THE THREE MAGI

The stars sang on that holy night and the NIGHT WIND BLEW... While the shepherds watched the sheep, the wise Kings watched the stars. Placing ourselves inside the Scriptures allows us to look allegorically and also see beyond the first layers of the natural occasion. We can begin to realize that these same principles can happen within us. Hey, you can choose to worry about the Covid variant, Armageddon, and National Disasters or many other things -- OR... just flip the switch and focus on possibilities of your NOW. Where will you be when everyone else is claiming doom and gloom? God WILL GUIDE you. Even the very universe itself provided their directional guidance of the star that led the three wise men to the Savior of the world. These Wise Men came from the east for only ONE purpose... to WORSHIP HIM. They traveled together. 
 These Kings probably arrived when Jesus was about two or three years old. When the magi arrived at the house, Jesus is referred to as a "young Child" (Matt. 2:11). The Greek word used here is paidion (not brephos, translated as "baby" when referring to Jesus in Luke 2:12 and 16). That means that the Wise men worshiped Jesus in a house, not at the manager, as is commonly depicted. Vatican archives tell of the Syriac story (1,700 years old) about the original Magi, and this recently translated text says that these kings are descendants of Adam and Eve's third son, Seth. Tradition says that it was Caspar (Gaspar), a king from Tarsus (present day Southern Turkey) brought the gift of Gold. Melchior (from Persia) brought frankincense. The gift of Myrrh was given by Balthazar, a King from Saba (present day Yemen). Other legends give different names. 

 Strong tradition says that there were three, but since the Bible does not say how many Kings, we have no way of knowing. It's interesting that we know they gave three gifts. Also, it's clear that these gifts provided the financial means necessary to sustain Joseph, Mary and Jesus for a long and expensive journey into Egypt that would where they would stay for a considerable time. What is important is that theirs was a journey of trust; they heard and obeyed. They searched to find the Promise. Why? TO WORSHIP. 

 TODAY, let's see these THREE MEN TRAVELING TOGETHER to REPRESENT OUR THREE-FOLD NATURE - SPIRIT, SOUL, AND BODY. Each of these faucets of our humanity must unite and progress together on the journey of our life. One of the most important revelations a believer can have is the understanding that we were created by God with three distinct parts: spirit, soul, and body (1 Thess. 5:23). 
 According to the Bible, these three Kings came to worship! Our full nature must worship -- TOGETHER. Salvation is ongoing. It is not just spiritual! We also bring along our soul (our personality, conscience, mind, will, and emotions) and our body (our feelings, 5 senses, health, and needs of comfort). And our whole being must discover and worship the Savior. Even our intellect can praise Him. 

 Every day is another revelation. Praise and worship unwrap the swaddling clothes that covers our minds. Worship allows our body's renewal. The new creation (2 Cor. 5:17-18) moves together as we become aware of how to function in wholeness. The Christian life isn't a process of "getting something from God" -- it's a process of progressing in wholeness. It is a three-part journey of worship! 
 For the purpose of this article, each king represents a facet of our being that brings Gifts of Worship. But many believers have LOST the real purpose of worship. Worship is NOT music. Music is merely one vehicle to help us get into God's presence. Worship is clearly about the giving of yourself. Romans 12:1, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to OFFER YOUR BODIES AS LIVING SACRIFICES, HOLY AND PLEASING TO GOD--THIS IS YOUR SPIRITUAL ACT OF WORSHIP." The Message Translation says, "Take your everyday, ordinary life--your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life--and place it before God as an offering." 

 EVERYTHING YOU ARE AND EVERYTHING YOU DO IS WORSHIP. This year let's let us bring our prophetic gifts to the Lord. The greatest gift that we can offer to Jesus this season is the tribute of wholeness of our spirit, our soul, and our body. This is a chance to leave the past behind and let it only contribute to the strength you have now. Look in your ever-present now with abiding faith and allow what needs to be healed to be healed at last. A new and engaging future awaits. 

 The Gifts They Brought Had Spiritual Significance: 

 1. THE GIFT OF WORSHIP FROM YOUR SPIRIT IS GOLD. The word "gold" originates from the Sanskrit term meaning "to shine." It is a type of Divinity. GOLD IS THE SYMBOL OF KINGSHIP. When your spirit worships Jesus, it is as a gift of gold. It represents the acknowledgement of His Deity, and the acceptance of Him as King and Chief Apostle, Emmanuel -- God in the flesh. Release your human SPIRIT and offer worship of communion and peace -- of intimacy and presence to the King. And receive the infinite fullness and boundless abundance of all that God is. 

 2. THE GIFT OF WORSHIP FROM YOUR SOUL IS FRANKINCENSE which was a highly valued and rare commodity. FRANKINCENSE IS THE SYMBOL OF PRIESTHOOD. The Jewish people directly connected frankincense to the worship of God. The Altar of Incense continually burned with frankincense that gave off a sweet-smelling white smoke. This gift represents the aroma of Christ the Prophet, His Words, and His Message that is energy to your soul. It represents incense, perfume, prayer, sacrifice, and purification. Frankincense is thought to be a method of transfiguration. Burned frankincense is a physical vapor symbolic to His willingness to wholly give Himself up for YOU. Open the gate of your SOUL and offer up the pain of disappointment, grief, and tragedy in exchange for His LOVE. Allow woundedness, offense, forgiveness to become a vapor ... and find LIFE there waiting within. 

 3. THE GIFT OF WORSHIP FROM YOUR BODY IS MYRRH. The gift almost seems to convey the fact that Jesus was born to die and rise again. He identified with us in our pain and sorrow. This gift is the balm of the death of the God-man's body. MYRRH IS THE SYMBOL OF MOVING FROM DEATH TO RESURRECTION IN THIS LIFE. In worship, understand that your body is the dwelling place - the temple- of God. Open the access doorways of your Body and end death and defeat. Find LIFE, healing, and health. Allow wholeness in your senses and every portal gate into your BODY. Allow the LIFE of Christ to emerge from every pore! Awaken to the truth that you have been given LIFE - and live fully today! No matter what. When things seem too hard to bear, when you are in the crucible of personal pain, when you can no longer lift up your own head -- just know that His death conquered it all. Make it personal and give Him worship with everything that is in you. And... when you can no longer pray, KNOW that the Holy Spirit and Jesus Himself forever make intercession for you. His death and resurrection sees every tear and sorrow. You finally DISCOVER THAT OUT OF HIS DEATH HE BRINGS YOU HIS LIFE. 

 We see that the gifts of the wise men are SPIRIT, SOUL AND BODY, devoted to the service of humanity. To give oneself is in true worship is to imitate Christ, to follow in His steps. To fully worship with your spirit, soul, and body means to live in love and kindness being spiritual aware and conscious of LOVE in every arena of life. This year, let's commemorate Christmas with the spiritual meanings embedded with this personal application as we present our three gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh ... How wonderful it is to live, move, and breath in the wholeness that allows the fullness of Christ to be revealed. Upon seeing Him in our present NOW, our human spirit soars a little higher, our soul rejoices with greater soundness and increased faith, and our body sings at the wonder of Divine life dwelling within. I declare with apostolic and prophetic force that right now you be centered in the greatness of the I AM, the God Who is. That you find yourself in the very center of His Love. That you KNOW that you are a part of His great plan for NOW. It is time to rise up and worship with wholeness.

'Tis the Season to Give Birth to What God Has Placed Inside You

"Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women...and blessed is the fruit of your womb!" Luke 1:28 & 42b She is known by many names, Virgin Mary, Saint Mary, Mother Mary, Lady Mary, Mary the mother of God. In truth, Mary, Miriam in Hebrew, was just an average Jewish maiden who said yes to the call God had on her life. She allowed the Lord's will to be manifested in her life...literally. Is that it though? Is that all there is to this story, or perhaps is there more that the Lord would like to speak to us today in this passage? Second Timothy 3:16-17 says that "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." Therefore, although Scripture is revealing the historical significance of Christ being born of Mary, could it also have some spiritual significance that we may be able to apply to our life? Let's take a look together and see what the Bible reveals to us this holiday season because, I believe, we all have a call to bear His fruit from our spiritual womb. You Are Highly Favored and Accepted – Her name means "rebellion or bitter" yet she certainly didn't rebel against the Holy Spirit. Instead she succumbed to the special call that the Lord had chosen for her. By saying yes to God she played a very valuable part in reconciling God and man after that fateful rebellion in the garden. What a fun play on words. Second Corinthians 5:18 tells us that we have been given the ministry of reconciliation. Therefore, similar to Mary, when we say yes to whatever God has asked us to do, we too play a very valuable part in reconciling God and man. "...Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!" (Luke 1:28) There are so many different thoughts that can run through the human mind with this passage. Such thoughts may tend to idolize Mary and set her apart from the average servant. This mentality runs throughout the Body of Christ today and tends to over-spiritualize individuals, putting the focus on the person and not on the power of God. Turning back to our key Scripture, this particular phrase, highly favored (Strong's #5487), is used only one other time in the New Testament...in Ephesians 1:6. Here it is translated as made accepted (Strong's #5487): "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved." (Ephesians 1:3-6) As I write, the Holy Spirit is showing me that there are many who are reading this article who still do not feel the love and acceptance of their Heavenly Father. Is that you? Is it hard for you to believe that you are accepted in Christ? Perhaps your past is speaking and reminding you of what you have done, or maybe even the deeds of the day are making you feel unworthy of His love and acceptance. If so, please read Ephesians 1:3-6 again and let the Truth of God's Word, right now in this moment, speak over your past, present and your future. We are accepted in the Beloved; His Blood, not anything we do or say, but His Blood alone cleanses and forgives our sins, today, tomorrow and forever. It's All By Grace At the core of both "highly favored" and "made accepted" is the Greek word for grace, charis (pronounced char'-ece; Strong's #5485). Grace signifies unmerited favor and an undeserved blessing that is a free gift from our Good God. He gives it freely...we don't earn it. We all have been made accepted in the Beloved. Therefore, we all are highly favored and we all have been chosen to bring forth, to give birth to so to speak, what God has placed inside us. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10). We are God's workmanship, created to do something, created to bring forth the good works which God has given us into this lost and dying world. Not in order to be accepted by God, but rather because we are accepted. It's interesting to note that in Acts 4:33, grace/charis gave power to complete the mission Jesus had given the apostles to be witnesses of Him unto the ends of the world... "And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all." This same grace is ours today, beloved. We have been chosen and created with a purpose and have been given the grace to get the job done through Christ Jesus. Beloved, Spiritually Speaking, You Are Expecting! "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!" (Luke 1:42) Blessed was the fruit of Mary's womb and blessed is the fruit of yours. You were created to bring forth Jesus into this world just like Mary was...she did it first in the natural, you do it now in the supernatural. In Scripture, the womb most often refers to the place inside a woman where a child originates and is developed. And that certainly is the case when speaking of Mary conceiving from the Holy Spirit and bringing forth the son of God, Jesus Christ, the Messiah. However, there is more to the usage of this word than meets the eye. In Greek, the word used here for womb is koilia (pronounced koy-lee'-ah; Strong's #2836). Here this word is being used to speak of the womb, i.e. where a child is conceived and nourished. However, the same word is also used to speak of the innermost part of a man, the heart, soul and the seat of our thoughts, feelings and will. It is used in John 7:38 as Jesus said, "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart [belly – KJV] will flow rivers of living water." Beloved, spiritually speaking, you are expecting. Out of your belly, out of your heart, out of your spiritual womb, living water will pour forth spiritual refreshment! This is the fruit that God has placed inside you and predestined you to bring forth. You have the God-given potential to bring forth much fruit, and by that fruit, your heavenly Father will be glorified. Jesus said to Peter, "Feed My sheep." Maybe what you will feed God's children with will be a song that goes platinum and is on the top 40 for weeks on end, reaching many souls musically. Maybe it will be a message that, like Billy Graham, brings a multitude to Jesus Christ through powerful words of truth. Maybe what you will feed will be a hug to someone who is hurting, revealing the Father's love. Maybe it will be a word of hope to a co-worker that gives them the strength to believe again, or maybe, just maybe, it will simply be a bottle of cold water to a construction worker on the road, revealing the King's kindness. Regardless of what it is, done in the name of Jesus, you are delivering from your spiritual womb Jesus to a world in great need...a world He came to save. Let's make these declarations over ourselves right now: • I am expecting that He who has begun a good work in me will complete it. • I am expecting what God said to be so. • I am expecting rivers of living water to come from me. • I am expecting that I will be His witness to the ends of the earth. And all of God's people said..."Amen!" The Power of the Holy Spirit How is this possible? Through the power of the Holy Spirit. "Then Mary said to the angel, 'How can this be, since I do not know a man?' And the angel answered and said to her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you...'" (Luke 1:34-35a). God deposited something inside each of us when the Holy Spirit came upon us at our new birth. Let me explain. Jesus told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit to come upon them and give them power. "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8). The Greek word that is used here for the power they would receive is the same word used to speak of the power that came upon and overshadowed Mary. That word dunamis (pronounced doo'nam-is; Strong's #1411). It is the strength, ability and power of God that resides in us as a result of the Holy Spirit coming upon us. Remember, Gabriel told Mary that the Holy Spirit would come upon her. In both verses "come" and "upon" are the same Greek words. The word for "come" is Strong's #1904 and "upon" is Strong's #1909. You have a purpose; you have been chosen to carry Christ to others and give them hope. "To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27). Think about that for just a moment, Christ in you, the hope of glory. It's interesting to note that the Hebrew equivalent of the word "in" you in this passage is the Hebrew letter beit. The letter beit can be used as a prefix to mean both "in" and "with." God is both with us and in us through the power of the Holy Spirit. Interestingly, the beit is the ancient pictograph of a house, thus you can see the connection: you dwell "in" a house. You are the Temple not made with hands.Keeping in theme, some would call the womb the house of a fetus. What a great mystery...Christ in us, the hope of Glory! Your Life in Christ is Your Ministry of Reconciliation 'Tis the season to give birth to what God has placed inside you. Beloved, Jesus Christ has made a home in us through the power of the Holy Spirit. He has plans and purposes that He has created for us and we are to bring them forth. He has chosen us to carry and deliver Him to a lost and dying world. We are His workmanship, and the good works that God has created for you to walk in, plain and simple, is being the man or woman that God created you to be. Your life in Christ is your ministry of reconciliation, everywhere you go, everything you do; living your life as the person God uniquely created you to be will bear much fruit to the Father's glory. Rejoice highly favored one, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you and blessed is the fruit of your spiritual womb. Amen and amen.