Several months ago my wife, Jan, and I had the privilege of having lunch with David and Deborah Crone who pastor The Mission, a church in Vacaville, California. When I get with leaders like the Crones the conversation will usually turn towards a question regarding what guides them in their ministry. I asked David this question and without hesitation he said, “We live in the green light of God.”
I let David's profound words sink deep into my spirit. An adjustment of my life paradigm was making a gentle shift as David's words hung over the lunch table. Deborah added to David's comment by saying that God is faithful to give us the red lights if we will simply live in the green light of God.
After lunch, on the drive home, David's words began to rearrange certain areas of my life and ministry. An impartation of truth had taken place.
The lives of some believers resemble beautiful and powerful automobiles that are running at idle while waiting at an intersection even though the light is green. It has been “green and go” since the Day of Pentecost, yet some still wait, continuing to idle and go nowhere. I sense God is wanting to ask His Church, “What are you waiting for?” The reality is that the heavens are open and the Spirit has been given to the Church. The green light of God is present in His people. It is time to move.
Many of us have forgotten that we really are children of the Most High God. We have allowed lies to be imbedded in us that have created a performance-based relationship with the Grace Giver. Some dear saints of God are afraid to move out in boldness because they still believe that God can only love them if their performance is without fault. This fear has immobilized many. This lie is displaced when we know we are loved not because of our performance, but out of the very nature of God. He can only love. He is love. He is unchangeable.
A performance-based relationship with God will keep a believer forever idling at the intersection even though the light is green because way down deep in their hearts they are still believing that if their efforts for God fail they will be rejected by Him. Fear makes afraid to press the accelerator of faith. In the meantime the signal reflects back at us a brilliant green, but all we see is red. The lies blind us to the reality of the moment.
At the spiritual intersection of our lives, as our vehicles of faith continue to idle on, spirits of fear and rejection jump in the back seat. Fear and rejection can redirect the focus back onto self and when this happens we become the ones responsible for the results. We take on the burden of outcomes. “What if I pray and they are not healed?” “What if I turn to the table behind me and actually give them the word you asked me to give?” If you and I feel that we are responsible for the results of our faith we will inevitably live in the prison of performance. This prison holds your life and faith captive to personal doubt instead of experiencing the open-road freedom that comes from living in the green light of God.
Jesus said in John 15 that He would no longer relate to His disciples as servants. He would now relate to them as friends. The shift here was not simply using a new word to describe the relationship, but rather how the word “friend” would radically change how the disciples would relate to Jesus.
Servants live with a list of things to do. Servants execute lists of performance and when they are done performing then they go back to the servant quarters. A friend is different. They have no lists. They live in anticipation of what their Friend desires. They have a relationship that is powered by intimacy. They don't see intersections. They see an open road and the green light of relationship and freedom.
I love to ride my motorcycle in the wide open spaces of the American West. No stop signs. Sage brush blurring past on long straight stretches of freedom. Its just me and Jesus in the natural reflecting how we should live in the Spirit. This is how is see the church.
In II Corinthians Paul said the following, “18 But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not "Yes" and "No." 19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by me and Silas and Timothy, was not "Yes" and "No," but in him it has always been "Yes." 20 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the 'Amen' is spoken by us to the glory of God.”
Friendship with God looks reckless to people who have yet to realize His friendship. Friendship with God looks reckless because you end up blasting past people who are still parked at the intersection. Friends of God blast right through intersections because they are fulfilling what they anticipate what the Master desires.
You and I live in the green light of God's Promises just like Paul said in verse 20, “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. “Promise” is a word that can be translated “to announce upon.” Jesus told the disciples in Luke 24: 49, “And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven.” When Jesus said these words He was assuring His disciples that in the near future God would “announce upon them” the Spirit.
The prophet Joel announced the promise of the future outpouring of the Spirit in the latter days. On the Day of Pentecost timeless eternity announced down upon earth the reality of Joel's prophecy.
God is right now announcing upon the earth His promises. This really is a new day. The fires of revival are sparking and igniting upon the earth on every continent. The promise of God has been announced upon His friends. Heaven is waiting to hear the sound of our lives “peeling out” and the smell of burning rubber at every intersection of life where we have lived in doubt and fear.
If you find yourself parked at idle at some life intersection, pray this prayer-
God, right now, in this moment I ask for your presence to invade my life. I break off the spirits of fear and rejection that have caused me to live a life of perpetual pause in fear of failed performance. In this moment I choose to engage the gears of life and press the accelerator of faith knowing that you love me no matter what happens. From this day forward I will live in Your green light. In the Name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.
The light is green and the command is go! There are no radar traps, no potholes, no sharp turns that He cannot navigate with you. Go for it! The green light of God is on!
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