The child of a goat is a goat. The child of an eagle is an eagle. Human beings have the opportunity to become children of God and the greatest gift I believe any parent can give their children is to point them to The Father.

What if you are a child of God and know it? What is your true identity, your potential, your provisions, your resources? How big is your playing field, your sphere of influence, your domain of operation?

If my Daddy’s nature is Love, that is my nature, my true identity. By its very nature, love is indiscriminate and boundless bordering on reckless.

If your Daddy owns the universe, your field of play is bigger than your physical environment, to say the least. Like Christ, you have legions of angels at your disposal and you will not think twice about speaking to a hurricane or a Tsunami or an earthquake or the economy. If you are a child of God and know it.

Everything Jesus did is best understood when we see Him as God’s beloved Son. His sonship implied everything God is, has and is capable of, was His. That is what “Son of” or “Child of” means. He severely annoyed the religious folk by declaring, “I and my Father are one.” His sonship of the Father constituted His identity. When they tried to stone Him for such “blasphemy”, He said, “Is it not written in your law, I have said you are gods?”

Being a child of God regardless of how blasphemous it seems, is being a god. God so loves us that while we were beyond repair, He made a way for us to be gods, sharing Christ’s likeness, inheritance and oneness with the Father.

Will we all be true lovers like God? Will we all live as gods? Sadly, no. God loves us so much that He submits to our wills – God is gentle. If we are God’s children and do not act it or our lives do not display it, it is because God loves and honors us so much He will not enforce His desire on us. If you are not God’s child yet, He loves and honors you too much to force you to be one having made provisions for you to be. Responsibility comes with the privilege of being a god.

In 2012, I made Christlikeness my aim and that is not a new year’s resolution but a journey you embark on that never ends.

At the end of 2012, I realized I was very far from Christlikeness and that I need to better understand, practice and be a channel for the love of God starting from my home, where I have the golden opportunity to love my wife and children, God’s way.

God’s love sets a standard that is impossible to meet without His help. Yet He commands us to love like Him and says Love is the mark of true Christlikeness, not faith, knowledge or good works. It is easy to connect with groups of people but not as easy to connect deeply with and love a fellow human being where imperfection meets imperfection. Love makes you vulnerable and defenseless. This counterintuitive quote was brought to my attention last week by a subscriber of this blog, “In my defenselessness my safety lies.”

The command to Love God with all of my being and my neighbor as myself is the greatest Love statement from God (Love). That command transforms us from mere creatures to children of God (Love) who can love like Him. To love another human being deeply and genuinely, is the greatest source of fulfillment because we were made by God (Love) to love. We are not happy because we are loved but that we love. I do not begin to be a man, a husband, a Father, an individual or a follower of Christ without Love – selflessly, tenderly, defenselessly caring for and working for another’s good, in response to the truth that I and every human being are individually beloved of God (Love).

From the Garden of Eden onwards, this person is the subject of prophecies by many different people spanning millennia.

“I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but He is not near. A star shall come forth out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel…,” said Ballam.

Isaiah was bold to speak one of my favorite and perhaps the most radical prophecy about this person.

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

Micah also poetically foretold that there was coming a figure that existed before time began. I love how he said it:

“But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah,
yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”

His conception was announced by an arch angel to a virgin. His birth was announced by a company of angels. Even the stars announced his birth.

Yet, this person was born in the lowliest of places. Among animals. His place of birth speaks volumes. God shocks us first by being born and then turns our world upside down by entering the world in a place my daughter describes as yucky.

God came to us as a “nobody” and even when we tried to make him “somebody,” he refused, choosing rather to refer to himself as son of man. He stripped himself of every title and washed the feet of his disciples. Even after his resurrection, having the power that runs the universe, that controls galaxies and governments and to which every name now and for eternity is subject, He cooked for and served His disciples. This shattered my world when I saw it. True power, true influence in heaven and on earth, in society and in the spirit has nothing to do with your rank and title but with your spirit, I am beginning to realize.

Before departing, He shocks us beyond measure by giving access to His power and authority to any one crazy enough to believe it. He would. He is God who chose to be born in a manger and to refer to himself as son of man. He would have no qualms making any human a son of God equipped with all the love, the humility and the power that makes God God.

Even if you are the most famous “somebody” in your world, you can wash the feet of your followers and fans, both literally and metaphorically and not lose any iota of your true power. Counterintuitively, you will increase in power and influence. Even as the lowliest “nobody”, you can have access to the very same power that runs the universe and controls galaxies and governments. Christ is how.

The handwriting on the wall is that the game has changed, normal has ended and most of us are playing as though the mystery of evil is not at play. These are unusual times and they call for unusual strategies and tools not business as usual.

Normal is you shoot me and I shoot you or I try passing laws that keep guns away from you or that allow me carry guns so I can “protect” myself from you. This is a Love issue not a legal or a gun issue. Normal is playing the blame game or trying to use intellectual strategies to address issues that are obviously spiritual.

Abnormal is you shoot me and I love you into surrender because your shot has no power over me and I see you as a victim crying out for the love whose channel I am. Only omnipotent love can overcome a system of lust, selfishness and hate.

Normal is you get “spiritual” and are a worshipper only on Sundays. Abnormal is you live Monday to Monday as a warrior spirit and your life and all your activities are acts of worship and anywhere you find yourself is holy ground.

The times when we could get by on normal have ended. This is 2013 not 13BC. The solution to a systemically decadent system has to come from outside it. Christ came from outside and introduced omnipotent love. Nothing less can begin to address the individual and societal challenges we face today and we must address it lest we unwittingly aid evil.

The game has changed, if you have not noticed. Welcome to abnormal. It will get more exciting, more intense and more glorious and only warriors of omnipotent love will thrive in the perilous days ahead.

Christ may have been born a baby in a manger but he lived, died, resurrected and will come back a warrior. He was a warrior from birth when Herod tried to terminate him, recognizing the disruptive nature of his assignment. When you have a disruptive assignment, you had better be a warrior lest you or your assignment be extinguished. If you follow Christ, you have a disruptive assignment and our world today is in dire need of disruption. Only a warrior dares to walk on water and succeeds – Peter attempted it and failed midstream. You don’t try warriorship, you give your life to it.

Only a warrior fearlessly speaks against the religious and political leaders seeking to destroy him, feeds 5,000 men in the desert without recourse to the markets, surrenders his will to the will of the highest when faced with the reality of crucifixion. Only a warrior pleads for forgiveness for his crucifiers and grants eternal life to a sinner crucified with him. Only a warrior rises up 3 days after death exactly as planned.

Christ seeks warriors, not doubters. Warriors command mountains to move and do not wait to see if they will obey. In the book of Revelation, Christ repeatedly said there are rewards for conquerors – warriors not the fearful or unbelieving.

The warrior spirit means absolute faith. Smith Wigglesworth a true warrior said, “Faith never fails to obtain its object.” Queen Esther was a warrior. The 3 Hebrew boys were true warriors. If I doubt that I will obtain my target, I am not a warrior and I will not obtain. If you are a true warrior, you cannot but obtain – all things are possible for warriors.

Grace is why the woman caught in the act went free – her accusers, the religious Pharisees did not determine her justification, God did. Grace is why a murderer on the cross who has not had time to amend his ways would gain access to Paradise. Every gift of God is of grace and human beings do not determine access to it, God does. Jesus said whores and notable sinners will enter God’s kingdom ahead of Pharisees.

You may think you deserve to be blessed but be disqualified like the Pharisees because you do not fulfill the requirement for obtaining God’s grace. I may think you are undeserving but you may enter God’s grace if you fulfill the requirement, which has nothing to do with your past but everything to do with your faith, your trust in the qualifier, the justifier, the savior, the blesser. He has every right to determine how things work in his universe.

The other side of grace is chilling and makes one’s heart cry. People who “deserve” to be blessed will not be blessed. People who have “worked” for God will be disgraced. People who do not deserve to perish will. Why? We do not determine the qualification, God does. God’s requirement is clear and immutable – we are restored, saved, justified, blessed by grace through faith, not by what we do or don’t do.

True faith does not exist without corresponding actions but our actions do not grant us access to grace, our faith does, thank God. Otherwise, none of us will qualify. With grace, faith is both a leveler and a distinction.

The question, “who touched me” implied it did not matter who touched him. Restoration is available to whoever has the audacity to take it. It is not reserved for a privileged few. Even a “sinner” who touches in faith will be restored. Jesus did not ask, “which believer touched me” or “which church-goer touched me.” Many people in those categories will not receive what is already provided – the first do become last and the last do become first. There is no qualification required for healing but faith anymore than there is a qualification to take a breath. They are both gifts.

This woman realized that power was available to heal her and all she needed to do was to go take her healing. It is okay to take your healing or whatever on God’s planet you need and have a conversation with God after the fact. Whoever you are. God is not in the business of withholding.

Today, most “believers” spend time praying for things God already provided. How unbelieving! If something is already clearly stated as provided for in scriptures, isn’t petition indicative of unbelief? If I ask for something out of unbelief, isn’t it guaranteed to be unheard and unanswered?

When you truly believe you have been provided for, you do not need to ask, just go take it and acknowledge it in thanksgiving after the fact.

This woman had come to a profound realization when she said, “If only I can touch the hem of his garment, I will be whole.” Of all the “variables” in the universe to predicate her healing on, she decided she was the key. “Hey, touch the hem of his garment? I can do that.” She did it and was instantly healed. She could have blamed the system, the politicians, the weather, her husband, her children, the preachers or physicians but she declared herself responsible and therefore took control. Realizing you are the key to your own breakthrough is both truthful and empowering.

Waiting for the stars to be aligned is a waste of time because they are already aligned. There is omnipresent power to bring to pass whatever any human being has the audacity to call for anywhere on this planet. Jesus proved it. He expected his disciples to function in that reality when he asked them to feed the multitudes where it was humanly impossible to do so.

Until you realize that nothing and no one outside of you needs to change for you to move from point A to B, you have not started. Love designed the universe such that everything including systems and principalities is wired to bring to pass whatever any of us calls for in faith. Faith is the key and is your responsibility. Faith cometh not by spending idle time on TV or social media but by using every opportunity to soak your mind in the Truth.

Churchill had quite a few trials and successes on his way to becoming Prime Minister but he saw his past life as practice for his assignment in the world. He did not see his Prime Ministerial position as a sign of arrival but as a pivotal role in the dispensation in which he was privileged to be alive.

True leaders in pivotal moments of history need to perceive that they were born on time, that they are needed here now, that their lives matter. They need to be able to perceive their role in shaping history. Jesus the last Adam said “for this cause was I born…” I think of Him as having a 30-year preparation for a 3.5-year assignment.

It is not pride to acknowledge that you were born for a purpose and to perceive that your experiences, your gifts, your nature, your heritage, your society, the conditions around you and the state of the world invite you to step up to the plate and play your part. You are neither the beginning nor the end but your calling is significant.

We are in no less a pivotal moment than Churchill was thrust into. Times of physical, economic, social or spiritual upheavals call for true leadership. I felt an earthquake at 4am this morning for example – these are not times for business as usual. You were born on time. Look beyond your trials and your successes and see them all as preparation for this hour and for this trial.

I was not surprised since I habitually speak to situations that do not seem obedient to words including whether systems, disease and kidnapping situations.

Disaster can happen anytime and technology allows us to know in advance when and where Hurricane Sandy is expected to strike and how much damage it is expected to cause. There are two ways to make use of such information. One way is to take forecasts hook, line and sinker and expect the worst. Another way is to do what Jesus did when he was in a storm with his disciples – address the storm and tell it precisely what to do, rather than waiting for it to happen and then calling it acts of God.

Storms of all kinds never fail to obey people who act like God. The only way to learn to copy Christ is to copy Him. If you fail, try again. Toddlers do not stop trying to walk because they keep falling. If you consider yourself merely human, by all means expect and prepare for the worst.

If your child is showing symptoms of a terrible disease, you do not have to accept what is looming. If you have just been diagnosed with a terminal disease and given 6 months to live, you do not have to accept the diagnosis, you can choose instead to live as long as you desire. Your business does not have to struggle or fail in the downturn.

When you have advance information about a storm or find yourself in one regardless of the cause, your only option is not to just to prepare for and expect the worst. You can tell any storm, “Peace, be still” if you follow Christ and believe that you are a spirit with authority to act like Him.