I want to get real. There's been something about writing in my life that's made me able to deal with whatever's been bothering me if I will just sit down and write about it.
What has been bothering me of late are the dots. The lack of identifying what they are, and the failure to connect them. The dots connects my present life to the vision I have for this life.
My question: do I really need a process? Look at Joseph, King David, whoever. Procesess. Look at Peter, Paul, Barnabus. Ability to minister was not dependent in Acts Christianity upon how long a person had been in process but rather, I believe, to what extent the person of Jesus Christ had overtaken his identity. I do not need to spend ten years in bible college, serving here or there, becoming a youth pastor, then finally one glorious day be promoted to senior pastor somewhere. I need to know Him.
This adds to my suspicions about the state of Christianity today. I've been coming to think that any lack of faith, devotion, power, unction, or any fruit of righteousness comes from some level of perversion of the true gospel. We can tell the right words and give valid statements in our preaching and yet still be so off. Because the words you say don't matter if what you mean when you say them isn't what they mean when they are said in the bible.
I believe we don't see healings, we don't see "revival", we don't see powerful, "greater things" caliber ministry anywhere because the original gospel isn't really being preached anywhere. Everyone's got their "revelation" that they love to talk about and all these programs and processes and divided up sections for ministry. A whole person will never be changed one issue at a time. That's like trying to create a supplementary meal replacement pill by looking at each nutrient a person needs and all scientifically trying to plaster together some nutritious but artificial food that will contribute to a person's growth. Why not just have them eat a full on meal -- an 8oz sirlion with loaded mashed potatoes and steamed broccolli! That person will grow and enjoy it as they do. We need the natural word, not man's predigested, refabricated attempts and expressing it.
That doesn't mean there's no place for preaching, but come on. Church in America is created to keep believers dependent upon the church to survive. Biblically, that should be so, but not because the believers need to hear another sermon to make it through the week. They need the encouragement of others in the Lord and unity of spirit and things like that, but that's only to keep reaching out. Preaching is for reaching. For spreading the gospel. Biblically, a congregation was just a group of bleievers congregating, where one gives a word, one prophesies, another gives a message in tongues, etc. We don't leave any room for that in our services. We just want to get our word preached and then we go out for the week and live like everyone else (sinfully or not) and come back the next and that's our life.
I don't think that's quite right! As an example, something talked about a ton is thought life. Gettin' your thinking right. Elminating stinkin' thinkin. But we see that as an end and we see process as a means. We see our devotional time, our partnership w/ the spirit of God is so we can think in line w/ the word. Sounds good, but is that really the end? Let's look at what the bible says about thinking: "be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." 1 important word "by" tells us that renewing of your mind is a means to the greater work of transformation which sets us apart from the world. Set apart means holy. He said "be holy as I am holy". So in place of geting my thoughts right to not be down and have a good week at work till next sunday, I'm now conforming my thoughts to be in line with what God says so that I can live on this earth differently -- not like the world. That difference is the essence of holiness. Holiness isn't some weird uber-purity. It literally means being different, being picked out of the norm to serve a greater purpose. And when a person believes what God says and has His thoughts, they live on this earth manifesting the fruit of right thinking. A wise saying you hear in church all the time is that thoughts become words which become your beliefs which become reality. If my thinking is in line with the word, and the word says I'll do greater things than Jesus did, then any situation I find myself in I'm gonna do greater things than Jesus did, because I thought, spoke, believed, and did in accordance with God. And that's how God gets His glory on this earth from my thoughts. "This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit"!
So why do we end up with happy, worldly-patterened Christians instead of holy, earth-shaking Christians? We've perverted the gospel. We quote the right scriptures but we don't take them in light of the full revelation of the scriptures. That's not to say you need to be a bible scholar to take any step in God, but the power of the gospel isn't found in words. It's found in Christ and Him crucified. It's found in the communication of the full truth about what God has done for us. Read Gal. 1, you'll see how Paul was adamant about protecting the original, pure gospel. That's the only place where the power is at.
So anyway, to see what I want to see, the way is the pure gospel. Bonnke says "if you want the original results, preach the original gospel". The pure gospel isn't "Jesus died for your sins" if all I mean when I say those true words is that you just pray a prayer and start coming to church so you'll make it without gross sin in your life and then you can get to heaven. Even if I just hug a leper in the name of the Lord to express His selfless love, that's more the gospel than those five words above. We need the true message of the gospel to be what hits people when they hear our words and see our actions. To get there, we need the true heart of the gospel. It beats for the souls of those for whom our King paid with His life. It does not fail to use every tool given us by God to complete the task of communicating it "to all nations."
May we never settle for less!
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