Better Methods

E.M. Bounds said, "The church is always looking for better methods. God is looking for better men." For better women as well. We are striving to build bridges and connections with a lost culture but seem blind to the reality that in many ways, we have become disconnected from our God. In our obsession with presentation, we have neglected the cultivation of His Presence. We want to speak a language the culture will understand while we seem to have lost the ability to understand the language of God. The language of the Kingdom.

I once heard an evangelist say that while we say we desperately want revival, our lifestyles say that we have no time for it. We crave a spiritual awakening but it has to work with what we've marked down on our activities calendars. We want the Holy Spirit to come, but it needs to be on Sunday, and before noon. We say we want His Spirit to be free in our church, but He's not even free in our lives. It's not that we're unwilling to work for Him. We can spend large amounts of time doing "work" and outreach in His name. We're willing to work for Him. We're unwilling to wait upon Him. We expend great amounts of human activity but experience so little Holy Spirit activity. We do a lot, but little of what we do requires His Spirit in order to be done. 

The darkness is increasing. That's not news, but our response is not to dig in and wait for Him to carry us home. As the darkness grows, I believe He fervently seeks hearts that He may set on fire with passion for Him. He is seeking to create His life in His people. Life that announces the truth of Isaiah 60 through the lives of His people. "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you....Darkness will cover the earth, deep darkness the peoples, but the Lord will rise upon you. His glory will appear upon you. Nations will come to your light...kings to the brightness of your rising."

May He raise up a generation that will seek His face and heart above all. A generation that isn't looking for new ways and methods to grow the church but for a pathway to the very heartbeat of God. May this prayer from Chris Tiegreen become the prayer of my heart and of yours...."Lord, work your heart into the depths of mine. Share Your deepest impulses with me." 

Blessings,

Pastor O