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Posts by Gaspar Anastasi

expect God's glory

Expect God’s glory!

June 1, 2019 Gaspar Anastasi
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Relationship with God

“And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by.” (Exodus 33:21, 22). This was God’s response to Moses when he asked to see His glory. Like Moses, you and I need to raise our expectations that God will display all His goodness in the midst of us. 

God is looking for a people who are hungry for His presence. Does that describe you? God said, “I will prepare a place for you where you can stand as I show My glory.” That place God prepared for us is the only place where any human being can stand who truly wants to know Him. That place is the Rock of Jesus. No man can come to the Father except by Him.

Stand on the Rock

The devil loves to play with your mind and tell you that you’re too dirty to come into God’s presence. You must recognize it’s not your goodness, but Jesus’. We can’t come to Him on our own merits. We can’t enter His presence based on good works or church membership. The only way is through the cleansing, atoning blood of the Lamb of God. We can never be worthy enough to enter God’s presence (or for God to enter ours). God the Father made Jesus to be sin for us because He longs to be intimate with us. He’s not satisfied with a distant relationship and neither should we be.

The rock God showed Moses to stand on is a gift that He offers just as freely to you and me, so that we too can experience His glory. 

God the Father has never been able to reveal His raw glory on earth because it destroys flesh. When Jesus came, He was cloaked in the veil of human flesh. That’s the only reason men could look upon His face and live. 

God the Father has shape and form like you and me. He is not cosmic dust floating around in outer space. In this encounter with Moses in Exodus 33 and with the apostle John in Revelation chapters 4 and 5, we see He has a face, hands and back parts.

Stand in right-standing

Because you and I have been elevated to a position of right-standing with God through the blood of Jesus, we have the privilege to stand at His side, hide in the cleft of the Rock, and live. That’s also why we can expect His glory to show up here.

What’s so special about the glory of God? Well, when we enter it, everything will change. Suddenly, strife and contention will be replaced by the desire to lay down our lives for one another. Forgiveness will well up in you and you’ll go make things right with those whom you have ought against. You’ll notice a longing to come into unity and agreement with what God is doing in this body. There will be such an impartation of God’s presence, everyone will know it. You won’t have to announce to anyone that you have been in His presence. It will be obvious. 

So please join me in asking Father God as Moses did… “Please show me Your glory.” 

If this blog post has been a blessing to you, please leave a comment and let us know!…

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don't shoot the wounded

Don’t shoot the wounded

May 25, 2019 Gaspar Anastasi
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God's love

According to Galatians 6:1, it is our job to restore those who have been overtaken in misconduct or sin of any sort. This is one of those scriptures that really flies in the face of normal church tradition and exposes our Achilles heal. The fact is, when Christ called us to be His ambassadors to a hurting world, He equipped and commissioned us to operate in God’s mercy and grace. He intended for you and I to restore Satan’s victims to fellowship with our heavenly Father and His Body, the Church.

Who and how are we to restore?

Who are the people we’ve been called to restore and how do we do it? Those who need to be restored are the drug addicts, the adulterers, the murderers and anybody else who has succumbed to Satan’s schemes and traps. But what does it actually mean to restore someone to fellowship?

First of all, we must recognize the faults in a person’s life and be willing, out of compassion, to bring correction to them. The sole purpose of correction is so that the person can admit and repent of their fault. It takes a very mature Christian to care that much for another person. No one can be restored until they first truly repent. Repent means to bear fruit that shows we’re, not only sorry for our sins, but have completely turned away from them.

Restore also means to reinstate a brother or sister to their full rights of fellowship in the Body of Christ—not isolating them as a form of punishment or treating him or her like a second class citizen. 

Furthermore, we are to “restore such a one in the spirit of meekness.” We must reach out to the hurting with a Christ-like heart of humility and God’s unconditional love. We need to understand that There, but for the grace of God, go I. 

Turn over a new leaf

However, that has not been the Church’s reputation. The Church has fallen far short of her commission to restore, reinstate, reestablish and heal those who need it most. Instead, we are known for shooting our wounded. Blinded to our own sins and weaknesses, carefully cloaking them with fig leaves, we judge, criticize and condemn everyone else. We gossip about people and otherwise feed into an “us” and “them” attitude. It is an attitude which is nauseating, to say the least, to our merciful, compassionate God.

What we need is a fresh revelation of God’s mercy which He pours out on every one of us every day of our lives. How many of us can say we have perfectly served God since we received Him as Savior and Lord? I dare say none. It’s amazing how we, the restored, resent others being welcomed back into the fold. 

Yet, the whole Bible tells the story of a loving God restoring fallen humanity to Himself. How? By loving them back into relationship. Examine your life. How do you treat those who have fallen into sin and out of fellowship with God and His Church? Are you looking to restore such a one in the spirit of meekness? Or are you one of the self-righteous, gathering a posse to shoot the wounded among us? …

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dancing in the dark

Dancing in the Dark

May 18, 2019 Gaspar Anastasi
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Making positive change, Overcoming depression

Over and over in Genesis when God is creating, the scripture says “And evening and morning were the first (second… sixth…) day.” Notice night always comes before day. Our God who declares the end from the beginning goes to work in the evening of our lives when it is darkest, when everything looks dead and hopeless, when you feel like giving up. That’s when He suddenly speaks into the night and commands, “Let there be light!”

We all must go through night seasons in life. That’s a fact. And it is crucial that you put your effort into enduring difficult times in faith, rather than circumventing them. Otherwise, you just might miss your miracle.

A womb for the miraculous

Start seeing the darkness that surrounds you as a womb for the miraculous, and an incubator for the incredible. Suddenly, in one day, God can resurrect the very thing you thought was dead forever and prosper it as never before. But you must be willing to lay it down in faith. 

In Numbers 17:1-8, God commanded the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel to lay down their rods before Him. Each of them was carrying around a dead stick which represented their will, their abilities and their human power. But once he laid it down, in the course of one night, Aaron’s rod budded blossomed and bore fruit. A miracle!

When God gets hold of the dead thing you lay down—the bad relationship, the rebellious kids, the lost job, the uncertain future—your crisis becomes the crucible for God’s creative power.  

Endure the night

Not only must we endure our own night season, we must let others go through theirs as well. When we try to rescue our children or loved ones from problems over and over instead of letting them go through them, we only prolong their time in the fire. 

If you cut a butterfly free from its cocoon it will die because it didn’t get the strength it gains in the struggle while breaking out. When you take away a person’s struggle, you kill the character, the discipline, the humility, etc. that would have developed in the process. That’s why Jesus rebuked Peter for trying to dissuade Him from going to the cross and why He called Judas friend. Jesus knew He had to endure the night to obtain our salvation.

So what do we do while we’re waiting for daybreak? Declare what you want to see happen. Speak light into the darkness just like God did. He has already given you the word. Now He is saying, “You speak it!” 

Declare truth til daybreak

Say, “I am a tither and God is opening up the windows of heaven and pouring me out a blessing so great I can’t contain it all.” 

Say, “Healing is the children’s bread and by Jesus Christ’s stripes I am healed of  ________!”

Say, “My household is saved because a sanctified wife makes a sanctified husband and children.”

Don’t moan and groan. Endure joyfully. Say what God says and start to praise Him even in the dark. Dance and shout as you visualize your miracle coming to pass. Then get ready. Once you get a vision, day is about to come.   …

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setback to step back

The Esau Syndrome

May 11, 2019 Gaspar Anastasi
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Making positive change, Relationship with God, Success & victory

Esau, the first born, came in from hunting and said to his brother Jacob who was cooking pottage, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.” Esau said, “Look, I am about to die. What good is the birthright to me?” So he swore an oath, selling his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew. The Bible summarizes this heated exchange with one cold statement: “So Esau despised his birthright” (Gen. 25:34).

Position, Privilege and Power

As the firstborn and heir to his father’s fortune, Esau was to come into Position, Privilege and Power. That was his birthright. However, he wasn’t willing to wait.

Every day the enemy tempts us to compromise future blessings to meet an immediate emotional need. How often we Christians fall prey to the Esau Syndrome! How often we sell our place of Position, Privilege and Power to meet a carnal craving, a lustful appetite! Yet, only God satisfies.

Just like Esau, we reason, “What good is my birthright? I’m hungry now! Why wait? I need someone to love me now!” We see an opportunity to get what we think God wants to give us…but our way. So we close our eyes and leap into sin, emptiness and spiritual death, trying to meet our need instead of relying on God. Thus, the Esau Syndrome has crippled the body of Christ and made us dysfunctional.

No Shortcut to God’s Best

In God’s house there are no elevators, only steps. You must go through the steps He ordains in order to inherit the blessings He has prepared.

I know so many Christians who have promises from God, but they are not willing to allow God to take them on His journey in order to receive them. How sad that is! They end up losing everything for a pot of beans. 

It’s like the weight lifter who wants the bulging muscles, so he takes steroids. He looks good on the outside, but inside his body is being destroyed.

Exodus 13:17 says that God led the children of Israel “not in the way of the Philistines.” There was a way to the promised land that was quicker, but in the shortcut, they would have dealt with the lusts of the flesh and they might have gone back to Egypt and into bondage. 

Stop Selling Your Birthright

God is re-training us to trust Him rather than ourselves. He wants us to be led by His Spirit and not by our emotions. 

Church, stop living out of your soul. Stop selling your birthright. Any time you try to be self-sufficient rather than God-sufficient, you go right back into bondage like before. Allow God to take you on the journey that will mature you. Don’t fall for the devil’s counterfeit. No shortcut will produce a Christ-like result in your life.

Have we not yet come to realize that, unless God meets our need, we will be left hungry and thirsty? Have we not hit enough dead ends to know that God has to bring it to pass? It takes a mature Christian to say no to the lusts of our flesh and yes to Jesus. Let’s be disciplined. Let it not be said of us, “So they despised their birthright.”…

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take back control

Take back control of your life!

May 4, 2019 Gaspar Anastasi
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Success & victory

When a person who has offended and hurt you in the past suddenly comes into your presence, how do you react? For many of us, our mood immediately changes and we do everything possible to remove ourselves from their presence.

Past offenses left undealt-with make us vulnerable, allowing other people to control our life. We become slaves to our own feelings and emotions. If we don’t break free from the pain caused by those past offenses, our history will always show up in our destiny.

Living in the past hinders what God planned for our future, and also keeps God’s present and future blessings on layaway. Every time we react to emotions connected to those past hurts, its like eating dead things over and over again. Stop and release your enemies by forgiving.

Look at the birds

When you are constantly reminded and controlled by things that happened in the past, you are eating stuff you ought to be releasing. It won’t produce peace or joy. It just weighs you down.

Resentment makes us like a chicken that is earthbound because it can only fly a short distance. That’s because a chicken eats dead things (even its own feces) and is weighed down. In contrast, the eagle flies miles high and only eats things that are alive.

Holding on to offense does the same thing to us. We lose control of our life and give it to the person who offended us. It’s time to take back control by refusing to internalize what we ought to be releasing!

God gave us the ability to purge ourselves from offenses. His nature to forgive has now become our nature as Christians. It’s not unusual that the world struggles in this area. They are not equipped like we are.

Weakness vs. wickedness

Yet, why do Christians struggle? I believe it’s because we confuse wickedness with weakness. The person offending us doesn’t have to be wicked. Many times they’re just weak, unable to resist the temptation that caused them to make a wrong choice. 

We should all sympathize because we all suffer from the same weakness. The problem is: Because we are the victim of their wrong decisions, we consider them wicked and hold on to the offense (and continually eat dead things).

The heavy price of unforgiveness

Our unforgiveness doesn’t affect them—but us. We want them to pay a heavy price for hurting us, but by dwelling on hurtful memories we are drinking poison. We are “stopped up”, spiritually hurting ourselves. Just like our natural body, when we don’t release what goes in us, our health is seriously affected. The solution? Purge ourselves by forgiving our offenders because we recognize their weakness is not wickedness. 

God’s word says mercy will triumph over judgment. Sure, they may deserve to be punished, but so do you and I. But every day of our life, God’s mercy spares us the just punishment that we rightfully deserve!

Take back control of your life and allow God to bring you into the great destiny He has for you. Stop living like a chicken and start soaring like an eagle!

We love to hear from you! If this blog has been a blessing to you, please let us know by commenting below!…

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Begin at the end.

April 27, 2019 Gaspar Anastasi
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Finding significance in life, Making positive change, Success & victory

What would you like your friends say about you when you die? That you were a person who loved God and loved people… that you were compassionate, always putting the needs of others before your own? Of course, you do!  Unfortunately, for some of us that won’t be the case because we never planned the end from the beginning!

You see, when a Hollywood producer makes a movie, he or she always has the end in mind before they start production. They design the different segments of the movie, making sure they all lead to the desired ending. If one of the segments doesn’t fit the ending they planned, they pull it out and create one that does fit.

If you and I want our lives to have a great ending, we must likewise plan the different segments of our lives to produce the desired result.

Pay now and play later

I like to say it this way: If we pay now, we can play later. But that’s the opposite of what most people do! Good planning calls for great discipline and keeping the end well in sight. Like a movie producer, you and I get to control each act and dictate how it ends.

The key to a good ending is sticking to the script: the Word of God. Jesus is the Author and Finisher of our faith; He is also the Director of our life, as the Apostle Paul tells us in Hebrews 12:2.

An illustration

I heard a story of an old man who sat on a park bench every afternoon, reading the newspaper. One day a young man sat next to him and, after a few minutes, leaned over to the older gentleman and said, “Sir I’m sorry to interrupt you, but do you have the time?” After a long pause, the old man turned, said “No” and went on reading the paper.

The stunned young man interrupted him and said, “Sir, you have on a watch and I don’t understand why you would say ‘no’ to my request. Did I not ask you politely, or did I offend you in some way?”

The old man said, “Son, you seem like a very nice young man. If I told you the time, we may have gotten into a conversation. Then I might have come to like you and invited you to my house for dinner. When you came over, because you are a handsome young man, my single daughter, who is beautiful, probably would have been attracted to you and you to her. You’d ask her out and there would be a good chance that you would ask her to marry you. Well, I don’t want my daughter to marry somebody who can’t afford a watch.”

Keep the perfect ending in mind

Now that’s a little radical, but the truth is this: You’ll never reach your desired end unless you begin and arrange the rest of your life’s journey with the end in mind. God showed Jeremiah as a young man what his life’s journey was to look like, and Jeremiah kept that vision before him. Surely, our destiny can also be fulfilled if we keep our end goal in mind at all times.

Think about how you would like your obituary to read and the legacy you want your family to continue. Will the unfolding of your life’s script bring glory to God? Take the time today and plan your ending. Then begin at the end!…

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