"Settling For More" by Garris Elkins

In 1999 my wife and I returned to the United States after almost four years of ministry in Europe. When we got off the airplane all of our earthly belongings consisted of the bags we had just cleared through Customs and a single chair and some extra boxes of books stored in my mother’s attic space in Montana. Now, 12 years later, we have a home, a couple of vehicles and we continue to experience God’s provision daily. I love my wife and she loves me. My two adult children are moving forward with God. We love our church family who encourage and inspire us. We continue to gain understanding of what it means to live in God’s favor. On top of all these blessings we live in one of the most beautiful small towns in America. I am a very blessed man.

Jan and I have always tried to hold all blessings with an open hand so that we would not miss those new and fresh encounters and directives of the Holy Spirit. It’s easy to settle into focusing on the blessings and become dull to His voice, especially if a new word from the Lord could upset our current place of blessing.

Recently, I read Hebrews 11. I have read this chapter hundreds of times. Today, something new jumped from the page into my heart.

“It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. 9 And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. 10 Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.” Hebrews 11: 8-10

For years I have focused on the unique faith Abraham possessed that helped him leave a secure settlement and a known life to engage a new life without a known destination. “He went without knowing where he was going” are words so powerful they almost overshadow what comes in the next verse.

In verse 9 the writer of Hebrews says, “And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents.” When Abraham finally arrived in the land of promise, he never settled – he continued to live in tents like he was only passing through. The words of this verse came to me in a new way. Here is Abraham, our Father of Faith, being described as a man who finally made it to the land of promise, yet he continued to live like a foreigner in a tent. He was like one who realized he needed to remain mobile because something more was out ahead of him.

The Holy Spirit began to bring some fresh realities into focus as I read verse 9.

We live here on earth manifesting a kingdom that is not yet in its fullest expression. The kingdoms of this earth are becoming the Kingdom of our Lord. The operative word is “becoming.” The best this life has to offer, even the good things God brings our way, are only partial expressions of His will because this life is currently incomplete.

Like Abraham, what we are willing to leave behind, those things that are known and predictable, can become what actually defines how we will live in the future. Abraham took the results of his faith with him when he stepped forward towards the promise God had revealed to him under the night sky. When Abraham arrived in the land of promise he lived like a foreigner in a tent because he knew that no matter how good his life of promise would become, it was not yet the fullest expression of what God had planned – there was more and he needed to be ready to move towards the “more” when God spoke.

This life is only a temporary encampment – not a final destination. Abraham lived as a foreigner in a physical tent because God wanted him to remain mobile. We carry physical tents, bodies inhabited by the very presence God, that must remain open and available to His voice. Settlement is not a Kingdom mindset if in our settling we have become deaf to the voice of God. This shift in thinking will produce a new season of spiritual mobility, whether continuing to live in familiar surroundings or moving to another place.

Living faithfully today will create a foundation of faith for future generations to build upon tomorrow. Our faith lived out today is an investment in generations we will never see. Abraham knew nothing of Isaac and Jacob when he began his journey and when he lived in a tent as a foreigner in the land of promise. God saw Abraham’s future and invited him along a path of faith that many of us continue to walk upon thousands of years later.

As Abraham lived in a tent in the land of promise, he was defined as a foreigner because he was fixing his eyes on the fullness of a Kingdom yet to be seen. His gaze of faith was foreign to those around him. He was looking at something they could not see. If we choose to live a life of faith we will draw looks of suspicion from those around us who have chosen to settle and not see a new and emerging future. Settlers can end up protecting what they possess at the expense of future expansion. Foreigners living in tents, by the very nature of their existence, make the status quo nervous because what a settled life has to offer is no longer appealing to the tent dweller. “For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come.” Hebrews 13:14

I have had to ask myself lately where I have settled into a good and blessed life at the expense of hearing a new word for a new season. These new words can shake up our current reality. God is in the process of making significant adjustments in the encampment of His Church. God wants to free us up to be available for supernatural mobility. As we step out in faith and let go, God will be asking us to exchange hard structured lives of security for foldable tents of faith so that He can bring us into our promised destiny.

"Direction Change" by Garris Elkins

On a recent trail hike I noticed a madrone tree branch above my head. I was so impressed by what I saw that I snapped a picture. The image of the twisted branch caught my attention because it had so obviously made a u-turn in its growth pattern. Like other tree branches, it started out growing up and outward as normal branches do in their life cycle, but at some point this branch was injured and began to grow in the opposite direction. As the branch healed, and eventually recovered from its wound, it resumed a normal growth pattern.

Like this madrone tree, we were originally created by God to grow up and outward - towards Him and His destiny for our lives. The sin and brokenness we encounter, by living in this world, can mess up a wonderful life-plan and cause the patterns of our lives to resemble something other than God's original intent. Wounds in life are only fatal if neglected.

I asked myself today, "Is there any place in my life that I am carrying an unresolved wound?" If so, I am not growing up and outward - that part of my life is actually dying and mutating downward into someone God never intended me to become. All wounds must be given to the Wound-Healer Himself through confession, repentance and trust. When we give these things to God we immediately change the direction of our lives and return to the healthy growth patterns God had in mind when he brought us into this world.

"Rest in the Reflection" by Garris Elkins

"For all who have entered into God's rest, have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. So let us do our best to enter that rest." Hebrews 4: 10-11

When the word "rest" is used in most Christian teaching we are told that we all need a day off or a new schedule to allow more down time. This is great for many reasons, but it is not what is being taught in Hebrews 4. This kind of rest is only found when we cease, in our own efforts, to do what only God can do.

If we could go into the interior of China today we would meet fellow believers who have no days off - they work seven days a week, they have no vacations and no savings account to pad a future hope of retirement. These same believers are living in the "rest" of God because their rest is in the Person of Jesus and His completed work, not a well-defined lifestyle with days off, vacations and retirement plans. Jesus is their Sabbath.

When God finished creating the world He did not rest on the 7th day because He was tired. He rested to reflect on the goodness of what He had just created.

At the end of God’s creative activity the Word tell us,

“Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that is was very good.” Genesis 1:31

God doesn't get tired. On the 7^th day He wasn’t modeling life plans or helpful Day-Timer scheduling techniques to prevent fatigue. He was saying that rest only comes by reflecting on the goodness of what God has done. The same is true for us. That elusive rest that many are searching for does not come by adopting a new schedule or lifestyle – it comes from reflecting on God’s goodness in all seasons of life.

This week don't worry so much about your schedule. Sure, make some changes where you can, but the real rest you are looking for comes when you stop throughout the day and reflect back on the goodness of God. When this kind of reflection becomes part of our lives we will begin to feel the peace and rest that comes when His goodness fills our thoughts.

"Redefining Thomas" by Garris Elkins

Each life is like a photo album that contains snapshots of individual moments in time. No life is fully defined by a single image. We are made up of a composite of our experiences. One snapshot of time does not define our identity. Our identity is in a Person, not in a label created from a single experience.

We all have moments in our lives when, if you caught us in that moment and took a single picture, we would all appear faithless. God never intended our lives to be held hostage to a single moment of failure or unbelief. God invites us to peel off those labels of failure and brokenness that do not reflect His heart and begin, once again, to move forward towards our true destiny.

In the scripture Thomas is one of those people who was defined by a single moment in his life when he become universally known as “The Doubting Thomas.” The sad part of this label is that the Church continues to refer to Thomas as a doubter and not the man who interacted with Jesus eight days after His resurrection and trumped his initial unbelief with one of the greatest statements of faith in all of scripture.

John 20: 24-29 describes that interaction:

“One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. 25 They told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.” 26 Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!” 28 “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed. 29 Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”

When the disciples were first gathered in that locked room, and the Lord appeared to them on the evening of Resurrection Sunday, only ten of the twelve disciples were present. Judas had killed himself. We are not told why Thomas was not present. To these ten disciples Jesus showed His wounds. They did not need to touch the evidence because the evidence was standing before them.

The disciples who were present when Jesus appeared excitedly said to Thomas, “We have seen the Lord!” Thomas did not share their joy because he had missed the occasion of their joy. If I were Thomas I would have felt left out because I would have just missed the most significant event of my lifetime. I would have felt isolated from the joy the other disciples were experiencing. Their words, “We have seen the Lord!” would have produced a sorrow in my heart, like salt in a wound, since there would have been no expectation of ever seeing Jesus again.

Thomas did what many of us have done – he made a vow in his pain. “I won’t believe unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.” Thomas made a vow out of his pain that aligned him with faithlessness. Vows will reproduce themselves. Unless this vow was broken, Thomas would live within the faithless cycle the vow had set in motion. Words of faith would need to come from Thomas to supplant his faithless vow if he would ever transition from doubter to believer.

Jesus said to Thomas, “Don’t be faithless any longer.” What followed this command was a single word sentence with an exclamation mark – “Believe!” In the Greek language the word “believe” can be translated, “to entrust.” When Jesus commanded Thomas to believe, He was not asking Thomas to comprehend a full package of doctrine or somehow attain a complete understanding of the workings of God’s Kingdom. Jesus was asking Thomas to entrust himself to Him. Believing is entrusting ourselves to the Lord as a Person.

In the moment Thomas was commanded to believe something supernatural took place. Trust rose up in Thomas. As he saw the Lord standing before him without anger and condemnation, fully displaying the evidence of His resurrection, Thomas redefined his life with words that followed the revelation he was experiencing, “My Lord and my God!” The doubt Thomas was living under was now displaced by words of belief. The “Doubting Thomas” had now become the “Proclaiming Thomas.”

“My Lord and my God!” are powerful words. When Thomas declared that Jesus was Lord it meant he understood that someone was now leading his life who could be trusted. God would be faithful to move Thomas forward into the goodness He had planned. Thomas was professing belief in the trustworthy nature of the Leader-Lord.

The “God” part of what Thomas declared meant that Thomas was following someone who lives in absolute resurrection power. The declaration of Thomas was the acknowledgement that there would be resurrection power available to raise Thomas above the limiting restraints of whatever he encountered as Jesus led him forward in life.

The text in John continues in verses 30-31:

“The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name.”

The evidence of Jesus’ life and miracles are given so that you and I would continue to believe. The continuance of belief infers that we can stop believing. In his pain, Thomas had discontinued his belief. Thomas declared that he would stop believing until his demands were met. Jesus doesn’t meet demands - He meets people.

As powerful as Thomas’ experience was that day, our belief on this side of Pentecost has a greater potential. Jesus said there was a blessing for those of us who would believe (entrust) in the future without seeing the object of our belief.

In Hebrews 11:1 we read, “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.”

Like Thomas we can lose our ability to believe if we tie ourselves to demands and vows birthed in painful circumstances when life does not work out like we thought it would. We can miss the promised confidence and assurance of faith if we tie ourselves to the sorrow of feeling left out of from whatever God is doing.

When we come to realize that God is good, and has good thoughts and intentions for us in all circumstances, we can then step into that place where true transformation is possible. In the moment I choose to lay down my demands, judgments, and vows and declare, “My Lord and my God!”, something supernatural is released into my life.

Faith is an action word. We can think faith is an action word that only has implications on this side of eternity based on what we do for God in faith. Faith is much more - it activates something in Heaven. When faith is displayed in the earth it draws on Heaven to assure us that what we just believed for will actually happen.

In Hebrews 11:1 the verse says, “it (faith) gives us assurance about things we cannot see.” Faith gives us something. Every act of our faith contains the gift of assurance that is given when we exercise faith. These gifts of faith come to us carrying the residue of the environment of glory because they come from heaven. The day Jesus commanded Thomas to believe, this incoming faith-evidence produced in Thomas the words, “My Lord and my God!” The language of heaven was heard upon the earth and in a moment a man was redefined from doubter to proclaimer.

Today, the Church needs to rethink its image of Thomas. The man who was once a doubter should now be evaluated based on his final words and redefined as a proclaimer of faith. We need to do this because there are many of us, who like Thomas, need to be viewed as a life-album, not a single snapshot. We need to make this adjustment because Thomas is not viewed from Heaven’s perspective as a doubter. Thomas became the very voice of Heaven upon the earth when he made his declaration about Jesus.

God does not want us living in the results of faithless words that do not define His full intent for our lives. Jesus has plans to visit our lives with the evidence of His resurrection power and this visitation will change the way we speak and live.

Where are you living and speaking words of unbelief? Go to that faithless place and begin to believe for His appearing. Let your belief become words of faith declaring the goodness of God. In faith, begin to craft words that reflect God’s heart for you and your circumstance. God has already made up His mind about you and He has nothing but goodness in mind when He thinks of you.

This is a season of redefining. You and I are the ones responsible to speak the redefining words. God is ready to turn Doubters into Proclaimers and He will use the very words of our mouths to redefine our lives.

My book is now on Amazon Kindle

For those of you who like to read on a reading device, today Amazon released "Prayers from the Throne of God" on Kindle. http://www.amazon.com/Prayers-Throne-God-ebook/dp/B004XRALUA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=books&qid=1303605282&sr=1-2

"Walking in Circles and Thanking Jesus" by Garris Elkins

When I was a young pastor-in-training the church I was part of was Faith Center in Eugene, Oregon,. This wonderful church took a step of faith with me and let me try my hand at counseling people. I was so green and yet there I was - in a real office sitting across the table from people who were pouring out their hearts to me. I nodded like I understood what they were experiencing and then tried to offer some God-advice.

The office I used was one of those places where trainees like me were assigned at certain hours of the day. It was a bland office without a name tag on the door. One day I was sitting in a chair looking out the window waiting for my next appointment. The view from the office window allowed me to see a small outside patio area that was surrounded by hedges. You couldn't really see this small patio from any other angle. The patio was only accessible from the private office of the senior pastor of our church, Roy Hicks, Jr.

As I stared out from my window I noticed Roy step out of his office and walk onto the patio. For those of you who did not know Roy he was one of those rare leaders who carried an immense presence of authority. He was highly respected in our church movement and many others across the globe. Roy died in an airplane crash in 1994, at age 50, not far from where I am writing this article. Roy and I spent hundreds of hours together in the airplane he crashed. For a few years we flew back and forth across the United States and spent many hours talking. I learned a lot about God's Kingdom from our conversations during those flights.

As Roy walked onto the patio that day his face revealed that this was not a happy moment for him. Concern, and maybe a bit of anger, was painted across his face. And then something unique happened. Roy began to walk in circles. This was a small patio so the circles were rather small and pronounced. As Roy began to walk in these tight little circles I was able to hear what he was saying. He was repeating over and over again, "Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus." This went on for several minutes then he went back into his office. My life lesson was over.

As my years of leading in the Church continue to pass by, I have recalled, on numerous occasions, what Roy demonstrated to me that day. I learned that he carried whatever was troubling him out onto the patio and began to search for a thankful heart in the midst of a difficult moment. This life-lesson said to me, "When nothing makes sense start thanking Jesus because a thankful heart will become an understanding heart." I think the limiting real estate of that small patio was also part of another life-lesson - "Stay put and don't move on until your heart changes."

I have learned this kind of understanding doesn't mean we will understand why people do what they do to upset us in the first place. It simply means each hassle and problem of life is an opportunity to focus more deeply on the One Who loves us and that focus is our reason for thanksgiving.

If you see me walking in tight little circles today, and mumbling to myself, you will know what I'm up to.

Thanks, Roy.

"Sharpening the Thorns on Jesus' Crown" by Garris Elkins

I have a friend who is a really good artist. Kevin has created sculptures that are so life-like that they capture not only the posture of a person, but their very essence. Yesterday, Kevin brought me something. I was out of town so the gift was put in my office awaiting my return. The gift was a crown of thorns.

Easter is just a few weeks off so I am thinking about things like crosses, crowns of thorns and empty tombs. This gift was timely. Kevin had fashioned this life-size crown of thorns out of what looks like brass or copper and then antiqued it to make it look like it has been around for 2,000 years. It must weigh at least a pound. The points of the thorns that surround this woven, vine-like crown are really sharp. In fact, if you pick this crown up the wrong way you will get punctured.

Kevin emailed me today to let me know why he gave this crown to me as a gift. Something he wrote in his emailed touched me in a deep place. He wrote, "I cried while sharpening the thorns, in my own brokenness and the forgiveness I have for past expectations and failures." As I read Kevin's words I imagined the scene. Here is this expert artisan holding a crown he created, sharpening the pointed tips of the thorns and weeping. He was weeping because he was realizing the price Jesus paid for his forgiveness.

As I read Kevin's email I realized that my sin, and yours, sharpened the very crown of thorns Jesus wore during Easter week many years ago. In our striving to be hip and positive in the church today, I think we forget what really happened to Jesus. His scalp was punctured by thorns that really hurt. His hands and feet were punctured by nails that really hurt. His side was punctured by a spear that really hurt. His heart was punctured by our collective sin and that hurt most of all. I think that is what Kevin was crying about when he made the crown of thorns for me.