On Sabbatical

I am on Sabbatical. I won't be on this blog.

Like a Menstrual Rag

Today I read something in Isaiah 30 that really blessed me:

"Blessed are those who wait on the Lord.

People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you.Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Then you will desecrate your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, “Away with you!”"

Don't you want that? I do. I want to look at my unworthy attachments, idols, obsessions, and distractions with contempt. I want them to no longer have a pull on the core longings of my heart. I want to see them for what they really are--only good for disposal. And, of course, if it is something like food, I want to see and experience it the Way Jesus did and intends.

May the Lord, through His Spirit, the Scriptures, and any other way, bring you further cleansing (ah the feeling of a long bath after being caked in dirt and mud), encouragement, and hope on your journey to our Big Daddy and His Big City.

I want to be saved...still

I "got saved" and experienced the Holy Spirit coming into me almost 15 years ago, yet more and more I still want to "get saved" from my dysfunctional behaviors/sinful patterns of thinking and conduct. Salvation/healing is a past, present, and future experience; an experience revolving around the Triune God who was, is, and is to come.

God has been healing me from past wounds, helping me grieve things I hadn't, showing me my stinking thinking and helping me aligning it with the truth, correcting distortions, and reminding me of the hope filled future in store for me and those who follow Him. It is a process. Lately it seems like a long-short one. Paradoxes can be confusing :)

Perhaps one of the keys on this journey is that the longing to want to be free and full of his life continues to grows inside of us. However, remember that this too is a gift/grace and work of His Spirit. Our part in a nutshell is to yield and ask and yield and ask and yield and ask...

On that note I segue into my thoughts on the Good News of Matthew. I have now finished going through this gospel. We can and will spend a lifetime discussing and writing about the gems we discover in Scripture. If we are humble and open to the Spirit, the Scripture will be alive and active. Each time therefore we will encounter the words of God and have something precious to share and report. With that said, it is difficult for me to decide what to share.

I am reminded of the 1st entry I wrote on this blog titled, "He will save his people from _____"? What was it that we as 1st century Jews would want to hear the angel say about this promised child? What would we want to be freed from?

The angel does not say "he will free you from the Romans," for example. The Jews during this time had been under oppressive governments for centuries. But the angel Gabriel prophesies about Jesus that He will save his people "from their sins." This is why his name is Jesus, which means to save/deliver.

A couple of weeks after being captured by that verse, the Holy Spirit led me to Ezekiel chapter 37. After the passage of the valley of dry bones being raised to life, the words of the Lord continue with this,

"I am going to take the stick of Joseph—which is in Ephraim’s hand—and of the Israelite tribes associated with him, and join it to Judah’s stick. I will make them into a single stick of wood, and they will become one in my hand.’ Hold before their eyes the sticks you have written on and say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land. I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. There will be one king over all of them and they will never again be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms.They will no longer defile themselves with their idols and vile images or with any of their offenses, for I will save them from all their sinful backsliding, and I will cleanse them. They will be my people, and I will be their God."

As I continue to go through my own healing journey which includes finally letting go of my idols, this passage brought me great hope. I think I was a little discouraged at the rate of my progress, "When will I be delivered from this battle with food obsession?" But God highlighted to me this line, "I will save them from all their sinful backsliding, and will cleanse them" He was reminding me ever so gently yet zealously that HE is the one who delivers and HE WILL DO IT. It is not written, "And you [me Nazim] will save yourself from your sin". Thank GOD!!

Even now another Scripture comes to mind in light of the hope I found on my journey as I read Ezekiel and Matthew, "For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope." (Romans 15)

Matthew 20 Really?

Alright, let's say I'd pay you 200 dollars to help me till and mulch my dad's garden and you agreed to do it until whenever he got home.

You start early in the morning.

A few hours later I hire some more folks because it is a lot of work.

A few more hours later I hire some more folks because there is plenty of work to do still.

A few more hours later I hire even more people because we are tilling by hand an acre of property.

My dad comes home and it comes time for payment. The first group, which you are in and started working early in the morning, gets paid the 200 bucks we agreed with.

My dad and I then had every other work 200 bucks too. Even the ones that only worked a couple of hours towards the end of the day!

What is your reaction?

While you think about that hold onto it and read what Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven is like.

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. ² Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. ³ And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, ⁴ and said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. ⁵ Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. ⁶ And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle,and said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day?’ ⁷ They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.’
⁸ “So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, ‘Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.’ ⁹ And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. ¹⁰ But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius. ¹¹ And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner, ¹²saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.’ ¹³ But he answered one of them and said, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? ¹⁴ Take what isyours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. ¹⁵ Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’ ¹⁶ So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.”

Was your reaction similar to mine? "Woah that isn't fair."

Then I read Jesus say "Or is your eye evil because I am good?"

EWE CONVICTION :)

Yep Lord help me and anyone who reads this to rejoice in your crazy extravagant kindness!

Can I rejoice in the fact that the man who was a robber and crucified with Christ is experiencing the same paradise I will be? See Luke 23. Some follow Jesus and work and labor for decades and some say an earnest prayer right before they die and enter the Kingdom of heaven. Wow, the Kindness of our God!

Who are Johns and Forerunners Called To?

So I have been talking a lot about what might be the message of a John the Baptist today. He preached the same content "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near!" He was making ready the people of God for the coming of the Messiah. The "works" of his ministry were different than that of Jesus' it appears. His were mainly confession of sin, being baptized by water--which he emphasized was a foreshadowing of being baptized by the Holy Spirit by the Messiah--, and a call to turn/repent/change your thinking or mind towards and to the Kingdom of Heaven. People were being called to open up their hearts to the coming King.

There is a distinction however that I am wondering if it applies today to forerunners and John the Baptists in the church. Who was John called to primarily?

The people of God in the 1st century.

In the same way are forerunners in the 21st century primarily called to people in the church? Notice I did not say "the church" but people in the church.

Tied to this question I have another. Peter was an apostle, meaning "sent one" with a mission, to those identified as Jews--the people of God. Though the gospel now was radically redefining what it meant to be God's people (Later Paul would say that it really has always been about living by faith in God).

But what may that look like today? To be an apostle sent primarily to people in the church?

Note: the Scriptures do go to great length explaining and warning that just because outwardly you are identified with the people of God because you were physically circumcised or even today saying "I grew up Catholic/Protestant/Non-denominational/Pentecostal" does not mean you are "God's people." What counts is the indwelling Holy Spirit which testifies that we are God's children (Galatians 4) who is accessed by faith in Christ Jesus, the baptizer of the Holy Spirit.

Nazarite/Forerunner Movement--Jesus is Coming Soon?

Ever since Sunday July 31st, 2011, my heart has been stirring about water baptism as practiced in the church today. My mind is trying to catch up and decipher the stirrings.

For now I wanted to talk about Nazirites. John the Baptist was a Nazirite. Nazirites are mentioned in Numbers 6 . An interesting thing about Nazirites when they are recorded in the Scriptures, is that Nazirites appear on the scene when God's people are not in good shape. When Samson appears God's people have been pursuing idols and are in bondage. When Samuel arrives on the scene as a Nazirite the same thing is true. Israel's priests are corrupt too. When John the Baptist arrives on the scene God's people are in bondage and the priest and teachers of the Law are given over to greed, which is idolatry, and all kinds of wickedness.

Over the last decade or so, there has been a Nazirite movement coming through a man named Lou Engle. And over this last decade Mike Bickle has prophesied that God was raising up 10,000 forerunners and now International House of Prayer has a forerunner ministry.

So what?

I hope your response is a little more humble and curious then mine was. Often we say "So what?" with a little puffed up attitude and 'holy' suspicion.

I heard about Lou Engle in the summer of 2005 and the Nazirite movement that was being raised up. I was given a word from a trusted, accurate, and humble prophetess in our community about "Nazirite" and "Maybe look into Lou Engle" from her. Just a month prior she had been dead on accurate to our congregation and as a result right before the first sermon I ever gave I was balling my eyes out snotting everywhere (this was actually a good thing).

I looked at "Elijah's Revolution" Lou Engle's website and saw Malachi quoted:

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet

Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.
⁶ And he will turn
The hearts of the fathers to the children,
And the hearts of the children to their fathers,

Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse"

"But John the Baptist was the Elijah to come, Jesus said," I responded. I sent an email about that to the organization and received nothing back. I wasn't encouraged to look further into it by someone I looked up to as well. The picture this person painted of this movement was one of legalism and striving unnecessarily so. So I just left it at that. I do not feel that way about it now and it was a judgment I had to repent of.

But over the next five years, little by little, the Lord kept wooing me and pulling me towards looking into the Nazirite vow. Over the next two years in many ways God made it plain to me that I was called as a forerunner and one like a John the Baptist. Jesus nudged me a few times over these five years to look into the Nazirite vow again. But I kept getting distracted.

It wasn't until June 2010 that I heard Mike Bickle say God was raising up 10,000 forerunners. Around that time I began re-discovering Jesus as spouse and Bridegroom. After falling in love with Jesus as Bridegroom in summer 2010, I was led by him and responded with what I call a "new covenant Nazirite vow." I sought counsel from the leadership beforehand and was good to go by July 31st 2010.

Again, so what?

Think about it, if, and after much observation of the body of Christ, conversations, and prayer I believe this, God is truly raising up forerunners, Nazirites, and people called in the spirit of Elijah and John the Baptist, then what is the condition of God's people? Also, if this is true, then that means Christ's return is soon. John the Baptist appears shortly before Christ's arrival.

As to the condition of the body of Christ in America, I am reminded of something Jason Ma said this spring semester on campus. He said he was talking to George Barna. George Barna did a study of American churches. He interviewed and/or surveyed over 3,000 churches. The question he asked the churches was something like this, "How do you gauge success in your churches?" In other words what do you look for to tell you that the ministry is doing well. What would you say?

Only five of the churches out of the 3,000 said "Lives are being transformed." The rest of the churches mentioned five things: How many people they had in their churches, how many programs were up and running, how much property they had, how big their budget was, and how big their building (s) were. That is how most of the church in America judges success in ministry? WOW.

Another stat is out there that comes to mind about the divorce rate among other things being the same or higher within church goers than those outside the church. I am reminded of another quote some Believer from overseas visiting churches here in America. At the end of his stay he said something like, "If the Holy Spirit left the church today, much of the church would go on as if nothing happened." In other words our programs and "good things" we are doing are being done in our own strength, wisdom, understanding, resources, and plannings. We are not being dependent on the Holy Spirit.

Secondly, as to Christ's return being imminent if indeed a forerunner ministry is being raised up by God:

Scripture emphatically states over and over to remain alert anyways. We are commanded to remain alert by Jesus, and Peter says "The end of all things is near, therefore be alert..." and "The night is nearly over; the day is almost here." (Paul says in Romans) "I am coming quickly/soon" Jesus says three times in the Book of Revelation (Rev 3:11; 22:6 and 12).

He is coming soon. But there is an added sense of alertness if indeed, which many believe, a John the Baptist/Forerunner people (in a America in particular) are being raised up.

This also means that the church in America is being called to wake up and rise to her God given identity in Christ.

Thoughts? Comments about this?

(August 6--I made some slight but important edits based on Hamilton's thoughtful feedback. I must stress that I am seeing this looking at the American church. It is where I live and have grown up. There are many churches in other parts of the world that are very healthy. Some are places where the church is underground and being persecuted.)

The "works" of John the Baptist

John the Baptist's Ministry

We look at John the Baptist who was a forerunner for Jesus. His ministry was to prepare God's people specifically for the Messiah's 1st coming, though most if not all the people didn't realize there would be two comings.

When he preached the same words Jesus and his disciples would proclaim, "Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand!" what were the works? Remember, as explained in the last post, the words of the Kingdom unleashed the works.

In John's ministry there were no physical healings as with Jesus' ministry and the subsequent ministry of the Holy Spirit in and through the church. There were no casting out of demons. There were no lepers cleansed. There were no blind seeing. There were no lame leaping. There were no deaf hearing. There were no dead rising. There were no thousands miraculously being fed. There were no storms being calmed. There were no parables recorded revealing the secrets of the Kingdom. Yet God's will and reign was coming in and through John and to his people. How did God's people prepare for the coming of the Messiah Jesus? What were the works as John preached the words of the Kingdom of heaven?

Confession and Repentance

"Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him. And were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins," (Matthew 3). Many came all over to see and hear John. As John preached the words of the Kingdom, which was a command (in the Greek it is a command not an invitation) to repent, the works of the Kingdom were confession of sin and water baptism. This is the first way that God's people prepare for his coming. This is a primary work we see in John's ministry as the same Kingdom word/message is preached.

There is conviction of sin and the humble confess and agree with God about their sin. They are baptized in water. Tied to confession of sin is repentance. Repentance, a turning of our hearts and minds away from our idols and to God, is a work of in John's ministry as the words are preached. This is preparing God's people for the fulfillment of what God will do through the Messiah, "He will save his people from their sins."

.

I have not done much research on what water baptism signified for 1st century Jews. Probably a good idea.

I do believe though that by experiencing water baptism first-hand it also helped people understand John's words "I indeed baptize you with water...but he will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire." Woah, can you imagine being a first century Jew hearing John say that?

Perhaps he said it right after you were baptized. You are dripping wet and you think, "Baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire? Drenched in God's Spirit like I am with this water?" I think I would have been a little scared. Especially if I remembered my Bible stories: God on Mount Sinai for starters. Or when someone touched the ark of the covenant they immediately died. Or when Aaron's sons were killed by the fire of God. That same fire and presence we will be submerged into? How? Woah.

Perhaps this too is another work in John's ministry: expectancy and faith begin to grow in the hearts of people. Tied to that is a re-prioritizing of what is most important in life in light of the imminent--any minute--coming of God's Kingdom. These are the primary works of John's ministry. But who was his message targeted towards? And, therefore, to who are the John's of today called?