Heart Tracks - The Pathway

"I am John, your brother. In Jesus we are partners in suffering and in the Kingdom and in patient endurance. I was exiled to the island of Patmos for preaching the Word of God and speaking about Jesus. It was the Lord's Day, and I was worshiping in the Spirit. Suddenly I heard a loud voice behind me, a voice that sounded like a trumpet blast." Revelation 1:9-10

The book of Revelation is a book of mystery for sure, but it is a mystery that the Father wishes to share not only with John, but with any and all who would seek to hear His voice. Jesus says in 3:22, "Anyone who is willing to hear should listen to the Spirit and understand what the Spirit is saying to the churches." Anyone who is willing. Anyone means you and me. Are we really willing to hear? If we are, we will only hear if we are living in the Spirit.

This is not a writing about end times prophecy or the meaning of the book of Revelation itself. It's about the desperate need of the Church, and those who comprise it, to be a people, persons who live their life "in the Spirit." A people who listen in every part of life for the voice of God. A people who see and hear beyond the natural, the surface, for what the Father is revealing through His Word, His actions, and His speaking into hearts. Yet it is only those who live in the Spirit that can both see and hear Him in all of it.

Take our current political situation. We are so tied up, bound up, with the idea of personality. We are making judgements in accordance with this. We are locked in to how they come across to us in the natural and make our choices in line with that. Yet I believe fully that this is a grave mistake. The Father calls His people, His Church, to see far beyond the natural, and to hear what He is saying in the midst of it all. In this season where confusion is reigning supreme, God is speaking and showing. Are we hearing and seeing? But it is not just in the area of politics and culture that such discernment is needed. We are to be like the men of Issachar, who knew and understood the temper of the times they lived in and how to respond accordingly. We live in a world and culture that programs us to impulsively react to what is happening around us. That is living in the realm of emotion and intellect. To depend on either is to build upon sand. He calls us to a life lived out in Him, in the fullness of His Presence. Seeing, hearing, and responding to all things with and in His Spirit. There is only one pathway to such a lifestyle. It is to live in, be soaked in, His Life and Presence. Living in His Word, learning to hear and discern His voice. Knowing His leadings, and His closings. It's a life of intimacy, oneness, of abiding. John knew it. Paul knew it. Many, many others have known it. Do we?

John was living and worshiping in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. For Him, every moment of every day was the Lord's Day. What would our world look like if it were the same with us? What if our fellowships were made up of such people and led by such pastors? What would it be like if, when we come together, we would not seek to spend most of the "worship time" trying to get people's attention, but were from the beginning "in the Spirit?" I know there will always be those who have yet to develop such an abiding in Him, but the expectation of the Father and the Son is that we would live in such a Spirit. Francis Chan once asked the question as to whether we really had any desire to live in the experience of the 1st century post - Pentecost Church? The pathway to such an experience lies to and through the cross, and into our own "upper room," where we tarry before Him until He comes upon us in power. That is the pathway to a life in the Spirit. Do we walk it? Do you? Do I?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Identity

"Then the Lord asked him, 'What do you have in your hand?' 'A shepherd's staff,' Moses replied. 'Throw it down on the ground,' the Lord told him. So Moses threw it down and it became a snake. Moses was terrified so he turned and ran away." Exodus 5:2-3

I remember reading a view of Mark Batterson's on the above Scripture. One I had never heard before, but that spoke deeply into my heart. He said that the staff Moses carried was very much a source of his identity, showing all just who he was; a shepherd. His life was very tied into that identity. When the Lord directed him to throw it down, he was letting go of the way he saw himself, and all that was tied into that. It spoke to me so deeply because for much of my life, my identity, like so many others, has been totally linked to what I do, or who I was. When what we do or who we are is so linked, it can very much turn into a prison cell. Because what we do or who we are can change. They can be taken away from us or lost. When they are, we are left with the sense of having no real identity at all. When we see ourselves as being husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, pastors, or whatever profession or livelihood we have pursued, we are left adrift emotionally, even spiritually, when they are gone. If we are not one or any of those identities anymore, then who are we? What are we?

For me, this was a terrible struggle in my life. I still remember the devastation that took place when it seemed to me that I had lost everything; marriage, family, ministry. I wasn't a husband anymore. Not a father either. Certainly not a pastor. If I was not any of these, than what was I? As I've related in past writings, the Father did a wondrous and miraculous work of restoration in my life, bringing me back into a full time pastoral ministry, showing that His gifts and calling are indeed irreversible. Yet for many years I still struggled with other aspects of self identity. Having someone to love and be loved by was still missing. I felt the void, and believe me, I spent many years praying and seeking to have that again. Yet all the while, God was trying to open my eyes to what my identity really was and where it was to be found; in Him. First, and always, our identity is to be found in Him. Not in what we do, or who we are, or what we call ourselves or see ourselves as. It is found in Him. When we discover that true identity, we also find true and real freedom. We need to live in our eternal identity, and not the one(s) we find in this world that is so swiftly passing away.

I at last reached the place of discovering that I had the full, infinite love of the Father, no matter who I was or what I did. Married, single, in or out of ministry, I was His. Real fulfillment and wholeness would never be, could never be, found in something or someone outside of Him. To finally "know" that meant that someone, anyone....even I, could survive the loss of any and all of these passing things, and still be whole and complete in Him. There might be many missing and important elements in my or any life, but He would never be one of them. I would not be marked by a label any longer. None of us need be. The world will always seek to place us under a label; winner, loser, success, failure. He puts only one upon us. One that moves out like circles from a stone thrown into a pond; son, daughter, child of the King. We are His, and no matter what this fading life may bring, that will never change. That is our identity.....All that remains to be asked of any of us today is, have we entered into that identity in full, or at all? If not, wouldn't this be the perfect time for it? Don't be identified by the staff you may be carrying, that might change. It will change. Be identified by the name He has given you, will give you. That can never change.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Conversation

"Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Summon before Me the seventy leaders of Israel. Bring them to the Tabernacle to stand there with you. I will come down and talk to you there. I will take some of the Spirit that is upon you, and I will put the Spirit upon them also." Numbers 11:16-17....."I called you so often, but you didn't come. I reached out to you but you paid no attention." Proverbs 1:24

What does it mean to have a conversation with someone? In our relationships, how many do we actually have? We may talk a great deal, but are we talking to someone or at them? More, what part does our listening play in it all? Do we even listen to begin with? Someone once said that we listen very little to what anyone says in such "conversations" because we are most intent on expressing what we think. If this is so in our interactions with people, what marks our conversations with Him? Can they even be called conversations to begin with?

I heard Bob Beaudine say of Numbers 11:17 that God "calls us to a conversation." We speak a lot about being called in the Church. Usually it has most to do with what we're going to do and where we're going to go. What do we really know about the call to come and speak with Him? Jesus invited all to "come and learn of Me." Hard to do when our focus is mainly upon what we think we're to be saying and doing, and where we're to be going. Oswald Chambers the great man of God and teacher of missionaries said that the call of the Father is always first to come, not to go. How rarely we do so. How often we are absorbed in what we think we need to doing, but not in what we need to be hearing. How many spiritual dead ends would we avoid if we came first to Him, to a conversation? One where we spend very little time talking, and a great deal of time listening.

I have spent so much of what I called my "prayer life" talking at Him but not to Him. Intent on getting my wants, needs and desires heard, but having little or no focus on His. In every aspect of our lives, He seeks to "come down to us" and reveal His heart and mind. He has deep spiritual mysteries to share, but can't because we don't stop talking, moving, and going so that He can. As Proverbs says, He is continuously calling to us, reaching out to us, but we don't hear, and we don't see. So we pursue our dreams and not His. We forge ahead on our way, but miss His.

The longing of His heart is that we would linger enough in His Presence that He may "come down to us." When that happens, something miraculous takes place. As He comes down, He lifts us up to Him. When that happens, everything changes. It starts with a conversation. He calls you and I to one today, now. Do we come......or do we go on paying no attention?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Unleashed

"Your problem is that you don't know the Scriptures, and you don't know the power of God....."What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is He? They replied, 'He is the Son of David.' " Matthew 22:29,42....."Nobody wants God in a box. Just in a book. Especially one bound in leather with gilt edges." Unknown....."This is the penalty we pay for making the Word of God conform to our experience instead of bringing our experience up to the Word of God." A.W. Tozer

Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees when He said the above, and if there was anyone among His listeners who would know the Scriptures, it would be them. Indeed, they could recite chapter and verse better than anyone. They knew what Scripture said, but they never seemed to know what the Father was saying. How like them might we be today?

Most every professing believer and their family have a Bible somewhere in their home. More than likely a number of them. Some even read them....a lot. We have all types of Scripture memorization programs and the like in the Church, and these are good things. There are many going about who are modern day Pharisees in that they are "experts" on doctrine, theology, and even the authority of Scripture. Yet the working of that Scripture, that Word of God in their everyday lives is so often minimal, even non-existent. When faced with the reality of life lived out in a fallen world, they seem no better equipped to overcome than those who make no profession at all. They resort to the natural as a means of coping, rather than the supernatural as a means of living the life that makes one "more than a conqueror." The Living Word was directly in front of the Pharisees, but they didn't see or recognize Him. He who is the Living Word is directly before us as well, but we so often do no better than the Pharisees in our recognition. The result is that we walk about in near or complete powerlessness. The Word of God is carried about in our Bibles and even in our memories, but it has yet to be unleashed in our lives. Has it been unleashed in yours and mine?

Throughout what we like to call "Third World Countries," believers who are mostly uneducated, unsophisticated, and living at a material level light years below most of us in the west, are experiencing regular visitations of the miraculous in their lives. The Word of God is alive among and in them. They do not seek to be doctrinal experts, or enter into long winded debates about what the Word says. They simply believe what it says. In childlike faith. We used to say here in the west that "God said, I believe it, that settles it for me." Now we're more likely to state, "Did God say that? Well let's debate it. It may settle it for you, but not necessarily for me." We need correct doctrine for sure. We need to have a Scriptural theology as well. But we seem to spend far more time discussing His Word than seeing it work in and with power in all of our life situations. As Tozer said decades ago, we are trying to make His Word conform to our experience, instead of allowing His Word to take us into the experience of life He has promised us. We confine His Word to His Book. It has never truly been unleashed in our lives.

In a world and culture where chaos gains more ground by the day, the need for a people who walk and live in the power of His Living Word grows greater by the moment. We need to do more than toss Scripture promises at people. We need to live out the fulfillment of those promises before them. His Word and Life need to be unleashed in their midst through His people who are also in their midst. I want to be one of them. Do you? Where and how is His Word and Power being unleashed in and through us? In and through you....and me?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Dwelling Place

"How lovely is Your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty. I long, yes I faint with longing to enter the courts of the Lord. ....Even the sparrow finds a home there and the swallow builds her nest and raises her young - at a place near Your altar, O Lord Almighty, my King and my God." Psalm 84:1-3....."Then wonderful times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord." Acts 3:20

It may be well for sparrows and swallows to build their nests "at a place" near His altar, but I don't think it will do for you and me. He does not call us to come near to Him alone, but to come to Him. All of Him. To come and dwell not just with Him, but in Him. To abide. Our problem is that too often we are people who settle for "nearly" in too many aspects of our spiritual life. Lloyd Ogilvie tells of the time he sought counsel from one of his professors concerning an issue of surrender with the Father. The wise saint told him, "You cannot sneak around Golgotha." We cannot just come near the cross, we must come completely to it. Come to be upon it. We cannot just come near to His altar of sacrifice, we must place ourselves upon it as living sacrifice. We are willing to come close to Him, but not too close. Like the Israelites, we're content to keep our distance.

Whatever was placed upon His altar as a sacrifice was burnt up as an offering to Him. Fire consumed it. That only happened if the offering was placed upon His altar and left there, surrendered completely to Him. It is no different for those who profess to be His. He invites all to come to Him, but His command is that all will come to Him with all that they are. No longer their own, but His. All that we are is surrendered to all that He is, and then all that He is consumes all that we are.....with His holy fire. Without this happening in our lives, our fellowships, and our ministries, we will always be going about with a lack of power and a lack of His Presence. This will be so because we continue to depend on a great deal of our own power, and so a great deal of our own presence is showing through. We aren't decreasing and He surely is not increasing because of it.

The beauty of Psalm 84 finds its fruit in the words of Acts 3. In the Old Testament, the priests burnt incense before Him that resulted in a sweet fragrance permeating the Temple. Our act of placing ourselves on His altar, completely yielded to be His burnt offering results in the beauty and fragrance of His life emanating through ours. He will offer wonderful times of refreshment through our lives. Are we, individually and as the Body of Christ, such a fragrance? An even deeper more probing question for us is, what kind of fragrance are we to Him?

Where do we want our dwelling place to be today? Someplace near, but not too near to His? A place that keeps Him nearby, but not so nearby that He might deter us from our plans, agendas, and desires? Or, will we make our home upon His altar, and in Him? Will we be such an offering? Our God is a consuming fire. How much of us has He really consumed? What part of us has yet to be surrendered to His altar? What part of us do we keep back?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Heart Whisperer

"And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper.." I Kings 19:11-12

Pop culture has produced shows and movies with titles like, "The Horse Whisperer," and "The Dog Whisperer." These feature people who seem to have an affinity for being able to connect on some level with these animals, to form some kind of bond. It makes me think of the One who is the Creator of all things, most especially we humans, and our very human hearts. He is the Heart Whisperer, but I wonder how many of us truly know or hear Him?

Perhaps, more than ever in our culture, we are in love with the spectacular. People are not much interested in listening to or watching programs or movies that contain substance. We crave action, movement, excitement. Disaster movies, superhero flicks....earthquakes, tornadoes....noise, this is what our eyes and ears are attuned to these days. Small wonder that it has infiltrated the very heart of the Church as well.

Think on that. I recently read a quote posted by a brother who has led worship for over 30 years that made the point that much of what we call worship in the Church today is little more than a tightly crafted performance, targeted not at our hearts, but our emotions and senses.This is nothing new. When I started out in ministry in those long ago days in Lubbock, Texas, all one need to do for an attendance boost was give notice that you'd have a gospel group that Sunday and people would come out. They loved the show. In most places, that would not do today, so too often our response has been to offer a bigger and better show.

Believe it or not, this is not a tirade against worship style, gospel groups or music. It's about what our hearts are most attuned to. We live in a culture that has a seemingly unending amount of competing noises vying for our attention. From our waking moments until we go to sleep, our senses are bombarded with varying types of noise. Rarely is He in any of it, yet we have become so used to it, that we don't seem to know how to get by without it. We know how to hear many kinds of "voices," but what do we really know of His? When the Heart Whisperer comes to us, do we hear Him? When the One who knows our hearts more completely than anyone else ever could, speaks in the midst of all that noise, can we hear Him? In the assault upon our physical senses, can our heart and spirit hear His heart and Spirit in it all? Do we know the Heart Whisperer.

In Elijah's experience at the cave in I Kings 19, the Lord was passing by. There were mighty things happening at that time, but He was in none of it. Elijah could discern that, and because he could discern it, he was able to hear the Heart Whisperer. Do we have such discernment? Can we hear the whisper of the voice of the One who passes by our hearts and lives continuously? Above the noise, do we hear Him?

Be assured that the enemy of our souls will send an endless array of "earthquakes, tornadoes, and wildfire," to distract us from Him, but in the midst of it all, will be the still, small voice of the Heart Whisperer. He will be speaking life in every form to us with that voice. Only those whose hearts are attuned to Him will hear it. Do you and I have such a heart? Do we know the sound of the noise, but miss the voice of He who whispers yet speaks words mightier and greater than the most powerful earthquake or storm? He's the Heart Whisperer. Do we know Him? Can we hear Him?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - The Last Word

"And she will have a son, and you are to name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." Matthew 1:21....."...herefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them." Hebrews 7:25

If you've followed any of the recent Heart Thoughts, you know something of my brother and his recent near death hospitalization. The Doctors had told both he and the family that he had only a few days left to live and everyone needed to prepare for that. Yet just two days after this, he was sitting up in his hospital bed, and the next day, had gotten out of bed and into a chair. He is now in a rehab facility with the expectation of gaining the strength to be able to go home. As the pastor and I talked and prayed on this, I gave praise to Him that it was not the Doctors but the Father that had the final word in all things. My friend then said that in all things the final, last Word was Jesus. In all things, everywhere and everyplace, it is and always will be....Jesus.

We live in a world where it seems someone always wants to have the last word. In disagreements, conflict, or debate, having the last word in anything is seen as having the victory. In this world, a fallen world, the devil will always seek to convince us that it is he that has that last word. His pronouncement on any situation or need is to be seen as the final, last word in that place. His last words always convey despair, hopelessness, defeat. It is his wish and plan that those words, that word, be the only word we hear. As always, he lies. He deceives. His word is an empty word when confronted with Him who is the Living Word. Jesus is the Last Word in all places and things. Our question has to be, do we have ears in order to hear that Word?

It is a tragedy that the people of God, those who profess to know and follow Him, so often lack the ability to hear Him, especially in those moments of deep crisis and need. We seem much more attuned to the words of this fallen world than the Word of Life and of the Kingdom of God. Because of this, we so easily lose hope in the face of the crisis and need. The Trickster, satan, has deceived us into believing his version of reality, and not Christ's. Where in our lives might he be doing so right now?

The above Scriptures are powerful and hope filled, and they dispel every lie of hell. Jesus saves. Always and forever. He saves to the uttermost. To me, this means that there is and can be no limitation to the ways and means in which He saves. Sin, its effects, and the devil behind it all, can not prevent Him from doing this. Yes, we live in a fallen world, and yes, at some point, our bodies will fail, and we will physically die, but the eternal destruction planned for us by this enemy is blocked by the One who saves....and saves to the uttermost. He does this as regards eternity, but He does so in the here and now as well. In the midst of all things, He is and will remain, the Last Word. The Victory.

So, today, in our lives, who has the last word, and who is the last word? The enemy will speak his lie, and He who is the true and only Last Word will speak His Truth. Who do we hear? Who will we believe? Who is the last word to you and me?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - One Little Word

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was empty, a formless mass cloaked in darkness. And the Spirit of God was hovering over its surface. Then God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light." Genesis 1:1-3....."Never mistake the presence of darkness for the absence of God." Kyle Dendy

One translation of the above Scripture says that "God hovered over the chaos." Chaos. Darkness. Two words that seem an apt description of thecurrent western culture; economically, politically, spiritually. More, I think they are an on target description of what many people are experiencing in their lives today. Chaos and darkness. How much of both might you be experiencing in your life today?

The above quote from Kyle Dendy comes from an 18 year old young man with a spiritual depth beyond his years. Oh that we would have such perception. How many of us when confronted with the darkness and chaos that is so often a part of life, have as our first reaction the attitude that the Lord has left us? That He has departed and left us alone. The disciples, out in the middle of the lake in the storm certainly thought it of Christ. So often it's the middle stage of our journey where we feel most tempted to give in to that thought and attitude. We see the darkness and chaos. It's all we see. So we do not see Him walking to us in the midst of it all. On top of the very "waves," the circumstances we are sure will drown us. Or we see Him, but don't recognize Him at all. We think He comes to us as an even greater threat than the darkness itself. We cease to believe that He is Light that pierces the deepest darkness. That He is Light greater than any and all darkness. The words from Luther's great hymn come to mind; "The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for Him. His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure; one little word shall fell him." The Father in Christ has many such words. All of them infinitely powerful. "Light, Peace," Joy,.....Life" He speaks, and it is so. It was so at the moment of creation, and it is so right now. Darkness is never darkness to the One who is pure Light.

Life for you and me can seem to be an endless experience of walking through a neverending mass of emptiness cloaked in darkness. He is there no matter what our natural senses tell us, but only our spiritual sense will know it. He is hovering over it all, but not as some uninvolved spectator. He is working, speaking, moving. He speaks Light and Life, and the dark, formless mass can do nothing but recede before Him. One little word. That's all it takes. He speaks it now for you, for me, for us. Can we hear Him? Do we dare to believe Him?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - His Appearing

"Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day - not only to me, but also to all who have longed for His appearing." 2 Timothy 4:8

I know that when Paul wrote the above to his son in the faith, Timothy, he was speaking directly to the appearing of Christ when in the fullness of His Kingdom, we shall see Him in all His wonder and glory. We will see Him, as His Word says, "just as He is." Yet I believe Paul also points throughout His letters to a longing for His appearing in the day to day events of life, and it is my experience, and I hope yours as well, that He does that.....gloriously, miraculously, and many times, very quietly. He has appeared to me in all of those ways throughout my walk with Him. The other night, He appeared in all three as He ministered through me to lead my dying brother into His life and kingdom. As I prayed with my brother, I "saw" in his voice and response, the very face of Christ. It was glorious. It was miraculous. It was quiet. It was Him. How much does He long to appear to us in all of these ways in all of the events, good and bad, wonderful and sorrowful, abundance or lack? Do we long for His appearing to us as much as He longs for us to see Him?

On Sunday afternoon, just two days after that appearing, I He appeared again, as my sister called to tell me that my brother, given no chance at any kind of recovery by his medical team, was at that moment sitting up in bed, and breathing without aid, and had been doing so for nearly an hour. Darkness. Light. He appears in both, for darkness is never darkness to Him, and this world brightest light pales in comparison to Him. I don't know where He will take my brother, my family, and myself in all of this, but I know He will not cease to "appear" to us throughout all of it.

I read a quote from Mother Teresa sometime back where she said, "I have learned to see the face of Christ in the faces of the people who oppose me, persecute me, despise me." How would our lives change, if we could do the same? Not only in dealing with difficult, even hateful people, but in the whole spectrum of life events? What would our lives become if, in the darkest, most turbulent storm, we saw Him? The book of Exodus relates how Moses entered into "the deep darkness where God was." Only a man who expected to encounter His God there would willingly do so. Would we? Would we be willing to walk through the most desolate desert, the most dangerous wilderness, the most devastating storm, because we knew He was there, and would appear to the eyes of our heart? We would know that we would hear His words, "Be at peace. Don't be afraid. It is I." We would know all that because there is within our hearts an ever deepening longing for His appearing....in every place and condition of our lives. There is a longing for His appearing, and He will minister to that longing. The world spirit, finding itself in my brothers hospital room that night would have no expectation of this. Hopelessness and despair is all it can expect. Yet, in my deep longing for Him to come to my brother in this time, He did. In glory, in miracle, in quietness. He continues to come to him....and to me, and to you as well. Do we see Him?

I close with one thought. Our longing for Him to appear to us I believe is matched by His longing to appear in and through us. Everywhere around us are people longing for His appearing, whether they are aware of it or not. To what degree can He appear to them through us? May He, in every time and place, be able to do so......gloriously, miraculously, quietly, continually......completely.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Presence

"This is what the Lord Almighty says, 'In those days 10 people from nations and languages around the world will clutch at the hem of one Jew's robe. And they will say, 'Please let us walk with you, for we have heard that God is with you.' " Zechariah 8:23

For some time now, there has been much talk about the need for the church to be "relevant" to the culture it seeks to reach for Him. I have no problem with the thought, just the process we seem to want to adopt. Whose definition of relevant do we want to go by, ours, or His? Do we want to approach it focusing on what is relevant to the people, or what is relevant to Him? If it's people centered, than we are always going to try and reach them with a earth based, flesh centered message. It will be about offering a life that makes everything better here. A kind of "things go better with Christ" ad campaign. We present a Jesus who can make significant improvements on our lives, oftentimes with little adjustment on our part. We target what people care about....and miss what it is that He cares about. I think in our quest to be relevant in this manner, we actually become irrelevant in His.

I don't mean to put forth the thought that He doesn't care about our human needs. He does. Or that the church should not be engaged in doing good works and ministering to those needs. We must. But the element that is most needed and oftentimes most missing is our being the actual living presence of Him in the midst of it all. A presence that even the unbelieving cannot deny. There are many human agencies that do good works, and they're to be commended. But it is the presence of His Life and Spirit within His church that sets us apart from them. Without it, we are just another agency. When Christ walked the earth and ministered to the people, they knew a Presence was among them that none had ever witnessed before. The very Presence of God within One who was fully God and fully man. They saw it in His life, heard it in His words, and beheld it in His works. It was undeniable even to those who rejected Him. The same was said of His disciples after Pentecost. It was said of Peter, of John, of Paul. These men were not equal with Christ, but they were filled with His Life. And this too was evident to all. They were living out God's definition of relevance to a world that desperately needed it. A world that still does. So the question is, are you and I living that life out? Does that kind of Holy Spirit presence mark your life and mine?

Ten unbelievers laying hold of the robes of one who was His. They do so because of His undeniable presence in that ones life. A life bathed in, soaked in, His Life and Presence. A life that was His Presence to all who beheld him. Living hope to a dead world. That my friends is true relevancy. I want with all my heart to live such a life. How about you? It's a life lived above the plane of this world. It's the life that is His....and can be, must be ours.....Is it?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Thoughts - The Demolition

"We are human, but we don't wage war with human plans and methods. we use God's mighty weapons, not mere worldly weapons, to demolish the devil's strongholds." 2 Corinthians 10:3-4...."A stronghold is anything you substitute for God...any tradeoff you make for God."......"Slavery happens when you are mastered by anything or anyone but the One who sets you free." Beth Moore

I think perhaps the greatest tragedy in the Church today is the diminishing role and Person of the Holy Spirit. A.W. Tozer wrote of this more than 60 years ago. It's not that we no longer name Him, but more that He has a steadily shrinking place in our consciousness. As one person put it, if the Holy Spirit were to fully withdraw from most fellowships today, would anyone notice? Would we?

The fruit of all this is glaringly evident everywhere. The less the presence of His Spirit, the more our reliance upon our flesh. The more we rely on our flesh, the less we become aware of the presence of the enemy of our souls, satan. The less aware we are of him, the more freedom he has to work against us. And trust me, he is always working against us. The Bible is clear that the devil has a strategy mapped out for each one of us. He knows where our weaknesses and vulnerability lie, and will seek entrance in every one of them. That is seen in his dealing with Christ in His wilderness temptation. What is also seen there, and in the promise of 2 Corinthians 10, is that the Father has provided us a weapon and strategy against which the enemy's has no chance. The power of His Holy Spirit filled Word. The mightiest stronghold, the heaviest yoke of slavery, have no chance against the Spirit filled promises and Word of God. Strongholds are demolished, chains are broken, because His Word is active and alive. When God speaks, it is. It's as simple as that. Is our faith simple enough to believe it?

Moore's words concerning strongholds and slavery echo loudly. Church fellowships are filled with those who are held captive by an endless array of such. We are held captive by not only many kinds of addictions, but also sinful and/or and killing attitudes of unforgiveness, bitterness, lusts, anxiety, fear, materialism, and on and on. Every self effort against such will fail because these are spiritual problems, not flesh ones. Yet He has given us every promise we need to literally demolish each one. His Spirit will lead us to the ones in His Word that provide the key to the demolition of every stronghold, the breaking of every chain. He leads us not to mere words, but to the Word that is Life itself. Led of His Spirit, we ask, seek, and knock, and in the power of the Spirit, He answers, He opens, and we discover.
The battle has already been won in Christ. Our part is to partake of it, and we do so on our knees, in transparency, seeking, confessing, repenting, and entering into His freedom. In this, we are no longer mastered by anything but, as Moore says, "the One who sets us free."

Strongholds and slavery are real. How real are they in us? Whose strategy is prevailing in our lives today, the devil's or the Father's? He has already provided the Victory. Are we walking in Him?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Restoration

"Restore to me the joy of Your salvation." Psalm 51:12....."Restore me. I would have no way but Yours my Lord." lyrics from "Restore Me," by Jason Ingram...."The Blood, renewing, restoring, saving, and healing. Your Blood is more than enough." Lyric from "Your Blood," by Aaron and Amanda Crabb

Just over 27 years ago, my life lay shipwreck amidst the loss of what seemed to me to be "all things." My marriage had crumbled, my ministry was gone, and I had no idea of what would become of me, and worse, what I was going to do or where I would live. Or how I would live. Everything I had believed about the goodness and faithfulness of God was being put to the test, and I feared greatly that I would fail that test. I was embarking upon a journey that I would never have chosen or wanted. I did not see how life could ever be "good " again. Satan, the enemy of my soul was only too happy to suggest just that, each and every day. Sadly, there were some brethren within the Church that echoed it as well. There seemed no lack of voices that spoke that curse upon me.....His was never among them. In the midst of all that was "wrong" with my life, He sent these words through a man who was my first Pastor, and has remained a spiritual mentor throughout my life. He simply said to me in the midst of the darkness, "Gary, remember that His best wine is always yet to come." Though I could not see how that could be so, I determined to be believe that, and took those words as coming from His heart, and so staggered on, which is the only way to describe my steps at the time.

Outwardly, I began a very transient life. Within the first four months of this time, I called 4 different places "home," though none of them were. One of the first places was a small cabin on the grounds of our denominational campground. Each day, as I walked to my car to drive to my job, I would pass the tabernacle in which I had been ordained, and each time, the enemy's voice would mock me, and remind me that all the promise of that day was lost. Forever. Darkness around me, seeming unbearable heaviness within me, I felt I was existing more than living. Yet somehow, with a strength that was His and not mine, I pushed on.

Space and time do not permit me to fit years of His work and faithfulness to me in the journey. Doors the devil promised, threatened would remain closed to me, opened up by the miraculous hand of the Father. Each phase of life that He walked me through brought a deeper work of healing, a deeper portion of wholeness. A larger work of restoration. My walk with and in Him was no longer one of staggering steps, but purposeful striding with Him in the process of restoration. Little more than three years to the day of my first living on the campground, I stood in our annual assembly, as a Pastor, sharing about the work He was doing in the church He had given me. It was pure joy to be standing in a place the devil said I'd never stand in again, doing what the devil said I'd never be doing again. The lyrics of Ingram's song were made true in my life. Though I knew not the way I would be going, I had determined I would not have any way but His...and He had restored me. The blood of Christ has renewed, restored, saved, and healed. And it continues to do so to this very day.

During that time, one of the books I read was titled simply "Laughter In Heaven." It was about the joy of the Lord. Before He restored anything else in my life, He began to restore that. Joy. Pure joy. Even in the darkness. You may find yourself in some part just where I was all those years ago. The promise He gave me, I pass on to you. The best wine is yet to come. There is laughter in heaven, and you will laugh again. His blood is more than enough. He is more than enough. Trust Him, and He will restore to you the joy of His salvation......And if you have never known the joy of His salvation, wouldn't this be the perfect time to discover it?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - How Does Our Garden Grow?

"Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessing and curses. I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, that you and your descendants might live." Deuteronomy 30:19....."Every choice is a seed that is planted and every seed bears fruit. What is growing in our garden?" Alicia Britt Chole

The Father's heart cries out to us through the words of Moses. I know that many today tend to dismiss most, if not all of the Old Testament. They do so to their own harm. God speaks life through His Holy Spirit through every book of the Bible, both Old Testament and New. His heart cry to His people Israel is a heart cry that continues today. Is it going out to you? If so, can you hear Him?

We live in a culture that bombards us with temptations that are in direct conflict with the Kingdom culture of heaven. Many of these temptations can look and sound very good. The devil hasn't changed his agenda. He'll mix in some truth with his great lie, just as he did in the Garden with Eve. Proverbs says that "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is death." The enemy will come to us with so many choices that seem right, but to choose that way will surely lead to death on some scale. No aspect of life will be free from them. All of them will be lures that bring us into either compromise with a culture and mind-set at odds with Him, or into open defiance of His will. We fall into sexual immorality because we are in love, and love is good, isn't it? We throw ourselves into the pursuit of success, material things, money, all of which seem good, but they kill our desire for the pursuit of Him. We slip into a belief system that is in direct opposition to His revealed Word, because we're told that His revealed Word is not only outdated, but unloving. All of these are choices, and the choices before us are unending As Chole says, they are seeds planted in our life garden. What, really, is growing in our life gardens?

James Robison says that God once confronted him with the warning that "There are too many rocks in your garden." Rocks that choked out His life. Rocks that were allowed there by the choices he was making. Gardens filled with rocks grow weeds. Choices made against His revealed will do the same for us. Tares are weeds that look almost the same as wheat. Only the harvester can tell the difference. What grows in our garden today? Tares, or wheat?

His heart cry to you and I will never grow weak, but our ability to hear it will surely diminish as we continue to refuse to heed it. The same path lies before us all; either life or death. There is no middle road in the spiritual realm. The road of death can look much life life, until you reach its end and discover the truth. What choices are you making? What road are you walking? What seeds are you planting, and what fruit are you growing? There was an old car care ad for oil filters that had a mechanic talking about the engine overhaul that needed to be done because of not properly installing new filters. The mechanic said, "You can pay me now, or you can pay me later." Our wrong choices oftentimes have no seeming cost now, but be assured, they will later. Our choices are like rocks thrown into a pond. The splash causes circles to go outward for quite a distance. So too will ours. Into eternity. The choice is before each of us today. Death or life. Blessing or curse. What seed do you choose?

Blessings,
Pastor O