Clint's Blog

God Is Never Silent

email@forward-church.com — Sat, 01 May 2010 17:45:00 GMT

God Is Never Silent

John 15:15
No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.

After his resurrection, Jesus was on planet Earth for 40 days. You could touch him, speak with him...he ate meals and taught some amazing truth's before ascending to his eternal throne. Wouldn't it have been amazing if he would have stayed? He could have. If he did it for 40 days, why not 2,000 years? He had his incorruptible body, he could have stayed here.

How amazing would it be to go to Jesus' church? Maybe he could have had a TV show. You could wake up and flip on the tube and see what Jesus was teaching that day. We could go see him speak when he came to town. We may have even been able to meet him personally and have a conversation with him. Why didn't he stay?

After his resurrection, he said the most important thing he could do was leave so the Holy Spirit could come. As amazing as it would be to still have Jesus on the planet, it's more important that we have the Holy Spirit. Jesus is with us but the Holy Spirit is in us. It's by God's Spirit that we are enabled by grace through our hearts. It's the voice of God inside that leads and guides us.

Jesus gave us the "job description" of the Holy Spirit. Lead and guide us into all truth, bring all things to our remembrance, show us things to come and tell us exactly what the Father is saying.

Instead of the Jesus Channel on our TV, we have the indwelling of the spirit of the Living God!

And he is never silent.

If you are facing situations where you need to hear from God, no one around you can hear from God better than you can. If you need to know what God would say to you at this point in your life, at this very moment, you can turn your attention inward, in confidence in God's love toward you, and be led by God's Spirit.

It is his good pleasure to give you the kingdom, he is not withholding anything from you...he has already blessed you with all spiritual blessings and all of his promises are yes, for you. You are his friend and he desires to lead you into truth.

Trust the Holy Spirit inside you today. Lean not to your own understanding and lean on him...He WILL direct you in the way to go.

It is our responsibility to cultivate a relationship with the Holy Spirit. For too long, the church has minimized his role but it is more important for him to be in you than for Jesus to have stayed here. Get to know your friend, the Holy Spirit, today!

For more on this, tune in to Forward Church LIVE. I'll be teaching on this subject for the next few weeks. Saturday's @ 6:30pm EST

http://bit.ly/forwardchurch

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Staying Effective

email@forward-church.com — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:27:00 GMT

Staying Effective

We're canceling Sunday morning meetings, but starting a Friday night meeting Downtown Atlanta

We gave Sunday mornings a shot but have come to the conclusion that we just don't like it. We'd rather meet at a time that will be more effective and in line with the vision of Forward. Sara and I have never been traditional when it comes to church, why start now?

When this dream and passion was birthed in our hearts over 13 years ago, we saw ourselves in the Downtown Atlanta area, ministering to the lost and unchurched. It's time to take another step in that direction.

We will still meet Saturday nights in Peachtree City and continue to grow Forward Church in that capacity, we just feel it's time for that body to begin reaching into Atlanta.

About 5 years ago, while still in Huntsville at Impact Ministries, I was in a worship service communing with God about moving back to Atlanta to start Forward. Our time of preparation in Huntsville was coming to an end and a new chapter was opening in our hearts. We set our intention to be at Impact for about 5 years and God hadn't forgotten.

In this worship meeting, I had a vision. I was up above Huntsville looking back toward the East and saw Jesus, who seemed to be about 30 to 40 thousand feet tall. He had one foot in South Atlanta and one foot just North of downtown. He began lifting his hands and slowly spread them out to each side. He looked directly at me and said, "I am giving you this city and what you do from here will reach around the world."

I could then see what looked like flames burning in different spots in and around Atlanta. The largest and brightest were South Atlanta (where we are now) and Downtown. I knew God was showing me the impact Forward would have in Atlanta and the surrounding area. The vision continued, which I feel certain I will be sharing in the months and years to come, but for now, it's time to focus on just those two areas.

Saturday nights have been amazing here in Peachtree City. People are falling deeper in love with God and discovering that they can walk in the power of God, just like Jesus. It's now time to take that into Atlanta.

Atlanta is not like the rest of Georgia, or the Bible belt. In my younger years of street ministry before Sara and I were married, I would run into many people that simply didn't believe in God. Atlanta is a business centered, intellectual and music industry town. Atlanta also has the 3rd largest gay population in the country. There are many people that have either been rejected by Christians or have no need for church.

We plan to bring the message of God's unconditional love to the inner city. It's time for Atlanta to have a Grace Awakening and see the power of God flow. There are many good churches in Atlanta and many other churches doing a good work there, it's just time for Forward to step in and do its part.

If you'd like to help us, go to our website and make a financial donation. Any size donation will help. If you're in the area, please stay in touch for the announcement of location and time.

We will take the next few weeks to plan and find a location but I'm sure God will lead us to a location quickly.

Thanks for your time and God bless!

Clint Byars

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Valuable You

email@forward-church.com — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:57:00 GMT

Valuable You

I can just see God smiling as he thinks of you. Like everyone, you probably have needs in your life... Money, kids to behave, your husband to quit being a knuckle head...maybe something more serious, like a health issue. God says he knows what we need before we even ask.

If he knows what we need, then why don't we have it?

First off, God is more than a vending machine...put in a scripture or some money in the basket (does anyone use plates anymore) and voila, out comes your provision. I've seen many that have that paradigm of faith. "God, you owe me!" Have you ever felt yourself thinking or feeling this? I've heard people actually say, "why should I follow God if this is how it's going to be".

The point is so far missed with this kind of thinking. That places your relationship with God in the realm of performance. If you're conditioned (by church) to believe that you have to do anything to get something from God, then you're trying to pay for it or deserve it by your own effort.

Not only does God know what you need, he desires to give it to you...abundantly above what you can even imagine. I have a pretty big imagination. God's idea of provision is pretty BIG too...he made an entire planet for 2 people. I'd say that's pretty abundant.

In Matthew 6, Jesus is speaking of provision in regard to his Kingdom. He says to seek his Kingdom first and we'll have everything we need. The Kingdom is to be sought, but not from the position of what you have to do to find it or qualify for it, it has more to do with coming to know your place in it.

Notice what Jesus ties provision to...

"Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and {yet} your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?

WORTH...VALUE

God provides because he values you, not because of what you do. In fact, he makes it clear that even the birds don't have to strive and save up to have what they need. When's the last time you heard a flower freaking out because it couldn't pay a bill or it's kids wouldn't listen? When's the last time you saw a Bird going to the bank to check their savings account?

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is {alive} today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, {will He} not much more {clothe} you?

Jesus teaches us that God desires to meet our needs because we're valuable to our Heavenly Father...do you feel valuable? If seeking the Kingdom sounds like the condition of God meeting your needs or you're rewarded with stuff after seeking the Kingdom, you're trying to work for it and even the flowers don't have to do that. Seeking the Kingdom is about discovering your place in the Kingdom and resting in your new identity, within God's family...where all needs are ALREADY met and all the promises are YES.

The secret of provision from God is that he's already given you everything, it's right inside of you waiting to manifest.

You may be thinking that this is just talking about food and clothing, but remember, God desires abundantly above what we can ask or think, and the planet for 2 people thing.

The question is, do you feel worthy simply because you're a child of God, or are you trying to qualify for what you think God owes you. Your heart wil not allow you to consistently receive from God what it feels you don't deserve.

We are no longer servants, we are now children. Get out of your extrenally focused, performance minded brain and look within your heart, out of which flow the wellsprings of life. The Kingdom of God is within. Allow the Holy Spirit to teach you to release Kingdom benefits into your life.

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Haiti Earthquake: God's Judgment or Natural Disaster?

email@forward-church.com — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:54:00 GMT

Haiti Earthquake:

God's Judgment or Natural Disaster?

My heart breaks for the families that have lost so many loved ones. It almost seems unfair that such abject poverty stricken people have to now endure such multiplied tragedy. Father, breathe your life into that country through those that are able to provide support.

I just heard that Pat Robertson said that Haiti experienced this earthquake as a result of the people giving their souls to the devil

Thoughts on John Maxwell's arrest and our Eternal Rewards

email@forward-church.com — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 15:25:00 GMT

Thoughts on John Maxwell's arrest and our Eternal Rewards

I just watched a message from John Maxwell, author and leadership guru, in which he talked about his arrest. I didn't previously know this happened but it was a refreshing and honest talk.

John was arrested for having a gun in his briefcase in the airport. To John's credit, he admits this was a "dumb" move. He forgot it was there. In his message, he openly discussed the details and had fun with his own stupidity. He shared how he was speaking at the Crystal Cathedral the next week and they asked him it they needed to frisk him before he went on stage. He commented that while in the holding cell he had thoughts of being ruined and losing everything. I think he has a good enough track record for that not to happen, but that point got me thinking.

When those of us that have allowed Christ to make us righteous and new pass into eternity, we will go before the judgment seat of Christ. This will not be a judgment for sin, we were already judged in Christ while he was on the cross. The judgment seat of Christ is to judge our works, those things that we have built on the foundation of Christ in our lives.

There has been much speculation on what these rewards will be. Some have said the rewards will be authority over cities, some say the rewards will define our rank in Heaven, some say those rewards will be based on what we have built in this world... While noone can say or pretend to know what the Heavenly rewards will truly be, it seems closer to God's character that love is the one and only determing factor for rewards.

I believe the rewards will be based on who and how you have love rather than what you have built in this temporal realm.

While thinking of Mr. Maxwell's experience, I thought about how what we build here can potentially fall in an instant. You can be the most amazing person in this Earth and make one mistake and it all goes away. People no longer remember all the great things you've done, they forever remember the error. If rewards are bsaed on what can be lost so quickly, they are not eternal.

God is not a respector of persons, it seems unjust to base aspects of eternity on carnal and temporal efforts. God does not look on the outward appearance or effort, he looks at the heart. If your heart toward God and others was put on display for all to see, what would people learn about you?

The heart is the real you, not your work, actions, efforts, accomplishments, mistakes or even sins. If you have reveived the free gift of righteousness, provided in the sacrifice of Christ, you have a brand ne heart. From that point on, the way you love will reap eternal rewards. When you stand before Christ, and those dead works are burned away, and what is pure remains, Jesus will look at you and say... well done, you have loved well.

Are you loving well today?

Life is too short to stay stuck in the past or afraid of the future. Your provision is based on God's value for you. You are precious to him, let go and choose to believe...love out loud forever more!

Seeing the Father

email@forward-church.com — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:42:00 GMT

Seeing the Father

Knowing God is not as complicated as religion has made it. Jesus made a statement that should put how to know God, at rest... he said, "if you've seen me, you've seen the Father". We've made knowing God difficult but the truth is, if we want to know what God is like, we can just look at Jesus.

How does Jesus treat people? The woman caught in adultery had been thrown in front of Jesus, followed by the accusations and condemnation of the crowd. The Bible says that Jesus drew in the sand as if "he didn't even hear them." Jesus then turns to the crowd and displays such a degree of love and compassion for the woman that all of her accusers could no longer condemn her. He elevated the law to a heart level. He raised the law from obedience and performance to the level of love, grace and compassion. There is more responsibility under the covenant of grace than under the covenant of obedience.

Under the old covenant, you made a sacrifice for sin. Under grace, we're expected to live in the power that doesn't fall into sin in the first place. Jesus told the woman, "go and sin no more."

The law expects sin but grace empowers and compels us unto perfection.

This is how God treats us. He ignores the accusations against us and sets us free from condemnation. Then empowers us to go and sin no more. There is no difference in what Jesus showed us and how God is treating you. God is not testing you to see if you can pass the experiment and then qualify for something. The original lie in the Garden of Eden was that God was holding something back from Adam and Eve. The Church still believes the lie. We're trying to qualify for something God has already given us. Since we're so "law minded" and "obedience minded", we seek to prove ourselves by our performance so we can get what God is "trying to teach us."

All things that pertain unto life and Godliness have already been given to you in Jesus Christ!

The disciples asked Jesus to show them the Father. He said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. Under the new covenant, Jesus is the complete representation of the Father. There is no angry side of God that Jesus isn't displaying. Jesus is the full and complete image and representation of God and what he thinks about sin and life in general. There is not an aspect of God that Jesus didn't display.

The New Covenant changed everything. Isaiah 54:9-10 (which is the direct result of what will happen after the cross, described in Isaiah 53) says:

Isa 54:9 "For this is like the days of Noah to Me, When I swore that the waters of Noah Would not flood the earth again; So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you Nor will I rebuke you.
Isa 54:10 "For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, But My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, And My covenant of peace will not be shaken," Says the LORD who has compassion on you.

Jesus is the qualification for these passages to be possible. The problem is we have such a mixed covenant teaching in our churches that we're led to believe that the vengeful, wrathful, angry qualities of God are still potentials. We believe Jesus is loving but we think the Father is still angry...NOT TRUE! If you've seen Jesus, you've seen the father!

You can't attribute anything to the Father that you don't see in the life of Jesus. Did Jesus make people sick to teach them a lesson? NO. Did Jesus get angry with sin? NO. Did Jesus execute judgment on cities for their sin? NO.

What we did see Jesus do is take the judgment for all mankind. If someone rejects that, they will go before God in the Great White Throne Judgment at the end of the ages, but he is not sending judgment now, because Jesus took it all.

God is so madly in love with you that he has done everything to set you free and deliver you from the chains that bind. John 3:17 says that Jesus came to save us, not condemn us. Will you allow yourself to be saved and set free from the guilt and shame that condemnation brings? Romans 8 says that there is no condemnation for those who are in Jesus who walk after the spirit. Walking after the Spirit simply means choosing life and not death. Walking out of your limiting issues is simply to choose life. God is no longer angry, has given you his Spirit and has compelled us to move forward, free from sin so we can touch the world.

I say again, if you've seen how Jesus treats people and issues, you have seen exactly how the Father treats people, sin and issues.

Awaken unto righteousness and start living in God's love and acceptance rather than trying to obey and qualify for righteousness yourself.

For more on this, see "Seeing the Father"...a 3 CD series by Clint

Ed Elliott at Forward Saturday, November 14th @ 6pm

email@forward-church.com — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:07:00 GMT

Ed Elliott at Forward
Saturday, November 14th @ 6pm

Word of Life World Outreach is a mission organization dedicated and committed to spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ through the Word of God around the world. It was founded by Ed & Laurie Elliott in 1984.

Ed and Laurie Elliott have been involved with world missions for over twenty-one years, sixteen were spent living and working in Africa. During that time they have had the privilege of seeing over three million people receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Working with the local pastors, they were very instrumental in the planting of churches throughout Southern and Central Africa. They have helped train thousands of pastors and evangelists to do the work of the ministry through teaching and training conferences and seminars. Many of these conferences and seminars were held in remote areas where the ministers would not have otherwise had the opportunity for training and “hands on” help.

They have organized and held some of the largest gospel crusades ever held in Southern Africa and are knowledgeable about the countries and challenges facing missionaries in that part of the world. Today, their main mission focus is Southern and Central Africa and Asia, primarily the countries of Vietnam and Cambodia.

For the past six years, WOLWO has been working with the underground church in Vietnam. Through these relationships, a trust has been established that has been very instrumental in opening opportunities to spread the gospel in that nation and other parts of Asia.

WOLWO has a multi-purpose plan to help plant churches; train pastors and a micro-economic plan to help and assist local pastors achieve economic freedom. Built upon previous experience and success, WOLWO also has a proven strategy to help plant one hundred new churches a year across Vietnam.

Visit www.wolwo.org for more information on Word of Life World Outreach.

Grace is Belief's Catalyst when Heart Sick

email@forward-church.com — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 14:34:00 GMT

Proverbs 13:12a Hope deferred makes the heart sick...

There are times when we are so hopeful of a particular moment, relationship, job, miracle, etc... When we feel we've waited and it doesn't happen, we let go of our hope and begin to slip into self-reliance. When hopes don't come to pass, we can become bitter or even angry with God.

This passage tells us that we slip into that process, our heart gets sick. Rom 10:10 tells us that it's with the heart man believes. The capacity to believe rests within the human heart. If our heart is sick, it affects our capacity to believe. The issue that arises is that Jesus ties everything to "believing". He says; when we pray, if we believe, anything we say shall come to pass, all things are possible to those that believe, when the disciples couldn't get a boy healed Jesus told them it was because of their unbelief.

If you've slipped into a heart sick state, your capacity and maybe even desire to believe gets stuck. When we get stuck, we jump into survival mode, we take back control of our lives and send a subtle message to our own hearts that God can't be trusted.

A hurt or offense gets lodged in our minds and hearts which further drives the nail of unfulfilled hope. Emotionally a bruising in our soul takes place. A bruise in oyur body is a place trauma has happened and the blood (life) can't flow through that place. In our heart, if a bruising occurs, God's life can't flow through that area and causes sickness.

The good news is that there's grace to get out of it. Grace is God's divine influence on our heart to empower us to do that which we can't on our own. Grace is when God breathes life through those hurts and pains in our heart to cause hope to come back to life. The problem is, when you touch a bruise, it hurts. It can feel like it hurts to try to believe again. It's too painful to allow life to begin to move through that bruising in your soul again. It's easier to just stay stuck and then blame God.

The truth is that God is always trying to bring life into our bodies, hearts and situations. The very thing we need to do becomes the very thing that we say hurts too badly. Daring to believe again may seem to hurt but it's the very thing that will allow God to breathe life back into you.

Do you want to stay stuck? Arise and dare to believe, there's grace to help in time of need!

You are a King of Life

email@forward-church.com — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:40:00 GMT

Do you know who you are? In Christ:

You are a King of Life. You have been delivered form the power of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of Jesus. You were crucified with Christ and were raised with Him. Your sin no longer exists, your shame no longer exists, your guilt no longer exists, you are completely free. When Jesus went back to Heaven, He took you with Him, not as a spectator but as an equal. Jesus now calls us friend. You are currently seated in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus. You are above and more powerful than any spirit in this world, the evil one can't touch you. You are a ruler in a realm in which you don't fully know. Set your mind on things above so that you may know who you are.

You are above and not beneath, you are the head and not the tail, you are a child of the most glorious, powerful entity in existence. You have eternal life as your reward. Your are a joint heir with Christ; everything that is His is yours. You are a co-laborer in this realm, you get to release people from their sin and set people free because the Holy Spirit is alive inside of you. You are the preserver in this earth; you are the hand of God to a lost world. You are anointed with the fullness of Jesus and lack in no gift. You are complete in Him. All things that pertain unto life and Godliness have been engrafted into you. What you pray for appears. You have the ability to heal the sick, open blind eyes, run off evil spirits, raise the dead, walk on water, call those things that be not as though they were...

You are not the object of His anger. You will never experience His wrath. He is not testing you. You will never taste death.

You are a magnificent and glorious light. You are the righteousness of God. Your are the reason He went to Hades. You are the joy set before Him. You are the reason He humbled Himself in obedience to the death of the cross and endured the shame. You are His child. Your are His idea. You are His beloved and He adores you into all eternity.