Did You Learn To Love?

Ever since Christy and I came back from our ministry trip to Kansas City, we’ve felt like we’ve been in a new season where the Lord has been speaking to us on a different level than what we’ve experienced before. That weekend was the fulfillment of a number of things the Lord has spoken to us and the birthing of new things for the future. Since we’ve come back to Cedar Rapids the Lord has continued to speak to us in new ways. It’s really been exciting. But in all the excitement I’ve felt the Lord calling us aside, wanting to speak something important that will give us direction for the future. Though the ministry trip was amazing, I am positive Jesus is looking for something more. The truth was He was looking for my heart.

Something that keeps coming back to me in this whole process is the story of Jesus training and sending out the seventy disciples in Luke 10. They come back excited about the amazing things God has done through their hands. "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name," is their declaration. Jesus, like any good coach joins in their excitement. He rejoices with them that the power of God is flowing in their lives. But after rejoicing with them He pulls them together and says, “Guys, I love your excitement, but there is something even higher than what you’ve experienced.” What He really says is, “"Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven," (Luke 10:20).

Last night the Lord spoke to me as I was hashing this out with Him. He said, “Travis, I want you to be more excited about being a son than about being a slave.” And all of the sudden my heart melted. I realized again that God’s design on me isn’t just to be someone who does powerful things for Him, but someone who thoroughly enjoys a relationship with Him. My service will come from that. I was excited that God did what He said. But the Creator, the One who formed me, the only One who is Holy—He is jealous for my attention.

The reality of this nailed me the other day on one of my breaks. I happened to have a random set from the International House of Prayer in Kansas City loaded onto my wife’s mp3 player at work. On it Misty Edwards was singing about wanting to know how to love. She began to sing out of a vision Bob Jones had where he went to heaven and was standing in line to be admitted into heaven. The question the Lord asked everyone before they were admitted into Heaven was “Did you learn to love?” And as she was singing I felt the weight of those words touch my soul. Misty continued singing as if to respond, “But Lord I prophesied, and I taught this class and did this thing and that thing…” and then would sing back as if the Lord was responding, “Did you learn to love?” And this is the great quest of our lives. Are we learning to love? Are we learning how to lay our lives down? Are we consumed?

This will be the measure of our ministry—was it filled with love? It will have nothing to do with the numbers of people who attended our meetings or how great the miracles were. The question of that hour…the one we need to be living for…is did we take what was most costly to us and lay it at His feet out of love. We even have to distance ourselves from asking how we can have the most impact in the Earth. Impact will come as we love Him well. If that hasn’t been your focus, join me in coming back to the only thing that really matters any way.

Fear Based Structure and Missionary Strategy

Fear Based Structure and Missionary Strategy

I've been in and out of town the last few weeks receiving and doing some ministry in Kansas City, Missouri. As I've been out and about experiencing different parts of the body of Christ and contemplating scripture I've discovered in my own life a lack of true boldness. It's an interesting thing, but most of us (most specifically me) in the body of Christ strategizes missions, church structure, and even theology with an underlying foundation of fear. When we really question why we do things, the guiding questions aren't "How will Jesus receive the rewards of His suffering?" but "How can we keep bad things from happening to His witnesses?" The latter thought process keeps us locked into man-centered outreach, "safe" church structures that don't call us to action, and theology that makes no provision for encounter with God. Until we make a dramatic shift in our thinking, being more concerned about the Glory of God than our own appearances, I believe the church will continue in a stagnant state.

What pushed me down this road was listening to Allen Hood at the Onething Conference. I’m pretty confident that Allen Hood will be responsible for more people permanently messed up in the Kingdom of God than many other men and women in our generation. While he was discussing the Forerunner School, he said that the number one question he's asked by potential students is "Is the school accredited?" And then he had the audacity to tell the truth. He said what people really want to know is "Will I be able to be paid after I attend your school?" And then with even more boldness he said, "Beloved, I am not interested in creating another safe system." He went on to say it was never safe to be a circuit rider for Wesley but they turned a nation back to God.

So that got me thinking about how we like to make everything in the church safe. Here's a good example. For weeks I've been talking about how I'm going to Kansas City to preach at a church there. After I finished, though the Lord met us, I began to realize that my weak, feeble preaching is nothing like that of the apostles in the book of Acts. Not only were my words not as powerful, but almost all of the recorded messages in Acts were amongst the unconverted. Beloved, the preaching of the apostles happened in city squares, markets, synagogues, and courtrooms. Some of the audience were cut to the heart and believed and others mocked, threw stones, and chased the apostles out of town. This was apostolic preaching and it required great boldness on the part of the Peter, Paul, and others of their day.

This was the style of missionary activity Jesus envisioned. When He describes their preaching strategy to the first apostles, He doesn’t give a politically correct strategy or method that works without risking their reputation or their name. He calls them to be “sheep in the midst of wolves,” “hated by all because of My name,” and even tells them they shouldn’t be expected to be treated better than Himself (Matthew 10:16, 22, 25). I’m not trying to be overly negative, I just desire us to soberly evaluate what Jesus had in mind when He calls forth preachers of the gospel. Jesus realized that this world is completely opposed to the Gospel of the Kingdom and our only hope for confronting evil is to do it boldly. He desired that His disciples would challenge the world’s system and bring down strongholds of darkness. Eventually it was said of these men that they “turned…the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). This mentality caused Phillip to hear the whisper of the Holy Spirit and run up alongside a moving chariot (Acts 8) and we have to possess this same willingness.

One thing I know about this subject is that I possess very little of the virtue I am describing. But God is so kind that He has left us a pattern in scripture. Acts describes a situation where Peter and John had just been thrown in prison for healing a man. The Sanhedrin’s reaction is recorded in scripture: “Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus,” (Acts 4:13). Then following the encounter, Peter and John regroup with the rest of the church and ask God to give them great confidence and signs and wonders to accompany the preaching of the word (Acts 4:29-30). These are the two things we need-an abiding presence of Jesus in our lives and continual intercession for God to strengthen us with boldness and perform signs and wonders as we preach His word. Let’s not only ask, but let’s begin to plan evangelism not making provision for what we’ll loose, but how much glory we can bring to the Lamb.