Jesus, The Church, And The Coming Kingdom

Tribal Gathering Notes

2006-10-09T23:34:00.000-05:00

I just recently returned from ROCK Tribal Gathering in Kansas City, Missouri. The Tribal Gathering serves as a chance for those who are part of this organic spiritual family to reconnect with each other and catch God's purposes for the next stage of our development together. This TG served as an incredibly powerful time that included several messages from Heidi and Rolland Baker. I'll try and make slices of their messages available in the future.

For now, though, I wanted to post my notes from my workshop with Dr. Timothy Johns on "Apostolic Strategies For Regional Revival." The workshop served as a great chance to catch the bigger picture of what we're after: not just a house church network, but the awakening of cities and nations facilitated by organic spiritual families. What appears below are my notes from the meeting. The document can also be downloaded for personal use here.

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Apostolic Strategies for Regional Revival By Timothy Johns

First thing we have to know is the thing we are discussing is biblical. Apostle is a biblical term that means “sent one.” It’s a military term. It was a designated representative from the king sent to expand the territory of the kingdom. The first apostle was Jesus. He was sent from Heaven to break into the earth and reclaim the Earth. He appointed other apostles.

The church was always meant to be apostolic. It was never meant to function without apostles. There were twelve perennial apostles, but there were post-ascension apostles that were raised up after the original twelve. Today the church is mostly lead by pastors. Pastors are not the primary vehicle for church leadership. The best thing a pastor can do is to build relationships with apostles. They release advancement in the church. The average church in America has 53 members, because we are part of a pastor-based system. Apostles think strategically about taking a city or region. They put the go in the gospel. Their agenda is unity, purity, maturity and equipping the saints. They are entrepreneurial. They are always working themselves out of a job.

Strategy—apostles do think strategically. Apostles don’t move the kingdom by strategy. They don’t organize the kingdom into existence. They move it by power and by love. They don’t cookie-cutter something. They release the power of the Kingdom and build an uncontrollable grass-roots movement. Jesus had general directions—Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria. He didn’t have programs, but Jesus did have strategy.

You need to embrace the apostolic giftings and grace. You may not be an apostle, but you can be apostolic. Whatever you connect with at a heart level, that you pull the nutrients from. People who pull on an apostolic gift become infected with that gift.

What was Jesus’ strategy for revival? First of all, He knew who He was. The number one thing the demonic realm will do to an apostle is neuter you. Jesus had to hear it from the Father. “You are my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” You have to hear from the Lord. The early stages is when Satan loves to take us out. We are most vulnerable in our embryonic stages. The battle for a region starts in your own head and your own heart.

Next, you want to only do what You see and hear the Father doing. You want to conduct the River of God in any way He wants You to. You have get filled up Yourself. Pray in tongues. Get full of the Spirit. Be in the word. Become a life-giving person. Become a great oozer. You have to begin to ooze the life of Jesus in your own way.

Go into an area and begin to pray and intercede. Ask the Lord for His vision for this area. Prayer walk. Whatever property you live on, plead the blood of Jesus over. Cancel all broken covenants over a property. You are trying to bring the Kingdom to a place that isn’t. What’s between you and your goal is a demon that has a legal right to be there because of a broken covenant. Pray for individuals.

Connect relationally with the people around you. Get their heart open through every means possible. Listen to their heart. Listen to three things. Listen their Yesterday person. Find out about their today person. Find out about their tomorrow person. Once you get into relationship, preach the kingdom. Gather converts. Begin to disciple them. Raise them into a family so they can reproduce.

You have to insist on government. People will want to hang out and do the Bible study thing. There will be a resistance to government. The battle in people’s hearts is over the kingdom and everyone will have authority issues. Western Christianity is about accepting Jesus and still being able to do our own thing. We want Christianity without fellowship. It’s not about obeying us, its about helping each other obey God. The reason most house churches fail is because they try to only be relational, without submitting to authority designed to expand the Kingdom of God. Apostolic authority is given to help us advance the borders of the Kingdom. The more you find your place in authority, you open yourself to the power of the kingdom. Plant a church with government in it.

A regional revival will need five elements.
1) Strategic Intercession—Unify with other pastors and leaders in the city and begin to intercede with them over the city.
2) Multiplying House Churches
3) Training or Equipping Experience for house church members
4) Celebration Experience
5) Unity with an Apostolic Tribe for an apostolic thrust. The family must be bigger than their region. They need cross cultural experiences.

A Return to Blogging

2006-07-15T10:54:00.000-05:00

So, I've been encouraged by a couple of friends to continue blogging. It's friends like these I appreciate. Look for articles about Jesus and the Kingdom revolution that is coming to continue here on this site.

In addition to this blog, I started another blog just about my journey in experiencing the glory of God by enjoying being me. It will have shorter, more day-to-day blogs in the original blog format. Without stealing from what I wrote there, I believe God's glory is found when we live deeply from our hearts and become real about who we are. The blog is called Pursuing Glory. Check it out some time.

Anyways, thanks to those who encouraged me to continue. Together let's keep pressing for the fullness of the kingdom.

Travis

The Kingdom is a Coming Age Part I

2006-05-10T08:05:00.000-05:00

As we read in our last post, the kingdom of God is best understood as the manifest reign of God.  Wherever God truly is reigning and extending His rule, there is the kingdom.  At some point, though we have to realize that when Jesus and the writers of the New Testament speak about the nature of the kingdom of God, there are certain aspects of it that we can see here and now.  Jesus commissioned the apostles to preach and demonstrate signs of the kingdom: “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give,” (Matthew 10:7-8).  At the same time there are certain aspects of the kingdom of God that we do not see.  The very fact that demons still exist plainly declares that Jesus has not fully destroyed wickedness and taken up the fullness of His reign on the Earth.  This leaves us with the question: Is the kingdom here?  Or is it still yet future?  The bold answer of Scripture is: “Yes!”

In order to understand this clearly we have to understand that the Bible describes two realities which operate in the world.  The word the Bible uses to describe these two realities is “aion,” the Greek word best translated into English as “age.”  Jesus speaks about the reality of two ages when He says, “Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come,” (Matthew 11:32).  Paul declared the reality of the two ages when he taught the Corinthians that Christ would be “exalted far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come,” (Ephesians 1:21).

Paul not only believed in the existence of two distinct ages but also believed that this current age stands in direct opposition to the coming age.  Speaking of the work of Christ, Paul says that Jesus “gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age,” (Galatians 1:4).  Paul also says that not only is this present age evil, but it is ruled by Satan.  Paul calls him “the god of this age,” (2 Corinthians 4:4).  Two ages exist, one a current age ruled by Satan and another a future age that will come to the earth and be ruled by the resurrected Christ.  These two ages not only exist but are in total opposition to each other.

.  While we experience a measure of the coming age (or the coming Kingdom) in this life we will taste it fully in the age to come.  As Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life,” (Mark 10:29-30).  There is a future age that will be consummated by the coming of our King.  Matthew 24:3 associates the close of this age with the coming of Christ.  Luke 20:34-36 associates our resurrection with the age to come.  Thus the age to come will be marked by the return of the resurrected Christ and redeemed humanity enjoying the state of resurrection.

The reality that is presented here has an important application. The kingdom of God has come in the first coming of Christ, but it is not fully consummated.  Many movements believe that we have the ability to establish the kingdom of God here on earth.  And we do, in a measure. But I believe the body of Christ suffers if we focus entirely on the kingdom now and aren’t seeking the kingdom of the age to come.  While we are commanded to seek the kingdom and pray for the coming of the kingdom, the kingdom will only be established fully at the return of the King.  We err when we pursue the kingdom now and neglect the fact that the fullness of the kingdom is still to come.  We haven’t seen it? the fullness of it yet.  This should encourage us.  There is a greater manifestation of the Kingdom that is coming.  Those who truly receive this message will both fully prepare for the coming Kingdom and be empowered to see the Kingdom established in their lives today, in the here and now.  As Paul said, “Therefore comfort [stir up or exhort] one another with these words,” (1 Thessalonians 4:18).

What Is The Kingdom

2006-04-24T21:02:00.000-05:00

George Eldon Ladd wrote an excellent book a number of years ago called “The Gospel of the Kingdom,” which combined theological scholarship with a prophetic edge that allowed him to both teach and preach about the nature of the kingdom of God.  I’ll quote him extensively over the next few weeks.  Our first question to ask is “What is the kingdom of God.”  Ladd gives us a great answer that will help our understanding:

     We must ask the fundamental question: What is the meaning of “kingdom.”  The modern answer to this question looses the key meaning to this ancient biblical truth.  In our western [understanding], a kingdom is primarily a realm over which a king exercises his authority. We typically think of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as the original group of countries that recognize the queen as their sovereign.

     The second meaning of a kingdom is the people belonging to a given realm.  The Kingdom of Great Britain may be thought of as the citizens over whom the Queen exercises her rule, the subjects of her kingdom.

     The exclusive application of either of these two ideas to the Biblical teaching of the Kingdom leads us astray from a correct understanding of biblical truth.  We must set aside our modern [understanding] if we are to understand Biblical terminology.  Webster’s dictionary provides us with a clue when it gives as its first definition: “The rank, quality, state, or attributes of a king; royal authority; dominion; monarchy; kingship.”  [This] is precisely [what is] necessary to understand the ancient Biblical teaching.

     The primary meaning of both the Hebrew word malkuth in the Old Testament and basileia in the New Testament is the rank, authority and sovereignty exercised by a king.  A basileia may indeed be a realm over which a sovereign exercises his authority; and it may be the people who belong to that realm and over whom authority is exercised; but these are secondary and derived meanings.  First of all, a kingdom is the authority to rule, the sovereignty of a king.

     When the word refers to God’s kingdom, it always refers to His reign, His rule, or His sovereignty, and not to the realm in which it is exercised.  We read in Luke 19:11-12, “As they heard these things, He proceeded to tell a parable, because He was near Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately.  He said therefore, ‘A nobleman went into a far country to receive a basileia and then return.’”  The nobleman did not go away to get a realm, an area over which to rule.  The realm over which he wanted to reign was at hand.  The territory over which he was to rule was this place he left.  The problem was that he was no king.  He needed authority, the right to rule.  He went off to get a “kingdom” i.e., kingship, authority.  The Revised Standard has therefore translated the word “kingly power.”

The kingdom of God is His kingship, His rule, his authority.  When this is once realized, we can go throughout the New Testament and find passage after passage where this meaning is evident, where the kingdom is not a realm or a people but God’s reign.  Jesus said that we must “receive the kingdom of God” as little children (Mark 10:15).  What is received?  The Church? Heaven?  What is received is God’s rule.  In order to enter the future realm of kingdom, one must submit himself in perfect trust to God’s rule here and now.

The Kingdom and the Resurrection

2006-04-19T08:26:00.000-05:00

Over the last couple of weeks the Lord has been stirring my heart to begin writing about the kingdom of God and its implications for the church and the earth at large.  As I was contemplating doing that last night, I remembered that Jesus spent forty days after the resurrection teaching the apostles about the kingdom and I just felt stirred to spend the next forty days looking into the kingdom of God.  What is it?  Why is it important? How does it relate to the church?  What are the principles by which it operates?  These are questions that I think we don’t really search out in a deep way, and I want begin to tackle these and more in this next little season.

I think it’s appropriate, though, to begin with this realization—the apostles were being taught about the kingdom of God by a man who had been raised from the dead.  I’ve just been hashing over that thought for a bit, and the implications are stunning.  The very resurrection of His body was a whole discourse to these men about the nature of the kingdom.  We handle the kingdom like it’s a normal thing that everyone has access to.  But the disciples spent forty days discussing the implications of kingdom life with their king who still had nail piercings through His hands.  Even after forty days of teaching by this resurrected king the apostles had not realized that Christ had no plans of taking over the Roman Empire.  They had not realized what Christ told Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this realm,” (John 18:36).  This seems like an elementary statement but most of church history is full of us confusing the two realms.

This kingdom that we’ve been called to partake of is one of another order.  Though it will resemble kingdoms we’ve seen it will be totally different.  Speaking of the resurrected body that Jesus received and we will receive in the age to come, Paul says, “All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish. There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory,” (1 Corinthians 15:39-41).  The point of all of this is that the kingdom we will receive will have a different type of glory than anything we can imagine on earth.  In order to rightly usher in and pray down the kingdom of God into the earth we must begin to understand what it looks like when it operates in our lives and breaks into the lives of the lost and dying.

I want us to begin to pursue the reality of the kingdom in our lives. But I want us to pursue it knowing that it will be incredibly different than anything else we’ve ever experienced.  It will be of a supernatural order above anything we’ve ever experienced.   Let’s not just get the words in our vocabulary.  Let’s begin to experience the reality of the kingdom in our every day life.  Let’s live life before a king who conquered death for us.  Let’s pursue the supernatural aspect of the kingdom that is available to us.  We’ll look more at what it looks like in the next few weeks—but our resurrected king has a promise for us—“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom,” (Luke 12:32).

One Hundred Fold Obedience

2006-04-08T12:42:00.001-05:00

I’ve been reading lately from this great book called “The Fire Within.” The author uses the lives of Theresa of Avila and John of the Cross as road maps to growing in deep prayer and intimacy with God. One of the ideas that has struck me about the book is the way in which the author connects what I have come to describe as “hundred-fold obedience” with those that are growing in their knowledge of God and prayer. The question that immediately jumped into my heart as I kept reading and re-reading that phrase was “Do I know what ‘hundred-fold obedience’ looks like in my life?”

So I began a journey back through the scriptures. I reread Matthew 13 to find out what stalls believers in their pursuit of one hundred fold obedience. I came upon a couple of interesting conclusions. First of all, 95% of what we learn from this parable is how to not let the word be choked out of our lives. This is good; we shouldn’t want the word to get choked out in our lives. But after the word takes root in our hearts and begins to grow, there is this whole other phase of producing fruit that we must consider. Some of us produce a 30 fold harvest. Some of us produce 60. Others of us (and I suspect very few) produce 100-fold harvest of what the Lord has sown into our lives. So I began to ask the Lord, “How do I get beyond simply trying to aviod choking the seed in my life to a place where I produce a hundred fold harvest?”

The following is a list of partial answers. I post them, not because they are complete or profound, but because I hope they are a roadmap for others out there. I hope these qualities of heart ignite other questions about our lives lived in this agnostic culture. My hope is it will spur us to ask how we can best cultivate that seed which the Lord has sowed in our lives. I also hope it spurs conversation about changes that need to be made in my life personally and the lives of those who are reading with an open heart.

“Intimacy with the Godhead” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5, Matthew 22:37, Philippians 3:8-14, Ephesians 3:19, Ephesians 4:1) One hundred fold obedience is primarily found in loving God with everything. Society will tell me that there is one reality—self—and that one reality must be loved over every other thing. But God calls us out of our blindness and declares to us there is a great reality called God that deserves to be loved above anything else. Intimacy with God is both the primary means and the end of one hundred fold obedience. It will be the measure by which all else is judged. Paul, the greatest missionary apostle, was consumed by this desire above all other things. Every other goal must become secondary to this goal. This quest will result in full possession and attaining the true fullness of God.

“Zeal Corresponding To Knowledge” (Romans 10:2, Psalm 69:9, John 2:17, Luke 16:16) Those who pursue anything with zeal, especially things which are unseen, are shunned by society. But God loves the zeal that burns with fire from His altar. Zeal for God’s house (His dominion and authority over His people and the earth) must remain a constant priority over every other desire. Zeal, however, has the unfortunate side affect of producing zealots who seek religion or another kingdom but miss Jesus. I must contend for zeal that is born in the heart of God. I desire to know and be zealous for those things He is zealous for.

“A Great Commission Commitment” (Matthew 28:18-20, Matthew 10:7-8, Mark 16:15-18, Luke 24:29, Acts 1:8, John 20:21-22, John 14:12-15, Isaiah 6) The great commission must be a priority. While society in general shuns true evangelism and the church seems to create a culture that makes new believers less effective in sharing their faith, I must grow in my ability to bring Jesus with power and authority to the world. I must grow in my ability to articulate, proclaim, and herald the coming Kingdom with kindness, authority, and power. Those I come into contact with must be gripped with the reality of sin, the majesty of God, and the sacrifice of Christ through the spoken word, the demonstrations of power, and kindness that transcends agnostic understanding.

“The Sacrificial Life” (Matthew 16:24, John 6:9-11, 1 Corinthians 2:9-10, Acts 9:16) Because society promotes the good of the individual over the good of the people and the good of God, I desire to live a sacrificial lifestyle given over to service. I must learn to both take up my cross daily and walk the narrow way. The source of strength God gives to the believer to walk this road comes from discovering something of what eye has not seen nor ear heard, what God has prepared for those who love Him.

“The Increase of Virtue” (Galatians 5:16, 22-24, 2 Peter 1:5-10, Matthew 5:2-10) Growth in kingdom-virtues is undervalued in our culture. We enjoy facades of character while decaying from within. A greater yielding to God and His purposes will produce spontaneous reactions of the heart that resemble His. The goal is not to practice these virtues, but in abiding with God, see these virtues mature and grow.

“The Battle Against Greed” (Matthew 13:22, Matthew 6:33, Matthew 6:22-24, 1 Timothy 3:3) There will be a constant drive because of the culture we live in (including our Christian subculture) to always want more money, more stuff, and to be entertained more. When the desire for more comes to my soul, I must resist the need for prestige, security, and entertainment by capturing thoughts of “need” and redirecting them toward seeking first the Kingdom.

“Revelation and Understanding” (Matthew 13:19, Ephesians 1:17-19, Colossians 1:9-12, Mark 4:24-25) Failure to understand the word that is given will allow the enemy to come and snatch the word from our hearts. Our society frequently writes off that which it does not understand or comprehend. I must contend for a true understanding of the written word of God, of His spoken word, of any and all encounters and visitation, and His heart towards me. Understanding that what is given leads to increased understanding in time.

“Endurance Through Hardship” (Matthew 13:20-21, Matthew 10:22, Matthew 11:6, 1 Peter 4) Suffering for the cause of the Gospel is a necessary and important part of the Christian walk. Our culture glorifies suffering from the enemy (sickness, shame) and despises suffering that comes to purify believers (persecution). My pursuit of obedience must include girding myself to suffer in such a way that I endure and bring glory to God. I must endure hardship and find my heart free from offense at God.

“Consecrated and Committed Relationships” (Hebrews 3:13, Hebrews 10:23-25, Acts 2:44-47, 1 Samuel 23:16) We live in a world that defines men as strong when they are able to live alone and aloof from others. True purity, however, only comes as we allow our lives to be seen for what they really are by those closest to us. My pursuit of God must include a band of men (and their wives) who are committed to Jesus, who will spur me forward in the things of God. They must be those who will confront me on issues of sin and walk me through the restoration process.

The Necessity of True Fellowship at the End of the Age

2006-03-06T17:49:00.000-06:00

A couple of weeks ago I started posting about some changes the Church is going to need to make in order to prepare herself for the end of the age.  The dramatic shift of world events that are about to take place in a short time are so incredible that if we don’t begin to change now will be unprepared. There are many things the Lord will do to ready us ahead of time. One of the areas that we need preparation in is the area of our relationships. These won’t be the typical plastic-smile, Sunday morning relationships that have become too common in our day.  They will, of necessity, be deep partnerships that value real honesty and are centered in God. We must begin to form true relationships that will last in the day of trouble. The tribulation and judgment that is coming on the earth will test every human relationship known to man, but I believe that in the midst of it God will use true fellowship to bring stability and life in the midst of turmoil.

The best way I can describe the place true fellowship has in the midst of end-time disasters is to describe a vision that a friend of mine had.  The church I was part of at the time was about to go through a nasty church split.  My friend stood up and delivered a vision to the entire body.  In his vision, he saw people from the congregation each floating on their own life preserver.  There was a rope that was long enough for each person in a life preserver to hold.  Some held onto the rope tightly, others paid no attention to it.  Those that held on to the rope were the ones who weren’t tossed to and fro when the storm came and those who paid no attention to it were scattered.  When the vision was delivered it was powerful.  But as you might imagine, some realized the wisdom of it and others did not.

Fast forward to September of 2005.  Hurricane Katrina had just hit the Gulf Coast.  The power of the storm wiped out much of New Orleans and other parts of a couple of states.  Some friends of mine from a house church movement travel down to Louisiana to share the love of Jesus with those most deeply affected by the hurricane.  The one letter I received from them during their time there held shocking implications.  There were people everywhere, scattered and hurting.  Many of them were Christians who belonged to good, normal churches.  However, because they weren’t intimately connected with each other when the storm came they were totally alone.  They had no one to stand with them, no one to help them get out of town, and once the storm passed, they had no one to help them rebuild their lives.  They weren’t part of an intimate fellowship.

I believe the Bible has some very clear thoughts on true fellowship.  Jesus established close, committed relationships as the vehicle for the early church.  Committed groups acting as spiritual families were the wineskin for both the presence of God and discipline within the Church (Matthew 18:15-20).  The glory poured out in the book of Acts was given to a body that was serious about their devotion to the Lord and to one another (Acts 2:42-47, Acts 4:32-37).

But the most important fact to understand is that fellowship was intended as a vehicle to prepare us to face the calamity ahead.  Hebrews 10:23-25 says, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near,” (Emphasis mine).  Notice that we’re supposed to “assemble together.”  This is more than just everyone gathering together in a big building.  Assembling has to do with two or more parts being united strategically for a greater purpose.  We need others precisely because the temptation to fall away will be so great. While this is good for us all the time, it takes on new significance “as the day approaches.”

Beloved, what is around the corner will make Hurricane Katrina pale in comparison.  And yet I fear that when the “storm” comes many of us won’t be holding on to the rope.  The Scripture is very clear that in the last days there will be a terrible apostasy among believers (2 Thessalonians 2:3), and I am convinced that one of the only safe places for believers in the days ahead is in and among true relationships built on love for Jesus and commitment to one another. Many of us will have “dropped our rope” out of fear or bitterness.  Community can be too hard or unrealistic for us, and so in the end we will drop the very lifeline the Lord gave us.  We don’t have a choice in whether we desire fellowship or not.  It is necessary to survive in the days that are coming.

So, as always, I leave us not so much with a tidy end to a post, but a commission to begin.  Some of us find ourselves in the midst of relationships that need repair.  Some of us are isolated and need to get back to the basic discipleship principle of meeting together with other believers.  Others of us must become real in the relationships we possess. Wherever we are, we must go further.  There is a path to life that is narrow and few are they that find it.  Make no mistake, fellowship is a path to life that few find and is narrow, but it will yield great fruit in the days that are coming.

Greatness In The Eyes of God

2006-02-26T20:50:00.000-06:00

I just finished studying Matthew 11:7-11 and I was stunned. I began to read simply expecting another chance to dig a little deeper into what the Word says.  But God is so good that while I was reading He gave me insight into His heart, and I just had to share it with you all.  The five verses in this passage are talking about John the Baptist and his position in the coming Kingdom that Jesus was launching in the Earth. If we read them closely, however, we come to understand that God views man with different eyes than we do ourselves.  He sees us through a different lens and we must see through that lens if we want to come alive with the purposes of God.

To set up the story a little bit, John had been thrown in prison (11:2) and had sent his disciples to ask Jesus if He really was the One that John predicted He was, or if John had actually missed it in his prophecy (11:3).  Jesus gave the disciples of John a demonstration of His ministry to boost their faith (11:4-5), and then turned and gave them one more word of exhortation for their teacher: “You're blessed if You're not offended by who I am,” (11:6).  All of this paints a pretty bad picture for John the Baptist.  I mean here is this guy who’s ministry exploded overnight.  He called thousands to repentance and then had the fortitude to prophesy that his distant relative was the coming Messiah.  But now overnight he gets thrown into jail, his ministry ends, and he's stuck sending his students to ask questions about the Messiah that are based in doubt.

But the story doesn't end there.  And that, in and of itself, is the great part.  See most of us now would sit and judge John because we judge ourselves in these sorts of situations.  We do well for a minute and then something hits us from left field and we're left in doubt and unbelief about what God actually said.  And what we think about ourselves, or anyone else we see in that position, is that they've missed God.  But listen to what Jesus said about this man in the darkest hour of his life.  First, he asked the crowd around him what they went out to see when they went to see John in the wilderness.  They certainly didn't go out to see someone who was unstable and didn't stick to his ground on issues; like a reed blowing in the wind (11:7).  They didn't go out to see someone of earthly importance who dressed the part (11:8).  Then listen to the sound of joy in His voice when He described John, “You went out to see a prophet, but he was even more than a prophet!” (11:9).   The word Jesus used for “more than” means “abundantly more than.”  He was way more than a prophet. Jesus went on to describe John as His forerunner.  Without going into great detail, this position is what made him more than a prophet.

Jesus went on to begin His next statement with “Truly I tell you...” (11:11) which shows that this was a solemn statement that He expected His hearers to pay attention to.  Concerning John, the one who was doubting, He openly declared, “No one born to a woman has arisen who is greater than John the Baptist.” This is the part I love most about Jesus.  He looked at this man, discouraged in faith and doubting the very prophesies that had come from his mouth because the road had been weary,  and Jesus declared, “He is the greatest man ever born!”  Don't You love that about Jesus?  He  was totally unconcerned that the Pharisees never liked John.  He could care less that everyone else in the crowd was judging John for looking like a doubter.  He knew that John was great even though the rest of the world didn’t see as He saw.

But Jesus didn't stop there.  He went on to describe our greatness.  This One who sees John differently than we see him now says He sees us differently than how we see ourselves.  According to Jesus, anyone who is part of the Kingdom of God is greater than the greatest man born up until that point!  Understand this!  The smallest, most insignificant believer in the kingdom is greater than John the Baptist! God judges greatness very differently than we do.  Man looks on the outside, but God looks at the heart (cf. 1 Samuel 16:7).  Not because of anything you've done, but because you've trusted in Jesus, you are greater than any man born in the first 4000+ years of human history and every non-believer since Jesus' day.  Beloved, you are great because you have called on the name of Jesus.  You are part of a unique race, beyond normal humanity, loved by the Lord, designed for God's enjoyment, and His alone.

Now to be fair, some of us live what look like normal, everyday lives.  But don't settle for the lie.  You become something different when you believe you are unique.  You are great.  There is greatness in you that the world may not see, but the ultimate Judge of the entire world is already enjoying it in you.  You may even be like John the Baptist, whose glory days have past, and you feel like you've doubted God.  But God sees and knows, even what we do not.  You are great in God's sight.  Believe it.

Cultivating A Prophetic Spirit at the End of the Age

2006-02-16T15:46:00.000-06:00

Part of God’s plan for the earth during this season of tribulation that is coming (see the previous post “An Introduction To End Time Events and Their Meaning For The Church in this Hour”) is to raise up a prophetic witness in the Earth that proclaims the reality of Jesus. He wants fiery messengers that not only declare who Jesus is, but what He is after in the hour of testing. Again, its important to know that Paul declares “But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day…” (1 Thessalonians 5:4-5). Joel 2:28-32 declares God’s intention to speak to His people in unprecedented ways at the end of the age. The prophetic spirit will operate like never before. The messengers God is raising up will not only have dreams and visions, but they will declare things that will be backed up by supernatural signs in the heavens. The highest display of this will be the two witnesses that God will raise up to challenge the Anti-Christ (Revelation 11:3-6). But Daniel declares that in those days, “The people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits,” (Daniel 11:32, NKJV).

It’s important to understand that the messengers operating in this prophetic anointing won’t just appear on the scene out of nowhere. They are currently being raised up in our church nurseries, our high schools, and the secular business world. They are us. Those of us who are alive on the earth have the responsibility of cultivating revelation of what’s coming. The prophetic anointing doesn’t just fall on an individual in one day. It comes as believers day after day submit to the Lordship of Jesus when no one is looking. This listening to Jesus and submitting to Him start now. We must cultivate a prophetic spirit in our fellowships and our own individual lives so that we can receive as much as God will give in the day of trial.

Prayer and Fasting

One of the best ways to begin to break off apathy our lives and develop prophetically is to begin a journey of prayer and fasting. Most of us pray, but very few of us pray to actually hear from God. Beloved, our God is always speaking. He is always declaring and creating by His word. Part of the purpose of prayer is to hear God about relevant issues of our lives. The Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24-25, Mark 13, and Luke 21) and the book of Revelation are stunning declarations that God desires to tell us about the end times. I believe God wants to shine new light on old scripture so that our hearts are awakened to the hour we’re living in. As we posture our hearts in prayer to understand what the scripture says, God will give dreams, visions, and insights into the word that will produce biblical urgency for the hour we live in and give us strategy to prepare for the events that are coming (cf. Eph 1:17-19). This is what we desperately need in this hour.

Fasting is another crucial element that must be added to our spiritual journey if we desire to understand the hour we’re living in. Fasting, for those outside of the lingo, is a discipline in which believers voluntarily give up eating for a period of time in order to humble themselves before God. Fasting positions our hearts before God so He can expand our hearts and give us more revelation. This discipline will have incredible significance when God is pouring out judgment on the Earth (Joel 2:1, 2:12-17). Because fasting helps our heart receive from God faster and opens us up to supernatural direction (Acts 13:2) it is a needed tool in gaining insight for the hour ahead.

The biblical model for this pursuit is Daniel. Daniel saw in scripture a prophetic promise for Israel that would affect his generation. When he became aware of the promise in scripture, he set his heart to receive revelation from the Lord about the details of what the Lord desired to do in his generation (Daniel 9:2-3). As he is prayed, the angel Gabriel visited him, and not only gave him information about his generation but also gave him a description of the future history of Israel. We look to Daniel for much of our end-time revelation because he persisted in prayer and fasting and God answered him with true revelation. This is the need of the hour—Daniels who will fast and pray to understand the times and seasons we’re living in. Only a gripped heart will prepare for them appropriately.

The Harvest

Again, we must remember, we are not just preparing for ourselves. Daniel declares in Daniel 11:33, “Those who have insight among the people will give understanding to the many…” We prepare because we believe God not only wants to direct us by His voice, but He is going to entrust us with direction that will save many in those days. While the nations are raging against Jesus, those with prophetic insight will be declaring the way to safety in the midst of trial. Unbelievers and believers will be delivered from destruction because we took time now to hear God’s voice. Signs in the heavens will back up our words and the end result will be the salvation of many. “And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as the Lord has said even among the survivors whom the Lord calls,” (Joel 2:32). Beloved, cultivating a prophetic spirit isn’t an option or a hobby, it’s a necessity that will affect the salvation of many. Let’s begin a lifestyle of prayer and fasting to cultivate a prophetic spirit for the days ahead.

A Note To Readers

2006-02-16T15:45:00.000-06:00

This is just a quick note for those who are new to blogging. At the end of each post there is a place for replying to the post. I’d love to see the blog spark some serious discussion about what’s ahead for the body of Christ. If you have a comment you’d like to add, click on the comment link at the bottom of each post and enter your thoughts. Thanks!

An Introduction To End Time Events and Their Meaning For The Church in this Hour

2006-02-09T16:13:00.000-06:00

An unprecedented thing is happening in the body of Christ worldwide. Not since the first century church has so much of the body of Christ believed that we are living at the end of the age. And yet this profound thought—that we are the last days body of Christ—has had little affect on the lives of every day believers. I say little because it has had a measured affect. People have come to know the Lord through the Left Behind books, older Christians have moved forward because this belief has stirred them, and even a small remnant of people have begun to live their lives at odds with the spirit of this age.

But to be fair, I think the vast majority of us, including myself, think about the end of the age much like a bill that needs to be paid: It nags the back of our minds, we know that it’s coming up, but to control the reality of it we keep it almost subconscious. It’s an easier thought to control from the back of our minds. But if we desire to live the way the early church lived we must believe what they believed. Peter, Paul, John and others were continuously living their lives in light of the appearing of Jesus at the end of the age, and we must do the same.

We need to dust off the scriptures and proclaim their relevance to our generation. There’s a whole generation that’s been convinced that end time events are too difficult to understand or that they have no relevance to today. But Paul says to the church, “ Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, ‘Peace and safety!’ then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day We are not of night nor of darkness. . .” We are of the light, and the day of the Lord should not overtake us like a thief. We must be sober and alert for the hour that is coming.

The Deception

Part of the apathy that the body of Christ has suffered is the result of many blindly accepting the pre-tribulation rapture without diligent study of the scriptures. A diligent study of Scripture will show that Jesus is promised to only come again one more time, not twice as many believe. The idea that Jesus will come once secretly and then again in open view is found nowhere in the Bible. To the contrary, speaking of the coming of Jesus, John writes to the churches in Revelation, “Behold He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him,” (Revelation 1:7, cf. 2 Thessalonians 1:6-8). Yet good, honest believers have taught this theory for years. The result has been a belief that the events of Revelation 7-17 have no bearing on the life of the church, when in fact those chapters were written to prepare us for that hour.

For those taught this doctrine, my previous statements will almost no doubt ring heretical in your ears. But when dealing with end time scriptures we have to be very careful to say what the Bible is saying instead of making the Bible say what we say. For example, Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4, “ Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter…Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.” Notice that Paul places the second coming of Jesus after the great apostasy and the rise to power of the Anti-Christ. This has massive implications for the church that require preparation.

We cannot continue to put off preparing for the days that are ahead. Trite answers will not save us in that day. Only reality birthed in the hearts of believers by the Spirit of God will stand the onslaught of wickedness and persecution that is coming. Not having our minds made up on this topic will only cause us to vacillate spiritually. We’ll have an idea that we need to prepare but not the surety that causes us to prepare with the diligence required. We must be sure about the reality that is coming. Scripture promises there will be a great falling away. This will affect people in every geographic region. There will be persecution that comes from a satanically inspired world leader. This man, whom the Bible describes as a beast, will affect people you know. We must prepare.

Preparing

In the weeks ahead I’ll discuss a little more of what I believe preparation will look like. But we must have a vision of the days we’re preparing to live in. Scripture describes the day of the Lord as “the great and very terrible day” (Joel 2:11). There are going to be positive aspects of the day of the Lord that we must prepare. There will also be “very terrible” things that will require us to change in ways that will be difficult to imagine. God promises in Haggai 2:6-7, “For thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the LORD of hosts.” Everything that can be shaken will be shaken. This will include the church. We must prepare both for the glory that is coming and the judgments because they will both shake us.

Most of us, including myself, have very little clue about how to prepare for revival. America has been without true awakening in the land for so long that we’ll have no idea how to respond with thousands of new converts in each city. Remember the book of Acts experienced 3,000 conversions in one day and more were added to their number every day. At the same time, if a believer lied to the leadership of the church, they died (Acts 5:1-11). This is the glory that rested upon the early church. And God’s desire is to pour out more glory in the last days than He did in the first. The glory is going to break our current church structures in a way few of us realize.

But while revival is breaking everywhere God’s judgment upon on the Earth will reach catastrophic levels. There will be a massive turning away from Christ in the Christian community. If it is possible the Anti-Christ will attempt to deceive even the elect. Few of us have positioned our hearts to follow Christ even if no one around us is. This isn’t only problematic; it will devastate us in the days to come. Though we haven’t seen it in America, persecution against the church has been rising steadily in almost every corner of the globe. When the world comes under the dominion of the Anti-Christ it will only increase. Finally, God will pour out judgments on the earth as part of His end-time strategy to fully possess it. The whole testimony of Revelation is clear about this. All of these conditions on their own are dreadful, but they will all happen simultaneously, rocking the Earth to its core.

Beloved, the time has come to prepare soberly for what is ahead. I believe that the days ahead are going to be the best we’ve ever imagined, but the loss sustained from not preparing is staggering. In coming weeks, we’ll discuss how to react to these times, but for now let’s get a vision for the season we are living in. Only a proper vision will prepare us for what’s ahead.

Did You Learn To Love?

2006-01-26T16:26:00.000-06:00

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

2006-01-19T16:14:00.000-06:00

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.

The Prayer of the Heart

2005-12-22T15:52:00.000-06:00

In my continuing amazement with this little book "The Way of the Heart," I thought I would take some time this week and journal on the place of prayer in the place of interior devoition. Prayer is the key to a deeper relationship with the Lord, but often it's left for only a select few to "do." But in this hour God is raising up wise virgins in the body of Christ who are storing up oil for their Bridegroom's return (Matthew 25:1-13). Prayer is one of the means that we use to cultivate our intimacy with the coming Bridegroom.

Nouwen spends the third section of his book, after discussing the necessity of solitude and silence, turning to prayer. One of the major distinctions that Nouwen makes is that there are two types of prayer. One type of prayer is the prayer of the mind. The prayer of the mind is where we pray with our intellect. Praying from our intellect has a negative outcome in our lives. We begin to think of prayer as an intellectual chore that we must do daily. And because it becomes an intellectual chore we cherish it as much as we do figuring out our checkbook or reading a college text book. We walk away from having done it without an exchange occuring between us and Heaven. Because the prayer of the mind is a function of the intellect, we often walk away bored with God. We remain unfascinated by God and the result is a thousand other things capture our attention.

But for Nouwen (and for me) the answer to regaining a prayer life begins when we discover the prayer of the heart. The desert fathers (who are the subject of "The Way of the Heart," you really gotta read this book!) believed that there was a place in prayer where you connected with the Spirit of God in a way that gave you rest.

Most of us believe that this pursuit of more of the Spirit of God is an external journey. What I mean is that to gain more in the Lord we must receive the Spirit of God coming out of Heaven and resting on us. But the Bible speaks frequently about "Christ within" which is our hope of Glory (Colossians 1:27, 1 Peter 1:11). The pursuit for more of Jesus is an internal journey to lay hold of Christ within. This was the conviction of the Apostle Paul (cf. Ephesians 3:14-20), the desert Fathers, and virtually every devotional master in the centuries since.

It is the search for Christ within that the prayer of the heart is concerned with. Nouwen writes, "By its very nature such prayer transforms our whole being into Christ precisely because it opens the eyes of our soul to the truth of ourselves as well as to the truth of God. In our heart we come to see ourselves as sinners embraced by the mercy of God...It unmasks the many illusions about ourselves and about God and leads us into the true relationship of the sinner to the merciful God. This truth is what gives us the rest of [the prayer of the heart]."

The practice of this prayer of the heart is simple and requires little mental gymnastics. The Desert Fathers discourage us from using too many words. John Climacus says, "Wordiness in prayer often subjects the mind to fantasy and dissipation; single words of their very nature tend to concentrate the mind. When you find satisfaction or compunction in a certain word of your prayer, stop at that point." As Nouwen says, "The quiet repitition of a single word can help us descend with the mind into the heart...this way of simple prayer, when we are faithful to practice it at regular times, slowly leads us to an experience of rest and opens us to God's active presence."

I discovered the way into this method of prayer by accident. I wasn't trying to look for a way of prayer, I was just trying to seek God with a group spending time in corporate interecession. While the worship was going, I began to pray in tongues and ask Jesus to visit us with short, one or two word prayers. And as I continued doing this, I begin to sense the presence of God rise in my soul. He was visiting me. What excited me was that this works anywhere! I can pray like this at work or while I'm shopping, and as I do the Spirit of God comes and meets me.

While this method of prayer is simple, it does require time. Twenty or thirty minutes will work. Spend time praying in the Spirit first, focusing on Jesus. Most find it helpful to pray actual words, and I would suggest using words in Scripture. "The Lord is my Shepherd," from Psalm 23 is a great start, but whatever scripture is relevant to your spiritual condition will work. As you do, pay attention to what the Spirit is doing inside of you. Eventually you'll notice the Lord leading you in various ways. Visions, dreams, and the prophetic will become more common place in your life. Fascination with God will increase and the pleasures and toys of this world gain less and less of a hold on you.

The thing I'm most excited about as I've been learning this discipline of prayer is that I'm becoming a lover of the presence of God. Instead of having to spend time in prayer, I'm finding myself spontaneously entering into the presence of God throughout the rest of the day. My hunger and thirst for the presence of God is returning, and my soul really is beginning to enter into the rest.

But this journey isn't just for me, its for everyone. We're all called to live fascinated and alive in God. Make it your goal, even this week, to steal away and spend time with the Father, just as Jesus did. Don't let the business of the season steal your heart away from the purposes of eternity. And believe this is for you. As you sit before Him, your heart will be changed.

Silence And The Future World

2005-12-15T15:26:00.000-06:00

So I had other plans for a blog this week, but I found myself reading "The Way of the Heart" by Henry Nouwen again and it was too incredibly meaningful not to journal about. I have to commend this book to you. The whole book is a masterful description of disciplines that transform us into the image of Christ at the end of the age. But this time around, I noticed two segments of the book that really grabbed me. I'll write a little about the first today and maybe I'll write about the second next week.

The desert fathers (the subject of "The Way of the Heart") found themselves in a transitional period of history where the meaning of being a witness for Christ dramatically changed. The church went from a three century period of persecution into a period of time where the whole Roman Empire was flooding the ranks of the "Christendom." As Nouwen comments, "If the world was no longer the enemy of the Christian, then the Christian had to become the enemy of the dark world." Many practiced this by fleeing to the desert. These men discovered a new martyrdom by offering themselves as living sacrifices to God (Romans 12). Nouwen sums up the content of the desert father's lives by the story of Abba Arsenius. He was well educated and entrenched in the court of Emperor Theodosius. He asked the Lord how to enter into sanctification, and the Lord spoke to him, "Arsenius, flee, be silent, pray always, fore these are the sources of sinlessness." These three disciplines (solitude, silence, and prayer) become the central focus of Nouwen's book. Today I want to write about silence, because it seems of its importance and relevance to Christianity at the end of the age..

First, I have to say one more thing about the book as a whole. It becomes progressively more difficult to understand because each chapter is deeper than the last. To understand the chapter on silence, you have to really be able to relate to the first chapter on solitude. And to relate to the chapter on prayer, you must be able to truly understand silence. I realized this after reading my wife's copy. My wife is notorious for writing in the margins of books that are hers, and she puts question marks by things she doesn't understand. As we've loaned the book out to others, we've found, especially with this book, that they totally agree with all of her question marks in the margin. And its in the section on silence that I found the most question marks. One of the most frequent questions was next to statements that assert a connection between silence and the future world. According to Nouwen, the Desert Fathers believed, "that if a word is to bear fruit, it must be spoken from the future world into the present world. The Desert Fathers therefore considered their going into the silence of the desert to be a first step into the future world." Its this disicipline of silence that brings us into the presence of the future that I want to write about.

The reality that silence brings us into the presence of the future shouldn't surprise us. It's what we're called to. Jesus Himself speaks of "this age and the age to come," (Matthew 12:32). This age is the world we currently live in and the age to come is the Kingdom of God that will be fully realized at the return of Jesus. Hebrews 6, in describing some who fall away, mentions they "have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come." There is a power of an age to come that is avaible for us to taste and experience right now. It is the power of the Kingdom of God, the power of another age that will descend upon us at the end of this one, and the future the Nouwen is calling us into. As we fellowship with God in silence, we come under His Lordship, He becomes the Center, and the power of God that we sometimes relegate only to Heaven or the Second Coming begins to work in us now.

How does this work? Silence strips away all distractions. Silence makes us come to grip with the internal noise in our souls. As we gain victory over all these internal noises, a still, small voice emerges that engages us with the conversation of another, heavenly realm. The subtle whispers of heaven (that will be amplified dramatically at the end of the age) begin to be heard. There is no mystical power in the silence. It's that we're finally undistracted enough to enter into true communion and the power of an indestructible life becomes ours.

And as crazy as it sounds, silence affects the way we speak. Silence creates a boundary space for us to receive the love of God. It's in receiving this love that the words we speak become powerful. The words become more than clanging symbols (1 Corinthians 13:1). They go from well intentioned words of encouragement which are helpful but so often feel shallow to prophetic words crafted by hearing clearly from Jesus. One of the prophetic ministries I became familiar with in Kansas City continually teaches silence as the path to revelation from God. When our silence is filled with the presence of God, we emerge from that silence with words freighted with power from Heaven. We become friends of God in silence and the secrets we utter when we emerge betray that friendship to the world.

To be real practical, this only happens in a significant degree when we are deliberate about it. We can only enter into silence if we take it out of the realm of theory and into the realm of our schedules. We must make time for it. We have to be willing to take an hour, a few hours, or even a day or two where we can sit before the Lord without interuption, without the sounds that so stroke our souls, and without our voice which creates so many distractions. Actually getting time in silence really is the biggest fight.

Once we get there, we must learn the companion discipline of communing prayer. I may talk a little bit about that next week. But the real issue is to believe that this is for us. This isn't a discipline for spiritual giants, it's a source for all true believers. It will free us from the shallowness of this world and begin building in us the qualities of a Kingdom that is coming. And that's what we're called to be: heralds of another age that is already breaking in on this age now.

The Re-Launch of a Previously Misdirected Blogsite

2005-12-08T13:48:00.000-06:00

I was part of a ministry at one point in my life where the apostolic leader launched a church planting initiative in his city. I found out about six months into those church plants that the apostolic leader had allowed every senior leader in each of those churches one transitional period where they were able to “fire” the entire staff. The lead pastor would then “rehire” those on the staff that fit with the direction the church was going and fill in the gaps left by those who weren’t rehired. A little dramatic? Pehaps. But the wisdom behind this leader’s thought process is that everyone needs one fresh start. We all make mistakes, especially early in the game. So now I’m going to tell you about mine.

I began this blog to be a journal and sounding board for those of us who believe that God desires to change the understanding and expression of Christianity in the Earth. The very first thing I posted was “Wolfgang Simpson’s 15 Theses,” which is this amazing article about the shape that I believe the church is going to look like before this whole thing is over. But then I took a step back and looked at the article. It’s revolutionary. It’s brilliant. I’ll probably post it again some time. The only problem is it was pointing my heart into a different direction. It talks much of the church and the change that is coming, but it speaks little of a vibrant relationship between Christ and His people. It didn’t direct my heart into the love of God.

And as I reflected about my situation, I realized that I found myself in a place similar to much of the body of Christ. We’re constantly focused on what’s next. Our message is the change that’s coming to the structure of the church or how to prophesy or more effective ways to reach lost people. The preaching and teaching and writings in the land have everything to do with the church and have little to do with Jesus. We have an obsession of what we look like, who we are, and how we do things. In the end, it’s clouded our vision of Jesus.

We have to come to an understanding that everything is about Christ. The Apostle Paul had this as his aim. He says in Galatians 1, “But…it pleased God…to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach Him…” (Galatians 1:15-16). It was the pleasure of God to reveal Jesus to Paul, not so that Paul could teach about the five-fold ministry or inner healing or cross-cultural missions. It was the pleasure of God to reveal Jesus to Paul so that Paul might preach Jesus. God desired a vessel to declare the excellencies of Christ. “ To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ,” (Ephesians 3:8). Christ and Christ alone consumed Paul. I’m convinced Paul saw his life as a relationship with Jesus that happened to be apostolic in nature.

A great example of this was Sadhu Sundar Singh. He was born in India and accepted Christ at the age of 15. He lived out his love for the Lord by leaving everything he owned, walking through India meditating on Christ, and preaching to anyone who would listen. His ministry had an enormous impact on India and eventually lead to him preaching abroad in Europe. His message wasn’t how to do what he did or a new secret to powerful ministry, but “the universal human need to seek God, and on God's revelation in Christ. The one thing necessary for those in both East and West was to sit in silence at the feet of the Divine Master, who was equally hidden and equally accessible to all,” (“Wanderer For Christ” by Timothy Dobe, Christian History, Issue 87, Summer 2005, Vol. XXIV, No. 3, Page 37.).

My goal in saying all of this about us is that for me, it’s time to repent. Not only is it time to re-launch the blog site a little differently, but its time to live life differently. I want to start living with Christ as the center and the reason for who I am. Not my ministry, not my brand of Christianity, not my talents, just Christ.

I don’t know what it’s going to look like at all but I want to invite you along in the journey. A leader I greatly respect has repeatedly said that, “it takes God to love God,” and I think the first step we have to take is to find our way into His presence, waiting on Him, knowing Him. Christ had to be revealed to Paul before He could be revealed through Paul. The same will be true for us. Let's begin to spend real time meditating on Him, not for meditations sake, but to truly know Him. Let’s seek to know this God-Man and make Him the center of finances, our emotions, our words, and our lives. When this really happens, I believe that true apostolic Christianity will emerge on the Earth, and the result will be like nothing ever seen on the face of the planet.