Just One Person

The prayer of one person can change the course of a family's history or the destiny of a nation. God does not rule by consensus. He is sovereign above all things, even our determined, yet short-sighted understanding of His ways. A single prayer uttered at a strategic moment can alter the course of human history to align with the heart of God. Stop wringing your hands in fear and despair at the things you see and hear, and the hopeless future those reports project. Listen to the Spirit and follow His leading. Your obedience will lead you to an altar of prayer where God will pray through you His heart for the future. Place your hope in the words you hear and pray at that altar. They will be your place of confidence when life is unstable the future seems insecure.

Chasing After God

There has been only one principle that Jan and I followed when needing to discover our next step in life. That principle has been to follow the Lord at all costs. We had a few times when we stumbled, but when we finally stepped out in faith, that single principle has led us without fail in the last 47 years of marriage and 40 years of service in God’s Kingdom.

At times chasing after God made no sense financially or logically. It created challenging times with good friends who did not understand. It changed how people viewed us, and in some cases, radically altered the trajectory of our lives.

As someone on the last lap or two of life, I can look back over the previous four decades of life and say, following the leading of the Lord has been the single most important decision we have ever made. It has been our key to fulfillment in all areas of our life. Today, Jan and I have no needs, but if tomorrow should a need arise, we know that in Christ, we lack no good thing. 

If you want to know your next step in life - chase after the Lord. His is the calling of your life, not what you do to express that calling. Follow Him wherever He leads no matter the cost or the jeopardy that choice creates. The place where God is leading you and how you will execute that calling will be the by-products of obeying His voice. That choice will challenge your faith when your doubts and the counsel of others tell you to take a safe and predictable course. 

Each day, Jan and I wake up and thank God for our life together, knowing we did not get here on our own or by our wisdom. We were brought to this place by a faithful Lord who invited us to follow Him. He is waiting to take your hand and show you how to move forward to something you could not imagine. Take Him up on His invitation, and you will never live with regret.

Your Future Faith-Self

In the Spirit, you have already made it through this difficult time, even though many challenges still surround your life. You cannot see or feel that completed transition yet, but your future faith-self has already made it through in the realm of the Spirit. 

All of the difficulty you face has been overcome by Jesus. Scripture tells us we are currently seated with Christ at the right hand of the Father. That is both a future and a present reality. Your assignment now to live out the implications of that victory in faith. The Lord is inviting you to move forward by exercising your faith when you encounter a lie that tells you, giving up is your best option. 

By faith, we can join ourselves to a future that seems beyond our ability to imagine and bring the vision of that future back into the moment we are currently living. That single decision has the potential to change the trajectory of our lives. Faith births hope and hope gives us the spiritual and emotional strength needed to keep moving forward and not give up. With God, all things are possible if faith is present.  

The Most Dangerous Person in the Room

When I was a young cop, my training officer taught me a lot. I watched how he moved through a hostile crowd of drunks in a bar. He was able to read a crowd. One thing he did was to determine who was the most dangerous person in the room. This is the person who, if not approached with discernment and challenged with wisdom, could do the greatest harm. When that person was finally engaged and disempowered, all of their followers who fed off that person’s bravado seemed to lose steam.

There most dangerous people in our culture are not always found in a dingy, smoke-filled bar. Some of them are within the Church. The danger they present is not bullying, but a lack of gritty realism. This problem developed in the last few decades when well-meaning people mixed Christianity with a misunderstanding of biblical reality. As a result, they created a context that was never present in the real world of the first century. Today, these people call Jesus a socialist when, in fact, he and his father ran a carpenter business and had to turn a profit to stay in business. They were more like compassionate capitalists than socialists.  

Content from the Sermon on the Mount has been plucked out of context to justify pacifism in the face of danger. In that sermon, Jesus said if our hand offends us, cut it off. If our eye views something it should not see, we are to pluck it out, and if someone slaps us, to turn the other cheek. All of these commands were issued in the same discourse. I have noticed there are a lot of two-handed, two-eyed people telling others that defending life and limb is not the Christian way. Perhaps Jesus was simply asking if we would be willing to be radically obedient instead of actually cutting off a body part, plucking out an offending eye or sitting idly by as violence has its way unrestrained.  The most dangerous person in the room is not the barroom thug. They can be believers who have created a form of Christianity disconnected from reality. 

People are becoming increasingly nervous. That unsettled feeling has arisen because of a lack of leadership, not just in the institutions of culture, but in the ranks of believers. This happens when we allow our faith to be diluted with an irrational interpretation of reality. Our world is now at a tipping point, more than most of us realize. Courage is not silence and passivity. It looks a lot like what my training officer did when he was outnumbered and surrounded by a hostile crowd in a late-night bar. Courage and truth can disarm the plans of a thuggish spirit before it creates a hellish environment that makes living a good life seem impossible.

Conflicting Sounds

It’s a bit after 2:00 am. A few minutes ago, I woke up and could not go back to sleep. I had a few things on my mind I needed to deal with so, I quietly got up and went into our living room to talk with the Lord. A few minutes after rising, I started my audio bible program to listen to the book of Ezra while following along with an open bible in my lap.

As I started to listen to the narrator, I also heard a beautiful piano soundtrack that accompanied the reading of the text. The music seemed out of time and confusing, not like what I was used to hearing. It soon became apparent to me the sound engineers made a mistake and placed a flute soundtrack on top of the piano music. It was hard to follow along, listening to the person reading the text with the conflicting soundtracks playing in the background. I was glad Ezra was only ten chapters long.

When I finished reading, I turned off the audio bible. The piano music that accompanied the audio bible stopped, but the flute music continued to play. At that moment, I realized my error. Last night, Jan and I were listening to some beautiful flute music on YouTube. When we went to bed, I closed my laptop but did not turn off the YouTube channel. When I opened my computer this morning to listen to the word, the flute music started once again.  I had two channels playing music at the same time, YouTube and my audio bible program.

Then I realized why the Lord had me get up to take care of some personal business. The day before, I made two decisions that were in conflict with a previous instruction from the Lord. The unresolved conflict did not allow me to sleep. My soul was restless. Just like the competing soundtracks on my computer that made it hard for me to hear the word, I had given the competing voices of human reasoning the freedom to speak. Their sound compromised a word the Lord had given to me previously.

This is a very unusual time in history. We need to be focused and clear in our thinking. We also need to be quick to rectify those things that impede our ability to hear His voice.  The Lord desires clarity in our lives. If we continue to allow outside voices to create a conflicting sound in opposition to the Lord’s voice, we will struggle to hear His instruction just like I struggled to hear the bible text being read through my computer. 

This is a loving warning for all of us from the Lord regarding the days ahead. He has things to say to us that will not be heard if we continue to allow competing voices to obscure the sound of His voice. 

A Voice Without Compromise

There is such a thing as a healthy compromise. This is a meeting where two opposing parties step over existing prohibitions and warnings and try to work things out no matter what the cost might be to them personally.  Compromise becomes unhealthy when we filter our obedience through “what will so-and-so think?” or “how will this affect my standing in the group?” 

When the issues of life become emotionally over-heated, and opinions are being expressed at warp speed 24/7, it becomes too easy to compromise the prophetic nature of our voice. This happens when we silence our voice out of self-protection. 

We all have access to prophetic content. This content is not reserved only for those who might call themselves prophets or have a ministry with a public presence. A prophetic voice belongs to each and every member of the Church. Prophecy is no respecter of people, position, or title. 

In the coming days, when many repetitive “prophetic” clichés have run their course to no avail, and few are willing to break free from a place of unhealthy compromise and self-protection, we will begin to hear new voices emerge. These new voices will rise and begin speak with a clarity that only comes when someone is so sold out to the Lord and His truth, they have nothing left to lose.  

Our Ever-Faithful God

The Lord is saying that He is about to turn history on its heels, changing its direction to align with His will. When all our best efforts fail, and when we have doubts about our future, never forget a merciful God is at the helm of all things. He will not be found unfaithful to His promises no matter how dire or desperate our unfolding history might appear.

Our Seat of Righteous Dissent

In recent months, discussions have taken place about when the rights of a believer-citizen should be exercised, or not. There are valid points on both sides of the conversation and worth hearing. One camp says a believer should never demand their rights and just take what comes as an example of a submissive and sacrificial love. Others stand immovable in their rights believing they are gifts from God. Which one is right? It is hard to tell sometimes. Maybe it’s a both/and kind of thing. On one occasion, the apostle Paul appealed to Caesar demanding his rights as a Roman citizen. On other occasions, he did nothing and just took what came and praised God in the process.  

One of my personal heroes is Rosa Parks. Rosa was a black seamstress living in Montgomery, Alabama in the 1950s. She was a devout Christian. Rosa would become an iconic symbol in the civil rights movement for not giving up her seat on a city bus to a white person. She was arrested during that event and her arrest was one of the ignition points of the civil rights movement.  In a 1956 interview Parks said of that day on the bus, "I would have to know for once and for all what rights I had as a human being and a citizen.” 

On Sunday, December 4, 1955, just days after her arrest, plans for the Montgomery bus boycott were prepared. The announcement for the boycott was made in black churches in the city. The boycott brought national attention to the evil of segregation. Some in today’s faith/politics conversation might not approve of what Rosa Parks did because she was asking for her rights to be honored not only as a citizen of the United States but as a human being created in the image of God. 

Today, we are beset with a shaming spirit that has entered our social discourse, sadly, even within the Church. That spirit and its demand for a one-size-fits-all response of social commentary, on either side of an issue, can be easily offended if its ideas are not accepted. History has shown us that there is not always a simplistic one-size-fits-all answer in God’s Kingdom. While we may see the same social issue playing out, we will not always see the same remedy or take a similar course of action. In December of 1955, Rosa Parks exercised her rights as a citizen and human being, and history was changed. 

I wonder where we would be today if four young black men at the Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina had not remained seated at the counter after being told to leave or if Martin Luther King Jr. did not have the courage to walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama because his actions might upset another believer not convinced that King's actions were the right kind of witness for his faith. What if these individuals had allowed a shaming voice or threats to silence their peaceful dissent? Their lives and legacy have become gifts to all of us, modeling how our faith can be expressed in the public arena beyond just silence and submission. 

After all these years, we are still trying to learn how to live with each other in honor and peace. One of the challenges we still face is knowing when we should remain seated or when, under the impulse of God's Spirit, we choose to not give up the seat of our personal commitments before God, no matter who might disagree with that course of action.

Responding to Disappointment

This morning, I was reading the results from our state and local elections. I am familiar with one of the men who was seeking office. He lost. I prayed a simple prayer, “Lord, help him turn his disappointment into worship.” 

Over the years, like you, I have experienced the sorrow of disappointment. I have come to realize the only safe response to these painful moments is a willingness to worship in the middle of our pain. Only worship has the ability to refocus spiritual eyes that have been blurred by the sorrow of disappointment. 

This kind of worship does not require skilled musicians or a smartphone app filled with the latest worship choruses. It can take place when we have little to offer in the form of traditional worship. This worship might resemble a moment of reflection on God’s past faithfulness or a willingness to utter just the fragment of a sentence that redirects our hearts toward the Lord. The first act of faith is redirected sight.  When we choose to look beyond our sorrow, all things are possible. 

Be Careful

Our culture is coming to a collective emotional head in this time of isolation, especially in communities of faith. The number one issue we are all facing is fear - fear of losing control. It could be our fear that the “normal” we once knew might go away and never return. Sometimes this fear is manifested when an opinion is expressed that breaks rank with a narrow interpretation of a critical issue causing someone to be pushed out of the orbit of a familiar relationship they once knew.

When an early Church leader wrote the poignant words, “In the essentials unity, in the non-essentials liberty, in all things love” he gave us a key to help us navigate through this challenging season, primarily through the area called the non-essentials. Non-essential does not mean unimportant. It is referring to something not worth destroying years of relationship over.

What lies between the bookends of essential truth and expressing love is where we can encounter relational jeopardy. When an opinion, which is the realm of a non-essential, is allowed to become essential or a reason not to love, we are in trouble. A single idea expressed outside what was considered acceptable is sometimes all that an individual or group needs as a reason to say goodbye to a relationship, and punish the opposing viewpoint with separation and silence.

We have all been guilty of this offense at one time or another. Our fear, if not disciplined, will weaken our most cherished theology or, worse, destroy the bond of love in our relationships. That is always such a sad and disheartening experience. 

^“So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity” (Colossians 3”12-14).

The New Road Ahead

The life-road you have been traveling has been filled with potholes, dust, and dirt. The speed at which you thought your life would have moved forward has been hindered by these conditions. You wanted to press the accelerator but could not, fearing the relational vehicle in which you were traveling, would begin to fall apart. 

You are stronger than this bumpy section of road. You have made it this far under challenging circumstances. Hang on for a little longer.  Your spiritual life may be covered with dust, and your emotional suspension system may have been fatigued and compromised under harsh conditions. However, you are still intact and moving forward in faith. Keep it up. You will soon come to the end of this unimproved roadway. 

God has paved a new future for you. Once you hit the new pavement, things will smooth out, and the dust cloud of this difficult season will become only a fading memory in your rearview mirror. Proceed with wisdom on the last few miles of this bumpy road. Don’t give up. A new way forward is coming soon. 

A Restart Line is Forming

A cultural restart line is beginning to form. In the coming days, this line will become visible to those who view what is happening with the eyes of faith. The Spirit is sending out invitations for people to begin lining up at a place called “Restart.” What began as a very confusing and desperate situation will morph into expectancy as people begin to respond to the Spirit’s call to line up. 

Once all the responding individuals and institutions are assembled, a release date will be revealed.  That date will not be announced by any news organization or government entity. This will be a God-call to begin moving.  The release will be called a move of God as people follow the leading of the Spirit into a hope-filled future.

Those who have allowed their ears to constantly be filled with a message of fear, dread, and cynicism will be unable to hear this call of God. Those who moved forward in faith and responded to God’s invitation will be the starting point of a restorative work of the Spirit that will lead us into a new future, not return us to the past. 

Rise Up and Move On!

It's time to rise up and move on.  Get up and make the bed of your faith. Change the sheets of discouragement. Replace them with crisp, clean words of hope. Dust off the doubt from all the surfaces in your spiritual house. Shower off the debris of any faithless words you have spoken. Put on garments of praise for the God who loves you beyond imagination. This is a new day. It is not like yesterday.  You can lay in a bed of discouragement for another day or choose to believe that God is the keeper of His word, and none of what He promised will fail.  All things are possible if you choose to rise up and move on. 

The Fruit of Heaven

In this time of worldwide shaking, the fruit of your past obedience will fall into your hands in an unusual display of God’s goodness. The Lord has not forgotten your love and commitment to Him and to others. Every act of kindness you have done in the past planted a seed. Those seeds have grown and matured to become sweetened fruit hanging from God's vine. Open your hands in faith. This is a time of harvest. The fruit of Heaven is falling to Earth.

“You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours” (Psalm 128:2).

Clearing the Lungs of Our Nation

For the last several days, an intense spiritual conflict took place in the heavens over the United States. Last night, a victory in that battle occurred because of the prayers of God's people. The Lord has arranged the timing of this victory to coincide with our celebration of the death, resurrection, and enthronement of Jesus Christ. 

The unusual emotions you may have experienced were byproducts of this conflict. It is not unusual for someone to be sensitive to what is happening in the spiritual realm and misinterpret what they are feeling. If your response was wrong-spirited or insensitive, confess your mistake and repent to those you affected and move on. 

This battle has cleared the lungs of our nation, allowing us to exhale and take in a new breath. That new breath will invigorate the plans of God in our lives and culture. Follow the hope that fresh breath brings. Hope will be the evidence that our spiritual lungs are clear of the congestion of fear, and in some cases, deception. 

Fighting in a Dark Place

When I was a cop, I was so familiar with each weapon at my disposal, I could run the weapon, break it down and reassemble it in a dark room and not miss a beat. I didn’t need natural light to know the feel and function of what I carried.

In times of personal or cultural darkness, a similar principle is present. If we become familiar and regularly train with our spiritual weapons in times of light when life seems to be prospering, then when things get dark, we will still be able to function while others stumble in the darkness. We will not become dysfunctional based on what we cannot see or understand.

Some of the social angst taking place in the community of faith in this dark moment is because many did not make themselves familiar with their spiritual weaponry while it was still light.  The spiritual weapons God gave us to fight off the assault of fear and faithlessness do not depend on the natural light of human understanding to function. They work anywhere and all the time, no matter what is taking place.

Increase in Decrease

The Lord is doing a work of increase in this time of decrease. While the garment of your patience has become frayed and threadbare, and you feel naked and exposed, the Lord has been crafting something new to clothe your thoughts and emotions. He will not waste your sorrow. As you come to Him in this strange and unfamiliar time and cry out in your pain and confusion, the Lord will create a new and stronger garment from the sacrifice of your praise and worship. It will become an insulating shield between your vulnerability and the raw elements of this exposed and separated time. He promised to never leave you or forsake you. The Lord is about to confirm that truth to you in a very personal way. What God has promised will not return empty of fulfillment. 

Sheltering in Place with God Almighty

For the last 40 years, whenever my life entered a confusing and challenging time, I went to the Psalms. This morning the Lord invited me back to the Psalms into a quiet place with Him. I am sheltering in place with the peace of God.

Historians tell us that in times of great social upheaval and revolution, the voices that brought the most comfort were the musicians, poets, and prophets. There are books in Scripture called the books of poetry and wisdom. Among those books are Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. This where I will park my heart and mind until this global crisis passes.

People are trying to find answers when no answer is yet available.  They want to feel peace when peace is only possible in the presence of God, not in solutions or outcomes offered by human intellect and understanding. This lack of clarity and its resulting futility will create more fear, dread, and anger-fueled violence in the coming days. Only peace can offer us safe passage into the future.

I invite you to step into the peace of God. His peace is the only sane place in this uneasy time in our history.

“Many people say, “Who will show us better times?”
    Let your face smile on us, Lord.
You have given me greater joy    than those who have abundant harvests of grain and new wine.
 In peace I will lie down and sleep,
    for you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe” (Psalm 4: 6-8 NLT).

Spiritual Combustion

Spiritual combustion takes place when we step over the threshold of an obstacle in faith, and enter a new realm of the Spirit. It is like an explosion of fire in the natural when smoldering embers deprived of oxygen are suddenly exposed to increased oxygen, and accelerated combustion takes place.

I remember watching a video of a house burning. A firefighter was working through the house and opened a door behind which a fire was smoldering. When increased oxygen flow entered the room the fire exploded. Fire is a chemical reaction that requires fuel, heat, and oxygen. Those three components are called the Fire Triangle. Flammability increases as the level of oxygen increases. 

Never underestimate the potential of a simple act of obedience. Your “yes” to the voice of God may have you to step across a spiritual threshold where a smoldering promise has been waiting for the wind of the Spirit to be released by your obedience.  The fire God does not kill or injure when it accelerates in intensity. The purpose of God's fire is to burn away the lies and plans of hell that stood against the potential of a promise becoming a reality. 

God wants to open a door in your life to allow the wind of His Spirit to go before you. The Spirit will ignite a promise that has been smoldering out of sight behind a closed door. He has been waiting for your “yes” so He can open the door. When your "yes" becomes an act of obedience aligning you with a promise from God, supernatural combustion will take place. 

A Good Kind of Ornery

I have come to appreciate ornery people – ornery people with a good heart. For some of you who might not know what ornery means, the dictionary definition comes in two forms. One definition describes a person who is irritable, difficult to control, or combative. The other usage describes a person as “having a playful tendency to cause trouble, mischievous.” I am referring to the latter kind of ornery.

What is so appealing about this kind of person is the absence of emotional or relational camouflage. You really know what they think and where they stand.  They tell you the unvarnished truth no matter who is in the room. They do it with a wry smile on their face that lets you know they will still be standing with you no matter what happens. In that honesty, the last thing on their mind would be to abandon you by remaining silent when what you needed most was honesty.