The Same Power

 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.  Romans 8:11

I heard a woman named Rebecca Morgan tell a powerful story recently. She was speaking of her recent participation in a 26 mile marathon run. She had trained and prepared for it, but it was a distance she had never run before. She began the race which took place on a very warm December day. As she neared the 20 mile mark, she felt her strength waning and her body breaking down. She wanted to quit. All along the route were people cheering the runners on and some recognized who she was. Along that route was a young girl in a wheelchair. She held a sign that said, "The same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you." Rebecca was impacted by the power of that truth. She determined that she would trust in that power above and beyond how she felt or what her body sought to get her to do. By His strength, His resurrection, power, she would finish the race, and that power, that same power that did raise Christ from the dead was alive in her and enabled her to do what she had believed impossible.

What would happen in our lives if we could dare to believe that truth and that promise? Not just as concerns physical impossibilities, but emotional, mental, and spiritual as well? What if we believed it as concerns our circumstantial or relational, marital, or familial impossibilities? What would our lives look like if we could believe the truth of Romans 8:11, that the infinite power of the Father who raised His Son Jesus Christ from the dead, is alive within all who believe and trust in Him, and is alive in us? In you and in me? What wonders would we see? What miracles would we behold? We would surely experience the truth of His promise that "we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us."

A young girl, physically confined to a wheelchair, lived above the confines of that wheelchair. She did so because she did not believe it could hold her back from being all that He had created her to be. Whatever we believe our limitations to be, real or imagined, in Christ, we too can rise above them by the power of His risen life within us. We who are in Christ have been given that life. It remains for us to fully receive it. We then live in the power of a life that cannot be destroyed. The final enemy of all humans is death. For the people of God, that enemy has been fully conquered. The same power that raised Him from the dead lives in you. Can you believe that? Can you live that?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Have We?

 Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them his message.  John 20:18

...."We talk about the resurrection, but have we seen the Lord?"  Vance Havner

After Mary Magdalene's wondrous encounter with the risen Christ, she went and reported to His disciples, "I have seen the Lord!" We can only imagine the emotional, mental, and spiritual state of the disciples and what they must have been talking about. They were depressed, discouraged, and fearful. They also had surely been talking about things He had told them and promised them. One of them had to be His words about His death not being final, that they would see Him again. They didn't understand all that was involved in that, or what His resurrection would "look like," or if it was even possible. Now Mary was with them and proclaiming that she had indeed seen Him.

With this announcement, a whole new level of conversation must have arisen. Excitement, hope, joy....as well as doubt and even unbelief at the report. I think it certain that they were now talking about His resurrection and there were likely many ideas and views as to what that entailed. However, all that they were talking about was just that, talk. None of them had seen and experienced Him, their risen Lord. Only Mary had. That's where we get to Havner's question, and it's a timely one. In His church, do we just talk about His resurrection, about our risen Lord, or....have we actually "seen" and experienced Him?

Only those who truly have can understand how to answer that question. To believe upon Him is to have eyes of faith. Eyes of a living faith. To believe upon Him opens the door to actually experience Him and when we experience Him, we, in a very spiritual way, see Him. We know He's real. We know He's risen. We know that He's alive. With our eyes of faith we see the one who is invisible, and we hear His whispers into our hearts and spirits. If you've only heard the report, talked about what you've heard, but have never stepped out in faith with a heart yearning to experience Him, then your experience of the risen Lord remains little more than talk. He wants to be seen and experienced. He wants us, you and me, to see and experience Him. Have you? Do you want to not merely talk of Him, but see and experience Him? You can and will when your talk turns into faith. Are you ready to really see and experience the risen Christ?

Blessings,
Pastor O

Desires

 “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh." Luke 6:21

Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." Many have claimed this promise. Many have yet to see it realized in their life. What do we do, what do you do, when this promise has yet to come to pass in your life?

It's very human to have desires and a great many of them are good and pure ones. Marriage, children, successful ministry or success in your field. Many who have had these desires and so many more have had them realized in their lives. Just as many have had them and never have. In a number of ways concerning desires, I fall into that second group. I think I've discovered some things, some truth there. I'll try to pass some of it along to you, though I caution, there is far more that I don't understand than I do.

For those who look for a strict legal understanding of Psalm 37:4, the reason desires have not been met is simple. You haven't really delighted yourself in Him. There's truth in that, but what does it mean to delight ourselves in Him? Is there a certain level we must reach? Does He measure it until He sees a satisfactory point in our desire? How about the object of our desires? Do they all have to be spiritual in their focus? Is the desire for earthly things looked down upon by Him? Certainly in these questions, He wants our desire for Him to be sincere and real, but I think, like faith, He looks upon the desire, feeding it, increasing it within us. He wants to see the reality of our desire and He brings about the increase as we remain open to Him and go deeper into Him. Also, He certainly isn't interested in satisfying our ever growing desire for more "stuff." He's not about materialism, but He does love giving us good things. So, if we're in a place where we're frustrated in the fulfilling of our desires, what might be the reason? Why does He seem to be disinterested in what means so much to us?

I think we can see much of the answer in Luke 5:21. He promises those who are currently hungry that they will be satisfied and that those who currently weep will know laughter. Currently is the important word because it means that their desires are not currently being met......but that they would be. We're not told when or even if it will happen in the here and now. Just that they will be. What I see in this, and what I have experienced in my life is that in the holding back of giving me my immediate desires, He was at work in me to enlarge them. Specifically, to enlarge my desire for Him. I had desires that if met, would enhance my ministry, make me more effective, and also add a deeper sense of fulfillment in my physical and emotional life. All good things. But as they remained unmet, I eventually noticed that what was happening was an ever increasing desire for Him as my unmet desire caused an ever deeper pursuit of Him.  It may have begun with the pursuit of something I wanted, but His delay awakened me to a deeper desire I never fully realized I had. The desire for Him. I discovered He was the only One who could reveal Himself as being better than even my deepest desires in this life. The desires might remain, but the power and frustration that their being unmet had over me was broken. I could still have the desire, but I was able to rest in Him and know that in Him, I did have abundant life even without something that I thought defined what abundance was.

What I'm trying to say is that we are each created with a desire for Him that nothing in this world will ever satisfy. The enemy would have us spend our lives pursuing that which can never really satisfy while missing the only One who can. More than anything, God wants us to want and desire Him. The fulfillment of this desire will bring us into the richest level of life we can know. It is His best for us. He's willing to allow unmet desires remain if they bring us to the place of desiring Him above all else. This is something of what has happened to me and continues to happen to me. I will not realize every earthly desire in this life, but I can realize and experience the desire of my heart.....the fullness of the Father. Whether we know it or not, admit or not, He's the desire of our heart......and if we will have it, He will fulfill that desire. Let Him do so in you.

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Call

 Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me.”  Isaiah 6:8....."He loves to hear a heart say 'Yes' before it understands the details......How would your life change if you said, 'Here I am,' to God?" Chris Tiegreen

Isaiah was a man who fully fit the description and question put forth by Tiegreen. Before God spoke anything to him, he had resolved in his heart that his response would be "yes." No matter what He asked of him or what dangers or obstacles might be involved, his response was cemented in the word "yes." He'd also already decided on Tiegreen's question as to how his life might change with his "yes." It didn't matter to him how it would change. He would follow his Lord. He would obey and he would trust. This is the place to which He seeks to bring His people. The place He seeks to bring you and me.

I think most of us want to believe we would respond just as Isaiah did. Our intentions are certainly to do so. Yet, when it comes down to it, a great many of us, perhaps most of us would not. What sets Isaiah apart from most? What's the difference? I believe it's found in what took place before God asked him the question. The angel had placed the burning coal upon the lips of Isaiah. Isaiah who, in His presence, was acutely aware of how unclean he was and how desperately he needed to be cleansed of all in his life that came between himself and his God. We in the Wesleyan tradition call it a work of full sanctification. All that Isaiah was yielded up to all of who His God was. There was no part of him not given over to his God. The Father took his offering of self and filled him with the fullness of Himself. Isaiah would no longer try to follow and obey God from the weakness of his human nature but instead would do so from the fullness and infilling of God's nature. As Paul would one day write, his weakness was perfected in God's power. It is this experience, that of being sanctified, set apart, and filled with His Holy Spirit that separates those with good intentions but no real power to carry them out, from those who can say "yes" because they fully trust where He'll lead and know that whatever strength and supply they need along the way will be given.

When God asked "Who will go for us," He wasn't directly addressing the question to Isaiah. In essence, God was looking for free-will volunteers. Isaiah heard the call and immediately responded. Nothing has changed here. The Father still issues this call. He still seeks His free-will volunteers. Will you and I be found among them? Whether we are or not depends upon whether we too will allow His Holy fire to enter into every part of our being, enabling us to carry out the call and to do so in victory. His call still echoes. Do we hear, and if we do, do we go.....in the power of His Spirit and of Christ's risen life?

Blessings,
Pastor O

The Prowler

 Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

I Peter 5:8

I recently heard a popular Christian singer named Tasha Layton speaking on James Robison's "Life Today" program. She was detailing all the chaos and devastation she had experienced in her life, mostly because she had lived under the power of the enemy's deception. She said, "Satan is not powerful enough to destroy us, but if he can get us to believe a lie, we'll self-destruct."  I believe we're seeing the evidence of this statement's truth on an increasing basis in both the world outside of as well as within the Body of Christ.

I have always been impacted by the power and truth of I Peter 5:8. Layton is correct in that the devil has no power that can destroy a follower of Christ, but it is equally true that he can deceive us into choices and pathways that result in our destruction. If not eternal, then certainly in the earthly realm. Our safeguard is to live in the conscious presence of Christ and to walk and live in the power of Holy Spirit discernment. Discernment that is able to "see" and identify the ways of the enemy as opposed to the ways of the Spirit. Satan's favorite tactic is to get us to believe what is a great lie and accept it as a truth. When he does this, he has succeeded in constructing what the Bible calls a spiritual stronghold in our minds and spirit. A stronghold is a lie that we believe is true and gives the devil a place from which to carry out attacks against us. Attacks meant to lead us to some kind of spiritual shipwreck. There are so many within the Body who are suffering at his hands because they are accepting his lies, as did Layton, and living as captive to fear, anger, destructive habits and addictions, and a host of other "prisons" we have never been meant to live in. Christ proclaimed that "He who is free in Me is free indeed." The enemy has convinced too many that this is not true, at least not true for them. The Prowler has approached, roared out his lies towards them, and convinced them that they're true. In Christ, we have the power to destroy and pull down every one of these strongholds that Satan has constructed. One of the keys is to remember who it is that is truly the Lion.  

I Peter 5:8 says Satan roars "like a lion." That's where the deception begins. He's not THE Lion. Christ is. Jesus is the Lion of Judah. At His roar, every lie must fall, along with the author of all lies. Christ is the Author of Truth, and it is for us to believe Him, trust Him, and receive what He says to and about us. When we stand in His Truth, we recognize the lies of the enemy and we have the power to put him to flight. He can never stand against Christ's Truth. May you and I live in the power and strength of His Truth, and put the Prowler to flee in its presence. The Prowler is a liar and a coward. He will always run from the truth found in Christ and His Word. Live in it. Walk in it. Overcome in it.

Blessings,
Pastor O

Location

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 2 Corinthians 3:17

I have a quote from Chris Tiegreen in my prayer journal that reads, "Where the Spirit of God rules there is freedom and life. Where He doesn't, there is captivity and death." This should be a simple truth/fact that every believer holds deeply and seeks to have the first scenario be the one that marks our life.....but it isn't. We are masters at compartmentalizing the Holy Spirit and His rulership in our day to day living. We welcome Him into a lot of places and shut the door on Him in just as many. We treat Him as a dishonest homeowner would a prospective buyer. We share all the good parts and features of our "house" while seeking to keep all the "rot" and potential disasters from Him. Like the prospective homeowner, we live in fearful tension that we'll eventually be found out. Truth: We already have been. And we pay a heavy price by our continued walling off of various parts of our lives from Him. The rot only worsens as our foundation steadily weakens. Spiritual freedom doesn't reign in us and the enemy's captivity grows greater and stronger by the day.

Thinking of selling homes, the real estate term, "Location, location, location," comes to my mind. Where in our lives can His power and presence be seen? My brother and his wife live in a nice, 1970's style neighborhood. Very middle class, but certainly not a high dollar area. Right up the street there's a home that was built by a local businessman who eventually went bankrupt. The home is closer to being a mansion than anything else. It's been on the market for a very long time. No one will pay the asking price because it is located somewhere that it shouldn't be. Many of us are like that in the spiritual sense. Scripture says that we are fearfully and wonderfully made and that He created us that we might be witnesses of His glory, but we too often live in ways that greatly tarnish His glory. We develop attitudes, habits, thoughts, and even language that aren't worthy of Him at all. We're living in the wrong location spiritually, and we have devalued Him because of it. We don't look like people set free by the blood of Christ. We look like prisoners living in cells of our own making. Deep down, we know it's so.

If we're only free in part, then we're not really free at all.....but we can be. We were created for it. The key is to give Him the key. The key to every area of our lives. Yielding every place to Him. In doing so, the darkest "room" filled with the greatest amount of "trash" becomes clean and whole in Him. We cease trying to hide what He already knows is there. And we're free. Gloriously, wonderfully free. It's what He created us for. All we need to do is allow Him to enter in and in Him, we enter into the fullness of His freedom. The prison doors swing open.

Blessings,

Pastor O 

Dark Caves

 There he went into a cave and spent the night. And the word of the LORD came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

I Kings 19:9...."He's either in control or we're all doomed." Joel Malm

I'd never heard of Joel Malm until seeing him recently on James Robison's "Life Today" program. He was sharing about a book he'd recently written, focusing on times of great difficulty, distress, and darkness in his life. Times when he couldn't understand any of what was happening to him, and hearing nothing from the Lord in the interim. It was then he asked this question, the question that had prompted the writing of his book; "What if God's silence is not a sign of his disapproval but a sign of His confidence that we can pass this test?" 

We don't like to think that God actually leads us into difficult testing places, even though the Bible is replete with examples that He does. We don't like the process and seek to escape it as soon as possible. We especially don't like that in the process, as Malm points out, we will come, like Elijah, to our own "dark cave." We may be led there by the Lord Himself, or we may be there because we are seeking to hide from life and its difficulties. However the path, God, who is in control, will be present there, and if we're listening and believing, we'll see and hear Him there. "If" is the key word.

In my Bible College days, I remember there was a course titled "The School Of The Prophets." I never gave a lot of thought to it at the time, but when I examine the lives of His prophets, the common thread is that in one way or another, the Father took each of them to His "school" He wanted to use it to test them, stretch them, grow them, and make them effective for Him. This has always been His way, and it remains His way to this day. He is in control, and we will be tested in our belief of that in countless ways. Whether we come to be of great use and value to Him in the Kingdom will depend on whether we hold fast to Him in the testing, and demonstrate to Him that we can be trusted. Trusted to live for Him, speak for Him, and shine for Him, no matter how dark or hopeless our immediate circumstances may be.

For those whose hearts are fully His, dark caves will be a part of the journey. No matter how we get there, we need not fear them, and we can trust Him to bring us out of everyone. The cave is only dark to us. He sees everything clearly and no darkness can block His vision and sight. 

Malm said that He's either in control or we're doomed. Which best describes our present state? Do we live in the full confidence that He reigns in and over all things? Or, do we live in the hopeless despair that expects the oncoming doom to swallow us up. God will test us in this. Will we pass.....or fail?

Blessings,
Pastor O