Heart Thoughts - Naked Evil

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." Ephesians 6:12

Victor Marx is a man, who along with his wife, has responded to a call from the Father to go and minister to the people, especially young girls and women, who have been ravaged and abused in every manner possible by the forces of Isis in Iraq. Doing so has not only exposed them to great physical danger, but also to the hatred and counterattacks of the devil and hell itself. A story he related of his ministering to, and praying with a captured Isis officer shows just how real the spiritual warfare spoken of in Ephesians 6 truly is.

The Isis leader Marx spoke with was considered extremely dangerous, and so was shackled in order to restrain him. As Marx spoke with him, he also shared with him the truth, love, and reality of Jesus Christ, most especially the love and life that this man could have in Him. Marx then asked the man if he could pray for his family, which he gave him permission to do. This led Marx to then ask him if he could lead him in a prayer to receive Christ as his savior. The man gave his consent to this as well. Marx said all went well with the prayer until the man was asked to name Jesus Christ as his savior. Marx said that suddenly, this man's countenance took on a visage of deep darkness, anger and hatred. So enraged did he become that he broke free of his shackles and made to attack Marx. The presence of a number of other people there enabled them to subdue the man and get him back in his restraints. Marx said that in that experience he knew he had come face to face with the naked evil that opposes the truth of Jesus Christ. The truth and love of Jesus was reaching one who was shackled by a far more powerful force than the physical bonds that held him. When that happens, satan will unleash all the power of hell to oppose it.

Scenes like Marx describes are not very commonplace here in the west. Our emphasis on the intellectual, the rational and logical have made such spiritual encounters rare, even alien to us. We say we believe in a literal devil, but we don't really think he's all that much of a force. What we seem to miss is that when we think that way, we also live as if the Holy Spirit isn't a force as well. Someone said that when we pray for His Kingdom to come, than all other kingdoms must go. Every kingdom that is not His Kingdom has it's roots in the enemies domain of darkness and evil....and that territory will not go without a violent fight....to the death. We who are the Church have to realize this, and we can't be ignorant of all the weapons our enemy has at his disposal, but especially, we cannot be ignorant of the unconquerable power we have in Jesus Christ.

The western Church may not often encounter what Marx did, but satan is no less at work here. In Northern Virginia, where I live, he doesn't manifest himself through Isis fighters, mass murderers, or other forms of that naked evil. He's much more subtle, but no less dangerous or wicked. Here, he comes against the Kingdom of God through strongholds of apathy, affluence, pleasure, materialism, busyness, career goals, and a myriad of addictions. Spiritual mindsets deeply embedded in the lives of people, communities, and churches. When those strongholds are threatened by the Truth of Christ and His Kingdom, He will wage a vicious war in their defense. He fears the exposure of and Kingdom assault upon these "fortresses" he has so skillfully constructed.

Know your enemy. He is naked evil no matter how he might disguise himself. Know too that entering into this battle brings great cost. You will be bloodied. So then, you must know your Advocate, the One who fights with and for you. Know that this Advocate has already defeated all the forces of darkness. Know too that this enemy does not accept his defeat, so he fights on. But he fights on as a beaten foe. We fight in the power of a victory already won. It was won at the cross and the empty tomb. And all of hell trembles at that truth. Dare we speak and preach the Truth that crumbles the foundations of hell? It will be a battle, but a battle in a war we, in Christ, have already won. Naked evil is conquered by the Naked Truth of Jesus Christ.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Where He Is

"Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you." James 4:8

I was greatly impacted by something I read about the missionary Amy Carmichael. One day she was sitting under a tree in India, studying one of the local dialects. Suddenly, she became aware of a growing sense of His Presence. She felt He was inviting her to come and "sit" with Him, to listen with Him. Listen to the needs of the India she served crying out to Him. "Time stood still. The presence was all that mattered." From that place, Carmichael stepped into a walk with Christ that truly entered into the "fellowship of His sufferings." She said that there were times she could "see," with spiritual eyes, "Jesus kneeling alone in prayer for people she'd been sent to, and she would go and kneel with Him." She entered into, joined Him in His burden.

Here in the west, we are very anxious to have Him come and join us in our burdens, to carry them for us. We know little of joining Him in His. We're expert at bringing Him our list of needs and wants in prayer, but have little desire to listen to what He carries in His heart. We love the idea of His making intercession, praying for us. We don't know much at all about our praying with Him concerning His deep, wrenching desires for the souls and lives of all those around us. And the situations affecting them, imprisoning them, killing them. Chris Tiegreen says, "He has ways of making His heartbeat known to those whose hearts are inclined towards His." Few of us have the heart that will come and "watch and pray with Him." He wants to work His heart into the deepest parts of ours. How deeply has He been able to do that with you and me? How inclined are our hearts to His?

I can't get away from the image of Carmichael "seeing" Jesus praying for the lost of India, and going to join Him in that prayer. We emphasize taking Christ to the lost a great deal. If we bring prayer into it, it's almost always prayer that He will make our efforts bear fruit. I don't think He calls us to such prayer, and too often, when we go out with our message, we do so without His power and presence. We go out in our own. The prayer He calls us to is that which draws our heart into His. Prayer that brings His mind and ways into ours. The yield is true communion and fellowship with Him, a oneness with His life and heart. Our unending committee meetings and strategy sessions will never bring that. They won't make us His living witness. Witnesses living out His purpose. And witnessing is no longer something we do, it's who we are. Ones who know Him in the most intimate ways. We don't just give testimonies about what He's done for us, and keep score sheets concerning the response. We are the living testimony as to who He is. This can only come about one way; by our entering into His burden, His life, His heart. There is only one path to that place, and it goes by way of His cross.

I love to pray and have fellowship with Him, but I'm humbled by the level of prayer and fellowship with Him that I see in what was Amy Carmichael's life. I know I've rarely, if ever entered into that place with Him. But I want to. Do you? A young girl once asked Carmichael what the life of a missionary was like. She answered, "Missionary life is simply a chance to die." Dying to all that is not Him in order to live to, for, and in, all that is Him. He invites us to come into His burden, to join Him in His intercession. With a broken heart. He intercedes for our churches, our communities, our nations, and their peoples right now. We have many prayer meetings, and we invite Him to join us where we are, and support our prayer agendas there. He bids us come to the only "prayer meeting" that matters, the one where He is. Do we come?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Unstoppable Jesus

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?.......Not anything in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus." Romans 8:38-39 "The name Satan literally means 'prosecutor.' And his work isn't ultimately to tempt you, but to try you. If you let Satan prosecute you, you will ultimately imprison yourself." Ann Voskamp

We are all of us broken. Some of us are more broken than others. Some of us believe we are broken beyond repair. Some think they've either failed too often, sinned too often, been betrayed, abused, and victimized too often. In our fallen world, these thoughts can arise naturally from within ourselves, or they can be darts of fire thrown by the enemy of our soul and burying themselves deep within our minds. Regardless of the outer mask we put on, we have agreed with the devil's lie, the lie of "the prosecutor," and in doing so, have imprisoned ourselves. Spoken or unspoken, our attitude is, "It's too late for me."

There are so many things that Jesus said that resonate with my heart, but one in particular are His words to the crowd who were outraged at his eating with Zaccheus, the despised tax-gatherer. He told them that the "Son of Man has come to seek and save that which has been lost." The Greek word used for "lost" gives the meaning of "utterly destroyed, broken beyond repair." That was how they saw Zaccheus. It is likely how he saw himself. Is it how you see yourself, or how you see others? Trust me, it is not how He sees you, or them. Voskamp says that "Your life is unwreckable because Christ's love is unstoppable." Yes, we can refuse that love and suffer the loss of everything. But if we will receive it, it will saturate every inch of our being. It will make whole, heal, transform, all that we thought utterly destroyed and broken beyond repair.

Sheila Walsh tells the story of a man who approached her after one of her speaking engagements. She saw that the left side of his face was badly scarred and that he spoke in a very raspy voice. Now over 40 years old, he told her that when he was 15, he'd taken a pistol, placed it below his jaw, and pulled the trigger. He said that in the millisecond between the bullet leaving the chamber and entering his skull, he heard the voice of the Lord say, "Do you want to live?" He answered "yes," and miraculously, he survived the gunshot. The bullet was still lodged in his skull, but he was alive. She asked him, "Do you ever wish the scars that were left could be removed?" He answered, "No. These scars are a moment by moment reminder of the grace of God." Such can all scars, wounds, and brokenness be if we will allow His grace to cover them. The scars from our wounds can be mighty reminders of the infinite power of His mercy and grace.

In our pain and woundedness, we seek to hide. In our hiding we become isolated, imprisoned, and the devil stands at our cell door mocking and ridiculing us. But if we'll allow His healing grace through the bars, we find freedom, we find life. In the midst of your pain, the place you think is beyond hope and redemption, the Unstoppable Christ calls you out. The One who came to seek and save what you've believed utterly destroyed, reaches to you to bring it to life again. When the Unstoppable Jesus is present, so too is His Unstoppable Life and Love. Come out of hiding. Come unto Him......and live!

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - I've Just Seen Jesus

"What we've seen and heard we also declare to you, so that you may have fellowship along with us....We are writing these things that your joy may be complete." I John 1:3-4...."There is nothing more appealing to a watching world than to hear the testimony of someone who has just been with Jesus." Henry Blackaby........."I've just seen Jesus, I tell you He's alive....All that I've done before, won't matter anymore. I've just seen Jesus, and I'll never be the same again." Lyric from "I've Just Seen Jesus."

Music moves us. He created us that this would be so. All of us, have at some level at least, a love for music. It can touch our mind and emotions, but it's His intention that it should lay hold of our spirit and our soul. The most powerful hymns and worship songs have been those that have flowed out of the songwriters personal encounters with Him. The above lyrics from the classic Larnelle Harris-Sandy Patti "I've Just Seen Jesus," are but one of the examples of this. They take hold of us, for we know we're hearing from those who have been with Him heart to heart, and spirit to spirit. Ones who have seen Him, if not with physical eyes, certainly with spiritual ones. They will never be the same again, and if their "testimony" in the song is received and experienced by us as well, neither will we.

Yet it is not just in music and song that this must take place. It must be found in what we hear from the pulpit, from the lectern, and in the "marketplace." The need is desperate for men and women who have "been with Him," who have "seen Him." Believe me, the "watching world" that Blackaby speaks of, knows the difference between those who have and haven't. Anyone can read an account of an event, but it is the relating of it from one who was actually there that gets our attention. We want to know all the details. Can there be any more momentous "event" than to hear from the one who has been with, and seen the One who "holds all creation together?"

The church in the west has not been flourishing. It's culture has become more secularized than ever before, while the Church has become more and more marginalized. I don't think that's a result of our lack of "trying." We have been responding to real needs in that culture, feeding, clothing, and ministering to it's "felt needs." These are very good things, and we need to be doing them, yet there are many secular agencies that do this as well, and the Church can easily end up being seen as just another one of them. Something has to set us apart, and that something has got to be that we are those who have seen and been with Jesus, and that our good works flow out of that. It becomes not something we should do, but it's who we are. Along with the goods we distribute, we distribute the hope, joy, peace and life we have found and are experiencing in Him. When this happens, the Jesus we've just seen is seen by them as well. What we do isn't just done for Him, its done with Him, and His Presence about us is undeniable.

The world is a "dry and thirsty land where there is no water," but sadly, too much of the Church is as well. It is my great desire that He raise up anointed, spirit-filled preachers and teachers. People who listeners know have been with the One they speak of. It's my prayer that He would raise up His witnesses in the places we work and live. Not people who talk about some historical character named Jesus Christ, but people who presently know Him, fellowship with Him, and live fully in Him. People who've seen Him and have never been the same since. I want to be among them. Do you as well? When was the last time you really saw Jesus? Have you ever?

May our simple message never cease to be, "I've just seen Jesus, I tell you He's alive." May that message be so filled with His Holy Spirit power that even the hardest heart is softened enough to ask if it be possible that it might see Him too. Maranatha. Come Lord Jesus.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Half-Baked Life

"My people of Israel mingle with godless foreigners, picking up their evil ways. Now they have become as worthless as a half-baked cake." Hosea 7:8....."We have not seen Him if we are not changed." T. Austin-Sparks

I remember my first pastor remarking that it seemed like so many professing believers only got "about half-saved." Now let me say before anything else that this man walked in, and still walks in, one of the most grace filled and grace giving lives I've ever known. Mercy and grace marked and continue to mark his ministry and ways. Yet, after 30 plus years in ministry myself, I not only understand what he meant, I have to agree with it as well.

When I say this, I'm not leaving out anything that is involved in a believers journey in their growth in grace. I know there are so many spiritual issues in our lives, and that Christ, in His mercy and love, will deal with them one at a time. I know that there is always a next place, a deeper place that He wishes to take us. I know that there is always new "heart territory" for Him to lay claim to in us. It's a life long process, and I believe that it will go on even into eternity. I think it is something of what is meant when He invites us to "enter into the joy of the Lord." Yet how many who say they are His have really entered into that joy?

Billy Graham's daughter Ruth once said that the church is filled with people who do not know Him or the power of His Life. I don't think she was saying that they were lost so much as that they have never been fully found. They live in a kind of spiritual limbo between two realms, His Kingdom, and the kingdom of the world. Austin-Sparks said that the devil's great weapon is to get us to believe in a mixture of the Father's Truth in Christ and the devil's lies. I think this is something that God is speaking to through Hosea. It's the faith life that existed in his people then, and it was a half-baked faith life. In the end, such a life is no life at all. It falls prey to the very things that devour those who are truly lost. Their experience of Him, His power and wonder, is so little as to be almost non-existent. Beth Moore said that we're to tell of what we've seen and heard, but "we say little because we've seen and heard so little."

Anyone who's followed these writings will know, I think, that I don't set myself up as some kind of spiritual powerhouse. I know me, and how far from that I am. But I do remember that when I believed on Him that summer evening in August, 1979, I decided that I would believe all that He said He was, and I that I wanted all that He said He was. From then on, I was all in. I was a "dry thirsty land" receiving all the water I could get. I pursued Him as He pursued me, and who I had been was no more, and who and what I was becoming was everything. I was blessed to have a pastor who faithfully proclaimed what life in Him was to be, and how none who professed to be His had an option for anything less. Living between two kingdoms wasn't on the table. Oftentimes I wonder, consciously or not, whether we've allowed it to be so in the Church today?

In my years of study back at the Bible College I attended, a hymn titled "Called Unto Holiness" was sung at almost every chapel. I don't know how much we're proclaiming that call today. How to have a happy life, solid finances, and successful endeavors and ministries often seem to be in the forefront. With us, but not, I think with Him. We're not created for a legalistic "Do and Don't" faith, but we are called to enter into all the wonder and fullness of His Life, the Life of a Holy God. Half-baked, half-saved lives cannot exist there. We're called to be "all in" with Him. Half-way is no way at all. Are you yet trying to live as if it is?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - Point Man

"From the time John the Baptist began preaching until now, the Kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and violent people are attacking it." Matthew 11:12...."We get the impression the Kingdom comes with considerable trauma and friction, and it isn't a smooth experience. There's a confrontation going on, a clash of kingdoms that puts Jesus and us on the front lines in a power shift for the ages." Chris Tiegreen

I saw something online from Beth Moore the other day. She said while so many Christians are quick to reject a "prosperity gospel," they seem to have little if any problem with a "pampering" one. Chew on that. How can we deny that the Church in the west, particularly America, is obsessed with its safety and comfort? Someone said that though we're the most blessed nation on earth, our deepest desire is for more blessing. None of us are immune. Not the people in the pews and not the pastors in the pulpit. We desire to put our journey in Christ in cruise control, as we just sit back and allow Him to get us to where we're going.

Technology has produced cars that do not require a driver, but can be programmed to take us exactly where we want to go. All we need be are passengers, passive ones, who just sit back and read, listen to music, or sleep. That sounds a lot like what the average American believer wants their walk with Him to be. Come to think of it, that also sounds a lot like how we want what we call our corporate worship to be as well. Confrontation, friction, harsh, open opposition are not welcome. Not in our walk with Him and not in our worship of Him either. As Moore says, we embrace a pampering gospel. Since it was Jesus Himself who spoke the words in Matthew 11, we can be sure that message has never been, and never will be embraced by Him. Jesus lived in the realm where His Light never ceased clashing with the kingdom of darkness. If we truly walk with Him, we'll be in the middle of the clash.

I used a quote not long ago that said the Father will shake His Church and people to see just how much of Christ is part of us, how much of Him remains in the shaking. One of His most effective means is through the confrontation, friction, and opposition of others, of circumstances, and of the spiritual realm that are completely opposed to Him. And through Him, us. A pampered gospel cannot stand against that, but then again, a pampered gospel need not worry about having such opposition to begin with. A cross centered, Christ centered one however........Jesus told Peter that the devil desired to, and would, sift him like wheat. If we're to live lives built upon Him, we'll be sifted too, but as He did with Peter, He's already prayed for us, empowered us to stand the sifting....In victory. The way of Christ and His cross is the way of entering into His sufferings.....and in that, His resurrection life. There will be heartache, tears, and yes, sometimes, failure. We don't and won't get everything we want, or achieve every personal goal, but we will receive the fullness of His Kingdom and His Life. It may be a life devoid of the applause of men, but it will earn the reward of His words, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Just how badly do we long to hear those words at the end of it all? Or, does our love of comfort, ease, and safety, deafen us to ever hearing them?

Jesus said that through many tribulations do we enter into the Kingdom of God. If you and I really mean to live for Him, we will be in the exact center of a clash of kingdoms; that of Light and Life colliding with the enemy's darkness and death. That collision cost His blood, and it will cost ours as well....but oh what gain. I wonder; what will it profit us if we gain all the comforts and safety of this world, and in that, lose all the fullness and wonder of a life lived out in Him? What will it cost you?.

One last thought. In combat, the most dangerous position was for the one who took the point, the point man. It was he who went ahead of the rest of the troops, being the first to see and even engage the enemy. It was the most dangerous position, and the most likely to be wounded or killed. Every one who walks with Him is called to fill such a role in the spiritual warfare that rages about us, but none more so than preachers/pastors and leaders within the Body. It carries much risk and cost, but the battle depends on such as these. In the pulpit, in the Body, in our homes, in our communities, at work, wherever we are, He calls us to "take the point," but we won't take it alone. He stands, walks, and fights with us. The battle is still the Lord's.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Heart Tracks - What's Your Name?

"But now, O Jacob, listen to the Lord who created you. O Israel, the One who formed you says, 'Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you and Mine.' " Isaiah 43:1

What's in a name? Far more than we think. Far more than you think. We tend to believe that everyone is given a name at birth, but they aren't. Author and speaker Christine Caine tells of how, when born to a mother who didn't want her, and father who had abandoned them both, had listed on her birth certificate under the space for name, "None." Except that she did have a name, and it began to be burned into her mind and spirit. In fact she came to have many names. "Unwanted, Unloved, Unimportant." The years would add many more. You see, even though a parent may not give us a name, there is no hesitation on the part of the devil, the world, and even the organized church to do so. And like Caine, these names can be burned into the very marrow of our mind, heart, and spirit. In Jewish culture, the names given the children signified the type of character the parent hoped the child would come to possess. Be assured that the enemy of our souls seeks to place a name upon us as well that he hopes will come to define the entirety of our lives. And keep us in the captivity of that names power. In so many instances, he succeeds. This is tragic on every level, but nowhere more so than when he succeeds in convincing those who are His that the names he has put upon them will now define every aspect of their life. And they will live under the bondage of that "name." Loser. Failure. Unlovable. Rejected. Ugly. Stupid. Such names are placed upon us by family, peers, the culture, the church, and worst of all, ourselves. What "name" and its tyranny might you be living under right now?

This is a fallen world locked in darkness, so it should not be surprising that it, working through all aspects of its culture, even the culture of the church, should seek to place a fallen name upon us as well. It will, and we have but one defense, one truth to turn to in the midst of that. Jesus Christ.....the One who, as the old hymn says, gives us " a new name written down in glory., and it's mine, O yes it's mine." Tragically though, too many of us never hear that name, or know that it's been given. And that name, given by the Father before the foundation of the world, really is ours. It's a name that contains everything the Father sees us as, everything He created us to be. That name, when we come to Him in saving faith, breaks all the power of all the names that hell and the world have sought to bind us with. If that is you, you've been given that name. Have you ever received it?

We won't know what that name is this side of eternity, but we can begin to live in the power of it right now. It starts with coming to know what it is that the Father says of us in His Word. Victor. Conqueror. Child of the King. Apple of His eye. Precious. Accepted. Infinitely Loved. Mine! T. Austin-Sparks said that everything changed for Saul of Taursus when he met everything that Christ is on the Damascus Road. Saul, murderer, persecutor, hater of His people, was transformed into Paul, the Apostle of the Heart....of the heart set free. We, and everything about us needs to meet our own everything in Christ. Have we? Will we now?

It just involves this; we need to bring every false name the the devil, the world, even the church has sought to put upon us, to Him. With open hands, we need to give Him those names, all of them, and allow Him to blot them all out as He writes His name, and the name He has given us, over them....in His blood. Their power is broken. They are erased from our minds, our hearts, and our spirits. Everything in us has met everything in Him. The old names pass away...and a new name, written down in glory, is ours. Have you received it?

Blessings,
Pastor O