As I was getting ready for work today, it seemed to be another cloudy day outside. I am not a fan of rain or gloomy clouds. I need sunshine, I really do. As I was on my way to take Nash into daycare I was looking up at the sky. You could see the dark grey rain clouds, you could see a thousand different shades of blue and gray scattered through the cloudy morning sky. It was a beautiful reminder of the unlimited color pallet that the Lord paints with. All I could see were clouds and gloom. It didn't matter which direction I turned, there was a level of darkness that appeared to be all around me. Then I heard Him whisper "over here". As I turned my stance around, I could immediately see the sun, shining brightly through a break in the clouds. It was illuminating the sky, shining it's light on the wet roads and bringing the comfort of warmth to this chilly morning. The Lord reminded me that even in the storms of life, when the entire picture you think you see appears to be gloomy chaos, you might just need to turn yourself around. Turn your point of view. Turn the way you look at things. Nothing changed, the sun had always been there, I was just too busy focusing on the clouds and the storm to realize that it was right there waiting for me to notice it. He's always right there waiting for you notice Him.
Isaiah 45:22 22 “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.
The lord put on my heart that I need to be careful not to become a Rainy Day Christian. I thought about this for a while and the Lord started putting on my mind all of the rain that we have had lately. Don't be a rainy day Christian, I heard. Many call themselves Christians and live in this world like this world. They come to the Lord when the storms hit, praying for the Lord to deliver them from the messes they get themselves into. They pray to get, they pray when they mess up, they only pray when they need something from the Lord. They dole out complaints to the Lord about their lives like pimps dole out dollar bills at the clubs. Then they wonder why they don't have victory in their lives and freedom in their minds? They wonder why they are anxious, angry or unsettled. They wonder why nothing changes? They are turning our Lord into a Genie and living life frustrated because the Lord isn't giving them the solution they want to their problems.
They come to church here and there, mostly on holidays to make nice with their significant other or their family. They live their normal working lives, living in sin, cussing, partying on Friday celebrating the fact that they have days off of work and money to get substances to numb their minds and help them recover from a week of their miserable every day lives. They go paycheck to paycheck because the substances they need to numb their pain cost them more than they realize. They drive intoxicated, endangering the lives of others with their reckless behavior, they're verbally abusive, chaotic and then they think that this behavior is all acceptable to the Lord. All because of a generation of preachers who push grace over change. They live their regular lives with margaritas and manicures, never even picking up a Bible to read it and wondering why they can't live in victory, and walk in freedom.
They do all of this and still call themselves Christians and expect this guaranteed seat in Heaven because Jesus loves everyone. I have lived this way. I can tell you that there is so much more to Christianity than this. The Lord calls us to abide in Him. He calls us to relationship, to righteousness and to be disciples in the body of Christ. Not to a rave in Heaven where anyone can get in if you slip him a $20 bill. You'll be surprised when you get to the gates and the cover charge was "dying to self" and you thought it was your bumper sticker and your custom Vera Bradley bible holder. We are called to a higher level of discipleship and intimacy than this world understands. I am not trying to condemn anyone, I am trying to bring awareness of the fact that there is so much more to life than this daily struggle that everyone is stuck in because they need Jesus. He truly is the answer for everything. Rise to your relationship!
James 4:1-10 4 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
Now that my eyes have been opened to the beauty of discipleship, relationship and the supernatural aspects of Christianity, I have found myself in churches, meetings and conferences where you see the true heart of the Lord. You see the gifts of the spirit at work in the body of Christ and it opens your mind and your heart to this level of connection with the Lord that I never knew was possible outside of being a preacher or pastor. I thought there were a special elite group that were able to hear from the Lord and I never once thought that I would be a part of it. Yet here I am, learning as much as I can about deliverance, healing, prophecy etc. and hearing from the Lord on a very frequent basis. It's unbelievable to me. As I was in my kitchen last night, I was thinking about blogging and what was on my heart. I was thinking about the message to put together for the rainy day Christians and I heard the Lord say to me "Don't be a desert first Christian either, Ash".
I stopped and thought about that for a second. Then the Lord put on my heart that many in the evangelical or Pentecostal Christian circle are doing just that. They are going to church for the desert, for the show, for the next prophetic word, for the next impartation. They go for the worship band, for the selfies with their friends. They are chasing after the experience of the gifts of the spirit without taking any bites of the meat of the word of the gospel. The Lord warned me to stay in balance. To stay rooted in the word, to chew the meat of the word and to use that meat to refine myself and give myself strength.
We don't obtain strength from desert, we obtain a sugar high, an energy that starts off strong but burns out quickly like a shooting star. Think of this like a model doing a photo shoot for a piece of cake. She is allowed to hold the fork to her mouth but never permitted to take a bite. It’s all for the show. She looks content, happy and fulfilled in the print, but it’s smoke and mirrors. There is no substance.
In order to fight the spiritual warfare that we are currently in. We need a meat and potatoes strength and we can't get that from a milkly gospel of grace or form the desert of prophecy, healing or miracles. Those gifts are without reproach, the Lord will freely give them. It's up to us not to abuse that gift of desert and to refine our discernment with the meat of the word. We as adult Christians need to be able to digest the whole gospel, not just the parts that sit well with the way we live our lives. It's time to be called higher. It's time to eat a steak with the Lord.
The Lord also pointed me to a few teachings on prophetic witchcraft this week that have lead to a greater understanding of the manipulation that can be unleashed through the guise of prophecy. We need a greater discernment from the Lord when it comes to the way that the new age demons are making their way into the evangelical churches. The warfare is real. It's not just good against evil, it's also good against the evil that appears to be the good. Discernment is key.
Matthew 16:24-28 24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. 28 Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.
Hebrews 5:11-6:20 11 About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. 14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
6 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, 2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do if God permits. 4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. 7 For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. 8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.
9 Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. 10 For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. 11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Psalm 51:10-12 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Isaiah 1:21-27 The Unfaithful City
21 How the faithful city has become a whore, she who was full of justice! Righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.
22 Your silver has become dross, your best wine mixed with water.
23 Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves; Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not bring justice to the fatherless, and the widow's cause does not come to them.
24 Therefore the Lord declares, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: “Ah, I will get relief from my enemies and avenge myself on my foes.
25 I will turn my hand against you and will smelt away your dross as with lye and remove all your alloy.
26 And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning.
Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.”
27 Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her who repent, by righteousness.
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