Why is it people spend so much time planning for a new year, setting different things in motion, promising themselves they're going to stop this and that, beginning anew in areas and starting fresh in others? They set resolutions that they assure themselves and others they will follow but rarely continue with them through even the first month, much less the entire year. Yes, yes, I am guilty of this myself. I'm not being hypocritical - I just think we have more within us. I am beginning to stir over a new year because frankly I'm so over this one. I feel that so much has changed in my own life and in those that I love and care about, and it's time to take some things back and set some new vision in place.
I think this year it's time we set New Year's REVOLUTIONS!
It is so easy to get wrapped up in trying to make the next year better than the one that's ending. We evaluate what we've done, what we didn't do, what worked, what failed, all to create a greater sense of urgency and busy-ness for the coming year so that it produces more than its predecessor. Our goals in all areas of life get loftier because we think maybe the past year didn't mean much because we didn't aim for much. We finally get to our level playing field and are so overwhelmed with new things to do that we don't really know where to begin. I don't think planning is bad, but I think people plan themselves to death at times, all the while creating this vulnerability and places for the enemy to slink in and plunder for the next year, the same he did the previous year..and the one before that...and the one before that...see the pattern?
I was reading in Nehemiah today and something came to me for this coming year that I had never officially made part of my "new year's plans". The people of Israel had rallied with Nehemiah to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, a task that many "officials" in that time thought to be incomprehensible. As they were planning, working, and making progress on their goals, their enemy (Sanballat, Tobiah, and other regional officials in the surrounding areas at the time) positioned to attack to stop the work they were doing. Nehemiah's response? He armed the laborers to be ready for the attack, but the work continued.
I sometimes fall into the trap that I am either armed Spiritually (having been in the Word, praying, devoting my every dream, desire, plan, and step to God) or I am hard at work. In years past I have promised myself I would study the Word more than I had the previous year so I would know it and have it available to combat the enemy, but then that same busy-ness crept in and that goal seemed to get less and less attention. I look around me all the time and view people who are powerhouses in God's Kingdom only running with half-power because the labor has become so toilsome and burdensome that they cannot as easily fend off the onslaught of Hell, leaving many of them crippled and on the verge of collapse.
Nehemiah wrote in 4:17, "Those who built on the wall, and those who carried burdens, loaded themselves so that with one hand they worked at construction, and with the other held a weapon". That's why this year needs to be a year of revolutions - a year when we as God's people declare that we will not only continue in our labor, but we will also have our swords within reach in preparation for the attack we know is just around the corner. Sure, we all should still set goals and dreams in motion for the coming year, but they cannot be the reason the enemy triumphs over us time and again. It's time to get smart in our approach to our enemy. It's time to get on the wall, for real!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
The Heart Cry of Our Generation
OK..so I've slacked in my thought-sharing here...just like I thought might happen...time to get back into it, I suppose??
This whole week has been a stirring of my heart for the generation we're in...a generation of longing, hoping, desiring, yearning..all for things that moves us away from the "instant" generation back to a want for plain and simple authenticity and reality. The hyped up message of a once-prescribed "MTV" generation is turning more and more to "give us something real" instead of "give us something that is real because you have defined it as such and it's close enough for us to accept as real and be comfortable allowing it to influence who we are". For too long we have been poked and prodded into a reality stupor with all the shows out there touting themselves as "reality TV" when in reality they are regular shows with regular producers that are still looking out for the entertainment value of the show because otherwise they will end up like anything else that has any type of instrinsic wholesome lesson to teach us: cancelled.
I spent the week with a group of young people in Panama City Beach, Florida, at a camp called Beach Freak so we could become freaks for the Jesus that we serve and love so much. I don't think many of us needed to go there for the "freak" label to be true, but I have to say that it was an awesome time in God. He truly showed up and real-ly moved on the hearts of a generation crying out for something more. In every conversation I got to have with one of these amazing guys or girls, my heart connected with theirs and I was instantly pulled to the desperation within them to have something real. Not something prescribed and fed to them as reality, but reality defined by them. What is reality to them? Transparency. Authenticity. Raw truth. Each and every word I spoke I had to watch to make sure it was dripping with reality because otherwise it would only serve to not quite feed the starving spirits of a generation all around me. But at the same time I was realizing that they needed more...more than I really had to give...more than I think I could ever have to give...more than I think they realized they needed themselves.
Skipping back to now...I had this urge in my spirit prior to prayer this evening about what the cry of this generation really is. I had these questions resounding in my spirit that were demanding answers and a response that I didn't think I had. I found myself asking, well, myself, "What drives the spirit of their passion and the passion of their spirit?". So, when I had no answer, I waited on the Lord to prompt one, and I got answers like this: hungry for reality, thirsty for truth, longing for relationship, burdened for someone to be transparent with, desire for openness and freedom, discontent with anything but authenticity....I found myself so overwhelmed with the seeming randomness of this thought process that I couldn't help but begin to wonder what this looked like, how it would manifest in our young people...
All week at camp my heart was pulled to a passage in the book of Joel. I just wanted to dissect it, break it apart, piece it back together, and start all over again. Joel 3:9-10 spoke to me about how this generation was going to see all of the things it is longing for come to pass, and I just didn't realize it until now when I sat to write and share some thoughts. This passage reads, Prepare for war! Wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, "I am strong". The only hope for this generation is for them to wake up! They will never obtain what they are longing for until they wake up and realize that the battle is up to them. The hunger and thirst for reality and truth is something they will have to satisfy in the Lord by themselves. We as their leaders can lead them to the cross, but we can't make them bear it or want to bear it - they have to do that on their own!
My heart is stirred for a generation that the enemy thinks is dead. He is hoping that they will continue to be lulled into that reality stupor by the things he continually blasts them with each day. But I declare that they shall rise up out of the mirey clay and stand upon the rock of Jesus Christ. I proclaim that no weapon formed against them shall prosper, and every tongue that rises up against them in judgment they shall condemn! I decree that one day every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of all, and it will be THIS generation leading the charge!
What's the heart cry of our generation? VICTORY in Jesus Christ, and what a sweet victory it is!!
This whole week has been a stirring of my heart for the generation we're in...a generation of longing, hoping, desiring, yearning..all for things that moves us away from the "instant" generation back to a want for plain and simple authenticity and reality. The hyped up message of a once-prescribed "MTV" generation is turning more and more to "give us something real" instead of "give us something that is real because you have defined it as such and it's close enough for us to accept as real and be comfortable allowing it to influence who we are". For too long we have been poked and prodded into a reality stupor with all the shows out there touting themselves as "reality TV" when in reality they are regular shows with regular producers that are still looking out for the entertainment value of the show because otherwise they will end up like anything else that has any type of instrinsic wholesome lesson to teach us: cancelled.
I spent the week with a group of young people in Panama City Beach, Florida, at a camp called Beach Freak so we could become freaks for the Jesus that we serve and love so much. I don't think many of us needed to go there for the "freak" label to be true, but I have to say that it was an awesome time in God. He truly showed up and real-ly moved on the hearts of a generation crying out for something more. In every conversation I got to have with one of these amazing guys or girls, my heart connected with theirs and I was instantly pulled to the desperation within them to have something real. Not something prescribed and fed to them as reality, but reality defined by them. What is reality to them? Transparency. Authenticity. Raw truth. Each and every word I spoke I had to watch to make sure it was dripping with reality because otherwise it would only serve to not quite feed the starving spirits of a generation all around me. But at the same time I was realizing that they needed more...more than I really had to give...more than I think I could ever have to give...more than I think they realized they needed themselves.
Skipping back to now...I had this urge in my spirit prior to prayer this evening about what the cry of this generation really is. I had these questions resounding in my spirit that were demanding answers and a response that I didn't think I had. I found myself asking, well, myself, "What drives the spirit of their passion and the passion of their spirit?". So, when I had no answer, I waited on the Lord to prompt one, and I got answers like this: hungry for reality, thirsty for truth, longing for relationship, burdened for someone to be transparent with, desire for openness and freedom, discontent with anything but authenticity....I found myself so overwhelmed with the seeming randomness of this thought process that I couldn't help but begin to wonder what this looked like, how it would manifest in our young people...
All week at camp my heart was pulled to a passage in the book of Joel. I just wanted to dissect it, break it apart, piece it back together, and start all over again. Joel 3:9-10 spoke to me about how this generation was going to see all of the things it is longing for come to pass, and I just didn't realize it until now when I sat to write and share some thoughts. This passage reads, Prepare for war! Wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, "I am strong". The only hope for this generation is for them to wake up! They will never obtain what they are longing for until they wake up and realize that the battle is up to them. The hunger and thirst for reality and truth is something they will have to satisfy in the Lord by themselves. We as their leaders can lead them to the cross, but we can't make them bear it or want to bear it - they have to do that on their own!
My heart is stirred for a generation that the enemy thinks is dead. He is hoping that they will continue to be lulled into that reality stupor by the things he continually blasts them with each day. But I declare that they shall rise up out of the mirey clay and stand upon the rock of Jesus Christ. I proclaim that no weapon formed against them shall prosper, and every tongue that rises up against them in judgment they shall condemn! I decree that one day every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of all, and it will be THIS generation leading the charge!
What's the heart cry of our generation? VICTORY in Jesus Christ, and what a sweet victory it is!!
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
God Hears Our Cries
I've been communicating off and on this week with a person in my life that I care dearly for about some struggles he was experiencing in his personal life - temptations of the enemy that he for some reason felt he wouldn't be able to resist. He kept asking me to pray for strength, to pray for him to keep on course, to pray for him to get past it without messing up. He would make comments in real time about what he was going through at that moment and what he didn't want to happen, etc. So obviously I was reassuring him that he is strong in the Lord, that he could handle it, that he should trust in the power of God that is in him that he has recently been touting as a significant change agent in his life.
All the while as this was occurring, it was hard to capture the true breadth of his emotional state in the words I was reading from him. I know him well, so I could imagine how he was feeling, but not being with him at those moments face-to-face to see what he was experiencing left me wondering how he was really doing. Part of me wanted to sluff it off to drama that we create at times when the enemy comes against us, but something inside told me there was more.
I imagined him crying out for help in his situation, be it as little or as big as it may have been. I envisioned him dealing with the Lord in those moments but also needing a more tangible reach of someone he knew would battle beside him (even if in fact that person was most certainly not in a physical sense).
This all brought me back to something I read yesterday in Psalm 107. This passage of Scripture talks about the great deliverence that God made for the people of Israel, the many times he brought them out of harm (darkness) and into His promise (light). Though I am amazed at the mighty, steady hand of God, it wasn't the recount of His historical moves that captured me this time. Verse 6 tells us that the people of Israel "cried out to the Lord in their trouble". Ok, so how many of us haven't? Even those who claim to not believe occasionally cry to the Lord in desperation in a moment of need. Regardless of who we are or what level we're at in our relationship and walk with God, doesn't crying out to Him still demonstrate our innate need for our Creator?
My two-year-old nephew (there's some photos of him at www.myspace.com/justinandsuzie) is a very..let's say...strongheaded and strongwilled child. He is very independent in himself, satisfied at most times to play his way and do his own thing. However, when a time comes that he is in need of something, all of that pride of being his own person quickly fades into a cry for help. All of us should really be like that with God always. Sure, He has equipped us to operate somewhat self-sufficiently, but only in the grace and strength He put within us. The people of Israel were strongheaded and strongwilled children of God, but even in the midst of their personalities, they knew to cry out to God. There was no other choice, was there? They had tried to subsitute for God by creating a golden calf at the base of the mountain while Moses communed with God (as if God wasn't able to be with Moses and them at the same time) - look where that got them. They spent a significant season in Egypt where life seemed good, but what did they really possess? Eclipsing the "goodness" they thought they had was the fact that they were captives! And when it got bad in the desert, they wanted to go back to Egypt! Eventually they came to their senses because in every time of need we witness in the history of Israel, we always see them coming back to God for the answer, and rightfully so.
Ok, so what's the big point in this? The second part of Psalm 107:6 tells us that "He delivered them out of their distresses". Big deal, you say? YES! Verses 13, 19, and 28 of Psalm 107 repeat the exact same cycle: the people of God are in trouble and turn to Him for help, and He delivers/saves/brings them out of their distresses. The moments in life that bring us the most trial and testing should be the moments for which the outcome we are most assured of because we have the Heavenly Father backing us up. Any opposition, any hindrance, any scheme of darkness or weapon formed against us by the enemy of our souls is POOF! taken care of...and it doesn't even take 12 trips to the altar, 4 vials of anointing oil and 40 days of fasting to get God to respond (not that any of those things are bad in their own right) - all we have to do is cry out to Him, and He'll deliver us out of our distresses!
I'm happy to say my dear brother that spurred this was able to stand strong against what he felt was a losing battle. But it just showed me that no matter who we are, Satan is going to come against us, usually in the area he knows we are the weakest. Do we fret? Perhaps, if we're human - but only for a second. For the battle isn't really ours anyway - God said, "It's mine"(2 Chronicles 20:15)...and He always wins!
All the while as this was occurring, it was hard to capture the true breadth of his emotional state in the words I was reading from him. I know him well, so I could imagine how he was feeling, but not being with him at those moments face-to-face to see what he was experiencing left me wondering how he was really doing. Part of me wanted to sluff it off to drama that we create at times when the enemy comes against us, but something inside told me there was more.
I imagined him crying out for help in his situation, be it as little or as big as it may have been. I envisioned him dealing with the Lord in those moments but also needing a more tangible reach of someone he knew would battle beside him (even if in fact that person was most certainly not in a physical sense).
This all brought me back to something I read yesterday in Psalm 107. This passage of Scripture talks about the great deliverence that God made for the people of Israel, the many times he brought them out of harm (darkness) and into His promise (light). Though I am amazed at the mighty, steady hand of God, it wasn't the recount of His historical moves that captured me this time. Verse 6 tells us that the people of Israel "cried out to the Lord in their trouble". Ok, so how many of us haven't? Even those who claim to not believe occasionally cry to the Lord in desperation in a moment of need. Regardless of who we are or what level we're at in our relationship and walk with God, doesn't crying out to Him still demonstrate our innate need for our Creator?
My two-year-old nephew (there's some photos of him at www.myspace.com/justinandsuzie) is a very..let's say...strongheaded and strongwilled child. He is very independent in himself, satisfied at most times to play his way and do his own thing. However, when a time comes that he is in need of something, all of that pride of being his own person quickly fades into a cry for help. All of us should really be like that with God always. Sure, He has equipped us to operate somewhat self-sufficiently, but only in the grace and strength He put within us. The people of Israel were strongheaded and strongwilled children of God, but even in the midst of their personalities, they knew to cry out to God. There was no other choice, was there? They had tried to subsitute for God by creating a golden calf at the base of the mountain while Moses communed with God (as if God wasn't able to be with Moses and them at the same time) - look where that got them. They spent a significant season in Egypt where life seemed good, but what did they really possess? Eclipsing the "goodness" they thought they had was the fact that they were captives! And when it got bad in the desert, they wanted to go back to Egypt! Eventually they came to their senses because in every time of need we witness in the history of Israel, we always see them coming back to God for the answer, and rightfully so.
Ok, so what's the big point in this? The second part of Psalm 107:6 tells us that "He delivered them out of their distresses". Big deal, you say? YES! Verses 13, 19, and 28 of Psalm 107 repeat the exact same cycle: the people of God are in trouble and turn to Him for help, and He delivers/saves/brings them out of their distresses. The moments in life that bring us the most trial and testing should be the moments for which the outcome we are most assured of because we have the Heavenly Father backing us up. Any opposition, any hindrance, any scheme of darkness or weapon formed against us by the enemy of our souls is POOF! taken care of...and it doesn't even take 12 trips to the altar, 4 vials of anointing oil and 40 days of fasting to get God to respond (not that any of those things are bad in their own right) - all we have to do is cry out to Him, and He'll deliver us out of our distresses!
I'm happy to say my dear brother that spurred this was able to stand strong against what he felt was a losing battle. But it just showed me that no matter who we are, Satan is going to come against us, usually in the area he knows we are the weakest. Do we fret? Perhaps, if we're human - but only for a second. For the battle isn't really ours anyway - God said, "It's mine"(2 Chronicles 20:15)...and He always wins!
My first blog
Wow - so I branched into the blogging world. I was so inspired by my wife's amazing gift for communicating the essence of thought in word form that I thought I would try my hand at it. So, more to come...soon..in the future...if I remember I have it.
God bless!
God bless!
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