Where Are You?

But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2:14

It is impossible for the unregenerate man to understand the things of the Spirit of Christ. He cannot because he has not. He has not tasted the mysteries of God's heavenly kingdom...of which are invisible...of which are not of this world...of which we have tasted and have been made stewards of...guardians. We carry about in our hearts the secret knowledge that has been hidden from man through the ages and revealed only to us, the saints. The reservoir of living water, the mystical road to the great heavenly city, Jerusalem, the invisible highways that lead to an invisible land, the ever-increasing majestic breath that fills our lungs, and the unrelenting living hope that we will appear with him in glory, a glory that's just almost visible if only a bit...is foreign to those that are lost and living within a death. There is no bridge to cross over to them, no language that can connect with them and no understanding contained within their hearts, apart from a supernatural move of the Holy Spirit of God. In modern terms...they haven't a clue.

This is what drives me continually night and day almost with holy ferocity to intercede and groan and yearn with all of creation to see these desperate souls who know nothing of what they have not and are blinded, be delivered. The god of this world, the evil one, the prince of the power of the air has blinded the minds of the unbeliever so they may not see the light of the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is why I absolutely cannot understand why every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, every follower with any intention of seriousness in their walk are not literally breathing every breath, may your kingdom come, your will be done...awaken the hearts of those that are lost and dying! Remove the scales from their eyes. Soften their hearts and enlighten their minds with the light of the saving knowledge of Christ, the gospel of his kingdom, the glory of his cross.

When I walked the streets of Austin, TX twenty years ago, I was walking dead. The cords of death did truly wrap around me. God truly rescued me because he delighted in me. I believe if it were not for the prayers of the saints I would have died and entered an eternity of darkness and horror. I could not see. I absolutely could not see. God penetrated the darkness and by His Spirit entered my world, delivered me from the domain of darkness and by the blood of His son, Jesus Christ, translated me into the kingdom of light.

They do not know. They cannot see. They only taste of this world, this realm. Will you pray for their release from bondage? The last few days I have been at a company meeting out of state. We were given a lot free time. The revelry was rampant as you can imagine. I spent my time reading about the revivals and awakenings of the past. I spent my time hidden in prayer and intercession, pleading with God to show me what else I can do, what else I can pray to see revival, to see another great awakening...praying that not one more soul in danger of losing him forever would be lost. I don't know what else to do. I don't know what else to do but awaken in intercession and fall asleep in intercession.

Many, if not all, revivals and awakenings of the past began with mighty prayer revivals of small groups of people. I would like to know who are the folks nowadays yearning for a move of God so much so that they would give themselves not only to personal prayer but unrelenting, continual meeting in corporate prayer...prayer to see the mighty rushing wind of God's Holy Spirit come in great power for the sake of His glory and for the sake of the lost sheep of Israel? Where are the saints in this day, in this hour sacrificing everything to see the lost saved and the church be glorified...glorify your bride oh Lord. I want to know who are the watchmen on the wall? I want to know who the people are that live night and day with the secret companion of intercession. Who are the saints that secretly long with God's heart to see his will and purpose accomplished in the earth?

As I fly back from my meeting, hovering above the clouds, looking down on the city of Dallas, I can almost see them. I can almost see rows and rows and rows of warring angels, chariots of fire, and holy cannons loaded and ready to surge through the city, held back by only one thing...the lack of a praying church...the absence of the smoke of the incense of the saints' intercession. Your words will release them. Your knees will empower them. Your travail will drive them. Will you join them?

The book of Job says the intercessor is God's friend. Is there any nearer, dearer place to the heart of God than the secret chamber of prayer?

Where are you?

Tethered To The Divine

"abide in me and I in you"  John 15:4

He loves you.

I'm not sure you got that.  

He loves you.  

It's unquestionable.  It's so complete.  

He has you deep...deep in His heart.  The forces of a thousand hells could come to destroy you...you...and HE would risk everything to protect you...and he did.

Try something.  Set aside some time to read the book of John from beginning to end without interruption.  It's only 30 pages or so and it reads better than any novel ever written.  It is 30-some pages of the last three years of Jesus life, and the intense drama and supernatural content is astounding. Set aside this time and read it with one thing in mind.  Every word, every action, every miracle, every hardship, every difficulty, every painful blow, every sleepless night in prayer, every dinner with the disciples, every moment to moment temptation, and every wrestling match with satan himself was done for the love of only one person...just one person...YOU.
                     
This man...God...who got up every morning and clothed himself and ate breakfast and cut wood and debated men and healed the sick and died horribly and now rules from the heavens loves you intensely.  And here's the best part...His blood, his flesh, his DNA flows in and through YOU...if you want Him.  The God who stretched out galaxies and spoke nebulas into existence loves YOU.  His tabernacle that no one could ever approach now lives in you...if you want Him.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
"on that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me, and I am in you"

Wow...it's like He was "tethered to the divine"...and so should we…"abide in me and I in you"...so complete...do we really need...anything...else? His DNA, His Spirit flows through us and connects us, unites us to a place unseen...a place unknown...a place where Ephesians says we've been given everything.  

"who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ". Eph 1:3

For a couple of years my wife used to wake up in the middle of the night terrified she was most certainly going to die...right then.  She was panic-stricken.  In fact, we concluded they were "panic attacks".  It was totally impossible to talk her out of these moments of panic. She just needed someone to clutch, to hold tightly until the fear subsided.  She needed to be tethered to someone, some power, to some love until the panic passed.

If you read the chapters of John you find Jesus in constant conflict.  You find Him continually offered well-meaning advice from his disciples or threatening accusations from angry mobs.  Yet, He never moved, He never spoke, He never breathed...apart from the Father.  He was tethered...to the divine.

I am nothing, a nobody in the eyes of the world...and I love it.  My life is a secret and so are many thousands of other "nobodies" that walk the earth.  Waitresses, clerks, managers, moms and dads, and just ordinary people who as John Wesley said, "their hearts have been strangely warmed within".  They contain a fire. and in the midst of every painful trial and cold night they know that Jesus LOVES and LIVES in them supernaturally.  They are tethered to a power so much greater than themselves that every act and every seemingly ordinary moment can be lived in GREATNESS serving Him.

Jesus spent some sleepless nights in prayer to stay close.  Sounds like a good idea...every now and then. Some retreats to His word and some days of fasting might be just the thing to bring us back to the awareness that we abide in Him and He abides in us.  I have tasted many, many bitter days and I have met fear and hardship on many levels.  I have friends right this moment that are facing fears and possibilities of loss that I can hardly fathom.  But I have yet to know a day of following Christ that I could not somehow reach deep within and deep within his word and find that I am tethered to a God that is a Father.  This God is intensely in love with me.  

As I walk through my day knowing that His mercy is not only new every morning but every second, I praise Him, I cry out to Him, I search for Him, I intercede with Him, I groan with Him, I die with Him, I live with Him, I love Him…and I thank Him...because I am tethered to Him…forever.

Tethered To The Divine

"abide in me and I in you"  John 15:4

He loves you.

I'm not sure you got that.  

He loves you.  

It's unquestionable.  It's so complete.  

He has you deep...deep in His heart.  The forces of a thousand hells could come to destroy you...you...and HE would risk everything to protect you...and he did.

Try something.  Set aside some time to read the book of John from beginning to end without interruption.  It's only 30 pages or so, and it reads better than any novel ever written.  It is 30-some pages of the last three years of Jesus life, and the intense drama and supernatural content is astounding.

Set aside this time and read it with one thing in mind.  Every word, every action, every miracle, every hardship, every difficulty, every painful blow, every sleepless night in prayer, every dinner with the disciples, every moment to moment temptation, and every wrestling match with satan himself was done for the love of only one person...just one person...YOU.
                     
This man...God...who got up every morning and clothed himself and ate breakfast and cut wood and debated men and healed the sick and died horribly  and now rules from the heavens loves you intensely.  And here's the best part...His blood, his flesh, his DNA flows in and through YOU...if you want Him.  The God who stretched out galaxies and spoke nebulas into existence loves YOU.  His tabernacle that no one could ever approach now lives in you...if you want him.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
                                                                
"on that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me, and I am in you"

Wow...it's like He was "tethered to the divine"...and so should we…"abide in me and I in you"...so complete...do we really need...anything...else?

 His DNA, His Spirit flows through us and connects us, unites us to a place unseen...a place unknown...a place where Ephesians says we've been given everything.  

"who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ". Eph 1:3

For a couple of years my wife used to wake up in the middle of the night terrified she was most certainly going to die...right then.  She was panic-stricken.  In fact, we concluded they were "panic attacks".  It was totally impossible to talk her out of these moments of panic. She just needed someone to clutch, to hold tightly until the fear subsided.  She needed to be tethered to someone, some power, to some love until the panic passed.

If you read the chapters of John you find Jesus in constant conflict.  You find Him continually offered Well-meaning advice from his disciples or threatening accusations from angry mobs.  Yet, He never moved, he never spoke, He never breathed...apart from the Father.  He was tethered...to the divine.

I am nothing, a nobody in the eyes of the world...and I love it.  My life is a secret and so are many thousands of other "nobodies" that walk the earth.  Waitresses, clerks, managers, moms and dads, and just ordinary people who as John Wesley said their hearts have been strangely warmed within.  They contain a fire and in the midst of every painful trial and cold night they know that Jesus LOVES and LIVES in them supernaturally.  They are tethered to a power so much greater than themselves that every act and every seemingly ordinary moment can be lived in GREATNESS.

Jesus spent some sleepless nights in prayer to stay close.  Sounds like a good idea...every now and then.  Some retreats to His word and some days of fasting might be just the thing to bring us back to abiding in Him as He abides in us.  I have tasted many many bitter days and I have met fear and hardship on many levels.  I have friends right this moment that are facing fears and possibilities of loss that I can hardly fathom.  But I have yet to know a day of following Christ that I could not somehow reach deep within and deep within his word and find that I am tethered to a God that is a Father.  And this God is intensely in love with me. 

As walk through my day knowing that His mercy is not only new every morning but every second, I praise Him, I cry out to Him, I search for Him, I intercede with Him, I groan with Him, I die with Him, I live with Him, I love Him…and I thank Him because I am tethered to Him…forever.

What Will You Do For Her?

“I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem”
Nehemiah 2:12

I can hardly read this passage without weeping or welling up inside with emotion.  This is nothing short of beautiful. So personal…MY God…So passionate…what he will do for Jerusalem…so secretive…he had not told anyone…so supernatural…what God had put on his heart.  He loved Jerusalem.  He wept over her.  He mourned over her.  He fasted and prayed for her night and day.  She had become Nehemiah’s greatest delight because she was God’s greatest delight. And Nehemiah loved HIS God.  It was a divine dream set out on a clandestine journey.

“If I forget you O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill.  May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.” Psalm 137:5

When I decided to ask Carol to marry me 14 years ago, I planned an entire evening of events.  We went to special places.  Places that held memories for us.  We went to a specific restaurant.  We talked about certain things that together we held dear.  I wanted it to be this crazy secret thing I had planned for her...just for her.  Sometimes when we plan that special Christmas or birthday gift for our kids we get really excited.  We know it’s something they want really badly.  We anticipate the moment we give it to them.  Occasionally, we even make them earn it by following little clues that lead to the package.  

What has God secretly put on your heart to do for Jerusalem?  What has God burned inside of you to do for His church, His Bride, His eternal…beloved.  Do you see her beauty, her glory?  Do you hear the drumbeats, the music, the singing, the unending praises being declared from that distant land…the heavenly city that awaits us?  Stop for a moment.  Be very still.  You can hear them…if you have ears to hear.  

What has God put on your heart to do for His people?  Are you secretly excited?  Are you planning it all out like a special gift to be given…like a marriage proposal to be asked?  Are you riding through Jerusalem like Nehemiah, observing the torn down walls, the places of desolation, the broken down gates, the places burned down by fire, the areas in need of repair?  Are you on your knees pleading with God because you don’t know what to do…you don’t know how to fix it?

Do you hurt for her?  Do you want to help her?  Do you want to see God infuse new life into her?  Do you want to see her delivered of all the disgusting, vile, corrupt sin that so easily entangles her?  Do you want to see her delivered from the snare of the fowler?  Do you want to see her flowing in the holiness and the majesty and the glorious power and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, the King?

"If I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy".  Jerusalem must be our highest joy, our deepest treasure, our greatest mission.  Our nights should be sleepless with her intercession.  Our days should be filled with bricklaying...building up her walls.  She is the bride of Christ...His eternal pleasure...His family.  What will you do for her?