95%

"If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those that ask Him? Luke 11:13....."If there is anything that you desire more than to be filled with the Holy Spirit, you will never be filled with His Holy Spirit." Unknown

A.W. Tozer once made a famous statement. He said that if the Holy Spirit ever withdrew from His Church, 95% of all that is being done could go on without a pause.....How does such a statement affect you? How true is it of you, of your local fellowship? Of His church as a whole in America? If what Tozer says is so, and it is nearly impossible to argue that it isn't, and then you join it with the quote above, its easy to conclude that too many in the church want many things more than they want the fullness of His Spirit. John Bevere said that though the Holy Spirit comes with power, He leaves very quietly. Unnoticed by most, missed by few.

Many, really, all denominations, evangelical, pentecostal, and holiness, began as a result of a move of His Holy Spirit. They started out as a movement, but too often, ended up being just an organization. Somehow, our flesh cannot resist taking what originated in His heart and Kingdom, and seeking to implement its own ideas, direction, and yes, control. Hence you can end up with a well oiled religious organization that is extremely active in religious work but that is powered by human effort and activity. A prominent churchman of a denomination that began in Holy Spirit revival, wrote a book more than 30 years ago concerning that group titled, " And Are We Yet Alive?" Its a question that each of us, wherever we feel we've been placed, must ask not only of our particular branch of His Church, but of ourselves? Are we yet, are we really....alive?

Our annual recognition of Pentecost, when God poured out His Holy Spirit upon His Church, is upon us. Will it be just another salute to a past event, and then put back in the drawer we keep it in? Or, will we become aware of our lack, our need, our desire for so many things other than the fullness of His Spirit? Will we come to grips with the truth that we are doing works, even great works, in reliance upon ourselves rather than in His power?

In recent years, much has been made politically concerning the rich, the have's, and the poor, the have not's. The first group have been labeled "1 percenters" I won't even try to go there, but I will ask this, referencing again Tozer's estimation. If 95% of what we as believers are doing is being done without His Holy Spirit, then His Spirit is only present and working in 5% of His Church. Dare we ask of which group we might be a part of? The 95% or the 5? Which are you, your fellowship, your body? Which am I?

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Need

"I perceive this is a holy man of God." II Kings 4:9....."We are in dire need of some 'holy men of God' who may be out of style with earth but are in step with heaven." Vance Havner

There are countless voices speaking as to what the church, and through the church, the world, needs in this day. Many of those voices speak valid thoughts in this area. Few of them speak the kind of words we hear from Havner. Holy men of God have always been out of style with the world. How did it come to be so with the church?

Prior to Covid-19, suggestions for what the church needed to be were many. The church and its members needed to be welcoming, offer a place of safety for those who come, and give all a sense of belonging. It also needed to loving, interested in the lives of others, and committed to help. In that list, there is nothing bad, but all of it can be found in one's favorite pub or club. We may not like to hear that or admit it, but its true. A church that offers all of that is not doing wrong, but if the presence of holy men and women of God is missing, than that church is really nothing more than another club. It's the presence of His holiness within it, through the lives of His people that make for the true body of Christ.

Here is something else to ponder. A church that is filled with holy men and women of God will be loving, welcoming, and offer a place of refuge for all. The deep and difficult truth in this though is that if such is the character of the church, people in love with the world, its ways, and its sins, will never feel safe or welcome, and not because anyone within is putting judgement or condemnation upon them. Darkness and Light cannot co-exist. Neither can Life and death. One or the other will hold sway, and that which doesn't will always withdraw. Jesus deeply loved Peter, but when Peter began to understand who Jesus truly was, he cried out to Him, "Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man." When Adam and Eve sinned, their first response was to hide from God. He didn't come looking for them in anger, but in love, yet in their fallen state, they could not bear His holy presence.

Many followed Jesus in the beginning for the good bread and fish He provided and the wonderful miracles He performed, but when it became clear to them who He was, what He called them to, and what He demanded they leave behind, "they turned away and followed Him no longer." The true, manifest presence of God will always have this effect, and we the church need never apologize for it. Jesus didn't, and we can't.

Havner also said this; "We are weary of the success and happiness school. We need holy men of God, in touch with heaven, who remind us of another world than this." Many have equated holiness with rigidity, judging attitudes, and the absence of joy, but those are traits brought forth by men. The holiness of God is none of those. His holiness, showing through His people, causes the hearts of those looking on to look up and be reminded that this world is passing, His is forever. Yes, some will fear that truth, but we cannot fear telling that truth. I hope to be one of those people Havner speaks of. Do you?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Today?

"Jesus said, 'Your brother will rise and be alive again.' Martha answered, 'I know that he will rise and live again at the time of the resurrection on the last day.' Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection. I am life. Everyone who believes in me will have life, even if they die. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Martha, do you believe this?' " John 11:25-26...."What will you believe today? In the trials you face, in the obstacles you come up against, in the discouragement that hounds you relentlessly, will you cast your confidence toward the power of God or the hard facts of 'reality?' " Chris Tiegreen

Christ's question to Martha, and Tiegreen's to us cannot be avoided. They must be answered. How are we answering? What is it that we will believe today? Will it be that which Christ has spoken and promised? Words and promises that will fly in the face of what we call reality? Will we believe when every reason to believe has been swept away? Will we believe when we feel He has removed Himself completely from our situation, and we have no real sense of His presence? When we venture out into the hard, ugly circumstances of our lives, will we believe Him? What is it that we will believe today? What our natural understanding has told us, or that which He has spoken, even if we have not heard Him speak it of late?

I've long since lost track of all the people who've told me about how what His Word says just can't "work" in "the real world." They're right. It can't.......if we believe that the "real world" is what is actually real. This is the root of our problem, even as believers. We profess belief and faith in an eternal life that we don't think can ever be real in this realm. Martha was in such a place. She believed in her Lord and that His promise of eternal life was real. Where she stumbled was in being unable to believe that such life was available to her right now. Christ, the Author of all Life was right before her. He offered that life to her now, not at some future time. She could not "see" how that life could overcome the reality of her brother Lazurus' death. She could believe Him for some future fulfillment of His promise, but she couldn't believe Him in her "today." Can we?

This is the great stumbling block of the church. We struggle to believe that all the power of His resurrection life is available to us today. Therefore the darkness and death of this present world is more real to us than the promise of His Light and Life in eternity. We profess to believe that this world and its power is passing, but we live like its permanent. It's circumstances are more real and believed by us than His promises and presence.

I remember a couple that said of a family member that she was so heavenly minded that she was of no earthly good. They were neither the first or last to say such about someone. Yet I knew the one they spoke of, and if I might honestly speak of all three, I will say that the eternal impact of the individual far outweighed anything I ever saw of the couple. The eyes of the couple were upon the "reality" of this world. The woman spoken of upon her Lord's eternity. Which are we more like?

Heavy days are upon us, and they will grow heavier. What will we believe? What will we believe today? I believe in the reality of a Lord and Savior greater than anything this world can produce. Tiegreen has written, "The truth is that God has saved, continues to save, and will always save." He has promised to do so. He has guaranteed through His Son Jesus Christ. You may well believe that for your tomorrow. Do you believe that today? Do you believe that right now?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Sweetly Broken

"Then God said, 'Take your son, your only son, whom you love-Isaac-and to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on the mountain I will show you."

I heard a wonderful song today that had the lyric, "He doesn't want your Isaac. He wants you." If you've been in the church for a bit, you've most likely heard the story of Abraham and his son Isaac, promised to Abraham by God. Abraham and his wife Sarah, desperately desired a son, and God promised them one. Many years later, in their old age, that promise came to pass with the birth of Isaac. Isaac was precious to his parents. More precious than words can describe, yet one day the Father directed Abraham to take his son to a mountaintop and offer him as a sacrifice to Him.

It's easy to read this story in Scripture and be unmoved by it, even if we're parents. We know that God did not have Abraham sacrifice his son, that it was Abraham's surrender and trust that he sought. We know he would not ask us to kill one of our children. He wouldn't. But rest assured, He does require our "Isaac," in whatever form(s) he may take.

In one of my prayer journals I've written, "Am I willing to surrender to Him any and all of my most precious dreams or desires, even if I believe them to be a promise from the Father Himself?" I have had Isaac's in my life. So have you. Likely, we still do. God will bring their presence before us. He will ask us, indeed command us to yield them up to Him, to "sacrifice them" as a means of showing our surrender, our trust, and our worship of Him above any and all things and people. Our Isaac's do not go quietly or painlessly. They don't because we cling to them, love them, and yes, even worship them. They can be relationships, professions, places we live, fellowships we attend, and visions we believe He's given us, that He has given us. They can be the fulfillment of promises we are convinced He's made to us, that He has made to us. Whatever they might be, He knows what place they have in our hearts, and if He sees them filling our hearts and pushing Him outside of them, He will call us to sacrifice them to Him. To "die" to the hold they have on us in order that we might truly live in and unto Him. In that is the pain. In our surrender of these, we are broken, but as the beautiful chorus goes, we are "sweetly broken." Only those who have obeyed in such a sacrifice understand the truth of this. My Isaac's have been many, and every surrender of them was accompanied by brokenness. But in the surrender I experienced the truth of being sweetly broken. I first learned the truth of this as a very young man in Christ.

I'd been saved for a year, and in that time I'd come to know a young woman and fall in love with her. Yet it was an unhealthy and toxic relationship and love. God knew this. I didn't, though it brought me deep grief. Also during that year, I felt a calling to leave all and go out to a Bible College more than a thousand miles away. I was willing to go, but unwilling to let go of the relationship. I wanted to try and maintain it from a distance and somehow see it come to full fruit. He made it clear this couldn't be so. It had to be surrendered. I couldn't fully follow Him and hold to what wasn't of Him. Painfully, brokenly, I obeyed. I'll never forget that first lesson in surrender. The deadly hold that this relationship held me in was broken the day I left for the college, never to return. More, I experienced a peace, joy, and freedom I'd never known. I knew what it was to be sweetly broken. I would know it again and again in the coming years. I continue to learn that He doesn't seek my Isaac. He seeks me.

Who and what might be your Isaac's? Have you come to the place of being sweetly broken in them, or, do you cling to them all the more? He is not the God who takes things from us. He takes us. To Himself. He doesn't want your Isaac. He wants you. Does He have you? Will you be sweetly broken?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Conquerors

"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." Romans 8:37......"We cannot confess we are conquerors unless we are actually conquering the enemy." James Robison....
It's not a matter of who I am, but who He is." Vance Havner

The above Scripture comes in the midst of Paul's listing of all the "things" the enemy can hurl at us in order to make us doubt or not believe His all consuming love and commitment to us. In fact Paul tells us that we are not just conquerors but more than conquerors in all things that come against us. What a fantastic promise. Why then do so few of us realize and walk in such victory? Why do we keep living in cycles of defeat?

When we are "born again" we are born into a spiritual battleground. Before coming to know Christ, we are unaware of this. I certainly was, and why not? We are already held captive by the enemy so we are already defeated. When Christ enters into our hearts by faith, everything changes. We will draw the unfettered interest and assault of the enemy. He wants to reclaim what was his, and failing that, he desires to render ineffective and powerless the life that has escaped his claim. Sadly, in so many lives, he's succeeded.

In more than 35 years of pastoral ministry, the greatest sorrow to me is that so many who confess Him as Savior and Lord do not live in the victory that He has given them. For them, every step forward seems to be accompanied by three steps back. Wrong teaching and poor theology are part of it. Many teach that failure will always be the lot of the believers life, though I see nowhere in Scripture that this is so. How can one be a conqueror and at the same time defeated? Sin in our lives is not inevitable. Neither is defeat. Victory in Jesus is a favorite hymn to many, but not a reality for most. Yet victory is what we're called to and created for. Why can't we live in it?

I'm not writing as one who has never failed or fallen short in their walk. I have. But failure is not what has marked my life and walk. In the failure came grace, mercy, and power to confess it, turn from it, and press on in Him. Somehow, too many have been unable to believe that such power to overcome is really available. We know the Scripture, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," but we fear that such a promise can never be our reality. We have been born into a spiritual battleground, but the battle has already been won by Him. Our part, as it was for Israel as they took the land given them, is to move out in faith, fighting faith's battles, and taking the "territory" that He's already given us. Those who believe the battle's won are the victors. They know that setbacks and even failures aren't final. They know that victory will always be theirs if they just keep pressing on. They don't become comfortable in their defeats. They allow His Spirit to expose the reason for the defeat and obtain power to overcome it. They know Who they've believed in and they're persuaded.....of all that He's promised.

His Word says that the battle is the Lord's. We stumble at that because we've been tricked into believing the battle is ours alone. If it doesn't feel like He's with us, then we think that He's not. That's a lie!....Sheila Walsh relates how when she was in a psychiatric hospital as a result of a complete mental breakdown, all she could do was pray, "God, help me." On the floor of her room she heard Him say in her spirit, "I'm here." He was and He led her to healing and wholeness. She still deals with elements of depression, but she is not defeated by them. She knows who she has believed in. She's persuaded.

I close with this. Walsh said she discovered in a Hebrew rendering of the 23rd Psalm that the verse, "When you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will be with you," found in English translations wasn't the same in Hebrew. In the Hebrew "I will be with you" in the valley of the shadow of death is rendered, "you, Me, in the valley." He's not just with us. He's one with us. He in us, we in Him. The valley is real. Being victors and conquerors in Him is more real. Is it so for you? If not, isn't it past time that it is?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Wine Or Whine?

9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” John 2:9-10

I likely have told this story before, but I don't think it ever gets old. In the early days of walking through my divorce, I was visiting with my pastor and his wife. I was in a dark, broken place. I ached....mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. All appeared lost, and nothing appeared on the horizon. Everything was a bleak grey turning to black. Yet into this my pastor spoke. He told me, "Remember. Christ always saves His best wine until last." Those words took hold of my heart and mind, and the seeming iron grey skies were pierced with His almighty light. All the pain was still there, but a new and deep realization that He was there too broke through. I would go on believing, knowing, that His best wine for me was yet to come. I have experienced the truth of that again and again. I will go on experiencing it here and into His eternity. All of us can.

I've been mulling this writing for some time now, and I think it will speak to all of us on some level. I think it will do so through a simple question; what is it that has the upper hand in our day to day lives? His new wine, or our unending whine? Which shows forth in our lives? Which is showing forth in yours?

We're complainers by nature. Certainly some are more so than others, but all of us have a point where we will pour out our complaint, to other people and to God. This can be healthy, especially if we do so with the Father. David did. Job did. Countless believers through the ages have. We need to pour our hearts out to Him in our pain. He welcomes it. Yet it is how we do so, and in what spirit that makes all the difference. Too often we come to Him with either an attitude of being offended, as in how could He let this happen, or with entitlement. He should be doing a lot better by us than this. These attitudes aren't just wrong. They're sinful. What He, and everyone else hears from us is "the whine." We don't ever tire of letting those around us, and Him, know how hard our lives are, and how we want everything made better right now. We live in the whine, and the skies just grow darker all the time.

What He calls us to is the place of the new wine. The new wine is symbolic of His Holy Spirit, which He's always eager to pour into our lives. He calls us to live in expectation of it. Jesus Himself said that the Father loves to give His Holy Spirit to those that ask Him. The new wine will always be the portrait of the new way, new place, new hope that He wants to pour into our lives. We live in a fallen world, and we will never be immune to the troubles and pain that come with it. In this fallen world He pours out His new wine for His people. We can choose to live in the outpouring of His new wine, or in the constant outpouring of our own whining. Which is it for us right now?

Wherever you may find yourself, know that no matter how dark or seemingly hopeless you find it or feel in it, He has His new wine for you. Ask Him for it. Expect Him to supply it. Reject the lifestyle of the whiner, and embrace the unending supply of His new wine. His best wine for you, for me, is always yet to come.....if we will have it. Will you have it?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Uncomfortable Truth

"For the time has come that judgement must begin at the house of God." I Peter 4:17....."The great sterling test in preaching is that it bring everyone to judgement. The Spirit of God locates each one to Himself...Every element of self-reliance must be slain by the power of God." Oswald Chambers

Oswald Chambers also said, "In the teachings of Jesus Christ the element of judgement is always brought out, it is the sign of God's love." This is not a teaching much heard in the church today. Yes, we hear of the love of God, but little of this aspect of it. We love the Gentle Shepherd who touches, heals, and makes whole. We don't care for the Lion of Judah who confronts us with our sin. In the Old Testament, the Father, His patience gone with His obstinate people said, "Israel, prepare to meet your God." At some point, individually and as a body of believers, He'll do the same with us. I believe He's doing this right now.

It has commonly been heard throughout the Church that the Lord is coming back soon. Wherever your thinking falls on that, the central truth is that when He does return, it will be for a pure and holy Church. What have we been seeing in the midst of the western Church in particular that gives witness that we are that? To what degree do we see compromise, the increasing influence of the surrounding culture, and outright disobedience? When Moses went up Mt. Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments from God, the people who remained in the valley ended up constructing a golden calf to be their God. They were not rejecting that He was God, they were rejecting what He was revealing about Himself. Golden images were something they were more comfortable and familiar with. They tried to make Him into a God more acceptable to them. In so many ways, we've done the same, especially with Jesus Christ. We love the Gentle Shepherd, we reject the Lion of Judah.

I do not believe that God is the cause of this pandemic, or any other destructive event, but He has allowed them, and He is using them. To get the attention of the world, but even more, the attention of the Church. Has He? Has He gotten yours and mine?

As we look at the surrounding culture, it cannot be missed how much anger, hatred, abuse, and perversion is present.....and growing. These things, most often in subtle, easily overlooked ways, have seeped into the Church as well. The reality of this is playing out in individuals, marriages, families, and fellowships. Many find it easy to live in ungodly ways throughout a week, yet come and sing songs of praise to Him on Sunday. A woman once told me how she and her partner, unmarried and living together, has begun attending a church, had been asked by its pastor to take on a leadership role there. Your and my response to that will reveal much about where we really are today. No, its not the norm....yet....but such instances continue to grow, and the Church's tolerance of such grows as well. God told Israel that the stench of their sin had reached His throne room in eternity. Look about us, and then look within. How do we think it all "smells" to Him now?

God is love. This is Truth. But God's love does more than comfort, and His love will never comfort our sin and disobedience. It will confront it. Powerfully, ruthlessly. This is Truth. Uncomfortable Truth. And it is the Truth, spoken in His love. He speaks now in the midst of all the real suffering that is happening. He did not bring it upon us. We did. We the Church in the west have drifted far from His heart. He responds with Holy confrontation in order that He might bring us to and back to Him. It is decidedly uncomfortable. In fact, it is decidedly painful. It is His love reaching out to us, calling us home. As a nation, as a world, and foremost, as a Church, we're on a collision course with Him. Will we be shattered and scattered as a result, or will we be made whole? What will be the result for you.....for me?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Lost Authority

Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you." Luke 10:19...."God does not give His Presence to rebels." Unknown

I've heard many say in recent days that you don't hear much preaching anymore on the cross, the Holy Spirit, sin, confession, and repentance. I think they're correct, but I want to add another subject much missing; the authority of the believer and of the Church.

I heard a preacher recently say that he believed the church in the west has been steadily surrendering its authority in the culture, to the point that we really have little if any in the midst of that culture. I also read an article that said polling revealed that 77% of conservatives, those usually identified as friendly to the church, didn't feel it needful for the church to be allowed to come together during this virus outbreak. Not needful for the church, but needful for Wal-Mart, Liquor stores, and now, golf courses.

Alexander de Tocqueville, a French diplomat who traveled extensively through mid- 19 century America, and wrote a classic titled "Democracy In America," said that the goodness of America as a nation flowed from the righteousness being proclaimed from its pulpits. How many would say such in our day? What, really, is being proclaimed from our pulpits? Indeed, the role of the pulpit ministry has been steadily decreasing for some time now, replaced by corporate models of leadership and decision making.

Jesus said that He gave His disciples authority to "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons, and raise the dead." Some believe that ceased with passing of the 1st century church. I don't, but it seems many of us agree. Where are the miracles in the midst of our gatherings? Where is His glory truly falling? Where has the expectation of such been in the hearts and minds of the preachers and leaders themselves, let alone in the fellowship in general? I ask these questions of myself as well. Where is the authority of the believer in Christ being powerfully manifested today? Why isn't it?

We just observed a National Day Of Prayer. This is wonderful, but what comprised our prayers in most places? Did we merely petition Him to make all this "stuff" go away so that we could get back to our "normal" lives? How much, if it all, was there a brokenness before Him? A confession of sin, and the repentance that must accompany that confession? As the anonymous quote above states, God does not give His Presence, and the authority that goes with it to rebels....and beloved, rebels we have been. Will we continue to be? If we do, what little authority we still walk in will be lost.

His Word commands the church in such a condition to go back and "do the first works" again. Brokenness, confession, repentance, repeat. If we the church ever truly do this, His "mantle" will once again fall upon us. We will rise up in the midst of this badly diseased culture and speak anew with the authority of our God, as well as His healing, cleansing, demon crushing power that comes with that. Are we ready for such? Are you, and am I? Or, do we just go meekly on, being dictated to by government, scientists, medical personal, who have taken the place of authority abdicated by His church? Let us, the Church, go crush some snakes and scorpions.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Battle Cry

54 Then Jesus turned to the crowd and said, “When you see clouds beginning to form in the west, you say, ‘Here comes a shower.’ And you are right. 55 When the south wind blows, you say, ‘Today will be a scorcher.’ And it is. 56 You fools! You know how to interpret the weather signs of the earth and sky, but you don’t know how to interpret the present times. Luke 12:54-56....."Believers ought to steadily mature in their faith so they're able to receive deeper and deeper words from God. If they aren't, something is wrong....God will not reveal more truth to you than you're capable of receiving."....Richard Blackaby...."The real enemy is the deceiver, the father of lies." James Robison

There are three things that I believe are disappearing in the western church, and to a shocking degree. Wisdom, Understanding, and Discernment. His Wisdom, Understanding and Discernment. How can this be? Why have we become so comfortable with its lack in our midst?

I think the greatest reason is that we've become so dependent upon our own understanding, wisdom, and discernment that we don't feel the need for His. The ongoing lack of emphasis on the Person of the Holy Spirit has played a huge role in this. I think many have simply believed that coming to faith in Christ just enhances the gifts we already have. In short, our fleshly talents have now been greatly improved. What we miss is that they're still just that, fleshly talents. He didn't come to improve us, but to transform us. No matter how many times we may have read or heard in His Word that we are not to "lean unto our own understanding," we still do. So how we "see," understand, and perceive what is happening around and before us is anchored in ourselves and not Him. What has happened is that a strong spirit of deception has infiltrated the church, and we are blind to what He's speaking and doing in the times in which we live. I think we're seeing the fruit of that in the times in which we find ourselves.

It's been a fact for some time now that we live in an information soaked age, and nowhere has that been more evident than in what we hear about this pandemic. The question is, what is it that we're hearing? Many people are saying that despite all the information coming out, what they feel is frustrated and confused because "facts" seem to change each day. What is the truth? What is the lie? Is frustration and confusion, and the anger that goes with them to be our lot, especially the lot of the believer? No! A thousand times and more, no. Not just in this pandemic, but in everything happening around and before us.

Available to us, if we'll dare to walk in it, is the discernment of the Holy Spirit, along with His Wisdom and Understanding. Armed with that, I believe He'll give us a growing sense of what is true and what is not. I think He'll give us a sense of who is pushing a personal agenda and who is not. Our understanding and discernment over what is being presented in order to lay hold of power and control, as opposed to what is good for His Kingdom will grow as well. In so many places in His Word we're told to "test the spirits" that we might know from where they are coming. How many of us actually know what that is, or have the depth to do so? We can when we walk in His Spirit, in dependence of His Spirit. This holds true not only as concerns are current world situation, but in all situations. Now more than ever, we need to be a truly spirit-filled and led people.

James Robison said that the enemy is "trying to destroy God's Kingdom purpose in our lives, His Church, and in this nation." But we have, in Christ, all the means to totally defeat the purposes of the darkness. His Word says that we are "more than conquerors," but as Robison points out, we cannot be that unless we are actually conquering. In the lives we are living, individually, as families, and as His Church, are we conquering?

Scripture says, "Let God arise and His enemies be scattered." The foremost means of the Father's arising is through His people. He arises through us as we live risen lives in Him. When this happens, the confusion the enemy meant for us is thrown back upon him. He, and all his forces are scattered. The Church, as it has been raised up to do, holds the ground....as conquerors.....Let God arise, in us, and let His and our enemy be scattered though us. Let this be our battle cry against the one who is our true enemy in all things.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Wild Church

So the disciples went out, telling all they met to turn from their sins." Mark 6:12-13...."It's time to stop building and maintaining zoos. It's time for us to figure out what it means to be the Church in the wild." Francis Chan

The above quote from Francis Chan came after he discussed the similarities between the animated animals in the movie Madagascar, and the average modern day believer in the west. In the movie, a number of animals who've never known anything but life in a zoo, suddenly find themselves living in the wild jungle of Madagascar. They were born for such a place, but have been so "tamed" by the zoo that they have no idea of how to live in the wild that they were created for. He sees a clear parallel between those animated creatures and we who've been "attending church" for varying lengths of time. We've been tamed. Like the animals, we don't know how to live in the wild. Circumstances forced the animals to learn who they really were. Circumstances are forcing the church to do so as well.

This pandemic has forced a reality upon us that most have not been prepared for. Our many seminars and conferences have told us how to "do" what's needed in order to be a church in the 21st century. All of it though, was centered upon having a kind of "central" planning center that was the church building itself. As it has for generations, everything revolved around and flowed from the weekly "worship service." By the second week of March, that form was lost to us. No longer could any church produce the kind of ministries that attracted, and yes, impressed people. We could no longer "create" an atmosphere that touched people's emotions as much as their spirit. Most of the props that we've always depended upon were taken from us. We were left with......ourselves. Seemingly.

Someone said of the western church that "Jesus is being lost in the church that bears His name." That was never the intention, but somehow we became more dependent on our presentation of Him than we were on His presence in and through us. We wanted people to come because of what we were doing. Now, we're faced with the reality that we can't do almost anything that we'd been doing. And that may be the key that lets loose His Holy Spirit upon His Church.

We've been forced out of our "zoos," our buildings that we've grown so comfortable with. Yet we're still seeking to be a worshiping body of believers. We can't any longer put our energy into getting people to come to us. We're now forced to go to them, and we're having to be very innovative in order to do so. Besides the "virtual" worship services that many churches are now doing, we are also having to find new ways to reach people in desperate need of Him. Like the animals in the movie, we've been "dumped" into a jungle, but its a jungle we were created for. This is how the Church has always been meant to function. This is the body the Church was been meant to be. We've been forced to come to grips with the truth that the Church is not a building, it is His people. We've been saying that all along, but the truth is, some part of us has always believed that the church really was a building....and that it was ours, and we were in charge.

This pandemic will end. When it does, what happens with us? With you and me? Once the "cage doors" are opened, do we go back to our zoo? Or, do we go on living out what we're learning in this time? Do we go back to seeing "church" as what we go to each week, looking for some kind of, any kind of help after barely surviving that week? Or, do we come together as a vibrant body of believers, celebrating His Life in us, after spending a week actually being His presence and person to a world without Him? Questions to ponder.

I deeply miss the weekly coming together of His people, and look forward to its resuming. But when it does happen, I pray it is far more than we have ever realized it to be. In one of the regular Tuesday prayer times I attend, a good brother said, "We're helpless. We can only depend on Him." This will be one of the greatest truths to emerge from this time. We're not in control. We have never been in control. This is not our Church, it is His. It's His Body. He's the Head. He's our Lord. He's Almighty. There's a lyric in an old song that goes, "Let the Church be the Church." May it be that we in the west finally leave our "zoo" and be the Church He has raised up to be.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Essential?

"For in Him we live and move and have our being." Acts 17:28...."I would not have you ignorant...." Romans 11:25...The outstanding characteristic of this intellectual age, believe it or not, is ignorance. We do err, not knowing the Scriptures or the power of God." Vance Havner

In this pandemic, there are a great many things for believers to be upset about. The overreach of government. The hysteria of the media. The constantly conflicting "facts" presented by "authorities." Leading them all may be the listing of the coming together of the church as not being "essential," while liquor stores, abortion clinics, and marijuana dealers, where it's legal, are. The fact that politicians of both sides have carried out prohibitions for coming together shows the lack of regard the church is held in. New York's Andrew Cuomo has publicly stated that the recent downturn in Covid-19 cases and deaths is not because of people's prayers, but of scientists and doctors work. Such views have always been in the culture of the world, but it has grown at an alarming rate over the last 50 years. I'm both grieved and angry, because I know, as do legions of believers over all the earth, that as Scripture points out, it is Christ that holds all things together. It is Christ who is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. It is Christ who was, and is, and always will be. People may reject that truth, hate that truth, but it remains truth.....However, I have a very disturbing question for each who does profess and confess Christ as Savior and Lord.....Have we, the church, given the unbelieving culture around us good reason to see us as "non-essential?"

Let me tell you some things that I know are non-essential as concerns the Body of Christ.: Celebrity preachers who promote the idea that Father God desires all of us to be financially well off, fully healthy, and very happy and blessed. Both they, and the self-absorbed, self-indulgent crowds they preach to are non-essential when one compares the message of the cross to their message of comfort and plenty. They and their disciples are not essential to a culture lost in darkness and death and heading for an eternity of the same.

Neither is a timid and fearful priesthood of believers, who are afraid of angering the culture with the full message of the Gospel. Jesus said that those who hated Him and His message would hate us as well when we brought His message to those who would reject us as they did Him. A church that wishes to play to the crowd in order to attract it, is not essential to a lost world.

There are so many more examples of where the church is non-essential, but I will speak that which makes us more essential to this world than all other things: A church fully alive in Him. Fully awake. Full of His Holy Spirit. Presenting to the world a portrait, through the Holy Spirit, of just what the Father and the Son "look like" and who they are. When an unbelieving world beholds such a church, they, even if they don't fully believe, will welcome our presence and ministry. The fact that they are not presently doing so has to be owned by us, at least to a real degree. Are the lives we are living, individually, communally, corporately, essential to the culture around us? Dare we ask the question? Dare we allow Him to bring us to the true answer?

I want my life, the life of my local church, and the life of His universal Body, to be essential to this world. It is, but are we? When we're willing to turn from all that makes us non-essential, we will be so. Are we willing? Are you? Am I?

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Atmosphere

"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh." Galatians 4:16...."When His Holy Spirit is having His way with us, we live according to His standard without knowing it." Oswald Chambers

I think the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit are fast becoming lost in the western church. This isn't a new thought. A.W. Tozer, Leonard Ravenhill, and Oswald Chambers warned of it generations ago. More recently, Francis Chan and others have sounded the alarm. How have we not heard them? Why has it continued to mark us?

The Word of God calls Him our Helper, Comforter, Guide, and much more. Can we admit that a great part of our problem is that in our hearts, we don't really believe we need Him in these roles? We've become very accustomed to our own self-sufficiency. We trust in our ability to figure things out, maneuver a way through, get to the place we want to be. We want a faith-walk that we can control. We fear a life that is beyond our control. I think that this is the greatest reason that we know so little of what it is to walk in the Spirit. It is also a major reason that we seem to carry out the desires of our flesh markedly more than the desires of His Spirit. We believe in the existence of the Holy Spirit, but we're strangers to His Person and personality. There's little surprise then that we're much more comfortable living in the flesh than we are in the Spirit. Yet a life in His Spirit is what we're called to, commanded to enter into. Besides the above reasons, there's another; our ignorance. We think such a life is impossible, yet if we let the truth of His Word sink into our hearts and minds, we'll find that it isn't. It isn't impossible at all.

I heard someone say that we're to live in "the atmosphere of the Holy Spirit." In the physical sense, we live by breathing in the oxygen of our earthly atmosphere. We breathe in, and we breathe out. Living in the atmosphere of the Holy Spirit is to do the same. There are two atmospheres available to a believer. The first is to choose to depend on the atmosphere of the world. This is easy and natural. We're born fallen creatures into a fallen world. To be able to live in the atmosphere of heaven, of the Holy Spirit, will require His work of saving grace in our hearts. This brings us into the atmosphere of the Holy Spirit, yet, so many, familiar only with the first, choose to continue to live there. It's what they've always known. They have a sense of control there. No such control exists in the atmosphere of heaven and the Spirit. The key to entering into His atmosphere is....surrender. Complete surrender. And it's a moment by moment choice.

I don't remember the source of it, but written in one of my prayer journals is this definition; to be filled with His Holy Spirit is a moment by moment surrender to His moment by moment infilling." Breathe out all reliance upon self, and breathe in His Life, Power, and ability to live in the fullness of life He has promised. Our great problem is that we don't know how to live in moment by moment dependence and consciousness of Him. He's a part of our lives, but He's not our life. There's only place where He can be; at the cross. We can live out a moment by moment surrender because we live moment by moment at the cross. The cross is the doorway between life in the atmosphere we've always known into the atmosphere that we were created for. We leave the polluted atmosphere of the world to the pure atmosphere of heaven. Impossible? He's promised it. Can we dare to put His promise to the test?

To walk in His Spirit is to breathe free air. I think all of us, confined during this pandemic, are longing to breathe "free air." I'm believing that such a longing for the free air of His Spirit is growing by the day in His Church. May we live in the atmosphere of His Spirit, saturated by His Presence. Free.

Blessings,
Pastor O