For the word of God is living and active. Hebrews 4:12

The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. John 6:63

The two verses above speak of God’s word. The Hebrew passage describes it as living and active. The Greek word translated as “living” means that it contains its own vitality. It is as much alive as humans or animals or plants. The fact that it is living in the same way suggests that it grows and bears fruit. It reproduces. The parable of the soils that Jesus told likened the word of God to seed that would bear tremendous fruit if planted in the right soil.

The Greek word that is translated “active” means more than just moving around or animation. It is a word that means something surging with energy is at work and having effect. It indicates that something alive and powerful is accomplishing a divine purpose in the supernatural realm. This definition takes the word of God for beyond information to be digested or principles for living to be learned and incorporated as a philosophy of life. While we study the word, incorporate its principles, and quote scripture, we can be sure that something is at work in the unseen realm that is accomplishing something we may or may not even be aware of.

The second verse from above was spoken by Jesus and adds to our understanding. Jesus declared that his words were spirit and they were life. What does it mean that his words were spirit? I believe they were spirit in two senses. First of all, his words originated in the spiritual realm. While on earth, Jesus still operated as a citizen of heaven whose perspective was always anchored in the spiritual realm. In addition, he said that he spoke only what he heard his Father saying. To his disciples he said, “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work” (Jhn.14:10). His words flowed from the spiritual realm to the natural realm, not the other way around.    That is why they possessed power. Secondly, they came to him from the Father via the Holy Spirit. Jesus had just declared that the Spirit gives life. As they came from the Father through the Spirit they were infused with the life-giving power of the Spirit so that when they went out they fulfilled their purpose.

That is how the word of God becomes living and active (Heb.4:12). As they are broadcast they are infused with spiritual power by the Spirit of God. As a result, the words of Jesus created life in various forms. For some it was spiritual life. Men were born again in response to the gospel. For others it was physical life. Thousands were healed and physically restored and many were literally raised from the dead. For others, emotional life was imparted to them as broken hearts were healed. And for even more, life was restored as men and women were set free from bondage to demons and addictions. His words imparted life because his words carried authority and were infused with power. The words that created the universe demonstrated that dynamic in the very beginning.

But what about today? How is the word activated? There is life in a seed – enough to grow a giant redwood – but that life is not manifested until it is planted and watered. The word of God rests on the pages of a Bible or in the heart of a believer. It may do a work in the believer but not in the world that surrounds the believer until it is activated. It is activated when it is spoken with faith. Throughout scripture, God deposited his word in the heart of his prophets and empowered those words when they were proclaimed. Moses declared each plague before Pharaoh and then God produced each one. He put his words in the mouth of Jeremiah and as Jeremiah declared that word over nations, those words came to pass. I have heard today’s prophets put it this way –   prophetic words don’t tell the future they create it.

God’s word is filled with power and purpose. When we pray it or declare it, those words go forth alive and energized by the Spirit to produce life. When we speak healing, hope, provision, or peace over a person, we should believe by faith that something is going to happen because the word has been activated and is filled with energy and purpose. The word is the sword of the Spirit and when we speak the word of God we are wielding that sword.

Read the word, hear the word, pray the word, and declare the word. When we partner with God, he will honor his word. What situation do you need to be declaring the word of God over right now? Find your scripture and activate it in your life or in the life of someone you know.

The elections are over but the fighting seems to have just begun. Whether you voted for Trump or not, he is now the president and our responsibility is now to pray for him. Millions of Christians prayed for God’s hand to be on this election, and now it is a matter of faith as to whether we believe God answered those prayers.

There are a number of “prophecies” floating around the internet that declare that God will use Trump for the benefit of God’s people as he used Cyrus, the King of Persia, in the days of Jewish exile. Some prophecies declare that Trump will be anointed by the Spirit of God and that he will enter the office whispering the name of Jesus but leave proclaiming it. All that remains to be seen.

Undoubtedly, the Never Trumpers will be cynical about these prophecies. Prophecies certainly need to be tested but Paul tells us not to despise prophecies (1 Thess. 5:20), so, perhaps, we should be hopeful. Certainly, God has historically acted in unlikely ways and worked through unlikely people. Having grown up in the sixties and seventies with the Kennedy assassination, Vietnam, and Watergate I also tend to have a cynical streak that immerges from time to time along with a bent toward conspiracy theories.   However, I once received a prophetic word in which the Lord told me that I was a man of faith but my cynicism often worked against my faith. He encouraged me to jettison that mindset. It is a mindset that assumes the worst rather than the best and God is always about producing the best. Cynicism is the enemy of hope and God is all about hope.

So if we prayed sincerely for God to author the outcomes of this election, we should have hope that he will use Donald Trump to further the kingdom of God in America and the world. In that hope we should thank him for the outcomes and then begin to pray for his Spirit to move on this man and on his cabinet like never before.

The very fact that those who actively oppose Israel, promote abortion, and presume to redefine marriage and gender hate Trump with such venom may suggest that he is God’s man. Why else would the dark side of the spiritual realm be so filled with hatred for him? Regardless, our part should be to speak life and faith over this administration and to believe that God is up to something positive because he hears the prayers of his people. Our words have power. The tongue has the power of life or death. If we want America to prosper and be unified, we must speak blessings rather than curses over the nation and the new administration.

Throughout the history of Israel, most of her kings were evil and there seemed to be an irreversible decline in the culture. But every once in a while, God would raise up an unlikely man who turned things around…at least for a generation or two. True worship would be restored. Justice would be re-established. Integrity would be returned to government. Peace and prosperity would then mark a generation in Israel. We have four years to pray and believe God for good things in America before any progress we have made will be on the line again. We need to make the most of this window of opportunity that seems to be opening. President Trump is not the poster child for Christianity. He is not a spiritual leader. But he may well be the man God uses to reverse the decline of godly values in America by giving the church a voice again in American culture.

The truth is that for the tide to turn and continue to move in godly directions, these four years must be overwhelmingly positive in the outcomes for this nation. I hope we will each pray and speak into the success of this president for a great deal is at stake. As we begin to actively support Israel again, allow military chaplains to pray in the name of Jesus once more, and perhaps, return prayer to public schools, I expect blessings to come to America – a better economy, fewer natural disasters, the demise of political correctness, peace, and even racial reconciliation. I am hopeful, not because of Trump but because of a God who answers his people’s prayers.

But God works through his people and often waits for us to ask before he moves. The Holy Spirit puts things on our hearts that God wants to accomplish that even angels are unaware of. As we begin to pray and then to declare the word of God over situations, angels them receive their assignments and the spiritual realm begins to move. We cannot be cynical and silent or even content and silent for God will make of this presidency what we, as his representatives on earth, pray and declare over this nation. The world is an unstable place. Presidential bravado will not solve those problems but only the wisdom that comes from above along with the blessings and favor of God. I hope you will consistently pray for our leaders to receive both from the Father. Here’s hoping for a blessed four years and beyond.

There is a principle in spiritual warfare that we need to be reminded of from time to time. The principle states that whatever we come into agreement with, we empower. If we come into agreement with an idea, we empower it. For instance, suppose I wake up one morning with a few aching muscles, mention those aches to someone, and they say, “You must be coming down with the flu.” At that moment, I can think that aching muscles can come from many sources and the flu is highly unlikely or, at that moment, I can think that person could be right. After all, it is flu season. Some people at work have had the flu and now maybe I have it now. For the rest of the day, I will search my body for every symptom of the flu and obsess on every small indicator – imagined or real. I will feel fatigue just because I have been worrying all day and I will turn down offers to go out to eat with friends because I might be coming down with something. I have given the idea power over my life.

If I come into agreement with a spirit, I also give it authority in my life. Adam and Eve came into agreement with Satan and ended up forfeiting their rule over the earth. If a spirit comes along and whispers that my spouse is such a horrible person that I should get a divorce and go find someone who will give me the happiness I deserve, and I entertain that thought long enough, I will come into agreement with it. That will become my prevailing thought about my marriage. When that happens I give the enemy authority to establish a foothold in my life. The prophet Amos declared, “How can two walk together unless they are agreed?” The corollary is that when we agree, we walk together. We have formed some sort of alliance.

When our thinking and our words stand in opposition to the Word of the Lord, then what we are thinking or saying is a lie and that persistent lie invites the Father of Lies (Satan) into our life. Every demonic oppression begins in our flesh with our own choices about what to believe and speak when those things are opposed to God’s truth. If we persist, then we open up a door and the enemy can move in. Rotten thinking invites demons in the spiritual realm like rotten food invited flies. The enemy then amplifies the lie and distorts our perceptions so that those lies seem even more true.

Fairly often, we minister to people who have made a number of bad choices in their past. Maybe they were involved in drugs, stole things, had multiple sexual partners, were prostitutes, had abortions, and so forth. These men and women are often demonized and when we begin to minister deliverance we hit a roadblock. The roadblock is often their agreement with demons that they are beyond forgiveness. The inability to “forgive ourselves” is primarily unbelief in the encompassing grace of God. The unbelief empowers the enemy and gives a spirit the right to remain. When the spirit is not cast out, then the person is all the more convinced that he or she is beyond God’s love and forgiveness.

The most necessary conviction in spiritual warfare is that God’s word is true and every thing that disagrees with that word is a lie – regardless of how we feel. Lies are really the only weapon Satan has to use against us. It was true in the Garden. It is still true. When he whispers his lies, our first test should be the Word of God rather than whether or not that thought feels right. Any agreement with Satan constitutes unbelief at some level. That unbelief gets in the way of both deliverance and healing.

Too often, I find myself chasing spirits of rejection, condemnation, shame, self-loathing, etc. which all need to be expelled, but I sometimes forget to find out what the person truly believes about God’s love, grace, and forgiveness for him or her. If a spirit of unbelief or a lying spirit is operating, the person’s continued agreement with the enemy makes it very difficult to dislodge those spirits. Leading a person to repent of unbelief in the complete forgiveness they have in Christ and to renounce that unbelief is a simple thing but can be overlooked in ministering to people.

It might be worth asking some basic questions to begin, such as, “On a scale of 1-10, how much do you believe that every sin in your life is totally forgiven and forgotten?” “On a scale of 1-10, how much do you believe that God totally loves and accepts you?” “On a scale of one 1-10, how much do you truly believe that you are a beloved son or daughter of the King?”

Satan always wants to hide our identity from us and distort it so that we forget who we are in Christ. He wants us to believe that we are weak and sinful people despised by God rather than who we truly are in Christ. When we come into agreement with that distortion, we empower him and give him a place in our lives from which he can grow in influence. His power is taken away when we align ourselves with the Word of God because when we agree with God’s word, we empower it in our lives. Too many of us pay no attention to out thought life which is the in indicator of what we truly believe. We talk about what we think we should believe, while being ignorant of what we truly do believe. Since the Holy Spirit leads us into truth, a good exercise might be to ask Him to show us what we really believe about things so that we can maintain our alignment with the Father through frequent course corrections in our thought life. Whatever we agree with, we empower so lets be careful to agree with God.

I have had two conversations with dear friends in the past week who are struggling with the loss of loved ones.  The holidays magnify that loss. Both had prayed with faith for healing; both eventually lost a spouse to cancer. One loss is a few months old, the other lost his wife two years ago on Christmas Eve. Both had been married for decades.  Both had loving marriages. Now both are still grieving and can’t seem to get a vision for their lives beyond the loss. Both will have to walk out the process of grieving their loss and then moving on. That is not always easy. Those two conversations also reminded me of people I have known who had lost a spouse or a child years ago but who were still unable to get past that moment. For them it is as if life ended when their loved one died and will be on hold until they join that loved one in eternity. The loss of the life of the one still living doubles the tragedy of the one who died.

Loss is part of life.  Those who love us will lose us eventually unless Jesus returns in our lifetime. Some losses seem natural as when a 95 year old saint passes quietly in her sleep while others seem out of time and tragic.  When they do occur, we need direction from the Lord. I think an unexpected template for moving ahead after loss may be found in the Book of Joshua.

“After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people get ready to cross the Jordon River into the land I am about to give to them – to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot as I promised Moses…be strong and courageous because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them’” (Josh 1:1-3,6).

We need to try to grasp the impact of Moses’ death on the nation and on Joshua. Moses was the George Washington of Israel. He had confronted Pharaoh, led the people out of Egypt, and through the Red Sea. It was Moses who had gone up on Sinai in the face of darkness, rock-shattering thunder, and fire. It was Moses who had personally received the Law, directed the building of the tabernacle, and had stood between God and Israel on several occasions pleading their cause. It was Moses who stood face-to-face with God each day receiving directions for the people. And it was Moses who had led Israel to the banks of the Jordon River to take the land after forty years in the wilderness. Moses had truly been the Father of Israel, the mediator, the peacemaker, the prophet, and the one legitimate leader of this nation since its inception.

The loss of Moses must have been staggering. Who could have imagined entering the Promised Land without him? His entire life had been about leading God’s people into Canaan to take possession of the land God had promised to Abraham and his descendants. But at the last minute, God had told him he could not enter the promise land and shortly after that he had died on top of Mount Nebo with no human companion present. The Bible says that God buried him but no one knew where his final resting place was. Israel mourned for thirty days.

Joshua had been his aide and I’m sure Moses had been more than a father to him. I sense that Joshua never anticipated entering Canaan without Moses. Scripture tells us that Moses was 120 years old but “his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone” (Dt.34:7). God simply told him to climb Mt. Nebo one day and he died in the presence of God. The suddenness of his unexpected death must have made the transition more difficult. Suddenly, the mantle of leadership that had been on Moses for 40 years was thrust onto Joshua.

Moses was prohibited from entering the promised land because he had “rebelled” against the Lord in the desert. God had directly commanded Moses to speak to a rock from which he would provide water for Israel, but Moses, in anger, struck the rock with his staff. Water came forth from the rock but not in the way God had directed. God responded, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them” (Num.20:12). As the time approached for Israel to possess Canaan, Moses was taken from them since he could not enter with them. I have to say that my first to response to the consequence of Moses striking the rock seems extremely harsh and even unfair. After the faithfulness that Moses had shown in the midst of an unbelieving Israel for 40 years, it seems that God should have forgiven the moment and allowed Moses to enter the land to which he had guided the Hebrews.

Sometimes we make the mistake of looking at consequences in the natural realm as if they reflect our standing with God in the spiritual realm. Jesus says that to whom much is given, much is required. Leadership is judged more strictly than those who follow because leaders set the tone for those they lead. The issue (sin) that Israel had demonstrated for 40 years was the issue of rebellion, going their own way, and disregarding the word of the Lord. Unfortunately, in a moment of anger, Moses had done the same.

If there had been no consequence for the leader of the nation, the rest of the Israelites would have felt free to disregard the word of the Lord as well when it suited them. I know that Moses was forgiven still held in high regard by the Lord, because on the Mt. of Transfiguration, it was Moses and Elijah who were chosen to meet with Jesus. Trust and obedience would be the key to Israel’s ability to possess the land God had given them and so the consequence of disobedience had to be demonstrated. And yet, I still wonder, how Joshua felt about that as he was dealing with the loss of Moses and the challenges that lay ahead of him. Did the loss of his spiritual father, mentor, and hero challenge his view of the goodness of God? I don’t now, but these men and women of scripture were flesh and blood just as we are, not superheroes. They struggled with the same doubts and fears that we experience in the face of loss and disappointment. They too had to find a way to move ahead.

God’s pronouncement that Moses was dead in the first chapter of Joshua was not news to Joshua. Essentially, God was making the point that for Israel and for Joshua, one chapter had ended, while another chapter was beginning. A man once said, “Life is lived in chapters, and it is a wise man who knows what page he is on.” Moses had fulfilled his destiny, now it was time for Joshua to fulfill his.

Very often, we tie our own lives and futures so closely to another person that if we lose him or her, we feel as if our life has ended as well. But for those who still live, there is always more. Being willing to step into the other things that God still has for you is an expression of faith. It is also the way out of grief and sorrow. Certainly, there is a needed time to mourn. It is longer for some than for others. Israel and Joshua mourned for 30 days, but then it was time to step into the next chapter of life. The same is true for us.

To do so does not mean that the person you have lost was not loved or should not be honored. Many people refuse to go on with their lives or to rejoice in God’s blessings because they feel that to do so would somehow diminishe their love and their loss. You will continue to love and honor that person as Moses has been loved and honored for millennia, but God has more. Life is a gift and a stewardship that is ours to unwrap and live. God told Joshua that it was time to move on because there was still an inheritance to be claimed. In fact, moving ahead and claiming the inheritance was the very legacy Moses had left. There was still a path laid out for Joshua and Israel to follow and everywhere they set their feet, God would give that portion of their inheritance to them. The corollary is important. Wherever they did not set their feet, they would not receive what had already been provided by the Lord.

Our inheritance in the Lord is like a field that he has cleared, tilled, planted, and watered. It has come to fullness and he has given us the harvest…but we must go into the field and pick or glean what is there. It is all ours, but we only enjoy and benefit from that part that we take hold of…the part where we set our feet. After a loss or disappointment, there is still an inheritance that he wants us to go after. There is a time to close the chapter we have been living and move on to the next. Paul put it this way. “Forgetting those things are behind, I press forward.” This is not to say that we forget the people we have loved but we recognize that there is still more of the field to be harvested and to do less dishonors God. Moving ahead into Canaan and taking the land without Moses, still honored his vision and so honored him.

There are times when we must simply make a decision that it is time to move on and steward the rest of out lives. It is time to see what is written in the next chapter. It is time to grab hold of the destiny God still has for us. The same is true after a failure. Failure can stop us in our tracks just like a loss and we can stay stuck in a place of feeling disqualified for years. That is from Satan. David experienced a huge moral failure in his life – adultery and murder – but in Psalm 51, David prayed to God, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation …then I will teach transgressors your way and sinners will turn back to you.” David realized that his shame, his feelings of disqualification, and his own sense of guilt was robbing God of his service. He had already confessed and was already forgiven, but stepping back into a role of spiritual and political leadership was daunting. Somehow it seemed better to pine away with self-condemnation than to attempt to move ahead and fulfill his destiny. Yet moving ahead was the will of God for him. To do less was to give the enemy a victory and to rob God of the fruit that David’s life could still produce.

We will all experience loss, failure and disappointment in life. It is the fabric of a fallen world. The holidays seem to magnify all those feelings because Christmas calls us to an ideal and we live in the real. But whether it is loss or failure that has taken all the momentum out of your life, remember that God still has more for you. Don’t put it off too long. Honor God and you honor those you have lost. Move ahead in obedience and you redeem the failures in your past. This Christmas may you look forward to the chapters that lie ahead while you reflect on the chapters you are closing.

The cost of our redemption was steep on the front in not just at the cross.  It was steep for the Son of God who once sat on a throne of glory in heaven. He shrunk himself down to the size of an ovum and was born in a stable instead of a palace. When Jesus told a would be disciple that the Son of Man had no place to lay his head, he was echoing the circumstances of his birth as well as his public ministry.  Jesus could have descended in glory and lightening when he first came into the world but chose to totally identify with us so he came as a baby,  In doing so, he made himself incredibly vulnerable to the weaknesses, brokenness,  and violence of men. After eventually returning to Nazareth, he grew up subject to rumors that he was an illegitimate child, perhaps, born to Mary and some Roman soldier.

There was also a steep cost for Mary and Joseph and their families back home – their own loss of dreams and reputation, living among strangers for several years, wondering if Herod had anyone tracking them down, and wondering what their beloved families were experiencing back in Galilee.  It would be several years before Jesus ever knew his grandparents and the cost of those in the region of Bethlehem who lost their own sons to Herod was unbearable.

All this is to say that there was an extreme cost on the front end of the arrival of Messiah and well as on the far end at Golgotha. All this is to say that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit thought you were worth the cost. They still do. The great gift of Christmas is your restored relationship with your Father in heaven. Many of us, especially at Christmas time, live with the sorrow that our lives have not played out as we had hoped. We may feel let down, disappointed, or even abandoned by God. But God would not abandon what has cost him so much. He would not leave someone on the side of the road for whom heaven and earth suffered so greatly. You are not forgotten and you have not been devalued. The holidays often put our sense of loss or disappointment under a magnifying glass so that it seems much larger than at other times of the year.

As humans we have a propensity to focus on one thing that we believe would make us happy and then to make that the measure of God’s love for us. Maybe that one thing would be a relationship, a  breakthrough in your career,  a dream home or a “the perfect job.”  Maybe it was the healing of a loved one or the birth of a healthy child. That “one thing” can easily become an idol and an obsession if we are not careful which, in itself, keeps God from answering those prayers. The ultimate prize is always God and his love for us.When  we question that love we need to remember that God’s love for us was settled at the cross.

The key to happiness is not to focus on the one thing that God has not done for you so far or did not do five years ago,  but to focus on everything he has done for you and to give thanks for those things large and small. In every life and circumstance there are blessings both large and small. Each is evidence of God’s love and grace in your life. The apostle Paul declared, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation^” (Phil.4:11-12).

I believe the secret of contentment is first to have faith that God is good. Since “good” is who he is, he can be no other way toward you. He is very aware of what you are going through and is either using your struggle to perfect you for what lies ahead or is in the process of delivering you from that situation. Either way, there is reason to rejoice. To believe that God’s love rules out all hardship, loss, or battle in this life is to deny every story of faithful men and women in scripture who clearly had God’s stamp of approval on them but who also faced life in a fallen world inhabited by the enemy. God’s love does not create the absence of struggle but sees us through the struggle if our faith endures. Thanksgiving for every touch of God and for everything he has done helps to maintain the perspective that is needed in the dark places  of life.

This Christmas, whether you are on top of the mountain or in a valley, remember that you do matter in heaven. You were redeemed at great cost and are highly valued by your Father in Heaven. The Father has left many gifts for you “under the tree” and each has been carefully chosen. Rejoice in the ones he has already placed there as well as the ones he is carefully choosing for your future. Rejoice in his goodness and remember – peace on earth, good will toward men…and you.

I’ve been reading through Judges, I & 11 Kings, and I & II Chronicles lately. A number of themes come out of that reading that are clearly warning flags for us. The first and most famous, of course, is the constant cycle of decades of sin, hardship as discipline from the Father, repentance when discipline became unbearable, redemption, blessing, contentment, apathy, decline, more decades of sin, and so forth. This cycle occurs over and over. As you read, you keep saying to yourself, “Why don’t you knuckleheads get it! Just keep serving God and life is good!” But they don’t. It is often because of generational changes in which the parents apparently did not do a good job of teaching their spiritual history or demonstrating faithfulness to their children. We should be aware of spiritual cycles in our own lives and guard against the downward slopes in our own spiritual histories.

Another recurring theme is disappointing and, perhaps, even disturbing. Numerous kings and spiritual leaders among God’s people demonstrated decades of faithfulness to God and often began with a strong revival and restoration of biblical worship. These men would often arise from a generation of parents who had forsaken God. They would seek God with all their hearts, restore the temple and the priesthood that was often is disrepair, destroy idols and shrines set up to worship false god’s, and renew a covenant with the God of Israel. Inevitably these leaders grew in international influence while their nation prospered and usually lived in peace.

The negative pattern is, however, that as these great men of God grew older, they began to lose their faith, walk in pride, and sometimes fell into hardcore idolatry. Even Solomon lost his way in his later years “For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not follow the Lord fully, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon. Thus also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods” (1 Kings 11:4-8).

As they grew older and closer to death, we would expect these men of faith to have grown deeper in wisdom and to have drawn closer to God, but the opposite was true. Paul tells us in Romans 15:4 that all these things from the past were written for our learning so we need to consider these patterns of spiritual decline so that we don’t fall into the same traps.

So how could these great men who once spearheaded national revivals and won the approval of God get so far off track? The first caution seems to be that of the danger of blessings. It seems that prolonged blessings, which we all desire, are a two-edged sword. As God blessed these men with health, with abundance, and with peace on their borders they became spiritually apathetic. Extended seasons of blessings can create the illusion that we don’t really need God on a daily basis. When a vast Assyrian army is camped outside the walls of your city or an extended drought is destroying the countryside, it’s not hard to be motivated for a season of prayer and fasting. But when life is good year after year, a man or a woman must be careful to keep the spiritual fires burning. Apathy can creep in when no crisis arises to shake out the cobwebs.

It’s amazing how many mature men and women of God who have served him so well for years begin to coast when they see the finish line rather than kicking hard to finish well. Americans, especially, seem to have a retirement mentality not only from a career but also from the kingdom. Suddenly pleasure, recreation, and grandchildren take all precedence over the things of God. Those things aren’t wrong in themselves but still must stay secondary to the call of the kingdom. What if the apostle Paul had decided one day that it was time to retire; he had done enough; the apostolic life had been hard and he deserved some years of ease before stepping across the finish line? Clearly, as you read his letters, that kind of thinking never entered his mind. He continued to set spiritual goals. He continued to press forward to the finish line. He continued to put himself in situations where he needed God to succeed or even survive. I don’t think we need to put ourselves in life threatening situations but we can certainly put ourselves in places of praying for healing, ministering deliverance, counseling a broken marriage, leading a small group, sharing the gospel, and so forth that keeps our need for the presence of God on the front burner. A choice to keep that built into our lifestyle that would be wise as we grow older.

A second reason for these men falling away was simple pride. After a few years of growing influence and success, these men began to believe that their achievements had come by their own brilliance and hard work. They simply forgot that the source of all that they possessed and all they had accomplished was God. When God sent his prophets to rebuke their pride, the response was rarely repentance but most often anger, arrogance, and even violence against the prophet. In many cases, their pride and arrogance cost them and their children the kingdom.

We need someone in our lives to speak truth to us at the first sign of losing our sense of humility and dependence on God. We need those people and should invite those people to watch our lives and speak to us quickly when they see something in us that is misaligned with the heart of God and the mind of Christ. We need to make sure we always have someone in our lives that we can be honest with about our hearts, our thoughts, our motives and our fears. A wise person will invite input and have a person who can sit in as counselor and prophet in his or her life. If you don’t have that person, pray for God to show you that person. You may not like what you hear but it is a safeguard. The kings of Israel apparently surrounded themselves with people who would not dare speak the truth to them when needed and it cost everyone dearly.

The third primary reason for these men of faith failing in their later years was ungodly relationships. Many fell into idolatry because of the influence of foreign wives they had taken or foreign alliances they had made with other kings and nations who did not serve the God of Israel. Compromise sneaks in little by little until the compromise feels normal. When it feels normal and acceptable, then we are always asked to compromise a little more. At some juncture, there seems to be a tipping point in which we give in altogether. Satan, of course, is in the middle of every compromise. He is willing to be patient and subtle. If it takes twenty five years for you to reach your tipping point he is willing to wait.

The truth is, as we get older, we have less energy to sustain long-time battles. In an effort to find peace, we may begin to compromise with the person or the issue (the devil). We need to make intentional choices upfront about our relationships because they will inevitably influence us. I want to stay surrounded by people who are passionate for God and uncompromising in their love for him. On days when my passion for the Kingdom is waning, I can get some heat from these people and rekindle my own flame.

I need to make an intentional decision about who I want to be as I get older and how I want to finish my race. Having decided that, I need to surround myself with people who will help me be that person and help me finish a strong race. Even Solomon was drawn into idolatry through the influence of his foreign wives in his later years and finished his race very poorly. Such misalignment rarely happens over night. It is usually a long process of small compromises. Because of that, we must choose our relationships carefully…especially spouses and best friends. If we have made a poor choice in the past that continually pushes back against our faithfulness to God in the present, we must be even more intentional about connecting with spiritual people whose influence will help us stay on course. Some relationships may need to be jettisoned. Others will have to be managed. Remember, Jesus said that anyone who does not love him more than mother, father, brothers, or sisters is not worthy of him. We cannot put earthly relationships ahead of Jesus without putting our spiritual lives at great risk.

These lessons from the Old Testament are cautionary. We do have the Spirit of Christ in us but they had the Spirit on them. We are susceptible to the same missteps and same failings. Wisdom demands that we acknowledge that we can all be stupid at any given time so we should build walls of protection around us ahead of time. We should make decisions, choose lifestyles that still need the Lord daily, and become very intentional about relationships that will work to keep us on track and out of a spiritual ditch.

A time of reflection, evaluation, and decisions about these things might be in order at the beginning of 2017. A great goal would be to finish as a Paul not as a Solomon. At the end, Paul was able to say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing” ( 2 Tim.4:7-8). Blessings and intentionality in the year to come.

It is important to know that Jesus came not only to die for us but to show us how to live as well. He came to show us what life in an intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father could be. In one sense, he showed us what life in the Garden of Eden was like before man’s relationship with God was shattered by sin. When we see Jesus, we see what man was meant to be. When we see Jesus, we see what we can be again.

While on this earth, Jesus represented God in his character and purposes. In the gospel of John, we find these two quotes. “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does” (Jn.5:19), and, “For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it” (Jn.12:49). These two quotes embody the idea of a representative who re-presents the one who sent him. In essence Jesus said that he did and said what the Father would do and say if he were physically present on the earth. He summed it up when he told Philip, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn.14:9).

Jesus walked in the authority of the Kingdom of Heaven because he represented the King, who was also his Father, and the Father had delegated authority to his representative. Jesus came as the “last Adam” (1 Cor.15:45) and was given authority to rule the earth just as God had given authority to the “first Adam.” As lofty as it sounds, we have exactly the same position by adoption. We too are ambassadors for Christ, his representatives on the earth, and children of the King. The amazing things that Jesus did are impossible for man alone, but not for a man who has God living in him and not for a man who has been delegated heavenly authority by the King.

The fact that God made man just a little lower than the heavenly beings and then placed him over all the works of his hands suggests that Adam and Eve had the authority to do what Jesus did before sin separated them from God. Jesus demonstrated his authority over the works of God’s hands when he strolled across Galilee, altered the molecular makeup of water so that it became wine, commanded the storm, directed schools of fish, and multiplied a Jewish boy’s meager lunch so that it fed thousands.

I believe Adam operated in the same authority before his willful sin caused him to forfeit that authority to the enemy.   Now in Christ, we have been given a position of sinlessness and have been granted the power and authority to do what Jesus did so that we can re-present Jesus on the earth. The problem is not in his giving but in our receiving. God has enabled us to live as Jesus lived. We fail to do those things because of our lack of expectation, our limited awareness of our identity, and our minimal relationship with the Father. Jesus said that his followers could move mountains by faith not by their personal righteousness.

The faith Jesus calls for is faith in him, what he has done, and whom he has made us. By his grace we are forgiven, made children of the king, appointed as ambassadors on earth, and given authority to re-present Jesus to the world – to do what he would do and say what he would say if he were physically present.

The sons and daughters of kings are destined to rule and reign as a king or a queen some day. Both carry with them the privileges and the responsibilities of the royal house. Those privileges and responsibilities are attached to his or her position as the son or the daughter and heir to the throne regardless of their physical prowess, their giftedness, or even their I.Q. Authority is attached to that position and the children walk in that authority because of whose children they are.

It’s easy for us to see that principle at work in Jesus since he is the only begotten Son of God and we already know him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. However, we need to understand that God still intends to use that same model for his rule over planet earth. God originally intended to relate to  Adam, Eve, and their descendants as sons and daughters – royalty in the house of God. The Father gave those “sons and daughters” dominion over the earth and the works of his hands. They were placed on this globe to rule and were given authority to do so.

A legitimate question at this point might be, “Authority to do what?” In general, we can say that Adam and Eve were given power and authority to keep earth and the cultures that would spring up on the earth aligned with God’s will and purposes. Later, Jesus taught us to pray for God’s will to be done on “earth as it is in heaven” (Mt.6:10). The Great Commission (see Mt.28:18-20) is another expression of that thought in which we are commanded to make disciples of all nations. To do so effectively establishes the kingdom of heaven on earth. God’s representatives on the earth – his sons and daughters – have always been given the mission of establishing a heavenly culture on the earth. What we need to understand is that through Christ, the Father is restoring us to the position he always intended his children to possess. “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18).

As believers, however, most of us do not understand the position and the authority we have been granted in Christ. We tend to see ourselves as mere men and women who differ from the unsaved only in that our sins are forgiven. The truth, however, is that we walk in more authority than we perceive and our words carry more weight than we imagine. Our diminished view of ourselves keeps us from being all that God wants us to be. Satan works hard to keep us from realizing our true identity.

The first step is to acknowledge the biblical truth of who we are in Christ. The second step is to begin to pray for a deep revelation of that truth in our hearts…for as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.  The third step is to begin to speak and pray as those who have authority…not with arrogance but with confidence…not pleading for God to heal or save but declaring that he will do so as those who represent him on the earth. Be confident today.  Reflect on who you are.  Ask what the King would do in any given situation and then do it or declare it as done, because you are sons and daughters appointed to do what he would do in each and every circumstance.  Blessings in Him.

One of the most mesmerizing passages in the Bible is found in Isaiah 6. There the prophet declares, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.”

Apparently, Isaiah was given an open vision into heaven where he saw the glory of the Lord in the heavenly temple. Isaiah’s initial response was one of terror as he measured his weakness, frailty, and even sinfulness against the holiness of God. In the moment of the vision he cried out, “Woe to me. I am ruined. For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” The expectation in the Old Testament was that a man would die if he ever looked on the face of God as God had warned Moses on Mt. Sinai. However, Moses was in the very presence of God while Isaiah was seeing him through a vision. And yet, the effect of feeling defiled and filthy in the presence of “the Lord of All” was still devastating.

The good news was that an angel took a burning coal from the altar (probably the altar of incense that stood just outside the Holy of Holies in the temple) with a pair of tongs and touched the prophet’s mouth with it, declaring him forgiven and his sin atoned for. At that point, Isaiah was ready to stand before God and receive his commission to go preach to the rebellious nation of Israel. It’s interesting that Isaiah measured his sin and the sin of the nation, by the words that he and the nation had spoken. The burning coal was placed on his lips as if to purify his speech. One again we are reminded that words matter.

I wish that Isaiah had been more artistically minded and had given us a more detailed description of what he saw…colors, light, radiance, lines, proportions, music in the background, etc. But what he does reveal is a God so big that even the hem or the train of his robe filled the temple. Seraphim, a special class of angel, surrounded the throne declaring the holiness of God. “Holy, Holy, Holy” was the chorus. Perhaps, the triple holy was for emphasis like exclamation points. Or, perhaps, it was in recognition of the Father, Son, and Spirit. When the seraphim spoke the doorposts of the eternal temple shook and the palace was filled with smoke. If the servants are that powerful, how much greater is the master? If the servants are that impressive, how much more impressive is the one they serve? Whatever details Isaiah left out, he was overwhelmed by the vision. The greatness, the power, the glory, the holiness, and the majesty of God made Isaiah want to melt.

But why the vision? There seem to be two possible reasons for the vision and the timing of the vision and both are probably true. First of all, the reign of King Uzziah was either about to end or has just come to an end after 52 years on the throne in Jerusalem. The transition of power in those days could often be bloody and violent. In the history of Israel, civil wars had broken out over who would replace a king who has just died. Assassinations were not unheard of to remove new kings before they could consolidate their power. In those days, many more kings turned out to be evil than good and the judgment of God was always standing in the shadows just off stage. In fact, although Uzziah had been a faithful king until his latter years, the people as a whole were both idolatrous and rebellious. The future had to be uncertain – even to the prophet.

So, here was God still on his throne regardless of who was on the throne in Jerusalem. There was no weakness in heaven, no panic, no uncertainty and no king who would leave a vacant throne some day. Isaiah was reminded in his vision that his God was still ruling in heaven, full of power and majesty. He was still in control and he would still care for his own. In a year of great uncertainty, even the prophet needed the reminder of where the true king and true power resided. In our own year of great uncertainty, we need the same vision. We need to be reminded that our salvation is not in the Republican Party or the Democrat Party but in heaven where there is no corruption, no voter fraud, and no untested candidates.

A second reason for the vision was that Isaiah was about to be given an assignment to go out and preach to a hostile crowd that was not always adverse to killing or jailing prophets who were calling them to repentance. As he received his orders, he also needed to know that an unimaginable power in heaven would be his covering, his protection, and his provision. He needed to know that had qualified him for his mission by taking away his sin. Whatever God will be calling us to in the decade to come, we may also need to know that. To some degree, our faith is only as big as our God, our security is only as big as our God, our boldness is only as big as our God.

Isaiah reminds us that we have an immense God who is not detached from us at all but rather had laid plans for our redemption before the foundation of the world and announced it once again through his prophet Isaiah. In the last few verses of Isaiah 6, God tells the prophet that judgment is coming and that Israel would be cut down like a tree but, in the stump, a holy seed would remain that would someday be the salvation and restoration of Israel. That Holy Seed would be Jesus, the Messiah.

Interestingly, John quotes Isaiah 6:10 in the 12^th chapter of his gospel (Jn.12:48) and tells us that Isaiah was actually seeing Jesus and his glory in this vision. This same Jesus has now regained that glory and intercedes for each of us every day with the Father. This vision simply reminds us as it did Isaiah, that Jesus is big enough, powerful enough, and glorious enough to meet our every need. Even though the world might shake around us he can make us stand. In the face of uncertain politics, crumbling economics, terrorists, the devastating loss of a loved one, a cancer diagnosis, or the rebellion of a child, our God is big enough.

Jesus, the lover of our souls, is big enough and from his throne in heaven reminds us, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you” (Jer.29:11-12).   Isaiah reminds us that when the day is bleak and tomorrow is troubling, do not focus on the problem but the one who overcame death and is big enough to overcome anything that comes our way.

I was reflecting on the book of Genesis. God highlighted his design and intent for men and women. In the beginning God created them male and female which included not just a unique physical design but also unique hormones, brain chemistry, and a soul. When Adam and Eve sinned and a curse was released because of their actions, God pointed out the negative consequences of what they had done.

He told Adam that he would have to put in painful toil and fight thorns and thistles to provide for his family and Eve would have her pain increased in childbearing. God did not say that childbearing was the curse for Eve or that working to provide for his family would be Adam’s share of things gone bad. The difference was that those designed endeavors would now be tempered with pain. It was always God’s primary design for men to work, to provide, and to master the environment. It was always God’s design for women to not only bear children but to raise them with a nurturing temperament. That does not mean that women should never venture out into careers, be the CEO of a giant corporation, be Olympic athletes, or aspire to be president. What is does mean is that there is a masculine soul and a feminine soul and we should be careful how we handle those as we go our ways.

I just want to reflect on the masculine soul today. In the last 60 years or so, elements of our culture have worked hard to erase or, at least, deny those differences. They have pushed hard for same-sex marriages and unisex bathrooms. In essence, they have worked hard to deny God’s design and to change it into something God never intended. To do so will create its own consequences. I believe that the biggest disaster related to this “transforming cultural agenda” is the demise of the masculine soul. Men were made to work, to provide for their families, to protect their families, and to master or dominate their environment. The masculine soul thrives when confronted with hardship and risk and the challenge of overcoming that hardship – a display of heroism if you will. God made man that way. That is why research bears out that a man needs respect and admiration even more than love.

In our current culture, we now have elements that are trying to eradicate all risk, challenge, and hardship from the lives of young men. Participation trophies eliminate the risk of losing and the need to strive harder. Parents allow young adult men to stay at home and not work or face the realities of life in a hard world rather than pushing them out of the nest at eighteen and telling them to get a job or go hungry (almost sounds abusive doesn’t it?). Parents no longer allow schools to discipline their rude and rebellious children so that young men don’t have the face the consequences of their actions and many have declared homework to be too much for children so young men don’t even have the opportunity to struggle and triumph over algebraic fractions.

All of this effort to make life painless, toil-less, and disappointment free has created an entitlement generation in which the masculine soul shrivels and character has no soil in which to develop. The masculine need to struggle and overcome has been taken away except for a few. Because of a male drive to dominate and overcome his environment, when legitimate and heroic challenges are taken away, that drive to dominate will turn elsewhere – bullying, for instance, and sexual domination of women that is more and more frequently expressed in rape. An insecure and controlling arrogance will replace the humble confidence of a man who has learned who he is through challenges, wins, and losses.

When the masculine soul faces hardship and overcomes, self-esteem is born. When the masculine soul learns to master his environment by learning skills that not everyone possesses, self-respect is born. When hours are put into homework, practice, or just hard labor and success comes from those efforts, then a boy begins to feel like a man. God’s intent was that the masculine soul would be shaped by challenges and hardship. He has placed the desire to be heroic in every young man and the cultural element that wants to remove all risk, all competition, and all hardship, and all possibility of failure removes that potential.

I remember reading about a high school and senior career day. On that day, numerous businesses and even Armed Forces representatives spoke to graduating seniors about possible career paths for their future. The Armed Forces representatives were placed at the end of the day and, of course, began to run late. The Army, Navy, Coast Guard,  and Air Force took their time to tell everyone about the opportunities, the travel, the good food, and the educational opportunities the graduates would receive if they enlisted. When his turn came, the Marine rep had only a two minutes to make his presentation. He walked to the podium, looked slowly around the audience and said, “Out of this entire graduating class, probably only four or five of you have what it takes to be a Marine. If you think you are one of those, come to my table after you are dismissed. After dismissal, the crowd at his table was three times larger than any other table.

The Marine rep had appealed to that part of every heart that desires to be exceptional and heroic. That is especially true for young men. We need to give them the opportunities rather than saving them from those opportunities. God designed the masculine soul for those things and we best not tinker with God’s design. If you are raising a boy give him responsibilities, expect him to work hard, let him risk, let him fail, let him win with grace, let him break an arm, let him eat dirt, let him get stung by ants, and let him find his unique design by overcoming challenges. Just some food for thought for those in care of masculine souls.

In my last blog, I began a discussion of why most of the American church does not teach on the demonic, deliverance, or the supernatural moves of God through the gifts of the Spirit and miracles. I spoke a little about the historical origins of that theology that still has a strong grip on the church today. I would encourage you to read my last blog entitled Supernatural before continuing with Part 2.

Since most churches are still heavily influenced by the theology that sprang from the Age of Reason and the exaltation of science and intellect over faith, they do not believe that God operates through miracles or miraculous gifts of the Spirit anymore. Within these churches there is a sense that the supernatural doesn’t operate anymore except in very limited ways and that it rarely, if ever, affects believers.   The reasoning goes that since God does not intrude into the natural realm with supernatural acts, then the supernatural realm must not be relevant anymore. Since demons are part of that realm, they are no longer relevant either. As a result, there is no need to teach about them and deliverance has no meaning where demons are not active and a threat.

Like their 18^th century predecessors, the notion that demons still stalk us, that angels might rescue someone from flood waters, or that men may operate in healing gifts and prophetic words from the Lord all seem like quaint superstitions held by ignorant or, at least, unscientific people. Francis MacNutt puts it this way. “Nevertheless, despite the clarity of these passages (biblical texts describing miracles and demonic activities, added), many theologians and preachers profess skepticism as to whether we should take accounts of people being tormented by Satan and other evil spirits in a literal way. They explain their position by saying that people in Jesus’ day believed in evil spirits, as do many primitive people today. Jesus, born into their culture, accepted their superstitious beliefs, as did Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John” (Francis MacNutt, Deliverance from Evil Spirits; Baker Books, p. 40).   He goes on to talk about how many current theologians and preachers are embarrassed to talk about the supernatural as if doing so is intellectually unrespectable.

MacNutt goes on to quote Charles Kraft from Fuller Theological Seminary who says, “It is interesting (and discouraging) to note that even though we are Christians, our basic assumptions are usually more like those of the non-Christian Westerners around us than we would like to admit…Even though there is a wide discrepancy between the teaching of Scripture and the common Western assumptions. We often find ourselves more Western than scriptural. Western societies passed through the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, and a wide variety of ripples and spinoffs … The result: God and the church were dethroned, and the human mind came to be seen as Savior. It is ignorance, not Satan, we are to fight.”

Humanism is a philosophical position that came out of the Age of Reason. Simply put, Humanism holds that man is essentially good and will evolve through reason, science, and the arts to a golden age of mankind where the world will live in peace and prosperity by man’s own efforts. This is the new tower of Babel in which God is irrelevant. How are we doing so far?

Historically, that is the Cliff’s Notes on why the church in America and Western Europe tends to ignore demonic and angelic realities and tends to deny that God still works outside of science and medicine. It is not a biblical position but a cultural position imposed on the Bible. This view leaves the church irrelevant and powerless. In this view, if God exists at all, he is only needed after the funeral and when science discovers how to keep us alive forever, God won’t even be needed then.

The truth is that humanism is wrong. Man is not essentially good. He has a fallen and sinful nature that requires the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit to redeem. Science may continue to discover amazing things that God has built into his creation, but fallen man will use those discoveries to create weapons or withhold them to protect corporate profits. A new heart is what is needed to bring mankind into the light – not more technology. God is the provider of a new heart.

Secondly, the assumption that Jesus and the apostles performed miracles only to validate who they were is invalid. If miracles were only to validate them, why did so many others perform miracles in the New Testament and why did the Spirit give miraculous gifts to the church at large? Why did Jesus say that those who believe on him would do even greater things than he did if miracles were only to validate Jesus and the apostles?

In addition, although the gospels do tell us that the miracles of Jesus did confirm that he was from the Father, there were many other times we are told that he healed and delivered out of compassion rather than a need to be validated. He also told many he healed and set free not to tell anyone what he had done. No validation there. Is God no longer compassionate today? Does Jesus no longer need validation among those who don’t believe the Bible to be true – Muslims, etc.? Do God’s people no longer need to be rescued? Do they not still need supernatural healing in the face of stage four cancers and supernatural deliverance in the face of lifelong addictions?

Ultimately, the Age of Reason, Cessationism, and the worship of reason and intellect end up denying the supernatural activities of God in history and the world today. If God does not act outside of the natural realm, there was no resurrection because walking out of a grave three days after you are dead is not natural. Without the resurrection, there is no hope for our eternal life. Paul himself said that if Jesus was not raised from the dead then we are to be pitied above all people because everything we believe is a lie. The very underpinnings of our faith are based on the supernatural acts of God from creation to the resurrection of Jesus to our own resurrection on the Day of Judgment. Supernatural intervention into the natural order of things is what God has always done and he does not change.

There is a supernatural, spiritual realm that exists all around the natural. Angels serve, demons tempt and torment, people are healed and, yes, even raised from the dead. Miracles occur every day and we interact with that supernatural, spiritual realm as children of God. It is real – even more real than the natural realm because Paul said that what can be seen is temporary, what cannot be seen is eternal, and our struggle is not against flesh and blood. I am not against science. I believe science is part of “subduing the earth” and discovering what the genius of God has placed in the natural realm to benefit mankind. All truth belongs to God. Some truth is discovered and some truth is revealed by the Spirit of God. Both science and revelation are grounded in the Creator of Heaven and Earth and both should ultimately find confirmation of his reality rather than hurrying to make him “irrelevant” so that we are not burdened with the knowledge that we will have to answer to this God of Creation some day.  Blessings in Him.