The outpouring of the Spirit that is happening right now is wonderful. Let’s face it. The lives and hearts of many are being restored and transformed by the power of God. It may look silly, unsanctified… what ever little irksome adjetive you want to ascribe to it but it is REAL. Unfortunately I traveled to the Awakening over the Thanksgiving holiday when many IHOPpers and visitors were home visiting family and so the atmosphere wasn’t as intense as I thought it would be but some friends are saying that the presence of God is even more intense right now than it was when it first began. I experienced the weighty presence of God when I was there and received some really significant words of knowledge that impacted me a ton. Those are all fun experiences, to be filled with joy of the Lord, to feel the fire of God on your body, to hear a powerful word of knowledge.
But I don’t want to just have experiences. The restoration that is happening in the lives of of God’s people isn’t just about a cool phrase or a charismatic cliche or hype and excitement. These encounters have to point to Jesus. And they do!… the difficulty in this is that we have to REMEMBER that it is about Him. That when someone gets set free of homosexual tendencies that it is the kindness of the Father being manifest in their lives. His attributes are being revealed through the transformation that is being imparted. Many are being surprised at the goodness of God in this hour.
Let’s use this move of God to find out about Jesus!
Filed under: Communing with the Holy Spirit, Humility, Jesus, Maturity, The Cross, Trust
To be like Jesus means we embrace humility and love those who deny and despise us. We see His heart open wide and weep for Israel as they drive Him out of cities and attempt to stone Him. We see how he reacted in love and tenderness towards Peter’s denial of Him. As He hung bleeding from the cross, arms open wide, taking upon Himself the sin of us all, He loved from the depths of His being, feeling the pain but not reacting out of it. In the cross He won our battle and succeeded but He succeeded by walking through disgrace. He was not pretentious but was truth itself. He healed the sick. He raised the dead. He did not withhold the gifts the Father gave Him. He was not self-sabotaging but came as an example to us of true Life. He did only what the Father told Him to do and did not withhold out of insecurity or pride. In the midst of rejection, He spoke truth boldly yet lived to serve humanity.
To be like Him means that we end the self-sabotaging, self-deprecating and false humility. We walk out our gifts not to esteem ourselves but to serve Jesus and man. We don’t shrink back because of our fear of failure but in meekness within the bounds of intimacy we offer all that we have.
Last week my mom called me in a rage explaining that she and a friend got into an argument. She and this friend have known each other for years now but one day, her friend, out of nowhere declared that Jesus was in fact not God. “God wouldn’t die for me”, she responded, “that’s ludicrous!”. My mom was indignant. How could this woman say that? Her friend had grown up in a very conservative denomination. My mom pointed out the famous John 1:1… “1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” I mean… that’s pretty self-explanatory. I’ve had some pretty stiff disagreements with people who have said that you can still be saved and not believe Jesus was God. WHAT???
Yesterday, I was meditating on this verse and hope began filling my heart. We cannot be saved unless we believe that God, Himself, came to earth as a human because He loves humans and wanted to identify with humans. Only God can be perfect as Jesus is perfect and in order for us to be saved we had to have the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Nothing can remedy and restore our souls but the perfect blood of the perfect God-man. The blood of bulls and goats was not enough. And not only this but the blood of Jesus has supernatural elements that empower us to walk in holiness. It has allowed us access into the very presence of God, to have communion with Him and to allow Him to speak to us and teach us and empower us to walk worthy before Him. Jesus did not stay in the tomb. That was not the end of the story. We cannot have relationship with Him unless He had risen. He cannot speak to us unless He is alive.
I love the rest of the passage as well: John 1:1-5 ” 1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.
3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood[a] it.”
Jesus was the very Word of God. He was the method the Father used to communicate to His beloved ones. He loved and desired us to such a great extent that He sent His beautiful Son to come and teach humanity truth. The Father and Son had such wonderful fellowship, even from the beginning of all things. Before the earth was formed, they were in relationship. Jesus, the Word of God, breathed life into every living thing. He is the source of life. The source of light and truth and darkness cannot overcome it. This Light is so powerful that darkness has no chance against it. Even when the wicked rages against the Light and goes to battle against it, there is no defeating the light. The source of life cannot lose the battle with death.
The darkness does not understand the light… mainly because it’s deeds are evil and it does not want to turn to the Light. The darkness loves to remain the way it is. If Light challenges darkness (and it will), the darkness will hate the Light.
Walk in the Light while it is still day.
I was meditating on John 17:23 this morning.
23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
It is astounding to think that God the Father loves us as much as He loves Jesus. Jesus is perfect and obedient and beautiful and has never once turned His back on the Father yet the Father loves us as equally as Him.
I thought of the parable of the lost sheep and how the Father left His Son to hang on the cross. He left Him… so that the Father could come after us. So that the Father could be in relationship with us… the mangy, lost, disobedient, unruly sheep….
1 Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by others,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression [a] and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished. [b]
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes [c] his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life [d] and be satisfied [e];
by his knowledge [f] my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, [g]
and he will divide the spoils with the strong, [h]
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors. (ISAIAH 53… TNIV)
I was about 10 years old when I first read this passage in my little pink Precious Moments Bible and I couldn’t believe what I was reading. “Dad! This is about Jesus!!!”
“Yep. That was written before He even came to earth.” Dad replied.
“WHOA!!!!” I couldn’t contain my awe and my dad got such a kick out of the conversation, he later used it as a sermon illustration.
After that moment, Isaiah 53 was my most favorite passage in the Bible. Not only did it prove that Jesus was the true Messiah, and savior of the world but He was a real person. Yes… He was God but He was also a real man that got sad like I did sometimes. He had been rejected and made fun of and mocked… yet he was sinless. He always reacted perfectly.
Jesus hung out with a rough crowd. Even his own apostles were kind of lower-level society, including a tax collector; a profession that was hated by the religious elite of the time. In a time when women were viewed as a piece of property, He spoke to women as equals and not only nice, upstanding women but prostitutes and women of “ill repute”.
These people didn’t hang out with Jesus because they thought of Him as a fellow comrade who they could continue to participate in sin with. Everywhere that Jesus went, miracles, signs and wonders followed Him. He healed broken bodies, raised the dead and like the woman at the well in John 4, unveiled the secrets of her heart and told her “everything that she ever did”. That’s why people followed Him. He was a relational man but just being “relational” doesn’t mean you’re going to make a dent in the Kingdom. If Jesus had not been moving in the power manifested through His own love for the people, all of these “scoundrels” of his day would not have given a rip about who He was. He spoke with power and authority and a deep abiding compassion and love that no one had ever seen before. When He spoke it wasn’t just about “tolerance” and He certainly didn’t bring a message of “false peace”. When a sinner was healed of some affliction, He simply said “go and sin no more. Your sins are forgiven.” No where did He say “I’m going to die soon for the sins you’ve committed so now that you’re healed, isn’t it great that you can sin and not have to pay for it any longer?”
We know that the Pharisees and other religious leaders of the day hated Jesus to the point that they murdered Him. Was it really because He challenged the man-made laws that they created to puff themselves up, or was it something even deeper than that? In Matthew 5:17, Jesus makes a very controversial statement: “Do not think I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them”. The religious leaders were great at making ridiculous, tedious laws to give them an external appearance of holiness but the more of these laws that were made, the less they had to deal with what was on the inside of their own hearts. In reality, they were twisting scripture by adding to it and subtracting from it so that they could continue to live in compromise and sin, and Jesus was exposing them for the frauds that they were. This pride and refusal to see truth resulted in the death of Jesus.
Last night I had one of those simple concepts in the gospel come alive to me in a way that it never has before. Some of us know in our head that Jesus was a man (who was also God) but do we really realize that he actually felt the pain and rejection others inflicted upon Him? He didn’t identify Himself through the deceptive lense or react in a unhealthy way to this rejection and insult but he felt and contained in His heart the pain of it… yet He still loved the people that murdered Him. In fact He let them murder Him BECAUSE He loved them.
How in the world did He do this?
About a month ago I did a very stupid thing. I let my car insurance lapse for ONE NIGHT. I thought: oh, I’ll drive down to the office in the afternoon and pay for it. I won’t get in a wreck before then. I never get in wrecks… at least wrecks that are my own fault, so I didn’t think much about it. Well, upon trying to squeeze my big lug of a mini-van into a parking space at IHOP around 10 the next morning, I dented the corner of the bumper next to me. THIS NEVER HAPPENS. I could have done the really dishonest thing and pretended like this hadn’t happened, but I apparently have enough fear of the Lord to realize that some day I would have to answer to the King of Kings for what I had done. So I left a note on the girl’s car with a phone number. Of course the insurance company recently decided they weren’t going to cover it. I knew that it was all due to my irresponsibilty and deserved to pay for my sin, though I didn’t know where the money was going to come from to pay for that sin. You see… I work for the International House of Prayer. That should be enough to explain the dire circumstance.
Before I give you the next bit of information, I should also share what happened last night to explain just how amazing and kind our God is. Last night was confession night in my inner healing group. I had to sit in front of several women and share with them all of the unconfessed sin in my life. It was terribly beautiful but mostly terrible. But His mercy is so vast that in the end I was able to get through the process while leaning into Him.
Well, this morning I came into my office and checked my e-mail only to find a message from the girl who’s car I had inflicted a $1,000 dollars in damage upon. In the e-mail she explained that her Dad believed that the Lord wanted to bless me and that I didn’t have to pay for the damage that I had done. It was covered.
Do we have a gracious God or WHAT? It was a perfect picture of his unchanging, merciful nature. I totally deserved to pay for what I did. I had sinned big-time yet God, in his mercy covered my sin and took it upon himself just like this earthly dad did for some girl he’s never even met.
Filed under: Communing with the Holy Spirit, Fasting, Intimacy with God, Jesus, Jesus Loves Me, John the Baptist
Misty has a message that I have been repeatedly listening to on this fast where she speaks about reminding herself over and over that when she fasts… it’s not about trying to prove something to herself or anyone else but it is ALL about love.
This rings true in my heart for the next 35 days. When I feel like I might die or the lusts of my flesh continue to rise up in me… I’m doing this for love. I’m doing this to be perfected in love. To know His love that surpasses understanding. To know Him and be known by Him.
When the Pharisees questioned Jesus and asked Him the reason why John’s disciples fasted but Jesus’ did not, He responded “Can you make the friends of the Bridegroom fast while he is with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.” I am doing this because He has not returned to the earth yet and this is one way I can be with Him where He is.
It is a beautiful thing.
Filed under: Friendship, Intimacy with God, Jesus, Jesus Loves Me, Maturity, Thankfulness, Wisdom
“Therefore I will block her paths with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way. She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.’” Hosea 2:2-7
I had a long conversation with an old friend last night. I was so encouraged to hear about the process she was in with the Lord because I saw myself two years ago in the same process (that is still continuing, by the way). It reminded me of the goodness of God in my life. It reminded me of His perfect, loving leadership and His jealous pursuit of my heart. I see the same things happening to her that happened to me. He is walling her in, hedging her in with thorns, teaching her wisdom. He’s putting road blocks up time after time so that He can take away everything that keeps her from falling in love with Him and hinders full maturity in her life. It is obvious that the Lord’s hand is on her life.
During the entire couple hours of conversation it reminded me time and again why I left everything, my friends, my church, and yes, boyfriends to follow Him. He’s just that wonderful, even more wonderful than I understand.
Filed under: Biblical love, Faith, Grace, Healing, Intimacy with God, Jesus, Jesus Loves Me, Maturity, Wisdom
Upon first reading the writings of St. John of the Cross… I thought the dude was crazy. I didn’t agree with most of what he wrote and it really irritated me that anyone could possibly believe that God would work like this.
Ahhh… but now I feel I am embarking on what he describes as the “dark night of the soul”. Nothing could be more painful. God is stripping me down to the bare minimum. He’s burning all the bridges for me… He’s taking away all of my crutches…
This is a good season. It’s challenging, it’s agonizing, it’s lonely but I know beyond know that God is going to do something in the midst of it.
Last spring, before I came to Fire in the Night, I was on my bed talking to the Lord. I had been battling some major areas of unbelief in my life. I was filling my life up with all kinds of things to distract me from the truth… in case I was finally aware that I didn’t trust the Lord. He spoke to me one word so clearly that it honestly put chills up and down my spine. He said to me “wilderness”. I was a little taken aback and asked Him what He meant by this. He said to me “the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years because they didn’t believe me. Do you want to do the same thing?” About two months later I learned one of the hardest and most painful lessons I have ever experienced. I went through a major wilderness season but it was really because of my disobedience.
This time it’s about refining. It’s about really getting to know Jesus. To REALLY know Him and encounter Him. It’s about healing. It’s about testing.
I want to know what He thinks about things, not what other people tell me He thinks. I want to know who He is… not what other people tell me He is. But I want to love Him the best way that I know how. I want to love Him from my heart not just appear to love Him through legalism or because someone else told me that this was how I was to love Him.
I don’t know if I’m making sense or not.
