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