Monday
Second Hand Smoke
I felt God drawing my attention to second hand smoke today.
Second hand smoke is smoke that you breathe from someone else’s cigarette, or pipe, etc. It doesn't come as a result of your actions, but its smell still clings to your clothes, and it exposes you to lung cancer nearly as much as if you were smoking yourself.
In some ways, it's more dangerous: pipe-smokers (and some cigar and cigarette smokers) don't generally inhale their own smoke, but if you're in their company, you don't have a choice about whether you inhale their secondhand smoke: it's just part of breathing when they're smoking around you. Your body actually experiences more of the deadly smoke than their body does.
In my own experience, there are far more times that people around me are smoking, than there are times when I am the person smoking. (Full disclosure: I do occasionally smoke a pipe.)
Second hand smoke happens in the spirit realm as well. We experience things – smells cling to us; we’re exposed to deadly danger – not because of things that we’re doing, but because of things that others are doing around us. I suspect it is true here: there are far more times when people around me are doing things to stir up the hornets' nest, than when I'm stirring that nest. After all, there are many people around me, and there's only one of me!
May I encourage us: when we're feeling the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" coming against us, avoid the foolishness of self-accusation: "Well, I must have done something wrong." Sure, sometimes we do something stupid and open a gate to give the devil permission to steal, kill & destroy. And he generally makes use of those opportunities. In that case, all we do is repent, kick him in the teeth, and move on.
But sometimes the troubles coming against us are brought about by the actions of others: maybe stuff passed on by parents, or foolishness committed by people we're in covenant relationship with, or maybe we've associated ourselves with a group that has given place to some sort of stronghold. Just because we're in relationship with a number of people, there's secondhand smoke around.
It's probably appropriate to remember that our own actions affect many of the people we're in relationship with; in another way, there's no such thing as a "secret" or a "victimless" sin.
I'm not trying to bring a teaching on how to overcome demonic attacks: there's lots of that around, and we all remember: repentance is a super-power, and I suspect the 'kicking the devil in the teeth" exercise will still be valuable.
Rather, this is about diagnosing the source: when trouble comes our way, it isn't always about us; sometimes it's from second-hand smoke
Believing What the Bible Says About God
We need to consider whether we actually believe the Bible or not. We generally do not in this one area:
We have been fed a pack of lies about who God is, about God being the source of all kinds of evil, but we miss the foundational underlying truth: God isn’t actually evil. He’s actually good. Seriously. We don’t really believe it.
We need to understand, deep in our soul, that this is who God is. We say, “God is good,” but we believe all kinds of evil accusations about him! We (our culture) blames him for death (“God took her.”) and disaster (“an act of God!”) and trouble (“Well, he must be teaching me patience.”) and we blithely accept it (“His ways are higher than my ways… sigh.”) and we even quote scripture (“Look! It SAYS God did that! Why, it must be that simple!”) to support our naïve belief that God does nasty things.
Let’s look at the record:
Psalm 34:8: “Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him”: God is actually good. This is who he is. A good God does good things.
1 John 1:5: “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all”: So nothing of darkness can come from God because he has no darkness to give to anybody. The only thing he can give is light.
Romans 12:2: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will”: God’s will is only about goodness, about pleasing us, about perfection. This is something that can be tested; we can know this. Moreover, we are to be like this, our will is to be like this.
James 1:13a: “When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone…”: God doesn’t have anything to do with evil. There is someone else (fairly often ourselves) that is responsible for the evil that survives in our presence.
Matthew 13:28a: “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.” When evil comes in among the people of God (in this parable of the tares), Jesus defines it as something done by his enemy.
Matthew 7:11: “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” : paraphrase: If you roughnecks can figure out the difference between a good gift and a bad gift, you can seriously trust your heavenly Father to give only good gifts. In other words, bad things do not come from God.
John 14:9: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” We have a brilliant revelation of who God is, of who the Father is: He’s like Jesus. They’re so unified, they’re so alike, that if we have seen one, we’ve seen the other. You want to know what God is like? Look at Jesus.
John 1:18: “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him”: So we must trust what Jesus says about God more than we trust our own perception, because we ain’t never seen him right. Everything else we believe about God must be interpreted through what Jesus says about Him.
Hebrews 1:3a: “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of [God’s] being”: So we must trust what Jesus shows about God more than we trust our own perception. Jesus is the clearest (“exact”) revelation about God’s character. Everything else we believe about God must be interpreted through who Jesus is.
There is a principle of Biblical interpretation: if you see something in an obscure passage (eg. in a story, in a passage that’s teaching on a different topic, in a passing comment, in an unclear passage), then we MUST refer to the clear passage to interpret it. We cannot just see something done in the Bible and then all go do what someone else did, or we’d all lie to the Holy Spirit like Ananias did, or we’d all hang ourselves like Judas did. So what’s the clearest revelation of God’s nature?
The Bible itself clearly says that the “exact” revelation about who God is has been given to us: it’s Jesus, who is the Incarnate Son of God, who best reveals the nature and character of God to us. He is the very best revelation about who God is: if we believe something about who God is, but it isn’t found in the life of Jesus, or it isn’t found in what Jesus teaches about who God is, THEN IT ISN’T WHO GOD IS!
Do we believe the Bible or not? I vote to believe the Bible.
We have been fed a pack of lies about who God is, about God being the source of all kinds of evil, but we miss the foundational underlying truth: God isn’t actually evil. He’s actually good. Seriously. We don’t really believe it.
We need to understand, deep in our soul, that this is who God is. We say, “God is good,” but we believe all kinds of evil accusations about him! We (our culture) blames him for death (“God took her.”) and disaster (“an act of God!”) and trouble (“Well, he must be teaching me patience.”) and we blithely accept it (“His ways are higher than my ways… sigh.”) and we even quote scripture (“Look! It SAYS God did that! Why, it must be that simple!”) to support our naïve belief that God does nasty things.
Let’s look at the record:
Psalm 34:8: “Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him”: God is actually good. This is who he is. A good God does good things.
1 John 1:5: “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all”: So nothing of darkness can come from God because he has no darkness to give to anybody. The only thing he can give is light.
Romans 12:2: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will”: God’s will is only about goodness, about pleasing us, about perfection. This is something that can be tested; we can know this. Moreover, we are to be like this, our will is to be like this.
James 1:13a: “When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone…”: God doesn’t have anything to do with evil. There is someone else (fairly often ourselves) that is responsible for the evil that survives in our presence.
Matthew 13:28a: “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.” When evil comes in among the people of God (in this parable of the tares), Jesus defines it as something done by his enemy.
Matthew 7:11: “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” : paraphrase: If you roughnecks can figure out the difference between a good gift and a bad gift, you can seriously trust your heavenly Father to give only good gifts. In other words, bad things do not come from God.
John 14:9: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” We have a brilliant revelation of who God is, of who the Father is: He’s like Jesus. They’re so unified, they’re so alike, that if we have seen one, we’ve seen the other. You want to know what God is like? Look at Jesus.
John 1:18: “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him”: So we must trust what Jesus says about God more than we trust our own perception, because we ain’t never seen him right. Everything else we believe about God must be interpreted through what Jesus says about Him.
Hebrews 1:3a: “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of [God’s] being”: So we must trust what Jesus shows about God more than we trust our own perception. Jesus is the clearest (“exact”) revelation about God’s character. Everything else we believe about God must be interpreted through who Jesus is.
There is a principle of Biblical interpretation: if you see something in an obscure passage (eg. in a story, in a passage that’s teaching on a different topic, in a passing comment, in an unclear passage), then we MUST refer to the clear passage to interpret it. We cannot just see something done in the Bible and then all go do what someone else did, or we’d all lie to the Holy Spirit like Ananias did, or we’d all hang ourselves like Judas did. So what’s the clearest revelation of God’s nature?
The Bible itself clearly says that the “exact” revelation about who God is has been given to us: it’s Jesus, who is the Incarnate Son of God, who best reveals the nature and character of God to us. He is the very best revelation about who God is: if we believe something about who God is, but it isn’t found in the life of Jesus, or it isn’t found in what Jesus teaches about who God is, THEN IT ISN’T WHO GOD IS!
Do we believe the Bible or not? I vote to believe the Bible.
Replacing God With God's People
When we take it upon ourselves to be responsible other
believers, to be their warning of possible error, possible deceiving spirits,
then we are working from the assumption - I'm not sure we often see it - that
protecting believers is our work. I believe that is a faulty foundation.
I try (with only moderate success, I grant) to work from the
assumption that it is God's work to protect his children - using other children
sometimes in that process, no doubt, but it is his work. I recall Jesus
claiming, "I will build MY Church," and I don't remember him
delegating that to anyone else at any point.
Let's assume that I never once err in my identifying what is of God and what is from deceiving spirits - and that of course is pure fantasy at best - then perhaps I have saved them the inconvenience of being sidetracked for a short while. But in the meantime, I have denied those immature believers the opportunity to hear from God themselves, substituting my own words in the place of His words, substituting my leading instead of His leading.
I do not believe that this is in their best interests for us to replace God's leadership in peoples' lives with our leadership, our protection.
Let's assume that I never once err in my identifying what is of God and what is from deceiving spirits - and that of course is pure fantasy at best - then perhaps I have saved them the inconvenience of being sidetracked for a short while. But in the meantime, I have denied those immature believers the opportunity to hear from God themselves, substituting my own words in the place of His words, substituting my leading instead of His leading.
I do not believe that this is in their best interests for us to replace God's leadership in peoples' lives with our leadership, our protection.
And although it might make me feel important, I do not
believe it is in our best interests either.
A Change of Seasons
I
guess that there was a season where God was blessing it, but I think the
blessing has moved on. I think we’re coming to the end of the season of the
anointing being on those whose full-time work is “in the ministry.”
I
suspect that the blessing was less on “full time ministry” than it was on “ministering
in His name,” but it sure looks to me like that season – whatever it was – is now
over.
There
are still some people in “full time” ministry who walk in favor, in the midst
of God’s move today. But if you look closely, they are mostly in the work of
equipping others, sending out a new generation of “ministers” who generally
have no title, have no ministry paycheck. They are spreading the good news,
demonstrating the Kingdom at their “secular” (whatever that means) work, and the
secular mission-field pays their living.
As
a result, they have a credibility among the world that those who make their
living from purveying the gospel never had.
I
invite the saints of God to work hard, forcefully, to rid themselves of the
religious heresy that “full time ministry” is better ministry. It’s not. It’s
actually a hindrance, though it is a comfortable hindrance.
The
best ministry nowadays, and generally the best anointing, comes to those who live
and work and eat and sleep among the world to which they minister.
That
means that those whose “day job” gets in the way of “their ministry” probably
have the more effective ministry. And many of those whose “full time job” is ministry,
find their work less effective, when measured by Kingdom standards.
Thursday
Milk or Meat?
There are a couple of places in the NT where
the apostles contrasted the intake of believers, using the metaphor of “milk”
as the food for babies against “meat” as the food for mature men & women.
(1 Corinthians 3, Hebrews 5, 1 Peter 2 are the clearest.)
The apostles (Paul, the anonymous author of
Hebrews, and Peter) all seem to reference something similar to John’s stages of
Christian growth (1 John 2:12-14): that there are clearly stages of growth for
us as Sons of the Most High. John makes it clear: believers in different stages
of growth have different needs (for a discussion of those stages, see here: http://bit.ly/QMANqF)
§
There are several places where
believers are described as children, as milk-drinkers, often bemoaning the fact
that by this stage of their growth, they should be eating meat and changing the
world.
§
There appear to be NO places where
any of the apostolic writers of the NT acknowledge a group that has progressed
from milk-drinking to meat-eating. This may be simply because the epistles were
all written to address problems among one church or another, and the churches
that made the transition didn’t need corrective letters. There is no epistle to
the church at Antioch ,
for example; it may be that this early center of the Church may have gotten
some things right, though we have no record of it.
§
When we are young believers, we
require milk. And when we become mature believers, milk is still good.
§
We are expected to progress beyond
the basics. We are expected to graduate from being nourished by the “elementary
principles” of “milk” to digesting and being nourished by “meat.”
§
So much of the church in our day
has not even well learned the “elementary principles”; These are the “milk” or “baby
food” of Christian nurture (Quoting Hebrews 6:1 here):
1. repentance
from dead works and of
2. faith
toward God, of
3. the
doctrine of baptisms (note the plural), of
4. laying
on of hands, of
5. resurrection
of the dead, and of
6. eternal
judgment.
A number of prophets and apostles are
speaking of the need, now upon us, but growing in necessity, of believers being
established enough in theses topics that they are comfortable (and safe) moving
on to more challenging topics. In fact, Holy Spirit has been speaking to a
substantial number of believers about what some of those more meat-like
discussions will be about, but they would only serve as a distraction in this
conversation.
As He speaks to me about some of the meatier
topics of growth that I see coming to us, I am reminded of two applications
that have relevance in this conversation:
1) There will be people (possibly people who
are invested in a spiritual “milk-delivery service”) who will not understand of
believers’ need for meat, who will speak against it (even accusing meat-eaters
of apostasy and heresy), and, sadly, who will succeed in preventing hungry
believers in their sphere of influence from obeying the scriptures and pursuing
more advanced topics.
2) Those who choose to leave the discussion
of the elementary principles of Christ, and go on to perfection, not laying
again the above foundation, will likely have to go on in the face of such
opposition. A very likely booby-trap will be to engage argumentative
milk-delivery devotees in extensive discussion about the need for meat, though
it will be necessary to discern between those committed to not moving on from
milk from those who have only known milk but long for more. A wiser response
may be just to “set our face like flint” toward digesting and practicing that
which Father is feeding us, and leaving the nay-sayers to themselves.
I believe it will be valuable to recognize in
advance (if it is in advance) the opposition that will be confronting us more
and more as we run the race set before us. Such battles are often won in
advance, when we make our determined decisions of how we will respond before we
meet the opposition.
How will you respond when faced with this
choice? Will you choose a steak knife, or a warm bottle?
Forgiveness & Healing: An Important Distinction
There’s an uncomfortable contrast between forgiveness and
healing.
We forgive those who wound us, and with the grace that Jesus
is so generous about pouring into our lives, we can (eventually) forgive even
the most debilitating, the most wounding, the most egregious offenses against
us.
More, we need to forgive those offenses. In some way (see Matthew
6:14), our own forgiveness is tied to how we forgive others. And we’re
commanded to forgive (see Matthew 18:23-35), so it’s pretty important.
But forgiving is not the same as healing. The act of
forgiving the one who hurt me does not – in and of itself – heal the wound that
they caused. Forgiving them is about not holding the offense in my soul against
them, about no longer looking for revenge (whether actively or passively)
against them, about not allowing a “root of bitterness” to grow in my spirit to
make accusations against my offender and against God. That’s powerful stuff,
but it’s not the same as healing the wound that came from their offense.
On the cross, Jesus forgave the people who nailed him there,
but he still died from the wounds. In Acts 7, Stephen forgave those who wounded
him by throwing stones, but he, too, died from that stoning.
I’ve seen confusion among believers about this in two
manifestations:
1) “I’ve forgiven them for wounding me. So why am I still
wounded? I thought that forgiving them would make it stop hurting!”
2) “But you forgave me! Why aren’t you trusting me? Why are
you still acting like you’re hurting there? I guess you didn’t REALLY forgive
me, did you!”
The reality is that forgiving and healing are two completely
different issues. One might as well ask, “Why am I broke at the end of the
month? It’s still raining in the Northwest, isn’t it?” Well, yes, it is still
raining in the northwest, but that doesn’t actually have anything to do with
your personal spending habits! In similar manner, there is not a direct
correlation between forgiving and being healed.
It’s worth noting that there IS a small-but-significant
connection between forgiving and being healed: we receive healing more easily
when we’ve forgiven. But don’t be distracted by that small issue: healing is
not an automatic result of forgiving.
We must forgive, of course, and there are enough reasons to
forgive to fill a book. We could fill another book on the differences between forgiving someone and trusting them in the same way again. Frankly, they would be fine books, but that’s not the purpose for
this article, which is to shoot down the false belief that “My forgiving you
brings me healing.” It’s a small step in the process, and an important one, but
it is not the healing.
I can forgive you for shooting me in the knee, but I will
still walk with a limp until my knee is healed.
Bring the Light
How many times have
you heard this warning: “Brother, we got to be
careful because Satan comes as an Angel of light.”
I’ve been “warned” by sour-faced people not to
trust my Father’s voice, warned not to trust Holy Spirit, warned to stay away
from Father’s angelic messengers, warned against healing the sick or raising
the dead or any of the fun things that Father has prepared for his children.
Apparently, because the devil, who is a copycat and a corrupter, copies and corrupts some of God’s generous gifts, there are some who think that the right answer is to avoid the gifts.
Apparently, because the devil, who is a copycat and a corrupter, copies and corrupts some of God’s generous gifts, there are some who think that the right answer is to avoid the gifts.
That’s like warning me to never use $20
bills, because criminals counterfeit $20 bills. Or never to drink water,
because vodka is clear like water, and you know vodka’s not as good for you as
water. What?
First, let’s abandon this foolishness that we
need to run screaming away from anything the devil does. Yeah, I get it: he’s a
pain in the butt: he’s a liar, and his work is about stealing, killing & destroying. And yeah, I have figured out that those are bad things. I get that.
Here’s the thing: if I’m watching to make sure that I never do anything the devil is doing, then A) my eyes are on the devil, not on Jesus, and B) the devil is directing my actions; Jesus is not. That would, under normal circumstances, mean that I was being led by the devil rather than by God. That’s not acceptable to me.
Here’s the thing: if I’m watching to make sure that I never do anything the devil is doing, then A) my eyes are on the devil, not on Jesus, and B) the devil is directing my actions; Jesus is not. That would, under normal circumstances, mean that I was being led by the devil rather than by God. That’s not acceptable to me.
You see, the devil’s under my feet. He and his realm
are required to submit to me and the authority I carry from my place in Jesus,
from being the Creator’s beloved son, with whom He is well pleased.
In fact (and this will be scary to some folks),
the devil and I have one job description in common: we are both working to
expand our kingdom as far and as wide as we can. Of course, he’s working to
expand the “kingdom of darkness” and I’m working to expand the Kingdom I share with my
Father: the kingdom of light. And you know what happens when light and darkness
collide: nothing. Light shines unhindered in the darkness; if anything, the
enemy’s darkness only serves to show off God’s light better.
So should I be afraid because the devil
counterfeits some of the good gifts Father gives me? No way! Fear is not my inheritance!
Should I at least try to avoid the devil’s deception? Um… duh! Of course.
Should I at least try to avoid the devil’s deception? Um… duh! Of course.
But just because I’m avoiding the counterfeit
doesn’t mean that I run whimpering away from the real thing that is being
counterfeited. The fact that there is a counterfeit proves that the real thing
is valuable, it’s profitable. In fact, it’s worth the risk of counterfeiting and getting
caught.
Yes, there are false spirits. I don’t listen to
them. Yes there are demons masquerading as angels of light. I don’t fall for
that. Yes, there is such a thing as demonic healing. I don’t go there. In fact, don ’t even pay attention.
My job is not to run from darkness. My job is
to bring the light.
Saturday
With Visibility Come Critics
I started this blog on a bit of a lark. Father was challenging me to
write consistently, and I created a new identity for that writing just to
separate my passion for the Kingdom
of God from my family.
(In my mind, one of the cruelest things a father can do to his children is make
them “preacher’s kids.”)
But these “fixers” decide on their own that I have one
glaring fault or another (usually related to the radical concept that God is actually
good), and they find ways to barge into my life with an agenda of fixing me.
Some of them have been relatively forthright about it. Some have been more
surreptitious about it, not revealing that this was their goal until I stopped
listening to their endless criticisms. Some complete strangers have offered to
“mentor” me. Many have acknowledged that the only reason they’ve friended me
was to fix me. Manipulation has been common.
But it seems that people are eager to discuss things of the
Kingdom, and so this blog has gained more of an audience than I ever expected,
and therefore more influence than I ever imagined.
And as I’ve gained influence, I’ve gained critics. Whoa.
What a new concept! Some of them have been enemies. I’ve never had enemies
before! Some have just been passionate about their bondage, and hate the
freedom in God that I’ve been writing about. Some want to advertise their
products to the people who read my wall (in a word: no!). And some of them want
to fix me.
Now let us be clear: I’m brand new at this business of
having critics, enemies, fixers. I have clearly not responded with maturity
every time: to become mature, one requires experience, and I lack that
experience. (But I’m growing in it. I think that’s good....)
The last group confuse me the most: the people who want to
fix me. Honestly, I don’t get it.
First of all, I’m not aware that I’m broken, at least not by
Heaven’s standards, which are the primary standards I care about. But that’s
normal: most people think they’re not broken. And for that reason, I treasure a
large handful of relationships with men and women whom I have learned to trust.
They know me, and they have both permission and invitation to speak into my
life. I submit my doctrine and my practice of Kingdom life to them. I regularly
seek out their criticism and course corrections, which they are kind to share
with me. When they do, I try to I try to respond well, but I’ll admit to
struggling sometimes. I’m as human as anyone else that I know.
Not infrequently, their attempts to fix me, a complete stranger to
them, have been completely works-based, have been littered with abuse and
accusation, and have been clearly targeted at bringing me back into the bondage
from which Jesus has set me free. Many of them are clearly dysfunctional
themselves, though that’s not necessary a complete disqualifier (Peter was
pretty dysfunctional, when you think about it; Paul had a hideous past life!)
I bring this topic up for two reasons:
First, to state publicly that I am not currently seeking new
mentors, and I do not, in fact, submit myself to complete strangers for
correction. If you do not know me personally, you’re not a candidate to fix me;
if we have not been friends for a number of years, you are not a candidate; if
you don’t know my name, you are not a candidate; if you haven’t opened up your
life in the process of building relationship, you are not a candidate.
This is not because I’m trying to keep correction out of my
life (quite the contrary!). It’s because correction – or ANY ministry – must
come through relationship. If we don’t have a relationship, then it ain’t gonna
work, no matter how hard you try, and no matter if I invite your criticism or
not. Ministry flows out of relationship. No relationship, no ministry.
The second reason I bring this up is because many other
people around me are also moving rapidly and publicly into freedom. I’m not
special: if the fixers come after me, in order to “repair” the freedom that I’m
enjoying, then they’ll probably come after you, too, in order to “redeem” you
from freedom, from grace, from the Kingdom.
So I’m trying to pull the sheet off of the deceiver, I’m
trying to shine a light into the shadows: if you see someone skulking there, my
advice is: Don’t invite them to speak into your life from the shadows.
Yes, it is wise to seek counsel, and counsel to whom we’ll
actually listen and submit to. And since this kind of a relationship is foreign
to most western Christians, we’ll have to be very intentional as we seek it
out. But this needs to be a relationship-first kind of thing. Just because
someone has a big ministry, or a big reputation or a big mouth does not qualify
them to mentor you.
And anyone – ANYone – who is trying to take you or me back
into the shadows is not worthy of listening to.
Thursday
A Brief Guide to The Rapture.
A
little history about the doctrine of the Rapture. (Note that this is not a theology paper; this is an article
about following God.)
First,
the term "rapture" does not appear in scripture. The general idea is there (specifically in 1
Thessalonians 4:17), but it is not the same concept that is taught today called
“The Rapture.” It has nothing to do with the “Left Behind” books’ theology!
Much
of our concept of The Rapture comes from Cotton Mather, the 17th century Puritan, and master of the Salem Witch Trials. It gained traction in the
teaching of John Nelson Darby in the 1830s, just after he left his
denomination, the Church
of Ireland; some historians report that he used this sensational new teaching to garner more speaking engagements (a practice that continues today) . Contemporary church leaders, including Charles Spurgeon, rejected Darby’s
teaching. But he wrote a translation of the Bible and started a minor
denomination, so people take him seriously.
The reality is that the Bible has very little to say about the Rapture, apart from acknowledging, in the context of the dead being raised, that one day we will be “caught up” with God in the air. Note that this was expressly given as comfort to those grieving dead loved ones, not as a theological foundation for eschatology. (As a general practice, we don't build major theological points on minor, unclear passages that are focused on other issues!)
Having said all that, it does appear that some points about the Rapture could do with being emphasized:
* The big point in Scripture is that believers who die before
Jesus returns will not be separated from Him. The Resurrection of the dead is
for real. This is the main scriptural teaching about “The Rapture.”
*
The idea of being caught up with Jesus seems worth pursuing,
even today. A number of contemporary prophets (and many believers) encourage
pursuing the experience, though not in a physical sense, rather in terms of
what might be called “day trips to Heaven.” This sounds like a great use of our
time. “I believe in the Rapture,” says Bob Jones. “I do it every day!”
*
The Bible - and therefore the earliest apostolic doctrine - carefully avoids clear teaching on the subject,
which should be a clue to us. Moreover, Jesus clearly said (Acts 1:7) that
figuring out the details of the end times was a distraction of the real work
that he has set before us (Acts 1:8). It could be reasonably concluded that end
times theology (including the Rapture) is largely a distraction from our actual
assignment: a theological time-waster.
* The current teaching of the Rapture (The Left Behind version) is completely contrary
to God’s ways: it’s taught as an escape from persecution, sneaking out the back
door before a season of tribulation starts. God has never demonstrated the
value of keeping some favored people from having to deal with difficult times,
while letting other, less-favored people suffer from them. The idea of removing
the only people who can bring comfort to afflicted people is not in him. If
anything, he has historically sent his people into the midst of the trouble in
order to be light in the darkness. Therefore, it is more likely that he would
send his people into the midst of the tribulation. (See 1 Corinthians 16:8-9 and 1 Thessalonians 2:2.)
There
are two clear action points that I can see, when thinking about the Rapture.
1.
God has apparently not intended that we understand the
details about the end of the world. It would be wise, therefore, for me not to
focus on what he is not focusing on.
2.
It will be a much better use of my time either working to
prevent trying times, or preparing people to cope with trying times, rather
than teaching people to expect a “Get Out of Tribulation Free” card.
Our
job is “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.” At
least within our sphere of influence.
An Expanded Understanding of Corporate Worship
In my experience with God, coming
to Him in worship is a glorious thing, and there are several interesting things
that happen when I'm in his presence worshiping.
One of the things that I've
observed that happens in that place is what I am calling freedom in creative
expression. I noticed it first when playing an instrument in a worship band:
it's like I'm a better musician in His presence than I was ten minutes before.
It's certainly easier to sing spontaneously in that place, and my instrument is
more responsive to me there, too.
In some places, we've recognized
that other creative expression is released in worship, and some worship events
now have artists painting during worship. Occasionally a dancer will be part of
the worship ream, too.
Prophetic expression, which I would
argue is also a creative expression, is also freer when in association. That's
why Elisha said "Bring me a minstrel," when he needed to prophesy to
an ungodly king, and why prophetic ministry often comes during or after
worship.
And that's about as far as I've
ever seen it taken, at least publicly.
The question occurs to me: why
should the musicians (and maybe a painter or prophet) get all of the fun? Do we
think that the other gifts don't count as much, or that they wouldn't benefit
from the anointing as much?
Occasionally, I've taken it a
little further. Sometimes during corporate worship, I've snuck off in a corner
and drawn on the anointing that is in God's presence with my writing, or in
study, wielding my teaching gift. I'm sure that others have done this, too;
I've just never met them. (I know: now my secret is out!)
I'd love to experiment with: how
far could we take the idea of exercising whatever gift we happen to have as an
expression of worship?
What would happen if we blessed
teachers and scribes and writers and poets to worship in the corporate
gathering with their gifts, too? What if we made room to experience the results
of their gifting, like we listen to the work of the guitarist's and the
drummer's giftings?
What if we gave space to tattoo
artists, to graffiti artists, to mimes, to potters and sculptors and chefs and
jewelry makers and leather workers and wood carvers and pipe makers and hair
stylists and massage therapists? Who was it that decided that their gifts
weren't appropriate to worship our Heavenly Father with?
Obviously, I'm just letting the
thoughts run free here (as I'm worshipping, actually), but I can't get away
from the question: how far can we take this? How many more people can we
release to worship God in the community with the gifts that God has given them?
(Curiously, as I sat in a small corporate worship environment, compelled to write these thoughts on a mobile device, at the same time a prophet friend of mine, a writer, was outlining the same topic, having been drawn into it unexpectedly in a private time with God.)
God's Heart, In Golf Jokes and Flashmobs
There’s an old joke:
Jesus, Moses and an old man
were teeing off on the 16th hole on heaven's golf course.
The 16th hole is a short par 3 over a lake. Moses is the first to tee off; he steps up and swings, and the
ball dives right for the water.
He quickly spreads his
arms, the water parts, and the ball rolls across the bottom of the lake and up
on to the green.
The others complement him on
his shot, and Jesus steps up for his turn.
Like Moses, Jesus' ball heads
straight for the water, but when it gets there, it bounces and then rolls across the
surface of the lake, until it, too, rolls up onto the
green.
After showering him with complements,
the old man steps up to take his shot. His ball also dives for the lake, but it bounces off the back of a turtle in the lake, and onto the far shore. There, a squirrel
picks up the ball and quickly heads for the woods.
As the others begin to laugh,
a hawk swoops down and picks up the squirrel. The hawk flies over the green, the squirrel struggles and the ball falls out of the
squirrels mouth, bounces once on the green, and then drops neatly into the cup.
Jesus turns to the old man with a smile and
says, "Nice shot Dad!"
That’s actually one of my favorite jokes ever, largely
because it is a good illustration of how God works: spectacular detail, looking
for all the world like happenstance, coincidence. Yet all the time, he’s working
behind the scenes, holding all things together by the power of his Word.
OK. Hold that in your mind.
OK. Hold that in your mind.
Now reflect for a moment on one of the current trends in marriage
proposals: The flashmob proposal. I’m afraid that I think they’re rather cheesy, but these guys didn’t consult me before they did the deed, so I
suppose my opinion doesn’t count much. Here’s one example:
It has made me think. Like the golf joke, these proposals
demonstrate something of the way the God does things: careful attention to a
lot of details in order to spectacularly demonstrate love, to draw the beloved’s
attention to the guy on his knee, and to invite that beloved lady into a
lifetime love relationship. They’re maybe a little more direct than God is,
after all, they need to be able to edit it down for an effective YouTube post;
God has a lifetime to work out his proposal.
Sure, taking a lifetime to woo us is more complicated, but
being omniscient, he can handle that; he’s pretty big, you know. What’s more
challenging is the issue of free will. He’s committed to honoring free will:
yours, certainly; but in addition, he works out his lifetime flashmob proposal to
you in an environment of raging free wills, without abrogating a single person’s
free will. (He doesn’t even – yet – hinder demonic free will, a fact which is
highly inconvenient, actually.)
So the circumstances of our lives are arranged for the
purpose of demonstrating – of spectacularly
demonstrating – his love for us, of drawing our attention to the guy on his
knee (his amazing Son), and of inviting us, his beloved, into a lifetime – an eternity-time
of love relationship.
So for me, amazing golf shots aside, I think I’m learning to
recognize his fingerprints in the circumstances of my life, displaying his
love, drawing my attention to his son, and inviting me into an eternity of love
relationship with an amazing lover.
And I guess I’m probably going to be reminded of God’s
amazing courtship every time I see another cheesy flashmob proposal video. God
is, fortunately, not so cheesy, but every bit as much the romantic.
[Editor's note: If you can't see the video, click on the title of the post ("God's Heart, In Golf Jokes and Flashmobs") and view it on the webpage. Thanks!]
Dealing With Bombs
I share this as a testimony. You know I love testimonies.
I had a dream. In the dream, or maybe it was a vision: I was
working my way through the sparse underbrush of a very large hill. I was
searching out unexploded ordinance: bombs that hadn’t gone off, and I knew that
some of them were nuclear bombs.
My friends and I were cleaning out the area so that kids
could play safely in the bushes and grasses there. My job was to find the bombs
hidden under the bushes, behind the clumps of grass. There weren’t a lot, but
it was more than I expected.
When I found one, I put it into the basket I was carrying
(really? Carrying nukes in a basket?), and hand the baskets to others who took
them off to other places, and came back each time for more.
As I was dreaming, while I was pulling a shiny silver bomb
out from behind a clump of tall grass, Father began interpreting the dream I
was still in the middle of for me. (I’ve never had that happen before!)
“You recognize these bombs?” and suddenly, I knew that these
were issues in my life where offenses could grow. These were wounds, lies that
I’ve believed, curses, and other detritus in my soul that could explode and
cause problems. “Yes, sir,” I replied.
“And you recognize that this dream is just symbolic? That
solving these issues in the real world is going to take more than just picking
up the bombs and putting them in your basket?” I understood that he was right:
these are real issues and they need real solutions.
The dream had prophetically pointed out that there were
bombs, danger points (and I suspect we all have some). We can identify the
bombs by prayer, by prophecy, by soul-searching, maybe by inviting input from
godly friends.
I also recognized that he wasn’t commenting on the solutions
that they needed, just that the issues needed something more than
“prophetically picking up a bomb” and putting it in my basket. I was welcome to
choose the solutions I was comfortable with: repentance, healing prayer, power
of God, therapy, washing in the Word, and more.
I observe that God is speaking to a number of his kids in
this season about getting rid of offenses, removing the stumbling blocks from
our history; in fact, it’s a little freaky how many began hearing this topic at
the same time. If you’re in this season, embrace it as from God, and work with
him to remove the hindrances to moving forward.
We’re in this together.
A Lesson on Our Angels.
I love testimonies. They say so much good stuff about God!
And the whole concept of “testimony” (“μαρτυρία,”
an interesting word on several levels) includes the concept of “What God has
done, he is willing to do again.” I love that.
I was watching over a baby-Christian who was dying. She was
90 years old, freshly saved, and had just been diagnosed with cancer. When I
asked, Father said, “The cancer will not take her, but it is her time to go.”
As I said, she was dying, but she was taking her time about it.
She had been in dancing on the edge of Eternity for several weeks; it was hard
on her and everyone who loved her to watch her suffer. I came to visit her
again, and she never saw me, but she grasped my hand weakly as I sat with her
and prayed for her. The room was full of a measure of peace, and I loved her. I
wanted her to be able to lay hold of that peace.
I needed God’s perspective, so after a while, I walked over and stood by the door,
ducked into the Spirit realm, and talked with Father about it. “What’s holding
her back, Father?” and immediately I had a vision. There in the spirit realm,
she was travelling a winding road in the midst of fields of wildflowers, and she was almost to the bridge. But there were
several demons who were holding her back, taunting and tormenting her in the
process. I understood that they were gaining some strength from their torment
of her. It angered me.
“What do I do, Father? I’m seriously not ready to pray for
her to die, even though you’ve already told me that this is her time.”
What followed was one of the more startling experiences of
my life with God. He said, “Release our angels to clear the way for her,” and
with that one sentence, a whole lesson was downloaded into my spirit.
A little background: I was raised in a liberal church, and
then trained in an evangelical church, both of which adamantly, fanatically,
insisted that I must never pay attention, especially never try to communicate
with or (horrors!) command angels! Oh my goodness! That would be tantamount to
abandoning faith in God in favor of gibbering in the corner with tinfoil on my
head. Those who taught me had encountered people who had gone way off the deep end
about angels, always talking to angels, always listening for what the angels
said. Some of them actually had worn tinfoil on their heads and chosen to sleep
under bridges. Bluntly, this was a doctrine built on fear, but it was the
doctrine I had been raised on, and God was countermanding it.
So with the instruction to “Release OUR angels…,” Father
schooled me. He took me through several scriptures, in that nanosecond. The
conversation went like this: “Angels are servants of the Kingdom, yes?” “Okaaay.” “And you’re an heir of the Kingdom, yes?” “Yeaaaah.” “Are you doing the work of the
kingdom, working to accomplish My will?” “Yes!” “Well, then the angels are
available to serve you in this!” “Oh! Okay!”
I stood there at the door, my eyes bugging just a little,
thinking through what I’d just heard. If I understood correctly, I had
specifically been invited by my Heavenly Father to – not command, exactly – but
“release” the angels to do the thing that Father had already assigned them to
do. And as a result, again, if I understood correctly, my aged friend would
then die. Yeah, she’d be with Jesus, yeah, it was her time, but dang!
I reached over, touched her cheek, stood back up, took a deep
breath. I looked Father in his tender-hearted eyes, and spoke. “As a son of the
Kingdom, and in the Name of Jesus, I release the angels that Father has
assigned to this woman to carry out their assignments and to remove the demons hindering
her.”
The next morning, we got the call. “She has passed over.”
We met the hospice nurses there. My friend had the most peaceful expression on
her face. She'd crossed the bridge in joy.
When a personal revelation is supported, as this one was, both by scriptural principles and by the way actual facts turn out, I pay
attention. But I wasn’t settled on it so quickly.
We talked about it afterward, and as we debriefed, Father and
I talked about Matthew 26:53. That’s where, in the Garden, Jesus declares, “Or
do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with
more than twelve legions of angels?” I’ve always dismissed that verse: He’s the
Son of God, He can do things I can’t.
“My child, yes, Jesus is My Incarnate Son. But when He
came to Earth, He emptied Himself of the prerogatives of his deity. His
ministry on Earth was not as God incarnate: that would be nothing that you
could ever aspire to; it would be no model of what you could do and be.
Everything He did on Earth, He did as a man. Son, don’t write his example off so
quickly.”
So I’m still learning.
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