The Revolution Brigade

I’ve just been meditating on the words of Jesus from Mark 6:4:

Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household.”

I’m not ready to go out on a limb and label myself a prophet.  I think I am prophetic.  I think the Lord gives me prophetic revelation.  I think the prophetic grace is one of the primary ministry gifts on my life.  I think I have more dreams, visions, unctions, and “seemed good” experiences (Acts 15:28) than most folks.  But, despite these things, it clearly can’t be said that I occupy the “office” of prophet at this time.

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Sorry about the title, I couldn’t help myself.  Now, down to business:

And they had forgotten to take bread, and did not have more than one loaf in the boat with them.

And He was giving orders to them, saying, “Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” (Mark 8:14-15)

He spoke another parable to them, “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened.” (Matthew 13:33)

The bible mentions three specific types of leavens:

• The Leaven of Herod
• The Leaven of the Pharisees
• The Leaven of the Kingdom

Leaven, in the natural sense, is a permeating agent that causes transformation.  In the case of bread, when introduced in small amounts, it causes a batch of dough many times the size of the amount of leaven to rise.  For the purposes of the parables that Jesus taught, leaven is an outside influence on thought patterns that affects our world view and how we think.

Jesus was attempting to communicate the danger of allowing outside influences, even in small amounts, to affect our thought patterns because the result would be an infection of our entire lives.  Just as leaven mixed with dough causes the dough to rise, ungodly thoughts in small measure affect our lives.  Jesus specifically warned us about two trains of ungodly thought:

The Leaven of Herod: The leaven of Herod is an athiestic thought life.  When I say athiest, you think of somebody who doesn’t know or believe in God.  For our purposes, functional athiesm is just as bad.  What do I mean by “functional athiesm?”

Functional athiesm is a condition that befalls followers of Christ in which we live our lives as though God does not exist.  If there is a problem, we try to fix it separate from the power of God in our lives.  It is the logic that says, “God helps those who help themselves.”  When you’re on the boat with no bread, the functional athiest says, “You don’t have any bread because you forgot to bring bread.  Next time bring bread.”  Nevermind the fact that the creator of all heaven and Earth is on the boat with you, and has proclaimed that you are going to the other side.  Nevermind the fact that you have already seen Him multiply loaves and fishes to feed multitudes.  Functional athiesm.  It’s an ugly business that is more prevalent than we might think.

The Leaven of the Pharisees: The leaven of the pharisees is a religious mentality.  It has God in form but without power.  Phariseeism offers explanations but not solutions.  When a pharisee is on the boat with no bread, he says things like, “God, in His sovereignty, has arranged for you to have no bread so you can better identify with others who have no bread in this hour.”

A religious spirit is one in which principle trumps presence.  We tend to want to reduce the persuit of God to a formula that always produces the intended result.  The bible is full of godly principles that mean nothing apart from the person of Jesus.  The new covenant was never about religious practice, but rather about a restoration of the relationship between God and His creation that was damaged in the garden.

The reference to the leaven of the kindom is obvious.  A “kingdom” is the “dominion of the king.”  If we allow Jesus to reign supreme in our hearts, even in small measure, the effect will be a rising of our entire life.

I strongly recommend the teaching entitled Three Leavens of the Mind by Pastor Bill Johnson of Bethel Church in Redding, CA as an expanded resource to further clarify the writings here.  Most of this is influenced heavily by his material, and he is a world class teacher who explains it better than me.

The book of Nehemiah is a prophetic picture of the building of the church in these last days.  Nehemiah, whose name means ‘comforter,’ is a typeology of the Holy Spirit and His work in the church.  In the book, the people of Judah were released from captivity in Babylon and permitted to return to the promised land (prophetic metaphor for our salvation) and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem (prophetic metaphor for the church).

Sanballat, Gesham, and Tobiah represent the enemy of our soul, the world, the unbelievers, and Satan, etc.  These folks obviously have a profound interest in preventing the work of the Lord being done in the church (the building of the wall).  I’m going to handle this scenario with kid gloves over two or three posts to attempt to extract as much meaning as I can.

1Now it came about that when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became furious and very angry and mocked the Jews.

²He spoke in the presence of his brothers and the wealthy men of Samaria and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Are they going to restore it for themselves? Can they offer sacrifices? Can they finish in a day? Can they revive the stones from the dusty rubble even the burned ones?”

³Now Tobiah the Ammonite was near him and he said, “Even what they are building–if a fox should jump on it, he would break their stone wall down!”  (Nehemiah 4:1-3)

I wanted to point out six enemy strategies employed to undermine the work of the Lord in building the church.  Since it would be too long for the web 2.0 folks if I tried to do all six in one post, I’ll break it into two posts.  Here goes:

Strategy #1:  Attack the identity of the church. Sanballat’s first response to the work of the Lord was to issue the statement, “What are these feeble Jews doing?”  The statement is designed to attack the identity of the believer by questioning who he is in God, and who God is in him.  His assessment that the Jews were ‘feeble’ is a negative prophetic declaration that their God is powerless to work through them.  How many times have you heard this attack in your personal walk with the Lord?

Strategy #2:  Question the people’s motives. “Are they going to restore it for themselves,” asked Sanballat.  The enemy will always question our motives when we get into the center of God’s will for our lives in an attempt to envoke false humility, fear, or pause.  The building of the wall most certainly would benefit the children of Israel, but this was not their primary reason for building it.  They were doing the work of God.  Have you ever noticed that every time you fast, you’ll have the thought that ‘you’re just doing this so men will think you’re holy.’  Oldest trick in the book.  Don’t fall for it.

Strategy #3: Question their relationship with God. “Can they offer sacrifices?”  It’s a shallow stab at the relationship of the people of Judah to their God.  If the enemy can get us to focus on our religious practices, or lack thereof, he stands a reasonable chance of getting us to stop building the wall.  It’s not about us anyway.  God has commissioned us for this work, and he knew us before the foundations of the Earth.  He is not impressed with our holiness, and not discouraged by our lack of holiness.  He accepts us as we are and challenges us to go higher in His love without condemnation.

Tune in next time for the next three enemy strategies to undermine the work of the Lord.

Righteousness is the most central issue of our day.  If you haven’t already noticed, most of the problems that our nation faces today are as a result of moral bankruptcy in the land.  The economy, the state of the church, and the political turmoil in the nation are all related to spiritual compromise.

In Nehemiah chapter 13, we see a dialogue about mixed marriages between the people of Judah (people of praise) and and the people of Ashdod (a Philistine city), Ammon, and Moab (all enemies of Judah).  Nehemiah, whose name means “comforter,” and who is a prophetic picture of the work of the Holy Spirit in the modern church, begins to address the situation:

²³In those days I also saw that the Jews had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab. ²⁴As for their children, half spoke in the language of Ashdod, and none of them was able to speak the language of Judah, but the language of his own people.

The result of an unsanctioned union between the church and the world will always be offspring who cannot speak the language of the Lord.  We wonder why our young people are so far gone, so morally bankrupt, so apathetic and disinterested, yet we fail to consider that they are the offspring of generations of compromise between the church and the world.

The church at large continues to sacrifice at the alter of Baal (the god of prosperity) even in this hour, when the world financial systems have been shaken.  Have we not yet considered that the failing financials of our nation have everything to do with a lack of purity and separation between the church and the world?  Are we not selling our children into slavery for the purpose of getting grain (See Nehemiah chapter 5)?

²⁵So I contended with them and cursed them and struck some of them and pulled out their hair, and made them swear by God, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor take of their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.

We must bear in mind that the Holy Spirit will do violence in order to cause us to separate ourselves from the world.  He will not allow us to prostitute our geneology and remain untouched.  We are to be pure and holy before the Lord, and the Holy Spirit will jealously protect us from defiling ourselves by any means necessary, even if He must shake everything that can be shaken.

It’s not judgement!  It’s the principle of seed time and harvest. You can’t sew immorality, nominal committment, and moral compromise and reap prosperity, wholeness, signs, and wonders.  It simply doesn’t work that way.  We must learn to be ‘in’ the world without being ‘of’ it.

Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. (2 Corinthians 6:17)

We must be spiritually developed enough to discern the great harm that is done when the church becomes ‘married’ to the world.  We must repent and fall upon the mercy of the Lord.  This is the only course of action that will result in a restored nation. You might not be part of the cause, but you must be part of the solution! Perhaps this is why 2 Chronicles 7:14 ties the healing of the land with the willingness of the people to be broken and humbled before the Lord:

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)

Carnal warfare is a dangerous proposition.  Casualties can be expected, but must be balanced with the burden of accomplishing tactical and strategic objectives.  In short, people are valuable but everybody is expendable.

This is one scenario in which spiritual warfare differs greatly from carnal warfare.  Just as the nature of our victory in Christ is absolute, the nature of our protection in Christ from the dangers of warfare is also absolute.  Not one Christian needs to ever experience defeat or suffer a wound in the prosecution of the warfare to which we are called.  In the natural, armies consolidate their resources into “forts” or “bases” where they can be protected en masse. In spiritual warfare, the phenomenon is known as “rest.”

9) So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

10) For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.

11) Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.

12) For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  (Hebrews 4: 9-12)

Think of the place of rest outlined in the scripture above as a fort.  We’ll call it “Fort Rest.”  It’s surrounded by huge walls that are made of the word of God.  The enemy, despite his best efforts, can’t get past these walls to attack you.  So long as you remain within the walls of Fort Rest, you have absolutely no chance of being harmed, defeated, or psychologically effected by battle.

The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him,
And rescues them. (Psalm 34:7)

In an earlier post, I briefly discussed that spiritual warfare was a cleverly crafted deception that the enemy has been force feeding the church for centuries.  I said that there is no force-on-force combat routinely taking place as if the battle had not yet been decided, but that the enemy is attempting to subvert the church into open agreement with his wiles in order to attain a portion of the power delegated to the church by God.   If that’s true, then why do we constantly see “casualties” of war in our congregations: those who are frustrated to the point of leaving the church, those who are sick and broken-hearted, and those who are defeated to the point of depression?

The answer is that the enemy, unable to reach the saints who dwell in Fort Rest, focuses his attacks on those caught “outside the wire.”  The enemy actually lies in wait outside of Fort Rest and springs his trap upon the first unsuspecting soldier to wander outside of the safety of the Fort.

When a soldier proceeds out of the safety of the Fort without specific orders from the commanding general to do so, he leaves behind his provision, his access to timely intelligence, his ability to communicate, his reinforcements, and his comrades. Similarly, when a Christian chooses to engage the enemy outside of the place of rest, he chooses to fight behind enemy lines.  The Christian enters into “striving” outside of his divine provision in an attempt to “advance” upon the enemy, and actually opens himself up to attack and potential defeat.

Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8)

This scripture effectively illustrates the point that I’m trying to make.  The enemy “prowls around” the outside of the walls of Fort Rest seeking someone to devour.  Who can he devour except those who venture outside of the safety of the fort?  Here’s the same scripture in the King James Version:

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

I quite like this translation of the verse because it emphasizes the permissive nature of the enemies search:   “seeking whom he may devour.”  In this case, the victory of the enemy requires the permission of the prey.  How can we agree with being devoured?  By simply agreeing to venture alone outside of the place of rest we inadvertently empower the enemy to devour us.

This is a good place to talk about a phenomenon which I feel is as dangerous as any currently faced by the Church in this age.  We have, among our ranks, certain preachers and teachers who don’t possess a level of knowledge on the topic of spiritual warfare equal to their zeal for the Kingdom.  These well-meaning generals often encourage the rabid, emotional lines of thought on the topic that promote “taking the fight to the enemy.”  With lines such as the ones in the famous song, “I went to the enemy’s camp and I took back what he stole from me,” we form a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of spiritual conflict that causes our brothers and sisters to make themselves vulnerable to the wiles of the devil.

Simply stated, we have no reason to go to the enemy’s camp to retrieve what has been “stolen” from us.  The restoration of the saints is a redemptive work of the cross, and not some crusade for the saints to embark upon consequent to their salvation.  The truth of the matter is that preaching of this nature encourages believers to charge forward of their provision, to leave their place of rest, and subsequently to venture outside of the provision of the absolute protection of the Lord.

There is a time and a place for offensive operations in our spiritual conflict, but it is important to note that these operations will always be coordinated en masse by the commander in chief.   Those who are to participate will be given specific orders for their mission, and will be provided with the intelligence support (prophetic), provisions (equipping), and reinforcements (the angelic host, etc) required to accomplish the mission.  There is a big difference between wandering outside of Fort Rest on a whim and being ordered to advance by the commander and chief (King Jesus).

One of the primary objectives of the enemy is to, through the use of propaganda and “siege weapons,” lure the saints from their place of rest.

“Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” (Ephesians 6:16)

Throughout the warfare of antiquity, fire has always been employed as a siege-breaking technology.  The idea is to provoke an army to leave a fortified structure and cause them to be vulnerable to counterattack.  It works primarily on a psychological level, since fire does very little to damage stone walls.  The idea is to use archers, shoot flaming arrows over the walls, and cause the wooden structures within the fortification to catch fire.  Fire makes people panic, and panic causes them to come out from the protection of their fort.

Likewise, the fiery darts of the enemy are designed to move us from our place of rest.  The fire has no effect whatsoever on the stone walls which protect us (God’s word), but may have an extremely profound psychological effect upon those who are exposed to it.  We must avoid, at all cost, the temptation to run from the protection of the walls of our rest.< >< ><–>

⁵ “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. ⁶ 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.” (Malachi 4:5-6)

Much has been written about the spirit of Elijah and the raising of a generation of prophetic warriors in the last days.  We have been faithful to prophesy to the bones about their destiny, and they are beginning to rise throughout the land.

What the prophetic army needs now more than ever is the Godly wisdom of spiritual fathers.  Zeal is a wonderful thing, but needs to be balanced with wisdom in order to attain the desired result.  Youth is an advantage that should be pressed on the battlefield, but it must be done under the watchful guidance of the fathers of the faith.

There exists a wide canyon between the youth of this generation and the elders of the church.  By comparison, there is such a cultural difference that our young people might as well be from a foreign culture.  For all intents and purposes, the youth of our nation communicate differently, dress differently, and relate differently than their spiritual elders.  They are a unique tribe just as surely as if they lived in Kenya and spoke Swahili.

It will most likely require extra work for the elders of the church to learn to relate to these young people, but it is a vital neccessity to the work of the kingdom.  Our seasoned men and women of the faith must learn to communicate via text message, blog, and twitter.  They must learn to speak the dialect of the youth of the nation.  They must learn to speak knowledge and wisdom into a generation while allowing their cultural expression of praise to continue to develop.

Likewise, the youth of the Elijah generation must learn to seek counsel from their spiritual elders.  Much has been learned, discerned, and revealed through the years of battle experience in the pews of the local church, and young people must learn to engage spiritual fathers and become spiritual sons.

Rebellion will not get us where we need to go.  We must have spiritual fathers.  Outcasting a weird and eccentric generation because they refuse to conform to your expression of worship will not have the desired effect either.  We must have spiritual sons.

One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple. (Psalm 27:4)

The one thing that David desired more than anything else can be summed up in a simple sentiment: “I want relationship with the Lord more than anything.” It’s such a powerful thought that, when we read it, we are forced to compare our own personal motivations and desires with the simplicity of David’s heart for God.

The goal of what we do is not revival, promotion, signs, or wonders.  The goal is to become closer to the Lord.  The revolutionary mindset is one that says, “Religion is not working, so we choose relationship with God.”  We believe that by coming closer to Him, we will become transformed into his likeness over the course of our lives. 

The reward for having lived a life of “one thing” is also not revival, promotion, signs, or wonders.  The reward is having received more of Him and having the opportunity to be transformed into His likeness. The Lord will not love us more when we become better.  He will not love us less if we have no desire to become better.  He loves us 100% right now, and He never changes. 

When we become people of “one thing,” we find that we have certain God-given proclivities to do certain things.  These are not selfish ambitions, they are outgrowths of the love relationship between us and Jesus. I never wanted to plant a church until I became a man of “one thing.”  Is it my ambition, or has my spirit become pregnant with the seed of promise in the Holy Spirit?

What must I do to become “qualified” to live my destiny?  Is there an appropriate waiting period?  Do I have to attend bible college, or is there a certain seminar that I need under my belt before I’m ready?  Is there any program that can prepare a person for ministry more than devoting himself to being a man of “one thing?”

I’ve been having a series of conversations with people that go a little something like this:

“So, you’re really on fire for the Lord right now,”  says a friend.

“Yeah, God is really answering my prayer for more boldness and zeal for His cause,” I reply.

“Just make sure you don’t go too far with that, ok?” says the friend.

“Too far?”

“Yeah, you know how people get all ‘holier-than-thou’ with their message, and that’s really not love.  We should be less confrontational and just love people into the kingdom.”

Right.  Several concerns jump out at me when I hear talk like this.  I’ll try to contain myself enough to foster a reasonably edifying conversation on the topic.

1) There is no such thing as too much zeal for the Lord.  There is no possible way to go “too far” with being commited to the cause of Christ. Try it, and you will soon realize that the Lord burns His message into your spirit in such a way that you can’t hold it in.  You have to proclaim it far and wide.  If you’ve never been hungry enough for the Lord to pray and fast and seek His face above everything else, you don’t understand what I’m talking about.  I can accept that.

2) Love, in the context of this discussion, is not what you think it is.  I’m so tired of hearing people talk about accepting the status quo and permitting sin to take root in the fellowship and calling it “love.” It is not love.  It’s false mercy in a lot of cases, and it’s compromise of an epic proportion in nearly all cases. 

Let’s follow the biblical model of love and live like Jesus lived.  Jesus’ model of love was to walk the Earth proclaiming a radical truth such as the world was completely unequipped to accept, and letting the cards fall where they may.  When He encountered deception, He emparted truth. When somebody accepted the truth and desired restoration, Jesus was willing and able to facilitate that end.  Many were not willing to ante up to the kingdom life, and they went their separate ways.  Jesus did not chase after them begging them to enter the kingdom.  Was Jesus too harsh?

3) Is it really a ‘holier-than-thou’ message, or has the truth of the Gospel become a stumbling block to you?  This is a tough pill to swallow for some people.  I’ve noticed this happening around me from time to time.  A person catches on fire for the Lord and all of a sudden they start doing and saying things that are not socially acceptable.  They want to pray for everything.  They start quoting scripture and interrupting our meeting agendas with prophetic words.  They call sin what it is, and they speak truth in love and they slowly but surely become ‘holier-than-thou.’  In reality, the people around them are convicted about their own lack of zeal, and rather than going to the trouble of following after Jesus, they seek to discredit zeal and holiness. 

So, for all of those who are “concerned” about the radical nature of my faith and the level of love in my life, I thank you sincerely.  You obviously have heard me talking about the standards of truth and power and consecration without much language that allows for compromise, and you’re worried that I might be turning into some kind of fire brand or something.  I appreciate your concern.  

What you don’t know is that the Lord wakes me up in the early morning hours weeping with a burden for the lost and dying.  He shows me all of the wasted potential locked up in the homosexual community and it tears me to pieces.  He shows me all of the greatness that He had in store for babies who were aborted and I can barely stand under the burden.  And then, when I’m totally broken before Him, I ask for more zeal to help me communicate the truth.  Is that not also love?