Fully Alive
When the stories get in the way, it’s time for new stories.
In the last few days there has been a lot of change. At home I am changing my place of employment and my main computer is getting fixed due to a cracked screen, that would be my fault. As a result I am typing on my old IPad, oh man this does it seems clunky to type this way.
In our local group we were spiritually attacked by witchcraft sometime back, there was loss and various elements of it are not yet fully restored. However, because of the attack other parts have become stronger as various “truths” work there way to the surface.
Meanwhile a lot of stuff in Charismatic Christianity has been getting tested, stretched and looked at very closely. One of the parts of all this revolves around false information that has been delivered to people as truth with the implication that it should not be questioned. What I am of course speaking of is IHOP’s prophetic history being proven as a lie.
This lie is exposing the harsh reality that not only has a major leader (Mike Bickel) in the Charismatic been deliberately inventing prophetic words, but leaders connected to him never called him on it. There is even some suggested evidence that other major leaders knew the prophetic words were false. This is disturbing as it implies the possibility that all the top level can not be trusted.
From the testimony of many interns and staff members at IHOP, the prophetic history was not only a required course, but if questioned you could become unemployed very quickly. This struck out to me because at one point on staff at MorningStar there was a season in early 2018 that MorningStar’s Prophetic History was required reading for all staff members as well. As disturbing as this pattern may be to the back mind, it brings up a bigger issue.
We Have A Sardis Problem.
“To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.
Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Revelation 3”1-6
One of the issues with Sardis was, it was running off of gas fumes so to speak. There was a time it was alive, vibrant with spiritual life, but now it only had a “reputation” for being alive. In effect, it was running off the old stories, old victories from the past. I hate to keep picking on my old employer as there was good parts to my experience from that time. But I often found it interesting how so many stories of the move of God… were in the past. In fact many that I have heard of were from the ministries first few years when it was meeting a bowling alley called Jubilee Junction.
If you keep tabs on what is currently happening in social media concerning ANYTHING connect to the IHOP nightmare, then you will understand that every major person, prophetic or not is getting tossed under the bus right now. This of course is not limited to IHOP, but soon more revelations concerning Bethel and Shawn Boltz will be coming. From all this, people are feeling betrayed and hurt, so in many ways I would say what we are now seeing is a natural reaction to what people are feeling.
I have heard many amazing stories concerning some of these names of the past, however as I look back on it all, and ponder these things two observations rise to the surface.
We are now trading these old stories as if they were the Gospel. Think about it, if you know any of the old stories do you not find yourself, at least internally trying to defend them as if they were of some worth of eternal treasure that must be protected at all cost? Beware of what you turn into an idol.
Some how, we seem to have transitioned as body. From a group of people seeking to live a biblical charismatic lifestyle to a group of people pretending to live a charismatic lifestyle through old testimonies. In effect, we are children in a sandbox, protected by the memories of the past. Or even worse, we are trying to protect ourselves with the illusion of someone’s else’s memories from the past.
We Need New Stories.
Look closely at this scripture. “These are the nations the Lord left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan (he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience)“ Judges 3:1-2.
Apparently the Lord sees a value to his people learning to fight, and he will leave things untouched so that a future generation gets to have the same experience. Based on Jesus reaction to sickness, disease and demonic activity in the New Testament, he viewed the works of the enemy as warfare.
The value of this in my mind makes sense when you consider what is written in Revelation “…blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony…” Rev 12:11 Jesus wants his family to have a good testimony. To have a testimony you have to be a witness of something, being a witness of the works of Jesus on Earth, in this day is a totally valid testimony.
Old stories, regardless of their validity can always be called into question and discounted by people. Especially if all the people in the story can no longer speak because they are dead. However, people have a far harder time rewriting living history that is still unfolding in a person’s life. Seeing Jesus change people hearts, bodies and souls through your willingness to follow him builds your faith in him, and provides a wall that the doubtful find hard to challenge.
For me this is a little difficult, as by nature I am a story teller. So collecting the cool God stories of people like John G. Lake, Smith Wigglesworth or even the more modern ones like Paul Cain or Bob Jones is natural for me. But so is the natural need to rest on them. And thats the problem, because we all like comfort. But here is a secret few are saying. To much comfort leads to complacency and complacency can lead to death.
This is where the Sardis problem filters in, our unwillingness to engage the spiritual issues of this day within you creates hesitation. Hesitation can lead to pattern building and these will form well worn ruts in you life that are hard to get out of. Sticking to edges of the camp while the Spirit of the Lord moves I believe builds a seed bed for doubt to grow in your life, protected by the walls of comfort and complacency.
Constantly allowing others to do the work of the Kingdom, only re-enforces the mental idea that you were not called to this and that somehow you are inferior. If you were called to Christ, if you were redeemed by his blood, then you are in the family and were called to be royal. So if you have believed the lie, are you then abdicating your spiritual royal duties?
The road back is simple, but it will challenge the fortress of your mind. “Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent.” Rev 3. This is a call to action, what Jesus is saying is that you all ready have what you need, you just need to remember. The ability to remember is special as it allows us to connect with the thoughts, emotions and wonder of a previous moment in time. Some people try to remember to recall the facts because of our modern technological mindset always sees facts as primary and emotions as useless. But facts do little to move the soul, try instead to remember the emotions and wonder.
Question, did you marry your spouse out of facts of emotion? Are your favorite foods favorite because of the knowledge that they are good for you or… you love the taste? Don’t let legalistic thinking blind you, God can use your emotions. Now that does not mean all emotions are holy and valid, but that just means we need to grow in the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.
For me I choose to ponder and remember the first moments of time that I saw the Holy Spirit move in power. Yes that was many decades ago but recalling them is re-strengthening them again. Taking those Holy moments and looking at them through the lens of my current scriptural understanding, I believe helps me to keep moving forward.