On the road again, yet again!

Well, it's that time again.  The Kingdom Light blog posts are going to be pretty spotty for the next month.  We have our DTS graduation on the 22nd of February, and then on the 23rd I'm going up into the mountains with a team for a week.  A few days after that there is a team coming from Iowa I will be running around with, and then from the 25th-29th of March I will be teaching at a Discipleship Training School in Panama City.

I will write what I can, when I can, but just know I haven't abandoned this, I just don't have much computer access!

Alan

Pomegranates

"He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him."
                                                                                                                            - Isaiah 53:2

Several years ago as I was going through the Old Testament, I kept running into passages like this:

"And you shall make the robe of the ephod all of blue. And there shall be a hole in the top of it, in its middle; a binding shall be all around its mouth, of woven work. It shall be like the mouth of a corselet; it may not be torn. And on its hem you shall make pomegranates of blue, and purple, and scarlet, all around its hem. And bells of gold shall be amidst them all around. There shall be a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, upon the hem of the robe all around." 
                                                                                                                                          - Exo 28:31-34

As I would read this, the pomegranates would just jump out at me.  I didn't even have any idea what they were, but it seemed so strange to me that God would want pomegranates all along the hem of the ephod, which was the clothing the high priest wore.  So you can see it with your own eyes, look at the hem of the garment in this picture.

Can you see them?  The pomegranates?

They are there between the bells.  This was so striking to me, so I decided to find out more about what pomegranates are, and why God would find them so important as to not only put them on the ephod, but also put it in David's heart to put massive amounts of them in the temple Solomon built.  

"And the capitals on the two pillars had pomegranates on the upper part, over against the belly which was by the grating; and the pomegranates were two hundred in rows all around on the other capital."

                                                                                                                                       - 1 Kings 7:20

Remember that even though Solomon built the temple, David spent a large part of his life gathering the materials, drawing up the plans and so forth.

There are different beliefs about pomegranates and what they stand for.  One of the big ones is that they stand for righteousness, or holiness, and they probably do, but God showed me something different about them that I would like to share with you today.  

Pomegranates come from this shrub:

If you are wondering why I added that Isaiah verse at the beginning, this is why.  A pomegranate shrub is just a regular old, ugly bush that calls no attention to itself.  It doesn't glow or shine, or even look desirable.  If you were to pass by this shrub you probably wouldn't give it a second glance.  And yet God found it special enough to keep bringing it up!  Why?  

It turns out that despite its unattractive display, the pomegranate is actually one of the most fruitful plants in the world.  A single pomegranate fruit produces up to 1400 seeds!  Not only that, but pomegranate plants are easy to cultivate, so a very high percentage of those seeds, if planted correctly could easily produce 1400 pomegranate shrubs.

You may or may not be getting my point by now, so I'll just make it as clear as possible.  

"He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him."

                                                                                                                            - Isaiah 53:2

There was nothing special to look at with Jesus.  He looked just like a regular old Jewish guy.  Before He began ministry He blended in with everyone else, nobody saw anything special in Him.  However, contained within Him was something nobody would have expected, a fruitfulness only God could see.  He was brought into the world in humility, but He was the ultimate powerhouse.  The world has never seen anyone like Him or anything like He has ever done.

The pomegranates on the hem of the garments and temple not only prophecy of Jesus Himself, but they are also signs for us as Christians.  They are reminders that fruitfulness and the power of God are found in humility.  

Even though we preach humility, and talk about it in church often, it is one of the least lived out principles in the church.  It is easy to talk about, but it is a completely different thing to actually live.  How many of us would willingly give up the shotgun seat in the car so someone else can sit there?

This is one of my greatest weaknesses as a human being.  I have never been one to hide that because I want it removed from me, and that comes from confession.  I am not one who needs much approval from people to do what God tells me to do, but I have always wanted to be one of those people who goes into the history books after I die.  I wanted to be the Billy Graham of my day.  What a life!  But as I grow in the Lord, and I learn to imitate Him, I discover that Jesus didn't "shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets," (Isaiah 42:2).  

He did not go around saying, "I am the man of God of our hour.  I am the living God.  Come, be dazzled!"  As a matter of fact, as I have mentioned in another post, He usually preached things nobody even understood until after He died.  He was not after fame and fortune, all He cared about was obedience to God.

I should clarify that I certainly don't believe writing books, making dvds and audio cds are sinful.  Jeremiah wrote his messages and distributed them, King David worshiped God publicly in front of his entire kingdom.  Being known, and even being famous is not sinful.  How many thousands, or millions of people are walking faithfully with God today because of a Billy Graham crusade or tv program?  Lots.  Some of the most awesome ministers I know today were saved through his televised programs.  My point is whether we do those things in obedience to God, or to build our own fame.

This reminds me of one of my favorite writers, E.M. Bounds.  During his lifetime he was almost unknown.  He woke up at four a.m. every morning and sought God for several hours, and then if he had the opportunity he would preach.  However, his great passion in terms of ministry, was to diligently write the books on prayer that are so famous today.  In his lifetime though, nobody knew about these books, nobody cared!  "Who is E.M. Bounds?"  Nobody knew who he was, because even though he wrote some of the most profound books on prayer that are on earth today, he never went around declaring how wonderful of an author he was, or setting up book tables with his face and a sparkling, winning smile plastered all over the covers.

This is similar to Brother Lawrence, the monk known for the book, "The Practice of the Presence of God."  I find it funny because he was a man who didn't want anyone to know who he was.  He actually fought it.  The book was not created by him, it is a set of letters he wrote to a young man who wanted to know how to know God the way Brother Lawrence did.  If you read the book it will make you laugh, because in one of the beginning letter Brother Lawrence gives specific instructions to the man not to ever publish or make public the letters.  The guy just waited until Lawrence died and published them anyway!

That is how we should be, how I should be.  Not like the publisher, but like the Lawrence!  Because of men like that, even writing this blog is a struggle for me, because I want to be like them.  I have almost shut it down several times, and it's not because I am such a humble guy, it is because I want to be a humble guy, and I want to follow the example of other men of God, but I feel like God keeps asking me to write one more time, so I do.  

Not that I am old by any means, but as I get older my heart longs to be more like Jesus, and this is the conclusion I have come to, even with this blog.  Jesus did not call attention to Himself, or make Himself look spectacular and sparkly, but He did preach openly.  So that is the example I am going to follow.  I will preach the Gospel, but do my best not to do it His way.

I would encourage everyone who reads this to do the same.  Do not hide your lamp, but don't throw fireworks into it either.

Keep Your Sword Bloody

"Cursed is he who keeps back his sword from blood."    

                                                                                                                             - Jeremiah 48:10


We are not on this earth to be cheerleaders, we are on this earth to be warriors.  Every Christian holds in his/her hand the sword of the Spirit, and every day some demonic heads should roll.  It's just good practice in the Kingdom.  We are all called to heroism whether it is spiritually or physically.  That meaning the intercessor whose work is only seen in heaven is just as much a warrior, and just as valuable, as the evangelist whose ministry is pulling in millions of souls to the Kingdom.

The important thing is to keep your blade wet.

"If two angels were to receive at the same moment a commission from God, one to go down and rule the earth's grandest empire, the other to go and sweep the streets of its meanest village, it would be a matter of entire indifference to each which service fell to his lot, the post of the ruler of the post of the scavenger; for the joy of the angels lies only in obedience to God's will, and with equal joy they would lift a Lazarus in his rags to Abraham's bosom, or be a chariot of fire to carry an Elijah home."               
                                                                                                                             - John Newton


As strong as my wording is, this is the truth, and the whole purpose of Jesus coming to earth was war, it was to annihilate the enemy of us all. "For this purpose the Son of God was revealed, that He might destroy the works of the devil," (1 John 3:8).  It was the result of that mission that we received salvation, hope, peace, joy, and our weaponry.  If His only goal was for us to get saved and then live high and above the rest of the world the rest of our lives, He would have swept us to heaven the instant we received Him in the beginning.

But that is not His plan for any of us.  It doesn't matter what your social standing is, whether rich or poor, pastor or lawyer, God has you where you are not for a rank or status, but because you are a soldier and that is your post, your battlefield.  Your job is to dominate your work environment with the Kingdom of God and destroy the works of the devil within it.

The normal Christian.

God has equipped you with everything you need to destroy the works of the devil in your own life.  His name is Jesus!  Remember, we are supposed to imitate Him, which means that His mission is our mission.  Obviously we are not saviors, and we can't save anyone of ourselves, but He through us can bring nations to the throne of God.

Be warned however, read this passage:


"But if the watchman sees the sword coming, and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned; if the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity. But I will require his blood at the watchman's hand.  And you, son of man, I have set you a watchman to the house of Israel. Therefore you shall hear the Word from My mouth, and warn them from Me. When I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die; if you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked one shall die in his iniquity; but I will require his blood at your hand.  But, if you warn the wicked of his way, to turn from it; if he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your soul." 

                                                                                                                                  -  Ezekiel 33:6-9


Might I suggest to you that it will be far better for you to stand before the judgement seat of Christ with blood on your sword rather than blood on your head?  I can guarantee you it is better to warn people of their sins and face possible persecution rather than hear God say, "Evil and slothful servant! ... 

throw the unprofitable servant into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth,

"  (Matthew 25:26,30.)

Notice it doesn't say the man wasn't a servant of the master.  He was a servant, but he was useless, so he was cast out.


"Because if you confess the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.  For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation." 

                                          - Romans 10:9-10

It is always important to remember that faith without works is dead faith, it is a mere illusion.  You can tell yourself you are going to get married all you want, but unless you walk down the altar you are still single.  In the same way, you can think you are a disciple of Jesus all you want, but unless you are following in His footsteps He isn't going to recognize you when you get to the judgement seat.

This is not salvation based on works, this is works based on salvation.  A person who is born again has the mind of Christ (1 Corithians 2:16), and Christ is thinking about saving the world.  If you don't care about the things Jesus cares about, whose mind do you have, and who do you belong to?

These are serious questions I am raising, but they are valid, because a line needs to be drawn in the sand here and now.  The church has been saturated by the world to the point now that the lines are so blurry nobody knows who or what to fight anymore.  There is a single line drawn by the finger of God in eternal boron nitride.  Decide right now who you will serve.  If God, serve Him completely, if you want the world, you can keep it.

Brothers and sisters, do not go before God with a clean, polished, unused sword.  Make sure it gets some use, and has some chips broken off the blade.  Make sure it's got some scratches from war.  Make sure when you find yourself sitting around one of those heavenly campfires of white and blue flame, eating heaven s'mores, you have your own stories to tell that are just as breathtaking as Moses' and Elijah's.

“All heroes are shadows of Christ” 

― John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life

Citizens of Heaven

Live every day like this.

"The spirit of devotion pervades the saints in heaven and characterizes the worship of heaven's angelic intelligences.  No devotionless creatures are in that heavenly world.  God is there, and His very presence begets the spirit of reverence, of awe, and of filial fear.  If we would be partakers with them after death, we must first learn the spirit of devotion on earth before we get there."

                                                                                                  - E.M. Bounds


We were created to be part of heaven's culture, not earth's.  We need a shift in our mindset.  It is not our job to bring earth's culture into the church, but heaven's culture into the world.  Most Christians seem to have that twisted up a bit.  Instead of allowing the Spirit of God in them to change the world around them so it becomes more like heaven, they allow the spirit of the world to change them, making them look just like everyone else.

We are citizens of heaven!  Hallelujah!

When I first moved to Panama about eight years ago, I was considered nothing more than a tourist gringo; an annoyance to the common people who didn't know the language and seemed to cause prices to be driven up wherever I went.  To the bad guys I was seen as an easy target, I didn't even know a fifteen dollar taxi ride should have only been three.

Yeah, that guy.

But then, as I started learning the culture and customs around me, I started to adapt.  I learned that not greeting every single person you pass by is considered flat out rude.  I learned that if you marry a Latina/Latino person, you should expect to never ever have another moment alone again in your life, because why would you ever want one?  That's crazy!  I learned that a meal without rice is not a meal at all, it is an appetizer for the rice.

After a handful of years I started to take on the mentality and conform to the culture I am so enveloped in, until I started to see most gringo tourists (any foreigner) as rude, overbearing, proud, prejudice (even though they would never admit it) and selfish brats.  Most of them are to be frank.

I should clarify that I'm not talking about the missionaries and volunteers who come down here with God's heart to serve, that is very different from tourists and retirees who care nothing about God, His Kingdom, or Panama.

Now, eight years later, even though my skin is still the same color, and I still have a goatee which most Latinos can only stare in awe at, I have become so like this culture that if it weren't for those two things most people here would never know I grew up in the States.  When I speak on the phone with strangers, they are always shocked to find I am a gringo when  they meet me in person.  Often times I have even been told by Latinos from other countries that I even have a Panamanian accent, rather than a gringo accent.

Not only have I become one with the culture, but I am no longer a tourist with limited rights.  I am now completely immigrated into Panama, having a Panamanian equivalent of a U.S. social security number, permanent legal residence, and all the rights of a Panamanian citizen.  As a matter of fact, when I get stopped at police check points now, all I have to do is flash my Panamanian ID, and even though my skin says otherwise, the police always say, "Oh, he's Panamanian, let him go."

Me blending in.

What is my point with all of this?  Just like I and tens of thousands of other missionaries have done in becoming one with our new culture to the point that people can't tell the difference, we should become one with our heavenly culture.

When a North American comes to Panama as a missionary, if they refuse to become like the culture, and refuse to change their ways and habits, they are always failures as missionaries and usually end up quitting.  You were once a citizen of earth, but then you got born again you became a citizen of heaven.  Now it is your job to become like the place of your citizenship, not the place of your origin.  Your origin is gone, you are never going back, so let it go!  Run to heaven!

I always feel entirely awkward when I go back to the States, because my mindset has changed so much that I don't know how to act anymore.  We shouldn't be uncomfortable around people of the world, but we shouldn't fit in either.

Jesus was a friend of sinners, just like we should be, but he never joined in on their lifestyles.  He had dinner with them, he would talk to them about the Kingdom of Heaven, and being born again, but He always stood out.  If you are so much like the world around you that you blend in to the point of nobody knowing you are any different, you need to repent.  You do not belong to them.  You do not belong to this world.  You belong to the Kingdom of Heaven, so start acting like a citizen of our home instead of a citizen of the fallen one.

"Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home."

                          -C.S.Lewis

Diligence

"Do you see a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before unknown men."  
                            - Proverbs 22:29

In my own human nature I am not a diligent person, but God sure is.  My wife can testify to the fact that when she first met me I was one of the most undisciplined people around.  I still loved Jesus, I was still a good missionary, but I was lacking so much in the area of diligence that I am ashamed to even talk about it now.  I am going to though!

There are two things God spoke to me about for years, and although they are relatively simple they took me an embarrassingly long time to do.  Sadly I feel like I was like the Israelites wandering in the desert for forty years.  The Promised Land was so close, but because of disobedience they spent a generation wandering aimlessly.  Praise be to our wonderful Lord He didn't let me do that!

These two things were constantly on my heart and mind:

1.  To wake up before dawn consistently to pray.
2.  To do a forty day fast.

During our first years of being married my wife must have heard me declare I was going to do that forty day fast, and then decide not to after a few days a thousand times.  You wouldn't believe how often I did that.  The best I did was I believe in 2009 when I did a twenty one day fast.  I was going so well, and then for some reason I can't even remember at 21 days I decided I was done.  It is just so embarrassing.

The reason for waking up before dawn is because you can see consistently through Scripture that the people of God, including Jesus had that as a regular practice.  Read through the book of Jeremiah and try counting how many times God says something similar to: "I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking. But you have not listened,"  Jeremiah 25:3.

For some reason God likes it when people wake up early.  I don't know why, but that doesn't really matter.  When I was taking a biology class several years ago, my teacher (who was also my youth pastor) used to say, "If you want good grades, find out what your teacher likes and give it to him."  We need to approach God that way.  You may never know why your teachers likes things a certain way, but you do it anyway if you want and A!

You can decide to follow God in your own way and you might get by, but I want good grades with Him, so I want to do things His way.

It took me a long to start doing that though.  I knew it was right, I knew it was a good thing to do, but for the life of me I couldn't get my body to obey me!

Spiritual me against my hairier physical me.

I wanted to be like Jesus, I wanted so badly to be able to do those things, but it took a long, slow journey for me to get there.  It sounds ironic but you have to sow diligence in order to receive diligence.  You may be as undisciplined or worse than I was, but we all have a certain amount of diligence God has given us, and we need to exercise what we have in order to grow.

Nobody starts out disciplined, and nobody starts out as a might man or woman of God, we all go through the fiery baptism of the Holy Spirit to get there.  Some of us walk through that fire with total abandon and it seems like immediately after their salvation they are the Elijah of their community.  Others, like myself, end up making the same mistake over and over again until we finally start to get a hang of it and learn from our mistakes.

The important thing is that we are making some kind of progress, and when we do conquer one of the mountains in our lives, God will always point out some new, bigger mountain to overcome on the other side.

Wahaha!  Finally!  I made it!  IN YOUR FA--Oh...

The benefits to diligence are incredible though, and I can testify to that in my own life.  My wife now can't even understand how I can be as diligent as I am.  I usually go to bed after her, and I am awake way before she or anyone else in my family is.  I have gone from being what I would call a borderline sluggard to analyzing and hammering out the tiniest details on everything I do.  Quality in every moment of life is my goal now, rather than just getting through it.

Take the new intro video I have created for this blog.  Back in the day I wouldn't have even bothered making one, and if I did I would have just chunked something together and uploaded whatever came out.  But I filmed just the light turning on over a dozen times.  I changed all the colors to make them richer, and even added the sound effects, which is a tedious job to be frank.  I am impressed with people who make two or three hour movies, it is a long process to put something decent out there.

Proverbs 22 tells us that the diligent will stand before kings, they will be blessed.  They aren't blessed because diligence makes you holy or special, but because diligent people don't create sloppy work.  They are dependable, they are trustworthy, they are faithful, all godly qualities every Christian should have.

St. Patrick - The Christian Batman

Him...without all the ridiculous clothing.

Saint Patrick is one of my all time greatest heroes.  Don't be fooled by the Catholic idolatry of the man, he was a Christian hero of the faith through and through, and would have never condoned all the worship of him.  The man was the Elijah of his day!  

I always use his story as an example of what a missionary should be like when I teach on missions in YWAM.  He really was (aside from Jesus of course) the ultimate example of a missionary.

For those of you who don't know anything about St. Patrick other than that you are supposed to wear green on his day, Patrick was not Irish first of all, he was a British-Romeo missionary to Ireland.

There are whole books written on his life, so I am not going to attempt to do more than show you the extremely impressive highlights.  If anyone's life should be a movie, it's this guy.

Imagine this:  Patrick was just a kid living like any other in Britainia when Irish pirates came and kidnapped him.  He lived as a slave for years until God miraculous showed him how to escape, which he did.  He returned to Britainia where he decided to become a minister, and eventually a missionary to the very people who enslaved him during his childhood. 

At first nobody would send him.  Back in those days people didn't just run off to missions because they felt called.  They waited through long, arduous red tape while years went by and they twiddled their thumbs hoping the more important people to make a decision about him.  So he waited.

The first guy they sent was killed in Ireland, so guess who got invited to take his place?  That's right, Patrick!  

Undaunted by the last guy's end, he went anyway, and his life there is one crazy story after another.

Here are some of the highlights:

1.  There was an infestation of deadly snakes all over Ireland, through prayer he drove them all off the island.

2.  The Druidic religion that is seen in all kinds of role playing games, where they control nature and worship trees and fairies, that came out of Ireland, and was the main religion of the nation.  Until Patrick arrived.  God used Patrick to evangelize the entire nation of Ireland, and almost completely eradicated the Druids and their religion (that task was completely fulfilled by his disciples after he died).  How?  Well, I'll tell you one of the stories in a moment.

3.  Read this excerpt from Wikipedia about Patrick:   "During his evangelising journey back to Ireland from his parent's home at Birdoswald, he is understood to have carried with him an ash wood walking stick or staff. He thrust this stick into the ground wherever he was evangelising and at the place now known as Aspatria (ash of Patrick) the message of the dogma took so long to get through to the people there that the stick had taken root by the time he was ready to move on."

You want to hear how he annihilated the Druid religion?  First, some background for this story.

The kings and Druids all worshiped several horrible gods, and there was a particular festival called Beltine which was a big feast, and the king would go to the top of a hill called Slayne and make a giant bonfire in worship of their gods.  

Patrick saw this as a great evangelism opportunity.  He didn't go out and hand out tracts, or pray for people.  Instead he got there before anyone else, and started his own big bonfire to Jesus in defiance of the all the kings and false gods.

Needless to say, the king, named Laeghaire, was furious.  So he got a couple of his Druid priests and soldiers together and scaled the hill, set on killing Patrick for his defiance. 

Read this from Jesus Freaks: Revolutionaries:

"When the chariots arrived, Patrick was summoned before the king.  The king ordered Patrick's bonfire extinguished, but no matter what his soldiers did, the fire refused to be put out.  Patrick gave a bold testimony for Jesus before them and refused to be silent.  When Laeghaire commanded his soldiers to execute Patrick to quiet him, confusion descended on them, and they attacked one another.  When the two Druid priests then turned their vehemence on Patrick and Jesus' name, one fell and cracked his head on a rock, while the other somehow fell into the fire and perished.  One version even records that when the king himself pulled his sword to slay Patrick, his arm froze as stiff as a statue and stayed that way until he knelt in surrender to Patrick...."

After this happened that king (there were several in Ireland at the time) gave Patrick free reign in his country, and allowed him to preach wherever, whenever, and however he wanted.  And that is just one of his encounters.

Oh, and the reason why the clover, or shamrock is the thing you always see with Patrick is not because of Ireland itself.  He was so clever that he used the three leaf clover to explain to the Irish how God could be three in one.

Even though March 17th is celebrated as his day of death, nobody actually knows when he even died!

All I can say about these things:  Attempt great things for God, He might just let you freeze the king's arm. 

No Compromise, No Quarter

"Somehow the Truth makes nothing else seem to matter."
                                                                                       - Jesus Freaks: Revolutionaries

"Uncompromisingly righteous and rigidly just are You, O Lord..."

                                                              - Jeremiah: Jeremiah 12:1 (amp)

I once watched a documentary on the U.S. special forces, and one of the soldiers said something that has stuck with me.  "Compromise is death."  If only the body of Christ believed that the way these non-believing soldiers do. 

They focus on one single thing, to be the most precise and deadly soldiers on earth.  If only the church had that same focus, but to know God and make him known as their goal.  

The Bible has thousands of promises contained in it, and most, if not all have some kind of requirement, conditions that must be fulfilled before that promise can happen.  For some, like salvation, the requirement is that we must believe, others require actual physical actions.  

For example Isaiah 58 talks about fasting, and the correct way to do it.  Faith mixed with fasting alone is very powerful, but add the other elements of Isaiah 58 like feeding the poor and caring for the homeless and it becomes a powerhouse.

One of the primary requirements named over and over again is righteousness, and not just regular old righteousness, but uncompromising righteousness as translated in the Amplified version of the Bible.

"Uncompromisingly righteous and rigidly just are You, O Lord..."

God is not lazy.  He is not half-hearted.  He does nothing in a lax way.  Every movement is calculated, thought out, and precise.  If He decides to do something, there isn't a thing you or the devil can do to stop it.  Sometimes He decides to give you the choice for blessing or curses, and then you have a say, but you cannot stop Him from returning.

God is disciplined and structured, he is uncompromising.  However I do not want to build the image of a disciplinary, militant, angry God in anyone's mind.  That is not the goal here.  God is also full of joy and love.  He is a perfect father and a perfect general.

We are His soldiers, and it is our entire purpose in life the imitate Him.  He is uncompromisingly righteous and rigidly just, we must be the same way if we are going to be like Him.

I don't mean unmerciful, and don't mean we aren't gracious, and I don't mean we are cold, because God is none of those things.  However we must refuse to compromise our own walk with God no matter if others are by our side or not.

Imagine how it must have been for Jesus to walk on this earth.  If ever there was a lonely walk it was His.  He only did what He saw His Father doing, and His Father constantly asked Him to preach things nobody understood, or offended them.  They didn't offend because He said hurtful things, but because He preached things that were culturally offensive.  Jesus only ever rebuked harshly the religious hypocrites, never the sinners.

Imagine if your entire ministry was completely misunderstood by others, and your own disciples didn't believe you?  

Most ministers today work so hard to please the crowd and get more members through fleshly means.  Nobody even understood Jesus was talking about, and yet multitudes followed Him.  What was it He had that caused this?  It wasn't His confusing message, it was the power of God drawing them in through His relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

How did He get that?  He imitated God like any son does, and He is uncompromisingly righteous and rigid.  Remember when the rich young man came and asked what He had to do to be saved, he had been fulfilling all the commandments well, and Jesus told him he had to give away everything he owned.  The rich young man walked away, and Jesus let him!

If that was most of us, when we started to see that we would have grabbed the guy and said, "Well, you know, maybe that's too much for you right now.  You can hang onto your money for a while, and little by little get to the point where you can give it all away."

Jesus refused to compromise His message, the truth, to have more numbers.  It is our job to imitate Him, not big numbers.

"Our Lord has surnamed himself Truth, not Custom"

                                                                       Tertullian

"The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night."

                                                                                             - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Flesh and Blood

I wasn't planning on writing anything today.  It is Sunday, and we had visitors coming and going all day, plus praying constantly for the finances for our new house to finish coming in.  However, God had different plans.

In case you don't know, my wife and I have this opportunity to buy a house.  Financially it is far beyond anything we have ever attempted to buy.  The amount of money, $80,000, is vastly more than anything we have ever possessed.  Yet for some reason, when the owner of the house told us it was for sale, such a faith rose up in me that we could do it.  I have no explanation aside from the Holy Spirit.  It should seem impossible, and utterly ridiculous to try.  Yet even now it seems like eighty thousand isn't much more than ten.

I imagine this must be how David felt when he told everyone he could kill Goliath in God's name.  Sure the Philistine was bigger, sure everyone else laughed and thought it was ridiculous, sure he could have quite easily have failed and that giant's spear could have pinned him to the ground like a moth on a cork board.  But our great and mighty God has spoken something today that urges me to press deeper regardless of the circumstances.  "It is the courageous who cut off Goliath's head."

I cannot back down now.  Whenever I do start to feel doubt creeping up on me, instead of submitting to it I just run a little faster toward the battle line.  I am fully aware that I could be pinned to the ground and look like a fool, but what if God rises up and let's me kill the giant?  What if He shuts the lions mouth, or calms the storm, or keeps the fiery furnace from burning me up, or makes the sun stand still?  I would rather fail attempting something great for God than fade away as a normal Christian without a least one giant's head in my hands.

An average day in the life of a normal Christian.

God said something to me, and this all goes back to faith.  He reminded me of Ephesians 6:12:

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the world's rulers, of the darkness of this age, against spiritual wickedness in high places." 

I can't remember if this is something I wrote, or something I preached, but I believe faith is defined as this, "Regardless of what you can see, taste, feel, touch, of think, you continue forward into the promises of God."

Unfortunately, most Christians fall into the Deuteronomy 1:28 category.

"Where shall we go up? Our brothers have broken our heart, saying, We have seen there a people greater and taller than we are. The cities are great and walled up to the heavens, also the sons of the giants."

Do you remember the story of the twelve spies?  Moses sent them into the promised land to check it out.  God had promised it to them, done all these miracles, and still, when the twelve spies came back ten of them said it couldn't be done.  Joshua and Caleb, the only two who ever made into the promised land, and the only ones whose names we actually remember, said it surely could be done.

However, not only did the majority of the spies doubt God's ability to help them, but the rest of the Israelites followed right along with the mainstream rather than walking in faith like Joshua and Caleb.  And yet it was Joshua and Caleb who actually obtained the promise while those who were too cowardly to even try all died in the desert.

I refuse to be one of those.  I will at least try, and He is more than able to help me get the victory.  "But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods nor worship the golden image which you have set up." (Daniel 3:18).  In other words, no matter what happens I will follow Him until the day I die.
 

Going back to our war being against principalities and powers and so on, and not against flesh and blood.  All victory comes through faith and prayer.  In reality it has nothing to do with anyone but those praying, God, and those God speaks to.  The enemy can be obstinate and try to slow things down, but if we stand firm, and pray with true earnestness and sincerity he must back down and cede the way in Jesus name.

As I write this we have just over $750 toward the $80,000 we need to buy this house, which is not just for us but for all the ministry we will be doing for who knows how many years, and when we die it will continue to serve God from generation to generation.  It is not a frivolous or selfish thing to ask, otherwise God would certainly not help us.  That may seem like a massive giant looming over us that is utterly unbeatable, and yet those are the kinds of battles God likes to swoop in on and win for you.

The money is actually a small thing for God.  It isn't difficult at all for Him.  He could make a whole pile of
 money appear right in front of me if He wanted.  He doesn't though, and it isn't because He lacks power, or because the devil is standing in His way, it is because He wants to do it in partnership with us.

He wants to work with me, wrestle with me in prayer.  He is so humble it is amazing.  He could flex His muscles and show off His power so easily, and yet He actually allows Himself to be restrained by our faith.  He wants to work with me, and He wants to work with the rest of the body and build unity so this can happen.

It is like the story of Exodus 35 and 36.  Moses needed to build the tabernacle, and of course God could have just blinked and the whole thing would have appeared, but instead Moses sent out a call for help to the Israelites.  What happened?  Verse 29 says:

"The sons of Israel brought a willing offering to Jehovah, every man and woman whose heart made them willing to bring for all kinds of work which Jehovah had commanded to be made by the hand of Moses." 

God had to touch their hearts, and cause them to be willing for them to bring the gifts.  It isn't about flesh and blood.  I can send out as many newsletters and updates as I want, I can write blog posts, make videos, and tell stories, but in the end if God doesn't touch the heart of the people not one penny is going to come in for this miracle.

In that case God did touch the hearts of the people, and the result is found in Exodus 36:5

"And they spoke to Moses, saying, The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work which Jehovah commanded to make." 

It doesn't matter if the people are living in a desert, God can make streams of water come out of a rock if He has to.

Let's believe in God.  Let's take risks for Him.  It is in the heat of battle that we see His mighty hand.

The Pearl

"Again, the kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which when a man has found it, he hides it, and for the joy of it goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field. 

Again, the kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls; who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it."  - Mat 13:44-46

Pretty much anyone who has walked in the Gospel for a while knows these parables, and it is unlikely I can say anything new about it, but I believe it is good to remind ourselves what the Kingdom of heaven is all about, and maybe see it from a different viewpoint.

For those of you who have read my blog posts from the beginning, read my post on the manifold nature of God, and how Scripture is so deep that often it has multiple meanings.  I believe in these parables of the Kingdom of Heaven there are at least two meanings, and I want to talk about them.

A pale comparison of what heaven truly looks like.

First, let's look at the most common teaching on this, and that is this truth that the Kingdom of Heaven itself is the great pearl, a sort of reward for our lives given to Jesus.  I have been preaching on consecration so much lately that it seems only natural to tie that in here.

Salvation is indeed free, and yet Jesus asks us for our entire lives in order to live in heaven on earth and enter in to His eternal rest on the other side.  When the farmer sold everything he had, or the merchant, he had to make a sacrifice.  He gave up multiple good things, multiple pleasures, in order to obtain one ultimate pleasure.  That is Jesus.

In order to be disciples of Him we offer everything.  He may not ask us to move away, change jobs, or much of our external life, but regardless of that you have transformed from a doorway of sin and darkness to a gate of light that pours into the world around you.  No matter your physical surroundings everything changes spiritually.  The pearl of great price will draw looks, criticism for selling everything for that one object of your desire, and yet the joy the merchant feels conquers all those things.

"Many waters cannot quench love, nor will the rivers overflow it. If a man would give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be scorned."  - Song of Solomon 8:7

The lover here knows exactly what the merchant and the farmer feel, and I believe it is a parallel truth.  What we give up for Jesus, what we give up for love, in truth is nothing but junk anyway.  While other people may gape and laugh at us for loving Him to the extreme, in our minds we scorn the things we abandoned, just like Paul did.

"But no, rather, I also count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them to be dung, so that I may win Christ."
- Philippians 3:8

Paul was as blunt as can be, saying he considered anything that had nothing to do with Jesus to be dung.

How about we flip the coin and look at this from a different angle.  What if when Jesus was speaking to the crowd, trying to explain the what the Kingdom of Heaven was like, none of them or us really caught His heart in the message?  Being the human beings we are, we tend to look at things only one way, or the way we have been taught all our lives.

What if we are not the farmer or the merchant?  What if we are the pearl and the field?  Consider this:  Jesus is the merchant in heaven, doing perfectly fine as He was.  He really had no need for the pearl, it didn't make him any richer because the value of what He sold was equal to the value of the pearl, yet the pearl had much greater sentimental value because of his desire for it.  Jesus sees you, the pearl, and recklessly abandons even heaven itself, goes through the poverty, the pain, and by His blood He pays the ultimate price for that which He must have, you.

You are so precious to Him that He held back nothing.  How does that add in to the Kingdom of Heaven?  Well, because in God's eyes the Kingdom of Heaven just isn't the same without you, His most prized possession.

Second Hand Revelation

A couple of years ago I was speaking with an American woman who had come with a short term team for a few days to minister with us in Costa Rica.  I was doing what I like to do more than anything else, and that is sharing my testimony of what God has allowed me to experience and learn throughout the years.  I told a couple of miracles stories to her, and after I was finished I'll never forget her response.  

She said, "I've never heard of anything like that before!"

That is one of the biggest compliments anyone has ever given me. 

Look at what Isaiah 55:1-2 says.  It would be best to read the whole chapter if you can.

"Wait and listen, everyone who is thirsty! Come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Yes, come, buy [priceless, spiritual] wine and milk without money and without price [simply for the self-surrender that accepts the blessing].  
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your earnings for what does not satisfy? Hearken diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness [the profuseness of spiritual joy]."  (AMP)

I find this passage to be absolutely fascinating.  God invites anyone at all to come and drink from His water.  There are three requirement though.  You have to wait, you have to listen, and you have to be thirsty.  

If you are satisfied with what you know about God, or you don't have patience, or you aren't teachable, you don't get to drink.

Look down at verse two, it goes deeper and says to hearken "diligently."  Diligence is something almost entirely lost in our generation, and I am calling for it to come back on us in Jesus name.

Two posts ago I spoke about persistence and perseverance in prayer.  Today I want to talk about what I call second hand revelation.

Second Hand Store

What I am about to say may seem too bold, some may even be offended, but if we hide the truth God gives us He is unlikely to give us more.  Lately I have been hearing a lot about revival in America.  People want it, they long for it, and that is wonderful.  I can tell you that it is God's will for there to be another Great Awakening in the United States.  There is a problem though, the vast majority of Christians in the developed world are living off of second hand revelation.

What does that mean?  I mentioned when I talked about persistence that most believers are bench warmers, but it goes deeper than that.  Most Christians, even those who are actually doing ministry, have stopped seeking God for themselves.  Instead, they feed off of the revelation of other ministers.

I want to add a disclaimer here that it is not wrong to preach truth God spoke to another minister.  We are a body and God reveals different things to different people and we all share it.  That is the role of pastors.  God speaks to them and they share with the flock.

But most people, even pastors and other public ministers, do that their entire lives.  Instead of seeking God for His revelation of the Word, they study the words of other men and preach what they say.  It becomes second hand revelation to the pastor, he then preaches it to the people, making it third hand revelation.  

The Word of God is the Word of God, and is powerful no matter how many times it is repeated, but the fact is that the Holy Spirit does focus on different areas over different people at different times.  In my own life, for those of you who have been reading my articles, you know that He has been hammering me with the message of consecration.  But He may want to speak to you about His love!  

If you only drink from my well, you will never know the flavor of home, that being your own water.  It's like drinking from a cup someone else just drank out of.  It is still refreshing, but it just isn't the same.

Just like Mama used to make.

 Think of it this way.  When you move out, get married, and start your adult life, you get used to the new life, but there is nothing like going home and tasting your mom's cooking.  It doesn't matter how well your husband or wife cooks, or the best restaurants, there will never be anything as good as Mama's.

Spiritually speaking, when you spend your life reading books and articles like mine, and only getting the Word from your pastor, it is the equivalent of always eating out while Jesus is standing there with a warm, home cooked meal, and you keep passing it up.  

Second hand revelation is good, but there is nothing as delicious, refreshing, and exciting as getting thirsty, waiting patiently, and listening until that illuminating revelation comes to you!  It is wonderful!

I urge you, take the time to meet with Jesus and let Him speak directly to you.  It is going to take patience, you will have to wait until it is at His convenience not yours.  When He finally does answer you though, it will set you on fire like you have never experienced.  

It is famously quoted by John Wesley when asked how he attracted such great crowds, "All I do is set myself on fire and the people come watch me burn."  

Set yourself on fire today, burn for Him.  You may not be looking for crowds, but that doesn't make the presence of the Holy Spirit any less awesome.

Yesterday I had to go on a long drive, and as I was driving shouting my praise and singing to Him, I told Him, "Holy Spirit, I am so excited to have this time by myself to spend with you."  

He said something that caught me off guard.  "I am excited to spend time with you too."  

He is excited to spend time with you, and not just a few minutes in the morning and before bed.  He wants real, marriage building time.  When you do that, He will give you treasures to which others will respond, "I've never heard anything like that!"  If we get enough people drinking straight from His well, revival will not be far off.

“In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart. ” 
                                                                                      ― John Bunyan

“In the silence of the heart God speaks. If you face God in prayer and silence, God will speak to you."
                                           - Mother Teresa