Order and Authority

Imagining yourself to be the exception to every rule is much easier than learning to follow the rules.

Your desire to escape all pain allows you to deceive yourself about your true condition.

Without pain, your condition will never be exposed. Without pain, you will continue to delude yourself into thinking you are orderly.

Your problems likewise require a cooperative remedy. You alone are not adequate enough to address the problem.

Do not be threatened by the fact that disorder exists. Exposing disorder is the first step toward becoming an orderly person.

When your disorder is dealt with, you can then effectively address the disorderly state of others.

While the consistent, orderly application of form attracts others, achieving consistency requires training. It does not happen overnight. There are no shortcuts. Time and effort must be sacrificed to achieve consistent order.

The Life and Times-How to Move A Nation

So goes the church so goes the nation.

A nation gets the leader that represents the church.

It's all through scripture. It's one of the clearest principles the good book shows us.

We're not happy about abortion, we're not happy about broken covenant, or the redefinition of marriage, but there's just as much abortion going on in the church as there is in the nation-both in the natural and the spiritual. There's also just as much broken covenant in the church, lack of commitment of leadership to their people, as well as lack of honor and love in marriage and the home. So goes the church so goes the nation.

Church leadership fights and plots against one another, slanders one another, and puts one another down. This is representative of the things that are happening between the two major parties that run our nation. So goes the church so goes the nation.

The church wants to be relevant and tolerant. Let everyone define righteousness and truth how they see it. As long as we agree on the core issues, they say, everything else is permissible. That what the government told us. Trust us, they said. We all agree on the core issues. We'll work it out. Look where relevance and tolerance have gotten us. So goes the church so goes the nation.

II Chron 7:14- the natural go won't be fixed until the church is in divine alignment.

It says: MY people called my MY name. Not the leaders, not the general population, not the government officials, not our coworkers. No amount of lobbying, or marching, or letters, or phone calls, or website will change things. While they are good things, they cannot change what currently is. We are way past issues of right and wrong. Our problem is a heart level problem of darkness that only the Lord can change.

And He said He would change it when His people pray, fast, and humble themselves. He did not say He would act for for those who do it for one or two issues so they can get what they believe is their way, but He did say He will act for those who live it as a lifestyle and He will change the nation in a day. We don't believe He can do this, and we aren't willing to make the sacrifice. That's why things remain the same.

Those are the people who live a humble lifestyle- in all areas- material, spiritually, physically, those who seek God, those who pray.

That's how you identify the people of God. That's how you identify those that are kingdom minded, and that's how we bring the reality of heaven to earth.

Anyone who does anything different, or tells you anything less, is lazy and a counterfeit. They are agreeing with the spirit of this age and promoting the allowance of darkness to own our lives and our country.

The choice is up to us. It's our choice and no one else's. It's also divine providence. We cannot escape it. It the way it was designed. We can ignore and place blame all we want, but there no escaping divine design.

So goes the church, so goes the nation.

May it be on earth as it is in heaven.

Stairways and Walls

Listening to some music tonight. In a spontaneous moment someone sang the following:

Who will let me be a ring of fire around them?
We will let me be their borders and their boundaries?

Who will be city on hill that I can be their boundaries and walls?
Who will be a city within Me?

Who will be a ladder?
Who will be a ladder between earth and heaven?

Heaven's coming down
I need a resting place

Lots of people think they want to be a ladder, but being a ladder means being a servant and being stepped on and used. I think that's why there are so few people who are willing to be ladders in the church. I want to try and be a better ladder.

Earthquakes and Heartaches

It's offensive for us to think that God isn't stopping bad things from happening.

It's more offensive to think that He's orchestrates it. But He is in fact, orchestrating it.

All of it. The good and the bad. The book of Joel shows us this. Joel also shows us that we may possibly change what is to come. Whether we do it or not is up to us.

When we look at tragedy we should say: "What can we do to help?" But we should also say: "What didn't we do?"

Abba will use the least severe amount of tragedy for the shortest amount of time needed to change the most amount of hearts.

Joel 1:13-14
13 Kohanim, put on sackcloth, and weep! Wail, you who serve at the altar! Come, lie in sackcloth all night long, you who serve my God! For the grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God. 14 Proclaim a holy fast, call for a solemn assembly, gather the leaders and all who live in the land to the house of ADONAI your God, and cry out to ADONAI,

Kohanim is the hebrew word for priests-priests that serve the people as a mediator between God and man. We always take II Chronicles 7:14 and the Joel chapter two verses, and make them a general application to the masses. The mindset is that THEY are the sinners to THEY need to repent. If we save THEM then THEY will repent and things will change. This is contrary to what the Book tells us.

It is US, not them, that need to humble ourselves, fast, pray, and plead with the Lord to relent. Not them. It's time for us, the Kohanim, to change our comfortable schedules, turn off the TV, put down the dessert fork, cancel the plans to hang with friends or catch a movie, and blow the trumpet in Zion and sound the alarm. It's time for US to "Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the Lord your God"

For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm. Who knows if He will turn and relent, And leave a blessing behind Him.

Let it be on earth as it is in heaven.

Re: Who Do You Say That I AM?

I was pondering the state of the modern church the other day and a few scriptures came before me.

-Who do you say that I am?
-I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the father but through me
-All authority in heaven is given to me by my father

Many people in the current church claim to be saved including leaders and pastors. Good works are done, songs are sung, and spirituality encouraged. But according to these verses, unless we know the Son, we will not make it to heaven.

So much time is spent on everything else, yet we spend very little time understanding who the Son is. We've reduced Him to a meek and mild mannered carpenter who had to die for us to make things right between us and His Father. He is much, much more. He is Judge, Bridegroom, and King. To think of Him only as one who dies and nothing else seems blasphemous and perilous to our eternal souls.

When I think about these ideas in context to what is being preached on Sunday morning, it causes me great concern about those who teach what they claim to be the gospel as well as those who hear it.

I worry that we are not as saved as we think we are.

A Lament

For the ones that were, to those that are, to the ones who will be:

Ever watching ever waiting,
Hoping that the truth will come
Success and fame are built upon
The broken, bruised, and dying ones

Told to join, “come, go this way”,
“This time it is different”
But instead, all that was found,
Was angry, arrogant, indifference

Castles built with paper leaves,
No one looks inside to see.
The head is turned, the eye is closed
Injustice reigns, its rite imposed

Strengthen darkness
Call it light
Break down all the will to fight
Those that would oppose the scheme
Meted out as They so deem

Truth used as a sword of red
Plots and sorrow forced to wed
Silence from the ones that bleed,
Murder from the ones that lead

The very thing they don’t believe
Allows the ones to serve and give
The very thing they will not see
Gives them peace and clarity

To arms in silence, wage no outward war
For it cannot be won or lost
on that dark, deceptive shore
Hidden away in the darkest of night
The ones that will gather, gather in might

Take up their harps from the willow trees
Sing and release the ones who bring grief
Open the eyes and help them to see
But only with love and purity

Determined for virtue
Relentless for right
Insistent on justice
Releasing the light

The Urgency Of The Hour

It’s been a time of silence. As I pause in the silent time and look around, I feel the urgency of the hour more and more- and even those who I never thought would sense the urgency are feeling it.

While silence may appear on the outside, the unsettled and unquiet inside is a raging storm. This storm is beginning to manifest itself as frustration and dissatisfaction. There is a slowly growing unwillingness to keep engaging in the status quo. This will eventually manifest in one of two ways: control or surrender.

One person will choose to close the fist tighter and attempt to maintain a shred of something that is familiar. They will hold onto the past, the present, or what they believe to be the future. They will reason it away as progress and wisdom. The other one will give up all their ideas, plans, and what they think should be and give in to the seeming torrent of chaos that is swirling around them.

A closer look at the chaos, however, will reveal that it is not chaos but it is very well ordered indeed. The torrent is meant to bring us higher and everything is being stripped away until all that we have is Him. He is crushing us so that He might comfort us. Not with some false, temporary comfort but a comfort that is real and lasting; a comfort that allows you to live with the pain and sorrow of living a life of meekness; a comfort that comes from a true understanding of love and all that love brings with it.

It’s extremely unpopular to look deep inside and reconcile yourself to the fact to who you really are, but it’s even more unpopular to announce to the world that you are settled with that fact and believe something about yourself that you don’t yet believe about yourself, just because you’re told such, by someone you can’t see and sometimes feel, you’re something you think you’re not. Then you choose to live in that place, confident and sure, as a servant of all. Not a servant in some mystical, impractical, lofty theological way, but in a way that at first hurts and makes you writhe and scream inside because it’s contrary to everything you’ve been told, telling you how you should respond.

Meekness, servant hood, and love are the currencies of the kingdom. Without them we are morally, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually bankrupt.

Purpose

The goal and purpose of salvation is to allow us access and authority to partner with the Father to help bring Jesus’ kingdom to earth. We’re not going to heaven, heaven is coming to earth.

The kingdom comes first in our hearts. Sounds elementary, but as a people who are suppose to represent Jesus, the kingdom is not in our hearts. If it was, we would be doing what Jesus did. Jesus did what He did by fellowship with the Father. He spent more time in prayer, fasting, fellowship, and aligning his heart with the Father than He did in actual ministry. Ministry was not a goal but a result of a heart condition.

Jesus also didn’t agree with the teachings of the day. In fact it was 100% opposite. But He didn’t establish a synagogue or start his own church because of His own disagreement. In fact, He continued to attend the very place He didn’t agree with. Did He cause dissention and division? Nope. Did He try and convince the leadership that He was right and they were wrong in their endeavors? Nope.

His simply brought the reality of heaven to earth. Wherever He went, His goal was to create a space where the laws of sin were interrupted and overruled by a higher law of love and selflessness. His demonstration was through the healing of the sick, raising of the dead, blessing of the children, and provision of needs. The physical demonstration was confirmed by the emotional, spiritual, and mental revelation of what heaven on earth meant, looked like, and felt like. (Who is this man who speaks with such authority and causes our hearts to burn within us?).

His purpose wasn’t to develop a particular following or gather as many people as possible. Although the following happened, that was the result, not the purpose. Jesus didn’t attempt to convert or persuade anyone that His was way the right way. He didn’t try and convince, convict, or cajole his audience to the idea that they were sinners and needed “salvation”. He simply demonstrated the reality of heaven. When He presented heaven, heaven heard, and heaven answered.

Until we are dissatisfied with our current ineffectiveness, we will never truly be happy in our heart or effective with our lives. It is not our words, but our actions, and the result of those actions, which will convince those of the true reality of eternity. Your purpose-my purpose is much bigger and deeper than garnering a larger following, releasing the next top selling worship CD, writing the latest book, or preaching the most relevant sermon series. Those are good and noble and right, but they should be results, not goals. Our birthright is to take back the fellowship that was lost in the garden and we’ve been given authority to once again release the purpose and dominion of Jesus back to the earth. Our destiny is to daily demonstrate this ultimate expression of love and open the goodness of heaven over everyone who enters our space.

Humility-After Thoughts

I was thinking all day yesterday about what I posted. As I was talking to a friend at work about it, I felt like God impressed me with this:

"Don't rob people of their opportunity to be humble. Your motivation to defend people is really in a way for you to respond to how you would have liked to respond when you were in the same situation. This does two things. First, it justifies your actions to wrong someone and reveals the current state of your heart. Second, you rob people of their chance to be humble because if they aren't allowed to do what you won't do, it relieves some of your own guilt."

While I had to agree with what I was being told, I thought "but what about the people I care about? Sure my motivation isn’t always pure, but sometimes I really do want to defend those that I love and care about like my parents, brothers, and family."

I was once again reminded that the Father stood by while his Son was lied about, manipulated, abused, and killed.

While that's all very heavy, don't let it be. It's not meant to be that way. This latest side road of humbleness is a very gentle one. I challenge you to have a conversation with God about this and see how He responds. A humble God will not respond with over lording and anger of what is or isn't being done. It's His kindness that leads us to repentance.

The virtue of humbleness takes great effort and energy to maintain and requires a denial of self that people rarely understand or want to sacrifice. God isn't asking everyone around you to be humble. He's asking you to be humble. Your humbleness isn't contingent on other people's reactions. When people see that you are a servant in every situation, they are going to abuse you and use you, but that is part of the deal when you choose to walk this path. It will happen. Over and over again.

In light of Jesus can we do anything less? When we choose to wear the cloak of servants, we begin to understand what it means to live and have our being in Him. Not that we depend on Him for everything, but that we do not depend on anyone else for anything. The reward is a happiness and joy that is beyond compare.

Humility

The “it” is quite simply humility, servant hood, and meekness. The western church has rationalized and reasoned humility away. I was raised with the “you’re not a door mat, speak your opinion” mentality. So I’ve lived it-to my own detriment and strife.

The scripture and the life of Jesus gives a very different picture. Jesus said it was His joy to lay down His life. It was His pleasure to give up His eternity to forever be clothed in flesh. It was His honor to stand before those that accused Him in silence.

The story of the money changers is always used to defend our actions. The temple incident was a matter of defending the honor of the Father-not Jesus himself. Jesus was also moved by Holy Spirit. Most of the time we are moved by pride and self preservation which is a fleshly response. The question to ourselves is who are we defending? What are our motives? We lie and tell ourselves they are noble, but the truth is they are not.

The question always asked is “How far do I let people go? How far do I let them abuse me? God didn’t make us to be other people’s slaves!”

Really? Because Jesus said He was a slave of all. He said “I come to you as a bond servant.” He also said those who weren’t willing to drink His cup have no place with Him with His Father. I’m also sure the Father didn’t intend to watch His son be abused, lied about, and killed, but He stood by and allowed that to happen, knowing that the resulting glory was of far greater worth than the immediate pain.

That brings us to the current state of affairs and the lack of God in our lives and churches. People in and out of the church are done. They’re done with life and they’re done with us and our smiles and relevant sermons and ideals. We don’t need another sermon, program, series, idea, or plan. We don’t need another scheme or manipulation to get people to what we call church. We don’t need to try and be relevant and meaningful. WE NEED JESUS. In a real way. I don’t think we understand that. WE NEED JESUS.

God is omnipresent, but His manifest glory isn’t. His glory is His goodness and His goodness is His glory. It’s the glory that changes us. Scripture says that “the kindness of the Lord leads men to repentance”.

The simple principle of the kingdom is God honors humility. God honors those that are willing to be servants of all. But no one wants to do that. I don’t want to and you don’t want to. If we did and if we were doing it, God would show up and there would be so many people in our churches we wouldn’t know what to do. We wouldn’t need to market or mail or witness people into the pews or seats.

There’s no eternal, everlasting heat change because there’s no glory. There’s no glory because there’s no humility, and there’s no humility because of unforgivness. We think that people owe us something, that we don’t deserve to be treated “that way”. Why do we think that? Because we’re a child of God we should be treated with respect? Really? Jesus was the real son of God and He received nothing but grief, strife, and death. We’re just the adopted bunch and we think we deserve better?

So really what we’re saying is that we’re better than Jesus and deserve to be treated better than He was.

So what about forgiveness? As a servant and slave, forgiveness is a requirement. Forgiveness without remembrance or retribution.

A quote from Henri Nouwen sums it up well:

“Forgiveness means I continually am willing to forgive the other person for not being God-for not fulfilling all my needs. When you forgive people for not being God, you can celebrate that they are a reflection of God. You can say ‘since you are not God, I love you because you have such beautiful gifts of God’s love. You don’t have everything of God, but what you do have to offer is worth celebrating.’ By celebrating I mean lift up, affirm, confirm, to rejoice in another’s gifts. You can say you are a reflection of that ultimate love.”

Light

While I don't endorse most of her ideals and thoughts, I think this quote fromm Marianne Williamson is worth repeating.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” - Marianne Williamson

With knowledge comes responsibility, and with responsibility comes accountibility. Accountability brings discomfort and adversity. With adversity comes the unknown, and with the unknown, fear. Fear brings sloth, and sloth eventually leads to destruction. Let us endeavor to stand strong and unapologetic to our calling, but carry our authority with love, meekness, and a gentle heart.

Skilled Artisans

So you shall speak to all who are gifted artisans, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron’s garments, to consecrate him, that he may minister to Me as priest. Exodus 28:3

God was building a tangible representation of himself on earth. While it didn’t nearly come close to who He really is, by worldly standards it was pretty impressive. Only the best of everything was used. Not just artisans, but gifted artisans were asked to contribute. Notice it says “gifted” immediately followed by the indication that they were “filled with the spirit of wisdom”. I don’t think this was spiritual wisdom but wisdom to be gifted and skilled. Their contributions were considered sacred and were the reason Aaron didn’t die when he entered God’s presence. It is safe to guess they weren’t passive, lackadaisical, or unprepared. Every hem was straight, every piece of metal was pure. Every technique mastered, every hour of practice and skills learned were used and put into that one job.

As musicians, we are gifted artisans who have been filled with the spirit of wisdom to be the best we can be. In us is the ability to go deeper and farther, not just spiritually, but musically as well. So often as musicians we reach a point and then are content to stay there. We define ourselves by who we are and not who we are becoming. We settle for mediocrity and half-hearted comfortableness.

If old wine skins cannot hold new wine, than neither can old guitar strings, the same keyboard or guitar patches, cheap instruments, or the same passive ways of playing a song. We should be challenged, disciplined, innovative, and creative. We should stretch ourselves, strive to be more skillful than we were before, and bring God our best.

Success

Busyness has become a sign of success. You are applauded for the more things you have to do and the less time you have to spend with people. The more unavailable you are, the more successful people assume you must be. This is true in the church as well.

But people are afraid to stop and listen to the silence for fear of what they will find.

I was recently reading one of Henri Nouwens thoughts on busyness and he said this:

Action can help to claim and celebrate our true self. But here again we need discipline, because the world in which we live says do this, do that, go here, go there. Busyness has become a sign of importance. Having much to do and many places to go and countless people to meet gives us status or even fame. However, being busy can lead us away from our true vocation and prevent us from drinking our cup…drinking our cup involves carefully choosing those actions that lead us closer to the complete emptying of it so that at the end of our lives we can say with Jesus “It is fulfilled”. Actions that lead to overwork, exhaustion, and burnout can’t praise and glorify God. What God calls us to do we can do and do well. When we listen in silence to God’s voice and speak with our friends in trust, we will know what we are called to do and we will do it with a grateful heart.”

When one gives up working-and I mean actual physical projects-and sits in silence, the true inner creatures of the deep emerge and one realizes just how wretched and inadequate they are. To acknowledge this, then allow and accept that there is a love covers it, is the eye of the needle the camel is trying to get through. Once on the other side of the doorway however, it is impossible to return the other direction. The old lies and struggles and thought patterns are just a distant memory and there’s nothing that can be brought to him(or her) in thought or deed that can sway or distract from this infinite, perfect love. The person with this revelation is untouchable by earthly or spiritual darkness. He becomes part of the eternal and has made himself a hidden stairway, allowing heaven to invade earth whenever the Spirit sees fit. He walks and Jesus walked and sees as He saw. One that attains this virtue is able to commune with the Father and Spirit as Jesus did-simple and yielded. Such a person can truly move mountains or instantly change a situation with simply a word.

Successful? I think so.

Looking For One

When Our Words Become Spirit

A continuation from yesterday's post:

So we must touch God in private and take that out and give it away. Jesus never prayer for the sick-because he prayer all night b4 the meeting stated. So that when he met the leper or the blind man he was ready. These go out by prayer and fasting. Didn’t pray and fast for a particular breakthrough, Jesus prayed and fasted into a lifestyle.

There’s a difference between the gospel of salvation and the gospel of the kingdom. the gospel of salvation is a part of the gospel of the kingdom, but the gospel of salvation is focused on getting people to Him. The gospel of the kingdom is focused on bringing heaven to earth. One is my destiny, the other is my assignment. I can’t afford to confuse my destiny with my assignment. I’m going to heaven my responsibility is to bring heaven. The gospel of the kingdom makes that reality present. How so? Jesus said my words to you are spirit and they are life. When I talk to you my words become spirit.

Jesus is the word of God made flesh, and now when he talks his words become spirit. That’s why when he talked there was an atmospheric shift over every crowd he talked to-because the spirit himself was released into the air. When the spirit of God is released over a crowd it changes their possibilities and their points of reasoning. People who have no hunger for God suddenly have hunger. When the spirit of God comes it clears the air of all the wrong influence and gives people a clear shot at truth. That’s why it’s vital that we learn the presence of the spirit of God and recognize what He saying and doing. When you say what He says and are doing what He’s doing then your words become spirit.

I want my words to be Spirit and Life. When I speak, I want things to change-in the physical and spiritual.

Not because I want to feel important or fulfill my fleshly ego, but because it is my destiny to walk as Jesus walked, and speak as He spoke. It is my birthright and the blessing of my Father, inherited through Jesus.

The Father didn't send Jesus, and Jesus didn't go through all He did, so I can play church. The Father did it so that I might parter with Him in bringing the glory of His Son Jesus to earth, in a real and tangible way. Jesus did it that He might restore us as joint heirs to the Father.

To want anything less, or say it is not possible, is irresponsible and makes light of what Jesus did.

Access to a Greater Faith

I've been posting a lot of Bill Johnson lately, but I've been listening to this one sermon he preached last year and there's just so much truth and life in it.

Here's another excerpt from that sermon:

One of our greatest responsibilities is to carry the nature of God into society. They need to know how good He is. When did Jesus ever bless a storm? How many times was He in a life threatening situation and say go over to that city, wipe them out and teach them how to pray and then they will become more like me. When did Jesus ever used calamity to bring about a righteous end? Everything every idea He got from the Father. It’s not a divided house, Jesus the merciful one and the Father the angry one.

Those who preach that God is an angry father do so in direct proportion of their inability to demonstrate his power. Because we attempt to compensate for what is missing. It’s much easier as a preacher to blame you for not having faith and preach harshly to you and try to compensate for what is missing in my own life. To know truth is different than living truth.

You can read a book get information and spout it and inspire them, but you can’t transform them. The truth wasn’t processed through your experience. But when truth becomes flesh in you then when you talk you are giving away who you’ve become and you break off the bread of your life that makes possible the participates to experience transforming power because they experience truth that was made flesh.

It’s easy to blame people when you minster to them and stuff doesn’t happen. While faith is an issue, have you ever noticed that those people Jesus corrected them b/c they had little or no faith, he still provided the miracle. Ones that believe, one that says if you’re willing, if you’re able. He healed the son. Why? To give him access to the greater faith.

Jesus bless us with revelation, vision, and experience, that we would have access to the greater faith.

Grace and Perfection

So what does one do when one is having a private internal life moment? They post it on a blog for strangers to read and comment. What an interesting world it has become.

So I'm going to do just that.

I’m at a point where I don’t know what to do with the paradigm of grace vs condemnation and perfection vs never being perfect. I spend lots of time on this subject-reading, thinking, studying, attempting to live, but I don’t know how to get grace to “activate” on a consistent basis. In one way it’s very exciting and encouraging, but in another I’m weary of dealing with the internal conflict of it all. I just wish I could accept grace and be done. I feel like I have all the pieces of the puzzle except one.

I think the hardest thing to accept isn’t grace. It’s the knowing that no matter what I’m going to screw it up again. The “yes” in my heart can’t bear to know that no matter what, I’m not ever going to be perfect on this side. How do you reconcile that? It’s a feeling of extreme hopelessness-yet there are people walking in it with confidence, power, and authority.

So if everyone is int he same mental boat, why do some get the concept and are able to maintain in the place of moving forward, while others don’t(or seem not to be whether to themselves, or in the view of others, or both)?

Is it wrong to want to please God?

I’m going to try and explain something, but I don’t know if I can, but here it goes:

1 God made people with a free will.
2 The only thing God doesn’t have and desires is a person who will love Him out of free will.
3 God’s first people, Adam and Eve screwed up-yet they still tried to please Him. In spite of themselves, I think it made God happy that they would try even though He knew it wasn’t good enough.
4 Since God knew this, the cross was designed, even before this all took place. So He joyfully steps in and says -“I appreciate the good try, but I can’t deal with sin, so because I love you, I’ve made a way.”
5 We realize that He has made a way and are grateful and pour out our love-or rather our twisted version of it, but still I think
-6 He delights in our attempts because He’s sees the motivation of the heart and takes pleasure in it even though it’s not the desired outcome. So He does delight in our imperfection.

Getting the the revelation that God enjoys us this side of eternity was a project in itself, but I'm confident in that(mostly). Some would say # 6 is the answer to the question. But of course we’re not done:

Think of children on mother’s day-the thought is nice, but the kitchen ends up worse off than when they started. Mom knows they don’t have the experience or skills to pull it off, and it does make more work for her in the end but, she is so pleased and glad at the heart and motivation. That her children would want to bless her makes her in turn want to bless her children. What a beautiful picture.

But again, there's the other side. If now at 30, I did the same thing, I think mom wouldn’t be too amused. At this age, I have experience and knowledge. I’ve been shown and been given guidelines so to speak of how to operate a kitchen. Do I get it right all the time? No, but there is a process that has taken place whereby teaching and instruction have lead to progress.

To not have a desire for progress is laziness and sinful. So while I’m aware that I will never be perfect, I believe there should be progress however imperfect it is.

So there is a desire for greatness. If there were not, we would all be on the same level, and there wouldn’t be levels of blessing, gifting, responsibility, ministry etc.

We’re back to those that are able to maintain and those that aren’t. There are people who really seem to understand and are content with the conflict of being perfect yet not being condemned about it. Those same people who don’t seem fall to the little foxes day after day-or if they do it doesn’t’ bother them. It’s not a wishy-washy grace covers all either. It’s definite revelation and confidence in who they are and what has been done. These are the people who seem to move on to the deeper things. This brings them closer and leads to more happiness. The closer we are the more we are changed to be like Him. So closer to God=more happiness.

Since I can’t seem to reconcile myself to this paradigm, I feel like I am stuck in the same old things-over and over, day after day. There just doesn’t seem to be any progress. I lack encounter and I lack revelation. I can’t remember the last time I really felt Him and just enjoyed Him for Him.

So after writing all that, I suppose I’m making it about how I feel rather than how He feels. But I still don’t know how to not “feel”-. And I still lack encounter. It’s said that emotions make great servants but horrible masters. Perhaps it’s a case of masters disguised as servants, perhaps not.

I'm not nearly as despondent as this post makes me feel. I'm not in a bad place, but I'm not satified with my current status either.

The Nature of a Message Determines the Outcome

Recently heard:

If Jesus were to have preached most of the sermons that were preached this weekend all across the country he never would have been crucified. The gospel of the kingdom message takes incredible courage. How about getting a message that requires so much courage on our part that God is drawn into a situation to say “amen” to the very words that were spoken. That’s what is means when he said these signs will follow those who believe. God confirming the spoken word with signs and wonders.

I don't know think I know what that kind of word looks like, but I definitely know what it isn't and I can say that I have yet to hear or see a word like this released.

What if a group of people pressed in for this kind of word? I think wildly incredible things would happen.

Promises

Another interesting thought from Bill Johnson:

Jesus does not lead us into praying for things that He is not ready to fulfill.
So when he directs us in prayer for the nations, it's because he actually intends on nations being converted. He doesn't ask the question "can a nation be saved in a day?" merely to entertain our fantasies or to put off into the millennium things that are too hard to believe for today. It's irresponsible to take the great promises of scripture and put them off into a time for which we have no responsibility.

It's way to easy to look through scripture and say that's for the millennium. But it doesn't say that. What it says is the the glory of the Lord will fill the earth, it says he will pour out His spirit on all flesh. There isn't a time slot mentioned it's just a promise revealing the heart of God and the potential of his effect on the earth and he's just looking for someone to adopt a promise and hover over it in prayer and find out if maybe, just maybe it might unfold in my lifetime.

The Goodness of God

Bill Johnson said something thought provolking last year, and I wanted to paraphrase it here:

God wants to reveal His goodness.

Moses met with God lots of times, but there was only one time his face shone. It was after he saw the goodness of God. Moses wanted to see God’s glory. God said that He would cover Moses in the cleft of the rock and then let all His goodness pass by.

Many past generations have trembled in fear of God. Fear because of His awesomeness. Fear because He is extreme in everything that He is. But I believe that God is raising up a generation of people that will tremble because if the goodness of the Lord.

I know as of late, I am constantly being reminded of just how good He is. I hope I get to see this generation.

New England Aflame Part 4

Wow so I totally feel like Rip Van Winkle. Christmas is here and almost over. I'm sort of looking around wondering what just happened. With the crazy Christmas schedule(and those two words shouldn't go together), I have become detached from the spiritual aspect of it all. Between the shopping, the planing, the practice of christmas music, the recording of back tracks, the overtime at work for year end processing, I've spent no time reflecting or sitting with Jesus.

Perhaps a better person to identify with is Martha. See, I'm really a Mary of Bethany at heart, and to be honest, my soul languishes when I don't have time to sit and just be with Him.

The other night after Thursday music practice a few of us stayed and had some free/spontaneous worship time. IT WAS SOOOOOOO GOOD!! It felt so good and right. I get to do this every once in awhile and I was so blessed. I got to sing and prophesy over the space and place and really felt like I accomplished something in the spirit. It's not always like that, but this time I was very purposeful partially by accident and partially intentional. I was really stuck on Misty's phrase of "people get ready, Jesus is coming..." It was a joyful coming. He going to make Himself known more and in new ways and I'm just so excited about that.

Anyway, I didn't mean to get on this, but I guess it does kinda relate to what I did want to mention. It's the last part of the NEA conference.

Kevin Moffatt is well known for his prophetic art. While worship is going on, he will often create and release an art piece related to what is being revealed and released in worship.

As he was working on a piece at the conference, he was asked what the name of the piece was and if it was done. He said he thought it was done but that there was a small chance that it wasn't. He also said something like it wasn't what he set out to create but even if he made a mistake no one but him would know anyway. I don't remember the name of the piece, but that was irrelevant. It was what he said after that. He said the following:

"With my art, I am warring for the eye gate. I am warring for what God wants you to see. There is a sound and a color and I am willing to make a mistake in order for you to see and hear it."

As a musician, that really spoke to me. As I had a chance to settle down tonight and reflect on my lack of holiday revelation, Kevin's words came to me. It's also been our message series "Christmas Illusions" focusing on joy and what that means and the illusion of joy of lack of it and what joy really is.

The post is kinda skittery, as my thoughts are, but that's how it is tonight. It just seems to me that the Lord has been zeroing in on gettig us to see what is real and what isn't. The seen, tangible, physical things aren't reality. The couch I'm sitting on, this computer, my job, the money I have(or don't have) in the bank-that's the illusion. We've been made to think there's something real, something necessary. The only real thing at this moment for me, is the music I'm listening to that's opened the gateway from heaven to my living room and is allowing God's presence to fill the 970 square feet of the planet that I'm currently borrowing.

Stop and think about the real and the unreal. The known from the unknown, reality from illusion.

New England Aflame Part 3

So what does that look like for us over here? What do I do right now to move in this direction? I'm not 100% sure, but I do know it requires a radical change of current thought patterns. I need to reevaluate what I want versus what I actually need. Three questions I've been asking myself and they have been even more highlighted this weekend. The other questions have come as I have been processing the conference.

Where do I spend my time?
How do I spend my money?
What do I put in my mouth(fasting)?

I believe the answers to these questions really show our spiritual condition. There's a million reasons, including "practical" ones even given by well meaning Christians about why we can't do these things.

Am I willing to spend time in prayer when I could be doing other things? Prayer really is a waste of time in a worldly sense. It is sacrificing real things that need to be done. The house isn't as clean, the laundry piles up, things don't get done as often as they should. I am giving up practical, material things, to invest and spend time with the eternal ones.

Am I willing to give, not when I see a need, but when He tells me too? Regards of how valid I think it is? Money is one of the biggest hurdles and I believe, it is the one that will be the deciding factor in our level of faith and trust. Money in a practical, real, day to day living. Am I willing to give my utility money in the moment of need knowing that when the time comes my Father will provide?

Here's new question that I've been thinking about. Do I need really need to save hundreds of thousands of dollars for retirement when there are so many needs right now? Most people would freak at this question and consider even entertaining it as madness. And I know all the responses I would get about stewardship and being responsible, people misusing what you give them, how many times do you bail someone out(as many times as the Lord tells out whether it's once or a hundred)etc etc. But looking at the acts church, there was no retirement, no saving, no hording of the money. Everyone shared as they had. And I've heard "well that won't work because everyone would have to do that and most people won't..." So I'm going to follow the crowd and not going to do what's shown in the bible because the rest of the church isn't? Really? We give all our money to our churches, but are they caring for the orphan, the poor, and the widow or planning the next program or upgrade? Good intentions don't meet the need. Good intentions kill people-spiritually and physically.

Am I willing to fast when called to-giving up physical time and energy in order to create change and shift in the unseen realm? Like praying fasting takes energy and time. You have less energy and real things that you should be doing you can't. But again in the light of all eternity, does it really matter?

Am I willing to love with reckless abandon for the good and safety of myself? Am I able to step out pray for the healing of the sick and/or terminal or the raising of the dead, knowing that my Dad's going to back me up?

The light of eternity. That has been my prayer as of late. Lord give me You heart and let me see my time, money, and energy in the light of the eternal. At first that'll really wreck you day. It's foreign, it's strange, it's goes against everything that we've been taught to do as people, even in the church. We've come up with why we can't do something and then created doctrines and ideals around them in order to fortify ourselves and make it easy on ourselves.

Somewhere along the line we have reversed the first two commandments and made religions out of it. Our calling, our purpose is not to save the lost. It's really not. We are to love Him with the spirit of mary of bethany and the fire of John the baptist. It's hard enough to control or humanity and love Him with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. It's no wonder why I can't do everything else too. When we have daily encounter with His love, we love, and out of that love flows love and desire to save to lost and it can't help but overflow-THAT'S evangelism. Taking care of the orphan, the poor, and the widow.

As I have tried lots of the prayer and little of fasting and money part, I'm feeling a release-and I didn't even know I was bound. There's a new freedom taking place that I didn't know existed. The freedom of not having to have all the answers, not having to have it all figured out. It's living in the place where the Spirit is. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

New England Aflame Conference Part 2

Heidi also shared a story about how she was in China to speak at a conference. While she was there she found out through the news that part of Mozambique had flooded(think New Orleans but two or three times a year). She was burdened by the situation, but was thinking 'God, can't I just ignore this? I'm suppose to be at this conference, you've sent me here to minister and I can't think about this and the conference at the same time."

In the midst of her questioning, she heard God say "feed 100,000 people". She was like "what God?". Again He said "feed 100,000 people". Then she started to think "I don't have the money, I don't have the food, I don't have the resources". Again "feed 100,000 people". So she said "Ok Lord". She finished the China conference goes back, and through a series of something only God could work out, food and things that were needed were delivered.

Bringing the two things together(the parable and the China story) God wasn't asking her to figure out all the logistics. He just said "Go do it and I'll work out the rest". Heidi said if she had waited for the right time, or the money, or next June to plan the crusade it wouldn't matter because the people would have been dead. They needed what the needed NOW. Not in a month, not in a week, not yesterday, NOW.

So many times I think we don't do things because we think we need a blueprint for everything. We say we rely on Him, but we really don't. Proof is we have all our backup plans of B C and D in case He doesn't work it out. She said our question shouldn't be how do I do it, but what should I do. Then just go do it. She doesn't have a back up plan. There's just Jesus. If He doesn't show up, it doesn't work.

The Mosaic That Makes God Visible

So I know I said I would blog about the CT conference-but I just can't get away from this idea of the church and what we are called to be. For so many years I was in the church. Then I was wrecked by the church and I had to leave. I felt angry and betrayed. Eventually I realized that my fierce anger and resentment came from the answer I didn't want to face: I was alone and isolated. The church of Acts didn't exist. There was no "Ekklesia". There was no one to build me up or for me to build up. No spiritual exchange. No one close enough to have the courage to lovingly rebuke and hold me accountable when I needed it most.

Then Jesus stepped in and and He has begun to revolutionize the church. No longer does it look like it used to look. No longer does it sound the way it used to sound. It's a slow process, but people are learning to not only trust one another, but learning to be trustworthy. The kinds of people you can safely share things with without fear of them calling someone else to gossip..er...I mean..uhh..."pray".

This will change. This is changing. It must change. There is no alternative. Those that are changing are choosing life. Those that refuse to change are choosing death. Freedom and joy and life is being released. Our commonality is becoming Jesus. He is our only tie. He must be our only connection. The day of your ministry and my ministry is over. The days of denominations are over. The days of programs and ideals and methods and styles is over. We don't need another kind of program. We don't need another kind of service. We don't need another gimmick or the latest trick. We don't need to be relevant. We need Jesus. Nothing else matters. Together we must seek Jesus.

The Book says "If you lift Me(Jesus) up, I will draw all men unto me.". The problems with our churches are very simple. Our programs don't work because we're lifting something up other than Jesus-or lifting something up along with Jesus. When Jesus shows up, the building will be filed beyond capacity without our doing a thing. History has proved that time and time again. Either the Book is truth or it isn't.

Saving the lost is not our calling. Somewhere along the line we reversed the first two commandments and called it truth. We are to love Jesus with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. That is our mission, that is our goal. When we are rooted and grounded in love, confident of who we are in Him, ministry comes automatically. It comes without guile and deceit and ulterior motive. It flows from a heart of truth and light, and not from a mind of darkness, fantasy, suspicion, and conspiracy.

Yet I digress. I encourage us to continue in the direction we are going! We're on our way! The heart of the Father is calling and we are answering!

Again I want to quote Henri J M Nouwen: With the section of his book entitled the same and this post. It again has to do with community and prayer:

"Community is like a large mosaic. Each little piece seems so insignificant. One piece bright red, another cold blue or dull green, another warm purple, another sharp yellow, another shining gold. Some look precious others ordinary. Some look valuble others worthless. Some look gaudy, others delicate.

As individual stones, we can do little with them except compare them and judge their beauty and value. when, however, all these little stones are brought together in one big mosaic portraying the face of Christ, who would ever question the importance of any one of them? If one of them, even the least spectacular one, is missing, the face is incomplete. Together in the one mosaic, each little stone is indispensable and makes a unique contribution to the glory of God.

That's community, a fellowship of little people who together make God visible in the world."

The church has spent so much time comparing stones. Pastors and worship leaders comparing their treasures, congregation members comparing their beauty and talent against one another, ministries secretly-or not so secretly-competing and comparing their gold and silver. Prophets one-upping each other, Apostles claiming ownership or originality of different "streams", and on and on it goes. The time of this has come to and end. The time of Jesus is once again here.

Let's come together and support one another without fear and rivalry. You need me and I need you. We can't do it alone.

The next time you gather together with your brothers and sisters, think of the mosaic.

The Fellowship Of Community

This morning at church, Chad Clem spoke about living life alone. As I have struggled with the ups and downs of church life, this reality has become very close to me and important to me.

This life is too hard to do alone. We're not meant to do it alone. It's impossible to do it alone!

For so long we as brothers and sisters have been lame and we say we care, but we never actually engage anyone. But, God is changing our hearts! A lifestyle and a heart style is being released in the earth. We are asking for God's heart and He's giving it to us(ready or not!).

I also love prayer. Especially corporate prayer. One of my newest favorite authors is Henri J M Nouwen. He has this to say about the Community Of Faith:

In the community of faith we can find the climate and the support to sustain and deepen our prayer, and we are enabled to constantly look forward beyond our immediate and often narrowing private needs. The community of faith offers the protective boundaries within we can listen to our deepest longings, not to indulge in morbid introspection, but to find out God to whom they point. In the community of faith, we can listen to our feelings of loneliness, to our desires for an embrace or kiss, to our sexual urges, to our cravings for sympathy, compassion, or just a good word; also to our search for insight and to our hope for companionship and friendship. I the community of faith we can listen to all these longings and find the courage, not to avoid them or cover them up, but confront them in order to discern God's presence in their midst. There we can affirm each other in our waiting and also in the realization that in the center of our waiting the first intimacy with God is found.

Nothing is sweet or easy about community. Community is a fellowship of people who do not hide their joys and sorrows, but make them visible to each other in a gesture of hope. In community we say "Life is full of gains and losses, joys and sorrows, ups and downs-but we do not have to live it alone. We want to drink our cup together and thus celebrate the truth that the wounds of our individual lives which seem intolerable when lived alone, become sources of healing when we live them as part of a fellowship of mutual care."

What do our relationships look like? How do I, how do you, interact with those in the sphere of our lives? Do we really take time to care or do we just pass by? We are all called to be like Jesus. For so long we have just ignored the people crying out "Jesus, have mercy on me, do not pass me by!" We are their Jesus and I fear we have been passing them by.

God will give us the desire of our hearts. Let our hearts desire to have His heart. For with His heart, we will not be able to just pass by. We will be moved to respond. We will be moved to act. Let us bind unto ourselves the mind of Christ, the heart of the Father, and the wisdom of Holy Spirit. For in this revelation we see God move on our behalf in ways that we could never imagine.

J

New England Aflame Conference Part 1

I went to the New England Aflame Conference in November and it was really really great. Since it's really long, I'll break it up into a few different posts. Without further adieu, here's part one:

I was very challenged. Especially in the areas of stepping out and putting yourself in impossible situations. Heidi Baker works in Mozambique, the poorest nation and some of the poorest people on the planet. She has more stories about the miraculous than you could imagine.

She was talking about the story of the five loaves and two fish. But she was focused on Andrew. He was the one who spoke up and brought attention the boy with the food. He has enough faith to mention it, but then not wanting to look dumb and not 100% sure of the outcome, he back pedaled and followed that up with "but what is that among so many". So he had enough faith to know that God COULD do it, but not enough to know that God WOULD do it. Then Jesus goes and does it anyways.

Then Jesus goes and does it anyways

Pretty much He took their little idea box, smattering of thoughts, lack of a plan, worry, and preconceived notions, and said "hmmmm, yeah...check this out".

There was no explanation, no meeting, no "ok guys now this is what we're going to do..."

He just said "scuse me, can I see that lunch for a minute?...yeah that one. I just need it for a second" and did what needed to be done. He knew who He was, He was confident that His Father would meet the need.

Let's ponder that for a moment.

OMG! A post!

So all my friends are consistently posting on their blog and I feel guilty and left out. So perhaps this will motivate me to become more diligent in my postings.

I'm usually right on top of the music scene, especially music related to houses of prayer. However, I've just been a slacker and just recently(gasp!) really had a chance to check out Misty's new album. When I went to IHOP a few years ago, I heard "Servant Of All" and loved it-but it wasn't recorded yet. And now it's on the new CD!!! Love, love, love it.

I wanna be Your lover so show me how to go lower
For in the depths I will find You where You're serving my brother

I wanna be with You where You are I wanna be with You wherever You are
I wanna be with You where You are You're the servant of all

I'm in love with a king who became a slave
I'm in love with a God who is humble
You gotta go down if you wanna go up
And You've gotta go lower if you wanna go higher and higher
Well you've gotta hide and do it in secret if you wanna be seen by God

Cause it's the inside outside upside down kingdom
Where you lose to gain and you die to live

As it is in heaven, may it be on earth-

J

The Lou Engle video is back up. I encourage you to watch it and be challenged!!

The Defining Message for 2008

A message from Lou Engle. God calls every generation to something specific. It's often not popular, even on the home field, as those from the "old specific" want to squash the "new specific". It's not that the new replaces the old, it's just that the Lord has emphasized a particular thing more in one time than another.

Justice and Righteousness have been on my heart for the last six months or so. Everytime I think about it, I get a picture of Themis and her scales of justice. The difference is, God is not blind. He will not turn a blind eye when He administeres his justice. It will be in all fullness and with all the righteousness of heaven. That's scary to me, and should be to you too.

This issue of abortion, is so much deeper than it first appears. It's roots and effects have shaped our nation more than we could even know.

God is great and His love infinite, which is why justice will come. May we stand blameless in that day, strong in His love, our hearts filled with His word.

(note: I posted this yesterday, but the video appears to be down on Lou's site at the moment. Hopefully it will be back up soon).

Why We Don't Like To Pray

How many time have you been in a prayer circle and thought to yourself:

“I just new they were going to pray around the circle. What am I going to say? I gotta think of something great. Oh man, that person just took exactly what I was going to say. What am I suppose to say now? This makes me so uncomfortable. Ok, it’s my turn. Don’t say anything dumb. Quick, say something spiritual and deep!”

Don’t you just hate the first person that prays for ten minutes and doesn’t leave anything cool for the rest of us to say?

I was never much of a public prayer. Honestly, I still prefer to let others take charge of the group prayer, but I'll still pray now and again when called on or asked.

After awhile, I wondered why prayer was so easy to some people and not to others-me being an other. So I thought about it. My fear of public praying was two fold: a) I didn’t know who I was talking to, and b) I didn’t have anything to say.

Let's take a side trip. I’ll bring us back and wrap it up all nice and neat. I promise.

Why are your friends your friends? How do you know what your friend’s likes and dislikes are? How do you know what you know about them? Did you sit down with a list and a bunch of questions? Of course not. You know them by experience. You've invested time and effort into getting to know them. Not just who they are on the outside, but who they are on the inside.

If we didn’t spend any time with someone, we wouldn’t know anything about them. We’d lose contact, they would go on to do other things in different directions and soon we wouldn’t recognize them if we ran into them.

Why do we assume our relationship with God is any different? We don’t know God because we don’t spend time with Him. So often we make knowing God a mystery and a big project. It's really not. All we have to do to get to know Him is spend time with Him. It’s that simple.

God has one purpose on His heart, but His methods and ways are always changing. Someone once said this:

"God is always faithful to do what He says He will do, but He never does it the same way twice".

Add that to the fact that His ways are “higher than our ways” and his thoughts “higher than our thoughts” and it’s a wonder we ever connect with him at all.

But people do connect all the time. I've connected, you've connected. Here and there, now and again. The key to releasing His glory and power is living in that constant state of connection. That’s one of the beautiful things about the Trinity. Holy Spirit is our connection to the person of the Father. A move of God, or a revival, or whatever you want to call it, is simply people connecting with the heart of God on a mass scale of "togetherness".

I believe one of the biggest reasons for division in the church is a result of us not really connecting with the heart of God. Every pastor and leader and congregation member claims to know the heart of God, what He is doing, and where He is going. Why then, do all our efforts to go in that direction lead to strife, anger, confusion, feelings of failure, jealousy, and rage. Eventually everyone ends up in their own corner licking their wounds and justifying their actions to one end or another. Not that there aren’t battles. There are, and they are fierce. But any battle that puts our heart in a bad position is not a battle to be had.

As much as we want to justify it, or back it up with scripture, this cannot be the heart of God. His heart is not to have a people that have been broken and destroyed by one another.

Let us examine ourselves and start to look at the places we don't want to look. The things done to us may have been unjustified, but how many times have we returned evil for evil? How many times have our motives been infected with pride, or our actions moved out of hurt? For those of us that have hurt others, let us repent, reset, and move toward restoration and healing with others. For those of us that have been hurt unjustly, let us forgive and bless those that hurt us.

Yet I stray. So we are reconciling with God and each other. That still leaves us with what to say when it's prayer circle time.

The most effective things to say to him are the things he’s already told us! That’s why we need to know the word of God. Knowing the word of God gives us freedom without fear or error. We have the whole bible and no matter where we go, we’re safe in it!

If there's one thing we can all agree on, it's the word of God. We might not sing the same songs, or pray the same way, but praying the Word creates content that will never be a source of contention or strife. Praying scripture breaks denomination and doctrinal walls. Scripture gives us a frame work and spring board on which to take the leap of faith. Scripture gives us the head knowledge, experience gives us the heart knowledge. Someone else one said this:

"The Spirit without the Word and you'll blow up. The Word without the Spirit and you'll dry up. The Spirit and the Word and you'll grow up."

How true that is!

Getting to know what’s in the heart of God and what he’s doing takes a paradigm shift in our thinking, and a radical shift in how we spend our time, energy, and money. So where do we start? I believe it's the sermon on the mount. I challenge you to take Matthew 5, 6, and 7 in a literal way. Even for just a month. See if it doesn't turn your life upside down and inside out. I thought I was a pretty descent person until I really looked at what those verses are calling us to. It's calling us to perfection. Matthew 5:48 says: "Be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect". Think it's impossible? It's not if Jesus told us to do it. That, however, is another blog.

Once we turn our hearts toward these changes, power and love will be released. Suddenly we'll see things differently. We'll feel things we didn't feel before, and touch things we didn't touch. We will be able to walk in that space between heaven and earth and be an open doorway to allow heaven to invade earth.

Let the prayer and invasion begin!

As it is in heaven, may it be on earth-

J

The coming prayer movement

Some would say it's already here. I, however, don't think we've seen anything yet. I was reading Isaiah 2 and here's a few of my thoughts on that.

Isa 2: 2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all the nations shall flow into it. 3 And many shall go and say "Come ye, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths, for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

The house of the Lord, aka the house of prayer will be so large that it will be seen. Not only will it be seen, but it will be noticed. Noticed is different than seen. In this life we see a lot of things, but we don't notice things very much. We only notice things that grab our attention. In order to grab our attention, someone or something must be pretty significant for us to take notice.

This movement of people isn't just an isolated event. Isaiah prophesies that "Many shall go up". They will go up to "learn the ways...and walk in his paths" Just as in Jer 6:16 the ancient paths will be found. The way that once was forgotten and has been less traveled will suddenly be full of people.

Exciting for sure. Frustrating too. As someone who been "into" this thing for about ten years, I look around and say to myself: "ummmmm, where are all the people?" I don't know to many people who are willing to spend their lives their consumed with searching out the "ancient paths" and the "old ways". It's just too hard. I don't spend nearly the time doing what I should be. Usually I get caught doing work on the computer, or looking up music stuff, or working on music stuff, or something like that. No that those things aren't good, but stop and analyze your time and really ask yourself what you're doing. Oh sure we're always DOING something, but I think 90% of the time, it's not as important as we think. I find myself asking more and more "to what eternal end is this going to profit?" I've gotten some interesting answers. Yet I digress. That's another blog entirely.

So there are those of us, well, all of us actually, who have been put in place to walk the trail so to speak and keep the trail open. I truly believe that's what this generation is called to do. (By generation I mean those living in this day and time, not an age group). We are to blaze and re-blaze the trail. To make sure it doesn't get over run and overgrown. To keep the way clear for the masses gathering behind us. The cost is high. It's been forgotten, so right now it's like a jungle. I don't know about you, but sometimes it's like guerrilla warfare. There are many places for the enemy to hide, many traps that have been laid. Someone must go on ahead and clear the way. That is what we have been called to do. We must keep guard of the way until such a time as has been appointed.

Sometimes we cannot go forward. Sometimes, we must stand and simply keep the enemy from gaining ground. As we stand we will be renewed. As we stop and stand, the Lord will be our shield. Let's not be afraid to just stand! As it says in Eph 6:13 having done all to stand...STAND! 1 Cor 16:13 Watch ye, stand in the faith... I believe the watch ye means God is saying, "Stop, Stand, and watch what I will do!". If we stop and stand, then God can stand up. Malachi 3:2, says "who shall stand when He appears?!?? Sometimes we are called to stand together Phil 1:27b that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel.

So with clean hands and pure hearts, let us stand together and see what out God will do!

As it is in heaven, let it be on earth-

J

Justice

In the world today, someone is always crying and looking for "justice". Most of the time it seems “justice” means “give me something that I don’t deserve or give me more than I deserve.

God's definition and thoughts on justice are radically different than our own. Although I don't currently understand a whole lot about God's system of justice, I do know it's something that's been on the hearts and minds of those closest to Him. And, since I am a bit vague in this area, I guess I need to get closer and find out what's going on!

About two weeks ago while I was at work and I got what I like to call a really intense impression in my spirit. Like sugar cookie dough in a Springerle mold. I don't like to say "God said..." -so many people say that. By the third time in a month someone comes to me and says "God told me..." I've already tuned them out. I don't doubt that God speaks to people but more often than not it's..well... more a feeling they have and a bit of scripture taken from somewhere rather than an actual revelation or “rhema word” When someone says “God told me", I expect my spirit to jump within me like John leapt in Elizabeth’s womb when Mary came in pregnant with Jesus. When a person is pregnant with a living revelation of God, I want my insides to move! Some would say that’s just emotions and I’m OK with that. I serve an emotional God. But that’s a whole other post. That's just my thoughts on that.

Things like this don't happen to me and it's very, very rare that I get something downloaded into my spirit this quickly and intensely. I think it's maybe happened two other times in 25 years. This time though, there was an audible ringing in my ears. I know, I know, but it wasn't that kind of ringing. I mean it kinda was, but it was different. It was like God was ringing on the inside and then there was a VERY strong sense of His presence. I was in the middle of working on the computer and it made me actually stop what I was doing and freeze. I feel His presence on and off all day(if I'm tuned in) but again, this was different. Also, I usually get my thought and impressions when I'm the piano and they come out in song. So, this way of communication was very different for me. I had to stop what I was doing and start writing. I wish God would interrupt a bit more often. Not just me but all of us. Individually and corporately.

Why am I telling you all this? I don't know. But it there. Anyway, call it what you wan, take it for what it’s worth to you. I know something was being put into my spirit. Let this be a seed in your spirit. Often something we get today has to take time to grow and it will be harvested at the proper time for a specific purpose:

SPEAK FOR ETERNITY. JUDGEMENT IS COMING. You are the ones I want to raise up as judges. You are the sons and daughters who will carry righteousness. Like a burden on your shoulders, you will have no rest until it is fulfilled. The weight , the weight, the weight is very heavy. Sometimes it is hard to carry but you carry it with joy. Don’t let people tell you it’s pride. It’s not. It’s the weight of righteousness that I have put upon you, and the joy makes it bearable and possible to carry. For without the pride to carry justice, it cannot be carried. You will not be the physical instrument of justice, but your prayer will release God’s justice. He alone will judge. The justice delivered in the physical will be revealed and given out in a supernatural way. We have to LOVE to carry justice. If we don’t love, we will pervert the justice and hand it out ourselves. We are not to bring justice ourselves, only join with God to make a way for Jesus and His justice.

That's it. Simple? Sure. But if we really think about justice, what it meant, and what it has become, even in the church today, perhaps it means something a bit more. The “handing out of justice ourselves”, is a kind of justice that will be a false kind of justice. It is motivated out of self justification, guilt, fear, and the lack of confidence, assurance, and validation of others. It comes from our past hurts, fears, and inadequacies. Only the justice of the Son is perfect. It is true and it is right. All authority has been given to the Son.

Here’s a prayer I wrote recently(shortly after the day of that really encapsulates this idea:
Oh God I pray that we would be the instrument of justice. That You would reveal yourself as the only one that can bring true justice. Your thoughts are not our thoughts and our idea of justice is not Your idea of Justice. I pray that we would become one with the Father and one with His heart concerning justice. That we would the ones that make the way for the justice not the ones that give it out. That we would be the compassion of God and His hand, and not the instrument of destruction. For we are a wicked people, self serving people, prone to seek matters for ourselves and give our idea of equity in order to validate and repay what had been done to us in the past. Oh God keep our hand from such things. Keep us from assuming the role of a holy judge, a role that belongs to a Holy and perfect God. Protect us from ourselves. Release the love of Your heart to Your people oh God. That we would accept the day to day burdens and consider ourselves blessed when we are hated and reviled for Your name sake. Let us see ourselves and intercessors before the throne of God asking for mercy and not destruction. Let us not be like James and John who wanted to call down fire from heaven, but let carry the burden of mercy and compassion. So when the judgement comes, we will be able to speak the truth of what is happening and rescue many from the coming wrath. Align us with your heart Father God. Let the fire of love burn in us more than the fire of absolution from others. Oh God, validation and acceptance have become the fuel of our fire and the reason for our seeking justice rather than compassion and love being the fuel for the true righteousness of seeking Jesus’ kingdom coming to earth, His will being done, and Him sitting on His rightful throne as King of the Earth.

Partnering with the Son in this hour for such a time as this.

As it is in heaven, let it be on earth.