The Sons are FREE

For nearly 18 months I applied myself to various church jobs, hoping to spark something, anything, that resembled revival. But the harder I worked, the worse it became. Finally the Lord said to me: Get out of the way and let it fail.

It was while meditating on the saying “the ground is level at the foot of the cross” that the Lord prompted me to consider His perspective through a vision.

The mountain we were descending was desert like, covered with rock, cactus and stumps. Not a single tree remained on the mountain, while the valley below was lush and inviting with green forest and clear streams.

Since the day of Pentecost, God dwells, abides and lives in believers. That’s right. We are God’s house now. Sadly, most believers seem to prefer keeping God at a distance by consigning Him to a church building.

Imagine the kind of relational community described at the end of Acts 2 and Acts 4 where you live! What would it take from each of us to become a city, or region united in Christ?

And so of the tragedy that was Mom’s stroke, one doer of the Word emerged: my Dad. If not for the genuine love and help of the folks they knew from the restaurant, they’d have been completely isolated and on their own.

Is it worshiping in Truth when we turn away from where God does dwell, in us, to where God does not dwell, in a man made temple? If the answer is “no”, do we love Jesus enough to repent?

In the same way Jesus’ marked the transition from external to internal cleansing, so does He also mark the transition from location-based worship to worship that happens any and everywhere. It’s subtle, but I believe Jesus also declared the end of bodily physical worship as was practiced in the OT.

The Holy Spirit went to great lengths to teach me truth and to share that truth with others through my blog. By submitting to the leadership of a pastor and church who taught and practiced otherwise, I had put myself at odds with what the Holy Spirit had taught me ... and that disrupted my union with Christ.

There is NO “and” in the Gospel of Jesus, unless of course it is Jesus AND ONLY Jesus! As proof of the sufficiency of His Son, the Father has set before us a narrow path and gate which forces us to cast off our EVERY “and” to enter the Kingdom through Jesus alone.

Like most believers, I viewed “my church” with “rose colored” glasses, that is until God ambushed me with a single question, asked at 3 different times during the service.

How does cessationism square with the word of God in Romans 11:29 which says: For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable (ESV)?

One sweet sister who wanted to know about the gift of tongues asked me “If I speak in tongues while driving, will I need to pull my car over to the side of the road?”

Three times the Lord said “Open wide your mouth and I will fill it” (Psalm 81:10) and each time I responded with fear. When I opened my mouth to give voice to my ignorance for the 3rd time, the Holy Spirit washed over and through me ... and I began speaking in a new language I’d never heard before.

Recently I found myself doing a ballpark cost analysis of a mainline denomination church whose stated purpose is to deliver the message of the Gospel. No wonder Peter left fishing for the ministry.

There is nothing that devalues Christ’s continuing work on earth more than to silence the “Epistles of Christ” and their testimony of Him. There is overcoming power in our testimony. But we use it not.

About the time a person starts to think they’ve got it all figured out, the Lord will send along a lesson to reset your perspective. For us it was a funny lesson about the power of personality. And the loathsome task of bedpan duty.

The difference between the teachings of the Holy Spirit and men, is the difference between truth and falsehood. Not that everything men teach is false, rather, men teach from their understanding which potentially introduces yeast. The Holy Spirit teaches our spirit which is free from yeast.

Why is it so difficult to flow freely with the Holy Spirit during a gathering of believers?

Have we as a body of believers created an environment of love in which we are loath to sin against one another, and an environment of grace where once we have sinned, we are assured of forgiveness when we seek it?

Asked “Who do people say that I am?”, there was no risk for the disciples to answer Jesus’ question; they simply repeated what they’d heard. Not once did Jesus say “BZZT! Wrong!” Even when some of the answers were preposterous.

As I prayed for a man with an obvious physical issue, the Holy Spirit impressed me that I was relying on human sight to pray and prompted me to consider how my praying might change if I could see a person’s spiritual needs and pray for those instead.

When we’d returned home, the Spirit brought Psalm 23 to mind: “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.” Indeed, the Lord prepared a table for us, in the presence of our enemy: fear; specifically the fear of rain. Such a piddling enemy to worry about.

It was nearly 2 years before we understood enough of what the Lord had shown us to hear and obey His call to leave man’s Laodicean church and to join Him outside the camp where He was waiting for us (Hebrews 13:13).

I was born with a heart defect. No, not a physical defect, but a wound to my very being that somehow prevented me from receiving love. Face to face with the crucified Christ, He healed my heart with 2 words: for you.