A Word For My Single Friends Who Are Waiting

You have wondered when – when will they come. In an unscheduled moment of time a divine encounter will take place. They will appear like a person who has stepped out from within the fog of your unexplored future.  In that moment a seed of hope will be gently planted in the garden of your dreams and before your eyes love will begin to arise, blooming for a lifetime of harvest.

This is the essence of something God-arranged.  Don’t push it. Resist the urge to sell your dream to the highest bidder. Chain your desperate heart to the goodness of God. You are already one.  You will never be more than one even after you meet the other one and become one. This is a Kingdom principle. One Lord. One faith. One Church. One people. Our highest calling is oneness – a gift we already possess no matter our station in life.

Exercise your trust free from the frustrating measures of expiring time. Do not despair over what could have been. Choose to not believe the whispered lies of a deceptive fatalism that wants you to live as though that special person will never come or that joy has somehow passed you by, forever lost. 

Let God have His way and in the days ahead someone will walk toward you holding the same breathless expectation you have held in faith anticipating a beautiful moment of embrace and release that only comes to those who have put their trust in God.

Stepping Into Something New

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This morning in prayer, I saw the image of a person stepping off a curb. The picture was a freeze-frame image that captured the person mid-stride with one foot still on the sidewalk and the other foot in the air extended outward ready to step down onto the roadway.  The Lord said, “I am changing the location of their next step. They stepped out expecting to land on the same familiar street, but I have I brought a new place for their foot to land. It will appear unexpectedly under their feet once the image restarts.  They have always thought I would require them to get to the next place in their journey one predictable step after another.  I am about to interrupt their slavery to natural thinking.  When I restart the image they will step into something new and unexpected.”

Some of you have always thought what came your way in life would be the result of being in the right place at the right time.  This is a limited form of natural thinking.  You don’t need God to live that way – you only need to plan and strategize with the natural abilities every human possesses.  This is a word for you to begin believing for something only God can do.  You cannot make plans for what is about to take place. It will happen suddenly and without your planning.

Recently, I have been hearing the word “beyond”. God is releasing events, interventions and solutions that will take place beyond our wildest imagination. When Paul wrote his letter to the Ephesians he said God was able “to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think”. These “beyond” works - the infinitely more works of God - will appear unexpectedly under our feet because even in our wildest dreams we could never imagine their possibility.

The Fallacy of Measured Success

I have come to dislike the word "metrics" - a word used by organizations to measure people and the success of their efforts. It is a business term that has crept into conversations within the church, especially where organizations need to measure a certain level of visible success to justify their continued existence to a donor base. 

This need to always be measured becomes a slow and corrosive drip in the spiritual stomach of those who live under its open faucet. When the Church begins to measure and validate its existence using the same tools as the business systems of the world we put ourselves in a place of jeopardy. This jeopardy requires that we align only with those who support our desired metric of success. This becomes a masked form of dishonor. In the end, the very ones who may carry the potential to bring breakthrough have been excluded from the conversation because they do not measure up to our predetermined metric.  True significance in God’s Kingdom cannot be measured by the metrics of success.  It can only be measured by faithfulness.

If your significance in any group is determined only by the metrics of visible success you may be working for the wrong people. Ask God to lead you to a group who are not consumed with the production of these metrics and who understand your true value apart from the limits of measured productivity. Jesus Christ and His first followers failed to measure up to the success metric of their day, but in the end, they changed the world.

Crossing Dark Intersections

When I played football for Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington, one of my teammates invited me home to spend a weekend with his family and have some home cooking. As a misplaced and lonely California kid I accepted this invitation with great joy.  After our last class on Friday night, we hopped in his car and began the long drive across the eastern Washington farmlands toward his very small hometown out in the middle of nowhere.

We were driving late at night. Off in the distance of this “middle of nowhere” place was a desolate intersection monitored only by stop signs for all four of the converging roadways.  The moment I saw the reflection of the stop sign off in the dark distance my teammate said, “Turn off your lights to see if any other cars are coming and if you don’t see any lights don’t slow down – just blow the stop!” Without thinking I did what my friend suggested and blew through the intersection doing 65 mph with no headlights on and thought nothing of it.  Now, years later with a fully developed brain, I realize the foolishness we displayed that night.

That intersection reminds me of what the future for some in the Church will look like without the illuminating authority of scripture to help them navigate the dark cultural intersections we are now approaching. Psalm 119:105, tells us how to wisely navigate these dark intersections with the words, “Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.”

As you approach these cultural crossings make sure you navigate them safely illuminated by the light of God’s truth. Do this because there may be other people approaching the same intersection having turned off the light of truth believing the potentially fatal lie that tells them these treacherous crossings can be made in total darkness.  I shudder to think what might have happened that night had another equally foolish driver attempted to make the same crossing assuming no light was needed to make it to the other side.  

A Dream About Our Current Battle

A few nights ago, I had one of the most vivid dreams I have ever experienced. I was atop Mount Ashland dug into foxholes with other believers. We were involved in intense combat.  Mount Ashland is a high mountain where I live that overlooks southern Oregon and Northern California. Because of the location of the battle, I knew the outcome of the battle would have regional significance.

The battle scene in the dream was like video footage of actual combat.  Bullets were flying over our heads.  Each of us fired our weapons at wave after wave of the advancing enemy.  I heard fellow soldiers yelling “Ammo!” and I would see a fresh magazine thrown from one foxhole to another to keep each solider in the fight.  Combatants were screaming orders and warnings. “Incoming” was shouted to announce incoming rounds of dark spiritual artillery.

As the battle finally came to an end a deep and profound silence settled over the battlefield as the cloud of smoke from spent gunpowder still hung in the air above our heads.  We rose from our entrenchments into a post-battle hush to see the enemy lying dead at our feet extending as far as the eye could see.  Our faces were dirty and tear-stained as we began to look at each other with gratefulness that we would live to see another day.

We began to march down from the mountain summit to the ski lodge.  A line of people stood waiting for our return. This line filled the lodge and traced out into the parking lot down the mountain for miles into the valley below. Those waiting in line were people from our community who knew we had just put our lives at risk in a high place battle for the well being of their families and community. One after one, our necks were hugged with great emotion.  Each person in line shed thankful tears of joy at the victory.

As I debriefed the battle, I remembered seeing those who survived the fight raising shields of faith. These were the same shields described by Paul in Ephesians 6 that capture and extinguish the incoming arrows of the enemy. These were not like a solid gladiator’s shield.  We could see through our shields.  When we raised them in battle they did not obscure the battlefield before us.  Whenever we lifted our shields of faith and looked through their transparency the entire image of the battle would change.  If our shields were not raised we could only see the approaching enemy with the eyes of fearful natural sight.  

In faith, we also saw angels in combat with us. These angels were swinging their swords and destroying the approaching enemy with each powerful swing of their powerful blades. Prayers we had prayed in years past arrived like time-traveling mortars exploding on the field of our present battle. 

The enemy became surprised and confused. They began to raise their heads trying to understand the supernatural intervention that was turning the battle in our favor.  As their heads were raised we were able to easily identify them as targets and dispatch their lies with well-aimed declarations of truth.

There is a battle being waged in the high places of the spirit realm over our families, our cities and every region in our nation. These life and death battles are being waged and won with the unnatural weapons of prayer and faith.  These supernatural weapons and tactics will transform how we see the battlefield and the enemy who stands before us.

If you have become overwhelmed at what is transpiring in the world around you it is because your shield of faith hangs limp at your side. Raise your shield and begin to see the battle from heaven’s perspective. Nothing coming against you will be able to gain control of your spiritual battlefield if you see the battle with the eyes of faith. You are always fighting from a place of victory. This reality is what empowers our faith and turns the tide of battle.

A New Season Has Been Birthed

For the last week, Jan and I have been getting impressions in prayer of a new birth.  Jan saw a birth happen where the feet of a child came out first, instead of the head as is normal in a birthing process. When the child was birthed, she saw the child hit the ground and begin to run at the speed of the Spirit.  Later that same week, not knowing what Jan had seen, I smelled the fragrance of a newborn infant. I remember cuddling our two children soon after their birth and smelling the unique fragrance only a newborn gives.

This morning, as I prayed for the nation of Israel, I saw the image of a birth. I saw a mature adult fall through the membrane that surrounds the womb.  As this adult emerged they were birthed fully mature, landing on their feet. Immediately, I knew this was a composite image of the Church and the nation of Israel.  The image affirmed the promise of scripture that neither would not be aborted, as some would hope.  Both would appear on the world scene fully mature, able to walk in the strength and will of God.

In recent months there have been increasing levels of persecution against the Church and the nation of Israel. Both can seem small and vulnerable when standing in the midst of global unbelief.  This is the same faulty comparison Moses warned Israel about when he recounted their fearful testimony as they stood at the border of the Promise Land and said, “The people are taller and more powerful than we are”.  Moses was trying to help covenant people understand a profound truth - with God they are never small no matter what kind of giants they face.

God always does His most profound work with things that appear small in the eyes of the world.  Jesus was described as a lamb. Goliath was brought down with a stone from a shepherd’s sling. The Church was birthed in power in a small group of people who were locked away in an upper room in fear of the surrounding culture.

In the days ahead God will begin to reveal the birthing of something new and strong within the Church and the nation of Israel. Keep your eyes on God. Trust His Word. Live by faith, not by sight. In this new season, you will hit the ground strong, able to run the race set before you without fear of the gauntlet through which you must run in order to embrace your destiny.

Indecent Exposure

(Note to reader: This article uses a graphic metaphor.  It is not my intention to write for shock value. My only intention is to share what I believe the Lord asked of me. Please read what follows with that it mind.)

Many years ago, I was a police officer.  One of the tools I worked with was the California Penal Code. This code of laws contained the various violations of law from the simplest to the most gruesome. Our ability to arrest and detain was found within the pages of that code of law.

This morning, I rolled over in bed to check the time.  The lighted digital clock read, “3:14” indicating a time in the very early morning hours, but immediately I heard in my spirit, “Indecent Exposure.” As soon as I heard those words the Lord began to speak to me using the California Penal Code designation for a lewd act as a metaphor for what He was about to reveal. I tried to get back to sleep, but rose shortly thereafter still carrying the following word.

Our culture stands at a significant crossroad in its history.  How the Church displays itself before the culture at this crossroad will be critical in our ability to affect change in the coming years.  For several decades, some within the Western Church have left behind the magnificent history of their supernatural birth and picked up a form of godliness that, by its comfortable expression, denies the power of God. While there are some positive aspects to the current model, it has become an indecent exposure of the Church to a world in desperate need to see the power of God.

Years ago, a man familiar with the intricacies of the Greek language said to me when Paul wrote to the Corinthians telling them that all things must be done in “decency and order”, he was not making a prudish appeal for an orderly church service.  The words in the original language actually mean to do what is appropriate to the working of the Spirit in the moment – that is what Paul meant by decency and order. Paul’s writing was not a restriction of the Spirit’s manifestation in our times of worship, but a release.  Paul’s words were not written as an appeal to not offend a seeker.  Paul wrote to ensure that we never get to a place where a powerless presentation of the Gospel is displayed on the streets of our cities or within the walls of our church facility.

As I processed what I was hearing, I realized if we continue to reveal a powerless model of the Church to our culture we will be found guilty of indecent exposure.  This is not the vile violation of a criminal code, but the exposure of a model of life and ministry that gives no one the tools needed to confront the darkness that has settled over our land.

We have been called to stand with confidence before demons and all the powers of darkness with the supernatural weapons of God’s Kingdom. We are assigned to confront the darkness that prowls our culture freely attacking and consuming the lives of innocent people. Most of those who attend our churches come away from that experience not knowing this kind of power exists because they have not been exposed to its reality. That is indecent. The decent and biblical exposure of the fullness of God’s love and power is the most powerful weapon we possess. This is a time in our history to display that power once again without fear or reservation. That is the most decent thing we can do.