I had a good friend in the Lord text me this morning about having met with a young believer recently who passionately insisted that God no longer speaks to his people apart from the Bible.  I was schooled in that theology for many years and know the warnings attached to it about the devil deceiving us if we receive any direction other than from the Word of God. The expression I always heard was that the Holy Spirit only speaks through scripture in this day and age.  Since we have the completed text of the Bible we need nothing else.

The idea is imbedded in the whole Cessationist view that God no longer works miracles as he did in the Bible and the Holy Spirit no longer bestows the power gifts of healing, prophecy, tongues, miracles, etc. as he did for the New Testament church.  The idea is that God only operated in those ways to confirm that Jesus was his Son and that those who wrote the Bible were indeed inspired. Once the New Testament was completed there was no further need for the miraculous since the record of such miracles should be sufficient. God speaking to men apart from his written word seems to land in that category of the miraculous so he must not act in those ways any longer.

Those who follow this view divide biblical history up into dispensations or eras in which God operated differently – especially the dispensations of the Old Covenant and the New. One was a covenant of Law, an earthly priesthood, the temple, animal sacrifices, and so forth.  The New Covenant is the era of grace, the gospel, the Holy Spirit, Jesus and the church without an earthly priesthood and animal sacrifices.  A mindset that divides the Bible into neat modules of time then leads one to ask how God will act differently in this age than he did before and so this theology ascribes miracles to times past but not today including God speaking to people apart for his written word.

Here is the problem I have with that view.  The attributes or the nature of God does not change in any dispensation.  Some attributes and some activities span all of history because they reflect who God is.   God expects righteousness in every generation and dispensation.  His call for sacrifice began just this side of the Garden of Eden and extends through all time by the eternal blood of the lamb and our lives (living sacrifices) and worship.  He has always operated as a covenant God and has always pursued a chosen people.  When we see God’s attributes in every dispensation recorded in scripture them we must believe that he displays those same attributes today unless there is a clear commandment to the contrary.

We can argue about many things but God has always spoken to his people apart from the written Word.  Of course, Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob preceded the written Law handed down on Sinai. But, since Elohim is relational and relationships have always been formed through personal, two-way communication, he spoke to the patriarchs and their sons.  Once the Law was given we could argue that Moses and Israel had the written record that was all they needed to live for God and keep his commandments.  But in addition, God gave Israel the Tent of Meeting where he could be sought out for personal communication. Even though Israel had the written word, he spoke apart form the written word to Moses, Joshua, all the judges, the prophets, and often priests.  He spoke to simple carpenters, virgins, and elderly widows who spent their time in the temple courts.  He spoke by his Spirit, by angels, by fleeces, by prophets, and so forth apart form the written word – the Torah.

In the New Testament we see the same pattern. God speaking to people through angels, dreams, visions, prophets, and his Spirit and these people were not all apostles or writers of the New Testament.  They were people who needed a specific word beyond what could be found in the scriptures.  In Acts 1, Peter declared that they must appoint an apostle to take the place of Judas.  Jesus had given them all the qualifications for an apostle but when the moment came they had a problem.  The word Jesus had already given them was not sufficient because they had two men qualified to be apostles but only one position. So…they asked God to speak to them apart from the Word that had already been given because only God knew the hearts of the men who were apparently both qualified.  They cast lots and Mathias was chosen.

We have the same dilemma time after time in our own lives. We love the Word, study the Word, and derive principals for godly living form that Word.  But on occasion we need more than principals – we need a clear word of direction or “leading” from the Lord. To say that we sensed God’s leading from circumstances is to admit that God gives us direction apart form his word in miraculous ways Even Cessationists pray for leading and direction in marriage, selection of pastors, missions, and so forth. Why not just look in the book?

It’s because we need a specific word for a specific circumstance and the written word cannot tell us whether to turn left or right.  If God leads apart form the Word through circumstances, or dreams, provision, or open and closed doors then he communicates apart from his Word.  Hearing his voice is not different. And we should not be surprised because God has spoken to his people in that way on nearly every page of the Bible as an example of his hunger for relationship with his children. To say he spoke from Genesis to Revelation apart from a written word but became silent as soon as the last apostle died is to deny the very nature and the patterns of God across the ages.  Even those who don’t believe God speaks hear him.  They simply don’t know that what they are hearing is from the Father. They miss so much and miss so much of the relationship.  My hope is that you hear from him today – through his written word and in many other ways.  Listen…. God is speaking.   Be blessed.

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples (Jn 15:7-8)

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. (Jn.17:1-5).

Both of the above quotes come from the gospel of John as Jesus moved quickly toward the cross.  They were spoken in the upper room and both contained thoughts about glorifying the Father by fulfilling our purposes on the earth. The first simply affirms a clear expectation that followers of Jesus will produce a great deal of fruit while serving the Father in this life and in doing so will bring glory to him.  The second affirms that Jesus himself brought glory to the Father by completing the work the Father had given him to do.

In Ephesians 2, Paul echoed these thoughts when he said that we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which have been prepared in advance for us to do. This might be one definition of our “destiny in Christ.”  That destiny would simply be to complete all the work that the Father has assigned to us in this lifetime.  Remember that in John 14 Jesus declared that those who believe in him would not only do the things that he had been doing but would do even greater things because he was going to the Father.  His words suggest that every believer has a great destiny and that the works God has prepared in advance for each of us are not insignificant but are of such importance and impact that they will bring glory to the Father.

In summary Jesus said that God has ordained eternally significant things for each of us to do – things greater than Jesus did;  that we are expected to bear much fruit to the glory of the Father; and that our goal, like Jesus,  should be to complete all the work the Father has given us for that glorifies him as well.  If that is true then the question becomes how much of that work will we leave undone that was ours to do?

From the casual approach to serving God that many believers seem to take, there may be miles of warehouses standing empty in heaven that were constructed to contain all the fruit produced by those who believe – but much of the harvest never occurred. All of us, I’m sure, pass up some of the “good works prepared in advance” for us.  We miss the opportunities in the busyness of our lives or just turn them down on days that we feel weary or are distracted by the things of this world – not sinful things, just things.  But surely our hearts should long to bear as much fruit as possible for the one who died for us.

I and a few others got to pray with a great  lady yesterday who desired to receive a gift of healing.  I loved her spirit.  Even though she was retirement age she has no intention of retiring from service in the kingdom. She simply wants everything Jesus has provided for her so that she can fulfill everything God has ordained for her. The apostle Paul said that we should earnestly desire spiritual gifts because those gifts are necessary to bear the fruit in our lives that glorifies God. Spiritual gifts go beyond natural talent.  Though they may look the same at times, the results must be very different. One impacts the temporary while the other impacts the eternal.

Without the power of the Holy Spirit fueling what we do, we can produce no more for God than what unbelievers can produce for themselves or their worldly organizations.  In his own strength man can do impressive things – great buildings, great programs, great music, great drama, great marketing, great performances.  Sometimes, churches do impressive things – but in their own strength rather than in the power of the Spirit. I think Jesus had more in mind than that. When Pharaoh’s magicians could no longer match the miracles that God was doing through Moses, they finally said… “ This is the finger of God. “

I believe that should be true for the church. What we do by the power of the Spirit is not something that man should be able to do in his own strength.  The works that bring glory to God must go beyond that otherwise they simply point to the glory of man.  As believers we should never be satisfied with the ordinary but should desire every insight, every revelation, every gift, every dream, and every encounter that Jesus has purchased for us with his blood so that we might complete every work God has given us to do and do it in a way the honors the King of Heaven.  To settle for less devalues the sacrifice of Jesus.  You may want to reflect on that this Easter week.  Be blessed.

“We have two types of relationship with the Lord.  First we learn to live before him as a much- loved child. We practice a childlike faith and innocence.  We learn to simply relax and trust his greatness.  When under utmost pressure, we know we can lift up our arms and expect his greatness to overwhelm us and lift us up into a higher place. Children are uncomplicated, simple and trusting. Second, we learn to say “Father” as an adult in the Spirit, to speak out of a place of growing maturity in who the Lord is making us to be.  “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God are sons of God”(Rom.8:14).

A significant difference exists between being a child of God and being a son of God.  We are all children of God, but not all of us, yet, are sons or daughters of God.  The difference between the two is “learned” experience. As we grow in Christ we experience the other side of the relational paradox.  We learn how to move from a different place of relational anointing. We do not outgrow the childlike stage so as to discard it. Rather we move across the range of relational power from Abba to Father. We need both.”  (Graham Cooke, Approaching the Heart of Prophecy, p. 220-221).

I ran across this section in Cooke’s book and thought it was an interesting point.  He goes on to say that in one sense we never lose the wonder and innocence of a childlike faith and relationship with the Father but on the other hand we must grow up into a spiritual adult who walks in the authority and power of a “royal” ruling over parts of the kingdom for the King who is also our Father.  Paul himself spoke about putting away childish things and growing up into spiritual maturity.  (See 1 Cor. 13:11ff).  There is an infant stage in our spiritual life but then we are called to grow up and become adults in the spiritual realm.

In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (Heb. 5:12-14).

I think many of us fail to grow up in our spiritual lives because we fail to take on roles in the Kingdom that require more maturity.  We tend to sit and watch others take on those roles as if that kind of maturity is for a few but not for all. That is like believing that adulthood is for a few but not for all.  God has given all of his children areas of the kingdom over which they are to exercise authority and stewardship.  Most of us will be given the role before we have fully grown into it. The demands of the position cause us to grow. If we wait until we are fully qualified to step into our role as a “son” or “daughter” we will always wait for another class, more training, or a more convenient time and life will pass us by.

Our goal then must not be just to get to heaven but to also serve God as mature sons and daughters on the earth who understand the kingdom, understand the mission, understand who we are, understand our authority, understand how to govern and understand how to fight.  Anything less leaves the church as an institution of children rather than a kingdom of mighty men and women who are royals in the household of God.

Paul underlines this principle with a kind of rebuke to the church at Corinth. He discovered that members of the church at Corinth were having disputes and going to secular courts of law to resolve their issues.  His response is interesting.  “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account in the church! I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers” (1 Cor.6:2-5).

God has called his saints (that is you and me) to great things that must be managed by mature adults rather than children. You will judge the world.  You will judge angels. The expectation to mature and become strong is not for a few but for all. Perhaps, we haven’t thought about our own maturity and our God-given roles in the earth and have felt satisfied with just keeping the sin out of our lives.  That is a great start but it is only a start. God has much more for you in this world and the world to come.  He has given you great standing and wants you to step into that standing. Let’s get busy taking on the responsibilities of being God’s powerful, wise, holy, and authoritative representatives on the earth and grow into those roles as fast as we can. Let’s get busy moving from being a child of the King to honored sons and daughters of the King. Food for thought today.

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.

The gospels are the story of Jesus but they are also the stories of people touched by Jesus.  They are stories of ordinary people suffering in all the ways the world afflicts its citizens.  These people suffered from bondage to sin, physical disabilities, physiological conditions, psychological conditions, isolation, rejection, bitterness, loss, discrimination, hunger, spiritual thirst, and demonic affliction of all kinds. Some even suffered from death which is a fairly serious condition.  Jesus had an answer for each of those things.

Many Christians scan the gospels and accept the miracles of deliverance, healing, raising the dead, and transforming lives as true but attribute those events to the deity of Jesus.  “Of course he could do those things because he was God. But, we can’t expect to do those things because we are not God.” Certainly, he was God, but he didn’t come as God.  His primary identification was the Son of Man.

Jesus has the position of God but came in the condition of man.  He chose to face the devil and life on this planet as a man rather than as God in a man suit.  If he walked among us as God then he didn’t suffer temptation as we did. He never truly felt hunger or fear or rejection. But the writer of Hebrews says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin” (Heb.4:15).  Jesus wasn’t Jesus before he put on flesh.  He was the Word of God and Adoni sitting on a heavenly throne in Isaiah 6. Before he put on flesh he was God and manifested as God in all things. But when he put on flesh, he checked his God and creator- of- the-universe abilities at the door.

At the point of conception in a human body he became Jesus, Son of Man.  Paul declared, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim.2:5). Paul did not say the god Christ Jesus but the man Christ Jesus. I do believe God had given Jesus the right to pick up his divine capacities at any time if he chose to do so.  Jesus said, “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father” (Jn.10:17-18).  In another place Jesus said, “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels” (Mt.26:53)?   It seems to me that the Word and the Father had a deal.  “Okay, you go as a man, live as a man, suffer as a man, and face temptation like a man but if at any moment you think these people aren’t worth it, you exercise your deity and get out of there.” The miracle to me is that Jesus chose to stick it out as a man even unto death in the face of man’s worst scorn and brutality.

Jesus came to show us how a man could live on the earth when he walked in close fellowship with the Father.  He didn’t come to show us how God could live on the earth in close fellowship with the Father.  That example would have done us no good.  In addition, Jesus sent out numbers of ordinary men who performed the same miracles he did and said that those who believe on him would not only do what he did, but would do even greater things (See Jn. 14:12).   As Jesus walked the earth he touched lives that were radically changed by his love and power.  My point is that he expects us to do the same thing. Jesus expects his church to carry on his mission of preaching good news, binding up the broken hearted, setting captives free, giving sight to the blind, and facilitating radical change in the lives of men and women.

Our church offers a ministry entitled Free Indeed and it is the source of the material in my book Born to Be Free. For the past six years we have watched God dramatically change hundreds of lives in a few weeks rather than in decades. We just finished our most recent installment of Free Indeed and watched eighty people discover the love of the God and the power of the kingdom over a period of two months and a weekend.  Most were changed forever and set free by his touch and his power. People are amazed at what Jesus does in those few weeks but the truth is that we simply teach the basics of scripture – what Jesus did for us at the cross, who we are in Christ, the expectation of radical transformation in the kingdom, how to hear God and receive from him, how to walk in authority, and the basics of spiritual warfare.

We teach these basics over a period of eight weeks and then engage everyone in a weekend of experiencing Jesus through inner healing and deliverance and Jesus always does amazing things.  He does those with the basics of our faith and a lot of very imperfect vessels that serve as leaders – including myself.  People discover who they are.  They experience deep emotional and spiritual healing as well as physical healing.  They are set free from their past, the lies of Satan, and demonic affliction that has hindered their walk with the Lord for years.   In other words, we simply do what Jesus did every day.

My question is, “If we see that much power and transformation from simply learning and doing the basics of our faith, how much greater could our impact be on the world if we plunged into the deeper things of the Spirit and the kingdom?  How much greater impact could we have if we just did the basics in everyone’s church rather than in a few?”  When we take Jesus at his word that we are to do the things he did, faith becomes exciting. When we risk being disappointed because a certain person might not be healed or delivered we find that we are not disappointed because being willing to risk something for Jesus is its own reward.  Not only that, but many, many are healed, delivered, and transformed in the name of Jesus.  How fun is that!

So today, let me encourage you to just trust Jesus in the basics. Believe that whatever he did, he did as a man and as a man or woman of faith, he will do it through you again.   In doing so, he will bless many and you will feel the joy of partnering with your Lord and Savior in radically changing lives and destinies.  Go for it and be blessed!

I enjoy playing golf.  I have given up being great at the game and have learned to live with rounds in which I make some good to great shots punctuated by several disaster holes.  Guys who play like me measure whether it was a good or bad round by the number of balls lost over eighteen holes rather than stroke count.  But you get a few hours away from your normal routine, time with friends, a bit of exercise, and trees and water which are rare in West Texas.  I don’t get to play as much as I would like but have played enough to understand some of the nuances of the game and enough to hit some fun shots, some good shots and enough puts to keep me coming back.

I have also talked to a number of guys who played once or twice and didn’t play well so they decided that golf was a stupid game played by non-athletes and chose never to venture on a course again.  They simply sneer and look with disdain as they drive by the golf courses in their neck of the woods.  I have talked to a number of individuals who have approached Christianity in the same way.  They tried some church, some God, and some prayer for a short while and didn’t really enjoy it or get the point of it.  They entered with great expectations of something that they didn’t experience, tried to live by the rules, and prayed a little before tendering their resignation.  I talk to others who are still in the game but attend out of obligation or to please a spouse but simply endure church services and clear out as quickly as possible after the closing prayer.  They tried reading the Bible for a while but couldn’t understand it or got nothing out of it so they laid that aside.  Now they attend but have no passion or excitement about their faith.

Here’s the thing.  Many things are boring if you never get past the initial learning curve or risk playing badly until you can play well.  Here in the desert I have actually known a number of men and women who are scuba divers.  They qualify by taking classroom instruction and then by demonstrating their ability to use the equipment by sitting on the bottom of a swimming pool and breathing for a given number of minutes.  At that level of involvement, it is simply boring and expensive.  My guess is that if you never tried scuba diving in a more adventuresome environment you would soon give it up. It’s the folks that get into deeper waters in unknown locations with the possibility of encountering a shark that see colors and life forms others have never imagined.  These are the folks that get hooked and feel like there is nothing like it in the world. The swimming pool sitters have learned a few basics but have never really experienced true scuba diving.  Both in golf and scuba, it is also wise to get someone with a great deal of experience to coach you past the initial learning curve and then to take you to a level of diving or playing that is so rich that you develop a passion for it.

Living for Jesus is every bit that way.  Many people never get past the initial learning curve of attending church, reading a daily devotional, or being asked to give financially to support the ministries in their local church.  I’m amazed at how many believers never get past that point in their faith.  They are the equivalent of swimming pool sitters who thought there was going to be more but are about to decide that this Christianity business is boring and expensive.  This is especially true for those who have never experienced a supernatural move of God in their life.

But what if they decided that there must be something compelling about a faith that has thrived for 2000 years and is the largest faith group on the planet; that there must be something compelling about a faith that thousands have died for and been imprisoned for over the centuries; that there must be something compelling about this life when you hear pro athletes say that their faith is more important to them than their high profile careers with thousands of fans shouting for them every week.

If you are that person who has found no passion for your faith or who is wondering why people even “play this stupid game,” I would encourage you to try some deeper experiences in Christianity for a while.  Find someone experienced in the faith who has had a number of supernatural encounters with God and the enemy.  Ask them to take you past the initial learning curve of the faith and to take you into deeper waters.  Ask them to show you how to use divine weapons to wage a war against unseen but very real enemies and then go out and face those enemies.   Ask them to take you for a faith walk where there is real risk and this life won’t seem trivial or boring anymore. Go on a mission where comfort isn’t the goal but real stretching for your faith.  Go out on the streets and pray for people you never met.  Share your faith with lost people or spend a weekend doing prison ministry.  Put yourself in a place where you need a supernatural God to show up and do supernatural things.

When you have chosen to “up” your game and venture into “shark-laden waters” your spiritual adrenalin will increase your heart beat for the things of God and you will find a passion for your life again.  If you are bored with your faith, perhaps it is because you haven’t learned spiritual skills well enough to enjoy God and the challenges he puts before you.  Perhaps it’s because you have strapped on the tanks and the facemask but haven’t ventured out of the swimming pool yet to experience the thrill of the oceans.  I hope you will and I hope you will begin today.  Jesus is always inviting us to step out of the boat because that is where the joy is.  Be blessed today and decide to go for more.  You really will be glad you did.

Some of the best rebukes or reminders I receive come from books.  Sometimes the rebukes are just easier to receive because no one sees you wince and there is no alter call – just a lingering conviction that you have begun to forget the most important things.  Its easy to be busy doing good things but not the most important things. The most critical thing in good relationships is communication.  Our relationship with God is no different. The people I know who spend the most time in intimate prayer are also the ones who hear God most clearly and who are anointed with the most power.  Have you noticed that most of the great intercessors you know are probably women?  I think it is because women are more relational by nature than men,  Thy know the value of communication.  It’s harder for men.  When it comes to Christian men, God probably feels like a frustrated wife wanting her husband to talk to her rather than working on projects or watching football. Men love to work for God but it’s harder for them to spend extended time in prayer with him.  Jesus was a man but he spent hours in prayer on many occasions.  It made all the difference for him and it can make all the difference for us.

In speaking about Jesus and the “money changers” in the temple, Jim Cymbala writes, “The first century money-changers were in the temple, but they didn’t have the spirit of the temple. They may have played a legitimate role in assisting people to worship, but they were out of sync with the whole purpose of the Lord’s house. ‘The atmosphere of my Father’s house,’ Jesus seemed to say, ‘is to be prayer.  The aroma around my Father must be that of people opening their hearts in worship and supplication.  This is not just to make a buck.  This is a house for calling on the Lord.’… The feature that is supposed to distinguish Christian churches, Christian people, and Christian gatherings is the aroma of prayer. It doesn’t matter what your tradition of my tradition is.  The house is not ours anyway; it is the Father’s.  Does the Bible ever say anywhere…’My house shall be called a house of preaching? Does it ever say, ‘My house shall be called a house of music?’ Of course not. The Bible does say, ‘My house shall be called a house of pray for all nations.’  These things (preaching and music) are fine … but they must never override prayer as the defining mark of God’s dwelling. The honest truth is that I have seen God do more in people’s lives during ten minutes of real prayer than in ten of my sermons” (Jim Cymbala, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, p.71).

It’s true.  The Biblical record is that Pentecost was launched by a prayer meeting. Jesus walked on water after a night alone speaking to the Father. When his disciples failed at casting out a demon, Jesus told them that prayer and fasting were necessary to cast out that kind of spirit.  Paul calls on us to pray without ceasing. When Paul tried to preach without ceasing a young man fell out of an upper story window and had to be brought back to life by prayer. Peter received a vision that opened up the gospel to the Gentiles when he was on a roof praying. When believers gathered to pray in Acts 4, the place where they were meeting was shaken, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word boldly.

Biblically, prayer moves heaven not great sermons or wonderful worship unless the worship is lifted up as prayer. All of those are essential to the life of the church put to be anointed with life changing power; they must be bathed in prayer.  Very few churches truly have prayer meetings any more.  We have conferences, worship nights, sports ministries, support groups, and even community service events but rarely do we gather to pray fervently. Perhaps, that is the primary reason we lack power in the American church and even in our individual lives.  “My house shall be called a house of prayer!”  How amazing would it be if every believer could say that about their own home as well as their church. Just a reminder from pastor Cymbala, but a very important one. May we ramp up our prayer life today and be blessed.

I am very concerned about our nation. I’m sure you are as well.  I’m not just concerned about the teetering economy, the decline in morality, or the continuing holocaust of abortions in America. I’m not just concerned about God being pushed out of our schools or a culture that is calling evil good and good evil. I’m not just concerned about the blatant corruption in government and lack of truth telling at all levels. If we had to live in the midst of that it would be difficult enough.  What I am most concerned about are the curses that these behaviors and attitudes are about to unleash on America.

A strong thread runs through scripture that is summarized in Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia.  “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” (Gal.6:7-8).  In the Old Testament there are huge sections on “blessing and cursing.”  In Deuteronomy 28, God gives an extensive list of blessings that will come upon Israel if they faithfully serve God and an extensive list of curses that will be released if they reject God.  Nations reap what they sow as well as individuals.

Those curses listed in Deuteronomy include economic disaster, sickly children and blighted crops. They include failure in everything they attempt, diseases that ravage the nation, drought or destructive weather patterns, defeat from enemies, confusion, a man’s hard work being harvested by strangers, oppression of all kinds, and aliens in the land rising up and ruling over native born citizens. These curses sound like the six o’clock news.

In the book of Job, Satan complained to God that he had put a hedge around Job so that Satan could not get at him (Job 1:9). What we see in that chapter is Satan wanting to destroy Job and his family.  God, however, in his goodness and mercy had been restraining the devil because Job was faithful.  When men or nations sow to the flesh long enough, God is compelled by his holiness and our free will (which also chooses our consequences) to turn these men or nations over to their own choices.  When that point is reached, God lifts the restraints and Satan has access to individuals or nations because they have aligned themselves with the enemy.

When curses flood into a person’s life or over a nation, these curses are not something God has conjured up but they are simply what Satan has been wanting to release on that nation, family, or person all along.  Because of God’s love for all men, he restrains the enemy and these disasters until man has sown so much destruction that it must be harvested.  The law of sowing and reaping then kicks in. Here is the sobering part.  The harvest is always greater than the planting.  An acorn produces much more than itself.  A kernel of corn produces dozens of ears of corn.  A man gets back even more than he put in.

That’s good news if you are sowing to the Spirit for God will give you more good things than you sowed.  But if you have been sowing to the flesh, the destruction will far outweigh the evil you have planted.  Many times the destructive results will affect generations.  Children will reap what their fathers sowed. The biblical principle is that the consequences of the sins of the fathers will be passed down to the third and fourth generations of children (Ex. 20:5).

Our nation is mocking God and sowing to the flesh in abundance.  Jesus said, “To whom much is given much is required” (Luke 12:48).  God has given much to America over the last 300 years.  America has not been ignorant of God, his Word, and his ways.  He has blessed us abundantly in our faithfulness but will discipline us abundantly in our rejection of him, his Word, and his ways.

Our hope is in the grace of God and his willingness to forgive and restore when godly sorrow and sincere repentance come from the heart of a man or a nation. But rather than righteousness and repentance flowing out of the church in America I am seeing compromise, going along to get along, a desire to be more acceptable to man in a perverse culture than to God in his holiness.  A few are declaring God’s truth and absorbing the ridicule and accusations of culture but more are being silent.

God’s judgment, which is the release of the enemy to have his way with men who have partnered with Satan, usually comes first in a slow stream giving men the opportunity to recognize what is happening and turn again to God.  Then the stream widens – disasters are greater and more frequent, and then if no repentance comes, God is forced by our own decisions to open the floodgate and let the enemy come in without restraint.  History is full of such lessons.  Curses are not vicious acts by a vengeful God, but rather the harvest of what we have insisted on planting year after year. God takes no pleasure in judging nations or men. His heart for us is to repent so that he can bless us again.  But it is still our choice.

Our sincere and constant intercession for our nation, its leaders, its people, and the church is still our hope and can be a powerful weapon to push back the enemy.  The authority of believers needs to be exercised on behalf of a nation and our nation evangelized by the love and power of God once again.   Even this struggle is not against flesh and blood but spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. We are in a state of war and we have been promised the victory – but only if we stand, only if we fight. My prayer is that more than ever before believers in America will rise and fight against the enemy and drive him out of this nation so that the goodness and blessing of God can flourish here again. I hope you will make a decision to go to war today against the dominion of darkness and not stop until the victory is secure. Be blessed today knowing that God goes before those who go in his name.

This past year, John MacArthur, a well-respected preacher in southern California, published a book entitled “Strange Fire” which essentially denies the validity of the charismatic movement and the current expression of the miraculous gifts of the Spirit. It has stirred some controversy among churches in America and has invited division among “cessationist” churches and churches that believe in the continuing ministry of the Holy Spirit through the manifestation of all the spiritual gifts.

I continue to be amazed that people would push back against healing gifts, prophetic gifts, deliverance, and other miraculous manifestations of the Holy Spirit in God’s church.  It’s one thing to say that there are abuses of these gifts and their expressions. I would agree with that.  There were abuses in the first century church.  It is another thing to deny their existence all together and to consider any expression of those gifts to be deception.

In his gospel, Matthew recounts a moment when Jesus cast out a number of demons from two demon-possessed men in the region of the Gadarenes.  These men were so demonized that they lived among the tombs and were essentially uncontrollable.  The demons, knowing that they were about to be dislodged from their “homes” begged Jesus to let them enter into a herd of pigs that was feeding nearby.  Jesus did so and the entire herd ran into the sea and drowned. We are told in Mark 5, where Mark emphasizes only one of the two men, that when the inhabitants of the nearby town went out to see what was going on they found the man (probably both) clothed and in his right mind.

You would have thought that there would have been a great celebration and that revival would have broken out in the presence of Jesus, the great healer and deliverer of his people.  However, just the opposite occurred.  All the people begged Jesus to leave their region immediately. Of course, its possible that they were upset about the pigs and someone’s lost investment in these “unclean” animals, but I think they were responding to a supernatural moment outside of their experience that essentially scared them.

That’s not unusual and even people of faith can be frightened when God intrudes into the ordinary business of life.  In most biblical accounts, every time an angel showed up his first words had to be, “Don’t be afraid.” When God descended on Sinai the response of most of the Hebrew people was great fear.  When Jesus called up a great catch of fish for Peter and his partners, Peter was afraid. When Jesus silenced the storm on Galilee, his apostles were stunned and I think felt that same sense of panic that all men feel when they first encounter the supernatural.

I believe that is a large part of the “push back” against the miraculous move of the Spirit in the 21^st Century.   Men hunger for the supernatural but when it shows up they often panic. What draws men to “haunted houses” or fuels “reality shows” about the paranormal?  Graham Cooke points out that a hunger for the supernatural is part of our DNA which was attached to us when we were made in the image of God. Although the DNA has been fragmented by sin, we still hunger after the spiritual and something that takes us beyond the natural. It a way, that hunger points us home to heaven.

It seems that we hunger for the miraculous or the “supernatural” while fearing it at the same time.  When demons are cast out, some believers invite those who do such things to leave their church right away.  The biblical record is that whenever God showed up in unusual ways, people “freaked.”  That feeling might be evidence of a true encounter with the living God rather than something to be avoided.

That’s not to say that anything goes.  We are to test the spirits and to test prophecies and even the miraculous gifts of the Spirit are to be exercised in an orderly way.  But what is orderly to God may not be orderly to the religious among us who want no surprises in their interaction with God. The response of the Pharisees was first to deny that miracles happened and that those who thought they had seen something had been tricked or deceived.  When they could not deny that a miracle had occurred they simply declared that it was the work of Satan because Jesus or his disciples had not worked in a prescribed manner that fit their theology.  Religion wants to control life and even control God with rules and boundaries that leave no room for the miraculous intrusion of God into life or a church service.

Again, the biblical record shows us that the nature of God is to intrude into the natural order of things in unprecedented and unexpected ways.  “Let’s just march around Jericho seven times and blow trumpets.  Let’s turn the Nile to blood. Let’s have the leper go dip in the Jordan River seven times. Let’s feed five thousand men plus women and children with a few loaves and fish.  Let’s walk on water. Let’s call this guy out who has been dead for four days.” God chose to intervene in amazing ways in the life of his people with moments that were unanticipated, made no earthly sense, and that scared many of the people who witnessed the invasion of earth by the powers of heaven.  Why would he not continue to do so today?

If a hunger for the supernatural is part of our DNA, then when we block the miraculous ministry of the Spirit in our churches, we force God’s people to satisfy that hunger in other places. I’m not saying that we should seek miracles for the sake of miracles but that we should invite the Father, the Son and the Spirit to show up and intrude in the natural order of our lives and church services in any way they choose. At times, it will be unusual and should be unusual because that is how God has always operated.  For those who have never experienced God in those ways, it might even be a little scary.  Seeing demons manifest for the first time and seeing them driven out for the first time can be eye opening. But God is eye opening.

My hope is that in 2014, we will see the miraculous move of God more and more in our lives and churches, but unlike the Gadarenes, we will not beg Jesus to leave but rather to stay. If we want more of God then we will have to invite God in as he is, not as we want him to be.  And…if there is not “eyebrow raising” going on, then Jesus is probably not present because wherever he went, he surprised people and on occasion, even frightened them a little. Be blessed this year and invite Jesus to do the unexpected in your life and even in your church!

The church today is hungry for more.  God’s people not only want to hear about God but to experience him as well. God is moving in unprecedented power around the globe and great numbers of believers in American churches are hungering to be part of that move. Conferences and books about healing and prophecy and other “power gifts” of the Spirit are multiplying. Many of those conferences are turning people away because registration takes them beyond seating capacity weeks before the conference begins.

For some, this growing emphasis on the Holy Spirit and miraculous gifts is alarming. Many of us who grew up in mainline denominations in America were taught that “spiritual experiences” were dangerous, deceptive, and should be avoided. We were taught that faith comes from more and more Bible knowledge rather than through supernatural experiences with Jesus.

But many have come to realize that knowing more and more about God without experiencing him does not really build a relationship any more than just reading everything you can about a famous person makes you his/her best friend.  Obviously reading God’s word is essential and a life of lifting up prayers to God is praiseworthy.  And yet, unless we hear God speak to us in response to our prayers, see him answer our prayers in powerful ways, or experience him working through us in ways we could not have imagined the relationship will never be what it could be  – for us or for God.

People are seeking more of God and more of his Spirit.  They are pursuing spiritual gifts and no longer want to be a people who merely explain God to others but who connect others to God through the exercise of the miraculous gifts of the Spirit.  That is, in fact, the New Testament pattern. Three thousand were added to the church on Pentecost through the preaching of the gospel but they were prepared to receive the gospel through the miraculous manifestation of tongues where every man heard the proclamation of God and his good news in his own language. Throughout the gospels, the book of Acts and the epistles, mighty works were being done in the name of Jesus and people were praising God and coming to faith in the anointed one of God.  God’s Spirit is moving in the same ways now.

Will this most recent move of the Spirit be abused and will some be led astray?  Of course.  Satan twists and counterfeits every authentic move of God.  The gifts were abused in Corinth but Paul continued to exhort them to earnestly desire those spiritual gifts rather than making an effort to shut them down. The Lord’s Supper was abused in Corinth as well but no one objects to churches participating in the body and blood of Christ because it might lead to strange doctrines and deception. Instead of minimizing the spiritual gifts or warning people about them, Paul simply taught them how to exercise the gifts, test the prophecies, and to make sure that their motive for exercising the gifts was love rather than power or personal notoriety.

In Acts 17, Paul learned a powerful lesson regarding knowledge about God without experiencing God.  In that chapter, Paul made a stop in Athens.  Being a first-rate scholar he checked out the philosophical debates being aired in the Areopagus and gave his best, most scholarly presentation of the gospel and the resurrection.  If you read the chapter, you will discover that the Athenian philosophers found his “new teaching” very interesting but were not convinced.  Only a few expressed faith in Jesus and Paul was extremely disappointed.  His next stop was Corinth.  In his first letter to the Corinthian church Paul recounted his revised approach to sharing the gospel with them. “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on man’s wisdom, but on God’s power” (1 Cor. 2:4-5).

Paul had used wise and persuasive words in Athens with little to show for it. He decided that a demonstration of the Spirit’s power would be a much better strategy.  In a sense, men didn’t need more information about God but needed to experience the reality of God for real faith to be established.  How many of us have talked to an unbelieving loved one over and over again with nothing to show for the effort. We keep thinking that one more argument or a few more facts will push them over the threshold of faith.  But they don’t need more information about God, they need to experience him.  The exercise of a spiritual gift (a word of knowledge, a prophetic word, healing, etc.) possessed by some believer could provide that experience.

I’m not saying that experience without the Word of God is the way to faith.  All experience must be grounded on the Word of God and must be consistent with the revelation of that Word. What I am saying is that God never intended for us to have only an academic understanding of who he is but an experiential understanding as well.  The gifts of the Spirit are primary pathways for that experience.

That is what the church is hungering for today – not just to hear about God but to hear God, to see him, and to feel him as well.  Under the Old Covenant, God revealed himself to men in ways they could experience with both their physical and their spiritual senses.  God revealed himself to his people through angelic visitations, direct words, fie and smoke on the top of Sinai, in the pillar of fire and the cloud that directed Israel in the wilderness, through the Shekinah glory that would descend on the tent of meeting and later the tabernacle, through daily provision of manna and water bursting forth from rocks. We live under an even better covenant with the Spirit of God himself living in us.  How much more should we expect to experience our Father than the people of the Old Testament?

I believe God is creating a hunger for more in his people today that they might seek him and his Spirit more. Spiritual gifts are an expression of God’s love for people.  Healing is a grace.  A prophetic word that strengthens, comforts and encourages is a grace. Deliverance from demons is a grace.  All these gifts and more are ways that God loves his church and the lost through the manifestation of his goodness with these gifts.  Churches that push back against these gifts of the Spirit also push back against the Spirit. As they quench the Spirit they quench the outpouring of God’s love. I know that is not their intent, but it is the unintended outcome.

If we fear deception and want to keep people from error then perhaps we should adopt Paul’s tact. Rather than suppressing or denying the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, we should instruct our people on how to use those gifts in biblical ways with biblical motives to produce biblical outcomes.  If God’s people are hungering for more, then perhaps we should feed them. The church’s fear of the miraculous and heightened suspicion of unusual manifestations of God today may cause many to miss him altogether. My hope is that God’s church in America will choose to embrace all that God has for his children and be open to receiving from God in ways we have not experienced before. God loves to do new things. Be blessed.

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland… to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise. (Isa.43:18-21)