I love to express what I feel called to say. Writing helps me to open up my heart and do that. I hope that what I write helps you in some way. I hope it makes you think, encourages you, or inspires you. If it challenges you or if you disagree, I hope you know that I respect your right to have a different point of view.
Somewhere along the way, Christianity abandoned banding together as a band of sisters and brothers in Christ directly led by the Spirit as they humbly open their hearts to God and to one another. Instead of assembling themselves together to spur one another on to love and good deeds by actively encouraging one another (Hebrews 10:24-25) Christians became a passive audience for a one-man-band juggling a weekly service and giving a religious talk.
Christianity is in crisis. Isn’t it time to strike up the band and begin obeying 1 Corinthians 14:26: “When you come together each one of you has a hymn, a word of instruction, a revelation . . .”
Christianity isn’t about merely making it through another sermon. It’s about letting Jesus within you and through you and continually direct you by His Spirit within you.
Here’s how you can do that:
If as you pray You will listen To the things that God has to say And live His way Throughout each day You'll never stray From His presence.
Lukewarm Christianity is casual and comfortable. The Bible calls it carnal because it promotes human desires, opinions, and feelings. It is words without power. It trains people to be passive church attendees and mere sermon-hearers instead of eager and obedient readers and doers of the Word. (James 1:22)
Jesus doesn’t like lukewarm Christianity. He even says that He will spew it out of His mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16)
Lukewarm Christianity is self-righteous. It teaches its adherents to believe they are good people (Romans 3:23) and don’t need to regularly humble themselves, (1 Peter 5:6) confess their sins, (James 5:16) acknowledge their great need for Christ’s forgiveness, and repent by changing how they think and act in daily life. (Matthew 3:2)
Lukewarm Christianity ignores God’s still small voice. (1 Kings 19:11-12) It trains Christians to quench the inner leadings of God the Holy Spirit. (1 Thessalonians 3:19)
Instead of actually demonstrating (1 Corinthians 2: 4) the presence and power of the risen Jesus, lukewarm Christianity keeps people ever learning sermon-based religious information. Rather than training people to listen daily to and faithfully obey “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” (Colossians 1:27) it makes them satisfied with passive church attendance.
Lukewarm Christianity gives people false confidence. It assures them that if they have ever asked Jesus into their heart, they will go to Heaven when they die as long as they attend and financially support a church. It makes people believe that Christianity is nothing more than a mere spectator religion. (2 Timothy 3:5)
Spirit-led Christianity, however, is radically different. It continually burns like a fire in the heart. (Luke 25:32) It supernaturally changes people from within (2 Corinthians 5:17) and transforms them from glory to glory more and more into the image of Christ. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
Spirit-led Christianity trains people to deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and faithfully follow, listen to, and obey the living Jesus. (Luke 9:23) It releases the fruit (Galatians 5:22-23) and gifts (1 Corinthians 12:1-12) of the Holy Spirit to flow powerfully, like rivers of living water, (John 7:38-39) both within and through people.
Spirit-led Christianity always keeps as its first priority to be inwardly governed and ruled directly by God. (Matthew 6:33) It empowers people to be faithful disciples who live the Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount, and all the rest of Christ’s teachings in daily life. It forgives everyone. (Colossians 3:13) It even loves and blesses its enemies. (Matthew 5:44)
Lukewarm, self-focused Christianity is popular. Spirit-led, self-denying Christianity is rare. If you are a Christian, has your love for and excitement about Jesus faded into lukewarmness? Or is it flourishing by being inwardly prompted, empowered, and led by God’s Spirit?
The most significant Other in anyone’s life is the voice of God speaking to the heart. To notice and begin to obey God’s gentle inner whispers is to step into the supernatural dimension of life. The high calling you’ve sensed in your soul is the risen Jesus knocking on your heart’s door.
God is speaking all the time. And all the time, most people aren’t listening. “Most Christians don’t hear God’s voice because we’ve already decided we aren’t going to do what He says.” –A.W. Tozer
Let God train you to tenderly hear and obey Him. Stop shutting down what God’s Spirit is saying to you. When there is no peaceful, joyful melody in your heart, God is telling you something is out of tune.
One word heard directly from God is worth hundreds of thousands of words heard from a mere human mouth. However, doubt denies God’s voice.
Listen. Let God’s still small voice burn in your heart. It will brighten up your life. It may even make your body quake. In England in the 1600s groups of friends gathered to silently listen to and obey God’s voice together. Because they broke with religious tradition (but not with Christian doctrine) multitudes of them were arrested and thrown into prison. To insult them, people called them Quakers.
People who follow and flow with God’s voice are often considered crazy by those who are unwilling to hear God speak. Are you willing to be called crazy? I’m willing. That’s why I rarely get invited to preach in a traditional church. I think it is a miracle when I do!
If you are unwilling to hear what you don’t want to hear, you will miss God’s voice. The quieter, less distracted, and more surrendered you are, the more clearly you will hear Him speak. If you have the courage to persistently, humbly, and obediently listen, you can hear God’s still small voice.
It’s much easier to ignore God’s spiritual promptings than it is to faithfully notice and obey them. Dump the distractions that drown out God’s inner leadings, that dilute your awareness of His presence, and that draw you further from Him.
Refuse to allow anyone or anything (not even your ego) to stifle the Holy Spirit’s still small voice speaking in your soul. The more you listen and step out in obedience, the stronger the sound of His voice becomes. If you’re unwilling to daily walk the Spirit-led walk, (Romans 8:14) hearing another Sunday talk about Jesus won’t do you much good.
If you want to grow Spiritually strong Listen to and know God’s inner voice Speaking in your heart.
The institutionally captive church recognizes two kinds of Christians — clergy (ministers/priests) and laity (regular people). However the Bible teaches that all Christ-followers are “kings and priests.” (Revelation 1:6) They are all part of a “royal priesthood.” (1 Peter 2:9)
Christians aren’t just church members. They are all priests called to “encourage one another,” to “spur one another on to love and good deeds,” (Hebrews 10:24-25) and to be a light to the world. (Matthew 5:14-16)
The leaders of the Protestant Reformation taught the priesthood of the believer as a doctrine. However, when they organized their churches they ignored it. They set up their institutionalized churches as a top-down pyramid with clergy on top and laity on the bottom.
Almost every Christian denomination and nondenominational church has followed suit and embraced two kinds of Christians — professional pastors commissioned to function like a one-man priest and control passive laymen and laywomen during an hour or longer religious service. Then the laypeople are sent home satisfied that they have done a good thing by being part of an audience of inactive attendees — hearers but not doers of the word. (James 1:22-25)
If any ministry needs to be done during the week lay Christians have been trained to call their professional pastor. They’ve been taught by example to rely on him to pray, to answer all religious questions, to explain the Bible, to evangelize, and to encourage people in the faith while they as laymen and laywomen remain silent.
However, when Jesus sent out His disciples He told them to go and make disciples of all nations and to teach their disciples to do everything that Jesus had commanded them to do. (Matthew 28:18-20) According to the Bible the role of leadership in the body of Christ is to train all Christians to do the work of the ministry. (Ephesians 4:11-13)
The Bible doesn’t support the traditional clergy laity divide. It teaches that all Christians through the blood of Jesus have direct access to God the Father and to the Holy Spirit. However the Bible does recognize two kinds of Christians — spiritual and carnal. Spiritual Christians obey and are led by the Spirit. Carnal Christians follow and obey their own thoughts, feelings, and desires. (1 Corinthians 3:1) Which are you?
Who is the head of a church — Jesus or the pastor. Jesus is supposed to be, but who plans the church service? Who controls it? Is it Jesus or the pastor?
The Bible tells how Judea (the ancient Jewish nation) was taken and held in captivity by Babylon. Church history shows that a similar thing has happened to Christianity. Throughout the centuries, spiritual awakenings and revival movements of spontaneous, Spirit-led Christianity have been taken captive and quenched by institutionalized religion.
I’ve seen that happen in my own life. The Jesus Movement of the 1970’s ignited and spread contagious, heartfelt, cage-free, Spirit-led Christianity around the world. Then the institutional captivity set in as churches drew spiritually ignited people into the passive religious routine of systematized programs and traditions.
The institutional captivity of Christianity has misled people to believe that faith in Christ is about little more than faithfully attending and financially supporting the church of your choice. It has been effective at compelling people to come and sit through church services, but very ineffective at empowering people to continually listen to and obey the risen Jesus in everyday life.
Instead of letting the living Jesus continually amaze us, Christianity has been caught in a maze of religious routine. The institutional captivity of Christianity has kept Christ-followers dependent on a human pastor and a religious organization, instead of on the present reality of the living resurrected Jesus.
Cage-free Christianity trains and releases Christians to freely roam as they are inwardly led by the Holy Spirit. (Romans 8:14) Go beyond the Sunday morning spectator routine and begin to daily follow and obey Christ the inner King.
Jesus isn’t a topic for a sermon or a religious study. He’s the present, living Lord and Savior. Follow Him.
Superficial Christianity is artificial. (2 Timothy 3:5) Spirit-led Christianity is authentic. (Romans 8:14) According to Mark 3:5, hardhearted people make Jesus angry and sad. Open up your heart to the tenderness of God the Holy Spirit.
Testify. Don't forget Or deny Miracles Christ has done. Magnify God the Son!
There’s a famous children’s book called “Where’s Waldo?” or “Where’s Wally?” depending on the country it’s published for. It is full of images of various situations containing hundreds of people and objects. Waldo is somewhere in each crowded picture, and readers are challenged to find him. In the busy illustrations, that isn’t an easy task. Finding Waldo requires diligent seeking and persistence.
Two women went to look for someone they thought was dead and found an empty tomb. They were told, “He’s not here. He is risen. Why do you seek the living among the dead?” To find the risen Jesus, you need to see Him beyond dead religious routine, “having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof.” (2 Timothy 3:15)
The Bible teaches that Christ lives in (Colossians 1:27) people who have been supernaturally transformed and made new by His presence and power. (2 Corinthians 5:17) In the crowded, self-focused situations of humanity, those people can, like Waldo, be hard to find.
However, when you find someone who is daily being led by Christ living inside of them, you’ll get a beautiful view of Jesus! I love encountering people like that. I seek out Christ-radiating people everywhere.
Like Waldo, Jesus can also be found through a book. When I open the Bible, I don’t just read it. I persistently search for Jesus until the words begin to burn in my heart, making me aware of His presence in and around me.
It’s fun to finally find Waldo in a “Where’s Waldo?” book, but it’s also easy to give up and quit seeking him. It’s incredible to experience Jesus through the Bible and encounter Him living in and through other people. However, it’s also very easy to give up, quit seeking Christ, and settle into dead religion.
When you find Jesus and His supernatural love, don’t just walk away. Take Him with you all lifelong, not as a mere memory, or as a historical person, or as a religious figure. Continually carry Christ’s presence and love in you as your absolute Master, Lord, and Savior. Listen to and obey Him throughout each day. Be always led by His Spirit, (Romans 8:14) and you will begin finding the living Jesus everywhere you go.
I wish I could erase all the cruel words and actions that people, churches, and countries who call themselves Christian have done throughout history. If all the war, persecution, torture, killing, racism, lying, theft, deception, terrorism, genocide, and slavery done in the name of Jesus could be erased, world history would be so much kinder.
I believe that is why individuals, churches, and nations try so hard to sanitize their history by rewriting and reframing it to remove religious ruthlessness and brutality from their story. However, just because Christian cruelty is often left out of history textbooks, doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen.
Honestly and humbly admitting the sin in our corporate history is important. Christians like to celebrate, embrace, and boast in the events that make them proud of their nation’s history even though they personally had nothing to do with those events. Yet, they prefer to distance themselves from the injustices done by their nation and supported by their churches by saying things like, “I had nothing to do with slavery.”
That is a double standard. If we are going to own up to and take pride in what we see as the good things our nation, churches, and ancestors did in the past, shouldn’t we admit and be sorry for the evil that they did while boasting about being Christian?
I’m not just making this up. History shows that it is characteristic of all nations and people groups. Here’s a concrete example. I’m an American. We Americans love to glorify, celebrate, and Christianize our Founding Fathers and our founding documents, even though we had nothing to do with them. We also like to deny the tremendous evil of race-based slavery and the horrible crimes against humanity of widespread genocide against the Native Americans by proclaiming that we personally had nothing to do with those things.
We present-day human beings can’t change cruel historical events. However, we can admit them and be sorry for them. We can learn about the cruelty in the past instead of ignoring it by pretending it didn’t happen or by reframing it as something necessary or even good. We can show kindness, compassion, and understanding to the decedents of the victims. And we should? Why?
By remembering the cruelties done in the past, especially those done in the name of Christ, we can help prevent those cruelties from being repeated in our generation or in future generations. History shows that when past inhumanity is covered up, justified, or ignored, it eventually recycles to the present. We can’t change the cruelties committed by Christians in the past, but we can be reminded by the past not to embrace self-righteous, self-justifying Christian cruelty in words or deeds in the present.
Christianity has been misunderstood. Miracles happen all the time.
Multitudes of miracles are hidden in people’s memories and experiences. Yet, Western culture has trained us since birth to ignore them, forget them, and explain them away.
People who dare to openly talk about and give God credit for miracles they have personally seen or experienced are frequently viewed as irrational, superstitious, or mentally unbalanced. When it comes to boldly testifying about signs and wonders we have seen God do, the fear of mockery or rejection gags us. Because of that, people falsely believe that modern-day miracles are very rare or nonexistent.
Even churches have a gag rule against talking about God’s miracles. Church services are full of people who have seen God do amazing things within them, through them, and around them. However, because they aren’t encouraged (or even allowed) to speak up in church and testify about what they’ve seen and heard, it often seems like God stopped doing miracles when Christ’s first apostles died.
Theologians have even given the belief that God doesn’t do miracles anymore a name: cessationism. Some churches even teach cessationism as an official doctrine.
I’ve heard a funny definition of cessationism: “God’s miracle power petered out when Peter the Apostle petered out.” However, there is nothing funny about ignoring, being silent about, or denying the presence, power, and miracles of the living resurrected Jesus Christ. The Bible plainly says, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
Christ is still working miracles! I see and experience them throughout each day. There are far too many incredibly odds-defying things that happen within me, through me, and around me to be mere coincidences.
But I’m not alone. God is also doing miracles in and around you. Do you have the courage to look beyond your Western world blinders? Set aside your anti-miracle prejudice and intellectual pride for even one day and you will be reminded that many incredible, logically unexplainable things have happened both within and around you.
Even church people have trouble believing in miracles, not just because of rationalistic brain washing, but also because of the forced silence in the pews that shuts down the amazing testimonies of God’s signs and wonders. The Bible says, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.” It says that Christians become overcomers “by the word of their testimony.”
Another reason that people have trouble believing in miracles is because of the way that some churches have used hype and emotionalism, and sometimes even deception, to promote the concept of healing and miracles. I’m not talking about worked-up religious rowdiness. I’m talking about the power of noticing the inner voice of God. When you become aware of God’s miracles life gets really exciting.
Don’t just believe me! God Himself is talking to you, perhaps even as you read this. Listen to His inner whispers to your heart and His voice in your conscience. Don’t write them off as superstition, insanity, or coincidence. Let them inspire you, correct you, instruct you, and reveal and remind you of the miracles the risen Jesus has done and is doing in and around you. Then dare to humbly speak about the things you have seen and heard from God so you can help other people recognize what God is saying and doing in their lives.
Three hours after posting this I called a medical company. The lady who answered the phone said: “Hello, my name is Miracle. How can I help you?” After our conversation, I told her I had just written and posted an article about miracles. Miracle replied: “That’s confirmation!”
The Misunderstanding of Christianity — My Search for The Beautiful Place Where People Gather to Let Jesus Lead Them
The Bible tells Christians to meet together to encourage one another (Hebrews 10:24-25) and allow people to share (1 Corinthians 14:26) what the Holy Spirit puts on their heart. (Romans 8:14) If you’ve read some of what I write, you know that I am on a lifelong mission to search for and promote Spirit-prompted, open-sharing Christian meetings, but they are very difficult to find.
As a result of my steadfast seeking and promoting, I’ve been misunderstood, criticized, accused, ignored, rejected, and insulted. But I’ve also had many incredible experiences of seeing the risen Jesus work powerfully in and through ordinary people. Those experiences have kept my heart passionately in love with and committed to Christ and hungry to see Him do more.
I’ve noticed that even people who say they believe the Bible seem to have little or no interest in gathering with other believers to listen to “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” and then allow people to say and do what Jesus tells them to. However, when people take turns speaking out as the Spirit leads them, the Bible says this will happen: “If an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!” (1 Corinthians 14: 27-28)
People need to see and experience actual demonstrations of Christ’s presence, power, and love. It’s not enough to merely give them the enticing words of a one-man religious lecture. (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)
I feel like someone who has discovered the most incredible and beautiful place in the world, but so very few people want to come with me and let me show it to them. The wonderful place I’ve discovered is any place Christ-followers gather to humbly listen to and obey His inner voice.
Although it feels like I haven’t been able to convince many people of the vital importance of such a Spirit-directed meeting, my search hasn’t been in vain. I’ve experienced that glorious place of watching Christ Himself lead a group of two or more people gathered in the lobby of a college dorm, in someone’s living room or basement, in a Bible school in India, in an alcohol and drug rehab center, on inner-city streets, in my own home, in a traditional Salvation Army church building for 9 1/2 years, in a barn with a Nashville-based ministry called Cul2vate, in a discipleship program in Costa Rica, in a Spanish-speaking house church in Nashville, and even in a burrito-based restaurant.
So why has my searching moved me around so much? I’ve discovered that Spirit-led meetings are beyond our human comfort zone.
The more God’s Spirit is allowed to take over a meeting, the more we become aware of our sinful human nature. As the Spirit prompts people to open up their hearts to one another, we feel vulnerable. Intimacy with Christ exposes our own heart to us. It causes us to become uneasy and to want to hide.
It requires courage to allow Jesus to show you what’s truly going on in your heart. When that begins to happen in a meeting, human nature wants to run away or to hide behind a pastor-led religious program. It’s at that point of awkwardness that someone who sees himself or herself as a leader may step in and take control in order to make people feel more comfortable. The Bible calls that quenching the Holy Spirit.
I’ve discovered that most Christians prefer to honor Jesus by their church attendance but to keep their heart from being mightily touched (Matthew 15:8-9) and undone by His presence. (Isaiah 6:5) Thus, the spiritual intimacy of Spirit-led meetings is resisted and rejected. I’ve even had several people tell me that I shouldn’t talk and write about it so much. (You may feel the same way.) But I can’t stop speaking about the things I have seen and heard.
Thank you for having the courage to read this till the end. Now I challenge you to find one or more people who are willing to meet with you, listen to the inner voice of Jesus, and then say and do what He tells them to. Gather with them and behold the Lamb of God working in your midst!
A nation where there are very few humble, honest, self-denying, Spirit-led, Jesus-focused, Christ-like, compassion-radiating people is not a Christian nation. Where can you find the most people like that? They are mainly found in places where Christ-followers are persecuted.
Persecution purifies Christians. That’s why Jesus said: “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in Heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:11-12) According to Jesus, Christians should celebrate when they are persecuted, not when they are applauded.
Two of the countries that most actively and cruelly persecute Christians are China and Iran. In both of those countries, Christianity has been rapidly expanding.
The opposite happens when Christianity becomes recognized and applauded by a government. History shows that when a government boasts about Christianity, it often uses religion to justify its policies, protect its power, and condemn its enemies. Throughout history, governments have promoted much cruelty (racism, segregation, lying, genocide, slavery, torture, war, assassinations) in the name of Christ.
Comfortable religious programs puff people up with pride and spiritual complacency. They tend to make them self-righteous and blind them to injustice. They open people up to false prophets and deception.
Since Christ’s kingdom is not of this world (John 18:26) boasting and trusting in a nation is contrary to biblical Christianity. Jesus came for every nation, not just one. (Matthew 28:19-20) The more Christianity focuses on political power, the more it abandons spiritual power and the less Christ-like it becomes.
Free Gas for Your Think Tank -- Short Reflections, Lasting Encouragement 