A Serious But Subtle Sin- Giving Glory to Strategies

Over the past few years, God has been re-awakening in us a hunger for His Presence. There is nothing like His glorious Presence to bring life, renewal, growth, power, healing, joy…fruit.  I hope that in the past few years your desire, like mine, for more of His Presence has been growing.

This morning Im once again contemplating the calling on our lives, on our mission to see Supernatural growth and increase.  What hindrances still remain in us, in the way we think, in what we believe, in what we are doing, that are preventing a greater outpouring of God’s Spirit upon us?  What could still be blockages in us, things that prevent the flow of His power, anointing, and favor?  I know it is possible in God, to see exponential increase.  I know it is God’s will for His Kingdom to grow in that kind of way among the unreached of South Asia. 

I think it is important that we continue to ask the Holy Spirit to highlight things in us that need to change.  This morning, and the last few days, I’ve been thinking about the subtle, but serious sin of idolatry.  Im quite sure if you are reading this you are not regularly bowing down to idols.  But what is idolatry really?  It is giving glory to anything other than God.  Giving the praise and worship He deserves to something other than Him.

I’ve been wondering if we sometimes do this.  I’ve been wondering if we may sometimes start out with the right desire- to see His Kingdom grow and see rapidly multiplying churches.  But if somewhere along the way, we start to believe that it is our methods that will work to bring this about.  We start to believe that what we need is to understand more about T4T, or a better use of story telling, or for churches to be more participatory, or more contextual.  We think: if these things would happen, then we would see the growth we long to see.

This is a subtle, but serious lie and perhaps yes, even a sin we can fall into.  Now I'm not saying that these things are bad or that we don’t need them.  But if we start to give glory to the method, instead of to the God who has filled that method, given life to it and used it, then we are in danger of idolatry.  God will not bless or use that method like He could, until He can trust us that if He does, He will get the glory, not the method. 

If God really started to bring His life, favor and anointing upon the particular way you are doing things, would you stand in awe of Him, worship and thank Him? Or would you use that as a way to prove to others that what you’ve been saying works all along really does?  Who gets the glory if you see fruit…supernatural growth? God? You? The method?

These are important questions to seriously ask ourselves. We must examine our hearts.

I wonder if God sometimes actually withholds his anointing on certain “good methods” because He knows that if He uses them, they will become an idol in our lives.  To protect us from this sin and the separation from Him it will cause, in His kindness maybe sometimes He doesn’t bring fruit through them.

We have also been on a journey of learning what it means to honor others and what it means to create a Culture of Honor.  Paul Manwaring says that honor is when we recognize the glory of God within another.  We are able to honor others, because we can see God’s glory upon and in them, even if they are not believers.  They are still made in the image of God, his creation.  So when we honor them, we honor Him.

The same is true regarding methods.  I’ve become very careful about condemning other methodologies that don’t seem to me to be very wise or good.  This used to be quite acceptable and frequent among us.  We would condemn things like mass crusades, or passing out tracks, or TV evangelists…or yes, traditional “elephant” churches.  These days in my heart I feel a great caution about doing this.  Why?  Because my wonderful God has chosen to use those things sometimes, to fill those things with His life, His glory, His power.  I want to honor them, because I honor Him.  I want to honor them, because they (many times, though not all the time) have been carriers of the glory of God.  When I speak with disdain for these things, I am telling God I am bigger than He is, wiser than He is, and I know what methods or vessels He really wants to fill.  How ridiculous of me!  No, God delights in using the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.  Why?  Because He alone is worthy of the glory.

Does this mean that strategy and methods don’t matter?  Does this mean we should just throw out all our efforts to see a change from traditional methods to more organic ones?  No.  It doesn’t. 

What it does mean is that we must commit ourselves deeply, at a heart level to recognizing that when God, in His goodness, begins to work through a method (be it contextualization, storying, T4T, or even a mass crusade) it is Him who deserves the credit and glory for what He has done.  If lives are changed, if His Presence is there and experienced, if any kind of Kingdom Advance happens, He deserves the glory, the praise and the awe He is due.  Lets once again commit ourselves to worship, praise and give glory ONLY to Him.  Lets once again commit ourselves to be people who honor others because they carry something of the glory of God.  Lets rejoice in everything God is doing, and commit to worship Him when He places His favor upon our strategies, or even upon methods or strategies we thought would never work. J

Lord, keep us free of this subtle sin.  Make our hearts devoted to you alone.  And may you enable me to always give only YOU the glory for the great things you do in bringing your Kingdom to this world.

He Waited 14 Years to Hear About The Message of the Cross

God is planting His Kingdom in hearts, it is ripe and waiting for us to reap the waiting harvest! I heard a story today from one of of the church planters I coach regularly.He told of a man who went to a festival and wanted to buy something to help him worship. All around were many gods, idols and images.  He saw a cross there along with the other images. He decided to buy it.  When he brought this home, many friends and relatives around him asked him why he had bought it and not another kind of image. He replied "I don't know. I just wanted to have this."

Two months ago, 14 years after he had purchased the cross, a follower of Jesus visited his home, saw the cross and asked him if he knew the meaning of this symbol. When he heard the message of the cross for the first time, he was so happy to know the God he had been praying to! He invited Jesus to be His Savior and Lord.  Soon he chose to become a disciple of Jesus and fully follow this God He had prayed to, but now KNEW in a personal way. How many more wait to hear the story we have to tell??? God lead us to them and give us boldness to share your amazing good news with those waiting to hear!

The Harvest is truly RIPE. Laborers are few, and the laborers that are in the harvest are sometimes timid or discouraged.

We want MORE! Of what?

More people or more ministries does not automatically equal more fruit or more effectiveness or an increase of the Kingdom.  Lets not ask how can we increase ourselves, but how can we see an increase of His Kingdom?

It is automatic for us as humans to think that pursuing More in God means an increase of what we are already doing.  When we say we want to see more happening, it is our reflex to think of more programs, more schools, more staff, more teams, more money, etc.  We think of having more of what we already have or doing more of what we are already doing.

It is crucial that we shift our mindset away from this kind of thinking.  We need to ask a different question of the Lord and of ourselves if we want to truly see Supernatural Increase of God's Kingdom in our lives, ministries, cities, people groups, and nations. God's math is often very different from ours.  Our math says "work twice as much= twice as big a harvest".  God's math says "work less and rest more= greater fruit and harvest".  Our math says "Run more trainings= more workers." God's math might say "Train different people in a different way= more workers than you can imagine!"

Its really crucial in these days as we are asking Him for MUCH MORE and for Supernatural Increase, that we also ask Him what exactly He wants us to be doing, changing, and especially doing more of.  Sometimes the best thing you can do to increase a harvest from a field is to let it rest a season and not plant there at all.  Sometimes the best you can do is to plant a different crop there.  What is the Master Harvester telling you to do to see the release of Greater Fruit?  What is He telling you to start believing and declaring in faith? What is He telling you to tear down or stop doing?

God INDEED wants to bring much more Kingdom fruitfulness and transformation across the world and in South Asia.  He is very busy and at work doing this!  As we listen carefully and partner with Him, as we are careful to only do what the Father is doing and only say what He is saying, as we listen and obey, we WILL see an amazing Increase of the Kingdom! First in our lives, families, disciples and churches.  It will then overflow and not only touch but transform the communities, cities and nations in which we live.

Lets remember, MORE KINGDOM does not mean MORE effort or MORE of the same. Lets learn God's math and see how He multiplies in ways beyond what we can dream of.

Leading "Want to" meetings vs. "Have to" gatherings In YWAM

Have you ever thought about how weird it is that YWAM is an organization known by outside people as "Youth with a Meeting" and has more meetings, conferences, trainings and LTs than any other organization around? And yet, I have only met one or two people in YWAM who say "I love meetings!"  Most others I hear talking about this say "I hate meetings" I'd much rather be out in the field doing ministry.

So why do we do this?  Are we stuck in our "Have to" gatherings?  What would it take for us to change our behavior as an organization and become a group of people who attend things because they really, really want to, and because they believe God is leading them to be there and a part of that meeting?  (If this isn't an issue for you and you always want to go to every meeting you go to in YWAM, please stop reading now.  You have my admiration and congratulations!) Maybe its just me, but I feel like I'm regularly both leading and attending "have to" meetings.

It may take some pretty radical actions from us a leaders to see our organization change from a Structure of the Law (read; control, have tos, should, I will be mad at you or disappointed with you if you don't), to a Structure of Grace (read; freedom, want tos, pursuing God given desires and I will bless and love you even if you don't do what I think is best).

I'd love to see us experiment with some things related to this, by having "want to" leadership meetings where we tell people, only come if you feel it will help you to come and you really want to be there because you feel God's given you something to contribute and/or learn there.  We'd love to have you, but you are totally free to choose whether you attend or not.  If you ARE coming, I'd love to hear what God's telling you to give at this gathering, and look for ways to include that in what we do.

What if we just cancelled our regular, routine, structural meetings completely and only gathered when we know God is saying to?  And what if when we gathered, we only asked people to come who also felt this from God?

I'm guessing that these kinds of changes would bring about an incredible increase of Anointing, God's Presence, and a Release of the Power of His Spirit in those times.  I'm guessing that we would have a lot more ownership and contributions from people in the meeting and they would flow in their varied gifts so the Body there, be they 3 or 3000 would function more like a body.

I'm curious what would happen if we had the courage to try leading "Want to" meetings.

Anyone want to give it a try with me?

 

Living from Fullness Rather Than from Empty

This morning I'm remembering something that happened to me a few years ago.  We had been on a long trip, traveling as we so often do by the Indian rail system.  Our train had been delayed and we arrived into our own city very late at night.  We finally reached there and got a taxi to go to our home.  It must have been around midnight.  We got into a taxi, bargained for a price and headed home..the final leg of a long journey. A few minutes into the ride the taxi driver stopped at a shuttered store front got out and started banging on the front of it.  “What in the world are you doing?” I asked.  “I need petrol” he said. It wasn’t even a proper petrol pump!  They didn’t have any so we crept along hoping to find a place to get petrol so we could go forward and make it home.  We finally found a station that was open, got a liter or two of petrol and made our way to our destination.

This made me think.  How often am I like that taxi driver?  How often do I do ministry, or “pick up passengers” running on fumes or running on empty?  If you’ve lived in South Asia at all, you know that this is the way taxis, autos and most people function.  They always have a mostly empty tank, and just put in a few liters at a time.  They operate from emptiness rather than fullness.

In these days, I believe God wants us to change our spiritual paradigm.  He wants us to become people who operate from FULLNESS in Christ.  Lets look a moment at a passage from Colossians.

Colossians 2: 6-9  So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, ⁷ rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces^[a] of this world rather than on Christ.⁹ For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, ¹⁰ and in Christ you have been brought to fullness.

Say that last phrase to yourself today- “in Christ you have been brought to fullness.”  Declare it over your life, over your team, over the people you have been discipling- “In Christ, you have been brought to FULLNESS!”

We as church planters and busy leaders are often tempted to run on empty.  To only go to the "petrol pump" long enough to get the liter we need to make it to the next destination.  This may lead to some fruit, but it won’t lead us to abundant fruit or abundant life!  Take time to go to Him today and receive FULLNESS. You may not feel full, but chose to believe His Promise- In Him you ARE brought to fullness.  This is your inheritance and your destiny from the Father!  Lets live it and lets give it away.  No more emptiness, we live and walk in Fullness because Christ lives in us!