Acts 14:9 The same heard Paul speak: who stedfastly beholding him, andperceiving that he had faith to be healed,

Acts 14:10 Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked.

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

Most people don’t believe God FOR things that they believe IN. They simply have beliefs but don’’t know how to exercise faith. In fact many Christians secretly harbor frustration connected with their faith because they have tried to get answers from God by believing IN those answers, but not believing FOR them. And when their beliefs don’t net answers for them it reinforces their doubts. But the Gospel of Jesus leaves us the promise that faith moves God, not beliefs. The Jewish leaders had tons on beliefs. They specialized in their beliefs – made science out of accurately cataloguing them. Yet they had no faith FOR God when He showed up. And therefore, they couldn’t receive from Him. Faith receives from God what beliefs only think about.

The Holy Spirit revealed to Paul, a word of knowledge that the crippled man sitting in the meeting, listening to him preach, “had faith to be healed”. Notice that it doesn’t say, “the crippled man believed in healing”. It doesn’t even say, “he believed Jesus could heal him.” It says he “had faith TO BE healed”. Belief in what God can do doesn’t mean that you have faith that He has done it for YOU. Beliefs can be abstract, and one can separate himself from what he believes. But real faith always connects the one doing the believing to what is believed for.

Amazingly Paul does not “perceive” a special grace for healing, entering the meeting, but instead he perceives the presence of “faith to be healed” entering the crippled man. The presence of “faith to be healed” triggers the healing, and not some special anointing that comes on Paul to heal the man. The Holy Spirit never miscommunicates. And it was no accident that the revelation He gave Paul focused on something going on in the heart of the crippled man. God didn’t show Paul that it was His special will to heal the man. Nor does He reveal to Paul that there was a special anointing to heal the man. Paul KNEW that it was God’’s will to meet true faith in Jesus and His Gospel, with the specific answer to that faith.

The grace for healing is always present when faith is active.

The Syro-Phoenecian woman - – Matt. 15:28 Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

Woman w/ the issue of blood - Mark 5:34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.

Blind Bartimaeus - Mark 10:47-52 And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. …What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.

But when people have no faith for God, He CANNOT DO ANYTHING….

Mark 6:4-6 But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healedthem. And he marvelled because of their unbelief.

Paul stopped his message and commanded the man to be healed. He didn’t wait for an altar call. Because the man was in a “moment of faith”.

More tomorrow on the “moment of faith”. Until then……

Stay On The Path

Acts 14:9 The same heard Paul speak: who stedfastly beholding him, andperceiving that he had faith to be healed,

Acts 14:10 Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked.

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

Most people hold beliefs for which they have no personal faith. For example, they will be committed to the belief that God is good, but doubt that He wants to do anything good for them. They will believe that God can heal, but have no faith that He will heal them. They will base their beliefs on the divine concept of sowing and reaping, but have no confidence that they will ever reap a blessing from God. They will believe in prayer, and participate in it without any faith that God will answer them.

The most people have lost personal faith in their commonly held beliefs because they haven’t seen any manifestation of reality in their own life. This is why people become wearied with religion. They carry on with the rituals of beliefs, but can’t remember the last time, if ever, that they had a real experience with it. Some beliefs in Biblical Truth don’’t see any real manifestation because they are wrongly viewed. But many correctly held beliefs seldom see the light of reality simply because few people actually come to the place where they can truly embrace them with faith.

John 6:29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.

Jesus tells the Pharisees that the work of God was to believe in Jesus. Well, the Pharisees were great believers in God. But had long since lost their ability to actually exercise any faith towards Him. Hence, they were incapable of receiving Jesus, when He came, though they had believed in Him all their lives. Ironic isn’t it?

Obviously the manifestations of some beliefs are relegated to the future: such as the belief in Heaven. You believe in Heaven but don’t expect to go there this weekend. That’’s fine, yet you believe in its existence and are convinced you’ll be there some day. But what about your beliefs that pertain to the here and now? Do you expect to see God manifested in the practices of your faith? Do you really harbor a living, thriving expectation within your heart and mind, concerning the promises of God when you act upon them? Or do you simply believe in them? If you read  …

1 Pet. 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

And you believe it’’s true, do you actually believe YOU were healed, when you pray for healing from a condition you’ve become afflicted with? If you do believe 1 Peter 2:24 concerning your own condition, are you able to have “faith to be healed” as the lame man did in our opening text? Or do you simply believe in the truth of the verse in principle?

The fact is that you are probably like most people: you believe the promise of scripture without having an immediate faith that God is going to do it for you, right now. Especially when it comes to extraordinary answers to overwhelming conditions, you are probably weighted down with a good deal of doubt. That would be normal. But Jesus invites us to believe His Words above the claims of the normal, the reasonable and the routine. Faith is super-normal. The faith of God, delivered to the believers by the Lord Jesus is by nature a challenge to the course of this world. Yet we hold our beliefs within the safe guidelines of reason, as defined by circumstances, rather than at face value – in the face of the One Who spoke them.

Matt. 17:18 And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.

Matt. 17:19 Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?

Matt. 17:20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

We are more in tuned with our circumstances than we are with our God. And that is why we believe in Him and His Word, but don’t have faith for its manifestation in our own case. It’s a matter of who we are “with” the most.

Luke 1:37 For with God nothing shall be impossible.

More tomorrow, so until then……

Stay On The Path

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

God associates Worship with Service. So let’’s begin with the idea that if one is going to Worship God he should Serve God also, and visa versa. In our message yesterday we established the truth that one is transformed by the power of God while in the place of worship, much in the same way that a caterpillar is transformed in the cocoon. And in the mind of God, the whole reason for our transformation from worldly and weak to Christ-like and strong, is so we can serve God.

Luke 4:8 ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’

We have a banner in our sanctuary that reads, Enter To Worship – Exit To Serve. It’’s a reminder of the fact that the wonderful cleansing and uplift that we receive during worship has a purpose behind it. And that purpose is to qualify us for service.

There are two things that should separate Christian service from other community service and charitable work:

The Joy of the Lord

Service that results from worship is powered by the Joy of the Lord. Christian service isn’t so distinguished from other forms of service by what it does, but by the force with which it’s done. In other words, we render assistance just like the charities of the world. But we do it as an extension of our worship, as unto the Lord, and not to men. They do it for earthly satisfaction and the approval of men.The servant who simply serves man will become easily offended because people will have a tendency to disappoint your expectations and take advantage of your kindness. And many who serve, looking to people for fulfillment, become bitter as time goes on. It’s very hard to avoid unless you get out of the serving business all together.

So the servant who simply serves man has only himself to offer. And his limited virtues will quickly be consumed on the altar of human need. Then because he has become dry and brittle people will reject him. As a result he will become bitter about his whole experience, and trapped in the cycle of offense. It happens all the time.

But the Christian who learns to become a true worshipper is a Christian who learns the secret of “the secret place of the Most High” (Psalm 91). He has learned how to drink from the Limitless One, and to keep himself refreshed. The worshipper learns to easily surrender his or her will, just as the Lord did in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus was not able to be offended by the abandonment and abuse He was subjected to, because He went into it having worshipped the Father, surrendered His will, and became infused with the Father’s enduring love. When we allow our Christian service to be an extension of our worship life, we will operate with a renewing resource, offense-proof and free from burn out.

Living Bread

Secondly, Christian servants serve more than mere earthly bread, we give Jesus, the Bread of Heaven. We emerge from transforming worship in the Presence of God, ready to present the Living Answer to the world. Through worship we have become overflowing with the Limitless One. From worship, we can go to the lame of the world and declare:

“”Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have I give you. In the name of Jesus rise up and walk.”…” - Acts 3:1-9

The mere servants of men can only offer themselves and their skills. But the true worshipper of Christ can offer Jesus, the Healer, Jesus the Savior, Jesus the Deliverer. This was the message the Apostle Paul overwhelmed the Jewish world and rocked the Roman Empire with:

For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. 2 Cor. 4:5

Paul had learned the secret of service:

You must give yourself in worship, as a servant of God, before you can serve men in His name. Listen to Paul’s testimony about the Macedonian Christians. How they overcame their own lack and poverty, by worshipping God before trying to help those suffering in Jerusalem:

2 Cor. 8:1-5 Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. …and this, not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God.

True worship is the secret of true service. This also is one of the reasons why God seeks “true worshippers who will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” For in true worship we become more than we are, and through worship we can do more than we are able, enduring more than we should.

Stay On The Path!

John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

There is one outstanding feature that validates the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as being the true message of salvation from God. And that feature is TRANSFORMATION. Transformation is more than insight on how to change. It is the power of change itself. Throughout the Gospel and Epistles we are told that we can expect to experience life-changing transformation, from carnally weak to spiritually powerful people of God. Nowhere is this point more powerfully made than in Romans chapter 12.

Rom. 12:1 I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

Rom. 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Here the word transformed is our English word for metamorphous. The exact same meaning as is applied to the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly. The butterfly that emerges from the cocoon bears no resemblance whatsoever to the caterpillar that went in. The caterpillar didn’t go into the cocoon and start straining its muscles and concentrating its thoughts to change itself. It was changed by the power of metamorphosis, which God designed into it.

The reason “True Worship” is so important, and why “the Father seeks such to worship Him”, is because it is the very place – the cocoon - where actual transformation occurs. It’’s the point at which we experience transformation from earthly bonds to Christ-likeness. Notice how Paul refers to “presenting our bodies” in worship as our “spiritual service of worship”. Other translations call it our “reasonable service of worship”. He then associates this physical presentation of ourselves in worship, with transformation, or metamorphism. Taken all together, the thought here is wonderfully amazing. Paul is letting us know that when we enter the place of true worship, we undergo the promised exchange – the transformation from earthly to heavenly. Entering into worship is no less effective than the caterpillar entering the cocoon.

Now bear in mind, as we have pointed out over the past few days, entering worship is more than entering church, or entering into singing, or even entering into praying. For people can say prayers without praying. Saying isn’t praying. And singing isn’t worship. Worship is worship, and nothing else can substitute. But when we have genuinely presented ourselves before the Lord, and have successfully entered the Most Holy Place of fellowship with the Father, there is no way of avoiding the affect of His transforming power upon our being.  And the longer and more frequently we go there, the more dramatic the change.

The Lord Jesus spoke about Himself, through Isaiah the Prophet, about 700 years before His appearance in the world. Concerning His mission He revealed His intention to transform us:

Is. 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

Is. 61:2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

Is. 61:3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.

Notice the exchange of “beauty for ashes, etc…” In connection with this series on worship, one of our readers sent in this testimonial:

“Several years ago I had a friend over and we were listening to a worship tape. That day I woke up with a really bad stiff neck. I could not move my head the slightest bit without serious pain. While I was listening to the praise music I began to just join in and sing with my heart to the Lord. My friend joined me. Not much time passed before I felt a complete healing in my neck. I jumped up and exclaimed, “My neck– it’s healed!! My neck…” – and when I looked at her, she had tears streaming down her cheeks. I asked her why she was crying. She said the presence of the Lord was very strong and she felt a complete release from the bondage in some area of her life. We just were stunned with the power and simplicity with which the Lord came to us. Us! Who were we to be so honored to have the living God, the Almighty One take the time to give us a miracle?!”

I can verify this testimony, for I had been this lady’’s Pastor many years ago. If we would but take the Lord at His Word, and come to Him in the sweet surrender of true worship, how we would find such wonderful relief from our struggles and pains. As wonderful as it is to know about the Truth, nothing can compare with being transformed by the Truth. The Father seeks for us to enter the cocoon of worship because that is the place where we truly surrender our will to the life-changing reality of God’s Truth, and make it our own. Paul put it like this:

Rom. 12:1 …your spiritual service of worship.

Rom. 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

When you are transformed by the Truth your life is a walking billboard. The Truth is no longer something that just comes out of your mouth, but it is reflected through all of your being. You have been transformed, changed, by the Truth of Christ, into His very image. Your life is a “proof” of Christ. The place of face-to-face, spirit-to-Spirit worship, is where your transformation occurs.

The simple fact is that true worship is true surrender.

And that’s what it takes for the Truth to go from being something that you believe about God to becoming something true about YOU.

2 Cor. 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

2 Cor. 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

That place where the Spirit of the Lord is – that place of intimate encounter and ultimate surrender, where the Lord’’s face becomes our mirror – that place is called True Worship. Isn’t it wonderful to know that the blessing of a transformed life – the gift of “beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness” isn’t reserved for a special or elite person, but for a true worshipper of Jesus Christ. Anyone can qualify, anyone can surrender and enter in.  Why don’t you determine right now, to begin to seek a more regular and intimately honest life of worship with the Lord. Discover the “secret place of the Most High”.

Psa. 91:1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty….

More on worship tomorrow, so until then……

Stay On The Path!

John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

True worshippers will worship in spirit. That’’s what Jesus said. In fact, He said that they must worship the Father in spirit. Here the Lord is not referring to the Holy Spirit, but to the spirit of man, that constituent part of man which relates to God. Jesus said that the reason we must worship in our spirit was because God is a Spirit. In a way, He was laying out a mechanical reality that we must be aware of if we are to worship successfully.

We can move towards the center of this truth by peeling away outer layers of misunderstanding. We can determine, from what Jesus is saying, that true worship does not occur on the strictly physical, emotional or mental levels, but on the spiritual level. That is to say that physical displays, emotional feelings and good thoughts, by themselves are not worship. Worship is a communion, and it must occur in the spirit of a man. It is true that engaging our physical body is absolutely essential for getting to the place of worship:

Rom. 12:1 I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

And it is also true that engaging you mind is also essential for getting to the place of worship…

Rom. 12:2 …And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

And our emotions also are necessary in helping to bring us to the place of worship…

Luke 10:27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thyheart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind….

All these things are necessary for bringing ourselves to attention in our spirit. If we stop at any of these levels of our being, and take for gratification from what we experience there, we will miss God and remain “in our flesh”. But if we press through with our body, mind and emotions, into the core of our being: our spirit, then we will begin to worship the Father. We will find Him there.

Elijah is in a cave on Mt. Horeb, seeking the Lord…

1 Kings 19:11 And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:

1 Kings 19:12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

1 Kings 19:13 And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?

The wind, fire and earthquake were undoubtedly all affected by the Spirit of God, yet for the purposes of worship, the Lord was not in any of them. Afterward it was the still small voice, probably within Elijah’’s own spirit, by which God spoke.

It is necessary to bring our body mind and emotions together in a coordinated attentiveness that points toward consciousness of God. But Proverbs states it best:

Prov. 20:27 The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly.

It is also appropriate to say that true worship not only occurs in the spirit of man but also in the Holy Spirit. Paul states:

1 Cor. 6:17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.

The Holy Spirit resides and communes with us in our spirit. Therefore our fulfillment in worship comes from the Holy Spirit, in the place of our spirit. We are not fulfilled in worship by music or any emotional release – though it may occur. But only God Himself can edify our human spirit, and we must press into that place for worship to happen. Until we have, we have not worshipped, and whatever we’ve gained mentally and emotionally will be burned off quickly, like vapors on a hot road. The core of our being cries out for the reality that begat it…

John 1:9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

Our spirit yearns for freedom only the Holy Spirit can give…

Psa. 42:7 Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls;

More on worship tomorrow, so until then……

Stay On The Path!

John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

No church or group can claim to “have true worship”. It’’s a highly individual thing, and it transcends any group’’s claim to formulas. Ultimately God Himself is the arbiter or true worship, for it is He alone who “seeks such to worship Him”. Church shepherds and herdsmen might evaluate the outer forms of worshippers, but only God knows if He is truly being worshipped.

Before we look at a couple of the elements of the true worship, as God has set it forth in His Word, let’’s identify the ultimate indicator that our worship is “true”.

True worship responds to God’’s seeking YOU!

…“…for the Father seeketh such to worship him.”

In other words, the Spirit of the Lord is knocking on the door of our hearts, wooing, convicting, and calling us. The idea that God is static towards you, even unaware, and you are approaching Him to initiate communion, is simply wrong. He is ever aware and always dealing with us. Worship is initiated on His part and responded to on ours.

1 John 4:19 We love him, because he first loved us.

The truest worship is that in which we respond to God drawing upon us; which is always, if we’ll listen. There are times when you don’t want to pay attention to His dealings, because He’s touching an area that you don’t want Him interfering with. But that is precisely the place where your truest worship will occur. It’’s by yielding to Him in honest surrender, as Lord of your life. So true worship begins with the recognition that God is purposefully stretching His Hand out to you, and you are responding. This is why it is so important to read the Bible and gain an understanding of His Word. For then you will be aware of His position toward you in Jesus Christ.

Now let’s examine a few biblical elements of true worship.

“The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth“”

The Worshipper should be True …Genuine”, sincere, engaged, yielded, receptive:

Is. 29:13 And the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips but remove their hearts and minds far from Me,

The true worshipper is genuine in his or her desire to worship God. They are not simply going through the motions or dispensing an obligation. Their mind and heart is in what they are doing. If we don’t have it in our hearts to do so, God doesn’t tell us to back off until we do. He rebukes our heartlessness, tells us to get our attitude straight and offer that sacrifice with all our heart. God doesn’t excuse us from worship when our heart is absent; He rebukes the absence. How totally contrary to our modern praise-God-if-you-feel-like-it attitude. People wrongly believe that the freedom of the Spirit protects a right NOT TO PARTICIPATE in worship if the feeling isn’t there. Nothing could be more misleading. The freedom of the Spirit is the blessing in your participation, not freedom from it.

Jesus contrasts Simon the Pharisee’s reception of Him with that of the sinner woman who wept behind Jesus, anointing His feet with her tears and expensive ointment. Simon’s heart wasn’t made up about Jesus, and his mind had no grasp upon just how indebted to the Lord he really was. There was no gratitude in him towards Jesus. The “sinner woman” however, was most definitely zeroed in on the Fountainhead of Mercy. She was a true worshipper.

Luke 7:44 And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.

Luke 7:45 Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet.

Luke 7:46 My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.

Luke 7:47 Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.

Luke 7:48 And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgive.

Next, the Worship should also be True – based in “Reality”, God’’s reality. We praise God for what His Word says, not for what we see or feel. God wants to challenge the our circumstances through the Truth that is acknowledged in our worship.

Rom. 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

“Worship in truth” must be an act of Faith (based on God’s Word), NOT an act motivated simply by our Beliefs (which is what we think about what God’s Word says). It’’s where we exchange our beliefs for His Truth. It’’s where Truth triumphs over opinion and theology.

For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone. Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name. Psa. 86:10-11

Notice that the heart agreement follows the decision to ‘walk in truth’. True worship drags the reluctant, sleepy human heart, up the mountain of Truth, and makes it face reality, rather than leaving is submerged in the valley of illusive emotions and suspicious opinions.

Rom. 4:17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

Rom. 4:18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.

True worship will always draw the worshipper up into reality as God declares it, in contrast and in opposition to that of circumstances.

“God is an Activist for His own Truth and those that worship Him must advocate for that Truth!”

More on worship tomorrow, so until then……

Stay On The Path!

John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

Solomon is one of the most intriguing yet tragic characters in the Bible. God gives him a great gift of wisdom, by which he becomes the wisest man to have lived. Yet instead of employing his gift to live a fulfilling life in service to God, Solomon tears into it (wisdom) in an attempt to discover its boundaries and analyze its workings.He ends up turning his own life into a gigantic experiment-gone-bad, cruising through every known experience (sinful and otherwise) knowable to man. And in the end he winds up back at the beginning, with the simple knowledge that humbling one’s self to live a life of worship and obedience to God, is the key to happiness; all else is vanity. Only the problem with his final conclusion is that by the time he arrives back at that conclusion, he has ruined his life with infidelity, idolatry and deception. He took hold of wisdom and rather than simply using it to serve God and live happily, he worshipped it, ruined it, and damaged his relationship with God in the process.

In a similar way, the church has been experimenting with worship, and risks analyzing it to death. Worship has become studied, developed, marketed and used, but for all the experimentation, there may be fewer Christians, per capita, actually entering into worship. An indication of this is the frequency with which “worshippers” change churches over the style of music; musicians seek opportunities to express themselves; and church members complain about not being able to “enter in”. After several years of developing “worship ministry” in churches, we are running the risk of accomplishing neither, worship or ministry.

Over the next few days we will explore some of the simple basics that the Bible lays out for us concerning worship. This is not an attempt to analyze further the already calloused topic of worship, but rather to simply clear a path through the debris of technology and therapy that has crowded its doorway.

As a starting point, here are a few fundamental thoughts:

Worship is not a technology, like a carnival ride, design to provide a thrill or a diversion, for human fulfillment. It is not a destination of itself, but merely the passageway of communion between God and His people. The idea isn’t to “get into worship” but to get your heart out to God, through worship.

Worship is not an art form, but rather a duty. It’s not an exercise in therapy, but in theology, with therapeutic results. There is a blessing to be obtained from God, but there is no blessing, as such, that comes from the act of worship.

Psa. 42:11 Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance, and my God.

It is silly to make an art form out of worship. What is that we would work on? …our singing? …our facial expressions?… our tears? How ridiculous it is to hear someone commenting on what a beautiful worshipper so-and-so is. How would we know if so-and-so were a beautiful worshipper? Worship isn’t a swan dive. Sometimes worship can appear very ugly from the perspective of the by-stander (as though the perspective of the by-stander mattered at all).

Luke 7:44 And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.

If there is a ‘heart of worship’ Jesus is it. The heart of worship isn’t the spiritual style or technique that one has developed. But the heart of worship is the place where God touches man; and that place is Jesus Christ Himself. Whatever the biblical forms of singing and praying we use, the object of our efforts is Jesus Himself.

Psa. 2:11 Serve the LORD with fear (reverence), and rejoice with trembling.

Psa. 2:12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

Though a person wrote these words, under the Law of the Old Covenant, and without the grace of the indwelling Holy Spirit, yet they convey the simple truth that worship is about honoring God, and our need to do so.

More on worship tomorrow, so until then……

Stay On The Path!

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

From the text of our previous devotional, “Jesus: Your Boss”:

“Holy tasks do not give power. Righteous causes do not provide their own self-fulfilling strength. Blessings of provision cannot fill your soul with what it needs. Every wife and husband has eventually learned that even the best of earthly love cannot quench the thirsty soul. God has always challenged those, into whose hands He has entrusted His work or deposited His blessings, to hold them with a special understanding. Understanding that however faithful in our stewardship or intense in our service, it is to Him alone that we must continue to go for our fulfillment, our Life.”

In this series of devotionals we are going back to making the Lord our source for personal affirmation, identity, emotional security and fulfillment. God’’s people need regular reminders not to seek their approval, satisfaction and sense of identity from other people or the ministry and service. The lack of comfort and infrequency of real overcoming experiences among Christians is a direct result of not taking our refuge in our fellowship with Jesus Christ. Our complete state of well-being is derived from the resources of our:

· Security

· Joy

· Job/Boss

· Mirror

These are the areas we look to, by which our entire mental and spiritual compass is set. Yesterday’’s devotional dealt with the fact that in all our labors, particularly in the Lord’’s work, we are not working for the mission but for the Lord, and to Him alone do we look for affirmation and reward. Today we are going to expand that concept and deal with how we go about measuring our success.

The fact that the labors of our life, particularly those in the work of the Christ’’s kingdom, will be measured to determine our faithfulness and fruit is undeniable.The Lord did not leave us here to simply occupy ourselves with busyness until we die. However, the criteria for measuring our progress, and defining our success, lie strictly with the Lord Himself. No man, no organization, not even our own personal judgment, is ultimately suitable to weigh our works and determine their success. That ability must rest with the Lord, whose work it is with which we’ve been entrusted.

1 Cor. 4:2 Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.

1 Cor. 4:3 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self.

1 Cor. 4:4 For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord.

1 Cor. 4:5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.

With these words, Paul places himself directly before the face of God as his mirror of judgment. It is to Christ alone that he looks for evaluation, reproof and approval. But unfortunately, in this regard Paul is unique. For he has been able to inspire generations of laborers into the harvest fields by the sterling example of his sacrificial life, yet this wonderful piece of counsel has gone largely unheeded. For it is the greatest occupational hazard of Christian workers to flock together for mutual approval, and compare their progress against each other.

Paul called them, “the number”: a not so subtle implication of the carnal ranking system that their members subject themselves to. These fraternities of faith offer fellowship but it’’s seldom left there. For because of the nature of men – always looking to one another to gauge themselves – they often, however unintentional, become the place where Christians look for validation, which can only come from God Himself. The danger is that good men become stifled while compromisers are promoted. When we look into the distorted mirror of men, to groom our souls, we get opinion not discernment. For the light of others does not possess the penetrating power to see your soul in the way God does. For it is God Who called you to Himself and imbedded His grace in you. He alone knows the inner working of His grace in your life. When Jesus is your mirror, what you see is accurate and truly helpful to your progress. For He shows you the truth that comes of God’’s eternal reality, and not the fractured truth of men, that comes from their shadowy world. In the mirror of men you will see the desire and ambitions of others for their own advancement. But in the mirror of Christ you will see what God is developing in you. There is no warmer place of comfort, no greater affirmation, no stronger security, than that which you receive on your knees before the mirror of Jesus.

2 Cor. 3:18 (Amplified Bible) And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendorand from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit.

It is good to receive the advise of godly men and the leadership of righteous shepherds. But we must always remember to keep ourselves in the Presence of God for the ultimate critique of our soul’s’ progress. It is all too easy, as Paul said of “the number”, to accept commendation from men who have neither the right nor power to send you on your mission, nor deliver you out of any trouble that may meet you. Certainty is found only one place, and that is in the eyes of our Heavenly Father. The still small voice of His Spirit in your heart, and the guiding Light that falls upon your Bible reading, with these, your soul’s Shepherd leads you forth into His perfecting path. For He has called you and He alone knows the way for you.

Job 23:10 But He knows the way I take; When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

Stay On The Path!

Gen. 22:6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.

Gen. 22:7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where isthe lamb for a burnt offering?

Gen. 22:8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.

Gen. 22:9 And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.

Gen. 22:10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.

Gen. 22:11 And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.

Gen. 22:12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

From the text of our previous devotional, “Jesus: Your Joy”:

“Holy tasks do not give power. Righteous causes do not provide their own self-fulfilling strength. Blessings of provision cannot fill your soul with what it needs.Every wife and husband has eventually learned that even the best of earthly love cannot quench the thirsty soul. God has always challenged those, into whose hands He has entrusted His work or deposited His blessings, to hold them with a special understanding. Understanding that however faithful in our stewardship or intense in our service, it is to Him alone that we must continue to go for our fulfillment, our Life.”

In this series of devotionals we are going back to making the Lord our source for personal affirmation, identity, emotional security and fulfillment. God’s people need regular reminders not to seek their approval, satisfaction and sense of identity from other people or the ministry and service. The lack of comfort and infrequency of real overcoming experiences among Christians is a direct result of not taking our refuge in our fellowship with Jesus Christ. Our complete state of well-being is derived from the resources of our:

· Security

· Joy

· Job/Boss

· Mirror

These are the areas we look to, by which our entire mental and spiritual compass is set. Yesterday’’s devotional dealt with the fact that Jesus, and our fellowship with Him, is the source of our joy, and not ministry or work we do for Him. Today we are going to deal with Working for God rather than working for a ministry purpose, a vision, plan or dream.

God had laid all the promises of the blood covenant on Isaac. After Abraham dismissed Ishmael, and Isaac finally arrived, you can just imagine how his hopes and joy became fixed upon his son. Isaac was the long awaited fulfillment of a word he had spent 25 years following. Isaac was the validation of Abraham’’s faith.  He could finally silence all the skeptical opinions he had endured, simply by pointing to Isaac. Isaac was the materialization of a fantastic vision of global blessing. Whatever God meant about blessing all the kingdoms of the world and multiplying his seed through the promised son, it was all resident in Isaac. To understand just how emphatic God is about having the focus of our service placed upon Him and not upon a job, we have to try and understand how important Isaac was to Abraham. And then, even more, we must consider how important Isaac was to God.

Abraham was God’’s servant. God hadn’t covenanted with him only to now make him the servant of Isaac. Probably now in his teen years, Abraham had to take Isaac to the mountains of Moriah, and sacrifice him, in order to free himself from trusting in the means of the covenant rather than the Maker of the covenant. Every Christian who follows Christ into the service of the Gospel, receives their promised “Isaac” – the work to which they were called. And when that call to service finally materializes, with it come all the covenant promises attached. Our particular ministry for the Lord becomes the place where we prove our calling and substantiate our Christian claims. It is typical then for His servants to transfer their allegiance, hopes and fears to the Isaac God has brought forth through them. Their Isaac is a ministry or gift for service, through which God has promised to work.But it is Jesus Himself, who is the covenant-maker, and Him with whom we must deal. As we take possession of the ministry God has given us (be it family responsibility, Gospel service, or any project God has called us to), it becomes too tempting to become possessive and run the work in our own wisdom. It becomes an extension of our own identity, from which we look for validation, as we seize control of all its details.

But the work to which we are sent, and the Isaac with which God furnishes us, must remain His possession, and we His servants. No ministry or work; no covenant fulfillment, such as Isaac; possess the power to say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the rest of your Lord.” God alone is your Boss. It is He with whom you are in Covenant and not your job, projects or ministry. The “work” can be very unstable and take from you more than it gives. But Jesus is your source of strength and affirmation. It is before Him that you will be presented on that day of reckoning, to give account of your life and service. So live with God as a steward, with your Boss, and your work as His possession.

Matt. 25:14 For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.

Matt. 25:15 And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.

Matt. 25:16 Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents.

Matt. 25:17 And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two.

Matt. 25:18 But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord’s money.

Matt. 25:19 After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoned with them.

Matt. 25:20 And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.

Matt. 25:21 His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

Stay On The Path!

Luke 10:18 And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.

Luke 10:19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

Luke 10:20 Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

From the text of our previous devotional, “The Life In Living”:

“Holy tasks do not give power. Righteous causes do not provide their own self-fulfilling strength. Blessings of provision cannot fill your soul with what it needs. Every wife and husband has eventually learned that even the best of earthly love cannot quench the thirsty soul. God has always challenged those, into whose hands He has entrusted His work or deposited His blessings, to hold them with a special understanding. Understanding that however faithful in our stewardship or intense in our service, it is to Him alone that we must continue to go for our fulfillment, our Life.”

In this series of devotionals we are going back to making the Lord our source for personal affirmation, identity, emotional security and fulfillment. God’s people need regular reminders not to seek their approval, satisfaction and sense of identity from other people or the ministry and service. The lack of comfort and infrequency of real overcoming experiences among Christians is a direct result of not taking our refuge in our fellowship with Jesus Christ. Our complete state of well-being is derived from the resources of our:

· Security

· Joy

· Job/Boss

· Mirror

These are the areas we look to, by which our entire mental and spiritual compass is set. Yesterday’’s devotional dealt with getting our security from our fellowship with the Lord Himself and not our work. Today we are going to deal with the fact that our fellowship with the Lord Himself, through worship, praise and prayer, is our only source of true joy.

Nehemiah said, ““Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”” (Neh. 8:10)

He is basically telling the people that their ability to enjoy the fruits of their celebration comes from their relationship with God. It’’s not just that God gives us enjoyable experiences or the ability to enjoy things in life. It’’s that joy comes from direct contact with Him personally and that joy has a reflective affect, enabling us to enjoy His blessings. But we should remember that there is no force of joy that emanates from God’’s blessings. The joy is a fruit and force of the Holy Spirit.

Now let’s consider our text in Luke chapter 10, where Jesus’ disciples have just returned, rejoicing after preaching in villages, and discovering that they had authority to cast out devils through His name.  Jesus tells them not to take their joy from the results of ministry, but from their relationship with God.  Jesus wasn’t  saying that we shouldn’t be glad to exercise authority over Satan. Nor was He suggesting that we shoulddn’t praise God and rejoice in the Lord when we have such victories. But what He was telling them and us, was something far more important to our own spiritual wellbeing. He was telling us that making our joy dependent upon the results of our work or ministry is dangerous. Results of ministry may not always be the same. There may be times when your work for God looks like a failure. There may be a point in time when it appears that Satan is winning the battle. There was certainly no rejoicing because of their triumph over Satan while Jesus was being arrested, tried and executed. Yet Jesus had told them to rejoice that their names were written in Heaven. That is a source of joy that is not affected by any circumstance on Earth. In fact, at the very moment it appeared that Satan was victorious over our Lord; he was actually putting the noose around his own neck and losing the keys to our chain. For it was at that very moment when, in Jesus’ suffering all seemed lost, our greatest blessing was being secured.

If we as Christians hand the reins of our joy over to the outcome of our ministry efforts, we are moving off the very rock upon which He told us to build. We are putting ourselves back under the very yoke of circumstances from which He died to free us. Jesus did not free us from dependence upon bad circumstances just to make us dependent upon good circumstances. For we have no such warranty that all the circumstances, and every outcome of Christian effort, will produce a joyous result. And many are the works of God that will wear out His laborers. Who said that you’’d never burn out doing God’s work? Paul writes:

Phil. 2:27 For indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.

Phil. 2:30 Because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life, to supply your lack of service toward me.

Where is the magic guarantee that warrants us against becoming broken down while serving God? There is none, because it’’s not from the work of ministry that we are to receive the Joy that reinvigorates us, but by going to Jesus Himself to receive the joy Who is our strength. As Jesus told His first disciples, so must we hear His advise today, that our own salvation must be the avenue of our joy.

Stay On The Path!

Luke 10:41 But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things;

Luke 10:42 but only a few things are necessary, really only one, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

From the text of our previous devotional, ““The Life In Living””:

“Holy tasks do not give power. Righteous causes do not provide their own self-fulfilling strength. Blessings of provision cannot fill your soul with what it needs. Every wife and husband has eventually learned that even the best of earthly love cannot quench the thirsty soul. God has always challenged those, into whose hands He has entrusted His work or deposited His blessings, to hold them with a special understanding. Understanding that however faithful in our stewardship or intense in our service, it is to Him alone that we must continue to go for our fulfillment, our Life.”

In the beginning we received our comfort directly from our fellowship and prayer with Jesus Himself. We gained our sense of security from sitting at His feet, as Mary did, listening to His Words. It was from our personal attentiveness to Him that we drew our confidence. Our identity was formed unshakeable as we allowed the Lord Himself to handle all our needs and supply all our directions.

But with the passage of time every Christian discovers that there is a life of “ministry” that comes with following Christ. Jesus Himself outlined it in the cost of discipleship.

John 12:26 “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall My servant also be; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.

A close look at His statement will show that He calls those who would serve the ministry to make certain that they follow HIM. He doesn’t say to followers, to be sure to serve Him. The risk isn’t in Followers not serving but in Servants not following. Simply speaking, there is an occupational hazard that comes with serving in the ministry. Martha had fallen into it. And so have many of us. We begin to look toward the work we do for God to fill us with the same sense of security that sitting at His feet once supplied us. But the ministry cannot replace Jesus. Nowhere in scripture does God tell us that through our labors we will find ourselves and find contentment. True inner peace and security can only be derived by direct contact with Jesus Himself.

How many Christians today find themselves frustrated or even disillusioned because they are not receiving from their labors for God, the peace and security they expected. But if you look carefully His own example through the Gospels, it becomes quickly apparent that Jesus never presented Himself as a Servant of mankind, but always as the Servant of the Father. Jesus knew what all too many of us fail to remember; that people cannot fill the inner needs of your life. If you become a servant of man prepare to be used up and run over. Prepare to become disillusioned and bitter. Because whomever you serve, to that one will you look for your security. The approval and reward, if any, that they give you will be your only bread. And the sad thing is that what little reward we receive from serving people can easily be yanked away from us through one act of neglect, rejection or betrayal.

But Mary sat at Jesus feet “choosing the good part which could not be taken away from her”. And the security you receive from letting the Lord affirm you with His Word and comfort you by His Spirit, cannot be taken away from you by anyone.Jesus never took His eyes off of the Heavenly Father. In everything He did He looked to the Father for His guidance and reward. Consequently Jesus was able to do the Father’s work, which helped people, and never became embittered by their response or lack of it. Even when after laboring over the disciples, they abandoned Him at Calvary, He was able to forgive all, because His security didn’t come from the ministry, which seemed to be at it’s darkest moment, but from the Father, whose plans never fail.

No matter how great a work you’re doing for God, please take time to sit at Jesus’ feet and receive that affirmation which will secure you through all life’’s ups and downs.

Stay On The Path!

John 1:4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

John 1:5 And the light shined in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

Jesus puts the LIFE in living. Nothing and no one produces life of themselves, or has brought themselves into existence, or maintains the force of life within them. Everything exists, deriving its being from the Creator. And Jesus is the Creator and sustainer of all that lives.

“”All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.””

The most we can do is to decide the qualities of our existence. The least we can do is just exist. You can exist or you can have LIFE. It all depends on whether you live through Jesus or not. Consider carefully what these verses might mean:

John 5:25 Truly I say to you, The time is coming, it has even now come, when the voice of the Son of God will come to the ears of the dead, and those hearing it will have life.

John 5:26 For even as the Father has life in himself, so he has given to the Son to have life in himself.

Who is more “dead” than the sinner who simply exists without receiving the eternal LIFE that comes from Jesus Christ. Those who pass from this world into a Christ-less eternity, do so by leaving without having LIFE in them. They’’re dead before they die.

“”To you did he give life, when you were dead through your wrong doing and sins. ”  …”Eph. 2:1

So having real Life – life worth living, life that energizes the soul with happiness, life that causes fulfillment, and the life that comes from God – this life is not the same as just getting up each day and moving forward. But rather……

This life is being offered to us in Jesus Christ……

“I have come so that they may have life and have it in greater measure.” John 10:10

This life must be sought and chosen……

“And still you have no desire to come to me so that you may have life.” John 5:40

This life comes through actively exercising faith in Jesus Christ……

“That you may have faith that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and so that, having this faith you may have life in his name.” John 20:31

Having established the point that there is a Life to be gained, which does not automatically come with simply existing, we must confront ourselves with this question: “Am I simply drinking from experiences of my existence, or am I truly experiencing Life?”

For the unsaved sinner, this question simply boils down to realizing that you really don’t have Jesus Christ living in your heart. But for the true Christian, with the Holy Spirit in his heart, this question probes our every action, and prompts us to examine from where we are deriving our comfort, identity and sense of fulfillment. Many are the believers whose pursuit of Jesus ends when they receive His blessings. Remember that only 1 out of 10 healed lepers returned to worship Jesus. Too many of us stop seeking God for His will once we become employed in His purposes. Faith becomes replaced with assumption. Prayer is replaced by experience. And Life diminishes into religious existence.

For the Christian, staying saved is not nearly as challenging as staying dependent. The strong emotional bonds we form with God’’s blessings and provisions can replace the bonds we had with Jesus when we were seeking Him for our Life. Once Jesus has become your Life - emanating into your soul is His radiant glory as you face Him -– He then does not transfer that life-giving radiance into the gifts or ministries with which He has blessed you. All that He gives us, every task He assigns us, every vision by which He employs us, are all simply “things”. However good or godly they may be, they all have the potential to serve as a false fulfillment. God gives Life as Jesus Christ. To Him and Him alone, must men come for their daily bread. Holy tasks do not give power. Righteous causes do not provide their own self-fulfilling strength. Blessings of provision cannot fill your soul with what it needs. Every wife and husband has eventually learned that even the best of earthly love cannot quench the thirsty soul.

God has always challenged those, into whose hands He has entrusted His work, or deposited His blessings, to hold them with a special understanding. Understanding that however faithful in our stewardship or intense in our service, it is to Him alone that we must continue to go for our fulfillment, our Life. God’s work will wear you out. God’’s blessings will wear you down. If you shift your identity from Christ alone to your own service for Him…if you look to His work for your satisfaction, instead of Him alone…if you draw your happiness from His blessings instead of joy from His Presence…then Life will escape you.

The most tragic failings of Christians have occurred when God’’s servants forgot to be His children. When they began to align their identity with the work they did for Him. When they tried to fill their need for strength-giving joy with the happiness of a successful work. When an answered prayer became the reason to stop seeking God. In providing for us, in using us in His purposes, God always runs the risk of losing us to His blessings. By blessing our existence He runs the risk that we will forget where our Life comes from.

Yet God has never stopped opening His Hands towards us. He who made us knows the design of our being. He knows that our deepest craving is for a thing called Life. And that thirst for Life can never be quenched by anything less than He Himself. And God knows the great secret that men will come to the Fountain of Life if He is lifted up among them. The only reason why men die parched within reach of the waters of Life is that they have been too consumed with existence to look up and see their Life.

John 4:10 In answer Jesus said, If you had knowledge of what God gives freely and who it is who says to you, Give me water, you would make your prayer to him, and he would give you living water.

Stay On The Path!

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path;

God…Is…Steady!

He doesn’t change His disposition of grace and goodwill towards us, who believe. His Face is turned towards us in favor and His mercy beams ceaselessly in our direction. There is no rotation in Him. He doesn’t go up and down. He has no emotional mood swings. Our Heavenly Father is so smart that He knows everything in the future as well as the present. Because of that, He thought out His positions very thoroughly before He expressed them. There will be no surprizes that will make Him change His mind towards you.

Psa. 89:33 Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.

Psa. 89:34 My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.

For years man mistakingly believed that the Sun moved around the Earth. While we were in the darkness of Night, we thought we had to wait til the Sun decided to rise again in the East, in order to have the benefits of it’s light and warmth. But eventually we learned better. We realized that WE KEEP TURNING AROUND not the Sun. It’s we who keep turning our back on the Sun. But the Sun never stops sending out it’s rays towards us. All we have to do to receive the benefits of the Sun’s light and warmth is to turn around and face it.

So many people are insecure in their trust of God because they have an image of Him that is taken from the examples of life and nature around us: everything changes…nothing remains the same. Their view of God is like the observers of the Sun hundreds of years ago. From the perspective of where they stood, the Sun revolved. It came and went. And many Christians view a God Who “comes and goes”, because they see Him from where they stand. They see Him from the inconsistency of their own changing attitudes. But once we saw the Sun from a neutral perspective the truth became evident: The Sun never changes positions. It faithfully shines out in all directions. Let’s stop super-imposing the shifting characteristics of nature upon our view of God. Let’s see Him in the larger light of reality. Let’s believe accurately, that regardless of our emotional fluctuations, our behavioral ups and downs, and personal inconsistencies, that the Lord has set Himself towards us in His Love and He will not revoke it.

James 1:17 ….Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

91 times the Bible states:

Psa. 107:1 ……for his mercy endures for ever.

What an amazing thought, that even when we fall short, and end up bringing hard consequenses upon ourselves, that our Heavenly Father has already taken the position that He is not sending judgment, or withdrawing in rejection; but He is facing us in His Love and mercy, and radiating His grace to help us!

2 Cor. 5:19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

Heb. 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

Stay On The Path!

We leave the door open to disaster when we fail to exercise strategic thinking. Paul was thinking strategically as he advised the Corinthian Church about exercising proper judgment by saying:

2 Cor. 2:11 Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

The failure of Christian churches to practice godly judgment is perhaps the greatest contributor to Satan’s advantages over us.  Whether it’s being judgmental or overly tolerant, poor judgment leaves the door wide open for Satan to drive a train wreck right through the church.  Therefore we need to take a good look at Paul’s advice on judgment and adjust ourselves accordingly.

Anatomy Of A Proper Church Judgment: 1 Cor. 5:1-13

Let’s breakdown Paul’s remarks to determine when and how we should enter judgment.

1 Cor. 5:1 ”It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you.”

First of all, this issue was one of confirmed public knowledge, not here-say or unsubstantiated rumors. And it was not a private moral failure on the part of a member needing help. It was a unrepentant blatant practice that was publicly associated with the church’s membership.

Secondly Paul referred to it as “fornication”.  Therefore this was not just a violation of some non-essential church regulation. Or the crime of aggravating some church official’s particular idiosyncrasies. This was clearly one of the God’s Thou-shalt-nots. If we want God’s public endorsement we have to stop ignoring public rebellion.

1 Cor. 5:2-6 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned… Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

We believe God doesn’t accept ongoing corruption in His Church.  So why do we press ahead with your celebrations of praise and worship, as though God ignores the sin in favor of the pleasure He derives from our worship?  Our dependence upon praise and worship has become imbalanced, at the expense of holiness.

· Is God partial & hypocritical?  Is He willing to receive worship from and bless one part of the body, while ignoring the offending part, as though they had nothing to do with each other?

· Isn’t God worthy of a whole Body?

· Can we arbitrarily decide that that God must settle for the worship of the “good part” and He can do what He wants with the “corrupt part”?

· Is the Body not responsible for itself?

· Does God so need our worship that He will accept it full of unrepented sin & offence?

The point is obvious: We, as the church, cannot simply press forward in celebration & worship under a load of sin. We must stop and purge it out to maintain our sanctity to God. Otherwise our worship is just music and singing.

1 Cor. 5:3 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,

I can just hear the contemporary rationalization against this scripture: “Paul was judgmental and jumped to conclusions before investigating the reasons for this sin.”  But when the act is clearly an abomination before God and has been challenged, yet continues unrepented (unchanged), THEN a “motive” is immaterial. The offender, clinging to his offence for any reason, has no excusable defense.

1 Cor. 5:4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,

1 Cor. 5:5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

We have forgotten that Jesus gave us the authority to “retain sins” as well as forgive them -  Jn. 20:23; Mtt. 18:15-18. Once sin is challenged and met with a refusal to change, we are NOT to offer forgiveness, but rather, action taken to safeguard the purity of the church. Removing all refuge and exposing the unrepentant offender to his consequences, helps make clear his position and need to repent. To do less is to allow Satan concealment in the murky waters of compromise.

Examples of “Retaining Sins” over unrepentant church-goers:

· Chronic Sinners - 1 Cor. 5:1-13

· Abandonment & Opposition - 2 Tim. 1:15; 2 Tim. 4:10-15

· Moochers & Busybodies - 2 Thess. 3:6-8, 10-15

· Divisiveness- Rom. 16:17-18

· Heretics - (personal opinion vs. submission to the revealed Truth) Tit.3:10;  1 Tim. 1:19-20; 2 Tim. 2:16-18

1 Cor. 5:7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened.

Renewal is instantaneous when proper judgment is practiced in the church. Later after the incestuous man was removed from fellowship, he underwent a genuine repentance, and sought to be reinstated with his church fellowship. Paul, ever watchful against the opportunities of Satan, said this in response:

2 Cor. 2:10 But one whom you forgive anything, I forgive also; for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ,

2 Cor. 2:11 so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.

When repentance is clear and real, do not withhold forgiveness and acceptance, so that Satan may be kept out. And the cycle of godly judgment will be completed in restoration.

Stay On The Path!

1 Cor. 5:2 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.

1 Cor. 5:3 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,

1 Cor. 5:4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,

1 Cor. 5:5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

1 Cor. 5:6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

1 Cor. 5:7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:

1 Cor. 5:8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

1 Cor. 5:9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:

1 Cor. 5:10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.

1 Cor. 5:11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.

1 Cor. 5:12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?

1 Cor. 5:13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

Jesus said, “Judge not, that you be not judged” (Mt 7:1), and Paul said, “He that is spiritual judges all things” (1 Co 2:15). No, the Bible does not contradict itself. Jesus spoke of passing sentences of condemnation on people without knowing the true facts. Paul spoke of making evaluations based upon righteousness imparted by the Spirit of God. But today we are faced with a terrible crisis of judgment in our culture. We make judgments when we shouldn’t and we avoid making judgments when we should. The failure to exercise proper judgment in life always opens the door to bad judgments being made in its place. Or we could say that the failure to make judgments that lead to corrections leaves the door open to judgment that brings unwanted consequences.

1 Cor. 11:31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.

Some of the worst judgment is practiced today in our churches. On the one hand, we avoid practicing discretion in order to appear “tolerant” and non-condemning. Then the church is filled with all types of unchecked bizarre behavior, becoming unfit for godly fellowship. Then on the other hand, there are churches where the entire presentation of the Gospel is preceded by a pronouncement of judgment in order to establish the church’s stand against sin. In this case the church is angry at the world and afraid of sin, so the message is, “If you can survive our judgment then we will love you.”

It’s a shame that this most critical practice of exercising good judgment, which should be a hallmark characteristic of the Christian Church, is handled with such immaturity. Especially since the legitimacy of our very witness of Christ is measured, in the eyes of the world, by the judgments we display.

Our inability to practice godly judgment begins with the very selection of leadership we choose in our churches. Since we understand that true judgment balances itself on the reality that God Himself is Judge of all things, and already has an opinion and will in every matter, then it follows that any true judgment must flow from God. Yet in the appointing of leaders and church stewards, we select people with degrees, money and musical talent instead of those who walk with the conviction of God. Our very selection of leaders and representatives shows that our judgment is performed for the approval of men’s opinions rather than God’s. Once flawed judgment is established it simply leads to a pattern of wrong judgments. This sad path was dramatically portrayed in the life of King Saul.

Once we pick church leaders for the wrong reasons we have created a precedent that becomes the established pattern for judgment throughout our church. Our people quickly get the message of what’s important and what’s not. Soon they begin using the same criteria of judgment in their own decisions.

The ability to establish proper godly judgment in our churches is so essential to the ministry that the entire message of the Gospel, regardless of how persuasive or effective we are at communicating it, either stands or falls, balanced on the foundation of our judgments. In other words, it’s not the right message nor skill in presenting it that ultimately determines our fruitfulness. It’s how we practice judgment.

Tomorrow we will look at our text in 1Co. ch. 5 as a lesson in judgment.

Stay On The Path!

Mark 11:24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

If you can come into the place of genuine, unfettered faith in God, concerning His Word, then nothing can keep you from receiving His promises. Various people in the Gospels whose only qualification for receiving the blessings of Jesus was their unfettered faith demonstrated this astonishing principle. Among them were people like the Syro-Phoenician woman whose only claim on Jesus was her insistent, unwavering faith. Jesus would remark again and again to such people, “your faith has made you whole”, or “as you have believed, be it done unto you”.

Jesus NEVER declined a single person who approached him from the place of faith. We’re not talking here about having beliefs. Everyone has beliefs. But we’re talking about being in a state of absolute faith for a specific thing at a given time:

Heb. 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

The place of faith does not exist in the past nor can it be pushed into the future. It is a place in the moment. When Jesus told Martha, at the grave of her brother, Lazarus, that he would rise again, she responded by kicking the can down the road and saying:

John 11:24 Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

Hope is for the future, but the present moment requires Faith. In order to enter a true state of faith all doubt, unbelief and insecurity must be vanquished by one thing: a Word from God. Any scriptural promise God has stated in His Word can become a Word from God to you. We use to call it “praying through”. It worked like this:

• Begin by knowing the specific promises God has made in His Word concerning your situation.

• But then ask God for that provision on the basis of His Word, and not just assume it’ll come because you have a verse that promises it. We must GO TO GOD and not be emancipated from His Lordship by His promises. God’s Word wasn’t given to make you independent but enable you to be dependent upon Him.

• At the point you begin to pray, you may encounter your own obstacles of self-condemnation. To enter the place of faith, any obstacles of unrepentant sin must be cleared away by confessing them and receiving your forgiveness by faith. At this point honestly and humility put us in a place where the Lord can personally deal with us and draw us into His Presence.

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

One of the biggest reasons why people fail to really enter the place of faith is that they never really let the Holy Spirit lead them past their sins and failures. Condemnation impales their conscience. At that point they either give up in a state of guilt or try to push past the conviction with believe-ism. But both condemnation and trust in human belief are themselves, disqualifiers of real faith. For true faith is born from above of guiltless confidence. Faith is born in the presence of God, and not simply in the determination of the human mind.

Rom. 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Faith is not of our making. It “comes” to us.)

• In prayer’s place of heart-to-heart confrontation with the Father, we may also encounter His examination of our motives. For as eternally secure as His promises are, God is not obligated to allow us to access them for reasons that are in opposition to His purposes.

James 4:3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

You should be convinced that prayers go unanswered, not because the answer sought is contrary to God’s will, but that the one who is seeking it is.

• Now with your heart clear, praying brings you to the place of genuine confidence and love, where you can hear the Holy Spirit speak. What you will find here is that the Holy Spirit will always reinforce the very promises of God, to those who come to this place. Jesus said it like this:

John 16:14 ”He (the Holy Spirit) will glorify me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.

This place of seeking and surrender in prayer leads to the place of faith, because it is here where the Holy Spirit directly speaks God’s promises to our hear, and they become a Word from God to us. This illumination of God’s Word by the Holy Spirit produces faith in you for that thing which is illuminated in the Word. This becomes a Word from God to YOU.

When you can then go from that place KNOWING that you have your answer; knowing that you don’t need to see any sign or have any further confirmation, and you know that you are in possession of your answer, THEN you know you are inthe place of faith. No matter how long it takes or what contradictions you see, you are possessed by a deep inner assurance from the Lord that overrides all doubts. You already have your answer and require no further convincing. A Word from God can carry you through life as long as you stay in fellowship with Him. Every time you pray and worship, your Word from God is reinforced. For it is now more than a mere statement on the pages of the Bible. It is a Word etched on the tenderness of your heart in the place of faith. And as our text from the Lord states:

Mark 11:24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

Stay On The Path!

Mark 11:24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

God’s Word is conspicuously lacking in restrictions on prayer, faith and petitions. So also are the many inviting Gospel examples of people petitioning Jesus for favors of healing, deliverance and mercy. His responses were amazingly unrestricted and welcoming; even from sinners. It’s quite clear that God wishes to leave the path of prayer and faith as straight and uncluttered as possible. It’s actually quite apparent, for anyone without a religiously biased agenda to see that God has made Himself more accessible than most Christian teachers are able to articulate!

Doubt, fear, unbelief and insincerity are the real obstacles to prayer. Yet most Christians believe that the Father lives behind a great invisible force field of dark, mysterious codes and qualifications. They see God shrouding Himself behind His will, like a great celestial lawyer, hiding within a sea of unknowable technicalities.

Yet, more unanswered requests and seeming denials result from the self-condemning influence of our own weak faith, doubts and insincerities, than from a lack of will on God’s part.

Matt. 9:28 And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord.

Matt. 9:29 Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.

Today most Christians would need to conduct an interview of the blind men’s moral and spiritual history in order to begin to have confidence that God might want to heal them. Then the mountaintop of God’s blessing is nearly inaccessible because of the mysterious dense clouds of divine sovereignty that cling tightly to its craggy slopes. From a great distance people can easily behold the clear shining light of God’s promises that invite us to reach with faith’s confidence for them in prayer. But the closer people get the more lost in the forest of conditions they become, until they can no longer see Jesus’ simple invitation to come, ask and receive.

In truth, God has not perched Himself atop a difficult mountain at all. In fact, He’s come down from heaven and spoken in the clearest terms to simple people of child-like faith. The whole mountain, forest, fog picture is one of our own contrivance. We create a theology of inaccessibility to protect our own doubts and lame faith. When Peter began sinking after walking on the water towards Jesus, the Lord didn’t say to him, as He lifted him up, “It was My will for you to only walk this far and then sink. I had a reason for it so I could show you something.” No, Jesus simply said:

Matt. 14:31 Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Why do we always believe that the Lord avoids fulfilling His promises, by denying petitions for things He has clearly offered us in His Word, in order to teach us some higher lesson? He never taught the people in the Gospels that way.

Finally, consider the example of Jairus, who sought Jesus out, to come heal his ailing daughter. On the way to his house they were met by a messenger who said:

Mark 5:35 ”Your daughter has died; why trouble the Teacher anymore?”

At this point, realizing the severe impact this message had on Jairus, Jesus quickly gives an instruction that was designed to eliminate every conflict to faith and lock Jairus mind into the only mode that could possibly access help for his daughter:

Mark 5:36 But Jesus, overhearing what was being spoken, said to the synagogue official (Jairus), “Do not be afraid any longer, only believe.”

Tomorrow we will look at what it really means to enter that place where one “only believes”, so until then…

Stay On The Path!

Mark 11:24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

Faith is a very personal and sensitive subject with most people. Christians who take the Word of God seriously are always concerned about what they can legitimately pray for and expect. And we are even more concerned with why prayers seem to go unanswered when we expected one. When prayers don’t receive the expected answer, people will latch onto different teachers’ explanations about the vast promises of Jesus concerning prayer and faith. Often they are more concerned with the bigger issue of whether or not they were operating in a legitimate expectation, than whether they got the answer they wanted. In short, we are very concerned that our beliefs and expectations of prayer are scripturally founded.

Typically, it is far less difficult (emotionally) to conclude that you were simply praying beyond God’s will, than to have to consider that you were not really operating in faith when you prayed. It’s much easier to relinquish our disappoints in prayer to the “mysterious limits of God’s will”, than it is to face a personal faith shortage or blockage. In short, it’s less stressful to blame God than to face the idea that WE might be struggling with a limitation. However, Jesus didn’t treat His disciples with the baby-care that Christians today seem to demand from their Pastors and Teachers. Jesus told His disciples straight out, that they were operating in unbelief or fear or doubt.

Matt. 14:31 Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and *said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Matt. 17:19 Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?

Matt. 17:20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

Christian today take it as a direct insult of their faith when faced with the proposition that they might have not been operating in a pure enough faith when their prayers seemed to fail. Indeed, they usually insist on aligning themselves with some teacher offering a theological explanation that simply reassures them that THEIR faith is just fine. They were simply being misled to pray and believe God for a request that was beyond God’s will to grant. That’s ALWAYS an easy out, except for the fact that there are very few scriptural restrictions placed on asking God for the provisions He has promised in His Word. In fact, the Word of God places most of its conditions on our state of mind, lack of faith, doubt and unbelief; not on the blessings and provisions for which we allowed to ask.

I assure you that before the throne of God, where no theologian or teacher will be able to shield you from the Truth, that it will be your faith and not God’s will that be found needing clarity and focus.

Tomorrow we will look further into the “touchy issue” of our faith and the broad invitations of God’s Word. So until then…

Stay On The Path!

Is. 45:11 Thus saith Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, and his (Israel’s) Maker: Ask me of the things to come; concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands, command ye me.

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

Yesterday we looked at 3 examples of miraculous responses from God, to Peter, Joshua and Paul. Most people explain or excuse these by saying they occurred as a result of some “special” gift uniquely bestowed upon these men. But the miracles were not because of special gifts but rather because these men moved and prayed in a revelation of their divine purpose. And every believer has a divine purpose.

Today we are not lacking in divine power and miraculous provisions to meet our challenges. But they (divine provisions) are waiting for men and women who can pray within the freedom of their purpose. We don’t have a power shortage. We have a purpose shortage. Too few people seek deeply enough to know God’s purpose for them. And when they see the great statements of Jesus, concerning the calling of His followers, they are afraid to dare believe His promises. Far too many Christians, for no good reason, simply push off the great invitations to believe God in prayer, to a certain few that they believe have special privileges. But the “special” privilege is to share in God’s purposes, not to wield power. And that privilege of sharing in God’s purposes is extended to every true believer.

A careful observation will detect that in these three cases; neither Joshua, Peter nor Paul appeared to ask God to do the miracles they declared. Yet God obviously did them when these three men proclaimed them. Was it simply a matter of pronouncing these miracles and “poof” they occurred? Hardly, for then that would have required some “special” independent power residing in them. But what we saw occur, happened because these three men were passionately pursuing what they knew was God’s will for them. And that faith gave them the power to ask for what they confidently knew was God’s will.

1 John 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:

1 John 5:15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

This kind of clarity doesn’t come by simply sitting in some academic hall listening to theologians. Those who only study theology never see great miraculous answers to prayer, because they’re not engaged in a purpose that requires them. The last thing you ever want to do is take advice from someone with a bunch of degrees, who theorizes about the powerful extents of prayer’s privileges, rather than being driven by purpose to take prayer’s profits.

Our text (Is 45:10-11) has been variously handled by translators with two opposing interpretations. One says that God is scolding His people for expectantly asking God for miraculous favors. The other view says that God is inviting His people to first ask Him about His purposes concerning His children, and His willingness and ability to work in the Earth to fulfill those purposes. Then from that revelation of purpose, once you are committed to it, go ahead and ask God for His provisions for you to accomplish that purpose. I believe the latter is correct and rightly reflects the heart of the Father and His eternal desire to bring us into partnership with Himself.

Though we will always remain dependents, relying upon our relationship with Him, it was never His will that we remain infants, incapable of working with Him. Every model of creation reveals purpose in the maturing process, and the eventual sharing of power to accomplish goals. Paul said:

1 Cor. 13:11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; now that I have become a man, I am done with childish ways and have put them aside.

It is the nature of children to be self-interested and not given to higher purposes. To the spiritually immature, the revelation of God’s will for the world is of little importance. But to the believer with the Spirit of sonship burning in his heart, the purposes of God are paramount, and he is driven by them to ask for enabling power to fulfill them.

Is. 45:11 Thus saith Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, and his (Israel’s) Maker: Ask me of the things to come; concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands, command ye me.

To these believers, God has always opened His Hand of Power at the moment they needed it in the performance of His will. This is why it appeared that Peter, Joshua and Paul had not specifically asked for the miracles that occurred, but simply pronounced them. Just like Jesus Himself, at the grave of Lazarus, Who simply cried, “Lazarus, come forth!”, after He had lifted His voice toward Heaven and said, “Father, I know that You always hear Me.” Peter didn’t have time to stop and “pray about” healing the lame man. Paul “perceived that the lame man had faith to be healed”. He didn’t seek God about it. Joshua certainly couldn’t hold up his hand and declare a pause in the battle while he “prayed about” commanding the Sun to stand still in the sky. These men were in the heat of pursuing God’s purpose, and they KNEW IT, when they encounter their obstacles and opportunities. And like them, when you’re convinced of your purpose in Christ, and obstacles become opportunities, you will pray without limiting your expectation, which is good; because God has not limited His will.

Stay On The Path!

Is. 45:11 Thus saith Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: Ask me of the things to come; concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands, command ye me.

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

The great question in the mind of everyone who prays is, “How far can I go?” And the simple answer is that your understanding of God’s purpose for you will set the limits of your prayer. Since prayer rides on the tracks of faith, your prayers can only go as far as the confidence you have in understanding God’s will.

1 John 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:

1 John 5:15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

When you understand God’s purpose for you, it forms the confidence in you that generates faith. When you pray according to that understanding of God’s purpose, then God hears and opens His Hand to you. Clarity rises in your prayers. Access to the provisions of God, for accomplishing His purposes, are placed before you.

It was this very clarity of purpose which moved Peter to say to the lame man:

Ac 3:1-9 Silver and gold have I none, but SUCH AS I HAVE, I give to you. In the name of Jesus, rise up and walk.

Understanding his purpose opened Peter up to knowing what was placed at his disposal to fulfill his mission. He didn’t draw from some “special” Apostolic privilege, but from the faith created in him, which understanding his purpose produced.

Similarly, in the Old Testament, Joshua is completely enveloped in fulfilling his purpose, in the midst of a fierce battle with the Amorites, when he commands the Sun to stand still. He sees that he has the resources to prevail, but noticing that the daylight is fading and the remaining Amorites will slip away under cover of darkness, only to fight them another day. Gripped with the confidence that he is in God’s perfect will, fulfilling his purpose, Joshua needs the lights to stay on a bit longer, and prays for it.

Josh. 10:12 Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.

Don’t ask me how, but Joshua gets another 24 hours of daylight! Why, because he was “special”? Absolutely not. or we would have seen Joshua going around and amazing people with all kinds of miraculous demonstrations, at will. No, this was a provision released through the prayers of a man in the grip of his purpose.

Paul the Apostle, preaching in Lystra, perceives that a lame man in the crowd has faith to be healed and commands him to rise and walk.

Acts 14:8 And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his motherís womb, who never had walked:

Acts 14:9 The same heard Paul speak: who stedfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed,

Acts 14:10 Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked.

This is not Paul exercising some gift of power uniquely resident in him. But again, this is the result of a man flowing with God in the purpose of his life. This is God making Himself accessible to people as they live out their purpose in Him.

You would be amazed to know the extent of purpose and authority that Jesus has laid before all who follow Him.

Tomorrow we will look specifically at what caused these men to be able to access God’s power for their missions, so until then…

Stay On The Path!

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

The greatest gift of God to men is to understand their purpose. When God is ready to do something He always blesses people with a revelation of His purpose. The entire Gospel and New Testament are a wonderful, intimate revelation of God’s purpose for man. Every Christian has a very specific revelation of their purpose, written out in the words of the New Testament. For instance, the Book of Ephesians is full of life inspiring statements about our purpose as representatives of God’s glory:

Eph. 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

Eph. 1:12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

This means that God desires to show forth His glory through us. And that He has both designed us and now redeemed us, giving us an inheritance in Jesus that enables us to radiate His glory. In saving you, God has put within you the ability and calling to shine forth His glory through your life. With this in mind, one must be open to the probability of God calling him to higher purposes and abilities than he is able to do under his own power.

What you understand of your purpose becomes the potting soil of fruitful prayer. Having clarity of purpose automatically sifts and files most of the occurrences, thoughts and opportunities that you experience in a day. People with a sense of their own purpose in Christ have far more success at praying in God’s will. And conversely speaking, prayer bogs down in the minutia of daily living, in the mind of one blind to his own purpose. Without purpose men are plumbers and prayer is paralyzed. But with purpose filled minds, men with wrenches are prophets and prayer becomes powerful. Would you rather be the beneficiary of the prayers of a plumber, whose prayers move from clog to clog. Or would you prefer the petitions of a prophet, whose prayers advance from glory to glory. Clog to clog or glory to glory? A purpose driven prayer life is the difference. Smith Wigglesworth was a plumber by trade and prophet by divine commission. He labored as a plumber but prayed as a prophet. He refused to allow his earthly vocation to limit or define his own sense of purpose. For that, he looked to God Who raises the foolish to confound the wise.

Always plant your prayers in the rich ground of God’s purpose for you and not the stripped out soil of your earthly resume’. Pray from the viewpoint of your ‘becoming’ and not just your ‘being’. Pray with vision locked onto your horizon and not your review mirror.  And…

Stay On The Path!

1 John 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

Have you ever thought that yielding to the will of God was doing His will, even though you didn’t want to? If you have you’re not alone. Many Christians see obedience as giving into God’s will even though you want to do something else. Often people think that Jesus told the Father in the Garden, “I would that this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done”; but that He really wanted out of the whole arrangement, and just decided to do the right thing and gave into God’s will. Nothing could be more incorrect. And when it comes to learning the keys to effective prayer, no misconception could be more misleading. The fact is that the secret to effective prayer is coming to the place of genuinely desiring the will of God. God isn’t looking for pathways with open valves. He’s looking for people with agreeing desires. People who use their will to do His will.

In our text John states that God hears us…

“if we ask any thing according to His will…”

The Greek work used for “ask” means to beg, crave, desire, require. This is far from a passive or reluctant acquiescence to God’s will.

STRONG’S 154. aijte-aiteo, ahee-teh’-o; of uncertain derivation; to ask (in genitive case): -ask, beg, call for, crave, desire, require.

You quickly get the picture that God wants us to genuinely want His will. What we humans WILL is most critical to the events of life here on Earth. I would even say that what we WILL is as important as what God WILLS here in the Earth. There is a very specific reason that God requires our sincere-hearted will to line up with His in order to move in this world.

Eph. 6:6 …as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;

And that reason is wrapped up in the authority He invested in us when He said:

Gen. 1:26 …let them have dominion…”

God who will honor His Word above His name, set in motion the terms by which He Himself would exercise rule over creation. He was convinced of His own ability to so effect fallen man with His love and grace, that men would love His will and desire to do it. It is the very effect of His influence upon us that causes us to want His will. When one has been truly transformed by “life more abundantly” who would want futility? The man who wills the will of God then acts in authority to do it. And when he does God exercises His authority through him.

Matt. 16:19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

So the key to effective prayer is not trying to get God to do your will, but praying with the passion of your own will, to do His. The power of your prayer life is tied up in understanding God’s will for you and learning to pray for it. Understanding the will of God - as it is offered to you - transcends simply knowing what to do: it’s understanding your purpose. There is a clarity that shines in the heart of the Christian who has a grasp on God’s purpose for them. This clarity of purpose inspires your will towards the will of God; towards the place where you and God fuse in prayer.

Tomorrow we will walk a little further, so until then…

Stay On The Path

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

The image of Jews stuffing bits of paper, with prayers scrawled on them, into the cracks of the Wailing Wall, reminds me of what prayer is like for many Christians. For many, prayer is like coming to a great barrier that represents a spiritual significance they don’t understand. It’s no wonder that prayer is a burden to so many. Without an understanding it’s like trying to see God through the Wailing Wall. Prayer becomes more of a barrier than a doorway. Many of us know the terrible feeling of tossing out prayers but feeling more like we were participating in a lottery than speaking with God.

We need to begin with an understanding of God’s purpose in prayer. The words of Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus reveal the true nature and purpose of prayer:

“…thou hearest me always…”

Prayer is simply meant to be an unbroken life of communion with God, our Father. Prayer didn’t stop when Jesus stopped saying prayers. But He maintained an unbroken stream of consciousness with His Father. We see prayer as the form of communication with God that we’re left with because of man’s fall. Sort of like a spiritual carrier pigeon or God’s answering service. It’s a lot like sticking prayer requests in between the stones of the Wailing Wall and hoping they’ll make it through to “the other side”, like a lottery.

But prayer is really nothing like a lottery. Prayer is God welcoming our heart in communion with Him. It’s touching Him and He us. Jesus said:

John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Prayer is spirit to spirit, truth to truth connection. God is Spirit and He is Truth. It is our conflicts with His truth and half-heartedness of spirit, which creates the feeling of a barrier, a Wailing Wall, a lottery. Rather than confidence, knowing He always hears us we have insecurity because of our double-mindedness.

The reason why Jesus indicated that little children, harlots and sinners would have an easier time coming to Him than the professionally religious, was simply because they wouldn’t over complicate their minds when it came to prayer. Prayer is helped by how much you believe not how much you know. If what you think makes you less sure about what you believe, then you need to do an about face and get back to the place where you were able to believe God with what you knew. God will always commune with you on the ground of Truth. Everything else erects a Wailing Wall where your prayer life should be. Prayer is less like voice-mail and more like a hug.

Tomorrow we’ll take another step together, so until then…

Stay On The Path!

Eph. 5:19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

The role of the Holy Spirit in the believer’’s life is clear: to make Jesus Christ manifest through us. Turning sinners into sons of God was so we would be qualified to become His representatives, bear His glory, and be living witnesses to His Word and name.  Jesus told us that we would receive power TO BE those witnesses – not just to express a witness. And for that, we would need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The idea was that every Christian, being filled with the Holy Spirit, would become a walking, talking billboard for the resurrection of Christ. People would see both the characteristic fruits and attesting manifestations that were specific to Jesus’ ministry.  And these would flow through Christians, whose only qualification was that they were born-again, following Christ daily, and filled with His Spirit.  That’’s the template for basic Christian living.

Think of a flashlight. It’’s designed to function as a torch in darkness. Just like we were designed to be the light of the world. Yet it has no native power in itself to shine.  Just like separation from God left us without the power to illuminate. But if you load in the batteries and hit the switch, voila! You get light flowing out. That’’s the baptism in the Holy Spirit. When you combine the idea of the Spirit flowing out from us, as Jesus said……

John 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

John 7:39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

And the fact that light makes manifest……

Eph. 5:13 But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.

You see that God’’s desire is for us to shine forth, the manifestation of Jesus Christ, in the world. Have you ever noticed that Jesus said that He was the Light of the World as long as He was in the world?

John 9:5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

But then He transfers that mission to us when He leaves the world.

Matt. 5:14 You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.

The significance is that God wants to be manifested in the world. It was the Baptism with the Holy Spirit that caused Jesus to instantly come into public manifestation.

Luke 3:22 And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.

Luke 4:1 And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,

Luke 4:14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.

Notice the distinct progression that occurred at the inauguration of Jesus’ public ministry:

1. He’’s filled with the Spirit.
2. He’’s led by the Spirit into the wilderness to face His adversary and overcome him.
3. He comes out of the wilderness in the power of the Spirit.
4. He’’s instantly recognized as being from God.

Then 3 ½ years later, as He prepares His disciples for His departure, He tells them that He must go in order that the Holy Spirit may come upon them.

John 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

Before His baptism Jesus had the Holy Spirit in Him. – He was the Holy Spirit robed in flesh.

2 Cor. 3:17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

However it was necessary for Jesus to minister under an anointing that He could transfer to his disciples.  After all, He came not just to shine before men, but also to shine through men.  So Jesus, who is God in the flesh, receives the anointing of the Holy Spirit and instantly the ministry of being the Light of the World, is manifest through him.

Acts 10:38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

But then, at the time of His departure, that anointing is past on to His followers, who continue to manifest the Light of the World. The entire purpose of the Church is that there be a Spirit-filled witness of Jesus Christ, going out to the entire world. The Holy Spirit didn’t fill an institution. He filled individuals. He didn’t just fill the eleven remaining Apostles, but every Christian disciple.  No church or organization can make you the light of the world. The Holy Spirit comes from Jesus, who bore that Light of manifestation, and now desires to fill you with it.

If the reality of Jesus is in your heart, and you desire to make Him manifest, then do as He instructed the first disciples. Don’’t try to “shine” out of your own spirit.  That’’s like a flashlight with just enough battery power to make the bulb glow. You can see it in the dark, but it doesn’t light up anything else. Ask Jesus to fill you with the Holy Spirit (that He was charged with), and let Him shine forth from you, and light up the world!

Stay On The Path!

Eph. 5:19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

A witness for Jesus isn’t someone who just talks about Him, but shows signs of being affected by Him. God’’s idea of a witness is more than polished character and irrefutable theology. But it’s someone who uncharacteristically displays the very traits of Jesus and His ministry. Jesus’’ whole mission was to leave His mantle on the lives of changed people. He didn’t come into the world to validate His existence, but ours. He didn’t come to rehabilitate God’’s reputation in our eyes, but rather to reveal our own purpose, in God’’s eyes.

Jesus came to make witnesses – to take common sinners, deliver them from the power of sin, and then set them ablaze with the anointing of His own ministry. In affect, when God spoke to Moses through the symbol of the burning bush – ablaze but not consumed – it was to represent, not God but us: redeemed mortals bearing the fire of God’’s Presence. It was still a bush but behaved like God. Burned with His fire. Spoke with His Words. That bush was to symbolize you and I as God’’s witnesses.

No bush can set itself on fire, much less burn without being consumed, while speaking words from Heaven. The burning bush was a spectacle. It stood out, inexplicably distinguished, having been affected by God. Likewise on the Day of Pentecost, in Acts chapter two, 120 human shrubs were ignited by the Holy Spirit, and turned into witnesses. The baptism with the Holy Spirit is meant to affect Jesus’ followers with His uniquely characteristic power so they look and act like they got close to Him and caught fire.

Acts 4:9-13 If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole; be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.

The whole idea of a witness for Christ, was not to prove God’’s existence, but rather to be a testament to the reality of His affect upon us. When confronted by the lame beggar on the steps of the Temple, Peter and John didn’t say, “Let me tell you about Jesus…”. Instead they said, “”Look on us……such as we have, we give you. In the name of Jesus, rise and walk” (Acts 3:4-6)”. After the lame man was healed, when the people wanted to give credit to Peter and John for the miracle, they then said, “It wasn’t our holiness that healed him, but it was Jesus and faith in His name.” Jesus was glorified when Peter and John were able to show His affect upon their lives, working through them to help others. This is the purpose for the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

When Paul wrote to the Ephesians, not to be “drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit”, he compared the affect of the Holy Spirit with being under the influence of wine. Under the influence of wine, people lose their inhibitions and do things they might not have the boldness to otherwise. Likewise, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, a Christian has a boldness to act beyond the ordinary limits of their personality and abilities. And following Jesus definitely requires stepping beyond the comfort of your natural inhibitions. Peter and John had no ability to heal the lame beggar, and probably had no desire to look like fools trying to. But they were emboldened to offer him healing, in Jesus’ name, anyway. So also the spirit-filled believer will be moved to act as Christ’’s ambassador, offering Heaven’’s help to the lost. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit we live a greater life than we normally would - greater than our native abilities dictate. Under the influence of the Holy Spirit is where Jesus expects every follower to live. It takes the influence of the Holy Spirit to have courage and confidence step out beyond our natural protective inhibitions. Under the influence of the Holy Spirit we are convicted to believe God in ways that make non-spiritual people nervous. We become less cautious but more trusting. Being filled with the Spirit inspires abandonment but not recklessness. It is the infilling of the Spirit that most identifies us with Jesus.

Mark 1:8 I (John the Baptist) indeed have baptized you with water: but he (Jesus) shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.

Filling us with the Holy Spirit was at the very center of Jesus’’ purpose in coming to die on the cross.

John 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

Jesus was not referring to the Holy Spirit as the Comforter, solely in terms of the comfort His followers would receive, but even more, the comfort He would bring to others through our witness.

Stay On The Path!

Eph. 5:19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

Review from yesterday……

God never intended the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, and the resulting manifestation of divine power, in the Christian’’s life, to be an optional accessory to salvation. We are commanded to be filled with the Spirit. The new birth in Christ affects our position with God, and transforms our darkened spirit. Paul refers to it as becoming a “new creation”.

2 Cor. 5:17 (Amp. Bible) Therefore if any person is [engrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!

While the new birth addresses our relationship with God, the Baptism with the Holy Spirit deals with equipping the new believer for service to God, in the harvest fields of the world.

Acts 1:8 (Amp. Bible) But you shall receive power (ability, efficiency, and might) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends (the very bounds) of the earth.

This command to be filled with the Spirit is meant to restore two conditions, imposed upon man by sin: Emptiness and Silence.

Silence –

God designed us for fullness and outflow. Everything about our engineering indicates that God fashioned us in His image and likeness, intending man to be His voice in the earth. A man with nothing from God to say, is living below his ability and short of his destiny. Conversely speaking, every time anyone came from the Presence of God, they were overflowing with something to say.

When Adam left the Presence of God, he lost his voice. From that time, every successive generation of man has droned on, expressing the same anemic, misguided theories, instead of uttering the commanding words of Light and Life. The world has suffered for 6000 years under man’s spiritual silence.

The reason why man has no words of power or substance to bring from God, is that he is silent before God. To have utterance you must have hearing. To speak you must be spoken to. With separation came silence. After his fall, Adam’’s first indication that something dreadful had occurred in him, was that a dark silence fell upon his spirit, causing him to hide when God came calling upon him. Man’’s spirit fell silent. And since then he speaks from the shallows of his head. Man has been bound by the silence of alienation towards God ever since. Without direct fellowship with God, man has nothing of power or life to bring with his words. All his declarations and philosophies are but pitiful probes in the darkness of his own spirit. Man, once designed as God’s vocal fountain, has run dry, disconnected from God, silenced with ignorance.

Lam. 3:27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

Lam. 3:28 He sits alone and keeps silence, because he hath borne it upon him.

What many Christians fail to understand is that being born-again and having the Gospel of Truth, is itself not enough to change the silence of our spiritual voice. We must have anointing, filling, overflow, unction. The baptism in the Holy Spirit is meant to give Christians a voice of power with which to speak the words of Truth.

Luke 24:48 And you are witnesses of these things.

Luke 24:49 …but wait…until YOU be endued with power from on high.

Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you:and (then) you shall be witnesses…

It takes more than Truth to break man’s silence. It takes power also. The Apostle Paul had great ability to speak. He was highly educated with a razor sharp mind. His oratory skills were finely honed in the best Hebrew schools. Yet after meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus Saul of Tarsus knew that he was no more than a spiritually silenced man, with no life in his words. Even after receiving Jesus as his Savior and embracing the Truth of the Gospel, the converted Paul knew he needed more than Truth, human intelligence and boldness to have a voice.

Eph. 6:19 And (pray) for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,

Paul knew that speaking for God comes from being filled with the Spirit. True boldness, that reveals the mystery of the Gospel, has to come from the infilling of the Spirit and not just human zeal. In Simon and Garfunkel’s song, “The Sounds of Silence”, they observed that men talk without speaking. That is a spiritual condition. Man can talk from sunup to sunset, and never break the silence of human deadness. “Utterance”, the ability to speak words that shatter the silence of sin, comes not from being right, or even righteous, but from being filled with the Holy Spirit. Paul’s mission was not to be the example of a man with special gifts and calling from God, but he was an example of what all Christians are to be. Paul received the baptism of the Spirit, intended for every Christian. Otherwise he would have been like an Old Testament Prophet rather than a New Testament witness.

Today we fight a tough spirit of secularism and rebellion in the world. Most people of the Western world have had enough exposure to the Gospel to build up callous refutations and inoculate themselves with indifference. And many Christians are complaining that the sinners have become Gospel-hardened. But how much harder can they be than the Jews, Romans and Greeks of Paul’s day? It’s not that the world’s become too hard-to-hear; but that Christians are speaking from reason rather than Holy Spirit power. What we need today is that filling of the Spirit, with which the first century witnesses of Christ shattered the silence of their world. If we would return to seeking and receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit we’d be amazed at how attentively the world would hear our voice.

Acts 8:5 Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them.

Acts 8:6 And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.

Acts 8:7 For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed.

Acts 8:8 And there was great joy in that city.

Stay On The Path!

Eph. 5:19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

God never intended the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, and the resulting manifestation of divine power, in the Christian’’s life, to be an optional accessory to salvation. We are commanded to be filled with the Spirit. The new birth in Christ affects our position with God, and transforms our darkened spirit. Paul refers to it as becoming a “new creation”.

2 Cor. 5:17 (Amp. Bible) Therefore if any person is [engrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!

While the new birth addresses our relationship with God, the Baptism with the Holy Spirit deals with equipping the new believer for service to God, in the harvest fields of the world.

Acts 1:8 (Amp. Bible) But you shall receive power (ability, efficiency, and might) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends (the very bounds) of the earth.

This command to be filled with the Spirit is meant to restore two conditions, imposed upon man by sin: Emptiness and Silence.

Emptiness

Man is designed for fullness and overflow. Everything about our engineering indicates that God, fashioning us in His image and likeness, intended man to be His Command & Control center in the earth. Implicit in God’’s inaugural charge to man, is the idea of fullness, outflow and overflow…

Gen. 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, andmultiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

But with sin, comes separation from God, and man’s soul is gutted. By choosing knowledge and independence from God, man quickly finds out that his sense of fullness and confidence has left him. He’’s now plagued by an inner gnawing hunger that no amount of material acquisition or accumulation of friends, can fill. Separated from God, he’’s like a fish out of water, gasping franticly until death comes. In the succeeding generations, man has no memory of the days when Adam walked the earth, full and satisfied. Every generation of man embraces emptiness as the human norm. Yet emptiness, with its resulting hunger, is a curse – a corruption of our nature, that leaves us sucking wind, with a sieve for a soul.

Is. 29:8 It shall even be as when an hungry man dreams, and, behold, he eats; but he awakens, and his soul is empty:

So Jesus has to command us to be filled with the Spirit, before attempting to take up the mantle of our ministry. We are so use to emptiness – so use to consuming knowledge without filling our souls – that the disciples are ready to go preach the moment they get the right message. It’’s no wonder that the Church today is so willing to send empty believers, armed with Truth, into an empty world shrouded in deceit. Fullness is something we’ve never know.

We are use to laboring on an empty stomach!

Is. 55:2 “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And delight yourself in abundance.

But if we’re going to truly fulfill our calling we have to recognize the natural tendency of man to be willing to labor with knowledge only. After all, it was with knowledge that we replaced our relationship with God. We’re use to emptiness. Even Christians think very little about running on empty. In many Christian circles, it’’s considered emotionalism, to be concerned with the fullness of the Spirit; as though the tough, hardcore, dedicated Christian ought to be like a camel, able to go great distances in the desert, without water. It is so wrong that we consider laboring without the fullness of the Spirit, as a measure of dedication, when it’s really a measure of disobedience! But Jesus has the right vision of us. He sees us the way we’re suppose to be: dispensers of His Spirit, bearing His anointing, laboring with His power.

John 7:37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.

John 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

John 7:39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

Laboring on empty is proof of nothing more than foolishness. Jesus intends for Christians to minister out of their fullness, not emptiness. And there’’s only one substance with which man may fill his spirit, from which living waters will flow.And that is the Holy Spirit. Christians need to return to the Upper Room experienceof daily filling, through which Jesus will introduce Himself to the world. Instead of going to counselors, pastors and friends, to satisfy our emptiness, let’s go to Jesus and ask Him to fill us with the Holy Spirit. Friends, pastors and counselors may be able to tell you how to feel about your emptiness, but only the Holy Spirit can solve the problem, and restore you to God’’s intention, for which you were designed: Filling and Overflow. You, filled with the Holy Spirit, are the witness of Jesus that the world needs to see!

Stay On The Path!

Eph. 5:19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

Being filled with the Spirit is not a suggestion. It’’s a command. Being full of the Spirit, to the point of overflowing, is not uniquely reserved for select Christians with special callings. There’’s a prevailing notion among Christians that being full of the Holy Spirit is for those who “need it” in order to fulfill special ministry functions.  But that whole line of reasoning is backwards, because God’’s idea was that ministry would flow from filling and not filling flow from ministry. In short, it’s wrong to think that God reserves the outpouring of His Spirit for those who are committed to the type of ministry that requires it. Truth is that the need and potential for ministry is all around us, and just waiting for Christians to be “filled with the Spirit” in order to fulfill that ministry. The result of being filled with the Spirit, is that we suddenly become aware, equipped and led by the Spirit, into ministry. Ministry is the result of being filled, and not the other way around. True ministry is simply fulfilling Jesus’ command to all believers:

Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Because of the institutionalization of the Church, we have mistakenly institutionalized the call of every Christian. The error goes something like this: We are supposed to preach the Gospel to the Lost. So let’’s pray for the Spirit to work through the missionaries and evangelists who will actually be doing that work. In this model, the Holy Spirit is like some kind of abstract, divine accessory, that we hope, works through the efforts of our frontline laborers, who will do witnessing. But in reality, the call of every Christian is to be filled with the Spirit and receive power to be a witness. The doing comes from the being, not the being from the doing. The ministry of witnessing comes from being filled with the Spirit, and not from responding to a call to go preaching.

Having the Truth is not enough of a qualification to go preaching to the world. If it were, Jesus would have let His disciples immediately go into Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth, the moment they had the Truth. But in spite of the fact that Jesus had indeed raised from the dead, and in spite of the fact that His disciples now believed it, and had gotten the message straight, Jesus still ordered them to wait until they had been filled with the Holy Spirit. Because the ministry of the gospel is not accomplished by Christians armed with Truth, but by the Holy Spirit armed with Christians.

Luke 24:48 And ye are witnesses of these things.

Luke 24:49 And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but wait YOU in the city of Jerusalem, until YOU be endued with power from on high.

If the disciples who saw the risen Christ were not qualified to witness without first being filled with the Holy Spirit, and empowered to be witnesses, then obviously the accuracy of the message alone wasn’t enough without the presence of the Spirit in the messengers. Then how is it considered progress if two thousand years later we’re processing young people through our institutions and then praying that God will “go with them”? Compare the results of the first few chapters of Acts with our averages today. With all our advances, maybe we’ve forgotten something and need to go back and pick it up. Consider the great example of the Apostle Paul.

1 Cor. 2:1 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.

1 Cor. 2:2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.

1 Cor. 2:3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.

1 Cor. 2:4 And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

1 Cor. 2:5 that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

There are many forgettable preachers among us today, with a lot less intellectual prowess than that of the Apostle Paul. Yet Paul’’s enduring influence surprisingly, has little to do with his great intellect, and everything to do a trait we are all able to exhibit: dependence upon the Holy Spirit. Paul’’s great secret? It’’s simple. He didn’t try to get by on the greatness of his call, but on the filling of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 9:17 And Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight, and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

Paul knew that the power to affect the lost with the Gospel of Jesus didn’t come to him as an awareness of the Truth but when he received the Holy Spirit’’s Baptism. It was the filling of the Spirit that transformed his own life. He knew that the secret, indispensable element of transformation, in the life of the believer, was being filled with the Spirit. Everything else needed would flow from that. That is God’’s simple formula and model for taking the Gospel to the world. And if taking the Gospel to the lost is going to be the ministry of a few authorized reps of religious institutions, then maybe only a few special vessels need to be filled with the Spirit. But if the world is meant to be reached by the “affected” and not the “educated”, then who should be filled with the Spirit?

Eph. 5:18 …but be (YOU) filled with the Spirit,…

Stay On The Path!

Heb. 2:12 For He says, I will declare Your [the Father’s] name to My brethren; in the midst of the [worshiping] congregation I will sing hymns of praise to You.

Hebrews 2:6-12 (click to view entire text)

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

As we come to the close of our study in this devotional we are left with the picture of Jesus standing in our midst and speaking.

Heb. 2:12 For He says, I will declare Your [the Father’s] name to My brethren; in the midst of the [worshiping] congregation I will sing hymns of praise to You.

He is God’’s Authority restored in man. Though He returns to Heaven after the Resurrection He is not removed from us. In fact, in resurrection He is glorified again with omnipresence; and through the Holy Spirit He rules in our midst. By means of the same process we are seated with Him in Heavenly authority. When we are in proper prayer and worshipping relationship with Him, there is this dual-point dynamic working between us. He’’s here with us – we’’re there with Him. Though this dynamic is not yet fully tangible it is authoritatively active. While we can’’t see Heaven vitally, we are there legally. And while we aren’t enjoying the full benefits of Heaven here on Earth we are endued with its power to exercise authority through this dual-point dynamic in Christ. Part of our salvation involves a relocation: He relocated to Earth and we to Heaven. We relocated our citizenship and He His Lordship. He was Lord of Heaven and Earth, but situated in Heaven. He is now Lord of Heaven and Earth situated in Earth, by means of His Body.

This Oneness is the great point of the Gospel. For through this oneness we are able to be and do all that pertains to our calling in Christ. Christ in us and we in Him.  It’’s more than an exchange and sharing of natures; it’s an exchange and sharing of locations – the link between Heaven and Earth. It is through the Church’’s personal relationship with Jesus that Heaven affects the Earth. God doesn’t just arbitrarily slide down sunrays to occasionally do something on Earth. He doesn’t float in through the atmosphere like an invisible radio wave to secretly invade our world and mysteriously leave us to guess at His purpose. Instead He uses this wonderful dual-point dynamic between Jesus and us, His Body on Earth. Whatever He does must involve provoking His Bride to pray and act. He has restored our authority so that He can respond through our intercession. He prompts our hearts to pray with His will. We act with His authority. He moves through our faith. Heaven touches Earth.

“The Spirit and the bride sayRev. 22:17

This is one of the most profound statements of the New Testament. God woos the lost through the combined voice of Jesus and His Church in harmony. God speaks to the world through us and we speak to the world through Him. God talks to fallen men through the redeemed authority of risen men. Since He has redeemed us and restored our position in the Earthy as His representatives, we supply the authority and He supplies the power. In right fellowship with Christ, the Church can harmonize with the Holy Spirit to speak to the world with commanding authority, and turn the hearts of men and course of nations.

And don’’t forget; lest you should visualize the Church as a sprawling institution and lose your perspective. YOU and a few others else are the Church. It comes down to YOU. Will you say, “”Come” to the world? Enter into prayer, worship and fellowship with the Lord today and fill you place in someone’’s destiny.

Stay On The Path!

Heb. 2:12 For He says, I will declare Your [the Father’s] name to My brethren; in the midst of the [worshiping] congregation I will sing hymns of praise to You.

Hebrews 2:6-12 (click to view entire text)

Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,

Can there be any higher proclamation, any happier tidings than the announcement that God is welcoming us into His Fatherhood? The significance of referring to God as “our Heavenly Father”, has been smothered as a religious cliché. I really don’t think that most Christians really look at God as their Father. Perhaps the thought is too remote, too abstract. That’s a common problem. The original disciples had the same difficulty…

John 14:7 If you have known me, you will also know my Father. From now on you know him through me and have seen him in me.”

John 14:8 Philip said to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father, and that will satisfy us.”

John 14:9 Jesus replied, “I have been with all of you for a long time. Don’t you know me yet, Philip? The person who has seen me has seen the Father. So how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

On the one side we see Jesus as the Son of Man – one of us – we relate to Him. He’’s very approachable. But do we really recognize just who He is? When Philip asked to see the Father Jesus makes a jaw-dropping revelation of His true identity, “…”I Am the Father, Philip. I’’m Him coming to you. I’’m more than His Rep. I’’m Him in the form you need Him in. You have needed to see and understand what the God of creation and Father of all living is really like, –what He wants, what He’s saying,– and so here I Am!””

Is. 9:6 For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,Everlasting Father [of Eternity], Prince of Peace.

From Biblical prophecies hundreds of years before His coming, we are told to look for a Messiah Who would be our Heavenly Father. So what are we to expect from our “Father”? Probably the most direct way to present an answer to this question is to simply say that we should expect the Father to treat us as He treated Jesus. He has extended the very righteousness of Jesus, over us who receive Him as Savior… so that He can treat us as Sons.

2 Cor. 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Gal. 4:6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba (Daddy), Father.

The Father has put the Spirit of His Son (Jesus) in your heart. As a born-again Christian, it is within you to know the Father’’s love. With Christ in your heart God extends to you the same relationship He had with Jesus.

John 17:21 That they all may be one, [just] as You, Father, are in Me and I in You,that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe and be convinced that You have sent Me.

One of the most beautiful and powerful moments in the Bible occurs just outside the empty tomb where Jesus meets the ecstatic Mary Magdalene…

John 20:15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing Him to be the gardener, she *said to Him, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.”

John 20:16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and *said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means, Teacher).

John 20:17 Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’”

So as I said in the opening, Can there be any higher proclamation, any happier tidings than the announcement that God is welcoming us into His Fatherhood?

Stay On The Path!