One Thing

And the Pure in Heart will see God

  I know that “… a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough” 1 Corinthians 5:6 and from a spiritual perspective unfortunately when contamination is evident, quite often the whole loaf must be tossed out. One of the side effects of people like myself who went through a system like MorningStar is that in the struggle and eventual separation, your emotions get entangled and you toss out not only the loaf, but the kitchen, baker, and the tools used.

  I’ve had a few years, and a dream or two from the Lord helping me to see things more clearly. So I now realize not everything needs to hit the trash can. This will be the same internal battle facing many from IHOP, Gateway, etc., and other people who have left the various corporate systems. As we heal, we must realize that not everything is black and white, some things we experience in time need to be reclaimed and put back into order.

  One of the things will be the very vocabulary used, case in point Mike Bickle often referred to the Christian Community's love for Jesus as “the one thing.” He did this so much that he had many conferences that carried the title, “The One Thing Conference.”

  Unfortunately, there is a long history in the Body of Christ abandoning various terms and symbology due to corruption or misuse. These items then get snatched up by the occult world and we take a step back. The reality is we (historically) have taken a lot of steps backward. So should we not take hold of some of the terminology used by these pretender ministries before the cults snatch it up?

  IHOP often interpreted our love for Jesus through the lens of prayer. Although prayer is good, it is only one aspect of living a life consecrated to God. The reality is narrow definitions are often the outcome of movements and denominations built around singular giftings. If you have ever been around the hyper “evangelism crowd” you what I mean. Everyone within such a group has achieved (or is pretending to) such a narrow focus on this one gifting that any outsider is viewed with contempt if they do not carry the same focus and zeal.

  In effect, such groups become the very definition of a spiritual homosexual as they only interact and have connections with people like themselves. In such places, they pattern Jesus after themselves and not themselves like the God who made them.

  But what are some of the things that affect our love of Him?

Battle Zones

Coldness

  “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold” Matthew 24:12. Pondering this, as I look around I realize that the coldness could be the result of “Hope deferred.” What I mean is that we in the modern world have all been raised on a diet of “God is in control.” But what do you see when you look at the world around you? Does not the chaos of the world just niggle away at the evidence your eyes are searching for?

  And having not found anything good and pleasing in the world, does that irritation not grind away at your hope… a hope and desire for something better? This is where the inferior, lukewarm teachings of years past entwine themselves around the Hope that is struggling to survive in your garden.  Coldness happens when the plant dies and the fire goes out.

  “And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” Romans 5:5 The inferior teaches us to look at the world around us and judge by the standards of the world. Jesus who is our “One Thing,” says, “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.” Matthew 19:29

  Sometimes, we just need to look beyond what the world wants to show us and learn to see from his perspective, even if it offends ours.

  Worry

Carolyn Arends ~ Seize the Day

  “I know a man who's been doing some thinking.

He's as bitter and cold as the whiskey he's drinking.

He's talking 'bout fear, about chances not taken.

If you listen to him you can hear his heart breaking.”

{click on the image above to listen}

  Worry is a destroyer of the future and it is closely connected to coldness as it often has the same effect on us. It disconnects you from the One Thing and cancels out Hope. “Anxiety in a man's heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.” Proverbs 12:25.

    This is because worry often plays out in a repetitive, negative cycle of thoughts, images, and emotions that we can not solve. Like tangled vines around our feet, it inhibits our spiritual walk and captures our mind away from what Jesus, our One Thing has intended. Locked in this cycle we are convinced we can ‘see’ no way out other than what demonic voices are whispering to us.

  With worry in place, our self-centered gaze moves us farther and farther away into a deep pit. Here is a simple reality we should pay attention to, anything we create, we are the authors of and Jesus is under no obligation to change because he is not the author of what we created.

  He will only change things when we invite him. This is why we must learn to continually cultivate our relationship with him. We need Jesus to rescue us from our own mind games.

  Stuff of Earth

  “But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?” 1 John 3:17. This is most likely one of the bigger issues within modern Charismatic movements for a couple of reasons.

  First of all, the things of the earth do add pleasure, but all these things also add distraction. They are time traps to keep you away from your calling. Don’t get me wrong, I see the nice things just like you and have spent far too much time in my head justifying things like boats and other things. But what good is all that in the end?

  The second problem, as related to the Charismatic that I have seen is in the ministries themselves. For example, leadership likes to push flashy things before the congregation. This has quietly encouraged people to walk and act like what they are seeing. The flip side of this is people become more motivated to chase after the flashy. In doing so we ignore the people on the side of the road who need the help.

  Do you need an example? Years ago at MorningStar when my wife ran the kitchen we were ordered by the vice president not to send food to ministries who fed the street people. Nor were we allowed to help the people with our own fellowship with food who needed it. Yes, this meant we had people, living in the ministry building who were not eating.

  The reason was it affected the bottom line $$ and it “did not look good,” that a major Charismatic ministry had members in dire straits. We often chose to quietly break those rules and a lot of food went out the back door to starving people. And yes, some of those were people living in our own building. The good news is that the Vice president eventually got fired.

  Because of that, and other actions on the VP's part, I would argue that he matched 1 Timothy 5:8, “Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” Our VP chased after the flashy and the big names with a passion. So much so that I often disagreed with his teaching as it all felt very self-centered.

A good rule is that the stuff of earth are your tools. Not your source of enjoyment.

  We who live on this Earth.

  When Jesus walked the earth, he took the simple things of this world and made them Holy. There was nothing in those things that could possibly make them holy. But they were Holy because he was there, with his people, his family. This is what it means when it is said, “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” 1 Corinthians 1:27

  He took a simple meal and told them whenever you gather remember me. When the religious leaders were shaking incense at demons with a small fortune in herbs and other things. Jesus just said go, and then he turned around and told the lowest of society, that all you need to do is speak to them in My Name.

  When the Pharisees used pomp and ceremony to impress the people, Jesus used compassion and tears. I think we fail to comprehend the things that really move Jesus's heart. Do you really want to impress the heart of Jesus and prove that he is your one thing? Then perhaps through Him, we should become the one thing to the world. (Matthew 5:14)

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” Matthew 5:8