The Psalm 133 Anointing

Psalm 133 is a scripture on brotherly unity. That's a key issue for a Christian MC! If you see the level of unity we have in Disciple Christian MC, don't think for a moment that this is just the way it is everywhere! Few organizations have the love and unity we have carefully crafted here. We routinely have folks from other organizations come to us, who describe having nothing like the unity or brotherly affection we do, rather jealousy and infighting. 

As you meet with your crew and enjoy the tightness, realize that there is a specific unity, a anointing on this club from God. We bathe our decisions in prayer. We pray for the men, and for the bond of unity. We follow Heb 10:24 and consider how to spur each other on to good deeds. We live lives dedicated to the purposes of God, and we exercise strong leadership to ensure that these purposes are carried out on a national level throughout the club.

Biblical unity comes from the anointing of God. In Psalm 133:2 it describes the anointing as running first down the head, commonly interpreted as the leadership. Aaron was the High Priest, the head of the spiritual organization. If the head, the leadership, doesn't live it, then the anointing of unity goes no farther into the organization. If the leadership carries out a Godly lifestyle, lives and teaches unity, then it flows down from the top of the MC to the bottom.

Bathe your leadership in prayer. What God has built, the enemy is constantly trying to tear down. We must be on the offensive, working in the power of the Holy Spirit to guard what God has given us.

The Excellency of Brotherly Unity.
A Song of Ascents, of David.
1Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brothers to dwell together in unity!
2It is like the precious oil upon the head, Coming down upon the beard, Even Aaron’s beard, Coming down upon the edge of his robes.
3It is like the dew of Hermon Coming down upon the mountains of Zion; For there the Lord commanded the blessing—life forever.
New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960–1995 by The Lockman Foundation – All rights reserved.

The Proverbs Challenge and Psalms Challenge

Proverbs Challenge and Psalms Challenge are my daily default reading. I heard once that this was what Billy Graham read daily. Its pretty simple. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs and days in the month, so read the chapter that corresponds to the date. As I write this its the 22nd day of the month and I just got done with the 22nd chapter of Proverbs. If you miss a couple days no problem, just pick back up on the chapter for that date, if its the 25th, read the 25th chapter.

You don't have to start on the first, start today. You don't have to go back and read what you missed, you will read it next month. And the month after, and the month after, for the rest of your life. That's the thing with the Proverbs challenge, its a lifelong thing. Why? Because every time you read it you get something new. I had a mentor suggest I read all six chapters of Ephesians daily for 30 days, and sure enough I got something new out of it every time. The Word of God is active and alive and the Holy Spirit is working in you when you read.

The Psalms challenge is just the same thing, but with 150 chapters you read five chapters a day, 30 days in the month. To figure out where you need to read today, multiply the date times 5. Today is the 22nd so I started at Psalm 110 and read through 114, five chapters. Now don't freak out, most of the chapters are very short, just a few verses. But this way, throughout the day, you can pull out your phone and have something to read and meditate. And that's the point here. You always want to have a Word in your head to meditate, chew on, focus on.

There are lots of good reading plans, ones that get you through the Bible in a year, or focus on peace or prosperity, and that's great. This plan supplements those. You can select other reading when you are done, and you can literally chew through the Psalms and Proverb for the day in 15 minutes. I generally move to the new testament after. Sometimes I switch it up and read it backwards from the last verse to the first. Sometimes I read it in another translation.

But Proverbs was mostly written by the wisest man who ever lived, King Solomon, to his sons, to pass on wisdom. Reading it daily for the rest of your life gives you daily access to the Wisdom of God. And we all need wisdom. Psalms was mostly written by King David, a man after Gods own heart. So you get a daily dose of how God thinks, how He operates, how He protects and provides for his people. Need peace? Read Psalm 91, or any of a score more that are full of the peace of God.

By internalizing the concepts found day after day, you wash your mind in the way God thinks instead of how the world thinks. You find answers to problems you're struggling with, ethical dilemmas, interpersonal relationships. When you oit in the world dealing with situations, the Holy Spirit will remind you of some proverb that covers it, and you will make it through based on following the Biblical advice. You will learn to see the difference between foolish people and wise people, and catch when you are acting one way or the other.

And that's the goal, wisdom daily. The wisdom of God.

How Men of God Speak

You need to listen to the men around you with spiritual ears. Real men of God are constantly seeking Him, talking about Him, praising Him. Powerful men of God are not concerned with negative miserable things and the works of the devil, other than casting them down and taking authority over them. Faithful men of God are praising God, seeing His mighty hand at work, involved in changing lives and situations through the power of prayer and the authority given to them in the Word. Deep men of God are in tune with listening, sensing what God is doing, listening to Him, and to you when you speak, valuing what they hear, ever learning.

Let us step it up men! Let us be praising God in all things, verbally to others, out loud with our mouths. Let us steer the course of conversations from the banal, negative, fleshly, and human centered, and bring the Light!

And beware the men around you. Listen carefully when they speak, and weigh their advice based on whether it is the voice of a fleshly man, or the voice of a man dedicated to the praise of the Living God. Listening to fleshly men will bring you down, listening to deep, strong, faithful men of God will lift you up.

Look at Psalm 111 man, look at God! Isn't He good?

Psalm 111:1 Praise the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart, In the company of the upright and in the assembly. 2 Great are the works of the Lord; They are studied by all who delight in them. 3 Splendid and majestic is His work, And His righteousness endures forever. 4 He has made His wonders to be remembered; The Lord is gracious and compassionate. 9 He has sent redemption to His people; He has ordained His covenant forever; Holy and awesome is His name. 10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments; His praise endures forever.

Why We Read the Word Daily

We don't read the Bible to notch off another monotonous daily Christian task. The goal is to change our way of thinking daily, from the flawed way the world sees things, to the renewed mind of Christ. We are literally trying to do away with worldly wisdom, and dependence on the kind of stinkin thinkin that the world beats into us daily. Fleshly thoughts. We are trying to leave behind the way WE think things through and understand them.

Instead we are allowing the Word to wash through us and cleanse away natural wisdom, worldly insight, and renew the mind of Christ in us. We are coming to see things through the lens of Jesus, asking Him to help us see things the way He does. God has access to information and wisdom that you just don't have. He can show you ways of handling things that you never would have imagined. He wants the best outcome for you, trust in Him!

When Prov 3 says 'lean not on your own understanding', it literally means to stop over thinking things and trying to figure them out. Being led by the Spirit means doing things that are uncomfortable to your flesh, that don't make sense to you, and are in fact the exact opposite of what YOU want to do in your flesh. Based not on what you THINK, but on what you HEAR, or what impression you get from the Spirit of God. And that's often going to be contrary to what you want.

Read these scriptures in quick succession today and let the Holy Spirit speak to you about them.
Eph 4:22-24
Eph 5:25-27
Rom 12:2
Prov 3:5-6
Psalm 119:9