A Revealing Move of God

A revealing is taking place. This revealing is happening in the mix of the COVID-19 virus, a heated election cycle filled with social discord, and evolving worldviews. This reveal has been developing over time and remained undetected until uncovered in these challenging times. No longer will the distinctives of a denomination or a familiar circle of fellowship be what motivates our future affiliation or involvement.  Something personal and redefining has taken place as we have been absent from the familiar.

Those who lead groups of people into the future will be challenged as to how they can lead a group that now possesses an unusually wide variety of interpretations of what each individual considers a valid expression of faith and community. Leaders who assume their followers will continue to walk in continued lockstep when it comes to their understanding of theology, worldview, and values are beginning to realize the fallacy of their assumption. 

Not all of this newfound diversity is healthy or biblical, yet some of it is a work of God's Spirit and will reveal the way forward. What is taking place must be discerned over time. Be careful not to prematurely judge what is not yet fully understood. 

The Lord is stripping away layers of our assumptions to reveal a new, and in some cases, uncomfortable reality. This stripping away will reveal where we really stand with each other and ultimately before the Lord. All of this is taking place to set up the next move of God, calling forth participants we would never expect to come into the Kingdom to radically follow Jesus and eventually become the next generation of leadership within the Church. 

This defining move of God will bring needed clarity and understanding of the essentials of our faith.  It will also help us off-load the excess baggage of our assumptions freeing us up to engage this unique moment in history.

Divine Placements are Taking Place

This is a time when God will intervene in the affairs of our nation. Historically, He has raised up the likes of Esther, Daniel, and Joseph to accomplish His will in similar times. These are people whom God chooses and uses to influence the decisions made in the highest positions of an earthly kingdom and its institutions. 

As passionate as I am to see cultural reformation take place, to create a flourishing future for all, I realize this reformation will not come by the best of our efforts alone. God must intervene so that in the end, the glory that comes from such change is not attached to our best efforts, but to Him alone.  Only by the direction of God’s hand and by His divine placement of chosen individuals in the highest positions of influence within a society will a culture undergo the dramatic and needed institutional change it requires to ensure the inheritance of civil righteousness and justice for future generations. 

 

While the Kingdom of God is very different from the governments and institutions of the world, we are still called to be agents of change for the better whenever possible, whether that change takes place one-on-one in the marketplace or while influencing change at the highest office in the land. In the days ahead, pray and believe that God is at work in our nation. His intervention is taking place.

Moving at the Speed of Change

We currently have at our disposal the fastest vehicle of migration ever known to humanity: the Internet. We are moving at warp speed through time and space, exposed to differing worldviews and ideas previously isolated within a specific culture and not easily accessible on a global scale. 

Our current technology has migrated past the first generation (1G) of wireless technology, through the terrain of 2G, 3G, 4G, and now into 5G. 

Collective learning has even formed what is called the “global brain,” the collective intelligence of humanity. The global brain is collecting, storing, and retrieving data at blinding rates of speed. God is going to use this global brain to shift every sphere of culture—not by force but by a Spirit-directed process of influence that will lead to renewed ways of thinking across the world. 

Futurist David Houle wrote a book called The Shift Age. Houle said that in the twenty-year period of 2017 to 2037, we will experience more change than in any fifty-year period in human history. We are currently experiencing that shift—and it will accelerate the rate of our migration. 

With that kind of rapidity, we will need to continually redefine and streamline our message and mission. We need to be able to move alongside the increasing tempo of culture in order to remain relevant. That relevancy is not the result of compromising our ideals, ethics, or truth, but to better communicate our message. 

(Excerpt from “BEYOND: Exploring the Frontier of God’s Expanding Revelation” https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Exploring-Frontier-Expanding-Revelation/dp/0578634317/ref=sr_1_7?crid=1RVIWS0E0OO9S&dchild=1&keywords=garris+elkins&qid=1599478738&s=books&sprefix=Garris+Elkins%2Caps%2C227&sr=1-7

The Real Source of Our Conflict

At this time, when so much emotion is swirling about, and when each person holds a passionate and immovable position, it is too easy to forget what is taking place. Death is manifesting its presence, and that manifestation is taking many forms. 

There is a spirit called Death. In the Greek language, he is known as Apollyon. In Hebrew, Abaddon. This spirit is defined as “Destroyer” and “the author of apocalypse.” The definition also includes “ruin, “destruction, “the minister of death,” and “the author of havoc on earth.” These definitions are sourced from a root word meaning “perish.”

The manifestation of Death is not always a final blow, shot, or verdict. It works like the proverbial frog in a kettle giving its dark mission time to misguide us leading us down a path of greater forms of deception and decay until, at last, something dies.

 

When peaceful protests for righteous issues are allowed to become riots that lead to anarchy and eventually death, death will have accomplished its goal.

 

Abortion, once a sad solution for an early-stage unwanted pregnancy, moved its demand for death to mid-term pregnancies, and now to the unimagined horror of late-term abortion.

 

Poverty created by disadvantage and dismissal of those living in the decaying inner cities of our nation has created generations who have only known loss and lack. This disadvantage and dismissal have brought the death-producing mindset of hopelessness to an entire family line.

 

A marriage that began in love and commitment ends in divorce. Death has a mission to destroy the oneness of the earthly image of Christ and the Church by removing reconciliation and forgiveness from the relationship.

 

When Jesus rose from the dead, He disempowered Death. The faith of the Church is built upon that victory. Our response to the resurrection of Jesus is to bring life in all its forms to our conversations and actions. Paul repeatedly preached a message about the implications of resurrection life because it is what empowers the Gospel message by disempowering the ministry of Death in all its forms. 

 

Many are praying against the byproducts of this spirit. There are many examples of these byproducts of Death, along with the ones I noted above. Praying against these manifestations is a good thing, but only if we recognize the root that is spawning such issues and giving them a place in our lives. 

Going to the root cause of the brokenness in our world - Death - will keep us from making enemies of those who are manifesting the byproducts of that dark spirit. It will also help us reevaluate our response to what agitates us and allow us an opportunity to define our real enemy.

 

  

Heaven's Intervention

For every issue, there are typically two camps at polar opposites of each other. Each side is entrenched in its narrative with supporting evidence to uphold its position as the only viable option. We are at that place concerning many issues in our culture. This impasse has created an opportunity for divine intervention. In the coming days, turn your eyes from the limitations of earthly solutions and look to Heaven. God is about to demonstrate His Lordship over the affairs of Earth in ways that will astound us all. My hope is placed only in the intervention of God. Without Him, all other options hopeless.

Keep Your Eye on California

As a native Californian having lived in Oregon now for more years than I spent in the state growing up, I have watched California's life and politics with interest. Yesterday, Kamala Harris was selected as Joe Biden’s running mate. Again, my focus was directed to California. 

I was born and raised in California. I love the state’s diversity of geography, climate, and culture. The state is now large enough economically to represent the status of a nation. It is also a state in trouble. Some of its cities are revealing deep despair. People are leaving California in droves. It is not the state of my youth. California has been described as a national indicator of the future direction of the nation. At this moment, it is indicating trouble. It is also destined by the Lord to become a spiritual indicator exhibiting potential for revival and transformation. God loves California, and its people and He has something good planned for the future of the state. 

Four months ago, I wrote a blog article titled, “Out From the Shadow” (linked below). At the time, I knew what the Lord was saying to me, but did not have permission to write in detail. My words appeared like a riddle by design. At the time, I told Jan I felt Kamala Harris would be selected as Biden’s running mate. In the brief article, I said, “One will come forth and walk in the shadow of another. This shadowed one is the primary, not the secondary.”

 

Like some have already expressed they believe Mr. Biden may not have an extended stay in office if elected, for whatever reason. Behind Vice-President Biden now stands Kamala Harris and behind Harris in the shadows, stands the Governor of California, Gavin Newsome. Harris and Newsome both came from the seedbed of the San Francisco political arena. Harris was the city’s District Attorney and later became the state’s Attorney General, and was eventually elected to the state Senate. Newsome was the mayor of San Francisco and later ascended to state politics as Governor. Newsome has been seen by some political observers as a person with presidential aspirations. Also hailing from San Francisco is Speaker Nancy Pelosi. San Francisco is a powerful and well-funded political machine that has produced state and national leaders.

 

What California is revealing to us is the course of a nation’s future in natural terms. Politics, whether you like them or not, do not accurately reveal a nation's spiritual future. Keep your eye on California, not for its politics, but for its spiritual potential. Politics are only natural indicators, not the future spiritual potential of a nation. People in office from any party are not an enemy. They are people loved by God who deserve our prayers. Look past the personalities and platforms to see what God is doing in the state. Begin to pray for those in power and those aspiring to power. Don’t limit your prayers to simply a change of those in office or a particular policy with which you disagree. Keep praying for the hearts of the state’s leaders to experience God’s love. Also, keep praying for God's justice to be revealed so that real change can take place.

 

I am believing in something beautiful and transformative to happen in my home state. God wants to show us that those we might deem as enemies of the good can actually become partners in righteousness. For some, this will be a leap of faith to believe it could be possible because they only know and have been led to believe a negative narrative, not a Kingdom narrative.

 

God is creating a new narrative for California, and that sound is being heard by those with ears to hear. That is the narrative we need to pray into and its where we should invest our resources and energy. Keep God’s heart for California in the forefront of your thinking and call to remembrance the prophecies of goodness spoken over her. 

www.prophetichorizons.com/2020/03/out-from-shadow.html

Alone for a Reason

Some of you find yourself standing in a lonely place. You are in that place because you heard a word from the Lord and walked into its revelation.  That act of obedience has moved you in a new direction, not of your choosing. 

 

Previously, you followed the developing events of life, as many still do. It was easier then because you moved with a group where you experienced support and consensus. Now you seem to stand alone. You see the movement of culture and the transitions taking place in the Church from a prophesied future. It seems odd and frankly, a bit uncomfortable.  

 

The events that will take place to confirm what the Lord has revealed will bring clarity and answer some of your "why" questions. God is at work in the lives of those making their way to the revelation you carry. Give this process time to develop. The Lord is working on the hearts of people and adjusting their worldview.

 

You have been called to this lonely place to make announcements of hope as the culture and the Church move into a new and yet to be explored future. Hope will be the only safe pathway to lead people to that future where they will arrive, having experienced transformation and reformation. 

Words polluted by fear, angst, and despair will not lead people into the future God has planned. He has entrusted you with a message of hope that people will need to hear as they move through the unfamiliar terrain of change and transition. 

You were never alone. The Lord has been standing with you and speaking through you. Take heart. Your lonely place will soon be populated.

In Those Days and In These Days

“In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes” (Judges 17:6).

 

The spirit of rebellion manifesting in our nation has arrived and displayed its presence because many have become their own lords, believer, and non-believer alike. Just as Micah did in Judges 17, we can lose our way to such a degree that we create shrines and idols to honor our rebellion and begin to worship a false image of freedom. This indictment is for all from masked anarchists wanting to tear it all down to someone sitting in a church pew wringing their hands in disgust at what is happening in the streets and placing their hope in the outcome of the next election.

 

We don’t do well when we become our own lords and rulers. Only God can be Lord, and only He can rule righteously. This is why His Kingdom is not of this world but invades this world, displacing shrines of deception that rob us of real hope. 

 

A great apostasy is afoot, and the apostate spirit revealing itself is a practiced deceiver. Be careful where you hitch the wagon of your commitment. At some point, that commitment will require your worship. 

 

 

 

That All May Flourish

I remember the day when I found a word that accurately defined reformation. The word is "flourish." It is a word used by a group of men and women who had invited Jan and me to join them in a strategy session unpacking the subject of cultural reformation. We discussed how to fulfill the Great Commission, where Jesus instructed his followers "to go and make disciples of all the nations" (Matthew 28:19). That day my eyes were opened to previously unimagined possibilities.

 

What made this group so unique was that they actually possessed the collective wisdom, finances, and technologies to accomplish their mission. This was heady stuff because it carried the potential to direct the course of nations. Defining the goal of their endeavor was critical, or it could be highjacked by wrong motives and aim at a destination of results far from the heart of God. The purpose of the group was to positively affect a nation and its institutions to such a degree that it would begin to reflect the love of God no matter the social status, ethnicity or political persuasion of the recipient. They wanted to be the hands and feet of Jesus' prayer "on Earth as it is in Heaven."

 

This kind of reformation will seem impossible to those who look to human-inspired political solutions or the desire to make everyone look, talk, and live the same way. True reformation is not about creating our preferred version of an earthly theocracy. It is about creating an environment where God's love is expressed by seeking the highest good for others.

 

God's timing is impeccable. When our culture seems to have reached its lowest point of fatigue and distrust, the Lord is preparing to reveal templates for a reformation that will lead individuals and nations toward a hope-filled future. Committing our lives and resources to a mission that allows all people and all nations to flourish under God's loving hand will help us decide where to invest our energy and resources in the days to come. All is not lost, no matter how sideways our world seems at this moment. God is illuminating a path toward a future we cannot yet imagine.

 

"May the Lord cause you to flourish, both you and your children" (Psalm 115:14).

Making a Righteous Sound

Speaking the truth in love requires sound. A silent church that hopes to get back to “normal” without addressing the elephants in the room will have missed an opportunity to express the sound of truth in this time of growing anarchy and censorship. Yes, we are to be the hands and feet of Jesus, but we are also to be His voice. An honorable protest is part of our rich cultural history. Violent riots are the work of a spirit of anarchy and never lead to righteous outcomes. Civic leaders who have abdicated their assignment to protect a community will have to answer to a higher authority for their compromise and complicity. Evil taking place even within the smallest part of a city is like leaven. A tiny bit of leaven left unchallenged will eventually corrupt the larger host. We need to find our voice as believers, or someday our descendants will ask why we were silent. The fear of man will not be an excuse that will stand the test of integrity.

The Global City Gate

I shared the following paragraph with someone who is substantially gifted in the technology surrounding the use of the Internet, website design, and social media applications.

I wrote, “The city gate is where the business of a community took place in ancient times. The city gate of our time is the Internet and its various applications such as websites, apps, and in some cases, social media. People are no longer limited to a geographic location to conduct business. Our city gates are mobile and widespread. Look at the transition from Blockbuster to Netflix. Even now, new “city gates” are emerging and challenging Netflix.”

The world we live in, whether it be a small village in the heart of Africa or a metropolitan setting in Europe, is immediate, rapid, and connected. Because we all conduct business at a global gate, no longer limited by access to a local and culturally isolated city gate, what we share, read, or transmit is read immediately on a global scale. 

It is wise and compassionate to make sure we are vetting our sources and the condition of our hearts before we transmit information that supports our passionate position on a particular subject. Even the information we transmit in the confidence of its accuracy is not always a full picture of reality. The opinions of other people will help us develop a fuller and more accurate perspective than the perspective we initially brought to the city gate to sell. 

When the cultural pendulum is swinging in such wide arcs as it is doing at this moment, we need to give each other an extra measure of grace as we freely share our opinions. I have friends who hold perspectives that differ from mine, but they handle our differing points of view with honor and decency. We share a mutual respect for each other in our diversity of opinion. Those are the kind of people I enjoy doing business with at the global city gate. 

The Smoke is Clearing Away

The cultural shift some foretold was coming has already taken place. What we see playing out in the streets, courts, and politics of our nation are manifestations of that change. The smoke of conflict is beginning to drift away, revealing what actually happened when our culture made its most recent move. Many of us are now standing in new and unique places. As a result of that change, our faith and worldview have experienced a new focus and clarity. 

Self-control will be seen historically as one of the most significant choices we could have made in this heated social environment. Self-control is not silence, the abdication of responsibility, or relinquishing our duty to live as responsible citizens of our nation and of Heaven. Our dual citizenship creates a unique tension. As citizens of Heaven, our first responsibility is to God and His agenda. Even in our most patriotic moments, we allow the Lord to set the timing and content of our response to what is transpiring in the earthly realm, not our emotions, or the heated relational discord our choices might produce. 

There is so much to say at this time in our developing national history. We must wait for God’s timing to speak, or we will enter the floodwaters of disgust and offense where the impact of our voice will be drowned out because we were the ones who chose the content and timing of what was spoken, not God.  This is the spiritual tension created by our dual citizenship. 

Taken by Surprise

We have always been at war spiritually. There has never been a time of peace between light and darkness. Jesus didn’t paint a rosy picture of how truth lives in a world of compromise and deception. Paul wrote about a battle waged in a realm not always visible to the natural eye. 

False battles are currently being offered to divert our attention, once again, from the reality of the actual spiritual conflict taking place on the world stage.  These false battles are waged with the wrong strategy, tactics, and weaponry. The weapons of our warfare are not discovered in the armory of the flesh. Our battle plan is not reactive. It cannot be discovered by watching the latest newscast or social media video of social unrest. How we are to conduct spiritual warfare is only discerned and implemented through revelation. 

What is taking many by surprise has been the sudden and intense manifestation of the current spiritual battle. What we see has been orchestrated and offered to us as a distraction. That offering is creating a reactive response by some, not a strategic plan for battle, or a wise response to the stimuli these events create. 

Today, examine your battleplan, tactics, and weaponry. What army do these components describe? It is not about winning. The Cross and Resurrection have determined once and for all the complete and absolute victory of Jesus. It's about advancing – advancing God's Kingdom in the face of an onslaught of lies and deceit. 

Truth spoken in love is the most dangerous weapon in our arsenal. For the last 2,000 years, that weapon allowed the Church to live and prosper even when oppression and violence tried to stall her mission. 

The Demise of a Packaged Faith

Over the last 40 years, I have seen faith come in a variety of packaged forms. These packages of faith are created geographically, socially, and by the requirements for employment. This packaging takes place in local churches, denominations, and groups with shared affiliations. If you want to be in the group, you signed on the dotted line of a statement of faith and its corresponding worldview.  

Something has been taking place in the last few years. People are questioning the need for such things. This is not to devalue good theology. We need it now more than ever. What I am seeing, especially since the cultural lockdown, are people questioning the value of some of what they believed with unquestioning loyalty before this time of isolation. This is not a challenge to the truth itself. It is the unwrapping of our package of faith to see if its contents actually represent God's Kingdom with clarity and function in a rapidly changing world.

Jude wrote about the faith once delivered to the saints. When he wrote those words, he did not have in mind our current interpretation of faith in all its unique representations. He was describing a faith so simple it cannot easily be packaged and bowtied with our personal preferences.  The current unraveling of a packaged version of faith is actually bringing us back to something simple and agile – the faith once delivered to the saints. It is a good thing.

If you are a leader who offered a packaged form of faith and required strict allegiance to that package, you will face some challenges when people return from this time of quarantine. Before you demand people adhere once again to the previous package you or your organization offered, give people time to share what they are sensing. It might actually be the Lord speaking.  The way forward for you and the group you represent could be discovered in that exchange. 

Made Ready To Hear Something New

My 16-year old pickup truck has a CD player. It was part of the truck’s original equipment installed at the factory. A couple of years ago the CD went on the fritz. It makes funny noises when it’s turned on and then it keeps repeating the same song without moving on to the next track on the CD. On some occasions it stutters, repeating a single syllable sounding like a rap song on steroids.

My CD player reminds me of the condition some of us might find ourselves. We can play the same song or the fragment of a song without knowing how to move on to something new. There are new songs the Lord wants us to hear but until a new system is installed, we are only able to play a single track of a much larger message.

I have written a number of books and each day I typically post an article on social media, but I know there is more. The more will not come from my existing understanding of the world and God’s Kingdom. It will come from downloads of fresh revelation. Sadly, many of us can resemble the broken CD player in my pickup. When we hit the play button, we play our opinion and reveal our limited understanding. We are not alone. This is the deafening noise being produced in our culture on any given day.

God wants to produce new content for our message. No one is an expert in God’s Kingdom. Experts are dangerous because they sell their terminal understanding as a complete revelation on a subject.  Just this morning, the Lord showed me something that hit my passion button. I began to write about an issue of which I am somewhat informed. In the middle of writing, I realized the subject needed more research and revelation than the hour or two I might give to something like this article you are currently reading. I put that writing project aside to allow the Lord to show me the next steps and fill in the blanks of my understanding. 

In the process of learning and listening to the Lord, our spiritual and intellectual CD player will be replaced. This will allow us to hear and play tracks of revelation and insight into subjects we could not hear before the process of installation began. 

As it has been for me this morning, so it will be for you if you are willing to let God do an install. He has new soundtracks to play through your life, but first, He must replace your old spiritual CD. Once the installation work has been done, you will be amazed at the sound that will come through the speakers of your life. 

What We Are Hearing

Perhaps one of the most impactful things that will transpire in this unusual season of history is the realization by the Church and her leaders that we are in a time of reformation.

Realizing our calling to influence all 7 spheres/mountains of culture has long been neglected by many in the Church, thinking somehow our ministry should be limited to church meetings, being a good neighbor, and waiting for the rapture. This way of thinking has caused many to neglect the commission of the Great Commission, the discipling of nations. A nation can only be discipled once people are led to Christ, but then, those new converts are called to become an influence for righteousness in all areas of culture.  Our salvation experience is the platform from which we can begin to make a real Kingdom difference in our particular sphere of influence, and eventually a nation.

Which of the 7 spheres/mountains of culture have you been called to influence - Government, Religion, Education, Economy, Arts and Entertainment, Media or Family? If you are reading this and you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you are already involved in the areas of Family by birth and Religion by choice. How is your voice releasing a reforming Great Commission impact in one of the other areas when you go to work on Monday?

Some of the struggles we see taking place in the lives of individuals, Church leaders, and congregations, is the struggle to break free from decades of silence and inactivity.  I know this firsthand. I thought this way for many years. We become comfortable doing Kingdom business the way we have always done it, not realizing we have a much larger calling. 

Before we judge the new sounds of reformation being heard in each sphere of culture, we need to pause long enough to consider the possibility that these voices might actually be the Lord speaking. For millennia, the Lord has spoken through imperfect vessels who will make mistakes as they form the content of their message. The Lord knew this when He called us. We are beginning to see the emergence of these new voices. Their emerging sound is part of a process of reformation where everything will be up for examination and change, hopefully creating a brighter future.

Confronting Spirits

History teaches us many lessons. One lesson we have learned is the ugliness of our humanity is not eradicated by laws alone. It requires a change of heart. What we see surfacing at this time is a repeat of human history. Nothing is new under the sun. 

Not many are talking about what is really stoking the cultural fire we are currently experiencing. It has become a conversation limited to issues of politics, race, and preferred lifestyles. What is taking place is more profound than the resulting surface issues we see. It is the manifestation of a battle taking place in the spiritual realm now being played out on earth. Harmful and hurtful human interactions are the ministry of evil spiritual entities influencing people to act in destructive ways toward one another.

Voicing displeasure and taking a stand against evil in any form is a righteous thing to do. But if what we do in response to evil is limited to personal protest and declarations of displeasure, we will not challenge the forces that are waiting to reproduce yet another sad chapter of negative human history.  

Some have come to realize we are not fighting against flesh and blood. For others, the spiritual battle is ignored because it appears to them a less intellectual form of faith.  The latter typically have a more prominent place in the institutions of culture, and in some cases, within the Church.

In the coming days, I am joining friends within my particular stream of faith for a time of prayer, fasting, and lament. That is a good thing. During that time of corporate response, I plan on doing some binding and loosing prayers against the spirits that are empowering our current cultural problems. While I am praying that way towards the enemies of faith and love, I will also be open to rebuking and repenting of the influence those same spirits might have in my own life. Confronting these hidden spiritual influencers is a critical task for people of faith. If we don’t stand in that unseen gap where spiritual warfare is waged, we will reap an unnecessary harvest of sorrow and record another sad chapter of history for future generations to read.

Engaging a New Gear

When I look down at the gear shift area in my truck’s center console, the shift knob indicates several choices that will create motion. The only position that produces no movement is neutral. 

Perhaps my car’s transmission is a metaphor for life. Without engagement, we are left in a motionless state of neutrality. A lot of life can pass us by if we live in a neutral state. Shifting out of intellectual or spiritual neutral requires that we take time to read the road ahead to know what gear needs to be selected. Every road will present us with opposing opinions that will either challenge our neutrality or entrench us deeper in its illusion. Friendships or associations are jeopardized when we shift out of neutral. If we are going somewhere in our faith, we will need to engage a gear that takes us deeper into the important conversations of life, not just allow them to pass us by.

A lot of what we do as people of faith can resemble a muscle car with a large V8 and a heavy cam rumbling in neutral at the stoplight of culture but never engaging a gear and dropping the clutch. The world watches our potential demonstrated expecting more from us than just a great exhaust sound and a nice paint job. 

God is speaking new assignments to unlikely drivers. These new assignments will be given with clear instructions on what gear to select. The choices these drivers make will end seasons of neutrality on critical issues of faith and culture. When God has people speak in His name, offering honest dialogue and bringing righteous solutions to the table, those words and actions will bring about a transformation thought impossible before a new gear was engaged.  These reformers will leave behind a trail of burned spiritual rubber through the heart of culture, moving us forward toward a heaven on earth solution for the most painful issues we currently face.

Turning Over the Tables of Our Faith

When we read about Jesus entering the temple and turning over the tables of the moneychangers, our interpretation of that event is viewed through the lens of our worldview. Our worldview, no matter how right we think it might be, is only a partial view of a greater reality.  We always have more to learn than our current understanding would lead us to believe.

What Jesus was overturning that day in the temple was a misrepresentation of God's heart. The temple officials who represented God to the people and the moneychangers they allowed into the temple complex to conduct business were portraying a false image of God. They were rejecting the sacrifices the people brought to the temple and required them to buy a “temple approved” sacrifice at a higher price. The average family was being abused financially and morally, but the greatest abuse was creating a false image of God.

Jesus is moving through the Church at this moment, looking for any abuse and misrepresentation of His name. The way He challenges that abuse or misrepresentation could make some of us uncomfortable, especially if it is our table being overturned. 

Before every move of God, a dismantling and overturning of our motives and assumptions must take place. We will all be subject to this overturning.  No one is exempt. When Jesus interrupted and overturned the status quo 2,000 years ago, it was an act of love. That same love is moving through personal temples today, bringing order and clarity to our individual lives and to the mission of the Church currently being represented in culture. 

God is Commissioning Scouts

As a new season approaches, the life-assignments of some will make a transition.  God is calling a new breed of spiritual scouts who are willing to explore beyond the boundary line that separates the old from the new. Accepting this calling will change everything.

The Spirit is stirring these scouts to explore territory that has opened up during the last few months of the global shutdown. These are scouts who sense something new is now upon us, and they want to go and take a look. Some scouts will discover ancient trails that are overgrown, out of sight, and long-neglected. Others will blaze entirely new trails into the future. 

If you are a scout, you have been sensing something new that exists beyond the horizon line of our current understanding. You are compelled to venture out to explore a way forward for others to follow. This exploration will require that you break camp with any mindset that would hold you back from your mission of discovery. Your decision to break camp with the status quo will not always be understood by those who consider the current encampment adequate. 

If you are a scout, you have been called and commissioned for this adventure. Travel wisely and always carry with you an assurance that God will reveal the way forward when the obstacles on the trail seem overwhelming. The way forward will be revealed as you walk in a moment-by-moment dependence upon God’s Spirit.