Tuesday 18 August 2015

Are you in "God's will?"

Coming up through the pentecostal church in the UK it was the constant pursuit to be 'in God's will.'  Sometimes this was used as a threat... that this supposed moving target required a level of holiness I'd better be making sure I had that level.  Some displayed their evidence for being in God's will like status symbols in the religious strata of ministry life.  Exhausted and unable to reach such heights of holiness... I decided I was disqualified from being in the will of God.  Then I read the Bible.

As someone who, by the grace of God, had been saved, I was justified before God. This meant that I was his child, adopted into His family... a son.  This also meant that I had nothing to prove.  This was God's will.  So being justified in Christ is God's will.  Can I depart from the ideal path he wants for me while justified in Christ?  Of course!  Israel spent so much time as God's chosen yet not following the plan.  What we find, especially in the 'minor' prophets, is God's wrathful anger towards Israel (incorporating Judah for the sake of simplicity).  When they rebelled they willed God's wrath... so in that sense they were in God's will.  When they did good and came back to God they were blessed so they were in God's will.  So however we respond to God we will incur his will... with one exception.

When Jesus was addressing the church at Laodicea they were sternly rebuked for being neither hot nor cold.  They were lukewarm.  Jesus says he wants to spit the lukewarm church out of his mouth.  Hot churches seem to be the ones who are coming back to God and getting with the task of submitting, yielding and abandoning their lives the Jesus.  A cold church seems to be those who have been justified but have little interest in the Lord's sanctification process.  Laodicea appears to have had a type of Christianity where it was neither of these.  It was acting 'hot' yet these devotional actions covered hearts that had little intention to engage the real work of dying to self to see the Lord glorified.

Israel was often accused as being worse that the pagan nations.  Being hot or cold gives the Lord something to work with but having a form or following yet it all being an act to cover nonchalance is sickening to the Lord.  GIVE ME SOMETHING TO WORK WITH!  I feel like Jesus is saying:

 'Either get with the plot or completely disregard me so I can 'wrath' you into submission. But don't play at being spiritual and walking well... That's making me sick.'

Are you in God's will?  The question is more like 'Is God in your will?'  Meaning when you pursue the aims and objectives of your life (that is in Christ) is God the central factor of all you propose?

Time is short.

Gary Ward

Tuesday 11 August 2015

'Cross Carrying' Christianity?

Many believers say that their 'cross' is their particular problem they have which is distinct to them.  Carrying your cross is termed as putting up with the issue with a good attitude.  Actually cross carrying is something entirely different.  The aim of God in our walk is to make us in the image of Jesus.  This image is not just doing nice things or noble tasks but actually being transformed.  Many never get to real cross carrying because they lean on and become dependent on the 'stuff' of church, ministries and personalities.

There is a way of walking an authentic walk and that is to get back to an unhindered walk with the Lord.  But then you have to be subject to His ways.  That is uncomfortable but Jesus said that disciples must carry their own cross or they can't be His disciples (Luke 14:27).  The terminology is used because all followers of Jesus are on a program that leads to the death of 'self.'  Cross carriers are heading for a season of crucifixion... a time when several factors come together to destroy our willful selves.  

Like real crucifixion the process of death to self has similar elements:

  • It hurts so much you will be utterly shocked at it's ferocity
  • You cannot avoid it.  No matter what you do you are nailed!
  • You will cry out for relief from God
  • You will think God has forsaken you 
  • It will feel like past hurts are being exploited
  • It is suffocating
  • You may shout at God because you are infuriated
Why does this have to happen?  Well, it's the only way to have us get fixed from willfulness and self.  People like me who have had some difficult things to deal with in life may feel like you could do with a break... not dragged through pain again!  That's hard but just imagine this:

In order to save willful and selfish people, the pure, holy and innocent Lamb of God was REALLY crucified.  I won't go into the details but this is absolute physical agony.  Worse still, in order for me to be united with God, Jesus had to be excluded from the Trinity.  The horror of this is unspeakable when we consider He had never experienced separation from his Father.  All of this was done by someone who doesn't deserve it.  The Father watched as His son endured the cross.  

I do deserve that which Jesus did for me.  Torturous pain, separation from God and humiliation from people is what I deserve yet I have been let off the hook by God.  When pain and agony comes in Christian life it is designed for my betterment.  My cross carrying is a real experience but not a punishment.  It is designed to heal.  While I'm struggling with the cross It feels shockingly hard and painful.  However, I know that this is part of God's purposes to fix me.  The Lord wants me to be more like Jesus and that is the best thing for me.  After a season of pain and suffering there is a season of walking in its result.  Whatever it was all for is evidenced in my life and will result in freedom.  

When you are in the pain of the cross remember whats coming... Resurrection!

Gary Ward

Thursday 6 August 2015

"Give careful thought to your ways...." God

When we embark on a leading from the Lord we must be sure that we are in the whole council of God.  In other words the sending or calling must be ballpark in God's word.  Nothing new has occurred in the journey of the church.  It has all happened before:  people have always done their own thing and called it 'God.'   Israel did it all before we did.  They mixed idols with Yahweh worship and branded it as the state religion.  We are given these examples so we would learn from them (1 Cor 10:11).   I believe the church needs to 'give careful though to its ways' because it does not practice church that is God's way and is more about serving the ideas Man has thought up throughout history.

It is biblical to call for assessment of church practice

To find where my calling is to do this is well documented in these blogs.  However I want to underline that this is God's will through the book of Haggai.  The context of the book is outlined by the Lord in that the people say the time has not yet come to build the Lord's house.   The Hebrew word for 'house' is strongly associated with 'family' as does the one when he says the people have their own covered houses.  It is clear that the Lord is referring to the Temple but we all know that a believer is the temple of the Holy Spirit in the New Covenant.   They are told be God to 'give careful thought their ways.'  As I have been warning for 15 years at the time of writing, believers need to assess their church practice to make sure they are building the ekklesia the Lord wants and not their own version of church that came from history.

It is biblical to point out that the church is not seeing God's blessing

Next we see the Lord underlining a painful truth.  The people had sown but not harvested.  This is described in various formats in the text of Haggai.  But it is also a painful truth about the church.  Mega churches water down the gospel to fill seats, which brings in tithes, which allows more works to be invested in.  However, the blueprint for God's involvement is the Book of Acts.  I'm not suggesting the exact miracles need to take place to authenticate God's hand.  However, it must have some sort of miraculous mark... it is simply God's way when he endorses something.  God tells the people they are all about their own building and not about His building and therefore barrenness has been the mark. Today it is not the resultant harvest that is celebrated... it is the sowing, the activity itself that people see as God's blessing.  Not according to Haggai.  It is God's hand to bring blessing that we should look for and identify as an authentic work of the Lord.

To wait upon God's sending instead of assuming we are called in biblical

next we find that the people hear Haggai's words and obey the Lord.  It is given to us the reason for their hearing is because Haggai was sent of the Lord.  Care needs to be taken here as it wasn't just anyone who heard this and obeyed.  It was the remnant of the people who heard.  the remnant were the final surviving portion of the people.  In our terms these are those who have survived the system-church and have found this is all about God's glory, not 'my ministry.'  Some time ago I had to be schooled by the Lord that people who opt for 'biblical church' are specific people who the Lord can still add new information to.  Its not like people can't come... but I have no ability to identify those who are willing to reopen their ears to hear the voice