No regrets? Are you kidding?

  

     Ever heard someone say "I have no regrets".  That to me sounds like a person who lived a very tame, very boring life. Went no where, did nothing. Over burdended with pride.  That sounds like someone hit with a stupid stick who never recovered. I have lots of regrets.  I regret not having more kids so I could have more grand-kids.  I regret not being twice as loving towards my kids and wife.  I regret not doing ten times more for God than I did.  I regret not making more friends and even more, regret not keeping them.  I regret not being more loving to others around me. I regret missing the will of God far too many times but greatly appreciate His acceptance and forgiveness.  I regret being stubborn and prideful far too often.  I regret at having failed at times to accomplish what I know God wanted and so thankful He gives second, third, ect., etc., other chances.  I regret having to battle my flesh in some of the same areas for so many years. And yes, I regret my sins, trespasses, iniquity, guile and being short of the original glory of God.  But, so thankful He saved me, forgive me, plucked me out of the miry clay and put my feet on the Rock.  I regret not walking in a greater lever of God's wisdom, which I could have done, had I surrendered my pride.  I regret not kicking the devil in the teeth more often.  I regret not learning to drink to overflowing of the Holy Ghost earlier in my life.  I regret taking so long to discover the supernatural joy of the Holy Ghost.  My, oh my, would that have made a difference. (Less regrets for sure).   Regrets?  Oh, yeah!   I have them.

    To me, people with no regrets also have no consciousness of how wonderful God's grace, forgiveness and long-suffering happens to be. People with no regrets, I guess, never look back and think "I wish I had done differently".  To me that sounds like they went through life and really learned nothing much. That reminds me of the horses that race with blinders on.  Do you realize how much that horses missing seeing?  He just sees the dirt path in front of him and nothing else. Just goes in circles.  How boring would that be? I have found life is not one consistent blind walk down a smooth path like that horse.  It is walking, with a little running, with a jump here and there, a misstep here, a wrong turn there, an obstacle or two there, one you jumped and the other you had to fight your way through.  Life is lived taking what comes at you, sometimes throwing a right hook when you should have thrown a left. It is standing when you should have run and running when you should have stood. And, sometimes it is actually getting things right. But, it is always going on, learning, living, laughing and loving.

   Now, there are some things I don't regret.  I don't regret tricking the greatest woman on God's green earth to marry me.  No regrets!  I don't regret having three kids and my grand-kids who I love more than life.  No regrets!  And for sure, I don't regret a trip to the altar as an eight year old boy, asking God to save me.  I sure don't regret the opportunity to serve the Lord in so many, many ways, for sixty two years now and with a million or two, etc.,  yet to go.  I don't regret getting baptized with the Holy Ghost setting off on a lifetime of companionship and learning with Him.  No regrets!

The "Bigger is better" philosphy

     

    "I'd rather do a little right than a lot wrong".  That was the wisdom of days gone by, wisdom lost to this generation.  Nowhere is this more painful to watch than in the church world. It seems we have adopted "bigger is better" philosophy completely.  It doesn't matter that we do things well, we just do a lot of whatever we do.  Our vision is "big", our quality is suspect.  With this philosophy, an artist doesn't just paint one great picture, he paint twenty bad ones and feels successful because of numbers.  This philosophy is the end of artistic greatness, quality manufacturing, and even successful church or Christianity.

   Want a painful example?  The command to "go ye" that we evangelical and Pentecostals just love, was actually not a command to go win lost souls. It was a command to go ye and make disciples. In the church world, this misreading of the command has become our "great commission".  "Win the lost at any cost"  Of course, you have to win a soul in order to make a disciple and that we should do with fervor, but that isn't the command.  The command is to make disciples. That is where church and leadership are supposed to invest themselves. They are to bring believers to maturity, to make disciples. Today, leaders seem more concerned with just getting the sheep into the building. And, the discipling that does get done seems to be to just teach the same philosophy.  Go ye and collect people! 

  I once made this statement "I would rather pastor ten people in a shack who have been taught to love God, to know God, and live pleasing to Him than ten thousand in a mega church who don't love God, don't know their God and live as they want to live".  Some thought that was a crazy idea.  They thought just getting a lot of people in the church, by whatever means, was a better measure of success.   This points out a classic error of religion: to do, without knowing why you do.  This error has swept across the church for many, many generations greatly affecting the shape of what we now are as a corporate body.  We win souls without knowing why, we sing without knowing why, we build without knowing why, etc. The eyes of our understanding remain closed and so, we just do what we do and do a lot of it. 

   What if you get a lot of people saved, or in the building at least, and never teach a one to worship?  God's purpose in saving us was not just so we could escape hell, but that we would worship Him. "God seeks those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth".  Of course, we will miss hell if we are saved, but that isn't why God saved us. This salvation plan isn't based on His pity.  It is not merely a rescue effort. God's salvation plan is based on His love for us and desire to be loved by us.  So, what if you have ten thousand who don't, won't, can't worship God "in spirit and in truth"?   Will God say "Well done"?   What if you get a sinner saved, dress him up, teach him to say "Amen" but he still sins at will?  What have you done, really?  Will God say "well done"?

    I remember a famous evangelist, ejected from his denomination because he came into deliverance and Holy Ghost baptism saying something he discovered as a result, "The church is full of the meanest people on earth".  If that be true, and sometimes it seems that way, it is because we have collected lots of heads and no hearts.  We have failed at discipleship, the great "go ye" command.  Most of the church messes you can put your finger on, at the heart of the problem is that we have substituted quantity for quality.  Discipleship is not story telling, it is not exciting people with the daring adventurous stories of the Old Testament.  It is say "this is the way, walk in it".

I could change the world - part 2

  

   I could change the world if I could get Christians to embrace Christianity as God presents it in the New Testament, book of Acts.  That book describes the birth of the redeemed church.  It describes the Gentiles being drawn into relationship with God, such as Abraham had and having been given the Holy Ghost.  Consider a few things they knew well which we (church in general) don't seem to know.

1.  The knew Jesus went away but sent another Comforter who was just as real as was Jesus.  They embraced the Comforter, they knew the Comforter.  We don't. 

2. They knew that to embrace and relate to this new Comforter required being baptized, saturated and filled to overflowing.  We don't.

3.  They knew that to receive or experience the Spirit they had to drink (experience).  They knew they were made to drink.  They knew that was how the Spirit was presented.  We don't.

4.  They knew they were spirit beings and that their spirit was empowered by The Spirit.   They knew they were filled with the dynamite (dunamis) power of God and the authority (exousia) to use the power.  They knew the Greater One lived in them.  We don't.

5.  They knew that Holy Ghost baptism was the seal of all God's promises.  We don't.

6.  They knew that the Holy Ghost was the earnest, the down-payment, the security deposit of all that God has in store for us.  We don't.

7. They knew that Holy Ghost baptism and every subsequent touch of the supernatural Spirit made them witnesses of the resurrected Lord.  We don't.

8.  They knew that the Kingdom of God was to be found in the Holy Ghost, not in education or religious activities.  They knew they were to seek that Kingdom. We don't.

9.  They knew that the way to defeat sin and the flesh was to walk in fellowship with the Spirit.  We don't.

10.  They knew that by being filled with The Spirit, they could talk directly out of their spirit to God.  We don't.

11. They knew that to mind the things of the Spirit made them a friend of God but to mind the things of the flesh (natural mind) put them at enmity with God.  We don't.

12.  They knew that to embrace the Spirit put them in a new covenant with God causing a vail to be lifted off their eyes and allowing the glory of God to be renewed.  We don't.

  If we knew what they knew we could have and be what they were.  The recipe is the same in God's plan.  The product would be Christianity as seen in the book of Acts. And, that would change the church and that would change the world.

  

I Could Change The World

   If I could convince the church that they should approach God with singing, with joy on their head and in so doing, would obtain gladness and joy which would make sadness and sorrow flee away, (depression), it would change the world.  This is how God says the redeemed are to live and approach him, Is. 51:11.

   If I could convince the church, when persecuted, to rejoice and leap for joy, the rewards of God would increase dramatically.  That would change the world. This is what Jesus said,  Lk. 6:23 

   If I could convince the church to have a merry heart, it would do good like a medicine.  Merry hearts would release the healing power of God across the church and the world in greater measure and that would change the world. This is what the Bible says, Prv. 17:22.

   If I could convince the church to have merry heart, it would make us all look better and that would change the world, so the Bible says, Prv. 15:13

   If I could convince the church to have a merry heart, we would have a continual feast so the provision of God would be released at a greater level, so the Bible says, (Prv.15:15).

   If I could convince the church to step into the joy of the Lord, it would step into the strength of the Lord.  A more powerful church would arise, walking in the strength of the Lord and that would change the world.  The joy of the Lord is our strength, so the Bible says, (Neh. 8:10).

  If I could convince the world to look for the "fullness of joy" when seeking the presence of God, they would more likely find it and the rewards would increase dramatically. His presence is marked by fulness of joy. That is how you know you are where you think you are in relation to His presence, so the Bible says, Ps.16:11, Acts 2:28.

   If we were to walk in joy, we would begin to look like the church portrayed in the New Testament and that would change the world.  The Bible says God has chosen the foolish things to confound the wise. Isn't it sad, but curious, we go for the wise and ignore the foolish?

"I Will"

   The words "I WILL" are powerful words indeed!  Sometimes very important words.  Especially when we consider the idea of obedience, which incidentally, is a time when many believers quit wanting to say those two words.  Great example?  What we often call praise!   For many, what we call praise is a cloud we hide behind in order to look spiritual.  We are not really praising, we are just putting on a praise appearance. 

   Let me explain:  look at how David said things like, "I will bless the Lord", or, "I will rejoice" and how Paul said things like "I will pray in the Spirit, I will sing will the Spirit".  Those words "I will" point out that an act of the will is involved.  It is not just emotions or mannerism involved, a decision is involved, a decision you consciously make.  The Bible makes it clear that praying in tongues, singing in tongues, rejoicing, etc., are acts of the will, not emotion.  "I will pray with the Spirit and I will pray with understanding".    This is what James taught us when he encouraged us not to just be "hearers" of the Word but "doers".  He pointed out that to just hear, and not do, invoked self-deception, the very worst kind of deception from which to break free.

   Maybe this sounds rational to you, but a lot of folks miss this rational and in fact, can become very irrational when confronted with the idea.  Years ago, Bev and I were invited to preach a series of meetings along these lines at a Pentecostal church with membership of about 400. That is when I found out this could really be inflammatory.  We started Sunday morning and I preached from Ps. 34, "I will bless the Lord".  I told them, "You can no longer say you will praise the Lord only if the Spirit moves you".  I told them "Decide to do it. Bring a sacrifice of praise".   That congregation got so mad, all 400 stayed home Sunday night.  The pastor just lay in the altar and cried.  He had just discovered he did not have a praising church, he had a church using praise to hide who they really were.

  You see, this church was perfectly willing to praise if the right stimulant, body movement, spiritual notion, type of song, etc. was projected.  However, they were not willing to will themselves to just praise God.  In typical fashion, they excused themselves with religious words like "I will praise God, lift my hands, etc., if and when the Spirit moves me".  We used that excuse in the church of my youth but the problem was, the Spirit seldom moved anybody.  The only movement we saw was if the right stimulus came.  and usually when there was movement, it had nothing to do with Him.   Now, don't get me wrong, I like emotions!!!!!  I like being free with my emotions.  But, my emotions are not why I minister to the Lord.  I will bring my sacrifice of praise, knowing it pleases God, whether my body wants to or not, whether my soul gets emotional or not.  Obedience adds the flavor God is looking for in our praise.   Think about it:  why should the Spirit move you to do what He has so often commanded you to do?  We are commanded to "praise" God about a thousand times and the same for giving thanks. We are commanded almost that much to worship and we are commanded to "rejoice" all the time.  Together, the commands to do these things outnumber by far any other command to do anything.  What are you waiting on?  Another letter from heaven?  Another book added to the one we call the Bible?  Nah!.....just do it!  

Reasoning away your faith

 
    I was reminded recently of how people reason away their faith. It sounds like this, "Rev. Famous wasn't baptized with the Spirit and didn't speak in tongues, why should I be?"  Or, this one, "Speaking in tongues bothers some members, so surely God doesn't mean for us to do this in church".   This is much like another reasoning "Sister So and So didn't get healed and she had faith so therefore God doesn't heal", or, "Mr. Doodad didn't profess to be a Christian but he was a good man.  You can't tell me he wasn't saved".  This is how people so easily reason away their faith in God's Word.  The reasoning in such statements sounds logical but it really is not, not for a Christian.  What it does is equate human experience with the Word of God, and the two are not the same.  Something is true, something is good, something is right and necessary because God said it, not because human experience, human reasoning confirms or denies it.  God's word is true, whether it seems to work for you are not.  For it to work, you have to accept that fact.  If you don't, you almost insure that it ultimately will not work for you.  You have reasoned away your faith.

   When we began to accept this line of thinking, deciding what is right by human reasoning, what you hear or say may sound logical at first and may get approval from fellow reasoners. However, this approach is like rust.  You don't notice it at first but just let it go uncared for and soon it weakens and eats away at the fiber of your faith.  Soon reasoning becomes doubt legitimized.   Take it another step:  "God would be unjust if all good people were not taken to heaven".  Or, "I've been good, surely I will make it". Or this sad one "if there was a God, why did my loved one die in that accident".  All such reasonings are the testimonies of doubt, not faith.  Or, "We don't want the gifts, the demonstrations of the Spirit in the church, it bothers some people and after all, getting more people in the church is more important than the gifts or manifestations of the Spirit"

   So, Rev. Famous didn't speak in tongues.  What does that have to do with the Word of God in which God expressed a desire for us all to speak in tongues?  NOTHING.  So, Sister didn't get healed?  What has that go to do with the Word?  Nothing!  So, some folks are uncomfortable with speaking in tongues or the manifestations of the Spirit?  What has that got to do with what God says?  Nooooothing!  Once you see the magnitude of what such reasoning has done to the church, across the world, you will see that rust is eating away and has destroyed much already.   It is the corruption of humanism, eating away at our faith.

   To defeat such reasonings, it is important to know the Word and commit to believing and doing it, no matter what.  You should know you have a new and better covenant and therefore be able to say "God said" and know He said it to you, in you covenant.  Then, you can take this position, "If God said it (to me) I believe it and will act on it." Your commitment to the Word should sound like this "Even if God doesn't deliver me, we will not bend nor bow".  Or this, "If God doesn't heal me, I will go to my grave believing in divine healing".  The natural mind rebels against this, but your faith has to been in God's word and God who is true to His word, not matter what you personal experience is.

Get the BIG picture!

     

     It is amazing how easy it is for people to miss the point, Christians being no exception.  We are prone to do this because we don't learn, are not taught, to see the big picture.  We are seated in heavenly places, the Bible says, but we insist on the earthly view.   Take the cross of Christ for example.  Those with an earthly view will think of the cross has having to do with the forgiveness of their sins or something related to their personal comfort.  Yet, the Bible says Jesus hung on that cross, shed precious blood, that He might give us the Holy Ghost, the blessing of Abraham.   Jesus left glory, lived as a man, suffered the cross, bore the shame, bore the judgment of Almighty God, was buried and rose again for a purpose. The purpose was not just to save you, but save you so He could give you the Holy Ghost.  That is the big picture.

   The Holy Ghost is the "earnest", the beginning of our salvation, yet people think their salvation has to do only with forgiveness of sin or maybe heaven.  No, forgiveness, the new birth, etc., are all things necessary to be done in order to give you the Holy Ghost, the earnest, the beginning, the downpayment of your salvation.  How much of the "earnest" of you salvation have you received?  Enough to just feel better about the future? Enough to feel relief?  Have you put a cap on it and no longer seek it?  There is a reason we are to be filled continuously with the Spirit.  He is our salvation.  He is the result of the Cross.  He is the purchased possession.  And, He is like a RIVER from which we drink and drink and drink!  He is not to be described merely by what He did to you, once, somewhere in the past.  He is what He is.  Living Water!  To be continuously consumed.

Is sin more powerful than God?

     Is sin more powerful than God?  Some think so, though they may not say it that way.  Some insist on thinking that the absence of sin will result in revival, that if we get clean enough then God will come and bring revival.  Do you think that way?  You will have lots of company if you do.  However, when Adam sinned, did he clean up so God would come, or, did God come to him as is?   Did Jesus come when sin was absent or sin was present?  Put in a more modern idea, do you have to be holy and pure to get the Holy Ghost or do you get the Holy Ghost so He can lead you to holiness and purity?  Sin does not seperate God from you, it seperates you from God. It makes you hide from Him, not vice versa.  True revival requires you to quit hiding from Him, stop trying to measure up, come out from hiding and seek the reality of God.  Only then can He do His work on us.  While God is looking for us to give us revival, all too often we are hidden from His presence in the forest of religion, burdened with condemnation and historic guilt, repeating the error of Adam, over and over - hiding from God.  

    In our hiding, we are attempting to deal with sin our way, not God's.  We are whiting the sepulcher.  We are dressing up the outside, finding comfort in the shadow of the tree of pretentious religion. We think we are doing okay, since there are so many others behind the trees with us. And, religious leaders are attracted to this approach.  They will preach condemnation, telling listeners that if they got rid of all sin, they could have revival. Then, when revival doesn't come, they can load the folks up with even more condemnation for not being good enough at repenting and self-cleansing.  Of course then, because of the growth of the number of people hiding, they have to build bigger trees, hence the mega-church mentality, people friendly mentality.

   The old time way to revival, which many admire, is to shout "repent" long and loud, insinuating that sin stands between us and God, but did it with Adam?  It insinuates God might come to us if we were only clean enough, but that is not the Bible record.  No, God came looking for Adam. Adam was busy dealing with sin - his way!   Man, without the constant leadership of the Spirit will always put himself in a position to be in control, to take charge and take credit.  "We fasted..repented...chastised ourselves...and God gave us revival".  Really?  That may have appeared to work, but the Bible actually lays out a different approach, one that puts God in the driver seat and us like sheep waiting upon the Master.   It is simple.  If we come to Jesus thirsty for the Spirit, He will give us to drink and out of our belly shall flow rivers of living water and we will have revival (Jo. 7:37-39).   The cost of revival?  Desperate hunger for more of the Spirit, more of our "earnest", more of "new wine", more of living water.  Should we repent of sin?  Yes!  Yes!  And, when you are walking in the fulness of the Spirit, you will do it more often and do it better. 

Responsibility of Wealth / Riches

  Wealth has come, in a general sense, to the Spirit-filled church in America, in the last 50-60 years, at a new level.  However, wealth / riches comes with unique responsibilities we must assume or wealth will hurt, not help.  Money / riches is a power tool that will accelerate work, but it comes with danger.  For example, Jesus said it is harder for a "rich" man to enter the Kingdom.  Easier, he said, for a camel to go through the "eye of the needle", referring to the small gate within a big gate of enclosed cities. To get a camel through, you had first strip it of all baggage and then lead it through. Quite a process.   Take a look at just some of the other responsibilities, perhaps baggage, that come with wealth: 

1. God's purpose:    God's purpose is not for you to be wealthy, but to be a wealthy giver so you can help establish the work of God.  No wealth=no giving. The purpose, even of having a job and getting paid is so that you will have to give.  Don't resist tithing.  If the word bothers you, call it giving.  Get a job, gain wealth, with the intention of giving it away as directed by the Spirit.

2. Cheerful giving: It is not just a giver, but a cheerful one God loves. Maintain your joy in giving.   

3. Don't fall in love with your money:  Love of money is still the "root" of all evil.  When you love money, it becomes a treasure you think you can not do without.   If you love riches (mammon) you will serve it and you "cannot" (impossible) serve mammon and God at the same time (Matt. 6).  If money is "treasure" to you (you love it), you eye will follow the money and become dark.  Your heart will follow your treasure and you will miss the leadership of the Spirit.  Money will become your guide.

4. Beware of choking:  If not on guard, riches will choke out the Word, communications with God (Matt.13). Choked, you will find that the only thing God seems to be saying to you about money.  Every passage in the Bible will be about money, your favorite preachers and sermons will all be about riches.  You are choked. Money has grabbed you by the throat.

5.  Always be on guard.  Riches have "deceitfulness" within them.  Riches are well capable of causing missed directions, wrong decisions, wrong motives.

6. Beware of the "Judas" spirit (demon).  The Judas spirit still comes after disciples of Christ.  It will fasten your eye on money.  Judas carried the "bag", the purse and worried over what was in the bag.  He was a money manager and it got the best of him.

7. Make sure your soul is prosperous :  Some receive riches before they have a prosperous soul and the results are not good.  Prosperous soul?  Joyful, free, not in love with money, in love with God, dedicated to the work of God, minding the things of the Spirit of God, etc.

Does God want us to prosper?  Yes!  Yes! And YES!  He wants us to succeed in every area, including finances, but with finances, comes these and other responsibilities.  Looking at the church of America, with it's wealth, it is not hard to see we have not handled wealth but that wealth has handled us.  We aren't building the church, we are building monuments.  We are reaching the lost, we are reaching the found.  Worse, worse, worse, we are measuring spirituality by wealth. 

Most ancient of battles

  

   When you look at Genesis, you see the perfect will of God being displayed.  That picture also pinpoints where spiritual warfare exists at its highest levels.  What was going on there, is what the enemies of God are striving with all their might to keep from happening now.  First, there was creation culminating with God breathing life into man.  The war over that, over men being saved and breathed upon by the Spirit of God is almost beyond description.  So successful has this war been conducted by enemies, men are perfectly will to settle for being a lump of clay, formed after the image of God, but absent of the life of God.  The Holy Ghost creation (new spirit) baptized and breathed life into (Holy Ghbost baptized) life is constantly under attack.  Even those who say they believe in it resist it.  They resist it by just redefining what it is so they can say they believe, they have, but in fact they do not.

   Secondly, God came down to visit with man.  This is "revival".  This is the promise of Acts 3:19 "times of refreshing (revival) from the presence of the Lord".  The resistance to this is equally as widespread and powerful.  The resistance is clever as well.  One way the enemy has seduced us is by just confusing "revival" (a time of refreshing in God's presence) with "harvest", the product of that time in God's presence.  Harvest is souls saved, prayers answered, victory over our foes, dominance over our own flesh.   So seductive has this war been that people don't know the difference. They spend enormous amounts of energy, money, time and everything else trying to have a harvest while studiously avoiding having revival.

   When you look at the modern church and you see that it is almost totally focused on man (not God), you will see the success of our enemy on display.  Man has learned how, by various means, to have "harvest" of a sorts while resisting revival.  Those means might include anything from threats, fear, lollipops, free houses or just well-meaning displays of the love of the brother.  All the while we are producing a "harvest" by our own devices, revival is forsaken.  Revival is a time with God.  The word "refreshing" (Acts 3:19) literally means revival or...a catching of the breath.  God comes and we catch His breath...and it is reviving!   Many are those who have produced harvest by their own devices who are afraid of "revival" for fear it would disturb their harvest (people).  Too much God might drive away those who weren't converted to God to start with.  They were converted to the religious, manipulative promises of man.

   So successful has this war against the plan of God been, people arn't trained or taught the value of revival.  They may value the harvest, but not the revival.  This has required redefining of revival since it is in God's Word, God's plan.  This has also required redefining, harvest, church, and purposes of God.  It is required elimination of "divine order" (loving God first, with all our beingn and then loving man secondly).  It has almost eliminated and certainly redefined the five fold ministry gifts and what they should be doing.  Now, these ministries no longer see it as their duty or work to lead people to  times of refreshing.  Getting people into God's presence is not on their agenda.  True revival meetings have been abandoned.  Since they have not taught people to value a time in God's presence, the people won't show up for it anyway.  It is as if that whole idea of revival has been cut out of their thinking.  They lead people to salvation, to success, to prosperity, to clean living, maturity...but not to God's presence.  They have redefined maturity only as a stable, productive condition.  Being thirsty for a "time" in God's presence and able to have such a time, is not part of their defining of maturity.   They send the youth off to Bible college and go themselves to conferences where they hope to learn a new earthly methods for have a bigger earthly harvest and they buy  into every scheme offered, except the one that requires hungering and thirsting after a "time" with God.

   We have been redeemed from the curse in order for God to give us the blessing of Abraham.  The religious church does not really want Abraham's blessing. To avoid having it, once again,they redefine it.  Some say it was money, some say it was salvation, some come up with other handy dandy definitions.  Abrahams blessing?  It is so simple, you wonder how anybody could miss it.  God came down for a visit.  The harvest?  You.

   

"Broken" or "Non-broken"

     I read in discussion group about how God wants "broken" people. One fellow said we weren't qualified for leadership unless we had first been "broken".  They meant "broken" in a negative way.  I can't figure out where such theology comes from.  Certainly not from the New Testament.  God is trying to fix the "brokenness" and they are honoring and advocating the brokenness.  "Brokenness" to some in this group was a qualifying factor to be in leadership. My question to them was, "Why are we trying to get people healed?"  If God is looking for "brokenness" then shouldn't we just lead people to the edge of the cliff and push them over?  Shouldn't we be praying for everybody to fall back into sin, marriages to fail, health to fail, businesses to fail, so we can arrive at more "brokenness"?  If "brokenness" is what God is seeking, shouldn't we be praying for the failure of our kids so they can arrive at brokenness earlier?

  Maybe these folks mean well, but I think the word they should be using is "yielded", not broken.  Life, sin, failure,etc., does break us, but that is not a step toward promotion. That makes you a candidate for healing, but not leadership.  God can and does heal the broken and use them for His glory, but He is not asking us to go out and get "broken".  My friend, you don't have to be an ex-gang member, business  failure or divorcee to be used of God.  That idea is nonsense.  But, you do have to be filled with the Spirit, yielded to the Spirit, anointed by the Spirit, led by the Spirit, walk in the Spirit and live in the Spirit.  You do have to exercise some faith and some confidence in who you are in Christ.  You do have to hunger and thirst for more and more of that Spirit in whom the anointing is found.

    This thinking about "brokenness" has a way of coming around every now and then.  I was in a revival years ago where the evangelist wanted everybody to come to the altar and get broken before the Lord.  I tried, but I had too much joy, too much love, too much faith, too much Word, to much of God's mercy, and I couldn't do it.  Couldn't squeeze out a single tear of brokenness.  I saw it again more recently in what was supposed to be a "faith" church. The leadership wanted every one to be broken before the Lord and worked hard to get us there.  He said this was going to usher in revival.  It didn't. It ushered in fatigue.

  This reminds me of a Pastor I heard about, years ago, that got caught coming out of an adult movie house.  He explained, "How can I know what to preach against unless I go in and see".  This is more of the nonsense thinking that has invaded so many.  Did Jesus have to be blind to heal the blind?  Did He have to fall into adultery to forgive the adulterer?  Did he have to be broken to heal the broken? The answer is "No" to all of the above.  He was anointed!  And, the anointing that did all that through Him is available to us- right now.   When we qualify ourselves to do the works He did by our earthly experiences (successes or failures), we may be disqualifying ourselves for the anointing that was on Him.  When we think we have to have been broken by the devil, or graduate from some divinity school, we are moving away from dependency on the Spirit of God and leaning on our flesh.  Broken?  Nah!  Yielded?  Yeah!

Apprehending what has apprehended

   

     Paul, once named Saul, was apprehended by the Lord, by the power of the Spirit, while riding along minding his own business of persecuting Christians. Years later, the now elderly Paul is saying he wants to "apprehend" what "apprehended" him.  He declares he does not count himself as having done that, but that he will forget things behind and press forward to the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 

  I don't think the "high calling" has anything to do with the calling to be an Apostle, Pastor, etc.  It is the calling of God to come to Himself.  God is forever beckoning us onward to follow hard after Him, to keep reaching, keep trying to apprehend.  It is a life lived, reaching for God, never being satisfied with how much we have.  We can be satisfied with "what" we have, but not with "how much" we have.  

   I can never agree with those who think they have all of God there is to have.  I am always reaching for more.  This is what "glory to glory" is about.  This is the work of the Holy Spirit, apprehending us again and again with the glory of God, leaving us always wanting to to get hold of what has gotten hold of us.  Only in heaven, where He will change our "vile" body into a glorious one like His own will we be able to say "I have apprehended what apprehended me".  Until then, we keep reaching, we keep drinking, we keep experiencing, we keep thirsting and hungering, wanting to know Him more and more, wanting to experience Him more and more.

   Don't be content with how much of God you have experienced or think you have.  No matter what you have or what you have experience, there is more.  Much more!  Don't count yourself as having arrived, as having "apprehended".  If Paul couldn't, neither can you, my friend.  Keep reaching!  Keep pressing toward the mark, heeding "high calling".

Reversing the gospel

One of most subtle but effective way religion defuses the gospel is to simply reverse it or reverse the principles therein. Once you see this in action, you will see it everywhere the gospel is preached.  This is one of the ways religion kills, steals and destroys all the while its victims think they are standing on the truth.  They plant their feet on what they think is a truth and slowly slip into sinking sands. Let's try a few:

1. Get holy so you have have the holy Spirit.  Truth?  You get the Holy Spirit and He leads you to holy.Why would you need Him if you could get holy without Him?

2. Repent of sin so you can receive God. Truth?  While we yet sinners, He commended His love to us.

3. Give so you can get.  Truth?  Get so you can give!
4. Pray for revival.  Truth? Pray for a Holy Ghost outpouring and rivers of living water (revival) will begin to flow.
5. Get rid of sin so you can have revival.  Truth?  Have revival so you can get rid of sin.
6. Purify your heart so you can worship.  Truth? Worship so he can purify your heart.
8. Your confession creates faith. Truth?  Your faith creates your confession.
9. Repent in His presence.  Truth? Repent so you can get in His presence.
10. Pray for the harvest.  Truth? Pray for the rain. Pray for the laborers.

I think I could go on and on and never uncover all the subtle flip-flops religion has brought into our thinking.  Every principle reversed equals robbery.

Is money the answer to everything?

     Years ago, I attended a conference with a well known preacher, known for prosperity teaching.  In his first sentences he said "Preachers, you don't need more God, you just need more money".   My stomach turned but most everyone else enthusiastically shouted "amen". Recently, I heard another fellow preach from Ecclesiastes that "money answers all" or in his words "money is the answer for everything". He didn't seem to know he was quoting Solomon describing his own back-slidden folly and vain thoughts.  And, my stomach turned.

   I am all for the prosperity message.  I am against people making a mess of it and this is one message that gets messed up often. Jesus said riches had deceitfulness in them, but the attitude some have is "who cares?".  It seems that the promise of wealth will cause some people to overlook about anything.  They will ignore context, meaning,  greed, pride and arrogance when the promise of wealth grabs hold of them.  In the Bible God said He would give the people the power to get wealth in order to establish the work of God, not to accumulate for the sake of having more.  Jesus actually warned us not to lay up treasures here on earth, a warning unheeded by some prosperity types. I have heard some of these characters openly boast of their accumalated wealth and measure their spirituality by their accumulations. Jesus did promise us "abundant life" and no matter how often people try to equate that promise to money, the key word in that promise is life, not money.  Life is about God, not money. Money does not equate to life nor has it ever, nor will it ever.  If it did, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet would be running over with LIFE...but they are not. 

      Paul said he knew how to be abased (dirt poor) and how to abound (rolling in cash) and either state, he said he had learned to be content. You too just may have to attend both those same classes.  Will you pass the test, being able to say it made no difference whether you had little or had plenty?   Some leave God when the going gets tough and they fail the abased class.  Some fail the abounding class.  Their riches capture their heart.  They began to rejoice over their mammon instead of their God. They make a mess!

    I believe God wants His people to prosper and that He raises up people to teach us how to prosper. I also believe religion and the devil raises up those who will bring ruin to the message.  For me, I love to pay my tithes and give my offerings.  I have found I can not out give God.  However, I will not be manipulated into giving by pity emotions or promises of great wealth.  I heard one preacher say we should make friends with rich people and hang out with them more because they would give us more money. I would rather go hungry.  I will not give to the crazy, flaky schemes seen so often often on religious television.  When a man wants my money and brags about how much he already has, my cash stays with me.  When a man ridicules those who have little, who can't even afford a nice meal at a restaurant, my cash stays with me.

   Why write this blog?  Because I know God does want us to prosper.  That is a true and needful word from Scripture.  God does not want us to surrender that truth. He also does not want us to be deceived by those who make a mess of the message.  Be a giver but better yet, be a Spirit led giver.  Don't be manipulated into giving by the glitter, gold, vain promises and crazy schemes.  Don't let emotions or greed direct your giving.  Let God direct it.  Decide to sow and reap as a way of life, not as a way of getting rich quick. 

Amazing Box Building

  

     Religious box building is a strange art.  And, a bad thing.  Did you know our early day Pentecostal fathers, upon receiving Holy Ghost baptism felt they were delivered from the box of denominationalism?  They swore they would never be part of another, they did not like being boxed in by man's rules, theology and understandings.  Then, early on, in order to protect themselves against one brother straying a little theology-wise, they met secretly in a back room and organized in order to get rid of that one brother.  Thus, a box was born!  Just as did the denominations they were delivered from, they soon had developed that box so well that nothing else, no other ideas, revelations, etc., was allowed.  Walled out!   In my early days of the charismatic move (60's), the boxes started coming apart.  For a while, it was "wow"!!!  We were ministering in Catholic basements, Episcopalian, Baptist, Methodist, Congregational and Pentecostal churches. The box walls crumbled and the message was simple, just as it was in the early days of Pentecost.  "Be filled with the Spirit".   

    And, then!  And, then!  Religious leaders got busy re-enforcing their boxes and roping people back in.  And, worse!  Those charismatics scurried like little beavers building their own boxes.  And, no one has done a better job!  Those who believed in one thing a little stronger than others - no longer talked to the others.  They built the deliverance box, the discipleship box, the confession box, the prosperity box, the healing box, etc., and locked the doors.  They walled in our converts and walled out those with a different idea about anything related to their box. In their simple mindedness, they thought they had to protect their truth, as if truth needed protection.  The only protection truth needs is to be free from those who seek to protect it.

   Box-building is the end of learning and eventually the end of the true Spirit-filled and the Spirit-led life.  Now, in our little box, we are sustained and led by that little box.  No one from outside of our box can make an input to us or us to them.  Are you in a box?  One way you know you are in a box when the box-controllers tell you things like this, "If you leave this box, you are going to die early", or "Your blessing is connected to this box and this box only",  or "God will never use you again if you leave this box", etc.

    Several years ago I tried to tell a fellow who was sitting comfortably in his box about revival going on in other parts of the country.  I tried to encourage him to go and see for himself, that he might get a fresh anointing and bring revival at his box.  He responded "Oh, yeah, I've heard of those meetings...didn't go..don't want to..(and here is where he got real spiritual) "but if God wants me to have revival..he will just send it...I'm waiting for a sovereign move of God".  In other words, he was not going to get out of his box. He was not really thirsty for revival, just something that would bless and enlarge his box.  I have since really come to understand that people use the word "sovereign" as a way of protecting their box and it has nothing to do with wanting the will of God.

    In closing, I can only say "Lord, deliver me from boxes, building boxes and box builders".

Can you really have everything you say?

 
   You know, confessing the Word,  having a positive confession and avoiding bad confession are good messages.  Faith works as the Bible says "I have believed, therefore I speak".  Being good truths as they are, you can expect them to be trashed. Example?  Remember the conversation Jesus had with his disciples about moving mountains and cursing fig trees? Read the whole chapter and you will see the context was about doing what had to be done to make the Father's house a house of prayer.  If we have faith in God, or the same faith, the same convictions about the house of prayer, then whatever  mountains hinder the "house of prayer" we are to command to move.  If we don't doubt our command of authority, then we will have what we say - moved mountains! 

     Notice it does not say "you can have everything you say". No matter how many times you have been told that it says that, it does not. And, in any translation you care to read, it does not say that and you can't make it say that.  It was talking about what it was talking about - not life in general.  It is about your authority not your wish list.   Don't you know God is your Father and what good father would give his child everything that child said?  I tell you no good father would do such a thing.  To try to make this verse say that  means we miss what the verse is actually saying and telling us to do.  The result is harm to a great word and failure to assume responsibility to do our part in making the Father's house a "house of prayer".

   Want to know where you should exercise this principle?   Desire God's house to be a "house of prayer", a place in which He promised to make us joyful (Is. 56). Want that so bad you begin to command hindering mountains to move!  Try it on your way to church next Sunday.  Do it when you drive by a church on the roadside.  Command hindering things to move away.    Result?  If you don't doubt your authority to command, mountains will begin to move and the house of prayer will begin to come alive with the power of the Holy Ghost. God will meet us and make us joyful in the house, but our role to play is to use our authority to make hindrances move.  Then, in that powerful house of prayer, when you pray, what things you desire, you can ask, believe and receive. The condition of the church has an enormous affect on our prayer life, even our desires. 

  

Truth Beneath The Dung

   You know, the devil has a clever way of stealing truth from us. He buries it under dung.  Every truth the Spirit puts forward, the enemy puts some dung on it.  And, the greater the truth, the bigger the dung heap becomes. You know the result don't you?  Soon the dung heap becomes a reason for people to say "I don't want that".  I know, I know, you are going to want me to explain - so here are a few examples:  (I'll give you the truth and then a little bit of the dung, without digging into the pile too deep).

   Truth?  "saved by grace". Dung? clean up and keep the rules so you can be saved.  Truth?  "be baptized you with the Holy Ghost and fire".  Dung?  If you get holy enough, you might receive (if you could get holy without Him, why would you need Him?).  Truth? Be holy as God is holy.  Dung?  Dress up, or down, in order to look holy. Truth?  New and better covenant.  Dung?  Insist on preaching nine out of ten sermons from the Law of Moses and define Christianity by those sermons.   Truth?  God wants you to prosper.  Dung? accumulate weath and brag about your money.  Truth?  God wants to make you joyful.  Dung?  Better jokes to imitate the joy.  Truth?  Prophesy unto edification, exhortation and comfort (New Testament demand).  Dung? The Bible is not complete, let the prophet fill in the blanks.  Had enough?  I could go on.

   Just since the 60's, great truths have emerged from the charismatic move which began in the 60's;  praise restoration, discipleship, word of faith, deliverance, prosperity, joy, etc.  I have loved them all! They have come like waves of glory, only to soon be buried under the dung.  As men and women of God, we have to sort out the truth from the dung.  In every area the truth is still there, under the pile, but now you have to look past the dung in order to find it.  I urge every believer to never, ever fail to search the word to see if what you are hearing or reading is true.  The truth will be simple, straightforward and universal in application. The dung will make it complicated and legalistic.  I urge you to be one of those Bereans in the Bible who were known for searching the Word to see if the things they had heard were true.  Never be afraid to question.  Search the New Testament, carefully observing context and literal meaning. If you don't....you are going to step in it!

   Above all, don't be a dung spreader.  We don't have to exaggerate. We don't have to add to the simple truths of God's word.  We don't have to interpret with exaggeration.  We don't have to take things out of context in order to make a point. We don't have to stretch truths beyond simplicity.  We don't have to create man-made rules and formulas.  All such things will eventually become dung. 

Come on now, Is it really faith?

  

    You know, I am constantly amazed at what gets accepted as faith, but in fact, is fear.  I saw this years ago when a family member was going for marriage counseling with a pastor known to be a faith preacher.  After a few visits, he canceled all counseling saying "I don't want to hear anything that might hinder my faith".   How strong was his faith?  I know of pastors, who when they do hospital visits, have to bind up all kinds of demons and curses before they go in the hospital door, fearing what might get on them. Is that faith?  I know of pastors who won't minister to people in the altar anymore for fear they might hear something that would hurt their faith.  Is that really faith?  

   When you begin to look for fear, it is everywhere, including our charismatic type churches.  (We just cloak it better).  So many of us are attracted to the "I can have everything I say" message is often because fear of lack drives them to it.  Around people who have embraced the confession message, it isn't unusual at all to find people full of fear - scared witless that a slip of the tongue will bring failure and ruin.  They have moved from trust to must and don't know the difference. People often go with the healing message because they fear dying and being sick. They run to the prosperity message for fear they won't have enough. They absolutely don't won't to hear the message of Paul who knew how to be abased (be in want) and how to abound (have abundance).  Legalism (relating to God by laws and rules) gains easy access to us when fear rules us. When we are lacking in trust, we are attracted to rules. Soon our hope, our justification is based on having kept those rules, not on the greatness of our God. Without trust, soon we are doing what we do because we must - for fear we won't be accepted, loved, blessed or have whatever is it we want from God. Our actions are not longer a part of a relationship with God, they become the substitute for a relationship.

   Fear does have a place in our lives. Some of us, had we not been fearful of hell, might never have gotten saved.  If you fear the lion, you won't stick your hand in its mouth.  Yet, we must recognize fear for what it is. We must govern it and not allow it to govern us.  If we don't, it becomes a spiritual force that begins to direct our lives and if we are not careful, it will steal our love, power and sound mind. It will substitute itself for faith.  It will hinder faith and we may never know what is wrong.  When fear becomes an underlying, masked, force in us, trust flies out the window.  Soon, we go from trust to must.  Soon we are keeping rules and missing grace.  Listen carefully and it won't take you long to hear someone, some leader, tell you that you must do such and such, or else.  Be careful...those are words are often the beginning of fear. 

Check your belly!

 
   The center of your being, your belly as the Bible calls it, establishes everything about you.  Your center, you "belly" can be you, it can be family, money,  career, etc.  In the spiritual realm, it can be some doctrine, faith, good works, prophecy, prosperity or any number of other seemingly good things.  From your belly, the center of your being, flows all your dreams, desires, actions.  Your theology is established from your belly. Your relationship with God is affected by what the center of your being happens to be.  

  In recent times I have began to see that revival also has to do with what is our center.  If a person's center is a particular message or doctrine, when that doctrine is preached again, they feel renewed or reaffirmed in what they are. They may call it revival.  For example, people whose center of being is the faith confession message will feel renewed when that message is preached and reaffirmed to them.  Their world revolves around that idea.  People whose center is heaven experience the same thing when they hear heaven preached or sang about in a strong convincing way.  They feel renewed.  However, if such a message is not your center, you may not share that feeling of renewal.

   Here is the problem:  The Bible declares that "times of refreshing" (revival) come from the manifested presence of God (Acts 3:19).  If the Holy Ghost, God manifested among men, is at the center of your being and you get close to His presence, you feel revived, or refreshed.  That is the revival the Bible points us to.  That is the revival I crave!  Jesus told us that if we believed and came to Him thirsty, He would give to us a drink of the Holy Ghost such that out of our "belly", (the center of our being) would flow rivers of living water (Jo. 7:37-39).  That is revival - if the center of your being is God among us.  This process of coming to Jesus, beliving, thirsting, hungering is the process by which He establishes, renews, revives, the belly of our being and make it what it should be - a fountain from which "rivers of living water" flow.  That is what a revived belly looks and feels like. 

   A "belly" change is truly what Holy Ghost baptism is about - it is a change of the center of your being.  It puts Him in your belly.   And, being filled and refilled with the Spirit is about the center of your being experiencing revival.  Every time you get a fresh drink, fresh touch, fresh anointing, you belly flows life again and that flow affects your whole being, your witness, your ministry.   Those whose center / belly is something other than the Spirit, will let Holy Ghost revival, the manifested presence of God pass them by quite easily, since it had no affect on the center of their being anyway.

   For me, I can't be deeply renewed by a message or a particular slant on the Word.  Oh, I can enjoy,  be challenged and educated but not really revived.  Revival, renewal comes for me with a time in God's manifested presence, the wonderful Holy Ghost, the center of my being, the axis my world rotates upon.  When I get around those whose center is different I am well aware of it.  What excites them does not always excite me.  The Bible says that he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit.  Every now and then that becomes experiential and we call it "revival".  Paul once said that Christ must have "preeminence" in all things and that only happens when the Spirit of God is the center  of our being.  The Bible says only by the Spirit can we call Jesus Lord.

Don't take the long way around

   The way some people approach obtaining the blessings of God is the long way around. Israel demonstrated this well. They went in circles for forty years, headed for the promised land but they took the long way around.  What should have taken them two weeks took them forty years.  Imagine me, living in Kentucky going to New York by way of Florida.  Oh, I'll get there but that is the long way around.  The long way may not seem like the wrong way, but it is wasteful.  Having, by nature been an observer,  I have observed a lot of people wanting God's blessings take the long way around.  What they want is right, it is theirs, they can have it, but they take a long route to get there.  That is one of the ploys of devilish religion.  It will point you to the wrong way if it can, but failing at that, point you to the long way.  Going the long way delays victory and as well encourages failure and surrender.

   Examples: People claim eternal life and then spend a life waiting on it.  Long way round!  Eternal life is the Spirit. People want the grace of God and do flip-flops to find it.  Long way.  It is in the Holy Ghost.  He is the Spirit of Grace.  People want signs and wonders and do all sorts of things to obtain them. Long way!  They are in the overflow of the Holy Spirit.  People want the love of God and go to great measures to obtain or earn.  Long way!  The love of God is shed abroad by the Holy Ghost.  People want to walk in the Kingdom of God and some even await heaven so they can finally be in the Kingdom.  Long way!   The Kingdom of God is in the Holy Ghost.  People want great faith and develop all sorts of formulas designed to produce greater faith.  Long way!  Faith is to be based upon the demonstrations and power of the Holy Ghost. People want to hear God and work hard to do so.  Long way!  The Holy Ghost communes with us the will of God.  He is the voice of God to us.   People want to know Jesus as Lord and study hard to do so. Long way round!  Only by the Spirit can we call Jesus Lord.  People shout and sing over their rich inheritance God has given them, but yet they wait until heaven to enjoy. Long way around!  The Holy Ghost is the "earnest", down payment, security deposit, beginning of that inheritance.  We don't have to wait for heaven to enjoy our inheritance.  Need I go on?  These are all wonderful things we seek, but all are found in the Holy Ghost according to the Bible. He is the short way.

   Stop taking the long way round!   The Bible says that in order to not be "unwise" concerning the will of God we need to "be ye ever being filled and stimulated with the Holy Ghost" (Amp. Vs.).   And, most wonderfully so, God gave us a picture of what that looks like when it happens.  You are filled with the music of praise.  That is the short way around.  All the promises of God are indeed yes and amen to those who are in Christ but the short way is grab hold of the Holy Ghost who Jesus clearly said would come, upon His departure, to tell us about Jesus, to show us what is ours and make it a reality.  The Holy Ghost moves those promises from the realm of words to the realm of experience and fulfillment.  When we are not filled with the Spirit, the other side of this coin is that you are "unwise" concerning the will of God, so chances are you will keep taking the long way to victory.

   Oh, if you want, go ahead and take the long route but as for me, I want to get into the things of God the express way. It's the free way!  It's the short cut!  It's the fast lane!   "Baptize me Jesus, again and again, in that which you died to give me - Holy Ghost rivers of living water".  Don't put your faith in your religious formulas. That is the long way.  Don't put you faith in your faith.  Put your faith in God.  That is the short way.