The Revolution Brigade

They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. “Peace, peace,” they say, when there is no peace. (Jeremiah 8:11)

Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. (2 TImothy 4:2-4)

Would someone please challenge my apathy from the pulpit?

“But, you seem like a model disciple!?”

Why?  Because I have a blog about Jesus?  Because I’ve mastered the lingo and syntax of the prayer movement?  Because I lead worship or teach from the scripture?   Please.  Depending upon which hour of the day you run across me I may be apathetic, carnal, spirit-filled, full of faith, or throwing a pity party.  It doesn’t necessarily make me a bad person, you do the same thing.  Whether or not you admit it is your business.  I’m moving from glory to glory, just like everybody else.  The problem is, between glory and glory there is sometimes some inglorious stuff.  It’s just life.

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¹¹“Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.

 ¹²“Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:11-12)

I was meditating on this scripture today and the thought occurred to me that if I were to preach the pure, unadulterated Word of God the way that Jesus preached it, many people would not like me.  Jesus uttered these words out of a foreknowledge of what his disciples would go through.  Many would be crucified, beheaded, burned, tortured, murdered and exhiled for preaching the pure Word of God and the good news of the resurrection of Christ.  Do we really think so much has changed in the past centuries?

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Every once in a while I’ll do a post that is just a few links to people that I read regularly or that are part of my faith tribe.  This is a tribute to a few interesting blogs from people that I know.  You should check them out if you get a chance:

Lloyd Phillips –Lloyd is an apostolic and prophetic voice that is a good friend of my faith family.  We are definately memebers of the same “tribe,” and I defer to him as a mentor, although we really haven’t spent that much time together.  His blog covers spiritual and political matters and is updated about once per month. 

The Paraclete’s Hammer –David McNelly is a brother from another mother, so to speak.  We go back like Converse high tops, having attended the same school and grown up in the same small town.  David is a theological genius of staggering proportions, waiting to be discovered by the world at large.  Friend him now before he blows up and gets international.  Also, if you don’t know what a Paraclete is, I suggest a word study.

Brad Hayes –I can’t say that I’m really close friends with Brad Hayes, but we associate with one another via facebook and IHOP Jax.  I like the spirit on this guy, and I highly recommend following his blogging efforts. 

That’s it.  Just a quick post to recommend a few friends.

This is not the most unpopular teaching in history, this is just a tribute (sorry, I was listening to Rick Pino’s new CD, and thought how much he sounded like Jack Black, and that line just sort of happened.  Forgive me.)

I titled this post “The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing” because these thoughts first occured to me while reading A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, in the middle of a chapter called “The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing.”  I began to ponder what it might mean to actually possess nothing, and whether that is something that God would truly call me to do.

What things do I allow to sit upon the throne of my heart, usurping the rightful place of a Holy God?

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I keep hearing Christians, particularly from my generation, quoting the concept of separation of church and state as a reason for not being politically involved as a believer. The context usually goes something like this: “The separation of church and state says we shouldn’t bring religion and politics together,” or “religion and politics don’t mix, and that’s why the constitution separates church from state.” I just thought I might take a minute and make commentary on that notion.

The language in the US Constitution from the First Ammendment that separates church and state is as follows: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

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Everywhere you turn these days you hear talk of the Spirit of Elijah coming back into the body of Christ.  I think it’s a positive dialog about an affirmative promise in the scripture that can be found in Malachi 4:5-6

“See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.”

I began to meditate upon Elijah and the miracles that he did.  Some of them were quite cool.  That bit about calling down fire from heaven was awesome beyond measure.  He also raised the boy from the dead.  He also multiplied the flower and oil for the widow in Zarephath.  And yet the scripture from Malachi makes mention of none of these significant demonstrations of power when speaking of the Spirit of Elijah that will be infused into the end-times church.  Instead it talks about……fatherhood?

I believe that, from the perspective of the Lord, the most significant miracle that Elijah ever did was raise up a spiritual son with a double-portion anointing. 

Legacy is not a vain pursuit.  We should endeavor to empower our spiritual children to embrace the fullness of the revelation and power that we possess at an early enough age so that they can ultimately surpass what we have done and attain new plunder in the kingdom.  I believe that the “curse” mentioned in the verse is of the Midianite variety:  where would-be spiritual fathers are forced to lie on their death beds and watch an invader take their spiritual harvest from them because they lacked covenant sons to possess the promise. 

It seems as if we’ve almost never had two consecutive generations that, as a whole, have advanced beyond the spiritual authority of their fathers.  I believe we will soon see, and may already be seeing, a generation that will do just that.  I for one am excited about the prospects.

I’ve already put forth my opinion about the personality cult phenomenon going on in the church on several occassions.  I’ve even prophesied what I believe to be a word related to the ushering in of a time of unprecedented team ministry.  Now, I’d like to talk briefly about one of the unexpected benefits of working in ministry teams: what I call “the grace transfer.”

Simply put, when I am around prophetic people, I find that grace to prophesy “rubbing off” on me, and I become more functional in prophetic ministry.  When I spend a great deal of time with extremely pastoral people, all love and sobbing passion, I become more sensitive to the needs of others and in-tune with how Christ regards his people in need.  Am I just that impressionable?  I doubt it.

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This is a teaching that I did on Wednesday night at Grace Community Fellowship several weeks ago.  It examines the origin of the authority of the believer, as well as ways that we can increase our individual authority in Christ.  Check it out