. This is a weekly value message that reaches your customers and prospects. Ask first, send value, and they will stay connected and pass it on.

Messages of value have to be genuine, authentic, without an offer to buy. It must be transparent without expectation of return or response.

Since everything is interconnect, a person has all the options to find more of you and see all you have to offer. You stimulate word-of-mouth marketing by being interesting, making it easy, make people happy, and earn their trust and respect.

To capsulize... The formula for business social media success: Attract people, engage people, connect people. The best way to accomplish all three is with value. (Gitomer)

Read Gitomer, brainstorm with friends and create your business social media game plan. For a taste of Jeffrey Gitomer
http://www.facebook.com/JeffreyGitomer

The Strength of Spiritual relationship is in communication. When we pray we communicate. When we pray for others we communicate. When we speak to others we empower them. Our words empower others.

The Scriptures say by the word of your testimony, it is done. God spoke and the world formed. His words shake the universal violently.

We speak and people respond. When in a position of authority people do as we say, become as we say. Communication is powerful. The Holy Spirit puts us in a position of authority. When it is spoken by the unction of the Holy Spirit there's transformational, convicting, responsive power. The Words from Spirit are invincibly, persuasively powerful.

Power is manifested and Supernatural results come about when people are in unity. Unity requires communication. When there is agreement, one-in-thought and Spirit, all Heaven comes to earth. All of Heaven surrounds our purposes.

The teachings on the Body of Christ, by Dr. J. Robert Ashcroft surmised this well.
They were no longer just a group meeting together, but an intimacy among them became obviously apparent. It was an intimate sharing fellowship as all things were considered to be in common and shared by all. This was done to such an extent, no one person in the group was without. All needs were met. Individuals seemed to lose individual identities in the group. There was a vicarious unselfishness to share all blessings with each other.

Unity in all things was the word of the day. (All of this involves communication.)
1. They were in unity as One with God.
2. They were one in themselves, one with the Holy Spirit now working vigorously through them. They turned over selfish ambitions for God's directives speaking unceasingly through them.
3. They were one with each other. As Peter spoke to the crowd afterward... He was speaking as the whole group of 11 disciples. A unique occurrence.
4. They were in unity with all Believers. Togetherness was the characteristic of the group, as well as the condition behind why they all had so much power now.
5. They were in communication. Now, the Spirit was communicating through them from the Spirit within them. They had God's voice in them speaking to them.
6. They were in unity in material things. They shared things of value with each other... food, clothing, shelter, houses, transportation. Even though most were in poverty, in their sharing they all become a group without any lack among them. Prosperity seems to promote individualism... individualism weakens Spiritual power. Their power came from their sharing... a new concept of power's origins.
7. They were in unity in witnessing. They had favor with all people and people listened to them. They were amazed that they seemed to know so much, and were bold as an authority in their field even though not educated. The warmth and love they had among each other, attracted many to them.

All this centered around the unity of Spirit as One Group they had. When there is disunity, the power is zapped. We should avoid disunity at all costs. Satan's premiere tool to make the Church powerless is to create disunity. When that happens, Power is diluted, exponentially, from the group. To the same degree, when their is unity, power is added exponentially to the group.

The Unity of Believers Brought the manifestation of God's Presence.

Today with all the social media, with a strategic use of resources, we can cause great things to emerge from the Power Principles of the Scriptures.
Facebook can be used to cultivate friendships, testimonies of life, share needs.
Twitter to keep in touch in sound bites, as well as texting, for instant updating.
LinkedIn to build a marketplace connection of Kingdom objectives with strategies to inject the potency of Spirit in the marketplace.
YouTube to be our pulpit for sharing revelations as they come.
Blog to allow gifts of thought to flow.

We have tools to do great things in the Kingdom of God for the Kingdom of God and mobilize an army for the Kingdom of God. We can be the army.

It's in sharing where the power is. Communicate and speak power into people. Use all the tools available. And then our coming together will be more powerful. So Powerful that we will see supernatural expressions of God's Spirit in all things around us.

Absolute Surrender... kept by God's Great Power

2011-06-07T06:29:00.000-07:00

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray (1828-1917) is a Christian classic on living in the authority of God's Spirit and His Power in our life, visible daily. The section on Kept by the Power of God outlines the ingredients for experiencing this on a daily basis. Murray is a Spiritually anointed inspirational writer. Here are excerpts from this powerful guide to living in Spirit's power... Kept by the Power of God.

We have two wonderful, blessed truths about the keeping by which a believer is kept unto salvation. One truth is, Kept by the power of God; and the other truth is, Kept through faith. We should look at the two sides... at God’s side and His almighty power, offered to us to be our Keeper every moment of the day; and at the human side, we having nothing to do but in faith to let God do His keeping work. We see there is a double keeping... the inheritance kept for me in Heaven, and I on earth kept for the inheritance there.

Keeping Includes All

Think, first of all, that this keeping is all-inclusive.

He knows you are not able to keep yourself. But God says: “My child, there is no work you are to do, and no business in which you are engaged, and not a cent which you are to spend, but I, your Father, will take that up into my keeping.”
God not only cares for the spiritual, but for the temporal also. The greater part of the life of many people must be spent, sometimes eight or nine or ten hours a day, amid the temptations and distractions of business; but God will care for you there. The keeping of God includes all. Now, I bring you the message that in prosperity as in adversity, in the sunshine as in the dark, your God is ready to keep you all the time. The meaning is, that if you will entrust yourself entirely and absolutely to the omnipotence of God, He will delight to keep you.

Keeping Requires Power

Second, if you want to understand this keeping, remember that it is not only an all-inclusive keeping, but it is an almighty keeping. Have you ever thought that in every action of grace in your heart you have the whole omnipotence of God engaged to bless you?

What is Almighty God not going to do for the child that trusts Him? The Bible says: “Above all that we can ask or think." It is Omnipotence you must learn to know and trust, and then you will live as a Christian ought to live. How little we have learned to study God, and to understand that a godly life is a life full of God, a life that loves God and waits on Him, and trusts Him, and allows Him to bless it! We cannot do the will of God except by the power of God. God gives us the first experience of His power to prepare us to long for more, and to come and claim all that He can do. God help us to trust Him every day.

Keeping Is Continuous

Another thought. This keeping is not only all-inclusive and omnipotent, but also continuous and unbroken. God comes to us as the Almighty One, and without any condition He offers to be my Keeper, and His keeping means that day by day, moment by moment, God is going to keep us. Our whole spiritual life is to be God’s doing... "It is God that works in us to will and to do of his good pleasure. ” When once we get faith to expect that from God, God will do all for us. Every morning God will meet you as you wake. If you trust your waking to God, God will meet you in the morning as you wake with His divine sunshine and love, and He will give you the consciousness that through the day you have got God to take charge of you continuously with His almighty power. And God will meet you the next day and every day; and never mind if in the practice of fellowship there comes failure sometimes. If you maintain your position and say: “Lord, I am going to expect You to do Your utmost, and I am going to trust You day by day to keep me absolutely,” your faith will grow stronger and stronger, and you will know the keeping power of God in unbrokenness.

And now the other side—Believing. “Kept by the power of God through faith.” How must we look at this faith?

Faith Implies Helplessness

First of all, this faith means utter impotence and helplessness before God. At the bottom of all faith there is a feeling of helplessness. And so faith always means helplessness. In many cases it means: I can do it with a great deal of trouble, but another can do it better. But in most cases it is utter helplessness; another must do it for me. And that is the secret of the spiritual life. A man must learn to say: “I give up everything; I have tried and longed and thought and prayed, but failure has come. God has blessed me and helped me, but still, in the long run, there has been so much of sin and sadness.” What a change comes when a man is thus broken down into utter helplessness and self-despair, and says: “I can do nothing!” It is possible that you might exalt yourself, and therefore I have sent you this trial to keep you weak and humble.”

It is when we sink down in utter helplessness that the everlasting God will reveal Himself in His power, and that our hearts will learn to trust God alone.

But how am I to get that trust?”

My answer is: “By the death of self. The great hindrance to trust is self-effort. So long as you have got your own wisdom and thoughts and strength, you cannot fully trust God. But when God breaks you down, when everything begins to grow dim before your eyes, and you see that you understand nothing, then God is coming near, and if you will bow down in nothingness and wait upon God, He will become all.”

As long as we are something, God cannot be all, and His omnipotence cannot do its full work. That is the beginning of faith... utter despair of self, a ceasing from man and everything on earth, and finding our hope in God alone.

Faith Is Rest

And then, next, we must understand that faith is rest.

In the beginning of the faith-life, faith is struggling; but as long as faith is struggling, faith has not attained its strength. But when faith in its struggling gets to the end of itself, and just throws itself upon God and rests on Him, then comes joy and victory.

Oh, friends, that is faith! When God comes to me with the promise of His keeping, and I have nothing on earth to trust in, I say to God: “Your word is enough; kept by the power of God.” That is faith, that is rest.

My God, let my life be a proof of what the omnipotent God can do. Let these be the two dispositions of our souls every day... deep helplessness, and simple, childlike rest.

Faith Needs Fellowship

That brings me to just one more thought in regard to faith... faith implies fellowship with God. No goodness or power can be received separate from God, and if you want to get into this life of godliness, you must take time for fellowship with God.

Leave your heart, and look into the face of Christ, and listen to what He tells you about how He will keep you. Look up into the face of your loving Father, and take time every day with Him, and begin a new life with the deep emptiness and poverty of a man who has got nothing, and who wants to get everything from Him... with the deep restfulness of a man who rests on the living God, the omnipotent Jehovah... and try God, and prove Him if He will not open the windows of Heaven and pour out a blessing that there shall not be room to receive it.

Shall we not say: “All that that omnipotence can do, I am going to trust my God for”? Are not the two sides of this heavenly life wonderful? God’s omnipotence covers me, and my will in its littleness rests in that omnipotence, and rejoices in it!

This is from Absolute Surrender which is online at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/murray/surrender.toc.html
Click on the chapter, Kept by the Power of God, for the complete chapter above.

Lead with LUV ... one in Spirit

2011-05-30T06:47:00.000-07:00

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

Lead with LUV by Ken Blanchard and Colleen Barrett (President Emeritus of Southwest Airlines)
reveal through dialogue her secrets of being a Love Manager. Southwest Airlines, with LUV as its stock market symbol, lived in a love relationship with each other, customers and stock holders. During Barrett's servant leadership as president until 2008, Southwest's culture was all about love.

As Southwest's LUV leader and followers of the Golden Rule, her VP of marketing said this of Colleen. "Colleen teaches us that love is what matters and that you have to lead with your heart and know that the heart will take you in the right directions."

Servant leadership is about love. Although this view is seen in the corporate world as a soft idea. Love is a powerful driving force. Loving your mission, customers, your people, yourself, so others can be magnificent. The true servant leader deals with vision/direction, strategic leadership to see that everything goes in the same direction.

The servant leader has a triple bottom line. Treat your people right as your most valued customer. the employees then treat the passenger (the customer) as their most valued person in warmth, caring, and a fun spirit. The customer tells others and comes back, so then the shareholders benefit from this love cycle. As the employer of choice, the provider of choice, the investment of choice, the triple bottom line yields the financial bottom line.

Make your people your business partners in every way.

Servant leaders run with a compelling vision which includes a significant purpose (what business are you in?), a picture of the future (what it will look like if successful?), clear values (what guides your behavior and decisions daily?). It tells you who you are, where you're going, and what guides you in getting there. People admire your strengths, but they respect your honesty regarding your vulnerability.

Servant leadership is love in action. How are you defining love?
Patient. Patience is helping people down on their luck, rebuilding self-confidence.
Kind. Kindness seeks to be useful, and searches for opportunities to do good.
Generous. Generosity rejoices over others' success, recognizing and rewarding acts of courage, determination, sacrifice, or goodwill.
Courteous. Courtesy is to be love in little things, promoting the happiness of all.
Humble. Humility does not call attention to itself, bloat up with self-conceit, take credit for ideas. People with humility don't think less of themselves, they just think of themselves less.
Unselfish. Unselfishness never neglects others. Consider others, their welfare, satisfaction and advantage to be above its own. Never advancing, aggrandizing, enriching, gratifying itself at the cost of others.
Good temper. Love restrains passions and is not exasperated, never angry without a cause. Anger cannot rest in a heart where love reigns.
Guileless. Love thinks no evil, sees the bright side, puts the best construction on every action.
Sincere. Love takes no pleasure in doing injury or hurting others, or broadcasting someone's miscues. It doesn't gossip or bear false witness, taking time to thank people for their worthwhile contributions.

The true test of a servant leader, who maintains a healthy culture, one with everyone involved in feedback, is to have other servant leaders who are wiser, freer, more autonomous, healthier and better able themselves to become servant leaders.

In summary, Colleen loves this company, loves the employees, the customers.
Commonly referred to as a fun-LUVin company, leading with love is a different (and fun) way to create success.

"Every dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world."

Ken Blanchard's website:
http://www.kenblanchard.com/

Oswald Chambers is a classic prolific inspirational writing. His devotional My Utmost for His Highest reflect his insights to vibrant Spiritual living. Ponder these excerpts from May 22 through May 29. Current daily devotionals appear at
http://utmost.org/

God reveals in John 17 that His purpose is not just to answer our prayers, but that through prayer we might come to discern His mind. Yet there is one prayer which God must answer, and that is the prayer of Jesus. . . that they may be one just as We are one . . ." Are we as close to Jesus Christ as that?

Jesus prayed nothing less for us than absolute oneness with Himself, just as He was one with the Father. Some of us are far from this oneness; yet God will not leave us alone until we are one with Him— because Jesus prayed, “. . . that they all may be one . . . .”

Jesus summed up commonsense carefulness in the life of a disciple as unbelief. If we have received the Spirit of God, He will squeeze right through our lives, as if to ask, “Now where do I come into this relationship, this vacation you have planned, or these new books you want to read?” And He always presses the point until we learn to make Him our first consideration. Whenever we put other things first, there is confusion. “. . . do not worry about your life . . . .” Don’t take the pressure of your provision upon yourself.

Many of us do not continue to grow spiritually because we prefer to choose on the basis of our rights, instead of relying on God to make the choice for us. We have to learn to walk according to the standard which has its eyes focused on God. And God says to us, as He did to Abram, “. . . walk before Me. . .”

Our thinking about prayer... The correct concept is to think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts. Our blood flows and our breathing continues “without ceasing”; we are not even conscious of it, but it never stops. And we are not always conscious of Jesus keeping us in perfect oneness with God, but if we are obeying Him, He always is. Prayer is not an exercise, it is the life of the saint. Beware of anything that stops the offering up of prayer. “Pray without ceasing . . . " maintain the childlike habit of offering up prayer in your heart to God all the time.

The attitude of receiving and welcoming the Holy Spirit into our lives is to be the continual attitude of a believer. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we receive reviving life from our ascended Lord.

If anything is a mystery to you and is coming between you and God, never look for the explanation in your mind, but look for it in your spirit, your true inner nature, that is where the problem is. Once your inner spiritual nature is willing to submit to the life of Jesus, your understanding will be perfectly clear, and you will come to the place where there is no distance between the Father and you, His child, because the Lord has made you one. “In that day you will ask Me nothing.”

“. . . whatever you ask the Father in My name . . .” “That day” is a day of peace and an untroubled relationship between God and His saint. Just as Jesus stood unblemished and pure in the presence of His Father, we too by the mighty power and effectiveness of the baptism of the Holy Spirit can be lifted into that relationship—”. . . that they may be one just as We are one . . ."

Put trust in God first. Being one with Him, we have all His ever expansive universe as part of our life as we live to be His instrument on earth.

Tell to Win ... the greatest story ever told

2011-05-14T09:33:00.000-07:00

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

Tell to Win by Peter Guber is about how to connect, persuade, and triumph with the hidden power of story. Everyone is in the emotional transportation business. Purposeful stories, those created with a specific mission in mind, are absolutely essential in persuading others to support a vision, dream or cause. Guber is from the movie industry and he has learned what works in movies, we can learn similar principles that work when we communicate to others with the power of the story. In any environment, place, you to can create a compelling story that connects and persuades.

The components of a good story, whether told in person, on a page or via actors, are challenge, struggle, and resolution.
First, get the listener's attention with an unexpected challenge or question.
Next, then give your listeners an emotional experience by narrating the struggle to overcome the challenge, or find an answer to the opening question.
Finally, galvanize your listeners' response with an eye-opening resolution that calls them to action.
From Guber's movie experience he says you are skunked if the three part story-listening experience is not delivered.

What fuels emotional transportation?
1. True heroes are sympathetic and recognizable characters. Your hero in the story is the conductor. The more sympathetic to this person, the more we feel bound to the story.
2. Drama gets your story moving. Once we have our hero, what keeps us spellbound is wondering what will happen next. Create tension between expectation and uncertainty. Emotional tension makes you think it might go this way, or go that way, so your listener hangs with you to find out. It's that we want something to turn out one way, but with the situation it could have several outcomes. This is emotional tension that keeps us in the story to find out. The "what happens next" is a compelling story telling component that keeps the audience glued to you.
3. Get people from "ah" to "ha." Or moving the emotional to the ahha, "I got it".This is what is going on and how it turned out.
4. Move from the me to the we factor. That the story is shared by the other person too. It now becomes a shared experience between you, another person or a group. The teller and listener feel the benefit of the experience. We align in interests and others know what's in it for them.

The meat of Win to Tell details the art of the "tell" which is ready... set... tell.

Ready... To tell a great story preparation is key. Do your homework and demonstrate authenticity and congruence, the rails which your story rides. Aim for the heart and emotionalize your offering. Be interested in what your listener is interested in. Then they will find your story interesting and compelling. Know your audience and what interests them. Be aware of your listeners' prejudices, pet issues. Overlooking this can hijack your whole story.

Set... your hero represents the point of view of your listener. He/she/it is the one your audience identifies with, the audience experiences the story through the hero. The call to action embraced by the hero will as well be embraced by the audience. Your hero is the person, place, product, or brand that enables your audience to feel the change promised in the story. Metaphors and analogies are great to use. In a single word, in a single image all the emotion and meaning can be delivered. Engaging powerful narratives from books, popular movies, history can emotionalize your call to action.

Tell! Present authentic, contagious energy. Your energy, that's real, is the catalyst for a great story. All audiences expect experiences. Being vulnerable is an asset, not a liability. Persist if you get a "no", and pressing on in spite of their fear ("no" comes from fear expressed in fight, flee, freeze) and change "no" to "on". Be clear on your goal, use inspiring stories, learn, refine and improve your story with each no. Rejection is just a sign to detour to find the better road to success. Your body talks more than your tongue. Be interactive, arouse curiosity, use props that support your story. Listen actively and responsively, be ready to drop your script when the situation calls for it. The audience needs to own it, so surrender control and proprietorship to your audience. The best raw material you have is your firsthand, witnessed experience.

To sustain a never-ending story, identify the essential elements of your story and the audiences who clearly echo the essence of your story. Multiply that by encouraging these audiences to retell your story through their own voice and through their own experience... their networks, relationships, social media of preference. State of the art technology has its benefits, although it's the state of the Heart technology that's the game changer when you can tell your story in the room, face to face.

More on Tell to Win at:
http://www.peterguber.com/telltowin/home

The Greatest Story Ever Told is a movie produced in the 60's. It was an epic portrayal of the life of Christ and why He was on earth... the son of God coming to earth in a human being.

It held all the intrigue of a great story. Jesus came with a challenge... to save mankind. He ran into struggles.... religious leaders conspiring to have Him put to death. Internal betrayal from one of his close associates.

And then the triumph. He was the only person ever to die, come back, and then leave again only to promise us that He would put in us the Same Spirit, that He had, to work in us continually. During the time on earth he deliberately set up a coalition of dedicated followers to spread the message He was sent to share and set up for all mankind.

He gave a bold promise... Jesus said He came to give life to everyone, and give it more abundantly than what we have now. He said that He was the way to this Life, He spoke the truth and showed how this world can work better. He was the light to see a better way. Our minds will be opened to see things like never before and get supernatural insights beyond our human ability. He said to believe in Him and He would give us all of this.

During the whole time while He was explaining how this would work, demonstrating how it worked by healing others and bringing grace into lives, a gang of holier-than-thou folks were out to get Him killed. Ironically, He never committed a real crime and beyond that, not one small sin that God would be opposed to. He was said to be perfect in His human relationships.

The whole time He kept dodging and having to outwit these scoundrels while setting up and training His team of special forces to carry on after He left the earth. He made a unique promise to His followers. That as a group, remaining unified, they would be like Him, with all the wisdom, power, revelation He had.

As the Greatest Story unfolded, He intensified His efforts to set up His Kingdom on earth, a Spiritual Kingdom, while He knew He was running out of time as these unscrupulous folks tried to capture Him and have Him killed. It was a race against the clock.

They finally caught Him and put Him to death after an unfair trial. Everyone thought His mission had been stopped. But He had the biggest surprise coming. After dying He came back and appeared to His followers, His meticulously trained associates, and gave them final instructions and encouragement to wage the battle of building the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, and to follow His example in how to do it. He told them to wait for a while and the Spirit that was on Him would come on them and all the things He did they would do. Beyond that all who joined in the crusade through the centuries would receive what He left on them. They would do just like Him, be just like Him, and get results like Him.

It was an intriguing strategy that would not ever be outwitted by anyone. He explained further and pointed out that they would mature in this and grow beyond where He was on earth. Leaving His physical body, He sent back a Spiritual body, made up of "many ones" united, to become bigger than He was while in a physical body as just one person. He said that increasing power will be in this united Spiritual body, and through it His Kingdom, a kingdom like Heaven, would grow and mature more than when He was on earth.

The story doesn't have an ending. It continues on and never dies. It's a never-ending story with its plot still unfolding. Those part of it are alive today, and will live together forever, even after a physical death just like Jesus went through. It's a story that's still alive, the greatest story ever told is still in the making.

Dale Shumaker bio ...my story from the back of the pack

2011-04-29T08:53:00.000-07:00

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

Raised on a dairy farm in the hill country of central Pennsylvania, I stuttered and was introverted. Going to school was a traumatizing, fearful experience. In first grade I was in the slow group. All through school I slowly moved up the pack. Getting into college by the skin of my teeth, having to take the remedial English program, I started at the back of the pack and again slowly moved up the ranks. Then I talked my way into graduate school, again at the back of the pack. Ironically, I completed my graduate program as the top student and was nominated to receive a national merit scholarship in my field.

This pattern seems to have followed me throughout my life. Wherever I was deficient I eventually turned it around to be advanced in that area. If you keep playing hard even when all seems bleak, things eventually turn and go your way. I believe in people, because I know anything is possible for those who keep fighting on in spite of adverse circumstances.

This has shaped my attitude in life in a significant way. Although sure of my abilities, I prefer to present myself in a humble way. As a stutterer, I understand embarrassment in groups. I never put someone in a bad light in front of others. With a degree in speech and theater, I have learned how to face fear and press through it.

My educational background includes psychology, broadcast communications, educational communication and educational administration. Several times I had to fight just to be accepted in a program… start dead last then end up at the front of the pack.

Coming into a company as a person of little notoriety, in five years I was voted by a group of 700 employees to represent them to the company leadership in employee wishes and desires. I believe in each individual’s right for pursuit of happiness. Whether in a corporate setting or the free market sector, each person should be availed their right to pursue life wishes as they desire. Consequently, I avoid judging and seek to understand and accept differences in people. I try to adjust to them as compared to having them adjust to me.

Over the decade of the 90's I’ve studied business development and personal dynamics in life. I was fortunate to have one of the leading practitioners in Spiritual living as a personal mentor—the late Dr. J. Robert Ashcroft. I enjoy entrepreneurism, pioneering new ideas, and bringing new ideas into being. I understand the real struggles of business and those involved in them. Within struggles we learn the secrets that propel us to greatness…the skills we need to lead and charge forth leading the pack.

In 2005 I launched the Spirit Savvy Business. Reading bestselling business books, creating summaries, adding Spiritual Principles, has created a distinctively dynamic system to build entrepreneur enterprise with a strong Spiritual punch. It's my belief this will completely revolutionize a society when given a chance to be integrated in the marketplace. A business with Bible studies, prayer meetings will become common. Many will use a business as a vehicle to build the Kingdom of God in the marketplace which will transform our society. It's a potent Spiritual force that will bring us to a time when the Kingdom of Heaven will be brought to earth, and function on earth the way it is in Heaven.

This vision was birthed decades ago and it was initiated after I went through a severe business failure in mid 2000's. My resources to start it included a library card and a Barnes and Noble coffee shop. The Spirit Savvy Biz blog began publishing biz book summaries each month; the Spirit-based Entrepreneur program was constructed to fire up the marketplace... Spiritual excellence with business excellence. Another in-the-making remarkable move coming from way back. This time bringing renewal to America. And again is happening... wider and deeper than before. Forming as the most remarkable move from the back of the pack in my life.

More on this thrust happening in my contribution years at:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/daleshumaker

Life for me has been a repeating scenario of coming from the back of the pack, so I have an unwavering faith in people and their ability to handle what they face regardless of how challenging it may be. It is within all of us to exceed our past accomplishments and keep improving no matter how well we may be doing. We should always focus on getting better and beating our own best record… and view set backs as unique opportunities in disguise.

My value system upholds personal excellence, but not with arrogance;
being persistent but not overbearing;
striving to be the best but not by putting others down;
when successful give the credit to all involved;
be quick to forgive and overlook others faults
and focus more on what I need to be doing to fix a problem.
Criticizing accomplishes very little,
but encouraging, praising and complimenting people on their gifts get greater results.

"Be bold, be strong for the Lord your God is with you." (Joshua 1)

Enchantment... enchanting in Spirit

2011-04-23T07:30:00.000-07:00

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki is the process of delighting people with you, your product, service, organization or idea. It is not about getting people's money or getting them to do what you want. It is simply having people being filled with great delight. Enchantment's place is to make the world a better place and is needed when you seek idealistic results, make difficult decisions, overcome entrenched habits, defy a crowd or must proceed despite delayed or nonexistent feedback.

Enchantment is about changing the world and to do that, we need to follow these steps to enchantment.

Step one is achieving likability. Likability involves having a great smile, the way you dress, your handshake, and your vocabulary. When you meet someone give a smile to make your crows feet show, dress in way that shows what you stand for, shake hands firmly with direct eye contact, use words that are simple, active, keeping it short. Accept others and allow yourself to get close with proximity and frequency(presence makes the heart grow fonder). Don't impose your values. Pursue and project your passions, find others who share your passions. Say yes to more people, see options and build rapport. A yes attitude increases likability.

The other half of likability is trustworthiness. To be trusted you must trust others. Be a mensch, which is a person honest, fair and transparent. Focus on goodwill and disclose your interests. Be reciprocal. Give with expecting nothing in return, pay forward, and for the reason just to help others. Gain knowledge and competence. Keep showing up regularly. It takes months to build trust. Be someone's hero. Demonstrate you can come through for someone faced with a challenge.

Do something great... lay the groundwork and preparation to make it successful. A great product is deep, intelligent, complete, empowering, and elegant. Conduct a premortem. If the project failed what would have caused it to fail. Make it easy to do the right thing. Make it short, simple and swallowable. Use tricolons, metaphors, similes, keep it short, positive and show respect. Remove fences and provide default options. Establish goals, create checklists.

Now, after you have developed a great cause, create a great story others can be immersed in the cause. People are drawn to your story when they hear you have great aspirations that forge a better way; when it's a David and Goliath story of the underdog taking on the big guy; when others see a profile in courage of overcoming an injustice or seemingly devastating defeat. A personal experience involving family that is meaningful. Immersing people in your cause includes enabling vicarious experience, getting close to the real situation, anchor your story to something they are familiar with, and show the difference this will make from past experience. Embrace those who are nobodies and are more likely to promote your cause. Then ask people for their support of your cause. Present the big idea, then ask them to make a small choice. Get your first follower. A good first follower will attract other followers.

Enchantment is a process, so reluctance will enter in. People are reluctant due to inertia... a thing not in motion will stay not in motion. Some won't reduce choices, are afraid to make mistakes, lack role models, or your cause may not interest them. Create a perception that it's a growing concern. Familiarity breeds commitment. Make it look scarce, but certain to be. Use one good example of how your cause is important versus non-emotional lists of statistics. Use images that are dramatic and you can't get out of your mind. Find a way to agree. Get on the beach first before taking the mainland. Use data to support your point of view and change people's minds. One who has done you a kindness will more than likely do it again. So don't feel people will resent you for asking for a favor when they did it once.

Make enchantment enduring. Internalize values by helping people to identify with your values and then internalizing by believing in them. Invoke reciprocity by giving with joy, giving early, give often and generously, give unexpectedly. Build a community that complements the cause by being involved in user groups, having blogs, using consultants and developers, resellers and conferences. Identify and recruit evangelists, give people things meaningful to do, publish, foster discourse, publicize the existence of the ecosystem. Build a diverse team including advocates, skeptics, visionaries, adult efficiency (get things done people), evangelists(spread the word), and rainmakers to close deals.

Kawasaki also recommends how to use push and pull technologies. "Push" includes presentations, email, Twitter, etc. New technologies are constantly being introduced. Some enduring principles for now and later are engage fast, engage many and engage often. Use multiple media, provide value, give credit. give people the benefit of the doubt, accept diversity, don't take any crap, limit promotion, disclose your conflicts. In presentations, customize introductions, sell your dream, think screenplay (not speech), dramatize, shorten, practice, warm up the audience, speak a lot. When using email keep these principles in mind, get a real email, get an introduction, personalize the subject line, keep it to six sentences, suck up(do your homework), minimize attachments, ask for something concrete. Engage people manually, promote your cause. make it personal.

Use pull technology to distribute large quantities of information. These include websites, blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube pages. Keep this on the forefront. Provide good content, refresh it often, skip the flash and let people right in, make it fast, sprinkle in graphics and pictures, craft an about page, help visitors navigate, introduce the team. optimize visits for various devices, provide multiple methods of access. When using Linked In make a great profile, get visible and reach out. Reach out by searching by name, search by company, find shared interests, check the reputation of people, scope out companies.

Kawasaki continues on to discuss enchanting employees and your boss, and how to resist enchantment (that's resisting the unethical enchanter). Learn enchanting skills responsibly and in a manner that benefits all involved, if not the world. You can link to Guy Kawasaki's Facebook and blog at his website:
http://www.guykawasaki.com/

Jesus was very high on enchantment. He was very likable... many followed him and crowds pressed to see him everywhere. He was trustworthy and many placed their whole trust in him and gave up everything they owned for him and He did great things. And promised we would do even greater things.

Jesus taught with real authority. And people saw a genuine character unlike others who were just motivated for political or self-ambition reasons. "When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority—quite unlike their teachers of religious law." (Matthew 7:28, 29)

And because of this authority, as they saw Him as the true Son of God, the Messiah, the One that God was sending in flesh and blood to actually see the character of God in person. When they saw all of this first hand, they also saw someone they could trust. "Peter said, “We’ve left our homes to follow you.”“Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up houses or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the Kingdom of God, will be repaid many times over in this life, and will have eternal life in the world to come.” (Luke 18:28-30)

"They flocked to see him and also to see Lazarus, the man Jesus had raised from the dead. Then the leading priests decided to kill Lazarus, too, for it was because of him that many of the people had deserted them and believed in Jesus." (John 12:9-11)

Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you. But don’t rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in heaven.” Luke 10:19,20)

And Jesus did great things and healed, walked on water, raised people who died. Beyond this He promised the greatest reward which was we would be raised from the dead like He was and we would live in a world of wonder and bliss. As He said that we should be most grateful because we would share in everything God owns.

Being in Him we would share in this great inheritance, equal partners with Him, in who He is and everything He did... All of His miracles! Then Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water. "yes, come,” Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus." (Matthew 14: 28, 29)

He was so enchanting that the masses loved Him although those in leadership at that time despised him because he kept upstaging them. Doing things that proved He was the son of God and even more than that was the only person to predict coming back from the dead and then doing it. "Then Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead.: (Mark 8:31)
And Jesus did. He was killed, raised from the dead, and now has gone to prepare a place for us.

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me.There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going.” (John 14:1-4)

But even now, Jesus promised we would do even greater things than He did with His Spirit in us on earth. “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father." (John 14:12)

We will live always, from right now through forever, in a life that is beyond our imagination with joy and happiness we can't even describe in our human terms. It's worth it to be enchanting in the Spirit of Jesus and live as He did.

(Contact info: Dale Shumaker, 4spirit@gmail.com, 417-224-3517)

Disciplined Dreaming ... a Spirit Powered Process

2011-03-28T07:14:00.000-07:00

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

Disciplined Dreaming by Josh Linkner involves systems for breaking through to creativity. The five-step method of ask, prepare, discover, ignite, and launch can be applied by any business or business venture-minded person. Using systems that are common left brain attributes, any person whether right brained (commonly the creative side) and left brained (more systematic and linear) can be innovators and creators in their business.

What do you do in each step?
Step 1: Ask. Identify and clearly define your specific creative challenge.
Step 2. Prepare. Get ready to meet the challenge you identified.
Step 3. Discover. Explore the avenues that might lead to creative ideas.
Step 4. Ignite. Spark creativity and get more ideas.
Step 5. Launch. Make your best ideas a reality.

What approaches can you use to invigorate each step?
Disciplined Dreaming will bring solutions to you in three areas: Breakthrough innovation, high-value change, everyday creativity. To expand your creativity, you will need to tolerate ambiguity, avoid right and wrong answers, accept ruts and grooves, listen, don't be rigid or stubborn, seek input.

Linkner's method uses a systems approach that a left brain person as well as a right brain person can use and feel quite at home at doing it.

Ask.
Build a creativity brief. Common elements of this brief include an overview which is a description of the project or problem you are trying to solve.
The history, what has led up to this point?
The objective, what specific outcome is desired to be accomplished?
The deliverables, what will come out of this that will be delivered?
The target audience, whom will the message reach?
The timeline, dates and milestones throughout the project.
The client, who are the decision makers, those who approve each part?
The budget, what financial restraints must be adhered to?
Creative warmup exercises are provided to warm up the mind to creative function.

To lead you to breakthroughs in thinking ask three questions: Why? What if? Why not?
To dig deeper into a thought ask Why? five times. For each response follow with another Why? Sounds a little like your 2-year old growing up, but works great to get deeper in a thought or idea. Master innovators have five skills: associating, questioning, observing, experimenting, networking(or getting ideas from varied sources).

Prepare.
Do fun, off-the-wall things to loosen everyone up... word games, improv, field trips.
The seven rules of creative culture are fuel your passion... develop a sense of purpose, promote collaboration, celebrate ideas, foster autonomy, encourage courage, fail forward, think small, maximize diversity.

Prepare the environment. Go to different sites, rearrange rooms that are open, bright, colorful, with lots of sunlight, have people sit in different places, on different things( maybe everyone gets a bean bag to sit on).

When you conduct a meeting off-site, follow these practices.
1. Start with clear objectives. Make sure your creativity brief has been prepared.
2. Establish ground rules. Some things to keep in mind are confidentiality, dive deep, steer people back from tangents, demand clarity, how do we take it home.
3. Make the most of intros and endings. Start with something motivational and end it with inspiration to carry on.
4. Warm it up. Use quotes and other activities to get creative juices going.
5. Create a theme. Use sub-themes as quideposts along the way.
6. Sprint and break. Take a break every couple hours. Keep cell phone's off during meeting.
7. Move outside your comfort zone. Do activities different than the norm.
8. Get stimulated. Food, guest speakers, videos, live entertainment. Group fun.
9. Encourage broad participation. Be a facilitator not a lecturer.
10. Prepare. Ask people to prepare in advance activities they are in charge of.

Discover.
Look at a problem through different lenses, as if you were a musician or engineer, someone not normally associated with the area being discussed. Pretend you are that person as you explain it to the group.
Capitalize on inflection points. As technology, culture, economic conditions, social interaction styles change, these are inflection points that can unleash new opportunity. What's the significance of these changes and how can you capitalize on them? Opportunities can lie at the intersection of multiple inflection points or trends. In addition to discovering something totally new, they can add a new twist to an old idea.
Discover from borrowed ideas. Something may be working somewhere else that will work when applied to a problem. Keep up on what others are doing, and see if it would work for you.
Turn the problem upside down. Use the "instead of" and "what if" process. Play with an idea that you could pretend that "instead of" this, "what if" we did this. Apply this to existing problems and see what might come out of it.
Put patterns to use. What patterns exist that you can apply. In World War II the pattern of birds flying was used to determine air formation patterns. Many inventions and creative solutions came out of observing other patterns and applying them to something else. Look through magazines for ideas that could be used to innovate your situation? What inflection points affected others in how are they responding to changes?

Ignite.
The Creative process is nonlinear. It doesn't start with a complete idea or thorough concept, it begins with sparks. To spark the creative flame start with a number of small sparks, even though quite incomplete. Be very careful not to quickly extinguish those sparks.

Twelve ways to strike the spark of creativity.
Use Imbizo groups, which is a group of people with diverse backgrounds. They merely discuss the project. Their diversity brings new and different perspectives.
The hot potato is to randomly pass something like a nerf ball around and who catches it must shout out an idea in only one sentence.
The start ain't always the start. Begin even if it's an idea for on down the road. The goal is to start sparking and start collecting ideas.
The wrong answer. Like how to win an award for the worst customer. It's fun, gets a few laughs and starts to spark the creative juices.
Stick to the man. How could you generate an idea that could get some people mad at you. As you are politically incorrect, then you will see the other side of what a non-offensive idea could be.
Get stimulated. Step away from your activity for while and let the mind recycle. When you come back and refocus the creative comes alive and makes something of an idea discussed earlier.
In the time capsule go back about 50 years. How would someone from that era solve this problem and come up with a better idea. Then jump 50 years in the future and do the same thing. This gets the mind rolling.
The Hemingway bridge. Start the next idea at the end of the day so you have a head start the next time you meet. It helps get you rolling faster when you come back.
The persona method has you create ideas around certain personas. Each persona will generate a different view. This opens the mind to news ways of seeing things.
Use provocation to generate off the wall ideas. A provocative statement usually stirs people up and may come out really stupid. These extreme comments get you looking at things from a different perspective.
Dagnabbits are times you get really frustrated about something. Find natural pain points and see what they stir up.
Think, doodle, write, repeat. Some great ideas start as we doodle. When we doodle away the artist side of us opens up.
The eight commandments of ideation are
1. Thou shall not judge. Let ideas flow and without evaluation early on.
2. Thou shall not comment. Let someone continue even if an idea sounds idiotic to you.
3. Thou shall not edit. Don't let grammar, spelling to get in the way of the flow.
4. Thou shall not execute. Don't try to figure out how it will work too soon.
5. Thou shall not worry. As outrageous ideas are permissible, we release fear from our own minds about sharing a dumb idea.
6. Thou shall not look backwards. "It didn't work before" thinking is not allowed in idea generation.
7. Thou shall not lose focus. When you wonder off the subject, put the idea in a parking lot, that may be picked up later.
8. Thou shall not sap energy. There are two kinds of people.... zappers and sappers. Zappers make you feel energized. Sappers cause energy to drain from you. Negative and droning comments kill creativity.

EdgeStorming is taking an idea to its greatest extreme. Making a long list forces you to dig deeper to new and fresher ideas. To get ideas from your ideas substitute and combine ideas, adapt an idea, magnify or minimize and idea, put it to another use, eliminate parts, rearrange or reverse.

Launch.
Now return to the left brain side and put both sides in force. Determine the best ideas, let go of some and put them to work. Create a scoring card of one to ten and rate them in time savings, low initial investment, easy to implement, requires little training, fast change timeline, low safety hazards, low ongoing costs, low operation risks, and long term benefit.

In comparing ideas consider if it meets your desired outcome, solves your original problem, impact on your company or career, reception by your target audience, meets your definition for success, return on investment.

Test your selections by using prototyping, making a physical model, acting it out, simulating it, making a movie, demonstrating it.

Look at these results and then build a detailed action plan including budgets, roles and responsibilities, detailed timelines, top risks with contingency plans for each, resources needed including money, people, time, and the communication and rollout plan.

More from Josh Linkner at
http://joshlinkner.com/

Anybody set on a mission, in business or life, will benefit from the following process. Use this to create your own a flight plan. It is a Spirit directed process, with Spirit inspiration to empower your efforts along the way, with creative and innovative strategies propelling extraordinary results.

The Spirited-Powered Goal process for innovation and Divinely-Inspired strategies...
Follow the Joshua (1) process...
Know where 2 or 3 agree Jesus is there.(Matt. 18)
It's about....

Seeking God First in all things,
Set directions as God gives you.

Recording what His Spirit brings to mind.
(write the vision daily, the prophetic word by the prophets was written down)

Craft the strategy, organize your thoughts as Spirit directs.

Re-enforce it with faith, and reminders of past victories.

Use Scripture Power reminders to overcome insurmountable obstacles
(Again, write all this down)

Speak Scripture promises affirmatively.

Share what is inspired with another.
Speak it back to each other.
Say it out-loud to each other and continue to proclaim it.

Proceed into battle with a shout, proclaiming His promises in confidence of voice.

Carry out the strategy with boldness.

Support each other,
fight as a unit and combine faith Spirit.
One in Spirit is your Power. Be one in effort, in Spirit

Speak faith into each other.

Report what is happening and keep each other going.
Get new insights, proclaim it and go back into battle.

Keep each other going.

Keep a record of victories, and return to seek God for the next battle.

Carry your Fight Book with you everywhere, and constantly record the Spirit as He speaks to you throughout the day.

To summarize the process:
Pray it,
See it in Spirit in mind,
Confess it,
Scripture it,
Write it, craft strategies,
Share it,
Unite in it,
Boldly advance,
Proclaim it,
Support each other,
Review victories,
Constantly seek God.

Be Bold, be Strong, for the Lord your God is with you.

Expect Miracles, live expectantly !!!

With God's plan in hand, you walk with power in your step because you walk in His steps.

Make your own Spirit-powered goal system,
(build your own notebook, with your design, methods similar to your personality), and keep refining as you learn each day.
This will increase its power.

Each person's notebook should be personalized.
Each person should have his/her own style, but the ingredients be similar.

This is your Flight Plan, your Fight Plan, your Power Plan.
Be Bold, Be Strong, for the Lord, the God over all conditions of earth,
is With You!

Dr. Henry Cloud on Necessary Endings ... confident hope

2011-03-17T09:42:00.000-07:00

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

Recently I had the privilege of having a phone conversation with Dr. Henry Cloud about his book Necessary Endings. My interest was to learn more on how the small business entrepreneur can benefit from Necessary Endings to increase performance while adapting to life as it shifts around us.

Dr. Cloud said he was finding that in his dealings with people that life is a series of endings. Handling them well can create quantum leaps in our lives.

First I asked how the desperately hopeless person such as the homeless can overcome hopelessness. He said Necessary Endings wasn't written necessarily for the homeless. This is an area that needs addressed differently. But he did share a few insights about this.

Those who never choose to face challenges of life(such as the seriously depressed homeless) live in a learned hopelessness. They need a software rewrite (thinking systems) in their brain so the hardware (living patterns) functions productively. They begin to think in predictable ways. Their minds are in a closed system. Without strong positive outside sources influencing them, they remain predictable in their thought/life patterns.

The person who is performance based responds to hopelessness in more life transforming ways. Here a person may leave the rut of his life. Hopelessness becomes a necessary change ally. It forces the person to see the reality of his situation and it forces change... which is needed and will lead the person to what's better. He then adopts thinking and behavior that moves him to greater accomplishment in other areas.

I asked him what parts of Necessary Endings would he recommend to the small biz entrepreneur. His first suggestion was the section on seasons. We need to learn that life has seasons. This is especially true in the business world. Sometimes we may be a little late to the game. Determine where this is in your life cycle.

In all things we encounter, there is place to hope and a place for not having hope. We need to see the realities around us and respond hopefully where hope is warranted. He also suggested the chapter on Hope vs. Wishing. (I will summarize this chapter below.) We need to get in a mindset of a larger narrative. Successful people look at things with a larger narrative. For example, a football quarterback doesn't lose a game because of one interception. A setback may come in the game, but in the view of the whole game this is just one setback. Some have come out of bankruptcy and started much better, being more timely, with a better designed company that then will flourish tremendously. Failure is part of business. It's rare not to have failures in business. Dr. Cloud encourages us not to waste this experience. Learn from it. Do a postmortem, do an autopsy. Find out what went wrong. What can we do better? Look at the big picture. Learn more about yourself and your choice of the people around you, and the reasons behind what happened.

In concluding our phone visit, I asked where Spirituality fit into our business lives. Dr. Cloud answered by pointing out it's not so much Spirituality fitting into us, but us fitting into It, aligning ourselves with It, the nature of the universe. There are transcending principles that govern everything. When we are misaligned with these principles, it wouldn't work. When we are aligned with a God relationship, we're in a line of principles that make things work. It includes trust, seeing reality clearly, treating people right, forgiving others. We metabolize faster (or energize productivity) when we are aligned with Spiritual design. It works better.

Necessary Endings was originally summarized January 24, 2011. Here's an overview of the chapters Dr. Cloud suggested would be a good review for the business entrepreneur. Also note Dr. Cloud's website:
http://www.drcloud.com/

In the chapter Hoping versus Wishing, Dr. Cloud pointed out the difference between what's worth fixing and what should end. The past is a good predictor of the future. People have patterns and behavior responses to the past that may repeat again in the future. We need reasons to believe. Nine factors can help determine if you can have hope, that tomorrow will be different from today. Business entrepreneurs who desire different results would benefit when they subject themselves to this process.
1. Verifiable involvement in a person to get involved in a change process.
Is a person willing to undertake actions to improve the future?
2. Additional structure.
Creating a structured path with regular meetings including coaching, support, training.
3. Monitoring systems.
How do we know this is happening... is it being watched and measured?
4. New experience and skills.
Getting new information with new experiences that teach what is needed in order to make the future different.
5. Self-sustaining motivation.
Being on fire to change. Are meetings being attended, material being read and others are being included in discovery ways to change the future.
6. Admission of need.
We must really feel a need to change and seek out valued help.
7. The presence of support.
Being surrounded by people who support our desire for a better future, including professional support along with friends, peers.
8. Skilled help.
Someone in our circle of help who knows what's going on.
9.Some success.
Movement is good. To be able to ascertain that something is happening, even if
initially things get worse.
Create a structure that includes the right amount of energy at the right time.

Create urgency to stay motivated and stay energized for change.
This includes:
1. Creating ending alliances. Those we hang around affect us... those who have hope for a future and are committed to see it happen.
2. Create vision. We create what we see, so keep the picture of a good future in your mind.
3. Set deadlines. Living by a sense of urgency requires deadlines along the way to keep getting things done. Without them we lose momentum and motivation.
4. Create structure. Structure is time, plans, critical paths, milestones, deadlines, allocation of resources. Without structure the non-vital takes over. Structure places the rails in place that the train runs on.

What we do everyday will make what we want more likely to happen. We also need the people doing the same thing around, to see that it happens.

Stay close to misery. Realizing our misery is also a motivator as it keeps us moving away from it. Creating urgency around necessary endings is key to what happens to your time and energy.

Dr. Henry Cloud is highly respected. Necessary Endings is a necessary reliable resource to have around.

As Believers our Hope is heightened through Jesus who so powerfully works through us. And our strength is enhanced by His might and the relationship we have with other Believers.

As the Apostle Paul said in Romans 15. "...that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit." We confidently hold on to this hope which gives us the real hope for our future.

Jeremiah said that our hope for a future rests in God's great plans for us. "For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."
(Jeremiah 29:11, NLT)
His path leads us on the path to a bright future.

It's important to note that when we stay in His structure and we are diligent to obey the principles of His Laws, we are guaranteed wonderful results. “Therefore, be careful to obey every command I am giving you today, so you may have strength to go in and take over the land you are about to enter. If you obey, you will enjoy a long life in the land the Lord swore to give to you... a land flowing with milk and honey.!"
(Deuteronomy 11:8,9, NLT)

The promise for obeying is a future overflowing with wonderful things.

And Paul said that His Spirit works so powerfully through Him. "...through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think." Read all of Ephesians 3 as Paul keeps emphasizing God's power at work and the Confident Hope it brings us.

What an awestruck promise to have God's very Spirit living in us. We live with confidence in hope as His Power works through us. His plans are revealed to us and He sees that they come about as we stay diligent in doing as He says.

Everyone Communicates, Few Connect... prayer connects with Power

2011-02-28T07:18:00.000-08:00

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

Everyone Communicates, Few Connect by John C. Maxwell trains you on the ability to connect. Maxwell briefs you on the principles and then the skills of connection. This is a pinnacle factor for success today. Our society is becoming a highly connected society and those with this skill will excel beyond others . Connection happens when we see others go the extra mile for us, we get unsolicited appreciation, others show an ungraded openness, their communication increases with us, experiences are enjoyable with emotional bondedness, while a positive energy brings us into a growing synergy, and unconditional love causes others to accept us without reservation. How do we get to the place where these attributes become part of us?

Maxwell lists five connecting principles.
1. Connecting increases your influence with others. Talk more about the other person, bring something they value to them, and ask others how you can help them.
2. Connecting is about others. Instead of correcting others, focus on them and connecting with them. To value others , we must first value them. Others ask: Do you genuinely care about me? Can you help me? And can I trust you?
3. Connecting goes beyond words. Your actions speak louder than words. More than 90% of an impression has nothing to do with what we actually say. Every message contains a piece of you. Connecting then is how people see you. Do you have a sense of purpose and an open posture? Do people understand you. When you find yourself you find your audience. When connecting emotionally, people may hear your words, but do they feel your attitude. When speaking your words with tone, inflection, timing, volume, pacing you enlarge the connection factor.
4. Connecting takes energy requiring us to be deliberate about it, such as spending time together, remembering names, making others feel special. Show initiative and approach others, preparing yourself, being patient, being selfless and giving, and having stamina which is taking time to recharge.
5. Connecting is more skill than natural talent. What makes people listen is the quality of relationships, who you know, what you know, what you have done, what you can do and how you have lived. Have an interest in the other person, place value in that person, put their interests ahead of yours, express gratitude to and for that person.

Five practices that will help you connect.
1. Find common ground. The first rule to connecting is finding what you have in common, and this happens when you don't focus just on yourself. What prevents this happening is making assumptions that you know how others know, feel, think, arrogance in that you don't need to know, indifference or not caring, and control where you don't want others to know.

Cultivating common ground includes availability... choosing to spend time with others; listening... paying attention to what others are saying; asking questions...finding out more about the person or going deeper; thoughtfulness... being consider of life events important to someone else; openness... allowing people into your life and being vulnerable; likability... when you like people, they like you; humility... lifting up others, more than grandizing yourself; adaptability... being flexible thinking of others world, their challenges, their dreams. Connectors go first. Be the first to ask, asking others how they feel, what they see, what they know, what they want. When your really want to get to know someone ask what they dream about, what they sing about, what they cry about. As you get to know them, share where you have common ground.

2. Keep it simple. When sharing information it should be characterized with humor, having heart, bringing hope, and helping the other person. The art of simplicity is easy to understand but harder to do. Talk to people, not above them. Get to the point. Say it over and over again. (To get it, people need to hear it often.) Say it clearly with short simple sentences. Ask for feedback and what they heard.

3. Create an experience everyone will enjoy. How can you be interesting? Take responsibility for your listeners and change yourself first to help them grasp you. Get into their world and communicate in terms they relate to. Capture people's attention from the start by making reference to a situation at hand, introduce yourself, relax, use humor, create a sense of anticipation. Activate your listener by asking questions, getting people moving, doing something. Say it so it sticks by linking to what people need while being original. Be visual by creating mind pictures people can easily see too. Tell stories and share part of your life. Be the kind of person others would want to connect with.

4. Inspire people. People need to know that you understand them and are focused on them, that you have insight to what they are thinking, what they are saying. They need to know you have high expectations of them and belief they are capable of those expectations. People need to see your convictions, credibility, that your character is evident. People need to feel your passion for the subject and for them. Do I believe what I say, has it changed me, will it help others, and change others? They need to feel your gratitude for them. Say the right things at the right time and help people with action plans. Tell them the importance they have and what they can become. Keep them inspired.

5. Live out what you communicate. People trust you when the way you live outweighs your words. You are the message. Connect with yourself, honestly right your wrongs and willingly apologize, acknowledge mistakes to others, and make appropriate amends. Be accountable, tell the truth, be vulnerable, and treat others the way you would want to be treated. Deliver results. To be successful in the long run you need to connect, keep connecting and live out what you communicate.

Connecting is not a talent but a skill you can learn, and by applying these principles on a regular basis you will become a premier connector, influencing change in the world.

The John Maxwell blog:
http://johnmaxwellonleadership.com/

How to develop a strong prayer life?
Prayer has different expressions. There's devotional prayer (reading God's Word and fellowshipping with an intimacy with God), intercession for revival and justice, being a prayer covering which is praying for others and God's protection for them, healing and direction, and praying for the sick. A consistent prayer life is essential for any mission called of God in one's life to be fulfilled through them.

Prayer energizes your spirit, releases God's blessing, and results in changes in people around us, circumstances around us, even without us taking direct action. It softens people's hearts so they are receptive to what we say to them.

God asks us to pray so we connect with His heart to have a deeper relationship with Him. As God said of David, that he was a man after His own heart, inspite of all the atrocities he committed while being King of Israel. Asking is a foundational principle of the kingdom of God at work around us. The Bible specifically says to ask. We should not just think and dwell on our needs and problems, things we are frustrated about or desperate about. In everything by prayer, let your requests be known to God.

There are blessings that God has chosen to give, but that He withholds until we ask Him. In this way, He protects His relationship with us by not answering until we connect with Him and ask.

Three ways to strength our prayer life are to schedule prayer, make prayer lists, and have a right view of God. Scheduled time for prayer, as your sanctuary time with God in His inner Chamber, should be held sacredly in your life. Lists keep us on track to cover what is close to our hearts and things we need to persevere in prayer for. Our prayer focus should include intimacy, to love and adore God, petition, asking God's blessing on our lives and mission, and intercession to pray for others, places and concerns in the world. In prayer, prayer brings us His Gifts of the Spirit that work Supernaturally through our lives, fruit of His Spirit that we function in His character of love, and wisdom which is having God's mind be part of our mind.

The view of God in prayer is that He is a tender loving father, who loves us, is wanting to help us. He has the desire and power to do it. He is not inattentive to our voice to Him and He controls all the power of the universe to the smallest detail in that He can help us. He seeks to be close to us and work close along side us. See God as enjoying being with you and He wants you to enjoy being with Him.

One substantial way to bolster your prayer life is by feeding on His Word. When in a posture of prayer, and mind focused on God, the reading of the Scriptures enlarges our Spirit to receive all of who He is. Scriptures give you the conversational material for your prayer life and makes prayer more enjoyable. Bible study leads to more dialogue with God. Scriptures enlarge your capacity for believing His promises as they are presented, and exhorting you to obey what His principles say.

Take time to journal and write down what is impressed to you in prayer. Take time to linger in His presence. That's why scheduling and setting aside specific time is so important. Speak affectionately, speak slowly and softly, speak in short phrases as this is how we normally think, speak minimally and allow silence with pauses.

This will bring strength with might to your inner man through His Spirit.

For more, google Mike Bickle, How to develop a strong prayer life. He has a video and outline to down load on the above.

4 Steps to Fulfilling God's Mission through your Business

2011-02-21T09:02:00.000-08:00

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

This process will help you discover and reinforce what mission God has for you. Give each area some thought. Then go over them with a trusted friend (who may have additional insight) and see where God is preparing you.

God Calls
What defining moment (or moments) stand out in your mind? What dramatic or traumatic experience, surprising achievement, or something that has left an imprint on your thinking ever since? God's calling many times comes out of a defining moment which has inspired you to want to contribute to others because of the impact the event has had in your life. (It can be a very positive or negative experience.)

God Equips
Consider all your experiences from childhood to now. List education/training, activities, lifestyle experiences, work, hobbies, responsibilities, accomplishments which made you proud, that stand out to you. All these experiences are part of an equipping process. Create a lifestyle resume of achievements, education, activity/work experience that are part of your make up and make you feel strong/fulfilled when you think about them.

God Sends
In business we call this our market. God puts in our minds a group of people that we want to make a difference in their lives. It could be households, children, businesses, singles, disabled, etc. Have you ever said, "Someone ought to..." You may be that someone to do it. What creates a stirring in your soul when you think of contributing to a facet of people's lives? To whom or where would you see God sending you?

God Contributes Through You
Where God sends us, he equips us and many times this is birthed from defining moments. How do you want to help, serve, contribute to others' lives? What are you passionate about, and you want to make a difference in their lives? This is a group that God may want you to disciple. In a practical way, you become His Shepherd, caregiver in Spirit, for their lives. A customer, supplier may be who God wants you to build up in Christ. Like the Apostles, as business people you are His missionary directly to the marketplace.

God's Mission for You
Write a statement of who you feel God is calling you to, how He wants you to serve them and develop them, (i.e., disciple them for His Kingdom). And how God would want to use your business venture as His platform to build up the body of Christ through you.

The Secret to Spiritual Power
1. Find a partner to share in God's mission. Be prayer partners, encouragers, and share ideas and strategies.
2. Commit to take action. Sharing your actions with each other, and their results. Be the motivator to keep each other going.
3. Develop a personal, Spiritual growth discipline. Create and follow a Bible study plan, a prayer plan, a commitment to build the Kingdom of God daily through your business and life.

The Lord (to Joshua)... meditate on the Word day and night(renew your mind).
Jesus... seek His Kingdom first and all will be added to you as well.
Paul... persist in your prayers for all believers.

As God said to Joshua (Chapter 1), do this and you will succeed in all you do.

I will do a workshop for no charge for someone(s) wanting to put this to work... in person, or over phone (417-224-3517).

Necessary Endings ... best yet to come

2011-01-24T07:22:00.000-08:00

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

Necessary Endings by Dr. Henry Cloud guides us through bringing to an end episodes and conditions in our lives that are necessary to end. To grow, some things have had their time and need to end. Dr. Cloud guides you through the process to make an accurate determination on what to end, when its time is up and how to go about it... then rebuild again after the ending. Bringing something to an end is not being a "quitter" and sometimes painful as we must prune off what we have grown too attached to... even though it may be holding us back in our life pursuits and desires.

Bringing something to an end is a pruning path. What do we prune? What's healthy that needs room for more; what's sick and not going well that's holding us back; and what's dead and just taking up space. Jack Welch, former GE CEO, applied this at GE. Either fix it, close it or sell it. Necessary endings are a normal part of life and business.

See necessary endings as a good thing. Where do necessary endings apply? Life has seasons and certain seasons come to an end. It's normal to end it then. Sometimes life produces too much. Pruning is vital to make room for what's most important to grow. This can be painful, but necessary. Other things are an incurable sickness and even evil. These must be eliminated... no matter how much it hurts.

Remember that pain can be a good thing when we remove something that is hurting us, but after recovering from it we feel so much better.

Examine your internal maps. In some cases we may have a high pain threshold. We put up with things we don't like. We cover for others, when we don't need to. We may feel we have failed when ending something, although it is better that we do, so we should not feel like failures. Over-extended loyalty makes us feel overly responsible for someone else. And someone's pain may not be our responsibility. Overt codependency and enabling is not healthy for all involved.

When the old must end, how do we motivate change. A sense of complete hopelessness causes movement toward what's better. When holding on with false hope, look to see if there are grounds to abandon what we want to hold on to. Checking our realities will give us a true read of whether to hold on to a hope, with a future, or eliminate a hopeless condition absent of a future.

When entering in the process of change with someone, you cannot deal with each person the same way. There are three types of people:
wise people,
foolish people,
and evil people.
The wise person will respond to correction and ideas that make things better. He willingly accepts new information that can make a difference, and will work with you to bring positive change.

The foolish person will not respond to talk. What we tell them doesn't register. They will be defensive, be rampant with excuses, see themselves as the victim.Talk won't work, only the experience of consequences will. Doing something that makes them feel the consequences of their behavior may be what turns them around. When they experience what it costs them, they may pursue other behaviors.

The other type of person is the evil person. This person is wanting to hurt or harm you in some way. They require lawyers (legal action), guns ( law enforcement) or money. It is best to avoid them, or flee from them. So with wise people you can talk to them, foolish people need to realize consequences, and with evil people don't talk to them, period.

Urgency must be created toward an ending which creates movement. We must sense the smoke and see the reality of a better future. Picture it, see it, smell it. Use our imaginations to create a compelling movie of a new reality. To empower this, create ending alliances, create a vision of a good future, set deadlines, create a structure to get there, stay close to the misery(which creates strong desire to move from it), measure constantly. Make urgent the new normal.

To overcome resistance, we must lose some things to free us up for the right thing. Do it now, and avoid the "I will get to it later" mind. Use self-selection. Regardless of who or what we deal with, make others meet the standard we have set. When others come toward our standard, that's self-selection. When we set the standard we draw the line in the sand where the other person must be.

Embrace grief. Along with a necessary ending, time is needed to grieve the ending before moving ahead. Don't deny or bury your grief. Have your funeral. Take time to allow metabolism to take place... find the good and use it, and eliminate what is unusable. Learn the why behind what went wrong, what needs to be made right, and then move on.

We should take the steps we need to take, maintain sustainable resources, and make the best out of whatever we have. Learn from the process, pour yourself into what you can be, and people will notice.

Dr. Henry Cloud has more at his website.
http://www.drcloud.com/index.html

Jesus' disciples asked him when will the end of the age happen. Jesus went on to explain all the things that will happen when the earth will have a necessary ending.

All things on earth will disappear so a new heaven and earth will form. This may be pruning at its highest level. But before the new comes, the old will be eliminated. Jesus said you can't put new wine in old wine skins. The old ones will crack and not hold the wine. What we have on earth in this life now, will not hold water in Heaven. To experience Heaven, a wonderful existence, we must die first on earth. This is a necessary ending, so we can live in something so much better... so much better we can't even imagine it.

As one who has come close to death, what the after life is all about is very fascinating to me. Jesus made many references to the resurrection of the dead. For those who have nearly experienced death, we have had an exhilarating experience. It's hard to put in words we have today. But the vision of its future we live for has benefits that are so incredible. So we endure the pains and displeasures of earth looking for that immensely wonderful existence. The necessary ending, death, is welcomed and we look forward to it. The Apostle Paul talked about it. He said he would rather be with the Lord, in Heaven, but remains here for the sake of those on earth He is to help and prepare for this New World... an unblemished Kingdom of Heaven.

When the end of the age approaches, the discomforts of earth will increase. Weather will be erratic, people will become more hostile toward each other, life will increase in a sense of hopelessness, and people will seek more and more for happiness but not find it. (See Matthew 24:3-9.)

The future is found in the Spirit. The Apostle Paul said that God will put His Spirit in man and we can live in the New World in Spirit before we get there in person. The secret is that the very Spirit that Jesus said He would send from Heaven will live in us. All power of God remains at our disposal when we allow death to earth to happen spiritually and we incarnate the Spirit of God. All Powers of Heaven are in us and we can overcome all problems and troubles of earth. Hopelessness of earth is translated into hopefulness in God's Spirit. Spirit will leave this body and be transferred to a Glorious body, a body designed just for the New World completely saturated by God's Spirit.

In Paul's letter to the Colossians, he said, "...be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy."
(NLT, Col. 1:11)
"This is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory."
(NLT, Col. 1:27)
This is worth doing some dreaming about. Go off to a quiet place and get a sense of what this implies for us.

So necessary endings in life are a good thing. The ending in physical death is a good thing. The end of the age is a good thing. Be of good cheer, something so much better is just ahead. We have a future to look to and labor for.
The Best is yet to come...

Think and Grow Rich basic concepts ... it's about faith

2010-12-30T08:34:00.000-08:00

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (the Gold Standard Collector's Edition) states in their edition that Think and Grow Rich covers five basic concepts.
1. The Carnegie secret. If you hold a thought in your mind, focus positive thoughts toward it, the
thing you desire in your mind will be drawn to you and become a reality for you.
2. Infinite Intelligence. When an idea comes to you out of the clear blue, your subconscious
mind has presented the idea to you. These hunches, intuitions may have a Spiritual origin
giving you insight beyond your natural mind. These are intertwined with others and you
have a supreme intelligence at work picking up information you may not consciously be aware of.
3. The Master Mind Alliance. When two or more people put their minds together to solve a problem, they form a master mind that finds superior solutions for a problem. They tap into infinite intelligence, when empowered by harmony, to come up with ideas and solutions that the individual minds would not have come up with on their own.
4. The Ether. It's the belief that all things are interconnected. Since everything is interconnected,
your thoughts will find their way to what you strongly desire and think about. Ether then is a powerful connecting source to deliberately use within our mind.
5. Everything is vibrating. Since all material is vibrating, when our mental thoughts or vibrations line up with the material thing, which is also vibrating, these will connect. The deciding factor is the degree and intensity of our thinking that draws them. Hill refers to our ability to concentrate in our imagination is what draws that to us.

This is from Think and Grow Rich: Gold Standard Edition by High Roads Media.
http://www.amazon.com/Think-Grow-Rich-Gold-Standard/dp/1932429654

In the Scriptures, Jesus targeted faith as the key Spiritual virtue, a living benchmark of where we should all live, and when we live at this level we are Spiritual people.

In Matthew, Jesus said with faith we can say to the biggest obstacle in our way to move from us and it will. "You can say to this mountain move, and it will, if you have faith.You can pray for anything and if you have faith, you will receive it." (Matthew 21:21-22)

This is true infinite power. It comes as intelligence, within our strategies. We get miracle producing ideas. This is especially true when two or more agree in Spirit. What we ask for will happen with unity of the same Spirit. In Matthew 18:18-19, the focus is on being centered in the Spirit of God and Jesus. Jesus said He would send the Spirit of God to be with us, when two or more unite in Spirit. The key to this is a quality relationship between each other in Spirit.... that's love, joy and harmony as one. That each person sees the other as more important than himself.

Matthew points out that when a man and wife are united in Spirit they become one. The importance of this (Matthew 19:5) is that the key to all power is an intimate relationship. A married couple should have this depth of an intimate relationship. When two are united in Spirit, intimate in Spirit, it produces a God creating result of power. This applies too to others united in prayer. When two or more, with this Spiritual intimacy, unite in prayer the same result is produced.

The ether as Hill refers to is really the Spirit. When one in Spirit, the Spirit connects us to all things. People may not know from where an idea may come or a person it is directed toward. In many cases, the Spirit of a person in prayer will reach out to or touch another person who responds with the answer to that person... when God's Spirit is in those tapped into His Spirit. The Spirit then communicates, like an ether which is invisible and undefined as to what it is, to create material contact and solutions to our prayers. The Spirit connects all things and intervenes for us in all things. It's a powerful principle, but must be approached with faith.

So a Spiritual intelligence is at work for us, with us, driven by connecting minds in Spirit, using the Spirit to communicate. It is all done through faith as the things we pray for may not be a reality yet. As we intensify prayer, the fervent prayer of a person with great faith will be answered. This too may cause vibrations in the heavenlies, through Spirit, to produce the answer we seek.

This is such an empowering concept. All of Hill's concepts are originated in the Scriptures underlined in the teachings of Jesus. The Gospel of Matthew alone reinforces this character of Spiritual power. Note Matthew 18, 19, 21. The power of faith and two or more in the same faith produces monumental results. It is a Spiritual skill to be developed and employed in our regular routines of life to get those extra ordinary results. Applied as a personal discipline in life we can expect faith, harmony in prayer with another, to produce "the exceptional" in our lives... created Supernaturally by the Spirit.