Category: Bishops Blog

On August 28, 1963, one man made a choice to change the world. Gathered in front of 250.000 people at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, this man voiced a passionate plea for equality, justice, and harmony across the racially segregated groups of America. Today we honor and celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., whose ‘I Have A Dream’ speech and life-mission widened the American dream of what is possible through personal strength, passion, and perseverance. As a humanitarian and chief spokesman of the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King, Jr. is an icon for overcoming racial divides and segregation, much like Nelson Mandela and Gandhi. Martin Luther King, Jr. leaves a legacy that extends far beyond American politics. The 2015 Golden Globe and Academy Award nominated film ‘Selma’ (a historical depiction of the Civil Rights Movement), has received global attention and widespread emotional responses across nationalities. Dr. King did not just advocate equal rights for African Americans; he desired a world built on love and acceptance for all people.

To celebrate and honor this amazing servant of God, here are some of his world changing quotes:

 “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”

“Faith is taking the first step, even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”

“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.”

“We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.”

Join us as we honor and celebrate a man who created ripples in human history by promoting a world of integration, brotherly love, and unity.

The greatest commandment that Jesus gave us in Matt 22:37-38 is that we wholeheartedly love God and people.

 

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!

Greetings to our LWCC Family,

Merry Christmas! It is with shear excitement and joy that Pastor Delia and I greet you during this Christmas season as we celebrate truly the most wonderful time of the year, the birth of ‘Christ: THE GOD WITHIN.’

Christmas is a season of gift giving and the time in which we are to give ourselves to the ultimate gift: CHRIST AWARENESS. “ Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:”  (Col 1:26-27).

The mystery that Paul was revealing to the church at Colossae when he said, “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” was referring to the Christ and His presence, power, and anointing living in every believer. We must recognize God as the only substance and source of our being and our lives. Let’s affirm together:

“My life is the life of God!”

 “I AM fine, fit, fulfilled, and fantastic with God as my all sufficiency in all things!”

During this Christmas season, amid all the excitement, shopping, gift wrapping, cooking and hosting friends and family, let’s remember to be thankful for the precious gift of life. Let’s choose this month to be creative, and to create a new life and a new world in thought, word, action and Spirit. As you already know, being such a vital part of this wonderful family, each service and activity at LWCC is designed for the purpose of empowering and helping all who are ready and willing to discover and acknowledge the presence of God within. It is said, “Though Christ be born a thousand times, if Christ is not born in you, the soul is all forlorn.”

Through the New Birth Jesus Christ lives in us. Christ made it possible for the presence of God to live in man. Christmas Day for Paul was the day in which he said, “…I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me:…” (Gal 2:20). It was not the man Jesus that lived his life; that man had been crucified. It was the Christ who took over the life of Paul and lived his life, went before him to make the crooked places straight, spoke through him, healed the sick, raised the dead, and preached the Kingdom of God. The birth of Christ is your Christmas Day and mine. It is that particular moment in which there is something in the nature of an awakening or an awareness in which you realize that something is now functioning of which before you were unaware. It is an abiding with this Christmas experience making every day of the year a Christmas Day. A day of new birth, new dedication and letting this ‘Christ Spirit,’ that dawned on a specific day, increase. Let it become more and more powerful until eventually it takes over.

We look forward to seeing you in service, especially our upcoming New Year’s Eve Service which is one of the highlights of the year, as well as in our time of 21 days of Prayer, Fasting & Consecration as we acknowledge the Lord as First in our lives and receive what the Spirit of God is speaking to the church for the upcoming year. God has blessed us, helped us, and brought us to this joyous time. And we give thanks unto Him for all that He has done, is doing and is going to manifest in our lives. “Get ready to bring in the new year with a new awareness, awakening, and empowering attitude!”

Thank you so much for your love, prayers, and financial gifts to Living Word Christian Center throughout the year. Please know that Pastor Delia and I are praying with you and for you daily. We love you, bless you, appreciate you, and thank God for you!

Realize within yourself the Christ, the Christmas Day. Let every day be a Christmas Day of realization and awareness. And then loose that Christ into the world and let Him touch those who are prepared!

Have a blessed Christmas and a Happy New You!

Bishop Levy & Pastor Delia Knox

Kingdom Greetings to our beloved KNCI Family!

To God be the Glory! Our KNCI Kingdom Summit 2016, “We Are Better Together,” was an historical and prophetic move of God – beginning opening night with dynamic praise and worship; an awe-inspiring message from Pastor Delia Knox; Greetings and Proclamation from our Honorable Mayor of the City of Mobile, Mr. Sandy Stimpson, and the keynote message from our very own Archbishop Kirby Clements.  On Friday evening, a Sovereign, prophetic move of God took place during my time of sharing – See and Believe!

Our Leadership Mastery Session on Friday morning addressed the Church’s role in influencing the Seven Mountains of Society; Saturday morning followed with an excellent teaching on Character by Pastor Bruce Hooks; and presentations from a distinguished panel of government and city leaders on “Applying the Kingdom world view in today’s Culture” to their particular sphere of influence.  So many hearts were encouraged, new relationships forged and a bonding so intimate as we closed out the Summit with communion.  “For where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge.  Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.”  (Ruth 1:16)

I wanted to take this opportunity to express my deepest appreciation to all our KNCI Pastors for your loving support, contribution, and participation in helping to make this year’s Summit a huge success!   A major paradigm shift is occurring in the body of Christ as religious mindsets are pulled down and the Church moves toward compassionate Kingdom covenant relationships.  This dynamic shift will quickly lead the Church into proper alignment as each member of the body begins to flow from a base of mutual respect and purpose, rather than the cold heart of religious power and tradition.  The door leading into the emerging destiny of each member of the Church is unlocked with the keys of compassionate, authentic Kingdom covenant relationships.

We are living in a time when the world so desperately need a living demonstration of real covenant.  The word “covenant” in the Hebrew is beriyth, which means “to cut where blood flows.”  In biblical times, people cut covenant by killing an animal, usually cutting it in half and walking between the pieces.  This demonstrated a blood bond unto death for a common purpose.  Sometimes they cut themselves, comingling their own blood to signify, by promise and by cutting, their life and loyalty unto death.  Those covenant bonds were considered stronger than natural bonds.

In the new covenant, Jesus is our covenant sacrifice, the Lamb of God.  Our covenant in Christ and His unchanging love forms the foundation of our lives.  It becomes an anchor of hope at all times, and the basis for all enduring relationships.  So many promising relationships have been aborted because of lack of knowledge.  I really believe that true covenant relationships originated in the heart of God before the foundation of the world.  He planned for them to fulfill a specific purpose and destiny in the earth.

During our KNCI Summit, we witnessed the Spirit of the Lord moving on the hearts of pastors, leaders and saints who are set on fulfilling Kingdom destiny – knitting and weaving them together in a seamless joining.  I am convinced that the Holy Spirit is calling for a return to a lifestyle of covenant in order that we may discover and fulfill our individual and corporate destinies in Christ.

The story of Ruth and Naomi beautifully portrays laying down one’s life for another.  Ruth had a revelation of an authentic covenant heart, and displayed such a commitment to be faithful and loyal to Naomi, that she ultimately reached her destiny.  She was willing to “bleed” to meet the need of the one with whom she was joined in covenant.  God’s plan for Ruth and Naomi to be divinely connected affected not only their present generation, but also successive generations right down to our own.  Everyone need authentic covenant relationships that will unlock their God-given purpose and destiny.  Joshua needed Moses; David, Jonathan; Elisha, Elijah; Ruth, Naomi; Mary, Elizabeth; John, Jesus; Timothy, Paul; and the list goes on.  Having the proper understanding and appreciation for those who the Lord has joined you to will unlock destiny in your life.

There is a call from the Spirit of God to return to true relationship and covenant.  Because Ruth kept her covenant with Naomi, she realized hopes and dreams beyond her wildest imagination.  Naomi also found fulfilment and new life.  I believe in this hour authentic Kingdom relationships will enable the Church to be able to nurse a generation back into healthy relationship with each other and with the King of Glory.

Our vision at KNCI is to see the Church model a Kingdom Covenant Community, having a passion for Christ and compassion for people; restoring lives and demonstrating the Kingdom of God through covenant relationships.  We seek to build true covenant relationships and make the ministry of the Kingdom of God available to all He sends our way.  We function to bring people into a relationship with Jesus Christ and one another, promoting unity, reconciliation, and spiritual maturity in the body of Christ.  Our aim is to bring God’s rule into every sphere of life.   The journey we are on in the mind and plan of God is already finished but in our heart, it has just begun.  The Lord our God is a covenant-making and covenant-keeping God.  He is Sovereign and delights to do the extraordinary in our lives.

My beloved KNCI Pastors, each one of you have a vital part and contribution to Father’s purpose in this awesome time in which we live.  We recognize covenant as an essential ingredient for reaching our Kingdom destiny.  You are the generation that will see the manifestation of the Kingdom of God and that will be through relationships.  Remember, all ministry flows out of relationship.  You are my joints; my strength comes from you. We are family.  “We Are Better Together,” and together we are making a Kingdom difference in the world.  To our better future…

In Christ’s Love & for His Kingdom Purpose,

Bishop Levy H. Knox
Living Word Christian Center International Ministries
Kingdom Network of Churches International

Kingdom Greetings to our LWCC Family!

There’s no question that God loves people.  God loves people so much that He sent His best gift, His Son Jesus Christ, to die for them and to live for them.  Jesus loves people so much that He said, “I’m going to build My Church – My Ekklesia – and that Church is going to forcefully advance My Kingdom and nothing in hell will be able to stop the triumphant people that I have called out for My Name’s sake.”  And when He sent the Holy Spirit, poured out on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came as the Agent of God’s love to bring a people together that will become the Church of His Kingdom.

Jesus saw the multitudes as distressed and downcast, like sheep without a shepherd, and He was moved with compassion and healed them all (Matt. 9:36).  I believe that the Church of God’s Kingdom is a Church that is overwhelmingly flooded with compassion from the inside out and that the people of this Church see themselves as the healing presence of God to one another, to their community, and their city.  The Church of God’s Kingdom is moved by the compassion of God’s heart. It has the power to change the culture of a city based on the culture of heaven, reaching those from the homeless to the broken and the abused; to those that are in need of recovery from addictions; to those in need of a redemptive lift that are looking for a hand up, more than a hand out.

I believe that we are on the threshold of one of the most unprecedented opportunities that we have ever been in at LWCC.  So I want to encourage you, Kingdom people of God, to embrace this new season with anticipation of what wants to emerge, because where we are going we’ve never been before.  Yes, we are going higher and deeper, wider and farther, and God is going to use us in ways that exceeds everything that we have done up to this point.  Opportunities to enlarge our sphere of Kingdom influence to serve humanity has never been greater than now.  There is an emerging hunger in the world today for a new set of values, principles, ethics and real solutions.  This opens the door to introduce Kingdom values and to see the Church, the Body of Christ, stepping up to the challenge.  God always intended for His Kingdom to be on earth.  God created Adam to be god over the earth and to rule it.  Man was subordinate to God, but he was to have dominion over the earth.  God’s will was that the earth be patterned after heaven.  As my late Archbishop David R. Huskins would say, “The Kingdom of God means to enforce the blueprint of heaven in earth.  We declare Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done.”

You know the Kingdom of God to which we belong is a real Kingdom.  We have not been given some fables.  Something real from the heart of God has been delivered unto us and each one of us has been hardwired to be creative and productive in an extraordinary way!  What Jesus came to give us is a real Kingdom and, by the Holy Spirit, He is here to catapult us into something far greater than in the years before.

This year being “The Year of the Extraordinary,” something more is coming among us.  The Kingdom of God is not a place you go to; it’s a realm ruled by the King within you.  The Kingdom of God is not somewhere; the Kingdom of God is someone.  The Kingdom of God is the rule, reign, power and authority of God within you.  There is a fresh wind of the Spirit of God breathing upon LWCC.  The Lord is stirring in our hearts in an extraordinary way; raising up extraordinary people doing extraordinary things and having extraordinary results! There is an unprecedented move of God happening in our midst and we want to move with Him…advancing His Kingdom, bringing positive change to our neighborhood, community, city and beyond!  A new day is dawning!  A new church is emerging…The Church of God’s Kingdom: an Unstoppable Force!

 

Ah! It’s that moment once again when we celebrate Moms! A Mom – we all have one. A very important part of 3DWoman, Determination, Distinction, Destiny! Under the “normal” circumstances, it actually covers two thirds of 3DWoman, The Wife and The Mother. We don’t exist without her first existing. Whether she’s a part of our lives today, or a part of our memory. Whether Mom raised you, cared for you, or even released you as a child into what would seem at the time “the unknown,” we all have or have had a Mom. It would be impossible to come into this world without her! We know for sure she carried you within her womb prior to your grand appearance, or you wouldn’t be here! We thank God for every one of them and the decision made in having you arrive! You see, God had a plan for you before you were in your Mother’s womb and somehow, your Mom knew it and was the womb used to bring you through.

When reading Exodus 2 in the account of the life of Moses, Jochebed, his Mother, is having to make some tough decisions for her new born child, under the most stressful circumstances. I can’t help but think how her total dependency had to be completely on God. I think about Pharaoh’s daughter who found him and made a decision to keep him alive becoming a Mother figure herself. I think about the Canaanite Mother crying out at Jesus feet for her possessed child in desperation for healing of her daughter. I think of the Mother giving words of counsel to her son resulting in the book of Proverbs. I think of the two mothers before King Solomon as they both claimed to be the Mother of one child and King Solomon quickly requests for the sword to divide the child in two!!! Yikes!!! Will the true Mother please stand!!! Quickly!!! A true Mother always wants the best for her child. No matter where that child is, no matter how far that child goes, there is a part of her in that child that causes a Mother to rise.

Out of all the holidays in the year, it has actually been said that Mother’s Day is the most dangerous and depressing day in the prison system. One can only imagine why! There are constant thoughts of “Mom warned me!”, “I miss my child!”, “I should do better for my child!”, or “I want my Mommie!”

I recently had a phone call of a desperate Mom who discovered her child left in the middle of the night. Her words were, “He’s gone, he slipped away in the night!” Immediately startled, thinking the boy had died, as I continued to hear her heart crying, she went on to describe how this child had been planning this for some time, it then dawned on me the child was not dead, but instead he had left the house. As Mothers, there are questions that often flood our minds in these situations, “How could he do this to me?”, “What did I do wrong?”, “Did I teach him enough?”, “What do I do?”

The Bible tells us in Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not turn from it.“ The Message translation interprets Proverbs 22:6, “Point your kids in the right direction— when they’re old they won’t be lost.” But the verse doesn’t seem to tell us anything about those in-between years. You know… those years before he or she gets old! What do we do until then!!! And when is “old”? Will somebody tell me how to “train up”!!!

The dictionary describes the term “train” to teach a type of skill or behavior through practice or instruction. With the acceleration of social media, we live in a society where the visual has become the dominant sense in our learning. Even when purchasing certain devices, the accompanying instructions no longer include text to read, but instead pictures and diagrams of pictures to follow. We live in an age where even Facebook has become too much text for these youngsters to read, where now “snapchat” is the in thing! A snap shot that is exposed for 10 seconds, disappears and poof!!! One picture in ten seconds says it all!

If in fact one picture says it all, one must ask, “what kind of picture are we portraying?” What is the image we want to teach our children as Mothers? Don’t underestimate the power of a Mother in the life of your child. As those children grow “old,” they will admit that the greatest influence in their life is their Mother. Whether you see that now or not. From the time of birth to the time of release we have the most powerful gift, which is “influence.” Influence is exercised through more than mere words. It is given through Action, Behavior and Practice. Action in our relationships with our children as well as others; Behavior with our spouse and authority figure; Practice by doing what we say. Let us be a lasting snap-shot of influence in our children’s lives that will create a picture of the reflection of God’s love, grace, and mercy. Let us be a reflection of His Image, that when the child is released, as in Jochebed, what is drawn from the waters may reflect a cry of God’s heart. Let us be the healing touch to our children where Truth and Grace speaks volumes in one lasting picture. And may we exercise God’s wisdom to know the best for each child, that we may rise to the responsibility entailed in pointing our children in the way they should go and that they may feel free to ask for directions when they feel they’ve lost their way. After-all, Moses did!