The Holy Spirit in the Now

Zech 4:6 "So he answered and said to me:

This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel:‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’  It seems that we cannot be reminded enough how critical it is that all Christian ministries remain daily dependent upon the Person and power of the Holy Spirit.  We commune with the Lord in our private times and gain direction.  Then hopefully, we take that to a natural world among mankind. However, how easy it becomes to get so busy in the natural labor that we forget to get midstream adjustments from the Holy Spirit.  How do we miss the mobile adjustments in the daily routine?  We miss them because of a lack of desperation.  When trying to find the original direction we desperately sought God.  Once we heard that direction we then ran with the vision with excitement.  We were no longer desperate for instruction because we mistakenly thought we had a complete plan.  God doesn't work that way.  He is a builder who gives plans and even adjustments as we go.  (Very important adjustments.)

Have you ever felt certain that the Lord gave you a mission and you had a clear vision of the work only to come to a place of failure in the mission?  You think, "I just know I heard the Lord say to do that!"  You probably did.  But did you build with a moment by moment sensitivity to the heart of God or were you made insensitive by the deafening noise of the activity of the work itself.  Remember, the Lord is just as concerned with your nearness to Him as He is the outcome of the project.  Also, don't let soulish emotional excitement "to do" overcome that calm seeking of His ongoing communication with your spirit man. 

The Christmas Cactus

Luke 13:6He (Jesus) also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. 7Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ 8But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it.9And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’ ”








One of the things that I have to keep reminding myself is that on any given day anyone can change!  In The Ministry, we work with people.  People are our fields of labor and changed lives are a part of our harvest.  We can't change people and we need to settle that in our hearts but we certainly are co-laborers with Christ.  When Jesus said he would build His Church, He didn't mean alone.  He enlists people to reach, enable and launch other lives.  Regarding the parable above, how does this fit into seeing people change?  It's an easy thing to say, "people have a choice and they must chose to change."  That is true but there is a time when people are immobilized by fears, struggles, disillusionment and hopelessness.  In that condition we may be hard pressed to see the choice happening.  We have a little Christmas cactus.  It's kind of a joke because we can't remember how many years we have carried this thing around.  It would just sit year after year, Christmas after Christmas and take up planter space.  I have started to throw it out more than once.  Then a few months ago I thought, "I'll give this thing one more chance."  I took it out of it's smaller planter, I broke up it's roots( a scary thing) and planted it in new soil in a larger pot, fertilized and watered it.  That was months ago. Well, this morning we went out to move it outside to catch a little rain and what do you know?  It has Christmas blooms!  I was beginning to doubt if it even had blooms in it's DNA!

The world was like that.  It became darker and darker and grew farther and farther away from what God had intended.  Then He sent His Son to earth to stir up and bring new life.  There was a time when a lot of folks had given up on you and me.  We didn't look like we would ever change.  Then the time came and the miracle happened. It's Christmas and there are people around who may be helpless and just need a little digging and shaking and enlarging their arena of life.  I would venture to say that some of you will find a life during this season that IF you will get involved a little, by next Christmas you will see beautiful fruit where it looked hopeless before!

Filling The Gaps In Our Faith

Can we live a complete Christian life without others?  Is the Christian life only about "me and Jesus?"  We want to say yes but that is not what the Scripture teaches.  We are so dependent on others in our maturing relationship with Jesus.  It is a God designed dependency set in place by the Holy Spirit.   Certainly we must have a personal daily relationship with Jesus but a believer who tries to separate from the Body of Christ will never get the spiritual nourishment he or she needs.  Resistance to receiving from the ministry gifts given to the Church produces a malnourished and imbalanced disciple.  (By the way, those from whom we receive aren't perfect either so don't allow that to stop their input into your life.)

I Thess. 3:10 NLT tells us, "night and day we pray earnestly for you, asking God to let us see you again to fill the gaps in your faith."  What a interesting phrase, "to fill the gaps in your faith".  Paul and the others on his team would travel around in a circuit teaching and training the new believers in the Doctrine of Christ and the Church.  There was a lot lacking just as there is today.  We haven't arrived and we aren't perfect in our understanding and experience.  Being disciples or learners is a life long endeavor.  We all have gaps still!  The word "fill" here in the Greek is translated "to complete thoroughly, repair, adjust, fit, frame, mend." Why doesn't God just fill the "gaps" in our faith?  Because He has given spiritual gifts to the Church, His Body to help in this process.  We have used Ephesians 4:11-12 a lot in these blogs but it is certainly a perfect "fit" for here.  The responsibility of the Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher is to "equip" God's people to do His work.  Again, this word equip means to "complete or perfect". The Apostle Paul even goes so far as to say "imitate me".(1 Cor. 4:16)  In our day we can gain a lot of information from TV, Christian DVDs, conferences and books.  However, we cannot be totally disciplined and equipped without a connection with a real live, walking, breathing spiritual gift that the Lord has placed in our lives.  It requires humility to always be a learner. but it brings exaltation in the end.

Kept By The Power Of God

Eph. 3:20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us…

It is still a difficult thing for us to grasp the fact that God helps the Christian from within more than from without.  We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Yet, we tend to cry out to  God at a distance.  Even our worship at times seems to be directed “out there”.  For that reason we all too often feel as though we are alone and sense a need to get closer to God.  I’m not above these feelings. We all seem to slip back into this Old Covenant pattern from time to time. Our song- writers often write from the same perspective.  The verse above makes it clear that when God works in our lives He does so “according to the power that works in us.” It is not enough that we believe in God, we must believe in the God that is resident within us!  It will change our faith focus and the outcome of our faith as well. The concept of faith is a trusting that we receive by faith in the spirit now, that which will come later in the natural.  We probably have never received much by faith that we didn’t embrace by faith first.  It is all based upon believing in and standing upon the Word of God. (Rom. 10:17) The more faith in the Word is weakened, the more receptivity is undermined. 

I Thess. 2:13 For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe. Now we see clearly from this verse that there is a direct connection with receiving in the heart the message preached as “the Word of God”, and that Word actually “working” in the life of the one believing.  More than just getting the things we ask for in prayer, the greatest fruit of this faith in the God in me is the assurance of our salvation. 

I Peter 1: 3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

An Almost Persuaded Generation

Acts 26:28 Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You almost persuade me to become a Christian.”

Agrippa was actually saying, you almost persuade me to become a follower and disciple of Jesus. That is what it means to be a Christian as we define the word “Christian” used here.  Yet, the key phrase here is “almost persuade me.”  Our challenge today is to see people around us in daily life transformed into true followers and disciples of Jesus.  It is happening!  I am grateful for that.  It is very encouraging to see a new generation rising up, that have left the past for a future of following the Lord in every area of life.  It is also troubling to see many in churches that show little signs of transformation.  “Transformation” is the fruit that we are looking to see produced in the life of the new Christian.  Transformation means a complete change.  Sometimes I am concerned that I may show more patience than Jesus might.  I know that sounds strange but it also sounds strange that Jesus allowed the rich young ruler to walk away.  I’m not sure many of us would have done that.  There is a place a person has to get to in order to be considered a Christian.  That place is transformation.  It takes confrontation to get to transformation.  A person can’t be transformed without discomfort and pain.  It is difficult for a comfort-centered church to let that happen. 

Now back to Agrippa: he came to a place of information but not transformation.  He was saying that your talking and lecturing is so interesting that it tempts me to follow your teaching and way of life…yet he didn’t.  Lectures and teaching won’t bring transformation.  It might attract crowds who love listening to our lectures and are even fascinated by them.  There is a generation the Scripture tells us that will have a form of godliness but who denies the power of God.  There has to be a power accompanying our words that impacts the heart of the hearer and brings them to a doorway of surrender leading to transformation.  Every true Christian has been there and felt that confrontation that led to transformation.  Let me share another verse with you to ponder.  1 Thess. 1:5 says, “For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake.”  Paul makes it clear that the gospel that the apostles of that day preached did not come only in a word being heard but it came in a word being felt!  It came in POWER!  Now I know that there were miracles accompanying the Word being preached but here it is clear that the primary power was life challenging and life changing.  That preaching also had the obvious presence of the Holy Spirit, which is the only ONE who can change a person.  The fruit of transformation was the wonderful assurance, the knowing in the heart.  May we be a loving and patient church seeking to win the lost to Jesus.  Yet, may we be Spirit-led enough that we will allow the Holy Spirit to wound those He must in order to become the true Comforter later.

A Word In Season

“The Lord God has given Me The tongue of the learned, That I should know how to speak A word in season to him who is weary."  Isa. 50:4 (NKJV)

How wonderful it is to hear a word when we are in crisis that lifts us up!  It is also more difficult than we might first think to bring that encouraging word.  Human nature is basically very negative and judgmental.  We see it throughout the Scripture as well.  It is very poignant in the life of Job when his so called friends come to him with words, not to lift him but to drive him deeper into distress. I have come to believe that those rare people who can lift and strengthen a person when they are in trouble have learned this art.  Oh, there are personality types that are naturally more positive but it seems to me that the real ability to lift a soul from despair and get them back on their feet is a cultivated skill.   

Notice in this verse the writer says "the Lord has given me the tongue of the learned".  The word "given" here means "assigned".  Then the word "learned" means a disciple or a learner.  We begin to get the picture that we aren't talking about a person that has a gift and they just go around giving encouraging words to people as a supernatural right.  It is a very deliberate and honed action of love and compassion.  Then the verse says, "that I should know how", here's that learned skill again.  Learned how to "speak a word in season to him who is weary."  In contrast to this, these people are not flatterers.  They are seeing this as a ministry of the Holy Spirit through them. Just as a surgeon uses his skills and experience to bring healing to a sick soul, may we give thought and reflection on honing our healing skills of delivering lifting words to those cast down.  Remember, sowing and reaping is an absolute principle of the Kingdom of God. You never know when you will need to reap some of those seeds for yourself.

Excuses

When confronted with Truth that is new to me I often find myself making excuses to why I haven't already obeyed. Notice I said, "Truth that is new to me", other than New Truth.  New Truth would speak of new revelation that hasn't been seen before.  After over 2,000 years of church life and deep searching of the Scripture I am very nervous about "New Truth".  Yet, it is a part of discipleship to be confronted with Truth that is new to me.  After over 40 years of seriously following Jesus and studying His Word, I still find new revelation even in the most familiar of verses.  The Bible is different from any other book in history because unlike, "War and Peace", it is a living book.  Some have read the Bible with a motive to find error or contradiction only to become converted by the life within it's pages.  

There is Truth that we have seen intellectually and spiritually to a certain level.  Then there comes a day when the Holy Spirit releases an explosion of illumination within our heart and soul.  This revelation is a living adjustment in that process of conforming us into the image of Jesus.  As a preacher I can tell you that I have walked in Truth and preached that same understanding of Truth.  Then I to come to a day when Heaven's plow penetrates deeper into the shallow, crusty abode of former Truth.  It reveals the lack maturity in my former habitation of Truth. It brings embarrassment! Yet, that feeling is not from any condemnation of God.  It is like youth discovering that some of their childhood beliefs were incomplete.  Parents only told them what they could comprehend at the time.  The same is true with our loving heavenly Father who releases Truth as we are ready to apply it.  Yet, even when it comes in the timing of God, it is still difficult to embrace immediately.  It feels like shame and we try to avoid admitting that we have missed the deeper Truth by dismissing it.  However, Heavenly Truth cannot be dismissed by the earthly.  Truth, once it knocks on the door of the heart continues to knock until the heart opens the door with the intent to embrace and obey.  

I'm not certain that there are three steps to help you with this lesson.  I believe simply knowing that this process exists will help us all get to the point of embracing and obeying quicker.  We all have a new plow in our future.

Veteran’s Day:  Remembrance, Honor and Humble Gratitude

There are wars that must be fought.  History tells us that when tyranny arises it can only be quieted with force.  There have been righteous wars where the oppressed have been set free and satanic regimes have been defeated to stop their domination of the helpless.  Yes, there are wars that are inescapable. As unavoidable as they are, no one wants to send their sons and daughters into battle.  Yet, it seems that every generation requires it.  

War should never be glorified.  It reveals the lowest nature of humanity usually on the part of friend and foe.  I have spent time among those just returning from combat.  At the time I was in uniform as well, and so there was an atmosphere of safety and transparency among comrades, among brothers.  Talk of their experiences flowed freely.  I have heard of great bravery, valor and honor.  I have also heard stories that made me ashamed and sickened.  Yet, they were all experiences of our own soldiers during the terrible stress of war.  The civilian world is not without their shame either.  I have known people who became rich because of war and I have known those who buried their young son just weeks after sending him off to the same war.  War is a horrible, horrible thing.  It is evidence of the failure mankind.  If fighting is thrust upon us, then fight we must, but let us never celebrate it or glamorize events that still cause nightmares and trauma decades after the last shot was fired.  

On this Veteran's Day rather than celebrate, may be pause and honor those who have served and may we be thankful.  On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, was declared between the Allied nations and Germany in the First World War, then known as "the Great War." Commemorated as Armistice Day beginning the following year, November 11th became a legal federal holiday in the United States in 1938. In the aftermath of World War II and the Korean War, Armistice Day became Veterans Day, a holiday dedicated to American veterans of all wars.

I join you in saluting and thanking our veterans for their service.  Above all, we thank those that have lost family members to war.  We are greatly indebted to their sacrifice.  

The Need For The Teacher

 The ministry gift of the teacher is probably undervalued in the Kingdom of God.  In the contemporary church we magnify, almost glorify other spiritual gifts more.  We hold entire conferences around apostles and prophets.  If a person is truly gifted as an evangelist, their calendar is always full.  Yet, the teacher often remains in relative obscurity.  Some connect the teacher with the pastor and they only see 4 ascension gifts as apostle, prophet, evangelist and pastor/teacher.  Certainly a pastor must be a teacher because most of their job involves teaching in the pulpit and one on one.  However, not all teachers are pastors.  The teacher who is not a pastor may be the loneliest of all.  They are often relegated to occasional opportunities to teach Sunday School or possibly now and then in a home group.  Yet, they are store houses of information and life giving impartation.  When we think of discipleship, and we need to think about it daily, we must see the need for the teacher in the process of making disciples. Paul wrote to Timothy and said in 2 
Timothy 2:2, "2And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also."  Paul was obviously teaching people principles that he called upon to teach others who might teach others also.  As a matter of fact it seems to me that there is a mandate that those we choose to teach must agree that they are going to teach those learned truths to others.  Let me share a very interesting insight from  the New Living Translation regarding Titus 1:1-2. 
 1"This letter is from Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. I have been sent to proclaim faith to those God has chosen and to teach them to know the truth that shows them how to live godly lives. 2This truth gives them confidence that they have eternal life, which God—who does not lie—promised them before the world began. 
I love this translation.  Paul says first that he was called by God to "teach" them to know the truth that shows them how to live Godly lives".  Teaching Bible Truth to teach them how to live Godly lives.  Nice lessons from natural experience or practical methods of life may all be good.  However, it is only the living TRUTH of the Word of God that will enable those who hear it and apply it to "live Godly lives".  
It also, more than teaching them "how" to live Godly lives, gives them an internal HOPE or CONFIDENCE that they are saved and have eternal life.  That is a mooring of steadfastness.  Teachers who are allowed to teach the principles of TRUTH from Scripture impact the hearers by teaching them how to live the Christian life as God intends and also reinforces their very foundation of knowing they are saved!
May we rethink the value and place of the gifted and called teachers among us and work to make a place for them at the table.