The Angst You Are Feeling

 

Some of you woke up this morning with an unexpected feeling of angst. What you are sensing is what the broader culture is experiencing each and every day.  Angst is permeating our world. God is using this angst as an invitation to make a shift in your thinking to become an agent of change in your family, city and nation. God has allowed you to feel the pain of others for a greater Kingdom purpose.

What you are sensing is a tremendous spiritual battle currently being waged in our culture. This battlefield is not fought with natural weapons, strategy or tactics. Attempting to use natural borders and political rhetoric to define this struggle is an illusion. When we attempt to fight a spiritual battle with the same logic used to fight natural battles defined by the limits and interests of natural, horizontal borders, we end up expending our limited energy and resources fighting in the wrong direction advancing our cause toward the wrong "enemy".

This is a different kind of warfare waged between varying levels of spiritual authority in the heavens. This is why Paul told us to fix our eyes on the things above and to draw our weapons from the unnatural arsenal of heaven. The battle lines of this spiritual war are vertically defined - within the varying levels of authority in the heavenly realm - not horizontally drawn between nations and people groups.

The battle being waged is one whose border will be defined by our renewed thinking. The angst you are feeling is a battle being fought over mindsets. God is reforming and reviving the mind of His Church in preparation for what He has planned. This angst is being used by God to get your attention to refocus your efforts on a different battle being fought on a different plane. The troops in this battle are armed with hope, faith and love. Against these weapons no army of spiritual darkness can stand.

It's Time! Step Forward - Expect a Miracle

It's time to stop hesitating. You have paused in a place of weakness waiting to become strong before you continue to move forward in obedience. When this journey began, God did not send you out because you were strong. He is sent you out knowing it would be in your weakest place where He would do His greatest work. This hasn't taken Him by surprise. It is part of His plan. You would not need God to show up if what He is asking of you could be done in your own strength, will and intellect.

There are good people in the Church-culture who live with the illusion that we should spend our time discovering and developing our strengths. This research seems logical, but it is not truth. This illusion was adopted because people succumbed to a natural model of doing church. Scripture tells us something different - your weak areas carry the greatest potential for Kingdom advancement, not your strengths.

Never let your weakness stop you from moving forward in your calling. Like Paul, celebrate your weaknesses because when you recognize them God will be able to begin doing something profound. A weakness yielded to the healing touch of God carries with it the greatest potential for a display of His power. When you are empty and have nothing left to offer, God has promised to come and fill your weak place with a display of His presence. This is where your life will have the greatest impact. Embrace it and begin to move forward.

A Significant Decision

Yesterday, I sensed a nudge from the Lord to post a short video reminder encouraging people to follow the peace of God into this season of increasing cultural uncertainty. Later in the day, someone reminded me that my friends at Elijah List had published an excellent word from Bobby Connor, a trusted prophetic voice, titled, "Peace or Panic - The Choice is Yours!". God is reminding His people to not allow fear to darken the attitude of our heart or pollute our response to life. The choice is ours to make.

In order to be in the center of God's will in this moment of human history, each of us will need to make the daily choice to step into the peace of God. This choice will violate your emotions and the opinions other people have about how to live in the midst of uncertainty.

If you are a follower of Jesus Christ and you have succumbed to the spirit of fear, make an exchange. Give God your fear and He will be faithful to give you His peace. This will be the greatest gift you will receive in this holiday season and the greatest contribution you will make during the conversation that will take place tomorrow around the Thanksgiving dinner table.

Moving Beyond Politically Correct Religous Language

 

Each segment of the Church has the potential to succumb to a version of politically correct language. This is not the same kind of vocabulary as the politically correct language used in the realm of politics, but it is sourced from the same spirit and manifested in the arena of faith. This politically correct language perpetuates the status quo of religious systems through restricting forms of communication.  It is a language of control. Unless challenged it can hold an individual or a group back from experiencing the full measure of their destiny.

When God begins to move in new ways new language is required to define what is taking place. This language will invite its members out of the ruts of a shared history to experience something new their current experience cannot provide. For those in control of the visible power structures this new language can be seen as a threat and must be controlled by a demand for alignment with the party line. If that alignment does not take place fearful leadership may attempt to silence the voice of reformation by removing its platform to speak. At this point change can only come from the outside instead of being internal and organic.

Breaking free from this politically correct group-speak requires someone courageous enough to speak what the Spirit is saying no matter the cost to their credibility or jeopardy to a position they hold within a particular circle of fellowship or organization. These are voices like David who was rejected by Saul or John who cried out from the wilderness.

God is raising courageous voices within our families, churches and denominations. God has planted these courageous ones in our circles of fellowship to challenge the fear-based controlling filters we have erected as barriers to change. These new voices will invite people to listen to the sounds of a Kingdom conversation that will declare something new instead of orbiting around and repeating the familiar party line of history that has stunted their growth and forward progress.

A New Garment for a New Season

A young woman approached me on Sunday morning just before I was to preach at The Shepherd's Way in Ashland, Oregon. She said she saw an image of a person walking into the presence of the Lord. As this person entered the Presence they shed an old garment they had been wearing for a long time.  They now stood before the Lord naked and unclothed in a moment of transition.  As this young woman shared what she was seeing the Lord continued developing the image in my mind.  I saw the person step forward from a place of naked vulnerability and put on a new garment as they continued to step forward into a new season.

Some of you are about to shed the old garment of what was to put on the new garment of what will be.  You are removing something that served a purpose, but now must be dropped on the floor of your past in order to move forward. The Lord is about to clothe you in a new garment of fresh anointing.

In the coming weeks some of you will become the person in the image.  Don't fear the moment of naked vulnerability before the Lord when the old falls away.  This is part of your transformation.  What you are about to be clothed with will far exceed your imagination and expectation.

The Coming Revival of Peace

The real power of terror is its ability to cause an entire populace to live and respond to life in fear – always and everywhere. The greatest weapon in the arsenal of terror is the fear it produces in the minds of people.  God is about to turn this fear into a seedbed for revival, but first the Church must come to grips with her own fear.

While many people gather weapons and attempt to harden natural borders these efforts will not and cannot fully stem the tide of terror. Terror is an enemy without borders. The most significant battle we will engage takes place in our minds where we are being offered an opportunity to harden the borders of our thinking against the invasion of fear. Defining these mental borders provides our minds with the protected space needed to have our thought process renewed to begin thinking like Jesus.

Today, you can do several things to position your heart and mind for this coming revival of God’s peace.  Turn off your television and stop listening to the endless speculation and posturing of your favorite news outlet. Return to the Word and read its pages that are filled with a hope and a future God has created and promised. Direct your daily conversations toward a redemptive end instead of allowing your words to be highjacked by the agenda of fear.

These three simple acts will provide your mind with the space it needs to recalibrate your thinking to align with the mind of Christ. The creation of this space will allow God’s peace to displace the invaders of worry, doubt and fear. As you are being recalibrated you will begin to hear words of hope and destiny.  Hearing and believing these words will be your greatest act of spiritual warfare against the forces of terror.  With a renewed mind you will then be able stand in opposition to what the spirit of terror wants you to believe can only come at the end of a gun barrel or by the election of your favorite candidate. God has another plan and He is inviting you to believe it is possible.

Confront the Bully

Some of you feel like you are being pushed forward in time without your permission. This rude progression of time is like a schoolyard bully who has come up behind you pushing and shoving you forward. At some point you will need to turn around and confront the bully. The lesser authority of time being used by this bullying presence will have to yield to the eternity you carry in your heart.

Eternity has authority over every aspect of time when faith is expressed. Time and all that transpires within its realm does not have an authority greater than the One who created it. On earth as it is in heaven is not a religious mantra. This is the order of revelation in God’s Kingdom.  

God wants to release an invasion of eternity upon the timeline of your life bringing with it supernatural resolution and miraculous intervention. This is the alternate reality offered to those who confront the bully of time and follow Jesus – the One who existed in eternity before the creation of time.