The gentle prompting of the Father

I sat outside Chapel this Sunday as I usually do, spending time with my Father to search my heart and prepare it for ministering to the saints of Meadowbrook Chapel. It was harder this time, as my wife and I had a rough morning. The preparation I had given to the sermon "WWJD" based on the counseling training I had the previous Thursday was seemingly for naught, as God impressed Romans 6:12-15 upon my heart.

"Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. 15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!" NASB

Of course, in my foolishness, I assumed that this was very much a directed verse and so wasn't something I needed to pursue in Chapel. But then God put 1 Corinthians 13:1-10 into my heart and I turned to it:

"If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away."

So I was honest, when I spoke to the saints of the Chapel, about my indecision of what to do. I had, as I told them, prepared a sermon regarding What would Jesus do? that I had (in typical fashion) prepared at four in the morning or I could 'wing' it with what God would have me do with Romans and 1 Corinthians. I asked for prayer regarding that during our worship singing. And God spoke, in the words of the hymns we sang.

Ministry, at least my calling into it, has come under attack (see previous postings) lately and I have wavered....not in my desire to follow, but my ability to truly understand the voice of my Father God in the calling. Did I truly hear it or did I simply get overwhelmed in the passion of the moment when I thought I heard it? Seeking the counsel of others, I was in turmoil as I received no clear consensus.......and then I received the slap in the face.

And God is honoring my hearing His question in the questioning of the speaker in the counseling class. And in typical God fashion, He confirmed what I thought He said in an email I received in reply to my thank you for the slap:

I want to see you succeed in Gods plan and take on whatever way he wants you to go. I want to see you walk in the promise land! It reminded me of Joshua and Caleb and how they came with a good report but 10 other spies had a bad report and the people listened to them - they all died while wondering around. I just think you should do whatever God tells you not man. You have just been in seeming agony over this so I simply said what the bible says. Whose report are you going to believe, trust not in the wisdom of man but in the power of God, and we hear the voice of the good shepherd, we hear our fathers voice and the voice of a stranger we do not follow.

And He reaffirmed it in the Chapel service on Sunday, when He changed the sermon I was to give. I apologized to my saints that I would not be as "fluid" as I am during a 'prepared' sermon, but that God was impressing this upon my heart and I had to speak it. It is one of my fervent prayers during our corporate prayer that my voice is only a medium for God's in this place.

At the end of Chapel, one of the newest saints was in tears and spoke of some pain she had in her life. And she spoke of how Romans was important in her past and how 1 Corinthians spoke of the underlying passion of God in her life.

And my heart broke as I felt the hand of the Father upon my shoulder, and His gentle voice whispering to me, "Without love, there is no salvation. For it is My love for you that sent My son to the Cross. And it is My love for those to whom I will send you, that I call you to My service."

Oh, the sweet sweet sound of our Saviour's voice.

In Christ,
Jim

A slap heard across the classroom

"The LORD confides in those who fear Him; He makes His covenant known to them." Psalm 25:14 (NIV)

Last night, the facillator for the class I'm taking over at NorthRidge spoke to me matter-of-factly (as is her perchance to do) and asked me why I am asking everyone else what God said to me. As Billy Graham once said, "God said it, I believe it, and that settles it." That hasn't been the standard for me lately as it builds and builds into a cosmic ping-pong match.

God called me to ministry over three years ago. And each step since has been with that pursuit in mind. Oh, I'm not perfect in my marriage because I'm still working with the Spirit on that. Oh, I am considered poor by many secular standards and have been in binds several times over the last two years. I have other issues I deal with from time to time that I rely on friends and partners to hold me accountable for.

Funny thing. I don't want to be one of those leaders in ministry that is hidden. My life, my faults, MY BROKENNESS, is available for all to see. You don't have to like it, you don't have to listen or read it. You don't even have to agree with it. I'm accountable for one person's approval, and that's God. And all He requires is that I love Him with all my heart and soul and mind which leads me to obedience, trust, and faith in the direction He takes me and calls me to go.

It just seems funny to me that the Church today will not point to the standards GOD Himself set, but will allow human decision to come into God's house. The Church is not ours, our pastors, or even the saints who have willed their life insurance for......the Church has a leader, an owner, and a mission.

It's time that the Leaders today deal with that.

And realize who they are accountable to.

My thoughts
Jim