You are not perishing....

Matt. 8:24-27

^"24 And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep. ²⁵ And they came to Him and woke Him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing!” ²⁶ He *said to them, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm. ²⁷ The men were amazed, and said, “What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”"

   Its easy to just read through this story. We have heard it 100 times, seen it on the cheesy flannel boards in VBS 100 times. Heard our faith called into question in 100 different sermons through this scripture. But I think that this scripture, as in so many, there is a nugget hidden that we often miss because of familiarity.

  
   There is a very odd, striking contrast in this scripture. To sum it up we might say there is a storm, a sleeping Jesus, a lack of faith, and then a Savior who controls the elements. We hear it taught that Jesus had no fear of being killed from this storm so He was asleep. I totally agree with this. But if this is true, why did He stop the storm???

   Ever thought about this? They were perfectly safe. Jesus was there. They were not going to die. Nothing bad was going to happen. So why did He chide their faith and then stop what was causing them doubt? As a father, I would leave my kids in the situation that they had no reason to be afraid of until they seen that they need not fear.

   I took my son, Oliver, on our front porch during a thunderstorm so he could sit in my arms and watch the thunder and lighting. He seen that it was nothing to be afraid of, but that it was kind of cool. He may like storms as much as me. But the point is that I sat with him there until he seen he was going to be OK.

   So why didn't Jesus? I think the answer is pretty simple, though Ive missed it in the past. Jesus didn't rebuke the storm because he was tired and wanted to get back to bed. "If these grumbling, faithless disciples would leave Me alone I could sleep, so I guess Ill just make this storm leave to get some shuteye." But I also don't think He did it because they needed to see the supernatural displayed. They had just gotten back from a whirlwhind healing/deliverance revival where countless where healed and delivered of demons.

   The point, I now believe, is found in the disciple's statement "We are perishing." I honestly believe, as I am sure you do, that Jesus knew they would be fine even with the storm. But the disciples didn't. They were scared. Jesus may have questioned there little faith, but He also wanted to reveal His heart.

   You see, you and I are never perishing. Not ever. As believers who walk close to our God, nothing can touch us. For me to put the scriptures up that confirm this, well it would just take too long. Every fear is a lie. Every time we are anxious it is a lie. Every time we are scared or intimidated it is a lie. The peace inside of Jesus was His reality, not the storm outside. He made that peace the disciple's reality because of His love for them.

   "You are never perishing." Jesus says in so many words, and then proves it. He is not the strict school master who demands perfection, but instead He is the loving Savior that says "This storm may be reality, but My love for you is Truth." You are never perishing. He loves you too much. Don't doubt His love. He didn't wake up to prove His ability, He woke up to prove His love.

   You are not perishing. Ever.

Waiting on a promise

   Taking a que from one of my favorite St.'s in history, St. Ignatius of Loyola, I decided to spend Easter time meditation on scenes from scripture about Christ's resurrection. While doing this I had one scene in particular stick out and I wanted to share it.

   Let me start by giving you an idea of what this type of prayer is. Pretty much it is reading a scene from the bible and then imagining the scene. The way the scene would look, smell, or feel. The noises, the people and dress, time of day. And then the general attitude. Is it a tense scene, joyous, peaceful? Then place yourself in that scene. Interacting and being a part of the scene unfolding. Why would you do this? It is simply an exercise in hearing God.

   I had imagined the scene of Mary at the tomb. I read the scripture on this and seen that Peter and other disciples, when they hadn't found Christ, left the scene before Mary. I though the Lord would direct my thoughts to stay  and see an empty tomb. But, as usual, He was much cooler than that.

   I imagined I left the scene with Peter. We walked at first, then we began to run as I sensed that the local Roman guards might be looking for disciples. Suddenly (at this point the Lord was directing my thoughts and showing me pictures) I stopped under a tree on a bench and wept. God was directing my imagination now. I was so unnerved and upset at the fact that Jesus had died, but now even more so that Jesus' body was gone. It was like insult to injury. First the Roman's proved they could kill Him, then that we, the disciples, couldn't even control where His body was laid to rest.

   I had given up (oddly mirroring a part of my life at the moment) and Christ showed up next to me. Now, if you have read the accounts of Christ after His resurrection you will recall that most did not know it was Him until He spoke. Even now, we know Him by His voice.

   He sat next to me. He put is arm around me and touched my chest. He asked what was wrong and I said "Jesus has died and now we are left alone." Not realizing that it was Him sitting next to me.

He said "What have you heard in here?" The hand touching my chest was pointing inside of me.

I said "That You would rise in three days."

I see Him, then, with this look on his face of expectation. Waiting for me to realize that it is the risen Christ that is sitting next to me. I turn and He hugs me. The scene ends.

If you are waiting on a promise you must constantly remind yourself of the words He has spoken to you. What He has promised you. Many times we just need to wake up to the fact that He is fulfilling His promises while He is waiting for us to wake up.

Miracles are simply expressions of love.....

Matthew 7:15-23

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

    15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? 17 So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 So then, you will know them by their fruits.

   21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many [d]miracles?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’ If you know me much at all you are familiar with my very strong belief in the necessity for works of power to be demonstrated through a believer’s life. As followers of Christ we need to be experiencing and performing the miracles Christ told us to. We should be healing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing lepers and casting out demons. Not figuratively, but actually.

   Placing such a great emphasis on doing these miracles that we miss the heart of God is an easy trap to fall into. You can do these great works and miss the heart of God completely. Knowing this should drive us to ask ourselves two questions….

   Firstly, why am I not seeing these things happen in my life? KC, I pray for the sick and none are healed and I have never even seen a demonized person in my life so how am I supposed to deliver them? The scriptures above say that even men with wrong motives can perform these things, so how is it I am not? The answer is faith. God has promised you the Kingdom, and honored that promise so much, that faith is the only requirement. Who are you in Christ? You are a child of the King. The Kingdom is His, so that means it is yours. You can bind and loose all things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. Those two words in the bible, bind and loose, are better translated “forbid” and “release”. You can forbid the things of the Enemy and release what is inside of you, the Kingdom of God. It is a fact. Period. I cant tell you why this doesn’t happen every time we pray because there can be many reasons but as a great pastor has said, when you don’t see the miracle you cant allow your experience to dictate your theology. What you believe about healing cant be changed by failure. If you don’t see the miracle then go to your secret place and cry out until you start to see them. But what about those who need a healing and I miss it? That leads us into the second question....

   The second question is “What is the will of God”? According to the verses above not everyone who is moving in the gifts of power are doing the will of God. The scriptures above say that the difference between bearing good fruit or bad fruit is that you must follow the will of God. But KC, you ask, I thought you said that healing and deliverance IS the will of God? No. Seeing people healed and delivered are EXPRESSIONS of the will of God. The will of God is love. In the NASB, the most literal translation, V.23 says “depart from Me, you who practice LAWLESSNESS”.

   Matt 22:37-40 tells us that all the law and prophets hang on two laws. Love God will all your heart, soul, and mind and to love your neighbor as yourself. If you want to stay in New Testament law, then you only must love God completely and without reservation, and your neighbor love as yourself.

So to answer your question the will of God, the perfect will of God, is love.

   This also tells us what to do for those who we don’t see healed or delivered. If I cant release healing and see a person healed, then I will make sure, without a doubt, that they know God loves them. And even if I miss the mark and for whatever reason the deliverance doesn't happen, they will know that I love them.

   Love God, then love others, then express that love. Moving in healing and deliverance doesn’t make you any better than those who don’t think they can. Because we all can. Let miracles in people’s lives only be done to express the love of God for them and you will be bearing the real fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control…..

Intimacy Exchanged

   About two years ago the Lord began to transform my prayer life with praying in tongues daily. It was amazing. While praying like this I was charged up spiritually and seen in the Spirit things the Lord wanted me to know. It was so powerful.

   So I began to look at the benefits of tongues in the bible and read books on it and became fairly knowledgeable about what tongues can accomplish in private prayer. One day I read a minister write that if you prayed an hour a day in tongues you will have deep intimacy and revelation. I then thought “If I pray like this, I will have these blessings.” Once that thought entered my mind I manipulated my prayer time with tongues. I turned my prayer time into a religious work that did not accomplish anything.

   My revelation ceased and intimacy was hindered. I said all that to make one short point. What God gives you for intimacy can be manipulated by our knowledge of Good and Evil (tree in the garden) into a religious formality. Relationship becomes work as Mary and Martha switch roles. 

   Pursue intimacy with God. Not only will you get what you want, you will want things you didn’t know you could get.

Changing jail/prison culture Part 1

I wanted to let a great article from "The Voice" magazine speak for itself....

Prison ministry - Apostolic prophetic prison ministry - Setting The Captives Free



Apostolic and prophetic prison ministry is not only seeing the captives set free - it's seeing the captives saved, delivered, filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesying.

"We had a rapist murderer in one of our meetings," recalls Pastor Jonathan Medley of Holy Light Deliverance Church in Columbus, Ga. "We sang a prophetic song and gave him a prophetic word and it touched him. He came up to the altar, gave his life to Jesus and got delivered from demonic oppression. Today he is active in prison ministry and is the strongest prayer warrior in his ward."

Prison ministries are rising up across the nation to set the captives free. They know that Jesus did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. They know that Jesus did not come to condemn the world, but to save it. And they know that the prisons are a vast harvest field with millions of lost souls.

Indeed, prison ministry is more vital today than ever. United States prisons are filled with some 2.1 million prisoners, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The number of prisoners is rising 3.4 percent each year, with an estimated 488 prison inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents. In fact, more than 6 million people are currently incarcerated, on probation, or on parole in America.

Multiply those figures on a worldwide basis and it is clear to see the need to visit those who are in prison with some Good News. With a keen understanding that many prisoners are eventually released back into society - even those who have committed violent crimes - prison ministers are zealous about reaching them for Christ before the devil has an opportunity to use their lives to kill, steal and destroy anymore.

"Without a moral and spiritual change of heart, released inmates will likely return to temptations, associations, and activities that stimulate criminal actions," says Chuck Colson, founder and chairman of Prison Fellowship, a prison outreach and criminal justice reform organization in Lansdowne, Va. An aide to President Richard Nixon, Colson served time in a federal prison on Watergate-related charges. His experience left him with a passion to target the root causes of crime with faith-based programs.

That's one thing prison ministers have in common: a passion to reach society's persona non grata with the Word of God. Let's face it. God is not always going to give you a prophetic word that brings a murderer to his knees. Getting through to lost souls behind steel bars requires a different approach than sharing God's plan with a wealthy real estate investor, a rebellious teen or an average American housewife. Reaching illicit risk takers demands persistence, transparency, and an understanding of the criminal mind, knowing that these convicts donning county blues crave peace of mind as much as literal freedom.

"People who have been in prison two or three times are the easiest to reach," says Richard Bland, co-founder of United Prison Ministries (UPM) in Verbana, Ala. UPM visits ministries with the Gospel and leaves them with spiritual materials. By providing them with spiritual food, he believes the Holy Spirit can change their hearts. His mission is to give them a choice.

"I tell them to try my God for 90 days. If they aren't happy, I tell them, they can take their misery back if they want to," Bland says. "When you give them the truth head on - what the Bible says - instead of preaching to them, they'll listen. They are risk takers. They have nothing to lose."

One of Bland�s tactics is to ask the question �Who committed the first sin?� Most people say Adam and Eve. So he takes them to 1 John 3:8, which shows them, �He who does what is sinful is of the devil because the devil has been sinning from the beginning.� That simple exercise breaks through the �I already know this stuff� mentality that keeps them in deception, Bland explains, and they begin to realize that much of what they thought they knew about Jesus isn�t true. From there He shares the Word of God and the plan for salvation. The Holy Spirit takes over and miracles of rebirth cause angels in heaven to rejoice.

�Prisoners don�t want someone to talk high and holy to them. They want pure honesty. When we provide them with that honesty they open up,� Medley affirms. �You have to mingle with the prisoners, listen to them when they share about their lives and truly minister to their needs � not just preach a sermon and get out of there. They�ve seen too much of that already. It�s not about doing a good work. It�s about changing lives.�

Grace, Truth, and Presence

   I was listening to an amazing round table event from The Cobblestone Project here in NW Arkansas for an event called Present in the City. http://www.cobblestoneproject.org/ (you can listen online) and they were speaking about Grace. The Lord actually stopped me in my tracks because He had spoken to me while journaling about a week ago on the subject of Grace. I want to share what He shared with me and then unpack it for a bit.

  

    “Before you are a man of significance you must be a man of Grace. Grace is imparting the presence of one who is holier than yourself………Be holy as I am holy. Be pure as I am pure. By Grace. “

How do I receive more Grace?

  

    “By honoring the grace you have already received”

   How do I impart Grace?

  

    “By helping them get free. I am able to be in their lives more the more places I am allowed. Freedom is a function of Grace.”

   Present in the City brought up an interesting topic of walking the line between Truth and Grace. It was mentioned that there is often a tension (created by man) between Truth and Grace. We can see this in conversations with people who are bound to some addiction. You want to tell them that they need to get off the stuff, but you also want to tell them that God loves them and is totally willing to forgive. That they should be holy, but that God loves them if they are holy or not. If you have ever had a conversation like this then you feel the tension.

  

    I believe when God gives us Grace what is happening is He is showing up. I think we only really know the Truth when He speaks. We need Grace to look like God. But we also need Truth to know the will of God for our life. The words that Jesus spoke were life, they were Truth, they were also full of Grace.

    

   I believe that what we call the Grace of God is often us simply being aware that our circumstances are pregnant with the presence of God.

   

    There is only One who is pure and holy, and what did He say to do? John 15:4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”

    

   If the Grace of God is what helps us to live out our daily Christian walk and bear fruit, then how do we receive Grace to accomplish that? To stay in the presence of Jesus.

    

   Truth can lead to Grace, but only if it is spoken with Grace. Truth spoken out of good intentions can be misinterpreted by the hearer and sound more like legalism than an invitation to let God accomplish Truth in their life.

  

    It is the goal of this ministry to introduce people to Jesus in a deeply intimate and personal level by allowing them to experience the Presence of God. If we can get them to hear Jesus then they will meet and know Grace and Truth in a loving relationship instead of viewing these ideas as theological sound bites.

    

   Grace and Truth happen not when a biblical concept is understood but instead when He shows up in your circumstance. When we see the perfect holiness of Jesus then we can recognize the counterfeit in our own lives. To be holy we must spend time with the Holy.

     Freedom is a function of Grace because freedom happens when God speaks to us about an area of our life He is not allowed in, we say yes, He shows up to remove the pain, and then sets up residence in our newly remodeled heart.

  

    Grace and Truth and Freedom happen when you set out the welcome mat. God always wants to hang out. :)

Integrity's God hole......

Proverbs 11:3
"The integrity of the upright will guide them, but the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them."

   Have you tried to define integrity? I have a placard I received as a gift that says “Integrity is what you do when no one else is watching.” Integrity, I think to most of us, means to do the right thing. I love Webster’s definition:

1: firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values: incorruptibility

2: an unimpaired condition: soundness

3: the quality or state of being complete or undivided: completeness

   While it is true that there is a “moral code” we can conduct ourselves by, this would, as Christians, make us no different than a self-help book club, Boy Scout troop, or other religion.

I think that for Christians, numbers 2 and 3 apply more. Let’s take these in context with our identity in Christ and Him abiding in us.

   An unimpaired condition or soundness. To be unimpaired means to be completely free to be as you were designed to be. A car is driving down the road and faces a speed bump. What happens? The car slows down. A car is driving down the road and faces a brick wall. What happens? A crash test dummy commercial. Which of these two cars were impaired? Both were. By definition each car was impaired because something was in its way and caused it to adjust what it was doing. This is key. In our lives, living with integrity is less about trying harder and more about giving up things that adjust our God given course.

   Trying harder won’t make us honest. If you are a new creation in Christ then you are honest. Period. The old man is dead. The problem comes when we do not live out our New Life honestly. When we allow something to adjust who we are and what we are doing, then we have stopped living with integrity. We have allowed something else to define who we are.

   The quality or state of being complete or undivided: completeness. I had a family member who once struggled with alcoholism, among other things in his life. Sitting on the couch with this very talented and gifted man who had thrown his life away, he said something to me that was so profound that I knew he hadn’t fully grasped it yet. “KC”, he said “We all have a God hole. There is just this huge hole inside of us that nothing else can fill. It’s like in kindergarten when the kids have to put the round peg into the round hole. Nothing else will fit in our God hole other than God. We try to fill it with other things and we are just incomplete.” It was, I believe, a confession of sorts about his own life.

   If a building is to maintain its integrity, then every bit of the design structure must be in place. Every pillar or brick or cement block. Whether it is a sky scraper or an outhouse, for a building to maintain its integrity it must be true to its original design. I believe that integrity, as far as you and I are concerned, is about maintaining our proper, God given design. Our God hole must be full. You cannot walk in integrity if you are not true to your original purpose, which is to love and be loved by God. Take out Christ who is the “Chief Cornerstone” and the whole thing just falls apart.

   

   As a leader, I must do everything I can to make sure that I live a life that is unimpaired by things that would distract from God and to stay true to my original design. A man or woman of integrity has X-ray vision. They can see their own heart, and what God has put in there, and they stay true to that image.