11 Points on Responding to Current Events

1.) Respond not react - The social media an internet age is cultivating a culture of reaction, instead of response. Reaction is just the first thing that comes out, whereas response is very carefully mediated and well-thought out. Responding allows for actual follow-through, whereas reacting generally changes with the wind and makes you unreliable and therefore difficult to trust or have authority in the eyes of those around you. It also generates the atmosphere of the emotions it was birthed in.

2.) Choose your battles - Not everything is worth your time and energy. You do not have to have an opinion about everything, and even if you do, you don't have to say it. Decide what will be helpful and go with that.

3.) Pick the most important things - In the last few weeks I have seen people walk away from God, talked to people who found someone who committed suicide, loved on people who just buried their father from coronavirus, and talked to people who are suffering from severe anxiety, isolation, and depression. When I see these things, I understand that compared to these, many other issues everyone is fighting over are trivial.

4.) Pour into other people and personal relationships. One of the problems is that many people do not have deep relationships and they are filling that need with social networks and are somewhat out of touch with what is really happening with real people-- and are even out of touch with their own selves. In isolation, we have to fight for relationships and not fill that need with social media. 

5.) Publicly emoting causes you to lose the authority of your voice. If you want to be heard and for your voice to count, don't publicly spew out everything that is going through your heart and mind. Create a group of safe people around you that you can share those things with, and with the Lord,  then when you come say something publicly, you will be heard. There is a saying, "A wise man once said nothing." It is true. That is why people listen to wise men when they speak. 

6.) If you are struggling with anxiety, depression, fear, panic -- get off media for a while. Detox from it. Then set limits on it. You will be amazed at the difference. As with detoxing from anything -- it takes a few days to "kick the habit." Give it 3 or more days and then you will start to notice a difference. I recommend everyone to take a regular detox from media. Put it in your schedule. 

7.) Right now, we all need to help each other care for our spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical health. No one has it easy right now. Real lives and hearts are at stake. In all of our efforts to be right, let's not forget to be kind.

8.) True justice starts at the Cross of Jesus Christ and will culminate when He returns as King. The first commandment must be in first place in our lives for the second commandment to happen. Anything else is idolatry. (Matt. 22:34-40)

9.) Your view of the state of the world at the return of Jesus will affect how you respond to current events. Get your Bible open and study it.

10.) Everything high will be brought low and only the Lord will be exalted. If it's not humility, then it's not safe.

11.) I've heard so many ask, "Where are the Prophets?" The real ones are mostly on their faces weeping,  because the message hasn't changed,  "If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven, and heal their land." (1 Chron. 7:13-14) And "Rend your hearts, not your garments." (Joel 2:12-14) That message won't change until we do it. And until we do it, nothing will change. 

Fine Line of Evangelism: Love & Repentance

People ask me all the time what I think about evangelism. Should we tell people they are going to hell and to turn from their sins or should would just preach the Love of Christ? The truth is that people are asking the wrong question.

This question comes from a wrong view of God and a wrong view of repentance. Telling someone to turn from their sin IS the Love of God, and preaching the Love of Christ IS repentance. It is two sides of the same coin.

The problem is that we do not understand the reason for the commandments of God. We do not believe that He is good and what He tells us to do is for our own benefit. To tell someone to turn from their sin is one of the most loving things you could ever do for a person. We also have a wrong view of correction. Gentle, loving correction is actually a good thing and one of the best indications that we are loved by God (Heb. 12).

God gave us commandments to follow so that we could be in relationship with Him. He also gave provision for the times when we fail. Furthermore, He also gave us a way to walk out His commandments called the grace of God and fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit. He set up the entire plan that would make it impossible for us to fail if we do what He says.

When people ask this question, they must first have this basic understanding before going further. Next, they need to realize the question they really want answered is a pragmatic one—how do I present the Gospel? For this question, there are several responses.

Number one, we must have God’s heart for people in order to properly convey His Word in a way that will draw them to Him. Even if you give a difficult word of correction and turning to someone, if you have God’s heart for them and have truly experienced the need for forgiveness in your own life, then you can deliver the difficult word in a way that the person feels loved, edified, and empowered to draw close to Jesus.

Secondly, we must tell people to turn from their sin. This is an absolute necessity for preaching the Gospel. In our humanistic culture, people do not realize their need for a savior. They believe that man is inherently good and that they will get to heaven for doing good things. This is a lie from the pit of hell, and we cannot passively allow it to permeate our lives and surroundings.

However, we also must be careful in how we speak to people. I was stopped by a young man in the grocery store last night who found out I was in ministry and asked me what I thought about the haunted houses happening downtown this month. I said, “Well, I believe that the people attending are longing to be fascinated with something, and they are being fascinated with fear. I believe there are much better things to be fascinated with.”

My answer stunned him. He said that when he asks believers that question, he hears something about them all going to hell, and he does not understand what the problem is with people going to a haunted house. I told him that people have longings in their heart that can only be filled by God, but they try to fill them with everything else. I said that the longing must be filled with God first, then the rest of your life will line up; however, if you try to fix the lifestyle before the longing, it will never work.

The young man was astonished and by the end of the conversation, he was asking me how to join our bible school—and I do not even think he was saved yet.

If we remember how God rescued us and forgave us, we can come to people with humility and love that will turn their hearts to God regardless of the words we have. We can have all the correct doctrine and theology in the world, but if we do not have the lifestyle God desires, then our words will fall to the ground empty. We also must not water down the truth of the gospel, trying to be culturally relevant. If we have His heart for His people, we will be able to speak what they need to hear, and there will be power to back it up. We can tell people to turn from their sin and they will feel so loved that they will run to Jesus.

 

Implementing the Five-Fold Ministry: Preferring One Another

“For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them…”
(Romans 12:3-6)

There is no way the five-fold ministry can function in a church body without the foundational principle of preferring one another.

All of the passages in Scripture concerning the gifts of the Spirit and the five-fold ministry are written in the context of the body functioning together as a whole and each person doing their part. It is absolutely essential for any kind of unity and mutual love to exist in a body.

The primary reason church leadership structure collapses is because of everyone seeking their own. People think more highly of themselves than they should for three primary reasons:

1.)    They have not seen God rightly or experienced His presence, so they do not realize how small and insignificant they are compared to Him.

2.)    They do not see other people the way God sees them, so they do not realize His overwhelming love and the remarkable value of that other person.

3.)    They do not see themselves rightly, and base their value on the works of the flesh rather than on the value that God has given them. This not only leads to pride, but also to insecurity and self-condemnation. This causes the drive to seek the praise of man.

This must be combatted in several ways: One, each person must seek to love God with their whole heart and seek His glory only. Secondly, they must seek to love each other as they love themselves. Also, they must be healed and able to receive the love of God so they can actually love God, love themselves, and love others.

It is necessary for every person in a body to have the humility to lift someone else above their own needs. Because of human nature, all of this talk of the five-fold ministry sounds good until you try to put it into practice. However, there are some practical ways that people can grow together in love and service as a body.

 

One of the most practical ways is to stir up prayer among a group of people. If people pray together, it becomes difficult to hold a grudge, because God will not answer prayers in the context of bitterness, and He will make each person so miserable until they repent. Also, when you pray for people you begin to love them the way that God loves them and can look past their faults and failures. There is a reason why Jesus told us to bless our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.

 

Another practical way to grow in preferring one another is to activate the gift of prophecy among believers. Prophecy is meant for edification, exhortation, and comfort. When you prophesy over someone, you feel God’s heart for them and learn to see them the way God sees them, rather than seeing them in the natural. God always calls forth the true identity of that person according to the spirit rather than how they are behaving in the flesh. If we begin to call people out according to the spirit instead of according to the flesh, then we will call them into the identity God has created for them, and they will become healed and secure in His love.

Satan’s main attacks against the body of Christ are division, isolation, and accusation. Prophecy is one of the best antidotes to thwart the enemies plans and bring love and unity among a group of believers. Both prayer and prophecy go hand-in-hand to change the heart and conform the mind to God’s purposes, so that we grow in preferring one another over ourselves.

Implementing the Five-Fold Ministry: Love & Service

As the Lord begins to stir a hunger in our hearts for the release of the five-fold ministry, we will begin asking the questions of how to practically apply this in our church and ministry contexts. As we learn to apply this practically, there are some foundational principles that are essential for this system to work.

The most essential element for the five-fold ministry to work is love. The second is the knowledge that the functional role is given for the sole purpose of serving the Bride.

There is a passage in Philippians that breaks my heart. Paul says in Philippians 2:19-22, “But I trust the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, that I also may be encouraged when I know your state. For I have no one like-minded, who will sincerely care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus. But you know his proven character, that as a son with his father he served with me in the gospel. Therefore, I hope to send him at once…”

It is remarkable to me that out of all the people serving with Paul, he had no one who was like-minded except Timothy. There was only one person he could send who cared more about the state of the church and the glory of Christ Jesus than his own success and well-being. This breaks my heart.

Even in the early church, there was so much disorder and confusion about the functioning of the body. Paul wrote numerous times to correct their conduct—and many times, the problem was the lack of mutual love and service (humility) toward each other.

In I Corinthians 12-15, Paul wrote the church and he spent a lot of time telling them how the gifts should function in the body and how one person should sit down and let the other speak. The list of the gifts of the Spirit and one of the five-fold ministry passages were actually given in the context of a rebuke to the church for not working together in love and preferring one another.

Right in the middle of this rebuke and instruction concerning the gifts, Paul places the famous chapter on love. He said even if you prophesied or gave all you had to the poor, if you were lacking in love, then you were nothing.

Even if we are all filling our positions and doing our jobs correctly, if we are lacking in love, then we are nothing. If we are following all the procedures and manuals to the utmost degree, but we are seeking our own, then we are nothing. Love does not seek its own.

God is looking for bondservants who will lay down their lives for His Bride. He is looking for team ministry in His body, where each person lays down their life to love and serve the other. Without this foundational principle, you could implement every system, program, and structure in the world, and it will not work.

So much of the damage done in the body of Christ by leadership structures has been because of the lack of humility, service, and love. This has caused the need for so much structure and systems being put in place, that may not have been necessary if people were actually caring for others more than themselves.

 

Even though we are working with real people in a real world, believers in the body of Christ no longer have to live according to the standards of the world. It is possible for us to do what Jesus told His disciples, “They will know you are my disciples because of your love for one another.” If each of us live as individuals who learn to love and obey God, then love and serve each other, we will become the growing body God desires for us to be.

 

72hr Bible Marathon: Day 2

Good Morning!

It's Day 2 of the Bible Marathon & we are in Isaiah 34 right now. This has definitely been an impacting experience for me, & its not over. I am excited about today because we will be reading the Prophets all day long--until around 1am in the night.

I have always tried to read through the Bible--I don't know how many times I have set my heart to read Genesis to Revelation & I always get stuck in the Prophets. I don't think I have ever read all the way through Jeremiah, Lamentations, & Ezekial. I always get stuck there & can never get past it, but today I think I will do it.

Not that it is something to check off my list, but there is really a spirit of wisdom & revelation on this Bible reading (Eph. 1:17). It is amazing the things that are jumping off the page at us. I really want to understand the Word, & it is amazing how it makes so much more sense, when you see the Bible as a whole--what better way than reading it all the way through?!

Devo 66: The Parable of the Talents

Devo 66: The Parable of the Talents
August 31, 2010

I really got some significant revelation today concerning the parable of the talents in Matthew and Luke. In college, I remember this parable really stuck out to me and I had this fear because I knew I had been given many gifts, calllings, talents, and a very good Christian upbringing, and it made me nervous because I was afraid that there was no way I could sow everything I have been given.

As a result, I have been feeling for the last four years that I must always be sowing every gift and talent I have or I am not being a faithful steward. Because of that, I continue getting into cycles of overcommitting, working myself into the ground, and trying to do too many things at once. A friend called me out last week and said that I cannot possibly focus on everything I am called to at every moment of my life.

So last night, I realized that this mindset I had was a result of a wrong view of the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, and the minas in Luke 19. This morning I was asking the Lord about it and got some major revelation. I’m going to unpack it here.

So the context of the parable of the talents in Matthew is within the chunk of Matthew 24 & 25. This is about the endtimes and how Jesus was actually not going to take over the kingdom on earth right then, but he was going to wait a while, and the people needed to watch, pray, and be faithful until He comes.

He gave many different signs that would happen before He came and made it clear that it wasn’t Him unless they saw the flash across the sky.

Then, he shifted into talking about faithfulness until He comes. The parables of Matthew 25 are in the context of waiting for His return.

There are three parables in Matthew 25. The first one is the parable of the wise and foolish virgins (Mt. 25:1-13). The second is the parable of the talents (Mt. 25:14-30). The third is the parable of the sheep and the goats (Mt. 25:31-46). (It is actually more of a real story of what will happen).

The first parable is about watching for the Lord’s return, not being burned out when He comes, but being full of the anointing that comes from an intimate relationship with Him.
The third parable is about taking care of the poor, oppressed, blind and naked. It is about works of justice. The master said that he threw the goats out of the kingdom because they thought they knew Him, but they did not take care of people, therefore he cast them into hell.
The first parable is about intimacy and the third parable is about works of justice. And right in the middle is the parable of the talents. The parable of the talents is not just about DOING good works, nor is it just about BEING intimate with God and the knowledge of God, but it is about both. It is about being faithful in being intimate with Him and doing works out of that intimate relationship with Him. This parable is about being faithful in all that he has commanded us to do until His return—being faithful to sow in the Spirit in relationship and deed.

I read David Pawson’s commentary and it was saying that the primary focus of Matthew is the balance of word and deed. He says that we must balance the indicatives of what Christ does for us with the imperatives of what we do for Him. If we only focus on what God does for us, it can lead to license (how I live does not matter), but if we only focus on what we do for God, it leads to legalism.

The parables of Matthew 25 balance intimacy and works of justice, which shows us where the grace for what we do for God comes from.

John 15 talks about abiding (Gk. menene; abiding, being verb) in the Spirit and the love of Christ which is where we find the grace to do what He did in giving up His life (in John 15:13). This is the “being” of remaining in His love.

Galatians 6 uses the word “walking” in the Spirit which incorporates the act of doing (Gk. peripateo; walking, action verb). Walking in the things of the spirit comes out of being in the Spirit. This is what the first and second commandment is about and what the first and third parable of Matthew 25 is about, and the parable of the talents right between them ties it all together. Be faithful in what He has given you while you are waiting for His return.

The statement Jesus keeps coming back to throughout these parables is reference to the coming of the Son of Man and eternity. The beginning and end of each new thought in Matthew 24-25 occurs with the reiteration of looking for His coming and a perspective of eternity. We have to realize that what we are sowing is not just for this age, but also the age to come.

A parable similar to the talents in Matthew is the minas in Luke 19, and this parable gives perspective on the relationship between this age and the next. The owner gives each servant minas and sees how they invested it, then when he returns, he gave them each authority over the number of cities that corresponded with how much they gained from their investment.

This is what the reign of Jesus will be like when He returns and gives authority to those who sowed into the kingdom in this life. He will give them authority over cities and nations.

Another similarity between the parable of Luke and Matthew is that the Lord told this parable in both instances to reveal to His disciples that He was not going to take over the kingdom and overthrow Rome at that exact moment. He was warning them that it would be a while before He comes back and does that, and that they needed to be faithful in the meantime because they might lose their way in the waiting.

Even though he was giving this revelation in Luke, he still got on the donkey right then and had the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. But, he still warned that he will not be taking over now but it was a picture of His coming return. All of the followers were crying out “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” When the Pharisees protested and told Him to rebuke His disciples, He said no that even the rocks would cry out if they were silent.

The basic point of all three parables is to be faithful until He comes, and that He is not coming until the events of Matthew 24 happen. Right now, we are in the waiting period and we must be faithful to “get oil” in a relationship with Him and also do the works of the kingdom until He comes. Basically, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.

©Copyright Amanda Rich 2010
Written on August 31, 2010