Stick in spokes

    You know, I have been around the block a time or two.  I have seen more than one move of God come and go.  Most of them, I am convinced, ended prematurely, get diverted or diluted and all at the hands of man.  One observation I have made is that man has a way of putting a stick in the spokes.   Quickest way to stop a bicycle?  Thrust a strong stick in the spokes.  It will stop - quick!  I have also observed that these spiritual sticks are often good things at the wrong place and wrong time.  Because of that, they are hard to recognize and deal with properly.  The point?  When God moves, agenda driven religious men will pick up a stick (their agenda) and with it bring the move of God to a halt, or divert it to roadside, non-important status. Or, watered down to meaningless status.  Peter tried it.  Remember the moment of transfiguration with Jesus, Moses and Elijah standing together?  Peter picked up a stick and suggested a building program.  Anything wrong with a building program?  No - but the time and place was wrong.

   Let me give this idea to you on a small scale first:  Early in the charismatic move, when praising God was the message, we would go into a church which before had never before even seen someone so much as lift their hands and praise God and there, we would teach on praise.  Then a stick would appear.  That stick would be someone there so physically and emotionally demonstrative in praise, they would just go crazy, drawing total attention to themselves - doing a right thing at the wrong time and wrong place.  All those others we were trying to get to even marginally express praise, would be totally side tracked by the spectacle of the stick in the spoke.  Stick in the spoke!  

   Now lets try a larger scale:  The great Pentecost move of the early nineteen hundreds was marked by people receiving Holy Ghost baptism, people singing in tongues and an amazing flow of healing miracles and signs and wonders.  Want to know what most people knew about it historically?  And thought about it? Wild jerking and rolling on the floor.  Stick in spokes?  Millions rejected the pentecostal move, not because of tongues, healings or miracles but because of that stick.  Is it wrong to jerk and roll on the floor?  No, not until that becomes a diversion from what God is doing, or becomes what you are about and then it becomes wrong.  It becomes a stick.

   Lets go a little bigger scale:  How about the outpouring of joy a few years ago?  Go into one of those meetings and you could not avoid getting great joy.  It was what the move was about.  Your eyes, your heart, your soul all confirmed it was about joy, no matter what anyone said. Then the sticks began to appear. "This move isn't about joy, its about soul winning, prosperity, etc.", said men with sticks in hand. They convinced all others of the power and importance of their stick - and so the move waned and was diverted.  How about the latter-rain move?  Great move of God, great emphasis on worship and on prophecy and then a stick appeared. The stick appeared - men who were convinced they knew the hour the Lord would return.  So, many ended up waiting on their roof top for the Lord to come on a day a stick-prophet said He would. He didn't come - and the move faded away.  How about the kingdom of God move of the 60's and 70's?  The need to be submitted to one another and leadership was a good message but soon the "stick" appeared and had people afraid to go the bathroom unless the leadership over them said they could.  The deliverance move?  So needed, so powerful but a stick appeared that had people casting demons out of everything from rocks to Barbie dolls.  How about the faith move?  Wonderful move, but dear Lord, it had so many stick thrusters it is hard to describe them all. The things that would really change the church (and us) substantially, are often given this stick treatment and people don't even know it happened.

   Where does this tendency come from?  It comes from an unwillingness to just let God be God and do what God wants to do. We want God to do what we want God to do when and how we want Him to do it.  Agenda driven - not Spirit led.  This means that in spite of appearance, we are just doing our own thing.  Religious men spend great effort in stick building.  They send young people to Bible college to help them develop good sticks to use just in case God breaks out among them at some place and time. On a small and large scale, it comes because we do not know how to go with the flow of the Spirit.  Solution?  Learn to go with the flow.

Corrections from the throne! Did you receive?

  
      Every move of God I have been in and others I have studied have been little more than corrections from above.  They did not include anything new, just God re-instituting something we should never have lost.  The great pentecost move of Azuza Street was nothing more than God reminding us that Holy Ghost baptism and healing and speaking in tongues was still His plan for us.  The healing move with the tents and traveling evangelist was a reminder, again, that healing was His will. The mass crusades of Billy Graham and others was God telling us again that He is a saving God.  The latter rain move of seventy  years or so ago?  God reminding us of prophecy and of worship.  The great charismatic move?  God reminding us of Holy Ghost baptism again and of great grace, grace that could reach even down to denominations that had long ago rejected the Holy Ghost.  The praise move?  God telling us again that from everything that has breathe, He desires praise.  The discipleship move?  A reminder that we need to be in relationship with one another and under authority.  The deliverance move?  God reminding us that demons tremble at the name, the authority of Jesus.   The faith move?  A reminder of the value of speaking the same thing as God and a reminder to highly value the Word of God.   The prosperity message?  A reminder that God truly wants to bless us abundantly.  The joy move?  A wonderful reminder that God has always wanted a people, a family, that would serve Him with gladness. 

    Was there really anything new in any of these moves of God, or outpourings, or emphasis-es?  No!  No! They were just reminders of God's desire.   You will notice that many of the moves contained the same message.  There is a reason!  We forget or we miss the point, so God chastises, corrects, re-institutes the matter again.  He doesn't change His mind because we forget.  He just says it again.   Many of these moves have been a part of my personal experience.   I got the point.   Yet, I know of those who went through these same moves and missed the point, as is the way of man.  I always thought it was funny, for example, to be in the joy move and hear people try to tell me it was about something else like soul-winning or prosperity.  Those are good things, but not the point of that move of God.  That is like having been in a Billy Graham crusade and then to declare the crusade was about healing.  Of course it wasn't!  There are always those that will miss the point and if you miss the point,  you essentially stand un-corrected.    And, the move of God holds little value to you other than a memory.

   When God is healing, healing is what He is doing.  When He is emphasizing salvation, let it be.  When He is speaking Holy Ghost baptism, get the point.  When He is making us joyful in the house, let it be.  Get the point.  You don't have to make it something else.  He is capable of doing whatever He wants to do, when He wants, how He wants and we ought not to try to manipulate what He is doing to fit whatever our scheme might be. It is called "let God be God" and as simple as that sounds, it is a struggle for man to accept.  We insist on telling God what we want Him to do, when, where and how we want Him to do it.  And, we continuously have to be re-enrolled in class to learn again what He wants us to learn.

Divine health you say?

   

   I think it is funny to hear people speak of being in "divine health". (I know "divine health" -  His name is Jesus).  Of course, I suppose such a confession is harmless but yet, if they were in divine health, they would not be aging, for aging is a disease, a result of the fall of man.  I chuckle when I see and hear men as old as I am, sagging belly, bald, bad teeth, weak joints, wearing glasses, sporting wrinkles with a face that looks like forty miles of bad road declaring they have divine health.  Really????  The truth is, the moment we left Momma's womb, our body began to die.   Divine health? No glasses, no colds, no pot belly, no bad teeth, no wrinkles, no bald spots, no weak joints, no liver spots, no weakness of any kind - complete immunity from age and all forms of death or sickness. However - it is appointed unto man once to die.  Yep - itsa gonna happen!   Oops, and there goes divine health. No, divine health is when I wake up on the other side with a new body, not subject to age, sickness, balding, colds, cancer, fever, wrinkles, fat, etc.  Divine health is when I shuck of this old tabernacle and put on a new one.  And, man, I am hoping for an improved model over what I got last time.   I want one that dances with lightness of foot, in perfect rhythm - all things I seem not to have now.

    Now, Jesus had divine health.  He said no one could take His life unless He laid it down.  His immune system was so powerful He would have healed faster than sickness or injury could hurt Him.  With no sin, He was not subject to death (incipient death or sickness, or threat of death).  Death, as the Bible says, came because of sin.  He had no sin!  Thus, divine health.   One of the greater and more unique miracles related to Him was not His resurrection.  Others were resurrected.  Others ascended into heaven. However, no other being on earth, before or since, died when He did not have to nor was He even subject to death.  Yet, divine health laid down His life for me.  Wow!  And, until He calls me up and away, when I need healing, divine health reaches out and touches me.  Sometimes instant healing, sometimes with endurance, sometimes with comfort.  Sometimes with a whisper of a promise to be with me though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.   Oh, yes I have had divine health for sixty one years now.  I found Him when I was eight.