Narrow Path - Wide Open Life!!!

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." Matthew 7:13-14 NKJV

During a recent discussion with a close friend the other day, this thought came to mind: "It may be a straight and narrow path, but it's not a tightrope."

Everyone has their own ideas about salvation. You can go to all the different churches in your area and make that discovery. Or...if you are brave enough, you can even talk to the people in your community to hear all the different views.
Eternal Security
You can lose your salvation
Salvation through works
Salvation through baptism
No one can be saved (no hope of salvation)
These are just a few of the varied belief systems.

While I could list various reasons for the differences, only one thought seems to dominate my thinking: Our belief about God. That's right folks, what we believe about God determines what we believe about salvation. If we struggle with the idea that God is good (all the time) then we will struggle with the idea that salvation is eternal. If God is a God who must be satisfied then we will work ourselves like crazy trying to attain heaven. If we believe that God is angry then we will have no hope of ever being saved.

The Bible tells us that Jesus came to reveal the heart of the Father. What did we discover about God through His life and ministry?
We discovered that God was willing to overcome every boundary to bring us to Himself.
We discovered that God is a God of love, compassion, and abundant mercy.
We discovered that God is concerned with what happens in the lives of men.
We discovered that God wants to provide for our every need (including salvation).
We discovered that God doesn't want the world to be condemned. He wants the world to be saved.

Please understand that I do not believe we should be flippant about salvation or holiness. However, I have also discovered that God is very gracious. Much more gracious, in fact, than we sometimes believe. In the sacrifice of His Son, God has chosen to reconcile the entire world to Himself. He has chosen to forgive every sin. He has chosen to offer us the same quality of life that Jesus walked in. This life of holiness and separation unto God is made available by the work of the Holy Spirit. While the entry into eternal life my be narrow, the life inside is wide open.

I pray that you will be encouraged to walk in this abundant life. I hope that you can see that God wants you to live life to its fullest. Love, Joy, and Peace in the Holy Spirit is what the Kingdom of God is all about. Now go enjoy the life that He offers.

No Longer Looking...

I want to share a very familiar portion of Scripture with you in very contemporary language. The Message translates 1 Corinthians 13:13 this way: "But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, Hope unswervingly, Love extravagantly. And the best of these three is love."

The consummation that Paul speaks about is when we arrive at the place where there is no more lack in our knowledge. Right now we know in part and we prophecy in part. He describes it as looking through a dark glass. However, when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part will be done away with. As we focus on this passage, I want you to consider some things with me.

"When that which is perfect is come..." has been debated for years. Some have taken it to mean the completion of the Bible. In my opinion, this is a huge stretch. Others believe that when Paul is speaking of the "perfect" that he is referring to Jesus' second coming. This stance is a little more believable and even safer. However, after a conversation with a friend the other day, I want you to ask yourself a couple of questions:
#1 - What has Paul been talking about during this entire portion of the letter?
#2 - Is there any reason to think that he would change direction?

Paul has been talking about LOVE - in particular "AGAPE" love. This is the unconditional love of God. He tells us about the wonderful attributes of this type of love. What it can accomplish, how it operates in relationship, and what it does in our individual lives. Love has the ability to move us beyond ourselves. And based upon the last verse we find in the chapter, Paul did not change his subject. With all that being said, consider with me that Paul is telling us that when we mature in love (become perfect in love) then we will be able to operate in full knowledge.

That line of thinking is very radical for what most of us have considered. But think about it...Jesus was perfect in love when He walked on this earth. The love that He operated in, which was the nature of His Father, believed all things, endured all things, and hoped all things. And this type of love is operational in us as well when we learn to abide as Jesus did.

When we mature in the love of God then we will not have any lack. And one day, when love is completely perfected in us, all of the things we do in part will be done away with. This is the ability of AGAPE at work in our lives. It draws us closer to the Father, makes us more like our Creator, and speaks the language of the Spirit. Growing in love is growing in the likeness of Jesus. And the more we are conformed to His image, then we will no longer look through a glass darkly.

God's unconditional love needs to be the foundation of all that we are, all that we do, and all that we hope to accomplish. When I am ministering to those around me, love has to be the basis for that ministry. When I am working on relationships, love has to be the driving force. In my own relationship with God, love is to be at the center of my being. The truth in all of this is that we can have the faith that moves mountains, speak with the tongues of angels, and even give ourselves over to torture for our faith; but without love it means nothing.

Trust steadily in God
Hope unswervingly
Love extravagantly.

Worship as a Lifestyle

There's nothing quite like a Sunday morning worship service. I can recall many wonderful moments with the Lord as the church has gathered together for corporate worship. And why not? We are all called to be worshipers of our God. However, if the only time we worship God is during a service then we are missing out on what it means to be a genuine worshiper.

When God led Moses to stand before Pharaoh, He instructed him to say "Let my people go so that they may worship Me..." Worship was a part of the Old Covenant and came with a promise of blessing upon the people. Jesus took worship to another level when He said that the Father is seeking out those who would worship Him in spirit and truth. You simply cannot get away from this fact: God loves our worship, we are called to worship, and to miss out on worship is to miss out on the heart of God.

If all we know of worship is what happens on Sunday morning, I have to wonder if we are ever really worshiping. Worship is all about lifestyle. As a believer, worship should be an every day activity. It is the misunderstandings about worship that has caused many problems in the church today. Worship has been divided into at least two camps: traditional and contemporary. Both of these labels fall short of expressing the genuine nature of worship. The traditional camp becomes beholden to what has been. The hymns of the faith get elevated to a place where worship can happen no other way. On the other hand, the contemporary crowd lives with the notion that God cannot move unless the songs are more current. Unfortunately, during all of this debate, both crowds are missing out on what God is doing.

David was a man after God's own heart. His life was the life of a worshiper. The songs that he wrote came out of his own life experiences. This is why you find the vibrant songs of praise, prayers of faith, and memorials to how God has moved in the past in the book of Psalms. When worship is an every day relationship with the Father then we find that there are many reasons to bring praise to His name. We must stop viewing worship as an event and see it as a natural part of our relationship with God.

The reason why the traditional camp and the contemporary camp are missing out is because they have regulated worship as to what takes place on Sunday morning. Imagine if every believer spent time every day in worship of God and then came together on Sunday morning in overflow. That is a worship service that I want to take part in. Corporate worship should be overflow. It should not be the only place that I worship, and it should not be the only time that I get into the presence of God.

Another reason that these two camps have failed in this approach to worship is because we never consider the power behind the songs of our own heart. If I have to sing the words of John Newton, Horatio G. Spafford, or Gloria Gaither, I have regulated myself to their expression of praise when God wants me to worship Him from my own spirit. If I can't feel the presence of God unless I'm singing the songs of Hillsong, Jesus Culture, or Bethel, then I have missed the times of intimacy I could have with the Father through my own songs of praise. When worship becomes a lifestyle then the songs of praise that flow from my own well are the ones that can carry me into the secret place.

Corporate worship among the believers should be a time of recognizing what the Spirit of God is doing in our midst. It's about knowing when and what to sing. It's recognizing the times to meditate on His goodness, how to pray, and expressing our thankfulness to God. How do we get to that point? When we start worshiping as an individual (alone with God) then we don't have to have our favorite song on a Sunday morning. We won't allow our worship to be hindered by what happens in a 30-45 minute worship set.

Before I close, I want to share with you a personal experience. I was driving home yesterday and my mind was consumed with some pastoral "stuff." In other words, my heart was heavy. I was sharing with someone about singing a particular song this past Sunday. As I spoke the chorus of that song, God immediately pulled all of that heaviness away from me. I began to be joyful and have a deep sense of His abiding presence. All I could say was "I want more Lord. Give me more." As I continued to worship Him from this song that was on my heart, God flooded my heart with His goodness. It was absolutely amazing. And this experience reminded me of the importance of personal intimacy with the Lord.

Worship is a lifestyle.

Receiving from the Spirit

"But people who aren't spiritual can't receive these truths from God's Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can't understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means." 1 Corinthians 2:14 {NLT}

There is nothing quite as difficult as trying to understand spiritual truth with the natural mind. In fact, it is impossible. Logic - the area from which most of humanity operates cannot grasp the ability, power, and moves of the Holy Spirit. Logically, we want to contextualize the work of the Spirit. We would love to have a handle on how He speaks, how He prompts us, and what He's going to do next. However, trying to box in the work of the Spirit only limits Him.

Paul made it very clear to the church at Corinth that anyone not operating in the Spirit of God (those who are not spiritual) will never understand the truth that God wants to bring forth. God is continually revealing His hidden wisdom to those who are willing to receive it (Go to 1 Corinthians 2 if you need a scriptural reference). The question is whether or not we truly want to operate that way.

Here's why we struggle in this area:

It's Frustrating - the natural man is more natural. That is why it is much easier to function in the natural. Trying to function in the spiritual from a natural prospective will only leave us frustrated.

It's Useless - remember the religious men who tried to cast out demons in the name of the Jesus that Paul preaches? They were overtaken. The reason why they were overtaken was because they lacked the Spirit of God at work in their own lives. They were simply operating out of hear-say. This is one of the most dangerous things that we see in the church today. We know the verbiage but we lack the power of the Spirit at work. Not only can we not receive the things of the Spirit, we can't release it either.

It's Presumptuous - While I believe each of us were created to live in a spiritual reality, not all of us do. Failing to observe the limits of what is permitted or appropriate in the Spirit gives us the idea that we can do it all in our natural ability. When God begins to move in a person's life, He does enhance natural ability. But He also gives us supernatural ability to walk in the things that He has ordained.

How do we change this?

Ask - It is that simple. God wants to reveal Himself to you.
Seek - The truth that you are looking for doesn't always show up at your door. You have to seek it out.
Knock - Jesus promised us open doors.

If you and I are willing to get before the Lord and seek His face, He will meet with us. It's not about your spirituality. It's not about you own ability. It's simply about us making ourselves available to Him. If we are willing to be empty vessels that God can pour into then He will pour into us.

Shaking Yet?

Initial reports out of Richmond is that they were hit by a 5.9 earthquake. I have spoke to people near the NC line and heard from people in TN that felt the earth shaking. I was texting with a friend when all of this occurred and we were talking about some important issues concerning the church. I told him that "I believe God is shaking our current foundations." This is a shaking that brings an awakening!

In the natural, an earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. On the surface theses waves are felt in shaking and sometimes are accompanied by displacement of the ground. The epicenter of an earthquake is the point of ground level directly above the hypocenter. What I'm sharing with you today is a spiritual application of this natural phenomenon.

The sudden release of energy (power):
What has taken place in the church over the last few hundred years has led many to believe that God no longer visits His people in power. Other than a few saved souls, we haven't come to expect God to do very much. However, I believe that what happened on the Day of Pentecost is only a precursor to what could happen in our days. We could experience the sound of a rushing mighty wind, or the shaking of the buildings where we are praying. When God releases the power of His Spirit, what is seen in the natural could take on many forms. Are you ready for a release of His power?

The creation of seismic waves:
The result of the sudden release of power upon the church should be an evacuation from the church building. For far too long the church has been confined and enshrined. We have to move out of the building and release what God has placed within us. We would be the seismic waves of the shaking that God brings. Can you imagine a wave of God's people moving throughout their communities releasing the love of God? Are you ready to get caught up in what God is doing in the earth?

Shaking & Displacement:
What will happen during all of this? A shaking of our communities, our churches, our political structure, etc. You name it - God can affect it all through us. There will also be a displacement as the children of God go throughout the earth destroying the works of the enemy (which we should have been doing all along). I'm tired of the sickness that destroys, I'm tired of the sin that infects, and I'm tired of the enemy of our souls acting as though he is in charge. It's time to stir things up. Are you ready?

The epicenter:
The church (Body of Christ...not the building) should be at the epicenter of God's activity. It's unfortunate that many of the moves of God in the earth have taken place separate from the "church." While there have been many revivals that have taken place in certain churches, many of them have not been sustainable (for various reasons). But what I'm looking for in my day is an AWAKENING!!! I want to be strategically located where God is releasing the next move of His Spirit in the earth. God would be the point of release and we should be at the center of it all.

Conclusion:
While many people are considering the spiritual implications of tornadoes and earthquakes in our region, I tend to take a different approach. Many believers will look at these things as judgement, or try to focus on the fear factor created to bring about a harvest. I look at the church and ask: Are we shaking yet? Do we hear or see the earth groaning as a woman in childbirth? Do we understand that all of creation is waiting for the revealing of the sons/daughters of God? Are we ready to step out in our destiny?