Several years ago we were in a wonderful move of God in our church, a unique time of favor and blessing that lasted over 5 years . Today I was remembering how, in one of our times of prayer and fasting, I saw this HUGE angel standing over our church building .It was almost 150 feet tall and from a distance, looked similar to one of the big “Transformers”. But as I saw it closer and it became clearer, it looked like those huge power lines that run along valleys, yet was a huge angelic being and it looked something like this: My mind was blown! I knew that angels can take on any size and shape necessary,even massive size ,like the one David saw in 1 Ch 21:16 -And David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, and in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. This angel David saw must have taken up a lot of the sky,standing between earth and heaven! I had also read and heard about divine encounters where people had seen small even tiny ones,mistaking them for fireflies or fairies. At that time,I was not quite as experienced or confident about my prophetic visions as I am now, so I called a prophet friend, Bob Jones. Bob is in heaven now but was a very unique prophet and taught many in the body of Christ about the prophetic through his mentoring. He discipled and imparted insight to Linda and I and many others ,passing out prophetic wisdom to a literal army of people over the years. So I called him and when I told him what I saw, there was no question in his mind what I saw ,because he said he saw it too! He said that massive angel represents the Spirit of Truth and transfers POWER (hence power line) from heaven to earth ,to us as He declares to us all that Jesus is and has! John 16:13-15 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. I realized that there is no contradiction in scripture because we regularly see where the Holy Spirit takes upon himself an aspect of God’s character like the seven spirits of God and many other descriptions. God is unfathomable so He can also be unexplainable! I then realized that’s why the enemy is so determined to keep us ignorant and in the dark about God and ALL HIS benefits! 2 Corinthians 4:4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. That is precisely why the devil wants us deaf, dumb and blind to what is really going on! Actually, unbelief is spiritual blindness and rebellion against the truth is spiritual deafness. The Holy Spirit reveals to us, brings to us ALL these wonderful things as we begin to start agreeing with and seeing the truth in Jesus.
I was reminded this morning of that vision and that our power level is directly tied to our truth level. I sensed there has been a blindness on us ,truth has been lacking ,we have stumbled in the street, for a long time…but…God is responding to our cries.. all of a sudden,God is revealing more of Himself as we agree with Him and call out to HIM! He is showing up and now it is obvious what we have been blind about! AND…here comes the Spirit of Truth! When we believe God’s reality, which is a truer truth than is evident in what is going on around us,we agree with heaven for all that God is and has and things become clear. We won’t be able to see natural truth till we believe and agree with heavenly truth! 1 Corinthians 2:12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. We should ask for God the reveal Truth to us and the TRUTH is JESUS and IS IN JESUS! The Spirit of Truth is coming! The great teaching pastor we listened to the first 5 years after we were born again used to regularly say , “Don’t be so heavenly-minded you’re no earthly good’’. I’m not even sure our pastor told us where he heard that quote,but he would repeat it a lot. Coming from an old-time pentecostal upbringing in England,he might have needed to remind himself of that more than we did. I get it that we can’t be unable to function in real life due to our spirituality. Our spirituality or our awareness of God should help us be MORE effective on earth. Col 3:23 says, “ And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men.”.
Then one day I was reading the brilliant intellectual Christian writings of CS Lewis in “Mere Christianity” and saw this: A continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this (one). Aim at Heaven and you will get earth “thrown in:” aim at earth and you will get neither. (Mere Christianity, p.134) In Luke 18:8, Jesus mentions and refers to this topic of being effective and helpful on the earth without exercising faith in a heavenly reward in a discussion about prayer. He says that prayer and exercising faith on the earth gets a heavenly response on the earth. “I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” You can also easily surmise a correlation between living a life here on earth withOUT exercising faith or acknowledging God and living only for our pleasures is NOT a life of faith. To do what we want every day may be safe and fun and pleasureable but it is hardly “walking in the Spirit” and is NOT “in all your ways,acknowledge Him…” Without living a life of faith,risk and adventure can any honest person say it is really a walk of faith? I visit churches in our area and in other cities from time to time if I am not preaching somewhere else. And the more churches I am in or go to, I see a startling conformity and sameness, a “cloning” of sorts,the same thing in so many churches: an aversion to being different,a desire to be “normal”, a desire to appear “safe” , to avoid “surprises” that would cause any discomfort to guests. While I think If you own a store or restaurant that is a good tactic,pastors are torn because they have to grow and increase to survive and the less safe and more unexpected things guests see or are exposed to,the more likely they are not to come back. Maybe it is an aversion to the spirit of religion? Or maybe it’s an over reaction to what many have seen growing up in church where zeal and fervor were more evident than fruit. But you can’t be passionate and remain quiet. You can’t be “on fire” and remain subdued. People don’t reject leaders for their personality. People need vision and sense life and passion and fervor is part of that. If we haven’t been effected by the heavenly than its hard to get people excited about theories. Paul was so ruined by His encounter with Jesus and the heavenly vision he experienced on the road to Damascus it transformed him forever and so he mentioned it to King Agrippa in his defense.(Acts 26:19) But are churches really even called to attract the lost? Or are they to equip the found to go find and win the lost? Aren’t churches supposed to be for the “EKKLESIA”, the called out ones? More and more they are about comfort,safety and info-tainment. So when churches begin to look more and more like an info-mercial for a blender,isn’t it likely that we have taken the “supernatural” aspect out of church meetings so as to avoid any unpleasant surprises. People don’t get excited about knowledge, they get excited when someone communicates vision and passion. Are churches becoming so earthly minded they are no earthly good? Are we so earthly minded we are no heavenly or earthly good? But can we really be any earthly good if we are not heavenly minded? I think CS Lewis is right! Recently, I woke up sensing a number of pastors were discouraged and feeling overwhelmed with not just what is going on in their churches, but also what is happening in our country and world. These are tumultuous times!Being in ministry for 36 years,I completely understand how pastors feel! I vividly remember those monday mornings after a Sunday when they hear nothing but bad news-somebody having marriage problems or needing a miraculous healing or hearing that people you love and care about are leaving the church,saying “The Lord told me to leave”. Financial challenges pile on and then there all the dreaded meetings coming that week you just don’t want to go to! Inside, you might feel you want to go back to bed and stay in your room for a few….months! Then you have staff and board meetings that are really all about what a BAD job you are doing.
It is SO much more difficult pastoring today than when I started 36 years ago. Today the persecution churches and pastors face with the LGBT rights emphasis would have been unimaginable then. People expect things of pastors that are unrealistic and those who show up after a debacle in their former church,somehow bring all their garbage with them. And today,everyone can compare what you are doing with everyone else on earth.Through Youtube and social media the world is smaller and more connected. And unfortunately the more we “compare ourselves to ourselves, we end up without understanding”. (2 Cor 10:12) The truth is,the more we compare then adopt what others do,the less distinct and unique we become. Nothing is wrong in picking up good habits or traits,but In some ways, all the connectivity seems to cause some people to adopt what others are doing more than being real. And it appears to be bringing a frighteningly rigid uniformity almost like cloning.Actually in many ways,there is much LESS diversity and creativity. Trying to “be different”, everyone is becoming more the same. And when you pile on the insecurity in pastors,it further causes pastors to resist being “themselves” thinking they don’t measure up. WAL-MARTING of the church |
AuthorPastor Marc Lawson Archives
July 2018
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