Let me begin by apologizing for not posting a blog over the past two weeks. First of all, my wife received a total knee transplant ten days ago and the day before we left Midland for the surgery, my new MacBook Pro went belly up and I only became “connected” again about two days ago. So…those are my excuses and I will do my best to post on a regular basis from now on.

I read as much as I can because for most of my Christian life I had no personal mentors because the church culture I was part of did not recognize the value of mentoring. As a result, books were my mentors and I continue the habit of reading whatever God directs me to as much as possible. I have been reading a little book by Robert Morris on the power of words and he has something interesting to say on the subject of tongues. So…for those who read this blog and are not offended or “weirded out” by the subject, I thought I would share his insight with you. Although I pray in tongues, there is still some mystery to the process for me so I like to continue to learn from others when I can.

First of all, Morris’ book reminds us that words are extremely significant and that without the Holy Spirit, we will have very little success in controlling our tongues. James dedicated a great deal of his letter to the subject of how uncontrollable the tongue is and what devastation it can cause. We need to remember that he wasn’t writing to blatant sinners but to believers. Morris suggests that the capacity to control our words and to keep our mouths shut at the right time will be found in the realm of the Spirit and when we allow the Spirit to control our tongues as we speak in tongues, then we also develop a capacity to let the Spirit direct our tongues even in the area of natural speech. I believe that is true through personal experience.

Although that is a very practical insight, he goes on to propose something else that I found intriguing and thought you might as well. In chapter 8 of his book, Robert takes us back to Genesis and the account of the tower of Babel. To that point in history, all of mankind spoke the same language. Most likely, they spoke whatever language Adam and Eve spoke in the Garden. The text says, “Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, ‘Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.’ They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.’ But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The Lord said, ‘If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.’ So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth” (Genesis 11:1-10).

Men had quickly forgotten their need for God and had become focused on making their own names great rather than bringing glory to God. God acknowledged that man could achieve amazing things on his own (after all they were made in his image), but as they accomplished more in the natural realm, with a growing sense of self-sufficiency, they would suffer in the spiritual realm. God said that they would be able to accomplish so much because they all spoke the same language. So…he took away the “one language.”Our own technology today is creating a sense of self-sufficiency and an “I don’t need God” attitude as well. As a whole, we trust in medicine and science for our salvation more than we do God and that is a dangerous mindset that was first revealed at Babel.

After reflecting on the division of tongues at Babel, Morris takes us to an Old Testament prophecy in Zephaniah. Speaking of the Messiah’s time, the word of the Lord says, “For then I will restore to the people a pure language, that they all may call on the name of the Lord, to serve him with one accord” (Zeph.3:9). Let me quote from Morris at this point. He says, “Notice in this verse, God says he was going to restore a language, not that he was going to give the peoples a language. God is going to restore a ‘pure language’ to the peoples. What language do you suppose he is referring to? There is only one language that is pure – it’s the language of heaven, or the language of the spirit. I believe this for a number of reasons.

For one thing, every other language has been defiled. Every language has profanity, obscenity, and uncleanness mingled in. Not only that but the book of Zephaniah is speaking prophetically about Jesus, the Messiah, coming into the earth. In light of that context, the scripture is promising a pure language to a redeemed people.” Morris goes on to say that the common language was taken away because men had become sinful. It would be restored when the sin of those who believed in Jesus was taken away. Zephaniah said that the language would be given so that those who received it could serve God in one accord. We are told in the Book of Acts that on the day of Pentecost, the believers were all with one accord in one place. As the Spirit was poured out, those who received the Spirit began to speak in tongues. Morris then says, “I am convinced that speaking in tongues is the pure language of the Spirit. It causes believers to be in one accord so that they might serve the Lord.”

If Morris is correct, several things follow. First of all, every believer should desire to speak in the pure language of heaven. Secondly, as believers pray in the Spirit more and more, the fruit of unity (one accord) will be manifested in the church more and more. Perhaps then, the churches rejection of tongues has contributed to our disunity.  Finally, there was nothing that could not be accomplished when men spoke the same language. How much more would that be true for kingdom causes if all believers spoke daily in the language of heaven? To do so, I believe, would plant the desires of the Spirit in our hearts so that we would direct our prayers, our resources and our efforts toward needs and goals coordinated by heaven rather than our own desires. I simply offer this as food for thought on the subject of tongues, but it is exciting to think that as you pray in tongues, you offer up requests in the pure language of heaven and, perhaps, in the very language spoken in the Garden of Eden.

Minimal Prayer

Many believers have minimal prayer lives because they believe that their prayers make very little real difference. Perhaps, they believe that God does what he wants to do regardless of what they pray or whether they pray. Perhaps, they fall into that group of people who simply don’t believe that God responds to their personal prayers. Maybe their requests to an earthly father went unheeded or earned a rebuke and they project that template onto their Heavenly Father. Because they struggle with their self worth and identity, these individuals don’t sense their significance in the kingdom and, therefore, believe that God hears and responds to the prayers of   “spiritual people,” but not theirs. Because of that, they don’t pray.

However, God has promised to not only hear our prayers but to act on those prayers when we pray according to his will. The apostle John declared, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him” (1 Jn. 5:14-15, emphasis added). Speaking of our requests, Jesus 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. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (Jn.14:11-14).

Those promises are not just for a few “spiritually elite” believers, but for every follower of Jesus Christ. We also have the following promise. “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Gal. 6:7-9).

When we pray, we sow into the spiritual realm. Our prayers can be thought of as seeds that are planted and then watered by subsequent prayers and faith. When the time is right, the power of God causes them to germinate and answers to our prayers are then manifested on earth. Of course, some prayers receive an immediate response from God, but most require some persistence on our part. That is the “don’t grow weary in doing good” part of Paul’s exhortation.

The essential key to effective prayer is found in John’s text where he said, “If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.” The key is to pray according to God’s will. An old 1970’s  Janis Joplin song summarizes the misunderstood version of such promises. She sang:

Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends.
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,
So Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?

Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a color TV?
Dialing For Dollars is trying to find me.
I wait for delivery each day until three,
So oh Lord, won’t you buy me a color TV?

Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a night on the town?
I’m counting on you, Lord, please don’t let me down.
Prove that you love me and buy the next round,
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a night on the town?

Some people have expressed the promises of answered prayer much like Joplin’s lyrics express them and then label God as uncaring or unreliable when their prayers go unanswered. It is true that God is willing to give us the desires of our heart but only when those desires line up with his…according to his will.

God is not obligated to give us whatever we ask for anymore than a loving earthly Father is obligated to give his thirteen-year-old a pearl black Maserati that can achieve a nifty 195 mph on the highway for his or her birthday. The thirteen year old may want the car more than anything and even have faith that the Father will give him what he asks, but a wise and loving father would never say yes to that request – not only for the child’s welfare but also for the welfare of everyone on the road. God is a good father. He will deny prayers that are selfish, destructive, and carnal because he cares for us and those whose lives we affect.

However, when our hearts are tuned to his, the Father will surely answer our prayers in amazing and powerful ways. In the beginning, God gave Adam and Eve authority over his creation. They turned their authority over to Satan but Jesus took it back. He subsequently gave that authority to us. It is his intent to rule this world but to rule it through his people. Because of that, he honors our authority by waiting for us to ask before he acts in a significant number of things. Since he often waits on us before he moves, our prayers are incredibly significant and even essential to the kingdom. Every believer’s prayers are essential to his will being done on earth as it is in heaven. Never let the enemy tell you that your prayers don’t matter because they matter more than you will ever know. Ask the Father what he wants you to pray about and how he wants you to pray and then see what he does. You may well be amazed.

The shooting in Sutherland Springs has once again ignited the debate over how to prevent such tragedies from occurring again. There are those who want tighter gun control or even confiscation of all firearms. There are those who blame a shortage of mental health facilities. Others are pointing the finger to failed communications between the military and law enforcement or to the negative impact of our president. Ultimately, you cannot legislate morality or pass enough laws to prevent someone bent on destruction from taking lives. It can be done with guns, rental trucks, explosives, poisons, biological weapons, knives, arson, and agricultural supplies.

The apostle Paul was familiar with the violence of men. In his day there had been any number of mini-revolutions quelled without mercy by the unflinching sword of Rome. There were political terrorists who murdered dignitaries in the shadows. There was the brutality of dictatorships that beat, murdered, and imprisoned men for no just cause. There was bigotry, discrimination, and slavery on a scale that dwarfed the American expression of that injustice in the early years of the republic. Paul had seen the roads of Rome lined with the victims of crucifixion and impalement on stakes and had seen corruption raised to an art form by government officials.

In the midst of that, he did not cry out for more laws, more medications, more government intervention, or more mental health hospitals. Ultimately, he pointed to another realm that had to be dealt with before the violence and brutality of planet earth could be diminished. He declared, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph.6:12).

His point here and in other scriptures is that the horror we see in this world is a symptom of a deeper cause. The cause is sin and brokenness enflamed and animated by the demonic realm and the fallen nature of man. Ultimately, three things have to happen to prevent tragedies like Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs. The gospel must be shared with millions not hundreds, broken hearts must be healed, and those in bondage to sin, mental illness, bitterness, addictions, and demonic spirits must be set free.

Only Jesus can do that and he will do it only though his church. I’m not naïve enough to believe that every person on earth can be saved and healed and that all violence will be eliminated this side of the return of Jesus. I know that will not happen because scripture tells us that not all men will be saved. On the other hand, the prophets do speak of a day when nations will stream to the church for wisdom and answers to the world’s most perplexing problems. I also know that the kingdom of God is meant to expand across the globe and as that kingdom is planted in the hearts of individuals they will change, which in turn will change families, which in turn will change communities, which in turn will change nations. We have been given an assignment to make disciples of all nations (not just a few people in each nation) , therefore, it can be done.

As we grieve over these tragedies that are becoming common place and as the world looks for answers, the church needs to find a voice and creative, empowered ways to touch, love, heal, and change the very individuals who might otherwise take a gun to church or a concert. We should know better than to look to government for answers. We should know better than to attempt to fight evil with the weapons of the world. We should begin to look to Christ for individual, community, national, and global answers for war, poverty, mental illness and violence.

When the church looks to the world for solutions rather than the world looking to the church, then we have failed to recognize who we are, whose we are, and the power and brilliance that resides in each of us through the Holy Spirit. I’m not yet sure what those solutions are, but I am sure that our God knows exactly how to establish large patches of heaven on earth that will grow and influence more and more territory like leaven in a lump of bread.

Not only does he know what to do, but he has already commanded us to do it and the resources for the mission are already stored in heaven waiting to be used. Let’s think bigger and more strategically. Huge corporations that influence the globe like Microsoft, Apple, and Facebook didn’t become richer than most nations by force or legislation, but by identifying the needs and desires of the world and offering solutions. How much more should the people of God be doing so? It’s time to expand our vision of the church, to leave our buildings, and to take our place in the world as the appointed dispensers of the grace and glory of God and his solutions to the world’s most overwhelming problems.

I just began reading a new book by John Bevere entitled Killing Kryptonite. I’m just a few chapters in, but it promises to be thought provoking. In the beginning of his book he is attempting to answer a question that many of us have verbalized or, at least, thought about. That question would be something like, “With the Spirit of God within us, with the same power that raised Jesus from the dead working out of us, with the amazing gifts of the Spirit and the authority of Christ resting on us, why does the church continue to appear to be so impotent against the works of the devil in the world around us?”

He says it this way. “In light of being his beloved, we should manifest unselfish character, unconditional love, joy unspeakable, peace that passes understanding, supernatural power, well-being, vitality, creativity, divine wisdom, keen understanding, supreme knowledge, and perceptive insight – and this list is far from comprehensive! Scripture promises attributes such as these on many levels, so again my question is, ‘Why aren’t we seeing this in either an individual or overall church level?’” (p.18).

I suppose we could offer many potential reasons, but John raises a possible answer that is worth considering. His answer is simply that the sin and compromise tolerated in the church makes us all subject to a curse and takes the strength and glory from the church that should be evident there. John points out that there are many reasons we have come to tolerate sin in a church that God calls to be holy.   The first is simply that we don’t want to confront sin because we want to avoid conflict or don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. Another is that we want to give people time to grow spiritually…for years. Often Christians feel that pointing out someone’s sin to them is “judging” and we are taught not to judge. I also think a primary reason that we don’t speak out against sin in the church is that we have been desensitized to sin and are not as offended by it as we should be – not only in the lives of others but in our own lives.

Now let me be clear…Bevere is not talking about the weaknesses we struggle with or the sin we fall into and struggle against and hate in our own lives. He is talking about blatant lifestyles of sin that go unrepented – sexual sin, divisiveness, crooked business practices, etc. that people know are defined as sin in scripture but who will not repent.

These are the kinds of lifestyle sin that Paul points out throughout his letters and instructs the churches to withdraw the fellowship of the church from these individuals if they will not repent after spiritual leaders have gone to them, prayed with them, and encouraged them to deal with the sin in their lives. The most familiar of these cases was the man in Corinth who was living openly in sexual sin and who was coming to the church as if none of that mattered. Paul instructed the church, saying, “When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord” (1 Cor. 5:4-5).

When believers read this today it seems so harsh and is almost shocking. Paul had two concerns with that man. One was that his own soul was in danger because of this blatant, unrepented sin and the other was that the man’s sin put the church in danger. In his book, Bevere reminds us of a biblical principle that as Americans we are typically unfamiliar with. It is the principle that not only does a man reap what he sows, but those connected to him will also reap the con sequences od what he sowed. The clearest Old Testament example is Achan. When Israel crossed the Jordan River and faced the fortified city of Jericho, God instructed them to take nothing for themselves from that city. It was “first fruits” and everything taken in the city would belong to God. After their great victory, they sent a small contingent of soldiers to take a much smaller city and they were routed. Dozens of men lost their lives and when Joshua asked God why he had abandoned them, God said that there was sin in the camp of the Israelites. A man named Achan had taken clothing and precious metals from Jericho and had hidden them in his tent. Achan and his family were put to death for what he had done while dozens of other Israelites became widows and orphans because of his actions. One man’s sin had caused God to lift his hand of protection off the nation.

We are typically quick to point out that the example given was under the Old Covenant and does not apply to the church. Bevere, however, raises an interesting point in Paul’s admonition to the church at Corinth about those who were treating the Lord’s supper with contempt. Paul said, “For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep” (1 Cor. 11:29-30). An amplified version of this scripture might say, “That is why many among you are spiritually ineffective and sick and a number of you have died prematurely.”

When we read that verse, we tend to think that the weak and sick and dying were only those who were “eating and drinking judgment on themselves” by treating the Lord’s supper with contempt by their unloving, selfish treatment of other members of the body of Christ. Bevere suggests, however, that the sin of a few was afflicting the many. He quotes 1 Corinthians 11:21 as saying, “For some of you hurry to eat your own meal without sharing with others….”   But then Paul describes those weal, sick, and dying as “many of you.” Some were treating the Lords supper with contempt but many were weak, sick and dying. The blatant sin of a few can rob blessings and strength from the others.

Remember, we are all members of one body. When one part is blessed, we are all blessed. When one part is damaged, we all suffer. The principle that what is done by one is attributed to others seems unfair to individualistic Americans, but the same principle allows the righteousness of one to be attributed to others who are in the same family. Take away the principle and the righteousness of Christ cannot be attributed to us.

So, Bevere’s point is that when the church forgets the mandate of being a holy bride and tolerates lifestyles of sin in the church, then the whole church suffers weakness, sickness, and premature death. That, he says, is why the American church is not thriving and flourishing as a whole. He also suggests that the solution to the problem begins with our concern about our own holiness before we begin to worry about everyone else’s. The point is that what one does effects every other part of the body for good or for bad. We are not “stand alones.” We are connected and should be concerned about righteousness in the church for the sake of the individual who is blatantly sinning and also for the sake of others. It’s something to think about.