Seems like you stuck your finger in a hornets nest, Eh Ash? One I had no idea was even there Lord. Reminds you of something Ash? A little. Mostly reminds me about how things started a long while ago and it hurts my heart Lord. It hurts my heart for the body. It hurts my heart for a lot of people caught in a lot of things that they don't realize they are caught in. Like the hand punching the foot Ash. Everyone is in their process.
I remember coming into a group of friends early on in ministry. Everyone had their niche, everyone complimented one another. It was good, until it wasn't. I remember being in meetings, or worship events and this one close friend would "confide" in me and others about other people in attendance. She made it seem like she had extra intel, or that she had this spiritual superiority. She would say that the holy spirit told her this or that or that. She would point out the way a person prayed, walked, danced, or flagged and say that it was witchcraft. She would bring up experiences that she had with them years ago and point to this or that in an accusatory fashion. I remember avoiding certain people in other events because of the things she said about those people to me. I remember purposefully avoiding people or not having conversations with them because of someone else's preconceived notions that I had accepted as my own.
The next thing you know, I'm on a mission trip and I'm sharing a large group room with some of these same people. The same people I avoided because of what someone else told me, turned out to be amazing. I experienced the Lord though them. I experienced laughter with them. I saw fruit overflowing in their lives and I had to repent to Jesus for ever believing someone else's experience as my own. I had to mourn for every time I could have interacted with them and didn't because of what I had believed.
In another case, years ago. I ended up meeting with someone for deliverance. It was long, it was weird and it was uncomfortable. However, that very same person has helped a lot of other people. Does my one weird experience negate every other positive one they have with others? Can one have an impact on the other? It shouldn't. Yet it many Christian circles it does.
Can we stop the he said she said please. I am not here for it and neither is my inbox.
Can we get over ourselves for a minute. Can we get over the fact that our ministries, our opinions, our theologies, and our ideas may not always align 100% with what the Lord is doing across the board? We know in part.
Can we get over the fact that our experiences aren't the same as someone else's? He has good plans.
I had terrible experiences with my earthly father. To everyone else he was a good man, a good friend etc. Does my bad experience mean that their good experiences should have never happened or that they hold less value? No. Absolutely not.
Why then, in the body of Christ do we feel the need to project our experiences on others and demand they accept them as their own?
The Lord can and will work through the appointed person, at the appointed time, at their appointed level, in their appointed season for Jesus's appointed reason. End of Story.
The telephone game didn't work as kids and it doesn't work now.
The only thing that works is Jesus. It's all HIS to give.
The Lord reminded me this morning of a dream that I had a while ago. He was driving my car and I was in the passenger seat. As we headed down the highway, Jesus suddenly took his right hand off the wheel and began punching his driving foot with it. The car immediately jerked in acceleration back and forth in speed with each punch. We couldn't stay in the lanes.
This is what it's like Ash. The Lord spoke clearly. The hand is fighting the foot while they're both trying to be the head. I am the head. They need to realize that. I need the hand to be the hand and the foot to be the foot and for the kingdom of Heaven to actually get somewhere in the lives of the people here on Earth.
I sat back in my seat with every moment I tried to be the head running through my mind. I thought about every time I tried to function in an area that was sloppy or rushed. I thought about all of the ministries that spend time talking about each other instead of exalting the Lord and doing His will. I repented and came out of agreement with things that I was believing about people based on what I had heard no matter how trusted the source. The only source of information without a filter is the Spirit of the Lord. Test the Spirit for yourself. Find Jesus for yourself. Follow the leading of the Holy Spirit for yourself. That is where breakthrough is found. In your secret place. In meditation in the word. In the application of what you are reading in your daily life.
It's more than what we know. It's what we can live.
No man, woman, ministry, or wise counsel can do for you in decades what the Holy Spirit can do in moments alone in the raw presence of God as you eat His flesh and drink His blood through the written word and communion. His desire is to know you more intimately and to have more of you each and every day. Not more of your opinions.
Some people are the dinner plates and some people are the toilet brushes but we are ALL equally needed in the house of God.
If you expect to eat a steak off a toilet brush it’s gonna taste “off” but you can’t tell me those toilets don’t sparkle.
We all have a job to do. The better we do our own, the less we will focus on how others do theirs and the more will get done.
Let the Lord himself curse the fig tree that has no fruit. He doesn’t need our help.
Lord Jesus please reveal to your people the jobs they are called to do and the ways you designed them to function. Lord strip imitations, false mantles and unskew the skewed perceptions of our eyes. Help us focus solely on you Lord Jesus, on your word and the narrow path set before us all. In Jesus name. Amen.
Jeremiah 29:11 - For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Proverbs 16:9 - The heart of man plans his way but the Lord establishes his steps
Proverbs 3:5 - Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
Jeremiah 33:3 3 Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.
1 Corinthians 13:9-12 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known
Romans 9:20-24 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
Isaiah 29:16-18 16 You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”, or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?
2 Timothy 2:20 20 Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
2 Corinthians 6:12 12 You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections.
Deuteronomy 11:26-29
26 Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;
27 A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day:
28 And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.
29 And it shall come to pass, when the Lord thy God hath brought thee in unto the land whither thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt put the blessing upon mount Gerizim, and the curse upon mount Ebal.
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