David is one of the most recognizable and popular figures in all of scripture.  His battle against Goliath is one of the most iconic stories in all of history so that even non-believers are familiar with the story.  I won’t rehearse the story in detail because of time considerations but if you are fuzzy on the details, 1 Samuel 17 would be the place to go.  As your recall, Israel and  the Philistines are camped opposite one another in a valley only about twelve miles from Bethlehem. For forty days, the Philistine champion Goliath has come forth morning and evening to challenge Israel. Forty, of course, is the biblical number for testing and purifying.  The faith of Israel has been tested without great results because no one has been willing to step out to face the man who has been blaspheming the God of Israel every day, twice a day,  for well over a month.

Of course, David arrives to check on his brothers and the status of the battle and hears the challenge of Goliath. David can’t believe that someone hasn’t stepped out in faith to take on the bully so he offers to face the nine-foot champion of Israel’s enemy.  I assume that Saul had become desperate and somewhat embarrassed by his own lack of courage.  After all, one of the reasons he was made king is that he stood head and shoulders above most men In Israel.  Kings were supposed to lead their nations into battle in those days. It is likely that Saul was also the biggest Hebrew on the field and one of the only Hebrews with real weapons and probably the only one with armor.  The Philistines knew how to work iron, a technology that had not been mastered by the Israelites, and so they were well armed with swords and shields while Israel came with clubs, axes, farm implements, sticks and probably a few slings.

Apparently, in a moment of desperation, Saul allowed a young, untrained shepherd boy to step out as the champion of Israel. You know the rest of the story but a few details are worth mentioning.  First of all, David approached the battle with a primary motive of vindicating the name of the God of Israel.  His anger burned because Goliath had spent 4o days declaring that the God of Israel was powerless against him and the gods of Philistia, including Dagon.  Some Jewish Rabbis believe that Goliath had the name of Dagon inscribed on his uniform covering his heart. David’s motive was to honor God and to uphold his name.

Secondly, after Saul offered David his armor, David laid it aside because it didn’t fit him. They didn’t order up a smaller size because Saul’s was the only armor in the camp.  But David believed that God had already equipped him for the moment with both faith and a weapon that was suited to David. David drew faith from prior encounters with his enemies, a lion and a bear, and determined that since God had delivered from wild animals as he protected his sheep, this “giant” was no more of a match for God than the critters David had already dispatched.  It’s noteworthy that David didn’t despise the things with which God had already equipped him. A sword and armor certainly looks more impressive than a leather strap and a rock but David knew how to use the sling and by faith saw that it was sufficient for the moment…in fact, it was more than sufficient. The sword that Saul had offered would have placed him within the reach of the giant’s spear while a sling kept him out of reach and facing the giant on David’s terms rather than Goliath’s.

When we face giants in our lives we often see ourselves as Goliath saw David – small, inexperienced, and incapable.   We began to compare ourselves to others and think that others are better equipped to face our giants than we are. Yet God is not surprised by our dilemma and has already made provision for the victory.  In many cases he has already prepared us and given us what we need, along with him, to overcome the adversity before us. Instead of believing that God will supernaturally use what we already have we often start looking for what others have. Instead of believing that God will do something amazing with our five loaves and fishes we start scouring the countryside for someone elses provisions.

It’s not that we never need help or never need others to stand beside us in the battle. The problem is that I see so many who believe that God would never work through them in powerful ways or give them a miracle so they turn down opportunities to pray for the sick, cast out a demon, press in for a miracle, or share there faith with a “biker.”  Instead, they call the pastor or the highly gifted person in their church to do those things.  They never grow because they assume God always works through others and never believe that God will work through them.  David assumed that if God put the burden on his heart to face the enemy, then God would use David as he was to bring down the giant.  David had faith for that moment because he had faced scary moments before when God had to show up or disaster was in the making.  Every time David had been in over his head in the natural, God had moved in the supernatural. Granted, bears and lions didn’t carry javelins so this was an even bigger risk but the lesser risks and God’s faithfulness in the past prepared him for this one.

Our problem is that most of us intentionally live “spiritually safe” lives without much risk. We believe.  We get along with our neighbors and live unoffensive lives.  We pray for the ordinary and live in the ordinary.  We rarely put ourselves in places of risk – either the risk of our lives or our dignity. We tend to turn down mission trips to dangerous third world environments for a variety of great reasons.  We don’t publically ask for the impossible in our prayers, command bodies to be healed, or bark orders at demons because we don’t want to be disappointed or embarrassed if God says no. We don’t risk over and over and so our faith doesn’t multiply each time God comes through. Because we haven’t proven God, when a real giant steps onto our stage we have no faith for the battle.  The best we can do is run to find others who do.  I’m not opposed to that.  I’m just saying that it is not the best because God has made us to kill our giants with his help and unless we face the giants our faith will never grow and our belief that God can use us to do great things will never flourish.

Scripture says that you can do all things through Christ. Scripture says that you are more than a conqueror. You have power and authority over the enemy.  My encouragement is that you choose to believe that God has also prepared you to overcome the enemy. Your armor and your weapons may be different from mine but they are the ones God has prepared you to wield.  So today, charge the enemy with the strength, the gifts, and the experience he has given you. Do it in his name and for his glory and watch the giants fall.  Be blessed.

Some individuals question the value of prophetic gifts in the body of Christ today.  Much of their  questioning comes from a mistaken view of prophetic gifts in the New Testament compared to the prophetic office of the Old Testament.  The prophets presented on the pages of the O.T. were functioning in the office of prophet who prophesied to the nation on behalf of God.   They spoke to kings and called the nation to action.  The O.T. clearly says that these men were held to account and that every word they spoke must come true if they were to serve as a prophet.  God only selected a few of these men for the office.

In the New Testament, however, prophetic gifts differ from the office of prophet and are given to many to build up the body of Christ rather than to command a nation or a king.   Paul tells us in his discussion of prophecy in 1 Corinthians 12-14, that the gift is given for the common good and is to be used to strengthen, comfort, and encourage the body.  It is a gift that must be developed and learned to be used with skill just as a teacher, an evangelist, a preacher or a musician who is clearly gifted must also grow in their gift before they reach their full potential and effectiveness.  Because of that prophecies are to be tested as prophets learn to hear the Lord and understand what he is downloading in them.

Although the gift of prophecy is not always fully developed it still has great power in the lives of God’s people and the more it is developed the more powerful it is.  I want to share with you what Graham Cooke says about the power of a prophetic word to impact God’s people in life-giving ways:

“The Father lives with us and occupies the space between the potential we have and the actual that He views in our future. A prophecy is spoken from the future back to the present. That does not yet make it real or substantial. Free will is involved. Prophecy relates to the possibility, not the inevitability, of fulfillment because the will of the individual/group has to be engaged in cooperation with the Lord in order for the word to come to pass…Sometimes people are trapped into reliving or reenacting their past….Prophetic ministry needs to enter that place gently, lovingly, and firmly to extricate the individual from a present/past lifestyle…The best way to extricate people from the past is first to show them the future. Everyone has to have something to reach out for in life…The prophetic must put us in mind of a future time in regard to our present. When our mind is able to cover the ground between our present and our future, then we are free to move on in the things of God. ‘Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder things of the past.  Behold I will do something new, now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it?” (Isa.43:18-19)…When  people have been damaged, it is the future that can release then from the past.” (Graham Cooke, Approaching the Heart of Prophecy, p.114-115)

I have seen people lifted from the past and set on a new path on many occasions by a prophetic word.  The moment began with a word of knowledge revealed to the prophet by the Spirit.  It is a word about the past life of the individual that the prophet could have only known through a revelation from the Spirit. I can only believe his word about the future if he demonstrates supernatural knowledge about my past.  But the power of the moment is not in the prophet.

The power of the moment is found in the realization that God has been intimately involved in my life, even in those hurtful moments when I thought he was paying no attention at all to my pain.  His heart of concern and compassion about my pain is communicated through the prophet and his promise for the future releases me from the despair of believing  that my life is doomed to be as it has always been.  The word conveys the love of God for that person. The word breaths hope for the future into a tired and weary soul.  The word invites us into partnership with the creator of the universe to carve out a different future than I was expecting.  Prophecy is a true gift of God to his church and its truth resonates with the spirit of the person receiving it as the Spirit of God bears witness with his Spirit about what is being spoken.

If you have not done so, let me encourage you to embrace prophetic gifts.  They are not always on target or spoken well by those still learning.  But God will still speak to you through imperfect people in ways that he will confirm and that confirmation will fuel your soul for the future.  Be blessed today and ask God for a fresh word over your life.  You might even receive it from a prophet.

“The simple statement ‘God is love,” has far-reaching implications the minute we begin to live our lives based on that statement. When God who has created me is love and only love, I am loved before any human being loved me.  When I was a small child I kept asking my father and mother: ‘Do you love me?’ I asked that question so often and so persistently that it became a source of irritation to my parents. For even though they assured me hundreds of times that they loved me I never seemed fully satisfied with their answers and kept on asking the same question.  Now, many years later, I realize I wanted a response they couldn’t give.  I wanted them to love me with an everlasting love. I know that this was the case because my question, ‘Do you love me?’ was always accompanied by the question, ‘Do I have to die?’  Somehow, I must have known  that if my parents would love me with a total, unlimited, unconditional love, I would never die.” (Henri Nouwen, Here and Now, p. 78).

The love of God truly is the answer to every question and every concern in life.  When my father died in 1987 I felt a little displaced.  When my mother died years later, even though I had grown children of my own, there was a part of me that felt like an orphan who would no longer have a place to go if the foundations of my world ever collapsed.  I think most of us feel like orphans at some time in our life: alone, unsupported, insignificant and uncared for.  The very things that we grasp at for meaning, security, and protection as “orphans” often drive love away.  Control, a need to always be right, material possessions, distrust, anger, and the capacity to be often and easily offended all seem right to us because we feel alone and vulnerable in a hostile world.

Our greatest need is the security that only unconditional love can provide but people do not have the capacity to provide that love day in and day out and besides we often have to watch the ones we do love fade away and die.  The only solution is an unconditional love that never dies.  Our Father in heaven is the only solution.  It is his love that we long for.  It is a powerful love that says, “I will never leave you; I will never forsake you.”  Our problem is that most of us have a very difficult time accepting and receiving that love. We don’t feel worthy and we don’t feel that anyone could love an unworthy person to that degree.  It is, however, the entire message of the cross.  It is God standing and screaming that he loved us when we did not love him or give him a second thought and he loved us enough to die for us.

That is the essential truth and the only one that can override my orphan spirit so that I can rest in the love and care of a father who will never fade or die.  My experience, however, is that such a truth cannot be learned but must be revealed by the Spirit to my heart and experienced in some profound, supernatural way to get past all of my preset perspectives and beliefs about life, in general, and myself in particular.

Any approach to God on a purely intellectual level will fail to breach all the barriers my heart has erected through the years.  I need an experiential touch from God to override my fears and my past. I need to hear his voice.  I need to feel his presence.  I need to see him work a miracle in my life.  I need him to overpower the devil who has tormented me. I need his provision when I believed all was lost. I need to feel his touch when I believed I was untouchable.  I reject the notion that seeking an experience with God is somehow less than believing Bible facts or opens us up to deception.  I believe seeking an experience with God is the testimony of scripture that  this search should be the primary pursuit of every man.  God is willing.  What Father does not want to speak to his child personally, hug them, rescue them from danger, or put food on the table for them as daily bread?

Let me encourage you to seek God not just knowledge about God.  Ask for an experience.  Ask for a miracle.  Ask to be used in supernatural ways to bless others. When we experience him we come to know him.  When we come to know him we come to know his love – a love that never dies.  Ultimately, we come to know we are not orphans and that we will never die because his love will never die.  Be blessed today by seeking your experience with God.

Our freedom in Christ is dependent on two essential things.  The first is that Christ took responsibility for our sins.  That is grace.  “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus took on the responsibility of our debt because it was a debt we could not pay.  The second essential is that we take responsibility for our sins. Many believers fail to experience freedom from sin, brokenness, and their past because they will not take ownership of the failings and faults in their own life.

We are glad for Jesus to own our sins but somehow we are not willing to do the same.  However, if I don’t own something I can’t legally give it away.  If I don’t own my own failings and faults I cannot give them to Jesus so I retain the very things I wish to be rid of. I just want Jesus to take away the things I struggled with and the things I’m ashamed of without me ever having to acknowledge those issues in my life. Lets just keep my secret sin secret.

Philip Yancey says, “People divide into two groups: not the guilty and the “righteous,” as many people think, but rather two types of guilty people. There are guilty people who acknowledge their wrongs, and guilty ones who do not” (Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing about Grace, p.181).  John tells us a story where those two categories collided with Jesus illuminating the sins of both.  You know the story.  In John 8, Jesus is teaching in the temple courts and a group of religious leaders haul a young woman into the courtyards and essentially throw her at the feet of Jesus.  She has been caught in the act of adultery and the religious zealots quote the Law of Moses that demands she be stoned to death because of her sin. They ask Jesus what he has to say about this woman and her punishment.  Interestingly, the Pharisees are trying to place Jesus in the middle of a religious controversy.  If he denounces the Law as too punitive then he opposes Moses and will be seen as a false teacher.  If he hands out the rocks, he will be despised by the people witnessing this event because he showed no mercy.

The self-righteous feel no need for mercy so they are concerned about the letter of the law. The crowds watching the spectacle feel the weight of their own sin and their hearts cry out for mercy because they themselves need so much. John recalls that at the moment of decision, Jesus simply stooped down and began to write on the ground.  This is the only account in the gospels of Jesus ever writing.  What he wrote we don’t know.  Many think he began to write out the sins of those who stood in the crowd ready to stone the adulteress.  Perhaps, he wrote scriptures related to mercy or confession. Still, we don’t know. What we do know is that Jesus simply pointed out that everyone in the courtyard that morning belonged to the “guilty of sin” group.  The only difference was that the woman acknowledged her sin (albeit under duress) while the ones holding the stones did not. Convicted of that reality, they all left one after another dropping their stones in the dust.

Jesus told a related parable that Luke recorded for us. “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.    The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Lk.18:10-14).

Again, one acknowledged his sin while the other remained silent about his own. We fail to acknowledge or, at least, fully acknowledge our sin because we fear the judgment and rejection of men but also because we fear the rejection of God. Many of us read the call to repent and confess as God’s way of shaming us or getting more dirt on us for the scandal sheets in heaven. But it is just the opposite.  God calls us to take responsibility for our sin so that he can forgive, heal, and exalt us in the kingdom. Whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Whoever humbles himself by acknowledging his sin, his weaknesses, and his failings will experience more fully the grace of God and will more readily extend that grace to others.

Jesus told Simon the Pharisee, “He who has been forgiven much loves much.”  The truth is that we have all been forgiven much.  But not all of us acknowledge or allow ourselves realize how much has been forgiven. We deny, rationalize, and minimize our failings but not the failings of others. In doing so, we greatly limit our love for God and our healing.

There is no question that we are sinners.  The only question is which group of the guilty will I stand with? If you desire freedom and healing you must stand with the ones who take responsibility for their “stuff” so that Jesus can finally take responsibility for “their stuff.”  Blessed are the poor in spirit who acknowledge their sin, their weakness, and a great need for a Savior, for they shall be healed and set free. We can all be blessed today by owning “our stuff” because once we own it, Jesus will be glad to take it off our hands.

We are about to kick off another season of Free Indeed at Mid-Cities and we were discussing deliverance as one of the components of this eight-week study and experiential weekend. We were discussing it in relation to new members of our team and their approach to deliverance.  As with many things in the kingdom, how well we do depends on two things: (1) who we believe Jesus is, and (2) who we believe we are in Jesus.

Graham Cooke has a great insight into this truth in his book Approaching the Heart of Prophecy.  In  his book he discusses the mindset of Moses as he faced the most powerful dictator of his time. Pharaoh was not only the supreme head of  Egypt, the most powerful nation of his day,  but also truly believed that he himself was a god.  Cooke says:

“Moses had to lead over a million people from bondage to a tyrant to freedom and then into their own territory. In order for this to occur, he had to see himself in a particular way.  The Lord needed Moses to step up into a higher place of awareness so that his heart could operate at a higher dimension of faith and power. In that context, the Lord speaks these remarkable words to him in Exodus 7:1: “The Lord said to Moses, ‘See, I make you as God to Pharaoh and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet.’” If you do not see it you cannot become it. Identity must be visualized before it can be realized.  If Moses does not see this high place of living, then he will be forced to speak to Pharaoh from a lower state of being. He will be reduced to asking for favors, just like all of the rest of the people at Pharaoh’s court. Faith is then diluted to supplication rather than command. It is vital that Moses speaks to Pharaoh from this heightened sense of who he is in the Lord. Moses has to come to Pharaoh from a higher level of identity than Pharaoh himself possesses. Anything less and the assignment is impossible… Pharaoh has massive authority and will only respond to someone who demonstrates more” (p.96-97).

Moses, of course, is a type of Jesus and Pharaoh is a type of the tyrant Satan. As we represent Christ before the demonic we also must sense our high standing in the kingdom and come with a sense of identity superior to any demonic spirit. Anything less is supplication rather than command.  We must be clear about the superiority of Jesus over the enemy, that he truly does have all authority in heaven and on earth,  and  that he possesses a name that is above every name.  If we are uncertain about his greatness, his victory,  or his authority we will falter.  If we are uncertain that we are his ambassadors on the earth and walk in his authority to announce and enforce his will, then we will also falter.  Reflecting on those truths and asking the Holy Spirit to reveal those truths to our heart is an important practice.

We must also be sure of our assignment…to set captives free and to heal the sick.  Many of us come from “cessationist” churches or denominations where some theologies are uncertain as to whether God is willing to heal or whether he still heals at all.  Many of us come from backgrounds where some theologies don’t embrace deliverance or acknowledge demonic oppression in the 21st Century. With those perspectives in our backgrounds we sometimes find ourselves doubting what we are doing in the middle of the process. Our lack of self-worth also tends to seep to the surface when commanding healing or deliverance and suddenly we wonder who we are to think that God would do such things through us.  When that happens we must recognize the voice of the enemy and quickly dismiss the thoughts and reaffirm who Jesus is, what his death and resurrection accomplished, and who we are in him.

We, like Moses, must always have an identity higher than that of the enemy (whether demons or disease) because we are connected, appointed, and anointed by the one who has all authority. Before praying for healing or commanding demons we might do well to remember those things and  to visualize who we serve and who we are in him. There are many Pharaohs in the world that we will face.  We are not God but we do carry the very presence of the living God within us and are directed and empowered by that presence. No demon, disease, nor dictator on the earth can say what we can say.  None have our standing in the eternal realm and none can come before the throne where the creator of the universe sits with confidence and boldness – but we can.  So today have no fear. Remember whose you are and who you are and face every situation with that knowledge. Be blessed.

It is not unusual to run into people who love Jesus but avoid his church.  Many have experienced a bad moment in a church where they felt judged or rejected fifteen to twenty years ago.  Others had a friend or family member that was “wronged” by church leadership sometime in the distant pass.  Others play the “hypocrites” card and say they have no use for the church because it is full of people who project the image of “Christian” on Sunday but treat other people badly the other six days of the week.  Others reject the organized church because it is led by men rather than the Spirit or because it operates like a corporation rather than a family.  Others find the organized church to be worldly or materialistic or performance driven and so they reject all organized religion as systemically bankrupt.

In response to those criticisms I would say there is some or much truth in each of them.  And yet I believe Jesus calls us to love the church and be involved in the church regardless of her shortcomings. The church is the “bride of Christ” and if you love the groom you will love the bride even if she is awkward, immature, and tells bad jokes.  You will not cut yourself off from the bride because to do so distances you from the groom who is often with his bride. If you love the groom and want the best for him, you will not detach yourself from his blundering bride but will determine to help the bride grow and mature for his sake if not for hers.

The church has always been organized and imperfect. It has never been a perfect haven of love,  righteousness, or spiritual maturity.  Its leaders have never had it all together.  The New Testament is full of admonitions for believers to forgive one another as Christ forgave us.  That means that someone was being “wronged” by someone else in the church often enough that we were called to forgive, to be patient, to pray for one another, and to leave our gift at the altar until we had reconciled a relationship problem that the Holy Spirit had brought to mind. Some of the greatest leaders in the church, Paul and Barnabas, had disagreements and disputes.  The apostle Peter himself had to be called out for discriminating against the Gentiles.

Just about every letter (epistle) in the New Testament was written to churches with big problems and rampant imperfections. Just look at Corinth.  These guys were tolerating open sexual sin in their ranks.  They were taking one another to court. They were abusing spiritual gifts and abusing the Lord’s Supper and in doing so were abusing one another.  They were struggling with pride, arrogance, and selfishness and had twisted off on doctrines about the resurrection.  Their worship services were chaotic and Paul began his letter by telling them they were not very spiritual. And yet he addressed them as the church of God in Corinth, God’s holy people, and told them how thankful he was for the grace that had been given to them in Jesus. Then he engaged in helping them grow rather than rejecting them and separating himself from the bride of Christ.

I believe the glory of the church is not found only in our maturity and holiness but even more in the fact that we love one another relentlessly even in the face of our weaknesses and failures. God certainly does that for us and he expects us to do that for his church.  In that unity the power of the Spirit is displayed and we experience more of his glory.  Church members who bail out on the church because she is not what they expect her to be, abandon her to her weaknesses.  It is almost like parents abandoning their children because they are not as obedient and attractive as they had hoped.

I love Philip Yancey’s description of his church and in it I see the true glory of  God – love and acceptance for the imperfect.  It’s a bit long but worth reading.  I hope you find Jesus in it as I do each time I read it.

“A few times at my church I preached the sermon, then assisted in the ceremony of communion…those who desired to partake would come to the front, stand quietly in a semicircle, and wait for us to bring the elements. ‘The body of Christ broken for you,’ I would say as I held out a loaf for bread for the person before me to break off. ‘The blood of Christ shed for you,’ the pastor behind me would say, holding out a common cup…I knew the stories of some of the people standing before me. I knew that Mabel, the woman with strawy hair and bent posture who came to the senior citizen center, had been a prostitute.  Fifty years ago she had sold her only child…she knew she would make a terrible mother. She could never forgive herself she said. Now she was standing at the communion rail, spots of rouge like paper discs on her cheeks, her hands outstretched, waiting to receive the gift of grace… ‘The body of Christ broken for you, Mabel.’  Beside Mabel were Gus and Mildred, star players in the only wedding ceremony ever performed among the church’s seniors. They lost $150/month in Social Security benefits by marrying rather than living together, but Gus insisted. He said Mildred was the light of his life and he did not care if he lived in poverty as long as he lived with her at his side.  ‘The blood of Christ shed for you, Gus, and you, Mildred.’ Next came Adolphus, an angry young black man whose worst fears about the human race had been confirmed in Vietnam. Adolphus scared people…Then came Sarah, a turban covering her bare head scarred from where doctors had removed a brain tumor. And Michael, who stuttered so badly he would physically cringe whenever anyone addressed him. And Maria, the wild and overweight Italian woman who had just married for the forth time. ‘Thees one will be deeferent I just know.’ What could we offer such people other than grace, on tap?” (What’s So Amazing About Grace? Philip Yancey, p.277).

Many of us might think these are not the kind of people we would feel good sitting next to in church, but these are the ones Jesus died for and his love for such as these and such as us is his true glory.  In the midst of his discussion on the miraculous gifts of the Spirit in I Corinthians, Paul discussed love for an entire chapter. The implication is that the power of the Holy Spirit flows most freely where love abounds.  Many of the people I know who left the “organized church” did so because they didn’t see the Holy Spirit moving in their church but they themselves refused to love the imperfect and so left with nothing but criticism for the bride of Christ.

The glory of God is not perfect people but perfect love for imperfect people…even imperfect leaders.  Not every congregation fits every person.  God places us in different places.  But the church in all of her craziness and immaturity is still the bride Jesus died for.  Are we to stay crazy and immature?  Of course not.  But God wants us to love his bride until she is perfected rather than rejecting her because of past transgressions and current pettiness.  We honor God by loving his bride. Be blessed today and choose to love the body of Christ because it is in that love  that the Holy Spirit operates most willingly.  Be blessed.

If you read this blog then you are probably sold on the blessing and significance of spiritual gifts. So for you I don’t have to make a case that the Holy Spirit still operates in power and that he still distributes spiritual gifts in the same way that he did in the first century church – even the more impressive gifts of healing, prophecy, tongues, etc.  Gifts are huge.  They are fulfilling and they are fruitful.  In fact, Paul encourages us to “earnestly desire spiritual gifts” (1 Cor.14:1). The word Paul uses for “earnestly desire” in this passage means to hunger for, be deeply committed to, or even to covet.  It is not a slight interest or a passing fancy but a passionate treasure-hunt kind of desire for spiritual gold.  Heaven would not understand why anyone would not pray for, fast for, seek impartation for, and diligently develop any spiritual gift that God had given a person a desire to possess and use.

Having said that our desires are paramount in operating in the gifts of the Spirit, we must also keep in mind that our motives for them and when using them are also paramount.  In the middle of Paul’s instructions about spiritual gifts in his first letter to Corinth, he deposits an entire chapter on motives.  Essentially he tells us that the spiritual gifts given to us are to be exercised on behalf of others and that their exercise should be governed by love.  Anything less than that will diminish the gift and the person with the gift.

In his book, Approaching the Heart of Prophecy, Graham Cooke relates this to prophetic gifts.  “Historically, the biggest failure in the prophetic has been a lack of love in prophet’s hearts…’Pursue love,’ Paul said.  That’s the best piece of advice I can give anyone seeking to move in the prophetic: pursue love” (p.110). Cooke goes on to explain that to prophesy we must hear God.  To hear God we must pursue God.  And to pursue God is to pursue love because God is love.

How many of us as parents have given cookies to our children with the instruction, “Be sure to share those with the others.”  If we saw our children operate selfishly with the gift or saw them manipulate others with the gift, we wanted to take back what we had given them or, at least, we thought twice about giving them cookies again.  God is a Father and he probably feels that way about spiritual gifts at times when his children keep them to themselves or use them for personal gain – adulation, manipulation, ego-satisfaction, power-tripping, etc.  What is true for prophecy is true for the other gifts as well – whether it is administration, mercy, music, or leadership. Our motives matter.

As we pursue gifts or attempt to increase a gift that we have received, we should be aware of our motives and our love for others. Is our hunger driven by self-focused motives or by a true desire to meet the needs of others and to build up the body of  Christ?  It’s not that we can’t enjoy the gifts or derive a sense of fulfillment and pleasure when we operate in our gifts, but that is a serendipity to the purpose of all spiritual gifts – which is to build up, encourage, comfort, and strengthen others. God is always glad to give us more cookies when we are willing to give most of them away. It’s just good to do a heart check on that issue from time to time as we ask for more.  Be blessed today and enjoy your cookies…but remember to share.

“Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires” (2 Peter 1:4).

In one sense this may be a familiar scripture but in another sense it is a startling text. As a believer, you literally participate in the divine nature – the very nature of the eternal God. How much do we participate?  Probably as much as we want…or as little as we want.

In preparing a study on the gifts of the Spirit it occurred to me that every spiritual gift we exercise is a participation in the divine nature.  If our gifts are spiritual gifts then they are not ordinary nor are they of this world.  Spiritual gifts are supernatural and are little explosions of the divine nature being released through us.

Peter also said, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms” (I Peter 4:10-11). As we exercise our gifts then we distribute God’s grace to others in all kinds of forms.  In other words, God releases himself through us so that his grace touches them.  We really are distributors of the divine. Your gift of healing releases God for he is Jehovah Rophe, the God who heals.  Your gift of encouragement releases God for it is his nature to encourage. Your mercy is a literal outpouring of him for he his mercy.

I speak to believers every day who doubt God’s love for them and hunger for some touch to prove that he really cares.  What they miss is that every believer who has hugged them, encouraged them, prayed for them, affirmed them, or laughed with them was God.  He was simply doing those things through his people who were participating in his divine nature.

One reason, among many, that we should want to hang out with God’s people is that God is going to express his love, his concern, his approval, etc. through his people to us.  If you want to hear from God you can do so in the quiet moments of your devotional but you can also hear from him in very concrete ways through his people who are prompted by his Spirit to dispense his grace and to leak a little of him onto you.  God is truly the fresh fragrance of life but we are the aerosol cans that release his fragrance into the environment.  It’s really a great gig if we understand that God is literally loving people through us or loving us through his people.

The more of God we store up, the more of him we have to release.  Jesus was filled with the Father so he literally left a touch of heaven everywhere he went. At times Peter was so filled with God that even his shadow imparted the nature of God to others which was healing.  The key is to realize that you are literally a partaker of the divine nature. That sets you apart from every other part of creation and gives you amazing significance.  No matter the gift or the call you are the dispenser of God’s heart and nature to the world. Wow.  You are a very, very important person.  Live like it!

Our staff and elders at Mid-Cities have been pushing through a process lately of discussing the meaning of discipleship and effective ways to make disciples.  It’s an important topic because Jesus gave us our final marching orders just before his ascent back to the Father. “Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations” (Mat.28:18).  First of all he said “go” and “make.  The implication is that we initiate something that is intentional and that has some design. It usually doesn’t happen by accident and it is not random.  Jesus also said that we are to make disciples.

Disciples are not church members but rather followers of Jesus Christ.  In the days of Jesus, disciples chose a Rabbi that they wanted to emulate.   Jesus said, “It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master” (Mt.10:25). Jesus was echoing the Rabbinical concept of discipleship.  It wasn’t just about knowing what the Rabbi knew but it was about living like the Rabbi lived.

American discipleship has been reduced in many ways to learning rather than doing.  Discipleship has been defined as knowing more and receiving more training.  We have fallen pray to the Ivory Tower approach of expertise.  We tend to believe that the men or women who have read the most about a topic are the experts because they speak with such authority that we assume they have actually done what they talk about. Unfortunately, real life is often very divorced from the ideal presented in books.

It’s not that disciples don’t read, receive teaching, and talk about what they have learned.  They do.  But to that academic experience they add personal experience. Jesus taught. Then he modeled what he taught.  Then he sent his disciples out to do what they had watched him do and to practice what he had taught. Then they came back and told Jesus what happened.  He taught some more, modeled some more, and then released them to go practice what he had preached some more.

The key to discipleship was their desire to actually do what the Rabbi did and to live as he lived. Jesus was aware that an accumulation of knowledge could feel like obedience when it actually wasn’t.  He said,  “I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock…   But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation.” (Lk.6:47-49). James, the brother of Jesus, later challenged the church to be doers of the word and not hearers only.

True discipleship is about doing not just learning. If we are to be disciples of Jesus in the very Jewish sense of discipleship we must do what he did until we master it and if we want to truly please him we must do even more than he did. Well…how could anybody do more than Jesus did?  In the realm of procuring our salvation Jesus stands alone.  No one can duplicate what he did as the sinless Lamb of God.  In terms of lifestyle and touching other lives, Jesus himself said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father” (Jn.14:12).

I didn’t say that.  Jesus said that.  “He will do even greater things.” Notice the emphasis on “do.” Our challenge as believers in the American church is not knowing but doing. We have more Bible study aids that at anytime in history.  I’m sitting here with my Logos Bible software as I type this blog. I can pull up every kind of study guide or aid imaginable. But I will never start to become like Jesus until I begin to risk doing what he did – sharing the good news of the kingdom of God, healing broken hearts, healing broken bodies, building relationships with sinners, loving the unlovable, confronting evil, feeding the hungry, casting out demons, and even raising the dead.

There are lots of ways to do those things but if that is what Rabbi Jesus did then as disciples we must do the same. Is there a learning curve? Yes. Is there a fear factor? In the beginning. Can I mess up? O yeah.  Can I fail?  Only if I don’t try.  There is always a gap between theory and practice but eventually practice exceeds theory because in doing we learn; in doing we grow; in doing faith flourishes, and in doing we become more like the Rabbi.

Go out today or tomorrow and pray for something impossible without the bailout disclaimer “if it be thy will.” Pray for healing believing that God always wants to heal. Command demons believing that God always wants to set captives free. Share your faith with sinners believing that God wants all men to be saved. Okay, okay.  Peter stepped out of the boat and nearly drowned!  Not really.  Jesus would not have let him drown because he stepped out in faith.  It wasn’t perfect faith but it was faith.  But Peter also experienced something no other apostle experienced.  He did actually walk on water for a bit. He knew what it felt like.  He knew if he did it once by faith he could do it again.  He knew he might get wet but Jesus would not let him drown.  We all need to know those things and we only come to know them when we actually risk doing what the Rabbi did.  It is also the only way we can say, “It is not I who lives, but Christ who lives in me.”  Go out there today and risk doing what he did. After all, he is in you and just wants you to let him out. Be blessed.

Late last night I was working on a revision of our Free Indeed manual that we use at Mid-Cities for our eight week study on Freedom in Christ and our weekend of healing and breaking the power of the enemy.  That’s the curriculum from which Born to Be Free was developed.  As I was going over the manual I was reminded how patient and subtle the enemy can be in getting us to compromise our faith so that we compromise our effectiveness and slowly quench the Spirit within us.

No doubt the enemy sometimes comes at us with a full frontal assault in an effort to overwhelm us.  When that happens we quickly recognize what is going on and call up the troops for prayer. Those can be exhausting moments or seasons but we usually draw closer to the Lord and become more aggressive in our faith in those seasons. Sometimes the more destructive strategies of the enemy simply are seasons of relative peace during which we drop our spiritual guard and become susceptible to his subtle influences.  Those not-so-noticeable influences can gradually accumulate in our lives and lead us to compromise in ways we barely notice.

Think about movies today. Most Christians feel pretty good about attending PG or PG13 movies today while drawing the line at the R rated flicks.  However, what is PG13 today was R rated or even X rated just a few years ago. Television has normalized partial nudity, bad language, violence, adultery, homosexual relationships, and so forth. When we see something everyday it becomes “the norm” and whatever is “normal” seems to take on an air of acceptability because it doesn’t shock us anymore. Satan is fine with taking twenty years to move us from a perspective of sin being repugnant to it being normal and then to “maybe it’s not all that wrong” and, finally, to acceptance or approval.

As believers we are prone to think that because we have become comfortable with sin or have become callous to it that the Holy Spirit has become comfortable with it as well.  Paul counsels us not to grieve or quench the Spirit within us.  Sin grieves the Spirit and our choices to ignore the conviction he brings us as we watch, read, or participate in things offensive to him tend to quench the Spirit within us.  Satan presents those things slowly but persistently so that we find the sin barely offensive.

It’s almost like an enemy putting a small piece of tainted meat in your stew.  As you eat it you notice that an occasional bite seems a little odd or distasteful but the rest seems fine so we eat away.  If we eat that stew everyday, we don’t even notice the subtly odd taste anymore. It becomes the “normal” taste of stew for us.  Then the enemy can increase the amount of tainted meet again.  After a year or two we may believe that there is nothing wrong with the stew because it tastes “normal” although by then 90% of the meat is tainted. Even when we find ourselves feeling sick every day we don’t think that the stew is the problem because it tastes “okay” to us. In fact, we may not even recognize that we are sick because the fatigue and body aches have become our norm as well.

Satan introduces sin and compromise in the same subtle ways.  There were times when Israel would go up on high places and worship idols (demons) and then immediately go down to worship Jehovah in the temple at Jerusalem.  After a while, Israel placed idols in the temple itself and worshipped both false gods and the one true God at the same time. My guess is that it took years of worshipping idols before it was comfortable or “normal” enough to set them in the temple of the living God.  The culture had become so full of idolatry that even the priests seemed to accept the presence of demon worship in God’s holy temple as somehow permissible. They fell into the trap of believing that if they were not offended then surely their God was not offended.   However, God was offended and eventually his presence left the temple altogether.

My question is, “What has subtly become the “norm” in my life or in my mind that has slowly taken on an air of acceptability to me that is in no way acceptable to God?  Ultimately, I believe the tainted meat the enemy introduces slowly into my life is more dangerous than the frontal assaults of the enemy.  May the Lord give me wisdom to detect those areas of compromise and correct my compass so that his Spirit is neither grieved nor quenched in my life.  I pray the same for you.  Be blessed and aware today!