Sunday, September 13, 2015
stripped
The way I have come to look at life, especially my life, is to ask the question, " What is God up to?" As I ask myself this question these days the word that comes to mind is stripped. When I started blogging again this past June I used the metaphor of darkness to describe my situation. Before I share a few thoughts on being stripped I'd like to refer you to a Scripture I ran across that confirmed the truth that we (as believers) are indeed still in a station of life that can be described as darkness.
We have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention
to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in
your hearts. (2 Peter 1:19)
How can the morning star rise in our hearts if we are already full of light - if Jesus, who is the light of the world, lives within us? Is Peter aware of something that we as modern believers are blithely unaware of? Have we confused faith with presumption?
I cannot speak for anyone else. I can only speak for myself. The longer I live the less I know and the less I have certainty about what I used to feel so sure of. I am being stripped. It is a very vulnerable place to be. As unsettling as it is I do find some comfort in it. I'm comforted by the thought that this is a necessary part of the process of drawing nearer to God. Whatever that quality is that a young child has that Jesus said was necessary to enter his kingdom, surely that same quality is necessary for growing and maturing within the kingdom. But that quality is so quickly lost! And if we don't regain it we're in grave danger! We get a clue as to what this quality is when Jesus says, "Unless you humble yourself as a little child . . ." A child's humility is very different than an adult's. It is unencumbered, open-faced, no facades. The only way we can get back to that kind of humility, I believe, is to be stripped. A child has no problems with intimacy, as long as it feels loved. Why am I not quicker to run to the open arms of Him whose arms are always open wide to receive me? As adults we have to work hard at recovering that child-like humility. A good place to begin is to start addressing your heavenly Father as "Daddy", or "Papa". I heard Bob Jones (a modern day prophet who is no longer with us) tell a group of pastors to do that (he himself used the term "Papa" whenever referring to God). I took his advice and discovered that although it took months to get used to doing that, it has now become my most frequent, one-word prayer - "Daddy!" That prayer has brought more peace and comfort to me than all the others combined! So often I simply don't know how to pray, words seem so inadequate. But I know that He who made me knows my heart and always will hear and respond to the cry, "Daddy!"
So let the stripping continue. The servant is not above the master. Before Jesus went to the cross he also was stripped. We could never go through what he went through for our sakes. But he does ask us to follow him and in some way become like him in his death.
I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his
sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from
the dead . . . I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me . . .
(Phillipians 4:10-14)
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
the Word II
In this post I would like to give some Scriptures that, to me, demonstrate what I've called this seamless tapestry between the written Word, the Scriptures, and the prophetic word. One is communicated on stone tablets or on the black and white of written letters on pages of a scroll or book. The other comes through less tangible means, but is equally real and equally authoritative and powerful. We can try and tease the two apart by saying the Scriptures are given to establish doctrine while prophecy is intended to be limited to specific times, circumstances and strategies. But what the two have in common is that they both are direct communications from God to us and they both require faith to receive. I don't have the intellectual gift to be a theologian or a Bible expositor to be able to get into all the intricacies of this matter. But I simply want to bring to your attention the following Scriptures and ask you to consider the possibility that Scripture and prophecy must be held together, not separately.
Man does not live by bread alone but on every word that comes from [present tense] the mouth
of the LORD. (Deut.8:3c)
You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear him, and keep his commandments and obey
his voice . . . (Deut.13:4a)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. (John 10:27)
You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life.
These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life. (Jn. 5:39)
In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various
ways, but in these last days he has spoken to to us by his Son . . . (Hebrews 1:1)
What I love about that last Scripture is that it shows how the movement of God toward us is one of increasing intimacy. And that is precisely why I have appreciated prophecy so much. Prophecy says to me that God is a personal God who loves me enough to communicate in the most personal and intimate of ways. When Jesus prepared his disciples for his having to leave them and return to heaven, he didn't say that he would send them the Bible to comfort them and be their guide. No - they already had the Scriptures! He promised them something much more intimate and personal, but just as authoritative - his presence, in the form of the Holy Spirit. Could we be led astray by "just following the Spirit"? Sure! Just like we could be led astray by just following Scripture (prime example: Pharisees). My point is, we need both. Scripture tells us that truth is established by at least two witnesses. We need the Bible and the Spirit - words on paper as well as revelation that comes by less tangible but equally real means.
I recently heard it said that the rock on which Jesus would build his church was the revelation of the Father. After Peter made his famous confession of Jesus being the Christ, Jesus tells him that flesh and blood did not reveal this to him, but rather the Father did. All the other "rocks" that Christians have argued that Jesus was going to build his church on cannot stand without this revelation of the Father to an individual's heart. And that is the essence of prophecy: God speaking, through his Spirit, directly to us, without the need of the Bible or a church authority. Prophecy is the sine qua non ("without which not") of the Bible and church authority. You can't have either of these without prophecy, but you can have prophecy without the Bible or church authority. God was speaking to anyone who wanted to listen to Him generations before the Bible was ever written (consider Enoch, Noah and Job) and He was obviously speaking during the time of the Scriptures. He is still speaking today to any and all who have a love for the truth. If it sounds like I am putting down either the Scriptures or proper Church authority I would say that I'm only wanting to put them in their proper place, which I believe is also the witness of Scripture and the apostles.
The Word became flesh . . . full of grace and truth . . . and from his fullness have we all
received grace upon grace. (John 1:14,16)
". . . the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it."
(Deut. 30:14)
Man does not live by bread alone but on every word that comes from [present tense] the mouth
of the LORD. (Deut.8:3c)
You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear him, and keep his commandments and obey
his voice . . . (Deut.13:4a)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. (John 10:27)
You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life.
These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life. (Jn. 5:39)
In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various
ways, but in these last days he has spoken to to us by his Son . . . (Hebrews 1:1)
What I love about that last Scripture is that it shows how the movement of God toward us is one of increasing intimacy. And that is precisely why I have appreciated prophecy so much. Prophecy says to me that God is a personal God who loves me enough to communicate in the most personal and intimate of ways. When Jesus prepared his disciples for his having to leave them and return to heaven, he didn't say that he would send them the Bible to comfort them and be their guide. No - they already had the Scriptures! He promised them something much more intimate and personal, but just as authoritative - his presence, in the form of the Holy Spirit. Could we be led astray by "just following the Spirit"? Sure! Just like we could be led astray by just following Scripture (prime example: Pharisees). My point is, we need both. Scripture tells us that truth is established by at least two witnesses. We need the Bible and the Spirit - words on paper as well as revelation that comes by less tangible but equally real means.
I recently heard it said that the rock on which Jesus would build his church was the revelation of the Father. After Peter made his famous confession of Jesus being the Christ, Jesus tells him that flesh and blood did not reveal this to him, but rather the Father did. All the other "rocks" that Christians have argued that Jesus was going to build his church on cannot stand without this revelation of the Father to an individual's heart. And that is the essence of prophecy: God speaking, through his Spirit, directly to us, without the need of the Bible or a church authority. Prophecy is the sine qua non ("without which not") of the Bible and church authority. You can't have either of these without prophecy, but you can have prophecy without the Bible or church authority. God was speaking to anyone who wanted to listen to Him generations before the Bible was ever written (consider Enoch, Noah and Job) and He was obviously speaking during the time of the Scriptures. He is still speaking today to any and all who have a love for the truth. If it sounds like I am putting down either the Scriptures or proper Church authority I would say that I'm only wanting to put them in their proper place, which I believe is also the witness of Scripture and the apostles.
The Word became flesh . . . full of grace and truth . . . and from his fullness have we all
received grace upon grace. (John 1:14,16)
". . . the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it."
(Deut. 30:14)
Monday, August 17, 2015
the Word of God
I grew up in a conservative, evangelical church tradition which used the phrase, "Word of God". or simply, "the Word", as a synonym for the Bible. Bible study could also be referred to as "getting into the Word" and someone who preached from the Bible was a preacher of "the Word". But the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements of the 20th century added a new dimension to "the Word". A long lost gift of the Spirit - namely prophecy - was coming back into use. More and more believers began to experience what Peter called the fulfillment of Joel's prophecy (Joel 2:28-32) on the day of Pentecost. Years later the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, exhorting them to "eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy (ICor. 14:1). It was this gift, Paul said, that would cause a visiting unbeliever to "be convinced that he is a sinner . . . and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, "God is really among you (I Cor. 14:24-25)!" Now good, Holy Spirit inspired, Bible preaching can have a similar effect. But what is unique to the prophetic gift is that it doesn't require Bible study and preparation. All that is needed is the anointing or inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And because prophecy comes from the heart and mind of God, it can indeed reveal knowledge and wisdom that would otherwise not be available to us.
But can prophecy be called "the Word of God"? Because of the long history of the Bible being referred to as "the Word of God" I would avoid equating the two. I agree with the teaching that says that only Scripture should be used to establish doctrine. The Bible is our ultimate weapon against the deceptions of Satan, as Jesus himself showed when he answered Satan's temptations with "It is written . . ." But, the fear that embracing the prophetic gift is to undermine the authority of Scripture is totally unwarranted. The opposite is true. When used properly, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, Scripture and prophecy form a seamless tapestry that demonstrates the wonderfully creative and diverse ways that God will communicate with men and women. Scripture itself is the best witness to this reality.
In my pursuit of God, of intimacy, it has been the prophetic that has captured me, that has drawn me closer. I have had friends, best friends, who have turned their backs on me because of my continuing pursuit of prophecy. Both of these friends, when I first became friends with them, shared my interest in and belief in the prophetic gifts. But for some reason that eludes me, they both came to a point in their own spiritual journeys, where they saw the prophetic as a threat to the final authority of Scripture. They became what I call, "Bible only" Christians (and it also had to be King James only, interestingly enough). Now I really appreciated these two guys (whom I knew at two different periods in my life, not simultaneously) and would have liked to have continued the friendship with them. But because of my continuing interest in the prophetic, and their increasing suspicion of it, they ended their friendship with me. I felt like I had become contaminated material to them, that they had to keep their distance. Those were two of the most confusing experiences I've ever had. I told one of those friends (who went so far as to make sure that his children no longer played with ours) that his cutting off of our friendship felt, emotionally, like being stabbed in the back.
But do you know what it was that brought perspective and consolation to me at that time? It was a prophetic revelation, entitled, The Hordes of Hell are Marching. This word explained that Satan's number one tactic against God's people is to bring division at every level possible, beginning in the home between husbands and wives, and on up to governmental and national levels. As we draw closer to the end of this age there will be increasing division, and warfare, between light and darkness, and the church will become involved in an all-out civil war within its own ranks . . . Oh-h-h-h-h, so that's what I've been experiencing . . .
(to be continued)
But can prophecy be called "the Word of God"? Because of the long history of the Bible being referred to as "the Word of God" I would avoid equating the two. I agree with the teaching that says that only Scripture should be used to establish doctrine. The Bible is our ultimate weapon against the deceptions of Satan, as Jesus himself showed when he answered Satan's temptations with "It is written . . ." But, the fear that embracing the prophetic gift is to undermine the authority of Scripture is totally unwarranted. The opposite is true. When used properly, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, Scripture and prophecy form a seamless tapestry that demonstrates the wonderfully creative and diverse ways that God will communicate with men and women. Scripture itself is the best witness to this reality.
In my pursuit of God, of intimacy, it has been the prophetic that has captured me, that has drawn me closer. I have had friends, best friends, who have turned their backs on me because of my continuing pursuit of prophecy. Both of these friends, when I first became friends with them, shared my interest in and belief in the prophetic gifts. But for some reason that eludes me, they both came to a point in their own spiritual journeys, where they saw the prophetic as a threat to the final authority of Scripture. They became what I call, "Bible only" Christians (and it also had to be King James only, interestingly enough). Now I really appreciated these two guys (whom I knew at two different periods in my life, not simultaneously) and would have liked to have continued the friendship with them. But because of my continuing interest in the prophetic, and their increasing suspicion of it, they ended their friendship with me. I felt like I had become contaminated material to them, that they had to keep their distance. Those were two of the most confusing experiences I've ever had. I told one of those friends (who went so far as to make sure that his children no longer played with ours) that his cutting off of our friendship felt, emotionally, like being stabbed in the back.
But do you know what it was that brought perspective and consolation to me at that time? It was a prophetic revelation, entitled, The Hordes of Hell are Marching. This word explained that Satan's number one tactic against God's people is to bring division at every level possible, beginning in the home between husbands and wives, and on up to governmental and national levels. As we draw closer to the end of this age there will be increasing division, and warfare, between light and darkness, and the church will become involved in an all-out civil war within its own ranks . . . Oh-h-h-h-h, so that's what I've been experiencing . . .
(to be continued)
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
created for intimacy II
This matter of intimacy has become a critically important issue for me, for my marriage, for my relationship with God. What brought this into focus was the prophetic word that I received through Larry Wentz (the small group leader I referred to in an earlier post). But it took me years to figure it out, and I'm still working on fully grasping its meaning. Like Scripture, prophetic words need some "de-coding", some time to chew on them, mull them over in your mind and spirit, before you can begin to fully assimilate them and integrate them into your being. The following is the prophetic word that Larry spoke to me. These are unedited notes, just as I wrote them down while Larry was speaking them to me.
"7(rams horns) x 7(trips around Jericho) = 49 represents the wrath of God which destroys strong-holds . . . Jericho (see Joshua 6) was "tightly shut up" (like my heart) for FEAR . . . Jericho = Fear (foundation for religious spirits, intellectualism, etc.) . . . Worship begins asa battle between the flesh and the Spirit . . . #1 [thing] "holy ground" (Joshua 5) - the Lord wants to bring me - my heart - to this place . . . "Mighty man of valor" is what God wantsto make me - guarding Naboth's flocks (warrior-shepherd) . . . valor = willingness to kill everything with the sword ("every living thing") . . ."My son, give me your heart" - wholly devoted to the Lord . . . [What follows is the specific word of the Lord to me, detailing what I can expect in the future . Again, it will appear disjointed because these are unedited notes, just as I wrote them down.] . . . "Slow moving at first . . . steady growth at a steady pace (developing intimacy and worship) . . . by mid-year the pace will speed up (I will be the only
hindrance at this point) . . . There is much land to be regained, taking back my land (taking one's inheritance). . . This is a year for development.
Why do I share this with you? For one thing, I like to blog because it is a way to help me process how I see God working in my life. But I do this in hopes that it will be of encouragement to others on their spiritual journeys. We all have very different and unique paths to walk, but I think it does help to be aware of each others' experiences. . .
For clarity's sake, let me summarize the various strands of thought that the last two months of blogging have been weaving. First, I highlighted the darkness - the struggles and difficulties that at times have felt so overwhelming to me. At the center of this struggle is my attempt to improve my relationship with my wife and with God. "Intimacy" seems to be a good word to summarize what I am striving for. It is what my wife so longs for from me and what I wish I could give her more of, but what I seem so unable to give. And my ability to draw near to God and truly worship Him also feels quite stunted. Psychology can probably come up with some explanation for all this, and I could have gone to get professional counseling. But I believe that the word the Lord gave me through Larry nailed it on the head. It hasn't been a "quick fix", but it has filled me with hope that God does have a solution for this and at the right time it will manifest. In fact, I received another prophetic word by a complete stranger (at the end of a worship time in a meeting where I was feeling totally out of it spiritually) which said the following: the Lord knows that I've been waiting a long time for something and He feels for( is sympathetic with) me about this, but what I am waiting for is coming, and I wouldn't understand why I've had to wait so long until I was "on the other side". I knew that this was referring to my life-long search to be filled with and fully functioning in His Spirit. My entire adult life I have felt like I was on the outside looking in on the experience of others who were being filled and "baptized" in the Spirit. In high school in California I got to observe first hand a part of the Jesus people movement. After that I attended fellowships and churches that were riding the wave of the charismatic movement, and then moved to North Carolina to be a part of what could be called a prophetic movement. While there (and not entering in to what everybody else seemed to be enjoying) I finally had to realize that God simply wasn't working in me like He was in others.
And that, I believe, is where my journey toward intimacy began to take on an added dimension. I had to get free of comparing myself with others and trying to duplicate in my experience what others were experiencing. The Creator loves to be creative! What a freeing realization! I don't have to be like anybody else! Creator can do whatever He wants to in me!
Our God is in the heavens;
he does whatever he pleases. (Ps. 115:3)
"7(rams horns) x 7(trips around Jericho) = 49 represents the wrath of God which destroys strong-holds . . . Jericho (see Joshua 6) was "tightly shut up" (like my heart) for FEAR . . . Jericho = Fear (foundation for religious spirits, intellectualism, etc.) . . . Worship begins asa battle between the flesh and the Spirit . . . #1 [thing] "holy ground" (Joshua 5) - the Lord wants to bring me - my heart - to this place . . . "Mighty man of valor" is what God wantsto make me - guarding Naboth's flocks (warrior-shepherd) . . . valor = willingness to kill everything with the sword ("every living thing") . . ."My son, give me your heart" - wholly devoted to the Lord . . . [What follows is the specific word of the Lord to me, detailing what I can expect in the future . Again, it will appear disjointed because these are unedited notes, just as I wrote them down.] . . . "Slow moving at first . . . steady growth at a steady pace (developing intimacy and worship) . . . by mid-year the pace will speed up (I will be the only
hindrance at this point) . . . There is much land to be regained, taking back my land (taking one's inheritance). . . This is a year for development.
Why do I share this with you? For one thing, I like to blog because it is a way to help me process how I see God working in my life. But I do this in hopes that it will be of encouragement to others on their spiritual journeys. We all have very different and unique paths to walk, but I think it does help to be aware of each others' experiences. . .
For clarity's sake, let me summarize the various strands of thought that the last two months of blogging have been weaving. First, I highlighted the darkness - the struggles and difficulties that at times have felt so overwhelming to me. At the center of this struggle is my attempt to improve my relationship with my wife and with God. "Intimacy" seems to be a good word to summarize what I am striving for. It is what my wife so longs for from me and what I wish I could give her more of, but what I seem so unable to give. And my ability to draw near to God and truly worship Him also feels quite stunted. Psychology can probably come up with some explanation for all this, and I could have gone to get professional counseling. But I believe that the word the Lord gave me through Larry nailed it on the head. It hasn't been a "quick fix", but it has filled me with hope that God does have a solution for this and at the right time it will manifest. In fact, I received another prophetic word by a complete stranger (at the end of a worship time in a meeting where I was feeling totally out of it spiritually) which said the following: the Lord knows that I've been waiting a long time for something and He feels for( is sympathetic with) me about this, but what I am waiting for is coming, and I wouldn't understand why I've had to wait so long until I was "on the other side". I knew that this was referring to my life-long search to be filled with and fully functioning in His Spirit. My entire adult life I have felt like I was on the outside looking in on the experience of others who were being filled and "baptized" in the Spirit. In high school in California I got to observe first hand a part of the Jesus people movement. After that I attended fellowships and churches that were riding the wave of the charismatic movement, and then moved to North Carolina to be a part of what could be called a prophetic movement. While there (and not entering in to what everybody else seemed to be enjoying) I finally had to realize that God simply wasn't working in me like He was in others.
And that, I believe, is where my journey toward intimacy began to take on an added dimension. I had to get free of comparing myself with others and trying to duplicate in my experience what others were experiencing. The Creator loves to be creative! What a freeing realization! I don't have to be like anybody else! Creator can do whatever He wants to in me!
Our God is in the heavens;
he does whatever he pleases. (Ps. 115:3)
a-part
Father . . . Daddy . . . I need you all the time, in every way! I cannot, I must not be apart from You!
I must always, in every way, be a part of You!
I must always, in every way, be a part of You!
Sunday, July 19, 2015
created for intimacy/jilted lovers
When the person you are closest to, whom you love the most, does something that hurts you, the first instinctive response is to pull away from them. The pain can be so sharp that all you want to do is to distance yourself from that pain. We've all experienced this, especially those of us who have been married. But my focus in this post is not on what we as humans experience, but rather on what our Creator, our Father in heaven, feels and experiences. We don't tend to think of God as having the same kind of feelings that we do, but nothing could be further than the truth. He doesn't have unrighteous feelings, but he certainly has the whole range of emotions that he created us to also have. For example, there are many Scriptures that refer to God as being a jealous God. Have you ever stopped to try and imagine how God must feel when we turn to something or someone other than him for comfort and security? Or to put it very bluntly, when we find Satan more attractive than God? After all. the enemy of our souls certainly appears more attractive to us than God, doesn't he? The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil will always look more interesting and enticing than the Tree of Life. So how did the Father feel when the first man and woman chose to listen to and obey the serpent rather than him? Nita Johnson, who has had many prophetic experiences and encounters with the Lord, said that Jesus told her once that the second most painful experience the Father ever had was when he had to kick Adam and Eve out of the garden (the most painful, obviously, was turning his back on his own Son, when he hung on the cross).
Theologians may be able to help us get some facts straight about God, but I don't think they have been very helpful in terms of helping us connect with God on a personal, intimate level. They can give a very logical and even accurate reason for why God had to keep Adam and Eve at arm's length, so to speak, after they sinned. Or why God had to exile his people from the land for 70 years after they had consistently turned their backs on him. Or why God warned the Ephesian church in Revelation 2 that if they didn't repent he would have to remove the "lampstand" (the light of his presence) from them. Yes, God is too holy to tolerate sin. But if we stopped to imagine his feelings, I think we would be much more impacted and maybe, just maybe, think twice before we jump back into our favorite sin. Here are some Scriptures that reveal something about how God feels:
Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has born?
Though she may forget,
I still will not forget! (Isaiah 49:15)
" O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone
those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your
children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings,
but you were not willing!" (Mt.23:37)
Somehow I find it helpful and even critically important to get beyond my own feelings and connect with the reality of God's feelings. Isn't that what intimacy is all about, what God created us for . . . to connect with him (as well as others, especially our spouses) at an emotional level? One of the most emotionally disturbing stories in the Bible is where God asks Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, on an altar. Do you think that maybe, just maybe, God was wanting to communicate something to his close friend at an emotional level? Don't you think God wants to communicate with any and all of us who want to get to know him better, at that same emotional (not just intellectual) level? And what do we do, when in the process of trying to draw closer to God, we feel jilted, abandoned by him?
Theologians may be able to help us get some facts straight about God, but I don't think they have been very helpful in terms of helping us connect with God on a personal, intimate level. They can give a very logical and even accurate reason for why God had to keep Adam and Eve at arm's length, so to speak, after they sinned. Or why God had to exile his people from the land for 70 years after they had consistently turned their backs on him. Or why God warned the Ephesian church in Revelation 2 that if they didn't repent he would have to remove the "lampstand" (the light of his presence) from them. Yes, God is too holy to tolerate sin. But if we stopped to imagine his feelings, I think we would be much more impacted and maybe, just maybe, think twice before we jump back into our favorite sin. Here are some Scriptures that reveal something about how God feels:
Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has born?
Though she may forget,
I still will not forget! (Isaiah 49:15)
" O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone
those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your
children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings,
but you were not willing!" (Mt.23:37)
Somehow I find it helpful and even critically important to get beyond my own feelings and connect with the reality of God's feelings. Isn't that what intimacy is all about, what God created us for . . . to connect with him (as well as others, especially our spouses) at an emotional level? One of the most emotionally disturbing stories in the Bible is where God asks Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, on an altar. Do you think that maybe, just maybe, God was wanting to communicate something to his close friend at an emotional level? Don't you think God wants to communicate with any and all of us who want to get to know him better, at that same emotional (not just intellectual) level? And what do we do, when in the process of trying to draw closer to God, we feel jilted, abandoned by him?
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
"preposterous"
I don't receive prophetic "words" very often. On average I would say that I probably get a "word" about once or twice a year and it is always in the form of an impression, a sense that a particular thought I'm having did not originate from myself bur from God. Other forms that prophetic words or revelations can come in are dreams, visions, trances or even by an audible voice. Impressions, though, are the most common form, at least for word-oriented people like myself. Visually-oriented individuals (like my wife) are more likely to get dreams or visions.
One of the first "words" I ever got was literally just one word, the word preposterous. How do I know that this was a "prophetic" word, that God was the one speaking this into my spirit? I can't give you an intellectually satisfying answer to that question. All I know is that when this word dropped into my consciousness it really caught my attention and I've pondered the significance of it ever since. The meaning of preposterous is: "contrary to nature, reason, or common sense . . . absurd." As the word itself suggests, it is the reversing of the proper order of things, putting "pre" where "post" should be or vice-a-versa. Drawing a tail on the nose of an animal is preposterous. A child correcting a parent, or worse yet, being elected president, is preposterous.
So why would God speak this word, preposterous, to me? I think he was wanting to clue me in to an important reality concerning the nature of his kingdom, of how he likes to operate. Some, in fact, have called the kingdom of God, the "upside down kingdom". Of course, it is man's kingdoms that are really upside down, right? When God takes over and turns our little kingdoms upside down he's really turning things right side up, the way they were originally intended to be. God's ways will always appear preposterous to our human way of thinking and operating. Ever since man listened to the original question/lie - "Did God say? . . . You won't die, you'll become just like God!" - we have been living in a preposterous, upside down world. But we think our way of thinking and behaving makes perfect sense, so when God intervenes and shows us the truth, the truth can appear to be quite preposterous at first. It can actually take some time to make the adjustment. In fact, we're always having to make adjustments (getting our "pre" and "posts" in the right order) the closer we get to God.
As I explore the value and importance of the prophetic (hearing the voice of God) in the coming posts, and compare that to the importance and value of the written Word, the Scriptures, be prepared for some adjustments in your thinking. Anyone who is serious about understanding the Scriptures and obeying the voice of God has to be in a continual mode of adjusting one's self to the preposterous nature of his kingdom.
One of the first "words" I ever got was literally just one word, the word preposterous. How do I know that this was a "prophetic" word, that God was the one speaking this into my spirit? I can't give you an intellectually satisfying answer to that question. All I know is that when this word dropped into my consciousness it really caught my attention and I've pondered the significance of it ever since. The meaning of preposterous is: "contrary to nature, reason, or common sense . . . absurd." As the word itself suggests, it is the reversing of the proper order of things, putting "pre" where "post" should be or vice-a-versa. Drawing a tail on the nose of an animal is preposterous. A child correcting a parent, or worse yet, being elected president, is preposterous.
So why would God speak this word, preposterous, to me? I think he was wanting to clue me in to an important reality concerning the nature of his kingdom, of how he likes to operate. Some, in fact, have called the kingdom of God, the "upside down kingdom". Of course, it is man's kingdoms that are really upside down, right? When God takes over and turns our little kingdoms upside down he's really turning things right side up, the way they were originally intended to be. God's ways will always appear preposterous to our human way of thinking and operating. Ever since man listened to the original question/lie - "Did God say? . . . You won't die, you'll become just like God!" - we have been living in a preposterous, upside down world. But we think our way of thinking and behaving makes perfect sense, so when God intervenes and shows us the truth, the truth can appear to be quite preposterous at first. It can actually take some time to make the adjustment. In fact, we're always having to make adjustments (getting our "pre" and "posts" in the right order) the closer we get to God.
As I explore the value and importance of the prophetic (hearing the voice of God) in the coming posts, and compare that to the importance and value of the written Word, the Scriptures, be prepared for some adjustments in your thinking. Anyone who is serious about understanding the Scriptures and obeying the voice of God has to be in a continual mode of adjusting one's self to the preposterous nature of his kingdom.
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