There is a text found early in the book of Joshua that I found puzzling in the past. After forty years in the wilderness, the second generation of those whom Moses led out of Egypt had finally crossed the Jordon and begun the conquest of the land God had promised to Abraham and his descendants. Their first challenge was the walled city of Jericho. Forty years earlier, the spies that Moses had sent into Canaan has brought back a report that the land was, indeed, fertile and rich but, “the people who live there are powerful and the cities are fortified and very large” (Num. 13:28). Jericho was one of those cities and the first significant test for the Israelites.

On the eve before Israel was to attack Jericho, Joshua encountered an unknown man. The text says, “Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, ‘Are you for us or for our enemies?’ ‘Neither,’ he replied, ‘but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.’ Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, ‘What message does my Lord have for his servant?’ The commander of the Lord’s army replied, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.’ And Joshua did so” (Josh.5:13-15)

The puzzling part of this text is the way in which the man who, was the commander of the Lord’s army, answered Joshua. Joshua asked whose side he was on. I expected the angel of the Lord (or possibly Jesus before his incarnation) to say that he was on Israel’s side and had come to assure their victory. However, he did not respond in that way but instead said that he was neither on Israel’s side nor the inhabitants of Jericho. He then simply identified himself as the commander of the Lord’s army. His response seems peculiar but only because of our mindset.

Ultimately, I think this is the point. God doesn’t line up with us, we must line up with him. If we want him to fight for us, our first step is to align ourselves with him. We join him…he doesn’t join us. When we think God is on our side because of our affiliations, we miss the point. Achan was an Israelite, but his sin cost Israel a battle and cost him and his family their lives. Although he was a Hebrew, his misalignment with the Lord caused him to be rejected. Rahab was a prostitute and part of the community who lived in Jericho. However, when she believed God and aligned herself with his promises, she was accepted and she and her family were saved.

God is not particularly interested in our affiliations – whether we attend First Baptist or Mid-Cities or Gateway. He’s not impressed with whose preaching we follow most or to whose praise music we gravitate. He is not even concerned if we are Republican or Democrat, American or Russian, or what neighborhood we live in. What he is concerned about is whether our hearts are aligned with his heart. He doesn’t join us – we are to join him. He doesn’t take up our agenda – we are to take up his. That was the message of the man Joshua encountered that night. God would fight for whoever joined him. It is clear that Joshua took up the Lord’s agenda because there was no other reason to march around Jericho once a day for seven days and then seven times on the last day blowing trumpets and shouting. That makes no earthly sense. But once Israel aligned themselves with God’s will and his ways, victory was assured.

Too often, I expect God to pick up my agenda and my desires and give me the victory that I have planned. The Spirit, however, expects us to adopt the agenda and the desires of God that he reveals to us. Remember, Jesus modeled life for us and he said, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does” (Jn.5:19). When we discover that model, then we will see the power of God at work in our own lives.

Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. Hebrews 2:14-15

The writer of Hebrews declared that Jesus, through his death, has rendered the devil powerless. The word that is translated powerless, means to make insignificant or ineffective. Too often, those who are involved in spiritual warfare give the devil too much credit and, in their minds, give him too much power. Paul wrote, “But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, ‘When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.’ In saying, ‘He ascended,’ what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions of the earth?  He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things’” (Eph. 4:7-10).

Not only did Jesus render the devil powerless but he also descended into hell and either set those who had previously been held captive by the enemy free or brought enemy captives with him as trophies – figuratively or literally. Either understanding is possible. The probable picture Paul is painting is that of a Roman general coming home from war after securing a victory. Victorious generals were given a “triumph” by the Senate, which was essentially a tickertape parade through the streets of Rome. As he entered Rome, he would be riding in a chariot pulled by four horses. His chariot would be followed by prisoners that he had taken captive as a display of his power and his authority. After the prisoners, came all the spoils that had been taken from the enemy. Then the general’s soldiers and other dignitaries would come behind. After the parade, which sometimes took more than a day, the general would often throw a huge banquet, giving away gifts and providing food paid for by his part of the spoils of war.

This picture of Jesus confirms that by his sinless life, his willing death, and his resurrection he was completely victorious over the enemy. He rendered Satan ineffective and irrelevant for those who are in Christ. After the cross, the only power that Satan has over God’s people is the power we give him through sin, unbelief, fear, and agreement with his lies and deception. Ultimately, we are in the same condition Adam and Eve were in while living in the Garden. In the Garden, Satan could not assault them, kidnap then, take their lives, or even harass them until after they agreed with his lies and surrendered their authority to him.

Today, as believers, we also give him the authority to harass us and afflict us by coming into agreement with him. Apparently, Satan has the ongoing right to tempt us and cause others to persecute us because we are told to beware of his schemes and that persecution will come to the righteous. But, he does not have the legal right to constantly afflict us, take our lives, or harass us year after year unless something in our lives or the lives of those we are attached to has given him power. When those things are submitted to the blood of Christ and realigned with God’s truth, his authority is revoked again.

I like what Jonathan Welton says about this. “ I do believe demonic forces are at work in the world, but not in the way many think. Most true spiritual warfare takes place in the arena of truth versus lies. The devil is a liar, and he uses his craftiness to get us to lay aside our identity and authority. Our battle must be understood as a battle to maintain our identity, because the authority we have been given as believers is contained in our identity. Many Christians have reached a point emotionally where they feel as though they have been stripped of their armor. They have been beaten to a pulp. They have been chained and are being dragged behind the devil’s chariot as his spoils of war…The truth regarding our identity is that we have been put into Christ. ‘In him we live and move and have our being’ (Acts 17:28). We abide in Him and he in us (Jn.15:4). We have been seated with him in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6)…If we understand that we abide in Him (which also means that we abide in his authority), then our spiritual warfare is very different: we are not fighting for victory, we are fighting from victory” (Jonahtan Welton, The School of the Seers, DestinyImage Publishing, p.155).

In our own lives, when Satan shows up, we need to remember who Christ is and who we are in Him. We need to take a personal inventory and inquire of the Spirit to see if anything or anyone is giving the devil a key to our front door. If we find something, then we should immediately deal with it through faith and the blood of Christ. Having done that, we should reassert our authority as those who speak for Christ and represent him on this planet. When we command the enemy, we should do so with full confidence that we have the authority to do so and that he must comply because he that is in us is greater than he that is in the world (1 Jn. 4:4). James tells us to resist the devil and he will flee from us. The first step to resistance is remembering who we are and what Jesus has accomplished for us. When we remember and stand in that truth by faith, the battle is essentially over and the devil will beat a hasty retreat.

We already have the victory over Satan because Christ already has the victory. We should have no fear of this enemy who has been rendered powerless, but rather he should fear us for we sit in judgment on him. If we want to be effective in spiritual warfare we must maintain that mindset. When we go onto the field to face the enemy we should walk on with the swagger of those who already know that the game and the victory is theirs. It is that swagger in Christ, the certainty of who we are, and the total confidence that victory is already ours that intimidates demons and causes the devil to flee.

If we walk onto the field fearing defeat, being unsure of our Captain, and thinking that the enemy looks bigger, stronger and faster than we thought, we will be ineffective. We will empower and embolden the enemy by forgetting who our Captain is and who we are in him and we will not win the lopsided victory that was ours.

David is our model for facing the enemy. When he stood before Goliath, his mind was not contemplating his own strength but the strength of God Almighty. Goliath had taunted him and had pointed out how hopeless David’s efforts would be because Goliath had vast superiority in physical strength and experience. But David looked beyond Goliath’s taunts and intimidation. In his mind, the battle was already won because God was with him and God cannot lose. With his faith that God was with him, he declared victory over Goliath and charged him with a few stones and a slingshot. The rest is history. It never entered David’s mind that Goliath could win because David was representing the God of Israel. How much more confidence should we have because God is not only with us but in us and our commander cannot and will not lose.

We will face the enemy this year but he is defeated and rendered powerless in our lives when we remember who we are and whose we are. Like David, we have the right to declare victory in the name of Jesus and to charge the enemy. As we do, he will flee. Be blessed immensely and victorious in every skirmish with the enemy in this year to come.

One of the most fascinating stories in all of scripture is the story of Jacob’s night at Bethel which he experienced when he was on the run from his brother Esau, whom he had swindled on several ocassions. We are told, “Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

There above it stood the Lord, and he said: ‘I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’ When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.’ He was afraid and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven’” (Gen.28:10-17).

Two millennia later, John told us in his gospel, “When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, ‘Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.’ ‘How do you know me?’ Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, ‘I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.’ Then Nathanael declared, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.’ Jesus said, ‘You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that.’ He then added, ‘I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”’ (Jn. 1:47-51).

Nathaniel was stunned that Jesus had known his thoughts. We can surmise that Nathaniel had been sitting under a tree meditating on the word of God – specifically this story and all the ways in which Jacob had defrauded his brother Esau. Jacob was an Israelite in whom there had been a great deal of deception so Jesus contrasted Nathaniel with Jacob. He then characterized himself as the ladder in Jacob’s dream.

In essence, the gospel of John reveals that Jacob’s dream was a prophetic picture of Jesus who would bridge the gap between heaven and earth. Not only that but, through him, the household of God would become a gateway to heaven. The idea of the church being a doorway to heaven is both encouraging and challenging. We know that ultimately Jesus is the way to heaven but the church presents him to the world. Jesus is the ladder that spans the gap but we open the door for others to know and experience Jesus. In that sense we can open the door or close the door to heaven by our representation of Jesus. That is both a privilege and a sobering responsibility.

Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for being poor gatekeepers to the kingdom of heaven. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to” (Mt.23:13). These “paragons of virtue” kept men from entering the kingdom because of their legalism and arrogance. They made “rule keeping” the cornerstone of their faith and piled on so many rules that everyone felt the impossibility of “being good enough” from the start. Many gave up before they even started and many felt the condemnation of the Pharisees who considered themselves righteous as they judged all others as those who would not truly make the cut. Pharisees would not even walk on the same side of the street as “sinners” so how could they ever lead a sinner to the kingdom and who would want to go with them anyway?

The Pharisees operated under the Law but some have done the same with the gospel of grace by turning the faith into a list of rules and expectations rather than a relationship based on our immense need for grace because none of us, by our own efforts, can make the cut. Many have felt judged and condemned by those in the church so that the gateway to heaven seemed cold and harsh rather than warm and inviting.

There is also a side to grace that is sometimes abused as well. Sometimes we make grace into a blanket policy that suggests that everyone and everything is acceptable in the kingdom of God and no one really goes to hell after all. God’s love is immense but so is his righteousness. Repentance is a prerequisite to entering the kingdom. If everyone gets in the door, there is no need for membership. The difference in legalism and grace is not the absence of standards under grace, but the basis for meeting those standards.

Under law, you must live up to kingdom standards by your own strength and efforts. Under grace, Jesus has lived up to those standards for us. We are credited with his efforts as long as we have faith in what he has done and a heart that wants to honor him with righteous living although we will have a number of miscues along the way. The kingdom offers salvation wherever we are in life, but calls us to something better, something cleaner, something healthier, and something greater than the world can offer. But it must be offered on the basis of love, grace and humility rather than with judgment and spiritual pride.

The truth is that each of us in a gatekeeper in the kingdom of God. In the eyes of those considering that gate, our lives and our attitudes reflect what is on the other side. If we are judgmental and arrogant, those outside the gate will expect to find a God on the other side who will make them cringe and crawl with fear. If we suggest that there is really no difference between the world inside and outside the gate, other than a “Get out of jail free” card, they will have the sense that nothing for them or their children will improve in this world so they may choose to look for another source of relief for their current pain.

As gatekeepers we must display the character of the kingdom. At the top is faith, hope, and love based on a relationship with a loving God whose grace and Spirit will make life significantly better on this side of heaven and that will make heaven a warm, inviting place for those in Christ rather than a frightening place of judgment and rejection. We are the house of God and the gate of heaven as Jacob put it. Let’s decide today to be amazing and inviting gate keepers for Jesus.

I was previewing a DVD on parenting by Kara Powell a few days ago and I was struck by something she said. The DVD series is entitled Sticky Faith. It is a series about helping children maintain their faith after they leave home and go to school, the military, or the workplace.

She had interviewed a number of college students who had actively been part of their church’s youth group while growing up. Statistically, nearly half of all young adults who are active in their church will leave their faith after leaving home. Powell and her team were looking for answers to the “why?” of such an exodus. One thing really stood out to her from the interviews. When asked what Christianity meant to them, a very large percentage of those college students gave an answer that never once mentioned the name of Jesus. What the interviewers discovered was that many of the students defined their faith as a set of behaviors rather than as a relationship with God.

When they were thrust into a new setting where their Christian behaviors were not valued and in which their behaviors did not win them acceptance with the “in crowd,” they jettisoned those behaviors like taking off a vest and tossing it into the corner. More importantly, when they had pursued the behaviors of the world long enough to be broken and ashamed by what they had done, they did not know how to come back to Jesus.

They didn’t know how to come back to Jesus because they didn’t know who Jesus was or what his heart was toward them. They had been immersed in rules growing up but not in relationship. They thought the behaviors were there to buy them acceptance and to please their parents. When acceptance didn’t come and when parents weren’t around, then the reason for the behaviors was gone. They didn’t know about the love of Jesus and did not have an overriding desire in their hearts to please their heavenly Father above men.

I’m afraid that many adult believers suffer from the same perception of their faith – that it is a set of behaviors that makes them acceptable to those around them rather than a life long relationship that takes priority over every other relationship they will ever have. When those behaviors don’t win them acceptance and approval at work, they compartmentalize and live out one set of values and behaviors at work and another set at church. They have the feeling that “Jesus doesn’t work for them” in the market place, at school, or in politics. When our prayers aren’t answered as we outlined them, we assume it is about behaviors or not doing enough to get God to give us our reward for good behavior. When we feel like we have been “doing all the right things” and God doesn’t “pay off” with our hearts desire, we feel betrayed. When we focus primarily on a set of behaviors rather than on a living, breathing relationship with Jesus, we will never know him because we only see him as the scorekeeper or an employer rather than a friend or father who always wants what is best for us.

It’s easy and very human to fall into the trap of viewing our faith as a set of behaviors, a list of do’s and don’ts, or rituals that we carry out to earn the approval and favor of God. When we slip into that mode we begin to slip into the school of the Pharisees who had a “form of godliness but missed the power” of a relationship with the creator of the universe. If we have a love relationship with the God who is love, then nothing is out of our reach – not because of our performance, but because of His desire to bless those he cares for. Our confidence in his love rather than our performance is the foundation of faith for all things.

So… if we ever start feeling distant from our God or catch ourselves feeling resentment because we think God hasn’t given us what we have earned by all our prayer, sacrifice, or moral living, then we have probably slipped into the “behavior’s mindset” rather than a relationship. If our children leave home thinking that their faith is a set of behaviors, they will probably wander away. If we teach them nothing else, we must teach them that Christianity is an eternal relationship with the Father through his Son Jesus Christ with both of them residing in our hearts through the Spirit.

Are there behavioral standards in that relationship? Of course there are, just as in any family or marriage. The standards exist to bless the relationship but are not the relationships in themselves. The relationship began in love and endures through love. We live up the Father’s standards because of love not to earn the love. We desperately need to teach our children that truth and we may need to remember it as well from time to time.

Many of us who pursue the Holy Spirit and the gifts he distributes are hungry for more.  We want increase. Jesus said that the Father gives the Spirit without limit, so it is legitimate as co-heirs of Jesus to want more and more. The question is how do we gain that increase of anointing? If you are like me, you have already been asking but, perhaps, have not seen significant increase.

Of course, prayer with fasting is a tried and true way to receive more as well. When some of the apostles were unable to cast a demon out of a boy, Jesus did so easily. Later, when they wondered why they had been unsuccessful, Jesus answered, “This kind can only come out by prayer and fasting” (Mt. 17, Mk.9). Since Jesus did not ask the boy or his father to pray and fast before deliverance and because he did not pray before casting out the demon, we must assume that he was saying that a life of prayer and fasting carves out more authority in the spiritual realm than simply a life of prayer. That’s bad news for those of us who don’t enjoy fasting.

However, there is a third way to gain increase and, perhaps, this is the most significant of all for the time in which we live. In Ezekiel 47, the prophet was given a vision of the temple and fresh water that flowed out of the throne room of God and became a river. Ezekiel said, “As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in—a river that no one could cross. He asked me, “Son of man, do you see this” (Ezek. 47:3-6)? As the vision progressed, the prophet was shown a number of trees growing along the river whose “leaves will not wither” and whose “fruit will not fall.” We are told that those leaves would be for the healing of the nations and their fruit would be for food.

The river, of course, represents the Holy Spirit moving out from the throne room of the Lord. In the gospel of John, Jesus declared, “’If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.” (Jn.7:37-39). The Spirit gives life to us and that life is intended to flow out form us to the people around us. Notice that the further the river flowed, the deeper it became. This life-giving water did not pool around the temple but flowed down to the sea where its fresh water would mingle with salt water making it fresh also and creating and environment for abundant life. Very often in scripture “the sea” represents the nations.

The point is this. The further the river flowed from the temple the deeper it became. It was intended to pour into distant nations and become a source of healing and life as trees grew up along its banks. Increase in the gifts of the Spirit occurs as we move out from the church and into the lifeless places around us. We will see greater increase when we begins to exercise our gifts in the dark places of our communities that are distant from God, rather than keeping them in the safe confines of our church sanctuaries. It’s not that these gifts are not for the body of Christ – they are. But they are not only for the body. They are also for the lost and hurting who are far away from the throne and as we take the Holy Spirit to those places and those individuals, the river gets deeper – greater anointing is given.

If you go on mission trips, you have probably noticed that God worked through you in greater ways on the mission than when you came back home. That may be the “river principle” in action. The truth is, however, that we don’t have to go overseas to find those who are far from God. We may only need to go next door or to our closest “big box store” or Starbucks.

To go out in public and exercise the gifts of healing, prophecy, encouragement, deliverance, mercy, and miracles takes a willingness to risk. We always risk rejection and being thought of as weird. We also risk that moment when healing doesn’t occur, prophecy seems to have missed the mark by a mile, or when some spirit hangs on and for some reason we, like the apostles and the boy, can’t deliver. However, it is in that territory that the river gets deeper and if we want increase, we will need to move out from the sanctuary to the nations around us. How else can we be trees for healing and fresh water for life for those who are still far from God?

If we want increase, then we have to let God place us in situations where more is needed. The good news is that when we move away from the sanctuary God does not stay there, he goes with us and in the going we will experience the increase we have been asking for.

Above all else, guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life. Put away perversity from your mouth; keep corrupt talk from your lips. Proverbs 4:23-24

The “heart” is the innermost part of our being. It is where our deepest beliefs and convictions reside. They color and flavor every experience we have and every thought produced by our intellect. Scripture often alludes to the heart and tells us to keep watch over it or to guard it.    In the proverb quoted above, Solomon called the heart the wellspring of life. The word in Hebrew means the beginning place or source like a spring from which a river flows. So for us, our heart is a source of life from which everything else flows.

Biblically, it is hard to define the heart when it is used in this context. It is much more than love or emotions or feelings which we assign to “ the heart” in our culture. It is more than the brain or even the subconscious although the Bible tells us that we believe in our hearts. It simply seems to be the depository of all that we truly are. Some of what is there is beyond our perception so David prayed and asked God to search his heart and to show him if anything that offended God was operating in his heart. We are told that even Jesus resides in our heart. So there is a spiritual dimension to our hearts, a faith dimension, and a character dimension. Out of all that, our life flows strong and clear or trickles out like a polluted stream.

What we speak affects our hearts. According to Solomon, any choice to speak perverse or corrupt things affects our hearts. Paul tells us in Romans 10:9-10 that if we confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts that Jesus is Lord, we will be saved. There seems to be a connection in that verse between our speaking and our believing. God has created us in such a way that the things we speak get written on our hearts. But there is a cyclical process that also occurs for Jesus tells us that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks (Mt. 11:34). What we speak repeatedly becomes established in out hearts and then what is in our hearts comes forth in words – especially in unguarded moments. What we store there by the words we speak then reinforces the beliefs or attitudes or desires that are there so that the heart reproduces itself by prompting the words we speak.

Solomon tells us to guard our heart, which is the wellspring of life, by putting away perverse and corrupt talk. Perverse talk is twisted or distorted talk. It is talk with a spin. The devil is a master at spinning a lie so that is sounds like the truth or a plausible explanation. It is the kind of language that deflects blame to others and always justifies the one speaking. However, Jesus tells us to let our “Yes” be “Yes” and our “No” be “No.” He calls for strait talk because when we begin to speak half truths and put spin on our stories to justify ourselves or to hide our own failings in the matter, then it is only a matter of time until we begin to believe our own lies. It is only a matter of time until we begin to minimize or justify our sins rather than confessing them and repenting so that God’s grace and the blood of Christ can cover our sin. If we excuse our sins, then God cannot. If we blame others for our decisions, then he cannot forgive.

Corrupt speech again carries the idea of lies and deception. It is speech is that promotes death. Corruption is decay and decay is evidence of death. Satan is called Beelzebub – the lord of the flies. Flies are drawn to corruption. Ultimately, corrupt speech is speech that disagrees with or opposes God’s truth. Jesus said that his words are Spirit and they are life. The word of God produces life and health. A word that is in opposition to God’s truth produces death and decay.

Whatever we agree with we empower and speaking something brings us into agreement with whatever we spoke. If we speak as God would speak, then we come into agreement with him and empower his word in our lives as we deepen its presence in our heart. If our words do not align with God’s truth, then we are coming into agreement with lies and the father of lies, the devil. We then empower him to operate on our hearts. To guard our words is to guard our hearts and to guard our hearts is to guard our lives. Words matter.

Ask the Holy Spirit and those closest to you, to make you aware of any of your words that are not aligned with God’s truth. When you discover those words simply repent, align yourself with the Father, ask the Spirit to cleanse those lies from your heart, and then begin to speak God’s truth in the matter until that truth is your automatic response. Then you will know that your mind has been renewed in that area and God’s word then will be your words and will begin to produce the life the Solomon points us to.

Years are measured in seasons. In much the same way, life is also lived in seasons. Although there is some continuity as we move from season to season, there can also be great differences and those differences can demand different perspectives, attitudes, and strategies to navigate well. We must navigate three feet of snow and eight-degree temperatures in February in very different ways than we navigate 95 degree heat in August.   One extreme requires a roaring fire while the other begs for air conditioning. One requires heavy clothing and lots of layers while the other demands light, breathable cottons. One season is lived primarily indoors while the other calls us outdoors. Just about the time we get one season figured out another presents itself. That change can be frustrating, but on the other hand, most of us are also eagerly awaiting the variety that a new season brings.

Sometimes, the God who created seasons for a planet spinning in space, may also call us to a new spiritual season as well. Sometimes the call comes at unexpected times for us while for God that time was appointed before the creation of the world. Moses is a prime example. The hand of God was clearly on Moses as a child who was marked for a great destiny. As you recall, to avoid extermination by Pharaoh, Moses had been placed in a waterproof basket and hidden in the bull rushes along the Nile by his Hebrew mother. The daughter of Pharaoh found him in the water and adopted his as her own. He was raised in the palace and given the training and advantages of Egyptian royalty. At some point he became aware of his Hebrew heritage and began to sense that somehow he was to be a major player in delivering his people from slavery. One day, he witnessed an Egyptian beating a Hebrew and in a moment of anger killed the Egyptian and hid his body. Within hours, Moses had been discovered and fled from Egypt to the backwater country of Midian where he married, settled down, and became a shepherd. He fled Egypt at the age of 40 giving up every advantage he had as a son in the royal house. Then for 40 years he lived the quiet, unassuming life of a shepherd.
At the age of 80, however, Moses had an unexpected encounter with God in a burning bush and a new season was thrust upon him. Suddenly, out of nowhere, God picked up the thread of the destiny he had assigned to Moses and called him to return to Egypt and finish the job. Moses was not excited. He had left Egypt confused and afraid with a quick demotion from the palace to the pasture. All he had experienced related to the call that God was resurrecting was failure. He no longer saw himself as a leader or a hero. He simply saw himself as a hapless shepherd destined to live and die living in dusty tents in Midian.

With each excuse Moses offered, God responded that he would go with him. Moses continued to push back. “Who am I to do such a thing? Who will I tell them sent me? What if they won’t believe me. I’m no public speaker. Lord, send someone else.” The text tells us that the Lord began to get angry. He had given Moses every assurance and had even demonstrated a coupe of miracles. More than anything, God kept assuring Moses that he would be with him and enable him every step of the way. God never sets his people up for failure.

So what was Moses’ problem? There are probably several themes that created pushback in Moses about this new season to which he was being called. First of all, he no longer saw himself as a leader or anyone special. He had tasted failure and disappointment forty years earlier and he had no desire to taste that again. Secondly, life was comfortable and predictable. It wasn’t great, but he had adjusted to it and found a sense of security and contentment in what he was doing. Now God was wanting to launch him into the unknown. If he were younger that might appeal to him but he was two-thirds of the way through life. Moses died at 120. He was already 80. For us, if we think we might live to be 90, then two thirds of our life would be 60 years old. Most of us aren’t willing to step into a totally new season at that age. But that is exactly what God was calling him to do.

Even though the call to lead Israel out of Egypt and into the wilderness might seem better suited for a younger man, God seems to be more concerned about character than age. He can impart strength but he waits on us to develop character. The Moses who saw himself as a great leader was arrogant and rash. A man who was humble and had shepherded sheep for 40 years could now shepherd people and would lean on God rather than his own abilities. For Moses, the fullness of time for this new season came after Moses himself had been seasoned.

So what if your season is about to change? What if God is not calling you to the next thing (a continuation of what you have already been doing) but a new thing that is totally different from what you have known before? What if he is wanting to pick up the thread of your destiny that you laid aside years ago. Would you be willing to step into that season that would be full of spiritual productivity and adventure? Or would you, like Moses, find every reason to stay where you are and die peacefully but without having experienced the fullness of God and his glory that Moses discovered after he finally said yes.

We are in a season of acceleration. Maybe it’s an “end-times” thing but global and social changes are happening at an incredible pace. I believe God will be asking many of his people to step into new seasons with him that may be an expansion of what they are already doing or something very different from what they have ever known before.

The world is shifting and God has a hand in it. Every shift will open up new opportunities for his kingdom to expand on earth and he will be looking for people to use in significant and, perhaps, unprecedented ways in those moments. If the call comes will you be available? I ask myself that question as well. Perhaps, if we actually anticipate the possibility we will be much more ready to say yes. Pray about it. Dream about it. Even ask for it…if you dare.

A dear friend of mine and our church died of cancer this week. She was (and is) a great woman of faith with an amazing family of faith. We all believed God for healing. She certainly believed God for healing. She, of course, has received ultimate healing in heaven but that is not what we prayed for. So what do we do when we stand on the scriptures, when we know others who have been healed, and when we believed God for healing but our loved one dies?

Often, our first thought is birthed by our disappointment. We may be disappointed in God or with ourselves. We may feel that God has let us down and didn’t keep his word or that somehow we weren’t enough or didn’t do enough to merit God’s healing for the one we had been praying for so earnestly. I know in moments like these I often default to those feelings and thoughts. It’s very human to do so but not very beneficial nor does it reflect the mind of Christ.

If no one was ever healed of cancer or if we believe that God does not heal today then we would simply write it off as something God doesn’t do. We would simply accept the individual’s death as inevitable and pray for a peaceful passing. But when we have seen people healed or, at least, believe that healing is still for today, we are left not only with the loss but also with a myriad of questions. Often those moments create a crisis of faith.

In the midst of loss, they’re a few things that I hang on to. First of all, I need to stand on what I do know rather than bowing to what I don’t know. I know that God is love. I know that he is good. I know that he is compassionate. I know that he is eternal and unchanging. I know that he is present because he has said he will never leave us or forsake us and, in fact, lives within us.

Whatever my questions are that may go unanswered I must frame my conclusions with the things I do know about the nature of God. If you wonder about who the Father is or what he is like you can look at Jesus. Jesus told Philip that if we have seen him, then we have seen the Father. In this life, believers must be willing to live with some mystery about God’s decisions, answered prayers, seemingly unanswered prayers, why some are healed and some aren’t, etc. God has an eternal perspective that we rarely have. Ultimately, our reward is heaven. As Christians we profess that we long to be in the presence of God. We profess that we are restless as we wait for the return of Jesus. We declare that all we want is to enter his presence and hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” And yet, when a loved one crosses the finish line earlier than we anticipated, we are often upset with God.

There comes a time when we must trust his goodness and his grace and even his judgment over our own. The hard part is navigating the waters of loss when we have believed God for healing without taking offense at God or ourselves. We sometime assume that the loss of our loved one was punishment for something we did or didn’t do. There are times when illness is a result of unrepented sin on the part of the one who is ill but repentance opens up the pathway for healing again. In addition, a scan of the gospels reveals that healing was always about grace rather than merit anyway. Jesus healed some godly people but he also healed many ungodly people. He healed some with great faith and some who had no idea who he was. At times he healed every person in the crowd but at the Pool of Bethsaida he healed only one. Our reasoning finds it hard to explain God’s choices and so faith trusts his nature and his character and believes that all of his choices are grounded in love and compassion. We then give thanks for the time we had with the person we are grieving for and trust God for the future. There are simply some things we don’t know.

The truth is that, as believers, we will see that person again if he or she was also in Christ. For them, the separation will only feel like minutes. Not only that but our loved one is now immersed in perfect health and indescribable joy. We grieve for ourselves and if we let him, God will fill the void with his love and with the love of others he has placed in our lives for moments like this.

As the saying goes, “No one gets out of this world alive…unless the Lord returns.” Death was not God’s doing. Adam and Eve chose it when they chose rebellion. It is now a part of every life and we must trust God with it. The contemporary church is just beginning to embrace the reality of healing again and there is much we still don’t understand.

So again, we need to stand on what we do know rather than bowing to what we don’t know. God has a heart for healing. It is his nature for he said, “I am the God who heals you.” If healing were not in his heart, he would not have given gifts of healing to the church nor would Jesus have made that a touchstone of his ministry. So why are so many not healed? I think the problem is on our end, not his and so we must continue to pray for healing while we learn more of God’s ways regarding that.

The loss of a loved one to sickness can have two effects. We may become discouraged and decide that God does not answer our prayers for healing and so we never ask again or we can determine to press in harder for more faith, greater understanding, and the biblical standard of healing. I have determined to go with the second option and I hope you will too. I have seen many healed. I have also seen many godly people who were not healed. But I am also confident that we will continue to see an increase in healing in the church in the days ahead and an increase in the expectation of healing until we are perplexed when someone is not healed rather than being surprised when they are. Be blessed in him to day and if you are in need of his grace may the God of all comfort and compassion, comfort you in all of your troubles (2 Cor. 1:3-4).

As followers of Jesus, most of us have opportunities to pray for the sick or the disabled on a regular basis. If you are in any kind of a small group that is almost certainly the case. It is rare when we don’t know someone with cancer or some other life threatening disease these days as well. If you are like me, you long for a gift of healing in the church that would consistently banish disease with the simple words “Be healed in the name of Jesus.” The truth is, however, that the majority of believers who have prayed for the sick have not seen miraculous or convincing healings in response to their own prayers. As a result, they have begun to shy away from praying for anything more than a cold that will go away on it’s own anyway in a week or two.

One of the things we have been discovering over the past few years is that the best approach to healing prayer is typically not just jumping in and beginning to pray. In the spiritual realm, there are things that can block or greatly hinder healing and if they are not dealt with, the healing won’t occur or the symptoms will soon return. Taking a few minutes to talk about possible roots of the condition can increase the probability of healing significantly. Those who serve in deliverance ministries understand the concept when it come to demons but often forget the principles when praying for healing.

In deliverance ministries, we typically do some kind of interview to determine if a person is saved, if they have faith, if they have not forgiven others, or if some unrepented sin or some trauma has given the enemy a legal right to afflict the person. We would rarely try to minister deliverance without leading them through prayers of forgiveness or repentance or without breaking curses generated by the sins of their fathers or words spoken over them by others. The same process is a “best practice” before praying for healing.

One of the reasons for that approach is that demonic spirits are often involved in the illness or disability of an individual. Think about how many cases of back problems, blindness, deafness, muteness, and even seizures Jesus cured by first casting out a demon. Even secular doctors agree that about 80% of illnesses and conditions are rooted in unhealthy emotions. Fear, anxiety, worry, resentment, bitterness, etc. all promote high blood pressure, heart disease, suppressed immune systems and so forth. Those then lead to disease. Unclean spirits are experts at promoting unhealthy emotions. At a healing conference where Bill Johnson was speaking, I remember him saying that a very high percentage of the people they had healed first needed a spirit of infirmity cast out. If we simply go straight to praying for healing we may miss all those contributors.

For example, on several occasions, Jesus made a point of forgiving a man before healing him. That parallels Psalm 103:3 where David declares, “Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases” (Ps. 103:2-3). Unrepented sin is an open door to disease. When those sins are forgiven that door is shut and another door is opened to healing. Under the New Covenant, God declares that if we do not forgive those who have sinned against us, then he will not forgive ours sins. Unforgiveness, then, becomes a real hindrance to healing. Other spiritual issues can block or hinder healing in the same way.

We just finished another Freedom Weekend in which we spend the morning asking the Lord to heal emotional wounds in each individual. We then spend the afternoon ministering deliverance to all the attendees. About two years ago we began to finish the day by casting out spirits of infirmity and trauma. We have begun to experience a number of significant healings at each Freedom Weekend – typically at the end of the day. Bad backs, painful knees, stomach problems, vision problems, arthritis, deaf ears, skin disorders, etc. have become common place healings because we have dealt with the spiritual roots of these conditions before we finally pray for healing. Many of those healed have suffered from the conditions for decades and have been to doctors over and over without solutions.

I believe that if we would take the time to address spiritual issues that have led to the condition or that support the condition, our healing rates would be significantly higher. As we have better outcomes for our prayers, our faith will grow and we will see even more healings. Not only would those we pray for be better off physically but also emotionally and spiritually because we took our time to help them clean up things that have hindered their relationship with the Lord. Let me encourage you to minister forgiveness and freedom even before you pray for healing so that nothing can get in the way of what God already wants to do for his people. As you see people healed, you will be encouraged to pray for others rather than standing back in order to avoid another disappointment. Blessings in Him.

Most of us have been in a huge mall that we are unfamiliar with and have looked at a site map to see where we were in relation to a store or restaurant we were wanting to find. That little red dot with the balloon over it saying, “You are here,” became your reference point. Your next step, your plan for navigating the mall, the time you allotted to finding your favorite store, or whether you even had time to attempt to visit that store all depended on your reference point. Your reference point determines your belief about where you are, where you are going, and if your goal is even possible.  Your next steps were organized around that perspective.

But what if the reference point was inaccurate or out of date or what if you read the map incorrectly? What if some joker had changed the reference point on the map so that you were not at all where you thought you were? When your reference point is wrong, life become a mess and you keep ending up in unintended and undesirable places.

Jesus taught us that the kingdom of God is a reference point for the Christian life. It is a reference point for living and it makes all the difference. A clear example of that difference in found in a familiar story in John 6. Jesus was teaching along the shores of the Sea of Galilee where huge crowds were following him. In this account, Jesus asked Philip where they might buy bread to feed the crowds because they had not eaten all day. Philip immediately began a strategic analysis. First of all, there were about 5000 men plus women and children in the crowd. That translated to least twenty or twenty five thousand people in the crowd. Secondly, they were isolated and miles from any place that sold bread and it was highly improbable that anyone would have that much on hand even if a place were available. The final straw was cost. Philip quickly estimated that it would cost eight months wages to buy enough bread to feed the crowd anyway. If we assume that a month’s wages was equivalent to $4000 today, then we are talking about $32,000 to feed that mob one meal. The little band of disciples had nothing like that in their budget. Philip then deduced that the number might be reduced if there was already food in the crowd so a quick inventory was taken. The only inventory they could find was five small barley loaves and a couple of sardines. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that these people were not going to be fed. Perhaps, they should simply be sent away to find food for themselves.

The reference point for the apostles was the natural realm in which food and money are finite and numbers determine “real world” outcomes. However, Jesus lived from a different reference point. The apostles saw themselves rooted firmly in the natural realm while Jesus saw himself firmly rooted in heaven. There are no resource problems in heaven – no food shortages, no lack of money. Jesus simply determined by faith to draw on the resources of his Father’s kingdom. He blessed the barley loaves and sardines and then began to break them into pieces and place them in baskets to be distributed.  When the entire crowd had their fill, the apostles took up twelve baskets still full of food. Each apostle had his own basket to consider.

Our tendency is to assign the miracle to Jesus as something only he could do. That would miss the point. The point is that we ourselves are currently children of the King, citizens of heaven, and representatives of Christ on the earth. By faith, we have as much access to the resources of heaven as Jesus did. He came to show us what was possible in the kingdom of God for every believer not what was impossible.

If our reference point for living is the natural realm, then we will always be faced with impossible circumstances – not enough money, not enough time, incurable diseases, the fear of terrorism, etc. If our reference point is the kingdom of heaven, then there is a solution to every one of those needs. We may not know what the solution is or how it will come, but by faith we can know there is a solution available.

We should be clear that heaven does not promise that we will never find ourselves in a storm. In fact, Jesus said that is this world we will have troubles. He himself seemed to move form one “storm” to another. But as we find ourselves in a storm, we can know that heaven has a solution. That reference point allowed Jesus to sleep in a boat that was being tossed around in a violent squall while the apostles were gripped with fear and the anticipation of doom. Our anxiety levels in life are directly proportional to our reference point for living. If our reference point is our own resources or our own abilities, then we have every right to be filled with anxiety. If, however, our reference point is the resources and capacities of our Father in heaven and his willingness to share those with us, then why should we worry at all?

Think about it. What is your reference point for living? What are God’s promises concerning his care, protection, and provision for your life in this world? By faith, we have free access to heaven’s resources. If our faith is small, we can ask for more. God is pleased to give.