Happy Thursday!
My dear friend Aswan North finally released his first song on Itunes. Paper Tongues is the name of his band… check out their band website and purchase their 99 cent release.
Also, my friend and partner in ministry, Dave Harman sent an article written by Matt Sorger that really confirmed my thoughts on the current charismatic movement. In this article, Matt, a highly charismatic minister himself, speaks to his fellow charismatics about BALANCE… something I have been heralding for some time.
Whereas I believe that followers of Christ should not be afraid of pressing in for all that the bible promises concerning the presence of God and the supernatural endowments of the Holy Spirit… I also believe there is an unhealthy trend running its course in the body of Christ right now… a revival junky kind of self centered craving for more and more of Gods PRESENCE… a craving that is centered on ME being more and more filled with all the fulness of God… and ME having a deeper encounter… while ME exemplifies very little commitment towards the great commission.
For many believers, following Christ has become more about having heaven on earth than bringing people FROM earth TO heaven. The argument is that if we have GOD COME DOWN… lost people will run to him. Yet, this is not the case. Instead we sit around in tiny elitist charismatic circles, having our heavenly encounters while the world outside sees us as nothing more than a freak show.
Even though I dont consider myself a seeker sensitive kind of Pastor… I believe that the charasmatic church needs to be very careful we do not spend our days celebrating a harvest we never harvested. Even though we have many bible promises for heaven on earth… we also have a very clear mission to carry out before heading to eternity. Let us never make christianity more about OUR EXPERIENCE than OUR COMMISSION. There will be PLENTY of time to BASK after we have finished our race.
Yes, we need Gods Spirit to carry out Gods assignment… yes we should ENCOUNTER God every day… we should FEEL him and be MOVED by him… we should have his Spirit operating through us… and we should do all we do as Spirit powered people. Yet, we must become far more willing to take our encounter to this world in a way that she will be able to understand our message and be saved by it.
1 Corinthians 14:18-19 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.
I believe the Apostle Paul was giving the very same message I am giving here… to NEVER be ashamed of the Holy Spirit… to be filled with all the fulness of God… and to do this CONSCIOUS of how we are coming off to others. Paul made it very clear that he was the most ENCOUNTER hungry believer of them all… but that he had many of his deepest encounters in PRIVATE so that he could REACH people during the churches public gatherings. Paul was telling the charismatic church of Corinth to make sure their were not being perceived as a freak show… and not to use the excuse of Holy Spirit entitlement.
Undoubtedly, the church of tomorrow will be a HEALING church… undoubtedly, the church of tomorrow will be a MIRACULOUS church… undoubtedly, the church of tomorrow be a church of Gods presence… a church of HIGH praise and DEEP worship. What I am suggesting here is that we shed off yesterdays CHARISMATIC RELIGION to give this world an unembellished demonstration of God’s Holy Spirit. That we leverage our Holy Spirit endowment as Paul suggests… that we make our aim far more about the great commission than our great encounters.
For more on this subject check out two recent blogs of mine: our founding manifesto and the real meaning of life 4 a follower of Jesus and the article from Matt Sorger published in Charisma Magazine.
In summary, please understand how much this reader LOVES to be in meetings with other believers when the chief aim is to ENCOUNTER GOD. I crave for everything supernatural… and I long to be in prayer meetings. I’m only suggesting that there is a fork in this road… and while I would love to spend the rest of my years locked away in a bubble of encounter… I would rather get my kicks off seeing others born again. For me, there is no greater manifestation of HEAVEN on EARTH.
I hope todays blog adds tremendous value to your amazing lives. I pray these thoughts produce a deeper encounter for some and greater balance in others. Have a super duper day everyone!
WE ALL FIND OURSELVES WANTING THE UTMOST ENCOUNTER WITH OUR LORD BUT HE WANTS AND HOLDS US ACCOUNTABLE TO HIS WORD AND BRINGING MORE PEOPLE TO HIM–SO WE HAVE TO FOCUS ON OUR BIG COMMISION AND GET ER DONE..GOOD AND INSPIRING BLOG –THANKS
As a non-charismatic, I am very glad to see you post this. It has been very disturbing to see so many people (not just charismatics) proclaiming “revival in the land” while a matter of common observation shows otherwise. We are a land that is butchering babies by the millions (choice) and on the verge of putting civil approval on Sodomite marriage (tolerance).
Revival is not a personal experience, or even a church event. Revival is a cultural and nation event, and as long as we see what we see above, America is not in revival, tongues or no tongues.
The irony of the “church growth movement” is that:
1.) Ironically, the church isn’t growing. (See this article for one of many examples.
2.) What is growing in churches is not Christianity. (See this article for one of many examples)
We also need to make sure that Christ alone is our calling card, not entertainment or any sort of self indulging ear-tickling gimmick. The fact is that the Bible does not promise Christians a great life now, or a “wonderful plan”. God may decide that he wamnts to use us as martyrs. Christ promised us trials, tribulation, and persecution, and thus we must deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Him.
This is a message that today’s church goers do not want to hear, and yet Jesus was most adamant, stating that whosoever refuses to do so “cannot be my disciple”.
The last true revival on the planet was the First Great Awakening, which was nearly 300 years ago. O that we could find preachers like George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards today, who refused to shy away from hard truths like Sin, Hell, and Repentance.
I agree. I came across a powerful statement awhile back, “If we are only hearing, and never seeing we lose credibility.”
Very well said Pastor Chuck
Nice phrase Pastor Richard… I think its kind of like eating… if we do not burn up the calories we consume, we gain weight. If we want to be slim and fit, we must burn up MORE calories than we are consuming. I’ve been gaining weight since the beginning of the year… eating WAY more than I’m using. My wife keeps encouraging me to start running again… and I’m procrastinating. As a Christian… we must beware of sitting around eating up the glory at our glory cafe’s… and we have to give away what we’re taking in… or we will end up with a spiritual condition that matches our physical condition.
Maybe this is what Jesus was talking about when he said, “I eat of a meat you know not of… my meat is to DO the will of my father.” He said this of course in reference to evangelizing the woman at the well. For Jesus, he was NOURISHED by what he was doing for others… he had a GIGANTIC SPIRITUAL ENCOUNTER as he ministered Good News to a very lost gal.
Puritain lad thank you for your input. I do believe that what you are sharing to be true.
It amazes me the in the conversations I have with christians that are so complacent about certain issues: abortion, gay marriage, adultery, stealing, ….but what vexes me most is that they say they love God, but I don’t truly believe in my heart of hearts that they fear Him. I know in my own relationship I had a hard time with what it meant to truly fear God. Our world has changed the perception of what fear is and what it means to fear God. It is hard for me to explain…..but there is a line that you just don’t cross and won’t cross because of it. Does that make sense?
We are not to live in a bubble as you put it. We are to be about our father’s business and that certainly doesn’t mean hiding away and just waiting until He comes again.
Really like the post, Pastor Chuck. It reminds me of a sermon I heard years ago, in which the pastor stated that most of us are trees with fruit that is becoming over-ripe, and falling right at the foot of the tree and rotting. In other words, we’re getting so full of the Holy Spirit, and we’re not sharing it with anyone, so all of our fruit is being wasted, essentially, within our own personal space. If we are blessed with an encounter with the Most High God, and we don’t share the results of that encounter with those around us, then that is the worst sort of selfishness that can be. Just like you said, we have to DO the will of the Father, we have to SHARE the Love of Jesus, because that’s what we are called to do.
Pastor Chuck? RUN!!! I’ll pray for you as you exercise, if you’ll pray for me as I prepare for my lighthouse run.
Blessings to you!
Great thoughts Michelle… wow, thanks for commenting!
In response to yesterday’s blog, 08/13. The only example we have as a church of a balanced ministry is Jesus. He preached the Gospel, confronted evil, pointed out sin, saved the lost, healed the sick, made the lame to walk, opened blind eyes, made the deaf to hear, cast out demons and raised the dead. All being done with much love, in His glory. To aspire to anything less is not balanced and may even be deception.
Charlie
Charlie… thanks for the comments, nice to meet you. As you know… we can’t cover every angle of a certain subject on a 300-500 word daily blog. Great thoughts… I agree that we should do all those things you mentioned… and we should do them without adding on our religious charismatic “preachy” “churchy”… out of touch methods. Whereas the Bible is an ANCHOR that never changes… each generation needs to LOOK ON THEIR FIELDS and present Gods truth in an indigenous kind of way. It’s the whole “new wine” being poured through “new wineskins” thing.
You know, when the missionary movement was launched in the early 1900′s, American missionaries quickly discovered the importance of LEARNING the language and customs of each county… so they could help new believers set up INDIGENOUS churches. In other words, they didn’t take the American way of doing church to the tribes and force them into our model.
I believe the American church as she stands this day should consider following the indigenous church method. We should look over the people and customs of our land and present the power of Gods Spirit in a way that these generations can understand us. Instead, so many of us want to FORCE the emerging generations into our religious mold. I see this especially in the charismatic sectors of the church. In the name of “operating in the Holy Spirit” we keep on doing what makes us FEEL like we’re having a movement even though we’re no longer effective.
As I mentioned in this blog… I also believe in carrying out all the aspects of the great commission you mentioned. I also believe that God is really trying to do a NEW THING… and we have to be willing to let go of yesterdays way of doing things… in order to taste what’s next! Our standard remains the same… our Bibles unaltered… while our religion is RESHAPED.
Very well said and written. thanks