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.