A Time of Defining and Refining

One thing that will emerge from this time of social isolation and cultural shutdown will be a clarification between the Gospel of Salvation and the Gospel of the Kingdom. 

Those who follow the Gospel of the Salvation believe that Jesus came to Earth solely to lead people to Himself.  While that is true, and thankfully so,  it is not the only reason He came. When Jesus spoke the Great Commission, the Lord instructed us to go and make disciples of all nations. The assumption is He must first bring people to Himself before they can begin to reach the nations. The Gospel of the Kingdom casts a much wider net. 

While the Gospel message includes the salvation and discipling of individuals, it does so with a mission in mind to disciple nations. A Kingdom-focused gospel will call people to Christ and then send them out to speak the truth in love to those institutions of a culture where the dominant sound may not reflect the heart of God. All of this must be done while keeping our eyes on Jesus, or it will become selfish, partisan, and self-centered.

 

Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ and Loren Cunningham of YWAM met in 1975 and spoke of the seven spheres of cultural influence where the Church needs to be involved if a nation is to be discipled. Much of their ministry focus that followed reflected that shared understanding. The areas of culture Bright and Cunningham discussed, where the Church is called to be a transforming presence, are Government, Religion, Education, Economy, Arts & Entertainment, Media, and Family. The current 7 Mountain understanding of the Great Commission mission flows from that meeting 45 years ago.

 

Each believer is already an influencing presence in the area of Family and Religion. Some who believe in a salvation only Gospel are not comfortable with believers involving themselves in areas like politics. Those same critics celebrate a recording artist becoming a believer and staying in the sphere of media as a witness for Christ or an educator who contends with a local school board that wants to introduce an unrighteous curriculum. It’s okay for a believing economist to attempt to direct tax funds toward an inner-city project by changing a funding policy. Still, somehow a believer “getting political” is out of bounds. It makes no sense when viewed through the lens of the Great Commission.

 

The Lord is currently defining and refining His Church. None of us will go through this process without stumbling, many times, offending each other. In this unusual time, our most challenging task will be to monitor the condition of our hearts and the character of our response to those with whom we disagree.

 

Jesus came to seek and save the lost so that once transformed, we could go into all the world and declare the heart of God under the influence and power of the Spirit. Hopefully, our efforts will lead to the transformation of the institutions within each nation to more accurately reflect the heart of God. As a result, each citizen will have an opportunity to flourish and prosper. If that freedom is ever taken from us, it will not stop the Gospel from being released.  The Church in China and Iran are current examples of that truth. While we have such freedom, we should use it. 

"The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15).

 

Recirculated Lives

Over the years, friends have given me unique gifts from antiquity. The coin and the frame in which it is displayed sit atop a bookshelf in our living room. There have been times in the last 20 years when I stopped to look at the coin and wondered through whose hands the coin might have passed.

Just this morning, I stopped and wondered that same thing again. This time I heard the word “recirculation.” Just as a coin will recirculate over time to arrive in unexpected hands somewhere in the future, so it is with some experiences and relationships we will have in the course of our lives. When the Roman coin was first minted, the future in which it would travel could not have been imagined by a first-century Roman citizen. So it is with our relationships and life experiences. When these things were first encountered in our history they had a different meaning and context compared to how they will be perceived and interpreted in our future.

I am sensing God is about to recirculate things from our past and bring them into our present. There is a purpose in this recirculation. When encountered they will have a greater value today than when we first experienced them in our past. They will become cherished and displayed as something unique and valued. They will also affirm the goodness of God – the God who increases value in all things over time. Don’t be surprised when God has someone or something from your past return to your present to assume a place of value and honor. This is how God works. His timing creates new value in old things.

Today, I am having lunch with an old friend I haven’t seen in years. Like two old coins, it will be fun to hear where our lives have taken us over the years as God has circulated each of us through various assignments in His Kingdom.

I See You

I remember reading about a young woman who was part of a team of noted researchers who accomplished a major scientific breakthrough. Her research produced the amazing results being celebrated by others yet her name remained hidden and unrecognized. Everything changed when another young woman who had risen to public notoriety from a place of personal obscurity noted her valuable contribution and made her name known on social media. The young woman was finally honored because someone noticed her.

We need to ask God to help us see the unnoticed ones who work behind the scenes. We live in a culture where those already standing on the public platform receive most of the praise and acclamation. Without the pivotal contribution of these unnoticed ones, the great accomplishments being celebrated would never have taken place.  

When you see these hidden gifts let them know you see them. They may be that one person who is the glue that holds an entire family together. They can be someone who introduced two people who formed a critical relationship that led to a powerful alliance or someone who gave of their limited finances to help an entrepreneur get started. They might lead a Sunday School class in a small church out in the middle of nowhere who led a great revivalist to the Lord. These people are all around us faithfully fulfilling their calling in life.

Noticing the unnoticed is something Jesus did very well and it is a skill all of us need to develop. Jesus saw apostles in fisherman and a future disciple in a tree. He saw an undiscovered evangelist in a Samaritan woman drawing water at a well. Destiny is discovered when someone is noticed. Seeing someone values them as a human being created in the image of God and that is the most beautiful thing to notice. 

The Angel of Nations

Today, in the early morning hours at precisely 5:23 a.m., I heard the phrase “Angel of Nations.” I looked toward the front door of our living room and sensed a presence. I knew an angelic visitation was taking place.  I could sense, but not see, the angel. As I engaged the angel’s presence, I began to hear instruction and receive insight. It was then that I looked down and my computer screen and noticed the time. In some way the date and time were important.

I was told the Angel of Nations is the angel sent by God and tasked with helping the Church fulfill the Great Commission as described in Matthew 28. This angel is so powerful he has authority over all the principalities and powers that currently control the nations of the Earth that are not yet under the influence of God’s Spirit. 

As I waited in the early morning stillness of our living room, I saw this angel gathering nations under his wings as a prophetic sign of his mission on Earth. I believe the Lord allowed me to see this image because it is the work He plans to accomplish in the nations. I was also able to see this image because it will help us develop a deeper understanding of our role in the fulfillment of the Great Commission. 

This Church has been given the authority of Jesus to accomplish an ingathering of nations that will result in the fulfillment of the Great Commission. Jesus said, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations…” (Matthew 28:18-19). The Angel of Nations has arrived to accelerate the reformation of nations by the Spirit-empowered discipleship of individuals in each sphere of cultural influence represented within each nation. 

Instead of a confrontation with nations still under the influence of darkness, I believe we will experience a reformation of our mission that will cause our redemptive effort to look more like the unfolded and inviting arms of a loving Father. As the Great Commission grows in its impact, we will see nations stepping under the protective and loving covering of God’s presence. This ingathering of nations will take place because God will offer them a place of safety and security in a world filled with jeopardy and danger. 

What God sent the Angel of Nations to accomplish in partnership with the Church will be similar to the words spoken by Jesus over Jerusalem, “How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling” (Matthew 23:37). 

The Angel of Nations has been sent to help us invite the nations of Earth to come and find rest under the wings of God’s love and mercy. That is our commission. It is a Great Commission.

Rebranding Our Faith

Back in the 1980s, I remember reading some facts about Christian television. The profiled demographic of the average watcher was a female who lived in the South and was in her mid 50’s. While people from a differing demographic did watch Christian television, the pool of support the broadcasters drew from came primarily from an aging demographic of like-minded people. The perimeter of their ministry did not have sufficient access points to draw in those people who would channel surf past their sometimes garish and outdated presentations. Like Christian television or any outreach of the Church, we need to be willing to rebrand our image as the Spirit leads so that we can say, as Paul said, “I have become all things to all men, so that I may, by all means, save some” (I Corinthians 9:22). 

A business or ministry must occasionally rebrand itself if it is to remain relevant to a customer base or to the unredeemed culture it desires to reach. Rebranding is a process that creates a new look and feel for something that is no longer working at its full potential. The goal of rebranding is to influence a person's perception of a product or service. In matters of faith,  it helps people who are pursuing an encounter with God to not be hindered in that pursuit by an outdated delivery system. When we work with God in this process we will recreate our image to bring us up to date and relevant to the needs of the people we desire to reach.

A spiritually healthy rebranding will never compromise the essentials of our faith or the integrity of our message in an attempt to gain a new image or expand our audience base. Rebranding is simply about adapting and upgrading the vehicle that transports our message. It’s not about changing the core content of the message. 

It is too easy to shut the door to something new, untested and maybe even a bit uncomfortable. We can assume our limited demographic is all we are called to reach when God has another plan.

Jesus said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Moving the content of our message from Jerusalem to the remotest parts of the earth will require that we be willing to rebrand the vehicle of our message for each new leg of the journey. 

You Are What You Drive - Really?

Years ago, I was on a long, cross-country flight across America. For the duration of the flight, I sat next to a film producer who created television ads for Nissan. As we talked about her assignment and how she creates ads, she made a comment, “You are what you drive.” She said that comment was the message of her current ad campaign. I was shocked by her statement. At the time, I was driving a car that gave lots of impressions, none of which I wanted to represent.

The logic of the producer is not just the bedrock of a slogan-driven advertising campaign it can even seep into the thinking of people of faith. God likes to shake up this way of thinking by bringing people and unusual manifestations of His Spirit into our lives to confront these foolish mindsets.

Think about Isaiah the prophet who was called to prophesy lying on his side for over a year or John the Baptist dressed in camel hair and eating meals of insects dipped in honey. On the Day of Pentecost, some observers thought the people under the influence of the Spirit were hitting the bottle a bit too early in the day. What about the Azusa Street Revival when the fire department was repeatedly called because flames of fire appeared on the roof where the meetings were taking place?

When we allow the culture or even the church culture to define what we think we need, we put ourselves in a place of jeopardy. It is the kind of jeopardy that distances us from the voice of God requiring another person or group to bring definition to our life. Once a created need is believed we will go into all kinds of debt to drive the image we think we lack. It can take the form of unreasonable financial debt, spiritual debt, relational debt or emotional debt. 

None of these forms of debt-bondage can ever accurately define us. We enter this life already defined by God. We entered this life as a completely loved and fully accepted child of God. We become vulnerable to manipulation when we forget the greatest debt in our life has already been paid by the One who knows us best. We have no other debt in this life except the debt of love.

I would like to introduce a new ad slogan – “You are what you believe.” If we believe that God is a good, merciful and loving Father, we will not be vulnerable to the presentation of a glossy ad campaign from the marketers in the world or sadly, at times, in the Church. 

God is Removing the Scales of Our Unbelief

The eyes of people with whom we hold deep disagreement over social and spiritual issues are about to be opened. When their eyes open, they will be able to see what was not previously seen due to the obstructions of prejudice, misinformation, and unhealthy religious tradition. These people are being set up by God to have a Damascus Road-like experience similar to that of Paul when he was set free from the effects of his religious bigotry. These encounters will not be the result of the person’s faith, but an intervening work of God.

In Acts 9, Paul, who at the time was known as Saul, was in route to arrest, imprison and in some cases, put to death, the followers of Jesus. Up to the Damascus Road encounter, Paul was convinced he was right and the Christians were wrong. It would take a supernatural event with an accompanying personal word from Jesus to deliver Paul from his deception.

Shortly after Paul's encounter with Jesus, a man named Ananias went to a house on Straight Street under an assignment from Jesus to lay hands on Paul so he could receive his sight. When Ananias laid his hands on Paul the text tells us, “Instantly, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes and he regained his sight” (Acts 9:17). As soon as the scales fell off, Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit. God had to blind Paul with the brilliance of His revelation on the road to Damascus so he could be healed and receive a new kind of sight only available after an encounter with the risen Lord.

What fell from Paul’s eyes were not actual scales, they were “something like scales.” The word “scales” is translated to mean, “to peel off the rind or husk from something.” A scale is anything that hardens our heart to seeing and believing the truth. Until those scales are removed we are not able to move in concert with God to accomplish the goals of His Kingdom.

What fell from Paul’s eyes were those things that blinded him from seeing the heart of God for those he was persecuting. Scales of unbelief, dishonor, and division fell onto the floor of the house on Straight Street. Until those scales were removed from Paul’s eyes his true calling could not begin.

Many of us have been asked to take positions of division against those with whom we hold deep disagreement over the issues of faith and culture. When we assume those postures, we become blinded by the scales of a religious spirit and are separated from the very people whom God desires us to co-labor with in the future. In the coming days, expect to see scales fall from the eyes of our greatest opponents.  We will be able to see that transformation only after we have allowed God to remove similar scales from our eyes. 

We are in a season of miraculous personal transformation on both sides of what appears to be impossibly entrenched social, political and spiritual issues. Jesus is interrupting ungodly missions of division, malice, and hatred with heavenly encounters. These interruptions will create new alliances for future Kingdom advancement not thought possible until the scales fall from our eyes. Only God has the power to intervene in these cases and bring this kind of change. These transformations are not possible by human effort.  It will be God, not our arguments or organized opposition, that will bring about this kind of sight.

Your Unknown Audience

Every life has an unknown audience. These are people who are being affected by your life. They are people you will most likely never meet. They will only be discovered in eternity.

On this blog, I have an analytic device that tells me how many people read my blog each month and where my readers live. My blog program offers another analytic I only recently noticed. It describes an audience with the title, Unknown Region. This unknown group makes up about a third of my readers. The unknown designation can be for a variety of reasons. They can be spammers, restricted nations or merely a group of people whom the blog analytic cannot define due to the device they use. I don’t care. As long as people are reading about God and His love, I am good with that.

As I pondered my readers in this Unknown Region, I thought of some of you reading this article. You think the impact of your life is limited to just the circles of relationship currently known to you. I want to suggest that an unknown audience is also being touched by your life. Hell wants to lie to you and say you don’t have a significant platform and your voice only echoes within your known sphere of influence and relationships. You actually have significance beyond what is seen or heard in your normal daily routine. 

Today, pray for the watchers and listeners of your life in your Unknown Region. These people are being transformed through the testimony of your life and the on-going work of the Spirit. This realization isn’t about becoming proud. It is about discovering a God who can transmit the witness of your life into people and regions you never knew even existed. Raise your eyes and look beyond what you can see with your natural sight and God will begin to show you the reach of your life of faith. This discovery will amaze you, and it will humble you. 

“Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest” (John 4:35).

The In-Between Revival

We talk a lot about bringing Heaven to Earth, and rightly so. That one experience can change everything. But, what are we going to do with Heaven once it arrives? Heaven and its accompanying glory do not arrive on Earth so that we can attend yet another impactful worship service or take part in an information-loaded conference without the goal of employing our transformed lives to the task of transforming culture. 

The arrival of Heaven on Earth in any form is a precious gift we need to steward well and then purposefully deliver that experience into each sphere of culture. The next time you walk into a worship gathering, ask these questions – Where will I take this experience once I leave the building and how can it be applied in the marketplace of my life-assignment? These two questions will break the cycle of standalone worship experiences that celebrate Heaven on Earth without an attached mission. 

Jesus said, “Go into all the world.” He said this to people who were already worshipping Him. They had the passion, but hey needed a mission. Right after uttering these words, this took place, “So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed” (Mark 16:19-20). This “preached everywhere” assignment was literally everywhere, in each sphere of the culture at that time.

Obedience to this “Go into all the world” mandate may actually be the revival many have been looking for – a revival of personal realization that happens in the in-between space when we leave an encounter with God and return to our place of influence in the culture. This revival of our thinking happens when we discover our unique place of partnership with God, “while the Lord worked with them,” to transform the kingdoms of this world into the Kingdom of our Lord. That is what Heaven on Earth looks like when an in-between revival of our thinking has taken place.

These Boots Are Made For Walking...And More

Recently, while attending the Hub Nation conference in Bend, Oregon, I took a short walk around the parking lot of Eagle Mountain Fellowship where the conference was being hosted. In an adjacent retail complex is a business called The Boot Barn. As I walked by the front entrance of the store, I sensed the Lord say, “Go into the store and buy some boots.” It was an unexpected request. I have not had a pair of cowboy boots in over 40 years. I hung a right turn and entered the store. After trying on a few pairs of boots, I settled on some Ariats and out the door I walked, two inches taller with new boots on my feet. It just so happened that I was wearing a pair of blue jeans long enough to make the boots work and not look like an urban western wannabe with high-water pants.

While still processing the “why” of the boot purchase – they are expensive – the Lord began to download some thoughts to me and maybe for some of you who are reading these words.  

The Lord began explained two things about the boots. One, He actually enjoyed seeing me wear the boots. He was sharing my joy. Secondly, the boots were a metaphor for the needed preparation of our hearts as we enter the coming months. This preparation will need to take place if we are going to be a reforming presence in culture. 

Paul told the Ephesians part of their required armament for spiritual warfare would be to have their feet covered with the gospel of peace. To walk with the spirit of a peacemaker will become one of the most powerful preparations we can make for navigating the increasing turmoil in our culture. Those who choose peace will literally walk over the plans of the enemy crushing division and destruction. True peace is never a compromise to the truth. Peace reveals things that the two sides in a heated dispute may not yet realize. Peacemakers are cultural prophets who reveal what anger, wrath, and malice cannot see. 

It was comforting to walk back into the Hub Nation conference with new boots on my feet. The boots felt strong and secure. Our spiritual strength and security will not come from flowing in and partnering with the turmoil-creating atmosphere currently taking place in our culture. It will come when we yield to the Spirit’s presence and walk in the ways of peace through the battlefields of life. Your spiritual boots were made for walking into the current cultural upheaval to leave the footprints of God’s heart. Get your boots on! You have places to go and people to see that only peace can reveal.

The Draining Away

Delusion and deception are beginning to drain away to reveal the truth of God. A deluding spirit has been sowing deception in the hearts of people for a very long time. This deception is so great that those held under its spell have been blinded to an emerging reality. They are no longer able to celebrate the smallest victories of hope or the first steps toward reconciliation no matter how obvious those things may appear. 

Jan and I lived in Berlin, Germany just 6 years after the Berlin Wall came down. At the time, the city was in a massive rebuilding project. Our apartment was located in a neighborhood called Lichterfelde (“field of light” in German) on Am Pfarracker (“on the pastor’s acre”). Our apartment was #23 (Psalm 23 is the shepherd's Psalm). I am not making this stuff up! We only found out about these meanings after we moved into our apartment and learned a little German. 

The Berlin Wall ran right through the heart of the city. East and West Berlin stood in stark contrast to each other. One commentator said when the wall came down it was as if someone had drained a lake. When the draining was finally over, a bright and colorful island called West Berlin emerged with its beautiful structures and streets filled with prosperous shops and smiling people. That image of freedom stood alone surrounded by the gray and depressive architecture and subjugated populace of East Germany. 

That contrast was still very visible when Jan and I lived in Berlin. I could ride my bicycle a few blocks south of our apartment to cross no man’s land where the wall once stood. In that passage, I went from bright-colored homes and streets into the still lingering muted grays and browns of failed Communism. After the wall came down and freedom filled the nation, it was East Berlin that needed to be rebuilt, not West Berlin.

Each of us has a choice to make as events unfold around us. God can use whomever He desires to bring about these events – even people from the opposite side of the political aisle or people who do not believe as you believe. When the draining of delusion and deception is done and the completed work of God remains as a stark and undeniable piece of transformational evidence, how will you respond? 

Are your political affiliations, your educational credentials or your current relationships demanding that you continue to deny what is beginning to stand before your eyes? Choosing to believe the best when believing the best has not been in fashion is an act of courageous faith. The future belongs to those who see with the eyes of faith.

When the Winds of Change Begin to Blow

In every revolution of culture, the first people to be attacked are the poets, artists, writers, and musicians who express the discontent of the people through creative expression. These voices must be silenced by those in positions of authority if they want to remain control are to remain in power. The same can happen within the Church, 

-  when an Apostle reveals a heavenly blueprint that exposes a weakness in our current expression of the Church.

-  when a Prophet announces the blueprint and that announcement reveals something new and unfamiliar.

-  when an Evangelist recruits people to the blueprint who don’t look, sound or act the same way as our current demographic.

-  when a Pastor rearranges a community of faith to align with the blueprint to ensure a future of life, health and the possibility of growth.

-  when a Teacher explores the details of our belief system to discover and challenge our sacred cows and then invites us to see and understand the blueprint with new eyes.

When God begins to do something new, refuse to join in with the first wave of critics. Many times these critics are motivated by a fear of change or the loss of control. Take time to experience the craft of the spiritual poets, artists, writers, and musicians. In the common thread of their message, you see a glimpse of the next move of God.

The Coming Turn of Events in California

Prophetic voices are prophesying a coming shift in the spiritual atmosphere of California. This week, with the pending legislation taking place in California that will attempt to curtail the activity of the Church and hinder free speech, I have had two images come to mind that will define a turning point in the state. 

In the first image, I saw a snake consuming itself. It was actually eating its own tail and engorging itself with itself. At one point in the image, the snake began to choke to death on its own presence.

In the second image, I saw a notable politician getting ready to finalize a dark document with their signature. As they approached a table to affix their signature in a signing ceremony, they stood back and in a moment of divine revelation said, “I can’t sign this.” This will happen while the powers in place are assured of victory. The decision of this single politician will come as a complete surprise, but it will be cast it off as not affecting the final outcome of the legislation considering they already have the votes needed to confirm a victory. 

This single act of courage will set in motion a spiritual reaction that will release something in the realm of the Spirit far more powerful than a finalized vote and even what some consider a done deal. It will cause the snake of deception to begin to consume itself in an unintended suicide as it chokes to death on the lie it has been promoting.

(Earlier this month, I wrote an article titled, The Kalifornia Kristallnacht (linked below), to help inform believers what would transpire with this proposed legislation.  http://www.prophetichorizons.com/…/the-california-kristalln… )

The Kalifornia Kristallnacht

There are several bills under consideration in California (AB 1779, 2943, 2119) that would prohibit the church from freely ministering to those in same-sex relationships and gender identity issues, who want to seek help as they process these life-altering decisions. These bills would affect mental health professionals, foster care and eventually, local churches. Offering books, conferences, study materials and any form of counseling where money is exchanged for these services would become illegal. 

I have a friend who speaks at conferences on the subject of same-sex attraction. He is kind, honest, gifted, and loving. God has given him a voice that should be heard in the national discussion. Those who don’t want to listen to him would have a choice to not attend his meetings. Under the laws currently in consideration, he would be prohibited in California to speak or sell products if any monies were given to him as an honorarium or to help defray his expenses.

When I lived in Berlin, Germany, I studied the history of the nation and learned that a disturbing event took place when Hitler was rising to power. On November 9-10, 1938, the Nazis executed a nationwide pogrom against the Jews. Rights were violated and the property of Jewish families was burned in city streets all across the nation. The shattered glass from the broken windows of Jewish businesses and synagogues littered the streets defining that night as Kristallnacht, “Night of the Broken Glass”. Not only were shards of glass lying in the streets, so were the rights of the German Jewish minority who were conveniently blamed for the problems of the nation.

No matter which side of the issue currently being processed in California that we find ourselves, we are entering dangerous territory as a nation. We should all be concerned. Some are now demanding that all Californians move in a goose-stepping union with their worldview, or suffer the full force of the law to silence their dissent. History is littered with the broken glass from these attempts to control any dissenting voice in culture.

The right to free speech, no matter if you agree with an opinion being contested or not, is a sacred foundation stone of our nation. No one I know wants cruel, demeaning and draconian tactics to be used when speaking with anyone regarding their personal sexuality. These bills are not about preventing such things from happening. Their ultimate goal is to silence the voices of an opposing opinion in matters of human sexuality. Whenever a government uses its power to silence any voice within its populace, we are all in danger of inviting the brutality of a cultural Kristallnacht to visit our nation, one state at a time. 

You have options. Pray. Become informed. Act with wisdom and grace and let your voice be heard. If you choose to speak, speak only the truth in love or remain silent. Unbridled frustration, unrighteous anger and unfiltered comments made in the public square will only further divide our nation. Engage those who oppose you, not as enemies, but as people loved by God. In our struggle to become a healthy voice of influence, you and I will need to dig deeper than the issues being addressed to discover the heart and intent of God. Only then will our voice accurately represent the Lord and His Kingdom.

This Can't Be Real

Last night, I had a fitful night of sleep. In the restless night, I had a dream. I was in a restaurant. A man seated at a table near me turned around and said he knew I was a writer. He asked if I would meet with the leadership team of his organization to consider writing for them. I was invited to follow the man to a large corporate office complex and asked to take a seat. The people milling about were ordinary everyday people you would meet in any business. The races were mixed, as were their sexual orientations and political affiliations.

As I waited for the meeting to begin, I listened to the conversations taking place around me. It became shockingly and glaringly apparent to me, this was a hate group. As a boy, I had seen the black and white photos of this group and the hatred they spread. Just the way they dressed created terror. My thought was, “How in the world would these people ever think I would write for them!”

When the time came for the leaders to make their pitch to me, we left the office area and went into a smaller meeting room. To my utter shock, the room was filled with people from every race on Earth. Those who historically had been a prime target of this group’s hatred represented at least half of the group. I looked hard to find a white person.

As I listened to my introduction given by the man I met in the restaurant, I asked, “Lord, why do you have me here?” Immediately, I knew I was not sent there to confront the obvious sin and gross nature of the group’s mission. I also knew I would not be writing for this group. My only reason for being there was to prophesy hope to the people trapped in a lie. I began speaking one-by-one to those present about their true destiny and then the dream was over. 

I believe I have a broad interpretation of the dream. In the dream, I could hear the Spirit tell me not to confront the obvious sins of racism, hatred of certain people groups and the murderous acts embedded in the group’s history. I was placed in this meeting by God to speak to the individuals who sat before me created in His image now living in a perverse and distorted interpretation of that reality. The diversity sitting before me was meant to help me understand the uniqueness of the human spirit and to look beyond labels and natural indicators. I would miss the purpose of my mission if I did not see into the human heart.

In the coming season, God will put some of you in places of influence you never thought possible, nor would you ask to be there. In my dream, I knew I would only have one opportunity to speak. I stepped over what my flesh wanted to scream out and allowed the Spirit to become the only voice making a sound in the room. 

This will be your assignment when you find yourself in one of these unusual places. You will know you are hearing from God when His love and passion for the people sitting before you will have more influence on what you say than your disgust and distrust. If you are willing to be used by God in this way and not default to the failed over-reactive response of a religious spirit, you will see the miracle of an individual transformation take place. Only a personal transformation has the power to dismantle a group or organization whose mission is contrary to the heart of God. God transforms individuals to transform culture. The individual will be the intended audience for your voice.

The Greatest Bully

A friend of mine shared the following on his Facebook wall several days ago, “The child that is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel it’s warmth” - African Proverb.

A lot of wisdom comes from the continent of Africa – ancient, wise tribal wisdom that helps us learn how to live together in close and at times, uncomfortable proximity. In the pursuit of and the demand for personal autonomy, we have created loneliness of the soul and a separation from a sense of community. One result of this separation, are horrific acts of violence we see taking place with increasing frequency in our culture.

A family or a nation can be destroyed when people no longer feel the embrace of love. They will eventually burn down the perpetrators of their pain. 

The heart of God is beautifully expressed in John 3:16. Most Christians know that verse from memory, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” This verse expresses the heart of God and what should be the heart of the Church. God loved the entire world, and so should we.

What most of us forget is the following verse, John 3:17, “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” Verses 16 and 17 are a single thought. They should always be cited together. Verse 16 is the heart of the Church. Verse 17 is the mission of the Church. We are called to love, not judge or condemn.

Our mission is to love the marginalized, to seek out those who have never experienced the embrace of love who live in the margins of our culture, both rich and poor, the powerful and the disempowered. Everyone without exception of cultural rank needs this embrace. These discarded ones are those who in their loneliness live on the verge of burning down their village.

The greatest bully in our schools, our communities and our families is the absence of an embrace of love. This bullying presence pushes and shoves people out of relationships and into a place of despair where desperate acts can take place.

Each of us possesses two very powerful assets that turn back this tide of cultural sorrow and separation – our voice and our embrace. As you move through the halls of your school, or walk down your street or engage in your daily activities, ask the Spirit to direct you to that son or daughter who has never felt the embrace of their tribe. They can be young or old. You can tell who these people are by looking into their eyes. They are the ones who move through life staring straight ahead with a hopeless expression that comes from being denied the embrace of love.  When you meet them, speak the heart of God into their loneliness. Embrace them as another human being in need of affirmation. If we all do this we can be part of a cultural transformation that will turn a potential village burner into a village builder. That is the power of love, and no bullying presence can withstand its power.

The Bursting Bubble

The tension, angst, and increasing frustration swirling around in the hearts and minds of many people is like the tension expressed in a bubble just before it bursts. This is not a financial or political bubble. It is a spiritual bubble that once it breaks will prepare the way for a great move of God's Spirit. 

These moves of the Spirit have taken place historically when all the things we put our hope in apart from God finally proved to be nothing more than shallow substitutes. 

If you are feeling overwhelmed with the increasing levels of tension, angst, and frustration currently taking place in our culture, invite the presence of God to come and reorder your emotions to align with a passion for more of Him. When you do this, the negative feelings will begin to lift. You will discover, and in some cases rediscover, freedom and peace amidst the turmoil. You will also find your place in the coming move of God. That discovery would not have taken place had you been focusing on the wrong things.

Discovering God's Champions

In 1961, as a young boy, I had the honor to walk with my father down the 18^th hole at Pebble Beach where my father chipped onto the green and one-putted the final hole to win his flight in the California Golf Championship for his handicap level. My father was playing with a set of ancient golf clubs he picked up at a local pawn shop. Most people thought my father looked like the twin brother of the famous golfer, Sam Snead, hat and all.

For several days before he won the title, the championship required that my father play rounds of golf on some of the most iconic Monterey Bay area courses. After three days, my father had reduced his field of competitors down to just one last round of golf. What made this experience so unique were two facts. Nine months before he won the state championship my father had never held a golf club in his hands. Also, at the time he won the state championship, my father was 53 years old. My mother jokingly said to my father, “Charlie, why didn’t you discover this talent years ago. We would have been millionaires!”

My father was a contractor. His life had little room for things like golf. We did grow up hunting and fishing, but golf was something other people did who had extra money and time.

One day, a friend of my father asked him to come to a driving range with him and hit a bucket of golf balls. My father went, and after a little instruction, his friend said, “You are a natural!” Without professional lessons, the friend coached my dad how to hit the ball and play a round of golf. All of this was done on a public course. Dad eventually got the hang of the game and obtained a handicap. Through the encouragement of his friend, my father entered a club championship and did really well. The rest is history.

My father was an undiscovered champion who needed championing. His life intersected someone who saw an untapped gift within my father and took the time to draw out that gift and show it to my father and to the world. Had not his friend taken the time to invest in my father, I would not have in my possession a beautiful Sterling silver trophy bearing my father’s name.

Look around at the people in your life the world has overlooked. These are the people who seem out of place socially either up or down the economic scale, or those considered too old or too young to do something or those without an any obvious talent. Your calling is to call out the undiscovered gifts that lay dormant in people and help them see what's there. We are called to champion the undiscovered champions. 

When these abilities are finally brought to light, you will get to experience something beautiful because you will have seen a hidden potential discovered, developed and revealed. That is the blessing given to those who disciple others. 

Clean It Up!

I grew up in a construction family. My father built houses. Most of my summers were spent on the end of a shovel. My brother and I were human backhoes. Many times our father would say, “Give me a ditch three feet deep from here to the house. See you at lunch.” It was hard but rewarding work.

I learned one lesson early on when it came to construction site discipline. Every day at the end of our shift we had to clean up the construction site in preparation for the next day. About a half hour before we called it quits, Dad would shout out to the crew, “Clean it up!” Tools were picked up and materials were accounted for in preparation for the next day’s project. Coming to work without the needed lumber and tools would stop a job in its tracks.

There was a reason for this plan. When we arrived at the construction site the next day it was clean and unencumbered with debris, tools and safety issues.  We also had the right equipment and enough raw materials to do our job. The crew could then hit the ground running and get to work without needing to clean up the job site or having to wait for a delivery of lumber.

There is a practical and spiritual application relating to this small piece of my personal history. Our lives can become like a cluttered construction site. Unresolved relational issues, poor spiritual discipline or unwise assumptions can litter our lives to such a degree that we lose sight of the actual thing God wants to work on because all we see is the leftover debris from the previous season. At this point, some people give up and choose to live with a cluttered life becoming so overwhelmed that any personal construction and development comes to a halt.

The reformation currently taking place in the Church will be known for a return to the simplicity of our mission. This return will create a freer and more maneuverable Church. That simplicity will only take place on a larger scale when we as individuals embrace that same simplicity on a personal level. There are many things that are predicted to take place in 2018.  Some of those things will only happen if and when we become willing to clear away the personal debris that currently clutters our lives.

You have two weeks left before 2018. It is time to make a decision. The Lord is saying, “Clean it up!” A new workday, a new year, and a new phase of construction are about to begin. Get ready. Get simple. Get excited.