Culturally Irrelevant

Most people write a post like this, apologizing for not posting because they’ve been too busy to write. My problem has been the opposite. Lots of late nights writing, just on the same project. At some point here in the next week or so I hope to be able to post it as a PDF with a few excerpts to summarize what it’s about.

Here’s a quick excerpt on prayer. Not the overall topic, but a supporting point:

David talked to God with gut-wrenching honesty. He exposed himself, spoke his mind, unafraid to be completely real and emotional. He didn’t have long lists of things he wanted for himself or for his success. He asked for nations, for God’s presence, for forgiveness, for the righteous to be filled. When I read his songs I hear agonizing desperation, ravenous spiritual appetite for God’s presence, ecstatic joy at knowing God, tremendous peace and a sense of being protected by God and led by his Spirit. I also hear anger against unrighteousness and injustice, frustration at God’s silence in the face of wickedness, and the desire for God to completely crush his enemies.

Jesus talked about prayer this way (my interpretation): “When you pray, don’t philosophize and eloquently verbalize just to impress your listeners with your knowledge of the scriptures. And don’t babble on and on with useless words that don’t come from your heart. Instead, get on your face in a quiet, secret place. Pour your heart out like a sinner and receive grace like a saint. Get real with me and I’ll get real with you. Don’t know what to say? Start with coming to me as your loving, all-powerful “Father” who knows what you need before you even ask. Then worship me and let the power of my name, my Kingdom and my holy will overcome you. Hang there for a while, maybe even get quiet, and then make any simple requests for the things you need. And if you’ve got a beef with anyone, you better take care of that before you come to me. It’s hard to hear anything when your offenses, unforgiveness and self-righteous pride are screaming so loudly in my ears. But come to me with a broken heart and I’ll answer you. If you’re dirty, repent for real and I’ll wash you and give you a clean conscience. If you’ll stay in this place, this heart attitude, then I’ll know you’re connected to my Son. I’ll give you what you want because I know your wants and desires are coming from him. And if the answers don’t seem to come right away, keep pressing in. It’s all in my timing, so don’t be discouraged. Just keep coming and trusting. You won’t be disappointed. (Matthew 5:23-24; 6:5-13; Psalm 24:3-5; 51:17; Luke 11:8-10; John 15:5-11; James 5:16)

And what is the promise when we have a life of prayer like this? Peace. A supernatural, comforting, able-to-handle-anything kind of peace. Paul says it this way: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)

Honestly, there have been times when I’ve been so distressed and afraid that I’ve wanted to quit walking forward in obedience. But when that happens, I hit my face, usually with 2 or 3 other guys who are faith-filled God-seekers, and after a while I’m so filled with peace and a sense of God’s good pleasure that I’m able to keep going. An encouraging word will come out, I’ll get a revelation from a specific passage of scripture, or sometimes I’ll just lay there and soak in God’s presence for a while. Either way you slice it, the result is still the same. The weight gets transferred. The doubt gets exchanged for strength and faith. The fear turns into hope. When I get up from the floor I have the strength, not just to keep going, but to walk in love, to know what I should do next, or simply to have the peace to not do anything at all except keep trusting, keep waiting and keep seeking his face. And sometimes that’s the hardest thing…to not do.

No way!!! The only way to describe this is “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Bicyclist”

This is crazy cool. Pomey mixed it up using sound bites from a “studio session” with Jack. Jack must have listened to it a couple dozen times today while John danced. Good times! Thanks, Josh.

A quick update on our church plant journey. A few families are still in Tulsa and the others are in Pensacola, but it’s amazing how close we’ve been despite the distance. Email, Google apps, web cams and cell phones really do have a redeeming purpose!  Both teams have been walking out 1 John, growing in the Father’s unconditional love for each other and the lost, as well as John 15, staying intimately connected to Jesus through everything. 

In the midst of all the “stuff” that comes with big life transition and responding to the call, God has begun to establish some things in the natural for different people on the team. Resources are beginning to come in more and more, God is beginning to establish people in terms of housing (getting into or out of it, depending on if they’re in Tulsa or P’cola), and the teams both in Tulsa and in P’cola are experiencing breakthrough in relationships, finances, jobs and health.

One ray of sunshine for us this week has been getting to spend time with Tony and Alisha and their kids, Juliana and Jett. They drove from P’cola last weekend and will be heading back this coming weekend. They’ve been a huge encouragement to the team and I’m not sure that their car will actually be running come Sunday. Rick may have to accidentally disconnect some wires on the CR-V and keep it in the shop a few extra days :) Tony and Alisha, we’re praying for you and your little baby girl on the way. God’s strength and provision are more than enough.

I can’t think of a better healing story than the one I’m about to share…and on Easter! It’s longer than a blog post should be, but it’s worth it. Here’s a story written by my Dad about healing in a family (my family), restoration in the closest of relationships (between a Dad and his children, between a husband and his wife) and a fulfillment of Malachi 4:5-6:

“See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.”

I can’t even begin to say how proud I am of my own Father. Dads are the door to their family. They let in either blessing or cursing, peace or confusion, life or death. I am so thankful that God has given me a natural Father who has sought after life and allowed blessing and healing in our family’s front door.

Clay - “My pastor, Jim Hennesy of Trinity Church in Cedar Hill, Texas, announced that his theme for 2009 is ‘Wholeness.’ This confirmed a word I had received over Christmas for our family that this would be a year of healing in all areas. It continues and expands a personal journey of relational healing that began for me in last fall’s Bethesda class at the church.

I had the Bethesda training several years ago when my wife, superintendent of Trinity Christian School, brought in Dominic Herbst, the founder of the program, to train TCS staff and others. I shared at a table discussion an early wounding I received as a toddler that my mother had mentioned to me. But I didn’t really know any details and just talking about it didn’t seem to have any effect on me. It was the only thing I could think of at the time, since I couldn’t remember any other significant traumatic incidents in my otherwise normal childhood.

Since then, I have learned even more about the Bethesda relational healing process through helping my wife with her dissertation on the impact of the Bethesda program in the school, and benefiting from the videos and discussion in the Bethesda class at church last fall. However, it all became very real in October when I received a letter from my mother. I think a discussion she had earlier with my wife about Bethesda might have prompted it. The letter detailed how, at the age of 15 months, I was put in the care of three other families over a six month period because of my mother’s health issues that were related to my brother’s birth. My father moved to another town to begin a new business, and I only saw my mother once during this time.

As I learned from the Bethesda class, this was a classic case of abandonment during the critical time that a child is supposed to be bonding with his mother. Even though I have no memory of this period, it had a dramatic impact on my personality, i.e., my soul. I changed from being cheerful and outgoing to being quiet and resentful, as evidenced by a serious habit of biting others while a toddler and having a difficult relationship with my mother even through the teen years. This continued into my adult life with the “fruit” of a critical spirit, outbursts of anger, lack of open communication with my wife and children, and a reluctance to reach out to friends and co-workers.

When I received my mother’s letter, I knew how important it was because of the Bethesda training, so I traveled to Tulsa the next weekend. We had a wonderful visit and discussed my childhood and hers for several hours. I prayed for her and then she prayed for me. Her prayer was so anointed that I cried for the first time as a man in her presence. I knew from the Bethesda training that this was a part of the supernatural grieving process that would start me on the road to relational healing. The next day in Tulsa, I visited one of my sons to confess my offenses towards him. I asked him to bring up other incidents that I had forgotten so I could repent and ask his forgiveness. We also prayed and cried.

Then the following day, back in Cedar Hill, I had a similar conversation with my daughter, followed in the next few weeks by visits with my other two sons and one of their wives. It was very humbling, or should I say humiliating, to listen to their sensitive but frank memories, some distant, some very recent, of my dysfunctional and offensive behaviors toward them and their families. The Holy Spirit prompted me not to even try to defend myself, which unfortunately was not hard to do since my guilt was so apparent. Of course, I saved the hardest confessional until last, the one with my wife. She had done her homework, and I was devastated to be reminded of just a few examples of the many, many incidents in which I had offended her over our forty years together.

After each of these conversations I wrote a letter reaffirming my confessions, asking again for their forgiveness, and committing to building a healthy relationship with them and their families from now on.

This experience has been the most significant in my Christian walk after my salvation and being filled with the Spirit. While I’m ashamed to admit that I blew it so badly for so long, even as a Spirit-filled believer, I am forever grateful to my Savior who provided the perfect opportunity for not just my healing, but my entire family’s. He has given me a supernatural ability to enjoy and love in a new way my mother, my wife, our four children and their spouses, and our nine grand-children, and to be more open and warm toward others. I know, like salvation, that this is just the beginning of a process, and that there will be tests and occasional stumbles. But I also know now that I was destined for wholeness in this life, and I am determined, by His Grace, to receive every good and perfect gift that He has for me.”

This testimony is also available online at Bethesda Family Services Foundation.

Cori sustained an injury a few years ago that left parts of her wrist and hand crushed and weak. She wasn’t able to continue in her profession because of it. One night after a teaching on healing, we laid hands on her hands and prayed. She felt nothing, but later that night she noticed that she had been holding her huge study Bible with her hand for a really long time. And it didn’t hurt! God led her to a personal trainer who worked with her on some exercises for her wrists. Previously she had a 10 pound weight restriction on her hands and wrists and couldn’t push herself away from a wall. Within just a few weeks of continuing to trust God and be faithful to her trainer’s instructions, she was able to do multiple sets of bench presses as well as floor push-ups. Here are some texts we’ve received from Cori over the past couple months: “Another wrist triumph! I did 3 sets of 10 girl push ups! Watch out Jack Lelane!” “A shout goes out to Him who sits on the throne! I did 3 sets of 10 bench presses using two 15 pound weights!” “Guess what I did? I used a kettle ball today! I am also doing 30 push ups off the floor. So much for that 10 pound weight restriction!”

Ben – I was in the bathroom for two hours straight (try not to laugh at the nature of my infirmity here:) The pain in my gut was worse than it had ever been in my entire life, worse than the gastritis I had as a kid or the hour long spasms I’d had off and on since college. It had been years since I was able to drink a cup of coffee or eat a steak or cheese pizza without serious consequences. This time the pain was only getting worse instead of better. But I sat there doubled over and said, “God, I won’t believe this pain more than I believe your promises. It hurts, but even if it never goes away, I’m not going to let it convince me that you’re a liar or that you don’t intend to heal me. God, I believe you want to heal me and I accept it regardless of what I feel.” I got back in bed, but the minute I laid down I shot back up and doubled over groaning. Katy woke up and began to read Scriptures and pray over me in the Spirit. I sat like this for about 10 minutes and then began to get really cold. I laid back in bed to see if I could get warm. My body began to shake and twitch uncontrollably. It felt like my appendix was about to burst or my stomach was coming apart. While she was on the phone getting some advice, I laid in bed and told God the pain didn’t matter. It actually made me mad and I refused to doubt. Suddenly, as we were seriously considering going to the ER, my whole body went limp, warmth returned and I fell asleep. It was days before I realized I’d been healed. Just to test it I drank 5 cups of coffee. When I didn’t get sick (not even a twinge of pain) I ate an entire steak along with a potato and biscuits. Nothing. No pain or discomfort. I slept like a baby and woke without even a sour stomach. Praise God! After years of what I believe was probably an ulcer, I was set free!

God is good and he is still in the healing business. He wants to heal and deliver people more than they want to be healed and delivered. Why? Because he’s reconciling the world to himself through Christ, and that reconciliation involves our whole person. It will ultimately be complete when Christ returns for his bride and the world is judged with righteousness. Only then will the fullness of our salvation be realized. But until then we’re experiencing a daily salvation of our whole man, more and more and from glory to glory according to our faith.

If you’re not totally sure this is true, read through Matthew, Mark, Luke-Acts and John in one sitting. It might take a bit, but it will probably be one of the most eye-opening experiences you’ve ever had. Healing and power encounters (supernatural deliverance, authority over demons and various other miracles) are part of God’s kingdom, part of how he continually testifies to his body and to the world that Jesus is alive, that the Holy Spirit is at work in the earth and that the gospel is a relevant message of power and hope.

Water that down even a drop and you’ve got less than he intended, less than is in his heart and less than what he promised through Christ. Believe it in its entirity, and let go of everything else, and you’ll see and experience it for yourself.

We’ve been experiencing God’s healing for a while now, and I just can’t shut up about it. I’d like to take the next few posts to tell you some stories. These are stories about physical and relational healing that are nothing short of God’s miraculous touch in the lives of broken and dependent people. I hope you’re encouraged by them as I have been.

Tony suffered from years of intense, chronic back pain. He had been going to the chiropractor regularly for months and couldn’t sit in one position for more than a couple minutes. It was exhausting him and stealing his joy. We prayed for him multiple times for weeks without seeing any changes. Finally, we just rested in the assurance that God knew and that he would heal him in his own timing. Weeks later, one of the guys laid hands on him at a meeting and the joy of the Holy Spirit filled the room. We laughed as Tony’s back was effortlessly, miraculously and permanently healed. He was running around the room and rolling on the floor like a kid! The best part was when he realized he could tear up his cold pack.

Rick is a master mechanic whose ribs had been popping out of place multiple times a week. He was stiff, in chronic, excruciating pain and wasn’t able to do his job properly. God spoke to him about some lifestyle changes and he immediately obeyed. Soon after that we laid hands on him and prayed. God gave one of the ladies a word of knowledge about a specific muscle that needed to be healed. She spoke to it to loosen and he immediately gained several inches on his stretch. A few days later he attended a healing service and God touched him again in a powerful way. It’s been a couple months now and Rick’s ribs have stopped popping out of place, he can easily touch his toes for the first time in years, and he’s been to the chiropractor maybe once or twice since then. Ask him about how God healed him and you’ll see a huge smile break across his face. Then just sit back and relax. He’ll gladly tell you all about it.

Katy sat on the floor in one of our meetings, having dealt with mild skulliosis most of her life. Hands were laid on her and she immediately felt a physical shift in her back. Since then she hasn’t noticed any of the discomfort or pain she had before, and her posture has improved.

Allen is my next door neighbor. I was out talking to him recently and he told me how he had suffered from neuropathy of the feet for 15 years. He said it felt like a severe 24/7 sunburn on the tops of his feet. One day he prayed and asked God to remove the pain. The next morning he noticed that his feet didn’t hurt. It’s been two pain-free months now. His eyes welled up with tears as he told me about how personal God has become, how grateful he is and how much he realizes now that God loves him.

My brother recently commented on an old post about choosing weakness. He included a link to an article on brokenness. It’s pretty much eating my lunch right now. Here’s the link and a few excerpts:

http://path2prayer.com/site/1/docs/Demoss_Choosing_Brokenness.pdf

“You and I will never meet God in revival, until we first meet Him in brokenness.”

“Ultimately, brokenness is a matter of surrendering control of my life to God, much as the horse that has been broken is sensitive and responsive to the wishes and direction of its rider.”  

“How can we know if our hearts are proud or broken?  Proud people focus on the failures of others; they have a critical, fault-finding spirit. They look at everyone else’s faults with a microscope, but their own with a telescope. By contrast, broken people are overwhelmed with a sense of their own spiritual need. Therefore they can esteem all others better than themselves. Proud people have to prove that they are right, but broken people are willing to yield the right to be right. Proud people are quick to take offense; but broken people are quick to forgive and overlook offenses.”

Excerpts from “Revival in the Heart: Choosing Brokenness” by Nancy Leigh DeMoss

Sometimes you get popped by a verse you’ve read a million times. Yesterday I’m reading Jeremiah 29:11, except this time in context, and I start seeing this amazing picture emerge.

Rebellious Judah is about to be ransacked by the king of Babylon and a bunch of false prophets are trying to tell the people that they’re safe and that they won’t have to serve Babylon (despite many years of prophetic utterances to the contrary). So God tells Jeremiah to let them know they are not OK in their rebellion, that Babylon will carry them away, and that lots of the temple’s treasures are going to be carried away as well.

I’m guessing lots of the people listened to the favorable predictions rather than the scary ones, so I suspect some of them were shocked when they found themselves being hauled off against their will to a foreign country. They were probably sitting in Babylon confused, wondering what in the world just happened. And to make matters worse, some of these same false prophets started telling them to hole up away from the Babylonians, that God would soon take vengeance on their enemies and rescue his people if they’d just hold on.

But Jeremiah, a true prophet, sends the word of the Lord to the elders and prophets and all the people by way of a letter. In the letter, God tells the people…get this…to increase in the land of their captivity. Not decrease or shrink back or hold on for dear life or even to hit the pause button. He tells them to move full steam ahead and expect his blessings! What?

In a nutshell, he says:

• build houses and settle down
• plant gardens and eat
• marry and have sons, daughters and grandchildren
• increase and do not decrease
• seek the peace and prosperity of the land you’re in, for if it prospers, you too will prosper

God had to punish his people for their rebellion, but that didn’t mean he was through with them. He couldn’t let them ignore the reality anymore, but he also wanted them to see a redemptive purpose in it all. And there you have it! The Father’s heart of unconditional love, always ready to give more chances when we see the truth, repent and come back.

This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. (Jer. 29:10-14)

God’s plans are to prosper us, to give us a hope and a future…always and in every situation! God wants us to be salt and light, to bring blessing and prosperity to our neighborhoods, our churches and our cities.

God, as we continue to reconcile our hearts to you and humble ourselves and seek your face, bless our cities and our places of work. And more than that, open people’s eyes to Jesus. Let the love and forgiveness and grace of Jesus flow through us and wash over our cities, exposing darkness and transforming hearts.

The contrast between the ”Shinarites” in Genesis 11 and Abram in chapter 12 is a perfect example of kingdom vs. Kingdom

The Shinarites ”said to each other, ‘Come, let’s make bricks’” while Abram left his home behind and struck out into the unknown “as the Lord had told him.” They “settled” in the plain while Abram “traveled” from place to place. They said, let’s build ourselves a city with a tower to heaven, but he built a humble altar of worship and pitched a tent. They said “let us make a name for ourselves” but he “called on the name of the Lord.” They didn’t want to be scattered all over the face of the earth, while Abram followed God from Ur to Haran to Canaan to Egypt and back to Canaan.

Here’s the incredible irony. Everything they desperately wanted God freely gave to Abram, and much more. Everything they feared came upon them, while God settled Abram’s fears and carried him through difficult times into abundance, promise and legacy. They wanted to hole up away from the wide world while God thrust Abram out into the world and made him a blessing to many nations. They wanted a name and got nothing but confusion. God gave Abram a new name that lasts to this day.

Abram trusted God without evidence. He put his family, his fortune, his faith and his future into God’s hands, trusting an unsubstantiated promise. He went out not knowing where he was going, but he had a living word from a living God. He wandered in tents, exposed to the elements but full faith, fully surrendered. In exchange, God gave him protection, peace and favor with those around him, a great name and eventually a place to settle and call home. His only monument was an altar of surrender, and what did God have to work with in the natural? A barren woman who laughed at the promise and her 100-year-old husband.

Man has kingdoms. Lots of them. And they’re impressive, no doubt. I have kingdoms. Mostly little ones. In reality, we all tend to have our own little kingdoms we’re working on. But God has a great big Kingdom, and he operates his differently than we do ours. 

Here are some questions I continually ask myself. Whose kingdom am I building? Am I settling somewhere, getting comfortable and surrounding myself with protection, or am I letting myself get thrust out for the sake of others? Am I building any monuments to myself, even little ones? Am I helping someone else build a monument to themself or to a group’s hard work and smart planning? Am I still willing to risk everything to follow Jesus, to go whenever and wherever he might lead?