Growth & Change

Our lives are in a constant state of change. The very nature of growth and the maturation process dictate that we will change continually. Yet, as human beings, we resist the changes that come. Sometimes that resistance seems to be expressed with every ounce of strength that is in us. A classic line from Star Trek sums up my understanding of the results of that struggle, “Resistance is futile . . .”
There is certainly a strength that results form consistency in our lives, but the truth is that the only consistency that truly brings lasting strength and peace is the consistency of obedience to Christ. Growth must, by necessity, result in change. If we cling to long to the way we have always done things, then we will, in the end, fail. As one proverbial saying puts it, “To do the same thing over and over again and expect different results is insanity.”
We are a people of growth. We must be in a constant state of change in order to truly grow. As we draw nearer to Jesus, there will be change in our lives. At the same time, as we draw nearer to Jesus the more consistently we will be like Him. 2 Corinthians 3:16-18 (The Message) sums this process of growth and change up nicely:

Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We're free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.

I Believe

I Believe. I really believe. These words can be used in so many contexts, but what do they really mean. I believe what my spouse tells me when we talk. I believe that the chair I am about to sit in will support my weight. I believe that Neil Armstrong literally walked on the moon. I believe that I can do the things that Jesus did and even greater things.
The first of these beliefs of mine (what my spouse tells me) is based upon relationship. I have been married to my wife for almost 20 years (December 3, 1988) and in my relationship with her, I have never found her to intentionally tell me something that was not true. There have been times when I didn't want to believe her and times when I chose not to believe her, but there has never been a time when I felt that she was deceptive in what she said to me. Even in those times when I didn't want to believe or I chose not to believe, I knew deep down that what she spoke was heartfelt and true, because I have no doubt in my mind that she loves me. Because I KNOW that she loves me, I KNOW that she would never intentionally lie to me.
The second of theses beliefs (the chair will support me) is based upon experience. I have sat in that chair or one like very much like it on thousands of occassions throughout my lifetime. In fact, over the 43 years of my life (or at least the portion of it that has passed since I learned to walk and prior to that my mom believed the chair would support me) I have only sat in a chair that collapsed beneath my weight on one or two occassions. Even though some chairs fail, I do not feel the need to test every chair that I sit in because my experience tells me that the liklihood of its failure is so remote that the time taken to test it would be wasted.
Based upon these first two experiences, why is it that my third listed belief (I can do the things that Jesus did) seems so improbable. After all this third area of belief is firmly based upon a relationship that is actually deeper than that between my wife and I. Jesus, himself said this to me in John 14:12, "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father." (NKJV) I have never once in my life found that Jesus ever lied to me. I may not want to believe Him and their may be times when I choose not to believe Him, but what He said has always been and will always be THE Truth. Most of all I have a certainty that He loves me and gave up His life for me and because of that love, He would never speak anything less than the Truth.
To have a relationship with Jesus that supports the truth of what He says to me should be sufficient, yet somehow it often is not. For various reasons, I can not base this second belief as firmly on my experience as I can the belief in the chair. There are times when I have no framework for basing belief in what my wife says on experience and must rely solely on my relationship with her and I still believe her. Why then does this not work for my belief that I can do what Jesus did? Perhaps it is because our culture has taught us that we can only truly believe in what we can see, feel, hear, taste and touch. I believe my wife because I have a relationship with her, but also because there are very few things that she speaks that I cannot use my 5 senses to confirm.
In reality my belief in my wife is based upon relationship, but built upon experience - experience gained from the use of my senses. Perhaps this is why Paul wrote to the Corinthians that we should walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). The real reason that I do not believe what Jesus said is that I have not given myself an opportunity to experience the reality of what He said. I will never "experience" the truthfulness of that statement in John 14:12 based solely on my natural senses. I must step out in "faith" in order to experience it. I regret that I have failed in that area. I do not say that I have failed because I have never tried, nor because I have tried and been unsuccessful, but rather that I have never given myself sufficient opportunity to experience the Truth of what Jesus said.
The fact that a chair has occasionally given way beneath my weight, never even crosses my mind when I go to sit down. My experience is so extensive and so powerful that I just don't think about it. However, I must remember that I have sat in chairs on well over 146,000 occasions (using a very conservative calculation of sitting in a chair 10 times per day for 40 years) and I can only remember one collapsing beneath me 1 or 2 times and even if I extend that to situations I caused myself by falling out of the chair through some act of stupidity on my part, it can be no more than a 10 to 15 times. In other words, my experience is so overwhelming that my failures do not effect my beliefs whatsoever.
So, what does all this mean. My relationship with Jesus should be sufficient for my belief in what He has told me, but when I am totally transparent and honest, it is not. Therefore, I have but two choices. Either I choose to no longer believe him because my relationship is insufficient to confirm all that He says and it would be impossible to discern which of His instructions it is sufficient for and which it is not sufficient for. OR, I choose to act in such a way that I gain sufficient experience to confirm what He has told me and thereby firmly establish my belief in what He says. In other words, I choose to walk by faith and not by sight. I choose to take chances and shift the proportions so that they become overwhelming in favor of my belief. I will choose to act upon what Jesus said knowing that in the end, through faith, I will gain the experience that I need to make my belief a reality.

Expectations!

Bobby Conner was a recent guest at Birmingham Bridge Christian Fellowship. One of the thoughts that was expressed during his visit has struck me and stuck with me over the past several days. When I cannot shake a word or thought from my mind, it usually means that God wants me to pay attention to it. In this case that thought was expressed in a single word - “EXPECTATION”. This word can be defined as “the prospect of future good or profit” and calls to mind all sorts of exciting thoughts.
When it comes to expectations, I am afraid that the church has been woefully lacking in them. Paul wrote the following to the Ephesians in regard to expectations:
God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. Ephesians 3:20 (The Message)
Consider these words for a moment and you can understand why I think the church has come up short when it comes to expectations. God desires to do more than you can imagine, but that means we must be willing to imagine something, and not just anything, but something great. We, as Americans, have been taught to believe that our “wildest dreams” are actually attainable when it comes to this natural world. I want to suggest to you that we, as the Church of Jesus Christ, need to believe that our “wildest dreams” are actually attainable when it comes to the things of the Spirit.
The Word of the Lord for this hour is “expectation”. So . . . What are yours?

Lakeland "Revival"

Wow, God is so good. It seems that the events in Lakeland, Florida have set the world to talking about revival again. I am certainly convinced that there is a great move of God going on there, whether or not I would call it revival yet, I am unsure. For me revival produces great fruit evidenced by salvation and most of what I have seen in Lakeland so far is more about an “Outpouring” on God’s people. Now, let me be clear about one thing – whether we call it revival or outpouring – this is an exciting move of God. Prophetic voices around the country have spoken into this event and many of the words that have come forth indicate that this is the birthing of something even greater than what we presently see.
With this praise for what God is doing spoken first, I also feel that it is important to convey a word of caution to those over whom God has given me charge and to all those who will listen. In many of the more contemporary moves of God that have proven to be valid, real and life changing, there has been a tendency for the people of God to run to the “location” where the outpouring was occurring. There is certainly nothing wrong with going to where God is moving – there is in fact a clear Biblical precedent for taking such action. However, there can be such a rush to go where “revival” is, that the people fail to remember that such an action is not our primary focus. Instead, our primary focus it to bring “revival” to where we are.
What God imparts into the lives of those who travel to Lakeland and even into those who watch on God TV is not meant to be held inside or to be reverenced in some way. It is intended to be given away. “Freely you have received, freely give!” Prayer is our first response to what God is doing in Lakeland – deep heartfelt prayer that cries out to God to bring such a movement to my church, my community, my state, my nation and to my world. The next response is to begin to move and respond to what God puts within us, so that we become his hands and feet – where we live- to see it happen. Finally, we must never become critical of our local church or our own community when we don’t see the same thing that is being seen in Lakeland. We must ask whether the ground has been fully prepared or will our prayers complete that process. We must recognize that God is big enough to show himself mightily in every city around the world and yet look different everywhere that He does it.
Let the move of God in Lakeland become a challenge to you. Not a challenge to go and be a part or in on what God is doing there, but rather a challenge to see God move right here, where you are in an awesome and mighty way!

Last Sunday, I preached a message entitled "Got Faith?" This message was the first in a series on what faith really is and the series is based upon the old "Got Milk?" commercials. The heart of the message is that faith is not a magic wand that we can point at a situation, wave and expect results to appear like magic. Neither is it the answer that allows you to get everything you have ever wanted delivered to your doorstep. When we really examine what faith is, we find that it is a deep and abiding trust that what Jesus said was true. It is true whether or not I feel like it is true. It is true regardless of whether it looks like it is true. It fact, it is true irrespective of whether I even think it is true. When Hebrews 11 declares that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen, it does not mean that if we have faith everything in our life will be perfect. Rather in means that even when things are going wrong, faith continues to believe that what the Word of God declares is true regardless. Near the end of the chapter we find the faith of those who were sawn in half, tortured and destitute applauded. This clearly means that faith remains even when things are bad. The truth is we don't like that understanding of faith. We would rather believe that if we really have faith everything will all go well, but the reality of it is that this understanding of faith in desperate times in far more powerful than a faith that makes everything easy.

I have to admit that after preaching this message, I was severly tested in the realm of physical sickness and I have had to endure some literal pain. However, I want to encourage you that enduring this hardship has only strengthened my resolve that faith works and it is not based on what we see, hear, feel or think.

Got Faith?

Racing Forward

I have been thinking about how challenging the last several months have been a lot lately. As I considered what value those challenges had, I began to hear God whispering understanding into my ear regarding the purpose in all of the trials that we seem to have been through and I finally realized just how valuable they had been. I guess the best way I could describe it would be to think of it as if God had just reached down, picked me up off the highway I was traveling down and placed my car in the middle of a Nascar track. Yep, now let me see if I can open up this image a bit more.
Consider what it is like to travel down a typical highway (spiritual journey) in your vehicle (ministry). You turn the wheel and you change lanes. You accelerate to top speeds of around 70 mph. You brake and shift gears and make relatively sweeping adjustments to your driving style as you travel from place to place.
Now, imagine that you are in the same vehicle (ministry), but suddenly you find yourself traveling down a racetrack (still a spiritual journey) instead of the typical highway. Now you accelerate to top speeds of 180-190 mph. When you turn the steering wheel, even the slightest touch makes major changes. You now use your brakes much more sparingly and with a far lighter touch. You learn new skills like drafting and new techniques for placement on the track. In short, you are still driving a car, but the way you do it has changed dramatically. Your are now in the race, pressing forward toward the prize. You have to learn a new way of balancing things in order to properly compete. All the things you learned on the highway still apply but in vastly different ways than before.
When viewed from this perspective, all of the trials are not negatives, rather they are simply part of the process of learning the finesse of driving (operating in ministry) in a new way and at greater speeds, with more at stake. As the challenges of this new driving style are overcome with time, it becomes more and more comfortable. In addition you begin to realize that though it is challenging, the rewards are worth it.

Thoughts on Prayer

Prayer has taken on a new life for me in the last few weeks. I have been preaching a series of messages on the importance of prayer and in truth I had no idea that they would impact me in the way that they have. I feel that I have most certainly gained more insight than I have been able to share and that I was probably the one most in need of the messages I have been preaching. This week I think I realized, not necessarily for the first time, but certainly the most clearly, that we cannot advance the Kingdom of God without a renewed emphasis on prayer.
I have been considering just how little value that the church in America places on prayer. While browsing the web recently, I stumbled across a quote by Leonard Ravenhill in which he declared that the prayer meeting is the least attended meeting at any given church. I think that this is perhaps true because we have made prayer into a superspiritual ritual that must be approached with a great deal of reverence and respect, rather than recognizing it for what it is. I enjoy spending time talking to my earthly friends and family. I enjoy sharing with them what is going on in my life and learning what is going on in their lives. Shouldn't I also enjoy spending time with my Heavenly Father and sharing with Him what is going on in my life (yes, I know He already knows, but He also likes to hear it from me) and learning what is going on in His (really, He wants to share his secrets with me, if I will just stop to listen). Prayer meetings don't have to be boring and formal, instead they can be an exciting time of fellowship with the Holy Spirit. I want to see this kind of life come to our times of prayer. I want to see this kind of life come to my personal times of prayer.
My attitude is changing and with it so is my approach to prayer. Certainly, I continue to approach the Father with my needs, ask him to help me and seek His wisdom and will for my life, but something new is also happening. I am returning to a place where I just like to talk to Him. I find myself more frequently sharing my thoughts and not necessarily during my "quiet times". This happens both verbally and within my heart. As a result, I am also finding myself listening more to His thoughts. If we only realized how much He longs to share His thoughts with us, we would be amazed. This is changing more than my prayer life. I find that my times of worship are more sincere, that my preaching has more passion and that my relationships with both natural and spiritual family are more fulfilling. And, I have to say that I like it.
Let me just be honest as well. I have not suddenly become a supernatural prayer warrior and intercessor exrodinair. I am on a journey and I am learning as I go. I am not walking fully in what I see, but I am striving more each day to walk more fully in it. I continue to become distracted by my schedule, overwhelmed by my circumstances and carried along by the course of events; however, I am slowly learning to overcome these obstacles and live a more fulfilled spiritual life.