Empowering Grace Podcast

God says you are a new creation and your old mindsets have passed away. Included in this re-birth is the authority to exercise dominion over every principality and power in our sphere of responsibility.

The devil's strategy is to is to do everything he can to keep us distracted from this revelation so we don't see the truth about our authority in Christ. A distracted church is a powerless church!

That's why Paul didn't pray that God would just send down revival from heaven. He said in Ephesians chapter one that God would grant us a "spirit of wisdom and revelation" so we'd know the hope to which we were called, the riches of the glory of His inheritance in us, and the exceeding greatness of His power working in us who believe.

Instead of just sending down revival from on high, God's contending to wake us up so that we release revival from Christ within us, the hope of glory.

This episode is about what Pastor Joe McIntyre calls The Community of Shared Life, and the resulting blessing. It’s shifting our view of church life from an audience-performer structure to a collaborative, united people who encourage and serve one another. 

In Psalm 133, David writes, “Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity…It is like the dew of Hermon, descending upon the mountains of Zion; for there, the Lord commanded the blessing, life forevermore.” In this passage, the Lord is essentially saying, Oh, look at that church love one another, I'm going to command blessing on them. That would mean that we have a part to play in drawing the commanded blessing of God! 

The path out of a self-centered existence is to commit yourself to edifying others, gaining a greater vision of faith and love in the process (and – resulting blessing!). 

Why is it that some people get healed while others don't? When a person does not receive healing, the most commonly taught idea is that God, in His sovereignty and infinite knowledge, chose not to heal them. God obviously didn't want to, or He would have. But that idea does not hold up under an examination of Scripture. While there are some aspects to healing we may not have the answers to until we get to heaven, God's word tells us that there are some very clear things that hinder people from being healed. 

• What does Scripture reveal about hindrances to healing?
• How did Jesus feel about human suffering?
• Did Jesus ever not heal someone?

We can learn to move powerfully in the Spirit and affect change in the lives of those around us. The first step is expanding our idea of what’s normal. Then, we must get out of the way – meaning, yield to the work God is already doing inside of us through the Holy Spirit. His power works most effectively in us when a river of compassion is flowing. Our model, based on the example set by Jesus, is to make people feel so loved that they’re drawn to us, and operate out of that love. Listen in to discover how to possess this dynamic power/love combo and bring freedom wherever you go and whatever you do! 

Welcome to Season 2 of the Empowering Grace Podcast!

Man was created to have a relationship with God that’s in the spirit realm while living and walking in the natural realm. And the way he was going to have dominion on earth was through that spirit-realm relationship with God.

God’s original intention was for the spirit realm to dominate soul and body, but for some of us, our earthly experience does not reflect that intention.

Discover:

• How Man’s identity became rooted in the physical realm
• What the Bible says about Heaven and the heavens (spirit realm)

You are in God’s family. And under the New Covenant, God says that your sins and lawless deeds, He will remember no more. But there are three groups who have another message for you - one that reminds you of every shortcoming, weakness and failure -- 1) Your own religious mind, 2) The Church, and 3) The devil. You have this chorus of voices telling you that you’re not what God wants, that you're unacceptable to Him. And then we have the word of God that says that you're completely and totally accepted, and welcome in His presence.

People have a tendency to react one of two ways –

• Try to live a good life in your own strength. Those who work and try really hard, with limited success, can be overcome with self-condemnation as they wallow in their failures and shortcomings. Or some actually do have real success and then feel smugly superior over everybody else – that’s self-righteousness.
• Or, you can come into the light of the Gospel: The truth that says “Your sins are forgiven. You’re accepted by God. He’s begun a good work in you, which He promises to complete if you’ll just trust Him.” Right living is important, but how you get there is more important than just the outward living itself.

Pastor Joe concludes with a three-step process of humility that helps us properly frame our minds.

In episode 23, Pastor Joe continues his message on faith as the means to pleasing God. Whenever there’s a move of God, somebody or some people have gotten desperate enough to believe God when he says that the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is in every born-again believer. They’ve learned to cooperate with him and be willing to step out in obedience beyond what they've known before.

Ephesians 1:3 says that we are already blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. We already have the ultimate power source. Much of our praying can be misguided because the Bible says we already have what we are often asking for. But we can ask the Lord to teach us how to walk in what he’s already given us.

You’ll learn how to:

1) Better activate the gifts God’s already given you (whether you feel them or not)

2) Believe that your sin is dealt with by God as soon as you repent

3) Keep your feelings in proper alignment – good servants, lousy leaders

4) Walk in works that proceed from God’s blessing, not works that try to earn God’s blessing.

In this podcast episode, Pastor Joe cracks the not-so-secret code to pleasing God -- it's our faith. But not a burdensome faith filled with striving and self-condemnation. In Hebrews 10, it says that we are to draw near to God in the full assurance of faith, and that faith is the way that we approach God when we know our sins are forgiven, and we know we're welcome in his presence. In Hebrews 11, it says that without faith, it is impossible to please God.

Now, think about this: if it pleases God when you come to him that way - aware that your sins are forgiven, and that you're welcome in the presence of God, exactly as you are - then he must want you to come that way. It's the traditions of man and our own insecurity that make a simple formula more complicated.

Under the old covenant, the command was "Do, and you shall live." Under the new covenant, now we "live, and you shall do." But religion tells us we need to do something to please God; that God’s reluctant to bless anyone unless they jump through all the right hoops. But Jesus jumped through all the hoops and opened the way to bring you through with him. Hallelujah!

• What is it about faith that pleases God?
• What does it it mean to "labor to rest"?
• How do we activate these simple truths in our lives?

This episode (part 2 of 2) discusses the seven mountains of culture, a concept first shared by Youth With a Mission founder Loren Cunningham -- Arts & Entertainment, Business, School, Family, Government, Media, and the Church. Islam has done a good job infiltrating these spheres and it's time for Christians to rise up collectively and become active, awake and informed. Pastor Joe suggests three practical ways for Christians to apply change in these areas, while keeping a love for the Muslim people as central in our hearts.

Have you ever said this to yourself? “If I was like so-and-so, I would be able to be a good Christian.”

The devil will have you believing that things are harder for you because you don’t have a certain gift or giftings.

Sometimes the people to whom we are comparing ourselves is our preachers. Did it ever occur to you that a preacher’s gifting is essentially telling others what they ought to do?

Pastor Joe says: “I can tell everybody what they ought to do. But honest preachers know that when they step out of the pulpit, they don't have any more grace to do it than you do. In other words, I have a special gifting to tell you about this. But when I step out from behind this pulpit and have to live it, I don't have any special gifting to live it.”

But this is good news!

Because if it's the same for everybody, then victory is the same for everybody. Victory isn't easier personally for anybody.

So in the words of the apostle Paul, “Stand, therefore.”

You may not know how right now; you may need to grow; you may need to learn; you may need to develop. But there's nothing intrinsically wrong with you that will prevent you from becoming strong in God and walking in victory and fulfilling your destiny. Let it get a hold of you that you cannot be stopped.

Whenever we begin to discuss God's willingness to heal the sick, one of the first questions raised is "what about Job?" The Book of Job raises questions in the mind of the sincere seeker after truth and we will devote the next four podcast episodes to the following:

1. What is the lesson of the book?
2. Why does God allow suffering and disaster?
3. Did God put Job in Satan's hands? If so, why?
4. Does God "allow" sickness and trials to teach us?
5. If it was God's will for Job to suffer for some mysterious, divine purpose, can we be sure we're not "another Job?"

In part two of "Don't Blame God! Why God isn't responsible for evil," Pastor Joe McIntyre addresses the remaining two of five questions we must ask when considering evil: 

4) Can God change his mind? 

5) Can God Suffer? 

Many people in the body of Christ don't spend a lot of time in abstract thought or theological musings; we learn in part from theological teaching we've received. But nevertheless, our ideas about God -- how we see God, how we perceive him -- are of tremendous importance regarding our relationship with God. One such example of a relationship-impacting idea is our beliefs about God's role in evil.

What Pastor Joe discovered in examining some widely held notions about God and evil is that they were "proof texted," meaning that an idea was proposed, and then a scripture was slapped next to it to prove the idea was true. By finding one isolated text, one can make an erroneous idea look biblical and right. Instead, one should compare an idea with the whole counsel of God from the Word, which sometimes paints a different picture. 

Here Pastor Joe briefly examines three of five questions we must ask when considering evil:

1) How does God exercise His sovereignty? Is everything that happens an expression of God's will? Do men really have freedom, or is God controlling us?

2) Is spiritual warfare real and is it necessary?

3) How do we explain the existence of evil? Can God limit his control in the universe?

All Bible-believing Christians believe that God is omnipotent (all-powerful) and that he's omniscient (knows everything); that he rules over all things. Given that, here's the question -- how does he rule over all things? If he rules over all things, and bad things happen, did he make the bad thing happen?

Some people would say he did; that it's part of his plan, and that every bad thing happens because God has allowed it for a purpose. Pastor Joe speaks to the "church of passivity" this mindset has created and how we are called to be warriors. The only thing God has "allowed" and ordained as it relates to trials is for us to have dominion in the midst of them.

Sickness and disease are facts of life and inevitable occurrences to many people. Pastor Joe continues his sermon on The Source of Sickness with a deeper dive into what scripture says about healing from sickness and disease, as well as other forms of oppression from the devil.

He addresses who God wants to heal, and the thought process some Christians subscribe to: “God is sovereign, and we believe he can heal but we aren’t sure if it’s his will.”

Pastor Joe closes with how the modern-day Church should minister today. Does scripture have anything to say about how the church should be sharing the Gospel beyond the salvation story? What role should divine healing play in our lives and our ministry to others?

Sickness and disease are facts of life and inevitable occurrences for many people.

But is this God's intention, or do sickness and disease have another source?

Why do we get sick? Where does sickness come from?