Deliver Me

Plus, there is a little comment at the end.

In my Last Post

In my last post, I said, “To cohabitate with the Lord requires truth, the truth of who Jesus is as well (and this is a big one), the truth of who you are. Some of these things about you can only be discovered as you interact in the large fellowship of believers. It is at that point we have the opportunity to adapt and change more into the image Jesus sees of us. I know what I just said may have flowed over some people's heads.”

Deliver Me

It’s a risky thing to say to the Lord, deliver me from me. That very statement is the acknowledgment that you are your own problem, and just like a homeless beggar, we know we need help beyond ourselves.

The requirements for our journey become a little uncomfortable as we become aware that all the stuff we thought was so important in our lives is most likely the very stuff that we must now leave behind. The “Stuff of Earth,” as the late Rich Mullins once put it in a song, becomes entangled in pride, self-centeredness, and the need to impress others, along with the need to justify all these things around us. This is part of what we inherited from our original parents when they ate from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The taste of such a dark inheritance will always linger around us until we are freed forever of this body to be with the Father in Eternity.

So, as a result, from time to time, we must wash this old body odor off with the Blood of Christ in order to not be distracted by it as we continue our journey to a better life in him.

With the stinky smell of sin from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil tamed down for the moment, we can step forward into the unknown. We can smell the rain in the distance and hear the joy of the water as we start to realize that we, logically, should not be able to hear or see these things. But still, something within us tells us it’s true, “Is there really a rest waiting for us?” (Hebrews 4)

That stinky smell of sin is the rational thinking of humanism that justifies your stuff and gives you a ‘pardon’ away from the holiness of God. We inherited it from Adam because the tree of the knowledge of good and evil will always cause us to look at ourselves first and not the God who made us. And that is the very stuff we wrestle with to surrender to the Lord so that we can find the peace He promises us. “Therefore there remains over a rest for the people of God...” Hebrews 4:9.

I am of the personal opinion that the human stench of fallen man invades the spiritual realm like a bad onion someone forgot in the pantry. Everything Angelic or demonic out there is watching and if you are declaring how “powerful” you are to the spiritual realms like is so popular in some Charismatic circles these days. Well… all you're really doing is giving them a good laugh. Because your stench, just makes the demons feel at home.

Washing away the stuff of Earth from your soul with the Blood of Christ and learning to live in the Lord’s presence makes the spiritual realm change. You see, it’s not enough that God does not tolerate sin in his presence. He needs to get us to a place where we can not tolerate it either. Very few are willing to take this journey for many reasons, mostly for social reasons.

They fear how they will be perceived by the people, family, and co-workers. But this is just another hurdle to jump over, the fear of man. In some ways, you could even say this is the first test, the first step along the journey. Most likely, you will not make the first step perfectly, but that's alright, what matters is that you made the step.

If you understand that according to Hebrews 12:2, Jesus is the author and prefector of your faith. You then need to take a rest in the fact that he has a plan, and to do that requires you not to be faithless at this moment. The failure to engage in that one thing is huge because faith is a door that all things will come through. So if you don’t open it, nothing will happen.

As an example, do you realize that the devil's plan with Eve was to get her into a position of being faithless first? Once she no longer believed the Lord's truth about the fruit on the tree, the devil's work was done, and everything flowed like a river after that moment.

So the opposite is true with us, once we open the door, all things are possible, and we can start the process towards co-working with the Holy Spirit in our life.

The reality is you DO NOT have what you need to live a Holy life to do this, you never did. Because if you did, then you would never have needed the Blood of Jesus. The goal of the Holy Spirit is to bring you into a Holy Life. Something you can not do by yourself. As a result, this process is not quick as we learn to work together.

This Old House

Let me put it this way. You are an old house slated to be demolished; you are windy, broken, and a bit creeky. The glass in the window is in shards on the rotten floor, and the rain has found many ways to get in.

You can not handle the full strength of God right now. This does not bother the Holy Spirit as he looks at your paper-thin walls. So he paints a picture of Jesus on the walls, a thin bit of truth like a seed, a promise to say, “This one is mine.”

In time, the wall gets a little stronger, and more truth is painted, each a unique view of the Messiah designed for your walls. Slowly, new life starts to emerge; yes, it is in competition with the old, but it gives you a place to plant your foot. A place where you start to get a glimpse of what the Holy Spirit is building, and now you want to join in. Welcome to the first steps of learning to co-create with God, and your house is where you will learn.

Unfortunately, if you have ever lived in a place that you are remodeling at the same time, then you might get a hint at how uncomfortable this time will be. You will see aspects of your own life, up close and personal, that you will not like. But reconstruction must have a good foundation to build on, and the Holy Spirit is good at building foundations.

News update concerning Morningstar

This update is more of an observation than news, but still something worth taking note of. Before things at Morningstar went very public, the IHOPKC mess, or as I like to call it, The Bickel Pickel, was already very advanced and several months down the road. In many ways, you can watch what is happening in Kansas City as a pre-shadow for what will happen in Fort Mill, SC.

Seventeen victims have come forward, and some of them, like Tammy Woods, are now testifying before the Missouri Capitol. The pressure is mounting, and people are gathering together like a tsunami that will soon roll over Mike Bickel.

In Morningstar's case, however, I suspect things will roll out differently. Uncomfortable questions are going to be asked of leaders who are still connected or employed. “What did you know, when did you know it, and why did you not do anything?”

Before I left Morningstar, the Lord made it CLEAR. I could not stay silent when he asked me, “What is the legal definition of the word complicit?” Too many leaders have put their heads in the sand, choosing to say nothing. Do you leaders realize that your silence is a sign of being Complicit in a court of Law? So… to the leaders that are reading this, you know what you should do: pull your big boy pants up and do the right thing, Jesus is watching.