Are You Loves Receiver? 6-15-26

Harnessing the power of God

Ok you guys I’m going to a commercial break here for a few minutes, to talk about my least favorite pastime on Sundays and that is NFL football. And just so you know I won’t be talking about gambling online as some do and end up penniless. I’m somehow going to bring redemption to this pagan ritual, by bringing parallels between the Kingdom of God and what goes on in football. 

Ready, set, the whistle blows and the play begins. Twelve players on each side start a play known only to their team. They move quickly to foil the offense, and try to get the ball if it becomes loose. Receivers run to pre-determined locations within the field looking for a flying pig in the air to grab and choke the life out of! Blockers usually around 300 lbs, push against the other teams defenders and try to cut down the quarterback before he can throw the ball. Within seconds, highly orchestrated confusion turns into a running, catching ballet where many bite the dust, (there is no dust, that is baseball) and another whistle blows signaling the end of the down.

So if you live for football, you are probably addicted to watching for the big plays especially in the fourth quarter. I am enthralled, but don’t want to waste time on boring plays, taking up four hours of time. 

This is what I do instead and actually, not that often, I find a youtube video on the 25 top most incredible plays of all time and binge watch. What a rush! Not even time to drink a tall beer, ok maybe one!

You see, in football, runners are a dime a dozen, but a good receiver is paid very well! They get more credit making one catch and scoring a TD than most politicians get in a year. 

Hey a good receiver in the kingdom of God is the same, only the rewards are eternal as well as temporal. There are crossover parallels though. Have you ever considered the Hail Mary passes, the O’ my God! touchdowns, that pass was unbelievable! He’s going deep! Wide open, what a recovery!

Looks long down the field! The unbelievable has happened! He throws it up in the air, says a prayer and touchdown! Think about this if you would. The connection between the quarterback and receiver must be one of working knowledge. They know each other's moves, tendencies and weaknesses. They get together off the field and talk, maybe strategize and go over their plays for upcoming games. A connection like, let's say Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams, or Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski. A relationship of mutual respect for each other's talents. They jive together and can predict what is happening downfield no matter the scramble at the line of scrimmage. Every play has to be known by the team but especially those 2. They have gone over and practiced until it is second nature, or they are thinking in unison about that play. They are even aware of last minute route changes in case one or the other lane gets blocked. As soon as they start the enemy goes after them, quarterback and receiver alike. The plan is for the receiver to be at the exact place at the exact moment the ball lands at that coordinate. The way it happens sometimes is called magic by the announcers. Not magic, supernatural!

Well, if you thought that was exciting, check out this similarity: Receivers are important in both realms. The first thing we do in our realm is to receive Christ and join the team. After all He is THE superstar who won the prize of eternal life for us! No announcers with rote catch phrases! But there is a cloud of witnesses greater than any world stadium. We signed up with Love of our own free choice. But Love needed a receiver, you! We joined up to a lifetime of believing and a lifetime of receiving all by God’s will. Some of us might think we didn’t need anything else from the Lord, but might I correct you? 2 Peter 1:3 says, “as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue.” All of those things though freely given must be freely received. Webster's 1828 definition of receiving is:’1.To take, as a thing offered or sent; to accept.’ We can all do this.

Once we started to read our bibles, Kingdom understanding should have begun to overtake our thinking and make us hungry for more. Questions came into our minds by the divine utterance of the Word. We maybe did not understand the things God had freely given us already belonged to us and are stored up in Heaven with our name on them.  As world kids we were used to the world system of, “ work very hard and receive very little.” (The devils system.) 

As a child 10 years old, my father made me get a job delivering newspapers in good old hilly Oakland. I just said Ok and started learning things like life is hard and this is what you do. Dad and mom were poor. Not their fault, they hadn’t found the Good News yet. So I carried or pushed 50lbs of Oakland Tribune up and down steep hills, occasionally got attacked by dogs, and residents just so I could be poor like mom and dad? I did not know much about God and His ways except to be an altar boy. I developed a not to do list in my mind, with the top of the list being, don’t ride in the back of dads ‘66 volkswagen bus! My Godfather was not Italian but he was well to do. He drove a hot, fast ‘67 Pontiac Bonneville and took me and his son, Doug on camping trips and mountain climbing expeditions in the Sierras. That was a fun-type exercise you know like fishing, baseball, playing with fireworks. 

God has a much different idea of life than we do. I found in the days following my conversion, there was this thing called the “peace of God” which came over my life. It freed me up to be able to follow Him. The first place I followed Him too was the ends of the earth in Steubenville, Ohio. I had truly died, I thought. This place looked nothing like scenic California. But It turned out to not be about the scenery but about meeting my future wife, Debra and starting a family. I liked what God was doing for me. Receiving from Him was easy! It looked like all I had to do was like what He offered and it became mine. Of course you eventually grow up and there is a devil that tries to devour things kind of like grizzly bears in Canada. I thought I was done fighting when I left Oakland.

New power started manifesting one day. Can’t say what day that was exactly, but it was after the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Boy I needed that! It seems I was able to get into trouble without even trying. Debra as well. We protested abortion clinics, got arrested, prayed for people and things to get better and they did, and other intellectual religious people got mad.

1Peter 1:5 says, “We are kept by the power of God through faith.” The more we tried the more understanding we received and so was the process. Didn’t do everything right at first but the power of God would manifest and we could not be satisfied!

Have you ever wished you could just lay hands on people and pray and see God fix ‘em? Hang onto that desire, because it is from God. Keep trying and don’t give up and God will lead you to your happy place! Seeing demons cast out, people get free, healed, lives changed, the Lord glorified makes it worth the process of Him leading and us following and not quitting.

 Mark 11:24 says,” Therefore I, Jesus, say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” “Them” things you’ve been asking for are getting ready to manifest. When? When you pray and believe you receive them, that is when! Run down the field and make a catch!

I’m not going to leave you with the simplified solution because maybe we don’t have years to figure it all out. You are Love’s receiver. You are the target destination of His goodness He has already made available through the new birth in Christ Jesus. Remember 2 Peter 1:3 says, “as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him…? Knowledge of Him may be what you need to complete the process. 

1Peter 1:5-8  ^“But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, ⁶ to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, ⁷ to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. ⁸ For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ”. Let’s do it!

Faith in God has to have pillars to stand on. One is the new birth. Second is developing the Fruit of the Spirit. I just read it. Another is the Word of God from scripture. In this instance we are setting our faith on something we need which is stated in scripture that God wills or wants us to have. Does it pertain to Life and godliness? Are you sure it is not too big for God to handle? Are you a giver? Do you at least tithe? Do you view money or possessions as something to be hoarded or to use in blessing others in the Kingdom? Aligning our words we speak with what God says. This is not using God as a lottery machine but simply doing what He says.

Romans 10:17   “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Continual hearing and agreement with God’s Word allows faith from the word to enter our mind, will and emotions and become belief which changes negative circumstances 1st in our minds and then in our hearts.

Hebrews 12:2 ‘looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…’ The quarterback with all the plays to be successful.

Faith is what God wants us to have. Being a receiver requires the God kind of faith operating in us as He intended. Don’t be ashamed if you are just starting to understand all this. At least you are starting! 

Harnessing the power of a thrown football at 50 yards will take some practice and training, but will eventually lead to the goal of winning a game.

Ones’ faith has to be developed naturally in football and spiritually in the Kingdom to become a great receiver, “Love’s receiver.” 

Are you willing to put in the effort over a period of time to train yourself to be able to walk by faith in God’s word, to believe, and receive what He has for you in this life and reap rewards in the next life? Then you can become Love’s receiver. He is willing if you are!

First comes the blade, then the ear and then the full corn!

Deuteronomy 33:3 “Yes, He loves the people; All His saints are in Your hand; They sit down at Your feet; Everyone receives Your words.” 

Proverbs 2:1-8 “My son, if you receive my words,

And treasure my commands within you, 

So that you incline your ear to wisdom,

And apply your heart to understanding;

Yes, if you cry out for discernment,

And lift up your voice for understanding,

If you seek her as silver,

And search for her as for hidden treasures;

Then you will understand the fear of the Lord,

And find the knowledge of God.

For the Lord gives wisdom;

From His mouth come knowledge and understanding;

He stores up sound wisdom for the upright;

He is a shield to those who walk uprightly; 

He guards the paths of justice,

And preserves the way of His saints.” 

Sounds a bit like a divine NFL!

Jude 1:21 “keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”