One of the most memorable events in the life of Hezekiah occurred when Jerusalem was besieged by Assyria and faced almost certain defeat. The Bible says, “In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them” (2 Kings 18:13). To understand the gravity of that statement we must remember that at the time of this attack, Assyria was the most dominant power in the Middle East and the Mediterranean. We are told that Sennacherib sent a vast army into Judah to lay siege to all of her fortified cities with Jerusalem being the last. The modern day equivalent would be for Russia to surround the cities of Israel without any resistance or allies to come to Israel’s aid.

The King of Assyria sent a commander to Jerusalem with a message for Hezekiah. Essentially, he told them that resistance would be futile. They had just marches across the Middle East and no nation had been able to stand against them. That was a true report and Hezekiah knew it. He also went on to say that none of the gods of these defeated nations had been able to stand against their gods and the God of Israel would be no different. In fact, the commander claimed that the God of Israel himself has sent Assyria to destroy Judah as they had destroyed Israel (the northern kingdom) just months earlier. The demand was open the gates and surrender immediately or die while Jerusalem was destroyed.

There are a few lessons for us in this account. First of all, Hezekiah was a godly king who had done right in the eyes of the Lord for fourteen years. Yet, trouble showed up on his doorstep – not just trouble but overwhelming, massive, unsolvable trouble. God does not always spare the righteous from trouble but his promise is to deliver them from trouble.

In response to the threat and the demands of the enemy, Hezekiah does three things: He puts on sackcloth and commands his other leaders to do the same, he prays, and he asks for a word of the Lord from the prophet Isaiah. Sackcloth represents godly sorrow for sins and repentance. His first response was to take a personal inventory of any sins that might have brought this calamity on him and the nation and then he called his other leaders to do the same. In essence he called for a national day of repentance and prayer.

Secondly, he took the written message delivered from the King of Assyria into the temple and laid it before the Lord. He prayed, “      “O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God. It is true, O Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O Lord, are God” (Isa.37:16-20).

In his prayer, Hezekiah rehearses the greatness of God and confesses that Jehovah is the only true and living God. He doesn’t deny his circumstances or all the victories that Assyria has had but he does defy his circumstances in the name of the Lord. Notice that not only was Hezekiah concerned about his impending defeat but he was also concerned about the name of God. When David faced Goliath, he also declared defeat over the giant because he had slandered and defied the name of Jehovah. A sincere concern for the name of the Lord to be known and held in honor goes a long way in heaven’s courts.

Thirdly, he sends for a word from the Lord through Isaiah, the prophet. He does not take a poll about the odds of victory or call a meeting of his military experts or economic advisors. He ignores the reports of men and seeks the report of God as to whether victory or defeat will be Jerusalem’s lot. Isaiah answers, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria…this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria: “He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it.      By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city,” declares the Lord. “I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!”    Then the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies. So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew” (Isa.37:33-37).

Even the worst or most powerful of men or no match for God and the power of heaven. God did not keep Hezekiah from trouble but delivered him from trouble because Hezekiah served God and sought God in the crisis. He had faith to listen to the reports of God through his prophet and had genuine concern for the name of God. Scripture says that those who honor God, God will honor (1 Sam.2:30). Hezekiah honored God with his life and prayers and God honored him with deliverance.

There is another biblical theme that also runs through Hezekiah’s life. God often allows his people to be placed in impossible situations that require supernatural deliverance so that after the victory, man will honor God rather than himself. Only God could have delivered Hezekiah and he did. Only God could have delivered Goliath into the hands of a teenager and he did. Only God could provide a child to Abraham and Sara when their bodies were long past the age of childbearing and he did. Only God could have brought down the walls of Jericho for a ragtag army of former slaves and he did. You see the theme and that theme is still likely to play out in the lives of his people today. Too often we take the lesser solutions offered by the world rather than seeking the supernatural solutions of God first with faith and with concern for his name to be exalted through our circumstances. Hezekiah points us in that direction – a direction we would do well to follow when the odds against us seem overwhelming.

As we continue to look at events in the life of Hezekiah, I am drawn to an event that reveals the true heart of God. As I mentioned in my last blog, after being installed as king at the age of 25, Hezekiah’s first order of business was to restore Solomon’s temple and true worship to Israel. “So the service of the temple of the Lord was reestablished. Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced at what God had brought about for his people, because it was done so quickly” (2 Chr.29:35-36). When God’s people have a heart to do something and his hand is with them, amazing things can be accomplished in a short time. How we view God determines to a great extent whether are hearts will be turned towards him in anticipation of love and grace or away from him in anticipation of harsh judgment.

We often have a view of God in the Old Testament as a harsh judge ready to punish every violation of his Law – large or small. Regarding the Law of Moses, many believe that if things were not always done in exact accordance with the letter of that Law, then those things were unacceptable to God and, on a bad day, fire might come out from the altar and destroy whoever made a mistake in protocol no matter how well intentioned. That notion probably first arose from the account of Nadab and Abihu. The Old Testament says, “Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord” (Lev.10:1-2). Yikes! Many have interpreted “unauthorized fire” as a mistake in the protocol or contents of the incense they offered. That understanding presents God as an unbending tyrant who demands perfection in our service to him.

From this account, many have assumed that God would strike down even well meaning people if they missed one point of the Law or stumbled over a recipe for incense. But if we read a few more verses we discover the real issue. “Then the Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons are not to drink wine or other fermented drink whenever you go into the Tent of Meeting, or you will die. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come” (Lev.10:9). The problem was not a failure to interpret and perform every law exactly as it had been commanded, but rather a heart of disdain for the holiness of God because these two men had entered the Holy Place drunk.

In the days of Hezekiah, another violation of the Law of Moses took place. As temple worship had been outlawed by Ahaz, the father of Hezekiah, all the feast days commanded by God had also faded from practice. After restoring the temple and its worship, Hezekiah decided that Israel should once again celebrate Passover. The Passover had very clear and specific commands attached to it. God had commanded Moses to keep the Passover on the tenth day of the first month (Ex.12:2). However, Hezekiah determined to celebrate Passover in the second month with out the people being sufficiently purified. Sounds like risky business but here is what we read in 2 Chronicles. “Although most of the many people who came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written (emphasis added). But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, ‘May the Lord, who is good, pardon everyone who sets his heart on seeking God—the Lord, the God of his fathers—even if he is not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary.’ And the Lord heard Hezekiah and healed the people” (2 Chr. 30:18-20).

In our life with God, the condition of the heart – a heart set on seeking God – can make up for a lack of doctrinal correctness. Let me be clear, this is not an invitation to be careless with our beliefs or our teaching just as long as we are sincere. A sincere heart always wants to live in obedience and do all things as God would have us do them. However, sometimes we are serving God to the best of our understanding rather than with perfect understanding. Sometimes we are serving God in the best way that circumstances permit. That was Hezekiah’s dilemma and so he trusted in the heart of God to extend grace where doing everything according to the letter of the Law seemed to keep them from obeying the spirit of the Law which called on them to remember and celebrate what God had done for them in the past.

Our Chinese brothers and sisters typically believe that the Bible teaches immersion as the proper form of water baptism. However, as men and women come to Christ in the “re-education camps” of China, there are no places to immerse anyone so they baptize in showers. Does God accept their “baptism” since their hearts are seeking God? I have heard some church leaders say that their baptism was invalid but I think this passage from the life of Hezekiah confirms that God indeed accepts those baptisms.

In the same vein, David is described in scripture as a man after God’s own heart. Yet, at least twice in his life David violated the Law without a rebuke from the Lord. Once he and his men, starving and on the run from Saul, ate the tabernacle showbread which symbolically sat in the Holy Place and was to be eaten only by priests. Another time he put on priestly garments to lead a procession when the Ark of the Covenant was brought into Jerusalem. David was not a priest. He was from the tribe of Judah while only those from the tribe of Levi could serve in the temple. However, because of circumstance (the showbread) and his passionate heart for the Lord, God extended grace to those violations of the Law. Remember that Jesus often rebuked the Pharisees who were meticulous keepers of the Law because their hearts were far from God.

Again, Hezekiah shows us that God is more concerned about our hearts than demands for doctrinal correctness. That should encourage us when we are concerned that we may not fully know or understand his will on something or when we have acted believing that we have heard from God and then later determined that we had not. Our primary goal should be to seek God with all of our hearts and if we do, his grace will cover us while we are still learning his ways. God is and never has been an angry God just waiting for us to violate one word of the Law. Rather, the Law was given to teach us right from wrong and to lead us to Christ while, all along, God has simply been trying to draw us into a loving relationship with him. Hezekiah reminds us of that truth once again.

As I was browsing through some chapters in Isaiah, I was reminded of the degree to which Hezekiah is  highlighted in the Old Testament. He is given space in 2 Kings 18-20, 2 Chronicles 29-32 and also in the book of Isaiah, chapters 36-39. That is a significant amount when most of the kings of Israel received only a half column or a chapter to tell their stories. So why Hezekiah?

Hezekiah was installed as king over Judah when he was twenty-five years old. If you are not familiar with Old Testament history, shortly after Solomon’s death a civil had broken out in Israel and the nation was divided. The northern part of the nation was called Israel with Samaria as the capital and the southern part was called Judah with Jerusalem as the capital. Sometimes these two political entities were enemies and at other times they were allies. The kings of Israel built their own altars and high places for worship so that their people would not go to Jerusalem and for the most part fell quickly into idolatry.

Although Judah possessed Jerusalem and the temple, it too fell into idolatry. Ahaz was king prior to Hezekiah. He had no regard for the God of Israel. He worshipped idols and had even sacrificed some of his own sons in the fires of the pagan god Molech. In summary, the text says, “Ahaz gathered together the furnishings from the temple of God and took them away. He shut the doors of the Lord’s temple and set up altars at every street corner in Jerusalem. In every town in Judah he built high places to burn sacrifices to other gods and provoked the Lord, the
God of his fathers, to anger” (2 Chr. 28:24-25).   Hezekiah was his son.

If we ever think that a son is destined to follow in the footsteps of a perverse father, Hezekiah is proof to the contrary. At the death of Ahaz, Hezekiah was installed as king. The text in 2 Chronicles says immediately, “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done.” David is called his father here because he reflected the character of his ancestor David rather than his biological father Ahaz. God tends to assign family trees based on the heart of a person rather than his biology. For instance, we are all sons and daughters of Abraham if we have the faith of Abraham. We too are children of David if we love God as David dud and we are children of God if we have a heart that resonates with our Heavenly Father.

It is amazing to think that within two hundred years of David and Solomon’s rule and the building of the great temple by Solomon that the center of Jewish life and culture would be closed, the priests dismissed, and the temple consigned to a state of neglect and decay. That suggests that Ahaz was not just indifferent to God or religion but actually hated the things of God which strongly suggests a demonic presence in him. His hate for the things of God and his exaltation of the demonic set Judah up for the heavy hand of God’s judgments. Ahaz only ruled for sixteen years and yet brought Judah to the brink of destruction through this godless administration. But God is full of grace for his people and had done a work in the heart of young Hezekiah. My guess his that his mother had something to do with that and probably hated the pagan God’s of Ahaz. After all, she had lost some sons to the fires of those gods.

After becoming king, his immediate responses was to reopen the temple doors, repair and sanctify the temple, restore the priesthood, and restore worship to the God of Abraham. Isaac and Jacob. He also destroyed the high places of idolatrous worship. What followed was years of peace and prosperity for Judah while Israel, the northern kingdom, was destroyed by Assyria because of idolatry with most of the population being carried off into slavery.

We are going to consider several events in the life of Hezekiah in my next few blogs but one thing we see in the opening accounts of his life is the difference that one man can make for a nation for either good or bad. Although the people of Judah had no real political influence in who became king, there must have been many praying in the shelter of their homes for God to raise up a godly king so that God’s name would be honored again in Judah and his blessings restored.

From this account of Hezekiah’s beginnings we see that judgment does not always come when it is deserved. Regarding a nation, if godly leaders are in the pipeline because of the prayers of godly people, then God can restrain judgment because he longs to extend mercy and blessings whenever his people give him the opportunity through personal repentance and prayers for godliness to rule once again in a nation. In the life of an individual, the same principles apply even when that life is presently in shambles.

Jesus taught his disciples to pray and never give up (Lk.18:1) because God’s responses are not based solely on the present but also on the future and the future of God’s people rests not on present circumstances but faith and prayer for the future. So…if you are discouraged take heart and pray for the future. Even while many of the Jews were in exile in Babylon, God had the prophet Jeremiah send them a letter in which he stated, “ For I know the plans I have for you…plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jer.29:11). That is always God’s heart for his people or for nations. So, if you are discouraged or afraid…take heart and pray.

In his book, Soul Keeping, John Ortberg points out how rarely the word easy is used in scripture. By my count, it us used less than twenty-five times in the entire Bible. Jesus used it when he said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Ortberg goes on to point out that when Jesus used the word, it was a soul word, not a circumstance word or an assignment word. He says, “Aim at having easy circumstances, and life will be hard all around. Aim at having an easy soul, and your capacity for tackling hard assignments will actually grow. The soul was not made for an easy life. The soul was made for an easy yoke” (p.126).

As you look at the life of Jesus, he apparently knew the secrets of a soul at ease or at rest. Regardless of his circumstances or the demands of the crowd he never seemed to be in a hurry and rarely, if ever, let someone else determine his agenda. The secret of his soul-at-ease seems to have been his intimate connection with the Father, which simplified his life and decision making considerably. His statements such as, “I only do what I see the Father doing,” tell us that Jesus moved at the pace ordained by his Father rather than by the world. He sought the applause of only one rather than the multitude. He evaluated his life by one set of heavenly standards rather than the shifting standards of culture. He discovered that his Father’s agenda for his life was more focused and simpler than the agenda the world hands us. Love God. Love one another. Give attention to those I highlight for you or to whom I direct you. Don’t worry much about the rest.

I know my first response to my own words about Jesus is that we live in a different world and just don’t have the luxury of setting our own agendas. To some degree that is true but the tension of life impacts us more when we internalize the demands the world places on us and give those demands legitimacy. A soul connected to God and his purposes is the key to ease.

From a practical perspective we can notice that Jesus has some consistent practices in his life that kept him connected to the Father and that kept his soul healthy. We might want to emulate what Jesus did so here is a bullet point list for my left-brained friends. You can add some other patterns you see in the life of Jesus.

• Jesus prayed a lot and on many occasions prayed for extended periods.
• He enjoyed solitude on a regular basis.
• He spent time outdoors enjoying God’s (and his own) creation.
• He developed a circle of close friends with whom he could share his life and his heart.
• He stored up the Word of God in his heart.
• He took long walks – sometimes on water.
• He engaged in deep, spiritual discussions with friends and sometimes strangers.
• He laughed and sometimes hung out with non-religious people.
• He thought a lot about the kingdom of Heaven.
• He worshipped often in synagogues with other believers.
• He frequently talked to others about God’s love.
• On occasion, he played with children.

Think about doing some intentional things to find ease for your soul and may your soul be at rest today.

There seems to be a lot of discouragement in the Christian community these days. In the past few months we have lost cultural and legislative ground as the Supreme Court redefined marriage after thousands of years of cultural and legal precedent that marriage is a union between a man and a woman. Washington and the courts have declared homosexuality to be a civil right and Christians are now under the gun if they do not serve homosexuals or honor homosexual marriage in their businesses.   The “war on Christianity” is ramping up all around the world and very few public voices are pushing back against the tide.

The question is simply do we stand up or give in? Do we stand up against the giants in the land or simply decide that they are too big for us so we must hide or at least keep a low profile. I’m talking to way too many Christians who feel hopeless about the situation and their only prayer is “come quickly Lord Jesus.” That’s not a bad prayer. In fact, it is a biblical prayer that was offered in the Book of Revelation. We all long for Jesus to come and set things right on the earth but just remember that when he returns those who have not yet named Jesus as Lord may be eternally lost. Those individuals may be some who are near and dear to you.

Secondly, those of us who feel so discouraged in the United States about the current state of the church need to look outside of the U.S. to see what God is doing in the world. Millions are coming to Jesus in unprecedented numbers in Africa, Asia and South America. God is saving, healing, and even raising the dead in numbers never seen before. When Jesus said that those who believe in him would do even greater things than he had done was speaking of this day. We can take heart in the fact that God is pushing back darkness all over the world and can still push back the darkness in America.

One of the things that seems confusing to many, however, is that some voices in the church are declaring that America is going down like the Titanic with no rescue in sight. They are declaring that we live in a post-Christian world that will now simply get worse and worse without remedy until the Lord returns. Others are declaring that God is going to release awakening or revival in the U.S. and everything will be glorious again. So which is it? I believe both may represent potential futures. I know that is not satisfying but remember that many prophecies and promises in scripture are conditional.

In Deuteronomy 28-30, God promised both peace and prosperity or oppression and hardship depending on Israel’s response to him. He declared that if Israel followed his commandments and loved him, then they would be blessed, prosperous, and at peace. If they rejected his ways then war, drought, and financial disasters would follow. Both futures were prophesied and Israel was given the responsibility to determine which it would be.

Faith also determines outcomes. God had deeded and promised Canaan to his people if they would trust him enough to enter into the land and take it from the tribes living there. One generation chose unbelief, chose never to face the giants, and never received the promise. Another generation entered by faith and took the land – giants and all. Jesus said, “May it be done to you according to your faith.” What God’s people have faith for is a determining factor in just about everything – even in America’s future.

America is not lost. If the nation “goes to hell in a hand basket” it will be because God’s church never took possession of the hand basket. Remember, our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual powers that are pulling the strings of presidents, judges, and congressmen. But Jesus said that the gates (authority) of hell would not prevail against his church. When David stood facing Goliath, in the eyes of the onlookers, David had no chance. But by faith he prophesied the outcome based on how he viewed his God. He declared to Saul, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine” (1Sam.17:37). David then prophesied once again when he stood before his massive enemy. David shouted to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands (1 Sam. 17:45-47). Then David did just what he declared he would do by the power of God.

We face a swaggering, boastful giant with multiple heads. But we serve the same God that David served and should now be declaring victory for the church (i.e. the righteousness of God and exaltation of Christ) in America in the name and power of the Lord as we pray and speak. By faith we should declare God’s sovereignty and victory instead of declaring doom and defeat over God’s people. We must bless the church and not curse it with predictions of failure. We have not been given a spirit of fear but of power, love and a sound mind (2 Tim.1:7). The fear that we feel is not from the Lord and we must reject that spirit. We should not fear the enemy, he should fear us because Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, has all authority in heaven and on earth, and is willing to exercise that authority when his people ask, declare, and stand in faith.

America will be retaken for Christ in the courts of heaven before we see it manifested in the courts of men. That will happen when we offer up bold prayers of faith and declare God’s victory over evil in this nation and do so until we see that victory with our own eyes. Don’t be afraid; be bold. Remember that Jesus said, “I have overcome the world,” and in him we too are more than conquerors. Be bold and confident today. Pray boldly, speak with confidence, and live like one who has the eternal, all powerful God dwelling in your heart!

Have you ever thought about your soul? What is it exactly? The common definition of soul is something that is a combination of our emotions, thoughts, and will (decision making functions). Dallas Willard, who writes extensively on spiritual disciplines and soul-care, defines it differently. He suggests, “What is running your life at any given moment is your soul. Not external circumstances, not your thoughts, not your intentions, not even your feelings but your soul. The soul is that aspect of your whole being that correlates, integrates, and enlivens everything going on in the various dimensions of the self. The soul is the life center of human beings.”

If you think about it, the usual definition almost attaches soul to our physical processes of feeling, thinking, and decision-making. But if our body is destroyed, our soul goes on apart from any physical connection. The soul then is a spiritual aspect of who we are that coordinates these other facets of the human experience. It doesn’t control those aspects but coordinates them. In the beginning, God’s intention was that a healthy soul connected to him would rule over or direct our thought life, our emotions, and all of our decisions. However, sin corrupted that process and our corrupted minds and emotions began to rule our souls. When we come to Jesus, he begins the process of restoring God’s intended order to our internal world.

John Ortberg suggests that we must move from being self-focused to being soul-focused. We tend to be self-focused where how I feel, what I do, my goals, my happiness, etc. are what life is all about. We read self-help books, go to therapy to explore our thoughts and our needs, and build relationships on the basis of how the other person might benefit or even complete me.

Soul-focus simply pays attention to my connection with God knowing that when my soul is healthy, everything else takes care of itself. When my soul is healthy my internal world will be divinely ordered and nothing (or very little) will block the flow of the Holy Spirit in my life. Then I will be like a tree planted by streams of water that flourishes and bears fruit in every season. The key is for my soul to be centered in my relationship with the Father. An uncentered soul is restless and constantly dissatisfied.

In his book, Soul Keeping (p.100-103), he lists several indicators of an uncentered soul. You might check these out.

• A soul without a center has difficulty making decisions. When our souls are not centered in God, even as believers we may have a great deal of internal debate about whether our decision should serve God or serve our flesh.

• A soul without a center feels constantly vulnerable to people or circumstances. In those moments we feel as if people, what they think of us, or our circumstances determine our well-being rather than God and his provision being the determination of that.

• A soul without a center lacks patience. Think express lane at HEB. When you feel your blood pressure rising because the woman who is paying out in front of you is fumbling for her coupons in a purse the size of Texas that she could have retrieved while she was waiting in line, shift your thoughts from self-focused to soul-focused and ask, “What is God wanting me to do or learn from this moment?” Your chosen focus changes everything.

• A soul without center is easily thrown. Does every little crisis or disappointment in your life cause a spinout? Are you derailed emotionally all day long when things don’t go your way? Did you experience a little road rage on your way to work this morning? Your soul may not be centered.

• A soul without a center finds its identity in externals. Does your car, your clothes, your house, your title, or the people you are seen with define you? Are you constantly thinking about image or the way others perceive you? Think about how much that dynamic steals your peace. The enemy comes to steal. If those concerns constantly steal your peace, then those concerns are probably from the enemy.

I have been challenged lately to think more about my soul than my self. My soul will never find rest until it rests in God. The key is finding that rest now, not just in eternity. Blessing in Him!

One of the gifts I am praying about and trying to develop is the gift of discerning spirits. I believe this gift, if well developed, would make me more effective in the ministry areas the Father has called me to. I also believe that this is a gift for all of God’s children and that he wants us to live with a greater awareness of the spiritual realm than even the natural realm. The Bible is full of accounts in which men and women saw and heard in the spiritual realm. Those moments are described as dreams or visions and sometimes are simply described as experiences. Let me catalogue of few of those incidents to jog our memories.

Remember Jacob dreaming of angels ascending and descending on a ladder from heaven? Remember Moses perceiving God on Mt. Sinai? And then there was Gideon’s encounter with the supernatural. “The angel of God said to him, ‘Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth.’ And Gideon did so. With the tip of the staff that was in his hand, the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared” (Judges 6:20-21). Elisha prayed and God opened the eyes of his servant to see the hills surrounding Dothan filled with chariots of fire that were already in place in the spiritual realm. Daniel, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah all saw things in the spiritual realm that were realities or that became realities. Balaam found himself talking to his donkey and then seeing an angel of the Lord standing in his path (Num.22). David saw an angel of the Lord standing over Jerusalem with a drawn sword. In the New Testament both Mary and Joseph had angelic visitations. The apostles had angels lead them from prison and Paul had a conversation with an angel one night as he stood on the deck of a storm tossed ship.

At times, God spoke out of the spiritual realm. Some heard his voice while others only heard thunder. Others felt things from the spiritual realm even though they could not see what was there. Daniel reported, “ On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, the Tigris, I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of the finest gold round his waist. His body was like chrysolite, his face like lightening, his eyes like flaming torches…the men with me did not see it, but such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves” (Dan.10:4-7). All of these experiences and many more recorded in scripture reveal that God wants to show his people things in the spiritual realm for faith, understanding, and direction.

But isn’t that just for a few or for the super-spiritual? I used to think that but now I believe it is the Father’s will for all his children. The reason I believe that is because God has equipped each of us to hear, see, feel, and more in the spiritual realm.

We are all to be led by the Holy Spirit and we are all directed to hear God. Therefore, we all have spiritual ears that, at least, have the potential to hear the Spirit as he leads us and to receive a rhema (fresh word) from God. Paul prayed that God would enlighten (open) the eyes of the hearts of the believers in Ephesus. He did not pray that God would give them spiritual eyes but that he would open the eyes they had (Eph.1:15-18). In addition, we are also promised that the pure in heart will see God (Mt.5:8).

How often did Jesus or the prophets declare that God’s people had eyes to see and ears to hear but neither saw nor heard? I believe he was speaking about spiritual eyes to see and spiritual ears to hear so that we might receive things from the spiritual realm. I believe that just as we have five physical senses to discern things in our natural environment we also have five spiritual senses with the potential to see, hear, smell, touch (feel), and taste in our spiritual environment. The capacity is there, be we have to believe in that capacity by faith and then begin to exercise those senses. We do so by paying attention to our own spirit and the Holy Spirit rather than filtering out what we could otherwise perceive or attributing the sensations we are having to natural or psychological phenomena rather that spiritual realities.

I believe all humans have these senses, not just believers, and that the devil uses them in some who distort them and operate in them as psychics, mediums, witches, etc. We are probably attuned to these spiritual senses as children although we many not be able to interpret what we are seeing. The “monster under the bed” may be simple imagination or the awareness of something evil in the room that parents could easily take care of with the authority of Jesus. Children who just “saw an angel” may have just seen an angel. As the adults in our lives discount these childhood experiences we may learn to filter out the input from these senses.

Think about it. If the idea of being born with spiritual senses as well as natural senses resonates with you, then you may want to start praying that the Father would open your spiritual eyes and ears to see and hear in the spiritual realm as a beginning place. Then start to pay attention to all your senses not just those you tune into in the natural realm. Of course, ask the Holy Spirit to lead you into all truth as you tune in. He must govern all of spiritual experiences to keep us from wandering off, but if our lives, as children of God, are to be anchored in the spiritual realm more than the natural, it seems we must have spiritual senses along with wisdom that every believer needs to develop.

But solid food belongs to those who are full of age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil (Heb.5:14, NKJV).

I grew up in Amarillo, Texas. When I was twenty-three years old I started dating a girl who went to church every Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday night. She finally talked me into attending church with her on Wednesday nights. When I was younger I had attended a Baptist church with my family for a few years but after my mother and father divorced I had not been in a church. The people were friendly, the preaching was fairly entertaining, and the music was what I expected.

After I had begun attending on a regular basis, the girl I was dating asked me if I might be interested in a Bible study with a married couple at the church. Dinner would be included. I thought it over and agreed. I wondered who the couple might be. I assumed it would be a young, successful professional couple in a nice home with small children.   On the evening of the Bible study I was surprised. We drove to a low-income area of town and pulled up in front of a small clapboard house with a neat lawn, sparse flowerbeds and a few small trees. When we knocked on the door, a woman answered who was old enough to be my mother plus a few years. Her name was Mary. She invited us in and explained that her husband Joe and just gotten home from work. He was a mailman who walked a route everyday putting mail in boxes neatly mounted next to the front door of every house on his route.

Mary introduced me to Joe and during a simple meal I discovered that he not only was a “letter carrier” but also preached at a small country church a few miles from Amarillo on most Sunday mornings. He was paid in produce and eggs by the farmers who attended the church. We were eating some of his “pay check” that evening. Joe and Mary had raised two boys who were married and raising children of their own. After dinner, Joe pulled out a small projector and a filmstrip that was advanced manually after each slide would come up with a scripture and a brief explanation of some Biblical truth. We talked and I asked a few questions and then the evening was over. Joe and Mary asked if would come back the next week at the same time for another meal and more Bible study. I agreed and so it went for several weeks. Eventually, Joe asked if I wanted to give my life to Christ and be baptized and after some thought I said yes.

What I wanted to tell you was that the Bible study was academic and boring and not in the least compelling. What was compelling, however, was the love I felt in Joe and Mary’s home. Coming out of a very disengaged family of divorce, the genuine warmth and love extended to me along with the genuine warmth and adoration I saw exchanged between Joe and Mary was almost mesmerizing. The first time Mary opened the door you could almost feel the love in the home as if it had substance and was drifting out into the street. The Bible study explained Jesus but did not draw me to him. But the love I saw in the lives of two people who followed him did. I remember thinking that if that kind of love was found in Jesus then I wanted Jesus.

About five years later, I got word that Joe had died of a massive heart attack while delivering the mail. His funeral was scheduled mid-week and was to be held at a large church in Amarillo. I don’t remember if I had ever attended a funeral before but I was compelled to attend Joe’s. I ran a little late getting to the church and when I arrived I discovered that there was not even standing room left in the sanctuary so I had to stand outside and listen through open doors.

This was not a funeral for a preacher of a mega-church, a dignitary, or a pop-culture celebrity. It was the funeral of a letter carrier and country church preacher. Joe was, however, a celebrity in heaven. I’m certain of that. People were there because he and his wife Mary had touched so many with the genuine love of Christ. Every human being on the planet is starving for love. When someone genuinely touches that need, they remember. Even in the kingdom of heaven, faith, hope and love endure but the greatest is love.

As we search for more of Jesus, more of the Spirit, greater gifts, etc. we cannot forget love. Love is outward focused. All other things can look good – even spiritual – but can be self-focused. Jesus was outward. He came to serve rather than to be served and to give his life as a ransom for many. In his recent book, Soul Keeping, John Ortberg reports a quote from Dallas Willard who said in a response to Ortberg’s question about successful ministry, “What matters is not the accomplishments you achieve; what matters is the person you become” (p.49). The measure in heaven apparently is not how many people you bring to Jesus, the number of people you heal, or the number of demons you cast out but the number of people you love as Jesus loved. Joe knew that. Now I need to remember it.

Pray without ceasing. (1 Thess.5:17)

Most of us are aware of the verse above. Have you ever considered its meaning? If we think of formal prayer and take Paul’s injunction literally, we could never leave our knees or our prayer closet in which case we could not fulfill a great deal of what Christ has commanded us to do – go and make disciples, visit those in prison, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, cast out demons, etc.

In another verse, Paul counsels us regarding prayer when he says, “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints” (Eph.6:18). In this scripture, the word “times” is kairos. In the original language, kairos does not speak of just any time but speaks of strategic times or opportune times.

Paul is encouraging us to be watchful for significant, strategic, and opportune times to pray for kingdom outcomes as we oppose the enemy. I believe his call to “pray without ceasing” has the same sense. In other words, every time a challenge arises, a temptation floods our minds, the hand of satan is evident, or a need is apparent, etc. then pray.

Remember, it is our prayers that release the power and resources of heaven into any situation. If you are in a war, it is a good practice to shoot anytime you see the enemy or encounter a stronghold. Prayer is our way of shelling the enemy. If the enemy is constantly under fire, he will always be on the defensive rather than launching an offensive. We should pray, then, on every occasion when we sense the presence or work of the adversary.

But what if you find it hard to pray? I love a story I found in a book by Johnathan Welton entitled The School of the Seers (p.40). He writes of an old man who is sick in bed. His daughter asked the local minister to come and pray with her father. As the minister arrived he noticed an empty chair by the bed and the old man felt like he needed to give an explanation. He said, “ I never told anyone this, not even my daughter…But all of my life I have never known how to pray. At church I used to hear the preacher talk about prayer, but it went right over my head. I abandoned any attempts at prayer until one day about four years ago my best friend said to me, ‘Joe, prayer is just a simple matter of having a conversation with Jesus. Here is what I suggest. Sit down in a chair; place an empty chair in front of you, and, in faith, see Jesus in the chair. It’s not spooky because he promised, ‘I’ll be with you always.’ … So I tried it and I liked it so much that I do it a couple of hours every day. I’m careful though. If my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she’d either have a nervous breakdown or send me off to the funny farm.”

The story goes on to tell about the afternoon the old man died. His daughter found him dead. As she talked to the minister she reported that there was something strange about the way he died. She said, “Apparently, just before Daddy died, he leaned over and rested his head on the chair beside the bed. What do you make of that?” I don’t know about you, but I think that would be a great way to go. Pray without ceasing. Keep the enemy on the run. Pray in your own way but, if need be, pull up a chair. Blessings in Him today.

But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron. Tim.4:1-2

Doctrine is one of those words that sounds old fashioned or too theological to be of much interest. However, it is a word that shows up numerous times in the New Testament with warnings attached to it in the same way that Paul warns Timothy in the passage above. Actually, doctrine is simply a word that means teachings (and is often translated that way) or the body of truth the bible reveals about Jesus and godly living. Godly living does not just mean moral living, although it includes that, but means to live as God, rather than culture, would have us live.

We live in a day when the Word of God is under attack. Some simply reject the idea of God and anything attached to the notion of faith or a spiritual realm. These are men and women who proudly wave the banner of atheism and scoff at anything religious. Stephen Hawking, Richard Dawkins, Bill Maher, and a number of other intellectuals and celebrities wave the flag of unbelief proudly and influence those who have formed no religious convictions or those who simply want to emulate their cultural idols. These individuals oppose anything religious but are not the greatest enemies of the cross.

Warnings in scripture typically point to religious leaders who oppose the cross by not rejecting Jesus or God but by twisting or diluting the gospel. A lie which is flavored with truth is the most insidious and damaging because the lie is typically in seed form – barely detectable initially but growing later as cultural values and perspectives water it.

Doctrinal error tends to fall into two broad categories: teachings about Jesus himself and the nature of salvation. Even in the days of the apostles false teachings were beginning to emerge about Jesus. Some said that although he was an interesting figure and had an unusual gift for teaching, ultimately he was only the illegitimate son of a carpenter. Others said he was John the Baptist risen from the dead or Elijah or Jeremiah come back to call Israel to repentance. Even in John’s letters you can discern that some were teaching that Jesus did not actually come in the flesh and never literally died a physical death. Instead, Jesus was a spirit that only appeared to be human. In our day some make the same arguments or say that he was a great prophet but not the Son of God and that after his preaching career he settled down with Mary Magdalene and raised a house full of kids. A few still claim that Jesus never lived but was only a myth although the weight of history and scholarship is greatly against them.

The second area of doctrinal error tends to fall in the arena of what saves us. The man on the street may simply believe that if you live a pretty good life compared to neighborhood drug dealers or co-workers cheating on their spouses you will go to heaven. Muslims, Hindus and Jews argue that when you finally stand before God in judgment, your good works will have to outweigh your sins or there is no salvation. That is “works salvation.” In the minds of many, grace is simply God giving you the opportunity to earn your salvation by your own efforts.

The pure gospel declares that salvation comes by grace alone through faith in the sacrificial death of Jesus. Nothing we can do can obligate God to open the gates of heaven for us but he does so willingly, as a gift, through Jesus. Paul is very clear when he says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Eph.2:8-9). Works matter – but only as evidence of a changed heart after salvation has been given or as a criterion for rewards that will be given by God to the faithful at the judgment.

The most sinister doctrines seem to be those that agree that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah, who died for our sins but that salvation not only depends on our faith in him but also on our works or our religious rituals. There were a group of Jews who hounded Paul from place to place. These men would come in behind Paul where he had established churches and teach that salvation came not only through believing in Jesus but also in keeping the Law of Moses. Paul calls these “false teachers” out in Galatians when he says, “As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned” (Gal.1:9)! The false gospel was “Faith in Jesus + works of the Law = Salvation.” Notice the strong language Paul used as he passionately condemned these teachers.

Jesus also warned about the doctrines of men taught as the commandments of God as did just about every writer of the New Testament. In the scripture quoted at the first of this blog, Paul warned Timothy that there would be deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons taught by men who would present misleading teachings without any pangs of conscience. Those teachings will draw people away from essential truths of scripture that will cost some their salvation while being wrapped in enough truth to be received without protest by many believers.

Today whole denominations are ignoring clear biblical teachings regarding homosexuality and the nature of marriage not to mention 2000 years of church doctrine on the matters in an attempt to be tolerant and loving as defined by our culture rather than scripture. The same groups of believers are questioning biblical infallibility because it disagrees with cultural norms and are hedging on the biblical position that only one road leads to heaven and that road is faith in Jesus Christ.

Believers who depend only on preachers or popular writers for their understanding of biblical truth are highly vulnerable to confusion and misleading doctrines. I’m not saying that preachers and writers should be avoided. I preach, teach, and write myself but I don’t want to be the sole spiritual authority in any one’s life. Every believer is responsible for knowing and studying the word of God for himself. Personal study is the only way to be settled on the revealed will of God and the solid essentials of the faith so that you can recognize the counterfeits of the enemy – the doctrines of demons that are so prevalent today. What we believe matters.

In a world where presidents and politicians arrogantly misquote scriptures to sell their point of view, where Hollywood celebrities push their own brand of spirituality, and where new Bible translations have chosen to be politically correct rather than accurate we need to know for ourselves what the Word of God says and stand on that Word.  Let me encourage you to be in the Word every day – not just reading it but studying and reflecting on what it says. It’s not all easy to understand but the essentials of the faith and salvation are clear. The practical teachings of godly living are clear.

If we are not confident about what God says on many issues we will fold to the pressure of culture when the heat is on. If we deny biblical teachings that are culturally unpopular then, in time, we will most likely begin to deny Jesus. Get the word of God in you. Listen to preachers, teachers, and read great books but be sure to confirm their teaching by your own study. It’s more important today than ever.