“A Place for Passion” by Garris Elkins

One morning last week, I was praying in our sanctuary.  I was seated near our drum enclosure.  This drum enclosure allows our drummers to play with freedom and passion, yet not overwhelm the room.  We have the drum set running through our sound system where capable technicians help each voice and instrument meld together to produce a wonderful mixture in our worship experience.

As I sat there praying, I looked inside the drum enclosure.  On the floor underneath the drums were broken drumsticks – several of them.  I realized that in this last season our drummers have played with such passion and freedom they were actually breaking their drumsticks.

I loved what these broken drumsticks were saying to me.  Here were talented drummers, and we have several, who were able to play with passion and excellence because someone made a place for them to express their gift without restriction. Our worship pastor and his team have created venues for expression that has released the passion and gifts of our worship team.  This is a truth that could apply to every area of the church and to life itself.

More than ever, I realize one of the most critical assignments of a leader, in any field of endeavor, is to create a place where the passion of people can be fully expressed. It is from this place of released passion that the future direction of our lives and ministries will be discovered.

“You Don’t Get to Call the Shots” by Garris Elkins

I had a dream.  It was a dream so vivid I actually thought it was real.

In the dream I was in the lobby of a large church sitting at one of the coffee tables.  The room was crowded.  The pastor of this large and influential ministry walked through the crowd towards my table and sat down.  He began to offer me a job.  He lined out the duties and the salary.  I thanked him and said I wouldn’t be able to accept his offer.  In my heart I knew I did not care to live in the state where his ministry was located and I actually thought his pay offer was too low.  He got up from the table and walked away.

Later in the dream the pastor approached me once again and offered me the same job. As I was about to repeat my rejection, I awakened.

As I awoke the Lord spoke to me and said, “You are entering a time in your life where you do not get to decide where you will serve or what you will be paid.”

In the next few hours, I processed those words from the Lord and reviewed the last 32 years of life and ministry. Up to this point, Jan and I have never called the shots on where we would go or what we would be paid.  God always brought ministry to us. We have never pursued locations or salary.  While we have been far from perfect disciples, as a result of letting God call the shots, He has been able to use us in unique ways and locales that were uncluttered by our demands.

Part of the reason I think this dream took place is that the older I have become the more I realize I have developed the tendency to settle in and begin to call the shots. It can appear to a carnal mind as a right of passage, but it can actually kill the new thing wants to do in our lives. 

A subtle lie can creep into our thinking and remind us that, “You’ve paid your dues…now, kick back and enjoy the fruit of your labor.”  While this sounds really good and has an element of truth to it, it is also part of a lie that has infected some in my generation of Baby Boomers. We can too easily tie our lives and ministries to the boat dock of an impending retirement and never sail again. In the time of life when we actually have something to share we begin to abdicate our fathering presence and tie ourselves to a docked future in a “safe” harbor. 

This fall I have been asked to speak at a pastor’s conference on the subject of fathering a city. As I ponder this timely subject, I realize the first thing a father does for his children is to give them a sense of identity.  Before we can affirm the identity of our children, both natural and spiritual, we must affirm our own.  Identity is not based on a calendar.  Our identity is sourced from eternity where elapsed time and retirement is not part of the definition.

If you have lived a good life people will eventually come and ask, “How did you get to this good place in your life?”  At this point in my life I don’t want to give the answer, “I got here because I called the shots and made all of this happen.” That would truly be a nightmare.

“Our Compass is a Voice” by Garris Elkins

Every 11 years something significant takes place on the Sun – the polar regions reverse.  North becomes south and south becomes north. This event takes place at the peak of each solar cycle as the sun's inner magnetic dynamo re-organizes itself.

The reversal of the Sun's magnetic field is a significant event. This shift has a ripple effect throughout the entire solar system and extends beyond Pluto all the way to the beginning of interstellar space. While not as dramatic as the Sun, this shift happens to a lesser degree on planet Earth.

When I was a pilot we used maps called Sectionals.  These maps defined geographic details so pilots could navigate by visual flight rules.  Pilots would use these maps and a compass to find their way.

There are two different reference points for measuring the direction “North”. True North is a line drawn through the axis of the Earth.  True North is fixed. Magnetic North is different than True North and is constantly on the move because of the changing nature of the Earth’s molten core, which contains iron. As a student pilot, I learned that because Magnetic North continually shifts, cartographers must move Magnetic North on maps to reflect this ongoing change. 

On Earth, Magnetic North moves about 40 miles a year or about 1 degree on a compass.  This creates problems. Airport runways, for example, are aligned with compass headings.  “Runway 31” is actually 310 degrees on the compass. When Magnetic North shifts so must the runway headings or pilots will align themselves with a compass heading that is askew and a runway that is not properly aligned.

This Magnetic North movement is actually increasing each year.  Some experts believe this may be the beginning of a complete reversal of our poles on Earth. Over the years this will create problems not only for aviation and navigation, but for the migratory animals that use the Earth’s magnetic field to orient themselves along their course of migration.

The Earth we stand upon and the sun we are warmed by are experiencing continual change. On Earth what used to be north will someday, in the distant future, become south. An unadjusted compass direction will have a pilot landing on the wrong continent if he continues to fly with old maps and flawed compass headings.

While these natural compass changes can have significant impact on our way of life, an even more significant impact is taking place in the spiritual realm. More than ever we live in a time when the people of God must navigate by the voice of God.  This Voice is the voice of God’s Spirit who leads us by supernatural revelation through the maze of cultural change that can make life seems so upside down at times. 

We live in a time when some are calling north, south and south, north. Our spiritual compass is the written Word of God and the prophetic revelation of His Spirit. Both of these spiritual headings will get us to where we need to go if we are brave enough to trust God and His Word.

Responding to the Voice can draw ridicule because natural compass headings and natural ways of thinking will always tell you that you are going the wrong way.  The Voice speaks from the unchanging realities of heaven into evolving cultural and social norms.  The Voice invades our changing world with unchanging truth and directs us to take the uncommon road of revelation.

We are in good company if we choose to follow the Voice.

   - Noah followed the Voice and built an ark when no one had ever seen rain.

   - David followed the Voice and was the first person to kill a mocking giant.

   - Elijah followed the Voice and soaked the altar with water before the fire of heaven fell.

   - Jesus followed the Voice to the cross and then rose from the dead.

In retrospect, Noah did not seem so silly when the Voice directed him to enter the ark as the floodwaters rose. David was no longer seen as just a naive shepherd boy, but became a hero to the nation of Israel when the Voice directed him to sink one of his five smooth stones into the forehead of Goliath. Elijah was no longer seen as some eccentric old man when he obeyed the Voice and the fire of heaven came down and consumed a water-soaked sacrifice. Jesus was no longer just another prophet in a land of prophets when the Voice commanded Him to rise from the dead and take His seat on His throne in heaven. 

Natural ways of living and doing Church will not be able to lead us forward to fulfill God’s Kingdom purpose on Earth. In fact, relying on natural wisdom for living or someone else’s outdated map of ministry will lead us to destinations not planned by God.   

We are in a time when following the Voice is more critical that ever. One of the greatest tasks before the Church in this present age is helping people learn, and in some cases, learn again, how to hear the Voice. The biblical narrative is filled with people who followed the Voice contrary to mainstream wisdom and arrived at destinations of destiny that cannot be navigated towards using the best of human wisdom or logic.

“The Other Option” by Garris Elkins

Last Sunday, Ryan Rhoden was speaking to our church about the transition in leadership that will take place at Living Waters Church in Medford, Oregon in October of 2014. In his message he said, "It would be unhealthy for us to stay the way we are as a church...this doesn't mean we are unhealthy as a church the way we are."

All healthy organisms must grow and change in order to be defined as a living thing.  Churches fall under this definition, as does a business or an organization. Change is challenging, but needed if life is to be experienced and sustained. 

At the foundation of this kind of change is the individual response we each bring to the process. We cannot expect Living Waters Church to become all that God desires it to be if we, as the individuals who make up the church, are not willing to experience change on a personal level. Personal change always precedes the transformation of a group. We could rephrase Ryan’s comments to read, “It would be unhealthy for me to stay the way I am.”

In order to get an image of this kind of change, I want to take another look at the most famous of all spiritual crossings – Israel’s crossing of the Red Sea.

The salvation experience for a Christian is likened to this crossing of the Red Sea. It is a powerful image of a people moving from bondage to freedom.  God opened up a way for us through Jesus to come to the Father – a way that none of us could have opened up with the best of our self-effort. That original experience of salvation is a stand-alone event, yet it is repeated in various forms throughout the life of a follower of Christ when we come to challenging places where we need to make a crossing. These are the places, where, if God does not show up, we won’t get across.

Out of a long and weary 400 years of captivity the children of Israel marched away from Egypt into the desert under the leadership of Moses.  The years they spent in captivity spanned 10 generations.  As a people, they knew only bondage. Freedom was just a word Israeli historians would reference.

For Israel, this was not just a bad week, a tough day or a challenging season. It had been a habitual, generation-after-generation way of living within the constraints of a life in bondage - they knew nothing else. If God did not deliver Israel, they would continue to live in bondage.

When Israel fled Egypt an impassable barrier stood before them in the form of the Red Sea. Behind them was their past, pursuing them to recapture them and return them to slavery. This was an impossible place. Death surrounded them on all sides.

It was in this pressing situation that God would reveal a way when no way seemed possible.  God would show up with another option – a supernatural passage – a way never seen before.

“Your road led through the sea, your pathway through the mighty waters – a pathway no one         knew was there!” Psalm 77:19

God is supernatural and He delights in making a way when no way seems possible. The Psalmist described this way as, “your road” and “your pathway”. These are ways to freedom only God knows about – they are His roads and His pathways.  He reveals these routes of rescue when it is not possible for us to create an exit solution.

God did this throughout the entire biblical record. When sick bodies were dying from disease, God made a way through physical healing.  When a marriage seemed doomed, God resurrected love. When someone’s future seemed bleak, God birthed a dream in a dreamless life. When a church needed to navigate into a new season, God showed up and led the way.

In Psalm 77:20, right after telling us that He will reveal the hidden way, the writer describes Israel as sheep needing a shepherd.

“You led your people along that road like a flock of sheep, with Moses and Aaron as their shepherds.”

What we sometimes forget is that we are being led somewhere. God, the Shepherd of our soul, is always leading us to green pastures.  The destination of the green pasture is not a guarantee that there will not be some bleak and fearful places along the way to the promise.

Sometimes those green pastures will lie on the other side of what appears to be a personal Red Sea with our past and its mistakes pressing us from behind.  It is in these times that God loves to show up and affirm His love by revealing us a way what was previously hidden to the natural eye. In these supernatural passages our past is consumed and our future is revealed.

In these difficult places, before we hear the word of the Lord, we can find ourselves crying out to return to Egypt – a place that is known.  Israel did this and so can we from time-to-time. We value the known and familiar because we learned to make life work in those situations, but those choices are always at the expense of the promise. For Living Waters Church, and for each of you that make up a unique and local expression of the Church, we can find no value or security in returning to what is known.  God moves His people forward – not backwards.

What God has for His children always lies ahead of us. He never asks us return to bondage and He doesn’t want us to die on the shores of a personal Red Sea. With God we can live in the confident assurance that, “A pathway no one knew was there” will appear just when we need it the most if we continue to follow His leading no matter what is taking place around us.

Both options, going back to Egypt, or trying to swim the Red Sea, can get us killed unless God is doing the leading.  Only God, the other option, can show us the hidden way. In your personal and challenging situation, trust God. He is about to show up and reveal a way to you when no way seems possible. 

“Accelerating Through Walls of Pain and Sorrow” by Garris Elkins

This week we were in a time of corporate prayer at Living Waters Church in Medford, Oregon.  Our worship pastor, Andy Southmayd, was leading us in a moment of unscripted and spontaneous worship.  Andy began to sing the words, “Break down the walls”. He sang these words over and over.  Something was being released by God’s Spirit into our gathering.

As we sang the words, “Break down the walls”, I began to see an image.  It was of the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.  These salt flats are made up of miles and miles of flat, powdery salt from a long-evaporated lake.  The salt flats are so flat and obstacle-free that they have become the single most significant place on earth from which to attempt land speed records.  These salt flats are free from the debris that could cause a catastrophic event if even a rock the size of a pebble were to be in the way of a jet car running at 700 miles per hour.

As we continued to worship and sing words about walls breaking down, I saw a believer, someone who represents all of us, sitting in the seat of a jet-powered vehicle.  As I watched, the ignition of the jet engine took place and the vehicle began to accelerate, moving towards a record-breaking event.  All of the natural surroundings blurred as the speed continued to increase.

As the driver began to focus on the distant horizon, a wall constructed in the roadway began to appear. It would be impossible to swerve out of its way.  The brakes could not stop the vehicle in time.  Collision was imminent.

From a distance the wall had words written on it – words like, “Abuse”, “Wound”, “Violation”, “Hurt” and “Betrayal”.  As this event unfolded, the Lord spoke and said to the driver, “Speak to the wall and say, ‘I forgive and let go.’”

There wasn’t anytime for human reasoning or justification.  A crash was imminent. There was no time to figure out who was wrong.  There was no time to attach blame.  This was all taking place in that split-second moment between when the driver first saw the wall and a collision was about to take place.

The supernaturally accelerating vehicle continued to gain speed while the driver was still speaking to the wall.  As the last word came out of his mouth the vehicle struck the wall and instead of destroying the driver and the vehicle, as would happen in a natural event, the vehicle accelerated even more as it passed through the wall that had now become a wall of vapor and dust.

The event was not over.  The driver saw another wall with other names on it describing hurtful events from past seasons of life.  Again, the driver cried out, “I forgive and let go”, and this wall also exploded on impact and the acceleration increased again.  This wall crashing and acceleration continued to take place until all the walls had been destroyed and the driver and vehicle continued to move at even higher levels of supernaturally accelerated speed.

I sense this is a picture of what God is doing in His people in this season. We are in a time of supernatural acceleration.  We have entered the equivalent of a supernatural salt flat. The only obstacles in our way are those we choose to allow to remain. Things are about to happen so fast that much of what we have known in the past will become a blurred backdrop to the new work God has planned. These fast approaching walls of past wounds will not allow us time to rationalize or strategize our way out of an imminent collision.

There are two collisions approaching the people of God - collisions that can destroy us because we hang onto an offense or collisions that we will accelerate through into new dimensions of life and revelation because we chose to humble ourselves before God and His people in acts of repentance and forgiveness.

“New Names for a New Season” by Garris Elkins

For the last few weeks the Lord has been speaking to me and saying that He is releasing new names for a new season. As I waited and listened to the Lord, He began to share His heart for His Church.

“You are about to experience a name change. This will not be a change of your given name, but a name change in the Spirit. I am making this change so you will come into this new season fully defined for the work I am about to accomplish.

You will also carry with you new names to pronounce upon those who feel lost in hopelessness and disillusionment. When you speak these new names new seasons will be released. Rise up and begin to speak these new names and watch what I am about to do.

Some of you have allowed natural definitions to define and limit My work in your life. Make an exchange with Me.  Give Me the old names attached to defeat and a dreamless life and I will give you new names filled with hope and the promise of a future.

In this day, I am doing a name change among my people. As your receive these new names you will carry them into new territory. Rise up prophets and begin to prophesy new names to My people. 

         Where fatalism has stolen a future prophesy the name, “Hopeful One.”

         Where dreamers have stopped dreaming call them a “Dreamer of God.”

         Where people feel disconnected call them the “Redeemed of the Lord.”

         Where someone has been forsaken, declare the name, “Beloved.”

Just as My word entered the void and formless mass at Creation, so will your words spoken in My name accomplish the same creative effect when released into those who hear these words.  The unconnected elements in their lives will begin to form a new season when they assemble around My word.

Begin to rejoice like new parents naming a child yet to be born. Prepare to believe and dream again.  Begin to live in the expectation of greater things. I have given you a new name for a new season to do a new work.”  

“An Apology to Mr. and Mrs. Iscariot” by Garris Elkins

When I read the story of Judas Iscariot betraying Jesus, I find myself wanting to distance myself from him.  Maybe my need to keep my distance is because I have found him living in me from time-to-time when I have betrayed the things that God holds dear. This distancing helps me perpetuate the illusion that if I just stay away from all things Judas that I won’t “catch” what Judas had.

I have come to realize, as we distance ourselves from the Judas-like people in our lives, that we are also distancing ourselves from the families who called Judas their son, brother, cousin and grandson – all the way down the family line.

Up until the moment John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln while he sat in Ford’s Theater, Booth was just another safe and familiar family name.  Everything changed for the descendants of Lee Harvey Oswald when he assassinated President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. Up until the moment when Oswald fired his bullets from the window of the book depository, Oswald was also just another family name. The actions of a single person can have devastating effects on an entire family line and the perception of their name.

Whenever an individual pulls the trigger on a negative response to life, and that response deals death by their words or actions, the weight of that decision is laid upon the surviving family members.  After the event, whenever the name of the perpetrator is mentioned in public, the family image is filtered through the painful events of the one who did the deed.

I try to image what the Iscariot family must have felt when their son betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. “Judas, what were you thinking?  We did not raise you that way!”  Even the biblical record tries to distinguish Judas Iscariot from the other people in that culture who bore the same name – “Judas, not Judas Iscariot, but the other disciple with that name.” John 14:22

Maybe today we need to look around the fringes of our culture and find a contemporary version of the Iscariot family who are living in the shadows of shame over the actions of one of their loved ones.  It would be just like Jesus to have us approach them and say, “Mr. and Mrs. Iscariot, please forgive me for not coming earlier. I was afraid that if I were seen with you that part of my brokenness that has betrayed others would be exposed.  I am sorry.  It was not your fault.  Please forgive me.”