We need the word of the prophet


2 Chronicles 25 (NLT)

14 When King Amaziah returned from slaughtering the Edomites, he brought with him idols taken from the people of Seir. He set them up as his own gods, bowed down in front of them, and offered sacrifices to them!15 This made the LORD very angry, and he sent a prophet to ask, "Why do you turn to gods who could not even save their own people from you?"
16 But the king interrupted him and said, "Since when have I made you the king's counselor? Be quiet now before I have you killed!"
So the prophet stopped with this warning: "I know that God has determined to destroy you because you have done this and have refused to accept my counsel."

The Lord is always faithful to give us guidance. He is always going to make sure that our steps are ordered according to his will. However, we must remain pliable and sensitive to his voice and adjustment. Gifted builders in the Kingdom of God need to be very careful that they, in an effort for building expediency, don't isolate themselves from the full word and counsel of God. If we are successful we attract a team of builders who are "just like us". There is much good in that but it can also be very narrow, limiting and may rob you of a more diversified perspective. Prophets are seers who see things builders may not want to see or hear. In the Kingdom scheme of things we need to ensure that we don't outgrow our need for the prophet. He's not always the most fun to be around and his words may not always stroke our ego but they are sent to us for a reason.

In this portion of Scripture the Word of the Lord through the prophet was rejected and he "stopped". I know there are a lot of "self proclaimed" prophets around these days. However, there are also among us true prophets of the Lord. They may not look or sound like prophets but their gift causes them to bring those protective and directional words from heaven. We must be careful that our success does not isolate and insulate us from the Word that we may so desperately need. What should be our response to the Word of the Lord? It should always be as the words of Mary proclaimed, "whatsoever He says unto you, do it!"

Missional or Attractional

There is a great debate going on in the church world today over the right pattern of ministry. The issue at hand is whether the motivation of ministry should be missional or attractional. If it is not a verbal debate it is certainly a functional one. One side has grown weary of the attractional approach seeing it as an outdated method which primarily focuses on signs and advertisements to get new people to church. A part of the attractional crowd uses revival and renewal to attract people and seem to echo the cry, "we set ourselves on fire and they come to watch us burn." It is often centered around experience.

The missional group sees the church as a group on a mission and seeks to activate it's workers around fulfilling the mission of reaching a community for Christ. It is often centered around methods. The attractional group says "come" while the missional group says, "go"! Which is right? Both in my opinion. When Jesus met the woman at the well he was definitely on a mission. Before going there the Scripture says Jesus said, " I need to go through Samaria." There was an internal motivation followed by a purposeful plan to reach someone. This is very missional. Then, after the lady is confronted by Jesus she goes back to her home town and tells the inhabitants of the city, "come and see a man who told me all that I ever did". This is attractional. The result, the town came out to see and hear the man Jesus. Many believed because of two kinds of ministry, the missional and the attractional. Jesus said, "go" and she said "come".

The bottom line is fruit. I see missional churches today doing great things for God and bringing many to the Lord. I also see attractional churches reaching many and making disciples. Let's not condemn methods, let's celebrate the fruit.

Feelings in the Church

In my last blog I talked about feelings and the error of allowing feelings to be our guide in life. Now let's take a look at feelings in the church. What we feel is something that causes us to help people through our empathy and sympathy. What we feel at times can be a warning to avoid danger. Feelings is a mental and emotional reaction to an experience. Yet, as we discussed last week feelings are much too subjective to serve us well as our primary guide through life. Feelings are limited to ability to sense and comprehend. In reality feelings are two dimensional, defined by what we feel(body) and think(mind). Faith on the other hand certainly includes those two dimensions but adds the third dimension of the supernatural, the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God makes his habitation or home in the "believer". From that moment on this new believer, this three dimensional being begins to experience something that was lost by Adam in the garden. Most feelings/emotions are basically a much weakened version of a God-connected spirit.

The new believer is in contact with God through His Spirit but this relationship is kept pure and true by the Scripture. There is an inseparable relationship between God's Word and His Spirit. As long as we continue in His Word and are filled with His Spirit we are functional as heaven intended. The moment we move away from either of the two we are on a path toward deception.

In the Church there has been this tendency to move away from operating in these two necessary relationships, the Word and Spirit. The result is that the Church, a supernatural entity begins to be run by "feelings". Someone said, "all Word with no Spirit you dry up, all Spirit with no Word you blow up but the Spirit and the Word causes us to grow up."

Let's examine our condition today and the condition of our church leadership. Think back leaders, did your last leadership meeting seem to be led more by the Holy Spirit or feelings and opinions? The good news is that getting back on track can be done quickly!

Feelings

Our "feelings" can be one of our greatest enemies. Our feelings are constantly changing and way too uncertain to allow them to set our guideline for living. Having been a pastoral counselor for almost 4 decades I must tell you that I have heard a lot about how people feel. People choose their profession, buy cars, live in certain places and even pick a life long mate by their feelings. The word "feelings" is defined as, "emotion or sympathetic perception". Be honest and ask yourself the question, "do I really want to go through life with emotion or perception as my guide?" I don't think so. Yet, many find it hard to simply accept God's ways, directives or commands as truth.

I was talking to a man recently who had little, if any Biblical foundation. Yet, he was a very caring and intelligent person. He confided that simply taking the leap of faith and accepting the Bible as The Truth was too difficult for him. After all, he was an educated man who needed to understand. Then he asked that question. You know the one, how can Christianity be the only way to heaven? To him, it just didn't make sense, it just didn't feel right! I said, "I know exactly how you feel. I have had the same feelings and thoughts." Yet, there has to be that which is right and true, not truth as a moving target. Life and certainly eternity is much too valuable to simply roll the dice, block out your mind and decide that you will live by what you feel. I'm reminded of the old country song that says, "how can it be wrong when it FEELS so right?"

I can tell that many not in the Church look at the Christian world and assume that Christians are naive people who find comfort by sticking together in what they believe. They see believers as weak people who sit around convincing each other about their faith. Certainly there is a truth that living your life around people of like faith is a reinforcing commodity. Yet, non believers do the same. They run from Christians, flocking together to reinforce their own belief systems.

People of feelings live lives that are uncertain, always shifting and usually dominated by fear. People of faith, real faith are stable, certain and fearless. Why? Because their stability is not founded on the shifting sands of emotion or in religion, creeds, rules or regulations. It is founded on a personal relationship with God Himself. They talk to Him and experience an internal communication that reinforces their faith. Then, from that foundation, when they read the Bible they find it a living book. Even non believing seekers has found the Scripture unlike any other book. Derek Prince was a King's Scholar, attending Eton College in England when he began to read the Bible as a Philosopher to disprove it. He said later that as he read it he became captivated by it and came to a living faith.

Faith in the beginning is often a leap of faith that is in conflict with feelings. However, this leap of faith becomes a solid highway to a life of security, comfort, fearlessness about the future and the answer to loneliness. It is in fact a decision!
When I made the decision to accept God's way and Jesus in particular, I did so with a lot of feelings and questions. It was amazing how fast those things dissipated and how quickly the question marks turned into exclamation marks!