Prophetic or Pathetic?

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Sorry for the lack of updates folks. I’ve been mired in taxes and locating income. Now that the first part, at least, has been resolved, I hope to have more submissions in the future.

For now I ask questions about the growing strength of “prophetic ministries” and their sway over many charismatics. Just the other day I heard an ad on the radio for a prophetic conference that was coming to town. I had to ask myself, if this is truly a prophetic move, then why does it have to travel? Why not stay at home and issue the prophetic words from a central location. Much cheaper and more efficient.

The sad answer is that surely too much money is involved. Register people who are desperate and want a painless prophecy spoken over them (rather than spending the hours in prayer needed to hear from God on their own) and let them be satisfied with the 60% accuracy claimed by Rick Joyner, one of the big names out there in the “prophetic.”

The gift of prophecy is a real gift, but it seems to me that this modern equivalent is more pathetic than prophetic. That these new prophets are as wrong as often as right seems to paint God as capricious in His ability to bring things to pass. That is not the God I serve.

I feel for the people who get “a word” spoken over them only to have it never be. Many such people have been so repeatedly burned that they’ve adopted the attitude of the villagers in the fable of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. When a real prophecy comes down, will they heed it or yawn? And still they go to the prophetic conference.

Not Enough Time to Be Disciples

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Been re-reading The Pursuit of God by Aiden Wilson Tozer. This is about the seventh time I’ve read the book, so you would think it would be memorized by now, but what is striking me more this time is his kind way of saying that we simply do not spend enough time before God.

Tozer himself was known to have five hour prayer times in the morning, from 7 a.m till noon. This is one reason why he knew God so well.

But what about us? How do we “normal” Christians get to that rarified place that so few Christians actually reach: deep communion with God?

There is only one way—time. If we don’t spend time before God, large chunks of it—counted in daily hours, not minutes—then we can forget entering the roster of saints. Churches today emphasize everything but extended time on one’s face before God. We have a million shortcuts to “growth,” but the truth is that they all fail.

Recent conversations with other Christians show a paucity of prayer time. There is simply no way we can walk in any depth on fifteen minutes a day. Others counter that they “practice the presence of God” all day. Now that is fine and a great discipline, but we are always shown Jesus’ example of withdrawing to private prayer. Hours of it, too. I simply cannot see the Lord merely practicing the presence in the Garden of Gethsemane. When it comes down to it, practicing the presence is in addition to prayer closet prayer, never a substitute.

We wonder why the Church today in America is so powerless, but we need look no further than the collected hours we Christians spend in prayer daily. Some argue that life is too hectic for prayer time like Tozer, but I would answer then that perhaps we Christians need to rethink everything else in our lives that draws us away from such committed time. We as a Church need to explore alternative ways of living that allow us to free up that time for every person who claims the name of Christ.

But then again, if Christianity is just something we do, then perhaps we should keep on doing what we are doing, sloughing off that precious time in favor of whatever worldly thing is pressing on us in that moment. Millions have already.

Loving the Status Quo to Death

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Over the last few months I have been conversing with Christians all over the world concerning rethinking the Church’s ideas of community, countercultural living, and preparation for a coming storm heading right through our churches’ front doors.

After months of discussions, there is only one conclusion I can reach: We are simply too wrapped up in other things to be bothered.

The status quo has become our new idol. We are resisting changes necessary for the very survival of the Church as a relevant, life-changing force in America. We are resisting the abandonment of so-called “Christian” models and concepts that have proven useless in stemming divorce, family breakups, bankruptcies, drug abuse, and a host of other afflictions that are crushing our families.

We are looking the other way and whistling. Whistling in the wind.

One day things are going to get far worse for us and we are not prepared. We cannot contend with issues that pale in comparison. We have no systems in place for contending for what is coming.

The Lord’s parable of the wise and foolish virgins is a reminder that we have to be prepared. We are not—either in our spiritual lives or in our practical, daily living out of the faith.

Why do we cling to lifestyles that do not work? We do we resist changes that will save so many people from heartache and grief?

Anyone out there want to talk about changing the face of Christianity by coming into the fullness of Christ’s promises to the Church?

I’m here and I want to talk with you about turning the world upside-down.