I met with a young couple this morning.  They were married less than a year and were already having major struggles in their relationship.  He was frustrated.  She was crying.  They felt like they were fighting all the time and couldn’t understand what was going on. They both loved the Lord and were committed to ministry and growing spirituality so why were they fighting?  Had they made a mistake?  Did they misread God when they prayed and heard him bless their plans to become one?

After hearing their stories it became plain that they were missing one of the first rules of marriage – one of the first rules of loving someone in the Lord. That rule is to honor the way God has made the other person because he has made them for their destiny as well as you for your destiny.  To fail to honor God’s design in another individual gets in the way of developing talents and spiritual gifts – which gets in the way of being fulfilled and fruitful -which gets in the way of love.

When we come to a place where the differences in another individual (especially a spouse or a child) begin to frustrate us our tendency is to get busy trying to encourage (or coerce) that person to become more like us.  But in that moment we forget that God had a very intentional hand in making them just as he did in making us.  David declared, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Ps.139:13-16).

In this Psalm we are told that God creates our inmost being.  I understand that to be not only our talents but our temperament or personality as well.  Our design is also related to our destiny – the specific things for which God has uniquely created us, the things ordained for us day by day in heaven.  Most of us have an intuitive sense of what we were made for and we intuitively push back when people in our lives don’t allow us to “be ourselves.” We aren’t always sure of how we should express who we are but we know what feels natural and what feels unnatural to us.  We know what subjects in school come more easily than others. We know what attracts us and what repels us.

Paul echoes the same sentiment in the New Testament.  “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph.2:10).  Again, workmanship implies that God has an intentional hand in our design and our design is related to good works prepared in advance for us.  It stands to reason that if God has ordained good works for us then he will also design us in such a way that we can be effective in accomplishing those things.  In most cases, it will take not only the right talents but also the right temperament to fulfill God’s call on our life.  In addition, the Spirit will release spiritual gifts in our lives as icing on the cake.

As an example, if God places a call on someone’s life to teach special needs children then that person will need the academic capacity to get a degree and the talent to teach plus compassion and patience to take into the classroom.  In addition, that person will probably need a bent toward structure because the children will need structure. Talent and temperament both are needed and become part of God’s intentional design for that individual.

The couple I met with both had talents and a call to ministry but those gifts and that ministry needed to be expressed in different ways. He was extroverted and gregarious and loved to study the Word in big bites. He loved street ministry and his desire was to fill their house with teens every night for ministry and teaching. She was introverted and loved to go deep with a few people.  She loved the clarity and structure of prepared studies.  A house full of kids every night or approaching strangers on the street sounded like “a living hell” to her.  It is not who God made her to be. Yet, her husband wanted so badly for her to be his mate in ministry that he was pressuring her to do ministry in ways that fit his design but not hers.  She experienced that pressure as rejection of who she was and a statement that her spirituality was inadequate.  She felt rejected by her new husband who really is a great guy.  He just didn’t understand how his design called him to a different style that hers.  I encouraged them to find some middle ground but to allow different expressions of their faith so that they both could fulfill the destiny God had ordained for them.  Their destinies would be parallel as they went through life together but not identical.

Many of us have had destinies and spiritual gifts that never flourished because someone in our lives didn’t value the design God had built into us. As a result, we eventually either failed to value whom God had made us to be or just gave up on our dreams to keep the peace.   As parents, spouses, or spiritual mentors it is not our job to make people into our image but to help them discover God’s unique design for their life and it release them into that adventure.  Our job is to build them up and encourage them to pursue the “good works” for which God has destined them rather than to deconstruct them with criticism and to remake them as we see fit. Remember, we are to accept one another as Christ accepts us (see Rom.15:7).

One major aspect of Christian marriage, then, is that we pursue the destiny God has ordained for us while encouraging our spouse to do the same.  As we each operate in our God-given gifts and talents we will experience the fulfillment of partnering with God and when we do, we will be more content in every part of our life and that contentment will bless our marriage.  Remember the phrase, “Be all that you can be!”  That needs to be our heart for our spouse and children in their service to the Lord. You will be blessed by blessing them as they grow to be all that God has made them to be.

The past few days have been filled with the news about the shootings at Ft. Hood as a tragic accumulation of school shootings and shootings on military bases continues to mount.  Every spokesperson for the military or the school districts decry the violence and promise to do more to protect our children and our men and women in uniform.  Everyone has their theory about why these shootings continue.  Some will cry for more gun control while others will blame poverty or discriminatory polices in the U.S. Some will blame our heavy- handed ways overseas.  The common denominator is that everyone is shocked, everyone is stumped, and everyone exudes a kind of helplessness about the situation.

But over the past 20 years the same people have worked tirelessly to get God, his Word, prayer, and the gospel out of the public schools and out of the military. They seem to relate these tragedies to the failure of laws, policies, politics, or sometimes parenting. No doubt, each of these contributes but the problem is not a failure in those arenas but in the spiritual arena of this nation.

Most of our powerful policy makers in Washington and even in higher education subscribe to humanism and the idea that all men are basically good. They believe that mankind does not need a God to rise above the failings of human nature or society.  They simply need the right education, the right philosophy, the right economic programs, and the right guidance from government.  They often believe that conservative parents and religious institutions simply get in the way.  The truly see God as the enemy.  So…let’s get rid of God and his influence and see how well we are doing.

The truth is that good does reside in each man because each man was made in the image of God. Traces of God’s goodness still exist even in those who have not been made a new creation. However, our fallen dominates that “goodness” until the Holy Spirit quickens the spirit of man so that man once again begins to be governed by God. The psalmist tells us that a fool says in his heart that there is no God.  The apostle Paul tells us that without God the thinking (the philosophies) of men is futile and their hearts are darkened. Claiming to be wise we become fools. (See Rom.1:21-22).  The very thing that can push back against the evil that prompts these tragedies has been removed or is being removed from our schools, our military, our courthouses, and our culture.  Those things that were once called evil are now called good (same sex marriage, drunkenness, false religion, addictive substances, abortion, sex outside of marriage, etc.). At the same time righteousness is called bigotry, hate, ignorance, and evil.

I was visiting with an amazing  brother last night that served as a counselor immediately following the Columbine shootings. He visited with those who witnessed the killings and those who were shot and recovering in hospitals. He said that one after another, when he asked the students to describe what they had seen, they kept describing the scene as “satan pointing a gun and shooting.”  There were no promptings for that remark.  What they saw was evil dominating and directing young men to perform satanic acts of murder.  Only the power of God can push back against the reality of evil.  As a nation, we have asked God to step off the playing field and without him we will lose the game in ways we never imagined.

It’s not too late. There are still many believers who hold up the name of Jesus and pray with power against evil.  But when leaders fail, the people suffer. Strong, unwavering believers must step into the arenas of politics and law (and media) to open our classrooms, our military, and our courthouses to the presence of God once again.  More than that, our churches must rise up and push back against the enemy through prayer, righteousness, and evangelism all governed by love. The down side of free will is that God allows us to experience the consequences of what we ask for.  America voted for our current leaders who disdain the Creator of the Universe. Not all of those in authority are unbelievers. I know that there are a number of committed Christians in congress, but the believers are outnumbered.

Gun laws, giving false religions deference over Christianity, forbidding men and women to pray in the name of Jesus in the military, the promotion of abortion, turning our children over to be raised by government agencies, and removing creationism from education will not slow the rate of these tragedies.  They will increase because only Christ and his Spirit can reverse the power of darkness on this planet because only Christ and his Spirit can overcome the fallen nature of man.  There is no other way.  Please pray for the families of those who lost loved ones at Ft. Hood and pray for a nation to turn back to the one who made us strong and gave us victories in our past. Do it for your children.

I was reminded of a story I heard a number of years ago.  A man was leaving his city on a journey.  It was in the 1800’s, he wasn’t affluent, and so he was walking to his destination. Many people were walking on the same road and as he walked he noticed a man approaching in a robe and a hood.  Thinking that he might be a religious man he greeted him and asked him about his business in the city where this man had lived for many years.  The hooded figure replied, “ I am Death and I am going to claim those whose days have been fulfilled.  Don’t be alarmed; you’re not on my list. ”  Regardless, the man quickly disengaged from the conversation and went on his way.   Four days later he was returning and encountered Death on his way out.  The city cemetery was just outside the city walls and he noticed dozens of families standing around fresh graves mourning their losses.  The man spoke to Death and said, “How does it feel to know you are responsible for the sorrow of so many?” Death replied, “It’s what I do.  But actually, I only claimed a few of those.  Worry and fear took the rest.”

Jesus spoke to his disciples about worry.  “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes” (Mt.6:25)?  Jesus then went on to say, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Mt. 6:33-34).

Most of us agree with the principle Jesus taught but follow up our agreement with the thought,  “Easier said than done!”  Nearly all of us are prone to worry regardless of our commitment to cease worrying.  In fact, the more we focus on not worrying, the more we worry.  We fall into Paul’s dilemma of doing the things we hate.  So how do we escape lying in bed at night or early in the morning and worrying about the meeting, the bills, our health, our children, and so forth.  Thankfully, Jesus offers a practical approach at the end of his teaching on worry.  There he counsels us to seek first the kingdom of God.

The implication is that we can derail the worry train by shifting our focus from the stuff we are worrying about to greater things that have far greater implications. Think about the things of God, eternal things, life-changing things that he allows us to participate it.  If you are worrying about something that you can actually do something about then do it – with the Lord at your side.  But most of us worry about things we know we cannot affect. In those moments think about bigger things until those thoughts produce prayer and prayer produces peace.

Bigger things, kingdom things remind us of how big our God is and should remind us of how much he loves us. A true recognition of a Father’s power and greatness along with his immense love for us should calm much of our worry.  In addition, one of the “fruits of the Spirit” is peace which the Holy Spirit is able to release when we enter into prayer. Jesus was clear that worry cannot increase our days although in certainly has the capacity to decrease our days.  So Jesus tells us to reflect on how the Father provides for things that have much less value than we do and to reflect on the big goals of the kingdom in which you are involved or can be involved. Seek first the kingdom.

Worry is about perspective.  How big is the issue really?  How much difference will it make a hundred years from now in your life?  What is too big for God and why would I think that he would not involve himself in my struggles when I ask? God’s faithfulness, God’s love, God’s power, God’s priorities – those are the things to think about when worry seeps up in the midst of the night. Worry is fear and fear is not faith so think on things that build your faith.  That is the solution to worry.  So… be blessed and don’t worry!

We are always tempted with fatalism. When we say, “Well, I have always been impatient; I guess I have to live with it,” we are being fatalistic. When we say, “That man never had a loving mother or father, you shouldn’t be surprised that he ended up in prison,” we speak as fatalists. When we say, “She was terribly abused as a child; how do you ever expect her to have a healthy relationship with a man,” we allow fatalism to overshadow us…Fatalism is the attitude that that makes us live as passive victims of exterior circumstances beyond our control. The opposite of fatalism is faith. Faith is the deep trust that God’s love is stronger than all the anonymous powers of the world and can transform victims of darkness into servants of light” (Henri Nouwen, Here and Now, p.79).

I have known many fatalistic Christians in my life. I’m sure I have been one myself once or twice.  Fatalistic Christians face disappointment with the spirit of Eeyore. Remember the sad, depressed donkey from Winnie the Pooh who was always hopeless, disappointed, and “unexpectant” about life. Many Christians are that way.  “Well…I guess God doesn’t answer my prayers. I must be one of those God has chosen to be alone and to suffer through life.  Nothing seems to work out for me even though I try so hard.  I keep trying but I think it’s useless. I’m not sure Christianity works for me…”

Spiritual fatalism faces life with a belief that whatever my circumstances are it must be God’s will so I must learn to accept it and suffer through because there is really nothing I can do about it.  Spiritual fatalists expect disappointment and defeat.  They pray very little but if they do they don’t ask for much beyond the ordinary because they really don’t believe that God operates much outside the ordinary.  They view people who believe in the power of the Spirit and the miraculous move of God as people who seek the easy way out.  They toss them into a big pile with prosperity gospel proponents and view themselves as the true believers who endure the hand that has been dealt them with faith and perseverance.

No doubt there are times when every believer must endure and when hardship and heartaches come his way.  We all face that.  Out response is the difference.  I have come to believe that the fatalist takes the easy way our rather than the one who pushes back against the hardships of life.  The first believes that God sends all the pain and disappointment their way to make them better people. The second group believes that Satan sends pain and disappointment and that   many of the cruelties of life are not God’s will so we join him in pushing back.

Fatalists have few questions about life or faith.  They almost take the Zen Buddhist approach to life: “Why ask why?”  They rarely take personal responsibility for their situation because “there is nothing they can really do about it.”  It’s kind of a gambler’s theology which states, “Sometimes the Holy Spirit deals you in, sometimes he deals you out and you just play the cards he gives you.”

Faith does not role over but wrestles. Faith believes that we can push back the darkness with prayer and authority. Faith believes that God is partnering with us to overcome insurmountable odds. Faith believes that we are more than conquerors rather than victims of God’s will and random circumstances.

I have also discovered that faith causes us to not only wrestle with the devil but sometimes with God as well.   When I have believed God for healing or other things I must struggle to understand why one was healed and another wasn’t; why I was given one spiritual gift but not the other that I have hungered for and pursued;  why the marriage I prayed for did not survive even though I prayed with faith; and why the child died when I fully believe it was not God’s will.  And in the midst of that wrestling I am still compelled by faith to keep praying and expecting God to answer my prayers in powerful ways. That is not the easy way.

Faith does not require certainty in outcomes but only certainty in the goodness of God. But because of our faith in his goodness we ask for miracles when others concede.  We see things as attacks of the enemy to be resisted rather than the irresistible will of God.  It takes more energy to pray all night believing that your prayers make a powerful difference than just to shrug off the injustices of this world as something out of your control.  God is looking for people with faith not fatalism.  Where are you standing on the struggles in your life today?  The enemy wants to persuade us all that life is beyond our control but God tells us that all things are possible through Christ and then calls us to put on the armor of God and ready ourselves for battle because by faith the battle is already won.  Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power it says.  In Christ, you can change lives, nations, and history…so know who you are; know who He is; live by faith not by fatalism and be blessed.

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.