In his book, The Jesus I Never Knew, Philip Yancey wrote, “How easily do we who live in material bodies devalue the world of spirit. It occurs to me that although Jesus spent much time on issues such as hypocrisy, legalism, and pride, I know of no television ministry devoted to healing those “spiritual” problems, yet I know of many that center on physical ailments. Just as I begin feeling smug, however, I remember how easily I am tormented by the slightest bout with physical suffering, and how seldom I feel tormented by sin.”

His point is that we focus too often on the material and physical part of our existence and seem to look to the spiritual only as a last resort.  In our healing and deliverance ministries, we must be careful not to be only concerned about emotional health and freedom from the demonic while not being concerned about developing the character of Christ in our people.

I have seen believers who were crushed by the weight of their freedom because they felt that their freedom was the stamp of God’s approval on their lives.  Torment had driven them to Jesus.  Freedom somehow took their eyes off the Lord and placed it on the pleasures of the world.  The outcome was ugly.  Some spirits returned and found the house clean and orderly.  They moved back in and brought a lot of friends. 

Even when praying for physical healing, we often think the only issue is faith.  But often, unconfessed and unrepented sin get in the way of healing.  James tells is that we must confess our sins to one another and pray for one another that healing might follow (Ja.5:16). In a rush to help people, we often pray before we help them examine their lives.  Our spiritual condition is ultimately much more important than our physical or emotional well-being.  

Freedom and healing need to be steps in the process of discipleship, not ends in themselves.  I believe that emotional healing and freedom from the demonic are God’s will for our lives, but we must not offer them as stand-alone benefits, but as an expression of God’s love and power that are simply aids to becoming like Jesus.  When ministering to people, I often have to remember to slow down. Do some work before praying or before deliverance.  As Yancy suggests, we may need to come to a place of being tormented by our sinfulness before attacking the other torments in our lives.  Just a thought.

Once upon a time, when I was many years younger and many pounds lighter, I had some talent for track and loved the sport.  One of my minor heroes in life has been an Englishman named Roger Bannister. When Roger was young, he was severely burned in a fire. Doctors told his parents that he would probably never walk again. Not only did he walk but he also began to run. Not only did he run, but also he became a world-class runner in college. Bannister competed  during an era when running a mile in under four-minutes was a dream that seemed impossible. In fact, doctors and scientists believed that the human body was not capable of such speed over that distance and believed that anyone who actually broke the mark would suffer irreparable damage to his body. Fortunately, Bannister did not “follow the science” in the matter.

On May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister did what most believed was impossible. He ran the mile in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds.   Within three years, sixteen other individuals had broken the four-minute barrier. So what happened? Did mankind suddenly make a spontaneous, evolutionary jump? No, a change in perception made the difference. When one man broke the barrier, others suddenly believed that they could do so as well. Through the centuries, psychological barriers have proven to be more formidable that physical barriers.

Jesus said, “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours^” (Mk. 11:2-24).

Often, we believe that great changes are made when large numbers of people begin to act or think in certain ways. But every movement has been given impetus by one person who did what others  believed they could not do. God is looking for those individuals, men and women, who will step out and do what others have believed to be impossible. When they do, other believers will follow.

There have been seasons in the church when miracles were the norm.  Certainly in the first century church, the gifts of the Spirit propelled the church into great seasons of revival.  Some of the gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12-14 were, of course, prophecy, healings, miracles, tongues, interpretation of tongues, words of knowledge, etc.  On top  of that, dreams and visions seem to have been standard fare in the church.  

There have been others seasons when God healed in amazing sways through revivalists in the 1800’s and 1900’s in England and America.  Each time a season of the miraculous sprang up, atheists and agnostics along with “educated and dignified” believers were quick to write off such happenings as foolishness, superstition, and emotionalism.  The Pharisees in the first century did the same and even went as far as to credit the devil with the miracles, instead of God.

Over the last 300 years, the American and European church has, for the most part, denied the miraculous intervention of God and called those who claimed to heal and prophecy frauds and con men.  

However, In the past 50 years, a new generation of believers has embraced the supernatural once again and claims healings, prophecies, tongues, miracles, dreams, visions, and even the raising of the dead.  Of course, orthodox believers and intellectuals in the church still deny the reality of such things other than as a deception from the enemy.

But, I am convinced that  in the heart of every believer is a secret longing to see God do now what he did throughout the scriptures.  We long to see the glory of God demonstrated in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Many believers long to see it, but are afraid to believe because the paragons of their faith  have told them that God no longer works in those ways.

I believe God wants an army of spiritual Roger Bannisters who will believe that God is the same today as he has always been and, as he was always willing to display his power on behalf of his people, he still is.  I know that in many churches, if just one they knew were too break the miracle barrier, others would believe it possible and soon would break the barrier with him or her

Of course, there is risk in standing up for the supernatural move of God.  You might be distrusted.  You might be ridiculed.  You might be strongly encouraged not to “mislead the faithful” with such ideas.  On the other hand, you might just break the four minute barrier and open the door to an amazing move of God in your own circle  of influence.  

For those of us who want to believe God for miracles, the challenge is typically not whether we believe he can do such things, but that he will.  I met a man a couple of years ago that had moved away to become part of a church where a great number of miracles were reported on a regular basis.  After being there a year or two, he moved back to our area.  I asked him how the experience had changed him.  He said the real change for him was that he now expected God to move in miraculous ways, rather than just hoping he would.  

If we need that transformation in our own lives, we don’t have to move away but we may need to take some trips to actually see men and women “breaking the four minute mile” so that our own barriers of unbelief can be shattered.  

In the track world, a four minute mile is no longer considered impossible, but is simply a measure of any “decent runner.”  Wouldn’t it be amazing, if the church no longer considered the miraculous move of God to be impossible, but simply considered it to the the measure of any “decent church?”

The story of David illustrates the principle. As y of course, ou recall, Israel and Philistia had gone to war. Each army encamped along the hillsides on either side of a valley. Each day, a nine foot “giant” named Goliath would come out to challenge the army of Israel calling for someone to step out and face him man to man. Every day for forty days, Goliath issued the challenge. Not one man would take him up on his dare. Clearly, the entire army of Israel believed that defeating Goliath was impossible.

Then one afternoon, David was sent by his father Jessie to check on his brothers and to see how the battle was going. David witnessed Goliath’s taunts and offered to face the giant himself. He offered because he believed that God makes all things possible. Although the experienced soldiers in the army of Israel tried to convince David that he could not win against such an imposing figure, David ignored them and the rest is history. David charged Goliath was a sling and dropped the giant with one stone. He then proceeded to take Goliath’s own sword and cut off his head for good measure. Suddenly, the entire Israeli army that had shown no taste for battle for forty days charged the Philistine army and won a great victory. When one man, by faith, broke a spiritual barrier others had considered impossible, they suddenly had faith for their own victory.

Later, David gathered a number of men around him that were referred to as David’s mighty men. These thirty or so men accomplished great, almost impossible deeds on their own including one of them killing a large Egyptian about the size of Goliath (See 2 Sam. 23, 1 Chron.11-12). I suspect that David’s faith and his willingness to do what others would not do inspired those who followed him.

I believe, God is looking for “Davids” and “spiritual Roger Bannisters” in every generation who, by faith, will do what Jesus did and even greater things. When one does, others will suddenly have the faith and a whole generation will follow. We should ask God to make us that person for our family, our church, our fellowship and the kingdom of God. Faith is about breaking psychological barriers that reason against what God says is true and possible. Jesus walked on water by faith. He stilled storms by faith. He healed the sick raised the dead in the same way. He asks us to believe that through him we can shatter barriers. When by faith and tenacity one believer breaks the barrier, others will quickly follow. So what is your four-minute mile? What spiritual barrier will you overcome so that others will follow? Ask God to show you.

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Have you ever noticed that the gospels often provide little snippets of three or four verses that make you raise an eyebrow, but then we often run on to other things that are more clearly illustrated?  I think the cursing of the fig tree in Matthew 21 and Mark 11 is one of those.  The narrative in both gospels tells us that early in the morning, as Jesus was walking from Bethany to Jerusalem, he was hungry. He saw a fig tree in the distance, but as he drew near, he noticed it had leaves but no fruit.  He then cursed the fig tree and it began to wither immediately. Mark tells us that when the disciples and Jesus passed that way again the next morning, they saw that the tree was totally dead.  The disciples pointed out the obvious and then Jesus told them that whatever they ask for in faith they will receive.  

If we just run past that, it would be easy to believe that Jesus cursed the fig tree as an example of faith, but I think there is more to the story.  It is the only example I know of where faith brought death rather than life and a withering instead of a healing.  It seems that the fig tree would have been a greater example of faith if Jesus had blessed it and, in the morning, it had been burgeoning with perfect fruit.

If you look at Mark’s narrative, you find that Jesus cursed the tree and then went on to the temple where he drove out those who were selling merchandise in the temple courts.  He did so while declaring that the temple should be a house of prayer rather than a den of thieves.  Both Matthew and Mark state that the fig tree had leaves but no fruit.  From a distance, it looked healthy, but with close inspection, it was bearing no fruit, which was its God-given purpose.  The temple and Israel’s religious leaders may have looked grand and godly from a distance, but on close inspection they were failing to fulfill their God-given purpose.  The whole nation of Israel was in that condition and soon felt the full brunt of the curse of the fig tree when Rome destroyed both the temple and Jerusalem in 70 A.D.

There are numerous examples in scripture in which trees that are not bearing fruit are eventually cut down and thrown into the fire (example: Matt. 3:10, 7:19).  Although, the initial application is probably the nation of Israel, I think we should also examine our own lives to see if we are bearing fruit for the kingdom.  I see many believers who once served actively and intentionally in the kingdom, but have long since quit doing so.  Some go to church from time to time, but don’t serve there.  They don’t share the gospel with those they encounter in their daily lives.  They don’t serve the poor or the oppressed in their communities.  They don’t labor in prayer for others.  They live a rather moral life and do the things that bless their own lives and their families, but not the lives of others in any direct way.  With any objective measure, they are no longer a force for the kingdom of God.  

One of Satan’s great strategies is busyness.  We give into the constant demands of the world – a standard of living that takes seventy hours a week to maintain, a social agenda for us and our children that is exhausting, and a life with no margins for intentional serving or quality time with the Lord. When we have to choose, we usually choose the demands of the world because God is not threatening us or pressuring us like the world does.  

We need to see the hand of Satan in all of this.  I’m always amazed at Jesus.  He could have easily let the demands of notoriety and building his ministry overwhelm him, but he never seemed to be in a hurry.  In fact, in his busiest moments, rather than working harder or putting in more hours, he often slipped away from the crowds and his ministry for time with the Father.  

Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. Our fruitfulness depends on our connection.  The greater our connection, the greater the fruit.  In the kingdom of God, fruit is a big deal.  Read through the gospels with an eye to fruitfulness and you will see how important it is – for a nation or a person.  

I need to be reminded that busyness is not the same as fruitfulness.  Pastors can get so busy with “the work of the church” that our time with the Father gets neglected.  When I labor without spending significant time with the father, I can bear little fruit that matters.  I thought you might need a reminder as well.  

Take an inventory.  See how you spend your time, your energy, and your money. See if you can clearly identify the ways in which you are intentionally bearing fruit in the kingdom.  If need be, reprioritize and take action to redirect some, if not all, of your life.  Then set times to take inventory of your priorities on a regular basis so that you don’t skip back into old habits.  Most importantly, be honest with yourself about what you are doing and why.  Blessings in Him.

Throughout the gospels, Jesus performed miracles. Because of those miracles, crowds gathered…sometimes massive crowds. No matter what he had done, however, the skeptics in the crowd kept asking for more.  Changing water to wine while healing the blind, the lame, the deaf, the leprous outcasts, and raising the dead was simply not sufficient proof in their minds. They kept asking for a more convincing sign or miracle. On several occasions, Jesus said that the only sign he would give them was the sign of his resurrection.  For the most part, they still did not believe.

I love miracles.  I like to go where people are being healed. I like to see demons driven out in the name of Jesus.  I want to see someone raised from the dead and I believe that is happening today in this world by the power of the Holy Spirit.  And yet, I am often reminded that we need to keep miracles in perspective.  Yes…they point people to God.  And yes, they are often a continuing expression of God’s grace and compassion in a totally fallen world. But they are not always the evangelistic tool we believe them to be.  

We may wonder how anyone could see the works of Jesus and not fully believe….and yet the majority of those who personally witnessed them did not become his followers.  We must acknowledge the axiom that faith produces miracles but miracles do not always produce faith. Certainly, the religious leaders of his day seemed to be inoculated against any faith that would arise from witnessing a miracle.  On the other hand, one thing I have discovered is that radically changed lives are the greater miracles and the greater testimony.  

I remember the story of a little boy who told his agnostic teacher at school that he believed in Jesus.  The teacher sarcastically asked the little boy if he actually believed that Jesus turned water into wine.  The boy replied, “I don’t know about that, but I know he changed beer into bread at my house.” Perhaps, that is a greater miracle than raising the dead.  Sometimes, a supernatural act of God creates faith to change lives, but more often it is the love and acceptance of the body of Christ toward those who have only known rejection that makes Jesus real to them.

I’m not against miracles.  I’m all for them.  But we can’t forget the words of Jesus who said that the world would recognize his followers by their love, not their miracles.  1 Corinthians 13, clearly announces the truth that we can have all the spiritual gifts, that we can speak in the tongues of men and angels, and that we can have faith to move mountains…but if all of that is not motivated by love, then they are of no value.  So as we pursue the gifts and the miraculous, let’s pray even harder for love than we do for the gifts.

One of the most illuminating passages in scripture regarding spirituawarfare is found in the Book of Daniel.  In chapter 10, Daniel had a disturbing dream that he did not understand but could not shake.  He was confident that it was a prophetic dream from the Lord but had the wisdom not to venture the interpretation on his own.  Instead, he asked the Lord for the meaning of the dream and began to fast while he waited for his answer.  After twenty-one days of continued prayer and fasting, David was visited by an angel.

The angel spoke to him saying, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince ofthe Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come” (Dan. 10:12-14).

In summary, the first day that Daniel prayed, God dispatched a powerful angel with the interpretation of the dream. However, a demonic prince assigned to the nation of Persia intercepted the angel and opposed him in the heavenly realm for twenty-one days.  The angel sent by God could not have completed his mission unless Michael the archangel had come to take up the battle.  What we see in this passage is that there is often demonic resistance to the answers to our prayers.  Part of me doesn’t like the notion that demons may work so that my prayers are hindered or side-tracked altogether, but it is a biblical theme.

I sense that most of us want to believe that once we lift up a prayer, there is nothing left to do.  Our sense is that Elohim (God Almighty) will command and everything will immediately fall into place.  But scripture suggests otherwise…at least in some circumstances. Sometimes, there is still a battle to be fought. As Israel was taking the promised land from enemy tribes, there were times that they simply watched and saw God route the enemy.  Sometimes in a moment of confusion and fear, enemy soldiers would turn on one another and kill each other.  At other times, God would convince an enemy army that another army was bearing down on them and they would flee. Later on in Israel’s history, God sent an angel among an army at night to slay thousands so that in the morning, those that remained alive would simply flee.  But most of the time, Israel had to wade into battle and trust that as they fought God would give them the victory.  Sometimes the battle lasted all day and into the night until Israel’s troops were exhausted.

In the same way that God limits his own sovereignty on the earth and chooses not to control every aspect of life here (free will),  he apparently has done the same in the spiritual realm.  There he also allows free will for the angels.  Satan and a third of the heavenly hosts exercised that free will as they rebelled against the King of Heaven and were banished to earth. Apparently, he also allows the enemy to resist his will and our prayers on earth. Typically, our part the battle is to persevere in prayer and faith as Daniel did until the answer manifests.

If I’m honest, I like instant.  I want to pray for healing and see cancer disappear overnight.  I want to pray for a marriage and see a supernatural change of heart before I meet with the couple the next week.  I want to pray for a job for a friend and hear that the phone rang the next day with an amazing offer.  And sometimes, I see an instant answer to prayer.  Bur at other times, I see nothing for days,  weeks,  months and maybe years.  

Here is the question. When I don’t see immediate answers do I assume that God is not going to say “yes” to that prayer or do I continue to pray, believing that I am partnering with heaven in overcoming demonic opposition? I believe that if Daniel had ceased to pray and fast after a few days, Michael would not have been sent to the battle and the other angel would not have delivered the interpretation of the dream.  

Sometimes there is war In heaven that has been activated by our prayers.  Sometimes, the war is in our hearts as Satan whispers unbelief and discouragement so that our prayers will cease before the victory is won.  Sometimes the battle is in the courts of heaven where “the accuser of the brethren” finds charges that he can bring against us in opposition to our prayers.  Those charges might be found in us when we have not forgiven those who have wronged is or have not repented of some persistent sin in our lives.  Sometimes, sin or a curse may exist in the life of the one we are praying for so that Satan has the right to oppose our prayers for the other.  

As we pray, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to show us what is giving Satan the right to oppose our prayers and then deal with those issues through the cross.  When we minister deliverance to people, we often encounter a spirit that is highly resistant to our commands. Typically, he is resistant because something in the life of the demonized person is still giving him a legal right to afflict him/her.   When the person or the Holy Spirit reveals the issue and it is dealt with through the cross the demon is then easily driven out.  

There are times when our prayers are quickly answered, but there are many times when we will have to contend for the answers.  We are not contending with God but with the enemy who wants to thwart God’s will on earth and wreck our destinies. I think we often give up too soon when prayers aren’t quickly answered.  In Matthew 7, Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”  In the original language, the verbs tell us to keep on asking, keep on seeking, and keep on knocking in order to receive those things.  In Luke 18, we are told that Jesus imparted a parable so that his disciples would always pray and never give up.   Endurance is a key to spiritual warfare and victory.

If you have quit praying for something that you are confident is God’s will, pick it up again and begin to pray, declare, and command.  If you are just beginning to pray for something, know that you may see the instant answer, but you may also be required to wage war in your prayers for weeks to come.  

Victor Frankl was an Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, philosopher and author who was also a survivor of German concentrations camps in World War II.  In his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, he wrote that the difference he saw in the men who survived the camps and those who didn’t, was the central issue of “meaning.”  Those who found no meaning in their suffering, succumbed and died.  Those who could find some meaning for what they were experiencing, some redeeming purpose for their suffering, survived.  I would argue that our greatest need today is still to find meaning for our life and our experiences.  Having suicide rates at all-time highs in a nation still prosperous and full of opportunities tells me that people, young and old, cannot find a reason to go on when life gets hard and disappointment dims their dreams.

Before coming to Christ, I struggled with depression as a college student.  Even in my 20’s, I already sensed a futility to life.  The idea of simply working for 75 years to bring home a pay check and then to die, was a very unfulfilling view of my future.  I had no sense of who I was or why I was or of any purpose beyond the moment. The thought of the rest of my life feeling that way was debilitating.  Discovering Jesus changed that. Jesus and the destiny assigned to me in heaven, gave my life purpose – not just for the years I have in this body, but for eternity.  When I began to discover who God had made me to be, I found fulfillment in the path laid out for me.

Satan loves to blind us from our purpose and the meaning that every experience has for our destiny.  One of his primary strategies is to make us feel disqualified for anything beyond disappointments and failures.  He takes those setbacks and whispers to us that we are unworthy of anything more and that our lives will simply be a series of failed attempts to find love and happiness.  

Paul says something interesting in his second letter to the church at Corinth. He wrote, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. (2 Cor. 1:3-4). Let me highlight a couple of truths from this passage and then tie it into the concept of “meaning.”

First of all, we will all experience troubles – failure, loss, hardship, betrayal, and pain.  It is the fabric of this world. If we believe that God has promised us a trouble-free existence then we haven’t read the Bible carefully and we will experience a great deal of disappointment. The fact that we suffer is not abandonment by God any more than pain and injuries in a football game are the coach’s fault.  It is simply part of the game and the price you pay to participate. Expect it.  Prepare for it.  Deal with it. Like all top athletes, you will have to play injured at times,  but God does promise that we win in the end.

Secondly, it is in the midst of trouble that we most clearly experience the hand and comfort of God if we will receive it. Remember, God did not keep Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego out of the fire.  He simply joined them in the fire.  It is when we struggle that we truly discover God in our lives if we are open to the discovery.

The other great truth in the passage is that whatever we receive from God in our suffering and even failures, we are to use to help others who are coming down that same dark road behind us.  

After years of ministry to hurting people, I have clearly seen that true healing only comes when we use our own pain from the past to comfort and direct others.  That ministry to the broken and the hurting gives our own suffering meaning.  It redeems our pain so that it has value. If we can find no purpose for what we have gone through or are going through, we inevitably blame God for being unfair or of betraying us.  We will then wither like those in the Nazi concentration camps who could find no meaning in what they were going through.  However, when we see God’s purpose for our suffering or have faith that he will use it for something significant, we can become partners with him in overcoming evil.  

Let me quickly say that God is not the cause of our suffering, but he will use it so that what we have gone through has redeeming value. The devil tries to convince us that our losses, abuse, and failures have disqualified us from our destiny –  that because we have failures in our past, God will not or cannot use us. He tries to convince us that our losses and failures determine our identity for all time. That is not true.  Those things that brought pain and even shame into our lives actually equip us to minister to others.   Those are actually the very things that make us qualified. 

I have served in full time ministry long enough that I have known several church leaders whose lives seemed to have been charmed.  They grew up in great Christian homes, had amazing careers, had “perfect” kids, and simply had no history of abuse, divorce, failure , or besetting sin that I knew of.  They were great people, but in every church the people I worked with – the abused, the divorced, the single mothers, those struggling with addictions -would never have gone to those men and women for counsel.  They not only feared being judged, but more than that, believed that those “charmed” individuals would simply have no empathy or understanding of their situation.  In order to be a perfect High Priest for us, Jesus had to be tempted in every way as we are. We need to be able to tell others that we have been down the same muddy roads as they are travelling now.  Our own hurts, betrayals, losses, and sin give us the wisdom and the credibility hurting people need when God has led us out of our own pain and shame.

I love Elevation’s recent song, Graves Into Gardens, as it speaks of how God redeems even death and turns it into something full of life.  He can do that in our own lives as we find our own meaning in Him and the destiny that Jesus has purchased for us.  The key is not to let out past define us, but to let the lessons we have learned in Christ, prepare us to pass God’s comfort on to others who also have a destiny in him. 

Have you ever considered the “impossibility” of successfully living out the commands of Christ in his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) on a daily basis? In this sermon, beginning with the “blessed are’s,” he shifts the standard of judgment from behaviors to the heart and our thought life.  He says that instead of murder being the standard, if you even remain angry at your brother, you are in danger of judgment.  Instead of physical adultery being the standard, lusting after a woman in your heart is just as sinful.  He commands us to love our enemies and to pray for those who are intent on doing us harm.  He warns that we must not judge another or we will be judged with the same judgement.  Participating in gossip is a form of judgment.  Considering myself more righteous than another is judging.  Having a critical spirit and accusing others of not measuring up is judging. We could go on, but Jesus set a very high standard for holiness in the courts of heaven.

 How do we get through the day without violating these commands in some way?  Those commands define the standards and the goal.  Thankfully, grace makes up the difference.  But if we ever think we are doing well spiritually, we only need to read those three chapters in Matthew and hold them up to our own hearts objectively to see how much we need Jesus – every day.

One of the beatitudes (blessed are…) that always catches my eye is, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt.5:8).  In a season where the church is crying out for the presence of God in our worship and manifestations of God in our lives, I wonder how much a lack of purity hinders our ability to see God.  If you read the Psalms of David, there seems to be a real sense in which he had vivid visions of God in the temple.  Perhaps, they were occasional, but his songs reflect a true hunger to see God again, to take in his majesty, and to be overwhelmed with his glory.  I think we are crying out for those same things again, but I wonder if our standard of purity has become relative rather than biblical.  

We are surrounded daily by a tsunami of illicit sexuality, profane language, graphic violence, blatant and bold dishonesty, and perversion.  By cultural standards, Christians avoid the worst of those things, but by heavenly standards I suspect we carry much more impurity than we want to acknowledge. What we become calloused to in our culture, what we normalize, is still highly offensive to the Holy Spirit.  For instance, the apostle Paul commanded, “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people” (Eph.5:3). 

 All I have to do is look at Face Book pages of believers I know, to understand that our standards for modesty, environments we hang out in, and even language don’t come close to biblical standards.  And yet, we must think that God is good with our standards or we wouldn’t post some of those things all over the internet for others to admire.  We must remember that we’re are not graded on the Bell Curve against how others perform, but we are to be judged by the pure and holy standards of heaven that never change.  

In 1939, the famous movie Gone with the Wind was released.  This “classic” nearly did not make it past the movie censors because Rhett Butler told Scarlett O’Hara that he didn’t “give a damn.”  That kind of language in a movie was shocking and outraged those who were concerned about America’s moral climate.  Think about what we now consider normal and acceptable in movies and television in terms of language, nudity, sexuality, adultery, and so forth.  Our standards have fallen so far, that we typically would push back against those censors as being archaic and prudish rather than questioning our own standards of morality and purity.  

I have to monitor these issues in my own life, so I know how subtly we can become calloused to the sin around us and lose our sense of shame and outrage when our culture not only offends God, but boasts about the sin and recruits others to join in.  We can’t control the world around us, but if we want to see God, as we claim we do, purity – by His standards – is something we must consider.  

We cannot lower the standards of God’s holiness but must ask him to give us his sensitivity to sin once again in our own lives and hearts so that we are constantly recognizing the compromises in our soul and pulling those weeds from the garden where we want to meet with God. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

There are a lot of great thinkers and writers in the world…especially in the Christian world.  When I read something that is noteworthy or that resonates in my spirit, I like to share it with you.  Stephen Mansfield is a New York Times best selling author.  He is a pastor, an historian, and an expert on leadership development.  I want to quote from a recent piece he wrote in his blog Leading Thoughts.

Stephen wrote, “One of my favorite words is ‘legendary.’  Today it means merely something that is famous enough to be celebrated in our time. Yet it comes from the Middle Latin word that meant something worthy to be written down and remembered for generations. I love that idea.  Lives and deeds that are worthy to be written down and remembered. People who live in such a way that they inspire generations.  Frankly, I want to live like that.  I want you to as well.  

A great leader is meant to inspire greatness in others.  He or she is in place to awaken largeness and nobility and an epic vision in the souls of people … Yet I have to tell you that many leaders wrap themselves in the aura of the legendary.  This, I’m sorry to say, is particularly true among people in Christian ministry. They have some challenges.  They achieve some victories. Good things come of it.  Then, unfortunately, their vision shifts from making others legendary to presenting themselves as legends to be honored … Here is the core truth.  You might be a legend one day.  I hope you will be.  I’m here to help.  Yet don’t become legendary by assuming that you are and presenting yourself as such.  You become legendary by enabling other people, empowering them to rise to the greatness possible in their own lives.”

For those of us in leadership or that aspire to leadership, I think this a great reminder of a core biblical truth.  Jesus taught his disciples, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” 

Many ministries that have begun to bear great fruit have been damaged by leaders within the ministry that begin to use the ministry as a platform for their own significance.  The old healing evangelists of the early 1900’s had a term for it.  They said, “Don’t touch the glory.”  What they meant was to never take credit for what God is doing.  Give him the glory rather than yourself.  Historically, those who forgot that maxim ended poorly or even tragically. Spiritual pride is not a quality of Christ, but of Satan. It was spiritual pride that caused Satan to lose his place in heaven. We need to guard against that quality springing up in our own hearts or in the hearts of others that lead with us.  

Pastors, especially, have been given to the church in order to equip others for service in the kingdom.  The Passion Translation puts it this way, “He has appointed some with grace to be apostles, and some with grace to be prophets, and some with grace to be evangelists, and some with grace to be pastors, and some with grace to be teachers.  And their calling is to nurture and prepare all the holy believers to do their own works of ministry, and as they do they will enlarge and build up the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:11-12). 

As leaders, we are to equip others for the good works prepared in advance for them.  We are to launch them into fruitful ministries of their own with a vision for achieving great things in the kingdom of God. If the ministry is about our significance, we can never let others accomplish more than ourselves because, then, our significance would be diminished.  If we seek the applause of men, we will find ways to limit what others do who serve in our ministries so they cannot outshine us.  If we seek the applause of heaven, however, we will launch as many as we can who will be even more effective in ministry than we have been.  We will encourage and launch them to develop greater gifts than we have known personally.

In talking to pastors in other churches, it seems that ministries in which “miraculous gifts” are up front, are very susceptible to spiritual pride.  Like the miracles of Jesus, these ministries tend to draw a crowd and may get more notoriety than most other ministries in the church.. Gifted but immature believers looking for significance in the church are often drawn to these areas and want to “shine” in the eyes of others. If not mentored well, they may grow into leaders who want to be legendary in their own eyes and in the eyes of men rather than heaven.  

I have had conversations in which senior pastors did not want a healing or deliverance ministry in their church because of an experience in the past with such a ministry in which the leaders felt spiritually superior to those who didn’t operate in “the gifts” or engage in spiritual warfare.  The self-assigned legendary status of some leaders created divisions in the church.  These senior pastors had no desire to go down that road again.

All this is to say that we truly need to guard our hearts and the hearts of others who serve with us so that our true desire is to develop and promote others far beyond ourselves.  Jesus humbled himself so that we might be lifted up.  If we will do the same, God will bless our ministries and our leadership…and our “legends” may grow in heaven.

Grace

Most of us remember the story from Matthew 18 of a servant who owed his master more money than he could repay.  When the master called in the debt, the man was helpless to repay so the master decided to sell the man and his family into slavery to recoup part of his losses.  The man fell on his knees asking for mercy and the master, in a moment of compassion, forgave the entire amount and continued to keep him on as a servant.   Immediately after receiving the incredible gift of grace from his master, he ran into another servant who owed him a few dollars.  He demanded his money and when that servant couldn’t pay, he had him put in jail until he could get his money.  When the master heard what had happened, he was furious and put the man whose debt he had forgiven in jail, rebuking him for not showing others the mercy he had received.  Jesus finished the story by saying that God will deal with us in the same way if we don’t forgive others their wrongs toward us, because God has forgiven our unpayable debt through his Son.

The question always arises as to why the servant, who was forgiven the enormous debt, was so unbending toward the one who owed him a small debt.  Of course, he could have just been wicked and perverse.  Once he escaped punishment, he still felt the entitlement to demand from others what was not demanded from him.  Some people whose hearts are hard are just like that.   But there may be another reason that we all need to consider.

In the story, when his master demanded payment, the servant cried out, “Please be patient with me.  If you’ll just give me more time, I will repay you all that is owed’ (Matt. 18:29).  When the master completely forgave his debt, the servant may have understood the forgiveness to simply mean that he had extended the note, but would still require payment later.  If that were the case, the first servant would be desperate to collect all he could as soon as he could from others.

The idea that someone would simply forgive an enormous debt without any expectation of repayment is actually hard to get our minds around.  It seems like one of those “too good to be true” offers that will come back to haunt us later.  For many believers, grace has the same feel.  Many of us still live before God thinking that somewhere along the line, our salvation our security, and his blessings will be based on being better than others.  It’s like college entrance exams…only those in the 90^th percentile will get in.

When we slip into self-righteousness, we have slipped into a kind of “meritorious salvation.”  If I believe I only get the favor of God by being better than most, I will be invested in pointing to my own good qualities and good works while zealously pointing out the failures and flaws of others.  That is the nature of judging others and placing them in a psychological category of being less than me. When we can’t be generous in how we deal with the weaknesses and failings of others, we have missed the meaning of God’s grace.  If I know that I have been forgiven much, based totally on the goodness of God and the full payment of my debt made on my behalf by the blood of Christ, how could I not extend that generosity to others?

If we are quick to judge, condemn, criticize, and gossip…we probably have not yet taken hold of the true meaning of God’s grace.  The belief that we have to prove ourselves better than others to deserve love and favor from God is a huge open door for the enemy. We may want to begin to meditate on grace and ask the Holy Spirit to give us a true revelation of that grace in our own hearts.  It is very freeing to know how much God values me without the need to devalue others.

In the third chapter of Revelation, Jesus writes to the church at Laodicea, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me” (Rev.3:20). This is a familiar passage to most and most have seen the painting by William Hunt depicting Christ standing in front of a heavy wooden door knocking and waiting. The painting symbolizes Jesus knocking on our hearts.  It’s interesting to think that the one who has all authority in heaven and on earth does not command the door to open but waits on our permission, our invitation.

Permission is a powerful thing.  We need to be sure that we issue constant permission and a constant invitation to Jesus to enter our lives and our hearts. We need to make sure that there aren’t places in our lives and hearts where we deny him permission to enter.  If we aren’t careful, a denial to Jesus becomes an invitation for the enemy.

Satan has permission to tempt those who are in Christ but cannot enter to kill, steal and destroy unless we or those who have had authority over us, give him permission. The “sins of the fathers” give Satan permission to attack the blood lines until those bloodlines are cleansed by Christ and that cleansing depends on our request, our invitation.   Where we personally have unrepented sin, ungodly relationships, or unforgiveness in our lives, that agreement with Satan constitutes permission.

Even when ministering deliverance, we need the one being afflicted to no longer extend permission to the enemy through half-hearted commitment to the Lordship of Jesus or half-hearted commitments to holiness. Any secret sin the afflicted wants to hold onto or leave unconfessed, gives the enemy permission to stay and deliverance becomes a much greater task.  

Both Jesus and the devil are always standing at the door and knocking.  We need to be very sure about who we are inviting in.