David’s psalm after his sin with Bathsheba –

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge … Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice … Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you. Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psalm 51:1-17).

Walking with God in intimate fellowship is the goal and the key to experiencing his presence, hearing him, receiving his promises, ministering in the power of the Holy Spirit, living with joy and everything else you can think of.  Walking with God is based on agreement with him. “How can two walk together unless they are agreed?” (Amos 3:3). To maintain our “agreement” with God we must deal effectively with any sin that creeps into our lives.  David’s psalm quoted above is vey instructive.  First of all, David knew the heart of God better than any man in scripture other than Jesus because he was “a man after God’s own heart.” Secondly, after his sin with Bathsheba he was in desperate need of realigning his life and heart with the Father.

It’s helpful to know that after adultery, murder and a year of covering up the sins, God’s forgiveness was not out of reach for David. Undoubtedly, David’s sin had set some consequences in motion that he would have to live with, but as soon as he confessed his sin to God he was forgiven and his walk with the Lord restored.  Some great difficulties loomed in his future but God, as a loving Father, would walk through those difficulties with him.  David’s heart and view of God revealed in Psalm 51 is the key to restoration.  Let me just point out a few keys but you should reflect on this psalm yourself for your own insights.

First of all, throughout this psalm David made no attempt to rationalize, justify or minimize his sin. He blamed no one else for his actions but acknowledged that he was totally responsible for the choices he had made.  Too many times we come before God like children caught with our hands in the cookie jar giving every excuse for our actions.  “I couldn’t help myself.  I was overpowered by the smell of those cookies. Actually, my sister made me do it! If mom hadn’t made the cookies in the first place this would have never happened! What’s the big deal anyway, it was only one small cookie?  Besides, the cookie rule is stupid and unfair!”  You get the drift. David could have tried to spread the blame around or deny his personal responsibility by declaring that Bathsheba shouldn’t have been bathing outside or that she should have refused to come to his apartment. Maybe if Uriah had been a better husband this would never have happened or if God hadn’t given David such strong sexual desires he could have said “no” to the temptation, etc.

Sometimes our approach to confession betrays our view that God will forgive our sins or continue to love us only if we convince him that the sin wasn’t our fault or that the biblical standard isn’t fair or that it is out of step with our current realities. David does none of that.  He relies immediately and totally on God’s mercy, his unfailing love, and his great compassion.

He refuses to bargain with God or to offer to somehow work off his sin through penance or good works or by never doing it again – “God if you will just forgive this, I will….” He acknowledges that there is nothing he can do to make his sin right or to make it go away.  He simply asks God to cleanse his sin and purify his heart because there is nothing else he can do. He declares that God’s standards are right and just and simply acknowledges his great failure in living up to those standards.

In this psalm, there is obviously godly sorrow in David’s heart for his sin.  He has wronged God first by violating his commands and wounding (in this case killing) those that God also loved. He feels his guilt and shame but he is laying all of that at the feet of God’s mercy and the cross which already stood in the mind of God (Rev.13:8).  Even after his great sin, David believed that reconciliation was possible and that God was willing to restore his joy because of God’s great heart and relentless love for his people.

David also understood that God is not interested in us carrying guilt and shame around for years so that our joy, our service to him and our testimony is suffocated by the weight of our past.  I see people who seem to carry guilt, shame and self-loathing over sins from there past as if they can earn God’s forgiveness through their self-inflicted misery and emotional suffering.  God is not interested in that because our refusal to accept his forgiveness robs him of our joyful service, our praise, and our testimony to sinners around us. Our insistence on continuing to carry our guilt and shame for past sins declares that Christ’s sacrifice was not enough for us.

David was not theologically clear on the cross but he was clear on the heart of God that provided the cross and so he pressed into God and trusted him totally for grace, mercy, unfailing love, cleansing, and restoration.  No excuses. No rationalization. Just confession and trust in the heart and character of God.  We need to come to God daily with every sin in the same assurance.  We can actually come with even more assurance because we are this side of the cross and understand what Jesus has done for us. If we believe that our sins, our brokenness, and the darkness we still discover in our hearts make us unacceptable to God then we will distance ourselves from him and begin to deny, justify and rationalize our sins until we no longer accept God’s standards in our lives.  God doesn’t require us to live up to his standards before he accepts us, he accepts us in Jesus so that by his Spirit we can begin to live up to those standards.

Dealing with sin and weakness in our lives on a daily basis through the cross is essential to our walk with the Father. Nothing is beyond his grace and mercy. David understood that and when sin was greater than David, God’s grace was greater than sin.  It still is.  Be blessed today in the unfailing love and sure forgiveness of your Father.

As you know, symbols are important in scripture.  I was reading in Matthew this morning and looking at the familiar story of Jesus being baptized by John in the Jordan River.  It’s important to remember that John’s baptism was a call to repentance from sin. It carried the symbolism of cleansing as John administered baptism to the hundreds and thousands who were being touched by his preaching.

Because it was a baptism of repentance, John objected when Jesus, the sinless one, came to be baptized.  However, Jesus insisted that John immerse him in the muddy waters of the Jordan to “fulfill all righteousness.”  Jesus insisted on obeying the command of the

Father to be baptized because Jesus was not only the chosen representative of God but also of man. Jesus submitted to baptism as our representative not because he needed to turn his heart toward God but because we needed to turn our hearts toward God.

The Jews were not unfamiliar with symbolic washings in water. The priests were washed as a sign of cleansing before entering the temple to minister.  Gentiles who came to faith in Jehovah and converted to Judaism went through cleansings by immersing themselves in water also as a sign of purification. These ceremonial cleansings were performed by the priest or the convert by squatting down in a pool of water until they were completely covered and then rising on their own. But now John was administering baptism.  For the first time, cleansing was not something a man could do for himself by his own efforts but it was something he must receive at the hands of another.

As Jesus was lifted from the water, Matthew tells us that the Holy Spirit descended on him in the form of a dove and remained there. As I read that, my mind always goes back to the Genesis flood when man had become so alienated from God and so saturated with evil that God determined to destroy man except for Noah and his family.  As the flood receded from the earth, Noah sent a dove out from the ark to see if he would find a resting place or return because the water still covered the earth.  The first time Noah released the dove he returned.  The second time he came back with a fresh olive leaf in his beak and the third time he was sent out, the dove did not return because the judgment of God was passing away.

For millennia, the sign of peace has been a dove with an olive branch in his mouth.  It was a sign that God has made peace with man.  Noah and his family were able to step out of the ark and receive the blessing of God once again on dry land. Matthew gave us a picture of Jesus standing waist deep in the Jordan with the sign of peace resting on him.  Through Jesus, God was making peace with man once again. When Isaiah spoke of the coming Messiah, he called him the “Prince of Peace.”

I don’t know about you, but as I grow older I long more and more for peace – peace in my environment but even more for peace within.  Peace is a fruit of the Spirit that I want more and more but it only comes when I am certain that I have peace with God. That certainty only comes through faith in what Jesus has done for me and that my heavenly Father welcomes me and delights in me even in my imperfections.

As Christmas day came and passed, there were still wars and terrorism raging in the world.  Israel was retaliating against sniper fire from Muslims across their border.  Car bombs were still exploding in Bagdad and Egypt. Threats were still being issued against Christians in hostile nations and believers were still being beaten for their faith in China.

The world continues to seek political solutions to war, poverty, and racism.  But you can’t give want you don’t possess.  The problem is that man has no internal peace.  He is restless, angry, bitter, and unforgiving in his fallen nature. All those feelings manifest in war, murder, divorce, or seek to be medicated by drugs and alcohol.  The solution is still and only Jesus, the Prince of Peace.  When I have truly made peace with God through his Son, them I can make peace with men. Through Jesus, God has offered each of us the olive branch – his peace.  That is really what all men are seeking to find without knowing what it is.

The dove landed on one man – Jesus.  He did not land on many or on several.  He landed on one. No man can come to the Father except through his only begotten Son.  We will need to remember that in 2014.  There will be more wars, greater calls to accept the legitimacy of many faiths as roads to salvation, and more promises for political solutions. But only Jesus is the Prince of Peace and the holder of the olive branch from heaven. I want to seek him more and more and point others to him as well. I encourage you to do the same in this coming year. Be blessed today in the peace of God through Jesus Christ

In his book, The Jesus I Never Knew, Philip Yancey poses an interesting question.  If you had been alive and walking the dusty roads of Palestine in the days of Jesus, what would you have noticed about him when you encountered him? Yancey goes on to discuss the phenomenon of having no physical description of Jesus in the New Testament.  The closest the Bible comes to a description is found in Isaiah’s Messianic prophecy, “He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him” (Isa.53:2).

Yancey goes on to document that no paintings of Jesus appeared until six hundred years after his ascension and those paintings were only imaginative speculations.  Even then, artists painted Jesus to look like the idealized man of their culture.  The Greeks first painted him as a young, beardless man who looked much like their versions of the pagan god Apollo. Yancey documents other views when he says, “One tradition dating back to the second century suggested Jesus was a hunchback.  In the Middle Ages, Christians widely believed that Jesus had suffered from leprosy.  Most Christians today would find such notions repulsive and perhaps heretical” (Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, p. 87).

It’s easy to find those views of Jesus weird and laughable but Hollywood has presented Jesus as tall, blond, and blue-eyed with a British accent on more than one occasion. I just saw a nativity scene with a blond baby Jesus. That is as unlikely as being a hunchback since Jesus was very Jewish and much more likely to have been short with dark hair and a Middle Eastern complexion.  But we simply don’t know.

I continue to think it is remarkable and, therefore, intentional that the gospel writers never gave a physical description of Jesus. In fact, it is rare for the writers to give a physical description of anyone – even the most well known New Testament characters – the woman at the well, Nicodemus, the Roman Centurion, the prodigal son, the woman caught in adultery, etc. The Romans focused on appearance produced hundreds if not thousands of idealized sculptures of all their famous and powerful leaders. But the New Testament writers are silent.

I can think of two reasons that the Holy Spirit may have chosen to omit such a description.  The omission may allow each of us to personalize Jesus in our own imaginations. Maybe each of us needs Jesus to look a little like us so that we can identify with him more easily.  Jesus has been painted as being black, Latino, European, and probably somewhere as Asian.  I don’t think Jesus minds.  After all, after his resurrection he took on many forms that often did not look like the Jesus the apostles walked with for three years.  Jesus wants connection and if we imagine him in a way that facilitates that personal connection then he is probably good with that.

Perhaps, there are few physical descriptions because physical appearance is deceptive. Remember when Samuel went to Jesse’s house to anoint the second king of Israel who would take Saul’s place?  Saul was tall and looked kingly but his heart was not the heart of a king.  He failed miserably.  But as the prophet was scanning Jesse’s sons to sense who would be the next king, he kept making the same mistake. He would judge the young man standing before him by his appearance thinking that the one who “looked like a king” should be king.  In one of those moments, God reminded him that the one who sits on the throne in heaven does not look at the appearance of a man but at the heart. In the kingdom of God, the heart qualifies a person rather than good looks. Perhaps, the Father did not give us a description of his son because we would have spent our time trying to duplicate his looks in our lives rather than his heart.

Isaiah’s prophecy doesn’t suggest to me that Jesus was ugly or deformed.  It just suggests that on the outside he looked like an ordinary man.  He didn’t look presidential and in our media saturated world of image, he would have never gotten the nomination for president because he didn’t look the part – tall, slender, handsome, polished, athletic, thick haired, etc.  By the way, our best presidents have not fit that image. Lincoln was tall but not handsome or polished.  Franklin Roosevelt was tied to a wheelchair, which he kept from the public.  Theodore Roosevelt wore glasses, was stocky, somewhat short and brash.  From all accounts, George Washington would not have struck you as a general or president if you had simply met him on the street.

I think God left us to look at the heart of Jesus rather than his outward appearance. If Jesus had ordinary or even less than ordinary looks, he had something on the inside that transcended his looks.  How many teachers today could hold the attention of crowds for three days while they sat in open fields and went without food just to hear him?  Who among us today could have temple police sent to arrest him but would return empty handed saying. “No man ever spoke like this man!” How many preachers among us today would have sinners flock to him without a world-class praise band and light show and give their lives to the kingdom of God?  Something within Jesus was transformative.  I believe it was the love of God and the hope of eternal life that flowed out of his heart giving life to those who were dying to be loved.

Jesus challenges us. Do we spend more time each day thinking about our appearance and the outward trappings of life or do we spend more time developing the heart of Christ within us?  I’m not saying that Christians should take on an ascetic lifestyle giving no thought to the physical.  Please shower, shave, comb your hair and … ladies put on your makeup.  But at the end of the day, do we think more about the externals of our lives or whether our hearts were directed by the presence of Jesus that day?

Imagine a world where late night television was no longer filled with adds about loosing weight so you could slip on your new bikini or about hair transplants, facelifts or the newest wrinkle creams.  What if there were no infomercials about getting rich quick and grabbing the big house with the luxury status cars?  Instead, what if late night television had infomercials about forgiving those who have wounded you, learning to love the poor, doubling your prayer life rather than your income or loosing excessive anger?

Okay, I know those things can’t be purchased in a box or sold like a product. But my point is that we should hunger after those things more than all the products offered to enhance our appearance and perception by others. If God doesn’t look at the appearance of a man but at the heart, we should have the same priorities. We don’t remember Jesus for his looks but for his life, his words and his heart. The same will be true about us.  Lord, give us the heart of Jesus today in every circumstance and for every person. Be blessed.

In scripture, “keys” represent authority. Jesus said, “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matt.16:18-19).  In essence, Jesus was declaring war on hell and pronouncing the victory in advance. In order to prosecute the war against a supernatural enemy, the church was going to need supernatural power and authority.  Jesus said that he would give that authority to his church.

Jesus had already demonstrated the supernatural power and authority of the kingdom of heaven in his own ministry.  “Supernatural” does not always mean mystical or magical. It simply means “above the natural” or “beyond the natural.”  In our context it means that power and authority derived from the spiritual realm exceeds or trumps anything that can be found in the natural or the temporal realm. In the natural realm disease, hunger, and storms have their way. But Jesus dominated each of these in the natural realm by exercising authority derived from heaven.  He also demonstrated that the power of heaven is greater than the power of darkness within the spiritual realm by casting out demons, raising the dead, and by his own resurrection.

While Jesus was on the earth, he delegated that same power and authority to the twelve and then to seventy other followers who also healed the sick, raised the dead, and cast out demons. Upon his return to heaven, Jesus sent his Holy Spirit who also imparts power and authority to the followers of Jesus for healing, deliverance, miracles and so forth.  That power is manifested through spiritual gifts that are backed by the authority and power of heaven.

In addition, the Holy Spirit himself has taken up residence within every believer and has made us partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet.1:4).  John tells us that we now possess eternal life through our relationship with Jesus.  When all those factors are taken into consideration, it appears that we should operate more in the spiritual realm than in the natural.  In fact, if we possess eternal life now, we are primarily spiritual beings because only those things that belong to the spiritual realm are eternal.  “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor.4:18).

Since we are primarily spiritual beings, Paul directs us to fix our eyes on that realm – to make the spiritual realm our first point of reference in all things.  Jesus lived with the heavenly realm as his primary perspective.  Storms weren’t a problem because there are no storms in heaven. A little bread and a few fish could feed five thousand because heavenly economics are not limited to what we can see or hold in our hands. The dead are only asleep.  Water can become wine with a simple command or can become rigid enough to walk on.  Jesus didn’t perform magic; he simply knew that he was not limited to natural law because he was a citizen of heaven with the power and authority of his homeland establishing the things he commanded.

We are called to live by that same heavenly perspective.  It’s called faith.  Jesus taught us to pray for God’s will to be done on earth  (the natural realm) as it is done in heaven (the spiritual realm). Whatever God does for his children in heaven, he is willing to do for his children on earth. Heaven comes to earth through faith. “Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer” (Mt. 21:21-22).

God’s will for his children in heaven is perfect health.  Healing brings that heavenly reality to earth.  Provision is God’s will for his children in heaven.  Prayer provides for his children on earth. Heaven is a “no demon zone.”  Deliverance establishes that reality on earth. The fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, etc. – releases the atmosphere of heaven into this troubled world. If we believe that we are currently citizens of heaven seated with Christ in heavenly realms then we are releasing the manifestations of heaven to earth rather than begging for heaven to do something about this mess.

The apostles experienced the difference in perspectives on the boat in the storm while Jesus slept.  They were living with the perspective that they lived in the natural realm and were terrified of the storm that had power to destroy them.  Jesus slept in the midst of the storm, not because he was exhausted but because he had peace. In a sense, he “owned the storm” because the spiritual realm has power and authority over the natural. Faith is not just believing who Jesus is but also who we are in Jesus. Faith is seeing life through the eyes of the Spirit rather than the eyes of the flesh. Faith is fixing our eyes on what is unseen and believing that if God is for us, no one or no thing can stand against us.

Today let me encourage you (and myself) to view life and even our struggles with a heavenly perspective – not just, “What would Jesus do?” but “What will Jesus do?”

Ask yourself, “What would the Father do in response to a challenge if that challenge surfaced in heaven?”  Then expect his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven on the basis of your prayers, your declarations, and your faith because you are his authorized representative on the earth – loved and empowered by heaven.  Live in the spiritual, walk with authority, and carry the atmosphere of heaven with you today. Be blessed. It’s the Father’s will for you.

John Ortberg is an author and speaker you need to check out if you aren’t familiar with him.  I was listening to a video message he presented at a prominent church in Atlanta recently and was reminded that many Christians struggle with the concept of God’s grace in their lives.  I thought it was an observation that deserved some attention on this blog.

Many of us were quite comfortable with our need for God’s grace when we were unsaved, unknowing sinners. Our rationale is that, no matter how sinful our lives were, we didn’t know any better. Because of our “ignorance,” God was glad to pour out his saving grace on us. And so we live a life of joy for a few months after coming to Christ filled with the knowledge that all is forgiven because we have been saved by grace through faith and not by anything we have done or by any merit we have earned.

But for many of us, a subtle or not so subtle sense of condemnation begins to creep into our lives. Perhaps the condemnation comes as a steady whisper from the enemy or it comes through well-intended but somewhat misdirected teaching from our churches.  An unspoken belief begins to take root inside of us that we were saved by grace but we must become Christ-like by our own efforts and if we are not growing by leaps and bounds God is unhappy.  Somehow we begin to think that grace was available when we didn’t know any better but now that we know what constitutes right and wrong, we better toe the mark by our own efforts if we want to continue in God’s good graces.

At that point, our Christian walk becomes a burden rather than a joy and a source of condemnation rather than a life of freedom.  Have you ever noticed how hard it is to find the fruit if the Spirit in many long-time Christians?  I’m not talking about morality or good works. We can find those things.  I’m talking about the first three expressions of the fruit of the Spirit that are listed in Galatians 5 – love, joy, and peace. Week after week I see believer’s come forward during our ministry time at the end of each service and they are burdened, troubled, and joyless.  I’m not talking about those who just lost a loved one or found out that their spouse has been unfaithful.  I’m talking about believers who live year in and year out without a true sense of love, joy, or peace.

I believe two things are missing.  One is the transformation that Jesus offers to every believer. His promise and mission is to extend God’s grace to all who will receive it through the preaching of the gospel.  It is also to heal broken hearts and set captives free while exchanging garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness (Isa.61).   Many of us have heard the good news of forgiveness but not the good news of transformation and freedom which also stands on the grace of God. If believers have no expectation for significant change in their hearts and in their lives, they will not change.

The other missing component is the belief that I am not only saved by grace but also live by grace  – even when I fall short and even when I knew better.  Living by grace is not having a cavalier attitude toward sin. Rather it is believing that God’s grace is always much bigger than my sin. It is knowing that, by my own invitation, God is working in me every day by his Spirit to transform me into the image of Jesus Christ.  My part is to make myself available to him and ask him to do his work in me.  His part is to transform my heart which will then transform my actions.

In my book, Born to Be Free, I speak of a position / condition paradigm for understanding our sanctification (the process of becoming like Jesus).  The writer of Hebrews tells us “by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb.10:14).  That means that the grace of God, through the sacrifice of Jesus, has given us a sinless status before the Father and he always relates to us on the basis of Christ’s righteousness which has been credited to us.  While doing that, however, he is also working on our condition (sinfulness and brokenness) to make us like Jesus and to bring our condition in line with our position.

We get focused on the ugliness of the process while the Father is only focused on the end product.  Builders have a very clear picture of what the home they are building will look like in the end. They don’t focus on the weed-choked lot where the house will eventually rest.  They don’t despise the ugly pieces of plastic PVC pipe sticking up out of a fresh foundation. They don’t get hung up on bare lumber sticking up into the air or all kinds of trash on the lot that will be cleared out later.  For the majority of the process, a stately home looks like a chaotic mess that will never amount to anything.  The master builder, however, knows what the end product will look like so he doesn’t despise the process. The same is true for our lives.  We condemn ourselves for the chaotic process while God is confident in his finished product.

A life lived by grace, remembers that Jesus is the carpenter not us. It remembers that God always views us through a lens of righteousness not failure or sin, and that God is quite aware of our condition and is faithfully working on that.  You are God’s project. He does not hold us responsible to transform ourselves, but only to invite him to do the work and trust him while he is doing it.  In that environment love, joy and peace can develop and, like trees alongside the river of God, can bear fruit that heals the nations.

Remember – you were saved by grace and you go on by grace every day.  Rejoice in that truth and live in its warmth. God’s grace is sufficient and we must trust in it now as we did when we first came to Jesus. When the church is filled with loving, joyful, and peaceful Christians, the world will flock to Jesus.  After all, those are the very things everyone is looking for and those are the things the world is selling.  It’s just that the world is selling “knock-offs” rather than the real thing.  When the world finally sees the real thing in us, they will beg to know where we got ours.  Living by grace after being saved by grace is the answer.  Be blessed.

Have you ever noticed how often Jesus healed on the Sabbath?  In John 9, Jesus healed a man that was born blind.  He had been a beggar and was apparently a fairly well known figure in part of the city.  Jesus spit on the ground, made mud with his saliva and put it on the man’s eyes.  He then instructed the beggar to go the pool of Siloam and wash.  The man was obedient to the command and left the pool seeing for the first time.

Imagine how amazing sight would be for the first time. Suddenly, this man saw only what he had felt and heard all his life.  He had felt water on his skin but as soon as he washed the mud from his eyes he saw water rippling with sunlight sparkling across the surface of the pool.  He saw the faces of familiar voices he had only heard each day as he begged.  He was struck with the endless colors of clothing the crowds were wearing. He suddenly put form and color to the animals he had heard and touched in Jerusalem since childhood. Add to that the shape and colors of buildings, trees, grass, the sky, the sun, and the clouds. The immense amount of new images filling his mind must have been almost overwhelming.  It makes me wonder if part of the miracle was a download of understanding that was imparted to the beggars mind to make sense of what he was seeing.

Of course, as the word of this notable miracle spread, the Pharisees showed up like investigative reporters snooping out a story for the National Inquirer. They remind us that religion devoid of relationship with the Father can be a dangerous thing.  Once again, the Pharisees did not deny the miracle but missed everything about it because it had occurred on the Sabbath. Their response to a blind man who now saw each of their faces was to state that, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.”

Some questioned the miracle and so his parents were brought forth to confirm that this was their son and that he had indeed been born blind. After doing so, the questions were not about the amazing healing and how it had touched the blind man’s heart and soul, but only were designed to discover whom the man was that had broken the Sabbath by healing someone.  To the formerly blind beggar they said, “Give glory to God, we know this man is a sinner.” His reply, of course, was on target.  “Whether he is a sinner or not I don’t know. One thing I do know, I was blind but now I see.”  This blind beggar went on to state some fairly sound theology. “Now this is remarkable.  You don’t know where he comes from yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinner.  He listens to the godly man who does his will.  Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind.  If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”  The Pharisees responded with their usual grace and scholarship – “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.”

Miracles are signs.  They are realities that point to even greater realities.  A road sign pointing you to Interstate 20 is a reality but it points to something greater and more useful. The sign won’t take you where you want to go, it only points you to that which will.  Miracles are amazing things, but they point you to an even greater reality. Jesus himself said that his miracles testified to his identity as the Son of God and his identity as the Anointed One. The giver of the miracle is always a greater reality than the miracle itself. As we seek the gifts of the Spirit and the supernatural power of God, we should never see those things as an end in themselves but rather road signs that point us to the giver of the gifts which should always be out true pursuit.

Having said that, how did the Pharisees miss the point of the healings time after time?  These were learned men who had memorized the first five books of the Bible as a beginning step.  They discussed and debated the Torah over and over. These were men of prayer who had devoted themselves to the knowledge of God.  Jesus himself acknowledged that they searched the scriptures diligently but they missed him.  The scriptures were signs pointing to the greater reality but they missed the reality. Somehow they never grasped the onramp to a personal relationship with God the Father.

God is pouring out a great measure of power and miracles on his church today.  These miracles can again become a divide just as they were in the days of Jesus. The problem will not be in the miracles but in the hearts of those who witness the miracles or who refuse to witness the miracles.  Miracles will come because God is a God of miracles who is still pointing to his Son. He is also a God of compassion and his miracles for healing, freedom and provision still flow out of a heart that is burdened for the brokenness and suffering of his people.

As in the days of Jesus, there will be different responses to the miracles. The best, of course, is belief in Jesus as the one true Son of God.  Some will see the signs and understand the destination. They will absolutely know that Jesus is the singular road to the Father.  Others will get caught up in the gifts themselves and never conform to the image of Jesus Christ in spirit or character.  These men may abuse the gifts or use them for their own ends.  They will tend to discredit the faith.

Still others will deny the reality of the miracles or declare, as the Pharisees declared, that these contemporary miracles are deceptions from the enemy. I believe Jesus healed often on the Sabbath because the Sabbath laws had become a stronghold of religion.  Men had taken it on themselves to closely define the things that constituted “work” on the Sabbath and in doing so violated the spirit of the Sabbath all together.  Jesus declared that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.  The very thing that God had given to bless man with rest and a focus on the love and faithfulness of God became an instrument of victimization.  To deny healing and deliverance on the Sabbath was to deny the powerful expression of God’s love on the Sabbath. In doing so, God was viewed as a God of rules rather than relationship.

Some will do the same today.  In the name of orthodoxy and biblical scholarship, some will deny the heart of God by denying that he still wants to intervene in the suffering of his people and the lost condition of men through displays of power. In the name of scholarship and intellect, men will declare that the signs that once pointed men to Jesus now point men to the devil.  Won’t there be counterfeit signs and wonders in the last days?  Yes, there will be the counterfeit but there will also be the authentic.  Those with the Spirit of Christ who ask the Spirit to lead them into all truth will know the difference.

As Jesus said, “By their fruits you will know them.”  If miracles draw people to Jesus, promote righteousness, heal broken hearts and set captives free, they are from God by every biblical standard.  Those who deny that God still works in power and miracles will simply forfeit the field to the enemy.  People hunger for the miraculous because they hunger for heaven where the miracles of God flood the atmosphere.

When a holy church operates in the true power of God for healing and freedom, then there is a standard against which the counterfeit signs and wonders of the enemy can be measured. Without that, he will be fielding the only team.  The church must seek the gifts but seek the giver even more. Signs are important but point to a greater reality and although signs may be misread, it’s hard to find the interstate without them.  Be blessed.

In these last days, God will be pouring out more of his Spirit to match (actually overmatch) the counterfeit wonders and miracles of the enemy that are coming.  Within the church, we will see a continuing growth in gifts of healings, tongues, miracles and prophecy. That is a good thing and yet there will be growing pains as men and women will attempt to operate in these gifts without the benefit of being mentored by those who are mature in the use of these gifts. Many will begin to experience these gifts in fellowships where the miraculous gifts have been denied or simply ignored.  They will not have ready access to spiritual mentors in those areas.

If you are one of these individuals who hunger after these gifts or who is beginning to experience the activation of these gifts in your life, I encourage you to ask the Spirit to direct you to spiritual mentors in the community who are mature, godly, and experienced in the operation of these gifts.  Let me warn you that strong “giftings” do not necessarily indicate mature spirituality. There are some men and women who move powerfully in gifts of healing or deliverance or even prophecy whose gifts run ahead of their spiritual maturity.  We often see that phenomenon in the natural realm with athletes, musicians, and even politicians. There giftedness brings them riches, fame, and acclaim long before their character can handle those things.  It can happen in the spiritual realm as well.  Because of that, as you seek mentors look for longevity and character in the exercise of the spiritual gifts you are seeking or experiencing more that the flamboyant fruit of someone who is “wowing” everyone with their gifts.  The mature may also amaze people with their gifts but they will carry with them the mantle of humility as well.

As we move into this time frame of an increase in the miraculous gifts of the church we will also need to be cautious and gracious with those who are very gifted but not so experienced. This may be especially true in gifts of prophecy.  Mature prophets know that the gift is given for the comfort, encouragement, and strengthening of the person receiving the word.  They know that not everything they are shown by God is to be shared with the receiver.  Some knowledge they receive is simply to set the context for the rest of the message and is not to be shared – especially in a public setting.  For instance, a prophet may be shown a sin or a traumatic event in the life of a person to set the context for what God wants spoken over them to set them free from the sin or heal the trauma. However, the sin or the trauma is not to be revealed publically and maybe not even privately.

God is not in the business of shaming or re-traumatizing the people he loves. Those who are operating in the gift without maturity or mentoring may not realize that and some people may be hurt or embarrassed by the immature exercise of these gifts.  If so, we should not dismiss the gift and we will have to have grace toward the prophet.  We will all make mistakes as we grow and cannot grow without exercising the gifts.

Some prophetic words will be right on target and some may miss the target because we “know in part and we prophesy in part.”  We will need to test the prophecy and retain what the Spirit confirms with our spirit and hold the remainder loosely.  In this season of empowering, we will need to affirm the gifts and the gifted without requiring perfection or we will quench the Spirit in our churches or in our own hearts. We will certainly need to test the spirits and the prophecies but we must do so with grace and love rather than distrust and cynicism.

For those who are desiring the miraculous gifts or beginning to experience them, as I said before, I encourage you to seek mentors in your fellowship or in another part of the body of Christ in your community – balanced, gifted, humble and mature Christians operating in these gifts.  In addition to or in place of those mentors, God is also providing this mentoring through anointed books and teachings.  The prophet Isaiah spoke of the time when the knowledge of God would cover the earth.  The spread of that knowledge is being done, in part, right now by the writing of books, teachings on DVD’s, etc.  These can also be great mentoring tools.

Of course, the question becomes which of those can be reliable mentors?  I can’t give you a list, but let me say that you should look for or listen for several indicators of spiritual maturity in the writer or teacher.

• Does the author or teacher reflect the Spirit and character of Christ – love,  joy, peace, gentleness, patience, etc?
• Does the author or teacher point you to Jesus more than the gifts?
• Does the author or teacher quote scripture responsibly or does he/she misuse the Word to validate their own ministries and personal theology?
• Is there humility in their writing or teaching rather than pride and arrogance?
• Is there a critical spirit toward others or do they love the entire body of Christ?
• After asking the Holy Spirit to lead you into truth, does the writing or teaching resonate with your spirit or trouble you?
• Do other mature Christians who accept the full ministry of the Holy Spirit recommend the book?

In the coming months and years, God will continue to pour out more and more power on his church if his church is willing to receive it and become a faithful steward of the gifts. I encourage you to be in that part of his church that does so.  These gifts will not just be healing, prophecy or miracles but amazing gifts of mercy, generosity, teaching, administration, music, wisdom, and so forth. They will be required to face the last great assaults of the enemy on planet earth. Each of us will be on a growth curve in learning how to operate in our respective gifts. Be wise but also give yourself and others grace as we growth.

Sometime before Thanksgiving I will post the recommended books you have commented on.  I would still like to continue to hear from you about the most transformative books in your life so that others can drink from the same pool.  Be blessed.

Did you ever have the feeling that someone envied you? Maybe they just simply came out and told you that they envied you, your lifestyle, your faith, your marriage, your talent, your stunning good looks, etc. It’s likely that they were giving you a compliment.  They were sincere and it was meant in a positive way rather than an “I wish I had what you have and I wish you didn’t” way.

To know that someone envies what you have or what you are often allows us to see those things through fresh eyes and to reassign value to some things we had come to take for granted or simply ignore. If a struggling person or a much younger person tells us about the envy the feel in our direction, we may feel a bit flattered but we aren’t blown away.  After all, value is relative. If someone without a car at all envies you because you drive a ’79 Ford Pinto, you still won’t feel that great about taking your girl to the prom in the Pinto.  You still know it’s an old beater.

But what if the rich, the famous, and the powerful began to sincerely indicate that they envied you for certain things?  You might begin to see whatever that was in a much different light. You would begin to sense the value, the uniqueness, or the special qualities of whatever they saw in you or in your possession that they longed for themselves.  Realizing that, you might begin to feel a little more significant, walk a little taller, and expect a little more out of life.

Consider these two verses:

               Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.  (Eph.3:8-10)

As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things into which angels long to look. (1 Pet. 1:10-12)

These are interesting verses. In summary, they tell us that there were mysteries that rested in the vaults of heaven for ages.  There were rumors and hints about God’s plan for redeeming Israel and, perhaps, even others.  The great prophets of Israel sensed that something was up and asked God to show them.  He would not.  Angels themselves longed to look into the plans of God regarding man.  God kept the files shut. But in the fullness of time, he chose the church and he chose you to announce the mysteries surrounding Christ, not just to the world but also to powers, authorities and angels in the heavenly realms.

This unveiling of God’s secrets began at Pentecost but continue through today.  The Spirit of God now reveals the mysteries of God to God’s people as they pour over the Word, seek him in prayer, or operate in the grace-filled gifts of the Spirit.  As they do, they announce these revealed mysteries not just to the rest of the body of Christ, but even to the angels who long to look into such things but must wait to hear them from us.

If we could only grasp the honor and the privilege that God has given us as his children we might feel more significant, walk a little taller and expect a little more out of life.  It really is amazing.  There is a real sense in which you are envied by the angels for he has entrusted to you and to every believer true riches that must be distributed by you even to those amazing creatures who stand in the presence of God.  Consider that privilege today.  Dig a little deeper in the Word.  Pray a little longer.  Ask God for a greater revelation of Jesus every day.  When you get it, share it with others and when you do you will be sharing with the angels as well.  Blessings.

Jesus continues to fascinate me as John presents him in his gospel.  His capacity to see past the superficial and the obvious is a gift we all need from the Holy Spirit. In Chapter 4, Jesus has his famous encounter with the Samaritan woman.  Just outside of Sychar he stopped to rest at a well dug by Jacob centuries earlier. Sitting there alone while his disciples went for food, Jesus may have though about Jacob with a smile.  After all, they knew each other well.  For most of his life Jacob had been a swindler until he had an encounter with the living God.  After a night of ‘wrestling with God,” Jacob became the patriarch God had always wanted him to be.  He was named Israel and became the Father of the twelve tribes of Israel. His was another story of transformation in the Kingdom of God.

While Jesus was, perhaps, reflecting on that bit of history, a Samaritan woman came to the well at mid-day for water.  As every good evangelist does, Jesus began a conversation.  This time he simply asked for a drink of water. The woman was a bit taken back because Jews did not speak to Samaritans at all because of the animosity between the Jews and Samaritans.  The cultural atmosphere  probably carried the flavor of the United States immediately after the Civil War.  There was a legal peace and some business took place, but for most people you were either a hated Yankee or Rebel and it was best just to avoid much interaction while wounds from the former conflict were healing.

You know the story. Jesus asks for water. She questions why he would even bother to ask.  He begins to speak almost mysteriously about a gift of living water that he might give her – water that would quench her thirst forever.  She’s not sure what he’s talking about but she is intrigued enough to continue the conversation.  When she asks to view the product, Jesus tells her to go after her husband.  She tells him that she is not married.

Jesus goes on to commend her for her honest response and tells hers that she has been married five times before and now is just living with her boyfriend.  His words were simply a statement of fact but apparently carried no tone of condemnation or even judgment because the woman took no offense.  She simply was drawn in further by this “word of knowledge” so that she began to talk about spiritual matters. Finally, Jesus reveals himself as the Messiah they were expecting and she, a woman of no reputation at all, became the first president of the Samaritan Evangelistic Association. At her testimony, the entire town turned out and many believed.

So what is our takeaway from this moment with Jesus?  Hearing about five husbands and a “live-in” doesn’t shock us, but for the first century that was quite an eyebrow raiser.  Yet Jesus didn’t focus on her lifestyle.  He didn’t rebuke her behaviors and call for repentance to begin or even end this conversation.  Jesus knew that until there was a change of heart there would be no lasting change of behaviors.  Too often, we focus on behaviors and habits as the things God is most concerned about. But over and over, he points us to the heart.

Jesus simply knew that the multiple marriages and the cohabiting were symptoms of a broken heart and a broken person.  Somewhere in her soul was a thirst to be loved, to belong, and to feel significant to the world.  That hole in her soul had to be filled before she could give up the “medications” she had been taking her whole life to numb the pain. He pointed her to a love and a relationship that could do just that. Our approach to transformation has not always been the best.  We have called people to change their behaviors without filling the void in their soul and in their hearts – give up this and give up that and then come to Jesus. It must be the reverse of that.  Come to Jesus first, taste of living water, and then you can let go of the props you have been hanging onto for years.

Isaiah and Luke both said that Jesus came to preach the good news, heal the brokenhearted, and to set captives free.  It pretty much has to be in that order.  Let people know first that there is living water – there is something to satisfy their longings and to calm their fears; let Jesus touch their hearts for healing; and then pry them lose from addictions and bondage. Without the love of Jesus and the Spirit of Christ in them, letting go of the relationships, the substances, and the sin they have clung to will simply put them in free fall.

Do behaviors need to change?  Does sin need to be repented of? Sure. But that comes after Jesus, not before.  When we face people in the grip of addictions, sexual immorality, broken relationships, etc. we need to scan their hearts and their spiritual needs before focusing on behaviors.  Before calling out the homosexual community for its lifestyle or the promiscuous girl for her many lovers or the guy with the drinking problem, we must offer a better solution for their emptiness, fear, and brokenness. Lets start that conversation first – because that’s what Jesus would do. He’s so smart!

If you have never read “The Jesus I Never Knew” by Philip Yancey, I really recommend it.  It was written in 1995 but it is as fresh today as it was then.  In his book, Yancey describes the Jesus he met in Sunday School as a child. He was tender, carried little lambs in his arms, and was quite unaffected by the world around him.  He seemed to walk through life with an otherworldly look in his eyes (Hollywood version) being untouched as he moved toward the cross. Yancey later discovered a very different Jesus in the gospels and so wrote his book.

In the second chapter of John, the apostle records the moment when Jesus entered the temple courts in Jerusalem just before the Passover.  As he entered, he found dozens of merchants selling animals to travelers for the sacrifices that would be required for the Passover rituals.  Others were exchanging foreign currencies for money that could be used for those purchases. In a furious rage, Jesus crafted a whip out of rope and drove the merchants from the courtyard while turning over their tables and scattering their money. It must have made quite a scene on those stone floors of the courtyard with tables clanging, sheep bleating in panic, and coins ringing as they rolled across the court of the Gentiles. So much for the passive, lamb-petting Jesus.

His anger was stirred because these people had taken what was sacred and turned it into a merchandising flea market.  You can almost see the coffee cups and multicolored t-shirts with the face of Moses smiling out or the listing of the Ten Commandments on cheap little wooden planks. For the younger crowd, you can imagine graphics of chariots and Egyptian soldiers being swept away by the Red Sea and dozens of booths with the latest C.D.’s produced by the group “Manna” or the  “Holy Tabernacle Choir” or the “Four Fab Pharisees.”   In his anger, Jesus screamed, “How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market and a den of thieves rather than a house of prayer!” It was such a startling moment that it is recorded in all four gospels.  Very few events made it into all four.

I’m not opposed to CD’s.  I have many.  I’m not opposed to stores or churches selling items that enhance study, spiritual growth, books, or worship.  I have it all in my house and office. I’m not opposed to T-shirts that give a witness (I’m just not a t-shirt guy). But we have to guard our hearts in relation to those things.  The Temple was sacred ground.  All those sheep, goats and doves were defiling the ground with their droppings only yards from where the Holy of Holies stood and where the Glory of God had once been so bright that even the priests could not enter.   Passover was sacred and Jesus himself would soon be slaughtered for the very people who had lost the wonder of God’s great deliverance.  The Temple was to be a house of prayer for all nations where they could connect intimately with their God rather than a merchandising convention.

In those days, the Glory of God rarely, if ever, visited the temple.  The great Kingdom of David had become a puppet state of Rome.  The High Priesthood had become political and its influence was bought and sold in the Roman market place of power.The Glory and the Power of Israel had long departed.

It wasn’t that people who traveled a hundred miles for the Passover didn’t need a lamb for the Passover meal or didn’t need to exchange money. It wasn’t that something to enhance their appreciation and understanding of the Passover would have been wrong. It wasn’t that some items to enhance their joy and celebration of God’s great deliverance would have been out of place.  The problem was that these items had actually replaced God in the hearts of his people. The awe and the sacred aura of the season had disappeared.  The fear of God was “old school.”  The temple was no longer the House of the Living God but simply a merchandising warehouse.

Many of us long for the presence of God in our churches on Sunday mornings.  Many of us pray for the move of God’s Spirit or a fresh Pentecost in our midst.  Many of us call for the church in America to rise up in spiritual power and retake America for our King.  But there are many places where the glory of God is not present and the power of His Spirit is not moving – in our churches or even in our hearts.

Have we lost our awe of God?  Have we made church a secular event in our hearts no different from a social organization that does a few good things for the community and shares secret handshakes?  Has church just become a business? If so, we shouldn’t expect God to show up very often except to turn over our tables. Like many things, it’s not so much what we do but rather why we do it that makes it acceptable or unacceptable to Jesus.

Not many things made Jesus angry. Let me encourage you to read through the gospels with a fresh eye as we move toward Christmas (no merchandising going on there). I would even recommend of read of Yancey’s book.  Pay attention to the things that made Jesus smile and the things that made him grit his teeth.  Check your own heart on the matter.  I will try to do the same.  We may discover a Jesus we never knew and we may experience the presence of God in ways we have longed for as well.  He wants to come but he will only come when we realize we are on holy ground.  Be blessed today.