Revolt Towards

Spurgeon on Prayer

"Prayer comes spontaneously from those who abide in Jesus. Prayer is the natural outgushing of a soul in communion with Jesus. As the leaf and fruit come out of the vine branch without any conscious effort and simply because of it's living union with the stem, so prayer buds and blossoms and fruits out of a soul abiding in Jesus. As the stars shine, so do abiders pray. They do not say to themselves, 'It is time for us to get to task and pray.' No, they pray as wise men eat- namely when the desire for it is upon them. They do not cry out as under bondage, 'At this time I ought to be in prayer, but I don't feel like it. What a weariness it is!' They have a glad errand at the mercy seat and rejoice to go there. Hearts abiding in Christ send forth supplications as fires send out flames and sparks. Souls abiding in Jesus open the day with prayer; prayer surrounds them as an atmosphere all day long; at night they fall asleep praying. They are able to joyfully to say, "When I am awake, I am still with thee." (Psalm 139:18)." —Charles Spurgeon

Revelation Vs Relevance

I've been doing some thoughts this week on the word relevant. It's not a new word within Church paradigms. Pastors talks about the word. Magazines are named with the word. Books are titled with the word. And yet, even in the time the Church has pursued relevance, we are still the ones playing the catch-up game making sure we are on Facebook, tweeting on Twitter, creating video announcements and regurgitating other people's worship experiences.

It seems that the pursuit of relevance and seeker-friendliness of our communities is always us running towards what I call culture's Here and Now. Culture is always progressing and moving with new ideas, new creativity, new inventions and vision.

   
 

If we place our ears towards heaven, I think we would hear that God is whispering to us that He wants us to have the new ideas, creativity, inventions and vision. He wants us to be the glorious Bride that is spoke up in Revelation, where the world can't help but look to you and I and what we carry. 

Scripturally, Jesus lived from the place of only doing what He saw His Father doing. He didn't try to make the Gospel of the Kingdom relevant to those in the temple, but instead He found His belonging among the tax collectors, prostitutes, women, party-goers and poor. In the book of Acts, we see that the Apostle Peter couldn't make His faith in Jesus applicable only to the Jews because the Spirit was always telling him of the bigger mystery of this Gospel for all people, Jew, Gentile, male, female alike. It was the same Holy Spirit that led Paul to Mars Hill in Acts 17 to reveal to those gathered the meaning of the statue to the unknown God.

We are to be a Church pursuing the Spirit, just like Jesus instructed the Apostles to do before He left. We need to be open to the person of Holy Spirit will give us future-focused revelation that He wants us to bring into the present Here and Now just like Holy Spirit did with Peter. 

We are a Bride called to make His revelation relevant. Not the other way around. God does not wish on us the striving that comes when we try to make the systems and structures of the Church relevant for the here and now. This striving will fade as we chase after the Holy Spirit and the revelation He gives us because He will establish us our relevance in the always-progressing Culture of the Here and Now.

I hope to expand more on revelation versus relevance scripturally and what this process might look like in our individual lives and collectively within our churches over the next few posts.

 
 

The Image Of God

   

We are all created in the Imago Dei—the image of God.

In the past month, I have been pondering this statement and reality of who we are as men, women and children. The Old Testament gives us the Ten Commandments, the second of which that states "You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth." The Old Testament gives the account of Israel's back and forth struggles of their own longing to erect images to worship other than God.

When I walk down the streets of my neighborhood, I don't see altars with incense and food and offerings to gods, spirits or forces like one might see in other countries. And yet what I do walk by are houses that contain brands, labels, technology, fashion; cars that show brand identity, status and prowess; mailboxes filled with all sorts of ads, bills, and magazines—you get the idea.

The thing I have been asking myself and of ourselves is whose image do we choose to walk in? Our own image, the world's image or in God's image? 

Genesis 1:27
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him; 
male and female he created them.

God created us in His image and His likeness. We have to choose to walk in God's image and likeness by faith of knowing Him, We have to give up our lives and image and take on His life and image to truly walk in what He originally intended us to be. We are sons and daughters walking in His image and likeness here on earth as He is in heaven. This world will see and know that He is the Lord in our lives. That is why He calls us a Chosen Generation, a Royal Priesthgood, a Holy Nation and a Peculiar People.

1 Peter 2:9
"But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light..." 

Chosen because God saw it was good to choose us to bear His name, image and likeness.

Royal because we are His sons and daughters and He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, creator of all things in Heaven and Earth. 

Holy because He alone is holy. (Leviticus 20:7, 1 Peter 1:13-16)

Peculiar because His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts.

AnnouncingThe Revolt Collective

“Return to Him you have so greatly revolted against...”
                 - Isaiah 31:6

  
 

Revolt: (verb) casting off allegiance or subjection to the status quo; breaking away from or rising against all injustice and living towards love, justice and Jesus. (noun) the act of revolting, an active expression or movement of spirited protest towards love and Love Himself.

I want to introduce you all to the Revolt Collective. 

We are a faith-based collective of people just like you. Activists, thinkers, students and teachers. Artists and creatives. Poets, writers, designers and filmmakers. Cubical dwellers and blue-collared works. Entrepreneurs and up-starters. Crust punks and squatters. Rock ‘n rollers and holy rollers. Soccer moms and baseball dads. And everyone in between. 

We are a collective who finds unity in the demand of heaven to be the greatest lovers this world has ever seen.

We root ourselves in love and Love Himself–the man Jesus–because we know that it is only from this place of Love that the world will never be the same. We revolt towards and not against. But this isn't about the trendy catch phrases of camps, seminars and long-forgotten conferences. Rather, it is about a present-tense movement and way of life in the here and now, every day and every night. Because we will know no matter what comes at us, no matter what they call us and no matter how they try to stop us, Love has already won.

To join us at the collective, head on over to the RevoltCollective.com. Also, please add us as a friend over on Facebook and Twitter.

Re-PresentingJesus to the World

  

Our job is to learn how to release the reality and power of the Testimony in the same way Jesus did. Jesus represented God much differently than the Ark of the Testimony represented Him. There is a significant difference between a box of inanimate objects that points to spiritual realities and a living testimony that interacts with and manifests those realities. While the box could only preserve the relics of what God had done, Jesus declared and demonstrated the works of God for all to see. He revealed the secret of His ministry liberally to His disciples by reiterating often that He only did what He saw His Father doing and only said what He heard His Father say. That is, He and His Father were exactly alike, were in perfect agreement. Likeness and agreement are the heart of covenant. It was this perfect agreement with God that enabled Jesus to release the Spirit of God whenever He spoke. In His words and works, He literally re-presented the God of the Testimony. Christ has given us access to this superior covenant relationship with God and called us to represent Him in the same way. Thus keeping the testimony is not a matter of preserving what God has done in our memories, but of revealing what God is like to those around us through declaration and demonstration.

The very word testimony in Hebrew comes from a root word that means "to repeat, to do again." Notice that this repetition carries within it the two dimensions of saying and doing. The testimony is something to be repeated, both in word and in deed. This derives directly from the nature of the Word of God. His words cannot be separated from His works. It also derives from His nature as a covenant-making and covenant-keeping God. When we declare the testimonies of the Lord, we are actually describing who He has promised to be in relationship with us and more, we are putting a demand on Heaven for that covenant to be renewed and demonstrated in the present as it was in the past.

Putting this demand on Heaven is exactly what God wants us to do. He commands us to repeat His testimonies, because in doing so we create an atmosphere and an opportunity for Him to do again what He has done. Just as Jesus did, we are to create a context for His presence within us to be released to those around us through the declaration of the testimony. We carry the mercy seat of Christ wherever we go. When we declare the testimonies of God to people, we are setting them up to meet God in the same way we are declaring. This is a powerful reality, but one that we only anticipate and access consistently when we learn to follow in the footsteps of David and make the testimonies of the Lord our delight and our counselors. If we are going to fulfill our role in this covenant relationship, we must learn to keep the testimony.

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From Bill Johnson's "Release the Power of Jesus," Destiny Publishers, Chapter 3 Encountering His Mercy, Pages 71-72.

Satan does not mind family values and social justice as long as...

Here’s a helpful quote from Russell Moore reflecting on Satan’s third temptation of Jesus:

Satan ultimately has a power that is not found most importantly in moral decay or in cultural chaos. His power is in the authority to accuse. The power of accusation. The power of holding humanity captive through the fear of death and the certainty of judgment...

Satan is not fearful of external conformity to rule. Not even to the external conformity of the rule of Christ – provided there is no cross. Satan does not mind family values – as long as what you ultimately value is the family. Satan does not mind social justice – as long as you see justice as most importantly social. Satan does not tremble at a Christian worldview. He will let you have a Christian worldview as long as your ultimate goal is viewing the world...

He will let you get what it is that you want, no matter what it is – sanctity of marriage, environmental protection, orphan care, all of these good and wonderful things – he will allow you to gain those things provided you do not preach and proclaim and live through the power of a cross that cancels his power of condemnation.

Van Gogh on Fear...

"I tell you, if one wants to be active, one must not be afraid of going wrong, one must not be afraid of making mistakes now and then. Many people think that they will become good just by doing no harm – but that's a lie, and you yourself used to call it that. That way lies stagnation, mediocrity. Just slap anything on when you see a blank canvas staring you in the face like some imbecile. You don't know how paralyzing that is, that stare of a blank canvas is, which says to the painter, You can't do a thing. The canvas has an idiotic stare and mesmerizes some painters so much that they turn into idiots themselves. Many painters are afraid in front of the blank canvas, but the blank canvas is afraid of the real, passionate painter who dares and who has broken the spell of `you can't' once and for all. 

Life itself, too, is forever turning an infinitely vacant, dispiriting blank side towards man on which nothing appears, any more than it does on a blank canvas. But no matter how vacant and vain, how dead life may appear to be,the man of faith, of energy, of warmth, who knows something, will not be put off so easily. He wades in and does something and stays with it, in short, he violates, "defiles" – they say. Let them talk, those cold theologians." 

 - Vincent Van Gogh (who did not pick up a paint brush until he was 30 years old)

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For...

I went to see U2 last night and it was really amazing. They are amazing performers. They broke Pope John Paul's record for how many people ever came to the Giants Stadium (and he politely apologized to His Holiness). They sang many songs, including "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". If you don't know (and you'd be crazy for not knowing this song), the last stanza goes like this:

You broke the bonds
And you loosed the chains
Carried the cross
Of my shame
Of my shame
You know I believe it

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

The way Bono paused when you sang "You know.....I believe it" let me know he still truly did believe it. It let me know he still knew what he's known for a long while, about a man named Jesus.

But the song also brings me to a place of diving discontent where I know I still haven't found what I'm looking for. "Maybe I never will?" I think. But it's not enough for me to know Jesus died for me if I can't still see Him moving in my life and in the world around me.

I was walking up Union just now back to the Tea Lounge wondering, "Is Jesus' enough for this city? Is Jesus is enough for that man walking his dog? Is he enough for that little latino baby being pushed in the stroller by his mom? Is He enough for the people sitting around me as I type this?"

Questions like this always come back to me (and you too, as you read this). Jesus has to be enough for me and I know he is. But if I contain that just to me, then like I said a few days ago on another blog, I'm missing something inherent to the Gospel of the Kingdom if it's just about me.

I know I believe, somewhere in my core, He is enough for this entire city. I was reading on the subway in the gospel of Matthew that records Jesus saying that the "publicans and the harlots" will be the first to enter the Kingdom (KJV) and God knows even I have felt like the whore at His feet and sometimes begging to have that proximity she did.

It comes down to me, but with the acknowledgement that I need something greater than me. I need His power. I want His power. The world doesn't know it, but it wants it too. I know I can't save this city or any city. But the Spirit of God moving on a humbled heart and life—now that's powerful. Unyielded. Unrestrained. Uncontainable. 

The world needs His power. I, for Christ's sake, need His power. 

Sign. Wonder. Miracle. 

The tangible power of Jesus changed Jerusalem and the surrounding cities. And It can change this city and the cities back home.

Believing For the Impossible

“That’s the way it’s done,” the Queen said with great decision: “nobody can do two things at once, you know. Let’s consider your age to begin with – how old are you?”

“I’m seven and a half exactly.”

“You needn’t say ‘exactually’,” the Queen remarked. “I can believe it without that. Now I’ll give you something to believe. I’m just one hundred and one, five months and a day.”

“I can’t believe that!” said Alice

“Can’t you?” the Queen said in a pitying tone. “Try again: draw a long breath and shut your eyes.”

Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said: “one can’t believe impossible things.”

“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast…”

[Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll]

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When was the last time you believed in the impossible? Genesis 15 recounts the story of God sharing with Abram (before he was Abraham) that his ancestors would be as numerous as the stars in the night sky. God notices Abram's response and it says in verse six, "Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness."

An aspect of righteousness (and being made righteous) is found in the faith to believe in the impossible, and in the faith we put in the God of the impossible. Do we trust God enough with what He reveals to us that we could see impossible things become possible? That we could see diseases be cured, the dead raised, cancer healed or believe extreme poverty could be wiped out in our lifetime? Maybe its a more simple dream like becoming an amazing parent despite the odds of your upbringing, or as in the case of my friend needing healing, maybe its the dream to do all that God has put in your heart despite living with a failing body organ...or in the case of another friend, starting your own fashion line despite the odds of no connections, money or business background?

Are we practicing our own belief in impossible things? Or are we practicing the opposite—settling for unbelief because we cannot shut our eyes and believe for the impossible.

I want to encourage us to live from the place of impossibility. It is from this place we put into practice our trust and reliance on God. It's here where we "believe the Lord" and He finds us righteous. So...try again: draw and long breathe and shut your eyes...and believe.

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For further reading on believing Jesus, check out Nicodemus in John 3. Jesus tells Nicodemus about how the wind comes and goes, but we don't know how or from where. Nicodemus says "Really?" and Jesus responds "If you don't believe me when I tell you of earthly things, how you will believe me when I tell you of spiritual things?" An amazing insight that changes how we forever read John 3:16 because "the whosever believes in Him should not perish" actually has nothing to do with "believing in Jesus" like He's just some historical figured in a history book (similar to believing "in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue"), but belief in Jesus comes from a present-tense reality of the Spirit of the Living God here and now—in essence, "Do you trust me right here and now?". Do we trust Jesus, in this present-tense moment, with the impossible? Do we trust Jesus enough to believe for the impossible? Are my eyes fixed on the unseen and not on what is seen, because what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18)? Good questions to ask ourselves.

The Heart Is The Doorway

The other night, I was in Torrance where Kim Walker was leading and Danny and Sheri Silk were speaking. While everyone was singing, I saw this picture of a heart, with both sides pulling apart like two french doors on a weekend morning. It was then that I heard "The mind is the gate, but the heart is the doorway".

I had heard Bill Johnson talk a few years ago about you and I being the gate of heaven. (Genesis 18:17: He was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.") and the mind residing as gate of hell—when Christ tells Peter, "And the gates of hell will not prevail against you", he was speaking of the mind because He later tells Peter, "Get behind me satan for your mind is not full of the things of God, but full of the things of man". James 3:15 also says, "Such 'wisdom' does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil." The war wages in the mind, trying to get get control of our heart through unbelief. But why?

Because our heart is the door by which Jesus enters. The outworking of the Spirit of God in our lives comes and shows us the need for Jesus and once we chose to walk this journey, we need to renew our minds daily so that the doors of our heart can be open to Jesus daily.

Revelation 3:20
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

This verse has been so misconstrued over the years to be seen as a call for salvation when really, this is a call to us in the Church. Jesus is knocking on your door and my door because we've put Him outside. With each knock on the door of our heart is a resounding call for intimacy with us, His friends.

When I saw the doors of the heart open on Saturday night, it was an entry point. A point of welcoming, where I could host the Presence of Jesus. For all that I long to see and do in my life, to write new songs, run with new ideas, tell untold stories and to see bodies, minds and hearts around the world healed, delivered, fed and redeemed—it all can only come from opening my heart to the person of Jesus. Each and every day. In every possible moment, when I'm waking, working, eating, resting, playing, dreaming. 

The heart is the doorway, friends. I pray for all of you who glance and read over this, that you would find your heart opening up. Maybe your door is a heavy steel one right now, or maybe it's a nice sliding glass door—either way, the point is to open wide the doors and let Him in. Because it doesn't end there. He doesn't just sit there staring at your soul. He actually wants to dine with you and I! He wants to share your favorite meal with you, have food fights or maybe it's just to come in have a good beer and share life. Open the doors to see His face and don't be surprised by what He does!

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For more on opening the door, read my post from Sept 08.

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Charismatic Chaos or (Holy) Spirited Deconstruction?

This is part of a post taken from Soliton friend Mike Morrell's blog.

What in the name of Pete & Kester is going on? Avant-garde “Holy Ghost house parties” filled with dancing, drinking shots of blessed holy water, and getting “stoned in the Spirit.” Pop cultural references - both muted and obvious - to Cheech & Chong, and Talladega Nights from the pulpit…er, the dance floor in which the speakers convert staid sanctuaries into the threshing floor for something quite different.

So what am I describing? A bleeding-edge European emerging church, like iKon or Moot or Vaux? An alt.worship collective? Perhaps the postmodern-revivalist Church Basement Road Show?

Nope.

It’s John Crowder, occasionally joined by his friend Ben Dunn, provoking their native charismatic milieu and (it would seem) making more than a few emerging types squirm while they’re at it...

To continue reading the article from Mike Morrell's ZoeCarnate blog, go here. It's a great read from a guy who describes himself as having:

...a genuine affection for the charismatic church of my youth. And I long to see a de-cultured,  re-cultured (post)charismatic expression firmly situated in the web of emergent spirituality. I care very little for the culture,  but along with Jamie Smith I love the core theopraxis assertion: That God the Spirit is integrally involved in all reality,  and is intimately stirring in our midst,  here and now,  in each unfolding moment. I think that even as we are entering a milieu beyond classical theism and its untenable dictates,  we are simultaneously plunged into the powers of God’s new covenant world, spiritual enablings that the first-century sign-gifts were but a foretaste of.