Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5:15-19

The idea of being filled with the Spirit is an important and consistent theme throughout the New Testament. Apparently, it is not a steady state in the life of a believer or Paul would have no need to admonish the church to abstain from drunkenness and instead be filled with the Spirit. Although the Holy Spirit is always present within a believer, we are not always “filled with the Spirit.” Not only that, but since Paul commanded the church to be filled, we apparently have a part to play in that filling or refilling. So what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit and what is our part?

I don’t know that I fully understand everything having to do with being Spirit-filled. In fact, I’m certain that I don’t. But I would like to share some thoughts on the subject. First of all, I am led to think about the symbols of the Holy Spirit in scripture. He is likened most often to fire, to wind, to oil, and to water. We typically think about being on fire rather than being filled with fire. We think of being blown by the wind or overpowered by it rather than being filled with it. We think of oil being on us rather than in us. But Jesus likened the Spirit to streams of living water pouring out of us (Jn.7:38), so I think water may be the thing we think about when attempting to understand being filled.

Water is powerful, cleansing, refreshing, and life giving. No water, no life. No Spirit, no spiritual life. When filling a vessel, water intrudes into every nook and cranny of the vessel but does not truly fill it unless it is empty of everything else. For instance, we ordinarily speak of filling an aquarium with water but that language is inaccurate. The truth is that the aquarium can still be half full of gravel, plants, coral, and fish. Accurately, it is only half-filled with water. To be fully filled with water means that everything else has to be removed. Most of us, as believers, are only partially filled with the Holy Spirit while our container is still significantly filled with self, worldly desires, and sometimes an occasional demon or two. That, of course, is the average condition of most new believers. The idea is for a new believer to begin to let the Spirit displace and push out everything else so that we become Spirit-filled. In the New Testament, men and women who showed exceptional boldness or who operated in signs and wonders were said to be filled with the Spirit. It didn’t take years for that filling to occur. It only took faith and surrender and could happen in a few minutes if the heart was right.

That idea of being Spirit-filled is still somewhat vague so let’s define it in practical terms. Being filled with the Spirit is about the degree to which the Spirit manifests his character and power in us which ultimately depends on the level of control we turn over to him. When we are filled with the Spirit, the Spirit is leading and manifesting his presence so that the works of Jesus might continue through us. The more of our life we release to his direction, the more the old man and the demonic is displaced. Both the old man and the demonic are all about self-sufficiency. The lure of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was the capacity to obtain wisdom without God and in doing so to become like God ourselves. To become God-sufficient removes self and Satan so that the fullness of the Holy Spirit can be expressed through us.

Jesus expressed this condition when he said that he could only do what he saw the Father doing and could only speak what he heard the Father saying. I believe he chose that condition daily. Jesus was so submitted the Spirit that he waited for the Spirit to initiate his actions, his words, and his decisions. When we willingly become an extension of the Holy Spirit he will fill us and then we will do the works of Jesus. So how do we move in that direction?

A great deal of the ground we take in our effort to be Spirit-filled will be gained through prayer. The first baptism or filling by the Spirit occurred at a prayer meeting on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2). We can safely assume that those gathered together in prayer were surrendering their hearts and lives to Jesus not offering up a shopping list to satisfy the natural man.

First, we must maintain a sincere desire to be filled with the Spirit – to be fully directed by the Spirit and to manifest his character, his values, and his priorities. Inviting him to take the lead, to reveal our self-sufficient strongholds, to change our hearts, and to give us a sensitivity to his leading will likely need to be a daily prayer. Fasting will help break the power of the flesh and the Word will feed and shape the spiritual man.

Secondly, obedience to the directions and urgings of the Spirit will be paramount. Jesus said that if we love him we would keep his commandments. We simply exchange our agenda with his on a day-by-day basis. Sometimes we resist this kind of surrender because we fear that we will be lost in the process and no longer have any identity or significance. This surrender of control isn’t giving up who we are but rather discovering who we were meant to be.

Gifted athletes engage coaches and them give up control of their diets, workouts, and strategies to the coach so that he can help them to become everything they can be as an athlete. It is the coach who through an objective eye can see faults that the athlete himself could never detect. It is the coach who will push the athlete to run one more lap or do one more set of exercises that the flesh of his client would never be willing to do. By giving up control to the “expert,” the athlete will become much more than he could have ever become on his own. God has carefully and uniquely made each of us and does not want to erase us or our individuality, but rather to maximize who he made us to be in partnership with the Spirit. Our part is to fully cooperate in that enterprise.

When we willingly and consistently surrender to his leading, then the Spirit can radically transform us into the image of Jesus Christ. He can entrust gifts, spiritual power, and kingdom responsibilities to us that will be world-changing. When the Spirit is directing us we can walk in boldness knowing that we are on an assignment from God and that he will resource and protect us as we complete his assignments. When we begin to experience the fullness of the Spirit then revelation will flow our way because we will be living in intimacy and friendship with Jesus who will tell us all things because we have become friends and not just servants.

Paul commands us to be filled with the Spirit because to give up control and dominion is an ongoing decision of the will. Being “filled” is a constant goal of every mature believer. In reality, the flesh works to erode our dependence on God and push us back toward self-sufficiency. Some days the flesh will win a few battles and we will have to retake that ground. However, if our heart is sincere in seeking and surrendering to the Spirit, then he will do marvelous things with us even when our “spiritual aquarium” still has some rocks, plants, and coral in it. As we persist in prayer and obedience to the Spirit, the debris in the aquarium will diminish year after year. Our goal is for only water to remain. When that occurs, then we will have truly become like Jesus.

Have you ever thought about what God uses as catalysts for radical change in men and women? Most of us would quickly say that we want to be more like Jesus and would welcome anything that would accelerate the process. If you asked the standard Christian how God changes us, he would probably respond that Bible study, prayer, and church attendance are the keys. Those are undoubtedly good things and even essential things in the life of believers, but what do we see in scripture as the most catalytic change agent in the lives of God’s people from Genesis to Revelation? That can be answered in one word – Encounter.

An encounter with the living God is the most remarkable catalyst for change in the Bible. The encounter can come in various packages – a voice from heaven, a burning bush, an angelic visitation, a dream or a vision, manna in the morning, healing, resurrection, miraculous deliverance from lions or fire, miraculous provision, victories over impossible odds or fire dancing on your head and strange languages coming out of your mouth. The Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Gideon, David, Daniel, Joseph, Saul of Tarsus, Peter, etc. were profoundly changed by personal encounters with God rather than increased time in the Torah. Even David who sings the praises of the Word of God throughout the Psalms apparently was able to experience God in the sanctuary as he “sought his face.” David’s emphasis on the amazing goodness of God’s Word and his commandments came from his experiences with God and the knowledge that keeping God’s word carefully aligned us for even more encounters.

By the time we get to the book of Acts, encountering God through the Holy Spirit became a daily event in the life of believers as they experienced unusual boldness in sharing the gospel, found themselves healing the sick, casting out demons, uttering prophecies, and learning to be led by the Holy Spirit on a daily basis. Our standard catalysts of Bible study, prayer, and “church attendance” were never intended to be ends in themselves but are intended to lead us into regular encounters with God.

The Pharisees with whom Jesus had so many unpleasant conversations were men of prayer, men of Bible study who “searched the scriptures,” and men of the synagogue. But they were not changed. They could not recognize Jesus for who he was. As Jesus said, they were clean on the outside but rotten on the inside. There were, of course, a few truth seekers among them. Nicodemus was one. When he came to Jesus by night seeking some spiritual insight, Jesus told him that he needed to be born again – born of water and the Spirit. A better translation of “born again” might be “born from above.” In other words, Nicodemus needed a life-changing encounter with God through the Holy Spirit.

Three years with Jesus seemed to have had minimal effect on the disciples because they were encountering God through Jesus rather than having direct personal encounters. No doubt, some of the things they saw Jesus do rocked their world and opened their eyes to greater possibilities than they had ever been offered in synagogue but their direct encounter with the Holy Spirit on Pentecost was the truly transformative moment for each of them that was a gateway for more encounters.

From the beginning, God did not want man to simply know about him but rather to have personal encounters with him. That is why he would walk with Adam and Eve in the garden in the cool of the evenings. He still desires that. If your spiritual life has simply been an effort to acquire more information about God, to know your Bible better, or to be certain of your doctrinal standings then you have missed the point. The point is to encounter God in a supernatural way. I am not trying to diminish the value of Bible study. It is essential, but it is not an end in itself. It is not just an ancient picture to be hung on the wall and admired, but a living map to lead us into life-changing encounters with the creator of the universe. Scripture says that if we seek God, with all of our hearts we will find him. Notice our goal is to find him, not just find out about him. May you encounter him today in a way that changes your life forever.

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.

Most churches in America today still only give the Holy Spirit an honorable mention, even though he is an equal member of the Godhead – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Most believers know that the Holy Spirit lives inside them in some way but beyond that they have little knowledge of the Holy Spirit as God, as a person, and as the source of power for living out the commands and mandates of Jesus. It’s amazing that scripture puts so much emphasis on the Holy Spirit while the church, by and large, gives little attention to this third part of the Trinity. And yet without the Spirit, we can in no way live the life that Jesus has called us to live.

In fact, Jesus said that the best thing he could do for his followers was to leave them, return to the Father, and send the Holy Spirit (Jn. 16:7). To his disciples at that moment, that must have seemed like an empty promise. After all, who or what could replace the presence of Jesus? He was the teacher, the healer, and the provider. He could calm storms with a command, walk across lakes, feed thousands with a box lunch, and drive away demons. What could be better than that? However, Jesus kept insisting that he was leaving but, ultimately, his followers would be better off. Peter would become the proof of that pudding.

Peter had been part of the Lord’s inner circle for three years. He had heard every sermon, seen every miracle, and been taught how to pray by the Son of God himself. For three years, he had Jesus himself as a personal mentor and role model. What could be better? But Jesus in the flesh had limitations. He could teach like no man had ever taught but his influence was from the outside in. Now he was going to send a teacher and a counselor whose influence would be from the inside out. The difference is stunning,

With all the teaching, the training, the mentoring, and Jesus as his personal life coach, Peter still stumbled along. Although he got a few things right, there was still such a shortfall. Even on the night of Jesus’ arrest, Peter was arguing with James and John about who was the greatest disciple. A few hours after that, Jesus was arrested and Peter, along with the others, scattered into the night. Although Peter followed from a distance, he still denied even knowing Jesus three times in the courtyard of the high priest. After discovering the empty tomb, Peter still did not believe Mary’s testimony that she had seen the risen Jesus until Jesus made a personal appearance with his disciples. Where was the teaching, the training, the modeling, the prayer, and the effect of seeing hundreds of miracles then?

Fifty days later, Jesus fulfilled his promise. He returned to heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to his followers. On the day of Pentecost, the disciples were in an upper room adjacent to the Temple courts and the Holy Spirit fell on them, filled them, and overwhelmed them. Suddenly the inner influence and power of the Spirit took Peter into the Temple courts where he declared the gospel of Jesus Christ with boldness, revelation, and power. What Jesus could not do in Peter’s heart in three years, the Holy Spirit did in a few hours. Jesus was right. It was better for him to go so that he could work from the inside out of those who follow him through his Spirit.

Something else shifted with the internal presence of God in each believer as well. Early in the gospels, Jesus gave power and authority to his twelve apostles and then later to seventy-two other disciples. These men went ahead of Jesus preaching the good news of the kingdom of God, healing the sick, raising the dead, and casting out demons. Their demonstration of the kingdom was to point to Jesus. Both groups came back “blown away” by what they had been able to do in the name of Jesus. And yet, that power and authority seemed only temporary. We have no record of the apostles or other disciples operating in that kind of power after that season of ministry. However, after his resurrection, Jesus instructed his followers to wait in Jerusalem until he sent the Spirit to empower them as well as transform them. After Pentecost, the gifts of the Spirit defined the ministry of the church. These gifts which included healings, miracles, prophecy, etc. were not just for a brief season but for a lifetime. We are told that Peter walked in such an anointing that even his shadow would heal those it touched.

Jesus was right. It was better for us that he returned to the Father and sent the Spirit so that the presence of God could live within each of us. We are called the Temple of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. The word for “temple” does not refer to the larger complex and courts of the temple but the “naos” which was the Holy Place and Holy of Holies where the glory of God rested. As a result of Jesus leaving and sending his Spirit, we are each the Holy of Holies.

The Father sent the Son, the Son returned to the Father, and the Son sent the Spirit. Jim Cymbala points out that the Holy Spirit is God’s current agent on the earth and wonders why the church has neglected the Spirit of God in its teachings to the point that few believers know much about the ministry and gifts of the eternal Spirit. Since just about everything in the kingdom is received and activated by faith, our ignorance of the Spirit keeps us from receiving and walking in most of what he has for us. There are empty church buildings all over America that attest to the absence of the Spirit rather than his presence. Jesus made it clear that his followers could not be effective witnesses of his reality until they received power on that Day of Pentecost in Jerusalem. For us to be effective witnesses who live lives that point to Jesus, we too must have the fullness of the Spirit.

A life that is not plugged into the power and resources of the Holy Spirit, even if a person believes in Jesus, will look minimally different from those who don’t even know him. That is not an effective witness. It simply takes the power of the Spirit to overcome the flesh, facedown the enemy, and demonstrate the reality of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

On the other side of the equation, there are churches that make the Holy Spirit and his gifts the central emphasis of all they do. Jesus clearly stated that the Spirit would bring glory to Jesus, not himself (Jn.16:14). We must always keep our eyes on the giver of the gift not just on the gift itself. But the giver also expects us to love the gift, enjoy the gift, and use the gift to its fullness. It his case, the gift is the Holy Spirit who brings the presence of God to us. Certainly there are excesses in some churches regarding the Holy Spirit, but that should not deter us from experiencing the Spirit as Jesus intended. I remember Bill Johnson saying that he feared lack more than excess when it came to the Spirit. I would agree with that.

Jesus told us that the Father gives the Spirit without limit (Jn. 3:34) so we may assume that he wants us to receive the Spirit without limit. May we and the church be open to everything God wants us to have via the Holy Spirit so that we can be effective witnesses for Jesus and be a people that stand out from the world rather than blending in. Ask for it all.

One of the great healing evangelists of the early 20^th Century was John G. Lake. In his lifetime he established hundreds of churches in North America and Africa and healed hundreds of thousands. In 1910, he and his family believed that God had called them to Africa to preach the gospel. As they landed on African soil a plague was destroying the country. In less than a month, a quarter of the population had died in one large region. The plague was so contagious that the government was offering $1000 to any nurse who would go there and care for the sick. That was a lot of money in 1910. John Lake and his assistants went to help without charging anything.

He and an assistant would go into homes, carry out the dead and bury them, without ever displaying any symptoms of the plague. When asked by one doctor what he was doing to protect himself he simply stated that as long as he stayed closely connected to God with the life of the Spirit flowing though him, no germ could ever attach itself to him. In an experiment, the doctor took foam from the lungs of a patient who had recently died of the plague and placed it under a microscope. The foam was alive with germs. They then placed some of the foam in Lake’s hand. As the doctor watched through the microscope, the germs died almost instantly as they touched Lake’s skin. By the time Lake and his family returned to America, after five years in Africa, he and his ministry had trained 1,250 preachers, planted 625 congregations, and brought 100,000 men and women to Christ.

At one point in his ministry he moved to Spokane, Washington and established “healing rooms” in an old office building. Historians estimate that some one hundred thousand confirmed healings occurred there. There was so much interest in his ministry and the healings that occurred that local newspapers and the Better Business Bureau investigated his claims and determined that not only were the healings legitimate but that they had not heard half of what the Lord had done through those ministries.

Lake was totally convinced that all disease and disability was from the devil. He hated disease and death with a passion and believed that God did as well. Because of that he never doubted God’s willingness to heal those he prayed for. Was everyone healed? Not everyone, but hundreds of thousands were including late stage cancer victims, paralytics, plague victims, epileptics, and so forth.

There is much more to the story of John G. Lake. He certainly wasn’t perfect but the good news is that God can use imperfect people to do incredible things when they are passionate for God and the kingdom. The second point is that the power of the Holy Spirit makes a huge difference in the fruit that a person or a church can bear for Jesus. Those who want to live for Christ without the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of prophecy, healing, tongues, miracles, and so forth can do so, but will not impact the world as much as those who minister with the gifts. If the gifts are not needed for world-changing ministry then the first century church had no need for them either. However, God chose to equip the church with power on the Day of Pentecost so they could be effective witnesses for Jesus throughout the world.   John G. Lake simply followed in the footsteps of those he read about in the Book of Acts.

One resident of Spokane said, “Dr. Lake came to Spokane.   He found us in sin. He found us in sickness. He found us in poverty of spirit. He found us in despair. But he revealed to us such a Christ as we had never dreamed of knowing this side of heaven. We thought the victory was over there, but Dr. Lake revealed to us that victory was here.”

That would be a worthy prayer for all of us – that God would enable us to impact the world around us in the same way whether a community, a circle of business associates, or simply our family. God is waiting for the next John G. Lake. Maybe it could be you…or me. He simply needs a surrendered heart.

(Much of the biographical material referenced in this article is from God’s Generals by Roberts Liardon.)

When speaking about false prophets, Jesus said, “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them” (Mt.7:15-20).

This warning about false prophets suggests than men will come into the church with hidden agendas and, typically, try to draw followers after them for financial gain or to introduce heresies into the church. Jesus suggested that the fruit they bear will indicate whether they are from God or not. These false prophets apparently are intentional about their deception. Their fruit will be a watered down gospel, division in the church, immorality, and an unbiblical view of Jesus and salvation. These men must be recognized, warned, and dealt with by church leadership in order to protect the flock.

Sometimes, however, parts of the body of Christ have been too quick to label someone with whom they disagree as a false prophet who needs to be immediately run out of town. More often, the church has experienced well-meaning people with poor theology which they came by honestly. Lets face it, most of us were introduced to our view of scripture (theology) by those who brought us to Christ and by leaders in the group that became our initial spiritual family. Because we knew very little or no Bible, we received their teaching without any critical evaluation. We also held these preachers and teachers in high esteem because those with whom we had relationships held them in high esteem. If they taught something that we questioned or that seemed to contradict something we had read in scripture, we typically ignored our objections and accepted their theology because “they knew so much more Bible than we did.” That happens in generations of Christians who trust their teachers who trusted their teachers who trusted their teachers, and so on.

What we need to understand is that poor theology can be passed on by well-meaning and good-hearted people and that we can question their theology without questioning the faith or sincerity of those who hold it. I believe that a great deal of poor or inadequate theology has been passed down from generation to generation in the church and that one of the ways we can evaluate theology, like prophets, is by its fruit.

One of the major theologies that concerns me (okay – aggravates me) today has been around for a couple of hundred years but has really gained prominence among evangelicals in the past fifty years. It is the theology that states that the signs of the end times include the worsening of the world and the inevitable weakening and ineffectiveness of the church.   Embedded in this theology is the idea that this weakening and worldwide persecution of the church is God’s plan and is, therefore, inevitable. Since it is inevitable and since we are surely in the end times, we must simply resign ourselves to the decline of the church and the increase of evil until Jesus returns. Those who accept that premise, tend to give up on redeeming nations and cultures for Christ and settle for getting a few more into the kingdom of God before the end while mostly bunkering in and protecting what we have.

The fruit of that theology has been a defeatist attitude, pessimism, and a fatalistic approach to reclaiming our own nation. Many Christians feel helpless and weak in the face of culture and “big moves” of the devil. The only news that is reported about the church is decline and apathy and so many believers are bunkering in and waiting for the end. There is a problem with that view. Just because something is being reported by anti-Christian media outlets does not make it true or the whole story. The church is flourishing worldwide. Secondly, it is not an acceptable attitude for those who are more than conquerors. I was scanning Bill Johnson’s new book, God is Good, and appreciated what he had to say about that mindset. I thought I would share it with you.

“Vision starts with identity and purpose. Through a revolution in our identity, we can think with divine purpose. Such a change begins with a revelation of Him. One of the tragedies of a weakened identity is how it affects our approach to Scripture. Many, if not most, theologians make the mistake of taking all the good stuff contained in the prophets and sweeping it under the mysterious rug called the Millennium…I want to challenge our thinking and deal with our propensity that puts off those things that require courage, faith, and action to another period of time. The mistaken idea is this: if it is good, it can’t be for now. A cornerstone of this theology is that the condition of the church will always be getting worse and worse; therefore, tragedy in the church is just another sign of these being the last days. In a perverted sense, the weakness of the Church confirms to many that they are on the right course. The worsening condition of the world and the Church becomes a sign to them that all is well. I have many problems with that kind of thinking, but only one I will mention now – it requires no faith! We are so entrenched in unbelief that anything contrary to this worldview is thought to be of the devil” (Bill Johnson, God is Good, p.54-55. DestinyImage Publishing).

Can any theology that bears the fruit of futility, hopelessness, and weakness in the Church be good or healthy theology? How can our biblical identity of being sons and daughters of a triumphant King who has all authority in heaven and on earth, walking in power, doing greater things that he did with a co-mission to go out and make disciples of all nations (not just a handful of people within a nation), fit into that defeatist view of our times?

Jesus does not cower and hide away because the world is bleak. He has overcome the world. We are more than conquerors. Proverbs says that as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. As the church thinketh in her heart so is she. What a coup for the enemy that he has introduced a theology into a large part of the church that accepts decline and defeat for the church as God’s perfect and irresistible plan. The kingdom of God does not retreat. The Kingdom of God does not shrink. It is not the nature of Christ to cower. Whatever happened to the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church? Much of the church seems to be like Israel who hid in their tents when Goliath would come out to challenge them. In their own eyes they were defeated before the battle even started. What we need is a church full of David’s who envisioned holding the head of the giant in his hands because his God was way bigger than any Philistine strong man.

Isaiah declared of Messiah, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end (emphasis added). He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this” (Isa.9:6-7).

I see no parenthesis in the increase of his government. I do not see this occurring only in the Millennium. If that prophecy is confined to the age to come, then Jesus is not yet on the throne of David, not yet Prince of Peace, not yet Wonderful Counselor, and so forth. We can evaluate theology by its fruit and make biblical adjustments without calling those who promote it false prophets. If they are preaching their best current understanding of scripture with sincerity, they are not false prophets. They are simply men and women who need to reconsider their theology apart from the orthodox status it has among their denominational leaders. By the way, most of the churches who hold this pessimistic view of a languishing church in the end times are also cessationist churches that believe that God no longer performs miraculous feats on behalf of his people. Powerlessness, of course, breeds despair.

If you have felt despair and hopelessness in your life and your world because of this theology, you have my permission to reconsider your understanding. Anything that works against faith, hope, optimism, and a conquering spirit but instead produces fear and doubt cannot be of God. If the fruit of that view has produced good fruit in your life and church them hang on to it. If not, do some more study with a different set of eyes.

If we know who we are in Christ – sons and daughters, priests and kings, the temple of the Holy Spirit, seated with Christ in Heavenly realms, more than conquerors, ambassadors of Christ, healers, prophets, those who trample on snakes and scorpions, and those who will do even greater things than he did – then we cannot accept a theology that negates everything we are.

From time to time we need to examine what we really believe and what beliefs or theologies are influencing us. What has the fruit been in your life? If your theology or your church’s theology has been Christ-centered, empowering, encouraging, hopeful, demon-kicking, and transformative then you are in a good place. First of all, those qualities reflect the character and Spirit of Christ and any truth from him should bear that fruit in us. If, however, you are discouraged, fearful, dreading the future, and exhausted…that is not from Christ for we have not been given a spirit of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind.

Check the fruit not only of prophets but also of theologies. Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you into all truth and give you a greater understanding of who you are and who He is in these present days. After all, that us part of his job description and no matter what is happening around us, he that is in us is greater than he that is in the world. Our Lord has already overcome this world and we already share in that victory… so be encouraged and blessed in Him today.

Our church heard a good word from pastor Jim Laffoon last night. Jim made the point that God’s greatest challenge on this earth is not Satan nor broken cultures nor persecuting tyrants, but his broken church. That thought is worth some reflection.

The kingdom of God has significant challenges that stand in the way of establishing God’s will on earth as it is in heaven. There is Satan. There are powerful, corrupt, and atheistic governments. There are defiled cultures that rival Sodom and Gomorrah. There are powerful tyrants that persecute the church and there is a powerful, godless media that shapes the mind of the world. And yet, the church is designed and empowered to overcome every one of those obstacles. Jesus said that even the very gates of hell would not prevail against his church. And yet the world, in many quarters, seems to be winning.

The problem is not that the world is bigger and badder than God anticipated. The problem is that the church is made up of a huge percentage of people who are broken and in bondage to all kinds of things and who are not walking in the freedom and power that God offers. The question then is why is such a large percentage of the church broken and in bondage? Jesus said that he had come to heal the broken hearted and to set captives free (see Isa.61 and Luke 4). So why isn’t he doing his job?

Obviously, the problem isn’t with Jesus. The problem exists on this end. To a large degree, the problem is that a large part of the church has rejected or limited the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told his followers that when he left he would send another – the Holy Spirit – and as a result, they would be better equipped than if Jesus were physically present with them. He told them and us that the Spirit would come to be our counselor, our comforter, our teacher, our guide, and the transformer of our character (the fruit of the Spirit). He was also very clear that the Spirit would come to give us power for ministry.

In the beginning, Jesus commanded his followers to stay in Jerusalem until they received power from the Holy Spirit (Acts 1). He didn’t mean that the power of the Holy Spirit would help them do their best and be their best. He meant that the Spirit would operate in them with a supernatural power that would go beyond anything they were capable of even on their best day. Just fifty days earlier the apostles had shown what their “best” was. They ran away. Peter denied Christ three times. They had no comprehension of the resurrection and they simply hid from the authorities and some doubted even when Jesus appeared in the room with them. However, the moment after the Holy Spirit fell on them and imparted power to them, they stood in the temple courts and boldly preached that Jesus was Lord to the same crowd that had crucified him less than two months earlier. As they did so, they spoke in languages they had never learned.

That is a template for the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Lord’s church and in the life of every believer. The anointing for personal transformation and power to change the world is found in the full ministry of the Holy Spirit. The supernatural move of the Spirit in us and through us is everything. And yet, much of the church has done its best to minimize the Spirit and in doing so we have minimized the church. The idea that the entire ministry of the Holy Spirit is to simply give us a little insight into scripture and to make us into a gathering of nice people is a real weapon of the enemy.

The theology that the Holy Spirit no longer operates in supernatural power through his people has effectively declawed the Lion of Judah. The church in America is full of demonic presence because she quit believing in the supernatural moves of God or even the supernatural moves of the devil. Recently, a believer from another church in our city went through our eight-week Free Indeed class and Freedom Weekend and was delivered from several spirits. That believer went back to his church and when praying and counseling with one of their members realized that a demonic spirit was manifesting so he cast it out. Not too long after that episode of freedom and supernatural ministry, one of their church leaders told them that they didn’t do that in their church. As a result, many members of that church will continue in brokenness and bondage and will never step into the destiny God has written for them.

The word Christ means “the anointed one.” Jesus Christ is the Anointed One of God. He declared in Luke 4 that he was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy that says, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, release from darkness for the prisoners…(Isa:61:1). The very things Jesus did required the Spirit of the Lord to be upon him. The anointing was the Spirit of God operating supernaturally through him. John tells us that a spirit of anti-Christ is in the world. I believe that spirit not only denies that Jesus is Lord but works against the anointing of the church by the Spirit. I believe cessationism, the theology that God stopped working in miraculous ways at the end of the first century, is one of the doctrines of demons Paul, warned us about in 1 Timothy 4.

As long as we deny the continuing supernatural ministry of the Spirit in his church and through his church we will continue to be broken and in bondage. We will also leave the world in its brokenness and bondage. We will be an army so handicapped that we will win few battles and hold little ground. Jesus himself promised that those who believe in him would do even greater things than he did. I don’t think he was talking about huge buildings, well run programs, and worship productions that rival Vegas. I’m not against big churches, excellent programs, and powerful worship but Jesus was talking about the supernatural healing of broken hearts and transformed identities. He was talking about casting wheelchairs aside, emptying cancer wards, preaching in languages we have never learned, raising the dead, dismissing depression, and casting out devils in greater ways than he ever did.

The church is broken and the full, unleashed ministry of the Holy Spirit is the antidote. I see more and more churches beginning to recognize that truth but then I see them hesitate to actually embrace the power of the Spirit. My prayer is that God will fill his church and every believer with the fullness of his Spirit so that the world will know that Jesus is truly the Anointed One because his church walks in that anointing. That anointing is available to every believer so I also encourage you to ask for it daily as part of your “daily bread.”  May you be blessed today and represent your King with power and love.

On Monday morning, pastor Donnell Jones shared some essential thoughts with our staff on overcoming that moment when life and ministry seem overwhelming. I want to share the gist of his message along with some of my own thoughts but wanted to make sure that you knew Donnell was the primary source and that his thoughts were seriously worth sharing with you.

In his gospel, Matthew tells us, “Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, ‘Sit here while I go over there and pray.’ He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.’ Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will’” (Matt.26:36-39).

As we read the gospels, we always see Jesus unafraid, in control, and the master of every situation. But the night before the cross, he confesses something that must have stunned his inner circle of Peter, James, and John. In the darkness of the Garden, he confesses that his soul is overwhelmed with sorrow or heaviness to such a degree that he needs them to watch and pray with him. They have always needed him, but now he desperately needs them. The idea of Jesus being overwhelmed is disconcerting. Yet we have to remember that Jesus faced the cross as a man, not as God.

Secondly, we need to note that his soul was overwhelmed, not his spirit. Our soul is not our spirit. Our soul is comprised of our will, our mind, and our emotions. Our spirit is the eternal part of us that the Holy Spirit quickened and renewed when he took up residence within us. It is that part of us through which the Spirit leads us, reveals God’s will to us, and through which he renews and transforms our thoughts, emotions, and will. But that is a process. The soul is a kind of middle ground or even battleground between the spirit and our fallen nature or “the flesh.”

When the enemy attacks us, he either attacks us through the flesh with infirmity or disease or attacks our soul where he fills our minds with thoughts contrary to the will of God and with thoughts that stir up the negative emotions of fear, hopelessness, shame, lust, anger, and so forth. In the Garden of Gethsemane, the enemy was attacking Jesus with fear, heaviness, and maybe even doubt that what he was about to do was even worth the suffering that lay ahead.

In his soul, Jesus was tormented and overwhelmed. When we feel overwhelmed by life, it is our soul that is overwhelmed. As Graham Cooke says, “ Our circumstances are not the problem. Our perspective of our circumstances is the problem.” When our soul looses sight of the Father, his goodness, his resources, and his vast, unconditional love for us, we can feel overwhelmed and sorrowful unto death. Those who contemplate suicide are in that position. That is where Jesus found himself that night, just minutes before his arrest and a few hours before the beatings would begin.

In that moment, Jesus asked, “Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.”   At that moment, Jesus only wanted out. His soul saw no way to face what lay ahead. And yet, as he confessed his fears and sought God, his prayer changed. “He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done” (Matt.26:42). Before, Jesus prayed, “If it is possible….” Now he prays, “If it is not possible…” The word “if” can often be translated “since.” Jesus could have been saying, “Since it is not possible to take this cup away….” Something has shifted from his soul not being able to see his way through the next few hours to seeing that the Father would walk with him through the suffering he saw ahead, no matter how hard. His soul was no longer so overwhelmed because he had poured his heart out to the Father and had received strength from the Spirit. We are told by Luke that an angel came and ministered to him in that moment and strengthened his resolve. His third prayer was the same as his second.

When our souls are overwhelmed by sorrow, loss, difficulty, or even responsibility, we often look elsewhere for comfort rather than going to the Holy Spirit who is the Comforter. We go to friends, food, therapists, medications, and assorted addictions to get us through, rather than to the Spirit who is our friend, our counselor, and our guide. Friends are good. Therapists are fine. Food is essential. But only the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are enough. When Jesus went to the Father three times, he was engaging with the Spirit and heaven responded with a ministering angel. His soul began to receive hope and strength and the feeling of being overwhelmed with sorrow unto death began to lift.

We should take heart from Jesus who is our model. First of all, even those who have great faith and an intimate relationship with the Father can come to a place where his or her soul feels overwhelmed by life. That is not sin…or Jesus sinned. Jesus did not suppress those feelings but shared them with those he was close to for prayer and encouragement. But more than that he cried out to the Father and asked for strength, hope, and encouragement from the throne of heaven. He pressed in until the Spirit ministered to his spirit which then ministered to his soul. His perspective changed. Light could be seen in the darkness.

The goodness, love, and power of God became anchor points for the soul and Jesus was able to move ahead. He is our model. When life feels overwhelming we should follow in his steps. At some point, Jesus was given or given back a supernatural perspective that looked beyond the cross to all that his suffering would accomplish. The writer of Hebrews spoke of that when he said, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb.12:2).

In the midst of feeling overwhelmed, Jesus was given an eternal perspective by the Spirit that everything he was enduring was worth it…even to the point of joy. There are times when we need that perspective. That is why Paul counseled us, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Gal. 6:9). In every circumstance, God has a purpose for our good. He does not always create the circumstance but he will always use it for our benefit. Sometimes, we need a glimpse of his purpose. Like Jesus, we can ask for it and when we receive the eternal view of what we are going through, our soul will be strengthened.  And remember, it is your soul that is overwhelmed, not your spirit – so tune into what the Spirit is saying to your spirit. In that moment, even your prayers will change.

I believe most of us, as followers of Jesus, find a personal relationship with God difficult because he seems so abstract to us. Father God seems distant and too often we lay the template of our earthly father on our heavenly father. For some, that is a wonderful template of love, protection, strength, gentleness, wisdom and so forth. For many others, it is a template of absence, anger, criticism, and inconsistency. That makes the Father difficult to relate to and makes the idea of intimacy with him unreachable.

Jesus is easier. We have records of him in the flesh. We have childhood pictures of Jesus loving little children, carrying a lamb in his arms, and being kind to everyone…a spiritual Mr. Rogers. That works when you need comfort and understanding, but it is a stretch when you need a warrior or a champion on your side who is fiercely loyal to you and wields a sword like a ninja. But that is also who Jesus is – the commander of the armies of heaven.

The Holy Spirit seems even more abstract. I wonder what the apostles were imagining when Jesus kept talking about the counselor, the comforter, and the teacher who would come to them bestowing power for ministry. They could imagine Yaweh as the God on Sinai and the fierce father who brought his people out of Egypt. They had walked with Jesus for three years and spent time with him after his resurrection. But the Spirit was….well… a spirit. He didn’t even have a name we could relate to like Abba or Messiah or Jesus or Elijah or Bob. What do we do with that and how do we develop an intimate relationship with him?

One of the reasons I value Graham Cooke’s writings is that he has an intimate relationship with God – all three aspects of God- and his descriptions help me know them better. Let me share some of his thoughts about the Holy Spirit. It might help you relate to him with more clarity. Cooke says, “I love the Holy Spirit. He is the happiest, most cheerful person I have ever encountered. It’s possible to grieve him, but incredibly difficult. Most of us will never manage it personally. The Godhead dwells in an environment of astonishing, everlasting joy. The Holy Spirit is a delight. He is cheerful, exuberant, and amazingly enthusiastic about us. He loves his role as comforter, tutor, and come alongside friend. He gets to talk about Jesus (whom he adores) and equip us to fellowship with the Father. He is an absolute genius at life, a brilliant mentor who knows everything. He has a wonderful sense of humor and is a powerful advocate and warrior. He is never fazed at circumstances but loves to lift us up to see more from his perspective. He is a gorgeous, amazing paradox. He is recklessly cheerful and incredibly wise. He is full of majesty and yet astonishingly gentle. He is completely and radiantly holy, yet comforts us in our struggles and teaches us the ways of righteousness. He is inspirational, generous, kind, gracious and endlessly patient in redeeming us to live in Christ” (Graham Cooke, Coming into Alignment, p.68-69, Brilliant BookHouse).

I don’t know about you, but that makes me want to know the Spirit better. I may not know what he looks like, but sometimes that’s better because we so often judge a book by its cover rather than its content and, in doing so, fail to become familiar with the book. We can certainly hear his voice and feel his heart towards us. And maybe that is the best way to know him.

We also know him by the fruit of the Spirit that Paul delineated for us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal.5:22-23). The fruit of the Spirit is simply his character that he is trying to impart to each of us. Definitely sounds like someone I would like to know. If fact, knowing him will make me want to know the Father and Son in greater ways, as well, because they all share the same character and the same heart for us. Too often I think that God is so serious that I can only come to him in formal prayer, serious, and intense about what I am asking. But no friendship is like that. That are serious moments but there are also lots of chats, jokes, and just doing life together. I think we need more of that in our relationship with the Father, Son and Spirit.

But just for fun, the next time you want to grow your relationship and hear from the Spirit, ask him to tell you about Jesus or the Father. He does love to talk about them and you may be surprised at what he says. Blessings today as you chat with the Spirit.

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.  And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:12-16

In the second chapter of Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth, he spends a great deal of times underlining our essential need for the Holy Spirit. He begins the chapter recounting the decision he made after his disappointing stint in Athens (see Acts 17). While in Athens, Paul had rolled out his most eloquent arguments and debated with the philosophers on Mars Hill with little response. I’m certain that he spent a number of hours in soul searching and asking the Spirit why his strategy had so little effect. When he came to Corinth he had settled on an entirely different approach. “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom, as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God…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 men’s wisdom but on God’s power” (1 Cor. 2:1-5).

In his two letters to the church at Corinth, he speaks of power at least 25 times. He always relates power to the Holy Spirit as did Jesus, who had instructed the first disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they received power from the Holy Spirit.

There are numerous ways in which the Spirit enables us to serve God. In this text, Paul emphasizes our ability to comprehend God and his ways. First of all, he says, the Spirit gives us understanding. Paul had a miserable experience trying to reason with the “wise men” of Athens. Ultimately, what he was telling them made no sense to their intellectual leanings. Paul begins the section I quoted at the beginning of this blog by telling us that God gave us his Spirit so that we could understand the things God has given us. Spiritual understanding is critical to faith and without the Spirit, there is no spiritual understanding.

For those of us who believe, we often marvel that some of the brightest minds of our time consider the complexities of the universe and still walk away as atheists. Paul, who was a brilliant scholar himself, said, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14). The word translated as “discerned” here means to make an appraisal, a judgment, or a right evaluation of something. In other words, without the Spirit of God in us, we cannot evaluate or judge truth accurately. So…don’t be surprised that university professors ridicule our faith.

It is not that spiritual things are not logical; it is just that spiritual logic is not the same as natural logic. When I was first studying to be a minister in a fellowship that did not accept the present- day ministry of the Holy Spirit, I was surrounded by very bright men who studied the scriptures daily. However, in an attempt to understand difficult passages, they applied Aristotelian logic to the scriptures. Their conclusions were inevitably legalistic. Think about it. They applied reasoning processes developed by pagan philosophers and applied them to truths of the Spirit and, I believe, consistently came away with false conclusions. If you don’t have the Spirit or don’t listen to the Spirit you cannot understand spiritual things. Spiritual logic turns natural logic on its head – the first shall be last, the least shall be greatest, the save your life you must lose it, and so on. To the man without the Spirit, those things sound naïve and foolish. To us they are cornerstone truths in the kingdom of God.

As Paul considered that truth, he put away his eloquent outlines that appealed to man’s wisdom and, instead, preached a simple gospel followed by demonstrations of the Spirit’s power. One of the great values of power in evangelism is that the power of the Spirit upsets the natural man’s paradigm – his way of understanding the world. When the rational or scientific man encounters the power of God in prophecy, healing, deliverance, raising the dead, walking on water, etc. his mindset cannot explain adequately what has happened and he experiences a paradigm shift – an openness to knew possibilities. Paul experienced that shift on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians while he was still known as Saul of Tarsus.

Even as Christians, I believe we have missed part of the implications of what Paul has told us in this text. The amazing truth he gives us is that we have the mind of Christ – the mind through which the universe was created. Too often, we limit spiritual understanding to theology rather than all understanding that comes from the mind of Christ. What if we believed that the cure to cancer was available to us because we are tapped into the mind of Christ who understands perfectly everything from the forces that created the universe to sub-atomic physics as well as the cellular structure and genetics of the human body? God cares about our health as well as our salvation. He cares about the suffering of men in this world as well as the world to come. Jesus said that his Spirit would lead us into all truth. We should be teaching ourselves and our children to ask God for spiritually creative pathways for music, art, literature, media, and architecture along with heavenly solutions to disease, world hunger, poverty, energy, and pollution. By restricting God’s truth to theology only, we have, in all likelihood, robbed the world of uncounted blessings.

The Holy Spirit is a game changer that opens us up to the very mind and heart of God, the Creator and Sustainer of all things. His presence and power sets us apart from all people on earth. While some churches discourage any pursuit of the Holy Spirit and his power, we should be pursuing Him and all that He has with all of our hearts. It is the Spirit who gives us understanding and then empowers us to activate that understanding with the same power that raised Jesus from the grave. What a gift and what a privilege for those who believe in the Risen Lord. Make the most of his Spirit living in you today! Ask Him for answers to everything.